Category: Personal

Not Just a Princess – Goldie Blox

The world is such an amazing place. At the same time we have this crap going on in places like Ohio, we have people like Debbie Sterling at Goldie Blox trying to do the right thing for the whole race.

Sure, Pink is a great color. I love it. Even very big masculine guys like Penn Jillette love it . So it’s not just for girls. The same way blue isn’t just for boys. This is a globe filled with all sorts of people, wouldn’t it be great if we could let them all do whatever it was they wanted to.

And here, just for fun – Ten Historic Female Scientists you should know.

David Magazine

July 13

I was wondering today, as I was finishing an article, how often I should put up a real blog post. I mean I’ll do reviews as I finish books and see movies. I get that frequency. And when I go to Scotland in two weeks, those should be nightly posts, or summary wrap-ups. I get that, too. But the rest of it, the real stuff, how often do I do that before you get bored of reading it and I get bored of writing it? To ourselves, for the most part, our own lives are boring. While I know I would be excited as hell to meet a favorite actor or singer, for them, it’s part of the same ol’ day in, day out routine. When I was in Hollywood or Vegas, to people who weren’t there my life could have seemed glamorous or cool, but those of us who know what a grind the entertainment industry can be, we know that glamor is certainly in the eye of the beholder. Continue reading “David Magazine” →

I am Nothing

I am not republican. I am not democrat.
I am not right wing. I am not left wing.
I am not conservative. I am not liberal.
I am not rich. I am not poor.

I subscribe to no one political philosophy.
I think everyone should have the right to live in peace.
I think you should take care of yourself, but if you can’t we should help.
I think if you take without giving, that’s theft.
I think education is more important than weapons, but both are important.

If you are an asshole, I won’t like you, no matter your race, religion or sexual orientation.
If you judge someone based on your preferences, you are an asshole.
If you think being able to piss standing up gives you some sort of privilege, you’re wrong.
If you believe in god show it, don’t tell it.

In the eyes of the world, really, I am nothing.
But I’m all I got, and I’m gonna keep going

I forgot how to write

I’m sitting down to write something and I think I forgot how to do that. My mind is whizzing, but sitting down to the keyboard and actually picking a project is a chore. I used to be able to crank out material at a prodigious rate and while I think I know what happened, why that changed, that doesn’t excuse it. I need to get over it and just get the job done.

With that in mind, I’m sitting down today to start work on a fantasy adventure story which is in need of a title. This is a new piece. I had thought about going back and picking up the thread of other pieces I’d started some time ago, but I think a fresh start on something new is what I actually need at the moment. By putting it here, in the open, I’m hoping to shame myself into working on it on a daily basis. I can talk the talk, time to get back to walking the walk.

(and yes, I’ve shamelessly stolen the graphic – Thank you!)

Famous Authors’ Handwritten Outlines for Great Works of Literature

This is a great glimpse into process but as I sit down today to outline my new writing project, I sit down with a computer and a tablet and a piece of software designed to make these notes. There are places and slots for all these notes.

It’s like email. We still have correspondence, sure, but there’s something sad about not having the “Collected letters of ….” to look forward to anymore. At least the art itself lives on.

Blogging?

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So I’m wondering why we blog and what particular point this particular blog has. I was reading this morning a couple of news-feeds and there were blog posts with interesting bits of information on them, but a lot of it wasn’t sourced and a lot of it was rather inflammatory and it got me thinking about the blogger back in ’07/’08 who wrote, with no foundation of fact (and he said so later) that Obama was a Muslim. This was picked up and widely disseminated by major news outlets with no one bothering to vet the information. Of course, here I am, passing on bits of it as news myself, with no sourcing or validity whatsoever. I remember reading the information, but I’m nowhere that I can search and verify what I remember. Continue reading “Blogging?” →

Croatia

So after much deliberation and hemming and hawing, I decided spring break would be in Croatia, where I had NOT gone during the winter break. And it would be a part of Croatia I hadn’t seen when I was here in 08. So I was looking at Split and Dubrovnik. I was also looking at going with some fellow Americans, Chris and Laurel, and a Lithuanian, Rolanda, decided to join us as well. Continue reading “Croatia” →

Vienna

The trip to Vienna, like all my trips since I’ve been in Hungary, really started on Thursday night. See, my bus to Austria left from Budapest at 7am which means I needed to be there by 6:45 which means I needed to spend the night in Budapest since there are no trains or anything else which will get me there that early. This also held true for any trips which had me leaving the country. Continue reading “Vienna” →

Obituaries

For some reason today I went looking for an old friend on facebook. In the past few months I’ve reconnected with several people from past, some I have spoken to in as much as 27 years so I thought I’d try to find this girl I used to know. We exchanged an email or two about 6 years ago and then nothing. So I do my search and naturally, I don’t find her in the list… but then I see her name in the supplemental links at the bottom – in a link to her obituary. Continue reading “Obituaries” →

Great Day in Lithuania

Thursday was a long, but really good day! It started early when we caught the train to Kaunas – which, of course, was late due to the snow. This worked out in our favor since we were waiting on Rokas, Roo’s magic partner, who was going to spend the day with us and HIS train was delayed so he made it to Vilnius before we left. Continue reading “Great Day in Lithuania” →

White Christmas

Well…

It’s been a while since I updated, I know, I’m bad. That said, not much new has been going on. I have been going to Budapest on a fairly regular basis, both for work and to see friends I’ve made there, and I took an early Christmas trip to Heidelberg to see Claudia and David and even met up with Thom and Jerri, my cousins whom I never saw in the states, but here in Europe, will probably be seeing much more of. Continue reading “White Christmas” →

Heidelberg

Castle Rock HeidelbergHere in Europe, at least in some parts of it including Hungary, this week was fall break. This meant I had a whole week off from work and I was going to take advantage of it. My first stop was Germany.

It’d been a while since I’d been to Heidelberg – almost a year in fact. So I was a bit nervous. I was nervous flying in and nervous on the Lufthansa Bus for the 50 minute ride from Frankfurt…I needn’t have been. Continue reading “Heidelberg” →

Fred Travalena 1942-2009

When I was a kid, about 11 or 12, I used to stay up all night watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon. That year, there was this great impressionist named Fred Travalena on and I was in awe. A few weeks later, he was appearing at the Riviera hotel in Vegas, where I lived.

Not knowing any better, I called the hotel and asked for his room. I wanted to meet him and that’s how I thought it was done.

I was put through.

Continue reading “Fred Travalena 1942-2009” →