This is my very first blog! I’m not a Luddite since I have used, in fact relied on, personal computers since 1983. My resistance has come from not needing to share my thoughts with the entire world.
To start, I have three different topics that I welcome others’ thoughts on. If you’re looking for political discussion, you’ll need to divert to one of the thousands of others blogs inhabiting Cloud Cuckoo Land 2.0. I have zero use for pointless and endless arguing and score-settling. (The cuckoos must really be chirping about Santorum though – let them enjoy the moment.)
First I will share some timeless Words of Wisdom, and want to hear yours, from the sublime to the ridiculous. My personal examples derive from recent time spent with my grown son who is talented in ways very different from me. He’s an artist and I’m very practical, and I felt he was lacking in basic survival skills even though he makes a decent living. The WOWs that I tried to impart are:
a) Half of being successful in life is remembering where the hell you put things down.
b) Measure twice, cut once.
c) Soap your screws (wood screws go in easy if you scrape soap or candlewax on the threads)
d) Don’t waste time arguing with idiots. I guess that means a lot of the blogs here on OS, maybe mine too. Wait and see.
My next topic is about a political e-mail (OK, so I lied when I said I'm not interested in politics; doesn't everyone who writes about politics?) I got yesterday from a PAC that complained that most of the recycled paper from our fair state is being shipped over to China, and isn’t this a terrible shame, etc. At first I thought to say, “Right ON, bro!’”, and messaged my Congressman as they suggested. After reflection, I’m wondering if this isn’t exactly what ecologically-responsible folks like me should be praying for - that the stuff we buy from China gets packaged in recycled materials rather than cardboard made from virgin Asian forests? What does it matter if it comes from middle-class American waste bins - do we have a better use for the stuff? If the PAC told me that we could be using that pulp to fill potholes or build new buses I’d be with them in a flash. Truth is, we need all the exports we can generate. We import Sonys and Subarus but guess what the USA exports to Asia in huge amounts – Spam (the meat product), Kingsford charcoal briquettes, and honeydew melons in the summer when they swamp the grocery bins at home. Sorry about that, Silicon Valley - Appalachian hollers are the winners here.
Finally, I love Meryl Streep. Her performance in The Iron Lady (as Margaret Thatcher) surpasses all her previous ones, which I think have all been magnificent. My question is simply, how does she do it? How can she bring me to tears portraying such an unsympathetic character as Thatcher? What do you think – were you repulsed or saddened or both? I despised Ronald Reagan but the clip of them waltzing actually made me feel nostalgic.
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Comments
I haven't seen The Iron Lady but I've seen Meryl Streep in an awful lot and she is utterly amazing. To have surpassed previous performances would be an achievement almost physically impossible. That and she does things like learning violin or Polish for her roles - and not just dabbling.
WOW? I have one thing I tell people who are getting married:
If you approach marriage as a 50/50 proposition, expect to get divorced. Approach it as at least 80/20, with the 80 being yours. The reason is that the two of you will never define 100% the same way so, if you're doing 50% of what you see, you'll shortchange your spouse. Also, if you define your own expectation that high, you're less likely to resent what your spouse doesn't do; you just accept it up front and be grateful for what you get. If your spouse is worth marrying, carrying extra is worth it.
I'll give you recommendations on who to check out in PM. Better to avoid insulting whoever I leave out.
so you started today,but I got to know you yesterday.You certainly made your first jump into the water and you came up with a grin on your face.
Welcome in to the crowd!!!
-R-
This one we have in common
"Where there is light,there is shadow"
Here is one that has been with me for all of my life:
"What you achieve in life depends very much on the strength of your desire"
Here is one more,also one of my favourites:
"If you love something,let it go.If it comes back,it's yours.If it doesn't,it never was"
Israel is in a very difficult situation.The land was given to the then refugees,but taken away from someone else.
The Orthodox of Israel are in my eyes militant,and they are the ones who keep Israel from negotiating in a way that might bring peace to a troubled area.
I have met a family from the Lebanon.Most of the family memebers had been killed,and this refugee family told me about the terror they had faced.
Their oldest child of about 12 had beenhit by a bomb,and he had a scar running down his leg from top to his foot.
I don't know in what kind of mission you had been in Israel,but I certainly understand to the fullest how you felt about this poor man,the farmer,who's main concern had been to feed his family.
All of this is so sad;when I think about it,I could cry,not only about this region but others as well.
Have a great sunday!!!
There has been this sensitive man on my mind ever since being in contact.I wanted to let you know that my comment on ONL was meant for more than one person.
As it happend,you were the one to respond.Good for you.I always appreciate people with good manners and a heart/consideration for others.
That has been a good start,and I am looking forward to your next blog post.
I will be on the look out for comments.
I've been blogging on the Salon.com platform since 2002, mostly about politics, but also occasionally about movies. (If I had more time, I'd blog more about the latter.)
Blogging is, I think, an important communication medium, and not just self-indulgence or self-promotion. The fact is that when corporate advertising revenue is such a consideration, we don't have "free speech" with the corporately owned and controlled media. We have speech that the owners and operators of the corporately owned and controlled media ALLOW, speech that is acceptable to our corporate overlords. If we want truly free speech, we have to create our own content.
All of us are touched by politics, which is why I am interested in it and why I write about it. You are correct, though; those of us on the right and on the left aren't going to convert each other, so bickering about it probably won't accomplish very much... (Still, it's fun to attack the wingnuts' "arguments," even though it's about as hard as is stealing candy from an infant...)
Movies probably are the most influential medium of our culture. Therefore, when movies and politics meet, I love it, and I often catch the political overtones of movies, even if others don't.
All of that said, while I haven't seen "Iron Lady," it is just a movie, and I don't know that anyone who was involved in making that movie knows enough about the real-life Margaret Thatcher to have made her the sympathetic character that I've read the movie has made her...
And I, for one, certainly am not nostalgic for the days of Ronald Reagan. Reagan began the dismantling of the working class and the middle class and the gross deregulation of corporations that has put us where we are today. Reagan was an AIDS-denying, union-busting, Wall-Street-weasel-loving piece of shit, frankly...
You may not care much for OS, then.
or keira knightley.
you come into our territory and make hay, sir!
what is all this,now?
a) Half of being successful in life is remembering where the hell you put things down.I PUT EM DOWN IN THE PERSONAL SPACE I REMEMBER. IF THEY STRAY,THEN THAT IS THEIR DAMN BAD LUCK. THEY MUSTA NOT BEEN IMPORTANT
b) Measure twice, cut once.THE CUT WORM ALWAYS FORGIVES THE PLOW, THEY SAY. I MEASURE THREE TIMES, BUT I AM 'MENTALLY ILL' WITH OCD AND MANY OTHER MALADIES. LIKE....I LIKE OLD JAN SAND..THAT IS A FATHER HUNGER........
c) Soap your screws (wood screws go in easy if you scrape soap or candlewax on the threads)I DUNNO WHAT THE F. YOU TALKING ABOUT . BUT IT IS NO DOUBT WISE?
d) Don’t waste time arguing with idiots. I guess that means a lot of the blogs here on OS, maybe mine too. FUCK YES. EXCUSE MY EXUBERANCE...I AGREE WITH ALL MY HEART. TIME WILL TELL. RE. YOU.
Streep? seriously?
how she does it is by her huge closet fulla accents.
and make up.
i actually like streep. i am too ironic.
but if ya got an opinion, go to con chapman.
this hypnotizing women stuff. all you seem to need is hume,
jan sand says. con too...........
R