Lit blog

[vampiredust]

Woke up to the sound
of silence. Nothing
could be heard
just breathing and then
I heard it. Drip
drip ....

No lights
from outside, or in
awoke into a world
of darkness.

~~~~~~~~~

Blah blah right? lol.

Big bad thunderstorms here. Power outage for almost two hours. It's funny, I have been working seven days a week so tired when I go to bed I just fall in and pass out. So when my fan just stopped and I started hearing night sounds ... well it wigged me out.

Hope everyone has been well and good to see the threads picking up a bit.

rain, rain

don't go away

 

[RhymeFairy]

rain, rain

don't go away

don't ... go away. Scared
no not I
happy to see thee
wrapped in feathers
tarred up nice
hotter than fireworks
on this
July night ...



Again, a busy week.

Feel a bit of the writing bug coming on. Do not know if I have caught the whole critter or just the fluff from it's wings ...

 

[vampiredust]

am quite exhausted and as a result, do not feel very well. feels like i'm going to collapse.

 

[BooMerengue]

I never blog. Too much like talking to yourself and I try not to let people know I do that. But I DO lurk, and it seems like you guys need to come to my house for some R & R. Why has everyone got the blahs? Thats my dept!! lol

 

[RhymeFairy]

I never blog. Too much like talking to yourself and I try not to let people know I do that. But I DO lurk, and it seems like you guys need to come to my house for some R & R. Why has everyone got the blahs? Thats my dept!! lol

Hey Booo ~!!!
Missed you lady.

The blahs?
Yep guilty as charged. I have been working wayyyy to much.
You know what they say, all work and no play ...
So here I is ... playing ~

Great to see you, like sping and fresh air ...

 

[BooMerengue]

Hey Booo ~!!!
Missed you lady.

The blahs?
Yep guilty as charged. I have been working wayyyy to much.
You know what they say, all work and no play ...
So here I is ... playing ~

Great to see you, like sping and fresh air ...

Hiya ya RF! How are you? Come down off that mountain and come teach me to crochet. I need to make blankies. Pink ones.

Like spring and fresh air, huh?? If you only knew, kiddo!! LOL

 

[RhymeFairy]

Hiya ya RF! How are you? Come down off that mountain and come teach me to crochet. I need to make blankies. Pink ones.

Like spring and fresh air, huh?? If you only knew, kiddo!! LOL

How'da know I can crochet?
My Granny taught me ... was 90 degrees outside (in the shade ) and we would sit in lawn chairs making afghans for everyone she deemed honorable enough ... lmao. Never could figure out why in the dead heat of summer she wanted to sit outside and mak'm. Ever try that and you'll see how hot one can really get. The bigger they get the hotter you get. Unbearable ~!!!
Hmm, maybe she was goin batty and we didn't know it eh ~ Gotta love'r ~

Love ya lady BUT I'm stayin' on this here mountain.
I'm a country gurl ya know ~ take the gurl outta the country
but'cha cannot take ....

I love baby blankies. Kinda collect them and didn't know it, lol.
I could senda ya a couple dozen ... seriously ~

Congrats again and I am rootin' for pink for ya ~ WooHooo ~

 

[BooMerengue]

How'da know I can crochet?
My Granny taught me ... was 90 degrees outside (in the shade ) and we would sit in lawn chairs making afghans for everyone she deemed honorable enough ... lmao. Never could figure out why in the dead heat of summer she wanted to sit outside and mak'm. Ever try that and you'll see how hot one can really get. The bigger they get the hotter you get. Unbearable ~!!!
Hmm, maybe she was goin batty and we didn't know it eh ~ Gotta love'r ~

Love ya lady BUT I'm stayin' on this here mountain.
I'm a country gurl ya know ~ take the gurl outta the country
but'cha cannot take ....

I love baby blankies. Kinda collect them and didn't know it, lol.
I could senda ya a couple dozen ... seriously ~

Congrats again and I am rootin' for pink for ya ~ WooHooo ~

rolling the floor laughing hysterically!!! Have you ever been to Watertown??? It doesn't get much countrier than that!! No cabs, no garbage pickup, 2 cops- makes Mayberry look sophisticated! We do have a 5 mile long yard sale though!

Sure babe! I'll take all the baby blankets you want to give away- I always need them, both for the kids I babysit, and the emergency placements I get. Some babies don't even have clothes when I get them.

Making afghans in the heat makes sense. Why wait til it gets cold?? Yer Granmaw was a smart cookie!! lol

 

[wildsweetone]

Boo, what is a 5 mile long yard sale?

and,

is it legal?

 

[BooMerengue]

Boo, what is a 5 mile long yard sale?

and,

is it legal?

Why, darlin'! Its a yard sale that goes on for 5 miles. We have a much longer one going from Kentucky to Alabama. Of course it's legal! And it's mandatory in the South that you attend at least one in your life. People come from miles away and pay so much for the dumbest stuff! But we all have so much fun doing it!!

Come to America! You might like it! After all- we have KoolAid- you don't!!

 

[wildsweetone]

Why, darlin'! Its a yard sale that goes on for 5 miles. We have a much longer one going from Kentucky to Alabama. Of course it's legal! And it's mandatory in the South that you attend at least one in your life. People come from miles away and pay so much for the dumbest stuff! But we all have so much fun doing it!!

Come to America! You might like it! After all- we have KoolAid- you don't!!

'sok, we have boiling mud and sulphur air and geysers and stuff. is KoolAid something you stick on your knee after you've fallen over?



wso
ps if ever i come to the States, i'll definately go to a 5 mile sale!

 

[BooMerengue]

'sok, we have boiling mud and sulphur air and geysers and stuff. is KoolAid something you stick on your knee after you've fallen over?



wso
ps if ever i come to the States, i'll definately go to a 5 mile sale!

Well we have boiling mud and sulphur air and geysers but we stay away from the first two and pay to see the third. You know what KoolAid is- its a drink that is totally unnatural and horrible for you but is absolutely delicious!

Come to my house then. We'll yardsail for a month!

 

[Maria2394]

i been workin on the railroad

all the live long day...lol

okay, the job at the power plant was at a power plant. Its a coal fired plant called the Winyah Generating station. My gosh, you have never seen such a dirty person in your life! we all looked like coal miners after shift. I told hubby that I thought we looked like chimney floss

anyway, this is for anna--

I took pics for you sweetie we were replacing the rail support system that comes into the station, it was hard nasty remove and replace work. The demo was over in one day, then we built the same support system over again. It holds three or maybe 4, rail cars, totally filed with coal, that is released into a chute system and falls into 4 giant hoppers that shakes the coal onto a conveyor belt beneath the rail systems, it is then fed along the belts and comes out onto a giant mountain of coal that is used to fire the 4 boilers they have.

They use 8 million tons of coal per year at that plant alone. And coal use in this country averages to 20 pounds per person a year. Thats a lot of friggin coal!! ( I read everything they had in the breakroom about the plant and how it operates and the logistics and uses of the 4 different types of coal, it so interesting)

I went under the rail system, it was about 40 feet I would say, maybe more. I didnt expect to find anything alove, but on the first sub level there were chimney swifts and their babies with mud nests and thank good ness for them, or we woudl have been eaten alive by mosquitos.

the next level was the upper chute and hopper system, not much there, but the bottom level there were huge fat toads and fiddler crabs. The first time I went there, there were crabs crawling around, the next night, the crabs were gone and only the fiddle claws remained. My boss man said there were giant wharf rats down there but i didnt see any, didnt really WANT to...


the first night I worked with the riggers removing the old metal I beams and cross beams. The second night I worked with the surveyors, ( hubby volunteered me, said, she can hold the pole, lol) all the guys laughed, It didnt bother me because it was actually funny

from then on, I was everyones helper, worked with different people almost every night, ran a grinder for hours and hours, used a plasma arc to cut some stainless, practiced driving the lull and a fork lift..mostly just helped the guys. it was so much fun, I love working with people who treat you like you arent an idiot. at first the bossman made a face when he saw me, like he thought I was expecting to sit around and watch, but I showed him!!

he says there is a job 15 minutes from my house in ten days, and he says I have a job with him, I just have to hope he remembers... he was a little flaky, but in a good way.

oh, get this, I moved over a thousand pounds of rail clips by myself, in less than an hour, by hand.... at least I didnt have to clean the hoppers out, that was disguting and realy deep and there were spiders every where. big ugly ones and one bit me but it didnt really hurt, but if i had seen it, I probably wo uld have freaked out, as it was, the bugger just crawled up my pants leg and bit my thigh....

we worked 96 hours in 8 days and my feet are sore. Other than that, I just feel exhilirated.

I only had a disposable camera, so I have to have the pics put on a disc and I will send them to you

maria

 

[BooMerengue]

all the live long day...lol

okay, the job at the power plant was at a power plant. Its a coal fired plant called the Winyah Generating station. My gosh, you have never seen such a dirty person in your life! we all looked like coal miners after shift. I told hubby that I thought we looked like chimney floss

anyway, this is for anna--

I took pics for you sweetie we were replacing the rail support system that comes into the station, it was hard nasty remove and replace work. The demo was over in one day, then we built the same support system over again. It holds three or maybe 4, rail cars, totally filed with coal, that is released into a chute system and falls into 4 giant hoppers that shakes the coal onto a conveyor belt beneath the rail systems, it is then fed along the belts and comes out onto a giant mountain of coal that is used to fire the 4 boilers they have.

They use 8 million tons of coal per year at that plant alone. And coal use in this country averages to 20 pounds per person a year. Thats a lot of friggin coal!! ( I read everything they had in the breakroom about the plant and how it operates and the logistics and uses of the 4 different types of coal, it so interesting)

I went under the rail system, it was about 40 feet I would say, maybe more. I didnt expect to find anything alove, but on the first sub level there were chimney swifts and their babies with mud nests and thank good ness for them, or we woudl have been eaten alive by mosquitos.

the next level was the upper chute and hopper system, not much there, but the bottom level there were huge fat toads and fiddler crabs. The first time I went there, there were crabs crawling around, the next night, the crabs were gone and only the fiddle claws remained. My boss man said there were giant wharf rats down there but i didnt see any, didnt really WANT to...


the first night I worked with the riggers removing the old metal I beams and cross beams. The second night I worked with the surveyors, ( hubby volunteered me, said, she can hold the pole, lol) all the guys laughed, It didnt bother me because it was actually funny

from then on, I was everyones helper, worked with different people almost every night, ran a grinder for hours and hours, used a plasma arc to cut some stainless, practiced driving the lull and a fork lift..mostly just helped the guys. it was so much fun, I love working with people who treat you like you arent an idiot. at first the bossman made a face when he saw me, like he thought I was expecting to sit around and watch, but I showed him!!

he says there is a job 15 minutes from my house in ten days, and he says I have a job with him, I just have to hope he remembers... he was a little flaky, but in a good way.

oh, get this, I moved over a thousand pounds of rail clips by myself, in less than an hour, by hand.... at least I didnt have to clean the hoppers out, that was disguting and realy deep and there were spiders every where. big ugly ones and one bit me but it didnt really hurt, but if i had seen it, I probably wo uld have freaked out, as it was, the bugger just crawled up my pants leg and bit my thigh....

we worked 96 hours in 8 days and my feet are sore. Other than that, I just feel exhilirated, knowing I have a big fat check coming

I only had a disposable camera, so I have to have the pics put on a disc and I will send them to you

maria

Well, you could share them with all of us. Sounds pretty cool. I miss doing that kind of work. Not in a coal mine, but working w/ construction crews. When you work and don't slack the respect from the guys is a high all by itself.

 

[Maria2394]

Well, you could share them with all of us. Sounds pretty cool. I miss doing that kind of work. Not in a coal mine, but working w/ construction crews. When you work and don't slack the respect from the guys is a high all by itself.

hey Boo!!!

Of course Iw ill share them, just wasnt sure anyone else was interested in something like that

hmm, it wasnt at a coal mine, but there was plenty of coal around there. They just use it for fuel to generate electricity. The coal is brought in by the train load and they dump it into the chutes below the rail support system we replaced.

and you are so right about the guys. THey were all gathered around after shift this morning, we were getting each others phone numbers/contacts, and there was the usual "good job, men...etc.." I got a half-hug, and an atta-girl and a bunch of slaps on the back...my shoulders are bruised

I love it Boo, Iw ont lie. I spent years trying to understand why I liked that atmosphere, but I realized, I get attention. From men. I never got any from my dad... anyway, its good attention, not sexual... but I dont present myself like a hoochie mama, lol. I have seen women who do and they get NO respect, they rarely lift a finger.

I still have coal dust under my nails and it will take 2 more baths to get it out, probably. But, what I like best is the money. And then the exercise. I call shutdowns "bootcamp". I Lost 12 pounds. it feels good, ya know?

hugs to you, Dear Lady Boo

love you!!

marria

 

[Tzara]

I have lived such a boring life.

It's OK, though. I'm a boring guy. And boring doesn't mean unhappy. I just . . . I read some of the poems, the posts, particularly in this thread—Maria's last ones come to mind—and I just feel so vanilla and dorky.

One thing this place has done though, is help me find things to write about. That was always a hard thing for me, since nothing much has happened in my life. Nobody wants to read a poem or story about how I got someone's system up after a crash and they found their backups were no good. Even the people whose business I saved wouldn't want to. Shit, for that matter I wouldn't want to:

I move the yellow jumper to E1
and hold my breath. Press
the reboot switch. Hear the bird-
like chirp of life, caress
the foetal disk, so warm and live.​

Don't mean it's boring work, don't mean it's not important work. Just means it ain't interesting reading.

There's been two real helpful things here, though, for me. One is it gets me to write a lot. To write consistently, to write nearly every day. I turn out a lot of crap, but ever once in sometime out pops something better. Never know why or how to make it happen more often, but I'll take it. It's better than nothing.

The other thing is, that by reading you all's own work and comments and such, you make me think in more detail about my life. And, lo and behold, there have been a few things that have happened to me that I might write about. Things that made a difference to me. Things that changed my thinking. Bland middle class things, to be sure (though I prefer a classier naming phrase like "the subtly pervasive angst of the middle class"), but things that have meant something to me.

I plan to bore you in the future with stuff about the Korean alphabet, the Provo, Utah missionary suit warehouse, how to throw a spitball, and the Adventure of the Deaf Percussionist. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

And, Maria? I want a poem about chimney swifts. I love birds.

 

[Maria2394]

Tzara-

YOU are so far from boring, you just dont realize it. I truly admire your intelligence and your poetic ability and I for one, wuld love to read about your foetal disks. Sounds primordial, sort of sexy. The rise of the machines----grrrr

did you ever think to write about the evolution of computers or AI? that would be awesome, something most of us couldnt do because we dont have the knowledge. I bet you do!

and I will work onthat bird poem for ya



maria

 

[BooMerengue]

Tzara-

YOU are so far from boring, you just dont realize it. I truly admire your intelligence and your poetic ability and I for one, wuld love to read about your foetal disks. Sounds primordial, sort of sexy. The rise of the machines----grrrr

did you ever think to write about the evolution of computers or AI? that would be awesome, something most of us couldnt do because we dont have the knowledge. I bet you do!

and I will work onthat bird poem for ya



maria

I'm sorry. Its too early in the am and I've been up all night so in my own shy, ladylike way I'm just gonna come right out and say it...

What the fuck are foetal discs???

 

[Maria2394]

I'm sorry. Its too early in the am and I've been up all night so in my own shy, ladylike way I'm just gonna come right out and say it...

What the fuck are foetal discs???

Boo, I have no idea either. I googled them and found stuff about pregnancy. Then I googled God, and He has 622, 000, 000 pages on Google.

when I saw the term, foetal disk, I thought about nanotechnology, tiny living disk type things that can grow as they are needed. Of course, I live in my own little world, but its an intertesting one on occasion. I manage to entertain myself, lol


I hope Tzara has a "quickie" explanation, something I can understand, cause it will drive me nuts till I know what they are.



maria

 

[BooMerengue]

Boo, I have no idea either. I googled them and found stuff about pregnancy. Then I googled God, and He has 622, 000, 000 pages on Google.

when I saw the term, foetal disk, I thought about nanotechnology, tiny living disk type things that can grow as they are needed. Of course, I live in my own little world, but its an intertesting one on occasion. I manage to entertain myself, lol


I hope Tzara has a "quickie" explanation, something I can understand, cause it will drive me nuts till I know what they are.



maria

I think they're probably some programs just being born or something.. but what an awful term. why not New Disks? Too plebian, I guess

 

[Tzara]

I'm sorry. Its too early in the am and I've been up all night so in my own shy, ladylike way I'm just gonna come right out and say it...

What the fuck are foetal discs???

It's just a metaphor. I'll try and explain (though, of course, if you have to explain a metaphor, it is an ill-chosen one ):

I wrote this thinking about when I used to also work with hardware. Computers with multiple boards in them (processor, disk controller, tape controller, etc.) and which did not have integrated video. It has to do with how you used to diagnose problems when trying to bring up a computer that wouldn't start.

When you start a computer, it goes through a particular sequence of events, something like this:

1. The processor and memory are cleared and reset.
2. It points to a hard-wired location in memory and starts execution.
3. Usually, it will run some basic diagnostic programs to make sure the processor is functioning, that there are no memory faults, etc.
4. It will then run a program that gives it enough intelligence to talk to a device where the basic operating programs are. Usually in modern computers, this is a hard disk drive.
5. It then starts reading the operating system program from this device and executes it, which then starts to bring the computer up.

In the older computers I was thinking about, there is no video until sometime during this last step, so if you get a failure before that, you have very limited information about what is wrong. There might be some lights on the processor board that indicate which diagnostic is running, so that if it stops while running the memory diagnostic, for example, you would figure that you had a bad memory board and change that.

But once the diagnostics finished, you didn't get anything until the video drivers were loaded and the system could start to tell you what it was doing. So you would put your hand on the disk drive and wait to feel the heads start to move. It kind of feels like a heartbeat, since it is a rhythmic "pulse pulse pulse" feeling. That told you the system was starting to load the operating program and was starting to "come alive".

If you didn't get there, you probably either had a loose cable connecting the controller card to drive, or either the card or the drive were bad. If the drive is bad, all the data are lost. So feeling that thump thump thump meant that you could probably get the system back up without losing data.

 

[wildsweetone]

It's just a metaphor. I'll try and explain (though, of course, if you have to explain a metaphor, it is an ill-chosen one ):

I wrote this thinking about when I used to also work with hardware. Computers with multiple boards in them (processor, disk controller, tape controller, etc.) and which did not have integrated video. It has to do with how you used to diagnose problems when trying to bring up a computer that wouldn't start.

When you start a computer, it goes through a particular sequence of events, something like this:

1. The processor and memory are cleared and reset.
2. It points to a hard-wired location in memory and starts execution.
3. Usually, it will run some basic diagnostic programs to make sure the processor is functioning, that there are no memory faults, etc.
4. It will then run a program that gives it enough intelligence to talk to a device where the basic operating programs are. Usually in modern computers, this is a hard disk drive.
5. It then starts reading the operating system program from this device and executes it, which then starts to bring the computer up.

In the older computers I was thinking about, there is no video until sometime during this last step, so if you get a failure before that, you have very limited information about what is wrong. There might be some lights on the processor board that indicate which diagnostic is running, so that if it stops while running the memory diagnostic, for example, you would figure that you had a bad memory board and change that.

But once the diagnostics finished, you didn't get anything until the video drivers were loaded and the system could start to tell you what it was doing. So you would put your hand on the disk drive and wait to feel the heads start to move. It kind of feels like a heartbeat, since it is a rhythmic "pulse pulse pulse" feeling. That told you the system was starting to load the operating program and was starting to "come alive".

If you didn't get there, you probably either had a loose cable connecting the controller card to drive, or either the card or the drive were bad. If the drive is bad, all the data are lost. So feeling that thump thump thump meant that you could probably get the system back up without losing data.

two thoughts...

firstly, i am so gonna print this out when i've got some ink. you have a knack for explaining complex actions in simple language Tzara.

and secondly, there is definately something funny here when, with all the modern technology in the world, we still have to use our hand to feel if our machines are working right or not. okay my warped sense of humour. but it really is funny!

 

[RhymeFairy]

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi ~

Here and accounted for.

Signing out and heading to bed
for some much needed rest.

Ya'll have a great one ~

 

[vampiredust]

the mess that has been my life is slowly untangling, am finally getting things back together

 

[RhymeFairy]

the mess that has been my life is slowly untangling, am finally getting things back together

Doing the Happy Dance PLUS the funky monkey for ya.
Am glad things are turning around. Sometimes all that is required is ... time.

Peace my friend ~