Rico from Gate 5 in Sausalito---Part Two.

Rico was readying to set sail for middle earth. I don’t remember what he called it, maybe Atlantis. I didn’t understand. He talked like there was a homeland at a set of coordinates under the ocean, at the center of the earth, and he was going to get there.

He said he needed a generator to take on the journey. I didn't know for what. But we went to a Marin County hill overlooking the entrance to San Francisco Bay. I saw an opening carved out of the hill that led to a large cave in the mountain. The whole structure was obviously built by the military. I don’t know if to protect San Francisco with cannon fire against Japanese ships during World War II, or to direct short range missiles during the Cold War. But inside, Rico pointed at a sizable, square steel machine with dials and switches over the face of it, and said that was his generator.

Rico claimed he was going to set sail for his destination in a Chinese Junk. I remember it was a sunny day.  Rico and I had motored from Sausalito to the water front at Bay View Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. We were walking in a parking lot and Rico pointed to a moored Chinese Junk so big its size astonished me. The hull was built of logs cut lengthwise.  It was as big as a small galleon, except Oriental. Rico said “that's the Junk” in which he was going to sail for “Atlantis.” It seemed out of nowhere, while talking, a stunningly beautiful red haired woman appeared walking towards us. Her green eyes sparkled. She plopped a black cat into Rico’s arms and walked away without saying a word.  Rico was taken aback, but then smiled and, petting the cat, said he’d finally found his familiar.

My memories about Rico have been rusting. He may have invited me to set sail with him. It seems he implied I had dark powers myself. All I knew was I wasn't going to have anything to do with magic myself.

I’m anchored out in Gate 5 water one day and see Rico rowing towards me. His boat bumps the stern of my cabin cruiser, and Rico starts talking. “Dolly left me” he says. He’s devastated. “I’m going to kill myself!” he laments. “Rico don’t talk like that,” I reply. “You don’t go killing yourself over a woman!” Somewhere in the dialogue, Rico also explains his coven has selected him to be its supreme warlock. He says rare is the man who long survives the bestowal of this position.

To be continued...

   

Rico from Gate 5 in Sausalito

Rico sported a mustache and goatee, and leaned towards the serious side. Actually he had somewhat of a menacing presence. At the least he exuded an air that warned people not to mess with him. He was little less than average height, with long hair to the neck, and had a packed, solid build. Rico was a generation older than most living in the Sausalito Houseboat Community circa 1971. He was building a wood boat when I knew him. It was a 30 foot double ended boat on stays off the swaying wood dock leading to his and Dolly’s flat bottom houseboat in Gate 5. I’d see Rico working and knew he was building a fine boat because I saw that for myself. Dolly had cascading red hair and alabaster skin. She was about 30 years younger than Rico and the love of his life.  

I lived anchored out on the water in my wood 25 foot cabin cruiser. I’d anchor out at different places at different times, maybe off the Heliport or Gate 3. Or maybe off Gate 6 or Gate 5. At any of these designations of waterfront location among the houseboat people, I’d anchor where ever I wanted. Nobody charged rent on the waterfront. I had paid $700 for the cabin cruiser with the anchor and chain thrown in for free.

I liked to move to one Gate for a time and then to another. I'd visit neighbors who anchored out, but I had friends who lived on docked houseboats to visit and a frequent need to land for food or to shower or do laundry. I’d skull my dinghy from my cabin cruiser to a dock and tie it up. Gate 3 was not as protected from the open sea as the other Gates. The Heliport, so named because it had a working heliport, along with Gates 5 and 6 generally had much calmer water. If there was a storm all bets were off and the wind and rain turned the water into a thrashing sea that amply demonstrated the power of nature. 

I anchored quite a bit off Gate 5, thus running fairly often into Rico working on his boat. I’d ask questions. Rico eventually felt he liked my company enough to invite me to his houseboat.

We probably smoked pot. We were talking, and at some point Rico claimed to be a Warlock. At that I instantly scoffed but he retorted “I could stop your heart now!" I shut up. I felt if he feels that way it might be true and I’d better just take him at his word. I didn't question his claim after that exchange. And we stayed on good terms.

Rico started to build a new boat. It was a long, slim boat that reminded me of a high end canoe. When it was painted and complete, I was impressed at how expert a craftsman Rico was. It was a splendidly built boat and Rico was justifiably proud of his work. But when he boarded it, I became aghast. The gunnels of the port and starboard sides lowered to hardly more than an inch above the water line. 

To be continued...       

It doesn't have to be perfect!

I once re-finished furniture for a living. A lady came into the shop one day with six chairs, wanting them colored white.  So I started bleaching them. I figured the “perfect way” to color them white was to get down to the bones of the wood. I spent days bleaching those chairs and although they lightened they didn't get white. The lady eventually stomped into my shop and took her chairs before they were done. All that work for nothing and all I had to do was spray a couple coats of white opaque lacquer over them.

Dining room set finished by the writer.

The job would have been done in two hours and the customer a happy camper.
Why didn’t I do that!? I suppose I think in the back of my mind a job has to be hard. No matter how simple every job has to be hard.

I’m learning. I don’t aim so much for perfection now. I aim to do the best I can. Perfectionism is motivated by errant thinking. Maybe it's motivated by a subconscious desire to get more kudos from a parent. Maybe it's caused by a deep seated mindset that accuses you of not being good enough; you feel a need to strive for perfection to prove that's not true.

Perfectionism is like a ball and chain. It punches the air out of you.

I want to do good work. I obtain much satisfaction from doing a good job on any task. Thinking back about the best work I did when re-finishing furniture, it was always inspired work. Spirit was enabling me to do the next right thing. I wasn’t sweating and had composure. Even if I was not certain how to match a rare color, I felt intrigued by the challenge so much so that it felt like an interesting journey.

Japanese tansu re-finished by the writer

I’m a beginning Spanish learner. When I try to talk perfect Spanish I’m going to stumble the words. I’m going to fret over how to speak with perfectly correct grammar. I took a bunch of cans and plastic bottles over to the recycling center a couple weeks ago. The young fellow taking and weighing the bottles speaks some Spanish too. We conversed in Spanish with almost complete mutual understanding and fluidity for about twenty minutes. If I'd worried about making mistakes or insisted on trying to talk in perfect Spanish---that would never have happened.

Many people have a positive form of perfectionism that drives them to achieve great results in their endeavors. I'm writing today about a negative form of perfectionism. I know people whose work is so well done it couldn't have been achieved without the force of a perfectionist spirit that comes in its positive form.

What kind of blog post suits you?

Technology is like hammers and saws for building a house. It’s a parcel of tools. It doesn’t ruminate or go nebulous. It’s for getting a job done. And that's what I like about technology posts.

Need to count the stars for a project in science class? Type into Google “I want to know how to count the stars?” Want to learn how to start a blog?  Type “How do I start a blog?” Google puts the most popular answers to the question at the top of the resultant page. You can go through more pages of lesser ranked results to find an answer perhaps better suited to your needs.

Google is like a taxi.  You tell the driver where you want to go.

I question Google a lot to find instructions on how to improve the internet visibility of Me Speaking. I want to know how to use hash tags or write HTML and how to improve my blog writing. Blogging is at this point almost more about reading than writing.

What motivates me to write? The core of it is writing itself. I write about what interests me and what I’m moved to write about. In the meanwhile I hope what I write also interests readers. I don’t write aiming at any particular niche or concentrate on a single subject matter.

I believe we share a commonality in our species. If I write about an experience or memory or about an idea or subject in the news and write well, I think readers will hear an echo and take an interest.

Besides technology posts, I like to read about personal experiences. A novice Spanish student explained how she conversed in Spanish all evening when she ditched perfectionism. That blog post captured my interest.  Every post at Bitchin' Ol' Boomer Babe is a story based on personal experience. You can’t contend with personal experience. It’s what happened.

If you have an interest in a subject, and you google the subject, many blogs will appear that focus on writing about that subject. Subscribe to a blog you like and you’ll get new posts whenever published. You can read and often comment. Any blogger worth his or her salt will reply.

The side effect that moves me.

I feel better when I rock. This subtle tension exists inside that I can’t abide. It's like I need to rock. Sit me down, except when driving, and I’m more than likely to start rocking where ever I am. I don't rock back and forth when I'm getting a haircut or when I'm typing.
 

Do people notice? I’ve had Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) at least four years, and once in a while I've caught a few. But most people don’t seem to notice. Only my best friend has ever said a thing about it or asked why I do it. It hasn’t made a difference in my social relations. It doesn’t change who I am. Only once did I observe that anybody looked askance at my rocking.

I think a huge majority of people respect norms of civilized social behavior. It must be so. I don't know how else to account for the respect people show me by ignoring my rocking back and forth disorder. I don't give a hoot about my TD either. I'm relaxed about it and people can sense that I am.

What causes Tardive Dyskinesia?  It’s caused by years of taking medication to treat mental illness. The very recently developed medications appear not to produce these side effects as compared to those developed earlier in the 20th century. Most psychiatrists prescribe the latest medications and it’s thought in medical circles that incidences of TD will diminish in the future.

I started accepting injections of Prolixon twice monthly in the early 1970s while going to an outpatient treatment center in Marin County. I had had several nervous breakdowns and know what’s it’s like to be strapped on a cart or put into a rubber room. I know what’s it’s like to look through a window and watch Fidel Castro exit a spaceship.

I’ve been taking either lithium or valproic acid regularly since 1983. Yet I earned a four year college degree. I worked as a journalist. I worked as a professional in furniture re-finishing. I know what can be done if you refuse to believe you are limited by those who assume you are.

Five Helping Hands Websites

Want help? Below are descriptions of five websites that offer help in different ways.

Begslist is a cyber-panhandling site where people build their personal donation center. Begslist claims this is easy and shows you how. The site is free for donors and solicitors. Once you write and post a beg, people who read it may help and can donate. A list of categories on the left of the homepage organize the types of begs. Examples include “disaster help”, “help paying rent”, “money for travel”, and “family crisis.”  

Lumosity is a website that is like a gym for the mind. It consists of more than forty exercises that improve, among other mental assets, memory, attention, flexibility, problem solving and speed. Lumosity recommends daily training and the sessions last about fifteen minutes. A month to month subscription costs $14.95. Lumosity tracks your scores for each exercise, and as you improve, gives more challenging exercises. It compares your scores to median scores for other people within your age range. One exercise shows the first three letters which can form various words. The more words you recall the higher your score.

Making Home Affordable allows entry to a U.S. government sponsored program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. The site presents step by step procedures which list various options which can make the difference between losing and keeping your home. Eligibility requirements exist, but the program aids homeowners to obtain lower monthly mortgage payments or to switch to a different loan at a lower rate. Unemployed homeowners can have their payments reduced to 31% of their income, or have their payments suspended for twelve months or more. The website offers HUD approved housing counselors who help to find your best option and guide you through the steps needed to navigate the process.

Retirement is the focus of this page at U.S. News Money. The page consists of retirement planning tools, news and advice. It shows where affordable locations in the U.S.A exist. It contains a blog called “On Retirement” with article titles such as “An Action Plan for Aspiring Early Retirees” and “How moving Overseas Cuts Retirement Costs.” Eye-catching, interesting looking links to various reports and info about retirement fill the page. There is information about how to make the most of your Social Security income and Medicare, and a section exclusively devoted to retirement concerns of the Baby Boomer generation.

No Longer Lonely is an online social community and dating website for people who live with the challenges of mental illness. Joining is free, but the site creator asks for voluntary donations to keep it going. It is like any other dating site, except it has chat rooms where people who have joined can talk about anything, including their mental health issues with other people more likely to understand. The site offers platforms for the display of member art, poetry and writing. 

Is The Borg about something happening to us?

It is central to the global transformation taking place bigger than ever. Like it or not, we are becoming more digitally connected. For some baby boomers, the loss of privacy has felt like a displacement. We prefer face to face contact. Others relish hours in chat rooms typing to “anonymous” people identified by “nicks.” I see people almost everywhere connected by devices.

We’ve got a world of Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter accounts. We’ve got millions of bloggers. We pick and choose the news we prefer to read. We follow the buzz and what’s trending. A few times though, I’ve wondered if this new digital age in which we live is producing an unintended outcome---a collectivization of the mind. I mean a global mind that hampers individuality. I’m going out on a limb. We’re not The Borg of Star Trek fame. The e-mail and social networking capacities provide significant leverage for individuals to be themselves to a greater audience than ever. So what am I trying to say?  Part of it is that privacy has been eliminated. Digital bread crumbs follow everybody using a cell phone. The Spokeo app allows access to virtually anyone. LinkedIn toots work accomplishments. Twitter allows you to follow trends on hot topics in 17 different countries.

This gets me thinking about The Borg. Star Trek fans already know. The Borg were a frightening interstellar species of cyborgs that consumed other species to incorporate the technology of that species within the Borg to enlarge its capacity. “…every Borg brain in contact with every other Borg brain at all times. They share a group mind---a kind of organic internet accessed with thoughts instead of computers.” The digital world accomplishes wonders and is used for great good. But is the human urge to connect and to know leading us astray?

The fact is scientists are developing a brain implant (chip) that will connect a person with the internet.  Estimated time of completion is 2020.
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By Steven Yates, Star Trek and Collectivism: The Case of the Borg
Star Trek Shows What a Society Ruled by the Collective Mind Would Look Like
April 1, 1997