click on the photograph to take you to the album...
5 June 2009
Flip videos by Sherri (our film maker, hostess, friend extraordinaire will be coming when I figure out how to import them from the email... of the rehearsal dinner and the wedding.
You tube of Dr. Kaku ( one of my most favourite scientist guys) on multiverses.
Premonitions: a strong feeling that something is about to happen, esp. something unpleasant; foreboding, presentiment, intuition, (funny) feeling, hunch, suspicion, feeling in one's bones; misgiving, apprehension, fear; archaic presage.
Have you ever had one? Do you think they happen? Is it real? Just a con-man/woman’s trick? A coincidence? “That woman’s thing”? Magic? Evil? Your imagination? So what?
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa. --Heisenberg, uncertainty paper, 1927” - This bit of science would seem to rule out the possibility of anyone or anything (computer data at quantum speeds) being able to take anything other than a guess, or a well informed guess, or a wild hair up your bum guess at the future - however (you knew that was coming right?) if we extrapolate the known scientific data and expand our thinking to include String Theory and a multiverse view(s) of reality – then the possibility of premonitions becomes more likely.
But again, so what? Can you change the flow of reality? You think the truck is going to hit the dog at ten a.m. If there are multiple dimensions then what you have done if you save the dog, is divert the path you were taking in this reality to an alternate path? The dog continues to live here, but your other self has to lose him? In the theory of multi-dimensional universes, there is no ‘path not taken’. Did you float ( well I can’t think of a scientific term!) over to another universe briefly and see the future that will unfold in this reality?
The one commonality that exists (that we know so far) between multiverses is gravity – that weak but ubiquitous force that permeates all space-time, as we know it, and affects all that we see and cannot see. It is in some way intertwined with dark matter – that other mysterious but none the less real force that has a concrete, continuous, and yet unknown impact on our galaxy, our planet, and our reality. So – does gravity have some impact on premonitions? (That’s where I started remember?)
The reason this is on my mind is because I am ‘one of those people’ who have premonitions. That said, they are, in my case, useless. I get a feeling of dread, or of something about to happen… What? To whom? Where? No bloody idea! The only thing that happens with certainty and a time I can pinpoint is when it is over; when the thing, whatever it is, has happened. Sometimes it is something in my family, sometimes it is some event on the other side of the bloody world that has nothing to do with me but that I am a fellow human! And that’s the other indefinable, but certain thing that happens, I know what it is when I see it on the news, or read it in the paper, or hear about it from someone. “Ah, that’s what that was.” Useless and bloody annoying I tell you.
The day before Katherine Hepburn died, I was a wreck. I didn’t know the woman! Like her movies? Yes, but did not know her. The morning of the eruption of that little volcano in Washington State? I was in India and didn’t know why I was upset for a week until I got down to civilization and heard the news!
Yesterday for about three hours, black cloud sitting on my chest, I called my child, my stepchildren, my husband, and anyone else I thought I should be concerned about – everyone was fine. Then three hours later, I’m getting out of the automobile at Barnes & Noble (of course J. took me to a bookstore to cheer me up! What? You thought a jewellery store? No, that’s Dulwichmum!) and bam, I knew whatever it was had happened and was over. The weight that had been on my chest all morning was gone, and I was as chipper as ever, albeit still confused.
Last night I received a call from a friend that a friend of his friend (how far removed? Well not as far as Kate Hepburn!) had been killed in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. A nice young American boy, a Marine.
See what I mean? Useless! I mean, even say I could have pinpointed the whom or the where, what the bloody hell could I have done? Arghhhhh.
Have you ever had a premonition? What did you do? Do you think it is some subconscious knowledge of a critical mass of facts that we just have not consciously acknowledged? Or a gift of some sort of special sensitivity? There is much to-do about this and other mysteries of the mind I know – during the Cold War it was greatly researched (?) by both sides for a useful end to use in warfare with no great result.
We brought the kitten home from the airport and in short order he informed us of his 'true' name - Angus MacLeod H*****. Then he explored my desk, did some reading, read the instruction manual for my new laptop and was pooped! What a charmer he is!
This is the first of my new desk buddies - I'm still waiting for the kitty and the new laptop. Albert Einstein is an old joke with J. and I. When we were young and together, he didn't think I was terribly bright – ‘hot’ yes, smart? Not so much.
One day in my apartment he noticed a book about/by Albert Einstein and thought to himself – “Now what could that be doing here? Someone must have given it to her… or it’s a doorstop, that’s it, she uses it for a doorstop.”
In our second time around, he has come to the conclusion that perhaps I’m not so very dumb – but still hot! ☺ He brought this action figure (I do so love that there is an action figure of Albert) home for me last week. Is that romantic or what? Isn’t life grand?
Stay focused, ladies. Here is The Practical Guide to Help Spurned Political Wives Survive Old Problems in the Era of New Technology.
1. Skip the press conference, especially when your husband is copping to call girls, gay pickups in airport bathrooms or “tragic” and “forbidden” telenovela-style love stories. Stoicism at the skunk’s side is overrated and, as Larry Craig’s wife learned, sunglasses don’t help.
2. When there’s an Associated Press bulletin quoting your husband saying that he has found his soul mate but he’s going to try to fall back in love with you, change the locks. (At your second home, too.)
3. If you can’t maintain a dignified Silda Spitzer silence; if you can’t find a girlfriend, a shrink, a personal trainer, a hairdresser or a yoga teacher to confide in; if you must unburden yourself of your fury about your loser husband, go to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or even Deepak Chopra before crying to The A.P. A news wire is not a spiritual adviser.
4. When your husband turns into a Harlequin romance, babbling to The A.P. — yes, even The A.P. thought it was T.M.I. — about a magical encounter on an open-air dance floor in Uruguay, “a soul that touches yours in a way that no one’s ever has,” and the “left brain and right brain” compartmentalization of “the world of ideas that impact this country and state” and “the pursuit of happiness, whatever that is,” just beat it.
5. If you think the worst is over, it’s probably only beginning. On Tuesday, after you thought Mark Sanford had already emoted and burbled more than any man in history, he volunteered to The A.P. (again!) that he had “crossed lines” with a handful of women on trips out of the country, but only “crossed the ultimate line” with his enchanting Maria. And just when you thought John Edwards could not sink any lower, there is news of a sex tape, in which Rielle Hunter shows off her skills not only in videography but pornography.
6. No matter how revolting your husband’s behavior is, don’t be passive-aggressive in public. Refrain from making any remarks that have a veneer of dignity but derogatory subtexts that sound like: “We’re trying to reconcile but it’s going to be tough because he has irreparably damaged my children” or “He has no integrity and I want my kids to have integrity” and “Sure, I’d like to give him a chance if he weren’t such a sleazeball.”
7. Don’t bring the children into it. They suffer enough being the kids of politicians. In the era of Facebook, texting, Google and iPhones, calling him out as a bad father will just go viral in the kids’ circles. Don’t trot out the family on “Oprah,” as Elizabeth Edwards did, or weepily show The A.P. the report cards of your two oldest sons from their elite private school in Columbia, S.C., as Jenny Sanford did.
8. Even if you’re a clever, competent woman, you risk sounding like a stereotypical harridan if you use the kids as a bludgeon and tell the press, as Jenny did: “You would think that a father who didn’t have contact with his children, if he wanted those children, he would toe the line a little bit.” When kids are involved, it’s best to chill when dishing out revenge.
9. Don’t slam his girlfriend for lying when you know she’s telling the truth. Don’t refer to the baby your rival had with your husband as “it.” Don’t trash a mistress, as Hillary and Elizabeth did, as a wacky stalker. No one — except the wife — blames the girlfriend as much as they blame the husband. Besides, you invite The Other Woman’s retaliation, as when Rielle decided — after watching Elizabeth spill to Oprah — that she might want that DNA test after all.
10. High-powered women like Hillary, Elizabeth and Jenny who give up their careers to focus on their husbands’ ambitions feel doubly betrayed. But it’s not your husband’s fault if you sacrifice more for the relationship than he does. Like an investor in a down market, you took a risk without a guarantee it would pay off. If you make your husband your career and you lose your husband, you lose your career, too.
11. Cut your losses and keep going. Don’t let yourself get dragged into his drama or your reputation may follow his down the well. Hillary refused to let that happen. She salvaged her long investment in Bill Clinton and turned a profit when she became a senator.
12. As you stay out of the spotlight that singes your husband, listen to whatever messages he is sending you through the press. When your husband says that is a world-class love story, ask him what this is. Just don’t do it through The A.P.
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First up – the Cap n’ Trade Bill that passed the house in the shadow of Michael Jackson-news-all-the-time-all-the-networks. If one reads the sneaky fine print, I don’t think this is a good idea. I tried to find the bill online to actually read it, but could only find sites to read about it. As you can see on the link above the Energy Czar hasn’t bothered to read the entire thing. What? A couple of opposing view points: Mr. Beck (whom I really dislike as he is fast and loose at times, but not always, with his “facts” and unlike Fox’s Mr. O’Reilly is NOT charming). I’m a CNN girl, but you can’t argue with the opposition unless you know what they are saying; and sometimes they are correct. The International Herald Tribune (which in the interest of disclosure has been purchased by the New York Times) From The Economist ( the one that put the scare in me and had me up this morning writing letters to U.S. senators)
Then I hear about this – the FDA (the same people who passed Viagra in six months but took six years to pass a sunscreen that protects against both kinds of harmful rays from the sun) has decided that (and yes this is a personal issue for me) those who suffer from chronic pain should just suck it up. They are proposing to eliminate Vicodin, Percocet, and to lower the dosages of acetaminophen in the over the counter drugs that people use for arthritis, acute injuries, muscle pain, etc. This site is apparently (I’m still reading) a place one can go to protest this proposal- unfortunately I see by 30 June 2009. I’m looking to see who else can be contacted. Pain medication makes the lives of many chronic pain sufferers bearable, for those like me it increases significantly the quality of life on a day-to-day basis. Doctors (trust me) are skittish enough about prescribing pain medication even when clearly indicated.
