Ancient Aliens

     I absolutely love listening to people talk about the "what-if". I got hooked on the History Channel show Ancient Aliens and it now feeds my hypothetical frenzy. There is also the one speaker (Giorgio A. Tsoukalos) and his crazy hair that makes me laugh because he's so passionate about his subject and doesn't notice his unruly hairdo. He's probably my favorite character to listen to on the show.
     I think it's funny how Ancient Aliens looks into the mysteries that abound throughout history and draw conclusions that point toward not only the existence of aliens but their interference as well. Images that could be anything from misshapen clouds to glow sticks become batteries and electric light bulbs, cogs and joints become technology beyond comprehension, gods and mythical creatures become alien life forms: things we would brush off as something someone ahead of the time created become things humans couldn't have developed without assistance.
     While I won't discount the possibility of advanced life forms interfering with our development, I think when people believe these developments came from elsewhere we're discounting the ingenuity and creativity of the human race. Who is to say we couldn't develop these magical inventions? Even if the ancients had alien assistance, more modern times have created those things we compare the mysterious images to.
     Ancient Aliens is a fun show and I enjoy it because it poses some entertaining theories to the questions in our world and, despite sometimes depressing me with their portrayal of the human race's potential for creativity, I come away from each episode considering how we got to where we are and what would have changed had one thing gone awry in the path.

Just a thought...
Stephie

Happy Tidings!

     Just a two weeks ago my younger sister sent me a text while I was at work. Unfortunately so did all the rest of our mutual friends. My sister was trying to tell me the wonderful news: her boyfriend asked her to marry him! While I'm completely ecstatic for my sister, I am a little frustrated with everyone else's responses. They ranged from "I thought she said they weren't getting married" to "How do you feel about this?".
     I am kind of stunned that my friends would want to talk to me rather than just wish her congratulations, but at the same time I understand that they might want to confirm what they're seeing on Facebook and other social media. Not only am I not the expert on their life together, but I was supposed to be pleasantly surprised by the news. A surprise that was ruined because of this instant communication we now live with.
     The one surprise they couldn't ruin was her request upon seeing me for the first time: "Hey, will you be my Maid of Honor?". I have never been so proud of my sister as when she started behaving like the adult she is with a request rather than expectation or demand. And I am honored to be asked to share such an important part of her most anticipated day.

Congratulations Kaitlyn & Robert!

It's All in Your Mind....

     I have never really been into scary movies. I like to think that it's because my imagination can take a harmless scene and morph it into something horrifyingly morbid--like flying dreams where you just can't land and suffocate when you float away from Earth into outer space... For most kids the dream about flying would be fun.

Photo by: Riccardo Cuppini

     Sometimes real-life situations are creepy enough to inspire horror movie scenes without my imagination going overboard. Like when I was about twelve and watched a Stephen King movie about dead pets coming to life. I don't remember the ending, I just remember being terrified when I saw my cat's glowing green eyes at the level of my window that night.
     Other times it's simply the feeling that there's something just beyond my field of vision and if I don't watch out for it something unspeakable is going to happen. Like that feeling of being home alone when the electricity goes out. That dead silence is one of the most frightening sounds I've ever experienced, not because there's no television or internet or anything to keep me entertained, but because it can mean freezing to death or having no ability to make people aware of dangers. I still wake up when the power goes out in the middle of the night.
     I was reading somewhere that people who experience chronic pain say the anticipation of pain is actually more painful than pain itself. I feel like the unknown is like that: more terrifying by the imagination's anticipation of everything that could happen. That loud crashing sound could be someone slamming a door, or it could be someone breaking into the neighbor's house; chances are it's just the janitor at the school throwing trash in the dumpster.
     So why do hundreds of people every day watch movies that make them experience the fear I feel when walking in a dark parking garage or down a dark street? Maybe it's the thrill of surviving that unknown. For me, it's enough to just read a scene from a book or watch Supernatural, I let my imagination fill in the rest...

Just a thought...
Stephie

New Year 2014!

     It's a whole new year!

     As exciting as that sounds, it is also completely terrifying! While a year is only a measure of time and there isn't really anything different between Tuesday December 31 and Wednesday January 1 we place so much more on the differentiation between that specific Tuesday and Wednesday.
     This is the time of year when people make promises for the future, when we look at the past and make plans. This is the time when we have hope and expectations are running high. It is also the time when we make resolutions.
     Resolutions aren't just goals, they're promises we make to ourselves. For some, resolutions are plans we don't believe we'll achieve. For others, resolutions are our deepest darkest hopes that we want fulfilled. Making it a "New Year's Resolution" makes it possible, caught up in the hype of a new year, the hope of a new beginning we have the drive to make those goals become reality.
     I've never been good at keeping to my resolutions, but this year I'm making it my resolution to work every single day to keep my resolutions. And, unlike many years in the past, this year I only have two resolutions:

      1. Be happy with me--this one doesn't sound like much, but I'm going to work on finding the things that I've enjoyed, the things that make me feel one hundred percent me, and incorporating them into my every day. 

      2. Keep up with my writing--I love to write, but when life gets going it's difficult to get online to update my blogs or work on my fiction. But I'm not limiting myself to just blogging or working on my stories, I'm also talking about keeping a journal or exploring ideas by writing them out. Playing with language and working with it is something I enjoy and something I'd love to continue working with. 

     This year my goals aren't earth-shattering, but they are things I haven't had time for in the past few years. I'm excited to be getting back to the things that bring me joy, and to have time to devote to them. 

Just a thought...
Stephie