Tag: random

Hailey’s Comet

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Crystal blue skies hide
Dots of light that can only be seen
When skies illuminate a darker side
And the lace made of silvery threads
Pull away this higher tide

She yearns through the eons
By a gravity unknown
Cold and empty space she feels
Hearts once tied, no longer sewn
To these new gravities
Her pull has grown

In my sight, her tale spun
A trail grown long
By an ultra violet sun
To move and to sway
Dressed in tangled strands
To drift away
Through the fingers of God’s hands

Beyond the heavenly freedom
Feathery shapeless beds
Beyond the full moon glow
Lace of silvery threads
Beyond the confines
Of these lives we’ve led

Still on she travels
Through a distance that yawns
This desire she wants
The place where she belongs

Perhaps all she desires
Is to end this flight
Falling back to the sun
On some cold lonely night
And be loved every day
Shining so warm and bright

Or maybe she wishes
For the moon instead
And lay every night
In heaven’s feathery bed
Feeling a touch and a kiss
Dressed in lace and silvery thread
Held tight by these arms
Like the stories she’s read

But what to be had?

Still her tangled strands flow
Celestial beauty
A life time of days below
Separated by mystery
Leaving her legend to grow

And only once in a life
Will I find this grace
Of such beauty in flight
In my life of empty space

I will pray to find
An immortality to bind
For many lives to live
And survive a godly kind
Wasting away the eons
For once each lifetime
Just to find her grace
When she returns
From a prison of empty space

Night Skies

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Perhaps you know that this weekend is the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers. Last night I... didn't really sleep. Just took a series of naps. I spent about an hour out on the back deck starring at the sky, and trying to catch a few streaks of light.

The funny thing is, being so close to the city the light pollution blots out most of the visible stars from your sight. However, with a long exposure, the camera can see a lot of what you can't. In the image above, I captured one meteor streaking across the sky. I didn't see it when it happened, it was too faint.

The other ironic part of this was most of the visible meteors I did see were to the north, right in the glow of the city, where I wasn't shooting.

In this one, right in the center of the frame you can see a streak that changed brightness. This was a satellite that I was tracking as it drifted across the sky. As these satellites travel, their brightness changes depending on the angle you see them at and how they are reflecting light.

As dawn approached I moved my focus point closer to the horizon to catch Venus rising. You can see how much the brightness of sky changes in the frame captured across just about 30 minutes of time from the last image to this one. In the upper right corner of the frame, a small meteor passed from the south to the north. I saw this one when it happened; it was bright enough against the early illumination of the Eastern horizon.

I looked at this picture more closely as I was posting this and noticed a dimmer streak just below the more obvious one. So I may have caught two in one shot.

I am disappointed I didn't see or capture any brilliant fire balls or larger meteors, but tonight is another night. If our moonless sky stays this clear, I might have a chance to catch more.

How Many Days of Food Porn?

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I swear it was days upon days of food porn the past two weeks. Let's see some examples?

Eggs Benedict? That's a home made hollandaise, yo.

Over-stuffed shrimp quesadillas, with home made guacamole, yo!

Ridiculously over-stuffed shrimp quesadillas.

Eggplant parm with hot peppers, gnocchi, garlic bread and a salad with home made Caesar dressing!

See a pattern here?

We're damn good in the kitchen....

Career Counseling

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

From July 1, 2008. Another trip to work at the Cleveland VA Hospital, which had to be one of the most depressing and horrible jobs I had done in my years of traveling IT and Project Management.

Mainly, it was government work. No one seemed to care if anything got done, yet complained mercilessly if something didn't work. A contradiction, for sure. But I had a lot of time to talk to the staff and the patients....

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Another Day at a VA.

Days like this frustrate me like no other. An early morning drive to get to a job site to sit around, solve simple issues and basically waste a whole lot of time.

A day of nothing.

It is simply intolerable to me. I feel sucked into this government work mentality… nothing to do? Why do anything? Might as well nap at the desk.

Screw that.

I have too much to do. Unfortunately most of it is at home, in my office. Not here. Not in Cleveland.

I hate clock watching. I hate feeling like I’m trapped and can’t make good use of my time. I hate sitting here thinking about everything that needs to be done, or how much smoother the day would go if only I were in my office helping out where actual work is being done.

Stuck.

No internet, because it’s a VA.

In the interior of the hospital so my cell reception is terrible.

Watching these government workers that OUR TAX DOLLARS are used to pay their salaries spend half of their day doing absolutely nothing and prefer it that way.

Infuriating.

The only time I felt of any use today was helping an elderly man who fell out of his wheelchair while I was on the phone in the lobby.

I’m stationed in this cubicle just waiting for something to happen. Anything. One nurse keeps coming in to ask me if starting a career in Healthcare Informatics would be a good idea.

“You have a degree in nursing?” I asked.

“Yeah…”

“Are you not enjoying nursing?”

“Oh, no! I love it. This is the first time in my life I have a job that I really love!”

She seemed pretty positive about her job...

“Then why do you want to change to Healthcare Informatics?”

“Well, the money.”

“Ok.”

I figured as much.

“Is Healthcare Informatics similar to what you do?” she asked.

“Not quite, but HCI could encompass a lot of things. Mostly though, it’s information management. A lot of database management, dealing with HIPAA compliance issues, maybe even loading and setting up desktop PC’s around the hospital.”

“Ok, ok.”

“I’m not a career counselor, but I can say this; finding a job you really love these days is difficult. If you love your job, the enjoyment of doing something you love might be worth a lot more in the long run that making a few extra dollars.”

I don't know, would you rather take care of patients all day or stare at database queries and tables all day? To have a career that pays ok is one thing – to do something that you love is something completely different. If you’re not loving nursing, then go for it! If you’re ok with nursing and you’re one of those people who swear at their computer every time a dialogue box pops up, you might want to stick with nursing.

Do you want to clean poop off of elderly people or get berated by people every time windows blue-screens like you did it to them as a personal vendetta?

One thing is for sure; if she thinks a career in IT means getting paid to sit in front of a computer all day chatting on IM’s and Facebook, she hasn’t looked into it very much. She’s never built a server rack, or worse, a battery back-up rack! She’s never had to squeeze into a crawl space to pull new network lines and get trapped with an active wasp nest. She’s never had to stand in the blast of a room-sized air-conditioning unit for hours while fixing a server in a network center. She’s never faced the horror of a failed back-up routine discovered only after a hard drive dies and takes all of its data with it. She’s never had to deal with the complaints of people who depend on “geeks” to keep their work systems functioning properly despite the ridiculous actions of software companies, constant security threats from the outside world and litany of bureaucratic nonsense IT departments have to deal with.

Sorry if I’m ranting, but the rant is keeping me awake for the moment.

It’s going on 3PM. There’s a show at the history museum down the street. I think I’m going to call it a day, grab my camera and go see it...

In The Mind’s Eye

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Originally written November 11, 2008.

Art, whether it is a painting, a photograph, a poem, a story or a song, everything we create adds to the world and the human experience. Those that endeavor to create for the sake of creating bless our world with every creation, and make the world a better place for those who embrace their creations.

Something created isn't just given to the world, it is given to you directly. It is given to you for you to do what you will with it in your mind, in your heart and in your life.

Embrace the richness of the everything people have created since the dawn of humankind. And remember, it was all created just for you.

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A homely cherub perches
On a marble ledge
Watching over an effervescent pond
Where the bull frogs are known
Only by their eyes
And the birds pause
A little longer on the shore

Reeds grow solemnly around
The willow that stretches and yawns
Its arms covered in a sweater
Of Spanish moss
Tangles of hair and yesterdays
Swaying with the wind
And a dragonfly darts
In a dance of delight

Under the tree
In the long summer grass
A boy lies dreaming
A dream awake
A life lived vicariously
In the wonders of his mind
The inertia that can only
Set in motion
The dreams of youth
The wonders of the future
And what life holds
Beyond the life known

Spurred on by the words
Written by another
Pictures painted and hung
So carefully on the wall
Creativity captured by a hand
But seen better in the mind’s eye
The intentions not of matter
But of feeling
Nay, not of the physical
But spiritual
Commanding the heart to move
Commanding the mind to dream
Commanding the passion to flow
And giving life
Oh, giving a breath taking life
To the world to have for its own

But it is here
Within an audience of one
Where a friend is found
A confidant
Offering comfort on lonely nights
Soothing the aching heart
And letting a weary mind rest
At ease with a dream
A star to reach toward
A hurt to leave behind
Tomorrows defined
Only by possibility and hope

Without this
What would a tomorrow be?
And a life lacking this
Would be more difficult to lead
Left with the stark and empty promises
Of the world that surrounds
And the bitterness of living
Without a dream
No stars at night
No clouds in the sky
A heart without a beat
Without love or desire
This
Is no life for me