It's OK now ... Alessia was very polite ...

View from my window



Cyclone Alessia approaching ... we are in holding pattern

Last week was a bit like this ...

The Little Spacecraft That Could

I know that I am a little behind the times with this, but feel that that it is still worth a mention ie it's a good news story and we see far too many of the others ...

A long while ago I wrote about another "that could" story ..
http://smouldering-mushroom.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/doug-and-mavis-story-of-little-tug-boat.html

Now it is about the little spacecraft that could ...
http://mobile.seattletimes.com/story/today/2021812804/track-.-.-./

These people sort of fit with my motto - be bold ... be brave ...be lieve.

Just Another Day at the office

Sitting ... Duck!

Workplace Extreme Musical Chairs

According to Wikipedia, Musical Chairs is a game played by a group of people (usually children), often in an informal setting purely for entertainment such as a birthday party. The game starts with any number of players and a number of chairs one fewer than the number of players; the chairs are arranged in a circle (or other closed figure if space is constrained; a double line is sometimes used) facing outward, with the people standing in a circle just outside of that. A non-playing individual (or MC) plays recorded music or a musical instrument. While the music is playing, the players in the circle walk in unison around the chairs. When the music player suddenly stops the music, everyone must race to sit down in one of the chairs. The player who is left without a chair is eliminated from the game, and one chair is also removed to ensure that there will always be one fewer chair than there are players. The music resumes and the cycle repeats until there is only one player left in the game, who is the winner. When down to the last two players the chair may be moved as long as the music has stopped before the chair has been touched.

Also, according to Wikipedia … there is Extreme Musical Chairs: The rules are the same as traditional musical chairs, however, before the players sit down they must complete a task that the music person gives out before each round. For example before sitting in a chair, players must do five jumping jacks or run and touch the wall. Another variation is to have the players hop, jump, walk backwards, or dance while they are walking around the chairs.

Then there is At Work Extreme Musical Chairs … It starts off in a similar fashion; but there are some rule changes.

Rule # 1  The MC should have x contestants dancing to the music.

Rule #2  There should be x-1 chairs arranged.

Rule #3  Rule #2 can be changed at any time by the MC, with the chairs being reduced to x-2.

The music keeps playing, with the beat increasing until someone collapses from exhaustion and is removed from the dance floor.  At that time, the remaining contestants fall exhausted into the remaining chairs.

The music stops.  The Game is over for the moment.

Keep on keeping on ...

This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Sir Winston Churchill

Happy Birthday Charlie

Today would have been Charles Samuel Addams' 100th birthday. He was known to his friends and associates as Chas or Chill, rather than Charlie, but for today, he's Charlie.

As a lad, he was a bit of a rascal and later it was said that "His sense of humor was a little different from everybody else's."

Well, I can relate to that.

It can also explain why I used to so enjoy The Addams Family. Charlie created them, firstly as cartoon characters who easily took to greater things.

Thanks Google.

Happy New Year!

2012 might be the Year of the Dragon, the year of the Farmer and the year of Reading (that is all I have discovered so far ... there are probably more); but I just want it to be THE YEAR of NO FIREWORKS!

I have had enough fireworks!

I don't even mind when they burn up thousands of dollars to celebrate every tin pot little celebration. Well, I would prefer that the money were spent on something more useful and perhaps a little longer lasting. And the smoke, smell and cloud left over is not that pleasant. Also it seems to remind those drongos who have been storing their own fireworks (illegally of course), to bring out a few and see how many people in the suburbs they can annoy. The RSPCA love them too; the fireworks and the drongos - large numbers of lost terrified dogs to console.

Ah well, by tommorrow afternoon, the fireworks, like the hangovers, will be forgotten for a few weeks. And, of course, there is always Australia Day soon to keep the pyrotechnicians in business and the drongos occupied.

Looking back on 2011 ...

Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get.

Mark Twain

Google says it's a Noyce Day

Today would have been Robert Noyce's 84th birthday.

Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel in 1968. He is also credited (along with Jack Kilby) with the invention of the integrated circuit or microchip which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name. Noyce was also a mentor and father-figure to an entire generation of entrepreneurs.

(Thank you Google and Wikipedia)

One step forward and two steps back ...

Carer - definition: a person who has accepted responsibility for looking after a vulnerable relative.

Himself probably didn't realize what he was getting himself in for this time. I know I didn't! I had the idea that this time it would be easier, because we both knew what we were in for. No!

Let's just say it has not always been easy ... for either of us. There have been Words ... LOUD WORDS!

However, he is still showing up for work.

Thanks Mate!

Look out for that Sinkhole!

Recovery this time has definitely been one step forward and two steps back, rather than the hoped for, two steps forward and one step back.

I had a heads up that may be the case but I had hoped the experts might be overdoing the warnings.

They weren't!

I have taken things very carefully; I think some people, on the peripheral, may have even thought I was being too careful.

Sunday morning I woke up to what appeared to be a good day. Then I tried to move. I couldn't.

I won't go into the gruesome details; let's just say the last 3 days have NOT BEEN GOOD. Today is a bit better; I am out of bed and I have decided to look for some humour ... or something ... music perhaps?

Comparatively speaking, I’m quite young …

One of my favourite buddies has his 176th birthday today.

Happy Birthday Samuel! That’s Mark Twain to those of you who don’t know him so well. Interesting man, actually - Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

In his honour, an appropriate quote - Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.


Click here and read more about him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

I think Google get to eat cake …

Progress

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul"

Oscar Wilde

Helpers

"Good friends are like stars..........you don't always see them, but you know they are always there."

More Steps

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."

Sun Tzu

Building Strength

" Order or disorder depends on organisation; courage or cowardice on circumstances; strength or weakess on dispositions."

Sun Tzu

[photo - double helix pedestrian bridge Singapore]

Start Your Engines [ Legs?]

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

Sun Tzu

"THE" hip day

Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.......


Mark Twain