On New Year's Day

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

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

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

If we are not, we think of other things.


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

Winter is here

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

50,333

50, 333 words.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

50,333

50, 333 words.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied

Lessons Learned - The Apprentice Week 9 - So Anand lied


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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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


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



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

Conspiracy Sunday on AMC

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

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


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

Blogathon anyone?

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

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