Judith's thought-provoking soul-searching journal

The Jerry Bruckheimer Effect

2012-01-30T04:26:50Z

I suppose it is the curse of anyone who is musical to be unable to ignore music. I am plagued by the piped in music in stores and I choke when I hear the top 40 selections on a passing radio.

What increasingly irritates me, though, is the tendency of some directors to include musical tidbits at the end of their television shows. The music takes 10 to 15 seconds or longer. It is played loudly while we are treated to an overly long montage at the graveyard or of the man and woman approaching each other or some lonely figure on a rooftop or some similarly trite image. I suppose it is a cheap way to replace dialogue and sets. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the music were not so awful. I call it the Jerry Bruckheimer effect because he uses it so relentlessly on just about everything he makes.

As opposed to a show like House, where when there is music at the end it is at least good music, and it usually doesn't last long. Instead, it accompanies relevant meaningful action.

Adventures Downtown

2012-01-19T21:36:00Z

Yesterday I went downtown three times. The first time I passed by the pasty place and decided to stop and get one. The second time was to pick up a pair of shoes given me as a gift from Roxanne's Birkenstock's. The third time was to go to dinner with a group of friends at Novo restaurant. And I had not been downtown in months. I have not gone because walking is not yet the most comfortable thing for me, so I find places where I can park nearby and in the downtown area this is not usual.

Somehow, though, the bug bit me. Today I finished off all of the hair conditioner I had while at the gym and I thought perhaps I could go get some more. Usually I'm big on finding a big bottle at a low price - but of good stuff. Don't so much want the cheap stuff. I thought of Sephora. I knew I would not likely be getting a great deal but the idea of venturing downtown again appealed to me.

I went around and around the block until I found a parking place a block away from Sephora. Walking, as predicted, not so wonderful. I have been leaving my cane at home so I can work on walking without it. It might have been better to have it with me. Nevertheless, I made my way to Sephora, which was not just a block away but up a large flight of stairs. Fortunately, the stairs, although many, had low risers. It makes a big difference to some of us if the risers are low and therefore our climbing is easier.

I found my way to the back of the store, to the hair care products. Almost immediately I had help. A Sephora employee asked if I needed help finding anything. I did, actually. I wanted hair care that was animal-free and not tested on animals. She directed me to some nice products and explained options for purchasing them - in kits or separately. They looked good so I grabbed a kit. She then asked if I were interested in skin care and I said maybe, that I don't do much with makeup but could use something. She led me to the "Fresh" collection of expensive monk-made skin care products. I kid you not - the monks make at least some of the products. I grabbed the cleansing cream because it was an all-in-one - no need for separate toner and so on, and she recommended that I try some others and gave me samples and explanations. Finally I was at the register, explaining that I had left my birthday gift email at home. No problemo! Into the bag went the birthday special, lipsticks by Fresh. Nice! I left there with my wallet significantly the worse for the venture but I had my cool Sephora bag and cool little birthday gift. I did not regret it.

So there I was, downtown, and a few doors away was a new restaurant - the Urbane Cafe. Cool looking place, quite popular. A person up front rolls and cooks the bread in pizza ovens, and the bread is used for sandwiches. I ordered a "Californian" - avocado, of course, plus artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, and more. No cheese or mayo, please. I got one of those electronic thingies with my number on it. I found a seat and read for a bit, waiting for the gadget to light up. Which it did, very soon, flashing red lights and vibrations all over. I had a delicious sandwich and side salad and headed back to my car.

In two days I visited three eateries that I had not gone to before. Am I on a roll? Or just trying my new legs? I think rather the latter. I'm still not ready to wander around downtown. I am looking forward to when it will not be painful to do so.

judith @ 2012-01-17T18:23:00

2012-01-18T02:23:15Z

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Writer's Block: Everyday I write the book

2011-01-14T03:32:33Z

If you were to write your autobiography, what would be the title?

View 2229 Answers

A Wasted Life

Going to dinner

2010-06-12T00:47:26Z

I am going to have dinner with my veg group tonight. It wasn't too long ago when I looked forward to these gatherings, but now I don't, most of the time. I have been thinking, wondering, why the change. I think I have a couple of answers:

1. friends. I don't feel a real closeness with anybody else in the group. I think I would look forward to the time if I were there with somebody I really enjoy.

2. responsibility. I feel like I have abdicated responsibility for a lot of things in this group. I just don't feel like stepping up sometimes. Much of the time.

In some ways I have become more reclusive. Yet I go to the gym and join water exercise classes and sit in the hot tub afterwards, in part so I can get to know the other class members. And I go to sewing classes on Tuesdays and enjoy the company of the other class members there. I think the key here is responsibility. I don't have leadership roles in these places.

Lucky me

2010-06-06T02:45:37Z

I just happened upon Pink Martini on KCET tonight, shortly after the concert started. Large audience, diverse. Yes, it's pledge week but that's okay. They gotta get money somehow and Pink Martini is surely a good way to get some attention.

tripping from LV to SLO

2010-04-27T04:25:07Z

Today I drove home to SLO from Las Vegas. When I left LV I was listening to a Sherlock Holmes radio drama. Following that, I heard:

- Interview with Wilbert Rideau, author of In the Place of Justice, memoir about 44 years in prison, on Fresh Air (NPR). I want the book now.
- Part of a Ted Talk featuring a strange singer (I switched after a bit) (see ted.com for the fascinating collection of these talks)
- A podcast of a guy talking about his obsession with Soren Kierkegaard, complete with his visit to Denmark to talk to a Kierkegaard expert about the religious stage (I really liked this)
- Repeat of a podcast from This American Life (replayed on Public Radio Exchange - prx.org) by a young woman whose bf broke up with her, leaving her with the desire to write a torch song about it. She interviews Phil Collins about how to write one and then works with some musician friends to get a melody. Kinda cute. Called "Dr. Phil".
- Podcast by a hospice nurse, talking about death and about a book he has written about - death. He found that people need to know what to expect.
- Radio play from 1945, starring Jimmy Stewart - The Vivacious Woman, I think it was called. Not much of a plot.

and more I can't recall right now. I should take notes sometimes.

mytouch

2010-04-03T18:38:43Z

Some things about my new mytouch 3G phone:

I admit I did not investigate thoroughly, did not read the reviews as well as I should have. I was tired of looking at options and decided to go with what T-mobile offered and I liked the sound of the mytouch.

What I don't like:

Bluetooth compatibility is spotty. For whatever reason I can't send or receive files from my computer through bluetooth and so far I have been unable to get my phone to connect with my radio so I can talk through the radio. These two things were really helpful to me with my old, regular razr and I do not know why they are not available. Supposedly more and more will become compatible over time but until then I am especially annoyed at the radio-phone disconnection.

When I am calling an automatic robot, whatever they call those help lines with the "press one for...", I have to grapple to get the dialpad back to press the right keys. Awkward and a delay. The old regular phone was better for this too.

internet doesn't seem to be as fast as it should be.

No manual came with the phone. And there is no mention of one on the T-mobile site. I found one, at the suggestion of a Best Buy guy, at htc.com, the makers of the phone, but it isn't completely accurate for my phone. I expect T-mobile modified some of the functions for its purposes. In general I feel a lack of support and understanding, although i admit I have not hunted relentlessly. It just seems like T-mobile should be offering a whole lot more than it does.

What I do like:

Well, having the internet is the biggie. I love finding things out while out and about, especially on trips.

I like testing out the apps, doing odds and ends of things, and so far I have hardly scraped the surface on this.

I like the camera, the way it works. I can take successive photos without having to save each one immediately. It works more like a regular camera. I enjoy being able to upload to my facebook account easily too.

I'm divided on the size. It's smaller than the iphone, which has advantages. i can tuck it where I might not tuck an iphone. But what this means is a smaller screen and more room taken up with odds and ends to make the small size work, like a "back" button and a "menu" button on the phone itself. Those things seem odd and because they are mechanical they can mess up, I think.

words...

2010-02-24T21:31:43Z

Gi-normous. Guesstimate. I gotta wonder: why?

"Enormous" isn't big enough?

"Estimate" doesn't tell the tale?

what have i done today?

2009-12-15T21:42:28Z

Sometimes I feel like I do nothing all day. So today I am going to list:

made bed
cleaned bathroom countertops, both bathrooms
swished toilets, both bathrooms,
washed and dried load of laundry
folded another load of laundry
did quick mop of both bathrooms
finished family calendar and ordered it!
cleaned sinks in both bathrooms thoroughly
mailed phone to joey, holiday card to aimee
finished one Christmas stocking (five to go)

to do yet:
quick vacuum of carpet in all carpeted rooms
make slow-cooker ratatouille
complete another stocking or two
there's more...can't think...

utilities

2009-11-05T16:12:11Z

I went into tier 2 in electricity last month. Only a tiny amount but I always wonder what kicked it over when this happens. Gas stayed in tier one.

shopping

2009-10-15T14:39:41Z

Yesterday I went on the hunt for a couple of ingredients to use in the making of vegan ice cream. I was thinking chocolate and coffee particularly, so I wanted semisweet and dark chocolate and instant coffee, plus full-fat coconut milk and possibly non-dairy yogurt and silken tofu. I went to Trader Joe's first because I was thinking maybe I'd find good chocolate there.

No. There are nice chocolate candies but I found no baking chocolates at all. Could I have missed them?

And no coconut milk, no non-dairy yogurt, no silken tofu. I did buy other things, mostly fresh vegetables. Then on to Costco because I was thinking of potatoes and thought if I could get bulk packs of the tofu and coconut milk that would be good because they keep. No such luck. Of course I got the potatoes. No chocolate even. I was getting a little worn, a lot worn, by then.

Then to Vons. got baking chocolate and semisweet chips, good enouigh, and finally found the coconut milk. Well hidden, I might add. No non-dairy yogurt, no silken tofu except in the tubs and I wanted the sealed packets that go on the shelf. Those are getting harder to find.

But enough, anyway, I did get to make a chocolate ice cream and a coffee ice cream or maybe mocha.

Sometimes I just get to feeling so very tired, though.

239.5

2009-10-12T13:58:22Z

I bought potato chips yesterday, ate half the bag. Then ate another Tofurkey sausage. Not low-fat, these items. I also had good stuff - black bean soup and another subway-type sandwich and pomegranate juice with sparkling water.

I used wii fit plus for 30 minutes. I did a lot of short routines, a lot of them balance-oriented. Because of my knees my balance is not the greatest but it is not as bad as it was a few years ago.

Getting it out of my system

2009-09-28T23:01:01Z

I went downtown today to buy some fabric. As I was driving through town I noticed Woodstock's, a pizza place, and memories of its "wilde bread" came to me. I wanted some. I determined I would have some.

I bought my fabric, got in my car to see if I could find a space near the pizza place, and failed. As I was driving along Marsh, though, I thought of an alternative. Another pizza place across from a parking garage. I went there and had their version of wilde bread, which turned out to be not as high in fat but still with plenty of herbs, and I was satisfied. It's out of my system. For now.

lunch

2009-09-06T22:10:38Z

I wanted to get out of the house today. I pretty much want to get out every day. I call myself a "nester" but in some ways I guess I'm not.

So I went to a coffee place, had tea and an orange and wrote emails and stumbled around the web for a bit. I was proud of the laptop sleeve I made yesterday, crude though it is:

I didn't even come up with this idea. I got it from Generation T, a book that takes recycling T-shirts to a whole new level.

So I went to the coffee place. From there I went to Subway, ordered a footlong veggie, sat down at the back of the store. For some reason the chip rack had been moved there, near my table. I grabbed my chips from there before I sat down. Then a worker hauled a large cardboard box into the space near me, opened it, and started refiling the rack. She came and went, grabbing other large boxes, throwing them around, slamming the chips into the rack. It seemed like it would never end but it finally did. Then she pushed the rack toward the front of the store. So that was why it was back there - to be refilled. If I had figured that out I would not have sat there.

She ran into a table - BAM! - on her way to the front, then came back later to straighten it out, and finally to put away the remaining boxes.

I had been drinking lemonade. I decided, when I was done, to refill the cup and take it with me. But the lemonade had run out. I grabbed some ice tea instead and left, feeling sour. The noise, the slamming of the table, the missing lemonade all made me think about never going back again. I know that I will go back but for me it takes so little to get into a bad mood.

safe drinking water for all

2009-08-31T20:13:51Z

utilities

2009-08-28T22:54:06Z

Once again I stayed in the first tier for both gas and electricity last month. Good for me!

Take it with a grain of salt.

2009-08-18T01:59:27Z

Dead At 79

From Cancer

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Find out when and why you'll die, take The Death Test!

There is hiking and there is hiking

2009-08-07T22:42:55Z

Today I tried out a trail I had not tried before. I discovered it on the Paso Robles city website, where a nice little pamphlet is available to download, that includes a map of trails citywide. I had been on only one of them. Many are just little paths inside parks, but there are others that look more promising. I chose one of those.

It is called the Watertank Loop and it starts at the intersection of Creston Road and Golden Hill Road and is described as "Just under 2 mile paved loop trail". It looked easy to get to but when I got to the intersection I did not find any trail signs. I drove the trail, as it happens, discovering that it is entirely a sidewalk, although the sidewalk in some places rises and falls away from the street. The best place to park is inside a shopping center at that intersection, so that's where I parked.

As I walked the path, nursing hip pain unfortunately, I was reminded of Einstein's theory of relativity. There is no doubt that this path taken at a walking pace (in my case, about two miles per hour) is not the same place as this path taken in the car. So yes, time is the fourth dimension. It isn't fair to describe a path that you haven't taken on foot for this reason.

It's a good path for runners and even for cyclists. Not much of a path for nature lovers like me. But I was okay with it simply because it was new to me. I enjoyed a large oak that was clearly protected by a rock wall on three sides and no building nearby. I saw a little bird that didn't look right - it let me pet it. It was moulting, I think, probably could not fly. I worried about it but decided to let nature take its course, whatever that might be.

I felt the sun on my body - I didn't even think of the vitamin D that I was getting! but yay! I also saw a tiny bit of nature on the corner of the shopping center, where a large drainage pipe cut under the road and where water was allowed to sit sometimes.

The path surrounds a relatively new housing subdivision. Across one street I could see hills so far undeveloped, and across another I saw older homes with farm implements and steep driveways and I guessed that the folks in those homes thought they were in the country...until recently.

My reward was the Subway sandwich (veggie, of course) that I had when I got through. Very convenient, right there in that shopping center near my car. It's unlikely I'll do this route again but I will write about it on the Sierra Club trails site: http://connect.sierraclub.org/community/trails.htm I have added sixteen trails here already and hope to add many more. Eventually others will find these trails and be glad I took the time. That's all I want.

shelves

2009-08-03T20:35:24Z

There is a reason I do not attempt many home improvement projects. I am not good at them. However, I can usually put together a piece of furniture or a shelf that is in a kit. So I attempted to put together a shelf that goes on the wall.

The item is from Ikea. I bought the box of pieces Friday, July 17. I have wanted this shelf for some time. The following Monday I screwed together the shelf itself. Tuesday I installed the hardware on the wall. The way this thing works is that you hang the shelf from these hardware pieces that you screw to the wall.

The brackets on the wall

With a little bit of difficulty (it is much better as a two-person job) I hung the shelf on the wall. I slid the little posts into the holes in the shelf, but I did not realize that the next step was to insert little pins to hold the posts in place. When I started to load the shelf with books it came crashing down.

Fortunately, no harm done. I looked at the instructions again and realized my error. I got the shelf back on the wall and started to insert the first pin. And the shelf fell down again. This time with disastrous results. One end of the shelf had broken off. I could see inside, could see the construction of the shelf.

If these shelves had been simply wood all the way through the solution I came up with would have worked. My plan was to buy long wood screws and glue and glue and screw the parts together. I decided to screw in a bit closer to the center from the existing screws.

The first difficulty was in finding long wood screws. I ended up with lag screws that were fat and had to screw in. I got one of them in most of the way but discovered that it was pulling the inside of the shelf out. The inside was not attached to the frame of the shelf. A curse on these types of shelves!

I went back out to get shorter screws, because I realized I had overdone it. I found wood screws at the smaller size and I started to screw one into the far end of the shelf, where it would go into the solid particleboard corner. For some reason I kept running into blockages, like there was metal in there somewhere. I could not get it to work.

The shelf end was starting to look like it was diseased.

I thought of other ways to make it work: getting some kind of angle iron to wrap around the corner and...screw in...that didn't sound like it would work; and liquid nails. That might work but it's iffy.

My sister called from Ohio to chat about her visit to Ikea to get some things for her new house. I told her my sad Ikea story, relieved to have an outlet. Somehow talking about it made it seem not so terrible and made me seem not so awful, such a klutz. Cathy offered to pick up another one of these shelves the next time she was at Ikea. Her Ikea is a lot closer to her than I am to any of the Ikeas in California, so I said that might be a good idea. Needless to say, this is not one of the items available for shipping direct from Ikea.

Yesterday she called. She had the shelf! She is going to mail it!

Elfin Forest

2009-07-15T17:49:05Z

Yesterday's walk:

I met a couple on the walk as I was just starting out on the boardwalk. Middle-aged or older, with hats for shade, sturdy clothes and shoes. Well, actually, it's the couple you see most often in the slideshow above. The man came by and asked, "Have you seen anything extraordinary?" He had a British accent.

"It's all extraordinary," I said.

He gave me a disbelieving look and said, "You need another drink." We continued on our way but kept passing each other as one or another of us would stop to look at something. I noticed the two of them bending over to look closely at a plant and I came by and said, "You probably know what you're looking at".

The man said something to the effect that there is no good spoiling a story with the truth.

Oso Flaco Lake

2009-07-13T16:19:39Z

I did this lovely walk yesterday.

El Chorro hike

2009-06-26T23:49:34Z

I did the oak woodlands hike in El Chorro Regional Park today. It's 2.2 miles if you don't take the extra path to Eagle Rock, which I didn't. I always pay in my knees, my hip, but I don't feel too bad right now. We'll see how the night goes.

I was determined to get back into hiking and now I am doing it.

Portola Point

2009-06-03T13:57:40Z

Yesterday I did the Portola Point hike, a bit over two miles. I wasn't sure how I'd manage it.

A view of the hike:

From Portola Point hike

It took me about an hour and 25 minutes, longer than it has in the past. I stopped frequently to catch my breath. Initially I felt some pain in my legs and knees but it wasn't terrible so I kept on. I came to a time when my legs felt almost normal, a bit stiff but no real pain. Toward the end I felt some twinges but again, not that awful. I felt stiff and when I went to a movie later I had to work my right leg a bit after, to release the pain, get on with it.

Last night I took a couple of acetaminophen tablets to help me sleep and I slept well. No cramps, no shearing pains. Encouraging.

utilities

2009-05-30T20:23:16Z

Curses. I stayed within tier one for gas but went into tier 2 for electricity last month. I wonder what I was using electricity for. More than usual.