21st Floor

Right now I am so freakin' lucky...  if you gotta have a 9 to 5 and sit at a PC all day...

Might as well be facing a window on the 21st floor!



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Movie Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Wendy rented it while I was out, but she was just about to start it when I got home.

It had been recommended by my niece Daisy in England, and by Mazzy in San Diego (who we met for the first time on Saturday at a Speakeasy).

My review:

It was good.

Love movies with my favorite actor Willem Dafoe in a supporting, nearly-cameo role.

Plenty of amazing lines, no doubt from the book.

Liked it.

Sea Foam Green

O you...

You are so much wiser than I.

Minor Earthquake

Wisps of cotton blow across the road but never seem to hit the windscreen.

There was a minor earthquake yesterday.

It was quite enjoyable... a bit startling at first, though not unexpected, and a fun ride for the duration.

That night was delightfully sleepless.

The next day, however...  surveying the damage... everything has been turned upside down again.

This will take weeks to clean up... or months.

The price of living in Southern California.

Avalon Stickers

Stickers on Wrigley Road, Avalon, Catalina Island, California

Bubbly

Caffeine makes life bubble over with bubbly-ness.

Without caffeine I am sullen and serious and normal and boring.

With caffeine the shyness disappears, the quiet of my lips is shattered, and I wave to everyone down below as I hang from my soaring balloon.

Stayed up late last night to watch the Blood Moon (so-called) and this morning because of lack of sleep I decided to break my drug-free streak and get me some creamy sweet coffee going down my gullet and straight into my heart.

On a New Wagon

Remember in the Bible when David had been established in his kingship, and they recovered the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines, and they were bringing it back it to Israel?

For me, it's always been too easy to say "why did they put it on a wagon?"   We know after the fact that the Ark was only to be carried by certain people, and using two long poles operated by four men.

As we know, it turned out pretty bad when "Uzzah thrust his hand out to the Ark of the true God and grabbed hold of it, for the cattle nearly upset it" and he died for disobediently touching the ark.

When doing Bible reading it can enhance the pleasure to "share the treasure" and here's something I found recently:

It's not such a crazy idea to use a wagon, because Jehovah accepted the use of wagons in transporting the items on the Tabernacle:

Of course, at that same time, they were specifically told this:

I always like to identify with "the bad guy" because then I can learn from his mistakes and endeavor to be "the good guy"

My new BFT: Nancy

I have a new BFT !!!!

("Best Friend [Temporarily]")

Her name is Nancy.

I've seen Nancy around for years, on the bookshelves of libraries and used book stores.

It was never any appeal for me to meet her.  Wildly popular people usually don't need any new friends, so I never even asked for an introduction.

Then in a Mormon bookstore (weird, I know, but fascinating... if you ever have a chance, go through Deseret books in La Jolla... they even got a version of the Reasoning Book for Latter Day Saint missionaries) there were some non-religious books on sale, including Nancy Drew.

Only $2.99, hard-back reprints, and with the 75% sticker, only less than a dollar!  Unbelievable deal.

Book 1 was missing, so I picked up books 2 through 5.

Then I started book 2.   Now I'm on book 3.

I love Nancy Drew!

She's fun and her adventures are exciting. No wonder she's so popular.

Nancy, my new BFT, why didn't I introduce myself to you earlier?

She drives a convertible.  She solves mysteries. She's got a boyfriend and lots of other friends.  Not afraid of danger, she's also fashion-conscious.

In comparison, those dim-witted Hardy Boys are like half-canine simpletons.

Looking forward to spending more time with Nancy in The Bungalow Mystery (book 2) as soon as possible, hopefully tonight.

Caffeine and Heroin

Heroin is in the news since Phillip Seymour Hoffman, beloved actor, died of an overdose.

People magazine (the current issue with the super-skinny winner of the Biggest Loser on the cover) has an article about heroin.

It says that heroin has become wildly popular right now because many prescription drug addicts are switching to it because it’s “cheaper and easier to get”

Corey Feldman (deceased from heroin) said (or maybe it was his father) that especially in Hollywood it is super easy to get.

“All I do is roll down my window and ask and five guys come over to the car”

I can almost understand why people may get into heroin.

Only because of how I use caffeine.

We’re ridiculously short-staffed here at work in the Customer Service department.

They laid off one guy due to budget considerations, and another left to go to university, and they decided not to replace her.

So we’re in a mad rush every day, constant phone calls interrupting our other duties of responding to various e-mails in different in-boxes.

Last week we had an additional person out most days (sickness; family medical emergency) so it was extra ridiculous.

Fortunately executives answered the call and logged in to the phone loops and answered e-mails and really helped out.

All week long I was on caffeine. Multiple cups of coffee.

On the weekend, sickened of my addiction and the acidic feeling I had in my body, I said "no-- I'm quitting"

So I stopped drinking coffee, and didn't have any this week.

Until this morning.

When I saw the e-mail that another person would be out today, I cursed audibly and said "it's gonna be a hell of a day".

Marching straight to the break room I got me a tall container of coffee.

Back on coffee today.

It's like riding a rocket that's going who knows where. The day is fast. The pace is frantic. The frustration pops up but then... when the caffeine kicks in... it's like "who cares! let's dance. Let's be high."

Venting... thank you, universal vacuum, for listening.

ps. so back to the point, which is about heroin: I hope that I NEVER even try heroin. There must be an appeal, for people to introduce it to their friends, and then they get "on" it. A favorite music star, jazz singer Anita O'Day was on heroin. She had to go far away to Hawaii and just lay on the beach all day long to get through the withdrawal. The people magazine says that quitting heroin "feels like death".

Not one falls without your Father's knowledge

Today at break time I was sitting on a park bench watching a little bird hunt.

He was black with a little white tuxedo chest and he'd sit on the back of another bench watching the grass.

Then he'd fly down and grab an insect, returning to his bench back.

Probably a Black Phoebe, this little flycatcher was a delight to watch.

Once he needed to fly down right below the bench, so instead of using his wings, I saw him just hop off the back of the bench.  He broke his fall with flapping at the ground, though, but it reminded me of one of my favorite Bible facts:

"But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it" (Matthew 10:29, New Living Translation)

As a child I thought this was a sad scripture, because "the birdy dies".

Then came the commentary (in one of our magazines) that "fall to the ground" may not mean "falling because it's dead" but could just mean "fall to the ground to eat stuff".

Yay!

The sparrow didn't die!

So watching the Black Phoebe "fall" off the bench to get to the ground reminded me of that.

Then it hit me pretty hard:

If Jehovah was aware of the little bird jumping off the bench to get something to eat... he knows all about me and what I was doing and thinking and feeling.

Very scary but motivating indeed.

A Death in the Family

In one of those free first volumes of an Encylopedia that I had, repeatedly I would see the entry for Agee, James.

Finally I obtained and read his book, A Death in the Family.

It was the most clear and descriptive prose I've ever read.

Frighteningly cold and real.

Let it stay fiction.

Please.

Shared Equally

Crazy dream !!!!

At the zoo I watched as a keeper threw a hunk of some sort of food into the big cat enclosure.

It landed on the wall of the dividing moat right in front of me.

She called out to me, "Sir?" and nodded to the food.

Confused I just stood there staring until finally a big furry four-pawed monster stuck his head up over the edge of the moat.

Amazingly, he took the food in both paws and carefully ripped it in two.

Next thing I knew he'd flipped his paw and half of it was sailing through the air toward me.

I caught it.

The beast whispered "it's for both of us" and then disappeared back into his enclosure.

It was a tuna fish sandwich, my favorite!

Most delicious.

Jabez

Encountered this passage in the Living Bible this morning:

This is very intriguing.

Sure, I would like to ask Jabez' mom "what happened?  Why was it such a hard birth?"

Mostly, however, I'd like to know about Jabez and why this is included in the scriptures.  Did he have a remarkable relationship with Jehovah so that Jehovah answered such a seemingly selfish (?) request?

My research on Jabez is yet future (just found this today) and I'm speculating above.  It is beautiful, however, that "God granted him his request".

It jibes with other scriptures, of course...  "satisfying the desire of every living thing" and "granting the requests of your heart" (quotes by memory, could be off by a few words).

This is inspiring!

We already pray to Jehovah for help in proper desires and killing improper desires and assistance in serving him and motivation and fighting laziness and such.

This is more reason to trust that with strong faith, Jehovah will grant our wishes!

Moses' question was a meaningful one

From Insight volume 2 page 12 par 1:

I think that is fascinating!

Goes along with this week's Bible study, which is from the Draw Close to Jehovah book, chapter 1, paragraphs 1-9.