A fantasy realized

Over a year ago, I went to Thailand. Remember that?

One of the things we did there, was snorkel. It was a most amazing experience because there were so many fish. I was frustrated by the fact that the fish could swim down, and I couldn't. I wanted to see where they were going, and the undisturbed places under rocks.

A couple months ago, when I was thinking... what do *I* want to do? I decided to get certified to scuba dive.

Today, I finished my Advanced Open Water diver certification.
I got my Open Water a couple months ago, but that only resulted in a couple dives, and not necessarily confidence. Its taken a long time to do the AOW dives because of my travel schedule and circumstances.

We did the following specialties: underwater naturalist, deep dive, night dive, peak-performance buoyancy, and navigation. We tried to do the navigation last week, but the waves were too rough, so finished that up today at the Casino Point dive park on Catalina Island.

I've been diving at Casino Point once before, but today was great!
We saw a 4 foot Sheephead called Oscar, a baby bat ray, tons of Garibaldi, bass, and gobi's... and two fricking HUGE black seabass... these things must have been over 6 feet long, and weighing over 300 pounds each... HUGE!

The most amazing thing about today, is I finally got to a place where I knew what to do, I knew I knew, and it all came naturally. I felt like a diver, not a student. I went up, down, I looked up, I looked down, I hovered around... my buddy kept playing jokes... banging into me like a cat, playing peekaboo around kelp, and we were just being silly.

It is such a feeling of freedom. A fantasy realized.

Bring on the WARM WATER!

I know you've been wondering...

Now that I have an iPhone, and since I've had a Blackberry for about 6 years, I know you've been wondering what I think of them in comparison to each other.

I have had a "blueberry", 8700, and I've had a Curve 8300 for over 2 years now.

I have never used the phone function on the Blackberry because I've not wanted two phones. So I've always used my personal cell as my mobile contact for work and personal calls. I added my personal email to my Blackberry a couple years ago, and I have the AIM and Y!Messenger applications on the Blackberry. A couple weeks ago, my company switched over to Microsoft Exchange so I added my work email to my iPhone. I decided to compare the two by leaving one behind for a day and just working off of the other. Here's my conclusion.

The iPhone is more fun. The Google maps is quicker and triangulates better so that it shows me where I actually am. The BB is often off a couple hundred feet. The applications on the iPhone are addictive and I would choose it any day for my personal life.

The Blackberry is a better tool. The email, IM, and SMS are all in the same view so you don't need to switch between applications to stay in touch. There is no delay when accessing your contact list to send a message - in any format (mail, IM, or SMS). These are the two most frustrating things about the iPhone - switching between applications and the way it hangs up because it needs to connect through the Internet to the exchange server for my work contacts. If you exit the IM applications, they are no longer running, and therefore, you are not available unless you are actively in a chat. Yes, the applications I loaded said they "push"; but they push to email... and if you are in mail and get an IM, you have to close mail, navigate to the IM app, and load it. My Blackberry shows me my email, Y! and AIM chats, and Blackberry messenger chats all in the same view.
These limitations make the iPhone frustrating to use as a work tool. Perhaps if I only had the iPhone I wouldn't notice the differences in a way that matters. Since I have the Blackberry, I will have to say, that I would chose to stick with it for work.

Even though I was really hoping to give up one of these devices so that I didn't have to walk around all day with both, I can't do it. I guess I just have to make sure I have a big enough purse and two back pockets.

The Checklist

I have figured out that the Biological Clock has a checklist, and as you get older, things start getting checked off.

After 20: hair turns grey - check
After 25: gain weight from air - check
After 30: forget things - check
After 40: lose focus on things that are close...... this one is now a "check"

So, I got some glasses.





















I am not ashamed to say that I am a total copycat.
My friend Meg came over with a pair of Prodesign and I just thought they were super cool.
I found a place close by that carries them and got my own pair!
They are two-tone.... can you see the the blue on the inside?
Its the color of my favorite eyes.

Confessions

I know, I know, I suck at updating my blog.
I have a confession to make... I have been cheating on you with Facebook.
I have been letting the convenience of the short "What's on your Mind?" take precedence over the energy of writing on this here blog.

So for the blog readers, here are two strange things I noticed today:

1. I went through a traffic light that was working, and also had an officer directing the traffic through the interchange in accordance with the light. Now what is up with that?! I didn't know who/what to follow!

2. When I walk these puppies, people on the street ask me if they are twins.
hmmm...
First, dogs don't have two puppies (that often), they usually have a LITTER. So are they twins? no, they are probably quadruplets!
Second, why not ask if they are related? What difference does it make if a dog is a twin? Just because I have two?

Probably just a lisa'ism, but the use of the "twin" term just irks me.

later...

PantyRaid

OMG!! I'm so excited!!
My brothers first music available on iTunes!
I'm so proud of him! Go take a listen...
PantyRaid is his collaboration with Ooah...
Can't wait until we see something by Party Marty solo!

Facebook Phenomenon

Something funny...
You put up a Status Update/What's On Your Mind? post that's somewhat obscure.
either a reference to a movie, a song, or something that people involved in your day-to-day would know.
Now on Facebook, you have all these Friends who are people you haven't seen in 20 years! or you met once at a party...
and they want to show that they are "in the know"... so they respond to your post.

I think its really funny to read through these for everyone I get updates on.
There are the people in the know, and the people who think they are in the know!

There was a particularly entertaining string coming from one of my cousins for a while.
He posted something that (I'm not In The Know) could be from Monty Python's Holy Grail, or it could be from the Facebook game Knighthood. And then his friends started responding.
Some people made comments to England, some to the Python's, some had equally entertaining responses that could or could not have been accurate.

Anyway - an interesting Facebook Phenomenon that I thought I'd comment on.

New York in 3-2-1

Took a quick trip to New York City.
My stepmom turned 50 (its a milestone year for her and me!), and my dad took her on an art tour in NY for her birthday. It ended with her having a show at the Agora Gallery in Chelsea. How cool is that?


A friend of mine came along for the ride, and we spent some time sightseeing:
DAY 1
Statue of Liberty


Stock Exchange


Ground Zero


Times Square


DAY 2
Met


Central Park


kicked out of the Plaza (therefore no photo)

Empire State Building


Greenwich Village


Meals and chats with family.


Great time!!
good to have a day to recover before the rat race starts up again!

Sometimes...

.. I feel like I am in a fuzziness, and what I consider to be my life is actually a dream or imagining.

I wish it were easier to be where I want to be.

As I get older I realize its more of putting things on a trajectory and seeing what happens rather than actually having control.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Standing on a corner....

Having walked past buildings of monumental architecture. I stand at a constitutional corner and look at a large obelisk going into the sky. On the grounds below people play softball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, while many more run by.

What an amazing place to live. I can only imagine.

Interesting media moment

David Plotz talking about H1N1 on "The Shift Happens Podcast":
...talking about public health measures to limit the spread of a disease...


"...social networks are weaker, people have fewer social ties which means that they are more willing to break a quarantine."


This is so interesting to hear in a media venue because its something that I've been thinking for a long time!

Interesting media moment

David Plotz talking about H1N1 on "The Shift Happens Podcast":

...talking about public health measures to limit the spread of a disease...

 

 

"...social networks are weaker, people have fewer social ties which means that they are more willing to break a quarantine."

 

 

This is so interesting to hear in a media venue because its something that I've been thinking for a long time!

a new consciousness on reality

Nearly made a big booboo this week.

 

Spent Sunday underwater at a max depth of about 30 ft.

Well, when you do that for extended periods of time, there are all these calculations and numbers blahblahblah to consider when doing things to your body that involve pressure.

One of those is flying!

There are Rules about how long you have to wait to fly after diving so that you don't EXPLODE! actually, its get the bends, but I just keep in mind that its all about exploding 'cause that's more dramatic.

 

So, I have a trip to DC on Tues.

LUCKILY - yes, luck 'cause I didn't even realize I had to think about this - its more than 18 hours after my last dive.

If I had planned a trip for Monday, I would have had to cancel it.

 

Here is a whole new thing I have to take into consideration about staying alive!

Canyoneering I, II, II

*sigh*

holy cows!!

This was a life-altering experience.

I am a very very careful person.
I don't really do anything unless I have a good feel for the fact that I can do it.
Things that I "wing" are because I have done them before and I know that I can get away with that.

There are times in my life where I have realized that I had a "phobia" and I worked through it. The most obvious example that comes to mind, is that when I was fresh out of high school, I didn't like being on the phone. The whole idea of calling people I didn't know freaked me out. So, when I had to get information about something - find an apartment, get prices for a product - I would make a list of all the options (people to call), and I would call everyone on that list! even if I got my answer on call one. Did that get me over the phobia? eh, not so much... needless to say, I love the internet!

Aside 2:
I am DEATHLY afraid of snakes. Most of my life, I've had nightmares involving big snakes. I wanted to get over this fear, and I've paid attention to methodologies to overcome fear, and when it was suggested that I just do it by handling I snake, I thought NOT ON YOUR LIFE! There is no way in HELL I would do that. I'd rather just be petrified of the critters.
And that was mostly my attitude about fear.

...back to topic at hand.
Canyoneering is basically rappelling down waterfalls... hike up, rappel down.

This canyoneering thing is the first time in my life I had encountered something that induced sheer panic, and then consciously decided to just . keep . working . through . it.

Day 1: Lisa thinks, oh, this is going to be great, I've done this before with Meg and Tim, I had fun, nothing to be scared of harness will hold me la la la la...
Rappel 1 - no biggie, down I go.
Rappel 2 - STOP! wait a minute! I can't see where I'm going! I'm backing over an edge into NOTHINGNESS! holding a rope?! am I nuts!?
PANIC!!!

Well, I didn't want to seem like a wus, or hold up the class, or for anyone to tell me I couldn't do it. So I figured I'd just have to sort it out and find a way to cope!

There are 6 Rappels in that watercourse, here are heights: 45', 60', 20', 90', 70' 110'

The night after Day 1, I did not sleep. I just keep having dreams/thoughts about what I'd have to do the next day. I was so frickin' scared that I was gettin' all nervous on the hike TO the watercourse; you know, worried about my footing and silly things like that. I took a big sigh and went down the first 45' fall, and yikes! it was FUN!!
I realized that the experience of the day before had actually made it easier here on Day 2.
I didn't panic at the top of these falls, but I wasn't through the fear.

On the walk back to the car, the instructor said to me:
you are fine once you are on your way down, its the anticipation and then taking that step over the edge that is freaking you out.
I filed that away in the back of my mind.

After Day 3 I would say I was still scared. I still had to really think about going over those edges. But as the instructor said, after every one, you have done one more than you had before, so you have just that much more experience.

The day after my canyoneering weekend, I was exhausted. Emotionally and physically. I had not gotten home until very late each night, and all of that focusing on the fear was emotionally draining. So on that Monday, I was pretty introspective.
Through that, I had a pretty big realization.
I deal with all fear or anticipation the same way.
I know I can deal with anything, get through anything.
Its the thinking about it and the anticipation, and then taking that first step that freak me out.

Because of this, I am determined to keep practicing backing over that edge.
I am determined to find out how to do it without the fear. I want to know what I need to do to make that happen. I want to have that tool in my toolkit of coping with life.

(I highly recommend that if you want to do something outside, you go here and book a course with these incredible guys: Alpine Training Services - ATS.)




























All photos from Day 1 link
All photos from Day 2 link
All photos from Day 3 link

S.C.U.B.A.

This month has been one long activity after another. Weeks full of work, traveling here and there, and then weekends of Lisa 4.0.

Activity 1: SCUBA: We did our classroom, pool work, and tests for the PADI Open Water certification.

I would sum this whole training thing up by saying that its a minute of: this is how you breathe underwater and weight yourself down so that you stay down; and the rest is 40 hours of training you on what to do when things go wrong!

I was more excited than nervous to do this certification because whenever I snorkel, I always wish that I could have more freedom to follow the fish. All this "how to save yourself" stuff was the slap-in-the face about the realities of the risks.

Whatever!

Carpe Diem, and all that.

There were 8 students and 2 instructors in the pool, and that was just too much. I didn't feel like I could really move around and get a feel for all that equipment 'cause we kept banging into each other. We didn't finish all our "skills" over that weekend, and so my friend and I did the rest, just the 2 of us this past Friday. It was GREAT having the whole pool to ourselves. We were able to really get the hang of buoyancy and swim around. We are off for our first open water dive tomorrow, and I . am . excited!!

My mom was kinda confused when I told her I wanted to get scuba certified because I can't swim. You know, with strokes. I can spend some time underwater, or I can swim on the top, or just play around. I just never learned how to do any strokes. The swimming teacher my mom hired for me and my brother when we were kids told my mom after a couple weeks to just give up on me 'cause I was never going to learn. And that was that.

Well, scuba is not about swimming. Its about having the freedom to be underwater on your terms. Its a gateway to this whole other part of the planet - the part that that is the MAJORITY of this planet, eh?.

so, watch out fish! Here I come!

US Car Manufacturers

I don't really have strong political opinions often, but there is one thing going on right now that is driving me NUTS, and since this is my venue for pushing my opinionated opinion in a public setting, here goes...

So, the US car manufacturers are suffering and looking for help from the government.
They are not making sales, therefore, not making profits.
And of course, the help is requested so that they don't have to lay off people and add to the high unemployment numbers. So that's the pulling-on-the-heartstrings "help us" line.

Here's my rub.
1. They killed the electric car for stupid selfish reasons.
2. When car manufacturers outside the US started building more fuel efficient, affordable cars, they instead SUPER-sized. "Daddy George will protect us by keeping the oil coming" "Americans like big cars" "Big cars are safer".

What did the people do? They said:
Speak with your Wallet! Don't buy these big cars! Don't support these manufacturers!

so, umm, hello, no one's buying their cars!!
why is it a surprise?!

This is a basic tenant of capitalism.

The consumers are speaking with their wallets and letting the manufacturers know "We don't want huge gas-guzzling cars"! If those manufacturers are not listening by changing their focus, they deserve to go under.
They are the ones who took on the responsibility of all these employees; they are the ones abusing that role, not the US Government.

Now the government is giving them money, with conditions, and the media is making THAT the story.
You know, if you bailed out a company that was suffering because of a bad business decision, wouldn't you "loan" that money conditional on those business decisions changing?
Why should the government be any different?
In fact, if they gave OUR tax money to these manufacturers without any conditions on changing their ways, wouldn't that just be "enabling" the perpetuation of whatever got them into trouble in the first place?

So, come on, Media!!! Get the story straight!
US Car Manufacturers need to take responsibility and listen to the LOUD voices of the consumer!
Make smaller cars, stop your propaganda about safety in size, and focusing on efficiency.

Lisa 4.0

Over the years that I lived in Arizona I made friends with very good people. If you know me in life, you know just how wonderful those people are.
Now I find myself in California, looking for ways to make new friends, and realizing that I have a world of Lisa-discovering to do.
I gave this conundrum some thought.

I realized that one of the things that makes these friends of mine so interesting is that they are very active. Not only do they run, bike, swim, row, rappel, they set personal goals for their physical endeavors and then do what is necessary to meet those goals. As things change – they realize a goal, they change their minds, they get an injury – their goals change. They are always challenging themselves and striving to be better. This gives you a unique outlook on life. It is positive, it means that there are no limits, and anything is possible.
I love my friends for these qualities!

Anyway, I decided that I want to meet more of these people in my life.

Coupled with that, I started thinking about what Lisa might like to do.
Now, one thing I really love doing (I don’t know why) is snorkeling. Being underwater with all those fish! There is a whole other world down there! Wait! Maybe its ‘cause I’m Aquarius??? Hmmm.

Anyway… I told my friend that I wanted to get certified to go scuba diving. I looked online and yikes, there are so many different ways to get out on the water starting from this Southern California coast! My friend said he would like to join me, so we are signed up to get certified next month.

My friend loves the outdoors. In exchange for him facing his fear of sharks (in a SWIMMING POOL!) I am going to take a course to overcome my fear of heights so that we can go rappelling together down waterfalls! I have done this once before with Meg and Tim down Salome in AZ, and I really enjoyed that, so am willing to take on this fear and add a harness to my list of gear. Why not? I’m trying to figure out what I like to do, and how will I know without trying?

I told my friend about adventure racing. I don’t know why, but I love it! I would be happy to volunteer at races I love being involved so much. My friend is intrigued. He thinks we should try do one together. I said to him… sir, you do realize that I don’t mountain bike, right?
His response: why not?
I thought a bit, and realized there was not valid reason.
So, we went out and bought bikes! And have gone riding. My friend is patient, and helps me resolve my concerns one at a time… which shift lever does what, using my legs instead of my gears, taking breaks, and becoming more confident hitting ruts.
I have a lot of endurance and leg strength to build, but I tell you, mountain biking is MUCH better than the leg-press machine!
I have been given the challenge of deciding on a race for us to do in the summer.

YIKES! What a bold new world of opportunities out there for me!
What possibilities?!

Now, I thought that my Musings might take on a new focus over these next weeks as I try out all these new activities and go through the learning process one thing at a time.

So this is Turning 40, Part 2.
Its “Lisa 4.0”
Its the future.

NY in LA

Over the past couple days strange things have been showing up on the corner of Spring and 7th Street.


NYPD? Taxi with a NY plate?

The other day I saw this:


it made me laugh!

Here's another picture...


Today, I realized what was going on from a "Street Closure: Filming" door hanger.
They are filming CSI: NY on Monday and Tuesday. The hangar says that there will be a gun fire, lots of action, lots of explosions, with a semi crashing into a diner!

I might have to take a walk up there tomorrow...

Figuring it out...

Its funny what you learn about yourself if you open yourself up to it.
Over the past month, I have learned a lot of things about myself… there has been some purging, some weakness, some introspection, some assistance, and in the end, a lot of realizations.

Here is a question I’ve been thinking about:
What do I like to do?

Well, I have been just about work for the longest time, and when I think about things outside of that, the list is pretty short:
Autocross
Flamenco

Now, if you are a friend that I’ve had over to a house, you might want to add cooking and baking to that list. Well, these are things I have done, but they are not my favorite things to do.
I am pretty crafty, but got to the point that I started to wonder what to do with the crap that I crafted, so I’m over that.

Let’s talk about the first two: Autocross is something that is usually done only once a month in a region. It can also get expensive because you have to keep your car serviced, maintained, and in good shape. I wonder if having the MINI club (DMC) in Arizona made the autocross easier and more fun. I plan to go out to the track this weekend here in CA, and see how things are run in this region.

I have done Flamenco most of my life. I started because it was far more interesting than ballet, and that’s what my mom had me busy doing as a child. The thing about Flamenco is that its an emotional expression in the form of dance. I have never felt that I had the right expression. I thought that maybe “one day” I would be older with lots of life experience and I would have something to express. I’ve started to realize, now that its “one day”, I’m older, and have had a lot of life experience, that I still don’t think I’m very good at expression. I’ve accepted that maybe its just not me.

So, if you minus the Flamenco, and the autocross is very infrequent, what do I like to do?

Communication

I used to write letters back and forth with my grandmother when I first moved to America.

I also used to share letters with my cousins when they were very young.

One day, the letters got replaced by phone calls.

 

I just realized this weekend, I don't get phone calls anymore!

 

But my friends do still communicate:

 

Blackberry IM

Facebook

Email

and now Twitter.

 

I think I know more about what's going on in their lives with all these internet tools than I ever did with the letters or phonecalls.

 

 

...on Facebook

Everyone seems to be talking about Facebook these days. "It's just for kids", "It's addictive", "YOU have a Facebook page?!"... so, ok, here's my two cents.

I live in a country different to the one I grew up in.
My family and friends (ok, mostly my family) are spread all over the world.
This is a time of living where you want to, and being very separate from a physical community.
This is the age of email, blogs, online social networking, and television... a lot of living via machines.

I started using Facebook because my younger cousins were on, they were traveling around the world, and using Facebook to keep in touch and communicate their adventures. Next thing I knew my older cousins were on, and for a good long time there, I had a "friend" in most of my relatives! These are relatives I see... NEVER... and talk to a little more often, and with Facebook, I suddenly know what's going on in their lives, how they are feeling, and what they did on Sat night! It didn't got $2/min, nor was it a lost letter, and I didn't wake anyone up with a 2am (OMG I didn't realize the time changed) phone call!
Then, I started getting friend requests from friends... and now long lost people of my past are getting in touch with me... people are reminding me of names, places, and relationships of my past that I had completely forgotten. Its like a full circle of remembering who you are.

I have been reading blogs for a couple of years, and I've gone from one to another like an org-chart of connections. I got the idea of using a blog and reading blogs out of a need to find like-minded people. On online community since I felt so different to the neighbors I lived around in Phoenix. I found, however, that the more frequent, interesting writers were the "mommy-bloggers"; well, you don't have to look too far in my archives to know I'm not one of those. Instead of finding an online community, I quickly became "involved" in the public personas of a whole slew of people, that didn't know me!

So, here's what I think of Facebook. Facebook is the easy way of staying in touch with the people you know, who know YOU!

I'm sure all the bloggers I read have Facebook pages, but they keep those secret along with their names and email addresses, and I stay away from looking those up and adding them as friends. Because...

Facebook is how I stay in the know with the people who know me!