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Vanishing Point The discovery of perspective and its incorporation into drawn art completely changes the way an artist looks at the world. Until then, drawings were flat and lifeless (think of Egyptian art) and bore little resemblance to the world as humans... ( added 5 days 5 hours ago.)

Getting Back on a Horse after a Fall Getting back on a horse after my fall was easier than I expected it to be. Expectations have been at the root of most of my fears in the past and try as I have to banish them, they still persist. We take certain things for granted. We think we... ( added 12 days 4 hours ago.)

Falling off a Horse There's an old saying about how if you fall off of a horse, you should just get right back on. Well, if you are seven years old and you bounced when you hit the ground, that might be possible. But if you are 57 years old and you didn't so much... ( added 19 days 4 hours ago.)

Sacrifice, Accolades and Selfishness My mother was a martyr. I think that's the correct word for it. She was always putting herself out for others and complaining of it. It irked her when her sacrifices went unnoticed. She would let it sit and stew and boil until it built up so much... ( added 26 days 4 hours ago.)

How May I Help You? If you walked out of your house one morning and saw a bird with a broken wing huddled in some nearby bushes, what would you do? There is a book that was published some years ago titled, "The Book of Questions," by Gregory Stock, Ph.D. The... ( added 33 days 4 hours ago.)

Random Thoughts, Part 6 Oh no. Here we go again. Some of you who read Random Thoughts, Part 5 might remember I mentioned a back door neighbor who talks incessantly and so loudly that she sounds as if she were in our kitchen. Well, just this evening my stalwart and... ( added 40 days 4 hours ago.)

Filters Are your filters up and running? Do you know what they are? Can you name them? I'm not talking about your kidneys or your blood/brain barrier or that gizmo you put under your kitchen sink to keep your water tasting nice. Mine are up and... ( added 47 days 4 hours ago.)

Weird Words, Part 2 Phlegm When you look at the word "phlegm," it looks really odd, but when you say it you realize that it is perfect.It has a sound that is somehow just right for what it represents. And if you happen to have phlegm in your throat when you say... ( added 54 days 4 hours ago.)

Slice-O-Life-O-Matic Buying a new kitchen appliance should be run, right? Bright, shiny, new, spotlessly clean, modern, all those things. I suppose buying a new refrigerator could be fun. Certainly more fun than buying a new car. But when your current fridge is... ( added 61 days 4 hours ago.)

Laundry Detergents and Hair Shampoos Our lives are defined by our disabilities just as much as they are by our abilities, maybe more so. I can wiggle my tongue back and forth very fast and move my eyes independently of each other. Neither of which actually defines me or counts as any... ( added 68 days 4 hours ago.)

Weird Words Patoot "You smell like a horse's patoot," is a phrase that I have become familiar with. I've been involved with horses for quite a few months now. I've groomed them and mucked their stalls. I've been over every inch of them. I've rubbed their... ( added 75 days 4 hours ago.)

Bar Soaps Lots of Search Warp writers have taken up the persuasive argument challenge. I'm not really certain that I am quite up to that, but I do have a thing or two to say about bar soaps. Well, and other related subjects. I can never leave anything... ( added 82 days 4 hours ago.)

Random Thoughts, Part 5 The Ugly Truth By now, you've all figured out that when I can't come up with a good topic for a complete and, as usual, brilliant article, I sit down and bang out one of these random thought thingies. It's not so much that I don't have ideas.... ( added 89 days 4 hours ago.)

Food for Thought Costco has a lot of things. I go there mainly for food. They have fresh foods, canned foods, dried foods, frozen foods, and they even have a food court, sort of. What I never thought they had was food for thought. But then, I also buy books and... ( added 96 days 4 hours ago.)

Trekkies Rejoice! Die hard "Star Trek" fans have one more thing to be thankful for. If the invention of real life communicators (cell phones) was not enough, they now have one more thing to add to their arsenal. They can say take it on the chin to all those who... ( added 102 days ago.)

The Bad Guy Wore White When I was younger, my husband and I studied Kung Fu for a few years. We, and a bunch of others from our club, would go on a Saturday night to China Town in Los Angeles to see Chinese produced Kung Fu movies. Many of them had English subtitles... ( added 103 days 4 hours ago.)

Getting Back to Where We Once Belonged This morning as I was washing my face and brushing my teeth, three small black ants were investigating all the lotions and potions that sit atop our cultured marble bathroom counter top. We've had visits from these ants on a regular daily basis... ( added 110 days 4 hours ago.)

A Basis for Self-esteem I think that we are all born with self-esteem. When we are very young, everything revolves around us. As children, we give little thought to our place in the world because it is obviously at the center of it. We are perfect just as we are. ... ( added 117 days 4 hours ago.)

You Can't Legislate Away Stupidity Do you ever wonder what's next? I do. Recently in the news, it was reported that a significant number of emergency room visits were due to individuals taking over-the-counter medicines that contain acetaminophen and then also taking... ( added 124 days 5 hours ago.)

The Need For Speed I've been doing a lot more driving around lately and as a consequence, I've seen a lot more dead animals in the road or beside it. Each time I pass one, I say a little prayer for its soul and send a wish for its peace and happiness in whatever... ( added 131 days 4 hours ago.)

Blind Devotion A woman walks up to her local 99 cent store. She has been there at least a hundred times before. She pushes on the front door to enter the shop and the door does not open. In the past, it has always opened when she pushed on it. She pulls out her... ( added 138 days 4 hours ago.)

Father's Day In many ways, I don't feel qualified to write an article about fathers or Father's Day. I lost my birth father when I was almost 17 years old (August 4, 1969), my father-in-law on December 5, 2005 and my step-dad just this January on the 6 th . I... ( added 144 days 1 hour ago.)

Random Thoughts, Part 4 Parallel Universes and a Perfect World How many times have you heard someone say something and your unspoken (or maybe not) reply was, "Yeah, sure, in a perfect world." I hear that little phrase, or some close variation on it, more and more.... ( added 145 days 4 hours ago.)

How Far is Too Far? That's the question really. You could phrase it another way: What is acceptable and what is not acceptable? But what it all comes down to is how much you are willing to tolerate. Maybe there is something you want really, and I mean really... ( added 152 days 4 hours ago.)

I Drove to Another Country Well, not really. But it sure felt like it for a number of reasons. You wouldn't think that 2,000 feet of elevation could make that much difference. On its own it doesn't, but there were other factors. It took me about an hour and a half to reach... ( added 159 days 4 hours ago.)