My Attitude of Gratitude - Good News About My Kids, etc.

1. Sonny now has a decent paying job. It is a mixed blessing though. My son will be fighting forest fires for a living.

2. Dot was accepted into law school. After a two years wait my daughter finally received the acceptance letter she so desired, and right now as I write this she most likely is attending some law class.

3. My brother gave me an old lap top he never uses. It’s a little bit outdated and heavier than the newer models, but it seems to still have plenty of memory left. Hey, it’ll work for me!

4. After two weeks, I finally retrieved my cell phone from my sister with whom I absent-mindedly left it with when I visited her at the beach. I haven’t had my cell phone all that long and how I ever existed without it, I can’t imagine.

5. I am still keeping my place clean from day to day. I’ve let no messes pile up! And I made a dent in cleaning up the disaster area known as my art studio.

Project #4-Clean My Art Studio!

"It may be that at first you can devote only one hour a day to the activity that really matters to you, but one hour a day can really add up. One hour a day will mean 7 hours a week, 365 hours a year, 3650 hours in ten years. You can accomplish much in that period of time: taking a course, writing a book, painting a portrait. You certainly have one hour a day even if you divide it in six ten minute periods. What can you do in ten minutes? In ten minutes you can do some exercises and get your circulation moving again. You can write a letter to a friend, make three phone calls, get out some bills, or play a quick game of handball." Ari Kiev in A Stategy for Daily Living.

In my mission to clean my place from top to bottom, I haven't been able to clean in my art studio. I think it is has to do with the fact that I am overwhelmed by all that I need to do. It is such a mess I don't know where to start.

Nevertheless, I have still managed to keep the other areas I've cleaned up from falling back into disarray.

I'm quite proud of this, slob that I normally am.

But now it is time to get past the art studio cleaning standstill. It is a big project and I need to chunk it down into little ten-minutes-at-a-time steps for me to take. (Please note: in an imperfect world, not all these steps will take exactly ten minutes.)

I will now list the first step: go stand in the studio doorway and figure out the next several steps.

The second step: figure out a place where you want your stereo to go. (My brother gave me an old stereo he was getting rid of. It plays records! I can play my old records I have held on to for years, even after the record player I owned in my younger days had bit the dust.)

The third step: Make a path to the corner of the room you have chosen, clearing out the blocking debris.

The fourth step: Move the stereo stand into the studio and set the stereo system up.

The fifth step: Retrieve the records from the living room entertainment center and take them into your studio and place them on the stand.

Because it has been so hard for me to clean my art studio, I am going to make it Project #4 of my monitored projects. I'll keep you informed on how I do.

Jazz Night

I have edited some pictures from last month and it is about time I uploaded them. A friend of mine invited me to listen to a jazz singer at a local cafe and eat a fancy pants dinner.

This is the outside of Nick's Italian Cafe. If you are ever in McMinnville, Oregon, you should eat there. There's all kinds of excellent food there to devour, including 7-course meals that go on for hours, and once you are done eating you have to be carted out in a gurney because you are so stuffed with food and too happy to move.


Jazz Night is held ever so often in the back of Nick's. I think it is by invitation only. I am a friend of a friend of Nick's, and so I was privileged to tag along. The above picture is an overall view of cafe patrons enjoying themselves.


These are the people I went to Jazz Night with, all friends I jam with music-wise on a weekly basis, not at Nick's, but at a private home.


"Look up, everyone, and pose," I told them.


Of course, I had to go trade places with one of the gang, and have her take the picture, so I could be included too. I don't like the shot of me though.


The cello player in the trio that performed.


The keyboard player.


The jazz singer, Shirley Nanette. If you ever learn of her performing somewhere and you like jazzy type music, treat yourself to her show. You won't be disappointed.


Shirley Nanette in the background at the bar taking a break.

Mr. Interview: The First Three Monitored Projects

Mr. Interview: So tell me Harley, where are you at with your monitored projects?

Harley: First, let me review what they are so far.

Mr. Interview: Okay.

Harley: Project 1: Learn How to Add Pictures to My Blog.

Project 2: Completely Clean My Home.

Project 3: Figure Out a Way to Keep My Home Clean Moment by Moment.

Mr. Interview: So NOW tell me, Harley, where are you at with your monitored projects?

Harley: Project 1 was a mental bitch to figure out because I started by trying to upload my profile picture.

Mr. Interview: This wasn’t an easy thing to do?

Harley: No, it wasn’t. But I finally figured it out by going here and here. I won’t bore you with the details. But then I tried to upload a picture to a blog entry, and I tried and tried and tried and tried, but the damn picture wouldn’t upload no matter what! Finally I went back to here and here and I learned that my Internet Explorer doesn’t always cooperate with the Blogger site where my blog is now located. I ended up having to download a brand-new-for-me browser, The Mozilla Firefox, and then tried uploading the picture through it, and it worked like a charm.

Mr. Interview: So now you can say Project #1 has been completed.

Harley: Yes, I can, though it wasn’t an easy road to travel down.

Mr. Interview: How about Project #2. Where are you at on that?

Harley: Ah, the one where I must completely clean my home. I’ve been working on that. I’ve cleaned my kitchen, my living room, my bathroom, my office, and my patio. But I haven’t cleaned these different areas up to the point that I want them. Right now I am simply making them presentable and non-embarrassing for me if anybody should happen to drop by unannounced. These areas look good, way better than I had been keeping them, and they are staying that way due to some intense, concentrated efforts on my part. Plus, I almost have my laundry all caught up.

The next areas I want to clean are my studio and my big shed and my little shed. Plus I plan to spiff up my beat-up old truck somewhat. And then do some yard work.

And then I want to go back to where I started and go through my trailer, sheds, truck and yard again continuously improving on I have here. And then do it again and again until I am satisfied. Which I think will never actually happen, because it is a non-ending day to day process.

Mr. Interview: So the same time you are working on Project #2, you are also working on Project #3. How are you able to keep your place clean?

Harley: By adopting a mindset that the messes I make must be cleaned up right after I make them. Plus, I try not to make big messes in the first place. It is a visual thing with me. I tell myself my place must look good at all times. If it doesn’t I must do what it takes to make it look good the first chance I get.

And I’m trying to adopt a few new rules to live by, such as there is to be no dirty dishes in my sink, and I must make my bed first thing in the morning after I climb out of it.

Mr. Interview: And this is working for you?

Harley: Yes! At least for the time being. I hope my newfound cleanliness lasts. I can’t believe how much happier I am living like this.

Mr. Interview: Good for you.

Harley: Yes, good for me.

A Frackin' Great Show

I just watched the finale episode of this series:

I just have to say, I frackin' love this show! (Frack is the word the Battlestar Galactia creators have their characters substitute for the other "f" word in order to get by the television sensors, and if they can use that word so can I.) Right now I'm in the middle of watching the bonus features on the DVD I rented, and even though I'm late in returning it to the rental store, I frackin' don't care. I'm not frackin' returning it until I've seen every frackin' thing that the frackin' DVD has to offer.

And joy of all joys, by coincidence or as a gift from the gods (Battlestar Galactia Cylons and the Battlestar Galactia humans believe in the gods) just as I'm finishing up Season One of the series, Season Two has just been released! That makes me so frackin' happy! I frackin' can't wait to start watching a whole frackin' new set of episodes.

What the frack! I am frackin' using the word frack way too much. If I keep it up you might want to tell me to frack off. I then in turn might turn around and yell back, "Frack you!"

Anyhoo, if you haven't watched the updated version of Battlestar Galactia, do so. I highly recommend it. Great characters, great acting, great storylines, great sets, great special effects.

An Attitude of Gratitude-Aug.13, 2006

1. I am grateful that I am cleaning and organizing my place (finally) and I have been keeping it clean and organized! I love living like this!

2. I am grateful that despite my ADD I was actually able to read a book all the way through: The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge; a good book, by the way, although a little bit far fetched.

3. I am grateful for the local library. Yesterday I visited there, one of my favorite places in the whole wide world, and checked out the following:

· 3 Art in America Magazines and 1 Architectural Digest;
· the book, The Summons by John Grisham;
· 3 DVD’s: Spinal Tap, Lovesick, and the first season of the television series, Arrested Development;
· and 6 CD’s: k.d. lang’s Hymns of the 49th Parallel, Patti Labelle’s Classic Moments, Paul Simon’s You’re the One, Linda Ronstadt’s Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (featuring Aaron Neville), and 2 Tracy Chapman’s, Crossroads and New Beginnings.

4. I am grateful my son has not moved in with me yet, and I am able to stick to my guns and stick with the tough love stance that he needs to make it on his own no matter what. After all, he is 25 years old, and he is the one that needs to be taking care of himself, not me.

5. I am grateful that someone decided to remake the series, Battlestar Galactia. Have you seen it? It has been redone in such a great manner. Quick! Rush out and rent/buy Season One! If you are a science fiction freak like me, you won’t regret it.

Project #2-Completely Clean My Home; Project #3-Figure Out a Way To Keep It Clean Moment by Moment

I have come to the realization that I am hindered greatly by the constant messiness of my home. It is depressing being surrounded by all this chaos. It holds me back from moving on to bigger and better things. I feel when my home is unorganized my mind and life are too.

On my days off work, I always feel like I need to stay home and clean. Loved ones want my attention, and I am constantly putting them off because of that need to stay home and clean. And then when I stay home to clean, I usually get distracted and don't do it.

As for entertaining loved ones at my place, you might as well forget that idea. I am too ashamed of my place to invite anybody over.

This is definately no way to live. That's why the next two projects I am monitoring here on this blog have to do with cleaning. Project #2 is to completely clean up my trailer, and Project #3 is to figure out a way to keep it cleaned up on a daily, moment-to-moment basis.

Project 1: Learn How to Add Pictures to My Blog

So here I am at my new home on the web. And I need to fix place up. It needs decorating, baby. I need to make the place mine. So that's going to have to be done in a series of projects here.

The first thing I need to do is add a profile picture to my blog.

Pictures are nice; yes, in deedy. I need to hang some pictures on my blog walls. And to do that it looks like I'll need a Flickr account to upload said pictures and then transfer them from the Flickr site to this site.

Music to Wake Up a Sluggish Brain

I woke up and immediately made a strong, strong cup of coffee. I then went online to YouTube see if I could find some Sheena Easton videos and found a bunch of them to watch, which I did. I heard her at work the other day and wanted to hear some more.

Man, Sheena is pretty. And sexy. And what a vocal range. She can thrill me right down to my bonemarrow.

Listening to music before I go to work is a great way to start the day. It gets my sluggish brain vibrating. Pumped up. Pulsating.

Yesterday the two songs that got me going then was "State of Independence" by Donna Summer, and a live version of "Little Feat" by Greg Brown. Such opposite styles of music, and yet the songs seemed to make me happy all day long.

I have to work today; a Sunday, dammit. The weekend! I have to work all weekend long! And yet I am going to do my damnedest to made today a really great day.

The Big Switcheroo

I'm going to have to switch to from my other blog host to this host because this host looks like it has more to offer. The main reason I am switching though is because I can imbed Haloscan and anybody can comment on my posts. Back at my other host, Vox, you, the visitor, likewise have to have your own Vox blog there in order to make comments on what I have to say and offer on my old blog. Otherwise, I can't get any feedback from you. That sucks.

So here I am again starting anew once more. Wish me luck with this site.