Ideas, Musings, and Advice

Don’t Take that Money! The Politics of a Fundraiser

Karin Armbrust / August 25, 2019

The Auction Recently, I was at a friend’s benefit to help her get her new business off the ground. It was a typical event with an MC and an auction and a bunch of raffles. There was food, and music, and art. And there were a bunch of people wanting to support my friend. There was a piece of art on auction and I bid on it. At first, I was the only one bidding on it but then a married couple, who are also friends of mine, started bidding on it too. AHA! A BIDDING WAR! I was very excited. And the war started. Now, I’m having fun. The piece of art mattered less to me than the fact…

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My Noodle

Running Towards Fear

Karin Armbrust / August 18, 2019

Today, I am afraid. I’m deathly afraid and I’m afraid all the time. Trying to sort through the fear in any sort of meaningful way, seeing it as a whole, flummoxes me. I have an appointment with another health care worker and that makes it worse. I have a history of being fired by therapists, coaches, anyone who are supposed to help. I guess it’s a little like dating, after one too many bad dates, I feel like throwing in the beach towel. Today, I fear Death. Not Death itself, but the idea that it’s time for me to die. It might be next year, next month, tomorrow, or even today. I feel my mortality. Deeply. I am going to…

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Ideas, Musings, and Advice

Power and the Little Queen

Karin Armbrust / August 10, 2019

I remember they day I saw true power. True strength. And from a source I didn’t expect it from. The Dance I was at a Sunday dance at Ecstatic Dance Seattle. For those who don’t know, these are dances you can just go to and dance your truth. No one’s drunk and hitting on you. No one’s puking in the bathroom. You can just be yourself. At this dance there were a bunch of 3 to 4-year-old girls running around. It’s a family friendly dance.  Usually there are maybe one or two little girls, but this time a good dozen of them were there. I have no idea where they came from. Before the dance started, almost all of them…

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Ideas, Musings, and Advice

Solo Show? Challenge Accepted

Karin Armbrust / August 3, 2019

Only July 25, 2019, Sa-rah, from the Pocket Theater, put up a challenge to a group of people to put up a solo show in October. I wasn’t on the list… <sob>  Actually I was. Challenge accepted. What the hell did I just do? I’m already stretched thin with trying to get this blog organized, dealing with the take-over of my company, oh and my acid reflux is back with a vengeance and is keeping me from getting any sleep. And when I do sleep, I have weird dreams. Tom Ellis from “Lucifer” trying to keep me from being an over-eager fan of Salt, from Salt and Peppa, who has decided to become a film director. The Devil had to…

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Ideas, Musings, and Advice, Quotational Deliverance!

Karin and the Bitch-Slap

Karin Armbrust / August 1, 2019

Yeah, I’m on Crackbook. Uh, I mean Facebook. I both post things that are very personal and yet aren’t personal at all. I’m talking about quotes. I used to post things that are obviously directly relevant to me. (And still do sometimes) What I noticed was that everyone has an opinion. Everyone has advice. Everyone tends to get triggered by different things. I just don’t want to deal with all of that. But it usually only happens when it’s obvious that it’s “mine”. MINE. I own the words, the idea, the sentence, the offensive pile of sh!*t. That’s when I get pummeled with opinions with a side of shame and blame. That’s when everyone thinks they know how to “fix”…

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My Noodle

The Girl is Back in Town

Karin Armbrust / July 28, 2019

I’m back! Yes, I know it’s the most exciting thing you’ve heard in a long time. I mean, where did I go? What did I do? What was I doing for the last eight years? Why should you even care? I really recommend not caring. At least too much. For crying out loud, there are about 173 million blogs world-wide (according to mediakix.com). So, mine is the 173,000,001th. Not very exciting. Everyone is trying to say their piece and be known in the world. It’s all “Bread and circuses.” Who am I to add yet another voice to the madness that is our lives? No one. And that’s why I’m doing it. Like everyone else, I want to be known.…

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My Noodle

A Random Life

Karin Armbrust / September 22, 2011

I play a series of games on a website called Lumosity.com.  They specialize in brain training games and those of you who know me well probably realize that my brain needs lots of training.  The games are not like the video games that our beloved obsessive gamer friends know and love.  Games like Donkey Kong have rules and set patterns built into the game.  If you take the time, you can learn these rules and patterns to the point where you can win the game. Lumosity games are not like this.  Lumosity games deal with, to varying extents, randomness.  There are rules, yes, but there isn’t any way to learn the rules and patterns to guarantee winning.    You play the…

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My Noodle

The Hell of Self-Help

Karin Armbrust / September 2, 2011

I had downloaded an excerpt of a self-help book to my Kindle to see if I wanted to buy it or now when I noticed what was already on my Kindle.  There, staring at me in the face, was a “pile” of other half-read self-help books that I’d purchased previously.  If it isn’t bad enough that I have a bookcase shelf Full of half-read books I’m meaning to come back to, now I have it on my Kindle as well. Last week I didn’t read any self-help books.  I read filmmaking books, novels, and lounged around on my futon reading “O” and “National Geographic.”  I got my mojo back.  I started having fun again.  Maybe a little too much fun,…

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Snark

A Thank You to Western Medicine

Karin Armbrust / July 2, 2011

Dear Western Medicine, I am writing to you in order to express my tremendous gratitude for your existence in my life.  You have been so much a part of me since the day I was born that I’m not sure what I would do without you. You have such a high standard of education for all who are called to be practitioners.  It’s hard I know to learn how to gather symptoms and to categorize them so that you know what pharmaceutical to prescribe in order to maintain the problem.  And maintaining the problem is the main thing isn’t it?  After all, if everyone were cured then you’d be out of a job and it’s just not American to let…

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Snark

The Glorious and Honorific IE9

Karin Armbrust / June 25, 2011

Dear Microsoft, I have just upgraded to IE9 and I feel called to write you in order to express my divine gratitude for IE9 and for all the work that you do at Microsoft.  I feel so blessed and honored to use your products. I really appreciate that you put the upgrade into the important software updates category.  I know that for myself, I don’t always do what’s best for me and my computer.  I often look at the software updates with suspicion, especially when they are optional updates.  Do I really need the update?  What will it to my system?  When I saw that it was considered an important update and that it was a part of the automatic…

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