Since my last post...

• I attended a forum at Harvard's Stem Cell Institute. It was an interesting overview of what types of research is going on right now for the use of stem cells in some of the major diseases that are killing us, such as diabetes, and heart disease. I liked it fine, since that is where my interests lie-gene therapy. I also got a chance to look at Harvard Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology-one of the many possibilities for school.
  
  
• I realized that tv blows at certain hours of the day. I am so not the 'Rachel Ray'-'The View' person and 'Jerry Springer' lost it's entertainment value for me around 2000. 'Maury Povich' basically three programs: "Who's my baby's daddy?", "Amazing Animals" and "Amazing Videos."

• I came to the realization that I need to have my Wednesdays or Thursdays back.

• I found lots of websites that will show full episodes of classic TV. A bit like having the radio experience at work. The sites I frequent are: CBS.COM, NBC.COM and now HULU.COM. Oddly enough, two of my favorites moments have come from the dreadful Season Three of 'Star Trek' TOS. In 'All Our Yesterdays,' I love the scene where Spock essentially snaps McCoy's whole body and I liked the exchange when he and McCoy really go head to head. I love reinterpreting some of this dialogue in Ghetto-ese: "Oh hell No! You are not trying to score while our captain is out there you know where in danger! " or "you know, you done called me out of my name just one too many times. Do it again and see what happens..."The 'Turnabout Intruder' episode is sexist in the extreme. For some reason I liked the Spock, Sulu, and Scott speeches (though Scotty's was a little long-we got already that Scott had seen many sides of the captain through the first three adjectives he dropped on us.) I suppose it was something about the letter "S" in the writers' room that day.I have often said regarding the 'Galileo Seven' episode that Spock should have said to McCoy, "You open your mouth one more time and you will be walking home. See if you don't."

• I could just throw some dates on the calendar and see what sticks. One that I will do is combine this with dinner afterwards:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/

berkmanat10/2008/03/stone

• I have started being more conscientious about my blogging I did take up the pledge to blog 365 and I want to keep it.
  
  
• I learned that apparently the W3 Foundation offers free web building tutorials that go beyond HTML Look what I found in an email digest from the asklizryan group: http://www.w3schools.com/

• I found out that People R Stoopid I think that now former Governor Spitzer should have watched "American Gangster" and have heeded Frank Lucas' admonition about the loudest one being the weakest link if he wanted to get away with it.I also think that I love that this guy got caught because I bet that this is the more typical profile of the john that gets involved.

• I learned that American needs to make or get off the pot when it comes to math and science. I've been listening to the 'Two Million Minutes' interview on 'On Point.' Totally homeschooling my future children now. There is also a blog about this at their website: http://www.2mm.typepad.com/

MONDAY

Poor Monday-it gets such a bad rap as a day. This has to be a recent thing because I can't imagine that people in the past felt the same way.

Soaps:
A lot of "WTF" from me lately. Some people will blame the directions the storylines have taken on the scabs that wrote during the Writer's Strike. I don't let the regular writers off that easy. Many, except for The Young and the Restless, were going south for a long time now-most notably The Bold and the Beautiful.

Whenever I watch Guiding Light (GL), I find myself saying "Genug already!"
-I am happy that they finally wrapped up the Sarah/Jonathan/Lizzie storyline, but I hate how they ended it. I'll allow that Alan Spaulding is powerful, but I still can't see Lizzie and Jonathan not being about to find a legal remedy to keep him out of their lives, like a restraining order or something. The courts recognize very few grandparents' rights and honestly their wacky plan to get married would not have really stopped him.

-I wish they would end the Marina/Harley/Cyrus thing. I wish Marina would just bring both Harley and Cyrus into the same room and go,
"I know you guys are knocking each other and since you both couldn't grow a pair and tell me, I am telling you that I know. I am also taking myself out of this equation. Have fun together and go with god."
If wishes could come true that a soap heroine would just do that and strike a blow for intelligent women everywhere. Granted, never crazy about Marina or Cyrus, but I would love Marina to show that she has some pride rather than these silly "I Know What you Did" games she's been playing with Harley and Cyrus.
On a related note: I know that Rick Bauer needs to leave Harley alone. Rick "I'm in love with my wife until another damsel in distress comes along" has no right to threaten Harley, although he's right to call her by her right name.

-I also wish they would knock off the "Will they? Won't they" thing with Josh and Reva. Definitely a "genug" situation. I say just put Reva and Josh back together and call it a day. The Cassie/Josh thing never really jelled for me and honestly, while we are on the topic of self-respect: you would think that Cassie would invest in a clue in that she has honestly been sleeping with 3-4 people in the same marital bed (the fourth being Tammy or Will depending upon the moment) and that's not a marriage. Cassie too should cut her losses and find a life somewhere else.

-The OMEN/BAD SEED '08
Clearly in addition to returning to some of the visual elements that made up GL's, they are returning to plot elements of the past. The bad seed idea was explored way back in the 50s and 60s with Meta Bauer's stepdaughter Kathy and her daughter Robin (admittedly Kathy was more of a rebel and felt unloved a la Lizzie Spaulding a few years ago vs. Robin whose actions were completely more bad seed). At times it's been amusing and at times ludicrous (Friday's episode where Will pays a guy to give him a ride was ... well, gee I wonder what that says about adults in general.) I honestly now don't understand why this kid has just not been put away. Yeah, Cassie stands in the way of such things but O'Neill as DA could take care of that. Court mandated mediation....I know there was a hearing and I can't fathom that a good judge in the face of the evidence would look the other way. I almost wish Beth would press charges against Will for what he did to James. (Granted all this is soaps so logic does not apply). This one needs to be laid to rest, even if it ends with Cassie riding off into the sunset with him to whatever special school he gets committed to (thus clearing the way for a Josh and Reva reunion). It was interesting at first but now it's becomes a lot of "are you kidding me?" Rafe gets busted for breathing and Will sits back and enjoys his life of making people miserable.

Except for the fact that I hated hearing that down the pike Phyllis and Nick are supposed to have marital problems because of Adam on young and the Restless, I've got nothing else except that while I was not pleased that Patrick is the father of Robin's baby, I am glad that she told him and that she is not looking to take him back. Of course GH will insist on not putting Robin and Jason back together...


Politics:
Another "genug already" situation. Granted last week's SNL take off on the "3am" ad was great, but honestly I feel that Lord Howard Dean should have the election "do-over," which includes placing Obama et. al on the ballot this time. A move that brings risks to either candidate, but I feel that both can stand up to it.

Other Stuff:
Still working on organizing meetups. I will sort this out by the end of the week.

My so-called FABULOUS life: Networking on the red carpet

My so-called FABULOUS life: Networking on the red carpet


An interesting read to be sure.  Below is my comment to her post about her attendance at the 2008 Oscar Night in Boston to benefit the Ellie Fund. 


2/28/07
Kitlat said...


I am glad that you attended one of the "Oscar Night in America" events. This was created and sanctioned by the organizers of the Oscar ceremony. It is much in the spirit of the "Broadway Across America" series except that it allows charities to host Oscar themed viewing parties that will raise money for the charity that hosts it.

http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/?pn=ona



The charity that hosted the event was the Ellie Fund. They have hosted this event for a while. The proceeds goes to support their programs, which support breast cancer patients and their families.



The Ellie Fund

http://www.elliefund.org/



I was there also. I was one of the volunteers that helped out. I monitored the Auction tables. I also helped stuff the gift bags earlier that day.



Many of the media present were local media-including access tv stations. Many people do watch the access stations religiously and since this was the only official Oscar party, I am not surprised that there were people that were trying to provide a viewing experience similar to what they see on regular broadcast tv. Hence, Joan Riveresque interviews.



Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were asked as far as I know from the organizers if they could attend (especially since Jennifer Garner was here filming with Matthew McConaughey a few days before) but as you could see on the telecast, they were needed elsewhere...Ben Affleck also grew up in Cambridge, not Boston.



Networking is tough-especially for women I think in some arenas because we still get messages that it's better not to be "pushy" or "forward." We also downplay ourselves whereas sometimes guys will not just gild a lily-they will dip it in chocolate and keep selling you on the fact that it is gold.



Like anything else, practice makes perfect. Don't ever sell yourself short. We all are somebody special.

Greenwashing

Well here's a practice that I am just hearing about, but am not surprised to know takes place.

Greenwashing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing#Six_Sins_of_Greenwashing

Tuesday

Today is one of many super Tuesdays in the circus that is American Politics. We see whether Obama will outlast. I see this as the first two qualifying rounds in figure skating competition. The primaries are the short program and the November election is the long program or the free skate, which despite the name is never free.

Obama triumphed in a state not known for his diversity and it looks like he may do it again.

Monday-not quite so blue, but not real colorful either

I'm counting down to my birthday, which is a milestone birthday and what it will mean this year.

This will be a year where I can be "careless" with money on my birthday. This will be marked by getting a modest laptop, which will free me in so many ways from my internet existence as it is.

I was listening to the On Point Archives today and heard a show about Gen Y and couldn't help but feel as if Gen X was the generation that got hosed until we started producing the mini-miracles and then got skewered for the dot.com bust while our parents, who for the most part to my thinking we more boomers than the war generation, have seemed to run the country into the ground...I am reminded of two things I saw on tv-one recently and one a while ago. Recently, I saw 'Rebel Without a Cause.' There was a scene with Natalie Wood as Daughter Judy and William Hopper (son of Hedda and was Paul Williams on 'Perry Mason') as Father who would not talk to Daughter Judy and had these expectations and found time and energy to nurture and love son Beau.

There was the episode of 'Dharma and Greg' where Abby was talking about how she and Larry where going to raise the impending baby differently than Dharma because now they had a second chance to do it right-inadvertantly throwing Dharma into a philosophic crisis since she was raised according to the principles that Abby and Larry are now going to reject. (The funniest line I remember is Abby saying to Dharma, "I mean c'mon, we had Timothy Leary as your babysitter...")

Both are how I see the difference in how sometimes Gen X and Y are treated. Then again, for the most part I see the labelling of generations as a marketing thing.

I've had Steve Winwood's song, "If you see a chance, take it" running through my head all weekend. And that, is today's lesson.

This and That

A new year with a lot of old goals.

Let me say up front that I am not into "New Year's Resolutions." I was as a child, since we had write ours in grade school. I then somehow saw them for what they are for most people-empty promises that people make because they feel they are supposed to, but don't accomplish because they don't want to. I don't like making promises I can't keep.

I will re-evaluate what I have done and look into making it better or look out over a year and figure out what I need to accomplish. I don't need January 1st to start me on that and I think that others should consider that.

Blogging is near the top of the list. Today has been taken up with updating the Blogger Meetup site and with thinking up topics for the new year.

I've been to BlogHer, which has had some interesting conferences coming up:
http://www.blogher.com/blogher_conference/conf/

I also found a blog post about the upcoming political shennanigans in the US that echoes a lot of my sentiments about how women voters are reached:
http://www.blogher.com/women-bloggers-presidential-candidates-stop-ignoring-us-and-dont-pander-if-you-want-our-votes

I did some more writing and 'mourned' the passing of Georgie Jones (General Hospital) in the past few days.

I also completed the volunteer coordinator gig at the Resolution Ball, which was tiring, but rewarding. Event plannin' and coordinatin' iz tough-don't let anyone think or say different. I learned a lot this time out, if nothing else, how to be even more vocal and forward about things even if it's "not my party."