Friends, Film Clips and Flying Cars

The word of the week is generous.

January 28 - Flying Cars, at last!

For over twenty years now, I've been following the fortunes of Moller International, a small company based out of Calfornia. Why, you ask?

They make flying cars.

The Moller Skycar first came to my attention back in the early 1990's, when I was still reading Popular Mechanics. Their January 1991 issue covered the announcement of the Moller400 Skycar, a four-passenger vehicle that promised to finally bring the dream of the flying family car to the masses.

Twenty years later, it looks to finally be happening!

Delays - many to do with finances and more to do with technology just not being up to the needs of the design - have kept Moller from his dream. However, he's persevered and in the process learned a LOT about life-extension sciences, of all things: he realized that he needed to live LONGER if he was going to see his dream realized, as it seems to be now.

There's a lesson in that I can appreciate: be patient, follow your dreams and never give up. For half my life, I've waited to hear about the Skycar taking to the air; now, it's going to happen.

January 29 - Paperman

This came out today from Disney. To wit:

Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute.

In only a week, it's had 10 million views on YouTube. My sister said she thinks it's her favourite anything from Disney, which is saying a LOT.

As for me? Tears in my eyes, folks. Very moving.

January 30 - Incredible Tree Escapes

Today, for some reason, I had treehouses on my mind again.

Why is it that I keep imagining life in a tree?

Better than life AS a tree, maybe. I suppose that as a kid, I loved the idea of a 'secret fort' that you could escape to, that would have really cool things in it( like comics! )and be really cool in and of itself.

Now you see me...

The arboreal homes listed in this photo tour are extreme examples of cool, I think. Each one approaches the idea of a tree home differently, from execution to usage. I especially like the 'mirror' design, as that's taking the 'escape' mentality to a whole new level: if stress can't find you, then you're all set!

January 31 - We can see… thoughts?

Watch the video below and think about what you're seeing.

It's a breakthrough.

The Japanese researchers used a new technique to record the footage: a super-sensitive fluorescent probe that detects neuron activity. That lets us see neurons glowing when they're active—and the cascade of light you see in this video, first published in Current Biology, is the neuronal response of a zebrafish responding to the presence of its prey. In other words, you're seeing what the fish thinks when it sees its lunch.

Next step? Who knows. Yet we're on the road now to literally seeing how thought works.

That's mind-boggling!

February 1 - A Year Of Unemployment

One year ago today, I woke up in the morning with no job to go to.

It was an exhilharating feeling, one that I recall vividly as it meant I had a world of possiblities ahead of me for the rest of 2012, in addition to being able to sleep without my work phone going off at 3am for whatever stupid reason it was that day.

A year later, and I'm still jobless. But not hopeless.

I've finished a novel, wrote a second draft and submitted it to a publisher. Despite the fact that they declined it, I'm very, VERY proud to have accomplished that in my life. The first of many books, if I have my way.

The job situation, I admit, has me feeling a little lost. Working as hard as I have to get noticed without success can be demoralizing, but as I kept hearing over and over: FINDING a job is the hardest job you'll ever have. That's been so true for the last year.

Yet as I've mentioned, perhaps this is the universe telling me that a traditional job is no longer in the cards for me. That I should tap the deep well of writing skill that produced my novel and turn it towards making a living for myself freelancing.

It's a good idea, I think.

February 2 - Groundhog Day, again!

I assisted a friend in moving today, getting their small( compared to mine! )amount of things over to a new place within a surprisingly short period of time, only a few hours.

After that, I spent some time OUT, including a walk in the park under semi-sunny skies.

Toss in a few hours of Borderlands2, which I haven't played in many weeks, and it was a full day. I ended up icing and heating my wrists three times today, just to be safe.

That's a BIG poster!

But the evening was reserved for my yearly tradition: watching Groundhog Day!

What can I say? I love that film, my all-time fave bit of cinema, topping even the original Star Wars. Every time I watch Groundhog Day, it reveals new meanings to me, as I'm at a different place in my life with each new year. I can see the journey of the main character Phil as he struggles to recognize the need for change within himself and then try to find out HOW to make that change happen. The WHY of the change, well… that's always an interesting tack to look into.

All I know is that every year, I NEED to see this film. It's been a touchstone for me since I first saw it in 1995 and I know it always will be.

That's a very comforting thought right now.

February 3 - Helping Hands!

Most of today was spent coming to a friend's rescue… whoa!

Their move from yesterday went sour and they called me for help today to get their things out… with a window of about two hours. Yikes!

No way to get a truck with 2 hours notice on a Sunday!

Thankfully, they had a friend in me and I also had a friend who has a roomy car - as well as the day off. The two of us raced over to the new place and started shifting things outside, wearing stocking feet as the new landlord declined to put down a runner through the living room - he was a jerk as well as creepy, but we'll not go into that.

My parents showed up with THEIR van soon after and started loading the lighter things, then my friend's mom showed with HER car too. We had three loads done in short order, dropping them off at said mom's place and racing back to meet an arbitarty time deadline that would keep the landlord happy. We made it, too! All of this under semi-cloudy skies, but the rain held off until later, which was lucky.

When all was said and done, my friend's things were safely housed at their parent's place and a messy confrontation was avoided, along with a LOT of stress. Moral of the story: trust your gut instincts when it comes to renting, as they may be trying to tell you something important, like the landlord isn't playing with a full deck, despite being outwardly polite.

Days like today remind me that while I may have time on my hands, it's how I use it that counts. If it's in the service of others, well… that counts for a lot.

It's going to be a busy week, as I have a LOT of research to do for various jobs, including freelancing. Good thing I have the free time right now!