I’ve gained a real admiration for Neil Young over the last few years. When I was younger and he was still more visible and active in his career I was totally not interested in him. His music seemed too quaint and conventional. And I just didn’t “get” his voice. I was a serious New Wave fan in my teens, and then went into electronic music very early on when it was still mostly industrial. I preferred cutting edge and was into image.

But now I totally dig ol’ Neil. I especially admire the way he is allowing his age and career to run a natural course – he remains very modest, and doesn’t try to overcompensate for getting older. He’s still active career-wise, but isn’t desperately trying to hang on to rock-star status. He seems to be staying true to himself.

I listen more carefully to his lyrics now and think they are brilliant, and now that I understand the greater context in which they were written better, I am even more impressed. I appreciate his contribution and influence to popular culture a lot now. I especially love his early stuff

I heard a story on CBC about how his childhood home in northern Ontario is a bit of a mecca for his fans, who regularly show up at the door of the people now living there asking to see where Neil grew up. Apparently one day an incognito Bob Dylan dropped by to check it out. It’s cool to know Bob Dylan admired him enough to make that kind of pilgrimage.

There are other conventional artists I’m rediscovering too. I guess I've always done that to a certain extent. I haven’t fully embraced conventional music exactly, but I’m glad that I'm beyond musical snobbishness and can appreciate it on a new level that I never could before.
 

• Blueberries!  (little blue bursts of scrumptious goodness!)
• Sundays
• Fluffy dance-oriented pop music
• A very helpful co-worker who has taken on a huge chunk of my work that I didn't really enjoy anyway
• Making plans to find a new home for Sept. 1st
• Embracing my right to say "No"

Over the years since I was a little girl myself, my mom has often spoken about her childhood during and after the second World War in Germany. Now that she's losing her short-term memory to Alzheimer's, she's re-living a lot of her childhood experiences and has been talking about it more.

One of her most significant memories of childhood was during the war when her family had to seek shelter from the bombings in the local palace (Wolfsgarten) and live there for the duration of the war.

Her home town, Darmstadt, was one of the most heavily bombed German cities during the war. It wasn't politically or industrially important or anything -- it was just in the unfortunate position of having been one of the only decent-sized cities left that hadn't been bombed.

Very few families in the city had their fathers with them. They had all long since been conscripted. My mom's father was a telecommunications specialist and was holed up in some secret location on the North Sea in a communications bunker. Luckily, a safe location, but so far away. That left his wife and four small kids to fend for themselves, and find ways to avoid the bombings. I can't imagine how it must feel to be a young mom with four kids during the war, not knowing if your husband is ever coming back and having to feed and protect your family alone! What tremendous good fortune to have a local princess take you under her wing!

The city was the residence of the "Ducal House of Hesse and by Rhine". Prince Ludwig and his English wife Princess Margaret lived there. I don't know much about the Prince (presumably he was off at war someplace), but my mom has vivid memories of Princess Margaret.

During the war, the royal palace became a shelter for many families that had to flee the inner city, including my mom's family. The princess became kind of a protector of the city's families. Her whole property became their home. They filled all of her rooms. They grew vegetables, did laundry, and took care of each other.

Everything I've read about Princess Margaret shows her generosity and kindness. It must have been extremely difficult for her to be living in an "enemy" land, in potential danger of being killed by her former countrymen and their allies. Yet she was totally devoted to her new adopted people, which I suspect was just part of her natural humanitarianism.

My mom's first memories were of living in a palace! She was just a toddler when she first came there, and apparently was the youngest little girl, and got a lot of attention because of it. She says she remembers that the princess' dogs would always hear the bombers approaching long before the sirens went off, so they'd have a head start to get ready to go into the bomb shelter.

As my mom began talking about living at the palace again recently, I realized what a remarkable person Princess Margaret must have been. The fact that my mom remembers her so fondly and vividly when she can hardly remember anything else in her past is very significant to me. I began to be more curious about who this woman was. I even felt compelled to write to her living children and let them know what a positive impact their mother made.

I found an expert on European royal families and contacted him. At the time, I didn't know exactly who the princess was (my mom couldn't remember her name), and actually suspected that my mom's memories might be faulty. But he confirmed with me who she was, and even found this wonderful little video of her taken just after the war:

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Seeing her here with her dogs and her children (four of whom she adopted) makes me see what a generous, caring woman she must have been, and I can see how she might have made such an impression on my mom, and been a surrogate mother to so many.

I also realize that I have been at that palace and walked through the gardens (which are now public) in previous visits to Germany. A sad but interesting side note to the story is that when Margaret was about to marry Ludwig (in England), Ludwig's bother (the Grand Duke and head of that branch of the royal family at the time) and his pregnant wife and three children got on a plane from Germany to fly to the wedding. The plane crashed and killed them all. I have been to their grave site too. How sad for Margaret and her new husband to start a marriage under such tragic circumstances. It's so amazing what this woman endured.

Working at the hospital has been such an awesome experience so far. I love being surrounded by busy people doing important things.

The hospital complex is huge. There are six or seven separate buildings, each with multiple floors, and all of them connected by hallways. It's really easy to get lost!

It's amazing to see so many people bustling about being useful! Everything from surgeons to administrators to food services, store clerks, electricians and probably over a hundred other jobs. It's like a small city, and everyone has an important role.

To get to the coffee shop, I have to walk through the Children's Hospital. I can't walk through there without my eyes welling up! I can't get over the fact that there are so many sick and dying children within its walls. It makes me feel very sad. Sometimes I see parents carrying their new infants into the waiting rooms, and I feel so sad that they have to experience such worry over their babies.

Today I passed the tiniest child (maybe about 5yrs) in her pyjamas, with a bald head, pushing a huge 6-foot tall rack of IV equipment that was attached to her through the hallway. It was so incredibly heartbreaking to know that such an innocent little person has to suffer so horribly with a deadly disease!

It was heartwrenching for me, but the little girl had a huge grin on her face.
I haven't stopped thinking about her.

Originally posted on silentstar.vox.com

My first day at work was pretty damn alright! I am super looking forward to getting settled in. I share a big office with 3 women, and they all seem really great. It's really laid-back and friendly, not very heirarchical.

It'll be pretty interesting working in an office that is 99% female. It's the opposite of ironic that the only male is the IT guy!

Walking through the halls of the hospital, I couldn't help but feel like the goofy blonde doctor from Scrubs.

The person who had my desk before me was an office-supply hoarder. I had to bring armloads of pens, post-it notes, paper clips, etc. back to the supply area so that I could de-clutter and make enough room to work! I prefer a minimalist desk.

Some particularly happy things about my day:
- The weather was amazing -- sleeveless shirt all day!
- My photo ID turned out nicely. :)
- Queen Elizabeth Park is 2 blocks away and is a great place to eat my lunch, listen to music, and/or take walks.

Overall, it feels really great to be gainfully employed again, especially at a job I can be proud of. I'm not sure if I can even express how much I'm looking forward to my first paycheck!...and the steady flow thereafter!

Originally posted on silentstar.vox.com

I love this video of the evolution of women's fashion!
Even if you don't understand French, it's still really fun to watch.

[This started out as a short blurt, but it got out of hand and turned into a little essay.]

"Green" is the new *Barf*!

The word "green" is starting to make my stomach churn. It's time to retire it. People should go back to using more accurate descriptive terms, such as "ecologically responsible" or "environmentally friendly", even if they are a mouthful, and be prepared to elaborate on it.

"Green" is too much of a trendy marketing buzzword. Sure, it's great that being ecologically responsible has become a marketable sales quality. But reducing that quality to the word "green" prevents the mind from fully processing its meaning.

Advertisers know how impressionable the general public is. The more people hear about the something that's supposed to be good, the more they want want it. This is especially true if it has a strong, clear, appealing identity. That's why branding is so incredibly important and powerful in business.

I've read that an average person needs to see a company logo, image or name 6 to 16 times before they even retain the fact that they've seen it. Multiply that few times before they even take the company seriously as a potential business to buy from. And make sure to keep that logo/image/name in front of them continually if you expect them to maintain the trust and connection to the company. The investment into this kind of promotion is huge for most successful businesses, which is why many companies protect their copyrights so fiercely.

So imagine the convenience and savings of being able to appropriate an established, extremely powerful, effective, universally appealing brand that is basically free to use for your own business! The brand: "Green"!

A little advice: If your company's brand is not recognized by most people, make it green, and it instantly becomes attractive. And if you want to be really irresistible, create a little green leaf logo to stamp on your product so that people don't even have to think too hard about it. If you think no one likes or respects you, talk about how green you are, and you'll be more popular and admired. If your company is a few decades old, update your image and gain a huge new youthful market base by going green. If you didn't want to jump on the green bandwagon out of principle, well now you just look a bit silly, don't you? And really, if you're not green, you must be totally out of touch anyway...everyone knows you are constantly being judged by how many green products and services you buy, so you'd better have a lot of them and make sure everyone knows it.

"Green" is just a brand.

One website I found describes a brand like this:

"It is the company's name, how that name is visually expressed through a logo, and how that name and logo extend throughout an organization's communications. A brand is also how the company is perceived by its customers — the associations and inherent value they place on your business. A brand is also a kind of promise. It is a set of fundamental principles as understood by anyone who comes into contact with a company."

And please don't mention that there are varying levels of "green", because that just opens a can of worms. A good brand should be "strong and clear". It works much better for our industries if we just keep it simple and don't encourage people to think too hard about it.  

...I realize we humans like to reduce everything to its simplest terms, and that we can't avoid leaving some kind of footprint, but maybe it's time for industries to start spelling it out and taking more responsibility.

Originally posted on silentstar.vox.com

Pick an artist, and using ONLY SONG TITLES from only that artist, cleverly (preferably) answer these questions. This is harder than it seems!

*****

ADDITIONAL RULE: You cannot use the same artist I did, or duplicate song titles even if they were performed by another artist.

1. Are you a male or female: I'm Just A Girl
2. Describe yourself: Super Trouper
3. How do you feel about yourself: As Good As New
4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: Should I Laugh or Cry
5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: Kisses of Fire
6. Describe your current location: Mamma Mia
7. Describe where you want to be: Happy Hawaii
8. Your best friend is: She's My Kind of Girl
9. Your favorite color is: Honey, Honey
10. You know that: The Winner Takes it All
11. What's the weather like: Here Comes the Rain
12. If your life was a television show what would it be called: Knowing Me, Knowing You
13. What is life to you: I Wonder
14. What is the best advice you have to give: People Need Love
15. If you could change your name what would it be: Chiquitita

Originally posted on silentstar.vox.com