Geek Habitat

{stolen from a post I just wrote on a password-protected blog I follow. The impetus was a recurring theme about the person’s fear of flying, which itself is okay — I guess (I personally think it’s overcome-able, with patience and education). But when that fear keeps you from doing things you WANT TO DO, like take an unexpected trip or see something you’ve always wanted to see, well then, that’s just wrong.}

Here’s my personal life statement. Do with it what you will (it may not work for you, but I used to not do a lot of things out of fear of “what might happen”):

Don’t let your FEARS stand in the way of enjoying your LIFE.

When I met my husband in ‘88, I doubt you could have *paid* me to climb into a single-engine aircraft. I’d only been on one commercial jet flight, and that was right after a major airline crash (so despite my being 13 and on the plane alone at the time, the people behind me spent the WHOLE FLIGHT debating how likely another plane might crash soon… it’s like our culture almost THRIVES on fear. We make TV shows about it, for chrissakes!)

Anyway. On my deathbed, or with my last breath or last thought, I want to know that I did the very best I could to enjoy my life and help those around me enjoy their lives. If that means that I get run over by a stampeding horse someday while hiking on a quiet Texas trail, so-be-it. If that means a mysterious flock of birds swarms me, pecks me alive and sends me into a coma while I’m out birdwatching for hours on the Texas coast, so-be-it.

I understand having kids changes it a little, but it’s really still very simple. Don’t let your FEARS stand in the way of *their* LIVES is what the saying graduates to…

Otherwise, it’s all just a footnote on your life of “What Might Have Been…” or “If Only…”

One of the saddest things in life, to me, is missed opportunities. Not silly things like “I could’ve been a rock star, if…” (I couldn’t have, for the record) but things like “I wonder what it would have been like to go on that trip …” or “I wonder what it would have been like to pursue that interest I’ve been harboring quietly for years…” or whatnot.

Am I a perfect student of my own philosophy? Heck no! I have fears. Oddly enough, one of my biggest is driving. It’s taken until now (age 30) for me to feel comfortable behind the wheel. Hell, I didn’t even get my license until I was 18 because I was so deathly afraid of the driver’s test! I’ve never been in an accident or ticketed, but in high school there was a string of auto deaths of people in my class and that coupled with a minor accident my mother had with us (as children) in the car, and several serious accidents my younger brother had in his early teens. That, and of course the dreaded Driver’s Ed “education video” of maimed drivers, did me in. I still dislike driving, but there are actually days now I will get in the car and “go for a drive” to relax… that would’ve been unheard of several years ago.

Repeat after me:
FEAR is the mind-killer.

— Added after my post on the other blog:
FEAR is the drug we use to avoid facing new, challenging or potentially difficult situations. COURAGE and FAITH are what we use to overcome fear and ultimately triumph over it and ENJOY LIFE.

If someone gave me a paid ticket to do an introductory sky dive (I’ve never jumped out of a perfectly good aircraft… or been in one in any serious trouble, for that matter), you know what? I’d … JUMP … at the chance. If the chute didn’t deploy, how is that any different than if your vehicle’s brakes fail or some drunk driver decides his path and yours are destined to collide as you’re making your way home after a long day at work? How is fear useful in these situations? AWARENESS of RISK certainly is. I’ve told Justin I won’t fly with him on one or two occasions because I “got a feeling” when an aircraft failed to start as smoothly or easily as it should — my rational mind knows that once the battery and starter gets the propeller going, it’s good to go and will recharge the battery. But it’s the same thing as deciding not to ride a rollercoaster when you’re feeling a little quesy from too much food, or deciding NOT to leave at rush hour on a long, cross-country trip. It’s managing risks that people need to focus on, and let fear remain where it belongs — in movies and ghost stories.

Still fighting off my headache (it’d help if I would take a break from the computer, or go to sleep which at 2:15 AM is sort of the normal thing to do!)

In the meantime, I started fiddling around with some photos I took a week or so ago at a neighborhood playground. Weather-beaten, happy-children-worn playground equipment is pretty irresistable to photograph, especially after a morning rainshower provides perfect lighting.

PS: I know it’s not terribly original, and certainly not too terribly funny to those affected, but –
4 hurricanes in Florida, deadly floods in Japan, a “swarm” of earthquakes in California, AND Mount St. Helens stirring once again
WHAT … the … HELL ?!

Noah’s entry about being told by security, “you can’t photograph here” outside a famous landmark in Los Angeles reminds me I have yet to do a proper entry about my feelings regarding our post-9/11 world. Specifically, my feelings regarding the erosion of people’s “inalienable rights” to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. In my Life, three such Pursuits — General Aviation (GA), photography and public access to City, State & Federal parklands — are very much “under fire” due to rampant fears and knee-jerk reactions in our terror-ridden world.

Unfortunately, my mind’s presently quite fuzzy (headache) and my eyes are far too dry (too much time behind this computer), so this entry is merely a placeholder and reminder that I have some words to say …

While commenting to an entry in a password-protected blog I read daily, I was struck with the seed of an idea. Until I can actually ACT on it properly, I wanted to repost a portion of my comments here.

The Idea is to share and thus document the family traditions and quirky sayings I’ve grown up with or that have developed as the new generation (our nieces and nephews) grow up. Every family has these and thus, while the ones I document will be of greatest interest just to immediate family, other families should do the same. (No, I’m not planning a whole ‘nother website on this, though the idea could certainly support a community-based website. I have way too many website ideas in the works and “simmering” on back burners right now to entertain another — I just had another idea for one this morning that I will act on, if I can find a decent domain name for it.)

SO —

My Family’s Traditions and Sayings
(The quirkier, the better …)

** … I still remember a visit to a canyon in North Texas with my then barely old enough to talk nephew. He took one look at the canyon from the car window as we descended into it (I’m sure all he could see were the canyon walls) and hollered out, “BIG HOLE!”

Now, 8 years later, anytime we adults see a canyon invariably one of us will pipe up “BIG HOLE!” much to the confusion of any non-relatives within earshot.

** I think it’s stolen from “Alice in Wonderland” but we like to tell each other, “HAPPY un-BIRTHDAY!” whenever someone seems to need a little good-natured cheering up. You see, we each have 364 “un-Birthdays” so there’s an excellent supply. Why save all the specialness for just that one day of the year that you were born?

** We have another saying that tends to occur not just on birthdays but whenever the mood strikes: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KITTY CAT!”

My Mom swears I uttered it on my birthday one year when I was very young. I guess I felt sorry for our cats (whose birthdays we never celebrated, obviously ? I seemed to feel the cats needed to hear “Happy Birthday!” too.

More to come … Mom, Dad, Bro, Justin, Jack & Jerry, etc… feel free to comment with any I’ve forgotten or left off. Love ya’ll!

… I am addicted to computer input devices — keyboards, mice, trackballs.

Awhile back, I wrote about buying a new trackball. The “honeymoon period” was still in effect, so I thought I’d found a new alterate input device to alleviate some of my computing overuse wrist pain. In the end, the trackball wasn’t compatible with my hand.

Computer input devices are a personal thing, at least when you spend as many hours on a computer as many of us do. I’ll grant you that most people don’t do 14 consecutive hours on a computer with no breaks (“Lunch/Dinner, what’s that?!”) — I don’t either, very often at least, but that’s what has caused my latest tenosynovitis wrist flare-up.

So, I bought a new mouse last night on a whim. I “blame” it on Dad. He’s had this particular make & model for a couple weeks now. I resisted the infatuation on my first meeting with it, but the second time was the clincher! It fits my hand like a glove, offers exceptionally good precision, has a very well thought-out interface and only requires a very light touch for all input. And it’s cordless and has a a laser — what more does a geek need?! It’s the Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse and it’s on its way here as I type! At least with this mouse, I’ve gotten to actually hold and use it for a bit beyond the in-store mouse fondling we otherwise have to resort to.

The Logitech trackball I purchased awhile back I really wanted to love — it was well-designed and had a solid feel to it, but after contin

ued heavy use for a week or so I developed new sources of pain in my wrist and discovered that any thumb-controlled trackballs just weren’t a good idea for my hands. I come from the Atari generation, after all, so my strongest fingers are my index and middle fingers — the classic gamers’ “trigger fingers” on old style console games. In the Nintendo/SEGA generation, your thumbs do a lot more work, it seems. Which is why I can’t play many games against my nephew before I have to beg off because my wrists are killin’ me!

Have I found mouse nirvana, similar to the keyboard nirvana I found when I first used a Microsoft Natural Keyboard several years ago? I have a strong suspicion I may have. A trackball was never meant to be my full-time input device, but somehow that’s what it developed into. Having choices, like so many things in life, is a good thing when it comes to mice/keyboards/trackballs as well. If I do too much with one, I can switch and help “spread the load” on my hand to get a little more work out of it before pain forces me to truly take a break — such as the past 2 days I’ve taken off work to help recover from several back-to-back 14+ hour days (with more to come! But it’s FUN STUFF, and MY STUFF, and I wouldn’t change it for the world — lest anyone thing I’m actually complaining!)

- Shan

Justin and I took our nephew downtown to the Institute of Texan Cultures on Saturday to meet a a Tyrranosaurus Rex named “Sue” — the most complete T. rex skeleton yet discovered. After meeting “Sue” and learning about the 40 deadliest dinosaurs of all time from Dinosaur George, we walked to the Tower of the Americas (Hemisfair Tower) and took the 1 minute/11 mile per hour elevator trip to the observation deck.

My right wrist and arm’s in an over-use flareup so I didn’t bring my camera; no matter, Justin was on fire, capturing some wonderful photographs I have to share — including a casual portrait of me I’m actually happy with (a rarity!)

T. rex named “Sue”

Justin’s casual portrait of me (Shannon) at the Tower