I believe in dragons, good men, and other fantasy creatures

Saw it on a bumper sticker.

(originally posted at MP Dec 15/09 .. didn't export)

testing

testing for the third time .... checked settings here and found out the password to blogger had changed.

Note ... this was done at Multiply and that password to blogger was wrong.

Nothing matters but the weekend from a Tuesday point of view

The Kings - This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide

Released 1980

http://thekingsarehere.com/

The Kings were formed in Vancouver, British Columbia and Oakville, Ontario, Canada. 

Original members were 

  David Diamond, lead vocals, bass guitar, and songwriter

  Sonny Keyes, vocals, keyboards, and songwriter

  Max Styles, drums

  Mister Zero, guitar and songwriter

This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide is actually two songs melded into one and released as one. Is almost six minutes long but I dare anybody to sit still for it haha :D

This Beat Goes On*
(Diamond- Zero)

Hey Judy, get Trudy
You said to call you up if I was feeling moody
Hey little Donna, still wanna
You said to ring you up if I was in Toronto
I have lots of friends that I can ding at any time
Can mobilize some laughs with just one call
Like a bunch of lunatics we'll act till way past dawn
Sure we'll be rockin' till our strength is gone
Yeah This Beat Goes On
Hey ladies you crazies
Me and Zero request you in the Mercedes
And then we'll ride so zoomy inside
The sky's the limit this time I'm Switchin' to Glide
I don't give a hoot about what people have to say
I'm laughin' as I'm analyzed
Lunatics Anonymous that's where I belong
Sure cause I am one till my strength is gone
Yeah This Beat Goes On
I have lots of friends that I can ding at any time
Can mobilize some laughs with just one call
Like a bunch of lunatics we'll act till way past dawn
Sure we'll be rockin' till our strength is gone
Yeah This Beat Goes On

Switchin' To Glide*
(Diamond-Zero)

Nothing matters but the weekend
From a Tuesday point of view
Like a kettle in the kitchen
I feel the steam begin to brew
Switchin' to Glide
Energy can be directed
I'm turning it up I'm turning it down
Even love can be affected
Harmony's the sweetest sound
Switching to Glide..Balancing in my head..inside of me...
taking the glide path instead.
Everybody gets the no-no
Hear it ringing in they ears
Lots of ways that you can go GO!
Look around NO disappears

http://youtu.be/sxkjvKBPQjo

Music ... part one?

One thing that saved my sanity a time or two since I was old enough to remember was music. Started off with just a cheap AM radio. Do you remember those? Before the FM band came along. If I remember correctly, my parents had a couple '78's. Remember them? We had nothing to play those old relics on until the day I got a turn table that looked like a suitcase that played the 78's, 45's, and 33 1/3's. I loved that thing. Eventually started adding to the LP collection. Unfortunately, money was tight and used whatever I made babysitting in town, to get LP's like Canada Gold, where more than one artist and group was listed. After amassing a few LP's and almost wearing out that suitcase turn table, I was surprised one Christmas with a new stereo. Separate receiver with AM/FM radio and an 8-track player, separate turn table, and two decent speakers. I wore out that turn table as I continued to add to my LP collection and took the whole lot of it with me when I finished high school and move out of my parents home to make my way in the world. I still have all those LP's, and had even added to the collection when others were 'throwing them out' sort of thing. I've gone through three turn tables over the years and hate that I can't listen to those LP's at the moment. I inherited my grandfathers' 6 piece stereo system and the turntable part has belt issues.

I would rather listen to music than watch tv. I've got my favorite radio station tuned in almost everywhere. My car. My alarm clock.  And if I need a change of pace, I pop in a cd into the dvd player hooked up to my tv and listen through my grandfather's stereo speakers. Or a couple dvd's of live performances (Eagles Farewell 1 Tour is a favorite). Or go on YouTube to find long ago forgotten artists and groups.

The one draw back to radio's, and compiled LP's, audio tapes, and cd's is that you only hear one, maybe two, songs of a particular artist or group. I missed so many good songs all these years.

Heard a song on the radio one day a few weeks ago and thought "oh yeah, I remember that song". Decided to look them up on YouTube. The song might have been their version of Spooky. Well, once I started clicking through other YouTube video's posted of them and discovering all the songs I didn't hear before, what with having multi-artist LP's, I fell in love with everything the Atlanta Rhythm Section had ever done with lead singer Ronnie Hammond and guitarist extraordinaire Barry Bailey (pictured). I'm looking for ways to get a hold of all their music from that time period. For now, I have to settle with clicking on the favorite option and put them in a playlist of their own in my YT account.

It might sound weird, but I don't need quiet, non-lyrical music to calm me down or to escape my own thoughts. I can do it quite easily with any kind, but my music of choice is rock or classic rock. Between my LP's and my cd's, my music ranges from the 60's to the 70's to the 80's to almost todays stuff in rock. I have some New Country cd's. Easy Listening like Enya, Enigma, Yanni. Groups like Three Dog Night, The Eagles, Van Halen, AC/DC, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Metallica, Nazareth, Elton John, Big and Rich, Garth Brooks, Billy Ray Cyrus, Boney M, Pink Floyd .. I couldn't list it all here. And Canadian artists .. I tend to stay loyal and supportive of them. I haven't seen many concerts over the years, but the only non-Canadian one I saw many years ago was Chuck Mangione. 

I don't know what it was about music when I was young. And I started quite young, running around outside with a little transistor radio. Well, I do know, but that's another story but maybe a little odd for someone as young as I was to immerse themselves in music like I did. I was the only one in my family and still am. And still misunderstood. 

Music is ingrained in my soul. Never learned to fully play an instrument, guitar being my weapon of choice and still might learn how to play it one day. I was in grade one when I bugged my parents about music lessons and wanted to learn the guitar (yeah, even way back then). Just the local music teacher that taught students as young as me taught accordian. So I did do that for a year, until we moved and the travel back and forth was too much of an undertaking. 

I do so appreciate the talents of others. Makes a stressful day a little bit calmer to deal with. Even if it has an up beat and I'm caught dancing or be-bopping around my living room. 

I am set free.

  

HELLLPPPP !!

My cat, KC, is trying to tell me something. 

What do you suppose it might be ? 

What can you hold without ever touching it ?

Knock knock .. anybody home?

Okay, I know. Disappeared again. This time it wasn't so long though. A lot of stuff .. aka crap .. I had to sort out. No, I haven't got it all sorted out, but think I'm finally on the right path about it all.

I was driving myself crazy with the stress and frustration over that second job I had. How the bosses 'would not say what they mean and would not mean what they say'. Saying one thing, and then not backing it up with action. That bugs me more than anything. Do not tell me what a caring and compassionate company you are, then leave me feeling like you just kicked my son to the curb by your actions. I spent seven-and-a-half months part time, three-and-a-half months full time, a month-and-a-half back at part time, only to be kicked out mid-August when I chose my son over them. They just figured I would throw Billy into a group home as he was 'inconvenient' for me to work full time afternoons. I know, the idea was you have other full time drivers over the barrel, where they have to kiss your backside to keep their job. I refused to do that. They lied from the get-go and I said enough is enough.

Then I was trying to figure out what my purpose ... what was really the intention .. of joining a few websites. Blogger ... FB .. Multiply ... G+ ... WordPress. I was running around those sites feeling like a lost soul. Okay, there was a purpose to it all, but it sure wasn't clear to me at first. The blogging sites? It was hard to get it through my thick head that people would read them. If they chose to read whatever I put there. So old habits and training were getting in the way. I was afraid I would offend someone, inadvertently, by whatever I put there. So I just didn't. Well, barely anyways. The past continued to haunt me still. And one does not ditch almost five decades of training overnight either. So this isn't a lightbulb instantaneous moment here.

First there was the quote my friend Jeannie turned me onto a few months back, when it came to dealing with those turkeys at my second job.

Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear a word you say.

I liked it enough that I used it as a signature at the bottom of my emails in my 'biz' account, so those turkeys would see it as part of any emails I sent to them.

Then there was a beginning post (for me anyways) by a friend about being a procrastinator, which was right before being an introvert. Okay, I knew I procrastinated a bit too much at times. Is the way I am wired. But introvert? I had to find out more about it. Once I did the search on the web and read up a bit more about introverts vs extroverts, then it made a bit more sense to me. Could never figure out why I wasn't the party animal type .. why I wasn't the prolific blogger and being comfy as that .. why I wasn't the chatty Cathy type. Oh, I did realize that walking in to a room full of strangers would cause a mild anxiety attack, but never knew why I could be so different. Introvert huh? Okay, I understand things better now. Doubt I'll ever be an extrovert or do a great impersonation of one either, but I can make an attempt to get out of that box I stuck myself in though. haha

I came here to Multiply one night, a few weeks back, and started going through my old posts. Re-read a lot of them. Remembering the feeling I had doing certain ones .. how much I enjoyed doing those particular blogs. Figuring out why I walked away from the United Friends Challenge blogs. Why I would feel like my poetry was never 'good enough'. Just because of the way I do them? Yeah, that bothered me .. my style. I came back several times to read them. What was it about those blogs I enjoyed doing? What was it about those poems?

Got talking to Jeannie one night via her AOL/my AIM messenger. I forgot how the whole conversation got around to it, but I signed into Multiply here to copy and paste those particular blogs and my poetry into emails for her to read. And we talked about them. The 'aha' moment for me didn't happen that night though. I still had to figure it out.

Then I got an inkling of what was going on. Never mind I was afraid of offending anybody. I was afraid there would never be 'approval'. Approval? What? But I still didn't quite get it. Until I saw this quote on the web by accident one day ...

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than write for the public and have no self.
Cyril Connolly (1903-1974)

AHA !!!

That's what made those particular blogs and my poetry special. I didn't do them seeking approval from anybody for them. I didn't worry about offending anybody when I did them either.  I was being my quirky self those times. Oh, I know, my quirkiness sneaks out from time to time elsewhere, but I was too hung up on writing for 'others' most of the time. The expectation they might get read. And not getting read was bumming me out badly. What would they think of what I wrote? I was too conscious of other people possibly reading my ramblings. I wasn't doing it for my self, for my own pleasure. 

Baby steps. I signed in today and immediately went over to the Sidewalk Cafe. After chuckling over the two 'picture challenge' blogs there, I decided to bring the third one here, to this place. Humor is a good place to restart. Humor and music. And maybe a bit of rambling from time to time :D

  

Pic Challenge anyone ?

Picture Challenge, should you choose to accept it ...


Write a caption for this. Whatever immediately comes to your mind when you see this.

I want to know how your mind works hahaha 

No winners or losers here. Just a bit o' fun :)

Beautiful

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yes ? 

Can something be beautiful and haunting at the same time ? Sure. Most definitely.

If you were to look at something, not knowing it's history or circumstances of how or when or why, would you still feel it is both beautiful and haunting at the same time? Guess that would depend on how you perceive things, in general. 

Go into a museum and take a look at some of the artifacts there. If there wasn't a little plaque depicting the history of what you were looking at, would you see it as haunting while seeing it as beautiful? You might see it as old and beautiful. You might not see it as beautiful. But would you see it as haunting if the plaque didn't say it came from some battle site during WW1 or WW2 where many lost their lives?

Could you drive one of the highways in Northern Ontario, for instance, where there are many rock faces within a couple feet of the roadway, where one wrong move on your part, or someone else's part, would have you being rudely introduced to that rock face and still see the beauty? What if one of those rock faces had a small cross at it's base, where someone carefully and lovingly wrote out the name and date of the person that died in that spot one day? Would it still be beautiful, while haunting? 

The online Free Dictionary web site defines haunting as ...

adj

1. (of memories) poignant or persistent

2. poignantly sentimental; enchantingly or eerily evocative

hauntingly adv

I'm a big fan of black and white still photography. You're not predisposed to thinking one way or the other because of colors assaulting your eyes. And I don't mean the pictures of grandma and your dad as a young boy, even though they would bring about a bunch of questions, my imagination, and wonder. I mean the pictures that were taken at a moment in time and you might see it differently than I do.

Photography Graphics

Look familiar? Not anybody I know, but think somewhere in the family photo archives, is a picture similar to this. It's beautiful, funny, cute, and one sees the clothes and the camera box and thinks about what that time in life might have been like (if one isn't old enough to have lived it, that is lol) But haunting? Not to me it isn't. Just a real neat black and white photograph of a time gone by. 

Now what if you were told the history of those three kids, and it was such that brought out an emotional response from deep within you? Would you still see that picture the same?

What about this one ? 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregory_bastien/page6/

Just a street on a rainy day ? Sure. We don't know the history of why that particular street on that particular day was taken. The emotional response we get from it is that we like the look of it, the composition of it. Might imagine ourselves walking along an intersecting road, camera at hand, turning the corner and having this catch our sight. What a great photo it would make! you think. So you stop and take the picture. But having come across it in your thread or an image search, where no profile of it is available, would you see it as haunting? Maybe. Maybe not. Your past experiences, your life up to the point you see this picture, might determine that. 

While I was perusing the web this morning, I went to Yahoo Canada for a peek at the latest news. No, I'm not interested in the Paris Hilton's, the Kardashians, or the like, so I'll skip over those. I'm not up on baseball or football, so I might skip those articles. Nascar? I mostly will stop and read anything about them. Hockey? Usually. Especially if it involves any of my son's favorite teams or players. The WWE? Yes, also because my son is a big fan. Politics? It depends on what the headline says. Person of interest stories? Maybe. News around the world? Maybe. All depends on the headline. 

Then I came across a headline that really caught my eye. It had the word 'beautiful' in it, while mentioning a recent storm. The quick caption of the first couple sentences made me click the link. Hauntingly gorgeous? This I have to see ! 

It's a video that two men had shot in their neighbourhood. If one was to take the video as is or to break it down into still black and white photo's, it would remain beautiful. But if you didn't know the circumstances of why these two men took this video, would you still see it as haunting? 

Nadine Bell of Yahoo Canada News says ... The words "beautiful" and "hurricane' are rarely used in the same sentence, but footage taken last weekend of Hurricane Irene ravaging a Manhattan neighbourhood is undeniably beautiful, it not haunting. 

How often is a Manhattan neighbourhood this empty of traffic and pedestrians? I couldn't say as I've never been there. But I do think it doesn't happen often. Not even in the dead of night. The video shows an emptiness on the streets and in the subway stations. A cop slowly cruising down a street. A lone pedestrian off to the side. Very, very empty. If one didn't know it was taken during Hurricane Irene and not knowing it was filmed in Manhattan, one might just see a city experiencing a rainfall. The rain hitting the drenched pavement. Droplets off a metal railing. The wind fluttering plastic, signal lights, and signs. Just another rainy day somewhere. It's when you are told it was taken in Manhattan during Hurricane Irene that might cause you to see it differently .. see it hauntingly.

(Nadine Bell's words) Credit goes to Felix Thompson and Brandon Roots of Buffalo Picture House who shot the remarkable scenes from their neighbourhood, capturing New York City from a point of view we may never see repeated.

Maybe one day when I have my own shop, we can work together and smell the same........... The rules of the game: grab the book closest to you, turn to page 56, write the fifth sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your status. (thanks Meirav lol)

Maybe one day when I have my own shop, we can work together and smell the same........... The rules of the game: grab the book closest to you, turn to page 56, write the fifth sentence as your status. Don't mention the book. Post these rules as part of your status. (thanks Meirav lol)

ARS - Do IT Or Die

Atlanta Rhythm Section

Don't let your troubles make you cry
Don't waste a moment wonderin' why
When everything goes wrong
You have to go on and do it or die

Do it or die now stand your ground
Don't let your bad breaks go gettin' you down
Even when times get rough and you've had enough
You still gotta try

Do it no matter what the people say
They don't even know you
Die before you let them stand in your way
Don't you know that

You should know that life is a gamble all along
Winners are losers who keep rollin' on
So go on and roll the dice you only live twice
Do it or die

Do it no matter what the people say
They don't even know you
Die before you let them stand in your way
Don't you know that

I know that life is a gamble all along
Winners are losers who keep rollin' on
So go on and roll the dice you only live twice
So do it or die

You got nothin' to lose just go on
Roll the dice you only live twice
Do it or die

R.I.P. Ronnie. 

I feel a major growl coming on very very soon. Going to bare my teeth and have the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Anybody with me ??

I feel a major growl coming on very very soon. Going to bare my teeth and have the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Anybody with me ??

One thing explained ? Revisited

I have just had a couple of interesting days. Oh? you ask (lol). It had to do with a post by one contact, where I had to lie ... yes, I said lie ... on how I met her. The instructions were to post it once I answered the request. And as with any writing challenge, whether it be a story or a poem, I have to feel it to do it, so it did take me a few hours to honor the request. Then I posted my own, got a couple good stories, one was re-posted on their site (to which I haven't repLIED yet lol) and another got her start from others. Taking what Sue put on my post, I touched upon her repLIE and ran with it .. same direction but different.

Which got the person that I got the post from, and I talking about the writers challenge group I once belonged to, and enjoyed while life was getting in the way. Digging out those stories for her, I was going through some of my older blogs before her and I became friends. And I came across a particular one.

I don't know if you visit my site itself, or read anything I post via the panorama feature of the inbox, but if you visit my site on a tab, have you ever noticed what the tab itself says?

Go on. I'll give you a minute in case you don't (haha)

When I first got to Multiply, my site title was not going to be Patti. Nope. Nothing to do whether I like the name or not. My site title was going to represent the journey I had been undertaking since I was about 43. I would say 'last year' but some of you have known me much too long here to get away with that one hahaha

Until a day or two ago, all it said was Lace. And yes, if you look at my site itself, you won't see it. 0px in the CSS code works wonders for that trick. You can only see it when viewing it as a tab. At present, it says Lace's Journey. 

While I was over at Yahoo! 360, I had done up a blog about how "Lace" came about. When I landed here on the shore of MPLand, I transferred over the blog. Then one day, I tried to edit it .. make it more readable or something .. and totally wiped it out except for the picture. So I had to re-do it in a new blog. 

I was reading it tonight, checked the viewing history, and realized that I didn't know most of you when I redid the blog. 

Well? Just in case you had ever noticed the tab said Lace instead of Patti and wondered why, this will tell you. 

 http://wolvesandrainbows.multiply.com/journal/item/241/One_thing_explained_

Just remember, it was a few years ago that I made the original blog, and it was a few years later that I redid it, after screwing up the imported blog. hmmmm I just took a peek through the media locker, and the date of my first few blogs that I transferred over from Y! 360 the hard way (the import tool wasn't into being yet) was Nov. 14 '07. I'm here not quite four years yet ? wow That post doesn't say when I posted it originally though. No matter. I know how old I am hahaha 

PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THESE INSTRUCTIONS: I would like you to comment about how you met me. But I want you to LIE. That's right, just make it up. After you comment, copy this to your own page, so I can do the same. I dare you lol

PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THESE INSTRUCTIONS: I would like you to comment about how you met me. But I want you to LIE. That's right, just make it up. After you comment, copy this to your own page, so I can do the same. I dare you lol

Sunset Thinking

Sunset Thinking

Do you ever watch the sunset

And just sit and think about things

Just you and the sky and darkness

Giving your thoughts some wings

Perhaps you've got some troubles

And don't know what to do

Or you just plain need to get away

To spend a little time with you

Sunset beauty makes you feel as though

Your life has meaning after all

To see a sight so extraordinary

Makes you feel capable, srong and tall

It’s funny how flashes of color

Like a sunset or sunrise can inspire

It can calm your inner self a bit

It’s a scene you can never tire 

The serenity gives you a chance

To put things in perspective

Life can be overwhelming at times

And a sunrise can be reflective

So when the sky lights up next time

Let your gaze do some drinking

Soak up and the amazing sights

And do some sunset thinking! 

Marilyn Lott

Shhhh .... I think I'm being ignored

Shhhh .... I think I'm being ignored