News from the Great Beyond

Everything That's On My Mind... Obsessions and Questions Edition

Greetings, my fine friends of indubitably discriminating taste.  You are, after all, here to read my blog, and that makes you smarter than the average bear.  Or something...  Well, maybe not.  But thanks for dropping by nonetheless!

Just random things on my mind today, whilst I sit on my afternoon off and do nothing of consequence.  In my defense, I can't do much, I have a kitty sleeping across my left arm.  I do so hate to move the kitty when he's being sweet.

I have mentioned before that I tend to go through phases with my hobbies -- cycles, if you will.  I've just been through a major reading kick, but I've spent less time reading books the last week or two, and more time on my two current time wasters of choice:  Sudoku, and Mafia games.

Other recent time sinks - watching the entire run of Arrested Development on Amazon Instant Video (decided to join Amazon Prime as a trial for now)... and Season 1 of Downton Abbey.  Yes, I missed Arrested Development when it was on the air.   I'm all caught up now.  And Downton Abbey is definitely worth checking out if you haven't, I heard super things about the show, and it lives up to every one of them.  If you can find a way to watch it, I very much recommend it.

I'm also trying to get back to reading more of the blogs that I used to read on a daily basis, but I've lost the habit of checking RSS feeds since Bloglines changed hands and I lost track of my login info.

Recent semi-obsession:  Pinterest. Very useful for keeping track of recipes you want to try, DIY suggestions, craft projects, decorating ideas, etc... with a social network side benefit to allow you to stalk your friends. 

I've been staying up too late the last couple of weeks or so, and not sleeping enough except on my off days... After about 3 years of taking melatonin regularly I ran out of my current supply and decided to see how well I got along without it.  Yeah, not as well as I'd hoped.  I was up all night on Sunday (i.e. after 5 AM Monday), which may be due to drinking half a pot of coffee after lunch, but even without excessive caffeine I've been less able to wind down and call it a night, and decidedly less rested in the morning.  I had to cut my overtime hours on Monday because of the whole zero sleep thing.  I foresee a grocery store run coming up this evening to restock.

Ah, the difficulties of adjusting to a morning person's schedule when you're a definite night person. 

Speaking of things I don't get (see this link for how this connects the dots in my brain), it never ceases to baffle me when people are talking on their cell phone in the restroom at work.  Sure, bring your phone with you and check your voice mail, or text someone if you like.  Nobody else in the bathroom really wants to be forced to listen to your conversation echoing loudly off the tile.  And the person on the other end of the phone doesn't want to hear the toilet flushes and other miscellaneous sounds of restroom usage.  Muting the phone when you're performing your own functions doesn't prevent sound carrying through from everyone else who has the misfortune of being in the room while you're chatting away.  Sheesh.  /end rant

Other things on my mind... Currently in the beginning stages of planning a baby shower for early June with one of my friends (who qualifies as a little sister).  I have web resources and some nebulous ideas swirling about.  Anyone have suggestions on favorite baby shower activities?

I've been tapped as the helper again for our next new hire class starting February 20, so I'll be back to working Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 pm for several weeks.  I had such a great time working with our September class, and while I'll miss my 3-day weekends, the later start time does allow me to sleep an extra hour and still go to the gym, which habit has again fallen by the wayside since I got sick a few weeks ago.  Will have to buy myself a couple of new Kindle books as a bribe to keep me going, as I made a rule that while my paperback to-be-read pile is still towering, I won't let myself use the e-reader at home.  When I have something on the Kindle I'm really interested in, I tend to get on that treadmill much more regularly.  ;)

And, since I've rambled about as much as I can for now, welcome to my new blog theme.  I'm already milling around ideas for the next one.  Feedback always appreciated!

News from the Great Beyond Time Capsule

For those of you who have been following my blog for a long time -- well, thank you.  You're either related to me, or a bit nuts, but thank you.

But what I was going to say was, if you've been around this site through the years, you've likely seen a number of my site designs.  I'm no professional web designer, but I've taken pride in creating the site banners and choosing the formatting options Typepad allows me with each new look.  Well, except for one, which was Hubby-head's, but he did a great job on that one.

In preparation for rolling out my newest creation in a couple of weeks (or when I can no longer stand the wait), I thought I'd share some screenshots of the various looks this blog has sported over the nearly eight years since my first post on March 1, 2004.

A Little Redecorating

Thought I'd give the blog a facelift for the new year - with what my resolution to write more (and my commitment to post weekly on the CCC-SI "Word" blog, then at least share a link here), we wouldn't want it to start looking dusty around the place.

The banner graphic is newly created, but loosely based on the New Year's theme I used here on the site back in 2005.  What? 2005?  Really?  Yes, time has flown.  Here's a snapshot of what it looked like back then. 

And since I was being all graphic-designishly creative, I was poking around in my archived files and found a folder full of forum signatures I'd created for myself and my friends on my World of Warcraft guild forums.  I've created a new photo album and uploaded the majority of them here just for grins.  For those of you who played in the past (or still play), enjoy this walk down memory lane.

Tomorrow, be on the lookout for the first of my weekly group blog posts.  I'll likely just link to it here with a short excerpt, to direct more traffic to the main blog.

Musings... on Writing Discipline

Oh hi, it's me again... remember, the one who promised back in August that I'd be posting more often?  Yeah, we can see how well that worked.  Promises, promises, eh?

I will say that despite not posting about it, I did work on transcribing more of my poetry to the blog site - I finished all the more recent poetry collection (although I still have to work on getting the songs typed up, and finish the original, older collection while I'm at it).  And then... life happened.

I had a wedding to attend in early September, with bridesmaid duties... and right before I left, I was presented with a can't-miss opportunity at work to assist with our next new hire training class and coordinate their on-the-job training.  This caused my work schedule to shift for 7 weeks, starting the day after I returned from my week long bridesmaid-vacation, and suddenly I no longer had my 3-day weekends to designate a spare day for creativity.  And once I'm out of the habit, it's deadly hard to get me back into it, so going back to my usual work schedule in November, nothing got written.  Discipline has never been my strong suit, apparently.

I have, however, been reading a lot about writing - especially Twitter updates and blog posts from one of my favorite authors, James Scott Bell.  And reading about writing makes me want to write more, I just need something to force me to get started, and keep going.

Enter my mom's church, and their 2012 theme, "Do the Word".  As part of their "Bible-in-a-year" reading plan, there will be daily devotionals on their new church blog, and yours truly has been designated as one of the 7 regular blog contributors.   In fact, I will be writing every Sunday.  Hey wait a minute, New Year's Day is a Sunday this year... You mean I'll be the first one up?  No pressure there, folks!

As a side note, my mom will be one of the featured bloggers as well.  She would never describe herself as such, but my mother is a scholar - I expect some fantastic insights from her, especially regarding the Old Testament readings.

In any event, I'll link to the weekly "Do the Word" posts here as well as on Facebook.  Having a regular audience depending on me for the church blog will keep me accountable to write at least that on a weekly basis, and I refuse to promise too much for additional writing (especially coinsidering how busy work is likely to get after the new year), but once I'm in the groove, you may see more.

Musings.... on Facebook

Rambling post forthcoming... Don't say I didn't warn you!

So... back in the good old days, when I was blogging often and enjoying the back-and-forth with several bloggers (whose sites I still enjoy catching up on now and then), this little Internet phenomenon started turning up.  They called it "MySpace", and while many of my acquaintances began using it, I resisted.  I looked at it as "blog lite" - a place for people who didn't really have much to say.  This here weblog was "my space", and with a little bit of scripting knowledge and persistence, I could make it look just nearly however I wanted.

Hubby-head got sucked into MySpace, at least a little bit.  He had fun customizing his page, although probably as a concession to me, he agreed not to use the blog feature and post his occasional bloggable thoughts here on NftGB.  And he reconnected with some old friends via MySpace, which was pretty cool.  I didn't have any desire to join the herd, but he was happy with it.  All good.

Then after a while, I started getting e-mail notifications that certain friends were trying to get me to join some other new Internet fad called "Facebook".  From what I could gather, it was kind of like MySpace, but with a heavier emphasis on photos.   Well, as I told my hubby at the time, I could upload and share photos on the blog too.  And since there hadn't been a picture taken of me that I actually liked in years, why on earth would I want to join a place that was going to force me to display pictures?  Puh-leeze.

Fast-forward to a few months after the event that changed everything... 

Just in time for the year to be half over...

A 2005 wall calendar added to the News from the Great Beyond CafePress store!

I know, I know, it's getting a bit late for a 2005 calendar... but I had no choice in the year, and I'm really proud of the graphics.  Go check it out!

New products in the News from the Great Beyond Store!

Check it out - we have t-shirts!  Women's t-shirts, men's t-shirts, baby dolls and spaghetti strap tanks, all with this image, entitled "Pop Central":

I used the same photo of Central Avenue as in my banner above, cropped it differently, solarized it, and then did color variations in Photoshop to make a pop-art collage.  I have more ideas in the works, so stay tuned for more NFTGB stuff!

Ta-da!

As promised - several weeks ago - a special surprise.  Not only did I slap a coat of paint on the walls around here, and throw up a new picture, I have now opened a CafePress shop so all 4 of you family members reading can go buy News from the Great Beyond merchandise.

Right now all I have is a mug with this banner image, but there is more planned.  I will update you whenever I add merchandise.

This image, in case you're curious, is a view of Central Avenue in Downtown Phoenix, looking north from Washington Street.  I used the "solarize" filter in Photoshop, and voila!