A friend brought up an interesting point the other day.
I wear glasses. I need them to drive, see the television — most anything requiring me to see more than 10 feet in front of me.
I spend most of my day in front of a computer, where I do not wear my glasses. Some of my coworkers don’t even realize that I wear glasses because, during most of my time in the office, I don’t have them on.
So, the point my friend brought up was do I wear glasses or do I have glasses?
The idea seemed ridiculous. I’ve worn glasses most of my life. I’ve never thought of my need for corrective lenses in any other way. As we discussed the issue further, I supposed that the situation was similar to someone who uses reading glasses; they don’t really wear glasses -- they just use them for reading. Since, for about 70 percent of my day I don’t actually have my glasses on, does that mean that I, too, only use them instead of “wearing” them?
As semantics go, this issue is pretty insignificant but it did get me thinking. How many other definitions in our lives do we cling to and never think twice about, for better or for worse? And how do these definitions, these labels, affect the people we are?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Two Movies You Wouldn’t Think to Pair
I was watching “Get Smart” today, the movie with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. It is a thoroughly enjoyable movie and I was just thinking how lucky I am that two of my favorite franchises of all time — this and “Star Trek” — have been treated to really great resurrections lately.
What makes both of these movies stand out together — because I’m sure they wouldn’t usually be taken into consideration as pair usually — is that they are both fantastic stories by themselves and made all the better by playing hommage to the originals and being a real treat to the fans.
I remember seeing “Get Smart” in the theater with a couple of people who’d apparently never seen the original series. Though they were enjoying the movie, I remember laughing at all of the “inside jokes” (the original Sigfried’s cameo) and classic lines and loving the movie even more for it. I worried going into the movie that there would be too much slapstick or that the movie would be a parody of the classic — which was a parody, itself, of all the spy genre at the time. But, honestly, Mr. Carrell and Ms. Hathaway did two of my favorite characters proud and made a most enjoyable movie experience all around.
And “Star Trek,” oh, “Star Trek,” was so great on just so many levels that I can’t think of a better movie experience ever. Aside from also being true to the classic series and the characters millions have known and loved for decades, it was the most amazing action/comedy/buddy movie ever. The entire thing is well-paced and the humor is always there but never overpowering — and a bit tongue-in-cheek like the best episode and movie moments. And, again, the J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman made the effort to take the fans into consideration with classic lines and inside jokes without alienating newbies to the franchise.
Some would consider these movies an odd thing to considering a blessing, I know, but I can’t help but feel it’s true. Too often a classic is taken and re-made in an effort to make a quick and lazy buck; relying on name recognition to lure audiences in without delivering the nostalgia they’re looking for. “Get Smart” and “Star Trek” delivered two separate and completely different movie experiences but they offered this viewer, at least, one thing pure delight.
What makes both of these movies stand out together — because I’m sure they wouldn’t usually be taken into consideration as pair usually — is that they are both fantastic stories by themselves and made all the better by playing hommage to the originals and being a real treat to the fans.
I remember seeing “Get Smart” in the theater with a couple of people who’d apparently never seen the original series. Though they were enjoying the movie, I remember laughing at all of the “inside jokes” (the original Sigfried’s cameo) and classic lines and loving the movie even more for it. I worried going into the movie that there would be too much slapstick or that the movie would be a parody of the classic — which was a parody, itself, of all the spy genre at the time. But, honestly, Mr. Carrell and Ms. Hathaway did two of my favorite characters proud and made a most enjoyable movie experience all around.
And “Star Trek,” oh, “Star Trek,” was so great on just so many levels that I can’t think of a better movie experience ever. Aside from also being true to the classic series and the characters millions have known and loved for decades, it was the most amazing action/comedy/buddy movie ever. The entire thing is well-paced and the humor is always there but never overpowering — and a bit tongue-in-cheek like the best episode and movie moments. And, again, the J. J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman made the effort to take the fans into consideration with classic lines and inside jokes without alienating newbies to the franchise.
Some would consider these movies an odd thing to considering a blessing, I know, but I can’t help but feel it’s true. Too often a classic is taken and re-made in an effort to make a quick and lazy buck; relying on name recognition to lure audiences in without delivering the nostalgia they’re looking for. “Get Smart” and “Star Trek” delivered two separate and completely different movie experiences but they offered this viewer, at least, one thing pure delight.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Happy New Year!
It’s the day of resolutions and, like many, I’ve got mine ready to go.
Fourth on the list — my resolution came with friends — is to publish weekly to The World According to Joy. Since no one complained about the lack of posts during the bulk of 2009, I’m not expecting anyone to really care about what I’ll have to say every week but I’m doing this more for me.
That’s what most of the resolutions are about, actually. Me.
Selfish, I know, but I don’t think I take nearly enough opportunities to be a little selfish. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being a giver — and I fully intend to continue to be the Joy everyone can rely on — but I also need to stop taking guilt trips when I want a day to sit around the house doing nothing or take a little time to do what I want.
The rest of my resolutions center around that theme — doing the things that I want or need to do. I want (and need) to lose the weight I gained while on the evil, evil Methotrexate during last winter’s arthritic flare-up. I need to not wear myself to the point of exhaustion so that I don’t even have the energy to take care of the little, important, things like proper oral hygiene. I want to journal daily to help to keep focused on the important things I need to be doing as well as to keep track of the important things going on around me. The journaling is part of another resolution, to complete my Year and a Day study of my first Wiccan degree.
It’s a new year, a new decade, and I’ve got new focus. Like Happy Bunnys syas, "Let’s focus on me."
Fourth on the list — my resolution came with friends — is to publish weekly to The World According to Joy. Since no one complained about the lack of posts during the bulk of 2009, I’m not expecting anyone to really care about what I’ll have to say every week but I’m doing this more for me.
That’s what most of the resolutions are about, actually. Me.
Selfish, I know, but I don’t think I take nearly enough opportunities to be a little selfish. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being a giver — and I fully intend to continue to be the Joy everyone can rely on — but I also need to stop taking guilt trips when I want a day to sit around the house doing nothing or take a little time to do what I want.
The rest of my resolutions center around that theme — doing the things that I want or need to do. I want (and need) to lose the weight I gained while on the evil, evil Methotrexate during last winter’s arthritic flare-up. I need to not wear myself to the point of exhaustion so that I don’t even have the energy to take care of the little, important, things like proper oral hygiene. I want to journal daily to help to keep focused on the important things I need to be doing as well as to keep track of the important things going on around me. The journaling is part of another resolution, to complete my Year and a Day study of my first Wiccan degree.
It’s a new year, a new decade, and I’ve got new focus. Like Happy Bunnys syas, "Let’s focus on me."
Monday, February 09, 2009
A Matter of Trust
As promised, this post revolves primarily around my kitten Amelia.
She’s a bit of a daredevil and I’ve not figured out yet if it’s because she doesn’t know any better, lacks a sense of self-preservation or if she just truly trusts that I won’t let anything bad happen to her.
While vaccuuming yesterday, Rebecca, the adult cat, made herself scarce as she always does. Amelia, however, thinks the vacuum and the process of cleaning is a game and she loves to play. A couple of times I came very close to running her over or hitting her with the hose. When I immediately stopped and checked to see if she was okay she simply blinked at me with those big eyes of hers like she wondered why I’d paused.
Working out brings up the same trust issues. I do Pilates and lift free weights most mornings. Very often I come very close to rolling over or kicking or hitting Amelia because she likes to lay right next to me while I work out. Or, as was the case this morning, she thinks the 8-pound dumbbells are toys for her amusement and she tries to catch it in the middle of my rep.
As I said, I don’t know if her trust in me is just so absolute that she knows I’d never allow anything to happen to her or if she really doesn’t realize the danger she places herself in during these mundane activities. Either way, it’s given me a reason to be more in control while working out and aware while performing other duties. Even if she does lack basic danger-avoidance skills, it’s my job to keep her safe. She can trust me on that.
She’s a bit of a daredevil and I’ve not figured out yet if it’s because she doesn’t know any better, lacks a sense of self-preservation or if she just truly trusts that I won’t let anything bad happen to her.
While vaccuuming yesterday, Rebecca, the adult cat, made herself scarce as she always does. Amelia, however, thinks the vacuum and the process of cleaning is a game and she loves to play. A couple of times I came very close to running her over or hitting her with the hose. When I immediately stopped and checked to see if she was okay she simply blinked at me with those big eyes of hers like she wondered why I’d paused.
Working out brings up the same trust issues. I do Pilates and lift free weights most mornings. Very often I come very close to rolling over or kicking or hitting Amelia because she likes to lay right next to me while I work out. Or, as was the case this morning, she thinks the 8-pound dumbbells are toys for her amusement and she tries to catch it in the middle of my rep.
As I said, I don’t know if her trust in me is just so absolute that she knows I’d never allow anything to happen to her or if she really doesn’t realize the danger she places herself in during these mundane activities. Either way, it’s given me a reason to be more in control while working out and aware while performing other duties. Even if she does lack basic danger-avoidance skills, it’s my job to keep her safe. She can trust me on that.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Miss Me?
It’s been an awful long time since I shared anything from the World According to Joy and it’s high-time I got back into the habit, eh?
To catch you up on a couple of things of pertinence, I adopted a kitten back in October. I named her Amelia — though I often refer to her simply as "The Beast" — and, after a suitable adjustment period, she and Rebecca get along just fine. I warn you about the kitten because, frankly, a lot of posts will end up being about her because I’m a little bit obsessed. Some say it’s because I’ll make a good parent some day. I think it’s because she’s so gosh darn CUTE!
Which actually brings me to the topic of this WATJ post.
Everyone who has met Amelia has become immediately enchanted by her. This pleases me, of course, because who wants to be the owner of a pet no one likes? But it does raise an interesting question.
Is Amelia really that engaging in her own right or is everyone enthralled simply because she is a kitten?
As kittens go, I won’t lie, she is adorable. She is affectionate and has so far made it a point to cuddle with every human she’s come in contact with. She is entertaining and will bat at and play with almost anything — but not so much so that she’s annoyingly (or painfully) swatting at fingers and bare toes.
I guess we’ll just watch and see as she grows older if Amelia will have the same ability to enthrall everyone she meets as she does now.
To catch you up on a couple of things of pertinence, I adopted a kitten back in October. I named her Amelia — though I often refer to her simply as "The Beast" — and, after a suitable adjustment period, she and Rebecca get along just fine. I warn you about the kitten because, frankly, a lot of posts will end up being about her because I’m a little bit obsessed. Some say it’s because I’ll make a good parent some day. I think it’s because she’s so gosh darn CUTE!
Which actually brings me to the topic of this WATJ post.
Everyone who has met Amelia has become immediately enchanted by her. This pleases me, of course, because who wants to be the owner of a pet no one likes? But it does raise an interesting question.
Is Amelia really that engaging in her own right or is everyone enthralled simply because she is a kitten?
As kittens go, I won’t lie, she is adorable. She is affectionate and has so far made it a point to cuddle with every human she’s come in contact with. She is entertaining and will bat at and play with almost anything — but not so much so that she’s annoyingly (or painfully) swatting at fingers and bare toes.
I guess we’ll just watch and see as she grows older if Amelia will have the same ability to enthrall everyone she meets as she does now.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Girl and Her Toe
I am trying very hard to be positive about a series of things over the last week and a half.
I woke up last Monday unable to put any weight or pressure on the big toe of my right foot. As I hadn’t actually done anything to my foot to cause such a problem, the pain was both a mystery and, well, painful.
By Tuesday night, my toe still hurt and my ankle and knee were starting to feel the affects of walking funny to favor the sore part of my foot.
On Thursday, I saw my doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO - my general doctor) who took an x-ray and determined that there wasn’t any fracture or other damage she could see in my foot but there was, evidently, very little space in the joints of my toe -- meaning that, as I walked, the bones were more or less rubbing together. My DO was concerned that the problem was related to rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the autoimmune disorder I suffer with, or maybe gout (which is a horribly named old man disease but also another connective tissue disorder that there’s a good chance I could get). She gave me some suggestions for managing pain until I could get into see the rheumatologist (the specialist I see for RA -- see previous post for more information).
I saw my rheumatologist yesterday and there’s good news, bad news and “eh” news.
The good news is that I don’t have gout.
The bad news is that I’ve likely got joint damage from the RA in my feet.
The “eh” news is that at least we now know the treatment we’ve been doing isn’t aggressive enough as I’ve got another damaged area. I’ll start an additional medication today and try it out for the next several of weeks. This prescription involves period blood tests as there’s a chance of it killing blood cells and causing anemia. While waiting for the new medication to kick in, I’ll be on a tapering steroid dose to reduce present inflammation and pain management.
This latest development has me more down than usual about my RA. I usually consider myself pretty lucky that I was pretty young (26) and relatively healthy when I was diagnosed and treatment was started. But I think what few understand -- and what I, even, sometimes forget -- is how serious it really is and how much damage the disease can cause. I get teased a lot for being a hypochondriac or a wimp because I see my DO for “every little thing” but there’s no way of telling which one of those little things is RA-related or a precursor to a bigger issue.
I’m hopeful, after seeing my rheumatologist, that I’ll get back to a normal level of pain and mobility and back to my usual self soon. For now, I’m a little slower and definitely not as upbeat.
I woke up last Monday unable to put any weight or pressure on the big toe of my right foot. As I hadn’t actually done anything to my foot to cause such a problem, the pain was both a mystery and, well, painful.
By Tuesday night, my toe still hurt and my ankle and knee were starting to feel the affects of walking funny to favor the sore part of my foot.
On Thursday, I saw my doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO - my general doctor) who took an x-ray and determined that there wasn’t any fracture or other damage she could see in my foot but there was, evidently, very little space in the joints of my toe -- meaning that, as I walked, the bones were more or less rubbing together. My DO was concerned that the problem was related to rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the autoimmune disorder I suffer with, or maybe gout (which is a horribly named old man disease but also another connective tissue disorder that there’s a good chance I could get). She gave me some suggestions for managing pain until I could get into see the rheumatologist (the specialist I see for RA -- see previous post for more information).
I saw my rheumatologist yesterday and there’s good news, bad news and “eh” news.
The good news is that I don’t have gout.
The bad news is that I’ve likely got joint damage from the RA in my feet.
The “eh” news is that at least we now know the treatment we’ve been doing isn’t aggressive enough as I’ve got another damaged area. I’ll start an additional medication today and try it out for the next several of weeks. This prescription involves period blood tests as there’s a chance of it killing blood cells and causing anemia. While waiting for the new medication to kick in, I’ll be on a tapering steroid dose to reduce present inflammation and pain management.
This latest development has me more down than usual about my RA. I usually consider myself pretty lucky that I was pretty young (26) and relatively healthy when I was diagnosed and treatment was started. But I think what few understand -- and what I, even, sometimes forget -- is how serious it really is and how much damage the disease can cause. I get teased a lot for being a hypochondriac or a wimp because I see my DO for “every little thing” but there’s no way of telling which one of those little things is RA-related or a precursor to a bigger issue.
I’m hopeful, after seeing my rheumatologist, that I’ll get back to a normal level of pain and mobility and back to my usual self soon. For now, I’m a little slower and definitely not as upbeat.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Lube Job
If I’ve not mentioned it before, I love O’Donnell’s On-the-Spot Repair.
I’m seated in their lobby of their new facility in south Lansing waiting for Hedwig to get a much-overdo oil change and general checkup.
The general checkup is one of many things that, to me, sets O’Donnell’s apart from other shops where I could get my car’s routine services. The mechanics here always go above and beyond checking my car over and catching most issues before they become a problem. If they notice something, they’re honest about how soon I should have it taken care of or if it’s something I even need to worry about.
Though I’d frequented O’Donnell’s for car repair for most of my Lansing life, I used to rely on quick-lube shops for the regular oil changes. As you likely know, these places always like to suggest friendly services that are, apparently, recommended by the manufacturer every so-many miles. During one such oil change at a local quick-lube five years ago, an employee informed me that my car was in need of almost $500 worth of service, including a new serpentine belt. As I was getting ready for a road trip east, I was concerned about all the maintenance my car apparently needed but not ready (or able) to fork over that big of a chunk for all the bells and whistles they said I needed.
I paid for the oil change and drove away to contemplate which services took precedence and to see if I could finagle my finances to cover them.
With the list of all the things Hedwig apparently needed, I gave O’Donnell’s a call on the off-chance that they might be able to perform some of the work for less money than the quick-lube shop. After speaking with a mechanic over the phone, I ended up taking Hedwig in for another oil change — after which they told me I didn’t need any of the services the quick-lube had suggested and my serpentine belt was just fine (a mite dusty but easily cleaned; I’ve only just recently replaced the belt after getting another four years out of it).
So, with the cost of the second oil change, O’Donnell’s managed to save me more than $400 by just being honest. I’ve been a loyal customer ever since. I won’t say they’re the cheapest place in town but my experience has been quality service with integrity.
Oh! Looks like Hedwig’s done. And apparently I need a new fuel filter in the next couple of months. Not a surprise and not something I can’t live without for a little while. So I’m pretty happy and out of here in less than a half-hour.
I’m seated in their lobby of their new facility in south Lansing waiting for Hedwig to get a much-overdo oil change and general checkup.
The general checkup is one of many things that, to me, sets O’Donnell’s apart from other shops where I could get my car’s routine services. The mechanics here always go above and beyond checking my car over and catching most issues before they become a problem. If they notice something, they’re honest about how soon I should have it taken care of or if it’s something I even need to worry about.
Though I’d frequented O’Donnell’s for car repair for most of my Lansing life, I used to rely on quick-lube shops for the regular oil changes. As you likely know, these places always like to suggest friendly services that are, apparently, recommended by the manufacturer every so-many miles. During one such oil change at a local quick-lube five years ago, an employee informed me that my car was in need of almost $500 worth of service, including a new serpentine belt. As I was getting ready for a road trip east, I was concerned about all the maintenance my car apparently needed but not ready (or able) to fork over that big of a chunk for all the bells and whistles they said I needed.
I paid for the oil change and drove away to contemplate which services took precedence and to see if I could finagle my finances to cover them.
With the list of all the things Hedwig apparently needed, I gave O’Donnell’s a call on the off-chance that they might be able to perform some of the work for less money than the quick-lube shop. After speaking with a mechanic over the phone, I ended up taking Hedwig in for another oil change — after which they told me I didn’t need any of the services the quick-lube had suggested and my serpentine belt was just fine (a mite dusty but easily cleaned; I’ve only just recently replaced the belt after getting another four years out of it).
So, with the cost of the second oil change, O’Donnell’s managed to save me more than $400 by just being honest. I’ve been a loyal customer ever since. I won’t say they’re the cheapest place in town but my experience has been quality service with integrity.
Oh! Looks like Hedwig’s done. And apparently I need a new fuel filter in the next couple of months. Not a surprise and not something I can’t live without for a little while. So I’m pretty happy and out of here in less than a half-hour.
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