John woke up to the music playing on his clock radio, and before he had a chance to hear what was playing he hit the snooze button, then cycled the alarm switch off and back on to reset the alarm for tomorrow. He pulled the covers off jumped out of bed and walked over to the light switch flipping it on. There were clothes piled everywhere, he spied a pair of brown cords that looked like they were not too dirty taking the cords in his hand he walked to his closet got a pair of underwear and a tee shirt out and put them on. He found two socks that were close in color to each other and pulled them onto his feet, followed by his shoes and walked out of his room. As he walked by the heater he turned it up to 68 degrees, and the furnace immediately fired. Walking through the living room into the kitchen, John poured himself a bowl of raisin bran and filled it with milk. After haven eaten and doing his best to avoid his brothers John found his jacket, his favorite jacket that had the sleeves that zipped off, he put it on sleeves and all and headed out the front door.
Rob and John had decided the night before to meet a few minutes early to avoid the bus, it took just as long to take the bus the long way as to walk the short way. Rob was waiting there for John when he got to the mail boxes at the end of the street. “You sure you want to walk?” John asked. Rob replied “Yes, it is supposed to rain so we should hurry”. The two boys started walking the 3 miles to school.
They had only walked about 5 minutes until their imaginations started to fly. John picked up a “Light Saber” from the ground and started to attack enemies, Rob followed suit, only he had some sort of blaster device. They boys began to run, every once in a while they would turn back to fire or swing at a non existent enemy. When they got to the top of the first long hill they swerved off the road onto a driveway. “Let’s take the secret pathway”, John said with an air of excitement and urgency. Rob agreed this was the best course of action since they were being followed by so many enemy assailants. This was the best part of their journey, because the trail was primarily down hill. They sprinted down the driveway, well you could only loosely use the term driveway, the muddy dirt road that was being used to construct the house of the property owner who owned the lot the boys were cutting through. There were already workers at the building site of the death star so the boys skirted these as they ran down the trail that lead to the open meadow below. It was about a half a mile of soft green grass that the boys ran down, pausing here and there to be sure that they were not being followed. Once John dropped to the ground just narrowly missing being seen. The end of the meadow dropped off into a steep forest hill, a path lead down through the redwoods to the creek below. As the boys ran single file they leaped off a mound of dirt and flew through the air at least 10 feet and onto a pile of redwood needles below. Rolling and laughing with delight they continued their decent, a little slower as they neared the creek. They went to the spot where the barbed wire fence was the smallest and jumped over it from the bank, splashing in the shallow creek water. They slowed to a crawl, they were only yards away from the road ahead and they had to be sure it was clear of enemies before risking walking in the open.
Rob had to shoot a few sentries with his blaster as they were out of range of a light saber. The boys climbed onto the road and began to walk towards their destination. As they passed a pair of large mailboxes John said, “The 2 mile marker”. This was a well known landmark for the boys, two miles down and one to go. They were making good time, the trek could take as much as an hour, but today they had only used 30 minutes. A few times they would hear an enemy cruiser and leap off the side of the road, but the rest of the trip went without incident and just before they came into sight of the space port they stashed their weapons so they could be used on the trip home.
Rob and John walked the remaining 6 blocks to their school, and were forced to suspend their imaginations for the time being. But though the teachers attempted, they could not wrest away the imaginations of these boys, the school was successful with others though.
Sometimes we forget how important our imaginations are,
This is based on the culmination of many true adventures on our way to and from school. Hope you enjoy it.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Just another day in Northern California
I was sitting at my local Starbucks with my daughter playing scrabble and drinking coffee, when it was her turn my attention wandered around the room. A couple sat with a woman at a table in the corner. I could catch bits and pieces of their conversations, the man in the corner sat with a clipboard, the woman a note pad. They seemed to be going down a list and discussing something point by point,
“And then you will break the plate?”
“No, were not going to break the plate, it is just not something you do over grass”
After several comments like this I realized, Oh, the couple is getting married. Having just been through a divorce this year my heart went out to the couple, so in between my turns I was now fully focused on listening to what they were going to do at their wedding. Marriage is such an incredible right of passage in a relationship, each couple determining what is the most important traditional element to focus on, which do they need to do, which do they want to do. The thing about this conversation was that the couple was so in tune with each other, when it seemed important to one the other would say “It’s up to you, this is important to you”, this conviction was going both ways, there was no fighting, bitterness or conflict. The woman who was not with the couple I had figured out at this point was a wedding planner, and I was thinking, how easy her job will be, this couple is so in love, so in tune with each other, their relationship was obviously leading towards a life commitment that could only be a beautiful extension of their lives together, a sharing and expression of their love for each other with their friends and family present for their union.
Wow, I smiled at the lucky couple as I walked by, wondering all the while where they would choose to fully commit to each other, especially now, since it is illegal for them to be married in California, at least for this committed couple.
Beauty is everywhere, do you choose to see it everywhere? Or does beauty have a set of rules in your life? If it does have rules, I am sorry for you as you miss so much the world has to offer.
To the couple in the corner at Starbucks, I wondered as I walked by if you knew I was thrilled for you, or if you assumed I was one of the short sighted people who fear your expressions of you feelings? I hope you find all your looking for, and keep spreading your caring for each other, without regard for the people who are walking around you with their blinders on.
STU -12/ 08
“And then you will break the plate?”
“No, were not going to break the plate, it is just not something you do over grass”
After several comments like this I realized, Oh, the couple is getting married. Having just been through a divorce this year my heart went out to the couple, so in between my turns I was now fully focused on listening to what they were going to do at their wedding. Marriage is such an incredible right of passage in a relationship, each couple determining what is the most important traditional element to focus on, which do they need to do, which do they want to do. The thing about this conversation was that the couple was so in tune with each other, when it seemed important to one the other would say “It’s up to you, this is important to you”, this conviction was going both ways, there was no fighting, bitterness or conflict. The woman who was not with the couple I had figured out at this point was a wedding planner, and I was thinking, how easy her job will be, this couple is so in love, so in tune with each other, their relationship was obviously leading towards a life commitment that could only be a beautiful extension of their lives together, a sharing and expression of their love for each other with their friends and family present for their union.
Wow, I smiled at the lucky couple as I walked by, wondering all the while where they would choose to fully commit to each other, especially now, since it is illegal for them to be married in California, at least for this committed couple.
Beauty is everywhere, do you choose to see it everywhere? Or does beauty have a set of rules in your life? If it does have rules, I am sorry for you as you miss so much the world has to offer.
To the couple in the corner at Starbucks, I wondered as I walked by if you knew I was thrilled for you, or if you assumed I was one of the short sighted people who fear your expressions of you feelings? I hope you find all your looking for, and keep spreading your caring for each other, without regard for the people who are walking around you with their blinders on.
STU -12/ 08
Beam me up Scotty!
Ever wondered what it would be like if we could transport matter from place to place? Like in Star Trek,
First off who would send the first human, and did they see "The Fly" because they should have if the didn't, and what about Charlie and the Chocolate factory, didn't that prove that matter shrinks when you send it by television? Well I guess if you get a new HD Widescreen from Sony you could get around this. Well here are some interesting uses,
-"You have Male", escort service.
-Criminals would use it to transport money from banks, so you would have to have a protective coating on your vault, terrorists would spray this protective coating on people so only half of them would transport.
-Boys would forever be popping into girls frat rooms, and reverse.
-Instant groceries, Damn, who left the milk out, now I have to push a button and get more.
-You would not have long lines of cars on bridges, there would be long lines of people waiting for their transporter time.
-OMG, if airlines loose luggage, would transporters loose small body parts, some of which are not meaningless.
-People would transport their garbage away, only where is away?
-You could make cool little mouse traps, but rats are to smart they would reconfigure the transporter to change their molecular structure so they resembled humans.
-Federal express, when you absolutely need there now !
-Distance dating would be meaningless, you could speed date with one date in each state, 3 minutes each is less than 3 hours, only it would not work in Alaska, its too cold up there (and not just because of Palin).
-Kids would transport to school, then to the Smithsonian institute, then to Washington DC, visit the moon and still be home to watch cartoons on TV.
First off who would send the first human, and did they see "The Fly" because they should have if the didn't, and what about Charlie and the Chocolate factory, didn't that prove that matter shrinks when you send it by television? Well I guess if you get a new HD Widescreen from Sony you could get around this. Well here are some interesting uses,
-"You have Male", escort service.
-Criminals would use it to transport money from banks, so you would have to have a protective coating on your vault, terrorists would spray this protective coating on people so only half of them would transport.
-Boys would forever be popping into girls frat rooms, and reverse.
-Instant groceries, Damn, who left the milk out, now I have to push a button and get more.
-You would not have long lines of cars on bridges, there would be long lines of people waiting for their transporter time.
-OMG, if airlines loose luggage, would transporters loose small body parts, some of which are not meaningless.
-People would transport their garbage away, only where is away?
-You could make cool little mouse traps, but rats are to smart they would reconfigure the transporter to change their molecular structure so they resembled humans.
-Federal express, when you absolutely need there now !
-Distance dating would be meaningless, you could speed date with one date in each state, 3 minutes each is less than 3 hours, only it would not work in Alaska, its too cold up there (and not just because of Palin).
-Kids would transport to school, then to the Smithsonian institute, then to Washington DC, visit the moon and still be home to watch cartoons on TV.
Phone Tree
I was ordering phone service and called to follow up on the order today. I got on one of those automated systems and the dialog went like this.
I see you are calling from 123-4567 is this the number you are calling about? Say Yes or No.
No
I am sorry, I did not get that please say Yes or No
No, it is not the f’ing number
I think you said No, Please say or key in the number you are calling about, or you can say I don’t have one
I don’t have one
I am sorry, I did not get that please say or key in the number you are calling about, or you can say I don’t have one
I don’t f’ing have one
Okay, you don’t have one, is this about a new service?
Yes
I am sorry, I did not get that , is this about a new service?
Yes, it is God Damn it
Okay, so I can direct you to the right department is this about a new or existing service request?
Existing f’ing service
I am sorry that department is now closed, please call back during regular business hours at …
See folks I have solved the phone tree problem, you have to be totally rude to the system and it works great.
STU 11/08
I see you are calling from 123-4567 is this the number you are calling about? Say Yes or No.
No
I am sorry, I did not get that please say Yes or No
No, it is not the f’ing number
I think you said No, Please say or key in the number you are calling about, or you can say I don’t have one
I don’t have one
I am sorry, I did not get that please say or key in the number you are calling about, or you can say I don’t have one
I don’t f’ing have one
Okay, you don’t have one, is this about a new service?
Yes
I am sorry, I did not get that , is this about a new service?
Yes, it is God Damn it
Okay, so I can direct you to the right department is this about a new or existing service request?
Existing f’ing service
I am sorry that department is now closed, please call back during regular business hours at …
See folks I have solved the phone tree problem, you have to be totally rude to the system and it works great.
STU 11/08
Crazy Driver
Today I was driving home from work and I saw this idiot driving down the road. He was eating food out of a bowl with a fork, and I swear while I was watching he put the fork in the bowl and picked up his cell phone and proceeded to text someone, it must have been 100 characters or more. All this time the guy is driving down the street in stop and go traffic. Then this is where it gets weird, the guy looks up into the rear view mirror and sees himself, only its me. Guilty as charged.
Corporate Cooperation
A recent email stated the following:
Our hosting partner will be performing system maintenance to our Oracle Production server. The system will be down on Thursday, November 13th from 01:00 – 03:00 am (pst). Thanks for your cooperation,
My rant:
Thanks for your cooperation, as if we have any choice, they are taking the system down. Where is the cooperation in that?
Like if a teacher grabbed a student tied her up, put tape over her mouth and then at the end of the class said,
Wow thanks for your cooperation, you were so quiet.
Our hosting partner will be performing system maintenance to our Oracle Production server. The system will be down on Thursday, November 13th from 01:00 – 03:00 am (pst). Thanks for your cooperation,
My rant:
Thanks for your cooperation, as if we have any choice, they are taking the system down. Where is the cooperation in that?
Like if a teacher grabbed a student tied her up, put tape over her mouth and then at the end of the class said,
Wow thanks for your cooperation, you were so quiet.
CPAP
John was sprawled out on the floor, laying in the nest of blankets, pillows and cushions that had been prepared by his two daughters. Laying close snuggling up watching late night television together, they all are drifting slowly into dreamland. This tender moment interrupted only by the fact that John has to untangle himself, pulling away from the love shared with his daughters to report to the the machine. The cold, heartless machine that controls him.
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