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!

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?

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!

View from the window: Calm

Although the lake wasn’t there the other day!
My Mansion’s at it again…

A Surreal Mind
Living in a surreal world means I can visit the impossible
Things I see vary between the very real and improbable
Some of the things I come across are utterly laughable
But not yet have I experienced anything unimaginable
The mind can take us to places in a manner that’s methodical
Finding answers to queries we first thought unsolvable
Filling in the blanks, incorrectly, is sometimes typical
Yet the power of the mind I find is completely phenomenal

In Subdued Light

He looked older the night I saw him in the street. He was older; it had been years since I last saw him, but he looked older than he should have done. His eyes, piercing blue as usual, shone out through the darkness. His friendly smile had gone… his friendly face was now stern. They say it does that to you.

He was lost. Gone forever. The night they got him.

He still recognised me, at least he appeared to anyway when he looked at me… or rather, through me. He stopped for a second, and then barged passed, without saying a word.

He slipped away into the shadows without looking back.

That was last month.

I’d rather see him like that, than like this, if I’m honest, but I can’t think that way.

I knew it would end like this. It always does. The stake through the heart is the only way. Seeing him lying there, on the beach, as unsettling as it is, is the best thing for him. He’d ceased to exist the night he was turned; he’d become a living zombie, feeding nightly off the blood of his own victims, sometimes creating his own vampires to carry on his bloodline… to carry out his hunting.

They all end up like this.

At least he looks now like he did when I knew him years ago, and not how he did in the street. Not much good to him now, however, but at least he’s free.

But, I still have my job to do. I have others to catch. Others to free from this curse. It’s them or me. One day, I know they’ll get me, but until they do I will continue with my own hunt… we have to keep this world safe.

***

This short story has been written in response to a painting created by Gabriel Garbow, which shows the final scene. Click here to visit his blog – he has some fabulous pieces of work over there!

Dream Scene

I walked through the clearing and looked ahead… the light was all wrong, and the sky was red… clouds swirled around; a storm on the way, casting animated shadows through the bright day. The breeze was warm, the time was late, there was nothing around me apart from a gate. A gate by itself, no wall or fence, in the middle of a field, this didn’t make sense. But one thing I really need to know: if the gate was open or closed. Do you know?