possible post 3

Rant.

Green/sustainability issues.  “Our children and grandchildren.” No.  Maybe if you are 80+ but for the rest of us it impacts us NOW, SOON, in our lifetimes.

Possible Post 1

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/19/few_drivers_using_new_u_turn_ramp/?page=1

Projection

I am just about 100% set on this idea: whatever you hate, whatever you rail against and denounce, you do it because of self-hate.  Either you really are (non-white, inexperienced, poor) or you fear you are (gay, too gossipy)…  Really, just think about it.  Take any number of people and analyze the situation.  Yourself, friends of yours, your coworkers, certain politicians (any of the gay closeted Republican men who are then caught, Hillary claiming Obama is inexperienced)…

But I’m posting this under inspiration, so my point is analyze yourself, and try to be a better person.  Don’t fall into hate, it’s too easy.

Mr. Lutz, you are a freaking moron

Mr. Lutz runs GM. Sometime soon we will look back and wonder how GM ever lasted this long, it is such a big fat dying dinosaur. But I am sad to see that Mr. Lutz is such a freaking moron. I am not surprised in the least that he believes that global climate change is (and I quote) “a total crock of shit.” But I am sad that he doesn’t at least have the sense of a 4th grader and keep his mouth shut. Don’t say that kind of shit in public man, it’s a huge PR fiasco. You run GM, remember?? Don’t you think you saying that will reflect negatively on GM? even though you claim it shouldn’t.

If you work for GM, get out. If you are one of the hourly workers, take the buyout. If you are salaried, leave ASAP. And if you are in a GM town, get out too. Even if you and all your family don’t work for GM, if they go down, your town is going down. (This applies to smaller cities where GM is the best/only option for people, not bigger cities where there are non-automotive options.) It might suck royally and be really really hard, but you will be in better shape than the people who hang onto the sinking ship and have to move on in a year or two (or five or whatever). You will be ahead of the curve.  Do it!

Source for Mr. Lutz’s remarkably stupid comment. 

Zach Braff

I’m not a huge fan of this guy, but he’s OK.  Check out this video (or even just the still at the beginning) http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/speechless-30-zach-braff/.  So here’s my question… When did Zach Braff become John Ritter?  Seriously!  Just look at him.

It lives!

I will continue to post on here sporadically.  (Remember the scene in Clueless when Brittany Murphy’s character practices the new word she learns… “See you again Christian… I hope not sporadically!  Heee!)  I have downgraded the posting on my other (blog) site, and of course the holidays just took up all my time.  In 2008 I’m trying a new job, so that eats up some time too.

I am working on several projects (free time) that I’m really excited about.  As they take shape, I will post more about them here.  My current favorite?  A video series (youtube) about “immigrants” to Columbus, including people from many different places.  Somalia, Mexico, Orlando, Miami, Wisconsin, wherever.  Basically people who have lived elsewhere, and and least temporarily, if not permanently, have chosen Columbus. 

Back in the late 1990’s I tried my hand at video (mini movies) and the camcorders were very bulky (clearly I was on a budget) and the editing software was so slow.  Compare dial-up to a fast T1 connection, it was like that.  So I’m excited about returning to video, but now with more lightweight eqpt, and of course the software is better/faster.

Rickets – aka the child health crisis

I created a new category for this, basically a WTF category.

Apparently rickets is back.  Rickets sounds vaguely familiar, like some sort of British tea spoon or a dance your great-grandma would do, but no.  It’s not a fashion thing either, as in “rickets, it’s this spring’s hottest muumuu.”  Nope.  It’s a frigging disease.  Rickets!  R-i-c-k-e-t-s.

Rickets is apparently the “soft-bone scourge of the 19th century.”  It’s casued by too little exercise, too little milk, and not enough sunshine.  Wow.  Not exactly things that are hard to get, or find.  Vitamin D was added to milk (who knows when) to help prevent rickets.  Some of today’s doctors don’t even know it when they see it, because they never were taught about it because people figure in 2007 in the U.S. of A. there wouldn’t be rickets.  Lordy.

The bad news?

This potentially is a time bomb, says Dr. Laura Tosi, bone health chief at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.

Excellent!  Really!  As if rickets didn’t sound scary enough, imagine a rickets time bomb!  But there is good news.

… the once-energetic child had quit running because his bones ached like an old man’s.  Fortunately, rickets caught early is easily cured with infusions of vitamin D and calcium.

Read the source article: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/health/stories/2007/11/27/ap_bones_1127.ART_ART_11-27-07_A12_CE8JISP.html?sid=101

Writing Tips

Here’s a good site with tips for writing (aka blogging): http://betterexplained.com/articles/build-a-site-you-and-your-readers-will-love/

While I agree with his quality over quantity principle, I think that it is good practice to force yourself to write sometimes.  If you have lots of ideas (whatever the point of your site is) then forcing yourself to write every day or every week helps to finish those posts.

Motivation

I didn’t know it but apparently the month of November included these events: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ and http://nablopomo.ning.com/

Of course, November isn’t over yet, but I wish I had heard about these earlier.  I have another site (“blog”) which I update M-F, so adding 2 weekend posts would not have been too much of a stretch.  And I keep meaning to write some good novels.  I have all kinds of ideas, and the whole group-thing/peer pressure motivation of these events would help.

Holiday special

There’s another Columbus writer (I don’t like the word blogger) that I read from time to time, she does excellent restaurant reviews and food related things.  She is (dramatic pause) the Restaurant Widow.  Check out her site if you haven’t already.  http://www.restaurantwidow.com/

Typically Thanksgiving kicks off the “holiday season” where we focus on friends and family and being nice, but also buying lots of crap we usually don’t need.  Instead of waiting until New Year’s for resolutions, I’m feeling kind of inspired this Thanksgiving.  (See my last post.)  With that in mind, I liked Lisa’s manifesto, here are a few quotes from it.

“Cake day became the highlight of my job.  If I missed cake day, I was actually disappointed the next day.  I was sad about missing grocery store cake… I wasn’t healthy, I had all sorts of tummy issues, I couldn’t eat, I was an anxious wreck, and I felt I could not survive another minute under the florescent lights in our office, I applied for a promotion and I didn’t get it.  It was time for a change.