I am always thinking about diet and exercise. I don't always make good decisions, obviously, but it is always in my mind. What that really means is that I should plan ahead, because when I don't know what to do I get stupid with indecision. Seriously, sometimes I have gone to lunch an hour later than planned because I just could not decide. I realize it's ridiculous, but it keeps happening.
The Wednesday before the Fanconi Anemia 5K (February 9th, to be precise), I had not packed a lunch, and it was important to me to get in a walk, because I was getting ready for a big walk. When I am buying lunch, my two favorite places are August Moon and Mandarin Cove. August Moon has really good food, with good prices on their lunch specials, but you need to allow a little bit of time to wait. Mandarin Cove is faster, because they have the food ready to go, only having one lunch special per day. However, on Wednesdays it is Mandarin Chicken, which they use wings for, and eating it is quite messy. I did not want to bother with that eating at my desk.
When I head out for a walk on lunch, going North is easy, East hits the river really quickly, and South and West give me a lot of uphill for a more vigorous workout. It occurred to me to walk uphill to Safeway. I think I had a forty-five minute lunch that day, so I was going to walk for thirty minutes, grab something there, then rush back and eat at my desk.
It was one of those plans that sounds reasonable but then doesn't work, because the lunchtime crowd was building up, and there were lines at the deli, and nothing ready to grab appealed to me, and then when I finally did just pick something the regular register lines were bad too.
I did not want to be late. I did not have cash for the machines. I did have to eat something.
Suddenly I had a brilliant idea. I would go back to work, but then on my last break I would run across to the buffet, fill a carton there, and eat that at my desk. That worked for timing and money, and I had eaten there before. If it was not great, it had not been terrible, and at least one coworker thought it looked good.
I ate at about 2:30, and worked until 6. For that last half hour, I was not feeling great. I was meeting my sisters and a friend for dinner, but Outback Steakhouse was not sounding so good when I felt like there were shards of broken glass churning in my stomach. I thought I could tough it out, by just not eating very much and drinking a Sprite to help things settle.
This is not going to be too graphic, but some people may want to check out now. Anyway, suddenly I really needed to go to the bathroom. I did, and I thought, okay, maybe that will be enough. I returned to the table, and in less than five minutes I needed to go back, and this time there was no sitting down.
My group was fine with leaving, so we took care of that, and I guess the most amazing thing of all is that I was able to remain quiet while we paid, left, during the car ride, and through my sisters' stop at, oh, I think it was Rite-Aid. That part is fuzzy. However, as soon as I walked in the door, I needed to dash to the bathroom again, and I have to say, this is the first time I have really understood what is meant by projectile vomiting. I mean, what I thought it meant seemed like an exaggeration, but now I understood why you would call it that, and it works.
I was quiet through the night, and had every intention of working the next day. I got up, showered, and was about to walk the dogs, but as you can imagine, my mouth was not feeling that fresh. I just wanted a small drink of water to rinse out a bit. That was a mistake. I didn't really think I had anything left to throw up, but I was wrong.
Well, I was still committed to walking the dogs, but after doing that I called in, got undressed, and went back to bed for several hours.
Around 2:30 or 3 (I guess that's why food poisoning is commonly called 24 hour flu), I was able to get up, and when my sisters brought home Little Caesar's for dinner (I know it's junk, but I was not cooking) I ate it without a qualm.
So, basically I was well again, and I worked Friday (and withdrew any recommendations for Cookie Cabana, which turned out to be unnecessary because I was not the only one who made that connection), but at the same time I was still feeling a little weakened. Jettisoning all nutrition along with copious fluids from your body will do that.
I still wanted to do the walk, and I prepared my supply kit (rain poncho, supplies for low blood sugar, etc.), but I did not make it down to pick up my packet Saturday, which meant an especially early departure time Sunday. I set my alarm, and I was really determined to go. I had said I would, and I am stubborn, but I especially did not want to miss this thing that I paid for just because I couldn't find time to make a lunch, or find the mental clarity to make a decision, four days earlier. But then when I woke up it was raining, and I was exhausted, and I surrendered on the spot. Maybe I have gotten a little less stubborn.
But I still say it was all very preventable.
Matthew 21 – 25
No real workout as I am trying to walk off a leg cramp from last night.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Walking with Gina
I just signed up for the Grand Floral Walk. This is the third organized walk I have signed up for, despite my continually changing my mind about whether to do them or not.
It started with a thought to do the Turkey Trot back in October. We can earn gift cards by participating in wellness activities, and that was one option. It sort of got into my mind that my sisters and I could do that. We are trying to be more fit, and we go on walks together. At the time we did not sign up, because it looked like Mom might be either in the hospital or recovering from surgery, but we did go for a walk that day.
Fast-forward a few months, and a coworker was looking for some kind of 5K before the Shamrock Run. I knew I had seen something, and found a run/walk for Fanconi Anemia on February 13th. I could find it because after realizing that the Turkey Trot was not going to work out, I was a little disappointed. However, I also walk by Foot Traffic on my way to the train, and I had started realizing that there are always different events going on.
Anyway, as I was passing on the information, I started thinking that I could do that. I had walked a 5K route before (the day after the actual event) so I knew I was physically capable. Why not try it?
So I signed up.
Almost immediately after that, someone started getting a group together for the Shamrock Run. I had just signed up for a 5K, and paid good money for it, so I did not originally intend to do it, but I gave in to peer pressure and suddenly, I was doing two walks exactly a month apart. I still kept seeing more events coming up, and I was thinking, I could do this all the time. Well, that was before I did one.
For reasons we will cover later, I did not do the February 13th event, so my first official 5K was the Shamrock Stride. Fortunately, as part of a group we got our numbers and shirts early, so I did not need to go down for check in, but could just show up at race time. This only eliminated some waiting around.
There were just so many people! One concern with the various events was that they all take place on Sunday, and since we are on the late schedule now I was sure I could get back in time for church, but we started forty-five minutes late because it took so long for all the 5K runners to get started. There were thousands of people in every event. It was 32000 total.
It was somewhat cool hanging out with my coworkers before the event (by the end of my walk, I had no idea where any of them were), and seeing the different costumes and things, and there was definitely a sense of solidarity and participation, and I definitely walked faster than usual, even if I was still slow compared to a normal person. Still, I came away thinking that it was silly to pay deal with a crowd. I didn’t regret doing it—I just wasn’t hungry for more.
However, the Grand Floral Walk is on a Saturday, and Regence sponsors it, and my coworker is telling me how fun it is, and then you get good seats for the parade, which normally I would not feel a need to watch downtown, but maybe one time would be okay. It doesn’t mean I will do it next year. I will say that it makes me nervous that there is only a half hour lead-time between the walk and the parade. I know parades don’t move quickly, but neither do I. I’ll need to make sure to start out near the front so maybe I won’t be the last person to finish. That’s how I did it for the Shamrock.
That being said, I do look forward to taking many other walks throughout the course of the year. I can’t usually see a path without wanting to go down it, and then there have been articles about different trails, so I have a lot that I want to try. These include a tour of Portland’s oldest buildings, the Waterfront/Esplanade loop, and Laurelhurst.
The first one will be one that was not featured in any article, but with the frequent knee-surgery related trips to OHSU, I found myself drawn to the path that runs alongside Terwilliger. I want to put it first because if you keep going down Sam Jackson Road you end up at Duniway Lilac Garden. It seems logical to do it while lilacs are in bloom, and that is coming fast. I have not picked a day yet, but technically I guess I am in training now for the Grand Floral Walk, so I should be trying new exertions. As near as I can tell, it’s a bit more than 2.5 miles, but with a fair amount of downhill. After that, we will see.
If you want to join me for a walk, let me know. I move slowly, but am otherwise good company.
24 minutes walking outside
Matthew 13-20
It started with a thought to do the Turkey Trot back in October. We can earn gift cards by participating in wellness activities, and that was one option. It sort of got into my mind that my sisters and I could do that. We are trying to be more fit, and we go on walks together. At the time we did not sign up, because it looked like Mom might be either in the hospital or recovering from surgery, but we did go for a walk that day.
Fast-forward a few months, and a coworker was looking for some kind of 5K before the Shamrock Run. I knew I had seen something, and found a run/walk for Fanconi Anemia on February 13th. I could find it because after realizing that the Turkey Trot was not going to work out, I was a little disappointed. However, I also walk by Foot Traffic on my way to the train, and I had started realizing that there are always different events going on.
Anyway, as I was passing on the information, I started thinking that I could do that. I had walked a 5K route before (the day after the actual event) so I knew I was physically capable. Why not try it?
So I signed up.
Almost immediately after that, someone started getting a group together for the Shamrock Run. I had just signed up for a 5K, and paid good money for it, so I did not originally intend to do it, but I gave in to peer pressure and suddenly, I was doing two walks exactly a month apart. I still kept seeing more events coming up, and I was thinking, I could do this all the time. Well, that was before I did one.
For reasons we will cover later, I did not do the February 13th event, so my first official 5K was the Shamrock Stride. Fortunately, as part of a group we got our numbers and shirts early, so I did not need to go down for check in, but could just show up at race time. This only eliminated some waiting around.
There were just so many people! One concern with the various events was that they all take place on Sunday, and since we are on the late schedule now I was sure I could get back in time for church, but we started forty-five minutes late because it took so long for all the 5K runners to get started. There were thousands of people in every event. It was 32000 total.
It was somewhat cool hanging out with my coworkers before the event (by the end of my walk, I had no idea where any of them were), and seeing the different costumes and things, and there was definitely a sense of solidarity and participation, and I definitely walked faster than usual, even if I was still slow compared to a normal person. Still, I came away thinking that it was silly to pay deal with a crowd. I didn’t regret doing it—I just wasn’t hungry for more.
However, the Grand Floral Walk is on a Saturday, and Regence sponsors it, and my coworker is telling me how fun it is, and then you get good seats for the parade, which normally I would not feel a need to watch downtown, but maybe one time would be okay. It doesn’t mean I will do it next year. I will say that it makes me nervous that there is only a half hour lead-time between the walk and the parade. I know parades don’t move quickly, but neither do I. I’ll need to make sure to start out near the front so maybe I won’t be the last person to finish. That’s how I did it for the Shamrock.
That being said, I do look forward to taking many other walks throughout the course of the year. I can’t usually see a path without wanting to go down it, and then there have been articles about different trails, so I have a lot that I want to try. These include a tour of Portland’s oldest buildings, the Waterfront/Esplanade loop, and Laurelhurst.
The first one will be one that was not featured in any article, but with the frequent knee-surgery related trips to OHSU, I found myself drawn to the path that runs alongside Terwilliger. I want to put it first because if you keep going down Sam Jackson Road you end up at Duniway Lilac Garden. It seems logical to do it while lilacs are in bloom, and that is coming fast. I have not picked a day yet, but technically I guess I am in training now for the Grand Floral Walk, so I should be trying new exertions. As near as I can tell, it’s a bit more than 2.5 miles, but with a fair amount of downhill. After that, we will see.
If you want to join me for a walk, let me know. I move slowly, but am otherwise good company.
24 minutes walking outside
Matthew 13-20
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Book Slut
I've already mentioned how it took a long time to get through my progressive books. Well, I am currently in the middle of my last November book (Native American heritage month), meaning I have not even started my February list yet (Black History month). This is partly due to being overly ambitious. I am generally reading about two and a half books a month, so if I assign myself four or five for one month, I am setting myself up for failure.
However, this would not be enough to get me as far behind as I am. That is more a matter of literary promiscuity.
I am not saying I have no standards at all. Every now and then I get a crack at a book that I turn down. (The last two were The Time Travelers Wife and Requiem for a Dream, based on flipping through pages and seeing that I would not enjoy them), but usually, I'm not really a "no" kind of girl.
Let's examine the start of my "months" going awry. I finished Perfectly Legal on August 27th, indicating that I started late. I was supposed to get to What's the Matter with Kansas next, but Julie had checked out Last Words, by George Carlin, and I had to read that. We love George. I got back on track, finishing Kansas and Free Lunch in September, at which point I figured I would be bleeding into October, but still done before November started and it was time for Native American heritage.
Well, then a dear friend loaned us two books, The Big Year by Mark Obmascik and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Obviously you have to get loaners read, and then my sisters also checked out Who Killed my Daughter, by Lois Duncan, because it was true crime, and recommended by Ann Rule, and set in New Mexico, which they had visited. I enjoyed all of them, but I did not get through The Wrecking Crew until November 4th.
That was still not that awful, and since I finished Wealth and Our Commonwealth on the 12th, there was no reason not to start on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee right away, except that The Unthinkable (Amanda Ripley), had just come through after being on hold. Around then, I also found out a certain friend was in jail, and I really needed to read Losing My Cool (Thomas Chatterton Williams) to see if it would be good for him (and it was--he's been loaning it to the other prisoners), plus I needed to read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow (which I cannot send to him because it would be too depressing). Oh, and there was this one book that I thought would be good for a newsletter I needed to write, and then my sisters checked out this Rob Sheffield book, and then his other book, and seeing Ann Rule speak led to both reading me one we already owned and us putting her new one on hold, which came through again. Add to that three other books that one or both of my sisters wanted to read, and one that a friend loaned, and you see how it goes.
It's just very hard for me to say "no" to a book (unless it's awful), and I do go looking for distractions everywhere. One of the most annoying things about those e-readers is that you can't even see what other people are reading. I mean, the last two times I chatted up guys on public transportation it was about books (speeches of Malcolm X and Qigong). I mean, how am I supposed to get my flirt on?
So yes, I do get sidetracked along my reading path, but that's okay. For one thing, in most of these cases it is because of my sisters or friends, so that just gives us more connection, and more things to talk about.
Also, no matter how many books I have not gotten to yet, each book adds to the whole--and they do relate. So Katherine of Aragon was Ferdinand and Isabella's daughter! Of course! Or, oh, that tradition goes back to 18th century maritime trade. How interesting.
The destination keeps jumping farther out, but it's a good journey.
20 minutes walking inside
Crunches
Matthew 7 - 12
However, this would not be enough to get me as far behind as I am. That is more a matter of literary promiscuity.
I am not saying I have no standards at all. Every now and then I get a crack at a book that I turn down. (The last two were The Time Travelers Wife and Requiem for a Dream, based on flipping through pages and seeing that I would not enjoy them), but usually, I'm not really a "no" kind of girl.
Let's examine the start of my "months" going awry. I finished Perfectly Legal on August 27th, indicating that I started late. I was supposed to get to What's the Matter with Kansas next, but Julie had checked out Last Words, by George Carlin, and I had to read that. We love George. I got back on track, finishing Kansas and Free Lunch in September, at which point I figured I would be bleeding into October, but still done before November started and it was time for Native American heritage.
Well, then a dear friend loaned us two books, The Big Year by Mark Obmascik and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Obviously you have to get loaners read, and then my sisters also checked out Who Killed my Daughter, by Lois Duncan, because it was true crime, and recommended by Ann Rule, and set in New Mexico, which they had visited. I enjoyed all of them, but I did not get through The Wrecking Crew until November 4th.
That was still not that awful, and since I finished Wealth and Our Commonwealth on the 12th, there was no reason not to start on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee right away, except that The Unthinkable (Amanda Ripley), had just come through after being on hold. Around then, I also found out a certain friend was in jail, and I really needed to read Losing My Cool (Thomas Chatterton Williams) to see if it would be good for him (and it was--he's been loaning it to the other prisoners), plus I needed to read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow (which I cannot send to him because it would be too depressing). Oh, and there was this one book that I thought would be good for a newsletter I needed to write, and then my sisters checked out this Rob Sheffield book, and then his other book, and seeing Ann Rule speak led to both reading me one we already owned and us putting her new one on hold, which came through again. Add to that three other books that one or both of my sisters wanted to read, and one that a friend loaned, and you see how it goes.
It's just very hard for me to say "no" to a book (unless it's awful), and I do go looking for distractions everywhere. One of the most annoying things about those e-readers is that you can't even see what other people are reading. I mean, the last two times I chatted up guys on public transportation it was about books (speeches of Malcolm X and Qigong). I mean, how am I supposed to get my flirt on?
So yes, I do get sidetracked along my reading path, but that's okay. For one thing, in most of these cases it is because of my sisters or friends, so that just gives us more connection, and more things to talk about.
Also, no matter how many books I have not gotten to yet, each book adds to the whole--and they do relate. So Katherine of Aragon was Ferdinand and Isabella's daughter! Of course! Or, oh, that tradition goes back to 18th century maritime trade. How interesting.
The destination keeps jumping farther out, but it's a good journey.
20 minutes walking inside
Crunches
Matthew 7 - 12
Monday, May 02, 2011
Task: Goodreads
I really love Goodreads.com. I was suspicious of another social networking site, because Facebook should really be enough, but I love books and I thought I would try it out. I'm so glad I did.
The social part of it is fun. Sometimes I will add a book, or a review of a book, and see other friends add it to their lists, and I like that. I will add on the recommendation of others as well, so it's very mutual. It is fun seeing who is reading what, and what they thought about it. To some extent it fills the void left by the dissolution of my book club. So really, that part is great, but it came later, and would probably have not been enough of a draw on its own.
What really pulled me in was the ability to sort my reading lists, and that's where the task came in. You see, I always want to read more books than I can immediately get to. Frequent inspiration came from the Oregonian book review section, Smithsonian magazine bibliographies (which they don't really do anymore), and one memorable summer reading column by Georgie Ann Geyer.
Tracking was hard. I printed out the column, and scrawled things in a notebook, and as I became more digital I created a Word document where I would write book information. I later added an Amazon wish list to track new books, but I didn't really want the books as gifts--I just wanted to remember to read them.
Suddenly, Goodreads created a great way of putting them all in one place, and the task was to get that done. It was a bit tedious, but this is one of the goals that I actually accomplished fairly quickly.
This is one area where I became impressed with Goodreads, because they had almost everything. I think the only things I could not find were a Lao-language history book, and another book that was really old, and may not have been published normally. It was a huge step up.
It also became very clear how far in over my head I was with my book desires, because as I finished I was at about a 3:1 ratio of book to read versus books read, and I have not been able to shake that. I'm sure I have not entered every book I have read yet, but I have not entered every book I want to read either, so clearly that's just how it's going to be.
Still, I am reading more, and this is another way that the site really helps. It is so easy to find ideas for what to read next. It's true there are other factors there. I have time to read on my evening commute, which I did not before, and by the grace of Maria's frequent trips to the Cedar Mill library, and their extensive collection, I have means and opportunity added to my motive. It is a beautiful thing.
So my reading is more prolific and more organized, and I have to credit Goodreads for that. If I want to enter Steve Duin’s reading contest for this year, I can easily see what was read and check the page count. I do still have one little problem though. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
In the meanwhile, come friend me on Goodreads. I have awesome shelves!
39 minutes walking outside
Matthew 1-6 and James
The social part of it is fun. Sometimes I will add a book, or a review of a book, and see other friends add it to their lists, and I like that. I will add on the recommendation of others as well, so it's very mutual. It is fun seeing who is reading what, and what they thought about it. To some extent it fills the void left by the dissolution of my book club. So really, that part is great, but it came later, and would probably have not been enough of a draw on its own.
What really pulled me in was the ability to sort my reading lists, and that's where the task came in. You see, I always want to read more books than I can immediately get to. Frequent inspiration came from the Oregonian book review section, Smithsonian magazine bibliographies (which they don't really do anymore), and one memorable summer reading column by Georgie Ann Geyer.
Tracking was hard. I printed out the column, and scrawled things in a notebook, and as I became more digital I created a Word document where I would write book information. I later added an Amazon wish list to track new books, but I didn't really want the books as gifts--I just wanted to remember to read them.
Suddenly, Goodreads created a great way of putting them all in one place, and the task was to get that done. It was a bit tedious, but this is one of the goals that I actually accomplished fairly quickly.
This is one area where I became impressed with Goodreads, because they had almost everything. I think the only things I could not find were a Lao-language history book, and another book that was really old, and may not have been published normally. It was a huge step up.
It also became very clear how far in over my head I was with my book desires, because as I finished I was at about a 3:1 ratio of book to read versus books read, and I have not been able to shake that. I'm sure I have not entered every book I have read yet, but I have not entered every book I want to read either, so clearly that's just how it's going to be.
Still, I am reading more, and this is another way that the site really helps. It is so easy to find ideas for what to read next. It's true there are other factors there. I have time to read on my evening commute, which I did not before, and by the grace of Maria's frequent trips to the Cedar Mill library, and their extensive collection, I have means and opportunity added to my motive. It is a beautiful thing.
So my reading is more prolific and more organized, and I have to credit Goodreads for that. If I want to enter Steve Duin’s reading contest for this year, I can easily see what was read and check the page count. I do still have one little problem though. We’ll talk about that tomorrow.
In the meanwhile, come friend me on Goodreads. I have awesome shelves!
39 minutes walking outside
Matthew 1-6 and James
Sunday, May 01, 2011
My Progressive Reading Month
In honor of May Day—which honors the eight-hour workday, the Haymarket Incident, and attracts all manner of socialists, communists, and anarchists—it seemed like a good time to go over the contents of my progressive reading month.
Why a progressive reading month? Well, having this renewed library access has been great, and combined with being able to keep my reading list organized via GoodReads (more on that later), I have been making more of a point of getting to books that I have always intended to read. There were a handful that I tended to associate together, which related to modern politics and money, I guess. Since I had my Black History month in February, and was going to do my Native America Heritage month in November, I decided that I would put my progressive books together in August. It would be my progressive reading month, which at times I called my socialist reading month, my liberal reading month, and I might have even called it my communist reading month.
The first thing I should say is that I can’t really just decide to read four or five books in a single month and expect it to happen with no distractions (again, more on that later). I did not actually finish the last book until November 12th. Anyway, let’s go over what they were.
One potential advantage to procrastinating is that you can then read the original book and its follow-up close together. Therefore, I read two books each by David Cay Johnston and Thomas Frank. Here is the total list in the order read:
Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else, by David Cay Johnston
What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, by Thomas Frank
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense, by David Cay Johnston
The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, by Thomas Frank
Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, by William H Gates and Chuck Collins
How do they stack up?
Most fluid/interesting reads: What’s the Matter with Kansas and Free Lunch
Driest reads: Wealth and our Commonwealth, followed by Perfectly Legal—that’s what happens when you write about tax code.
Most important to read: The Wrecking Crew and Free Lunch (they are also the most appalling)
I can’t say they really changed my political philosophy at all, so that’s not why you would read them, but a lot of what they did was provide context on things that I already see are happening, but this is how it got there, and why. I have to say they were all pretty well written, and very educational, and I wish everyone who complains about government spending would read Free Lunch. To be fair, a lot of that is more state and local spending than federal, but if you consider that all of the money comes from somewhere, and that there is a finite amount to cover needs, then those spending issues are really very important.
One point that Johnston repeatedly made in Perfectly Legal was that for all those who evade paying taxes, there is more that the rest of us need to pay. I had looked at it more as just there being less funds available in general, but since we are spending over budget, and accumulating interest, which we do need to pay, well, he may be on to something.
One of the most interesting unexpected lessons was from Wealth and Our Commonwealth, regarding the push by the right to get people to refer to the estate tax as the “death tax”. They had something like swear jars where interns would have to put in money any time someone used a term other than “death tax”, which would fund pizza parties. Words are powerful, because they are how we form thoughts, and the words that get used are not random.
The most discouraging part of all the reading is that there did not really seem to be much in the way of solutions. Johnston focuses primarily on getting people better informed, which seems pretty hopeless. Even if you had a knowledgeable general population, you still need to overcome apathy and systemic roadblocks, but getting people in the age of willful ignorance to pay attention to facts? To read? I just don’t know if I have that much optimism handy.
That leads to a very sad quote, which came from Wealth and Our Commonwealth:
“In 1879, Henry George published Progress and Poverty, a book chronicling the dangers of consolidated land ownership. This remarkable book, which would today be considered too dense to enjoy a wide readership, sold over 1 million copies, and excerpts were serialized in several popular magazines." (Pp 32-33, emphasis mine)
I’m sure they’re right, but it makes me sad.
Mosiah 26-29 (as part of family scripture study)
Walked outside for 36 minutes
Pushups
Why a progressive reading month? Well, having this renewed library access has been great, and combined with being able to keep my reading list organized via GoodReads (more on that later), I have been making more of a point of getting to books that I have always intended to read. There were a handful that I tended to associate together, which related to modern politics and money, I guess. Since I had my Black History month in February, and was going to do my Native America Heritage month in November, I decided that I would put my progressive books together in August. It would be my progressive reading month, which at times I called my socialist reading month, my liberal reading month, and I might have even called it my communist reading month.
The first thing I should say is that I can’t really just decide to read four or five books in a single month and expect it to happen with no distractions (again, more on that later). I did not actually finish the last book until November 12th. Anyway, let’s go over what they were.
One potential advantage to procrastinating is that you can then read the original book and its follow-up close together. Therefore, I read two books each by David Cay Johnston and Thomas Frank. Here is the total list in the order read:
Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else, by David Cay Johnston
What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, by Thomas Frank
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense, by David Cay Johnston
The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, by Thomas Frank
Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, by William H Gates and Chuck Collins
How do they stack up?
Most fluid/interesting reads: What’s the Matter with Kansas and Free Lunch
Driest reads: Wealth and our Commonwealth, followed by Perfectly Legal—that’s what happens when you write about tax code.
Most important to read: The Wrecking Crew and Free Lunch (they are also the most appalling)
I can’t say they really changed my political philosophy at all, so that’s not why you would read them, but a lot of what they did was provide context on things that I already see are happening, but this is how it got there, and why. I have to say they were all pretty well written, and very educational, and I wish everyone who complains about government spending would read Free Lunch. To be fair, a lot of that is more state and local spending than federal, but if you consider that all of the money comes from somewhere, and that there is a finite amount to cover needs, then those spending issues are really very important.
One point that Johnston repeatedly made in Perfectly Legal was that for all those who evade paying taxes, there is more that the rest of us need to pay. I had looked at it more as just there being less funds available in general, but since we are spending over budget, and accumulating interest, which we do need to pay, well, he may be on to something.
One of the most interesting unexpected lessons was from Wealth and Our Commonwealth, regarding the push by the right to get people to refer to the estate tax as the “death tax”. They had something like swear jars where interns would have to put in money any time someone used a term other than “death tax”, which would fund pizza parties. Words are powerful, because they are how we form thoughts, and the words that get used are not random.
The most discouraging part of all the reading is that there did not really seem to be much in the way of solutions. Johnston focuses primarily on getting people better informed, which seems pretty hopeless. Even if you had a knowledgeable general population, you still need to overcome apathy and systemic roadblocks, but getting people in the age of willful ignorance to pay attention to facts? To read? I just don’t know if I have that much optimism handy.
That leads to a very sad quote, which came from Wealth and Our Commonwealth:
“In 1879, Henry George published Progress and Poverty, a book chronicling the dangers of consolidated land ownership. This remarkable book, which would today be considered too dense to enjoy a wide readership, sold over 1 million copies, and excerpts were serialized in several popular magazines." (Pp 32-33, emphasis mine)
I’m sure they’re right, but it makes me sad.
Mosiah 26-29 (as part of family scripture study)
Walked outside for 36 minutes
Pushups
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
What just happened here?
As we have established, it is nothing unusual to have periods where I write more, and where I write less, but this was kind of a long spell. It's not the longest I have ever gone without blogging, as the records show that a gap between January and September 2007, but since then the longest absence had been three months, until now, and just when I had been so on track! But really, all that happened was life. Life happened hard.
When we left off, I was settling into my new job, and finding out that it was not enough money, but having high hopes for the screenplay that I was working on, because someone with actual experience was interested in it.
Remember, I was working with a partner to adapt a book. My writing partner is a professional author. People have bought her books. The author of the book we were working on was in her writing group, and the producer was someone she knew, so the project would not have existed without her at all. Our writing styles are very different, but I know that I learned more that way. However, she was not always great at communication.
Initially she was forwarding messages from the producer with his feedback, and what he wanted, some of which I thought was questionable, but I was trying and then suddenly she sent me an update script where he was credited as a writer and if it was good that would have been one thing, but I hated what they had done with it. It had become really ugly, and I know you can't always follow a book one hundred percent, and we had not been trying to do so, but at least come up with something good! I really hated it.
Anyway, I had thought it would at least result in a paycheck, because he was all set to make a film. He had purchased the rights to one story that was set in New Mexico, but the script was not working out. We were working on a story set in New Mexico which we quickly finished, for him, and that seemed really perfect, but I guess he needed to find financiers for a filming budget. New Mexico had some good incentives set up, so it seemed probable, but I guess it didn't work out. I had soured so much on the project that I almost didn't care. Actually, I think this was probably really good experience for Hollywood, except when you are a professional and this happens, you at least get some money out of the deal.
That would have been nice, because I really was not making enough. When I first found myself unemployed, I did some math and figured out how much I would need to scrape by. When I got hired I was making a little more than that, but after one year unemployed and one year underemployed, I had a bit of a debt hole built up. So here I was working, with a really good team and great health care and yet I was still always running short and stressed out over it. I decided to try refinancing, though I was not sure if I would be an attractive prospect for it. This led to my next major source of stress.
I decided to work with my credit union, because getting the original mortgage through them had gone fine, and I was a loyal customer. Well, I don't know that shopping around would have helped, but it was a whole different process the second time around.
It is probably partly due to that whole worldwide financial collapse thing, and maybe partly due to the hits my own credit rating took. All I know is that my loan officer was cold and unresponsive, and she kept asking for money. They needed $250 to lock in the rate, $400 for a deposit and the new appraisal, and then the amount the entire loan would be shy for paying off my credit cards, which was done by the title company mailing out checks, even though I could have paid them off online instantly if they had deposited those funds into my account. I guess they did not trust me. Therefore, when I noticed one small credit line had dropped out of the agreement, I did not tell them because I did not want a demand for another check to pay off that also.
The frustrating thing was that with the delay waiting for the mail everything was in process but I had late payments and was getting calls, including on the original mortgage, through the same credit union. The stupid thing was amounts fluctuate anyway, so once all the checks arrived I still owed a small payment to one card, and had credits on two others. It is done now, but it was grueling while it lasted, and I have a lot of bad feelings towards my credit union now, but with a new 30 year mortgage, breaking away is not likely to happen soon. Honestly, I think they are becoming too much like a bank. If I do ever start getting writing income, I think I will start a new account at First Tech, and ease into the transition that way.
With my job, I hit the first round of overtime, which was welcome in some ways for the extra money, but then just as I was getting used to it, it dried up, and I entered this period where I was constantly having to learn new tasks just as I started feeling comfortable with the old ones. This was good in one way, because I learned a lot and I was certainly constantly stimulated, but it came at a time when I was exhausted and felt like there was too much change anyway. My sisters and I also changed the ward we are attending. This is nothing like changing religions, but it is change, and we had things we wanted to get done first where for a while there was a rush of self-imposed obligations, and there were some emotions involved.
This may seem like a lot of stuff, and it was, but the big undercurrent running through everything was that my mother could no longer avoid knee surgery, and that became an ordeal all in itself, with many appointments, and questions and fears. I knew it would be stress, but I had no idea the emotional toll the surgery would take, nor how much lost sleep it would mean, nor how much of an emotional toll the lost sleep would take.
Anyway, on top of the exhaustion, and stress about work, money, family, and aging, there were also health concerns and at least one round of depression (I can't decide if it was multiple rounds or one that ebbed and flowed). But things are much better now.
I have not been writing much, except for the occasional fevered journal entry, and I am itching to write again. Right now I want to focus on blogging. After I have gotten everything out, I should be ready to get back to screenwriting, but I have too much angst built up right now. Plus, I need to get into the habit of daily writing again, and the time management that makes it possible. Having a goal to write daily seems a little crazy, in that I am working some overtime again and I am feeling a need to focus on good nutrition, exercise, and rest to keep me functional. I mean, I don't know why I think I can manage all of those things at once. Maybe I will need to learn to be concise in my blogging. That would be a trip.
Still, I feel like it's important, and probably it will help me prioritize and use my time better. After all, if I can get all of my issues to date worked out, stand in better stead for my eventual career goals, and get to wear I can do a good job maintaining my health even during times of great responsibility and stress, that should stand me in good stead when Mom gets the other knee done.
When we left off, I was settling into my new job, and finding out that it was not enough money, but having high hopes for the screenplay that I was working on, because someone with actual experience was interested in it.
Remember, I was working with a partner to adapt a book. My writing partner is a professional author. People have bought her books. The author of the book we were working on was in her writing group, and the producer was someone she knew, so the project would not have existed without her at all. Our writing styles are very different, but I know that I learned more that way. However, she was not always great at communication.
Initially she was forwarding messages from the producer with his feedback, and what he wanted, some of which I thought was questionable, but I was trying and then suddenly she sent me an update script where he was credited as a writer and if it was good that would have been one thing, but I hated what they had done with it. It had become really ugly, and I know you can't always follow a book one hundred percent, and we had not been trying to do so, but at least come up with something good! I really hated it.
Anyway, I had thought it would at least result in a paycheck, because he was all set to make a film. He had purchased the rights to one story that was set in New Mexico, but the script was not working out. We were working on a story set in New Mexico which we quickly finished, for him, and that seemed really perfect, but I guess he needed to find financiers for a filming budget. New Mexico had some good incentives set up, so it seemed probable, but I guess it didn't work out. I had soured so much on the project that I almost didn't care. Actually, I think this was probably really good experience for Hollywood, except when you are a professional and this happens, you at least get some money out of the deal.
That would have been nice, because I really was not making enough. When I first found myself unemployed, I did some math and figured out how much I would need to scrape by. When I got hired I was making a little more than that, but after one year unemployed and one year underemployed, I had a bit of a debt hole built up. So here I was working, with a really good team and great health care and yet I was still always running short and stressed out over it. I decided to try refinancing, though I was not sure if I would be an attractive prospect for it. This led to my next major source of stress.
I decided to work with my credit union, because getting the original mortgage through them had gone fine, and I was a loyal customer. Well, I don't know that shopping around would have helped, but it was a whole different process the second time around.
It is probably partly due to that whole worldwide financial collapse thing, and maybe partly due to the hits my own credit rating took. All I know is that my loan officer was cold and unresponsive, and she kept asking for money. They needed $250 to lock in the rate, $400 for a deposit and the new appraisal, and then the amount the entire loan would be shy for paying off my credit cards, which was done by the title company mailing out checks, even though I could have paid them off online instantly if they had deposited those funds into my account. I guess they did not trust me. Therefore, when I noticed one small credit line had dropped out of the agreement, I did not tell them because I did not want a demand for another check to pay off that also.
The frustrating thing was that with the delay waiting for the mail everything was in process but I had late payments and was getting calls, including on the original mortgage, through the same credit union. The stupid thing was amounts fluctuate anyway, so once all the checks arrived I still owed a small payment to one card, and had credits on two others. It is done now, but it was grueling while it lasted, and I have a lot of bad feelings towards my credit union now, but with a new 30 year mortgage, breaking away is not likely to happen soon. Honestly, I think they are becoming too much like a bank. If I do ever start getting writing income, I think I will start a new account at First Tech, and ease into the transition that way.
With my job, I hit the first round of overtime, which was welcome in some ways for the extra money, but then just as I was getting used to it, it dried up, and I entered this period where I was constantly having to learn new tasks just as I started feeling comfortable with the old ones. This was good in one way, because I learned a lot and I was certainly constantly stimulated, but it came at a time when I was exhausted and felt like there was too much change anyway. My sisters and I also changed the ward we are attending. This is nothing like changing religions, but it is change, and we had things we wanted to get done first where for a while there was a rush of self-imposed obligations, and there were some emotions involved.
This may seem like a lot of stuff, and it was, but the big undercurrent running through everything was that my mother could no longer avoid knee surgery, and that became an ordeal all in itself, with many appointments, and questions and fears. I knew it would be stress, but I had no idea the emotional toll the surgery would take, nor how much lost sleep it would mean, nor how much of an emotional toll the lost sleep would take.
Anyway, on top of the exhaustion, and stress about work, money, family, and aging, there were also health concerns and at least one round of depression (I can't decide if it was multiple rounds or one that ebbed and flowed). But things are much better now.
I have not been writing much, except for the occasional fevered journal entry, and I am itching to write again. Right now I want to focus on blogging. After I have gotten everything out, I should be ready to get back to screenwriting, but I have too much angst built up right now. Plus, I need to get into the habit of daily writing again, and the time management that makes it possible. Having a goal to write daily seems a little crazy, in that I am working some overtime again and I am feeling a need to focus on good nutrition, exercise, and rest to keep me functional. I mean, I don't know why I think I can manage all of those things at once. Maybe I will need to learn to be concise in my blogging. That would be a trip.
Still, I feel like it's important, and probably it will help me prioritize and use my time better. After all, if I can get all of my issues to date worked out, stand in better stead for my eventual career goals, and get to wear I can do a good job maintaining my health even during times of great responsibility and stress, that should stand me in good stead when Mom gets the other knee done.
Monday, October 04, 2010
Phase 2
I haven’t blogged for days. I was getting ready to. I would write down “22 minutes walking outside” or “Crunches” or “1st Thessalonians 3 – Philomen”, and plan on blogging, but I would be so tired, and I had gone past the 40 days already, so I let it be.
Well, now I have listened to Conference, and I have thought about what is next, and I did play some video games, and yeah, it’s time to move into the next phase.
There will be more posts, and I will finish the concert series and write other things, but I will not be blogging daily. There are things that have been really good about it, and I have gotten great support, but it is just too time-consuming to keep up. It can always return at another time.
I probably will not post again this week. The producer wants more changes to the screenplay, and originally I thought they were impossible, but I have some ideas on how to carry it out now, and so this week I really want to concentrate on that. Still no money showing up, but I’m still sticking with it. I’m nothing if not tenacious.
I suppose before moving on I should report on the last forty days. Overall, it feels like an accomplishment. I don’t see a trip to Amsterdam in our immediate future, which is okay, and I was disappointed to find that I gained 6 pounds, which would have been a good amount to lose.
I was kind of afraid it would happen, and there is a good chance that it is new muscle, because with the crunches and pushups I went from about 5 at first to 30 now, and that is a pretty fast increase, but still. It did provide a funny moment though, because I was talking to Julie about how if that happened I would be momentarily suicidal and then move on, and she was like, “But you’re so—“ and I don’t remember if the word she used was logical or practical or what, but sure, that’s the end result, but it’s not my initial state.
I do feel more energetic, I am walking faster, and I have stronger abs and arms. Some of my clothes do feel looser, but I wear stretchy things so it is not definitive. I want weight loss, but I’m on a four-year plan, and I do have time to catch up. I should probably take my measurements too, so that weight is not the only available indicator. (For the record, I am 321 now.)
So, what’s next? Well, 20 minutes minimum of scripture study and exercise daily is still the rule, and I am swearing off video games and impure thoughts again, this time through November 24th. This is a 52-day period instead of 40, so one change is that it is longer.
Another change is that I am going to keep up with the rotating toning exercises, but substitute leg lifts for wall sits. I just didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere with them. Part of that is that with your legs and thighs supporting your entire body all the time, they are probably going to always be more developed than other muscles, where it will be harder to see change. Still, there may be better measurability with an exercise that you count instead of time, and at least it mixes things up a bit. I will need something more taxing soon I am sure, but one step at a time. No matter how many times I have gotten into a good routine for aerobic exercises, I have never had a great program for strength training, and fixing that will probably take longer.
Also, I will be keeping a food journal strictly and diligently for the 52 days. This is something that I have tried many times before and failed at, because I will forget things, and fall behind, and just give up, and so giving myself a limited time to focus on it should be helpful. Maybe I will just be trying a different strategy every time for the first few phases, and then I will start combining them. Maybe there won’t even be any weight loss until after the first three years. That would be discouraging, but it would fall within the plan.
I feel like I will eventually need to set some kind of goal about getting better rest, like making myself get to bed earlier, but at this point I would be setting myself up for failure, and I am trying to focus on the achievable.
I will still be working on various tasks and goals that I set for serving others and working on my writing career, but those are not specifically part of the 52 days.
Also, I will be praying for help in loving someone who is difficult for me to love. Well, actually, it’s more the liking her part that is hard, but the point is that I will be working on it.
Well, now I have listened to Conference, and I have thought about what is next, and I did play some video games, and yeah, it’s time to move into the next phase.
There will be more posts, and I will finish the concert series and write other things, but I will not be blogging daily. There are things that have been really good about it, and I have gotten great support, but it is just too time-consuming to keep up. It can always return at another time.
I probably will not post again this week. The producer wants more changes to the screenplay, and originally I thought they were impossible, but I have some ideas on how to carry it out now, and so this week I really want to concentrate on that. Still no money showing up, but I’m still sticking with it. I’m nothing if not tenacious.
I suppose before moving on I should report on the last forty days. Overall, it feels like an accomplishment. I don’t see a trip to Amsterdam in our immediate future, which is okay, and I was disappointed to find that I gained 6 pounds, which would have been a good amount to lose.
I was kind of afraid it would happen, and there is a good chance that it is new muscle, because with the crunches and pushups I went from about 5 at first to 30 now, and that is a pretty fast increase, but still. It did provide a funny moment though, because I was talking to Julie about how if that happened I would be momentarily suicidal and then move on, and she was like, “But you’re so—“ and I don’t remember if the word she used was logical or practical or what, but sure, that’s the end result, but it’s not my initial state.
I do feel more energetic, I am walking faster, and I have stronger abs and arms. Some of my clothes do feel looser, but I wear stretchy things so it is not definitive. I want weight loss, but I’m on a four-year plan, and I do have time to catch up. I should probably take my measurements too, so that weight is not the only available indicator. (For the record, I am 321 now.)
So, what’s next? Well, 20 minutes minimum of scripture study and exercise daily is still the rule, and I am swearing off video games and impure thoughts again, this time through November 24th. This is a 52-day period instead of 40, so one change is that it is longer.
Another change is that I am going to keep up with the rotating toning exercises, but substitute leg lifts for wall sits. I just didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere with them. Part of that is that with your legs and thighs supporting your entire body all the time, they are probably going to always be more developed than other muscles, where it will be harder to see change. Still, there may be better measurability with an exercise that you count instead of time, and at least it mixes things up a bit. I will need something more taxing soon I am sure, but one step at a time. No matter how many times I have gotten into a good routine for aerobic exercises, I have never had a great program for strength training, and fixing that will probably take longer.
Also, I will be keeping a food journal strictly and diligently for the 52 days. This is something that I have tried many times before and failed at, because I will forget things, and fall behind, and just give up, and so giving myself a limited time to focus on it should be helpful. Maybe I will just be trying a different strategy every time for the first few phases, and then I will start combining them. Maybe there won’t even be any weight loss until after the first three years. That would be discouraging, but it would fall within the plan.
I feel like I will eventually need to set some kind of goal about getting better rest, like making myself get to bed earlier, but at this point I would be setting myself up for failure, and I am trying to focus on the achievable.
I will still be working on various tasks and goals that I set for serving others and working on my writing career, but those are not specifically part of the 52 days.
Also, I will be praying for help in loving someone who is difficult for me to love. Well, actually, it’s more the liking her part that is hard, but the point is that I will be working on it.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Concert Journal Part II: Live at the Crystal
If I had not been so badly impoverished in college, there would have been another trio of concerts seen in Eugene, that would have included the Presidents of the United States of America, the Gin Blossoms, and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. Two of the first concerts that I saw in my employed adulthood compensated for that, but they also introduced me to something Badly Bradley had only hinted at—deplorable opening acts.
The Presidents put on an amazing show. “High energy” barely begins to describe it. I saw them at a Rose Festival concert also, and still great. They sing about silly things, and they don’t use all of the available strings with their bassitar and guibass, but they make it work. I might have to call them an absurdist band, actually, except that seems like more of a Leningrad Cowboys thing.
So, at the Crystal, they had two opening acts, and the second, the United States of Electronica, was actually pretty good. In fact, when the Presidents took the stage, they gave a hand to USE themselves, leaving Anna Oxygen out in the cold. Well, that’s what the rest of us had done.
I guess no one ever explained to her that you need to earn the respect of the audience. So, if you can’t do your songs right because your projection system is not working and the right images do not come up for your songs, and this impairs your act, it makes us think that the songs are not very good. Okay, you proved that one anyway. And you can’t make us dance to the dance steps you want and demonstrate. If we like you we might do it, but we didn’t. And getting whiny and cranky with us just reinforces our impression that you suck. Really, it was very sad and annoying.
Oh, one funny thing at that show. Where we were, there was part of the stage that I couldn’t see, which basically meant that I could see everyone but the keyboardist for USE. So later on, during Presidents, I was dancing next to him and didn’t know until my sisters told me.
So, let’s say that the Presidents are absurdist, and that Anna Oxygen was really trying to be a performance artist, and the USE keyboardist’s hair was a work of art, because the when it was time for the Daddies, there was some artistry and illusion going on. Their opening act seemed like a joke.
First of all, musically they sounded rather like a garage band playing a frat party—mainly loud, not particularly memorable, and they only lyrics I could make out were about riding a snake (and if that’s not fratty, I don’t know what is).
Also, their outfits were very costume-y. It was like each member had chosen to play a different character, and there was no thematic connection between the different characters—especially the leprechaun one. So I was there thinking it had to be some kind of joke, and then during the Daddies performance, which was great, this idea started building in the back of my mind, and sure enough White Hot Odyssey is Steve Perry’s other project, and if I can’t like the music of his other band, I admit to being impressed with the ability to do two full shows in one night, which he does on a regular basis. Crazy.
Other memorable shows at the Crystal have included Jimmy Eat World, which was good but I had to leave before they were done, which makes the use of two sucky opening acts particularly egregious.
The Finn Brothers were a great, mellow show, almost acoustic, but still moving and energetic and wonderful. The crazy Celtic lady with the enormous flower in her hair was weird, but I can’t tell you who she was because I could not understand a word she was saying. You know how sometimes when people fake an Irish accent they sound like they have a toothache and it obscures their speech? I’m sure she was not faking, but, yeah, something was not right.
I think my favorite show there was the most recent one, when we went to see the Psychedelic Furs. I guess one good thing about having a voice where you sound like a lifelong smoker is that aging does not show as much. Richard Butler sounded incredible—like time had stood still for him. And he danced around on that stage as if it had not been twenty-odd years. His dancing was a little nerdy, actually, but he was enjoying himself so much! I felt like he was happy to see us, and it was endearing.
Actually, this is the weirdest thing of all—I think their opening act was okay. I don’t know how that happened.
22 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
1st Corinthians 15 – 2nd Corinthians 8
The Presidents put on an amazing show. “High energy” barely begins to describe it. I saw them at a Rose Festival concert also, and still great. They sing about silly things, and they don’t use all of the available strings with their bassitar and guibass, but they make it work. I might have to call them an absurdist band, actually, except that seems like more of a Leningrad Cowboys thing.
So, at the Crystal, they had two opening acts, and the second, the United States of Electronica, was actually pretty good. In fact, when the Presidents took the stage, they gave a hand to USE themselves, leaving Anna Oxygen out in the cold. Well, that’s what the rest of us had done.
I guess no one ever explained to her that you need to earn the respect of the audience. So, if you can’t do your songs right because your projection system is not working and the right images do not come up for your songs, and this impairs your act, it makes us think that the songs are not very good. Okay, you proved that one anyway. And you can’t make us dance to the dance steps you want and demonstrate. If we like you we might do it, but we didn’t. And getting whiny and cranky with us just reinforces our impression that you suck. Really, it was very sad and annoying.
Oh, one funny thing at that show. Where we were, there was part of the stage that I couldn’t see, which basically meant that I could see everyone but the keyboardist for USE. So later on, during Presidents, I was dancing next to him and didn’t know until my sisters told me.
So, let’s say that the Presidents are absurdist, and that Anna Oxygen was really trying to be a performance artist, and the USE keyboardist’s hair was a work of art, because the when it was time for the Daddies, there was some artistry and illusion going on. Their opening act seemed like a joke.
First of all, musically they sounded rather like a garage band playing a frat party—mainly loud, not particularly memorable, and they only lyrics I could make out were about riding a snake (and if that’s not fratty, I don’t know what is).
Also, their outfits were very costume-y. It was like each member had chosen to play a different character, and there was no thematic connection between the different characters—especially the leprechaun one. So I was there thinking it had to be some kind of joke, and then during the Daddies performance, which was great, this idea started building in the back of my mind, and sure enough White Hot Odyssey is Steve Perry’s other project, and if I can’t like the music of his other band, I admit to being impressed with the ability to do two full shows in one night, which he does on a regular basis. Crazy.
Other memorable shows at the Crystal have included Jimmy Eat World, which was good but I had to leave before they were done, which makes the use of two sucky opening acts particularly egregious.
The Finn Brothers were a great, mellow show, almost acoustic, but still moving and energetic and wonderful. The crazy Celtic lady with the enormous flower in her hair was weird, but I can’t tell you who she was because I could not understand a word she was saying. You know how sometimes when people fake an Irish accent they sound like they have a toothache and it obscures their speech? I’m sure she was not faking, but, yeah, something was not right.
I think my favorite show there was the most recent one, when we went to see the Psychedelic Furs. I guess one good thing about having a voice where you sound like a lifelong smoker is that aging does not show as much. Richard Butler sounded incredible—like time had stood still for him. And he danced around on that stage as if it had not been twenty-odd years. His dancing was a little nerdy, actually, but he was enjoying himself so much! I felt like he was happy to see us, and it was endearing.
Actually, this is the weirdest thing of all—I think their opening act was okay. I don’t know how that happened.
22 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
1st Corinthians 15 – 2nd Corinthians 8
Monday, September 27, 2010
Concert Journal – The first six
Okay, I am still doing this for a few more days—through Friday, I guess, and then I will see.
Breaking up my concert experiences, there are six that I consider to be part of my youth. After that, it is all adulthood, and I couldn’t tell you what year it was—it probably happened sometime between graduating from college and now. These six are actually two trios.
The first set occurred when I was in junior high. Somehow I had reached that point where going to concerts is possible. I know tweens have parents who take them to concerts, but my parents never did it that way. So, at thirteen I was old enough to go to a concert, and it was okay.
They all happened within the span of a summer. Charlie Sexton came to town first, in July, I think, and then A-ha came in August. Those were my two favorites at the time, and that they were both coming was amazing.
For Charlie I went with Marisa and Misty. He played at the Civic Auditorium (now Keller), and we wandered around the venue before and after, talking to a roadie, and a bus driver, and a limo driver. The most exciting part was seeing Charlie, pre-show, leave through a side door and enter a limo. If I had any presence of mind, I would have taken the camera I had out of my pocket, and snapped a shot, but I didn’t. The opening band was Badly Bradley (a guy from Quarterflash was in it), and they were not good.
Although this first concert was exciting, A-ha gave a much better show. I think Charlie was still a little shy—Morten was not. He flirted and joked and was amazing. I went with Gina Caldwell, who was only two years older than me (Misty is five years older, and Marisa was older still), but my brother Lance was working security at the concert, and he drove us, so there kind of was some adult supervision. I did nearly get in trouble, because exploring had been so much fun the first time, I wanted to try it again, and I did meet their bus driver, which was fine, but I sort of wandered into an area where I wasn’t supposed to be (between the Schnitz where they played and the Heathman where they were staying), and had to bluff my way out of it. I guess it was good practice for later.
It does seem weird to me that even though I know that Bourgeois Tagg was their opener—I remember their name on the ad and the ticket and everything—I have no memory of them performing. Even seeing that “I don’t mind at all” is theirs, it’s like, Really? Hmm. I guess the main event completely overshadowed them.
I bought a t-shirt there, and a dog tag at the Charlie Sexton concert, and I wore both of them for my next school picture. My souvenir at the Monkees was a program, but even if it was something wearable I might not have, because they were kind of disappointing.
The thing is, I did like their music okay, but I had really been a fan of the show, and suddenly these young guys are old, and the shtick is a little thin. Maybe I should have stuck with my memories. I think Nikki may have been a bit disappointed with it too, and she was a way bigger fan than I was. Of course, I could have been part of the disappointment. We had a slumber party the night before, and the night before that I had to be up early for a trip to Seattle, and I just could not sleep, so I didn’t. I can be great for 24 hours without sleep—a little hyper, but fine, but then I crashed. I was a very boring guest that night. Nikki’s mom took her, Nancy, and I, and even if the Monkees were a bit disappointing, I guess we still got our money’s worth, because the ticket included Herman’s Hermits, the Grass Roots, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and a Beavers baseball game. (That was at the old Civic Stadium, before it became PGE Park.)
I don’t know why, but I didn’t go to any other concerts until just after high school. I know the first one was Billy Idol and Faith No More, because I remember Faith No More making fun of Nelson, and Billy Idol making fun of MC Hammer, and those were the next two. I went with Ericka, Bill, and Scott. Honestly, it was weird that the four of us went to a concert together, but I guess it worked out. Bill never paid for his ticket. I guess it was okay, but those are the memories that stick out, not the music. Well, and I remember Faith No More singing the Nestle Sweet Dreams jingle. It was kind of weird but it worked. Oh, and I remember us speculating on the fate of the fish in their video.
Nelson was the last in that group, because I was already away at college. I hitched a ride back up with Bob Fife’s girlfriend. I can’t remember her name and it is bugging me. I can totally picture her. Greg was supposed to meet me outside, but he never showed, so I was actually at the concert alone, though there were people all around. It was fine. It saddens me that as much as I loved that album, that then they went country and Gunnar became a tool on Celebrity Fit Club, but these things happen.
With the MC Hammer concert, there were so many problems that I don’t even know where to start, including that I never saw the show.
First off, he was supposed to tour with Vanilla Ice, and that was part of my motivation, but I think I was already starting to be embarrassed. I bought his tape on the strength of Ice Ice Baby, and the rest of the tracks were pretty stupid, and even for his good song, you know, sampling is pretty common in rap, just own up to it. I had found him cute, but then he kept doing stupid things to his hair and sticking his tongue out, and it was turning out that everything he said about himself was a lie, so yeah, speaking of tools. Anyway, then he was off the tour, and I don’t remember who replaced him, which I would have if I had seen the show.
I was supposed to go with Matt Davis. I was getting ready, and found that the tickets had disappeared. I tore my room apart trying to find them, but they never turned up. I have no idea what happened. We had some people working on the furnace, and my roommate at the time was not above stealing, but it was so frustrating, and I had to disappoint Matt, and then afterwards I always wondered if we would have become closer, and maybe I could have made a difference later when he needed it. Stupid, but it stung.
Anyway, they were playing for two nights, and my tickets were for the first night, so the second night was the one where I snuck in. Well, I planned to sneak in, anyway, but then when I got to there, Trail Blazer at the time Alaa Abdelnaby was there with his date, and he was allowed, but he was not sure how to get in, so I showed him the doorbell and then tailgated. And yes, that was kind of cool, but you can’t really hear anything backstage, and all I saw was a few dancers, and I knew it would be pushing my luck to stay very long, so yeah, that whole thing was kind of a waste, though whether I should have been bolder or not bothered at all is a reasonable question.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Pushups
1st Corinthians 4 - 1st Corinthians 14
Breaking up my concert experiences, there are six that I consider to be part of my youth. After that, it is all adulthood, and I couldn’t tell you what year it was—it probably happened sometime between graduating from college and now. These six are actually two trios.
The first set occurred when I was in junior high. Somehow I had reached that point where going to concerts is possible. I know tweens have parents who take them to concerts, but my parents never did it that way. So, at thirteen I was old enough to go to a concert, and it was okay.
They all happened within the span of a summer. Charlie Sexton came to town first, in July, I think, and then A-ha came in August. Those were my two favorites at the time, and that they were both coming was amazing.
For Charlie I went with Marisa and Misty. He played at the Civic Auditorium (now Keller), and we wandered around the venue before and after, talking to a roadie, and a bus driver, and a limo driver. The most exciting part was seeing Charlie, pre-show, leave through a side door and enter a limo. If I had any presence of mind, I would have taken the camera I had out of my pocket, and snapped a shot, but I didn’t. The opening band was Badly Bradley (a guy from Quarterflash was in it), and they were not good.
Although this first concert was exciting, A-ha gave a much better show. I think Charlie was still a little shy—Morten was not. He flirted and joked and was amazing. I went with Gina Caldwell, who was only two years older than me (Misty is five years older, and Marisa was older still), but my brother Lance was working security at the concert, and he drove us, so there kind of was some adult supervision. I did nearly get in trouble, because exploring had been so much fun the first time, I wanted to try it again, and I did meet their bus driver, which was fine, but I sort of wandered into an area where I wasn’t supposed to be (between the Schnitz where they played and the Heathman where they were staying), and had to bluff my way out of it. I guess it was good practice for later.
It does seem weird to me that even though I know that Bourgeois Tagg was their opener—I remember their name on the ad and the ticket and everything—I have no memory of them performing. Even seeing that “I don’t mind at all” is theirs, it’s like, Really? Hmm. I guess the main event completely overshadowed them.
I bought a t-shirt there, and a dog tag at the Charlie Sexton concert, and I wore both of them for my next school picture. My souvenir at the Monkees was a program, but even if it was something wearable I might not have, because they were kind of disappointing.
The thing is, I did like their music okay, but I had really been a fan of the show, and suddenly these young guys are old, and the shtick is a little thin. Maybe I should have stuck with my memories. I think Nikki may have been a bit disappointed with it too, and she was a way bigger fan than I was. Of course, I could have been part of the disappointment. We had a slumber party the night before, and the night before that I had to be up early for a trip to Seattle, and I just could not sleep, so I didn’t. I can be great for 24 hours without sleep—a little hyper, but fine, but then I crashed. I was a very boring guest that night. Nikki’s mom took her, Nancy, and I, and even if the Monkees were a bit disappointing, I guess we still got our money’s worth, because the ticket included Herman’s Hermits, the Grass Roots, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and a Beavers baseball game. (That was at the old Civic Stadium, before it became PGE Park.)
I don’t know why, but I didn’t go to any other concerts until just after high school. I know the first one was Billy Idol and Faith No More, because I remember Faith No More making fun of Nelson, and Billy Idol making fun of MC Hammer, and those were the next two. I went with Ericka, Bill, and Scott. Honestly, it was weird that the four of us went to a concert together, but I guess it worked out. Bill never paid for his ticket. I guess it was okay, but those are the memories that stick out, not the music. Well, and I remember Faith No More singing the Nestle Sweet Dreams jingle. It was kind of weird but it worked. Oh, and I remember us speculating on the fate of the fish in their video.
Nelson was the last in that group, because I was already away at college. I hitched a ride back up with Bob Fife’s girlfriend. I can’t remember her name and it is bugging me. I can totally picture her. Greg was supposed to meet me outside, but he never showed, so I was actually at the concert alone, though there were people all around. It was fine. It saddens me that as much as I loved that album, that then they went country and Gunnar became a tool on Celebrity Fit Club, but these things happen.
With the MC Hammer concert, there were so many problems that I don’t even know where to start, including that I never saw the show.
First off, he was supposed to tour with Vanilla Ice, and that was part of my motivation, but I think I was already starting to be embarrassed. I bought his tape on the strength of Ice Ice Baby, and the rest of the tracks were pretty stupid, and even for his good song, you know, sampling is pretty common in rap, just own up to it. I had found him cute, but then he kept doing stupid things to his hair and sticking his tongue out, and it was turning out that everything he said about himself was a lie, so yeah, speaking of tools. Anyway, then he was off the tour, and I don’t remember who replaced him, which I would have if I had seen the show.
I was supposed to go with Matt Davis. I was getting ready, and found that the tickets had disappeared. I tore my room apart trying to find them, but they never turned up. I have no idea what happened. We had some people working on the furnace, and my roommate at the time was not above stealing, but it was so frustrating, and I had to disappoint Matt, and then afterwards I always wondered if we would have become closer, and maybe I could have made a difference later when he needed it. Stupid, but it stung.
Anyway, they were playing for two nights, and my tickets were for the first night, so the second night was the one where I snuck in. Well, I planned to sneak in, anyway, but then when I got to there, Trail Blazer at the time Alaa Abdelnaby was there with his date, and he was allowed, but he was not sure how to get in, so I showed him the doorbell and then tailgated. And yes, that was kind of cool, but you can’t really hear anything backstage, and all I saw was a few dancers, and I knew it would be pushing my luck to stay very long, so yeah, that whole thing was kind of a waste, though whether I should have been bolder or not bothered at all is a reasonable question.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Pushups
1st Corinthians 4 - 1st Corinthians 14
Sunday, September 26, 2010
In Memoriam
I’m pretty sure this is my last thing from the reunion, but it is meaningful for me.
The class of 1990 lost ten people along the way. I was close to some and barely knew others, but in each case it just doesn’t feel right that they’re gone. When I have lost people to old age, it is sad, but for people in my own age group it is a shock—that’s just not how it’s supposed to work.
I know many of my classmates were affected the same way, and that often the way it came out was a desire for more details. Having some details would just lead to a desire for more details: “I know it was cancer, but do you know what kind?”
I have observed this before, especially with suicide. There is such an element of shock there, along with guilt and every other negative emotion that goes into that mix, that I believe we hope the additional details will help things make sense. It doesn’t always work, but that desire is still there.
Also, I think to some extent there is a desire to hang on, and a feeling that more information will help. Since Josh died I have dreamt of him a few times, and the first time I remember asking him about this hat he used to wear. It was silly, and even in the dream I knew it was silly, but I understood that I was asking for something tangible to hang on to, and when I say it is silly, it’s because that even in the dream I kind of understood that it wouldn’t work. Whatever souvenirs you have, the person is still gone.
So, I understand that there’s a limit to how much getting more information can help. Not only did I suspect it, but I got a chance to test it out, because a week later I was meeting with some friends and I got more information about Adam and John, and David, and I gave information about Josh, and then the next night I got more information about Darin and Tricia. (I still have absolutely no idea what happened to Russ or James.)
On one level, it’s horrible, because I think as we add the details in the hopes of making sense, we also find ways where maybe it could have gone differently, and not happened, and there is a keen little pain there. It still seems to be part of the process, somehow, of arriving at acceptance. It took me years before David’s death seemed real—I kept half-thinking that someday someone was going to tell me, “Oh, that was a mix-up. He’s got a job over in North Carolina now.” That was partly because I heard one thing, that didn’t make any sense (it does make more sense now, incidentally), and I never saw an obituary or anything else, and it was certainly horrible if it was true, so somehow, it didn’t quite seem true.
There are other levels of comfort of course, and I will probably write about those some other time, but what I am getting at now is that I want real obituaries. In our reunion program we had their names and a poem, and it wasn’t even a good poem.
It’s not just their deaths. We also wanted to know more about their lives. All the living get a chance to submit short biographies (a chance which many squander, by the way), and maybe some of us don’t have anything new to report, but they did do things. Some had children, and marriages, and jobs and accomplishments. Okay, Paul did not have a chance to do anything after high school, and John and Adam barely did, but they still had hopes and dreams and things they would have done, and people who cared about them—there is something to say.
And yes, we do want to know about their deaths. The trend here, even in newspaper obituaries, seems to be for less and less detail, where it is very frequent for there to be no cause of death listed, so maybe it’s not a popular idea, and it could be morbid, and it totally might not help in the way that is hoped, but knowing all of that anyway, I still want to know. “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” And everyone with whom I have shared this sentiment agrees.
So, that’s what I want, and I know Classic Reunions will not take the responsibility, but it still seems desirable and possible. I would welcome feedback on this one. I kind of always do, but more than usual this time, I guess.
Otherwise, all I can do is express my fervent wish that the list doesn’t grow anymore for a while.
40 minutes walking outside
Rest
Romans 9 – 1st Corinthians 3
The class of 1990 lost ten people along the way. I was close to some and barely knew others, but in each case it just doesn’t feel right that they’re gone. When I have lost people to old age, it is sad, but for people in my own age group it is a shock—that’s just not how it’s supposed to work.
I know many of my classmates were affected the same way, and that often the way it came out was a desire for more details. Having some details would just lead to a desire for more details: “I know it was cancer, but do you know what kind?”
I have observed this before, especially with suicide. There is such an element of shock there, along with guilt and every other negative emotion that goes into that mix, that I believe we hope the additional details will help things make sense. It doesn’t always work, but that desire is still there.
Also, I think to some extent there is a desire to hang on, and a feeling that more information will help. Since Josh died I have dreamt of him a few times, and the first time I remember asking him about this hat he used to wear. It was silly, and even in the dream I knew it was silly, but I understood that I was asking for something tangible to hang on to, and when I say it is silly, it’s because that even in the dream I kind of understood that it wouldn’t work. Whatever souvenirs you have, the person is still gone.
So, I understand that there’s a limit to how much getting more information can help. Not only did I suspect it, but I got a chance to test it out, because a week later I was meeting with some friends and I got more information about Adam and John, and David, and I gave information about Josh, and then the next night I got more information about Darin and Tricia. (I still have absolutely no idea what happened to Russ or James.)
On one level, it’s horrible, because I think as we add the details in the hopes of making sense, we also find ways where maybe it could have gone differently, and not happened, and there is a keen little pain there. It still seems to be part of the process, somehow, of arriving at acceptance. It took me years before David’s death seemed real—I kept half-thinking that someday someone was going to tell me, “Oh, that was a mix-up. He’s got a job over in North Carolina now.” That was partly because I heard one thing, that didn’t make any sense (it does make more sense now, incidentally), and I never saw an obituary or anything else, and it was certainly horrible if it was true, so somehow, it didn’t quite seem true.
There are other levels of comfort of course, and I will probably write about those some other time, but what I am getting at now is that I want real obituaries. In our reunion program we had their names and a poem, and it wasn’t even a good poem.
It’s not just their deaths. We also wanted to know more about their lives. All the living get a chance to submit short biographies (a chance which many squander, by the way), and maybe some of us don’t have anything new to report, but they did do things. Some had children, and marriages, and jobs and accomplishments. Okay, Paul did not have a chance to do anything after high school, and John and Adam barely did, but they still had hopes and dreams and things they would have done, and people who cared about them—there is something to say.
And yes, we do want to know about their deaths. The trend here, even in newspaper obituaries, seems to be for less and less detail, where it is very frequent for there to be no cause of death listed, so maybe it’s not a popular idea, and it could be morbid, and it totally might not help in the way that is hoped, but knowing all of that anyway, I still want to know. “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” And everyone with whom I have shared this sentiment agrees.
So, that’s what I want, and I know Classic Reunions will not take the responsibility, but it still seems desirable and possible. I would welcome feedback on this one. I kind of always do, but more than usual this time, I guess.
Otherwise, all I can do is express my fervent wish that the list doesn’t grow anymore for a while.
40 minutes walking outside
Rest
Romans 9 – 1st Corinthians 3
A few more thoughts post-reunion
I intended to do a recap of various concerts I have attended today, to balance all the things that I want to go to but haven’t yet. Since I just came from an 80’s party, it seemed like good timing.
However, it would be so long! I have been to a fair amount of concerts, and with comments on each of them, well, it would just end up being a lot. I have been thinking if there is some way to break it down into smaller posts, like maybe categorizing them, but there are a lot of blurred boundaries. For example, the Presidents are like the Daddies, in that they are bands that I wished I had seen in Eugene, but then saw at the Crystal, which is part of a larger subset of shows seen at the Crystal. However, I also saw them at the Rose Festival, which would put them with Violent Femmes, but the Femmes are part of the disappointing shows group, but disappointing in a different way than most of them. Anyway, I’m still figuring that one out.
Since the party was thrown by a school friend, post reunion stuff works here too.
I have already mentioned people telling me I look great, or haven’t aged, and my theory that it is because I set the bar so low. Tonight I was actually told that I looked better than in high school. Well, if so, I can say that I am carrying a lot less baggage than I was then. I have worked out some issues, and even if others are still there, it does make me more confident and more peaceful, and that should help.
The other thing is that there are a few people who seem to just think the world of me, and I kind of don’t get it, but all I can come up with is that I was nice to them, except that it shouldn’t have been that rare, and if it was rare, I didn’t know it.
Pauli mentioned being relieved that I don’t remember her being mean to me, because I did remember when her outlook changed—it just never resulted in her picking on me. I understand that, because when I was looking at old yearbook inscriptions I remember being relieved to see so much gratitude from the younger kids. I was pretty sure I had always been nice to the lower classmen and looked out for them, but it was nice having it confirmed. I would have felt really guilty about picking on anyone younger.
I do remember times of saying mean things, or realized that I had hurt someone or was coming close to annoying them, and I remember those things clearly and with great shame, so it amazes me that people remember good things about me.
Maybe it is because those events were rare that they stick with me; perhaps if you are mean regularly it all just blurs together. Maybe I did not notice other kids being mean to each other, but it was happening.
All I really know is that after the feeling of amazement passes I am left with gratitude. I don’t seem to have done anything too terrible, and I am left with a good reputation. That’s good. I do have good friends who are close, and beyond that I have others where we are not close but where there is warmth and support, and I’m grateful for that.
I know that I was really messed up in some ways, and there were a lot of potential pitfalls, but somehow I still ended up with a pretty good life. I am amazed and humbled by that. I have to believe that things will continue working out, because they have in the past. What I haven’t been healed of yet, will come in time. And the more I talk to other people, the more I find things in common.
In general, the reunion has been a really good gift. I know it wouldn’t be that way for everyone, but I’ll take it.
There is one thing that I would like to see changed though, and I will address that in a separate post.
25 minutes walking outside
Crunches
Acts 25 – Romans 8
However, it would be so long! I have been to a fair amount of concerts, and with comments on each of them, well, it would just end up being a lot. I have been thinking if there is some way to break it down into smaller posts, like maybe categorizing them, but there are a lot of blurred boundaries. For example, the Presidents are like the Daddies, in that they are bands that I wished I had seen in Eugene, but then saw at the Crystal, which is part of a larger subset of shows seen at the Crystal. However, I also saw them at the Rose Festival, which would put them with Violent Femmes, but the Femmes are part of the disappointing shows group, but disappointing in a different way than most of them. Anyway, I’m still figuring that one out.
Since the party was thrown by a school friend, post reunion stuff works here too.
I have already mentioned people telling me I look great, or haven’t aged, and my theory that it is because I set the bar so low. Tonight I was actually told that I looked better than in high school. Well, if so, I can say that I am carrying a lot less baggage than I was then. I have worked out some issues, and even if others are still there, it does make me more confident and more peaceful, and that should help.
The other thing is that there are a few people who seem to just think the world of me, and I kind of don’t get it, but all I can come up with is that I was nice to them, except that it shouldn’t have been that rare, and if it was rare, I didn’t know it.
Pauli mentioned being relieved that I don’t remember her being mean to me, because I did remember when her outlook changed—it just never resulted in her picking on me. I understand that, because when I was looking at old yearbook inscriptions I remember being relieved to see so much gratitude from the younger kids. I was pretty sure I had always been nice to the lower classmen and looked out for them, but it was nice having it confirmed. I would have felt really guilty about picking on anyone younger.
I do remember times of saying mean things, or realized that I had hurt someone or was coming close to annoying them, and I remember those things clearly and with great shame, so it amazes me that people remember good things about me.
Maybe it is because those events were rare that they stick with me; perhaps if you are mean regularly it all just blurs together. Maybe I did not notice other kids being mean to each other, but it was happening.
All I really know is that after the feeling of amazement passes I am left with gratitude. I don’t seem to have done anything too terrible, and I am left with a good reputation. That’s good. I do have good friends who are close, and beyond that I have others where we are not close but where there is warmth and support, and I’m grateful for that.
I know that I was really messed up in some ways, and there were a lot of potential pitfalls, but somehow I still ended up with a pretty good life. I am amazed and humbled by that. I have to believe that things will continue working out, because they have in the past. What I haven’t been healed of yet, will come in time. And the more I talk to other people, the more I find things in common.
In general, the reunion has been a really good gift. I know it wouldn’t be that way for everyone, but I’ll take it.
There is one thing that I would like to see changed though, and I will address that in a separate post.
25 minutes walking outside
Crunches
Acts 25 – Romans 8
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Other live shows
I was unpleasantly surprised this morning to see that I had posted the preparedness letter to this blog, not the preparedness blog. I felt so ahead of the game to have written it Wednesday night, and then review and send it Thursday morning, instead of writing, reviewing, and sending all late Thursday night, but I am not at my highest functioning level in the mornings. It makes me wonder if my review missed anything. Anyway, on to today’s topic.
I did not have an official task for this one, probably because the issue came up after I had made the list.
Basically, I know many people in bands. Because we are connected through Facebook, I get invitations to see them play, but it usually doesn’t work out. One real problem for the non-driver, is that these events often happen later at night, without easy access to public transportation. Even when you know people in the band, it may not be wise for a lone (I don’t think I’m naïve, but if I was, would I know?) female to hang out in bars and then walk to a bus stop and hang out there.
Sure, I can invite friends who drive, and the bands would really like me to get extra people out there, but I always feel guilty and awkward asking people who will need to drive me, like the ulterior motive would negate the fact that I think they will appreciate it, and that I want to spend time with them, and those other things. I’ve grown a lot but I still have issues.
The other thing is just the dearth of free time on my calendar. It’s amazing how many events collide with each other. I’m double-booked for tomorrow night actually. Initially, I got dates mixed up, and thought Mike’s show was the same night as Mel’s karaoke fundraiser, which was workable, but it is really the same night as Pauli’s 80’s party, which I think is impossible. And then I missed Mel’s thing anyway, because after errands, Branden and Kehaulani’s reception, and taking Mom out to dinner for her anniversary (we have a twisted sense of humor in my family) I was running out of steam, and then the rain created transportation complications, and someone said something that made me feel crappy, and I was just done. I lay down and cried for a while, and then I wrote, and lashed out at someone, and it probably would have been better if I had been out singing, but it just didn’t happen.
Anyway, before I get too far off track, there were bands that I wanted to see, and sometimes I can close, but really the only show I made it too was the Lost Creek Gangsters when they played the Cider Mill. And sure I love Eli, and it was a fun show, but I really feel like I can do better than that.
So I was thinking that around January, and it wasn’t exactly a resolution, but it was the start of the year, and even though the next few months were going to be really busy, and I would not be up to going out for a while, before the end of the year I was going to make a point of seeing LCG again, plus seeing Toque Libre, Lindsey Pool, and Nate Botsford. Four local bands did not seem unreasonable with an entire year ahead, even if I was taking the first three months off the table.
Well, I have not been to any shows this year, which has been filled with poverty, exhaustion, and attempts at overachievement, but also the list of people I would like to see keeps growing.
Even if a rocker takes time off, so you can’t find any word of them, they always seem to end up in another band. I could not find any dates for Cornbred, or that other band that he played in, but now Darin Joye is in Celilo. There were no signs of Mike Johnson that I could see for a long time, but now he is in two bands: The Flurries and Stone in Love. Mel Ortiz was playing in Detention Room, but they might be breaking up, but Patrick Riggs’ wife has a band too, the 13th Soul. If I was a really good friend, I would be linking to web sites for everyone, but there’s this thing called Google.
On the plus side I have decided that Botsford is not really a priority, because I think I figured out that the reason Jim was always inviting people to Nate’s performances is because they were happening at Jim’s café. I should look into that. Still, it’s a lot of bands.
Another plus is that it gives me hope that other people will turn up too. I would love to get a line on Andrew Diamond of Movement, and John Sabol and Kurt Landre from Something She Said. (There are no plans for a No Socks reunion, incidentally.) Also, any time I make it should be a positive. Seeing live local music is usually a good time, and it doesn’t tend to cost very much, unlike regular concerts, which do not always give you more bang for your buck (more on that tomorrow).
I suppose all I really need is a new club and coffeehouse buddy, kind of like a new concert buddy. The easiest thing might be to have a boyfriend with a car, and then going to the shows could count as dates. It could hamper my ability to flirt with the band, but it’s not like that ever ends up anywhere anyway, so that would not be a reason to avoid it.
I think we are going to end up exploring that whole relationship thing again, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a lot more music.
27 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
Acts 16 – Acts 24
I did not have an official task for this one, probably because the issue came up after I had made the list.
Basically, I know many people in bands. Because we are connected through Facebook, I get invitations to see them play, but it usually doesn’t work out. One real problem for the non-driver, is that these events often happen later at night, without easy access to public transportation. Even when you know people in the band, it may not be wise for a lone (I don’t think I’m naïve, but if I was, would I know?) female to hang out in bars and then walk to a bus stop and hang out there.
Sure, I can invite friends who drive, and the bands would really like me to get extra people out there, but I always feel guilty and awkward asking people who will need to drive me, like the ulterior motive would negate the fact that I think they will appreciate it, and that I want to spend time with them, and those other things. I’ve grown a lot but I still have issues.
The other thing is just the dearth of free time on my calendar. It’s amazing how many events collide with each other. I’m double-booked for tomorrow night actually. Initially, I got dates mixed up, and thought Mike’s show was the same night as Mel’s karaoke fundraiser, which was workable, but it is really the same night as Pauli’s 80’s party, which I think is impossible. And then I missed Mel’s thing anyway, because after errands, Branden and Kehaulani’s reception, and taking Mom out to dinner for her anniversary (we have a twisted sense of humor in my family) I was running out of steam, and then the rain created transportation complications, and someone said something that made me feel crappy, and I was just done. I lay down and cried for a while, and then I wrote, and lashed out at someone, and it probably would have been better if I had been out singing, but it just didn’t happen.
Anyway, before I get too far off track, there were bands that I wanted to see, and sometimes I can close, but really the only show I made it too was the Lost Creek Gangsters when they played the Cider Mill. And sure I love Eli, and it was a fun show, but I really feel like I can do better than that.
So I was thinking that around January, and it wasn’t exactly a resolution, but it was the start of the year, and even though the next few months were going to be really busy, and I would not be up to going out for a while, before the end of the year I was going to make a point of seeing LCG again, plus seeing Toque Libre, Lindsey Pool, and Nate Botsford. Four local bands did not seem unreasonable with an entire year ahead, even if I was taking the first three months off the table.
Well, I have not been to any shows this year, which has been filled with poverty, exhaustion, and attempts at overachievement, but also the list of people I would like to see keeps growing.
Even if a rocker takes time off, so you can’t find any word of them, they always seem to end up in another band. I could not find any dates for Cornbred, or that other band that he played in, but now Darin Joye is in Celilo. There were no signs of Mike Johnson that I could see for a long time, but now he is in two bands: The Flurries and Stone in Love. Mel Ortiz was playing in Detention Room, but they might be breaking up, but Patrick Riggs’ wife has a band too, the 13th Soul. If I was a really good friend, I would be linking to web sites for everyone, but there’s this thing called Google.
On the plus side I have decided that Botsford is not really a priority, because I think I figured out that the reason Jim was always inviting people to Nate’s performances is because they were happening at Jim’s café. I should look into that. Still, it’s a lot of bands.
Another plus is that it gives me hope that other people will turn up too. I would love to get a line on Andrew Diamond of Movement, and John Sabol and Kurt Landre from Something She Said. (There are no plans for a No Socks reunion, incidentally.) Also, any time I make it should be a positive. Seeing live local music is usually a good time, and it doesn’t tend to cost very much, unlike regular concerts, which do not always give you more bang for your buck (more on that tomorrow).
I suppose all I really need is a new club and coffeehouse buddy, kind of like a new concert buddy. The easiest thing might be to have a boyfriend with a car, and then going to the shows could count as dates. It could hamper my ability to flirt with the band, but it’s not like that ever ends up anywhere anyway, so that would not be a reason to avoid it.
I think we are going to end up exploring that whole relationship thing again, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a lot more music.
27 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
Acts 16 – Acts 24
Friday, September 24, 2010
Task: Concerts
At one point I started thinking about different shows that I would like to see, and decided to make a point of keeping an eye out for them, lest I be caught off guard and miss a good opportunity. So, I made a list and looked them all up, and no one was coming near us. However, things change all the time, and so I need to periodically check again.
Here are the bands I would like to see:
A-ha—As we have covered, they are not coming to Oregon on their farewell tour, but I do have some vague hopes of traveling to see them. I did see them on the Hunting High and Low tour, but Julie and Maria never have, and I would like to see them again.
Gin Blossoms—I have liked them for a long time, but the only time they came nearby I was a poor college student, and even though tickets were cheap I just did not have it. I had the same issue with the Presidents of the United States of America and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, but have seen them both now at the Crystal Ballroom, so it would be appropriate for them to come there.
Of their current listed dates, the closest they are getting is California, but they have a new album out so it would be logical for more dates to follow.
All-American Rejects—On my own I don’t listen to the radio a lot, so it takes me a while to discover new bands, and I probably just started liking them a little too late, where I could have just missed a tour for all I know. Nothing is scheduled now, so I could blame Tyson Ritter’s acting career, but I am just going to lay low and hope for the best.
Maroon 5—I have actually had tickets for them, but then I got very sick (cellulitis outbreak), and Maria ended up taking a date. It was disappointing. They actually are touring now, but not coming closer than Tacoma. Well, the only one I could conceive of traveling for now is A-ha, so probably not this go-around.
Jimmy Eat World—I have seen them once, but it was a work night, and Maria made me leave before they finished the set. Then they were going to open for Green Day, and Maria was late getting off work, but she assured me there would be another opening act, and it would be fine, but she was wrong and we missed them. (Maria does seem to be a bit of a jinx.) Don’t get me wrong; Green Day put on a great show, but it was frustrating.
They are touring, but it seems like no one is coming to Portland anymore. What is the deal with that?
Keane—This is another one where we had tickets, but this time the show was canceled. By “we”, I mean Maria and I, so I guess I could blame her, but Tom’s drug habit and stint in rehab could not really be her fault. I guess it’s important that he took the time he needed, but the fees that Ticketmaster keeps are a crime. Anyway, they did play some dates in the summer, but nothing here.
Finns—This could include any incarnations of Neil Finn bands, and maybe Tim Finn solo, but the good thing is, we have done pretty well. We have seen the Finn Brothers, and Crowded House, and I have even kind of seen Split Enz because there was a concert that they filmed and ran on Nickelodeon back in the day. Sure, I would see them again, but there is less urgency. Which is good because I don’t think there is currently anything happening.
Charlie Sexton—A-ha was my second concert; Charlie Sexton was my first. However, he was just starting to be a solo musician after being a session musician, and he was doing pop, when I think his real strength is more blues-y rock. I would like to see him now, as a mature musician. He actually did play the Aladdin somewhat recently, but I couldn’t make it, and then I decided that I really did want to see him, so he is on the list. He seems to have been focusing on Europe recently.
Henry Rollins—That’s for his spoken word, and again, when I did see him I had to leave early because of Maria. And we have missed our last two chances because we were out of town, and then we were broke. So, clearly, I need a new concert buddy, but at least Hank is one who returns to Portland regularly, and will often film and release his shows.
Occasionally I will see other shows and think that it would be good, but having no money wins out a lot. Generally, it is those 80’s revival acts, like Modern English was just in town, so that could be good. We did go see the Psychedelic Furs, and they were great.
It’s amazing how often they are coming on work nights (I actually still think of those as school nights). I know, with all the different venues out there, you can’t limit yourself to two nights a week, but if you came from the 80’s your fans are getting older, and they have jobs and kids, and babysitters who will not stay out till two on a Wednesday—at least start earlier.
Also, cut the crappy opening bands. This especially goes for you, Crystal Ballroom. If the purpose is to warm up the audience, even if the act is good (which is rare), the waiting for take-down and set-up will kill the mood anyway, so when we do get excited for the main attraction, it truly is for them and nothing to do with the opening. And if it is just to give the local acts some exposure, well, that sounds noble, but is not worth the time if I need to be up at 5:45 the next day.
Belly dance basic moves (30/30)
Pushups
Acts 8 – Acts 15
Here are the bands I would like to see:
A-ha—As we have covered, they are not coming to Oregon on their farewell tour, but I do have some vague hopes of traveling to see them. I did see them on the Hunting High and Low tour, but Julie and Maria never have, and I would like to see them again.
Gin Blossoms—I have liked them for a long time, but the only time they came nearby I was a poor college student, and even though tickets were cheap I just did not have it. I had the same issue with the Presidents of the United States of America and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, but have seen them both now at the Crystal Ballroom, so it would be appropriate for them to come there.
Of their current listed dates, the closest they are getting is California, but they have a new album out so it would be logical for more dates to follow.
All-American Rejects—On my own I don’t listen to the radio a lot, so it takes me a while to discover new bands, and I probably just started liking them a little too late, where I could have just missed a tour for all I know. Nothing is scheduled now, so I could blame Tyson Ritter’s acting career, but I am just going to lay low and hope for the best.
Maroon 5—I have actually had tickets for them, but then I got very sick (cellulitis outbreak), and Maria ended up taking a date. It was disappointing. They actually are touring now, but not coming closer than Tacoma. Well, the only one I could conceive of traveling for now is A-ha, so probably not this go-around.
Jimmy Eat World—I have seen them once, but it was a work night, and Maria made me leave before they finished the set. Then they were going to open for Green Day, and Maria was late getting off work, but she assured me there would be another opening act, and it would be fine, but she was wrong and we missed them. (Maria does seem to be a bit of a jinx.) Don’t get me wrong; Green Day put on a great show, but it was frustrating.
They are touring, but it seems like no one is coming to Portland anymore. What is the deal with that?
Keane—This is another one where we had tickets, but this time the show was canceled. By “we”, I mean Maria and I, so I guess I could blame her, but Tom’s drug habit and stint in rehab could not really be her fault. I guess it’s important that he took the time he needed, but the fees that Ticketmaster keeps are a crime. Anyway, they did play some dates in the summer, but nothing here.
Finns—This could include any incarnations of Neil Finn bands, and maybe Tim Finn solo, but the good thing is, we have done pretty well. We have seen the Finn Brothers, and Crowded House, and I have even kind of seen Split Enz because there was a concert that they filmed and ran on Nickelodeon back in the day. Sure, I would see them again, but there is less urgency. Which is good because I don’t think there is currently anything happening.
Charlie Sexton—A-ha was my second concert; Charlie Sexton was my first. However, he was just starting to be a solo musician after being a session musician, and he was doing pop, when I think his real strength is more blues-y rock. I would like to see him now, as a mature musician. He actually did play the Aladdin somewhat recently, but I couldn’t make it, and then I decided that I really did want to see him, so he is on the list. He seems to have been focusing on Europe recently.
Henry Rollins—That’s for his spoken word, and again, when I did see him I had to leave early because of Maria. And we have missed our last two chances because we were out of town, and then we were broke. So, clearly, I need a new concert buddy, but at least Hank is one who returns to Portland regularly, and will often film and release his shows.
Occasionally I will see other shows and think that it would be good, but having no money wins out a lot. Generally, it is those 80’s revival acts, like Modern English was just in town, so that could be good. We did go see the Psychedelic Furs, and they were great.
It’s amazing how often they are coming on work nights (I actually still think of those as school nights). I know, with all the different venues out there, you can’t limit yourself to two nights a week, but if you came from the 80’s your fans are getting older, and they have jobs and kids, and babysitters who will not stay out till two on a Wednesday—at least start earlier.
Also, cut the crappy opening bands. This especially goes for you, Crystal Ballroom. If the purpose is to warm up the audience, even if the act is good (which is rare), the waiting for take-down and set-up will kill the mood anyway, so when we do get excited for the main attraction, it truly is for them and nothing to do with the opening. And if it is just to give the local acts some exposure, well, that sounds noble, but is not worth the time if I need to be up at 5:45 the next day.
Belly dance basic moves (30/30)
Pushups
Acts 8 – Acts 15
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Preparedness Newsletter
This will be short, as I was mainly working on the preparedness newsletter. I thought of just posting a link to it, but I have not posted it yet.
Traditionally it goes out on Thursday, which I picked because people are less likely to read things on Monday and Friday. With my natural tendency towards procrastination, it is sometimes late. If you send something at 11:30 Thursday night, it is an awful lot like sending it on Friday.
I have found that it works better if I write it, then sleep on it and check again, so I should be able to successfully do that this time, having written the first draft on Wednesday.
Sometimes the writing does not flow, and I will find I have taken the wrong approach, or I am missing something. For example, long ago when Chandra Levy disappeared, I read someone’s suggestion that young people living alone should always leave notes when they leave, giving where they were going and when. Writing a newsletter on not being a crime victim, I really wanted to include that, because I thought it was brilliant, but it just was not working.
I realized that the problem with that tip is that it is to make it easier for people to locate you after you have disappeared, and I wanted to focus on things that would keep them from disappearing. Sure, it’s nice being able to solve the crime promptly, but it falls short somehow.
Last month’s letter was always going to be on whole grains, but I thought it would focus more on specifics of using them, and benefits, and it was really more about making a smooth transition as you incorporate them into your diet, and easy ways to get started. Really, you can never give all of the possible information, so it is more about giving them a good start where they can logically follow onto their next steps.
The other reason that I like to leave it overnight is that, well, sometimes I worry that I get too harsh, like can I really say that? Is that too much? I’m a passionate woman, and very direct and down-to-earth, and maybe sometimes people need some sugarcoating. Actually, I never really soften things that much, but I think about it.
Also, I worry sometimes that I use too many big words, but I don’t change those very often either. Well, I still like to give myself enough time to have the option.
26 minutes walking outside
Crunches
John 20 – Acts 7
Traditionally it goes out on Thursday, which I picked because people are less likely to read things on Monday and Friday. With my natural tendency towards procrastination, it is sometimes late. If you send something at 11:30 Thursday night, it is an awful lot like sending it on Friday.
I have found that it works better if I write it, then sleep on it and check again, so I should be able to successfully do that this time, having written the first draft on Wednesday.
Sometimes the writing does not flow, and I will find I have taken the wrong approach, or I am missing something. For example, long ago when Chandra Levy disappeared, I read someone’s suggestion that young people living alone should always leave notes when they leave, giving where they were going and when. Writing a newsletter on not being a crime victim, I really wanted to include that, because I thought it was brilliant, but it just was not working.
I realized that the problem with that tip is that it is to make it easier for people to locate you after you have disappeared, and I wanted to focus on things that would keep them from disappearing. Sure, it’s nice being able to solve the crime promptly, but it falls short somehow.
Last month’s letter was always going to be on whole grains, but I thought it would focus more on specifics of using them, and benefits, and it was really more about making a smooth transition as you incorporate them into your diet, and easy ways to get started. Really, you can never give all of the possible information, so it is more about giving them a good start where they can logically follow onto their next steps.
The other reason that I like to leave it overnight is that, well, sometimes I worry that I get too harsh, like can I really say that? Is that too much? I’m a passionate woman, and very direct and down-to-earth, and maybe sometimes people need some sugarcoating. Actually, I never really soften things that much, but I think about it.
Also, I worry sometimes that I use too many big words, but I don’t change those very often either. Well, I still like to give myself enough time to have the option.
26 minutes walking outside
Crunches
John 20 – Acts 7
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
True Confessions on Day 36
Saturday is set to be the last day—at least the last day of refraining from video games and bad thoughts while also blogging every day. My intention is for the twenty minutes each of scripture study and exercise to be permanent.
When I decided to do this I marked each day on my calendar with the number and which strength move I would be doing. Tomorrow is 37-C, for day thirty-seven and crunches. Sunday is marked M/DD, for Mappy and Dig Dug, the two video games I plan on playing.
My original intention was that I would play and relax for five days, then start a new fifty days at the same time as General Conference, not sure what the program would be. Perhaps it would involve keeping a food journal, or doing something more involved for strength training, or some other writing goal, but I would figure it out based on how the forty days went, and what seemed needed.
Now I am starting to think that maybe I should extend, at least for the things I am abstaining from. Seriously, I keep thinking that I cannot keep up blogging daily, because it is really time consuming and I could put that time to writing other things, but I have at least 20-30 other blog ideas jotted down, and new ones keep coming, and I have gotten some really good comments, so you see, it’s a quandary.
The other part is that I had a hope in conjunction with this, which I was not planning on sharing, but now I am going to.
My sisters and I love the band A-ha, and they are currently in the middle of their farewell tour. We were disappointed to see that they were largely skipping the US, only playing dates in Los Angeles and New York City. It seemed like we were out of luck, and then Julie noticed that they were playing a date in Amsterdam, which would be perfect because it’s somewhere that we do want to go, but would not require a lengthy trip and there is a direct flight.
I am highly impressionable, and I got the idea that maybe this could happen, if I was a very good girl, that the screenplay would sell and then it would be possible. It does not seem at all likely, and it didn’t really seem that likely then, but the idea was there.
I understand if you are thinking that this sounds delusional—a lot of what I do must. What I have always understood though, was that it was okay if it didn’t happen. No one would have wronged me. The whole thing is a long shot anyway.
There are two things that have been really good about it. One is finding the power in me. I have had different resolutions and failed so many times, but this time I am making it. I have thought at various times of how easy it would be to just give up—go play a game or slough off on exercise—but I have this hope that I don’t want to jinx.
Also, I just don’t want to fail. I believe all of these components are important for me accomplishing what I want and being whom I want. I want to be healthy, and have my blood sugar under control, and the daily exercise is an important component where I have not been good in the past. Some times my sisters and I would walk four days in a row, and I would think, okay, we’re doing it, and then things would get busy and weeks would go by. Choosing to make that inviolate has meant that it gets done, one way or another.
I have so much that I want to get done, and video game addiction is very time-consuming. You only intend to play a few minutes, and then that doesn’t work out, and an hour is wasted. That’s why I was thinking I would start an additional, longer time period: keep the free play limited to a few days.
For the scripture study and the thoughts, I want to be ready for inspiration, and to feel good, and this has helped. I had really felt like I was plateauing before, and now I feel invigorated again.
With the blogging, writing stuff out does help me, but also reporting the three items at the bottom each day, yes, I have completed these goals, and here is the post to prove it, well, that gave me more accountability. It’s harder to slack off when people are watching.
That’s the other thing that has been good. I was not going to tell anyone I was doing this, but then I did tell Julie and Maria, and then some friends, and now it is out there for anybody. This is important, because I used to never share any plans with anybody. I never wanted anyone to know in case I failed. It didn’t matter whether it was a new diet, or a new writing project. Letting people in would let people know that I had these delusions of grandeur, and then see how delusional they were when I didn’t accomplish anything. But because no one knew, it was also very easy to quit.
It took me time to learn that most people don’t really look down on you for your imperfections, and that they aren’t really out to get you. Instead I found that people get really relieved, because the have similar issues, or similar feelings about them, and then we get this camaraderie going on. Somehow, it also becomes easier to improve the imperfections that way. The motivation goes up, because then you don’t want to let people down.
I have had really good discussions with my sisters, and they have set some goals too. It may be the blind leading the blind (especially when Julie is looking at my techniques for pushups), but it’s good. Opening up keeps being a good experience for me. I’m also seeing that I am not satisfied with mediocre, and I think that is leading me to good places too.
So, I have no idea whether I will be playing video games on the 26th or not, and no idea if I will be on Amsterdam on the 10th. And now, if I do not go to Amsterdam, you can all know that I wanted it, and failed to manage it, but I can’t quite say that it will be a disappointment. There will still have been many gifts with this experience, and maybe it would be too greedy to get more. At this moment, I am just trying to do what’s right, both in general and for me personally—wherever that may lead.
24 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
John 11 – John 19
When I decided to do this I marked each day on my calendar with the number and which strength move I would be doing. Tomorrow is 37-C, for day thirty-seven and crunches. Sunday is marked M/DD, for Mappy and Dig Dug, the two video games I plan on playing.
My original intention was that I would play and relax for five days, then start a new fifty days at the same time as General Conference, not sure what the program would be. Perhaps it would involve keeping a food journal, or doing something more involved for strength training, or some other writing goal, but I would figure it out based on how the forty days went, and what seemed needed.
Now I am starting to think that maybe I should extend, at least for the things I am abstaining from. Seriously, I keep thinking that I cannot keep up blogging daily, because it is really time consuming and I could put that time to writing other things, but I have at least 20-30 other blog ideas jotted down, and new ones keep coming, and I have gotten some really good comments, so you see, it’s a quandary.
The other part is that I had a hope in conjunction with this, which I was not planning on sharing, but now I am going to.
My sisters and I love the band A-ha, and they are currently in the middle of their farewell tour. We were disappointed to see that they were largely skipping the US, only playing dates in Los Angeles and New York City. It seemed like we were out of luck, and then Julie noticed that they were playing a date in Amsterdam, which would be perfect because it’s somewhere that we do want to go, but would not require a lengthy trip and there is a direct flight.
I am highly impressionable, and I got the idea that maybe this could happen, if I was a very good girl, that the screenplay would sell and then it would be possible. It does not seem at all likely, and it didn’t really seem that likely then, but the idea was there.
I understand if you are thinking that this sounds delusional—a lot of what I do must. What I have always understood though, was that it was okay if it didn’t happen. No one would have wronged me. The whole thing is a long shot anyway.
There are two things that have been really good about it. One is finding the power in me. I have had different resolutions and failed so many times, but this time I am making it. I have thought at various times of how easy it would be to just give up—go play a game or slough off on exercise—but I have this hope that I don’t want to jinx.
Also, I just don’t want to fail. I believe all of these components are important for me accomplishing what I want and being whom I want. I want to be healthy, and have my blood sugar under control, and the daily exercise is an important component where I have not been good in the past. Some times my sisters and I would walk four days in a row, and I would think, okay, we’re doing it, and then things would get busy and weeks would go by. Choosing to make that inviolate has meant that it gets done, one way or another.
I have so much that I want to get done, and video game addiction is very time-consuming. You only intend to play a few minutes, and then that doesn’t work out, and an hour is wasted. That’s why I was thinking I would start an additional, longer time period: keep the free play limited to a few days.
For the scripture study and the thoughts, I want to be ready for inspiration, and to feel good, and this has helped. I had really felt like I was plateauing before, and now I feel invigorated again.
With the blogging, writing stuff out does help me, but also reporting the three items at the bottom each day, yes, I have completed these goals, and here is the post to prove it, well, that gave me more accountability. It’s harder to slack off when people are watching.
That’s the other thing that has been good. I was not going to tell anyone I was doing this, but then I did tell Julie and Maria, and then some friends, and now it is out there for anybody. This is important, because I used to never share any plans with anybody. I never wanted anyone to know in case I failed. It didn’t matter whether it was a new diet, or a new writing project. Letting people in would let people know that I had these delusions of grandeur, and then see how delusional they were when I didn’t accomplish anything. But because no one knew, it was also very easy to quit.
It took me time to learn that most people don’t really look down on you for your imperfections, and that they aren’t really out to get you. Instead I found that people get really relieved, because the have similar issues, or similar feelings about them, and then we get this camaraderie going on. Somehow, it also becomes easier to improve the imperfections that way. The motivation goes up, because then you don’t want to let people down.
I have had really good discussions with my sisters, and they have set some goals too. It may be the blind leading the blind (especially when Julie is looking at my techniques for pushups), but it’s good. Opening up keeps being a good experience for me. I’m also seeing that I am not satisfied with mediocre, and I think that is leading me to good places too.
So, I have no idea whether I will be playing video games on the 26th or not, and no idea if I will be on Amsterdam on the 10th. And now, if I do not go to Amsterdam, you can all know that I wanted it, and failed to manage it, but I can’t quite say that it will be a disappointment. There will still have been many gifts with this experience, and maybe it would be too greedy to get more. At this moment, I am just trying to do what’s right, both in general and for me personally—wherever that may lead.
24 minutes walking outside
Wall sits
John 11 – John 19
Task: Exfoliate and condition, hair
Honestly, I’m not sure why the comma was there, because I assume it was the hair that I was supposed to condition. I think it was that I wanted to do something else to my hair as well, like trim it or color it.
Regardless, these are periodic tasks. I don’t have an intensive beauty regimen. Basically, I wash my face with Noxzema morning and night. I hate the way makeup feels on my face, and while I admit that lipstick makes a difference, the other things don’t really look right, and with the lipstick I am always afraid it is going to end up on my teeth, or get faded, or not stay right, that it just does not seem worth it.
That being said, I do try and exfoliate every now and then (face and body, but not at the same time), and more frequently than that I do a deep conditioning treatment with my hair. I’m surprised that shaving was not in the task. (I don’t think that’s what the “hair” was referring to. I know, I am gross, but I am never barelegged and shaving is a pain.)
Anyway, despite exfoliating and conditioning having been accomplished a few times since the list was written, they will always pop up again, and my roots will show, or I will decide it is time to whiten my teeth again.
I have been thinking about this topic more for two reasons. One is that my younger sisters mentioned that they did not really get good guidance on hair and makeup and fashion from their older sisters. True, and yet I think what started the conversation was looking at an old picture with a bad haircut, and some bad haircuts were considered very stylish back then.
Every now and then I would experiment with a wilder outfit or try to get a little fancier, but it wasn’t really my personality. It was easier to pull on jeans and a t-shirt, and so I did that almost every day. And my strategies for taming my hair would not be helpful for many people.
The other reason I am thinking about it is that I have decided that the October newsletter will be on preparing to be more attractive. It would make more sense to focus on the September one, which I need to write and send out this week, but I keep thinking of what I will put in, and whether I will have any credibility based on my own relative level of attractiveness.
The thing is, I know more than I do, and I believe I can be helpful. Part of the focus will be that you are probably not going to do everything, but find the things that work for you. That’s one of my key things in general, is trying to get people to think rather than telling them everything. It’s a two-page letter. I can’t tell them everything on any subject, but I can tell them likely scenarios, and ask key questions, and hope that gets the thoughts flowing. I am staunchly pro=thought.
I am good at analysis in general, and that helps in many areas. If a look does not work, I can usually pinpoint why. So, I hope that it will be of some use to people, instead of being irritating. And I will retire the blouse eventually, but right now it goes with two skirts that it would be hard to find another match for, and I am not that into clothes anyway, so I’m allowing it with full knowledge that it was never that flattering anyway and now it is all snagged.
There is one thing I want to make clear, though, in case I have raised any questions. I may not be that girly, but believe me, I am all woman.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Pushups
John 3 – John 10
Regardless, these are periodic tasks. I don’t have an intensive beauty regimen. Basically, I wash my face with Noxzema morning and night. I hate the way makeup feels on my face, and while I admit that lipstick makes a difference, the other things don’t really look right, and with the lipstick I am always afraid it is going to end up on my teeth, or get faded, or not stay right, that it just does not seem worth it.
That being said, I do try and exfoliate every now and then (face and body, but not at the same time), and more frequently than that I do a deep conditioning treatment with my hair. I’m surprised that shaving was not in the task. (I don’t think that’s what the “hair” was referring to. I know, I am gross, but I am never barelegged and shaving is a pain.)
Anyway, despite exfoliating and conditioning having been accomplished a few times since the list was written, they will always pop up again, and my roots will show, or I will decide it is time to whiten my teeth again.
I have been thinking about this topic more for two reasons. One is that my younger sisters mentioned that they did not really get good guidance on hair and makeup and fashion from their older sisters. True, and yet I think what started the conversation was looking at an old picture with a bad haircut, and some bad haircuts were considered very stylish back then.
Every now and then I would experiment with a wilder outfit or try to get a little fancier, but it wasn’t really my personality. It was easier to pull on jeans and a t-shirt, and so I did that almost every day. And my strategies for taming my hair would not be helpful for many people.
The other reason I am thinking about it is that I have decided that the October newsletter will be on preparing to be more attractive. It would make more sense to focus on the September one, which I need to write and send out this week, but I keep thinking of what I will put in, and whether I will have any credibility based on my own relative level of attractiveness.
The thing is, I know more than I do, and I believe I can be helpful. Part of the focus will be that you are probably not going to do everything, but find the things that work for you. That’s one of my key things in general, is trying to get people to think rather than telling them everything. It’s a two-page letter. I can’t tell them everything on any subject, but I can tell them likely scenarios, and ask key questions, and hope that gets the thoughts flowing. I am staunchly pro=thought.
I am good at analysis in general, and that helps in many areas. If a look does not work, I can usually pinpoint why. So, I hope that it will be of some use to people, instead of being irritating. And I will retire the blouse eventually, but right now it goes with two skirts that it would be hard to find another match for, and I am not that into clothes anyway, so I’m allowing it with full knowledge that it was never that flattering anyway and now it is all snagged.
There is one thing I want to make clear, though, in case I have raised any questions. I may not be that girly, but believe me, I am all woman.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Pushups
John 3 – John 10
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Blackberry girl
Well, the last few days of rain have finished off the blackberry crop, which was on its last legs anyway. It’s a disappointing moment every year, but it was not always like this.
I used to kind of dislike blackberries. Besides my family doing a lot of U-pick stuff when I was growing up, I also picked berries for pay for a bit. There was a summer program where school buses would take us to different berry fields and brings us back, and we would get paid for each flat we turned in.
Those were always strawberries. I remember seeing something like a work permit application or something that mentioned caneberries, so there may have been teens picking blackberries and raspberries somewhere, but for me it was always strawberries through that location, and then I picked blueberries on the farm of a family friend.
Regardless of what and where I was doing, somehow I always ended up making about $5.00 a day. I think I could have doubled that if I had really applied myself, but for a twelve-year old in 1984 that seemed pretty good.
Blueberries were definitely my favorite. With strawberries you had to be low, so you either crouched over and killed your back, or sat in the dirt and got filthy. Also, there were stickers growing between the strawberry plants. With blueberries you could stand, and maybe a branch would poke you every now and then, but it was relatively injury-free, and also, blueberries were always delicious.
That was part of my problem with blackberries. They could be very sweet, but sometimes they weren’t. If I had to be picking from thorny canes, at least let it be raspberries, which were tasty and I remember the thorns as being less vicious, but I could be fooling myself. Also, I did not like blackberry jam, only strawberry and raspberry (blueberries were for pie).
This all changed by accident. It was the Fourth of July block party, and we decided to take a pie. I thought I grabbed a bag from the freezer to defrost, but the ice was thick and I had really taken out a bag of blackberries, which I didn’t even know we had. Well, what was done was done, so we just made blackberry cobbler instead.
It was so delicious. Maybe blackberries are not always sweet off the bush, but bake them with sugar and they are magically transformed. It was amazing. I guess that was when I started to think about the blackberries around the barn.
The property next to our cul-de-sac is going to be a park someday, but they have not gotten around to it yet. It was a small family farm when I was growing up. I liked to see the cows there when we went by. Where the horses used to be, there are now apartments, and where the sheep used to be, there is assisted living, but the cow pasture is still basically a pasture, and the barn is still there. It is now surrounded by blackberry bushes.
Sometimes when walking the dogs or something, neighbors would call over the fences telling me I could pick them, and it was fine. I didn’t think about it much, but now I had motivation.
It has become kind of a special experience for me. Oddly, I have never been unemployed during blackberry season (just before, and then something comes up while they are ripening), so I always have to find moments here and there for it, but it is time I enjoy. It becomes kind of meditative for me, and educational.
First of all, the reason the berries are not always sweet is they look ripe sooner than they are ripe. You know if they are ready by the feel as you pull on them. Ripe berries slip off of their caps easily. Not yet ripe, and they cling. (Overripe and they squish.) You have to listen to the berry.
Secondly, the thorns are there, but the navigating around them, then that pull that tells you if the fruit is ready, plus being outside, all of that leads to the meditative part. Yes, I do get stuck on a regular basis, but it’s not really that bad. Or maybe I just feel that way now because for the last fourteen years we have had a ferocious cat. The cats we had back when I was a kid, not so much.
Also, and this could just be my imagination, but it seems to me that if you pick more, they produce more, and I am kind of impressed by that. It seems very generous of the berries.
I also started to have other feelings, which I am sure were at least partially brought on by the economic hard times we have had. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be so expensive, and here was all this good fruit for free, but so much of it was going to waste.
I am not the only one who picks there, but there is still so much more than ever gets used. I was stretching our food dollar, which was great, and despite the pie experience we were often just eating them straight, as fresh fruit, but it just made me more aware of food waste and nutrition issues.
The house is still being rented, and that area is fenced off. On the other side of the fence there is a pear tree, and often while I was picking berries I would hear pears plopping off the tree, too ripe to stay. The family renting the house could have picked them, but they didn’t.
As I walk around more, I have discovered a plum tree that started dropping like crazy, and they lay in the street and quickly turned to fruit leather, stinking, and useless. They’re on road so it doesn’t even become compost, and I hate that waste because I know it could be much better. Okay, if it’s too much fruit for you, give it away. Aren’t there gleaners around or something?
So yes, I sound a little politically sensitized there, but in general the activity is peaceful, and so I have some regret when the fruit goes away, and I never know exactly when they will develop the park and the vines will go away.
I know those vines get rooted in deep, and so they are a pest for a lot of people who get blackberries on their property, but I will never be able to see them that way.
28 minutes walking outside
Rest
Luke 19 – John 2
I used to kind of dislike blackberries. Besides my family doing a lot of U-pick stuff when I was growing up, I also picked berries for pay for a bit. There was a summer program where school buses would take us to different berry fields and brings us back, and we would get paid for each flat we turned in.
Those were always strawberries. I remember seeing something like a work permit application or something that mentioned caneberries, so there may have been teens picking blackberries and raspberries somewhere, but for me it was always strawberries through that location, and then I picked blueberries on the farm of a family friend.
Regardless of what and where I was doing, somehow I always ended up making about $5.00 a day. I think I could have doubled that if I had really applied myself, but for a twelve-year old in 1984 that seemed pretty good.
Blueberries were definitely my favorite. With strawberries you had to be low, so you either crouched over and killed your back, or sat in the dirt and got filthy. Also, there were stickers growing between the strawberry plants. With blueberries you could stand, and maybe a branch would poke you every now and then, but it was relatively injury-free, and also, blueberries were always delicious.
That was part of my problem with blackberries. They could be very sweet, but sometimes they weren’t. If I had to be picking from thorny canes, at least let it be raspberries, which were tasty and I remember the thorns as being less vicious, but I could be fooling myself. Also, I did not like blackberry jam, only strawberry and raspberry (blueberries were for pie).
This all changed by accident. It was the Fourth of July block party, and we decided to take a pie. I thought I grabbed a bag from the freezer to defrost, but the ice was thick and I had really taken out a bag of blackberries, which I didn’t even know we had. Well, what was done was done, so we just made blackberry cobbler instead.
It was so delicious. Maybe blackberries are not always sweet off the bush, but bake them with sugar and they are magically transformed. It was amazing. I guess that was when I started to think about the blackberries around the barn.
The property next to our cul-de-sac is going to be a park someday, but they have not gotten around to it yet. It was a small family farm when I was growing up. I liked to see the cows there when we went by. Where the horses used to be, there are now apartments, and where the sheep used to be, there is assisted living, but the cow pasture is still basically a pasture, and the barn is still there. It is now surrounded by blackberry bushes.
Sometimes when walking the dogs or something, neighbors would call over the fences telling me I could pick them, and it was fine. I didn’t think about it much, but now I had motivation.
It has become kind of a special experience for me. Oddly, I have never been unemployed during blackberry season (just before, and then something comes up while they are ripening), so I always have to find moments here and there for it, but it is time I enjoy. It becomes kind of meditative for me, and educational.
First of all, the reason the berries are not always sweet is they look ripe sooner than they are ripe. You know if they are ready by the feel as you pull on them. Ripe berries slip off of their caps easily. Not yet ripe, and they cling. (Overripe and they squish.) You have to listen to the berry.
Secondly, the thorns are there, but the navigating around them, then that pull that tells you if the fruit is ready, plus being outside, all of that leads to the meditative part. Yes, I do get stuck on a regular basis, but it’s not really that bad. Or maybe I just feel that way now because for the last fourteen years we have had a ferocious cat. The cats we had back when I was a kid, not so much.
Also, and this could just be my imagination, but it seems to me that if you pick more, they produce more, and I am kind of impressed by that. It seems very generous of the berries.
I also started to have other feelings, which I am sure were at least partially brought on by the economic hard times we have had. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be so expensive, and here was all this good fruit for free, but so much of it was going to waste.
I am not the only one who picks there, but there is still so much more than ever gets used. I was stretching our food dollar, which was great, and despite the pie experience we were often just eating them straight, as fresh fruit, but it just made me more aware of food waste and nutrition issues.
The house is still being rented, and that area is fenced off. On the other side of the fence there is a pear tree, and often while I was picking berries I would hear pears plopping off the tree, too ripe to stay. The family renting the house could have picked them, but they didn’t.
As I walk around more, I have discovered a plum tree that started dropping like crazy, and they lay in the street and quickly turned to fruit leather, stinking, and useless. They’re on road so it doesn’t even become compost, and I hate that waste because I know it could be much better. Okay, if it’s too much fruit for you, give it away. Aren’t there gleaners around or something?
So yes, I sound a little politically sensitized there, but in general the activity is peaceful, and so I have some regret when the fruit goes away, and I never know exactly when they will develop the park and the vines will go away.
I know those vines get rooted in deep, and so they are a pest for a lot of people who get blackberries on their property, but I will never be able to see them that way.
28 minutes walking outside
Rest
Luke 19 – John 2
Task: CFL, needle drops, and mouse
I was thinking this one was done today, but I forgot about the mouse part.
There are a few different stories here. One is that I do inject insulin once daily, and so then I have a syringe that cannot go in the regular garbage. When this first happened I would take a full container to the pharmacy, pay them $5.00 to dump it, and then buy a new one from them. That seems like a sweet deal for them, but most pharmacies don’t want the hassle anymore.
Looking for a new solution, I stumbled upon Metro Hazardous Waste Roundups, where they hit different locations and you drive up and they take your waste. With the sharps, they give you a new container, free of charge, so it works really well. I had one getting really full, and I needed to look up a collection event. Since the events run March through October, when I looked it up I realized that I had a problem, because it was winter.
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=760
I was coming up with all sorts of creative ideas, but then I opened one drawer to get something else, and somehow I had a big empty one that I had completely forgotten about. That is why I could make it through to September. Regardless, it was still on the list, and today both boxes were dropped off, replaced, and we also got to drop off the CFLs.
Yes, we did have a bag of some that had merely burned out, but that was not how it ended up on the list. I have alluded to Jane’s personality issues, and one thing with that is that she likes to steal things and chew them up. I have lost more pairs of shoes this way than anyone, but Julie has lost much more expensive shoes.
We do take precautions to put things out of her way, but it is easy to underestimate the reach of a dog, and in this case we did. I was on the computer, job hunting, and Mom had just gone to check on the dog she was sitting for. I think Mom leaving was the trigger, but if I had been in the living room, instead of my bedroom, maybe it could have been prevented. As it was, I paused in my job search when I heard a faint crunching sound. I knew it couldn’t be good.
I came out and found Jane happily munching away on a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb and the box it came in. That was not good. Those things have mercury in them was the main problem, followed closely by the also disturbing issue that the dog did not have the sense to quit chewing broken glass. In fact, she would fight to keep chewing it.
Fortunately, I tend to keep my head in these moments. I grabbed a piece of bread and threw it outside. Jane will generally choose real food over non-food items. (If it’s real food, we will probably need to use a combination of a chair to hold her off and Mom’s cane to pull the item away. It’s not pretty, and we know that we suck at discipline. It never mattered before Jane.)
Anyway, she followed the bread into the back yard and I closed the door. I then looked up instructions for cleanup on the internet. It was a fairly complicated process involving duct tape, a canning jar, paper towels, and a vacuum, all of which made for a situation where MacGyver would have been more than welcome, but I was on my own. I did the best I could, and sealed everything in the jar, but then there was no place to take it. It had been on a kitchen counter for several months now, but today it is gone!
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
I suppose there could still be traces somewhere, and someday one of us is going to pull a Jeremy Piven, but you can only do what you can do. The really funny part is that Mom was calling Jane “Argento Vivo” because of her speed and energy (and mood swings). That of course means Quicksilver, which is of course an old word for mercury. Well, Jane is mercurial.
So what I forgot to do was the mouse. I wrote about the mighty mouse a while ago, but I still haven’t disposed of it, computer parts not always being easily recycled. I guess for now I am hanging onto it. It does have sentimental value.
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2009/12/requiem-for-mouse.html
23 minutes walking outside
Crunches
Isaiah 22 – Isaiah 30
There are a few different stories here. One is that I do inject insulin once daily, and so then I have a syringe that cannot go in the regular garbage. When this first happened I would take a full container to the pharmacy, pay them $5.00 to dump it, and then buy a new one from them. That seems like a sweet deal for them, but most pharmacies don’t want the hassle anymore.
Looking for a new solution, I stumbled upon Metro Hazardous Waste Roundups, where they hit different locations and you drive up and they take your waste. With the sharps, they give you a new container, free of charge, so it works really well. I had one getting really full, and I needed to look up a collection event. Since the events run March through October, when I looked it up I realized that I had a problem, because it was winter.
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=760
I was coming up with all sorts of creative ideas, but then I opened one drawer to get something else, and somehow I had a big empty one that I had completely forgotten about. That is why I could make it through to September. Regardless, it was still on the list, and today both boxes were dropped off, replaced, and we also got to drop off the CFLs.
Yes, we did have a bag of some that had merely burned out, but that was not how it ended up on the list. I have alluded to Jane’s personality issues, and one thing with that is that she likes to steal things and chew them up. I have lost more pairs of shoes this way than anyone, but Julie has lost much more expensive shoes.
We do take precautions to put things out of her way, but it is easy to underestimate the reach of a dog, and in this case we did. I was on the computer, job hunting, and Mom had just gone to check on the dog she was sitting for. I think Mom leaving was the trigger, but if I had been in the living room, instead of my bedroom, maybe it could have been prevented. As it was, I paused in my job search when I heard a faint crunching sound. I knew it couldn’t be good.
I came out and found Jane happily munching away on a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb and the box it came in. That was not good. Those things have mercury in them was the main problem, followed closely by the also disturbing issue that the dog did not have the sense to quit chewing broken glass. In fact, she would fight to keep chewing it.
Fortunately, I tend to keep my head in these moments. I grabbed a piece of bread and threw it outside. Jane will generally choose real food over non-food items. (If it’s real food, we will probably need to use a combination of a chair to hold her off and Mom’s cane to pull the item away. It’s not pretty, and we know that we suck at discipline. It never mattered before Jane.)
Anyway, she followed the bread into the back yard and I closed the door. I then looked up instructions for cleanup on the internet. It was a fairly complicated process involving duct tape, a canning jar, paper towels, and a vacuum, all of which made for a situation where MacGyver would have been more than welcome, but I was on my own. I did the best I could, and sealed everything in the jar, but then there was no place to take it. It had been on a kitchen counter for several months now, but today it is gone!
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
I suppose there could still be traces somewhere, and someday one of us is going to pull a Jeremy Piven, but you can only do what you can do. The really funny part is that Mom was calling Jane “Argento Vivo” because of her speed and energy (and mood swings). That of course means Quicksilver, which is of course an old word for mercury. Well, Jane is mercurial.
So what I forgot to do was the mouse. I wrote about the mighty mouse a while ago, but I still haven’t disposed of it, computer parts not always being easily recycled. I guess for now I am hanging onto it. It does have sentimental value.
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2009/12/requiem-for-mouse.html
23 minutes walking outside
Crunches
Isaiah 22 – Isaiah 30
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Task: Contests
Specifically, that task was to check the details on specific screenwriting contests and see about entering.
There are some really negative feelings out there about screenwriting contests in general. A lot of industry insiders will tell you that the only one that has any real worth is the Nicholl fellowship, and maybe they will give some credit to Scriptapalooza. The issue is that if the judges aren’t people who can really buy your script, then there’s not much value in having those people read it.
I get that, but they say it in conjunction with “Sure, maybe you will win some money.” I would love to win some money. I would be all for it. Also, winning is still something that you can say to possibly give you some credibility, even if it is only a small boost.
My issue is that there is always an entry fee, and sometimes that just isn’t something I can swing. They usually aren’t even that expensive, but I have been pretty broke.
In this case, I ended up skipping The Big Break, but entering Past Present in the Nicholls Fellowship, and Coulrophobia and Sisters of Justice in Script PIMP (PIMP stands for Pipeline Into Motion Pictures, so get your mind out of the gutter).
Script PIMP announces in November, I think. The second round of the Nicholls is going on, but I did not make it in. That was pretty disappointing, but the competition is really stiff. That is one contest that truly does give you exposure, and quite a decent prize.
There are more contests going on all the time, so there is always the opportunity to enter—you just have to know that it may not mean anything.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Wall sits
Luke 10 – Luke 18
There are some really negative feelings out there about screenwriting contests in general. A lot of industry insiders will tell you that the only one that has any real worth is the Nicholl fellowship, and maybe they will give some credit to Scriptapalooza. The issue is that if the judges aren’t people who can really buy your script, then there’s not much value in having those people read it.
I get that, but they say it in conjunction with “Sure, maybe you will win some money.” I would love to win some money. I would be all for it. Also, winning is still something that you can say to possibly give you some credibility, even if it is only a small boost.
My issue is that there is always an entry fee, and sometimes that just isn’t something I can swing. They usually aren’t even that expensive, but I have been pretty broke.
In this case, I ended up skipping The Big Break, but entering Past Present in the Nicholls Fellowship, and Coulrophobia and Sisters of Justice in Script PIMP (PIMP stands for Pipeline Into Motion Pictures, so get your mind out of the gutter).
Script PIMP announces in November, I think. The second round of the Nicholls is going on, but I did not make it in. That was pretty disappointing, but the competition is really stiff. That is one contest that truly does give you exposure, and quite a decent prize.
There are more contests going on all the time, so there is always the opportunity to enter—you just have to know that it may not mean anything.
Disco Sweat (20/70)
Wall sits
Luke 10 – Luke 18
Friday, September 17, 2010
Task: Agents
Of the various tasks on the original list, I am avoiding writing about some of them because I haven’t actually completed it yet, and I need to get on the ball. With this one, it may not be worth finishing.
Back when it first happened, I felt like it was too soon to seek an agent because no one would be interested in me. Someone else told me that what I had at the time (four or five screenplays) was a decent body of work, and it might be worth asking around. Not sure where to start, I went to the Writers Guild site and printed out their agencies list, then started making phone calls.
It turns out what I had was not nearly as important as what the list had, which was an abundance of places that didn’t really do literary, only talent (actors); lots of places that were not taking on new clients, or not before the end of the year, or not without referrals, or all of the above.
So, it was slow-going work and not very rewarding, but I was planning on calling through the entire list when I got the Intel job, which kind of derailed me. That’s okay, taking the contract was probably more productive.
Also, a lot of the information that you get has a surprisingly short shelf life. The other thing that happened right before the Intel job was that I attended the 2009 Willamette Writers Conference. One of the speakers there, Rima Bauer Green, did have a literary agency, and I liked her and thought I should look her up.
I probably waited two months, maybe three, but not much longer than that. When I went, the site was gone, and internet searches only found a few mentions in old blog posts. Granted, it was a bad economy, which is probably why a lot of those agencies were not accepting new clients, but to be an invited guest in August and a missing person in November is a little scary.
Anyway, the WGA list is not as helpful as you might hope. Perhaps my first instincts that it was too soon for an agent were correct. I may return to the list, if for no other reason than to check my notes, but it is not my main priority, or even in the top 3. Still, if anyone knows a well-connected agent, can you refer me? I promise I’m brilliant and productive.
30 minutes walking outside
Pushups
Luke 3 – Luke 9
Back when it first happened, I felt like it was too soon to seek an agent because no one would be interested in me. Someone else told me that what I had at the time (four or five screenplays) was a decent body of work, and it might be worth asking around. Not sure where to start, I went to the Writers Guild site and printed out their agencies list, then started making phone calls.
It turns out what I had was not nearly as important as what the list had, which was an abundance of places that didn’t really do literary, only talent (actors); lots of places that were not taking on new clients, or not before the end of the year, or not without referrals, or all of the above.
So, it was slow-going work and not very rewarding, but I was planning on calling through the entire list when I got the Intel job, which kind of derailed me. That’s okay, taking the contract was probably more productive.
Also, a lot of the information that you get has a surprisingly short shelf life. The other thing that happened right before the Intel job was that I attended the 2009 Willamette Writers Conference. One of the speakers there, Rima Bauer Green, did have a literary agency, and I liked her and thought I should look her up.
I probably waited two months, maybe three, but not much longer than that. When I went, the site was gone, and internet searches only found a few mentions in old blog posts. Granted, it was a bad economy, which is probably why a lot of those agencies were not accepting new clients, but to be an invited guest in August and a missing person in November is a little scary.
Anyway, the WGA list is not as helpful as you might hope. Perhaps my first instincts that it was too soon for an agent were correct. I may return to the list, if for no other reason than to check my notes, but it is not my main priority, or even in the top 3. Still, if anyone knows a well-connected agent, can you refer me? I promise I’m brilliant and productive.
30 minutes walking outside
Pushups
Luke 3 – Luke 9
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