The posts in this category contain my personal views and opinions and they may not always mesh with your own. Those are the best kinds of conversations.
I dream a lot, as most people do, but I like to think my dreams are different than many people's and I tend to remember my dreams pretty well. In the spring, my dreams can be even more elaborate, and very dialogue intensive. It's 5:31 as I write this post, and I just awoke from an interesting dream, inspire by the single line of dialogue; Hitler...
As is often the case, I read something, and it inspirers a thought stream in another direction. This morning, I was linked on Facebook to the following article, in reference to a discussion they'd been having online about sharing your life experiences with depression or medication online....
Thanks to my new YouTube Channel, and a web site called Give it 100, I have a few new people checking out my web site. This is where I ramble in text about stuff, but you may also want to see my other sites. http://frogstar.com http://giveit100.com http://youtube.,com/frogstar42 [video width="1920" height="1080"...
The World Evolves. The medium used to be the message, but today the audience is the author. The world is the medium and the message. Media is finally created by, and received by both parties. The watcher is the content producer. Reality TV now exists in multiple forms. On networks, it's still created by producers and isn't really reality TV, but...
Orange This color's name derives from the Sanskrit word for the fruit naranga. (Yes, the color orange was named after the fruit, not the other way around). This transformed into the Arabic and Persian naranj, and by the time of Old French to pomme d'orenge. It was originally recorded in English as the name of the color in 1512. Before then, the...
COMPUTER IMAGE - THE SILENT KILLER This is an article I found today, written for the Georgetown Ontario Commodore 64 users group. By Jeff Goebel Circa 1985 A reputation is a strange thing. Most of us spend much of our lives either trying to create a good one, or erase a bad one. Although reputations are generally specific to each individual,...
I recently bought a cheap 7" tablet from a foreign "free shipping" web site and it's horrid. Really really bad. In fact, I can't even browse the web or watch any video at all. However, I don't consider it a waste because I have learned from it that I really do want a tablet. I think a lot of Android phone users wonder if a tablet is right for...
A lot of talk goes into how life is different fir the beautiful people. As someone not in that group I can only speculate as to the truth of those claims. I will however, admit to treating beautiful people, more specifically beautiful women, differently. However this has its limits. I fully agree that I enjoy it when I get the pretty waitress...
I have mixed feelings when I see TV characters using ideas I have come up with previously. I should be proud by the validation, but envy and jealousy creep in. It makes me sad. Another lost opportunity. Another idea I never followed through on. Tonight, On The Big Bang Theory, I watched Howard a therapy technique I developed years ago...
I’ve been told a lot of great ideas come to people when they visit the bathroom. As a rule, I don’t spend as much time in the bathroom as some people I know. I don’t have reading material, and I don’t sit around for very long after doing my business. However, I do have thoughts that strike me while I am there. I have things hanging around in...
I’ve worked in the support industry and the retail sales industry, but never did food service and I've never been a waiter. I have a great respect for the people who work the counter at fast food places. It’s a hectic stressful job that I don’t think I’d do well at. It’s fast and furious and you’re often dealing with angry people who believe...
There are a lot of people on this earth. I know that seems like an obvious statement to make, but every now and then, I am hit with an example that makes me stop and actually say it aloud. Somehow, saying things out loud seems to make them more real. There are a lot of different people in this world. A lot of people in this city in fact. Breaking...
I’m a Canadian, and watch mostly Canadian TV channels. This has changed since I was a kid, when the Buffalo New York channels were a major part of my day. Today, almost everything I want to watch is available on a TV channel with Canadian commercials. With the exception of A&E and TLC, I don’t really see American TV ads anymore. I have mostly...
Weather you believe in something or not, doesn’t affect whether not it is true. Things can exist, regardless of whether or not you believe they do. You could not believe in God, but still pray to one when in need. My belief isn’t the answer. My belief is personal, and irrelevant to facts. I do not believe any of the existing theories of God is...
T Shirts are great if they fulfill three uses. Provide a smile Reflect your style or opinion without words Starts a conversation. The best T shirts start conversations. They come with a story, or they create a story. A good T Shirt allow you to break the ice with a smile and a generic “IN” to a conversation with a friend or stranger. It shows us...
I figured something out this weekend. Age isn’t about getting old. It’s more about the past getting farther away. It’s about the gap between how old you are, and how old the people around you are. If you are 16 but your friends are 12, then you are old. This weekend, I was old. I had volunteered to work a booth promoting a pop culture / science...
I have written many times about the power of stories, but today I will give an example of how they can be used to change embarrassing situations into joy. I am seated in a lunch restaurant a fair distance from my home, with my back to the dining room. As I was eating, I dropped some crumbs on my shirt, and when I looked down, I happened to...
It’s amazing how fast the brain is. A whole universe can be imagined in a thought. You look at your watch, and almost no time had passed at all. I arrived for my appointment at the Artful Dodger early, and sat outside in the sun on a bench next to a tree, just off Yonge street in busy downtown Toronto. It’s not quite a park, but the area is a...
Frequently when I think of politics, I think there are many smart people out there that do things politically, more like a performance than real politics. Elections are shows for the masses. The campaign trail is performance art. With 24 hour news channels and blogs out the wazoo, people need to have something to talk about. To feel they're a...
Sometimes life is more fun when you notice it on purpose. It’s always odd how the universe tends to show you what you’re looking for. Have you ever noticed you see more of your brand of car on the road after you start looking? When I am alone, outdoors in the sunlight under a blue sky, I like to let my mind wander to new topics, rather than the...
I like Monday. I think of it as a mini-new week, and I start fresh with resolutions. Recently I blogged here about no longer reading books, or more accurately, ebooks on my phone at lunch. Instead, I have been reading Facebook and playing Jewel games. At that time, I thought about creative writing instead. Blogging from my phone while I eat...
During a commercial break, I pause the playback and return to the keyboard. I started rethinking about something I mentioned in passing in a previous blog entry. I used an old saying fragment; "I read somewhere" before stating some supportive fact. It's an innocent enough thing to say. We all have memories from things we've read or seen or...
I pause the PVR and blog because I live alone, and don't have any TV watching partners. I watch TV on multiple levels. I think about how what I am watching relates to the real world, and what I can learn from shows. While I watch shows alone these days, I try my best to let myself "think" at least half as much as I would if I was watching it with...
I had a smartphone before you did. Long before. It took me a lot of mental memory just now, but I figured out this is actually my sixth smartphone, and third format change. My first, a black and white Kyocera was my entry into the hand held world of computing and my very first Palm Pilot. This was long before anyone imagined the Internet on a...
The first one that breaks the piñata gets less than everyone else. I just saw a commercial where they implied that training in life is good, and they used an example of a girl who twirled herself at home for hours so she could handle the blindfolded twirl at her birthday party the next day. We then see her at the party, and she hit the piñata...
Canadians have less of a celebrity star system, but we're getting there. I can't explain it, but people seem to enjoy watching actors they know. With some exceptions, we seem to get over stereotyping, and want to see people we've seen in new roles on new shows or in new movies. We get as much excitement out of small stars as we do big stars. ...
Could apple bankrupt AT&T ? If people have a choice, I am led to believe that a lot of people, perhaps almost every iphone owner in the USA would rather have an iPhone on a better network than AT&T. Many non AT&T users might switch and become iPhone users if they didn't have to leave the network they are on now. It seems to be the...
People watching is fun if you just sit somewhere and do it. The Eaton Centre is a strange mall, because it doesn't have its own specific demographic like many of the smaller, less famous malls. Here you will find all the necessary information. It contains everyone from everywhere. It's crowds are made up of tourists and locals; high end and low...
Thinking one person can't make a difference is like thinking one person can't make a path. Walk across grass enough, and you spoil it. It takes surprsingly little.