FORTEANA

Question Reality. I became a Physicist out of a desire to understand what the universe is all about. The world, I was to discover encompasses a wide variety of bizarre and unexplained events. Forteans (named after Charles Fort, a collector of oddities), tend to look at the anomalies with neither the jaundiced eye of the skeptic nor the wide eyed acceptance of the true believer. Writing between 1919 and 1932, Fort noted that people saw strange objects in the sky and that there are many unexplained anomalies. My personal take on Forteana is to enjoy the chaos and revel in the anomalous. There may be some element of the Trixter hidden in the framework of reality, and if that is so, perhaps we can engage it in creative play. The news group alt.misc.forteana is devoted to discussion of Forteana. The International Fortean Organization (INFO) which was founded in 1965, publishes a fine journal and plays host to a yearly conference. Their web page is listed among the Fortean links below along with a link to the video tape lecture series that I have edited.

RETIREMENT

When asked the question "What do you do?", like Henry in EraserHead", I say "I'm on Vacation". I used to be a Physicist, but I got over it. I have been gainfully unemployed for almost 10 years now, and I recommend the life style to anyone who can afford it. After working for the Federal government for almost 35 years and beginning to lose interest in my job, I went into training for retirement. This is a procedure that I found to be very effective. For my last year of employment, I simply began spending more and more time on my hobbies and interests until I reached the point where work was really starting to interfere with my other activities. Then I could walk away from it with out ever once regretting my decision. Just about everyone I know who is retired says the same thing, "How did I ever find the time to work?". You do occasionally meet someone who wonders what they will do if they retire, these are the unfortunate souls who had defined themselves only in terms of their occupation. This, can work if you absolutely love your job, but unfortunately many grow weary of what they once loved but feel the need to keep on working. I really took to heart the wonderful discussion about "Following your Joy" in the "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth" PBS series. Anyhow, that's what I am trying to do. I spend a lot of time doing the things that I love, video making, kayaking, and skiing. I don't play in as many LARPs as I used to, but I also occasionally video tape the actions at some of these events. I do some work with the International Fortean Organization (see the Link below). My wife likes to travel and so although I'm not a seasoned traveler, I expect that we'll be doing quite a bit of that as well. We did take a delayed "honeymoon" and spent one week in Greece and two weeks in Turkey. We also recently had a wilderness trip into Canada's Quetico Provisional Park. A good news group for those retired or planning on retirement is soc.retirement.

LINKS

FORTEANA:


INFO HomePage: The International Fortean Organization
VideoDave's Fortean Video Lectures: Seminars on a Variety of Bizarre Subject

Alt.Misc.Forteana : A Fortean News Group with an unfortunate amount of SPAM


RETIREMENT:


Our Retirement House: Lets get away from all the congestion and move to WV

ThirdAge: A Web Site that addresses Retirement Issues

Canada's Quetico Park: Retirement Fun?

Soc.Retirement : A Retirement Oriented News Group



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