(insert descriptor) Life

What is the ratio of original thought to copy cat thought? 1:10? 1:100? More?

On holiday (vacation - which word, which word?), in Florida, I noticed there was a new car sticker on the market with the phrase "Salt Life". Living in the cold, arctic north and surrounded on all sides by land and "fresh" water, this hasn't made it to us yet. Meanwhile in Florida... every 10th car or truck had a Salt Life sticker and a few were emblazoned with "Swamp Life". What was this all about? As I don't own a television, I wondered if there is a TV show that promotes the Salt Life - whatever that may be.

Upon returning home it continued to niggle at my mind. What is Salt Life? Google being close at hand, I ran a search and found: www.saltlife.com. Okay, pretty cool, they took their passion and made it into a business with clothing, stickers, cafes, skincare, surf gear, etc. Great! What about Swamp Life? A similar search turns up images, a youtube link to a reality TV show, and other random items but no website. Copy cat or original thought? Who came first. I could swear there was another "Life" out there in car stickers but can't recall what it was. "Forest Life" maybe? Google is silent on that one.

Where am I going with this? I'm wondering what is happening to original ideas as more and more people seem to be jumping on whichever band wagon happens to be ahead of the crowd at the moment. I believe it started with "Live Strong" and the yellow bracelets. Remember them - the rubberized bracelets imprinted with a phrase? Of course, at first, they were all yellow and they were all imprinted with "Live Strong". And then... EVERYONE started making, selling, wearing rubber bracelets. They came in every color, they came in several sizes. They were branded, they were used for fundraisers, memorials, etc. They were everywhere. In fact, walk into Cheesie's Restaurant in Chicago and ask for Matt. He's sure to be sporting at least 1, a hold over from his days of collecting rubber bracelets.

And then, they were gone. A fad. We've seen fads before. But I digress from my original thought (pun probably intended): Everything seems to have a copy cat these days. Look at how the "Car Family Stickers" took off. First they were stick figures, then they were: zombies, star wars, athletes, Disney, Indiana Jones, animals,... you get the idea. I'll concede that the person who conceived of the above 3 examples had an original thought but then, how many copy cats came out of it?

What got this all started? I read an article the other day about the newest Milk ad campaign. The supporters of drinking more milk, who brought us the original idea of "Got Milk?" (which was copied by everyone as well) are now jumping on the bandwagon of "(insert descriptor) Life" with "Milk Life"...

Where are we heading as a humanity if we are better at copying than creating new?

I'd Rather be Here

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind. You wake up and realize that it all started going wrong before you even woke up and there is no right side of the bed to get up on? Yeah, THAT kind of day. This is one of them.

So far today I have:

1. Woke up 2 hours late due to not setting the alarm the night before. Here is the "going wrong before you even wake up part".

2. Got fired. The conversation went like this:

NOTE: I love my job and have the best boss in the world. The above certainly helped to bring a spot of sunshine to my otherwise bleak morning. :P

3. Couldn't get out of my own way while getting ready for work. Probably a symptom of the weird time warp due to waking up late.

4. Dropped my keys in a snowbank, somewhere, while moving my trash barrel out of the way. One minute they were in my hand, the next they were gone, gone, gone... Most likely sucked into the weird time warp space void I created by getting up late this morning. A HUGE thank you out to my neighbor Shawn for helping me to locate them. "I just saw a small hole in the snow!" says he.

5. Nearly ran out of gas on the way to work. Perhaps I exaggerate a bit. Quite possibly I was just under an 1/8th of a tank and would have made it to work and back just fine. But hey, my mom said never to go under 1/4 in cold weather and it was 1 out. ONE, I tell you! (Fahrenheit, Becky, Fahrenheit). I think the gas in my truck was sucked out while I was sleeping late. Gas Siphoning Gremlins broke into my garage and drank my tank dry. Uh huh...

6. Left my work sweatshirt at home. Fresh out of the dryer this morning and ready to go. I can see it now, curled up happily in a patch of sun on my kitchen table... sleeping. I'm sure it's much happier there than here in the cold. cold, COLD office.

7. I left my "Shop Shoes" at home. In Canada, you have 2 pairs of shoes for work (and home) - You have the shoes that you wear to get to work (known as "Outside Shoes") and the shoes that you wear inside the building at work (home, Dr. Offices, friends houses, etc) known at our workplace as "Shop Shoes". My Shop Shoes are enjoying a day of leisure, at home, while I am wandering around in my stocking feet waiting for my Outside Shoes to dry...

Interesting how quickly a day can roll downhill, like a giant snowball. For now, I'll dream of being here instead:

Another Fiesta!

Very pretty and made by my sister! Check it out! Another Fiesta!

Compassion

com·pas·sion

[kuhm-pash-uhn]

noun

1. a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

 

I had a difficult time in Florida with the "animal trade". Alligators in tanks, dried seahorses and blow-fish for sale, animal parts for sale...

 

Once upon a time I was the proud owner of several rabbits' feet. While I couldn't imagine having a foot from one of my own pet rabbits, I loved all things rabbit and didn't think twice about having a preserved, colored paw in my pocket at all times (I was 14). 

 

Today, it feels like buying death. Preserved Alligator feet hanging from jars of hot sauce & Jellies, dead animal parts topping pencils, alligator heads for sale, dead sharks floating in some blue preserving liquid... UGH! 

 

At least this guy is alive.

 

 

Happy Valentines' Day

To all my friends, near and far, Happy Valentines' Day,

May your hearts be filled with warmth and love. 

I love you.