Meeting people

I love people. I love listening to people tell me their stories, I love talking to people...maybe less so sharing mine but it's all the same. Doesn't matter if it's a streetwalker in Brisbane who seemed to have s0omething going on in her eyes that caught my attention or the guy sitting next to me at my wine bar where there are NO strangers, I just have to know. This being said, I'm sort of reserved. I feel like most of the people who are people persons like me have less of a consideration to what other people are thinking or how they are coming across...or more likely that they just care less. Whichever way it is, the fact remains that I am often stymied into silence or smiling and nodding because I am afraid to seem as foolish as I think I will come off as.

Now most of you are saying, is this our Rhiannon? Our Rhiannon who does pretty much what she believes and thinks all the time and marches to not her own drummer but her own jazz combo? Yes, yes it is. Usually if you will notice in conversation with me (Tammy, Dad, and Stu you don't count so just hush) I don't share too much personal data. I've been working on changing that over the last several years as that ONE big life-changing event brought to my attention that this unfortunately has the side-effect of concealing things which should be publicly aired and mended. Anyway, back to the point.

So for my occupation, I very specifically am in a position where I speak with new people all the time and I like doing that. I like the small social interactions and the surface discussions, it's just those that require something more soulful to be bared that I shy from . What I think is that these soul-interactions and their relative frequency is actually coming to fore more because of the internet and the changing, immediate ways in which we are now communicating. Doesn't make sense? Think of it this way. When you snail mail wrote your lover who was gone to war, did you want to waste his time on the vaguaries of your existence, and waste his mental space on the whimsy of your mood? Probably not. You thought things out a little bit more, because you wouldn't be able to just take back what you said or change it for clarification two seconds later. When calling long-distance was costly, did you move a zillion miles away from those you love, and then have a spat over nothing via an instant messenger that was really all built on a misunderstanding due to the impersonal nature of IMing? Or one of my personal favorites, did you decide you knew your soul friend without ever meeting them or actually speaking with them and all your communications were digital?

Hardly. These communicative tools (that's what they are, people, just remember that) were created and have helped us get things done and simultaneously procrastinate, and keep and make our relationships stronger. But what they've also done is allow many people like me who get apprehensive when on too personal footing have a little crutch that they can use to keep from having to give up too much information and too much of their little souls. So all around us, especially those in technical fields, people have these strange relationships that are absolutely something new. E-friends are a classification in and of themselves, akin to pen pals but often much more deeply rooted and definitely more frequent in contact, but often lacking that basal mutual trust as the shared experiences just aren't there. I have some e-friends I've literally been talking to over a decade whom I've never met and don't know if I intend to. They know a lot about the details of me, but without those base shared experiences and the trial of just face-to-face communication I wouldn't say that they know my soul.

Now, those things being said I'll expound upon the virtues and usefulness of e-friends and electronic communications and tools for communication and relationships. But just right now I am feeling lonely, with my soulpieces far away, and let me think on this.

Partial mystery solved....

As many of you are aware, my sassylassy at thatoneawesomecompany dot come address has gotten numerous messages for someone other than me. I had thought for some time that they were all for the same person but come to find out they are not. Well, at least once I found that person she denies the more interesting ones and I have no probable reason to disbelieve her.

Sigh. I really wanted to know who this person with the MUCH MORE interesting life than mine own was....tant pis, peut-être un autre fois...

The Taxman Cometh

My name is Rhiannon Rawling, and I like numbers.

So when I was in school, I thought 1) I sucked at math and 2) I hated math. Come to find out once I started Physics my junior year I love things that make sense, and abstraction in the realm of abstraction never does to me. I just always wanted to know why and how, not just 'here nyou go, this is how it is.' There has to be some grounding in conceivable reality and then it's clear as mud. Not saying I am elegant in my thinking, nor that this is unusual, merely that it explains...

....why I might be the only one who likes to do taxes. I like pulling my file out and adding up the numbers and filling them in. It just is a sense of accomplishment to make all the little numbers play together to equal one of my favorite things...money. Well, favorites as a useful tool to get the things I really like, you know, like kibble.

Social sites as networking tools

It interests me a mite too much how possibly useful networking sites might be to companies now that they have evolved past MySpace. It has been documented again and again how inter-generationally Facebook is being used, and now with Twitter augmenting our blogosphere...the sheer opportunities out there are endless.

Some companies are already well taking advantage of these tools, articles are being written and professional marketers the world over are examining new ways to network themselves and their clients best with these tools and still maintain the confidentiality and privacy required to operate business effectively. What really interests me about this is how it also builds accountability into the system. Way back when I was in school, (I'd say get off my lawn but I live in the desert) we learned about how free-market capitalism thrives by having the social needs of the populace taken care of by the various religious organizations, special interest organizations, and yes, by companies taking care of their employees. We saw that fall apart time and again, and the government stepping in to fill that role...regardless of the country.

Now, I wonder. We have a tool which allows us to easily communicate with one another and to large groups of people quickly, almost instantaneously. We saw this used throughout the last election here in the US to disseminate vital information and completely useless information moment to moment. (While it is interesting to me how much Cindy McCain's ensembles cost, I can't say I felt it was useful election information) Companies now are doing this, and being held accountable by it. Most obviously, the individuals, companies and organizations which donated to Prop 8 in California were called out by a group of social networkers. This leads me to believe that this sort of communication can be used as the converse of this and with the organization itself promoting itself and its thoughts and its beliefs (look, if a corporation has nearly the same legal rights as a person anyway, this isn't much of a stretch) rather than the pithy one-line 'corporate culture' statement of yore.

While I don't look to see too many taking part in a grand diaspora of information...it would be to their advantage to post things relevant to their sectors and get a following of people interested in their product and moreover the solutions/advantages that it can offer. Looking forward to new developments, as always.

Alcohol-free fun

I decided to give up drinking for awhile, no, not 'I'll never drink again, I can't believe I did that to myself!' But just 'Hey, I think it's time for a good body detox, ingest less meaningless calories, and spend less money on something I don't need.' So this weekend was my first over-weekend of it, and I think it went smashingly.

Friday night just stayed in and watched a couple girlie movies (yes, Boogie Nights counts as girlie) and was going to go over to a girlfriend's house and hang out but she was basking in me-time and I wasn't going to interrupt that for all the tea in China. Little desire to socially drink anything, although the beautiful tawny port that I had gotten myself to imbibe in over Superbowl was waving at me a little bit. Not too strongly though, so yay!

Saturday daytime was FULL! Went hiking in the morning, Silly Mountain with Erin and Orion and his sniffer was in overdrive. Such a shock, I know. It's just gorgeous weather around here, a bit chilly but the sun is shining in overdrive and I could still hike in long pants and shirtsleeves so that is good enough for me. Then to the puppy park with a picnic lunch, Orion got humped by a strange Shiba Inu and was none too pleased about it. Home for a nap then futzing around getting laundry and such done before I went over to some friends' for a party. Fantastic party, danced until the wee hours to everything from some good oldies, some swing, techno and trance, 80's kitsch...you name it we had it. Amazing what iPods and iPhones can be used for now. They had a hookup into their sound system so we all just had a turn as the night went on. I brought a couple bottles of 'kid's wine,' sparkling apple and sparkling grape and was a happy little camper. Came home and crash landed.

Sunday got up, made a quiche (and yes I admit thought about how phenom it would be with one of my mimosas or hibiscuses) then went over to the Asymmetric offices to finish a product photo shoot for my solar panels to homogenize their looks, didn't get home til nearly 7, wolfed some food down then went to see Coraline 3D. It was good....but, I guess not as spectacular for me as some people thought it was. I thought it was really neat and if it hadn't been hyped so much I probably would have enjoyed it more as I would have had lesser expectations. Meh. Came home, worked with the images digitally, sent a couple work emails and crashland. That was my weekend, I'm curious how much time will pass before it is no longer a habit to have a drink here and there all the time......

Video

So the video is very much a work in progress. My theme is/was/were a search all over for the beauties of the Great Barrier Reef. I did the intro today by the pool in my wetsuit with my finnies on, and started putting it all together. I chose 'Octopus' Garden' by The Beatles as the music doing a voice-over for the rest.

I'm a little frustrated though...I had these visions in my head of something marvelous...and it just looks...common. Sigh. Keep working tomorrow.

Drug-laced dreams

I've had a cold for what seems like forever, but it's really just that it keeps coming and going. Fine, I can handle that. Well I had a fever again last night so on top of my Mucinex with sudafed in it (maximum strength time-release, woo hoo!) I decided to take Tylenol Cold PM. Well, I knew the risk I was running...any of those make me loopy and if I don't pass out quickly the probability of bed spins and basically hallucinations is high. That's okay, usually that's kinda fun.

Last night I had none of these. I watched some Firefly, or at least had it on with my eyes open but I can't really say I was watching it...then decided to just give up the ghost and sleep. Well that worked well for awhile, but then I heard voices. Now, when I say 'heard' I don't mean like heard with my ears. That's the strange part. I mean, they were parrying and whirling around one another in my head like the dancing hippopotamuses from Fantasia. What I was actually listening to was my roomates having a conversation, but I didn't grasp that til this morning when I woke up tittering at the images in my head.

Fun times, fun times.

iPhone. Stupid annoying frustrating angry-making iPhone you have....waitaminnit. I like my iPhone: I love love love the interface, love the apps, love the ease of use. So what's my beef?

The service. I've been with Sprint always, and while their customer service leaves so incredibly much to be desired that really whenever I think of poor customer service they are my template. However, the actual phone service was always functional to me. Few dropped calls, and fewer disturbances once connected. Now, with my iPhone, I get feedback all the time, echoes, (if you've ever listened to yourself talk on the phone, it is categorically an unpleasant experience) and it feels like I drop one of every four calls. So AT&T, is it your end of the bargain that is not being upheld?

Step it up, I am getting angry.

Dinner Parties and Success

I had the exceptional honor of being invited this past Saturday to a friends' place for a dinner party. The food, the conversation, the hosts...all were exceptional. I've come to realize that with these people, there really is no possibility but that they will succeed and everyone they are with with always have a fantastic time.

There seem to be these people in the world as rare glimmering points of light: these people who just are effusive and generous in their affections and act as beacons of light to the rest of us. To me, these seem to be the most successful of all. This will be my homage to the light-bringers of the world, the extroverts or at least those who act in that manner. This will be my thank-you.

Thank you for sharing your hearts. I've never figured out if it is that you know what it is like to be lonely, and that is why you are so open with your affections, or if it is simply that you know a thing or two without having had the pain but whatever it is, thank you.

Thank you for learning the nesting arts. You light-bringers always seem to have warm and comfortable surroundings and manners that engage and relax. There is a vitality to your nests like a heartbeat that encapsulates those you take within and make calm.

Thank you for the goodies. Okay, this one is mainly because my palate and tummy are a great deal of how I think and perceive things, but thank you for always knowing that a hungry soul sometimes has a hungry body as well that resists icky manna. Yes, icky.

Thank you for making each individual in the crowd believe he or she are special and especially necessary to the success of the gathering. This might seem to be an encompassing comment rather than a specific tell of what you do, but it is not. You take the time each time with each guest to introduce them to the others in your nest, and to make sure that they know they are special to you by word and action.

This is a form of love, a facet of care that not many can be capable.