Everything & Anything

Sociogram - a word I coined from "Social Media" and "Programme." I like to think I am "techy" and "in" with the latest gadgets and innovations. I believe in technology - I can be quite lazy so anything that will make my life easier is always welcome! I must confess though, that keeping up with the social media trends has been a real chore for me. I appreciate the whole global village thing and how everyone is in everyone's business and how we have taken exhibitionism and voyeurism to heights hitherto unimagined. But I just do not think that my life is anyone's business or that anyone is or should be THAT interested in my business or wants to hear about my mundane or otherwise existence! With Twitter, I can share my cough with the whole world in a millisecond. With Instagram, I could probably magnify a microscopic snapshot of the germs from when I coughed and share with the world. And I would have followers too, plenty. You see, huma...

Will I be a terribly shallow person if I said I liked selfies? Of myself, of course. I must say, a lot of preparation goes into a selfie shot. My fellow Selfians know what I mean. You are all dolled up, the dolling up a careful process - the make up must be just right, the hair just so. The arch of your eyebrows, if not natural, then skillfully pencilled in must be perfect. There's a particular look you want to achieve - beautiful (at least in your eyes) and carelessly poised. Yes, carelessly poised, two very unlikely cohorts but there you have them. Because, really, that's what Selfie's are about. Careless poise, looking like you just woke up pretty, made up and so very cute. My phone picture folder is full of selfies. Smiling, straight-faced, looking happy, haughty, serious. But in all of them I look quite nice, even if I say so myself. Come on, who doesn't get a lift from seeing a beautiful photo of themselves? Never mind if anyone else disagrees with how you ...

I have found my posts spectacularly vapid, heh heh heh. Bloggers block or something. Anyway, the LGBT thing has had me wondering. LGBT - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, right? An "initialism", according to wikipedia. First time I have come across that word. Yep, of course I am going to look it up, investigate its origins, how it is used and why it was used in place of maybe "acronym," or why.....okay, I digress. Forgive me. I believe I have a touch of ADD (an ACRONYM for Attention Deficit Disorder, without the "Hyper") and that makes me a bit unfocused and....okay, okay. Back to LGBT. I wonder why it isn't just Homosexuals, Bisexuals and Transgender - HBT or HoBiT? Ah, well, HBT sounds like some hormone therapy and HoBiT just brings to mind short, clumpy people with disproportionately large feet walking barefoot like Bilbo Baggins. There's enough prejudice without adding the comic factor to the whole thing. But, isn't a lesbian gay...

It's Monday again, the beginning of the week for those of us in the Western World. Wishing you a wonderful week. Words are wonderful things. In any language, they convey a gamut of emotions and, strung together, express so much. Do you have a favourite word or two? I have several. I am fascinated by words. How one word can mean at several different and unrelated things - like how "Rake" can mean a dissolute person or a libertine or a garden implement, or ransack or scrape, or glance over rapidly or an inclination from the horizontal (a slope) or the overhang of a ship's bow or stern! One word, several meanings. I am also taken by how words sound and how they are spelled - encyclopaedia or encyclopedia, according to the Americans. I think my Dad is to blame for my fascination with words. As an 8 year old, he engaged me in his version of spelling bees. I learned that words ending with "-gue" had the "ue" silent and that the Americans discarded ...

A churning rage, Dangerous. An eruption of epic proportions, Peace it may bring. A glorious unleashing of the beast within, To let it roar, just once. Giving in to the darkness. But, what more? Pain? Sorrow? The regret of words uttered, Unfettered, unretractable. What to do with the rage? Where to ground the spikes of burning currents, Safely so it does no harm? You want it to sear, but only briefly. To hurt but only fleetingly. Neither possible, For control is fragile. What to do? What to do?

Grief is an emotion we have or will experience at some point in our lives. Grief over people and, maybe, of things lost. What is grief, really? It, according to Merriam-Webster online, can be "deep sadness caused especially by someone's death", "a cause of deep sadness", or "trouble or annoyance". The first definition, in my opinion, should be extended to include the death of something. But, thinking about the second definition, I wonder if that is not a more  complete and exhaustive application of the word. If defining grief as "a cause of deep sadness" does not  cover the emotion evoked by the death of a loved one, the loss of something precious, a missed opportunity, a mishap, a regrettable choice or even the actions of a person dear to you, then I do not know what does. Somehow its synonyms - anguish, sorrow, affliction, heartache, heartbreak, sorriness, woe - do not quite seem to capture the totality and range the word encompasses. H...

Five years ago, my father passed on. I still miss him. Some days, it does seem like five years. Time really has flown and the sense of loss is not too great: I can think of him, smile and imagine him having really animated discussions, with every heavenly being he meets, on every topic in existence on his side of eternity. Other days though, time does not seem to have gone anywhere and the sense of loss is starkly fresh, a piece of me recently gouged out and just the thought of him brings pain so sharp it hurts to breathe. But this piece is not about pain. Five years ago, a month after my Dad passed on, I had to bring my cousin to his college in the U.S. - his Mom, my maternal aunt, couldn't take him as the available date for her visa application interview was a month too late. I remember me and my young cousin - still 4 months shy of 16 - traipsing along the streets of the Drexel Campus, getting him registered, me trying not to argue with the College staff who said he needed to...

Do you have a particular quote that resonates deeply with you? A quote that has been a source of hope, that calms you in troubling times, that serves as a guide in this difficult and trying journey called life? Or that you just love for no other reason that you love it? It may have been coined by you; it might be a famous saying, whose origin is lost - or not - author is known - maybe long dead, maybe not - or unknown; a quote from a religious book. It does not matter really. You have a quote. It has become your mantra, your lifeline, your go-to words when things seem shaky. My quote I stumbled upon by chance and at a time when I needed an anchor in my uncertain world, a time when I wondered if the universe wasn't conniving to ensure nothing went right and whatever was right would go wrong. I found it in the pages of a book that was part of a series. A quote from the Bible. And though I am Christian and should have been familiar with my Bible (I'm still not, unfortunately) I...

A friend and I were talking about "disappointment" and drew my attention to the excerpt below where the American First Lady said her husband had never disappointed her in terms of his core values. She's either being honest or she is, as loads of couples do, presenting a postcard picture of her husband. (An aside - did you know that "disappoint" in old English was used to mean "to remove from" as in "the newly appointed minister was disappointed  from his post." Hmm, if we could disappoint those who disappoint us...) And that got me to thinking about how many people can honestly say that about their spouses or their spouses can say that about them. This is not about the annoyances, irritations and "really?" moments in the normal, balanced and even loving marriages, but about being true to and retaining the basic tenets (positive o!) that one has. It is true that many people start their adult lives with idealisms and dreams, w...

I'm curious. Not too many adults will admit - at least not in polite company - to watching or reading erotica or porn. Why is that? Does erotica or porn (the nomenclature is dependent on the point of view; My Mom feels Victoria Secrets Lingerie catalogs are "a bit pornographic," Lol!) serve any positive purpose or not? SHOULD it serve any purpose? Is it meant to be a dirty little pastime, hidden from even your partner (how do you know that said partner doesn't have the same...erm...reading preferences?) Or can it serve as a handbook or guide to, ahem, greater heights? I suspect many people would like to act like they do not have sex or that they even like sex, especially members of the feminine gender. In some dim, long past age, a woman who dared to be honest or open about her liking the sexual act was branded a hussy, shameless, useless and, of easy virtue! Ever notice how a lot of adults - even the married - act when a sexually explicit scene comes up in a movi...