Mary Louise Eklund

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  • Tuesday Thoughts – Childhood’s End SyFy Miniseries

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    This aired some time ago but as we are wont to do we recorded it then and watched it recently. The miniseries is based on a 1950s Arthur C. Clark novel of the same name. I think I read it back in middle school because the kicker in it I remembered. There have been some changes to story the ambassador between Karellen, Overlord Supervisor of Earth wasn’t a farmer but a Senator in the book. I rather like the change to a farmer. The adaptation is very good and has the gut emotional impact of the novel. The question is what if an alien came and made, forced peace on earth – gave us a golden age of no sickness and war. Why can’t we see them at first? What would that do to us in a generation? Would we take it or be suspicious of it? What in the end would be the price? Why would they give us a Golden Age? These are the questions of the novel and the miniseries that do get answers. If you haven’t read or seen it and want to explore these questions with the novel or the very well done miniseries don’t read after the cut and go do so. For under the cut there be spoilers and a discussion of where I felt the miniseries dropped the ball a bit at the end.  So if you continue on you are either like me okay with spoilers or you know the twist.

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  • Monday Memories – Being a Navy Wife

    Capt. Mike demo-ing a voice powered communication known as a growler.
    Capt. Mike demo-ing a voice powered communication known as a growler.

    I did it. I outlasted the Navy. My husband retired from service in May. For decades we served, yes we. As I said when I posted about family grams – Spouse is the hardest job in the Navy. So what can you do to help them out? First off remember now it’s not just wives, but husbands. Yes even the submarines are co-ed. Really we women can sink in can as well as a man. These brave service members leave behind their families for months at a time with very little communication. They return without the parades and parties ships or local National Guard get. So remember the Silent Service as well. I was asked what did I want as spouse back when Mike shipped out. I’ve thought about that for sometime. I find it hard to unpack all of that but I did come up with a few things. (more…)

  • Fictional Friday – Two Men In A Bar

    Photo by me interior of Matt's Mainstreet Pub here in Kenosha. It has a US Navy theme which is why we like it. Oh and great food!
    Photo by me interior of Matt’s Mainstreet Pub here in Kenosha. It has a US Navy theme which is why we like it. Oh and great food!

     

    This one doesn’t require much set up.  It’s something I’ve been working upon for a few months.  Here’s what you need to know:

    Luke is a private eye.  Susan Howard is the young wife of a dangerous billionaire.  Dean was a former want-to-be boyfriend that is now stalking about.  He is wanting to be a producer but not getting far given the very problems Luke points out here.  Nikki is Susan’s friend and personal secretary.    That’s the cast.  The situation is Mr. Howard has hired Luke to determine if Dean is any danger to Susan and second find a way to make Dean go away.  Here Luke finally shows his had to Dean at a bar. (Oh NSFW due to frank cursing.  Many F-bombs are launched here in this confrontation.)

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  • Throwback Thursday – Ollie Belle Hicks Rolen, my great grandmother

    Hicks Rolen, Ollie Belle wedding picture crop

    This is another of my great-grandmothers. We each have four, two from our mother and two from our father. This is my mother’s paternal grandmother or as we liked to call her Granny Rolen. No she’s not unhappy it’s just what we called for years the Rolen mouth, turns down in a frown when resting but after some genealogy research found out it’s the MacMahan mouth. Ollie was a strong woman.  She took care of her husband for years after a stroke left him an invalid. She raised her children alone getting temporary residence to send them to better schools. She lost a child to untreated asthma, doing all they could for the girl. She was living when I was young and I remember her well. She was a fun woman that loved to garden and show children how things worked. Of course when I knew her she was an old lady not the young bride she is here. This was her wedding day. For years I’d see just this photo but finally we turned up the other half with her husband Milas Lavator Rolen. Here it is uncropped and not cleaned up: (more…)

  • Wednesday Wildcard – My Collection of Ugly Carpet Pictures

    IMG_20151017_200956

    It all started when I was bored at a conference and noticed the hotel meeting room had horrid carpet. You’d never pick to go anywhere. I made a photo silently with my phone and e-mailed it to a friend in Britain that has as warped a sense of humor as I do. Well that started what has become a years long tradition of making a photo album of the ugliest carpets I encounter. Most have been convention centers and hotels. This one was a hotel in Georgia’s hallway. Lovely, eh, rushing out to Lowes to get it installed aren’t you.  I won’t shock your senses with more but do know I think with the last decade of collecting I am becoming an ugly public carpet connoisseur.

  • Tuesday Thoughts – The Revenant, Good Enough for Leo’s Oscar?

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    One cold weekend day Mike and I made it to a showing of Leo DiCaprio’s latest Oscar attempt The Revenant.  The story is an embellished telling of the Hugh Glass story.  They gave him a son and wife that in history didn’t exist.  Still the core of the story is real – Hugh was attacked by a bear (no not raped nor was Leo) buried for dead and came after the men that left him.  It happened in Spring/Summer not Winter.  But oh well, Hollywood has to up the stakes and pull the heartstrings, I get getting inspired by a true story and building upon it.  Now to the movie itself.  Do I think Leo pinned his Oscar here? (more…)

  • Monday Memories – School Valentine Boxes

    Valentines Card Box Bee Themed by ohsohappytogether on Flickr. She has so graciously granted rights via Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
    Valentines Card Box Bee Themed by ohsohappytogether on Flickr. She has so graciously granted rights via Creative Commons
    Attribution – NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic    . Be sure to visit her blog here. Click the image to visit her Flickr.

    I don’t think they do this any more.  I know Aaron never had to make one, but then again he may have opted not to.  It was something that was a chronic source of personal disappointment for me when I was in school.  The making of a Valentine’s Day box.  You see back then we had a Valentine’s Day party at school.  You made a box to put on your desk during the party for friends to drop Valentine cards into.  Later grades 3rd and 4th I think, there was a contest for favorite box.  I read this as best box, prettiest box, most popular box.  I so wanted this honor.  I never achieved it, never came close.

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  • Fictional Friday – Glomar Ghosts

    This bit of fiction has a historical basis. Let me tell you the facts that led to inspiration, leaving out any theories of conspiracy or cover up. First, the Soviets lost a nuke sub known as K-129 in March 1968. The US wanted to find it of course and study it. With the help of Howard Hughes the CIA got a special ship built named USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer. It was publicly a deep sea exploration vessel but underneath it was a sub retrieval vessel for Project Azorian which was the CIA effort to retrieve the K-129. They did retrieve the sub and bodies to which they gave a proper funeral, the video above. Once whatever was retrieved (sources vary as to what they got) the boat was mothballed for many decades.

    With this being fact I thought what if in the retrieval the ghosts of Soviet sailors started taking over the ship? What if one person who was sensitive saw them first but eventually all see them. They try the funeral but it doesn’t do it. The men’s souls have spent enough time in the sea and want the ship. The ship goes home gives up the retrieved intelligence and then the boat is mothballed to give it over to the ghosts. THAT is the story I told and here’s a part of it.

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  • Throwback Thursday – Short Skirts and TVs in Cabinets

    Bright, Mary Louise photo from brown photo album (8)

    That is me in about 1969. Yes the miniskirt was in full swing and I was hip to it. This was our home on Jennifer Street in Greeneville Tennessee. That TV there was black and white. It had two click dials one for VHF and one for UHF. We had cable that gave us five channels – ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and the riveting local data channel. This consisted of a wall with a clock, thermometer, day and date in a flip calendar, barometric pressure, and a board with weather conditions (cloud, sun, rain, snow flake stuck on a felt board) The exciting thing about it was there was a camera set up to pan over these in the line at a very slow. It was one for 24 hours seven days a week! You didn’t have to call time and temperature just turn to the channel and wait for the pan. The clock up there was made by my grandmother or my mom. I remember there was a bunch of bananas on it and one was black. I have the clock now, it doesn’t work but still reminds me of a time when cable was five channels and miniskirts were the best style going.

  • Wednesday Wildcard – Let’s Do It All Again and Again with Bill Murray!

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique
    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    We all know this movie. If you don’t please get thee to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, or wherever you get your movies now that Blockbuster is busted and see it. It is fabulous and for my money one of the best comedies ever. I’ve seen it more times than Phil in the movie re-lived February 2nd. Every time I belly laugh. It’s a rare thing to have a movie like that. So here’s to the books, poems, paintings, photos, movies, tv shows that always bring us joy. I’m going to share just a few of mine.  One that like Phil and February 2nd I repeat again and again.  (more…)