Thursday, August 29, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

SURPRISE. Drum roll please. It is once again HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY.  I read your comments regarding whether I should continue to embed or provide links.  Most of you were in favor of embedding (as it is now), so I will leave things as they are.  However, I do want to know if you have trouble with the post loading.  This is going to be a good test for your computers.  So many great posts came out this week, so I have more footage than usual.  One of you will even get tagged twice, which is a first for this post.  I am also including Joan of Arcadia clips for two different people.  Another first.  Joan of Arcadia just might be my all-time favorite TV show.  So many great life lessons in that show.  I know that the clips tend to be longer than just a couple minutes, but they are always worth watching.  In this case, the story was so good I am including two clips per person.  I will link to the second clip so that the page loads faster:)  Aside from that bit of business, this is a typical Thursday.  If you don't know what that means, let me explain...

This is a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of youtube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Mitzi at Mitzi's Corner:


This one is (also) for Mitzi at Mitzi's Corner:
Click here to watch.

 This one is for RawknRobyn at Life by Chocolate: Robyn Alana Engel's Blog:


This one is for Tara Tyler at Tara Tyler Talks:


This one is for Brandon Ax at Writer's Storm: Brandon Ax:


This one is for Mark Means at Left and Write:


This one is for Gary Philip Pennick at klahanie:
Click here to watch.

This one is for Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas:


This one is (also) for Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas:
Click here to watch.

This one is (also) for RawknRobyn at Life by Chocolate: Robyn Alana Engel's Blog:
 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Meanwhile In Florida

My mom re-shared this one Facebook.  You might need a tissue... I laughed until I cried.


BURGLARY IN FLORIDA: (You just cannot make this stuff up!)

When southern Florida resident Nathan Radlich's house was burglarized recently, thieves ignored his wide screen plasma TV, his VCR, and even left his Rolex watch. What they did take, however, was a white box filled with a greyish-white powder. (That is the way the police report described it.)

A spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police said that it looked similar to high grade cocaine and the burglars had probably thought they'd hit the big time. Later, Nathan stood in front of numerous TV cameras and pleaded with the burglars: 'Please return the cremated remains of my sister, Gertrude. She died three years ago.'

The next morning, the bullet-riddled corpse of a local drug dealer known as Hoochie Pevens was found on Nathan's doorstep. The white box was there too; about half of Gertrude's ashes remained. Scotch taped to the box was this note, which said:

Hoochie sold us the bogus blow, so we wasted Hoochie. Sorry we snorted your sister. No hard feelings. Have a nice day.

And you thought California was the land of fruits and nuts.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

On Miley Cyrus and Adulthood

You know me.  I must weigh in on the Miley Cyrus debacle at the VMA Awards.

Before I get to her though, I want to talk about me.  And I want to declare loudly to the world that I am so thankful that the Internet didn't exist when I was 20 years old.  Or texting.  Or phones with cameras or video.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

When I went off to college, I wanted to be an adult.  So, I started doing things that I was certain made me adult (and also things that I wasn't allowed to do at home).  I embraced the F-Word like a long-lost friend and celebrated it's versatility.  What other word could be used as a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective?  It had to be the Best Word Ever, so I used it fluently and frequently.  I also added all of the other "bad words" to my vocabulary to round it all out.  In fact, I could speak almost entirely in curse words and not miss a beat.  Why?  Because I was now an Adult.

Here is a picture of me freshman year.  Check out the lack of smile and overall snarky look.  That is what cool looks like when you are 18 in the 80s.  Or so I thought.  And it also screams Adult, no?




One of my other favorite pastimes was drinking excessively.  That is soooo Adult, isn't it?  The fact that I was tiny and completely unable to handle my alcohol was irrelevant.  It was a Coming of Age Thing that made me sophisticated and witty, right?  Sadly no.  It made me stupid.  As I said, so glad that there were no phone cameras back in the 80s.  Kids who shoot for adulthood by drinking and cursing are WannaBes.  Real adults Know Better.

When I moved to New York City and got a job in publishing it was  shock to discover that no one cursed like a sailor on the job.  In fact, no one cursed at all.  It sunk in pretty fast that Real Adults don't actually spout the F-words like a faucet left on full stream.  In order to tame my own language at work, I had to curb it at home.  Serious adjustment.  Why?  Because that is what Adults do.

Other lessons came harder.  People who can't handle their drink (like me) still like to drink.  Especially if they are living in the City That Never Sleeps.  Turns out that if I wanted to be functional at work I needed to sleep during the week.  Ah... but that left the weekends for me to show off how Adult I was.  My friend and roommate had been doing this for one year longer than I and knew where the Good Clubs were.  She even lent me her Club Clothes so that we could go out.

That looked a little bit like this:



I couldn't understand why we would go to these clubs and I would meet these guys who kept getting all Handsy with me.  It was terrible.  The other really bad part of this equation was that I didn't know how to handle it.  I had zero ability to draw a boundary and was unwilling to hurt anyone's feelings by indicating that I wasn't interested.  (This all dated back to my feelings of unworthiness from junior high and high school where people had no trouble hurting my feelings,)  In the end, my friend would bail me out of the Bad Situation by assailing The Octopus with a stream of F-words and he would go away.

After several rounds of this, I understood the common denominator here was Me and The Clothes.  I told my friend I would still go with her, but from this point on I was going casual.  Jeans and a blouse worked for me.  That did indeed solve the problem.  I still met people... just not Handsy ones.  Yeah, I had to act and look like an Adult in order to get treated like one.

I am going to assume that Miley Cyrus put on that performance at the VMAs because she wanted to show the world that she was no longer Hannah Montana, the Kid.  She was an Adult now.  All she proved was that she was Trying To Be An Adult.  Shame on all of the people who are supposed to be helping her make the transition.  Apparently none of them know what an actual Adult looks like either, or that train wreck wouldn't have happened.  The Good News... even people who go through years of bad decision-making, like me, of WannaBe Adult behavior eventually figure out what Actual Adult Behavior looks like.  There's still hope for you, Miley.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Feedback On Thursday

image found at www.weheartit.com
I would like some feedback regarding my Thursday posts.

Several of you have indicated that you have difficulty with the page loading due to the number of videos.  I want the experience to be an easy one for everyone.

I tend to think that people are more inclined to watch the videos if they are right there and only one click away.  That is why I embed them, as opposed to offering up a link to YouTube, whenever possible.  However, I am well aware that if I posted links instead of embedding that it would likely solve the loading problems some of you are experiencing.

So, my questions are these: What would you prefer?  Links or the videos embedded as they currently are.  Would you watch any of the videos (other than one dedicated specifically to you) if you had no idea what it was and had to keep clicking over to YouTube to see it?  Be honest.  Would you even watch the video for everyone if it wasn't just one click away?  

I want to make this experience delightful for everyone, but if only a couple of you are having trouble, I don't want to "solve" this problem by making it not only difficult for everyone, but so troublesome that it is no longer worth the effort (for anyone).  That is how our government handles problems, and we see how well that is working...

So, please give me your feedback.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

image found at www.weheartit.com
SURPRISE. Drum roll please. It is once again HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY. Yes, you read that correctly.  HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY is back on Thursday.  For those of you unfamiliar with the once again weekly HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts, I bet you're wondering what is going on.   Well, peeps, let me give you the skinny on this event...


This is a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of youtube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out:


This one is for Steven at Steven Symes, Writer:


This one is for Yvonne at Writing My Life Away!:


This one is for Rebecca Green Gasper:


This one is for Manzanita at Wanna Buy A Duck and Mail4Rosey:


This one is for farawayeyes at Far Away Series:

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Vegas Baby!

image found at www.weheartit.com

It is official.  Mom and I are headed for Vegas this fall.  We have booked the plane reservations and room reservations.  We are staying one night at The Plaza (downtown), two nights at The Excalibur, and five nights at The Rio.  The only one that wasn't free was the first one at The Plaza, and it wasn't all that much, so our room cost will be minimal (just the surcharge on the room each night).  Honestly, it doesn't get any better than that.

I am beginning to get excited about the whole thing.  This is the first Vacation that I have had in years.  I consider visiting family vacation, but just not a Vacation.  In fact, I think the last Vacation I had was to Vegas five or six years ago.  Anyway, so psyched.  I will remember to take the camera.  I will remember to take pictures.  It's Vegas Baby!  Let's play a bit of music to get everyone in the mood...



My previous post was TV-related.  I do have a separate blog for all things TV, and I am going to try and keep most TV off this one.  If you want to check in on what is happening on the tube, according to me, you can mosey over to that blog.   It's called TV Junction Function.  Happy Tuesday peeps!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Nashville

image found at www.weheartit.com
I admit it.  I love a prime time soap.  I grew up in the 80s when Dallas, Dynasty, Knot's Landing, and Falcon Crest were all on top.  I remember the summer that "Who Shot Jr?" paraphernalia littered every venue.  T-shirts, coffee mugs, key chains, beach towels - and more - all were monogrammed with the popular question.  Who Shot Jr????  And everyone wanted to know the answer.  Dallas finished on a cliffhanger with JR having been shot in the spring of 1980, and that entire summer, and into the fall, due to a strike by the Screen Actor's Guild,  everyone waited with baited breath to get the answer.  Does anyone even remember?  Not so much.  It wasn't a main character who fired the shot.  However, I will help you out here.  It was his sister-in-law and mistress who pulled the trigger.  I had to look up her name because I couldn't remember it: Kristin Shepard (played by Mary Crosby).  The question turned out to be far more intriguing than the answer.  Ah well.

Back to my original statement: I love a prime time soap.  After Dallas,  Dynasty, and the rest swerved into cancellation, the 90s brought out a new breed of prime time soap.  Technically, anything that carries over from week to week is a soap, for the curious.  We call most of that programming now a prime time drama.  Some sitcoms have managed to avoid becoming soapy, but not many.  Most of the time, full understanding of the current episode relies on having seen the previous ones.  And that makes it a soap.

With daytime soaps running down the drain in the last few years, prime time is getting soapier than ever.  And that brings us to the point of this here blog: Nashville.  ABC aired the show last fall.  Finally, we have a full-blown soap again in prime time that rivals Dallas and Dynasty on the Big Three (ABC, CBS, and NBC).  Yes, I know that cable brought back Dallas; as I said, the public demand for prime time soap has risen in accordance with the failure of daytime soap.

Nashville has everything a prime time soap fan adores plus stellar music.  ABC went all out with the headliners, Rayna James and Juliette Barnes(played by Connie Britton and Hayden Panatierre), and they are dynamite, but it is the rest of the cast that nails this show so thoroughly.  Let's take a look at the trailer for those of who are scratching your heads because you missed this one...



So, Nashville has all of the soapy elements covered. Plus, everyone is rich and the drama is big and splashy (echoes of Dynasty and Dallas...). The cast is amazing and they all can SING. The music in this show knocks it out of the park.

Scarlett (played by Clare Bowen) is one of the best singers on the show. This is her with Gunnar (played by Sam Palladio).


The strength of the music is that everyone is so darn talented. Here is Avery Bartlett (played by Jonathan Jackson) at the Bluebird:


Two of the most talented singers on the show are the youngest. They are the Stella Sisters. They play Rayna James' daughters. They have been singing together for years, prior to their debut on Nashville, and they are AMAZING.


I can't finish out this blog bit without including something from the stars. Here are Rayna James and Juliette Barnes... yes, together. Even rivals come together for the good of the label...


Season 2 will crank up this fall on ABC. I have no doubt it will be as full of surprises as the first season. So, if you are looking for your prime time soap fix PLUS excellent music, Nashville is the right place.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

SURPRISE. Drum roll please. It is once again HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY. Yes, you read that correctly.  HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY is back on Thursday.  For those of you unfamiliar with the once again weekly HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts, I bet you're wondering what is going on.   Well, peeps, let me give you the skinny on this event...


This is a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of youtube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Helen at Helen Plus Three:


This one is for Jay Noel:


This one is for Susan at I Think; Therefore, I Yam:


This one is for Steve at Steve's Nude Memphis Blog:


This one is for Yvonne at Writing My Life Away!:


This one is for Manzanita at Wanna Buy A Duck:


This one is for DiscConnected:

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

In the Gutter

image found on Facebook
Just had an interesting conversation with the fellas putting gutters on the front and back of our house.  I must admit that I really didn't know much about gutters and still don't consider myself any sort of expert.  However, we now have seamless gutters.  That means that the gutter cannot leak in the middle anywhere.  We are hoping that it will prevent the flood that builds at our front door every time it storms.

Two weeks ago, there was a particularly long and hard storm that brought the water level almost up to the door.  Another half inch and we would have had water inside the house.  That was a creepy feeling, to say the least.  It is also the reason the gutter people are here.  Really.Don't.Want.To.Do.That.Again.

The last 9 months have been filled with contractors and home repairs.  Seriously hoping that this marks the end of that!

Have you ever gone through a period where everything needed repair at once?

Sunday, August 11, 2013

WHAT I WANT PINK CENTER

Once upon a time I featured a post on Saturdays that spotlighted 80s music and MTV.  I also selected a song/video that was inspirational to me on that given day.

This post isn't like that... exactly.

It's still 80s and music, but I wanted to take a moment to depart from the songs that rocked MTV and focus on the inimitable soundtrack.  A movie soundtrack, if done well, can launch a movie even further into the stratosphere of success.  With the advent of MTV, a successful soundtrack combined with video coverage on television... these forums stairstepped one another to success.

image found at www.weheartit.com

Back in 1986, my senior year of high school for the curious, the movie Pretty In Pink came out.  It was another brain child of John Hughes and immediately became the Movie To See among my peers.  However, another interesting phenomena happened shortly thereafter: their was buzz in my high school about the soundtrack.  I started hearing things like, "This is the first movie soundtrack I have actually liked - ever."  Naturally, I was curious.  I bought it.  Here are the tracks (courtesy of Wikipedia):

1. "If You Leave"   Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 4:25
2. "Left of Center"   Vega Suzanne Vega with Joe Jackson 3:33
3. "Get to Know Ya"   Johnson Jesse Johnson 3:34
4. "Do Wot You Do"   Andrew Farriss, Michael Hutchence INXS 3:16
5. "Pretty in Pink"   John Ashton, Tim Butler, Richard Butler, Vince Ely, Duncan Kilburn, Roger Morris The Psychedelic Furs 4:40
6. "Shellshock"   New Order, John Robie New Order 6:04
7. "Round, Round"   Neville Keighley Belouis Some 4:07
8. "Wouldn't It Be Good"   Nik Kershaw Danny Hutton Hitters 3:44
9. "Bring On the Dancing Horses"   Will Sergeant, Ian McCulloch, Les Pattinson, Pete de Freitas Echo & the Bunnymen 3:59
10. "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want"   Johnny Marr, Morrissey The Smiths 1:51
Having seen the movie, I recognized OMD's If You Leave right away.  It was featured prominently in the movie at at the end, plus it was on the radio a lot.  Wikipedia indicates that it charted at #4 on Billboard in May of 1986.  That sounds right to me.  I was already a HUGE fan of INXS, but many of these other bands were a mystery to me.  Their sound was very different than anything that was getting Top 40 radio play.  I soon learned it was 80s Alternative Rock Music.

It turns out that many people were already plugged into this Alternative Rock Scene and these bands were just the tip of a fairly large iceberg.  John Hughes was, once again, at the forefront of what teenagers like.  Yeah, I was a few steps behind him.  ::shocking::

Since I think EVERYONE knows OMD's song If You Leave, I am not going to post it here.  It is a great song, mind you, and I still love it.  It was a strong start for the soundtrack and absolutely the right choice.  Instead, we will jump through this thing and hit some of the more alternative sounds for the day.

Let's start with the second cut.  Suzanne Vega singing Left Of Center was, in my opinion, a perfect choice for this soundtrack.  If you are familiar with the movie, it fits in nicely with the overall theme of the film.




Now, keep in mind that most people were still buying their music on cassette tapes in 1986, so track #5 was actually the last cut on the first side.  I am not sure I would have done that.  Pretty In Pink, by The Psychedelic Furs, is one of the strongest cuts on the album.   I would have placed it in the #6 spot, making it the first cut on the second side, but that is just me.  The video is alluring and plays hard to the movie.  Now that is working the room, so to speak.




Wasn't that great?  I don't recall it getting much play on MTV, but most Alternative bands still hadn't broken into MTV.  Maybe someone with a better memory than I can shed some light on this one....

I am not going to play the New Order song, but this soundtrack began a little love affair with that band.  I also had a couple Echo & The Bunnymen cassette tapes.  They finished this soundtrack off with a song that lasted less than 2 minutes.  2 minutes of genius that is.  The Smiths.  I don't think I really need to say more.  They are one of the most successful Alternative bands from the 80s and don't need little ole me promoting them:)




If this song sounds familiar, you may remember it from the movie 500 Days of Summer.  This song was featured (again) in that film twenty years later.  I suppose the saying is true:  You can't keep a good song down... or something like that.

When I was on Wikipedia pulling the tracks for this album, I discovered a tidbit of information there that I think is worth sharing.  Spinner chose the Pretty In Pink Soundtrack in their 2012 article Best Movie Soundtracks: The 15 Film Music Compilations That'll Change Your Life.  I know that it shifted how I related to music back in 1986, so I can agree with that assessment.    

Were any of these bands new to you?  Any long-time favorites here?  Have you heard the Pretty In Pink Soundtrack?  Do you own it?  Did you stumble into 80s alternative music and love it or hate it?

Thursday, August 8, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

image found at www.weheartit.com
SURPRISE. Drum roll please. It is once again HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY. Yes, you read that correctly.  HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY is back on Thursday.  For those of you unfamiliar with the once again weekly HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts, I bet you're wondering what is going on.   Well, peeps, let me give you the skinny on this event...


This is a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of youtube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Alex at Alex J. Cavanaugh:


This one is for Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas:


This one is for Mark Means at Left and Write:


This one is for JJ The Disconnected Writer:


This one is for Al Diaz at Father Dragon Writes:


This one is for Mail4Rosey:


This one is for Red Shoes at Red Shoe's Chronicles:

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

It's Not Always Clear In Here


Before I get started with my first contribution to the Insecure Writers Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh, I want to let you in on a little secret.  I have been following a wonderful writer since I started this blogging experience.  The first Wednesday of every month she would post something with the IWSG Logo.  Every month I went to her page expecting to see a sample of her WIP and every month I was disappointed.  Instead, she wrote about the process of her writing.  At the end of the post, she posted a link back to the IWSG and suggested that we see what other writers were doing.  Now, each month I thought to myself, "I don't want to read THEIR Work In Progress.  I want to read YOURS.  Every month I come to your page expecting to support you by giving you encouraging comments on your work and each month you write about your writing and then suggest I visit OTHER PEOPLE."  Mental head smack. 

It took me about a year to figure out that IWSG wasn't about supporting the writing, it was about sharing all of the stuff that goes on with the writing.  My friend wasn't doing it wrong as I had thought for so long.  Hahahaha.  As par for the course, I didn't understand the concept of the group.

I just started novel writing again.  I never finished my first one.  I didn't burn it or anything.  I am not sure that I will ever get back to it, but I decided to move on.  I vacillate between being frustrated with my writing and thrilled that I can put any sort of story together.  In my head I know that rough drafts are... rough.  The point is to get through them with the concept of the novel and then go back and polish it up.

I spend as much time thinking about this novel as I do writing it.  Some characters gel easily for me in terms of who they are, how they think, what they want.  Others are vague.  What helps you get a grasp on these sorts of characters?  More thinking time?  Or do you spend some time just writing and it comes out in a stream-of-consciousness-sort-of-flow?  This material is not necessarily writing that would be included in the novel, but gives you, as the writer, the sense of who they are.

I suppose this all comes back to being stuck and getting unstuck.  How do you unstick yourself when a character, scene, plot device, or any other aspect of your story is not moving for you?  What do you do?


Here is a link to the IWSG main page.  You can see a list of everyone who is participating in this event.  I hope that you will drop in and offer up some encouragement to some aspiring writers.  Lord knows we all need it!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Joking Around

I spent several minutes puzzling over what to write here today.  I finally decided to re-post a joke that I found on Facebook.  I am going to give you fair warning: this is a political joke.  If you don't care for those, you might want to skip it and come back on Wednesday.  However, if you think you can take it, or actually like that sort of thing, this is hilarious.  I nearly hurt myself from laughing so hard.  So read this with caution.  This joke is seriously funny.  Moving on to the joke...



President Obama walks into a local bank in Chicago to cash a check. He is surrounded by Secret Service agents. As he approaches the cashier he says, "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me?"

Cashier:
"It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?"

Obama:
"Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the President of the United States of AMERICA !!!!"

Cashier:
"Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of 9/11, impostors, forgers, money laundering, and bad mortgage underwriting not to mention requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID."

Obama:
“Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am."

Cashier:
"I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them."

Obama:
"I am urging you, please, to cash this check. I need to buy a gift for Michelle for Valentine’s Day"

Cashier:
"Look Mr. President, here is an example of what we can do. One day, Tiger Woods came into one of our bank branches without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a coffee cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check.   Another time, Andre Agassi came into the same place without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot where as the tennis ball landed in a coffee cup. With that shot we cashed his check.  So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?"

Obama:
Obama stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, "Honestly, my mind is a total blank...there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don’t have a clue.”
 

 Cashier:
"Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?"




Friday, August 2, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU... FRIDAY

Every now and then, one of you will spur me in your comments to make an addition to the Thursday post on Friday.  It is rare, but it does happen.

If you are scratching your head going, "What Thursday post?"

Well, you need to click on Older Posts and go back one day for the HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY post that happened yesterday.  I tagged out some awesome bloggie friends and dedicated some YouTube footage to them.

This one is for Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas:


Yes, I know that makes you twice as lucky.  But, that is how I roll here.  When I feel it, I post it.

Folks call me The Maverick
Guess I aint too diplomatic
I just never been the kind to go along
Just avoidin' confrontation
For the sake of conformation
And I'll admit I tend to sing a different song
But sometimes you just can't be afraid to wear a different hat
If Columbus had complied
Then this old world might still be flat
Nothin' ventured, nothin' gained
Sometimes you've got to go against the grain

 

Well' I've been accused
Of makin' my own rules
There must be rebel blood
Just a-runnin' through my veins
But I aint no hypocrite
What you see is what you get
And that's the only way I know to play the game.
Old Noah took much ridicule
For building his great ark
But after forty days and forty nights
He was lookin' pretty smart
Sometimes it's best to brave the wind and rain
By havin' the strength to go against the grain

 

Well, there's more folks than a few
Who share my point of view
But they're worried if they're gonna sink or swim
They'd like to buck the system
But the deck is stacked against them
And they're a little scared to go out on a limb
But if you're gonna make a difference
If you're gonna leave your mark
You can't follow like a bunch of sheep
You got to listen to your heart
Go bustin' in like old John Wayne
Sometimes you've got to go against the grain

 

Nothin' ventured, nothin' gained
Sometimes you've got to go against the grain.


Thursday, August 1, 2013

HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

SURPRISE. Drum roll please. It is once again HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY. Yes, you read that correctly.  HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY is back on Thursday.  For those of you unfamiliar with the once again weekly HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts, I bet you're wondering what is going on.   Well, peeps, let me give you the skinny on this event...


This is a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of youtube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Susan at I Think; Therefore, I Yam:


This one is for Manzanita at Wanna Buy a Duck:


This one is for Memphis Steve at Steve's Nude Memphis Blog:


This one is for Jasmine at A Yellow Rose of Texas:


This one is for JJ The Disconnected Writer:


This one is for Carol at Under The Tiki Hut: