Monthly Archives: January 2010

January Word Cloud

Posted on by
5
Pin it

It being the last day of the month, the wonderful Michelloui over at Mid-Atlantic English tagged me to do a word cloud based on what January means to me – clever words I’ve read, seen or perhaps written?

She writes:

“The End of Month Collection Cloud is a New Thing. I keep collecting words and phrases that sound right, savvy, delicious or outright decadent. Time to share. And I’d love to read yours…For more about this share fest, go here.”

January, for me, means the finishing of my first novel. So, I randomly (well, kind of randomly) scrolled through the 225 pages of my novel, and picked a few sentences to share with y’all. Enjoy! (You must click on words below to enlarge!)

Consistency

Posted on by
9
Pin it

The thing with consistently outlaying anything – be it this blog, a lady’s night, running, tweets, whatever – is that there will be times where it goes stronger than ever, and other times where it teeters on non-existent. I imagine marriage to be similar, but that’s another whole blog entry. Sometimes I will have ten to twenty comments on a blog post, and other times, none. But it all comes back to the fact that I love having an outlet for expression.

Same with the lady’s group I started back in July with the other girls.

Last night, we had “Ladies Who….Wii” night, and although the RSVP’s started strong – there were 12 people who were going to attend. By five o’clock yesterday afternoon, the numbers dwindled down to 3. Poor Jen who was hosting, she couldn’t help but feel it was indicative of how people felt towards her! Silly how we women think. It was just one of those days where people had other things come up in their lives…one’s moving this weekend and needed to finish moving boxes, another’s studying for a course, another one had a birthday party that was scheduled last minute, etc.

At first, I was disappointed because I had been working my ass off to get my novel finished by yesterday night. I worked until midnight every single evening this week, and stressed both Jock and myself out by running to the printer’s last minute yesterday. I found the cheapest guy in town, but with 225 pages and 7 copies – it still came to £47. I still have at least twenty pages left to write for the ending, but I figured I could email them those pages. At least the rest of the book was up to snuff to show off.

I handed out two copies, and the rest are still sitting in a box. But would I have worked as hard the last couple of weeks had I not had a due date? Probably not. Would I still be slowly peddling through the editing process, checking my email every five minutes? Yeah. Did this teach me how much I love getting lost in my work for hours at a time, and the biggest reward is when the time passes without you knowing? Definitely. Did I ever feel this way about acting? Nope. Do I regret giving up acting? Not right now. Will I go back to it? Yeah, probably. Performing is in me.

Nevertheless, the three of us who were there had a really amazing time chatting, playing Wii (Jen kicked my ass in bowling and tennis, but I literally punched her lights out in boxing. Yeh!). And my BMI is 22…I’m the least likely to get sick.

Having the time to consistently work towards a goal is the best gift that England and Jock have given me. And, if people don’t show up every once in a while, my knee decides to stop my running for a bit, or my readership dwindles on my blog, I’ll still make the best of it. I’ll still keep asking the universe for shit. And, as my wise sister says re: the universe and asking for stuff: “I ask for lots of things. We have an ongoing dialogue and it never ceases to make me laugh at the answers it gives. Trusting in that is the most rewarding and hardest life lesson.”

It’s My Feel Good Song

Posted on by
25
Pin it

I am writing one of the final chapters of my novel, and I keep thinking of the song by Soul II Soul, Back to Life, Back to Reality. It’s been stuck in my head for literally three days now, and it’s one of those songs I haven’t heard in so long, but gives me a grin whenever I think of it.

It’s probably the same reason people are loving the Journey Song Don’t Stop Believing that has become popular again due to the television show Glee ) (INSERT – I have been told that the previous link doesn’t work in the states, so try this one! At least you’ll get the song, just without the video.) ….reminds us of simpler times. Reminds us when we had no doubts that our future would hold bright and amazing prospects. I might admit to still feeling that my future holds those things…so it’s no wonder I’m a sap who gets really into Don’t Stop Believing when it comes on. Like literally, if no one is watching (as in today at the office), I’ll start mouthing the lyrics really emotionally. Sometimes, my fists will clench, and I might even do a fist pump in the air. The hair might twirl around. My hips may just swing in my chair. And, if I’m at home and it comes on… and I’m alone (not to mention when Jocko’s sitting right next to me) – yeah, I could just jump on my feet and do the boogie woogie full-on. Jimminy Christmas! as Sisqo would say. (If you want to do the same, I highly recommend clicking on the link above. You won’t be sorry.) Kind of like this, but without the dance club:

But the moment I hear someone coming, regardless of whether or not they walk in, my face goes red and my heart beats a bit quicker. Because, as much as I don’t mind admitting it to the entire world on my blog – catching me in action is a whole nother kettle of fish.

But come on, you know you want to shake that booty! It’s good for the soul. Enjoy the music video.

(Side note: It’s also no surprise that Owl City’s Fireflies song is so popular right now either. People want to feel good right now. The recession, Haiti, political mess, the war…at least we have the MUSIC to keep us smiling! So, what’s your favorite feel good song? I’ll tag Mid-Atlantic English, Eileen O’Shea, 3-Bedroom Bungalow, and Lahloo Tea. And, anyone else, feel free to answer in the comments! Let’s get a good list going, and I’ll post it once we have at least twenty…yeah?!)

Heidi Montag’s New Face – the more mature take

Posted on by
6
Pin it

So, since my last post on Heidi’s new face, I’ve grown up a little. I have to admit that my initial reactionary stance was one of cruelty and loathing.  It’s so easy to take the judgmental way out and look at something that someone’s doing as somehow attacking your own values. Instead, I ask the question, what do our reactions to Heidi’s new face say about us? Please click on the picture or text below to read the full article.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde

Heidi Montag completely changes her face through plastic surgery, and says that it makes her feel more confident, better about herself and more beautiful. She says that beauty and confidence is within and yet, she’s very grateful for being able to have had the surgery. She’s 23 years old – admittedly a bit young for such drastic measures – but old enough to make up her own mind. Out come the surgical knives, and in come the catty media to feed on her sawed off flesh. You would think she was on trial for kidnapping her natural face, and holding it for ransom. Why are we so against this adult woman changing the way she looks? What is it about morphing a face that angers us so?

Heidi Montag’s Facial Fiasco

Posted on by
6
Pin it

Yes, I realize there are more devastating things in the world to write about right now – say, Haiti? Because that is as devastating as it can get, and I am certainly not comparing the two. But we also have this woman below. She indicates to me a deep disaster waiting to happen in American society that can lead to more and more young women copycats going under the knife. Here we have a role model to many younger girls, and what has she done? And further more, why has she done that?

I plan on writing a fully disclosed article on AND Magazine as to why I cannot fathom how a beautiful young 23-year old girl named Heidi Montag from the television show The Hills went through 10…count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 facial surgeries in one sitting to get her from looking like this:

to looking like this:

And still think she looks amazingly better than before. She doesn’t even look like the same person. I overdramatically plea, “What has our world come to?!”

Last night, when I read this article online and watched the video of her on People.com explaining how this is the happiest she’s ever felt about herself, I just stared with my mouth hanging open for a good ten minutes. No, literally, I think it may have been longer even. Even Katie Piper, the acid burn victim, had less facial surgeries than Heidi has had. It makes me sad that she can be so deceived…it’s her face and she can do what she wants to it, but at what cost?