Fzzzzt!

Intense Solar Flare activity is having an adverse affect with my computer and internet connection today.

It’s also playing havoc with my typing, although Fingers, my Inner Typist disputes this. He says his tpying is fine.

My Inner Zombie has been quiet for a few days, which is unusual. However, this means that he will be making an appearance very soon… unless he’s hiding from the Solar Radiation.

The news report I read the other day said that the flares weren’t being sent out in the Earth’s direction, but today’s report has said that they are having an effect on communications.

Thomasina, my Inner Woman, is having a terrible time at present. I don’t know exactly what she’s doing, but I keep hearing strange sounds from the back of my mind. A mix between a hair-dryer and a lawn-mower. Very strange. Maybe she’s having the bad hair days since I had my hair cut very short the other week.

My Inner Weatherman is all excited due to the adverse weather we have been experiencing over the past couple of days as well. The South West of England have had snow. We in Cheshire have just had a lot of rain. This must be due to the flares. My Inner Weatherman always tries to find an alternative off-world answer for random weather events.

My Inner Politician (I have no idea where he came from!) and my Inner Leader of the Opposition are bickering about some issue or other to do with Europe. Well, Eurovision anyway. They’re about as political as I am, truth be told.

Tom the Geek, my Inner Geek, is loving all of this. He loves it when the computers don’t work as they should… when pages only half load, or even (gasp) don’t load at all. He’ll instantly reach for the refresh button, or try to reset the modem or router. I don’t think he actually knows what he’s doing – he confuses the heck out of me anyway – which isn’t really that difficult.

As I was typing this, a message box popped up saying I was experiencing very high CPU usage due to my printer settings. The printer isn’t even switched on. And I’m not trying to print anything either. Tom the Geek has advised I switch the printer on and off again for some reason. I’ll not, though, due to the Solar Flare activity, just in case.

An explosion from the back of my mind tells me that Thomasina has also been affected by the Solar Flare… the singeing smell tells me that she’s blown her hair-dryer. Hopefully, she’ll join my Inner Zombie and stay out of sight.

And Fingers, my Inner Typist has just returned to assist with the fnial praagraph of this post. He is feeling the effects of the Solar Flares after all, as he is usually in contact with the communication centre within my mind… only today he can’t get a connection. The lights are on, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone in.

I’ve a sneaky feeling my Inner Aspects may be having a party somewhere, and using the Solar Activity as a cover.

I shall have to activate my Inner Private Eye to investigate this further, but every time I try to do so, all I get is an odd fzzzzt sound.

All lines are engaged.

I shall have to try later.

Here’s hoping that you aren’t being as adversely affected as I am during this current Solar bombardment!

Songfest ‘13

Just back from Sweden, all worn out
Foot aching from tapping
Just noticed an ache in my hand
And realised it’s from all the clapping

Lightshows and lyrics and music galore
With no cheap sets-a-flapping
As wind machines blow, and fog machines fog
Highlighting dancers, who are, well, strapping… ahem.

It’s Eurovision time. The Eurosongfest. The Eurovision Song Contest.

A competition that has been running for the last million or so years, sporting winners such as Celine Dion, Katrina and the Waves, Abba, the Brotherhood of Man, Dana and Dana International.

The Mansion transported me, very kindly I must add, to a front row seat in the Malmö Opera House, somewhere in Sweden, and I watched, transfixed.

I’ve pressed a special stone in the Mansion wall to keep the gateway open, so I can see the second semi-final on Thursday… and the actual event on Saturday.

Some say one night is too long for this event.

Not me though. I’m not ‘some’. I’m different. I’m me.

I’d watch it every night if I could.

Remember Bonnie ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ Tyler? She’s representing the United Kingdom / Royaume-Uni on Saturday. I always support the locals, so good luck Bonnie… and Ireland… and Iceland… and the Netherlands… and… who else? Denmark! Good luck Denmark!

Who will win? Europe will decide. Possibly politically, fashionably, predictably or dreadfully. I won’t help though, as I won’t be voting. I’ll be sat in my front row seat, far too busy for such things.

Loving it, and feeling good.

Well… why not?

Two Milestones: One Day

Milestones.

Like buses, you wait for what seems like an eternity for one to arrive and two show up at once.

It’s like some kind of coincidence, only with the most precise of timing and an added element of surprise thrown in for good measure.

OK. Not coincidence. Just a random meeting of two events that couldn’t have happened at a better time with each other… right place, right time and all that. The convergence of two unrelated, yet very related occurrences. The essence of synchronicity.

I experience lots of these synchronicities and coincidences. I may have mentioned that previously.

You see, today is the day that I started blogging. Three years ago today, I mean. Not today today… that would just be daft. I’m closing in on a thousand posts, and I can’t see even the greatest blogger and speed-typist in the world managing that in one day.

I’d forgotten about this blogoversary milestone, because I was watching out for my blog visits milestone… I have finally reached 75,000 clicks. I’ve been clicked 75,000 times (and then some!) now. That’s a good number considering my daily clicks is about to go into negative figures.

Ah well, never mind.

Keep on keeping on, and all that!

I’d actually also forgotten about the blog visits milestone too, being honest.

I wasn’t going to post a post today, and was merrily replying to comments and off around Blogland reading and commenting away where I could. I then noticed a strange cup-shaped thingy in the orange notification thingy at the top of the screen.

Curious, I clicked it, and saw a message from WordPress telling me I’d been here three years! Not bad for an experiment that I wasn’t expecting to last a week: I can stick to things when I put my mind to it! That notification reminded me of my visitors, and there I realised.

Another synchronistic moment.

You couldn’t make it up.

Future…

Through the swirling mists of time
An image begins to appear
An alternative future comes into view
But it isn’t very clear
It’s not entirely set in stone
The way forward has many ways
Depending on the path you choose
Will alter your future days…

Illustration Friday time once more; I’ve not participated in the challenge for the last two weeks, I think, but I decided to have another go this week. The theme is Future. I decided to go for an alternative view of the future… one that we can’t see, but one that someone else can.

Or can she?

If a future is always changing, can anybody really predict what will happen?

Inconsistency as an old art form

I like to think I’m quite good at a lot of things. I actually like to think that I’m extremely good at a lot of things. But, in reality, and if I’m being one hundred per cent honest, I know that I’m not.

Sometimes I’m better than others, sometimes worse. Sometimes I’m so terrible I wonder why I even bothered to start in the first place. And sometimes I wonder if it was me that had actually done what I’d done (for better or for worse, it works either way).

But what, I hear you ask in frustration, are these ‘things’ I’m rabbiting on about? Well, I shall tell you, in a roundabout* way.

Anything I do.

Everything I do.

Writing. Reading. Creating unique pieces of computer art. Communicating. Listening. Remembering. Sleeping. Dreaming. Sneezing.

Everything I do, I’ll do it differently the next time.

I write a good piece… I then write a terrible one (complete with speling errors!).
I read the first so many fabulous chapters of an un-put-downable book, and then forget that I’d even started it.
I flourish and embellish and exaggerate and colour-in some work of art which wouldn’t look out of place in trendy art galleries anywhere around the world, and when I next look at it, it’s as though, well, a strange computer virus has attacked my art software and distorted whatever I have done.
I’ve never been a great communicator, verbally, but sometimes I’m magnificent. I really, truly, deeply am.
I have one good ear and one not so good one (just the two!), so I miss a lot of what I’m being told… and sometimes make up my own words to try to catch up, thus getting other things wrong. Sometimes hilariously so (especially when I’m singing along to a song. Enya’s Orinoco Flow will always contain the line Save the Whale, Save the Whale, Save the Whale, as that is how I first heard it many centuries ago).
I remember that line as it was oh so wrong, but can I remember any others? Nope! The tune, yes… well, most of it. I even forget people who I sit next to at work occasionally. Sigh.
Sometimes, I sleep soundly. Other times, I wake about fifty times during the night. Sometimes, I sleep too heavily and feel dreadful, and other times I love waking and sleeping on and off all night long.
I love my dreams. I remember some, but not all. Sometimes I dream regularly, sometimes I don’t. Currently, I’m somewhat in the middle…
And sneezing… sometimes, I break the sound barrier as I sneeze that loudly… other times, I stifle a little achoo in a corner somewhere.

Completely inconsistent. But always me.

It’s the core that matters anyway, not the inconsistencies. Well, that’s how I feel about it. Most of the time.

***

This post has been written in response to Sideview’s Weekend Theme, which this week is Inconsistency… *I didn’t participate in last week’s theme, Swings and Roundabouts, so I added a little sideways mention at the beginning there. If you’d like to participate in Sideview’s weekly challenge pop along to her site, and have a look at some other posts written by other bloggers who may not be as inconsistent as me. I.

***

Incidentally, the words Inconsistent and Inconsistency were first used in a decade very close to my heart. Yes, that’s right. Between 1640 and 1650 the word came into existence.

Is it just by chance that I’m as inconsistent as I am, looking at that rather random coincidence of timing? Synchronicities are never far away… and I have found another link to my 1642 Quest… although its meaning is as allusive as with all of the other links I have found. Answers will be along soon, I’m sure of it. I just have to ask the right questions first of all!

I still feel good though, even with all the questions, answers and inconsistencies. And that, as a good core, is all that matters…

One Minute Ramble: Reach for the skies!

• A journey can take many different paths from its beginning to its destination, as can an idea from conception to realisation.
• A dream may start in one place, and end in a completely different one.
• There is more than one way to get from point A to point B.

Those three statements came to me when I first saw this tree. I imagined the trunk representing the foundation of an idea or a dream, and all of the branches and twigs to be the various ways of reaching the realisation / destination. No way was the wrong way, but they all ventured outwards and upwards in their own way.

Eventually, whichever route is taken, the destination will be reached.

It doesn’t matter how long the journey takes, how thin the branch may get, the destination is right there at the end, just waiting to be reached.

The destination is the goal. The realisation. The manifestation of the idea.

With so many different avenues being available to go down to bring about our dreams, what is stopping us from actually reaching them? Is it because we give up too soon?

If we have an idea, we should reach for the skies, follow our journey and live our dream… we may find that we get there sooner than we thought…! And if we feel good along the way… even better!

One Minute Ramble: The Invisible Magicians of the Universe

There’s a fine line between knowing what we want and what we don’t want, all things considered.

Universally speaking, they are all the same thing anyway… we attract what we are giving our attention to, whether we want it or not. Just saying I don’t want XXXX is just like saying I want XXXX, from the viewpoint of the Invisible Magicians of the Universe, who bring to us exactly what they think we are asking for… or rather what we are focussing on. They don’t bother with wants and don’t wants, and instead bother with the item our attention is pointing them towards.

So, my Inner Invisible Magician of the Universe is urging me to not even consider the things I don’t want… as soon as I say to myself I don’t want this – I have to immediately look towards something I do want instead… or something I like… or something I feel I need… or something I am grateful for… or something that would improve things for me… and everyone else – but how do I know what everyone else wants? If I knew that, I’d be Freshly Pressed every week, and have a gazillion blog visits a day. Which, is actually what I don’t want, and already I’ve come full circle! Sigh. It can be a bit of a task, this thinking clearly. I’m sure my Inner Invisible Magician of the Universe is rolling his eyes at me.

I’m a firm believer in the power of coincidence, and we can bring everything to us if we send the right signals out. I asked to see a multi-coloured feather the other day to see if the Universe was listening to me. Did you see Google’s Doodle the other day? Multi-coloured feathers. Not at all what I was expecting, but there it was. And I never asked Google to publish the doodle, nor did I state my request anywhere on line. In fact, I never spoke it aloud – I merely thought it. See… coincidence. Creative coincidence.

Think of one thing that you would love for your Inner Invisible Magician of the Universe to bring to you… and see how long it takes for it to turn up. You may be surprised.

Oh, and think whilst feeling good… it works better that way!