The Sunday Five: Seeing ourselves

Happy Blogiversary to Doc Spo 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? 

2: How do you feel about fashion? 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos?

My Answers: 

1: Do you see yourself as your age, younger, older? I have a hard to understanding that I am getting older, in my mind I am 30, in my knees I am 95.

2: How do you feel about fashion? The older I get, the less I care. 

3: How much time do you spend on your appearance most days? I don't always bother to run a brush through what is left of my hair. 

4: What would you tell your younger self about appearances? Those that judge you based on your appearance, don't really like you anyway. 

5: How do you really feel about tattoos? I understand the desire to do something taboo, something forbidden, but I have never wanted anything that permanent. Tattoos on the face, or neck, I find unattractive. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post: Be Fearless

A couple of months ago someone asked Ken in France how he became so creative in the kitchen, and he responded that he thought of himself as being more fearless in the kitchen than creative, and he is. He is always willing to try something. He is always looking for new ideas, new inspiration, reading about different ways to make great food. Being fearless, makes him very creative. 

I thought about this, and it applies to creativity in all forms. To create art in any form, we must first be fearless.  Willing to try new ways of doing things. Part of practicing is trying new ways of doing the same thing. In painting, try pure colors, try blending colors, use a brush, use a palette knife, finger paint, use paint that flows. When you see or hear something, be fearless and try it. I watched an interview with James Cameron, who will forever be the mastermind that brought the movie Titanic to the big screen. He said when he is "80 years old, with an oxygen tube in his nose", he wants to be "trying do things that he does not know how to do." That is fearlessness, that is a root of creativity. 

In your art, try creating something this week that you don't know how to do, be fearless. 

Foodie Friday: Roll Ups

While the snow was falling, I had a couple of days at home to play in the kitchen. These were inspired by something I read in a cookbook. 

Buy or make a basic pizza dough. 

Pizza dough is easy enough to make. 

Start with one cup of warm water (105f +/-) a sprinkle of sugar, and a tablespoon of dry active yeast. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes, it will start to smell yeasty and bubble a little. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer stir together two cups of flour (bread flour if you have it on hand) a large pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Stir in the yeast mixture and stir together to form a ball. Knead, by machine for about five minutes on low or medium low, by hand about the same.  Adjust as needed, I added a couple of tablespoons of water. 

Cover and set aside to rise for an hour or two. 

Divide the dough in half, 

Roll out in a rectangle. 

Top with fillings. One of these was tomato sauce, cured Italian ham and shredded mixed Italian cheese (Pizza cheese mix.) The other was softened butter, sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkled with chocolate chips. 

The filling can be whatever you like, what you have handy, or what you want to use up today. 

Roll up, slice into rounds, and bake in a 350-375 (F) oven for 20-30 minutes.  

Store in the refrigerator, reheat in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. 

The Thursday Ramble: Media - Media Everywhere

Growing up in an era and place before cable television, our options were ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation,) CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System,) and NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation.) All of these were air-wave broadcasts, received on a large antenna. All of them had genuine news programs, with real verify the facts journalists.  PBS (Public Broadcasting) came late to the countryside and reception was spotty. I recall the family switching between the NBC and CBS for the evening news. NBC had the funny weatherman. CBS had Walter Cronkite. 

In an era of air wave broadcast, television required a federal license, permission to use a specific radio frequency. The bandwidth licensed was quite wide, limiting the number of licenses available in a given area. This same system is still in place. With improvements in technology the bandwidth is narrower, allowing more licenses hence Fox and others have joined the fray. When the administration threatens the media, the strongest power is the authority to revoke a broadcast license. YouTube does not have a broadcast license. With online access does the broadcast license really mean that much today? 

There are still areas in the country that do not have cable television, and where high speed internet is difficult or expensive to access (The United States and Canada are immense land masses.) The majority of the population in both countries live in area where high speed data is widely available by cable, fiber or phone networks. 

For the majority of us, if NBC, ABC, and CBS left the broadcast world and went to streaming video only, we would hardly notice the difference. I am not sure why they don't just shrug their shoulders, tell the news the way they want to, and say "see you on CBS-Tube, NBC-Tube, and ABC-Tube."  The advertising model is slowly changing to support this move, if the broadcasters all moved - the money would move with them. 

My World of Wonders February 4, 2026 edition

What surprisingly made me smile this week?  We went grocery shopping last Thursday, and unintentionally ended up on Senior Discount Day, an extra 10% off.  It was the first time I had been in the grocery store on Senior Discount Day. I don't know why it made me smile, once a stingy b@st@rd, always one? 

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Roast Salmon with noodles, slow cooked pulled pork, chicken and tortellini soup with corn bread. Lamb stew.

Where have I been this week? Close to home. We did a grocery store run last Thursday. Beyond that the gym, the pool, a reception at the Grill. 

Who have I talked with this week? Giuseppe, Ruth, Mary, Marcel, Warren, Paul, my sweet bear, and Zack.  

What was on the easel? I finished a 24 by 24 inch color block, and have primed in a deep red an 18 by 24. I have an idea for this, if I can make it work.  

What have I been reading? The extreme cold weather has made this complicated, I ran out of library books, took a couple of days off, then went to the bookcase in the building library. I locked up a history of Emma Lazarus, the wrote the poem that is featured at the Statute of Liberty.  The book had a hidden history, the bookplate shows it was a gift to a young woman, in 1967. It was a history book, that is a history of itself. 

What brought a sense of relief this week? It took over a week, but my Mac rebuilt my photo archive - messed up by a recent operating system upgrade. There are over 101,000 images in the file. 

Where am I headed? San Antonio Texas for an American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division meeting. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to get out of the house for a few hours while some maintenance was being done. I hopped the subway into the city, and spent a couple of hours in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I was there when the museum first opened for the day, and had an hour or so, before the children descended with the accompanying cacophony of noise. I would pay to have a couple of hours of silence in a couple of the museums. 

 

Monday Moods: Free yourself from Regrets

If you are reading this you woke up still alive this morning. I sincerely hope that you see that as a good thing. Human life is surprising robust and at the same time shockingly fragile. Someday, we will not see the sunrise again.

What can we do today to reduce the regrets when that morning arrives? 

Reach out and tell others you love them. Leave a kind comment on a blog, stop and visit, make a phone call, send a text, send an email, send a "just thinking about you" greeting card.  I regret not reaching out to my grandmother in the last few months of her life. 

Take a moment to savor your meals today. Slow down, smell the coffee, let the chocolate slowly melt in your mouth. You will never regret the enjoyment of even the simplest of meals. 

Step outside, even if only for a couple of minutes and breathe.  Even if cold, or hot, or wet. You will never regret a moment to just breathe. 

Take a moment to forgive. Forgive others, not for them, but to free your mind from the burden of holding onto past transgressions. 

Take a moment to forgive yourself. We all make mistakes, the burden of which is regret. Forgive yourself, say you are sorry, free yourself from the burden of regret.