tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156485912024-03-23T13:46:23.377-04:00Living In the World, Not on ItLife in the slow lane of the unemployable, unworkable, disabled HR Manager/EMT.EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.comBlogger2244125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-34084486102909630242015-02-20T19:53:00.004-05:002015-02-20T19:53:32.956-05:00Living In [Accurate] History<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I came across a perfectly horrifying post on FaceBook today, which - if you prefer to take part in this discussion, will need to read - so, sit down, make your butt comfy and here we go:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"An Oklahoma House committee on Monday approved a bill taking aim at the new AP U.S. History framework, which conservatives have decried as unpatriotic and negative, <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/oklahoma-legislative-committee-questions-legality-of-advanced-placement-courses-in/article_2b257556-b62c-5a92-862e-8e9821a29bbc.html" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">the Tulsa World reported</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">State Rep. Dan Fisher (R) introduced a <a href="http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20INT/hB/HB1380%20INT.PDF" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">bill</a> at the beginning of the month that keeps the state from funding AP U.S. History unless the College Board changes the curriculum. The bill also orders the state Department of Education to establish a U.S. History program that would replace the AP course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since the College Board released a new course framework for U.S. history in October 2012, <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/larry-krieger-ap-us-history-conservatives" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">conservative backlash against the course</a> has grown significantly. The Republican National Committee condemned the course and its <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rnc-ap-exam-revisionist-history" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">"consistently negative view of American history"</a> in August. Numerous states and school districts have now taken action to <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/georgia-resolution-ap-us-history" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">denounce</a> the exam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fisher said Monday that the AP U.S. History course emphasizes "what is bad about America" and complained that the framework eliminated the concept of <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/larry-krieger-ap-us-history-conservatives" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;">"American exceptionalism,"</a>according to the Tulsa World.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The House Common Education Committee voted for the bill 11-4, with all Republicans voting for the legislation and all Democrats voting against it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During the hearing on the bill, state lawmakers also questioned the legality of all AP courses, comparing them to Common Core, which Oklahoma has repealed. According to the Tulsa World, lawmakers were concerned that College Board courses could be seen as an effort to create a national curriculum.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rep. Sally Kern (R) said that she asked the state attorney general to review whether AP courses violate the legislation that repealed Common Core."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, how is this okay? How can anyone suggest to lie, to make history a whole bag of bullshit? And then to teach this in an accredited school? Any school that teaches this should lose its accrediting. Am I wrong? And yet... I have a friend who will not - NOT - let this go. So here is a snapshot into this fight...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 22px;">These things have a way of snowballing, which is one of those funny things - it could be very good or could go very, very poorly. In this case, it sparked a hell of </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">a debate. For myself, I cannot fathom why this would have den so. Who in their right mind would fight honesty in teaching any subject?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">I will start with how I introduced it, then how George posted it and the comments that ensued as a result. Please understand first: I love George greatly - we have been friends, very close friends - since I was 17, which is 30 years ago this year. Ignore his biased thinking as regards potically; just read what he said. I have so much trouble understanding any argument for not teaching AP History as it is, I find it boggling.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">My comment when I posted it was this: "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">Republicans: unutterably ridiculous. They would rather make our history portray us as saints instead of teaching the truth. No one can learn the lessons of the past if students are cuckolded into thinking we did everything right."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">George saw this and shared it (I assume), but he wrote the following with it: "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">OK time to go on an anti liberal rant; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">Listen up all of you apologetic liberals who cry over the bad things America has done to get to this stage. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">None of what you have now, from the smartphone/tablet/pc/laptop and internet, to fights over global warming would be around, if America did not do what it did to get to where it is now. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;">As a matter of fact, there is a good chance that without America, your life choices (if you were even born) would be two. Dead or living as a serf in some European God Approved Monarchy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So get over it, stop crying about what bad things were done in the name of progress and enjoy the fruits of that said progress you complain about."</span></span><ul class="UFIList" data-reactid=".55" style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">This is a specious quibble, and not at all what I was getting at, when debuting his above statement. It is also my originating argument. This is important. History teaches us--- well, anyway - </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">So I wrote back: "</span></span></span><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">None of this means I don’t love this country or are making plans to move to a different one. But mistakes of the past needs be brought to the fore to keep from repetition. You know this as much as I do.</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$4:0">Also, a country as big, as forward-thinking as t</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3">his ranks 98 out of the 196 countries extant. Did you stop to consider that this, as well as numerous other factors, may very well by the reason for this? 98th - honestly, that is not just a wee embarrassing, it is appalling."</span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596893747855:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Walter came in with "</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">George, you do realize that it is not liberals, but Republican conservatives trying to get this bill through, right? I mean, it's in the first paragraph...."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Michael: "</span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596959949510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$0:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">It's not that liberals are crying in their chai over the things we've done in our past; it's that conservatives are trying to hide said past in the name of 'Murikan Eksepshunalism. Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it; that's why the South seems to keep trying to pretend it's the 1850's. On this particular issue, </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1437243469&extragetparams=%7B%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596959949510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$range0:0" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/Morrdread" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">George</a><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596959949510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">, you're flat out wrong."</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596959949510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206596959949510:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">After inquiring as to what "Murikan Eksepshunalism", I wrote: "</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">He got this from me, y’know. I love him, but there is no getting onboard with any of this kind of thinking, liberal, conservative, or the guy who claims to be a vampire who runs for the presidency every year. This has nothing to do with my liberal leanings: it is objectionable any road, any way you slice it."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">I am not caring as to who did what - I just know revisionism in history is a really polite English for utter bullshit.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">Michael came back with, "</span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">‘Murikan Eksepshunalism’ is my sarcastic way of saying 'American Exceptionalism' in the patios of the average Fox viewer." I find the weird spelling a little off-putting, although I'm terrified to say I have seen it elsewhere, and it bothers me no matter where it is. Too many foolish people might think it is acce[table to spell something in so appalling a fashion.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">So then, George decided it was time to dump a tonne of information on us (which is not a bother to me, not at all). He wrote: "</span></span></span><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">OK, looks like I need to teach here so y'all sit quietly and learn. First a few comments back to some of the comments made:</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$text0:0:$2:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">1- </span><a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=619834401&extragetparams=%7B%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$range0:0" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/walter.kaechele" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 15px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Walter</a><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">; YES I do realize. </span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$2:0">But do you realize that AP History was created by "Liberal" minded supposedly *free* thinking acad</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">emics? People who supposedly are smart. Obviously from what they have created they are neither smart nor *free* thinking, but moronic children. A problem with most (99%) of all so called Liberal Intellectuals. </span></span>So, considering the authors I believe my OP is spot on.</div>
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2- Michael; So creating a course of historical study where nothing but the negatives are studied creates a more educated end result? Please .... extremism is bad. Replacing one end of extreme with the other does not help anyone. Only moronic Liberals think that. So who is wrong?????</div>
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Aislinge, Frank and Selina; huh?</div>
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OK education time;</div>
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This is from one of Republicans objecting to AP History.</div>
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""Instead of striving to build a 'City upon a Hill,' as generations of students have been taught, the colonists are portrayed as bigots who developed 'a rigid racial hierarchy' that was in turn derived from 'a strong belief in British racial and cultural superiority,'" the letter reads. "The new Framework continues its theme of oppression and conflict by reinterpreting Manifest Destiny from a belief that America had a mission to spread democracy and new technologies across the continent to something that 'was built on a belief in white racial superiority and a sense of American cultural superiority.'" </div>
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1st off; Manifest Destiny. THANK (GOD OR WHATEVER) FOR MANIFEST DESTINY!!!!!</div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$22:0">You do realize that Manifest Destiny is the only reason Europe and the world survived WW2. Right???? </span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$24:0">You do realize that is America had remained those 13 original colonies and had not expanded there is no way on earth it would have survived the Civil War (it would have become 2 separate nations). It was resources from the West and Gold from California that allowed good ole Abe and the North to defeat the South. So right there and then, no Manifest Destiny, no America.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15px;">Lets go a little further back; No Manifest Destiny and America does not survive the war of 1812. As the war ended our nations capitol was in ruins and burning. If there was no battle of New Orleans (because there would not have been if Madison had not bought the Louisiana territories from France and coined the term Manifest Destiny to get Americans Westward) then that British Army defeated at Norleans would have sailed for NY City.</span></div>
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So, two cases right there where this "Evil" Manifest Destiny saved YOUR lives in the present and the nation as a whole in the past.</div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$34:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
2nd; Painting the colonists and later on all other settlers going westward as evil? really?</div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$38:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$38:0">3rd; The treatment of the Natives. YES... Deplorable. But you know what? Again, without any of that and the nation does not grow into the nation that it was in the early to mid 20th Century. </span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$40:0">And it was THIS nation and the industry untouched by bombs or war first hand, that won WW2 and stopped Hitler.</span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$44:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$44:0">So basically .... (end of my argument) </span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$46:0">If teaching a history that paints America as a saint is bad, why is teaching a history that paints the exact opposite extreme view better? </span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$48:0">Both are wrong!</span></div>
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So ya know sometin? Dem der dumass republicans actually have a point.</div>
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AP History is stupid liberal trash!"</div>
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What idiocy is this? Liberals did this? unite frankly, I could care less who started it, but bloody hell, man, I will finish it! Who cares who did what when in the past? It is now that we need to stand up and not take this. Not allow anyone to adjust or revise or have the "non-aligned thinking" of Fox News - because we all know they actual tell the news unadulterated... Sure we do. Nice try. I don't want to see history taught by those fools. No. I care what we do moving forward.</div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$56:0"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$56:0">I find, looking at this now, that there are a million incorrect responses to spelling "dumbass" with a b. But I will let it go.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$56:0"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597395800406:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$56:0">At any rate, Michael got back into the fray: "</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597500283018:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597500283018:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Because that's not what's happening. AP History just teaches what *actually* happened, the good, the bad and the ugly. Yes, you are right on many of your above points. But removing any reference to wrongdoing along the way to becoming the country we ar</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597500283018:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597500283018:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597500283018:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">e now is just stupid. As a kid who was taught all the little 'white lies' about our history, and then to find out what actually happened later, I'm glad AP History exists. It doesn't teach that America is evil. It DOES teach that we did some fairly evil shit along the way, in the hopes that the kids learning it won't repeat those mistakes. So no, they don't have a point. Whitewashing (see what I did there?) American History helps nobody but the people who want an uneducated populace they can exploit.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before you spout any more BS, pick up an actual AP History textbook. Then tell me the people who want to remove most of the references to Jefferson from the high school history books are in the right."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">George: "</span><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">I have looked at some chapters online, sad to say I do not have a book. But from what I have seen it the opposite of white washing (and I take offense to what you did there:).</span></span></div>
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Yes teach the good with the bad, it is what I am saying. From what I have seen AP History is the exact same thing as what the republicans want. A delusional piece of trash."</div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597523683603:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$4:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597523683603:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$4:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Michael: "</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Nope. I took AP History. I have younger friends who I'm in college with now who took it recently, I don't know what you're reading online or where it's sourced from, but it teaches the truth. Good or bad depends on where you're standing."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">I returned to scene of the crime and added my thoughts, after weeding through everything George wrote above, the long winded-answer. "</span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597536083913:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Too right. I know my history, know the Manifest Destiny and never claimed to have an issue with any of it. No lidding, about the colonists, did you only just learn this? Again, not the issue. The issue is teaching history correctly, no more, no less. H</span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597536083913:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">ow can you profess to love history, science, spelling, reading, but not know its history or how to do it? No. Get off the high horse. History is everything, it is what teaches right and wrong, what gives us fun at Faire (and lets me go to the loo and be thankful I did not actually live in the Renaissance period), what gives us the art and writings before and during and after the period. It is what gives us more to read. It is the length, depth, breadth, width of our beginnings. Don't piss all over it just because it is not the most flattering, because you have just realised that you weren't born wearing an Armani suit and the latest style hat."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">George: "You guys do realize and understand that we are all in agreement right? That like me you too feel that American kids need a balanced no idealism history book. Right? </span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597860612026:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597860612026:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$4:0">The only difference is you think that the left wing liberal ideals of the AP History b</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597860612026:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597860612026:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597860612026:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">ooks is fine and I see it as more of the same BS that the right wing offers just from a different angle. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">And if given the choice, sorry... I go with the whitewashed version instead of the blackwashed version.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">History is not about teaching ideals and right from wrong. People get that on their own from reading history. Also no matter what, history will always be written by the winners. Because a history written by the losers is well ... BS!"</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597892972835:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597892972835:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8;">Sieglinde wrote: </span>"</span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597892972835:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">I want a history written on truth. If I want a history written on fiction I'll go read Tolkien or the Game of Thrones."</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597988335219:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597988335219:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">I responded: "</span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206597988335219:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Again, the truth will out. Thank you Sieglinde. Not only do you have a cool first name, but you have an excellent head on your shoulders. I'm grateful. The teaching of history must be accurate!"</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Walter got in again: "George - I must have missed the part of the article where they actually included what the curriculum contains. Because it seems to me that you're reading this article and taking the word of the few conservative folks who are complaining that the curric</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598013655852:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">ulum has an "extreme anti American" slant. That may not be the case. You're also making a big assumption as to the authors of the curriculum - specifically their political leanings. We may all be in agreement, but that doesn't mean that the OK AP History course is shit. Get the facts about it before you rail against it."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598042016561:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0" style="color: #141823; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598042016561:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Siglinde commented: "Well, I get that history can be subjective, but that said ... it should be kept as neutral as possible. If you don't like what your country or city or organization did ... don't do it! If you don't want people to know your real involvement, you are obv</span></span><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598042016561:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3" style="color: #141823; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598042016561:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206598042016561:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.3.0.$end:0:$0:0">iously doing something you know was shady morally. </span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">Our country has done quite a few shady things. A lot of countries have done shady things and still are, though they try and pretend otherwise. How about instead of hiding those, we learn from them instead and try to do better. You can make profit without totally screwing over the next guy. Isn't the Republican belief, in theory, supposed to be you better yourself through hard work? Then have it be hard work that motivates us, not being as shady as possible to make a profit. Too often lately though, hard work is confused with manipulation of others. Manipulating others isn't exactly something Big J would approve of I bet, and it's certainly not something I do either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Keep history as accurate and fairly reported as possible, or we will be doomed to keep repeating it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And thank you for the kind words Aislinge."</span></span></div>
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<span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">My final answer: "</span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;">George, you say we are all on the same side, but it is clear we are not. You say the "whitewashed" version. Another might say the "blackwashed" version. But if so, this is a no-win scenario. The only right answer to this is giving the real history, no washing, no prettying up the details or washing it to get the perfect colour you think it ought to be. History, like science, oughtn't to be anything other than FACTS. All of them. However they came about. Have you leaned nothing from this?"</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body" style="color: #141823; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">It seems he has not. But honestly? To rewrite history? How much can one miss the point of education? I am shocked that anyone could in good conscience argue for this, for revisionism history. Not to mention, while the winner of a historical battle may dictate their version of the truth, the loser does so no less. And just because one may win a Pyhrennic victory, does this make it right? Good? Healthy? Of course not. This is where history teaches us life lessons that are key to our survival. How can anyone teach the Cold War, something I was alive for - even if it was the latter part of it - or the Civil War or any portion of it with lies, with propaganda? Do we wish to be viewed in the same light as Adolf HItler? Sure, he made the trains in Germany run on time, But what else did he do for the world beside systemically attempting to rid us of our various and diverse cultures. No one wants to see another Hitler, another Mussolini, another Stalin. History tells us this.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".4.1:3:1:$comment10206596857426947_10206600965929657:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="line-height: 15px;">Don't ignore it.</span></span></span></span></div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-45729596882955937742015-02-18T16:41:00.000-05:002015-02-18T16:41:53.480-05:00Living in Wholly Myself<div style="text-align: justify;">
I love life for the most part, even if this particular part of the year is exceptionally hard on me; I am not a fan of living as a shut-in thanks to the weather. But for now, this is the deal, so why not try to make the best of it?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What I love the most is listening and singing - albeit badly - to music. It really is not my issue whether or not I have a good voice, but rest assured, I don't. I try to sing in whatever register the artist sings in, which - if you have heard "The National" and love them as I do, then... well. I am not a baritone or a bass, obviously. How many females do you know who can reach that level of voice? Yes. Exactly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I enjoy it. It makes me feel light and love, joy, wholly myself. How often do I feel wholly and completely myself? Certainly not in social situations, not outside of my home, although I had moments of it at work, when I was completely immersed in other's issues, being aware of them and not myself - a moment of being wholly myself, when I am outside of myself. Does this make sense? I guess you need to have experienced this to truly know what I mean. Let me try this:<br />
<br />
You must have a hobby, something you do that is just for you, no one else? My artwork is that, so is my writing. I become so absorbed in what I am doing, my mind exploring so many things while my hands do their own thing. I am still me, doing my thing, but yet, I am not aware of my normal ... normal... um, my aches, or my back hurting, or my tinnitus singing, or my husband watching the telly or what the cats are doing are outside my hearing, my awareness, mot impugning on my consciousness; I'm just being wholly me, completely myself, unaware of anything but that one thing I am doing.<br />
<br />
Listening to music does this, too. And this is the best place to be.<br />
<br />
I once wrote that I cannot meditate, can't reach that oneness with the Universe, because I have the "monkey mind". And I do have this kind of brain, swinging through the trees, scratching and spitting and cursing all the way. If I try to sit down cross-legged, and make my mind go blank, I'm done before I've begun - because this is one cranium that is never silent, never quiet, can't find that inner space. It won't ever happen. But yet...<br />
<br />
I draw, sing and write, and the monkey mind is off elsewhere, spitting and scratching its genitals at someone else, and I have no idea who or what or why, but I can't take credit for it. Because I am finally in that sweet spot, that place, that only place that is mine alone and no one else's. And it took me a very long time to realise that I have always - <i>always</i> - been able to get there any time I want, all of my life, without a worry. I just cannot do it by sitting still.<br />
<br />
As long as I have this, what more do I truly need?<br />
<br />
Nothing.</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-33977761699628167432014-12-08T12:58:00.002-05:002014-12-08T12:58:46.563-05:00A Song A Day - Every Breaking Wave<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Every breaking wave on the shore</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Tells the next one "there'll be one more"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">And every gambler knows that to lose</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Is what you're really there for</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Summer I was fearless</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Now I speak into an answer phone</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Like every fallen leaf on the breeze</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Winter wouldn't leave it alone, alone</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go your way and I go mine</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we so...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we so helpless against the tide?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Baby, every dog on the street</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Knows that we're in love with defeat</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we ready to be swept off our feet</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">And stop chasing every breaking wave?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Every sailor knows that the sea</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Is a friend made enemy</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Every shipwrecked soul knows what it is</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">To live without intimacy</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I thought I heard the captain's voice</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">But it's hard to listen while you preach</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Like every broken wave on the shore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">This is as far as I could reach</span></span><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go your way and I go mine</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we so...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we so helpless against the tide?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Baby, every dog on the street</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Knows that we're in love with defeat</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we ready to be swept off our feet</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">And stop chasing every breaking wave?</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The sea knows where are the rocks</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And drowning is no sin</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You know where my heart is</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The same place that yours has been</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">We know that we fear to win</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And so we end before we begin</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Before we begin</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">If you go your way and I go mine</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we soooooooooo...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we so helpless against the tide?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Baby, every dog on the street</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Knows that we're in love with defeat</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Are we ready to be swept off our feet</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">And stop chasing every breaking wave?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><i>Lyrics by U2: the band that always seems to have the magic words.</i></span>EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-45135325057139173572014-12-07T21:26:00.000-05:002014-12-07T21:26:00.066-05:00A Song A Day - Conversation 16<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<div style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;">I think the kids are in trouble<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Do not know what all the troubles are for<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Give them ice for their fevers<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You're the only thing I ever want anymore<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We live on coffee and flowers<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Try not to wonder what the weather will be<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I figured out what we're missing<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I tell you miserable things after you are asleep<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Now we'll leave the silver city 'cause all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Gave us black dreams<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Leave the silver city 'cause all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Everything means everything<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />It's a Hollywood summer<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You'll never believe the shitty thoughts I think<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Meet our friends out for dinner<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />When I said what I said I didn't mean anything<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We belong in a movie<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Try to hold it together 'til our friends are gone<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We should swim in a fountain<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Do not want to disappoint anyone<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Now we'll leave the silver city 'cause all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Gave us black dreams<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Leave the silver city to all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Everything means everything<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I was afraid I'd eat your brains<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I was afraid I'd eat your brains<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />'Cause I'm evil<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />'Cause I'm evil<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I'm a confident liar<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Have my head in the oven so you know where I'll be<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I'll try to be more romantic<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I want to believe in everything you believe<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I was less than amazing<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Do not know what all the troubles are for<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Fall asleep in your branches<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />You're the only thing I ever want anymore<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Now we'll leave the silver city 'cause all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Gave us black dreams<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Leave the silver city to all the silver girls<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Everything means everything<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I was afraid I'd eat your brains<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I was afraid I'd eat your brains<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />'Cause I'm evil<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />'Cause I'm evil<br style="border: 0px none; font-size: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />'Cause I'm evil</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Lyrics by The National</i></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-88958161898341183692014-12-06T12:55:00.000-05:002014-12-06T12:55:00.068-05:00A Song A Day - The ForresterI am a forester of this land<br />
<div class="lyricbox" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248) !important; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 1em 1em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
As ye may plainly see,<br />
It's the mantle of your maidenhead<br />
That I would have from thee.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
He's taken her by the milk-white hand,<br />
And by the leylan sleeve,<br />
He's lain her down upon her back<br />
And asked no man's leave.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
Now since you've lain me down young man<br />
You must take me up again,<br />
And since you've had your will on me,<br />
Come tell to me your name.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
Some call me Jim, some call me John,<br />
Begad it's all the same,<br />
But when I'm in the king's hight court<br />
Erwilian is my name.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
She being a good scholar<br />
She's spelt it over again,<br />
Erwilian, that's a Latin word,<br />
But Willy is your name.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
Now when he heard his name pronounced,<br />
He mounted his high horse,<br />
She's belted up her petticoat<br />
And followed with all her force.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
He rode and she ran<br />
A long summer day,<br />
Until they came by the river<br />
That's commonly called the Tay.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
The water it's too deep my love,<br />
I'm afraid you cannot wade,<br />
But afore he'd ridden his horse well in<br />
She was on the other side.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
She went up to the king's high door,<br />
She knocked and she went in,<br />
Said one of your chancellor's robbed me,<br />
And he's robbed me right and clean.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
Has he robbed you of your mantle,<br />
Has he robbed you of your ring,<br />
No he's robbed me of my maidenhead<br />
And another I can't find.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
If he be a married man<br />
Then hanged he shall be,<br />
And if he be a single man<br />
He shall marry thee.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
This couple they got married,<br />
They live in Huntley town,<br />
She's the Earl of Airlie's daughter,<br />
And he's the blacksmith's son.<br />
with me roo-run-rority ri-run-rority ri-no-ority-an.<br />
<br />
<i>Old Medieval song - performed by Bedlam</i><br />
<i>from the New York Renaissance Faire c.1995</i></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-82489102894768615232014-12-05T14:43:00.000-05:002014-12-05T14:43:00.468-05:00A Song A Day - Still<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am the harm which you inflict.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your brilliance and frustration.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I'm the nuclear bombs if they're to hit.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your immaturity and your indignance.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your misfits and your praised.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your doubt and your conviction.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your charity and your rape.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your grasping and expectation.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you averting your glances.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you cheering on the war.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you ignoring your children,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your joy and your regret.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your fury and your elation.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your yearning and your sweat.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your faithless and your religion.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you altering history.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you abusing the land.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you, your selective amnesia,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Haaaaaaaaahh</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you averting your glances.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you cheering on the war.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you ignoring your children,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you altering history.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you abusing the land.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you, your selective amnesia,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your tragedy and your fortune.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your crisis and delight.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your profits and your prophets.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your art, I am your vice.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your death and your decisions.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your passion and your plight.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your sickness and convalescence.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am your weapons and your light.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you holding your grudges.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you gunning them down.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you silencing your sisters,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you lie to your country.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you forcing them out.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you blaming each other,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">And I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Haaaaaaaahh</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you holding your grudges.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you gunning them down.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you silencing your sisters,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you lie to your country.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you forcing them out.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you blaming each other.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I love you still.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I see you.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Lyrics by Alanis Morissette</i></span></span>EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-7008310213872017072014-12-04T16:16:00.000-05:002014-12-04T16:16:00.218-05:00A Song A Day - Raised by Wolves<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Face down on a broken street</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">There’s a man in the corner in a pool of misery</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I’m in a white van as a red sea covers the ground</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Metal crash I can’t tell what it is</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">But I take a look and now I’m sorry I did.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">5:30 on a Friday night 33 good people cut down</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Face down on a pillow of shame</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">There are some girls with a needle trying to spell my name</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">My body’s not a canvas</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">My body’s now a toilet wall</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Stronger than fear</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">We were raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Stronger than fear</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">If I open my eyes,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You disappear</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Boy sees his father crushed under the weight</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Of a cross in a passion where the passion is hate.</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Blue mink Ford, I’m gonna detonate and you’re dead</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Blood in the house,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Blood on the street</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The worst things in the world are justified by belief</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Registration 1385-WZ</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I don’t believe anymore</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Stronger than fear</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">We were raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Raised by wolves</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Stronger than fear</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">If I open my eyes,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">You disappear</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Lyrics by U2</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Welcome back, we missed you!</i></span></span>EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-42815906580783649232014-12-04T14:17:00.002-05:002014-12-04T14:17:24.580-05:00A Song A Day - Darling, I Do<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Golden leaves looked brown to me,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The world had less color without you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Shapes in the sky, looked plain to my eye,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The world had less color without you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know pleny' of people with eyes closed</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They don't see you like I do</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Darling I do</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Notes on the keys, meant nothing to me</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The world didn't sing without you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Birds in the trees fell silent for me</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The world didn't sing without you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Without you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know pleny' of people with eyes closed</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They don't see you like I do</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Darling I do, darling I do see you</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know pleny' of people with eyes closed</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They don't see you like I</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I know pleny' of people with eyes closed</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They don't see you like I know</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Pleny' of people with eyes closed</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">They don't see you like I do</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Darling I do, darling I do, darling I do,I do,</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Darling I do, darling I do, see you</span></span><div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Dedicated to Luis, my love</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Song by Landon Pigg</i></span></span></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-39516447789222991222014-12-04T13:57:00.001-05:002014-12-10T16:43:35.349-05:00Lessons Come Wrapped in Ridiculous Packages or Learning About Jealousy<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArTiFH6nE_ATfNfLakQT2rHaEzJpSzzfkB1YutRAVxI_pveK2taO0O6ufvVrWvZtjYvm-yXfE4uzMO_a76bW2HnkJCOSd5sxwyG2ndVUiobJKBGa-B7K-UHaBJ7uQAcCWEMS2/s640/blogger-image--2139147838.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArTiFH6nE_ATfNfLakQT2rHaEzJpSzzfkB1YutRAVxI_pveK2taO0O6ufvVrWvZtjYvm-yXfE4uzMO_a76bW2HnkJCOSd5sxwyG2ndVUiobJKBGa-B7K-UHaBJ7uQAcCWEMS2/s640/blogger-image--2139147838.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This was a very long time ago, as I'm 46 now.</div>
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Anyone who knows me well now would laugh at the idea that I might be jealous - a totally ridiculous thought. But anyone who knew me when I was a kid, or a very young adult - up to age 18 - would possibly (well, very likely) recall this. I certainly do, but it was a life-lesson that steered me in the right direction. This doesn't mean that there wasn't any work that I'd to do; it took me more than one year to train myself to not fall into this kind of trap. It was the best time I ever spent working on an issue that destroys so many people. The other factor was someone I met not long after I treated myself for this issue. He made me see this from the other side, convincing me that this was the truly <i>worst</i> kind of problem to have.</div>
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I also had a huge inferiority complex that very nearly wrecked my life and the jealousy fit in quite nicely with it. I shall at some point or another need to tackle this as well in my blog, to truly get it completely out of my system, but it is good to say that the... uh... side-effects of this ceased some years ago. This is going to be much, much harder to write about, so no pushing. It will come out soon enough and needs to, but this has to be of my choosing, no one else's. It is key to write about it, as it leads as much to self-awareness as anything can.</div>
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Back to this topic...</div>
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I was quite envious of others as a child, for many reasons, I suppose. All children are, and it is truly impossible to train them out of it. You might say that you as a parent managed it, but really, this would only work with very inhibited and passive kids. It is a normal human emotion, jealousy, and it is the worst one and the most challenging to work out. And just like any child, my parents tried very hard to work it out of me, and ultimately failed. It was up to me to recognise it for what it was and deal with it appropriately. And the gods only know, I came up against it in others as much as in myself, and they had no more success than I did working it out. It is that much more challenging to get rid of this scourge in ourselves, as well.<br>
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When I was about 16, I met Sean, a classmate in my high school, a place I have very few fond memories about. (Never end a sentence in "at" or "of" if you can help it. Proper English <i>always</i>.) I really liked him a lot, in the way of all school girls. The issue? Well, besides my being totally unpopular, he was in the senior class and I was just a junior or sophomore (I'm pretty sure I was a junior, but he may have graduated in 1984, which would have made me a sophomore - or a moron, either way, ha, ha!) and who wants to date someone who is essentially a kid? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have wanted a virgin, either, being a sensitive person, a rarity in the wonderful world of high school. As it was, I have to thank H.S. for doing the honours of that, the day before my 18th birthday. Was it the best birthday gift I received? Hard to say - it was and it wasn't. Two virgins ("wrongs") don't make a "right", so to speak, nor was it completely comfortable (I suspect that it was much better for him than me, but that's completely natural) and it did hurt, but the pain is fleeting. Anyhoo...<br>
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That's for another time. However, it does have a place here, in this tale. As it was, we had no kind of jealousy about one another; we weren't going out, or dating, nothing serious or exclusive, so it was never an issue. And i know that for myself, and I think for him, too, it was better this way. None of that wailing when things broke up about "my first love(r) broke up with me, WWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!" It was nice not to have that kind of crap hanging over us. We did indulge a few more times and are still friends to this day. Now that is the best kind of history!<br>
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I ran into Sean again when I was 18 and he was 19 or 20. We started dating and having fun, but I was still living in jealousy and was always bugging him to know what he'd done without me and where he'd been, and I probably should have seen the writing on the wall, as it were, then. Of course, truly nutty-jealous women never see it and so go through short relationships all along. Still, this totally missed me at the time.<br>
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And of course, I kept on missing things of this nature, and went a little crazy if he so much as glanced at another woman. (You will read later on in this post how I react to Luis looking at women.) Not that it came up all that often, but I considered all other women my competition and enemies. Imagine considering more than half of the human race your enemy. Just try to tell me this isn't the stupidest feeling in the world!<br>
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When we were involved, we would hang out with others at the King George Diner in Wayne, which we referred to as the King Whore Diner (just one of those typical, tasteless, teenaged nicknames). We got to know a waitress there, uh... oh boy... I've forgotten her name. Completely forgotten it. And I went to their wedding! Yikes. Anyway, we would all chat and have fun, and then at some point, we invited her to come out with us. Other than her age (mid- to late 30s then, if I recall correctly), she was fun and a little flaky, much like we were. She certainly fit right in. She was very much a New Ager, or maybe a mixture of New Age and Wiccan, which made her even more ideal to join our little band.<br>
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And things were good, for a while.<br>
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But then I began to notice a rather strong connection between her and Sean, and of course ugly jealousy came screaming right to the fore. The more I tried to exert control over the situation, the worse things became - quickly. I knew I was losing him, but had no idea what to do about it, other than to react as I had. What a horrendous feeling.<br>
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I had to ask myself what had gone wrong, and of course the immediate answer was that it was <i>her</i>. I had turned into one of those women who thought the "other woman" was at fault. I never looked to myself or my own behaviour to find the answer. But then, who does? How many men or women taken by this worst of feelings look at themselves to figure the answer out? The last thing we want to do is admit to our own flaws. What made me any different? And how different is it now? Just as difficult - I still have to hear things from others a million times or learn the hard way. More often than not, it is the hard way, like just last July.<br>
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That, too, is a tale for another time.<br>
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At some point, Sean and she asked to sit with me (I don't recall where it was, but at the King George seems reasonable), so I said sure, and went, feeling trepidatious. I was right to, as it turned out. They were really nice about all of it, telling me that they recognised that they had feelings for one another, and that Sean was unhappy with my jealousy and general behaviour. Nothing had happened at this point, and they felt it was only right to speak to me first, before anything happened. Now, don't misunderstand me; I was very, very upset. And I went home and cried, feeling crushed. It was several days if not a week or two to reach the point where I could think logically about what they'd said and how things went. The more I thought about it and looked back on the situation, the more I realised they had hit the nail right on the head. The only unhappy person in all of this had really been me.<br>
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So I began to work on it. And work on it I did. By the time I met Joe, over a year later at age 19, I had learned to ruthlessly squash any feelings of jealousy if anyone I dated in the interim mentioned another woman. Not that it came up often, but when it did, if I felt that monster raising its head (and I still did, all too often), I just worked as hard as I had, to dispel that worst of feelings. And it worked! I won't say I got over it immediately, but I worked my ass off to get rid of this affliction, until I finally became who I am today.<br>
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There was another side of this coin, with Joe; while I had no jealousy that he ever knew of (and I didn't), he was overly protective and jealous, almost crazy at times. He'd never have hit me and knew I wouldn't have eve allowed it (other than the first shot), but he would yell and get all worked up over what was nothing. I'm a friendly, mostly outgoing person, once I come out of my shell, so if a man can't handle that, he does not get to have me.<br>
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Funny, true story: I ran into Joe a few years after we'd broken up (we'd been together for a year and a half), and he had a beautiful girlfriend, but she was super unbelievably jealous and he was terribly unhappy about it. I had to smile at that, not to be mean, but to see that he'd learned the same lesson.<br>
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Lessons come wrapped in ridiculous packaging.<br>
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By the time I met Luis, it was no longer any kind of struggle to not feel jealousy, none at all. I had long since excised it, about two years prior. When we moved in together, in October of 1990, we were very happy, and have been ever since. This is not to say that we haven't had our hard times, of course we have - some very hard times - but we have both come out clean on the other side. (Yes, a favourite phrase.) However, you can ask Luis if jealousy had ever been an issue, and he will laugh. Never, he'd say. And he knows it!<br>
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How do I tell you all that we do that shows I have no ill will toward other women, none of whom are a threat to me? Or that the only person I'd be mad at for the egregious act of falling in love with another person - regardless of gender, not that Luis would - would be the man with me! No one else is at fault in that scenario. That when Luis points out the gazillion women he finds attractive, would "do for a dollar" or would want to screw if given the opportunity (this last only applies to actresses and models), I put in my comments on whether or not they would be legal or if I'm not sure that they are <i>that</i> good looking. We joke about that all the time. Not to mention that he usually comments that they won't sleep with him; he's very bald, quite overweight, not that I wouldn't like him to lose weight - strictly for health reasons - but the baldness, well, anyone met Ray, my father? This explains a lot.<br>
<br>
Anyway, we never have any problems in this area. I know Luis' entire romantic and sexual history, just as he knows mine. We know a huge amount about each other, what with our twenty-fifth anniversary approaching next year. Twenty-five years! Isn't that amazing? I just read in one of the <i>Uncle John's Ultimate Bathroom Reader's</i> books - yeah, of course I read in the loo, doesn't everyone? - that marriages that last past their thirteenth year last end in death rather than divorce. Sounds good to me!<br>
<br>
To give you an excellent example of how easy-going I am, I have a great story from when Luis turned 30. It was something else.<br>
<br>
Luis' birthday is 5 June. He's 48 now, but then he was turning thirty. I think we had only mild plans, as it was a week day, but the coming weekend we would celebrate. We might have had plans for a quiet dinner that night, since it was the big 3-0. Luis called me from work, though, while he was at the user meeting that year. He said he was really sorry, but Pam was there and really upset about something, and was it okay with me if he went to dinner with her?<br>
<br>
I knew Luis well enough then, that he'd go to dinner with her almost no matter what. Normally, he is very much stubborn, but I am, too. However, this time, he did put the decision entirely into my lap. And it would not have bothered me at all, if it had been anyone else. Not a bit. But Luis had a heavy history with Pam, and I was not completely sanguine about my position as girlfriend/live-in lover when it came to her. I needn't have worried, but still, knowing Luis' full history with her, I worried. We discussed this for about a half-hour, and I had only one condition: her next visit to this area (which I well knew would be next year's CLS user meeting - yes, they met through CLS, where Luis worked as programmer since he was 19 - and he agreed, just like that). This did more - much more - to reassure me than anything else he had said to make his case. That, and how good a friend he would be to ask his girlfriend to do this on what is essentially a very big day. So I said it was okay, although I reserved the right to needle him about it for a few weeks. I didn't really do that, although he did - without my asking - give me the full skinny on what he talked about with her.<br>
<br>
So that is the closest I have been to reacting with jealousy at all of our entire time together. And, yes, I did meet Pam the following year, just as he'd promised. He's a wonderful man, and he thinks I'm wonderful for 1. not trying to change him and 2. not being at all jealous of anything he says or does. In fact, he knows that I love him for being in love with all women, thinking all women are wonderful.<br>
<br>
And so are men!</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-25166795170907823722014-12-03T14:23:00.000-05:002014-12-04T14:38:19.651-05:00A Song A Day - Wonderful Night<div style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Yeh, yeh yeh yeh yeh</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Uhm hmm hm hm</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Everybody can see</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Go ahead and release</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You know the music search engine need a tuneup</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Soon as they out the gate they all a wanna hear da corner, uh-huh</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Well that was cool but now but then I heard a rumor, uh-huh</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Your crew was ridin' for the White Cliffs of Dover</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Uh let me tell ya how we do it in California</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We'll have you on the run just like a puma</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
If it don't move us</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Ain't paid ya dues and it ain't gonna get our roosers</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We gonna lose ya to the consumer solution c'mon</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Girl I want it you got it</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Your body's like a narcotic</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
The thought is auto-erotic</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Can I get it on credit</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
I guess your brick-house I'll bet it</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Take it as far as you'll let it</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
That the spot will get hot</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
That its ready to pop</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Don't even look at the clock</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
All of your problems forgotten</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's time to rock till you drop</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Feel the force and just flock</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
To the epicenter of the party's bass drummers c'mon</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We gonna stimulate your mind</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Everybody's high</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Eyes just like a child</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Everything feels right</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Once you've seen the light</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You're gonna move all night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Feel your soul ignite</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Everything feels right, right, riggggggggghht</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We live the masterful life that's mythical</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Feel its chords and its vibes atypical</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Do what you want</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's alright this mystical time you've got</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
That's a lot of this principle</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
If you stay in this moments so critical</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Let the music change your brain stem's chemicals</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Make you feel like your spirit's invincible</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Force centrifugal reaching up to your pinnacle now</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We rock like Colorado</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You're at it throwin' bottles</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We give a fuck about who your status</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Who you are tomorrow</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Whether you beg or borrow</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Or hit the super lotto</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Whether your girl look like a minga or a supermodel</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Feel the connectedness, energy, disprojected the weighted</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
The whole collective consciousness</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Arise like helium oh</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Groovin' out of the question</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Won't disrespect him, but</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Our styles fuckin' pouch like Dave Beckham c'mon</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;">Come on and break it on down</span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">The truth I'm at 'em and rough 'em</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
As hard as the granite get</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Never hesitant upon a mic strike, quick</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Like an avalanche</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Hijack ya like a Comanche</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
I'm a man on a mission</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Rhyme vigilante</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Keep all the jealous and the envious antsy</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
Love to do the club though with the party people dancin' uh-huh</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
And set the mood for all the plottin' and romancin' uh-huh</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">It's a wonderful night</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
We've got the answer c'mon</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta take it from me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Come on and break it on down</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">It's a wonderful night</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
You've gotta shake it for me</div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
It's a wonderful night</div>
</span></span><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Come on and break it on down</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Lyrics by FatBoy Slim</i></span></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-65328293464624334642014-12-02T16:17:00.000-05:002014-12-04T14:49:37.087-05:00A Song A Day - Alone<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">I was there when you needed me most</span><br />
<div>
<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_5480b403bce745671350191" style="display: inline;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
I was there when you wanted me least<br />
I was your father, your son and your holy ghost and priest</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Through your failings and success<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><br />Through your losses and gains<br />I didn’t see much happiness or pain</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
I couldn’t save your soul<br />
I couldn’t even take you home<br />
I couldn’t feel at home<br />
Alone</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I saw you at your best<br />
I knew you at your worst<br />
I couldn’t tell if you were blessed or cursed<br />
There’s a thin grey line between the black and the white<br />
It’s evidently hard to find the night</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I couldn’t save your soul<br />
I couldn’t even take you home<br />
I couldn’t play that role<br />
Alone</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Now it’s too…<br />
Too late for words that should’ve have been said<br />
Long ago</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I was there when you needed me most<br />
I was there when you wanted me least<br />
I was your father, your son and your holy ghost and priest</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I couldn’t save your soul<br />
I couldn’t even take you home<br />
I couldn’t fill that hole<br />
Alone</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>Dedicated to Luis, for filling that hole, that space. I love you more than you know.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>Lyrics by Depeche Mode</i></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-87234168073771201172014-12-01T14:05:00.000-05:002014-12-04T14:12:29.134-05:00A Song A Day - Keep the Streets Empty for Me<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Memory comes when memory's old </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I am never the first to know </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Following the stream up North </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Where do people like us float </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">There is room in my lap </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">For bruises, asses, handclaps </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I will never disappear </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">For forever, I'll be here </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Whispering </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me</span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I'm laying down, eating snow </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">My fur is hot, my tongue is cold </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">On a bed of spider web </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I think of how to change myself </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">A lot of hope in a one man tent </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">There's no room for innocence </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Take me home before the storm </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Velvet mites will keep us warm </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Whispering </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Morning, keep the streets empty for me</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"> </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Uncover our heads and reveal our souls </span><br style="border: 0px none; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">We were hungry before we were born</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><i>Song by Fever Ray</i></span></span>EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-58341531631709436712014-11-29T22:08:00.001-05:002014-11-29T22:11:53.684-05:00Living In NOAA's Prediction of an Active 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season<div style="text-align: justify;">
When went to NOAA's Web site just now, there it was: the article I'd been waiting for. That article pronouncing NOAA's thoughts on the upcoming 2013 Hurricane Season. It was there as the first item up out of several choices, unsurprisingly - a lot of us are deeply affected by this. I was thinking about it not long before, as it is windy today, quite a bit so. And it is late May - hurricane season begins 1 June.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So here is the article:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">In its 2013 Atlantic hurricane season outlook issued today, </span><a href="http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/" style="background-color: white; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px;">NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"> is forecasting an active or extremely active season this year.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">For the six-month hurricane season, which begins June 1, NOAA’s Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook says there is a 70 percent likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 7 to 11 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher).</span></span></div>
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</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">These ranges are well above the seasonal average of 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"></span></span>
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</div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">“With the devastation of Sandy fresh in our minds, and another active season predicted, everyone at NOAA is committed to providing life-saving forecasts in the face of these storms and ensuring that Americans are prepared and ready ahead of time.” said <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/sullivan.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D.</a>, NOAA acting administrator. “As we saw first-hand with Sandy, it’s important to remember that tropical storm and hurricane impacts are not limited to the coastline. Strong winds, torrential rain, flooding, and tornadoes often threaten inland areas far from where the storm first makes landfall.”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;">
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Three climate factors that strongly control Atlantic hurricane activity are expected to come together to produce an active or extremely active 2013 hurricane season. These are:</span></div>
<ul style="background-color: white;">
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A continuation of the atmospheric climate pattern, which includes a strong west African monsoon, that is responsible for the ongoing era of high activity for Atlantic hurricanes that began in 1995; </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Warmer-than-average water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea; and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">El Niño is not expected to develop and suppress hurricane formation.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">“This year, oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the Atlantic basin are expected to produce more and stronger hurricanes,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “These conditions include weaker wind shear, warmer Atlantic waters and conducive winds patterns coming from Africa."</span><span style="line-height: 1.4em;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 1.4em;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 1.4em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">NOAA’s seasonal hurricane outlook is not a hurricane landfall forecast; it does not predict how many storms will hit land or where a storm will strike. Forecasts for individual storms and their impacts will be provided throughout the season by NOAA’s </span><a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em;">National Hurricane Center</a><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">New for this hurricane season are improvements to forecast models, data gathering, and the National Hurricane Center communication procedure for post-tropical cyclones. In July, NOAA plans to bring online a new supercomputer that will run an upgraded Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model that provides significantly enhanced depiction of storm structure and improved storm intensity forecast guidance.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Also this year, Doppler radar data will be transmitted in real time from <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/features/03_protecting/hurricanehunterstory_2012.html" style="font-weight: bold;">NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft</a>. This will help forecasters better analyze rapidly evolving storm conditions, and these data could further improve the HWRF model forecasts by 10 to 15 percent.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The <a href="http://www.weather.gov/" style="font-weight: bold;">National Weather Service</a> has also made changes to allow for hurricane warnings to remain in effect, or to be newly issued, for storms like Sandy that have become post-tropical. This flexibility allows forecasters to provide a continuous flow of forecast and warning information for evolving or continuing threats.</span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">“The start of hurricane season is a reminder that our families, businesses and communities need to be ready for the next big storm,” said Joe Nimmich, FEMA associate administrator for Response and Recovery. “Preparedness today can make a big difference down the line, so update your family emergency plan and make sure your emergency kit is stocked. Learn more about how you can prepare for hurricane season at</span><a href="http://www.ready.gov/hurricanes" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em;">www.ready.gov/hurricanes.</a><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">” </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="line-height: 1.4em;"></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.4em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">Next week, May 26 - June 1, is National Hurricane Preparedness Week. To help those living in hurricane-prone areas prepare, NOAA is offering hurricane preparedness tips, along with video and audio public service announcements in both English and Spanish, featuring NOAA hurricane experts and the FEMA administrator at </span><a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em;">www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/</a><span style="line-height: 1.4em;">.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">NOAA’s outlook for the <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130523_hurricaneoutlook_easternpacific.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Eastern Pacific</a> basin is for a below-normal hurricane season and the <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130521_hurricaneoutlook_centralpacific.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Central Pacific basin</a> is also expected to have a below-normal season. NOAA will issue an updated outlook for the Atlantic hurricane season in early August, just prior to the historical peak of the season.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on<a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/exit.html?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fusnoaagov" style="font-weight: bold;">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/exit.html?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fnoaa" style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter</a> and our other <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/socialmedia" style="font-weight: bold;">social media channels</a>."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.9em; text-align: justify;">
Well. There it is, folks.<br />
<br />
<i>Happily, we did not end up living in this.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The fact is that NOAA called it all wrong and this was the first hurricane season since 1994 to NOT produce any strong hurricanes. We personally love to hear, see and read this; not because NOAA was wrong, but because we really did not want any kind of terrible or strong hurricanes to show up and screw up our yards, electricity or shopping experience. Do you have any idea what ridiculous lengths we had to go to get milk for our household? Yeah. Miles and miles of driving to get our hands on a quart of bloody milk! And us with a grocery store literally right across the street! But they lost power for 32 days, so it was around three months before they could open up again. Crazy.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Still, that is good news. And this year's hurricane season has the same resounding "splat" to it, as well. We like that, too!</i></div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-59707178939071383382014-11-29T22:01:00.001-05:002014-11-29T22:01:16.842-05:00Living in MasterChef - Outdoors Drama, Indoors Dessert Killer<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dum, da-da-dum... DUM DA-DUM DUM DUM DUUUUUM!</div>
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Yes, I'm back with more exciting MasterChef news, this time from 24 July's Episode "Top 8 Complete" - such exciting names, don't you think? I don't, but maybe that is just me. I like the title I gave it and have faith that left to one of the three judges (or all three of the judges) that this would be great! I guess it is easier to fall back on these life-less titles, however, than to go for more enticing ones.</div>
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The cooks now have to spend a night outside and come up with a dish based on what is outside and what few ingredients they get and tools as well. They get a choice of rabbit or pigeon (cough...), some vegetables. For utensils, they get one camping knife, one flint for lighting fires, one iron skillet, and a wooden spoon.</div>
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Bri and Natasha are team captains. Bri has first pick and went for James. Natasha picked Jordan; Bri, Eddie; then Natasha selected Jessie. This leaves Krissi and Luca. Gordon said this is familiar territory, Krissi being last picked again. Krissi had her feathers in a huff but just said that given a choice, she'd rather go with Natasha because she hates Bri. This is strange to me, as she hates Natasha as well. I'm not sure when Bri got higher ranking than Natasha for fellow-contestant-most-hated, but she did. Krissi stated then that it had to do with being lead by a vegetarian, a weak excuse, as Bri was a fairly confident and keen ability to cook proteins, even if she did not eat them.</div>
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Just to drive them crazy, Gordon changed the team's captains. Now Bri is stuck with Krissi. SIGH. He's right, though, one cannot do this without cooking with all. Bri's team now had to pick their main course - Bri's team went for the three rabbits; Natasha's team gets the pigeons. More power to them. I don't think I'd eat either comfortably. And then along with this lovely entree, each gets some quail eggs, potatoes, carrots, a teensy bit of cooking oil, and a few spices. No electricity, no running water, no utensils outside of those listed above. What joy. Quite frankly, they were given to much. They'd not have had an easy time finding any of those items - especially the cooking oil! - out there.</div>
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Bri comes up with the insane idea of making pasta to go with braised rabbit! Pasta! Goodness me... that is ballsy - making pasta from quail eggs and flour. Braised ragu rabbit with pasta. Yow. On the other hand, the blue team roasted a pigeon and when Joe asked what kind of dish they were making, they stuttered and stammered and had <i>nothing</i>. That was amazing! Not a thing.<br />
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<i>Yes, same issue. I put this mooch work into it and no more. I guess I ran out of steam, which happens all too easily these days.</i></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-19295679379676993912014-11-29T21:58:00.001-05:002014-11-29T21:58:24.075-05:00Living in The Castle at Skylands Manor<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not yet, but this weekend I will be!</div>
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Luis is so wonderful. He knows that I am crushed about not being able to get to the New York Renaissance Festival now that my car is totaled, so he is taking me there and we are going to stay in the Castle at Skylands Manor Saturday through Monday. I'm thrilled, just delighted, and he knows he is making me very, very happy. I need to get out of the house.<br />
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<i>There really isn't enough of this to make it oath posting, but I am anyway: as a testament to just how much I love my man!</i></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-10147451702217167222014-11-29T21:55:00.001-05:002014-11-29T21:55:54.020-05:00Knocked out the Park - the 2013-14 Telly Hit<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every year in September, we go through the "let's load up the TiVO with 50,000 new telly shows" game, that I intensely dislike, and Luis loves. I have my handful of favourite telly shows; that is all I need to be happy. I am not thrilled when the good ones are yanked off the air - which seems to happen all too frequently without my <i>express</i> approval - and yet they keep the lowest common denominator shows on forever. It irks me to no end.</div>
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But every season I end up getting sucked into a show or two, despite my best efforts to dig my heels in and go kicking and screaming into them. This season, the show I was least likely to watch suddenly shifted into high gear and I watched it - all of the first four episodes, with just one more remaining. Is the suspense killing you? Sure it it... but here goes: <i>Almost Human</i>.</div>
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Now, I was dead-set against it for two reasons: it had that depressing and weird futuristic feel that far too many shows have these days; and I was constantly confusing this with another depressing and futuristic and much too dark show, <i>Tomorrow People</i>. This is a show to avoid at all costs - it was so dark, no sense of humour and too hard to follow. But this is not what I am here to pass along to you.</div>
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<i>Almost Human</i> opens with a police action gone wrong. Keith Urban, a 41-year-old actor who looks too good for this line of work, is an officer named John Kennex who is in charge of a team of men, all of whom are killed. He loses his right leg, but in 2048, this is a minor injury (!). However, the bad guys are out and about en masse and the police force needs him back now.</div>
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The premise is that technology has gone amok and the criminal element has gone haywire with its use, which is not so different than now, but it has gotten so out of hand here that all human officers are paired with androids that look human, although it is obvious that they haven't the right "feel" to them; but John is unable to get on well with the MX series. The MX series is clearly not human but looks right, if you can get past the monotone voice, the fact that they all look the same and that they are designated by a number, not a name. So in the first ten minutes of the show, John is paired with 745 (I think), who couldn't keep his mouth shut and John pushed him out the door on the highway in front of an oncoming truck. Goodbye, 745.</div>
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John returns to the station to be informed he cannot go solo and he cannot go with another non-human. Rules is rules and you must suck it up and follow them. So he finds the geek guy, Rudy, who works solely on the androids and is told that there are no more MX series androids, so he will be getting the DRN, an old series that has been phased out for being too human (sort of in the same vein as Data from <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation, </i>the DRN series has a emotion chip or subroutine to give them that human touch). This particular one is named Dorian, a good solid Irish name (not that anyone asked me), on a tall, attractive black gentleman with the most lovely blue-grey-freen eyes I have ever seen. It appears that the gene pool is definitely getting some wonderful hiccups in it - dark skin and hair with light eyes is a stunning combination, and eyes of this nature are hard not to take a good, long look.<br />
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<i>Again, this is an old post, so it ends here, and this is it, Unfortunately, this wonderful show was cancelled on 3 March 2014. Pitiful. Another special note: Keith Urban is the gentleman who played Dr. "Bones" Leonard McCoy in the two newest Star Trek films, with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. I hope we see all of them in more telly and/or film mediums.</i></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-12301932951171822322014-11-29T15:09:00.000-05:002014-11-29T21:31:54.678-05:00Living in MasterChef - Let the BloodLetting Start!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>I wrote this on 6 September of 2013, but even though I reset the date here, the damned thing set it today's date. Unreal.</i><br />
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Well. Four contestants left. This is a two-hour episode, so we will kill off one contestant in the first hour and the next at the end of the second hour. The new season of shows will be starting all too soon, so this week and next will be the end of the show. They are currently filming the contestant efforts for the 2014 season, as we have seen the ads for the different cities they will be touring to get new participants.</div>
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Now, they show a few minutes of the last episode, then give a quick snapshot of the upcoming episode. Very often they take things out of context, but this time, I think Krissy is actually threatening Jesse. We'll see.</div>
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The way this will play out seems rather obvious to me. There are two mystery boxes, so it is a safe bet that with four people left, it will be teams of two. This means that the winner from the last episode will get first pick for a teammate: Luca. Luis and I paused this and conferred and agreed that if we were Luca, we would pick Natasha as our teammate and leave Jesse to be killed by Krissi, who is the worst team player of all time. (That sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn't - there have been some truly abysmal players, but at one time or another, they put aside their problems to make a cohesive team. Krissy would not know where to start. It seems that she is perfectly comfortable killing her own chances to win just to screw someone else; and most of the time, she just goes crazy, gets all angry and worked up over nothing, and loses interest in performing. She still hasn't figured out that this will not get her anywhere - that this is the reason (a huge part of it) that she keeps ending up in pressure tests for elimination. While it is to her credit that she has survived as long as she has without getting killed off in an elimination round, she still doesn't realise that she is doing this to herself. I also hate to think the lessons her son is getting, but that is another story.</div>
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The boxes contain enough to make a MasterChef, restaurant style three course meal: appetizer, entree and dessert. This is standard at this point. Luca is the winner with two Mystery Box wins. Luca said it's a no-brainer that he won't pick Krissy (of course - who would?); he did what Luis and I thought he would and selected Natasha. Good man. Jesse in the one-to-one interviews that are interlaced with the competitions, said, "Worst nightmare just happened right before my eyes. I'm stuck... with "The Thing". She does't work with others - at all. Like she has no concept of the word 'team'." We howled with laughter at that. And we agreed we would both have done the same.</div>
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Both teams are conferring to come up with ideas for dishes. Krissy comes up with greens with lobster meat and fry an oyster on top for garnish. Jesse kills it, saying she can't "see it". Quite frankly, neither can I. A fried oyster as garnish? The whole thing sounds so unappealing. And Jesse knows it. Krissy then steams a little while agreeing to Jesse's idea for an appetizer. Then Krissy wants to do this appetizer: raw asparagus with a vinaigrette. No. I agree with killing this off as well. And Krissy tries to do the lobster salad but Gordon tastes the dressing for the lobster and says it doesn't taste nice. Heh, heh, heh. We laughed at this.</div>
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Both of them are going to be in trouble with the dessert.</div>
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It is obvious that Krissy and Jesse are not a cohesive team. And Krissi isn't able to cook any of these dishes. Jesse tells Krissy how to make a crepe, and Krissy tells Jesse she is uncomfortable with the crepes. Jesse said to her, "Babe, you abandoned me on the lobster, so you have gotta pick something you can cook." Krissy is furious: she tells the camera in those one-on-one bits, "What did you just say to me, bitch?!" Here we go again. She's all pissed off and can't handle it. She has the worst anger-management issues I have ever seen. She is a one-woman nightmare. I have no idea why she is so unstable, but she is. Then, as if we weren't aghast at her comments, she said, "I'm literally gonna take this hot pan and smash her in the face wit' it." How delightful - educated and nice; what a talent you are.</div>
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Jesse continues cooking and Krissy leaves the kitchen, saying that she has to leave or she will be going to jail today. I would have loved to see security show up and cart her off to jail, but no, she ends up bailing out. She left Jesse to cook all by herself. Well. If this doesn't guarantee her getting kicked out, nothing will.</div>
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Jesse is cooking her ass off and is searing the lamb as it isn't cooked enough - Krissy is still in the pantry, trying to calm down. She finally goes back with just a minute or so to go. She's really valueless at this point, but Jesse manages to get it all done.</div>
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Blue team goes up first and shows a strange looking seafood salad, but while it isn't well-plated or attractive, it is tasty. The lamb dinner is much better, although again, not well plated. The dessert is an issue. And shockingly, Natasha whispers to Luca that she is sorry about the dessert. We are shocked - we have never heard her apologise for anything!</div>
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Jesse told Joe what the appetizer was and said that Krissy did the original vinaigrette, but she changed it. Krissy admits she did not know that the vinaigrette was different. Joe loves it, and Krissy takes the fall for it. Gordon criticized Krissy for leaving. She deserved it. And Jesse did it all.everything. I'm so proud of her. And Gordon said the lamb is fantastic, she nailed it. Krissy had nothing to do with it, as well, so this gets her again.</div>
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The judges leave to confer and the teams wait. It is obvious to us that the red team won't win, but still - Jesse did a hell of a job. Sure enough, the Blue team gets it. Natasha let out an ear-splitting shriek, Luca hugs her (and here, we are so unimpressed with Natasha. She has the worst body language in the world. She did not hug Luca back and she looked away. It was awful). Then the teams separate, and Jesse goes upstairs with Luca and Natasha, and tells them what really happened. Then Krissy goes up there to tell Jesse off, what a moron. The only bitch here is Krissy. But on the other hand, Jesse is excited to be in the pressure test to kick Krissy's ass. And we - myself and Luis - are excited for her. We want to see Krissy sent home.</div>
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Jesse shows up in a dress and high heels and is just gorgeous. Krissy is still the angry overweight woman carrying around a grudge against everyone else. I termed it in the first post I did: fat woman's attitude. She is just bitter, bitter, bitter. But they are both smiling at the thought of 75 minutes to make one chocolate mousse, one chocolate volcano and one chocolate soufflé. Krissy is a baker; but not all of this is just baking. She is not one to make high-end foods of any kind. But Jesse is the Queen of Time Management, she is neat, organised and has a plan. Krissy is overconfident and angry, and this is where I would have put into place my plan to overset her with sarcasm, something I am so much better. She just curses and gets angry.</div>
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Joe thinks Krissy is better, but it is obvious that Jesse is working a little faster and is more organised. I'm thrilled. We're both betting on Jesse. I suspect everyone is betting on her, really.</div>
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And sure enough, after a conference, they give Krissy the axe! Luis and I are cheering like mad, and Jesse is thrilled. Krissy begins crying, but we don't feel a bit of sympathy for The Beast. We know she says she is doing this for her son, but we just are not feeling the love.</div>
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Here is an article that substantiates what I have been saying all along:</div>
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'MasterChef': It's bye, bye, Beast, as final two emerge</h1>
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Whew! The "MasterChef" finale came mighty close to including the most reviled competitor in show history. Instead, the final two competitors standing will include the<em>second-</em>most disliked competitor of the season, Natasha Crnjac, a 26-year-old homemaker from San Diego.</div>
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Now, Natasha will face off with Luca Manfe, a 31-year-old restaurant manager from New York City, he with the charming accent and the never-give-up story line. His first stab at "MasterChef" was a failure, but he came back for more and fought his way into the finale by absorbing every polishing note the judges hand him.</div>
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But will it be enough to pull past Natasha, whose multicultural background has seemingly given her the dazzling ability to cook across an array of cuisines -- while teetering on stilettos?</div>
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If it comes down to calculated cooking chops and flat-out shrewdness, Natasha has this won.</div>
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Let's not forget, after all, that this is the woman who needed a garlic handout from a fellow competitor just a few short challenges ago, yet refused to pay it forward when Jessie needed some butter this week because, hey, a competition is a competition, right?</div>
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Or will Luca bring the most heart to the finale and edge her out? (Luca being the guy who gave Natasha some of his garlic when she needed it, and also gave Jessie the needed butter. He has said repeatedly he wants to cook his way to the top, not win by trying to submarine someone else. Awwwwww.)</div>
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Winnowing the field down to the final two was a decision nearly overshadowed by the other "news" of the night: The elimination of The Beast.</div>
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When Krissi roared into "MasterChef" competition, she seemed like an instant fan favorite. She was a struggling single mom who tawked Philly tough and cooked homey, rustic dishes that reminded Joe Bastianich of his momma's cooking. (No small compliment, given that his mother is Italian cooking legend Lidia Bastianich.)</div>
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Krissi's food might not look as if it belonged in a five-star restaurant -- but you'd certainly like to see it on your dinner plate. As a result, it was easy to envision Krissi using "MasterChef" as a launching pad, a platform, for helping moms and dads nationwide who love cooking yet still feel overwhelmed by the daily dinner-time dash.</div>
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And, who knows, that can still happen.</div>
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It's just that much harder when you've transformed yourself into the most hated contestant in "MasterChef" history, and earned a nickname The Beast.</div>
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Krissi is either as ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, hypocritical and self-absorbed as she appeared on TV -- or she was playing it up for the cameras, knowing that's one sure way to get camera time? Either way, Krissi proved to be such an unlikable personality that it became hard to root for her, even though her cooking skills were standout and her son was as cute as a button.</div>
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It made for good TV, sure, but who is the ultimate beneficiary of that when the season wraps?</div>
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What do you think? Too harsh of an assessment of Krissi? Will she be able to leverage this beyond local Philly stardom?</div>
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Krissi's departure was quickly followed by Jessie's elimination, leaving Luca and Natasha as the final two standing. Natasha was thrust into the early role as the show's villainess, in part because she enjoyed pointing out how pretty she is and how talented she is, and generally being high on herself.</div>
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Like Krissi, Natasha seems to enjoy playing the baddie -- but is she winning the battle and losing the war? America, do you want her to be your new "MasterChef"?</div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-44859847219731425742014-11-27T21:36:00.002-05:002014-11-29T21:30:28.056-05:00Interesting Aftermath a From Season Five of "MasterChef"<div>
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Do I agree with this?</div>
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You will have to read it first and decide for yourself. I had long since made up my mind before finding this article.</div>
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<a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2014/masterchef-season-5-fixed-courtney-lapresi-preferential-treatment-former-stripper-favoritism/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none;" title="MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Won Finale After Getting Preferential Treatment – Former Stripper Favoritism"><span style="color: black;"><b>MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Won Finale After Getting Preferential Treatment – Former Stripper Favoritism</b></span></a><br />
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<article class="post-146328 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-gossip category-masterchef category-reality-tv category-television tag-courtney-lapresi tag-masterchef-season-5 gossip masterchef reality-tv television" id="post-146328" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 5px 5px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BY <a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/author/stormytime/" style="text-decoration: none;">STORMY ELIZABETH</a> ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2014</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/wp-content/uploads/Courtney_Lapresi_masterchef_fixed.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Won Finale After Getting Preferential Treatment - Former Stripper Favoritism" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-146330" src="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/wp-content/uploads/Courtney_Lapresi_masterchef_fixed.jpg" height="320" style="border: 1px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); clear: both; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 450px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: middle;" title="MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Won Finale After Getting Preferential Treatment - Former Stripper Favoritism" width="213" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"They say if you can’t take the heat, you should get out of the kitchen, but what if you like it hot? If you’ve been watching <a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2014/masterchef-recap-9814-season-5-episode-16-top-4-compete/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">MasterChef this season 5</a>, you may have noticed that one contestant in particular seems to <a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2014/masterchef-recap-9114-season-5-episode-15-top-6-compete/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">be “winning” challenges</a> when her dishes don’t seem to be quite up to it. <span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Courtney Lapresi</span> has been billed as an “aerial dancer” on the show. So what exactly is that, you ask? It’s a fancy word for stripper. You may term what she does as burlesque, but nekked is nekked and she takes off her <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD11" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">clothes</span> when she dances, so you have to call them as you see them.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Plus is it really fair that she’s up for a MasterChef win after she’s already won a major award in 2013? That’s right, <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD4" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">Courtney</span> aka Winter (her stripper name) won Entertainer of the Year for 2013 at Delilah’s Gentlemen’s Club and Steakhouse the club where she works. Click here <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD2" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">to check</span> out their <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD1" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">gallery</span> and go to page two of the <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD3" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">images</span> to see Courtney <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD5" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">complete with</span> a sash and crown for her win. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Notice the stripper poles behind her. When I think legit aerial dancer, I think Cirque de Soleil, not boobs out on a pole. One’s art and one’s something else entirely. But got to give her props for being a top stripper…</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Two contestants this year have mentioned out loud that Courtney has been shown favoritism by judges <span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gordon Ramsay</span>, <span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Graham Elliot</span> and <span style="border: 0px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joe Bastianich</span>. And that’s only two comments that have made it to air. And, interestingly, after each of the comments, they’ve done something to temporarily set her back (but not get her eliminated) to balance these out. So the question is, are all three judges in on this thing or is it one judge in particular who has his eye on the clothing-challenged aerial artist turned cook?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Here’s a quick run down of the (alleged) favoritism</span>:</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 2 – Courtney wins the mystery box challenge and gets a big advantage.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 3 – Courtney got off the hook in the pressure test.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 4 – Ahran openly accused the judges of bias in Court’s favor. Courtney ends up in the bottom three as if to counteract the accusation but is then (of course) saved.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 5 – Courtney’s team wins the challenge.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 6 – Courtney wins the elimination challenge and gets another big advantage.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 7 – She doesn’t have to cook based on her win in episode 6, advancing her another round.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 8 – She’s on the winning restaurant team.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 9 – She’s in top three in mystery box, heavily praised in elimination challenge, sent to safety.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 10 – She’s on the winning challenge team.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 11 – Courtney wins elimination test, gets to be team captain in next episode.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 12 – Her team loses by a slim margin and faces a pressure test but the judges encourage her to save herself instead of participating in the pressure test. She does and is safe for the next round (even though as captain, the loss was on her totally).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 13 – Praised by judges and saved from three part pressure test.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 14 – Courtney wins mystery box again and Elizabeth says the judges are showing blatant favoritism to Courtney – she got to pick teams to set others up for failure.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 15 – They couldn’t save her. She screwed up gnocchi then took over as team captain and screwed that up (showing just how mediocre she really is) so she went into pressure test where she was (of course) praised and saved in the pressure test.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 16 – They flew in Courtney’s little brother for the aww factor – the only person who didn’t get to bring an adult and you know he was coached to say mac n cheese to set her up for a great dish – she didn’t win but was safe in second place. In the elimination challenge she got the testicles and seemed to handle these well (almost as if she’s had experience, wink, wink) and of course won yet again.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Episode 17 – Courtney gets to pick teams and then her team won by sucking slightly less than the other but it was her that dragged Elizabeth down. She’s in the top three.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All in all, it’s a pretty impressive season for someone with no culinary background that cooks in six inch stripper heels and always has a smile for the judges (maybe one in particular).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All three judges have been accused of intense sexual <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD7" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">harassment</span> of female MasterChef contestants in a recent lawsuit. Season four contestant Marie Porter said a female contestant in her season was “sexually harassed by the judges to the point she had her lawyers get her edited out of the show completely.” And Carrie Stevens, also from Season four says, “Marie is reporting facts. I witnessed it.” A couple from Kitchen Nightmares accused Gordon Ramsay of sexually harassing the wife. And randy Ramsay has cheated on his wife multiple times according to the Herald Sun and News of the World reports in the UK and Australia.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/wp-content/uploads/masterchef-rigged.jpg" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Getting Preferential Treatment - Former Stripper Favoritism?" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-146329" src="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/wp-content/uploads/masterchef-rigged.jpg" height="320" style="border: 1px solid rgb(34, 34, 34); clear: both; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 450px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: middle;" title="MasterChef Season 5 Fixed: Courtney Lapresi Getting Preferential Treatment - Former Stripper Favoritism?" width="213" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Here’s a pic from Courtney’s MasterChef twitter feed showing her in legit dancing gear where she writes “#flashbackfriday to when was studying Ballet @UArts #balletmajor. I went from the #performingarts to #culinaryarts.” She skipped the step where she indulged in the #stripperarts. She said on last night’s episode that she hasn’t seen her little brother Cooper in a year – is he being kept away from her because of her work in erotic dancing?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also of interest is that Courtney <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD10" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">performs</span> in a stripper group based on The Spice Girls where she performs as Posh Spice (aka Victoria Beckham). Becks and Ramsay are great friends, but if Ramsay is fooling around with Courtney, does he ask her to wear her Posh gear so he can pretend he’s rolling around with his best mate’s wife. That’s so not a recipe for a <span class="IL_AD" id="IL_AD12" style="background-attachment: scroll !important; background-image: none !important; background-position: 0% 50% !important; background-repeat: repeat repeat !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(3, 163, 3) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; cursor: pointer !important; display: inline !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline;">good friendship</span> Gordon!</span></div>
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<i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So the real questions here are: </i></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Is Courtney getting blatant favoritism (I say yes).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Is Courtney basking in rather than being offended by sexual attention from the judges (I say likely).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Is Courtney enjoying the attention of one specific judge whose name rhymes with handsy (I say could be).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Will Courtney win MasterChef? (I say even if she doesn’t win, Gordon or one of the other MasterChef judges may find a “position” for her in one of their kitchens).</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Update: as we predicted Courtney Lapresi was handed victory by the apparently biased judging in her favor – people <a href="http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2014/masterchef-recap-91514-season-5-finale-top-3-compete-winner-chosen/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">who watched the finale episode</a> agreed that based on the food Courtney didn’t deserve to win this competition. What do you think?"</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">My answer:</span></div>
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"I have to agree with Rockdaisy [another commenter]. Having watched every episode of MasterChef, every season, I didn't find the judges to be biased in Courtney's case. I didn't care for Courtney myself, but it had nothing to do with her former career or her cooking. She proved herself to be a perfectly capable cook. The reasons listed for their alleged favouritism was not unique to this season or any of the episodes: many people are given the opportunity to save their own butts, many are given the opportunity to set up teams that will fail by the person who won the event and the huge advantage; that is the set-up of the show. Nothing is different here.</div>
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I also cannot abide the idea that any of these men were harassing the contestants. Know who you are slamming. The couple mentioned in the episode of <i>Kitchen Nightmares</i> were known for attempting a bunch of sleazy tries to make money, including fraud. None of the judges are stupid enough to piss on the income they're making by so thoughtless a move.</div>
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I find it offensive that anyone makes commentary on being a stripper and/or aerial dancer. I have seen aerial dancers; it is a wonderful form of art and dancing. And my mother was a go-go dancer when I was young, and stripper falls into that heading. I will be the first to say that my mother was beautiful, much more so than Courtney, with her long, narrow face, tortilla chip nose, almost non-existent cheek bones, but clearly beauty is not the only requirement for every kind of dancing. And my mother was married to my father throughout her dancing career, so don't assume anything you know nothing about. Being a stripper doesn't make a man or woman a slut, it makes them gainfully employed and pulling in more money than you can easily imagine.</div>
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No, I wasn't a fan of Courtney's - I intensely disliked her smart-ass remarks, her looking down on others, her general attitude. I never understood why she dressed like Donna Reed - the pouffy 50s dresses and killer heels (at least Elizabeth had the sense to wear sensible shoes when the finale was on), and the too-red lipstick. The falsetto voice got on my nerves. And she wasn't a gracious winner and a very poor loser, on those occasions when she did not place number one.</div>
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However, Elizabeth wasn't a gracious winner <i>or</i> loser, so where does that leave us?</div>
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But it was incredibly obvious that she knew how to cook - not just how to cook, but how to improvise, explore, try new things. Cooking in and of itself is not about the pinch of this and pound of that, it is the ability to open oneself up to daring, to experimenting, to learning new things. Only baking is a rigid science in food preparation; cooking is daring to do the new and amazing. Courtney did just that.</div>
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Giving any credence whatever to a rag such as the "Herald Sun" is right up there with telling us you buy into every article printed in "The Enquirer". Please don't call yourself a researcher or writer if that is where you are finding your "information".</div>
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And lastly, a lot of this sounds like sour grapes to me. Unhappy, envious people who wish they could be winners.</div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-31101827468460821682014-11-26T21:12:00.000-05:002014-11-27T21:42:54.971-05:00The Worst People Sometimes Win<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>MasterChef</i> is interesting to watch - unlike <i>Hell's Kitchen</i>, they are pitting people who are home cooks against each other, instead of people who (purport to) have worked in a kitchen. (I tend to doubt it; and if they did, then either 1. it was the most dysfunctional kitchen extant, or 2. they lied utterly about their title or true position. Some of the Executive Chefs that come to the show are clearly not working at their title, not producing dishes that indicate they know anything about working in a kitchen.) What makes <i>MasterChef</i> unique is that these people have never had to cut their teeth on serving plates to 200 people or had to cook outside of their comfort zone. And some people actually come with some mighty strange ideas - ideas that they swear up and down worked with people they've cooked for... but clearly someone lied to them in telling the creator that it was delicious.</div>
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Quite frankly, if someone served me apple pie with onions in it, I might actually have to flip it back to them. How the poor guys on <i>MasterChef</i> managed to swallow the unappetising <i>stodge</i> served by that particular moron is beyond me. I never could have managed it, myself. Yet the contestant swore he's served it to others with astounding results. The only thing "astounding" about it was that no one actually killed him for serving something so inedible and unfathomably bad!</div>
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Well, despite finding home cooks to do this and join the show, they still pull off what every reality show manages to pull off: finding too many Type A personalities to fill the roster of contestants. It wouldn't be a reality show if the contestants didn't fight and fuss and not get along. Just once it would</div>
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be nice to see some people get along with each other on these shows from the outset. Or maybe they tell them to be loud, obnoxious, obstreperous and mouthy to "juice up" the show. Why not just let things take its natural course?</div>
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And why should the 2014 season be any different?</div>
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It doesn't take too long to recognise the asshats from the reasonable people. Usually fifteen to twenty minutes into the first episode you have twigged on to the fact that this one is nuts, that one is a megalomaniac, and the other one is the worst cook ever, and so referring to him or her as a "cook" is just wrong. This is not to mean that people don't and won't change throughout the show; they do, and that's as it should be. This is a big event for them, and not just for the $250,000 they win, but also for the verification of their ideals as being a top-notch chef and the lure of producing a cookbook (although it will be a long, long time before anyone can knock <i>The Joy of Cooking</i> from its very long-term position as numbero uno). The heavy, glitzy, glass award is the least on the list of goodies. While it makes a hellacious paperweight and might be an excellent weapon if someone breaks in (assuming you <i>can</i> heft it), it has little other value than to gather dust on it. And yet, the shows producers, the three top chefs, Chefs Gordon Ramsey, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot, the guests to the show and the other winners fuss over it. But let's be honest; when the winners were just contestants, it was the money they talked about with the most relish, the book a fairly close runner-up. But both of those bits are money or a great route to making [more] money. The big glass trophy is... well... just a big glass trophy.<br />
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This season introduced to us to several interesting people: Leslie Gillimas, a silver-harked man of about fifty(?) who is a stay-at-home father; Courtney Lapresi, a former stripper/aerial dancer who dresses like Donna Reed; Elizabeth, a well-liked cook with a poorest attitude. I didn't like Courtney, but Elizabeth clearly took a piss-poor attitude whenever Courtney won, which was a fair amount of the time. And yes, I did not at all care for Courtney's smarmy remarks, but was Elizabeth any more mature, rolling her eyes, making priss-mouthed comments back? Grow a brain, honey. You'd win far more bees with honey...<br />
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The finale was really something. First, all three remaining top chefs (Courtney, Leslie and Elizabeth) had to create a unique dish for fifty chefs, each representing their state. Courtney made pan-seared halibut, Elizabeth made pan-seared red snapper (?), and Leslie made filet mignon with gnocchi. (I was onboard with Leslie with that choice; gnocchi is not the easiest of pasta dishes to make and he made <i>fifty</i> of them! No mean feat.) Elizabeth won it, hands down, and was delighted as she walked through the line of fifty chefs, beaming. I can't blame her.<br />
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Keep this in mind when you read the post following this tomorrow: <a href="http://traislinge.blogspot.com/2014/11/interesting-aftermath-from-season-five.html">http://traislinge.blogspot.com/2014/11/interesting-aftermath-from-season-five.html</a> <ahref: http:="" interesting-aftermath-from-season-five.html="" traislinge.blogspot.com="">Interesting Aftermath form Season Five of <i>MasterChef</i></ahref:></div>
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After that, it was time for Leslie and Courtney to go up against each other in the final pressure test. This is standard <i>MasterChef</i> material: the contestants who did not win the first portion of the show had to do this to determine who was next to leave the show. It is an important part of the set-up. Mostly the winner of Part I got an extra advantage in setting up Part II; the losers were at a disadvantage anyway. Part II determined who was finished in the show. Desserts were a favourite for weeding out the losers, as many of the contestants were completely out of their comfort zones as bakers. As it happened, Courtney loved baking, so she was a natural choice for those events.</div>
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Interesting fact: when <i>MasterChef</i> first began, desserts were not on the menu at all. Sometime into the third season, they realised that desserts were an excellent way of levelling the playing field. So now they love to throw these lovely baking and/or dessert moments into the competition, knowing that the majority of people have not done this side of food making. For one thing, there is a lot of loose rules in cooking itself. In baking, it is a science, so one <i>must</i> know the ingredients and the exact measurements in the selected item. No exceptions.</div>
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So this was a great time to toss in one last baking effort for Courtney, a known baker, and Leslie, who might not be one, but has a knack for faking it well. They each had to make the same three desserts: one key lime pie, one strawberry cheesecake and one Boston Cream pie. Yikes!</div>
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They each set out to work, and despite a couple of small hitches, they looked rather good, although Leslie's strawberry cheesecake looked a little sparse on top (the strawberry topping) and Courtney's Boston Cream pie was sloughing out the sides. (We all saw Leslie use the baker's spreading tool to put on the cream nice and evenly. Courtney dumped hers unceremoniously onto the bottom portion of the pie. <i>Big</i> surprise.</div>
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Well, Leslie surely had it in the bag, until Gordon Ramey tasted his Boston Cream pie. Then he made an odd face, and quietly said, "Wow..." Now, I will tell you freely, dear readers, that this is not new for Chef Ramsey, nor is it easily translated. Sometimes "wow" means "Oh, my gods, this is <i>bloody</i> awesome" or it can translate into "Ye gods, what the hell did you <i>do</i> to this?!" - it keeps us guessing. And boy, were we guessing. Luis thought at first it was an issue, then changed his mind and said it was a good wow. I continued to feel it was ominous.</div>
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It was.</div>
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It really looked as though Leslie had this in the bag, and he would walk away to become the second one to enter the finale. But Gordon tasted his pie, uttered his wow, and that was it. Game over, and I knew it. Sure enough, Gordon asked Leslie to taste the pie. The moment, I meant he <i>very second</i> he put the piece of pie in his mouth, he closed his eyes as though in pain. And Chef Ramsey said, "You know what happened, don't you?" Leslie nodded, eyes downcast. As annoying as he was, I felt so poorly for him. So close, now miles away.</div>
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He put in salt instead of sugar.</div>
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This is a mistake <i>everyone</i> under the sun makes at some point or another. If you are a cook or baker with half a brain, you taste what you're making along the way, all along the way. If you are new to it or in a hurry and not thinking, you forget or don't think of it, and then at the finish, you do taste and yikes! it's awful. Big surprise. Ray's done it, my mother, who could only ever bake one thing: challah bread, made the same staggering error. I'd tasted it and nearly gagged. It is a tiny yet massive error that follows you everywhere.</div>
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And Chef Ramsey said the exact same thing. You'd better believe it. Like I said, every one has done this at one point. And it is an easy enough mistake to make. Anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't baked. (Neither have I, but I know a lot of people who do and I read enormously. I also watch this show. I get my knowledge all over the place, so it needn't necessarily be my own knowledge.</div>
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So there it is.</div>
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And then we're down to one. It was a two-hour finale and so we got through the first hour. Now we have hour no. two. It starts with Elizabeth and Courtney standing next to each other while the chefs run us through the finale and how it will work. We have seen the four first seasons, so we know how it will work. The two finalists will cook by one another - the "kitchen" is round, and one half is Courtney's and the other is Elizabeth's. They each tell the audience what they are making by way of describing their respective dishes to the chefs: one appetiser, one main course, one dessert. They eau supply one of each dish to the chefs. Then they taste it, give remarks to the chefs, and then rate them amongst themselves. From there, we'll know how it ends - pretty much.</div>
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First, we get the Reader's Digest condensed version of their lives; Elizabeth was an advertising executive, and Courtney was an aerial dancer/stripper at a gentleman's club, something she was very clearly embarrassed about. It explained the puritan clothing with the unbelievably high heels she wore. It also explained the money she rather badly needed, to support the shoe/clothing expenses. I'm not judging - I'm totally wasteful with money. I get it. But I have no kids and no plans to have 'em, so it is my money to piss away as I see fit. I don't understand her attitude about the dancing. It is nothing to be embarrassed about or ashamed of. My mother was a go-go dancer when she was age 30 to age 40 - she started the same age the majority of dancers "retire". I am immensely proud of her. So is Ray. She was <i>not</i> a whore, as too many uneducated and uptight people assume. She and Ray were able to support me and well with the income she made.</div>
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Know your skills and use them. And in this ridiculous society, don't be so sexually repressed.</div>
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Personally, Courtney was not much of a looker - huge tortilla chip nose, long, horsey face, but a good body. But the 1950s wear and her attitude about the whole thing really made it seem so much worse than it really is. Very stupid.</div>
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The chefs bring in the two finalists families' to give it the family fun taste and extra meaningful cheering for the contestants. Elizabeth is married and has siblings and parents there. Courtney, in her 50s-garage sale clothing, has her parent(s) and a brother who is around four or five years old. Apparently, they haven't been close, but he's there and was in an earlier episode, as well. The "aaawwww, isn't he cute?" factor. Too bad I am not particularly fond of children (re: I don't like them and they're not stupid - they don't like me, either!), so this would <i>never</i> work with me. Had they brought in someone's cat, then I'd be totally swayed; but no cat I know would want that. Neither would I. At any rate, an annoying kid was the last thing I would care about. One has to wonder how she was 25 and the kid was 5. Quite an age difference. Neither here nor there.</div>
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So Elizabeth made grilled octopus with greens and Courtney made pig's ear with greens. Elizabeth slightly overcooked the octopus; Courtney did well with a chancy dish like pig's ear (this had come up in an earlier episode - working with substandard and/or outright weird animal parts, including some animal's testicles...BBBRRRRRR). Technical errors are generally not looked upon well.</div>
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And then we're onto the main course. Elizabeth goes with spiced rack of lam; Courtney opts for sumac duck breast. Elizabeth lost out, falling behind and presenting Joe with a quite rare slice. Rare hough that I wouldn't have touched and would have remarked that I'd seen lamb hurt worse and recover. Nothing should be <i>that</i> red! Another losing proposition for Elizabeth.</div>
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Did I mention that she was a poor loser? Indeed I did. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, made nasty faces when the judges commented on Courtney's dishes being technically perfect, etc.. Get over it, honey. I don't particularly like Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes, either, but I can't fault her cooking, so Elizabeth is just going to have to grow up. Not that she'll have a chance now.</div>
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On the desserts, well, it is a different story. Elizabeth made an olive oil cake and grapefruit with a plum trio, while Courtney goes for cherry meringue - and loves doing it. While she is in fact, smart enough to taste her meringue, she eats one that - as it turns out - is needed. She forgot herself and ate one! While it tastes good, it is a mistake as the dishes look incomplete. Oh, well. Elizabeth clearly won this portion, and Courtney has to eat her shorts on this one, as not only does the dessert look terrible, losing points there, but it is over-salted. Joe remarks that this could be awful or brilliant, and decides in her favour; Graham goes with Joe; Gordon disagrees. I cross my fingers for Elizabeth, but know better. Luis votes for Courtney. I knew he would, though, he spent the entire season commenting on her legs. I love that man! He loves <i>all</i> women, and that makes him the best of men.</div>
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Unsurprisingly, she won.</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-47746398125181882772014-11-25T23:50:00.001-05:002018-03-11T18:20:56.868-04:00Ar an Ard - Deireadh Mó Siúcra<div style="text-align: justify;">
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That is Gaelic for "The Gift of Gourmet Sugar". I am the biggest sugar junkie you will ever meet. I don't drink alcohol, I don't inhale anything, I don't engage in the use of illegal drugs. The drugs I take legally, I dislike intensely. I don't eat fried foods of any kind. I don't care for cake, cookies (unless it is raw sugar-cookie dough - I like my raw cookie dough unencumbered with chocolate chips), heavy desserts. But man, I love, beyond all imagining, candy!</div>
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Unlike my mother and many, many others, I am not a chocholic. I tolerate chocolate, and occasionally like it as a part of something specific (chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered pretzels). I will never eat a Hersey's Bar for two big reasons: it is shit chocolate and it is heartlessly boring. Any true chocolate connoisseur would thumb his or her nose at the Hershey franchise, followed by almost anything on the supermarket shelf names. Chocolates that are of intermediate quality would be in the Cadbury range. Your better chocolates are Lindt, for example. Godiva? Yawn...</div>
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But my specialty is the serious cane. Chewy, hard, soft, whatever, I love that. My favourites include Smarties, Wacky Wafers (which I miss), Starburst, things like that. I try as many different ones as I can. I enjoy sweet flavours and I enjoy sour, as well. But of all the candies out there, none can compare with the wonderful, gourmet world of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.</div>
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You may poo-poo the idea of gourmet jelly beans but if you do, then it is terribly apparent that you have not tried Jelly Bellies. When I say gourmet, I mean it. Imagine the <i>pear</i> Jelly Belly. One tiny perfect pale green bean with small grey/black spots that weighs less than an ounce gives your mouth the perfect bite of an Bartlett pear with excellent, mouth-watering flavour.</div>
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Think of how good a truly foamy, strong cup of cappuccino tastes; eat the <i>cappuccino</i> Jelly Belly, and you are in the café of your choice, sipping that strong coffee.</div>
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Imagine yourself at the movies, strapping on the ol' feedbag of richly <i>buttered popcorn</i>. How about a beautifully ripe <i>banana</i> or a <i>pink grapefruit</i> for breakfast? Maybe a mix to truly bring out the best flavours:</div>
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Put together a <i>boysenberry</i> or <i>strawberry jam</i> with a <i>peanut butter</i> Jelly Belly (back when they still had the peanut butter flavour) and you just created the peanut butter sandwich. Or a good mix of the <i>piña colada</i>, <i>pineapple</i> and <i>coconut</i> for that perfect tropical drink. Add <i>banana</i> with <i>vanilla</i> and <i>strawberry shortcake</i> and <i>chocolate pudding</i> gives you a delicious Banana Split!</div><div>
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When is the last time you could do that with any other jelly bean? Of course not! Jelly beans were never much until Jelly Bellies dame along!</div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0Parsippany-Troy Hills Parsippany-Troy Hills40.875958 -74.382053tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-88465797830833995532014-11-22T23:05:00.000-05:002014-11-23T00:52:10.821-05:00Big Hero 6: A Review<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Here it is, my post for today - just under the wire, but I made it! (Gasp, wheeze, cough!)</div>
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Today Luis and I went to the movies. He really wanted to see <i>Mocking Something or Other</i>, but the seating in the Cinema Suites were filled. So we saw <i>Big Hero 6</i> in the Fork & Screen theatres. We love the Cinema Suites the most: full meals, seating that is above and beyond anything one could want, no kids allowed! No one under 21, due to the alcohol they serve there. In the Fork & Screen portion of Cinema Suites, any age is allowed. The full meals are still there, the seating is above average, but in the Suites, the super-comfortable full length reclining chairs allow you to be supine if you want. Nothing beats this. As a result, we only go there, not the "theatres of the masses" with the bubblegum on the seats, disgusting bathrooms and loudmouthed morons.</div>
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If you are going to the movies, do it right!</div>
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Since there was no seeing the latest <i>Hunger Games</i> release for Luis and I have no interest whatsoever in the franchise, we went for the animated film instead: <i>Big Hero 6</i>. I had read a positive review for it in <i>People Magazine</i>, my one guilty pleasure, and we were both interested in seeing it, although it is always chancy seeing a kids movie. Kids almost always make the worst viewers under a certain age. However, we lucked out: only two other families were in the theatre and this made it very pleasurable.</div>
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What did I think of the film? On a scale of ten, it gets an 8.5! This is no mean feat, for me. I don't rate very many films a ten. I don't rate very many films a one, either. That means I was subjected to a film that wasn't really for me. That isn't fair to rate a movie that isn't my type in general. Animated films are an entirely different animal. I love them, especially the more modern and clearly made for adult ones, such as all Pixar films, the Shrek films, many of the newer DreamWorks, SKG. (<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i>) and Sony Animation films (<i>Hotel Transylvania</i>). I love them and try them all out. In fact, there was a preview for an upcoming Pixar film, <i>Inside Out</i>, with the following description:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">house and school."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">I'm </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">counting down the days to either 19 or 22 June... Pixar's Website gives the 19th as the release date, the preview gave 22 June. Go figure! I freely admit, I don't recognise a single actor/actress there, but voices are not something to poo-poo - whatever bad choices they may have made as actors (say, by appearing in a sitcom), they redeem themselves as masters to a craft in vocal performances, for me. Anything, everything, can be forgiven in this light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Back to this, </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Big Hero 6</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, I loved it. It was fun, well-made, had a few well-known voices and many new, but all excellent. The known voices: Damon Wayans, Jr. (as a charming OCD-ridden nerd, no longer a hopelessly dopey actor), Alan Tudyk, Maya Rudolph, Stan Lee and my personal favourite, the 6', 6", impressive, amazing James Cromwell, one of my all-time favourite actors (<i>Secretariat</i>, <i>I, Robot</i>, <i>M*A*S*H</i>)! The artwork and effort put into the animation was of the highest caliber. But that is all very well, and not the true measure of the greatness of a film. What is the true measure, that amazing quality that gives a film the power to get you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">I laughed, I cried, I was furious, I was frightened, I was joyous. It was one of those movies, where you are a part of the story, where you feel for the good guys, want to hurt the antagonist and slap the protagonist. When I am throughly immersed in the emotional side of the film, then it is a huge success. And I was totally sucked in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">The other true mark (especially frequenting the Cinema Suites as we do) is whether or not I can remain awake through all of it. Luis and I saw </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">The Judge</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall. It was fairly good, but all told, I drifted off three times, for about five to seven minutes each time. If a movie is that slow, it happens. And it is staggering how much one can miss in those short bits: one key comment, one chance remark. We also saw <i>If I Stay</i>, and while an emotional movie, it was much too long and slow enough that both of us drifted off. That rates a "Yikes". A number would not be adequate.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"><i>Dolphin Tale 2</i> is the mark of great film, just as the first one was. Both drew not only very high marks and a complete emotional investment, but also a standing ovation. They were both lovely films.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Interstellar</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"> was good, but it had a running time of two hours, forty-nine minutes, which is asking a lot of me, especially with the intensity at which it moved - very little slow time. It was not terribly emotionally tiring, so it lost marks there. I give that film a 5.75. Some of the characters were surprising and for those undying fans of Matt Damon, well, they were undoubtedly crushed - he must have been in it for all of 15 to 20 minutes. Heh, heh, heh. I like him well enough, but not in that way. (Want to see Matt in something great? Try the all-time amazing film </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">The Adjustment Bureau</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">. I loved it, and wished I'd gone with Luis to see it in the movies. That is my 11th all-time favourite film.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">How to Train Your Dragon 2</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Rio 2</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, and </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"> were the other films I saw this year (I wanted to see </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Maleficent</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, but missed it due to poor health); I liked </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">How to Train Your Dragon 2</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, although it wasn't up to the level of the first. That is standard, although some do break that mould in the world of animated films. I could have been perfectly fine without <i>Captain America</i>, as it was two plus hours of my life that I will never get back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"><i>Big Hero 6</i> is not a kids film, right up there with the Shrek films and so many others. It is a Disney movie, but it is not the gushy, overly musical ones - I ploughed through <i>Frozen</i> and promise you that it can air until the end of time, but I will never be able to sit through that again. Musicals are generally too much for me. Movies with the wretched Peabo Bryson song or Whitney Houston (for example - I can't think if one of hers made it into a Disney film...it seems all too likely, though) are missing the better tunes. Take <i>Aladdin</i>, for example; take "Arabian Nights" (Bruce Adler), "One Jump Ahead" (Brad Kane), and "Friend Like Me" (Robin Williams) and what do you get? Me, singing along with them, having a great time! What do you get with "A Whole New World" (Peabo Bryson (!) and Regina Belle)? Nausea.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Music is terribly important in films, but too much and/or the wrong ones is an issue for me. </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Big Hero 6</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"> had plenty of loud, moving, movie music, but considering the action in it, it was fitting. I couldn't say I would run out and buy the soundtrack, even though Nick Glennie-Smith was involved - I will, however, for him, listen to it again, and possibly revise my opinion. That is very unusual for me: I take my music scores and soundtrack music very, very seriously (my favourites? The unbelievably young Ramin Djawadi [</span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Person of Interest</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Clash of the Titans</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">, and </span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Iron Man I</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">] and the truly masterful Nick Glennie-Smith [</span><i style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">Secretariat</i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;"> - if anyone has this music, I will pay you handsomely for it!]). My only one true complaint about the film was the sudden elevation of all the characters from nerd to superhero status. However, in animated movies, the impossible is easily possible, and so while it takes the 1.5 points from a 10, it is an easily overlooked crime.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">A special thank you goes to one of the titans of the animated film world, my favourite and belovèd producer, John Lassiter - a million thanks! You brought the magic of Pixar to us and we love you for it! (I did look for other Pixar-famous names, but to no avail - and believe you me, I watch all the credits, all the time, every first time I watch a film, regardless of where - all those people put their hearts, souls and lives into it, and it behooves us to look at ALL of the credits to give them their due. I also like to cheer for Human Resources, always listed in animated movies as well as the sheer numbers of production babies!)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.05000000074505806px; line-height: 20px;">I would never make it in the critic business - no one wants <i>that</i> much honesty!</span></span></div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-65473208910642210202014-11-21T23:02:00.001-05:002014-11-29T21:21:47.717-05:00Words: The True Medium of the Artist<div style="text-align: justify;">
In my family, we’re all artists. Some of us create music, some us taught music, my aunt is a professional cellist and my cousin, Renée, was a dancer/choreographer, and my other cousin, Hank, whom we’re all super-proud of, is a stage performer with his wife, based out of Switzerland. Their act is called Full House. Look them up! You’ll be happy you did.</div>
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On my father’s side, I don’t know if anyone else had any especial talents, but my father, Harry, both paints and writes and makes music. He is professor Emeritus at College of Miseracordia in Pennnsylvania. I’m thrilled with so much artistry in my families.</div>
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I’m an artist, as most of you know. I love my art, and I hate it, too. Nothing makes an artist more crazy than their own material; we are all overly aware of our own errors.</div>
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And... in my family, we are all writers in our hearts.</div>
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The Internet has given us the means to practise and perfect our crafts. What is writing for if not to reveal something of ourselves? Not that this is an issue for me. I love writing and find it exceedingly freeing.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I was talking to someone on FaceBook and suddenly I got all kinds of carried away: “[FaceBook] <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">is the forum of the utterly illiterate, as much as the forum of the very well-read and written. Although I know we are grossly outrun by what I sourly refer to as the ‘lowest common denominator’. I have had far too much free time on my brain, if you knew all the self-created terms I've come up with. But then, you don't know me THAT well. Under the artist's angst beats the heart of true sarcasm and witticism - English is my only language, but one I know it backwards, forwards, love it, live for it. Life is nothing without language. It is the magic we weave, the stories we tell, the laughs we desire! The way to tell someone how much you love them, the soft words of affection that I give to my husband of 25 years, the words of praise I give to you, the word of hate I sometimes feel. I wish I didn't have those, but words can cut and words can heal. I find that expressing those worst words do much to heal me. I have to ask you if you find that so, as well..."</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It turns out the person I was speaking with agreed. The conversation wasn’t just good, but exceptional. It isn’t often I have the great good fortune to encounter an intelligent, fascinating person to speak with!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He also paid me one of the best, hands down, compliments I have ever received: “</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">You're clearly a very switched on person Aislinge!„</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">How is this not the best compliment ever?</span></div>
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EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-53110847090560151702014-11-21T18:23:00.000-05:002014-11-23T09:53:32.921-05:00Sitcoms Are Disappearing - HOORAH!<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLZmtWchOjfY-BtpJzExZ3W1UIaY_dKK0a75cVn5krkJtPHirfqByvQMe3IkPPmdKvnFXcG5g_lptwpuUgrC82qZsY_F7adTRS_pb41VD1EYWBKc8Z6WHKpL619TMWzRDaekh/s640/blogger-image-253264528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLZmtWchOjfY-BtpJzExZ3W1UIaY_dKK0a75cVn5krkJtPHirfqByvQMe3IkPPmdKvnFXcG5g_lptwpuUgrC82qZsY_F7adTRS_pb41VD1EYWBKc8Z6WHKpL619TMWzRDaekh/s640/blogger-image-253264528.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
You need to understand this from my shoes; my very sarcastic but right-on-the-nose shoes. My shoes that feel this is the worst kind of telly viewing.</div>
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First, please read my cousin's Web page: </div>
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Then, my comments:</div>
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"Well, well. I was very surprised - pleasantly - to read this. I know you love sitcoms and I feel they should all burn in effigy, but this was an honest appraisal. I myself have only ever submitted to two sitcoms and the first one took on more strong subjects for its time than most and the second... well... I just could not keep up with it. I did try <i>Bad Judge</i> but had to give up - it had a few too many dopey moments for me, as much as I might have liked it.</div>
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I did enjoy <i>Suburgatory</i> its first two seasons but tired quickly of the idiot with the robot voice, zero I.Q. and terrible shoes and make up. I can't even recall her name. The main character, Tessa, was wonderful, but I knew far too many self-absorbed (yes, to THAT degree) people in my high school days and found I hadn't the taste to go through it again. Some things carry lasting affects.</div>
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My reasoning for hating <i>The Office</i> is not what you might think. Well, not JUST what you might think. I spent a lifetime doing Human Resources, the only job I ever loved, completely gave of myself to do. That and being a volunteer EMT, one of my best efforts as well. To have this idiot's show come and do more harm than good to my life's work was more than I could bear. The sad and hideous fact is that watching the telly can have a fairly lasting impact and damage more than it helps. This show was exactly that: people immediately became wary of seeing their HR person. I was that person. You have no idea how much this hurt all of my efforts. Now, granted, some companies do have the worst sorts of people in their HR departments, but the bulk of us are NOT like that. And we bust our butts to be advocates for our employees, so often to no avail (more due to the company's mentality of "eve money at all costs" than us). we certainly did not need help from that source. Does that at least give some insight to why I felt so bitter about this particular show? I know I don't always give the whole story, but here it is.</div>
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The primary sitcom that I ever watched <i>every single episode</i> was <i>M*A*S*H</i>. That is it. The rest have exactly what you described: the tired laugh-track, the poor jokes, shows to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I'm sorry for that, you know I don't mean you or Luis, but let's be honest. The majority of viewers these days are the least educated and it is for them these shows are aired."</div>
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Which probably has you, dear readers, wondering what, if anything, I DO watch. Well, yes, I do watch the telly, probably two much (maybe two hours per day) - but let's be honest - give me books over television anytime! But, no, I will share what telly shows I do watch:</div>
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The Blacklist</div>
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Persons of Interest (yeah, I really find Jim Caviezel smoking' hot! But that is not enough...)</div>
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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas)</div>
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Bones</div>
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Scorpions (I read about Walter O'Brien - quite the person)</div>
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Outlander (whoofah! Talk about "HOT")</div>
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Castle (starting to see a theme here, are ya'?)</div>
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How to Get Away with Murder</div>
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Elementary</div>
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Perception (also a favorite - Eric McCormack as a man with bipolar disease who teaches brain mechanics for college students and solves crimes in his own unique way)</div>
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Drop Dead Diva</div>
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Are you wondering, then, if I'm such a tough stick with movies? Better believe it, baby. It is had to get past my more fussy and exacting standards for films. For example: I could never make it through <i>Something About Mary</i> or <i>Airplane</i> or worst, <i>Blazing Saddles</i>. But I loved <i>Dave</i>, which has its dopey moments but is a sufficiently charming film. So for you, my top ten films:</div>
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10. Gravity</div>
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9. The Bird Cage</div>
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8. M*A*S*H</div>
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7. It's a Mad, Ma, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World</div>
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6. Captain Phillips</div>
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5. LadyHawke</div>
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4. Escape Plan</div>
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3. Ratatouille</div>
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2. Brave</div>
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1. The Shawshank Redemption</div>
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And my upcoming posts will have an entire post dedicated to <i>The Shawshank Redemption</i>. It would not be right to tell not that story.</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-41973586256443494922014-11-21T16:13:00.003-05:002014-11-21T16:13:49.458-05:00Ready to Resume Writing!/Thank You for Inspiration!<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the blogging world, November is the Month of NaBloPoMo, or a sort of "a blog a day" contest, writing, exposè, whatever. I like the concept and did some looking at a blogging site BlogHer (www.blogher.com) and immediately realised that while I won't have any problem trying my hand at posting every day for a month come November 2015, that this is not how I want to get back into blogging right now.</div>
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The other difference I twigged onto immediately is that everyone engaged in this site is into blogging as a way to make money. I will never blog for that reason. I know that there are the odd cases out there of one-hit wonders and over-night successes in the blogging world and that maybe, just maybe, mine could suddenly come into some sort of big, very short-term, momentary fame. If it happens? Well, one thing I know is that while it may seem like a blessing at first, it will all-too-quickly pall. And it will truly ruin writing for me. I am not looking to supplement my income, I'm not looking in any way, shape, or form for fame. If anything, fame is the last thing I would want. I know that the personalities that often getting into the performing arts of any kind are those that would bask in the accolades, but I like having the choice to make my life as private - or as not - as I wish. And I certainly don't want to ruin what is essentially a healthy outlet for different things: the usual mishmash of kudos, compliments, complaints, etc..</div>
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Here my relationship with my cousin Renée comes to the fore again, as many, many years ago, she showed me what a blog is. We were at my aunt Toby's house and she logged into her page on their computer and showed me hers on the blog site WordPress. So in 2002 (I think) I saw my first blog.</div>
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I will admit that a long time when by before I decided to accept my fate as a blogger and finally created my own blogger, through Blogger.com, in the autumn of 2005. What tripped it? An article in People Magazine, about a forty-year-old virgin. I was incensed at the way she viewed the world, people, women who are sexually active (and I especially take offence to the idea that as an 18-year-old, I was far too "young" to become sexually active. Have you met high- and middle school girls lately? Or even in my day, the mid-80s? Shit, honey, there were girls whom I <i>knew</i> were sexually active at age 14, something I could never wrap my head around. And here is this fossil saying <i>I'm</i> lacking in morals for trying out something I was fully prepared and ready for!). We all have something that pushes us to try the new, strange, or unknown and that was mine.</div>
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So it was ironic that I called her via FaceTime on her husband Alex' computer (hello, Alex!) just a couple of days ago and she was stressing about being so busy. I was shire her days of taking classes were over, so I asked what was keeping her so busy now? She has a (new) blog and is making a go of more professional writing. And here I will say something I rarely admit to anyone - both because it is truly a gift to be able to write, and who wants to create the swelled ego that can destroy so delightful a talent: SHE IS AN EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT WRITER!</div>
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Am I envious?</div>
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There was a time when I would have been and envy just about destroyed me. I was 19 when I learned, through very bitter experience, just how hurtful envy is to the bearer of it. And it took about a full year of working hard on excising those negative and destructive emotions, but thank you only 1,000,000,000 times to Sean Dwyer, who warned me verbally but it went through me, about this, to work it out. Ask Luis if I am the "jealous type". He will laugh and tell you he wishes I might be even a teensy bit that way. But I am not at all that way.</div>
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(Some day I will give the full text on this. Self-awareness demands it.)</div>
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Renée wrote a post on three women in high school who had an appearance on Queen Latifah's morning show (another woman I think very highly of), entitled They're Not Teens, They're Women ; Get Lit (http://geek-adjacent.com/2014/11/14/theyre-teens-theyre-women-get-lit). I read it, watched the video and commented on it: "Now, this... this required a few times of reading and watching it. They are truly incredible, wonderful, amazing women. (Yes, there is no question they are women and have been longer than most.) And to put that out - it is exceptional and needs to be shared. It is scary to think that there is a need to increase literacy, as we in this family are all avid readers, but clearly there is that need and it is out there.</div>
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I think we were more self-aware than others at our respective ages (two and a half years apart) because we were the abused in school. It made us tempered and different, even more so from our "peers", if one could truly consider them to be so. It gave us an earlier perspective on what it is to be belittled, spit on, looked down on. I went through a full three years of staggering abuse from the others - 8th grade through 10th - but came out clean on the other side, like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (one of my most favourite movies). while nothing can remove the pain that we went through during those times, I know -<i> know</i> - we left that part of our lives behind 10,000 times stronger than we went in to them.</div>
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Also, I see in myself that mild amount of Asperger's (as well any true Geek, and Geek-Adjacent) well knows. Look into it and see if you don't recognise yourself, but especially Luis (!) in there. I did immediately - although NOT from reading about it, but during a long conversation with Tom, my closet friend, whose son has severe Asperger's Syndrome. We may not be severe, but we had enough of it to make us stand out in the way we did. You were very lucky - I would have loved to go to your high school! Was it perfect? Who looks back on High School and thinks <i>that</i>?! No one. But was it better? Hell, yes.</div>
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Actually, you told me that story. On the subway. I've never forgotten it (given how disturbing it was, who would?). I will be interested to read that, too.</div>
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I love this post, too. Again, it is not easy to look back at these things. And it is easy to think we weren't self-aware, but I think we were, just not about <i>all</i> the things these women are."</div>
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Some things need to be put out there. Some things need to be known.</div>
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Thank you, Cuz, for putting this out there!</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15648591.post-67987288891912633542014-11-21T13:58:00.001-05:002014-11-21T13:58:42.320-05:00Living in Books (Or, Turning Over a New Leaf)<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are many things that I want to say at any given time on any given day at any given moment: a complaint, a compliment, a kudos, a thanks, and far too often, many, many unhappy remarks about my current situation of not working. Of being disabled. Of not having my health, the one thing I would trade nearly anything to have. (Except my soul, should the Devil suddenly show up with an offer... but he hasn't yet, and frankly, I don't expect such a high personage to stop by for a visit. Although, if he did (or is it correctly He, as in the way Catholics capitalise the word for God?), I find an interview (for this, my belovèd blog) would definitely vein order. I should think He would like the free publicity.</div>
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That aside, again, not expecting so august a diety, there are a great many comments bursting out of me at any time. The usual, well, you all know. The new is what you don't. And yes, the answer is it <i>has</i> taken me all this time to arrive at the knowledge that will lad, swift and true, to a much overlong needed realignment to see what I actually <i>have</i> rather than what I had perceived as lost.</div>
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First, some people to thank, for without whom, real or imagined, this could not have happened:</div>
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1. My father, who has made the best of some truly heinous situations, and came out clean on the other side.</div>
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2. My cousin, Renée, who always keeps a sunny attitude through it all.</div>
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3. My husband, Luis, of almost twenty-five years; you are my lover, my confidante, my best friend, my soulmate.</div>
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4. David and Dorita Reyen, who keep the darkness at bay.</div>
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5. Kevin Vitale, who was always my biggest fan and has had many notes written in my head but never sent. My support and love always for giving me the last, best job ever. Everyone should end that way, career-wise: happy. Also, all of those who were there with me - I love you all.</div>
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6. All my friends who have given me years worth of love, new knowledge, a different way of seeing the same problems, and still love my bossy, overly opinionated self!</div>
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Are you still here? Wow. All waiting breathlessly for that new leaf, eh?</div>
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The new leaf is this: I'm bloody lucky!</div>
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And suddenly I can hear all this exhalation of air while at first, disappointment reigns supreme. What were you expecting, the key to all life? How to stay young but live to be 3,000 years old? The cure to cancer? Well, in a way this IS the cure to cancer: my own personal cancer. You are scratching your heads and thinking, "So what?"</div>
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No, now back it up a moment. What had I written about primarily since ceasing to work? (Don't say everything, because we both know that is not true. And don't say that it has just been Old Farmer's Almanac, as that is copying, not true writing, or giving of oneself. But I know what theme has come time and again: my condition. My not working. This complaint, that complaint, all centred around the same issues. And what did that do for me? I guess the truly charitable could say that it allowed me to work out all my issues on this forum, but really, did it? It's one thing to suddenly reach critical mass and throw up your hands and cry out, "Oh, Lord, what have I done to deserve this?!" But if you do it over and over again, the best you could ever hope for is the Lord to open one irritable eye and reply, "Have you not yet tired of making demands where none will be tolerated? Grow up! Suck it up! These things happen!"</div>
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So this is the new leaf. I am no longer as sad about not working. (Will I always be that way? No, and it is not reasonable to expect it. We all have our moments of crawling back into the abyss, of wrapping our misery like a warm cloak about ourselves and revealing in depression. But I have been revelling in it far too much of late and it needs to stop.) This is the bright, shinier, happier me. I need this very badly and as I said, it has been very long overdue.</div>
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Oddly enough, the thing I am most grateful for in this different life is the time and need to read. Many others may look at reading as a chore, but not me, I consider it a need, and one I will never outgrow or put away. When people would say to me, "Wow, you read while still working full-time and riding on the ambulance full-time? How can you do that? I can never make the time!"</div>
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Well, with that attitude, I wonder how you find your shoes every morning? No love, no enthusiasm. I can't think of anything worse than not doing a job you love. but at least love to be good at your job. It is something for which you are bartering: your product or work in exchange for all those things one needs: money, benefits, etc.. Not doing your best is criminal; being lazy won't give you more. I know Luis gets frustrated when I don't make the effort to get up and do things around the house or out-of doors. He just doesn't want me staying all bed all day.</div>
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The best part here truly is the reading. I saw a film with Luis called "About Time" with some guy who finds out he has talent to go back in time by going into a closet or a loo and thinking of a period of time, and squeezing his eyes and hands, makes the journey there. It is interesting because the father found a way to make enough money to retire at ago fifty so he can read all of his books. In effect, this is how I am viewing this. I have all the time in the world to read and so, unsurprisingly, I do. I would never be able to pass up reading.</div>
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My next favourite activity? Writing, naturally. And so, dear friend, take my hand and let us take that plunge into the wonderful world of writing!</div>
EMTWenchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02574563764548713767noreply@blogger.com0