Canals

You know how sometimes you hear a word and an image comes into your head?  I've been hearing the word "canal" lately.  Hearing that word instantly takes me to the canals of Venice.  Even though I've never been to Italy I've seen enough pictures and heard many stories of those little waterways winding throughout Venice that I can almost hear the gondola oars dipping in and out of the water. 

Unfortunately, when I've heard the word canal lately it's been paired with the word root.  As in root canal.  That certainly brings to mind a much different mental image.  Disgusting, actually.

So while I was in the dentist chair undergoing a root canal on my very sad, dead tooth I tried to visualize the canals of Venice rather than focusing on what was actually going on inside my mouth.  I decided at that time fantasy was much better than reality. 

In the days to come think of me, pity me, pray for me, for I will be enduring a bit of swollenness and some nasty pain.  Luckily I have some leftover Vicodin from a previous procedure.  Perhaps that little pill will again take me to my fantasy of floating through the canals of Venice.

Photos compliments of Mogio Close Up, James L Menius, DDS and Chiaroscuro.

Wordless Wednesday

Today's photo is the stunning art of Anastassia Elias.

A Little Controversial

No matter what time of day I peruse Etsy I find all sorts of wonderful things from fun vintage shoes to hairdo do-dads.  There are things for babies, things for teens, and things for adults.  There is artwork with rainbows and unicorns and creations from the dark side.  There is stunning jewelry that'll knock your hand-knit socks off.  While I may occasionally see something a little embarrassing, I have never seen anything offensive.

Apparently I'm not looking hard enough.  Seems there have been some items that "sparked intense debate" about what items should be allowed on Etsy.

Seems Etsy's policies have "prohibited disparaging or promoting hate against people based on race or religion for quite a long time. But they never covered gender, people with disabilities, or sexual orientation."

The new policy states, in a nutshell:  "We no longer allow items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views... The revised policy now prohibits items or listings that promote or support illegal activity or instruct others to engage in illegal activity and items or listings that promote, support or glorify acts of violence or harm towards self or others."

I agree with Etsy's policy, but there's something to be said about those who have taken offense in what they've seen on Etsy.  The above images are Pulp Fiction magnets I've sold on Etsy.  Some may see them as demeaning to women, as disparaging the gay community, and/or as glorifying illegal activity.  I see them as smutty paperback novel artwork.  Who's right?  I don't know how my buyers viewed them, but obviously they weren't "offended" or they wouldn't have given up their hard-earned cash to buy them.  And the question is, will I be allowed to continue putting these items up for sale with the new Etsy policy?

Etsy welcomes inquiries from sellers as to their items' compliance with the new policy.  I hesitate to put them up for sale, but I'm also a business person who needs to earn a little jing.  I'm also not inclined to run my dozens of magnets by Etsy for approval.  So I'm kind of in a pickle.

What's your opinon on the situation?  While Etsy certainly has the right to allow or disallow anything they want on their website, do you think it's up to the members of Etsy (the buyers and sellers) to flag items as being offensive?  This isn't necessarily a matter of censorship because no one is telling the artisans they can't create, but who decides what is "offensive?"  And how many offended people does it take for Etsy to pull the item?

To see the policy announcement and hundreds of comments made on the subject click here.

Keeping Up With The 21st Century (sort of)

I'm getting to the age where I can't keep up with technological advances. My brain is slowing down and technology is advancing exponentially, just like my 10th grade math teacher Mr. Henningsgard told us it would.  I've been thinking about buying a smart phone and I get sweaty palms just by doing some comparison shopping.  I don't even know what's smart about these phones.  And I'll tell you the most embarrassing thing of all...I don't even get what "aps" do. 

And what about music?  I'm not a relic or anything but I actually remember the days of vinyl.  I have a nice little collection of albums stored upright in a cool place so they don't warp.  Oh sure, I went the way of 8-tracks, cassettes, and have even been getting duplicates of my favorite albums on CD because we don't have a turntable hooked up to our stereo system.  But iTunes?  What is that?  And these flippin' iPods?  I admit it's amazing those little, tiny, size-of-a-credit-card music player thingys can store so many songs but I can't get those little buds to stay in my ears. 

Time keeps moving forward and I seem to be lagging further and further behind.  But get this ~ Auntie B (aka Santa) gave a Christmas present to the entire family this year with some of the profits of her business.  It's an amazing piece of technology.  That's right, I took my sweaty little hands and marched into a store and asked, "do you have one of those machines that will magically turn my record albums into CDs?"  The guys said, "why yes, step right this way."  And so I did.

Installing, connecting, and getting my head around the whole thing took a while, but guess what?  I figured it out!  And now the magic begins. 

The '70s and '80s live again!

But this magical music machine isn't just for me.  One person who's really excited about this is my mom.  I've already begun transferring her old 45s to digital.  (If you're too young to know what a 45 is, well this entire post probably doesn't interest or excite you in the least.  A 45 is a little record that has one song on each side of it and is played at 45 revolutions a minute on a record player.) 

She's got quite a variety and she's indicated which ones she really wants like To Each His Own, Moonlight In Vermont and Unforgettable ~ she was such a romantic!  Even though she's flagged her absolute favorites, I think I'll transfer them all just for fun and because, as amazing and shocking as it seems, I can.  I feel like such a Techno Queen!

So today I'm recommending, if you love your old record albums, that you get one of these contraptions.  It will pay for itself with the transfer of about eleven albums, and the nostalgia it stirs up is priceless.

Wordless Wednesday

Yin And Yang or Half Empty/Half Full

*Icky Things I Have To Do This Week

1.  Finish putting away all of the Christmas decorations. 

2.  Makes sure all business paperwork is in order in preparation for submitting sales tax to two different states.

3.  Go to the day job as a person completely different from who I really am.

*Great Things I Get To Do This Week

1.  Create an environment that is tidy and organized!

2.  Start a fresh new year of business prosperity!

3.  Come home from the day job and be cozy in a dwelling where I am completely me!

How do you choose to approach your life?

The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

I know, I know, the twelve days of Christmas have passed.  I need to regress, not to relieve that most terrible day, but to get all caught up with myself ~ I've been decompressing since.

The twelfth day of Christmas was January 6th and it so happens it was one of the worst days I've had in the thirty-plus years of my day job working career.  Career?  Did I say that?  I meant job.  It's just a job, a job I want to do well for forty hours a week.  The end.  I don't want to advance my status.  I don't want to climb the government ladder.  I just want to do my job with no obstacles for the next five years or so in order to retire early and finally live life with abandon.

Unfortunately some of my coworkers didn't understand the 6th was still part of the Christmas season and decided to put aside their holiday cheer.  One created an obstacle to my doing my job, another backed her up.  Did I say I just want to do my job without obstacles?  I meant it.  Don't get in my way or there's going to be trouble.  And there was.

I have no regrets about my accusations.  I have no regrets about expressing my frustration with the human-unfriendly human service agency for which I work.  After all, what is life if we live it with regrets?  Without getting into too much detail I'll once again just say it was about the worst day I could have imagined having in what should be a mundane day at the job.

It didn't end there.  After I composed myself and stopped trembling out of anger I was afforded a trip to the dentist for a cleaning.  Except I got more than a cleaning.  I got news of all sorts of major work that needs to be done.  I'm not talking fillings.  I'm talking multiple crowns and a nice little root canal.  I suppose it's my payback for losing my verbal composure at the day job. 

Well I just had the worst day ever, and on the Twelfth Day of Christmas.  I got home, on the verge of tears, and Husby came to my rescue as he usually does.  He said to me, "you really need a cup of cocoa.  It will make you feel much better." 

It did.