NEWS AROUND MY UNIVERSE

---

Here I am with an long overdue update. What has happened in the last year?

• I am still working. I don't love my job as much, though. Over the past year my company has bought out a couple of others. I cannot believe how badly these remote people treat Computer people or how they do not listen when you talk. It's weird and awful. I am learning a new profession, which I needed to do anyway. Web design, anyone?
• My daughter is the most wonderful person on earth. At 20, she is able to see how hard it is to make a living, how hard it is to make real friends. She agrees with me about organized religion, higher education, art and music. Politics...not so much. Which is why she is so much fun to talk to.
• My Presidential candidate dropped out after Florida, darn it. I have no one left to vote for. Everyone who is running is going to tax me to death without giving me safety. I want to buy my OWN health insurance!! Give ME the money!!
• For the first time in about five years...I got sick! I caught the flu. I was down for three days and had a cough for two weeks. I thought I was past all that.

---

ALUMNI: I went to my 35-year class reunion last year; I never thought about being this old. Of the 1972 graduates, four out of 32 have died, four did not show up. I saw people that I hadn't seen since graduation. I think the years have been kind (great, actually) to all of us. I like the community feel when I was there, I don't know anyplace that has such a feeling. There is usually some drama or other. One of my friends from high school said I was nostalgic and would not like it so much if I lived there. He may be a cynic, but he may also be right. I'd love to retire to the country, someplace - as long as I had the Internet.

---

What's on audio this week?

THE SILMARILLION - I have a renewed interest in Tolkien's works because of the publishing of "The Children of Húrin" and the news that two movies will be made for "The Hobbit".

I love the Silmarillion. Tolkien worked on it from 1917 to the day he died in 1973. Tolkien felt that England had been stripped of its myths (even Arthur and the Round Table has the French Sir Lancelot du Lac as one of its main characters) and wanted to create an original English myth. He succeeded. I love the story of Creation, where "the One" created a chorus of beings to SING the Universe into existence!! How original is THAT!!

I did not buy "The Children of Húrin"; there is a shorter version of the story in the Silmarillion. It is worse than the worst Shakespeare where he kills off the main characters; it involves the worst of men, the worst of the Elves, the triumph of Evil, and the beginning of the end of the First Age of Middle-earth. They needed to write the story of Tuor instead; it is an adventure story and in the end is salvation.

The Hobbit in two movies? The first movie is going to be directly from the book, and the second movie will be "filling in the blanks" between "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring". Good heavens! Are they going to make stuff up? They did not follow the book closely for the Hobbiton stuff. Bilbo AND Frodo had the same birthday, and Bilbo DID NOT CHANGE in appearance from The Hobbit to The Fellowship. He did not have white hair, no wrinkles, no hint of old age. Even after he gave up the ring, he did not age that much. I cannot imagine that they will follow Tolkien's lead in the Appendices, because they need to MAKE conflict (like it's not already there!!). I was not unhappy with The Fellowship because they caught the look and feel of the book. Hobbiton and Bag End were spot on!! And the rest was minor. However, a whole movie with made-up stuff may be a bit too much.

---

MY MOTTO:

WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS HAVING A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE

WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS HAVING A HUMAN EXPERIENCE

I firmly believe this, that we are eternal. What better way to spend eternity than to experience the various forms of life in this (and every other) universe?

---

TV THIS SEASON

TV is terrible this season. I don't watch it much. I watched "Heroes" last year for awhile, then came the writer's strike, and nothing came back. So I have been watching PBS "The Complete Jane Austin", and movies during the week. I have quite a collection of old movies now.

---

My brother Howard has been gone for seven years. It is still rough, I still cry because he would have loved all the nifty gadgets, the speed of the Internet, the development of software. When I hear a new theory of the Cosmos, I wonder if he would have agreed or disagreed. It's a moot point; he knows it ALL now. Howeed, Michelle says that when I die, she will meet me on the other side (time means nothing there, you see), then we will wait for you to show up and kick your behind for leaving us. THEN we will hug you because we still love you.

---

My Interests

We all change over the years, and I have a page of my interests in alphabetical order, A TO Z. Is there an interest for "X" and "Q"?? Click HERE and find out!

I'm still pursuing my interests in GENEALOGY. It's a little slower now, because I have acquired quite a few books about my own family, and wow! SO MANY PEOPLE!! I have to find time to get them all documented, let alone put them up on the website. Sorry peeps!!

That Non-Scottish family that I've been investigating for the past few years? Still non-Scottish. If I ever get time for me, I have a visit to make to Van Buren, Arkansas.

I am also hopeful that the Irish Society here in Kansas City can shed some more light on the discrepancy between where my documentation shows the Talbots coming from Tipperary County, and the Talbots of Malohide. That comes later this year, though.

---

Thought for the month:

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO HAVE A HAPPY CHILDHOOD

---

My Humor Pages

I have a few pages of humor on site, here they are:

Basic HUMOR
HUMOR and other short thoughts
COMPUTER HUMOR
My POETRY ARCHIVE page.
And finally GEORGE CARLIN HUMOR page

---

MORNING PRAYER

DEAR LORD,
So far today I've done all right. I haven't gossiped;
I haven't lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty or overindulgent.
I have not whined, cursed or eaten any chocolate
I have not charged on my credit card or bid on items from E-bay
I'm very thankful for that.
But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to have to get out of bed.
And from then on, I'm going to need a lot more help.
AMEN

DEAR LORD
Please help me to always give 100% each week at work:
12% on Monday
23% on Tuesday
40% on Wednesday
20% on Thursday
5% on Friday
AMEN

---

EVENING PRAYER

DEAR LORD
Grant me the patience to accept the things I cannot change
The wisdom to change the things I can,
And the skill to bury the dead that I had to kill because they made me mad.
And Please, dear Lord, help me watch out for the toes I step on today
For they may be connected to the ass I have to kiss tomorrow.
AMEN

---

This accurate WEB-COUNTER installed here indicates that you are visitor number

---

Last updated March 7, 2008
Copyright © 1996-2008, Joyce J. Kelley

This site created using Windows Notepad