Newscoma

There was a conversation over at Music City Bloggers yesterday about terminology regarding what kind of blogger a person is.

I am playing armchair pundit here, but I think this sort of goes back to Joe’s post from earlier this week.

So, in trying to determine what kind of blogger I am, I think I determined this:

Bigfoot/RuralMedia/Left-LeaningPolitics/Zombie/IncrediblyLargeVegetables

BIG BREATH:

/MiddleAgedCrazy/CivilRights/Movies/Television

/MainstreamMediaCritique/Abunchofjustwhatcatchesmyeye

***panting***

Yeah, Joe, that quirky lefty, is right. We are more than just one thing.

I tease because I want to.

I love Carl Kolchak.

Yeah, I know he’s not real.

But, you know, just saying. He could do a lot in this day and age.

Because he would have done some dirty work on this.

You guys at Weekly World News, you are so missing out on my coolness. I think I should be given some fancy title, like Goddess.

Richard Matheson, tell them. Or not. Because that looks all stalkery on my part.

Loved I Am Legend.

Okay. I’ll stop.

Heh.

One of my favorite writers is the man who wrote many of the words that John F. Kennedy presented to a nation. Know these words “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”. Yeah, Ted Sorensen helped work on that speech even though Kennedy is credited for writing that particular gem.

What if he were to draft a speech for the democratic candidate who wins the nomination next fall?

Oh wait a minute, he already did.

Theodore C. Sorensen has written “The New Vision” at Washington Monthly. Here’s a snippet:

Our nation is emerging from eight years of misrule, a dark and difficult period in which our national honor and pride have been bruised and battered. But we are neither beaten nor broken. We are not helpless or afraid; because in this country the people rule, and the people want change.

There’s so much more and I encourage you to read the whole thing. The rhythm is perfect, the words, impressive.

Take a few minutes.

H/T to FDL

I don’t want you to think I’m telling you not to think positive. Thinking positive is a good thing. Making yourself happy, I’m all for that.

But this thing called “The Secret” just gives me the wiggums. Apparently the way it works is that you think positive and, “Wham” your life will get better. And I’m not moaning about that, I’m moaning about things I read like this the author encapsulates what her DVD is about. Of course thinking positively is going to make you feel better. But this DVD operates on a slightly different mindset.

“The law of attraction says that like attracts like, and when you think and feel what you want to attract on the inside, the law will use people, circumstances and events to magnetize what you want to you, and magnetize you to it,” Byrne said in an e-mail in response to several questions posed by The Associated Press.

Okay. fine. No problem with that even though it seems a bit simple to me. But then when you get further into it, because Oprah has touted it so that means an author is going to sell a million-thousand-cajillion copies of her work, you find stuff like this that makes me a bit queasy. My initial thought was, you know people don’t fail, events do. But if you aren’t privy to “The Secret” then does that set you up into not feeling worthy because you didn’t get in on it. I mean, the mantra is The Secret lists three required steps—“ask, believe, receive”—as the essence of the Law of Attraction.

Confusing stuff. But just because you ask doesn’t mean you will receive. I would like to think in a furry, happy, bunny world that would happen, but just because you want something won’t make it so. I want to work at Weekly World News and for Antonio Banderas to become my man about the house, but that ain’t going to happen, campers.

I’m not the only one questioning this. And some of what I’ve read I seriously wonder about.

However, the fear that “The Secret” will lead to a blame-the-victim mentality is a serious claim of critics.

For example, the book dismisses conditions such as a genetic predisposition to being overweight or a slow thyroid as “disguises for thinking ‘fat thoughts.’” And during times in which massive number of lives were lost, the book says, the “frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event.”

Psychotherapist and lifestyle coach Stacy Kaiser said that after reading “The Secret,” several patients have worried that it was their fault they were abused, or laid off from their jobs. Others seem to expect everything in their lives to change overnight, she said.

The Los Angeles-based Kaiser joined several other therapists who praised the positive thinking espoused in “The Secret,” but who question its failure to discuss action.

“People start to think that they don’t have to use their free will, that they don’t have to have power anymore, that they don’t have to make choices,” Kaiser said. “They don’t realize they have to do the work. And that’s the conversation I keep having to have with people.”

Although Maureen Dowd made me laugh when she said if “The Secret” would work for a change in the White House before the last election. Not soon enough, I’m afraid.

Now go back to that second graph. Fat thoughts. Oh for crying out loud. Yeah, go read it again. I’m waiting. This is where I get off the boat. “The Secret” doesn’t believe in genetic predisposition? and then this preposterous statement “And during times in which massive number of lives were lost, the book says, the “frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event.”

I call BS on that, sorry.

Now, if you dig “The Secret” I’m not raining on your parade. If it changes your life for the better, I applaud you. Do what you have to do.

There are tons of self-help books out there that ran their course. There are some that stick around. Norman Vincent Peale wrote “The Power of Positive Thinking” who was criticized himself back in the day but coined the phrase:

• Change your thoughts and you change your world.

I’m waiting for the “Save The Cheerleader, Save the World” obligatory comment so I’ll just do it for you.

Now, If it was such a “Secret” then why was Peale writing this a half a century ago. Wait, it’s a DVD, that makes it all better and bright and shiny and new. But I see the potential for a lot of victim blaming with this concept and that “The Secret” seems to be something on the lines of Anthony Robbins, who at least was a bit self-deprecating when he was made fun of. What happened to him? hmmmm…

These books/films to improve your life aren’t new by any stretch of the imagination. It’s most likely helpful to be able to read a book and feel like you can change your life for the better because someone told you what to do. I’ve bought some of these books, I understand the quick fix. But just because you want something doesn’t mean you are going to get it. Sorry campers. The bottom line, in my opinion, is you have to take action in your life to get to the next stage.

Just writing it down on a piece of paper and thinking “Make it So” just isn’t going to work.

Back to your regular scheduled programming of Newscoma, who would really like a pony.

Yeah, I’ve written a couple of books. They aren’t very good although I do give myself credit for being very weird as they are horror novels. I’ve finished one, working on a second and just ramble in a third.

And, no, you can’t read them because I’m sort of embarrassed about it all.

So, I read other people who can dispose great doses of wisdom to me and I try to pay attention. Unfortunately, something bright and shiny catches my eye and I forget to write. So, this weekend, mainly due to an e-mail exchange I had with Rick, I pulled the manuscripts up and read through one of them.

Not bad, but not great.

This morning, I went over to Jane Espenson’s blog and decided to forgo looking at the bright and shiny as I’m wont to do and read her words of wisdom.

Here’s what she said:

Sharpen it up. (Or, if a better concept has emerged during the writing, sharpen that one up.) This is a good time to quiz your test readers. Ask them what the basic idea of the story was and see if they got it. You want people to read your script and not just see a bunch of stuff that happens. You want them to see a story that hangs together as a whole, and that little one-sentence notion is the stapler that makes that happen.

She’s going to be writing for Battlestar Galactica this upcoming season, which I think will be just about damned skippy.

Back to writing. Here’s why I wrote a horror novel. Here’s another reason I keep it locked up (well, on a flashcard actually.) I went to Wally World and noticed all of the paranormal romance novels. I told Squirrel Queen, “I think I can do that.”

She laughed. I mean, snorted. Chuckled herself into a tizzy. I was challenged and so I thought, “Let’s go.”

It was fun. Now, I’m not brave enough like Aunt B. to actually let anyone read it (and hell, if she isn’t kicking some butt by having her play presented in Boston due to her courage) other than Homer and SQ. But it was a great exercise in a couple of things.

I disciplined myself enough to do it. And the other thing I did was have a start, a finish and an end. And some of it is just downright gruesome. I love that.
I’m working on the others. It’s a hobby as much as blogging and it’s neat to have written something that I can look at and absorb. Sometimes, you can amaze yourself.

It pleases no one but me. I think anyone who writes professionally should try it. Where am I going with this? Nowhere other than that if you think you can do something, then just do it.

(Now go ahead and make fun of me for not letting anyone see it. Call me a chicken butt. I can take it.)

Elizabeth writes this about her observations of working at our newspaper. I am, I know my readers will find this hard to believe, Boss Lady:

Boss Lady went to a meeting. I was worried when she didn’t come back for an obscene amount of time. I had horrifying thoughts of ropes, gags, and ransom notes. Might not be horrifying to you if ropes and gags are your thing, but that’s an entirely separate post.

But truth, justice, and the journalistic way prevailed and our fearless leader came back to us with a few less brain cells and a subdued swagger. I think I heard her speak in tongues for a few seconds after her arrival. And hark! The sidekick Jerm-ee walked in 15 minutes behind her. I don’t know if it’s because he had work to do or if he considers the WCP as a fallout shelter, but either way, it was a good day.

Hee. My swagger, was indeed, subdued.

I have a new post over at Tastes Geek Less Filling if you are so inclined. And I gave a presentation with a broken tooth in my mouth and it went well.

Yay me.

Lail reviews a book titled “The Myths of Innovation.” Here’s some of the stuff he got out of it.

Here I was visiting Rosslyn Chapel, a fascinating medieval chapel wrapped in “Da Vinci Code” lore, the legendary hiding place of the Holy Grail and other treasures, reading a book about the modern-day holy grail: the secret of how to innovate and be creative.

Everybody wants the secret. For an industry like I’m in, the mainstream media with its troubled papers, innovation is a magic elixir, the sword in the stone, the philosopher’s stone. Our modern-day fascination with innovation is almost medieval in its mysticism. Seers and stars abound as do fakers and shames.

I think I’m going to have to go and get this book he’s talking about.

Read the whole thing and be sure to read his list of points. He has a lot of other good stuff over there at Random Mumblings. 

Eric Alterman was arrested. If you don’t know who Alterman is, you might want to go here.

Here’s what happened, and here’s Alterman’s response.

I find the whole thing somewhat interesting.

Those words are not mine.

Reason #356 I love going to read Scout.

With one motion of her red ink pen, she had the power to destroy your life and chop your work up into neat little bits, but she was the best English teacher in history. Well, at least in my history. She’d hand students back research papers that had been torn to shreds or had so many red marks that they’d been given negative grades, but Mrs. Gearin was, at least, very respected. You either liked or hated her. She either liked or hated you. There was no in between.

I liked Gearin too. She was inspirational and I did my English paper on Tennessee Williams and another on Truman Capote back when Literature gave me a view of the world I didn’t know while I was growing up in a small town before I finally got to see some of it and it became tangible.

And I like Scout. Her post was honest and brave.

Off the cough syrup high. And I meant every word I wrote earlier. I’m talking to someone in particular.

He knows who he is.

Brittney put this up, but I have to tell you, I think this place on the web was specifically designated for my buddies Finn and Scout to see:

Signs you might be afflicted with the condition known as WRITER:

• You would rather talk to the voices in your head than the person sitting next to you.

• You know the research librarian’s office, cell, and home phone numbers but can’t remember your own.

• Some of the letters on your keyboard are completely worn off.

• You would rather write than go out.

• Your/you’re and their/there/they’re errors send you into an apoplectic fit.

• You get cranky if you don’t get to write.

• You’ve ever said, “The voices are getting louder; I must go write.”

Go check out Kaye Dacus’s Write Place, Write Time.