Spontaneous Musings

I get Knocked Down

2022-04-14T03:01:48Z

Title is from a song playing on This is Us which I'm half-watching, decided it didn't fit, then changed my mind, since it kind of does? Use your imagination and really I'm not sure I care if no one else sees the connection..."I get knocked down, but I get up again.."

I do. Sometimes. But lately, part of me just wants to stay down. One gets tired. You know?

But in a romance novel I've been reading on the train to and from work...there was a statement about how life is rather capricious, and precious, and we're all lucky to have it - since it's kind of a gift and all we have.

So. There's that.

***

Last night I got annoyed, at 10 pm, reading emails, so had troubles settling down for sleep. Note to self - don't read emails at 10 pm or later.

1. Email #1 was from credit card telling me that they'd declined my payment request on two items - because I hadn't paid the last amount, even though I paid in mid-March. And was only five-eight days late. [I discovered it while buying more masks on Amazon - because I'm almost out of KN94's again.]

Mother: What? Why not just charge a late fee?
( Read more... )

But it was annoying. Since it's into me paying on the due date - I set up auto minimum payments.

2. Email #2 was from Weaving Fabric of Diversity - about an auction at the church. Only problem? Two folks in the group responded that since there was segregation going on in the church - they were setting up their own event.

Author of original email (AOE): Segregated? What??
MDW (respondent): We're segregated because the church requires people to be vaccinated to wear masks - so those of us who don't want to (lists all the reasons in tiny print), are segregated.
( what pissed me off )

Okay. Last Night I was furious. And it took me a little bit to calm down. I did - I've been meditating for well over five years now, and can kind of do it on my own. Push things off to one side - the uncontrollables - and dear god, there are so many. Aren't there? Uncontrollables? My father used to call them that - he'd tell me, "Don't sweat the uncontrollables" - the things outside of our control. And try as I might? I cannot control what other people do. Or the choices they make. I can only control my own and even that - is often questionable.

I knew the hardest part of the pandemic wouldn't be the beginning of it, but this section here - after we got the vaccine. Because I've read my history books and seen it happen over and over again. People don't trust things, easily. And the things they do trust often make no sense.
( Read more... )
***

Subway Shooter - was caught today. ( Read more... )

***

Tomorrow, I may throw caution to the winds and find a place to eat with project manager. Poor guy - just returned from a vacation in Northern Mexico with his wife who is from there. He doesn't have COVID.

***

Finished watching This is Us episode which is about a divorce, and a remarriage. I liked it, and didn't at the same time. ( Spoilers )

**

Romance novel is slightly better. In it, the heroine's father is blown off a jetty by a wave, and she never sees him again. That I can buy. And isn't quite as cliche tragedy.

**

Off to bed. Wish me luck tomorrow - I just want to make it through the first site tour I've had since 2020. (I've been dreading it for well over a year now, tried to get out of doing it twice - I can't. And the guy I could have convinced to sub for me - took off. So I'm stuck with it.)

Leaving you with... I get Knocked Down....

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Year 2 - Day 204 - Floating on by..

2021-10-07T02:43:03Z

I've decided to just float for a bit. My mind isn't really focusing that well anyhow.

I'm inundated with COVID stuff still from the organization where I work, and bereavement notices of folks parents dying.

Today - I went grocery shopping again - and noticed while people wore masks inside, they didn't as much outside, although many are. One guy wearing a baby breath's blue jogger suit was screaming and spitting into his cell phone outside. I gave him a wide berth.

I need to get the flu shot again - I wonder if I can get it from the pharmacy? Doctor appointment isn't until November 24, and I want the COVID booster then. Crazy Org - is giving them, but out in Mineola.

Shoulders still hurt. And fingers. I think it may be the weather?

Looked at Ancestry.com and discovered I'm now 29% Scottish, 27% Irish, 15% Welsh, 15% Scandinavian, and 3% German. Which is odd, considering my mother's father was 100% German, and I've German on my father's side. I don't know, been listening to The Cooking Gene - and that was eye-opening. 23andMe provides DNA for minorities. Ancestry tends to have mainly Western European. So...how does one know for certain?

From the Times:

* Los Angeles will require proof of Covid vaccination to enter many indoor businesses, in one of the strictest rules in the country.
( Read more... )
* There was a shooter in Arlington, Texas today - another school shooting. ( Read more... )

* I got distracted by BAD ART FRIEND about a literary writer, Sonya Larson, who co-opted another writer's personal kidney donation story (a writer she disliked and wanted to hurt) in a writer's group for a short story.( summary )

This ended up being the subject of a kerfuffle of sorts on "Literary" Twitter (which by the way makes me never want to buy another book again - I'm sticking with Amazon e-books and audio and paying next to nothing for independently published genre novels, although I was kind of already there. And I hardly need to - I've enough books that I've not read yet in my apartment and in the basement of my apartment building and on the side streets and in area libraries to last me for a very very long time). Cat Sebastain was discussing it. Along with various other writers on literary twitter:

1/ Okay, Literary Twitter, you got me. Here's one more writer's take on "Bad Art Friend" aka The Kidney Story:

One party is a needy weirdo who did, in fact, donate a kidney.

The other knowingly plagiarized the letter portion of her story and repeatedly states this in writing.

Yup.

And apparently Bad Art Friend followed a similar story in Slate: Cat Person

The other bit as brought up on Twitter - was something I've had issues with my entire life. When a group of people get together - they can often decide to go after one person they don't like very well and bully or exclude them. I told my mother why I left my college sorority in college, actually why Wales and I both left it.
( Read more... )
The Bad Art story reminds me a lot of that, and various fandom kerfuffles, where someone else was the subject of a group complain discussion or I was. I've been on both sides of that argument. Actually most of us probably have. Human beings are annoying, self-centered, and often selfish assholes. The pandemic has proven that without a shadow of a doubt.

On Twitter, the genre writers were proclaiming themselves better than the literary writers because at least they just made up stuff. LOL! (True, it's why I prefer writing genre. I'd rather make up stuff than try to write about reality. Reality is painful, and at times exploitative. Making up stuff is more fun. And I think metaphorically so I can hide it all in metaphors.)

**

Covid
Via the Times:

* The U.S. is starting to recover from a summer surge, but public health officials say the pandemic remains a potent threat.

* A new study found that “Covid toes” may be caused by an immune system overreaction.

*Sweden and Denmark paused the use of Moderna’s vaccine for younger age groups because of possible rare side effects, Reuters reported.

*U.S. hospitals in less vaccinated areas are struggling financially under a surge of patients, The Washington Post reported.

*Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set deadlines for employees of Canada’s federal government to be vaccinated. [Hmm, we're kind of ahead of Canada on this one - the US Federal Government mandated it in the Spring.]

*The choice for a Colorado patient: Get the Covid vaccine, or miss out on a kidney transplant.[ Decisions, decisions.]

***

Did UU Bible Study again tonight. We discussed Tower of Babel. ( Read more... )

At check in - I kept it simple. I didn't try to communicate much at all.
"I'm floating," I said. "God tethers me, as I float, so I don't just float away into space." This statement was aided by my background (which you can pick on Zoom) that was space. It's basically planets behind my Zoom image.

Random photo of the day...

Jordan Pound Rocks in Arcadia National Park, Maine - circa 2010.

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Thoughts...

2021-07-06T02:23:25Z

1. I'm slowly figuring out how to use twitter - now that the nitwits are gone, it's a heck of alot easier to manager. This entire Thread

Per:

Sigrid Ellis
sigridellis

( excerpt for those who can't go to Twitter )

[Personally, I love the punch line.]

2. Been watching Discovery of Witches - with Behind the Scenes Footage

One of the snippets discussed the writer, Deborah Harkness's process. Harkness is a Professor of History at Oxford or Cambridge. And the way she wrote the novels was in snippets. She had various notebooks. Jumped around a lot, because she doesn't think lineally, and determined what books each of the characters would read, developed a reading list and proceeded to read all of them. Basically she went after the project like a scholar would or professor.

I found this interesting. It's not how I write. I kind of just type and see what emerges from my brain. But I also discovered that my mind skips about as well. And I forget stuff. So maybe taking notes, and putting down names is a good idea? I have a tendency to forget the names of my characters - I am not good at "naming things" - labeling and naming is not my strength.

3. On Acting - the Kathleen Turner book continues to be interesting, Turner states that a lot of directors don't know how to direct actors and the actors have to learn how to direct themselves. And if an actor doesn't know how to do that - you can get uneven performances, particularly if the director is more into technical stuff or lighting, etc.
( Read more... )

4. And this entire Twitter thread..

An Introverts Renewed Attempts to Relate to Other Humans After the Pandemic

Although technically - I was kind of forced to do it during the pandemic - via phone, zoom, and various forced interactions with Super, construction folks, and people in apartment building - and crazy union thrusting us all back into the workplace in September, plus doctor's appointments and the vaccine.

It's not like I was living all by myself in the middle of Idaho or Ohio.

But still...

How Did I Use To Do This? An Introvert's Renewed Attempts to Relate To Other Humans After The Pandemic.

( excerpt for those who don't have access to Twitter )

It's weirdly reassuring to realize I'm not the only one who is anxious about returning to the office and social interaction, and would prefer to just stay home.

I was beginning to think something was wrong with me.

5. Did a meditation this morning on Envy and Jealousy - which basically stated if you don't compare yourself to others...envy and jealousy cease to exist. What happens, said the guide (a former Buddhist Monk) is we tend to focus on what we don't like about our lives or wish was different, then our mind drifts to what we wish we had instead...taking us out of the present moment, and the ability to appreciate what we have and be pro-active and build on it.

I rather liked it. I want to do a course on that one. I'm working on comparing less. And being more open.

My other deep thought for today...my difficulty with romantic love is it is often portrayed in our society as so possessive and jealous. And that's considered okay? I wouldn't want to be in a relationship like that - I'd feel suffocated. I need to be able to have male and female friends.
( Read more... )

6. Almost forgot? RIP Richard Donner - he was behind Superman (the first film with Christopher Reeves), Ladyhawk (a personal favorite of mine), Lethal Weapon Series, and The Omen. He also did Radio Flyer - which I liked but a lot of critics hated for some reason.

He died today.

Oh and here's Richard Donner's story of how he came to direct and make Superman

Donner's Superman was the best superhero film up until Christopher Nolan took over the Batman franchise. Prior to that, it was lot of missteps. Although Tim Burton's Batman was a good film.

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