Gladiator Sandals

I'm just going to say it right now: I cannot wait for the gladiator sandals style to be OVER WITH. I hate them. They are ugly. I think they look ugly on gladiators. Is anyone else with me?

Review: Legend of the Seeker

Over on another blog of mine I wrote my review of the TV series, "Legend of the Seeker".

NaBloPoMo, Eclipses, TweetDeck, and stuff

Wow, I had to turn off the visual notifications for TweetDeck - every time I tried to open a tab to write in my blog the little flag would pop up, and I'd read the tweets! I was getting nothing done. Wow. O, the tribulations of following 200 people on Twitter.

First of all, I discovered this on WordPress.com: NaBloPoMo, which is short for "National Blog Posting Month". It's not regulated to a rigid set of dates (the month of September for example); it is simply the challenge of making a blog post for a solid 30 days. So I have decided to take the challenge! Now I just need to decide which date to start. I could start today, I suppose, with this post; and yet something makes me want to find a more meaningful date, something more romantic (not in the mushy love sense either). In fact, I already know what I'm going to write about! Read on ...

Something else I want to announce: I started a public calendar called "Wacky Holidays".

I got all my information from two great websites: one is called, Brownielocks and the 3 Teddy Bears - I guess. It's actually kind of difficult to tell exactly what the name of the website is, but they have THE most comprehensive database of Wacky Holiday information I could find. The other one is called, Holiday Insights. I invested a lot of time and care into making this calendar today, mostly to entertain and amuse myself (and harass my co-workers: "Embrace Your Geekness Day" anyone?). I've got August and September done, and I'm about halfway through October. October is proving to be a challenge in and of itself; there's a reason it's called "National Month Month" (it's also National Sarcastic Awareness Month). I've had to pick and choose the most interesting ones because I simply don't have the time to include them all. I took the liberty of editing August and September too, but believe me, there are more than enough items of interest there to pique anybody's interest - and keep them busy raising awareness too!

So apparently there's some interesting little phenomenon going on right now over in Asia, something about an eclipse or something ... yawn. Whatever. The only thing I can say seems 'odd' about this time right now, slipping into a fantasy-themed daydream comes rather easily of late, but I'm pretty sure that has more to do with the fact that Glenn and I just got done watching Season 1 of the "Legend of the Seeker" TV series on Hulu.com more than anything. (For the uninformed it's based on Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" book series.) Also a book I'm reading: "Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister" which draws on the fantasy theme quite a bit. Also the beautiful and ethereal Joanna Newsom and her harp-playing I've been getting into lately.

Also the fantasy-themed knitting and crocheting communities I've joined. Also might have something to do with the fact that ever since I canceled my WoW account I've been pining to play my beloved online video game. *lesigh*

Otherwise I'm enjoying a nice, quiet evening at home on the computer with Glenn. He's doing his thing and I'm doing mine. It's really nice; and I installed Google Chrome which is turning out to be wicked cool, so all is well. Earlier we watched a movie, Pineapple Express. We laughed our asses off! Except it got rather violent with lots of people dying, which I hate in a movie, but it was tolerable, and it was pretty funny.

I really believe the people who seriously believe anything catastrophic is going to come out of this eclipse are people who generally create their very own self-fulfilling prophecies. I know what I speak of: I used to be one of those people. Luckily the news business made a skeptic out of me. Wars, and natural disasters, and strange phenomena happen all the time; with or without cool astronomical events happening. If you really believe a disaster is going to happen, then it very likely will. One tends to go wherever their thoughts take them. That's about all I have to say on that.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to warm up my cold tea and curl up on the couch with my book ...

Russian Human Rights Defender murdered

I got an email from Amnesty International about Natalia Estemirova. Apparently she was murdered last Wednesday, shot dead in a van she was thrown into.

The small group of Russians fighting for human rights in Russia, of which Natalia Estemirova was counted among, probably have a bigger fight on their hands than those of us here in America do. Amnesty International is asking all of us to demand a full investigation by Russian authorities into Estemirova's murder. She is only one among many, and she is the most recent.

Please join me in helping out this worthy cause.

Communication

I am becoming a huge fan of Joanna Newsom.



I was listening to an interview with her, listening to what she had to say about articulating her feelings, when it occurred to me that while God may have gifted everyone with the ability to speak, not everyone is an artist. I should say here that I hold her in the highest regard as an artist; I think she is incredibly talented. Everyone may have their own individual talent, or gift, but everyone also has their own individual way of communicating. Some people communicate by simply opening their mouths and talking to another person ... but there are others who can only communicate by writing a song or singing, or some other type of self-expression. And you can't force it; you can't expect a person to reveal their feelings on demand like so much pay-per-view television. And it's okay ... it's okay to only be able to express one's feelings in a big way, or a small way, or somewhere in-between.



Me personally, I can totally relate to Ms. Newsom's sentiments. I often find I have trouble communicating my feelings verbally; but if I can write it down and tell a story, my story, then it comes out better. Sometimes music is my expression, and setting my feelings to music, to perform on a stage under bright lights with an audience just makes it all the better. It has been many years since I've done that, but I'm confident that with a little practice I'd be right back at it.

But now is not the time for that. In the meantime, I have this blog, and that's good enough for me right now.