• pickersplock said on Apr 07, 2008....

  I remember that movie, and I know what you mean.........

• TinSoldier said on Apr 07, 2008....

  I don't know, bud, 'cause even before the Internet I would rather get caught up in a book or something.
  
  But still, cool nick and interesting intro. Welcome!
  

• Twylarants said on Apr 07, 2008....

  Welcome to Soulcast, Walter. I remember that movie...yeah, that was a long time ago.  I'm kind of Mittyish myself, but I'm older now and there are no more little ones around to snap me out of my daydreams. I'll look forward to your motorcycle posts... all 4 of my boys ride.
  
  Twyla
  

• lionesss said on May 08, 2008....

  hello to you, i will be dropping by your post again
  xx lionesss

• gingersoul said on Jun 27, 2008....

  Walter...great post.....i don't know why i didn't read it earlier..
  
  About the fantasy world we all live in...yes, i know its danger and his lies bu t also the terrific enrichment of our lives...
  
  I want see the positive because internet has been a source of constant surprises and help for me .....i honestly wouldn't survive more than two days without it...  so i feel your pain.....lol...
  
  Btw...motorcycles you said?.......nice.....what kind?
  
  
  

• WalterMitty said on Jun 28, 2008....

  Thanks for commenting Ginger, I haven't read this since I posted it.
  
  A few developments.
  I did not buy the XBOX 360-but a Wii.
  This doesn't sound like a big-deal, but for a former hardcore adult gamer it is.
  The Wii's games are more for my kids than for me.
  In the past the xbox came out when they went to bed-now it's something we do together instead of simple tv (with a helluva lot less commericals)
  
  This also gives us time to focus on things less digital.
  
  I've watched my students (I'm a high school teacher) feel more proud of their virtual accomplishments than their real ones...I realized I was doing the same.  Saving the world with great graphics is sexier than grading papers or studying for a test.
  The web is also great (I'm leading my fantasy baseball league, and really enjoying posting on this site) but I'm finding there is enough offline that is entertaining and more satisfying as well.
  PS-Everyone should go see WALL-E. kids or no, it's a great movie, and it has a very strong commentary on where humanity is headed.  The movie doesn't club us over the head with its message, but like all great art, it still makes it's point on one level, while entertaining on another.
  
  Anyway,
  I currently ride a Honda Shadow 750.  It's powerful enough to tour around my area, the more I ride though, the more I want more.  I see an 1100 in the near future.
  
  It's 100 degrees today, so the ridings out...I think I'll take the kids for a shaded hike...then play the Wii instead of watching Disney channel.
  

• secretlife said on Jul 01, 2008....

  ok, this was a great post and i'm glad i found it.
  you really had me laughing at the first part, and you really explained your nickname in a fantastic way.
   
  we have some stuff in common walter-  i am an ex high school teacher, my 18 yr old daughter is out seeing wall-e as i type, and i think it's much more important to focus on real life than digital-  amusement is one thing, but reality is where it's at.
   
  of course my 12 yr old is attached to his Wii........and i prefer harleys to hondas!  c'mon...go for the harley!

• gingersoul said on Jul 01, 2008....

  Walter...sorry for not answering sooner to your long comment to my comment...lol...
  
  First..... i have to say...no way...stick with the Honda.....Harley are soooo overated....lol..
  (understood, Secret?...hi, girl......)
  
  My ex husband and i bought a Honda Sabre, after all....so beautiful....
  
  For the rest.....i agree with you but unfortunately, me being a  working single parent, i found that sometimes i have to surrender to the fact i don't have a double that can do all the things i would like to do with my daughter...and so, if i am working overtime or during the week ends and she is not visiting some friends and doing what kids do (right now going to swim, playing at the park, t-papering trees and talking about boys...she is 13...) there are times she is in front of the comp or the tv longer than i would like...
  
  But she is in the Girls Scout since 6 y-o and plays soccer and volleyball regularly, has lots of friend sand is a very active girl... and yesterday she went back  from a 10 days summer camp....
  
  No cell, no tv, no computer there...and she loved it........:-)
  

• WalterMitty said on Jul 02, 2008....

  Ah, the harley-honda debate.  Who says digital isn't like real life?  I originally got the honda because I'm not much of a mechanic (biker cred slipping away, I know) and honda's virtually run themselves.  I have heard harley's are the opposite.
  I'm going to move up in a couple of years, the bike's great for going around the city-but any trip over 2 hours is a bit much, and when I do so all bets are open.
  
  Secret-have you noticed a 'clique' factor with harley riders (I'm not including you BTW)?  A friend of mine sold her Harley on Craig's list-and a couple of us rode with her-any excuse to ride.  She sold the bike to a 19 year old who is part of a family of bikers-this was his first one, he had literally been saving up for this bike since he was twelve.  To watch him pay for and take control of something he'd been dreaming of for years was inspiring.  I mentioned "You're smiling so wide you'd better watch out that the bugs don't get in your teeth." We all laughed...
  Except one guy.
  There were three of them-the kid, his dad (mom stayed home-but she's a biker as well) and an older gentlemen-I'm assuming a family friend who came to make sure all was on the level.
  Forgot to mention they're all Harley riders.
  The older guy wouldn't even look at my friend (who owns a stratoliner (I call it a straolounger-and keep telling him he's one bike away from a goldwing) and I.
  As we left I remarked that was weird-and my pal told me, we weren't riding harley's-so that guy wouldn't give us the time of day.
  I really don't know if that's the case (curse of being an eteranal optimist) but I have heard harley owners verge on the snobbish.
  
  Secret- what did you teach. I would assume English (like myself) but I know what assuming does.
  
  Ginger-
  My kids wii and tv more than I would like as well. That is part of growing up in the 21st century...+ the Wii is pretty cool. My 9 year old daughter is playing the Harry Potter game-each spell has it's own 'wand movement'-pretty nifty. I must add she's read the entire series three times-so I know she can imagine  on her own.
  
  I guess that's the key-can they imagine on their own when so much is done so realistically now?  When I was a kid I played Atari and intellivision (anynoe remember those) the graphiscs were such-that I had to imagine while playing the game.
  Or if I was outside by myself throwing and catching a baseball . I would imagine Wrigley field, and myself in Cubs pinstripes-pitching in the bottom of the ninth...etc.
  Now-computers can put kids in that position with the best graphics possible, so they feel they are there-and it doesn't require much effort on their part. Except  to let the computer/tv/internet do the work. It's AWESOME, it really is fun-I guess I want to make sure that we and our kids don't lose the ability or the desire to create our own images.
  
  I teach an elective film studies class, and I show Jaws. I highlight the opening scene-pointing out that we don't see anything happening, which makes the scene more terrible because our mind paints a picture of what is happening to the poor swimmer, and that is more horrible than any special effect.  I show the scene-and we discuss it.
  I had about five students who said the scene was not scary-one even said funny- BECAUSE they didn't see any gore. It was just a woman moving around.  I processed this for a moment and realized their minds didn't fill in the gaps-their brains have been trained to take what's on a screen at face value.  * They were the minority in the class BTW-it's still an effective scene, but I wonder if it will grow less and less effective as we lose the desire and ability to make our own pictures.  Like any muscle, if it's not exercised, it's functionality decreases
  I felt sad for them.
  
  

• gingersoul said on Jul 02, 2008....

  Walter....what you say is really interesting....
  So i guess i dont have to worry about my daughter's brain....still......lol..
   
  We had this converastion lately...
  She asked me if she coudl see "Shining"...that i consider the best ever thriller movie made.....exactly because there is not that much gore and blood but an overall oppressive sense of expectation and waiting all over the movie....factor that creates the real thrilling mood...
   
  Well..she said that she would have loved it because she cant stand any of these bloody scary movies at all...the blood doesn't do anything to her..what she likes and she is scared of the most is the sense of waiting imagining the possible next scene.
   
  I think we have a winner here....lol...
   
  She has few videogames too....only X-Box ...she did play with Wii and she loved it because she could move her body along with it...
   
  Again...Honda, baby, Honda.....lol...

• secretlife said on Jul 02, 2008....

  yes English.  i was 22 and fresh out of college, and only managed a couple of years-  i did long-term sub for two women who took 6 months off for maternity leaves, then a stint 6,7,8 grade for a year, then found myself just subbing and hated it (plus i was broke and making more money in 2 days working at a deli than 2 weeks subbing) so after a few months got a job at AT&T (right after divestiture) and began my long career in with the telcom's as a technical writer/systems analyst)-  i used to tell myself i was going to get into the corporate training path, but then we outsourced all of that in the late 80's, and i decided i was pretty good at what i was doing, so have been riding out the downsizings, righsizings, force reductions ever since......
   
  when i met my husband he rode a 1950 harley panhead that he pretty much built himself, and continued to rebuild for our first 8 years together.  he aways made fun of any non-harley....like it was an inside joke really------very politically incorrect- but back then nobody was politically correct....
   
  i could tell you some funny stories about the riding we used to do-  he never EVER drove without a tool pack, and very seldom did we take a cruise where we wouldn't find ourselves pulled over near some meadow and him down on all fours fixing or tightening or SOMETHING....it was really very funny.  and when you rode with a group, they ALL carried tools- and always someone had an issue....
  but that was really the whole scene- knowing your machine....being able to tinker with it at any given moment, and despite all odds, getting to your final destination (albeit 2 hours late).  so yes, there's an element of snobbery in the whole thing, but also alot of pride in the history of harley, the american-made thing (this is actually funny too nowadays when i'm almost positive those parts have to be being made somewhere overseas), but back then you had a harley, and it was AMERICAN! 
   
  this was mid 80's and my husband is 52 now....4 years older than i am, and a product of a 50's upbringing in a very working class irish/catholic family.  these values were instilled in him, and also in me to a large extent.
   
  we stopped riding in 1988, when my brother in law, who was then 26, got into an accident with his honda (no idea the make, but it was a large honda...too big for a first bike) and was killed.  he was just a boy really, and looked up to my husband alot.  he bought the bike because he saw how much fun we had, and wanted to be part of that.  after his death, my husband lost the heart-  he felt responsible.  and he sold his lovely panhead and for the next 18 years didn't even think of riding.  a few years ago, his brother in florida took a job as a motorcycle mechanic, and while visiting him, the two of them did ride.  i know he dreams of his old harley, and riding again.....and i know someday, maybe when our kids are grown, we'll go back to it....
   
  i hope by then we will have the old-folks model harley without the suicide clutch, and maybe with a windshielf and a comfortable seat.....lol....oh the memories make me smile tho.  have any idea how many bugs i've ingested???LOL
   
  thanks for the smiles.  glad you're here!
   

Comment on "Walter Mitty's not-so-secret life (A challenge)"

Currently tagged	modern life blogging reflection life challenge fantasy (Click to add tags below)
Tag this post	(Separate tags using commas, for example: New York, dating, vegetarian)
Your comment
	Comment Anonymously