There's Always Something...

Retirement. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Here's a great article by blogger buddy Ronni. By great I mean, "my feelings exactly".

http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2010/09/cool-things-about-being-retired.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TimeGoesBy+%28TIME+GOES+BY%29

My Very First Video...

It took me about 2 or 3 weeks, but I broke the barrier and am on the road. Subscribe or die...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQlICTXWvo4.

A Bird Singing...

Yesterday I was out in our little backyard trying to learn how to make short videos on my camera (to use on my blog). I was shooting tomato plants, flowers, odd patches of uninteresting gravel and unrelated leaves - and all the while mumbling little comments that meant nothing, unless trying to learn something new is meaningful in itself.

Anyway I wound up the session with the realization that I would never be a Clint Eastwood or a Mike Nichols and headed inside to put it on the computer and see if I could edit it into something coherent, if not significant. I wrestled it onto my laptop and sat back to enjoy my masterpiece. 

As the video unfolded I liked a few things, hated a few others and wondered at the skill of those who did a good job of such matters. Gradually, however, I became aware of something the camera picked up that I had not been aware of at all. A happy little bird was singing clearly, invisibly an beautifully throughout the entire film. It was a lovely moment.

I had never even heard a note. Therein lies a message.

Grace is the theologian's name for it.

Telephone... Wow!

For your Sunday edification!

Clay Lover...

I've been a lover of clay for decades now. The house is full of my pots and those of potters I have admired for years. About 4 years ago, I sold my wheel, my kilns, my extruder, most of my tools and books, the clay , the chemicals -  the whole catastrophe. Reason was we were preparing to downsize our housing and I knew that the clay had to go. It was not a happy sacrifice, but one can't maintain a potting studio in a small space.

But I missed it - terribly.

So I decided a few months ago that I had to get back into the clay scene on a much modified basis. I found a used wheel and set it up in my garage. Then I dug through stuff and found a few tools and books that I couldn't bear to part with back then.  Finally I joined the local clay center and was elected to the Education committee today. To sharpen and improve my skills I signed up for a class in "Advanced Wheel Throwing" which begins next Tuesday and am preparing a class that I'll be teaching next fall. Am calling it "Zen and the Spirit of Clay."

Don't know for sure why I'm sharing it here and now, except I find it all very fulfilling and my cup seems to be runnething over.

New Starts...

I know it doesn't make sense, but every January, about the first Monday, I get this wonderful feeling that it's gear-shifting time and I get a chance to start all over again - in many aspects of my life. That's about the best value of New Years as far as I can see. About 5 extra pounds to start hacking away at casts only a mild damper on the season. Every thing else is like the sunshine outside - nice!

The Importance of Good Donuts...

Maybe it's just cranky old me. 

But something funny happened yesterday. We go to this monthly get-together that keeps the residents of our community informed on what's going on behind the scenes. It isn't exactly the high point of the month for me, but I go because I don't want to miss anything.

Yesterday everybody seemed upbeat and positive. The atmosphere was relaxed; fun. Folks were hanging around the refreshment table - even going back for seconds. I did too. Lots of laughter. Then I realized what had happened. Someone on the staff had stopped by Dunkin' Doughnuts and loaded up with freshly cooked donuts. Then on to a New York bagel shop for freshly cooked bagels. The atmosphere and the food were electric!

The breakfast goodies generally consist of somewhat stale rolls from the day before - still cool from the night in the frig. I'd never given it much thought. Isn't that what happens? Besides, it gave me an excuse for not eating anything on top of our own breakfast of a few hours before. 

It also started the meeting on the wrong foot.

But that's the way it is and isn't the type of thing that folks talk about. Who wants to be a grouch?

There's a lesson here. For businesses, churches, clubs, etc. - any organization that starts things off with refreshments in the morning. There are few things as soul-satisfying as fresh, delicious, thoughtfully served donuts and coffee. It says to people in delightful terms, "you matter - and what we're doing here this morning matters!" Something like that may involve more effort, more thought, but it is a special gift to those fortunate enough to be there and it pays off in unexpected ways. This is second mile stuff.

I look forward to next month's meeting. Yes. I said that. I did. And I do.

How to make the most of social networking on Facebook...

Here's an interesting article By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY.

I found it interesting because I've come to believe that Facebook, far from being the superficial touchy-feely fad it appears to be on the surface, has quite a bit of value to offer people who are interested enough to think it through and personalize it.

Here's what Baig has to say:

To provide guidance to those new to Facebook, I've turned to my own social network: my Facebook friends and other members of the service, plus USA TODAY readers who are members. Basic recommendations:

•Finding friends. Face it, some people collect friends like baseball cards. (Guilty as charged.) I'm approaching 900 pals; 5,000 is the max.

But not all friends are created equal. Mine may represent a typical mix: distant and close relatives, neighbors, current or former classmates, camp mates, co-workers, industry contacts and bosses.

Frankly, there's a voyeuristic appeal to the idea that you might get to rub elbows virtually with a celebrity. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was my Facebook friend for a while, until I was unceremoniously dropped. You aren't even notified when someone gives you the heave-ho.

I typically expand my social connections by searching friends of friends. If you don't know the person well or at all, send a brief message telling them why you belong in their inner circle. I see which friends we have in common before I accept a stranger's invitation.

If you want to be found by old comrades, consider allowing people to see your list of mutual friends, even if they're not connected to you. That way they know you really are the John Doe they went to high school with. But letting people see your friends is a double-edged sword: Your friends may not want people they don't know hounding them.

•Private matters. Facebook has been described as a party where you need to assume the entire room can hear you. Learn the terminology. Wall-to-wall posts can be seen by others. Send a private message if you want to keep an exchange under wraps.

Familiarize yourself with the privacy options, found under "Settings." You can determine who among your network (friends only, friends of friends, etc.) can view your user profile, personal info, status updates, photos and videos tagged of you, friends lists, wall posts, and education and work information.

It's also a good idea to group friends into customized Friend Lists, perhaps one for professional contacts and another for school chums. You can apply different privacy settings to those lists. Your bosses need not relive your college exploits.

Generally think long and hard about the information you reveal in your profile, from the year you were born to political or religious beliefs. But you're likely to get as much out of Facebook as you put in, so withholding too many details may be counterproductive.

One of my Facebook friends, Roger Matus, CEO of e-mail archiving company InBoxer, recommends three tests before posting: Would you be upset if your mother saw it? Would you be upset if the most nefarious person you ever heard about saw it? Would you be upset if it was on the front page of USA TODAY?

It's all a balancing act of sorts. What good is a social network if you're too timid to be social?

Celebrating the Ordinary...

Now here's a noble insight.

"In time, though, I began to think that amateur photography (like amateur prose) can have a certain charm. Part of the allure of blogging, of course, is that it is a democratic genre: you don’t have to be good in order to do it. Blog-reading is addictive because like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. There’s a random delight in hearing an average writer suddenly soar or a wondrous poet lament a bout with writer’s block. We read (and write) blogs not because our writing is great everyday: we read (and write) blogs because everyday it’s great to be writing. Both writing and photography are ultimately human acts, expressions of our human need to notice and be noticed. A blog doesn’t have to be good to be engaging; it simply has to be true.

And so I post pictures not because I fancy myself a Photographer. Nope, I’m just as the tagline says: a collector of the quotidian. If you enjoy these photos, it isn’t because they are artful. Instead, you probably enjoy these photos because you too are curious, intent on noticing, a connoisseur of the random. Like a bottlecap collector or hoarder of old dusty bottles, I keep images because I love them. Our world is, after all, a huge found poem in search of a poet, any finder, who will notice and love it. This noticing isn’t Art; it’s Ordinary."

That comes from --Lorianne DiSabato; her delightful blog just discovered.

It goes some distance in expressing the fascination some of us hold for the fine arts of blogging and photography - why these curious hungers consume otherwise reasonably sane people.