There is no doubt that global warming is my reality

[8/24/11] - There is no doubt in my mind that global warming is a scientific reality.

There is little doubt that it has been caused by humankind, more specifically excess greenhouse gases.

I have experienced the warmest summer ever, here in north central Texas.  It has been so difficult that we have had to change our routine behavior to accommodate outdoor activities during the coolest (relatively) parts of the day.

We go to the grocery store early.  My husband plays golf at the crack of dawn.  Our pet Corgi goes out only when necessary, and for the shortest possible time.  I do not use the oven with which to cook.  And we use the dishwasher after we have retired for the evening.

My relatives in Wyoming got almost all of the cool wet weather that Texas did not.  Their gardens suffered because the growing season started so late.

It is my topsy-turvy world now. I will be ever so glad for the arrival of fall.

Technorati tags: Climate change
 
My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

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This was a special birthday

 In Nebraska on November 19, 1915, my mother, Lavina Catherine was born.  Her middle name has been passed down in the family for generations.  Her first name was uncommon.  People often mispronounced it. . 

Family - Her parents were Molly and Roy.  It was Molly's second marriage.  Her first husband, George, died leaving her to raise their son Leonard.  Molly and Roy's first child was a son named Norval.  Lavina was thus, the baby of the family.

Lavina and Norval were both "redheads," a seemingly remarkable trait for those who knew them.  Other traits they shared included a lively sense of humor, sociability, willingness to work and adaptability.  Because I loved my mom dearly, I also adored my Uncle Norval, as they were so much alike.

My mom's rural upbringing was relatively conventional for a western farm kid.  She learned to do housework at her mom's side.  The men and boys worked in the fields.  They all spent time "neighboring" with those nearby, sharing work, visiting, having fun, marking passages. . . and moving farther west.  My grandfather sometimes was able to make a living, sometimes not.  When things got too bad, he found another place to farm and the family came along.  Mom graduated very young from a central Wyoming high school.  She moved west again with her parents and married in her early twenties.  I was her firstborn, arriving in 1937.  Eventually Mom had five children 13 years apart -- one boy and four girls.  Our upbringing was also mostly rural or small town.  I moved to Texas to go to college, married and started my own family.

After Mom and Dad's kids had all left home, they also moved to Texas to be nearer to our four children.  Over time they had nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.  Each of her kids and grand kids always got a birthday card with a dollar or two dollar bill in it.  And we all came to her house for Easter dinner and egg hunts.  Thanksgiving and Christmas were with us while they lived in Texas.  Mom was the best cook and gardener I ever knew.  Home made bread and fancy Christmas candies were her specialties, along with the fresh vegetables and fruit from her ever present garden.  Art work and needlework were her passions, however.  She painted, sewed, crocheted, did embroidery and made quilts.  Handwork was her constant companion.  From before I was born until she made her last quilt shortly before passing away at the age of 93, she was making beautiful things.

Mom was also a dedicated diarist who left us all histories of her life, travels and activities.  My own writing was inspired by my mom's, even to the point of trying my hand at poetry when I was in my 50's.  I wrote several poems for or about my mom, who was a faithful member of the Lutheran Church.  I composed the following piece when Mom was 84 and added to it when she was 87.

A Sign from the Lord

12/18/99 
“He’s not through with me yet,” says this indomitable lady.
A bushel of yarn, passed on from one who is now dead,
Was the banner the maker of colorful warm things saw ahead.


2/28/03 
They moved once again to his hometown, the man and the red-haired lady.
“It must be a sign from the Lord.”  But then the heart-broken daughter fled.
Calling on faith in the Lord, she turned to quilts and her old crochet thread.

Time passed for the couple.  The lady learned how to cope, the man took ill.
Many folks prayed to the Lord.  There were fears it might be his deathbed.
But he rallied, vowed to come home.  The indomitable lady was overspread.

“I don’t think I can do it by myself,” says the lady, now fragile herself.
Her changed mate and his many medical needs must have spelled dread.
He wants to come home.  “He’s not through with me yet,” she must have said.

“Nothing’s broken this time, at least,” says the lady of her confused mate.
He fell, “a crisis.”  She alone cannot get him up; he’s just out of his sick-bed.
She adjusts ONCE AGAIN, as he needs his own place to lay down his head.

“He’s not through with me yet.”  Will the lady to see a sign from the Lord?
She wants far-flung kids to be in on the plan; they delay decisions instead.
No offspring live in town, so for now, kids get Helpers to act in their stead.

So the far-flung wait and keep in close touch.  For this tough little lady,
Partner roles have reversed.  She will now have to decide for this hard head.
So as in the past, she’ll wait for her sign from the Lord to give the go-ahead.

Two more poems (in pdf) conclude today's post honoring Mom's birthday:

• "Everyone ought to have a Princess time" was composed in 1999 whild Mom and Dad still lived in Texas.  Not long after that the folks moved back to Wyoming to the small town where my dad was born and where they met and married in the mid Thirties.  Mom became a widow there, and it is where they both now rest in peace side by side.
• "Honoring your years" was written in honor of Mom's 90th birthday.  My Wyoming sisters gave her a big party at the assisted living facility in central Wyoming, where she spent several happy years.  The celebration included a "card shower" with dozens and dozens of greetings from Lavina's friends and relatives from far and wide.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Changing to a new aggregator is a tough thing to do

Image via CrunchBase

My old favorite feed reader, Bloglines, is going away as of October 1.  Its parent company, Ask.com, has decided that feed readers/aggregators must be a thing of the past. They have decided that social media is the way to go, whatever that means.

So now all my feeds have been migrated to Google Reader.  The only thing I have left to do is to save (via Emails to myself) a good number of special stories or post that I had stored in Bloglines since 2008.  Hope I have the time to do this, as I would hate to lose those "keepsakes" or favorites from long ago, and sometimes far away.

Wish me luck.

[post date - 9/15/10]  Technorati tags: blogging

My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

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Confessions of a (non-nuclear) proliferator

My previous confessions have focused on my being a collector, which starts with collecting and saving stuff.  It serves the psychological purpose of avoiding the actual project, while mulling it over, organizing, and general wool-gathering.

 Proliferation is a bit different. It is an extension of collecting, which then moves into making a lot of variations of those collected items.  It involves very little discarding of material.  My favorite categories in the past when I was employed were often to-do lists, action plans and jotted-and-saved ideas.  After my retirement in 2002, some health issues intervened.  I quickly went to very little organizing or planning.  It was no longer necessary.  I could pay attention to my own needs and be more creative at the same time.  I loved being involved with the internet, with the magic of the web.  

In 2005 I went "back to work" -- as a volunteer, a blogger with two sites on Blogspot.  And the proliferation began in earnest.  I started using Internet Explorer as my browser, discovered Mozilla Firefox which then became too unwieldy for blogging.  Now I have switched to Google Chrome, which turns out to be a big improvement over Firefox.

Over the years I wrote entries at a number of blogs that were communities of progressives, Daily Kos and TPM Cafe, for example. And I started more of my own blog sites, as well.  I was invited to be a regular contribute to a couple of blogs.  I was invited to do book reviews.  I did this for several years.  Then the administration changed, and I no longer had an adversary.  After President Bush left office, the blogosphere and progressive politics had changed and I had changed.  

Despite organizing, making plans, and scheduling, it eventually became too much. The readership at my regular blogs dropped.  I was no longer doing any book reviews. And I was now involved with social networks. My writing had suffered; the job was too big to handle, and I asked myself for what was I working?  

My proliferation has had to change.  I stopped contributing to other progressive communities.  Shorter and more frequent posts are now the norm, and my long and link-filled posts that did not fit that model are now infrequent.  I am active on Twitter and Facebook.  I post original material at a few sites which then auto post to a number of my other sites.  I am micro-blogging, and I will be writing a book review by the end of the month.

"In recovery," my work is leaner and meaner.  I have avoided proliferation on social media.  My readership is up and I am less "driven."  I am trying to get back to a routine that embodies what I always loved about the blogosphere, and one that utilizes my strengths.   The themes of my day at the computer are consolidate, delete, clean, clear and organize downward.  

It seems to be working better, for the time being, at least.

 

 

 

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

I've learned to stay inside - but I am left with questions.

Often because of inclement weather, and for other reasons, I came to prefer being inside the house to being outside.  My nickname in the family was "the houseplant." Growing up in Wyoming meant a considerable number of days in the winter when it was too cold to be outside.  Living all my adult life in Texas has meant a considerable number of days in the summer when it is too hot to be outside.  Stay by the heater or stay by the AC, those are my perceived choices over spending time out in the weather being uncomfortable.  Far too cold or far too hot, what's to do?

In Texas where we have relatively few snow storms, kids and adults alike cannot wait to get out in the snow to make snowmen, slide down hills or brave the freeways.  I do not like cold feet, stinging eyes, skidding or falling down.  I'll skip those pleasures, thanks. But what if I run out of groceries?

I will also skip swimming in the lakes, hiking in the woods or golfing on the links.  I found out about golf in the summer in Texas one August many years ago.  As a young wife of an avid golfer, I felt duty bound to learn the sport.  I was fitted with clubs, cleated shoes and my own single glove.  Off we went, for a fun day.  And I was miserable.  It only took me one day to give up the sport, and embarrassed about the waste.  This houseplant just couldn't do it.  Knowing I am un-athletic, why did I even try?

I am left with  relatively short and perfectly beautiful spring and fall seasons.  And Texas has many beautiful or interesting outdoor places, including at my own house.How can I change old habits so that I don't skip those good outside experiences?

Of late, however, I find myself occasionally outside in the hot sunshine for a bit of Vitamin D, to go with my calcium, to go with my mild osteoporosis.  And my skin gets freckles, just like when I was a kid.  Or they age spots?

Maybe there is yet hope for me.

-- Post date 8/2/10 by *Carol Gee,*

Author of:  *Southwest Postings <http://carolgee1southwest.posterous.com/>*, a political
blog.  Member of *Twitter* <http://twitter.com/GeeCarol>*,* a social network

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Going paperless

(Illustration: Free Images)

Relying on having access to only digital archival information necessitates adopting a very different mindset for me.  I have been used to having the information I need stored in my file cabinets.  Yes, I have more than one, even though I am retired.  Or it is in a set of office sorting trays, or a cardboard file box, or even in a stack. There are several advantages for me to go digital. Plagued by procrastination, I seem to be much more motivated to keep my digital files cleaned out and organized so that my computer runs faster.  I also love the magic of the "search" box.  I prefer typing and editing on a computer keyboard (using ScribeFire in the Firefox browser), to composing on paper.  I do not know how I got along before I discovered cloud computing on Evernote.  My computer is even preferable for simple notes and scribbles, signified by my reliance on a nifty little application called Note Mania.  Therefore, the trick for me has been to have fun and useful tools - applications - that work better for me than the old way of writing.  But writing is not the only thing associated with retaining information.  Reading is equally important.

Giving up the local newspaper means we will not have the paper delivered to our front porch every morning.  We will not read today's headlines, articles of local interest, wedding announcements, or obituaries.  The files I am going through these days include lots of old newspaper clippings  associated with my history.  And I cannot throw some of them away.  They had value then and they have value now. How could we discard the obituaries of our forebearers?  The reason is emotional attachment, which is the core driver of hoarding, by the way.  As with preferring hardback books to reading lengthy pieces online, I still prefer reading the paper form of our local news organ.  But we cannot afford it any more.  So I get all my news from television or online like everyone else.  And I will have to figure out something else to use for mailing packing material, for protecting the floor when we paint the walls, for training the puppy or for lining the birdcage.  There are definitely some ways we cannot go paperless.  More importantly, I am fully aware that news organization reporters (predominantly print journalism) are responsible for gathering and publishing the original news items to which we bloggers so casually link.

Trashing old paper files signifies literally not being able to get your hands on a piece of information you thought important enough to save at some time in the past.  My question is always, "What if I need (or want) this in the future. I am a keeper of information, not someone who would qualify as a hoarder, though some might disagree.  And I love to read from original materials.  It is that emotional attachment thing again.  What can compare, for example, to the original halting letters and spacing of my granddaughter's first grade penmanship blue book?  She is now well into her 20's and long past blue books.  What could be more precious than a mushy yellowed 1955 telegram from my boyfriend, now my husband of 54 years?  You can begin to see my problem.  But I am making progress.  I now know that I neither need nor want 1986 United Way training handouts on how to be a manager.  I have no regrets at being retired from that kind of activity.  And those old handouts would not tell me how to manage our Corgi dog who wants to run the household.  They are now dog-eared and faded copies that should go into the recycling bin.  Recycling, by the way, has helped me more easily make trash.  Stuff is not "wasted," another of my mental barriers to going paperless.

Forgoing extra copies implies the risk of losing the original document. The rule is that if the documentation is easily available elsewhere, do not keep the original or even a copy. I must remind myself that not every piece of paper is a valuable document.  Throwing the extras away gains valuable storage space for those essential originals the IRS wants us to keep for a time, or those identity documents that mark for your heirs your passage through this life. Yes, I am at the legacy stage of life, age 73.  I have provided my fair share of original recipes for those family or local club cookbooks.  My old scribbled pencil copy can go away.  The cookbooks are now all digitized, even if they show up in spiral notebook or paperback form.  I can always order another one, such as the Junior League club cookbooks that I collected as travel souvenirs for many years.

Getting off mailing lists indicates that I could miss out on potentially important information from outside sources.  It also means accumulating less paper to throw away.  Remember the advent of the lists offering to help remove your name from junk mail lists bought and sold for the purpose.  I did that but the effort must be maintained.  Rarely is it now that merchandise is not available online.  I do still enjoy beautiful slick catalogs.  However, they are rarely free. The thrill associated with the arrival of the Sears or "Monkey Ward" catalog goes back to living in the country in Wyoming as a child and looking forward to the free Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog coming in the mail in November. These days the mailing lists from which I remove myself are those unending press releases that all proliffic bloggers receive.  Even when I am trying to live paperless, I still get junk Email I must handle/delete.  Spam filters do not work when mailers acquire your name legitimately.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

When Mondays get off to a bad start, reboot.

Bunches of us have been bummed in recent weeks.  BP ruined our Gulf of Mexico.  Relative and friends have been having worrying troubles.  At home, the one dish meal burns when the heat source is too high and dust bunnies are peeping out from under the bed.  One appliance or another goes on the fritz.  Out home temperature is too hot or too cold.  We run out of milk and lose one of our sneakers.

Let me tell you my Monday story, only because it has suddenly become a Good Monday tale of triumph at the keyboard. Such hyperbole is in order because I am an occasionally technology-challenged blogger.  This morning I awoke early, got on the computer and one of my favorite applications would not open.  Which one is not important.

I depend on my favorite applications to work as I have configured them.  They are to remember their places, mere tools at my disposal, not entities with their own agendas that waste my writing time.

When I became stymied I first did my magical thinking bit, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Nothing.  Going online to the home page of the application's website, I explored the technical support section, hoping to find an already prepared simple answer.  Nothing.  Then I downloaded the application and tried to reinstall it. Nothing.  "You already have this updated version installed," it said.  Reading the latest posts in the users forum, I did not find another soul with my same problem.  Nothing there.

Well, you're up against it I told myself.  The only thing left to do was to send an Email that would languish for days in some far off boiler room, leaving me hanging and frustrated.

Dear Sir:  Help, help.  I love your application.  It is my favorite, I promise.  I just can't get it to open.  Here's the sequence of what has happened over the past few days and what I have done so far.  Etc., etc.  SEND.

And wonder of wonders, I got an immediate response, signed with someone's name.  I was told to uninstall the offending application,  download a fresh one, reinstall it, reboot and start over.  Does that mean I will loose all the work I have done in the past using this app?  I was afraid that would happen.  I reminded myself that I probably had no choice in the matter.  Take the chance, I told myself, which I did.

Voila! Ureka! It worked, after a bit of balkiness.  All my old stuff was still there, as if by magic.  What a relief.  Thank you, thank you.

As I think about it I realize that my problem was probably a standard complaint.  It was perhaps so standard that I received an automated response.  Or perhaps the person at the help desk was very quick to reply to my entreaty.  It does not matter.  It worked and I am back in business.

I was able to make a good Monday out of a really bad Monday start.  Hope the same good fortune happens to everyone who is in the midst of a shaky start.

Posted via web from Make Good Mondays
 

[Post date: 5/24/10]

Technorati tags: technology blogging
 
My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My news and political blog is South by Southwest. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.

Regarding a journal.

For as long as I could read or write I have been keeping a journal.  When I was a young child I called it writing to "Dear Diary." Now I use the computer or a beautifully decorative small book with plain paper pages.  In all cases I pay attention to giving it good quality for when I reread it.  My words matter and I should honor myself by making the writing the best I can. 

What constitutes "quality" in a hand written journal?  In my opinion, one could look at the journal, the object itself.  It should have a pleasing decorative cover and good quality paper.  It should be dated at the very front with what period is covered.  Each individual entry should be dated, and often I note the time of the day, also.  I use a pen rather than a pencil, as not erasing discourages too much self-editing.

My computer journal is also beautiful.  I carefully designed a private blog hosted by Blogger.  In honor of my quilter-mom, the background is a beautifully pieced quilt.  I use tags and, often, images as illustrations.  And I have a little piece of html "boilerplate" for each post that has helped my journal writing a great deal: 

• My feeling is --
• Biggest thing of the day --
• Contacts --
• Gratitudes --

Beginning with writing honestly about feelings is one reason that regular writing in my journal is so very therapeutic.  Noting the biggest thing of the day is a way of looking at my priorities.  Contacts-- helps me keep track of the most meaningful communications I had with other people.  Noting that for which I am grateful helps me keep my feet on the ground and my spirit uplifted. 

If you never reread your journal entries you will miss out on several unexpected psychological benefits.  You will not be able to gain the perspective that, "My, I have come a long ways since then."  You would not be able to give yourself credit for honesty, or perseverance or courage.  Nor would you be able to say to yourself with a grin, "Now, that was dumb," and forgive yourself.  This is what I mean about the therapeutic benefit of keeping journals.

I began keeping a journal when I was ten.  My first diary was given to me for Christmas, according to its front inscription, by my younger brother, N. I was 10 years old and in the fourth grade, he was almost 7, our sister D. was 5½, and our baby sister G. was just under two months.  The first two entries follow [brackets enclose my adult explanations to you the reader]:

1 - On Jan. 1, 1947:

[The first entry talks about what “us kids” played that New Year’s day]. N. and I "played house," I cleaned out N’s closet, and “found 3 old dresses, and I gave one of them to D., “and G. was our girl” [child].

2 – [My next diary entry reports that] “we went for a walk up in the rocks. Mama and G. went too. Mama and I went over to [her dear friend] J’s to see how she was.  

My first messages to "Dear Diary," clearly qualify as actual journal entries in that small black book from the Dime Store.  As I reread what I wrote in pencil in careful longhand, I now know that "playing house" was the biggest thing of the first day about which I wrote.  Going all together for a walk to a special place,  and going visiting were the biggest events noted in the second entry.  I also recorded my contacts on both days -- my siblings, and my mom and her dearest friend.  Back then I had not yet learned to regularly record my feelings or voice gratitudes.  But I still remember the warm feelings that going together for a walk in the country engendered in me.

Connecting times long ago with those of the present is one of the benefits of long term journal writing.  We begin to understand patterns and intuit continuity as the years are recorded.  I remember well, for example, the pleasure in a visit my sister and I made in recent years to another of my mother's oldest and dearest friends.  I learned how to be a friend from watching my mother do it so well, and for that I now have gratitude.  And I am grateful for my free weekend cell phone minutes that allowed my to have a lovely long distance visit with my dear brother, N.

In conclusion, you must know by now that I have high regard for the practice of journaling.  Whether you intend for anyone ever to read yours or not, it is never to late to start by saying on paper,
Dear Diary:


Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.
Technorati tags: journal writing

Killer Apps - Pros and Cons

People who have computers and spend time surfing the web develop a favorite set of applications to which we happily turn.  Today's post is about some of my old favorites among "killer apps," applications that run well, effectively do what we need to do, are beautifully designed and that are user friendly.  For me it also means they are all free. . . as well as mostly "bug free."  If you subscribe to the C Net newsletter, I have found that whatever apps they recommend are safe to download.

Browser - Mozilla Firefox***** features a stable and robust platform, with tons of add-ons for easy customization. I have added a bookmarks toolbar, as well as the other standards.

Email - My ATT.NET**** is powered by Yahoo! I have separate addresses for: 1) friends and family,  2) general web contacts,   and 3) social network contacts.   I also use Gmail** for regular newsletters and saved articles.

Pictures on the web - Yahoo! hosts my Flickr pics**** my web albums are hosted by Google's Picasa***.

Search - Google***** just cannot be beaten.  A healthy percentage of my readers find my blog posts as a result of Google searches.

Social Media -  FaceBook**** connects me to personal friends and family, as well as web friends.  HootSuite**** organizes the lists of people and sources I follow on Twitter***** for quick and easy news headline gathering, status updates,  or well-written views.  Any included links will get me to the full story. 


Group blogs - RedGage*** pays money for all kinds of content from contributors, , but it can be a bit "clunky" at times.  The blog TPM Cafe***** attracts some of the brightest and most interesting thinkers on the web to its fascinating posts and comment threads.

Blogging hosts -  Blogger**** is my primary blogging "home" where I post regularly to South by Southwest (political), and Making Good Mondays (personal/creative).  Posterous***** and Amplify*** are quicker and easier to use, and they "broadcast" to any of my other sites I wish to specify#.

Aggregator - Bloglines**** is my favorite gatherer of feeds from a wide variety of websites.  I sort them into categories for reading or saving.  It is also very quick and easy to mail articles to my Gmail address for use in blogs, or just to read later.  I have used it for many years, and am thus habituated to it.

Organizers - Digsby**** loads when I first boot up, having collected all my IMs and unread Emails for scanning, reading, deleting, etc.  Evernote***** is a wonderful and powerful host site for my notebook collections of info to keep from my hard drive, archived blogposts, my daily journal, to-do lists, etc.  And Note Mania** is a great little organizer and sticky-note app that I just recently discovered.  Be careful of the RSS feed tool, however, as it might just shower you with little link notes.

Utilities -WinUtilities**** is an excellent maintenance tool for my computer, though its defragmenter is pretty slow.

DSL Modem - ATandT  Motorola**** is reasonably priced, easily installed, and with good support service.




#My Other Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: technology internet blogging

Five years of blogging today --

Celebrating "blogiversaries"  is a tradition in the blogosphere.  This is the fifth year I have been posting at South by Southwest, a blog about politics and government.  The areas of focus were citizen activism, civil liberties, Congress, the Middle East and the space program.  I also devoted a lot of page space to the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  I worried that the previous administration did not adhere to the rule of law.  And I have worried that the current administration was too quick to adopt some of the more questionable national security policies of their predecessors.  Overall, however I am a happy citizen these days.

Posting  at several blog sites -- I came to writing regularly on my own and others' web pages.  I began to expand first with a more personal and creative site called Making Good Mondays, as well as a round-up site called Behind the Links.  More recently I joined a couple of social networking sites, Facebook-(private) and Twitter.  Each venue had distinct advantages.  When I felt the need for a piece of nonpolitical writing, I turned to MGM.  And I came to the practice of posting to BTL the interesting links my readers who became blog buddies sent me via Email.  At present I am drawn to the social nature of Facebook.  I keep up with personal friends and family as well as friends and acquaintances I made on the internet.  Twitter turns out to be the perfect way to do a quick scan of the very latest news, as well as read some of my favorite writers who have mastered the 140 character format.

Joining blog communities -- For several years I cross-posted my original political pieces at several "big" and 'little' group websites.  The blogging communities I joined include Daily Kos, Texas Kaos, TPM Cafe, The Reaction, Sirens Chronicles, Red Gage and Political Voices of Women. Like most other people in the blogosphere, I came to favor each group for different reasons.  Kos and TPM  are cutting edge, Texas Kaos is more local.  Reaction writers are among the best progressive voices; Sirens were wonderfully edgy and occasionally outrageous.  Red Gage is a friendly community where contributors earn money for the work they post.  Political Voices of Women spans the ideological spectrum.  These days I have stopped posting on most of the group sites.  It became too time consuming. I also felt a little burned out, which made me question the caliber of my writing for these high quality group sites.

My posting frequency has changed over the years, expanding and now contracting.  During the early years, there was no lack of issues about which I was passionate.  You see, I had a discernible opponent.  I am a progressive Democrat and President George W. Bush provided me with many things about which I could rant.  I did not know I was ranting at the time because I was a "newbie."  I just knew something was wrong and that I could speak out.  And I did, almost every day.  My goal, however,  was to try to balance criticism with positive recognition, though I have not always kept that balance equal.  Since President Obama was elected and Democrats became the majorities in both houses of congress, I am much less critical of those in charge.  And somehow I have not felt as driven to write as in the past.

Five years of rather regular writing has been a wonderful challenge, which I have not always met as I would have liked.  I have often felt the pressure to produce -- something very good or something to meet a deadline.  That is possibly a recipe for burnout.  However, the writing members of these communities were unfailingly supportive, accepting and intellectually stimulating.  I am sure I have gained more than I gave at each site.  Now I am about assessing where I am and what I want to do in my writing future.  I do know for sure that I will be around.  Stay tuned.

[Post date - 3/29/10]

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.
Technorati tags: blogging news blogs writing

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Just start writing . . .

. . . the words might make sense.  And they might not.

This is the thing from which comes spring fever, that  thing that makes me long for warm sunshine on my forehead.  It makes me cold to the bone.  It still hides the life about to emerge as another season rolls around.


Starting to write itself is a little poem to enhance the image,



"Words plus image equal knowing"

My thoughts are unformed, sensory drifts of misty illusory impressions.
To plow through without absorbing the chill leaves out the essence of winter.
My memories come from long ago and far away, a skiff of stuff, my confession.
To grow up with long winters leaves one always wishing for next spring, a hint
of warmth, at least.  But that means missing out on one of life's central lessons:
Thoughts of spring, ever elusive, crowd out the now, one's true enjoyment.

Copyright by Carol Gee
March10, 2010



Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.
Technorati tags: writing

Having a handy husband

When the fence fell down, my very talented husband was able to fix it with what he called "stand-offs." He set another post near the failed one, hooked them together and encased the two in new palings. It works like a charm and adds interest to the walk leading to our postage-stamp back yard.

It is handy to have a "handy" husband. Recently we collaborated. He, the worker-bee and I, the designer, decorated the stand-offs with antique iron barrel rings flanking each post. They were re-purposed after our half-whiskey barrels (for "annual color" posies) fell apart.

This is how we do things after fifty-plus years of marriage. He's always been handy and I have always had a flair for decorating with re-purposed items.

Today he is breaking out, however. He's going to Walmart to buy the bed linen set on sale for a ridiculously low price. We just had a class on choosing colors and style to match the master bedroom's existing theme. He's so excited to have been promoted from "handy" to decorator.

He will do just fine. It is never too late to move up in the world.
He survived my joining the women's movement in the 60s and 70s. And we are both surviving retirement together.
Y'all have a good day, too.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

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Filling an empty blogging bucket

It begins with reality -- Much of the following was news to me, though you may be ahead and already know these things. I found out because I have spent the morning trying to break out of a non-creative box which leaves me without inspiration to write.

Dry spells -- Others have said the same thing and I had been reading about the decline of political blogging. I had been having the feeling that my blogging stats are down and I wondered it it were just me. I knew my Site Meter statistics had been down since June. So I checked at Technorati. In addition to my stats, which had changed, I found out that Technorati.com is going to be completely rebuilt very soon.

Breaking out of boring -- So I will save some time towards more creativity by temporarily omitting the Technorati tags I have been using at the ends of posts. While I was there I checked the Too 100 list to see whether there were good writers whose work I was missing, who could be inspiring me again.

Reading the best -- Using the list, I rejuvenated my Google reader via its Power Readers index. I began with The Strange Death of Liberal America (see "the decline of political blogging" above); and "44" at the Washington Post. This article on the hot New Jersey race shows why "FiveThirtyEight" became another of my feeds. He is an absolute whiz at predicting outcomes.

A picture is worth 1000 words -- I then subscribed to Andrew Sullivan, who had linked to The Big Picture (featuring a fabulous photo spread on Afghanistan). Much of my random surfing focused on imagery, Time Magazine's pictures of the week, for example. I concluded with Rachel Sussman's groundbreaking portfolio of The Oldest Living Things in the World.

Is social media on the web to blame for my empty bucket? Possibly, though I regularly cull my list of those I follow on Twitter. I want nothing inane. Tweets like the following example keep me involved with material that seems substantial. Rachel Maddow: "Read the godawful news of 8 US troops just killed in Afghanistan immediately before going on set for MTP this morning." My FaceBook account includes only people I have invited, plus it remains private. They are relatives, in-person friends and blogfriends. No empty bucket there.

At the end of the day -- This is what I have learned, or relearned. Creativity is about breaking the rules. The amount of political blogging has actually declined, probably for natural reasons. Regular and vigorous weeding out of one's surfing or feed-reading material is essential. Tomorrow I plan to go through my regular Email newsletters unsubscribing to several that are not useful or interesting. Imagery is an essential break from a words only regimen. I works on a different part of the brain. And social media is worthwhile for its connectivity, something else needed for an empty bucket.

(Image by Wordle.net)

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Geek or no?

"Killer Apps" available on my computer seem to be multiplying exponentially. Is my use of the phrase "killer apps" now outdated? If so what is the correct new one? When I find an application that seems safe and interesting I will sometimes download it, only to remove it shortly thereafter. Does this disqualify my "geekdom?"

Here are a few applications that have proven to be keepers. Posterous is a web hosting site that is unusually fascinating. People simply post via Emails. And a great feature is their distribution service to my other websites and my social networking sites. Their Posterous Bookmarklet is a dynamite tool, an amazingly quick and fun way to post on single subjects. TweetDeck is one way to keep up with Twitter and Facebook. It is powerful, freestanding and easy to use. Digsby is a way to keep up with Twitter, FaceBook and several Email accounts, all at the same time. It takes a lot of memory and can get clunky pretty easily, ho. But it is a fantastic way to keep up with tweets. It also will handle Instant Messaging, which I do not do. Does that disqualify me as a real geek?

My time on the computer also seems to be increasing. I have been spending a lot of time deleting unnecessary stuff from my hard drive and on my websites. It makes me crazy when my computer hangs up or gets what I call clunky. I am writing and posting at more locations . . . more but not necessarily more effectively, I fear. And I am feeling more tired. All this surely qualifies as a geek thing.

References: Mozilla Firefox is my standard browser, though Google Chrome is much faster and simpler. I use Google and Yahoo! for Email. I maintain blogs at Blogger and Word Press. Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites. I earn money by posting at RedGage. I use AVG AntiVirus Free 8.5 and Malwarebytes AntiMalware, also free. LastPass is an online password manager and form filler that saves me a lot of time and provides more security.

Technorati tags: computer internet blogging applications

Capture of the Landscape, a reprise

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell

(Date of the original post - 8/6/06)

Capture of the Landscape

A landscape stays still so that the artist can capture it.

A drawing reduces the landscape to its simplest fit.

Photographers are not forced to catch human motion.

Painters capture multiple dimensions - landscape and emotion.

Sculptors carve out the ups and downs of valleys, hills and fiords.

Writers describe landscapes with evocative mental image words.

Memory plays tricks with capturing images of landscapes.

Childhood places may be distorted as clarity escapes.

The brain locates its storage for memory of place,

Separate from where we go for memory of face.

But we remember the most beautiful places we have ever seen,

Truly as gorgeous vistas with a look that is peaceful and serene.

Tags: art poetry landscape memory

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Landscapes I love, a reprise

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell

(Original date of this post - 3/10/06)

The Landscape Upon Which I Play

How blessed I am to have seen some of the earth's most beautiful places.

• The Tetons in Wyoming-Majestic mountains rising out of a rather flat grassy landscape. Newer than most ranges, they are the climbers' goal.
  
• The Grand Canyon in Arizona-Awesome chasm, myriad colors, almost unbelievable before your eyes. Carved by the Rio Grande way below.
  
• Northern California's seacoast-The blue Pacific plays against the rocky cliffs. Painters try to capture it. But you must see it to believe it.
  
• New England in the fall-Leaf colors so bright they make your eyes smile. Celebrate the end of the growing season with rustling sounds.
  
• Cozumel in Mexico-Ancient ones built a holy place by the quiet Caribbean. Stone upon stone, with paths worn down by peasant feet.
  
• The Capitol in Washington D.C.-Honor to our founders. Center for governance. Familiar architecture forms the People's Place to Meet.

Travel tourists Placeblog

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Mountain majesty, a reprise

(Original date of this post - 12/24/05)

There are major sensual advantages to growing up near mountains. Your eyes always have a beautiful horizon upon which to rest themselves. Chinook winds, rolling down from the mountains, can bring unexpected thaws of snow.

People, heated by too much summer, can go to the mountains for a cool evening and a warm fire. Tall pines make music as breezes pass through thick branches. The smell of pines remains imprinted years after the experience, only to be recalled by a beach side Christmas tree.

A mountain picnic on a checkered cloth never again will taste quite the same. Mountain thunderstorms boom with a grandeur unmatched on flatter terrain. Granite boulders feel cool to the touch on a summer day, because they spent the night in at cooler altitude. These memories stored by my senses are very precious to me.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Technorati tags: landscape mountains memoir

Dry Country - a reprise

The original date of this post was 1/25/06.

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell

Living With Drought

Skin cracks. Soil cracks. Dry maize crackles in the hot breeze. City folks and country folks alike talk about the weather. People watch the heavens or TV weather and opine about the future. We remember how much behind we are in the average amount of rainfall.

City folks wonder about water rationing, water rates and what to do about the yard. Country folks wonder about the livestock, the loans and the crops. Leaders wonder about available water resources because they can do nothing to make the rains come.

When rain comes folks stand outside and look towards the sky. We wonder how long the storm will last and when another will come. We remark about how good the air smells, and how the plants drink in the dropletts. Amounts need to be reported, dogs need umbrella service, kids need to play in the mud, cars need antilock brakes, and schedules need to be changed.

In the meantime we wait and look up.

Tags: drought weather rainfall

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Song of the Windmill, a reprise

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell

(The date of the original post was 3/14/06)

Photo:souldestine-at-cox.net

Cool, water. Cool, clear water. Water. .

remember the song sung by "The Sons of the Pioneers" so long ago.

Not a cowboy poet, I, but one who loves them. I write the

Song of the Windmill.

Sing the song of the windmill's whirring in the breeze.

Listen to the cattle stirring as they chew and graze

on thin grass blades. The herd's not long for this place,

Cause the drought is driving ranchers to leave at a pace

that surprises everyone. The empty tank is commonplace.

"Maybe next year," the neighbors tell each other to save face.

AeroMotor is the name up there. There are other makers too.

A good windmill will outlast a house, barn, and an old buckaroo.

The bad years go by. Then the good years bring in a new crew to

Try again. More cows graze now as the pasture green and new

Makes rich milk, and grows fat calves who rest in the lean-to.

"Next year," the neighbors tell each other, "the drought is through."

Copyright by Carol Gee, March 14, 2006

Tags: ranching poetry rainfall

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites.

Visual musings: a fresh start

One of the categories into which I sort the Making Good Mondays posts is called Visual Musings. Only 7 posts made it there in 2009. I have gotten away from that format, and my creative writing has suffered as a result. Today's post is an experiment in going back to my old format:

1. Pick a picture to which you have an emotional connection or reaction
2. Figure out what that is about in your mind.
3. Write down those thoughts, either directly or obliquely as a post.
4. Edit the post so that head and heart match, making authenticity your goal.

For today my visual musing is about this image:

Point Lobos, south of San Francisco, California.
I started as a landlubber, born and raised on the sagebrush western prairies, with mountains at my horizon. The water-ific abundance of the Pacific ocean could not be more different than scarce-water Wyoming. However, some things are the same.
The blue Pacific mimics the brilliant blue of Wyoming skies. Also there are mountains at the horizon in this image. The rocky coast is very akin to the Rocky Mountains, my original horizon markers.
It is also about the rocks. I grew up with a rocky outcrop not far from our place in the country. Though we had to watch out for rattle snakes, many of my fondest memories are about going to play "at the rocks." They represented a castle, a fortress, a house, an adventure. And today I take pictures of rocks, collect rocks - both tumbled and rough, and decorate my landscape with rocks. Here is a 2007 picture taken in Wyoming. It is called "Granite Fragments."

It is a picture that gathered several comments when I posted it on Red Gage. In fact shared photographs play a big part in the fun of social networking on the Internet. I have collections on Flikr, FaceBook, Picassa and several slide shows on most of my web pages.
Keeping these sites maintained takes a bit of work, but the results are worth the effort. It is a great way to share photos with the public and with friends and family. . .
. . . and to go back and enjoy them yourself.

Blogs: My news and political blog is at South by Southwest. My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for my websites. See "Behind the Links." for further info.
Technorati tags: internet images creativity