Do you have a story to tell?

This blog has always been about me and my opinions. I don’t claim to be the best writer but I would like to help those who have a story, a commentary on  life or society, that they want to tell but could use some help in writing it.  This is a fledgling idea and I will probably start a new blog expressly for this purpose, if I get enough inquiries from people who’d like some help writing their story.

Please let me know.  Just submit a comment to this article with your information and I’ll get in touch with you.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Take a quiz to help you figure out who to vote for in 2008

The following links will bring you to a two different sites that will help you pick which  candidate is best for your.  It will ask you a series of questions and only takes a few minutes.  At the end, it will tell you which candidate most agrees with YOUR point of view followed by a rating system.  Try them both:

Click here for the VA Joe site: http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

Here’s another link to WQAD from Moline, IL

Click here: http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

“The View” season 11 with Whoopi is BORING!!

The new set background is beige, and so is the new season of “The View”.  The conversation are boring, and the “cat-fights” seem staged and have no meaning or merit.  They are trying too hard to rekindle last years phenomenon.  I love Whoopi, and I am not saying that Rosie was the only person who could liven up that show and present, to America, a viewpoint that they didn’t even consider or know about.  But, I watched almost every show last year and taped it just in case.  Now, I could care less.  I’m sick of Hasselbeck with her unfounded and often contradictory “examples” to support her extreme right wing opinions.  And she continues to over-talk anyone and everyone and frankly I can’t stand to watch it anymore.  I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about missing a show anymore.

Why, oh why can’t people pronounce words correctly?

I know I am not the only one who gets down right pissed off when supposedly intelligent people can’t pronounce words we all learned sometime before the third grade.  Here are a few that irk the shit out of me.

ASTERISK (you know, that little star (*) that you see on a page sometimes).  It is pronounced ASS-TUR-ISK, say it with me, ASS-TUR-ISK.  Nope, not ASS TUR ICKS, not ASS-TUR-ICK, try it again….ASS-TUR-ISK.  (Source – a CNN broadcaster, I didn’t get her name but it was Sunday, 8/5/07 around 11:45 or so.)

There you go, now try these.

NUCLEAR – NEW-CLEE-URR, no, no, not NEW-KYA-LER, it’s NEW-CLEE-URR. Got it??  – (Source – We all know which idiot says this one. )

REALTOR -that’s REE-ULL-TERR, not REE-LA-TERR, how about it, huh?  (Source – some woman with whom I used to work and a lot of idiots on those get-rich-quick schemes you see on infomercials for real estate.)

ASK – I can’t even think of another way to spell this out phonetically.  What you see is what you get.   ASK.  Not AX, or ACKS, just ASK.   Source??

Bring em’ on folks, I want to create the largest list of mispronounced words ever.  And if you have the source, that’s even better.  I want to embarrass everyone who is too lazy to form the words correctly in their mouths.  And I believe that’s what it is:  laziness.  We as a nation are so lazy we can’t bother to pronounce words correctly because even forming words in our mouths takes too much energy.

Gregory Gore – Photographer criticized by a model (and others) for nudity?

I have met many people on the Internet.  I have not met any of them in person.  One recently reached out to his “friends” for support.  In true Internet fashion, people who don’t know each other except through Internet communications, support each other.  This is one of the truly great accomplishments of the Internet.

This friend, Gregory, is a photographer who specializes in all kinds of photography including fashion, family, portrait, still life, and landscape.  Some of his portrait photography includes nudity.  I did not say pornography; I said nudity.  He recently received some negative feedback regarding his participation in nude photography.  He was very upset and was wondering if he should even continue with his dream.  Keep in mind that this is just part of his business, or I should say his art.  It is not all that he represents.

I was informed that he received this negative feedback from some family members as well as from some models on a modeling site.  This modeling site tries to match up the models with the photographers.  Gregory is a member of this site to try and find new talent.

First, if your family wants to criticize you, I guess they have that right.  If you come from a very conservative background they may never understand your art.  All you can do is try to explain your point of view and either they get it or they don’t.

1. Second, anyone modeling today, and who uses an Internet site to advertise themselves, cannot be so ignorant as to think that nudity is not part of modern photography.  In fact, this specific site, of which this naysayer was a member, contains all kinds of nudity at varying levels.  Pornographic images are not allowed but nudity, meaning breasts and buttocks are allowed.  But someone who is a member of this site is criticizing Gregory for participating in nude photography.
2. Are religion and its politics at play here?  No religion teaches you to criticize, they teach acceptance.  So why does the religious right criticize in the name of their religion.  The reason I mention this is because Gregory indicated that the criticism references a “born again” approach to life.

This is plain hypocrisy. And where does the hypocrisy come into play?  First, we are all born naked.  Clothing, when speaking in terms of the history of humans, is a relatively new concept.  It was brought about by either our need to stay warm, or by pressure from society.  PLEASE READ MORE HERE

We get encouragment from unexpected places – so keep on blogging

It’s been pretty discouraging lately since I have not found a job yet and I had started to feel badly about myself, questioning my skills and abilities, questioning my resume, feeling that I did not have the talents needed to earn the kind of salary I feel I deserve.

Things have a funny way of unfolding before your very eyes.  In the past two days, I had two unusual things happen to me.  I talked to the recruiter (headhunter) that I have been working with since April.  He is a great guy and when I explained to him the lack of response I was getting, he told me this (I am paraphrasing):

It is time for this war to end

Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Cindy Sheehan, Barak Obama, George Bush, Ron Paul – there is so much going on and so much rhetoric.  When is this all going to end.  It is time for the war to be OVER, NOW.  If we all pack up and leave, will we really be any worse off than we are now.  How many more thousands of soldiers and civilians must die, for nothing, before we end this.  Not that soldiers die in vain, I don’t mean that, but what did they really die for.  I love them and support them and I want each and every one of them home with the people that love them.  Being around those who love you is the most important thing in anybody’s life.

Fighting for freedom is the most honorable thing that anybody can do.  I am not a soldier but I still fight for freedom; in my words, in my blogs, in my conversations with friends and family.  Anyting I can do to try to stop this insanity because I can no longer make sense of any of it.  I will never be a soldier and our soldiers are the most beloved people to me in my whole life.  I wish I was as brave as they are.  I am too old now and I guess I hide behing my paper and pencil like so many others do.

I WANT THIS WAR TO END.  THERE HAS BEEN ENOUGH PAIN TO LAST A MILLION LIFETIMES.

Rosie got us to watch the View and we’re still watching

Like many, I did not really pay attention to The View until Rosie showed up.  She made it exciting and dramatic and opened the eyes of a lot of people and gave a voice to many.  Also, like others I did not think I would watch it after she left.  At first, it felt empty with Rosie gone.  It felt to me like the show had lost its air like a helium balloon that has been around for too long.

But low and behold, I believe that the remaining members of the team have learned a lot from Rosie’s tenure there, and the drama that happened during and after her departure.  The View has become more gentile and while I think at first that Joy, Barbara, Elisabeth and the guest hosts had some trepidations, they seem to have found their groove again, but with some corrections.  They have learned that they should still talk about the difficult issues, they should still disagree, but in the middle of it all, differences of opinion are not the end of the world.  That’s what The View is supposed to be about.  And Barbara has become more upfront and in charge like a journalistic icon of her magnitude should be.

I must say that in some ways I do miss the bickering and disagreements that elevated into something almost unwatchable.  But when I really realize that “in your face” television doesn’t add as much to the national dialog as I thought, and I believe that Rosie left for exactly that reason, I am getting used to just some honest dialog.

Good luck to The View – Barbara, Joy, and Elisabeth and whoever else Barbara might add to the mix

Are changes on the horizon for republicans and democrats

In the last few days I saw on one of the talking-head “news” programs that George Bush is “considering looking at the possibility of considering a plan for a troop withdrawal time frame” whatever that means.

At the same time Cindy Sheehan is threatening to run against Nancy Pelosi if she doesn’t start impeachment proceedings against George Bush.  I’m surprised she didn’t include Dick Cheney considering that if you want to look at reasons for impeachment, like war crimes, and treason, really both of them should be included.

 I’ve been pretty busy lately so I haven’t had time to figure out what’s really going on.  Can anybody give some insight?

No Politics today, It’s Sunday and I’m not in the mood.

To many people, ABBA was a cheezy 70’s disco band.  But many never saw the more souful and poignant message of songs written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson like Chiquitita.  When it comes to love, lonliness, and heartache, politics seem so pointless and far away.

Chiquitita, tell me what’s wrong
You’re enchained by your own sorrow
In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow
How I hate to see you like this
There is no way you can deny it
I can see that you’re oh so sad, so quiet

Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I’m a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I’m the one you must rely on
You were always sure of yourself
Now I see you’ve broken a feather
I hope we can patch it up together

Chiquitita, you and I know
How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they’re leaving
You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end
You will have no time for grieving
Chiquitita, you and I cry
But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you
Let me hear you sing once more like you did before
Sing a new song, chiquitita
Try once more like you did before
Sing a new song, chiquitita

So the walls came tumbling down
And your love’s a blown out candle
All is gone and it seems too hard to handle
Chiquitita, tell me the truth
There is no way you can deny it
I see that you’re oh so sad, so quiet

Chiquitita, you and I know
How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they’re leaving
You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end
You will have no time for grieving
Chiquitita, you and I cry
But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you
Let me hear you sing once more like you did before
Sing a new song, chiquitita
Try once more like you did before
Sing a new song, chiquitita
Try once more like you did before
Sing a new song, chiquitita