Category: Life

Lessons I’ve learned through the school of hard knocks. This is my catch-all, miscellaneous category if you will, where I address topics that don’t quite fit into the other categories.

Developing pictures


How long ago did we take this picture?

Lately, I’ve been looking at a lot of pictures. Mainly so I can put some on my website and blog. My family in Mexico enjoys looking at them, too. However, I’m not much of a picture taker. And I’m even worse at taking the film in to get developed. I took this picture of my twins when they were one and then forgot to develop the film for what I thought was only a year or two. When I finally got these pictures back from the developer, my sons were already in kindergarten!

The problem with not immediately developing the film is that the pictures always looked rather yellow. My sons always looked yellowish in pictures. (I shall refrain from making off-color jokes here.) Of course, I don’t have a problem developing pictures I take with a digital camera because I love computers and I immediately upload the pictures to my computer. That’s why I love digital cameras. A lot less driving to get pictures developed. And, I also bought a printer that scans and prints photos, so I actually save time and money. So now I have all these pictures to sort through and figure out which ones to use on my website and which ones to share with my family in Mexico. Of course, I get sidetracked whenever I look at the pictures. I start reminiscing about the past and I forget what I had started out to do in the first place. Not that I’m complaining because that’s kind of fun.

DDR

Books


This is only 20% of my library!

I love books. Especially leather-bound editions. I have many leather-bound books of the classics. I like to surround myself with these books while I write. I feel inspired when I do. I feel that my writing should be much better because I’m surrounded by all these great writers. I’ve actually read most of the books I own. Some books I have reread several times, like the humorous ones by Groucho Marx, Stephen Leacock, and Max Schulman.

When I downsized my library (I gave about two-thirds of my collection to the used bookstore when I got divorced and had to sell the house), I kept all my leather-bound books, which cost me a pretty penny. I also kept the books that were autographed by the author. I’ve met some famous writers who came speak at the University of Illinois at Chicago for conferences. I usually take their book that I’ve already read and ask the author for his or her autograph.

I used to love reading humor books (and I still do), but many were out of print, so I would go from one used bookstore to the next where I bought many of them. One day, I saw a book by Bob Hope–I thought Bob Hope was hilarious–and when I opened it to look for the price I saw that Bob Hope himself had autographed it. So obviously I had to keep his autographed book.

DDR

Facebook


facebook.com

I’ve been using Facebook for about three years now. I’m not really sure how I joined, but I did. Of course, I had no Facebook friends at the time. One day, my friend Vito asked me to be his Facebook friend. So, for the longest time, I only had one friend on Facebook. Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen Vito since we became friends on Facebook. Little by little, I accumulated friends. And now I really like Facebook.

I like it because I can keep up with my friends without having to actually see them in person. Not that I don’t want to see them, but some of them live so far away. We grew up in Chicago, but everyone seemed to move out to the suburbs. I stayed put because I love Chicago so much.

My friends think that I spend way too much time on Facebook, but I don’t. It only seems like I do because I only spend a few minutes per day, but I am very efficient. Facebook sends me a message when someone has commented on one of my comments or pics, and I immediately respond. I strike immediately and then immediately crawl back under my rock. You just never know how I may respond. As they say, leave sleeping dogs lie. (Whoops, dogs don’t sleep under rocks!)

So, anyway, Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends I avoid in real life! Would you like to be my friend on Facebook?

DDR

iPhone update


Do not disturb!

Okay, so I’ve had my iPhone for about two months now and I haven’t dropped it in the toilet yet. I really love it! I use it to check the weather, read my e-mail, take pictures, show pictures to my friends, listen to music, read blogs, use GPS to find my destination, send e-mail, and I occasionally use it as a phone. I think I’ve only talked on the phone for about twenty minutes so far.

I’m really not much of a phone person. That’s what I always hated about cell phones. They weren’t ergonomically designed. I mean, have you ever tried to hold a conversation with the cell phone between your ear and your shoulder? For me it’s impossible. It keeps sliding out. What I really like about the iPhone is that it’s a lot like a computer. Yes, also it has the very same quirks as a computer. It freezes occasionally and I must restart it. The original version of the operating system had a lot of bugs in it and my battery would die too fast. Luckily, Apple came out with an update and my iPhone works fine now.

See! It’s just like a computer!

DDR

Putting things off


Relax!

They call me The Great Procrastinator because I’m always putting things off. I started writing this post this morning and now it’s ten hours later and I’m only on the second sentence. A lot has happened since I started it. Studs Terkel died since I started. He was also a great procrastinator. He postponed his death until today and died at the age of ninety-six. I guess I would like to emulate him. I better keep writing so I finish this post before I turn ninety-six–or die.

But there is one thing that I won’t put off: The End.

DDR