Conspiracy Theory - TV

I am old enough to remember when only "rich people" had color tv's. Wait, I think I am old enough that I was around when no one had color televisions. Anyway, here is my conspiracy theory. I thought of it while taking the long route home since the ferries have really really really sucked of late. Like a 3 hour commute to work. Dang tourists. (just kidding, I liked it when I was a tourist over here) Dang me for not planning ahead. Geez, I used to give myself 30 minutes to get to work, now I am happy when I make it in 1.5 hours. (only 20-30 minutes of that is driving, the rest is coffee drinking, emailing, reading or drooling on my car window on the ferry when I doze off) Anyway, back to conspiracies. I read another blog (Buffy) and she posted about her frustrations with her tv workings since we left the world of analog signals. Antennas, converter boxes, etc etc. I read those, and thought, hmmm. good thing I don't have a smantzy tv or watch that much...because she sounds really frustrated.
When I hooked up our tv, and bought the required $45 fancy amplified antenna and then told the tv controller to 'find me some stations, baby', I thought it would be easy as punch. HA. After several tries, and moving the antenna around, and even having my ma hold the antenna up toward the ceiling as high as she could reach while I pushed the remote buttons... Nothing.
Absofrigginlutelynothin. So, let me understand this one. (If you are still reading this, here is the conspiracy part)
1. For me to receive a television signal, I need to BUY cable. I need to pay a company and they will give me some select channels to watch.
2. Or, I need to hook the tv up to my computer, go online, and watch tv shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT etc etc.
Conspiracy = This crap that is entertaining us feeble minded masses and telling us how to look, what to buy, and what is culturally significant (lord knows I follow that to a 'T') is no longer free, no longer unmonitored. If that is so, I shouldn't have to watch any commercials, since we have to pay for cable or internet access. Cable co's and internet providers now will know what we watch, when we watch. Where the heck is the mystery in that? That is why we have an overabundance of copycat shows. What an uncreative greedy bunch. And our lawmakers were fine with this? Load of crap, I say.
I should note that I am in one of my moods. I can feel the feist rising to my ears. It is good the urchins are in Disneyland with their pa. (or, maybe I am secretly sad I am not riding space mountain right now)

Ghost Story - Maritime Disaster on Puget Sound

Right down there. Under that water. Quietly rests a 1904 wreck.

Here is a tale of a ghost ship. One that went down so fast nothing was found. No life rings, no wooden rail, nothing. It is called the worst (worse?) maritime disaster on Puget Sound. About 39 people died. This was in November 1904. The little passenger steamship ferry was called the SS Dix. No one has been able to visit the wreck since it sits in 600 feet of water. And, of course, there was no gold on it, no one 'of merit' in the national sense perished so there has not been alot of modern interest in specifically locating it on the sea floor. But a whole community shut down in grief after this happened. No one residing in Port Blakely, Bainbridge, at the turn of the 20th century, went unaffected by this tragedy. The only female to survive was a young lady who the tale is told her pleated skirt filled with air and she floated. (Let's keep in mind sensational journalism is not new to our current media) Every other woman perished, since they wore heavy wool and corsets, and were downstairs in the warm interior room next to the steam engine. The ship went down in 6 minutes. About 35 other boys and men survived, along with the Captain of the ship.

The current Washington State ferry system floats dozens of times daily over the wreck. Sometimes I look in the water and get the heebie jeebies. It is down there and none of the 300-500 passengers know it. Well, except for me and the ferry captain.

Encaustic Art

Not encaustic art. Metal art. One of Don's many studebakers.. this one is named "Ruby."

Friend Colleen told me of an art class she signed up for. So I did too, not wanting to be left out of an encaustic art class, especially since I had no idea what that was other than wax. And the word caustic is in it. Making it seem both gentle (beeswax!) and wicked (caustic!) A long, long time ago rumor has it that I got an art degree, you may not know that other than I can B.S. about pretty much anything. (this is the side effect of art school, with our class reviews where we all gave our inspiration and what-not usually on very little sleep) Probably why I like writing or telling stories, it is elaborating on a commonplace happening. I tell my friend Don that I could probably tell a story about ANYTHING. As in, turn any ordinary happening into a story. I trip on my way to the barn on a tuft of grass. STORY MATERIAL.

Anyway. Encaustic art is layering wax on a board and doing all sorts of things to it. Carving, coloring, scraping, drawing, imbedding images, the sky is the limit. I am very hooked on this, and the woman giving the class is amazing. If you are in the Seattle area and want a great GREAT class... ask me. She not only teaches you all the ways you can work with this material, but she tells you where to get the stuff, how to make the colors, what a studio needs, etc etc.