No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 6, 2018

Behind the cut will be an entry about suicide and the after effects of suicide.

In front of the cut a few things I need to say.

If you can, VOTE! This is the day to make your voice heard. No excuses. We are way past excuses. This is probably one of the most important elections and will determine the shape and tone of the country for at least the next two years. If you have voted, thank you.

A professor at Emory that I have known for years before I officially went to Emory passed away. Dr. John Bugge was a professor of English with his specialty being Medieval English Literature. He was a kind man who listen to his students and help so many through the years. I will always think of him with his bike helmet on riding his bicycle on campus. I remember his classes that I took. I am still using knowledge he gave me to this day. He was one of the good ones and will be missed by many. My prayers to his family and friends in this difficult time. Thank you Dr. Bugge for all that you did for me and so many other students.

Now onto what happened yesterday or rather Sunday that lead to events of yesterday.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 3, 2018

My parents raised me with a good sense of Personal Responsibility.

I screw up, I take responsibility for it and deal with the consequences.

More and more I see the blame game going on. It is never someone’s fault because there is always a reason that it can’t be.

I forget to do something I promise to do, I own up to it. Or I expect to be called on it.

I did this in my professional careers so if I had a reason outside myself, they took me seriously because they knew that I would admit if it was me.

But now people say things on the Internet and when called on their behavior, claim that they are not responsible for what others do with their words.

They do not take Personal Responsibility for what they say.

Oh and saying “That’s not what I meant” does not absolve one.

We can no longer debate because it turns into a shouting match of who is ‘right’.

Sometimes there is not a ‘right’ in matters that have such personal resonances.

People are not going to see eye to eye on all issues.

But they should take responsibility for their position rather than just parrot things that ‘sound good to them.’

Do some bloody research when you read something on line. Take some responsibility to not spread things that can be disproven with one Google search.

And I am talking not only things in the social arena but medical or whatever.

Take some personal responsibility to pass on truth rather than rumor and innuendo that just get passed on like a bad game of telephone.

Silly memes aside, we need to be better about what we say on social media.

We need to take Personal Responsibility.

I am grateful my parents taught me at a young age to take responsibility for word and deed.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 2, 2018

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
-Bohemian Rhapsody by Freddy Mercury

Honestly there are no spoilers to be had if you know your Queen and Freddy Mercury trivia.

I was a little late to Queen joining in with “A Night at the Opera” and then going back for the previous albums. My first encounter was with them was “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the radio.

Before seeing the film I read about concerns people had with whether they were going to whitewash Freddy Mercury’s origins or his sexuality or how he died.

This is a bio picture and not a bio picture at the same time. It is bookended with the performance at Live Aid that they apparently filmed the whole thing then used about 15 of the 20 minutes of the performance. It is the fantasy of Queen with a dose of reality tossed in.

Not a perfect picture but is a brilliant piece of cinema. Considering all it went through including the firing of the director a little more than half way through, it holds together.

Most of it rests on the shoulders of Rami Malek who does an incredible job of being Freddy Mercury. He manages that twinkle in his eye that was so much part of Freddy’s performance. He looks like he is having fun. But he also plays the pain of being the ‘other’ as Freddy so often felt he was. Other because of where he was from and what he believed and who he loved. I believe him as Freddy.

Gwilym Lee looked and moved like Brian May. It was kind of scary at times.

The other band members are portrayed well.

But this film rises and falls on Mr. Malek.

The music is of course Queen so it is going to be good in my book.

How Bohemian Rhapsody came together is a fun scene.

How the band was formed and rose to stardom is not over done.

Most of this film are things you already knew about the band including Freddy’s proclivities. His relationship with Mary Austin which was most of his adult life and a strange tale in itself. He calls himself bi in the film but Mary says no that he was gay. He disputed that because he loved her. Yes he did sleep around and make some spectacularly bad choices in doing that. And he paid the ultimate price for that.

They do make Paul Prenter the villain of the piece which, depending on who you read, he was to many people.

I do like that Mr. Malek played the stage version of Freddy Mercury and private version very different but according to Mr. Mercury’s friends that was how he was. Introvert in his personal life and an extrovert on stage.

I think there is enough here that the large screen would help with the scope of the film.

I do know that my Queen CDs came out of the pile and are now being played again.

If you like Queen, this is worth your time.

And good luck figuring out who Mike Myers is playing. It took me a bit to figure it out and he has the best line for him to say in the whole piece creating a big ol’ piece of Meta.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 1, 2018

Blessed All Saints Day to those who celebrate it. Saints are interesting to read about especially those that were ‘converted’ from the local religion to a Christian paradigm to make it easier to convert people of the area. And then there are the holy men and women who stood up for what they believed in and remain a shining example for the rest of us.

It is also the first day of the National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo were a lot of people try to write at least 1500 per day to get something about 50,000 by the end of the month. Some people do well with this and others crash early. I have done OK especially if I start early in the morning which seems to be my best writing time. No I have never actually gotten all the way to the end.

This year I am trying something a little different by writing 1500 per day but not necessarily the same story. I have a few things owed to various anthologies and a couple of challenges that I need to complete. If I have the 1500 goal, I should be able to finish my obligations and get some other projects off my plate.

I am not counting this web log however I am going to try to do an entry a day as my warm up for writing. Once I get the flow going, I stand a better chance of meeting my goals.

I am also going to spend less time on social media and game playing. I have to say the new function on all iDevices telling you how much you are doing what is both helpful and very scary. I discovered what I have been doing with my time and I wasn’t happy with me. I know I am better than that.

Funny thing, there are a number of articles I have been reading about the people who design the apps are now limiting or entirely forbidding their children to play/read/work on electronic devices along with television. Anything with a screen seems to be ‘bad’ to them. I think they are overreacting just a bit but there is also some evidence of that social media usage can cause depression and other problems.

Personally I like being able to keep up with my friends and loved ones. I do recognize that I have been playing around on social media too much. I have so many means of interacting with people online. I find myself pulling out the phone or the iPad when things slow down or I am avoiding something I need to do or should do. I am taking responsibility for my actions and lack of actions.

We had a good Halloween. Caroline ran around with her friends. We gave out comic books, glow in the dark vampire teeth, and, the most popular, glow bracelets. The adults thanked us as much as the kids. It was a nice evening.

I am grateful for anything I write this month.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 29, 2018

I am a week behind. I haven’t seen last night’s episode because I went to an amazing Halloween party thrown by some local friends. So I am going to ask that there be no spoilers for the next episode in the comments and I will get around to that episode later this week unless the world falls apart which it might.

Knowing that originally Doctor Who was supposed to be a kids’ show where they travel through time and show historical events, I think the creators would have been proud of the episode for the most part.

One thing I had to remind myself while I was watching it was this is the British point of view of the events of the American Civil Rights movement. More on that in the spoilers section.

Decent script and good acting. The American accents were again decent. Some of the southern accents were a little bit off but then I lived in the South for most of my formative years so those accents were something I heard a lot.

I like how the group is coming together. I feel like I have a better idea who each of these characters are and where they stand. Having two characters who were looked down upon and dealing with that within the episode was well done along with their frustration with the situation. And yes there were incidents as described in the deep south at that time.

Overall it was a serviceable episode of Doctor Who.

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