weapons down

getout 'n stayout, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

costume change

coming alive, originally uploaded by McBeth.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?

-- Chuck Palahniuk

remember this day

remember this day, originally uploaded by McBeth.

These things that leave you so frustrated will pass.
They will.
When a day like this happens again you will know what it feels like because you've been here, before, today.
Even though you will cry and feel just horrible, because that's what you do, it will pass.
And you'll feel a whole lot better knowing that ,
at least,
you're trying to do something you believe in.
That's something.

to the library boys, who will never read this

fidget works her warm fuzzies, originally uploaded by McBeth.

First of all: I'm old enough to be your mother. Even if I wasn't I am a fellow student who wants to just get through this time so I can move along to what comes next. You don't have to be a dick when someone asks you to not do something annoying. Try using some of the manners that I hope I am not wrong to assume your guardians taught you.

When I asked you to please lower your voices because I couldn't concentrate you were awfully attentive to my needs, like that cosy little moment when you suggested that I go into the 'Quiet Room' section of the library if I want quiet. Really, the way you are looking out for me nearly brings a tear to my eye it is just that touching. But c'mon dudes, look at the situation! I am seated at a school computer - in a LIBRARY. It's not like I can yank the cables out from the back of the Dell and drag computer guts into the Quiet Room to do this non-interactive online work. I have to sit at one of the school computers where it is set up and plugged in, to do this thing I'm doing. You don't have to be in a library to share the best secret hunting spots you've discovered across the tri-state area. Go somewhere else to yack.

Yes I concur with you, the library is indeed a public place. But it is also a LIBRARY, where people are doing homework and research and reading and studying. Were you raised in a barn or something? Did nobody every teach you the concept of indoor voices? Use them. Trust me on this one... annoying and interesting are two very different animals. You're not that interesting. If I squint a little I can understand why you'd think you have every right to carry on a loud conversation about hunting and blowing up crows with inappropriately large guns, but the thing is not all of us think you're awesome or that your immaturely gruesome hunting stories are exciting. Not everyone else seated around you wants to hear what you expect you should have every right in the middle of a LIBRARY to chortle over. Want to hear about my menstrual issues? Mmhmm, thought not. Context, my little friends, context.

And try some freakin' manners. Sheesh.

solid footing

inaugural socks, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust.

-- John Akers

back home

crawfish , originally uploaded by McBeth.

When I get away from home for too long I start to get crazy, so I need to get back, ... We have to get back just to get our feet in the mud, in that crawfish juice, or something.

-- George Porter

headed there

as the crow flies, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life begins at 40 - but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times.

-- Helen Rowland

a one and a

on a scale of one to ten, originally uploaded by McBeth.

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

-- Jerry Seinfeld

small medium and large

available at fine retailers everywhere, originally uploaded by McBeth.

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

-- Mark Twain

ten inches deep

scarletta's snow day, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Worry is as useless as a handle on a snowball.

-- Mitzi Chandler

preferences

anticipation, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books, -- it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Test

This is a test

stillness in action

meditation, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.

-- Lao Tzu

those lessons are finally paying off

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

don't hold back

buffalo pilgrim, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

-- William Arthur Ward

close your eyes. listen.

This song is a childhood memory that surfaces from time to time. My older sister was in the Luther College Nordic Choir, as was my uncle Buzz. When I was young I dreamed about being in Nordic. I used to hit that soprano 1 note 4:23 in. But never ever will anyone be able to direct it like Weston Noble directed it. He was a elf of a man, slightly built and quiet. With Weston you got huge direction from his barely-there direction. It was like a magic trick you thought you'd see coming but each time you'd be surprised all over again. I say this like I know him well, ha. I did participate in a few choral events under his direction in my pre-college days. I didn't know him well and wasn't his student per se, but he knew my family and was so kind to the weird kid I was so, believing he took a special liking to me, I took a special liking to him too.

Each time I saw this piece performed by Nordic it was at the beginning of this song that I remember Weston's slim frame sort of hunched over forward as though burdened, or tired. Then, as the song unfolded he'd physically open up, raise his spinal colum, raise his chin, his arms, widen his posture until the shivery place there at the end of the piece, each time, when I realized I had just watched a man transcend.

it is coming

first of the season, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.

-- Alfred Hitchcock

clarity

vanilla sunshine, originally uploaded by McBeth.

This is the mysterious world which is available to you if you can pass the jungle of questions and doubts and reach into the clear, where there are no questions and doubts, and no answers either. Just you are in utter silence, with immense clarity, with tremendous sharpness.

-- Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

how does this thing work

bus stop, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We are forced to participate in the games of life before we can possibly learn how to use the options in the rules governing them.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

it's not so bad

fork it over lady, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

-- Kitty O'Neill Collins