For everyone who celebrates Christmas, I hope you have a happy holiday.

I rarely talk about television shows here, unless it is to complain how trite they are. Anyone see “Pushing Daisies”? This is an amazingly clever and well-written show by Barry Sonnenfeld. I have to agree with Variety that is one of the best new shows on television. I also hope that it gets quite a following. I have found that any show I really love ends up canceled. This show is one of those that may not appeal to the masses. It certainly has a Tim Burton feel. Think of Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the setting. Vibrant, bright colors everywhere. A somewhat surreal feel to the action. Then there’s the odd premise of the guy who can bring people back to life if he touches them, but if he touches them again, they die. I loved this show. The dialogue is snappy. The jokes land just right. The cast is perfect. In case you missed the show, you can watch it on ABC.com.

Try wrapping your brain around this one. I am trying to unravel mine back. What if matter wasn’t made up of atoms as we have been taught? That includes humans. New experimenets in physics around dark matter are leadng to new theories. Only one-fifth of matter is made up of atoms.
Howard Baer, Florida State University’s J.D. Kimel Professor of Physics, is studying dark matter. Dark matter is believed to exist in the form of tiny particles that do not interact with light. Great! We have particles in us and around us that have absolutely no interaction with light. So how do we know they exist? We don’t exactly. These little particles don’t emit or reflect electromagnetic radiation these dark matter particles haven’t been directly observed. So what we have is a theory (although research is on its way to prove the theory correct) that dark matter particles exist based on their gravitational effects on visible matter throughout the universe. One more puzzling phenomena for the physicists to ponder.

What I wonder is what does dark matter do? What is its purpose? Of course atoms are mostly space, but it sounds like there are things in that space. Doing what, though?

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Yes, it is almost that time again–time for novel writing month. I’m not sure if I will participate or not this year. I have so many other things going on. If I am going to write, I need to come up with a couple of ideas during October.  I didn’t complete 50,000 words last year. I don’t even think I reached 10,000. I spent a good portion of November sick. I think I would like to try writing a screenplay. I have no idea how to create one or how to format it.

Yes, it’s back! However, there will be a three week hiatus because the seminar won’t meet until the end of September. The most fun I think the class had all night was sharing absurdities. But what is absurd to one is completely reasonable or normal to another. I had a heck of a time coming up with an absurdity. I was happy to here though that someone else has a ball-licking cat. He doesn’t lick his own. Actually the other person had a ball-playing cat. So what I got out of last night’s seminar is that if I continue to be the way I have been, my life won’t have much joy. Right now, I’m not in a relationship. After last night’s insightes, I’m not sure I’m cut out for one.

Most likely while I was sleeping. Apparently overnight I have become rather popular. No, not my webpage–personally. I don’t know exactly when this occurred. I don’t know how or why it happened. Suddenly people come up to me–ones I know, ones I sort of know, ones I don’t know. It’s far more frequent than it used to be. If they don’t actually come up to me, they somehow indicate that they want to talk to me. It seems like some sort of attractive fairy dust has been sprinkled over me. I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts. Now if only I could get sprinkled with some money fairy dust. That would be nice.

With the last few elections, I kept up on the news of these electronic voting machines. I read extensively and watched documentaries. Here in California, the state found some hackers to test the machines. They were able to hack the machines every time on every model. I hope this means that the state government will decide to dump the machines. Perhaps this is a wake up call? No one listened before.

I have been away a few days to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I’m a fast reader, so I didn’t spend an entire two days reading. We waited around on Saturday for our copies to arrive. They came in the mail, and the mail was later than usual. No spoilers here. Great book. Nice ending.

What a tiring Saturday! Another garage sale. I’m done this time. Didn’t sell anywhere near what I wanted to, but I can’t handle doing another one. Tons of stuff got donated–well soon, I hope.

One old lady’s ramblings at the garage sale has me thinking. She said she was always told that she had rose-colored glasses, as if that was a bad thing. Better to be realistic according to her brother, she said. I’m not so sure. I began life like any child–wide-eyed, open, curious. My innocent look on life was shattered early, and I was one who only saw bad. Bad things, bad people. No way out. As a teenager, I considered myself a realist. Superior to those around me who saw only good things. Let’s be honest…a realist is just a glass-half empty person who think he/she is seeing things as they are. None of us see things as they are. I worked hard to be positive. It was a little like pretty icing on a mud pie. This lasted for years. Perhaps until my son was born. I know something shifted then. Now, I think having ros-colored glasses isn’t such a bad thing. Good for peace of mind. Yes, the world often seems nuts, crazy, insane even. But one person cannot fix it all. You can choose what you focus on and what you choose to fix, if that’s you’re thing.

I told the short elderly lady that I didn’t think rose-colored glasses were too bad after all.

You may wonder what she bought. She bought my extra copy of “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.” I think for grandkids. I can’t remember. It’s totally brilliant. The moment couldn’t be more perfect:  to be discussing how one sees life with someone buying “The Meaning of Life.” Odd. Serendipitous.