Lucky, in the Autumn of her Years

 
Recently I've been taking "Lucky", my aging 15-year-old black lab, with me more and more — in the car, "riding shotgun". She loves getting out — being with me in the car — and I have been taking every excuse to bring her along. Who knows if she has any idea where we're going? She gets excited and knows as soon as I begin planning our weekly trip to "the dump"; it's a perfectly fine destination as far as she's concerned. It's a noble pursuit; worthy of her dutiful attention.

This weekend when I took Lucky with me "off on an errand", I noticed that (again) I had to lift her up to help her get into the car. Her legs just aren't strong enough to make that jump up any more. But once she was in her seat she took her stand, held her ground firmly as the car swerved, and resolved to keep herself as much as she could at the top of her game — watching out over everything that passes, making sure that the world is as it should be.

Even though we both know that's not true.

Lucky is failing. Sometimes, it seems she's failing fast. She is still eating, though not as much these days. Her keen sense of hearing has long gone, though she still comes if you call her persistently and loudly enough. And she's been losing weight for about 18 months, though only very gradually. She is pretty much capable of getting up the steps from the garage into the house, though she doesn't come up the stairs inside the house — up into the computer room where I am — except when she's been lonely long enough downstairs alone that she figures it'll be worth the trek. But either way, she doesn't seem to be in any pain, and I like to think she's happy… though I've noticed that her tail's not wagging when she comes into the house in the morning, unlike always in the past.

I guess I have to admit that it seems like Lucky knows her days bound to this Earth are numbered… though she's not about to allow that to make any difference to her presence — the vivacious spirit that she always brings. Lucky continues to live every day as though it were her last, determined to teach us all to do the same.
 

A simple animation / puzzle

 
More than anything, this is just an experiment to see if I can host this a simple animation / puzzle on my "Digital Media Magik" site… but then use it elsewhere — like here. You get about 25 seconds to stare at it before the solution will reveal itself.


How many People appear in this image ???

Looks like it works !
Contact me if you have a rational explanation for this (or just cheat and "look at the answer" that was submitted by a genious friend of mine who commented on this posting).
 

It's great to be alive !!

… no, I didn't just survive some sort of death-defying event; I just feel like "It's great to be alive on this Sunny day in July!!" — on this my 57^th birthday — even though (at least so far) it's rainy and drizzly outside my window. I just know it's going be a great Sunny day… especially when I see it that way.

On the left is a recent picture of "Mr. K, on my birthday" (actually created via the Digital Media Magik described here), on a trip we took last weekend to my sister's place in Ontario for an extended family party. We had such a great time visiting Nanci, seeing my aunt Marion, Karina, Nanci's daughter Miranda and her husband Ralph (visiting from Australia for the first time in way too long), celebrating the recent birth of Nanci's first grandson + the proud parents, and — of course — I created this Flickr snapshot album (or SlideShow) to capture all the festivities. On the trip up and back we (traveling with Jillian and her beau) stopped in Niagara Falls and totally enjoyed the scenery — including fireworks; see my Niagara Falls Flickr album (or SlideShow) for details.

One of the highlights of the trip was the couple of hours we spent at St. Jacob's market — home of the Mennonites — shown in the panorama on the right. In the market, near where I took that panorama — shown here in "360 ° rotation form", I also captured these enduring sounds of "Amazing Grace" (on YouTube) of Fernan Enriques playing his Pan Flute and woodwinds of the Andes. I also bought two of his CDs "for my birthday". And as if that wasn't enough YouTube for the day … a friend sent me this Happy Birthday (Beatles) reminiscence.

I am indeed a very happy, almost-aging baby-boomer, on this, my day — my 57^th birthday, July 24^th, 2008.
 

Independence Day

 
I've been wondering what it would take to incorporate animations as part of a blog posting, so what better time to try that out than today — America's birthday — the 4^th of July, 2008 !!

The animation on the left is much taller than the others because it is designed to show the fireworks rising up and then "exploding in air". Using a Table with a ROWSPAN=2 lets me keep it on the left, separated from this text — on the right and above all the other animations, below. Nice. For real fireworks from this year check out (on YouTube) the fireworks finale that we saw tonight at Nara park in Acton, Ma.

For me, this year, there is a completely different aspect to "Independence Day" — not so much because of this day per se but rather because for a few weeks now I've been working on a plan for my own independence — my new venture which I've registered as "Digital Media Magik". The company logo (on the right) is for now only a place holder; I'm sure it will completely change as my vision for this new enterprise solidifies.

The driving force for this enterprise is my resolve to follow my passion. I have long been keenly interested in how people can use web technologies to express themselves fully — to communicate their passion, and to establish their own identities in cyberspace. There are lots of companies geared up to use these technologies for corporate interests; my goal is to bring this capability to everyday people throughout the world. Using digital photography, multi-media presentations, StoryBoards, music, slide shows, video, graphics, animations, voice, and etc… my goal is to help others express themselves and bring joy to all the people who are special in their lives.
 

I Am Borg

After a few months of actively preparing for this, not to mention "10 years" of actively avoiding it… I have finally taken the plunge and have begun wearing an insulin pod. In fact, it's a great technology breakthru — an "OmniPod".
As you can see in the picture of me working on a deck-building team project barn raising style, the OmniPod is worn 24-hours a day, (mostly) externally, and usually in a somewhat concealed place. It does a miraculous job of the insulin delivery part of my diabetes management — all of it — so after 23 years I have no need to take insulin shots 4-5 times a day any more. (See also deck building SlideShow.)

Shown in the picture on the left is the pod itself, along with the brains of the operation — a wireless remote control for the pump — which give me access to a personalized diabetes management system, contains a detailed food library, and lets me make this device do everything a fully-functioning pancreas would do. (Well, not including glucose monitoring — for now, but see the The Charmr.) Not only is the end result of all this much simpler, leaving me with less constraints about my lifestyle, but it allows me to achieve much better control of my blood sugar so the long-term effects of diabetes are likely to be much less significant. For more, see my profile in the OmniPod Users group — part of the cyberspace Community for People Touched by Diabetes.

This is all great stuff, though I admit that realizing that I now wear "a computer" just as if it were part of me, that I will have to do so (in some form) for the rest of my life, and were I to stop wearing this that I would die… does leave me with the humble admission: "I Am Borg !!"    With such great results already, I've learned my lesson: Resistance is futile !

SoundPlay at Rowe Camp — Music, Sound, Rhythm, and Listening

 
Father's Day morning, and — sleeping in my empty bunkhouse at the Rowe Camp in Western Mass — I am awakened at the crack of dawn by birds singing like there was no tomorrow, each one determined to bring on the morning sun, to dispel the overnight mist, by the sheer brilliance and beauty of natural voice. And how appropriate — this is the weekend I wrote about as my Father's Day present (last April, in "Music In My Soul"); now I'm writing on the last morning of my stay at Rowe.

So here I am — up early because the birds woke me up, relaxing on the balcony of my bunkhouse in the woods, drinking the espresso part of my Father's Day gift from the love of my life. Her card lovingly affirms her experience of being my life- long partner and how much joy my inclination towards music has brought to her life, to our daughters, and into our home.

The card/gift + this weekend experience… I couldn't imagine a better Father's Day present !! — ♥ three days with a wildly eclectic collection of (25) "music people", all in agreement that (for this weekend) there's no such thing as a wrong note   ♥ fully participating — making SoundPlays in every combination of personalities and sounds imaginable   ♥ singing every note that comes to mind   ♥ vocalizing every sort of sound I can imagine   ♥ sound healing and ritual   ♥ playing dozens of instruments (strings, brass, didgeridoo (huh?), percussion, woodwinds, conch)   ♥ and the astonishing experience of really listening… like I've never experienced listening before !!

Check out the (Flickr) snapshots of Rowe, Paul Winter, and the weekend participants (or SlideShow). Or, for more action, see the YouTube video clips: ♥ two clips led by the Masla father and son duo rocking and then more rocking after lunch before our leader arrived,   ♥ Paul Winter explaining the pentatonic scale called "Koto",   ♥ percussion and improv dancing,   ♥ strings and steel drums,   ♥ Peter and John make our very foundations vibrate with dueling didgeridoos,   ♥ conch shells with a low pitch and then two octaves,   ♥ violin, cello, didgeridoo,   ♥ the conch finale from our Earth Wind Fire Water ritual, and our final listening experience   ♥ Paul Winter's ethereal soprano sax performing a favorite track from his latest CD, Crestone.

Of course, all of the multimedia recordings provide only a glimpse of this phenomenal experience that has nevertheless left me with the solid affirmation that I really do have Music In My Soul. And for that I shall always be eternally grateful.
 

My Circle of Men — the Legacy Discovery experience

This past weekend I had the privilege of being on the training team for the May 2008 New England Legacy Discovery, a life-changing experience that I know in my gut has already led me to the next level. An "entry event" for MDI (Men's Divisions International), the LD purpose statement says it all: "The purpose of Legacy Discovery is to connect you to your masculine identity through the wisdom of men and with that power put your legacy into action."

Very early one of the mornings, when I got up out of my log cabin bunk early enough to go down to the pond at the Clara Barton Center before anyone else got up, I was able to capture twenty "around the pond" snapshots which I later made into this panorama, not unlike its LD May 2006 counterpart :

Towards the end of this very powerful weekend I came across the following quote which reminded me of my commitment to living a purposeful life :

"This is the true joy of life — the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible, before handling it on to future generations." —George Bernard Shaw