Painting With Light

New Year’s Resolutions

January 3, 2010

“Sunset” © R.L. Herron

It’s the beginning of a new year. A time to reflect and give thanks for family and friends, and make promises to do things to create a better world, if only for ourselves.

Like always, I’ve eagerly joined the rush to create a list of resolutions in celebration of it. I resolve to:

1. Lose Weight. Seems I always have this on the list, every year, so I can’t be doing too well with it.

2. Be a Better Husband, Father and Grandfather. This always seems to appear, too. And I’m too worried about the answer to ask my wife and kids how I’m doing.

3. Make New Friends. I always want to, but invariably seem to spend all my free time just hanging on to the ones I have.

4. Take More Pictures. This one appears a lot too, and it’s one of the few I actually do something about. Trouble is, I’ve never done enough. For instance, if you think about it, I should have used a sunrise picture for this post. New dawn, and all that.

But that would have meant getting up long before sunrise to get ready, and I’m not much of a morning person. Maybe I should just change the picture title to “Sunrise.” Who’d know?

5. Write More. I’ve actually started doing this – just not consistently and, so far, not enough of it is for assignments that pay. I don’t even write in this blog as often as I should.

6. Make More Effective Use of Time. This one has also appeared on my list before, and I know I’ve been a dismal failure at it. If I had really been more effective, certainly with this year’s list, I would simply have told people to see last year’s list.

As we begin this new year, allow me to wish each of you the best of all things. May your life be blessed with love, joy and, above all else, imagination.

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The Age Thing

December 30, 2009

“Late Fall Sundown” © R.L. Herron

I read an article today on Ladders.com about the age impression you make when you interview. While age is not supposed to be an issue in hiring practices, we all know it is an issue.

So, what did the article say? Basically, it stressed how you need to learn the art of appearing younger. Not just looking younger, but acting younger, too. It actually listed twenty (yes, 20!) rules (their term, not mine) to take years off your interview image.

To me, most of them were amazingly funny. For instance, take their top, number one rule:

Crest Whitestrips

Honest. If you want to look younger in your interview, whiten your teeth. Forget about grey hair and crows feet around your eyes. Go for white teeth. And smile a lot.

Visit Your Apple Store

Learn the difference between an iPod Classic, iPod Touch and iPod Nano. You don’t have to actually buy or use any of them. Just get the identifiable white headphones to carry around. Perception is apparently everything.

I won’t go through all twenty items, but there are a few more that caught my eye … and tickled my funnybone.

Don’t Talk Starbucks

Or any other coffee place for that matter. If you have that much time to spend at any of them, it apparently screams “unemployed loser.” It’s probably not a good idea if you’ve just whitened your teeth, either.

Hairstyle

This actually made some sense, until they mentioned women plucking or bleaching their facial hair. Moustaches on women is apparently a no-no. It got worse (and funnier) when they told men to clip their nose and ear hair.

Never Talk About the 90s

I suppose it only gets worse if you mention anything you did in the 70s and 80s (or before). As the article pointed out, “nothing at work is groovy, dy-no-mite or far out” any more. Ever.

Makes me almost glad to be semi-retired, taking life easy, taking pictures like the soothing fall shot above and only working part time, on things I really enjoy.

Tubular, man.

Posted in Lifestyle, Non-Fiction Writing, Politics | 2 Comments »

Working Again

December 29, 2009

“Overlooking Lake Huron” by R.L. Herron

Had a bit of problem with my blog upload yesterday. Could not make it upload a new picture, no matter what I tried. Finally got it working again this evening.

However, now I’ve lost the thought that made me want to show this image of Lake Huron in the first place!

It seems to me it had something to do with the uncertainty of tomorrow, much like the uncertainty of what lies beyond the steps in the picture.

Oh, I know, and so do you, that there’s probably a beach at the end of those steps in front of the lake … but is there? Just like in life, one never really knows, until you’re willing to actually take those steps forward and bring the hidden things into view.

In the midst of the latest rounds of uncertainty, I know there’s been a lot in the recent news about air travel.

Sadly, all it takes is one nut job to put the media into a frenzy, and have most of the country quaking and worrying about their fellow travelers. Is that one safe? Is she OK? Does he look suspicious?

Media “experts” seem to appear in every news segment at times like this, each with a theory on what happened, or what will now almost certainly be the next thing to come. But, how do they know? How do you know?

Fact is, they can’t know. Life just isn’t like that.

I’ve decided to ignore the media blather, and focus on what I can see. Keep my eyes open and my temper contained as I take off my shoes, put all my hand lotion, shave cream, liquid medications and such into a clear plastic baggie, instead of the nice leather kit bag designed to neatly hold it all, and wait extended amounts of time for tedious searches.

What on earth is accomplished by all that? What good does it do to stop old, gray-haired ladies and search their belongings? I certainly don’t know.

Still, they have to do something, if only to give the illusion things are being done for our protection. I don’t like it but, like everyone else, I do it. It has to be done or, sadly, you don’t travel at all.

But part of me fears the encroachment upon civil liberties that can happen by letting regulations take away more and more of our privacy. We seem to do that freely, in the name of safety. How do you know which is worse?

So, what do you do, when you can’t see what’s over the next hill, or beyond the next step? You keep moving forward, and hope for the best.

You really must think about what you may give up in new regulations before joining the crowd in clamoring for them. The fact that we can think about it and debate … that’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as guaranteed in our grand Constitution.

And I’m all for that!