It's just a phase

Urban legend: The full moon effects human behavior. More murders, suicides, emergency room admissions, and psychiatric admissions happen during a full moon. WRONG!

Skeptic's Dictionary article
Psychology Today Article

Misconceptions about such things as the moon's effect on tides have contributed to lunar mythology. Many people seem to think that since the moon affects the ocean's tides, it must be so powerful that it affects the human body as well. The lunar force is actually a very weak tidal force. A mother holding her child "will exert 12 million times as much tidal force on her child as the moon" (Kelly et al., 1996: 25). Astronomer George O. Abell claims that a mosquito would exert more gravitational pull on your arm than the moon would (Abell 1979). Despite these physical facts, there is still widespread belief that the moon can cause earthquakes.* It doesn't; nor does the sun, which exerts much less tidal force on the earth than the moon. from the article at Skeptic's Dictionary - link is above.

I'll tell you what effects human behavior. A flying frying pan can make me duck. A response from a beautiful woman can give me confidence or crush me. (Not really, OK, it's true.) Cars on a busy street stop me from running across. Signs keep me from doing things I'd rather do - "Don't walk on the grass."

You can't blame your behavior on anything but yourself. I know, it's a drag, but we are responsible for our own actions.

Yesterday, I bet 4 people mentioned the full moon. 3 were phone calls from area emergency rooms trying to place patients at our facility. I went along with it, but I don't believe it.

In England, criminals would get lighter sentences if their crime were committed during a full moon. They pled lunacy.

There is still reason to worry on this day. Not because it is a full moon, but because it is the 13th.

I hope I don't meet a tragic end today or folks will say I tempted the fates and they didn't like it.

Rolling the dice until the next time
John Strain

My favorite times of the day

There are two times of the day I really like. One is getting up in the morning. I am a morning person and I wake up early all the time, especially when I am off of work.

Sleeping feels good, but if I sleep the day away, I feel like I have missed something. Note: this is not a judgment on folks who enjoy sleeping until noon. It's a free country.

One thing I like about waking up early is the dog. As soon as I am up, even before, he begins stirring. At some point he stretches. This is funny to watch. He lets his back legs go straight out, fully extends his front legs, then sticks his nose straight into the air. He looks like a big black ski slope.

After the stretch he gives it a good shake clanking his dog tags. That is all the preparation he has to do for his day. Soon after that little ritual, he begins panting and dancing around.

He wants to go outside and fetch the tennis ball, pee on things, and sniff.

I make the coffee and get dressed with him circling around, rubbing against me, jumping on me, and darting in and out of my path everywhere I try to walk.

His enthusiasm takes away any thoughts of annoyance. Who could complain or dare to dampen such joy and passion?

Sometimes, when I am in the bedroom, I wait until he is in the middle of a scratch. When he is tied up like a pretzel, I run out of the room, around the corner through the kitchen, and into the den.

This of course sends Bear's "I'm being left out meter" to DEFCOM 5. He runs after me, except his toenails don't get very good traction on the tile floor that begins at our bedroom door and ends at the den.

So I am standing in the den listening to him nearly running in place. It is quite a noise what with the panting, toenail to tile friction, and the body caroms off of the narrow hallway. The sound resembles that of a bucket of marbles poured from the roof.

When he finally hits the straight away leading to the den he is gaining speed and when he catches me, I have to fend him off and calm him down.

It cracks me up.

The other time of day I like so much is going to bed at night. Because I only sleep to satisfy my body's needs, I usually wait until I am really tired before turning in. This normally happens between 10:30 and 11:00 PM.

There are few feelings that satisfy as much as those first few seconds in bed. The sheets are soft and cool, the room is aglow with the flicker of the television, and the pillow swallows my head.

Within a few minutes, I am in dreamland. Before I know it, it is my other favorite time of the day again.

For the most part, everything that happens in between my two favorite times of the day aren't so bad either. I have my moments of stress, anger, and aggravation, but they are only momentary.

Each day I get older and I know the longer I live my overall health will diminish. Therefore, as long as I can sleep, pee, poop, and not feel pain, I ain't going to bitch too much about nothing. (That last sentence is just to see if Ellen and other English teachers are paying attention.)

Now it’s on with the day. I wonder what fun will take place today.

Oh, and the BearCam is working again.

Until the next time
John Strain

Sometimes things work out OK

When I got back from Boston, I was greeted with some computer problems. My iTunes music library and my iPhoto library could not be found. Think for a moment about what it would mean to you to lose four years of photos and years of work organizing music.

That's a lot of stuff and a lot of memories that cannot be replaced. Because it is so important, I do have the information backed up, but I was missing a couple of weeks of photos and maybe 15 purchased songs. If worst came to worst, I could still find a way to live out the rest of my days and eventually find happiness again.

I don't like losing things, so I set out on a quest to fix the problem. The culprit was one of my three internal hard drives. The computer's disk utility saw the drive, but could not read it. I had hope.

When I am stumped, I go to the discussion forums on Apple's website. If you don't have a Mac, you might want to try looking somewhere else. Discussion boards are great. All you do is post a question and someone out there gives you an answer.

In my case, I was recommended to purchase a software program by the dame of "Disk Warrior." I had an earlier version of it, but it would not work with my updated Mac OS. A small matter of $39.95 and an unusual 2-week wait was all I needed to get the latest version delivered to my mailbox.

It came yesterday. I installed the software, ran it, and presto; drive restored. It took about 5 minutes and what was lost was now found.

I think it is important to talk about the times things work out, because we spend a lot of time griping about times when they don't work out. I realize bitching and complaining is therapeutic, but to a point. Talking about the good stuff is also therapeutic.

So, boys and girls, think about your own little computer. Do you have a lot of music, photos, and stuff you would miss if it were gone in an instant? You had better back it up, because someday something bad will happen.

One of the easiest ways to backup your stuff is to purchase a large external hard drive. It is pretty simple to move your photo folder or music folder to the drive once a week or so. Then if something happens, you are covered.

It is going to get jacked up so you better backup.

Until the next time
John Strain

Nostalgia

It was a good weekend for getting things done. It rained enough for me to blow off yard work. It was fine with me because I had a lot of business type things to do. I needed to get my health insurance stuff straight. We have one of those Health Savings Plans now and I am learning.

I had bills to pay, papers to organize, and taxes to do. That's right taxes. Us Katrina victims have until August to turn in our income tax returns. That’s one of the perks for going through an epic natural disaster.

So anyway, after my run in the rain Sunday morning, I took a shower and got my stack of stuff, sat at the bar, and turned on the 40's station on XFM. I get XFM on DirecTV.

It is amazing how music can shape an entire environment. The big band music and ballads make me feel good. The words were mostly hopeful and uplifting. Even though the world was at war most of that decade, the music was hopeful.

Today is quite different. There seems to be so much anger and negativity.

I remembered the days when I first came to New Orleans. Coming south from the Midwest was a romantic adventure for me. I believed in the southern mystique and the southern charm.

It was 1979 and I was a student at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. That setting made my naive notions last. The buildings had large white pillars and were white washed and brick. They were nestled amongst ancient oaks, cypress, and grand pecan trees.

When I was alone in my dorm room, sometimes I would turn on the radio and listen to WWIW. The promo would begin with the clanging bell of a streetcar and a riverboat whistle. The announcer would say, "You are listening to WWIW, the way it was radio, 1450 on your AM dial." They played the same old music I listened to this Sunday and it made me feel good then too.

Someday, someone will be sitting in a dorm room listening to the music of the 90's and perhaps feeling the same way, but that doesn't do it for me.

I like the fact I can manipulate my mood and feelings with the flip of a switch.

____________________

Completely unrelated to the rest of this post, I just remembered something from a week ago.

Severe weather was headed our way and the local channels were on live, pre empting the regular programming. These days, the weathermen have pretty fancy computer programs to illustrate the storms.

This one view was a 3D rendering of the storm clouds. The clouds were pink and as they flashed the view on the screen, I did a double take. One of the clouds was an exact replica of a penis. It was uncanny. I hit the Tivo rewind and said, "Hey, everyone look at this and tell me what it looks like."

Everyone in the room said, "It looks like a penis."

"You know what this means don't you," I said.

"No, what?" they said.

"We're about to get dicked." I said.

Hehehehehe.

Have a nice Monday and well; never mind.

Until the next time
John Strain

Happy Birthday to me

by Bear

Hi everyone, it's me Bear.

Monday, May 1 was my fourth birthday. I guess mommy and daddy don't make a big deal out of birthdays around here, because no one said anything to me Monday at all. No "Happy Birthday Bear," "Bear, drop dead," nothing at all.

On Thursday, daddy came into the bedroom after running and told mommy that Monday was my birthday. She seemed surprised. They talked a little bit about how they should have done something.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The picture with me wearing a birthday hat and looking at a cake is a fake. Daddy photoshopped it to make himself look good - I guess. Everyone will think he gave me a great party. Grrrrr.

Oh, wait a minute, I just read daddy's last post about not getting negative. I think he set me up.

That's OK, I don't mind. Even if I do play tennis ball with daddy all the time. He really likes to play you know, but everytime I give him the ball, he throws it. I go get it for him and he throws it again. It gets manotanous, but he seems to like the game.

Daddy gave me a couple of pieces of sausage and some cheese when he was making his lunch. He said, "Here Bear, Happy Birthday." I think he was teasing. Surely, they will do something this weekend. It isn't everyday a dog turns four you know.

Mommy told daddy she gave me a bag of "Breath Busters" on Tuesday and that could be a present. I don't know about you, but getting a bag of Breath Busters is kind of an insult. How would you like a gift that says, "Hey, you've got bad breath; eat these and give everyone a break." I am getting self-conscious.

Daddy said he just forgot about my birthday. I can see how that could happen with all of his important marathons and going to Manresa. Maybe I will forget a few things, like where I'm not supposed to pee and that I'm not supposed to eat his food when he's not looking.

Ahhhh, it would just backfire on me anyway.

I am still happy because it is Friday and mommy and daddy will be home this weekend. Maybe they will make things right. I'll let you know.

Have fun this weekend yourselves. If you have a pet, don’t forget their birthday – it really is important.

Bye for now,
Bear