Stumblin' into 'Smuges'

Wow...I had not looked at this blog in nearly 4 years.  Need to see if all the links still work.

If so, I may jump back into writing a bit.

Stay tuned :)

Next Chapter - Full Circle?

As to not bury the lead...I started a great new job last week.  The full circle comment is based on the pathway to the job. 

Back in 1992, I was working for Philips on the CD-i platform.  Don't worry if you have never heard of it - not many have.  In addition to the 2 Davids I worked with directly in my studio, there was a third David who was the president of the main game studios of Philips.    About 3 weeks ago,this David reached out with an opportunity.  The weird thing is that is was not due to our Philips connection, but rather to a shared friend, who had hired me at THQ corporate back in 2007!

This should serve as a reminder to us all, that the time and space may seem linear, but it always seems to loop around. You can never tell how the relationships and decisions of today will impact the future.

In other words - be nice!  The ass you save( or have to shoot) may be your own!

Once you're organized...then what?

The past few months have been filled with a number of road trips with the family.  Long 6-12 hour road trips, and seeing as my family has a propensity for sleeping in the car, I do the lion-share of the driving.  Not a complaint, as I enjoy driving, and it has provided an ample amount of time to think.

Now, I have had ample time to think over the fast few years, but it is the time in the car that allows for some  focused, uninterrupted, quality thinking time. 

As the new year approached, my thoughts were focused on what I wanted to do differently this year.  Sure, there were somethings that I wanted to build on from last year, but overall, I really wanted to mix thing up, as the past few years have been a bit too saddled with 'same effort - same result' syndrome.

As I wrote about on the 1st, a new year means resolutions, and I, during these long drives, had come up with several of my own.  Writing out the list here is not really the point - however, writing is.

I had made these grand plans to write every day, in addition to about 10 other 'everyday' events I want to accomplish. In preparations for this grand plan, I thought that I would make sure that I had cleaned and organized my desk and had finished off most of my other year starting organizational tasks.  Done and done.

So...the blank page stares again.  All the cool stories, concepts, riffs and thoughts I had during the drive time think-o-thons - crickets.

I think I'll go watch Portlandia - Season 2.  There's always tomorrow.

Its a Fine Line Between Treasure and Trash

As has become our family's New Year's tradition, we have spent the better part of the last 3 days power cleaning and organizing.  The goal is to try and start the coming year with a clean house, and decrease the clutter that has accumulated over the past 365 days. 

Ah, if it was only the preceding year's clutter to contend with.

Each year, we thin a bit more of the "we have to keep this!" flotsam and jetsam that seems to ooze from every cupboard, closet and shelf.  Sure, we add a bit every year as well, but for the first time in a few years, we seem to be a bit ahead of the wave.  That's not to say we are now living spartan lives in a home of cool white walls and no evidence of a family of 4 (I've been in those houses - creepy).  There is still plenty of 'us' everywhere you look.

At the end of the day, the house seems...lighter.  By removing a layer of 'stuff' we all feel a bit better.  The action of going thru boxes and bags that have been filled over the years, and getting rid of those things that no longer feel necessary or needed is a tangible physical representation of the cleaning we all need to do.

Take a bit of time to clean out you garage - those treasures that you have been holding onto may better serve someone else, and by going thur those boxes and bags, you may find something that truly is a treasure.

...or maybe just trash.

Platitudes can kill...or at least, maim

To some extent, nearly everyone I know starts a New Year with some sort of goal or resolution.  Weight loss, better financial stability, learn to play an instrument, speak a new language or simply just change.  The calendar change is the starting bell for...better.

To amp ourselves up, we tend to spout words of wisdom that we have heard over the years (put one foot in front of the other, you only fail if you don't try, don't eat anything bigger than your head) or 'new found gems' most of which come to us thru the wonderful world wide inter tubes.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, - they all bring us words of strength, courage, passion and hope.  The key element of that last sentence is the the multi-edged sword, the one tht can clear a path, or merely cut us down...words.

I can SAY I'm going to run every day, you can SAY you will cut back on your impulse purchases, we can SAY we are all going to be nicer to our fellow humans.  Until we DO these things, they are just words, regardless of how many 'LIKES" my inspirational picture gets on FaceBook, how many re-tweets your pithy bon mots gets, or how often you post what you are GOING to do.

By all means, writing down goals for yourself is a key step in the process. Thought, word, deed. Make sure you don't get caught circling the words at the expense of the actual goal. 

The irony of this post is not lost on me...

Stories we tell

Doing some clean up on the computer today, I came across the eulogy that I had written for my grandfather's funeral.  He passed away coming up on 5 years ago.

We record so much of our lives nowadays.  I think it is good to take some time, and go thru our digital, virtual shoe boxes of memories.

I miss you Grandpa.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I have a habit of repeating stories… a lot.  And the thing about repeating stories is that, one, everyone has heard them before and two, I never get them quite right.  Oh, the gist of the story is o.k., but there are always details that are just a bit off.  Add the fog of time to the story, and it gets even worse.  When I’m talking with family, well, that’s when things can get really out of hand.  

With very few exceptions, most elements of the story I am telling get corrected by someone in ear shot, and by the time I finish the story – if I even get that far, everyone has added or subtracted something, and I some cases, completely ‘re-written ‘ my memory of the event.

I think this might be something that I inherited from Grandpa.

  

When Dad and Mom asked a while back, if I wanted to give the eulogy today, I kinda panicked.   I started to think of the types of tributes you hear in the movies, or see written in history books – when the person was born, where they went to school, when they married,  what they did for a living and so on.  So I started putting together questions that I could ask all of you, and combine them with what I know of Grandpa’s life, and voila’,  a text book eulogy.

Then I remembered my habit of telling stories, and I realized that no matter how many of you I talked to get all of the elements of Grandpa’s life ‘right’, I didn’t want to have my memory of Grandpa changed. 

I remember going on camping trips, of lying down in the Volkswagen camper with Grandma, barley able to contain our laughter, as Grandpa’s snores filled the air like some kind of massive grizzly bear, as he slept in the hammock above us. A sense of humor and of sense of self that said it was ok to laugh and make people laugh originates.

Going to the water district offices, drawing pictures on big sheets of paper and playing with the electric eraser, hiking through the trails at the arboretum, hearing stories about Tarzan movies being filmed there.  A fascination with how things are created, how movies are made,  starts a desire to be involved in the entertainment industry.

I remember Grandpa putting the blue headphones on me, and playing Finian's Rainbow or Iso Tomita, and my love of music was begun.

Hiding behind his chair in the living room, playing with the reel to reel recorder, thinking I was being so secretive, now realizing he was being silly just for my benefit, the seeds of my career in video games being planted.

I have this image of him sitting with his head in that weird neck stretching device.  No real reason I bring that up, just something I thought of.

Watching Bennie Hill or Monty Python with him, at least until Grandma came in the room and made him turn the channel - my love for British humor was set in motion.

I received a collection of science fiction stories once, Robert Heinlein’s Juvenile series, and this was the beginning of my lifelong love of reading and the world of science fiction.  My memory is that I got them from Grandpa – whether that is correct or not, I choose to remember it that way.  And if, in fact I got them from one of you here today, I choose to believe that it was Grandpas love of science fiction that spurred whoever got me those books,  to do so.

Sitting on the ice cream maker, freezing my …and yes it was electric, not the hand crank that MY dad had to sit on.

Dinosaurs, well that skipped a generation - it’s my son Jacob Richard, who loves the world of Tyrannosaurs Rex and the velociraptor. 

Drinking a malted milk,  using the long silver spoon with a built in straw…To this day, given the choice, a malt over a shake for me, every time.

Curling up on his lap as he smoked his pipe – I know this sounds cliché but anytime I smell a pipe smoke; I think of Grandpa and smile.

Watching him set up the little portable planetarium, and listening, as he described the constellations all the while using that cheesy little red arrow flashlight to point things out.

In my memory, Grandpa never talked down to me, and I am hard pressed to remember him yelling or angry.

Now I know did did yell and get angry - probably at me  – but now, for today, for me, that is neither here nor there.

As  I was writing down all of these simple little stories, it dawned on me that as I was recounting them today, most, if not all of you, would have clarifications and corrections for me…and that ok.  I am but one voice that is trying to put into words how we all feel about Dad, Grandpa, Great grandpa, Richard White.

Today, we are ALL here to remember and celebrate. Each one of us possesses a myriad of memories, of stories, antidotes an fond remembrances. Your stories, our stories – that is the legacy of Richard White.

"People writing songs that voices never share.."

If you asked me to define my taste in pop culture, be it TV, movies, music or books, I'd be hard pressed to give you a single quantifiable answer. One look at the contents of my iTunes (Foo Fighters, Flock of Seagulls, Bell Fleck...Enya???) or my collection of DVDs/BluRays (The Bourne Trilogy, The Breakfast Club...Veggie Tales???) and you would think that Sybil had a cousin living in Palmdale.

I have always had an affinity for the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel.  The music is nice enough, but the simple words, woven so effortlessly, have always been able to hit a part of my psyche that few other songs have.

As it has been a while since I 'tripped the keyboard mediocrity', I decided to sit down and just...write.


.........yea....blank....


Then 'The Sound of Silence' came into my head.  The line  "People writing songs that voices never share.." really got me thinking.  This world of not only instant gratification (movies on demand, ATM access to money, Amazon's Same Day Delivery), but one of instant notification and thought promotion.  Have a thought - Tweet it...take a picture - Instagram - eat a sandwich - FourSquare.  We no longer need to wait and process our ideas, thoughts or opinions, we can just broadcast them out to anyone and everyone to digest.

So if everybody is busy pontificating, waxing philosophical, or just ranting...who is left to listen?




One of my favorite sayings is "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt."  There are numerous sources for this quote - Abraham Lincoln, George Eliot, Groucho Marx, Albert Einstein, heck some say it comes from Proverbs 17:28.  No matter.  I've just always identified with the message.  Often, I have been very adept at 'removing doubt'.  This current diatribe may be doing just that...

I'm all for speaking your mind, saying your peace (or piece - I'm not sure which is right), and it is wonderful that so many of us have the ability and the means to do so.  It just seems to me, that if everybody is talking, then it is really hard to listen.  

'Everybody's talking and no one says a word..' 

I've been trying to listen lately.  Perhaps if we all listened a bit more, we might have some really great things to say.

Then again...'I could be wrong, I could be right.'