defalcation - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

defalcation - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

 

Look to the words people use before  believing them.  If a caller to C-Span uses words this obscure and believe me folks, I am a master of the obscure word, then what is it they are trying to make us believe.  Are they making themselves out to be better and more believable than the rest of us by using mind-crunching words.  Defalcation is a word I have never heard in my 20+ years as a legal secretary and with my BA in Humanities/English.  This word specifically refers to the Bankruptcy Code.  It dates from the 15th century.  I would rather look to the archaic meaning of making a deduction to conclude fact but the current meaning is failure to meet a promise or expectation or embezzling.  When this term is applied to Senator Ted Stevens we need to find out why the caller felt qualified to judge.  And in judging, who knows whether he is correct or not.  All I can tell you, is that using words like this without simple English is misleading and wrong.

On Pain of Health Care

I understand all about pain. All over pain and specific. Last year, I gave up and went to an Apple computer to see if the smaller keyboard would help. What a waste of time that is.... I love the Apple because it is so portable and small but it does not help with the pain. I know I don't have arthritis because of the many visits to the rheumatology doctors. But good grief....the less I type, the more it hurts. This time off with no regular typing is making me far more sensitive to the pain I feel in my right palm. And that's new. The good news is that I am getting the rest I have needed for such a very long time. I am debating with myself on whether I need to go back to work full time or if a part time job would be good enough to handle the expenses and health concerns. I really should have a sign made up...Will Work for Health Care. What will happen, I wonder, if we get universal health coverage? Will employment figures go up? Or will they decline as people realize they don't have to make themselves sick with employers who don't believe that a worker could possibily be in such pain that working is a daily challenge? Personally, I think universal health care would free us up to be more involved in what we want to do -- rather than what we need to do. But that's probably an idealistic view because no matter what health care, we all need the money for essentials. Food for woman and beasties gets more expensive with the cost of transportation, gas gets more expensive due to government malfeasance and incompetence in following through on Energy Independence started by the Department of Energy back in the late 70's and early 80's. And with energy continually rising, everything else becomes more expensive. Back yard mower companies I use have a surcharge on their services to pay for the gas they need to work. And I cannot begrudge that at all. Meanwhile, employers are cutting back on the people they have on staff because they want to cut back on high health costs. Which is what I believe ultimately put a lot of us old timers at my former firm out of a job. Downsizing due to economic reasons....bah, humbug. It was simply a really good excuse to get rid of secretaries over 40 who used health care and who were dedicated to the firm. The two most untalked about issues in the current election are these ... health care and energy. Lots of lip service but no real gut understanding that the decisions made by law makers insulated by their own health care will never understand. And energy decisions cut off at the beginning of implementation by Presidents from Ronald Reagan to the present who make deals but are blinded by the soothsayers in Wall Street and the Fed who say limiting the possibility of energy cartels and companies to make a profit will cause a downturn for investors. If the government is for the people...just who are those people? Investors or voters? It is just a puzzlement to me.

On Matters of ...

Faith is expensive here in Northern Virginia. Building Funds, prayer book fees, temple security fees, not to mention religious school fees. Nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, don't get sick. You might be charged for a visit from the members on the Sick Committee. I mention this because for the first time in 20 years, we as a family are free to wander away from our first temple. Our children are out of religious school and their friends scattered to the four winds. So we decided to look around and check out options nearer to home. Gas is at such a high price that it just makes sense to worship closer to home. But at the prices I am seeing? It is a hummer. I just don't know whether it makes fiscal sense. The price of gas will not be going up enough to balance the cost of an 800.00 building fee for new members. There are no special discounts in membership for single parents or for singles who are over 29 at all. I will keeping looking but as I said earlier, faith (at least organized) is expensive here in Northern Virginia.

Trade-Offs

Those of you who read these pages -- you know who you are -- understand that I live for rescue. I drive 30 to 60 miles each weekend getting to and from the Friends of Homeless Animals Shelter and the cattery I love. Each time I drive out, I think about things. Life, work, not work, cats and death. I can't help thinking about death because the side roads are littered with dead deer, racoons, skunk, squirrel, crows and turtles that get hit. The untold toll of hit-and-run accidents with wildlife is huge. And this weekend, in particular, I thought to myself about the trade offs of life. The fact I can get around so much is due in no small part to inventors like Henry Ford. But there are trade offs to being mobil. The dead animals are one part. The soldiers who died for the gas in my tank is another part. The environment is a third part. The cost of being mobil is not cheap. Gas in my area is over $4.05 for regular. Daunting. The prices have cut into the number of people who come out to the shelter to see the cats or who come out to volunteer. Trade-Offs. Eastern philosophy calls it ying and yang. Male and female energy. Medieval philosophers likened it to the wheel. You are up and you are down. Personally, I prefer the Buddhist analogy which is short, sweet and easy to understand..."life is a bumpy road." To which I would add, the view of the world from the top of the bump as you gasp for breathe is worth the sore behind. But that's just my view and if I could, I would figure out a way to save all the animals who didn't ask to be bumped by progress, environmental pressures, and cars. May all beings be blessed....

Ah, Mrs. Malaprop

I finally had to break down and ask my go-to word person if there is a word to describe what happens when I use a word that sounds like the word I meant to say but means something radically different. Relief is spelled malaprop.

Fiddler on the Roof -- or in my case -- Floor

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free;Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.-Chuang Tsu
Monk in the City
This is today's reading from Buddhist Wisdom. Completely on point for me with signing my severance papers and looking at the empty spaces in my life at home. The experts say to always have a hobby to prepare for retirement. I have several but no money to fund my life, my cats, my rental unit, my gas, etc. It is a challenge but reading the quote above reminds me that like a fiddler on the roof it is all in the balance at the still point.

Charm City Cakes - Cake Disaster Recovery Show

There was a segment on Ace of Cakes tonight that absolutely restores my faith that I can continue to deal with life on life's terms.  One of the guys dropped a cake and totally destroyed it.  He told the customer he'd be back in 5 1/2 hours with a new cake.  And he did.  This is just like so much life my life right now.  The 'come back' kid.  Just pull myself together, no more feeling stuck in the old job and the new anger at the situation.  The old ways don't work.  So now to find ways that do work.  Life takes action, beauty, passion.  The glue for the heartbreak?  The scissors for cutting the cord?  The picture below says it all.  Keep on fishing.

Brandenberg Concerto and Syncopation

Syncopation...the upbeats of music.  The hand of the conductor rises as he/she signs to the orchestra.  Loss is a lot like syncopation, I think.  It makes me stop, watch the conductor and breathe before attacking the next phrase of music or the next phase of life.  Be blessed

Good Grief...is there such a thing?

I say yes, grief is good in some instances. Grieving (really good grieving) involves letting go of prior assumptions, prior jobs, prior relationships, prior life experiences that become habits. Like me having coffee before I go to sleep. Habits. Letting go of midnight coffee? Unthinkable. Impossible. I would be so sad to have to do that. It would be tough. And yet that is such a small thing for me to get used to considering that my friends and I have been laid off from the law firm I worked at for 15 years. 15 years. The grief is hitting me on many levels. The habit of going into work. The habit of having friends at work I won't be seeing anymore. The habit of having cash handy for things like cat food and rent and gas for my car. Letting go of the assumption that if I work hard and stay focused, management will value me. Letting go of the fallacy that having longevity would protect me from being let go. But it is 'just business.' Nothing personal. To someone reviewing the law firm financial sheets, I am just red ink on a ledger. Not worth the heath insurance, not worth the salary, the overtime, the carrying cost of paying for vacation that I hardly ever take. A few years ago, this assessment by strangers who didn't have my interest at heart would have devastated me. Today? It is a bump in my road because I know I am so much more than a blot of red ink on a page. I am worth so much more. To myself, to my family, to my cats, to the cattery, to my dreams. So I redraft myself into what and who I am. A dreamer, an artist, a writer, a creative soul. Stay strong, stay in the game of life, continue to be .... the bee. Buzz.

How To Become a Holistic Veterinarian | eHow.com

How To Become a Holistic Veterinarian | eHow.com 

Creativity or Standing Out to Stand Up

You wouldn't know it, perhaps, from the fact I keep a blog online to rant and rave in and lament and giggle at the events of the day. But, basically, I am a shy person. Not given to accepting the notice of others easily. Staying under the "radar" is tough though. I have a small gift of putting together words and images that I create. When I step out of the way and let a drawing or a phrase come through...now those are the ones I find the easiest to stay true to. To do quickly to completion. A thought, a line on a page, a breathe, and done. So far, so good. When I show my creations to others, though, that's another story. Creativity sets each of us apart. Some people are creative in how they walk, talk, live, think. Creativity isn't about art, poetry, sculpture ... Creativity is about being. And that's a gift all of us have. No one teaches us that in school so we don't value it in ourselves. So when people "oooh" and "ahhh" at cards I make or sayings I coin and say I am creative, I cringe. I am not any different than they are....they have just been trained to think they are ordinary. We are all menches. http://www.answers.com/topic/mensch We are all wanderlings in our own world -- as separate as the moon from the earth and as needed to maintain balance as we spin through life. A zen buddhist page I go to often has a listing on this aspect of ourselves. http://www.geocities.com/the_wanderling/nutshell303.html

As I go through life, I find each person more and more unique. Sure, some like Ted Kennedy and Bill Buckley are way up in the stratosphere. Theodore Rilke and the psalmists are beyond the beyond. But ordinary folks are not ordinary and should never be counted out. So when critics say that no one stands up anymore for the good in a community or no one gives as much as "they" do, or no one is as smart or as "whatever" it is they are, they do us all a dis-service. We all stand up. In our own ways, in our own lives, in our own selves. We reach, we totter (sometimes when we stand) but we get there. In our own time, in our own way, we all get there.
Be at peace today....

I love my auditory process

http://www.ldonline.org/article/8056

My hearing is wacky. I hear 5 by 5. However, what I hear is often not what is said. Case in point was a story from c-span yesterday. I heard "slaw" but the reporter was talking about the flaws in the political system today. It costs enormous amounts of money to get elected and once elected, each representative or senator is caught up in a web of needing money and not having time to dedicate to the job of representing the voters -- aka the rest of us. Oh, the reporter didn't say that directly but my mind heard the word "slaw" and "flaw" simultaneously and my impression comes from the comparison of those two words. Actually given the politics of this election, "slaw" is probably the right way to describe what is going on. After 18 months of electioneering, I feel like I have been through a coleslaw chopper. I have a fall back candidate I will vote for no matter what. But it is not a fun campaign anymore. It is just as grim as the clouds in the sky over Myamar (also known as Burma) or the after shocks plaguing China. This was a classic mishearing on my part. I have had them many times. For me, mishearing is a way to enlightenment. For others...well, each takes information in their own way. Some read newspapers and remain covered with newsprint but uninformed. They spout facts like fountains spout water. And some of those newsprint covered people are awesome. They rise above the facts to see what all those facts are hiding. I muddle along in my own way, gathering facts and hearing dissonances. From slaw to flaw, I leave you with a wish for peace today.

Energy Saver Saying of the Day

When other beings, especially those who hold a grudge against you, abuse and harm you out of envy, you should not abandon them, but hold them as objects of your greatest compassion and take care of them.-

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
From "The Pocket Dalai Lama," edited by Mary Craig, 2002. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com. '

Got this in the mail today. If I held onto all the grudges I have had, I would be 3 feet underground just trying to carry them around.

May all beings know peace,

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Saved....by Listening

One of the reasons I turned to Judaism is to become pro-active in my spirituality. Not needing rescue. Wrestling with the ways of the angels and G*d. Wrestling with who I am in a world where we are defined by our names, our national identification numbers, what party we vote for, what gender, what size, what age... Mayahanan Buddhism and also with that Zen Buddhism is less wrestling and more listening and perhaps that is why I am gravitating to those views more and more. Less is more. Listening for the Buddha calling back to me as I say the amidah. Listening to the rain patter on my roof. Listening to the semi-feral fox coming onto my porch to eat food I put out for feral cats. Listening.....

You have got to watch this on YouTube. The guy is an amazing singer. Truly awesome. Kaspar Ny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tna3VNja2yk&feature=Responses&parent_video=T2NEU6Xf7lM&index=0&playnext=1&playnext_from=RL

Coming Late to the Party

Guam

Why do we still have these protectorates? Guam certainly looks lovely but ... if it is such a strategic prize, why haven't we made it a state?

Senator Obama and Guam--on Guam

Here is a link on Guam. http://www.nps.gov/archive/wapa/indepth/extContent/wapa/reed/sectiona-4.htm

my particular favorite quote from this link is

(in 1901; pressed by the new American administration to wear clothes, they moved up to Saipan).

I dunno which I find funnier...folks leaving because they were told to wear clothes or the language about being "pressed" to wear clothes. I have an mental image of a person being run through the old fashioned 'mangle' of a washing machine to wear clothes. No wonder those Guam-ians ran. Here is a link to a mangle which contains a picture of what I am talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_%28machine%29

Quotes for Comfort

Sometimes I find pure poetry on line....http://www.soulofthegarden.com/quotes11.html