ISP Blues Rant and Blog surfing Rave

I log on today and poof I found that the isp was not being nice to me... GRRRRRR! Why does life have to be so complicated? Even now the connection is being iffy on me. One of my girlfriends called me today and when I mentioned what was happening she said it is possible that there was a lot of traffic or this or that. PHOOEY. Since I am paying for high speed I want my high speed to be there and on... no excuses. Since I have moved into the desert I have not been happy with the cable or the phone service. But let's here it for the fact that people here need cable ( don't get me started on the digital switchover nonsense that the big corporations have suckered a number of the American public into believing they must have ) or they have no tv.  But there is one cable company for the entire valley. Hmmm, in the good old days that would be called monopoly. The same with the phone. While my cell phone is a different company, the landline here is one company and you have to have that one or you don't get a landline. So their service for all of that can be so so and they don't care as they if you don't go with them that you don't get service in your area. My WebTv was also acting up earlier so there might be some validity to what Angie said. But that doesn't mean I am happy about it. When I want to get online I want to do it right then and there and not hours later. Patience is most definitely not a virtue of mine when it comes to the internet.

On to better subjects. Yesterday I meander around surfing the blogs and found some to add to my list of must look at. Now if I can just stay online long enough to do so.... I clicked on the blog of the day for 2008 as this month and then bookmarked some and added some to follow. Word to wise to bloggers -- make it easy for those of us TDs ( tech dummys ) have a nice little spot where we can click on to follow your blog and you might get folks who can then click on when they are on their own blog. At any rate, I added blogs that looked interesting with a number of different subjects. And in the following days, weeks and months I have gonna have fun wading my way through them. And hopefully some of these fine folk will come and visit me and I might get to know some new friends. The internet has been wonderful for that and I look forward to new addresses for my Christmas card list. :-)  

Analog In Digital World BIG RANT

Ok, as I mentioned in my last post, I am the tech dummy of the universe. Considering I am 60 years old ( when the heck did THAT happen hahaha! ), this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.  When I was a child computers were the stuff of science fiction. I am also artistic and I have found that a lot of artistic folk, especially musicians, are not tech savvy either. So that brings us to this digital thang... Give me my analog! At least give me the opportunity to CHOOSE whether I want analog or digital. Now I realize that there are folks out there that prefer digital and think it is just wunderbar. Well, I am not one of them. I much prefer analog for a couple of reasons. First of all, it sounds better. Analog is warm and it has a nice big fat sound. To my ears ( ears that the late, great Jimi Hendrix respected, just so you will know ) analog is the sound that I hear. I have heard the argument that digital is the truer sound. For whom? Not for me! I am not just talking about the sound I hear when I turn on a record player or a cassette player. I am talking about the sound that I hear when I wake up ( usually in the afternoon because that I am a night owl ). I do not hear birdsong in digital. I hear it in analog. Before the advent of digital, the media went on and on about what a great sound it was and how superior it was to analog it was. Excuse me? What planet were they on? How about the planet called corporate greed? It is the big corporations who have been shoving this pure unadulterated "digital sounds better than analog" nonsense down our ears. No it does not sound better. I remember the first time I heard digital. They were phasing out cassette tapes ( more on my cassette recorder rant for another day. I promise! ) and shoving CDs that were twice as expensive down our ears. Of course all the yuppies out there went to replace their records and cassettes with the new toy on the block. And the big corporations and their paid for media waxed eloquent about how cassettes were no longer selling ( just for the record, no pun intended, they did the same thing when they brought out cassettes and phased out vinyl ) and how CD sales were doing so wonderfully.Of course they did not tell the public that they were no longer putting out cassettes of current artists and so even if people wanted to buy a recording on cassette they could not find them and the CDs were priced twice as much or more. I was dismayed, not only because of the price of the CDs but because they did not sound as good as the cassettes or my old vinyl records. Digital sounds sterile, it sounds brittle, thin and cold. It does not have the nice big fat analog sound, Record producers must agree with me because they record in analog first to get that great sound. And don't even get me started on that digital switch over from analog... ok, get me started on it but that is another rant for another day.

SAC

Oh YES I AM a tech dummy...

I recently had a problem with my internet connection and had to call in the big guns ( my brother Hal, the Macman ) but that was the least of it in the long run. While I HAVe learned to log into my blog and write my wonderful words of wisdom, simple little things such as figuring out some of my email and getting back to certain places or saving websites and then clicking them on and naming my folders... EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!! Somebody take me back in time where typing was mailing a letter and sending it off, typing on a manual typewriter blah blah blah and then well, just things like that. I am soooo not a tech person. I have yet to figure out my VCR and it is obsolete now and there are other items I have that have never been used because I just am NOT MECHANICAL. It boils down to mechanics, electronics and technology. And no, I do not know how to drive. I have mastered the art of turning on the tv and of clicking on channels and even being able to hit mute or the return to the last channel button. Bully for me! And I am very upset about how the stupid manufacturers are phasing out cassette players ( another rant for that on another day ). Because I do know how to click on buttons and turn things on and off and even figured and fiddled with learning some equalizer features... But technology has left me in the dust.. and those who are so arrogant and their attitudes... sheesh! 

The attitude is that one must change with the times but I have a huge problem with that. Why should I change when what worked yesterday ain't broken and I don't really feel it needs to be fixed. It needs to be brought back. The biggest problem with technology ( aside from the crippling price of anything new ) is that those who create it need to learn that lovely principle of "KISS." No, not KISS as in the rock band but KISS as in Keep it simple, stupid. 

I keep telling myself that things will suddenly get better, I will finally unravel the mysteries and learn how to use this durn thing and that life will be good. 

I need to learn to type up and save what I type and be able to then toss it onto a usb thingy and also learn my printer and type up my fantasy stuff longhand.  Then I need to learn how to make little videos of the future star, Snooty Aunt Cynthia, and toss em onto youtube. Then the star of the 60s that never was, Psyche Daul of the Psychedaulics, the band that never was, can have her music created on garage band and that can get tossed onto itunes and youtube. Ah the ambitions of the over the hill ( which is better than under it unless one owns a cave ) spinster with her dreams of glory. Now if I could only use this technology thing that I am soooooo lousy at to help me achieve those dreams rather than thwart them. 

SAC

frantic and offline

Ah for my brother Hal who is the tech smarty to my tech dummy! For some cockamamie reason  my internet was not working on Thursday. Pfft. So I tried it on Friday and no go. Of course by then I am totally freaking out. I call my brother Hal, the Macman and he comes over with his two boys to check out my little Angel ( as I now call my Mac. I was calling this machine Butch but it seems more like an Angel, or at least I hope that it one day will be in the sense of "angel" being an investor in my creative endeavors . He fiddled around with it and HE couldn't get it to work. So he came back today and called Verizon ( who does not do weekends when it comes to service so of course if things go wrong they do so on weekends. I think that is some sort of variant of Murphy's Law ). He talked with them a bit and did some stuff and voila! I am back in the saddle again.. yippie yippie and more yippie. I probably was going to write some wonderful and profound stuff but forgot what it was.. okay, maybe I didn't but that can wait for another posting as this one is to just show my gratitude of being back online. 

The ever humble SAC

Never Say Never

If someone were to ask my friends about what my personality is like they would probably say I was a nice person and some such rot. Or, to quote one of them, they might say I was a cream puff. But how many of them would say that I am ( knowing myself well or so I choose to believe ) defiant? Defiance has helped me wade through this mire known as life. I am ornery and I am cantankerous at times and I think it is a good part of my personality to be so. For all that I am a cream puff, I am a cream puff with an attitude, a marshmallow with claws.. I stop and smell the roses and listen to their thorns roar. 

I am disabled and live on the government's dole and have done so for decades. I was disabled by an assault when I was 22. I spent my time as a homeless person and thanked God for life on a day of hunger and biting cold. That helped me have gratitude regardless of the circumstances I might find myself in. Ok, so that makes me a cream puff but it also makes me defiant in the face of adversity. 

Do I have a rich dream life, a fantasy world where I am one of the rich and famous? Well duh. It keeps me sane. It also inspires me and helps me to create. I have created not one but hundreds of fantasy worlds. And hopefully one day I will profit from them. In the meantime they keep me from being bored. I started writing fantasy when I was in my teens. I had a three hundred page outline ( started at age 15 ) which was accidently lost when I was 18. So after that I abandoned fantasy writing for almost a decade. 

I concentrated on poetry ( starving, as my dad once told me I would ) and dancing. You don't get hired as a dancer if you dance to melodic hard rock and wear clothes but the flame of dance ate me up for 11 years until I gained weight and told myself I was no longer a dancer. Ok, I am still a dancer though weight gain, age and arthritis might mock my love of movement and music. I do not have the fantasy of stages to dance upon as I once did in my youth. That is one fantasy which has bitten the dust because of a reality check  that I made years ago. I had satisfied myself with what I did creatively as a dancer. A former student of Isadora Duncan once approached me in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. She had seen me dance and  she told me I reminded her of her teacher. So what if I was not world famous as a dancer? I had my day. The memories of dancing will stay with me as I grow older. And they are good memories. 

After I was disabled I eventually got on SSI. Within a year I began to start writing fantasy again. It had originally  been to mainly create a world and its history. I could not afford a typewriter or I would buy some old upright behemoth at a yard sale for ten bucks but would not have the money to have it repaired. 

Then in 1985 I was hit by  car while on a bicycle. I was 36. I was thinking of learning to use a word processor at the time and when I went to see about learning it I had PTSD of the car hitting me again. I was injured with neuritis in my left hand ( I am left handed ) and as a result of the injury could no longer type on a manual typewriter without horrible pain. The result of this was a world of frustration and overwhelming depression. One day I was listening to the radio and starting singing along to whatever song was on it ( I don't remember the song even though it impacted my life dramatically ). Voila! That triggered songwriting as singing brought me joy. 

Initially the songwriting was something to get me out of my funk of depression but, like many things creative, it took on a life of its own. In 1989, at the age of 40, I moved to Hollywood, that neon district of Los Angeles, shining bright with stars and limelights, which I hoped might have my name on them at some point. I sang a cappella at open mikes and pleaded for an accompanist that never showed up. Squirrelly young men made passes at me which was annoying rather than complimenting.

 I continued with my fantasy writing ( still in longhand, for the most part ) and scribbled out thousands of songs. From 1985 to 2009 I have written over 9300 songs and some of them ( stroke, stroke --- here is when I pat myself on the back  ) are pretty darn good if I must say so myself and of course I will. Others have told me how good I am. Which is lovely but I am still poor and unknown. 

I was/am poor, disabled, with no transportation, not so young ( ok, downright old in the eyes of the cruel and fickle world ) and not a size zero. But heck, I could make em shut up and give me pin drop silence at a noisy little Irish pub. I could make strangers come up to me and say "Beautiful" about my songs. 

In 1994 I fell on some stairs right after the Northridge quake which triggered the pre-existing condition ( I had convulsions from a twisted neck after the assault in 71 ). I am still spasmodic and have arthritis in not only my upper where the twisted neck pinched a nerve but also in my dancing legs and feet ( left knee, left ankle ). Sometimes I live with nasty pain. It is not always easy for me to get around. I walk with a cane. And riding on buses can trigger the spasms. 

I just turned 60 this last month. My friends and strangers tell me that I look about 45 or even younger. That is nice. I think it is defiance that keeps me young. It is never letting the dreams die that keeps me young. I am 60 years old and I still want to be a rock star. I have over 9000 songs and some of them are really good. I have a beautiful soprano voice and the experience to growl or purr or sing a lullaby. 

I am a late bloomer and a Pollyanna with an attitude. I will never say never. I will continue to have the dream. And one day I hope and I pray that my dream of self reliance, whether it come from my singing or from my writings, will see itself becoming  reality.  In the meantime I will never say never. I will remain defiant. And when ( I refuse to allow "if" into my vocabulary concerning this issue ) my little ship finally comes into the harbor, I will swim out to greet it and sing it a song to guide it safely to shore.

SAC

Changes ( costs an arm and a leg )

I am moving within the month so there is a ton of things I need to get done. And while I am trying to remain calm it is like a calm in the midst of the storm. And then there are the expenses. EEK. The cost of moving, the security deposit, the cost for getting the phone and cable and utilities turned on, all the deposits and service costs for that. YIKES. And then moving and getting settled. When I moved into Hollywood years ago, I paid my security deposit, got my phone turned on and moved in. I didn't have cable because there were a lot of local channels, unlike the cable monopoly here where one has to have cable or satellite tv or they have no tv. My utilities were included but out here I pay electricity ( here ) and will pay gas as well ( once I move ). 

I do have the money for that right now ( thank goodness ) but it does cramp my style as far as the things I feel I NEED. I don't know what all made it to my storage or what might have been stolen by a sticky fingered individual I am not gonna name ( he knows who he is ). So I hope my posts and and pans and baking sheets made the trip. I have moved THREE times ( including this next move ) since September 2007. Prior to that I had moved once in almost 13 years. So I had sunk down roots and it was a rude awakening to move not only once but so many times. I just want to feel settled in again. I want to be in a place where I feel as if I am HOME.  

Hopefully a year from now will see me truly settled after Hollywood and what bit the dust and needs to be replaced or forgotten about. It is the "replacing" part that I dread.  I do want to buy a left handed guitar and see about learning it. But if that is a resolution I break then so be it. And while there is a part of me that wants to do this immediately possibly I could still do this later in the year, depending on my finances and other things going on in my life. I am thinking that I might need to revise my resolutions so that the try to get to the World Con becomes the biggie resolution though it will be a cash drain to get there as opposed to the cost of the guitar. Because the WC is in San Jose and the next few years it is not going to get as close to me. And t would be a wonderful opportunity for networking and meeting editors from different publishing company who I could then show hollyWEIRD to. But we will see what the year brings. 

Then there are the things I want... a new tv ( my old ones are beyond ancient and have antennas but no plugs to hook up a VCR or DVD player ). And I need a decent camera and a camcorder as well. Oh the things I think I need... And then there is a decent double cassette recorder with a built in mic which I CAN NOT FIND. Well, that will be a rant for another time ( I promise ). The essentials will be just to get me moved and settled and sorted out. And then I need to get things together to type up hollyWEIRD and get it copyrighted at the DC money pit ( copyright office ) and also copyright at least another tape of songs. Then watch out world! I will see about getting hollyWEIRD published ( if nothing else I will see about blogging it here in another blog ) and uploading some videos of my songs to youtube. 

This new year is seeing a swarm of activity and change for my life. I am hoping and praying it is a good year and that all of this change will be for the positive. And once I move I might want to take a nap for 6 months or so to recuperate from the last couple of years ( sigh ) but I know that there will be too much that I need to get done. I have been working too hard for decades on what I do creatively so know that rather than relaxing I will want to get back to the writing and the singing as soon as possible after the move. 

I might not get cable hooked up as it is so expensive and the money saved could go towards other things I would like to get. I would miss HGTV and TCM but I can go to the HGTV website and the shows I enjoy on TCM I could order on DVD and end up with a nice little collection for the monthly cost of cable. And I am not satisfied with the cable as some channels I am paying to bleed into others so I can not see them ( especially VH-1 ) and others have disappeared. And the cost is too expensive ( more than my phone ). Even when I complain of the bleeding and loss of channels I pay for nothing is done to correct it. So I am seriously thinking of being without tv for awhile. Choosing between the internet and cable, the net wins hands down. I enjoy watching tv but can live without it.

Next month will see me in a new place and I am looking forward but also dreading the move. Hopefully by this time a month from now ( ok, maybe 2 months from now, as the phone will probably take longer than a few days to be turned on, grrrrrrr!!!! ) will find me sitting back and relaxing in my new apartment with everything turned on and working and my settling in. And hopefully by March I can find myself saving for things I would like or at least looking towards the future and seeing a way to cut corners to do so. 

And here is hoping and praying that I do not move again unless I become self-sufficient and can afford to buy my own house ( hopefully before the prices in the valley go up ). I am not thinking of that now, just of the move to make in less than a month. 

SAC

resolutions 2009

I have learned, in the past, that if one writes out a big old list of New Years resolutions that the vast majority of them, if any of them, will be broken. Last year was a rather dismal year. It had its high points but unfortunately its bigger low points. Which I am not going to go into here as 2008 is over and I am not looking back. I am looking forward. One thing about last year is I don't think I wrote down any resolutions but I did make two of them. I made a resolution not to drink alcohol for a year due to the substance abuse problems of some people I know. I managed to keep that resolution.  And last year was a year of turbulence and angst for me and I could have used a good drink or two upon occasion! This year I will possibly have that drink or two that I denied myself last year but not in front of those people who have drinking problems. It isn't that they need any excuse but seeing me drink might make them feel it is ok for them to drink. I do not have a drinking problem. I am lucky in that if it were drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, they were always something I never felt I had to have. If they were there sometimes I would indulge myself with them ( though not lately ). But I never felt I had to make them the center of my life. 

The other resolution I made last year was to finish my first fantasy book, hollyWEIRD. I did that. Ok, it is in the first draft but I am pleased with it and it is DONE. 

This year will be a little different. I will make four resolutions and then there are the "I am going to try and do this" sort of resolution.  That means I will try and do something but won't promise myself it will get done. It is more if it is supposed to happen it will happen and I will try. But no promises to myself to do it. 

So here are the resolutions: I will move and work towards getting settled. I will buy a left handed guitar and work towards learning to play it so I can accompany myself on it.  That should possibly be a try but it is going to be a resolution. What the heck. I am gonna go for it.  I will type up, print out and copyright hollyWEIRD. I will work towards taking the advice I often give others concerning counting my blessings. I will try and do this even if PMS ( post menopause sucks ) makes me feel angry, depressed or anxious. I will trust Jesus to carry me through the storm of my life and thank God for that biggest blessing of His love and salvation.

Now for the "I will try" sort of resolutions. I will try to make it to the World Con in San Jose in the fall. I will try and write another book. I might even try and put together a poetry book. I will try and get some music of me up on youtube and on itunes if possible. 

That is it for the moment. And as far as prayers, I am not going count them as resolutions. I ask God to bless this year and to use me for His glory. I pray Jesus blesses me according to His will and helps me draw closer to Him. 

Happy New Year and God bless you!

SAC