More Explore

Small random stuff or NaBloPoMo Day Five

2011-11-05T00:07:00.006-04:00

[Cross posting from the NaBloPoMo blog: My Blog http://ladydayelle.wordpress.com/]

#nowplayingwhileblogging: Camera One - Josh Joplin Group

So...

-Andy Rooney, journalist and essayist, best known for his curmudgeonly, but wry observations on the long runner, "60 Minutes" died yesterday. The clips remind us what a great loss his unique perspective was. It was funny that they aired the segment where he was adamant about not taming his eyebrows. I observed when I saw it earlier in the day that they reminded me of the Grinch's eyebrows. When puzzling why they were airing "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" on now, just a few days after Halloween on ABC Family tonight, I did put forth that they may have been airing it as a tribute to our favorite kindly Grinch on "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney. Me just supposin again...

-Extremely tired and feverish so I've done minimal writing and blogging and lots of listening to music. I add to my eMusic stores some songs I thought about, but had not tried to find such as the song listed above. I also added titles like God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, Johnny and Mary by Robert Palmer, I Didn't Mean to Turn You On-both the Robert Palmer and the original Cherrelle versions, Still In Love by Troop, When the Rose Is Sown by Big Country, and Do You Wanna Get Funky by C+C Music Factory.

-I actually livetweeted "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" under the hashtag #howthegrinchstolexmas and part of The Wizard of Oz under #wizardofoz. The loudest laughes in the household came from me observing that the scenes in Munchkinland played as if it was Law and Order: Special Witches Unit and my pointing out the "Bawstin accented" words of Ray Bolger (Scarecrow-grew up in Dorchester) and Jack Haley (Tin Man-grew up in Boston, possibly Southie). With the references to Law and Order, it would make my day if when I continue livetweeting tomorrow I find a clever way to link Chris Meloni (Law and Order SVU) and Kathryn Erbe (Law and Order Criminal Intent) to the Wizard of Oz since they were both involved in Oz at some point.

Oh priorities...

Never forget:

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not here any more." -The Ghost of Christmas

Playing With the Writing Prompts or NaBloPoMo Day Four

2011-11-04T01:38:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the momentous blog post for Day Four, I am going to combine some of the recent writing prompts that NaBloPoMo has provided in the past few days in this post.

I am not new to writing prompts. Livejournal (livejournal.com) provides them on the home page with a link that allows you (once it is clicked) to go immediately to your blog and commence wiritng. Wordpress.com provides prompts on the page that appears once you post something to your blog. In fact, the page is a helpful tip list that provides things like recommendations for tags for that post, how many words the post was, when you last posted and of course prompts to help create future posts.

One of the cool things about participating in NaBloPoMo are that they provide prompts because as I've said and even such luminaries as David McCullough (who make it look easy) said: Writin' is TOUGH.

Admittedly I usually don't use prompts. When I do blog, I pretty much know what I want to say and just say it. A prompt really has to grab my interest to make me use it. I can't quite say what that it is. I have no "heart in the box" yardstick (see the 11/3/11 episode of 'Grey's Anatomy for further explaination). However when a prompt strikes me the right way, there is music to be made.

So without further adieu...

[Caveat - the prompts I am listing will be my paraphrasing of the actual prompts provided. Have to do that for the nitpickerz out there. ]

Prompt: Do I listen to music when I write and if so, what?

Answer: I completely listen to music. Always have. It comes from growing up in a household where the radio or stereo or tv was playing something all the time. I am actually one of the people who miss the boombox era where you'd walk down the street especially during the summer and you'd hear great music-everything from the latest tunes to old time music. In another life I probably would have been a record producer. I say that because I put together actual playlists and have burned specific cds for writing. My musical taste is all over the place. I grew up with what might be termed Rhythm & Blues (that's what was played by my family usually). I also like funk, jazz, alternative, classical, hip hop, varying flavours of rap (I came of age during gangsta rap), new wave punk, jpop, etc.

I name my playlists according to what it reminds me of. So I have two playlists for my 'Angry Gondals' stories about the Northern, Southern and Unique Societies: The Kindred Spirits playlist and the The Kindred Spirits' Scotch. The characters in these groups refer to each other as "kindred spirits" because they are fighting on the same side. They also refer to allies outside of these groups this way. The songs in this are about fighting, overcoming, secrets, rallying, etc.

I came up with the "Scotch" series of playlists on reflecting that I wanted to put together a series of songs that were the kind of songs you'd feel inclined to drink scotch or another alcoholic beverage to. These are songs that are usually sad, full of longing, pain and regret - essentially a "What The Hell" list. Not surprisingly, lots o' Morrissey, RobinElla, Badly Drawn Boy, Solomon Burke, Bobby Womack, Joy Division, New Order, Billy Stewart and the like.

Right now I'm listening to a "Drive" list, which are songs that I would want to play if I were doing long distance driving and the song playing right now is "Aint No Future In Yo Frontin' " by the late MC Breed.

Prompt: Do I write on paper first and then write on a computer?

Answer: Sometimes. I did this a lot with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I confess that I really hate typing. I could never make my living transcribing. I generally plug things I believe in and use. I do use Dragon Naturally Speaking and I highly recommend it for those who hate the donkey work of typing. Admittedly you have to train it, but compared to IBM's Via Voice, which I had in the dark ages 10 years ago, it's the difference between washing your dishes by dishwasher and washing them by hand. I still at times have to go in and edit, but this is easier for me to do it seems.

For straight ahead blogging, I don't write on paper first. At most, I will write down talking points on papers and use it as a guide when I create a blog post. For example, the piece of paper next to me has the writing prompts listed and a one word example underneath each prompt. Everything else is me "feeling my flow." ("Feel Me Flow" by Naughty By Nature is a great song to write too along with Big Country's "Poorah Man.")

I do enjoy writing on paper. I like watching my hands form letters and for the amount of time spent in school practicing cursive, I want to get my money's worth out of it.

Prompt: What would I want for my last meal?

Answer: This struck me as funny because the day before I watched the Top Chef - All Stars marathon and one of the challenges for the final was to cook the last meal for three top chefs:: Michelle Bernstein, Wolfgang Puck and Chef Morimoto of Iron Chef and Iron Chef America fame. I also remember this challenge in Top Chef: NY with Jacques Pepin loving that the chef that cooked his meal (Carla Hall, currently on 'The Chew,' owner of Alchemy by Carla Hall) got the peas just the way he wanted them. What stuck me about the choices that the chefs in both seasons of Top Chef made is that they chose simple food connected with a strong memory usually of home and Mother. These are people who could have asked for the most complex meals and flavor profiles and didn't. Wolfgang Puck wanted Apple Strudel, Michelle wanted chicken, biscuits and gray and Morimoto wanted a hamachi bento. Jacques Pepin in the other season wanted roasted squab with peas. The cheftestants, though presented with these simple requests, did, manage not just to give them what they wanted, but to elevate the dishes to give each something special.

My last meal would be simple, but odd. I want fried chicken. It has to be fried chicken done right. My mother made the best fried chicken. Unlike what you get at Popeyes and Kentucky Fried Chicken (which these days can be really salty depending on the franchise you go to), my mother knew how to get the batter just right and fry the chicken just right. Anyone that can come close, would be a hero in my book. I'd also want plain udon soup. I've always liked it. Key lime pie for dessert. I used to have it every year for my birthday, but I can't get it homemade anymore. I would also want Mitsuya Apple Cider to drink. I came across the stuff when I was in Japan during my high school years (before the bubble not only burst, but left a huge crater where prosperity used to be). I couldn't get enough of the stuff.

So there you have it. An extremely long post using the writing prompts. Not bad. All me, Nothing more to say except goodnight and good luck.

More Random or NaBloPoMo Day Two

2011-11-02T20:04:00.000-04:00

Here we are at Day Two.

Just finished watching the Shaun Cassidy segment on the 'Best of Oprah' on the OWN network. It was one of those channelsurfing moment. It wasn't a bad segment, though I wished that Oprah had spent some time on how he managed to not go down in flames as had several of his contemporaries and carve out another career as a producer and writer. They mentioned it in passing, but Biography did a better job of covering this.

Speaking of writing, what I love about Shaun's work is that he does shows that not only tell a great story, that explores things like family, community and the absurd.

I first became aware of his career "behind the camera" with the series 'American Gothic'. I also watched 'Roar,' which is now more remembered as being the place where most Americans first saw the late Heath Ledger. I also remember it because Bill Maher tried to take Shaun to task about the show on 'Politically Incorrect' because a character on 'Roar' was of African descent and Maher felt that they were pandering to audience pressure to be inclusive on a show that takes place in Iron Age. Shaun, who was minding his own business, calmly corrected Maher, by letting him know that research was done and that it was possible for that character to exist and no pandering happened.

My own writing:
Two days - 1000 words so far. The working title for the NaNoWriMo project is 'In a Moment.' I've been working on how AG Rochelle ended up imprisoned and how Julian discovers and rescues her. As these are Gondal characters, the only clues are really from the poems that Emily about this.
I've spent time cleaning up and updating blogs. I finally moved all of my old NaBloPoMo posts from the old NaBloPomo site on Ning to a new home on Wordpress. I'll be getting the Blog365 posts soon. So now my only presence on Ning will be at the Bolt site.

I need to get going on the radio soap, which I think I'd like to do as a parody/satire, having really enjoyed watching 'Guiding Plight,' which like that great show, 'Soap,' pays homage to while wonderfully skewered the genre that feeds it.

So ends the Day Two Post. See you for Day Three.

NaBloPoMo - Day One

2011-11-01T20:32:00.015-04:00

So it's Day One of the NaBloPoMo thing and the NaNoWriMo thing.

A goal for this year is to definitely be more constant in my blogging for NaBloPoMo. The last two years I thought I would have one feed into the other by blogging about the novel that I working on, especially since I don't attend a lot of write-ins and since I noted in the last day of the first NaBloPoMo that I participated in that finding content is tough. The good thing about NaBloPoMo is that prompts are provided to help with struggling to find content. Though I must say that even with that, I still didn't really use them.

I'm pretty much going back to the "old format" where I combine random posting with posting about my writing. I am also encouraged by the fact that John Quincy Adams maintained a line a day journal. I can definitely do that, the Twitter master that I am.

In addition to posting content here as a part of the official NaBloPoMo, I will still be posting/crossposting at the usual places:

More Explore
http://moreexplore.blogspot.com/

A Writing Exploration
http://ladydayelle.livejournal.com/

My Blog (where the posts from the old NaBloPoMo site and the blog360 site at Ning are housed-I'll cross post the new blog here)
http://ladydayelle.wordpress.com/

My Social Issue Awareness and Action Blog (I blog about issues that come up on Bloggers Unite, Change.org and other current cause)
http://kitlat.wordpress.com/

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not here any more." -The Ghost of Christmas

Random Moments of Funny on TV - to me

2011-10-24T00:14:00.000-04:00

Frasier: There are many, but the Marty and Ronnie wedding takes the cake. No air conditioning, manure delivery, Daphne's brothers (played by Anthony LaPaglia, who totally must have enjoyed a break from being the deadly serious Agent Jack Malone on Without a Trace, Robbie Coltrane, and Richard E. Grant) getting the flower girl drunk, Daphne giving birth in the vet's office - yeah.

GI Joe Renegades: There is really only one episode - the one where Duke gets thrown in the big house and Scarlett after failing to infiltrate in the ways that you'd think would be successfully ends up having to go undercover as a redneck/white trash pregnant stereotype let loose from the Maury Show or Jerry Springer. If that was not funny enough, once they get into the truck and beat it out of Dodge, Duke looks at Scarlett, who is still wearing her disguise and asks how long he's been inside.

My Wife and Kids: Michael's battle with the mouse. This was over the top stupid. From the profiling to the Rambo night ops mission to Michael actually believing that the mouse orchestrating the cat's assassination by their oldest daughter. Of course the point is made during this homage to the movie "Mouse Hunt" that if he had just had a professional take care of the mouse, it would have saved a lot of trouble (but there wouldn't have been a story).

Whose Line Is It Anyway: So, so many, but one of the favorites has to be Colin's "monkey, monkey chew the butter" weird jump rope chant for the 'Scenes from a Hat' segment. More of a "What The?" moment.

Star Trek: TNG: Anything that has Data's demon cat Spot. Apparently Data is clueless that his cat is descended from the same cat that showed up on Friends (one of the where Rachel spends $1000 on a cat that totally hates her) and the cat on the short lived series Committed where one the characters tells the other that she had brought evil within the house. "Capt. Picard Day" - just the concept and Picard's reaction to it was hilarious.

The Law and Order franchise: Not a lot of funny moments for this show. A lot of them are "What The?" moments or mildly funny moments. Two were perpetrated by Logan-one on Prime where he stops a fleeing suspect with a garbage can lid a la Tom and Jerry. The other was on Criminal Intent, where only he could start this huge mob fight between the police and the firefighters. The fight opens the episode with poor Wheeler on the ground calling for backup/help. Then we see how they got there and you understand why Ross probably had a bottle of Maalox in the drawer all the time.

Briscoe taking pleasure in taunting Munch about sleeping with Munch's ex-wife every chance he got especially during a stakeot in a cemetary was just....funny and wrong.

John Quincy Adams - the first Tweeter

2011-10-20T15:28:00.000-04:00

The Massachusetts Historical Society has since 2009 been tweeting a line a day from the journals of the 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams.

President Adams fils (son) has kept a journal since boyhood, having been encouraged to do so by his father, President John Adams, who also kept a journal and authored many essays and letters. In fact, this Adams family has been a goldmine for scholars of the early history of the United States of America since members in this family (including the women) documented many aspects of their lives - domestic and political, which at times were one and the same.

It turns out even further that President Adams fils also mantained a journal where he recorded what happened in his life, but only using about one line a day - clearly the ancestor of tweeting. It is from this journal that a project was set up to actually tweet these lines on the date that they were written (some 200 years to the date later) daily.

The Twitter handle is: http://twitter.com/#!/JQAdams_MHS.

The link to the Massachusetts Historical Society project: http://www.masshist.org/adams/jqa.php.

Hiding

2011-01-05T10:40:00.000-05:00

People are surprisingly good at hiding. We hide because we have an image to maintain. We hided because we don't want to spend years trying to take back our identity from identity thieves. We hide because we fear things like the truth or being confronted with the truth.

Sometimes hiding is necessary. Sometimes you need to hole up and come out renewed again.

Many times hiding is just delaying the inevitable: the inevitable reveal, the day or event that you fear.

The one of the tricks as always is knowing when to hide and when not to. A larger trick is knowing that all the hiding in the world will not make the world go away so you have to deal with whatever stuff is left behind.

Motivation

2011-01-04T18:58:00.000-05:00

Motivation is a funny thing. It's amazing that a person can be motivated to travel great distances to do the thing that's fun, but not the thing that they ought to do.

This is because the things that we ought to do routinely and diligently are usually NOT FUN.

Picking up your clothes, paying bills, cleaning the kitchen, putting together a shopping list - NOT FUN.

Watching movies you haven't seen in a while, doing tons of shots the night before you have to show up for another mindnumbing day of work, recreational sex - FUN

Unfortunately, when we are motivated to do the FUN things instead of the NOT FUN things and not do the NOT FUN things at all, bad things usually happen.

Being a responsible adult means you dig down and find the motivation to do the NOT FUN things because they need to be DONE.

Sunday morning coming down

2011-01-02T15:41:00.027-05:00

Sunday-the day after. This when you sleep in-but not too much. You re-adjust and re-evaluate. You are picking up after the previous evening's bachannale, which often serves as a reminder to never overindulge in your own liquor.

The first Sunday after New Year's is especially sobering because the haze of the holiday season wears off. All that Ebenezer Scrooge TMOC (True Meaning Of Christmas)/The Whos' Roast Goose/Tiny Tim's Razzleberry dressing stuff goes to the wayside. I personally feel that if you haven't been practicing the TMOC all year round, it's a bit inefficient to wait until one season out of the year to practice it when you can build upon it throughout the year.

So if you are into sports-this is an important time. College Football is winding up with the BCS Championship Bowl, the culmination of a season. Pro Football is finishing the regular season and everyone is thinking about the Superbowl.

Everyone else is working on keeping resolutions and beginning again.

As for me, the last three months of 2010 were not filled with warm and happy thoughts. New Year's was even a reserved affair. I knew that when I woke up Sunday morning, that all the things that were left in the old year was facing me in the new year. I wouldn't be beginning again, but taking up what was already there.

On New Year's Day

2011-01-01T00:06:00.001-05:00

We celebrate New Year's Day by watching the Rose Parade, the Rose Bowl (and assorted other bowls, though rather than being known by animals, plants and party terms, many carry corporate names),going to the mall, going to the movies, taking down the Xmas tree (if you have one), playing U2's "New Year's Day" and watching the Twilight Zone Marathon on Syfy.

We take a moment to ponder it all, before we go back to what passes as normal life. Resolutions are made and they will be broken. For those who enjoy momentary warm weather, we wonder if there is another storm on the horizon.

If we are into sports, we wonder who will win the BCS Championship Bowl, if our favorite pro football team will get the nod to the Superbowl and if you are a baseball fan, you will be counting the days until opening day. If you are into skating, your eyes are on the US, European and other country championships and hope that your country's team will stand aloft the podium at Worlds.

If we are not, we think of other things.

I'll be thinking of many things. My uppermost thought is to do as much as I can with the time that I have.

Winter is here

2010-12-22T19:43:00.000-05:00

The Snowpocalypse part two is upon the city - meaning that people will behave even more badly than usual. The year is ending and the TMOC sentiment and Grinchly feelings war again and a weird pas de deux that make the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavelier look tame.

50,333

2010-11-30T11:22:00.000-05:00

50, 333 words.

50, 333 words in 29 days. I can't believe it either. I was going to write a very different result for this year's NaNoWriMo, but I somehow found the strength over the Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend to go past the 45,000 I clocked in, starting last Saturday.

I did use a combination of paper, Dragon Naturally Speaking and typing to complete the 17 Days collection, which is a scruffy but suitable first draft. I hope to have the strength and desire to edit it.

This year's NaNoWriMo was tough for me. I really did not have it in me at times to finish. I experienced two very emotionally crushing blows. One admittedly was somewhat expected though no less painful. As each day passes and I try to make peace with what has happened though I find acceptance very hard and try to hope for the best, but sitting with the worst.

There was a week I didn't write. And the NaBloPoMo challenge? Fuggeddaboutit. This will be second year I was unable to blog for 30 days straight (unless you could my tweets and retweets). I simply could not channel my pain and frustration and other emotions-not into writing anyway. There are times I miss overnight stocking and outdoors work-I was more successful channeling there. I actually abandoned one of the stories I started, because the parallels were too painful and I knew that this story would not end happily ever after.

(Most of my past creative writing teachers would probably tell you that any fiction I wrote centered on lots of tragedy, sometimes flippantly, but it was there and I could distance myself from it enough to write it.)

I can't say why I picked it up again. I wish I could say that I didn't want to leave something undone, not completed. I wish I could say that it was another promise that I didn't want to lose out on. I can't say.

I just know that I picked up the outline and went over it the way I do at work; figuring out what needs to be done and what problem needs to be solved. Then I started writing. I was interested in seeing where it would go. I stopped paying attention to word counts and just wrote.

It didn't happen without pain, for the residual pain was still there as was the situation that was the source of the pain. Being annoyed with certain coworkers and client for jackassery that made my life more difficult didn't help either. I was tired. I would stop and not know how to continue. Then I would know and continue.

Somehow. I find myself here. On November 30, having written 50,333 words (so said the word validator at the nanowrino site).

So closes another NaNoWriMo for me. Five years of participation. One validated win (this one) that unfortunately I won't ever be able to savour as much as I imagined I would back when I started on November 1st.

50,333

2010-11-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied

2010-11-14T21:30:00.005-05:00

Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied

It should be apparent by now that lying in this day and age is not something that everyone can get away with anymore with a world that records everything on a scale that the ancients could never imagine.

Anand should have remembered that when he lied to Trump about the text. Not did he lie about texting, he lied about the content of the text, which apparently clearly violated the rules of the game.

I pointed out to a friend who watched the episode that the Celebrity Apprentices, did this with abandon. That is, they texted, tweeted, called, and emailed their contacts to get them to show up to the site of their tasks so that they could get some business and more money. I was told that because that format was for charity and not personal gain, it was allowed. This contestants for this format signed an agreement and Anand violated it by texting and asking for people that he may or may not know to come to the pedicab.

I personally don't see the harm-that is, it seems to me that the Apprentice contestants should be able to drum up business using social networking tools since in real life, many businesses do with varying degrees of success. however, it became apparent as the seasons of the Celebrity Apprentice wore that you can only hit up your connections so much before they become tapped out. For some this happened sooner than later.

However, if you agree to play by certain rules, you play by those rules.

Which is why you have to make sure that you read and understand everything that you sign-Business 101.

Moreover, the larger sin Anand committed in Trump's eyes was that he lied about it. Right there. In front of him. In front of the other contestants.

When I watched the episode, I could tell by way Trump asked the question and the fact that he kept repeated the questions that Anand did do commit this 'transgression' and he could prove it.

Trump summed up his feelings by saying that Anand's behaviour is what is wrong with the mindset of Wall Street today. I admittedly gave him my Rosie O'Donnell face-Wall Street did not recently become morally corrupt and I'm sure that while Trump may not have done anything illegal that can be proven, I bet when the illegal activities of Wall Street benefitted him indirectly, he didn't bat an eye.

There is no doubt that Trump would have fired Anand for the texting, no matter if he owned up to it or not. However Anand sealed his fate, I think with potential employers and business partners, by lying about what he did. He demonstrated poor judgment in both the texting and lying about the texting. Then when caught, he tried to downplay his crime, by saying that he really didn't really do it in a way that was really wrong. When the test was read and it used words like "pretend you don't know me," he then tried to further downplay it by stating that his team really didn't profit from it, which says, what exactly? That what you did, even though it was wrong was not important because your team didn't profit from it?

His team never knew he did this. So if it had panned out, this win for their team might have been vacated and Kelly, who was fired for being the losing project manager, might be back. It also calls into question every win the mens team had. Did Anand cheat in ways that brought them wins? If I were on the women's team (formerly all women, since they were now integrated), I'd question it. Unfortunately, Kelly's weaker decisions as a projectg manager are what cost her the task and I don't see Trump bringing her back. Although, she played by the rules and was honest in some cases, to her detriment in that final boardroom and I wager that future employers and business partners value that a bit more than someone who can ride a pedicab, but is underhanded in his business dealings.

I could comment on the rest of the episode, but it was straightforward-Cats, Inc fell apart due to in-fighting and "mean girls" behaviour and Poppy, who could have taken some lessons from Poppy Montgomery, formerly of Without a Trace, on diplomacy and team leadership, got the chop.

I will say that I was not pleased with Clint and his being gobsmacked about Brandy's lack of "feminine perspective." I'm all for leveraging assets and resources when you have them, however Clint's insistence/reliance on the fact that Brandy was female and therefore she would be able to deliver some deep insight into what would attract women to this product skirted the line of discrimination. Just like I would not expect because Clint is a Texan, that he would have any particular insight into cattle or the oil business or being redneck, he should not have judged Brandy's contribution on how girly-girl she is. Too many men do that in various ways. There was an episode of Grey's Anatomy, where Dr. Sloan wanted to get some kind of baked good for the going away party and decided to "delegate it" to the one of the women because he felt they would do a better job. Dr. Bailey, the first woman he approached, told him in no uncertain that he was crazy to expect her to take time out of her equally busy schedule to do something that he is supposed to do. Period.

I often am amused that some men, who would never allow themselves to be pigeonholed or pushed around in that way have no problem doing to women.

I hope that this is an aberration with Clint. Whether he works for Trump or not, he will have women on his team from different backgrounds and he must know that in most workplaces basing task assignment and judging job contribution on a person's gender is illegal.

Conspiracy Sunday on AMC

2010-08-01T11:18:00.002-04:00

Well it looks like in anticipation of a tv series that can possibly be called the Gen-Xer/Millenial "JFK," the cable channel AMC decides to air the original "JFK," Oliver Stone's magnus opus, hich set the tone for all of the Boomer conspiracy theory movies that would crowd the landscape of the 90s.

I did eventually see "JFK" in its entirety, almost 7 years after it came out in the theaters. I think I spent more time identifying the all-star cast at first, than paying attention to the story as by the time I saw it, it had been analyzed, vilified, scandalized and satirized (most famously by Seinfield in the episode that analyzed a spitting incident. Wayne Knight, who portrayed Newman and who was in the movie, played a part in this episode). I was therefore not learning anything particularly new. The one scene that stayed with me was the confab between Kenvin Costner and Donald Sutherland. As most people attest, Sutherland is good at being in memorably creepy scenes. He portrayed 'X' and gave what I think was some of the best advice for anyone wanting to get to the bottom of anything next to "Follow The Money" and anything written by Sun Tzu.

I don't know if I will watch Rubicon. Admittedly, I think I enjoy cold cases best and being someone who grew up long after Watergate, the Kennedy and King assassinations, conspiracies to me are as mundane as barenaked ladies.

Blogathon anyone?

2010-07-31T23:46:00.006-04:00

Apparently, there is a blogathon going on where individual bloggers post every half an hour for a 24 hour period. Most of the bloggers are being sponsored and the proceeds are going towards the charity of their choice. A person that I met a long time ago made me aware of this when she emailed me on facebook to ask for her friends to donate on her behalf to the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center as she participated in this. I've been so busy with 2010 and other things (such as fighting with Mary Percy over her stupidity in going back to Arthur Wellington) that this did not sink in until today-the day of the event.

Well, I have enjoyed reading her posts as she writes about writing and other cool things. Her website is: adriennebrennan.blogspot.com and if you can-no amount is too small-please support the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. You can make donations through Network For the Good.
More information about Blogathon can be found at blogathon.org. I'll definitely take part in 2011.

Back again!

2010-07-31T19:28:00.003-04:00

Wow. It has been some time since that last post. Lots of things have taken place.

Tweeting on Twitter has definitely been a past time. It's not that I haven't enjoyed blogging. Twitter is a little more immediate for me since I can actually have conversations rather than wait for someone to maybe read the post and maybe comment. I also don't get spam comments that I have to clear out.

What blogging does allow me to do is to explore an idea more fully than I can in 140 characters.

Social media is a curious animal. There are many who see people using it for anything other than business or making money as not worthy of notice or as flotsam. Especially if they are women and they are not in the coveted mommy blogger cabal. I am not a mommy-at least not yet. I don't know that I would blog about my child(ren) or engage in the communal sharing that I see happening in the blogosphere around that. It's not terrible, but much like as in real life, some women (and some men) think there;s something wrong with you if you don't share yourself or care about certain things.

Well, that's my feeling about that. Still looking for the blogger conference or unconference where people who aren't parent bloggers, overly in love with the code of the platforms and tools, are of a certain ethnicity, but that's not all they blog about and are not obsessed by all things vampire can attend and not feel as if they're the kids that were outside the clique in high school.

Do I have an opinion on Shirley Sherrod, the BP Oil catastrophe, education, Harry Potter, Apple's iphone flip off, the Celtics loss to the Lakers, Lindsay Lohan, Precious, the Twilight saga, The View or the upcoming end of As The World Turns?

Probably. And I'll get to those.

Right now, I'm watching the Pretenders in concert on my local PBS. Unfortunately it's tis the month o beggin' so what is usually a shorter show will be dragged out. Maybe I can blog during these breaks.

By the way, I'm not taking part in it, but there is a blogathon to support various charities. Please visit blogathon.org for more details.

My Thanksgiving Blessings 2009

2009-11-23T21:52:00.001-05:00

Another Thanksgiving is here and gone. Another time to be grateful for the privilege of eating a lot of food, of watching television, yelling at people who are paid more than a regular person should and dishing out meals to the "unfortunate" and reveling in the feeling that were it not for we, who are not them, then they would suffer.

I am blessed that I recognize the hypocrisies that exist in a number of the legal holidays we have and will of course be grateful for what I have.

Mammogram-Self Exam Gate

2009-11-16T21:41:00.004-05:00

A new finding regarding mammograms and self exams in the battle against breat cancer has come out and many women are not happy about it.

My biggest disagreement I have with the findings is the recommendation that the self exams are useless, even if I grant that mammograms are not safe due to radiation and are expensive (though I think that Viagra sales out distance this). I echo the cry of those who offer proof of the effectiveness of self exams those who are currently alive because they caught breast cancer early because they did a self exam. This list includes the famous: Peggy Fleming, Shirley Temple, etc.

I am also annoyed at the fact that women's health care is usually reduced to birth control (it's only been recently that insurance will cover it), plastic surgery (hard to prove 'medically necessary' vs. 'cosmetic' especially when it comes to breast reduction) and maternity (drop and street them) - not that those aren't important as well. We are still a society that believes that women's health issues are usually "all in their head" and then wonder why they are reluctant to seek help. Never mind the fact that the above mentioned areas of women's health are usually subject to more inapproriate moral judgment than anything that men would suffer from, save HIV/AIDS.

I am increasingly annoyed at this idea that people who show up at the ER are a drain on our system, but on the other hand, they are discouraged from doing anything that is preventative or seeking preventative care because of financial cost and again if they are women, 'it's all in their head."

Here is the article.

Breast Cancer Screening Should Begin at Age 50, Panel Finds:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/july-dec09/breastcancer_11-16.html?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=pbs

Excerpt:

"A government medical task force recommended major changes in breast cancer screening guidelines Monday, suggesting that most women should not begin getting routine mammograms until age 50, and then only once every two years.

In 2002, the same panel -- the United States Preventive Services Task Force -- had, with different members, recommended that women receive mammograms every one to two years beginning at age 40.

The panel on Monday also recommended that most women stop getting regular mammograms after age 74, and that doctors should no longer teach women to do breast self-examinations.
Members of the panel, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said that screening for breast cancer too early and too often can lead to false alarms, unnecessary biopsies and unnecessary anxiety for women.

The study is the latest chapter in an ongoing controversy over early screening for breast cancer and other cancers, such as prostate cancer. Such screening saves lives, but in addition to sometimes showing false positives, can also reveal cancers that would have grown so slowly they might not ever need to have been treated. "

Lessons in Writing from...Marion Zimmer Bradley-Part the First

2009-11-05T23:51:00.003-05:00

I never had a formal writing course. That is, I took creative writing in college, but to fulfill a requirement, not as a focus.Many of my lessons in writing came from paying attention to the general introductions and the mini-introductions to the short stories of the Sword and Sorceress anthologies edited by the late, great Marion Zimmer Bradley (MZB).She was a prolific author who wrote in many genres at some point in her life. She lived very comfortably in fantasy. In addition to her Darkover novels (which also showed her sci-fi chops at times), she was well known for her retelling of the Arthurian Mythos from the female perspective in a book known as the 'Mists of Avalon.'I read the Sword and Sorceress (S&S) anthologies beginning in high school.

To this day, I must admit that my first reading of the anthologies were always of those introductions and then I would go back and read a story or two here and there. The mini-introductions reminded me of the irascible grandmother or grandfather, who knew their craft and didn't understand how these kids could get as far as they did without doing things proper.

Tips I picked up from these pages included:

Being able sum up a story and/or a novel in one sentence
Following the guidelines so that you are giving the editor what they are looking for
Working at it until you get it write
Watching that grammar

MZB died in September 1999. I found out first by looking at the S&S XVII and noticing that the copyright was in the name of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust. Then I found one of those retail bookstore newsletters that you usually ignore and I saw her picture and then that dreaded term-the 'late' Marion Zimmer Bradley.

There is a website for the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust:

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/

If you don't happen to have the money or the time to collect the S&S anthologies, there is a section at the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust website that just happens to be called 'Articles on Writing,' which just happens to have an article entitled 'Advice for New Writers.' Each article is relevant and full of sound advice told in that MZB style. Definitely worth reading and worth coming back to for a refresher from time to time.

So thanks MZB, for inadvertantly teaching me useful things while I read about strong swordswomen and sorceresses.

Twas the day after the November elections

2009-11-04T19:10:00.003-05:00

Twas the day after the November elections and all over the waves, I woke up to find out that Maine still won't grant marriage to gays.

I tweeted and shared the info along with many others to organize and make sure that Maine joins other places in doing what is right by their citizens.

I find out that Mayor Tom Menino managed to hold onto Boston and Chris Christie took over New Jersey as governor despite 'Mean Girls' style taunting about his weight.

'Creigh Deeds' is definitely one of the more interesting names I've heard in a long time.

I don't know the results of the Cambridge, Mass elections yet. I did vote for the first time in a long time. I had forgotten that they vote in a system akin to the one that the ISU (International Skating Union) used to use until the 2002 Olympics. I prefer my balloting straighforward. Ranking candidates and such is a little too much for my weary brain after a long day of work. I imagine it's why the same people vote in the same people over and over. New people would question the system and want change and since many of those people would be from the 'gown' set, they would never be heard and be branded as outsiders who don't understand and want to get rid of the 'uniqueness' that is Cambridge.

In reading the answers to the questionaires that each candidate filled out online, I noted how a number of them did not mince words when it came to gunning for City Manager Robert Healy.
I agree that he has been in there for a LONG time. I can't recall at any point in my life when he wasn't the City Manager.

Many of the candidates did make good points about what was wrong with the city of Cambridge, including shortness of funds, affordable anything, acknowledging that Cambridge is a city with problems that go way back because of years of denial, and the fact that Cambridge has always been a city that is not just the bastion of Harvard and MIT, but of bus drivers, waitresses, office workers, maintenance workers, small business owners-the 'town' of the 'town and gown' and a segment often not represented enough until something catastrophic happens.

So I will now go see online who the new bosses of Cambridge (likely the same old bosses) are as well as find out if I need to add Maine to the list of states that I still need to educate in regards to allowing same-sex marriage.

Top Chef: Bye Bye Mike I

2009-11-02T15:19:00.002-05:00

Mike Isabella was shown the door on Top Chef last week. It was a fair bounce: I would say to the remaining chefs and to anyone applying for a job that when you act like 'whatever,' that's how you get treated. He screwed up and his basic behaviour was, 'whatever.'

I am happy to see him go for another reason. I was so tired of the misogyny from him. Granted, as the season has gone on, his comments were more directed at Robin and her lack of skill. However I thought that he never consistently backs up his vast knowledge and skill. The leeks incident is but an example.

I've said it more than a little about Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen that I still can be amazed at the amount of female bashing that goes on with the male chefs of both shows. Hell's Kitchen can be more blatant, but Top Chef is usually touted as being the more sophicated show and that in 2009, a male chef would say something like "I'm not going to let a girl beat me," is disturbing.

It will be interesting to see how the remaining chefs deal feel about his departure.

Tonight is the first annual Top Chef All Stars Reunion Dinner. Because these are the contestants (think Marcel, Hung, Carla) and not the Masters (think Rick Bayliss, Hubert Keller), we are to expect sniping and some Meow Mix to be served with the cream.

Oh, did I mention it will be hosted by Fabio, last season's final four contestant who's still charming them with his fresh off the boat Italian accent complete with the required malapropisms.

Oh reality

2009-11-02T15:09:00.002-05:00

I asked where my endless fascination with reality restaurant shows came. I guess I can add Dr. Phil to the list. I am currently watching the turmoil that is known as "The Dr. Phil family." I remembered them from when they debuted in 2003. Sadly, before Dr. Phil shined the light on this family, I grew up with kids whose families were like this and was not surprised by any of the revelations (though it seemed that the audience was). We as an audience seem to revel and be intensely involved in the problems of the middle class suburbanites that populate reality shows like Dr. Phil.

I'm always endlessly fascinated by the fact that when drug addiction affects families of color, it's the families' fault and they are a blight on society and we are paying for your crimes...whereas with this population, there are 'teachable moments' and if only they weren't exposed to tv and other bad influences and they can be saved and go to college and have a future...

It begins

2009-11-01T12:18:00.002-05:00

Well, It's November, which is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoM0) and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

The keys to succeeding at both are finding time and being disciplined. Not easy to do in our ADD-instant result expectant-crisis management kind of world.

This year's NaBloPoMo will also serve to help jumpstart my blogging, which I have left so by the wayside. I will also be blogging not only at this site, but also at my livejournal, which will also serve to chronicle my NaNoWriMo progress. I will also blog at my social action blog, which documents causes and nonprofits issues that interest me. For kicks, I'll have my opinions at my soap fan blog also.

This year's NaBloPoMo roster is:

More Explore
http://www.moreexplore.blogspot.com/

My Writing Exploration
http://ladydayelle.livejournal.com/

My Social Awareness and Action Blog
http://kitlat.wordpress.com/

Where are your women?

2009-10-18T15:21:00.003-04:00

Check that. Where are your women who look closer to the undesirable version of the racial spectrum, but who are just as competent, just as capable and just as curious as the souped up versions that are presented?

We've been treated to lots of stories heroes and heroines saving the world, making a difference and having fun on the internet, the big screen and the small screen. I rarely see people who look like the kind of woman I physically became in those stories. I usually see them as victims, as dimwitted, unimaginative, non progressive people, as an archetype who is a 'magical negro' or who has 'the ancient Chinese secret,' but not leading a full live that has ups and downs and highs and lows except as some sort of 'afterschool special'.

I reflect on the current crop of medical dramas and again notice that women of color as doctors, as supervisors, as specialists are missing in large numbers. I was thinking about 'Grey's Anatomy,' which does have women of color as a part of the writing staff, but none as attendings in the show's hospital staff. Make no mistake-Miranda Bailey may huff and puff, but she and Callie are HNIC and HMIC respectively.

Sci-fi, action and fantasy makes you want to cry because of the dearth. Even if a woman of dark color is presented, she rarely is in on the action and she lives in a vacuum. She's married and/or is a mother and is remote.

Of course, I can write my own stories...but will they ever be read?