Saturday, June 25, 2011

Computer Addicts

ALOHA, 
Welcome Back to Virtual Waikiki

 " If there was such a thing
as inspiration from a higher realm
it might well be
that the neurotic temperament
would furnish the chief condition
of the requisite receptivity. "

William James






 "Few of us are not in some way infirm, 
or even diseased,
and our infirmities help us
unexpectedly."

More William James








 " Maybe there was nothing. 
But how would you know
if you didn't send out
a signal? "  

Jeffrey Eugenides,
'Asleep in the Lord'




 Congrats to Morgan Freeman
for his recent American Film Institute award.
This guy is ALL class!




> < } } ( ° >


" We must learn to balance
the material wonders of technology
with the spiritual demands
of our human nature. "

John Naisbitt

'Megatrends' 1982



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(")_(")


Aloha, my name is Cloudia,
and I am an internet addict. 



The web is SO involving,
that I regularly need to "fast"
from the computer.



Waking up,
getting (web invisible) Husband off to work 
(thank goodness SOMEONE does!)
clears the deck 
for me to "turn on, tune in,
and drop out"
from my body.




Getting that next post ready
consumes me,

piles of notes & clippings
beckon like fool's gold.

Pictures suggest themselves,
captions that presented themselves 
when I took the shot
morph into "bits" of data
and giggle with electric glee
as they anticipate meeting
Y O U.


My laptop was acting weird - possibly infected -
and it seemed I might have to ship it off to my
special computer friend in Seattle!


The sense of 'emergency' was palpable;
YOU folks are my Buds, my social circle!


I can't keep up with all of you
excellent play mates
as it IS!  
Going off line seems like exile!

Well, I spent ALL day yesterday
restoring my Dell to it's factory settings
from the "image" on the hard drive - not a disk.


I installed EVERY Windows7 update,
and re-installed the programs I use
with a nifty, amazing website utility called

you really should check it out.

NINITE allows you to check-off multiple programs,
like web browsers FIREFOX & CHROME,
along with PICASSA, and many others including
'clean-ups' like AUSLOGICS,
then Ninite installs them ALL
with one click!


So I'm told that the odds are very good that I've
'repaired my computer.'

Only time will tell.
  My very clever computer helper
(the one in Seattle, who TeamViewers 
over to help me out) fears I might have an
extra-clever Chinese root virus,
and still wants to do a fresh install in-person
(goodbye laptop and friends for a week!)

He has taught me SO much!
Like: 
"Working online is like making sandwiches."

It leaves "crumbs" around your hard drive
and you need to clean up 
after sandwich making.

So I run AUSLOGICS one touch repair/cleanup
and it finds things like Registry Errors,
Start Up Errors
(and the like) fixing them
with the click of the mouse.

So back to internet addiction.
Some play games, others FaceBook
and Tweet
fanatically,

We bloggers create & publish!

We communicate with other thoughtful folks
ALL OVER THE WORLD!

We make friends who we think about
when we are OFF LINE.

Yes, BLOGGER and the Web are amazing.
But sitting right down to the key board
first thing in the morning,
while it uses the richness of recent dreams 
to create,
also denies the body it's 
morning stretch.


Recently, I have started to WALK first thing.
Throwing my legs out far,
swinging my arms,
posture tall, camera ready,
being among others
in AMAZING Waikiki!

Yep, gotta care for the body first.

Don't want to get "POPCORN BRAIN
do you?!

"The worry is that life online is giving us what researcher, David Levy, calls 'popcorn brain' --
a brain so accustomed to the constant stimulation of electronic multitasking
that we're unfit for life offline,
where things pop at a much slower pace." 
Reports  CNN.com.

Chinese research on the brains 
of internet addled youth
have shown actual changes in the brain!

So do spend time in the physical realm; 
care for your dear body.

You'll never catch up with EVERY blog post, every short story,
every WHATEVER!

PUT DOWN THE CLICKER!
(after you leave your comment here,
of course :)

When I thought I might be offline for a while
I panicked.
But a secret little part
rejoiced;
The private little part that likes to walk,
to stare,
to do nothing.
The part (perhaps)
that makes me
"Me."

Are YOU such a 'Me' too?

I love you guys and our circle!
But if you go outside, or far away,
for a week or two
I won't forget you.

So clean up those computer crumbs
and spend some time off line.
*Pop*   *pOp*
there goes my brain - 
time to run!

       What say YOU?   Fondly, cloudia










Friday, June 24, 2011

We Are Friends

Aloha Friends!





" The sun, the earth,
love, friends,
our very breath
are parts of the banquet. "


Rebecca H. Davis







" Our most profound lessons
are sometimes learned
amid life's most difficult experiences.
There's a journey of the soul
that parallels
the pain in tragedy. "

Tom Corwin







" That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet. "
 
Emily Dickinson
                                                   > < } } ( ° >





Dear Bloggy Friends;

There are computer issues afoot

that may keep me away from 

Y O U

for a small period of time.


Should I be absent,

please don't think that it is by choice.

Y O U

are an important part of my daily life,

both creating & sharing with YOU,

and following YOUR adventures.

This is quite a wonderful thing we've got going here,

and I'm already experiencing separation anxieties!


Please don't forget about me.

As I remain, YOUr  friend Cloudia

Always!


Bless    Y O U,

and thanks for EVERYTHING!



Thursday, June 23, 2011

Let's FLY

A  L  O  H  A !



Thanks for swinging by today.  
                                     You're just in time for our flight -
Looks like a nice day to fly somewhere


" Music fathoms the sky. "

Charles Baudelaire








What is going on up there?  Shall we find out?



" My witness is the empty sky. "

          Jack Kerouac








Always exciting just before a flight!


 " Excuse me while I kiss the sky. "

                                Jimi Hendrix




Good Bye Honolulu!


" One of my great joys in life is being a pilot.
There is a great sense of freedom 
in soaring through the sky.
You get a different perspective up there. 
Seeing things that aren't so apparent from the ground. "

Sonny Perdue 


   

Now On To Our Destination:


If you have time, check out the inter-island flight video
and spend some time on the rural Big Island:





If you'd like to see more of Hilo
from the air, you'll enjoy the take-off below.
I recommend you mute your speakers.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Pieces of Truth

a !



Sky & Eye. . . Until I Die!



" Yeah we all shine on,
like the moon, and the stars, 
and the sun. "

John Lennon



What beast is this?



The First approach'd the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

John Godfrey Saxe











 Rather Work-a-day After All



 “A half-truth is a whole lie.”

 Yiddish Proverb


> < } } ( ° >



"Brethren,
the raja was delighted with the scene. 

"Just so are these preachers and scholars
holding various views blind and unseeing.... 

In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious,
each maintaining reality is thus and thus." 


And so the Jain doctrine of

Anekanta,
the many-sidedness of things.

Maybe I don't have the whole picture.

Together, we fill in the dark places.

Come party in 'comments' cloudia

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Breakfast at Epiphanies

Aloha &
       Welcome Back
                 to Virtual Hawaii


"Plans are nothing sacred.  
If the plan doesn't work, make a new one. 
People don't fail, plans do."









"An authentically powered person
is humble. . .
. . . It is the inclusiveness of one who responds
to the beauty of each soul,
who sees in  each personality
the soul incarnate upon the Earth."

Gary Zukav








" A sarcastic person
has a superiority complex
that can be cured only
by the honesty of humility.  "

Lawrence G. Lovasik
 
 
 








" Do you wish to rise? 
Begin by descending. 
You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds?
Lay first the foundation of humility.  "

Saint Augustine





" Humility 
is a necessary veil 
to all other graces.  "

William Gurnall
 











" Humility and knowledge
in poor clothes
excel pride and ignorance 
in costly attire.  "

William Penn










Each flock of birds lives forever

for they share a single soul

have you seen how they fly together?

Through births, deaths & seasons

each flock of birds

lives forever.


             Thank YOU for visiting today!  Please join us in 'comments.'  cloudia

Monday, June 20, 2011

Life Spirals

A L O H A! 

Welcome Back to Virtual Hawaii

Wild Orchid


" Loneliness 
is the poverty of self;
Solitude
is the richness
of the
self. "

May Sarton


 

The Scene



" Inside myself is a place where I live all alone,
 and that's where I renew my springs
that never dry up. "

Pearl S. Buck




Behind the Scenes



“Language ought to be

the joint creation

of poets

and manual workers.”


 George Orwell







Look at the Spiral on That Girl!





“The growth of understanding

follows an ascending spiral

rather than a straight line.”

 

 Joanna Field 
 
 
 




Look at the nose on that kid!



" A child of five would understand this.
Send someone to fetch a child of five. "
 
Groucho Marx





Local Style!


" Hawaii is not a state of mind,
but a state of grace.  "

Paul Theroux
 
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Back in the day
a racially integrated band
was not common.

Today we remember a giant,
a BIG man
in every sense of the word:


Clarence Clemmons, 
Bruce Springsteen's friend
and sax player died this past weekend.
His solo from JUNGLELAND 
is an indelible soundtrack and talisman
of our lives.

For a kid growing up across the river from New Jersey
this was the epic poetry of our existence.
Someone else heard the music of the night
as I did.
I guess a lot of people far from NJ
felt the same.

Here is the solo
to listen one more time.
followed by Springsteen's lyrics.

" -and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all,
they just stand back and let it all be- "




Bruce Springsteen Jungleland Lyrics

The rangers had a homecoming in harlem late last night
And the magic rat drove his sleek machine over the jersey state line
Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain
The rat pulls into town rolls up his pants
Together they take a stab at romance and disappear down flamingo lane

Well the maximum lawman run down flamingo chasing the rat and the barefoot
Girl
And the kids round here look just like shadows always quiet, holding hands
From the churches to the jails tonight all is silence in the world
As we take our stand down in jungleland

The midnight gangs assembled and picked a rendezvous for the night
They'll meet `neath that giant exxon sign that brings this fair city light
Man there's an opera out on the turnpike
There's a ballet being fought out in the alley
Until the local cops, cherry tops, rips this holy night
The streets alive as secret debts are paid
Contacts made, they vanished unseen
Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades hustling for the record machine
The hungry and the hunted explode into rocknroll bands
That face off against each other out in the street down in jungleland

In the parking lot the visionaries dress in the latest rage
Inside the backstreet girls are dancing to the records that the d.j. plays
Lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners
Desperate as the night moves on, just a look and a whisper, and they're gone

Beneath the city two hearts beat
Soul engines running through a night so tender in a bedroom locked
In whispers of soft refusal and then surrender in the tunnels uptown
The rats own dream guns him down as shots echo down them hallways in the
Night
No one watches when the ambulance pulls away
Or as the girl shuts out the bedroom light

Outside the streets on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be
And in the quick of the night they reach for their moment
And try to make an honest stand but they wind up wounded, not even dead
Tonight in jungleland