March 31, 2007
A Lovely Day
I actually took these pictures a few days ago, on a gorgeous day in the mid-70s.
Is there a better activity for a kid on a lovely day than climbing a tree?
Kennan came over to visit and Tomas enjoyed playing with him!
Kristin cleaned out the bunny cages--boy, did they need it!
Time to see if the slide is working!
Listen...do ya wanna know a secret?
There are more lovely days on the way!
For more pictures, click here.
March 30, 2007
Feline Friday: The Art of Posting
Hmmm, what to post, what to post, so many topics to think about!
And hey, what's that under there?
So, Kosmo, what are you going to post about?
Nothing--not while you've got that camera! I'm shy!
Want more cat blogging? Check out the blogs on my side bar and don't forget to visit Carnival of the Cats, the Friday Ark, and Cat Planet. Where is the next carnival of the cats? At IMAO on Sunday. See you there!
March 29, 2007
Dubliners
I don't usually enjoy reading short stories but I wanted to give it another shot this month. I wanted to read a book by an Irish author for obvious reasons. I eventually chose Dubliners by James Joyce. I was a bit disappointed because these were more like character sketches than short stories. Some were only a few pages long and I found they ended too abruptly. I am thinking specifically about the first story, "The Sisters" which was about a boy and a mentoring priest who died. The boy and his mother went to a wake at the home of the priest's sisters--they'd taken him in and were talking about how it was no trouble to take care of him ... and the story ended. Huh? Some of the stories were quite effective. The one I found most moving was "Counterparts" about a ne'er do well type of guy who is verbally abused by his boss, hangs out and gets drunk with his friends, spends all his money, then goes home and beats the snot out of his son. Poor kid. Another one I was moved by was called "A Painful Case". A snobbish young man becomes friendly with an older married woman who shares similar interests in books and plays. This woman is neglected by her husband and is very lonely. Anyway, she and the young man meet together just to talk and books and things. One day, she touches his cheek with her hand and he freaks out, breaking their friendship. Four years later, he finds out she's thrown herself in front of a train. Does his miss her? No, he starts to get the heebie jeebies, wondering how he could ever be friends with such a "loser" in the first place. Whoa. If anyone is interested in reading classics and hasn't read this book, you might just enjoy it. Just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean that it isn't a work of art.
When Bad Things Happen To Good People
Not long ago I was talking to a close family member whose husband had been suffering a decline in health. Oh boy, do I remember how that felt--to have a young husband with a life threatening illness and small children to support! What can you say to "it's not fair"? Not: "Life IS unfair." It's true but it doesn't help answer "why me, what did I do to deserve this?"
Sometimes I think of life's problems like trying to swim in rough surf. Waves fall on you, one after the other, really big ones. So you catch your breath and duck your head under so that the wave doesn't throw you on the beach. When you stand up to recover and get another breath, you realize there's another big wave about to crash over your head. Just when you figure you are either going to get knocked under or dragged out to sea, there's a calm and you can get to shore. But don't tarry too long because here comes the next wave!
My pastor recommended a book to me many years ago: When Bad Things Happen To Good People by Harold S. Kushner. Reading that book helped a little although there was much that went right over my head. I told my loved one about the book. It doesn't provide the answers we want but it does provide a measure of comfort in the exploration of why bad things happen to us. After I talked with my loved one, I searched around for my copy of the book and decided to read it again.
Rabbi Kushner wrote the book after his young son died of progeria, a wasting disease that causes the child to grow very old prematurely. Why should an innocent little boy be afflicted with such a thing? That's a question we often ask ourselves when tragedies involve children but, really, it's something anyone who suffers would ask. The most well known story of suffering has to be the Book of Job from the Bible and the book covers it in great detail. Why was Job singled out for so many bad things?
I began to get "hooked" when Kushner talked about 3 basic truths we want to believe about the story of Job:
1. God is all powerful and nothing happens in the world without His willing it
2. God is just and fair so that if you are good, you are rewarded and if you are bad, you are punished
3. Job is a good man
Then he says that as long as Job is healthy and wealthy, we have no problem with the three statements being true. You have to sacrifice at least one in order to believe in the other two. The easy choice is to say well, Job must have transgressed somehow and so he's got this coming to him. But in the Bible, it's emphasized that Job really is a good man. In fact Satan says to God, well, you can't hold Job up as a good example of a righteous man because he's living the good life. I bet he'd turn on you real quick if bad stuff started happening to him. So ... if God just went ahead and caused all these things to happen to Job just to prove a point what does that say about God being just and fair? And isn't it hard to love and worship a God like that? Weren't the Roman gods like that--capricious and mean sometimes?
So Kushner takes the position that God may not be as omnipotent as we think. Now that's a hard one to swallow, right? Kushner points out that God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day He rested. But what if he wasn't done? What if that is why there is all the chaos and nastiness in the world? That is a scary thought, isn't it? You'd like to think that God was in total control of everything but ... how can that be? Unless He is not a just, loving God and I find that even scarier.
How does this book help? Well, Kushner talks a lot about guilt and why we tend to believe we bring on the bad things that happen to us. He talks about how angry we get at God especially when other people say to us:
God needed ____ in heaven more than you did
Suffering makes you noble
God must be trying to teach you a lesson
It's all for the best
God never gives you more than you can bear
All of it's well meaning but I remember when I heard these things after Rich died I thought: why would I go to God for comfort now? Wasn't I strong enough? Hadn't Rich been noble enough? What had I not learned that it would cost me my husband's life? And how could it possibly be for the best? See what I mean? So what good is God, if He can't stop the bad things and suffering from happening to us? What I've learned from this--as Kushner did and wrote so well--God can give us a lot of things. We just have to ask. "Help me get through this, God, I am so alone," I used to pray. And I would feel Him. It was like getting a warm hug. God works in us in other ways too.
Read the book--there is so much that I think would benefit anyone who has suffered at all in life. And, after all, that would be all of us, right?
Ten On Tuesday
Ten Movie Characters You Love
It's going to be hard to pick just 10! These are the first 10 I could think of:
1. Forrest Gump, from Forrest Gump
2. Elwood P. Dowd, from Harvey
3. Rick Blaine, from Casablanca
4. Grandma from Parenthood
5. M'Lynn Eatenton from Steel Magnolias
6. Aurora Greenway from Terms of Endearment
7. Rooster Cogburn from True Grit
8. Garth from Second Hand Lions
9. Hub from Second Hand Lions
10. Cole from The Sixth Sense
Dog Chews Through Cable...
Just as I was about to post a fun movie meme on Monday night, our cable connection went out. I hate when that happens, don't you? Luckily I'd saved the post and figured I'd wait until morning to repost...except the cable was still out. I rebooted the modem and router a couple of times during the day ... nothing. Now I am annoyed and feeling very cut off from the world. TB calls the cable company and they tell him they can't send someone until Thursday. Ack! Two more days without cable?
Today the repairman came out and we found out that our cable line had come loose (or something) and that some dogs in the neighborhood must have chewed through them. Durn mutts. We have to get some kind of box or something to cover the wire. Anyway, when the service guy looked up, he noticed that our electrical cable had also separated from our house and so TB also had to call NJL&P to come and reattach it before someone got fried.
What was TB doing home? He'd broken a tooth on a peanut Tuesday night, suffered all day Wednesday in pain and at work and when I found out, I called and got him an emergency appointment for this morning. The dentist had to pull the tooth--and it broke into 3 pieces, so TB was in the chair for 3 hours! He is going to get a bridge and all will be well. He was very happy with the care he got at the dentist's.
I was happy to have him home because I picked up a bug, maybe from Kristin. She had/has a temperature of 102 and was throwing up last night. This morning I felt kind of pukey and then just went downhill from there. I slept most of the day and would still be sleeping except that when Heidi went to get Tomas off the bus, he was sound asleep and when he saw it was her and not me he had a great big fit. Then Heidi got mad because I got up to see what was going on and to comfort little T. Argh. So now I've retreated back to the bedroom to catch up on my email and post what I wanted to post over the last couple of days.
Billy called to tell us that he was okay and not to worry--eh? It turns out a body was found somewhere on campus at RPI, the president sent an email to all the parents, and closed the school at noon. I explained to Billy we hadn't been able to get online since Monday but I had lots of questions. The rumors are flying up there that whoever it was had been shot and that someone was still loose with the gun. Great. Well, Billy is back in his dorm and knows to stay put while the cops do their investigation. I hope it's solved soon.
So now I'm going to go check my mail and dig up the posts I saved over the last couple of days. I spent normal internet time writing, playing Chuzzles, Tumblebugs and Sims. It definitely was weird not to be able to get online. I didn't like it a bit. So now I am feeling connected again! 
March 26, 2007
An Abnormality
I really like the plastic surgeon who did my breast reduction surgery in 2005. Not only did he have a great bedside manner and was patient and willing to answer questions, he also believed that the more a patient knew the better of he or she would be. He would anticipate different "problems" that might come up and explain them to me so that if they happened, I didn't get all freaked out. During the last visit when he pronounced me healed and well, he said I should wait a year to get another mammogram. When I got it, he said, I shouldn't be surprised if the doctors found a lot of stuff they didn't like. Most likely it would be caused by scar tissue but it's always better to be safe than sorry. They'll want you to go for a needle biopsy. So go for it but don't let it scare you, he said.
And so I went for my mammogram and wasn't terribly surprised when, the very next day, I got a call from the doctor about an "abnormality" in my right breast--calcium deposits I should have biopsied. Okay, no big deal. I saw the breast surgeon today and she did an ultrasound. There is a cyst and some other thing or other in my right breast. I got a clear view of it. I still wasn't too worried, until the doctor said that if it was just a matter of scar tissue or healing then it would be bilateral.
Huh? She asked if I'd had any problems after the surgery and I didn't think I had. Of course, I do remember that the first surgeon had raised a couple of issues but it was so gently done that I didn't think a thing of it. Had I maybe had an infection that caused this extra weird stuff in my breast? I can't remember.
So next Wednesday I need to go back and have the needle biopsy. TB had taken the afternoon off and had come with me on this appointment and I was glad he was there. It's not so much that I was nervous or scared, it's just so much better not to be alone. I remember having a Pap test come back with abnormal cells right after Rich died and I had to go for further testing alone and it really sucked.
Okay, anyway, the doctor asked if we had any questions and neither of us did. Maybe that surprised her. My feeling is, why ask a bunch of questions now before I know what I'm dealing with? Why freak myself out over maybe nothing? And if it's something, I can't change it anyway. So I'll save all my questions for next week and for when the results come back. Meantime, I just pray.
March 25, 2007
157th Carnival of the Cats
Amber says, hidy ho, another carnival is in our neighborhood! And there are some newcomers, too, that we want to welcome:
Kuanyin of The Art of Living and Dying is a first time participant in the carnival! She tells us how Anela got her groove back!
Another hearty welcome to Captain Cab, who introduces us to Maw Maw, aka the Orange Boy, youngest of the feline family.
For Mo, welcome to your new home at The Knitting Fiend!
Welcome to the cute neighborhood calico at Maggie's Meanderings and Shameless Plugs!
And then there's the new kid on our block, , Indigo We wanted Indigo to have a go at leading the parade here but this is how she reacted:
We guess this means she'll do it next time.
We have some Get Well:wishes:
Maggie of Maggie's Meanderings and Shameless Plugs!.
Poor Miss Scarlett of Melange has a hyperactive thyroid but is able to keep her medicine down now. All of us here hope and pray that she is doing much better and that the doctor can perform the surgery to remove the stone in her bladder!
Sad:
A rather melancholy post at House of Chaos.
Funny:
Kai of Chris Dolley's Page plays an early April Fool's prank on us by demonstrating A Woolly Kitten's Guide To Disguise
Edison of Anniemiz demonstrates his incredible feats of contortionism--while sleeping!
Jax of Texas Oasis has created a nine legged chair!
Poor Mimi of The Poor Mouth has been thinking too many thoughts and must give her poor brain a rest.
What do cats think of balancing the budget? Check out Begin Each Day As If It Were On Purpose
Eeek! It's the Invasion of Tyrannokitty at Something Awful!
Eyes & Faces
We definitely want more cat pictures at Sisu's--they are gorgeous! And so here is another beautiful head shot!
At Babified, Wylie stalks a sippy cup. What gorgeous eyes!
Check out Abby's Andy Warhol eyes at Manx Mnews!
Peanut AKA Cerberus demonstrates how fearsome an attack/guard cat she can be at Composite Drawlings. IHer eyes are pretty scary in that one picture! would not want to try and get past her!
Our own Kosmo has a nice close-up of his face. You can't see his eyes, though, because he's being blissfully scritch-scratched!
The rest of the Carnival
Rahel of Elms in the Yard met up downtown with a cute tortoiseshell who showed her some maneuvering tricks around her skirt.
Check out the lovely kitties at the Lincoln State Cat Club!
There are a lot of cute kittes--and doggies too-- at Tiny Bubbles!
Instead of sleeping on nails, Mister Gato of Enrevanche shows us that he can sleep on household cleaning products!
What an impressive tummy at Blog d'Elisson. And check out the adorable reasonable facsimile of kitties created by the Mistress of Sarcasm!
Ferdinand T. Cat Of Conservative Cat proudly informs us he now has his own camera!
Elijah's Rescue is devoted to helping stray and rescue kitty cats find a home. Meet Lulu, whose updated happy news is that she's been adopted!
Bad Kitty Cats remember Jack, who disappeared last November. Also, check out these smiling faces--they don'tlie!
Magic Invisible Cat ... at least for us 
Miss Marilyn was very cooperative about being photographed at Leslie's Omnibus but our computer wouldn't load them! Rats!
Mr. Jones of Allan Thinks studies his subject to determine what it is she is doing to the car
Sophia and Cleo of This Is Cyprus show off their fearlessness of heights in choosing places to nap!
Bows and Eli of Val's Bien enjoy playing king and queen of the doghouse!
Aloysius of Catymology deftly maneuvers around the snow to enjoy some of the first signs of spring!
KC of Missy, KC & Bear demonstrates skills of the hunt.
Dragonheart of Dragonheart's Doman shows off lovely red toes!
Audace and Ruse also have some
Ah, the warm and loving life of a cat on a family farm! Check out Chewy, Yoda and Smudge on Xenogere.
Speaking of the warm comforts of home, Ivy and Maddie look nice and relaxed at StrangeRanger
Everyone at Pet's Garden Blog has the right idea for how to spend a Sunday morning! And after such a relaxing morning, what better way to spend Sunday afternoon than by taking a nice nap?
At Mind of Mog this week:
Peek-a-boo Kitty
Tender Moments
Meowza poses for Tummy Tuesday
Meowza's a daydream believer
At iInfidel:
Meowza says not only can I hide, I can be a cool cat!
Aw, what an adorable clip of a kitty giving herself a bath!
Spring has sprung at China Cat's Blog, the grass is riz...and China Cat Sunflower is eating it all! :) Willow also has a blog and doesn't understand what the big deal is about eating cat grass. She does, however, appreciate springtime on the porch.
With spring and grass comes thoughts of bunnies and Easter. So now, at Sammawow, the cats are keeping a sharp eye out for that wascally wabbit. "Which way did he go, doc?"
Last but not least and apologies for the stilted lines but we weren't able to access the blog...we kept getting a run-time error, our computer froze and crashed! Wes Phillips presents Stereophile: High Five posted at Stereophilia. Wes Phillips presents Stereophile: Don't Touch! posted at Stereophilia.
Well, that's all for now folks, hope you enjoyed the show and hope we didn't forget anyone this time!
March 23, 2007
Running on Empty...
| You Are Running on 57% Adrenaline |
 You often feel like you are running on empty. And it doesn't feel great! |
Feline Friday: All Ya Need Is Love II
Ahhhh, bliss, says Kosmo. He will sit on your lap for a scritch-scratch.
Want more cat blogging? Be sure to check out Carnival of the Cats, the Friday Ark, and the cat blogging sites on my side bar. The next carnival of the cats will be hosted right here on Sunday night!
March 21, 2007
First Day of Spring
The First Day
==============
Today is the first day of spring.
Spring is heralded by the vernal equinox.
An equinox happens when day and night are exactly equal.
Equinoxes occur twice each year.
On this day, light and darkness are equal.
In our lives,
we often have a tendency to let the darkness overpower the light.
Remember,
there is just as much light as there is darkness.
The thing about spring, from tomorrow forward, the light of each day increases while the darkness decreases.
Remember that.
You can choose which part you live in.
You can choose which part you will focus on.
Which part will you live in and focus on?
...light or darkness?
The light is increasing.
Remember that.
~A MountainWings Original~
See It Through
Sometimes life can throw us a real curve ball, TB and I know that and have been through it. Every once in a while, I find something like this online and I like to use it to remind me to keep on going.
See It Through
===============
When you're up against a trouble,
Meet it squarely, face to face;
Lift your chin and set your shoulders,
Plant your feet and take a brace.
When it's vain to try to dodge it,
Do the best that you can do;
You may fail, but you may conquer,
See it through!
Black may be the clouds about you
And your future may seem grim,
But don't let your nerve desert you;
Keep yourself in fighting trim.
If the worst is bound to happen,
Spite of all that you can do,
Running from it will not save you,
See it through!
Even hope may seem but futile,
When with troubles you're beset,
But remember you are facing
Just what other men have met.
You may fail, but fall still fighting;
Don't give up, whate'er you do;
Eyes front, head high to the finish.
See it through!
~Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)~
March 20, 2007
Ten Things I Hate Doing
1. Getting my blood drawn (I'm due for that now)
2. Getting a mammogram (today)
3. Getting the annual pap (soon)
4. Sitting in a doctor's office
5. Driving over bridges
6. Driving on turnpikes, throughways, and other fast highways
7. Throwing up
8. Giving up on something because it hurts too much to do it (like bowling)
9. Organizing a big mess
10. Spilling food on myself
March 18, 2007
Indigo
We have a new feline addition to our household! Her name is Indigo and she is a beautiful little cat. Right now she is in hiding and I wasn't going to subject her to my camera (yet) but here is her picture from the poster I saw at our grocery store.
I was very touched by the message: "Lovable cat needs good home. We took her in as a result of a death in the family and are no longer able to care for her. Indigo is up to date on her shots and comes with food, toys, and litter pans. She is a sweet cat that loves attention and would make a great addition to your life."
I looked at her picture and felt I had to contact the people caring for her. Mouse was put up for adoption by a man who'd just lost his wife and felt he couldn't take care of her cat. I thought that Mouse and Indigo would have something in common...not to mention the fact that they look a little alike.
I talked to TB about it and he was more than agreeable so I contacted the owners and we went over to visit this afternoon. I fell in love with Indy right away. The young women, cousins, told us that Indy belonged to a distant relation who'd died before Christmas. The man had been a veteran of one of the wars and had been injured. He had a mechanical larynx but didn't speak much. The women thought that he might not have called Indy much by name because she didn't respond to the sound of it.
Or ... it just occurred to me that the sound of the name Indigo would be very different coming from a mechanical larynx, wouldn't it?
Indigo grieved for her owner for a few months but seemed to be adjusting okay. But now the women are moving and they can't take the little cat.
I am so glad I saw that ad in the store. Indy is a beautiful little kitty and I hope that she adjusts well here. Mouse and Kosmo have "met" her and Mouse was more curious than anything else. Kosmo was mad. He hissed and spat at her, which is unfortunate. I'm not sure how Amber feels about her new sister yet.
So now we have 4 kitties.
My Desk
Sometimes a meme will ask about what I've got on my desk. Just for fun, I decided to take some pictures. What you have on your desk says a lot about you. Mine says my family means so much to me. I'm surrounded by pictures and by things the kids or TB have made or bought for me. What does your desk say about you?
Click the image to see the rest of the stuff on my desk.
Guess Who Joe Hill Is?
Okay, I admit it...I'd never heard of Joe Hill, except for the one in the song.
I remember dedications by one of my favorite writers to his wife and children but this writer just said "Joe" and not "Joe Hill". I hadn't heard of any of Joe Hill's books but I will have to go and give them a try now. Why? He is Stephen King's son! I looked at the picture and thought, oh, of course.
The article and picture are here but I'm also going to cut and paste it into my extended entry.
It is so hard for kids with famous parents to try and make a name for themselves! Hey, I am always looking for new writers to read!
Secret of horror writer's lineage broken By JERRY HARKAVY, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 17, 7:32 PM ET
Joe Hill knew it was only a matter of time before one of the publishing industry's hottest little secrets became common knowledge. He just wished he could have kept it under wraps a bit longer.But when Hill's fantasy-tinged thriller, "Heart-Shaped Box," came out last month, it was inevitable that his thoroughbred blood lines as a writer of horror and the supernatural would be out there for all to see.
After 10 years of writing short stories and an unpublished novel under his pen name, Hill knows that the world is now viewing him through a different prism — as the older son of Stephen King.
Hill, 34, took on his secret identity to test his writing skills and marketability without having to trade on the family name.
"I really wanted to allow myself to rise and fall on my own merits," he said over breakfast in this coastal city. "One of the good things about it was that it let me make my mistakes in private."
The moniker he chose did not come out of the blue. He is legally Joseph Hillstrom King, named for the labor organizer whose 1915 execution for murder in Utah inspired the song, "Joe Hill," an anthem of the labor movement. His parents, who came of age during the 1960s, "were both pretty feisty liberals and looked at Joe Hill as a heroic figure," he said.
"Heart-Shaped Box," a title drawn from a song by the rock group Nirvana, is a fast-paced tale of another man with dual identities. Judas Coyne, born Justin Cowzynski, is an over-the- hill heavy metal rocker with a strange hobby: amassing ghoulish artifacts.
When Coyne learns that a suit purportedly haunted by a ghost is up for grabs on an online auction site, he can't resist adding it to his creepy collection. Things turn ugly fast after Coyne learns that the suit's occupant is a spooky spiritualist bent on vengeance following the death of his stepdaughter.
The book has drawn good reviews, with The New York Times' Janet Maslin calling it "a wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty tale of horror" that is "so visually intense that its energy never flags." And with its cinematic, and bloody, ending, Warner Bros. snapped up movie rights six months before the book hit the market.
As excitement percolated about "Heart-Shaped Box," so, too, did lingering questions about its author. Inklings about Hill's family background started appearing in online message boards in 2005 when his collection of short stories, "20th Century Ghosts," was published in Britain.
Similarities in subject matter and appearance — Hill has his father's bushy eyebrows and the dark beard he sported decades ago — were enough to stir suspicion among followers of the horror genre.
"It got blogged to death," Hill recalled. But only when his identity was trumpeted in Variety last year did he realize that the secret was gone for good. "That was really the nail in the coffin," he said.
Still, his pen name had a good ride. The editor of "Heart-Shaped Box" was unaware of the King connection and Hill's agent remained in the dark for eight years before the author spilled the beans two years ago.
Hill's decision to follow his father's career should come as no surprise. His mother, Tabitha King, has been turning out novels for decades. His younger brother, Owen King, came out in 2005 with a well-received novella and short story collection that is more literary than horrific and laced with absurdity.
Like Hill, Owen King wanted to cut his own path and his book did not mention his parentage. But he decided against a pen name, figuring it would be too much trouble to try to go by an alias when meeting people or having an agent, manager, publicist or personal assistant handle details of his professional life.
The only sibling who has yet to make it into print is Naomi King, oldest of the three, who has switched careers from restaurateur to Unitarian minister. But Hill said his sister is working on a nonfiction project: a book-length study of the sermon as literary text and its place in American culture.
The King children's interest in books and writing took root early on. "It sounds very Victorian, but we would sit around and read aloud nightly, in the living room or on the porch," Hill recalled. "This was something we kept on doing until I was in high school, at least."
In an era of celebrity worship, the family has prided itself on being able to maintain as normal a lifestyle as possible despite Stephen King's fame and fortune. Hill and his brother attended public high school in Bangor, Maine, before going on to Vassar College, where they overlapped for one year.
After graduation, Hill and Owen King collaborated on a couple of screenplays. They sold one, but it has yet to be made into a movie.
The first half of "Heart-Shaped Box" is set in New York's Hudson Valley, the area around Vassar, where Judas Coyne lives with his latest Goth girlfriend, who 30 years his junior, and two devoted German shepherds.
At first, Hill envisioned his tale of a suit with a ghost attached as grist for a short story. But as he added depth and back story to his characters, it ballooned into a novel 10 times longer than what he originally planned.
The choice of title was pure serendipity. Hill's initial idea, "Private Collection," went by the wayside when the 1993 Nirvana song popped up on iTunes as the author was getting ready to write the episode in which UPS delivers the haunted suit to Coyne. It was then that Hill decided to package the suit in a heart-shaped box.
"Coyne is fiction and (Kurt) Cobain was a real guy," he said, "but I felt that the song fit very well with the book. The song is about a guy who feels trapped and desperate, and the book is about how someone uses music as a hammer to beat at the bars of his own cage."
Hill and his wife, whom he met at Vassar, live in southern New Hampshire with their three children. He is reluctant to say much about his private life, recalling how a crazed fan broke into his family's home in Bangor in 1991 and threatened his mother, a frightening episode that evoked the plot of King's earlier best seller, "Misery."
Stephen King declined a request for comment on his son's novel. "He's trying to go along with Joe's wishes and let him do this on his own," said his spokeswoman, Marsha DeFilippo.
But at a recent panel discussion in New York, King told a questioner that he wouldn't rule out a collaborative book project with his son.
"I guess anything's possible," he said. "I took them on my knee, read them stories, changed their diapers, and now they're all grown up and they have become writers, of all things. I am really proud of them. I guess we'll see what happens down the road."
___
Associated Press Writer Colleen Long in New York contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
http://www.joehillfiction.com
Awwwww.....
My friend Jeannie sent me links to really cute videos and they are too adorable not to share.
March 17, 2007
March 16, 2007
Feline Friday: Who's Not A Cat Lover?
Kosmo says, I heard that TB didn't like cats. Could that be true?
Click on the picture for the rest of the series.
Want more cat blogging? Be sure to check out Carnival of the Cats, Friday Ark, and the cat blogs on my side panel. The next carnival will be hosted at Pets Garden Blog.
March 14, 2007
Who's That Knocking At My Door?
It wasn't Barnacle Bill the sailor, that's for sure!
There were two older, well dressed women there and I knew right away they were going around knocking on doors. I didn't know if they were LDS (Latter Day Saints) or Jehovah's Witnesses or Baptists or what but they were certainly very friendly and very nice. They were not pushy. They just wanted to leave one of those little booklets after reading a promise from the Bible--that God would end wars everywhere on earth.
As they turned to go, I asked, "Where are you from?" I have felt a pull back toward church. I am Presbyterian but have been to Methodist and Lutheran churches and so I know the messages are basically the same...usually. I have had good friends (in MD) who were Mormons.
But this lady said, "We're from the Kingdom Hall" and I knew there was no way no how I'd go to their place nor would I want to learn more about being Jehovah's Witness.
In the 1980s, I was an interpreter for a school district in Maryland. One of my interpreter friends was a young single mother, Tammy, who had a very engaging spirit. She was fun to be with and had a dry wit. We never talked about religion. I knew she'd had breast cancer and had already had a double mastectomy by the tender age of 29. She had two little boys and loved their father but never married him because he was like a child himself.
Before the end of that school year, Tammy's cancer came back. She was going through all sorts of painful treatments. She did not lose her smile even though her eyes were clouded with pain and she walked with first one and then two canes. There were only two times I saw her let her guard down. Once, she was angry because her HMO wouldn't approve a new treatment for cancer--they said it was "experimental". The other time, she was afraid for her sons...what would happen to them when she was gone? Their father loved them but would not be able to support them. It was heartbreaking.
Tammy died about six months later. A group of us interpreters wanted to go to the service and we were very surprised to learn that she was a Jehovah's Witness. Usually they are always trying to convert you but Tammy never said a word about her faith. Well, it's no wonder because one of the first things the minister (or whoever he was) said at the service was that Tammy died because she didn't believe hard enough. And there were her two little boys in the front seat! When he went on to say we'd never see her again, her body is mouldering in the grave, I was about ready to get up and walk out. I was sickened.
Now, I realize that the "culture" of a church in the same religion can be completely different from others in the community. Maybe the Kingdom Hall Tammy belonged to was just one of those flukey places. But it sure left a very bad taste in my mouth. I get the impression that they are like other fundamental Christian faiths and that is just not for me.
Knock at someone else's door.
March 13, 2007
Ten on Tuesday
10 Favorite Albums
Gosh, only 10! In no particular order:
1. The Joshua Tree by U-2
2. Storytellers by Meatloaf
3. The Rising by Bruce Springsteen
4. An Innocent Man by Billy Joel
5. Graceland by Paul Simon
6. The Stranger by Billy Joel
7. Ray Sings/Basie Swings by Ray Charles & the Count Basie Orchestra
8. Story of a Life by Harry Chapin
9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
10. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles
Amber Eyes
For Cats on Tuesday:
I just love my new camera. It takes great close up shots. I do most of my practicing on Amber, not necessarily the most photogrenic or patient but surely the slowest kitty in the house.
Her favorite perch is right in front of my computer and that is where I keep my camera. I was sitting this far from Amber when I took the next picture. I just used the zoom lens.
In other news: I saw my friendly new DVR (Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) counselor this morning and talked about how to get me back into the work force. I would like to and feel I can handle a part time teacher's aide job and the counselor agreed this would be a good job for me. I had a psych eval last year before Tomas came to live with us and the doctor felt that fibromyalgia and my physical injuries would be the biggest impediment to work and that emotionally I could handle it. Yay! Well, with the ADA it wouldn't be hard to get accommodations--I just need to be able to stand up or sit down as needed and I have enough stamina to go part time.
Billy went back to RPI after his week long spring break. I missed him almost immediately. Well, May is coming...
Heidi & Kristin are doing great. TB and another employee where he works had words. The other guy is pissed off about something and it's just one of those man-things. It seems to have been straightened out, thank goodness. TB doesn't need any more aggravation than he's already got.
And in the world of agita, Linda was supposed to start work through a temp agency today. It sounds like a scene right out of The Grapes of Wrath when the foreman comes to hire from a bunch of guys standing around desperate for jobs. She shows up and there are half a dozen other people there or so. The boss comes out, says I need 5, picks out the five and the others are left out to dry. The temp agency had a representative there too and I wondered why that rep didn't speak up? Say something like, "Hey you can't have our agency send 8 people out and then you only pick 5."
Tomas had a bacterial infection but is doing much better! His class is having a St. Patrick's day party on Friday and I will be there with my leprechaun hat on!
March 11, 2007
Yep that's me
| You Are a Little Messy |
 You clean up when you have the time, but you're realistic about what you can get done. Generally, you're pretty organized and tidy - though you may have a few hidden messes. You eventually get around to making things spotless, but you do it on your own schedule! |
I Think I Need A Vacation....From Reality!
| You Are 62% Burned Out |
 You need a huge break from your responsibilities, starting as soon as possible. And you need this time to reevaluate what you really want out of your life. Because you're working hard and going no where... and that would burn anyone out! |
March 10, 2007
It Just Gets Better & Better
The most recent episode of Lost was just awesome, with great acting all around! One of my favorite characters used to be in the Republican National Guard (yes, he's an Iraqi) and not only that, he was an "interrogator"--read torturer. In Sayid's flashback, his past catches up to him as he is confronted by a former victim--or was she? Anyway, in a very emotional scene, the woman forgives Sayid for what he did to her. And did Sayid really torture her or was this a way to cleanse himself of the sins of all the other harm he caused to people?
And we are further along in understanding the mystery of the island...or are we?
No, this clip is not from the previous episode nor is it from coming episodes. I did see a pretty amazing spoiler type clip, though, and if you'd like to see it too, go here. Thanks, Doc Artzt!
March 09, 2007
Feline Friday: Lovely Amber
I was playing with my new camera, checking out the zoom features, and Amber is my most patient subject. I've been rewarded with several really beautiful close ups of her. She really has lovely, unusual markings!
Want more Cat Blogging? Be sure to check out Carnival of the Cats, Friday Ark, and other cat blogs I have listed on my sidebar.
The next carnival will appear in its "hometown"--Carnival of the Cats--on Sunday evening!
March 08, 2007
"The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"
When I first heard this phrase, my hackles stood up. For all the years I've been aware of the harmful effects of pollution on all of us and on our earth, I've also known that the polluters have been callously indifferent. Smokestacks belch foul stuff into the air, chemicals and poisons are poured into the waterways and goodness knows what goes into the air from the vents of research laboratories. I guess these people actually feel justified because oh, well, the air and the water will "take care of it"--diluting out the poisons.
Except it's not happening anymore. We're running out of clean air and water. If someone has to go on top of one of the polluters' buildings, they have to follow certain safety precautions. Sometimes they have to dress up in full astonaut-like suits, just like the doctors did in the movie ET. So what about the people living in the area of these places? They don't get to wear masks and respirators and full suits.
Not far from here, there is a community where people have a high rate of cancer. Of course, no one wants to admit that there is a cluster or that there is anything out of the ordinary going on--and no, there's nothing "wrong" in that creek that runs through town. Well, what about Love Canal? And why is the breast cancer rate among women so high on Long Island? And why is the rate of autism in children highest in New Jersey? It can't be anything in the air or water, can it? Nooooo.... yeah, right.
Do a google on that phrase "the solution to pollution is dilution" and see what you come up with. There was one article that really hit home with me:
6 June 2005A favorite phrase of Civil and Environmental Engineers -- the type who work with sewage and waste product disposal -- is:
"The solution to pollution is dilution."
Clever, no? Those engineers do have a way with words (even if they often can't spell them).
Nevertheless, this phrase -- even a mantra -- was popular long before the first Earth Day. It seems to encapsulate so much, and makes the basic answer to all pollution really rather simple. If there are noxious gases fuming from a smokestack, no problem. Just blend the gases with enough air and pretty soon you will hardly be able to tell there is anything amiss. Of course, if there are enough smokestacks spewing out enough noxious gases -- of every nuance and variety -- then the needed amount of clean air to dilute the process might not be enough for the local area. Then it's called acid rain or smog, or pea soup atmospherics, or some such. In this case, one has to depend upon the bigger picture -- or just move to a place where clean air is a greater percentage of the mix, and is still considerable to be breathable.
The same, of course, applies to water -- and the sewage, noxious elements, stockyard animal wastes, industrial filth, and so forth and so on -- and the watery attempts to dilute down the yukky stuff so that it's... hardly... noticeable. Of course, we might have to resort to using an ocean (or a couple of oceans) in order to obtain enough water. The worldly advice therefore is just don't live down wind or down stream from the source(s) of unhealthy gases, fluids, mushy solidified stuff, etceteras. And don't dwell on faults, either.
However...
[In the time honored tradition of Halexanria, there is inevitably a "however"!]
Consider the phenomenon of Homeopathy. Here one takes a solution which, for example, kills unwanted bacteria, dilutes the solution with pure water down to the point where there is a negligible probability of their being a single atom of the original solution in the diluted version, and then discovering that the diluted version is still capable of killing the unwanted bacteria (and probably without any other side effects).
This sounds like a really cool idea. Unless, of course, the unwanted bacteria is technically referred to as Homo sapiens sapiens.
The good news is that in order to obtain functional Homeopathic remedies, the diluting process must typically be very carefully controlled. Haphazard diluting of solutions does not work. Usually. For the most part. In most cases.
Okay, so there's always a low-probability exception to the rule. At least from a homopathic viewpoint.
The greater problem, however, is that some noxious byproducts of our industrial age are of sufficient potency that there just may not be enough air or water on the planet earth to dilute the little buggers enough to make them safe. The solution to such pollution is still dilution. It's just that there's not enough diluting capability of the Earth to make the solution a terrestrial solution.
Many viruses, bacteria, and other plague-causing ingredients often have extremely high potencies such that a very little bit can do a lot of damage. For this reason their transmission is usually the main concern of health officials, while the idea of diluting their potency is typically never considered. After all, the fact that one might want to dilute a plague by confining it to New York City and using all of the people therein... has certain political overtones that even Sir Rudy Gulianni might fail to appreciate.
Radioactive wastes, on the other hand, have a notorious resistance to simple dilution if only because of their high potency and their ability for very little solution to cause a whole lot of problems. This has been demonstrated rather conclusively by the pattern of deformed infant birth statistics being on the increase during times of nuclear bomb testing periods, and then slacking off during test ban treaties being in force.
Unfortunately, the percentages of the number of deformed births to all births is again on the rise, and in this case, almost certainly do (at least in part) to the use of Depleted Uranium in the Persian Gulf and other recent wars. What it all comes down to is that a careless use of such efficient weapons of mass destruction (i.e. any weapon using radioactive materials) by the United States, England, or anyone else has the potential to have very serious consequences for the entire planet. In effect when it comes to those advocating the use of such weapons, and the rest of us, there's not enough room on the planet for both of us.
Dilution may sound like a good solution to pollution, but the human race has now reached the point of creating more pollution than there is available dilution. We might want to do something about that.
Yeah, I'll say!
It seems like California is trying to do something, even though it involves financial incentives. But that only makes sense, doesn't it? Why does it have to be more expensive to eat healthy and why should it be more expensive to try and save the environment?
New Jersey and all the other states need to get into the act here.
And I have nothing but praise for Toyota, which plans to make an entire fleet of hybrid cars.
Some people do care after all.
March 07, 2007
At Weddings & Wakes
The language is pretty--if that makes sense--but that's about it. I wanted to like the story. It's about an Irish-American family told from the viewpoint of the Dailey children...supposedly. The thing is, through most of the book the narrator is referred to as "the children". There's a brother and two sisters and I didn't even learn their names until near the end of the book. That was unsatisfying. The prose didn't sound like childlike, though, and that was annoying too even though the language was beautiful. The children did this, the children did that. The children missed out on all the secrets of the grownups because they had to go into another room. So I read about someone crying and someone arguing and had no idea why. The kids' mom was unhappy with their dad--"he's not the man I married" or something like that. And yet the man seemed to be a wonderful dad and husband. What's the problem here? The maiden aunt who used to be in a convent meets and marries a man...how wonderful for her! But her joy is short-lived. Why? What happened? It's not explained to my satisfaction. And then there's the shifting between one time and the next. It starts out one summer, then it fast forwards to some point in the future after the tragedy, and then it flips back. All through the book, I wondered: who *are* these people anyway? I don't feel I learned enough about any of them to particularly care. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
March 06, 2007
Instead of my serious post...
I spent a lot of time writing a post about "the solution to pollution is dilution" but when I hit the button to upload it, nothing happened for a long time. Then I got a message saying the webpage couldn't be found. ACK! I hit the backspace button and, of course, that page could not longer be found either. I was very mad because now I have to reconstruct the post. But instead of kicking my computer I decided to post something funny instead. Some of these clips I've seen before but many are new.
Yeah...and this time I saved the post as a draft first!
Ten on Tuesday
10 Things You'd Like to Learn How to Do
1. Say NO and stick to it!
2. Knit or crochet, seems very relaxing
3. portrait photography
4. finish my stories, heh heh
5. write compelling letters of interest to publishers and agents
6. earn a living online
7. organizational skills
8. observation skills
9. html & css
10. how to fix computers when they go snap crackle pop
March 05, 2007
Humanizing Anxiety Disorders
At 16, I had my first memorable panic attack. What was I doing? Just watching Ben Hur with my family. It's a very emotional story about a wealthy Jewish man, Judah Ben-Hur, who thought he could be friends with a childhood friend who'd become a Roman soldier. Well, it turns out he couldn't. This soldier did his best to destroy Judah's whole family -- and he couldn't. The movie was subtitled A Tale of the Christ but Jesus only put in an appearance a couple of times. This was more like the affect Jesus had on Ben-Hur's family. Okay, well, but that has nothing to do with what happened to me. I think.
As I was watching the movie, all of a sudden the room began spinning. My heart started pounding and it seemed like there was a loud whooshing rushing sound in my ears. I almost felt like I was outside myself, watching myself, thinking that I was going to die or something awful was going to happen if I didn't get up and move right now and so I jumped up and rushed into the kitchen. I got myself a drink of water. It was dark in the kitchen and I drank the water slowly, waiting for my pounding heart to slow down.
When I went back to the living room, no one noticed anything and I was relieved. If I was going crazy, I didn't want anyone to know--especially not my parents!
It kept happenening, though, and I wondered how long it would be before everyone found out and I totally lost my mind. I'd get locked up in some institution, for sure! I'd be sitting in class listening to a lecture and wham! "It" would happen to me again. "It" would sneak up and take my by surprise and I never knew when or why. All I knew was that I was sure something terrible was going to happen to me. "It" would last for minutes or hours and the feelings of dread and fear were just pure agony. And no one knew what was happening to me.
I guess I mask well.
I did try to find out what "it" was by trying to explain "it" to my psychology teacher. My words were barely adequate to describe what I was feeling. She looked at me sympathetically and said, "don't worry about it. It's an identity crisis. We all go through it."
So I did feel better about that. It wasn't just me. When I was eventually able to confide in my best friend though, she looked at me with a sort of horrified expression. "Maybe you should see a doctor," she suggested. "It" had never ever happened to her. That scared me enough to keep my mouth shut and suffer in silence for the next few years.
When I did go to get help, I was scared by what the therapists were telling me. They used words like dissociation and fugue to describe what was happening to me. My gosh, did I have multiple personalities?
I read up on it and realized that those terms didn't exactly fit. I mean, I could remember everything that happened when "it" would come upon me. It's just that it seemed like I was watching it happen to someone else. I wasn't becoming anyone else and I sure did remember every agonizing second! I referred to "them" as "my spells". Therapists would give my anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications for about a year until "my spells" would go away and then I'd go off the medication.
I'd be fine for a year, maybe up to 5 years but then "my spells" always came back to haunt me. In 1980, I finally found out what they were really called: panic attacks. Over the years, I've learned that I do not cause them to happen to myself, that my inability to control them doesn't indicate a weakness of will, and I'm most definitely not crazy. For many years, there's been a stigma to having any mental illness or disorder.
Once a doctor compared disorders like panic to diabetes I finally "got" it. It's something biologically and has nothing to do with my character at all.
Now, here is this article:
The Mystery Behind Debilitating PhobiasNEW YORK, March 4, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS) David Hoberman is obsessive-compulsive and has more phobias than you can count."I always go to the right of anything," he told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner. "I will not go under ladders. I don't like to fly."
From the very first episode, Monk, USA cable's star detective, was meant to be the walking definition of anxiety disorder — but funny. The back-story is that Monk and Hoberman, the show's creator, have a lot in common.
For the 40 million Americans who have an anxiety disorder, fears from ailuraphobia (a terror of cats) to aphenphosmphobia (dread of being touched) are not just funny-sounding crossword solutions, as actor Tony Shalhoub discovered.
"People's lives can be, you know, shattered," he said. "I realized we really have to tread lightly here, because it's a serious problem."
Jerilyn Ross, who runs the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, said that people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder are being sent the wrong signals about what they should fear.
"Something is telling your body that there's danger, but there isn't any danger, and so what happens is the person is totally aware that this is irrational," Ross said. "Even people with the same, exact anxiety disorder can have very different symptoms."
Jennifer Reines was 15 and at a party when her first panic attack came out of nowhere. Suddenly, her body felt very hot and the room began to spin.
"I felt like I was having a heart attack," she said. "It was probably the most terrifying experience in my life, and then after that I started to get them every single night before I went to bed."
Stephanie McKee has a fear of elevators and has been in therapy for years. She can remember walking up 19 flights of stairs rather than taking an elevator.
Emily Ford was afraid of talking in public. It got so bad that at one point she eight months living by herself in a cabin with no electricity in the Vermont woods.
"I'd sweat," she said. "I'd just be terrified that I was just gonna say something wrong or foolish and I couldn't talk, so I just wouldn't go out."
All three of these young women have been struggling to overcome what they consider the living hell of their anxiety disorders at the treatment center Ross runs outside Washington, D.C.
"A lot of people think that, 'Oh, you're not really sick,' or you know, 'It's just in your head and you can just get over it,'" Reines said. "But it is a disease."
Scientists have found that there is usually a genetic predisposition to anxiety disorders and they can be triggered by a physical or emotional trauma. Caffeine can even set off the accompanying panic attacks. Twice as many women have anxiety disorders as men, and sufferers can't turn their fears off because their brains function abnormally.
Dean of the Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City, Psychiatrist Dennis Charney studies anxiety disorders. He said the amygdala, the part of the brain that registers fear, seems to be overactive in the brain of a person who suffers from anxiety disorder. The cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that tells you to calm down, appears to be under-active.
"For the patient, many times it's gratifying to know that it's not a weakness, that this is a brain disorder that scientists are learning more about every day, so we can develop better treatment," Charney said.
Phobias, like the fear of heights James Stewart experiences in "Vertigo," are the most common of the many anxiety disorders. In "The Aviator," Leonardo DiCaprio plays reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who had among other things a germ phobia. Hollywood seems to love fictional anxiety disorders — remember Jack Nicholson in "As Good as It Gets?"
But real performers get them as well. Donny Osmond and Barbra Streisand both have suffered from social anxiety disorder, which led to debilitating stage fright. Streisand didn't perform in public for years.
Because of 9/11 and the Iraq war it would be hard not to have heard of post traumatic stress disorder.
Composer Allen Shawn suffers from agoraphobia — a fear of being unable to escape, and a fear of being anywhere outside his personal safety zones, including Bennington College in Vermont, where he teaches. Cars, elevators, airplanes, open spaces and closed spaces can all frighten him.
"I have turned my car around many, many, many times," he said. "I'll literally have the feeling, you know, I don't deserve to live. It's a terrible, terrible feeling."
He called the memoir he's just written "Wish I Could Be There." His father, William Shawn, the longtime editor of "The New Yorker" magazine, had multiple phobias and the magazine was his safety zone.
"The New Yorker made it possible for him to engage with everything and with all kinds of people, without you know, going to Mt. Everest," Shawn said.
Shawn believes that his phobias were triggered by the institutionalization of his twin sister Mary who was autistic. He said he internalized the shock of what he saw as a banishment of his sister. His feelings were then compounded by the fact that his family never discussed what happened.
"We didn't process it as a catastrophe," he said.
Shawn believes years of treatment, medication and psychotherapy have helped him battle his fears and to accept that his achievements, even his music, may be a response to them.
"In music I can actually go down the lonely wooded road and not, you know, bolt from it and turn the car around," he said.
Monk, the TV detective, may also benefit from his phobias. Monk has become the stand-in for millions of Americans, who want people to realize that for them, just getting through a day can be an act of courage.
"The crime solving is related to his obsession with orderliness," Shalhoub said. "I just focus on what's off."
"The fact that Monk is so brilliant, and the fact that at the end of the episode he is able to overcome his issues, to solve the murder, is heroic," Hoberman said.
What I like is that a character like Monk puts a sympathetic, human face on a sometimes disabling disorder.
Just when I thought it was safe in this neighborhood...
...my neighbor comes across the street to tell me about a violent break-in catty-corner from us. The neighbors across the street back to the lake and police believe that's where the thieves came from. They kicked in the back patio door to this unknown neighbor's house and took what? We're not sure. I don't know the names of the people who had their house broken into because I so tend to keep to myself. My neighbor from across the street says it's like "Little Harlem" down two nearby streets. I had no idea. I guess I better open up my eyes. Now before anyone jumps at me about "Little Harlem" my neighbor is herself an African American and she's the one that used the term.
As for me, I knew there'd been another gang related shooting not far from the home of one of Kristin's friends. In this case, two young men were arrested for firing into the house and attempting to kill the fellow inside. In the township, in a very troubled neighborhood in town, another young man was shot and killed. This, too, was gang related. I have been seeing police everywhere lately.
It angers me as much as it worries me. Kristin's only a freshman at the high school. I think it's just going to get worse before it gets better. I worry about her safety and the quality of education in that building. I'm angry because of the increasing violence--why are they coming to my town? There's nothing here!
I believe that is probably exactly the problem. There are too many poor people to exploit and tempt into selling drugs and whatever. There are too many bored teenagers with nothing to do. Why is there no teen center here? Why are there no PAL leagues? I guess I should stop complaining here and go down to the township and find out if anything can be done. I know the teen center is supposed to open ... sometime.
Also meanwhile, as my neighbor across the street said, we have to watch out for one another. I better pay more attention to what is going on.
March 04, 2007
The Road to Shambala
Blast from my past when I watched Lost on Thursday! One of my favorite bands when I was in high school was Three Dog Night. I learned how to play many of their songs on my guitar. One of my favorite songs--but one I never learned to play because I just couldn't sing it "right"--was "Shambala." And what song was prominent on last night's episode? That very song!
The idea behind this episode was that you have to have hope and you have to believe you can change your luck -- or your fate or destiny. Hurley is one of my favorite characters on the show. He is the sensitive fat guy who win a million dollars or more playing a series of numbers he believes now are cursed: 4 8 15 16 23 and 42. These numbers won him a lot of money but have brought nothing but misery since. Death seems to surround him and bad things happen to people he cares for.
Can he ever escape this miserable fate? Maybe ... he finds an abandoned VW van (well, it has a Dharma symbol on it so it obviously belonged to the Others at one time) and convinces a couple of the guys to help him try and get it started. One is Charlie, who is living under the sword of Damocles ever since his death was predicted by the island's new prophet. Well, I won't get into the whole plot line here except to say that maybe you can change your fate by the choices you make. We'll see.
It's interesting that the writers chose "Shambala". It came out in 1970 or 71, I think, and that would have been long before the character Hurley was even born. So I think it was picked because of the location and the meaning behind it.
From Wikipedia:
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala (also spelled Shambala or Shamballa) is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas. ...Shambhala (Tib. bde 'byung) is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness". ...the idea of Shambhala is said to have an "outer," "inner,' and "alternative" meaning. The outer meaning understands Shambhala to exist as a physical place, although only individuals with the appropriate karma can reach it and experience it as such. ...
There are various ideas about where this society is located, but it is often placed in central Asia, north or west of Tibet. The inner and alternative meanings refer to more subtle understandings of what Shambhala represents in terms of one's own body and mind (inner), and the meditation practice (alternative). ...
There are several groups of "Others" on Lost Island, at least one of which was or is connected to the Dharma Initiative. It was founded by a group of scientists, if I remember correctly, who wanted to form a better society -- a form of Shambhala. This song could be their theme song at the very least.
But it could also apply to the Losties in another way. They all led troubled lives. Here, on this Island, they can have their own Shambhala. They all can start over again and leave their pasts behind. These lyrics from the song are meaningful to the Losties:
That island, monster and all, really isn't a bad place to be compared to some of the lives these folks have led.