pamsandiego

Coming late to this party... Hey all!

Yep, that was One Little Ship.

"The prime directive serves many purposes, not the least of which is to protect us."

2EZ but I always loved it.

Yep, screeched myself in by taking a walk along the tickle in fifty knot winds. While it was snowing.

It doesn't get anymore Canadian than that. :)

Heya ~!

I'm an APA girl actually (so much social science jazz seems to lean thataway rather than MLA). Worse, I love that crap. The ibids and punctuation are so much easier than claims and warrants. Eesh.

Nice to hear from you!

(Longer straw - lol)

Seventeen days late in replying. In many ways, that is as appropriate an update as anything. I went from hobo to oh-no! in a flash. Thanks for asking Harvey. A summary would be good for me right now.

So yeah... I prematurely (and unbeknownst to me) retired from teaching and drove around in the Chinook for the better part of four years. Worked at provoking stories (and fixing up the effing truck) in places great and small: Quartzite, Big Sur, Glacier Nat'l Park, Padre Island, this really cool road in Utah, New Knoxville, Eloy, Mount Nebo, etc. ad infinitem - and then across the sea to a rock that really changed my life. Newfoundland. Marvelous terrible place. Amazing people. The Chinook never left. Stored it in an abandoned elementary school (ironic) on the west coast of the island and have been going back to visit it. Summer home on wheels.

Once I realized I wasn't going back into the traditional classroom, I decided to retool my teacherness, not being satisfied with leaving it behind entirely. Ended up going into an education doctorate program. Pain. More pain. Lots more pain. In the middle of that I did a pretty cool descriptive and theory-building study on (meaningful, unschool-like, one-to-one, co-participatory) writing interactions between college students and fourth grade kids. Piles of data, much of it very rich. I'm in year five and (please god) a couple months and about 200 pages shy of finishing my dissertation: Cultivating the Inclination to Write.

Totally lost interest in writing for awhile (yeah, my colleagues really enjoy THAT irony). Cruising and cranking pretty good now though. But I must say, I'm SO finished with the school thing (in my practice and my own tired life). Have no clue what I'm going to do when I finish (not exactly true but easier to think of it that way right now). May return to being a hobo.

I've been a very bad GreaseSpotter (not to mention housecleaner, call returner, grocery shopper, mail opener, checkbook balancer, etc. - oh yeah, and I bought a house with my best friend and thought I could actually do major remodeling and go to school - ah, those were the days - unbridled optimism). For awhile I was reading and not posting, but then all the academic reading I had to do made me eschew all but essential reading, and now, frankly, I hate reading altogether. Temporary I hope.

Paw and I talk on the phone frequently so the only regular GS I get now is straight from the horse's mouth. A few years ago we stopped talking about it ALL the time though. Terrific shift. Exceptional guy. Another long-standing best friend. I miss GSness, still have it in my bones. Had to crowd pretty much everything out into the margins though (except for learning how to cut, bend, and weld steel on mandatory dissertation-free Saturdays - very therapeutic).

So it's readin' writin' and remodelin'... and now, mostly just banging on the keyboard, making a case for the "Neglected R".

Any home remedies for carpal-tunnelish elbow and thumb mojo would be greatly appreciated.

Pam

(holy crap satori... leave it to you to dangle something right up my alley... lotsa rules dude, but okay... I'll venture out from the bushes...)

Where did that oh-so-uncomplicated source of motivation to do great things come from, Dad? And when you said I had your "flair", why the hell didn't you impart that signature brand of simple and tenacious momentum along with it? How did I miss that?

Do you remember that moment of conflict over the ice cream cone? Does it really embody something about my forming identity or do you think it is just a weird and random memory?

Why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why whyyyyyyyyyy didn't you push, cajole, even further reinforce, facilitate, prod, engender, egg on, or specifically light the fire under my a$$ about pursuing a career in writing?

I crammed in a lot of questions in that last 8 years, but what should I have asked you that I didn't?

What did you REALLY think of The Way International?

So were you right? What actually happened when you died?

ohmigod! I'm dyin' here! you guys are a riot!

thanks for posting John, and kudos to Joel for capturing it

yup, looks like a dead limb was the culprit!

I'm not inside.

The family tables message boards are "under construction" at the moment - could just be routine maintenance or revamping. Then again...

I'd like to think our "arrival" on this guy's site wouldn't create calamity, but it's probably bound to.

Heya Rottie - I'm thinking that there's probably forums on these marketing scam deals - like for recovering "suckers". Some good old fashioned googling might yield sites that could be helpful.

Also, run don't walk away from IE! Most of the tech experts are strongly recommending other browsers now (I switched to Firefox and like it alot).

I've been waiting to hear from Shellon for about a year.

:D-->

That I used to be in a cult.

Oh wait... YOU guys know that.

Uh...

That I had 17 flat tires in 4 years.

And hey, I like peanut butter and pickles too, Uncle Hairy!

Well, I can certainly relate to these questions NLBT. I came from a culture on the other side of the counter myself, AND was raised to question pretty much everything. The subsequent 180 is something I've reflected on at length. I suspect it's an investigation which will continue on some level for the rest of my life (especially given the vigor with which I re-embraced questioning, after the ten year black hole in TWI).

Pat answers are seductive. They may have a particular appeal to those of us who were highly open-minded by nature (and nurture). Sounds contradictory but I don't think it is. Wanting to be right is natural. Living a life without absolutes carries with it a certain degree of frustration, and even work. Gotta consider all the angles, make informed decisions, get educated, read read read, and often... STILL not know "truth" from "error".

TWI rescued us from relativism (or some of us anyway). No more fences to sit on or contend with. It was refreshingly (disgustingly) easy. The pseudo-intellectual "research" angle gave it a familiar legitimacy (something I made use of in assuring my father he had NOT raised a fool, even though I was acting like one). We ignored the red flags and blaring horns in the back of our minds because we were so busy "working the Word", focusing on all those stupid little details which were dressed up to look like smart answers to every single question we would ever have to face. What a relief!

What a waste. That I had to become an idiot in order to finally become wise about my own ignorance frustrates me, but in the end - for me - it was worth it. Finding out that I really didn't need to know that I know that I know stuff with a mathematical certainty and a scientific precision (except for actual math and science thank you very much) was a pretty valuable lesson.

Anyway, that's just one of the things I've unearthed. Not sure it applies to you, but thanks for provoking it nonetheless. Like Shellon, I "lean into the not knowing" to some extent - downright embrace it in fact. Exploring my own story has brought few "answers"... but much understanding. I appreciate that difference now, in a way I never would have without pi$$ing away a decade in that freakish little cult.

Stay home all the time! That's a hoot, LowlyLOL!Poppy. I wish.

ProfileS dude/dudette! They, not it. But hey, I ain't the one that forgot my password.

Yet alas, it's true, some uncloistering is probably called for. Four years of singing show tunes while showering in a bucket sorta piles up on a girl.

And now on to the REAL question burning in our minds, LLP.

Do you or do you not sing in the shower... and if so, are they or are they not show tunes??????

Your profiles have thrown us all into a veritable torment of contradictions. We simply MUST know.

:D--> :D--> :D-->

Okay! Let's GUESS how old he is!

:D-->

Happy happy sirG. Hope it's a fun one!

I'd love to go, though I'm terrible at planning ahead.

They're calling it Borg Invasion 4D - the most ambitous 4D adventure ever conceived. 4D? Oh well, their last show was great. I'm betting this one is too.

http://www.startrekexp.com/

Yeah no kidding... Happy Birthday Ralph!

May you be having SO much fun in the real world that you don't even know we're throwing you a party here.

:)-->:)-->:)-->

Pam's (take this test to see if you can pass the third grade) Link-of-the-Week

Emogene tried to screw me out of some vacation time once. I requested some time off (during a pretty busy period mind you) and she said I didn't have any left. Fortunately for me, I was such a good little bookstore worker-bee (gag) who worshipped her so much (barf) that I was saving every little note and memo she ever sent to me (hurl, hurl, consummate hurl!). And whaddya know, I just happened to have one from her, from a couple months back, that indicated that I DID have time coming to me still.

Yes boy, that ol' attention to detail actually worked in my favor now and then. Scammed the scammer so to speak.

Pam's (see how fast your reflexes are if you dare) Link-of-the-Week

Like I said. Point of view. Locked. Oh well.

Ganging up on you privately? Geez, Rocky... the administrator of this site invited you - AND the other administrator (me) - to discuss your concerns privately. If you believe that getting a chance to talk to us constitutes "ganging up" you may think you're being honest, but you're very misguided.

We asked you there to stop complaining. It's been repeated here. Feel free to consider it an arbitrary rule - it's as good a reason as any from the point of view you've locked yourself into. It has certainly become an administrative necessity.

Jim - You're in our thoughts and prayers today.

my friend Cindy

Dear Ellen,

When I consider what I have come to know about people online - the incomplete pictures and vague intuitions - yours is an interesting case. You were always close at hand, usually somewhere in the room, off to the side yet not on the sidelines. A significant portion of what I have been able to know about you came through over on my side of the screen, via IM with Jim. While it’s a tiny glimpse to be sure, after reflecting on it today, I realized that it is not without meaning.

Your ability to both support and depend on your husband may have been an aspect of circumstance, but I suspect it was also a thriving loyalty at the heart of this particular bond... on both sides. One thing that was abundantly clear to me was your presence in the landscape of Jim’s interests, offering an ear or an idea, enriching the edges, and above all, lifting him up to laughter. As a voice in what was (from my cyber-perspective only) the background, your abiding sense of humor spoke volumes about you. Megabytes! In fact, you may be the funniest person I’ve never talked to.

That it is only a fragment of what could be known about you is unmistakable, I’m sure. That it was a quality so clearly evident and understood - despite my limited view and despite Jim’s, uh, rather inadequate typing habits (heh heh) - suggests to me that it was an unmistakable texture of the kind of person you chose to be.

What I hope for my friend Jim is that, eventually, your laughter and warm, witty remarks - along with all the moments that invited them to appear - will occupy the foreground of his memories, and form loud and lasting echoes of the life he shared with you.

That’s no small thing. You have meant more to him than I - than any of us - could possibly know. Unbearable loss can and should resonate with the undeniable footprints it leaves behind. Memory is the ultimate sacred ground. It seemed appropriate to offer to him, here, what even a little bit of knowing you might say... as an acknowledgment of this deepest of losses, and as an imperfect but heartfelt tribute to someone Jim will always love and remember.

Just chatted with Jim (thanks to Robi's laptop!). It looks like Ellen will be in the hospital a couple more weeks. If anyone else could manage to go there, that support would be vital. Robi is there until Friday.

Jim really appreciates the prayers...

I'm with Linda on Joan of Arcadia. Really well-written. The woman at the helm hails from (among other things) Northern Exposure. She describes the spiritual aspect of the show as being about questions (rather than anwers) - about God, about life, about relationships, etc. The conception of God is fairly refreshing (and he's really funny too).

My criterion for good TV is whether or not it provokes conversation. Joan of Arcadia definitely does that.

Pam's (somewhat random yet possibly intriguing) Link-of-the-Week