Wordless Wednesday - Who's That Girl?

Flat Stanley Comes to Visit

I have a friend who is a teacher in Kentucky.  Because she is a good teacher, she thinks up some pretty neat things to teach her classes - and right now they are participating in the Flat Stanley Project (www.flatstanley.com). 

Flat Stanley arrived in Tallahassee, Florida recently and he told me he wanted to see what a TV and radio station were like.  Lucky for him, I'm in a position to oblige.  And it's not just any commercial station, but a Public Television station and a National Public Radio station.

He was thrilled to have his picture taken with Bert and Ernie and Big Bird - three characters in PBS's flagship children's show "Sesame Street."  Can you see him?  He's peeking out from behind Bert's shoulder. 

I took him down to my office, which was kind of boring after meeting Bert and Ernie.  He kind of liked my computer though and thought the program I was working on was pretty cool.  He also liked my "Speak No Evil" monkey, which I keep on my desk to remind me that sometimes it's a good idea NOT to talk.  I also have Elvis in there wearing a gold lame suit, but Stanley was much more impressed with the monkey.   I guess a monkey would trump Elvis most any day to most people.

After showing him my desk, I took him around the TV station a bit.  I explained to him that things change quickly in this business and that equipment that was state of the art not so long ago is now OLD and not used.  Part of our station is like a museum - we have old cameras (not HD) and old videotape machines on display.  Stanley though this one was pretty cool.  It's a 1" machine, called that because the tape on the reels is one inch wide.  Before these, we used 2" machines!  As you can imagine, those tapes were very heavy and cost a lot of money to ship.  A lot of programs used to run off tape.  These days, the videotapes are tiny.  Five of them weigh a little less than a pound.  It makes a big difference in shipping costs.  Some stations use DVDs and now, some are beginning to use file transfers to move programs around - kind of like emailing programs back and forth.  For now, a lot of programs are sent to us via satellite and we record them on servers and back them up on tape.   One day in the not-too-distant future, most of our programming will be fed as files rather than as real-time programs.  Real-time means that an hour-long program takes an hour to record.  A file takes much less time, so the amount of time needed on a satellite to deliver a day's worth of programming will be much shorter and hopefully a lot less expensive.

After showing Stanley around the TV station, we walked to the other side of the building to visit the radio station.  We entered a room where a bunch of people were sitting in front of computers.  The phones were ringing and there was a lot of food in there.  This was a room full of volunteers - spending their time answering phones for a membership drive.  You've probably heard one before.  People from the local area get on the radio and ask for donations to help pay for some of the programs that are on the air.  It's not an easy job, but for public radio and public television to exist, funds are needed from the people who watch and listen to help pay for it.  Sometimes it's a lot harder to raise that money when people are being laid off or having their hours cut at their jobs.  They don't have much money to spare - but our listeners think that our radio station does something special, so they call and offer what they can afford.  Every single pledge of support matters because every dollar adds up to enough (hopefully) to keep the programs people want to listen to on the air.

Flat Stanley thought that was pretty cool.  He looked over the notes and some script suggestions and thought it might be fun to try that - but the headphones were way too big and he couldn't reach the microphones.  He did want his picture taken in front of one though. 

Finally, to wrap up our tour, I took Stanley into the radio control room. 

He was pretty impressed with all the buttons and slides.  Every button on that board was a source of sound - a microphone or a tape machine or a satellite...  it's pretty complicated when you have a lot of different voices that need to be a part of a show.  We used to have paper rundowns that told the operator what to do and when, but like most things these days, it's computerized.  And when we're not doing live radio like the membership drive, even the switching between audio sources is computerized. 

Flat Stanley's head was spinning - he had no idea there was so much to television and radio.  He can't wait to get back to Kentucky and tell those kids all about it.

Lenten Quandry

Lent is coming.  Ash Wednesday is the beginning on February 22nd, followed by 40 days and culminating in the celebration of Easter (when Christ rises again). 

It is a time of re-examination, penitence and sacrifice.  Most people are familiar with the sacrifice part and of all the facets of Lent, that is the one I think most people participate in - even people who do not observe much of anything besides the commercial side of Christian holy days.  Personally, I try to incorporate all of it and to me, re-examination goes hand in hand with sacrifice and penitence. 

I'm having a little problem though.  In past years, I have given up coffee (I was drinking far too much) and dairy (which my doctor suspected was causing me problems)...  These were obvious items to me as my life was much improved by giving up both of those things.  These days, instead of 6 or so cups of strong coffee a day, I drink maybe 2 or 3 cups of coffee a week.  And giving up dairy was a way of eliminating a cause of a problem - though it apparently wasn't the actual problem.

But this year, nothing is jumping out at me as a sacrifice.  There are a lot of things I need to do to improve myself.  But I've already made a start on so many of them that the change would not be radical enough to cause re-examination, which I believe is the natural result of a sacrifice and kind of the whole point of the exercise.

Lent lasts 40 days, which experts say is how long it takes to establish a new habit. I don't think this is a coincidence. What I have given up in the past HAS changed my habits for the better. So with this idea firmly fixed in my head, I'm wondering if adding something to my life rather than taking away would be the way to go.

It seems crazy on the surface - I have no time as it is, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. What if I chose to do something everyday for just 30 minutes? I could manage 30 minutes, I think. Sacrifice my zone-out time in the morning (that space between getting my first cup of tea and actually doing something), or after work when I sit on the couch and think "thank God that's over for the day) - or maybe lunchtime when I either go out to eat or bring something to eat at my desk while I work or catch up on what happened on TV last night or go on Facebook? All of those time periods are about 30 minutes.

Immediately, something pops into my head. What if I made those thirty minutes a day a time for prayerful exercise? I need the exercise - anyone can tell you that. But exercise with a purpose other than getting in shape or doing it because I'm supposed to do it - that would be different. Using that time while my body moves for doing specific prayer instead of zoning out or listening to music - what a concept!

One of the things I've noted in years past is that making that sacrifice for Lent means that I fully commit to doing whatever it is that I decide to do - and in doing so, form a new habit.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Time to re-adjust my thinking

I've bought a few of these over the years.  Most of the time, they showed the top stick (not pregnant), but a few times it showed the second stick (pregnant).  Out of all those sticks over the last 35 or so years, only one indicated the child who would eventually be born almost 13 years ago.

Last night, I bought a couple of these.  And this morning I took the test - NOT PREGNANT. 

And suddenly, I realized that I'm going to have to change my way of thinking.  For the last 35 or so years, being two weeks late meant you were more than likely pregnant - but as I look forward to my 50th birthday next month, I have to acknowledge that my childbearing years are almost definitely over.  There are people out there who get pregnant naturally after 50, but it doesn't happen most of the time without some sort of medical intervention (Google led me to all kinds of information about 50+ pregnancy). 

I didn't think it likely for me, but I know someone who recently had a "menopause baby" so I wanted to be very, very sure.

I was relieved to get the negative result.  My husband and son were even MORE relieved.  But along with that relief was a little sadness.  I never thought I'd have my son and realizing that any opportunity to have another baby is probably past kind of brings home the fact that I'm aging.

I don't feel like I'm that old, but I guess I am.  And really - that's a good thing.  I'm enjoying this aging process as a rule, but I never know when I need to change my way of thinking about things.

First Monday - First Date

It's the first Monday of the month and this month's topic is first love and/or first date in honor of Valentine's Day.  Even if you're not in a relationship now, everyone's had a first love or a first date - tell us about it!!!  Sign up to participate in the comments and I'll add your post link at the bottom of mine.


My parents made me wait until I was 16 to have my first official date.  At the time, I thought they were pretty strict, but as it turns out, they knew what they were doing.  I had friends already that I hung out with, so I wasn't lacking in a social life, but there was no one-on-one dating until I was 16.  I had a curfew of 11pm.

There was a guy at school who'd asked me out a few times, and I always put him off because I wasn't 16 yet.  So he bided his time and shortly after I turned 16, he asked me out.  I admit I wasn't too enthusiastic about it.  He was a super-smart guy, a member of the smart people clubs (chess, Latin, a Merit Scholar) and I think part of me wasn't thrilled because I thought that maybe I wouldn't be smart enough to be good company - in spite of being a pretty smart cookie myself.  I had no idea what we would talk about.

He picked me up (don't remember what kind of car), and we went to the movies to see the original Muppet Movie.  That relieved us of having to actually talk to each other but for small talk before the lights went down.  I was doing okay so far!  He was a perfect gentleman and never tried to cop a feel in the dark either, which had been worrying me.  Afterwards, we went to Barnaby's for pizza, which was loud and full of other high school kids out on dates.  I'm not sure if the place was picked for the food or to demonstrate to some other kids that he could, in fact, get a date in spite of being a bit of a nerd.

The movie and dinner pretty much used up our date time, so he took me home around 10:30.  To my horror and relief, the Brothers were all up and waiting.  My date and I came inside and we all went out onto the back deck for iced tea and chat.  The deck was way up in the air with trees surrounding us, and it was warm but not hot - kind of ideal weather for hanging out in the dark.  I don't remember what we all talked about, but there was lots of laughter. 

Somewhere around 11:30, the bagpipes started up.  My date jumped and asked what the heck was that?  We all laughed - it had happened before, but not often.  It just so happened that Dr. D down the street had tied one on that night and when Dr. D was in his cups, he liked to play the bagpipes outside.   We listened for a little bit, until Dr. D finally wound down and Mom and Dad said it was time to come in.  They shooed the boys to bed so my date and I could say goodnight.  There was a single, chaste kiss before he left - but enough for both of us to know that there was no chemistry there.  Just a nice friendship.

Years later, after I'd left my first husband and come home, my mother called me at my apartment and in a sing-songy voice told me to guess who was in town.  There was only one guy I'd ever dated that made her talk like that, so of course I immediately guessed.  She urged me to call him (he was in town visiting HIS mother), so after a little internal debate, I did. 

We met at a bar after the lunch crowd had gone back to work and spent the whole afternoon talking and catching up.  I'd been married and was in the midst of a divorce.  He'd never been married but was living with someone and thinking seriously about popping the question.  He had a prestigeous job in DC - I was working as a temp at the cable company and had just started seeing someone.  We were both at a strange and awkward place in our lives, trying to make good decisions about who we were going to be.  It was nice to just sit and talk to someone about all of that.  As things wound down (and the happy hour crowd was starting to filter in), he leaned in close and said, "My mom was so excited that we were meeting today...  what should we tell our mothers?"  (He knew my mom was over the moon too.)  I suggested that we tell them we'd spent the afternoon in a motel which made us both laugh.  In the end, we didn't say much of anything to our parents.  Mom couldn't stand it after a while and asked - and I told her...  a nice afternoon talking with a friend.

I never saw or heard from him again.  I tried Googling him before writing this, but came up with nothing.  I don't know what that means anymore.  Dead?  Low profile?  Or just somewhere back in the pages and pages of Google search returns that I don't have time to look through?  I hope that wherever he is, he's healthy and happy with how his life turned out.  And I'd like to thank him for being such a good first date.  Our second date over a decade later was pretty nice too.

Want to play along?  Let me know in the comments and I'll add you to the list!
Jill
Faye

First of the Month - My favorite subject

This was the best of the lot.  It's funny... when he knows we're gonna take a picture, they don't always come out so well.  This was the second one I took today and I had to keep going because his glasses had glare.  Looking  back, this is the best one.

This was the first one after school.  Looked a little dark, plus the reflections in his glasses...

Having the dog as a prop didn't help much - and they BOTH had eye reflections!

Okay... maybe if I back up a bit the glare won't be so big - nope!  Shoot, maybe I'll just have him take his glasses OFF.  He didn't like that one - says he looks weird without glasses (but his eyes sure are pretty!).

This was yesterday.  It was actually a little nippy, so he put on the scarf and hat I made him - and in addition to the flannel jammies, he's got the teddy bear robe wrapped around his legs.

There it is - my favorite subject.  Tune in on March 1st to see a new installment of My Boy!  And to see other first of month photos, visit Jan at http://www.murrieta365.com/!

First Monday Challenge for February 6th

I didn't forget.  In fact, if you pay attention, you'd have seen the challenge over in the sidebar for quite some time now!  But if you're the kind of person who generally ignores the sidebar (like me most of the time), here's your February challenge:

Even if you aren't currently in a relationship, everyone's had a first love (or if you want, a first date). If you would, please recount a story of either your first love or your first date!

When you post your response on February 5th, leave me a comment and I'll put your name/link on my blog so others can come read it.