Product Reviews

On a lark, I downloaded a puzzle app to my iPad. It was free, so I thought, "what the heck."

Eventually, I downloaded the pay version (big deal, it was only 3 bucks!), because I've found it to be a wonderful way to relax at night. What I really like about it is that I can use any picture I find on the Internet or out of my personal photo albums to create puzzles. Friends, beware, many of you have turned into a puzzle, especially if there's an animal in the picture with you! I can also make them hard or easy to do, depending on the brain cells I have left at the end of the day.

I now look at almost every picture as a puzzle, which is kind of fun. I find at least two new pictures a day (typically more than 10) to fill my puzzle bucket. I think I look at pictures differently now. I am drawn to the more intense photos in a way that I've never been before. I think that's kind of neat that something so simple has changed the way I look at things.

Much can be said about many things in life, I guess.

Fair warning, I'm reading a book by Iyanla Vanzant, "Peace From Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through." Ms. Vanzant has been with me in the past when I was ready for a spiritual growth spurt. Her words resonate in me like no other author I've read. I read eBooks, so here's where imma gonna write down the stuff I want to savor.

EXCERPT:

It is often difficult to identify the exact moment that your life falls apart. In most cases, it is not a one-shot deal. If you ask most people who have had the experience of losing everything they love or believe in, they will probably say it was not one telephone call or one letter, one revelation or realization that caused the collapse of life as they knew it. I now understand that my life fell apart one piece at a time. Piece by piece; one experience, one situation, and one circumstance at a time, until I found myself standing in the midst of a heap of broken promises, splintered relationships, and shattered dreams. It is not a place I ever imagined I would find myself again, after I had gotten through it the first fifty or sixty times.

The breaking down into pieces of a life is a painful thing to watch and even more painful to endure. Even more devastating is that as your life begins to unravel, day by day, piece by piece, there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. You see what is happening. You know what is happening. And, you want anything other than what is happening to happen. You see, somewhere deep inside, we all know that lives are not built to fall apart. That is just not what lives are meant to do. The lives we are given by God are meant by God to grow, to blossom and flourish. The reality is, however, lives do crumble.

I now realize that lives fall apart when they need to be rebuilt. Lives fall apart when the foundation upon which they were built needs to be re-laid. Lives fall apart, not because God is punishing us for what we have or have not done. Lives fall apart because they need to. They need to because they weren’t built the right way in the first place. I came to this realization one day, after many days, weeks, months, and years of trying to fix the cracks in my foundation. One day, one moment of time, as I sat helplessly surveying the broken pieces of my mind, heart, and life, I recognized that a broken life is a test of faith of the highest order.

....WOW

If you have a chance, I'd highly recommend watching the documentary "Dad's in Heaven with Nixon". It's on Showtime On Demand and is truly wonderful.

The main focus of the story is a 50 year old man with autism. The story also delves into a family history of mental illness (his father and grandfather), which was less interesting to me, but interesting nonetheless.

I love the relationship he has with the brother who is filming the documentary. I love the respect and tenderness which is evident between the brothers. Hearing how Christopher has evolved over the years and his ability to live on his own and hold two jobs is simply amazing.

I think the most precious thing to me are the interviews with Christopher. He's very childlike but what strikes me the most is how honest he is. He doesn't have the filters to hold back what he's thinking and quite frankly I really like the way he thinks.

For someone supposedly limited in some ways, he has so much stuff all figured out. He's inspired every day to take us to places where the clouds are always full and white and fluffy, and the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is always shining. All he asks from us is love and approval from those that he cherishes the most.
~Christopher's brother

It's an amazing story.

Favorite co-worker (now an ex co-worker) emailed me this morning saying I had to call him immediately about a feature in MS Office 2007, so of course I did. I will never pass up an opportunity to talk about geeky stuff.

Turns out that Excel has some awfully cool new features that would have been GREAT to have on projects we used to work on together, so we reminisced about how AWESOME our reports would have been.

I snapped him out of his remorse by saying, "But the cool thing is that you have it NOW and you still get to make reports!".

See? There's always a bright side.

I just finished watching On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (the link takes you to the trailer). I'm a closet Barbra Streisand movie aficionado, but even more I *adore* the outfits she's wearing in this movie! If I were younger, I could see myself wearing all of them. At my age, I'd look rIdIcUlOuS. ::sigh:: Getting old is really a drag for people who like to wear fun stuff. There gets to be a point where instead of looking fun and hip, you end up looking like a wackadoo.

There are two eras of clothing/hair/jewelry that I'm drawn to; late 1960's 'mod' fashion and 1940's fashion.

The 1960's fashion was cute and quirky, probably explaining why I love Pushing Daisies so much. I adore the clothes that Chuck and Olive wear. Oh and by the way? I want Kristin Chenoweth's figure for Christmas. Is that asking too much?

1940's was hands-down glamorous. The shoes (oh the shoes!), the seamed stockings, the hats and the jewelry. ::Swoon:: I think I could walk right into that era and feel right at home. 1940's goes further than just fashion, I adore the music from that era- especially the blues.

BJ and I have developed a different sleep schedule, which I'll need to rectify. Since I've had this darned flu, I've been napping during the day so I'm not ready to hit the sack at 8:30 PM like he is. This morning I slept until 11:55 a.m. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've done that, but I didn't wake up even once between that and the time I went to bed last night so I know I needed the sleep. I'm sure glad that I can work from home because just going out to BJ's holiday party last night set me WAY back on the road to flu recovery. I think the best plan for me is to stay indoors in my jammies for the next few days so I can be well for Christmas Eve.

Anywhocares, all of this stuff which seems to be a “this and that”, truly is tied together. I’ve found a very long and windy way to explain why I'm watching a bunch of old movies that BJ would hate. I have a Roku, allowing me to watch from a HUGE assortment of movies whenever I want. It's fabulous because I can search for stuff on my laptop and then add it to my on demand movie list. I think I'm going to search for something made in the 1940's now; preferably something with Cary Grant. That way I can have my 1960's and 1940's fashion fix.

That is, after I make myself a nice hot cuppa Bigelow Ginger Snappish herbal tea. That stuff is DEEEElish, and the box it comes in is really cute!