On your left you see the space shuttle Endeavour, shortly after its touchdown at LAX earlier this week.
Endeavour flew 25 times between 1992 and 2011. In daylight photos you can see how battered it is. Honourable wounds gained doing honourable work.
Today, it is on its last journey as it continues inching its way through the streets of Los Angeles towards its final home, the California Science Center in Exposition Park. Continue reading
I dunno if there was ever anything in my life that scared me as much as taking my driver’s license road test. Well, ok, there were scarier things that just happened, but nothing that I deliberately signed up for, where I marched up to the counter and said, “Please inflict this horror upon me” and paid money for it.
I didn’t get my license when I was 16 and young and stupid and not afraid of anything, I left it a bit late. Continue reading
Yes, that is indeed RuPaul you see there. Now 51, he hikes all over Los Angeles (he seems to favour Franklin Canyon), where he now lives. He also cycles, swims, dances, roller-skates, beach-walks, threadmills and does yoga. At 40 he quit smoking, part of his realisation that if he wanted to be around for the long haul, he’d better start working on keeping fit.
At our house, hikes go by the more reasonable name of taking a walk. It’s really hilly here and I (whiny voice) hate hills.
The lines between traditional publishing (with a proper editor), self-pub and just plain printing are getting ever more blurred.
As you can tell by the title of this post, I’m tending to regard them much like a cat who is seeing a new puppy introduced into the household. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Will it wreck the joint? Continue reading
I’m really fond of the line “shine a bright light”, meaning to expose cruel or shady dealings that need some sunshine on them so they will whizzle up and disappear like a salted slug.
Lots of others, too. “Sue the Bastards.”
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” Ray Bradbury. Continue reading
“I had an office-mate once who…”.
We’ve all had them. The one who eats garlic to stave off colds, and only manages to stave off anyone wanting to be within 50ft of them. Continue reading
On the left: perfectly good business-casual interview look. Below: not so much.
Interviews. We all hate them. Dread them beforehand. Fear we flubbed them afterwards. But they are a necessary evil.
Woman I know was once interviewed by a company that was all gung-ho starting a new project. They flew her somewhere to interview with someone from Mahogany Row. Then there was a long, long silence. Through the grapevine she found out the project had stalled, and was eventually abandoned. Then guys who had interviewed her started turning up at her company looking for work. Continue reading
Yesterday Nurse Wretched asked a very good question: what is your earliest childhood memory, and how old were you?
Her question was prompted by having read this article by Bill Briggs.
The earliest memory that stuck with you likely came when you were “…3 1/2 years old, according to numerous past studies. At that age, the hippocampus, a portion of the brain used to store memories, has adequately matured to handle that task, experts say.” Continue reading
Today I was driving home on a surface street and saw not one but two speed traps, one on one block, one on the next. Motorcycle police. They each had a customer. This pairing seems wicked unfair, but it’s common around here (southern California). I guess they tag-team. Or just like to have someone to chat with.
I’ve only had one speeding ticket in my life. It too was wicked unfair, but yes, he did catch me fair and square going over the limit. But not by that much. Continue reading
I know some of you have interesting hobbies. Bots goes motorcycling everywhere. Maxichamp sets himself unique travel itineraries and then very kindly shares the results with us. We have chicken-raisers, photographers, musicians.
I read a lot. Well, duh, so do most of us here. Do a lot of gardening and needlework. Fairly boring stuff, although I have done some nice bead-and-wire jewelry-making, used to sell it in my bookstore. Continue reading