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: 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!

Look into my eyes…

“Is he looking at me?” Shadowcat ponders, before he meanders and wanders arind the Grinds, stopping to wonder, under skies that thunder, should he dash for cover or wait for food?

He returns for a while, sits, stares with his cat ‘smile’ and hypnotic eyes, looking and thoughtfully thinking, purposely purring, yet waiting in style… until the first raindrop makes him run a mile.

“I’ll be back!” I sense him think, as all I can see is a tail, long and black, vanish out back. But I wonder… did his stare put me under … or did I hear him think?

Five Different Ways to Resign

There’s a news story doing the rounds at the moment about a worker who wrote his resignation letter on the icing on a cake that he’d baked, which he handed to his management on his 31st birthday. He handed them a normal letter as well, but there’s nothing like making a statement when you decide to walk out!

Here are five other ways, if you have the time to organise them, or money to spend on them, to make your resignation really hit the mark:

I Resign! I:
Take out a double page advertisement in a competitor company’s newsletter, and scatter a few copies around the office, open at the page. It would be advisable to only use this method if you were certain you were going to resign, with no intention of ever trying to go back. Probably best used after a humungous Lottery win.

I Resign! II:

Hire one of those sky-writing companies, who write messages in the sky using a plane as a pen. On the day you choose to resign, and at the time you have booked the sky-writing session, set off the fire alarm, and evacuate the building so everyone can see the letter being written from the fire assembly point.

I Resign! III:
Whilst volunteering to work in the staff canteen, open all of the tins of Alphabet Spaghetti, and spread your message all across the management’s table… or the table next to theirs, if you think you may want to ask for your old job back one day (it would also be advisable to clear up afterwards in this case)

I Resign! IV:
Ask NASA to get the Mars Explorer to write out your resignation in letters formed by stones gathered from the Martian surface, and photograph it afterwards so the text looks like the opening sequence of Star Wars. Maybe adding the Star Wars theme may add to the atmosphere a little with this resignation.

I Resign! V:
Travel back in time to when the Pyramids were being built, and write your resignation in hieroglyphics on one of the walls of a Pyramid that will be opened in the nineteenth century. Use a different style of hieroglyphics, so that your letter will not be uncovered, or deciphered, until the very day you resign. You will, of course, have also arranged for this discovery to be broadcast on every news network around the globe so the message gets across. Mentioning your company’s name in the ancient message may mean that your job will remain open for you, should you choose to return.

Once you’ve resigned, you need to ask yourself what’s next? Perhaps the first thing you could do is come up with a list of five things you could do after resigning… but remember… feel good every step of the way!