Get Up, Get Going

As I've gotten older I've found - and especially in the last year - my "buddy" Insomnia runs a continuous free-for-all event somewhere inside my body with exactly zero sign of surcease any time in the immediate future. 

For the most part, I don't have a problem with this. I've rarely required much sleep (I subsist on 5-6 hours regularly) and it behooves my schedule for the most part. I'm continuously doing something and, currently, I'm busier than ever. Trips, writing, drawing, various household projects, etc. My hours awake are rarely wasted. And in truth it's rather difficult to accomplish any of my activities while slumbering.

But, Insomnia is a sly, sometimes devious devil. 

With the time change this morning, it was comforting knowing after a pretty full day of outdoor chores I would be relishing in that extra hour of sleep. I beat myself up physically Saturday and I knew my body needed a little recovery time. 

Fat chance I'd be getting it though. I was up just after 3:00 a.m. this morning. And that was prior to changing the clocks. 

I mean ... I don't have a problem getting up early. But I did take a few minutes to consider whether or not I really needed to get the coffee maker running at that hour knowing there was a full day yet ahead ...

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Life ... And The Wonder Of It All

In Life, some things simply aren't able to be explained.

At least not when stumbled on unexpectedly.

What they do is surprise you, then linger, often causing you to ponder them over in your mind.

You might never understand them, no matter how hard you try. Then again, it's possible for you to "get" their message immediately. 

The long and the short of it is this: Take Life with a grain of salt and enjoy the curious, sometimes bewildering wonder it supplies when offered.

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Flawed Logic

... and then this conversation happened this morning ...

"Hey, the time change is this weekend, isn't it?"

"Yes! I'm so excited! That means I won't have to get up as early to drive to Lodi Monday morning!"

"Ermmmm ... actually you will ..."

"No, because of the time change I won't have to."

"Hokay ... so applying that logic, from this Monday forward until the time changes back once again in March next year, I expect you to not say one word about getting up early. Because, you know, you won't be getting up as early. Because of the time change."

" . . . . . . . . . . . . "

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP being a dream crusher )

Here I Go Again ...

Let's get this straight: I'm insane.

I mean, not clinically. Though, to be fair, if you ask a lot of folks I know or who have to associate with me or who have bumped into me during their everyday doings of life, they would probably state otherwise. Other than that? Yes, I'm insane.

Here, I'll prove it to you ...

October just ended. (Duh.) Among the usual riff-raff I decided to join a buddy of mine in a #Drawlloween challenge - 31 drawings, one per day based on prompts he provided. I'd never heard of Drawlloween previously and decided "Why the hell not?" It had been years and years since I did anything and, beside the occasional poster for an event or what have you, I hadn't sat down with pen and paper in 20+ years. Not seriously, at any rate. A challenge like that would expose a lot of what I needed to learn and improve on. Besides, It will be fun!" I told myself, all the while knowing deep down I was fooling my myself.

Long story short, yes ... it was fun. I learned (and relearned) a lot of things, including directions I want to go with drawing. I learned a few techniques I want to improve on and boy, do I need improving. The down and dirty: I survived the challenge.

So, here we are in a fresh new month: November. And, once more, I've been invited on another challenge, a continuing art contest, to again draw and post an image a day based on prompts for a nifty little cause, #crystalvember, in support of a lady currently fighting cancer. It's back to the drawing board for me!

My first #crystalvember entry, "T Rex Skull"

(... but ... you never would have known that ...)

 
But wait ... that's not all!

Additionally, it's National Blog Posting Month (better known as #NaBloPoMo) and, once again, I'm challenging myself to submit a blog post each and every day in the month of November.

If that wasn't enough, I'm doing these two events knowing I won't be home a third of the month. That's right, for at least 10 full days I'll be on the road visiting several (5!) different states and sleeping in places where I probably won't get a decent night's rest ... which in turn will further complicate my circadian rhythms and mess further with my insomnia.

But who needs sleep anyway? If I'm up and awake it just means I have more opportunities to create and get things done, right? Where's the down side? Besides, I can sleep when I'm dead.

So here I go. Busy as a beaver with strict scheduling being the first order of each day. Offer good thoughts to me in my effort to keep up ... and keep sane.

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Good Use Of A Bad Color

I don't know ...

I don't know if this is coincidence, great planning or happenstance.

At any rate, it's a good use of those deplorable-looking orange vehicles so prominent in my neck of the woods ...

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Clara Bow, Time Traveler

I'm a member of several groups on Facebook for my personal edification and entertainment. One such group - Pre-Code Hollywood (1929-34): Sin on Celluloid - is a nifty little gathering of fans who concentrate and discuss filmmaking of 1929-34, a period featuring a more laid back atmosphere of film production.

Per film historian Thomas Doherty: "More unbridled, salacious, subversive, and just plain bizarre than what came afterwards, they look like Hollywood cinema but the moral terrain is so off-kilter they seem imported from a parallel universe." (If you're unfamiliar with pre-code film and what it's all about, you can learn tons here.)

Not only have I learned quite a bit about the era over the years, it's been a fun ride, giving me not only a new appreciation of films I've previously seen but ones I've never before been introduced to. Furthermore, I have been pleased and surprised at the depth of knowledge (not to mention the intelligence of the group's members), present company excepted, of course.

That is ... until last night.

Well, Sir, late last evening a photo of Clara Bow was posted on the group site. It showed her seaside sitting atop a wooden pylon with what appears to be an open box in her lap. Here is that photo:

My question is this: Does that look like anything but an open, wooden box to you?

Not to quite a few members of Sin On Celluloid, apparently. To a surprising number, it's something all together different ...

"She's holding a laptop?"

"That was my first thought, too!"

"The bottom's too deep, like a briefcase. Just the way it's resting on her lap, and the top is almost flat enough looking to appear like a screen. Just at first glance, that's what it almost appears ..."

"Is this one of those time traveler things? She is definitely checking her email on a laptop."

"Could be a microphone."

Look at that box again: Laptop computer? I guess ... if you haven't put your glasses on beforehand and you're blind as a bat.

But let's consider this, just in case you happen to be optically impugned. How about utilizing a little bit of common sense? The photo was posted on a site catering to a particular era, an era that didn't know what a laptop was. (Let alone a computer.)

Really, that's all you need to process to come to the conclusion that what Clara is holding couldn't possibly be a laptop.

So, what I'll do is be done with shaking my head in amazement at those comments and toodle along my merry way until such a time I may need to re-evaluate the common sense of some of the group's members. (Or at least their eyesight.)

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Alzheimer's Once Again Foiled Another Day

At this point in the history of this blog you should know by now I try and learn something new everyday. (It helps ward against Alzheimer's disease, I'm told, keeps the brain active.)

This morning? I learned a new word: Dongle.

I was sitting and enjoying my coffee first thing in the morning when I unknowingly spied one. "What's that on your computer? That half-moon shaped thing? I don't think I've seen something quite like that before ..."

"It's a 'dongle'" I was told.

Now, I might have seen the word previously but I'm not entirely certain about that. But it did roll off my tongue rather comfortably when I said it which triggered that old taste of familiarity. So chances are  at some point I've come across it.

But I went through the motions anyway.

Dangle: to hang loosely or hang around, I told myself.

Dengle: I wasn't certain there was a definition for "dengle" but I would look it up later.

Dingle: I knew that was a dell, usually a shady one. And, of course, a synonym for penis, courtesy of Chuck Berry.

Dungle: Comicly, I surmised "dungle" as being another word for "dingleberry," a dangling dingleberry precisely. And, when you think about it, this makes perfect sense.

Dongle: Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zero.
 
"A 'dongle' ... ? What's it for?" I inquired.

"My Fitbit."

Bells rung in my head. By deductive reasoning I surmised a dongle was a hardware adapter for some piece of computer equipment like my wireless mouse. And then I looked it up. And, sure enough, that's exactly what it was. (While at it, I hunted down "dengle" as well. There's no definition.)

Now? I'm that much more informed. Take that, Alzheimer's ...

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )