a blast from christmas past!

a blast from christmas past!
for the love of christmas! my childhood was full of wonderful christmas memories, and as an adult i wanted to repeat all of the special traditions. well, i am sure my children remember the traditions as well as many new memories we have made. i must say being and adult at christmas is a challenge for my spirit. on my daughters fifth or sixth xmas, santa brought a large outside pink playhouse, some assembly required. after midnight mass and a little christmas cheer, bourbon for him and veuve clicquot for me, we started to build. wow! several hours later and a few chinese slang words, mr. claus and i were under roof. putting the finishing touches on, he stabbed a screwdriver through his hand. there was blood everywhere, the walls, the ceiling! it looked like a murder had taken place! i was still wiping it down when the girls awoke with wonderous eyes. no claus lost his life in the making of these christmas memories.
i should have known after our first christmas together that i was seasonally challenged. we had just moved to california and a new house. ok! so i had just had my first baby who had to stay in the neonatal unit for two weeks after she was born. so, babies first christmas when she was six weeks. my mother had come and gone as had my mother in law. my sweet husband was working and taking care of all the details, except we had forgotten christmas dinner. the tree was decorated, the gifts purchased, but we had no food and he was quite the gourmand. christmas day and nothing was open not even a trader joes. we ended up eating spam from a convenience store. it is related to ham right.
the year of gasoline! i think my son was eight or so. he had moved from the christmas puppy to the christmas four wheeler. no problem coming in the front door with a dog try a four wheeler. thank god we awoke to the smell of gasoline!
we have had the regular christmas pratfalls. yeah, the griswald christmas. the fully decorated tree falling. TIMBER! the lovely smelling pound cake fresh from the oven on the floor being devoured by the dog. the kids finding all their presents. yes baby there is a santa claus. but xmas 05 was a special christmas. my daughters were now in their teens with lots of friends over all the time hanging out. well they decide to decorate with some finishing touches to our outside lighting. they drew out a design for a large lighted tree. we lived on the only hill in the area. we called it our hilltop estate, mansion on the hill, castle in the sky, alright home. well this tree took up the whole yard. it was quite impressive. we took pictures and video of the lights. the following evening my husband and i were having a christmas party. we were both busy all day preparing. when the first guest arrived they commented on the lights and i said the girls did it. they gave me a strange look and several others arrived and start talking. i said didn't the girls do a great job on the tree in the front yard. everyone looked at each other laughing and they took me outside. the tree had been rearranged. it was now a giant lighted PENIS. yes this phallic symbol was large and blinking. we live next to several fedex pilots and it was spotted from the air and was quite the attraction for landing planes. we believe some college boys had a little to much fun with our lights! just to show no hard feelings i lit up the penis one more night. ohlala! christmas penis.

i hate 86, but love 69!

for the love of it! appreciating the amateur scientist

i am riled by the pompous attitude of academia. if not for the amateur scientist, we would not have academia. most of the current information in any subject is based on the information culled from the original brilliant minds of the thinker. scholarly work is important and it must be held to standard and proven, but academia should embrace the amateur. many use technology to spread their pseudoscience and profit, but i believe the public wise enough to cull information and seek the truth. even in the physical sciences i know there needs to be controls and studies, but we are far too constricted in our degrees. in the field of medicine we are too restricted and controlled. we have lost the natural homeopathic way. we have lost touch with nature through constraints in academia. it is frustrating when your field of study is sensationalized, but the truth might not be what is written in a text. astronomers understand the importance of the amateur more than any other field of study. many of the objects we see in the night sky were discovered by the amateur. the field of archeology is currently undergoing an interesting transition. in the past sites were quite isolated and archaeologists were able to do the work as Teilhard, with a small group under their control. today archaeology is accessible to the everyday archaeologist. people are technomads that travel to many sites of interest. so much has been lost due to war, greed and ignorance. the proof may be lost in translation and time. i think academia should embrace and support the amateur for sometimes the walls of academia fall on ideas and creativity. when one has a passion for a subject, a true love for the quest for answers without reward of a profession, one finds true answers. these answers may not be what is studied. i think the amateur keeps the scholar in check. many of today's scientist are far too biased in personal opinions and religious beliefs. i will continue to enjoy shows like the quest for the lost ark. i will read historical fiction and the research cited, but i will question even the scholars. as Napoleon is believed to have said "history is a version of past events that people have decided to agree upon." the scientific theory must be followed but knowledge is fluid. archaeologist face the philosophical and the methodological issues when formulating theories. Fagan's oxford companion of archeology recommend the use of logic and reasoning and the natural sciences as scientific method. rigid narrowing methods could overlook logical answers that are culled outside of mainstream scientific data. the groves of academe are paved with many disciplines and i believe in interdisciplinarity. the changes within academia and at universities from Plato to Da Vinci to Einstein to modern times may have slowed the evolution of knowledge. could we be quantum leaps ahead if we restructure our systems? if not for amateur computer scientist, Bill Gates, you would not be receiving this enlightening information quite the way you are. as academia has splintered and become corporatist, academic freedoms are compromised. academic elitism quells personal knowledge and scientific freedoms. discursive theory has become the goal of many archaeologists and this may be the best approach. you never know if the theory of the amateur that seems so sensationalized may end up being the reality, and unfortunately you may not know until you see the face of the tetragrammaton.

walking and coffee are the stimulants i need for writing, and the sky is my inspiration!

it is the pedastal above the alter that i stand on.

I am a Technomad!

The Mississippi delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody.