No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 14, 2016

Today is my Father’s birthday as well as Prince Charles and Paul McGann.

I am proud of my father and his achievements both sung and unsung. I am proud to call him Dad and I know that I am a very lucky person that I get along as well as I do with him.

Caroline adores her Pop-pop as she calls him. She has told her teachers about her grandparents who are both college Professors. My dad sends me things that he thinks will be of interest to me and to her. He knows his grandchildren rather well and knows their interests.

My father always took an interest in what I was interested in. He would even try to watch TV shows that I adored. Some he liked but most of them were not his cup of tea and he would tell me that but didn’t discourage me from watching the things that I loved.

And that is a big thing about my dad, unless it was a really stupid idea, he never discourage me from trying something. He let me try my hand at all kinds of things and this allowed me to become the person I am today. He did that with all his children even if he wasn’t sure that it was the best of ideas or that he was worried that we couldn’t do what we want well.

I learned the scientific method from my father and how to apply it to the real world and real world problems which has served me well over the years. He taught me how to break things down into steps and work my way to the finished product.

He was always willing to show us how he did something. We watching him build things and make cloisonné pins and other crafty things. We watched him draw and doodle. If we had questions, he would answer.

If we had questions on just about anything he would answer or would send us to where we could get the information. I think he loved our thirst for knowledge. He did his best to make sure we had a good education and an understanding of not just our country but the world around us.

Happy Birthday Da. Hope the day is good to you.

I love you more than I can express.

I am so very grateful that I grew up with my father as my father.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 10, 2016

I still watch South Park and this year I have to say that they are really hitting it on all cylinders. They have given us ways to look at trolling that makes the whole troll thing make sense. There are two kinds of trolls, those who do it for effect or to affect the world to their beliefs and/or opinions and those that do it because it is, to them, funny. And the Internet, with its anonymity, can let people speak in their nasty inner voice that they would never say in public or to the person they are trolling.

The election part of the show was over the top and hard to watch at times.

But they touched on something that I had noticed and not noticed at the same time since it has become such a part of the Internet and that is announcing that you are leaving and deleting all your social media platforms. They called it social media suicide which seems harsh but considering some of the things I have seen is not too far off.

Of course when it is South Park, things are taken to extreme and if you drop suddenly off of social media, the cops come visit your family and friends to make sure it was your finger pushing the button rather than someone doing it for you which is considered social media murder.

Cartman was ‘murder’ by his friends by having all his electronics smashed and his passwords changed. The police went to talk to the boys who did it because they wanted to make sure that Cartman had done this thing. Now Cartman is still walking around South Park with his girlfriend who is someone else who was forced off of social media because she almost figured out who the main troll in South Park is. Yes, this season is convoluted.

Apparently if you don’t have a social media presence in South Park you are basically a ghost.

I have found that if I don’t give a heads up that I am going off the ‘net for a bit, I get messages and emails checking in to make sure I am all right. The longer I stay away, the more people try to find out what happened to me. In some ways it does make me happy that people are concerned enough to make sure I am OK. Since Peter’s stroke, I think people have been a little more aware of when Peter and I vanish for a bit and assume that something dire has happened.

So here it is, I am stepping away for a bit to deal with some issues here in my world.

Peter is fine except he is deal with a hip issue which is making it hard for him to walk which he has a doctor’s appointment for on Friday. He has a convention in Jacksonville this weekend.

Caroline was terrified to go to school yesterday because she was a very vocal Hillary supporter in her school and she had been debating with other kids about the election. She was worried she was going to be assaulted. And that does not sit well with me since this is where her mind went. As it stands there were a few snarky remarks but nothing any worse than before. One of the boys she has been arguing with the most came and shook her hand and said that her candidate had fought a good fight and he respect her for that. So she is feeling more comfortable and safe at school, which is what I needed to hear.

I am finally able to do my full routine at the gym and not have to reduce sets or weight to compensate for my knee which seems to be pretty much fine now. I have things that I need to get done that would be easier to get done if I step away from the Internet and focused on them. Right now I have told my friends that I have their backs and if they need me, they know where to find me or how to find me. I don’t exactly vanish all together. I do plan to keep crafty Tuesday going so I will be blogging on Tuesday at least. As to the rest of it, well I think I will post when I have something I want/need to say or we have an adventure I want to tell y’all about. But I need some time for some self care which is the best thing I can do for me and for my family and friends. So, to paraphrase Sherlock “This blog entry..it’s…um… my note. It’s what people do, don’t they? Leave a note?”

I am grateful that Caroline feels safe at school.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 4, 2016

I don’t sleep well or rather it seems to be all or nothing or little for me.

A good night sleep for me these days is waking up a number of times and being able to get right back to sleep rather than being awake for an hour or two before going back to sleep for a bit.

I do dream rather lucidly and remember chunks of them.

Last night was a good night once I finally got to sleep which was rather late but only a couple of times did I wake up.

I am very lucky that Caroline is old enough that she can get herself up and off to school without me overseeing her.

The past couple of days haven’t been the best for sleep so last night was nice.

I woke up and do not feel like I am in a brain fog which will allow me get things done.

So that’s what I am going to do today.

I am grateful for the sleep I get.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 3, 2016

Congratulations to the Cubs. Hard fought and a 108 years in the making. The game was probably one of the best games even in the world series. I know I have a lot of happy friends this morning. Caroline was cheering for them because she has been to Wrigley Field to watch a Cubs game and was treated very well by the staff and the fans.

Happy Birthday to Jeremy Brett who is still my gold standard for Sherlock Holmes.

After some discussion on various places on the Internet yesterday I feel I need to give a warning about Doctor Strange. Over all most of the violence is of a fantastical nature but the car crash is very graphic and in slow motion. I hope it does get people to think about texting and driving because the accident is his fault because he is driving while distracted. The accident made me wince watching it. I had another friend who had a panic attack while watching that scene but he had been in a very bad car accident in a sports car a number of years ago (it was the other driver’s fault). So just a heads up for those who might need to know.

Sorting out today. I have bowling. Caroline has a flute lesson. I am thinking of putting away the graveyard for the season. I am going to leave the light up until I put up the holiday lights later this month like the week of Thanksgiving. I saw my first Christmas tree up at the local mall along with the decorations going up. They are building the Santa house and the rest.

What are we going to do about the war on Thanksgiving? Also Black Friday is a specific day so what the heck is going on with all the ‘early’ Black Friday sales?

I am going to be looking at the stores that are making their employees work Thanksgiving night and not shop there. The list of places that are declaring that they are not going to be open is getting longer so this is getting easier to do.

The rest of November is pretty quiet for us as compared to the rest of the year. I do have to get ready for Caroline’s Birthday Party this year. We have come up with a theme for it and now need to figure out how we are going to execute it.

Need to get started on the day. Make a list and check it twice.

I am grateful for clever ideas that make us giggle.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 1, 2016

We saw an amazing movie this year entitled Kubo and the two strings that is well worth your time if you haven’t seen it. It was an original story made to seem like a Japanese folk tale. A big part of it was origami and the creation of things with the power of paper.

Two of the villains of the piece are know as the Sisters. They are searching for Kubo for their father. Their design caught Caroline’s attention and after seeing the film she asked if it would be possible to make the animated character into a Halloween costume.

This is a maquette of one of the sisters from Kubo

(for the VI; This is a statue of the Sister. She has a black hat, purple pants, armor, a sword in her left hand and a pipe in her right, along with a very intricate cape>

This is what she wanted. We discussed for a while how we wanted to do this and decided that we wanted to make as much as we could out of paper to keep the origami theme going in the costume.

The finished costume

(for the VI: This is Caroline in her costume. She had on a very tall hat with the crest at the top. She is wearing a mask, armor, and a cape made of paper feathers)

(more…)

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