A Sad Day

  Yesterday, Elisabeth Sladen died.  If you ever watched the Doctor Who series with Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker or David Tennant as the Doctor, you know who she is.  She played Sarah Jane Smith, one of the companions.

  When I was younger, I first saw Doctor Who on PBS (Channel 13 in Oklahoma City) on Saturday nights.  And the first episodes I saw starred Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane.  She was cute as a bug's ear, perky, feisty, funny, brave, and I quickly developed a crush on her - even finding reasons to not go out partying on Saturday nights.  She saved me a lot of beer money.

  In the last year or so, she appeared again on Doctor Who.  David Tennant was the Doctor and on one of his many trips to Earth, he managed to run into an older Sarah Jane.  She was still a cute as could be, and I found that my crush hadn't quite gone away.  When the Doctor left her, perhaps (and as turn out definitely) for the last time, he had fixed up K9, the little robot dog who had been along on many of the Sarah Jane and Doctor (Tom Baker) adventures, and left K9 with Sarah.

  My condolences go out to Lis's family.  

   

What's My Secret?

   Last night, after working as part of the event staff for a basketball game, a co-worker came up to me and said, "You gotta tell me your secret."
   "My secret?" I asked, a bit puzzled because I have so many (ha ha!).
   "Yes!" she exclaimed.  "How do you keep that upbeat attitude going all the time?  How come you don't get frustrated?"
   "Ahhh!  THAT secret," I replied with a grin.  "I figure that I might as well keep a positive attitude going because it makes life more fun.  Being grumpy doesn't make things better, and can actually be counter-productive."  


   Working at various events, I see all types of people, most of whom are fairly happy to be there.  However, there always seems to be a few who, due to varying degrees of their frustration levels, want to tee off on somebody - the somebody usually being an easily identified event staff person.  Maintaining a calm, pleasant attitude often does help calm the patron down somewhat - sometimes to the point where they realize they are speaking to another human being and not a cog in a machine.
   I let them know that I understand they are angry, frustrated, upset, etc., but that I cannot change policies or prices.  I suggest that they go enjoy the game and perhaps call the appropriate department or vendor during business hours the next day and voice their concerns then.  Usually, that's all it takes.  They still may be unhappy, but once they've calmed down a bit, they go on to have a better time.  More often than not, the next time I see them, they've joined the ranks of those who are happy to be there.  Heck, some of them will come over to me with a smile to chat about little things like the weather or how crazy the pre-game traffic was.
   Yep, my positive attitude secret does have some good things going for it.  And life certainly is more fun that way.



  

Dishwasher Down!

  I could have gotten upset over this, because it seems that washing the dishes is a never-ending task.  Right now, our dishwasher fills up with hot water and goes through the timed cycles, but what it fails to do is spray water to rinse off the dishes.  There is a click, like it's trying to do something, but like a car with a bad starter, it doesn't quite hit the point where it's actually starting.
  Instead of getting all upset, I decided to wash a few dishes by hand the other night as I was cooking supper.  I used the dishwasher's racks as drying racks and zoned out while washing and keeping an eye on the stove.  By the time the macaroni and cheese was done and mixed with the cooked broccoli, I had the dishwasher filled with clean, dry dishes.  Almost without thinking, I washed the stuff I used for cooking and put them in the counter dish drainer to dry.  
   The whole process took less time than the dishwasher would have, and I got more done.  Not only that (and don't tell anybody), but the act of washing the dishes in the warm, sudsy water had a pleasant calming effect.  Maybe that's why my mom seemed to not mind washing the dishes when I was a kid.
   I find it interesting that sometimes the "old school way" of doing things can be a pleasant and fulfilling experience.  How about you?

Whoops!

I've been so busy since the start of the year that I haven't had time to update this blog.  Over the next few posts, I'll probably be bouncing back and forth between what has happened and what is currently happening.  


Arrrggghh!!  My cat has apparently decided I am now the Alpha Cat, so I gotta give him some attention before I'm off to work at the OSU Baseball game today.  I hope I'll be back soon, LOL!

Where Was Moses When the Lights Went Out?

   In the dark, of course!

   This morning I began a temp gig at the OSU Student Union Bookstore.  Spring semester classes start a week from today.  Today, though, at around 10:15 or so (maybe a little before), the power went out to the temporary building housing the bookstore as the Student Union is getting renovated.  I took the following picture during the outage, before the power came back on roughly an hour and a half later.  I turned my flash off, and tweaked the brightness a bit to get things visible.

   Fortunately, this power failure happened at a slow time.  Most of the faculty and students are gone this week.  Despite the outage, we continued to get ready for the Spring Semester rush, which will really hit in a week.  We'll get busier each day this week as more students come back into town, and next week we'll really be buzzing, especially during the first half of the week.

   I took other pictures today, but this is the one I chose to post to my Flickr account for my yearlong project.  I find it interesting how we tend to take power and energy for granted until it's gone.

Crisp and Clear

  The weather this morning was crisp and clear and cold.  I think it was about 20° F, give or take a few degrees, when I took this picture.  It's of the OSU Campus Fire Station, which is a familiar landmark in Stillwater.  It's one of the older buildings in town, and it sits on Campus Corner at the southeast edge of the campus.

  Like this morning's weather, my goal for this year is to maintain a crisp and clear focus on everything that I do.  We all have the power to influence others, and I intend to do so in a positive way.  

Welcome to 2011!

   I have decided to start a new project this year - to take one picture a day, each day.  I'll probably take more than one on most days, but I have set a minimum of one.  I've started a Flikr album for this project and by December 31, there will be 365 photos.  I haven't decided how I will choose which photo to add for a given day.  Maybe it will be my best shot of the day, or perhaps the most interesting, or maybe one that tells a story, or one that is special to me for some silly reason.


   Why am I doing this?  The way I see it, it will give me something to focus on each day.  I may also become a better photographer in the process as I try to get the most out of my little digital camera.  This will also give me something to talk about (as if I'm not talkative enough) with family and friends.  It may, at times, give me an opportunity to stretch my creativity as I look for something to photograph.  Overall, I think that this will help me see things from different perspectives, and possibly give me better insight about the complexly simple person that I am.


   Here's my first photo (and the only one I took today) of 2011.  I went to Mass at 9:00 this morning - a clear, chilly day.  My faith has kept me going through these dark times as I search for work, so this picture really has a special meaning for me.