I got this from Amnesty International. Please sign the petition.
Naser al Raas: Canadian could face 5 years in jail in Bahrain
Join Amnesty International in standing up for his right to freedom of expression, association and assembly
October 27, 2011,
Dear Human Rights Supporter,
Facing 5 years for participating in a protest
Naser al Raas, Family photo
Naser al Raas speaks to us from Bahrain
Watch a skype message from Naser | Take action
In three weeks, a Canadian citizen could begin a lengthy and unjust jail term in Bahrain. He has already been tortured, held in solitary confinement for one month, released, and has now been sentenced to charges that could lead to 5 years in a prison in Bahrain.
Naser al Raas's crime? ... participating in a peaceful protest.
What Bahrain is calling a "crime" is the internationally recognized right of freedom of expression, association and assembly. It is a universal right (Article 20) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that protects you, me and people like Naser from tyranny and repression from governments.
Bahrain's cruel treatment of Naser is a violation of his fundamental rights and a clear demonstration of the path of repression, a path Bahrain has taken repeatedly in reaction to the Arab Spring.
Amnesty International is standing behind Naser al Raas. The charges should be dropped. The sentence should be quashed. He should not go to prison. It's as clear and simple as that.
Please join us in calling on Bahrain to drop the case against Naser.
Naser al Raas' story
Naser is a 28 year-old Canadian engineer, currently working in Kuwait. He was visiting his in-laws in Bahrain when he was arrested at the airport on his way home on March 20, accused of participating in the waves of Arab Spring protests taking place in Bahrain. He spent a month in Bahrain's notorious Al Qala prison, where he says he was beaten daily, and witnessed the ongoing torture of others in the prison. He is currently with his fiancée in Bahrain, awaiting a ruling on an appeal, and is unable to leave the country.
"Thanks to Amnesty and the international community who care about human rights. And that's it. That's me. I am here."
- Watch a skype interview with Naser recorded October 27, 2011.
The right to freedom of expression, association and assembly
In 1948 almost every country in the world - including Bahrain - signed the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are the rights that protect human dignity and protect each of us - no matter who we are, or where we live - from arbitrary, repressive acts of governments. Bahrain's brutal crackdown on its own citizens throughout the Arab Spring, and its treatment of Naser al Raas, is why we need to stand up against state violations of freedom of assembly.
Amnesty International's influence comes from the many voices of people like you who draw the line when our rights are violated, as they have been in so many ways for Naser al Raas.
All governments also have the responsibility to protect their own citizens. Amnesty International has raised the case with the Canadian government to urge that Canada use the weight of its highest offices to ensure that this trial does not go forward and that Naser be free to leave Bahrain.
Help us now urge Bahrain to drop these charges immediately and allow Naser to leave the country.
Thank you for your steadfast commitment to human rights. It's your support that enables us to be a powerful and effective voice for people like Naser.
Sincerely,
Alex Neve
Alex Neve,
Secretary-General
Amnesty International Canadian Section
Monday, October 31, 2011
job search/ child labor/ charity
Oct. 27 Job search: I called the medical office yesterday to see if I got hired. They didn't return my call. I can assume if they wanted to hire me, they would have called by now. They said to get a call by Mon. of this week, and start at the end of Oct.
I called the postal office yesterday, and they didn't return my call. I can assume they hired someone else. That's fine.
Oct. 29 Jenny Hyun: This is a Korean-American singer/ songwriter. Here's her website, where you can listen to her pop/ dance music: http://www.onlinejenny.com/
It turns out some of her songs have been produced and sang by an Asian girl group called Girl's Generation. I thought that was so cool and inspirational that she's being recognized for her work. I know how that feels when my two short stories got published.
Email:
Hi
I'm Tracy and I have been following your blog here and there since 2001. I have also emailed you from time to time. I just wanted to congratulate you on being recognized for your song writing efforts like "How great is your love (Spring Day)":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOlnLwA3Cc
And "Mistake":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCYjOmEyqCg
I was looking for the song on your site to hear you sing it, but it's not here.
Well congrats.
Email:
Thanks Tracy, I really appreciate your message. I'm glad you enjoy my music and thanks for remembering me!
Jenny
Stay motivated: I got this from an Alberta Job Centre newsletter. It's about getting rejected for jobs and to stay motivated is: To network, talk to a career coach, make small goals each day like research 3 companies, etc.
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectID=D53F3C4B-2219-80B4-5334E9A1789D7D05&utm_source=Albertajobcentre.ca&utm_campaign=6018f48e9b-AB_Career_Oct_05_1110_5_2011&utm_medium=email
Guerilla job search secrets: This is from Alberta Job Centre too, but I really like this article. Do you remember the Youtube sensation Ted Williams? He was a homeless, black guy who had the voice of a radio station DJ. He got a job that way.
1) Ted got out of the house and met people
2) Ted didn’t use an ordinary resume
3) Ted didn’t interview, he performed
4) Ted kept a positive outlook
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectid=9C0414D2-2219-80B4-53DCD13C47716A89
Child labor: I was watching Tropic of Cancer which is a documentary series on BBC World News. They go to Bangdelesh where kids as young as 9 yrs old work at a glass factory. The kids need money. The factory says they like to hire kids, because they're cheap labor, they have nimble fingers, and complain less than adults.
They showed one kid who has his arm burned. There are men there, and they're in their 30s and have worked there since they're kids. They like kids to work there because if the kids don't, they will go out and beg and steal. So work is good.
However, the factory does let the boys leave for a few hours a day to go to this place run by Unicef. The place is for kids to have a free lunch, take a shower, play games, just simply be a kid. So please donate to Unicef, because it's a good charity.
Charity: Yesterday I got a phone call to donate to charity. Well it was for my dad, but since I picked up, I got the spiel. It's to pay to see a show, and the proceeds will go to charity. If you don't go, then the tickets will be donated to less privileged children so they can watch it. I turned them down.
Hungersite: Let's just say I don't have much money to be able to donate. I can only afford to go towww.hungersite.com and click to give free food. There are other charities there to donate by clicking. The sponsors pay for it. You can buy merchandise from the website, and the money will go to charity.
Amnesty International: I also get newsletters from Amnesty International and then I forward it to you guys, and put it up on my blog. It's informative to know what's going on in the world. I also sign petitions because I can't afford to donate money.
Oct. 31 Celebrity philanthropy: What a coincidence, the Globe and Mail are having this week all about charity. There's discussions about celebrities that are philanthropists like Brad Pitt and Angelina donating millions of dollars to help 3rd world countries, Oprah building schools in Africa, and Bill Gates foundation.
There are the average celebrity donors like Nelly Furtado. She performed for Moammar Gaddhaffi and then donated her proceeds to charity. Madonna is kind of eh, when it turns out her brother has been homeless for over a year. I did read that Madonna tried to get him help by signing him into rehab, but it didn't work.
Wasting food: I found this good article on Yahoo about how to not waste food and money. Things like buy less food so it won't spoil, freeze food, etc. The tips are good. One comment was that it was obvious. I would like to mention one tip they forgot: Buy food that won't spoil like canned foods and cereal. It lasts longer.
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/15-Ways-to-Stop-Wasting-Money-usnews-4047759464.html?&mod=pf-sp14b
New friend: I made a new friend last week at work. Her name's Shannon, and she and I have the same sense of humor. We both like Summer Heights High, MADtv, and Arrested Development.
Comparisons: I was thinking about that Summer Heights High joke about the kid Jonah who falsely accused dad of touching him to get out English class. My writer's imagination thought of: "What if you can't fake sick or skip class? You can't skip or you'll get detention. You can't fake sick, because you were caught at the mall when you're supposed to be at home. You have to get out of class because there's a big test that's worth 20% of your mark that you didn't really study for. What would you do?"
I have raised the stakes. I thought of maybe starting a fight with another kid, then you can be sent to the office and miss class. But that's a consequence and you may get suspended and/or hurt in the fight. I then thought: "Pull the fire alarm."
Pulling the fire alarm to get out of a test: Then I thought, that's actually been done before. On The Secret World of Alex Mack, in the first season. It was a TV show in the early 90s. This girl pulls the fire alarm, and AM proves it's her. The Girl always wore these silver bangle bracelets, and AM then hung the bracelet on the fire alarm.
It was done on Degrassi. Spinner didn't really study, and his friend Jimmy pulled the fire alarm in the middle of the test to buy S some time to study. It was done again years later on the same show, but Claire puts a stink bomb to prevent a school fight, but it was during exam week.
It was kind of done on The Simpsons where Bart falls in loves with Jessica Lovejoy. J pulls the fire alarm.
Groundskeeper Willy: If I don't save the wee turtles, who will?
GW enters the room. He comes out with the turtles biting on him.
GW: Ah, save me from the wee turtles!
lol.
I called the postal office yesterday, and they didn't return my call. I can assume they hired someone else. That's fine.
Oct. 29 Jenny Hyun: This is a Korean-American singer/ songwriter. Here's her website, where you can listen to her pop/ dance music: http://www.onlinejenny.com/
It turns out some of her songs have been produced and sang by an Asian girl group called Girl's Generation. I thought that was so cool and inspirational that she's being recognized for her work. I know how that feels when my two short stories got published.
Email:
Hi
I'm Tracy and I have been following your blog here and there since 2001. I have also emailed you from time to time. I just wanted to congratulate you on being recognized for your song writing efforts like "How great is your love (Spring Day)":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuOlnLwA3Cc
And "Mistake":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCYjOmEyqCg
I was looking for the song on your site to hear you sing it, but it's not here.
Well congrats.
Email:
Thanks Tracy, I really appreciate your message. I'm glad you enjoy my music and thanks for remembering me!
Jenny
Stay motivated: I got this from an Alberta Job Centre newsletter. It's about getting rejected for jobs and to stay motivated is: To network, talk to a career coach, make small goals each day like research 3 companies, etc.
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectID=D53F3C4B-2219-80B4-5334E9A1789D7D05&utm_source=Albertajobcentre.ca&utm_campaign=6018f48e9b-AB_Career_Oct_05_1110_5_2011&utm_medium=email
Guerilla job search secrets: This is from Alberta Job Centre too, but I really like this article. Do you remember the Youtube sensation Ted Williams? He was a homeless, black guy who had the voice of a radio station DJ. He got a job that way.
1) Ted got out of the house and met people
2) Ted didn’t use an ordinary resume
3) Ted didn’t interview, he performed
4) Ted kept a positive outlook
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectid=9C0414D2-2219-80B4-53DCD13C47716A89
Child labor: I was watching Tropic of Cancer which is a documentary series on BBC World News. They go to Bangdelesh where kids as young as 9 yrs old work at a glass factory. The kids need money. The factory says they like to hire kids, because they're cheap labor, they have nimble fingers, and complain less than adults.
They showed one kid who has his arm burned. There are men there, and they're in their 30s and have worked there since they're kids. They like kids to work there because if the kids don't, they will go out and beg and steal. So work is good.
However, the factory does let the boys leave for a few hours a day to go to this place run by Unicef. The place is for kids to have a free lunch, take a shower, play games, just simply be a kid. So please donate to Unicef, because it's a good charity.
Charity: Yesterday I got a phone call to donate to charity. Well it was for my dad, but since I picked up, I got the spiel. It's to pay to see a show, and the proceeds will go to charity. If you don't go, then the tickets will be donated to less privileged children so they can watch it. I turned them down.
Hungersite: Let's just say I don't have much money to be able to donate. I can only afford to go to
Amnesty International: I also get newsletters from Amnesty International and then I forward it to you guys, and put it up on my blog. It's informative to know what's going on in the world. I also sign petitions because I can't afford to donate money.
Oct. 31 Celebrity philanthropy: What a coincidence, the Globe and Mail are having this week all about charity. There's discussions about celebrities that are philanthropists like Brad Pitt and Angelina donating millions of dollars to help 3rd world countries, Oprah building schools in Africa, and Bill Gates foundation.
There are the average celebrity donors like Nelly Furtado. She performed for Moammar Gaddhaffi and then donated her proceeds to charity. Madonna is kind of eh, when it turns out her brother has been homeless for over a year. I did read that Madonna tried to get him help by signing him into rehab, but it didn't work.
Wasting food: I found this good article on Yahoo about how to not waste food and money. Things like buy less food so it won't spoil, freeze food, etc. The tips are good. One comment was that it was obvious. I would like to mention one tip they forgot: Buy food that won't spoil like canned foods and cereal. It lasts longer.
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/15-Ways-to-Stop-Wasting-Money-usnews-4047759464.html?&mod=pf-sp14b
New friend: I made a new friend last week at work. Her name's Shannon, and she and I have the same sense of humor. We both like Summer Heights High, MADtv, and Arrested Development.
Comparisons: I was thinking about that Summer Heights High joke about the kid Jonah who falsely accused dad of touching him to get out English class. My writer's imagination thought of: "What if you can't fake sick or skip class? You can't skip or you'll get detention. You can't fake sick, because you were caught at the mall when you're supposed to be at home. You have to get out of class because there's a big test that's worth 20% of your mark that you didn't really study for. What would you do?"
I have raised the stakes. I thought of maybe starting a fight with another kid, then you can be sent to the office and miss class. But that's a consequence and you may get suspended and/or hurt in the fight. I then thought: "Pull the fire alarm."
Pulling the fire alarm to get out of a test: Then I thought, that's actually been done before. On The Secret World of Alex Mack, in the first season. It was a TV show in the early 90s. This girl pulls the fire alarm, and AM proves it's her. The Girl always wore these silver bangle bracelets, and AM then hung the bracelet on the fire alarm.
It was done on Degrassi. Spinner didn't really study, and his friend Jimmy pulled the fire alarm in the middle of the test to buy S some time to study. It was done again years later on the same show, but Claire puts a stink bomb to prevent a school fight, but it was during exam week.
It was kind of done on The Simpsons where Bart falls in loves with Jessica Lovejoy. J pulls the fire alarm.
Groundskeeper Willy: If I don't save the wee turtles, who will?
GW enters the room. He comes out with the turtles biting on him.
GW: Ah, save me from the wee turtles!
lol.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Why is Iran locking up its students? (Amnesty International)
I got this from Amnesty International. I signed the petition, and so should you.
Visit Amnesty's virtual Azadi Square - where we're taking a stand for all Iran's peaceful student protesters.
It's called Azadi Square - literally "Freedom Square" in Persian.
For decades, it has been the central point of human rights activism in Iran. Two years ago, when the disputed results of a presidential election compelled many to take to the streets, Azadi Square was the backdrop of countless student protests. Although the protests began as peaceful, protesters were met with violence once riot police were dispersed.
Two students who were swept up in the resulting wave of government crackdowns that followed were Behareh Hedayat and Majid Tavakkoli.
Behareh - an economics student turned women's rights advocate is now serving 10 years in prison sentence for her activism.
Majid - a shipbuilding student turned prominent student leader is now serving nine years in prison for his activism.
We can't think of a better place to take a stand for their rights and the rights of all Iran's peaceful student protesters than in Azadi Square.
Demand the release of all Iran's peaceful student protesters!
Starting today, we're opening up a virtual Azadi Square to supporters worldwide. In the virtual Azadi Square, all human rights are protected - including freedom of expression, assembly and association.
That is why we're inviting you to join us in sending a powerful message to the Iranian government. Even if students are imprisoned for their activism, their calls for human rights can never be silenced!
For every 10,000 signatures gathered on our petition for protecting student's rights in Iran, Amnesty representatives will publicly present your signatures in a new and powerful way. But you'll have to keep checking back to find out what we'll do next!
Visit Amnesty's Azadi Square and stand up for the rights of student protesters in Iran!
Behareh Hedayat and Majid Tavakkoli, like many others, were simply students who spoke publicly about their political opinions. They do not deserve this injustice.
Take action now and give them hope. Demonstrate the power of standing together for human rights!
Thank You,
Elise Auerbach
Country Specialist, Iran
Amnesty International USA
Visit Amnesty's virtual Azadi Square - where we're taking a stand for all Iran's peaceful student protesters.
It's called Azadi Square - literally "Freedom Square" in Persian.
For decades, it has been the central point of human rights activism in Iran. Two years ago, when the disputed results of a presidential election compelled many to take to the streets, Azadi Square was the backdrop of countless student protests. Although the protests began as peaceful, protesters were met with violence once riot police were dispersed.
Two students who were swept up in the resulting wave of government crackdowns that followed were Behareh Hedayat and Majid Tavakkoli.
Behareh - an economics student turned women's rights advocate is now serving 10 years in prison sentence for her activism.
Majid - a shipbuilding student turned prominent student leader is now serving nine years in prison for his activism.
We can't think of a better place to take a stand for their rights and the rights of all Iran's peaceful student protesters than in Azadi Square.
Demand the release of all Iran's peaceful student protesters!
Starting today, we're opening up a virtual Azadi Square to supporters worldwide. In the virtual Azadi Square, all human rights are protected - including freedom of expression, assembly and association.
That is why we're inviting you to join us in sending a powerful message to the Iranian government. Even if students are imprisoned for their activism, their calls for human rights can never be silenced!
For every 10,000 signatures gathered on our petition for protecting student's rights in Iran, Amnesty representatives will publicly present your signatures in a new and powerful way. But you'll have to keep checking back to find out what we'll do next!
Visit Amnesty's Azadi Square and stand up for the rights of student protesters in Iran!
Behareh Hedayat and Majid Tavakkoli, like many others, were simply students who spoke publicly about their political opinions. They do not deserve this injustice.
Take action now and give them hope. Demonstrate the power of standing together for human rights!
Thank You,
Elise Auerbach
Country Specialist, Iran
Amnesty International USA
funny pic/ Wordle/ safety
Oct. 26 Funny picture: Here's the fun email of the week. I submitted my 79 headlines and pictures to Jay Leno today. I have a picture from the Globe and Mail on Sept. 17,2011. The picture is of a young woman talking to people in an office, and an overweight man in a Superman outfit is standing beside her.
You're like: "What?" The caption says: "Charmaine Borg, 20, centre, spent the summer introducing herself to her constituents in Terrebonne-Blainville." There is no mention of the guy in the Superman suit. I remember reading a letter a few days later with someone asking who that was. lol.
Nice: Yesterday I asked my sister if I could buy a manila envelope from her so I could send in the headlines, she gave me the envelope free of charge. So that was nice.
Ebay: I was watching Jay Leno's segment "Stuff we found on Ebay." The audience guess if it's sold or not sold. There is a pencil drawing of Justin Beiber by a prison inmate. I thought the art was really good because it really looked like JB. I thought "Sold" because it's good and could be considered "outsider art" because an inmate did it. It was not sold.
There was "Skype date with hot woman." She won't show her body, it will be good conversation. The starting bid was 99 cents. Men say: "Sold." Woman say: "Not sold." It was sold for $490. Damn, that's good. I guess there are a lot of lonely people, and they just want to connect with someone.
News: Jay Leno cracked a joke about this in the news.
JL: Men are more likely to say "I love you" first. But they don't mean it!
lol.
Jokes:
JL: NBC cancelled Charlie's Angels. They cancelled it when they realized it was still on.
Audience laughs.
JL: They could bring it back and call it So You Think You Can Act.
Laughing about death: I was watching Desperate Housewives, and Susan is in art class. She tells this Asian woman next to her that she uses the pain from her 9 yr old son leaving for school, without giving her a hug or a kiss.
Asian woman: I'm using my pain from my dad's suicide.
Then in class they're supposed to sketch this naked man, but Susan can't stop giggling.
S (to woman): Quick, tell me about your dad's suicide.
Question: I was reading Seventeen magazine and they asked the question: "Would you take $1000 or go on a date with Justin Beiber?" 75% said they would take the $1000. One girl said: "$1000 would last longer, than one night with someone."
You put any celebrity you want to meet, and my friend Angela said: "$1000, because most celebrities are stupid." I posed the question to my sister, but with Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and she would pick him over the money.
I read about happiness articles in the Globe and Mail Life section, and they say go with the experiences to make you happy. I would probably go on a date with the actor David Anders (Vampire Diaries) over $1000. I can get money, but meeting a celebrity doesn't happen to me very often.
I have met the British boy band Blue back in 2002, and got to hug my favorite member Lee Ryan. I met the singer/ actor Kyle Riabko twice. When I met them, I was very happy. I have fond memories.
Game: My friend Heather put this on her Facebook wall. There's this crossword puzzle. The first 4 words you see in the jumble, describes you. I got: passion, outgoing, impatient, loyal.
Wordle: I found this website called: http://www.wordle.net/
I get Alberta Job Centre newsletters and it lead me to this article about it: "Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."
It's like art and words put together. I've seen it before, but I didn't know it was called Wordle. Check it out:
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectid=2221E86B-2219-80B4-5383694FAC6CE51D&utm_source=Albertajobcentre.ca&utm_campaign=89f97517fc-AB_Career_Oct_20_201110_20_2011&utm_medium=email
Oct. 28 Daily silly: I got this through Daily silly. Here's a death joke:
"A man placed some flowers on the grave of his dearly departed mother and started back toward his car when his attention was diverted to another man kneeling at a grave. The man seemed to be praying with profound intensity and kept repeating, "Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die?" The first man approached him and said, "Sir, I don’t wish to interfere with your private grief, but this demonstration of pain is more than I’ve ever seen before. For whom do you mourn so deeply? A child? A parent?" The mourner took a moment to collect himself, then replied, "My wife’s first husband."
Hotel interviews: Today I did two job interviews at two different hotels. They're similar because they use the same computer program, and the shifts are from 7am-3pm or 3pm-11pm.
The first interview was in the morning. I got there and filled out an application. The interview was okay. There are 8 applicants for 1 position. He said there was low turnover and there are only certain days that are really busy. I think they're looking for someone with open availability. They had 3 people who are in school, and they have set shifts that others work around it.
I don't want to work at night. It would be a 15min bus ride from my work to get there. It seems like a lot of effort to get there, and they really want you to work at night. I sometimes work at night, but I leave at 9pm and I like the bus station that's well- lit.
The second interview was okay. They either hire one full-time person or a few part-time people, like most jobs do. I would rather work here because it's easier to get to, and no night shifts.
Rant: This is a mild rant. There's another busser who works here, and he gets full-time hours. That's because he works night shifts, and 3 day shifts a week. I don't resent him or the boss, but I want more hours. Whenever another department needs me, I work there. I did 2 split shifts this month.
Another mild rant is that I was going through my notes, and it turns out I turned down a production company. I never turn them down. But then I checked my email, it's a production company asking to read a 1 page synopsis, and not the whole script. So I didn't really turn them down.
Oct. 29 Safety: I was reading in the Globe and Mail Life section. David McRaney wrote a book called You Are Not So Smart about self- delusions. There's a thing called "normalcy bias" about how people don't rush to save their own lives. People stand around die as their ship sinks or a building is on fire.
DM: When it comes to something scary, or dangerous, or life-threatening, the first thing we want to believe is that things are not dangerous or scary. We really try to convince ourselves that everything is okay. You hear an explosion in your building- you don't immediately jump up and go "Get the hell of here!" No one does that unless they've been trained, which is why it's important to take the drill seriously. They teach you to get pass the normalcy bias.
You're like: "What?" The caption says: "Charmaine Borg, 20, centre, spent the summer introducing herself to her constituents in Terrebonne-Blainville." There is no mention of the guy in the Superman suit. I remember reading a letter a few days later with someone asking who that was. lol.
Nice: Yesterday I asked my sister if I could buy a manila envelope from her so I could send in the headlines, she gave me the envelope free of charge. So that was nice.
Ebay: I was watching Jay Leno's segment "Stuff we found on Ebay." The audience guess if it's sold or not sold. There is a pencil drawing of Justin Beiber by a prison inmate. I thought the art was really good because it really looked like JB. I thought "Sold" because it's good and could be considered "outsider art" because an inmate did it. It was not sold.
There was "Skype date with hot woman." She won't show her body, it will be good conversation. The starting bid was 99 cents. Men say: "Sold." Woman say: "Not sold." It was sold for $490. Damn, that's good. I guess there are a lot of lonely people, and they just want to connect with someone.
News: Jay Leno cracked a joke about this in the news.
JL: Men are more likely to say "I love you" first. But they don't mean it!
lol.
Jokes:
JL: NBC cancelled Charlie's Angels. They cancelled it when they realized it was still on.
Audience laughs.
JL: They could bring it back and call it So You Think You Can Act.
Laughing about death: I was watching Desperate Housewives, and Susan is in art class. She tells this Asian woman next to her that she uses the pain from her 9 yr old son leaving for school, without giving her a hug or a kiss.
Asian woman: I'm using my pain from my dad's suicide.
Then in class they're supposed to sketch this naked man, but Susan can't stop giggling.
S (to woman): Quick, tell me about your dad's suicide.
Question: I was reading Seventeen magazine and they asked the question: "Would you take $1000 or go on a date with Justin Beiber?" 75% said they would take the $1000. One girl said: "$1000 would last longer, than one night with someone."
You put any celebrity you want to meet, and my friend Angela said: "$1000, because most celebrities are stupid." I posed the question to my sister, but with Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and she would pick him over the money.
I read about happiness articles in the Globe and Mail Life section, and they say go with the experiences to make you happy. I would probably go on a date with the actor David Anders (Vampire Diaries) over $1000. I can get money, but meeting a celebrity doesn't happen to me very often.
I have met the British boy band Blue back in 2002, and got to hug my favorite member Lee Ryan. I met the singer/ actor Kyle Riabko twice. When I met them, I was very happy. I have fond memories.
Game: My friend Heather put this on her Facebook wall. There's this crossword puzzle. The first 4 words you see in the jumble, describes you. I got: passion, outgoing, impatient, loyal.
Wordle: I found this website called: http://www.wordle.net/
I get Alberta Job Centre newsletters and it lead me to this article about it: "Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."
It's like art and words put together. I've seen it before, but I didn't know it was called Wordle. Check it out:
http://www.albertajobcentre.ca/content/index.cfm?objectid=2221E86B-2219-80B4-5383694FAC6CE51D&utm_source=Albertajobcentre.ca&utm_campaign=89f97517fc-AB_Career_Oct_20_201110_20_2011&utm_medium=email
Oct. 28 Daily silly: I got this through Daily silly. Here's a death joke:
"A man placed some flowers on the grave of his dearly departed mother and started back toward his car when his attention was diverted to another man kneeling at a grave. The man seemed to be praying with profound intensity and kept repeating, "Why did you have to die? Why did you have to die?" The first man approached him and said, "Sir, I don’t wish to interfere with your private grief, but this demonstration of pain is more than I’ve ever seen before. For whom do you mourn so deeply? A child? A parent?" The mourner took a moment to collect himself, then replied, "My wife’s first husband."
Hotel interviews: Today I did two job interviews at two different hotels. They're similar because they use the same computer program, and the shifts are from 7am-3pm or 3pm-11pm.
The first interview was in the morning. I got there and filled out an application. The interview was okay. There are 8 applicants for 1 position. He said there was low turnover and there are only certain days that are really busy. I think they're looking for someone with open availability. They had 3 people who are in school, and they have set shifts that others work around it.
I don't want to work at night. It would be a 15min bus ride from my work to get there. It seems like a lot of effort to get there, and they really want you to work at night. I sometimes work at night, but I leave at 9pm and I like the bus station that's well- lit.
The second interview was okay. They either hire one full-time person or a few part-time people, like most jobs do. I would rather work here because it's easier to get to, and no night shifts.
Rant: This is a mild rant. There's another busser who works here, and he gets full-time hours. That's because he works night shifts, and 3 day shifts a week. I don't resent him or the boss, but I want more hours. Whenever another department needs me, I work there. I did 2 split shifts this month.
Another mild rant is that I was going through my notes, and it turns out I turned down a production company. I never turn them down. But then I checked my email, it's a production company asking to read a 1 page synopsis, and not the whole script. So I didn't really turn them down.
Oct. 29 Safety: I was reading in the Globe and Mail Life section. David McRaney wrote a book called You Are Not So Smart about self- delusions. There's a thing called "normalcy bias" about how people don't rush to save their own lives. People stand around die as their ship sinks or a building is on fire.
DM: When it comes to something scary, or dangerous, or life-threatening, the first thing we want to believe is that things are not dangerous or scary. We really try to convince ourselves that everything is okay. You hear an explosion in your building- you don't immediately jump up and go "Get the hell of here!" No one does that unless they've been trained, which is why it's important to take the drill seriously. They teach you to get pass the normalcy bias.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Nobel Prize winner still in jail (Amnesty International)
Here's the link to an "Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon" to help human rights for inviduals are being supported.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/?c=W0010EAIAR4&msource=W0010EAIAR4&tr=y&auid=9715327
Dear Supporter,
Earlier this month, three women were named recipients of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting women's rights and women's participation in peace-building. Yet, the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese human rights defender Liu Xiaobo, still languishes behind prison bars for seeking to promote peaceful political and social reforms in China.
In the days surrounding International Human Rights Day (December 10), you can shine a light for Liu Xiaobo and for others whose rights have been denied.
We're asking you to take one simple action: Write a letter.
This can be a letter of passion and outrage to a government guilty of repressing free expression and denying other human rights.
Or it can be a letter of solidarity and hope sent directly to someone who needs reassurance that they are not alone.
Liu Xiaobo is just one case featured in this year's annual Write for Rights - Global Write-a-thon - Amnesty's largest global human rights event. Sign up now and let your letters be counted!
Since Amnesty's founding 50 years ago, people throughout the world have joined together in classrooms, coffee houses and community centers to take action. They were united by a simple, yet powerful, tool for change - the letter.
Need proof that written words are powerful? Look no further than Liu Xiaobo - whose words of hope and freedom are seen as such a threat by authorities in China that they have imprisoned him because of them.
Now he and others need you to carry their torch by picking up a pen. You don't need to be a Nobel Prize winner to Write for Rights! Stand with human rights supporters around the world by joining the Global Write-a-thon.
With hope,
Michael O'Reilly
Senior Campaign Director
Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA
http://www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/?c=W0010EAIAR4&msource=W0010EAIAR4&tr=y&auid=9715327
Dear Supporter,
Earlier this month, three women were named recipients of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting women's rights and women's participation in peace-building. Yet, the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese human rights defender Liu Xiaobo, still languishes behind prison bars for seeking to promote peaceful political and social reforms in China.
In the days surrounding International Human Rights Day (December 10), you can shine a light for Liu Xiaobo and for others whose rights have been denied.
We're asking you to take one simple action: Write a letter.
This can be a letter of passion and outrage to a government guilty of repressing free expression and denying other human rights.
Or it can be a letter of solidarity and hope sent directly to someone who needs reassurance that they are not alone.
Liu Xiaobo is just one case featured in this year's annual Write for Rights - Global Write-a-thon - Amnesty's largest global human rights event. Sign up now and let your letters be counted!
Since Amnesty's founding 50 years ago, people throughout the world have joined together in classrooms, coffee houses and community centers to take action. They were united by a simple, yet powerful, tool for change - the letter.
Need proof that written words are powerful? Look no further than Liu Xiaobo - whose words of hope and freedom are seen as such a threat by authorities in China that they have imprisoned him because of them.
Now he and others need you to carry their torch by picking up a pen. You don't need to be a Nobel Prize winner to Write for Rights! Stand with human rights supporters around the world by joining the Global Write-a-thon.
With hope,
Michael O'Reilly
Senior Campaign Director
Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA
Occupy Wall Street/ Europe economy/ Spooktree Films
Oct. 24 Occupy Wall Street: I was reading in the Globe and Mail about the people protesting on Wall Street. 15% are unemployed and 18% are underemployed. So there are people that don't have jobs to go to. I don't protest things because I just don't like standing around with signs. I'll complain on my blog.
My sister was dissing them when we were talking about it at dinner. There is no clear agenda to what they want to achieve. They want jobs, and hate corporations. Everything they own come from corporations from clothes to food. There's no focus. I remember watching 20/20 about PETA and people splashing red paint (like blood) on this department store for selling fur. I don't care about PETA, but at least there was a clear goal and message.
Take Down Entertainment: I found this on my TV production search. It's about promoting mix martial arts (MMA). Check it out:
http://www.takedownentertainment.com/
Ghostwriter: Does anyone remember this TV show from early 1990s on PBS? It's about a group of kids who solve neighborhood mysteries with an invisible ghost who can only communicate by reading and writing. I was on twop.com and there's an article about it:
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/brilliantbutcancelled/2011/10/ghostwriter-pbs-tv-show-the-worlds-most-wholesome-supernatural-series.php
The first season is on DVD on Amazon. I'm not going to buy it, but I just want to say I really like the show. According to PBS, the show ended after the 3rd season due to lack of funding. Damn.
Oct. 25 Prostitution: I was channel surfing to see what's on TV tonight, and I saw a bit of Dr. Drew's Life Changers. It's a 30min talk show and he was interviewing a woman who was a teen prostitute. I sat for 5min. and it was really intense. She talked about being drugged and raped, and left by a dumpster in an alley. She wakes up in hospital.
She was on drugs, and went to jail before. What keeps her going is her nieces. What's interesting was that she and other addicts have talked about how ironically drugs are what kept them from committing suicide.
However, I can't watch this show because it's too much like Dr. Phil.
Job: I guess I would fit into the Occupy Wall Street protestors demographic. I'm underemployed. I work part-time like 24hrs a week. I work 6 days a week, and get paid a bit more than min. wage per hour. I have a lot of free time, but that time is not used for fun. It's mainly filled with unpaid work.
Schedule: My schedule is this. I wake up at around 6am and leave by 6:50am. I take the bus, and the hr I'm on the bus, I'm reading the 24 newspaper. I work from 8am-12pm. I take another hr bus ride home, reading the newspaper and doing the crossword puzzle.
I get home around 1pm, do my job search on the computer for 2 hrs. I listen to music on Youtube as I'm applying to places. Throw in a little dancing as my break. At 3pm, I turn off the computer, and read my newspapers for an hr. Turn the computer back on at 4pm and usually do some more job search, and then pitch my script. I write some of my weekly emails/ blog posts here.
By 6pm, it's time for dinner. I sometimes do the dishes. Most nights, I'd be watching TV. Watching TV and dancing is my fun. I hardly ever use the internet for fun.
Europe economy: I was reading in the Edmonton Journal business section with the headline: "Europe's youth stuck in junk jobs." It's about young professionals only getting temporary contracts because that's what's available. Those jobs don't have job security or benefits.
One woman named Silvia is 24 yrs old and has a master's degree in publicity. She is paid about $420 Cdn a month for the same work as the salaried permanent employees who are in the same company.
Juan Francisco Seller is 27 and has a pharmaceutical degree. He has been working at a hospital for a year for free, doing research for a lab team. He is waiting for a "real" job to come from it. He has turned down paid work outside of his field to keep his resume professional.
I thought that was stupid of him. He should do another job outside of his field to get paid, even if it's a waiter. He can volunteer at the hospital lab on the weekends.
Vision board: Last week I wrote about the Happy Endings sitcom that talked about vision boards. Today in the Globe and Mail Life section, Angela Self wrote about Pinterest.com.
It's where you create online vision boards based on personal or financial interests. There are cost saving ideas. It's a really fun website to check out.
Here's the humor section. There are lots of funny and quirky pictures and sayings:
http://pinterest.com/all/?category=humor
Spooktree Films: I was pitching my script and I found this production company called Spooktree Films. I saw the trailer to Whisper Creek. It's a really good sci-fi/ action story. It takes place at a mental hospital and Jimmy is a patient who doesn't talk. A woman comes to visit him and then transmits a power to him.
Later that night Jimmy starts talking and he gets into a fight and escapes from the hospital. There was good suspense, tension, and mystery involved. Check it out:
http://www.spooktree.com/
Mike Miller: I also found this 5min short film while pitching my script. It's called Oops. It's about CIA operatives tracking down a terrorist for 6 months. There's going to be a review soon, and if they don't show any progress, they will lose funding and their jobs. They decided to doctor pictures that they found the terrorist in these cities. However, the plan kind of goes sideways.
I really liked it and was impressed with it. It could be used as the first five minutes of a feature length film, and the lie gets bigger and bigger. Check it out, it's only 5min:
http://writer-director.com/
Oct. 26 June short film: I was looking for more production companies and I found one called nine40. Here's the short film June. I watched the 2min, 50 sec clip. It was shot so beautifully as a guy tells a story of how he fell in love with a girl.
It starred Kerry James (Caleb from Heartland) as a cowboy. Not too much of a stretch for him. I really liked it, check it out:
http://vimeo.com/channels/nine40
Script pitch: Today was my day off and it was very productive. I looked for a job and I pitched my script. A producer emailed and called me today saying that he wants to read it. So I sent it to him.
Pitching my script is what drives me. When someone shows some interest in my script, I get excited and this rush comes. It's like I'm making progress.
Museums: I got this flier a couple of weeks ago. There's a website called www.museumsofcanada.ca and it sells lots of really nice stuff like clothes, jewelery, stationary, and furniture. Check it out for your Christmas shopping.
Windy wedding: I found this on Yahoo. It's from Good Morning America. There is a wedding held outside, and there's a dust storm. It's windy, and then there's this sand and dirt blowing around, the screen turns brown.
After they said "I do", they kiss, and hug. The groom then gives a thumb signal for them to get out of the storm. They're given an umbrella, but the umbrella is blown up and wrecked. lol.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/us-22424932/gma-play-of-the-day-windy-wedding-27057771.html
Switched at birth: There are these two 12 yr old girls who were switched at birth. They were born on the same day, and the name tags of the babies were switched. It was found out when one dads wanted a paternity test because the daughter didn't look anything like him.
One of the mother-in-laws remembered that another woman was going into labor the same day. Both girls stay with their non-biological families and the families are close.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/world-22186928/switched-at-birth-two-families-meet-27052620.html
My sister was dissing them when we were talking about it at dinner. There is no clear agenda to what they want to achieve. They want jobs, and hate corporations. Everything they own come from corporations from clothes to food. There's no focus. I remember watching 20/20 about PETA and people splashing red paint (like blood) on this department store for selling fur. I don't care about PETA, but at least there was a clear goal and message.
Take Down Entertainment: I found this on my TV production search. It's about promoting mix martial arts (MMA). Check it out:
Ghostwriter: Does anyone remember this TV show from early 1990s on PBS? It's about a group of kids who solve neighborhood mysteries with an invisible ghost who can only communicate by reading and writing. I was on twop.com and there's an article about it:
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/brilliantbutcancelled/2011/10/ghostwriter-pbs-tv-show-the-worlds-most-wholesome-supernatural-series.php
The first season is on DVD on Amazon. I'm not going to buy it, but I just want to say I really like the show. According to PBS, the show ended after the 3rd season due to lack of funding. Damn.
Oct. 25 Prostitution: I was channel surfing to see what's on TV tonight, and I saw a bit of Dr. Drew's Life Changers. It's a 30min talk show and he was interviewing a woman who was a teen prostitute. I sat for 5min. and it was really intense. She talked about being drugged and raped, and left by a dumpster in an alley. She wakes up in hospital.
She was on drugs, and went to jail before. What keeps her going is her nieces. What's interesting was that she and other addicts have talked about how ironically drugs are what kept them from committing suicide.
However, I can't watch this show because it's too much like Dr. Phil.
Job: I guess I would fit into the Occupy Wall Street protestors demographic. I'm underemployed. I work part-time like 24hrs a week. I work 6 days a week, and get paid a bit more than min. wage per hour. I have a lot of free time, but that time is not used for fun. It's mainly filled with unpaid work.
Schedule: My schedule is this. I wake up at around 6am and leave by 6:50am. I take the bus, and the hr I'm on the bus, I'm reading the 24 newspaper. I work from 8am-12pm. I take another hr bus ride home, reading the newspaper and doing the crossword puzzle.
I get home around 1pm, do my job search on the computer for 2 hrs. I listen to music on Youtube as I'm applying to places. Throw in a little dancing as my break. At 3pm, I turn off the computer, and read my newspapers for an hr. Turn the computer back on at 4pm and usually do some more job search, and then pitch my script. I write some of my weekly emails/ blog posts here.
By 6pm, it's time for dinner. I sometimes do the dishes. Most nights, I'd be watching TV. Watching TV and dancing is my fun. I hardly ever use the internet for fun.
Europe economy: I was reading in the Edmonton Journal business section with the headline: "Europe's youth stuck in junk jobs." It's about young professionals only getting temporary contracts because that's what's available. Those jobs don't have job security or benefits.
One woman named Silvia is 24 yrs old and has a master's degree in publicity. She is paid about $420 Cdn a month for the same work as the salaried permanent employees who are in the same company.
Juan Francisco Seller is 27 and has a pharmaceutical degree. He has been working at a hospital for a year for free, doing research for a lab team. He is waiting for a "real" job to come from it. He has turned down paid work outside of his field to keep his resume professional.
I thought that was stupid of him. He should do another job outside of his field to get paid, even if it's a waiter. He can volunteer at the hospital lab on the weekends.
Vision board: Last week I wrote about the Happy Endings sitcom that talked about vision boards. Today in the Globe and Mail Life section, Angela Self wrote about Pinterest.com.
It's where you create online vision boards based on personal or financial interests. There are cost saving ideas. It's a really fun website to check out.
Here's the humor section. There are lots of funny and quirky pictures and sayings:
http://pinterest.com/all/?category=humor
Spooktree Films: I was pitching my script and I found this production company called Spooktree Films. I saw the trailer to Whisper Creek. It's a really good sci-fi/ action story. It takes place at a mental hospital and Jimmy is a patient who doesn't talk. A woman comes to visit him and then transmits a power to him.
Later that night Jimmy starts talking and he gets into a fight and escapes from the hospital. There was good suspense, tension, and mystery involved. Check it out:
http://www.spooktree.com/
Mike Miller: I also found this 5min short film while pitching my script. It's called Oops. It's about CIA operatives tracking down a terrorist for 6 months. There's going to be a review soon, and if they don't show any progress, they will lose funding and their jobs. They decided to doctor pictures that they found the terrorist in these cities. However, the plan kind of goes sideways.
I really liked it and was impressed with it. It could be used as the first five minutes of a feature length film, and the lie gets bigger and bigger. Check it out, it's only 5min:
http://writer-director.com/
Oct. 26 June short film: I was looking for more production companies and I found one called nine40. Here's the short film June. I watched the 2min, 50 sec clip. It was shot so beautifully as a guy tells a story of how he fell in love with a girl.
It starred Kerry James (Caleb from Heartland) as a cowboy. Not too much of a stretch for him. I really liked it, check it out:
http://vimeo.com/channels/nine40
Script pitch: Today was my day off and it was very productive. I looked for a job and I pitched my script. A producer emailed and called me today saying that he wants to read it. So I sent it to him.
Pitching my script is what drives me. When someone shows some interest in my script, I get excited and this rush comes. It's like I'm making progress.
Museums: I got this flier a couple of weeks ago. There's a website called www.museumsofcanada.ca and it sells lots of really nice stuff like clothes, jewelery, stationary, and furniture. Check it out for your Christmas shopping.
Windy wedding: I found this on Yahoo. It's from Good Morning America. There is a wedding held outside, and there's a dust storm. It's windy, and then there's this sand and dirt blowing around, the screen turns brown.
After they said "I do", they kiss, and hug. The groom then gives a thumb signal for them to get out of the storm. They're given an umbrella, but the umbrella is blown up and wrecked. lol.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/us-22424932/gma-play-of-the-day-windy-wedding-27057771.html
Switched at birth: There are these two 12 yr old girls who were switched at birth. They were born on the same day, and the name tags of the babies were switched. It was found out when one dads wanted a paternity test because the daughter didn't look anything like him.
One of the mother-in-laws remembered that another woman was going into labor the same day. Both girls stay with their non-biological families and the families are close.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/world-22186928/switched-at-birth-two-families-meet-27052620.html
Monday, October 24, 2011
Stolen Sisters: We're living through a tragedy of national proportions
I signed this petition, and so should you. This is from Amnesty International.
October 4, 2011 - Vigils and action for Stolen Sisters
“Aboriginal families like ours are living through a tragedy of national proportions. We need action now."
- Pamela Fillier, the mother of 16-year-old Hilary Bonnell who disappeared in Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), New Brunswick in September 2009 and was found murdered two months later
Dear Human Rights supporter,
This summer Canada championed a United Nations resolution calling on all states to establish, fund, and monitor national action plans to eliminate violence against women. It’s an important resolution – so important in fact that Canada should act to implement it at home.
Indigenous women in Canada face much higher rates of violence than all other women. According to government statistics, Indigenous women and girls are three to five times more likely than all other women to die as a result of violence. This violence is so pervasive that the Native Women’s Association of Canada has been able to document more than 600 cases of Indigenous women who have been murdered in the last 20 years or who have been missing so long that they are feared dead.
The shocking scale and severity of the violence faced by Indigenous women in Canada cries out for the kind of coordinated, well-resourced and carefully monitored national plan of action that Canada has urged other countries to adopt.
To date, however, the government response has been limited and piecemeal. After decades of neglect, the federal government announced last year that it would commit $10 million to address violence against Indigenous women. As it turned out, most of that money will be used to establish a general missing persons database. Very little of the money will be spent to address the specific needs of First Nations, Inuit and Metis women.
This July, just days after the Canadian resolution was adopted at the United Nations, the Minister for the Status of Women, Rona Ambrose was quoted in the press as saying that there was no need for a national plan of action to eliminate violence against Indigenous women because the need “truly has been answered by the federal and provincial orders of government."
A wide range of organizations, including the Native Women’s Association, the Assembly of First Nations and many others, have repeatedly urged the government to adopt a comprehensive plan of action that would ensure proper police response and address the deep-rooted impoverishment and racism that put Indigenous women in harm’s way.
Please add your voice and encourage others to speak out as well.
There should be no double standard when it comes to the safety of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Lindsay craig
Lindsay Mossman & Craig Benjamin
Campaigners
Amnesty International Canada
October 4, 2011 - Vigils and action for Stolen Sisters
“Aboriginal families like ours are living through a tragedy of national proportions. We need action now."
- Pamela Fillier, the mother of 16-year-old Hilary Bonnell who disappeared in Esgenoopetitj (Burnt Church), New Brunswick in September 2009 and was found murdered two months later
Dear Human Rights supporter,
This summer Canada championed a United Nations resolution calling on all states to establish, fund, and monitor national action plans to eliminate violence against women. It’s an important resolution – so important in fact that Canada should act to implement it at home.
Indigenous women in Canada face much higher rates of violence than all other women. According to government statistics, Indigenous women and girls are three to five times more likely than all other women to die as a result of violence. This violence is so pervasive that the Native Women’s Association of Canada has been able to document more than 600 cases of Indigenous women who have been murdered in the last 20 years or who have been missing so long that they are feared dead.
The shocking scale and severity of the violence faced by Indigenous women in Canada cries out for the kind of coordinated, well-resourced and carefully monitored national plan of action that Canada has urged other countries to adopt.
To date, however, the government response has been limited and piecemeal. After decades of neglect, the federal government announced last year that it would commit $10 million to address violence against Indigenous women. As it turned out, most of that money will be used to establish a general missing persons database. Very little of the money will be spent to address the specific needs of First Nations, Inuit and Metis women.
This July, just days after the Canadian resolution was adopted at the United Nations, the Minister for the Status of Women, Rona Ambrose was quoted in the press as saying that there was no need for a national plan of action to eliminate violence against Indigenous women because the need “truly has been answered by the federal and provincial orders of government."
A wide range of organizations, including the Native Women’s Association, the Assembly of First Nations and many others, have repeatedly urged the government to adopt a comprehensive plan of action that would ensure proper police response and address the deep-rooted impoverishment and racism that put Indigenous women in harm’s way.
Please add your voice and encourage others to speak out as well.
There should be no double standard when it comes to the safety of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Lindsay craig
Lindsay Mossman & Craig Benjamin
Campaigners
Amnesty International Canada
blog/ Braindamadj'd/ Once Upon a Time
Oct. 22 Blog: When I first created my blog in Jan. 2008, it was for my computer class in college. I wrote a few posts for the assignment and that was it. A few months later I read that Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody had a blog and was discovered by it, and that lead her to write Juno. I need to brainstorm ways to get my writing career going.
I went to my friend Jessica's blog a long time ago. She isn't looking for people to come and read her blog. I did like how she made a video "Dating ad from Earth." What if Earth was a real person and she is looking for love? The video was creative, fun, and quirky. I noticed Earth wore blue and green like the planet.
I then thought: "Hey, I should put a video of my dancing" like a lot of people on Youtube do already. Then I thought: "Well people might like your dancing, and they may not. There may be comments dissing you." That's fine. But it's not related to writing. What if I read my blog posts to a camera and put it up on the internet? I have to borrow a camera from a friend then.
Now I thought of LinkedIn. I have a profile there, but there isn't much on it. I should put more on it like a link to my The Vertex Fighter blog. I will be more likely to be discovered. For the past 4 yrs, I'm the one who's been looking for production companies to pitch to.
Oct. 23 Vlog: A "vlog" is a video blog. Though I'm sure you know reading out loud takes longer than reading silently. You may be surfing the internet as you hear me speak my blog posts. I'll stick with a regular blog.
Braindamadj'd: I was on the internet looking for production companies to pitch my script to, and I found this show called Braindamadj'd. It's a crazy, remarkable, and true story. Here's the synopsis:
"Ten years ago, Montrealer Paul Nadler at 30 was a creative maverick - snowboarding, rock-climbing and scuba diving, taking part in all-night play-writing sessions, attracting women, and winning awards as a hip television director and producer. Then he was found alone on a road in Egypt, without clothes and I.D., comatose in the hot sun after a car accident. He had been left for dead. The doctors said he would never recover from TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury."
I watched him talk and behave. It was interesting because he said that the only good thing out of the accident was that he got this really deep, and evil laugh. If you hear it, it does sound evil. It's good he still has a sense of humor.
http://braind.apartment11.tv/
Quora: I got this article through my blog:
Hi Tracy,
We would love to share with you an article that we just posted on our own blog! “20 Ways Colleges Should Be Using Quora” (http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/10/12/20-ways-colleges-should-be-using-quora/) would be an interesting story for your readers to check out and discuss on your blog.
Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content through your blog. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.
Thanks!
Tim Handorf
I have never heard of Quora before. It's like a question-and-answer site. You can network, and get correct information from experts.
Oct. 24 Once Upon a Time: This show is about how fairy tales are real. The characters are from a fairy tale. They are cursed and then transported into the real world, and they don't know they are characters. It's very interesting, I recommend you watch it. I saw the pilot last night and I was really impressed.
It stars Jennifer Morrison who plays Emma Swan. Emma goes on a date with this guy she met online. They're at a fancy restaurant, and they're guessing things about each other.
Emma: Let me guess, you're a handsome, charming, man who embezzled money from his company. Your wife bailed you out.
Man: Who are you?
E: I'm a bails bond hunter.
Man throws the table over and he runs to his car.
E gets up and speed walks after him in her heels.
Man's car won't start.
Man: If you let me go, I'll give you money.
E: You don't have any money. Even if you do, you should be giving that to your wife.
That was a really good plot twist, and it was very original. I didn't predict that at all.
E goes home and a little 10 yr old boy arrives at her door. His name is Henry and says: "I'm your son. You gave me up for adoption 10 yrs ago."
Cut to a flashback of the fairytale world. The Evil Queen (played by Lana Parilla) threatens Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin from the TV show Big Love) that she will put a curse on them. Snow White is scared, so she and Prince Charming go to a prison to see Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle).
Rumpelstiltskin can not be trusted. SW is pregnant and R says the baby will end the curse that the Evil Queen cast.
R: You have to tell me what the baby's name is.
SW: Emma.
Cut back to the real world. Emma decides to drive Henry home to his hometown called Storybrooke, Maine. During the drive, H tells the premise of the series.
Henry: None of the Fairytale characters know they are characters.
They get to town, and it turns out H's adoptive mom is the mayor of Storybrooke. The adoptive mom is actually the Evil Queen from the Fairytale. E and the adoptive mom get to know each other. E then drives home and sees a wolf in the highway. She crashes her car into the town sign.
E wakes up in jail. The Mayor comes in saying her son H has run away again. They go to H's school, and it turns out the teacher Mary is Snow White from the Fairytale.
Mary: Stories give you hope, and the power of the possibility of a happy ending.
Cut to Fairytale world. The curse is coming and the carpenter had built a wardrobe for SW to hide in to protect her and her unborn child. However, SW goes into labor and can't move from her bed to get into the wardrobe. She gives birth and she and PC decided to put the baby Emma into the wardrobe.
PC takes the baby and puts it into the wardrobe. PC fights off the bad knights and he gets stabbed and dies. The knight opens the wardrobe and the baby is gone.
Cut to the real world. Emma found Henry.
E: I was given up for adoption too. I was abandoned on the freeway and was in foster homes until I was three. I was adopted by a family that had kids of their own.
H: The freeway is where you came through from the fairytale. Please stay in this town for a week.
PC is a man in a coma in the hospital. Figures since he died in the fairytale, he wouldn't really be an active character in the show. At least for the pilot.
E goes to Granny's Bed and Breakfast Inn. It's Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood (played by Canadian actress Meghan Ory. She was on a TV show called Vampire High.) It's funny because LRR then puts on a red scarf on her head. Rumpelstiltskin is now Mr. Gold in the real world. Granny tells E that Mr. Gold owns the town.He asks E what her name is and now knows she is the baby of Snow White.
I went to my friend Jessica's blog a long time ago. She isn't looking for people to come and read her blog. I did like how she made a video "Dating ad from Earth." What if Earth was a real person and she is looking for love? The video was creative, fun, and quirky. I noticed Earth wore blue and green like the planet.
I then thought: "Hey, I should put a video of my dancing" like a lot of people on Youtube do already. Then I thought: "Well people might like your dancing, and they may not. There may be comments dissing you." That's fine. But it's not related to writing. What if I read my blog posts to a camera and put it up on the internet? I have to borrow a camera from a friend then.
Now I thought of LinkedIn. I have a profile there, but there isn't much on it. I should put more on it like a link to my The Vertex Fighter blog. I will be more likely to be discovered. For the past 4 yrs, I'm the one who's been looking for production companies to pitch to.
Oct. 23 Vlog: A "vlog" is a video blog. Though I'm sure you know reading out loud takes longer than reading silently. You may be surfing the internet as you hear me speak my blog posts. I'll stick with a regular blog.
Braindamadj'd: I was on the internet looking for production companies to pitch my script to, and I found this show called Braindamadj'd. It's a crazy, remarkable, and true story. Here's the synopsis:
"Ten years ago, Montrealer Paul Nadler at 30 was a creative maverick - snowboarding, rock-climbing and scuba diving, taking part in all-night play-writing sessions, attracting women, and winning awards as a hip television director and producer. Then he was found alone on a road in Egypt, without clothes and I.D., comatose in the hot sun after a car accident. He had been left for dead. The doctors said he would never recover from TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury."
I watched him talk and behave. It was interesting because he said that the only good thing out of the accident was that he got this really deep, and evil laugh. If you hear it, it does sound evil. It's good he still has a sense of humor.
http://braind.apartment11.tv/
Quora: I got this article through my blog:
Hi Tracy,
We would love to share with you an article that we just posted on our own blog! “20 Ways Colleges Should Be Using Quora” (
Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content through your blog. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.
Thanks!
Tim Handorf
I have never heard of Quora before. It's like a question-and-answer site. You can network, and get correct information from experts.
Oct. 24 Once Upon a Time: This show is about how fairy tales are real. The characters are from a fairy tale. They are cursed and then transported into the real world, and they don't know they are characters. It's very interesting, I recommend you watch it. I saw the pilot last night and I was really impressed.
It stars Jennifer Morrison who plays Emma Swan. Emma goes on a date with this guy she met online. They're at a fancy restaurant, and they're guessing things about each other.
Emma: Let me guess, you're a handsome, charming, man who embezzled money from his company. Your wife bailed you out.
Man: Who are you?
E: I'm a bails bond hunter.
Man throws the table over and he runs to his car.
E gets up and speed walks after him in her heels.
Man's car won't start.
Man: If you let me go, I'll give you money.
E: You don't have any money. Even if you do, you should be giving that to your wife.
That was a really good plot twist, and it was very original. I didn't predict that at all.
E goes home and a little 10 yr old boy arrives at her door. His name is Henry and says: "I'm your son. You gave me up for adoption 10 yrs ago."
Cut to a flashback of the fairytale world. The Evil Queen (played by Lana Parilla) threatens Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin from the TV show Big Love) that she will put a curse on them. Snow White is scared, so she and Prince Charming go to a prison to see Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle).
Rumpelstiltskin can not be trusted. SW is pregnant and R says the baby will end the curse that the Evil Queen cast.
R: You have to tell me what the baby's name is.
SW: Emma.
Cut back to the real world. Emma decides to drive Henry home to his hometown called Storybrooke, Maine. During the drive, H tells the premise of the series.
Henry: None of the Fairytale characters know they are characters.
They get to town, and it turns out H's adoptive mom is the mayor of Storybrooke. The adoptive mom is actually the Evil Queen from the Fairytale. E and the adoptive mom get to know each other. E then drives home and sees a wolf in the highway. She crashes her car into the town sign.
E wakes up in jail. The Mayor comes in saying her son H has run away again. They go to H's school, and it turns out the teacher Mary is Snow White from the Fairytale.
Mary: Stories give you hope, and the power of the possibility of a happy ending.
Cut to Fairytale world. The curse is coming and the carpenter had built a wardrobe for SW to hide in to protect her and her unborn child. However, SW goes into labor and can't move from her bed to get into the wardrobe. She gives birth and she and PC decided to put the baby Emma into the wardrobe.
PC takes the baby and puts it into the wardrobe. PC fights off the bad knights and he gets stabbed and dies. The knight opens the wardrobe and the baby is gone.
Cut to the real world. Emma found Henry.
E: I was given up for adoption too. I was abandoned on the freeway and was in foster homes until I was three. I was adopted by a family that had kids of their own.
H: The freeway is where you came through from the fairytale. Please stay in this town for a week.
PC is a man in a coma in the hospital. Figures since he died in the fairytale, he wouldn't really be an active character in the show. At least for the pilot.
E goes to Granny's Bed and Breakfast Inn. It's Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood (played by Canadian actress Meghan Ory. She was on a TV show called Vampire High.) It's funny because LRR then puts on a red scarf on her head. Rumpelstiltskin is now Mr. Gold in the real world. Granny tells E that Mr. Gold owns the town.He asks E what her name is and now knows she is the baby of Snow White.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Bring down the system that executed Troy Davis
This is from Amnesty International:
When I spoke with him a few days before his execution date, Troy Davis told me he has never lost faith in our movement to end the death penalty.
And now, the week after his funeral, the state of Georgia believes it is over. But we know it is far from over. We are still fighting and we will not stop until we have won, until we have wiped from this country forever a practice that does not stop violence but is violence, that does not serve justice but mocks justice.
In the next 3 months, there are 11 more executions already scheduled across the US.
Will you take action -- chant loudly, talk to law makers, and raise awareness -- to bring a new, more just, day to the criminal justice system in the US?
One way to help win this fight is to become a member of Amnesty International. Your membership helps keep our movement running -- supporting our work to end the death penalty, stop torture, end violence against women and protect human rights worldwide.
Become a member of Amnesty International today.
Memberships start at just $25, and the truth is that without membership contributions there is no Amnesty International. We are completely independent from government or corporate interests. The more funds and supporters we have, the greater our impact will be.
As Troy said in a message to Amnesty supporters, "The struggle doesn't end with me. The struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath." That's what Troy said to us, and now we must continue the fight.
Join us.
Sincerely,
Larry Cox
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA
When I spoke with him a few days before his execution date, Troy Davis told me he has never lost faith in our movement to end the death penalty.
And now, the week after his funeral, the state of Georgia believes it is over. But we know it is far from over. We are still fighting and we will not stop until we have won, until we have wiped from this country forever a practice that does not stop violence but is violence, that does not serve justice but mocks justice.
In the next 3 months, there are 11 more executions already scheduled across the US.
Will you take action -- chant loudly, talk to law makers, and raise awareness -- to bring a new, more just, day to the criminal justice system in the US?
One way to help win this fight is to become a member of Amnesty International. Your membership helps keep our movement running -- supporting our work to end the death penalty, stop torture, end violence against women and protect human rights worldwide.
Become a member of Amnesty International today.
Memberships start at just $25, and the truth is that without membership contributions there is no Amnesty International. We are completely independent from government or corporate interests. The more funds and supporters we have, the greater our impact will be.
As Troy said in a message to Amnesty supporters, "The struggle doesn't end with me. The struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I will not stop fighting until I've taken my last breath." That's what Troy said to us, and now we must continue the fight.
Join us.
Sincerely,
Larry Cox
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA
law of attraction/ job interview article/ CPR
Oct. 19 Law of attraction: My sister was watching Happy Endings and they did a story about vision boards. I was on the computer, and listening to the TV. I have read The Secret: Teen Power which is about the "law of attraction." The whole point of a vision board is to put pictures of things you want in life from your job, money, relationships, friendships, where you want to vacation, and where you want to live, etc. The universe will then give these things to you due to your focused positive thinking.
I googled it and I liked all the vision boards I found from the images search. They're collages. If you've been to my room, I have collages. I made them since I was a teenager. I still have 4 big collages in my room since 2007. However, the pictures and words do keep changing because I put different things on them.
Inspiration: A few months ago, my sister gave me a whole bunch of her old magazines and I clipped some things out to put on my one collage. I wasn't seeing it as a "vision board", but I guess it could qualify as one.
There are also pictures of a photo shoot/ advertisement for Toby Lightman's music video "Real Love." TL is covering Mary J. Blige's song. The pictures are of people on a TV production set which is where I want to be. (From Ellegirl magazine.)
Here's some from Oprah magazine:
"Live your best life: Inspiration, motivation, celebration."
"Aiming higher."
"It's time to motivate yourself and overcome obstacles."
From Shop, Etc. magazine. There's an article about women who opened their own clothing stores:
"I'm doing something that I absolutely worship."- Dana Spinola
"This is what I want to be doing. This is it."- Tracey Ross
"It's not a job to me." -Elizabeth Charles
I got this from the Edmonton Journal: "Stitching dreams, pursuing passions."
Job interview article: Here's an article "The Most Important Interview Advice You'll Ever Hear" by Allison Green. The tip is: "The point of the interview is not to get a job offer. It's to figure out if you're a mutual match, emphasis on mutual."
Questions:
-Is the work well aligned with your strengths--your real ones, not ones you puffed up in your cover letter?
-Is the environment one you'll thrive in?
-Is the manager someone you'd want to work with?
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Most-Important-Interview-usnews-1357593029.html
I like the comments.
Iraqi: Who would ever apply for a job they don't wish to work for?! No point.. unless they really need that money they'd make to live
Tracy (a woman from Toronto): Whats the point as the article says, going to a job if you will only be there a while. Trouble is unemployment want to see that you have applied or are seen trying to get a job and so too many idiots try out for jobs they really don't want to go to.
Darke Spectre: I knew someone who responded to a position where she had almost every item requested. Education, years of experience, etc. But the job went to another person we both knew. She had NO education, NO experience NOTHING to suit the job. However she was 22, single and had beautiful titties in a sweater.
The idiot hiring her isn't doing her a favor, now she gets stuck in a position she can't perform, her co-workers have to carry her load and become resentful and quit, etc, etc. You gotta wonder if the idiot hiring has a wife, sister, etc that he would like to see treated that way...
Me: They should fire her, or she should quit. They could teach her as much as they can, and if she doesn't learn after a certain amount of time, then she should get fired.
I have been forced to carry another co-workers' load and resent them. It was back at the Soup place where the one co-worker keeps missing Mon. and Tues. every week and not calling. Then another worker who keeps missing one or two days a week, but you can't predict when.
Manitoba Move: This person makes it sound like one can be picky about where to work, when in fact for most unemployed people, ANY job offer would be welcome. When jobs get over a thousand applicants, getting to the interview stage at all is marvelous, one cant afford to worry about whether the job is a good match or not.
Oct. 20 Job interview: Today I went to a job interview and it was 30min long. It was mainly the boss telling me about the company and giving me a tour. It's at a post office. The pros are they are looking for someone long-term, and it has benefits. I plan to stay there for more than a few months.
The cons is that I worry about not being good enough. He says it's like 2 weeks of training on the computer program and it seems challenging. I'm comfortable with computers, but he talked about people quitting because it's too hard to learn. However, I will give it a shot because it's better to try and fail, than not try at all and wonder "What if..?"
He talked about a worker who's been there over a month and thinks he's smarter than he really is. I immediately thought of that Cantonese phrase (written in English): "lan leck."
Hit-and-run news: I read about this in the Globe and Mail and the National Post. It's about this 2 yr old girl who was run over by 2 different cars in China. She has now died. I was upset reading the articles. I thought it was the "by-stander effect" as in someone else will help, but the thing is you need to help. Don't assume someone else will. The conclusion in the article was this:
"Many people in China are hesitant to help people who appear to be in distress for fear that they will be blamed. High-profile lawsuits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinese-girl-dies-hit-run-sparked-outrage-035947336.html
At the very least, start calling 911 or call to somebody for help to call 911.
Flashback: Now I'm getting a flashback of gr. 5. I was at home and this girl Tanya comes to my house and says her sister Christina fell off her bike close to my house. My sister was with me and she said what I was thinking: "Do you want me to call 911?" T: "No."
I just go over to Christina and she was on the ground. Nothing was broken. I think another person was there. In my case, if I fell off my bike and nothing was broken, and one of my siblings was with me, I wouldn't go and call a friend to come over to help. There was nothing I could do to help C because there was nothing broken.
News: I'm getting another old flashback. I was reading this or it was on the internet. Someone died from a hit-and-run. They stopped to leave a note that said: "I'm sorry, but I have a family." I think the victim was a black man. That was interesting with the note, because I have never heard of a hit-and-run driver taking the time to write a note.
CPR: While I'm at it, I'll throw in other news that I read that if you have a heart attack and you're on the ground, there is only a 1 in 4 chance that someone will start CPR on you. The thing is, if you apply CPR on that person, there is a 75% chance they will survive. You don't even have to perform CPR perfectly for it to be effective.
You just need to start doing compressions on the person's chest. There is a law in Canada that protects good Samaritans trying to help.
Primetime: There's that news magazine show called Primetime where they do segments like "What would you do?" There are situations like if you see a man and a woman arguing with each other, do you step in to stop the argument?
Now I'm getting another flashback of 2005. I was riding on the bus and this woman in her early 20s talked about how this guy was drunk and walking on the street. These 2 other guys started hassling him and one of them pulls out a knife. This woman stepped in to stop it by saying something like: "Stop. He's just drunk."
I thought that woman was brave. She said on the bus: "I just moved to this part of town. After someone gets stabbed, I would have to move again."
Note: You guys are like "Where's the funny email of the week?" Consider last email with the funny video of a guy quitting his job with a marching band and the Punk'd episode the funny one.
I googled it and I liked all the vision boards I found from the images search. They're collages. If you've been to my room, I have collages. I made them since I was a teenager. I still have 4 big collages in my room since 2007. However, the pictures and words do keep changing because I put different things on them.
Inspiration: A few months ago, my sister gave me a whole bunch of her old magazines and I clipped some things out to put on my one collage. I wasn't seeing it as a "vision board", but I guess it could qualify as one.
There are also pictures of a photo shoot/ advertisement for Toby Lightman's music video "Real Love." TL is covering Mary J. Blige's song. The pictures are of people on a TV production set which is where I want to be. (From Ellegirl magazine.)
Here's some from Oprah magazine:
"Live your best life: Inspiration, motivation, celebration."
"Aiming higher."
"It's time to motivate yourself and overcome obstacles."
From Shop, Etc. magazine. There's an article about women who opened their own clothing stores:
"I'm doing something that I absolutely worship."- Dana Spinola
"This is what I want to be doing. This is it."- Tracey Ross
"It's not a job to me." -Elizabeth Charles
I got this from the Edmonton Journal: "Stitching dreams, pursuing passions."
Job interview article: Here's an article "The Most Important Interview Advice You'll Ever Hear" by Allison Green. The tip is: "The point of the interview is not to get a job offer. It's to figure out if you're a mutual match, emphasis on mutual."
Questions:
-Is the work well aligned with your strengths--your real ones, not ones you puffed up in your cover letter?
-Is the environment one you'll thrive in?
-Is the manager someone you'd want to work with?
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Most-Important-Interview-usnews-1357593029.html
I like the comments.
Iraqi: Who would ever apply for a job they don't wish to work for?! No point.. unless they really need that money they'd make to live
Tracy (a woman from Toronto): Whats the point as the article says, going to a job if you will only be there a while. Trouble is unemployment want to see that you have applied or are seen trying to get a job and so too many idiots try out for jobs they really don't want to go to.
Darke Spectre: I knew someone who responded to a position where she had almost every item requested. Education, years of experience, etc. But the job went to another person we both knew. She had NO education, NO experience NOTHING to suit the job. However she was 22, single and had beautiful titties in a sweater.
The idiot hiring her isn't doing her a favor, now she gets stuck in a position she can't perform, her co-workers have to carry her load and become resentful and quit, etc, etc. You gotta wonder if the idiot hiring has a wife, sister, etc that he would like to see treated that way...
Me: They should fire her, or she should quit. They could teach her as much as they can, and if she doesn't learn after a certain amount of time, then she should get fired.
I have been forced to carry another co-workers' load and resent them. It was back at the Soup place where the one co-worker keeps missing Mon. and Tues. every week and not calling. Then another worker who keeps missing one or two days a week, but you can't predict when.
Manitoba Move: This person makes it sound like one can be picky about where to work, when in fact for most unemployed people, ANY job offer would be welcome. When jobs get over a thousand applicants, getting to the interview stage at all is marvelous, one cant afford to worry about whether the job is a good match or not.
Oct. 20 Job interview: Today I went to a job interview and it was 30min long. It was mainly the boss telling me about the company and giving me a tour. It's at a post office. The pros are they are looking for someone long-term, and it has benefits. I plan to stay there for more than a few months.
The cons is that I worry about not being good enough. He says it's like 2 weeks of training on the computer program and it seems challenging. I'm comfortable with computers, but he talked about people quitting because it's too hard to learn. However, I will give it a shot because it's better to try and fail, than not try at all and wonder "What if..?"
He talked about a worker who's been there over a month and thinks he's smarter than he really is. I immediately thought of that Cantonese phrase (written in English): "lan leck."
Hit-and-run news: I read about this in the Globe and Mail and the National Post. It's about this 2 yr old girl who was run over by 2 different cars in China. She has now died. I was upset reading the articles. I thought it was the "by-stander effect" as in someone else will help, but the thing is you need to help. Don't assume someone else will. The conclusion in the article was this:
"Many people in China are hesitant to help people who appear to be in distress for fear that they will be blamed. High-profile lawsuits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chinese-girl-dies-hit-run-sparked-outrage-035947336.html
At the very least, start calling 911 or call to somebody for help to call 911.
Flashback: Now I'm getting a flashback of gr. 5. I was at home and this girl Tanya comes to my house and says her sister Christina fell off her bike close to my house. My sister was with me and she said what I was thinking: "Do you want me to call 911?" T: "No."
I just go over to Christina and she was on the ground. Nothing was broken. I think another person was there. In my case, if I fell off my bike and nothing was broken, and one of my siblings was with me, I wouldn't go and call a friend to come over to help. There was nothing I could do to help C because there was nothing broken.
News: I'm getting another old flashback. I was reading this or it was on the internet. Someone died from a hit-and-run. They stopped to leave a note that said: "I'm sorry, but I have a family." I think the victim was a black man. That was interesting with the note, because I have never heard of a hit-and-run driver taking the time to write a note.
CPR: While I'm at it, I'll throw in other news that I read that if you have a heart attack and you're on the ground, there is only a 1 in 4 chance that someone will start CPR on you. The thing is, if you apply CPR on that person, there is a 75% chance they will survive. You don't even have to perform CPR perfectly for it to be effective.
You just need to start doing compressions on the person's chest. There is a law in Canada that protects good Samaritans trying to help.
Primetime: There's that news magazine show called Primetime where they do segments like "What would you do?" There are situations like if you see a man and a woman arguing with each other, do you step in to stop the argument?
Now I'm getting another flashback of 2005. I was riding on the bus and this woman in her early 20s talked about how this guy was drunk and walking on the street. These 2 other guys started hassling him and one of them pulls out a knife. This woman stepped in to stop it by saying something like: "Stop. He's just drunk."
I thought that woman was brave. She said on the bus: "I just moved to this part of town. After someone gets stabbed, I would have to move again."
Note: You guys are like "Where's the funny email of the week?" Consider last email with the funny video of a guy quitting his job with a marching band and the Punk'd episode the funny one.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Re: October sale - fair trade necklaces for human rights
I went to the Amnesty International website and there are lots of cool things like clothes, jewelery, calenders, candles, posters, Christmas cards, etc. So if you want to get started on your Christmas shopping or for yourself, go to this site.
Shown in Photo: Beads of Strength Necklace
Dear Tracy,
SHOP FOR HUMANITY. SHOP WITH A PURPOSE. Say Hello to autumn with conviction & style! Check out our new Fall collection of scarves, jewelry & apparel. There's something for everyone at Shop Amnesty -- and best of all, every penny you spend supports Amnesty International's fight for human rights. Visit our store.
TON FAI OPEN WEAVE SCARF-$23.00
MULTI-STRAND BEADED NECKLACE-$30.00
HANDWOVEN DISC EARRINGS (RWANDA)-$24.00
ASSORTED HOLIDAY CARDS (SET OF 10)-$12.95
ECO-FRIENDLY HARDCOVER HORSE JOURNAL-$14.00
DIGNITY NOTE CARDS (SET OF 6)-$15.00
MATERNAL HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT SHIRT-$17.95
TROY DAVIS PINS (2 IN A PACK)-$4.00
3/4 SLEEVE WOMEN'S EMBLEM SHIRT-$18.95
INSTANT KARMA CD-$15.00
DARFUR: TWENTY YEARS OF WAR & GENOCIDE IN SUDAN-$15.00
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GUITAR PICKS-$5.00
(c) 2011 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400
Remove yourself from this mailing.
Remove yourself from all mailings from Amnesty USA.
Shown in Photo: Beads of Strength Necklace
Dear Tracy,
SHOP FOR HUMANITY. SHOP WITH A PURPOSE. Say Hello to autumn with conviction & style! Check out our new Fall collection of scarves, jewelry & apparel. There's something for everyone at Shop Amnesty -- and best of all, every penny you spend supports Amnesty International's fight for human rights. Visit our store.
TON FAI OPEN WEAVE SCARF-$23.00
MULTI-STRAND BEADED NECKLACE-$30.00
HANDWOVEN DISC EARRINGS (RWANDA)-$24.00
ASSORTED HOLIDAY CARDS (SET OF 10)-$12.95
ECO-FRIENDLY HARDCOVER HORSE JOURNAL-$14.00
DIGNITY NOTE CARDS (SET OF 6)-$15.00
MATERNAL HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT SHIRT-$17.95
TROY DAVIS PINS (2 IN A PACK)-$4.00
3/4 SLEEVE WOMEN'S EMBLEM SHIRT-$18.95
INSTANT KARMA CD-$15.00
DARFUR: TWENTY YEARS OF WAR & GENOCIDE IN SUDAN-$15.00
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GUITAR PICKS-$5.00
(c) 2011 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400
Remove yourself from this mailing.
Remove yourself from all mailings from Amnesty USA.
priorities/ funny video/ saying
Oct. 17 Priorities: Here are the following things I will analyze/write/ think about due to importance.
1. Job search: Anything to do with my job search like job interviews, job articles, business/ economy news I will write about.
2. TV and movies: It may not be very important, but it is relevant to my writing. I analyze stories, dialogue and characters.
3. Comedy: Not very important either, but it kind of goes with TV and movies due to writing a good joke. I like to laugh.
4. Current events: Like what's happening in the city, country, and world. I usually write about what I saw on news magazine shows like 20/20.
5. Imagination: This is really about stupid stuff that doesn't matter like hypothetical situations. I really need to limit this so that's why I created this list.
Funny video: I found this on Yahoo: "Hotel worker quits his job with help from marching band." This guy Joey works at a hotel for 3.5 yrs. He then goes into the hotel with a marching band. They're standing in the hallway. As soon as the boss sees them, he looks mad and asks "What the hell? Get out of here." Joey says: "I quit." He hands him a piece of paper (letter of resignation) and drops it on the floor.
The marching band starts playing and they all walk out. I laughed at that part.
I like reading the comments:
Number 1: Notice how the boss blew his top before they even did anything. That's proof enough for me right there that he's a goof. I don't blame him for quitting, I wouldn’t want to work for someone like that either.
HolisticChick: My guess is he's doing this to get his 15 minutes of internet fame and hoping to get paid for interviews.
Me: I agree with both comments. The boss lashes out at them right away. I would have said: "Hi, can I help you?" The entire time I thought this guy was totally burning his bridges with his boss/ hotel. Joey can never come back and work for this place again. I'm sure he doesn't want to so it doesn't matter.
On a side note, I thought Joey was kind of good-looking.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/hotel-worker-joey-quits-job-help-marching-band-131411418.html
Call centres: Seriously, I wouldn't do that or tell anyone else to do something funny/ crazy to quit their job. Back in 2007 I got hired at Call Centre #3. I worked there for a day where they trained me. Then I called back next week and they said I didn't get hired. I was so angry. I hung up the phone and swore. I wanted to get hired again, and then quit after a day to get back at them. Of course, that's not really that mean of a revenge. lol.
At least I got paid for that one day of training. But I applied again back in 2008, and then again in 2009. That's when I got hired back, and was laid off 6 months later. I didn't burn my bridges.
It happened again in 2010 with Call Centre #4. I worked there for a day and was dismissed for not getting enough surveys completed. I hung up and swore, and then I imagined throwing an egg at their window. I also thought of calling the supervisor back and listing all these call centres in Edmonton that closed down and telling him that Call Centre #4 is going to close down too. However, I didn't do it.
I thought of it, but I know if I did do that, I would never get hired back. Some of you would say: "You want to get hired back at this crappy call centre?" Yeah, well they do pay well. Or you could put an ad on Kijiji warning people not to work for this company. I have read a few ads like that.
Job search: A few weeks ago I did a job interview at an office, and at the end we started talking about the restaurant I worked at. Yesterday I got an email and they rejected me. I have to look at this way. They got 100 resumes, and I was one of the 15 people they chose to interview. I did an interview at a cafe and they should call me by now, but they haven't.
Oct. 19 Punk'd: This is relevant to my job search. Punk'd is an old TV show where Ashton Kutcher plays pranks on celebrities. One prank was on the rapper Eve where she goes to a job interview and the trick was that the interviewer leaves in the middle of it. The office assistant then walks right into the desk and it topples over. He then blames Eve for it to the interviewer and they get into a huge fight.
I looked it up on Youtube, but couldn't find the video. This is from years ago, so my memory may be fuzzy. I remember Eve was interviewed for a role on a TV show and maybe some talk about availability. Eve was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and a denim skirt. I didn't think it was very professional, but I think it was more of a casual meeting than an interview.
She didn't have a pen and paper to write down, which is fine. I always do because I have questions and answers to write down. But the main problem was that Eve was quiet and reserved during it. AK made a snarky comment:
AK: I thought the whole point of a job interview is that you're supposed to be interested in the job.
That reminds me of my friend Jessica saying: "You need to show your personality in an interview."
Job interview: Today is my day off so I went to a job interview for a receptionist position. I was there 10 min. early and I had to wait 15min for the interview to start. It lasted 5 min. We discussed that I will be working at my restaurant job in the morning and at the office at night.
I can imagine after the restaurant, it'll take me 1hr to take the bus home. Get on the computer and pitch my script for 1hr. Then go to work at the office for a few hours. Then go home and have 2 hrs to rest before I have to go to bed.
Actors: I was watching Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) There was a promo for the TV show Supernatural. It has Charisma Carpeneter and James Marsters on it. I was like: "Oh my god! Cordelia and Spike from Buffy are on it!" Then I remembered Mercedes McNab guest- starred on an ep of Supernatural where she plays a vampire so it's not too much of a stretch for her.
MM played Harmony the vampire on Buffy and Angel. I haven't seen a good Buffy reunion since Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan (Willow on Buffy) guest- starred and was on a scene together in Veronica Mars. The Buffy creator Joss Whedon also guest- starred on a Veronica Mars episode.
Saying: My sister was watching The Playboy Club and a line talked about the Greek mythology Icarus. I was reading a poem about him in Eng. class in college. Icarus has these wings made out of wax and feathers. He was told not to fly too close to the sun, but he did and the wax melted and he fell to his death.
This is from Wikipedia: "..both are usually taken as tragic examples of hubris or failed ambition — and is often depicted in art."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus
On Playboy the line was: "Our ambition can make us careless."
News: In lighter news, Playboy got cancelled after 3 episodes. The remakes of Charlie's Angels got cancelled after 4 episodes. I had Playboy in the background as I was on the computer. My sister watches it because it's like the 1960s themed show Mad Men that she likes. I never got to watch Charlie's Angels.
1. Job search: Anything to do with my job search like job interviews, job articles, business/ economy news I will write about.
2. TV and movies: It may not be very important, but it is relevant to my writing. I analyze stories, dialogue and characters.
3. Comedy: Not very important either, but it kind of goes with TV and movies due to writing a good joke. I like to laugh.
4. Current events: Like what's happening in the city, country, and world. I usually write about what I saw on news magazine shows like 20/20.
5. Imagination: This is really about stupid stuff that doesn't matter like hypothetical situations. I really need to limit this so that's why I created this list.
Funny video: I found this on Yahoo: "Hotel worker quits his job with help from marching band." This guy Joey works at a hotel for 3.5 yrs. He then goes into the hotel with a marching band. They're standing in the hallway. As soon as the boss sees them, he looks mad and asks "What the hell? Get out of here." Joey says: "I quit." He hands him a piece of paper (letter of resignation) and drops it on the floor.
The marching band starts playing and they all walk out. I laughed at that part.
I like reading the comments:
Number 1: Notice how the boss blew his top before they even did anything. That's proof enough for me right there that he's a goof. I don't blame him for quitting, I wouldn’t want to work for someone like that either.
HolisticChick: My guess is he's doing this to get his 15 minutes of internet fame and hoping to get paid for interviews.
Me: I agree with both comments. The boss lashes out at them right away. I would have said: "Hi, can I help you?" The entire time I thought this guy was totally burning his bridges with his boss/ hotel. Joey can never come back and work for this place again. I'm sure he doesn't want to so it doesn't matter.
On a side note, I thought Joey was kind of good-looking.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-buzz/hotel-worker-joey-quits-job-help-marching-band-131411418.html
Call centres: Seriously, I wouldn't do that or tell anyone else to do something funny/ crazy to quit their job. Back in 2007 I got hired at Call Centre #3. I worked there for a day where they trained me. Then I called back next week and they said I didn't get hired. I was so angry. I hung up the phone and swore. I wanted to get hired again, and then quit after a day to get back at them. Of course, that's not really that mean of a revenge. lol.
At least I got paid for that one day of training. But I applied again back in 2008, and then again in 2009. That's when I got hired back, and was laid off 6 months later. I didn't burn my bridges.
It happened again in 2010 with Call Centre #4. I worked there for a day and was dismissed for not getting enough surveys completed. I hung up and swore, and then I imagined throwing an egg at their window. I also thought of calling the supervisor back and listing all these call centres in Edmonton that closed down and telling him that Call Centre #4 is going to close down too. However, I didn't do it.
I thought of it, but I know if I did do that, I would never get hired back. Some of you would say: "You want to get hired back at this crappy call centre?" Yeah, well they do pay well. Or you could put an ad on Kijiji warning people not to work for this company. I have read a few ads like that.
Job search: A few weeks ago I did a job interview at an office, and at the end we started talking about the restaurant I worked at. Yesterday I got an email and they rejected me. I have to look at this way. They got 100 resumes, and I was one of the 15 people they chose to interview. I did an interview at a cafe and they should call me by now, but they haven't.
Oct. 19 Punk'd: This is relevant to my job search. Punk'd is an old TV show where Ashton Kutcher plays pranks on celebrities. One prank was on the rapper Eve where she goes to a job interview and the trick was that the interviewer leaves in the middle of it. The office assistant then walks right into the desk and it topples over. He then blames Eve for it to the interviewer and they get into a huge fight.
I looked it up on Youtube, but couldn't find the video. This is from years ago, so my memory may be fuzzy. I remember Eve was interviewed for a role on a TV show and maybe some talk about availability. Eve was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt and a denim skirt. I didn't think it was very professional, but I think it was more of a casual meeting than an interview.
She didn't have a pen and paper to write down, which is fine. I always do because I have questions and answers to write down. But the main problem was that Eve was quiet and reserved during it. AK made a snarky comment:
AK: I thought the whole point of a job interview is that you're supposed to be interested in the job.
That reminds me of my friend Jessica saying: "You need to show your personality in an interview."
Job interview: Today is my day off so I went to a job interview for a receptionist position. I was there 10 min. early and I had to wait 15min for the interview to start. It lasted 5 min. We discussed that I will be working at my restaurant job in the morning and at the office at night.
I can imagine after the restaurant, it'll take me 1hr to take the bus home. Get on the computer and pitch my script for 1hr. Then go to work at the office for a few hours. Then go home and have 2 hrs to rest before I have to go to bed.
Actors: I was watching Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) There was a promo for the TV show Supernatural. It has Charisma Carpeneter and James Marsters on it. I was like: "Oh my god! Cordelia and Spike from Buffy are on it!" Then I remembered Mercedes McNab guest- starred on an ep of Supernatural where she plays a vampire so it's not too much of a stretch for her.
MM played Harmony the vampire on Buffy and Angel. I haven't seen a good Buffy reunion since Charisma Carpenter and Alyson Hannigan (Willow on Buffy) guest- starred and was on a scene together in Veronica Mars. The Buffy creator Joss Whedon also guest- starred on a Veronica Mars episode.
Saying: My sister was watching The Playboy Club and a line talked about the Greek mythology Icarus. I was reading a poem about him in Eng. class in college. Icarus has these wings made out of wax and feathers. He was told not to fly too close to the sun, but he did and the wax melted and he fell to his death.
This is from Wikipedia: "..both are usually taken as tragic examples of hubris or failed ambition — and is often depicted in art."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus
On Playboy the line was: "Our ambition can make us careless."
News: In lighter news, Playboy got cancelled after 3 episodes. The remakes of Charlie's Angels got cancelled after 4 episodes. I had Playboy in the background as I was on the computer. My sister watches it because it's like the 1960s themed show Mad Men that she likes. I never got to watch Charlie's Angels.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Steve Jobs success tips/ Youtube Generation
Oct. 13 Steve Jobs success tips: I was watching 20/20 last week and there was a segment about him. I needed this because I need inspiration to keep me going. I don't know who was explaining SJ's tips; all I remember was a man in a suit talking about the 7 tips.
I went on Google and there are a lot about SJ's success tips and videos about him.
1. Do what you love. An example is Rachel Ray who was giving 30 min cooking shows at Macy's before she got famous and got her own TV show.
2. Put a dent in the universe. Make a concise vision, that could be put in a Twitter post. An example is President Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon. It was a concise plan.
3. Say no to 1000 things. It's to focus on the few important things. It's about simplicity.
4. Kick start your brain. Do something different, and it will make you think differently.
5. Sell dreams, not products.
6. Sell experiences.
7. Master the message. You are judged by how you communicate.
Sophia Grace: I saw this on Yahoo about this 8 yr old girl named Sophia Grace from the UK. She is singing and dancing to Nicki Minaj's song "Super Bass." Her 5 yr old cousin Rosie is by there dancing along. Here they are in the interview, singing and dancing to the song on the Ellen Degeneres show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhUPMYXpX4&feature=topvideos_entertainment
SG does an American accent for Ellen, and I thought it was pretty good. Here they are with the real Nicki Minaj. NM tells them that she's going to take them on a shopping spree to buy books, book bags, pencils, clothes, and guitars. I thought that was really nice of NM to do that, and she actually mentioned something educational like books to buy.
There's also a clip where NM tells them to stay in school. They also perform the song together here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxaQZi4Rm9Y
My nitpick is that these are little girls and they don't really know what the song is about. There is a lyric "he might sell coke" and few references to sex.
Just Go With It: I was on twop.com thread "TV moments that Angry up the blood".
Nagurikorosu: Stars has been promoting their newest premiere Just Go With It film with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and the concept of the film just pisses me off. In order to date one woman, Sandler's character is pretending he was married to another. And well, as comedies goes, the lie gets bigger and he has to pretend that he has two kids.
This is not funny. At all. Its creepy is what it is. I've seen this premise in a Hornitos commercial where a Vice Principle at a class reunion pretends to be another student, so she have relations with a former student. There was no need for her to lie to him. And when the VP is outed, the scammed student is turned on, instead of disgusted.
This really isn't okay movie and ad execs. If someone can't truthfully tell you something as simple as who they are. Its not sexy or desirable at all. They're probably not going to tell the truth about...oh, their std status, their birth control methods, exes and relationship status. You know minor stuff that you'd want to have at least some idea of before you jump in bed with them.
Also, no man lies about having kids. But they will lie about not having kids... Which is also part of the reason why Just Go With It pisses me off. Its almost too easy to twist into the Lacey Peterson/Amber Frye(?) story.
Eegah: It's actually a remake of a film called Cactus Flower, which has much classier actors and treats the situation a bit more seriously. Just stick with that one.
Me: I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer looks funny. It's an interesting comment. I never noticed that a man never lies about having kids, but will lie about not having kids. I never thought about the Lacey Peterson and Amber Frey story. I didn't know about Cactus Flower until I looked it up.
Oct. 16 Youtube Generation: I was watching 20/20 on Sept. 23, 2011. It was about how people became successful and famous on Youtube. Did you know that 48 hours are uploaded a day? This is relevant to Steve Jobs saying "Do what you love" and Sophia Grace who got famous on Youtube.
Michelle Phan: She went to a job interview for Lancome to work at a beauty counter. She got rejected. She then taught how to put on make up on Youtube. She's a 23 yr old art school drop out, and now she is the face of Lancome.
Joe Penna: He's a mystery guitar man. He makes music videos. He then gets discovered, and then directed and starts in a McDonald's commercial.
Moms on Youtube:
Mindy puts instruction videos on how to braid daughter's hair. She got 2 million views.
Betty's Kitchen: Betty is a mom/ retired math teacher who has a cooking video on how to make salsa. She did kind of have the vibe of a teacher because of how she was instructing the viewer.
Crafty Gemini: Vanessa created a site called Crafty Gemini where she teaches sewing on Youtube. She wins a trip to NYC and got $35,000 check for her instruction videos.
Music video spoofs: There is Katy Perry music video parody of her video "California Gurls." Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_stcgW8E4o
The real Katy Perry said: "I'm flattered."
They talked to Mike who was a bell boy before he quit so he could be a full-time Youtube video producer.
Greyson Chance: He is a 14 yr old boy who plays Lady GaGa and puts it up on Youtube. He then goes on Ellen Degeneres. He plays the piano and sings great. I went on Youtube to listen to him after the show. EG started a record company and produces GC's album. The segment closed with him singing: "You're afraid of taking chances/ How are you going to reach the top?"
Youtube and the news:
Tornado videos.net: It's about filming tornadoes.
Neda: There was news when Neda was shot in the head, and bleed out. Grown men were yelling "Don't leave us!" Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neda&aq=f
There was footage of a car running over a protestor.
Khan Academy: Khan is an East Indian guy is a MIT/ Harvard graduate who teaches everything from math to history on Youtube. His hobby reaches millions of people. Bill Gate's kids watch his videos and BG donates money to his academy. A small staff translates his lessons in different languages to get to different audiences.
Obama girl: Does anyone remember this? It came out in 2007 and Amber Lee Ettinger is dancing around and singing about how she loves Obama. I checked the credits and the singer is Leah Kauffman, but Amber is starring in it. They interviewed Amber, and she is hosting as "Gadget Girl" and has her own jewelery line. She never met Obama.
Dentist kid: The kid named Dave who came home from the dentist. He sits in a car and is talking to his dad. He was 7 yrs old. Daniel Tosh interviewed him and the kid on DT's show Tosh. O. 20/20 interviewed the kid and his dad, and they're making money off ads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
United Airlines: There's a music video about how "United Airlines breaks guitars." This guy named Dave used United Airlines and it damaged one of his guitars really badly. He's not a lawyer, but a songwriter. So he wrote a song and made a video. He got 1 million hits in 4 days. He flew again on that airline, and they lost his luggage. United Airlines lost a lot of business because of the video, but they didn't tell him to stop and take down the video.
Here's his video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
Me: How about a video about hating Wal-Mart?
I typed "I hate wal-mart" and I got a whole bunch of videos:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i+hate+walmart&aq=0&oq=i+hate+wal
I went on Google and there are a lot about SJ's success tips and videos about him.
1. Do what you love. An example is Rachel Ray who was giving 30 min cooking shows at Macy's before she got famous and got her own TV show.
2. Put a dent in the universe. Make a concise vision, that could be put in a Twitter post. An example is President Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon. It was a concise plan.
3. Say no to 1000 things. It's to focus on the few important things. It's about simplicity.
4. Kick start your brain. Do something different, and it will make you think differently.
5. Sell dreams, not products.
6. Sell experiences.
7. Master the message. You are judged by how you communicate.
Sophia Grace: I saw this on Yahoo about this 8 yr old girl named Sophia Grace from the UK. She is singing and dancing to Nicki Minaj's song "Super Bass." Her 5 yr old cousin Rosie is by there dancing along. Here they are in the interview, singing and dancing to the song on the Ellen Degeneres show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhUPMYXpX4&feature=topvideos_entertainment
SG does an American accent for Ellen, and I thought it was pretty good. Here they are with the real Nicki Minaj. NM tells them that she's going to take them on a shopping spree to buy books, book bags, pencils, clothes, and guitars. I thought that was really nice of NM to do that, and she actually mentioned something educational like books to buy.
There's also a clip where NM tells them to stay in school. They also perform the song together here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxaQZi4Rm9Y
My nitpick is that these are little girls and they don't really know what the song is about. There is a lyric "he might sell coke" and few references to sex.
Just Go With It: I was on twop.com thread "TV moments that Angry up the blood".
Nagurikorosu: Stars has been promoting their newest premiere Just Go With It film with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and the concept of the film just pisses me off. In order to date one woman, Sandler's character is pretending he was married to another. And well, as comedies goes, the lie gets bigger and he has to pretend that he has two kids.
This is not funny. At all. Its creepy is what it is. I've seen this premise in a Hornitos commercial where a Vice Principle at a class reunion pretends to be another student, so she have relations with a former student. There was no need for her to lie to him. And when the VP is outed, the scammed student is turned on, instead of disgusted.
This really isn't okay movie and ad execs. If someone can't truthfully tell you something as simple as who they are. Its not sexy or desirable at all. They're probably not going to tell the truth about...oh, their std status, their birth control methods, exes and relationship status. You know minor stuff that you'd want to have at least some idea of before you jump in bed with them.
Also, no man lies about having kids. But they will lie about not having kids... Which is also part of the reason why Just Go With It pisses me off. Its almost too easy to twist into the Lacey Peterson/Amber Frye(?) story.
Eegah: It's actually a remake of a film called Cactus Flower, which has much classier actors and treats the situation a bit more seriously. Just stick with that one.
Me: I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer looks funny. It's an interesting comment. I never noticed that a man never lies about having kids, but will lie about not having kids. I never thought about the Lacey Peterson and Amber Frey story. I didn't know about Cactus Flower until I looked it up.
Oct. 16 Youtube Generation: I was watching 20/20 on Sept. 23, 2011. It was about how people became successful and famous on Youtube. Did you know that 48 hours are uploaded a day? This is relevant to Steve Jobs saying "Do what you love" and Sophia Grace who got famous on Youtube.
Michelle Phan: She went to a job interview for Lancome to work at a beauty counter. She got rejected. She then taught how to put on make up on Youtube. She's a 23 yr old art school drop out, and now she is the face of Lancome.
Joe Penna: He's a mystery guitar man. He makes music videos. He then gets discovered, and then directed and starts in a McDonald's commercial.
Moms on Youtube:
Mindy puts instruction videos on how to braid daughter's hair. She got 2 million views.
Betty's Kitchen: Betty is a mom/ retired math teacher who has a cooking video on how to make salsa. She did kind of have the vibe of a teacher because of how she was instructing the viewer.
Crafty Gemini: Vanessa created a site called Crafty Gemini where she teaches sewing on Youtube. She wins a trip to NYC and got $35,000 check for her instruction videos.
Music video spoofs: There is Katy Perry music video parody of her video "California Gurls." Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_stcgW8E4o
The real Katy Perry said: "I'm flattered."
They talked to Mike who was a bell boy before he quit so he could be a full-time Youtube video producer.
Greyson Chance: He is a 14 yr old boy who plays Lady GaGa and puts it up on Youtube. He then goes on Ellen Degeneres. He plays the piano and sings great. I went on Youtube to listen to him after the show. EG started a record company and produces GC's album. The segment closed with him singing: "You're afraid of taking chances/ How are you going to reach the top?"
Youtube and the news:
Tornado videos.net: It's about filming tornadoes.
Neda: There was news when Neda was shot in the head, and bleed out. Grown men were yelling "Don't leave us!" Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neda&aq=f
There was footage of a car running over a protestor.
Khan Academy: Khan is an East Indian guy is a MIT/ Harvard graduate who teaches everything from math to history on Youtube. His hobby reaches millions of people. Bill Gate's kids watch his videos and BG donates money to his academy. A small staff translates his lessons in different languages to get to different audiences.
Obama girl: Does anyone remember this? It came out in 2007 and Amber Lee Ettinger is dancing around and singing about how she loves Obama. I checked the credits and the singer is Leah Kauffman, but Amber is starring in it. They interviewed Amber, and she is hosting as "Gadget Girl" and has her own jewelery line. She never met Obama.
Dentist kid: The kid named Dave who came home from the dentist. He sits in a car and is talking to his dad. He was 7 yrs old. Daniel Tosh interviewed him and the kid on DT's show Tosh. O. 20/20 interviewed the kid and his dad, and they're making money off ads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs
United Airlines: There's a music video about how "United Airlines breaks guitars." This guy named Dave used United Airlines and it damaged one of his guitars really badly. He's not a lawyer, but a songwriter. So he wrote a song and made a video. He got 1 million hits in 4 days. He flew again on that airline, and they lost his luggage. United Airlines lost a lot of business because of the video, but they didn't tell him to stop and take down the video.
Here's his video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
Me: How about a video about hating Wal-Mart?
I typed "I hate wal-mart" and I got a whole bunch of videos:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=i+hate+walmart&aq=0&oq=i+hate+wal
Friday, October 14, 2011
Jailed for insulting the president (Amnesty International)
This is an informative newsletter from Amnesty International:
In Iran, jailed for insulting the president
Did you know you could be arrested in Iran for "insulting the president?"
That is what happened to Behareh Hedayat, a student leader, in 2009 -- and she is still in prison.
Since Iran's 2009 election, thousands of students and other peaceful protesters have been arrested by a repressive government with little tolerance for dissent. Individuals demanding political reform and human rights protections have been jailed and sometimes even tortured for their beliefs.
Amnesty International is taking action. Our report, From Protest to Prison, documents these arrests and the shameful treatment of prisoners. We are advocating for the human rights of the individuals who remain in jail, some of whom continue to face inhumane prison conditions.
Take a stand against human rights abuses like these by making a donation to Amnesty International.
Those who demonstrated against the government in 2009 were met by security forces using batons, tear gas and sometimes live rounds. Hundreds of others have been arrested at their homes or workplaces. Beatings, rape and solitary confinement in small spaces for long periods have all been used against these prisoners. Some have been sentenced to death.
Behareh Hedayat and fellow student leader Majid Tavakkoli issued a statement from prison, encouraging Iranians to continue to push for change. The government responded by extending their sentences -- Hedayat and Tavakkoli are now each serving sentences of at least 9 years.
Support Amnesty's efforts to defend human rights in Iran and around the world with your gift today.
Since 2009, Iranian authorities have passed new laws to restrict and monitor people writing on websites. They have criminalized contact with over 60 foreign institutions, media organizations and nonprofits -- an attempt to isolate Iranians and prevent news, including on human rights violations, from leaving the country.
In addition, film makers and actors have been arrested in an effort to stifle Iran's once-thriving film industry, and students and academics who refuse to adhere to the government's positions are routinely thrown out of universities.
Strengthen Amnesty's impact in Iran and around the world with your donation today.
Sincerely,
Michael O’Reilly
Senior Campaign Director, Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA
In Iran, jailed for insulting the president
Did you know you could be arrested in Iran for "insulting the president?"
That is what happened to Behareh Hedayat, a student leader, in 2009 -- and she is still in prison.
Since Iran's 2009 election, thousands of students and other peaceful protesters have been arrested by a repressive government with little tolerance for dissent. Individuals demanding political reform and human rights protections have been jailed and sometimes even tortured for their beliefs.
Amnesty International is taking action. Our report, From Protest to Prison, documents these arrests and the shameful treatment of prisoners. We are advocating for the human rights of the individuals who remain in jail, some of whom continue to face inhumane prison conditions.
Take a stand against human rights abuses like these by making a donation to Amnesty International.
Those who demonstrated against the government in 2009 were met by security forces using batons, tear gas and sometimes live rounds. Hundreds of others have been arrested at their homes or workplaces. Beatings, rape and solitary confinement in small spaces for long periods have all been used against these prisoners. Some have been sentenced to death.
Behareh Hedayat and fellow student leader Majid Tavakkoli issued a statement from prison, encouraging Iranians to continue to push for change. The government responded by extending their sentences -- Hedayat and Tavakkoli are now each serving sentences of at least 9 years.
Support Amnesty's efforts to defend human rights in Iran and around the world with your gift today.
Since 2009, Iranian authorities have passed new laws to restrict and monitor people writing on websites. They have criminalized contact with over 60 foreign institutions, media organizations and nonprofits -- an attempt to isolate Iranians and prevent news, including on human rights violations, from leaving the country.
In addition, film makers and actors have been arrested in an effort to stifle Iran's once-thriving film industry, and students and academics who refuse to adhere to the government's positions are routinely thrown out of universities.
Strengthen Amnesty's impact in Iran and around the world with your donation today.
Sincerely,
Michael O’Reilly
Senior Campaign Director, Individuals at Risk
Amnesty International USA
job interview/ spooky headlines/ pandas
Oct. 12 Job interview: Today is my day off so I went to a job interview, and it wasn't for an office. It was for a new restaurant that hasn't opened yet. Last summer I had submitted resumes to Fat Burger and Press'd Sandwiches before they opened, but I didn't go to the interviews because I had gotten a job somewhere else.
The interview was okay. I don't think I really impressed the interviewer. She seemed to be looking for full-time people, but there may be a lot of part-time applicants. I heard that 80% of all restaurants close down within the first 2 yrs. This may not have good job security so that's why I want to keep my job while having a second one. A lot of employees at my work have a 2nd job.
What We Did That Night: I want to make a correction. I was talking about a TV movie called What Happened that Night, but the real title is What We Did That Night. Check it out:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0170801/
Microbusiness Training Centre: I got an automatic email from them, and I called them so I could attend their information session so I could open my TV production company. They said they don't have the sessions anymore, but will have them set up in a couple of months and will call.
Spooky headlines: It's getting close to Halloween. I got this from the Globe and Mail last year:
"Renovation goes wrong": "A family abandoned their bathroom fearing it had been possessed by the devil after an image of Satan appeared overnight-in a tile" reports Orange News UK. Laszlo Csrefko was renovating his bathroom in Bekasmegyer, Budapest. His wife Andrea took a shower, and then saw the horned head of the devil in one of the tiles. They can't clean it off and it wasn't there when they put the tiles. It appeared overnight and they can't move it.
The room is always cold, even when they turn the heat up. They stopped using the bathroom and are planning to get an exorcist for help. If it doesn't help, they'll never use the room again.
Oct. 13 Creepy: I got this from the Edmonton Journal.
According to Detroit News, Matt Olivarez is 27 yrs old, and from Redford township. Michigan. His family had a 10 yr old rottweiler named Mia. They had to feed the dog by hand because she can't walk. Olivarez decided to put the dog down. He took her to the Westcott Veterinary Care Centre in Detroit and the shot was administered.
He took Mia back to the garage and laid her on a pile of hay. He will bury it in the backyard. Cut to the next morning, Mia's body was gone. He turned around and saw Mia standing there and staring at him. He thought he was in a Stephen King novel.
Westcott officials speculated that the dose that Mia got wasn't strong enough to put her down. The euthanasia fee will be refunded. He is looking for someone else to take care of the dog because he doesn't think he can put down his dog the second time.
Headlines: I ran out of regular headlines I clipped from the newspaper. Looks like I typed it all up. I was watching Jay Leno earlier this week and here are some of his.
JL read a TV guide description of the movie The Prince and Me: "A premed student falls in love with a danish." Or was it "Danish"? Someone falling in love with a pastry. lol. I do like that movie. She falls in love with a Danish prince. It stars Julia Stiles and Luke Mably.
Panda commercial: I was watching this commercial last week. Cut to a couple talking about what they want for dinner. A panda appears in the living room and is selling microwaveable Chinese dinner. My sister was there.
S: They need a cuter panda.
Me: I thought the panda was going to have a Chinese accent.
S: That would be racist.
lol. That does remind me of a joke from Futurama. There's a Chinese New Year Parade, and there's a Chinese dragon dance. The dragon costume was blown off, and it's a huge centipede that was wearing the costume.
Centipede (in Chinese accent): Hey what is this? The Year of the Jerk?
Pandas: I was watching Chinese TV news a few months ago. Well my grandma was watching it and I saw this part of this Chinese scientist talking about pandas. He was playing with this baby panda by feeding him milk through a bottle, and playing with him like he's a human baby. It was so cute. Aww..
Funny bears: I was watching Jay Leno last night.
JL: Yesterday was "Bring your bear to work day." I thought it was "Wear your bear to work today." I was so embarrassed yesterday.
There was a little laughter.
Let's analyze this: JL should have showed it, instead of telling it. They should show JL coming to work wearing a bear costume and the other office workers say: "It's bring your bear to work day" and hold up their bears.
I saw this kind of joke on Tosh.O and it worked better. There was a Video Redemption segment. Cut to a clip of a guy dressed up as a knight and fighting in the woods.
Cut to Daniel Tosh wearing a bear costume with this cute, smiling face.
DT: Hey, I'm in costume.
Guy: You're wearing the wrong costume.
DT: What? I'm wearing the wrong costume? Oh, I feel so embarrassed.
DT puts his paws on his eyes and shakes his head. It was so cute with a bear acting embarrassed.
Sitcom reviews: My sister loves sitcoms, so I watched a couple of them with her recently. I'm not really a fan of sitcoms; I'm more into dramas.
Happy Endings: It stars Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert. It's about a group of friends. It was well- shot and kind of funny. I was watching the season 2 premiere.
New Girl: It stars Zooey Deschanel. It's about a girl who moves in with 3 guys. I immediately thought of the other comedy show called About a Girl which is about a girl who moves in with 4 guys. It had 1 season and came out in 2007. It was on the N, a kids network.
Back to New Girl. I thought it was kind of funny, funnier than Happy Endings. The episode was called "Wedding" where they all go to a wedding between an interracial marriage of an Asian man and a white woman. It stars Max Greenfield. I saw a bit of him the week before when my sister was watching it. I thought he looked familiar, but I don't know where.
About 30 min later, I remembered he was Deputy Leo on Veronica Mars. Katie Cassidy (Gossip Girl) also guest- starred. At first my sister and I didn't recognize her, but after watching it a bit more, we both recognized her. This is the first TV show to get picked up for a full season. I do recommend you watch it, because it is funny.
Oct. 14 Script pitch: Someone emailed me asking to read my The Vertex Fighter script. I then emailed it to him. I really needed this. I haven't sent my script out to anyone in some months due to my job search.
The interview was okay. I don't think I really impressed the interviewer. She seemed to be looking for full-time people, but there may be a lot of part-time applicants. I heard that 80% of all restaurants close down within the first 2 yrs. This may not have good job security so that's why I want to keep my job while having a second one. A lot of employees at my work have a 2nd job.
What We Did That Night: I want to make a correction. I was talking about a TV movie called What Happened that Night, but the real title is What We Did That Night. Check it out:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0170801/
Microbusiness Training Centre: I got an automatic email from them, and I called them so I could attend their information session so I could open my TV production company. They said they don't have the sessions anymore, but will have them set up in a couple of months and will call.
Spooky headlines: It's getting close to Halloween. I got this from the Globe and Mail last year:
"Renovation goes wrong": "A family abandoned their bathroom fearing it had been possessed by the devil after an image of Satan appeared overnight-in a tile" reports Orange News UK. Laszlo Csrefko was renovating his bathroom in Bekasmegyer, Budapest. His wife Andrea took a shower, and then saw the horned head of the devil in one of the tiles. They can't clean it off and it wasn't there when they put the tiles. It appeared overnight and they can't move it.
The room is always cold, even when they turn the heat up. They stopped using the bathroom and are planning to get an exorcist for help. If it doesn't help, they'll never use the room again.
Oct. 13 Creepy: I got this from the Edmonton Journal.
According to Detroit News, Matt Olivarez is 27 yrs old, and from Redford township. Michigan. His family had a 10 yr old rottweiler named Mia. They had to feed the dog by hand because she can't walk. Olivarez decided to put the dog down. He took her to the Westcott Veterinary Care Centre in Detroit and the shot was administered.
He took Mia back to the garage and laid her on a pile of hay. He will bury it in the backyard. Cut to the next morning, Mia's body was gone. He turned around and saw Mia standing there and staring at him. He thought he was in a Stephen King novel.
Westcott officials speculated that the dose that Mia got wasn't strong enough to put her down. The euthanasia fee will be refunded. He is looking for someone else to take care of the dog because he doesn't think he can put down his dog the second time.
Headlines: I ran out of regular headlines I clipped from the newspaper. Looks like I typed it all up. I was watching Jay Leno earlier this week and here are some of his.
JL read a TV guide description of the movie The Prince and Me: "A premed student falls in love with a danish." Or was it "Danish"? Someone falling in love with a pastry. lol. I do like that movie. She falls in love with a Danish prince. It stars Julia Stiles and Luke Mably.
Panda commercial: I was watching this commercial last week. Cut to a couple talking about what they want for dinner. A panda appears in the living room and is selling microwaveable Chinese dinner. My sister was there.
S: They need a cuter panda.
Me: I thought the panda was going to have a Chinese accent.
S: That would be racist.
lol. That does remind me of a joke from Futurama. There's a Chinese New Year Parade, and there's a Chinese dragon dance. The dragon costume was blown off, and it's a huge centipede that was wearing the costume.
Centipede (in Chinese accent): Hey what is this? The Year of the Jerk?
Pandas: I was watching Chinese TV news a few months ago. Well my grandma was watching it and I saw this part of this Chinese scientist talking about pandas. He was playing with this baby panda by feeding him milk through a bottle, and playing with him like he's a human baby. It was so cute. Aww..
Funny bears: I was watching Jay Leno last night.
JL: Yesterday was "Bring your bear to work day." I thought it was "Wear your bear to work today." I was so embarrassed yesterday.
There was a little laughter.
Let's analyze this: JL should have showed it, instead of telling it. They should show JL coming to work wearing a bear costume and the other office workers say: "It's bring your bear to work day" and hold up their bears.
I saw this kind of joke on Tosh.O and it worked better. There was a Video Redemption segment. Cut to a clip of a guy dressed up as a knight and fighting in the woods.
Cut to Daniel Tosh wearing a bear costume with this cute, smiling face.
DT: Hey, I'm in costume.
Guy: You're wearing the wrong costume.
DT: What? I'm wearing the wrong costume? Oh, I feel so embarrassed.
DT puts his paws on his eyes and shakes his head. It was so cute with a bear acting embarrassed.
Sitcom reviews: My sister loves sitcoms, so I watched a couple of them with her recently. I'm not really a fan of sitcoms; I'm more into dramas.
Happy Endings: It stars Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert. It's about a group of friends. It was well- shot and kind of funny. I was watching the season 2 premiere.
New Girl: It stars Zooey Deschanel. It's about a girl who moves in with 3 guys. I immediately thought of the other comedy show called About a Girl which is about a girl who moves in with 4 guys. It had 1 season and came out in 2007. It was on the N, a kids network.
Back to New Girl. I thought it was kind of funny, funnier than Happy Endings. The episode was called "Wedding" where they all go to a wedding between an interracial marriage of an Asian man and a white woman. It stars Max Greenfield. I saw a bit of him the week before when my sister was watching it. I thought he looked familiar, but I don't know where.
About 30 min later, I remembered he was Deputy Leo on Veronica Mars. Katie Cassidy (Gossip Girl) also guest- starred. At first my sister and I didn't recognize her, but after watching it a bit more, we both recognized her. This is the first TV show to get picked up for a full season. I do recommend you watch it, because it is funny.
Oct. 14 Script pitch: Someone emailed me asking to read my The Vertex Fighter script. I then emailed it to him. I really needed this. I haven't sent my script out to anyone in some months due to my job search.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I got published/ my production company/ comparisons
Oct. 9 I got published: Last week I was writing about literary magazines. I had gotten one short story ("TJ's Story") published last year. This year I got another short story published called "Chase." The same company the Poetry Institute of Canada is going to publish one of my stories again. I am very happy about it. I'm going to say, I needed this.
I had gotten my short story "Purse" rejected by them, so I feel good that my other short story is getting published. "Chase" will be published in the anthology called From Across the River.
Salary: Also the last email was talking about salary. Here's a website where you can determine how much you should be getting paid.
http://monsterca.salary.com/
Post Secret:
"I slept with someone so they wouldn't commit suicide."
Me: I guess that's good to prevent someone from committing suicide. Though it's dark.
A picture of Chris Colfer (he plays the gay kid on Glee): "He cured my mom of her homophobia :)"
Me: That's good.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but I can't become a military wife in fear that you will die."
Email: I'm currently serving in Afghanistan and the one thing that keeps the thought of death away, is knowing I need to get home to my wife.
"I am starting to believe true love is only for thin and beautiful women."
Email: Me too. I think it is because I watch too much The Bachelor.
Email: Beautiful and thin women end up attracting the wrong people who waste their time and break their hearts. True love seems much further away.
"I am living proof that your childhood does not have to determine your life!"
"I am afraid that if you stop doing drugs you'll realize you're insane to be with me."
"I attended the wedding of the woman I love, and my wife was sitting next to me."
Then there are secrets where people say they're getting exercise to have better sex and that they found a wedding ring.
My production company: I was going through this Edmonton magazine Frost Fire issue Fall 2007. I see this ad for Microbusiness Training Centre. It can help and train you to start a business. Then I thought: "I'll start my own production company." I emailed them and I'm waiting for their reply.
I'm sure a lot of you guys think: "That's a crazy idea. Why?" Well I've been pitching my script for nearly 4 years to all these production companies in Canada. I've been rejected by all of them. I might as well start my own company and produce this script.
Check out their website: www.microbusiness.ca
Oct. 10: I read the ad and it said that if you have been on EI in the past 3 yrs, I may qualify to get paid while I learn how to make my own business. It also said if I'm under 34 yrs old, I could qualify for business financing through the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. We'll see.
I have never thought to make my own production company until last week. I always thought of getting my script produced through a company or working at a studio.
Saying: I found this on the National Post business section on Sept. 27, 2011. There was a blog written by a recent graduate named Greg Illson. He wrote about getting an MBA and he said: "Sometimes the best way to get out of a rut is to make your own path."
When I was 11 yrs old, I did go to a TV audition and I got rejected. I then thought: "I'll write my own script and give a role for myself." I even remember years later Halle Berry even said that about how there should be more good roles for women, and to write the roles. I was at Deb Green Casting website recently and it said the same thing that HB said.
By creating my own production company, I am creating my own path.
Script pitch: I haven't done this in a few months, but I found some more contacts to pitch my The Vertex Fighter script to.
Oct. 11 Writing: I know I haven't been writing for a long time because I needed a break to get my creative juices flowing. I checked the last time I worked on Rain, and it's been 6 weeks. I am feeling the itch to write my script. If you go through my weekly emails/ blog, I've been busy with my job search instead of writing.
Comparisons: I shall now give you a batch of comparisons to get myself thinking up stories.
Throwing a dead body in the river or lake: It was done on I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was done on Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 where it seems like Buffy may have killed someone. Spike then threw the body in the river. It was done on the TV movie What Happened that Night with one body.
Burying a dead body: It was done on Desperate Housewives season 8 premiere, and What Happened that Night with another body.
Story starts off with ominous note: It was done on I Know What You Did Last Summer. The movie title was the ominous note. It was done on Desperate Housewives pilot and then it appeared again on the season 8 premiere.
Hiding a dead body in the trunk: It was done on Ringer episode 2, and Desperate Housewives season 7 finale. It was done in the old movie Arsenic and Old Lace. I remember watching that when I was in gr.11 for Eng. class.
Finding a dead body in the cement: It was on last night's Castle's ep "Kick the Ballistics" where construction workers are stirring the cement. Then they lift up an arm. It was done on CSI: NY before differently. Construction workers were fighting, one worker drilled into the hardened cement and it started bleeding. There was a dead body in there.
Criminal dies, and when police tell next of kin, the family members are blase about it: In the Castle episode "Heroes and Villains", Det.Kate Beckett tells the rapist's mom that her son is dead. She's like "whatever." It was done on an ep of Rookie Blue season 2 finale "God's Good Grace" where a drug dealer dies. Det. Traci Nash has to tell his 2 sisters about it and they're like "whatever."
Vigilante superhero on cop drama: It was also on Castle's ep "Heroes and Villains" about someone dressing up like a superhero and stopping crime. It was done Rookie Blue season 1 where this young black guy was dressing up a like a superhero to stop crime. But it was funnier and lighter. The cops decide to let him go because he really wanted to be a cop and if he gets arrested, he won't be able to be one.
Cop's badge or uniform stolen: On CSI: NY, Danny's badge was stolen from his locker while he was at the gym. It was done on Rookie Blue where one of Det. Gail Peck's uniform was stolen from her car. The criminals were pretending to be cops. It was kind of done on Prison Break, but the prison escapees needed to pretend to be cops so they could attend this event for fallen police officers.
Character is on cell phone and is being watched. As Character is talking on the phone, they are looking for the person who is also on a cell phone: I saw this on Ringer episode 3 "If you ever want a French Lesson" where Bridget is looking for the hit man who is talking to her on the phone. It was done on Scream 2 where Jamie Kennedy's character is on the cell phone as he's looking around for the killer. His other friends are going around the campus and picking up people's phones to find the killer.
I had gotten my short story "Purse" rejected by them, so I feel good that my other short story is getting published. "Chase" will be published in the anthology called From Across the River.
Salary: Also the last email was talking about salary. Here's a website where you can determine how much you should be getting paid.
http://monsterca.salary.com/
Post Secret:
"I slept with someone so they wouldn't commit suicide."
Me: I guess that's good to prevent someone from committing suicide. Though it's dark.
A picture of Chris Colfer (he plays the gay kid on Glee): "He cured my mom of her homophobia :)"
Me: That's good.
"I don't know how to tell you this, but I can't become a military wife in fear that you will die."
Email: I'm currently serving in Afghanistan and the one thing that keeps the thought of death away, is knowing I need to get home to my wife.
"I am starting to believe true love is only for thin and beautiful women."
Email: Me too. I think it is because I watch too much The Bachelor.
Email: Beautiful and thin women end up attracting the wrong people who waste their time and break their hearts. True love seems much further away.
"I am living proof that your childhood does not have to determine your life!"
"I am afraid that if you stop doing drugs you'll realize you're insane to be with me."
"I attended the wedding of the woman I love, and my wife was sitting next to me."
Then there are secrets where people say they're getting exercise to have better sex and that they found a wedding ring.
My production company: I was going through this Edmonton magazine Frost Fire issue Fall 2007. I see this ad for Microbusiness Training Centre. It can help and train you to start a business. Then I thought: "I'll start my own production company." I emailed them and I'm waiting for their reply.
I'm sure a lot of you guys think: "That's a crazy idea. Why?" Well I've been pitching my script for nearly 4 years to all these production companies in Canada. I've been rejected by all of them. I might as well start my own company and produce this script.
Check out their website: www.microbusiness.ca
Oct. 10: I read the ad and it said that if you have been on EI in the past 3 yrs, I may qualify to get paid while I learn how to make my own business. It also said if I'm under 34 yrs old, I could qualify for business financing through the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. We'll see.
I have never thought to make my own production company until last week. I always thought of getting my script produced through a company or working at a studio.
Saying: I found this on the National Post business section on Sept. 27, 2011. There was a blog written by a recent graduate named Greg Illson. He wrote about getting an MBA and he said: "Sometimes the best way to get out of a rut is to make your own path."
When I was 11 yrs old, I did go to a TV audition and I got rejected. I then thought: "I'll write my own script and give a role for myself." I even remember years later Halle Berry even said that about how there should be more good roles for women, and to write the roles. I was at Deb Green Casting website recently and it said the same thing that HB said.
By creating my own production company, I am creating my own path.
Script pitch: I haven't done this in a few months, but I found some more contacts to pitch my The Vertex Fighter script to.
Oct. 11 Writing: I know I haven't been writing for a long time because I needed a break to get my creative juices flowing. I checked the last time I worked on Rain, and it's been 6 weeks. I am feeling the itch to write my script. If you go through my weekly emails/ blog, I've been busy with my job search instead of writing.
Comparisons: I shall now give you a batch of comparisons to get myself thinking up stories.
Throwing a dead body in the river or lake: It was done on I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was done on Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 where it seems like Buffy may have killed someone. Spike then threw the body in the river. It was done on the TV movie What Happened that Night with one body.
Burying a dead body: It was done on Desperate Housewives season 8 premiere, and What Happened that Night with another body.
Story starts off with ominous note: It was done on I Know What You Did Last Summer. The movie title was the ominous note. It was done on Desperate Housewives pilot and then it appeared again on the season 8 premiere.
Hiding a dead body in the trunk: It was done on Ringer episode 2, and Desperate Housewives season 7 finale. It was done in the old movie Arsenic and Old Lace. I remember watching that when I was in gr.11 for Eng. class.
Finding a dead body in the cement: It was on last night's Castle's ep "Kick the Ballistics" where construction workers are stirring the cement. Then they lift up an arm. It was done on CSI: NY before differently. Construction workers were fighting, one worker drilled into the hardened cement and it started bleeding. There was a dead body in there.
Criminal dies, and when police tell next of kin, the family members are blase about it: In the Castle episode "Heroes and Villains", Det.Kate Beckett tells the rapist's mom that her son is dead. She's like "whatever." It was done on an ep of Rookie Blue season 2 finale "God's Good Grace" where a drug dealer dies. Det. Traci Nash has to tell his 2 sisters about it and they're like "whatever."
Vigilante superhero on cop drama: It was also on Castle's ep "Heroes and Villains" about someone dressing up like a superhero and stopping crime. It was done Rookie Blue season 1 where this young black guy was dressing up a like a superhero to stop crime. But it was funnier and lighter. The cops decide to let him go because he really wanted to be a cop and if he gets arrested, he won't be able to be one.
Cop's badge or uniform stolen: On CSI: NY, Danny's badge was stolen from his locker while he was at the gym. It was done on Rookie Blue where one of Det. Gail Peck's uniform was stolen from her car. The criminals were pretending to be cops. It was kind of done on Prison Break, but the prison escapees needed to pretend to be cops so they could attend this event for fallen police officers.
Character is on cell phone and is being watched. As Character is talking on the phone, they are looking for the person who is also on a cell phone: I saw this on Ringer episode 3 "If you ever want a French Lesson" where Bridget is looking for the hit man who is talking to her on the phone. It was done on Scream 2 where Jamie Kennedy's character is on the cell phone as he's looking around for the killer. His other friends are going around the campus and picking up people's phones to find the killer.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
literary magazines/ evaluating job offers/ experts
Oct. 1 Literary magazines: I got my short story "TJ's Story" published in a Poetry Institute of Canada anthology of short stories. I then went through my notes in Professional Writing. In 2007, I took a Short Fiction Forms class. One of the assignments is get into groups and research writing magazines to get published in.
Geist: This is a good website. There's a Post Card short story contest where you find a post card, and write a 500 word story or poem about it"
"Make your own postcard using photos, drawings or images in the public domain, write a story inspired by that postcard, then send us the image and the story. The relationship between image and story can be as subtle as you like, as long as the contest judges can see the connection."
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
Notebook Magazine: I searched through my email inbox, and I got an email from this Edmonton writing magazine called Notebook Magazine. I submitted short stories to them through email, and he rejected them. The last email I got was back in Jan. 2008.
I then went to the website, and it said it was on hiatus. However, there is a piece about an artist named Murray Allen and he made all these crafts in his apartment before he passed away. Check out the pictures. The art is quirky and colorful:
http://notebookmagazine.ca/index.html
Oct. 2 Grain magazine: I bought this for my Creative Writing class. It's a literary magazine from Saskatchewan. The prizes are from are bigger than the usual, from $500-$1000. Others are less than $500.
http://www.grainmagazine.ca/index.html
Oct. 5 Puritan magazine: I had submitted some stories and poems to them. I did back when I was in college. I still get emails from them when new issues come out. I do like their website. Their graphics look frames on a wooden wall.
http://www.puritan-magazine.com/
Oct. 4 Evaluating job offers: I was at the career fair and learned about a info session called "Make me an offer! Tips on negotiating and evaluating job offers" at CAPS. I went there and I was the only one there. It's not as bad as throwing a party and no one showing up. lol. It's a info session.
I did learn some things that I didn't know. It was a power point presentation. One slide:
"Reflecting your budgetary needs and average salaries, your negotiation range starts a little higher than your bottom line and extends to a figure (within reason) that would make you very happy!"
When I apply for office assistant, administrative assistant, and receptionist position, the interviewer often asks: "What wage are you expecting?" I always say $11 or $12/hr. I should really give a range like $11-$14/hr or $23,000-$27,000. You need a range to negotiate with and say you're flexible.
Always do your research on how much the position you're applying for gets paid. I see in job ads and when I go into interviews, they do tell you how much the position pays.
Websites: You can learn about salary here:
www.wowjobs.ca/salary.aspx
www.alis.alberta.ca/wageinfo
www.salaryexpert.com (more USA)
Saying: One slide said:
"Something to think about?
We spend years in school. We spend a large sum of money getting that education. We spend hours writing resumes and cover letters and interviewing. But when we get to the last detail- money, perks, and benefits- we usually negotiate this in less than 5 min."
-Suzanne Green, management speaker
I did realize I am getting a little ahead of myself. I'm not at the negotiating stage yet, I'm in the applying and job interview stage. Negotiating is close because it's often talked about in the interview.
Oct. 5 Writer in Residence: I knew there was a Writer in Residence at MacEwan. I did a little searching last month, but I couldn't find the person. Then today I did some research and I found out it's Lynn Coady who wrote the book The Antagonist. She's nominated for the Scotia Bank Giller prize. I then congratulated her and emailed her part of my Rain script.
I then found out Greg MacArthur, the Writer in Residence at the U of A was nominated for the Siminovitch Prize. I congratulated him and then asked if he read my Rain script yet. I emailed him last month.
The Trouble with Experts: I saw this Doc Zone last week. It was good about how experts aren't really that knowledgeable about their subjects. I'm always cautious about who to listen to like my sister and friends like Angela and Jessica for career advice. They all graduated out of university and have careers, they have experience. They are knowledgeable.
Same goes for judges on reality-TV talent shows. They're all music producers, singers, dancers, and have been in the entertainment industry for years and made millions of dollars. They can judge talent.
Back to the documentary. They talked about wine experts. Some can't even tell white wine and red wine apart. The white wine had red dye in it. Most wine experts can't taste the difference. Regular people without any expectations could taste the difference.
They interviewed an artist that did copies of real paintings like Picasso. He was with another con man, and they sold all these paintings to museums. Part of the Art Experts want to believe they found something special, they lose sight of what's real art.
Financial gurus didn't predict the recession. They discussed the book The Management Myth: Why Experts keep Getting it Wrong about management gurus. There's a book called Wrong about experts getting it wrong.
There are nutritionists who know about health and what to eat. They promote cancer treatments that don't work. "Once you're getting paid, you don't become as objective."
They listed how experts make wrong predictions. One music producer says that "guys with guitars are on the way out" after seeing the Beatles.
Oct. 8 Job interview: The other day I went to a job interview. There were 100 resumes, and I was one of the 15 people being interviewed. So it's good to be considered to be good enough to get an interview. I thought the interview was average. We also talked a bit about my restaurant job and how she did go and eat there before, so that was different.
Flashback: I got this flashback of the actor Ian Ziering. He was in the original 90210 TV show in the 90s. A few years ago, he was being interviewed by Tyra Banks about how he got the role.
IZ: There are so many actors for very few roles. I needed to get an edge. So I went to this room to get the 90210 script. The office was empty and there was this big pile of scripts and a sign that said for every script that's been taken, you have to write down your name. So I wrote "Ben Dover" and then took the pile of scripts and ran away with it. I then managed to find a garbage can and throw them away.
The edge is that less actors got the script, so less competition. lol. Well I'm sure there were still a lot of actors going for that role, and he did audition and got the part because he was talented.
As a kid, I did want to get into acting and I knew there were a lot of actors for a few roles. Actors face a lot of competition. Now that I'm an adult, I learn it's not just actors but for a lot of other jobs.
Geist: This is a good website. There's a Post Card short story contest where you find a post card, and write a 500 word story or poem about it"
"Make your own postcard using photos, drawings or images in the public domain, write a story inspired by that postcard, then send us the image and the story. The relationship between image and story can be as subtle as you like, as long as the contest judges can see the connection."
http://www.geist.com/articles/8th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest
Notebook Magazine: I searched through my email inbox, and I got an email from this Edmonton writing magazine called Notebook Magazine. I submitted short stories to them through email, and he rejected them. The last email I got was back in Jan. 2008.
I then went to the website, and it said it was on hiatus. However, there is a piece about an artist named Murray Allen and he made all these crafts in his apartment before he passed away. Check out the pictures. The art is quirky and colorful:
Oct. 2 Grain magazine: I bought this for my Creative Writing class. It's a literary magazine from Saskatchewan. The prizes are from are bigger than the usual, from $500-$1000. Others are less than $500.
Oct. 5 Puritan magazine: I had submitted some stories and poems to them. I did back when I was in college. I still get emails from them when new issues come out. I do like their website. Their graphics look frames on a wooden wall.
http://www.puritan-magazine.com/
Oct. 4 Evaluating job offers: I was at the career fair and learned about a info session called "Make me an offer! Tips on negotiating and evaluating job offers" at CAPS. I went there and I was the only one there. It's not as bad as throwing a party and no one showing up. lol. It's a info session.
I did learn some things that I didn't know. It was a power point presentation. One slide:
"Reflecting your budgetary needs and average salaries, your negotiation range starts a little higher than your bottom line and extends to a figure (within reason) that would make you very happy!"
When I apply for office assistant, administrative assistant, and receptionist position, the interviewer often asks: "What wage are you expecting?" I always say $11 or $12/hr. I should really give a range like $11-$14/hr or $23,000-$27,000. You need a range to negotiate with and say you're flexible.
Always do your research on how much the position you're applying for gets paid. I see in job ads and when I go into interviews, they do tell you how much the position pays.
Websites: You can learn about salary here:
www.wowjobs.ca/salary.aspx
www.alis.alberta.ca/wageinfo
www.salaryexpert.com (more USA)
Saying: One slide said:
"Something to think about?
We spend years in school. We spend a large sum of money getting that education. We spend hours writing resumes and cover letters and interviewing. But when we get to the last detail- money, perks, and benefits- we usually negotiate this in less than 5 min."
-Suzanne Green, management speaker
I did realize I am getting a little ahead of myself. I'm not at the negotiating stage yet, I'm in the applying and job interview stage. Negotiating is close because it's often talked about in the interview.
Oct. 5 Writer in Residence: I knew there was a Writer in Residence at MacEwan. I did a little searching last month, but I couldn't find the person. Then today I did some research and I found out it's Lynn Coady who wrote the book The Antagonist. She's nominated for the Scotia Bank Giller prize. I then congratulated her and emailed her part of my Rain script.
I then found out Greg MacArthur, the Writer in Residence at the U of A was nominated for the Siminovitch Prize. I congratulated him and then asked if he read my Rain script yet. I emailed him last month.
The Trouble with Experts: I saw this Doc Zone last week. It was good about how experts aren't really that knowledgeable about their subjects. I'm always cautious about who to listen to like my sister and friends like Angela and Jessica for career advice. They all graduated out of university and have careers, they have experience. They are knowledgeable.
Same goes for judges on reality-TV talent shows. They're all music producers, singers, dancers, and have been in the entertainment industry for years and made millions of dollars. They can judge talent.
Back to the documentary. They talked about wine experts. Some can't even tell white wine and red wine apart. The white wine had red dye in it. Most wine experts can't taste the difference. Regular people without any expectations could taste the difference.
They interviewed an artist that did copies of real paintings like Picasso. He was with another con man, and they sold all these paintings to museums. Part of the Art Experts want to believe they found something special, they lose sight of what's real art.
Financial gurus didn't predict the recession. They discussed the book The Management Myth: Why Experts keep Getting it Wrong about management gurus. There's a book called Wrong about experts getting it wrong.
There are nutritionists who know about health and what to eat. They promote cancer treatments that don't work. "Once you're getting paid, you don't become as objective."
They listed how experts make wrong predictions. One music producer says that "guys with guitars are on the way out" after seeing the Beatles.
Oct. 8 Job interview: The other day I went to a job interview. There were 100 resumes, and I was one of the 15 people being interviewed. So it's good to be considered to be good enough to get an interview. I thought the interview was average. We also talked a bit about my restaurant job and how she did go and eat there before, so that was different.
Flashback: I got this flashback of the actor Ian Ziering. He was in the original 90210 TV show in the 90s. A few years ago, he was being interviewed by Tyra Banks about how he got the role.
IZ: There are so many actors for very few roles. I needed to get an edge. So I went to this room to get the 90210 script. The office was empty and there was this big pile of scripts and a sign that said for every script that's been taken, you have to write down your name. So I wrote "Ben Dover" and then took the pile of scripts and ran away with it. I then managed to find a garbage can and throw them away.
The edge is that less actors got the script, so less competition. lol. Well I'm sure there were still a lot of actors going for that role, and he did audition and got the part because he was talented.
As a kid, I did want to get into acting and I knew there were a lot of actors for a few roles. Actors face a lot of competition. Now that I'm an adult, I learn it's not just actors but for a lot of other jobs.
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