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imaginary_zephyr
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Gender: Female
Interests: I am a task oriented unstructured person. That means I like to get the job done, but I want to do it my way.Consider this your invitation to visit katyandnick.com (it would make my day if you left a comment)
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/15/2005
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| Where is John's profile pic of the stick figure and the ice-cream cone?
I miss it.
Not a good sign. I've become nostalgic about Xanga.
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| I got out of the plane to check the fuel in the tanks. I had just finished my solo short cross-country. I hopped up to the wing, opened up the gas cap, and stuck my measuring stick in the tank holding a finger over the top. I heard a metallic clang. I pulled it out. Nothing. Then panic hit me. I tried the other tank. Same result. How low on my fuel reserves had I gone?
Earlier in the day I had started out on that flight. I had filed my flight plan and talked to the South Bend tower and triangulated my position. Then the tower called me up and told me I was getting very close to air space designated for model rocketry. I corrected my flight path. Then the tower contacted me again. This time sounding snippy and aggravated with me. They gave me a vector to follow. I looked at my sectional. How would I ever get to Rensselaer if I didn't know where I was? It was somewhat with awe that I looked down and saw the stone quarry that was one of my visual way points. I landed in at my first stop and looked over and saw that the wind sock was pointing in the wrong direction for what I had landed. I was scared. I had to fly the plane back, but was I capable of doing it safely? And now, here I was holding an empty fuel measuring device, suddenly deeply afraid at what I had put myself through.
When I took SCUBA class there was one important task that needed to be completed in order to get certified. I had to go down, carrying my gear, to the bottom of the deep end of the pool. The instructor gave instructions of what I was to do, "find your regulator, put on your mask, clear it, put on your tanks and Buoyancy compensator." I went down with him, and tried. I couldn't clear my mask, I couldn't breathe. My chest tightened. I reached for his secondary regulator. We came back to the surface. "I panicked" I said. "I was starting to hyperventilate." "I know" he said. "Do you want to try it again?" Yes, I did. They had told us that if we didn't pass this task tonight we would fail the class. We would not get another chance. This time I went down and did the whole thing with my eyes closed. I did it perfectly, without panic.
It was an unusually warm March day. The sky was clear and the sky so very blue. It was a windy day and I was leaning my motorcycle into it. A gust of wind throttling over the open stubbled corn field pushed me into the oncoming traffic lane. Ahead the road dropped down a hill.
In front of me Nick waved his hand emphatically for me to get back to our lane. I saw the oncoming black pickup truck come up over the rise. I leaned on my right hand and willed the motorcycle to move back into the proper lane. I decided right then and there to return home. I continued to crab into the wind until we stopped at an intersection. I honked my horn to get Nick's attention. I thumped my chest and then pointed down the road the way we'd come.
It was too windy for me to handle my motorcycle that day. 'Why was I riding on a day like today?' I thought. I enjoyed warm, sunny, balmy weather rides--especially with the smell of grapes ready for harvest. That was the magic of riding. I rode scared all the way back home. Thankful, I set the kick-stand down in the garage.
A healthy dose of fear keeps you safe.
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| On a Global scale who are the five people alive today who could be recognized by the most people? Not being famous in only China, Brasil, or Canada, but encompassing the whole Earth. We'll call it earthfame just to keep it snappy and memorable.
 This Huffington post article asks: "Is Obama the most famous person in the world?" I expect that because of Obama's broad appeal, the stiff presidential race he ran, and the historic election he won, Obama has mega earthfame. I think heads-of-state in general get a significance boost on the earthfame scale.
U. S. movies, television and the music industry churn out all sorts of celebrities such as George Clooney, Ophra Winfrey, and Michael Jackson. Being an ego-centric resident of the United States of America, I'll have to consider the billions of people that don't speak English as their first language and haven't been affected by North American media. Furthermore, is there a media personality that appeals so widely across cultures as to achieve earthfame?
Having recently watched the summer Olympics hosted by China, Michael Phelps is an easy name for an American to suggest. His achievement of winning more medals to date than any other olympic athlete in a single set of games promoted him instantly to the stratosphere of fame in the USA. Seeing as he was an athlete from the USA, and I live in the USA, my judgement of how high his earthfame is suspect. Based on this I am inclined to defer to Billynho and suggest his top three athletes for consideration: (1) Tiger Woods. (2) David Beckham. (3) Ronaldinho. The question remains, are athletes, media personalities or political leaders more deserving of being on the list?
I say toss one to the list of famous athletes. On my trip to China in 2002 David Beckham was a common ground between my new Chinese friends and me. Though I must admit the only reason I knew who he was because of the movie "Bend it Like Beckham."
I recently surfed across a forum thread discussing this issue. Shining Arcanine suggested this list:
1) Pope Benedict XVI
2) George W. Bush
3) Osama Bin Laden
4) Saddam Hussein
5) Bill Gates
Shining Arcanine suggested that list in 2006, and perhaps would update it if given the chance. Nevertheless, I think this list is worth considering. As the head of the Catholic church, I'll agree the Pope as a position is well known. What is less certain for me is whether Pope Benedict XVI is as famous as his predecessor Pope John Paul II.
Osama Bin Laden made this list because he claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks, for which his name received a lot of airtime in the United States, and because of the world-wide fame of those attacks probably elsewhere too.
Bill Gates is a debatable choice for me. He is called the richest man in the world. With that title it is possible that he has a lot of earthfame. However, I think that in many parts of the world his name has little need to be mentioned, and very possibly is an unknown.
Who do you think are the five most famous people in the world?
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When I googled my name this morning I came across this website that was using a picture I had uploaded to the Stock Photo Exchange. I knew people had downloaded my picture of the wedding bouquet but I didn't know where it had been used. I was giddy with excitement upon seeing it. Sweet!
I took the picture while at a wedding in Virginia.
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| I read this at forum and it cracked me up. I thought you might like to read it too.
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"I usually can differentiate between an Australian accent and a British accent. To my American ears, the Aussies speak with a distinct twang and a “sing-song” cadence; contract their words a lot more than Brits and Americans do, and use words and phrases that are uniquely Australian. I’ve encountered several Americans, though, who can’t tell the difference. Nor are they aware that there are many regional accents in the UK, apart from the "Queen's English", "Eliza Doolittle's English", and Scottish brogue (which invariably gets confused with Irish, and vice versa). It all depends on your level of exposure to foreign accents. Unfortunately, our media exposure to UK & Australian accents are limited to token characters on network sitcoms and motion picture generalizations. (Cable and dish subscribers have a wider selection: BBC America; Ab-Fab and Monty Python reruns on Comedy Central; CNN; the Croc Hunter; and MTV). Also, quite frankly, many of us Americans just aren’t too worldly (we tend to be a little too self-absorbed, if you haven't noticed), and so we naturally assume that if it sounds like a Brit, then it must be a Brit. (Of course I'm generalizing, so don't freak, fellow Americans)."
"On the other hand, I have trouble recognizing differences in Australian and New Zealand accents. I took a tour through Europe several years back, and traveled with a group comprised of Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and South Africans. When I mentioned to my new Aussie friends that I couldn’t tell the difference between their accent and the New Zealanders, they acted all offended and protested, “We do NOT sound like the Kiwis!!!” They proceeded to give me a brief lesson on the differences, but I still had trouble differentiating between the two. In turn, my Aussie friends told me that they couldn’t differentiate between Americans and Canadians. I gave them a few pointers, but they still had trouble telling the difference. (As a side note, it was quite humorous hearing the Aussies and Kiwis trade barbs about each other – all in good fun though, despite it getting quite heated and off-color at times. When the Aussies and Kiwis egged the American and Canadian contingents to go at it, the Canucks had a lot of ammunition, but we Americans could barely come up with anything, until a fellow American cracked, “How can you expect us to talk about the Canadians? Until this tour, we didn’t know such a thing existed)."
"As for the South Africans in our group, there was a couple who sounded British (RP) (and at first I thought they were), but the other South Africans had a very distinct Dutch inflection in their speech."
Ah, I do love my Canadian friends, really I do. :) But it is true, I know so little about Canada other than being to Toronto, and the Canadian side of the falls. I haven't a clue who your current prime minister is though (do I get points for knowing you have a prime minister and not a president?)
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