Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgiving.

Had a nice Thanksgiving with Mom, my brother and his family and my oldest nephew.













I do have a lot to be thankful for and I'm having a good weekend.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Survival Guide

I'll call this Michelle's Survival Guide.


1. Don't be defined by your circumstances or by what other people think. When it gets right down to it, it's what God thinks that counts, and He wants us to trust Him and follow His plan for our lives.

2. Learn to forgive and let go, for your own sake if nothing else. In the long run, the only one you hurt by refusing to forgive is yourself. Forgiving doesn't mean anyone has gotten away with anything; it means you're giving yourself a break.

3. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. You can avoid a lot of problems by doing this.

4. Don't say things about others you wouldn't be willing to say to their face.

5. On the other end of the spectrum, don't say things to others you wouldn't want them to say to you.

6. When you find yourself dealing with conflict, step back and consider what you might be doing to contribute to it. It's very rare for conflict to be completely the fault of one person. Keeping in mind that people who hurt are usually hurting themselves can be helpful. Of course as with anything, there will be exceptions, and no, it's not an excuse for bad behavior. However, realizing it's a problem on their part can keep things in perspective.

7. Ask yourself if it will matter in a year, six months, a month, a day or even an hour from now. If the answer is "no" maybe it's not worth the hassle.

8. It's not mistakes or failure that is the issue; we all fail at times. What really matters is whether you're leaning anything from your mistakes.

9. Remember this too shall pass.

10. Back up all your files.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Random stuff


I’m too young to remember President Kennedy but old enough to remember Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King (and I was pretty young, so the memories are vague).

I live in an ideal area. I am about ten minutes from the nearest library, less than a mile from the nearest fire station, a couple of miles from the police station, about ten or 15 minutes from the beach, a couple of hours from the mountains and desert, ten minutes from the nearest shopping mall, within 20 minutes of an adult school, community college and university, 20 minutes from the airport and three blocks from the grocery store and drug store.

I’ve lived about 45 minutes south of Hollywood my whole life…Believe me, it’s overrated. Some of the history behind how the movie industry got started there in the late 30s/early 40s is interesting, but other than that…Blah. The insane traffic and ridiculous parking alone is enough to give me reason not to go out that way very often.

I love to read and have my nose stuck in a book as much as possible.

I love stuff from the 80s. I love shows like Quantum Leap, Murder She Wrote and Magnum P.I. I also love bands like Journey, REO, Styx, and Foreigner.

The Beatles are the first band I remember liking. I was pretty young, so the memories are vague, but I remember hearing their songs on the radio in the mid-60s and dancing around to them. I thought Paul McCartney was cute even at that young age. Hahaha.

I sing in choir at my church.

I have been going to my church for a little over ten years now.

We went on a family trip to Massachusetts in 1976 and were there for the Bicentennial. Some of the highlights for me were getting to see the Grand Canyon, the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, the Painted Desert, some Civil War battlefields in Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, the Liberty Bell and the Atlantic Ocean. There was other cool stuff, but that was what stood out for me.

Batman is my favorite comic book character.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Emergency!




I got the images from Wikipedia.

One of my favorite shows when I was a kid was Emergency! The storylines centered on the beginning of the paramedic program in the 1970s and followed the adventures of Station 51. There was a good combination of drama (the sometimes scary rescues and scenes at the hospital) and comedy (the amusing and sometimes silly banter between the men at Station 51-Especially Chet and Johnny).




EMS has come a long way since Emergency was on the air. Admittedly some of the situations/dialogue/equipment, etc. are dated now, although for the time it was pretty accurate. I'm working my way through the show on Netflix and it's bringing back some good childhood memories.


I liked the whole cast, but my favorite character was Johnny Gage, charmingly portray by Randy Mantooth. He and Kevin Tighe (Roy Desoto) had good chemistry as partners. Roy's somewhat more serious character brought balance to Johnny's more carefree, no strings on me character.





Sunday, November 10, 2013

Quantum Leap




The images are from Wikipedia.

I watched Quantum Leap back when it was on the air in the late 80s-early 90s. I became reacquainted with QL when it was in reruns on the G4 network (although unfortunately that particular network doesn't exist any longer). QL was and still is one of my favorite shows. It had such a positive, hopeful message, which is something that is rare in entertainment today.

A lot of what made QL special was the chemistry between the two lead actors, Scott Bakula (Sam Beckett) and Dean Stockwell (Al Calavicci). The contrast between Sam's somewhat naïve, idealistic, kind and gentle character and Al's more worldly and irritable (though good-hearted underneath the gruff exterior) character was excellent. Sam and Al often disagreed on various issues, but they did care a great deal for each other.





Also, Sam had to deal with a different situation every week where his job was to "put right what once went wrong." Sam never knew, and neither did fans, what he would have to deal with from leap to leap. Sam was one of the kindest, most unselfish characters in T.V. history. There were times when he got tired of not being able to stay in one place long enough to have a life of his own, but he always did what was right.





A series of Quantum Leap novels and comic books were published from 1990 to 2000, and although I have read and for the most part enjoyed them, the T.V. show is a tough act to follow.








Saturday, November 2, 2013

Pumpkin Patches

It's after Halloween, but it's not too late for autumn-type stuff.



I used to take my oldest nephew to the pumpkin patch around this time of year when he was little.




He's in his 20s now so he's outgrown that, but those were some fun times.