HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_century

That was THEN. NOW, we have a fresh calendar.
Have a look at the WIKI article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011
Yes, a long backward look is a valuable exercise - but not while driving or kissing. Look back to the end of the first decade of the first millennium as measured by the somewhat wacky and politicized Gregorian calendar. Asian, Mayan and Hebrew calendars are a lot different.
This New Year marks a new year and fresh decade.
There may be appointments, events and plans marked out on your 2011 calendar. Only the passing of time will tell what really happens.
Many people begin a new year with resolutions. We did the same with the new decade 10 years ago and tried really hard to make things better as we entered the new millennium.
Look at the new year as you would a reformatted hard drive or flash card. Many things will happen without your help or concern. Other things are the direct result of your choices.
Choose LIGHT. Light is knowledge, understanding and faith. Gathering knowledge, experiencing life and encountering new people enriches and broadens your life. Light will win in the new year! Be the light in a dark room. Teach anyone who will listen and live your faith.
Choose LOVE. Love has been defined, blasted for being too vague to really handle and yet I think that it is love that is the real matter that holds the universe together. When microscopes get strong enough to get to the root of the nature of matter - the root energy (matter) at the core of everything will be little hearts and smiley faces.) It certainly holds and heals our hearts and, when shared, is the healing energy that can help others.
Choose to make a DIFFERENCE. By helping, guiding or making a difference in one life you will make a difference in your own. You can ignore pain or enter into a person's loss and support them. You can set your hands to useful work and bring stability and joy into your own life.
This last year I learned how to stand correctly so as not to bring strain and injury to my legs and back. I've been standing since 1949 and doing it wrong all the time. Need help understanding how to stand up? Let me know.
I hope to encounter people wanting to know about photography and calligraphy. Common interests are key and maybe someone will bring a new skill or interest into my life.
That can't be put on a calendar - but it would be nice if it happened early in the year. We'll just see.
BTW - my new business cards do have the handy/dandy calendar people seem to appreciate. It will be interesting to see what goes on. After all, it is a time to drop the old ball, old acorn and old pickle (New Year's traditions) and leave your hands empty to pick up something else. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

A SHARED CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Not only on Christmas Day, but until I see You face to face may I live my life this way:


Just like the baby Jesus
I ever hope to be,
Resting in Your loving arms
Trusting in Your sovereignty.


And like the growing Christ child
In wisdom daily learning,
May I ever seek to know You
With my mind and spirit yearning.


Like the Son so faithful
Let me follow in Your light,
Meek and bold, humble and strong
Not afraid to face the night.


Nor cowardly to suffer
And stand for truth alone,
Knowing that Your kingdom
Awaits my going home.


Not afraid to sacrifice
Though great may be the cost,
Mindful how You rescued me
From broken-hearted loss.


Like my risen Savior
The babe, the child, the Son,
May my life forever speak
Of who You are and all You've done.


So while this world rejoices
And celebrates Your birth,
I treasure You, the greatest gift
Unequaled in Your worth.

 I long to hear the same words
That welcomed home Your Son,
"Come, good and faithful servant,"
Your Master says, "Well done."


And may heaven welcome others
Who will join with me in praise
Because I lived for Jesus Christ
Not only Christmas Day   -- Mary Fairchild

Tuning In For The Holidays And Beyond

'Tis the Season!



Following a too hot summer we have fallen into the deep freeze.


Wooly worms and an overabundance of leaves and acorns have foretold a chilling winter. Some prophecy - it is here.


We may or may not dash through the snow - but the sleigh will have the top up and heater on.


The other part of dashing is from one warm place to another. These are definitely 3-dog and 4-cat nights.


I am sure this raises the spirits at the electric and gas company offices and, along with the increase in gasoline prices, sees them merrily grinching themselves into our wallets.


A few seasonal (and beyond) treats might be worth mentioning.


One delight is for Time-Warner cable clients. Switch to the Free Movies On Demand (free, my &%$!) and select the Yule Log. There are a couple of other choices, but this continuously running feed shows a comfy fire, plays Christmas music and even has the roar and crackle of real wood burning. Other choices have snow falling, but that is not the reason I moved to North Carolina.


Two other choices for grand music are the radio channels available through Napster and iTunes.


Although the stations are available all year and offer just about any kind of music, their holiday stations are grand.


Just log in, go to RADIO and select your station. Then you can minimize the website and enjoy any music you like.


I am impressed that iTunes radio offers exclusive "Adagio" and "Mezzo" stations. If that does not suit you they will please you with Taylor Swift or any number of performers representing every genre.


Now,at the very least, you can be uncomfortably cold - but have great music in your ears. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

SPIRIT REUNION

For years the sculpture has stood as a testament to a life tragically cut too short. The love of parents for any child cannot be measured, but sometimes it can be eloquently expressed.

Historic Oakwood Cemetery has been a favorite photographic haunt of mine for decades.
Angels and angles paired with light, texture and tone offer many opportunities for poignant and powerful images. Grave markers in soft rows and small clusters marking little family histories, some so very telling and sad give anyone a chance to feel a sense of place, the impermanence of a lifespan and quiet dignity within these grounds.
On a secluded hilltop hovers a marble angel. This image is loosely anchored to the earth and her face and hands cradle the image of a boy's face.
The angel's soft gaze and the hands that cradle him evoke love and loss.
Her ropy hair is a testament to the talent of the sculptor and there is little damage from the constant dirt and acid rain.
I have hundreds of images of this sculpture and have been there on bright days, wet days, before sunrise and after the sun has rested well behind the image.
This memorial is there to mark the life and passing of Wade Edwards, the son of Elizabeth and John Edwards, whose lives have been observed, judged and made so very public. In my opinion, no matter what they experienced in the past few years, their ability to honor and esteem their child's life was always their mark of true character.
With her passing, Elizabeth's remains will join those of her son.
She lives now beyond her tortured body and in the gentle hands of the Eternal.
Cancer never wins - the human spirit and soul are the true victors.
Elizabeth's interment in Oakwood may create, for a while, a pilgrimage of admirers wishing to pay their respects as best they can.
Maybe the smaller tokens of memory for Wade around the sculpture will be moved for a while, maybe the reflecting bench will be moved and surely the grass will suffer.
Come Spring, things will be back to normal and the little flowers in the plot will burst forth and the little turn in the gravel road will be more quiet.
I will leave the space alone for a while.
I will think about the angel, its creation and my thought that the hands that hold Wade's head are modeled after those of his mother.
I will also think that, in a far more wonderful place, the forever young Wade will cradle his mother's weary head, welcoming her into an eternal, celestial embrace.
© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

reFRESH In The Fall

The Hubble image at  the head of this post is just one of many recent images that raises our eyes and consciousness to know that we are a part of something universally grand.

Schoolchildren and their families are in flow of school arrivals and departures. Work goes on.

Here and there we see signs of fresh projects … newly turned earth and piles of building materials on a potentially pretty lot.

We are in Holidayland. Summer merchandise is on sale, Halloween, Thanksgiving and all the end of year/first of year special spending opportunities have hit the stores.

Food has taken on a richer quality. Stews, soups and other comfort foods cry out to fill our stomachs and warm our hearts.

I watched a little locust tree with bright green leaves on one branch and crimson leaves on another turn magical in the golden moments just after a rich sunset.

The familiarity of all these things helps bring clarity to the use of familiar tools, utensils, special pots and pans and expected good results from our efforts.

Smooth wood, fresh paint, crisp bedding and warm clothing all speak of a certain goodness that is to be treasured.

I have watched a friend plow through 30 years of photos, slides, 8mm film and more recent videos getting them into a manageable digital format.

I have another colleague that had 500 3.5” disks that contained hundreds of recipes, sheaves of book chapters and short story projects and the goal was to get them on a flash drive. That is done.

Dynamics of change can force an intense look into our personal history and that is grand … but, for me, since I have 2 and a half terrabytes of files, a fairly neat collection of projects and the means to put them all together, the really big issue is: What’s next?

I eagerly look toward the next image, the next sitting to put ink to paper and the next great conversation.

Heritage is significant, challenges are things we deal with on a daily basis and yet our commitment is to the next opportunity to create excellence.

As my body and brain allow I am excited, determined and ready for the next call to excellence.

The cameras are ready. The paper and ink are fresh. The truck is dependable and we will just see what is next.

I hope you follow and enjoy what you see.  tim  www.timjohnsonphoto.com

ALL INCUMBENTS ... OUT

Put them out ... put them all out.



This is going to be an interesting post-presidential election. Two years have dragged by and our nation's woes have increased partially to to the lack of a presiding president and a senate that has projected senility.


Fractious bickering, fearful party players and a willingness to do nothing that would hint of resolve, we are a nation that has pushed its citizens down into a cave of debt and have nearly sealed it shut.


I am the first generation of my family not to to make a living death out of going into the coal mines as a way of life.


I did listen to many miners' hacks and coughs from rock and coal dust and have performed more than my share of funerals for miners and their family members.


The rattle I sense now is the echoing sigh among people whose lives have been rocked by the lack of courage by our so-called national leaders.


I am very non-political. So very little is ever accomplished by any committee and the lack of commitment to the national good in Washington may finally choke our country all for the worse.


What the House and Senate has proven is that a charismatic leader (Remember The Obama Inauguration? Good. There might not be another.) can quickly become an empty suit.


I have yet to see many dem-O-crats invite the sitting president to speak on their behalf in their home states.


There is no room for rePUBlicans to gloat. Many years of do nothing or doing badly have helped dig the current fiscal mess.


People are sad, people are worried and many people are energized to higher levels of self-help.


We remain AmeriCANs! We are not defeatest and things will be made better.


A Washington, Lincoln or an Eisenhower may be hiding at some college or university.


They may be too smart to volunteer for public service, but maybe heart will win out.


In the meantime ... it is time to change all the stationery in every elected office up for election in DC. The colors, paper and envelopes are fine. All the names need to be changed to help protect the people of this great land.


INcumbents ... OUT! © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

LOVE & DEATH IN THE MIDST OF BLOODY STONES

Siddiga and Khayyam are names to be linked with the deep tragedy of love suffering in the face of hatred blended with insanity.

This young couple was stoned to death by the Taliban and then their family, friends and neighbors because they did the “BAD THING” of eloping and marrying one another.

They died together surrounded by a frenzied crowd satisfying a warped understanding of Koran and their own anger that such a true love can exist in this sad and sick world.

Participating in the murders were Khayyam's father and brother and Siddiqua's brother. 
These were more than lovers and their story is not fiction. They were husband and wife and were murdered in an agonizing deluge of fist-sized rocks that wounded, fractured and finally killed them.

To anyone that can see, LOVE was the victim and there was none in the hearts of the participants or onlookers.

These mindless, heartless and murderous people may, I hope, bear the weight of their bloody cruelty they inflicted and celebrated. 

Know that there is a HIGHER COURT to which they shall answer.

Was the Taliban court sinless? “All have sinned ...” Were the ones who chose the stones, drew up their muscles and cast them at their neighbors innocent? “Let the one without sin cast the first stone ...”

I pray that the blood that freshly beat in the hearts of Siddiga and Khayyam cries out from the sand in that village and rings in every bell, makes bitter every breeze, fouls every bite of food and makes toxic every drop of water. May their sleep be visited by the sweet and battered faces of their victims.

This is a self-damned village of cruel, unjust, soulless and cowardly sub-humans.

They did not have the courage of Brutus who at least held the knife to his friend, Julius, as he dealt the death stroke to the emperor. Et tu?

These murderers in this village picked their rocks, felt their deadly weight and, at a distance, propelled hatred and death.

Their hearts were harder than the rocks they cast.

Perhaps some voyeur made a tape of this incident.
Let the world see. Let the world know of the murderous act.

Did they not feel the Eyes Of The Almighty on them as they acted out their hatefulness?

Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Heloise and Abelard, Gwydion and Rhapsody – are each tragedies and all heart-wrenching stories.

Siddiga and Khayyam, are a tragic, painful and sad reminder that Hate strikes out at Love, Judgment abhors Mercy and Evil has its day – but God Almighty has our Eternity in his hand.

I pray that Siddiga and Khayyam are resting in the bosom of Father Abraham, together forever and at peace.

Would not the bloody stones be a true monument to their love?
Disagree? Take your argument to the bloody stones. Let THEM speak more clearly than my poor tongue.

Siddiga and Khayyam, names joined in the line of immortal lovers.
I pray that True Peace and genuine Love will come before these stones turn to dust. 
© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

AN IMPASSIONED NOTE TO TEACHERS & STUDENTS

At the start of a new season of learning, we who stand as teachers also sit as pupils of our whole multiverse. 
As a teacher I see myself as a catalyst for learning, self-discovery and a resource of information and steady, meaningful work toward goals that develop along the way.
I have tried to be Tim, even in the midst of tempest. 
My former students know that they are in a positive environment and that when they think or say, “I can't ...”, my spoken or demonstrated response is: “Learn to say, 'I haven't yet.'”
Two Asian proverbs are like energetic streamers in my mind:
When the student is ready the teacher will come.
&
When the teacher is ready the student will come.
Some of my teachers have had multiple doctorates and some have had years of experience at various trades and the arts. My teachers have been the sick and dying, the people in pain and the blessed children that have orbited into and out of my life. 
Many lessons begin with, “Tim, come and look.”
I have tried to raise the gift of seeing into an art and act of faith … and I do see, even through failing eyes, I see.
My camera, pen, pencil, brush, computers and my woodworking tools are means of forming tools and objects that extend my reach just a bit. In this school of experience I am taught lessons of LIGHT, space, color, and texture. The various woods tell me their stories and how they will work. Working with the grain is a great life lesson.
I was enjoying some windshield-time on the way to a client and was thinking of the faith and patience of Noah. A grand NC thunderstorm prompted part of this thought. 
He heard God's voice and obeyed in the building of the ark. Noah did as instructed, ignoring the heckling and doubts of others, and he and his family survived. 
The thought, new to me, is that Noah did not shut or open the door to the ark, he did not paddle it and he did not steer it. He was in the ark and the ark was in Hands greater than his own. But he was in the ark that he had built.
A fellow scribe recently shared the following jewel that could be printed and posted on every bulletin board and refrigerator door in every home. 
The list contains some grand ideas and calls for excellence from all involved in the learning process. The list does not extend to staff and school board, but I feel that the paper and ink would be wasted on both. I have edited it and, if that bothers you, go find the "original" for yourself. 
However, for anyone that in school or is simply a student of life, love and joy, here they are:


Rules for Students and Teachers
 1. Make your learning-place a place of safety, peace and encouragement. (Tim's edit)    2. General duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher and pull everything out of your fellow students. 3. General duties of a teacher -- pull everything out of your students. 4. Consider everything an experiment and a process. 5. Be self-disciplined – this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way. 6. Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make and make over and make do. (Tim's edit) 7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things. 8. Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes. (It is hard – but necessary.)  9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. Life is lighter than you think. You have the choice of making a good and great success and/or lesson at any moment and in any situation. By choosing the light and the right and people of light, those who are darkness will will be seen as grayscale and seem to be at about 40% opacity, if that much. Purify your heart and follow the LIGHT. LIGHT will destroy the darkness and disease and you can clearly follow even the most rugged paths. (Tim's edit) 10. Know the rules and disciplines of the things you are studying. Learn its vocabulary, taxonomy and from that depth of understanding break through the fear and the bonds. Even if you are breaking your own rules, be safe and leave room for joyful discovery. Look to the wonder and marvel in all things and allow the enLIGHTenment to flood your heart and whole being. (Tim's edit) incorrectly attributed to John Cage 1.

1. These "Rules", although sometimes attributed to John Cage, were the work of Corita Kent, (1918-1986), serigrapher and teacher extraordinaire, in which she included a quote from John Cage in rule 10.
   The calligrapher David Mekelburg produced them in hand-carved stamped lettering and they were published in "Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit," a book begun by Corita with her former student Jan Steward and finished by Steward after Corita's death. (Bantam 1992). Check for a copy at Alibris or Amazon
    tim © www.timjohnsonphoto.com

Even the hard, drawn-up clay of North Carolina's Piedmont seemed to welcome the rain that finally fell last evening, but the best part was the lightning and thunder.

The fruit and vegetable farmers – and those of use that consume their produce – have enjoyed the sweet richness created by the drought and heat we have been experiencing.

Melons, cantaloupes and berries have been especially good this year because it has been exceptionally hot and dry. Just ask any farmer about this phenomena.

However, the sweet fruit is best enjoyed in a nice, air-conditioned room. Out-of-doors has been just too unpleasant.

Mosquitoes don't like my blood, but those that are afflicted by the little critters say that they are bad this year – another good reason to enjoy the in-of-airconditioned-doors.

The lightning and thunder was most intense when I was a young-un in the Virginia mountains. We had many different minerals in the ground there and there are huge deposits of low-grade iron ore. I could list the other things that were present in the ground, but I don't want you to get bored and fall asleep and bang your head on your keyboard. 
The impression of the keys on your forehead would be hard to explain to Nurse Johnson in the General Hospital emergency room, which, interestingly, is not located on the ground floor.

I wonder how the ambulances back up to the 9th floor elevator ... 
Back to the lightning and thunder in the mountains. The iron ore is attractive to the lightning looking for a ground. Charged clouds sending out their fingers sometimes will hit a pocket of ore and the grand connection is made. More than ripples of thunder, this causes shakes and quakes in the ground.

When such an event would strike close to home, we'd go out to look for the strike point.

If we found it, the prizes were globules of iron. Probably the iron first discovered and put to use by early humans.

Lightning, thunder and iron. Manly stuff.

If you want to see something very pretty, you just have to visit The Cascades Falls near Pearisburg, Virginia. Just type this into your search bar in Google Earth or Yahoo Maps. The Cascades are near Mountain Lake, a spot where a bit of the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed.

When taking the twins there so that they could tell everyone they had been to this pretty place where God had spent some extra time making the place beautiful. By the time we had gotten to within about a quarter mile from the falls, a swift and sudden storm unleashed its fury on us and we ran away from the dangerous lightning and toward the safety of our vehicle.

We got back, safe, but soaked.

On the way back though town I thought it would be a good idea to bring dinner home so we did an odd thing for me and pulled into a fast food drive-through.

I must tell you that it had only rained at the top of the Cascades and not in the little town.

Needless to say, when I paid for the order with soaked paper money, the lady studied me very thoroughly. She looked at the mildly dried clothes of the girls and all I could think to say was that they had just demanded to be baptized and that we were off to have a post baptismal dinner.

It was really the hot food, bath and dry clothes that were going to feel so good.

Then, the nap that followed would not be disturbed by a direct strike by lightning or the biggest echoing boomer the mountains could create.

I know that God's Voice was sometimes in that thunder and was stronger and clearer than that of Charlton Heston.

The Voice is still there and maybe there is something that we can all hear the next time the Thunder rolls.

“Did you back up your files Tim?” “Is the UPS software working and is the battery in the APC up to its task?” “Shouldn't you unplug all of the electronics this time?” 

“Weren't the best storms experienced in the tree house?” 

© tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

I was born on this date and here are some other July 16th events:
Amundsen, Roald (Birth Date)
Atomic Bomb Tested (65th Anniversary)
Big Sky State Games
Bolivia: La Paz Day
Canada: Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Comet Crashes Into Jupiter
District of Columbia Establishing Legislation
Earthquake Jolts Philippines (20th Anniversary)
Eddy, Mary Baker (Birth Date)
Honda US Open of Surfing Championship Presented by O'neill
Kentucky State Championship Old-Time Fiddler's Contest
Mission San Diego de Alcala (Founding Anniversary)
Natchitoches–northwestern State University Folk Festival and the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship
Rafle Du Vélodrome D'hiver
Reynolds, Joshua (Birth Date)
Rogers, Ginger (Birth Date)
Sherwood Robin Hood Festival
Show-Me State Games
Space Milestone: Apollo 11 (US): Man Sent to the Moon
Stanwyck, Barbara (Birth Date)
Targhee Fest
Wells, Ida B. (Birth Date)
Yarmouth Clam Festival
Birthdays on July 16, 2010
Ruben Blades, 62, singer, actor (Crossover Dreams, The Milagro Beanfield War), born Panama City, Panama, July 16, 1948.
Phoebe Cates, 47, actress (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins), born New York, NY, July 16, 1963.
Stewart Copeland, 58, composer, musician (The Police), born Alexandria, VA, July 16, 1952.
Corey Feldman, 39, actor (Stand by Me, The Lost Boys), born Reseda, CA, July 16, 1971.
Will Ferrell, 43, comedian, actor (Semi-Pro, Blades of Glory, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman), born Irvine, CA, July 16, 1967.
Michael Flatley, 52, dancer (Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames), born Chicago, IL, July 16, 1958.
Mark Indelicato, 16, actor (“Ugly Betty”), born Philadelphia, PA, July 16, 1994.
Bess Myerson, 86, former Miss America (1945), former government official, born New York, NY, July 16, 1924.
Barry Sanders, 42, former football player, born Wichita, KS, July 16, 1968.
Pinchas Zukerman, 62, violinist, born Tel Aviv, Israel, July 16, 1948.


I do admit being torn on how to celebrate this year. The Fiddlers' contest would be fun but many of the instruments are poor and I have perfect pitch. 
La Paz Day would be fine but things are still unsettled in Bolivia. Anything in Canada would be … Canadian.
So it stands between the Robin Hood Festival and the Clam Festival. If I could find my green tights, the issue would be resolved and I don't care that much for bottom feeders unless bacon is involved, like politicians and that makes for a double comparison.
I do like the group of Bess Myerson, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck and ME. Three of the four of us had great legs and I am one of them.
It is not clear how the folk in the islands are going to mark the 20th anniversary of the earthquake. Maybe a bean dish for breakfast.
For me I will look through a few hundred photos and chromes. I will read through some journals and do some travel to revisit places on Google earth.
Oh, how speedily that program works on my new i7 machine with Windows 7 Pro!
Maybe I will get to talk with some family and friends and then perhaps a late evening walk.
When I gave myself permission to celebrate my birthday for an extended season it really opened the possibilities to endless fun. There just may be time to get to the Targhee Fest before everyone closes shop.
Happy Birthday, Bess, Ginger and Barbara! I'm happy to have finally joined you, in a tiny way, on the big screen.
Now, for that Boston Cream Pie and a wobble down memory lane as I plot out the next happy hazy crazy days! © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

Birthdaze 2010 Style

If the convenience stores and pharmacies can sell Christmas merchandise in October, I can damn well celebrate my birthing experience on more than a single day.

My mom was super pregnant with me for a long time and had a few false starts at labor which could have led to my birth on any June or July day – but the delivery (what a pristine word for such a brutal process) date was the 16^th of July.

We go to the event which took place in Princeton, WV, instead of my hometown of Narrows, VA, since mom was very pregnant but spunky and wanted to go shopping. I was not born IN Kresge's, but did leave a warm, watery mess for someone to clean up. We did manage to make it to Princeton Memorial Hospital, not General Hospital by any means.

I was a “live birth” and was able to go home pretty quickly. They did not ask me about hanging on to my foreskin, though we were not Jewish and I think I have a vague memory of wanting to smack somebody for being rude to me and my parts.

You have to know I loved nursing. My mom was great at it and there was just something about the warmth, the heartbeat and the … mind your business.

I have had 61 birthdays prior to this one and some have been cool and others have been less than cool.

I never cared for birthday cake – preferring, if you can imagine a 6 year-old having a preference, Boston Cream Pie. Dark Chocolate and the creamy pudding in the middle of grand sponge cakes. Hmmmmm and yum. Mom made them from scratch, of course, because Duncan Hines had not yet met Betty Crocker.

My favorite foods were mom's spaghetti, her fine salads, potato salad and the love she put into her cooking.

Then we would play and there might be presents or not – but no matter, it was still a party.

When the Glen Lyn 4H Club was formed we had special birthday celebrations for every one of our 5 members. Dress up, cook up, eat up and party down as best as we were able.

On some birthdays my significant seniors would pass along important items like pocket knives, guns, shoeshine kits, tools and knowledge.

I have my grandfather's mother-of-pearl “church” pocket knife he gave me when I turned 21. It is a treasure that will go, along with the story, to one of the grandsons.

There came a time that, because of my proficiency in calligraphy, people would not send me birthday cards. Pity. I am not judgmental except for the crap Hallmark prints.

The twins even got to the point that they knew I could always use AA or AAA batteries or some picture frames or some fine HP printing paper and these made fine presents along with black shirts and black Hanes underwear.

Spending time and talking with these wonderful grown-up offspring and their children and spouses is the BEST year-round gift of all.

This year, my best friend did bestow on me a beautiful book. Another thing people who don't understand me fear to do. I am a book lover and love people who love me enough to give me a book. Lover.

This is a special edition of a volume I have read and studied, but never owned. It is signature, sewn bound, and has gilt edges. Gold edges keep dust and insects from invading manuscripts since the gold sheets adhere to each other and form an airtight bond. The book suits the hand and fills the heart and it came from a heart that cares.

The book jacket is grand and the contents will be a pleasure to read again – with 40 years of the lenses of life to peer through at the words.

So, what is left for the 16^th and beyond is the need for TWO HOT DOGS, maybe a Hot and Now Krispy Kreme or 3 and the colored pencils with which to color in the empty spaces remaining on the majestic and wonderful image that is my LIFE, so far. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

A New Box Of Toys

Bigger, faster, better !?!
With Microsoft ending its support of Windows XP, the time has come to make a jump in my desktop software and hardware.
In 1982, people had not quite figured out what personal computers were for, but I knew that I could write sermons, lessons, keep up with my pastoral work and eventually jump onto a yet-to-be created internet.
My first IBM PC was an amazing 8086 system with two 180K drives - BIG floppies. Hard drives were a couple of years away. I could "Write" with one disk and then swap that out and "print" using another. The system cost a whopping $5k. I was one of the first pastors to have one of these machines and people knew I was really nuts, including the members of my congregation who worked for IBM and Data General.
I had a monochrome monitor a 9 pin printer and worked the hummy out of the thing.
Then followed the 386, 486, Pentiums, AMDs and now, my new i7 processor, which is essentially a mini mainframe.
I have a screen print of an ITT 4116 RAM chip - 4K - where you can see the on and off gates where the binary code plays hide and seek.
I have tried to push the limits of everything I have ever owned, testing all of their capabilities and knowing how they worked and what they could really do - and honestly trying to apply that to myself. Pushing is just natural for me.
Electronic things that were fast and productive got s l o w and I pushed for more speed and capabilities.
Along came computer graphics and publishing, sound and high resolution color monitors. I owned a couple of Power PCs just for the MAC experience. 2 years was enough.
My chrome and negative film images could be scanned and manipulated without the stench of the chemical darkroom. But I miss the magic of seeing things come to life in the developing trays.
I know that a PC is like a Mr. Coffee or an electric razor. It is an appliance that will have its day. It is a consumable.
With my new system my software gets to breathe more easily and run faster. They promise a 5 second boot.
Movie rendering will be FAST. This thing has an SLi video card with a whole gig of ram - just on the video card.
Photoshop will scream and RAW files will load in a zippy fashion.
I bought the Win 7 Pro because it has a Win XP emulation mode that lets me use my older software that might not work in the Win 7 environment.
However, in a month, 6 months or sometime. I will be adding RAM and wondering when Intel will be bringing out its i9.
I am very patient with people - machinery gets little slack.
We'll see.
I still have a dependable Win 2000 Pro, an XP Pro machine, a Linux Ubuntu system and a Windows 98 system with over $4k of software on it from Adobe. It weighs almost as much as my truck and has some wonderful abilities.
We'll see what Quark does.
We'll just see. We'll monitor and report. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com

Summer Fun!

School is out and learning is IN!

I have had a couple of friends from my High School days announce their retirement from teaching in public schools. The way that it came across sounded as if they had been released from the Siberian Gulag. 
I applaud them for their careers and investment of their lives in young people that will never forget them.

I am sure that their voices were drowned out by the cheers of the millions of school children who ended their normal year school terms.

School's OUT!

For what?

It seemed like they were putting their brains into "sleep" mode and the next few weeks were going to be dreamy fun and games - without much fun and very few games for most.

Some kids are going to camps.

I spent a couple of summers teaching archery and canoeing at an Ohio Y camp for inner city youth.

At least I had weapons and a means of escape.

We even had a small flock of German exchange campers that thought that Mr. Johnson was somehow nearly wild and would skin and roast them if they misbehaved. Ya.

Look around the Triangle and you will see every sort of camp, club and activity for children. Parents don't get summer vacations and must work and most everybody has abandoned the forty acres and mule for 40 square feet of grass and a yappy lap dog.

Teachers will be filling out paperwork for a few days and the useless test scores will be used to prove nothing again and promises made at graduation of forever keeping in touch have already been broken.

So, what useful things can kids learn this summer? All of this has to be age and level-of-responsibility dependent. This may challenge some parents, including the grands.

1. Folding table napkins. This presumes a communal meal around a common table. There are directions for folding table napkins and how to eat together in the same room in books and online. Primitive societies find that eating together strengthens the family bond. I am not making that up!

2. Gathering up and counting all the family loose change for a night out together. If there is no loose change, work toward getting some by doing odd jobs here and there.

3. Sorting through the cabinets and recycling the Armageddon-ready supply of margarine and Cool-Whip tubs. Enough. Families can occupy the spaces that these things are jammed into.

4. Clear one closet and straighten one room per week. Keep a camera and journal handy to tell the stories about the stuff you are parting with - but record it and say, "Ta!"

I just learned that Goodwill Industries (GCF) does not take much that is child-related: no toys, car seats, etc.

5. Check the energy level of all of your batteries in your flashlights. This is Hurricane Season. Rechargeables are better than consumables and batteries are better than burning the house down with candles.

Store some water, Vienna sausage and crackers. Don't eat that nasty meat, but you are supposed to have it for some reason.

6. Think about recycling books. Gift them or take them to a used book store.

7. Any child that is 10 years old or older can learn to vacuum and dust. Smaller children can be outfitted in clothes made of Swiffers. If the dry gets wet, you have made money.

8. Walk together when you are at home. Grab the gang. You may spend more time getting everyone together than in the actual walking (like playing in the snow) but this is what kids remember.

9. If the kids watch TV, insist that they tell you what they have watched and learned. This may kill their interest in TV altogether. It WILL make them pay attention and they will be talking and you will be listening - a great exercise in communication. You might even ask, "How did you FEEL about ..."

The heavens will open if they TELL you.

10. Involve them in meal preparation and cleanup. In the future they will brag about everything they complain about today.

11. Choose someone to send letters to each week. Beyond texting and Emailing is the written word, letters and stamps. Write a letter and let everyone contribute.

12. Perform a complete file and system backup on all of your computers. If you are not doing this automatically, do it soon in a manual mode. Get an external HD (Tiger is selling a 1T HD for $40!) or a pile of DVDs and do it. While doing your work, set your computer for regular auto backups and then do manual backups when you close your programs.

A file saved is a pile of tears uncried.

13. Have a family clean house marathon with prizes. Points for Cheerios, cat food, M&Ms, potato chips, Cheetos, cat litter, rings, hair bows, toothpicks, false teeth and pregnancy tests. The winner gets to pick the restaurant and meal. Most gross object gets a prize too.

14. Go to a park where the American flag is saluted and lowered at the end of the day. This teaches respect, patriotism and national pride.

15. Do something fun and safe with WATER. A family splash, water fight, pistols, balloons, guns, clown noses, just have some wet fun.

16. Have PIZZA for breakfast and Breakfast for dinner. Kids cannot say parents are boring after that. Crazy maybe, but not boring.

17. Have everyone in the family dress up (fancy or crazy) and go to a fast food restaurant. Everyone will talk and laugh at and with you.

18. Go to a street concert. It is free and loud and you get to choose how close to get.

19. Trade beds for 1 night. It is hard to walk in another's mocassins when one wears a 3 and another wears a 13, but one night in another bed will give everyone perspective.

20. Learn to tie knots. My dad was a sailor and a steelworker. There was only one way to tie things and the wrong way got a flogging. To this day I have never lost anything out of any load I have piled and rigged. Thanks Dad dammit.

21. If ever a moment of tension or an argument begins to break out, join hands immediately. Have your fuss, but keep focused on your love, respect and the precious thing God has placed in your life - each other.

Summer down everyone! This is going to be fun. © tim www.timjohnsonphoto.com