No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 10, 2011

Yeah, I could probably come up with a better title, but my brain is in a bit of a fog this morning.

Caroline loves ThunderCats both the new version and the old version. For her birthday she got the Thundertank and some action figures. She pulled out her castle and the Thundercats have been having some serious adventures.

This week is paper recycling and we have quite a bit to recycle including boxes that I can’t really re-use.

Next week I think Ariel is coming home for winter break. Then we are into the holiday season since both the Christian and the Jewish holidays are pretty much on top of each other this year. In two weeks I will be at my parents house for Christmas and a week after that I will be getting ready for the New Year.

I have a lot to do and to think about before the next year starts. I will probably being doing some of it here and some of it on paper. Yes, I still use paper to get my thoughts out.

Fig is asleep next to Caroline. The two of them have bonded quite tightly. Fig runs to see Caroline when Fig hears Caroline open her bedroom door in the morning. She sticks with Caroline until Caroline is out the door for school. Then she is there at the door to greet Caroline when she comes home. It is cute to watch.

Basketball, oh professional Basketball, what are we going to do with you. I have to say that the commissioner really screwed things up this week in mores ways than one. I am not that interested this year and I am wondering if anyone still is.

Baseball, well the Mets aren’t exactly making me feel good about the team next year. I wonder if anyone will be left on the team to play any more.

Football, well it’s moving along. The teams I like aren’t doing great. And in college there is, yet again, the whole BCS debate.

We are going to see a preview of Tintin tomorrow in the city. I am looking forward to it. There was a slight kerfuffle over an early review this week. Someone broke the embargo which they signed a piece of paper that said that they weren’t going to publish the review until a certain date which was still well before the movie opened. Makes one wonder how solid those “contracts” are. The studios are in sort of a bind that if they enforce it, then they don’t get a review in a major newspaper and may not in the future for that company.

Off to get some stuff done before going off to Ariel’s holiday concert this evening.

I am grateful for Caroline and Fig’s antics.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 9, 2011

Yes, I know the title sounds like something an episode of the Big Bang Theory would be named but there it is

I can honestly say I was steampunk before there was a word for it. I had an aviator’s cap that I wore sometimes with goggles and sometimes without. It offended the fashion sense of some of my friends that they bought me a replacement hat.

I loved the work of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. The look of the Nautilus in the Disney film was my ideal look for my home, either that or Sherlock Holmes’ drawing room. The Victorian kind of look with a science fiction overlay was so in my wheelhouse from the time I was young. I played RPG (role playing games) with serious steampunk vibes.

Some years later (ok Many years later), I ran across the term Steampunk and was surprised to find others who liked the aesthetic that I have loved most of my life.

Shortly after that I saw my first Steampunk costume at a convention and it has exploded since then in all sorts of forms of media.

Now I am finding books on steampunk jewelry in Barnes and Nobel which tells me that this has pretty much gone mainstream. I see journals with steampunk themes and the real telling factor is that there are now Steampunk(ish) patterned fabric in my local fabric store.

I have also seen a lot of things labeled steampunk that just seemed to be people cashing in on the phrase Steampunk. I even got into a rather spirited argument about this turn at LunaCon with someone who apparently doesn’t think much of me now and had let others know it.

Today I was steered to a video that sums up my current problem with a small part of the Steampunk and what I think Steampunk is at the core of it.

Just Glue Some Gears on it (and call it Steampunk)

Steampunk is my design aesthetic. Given an unlimited budget and a serious size house, I would so have a steampunk theme to my house. But it would be practical use of the aesthetic rather than just slapping some gears on it.

I am grateful that someone finally came up with a word to describe something I have loved since I was a child.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 7, 2011

Wow, December 2011! Where did the year go? Hard to believe that in less than a month we are into 2012. Sometimes I feel like the reason we have all these holiday celebrations in December is so that we don’t see the next year sneaking up on us.

One of the advantages of having someone in the WGA (The American Screenwriters Guild) in the house is that you get invited to see films way before they open in the US and the film companies send you DVD screeners for films they are pushing for various Oscar contention. Last month I saw the Muppets about two weeks before it opened. This month I get to see Tintin about two weeks before it opens in the US. There is one film I am hoping is going to show up but I am not holding my breath.

The Paypal mess seems to be resolving in favor of the charity but still it was a stupid move on Paypal’s part and they can’t say it was one person who was misinformed since the same answer kept being repeated up the chain. The problem with internet commerce is that the rules of monopoly that hold within the confines of the US, don’t with our new global market especially when we are talking about money from customers in other countries. There are alternatives to paypal but they are very limited in what they allow their patrons to do. My suggestion is that unless you have a non-profit charitable license, don’t use the donate button until Paypal clears up its nebulous language in the terms of service.

There are a number of organizations that are trying to help our service men and women overseas and their families here back at home. However, be careful who you give your money to especially in these times of need. I have used the Charity Navigator to check some of the organizations that I have given to.

We are having an unusual number of large trucks rumbling down the street.

Peter’s next episode of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien airs this Friday. He is very proud of this one and it was the last one he did with Dwayne.

Going to be in Orlando in February. More on that late when I have the rest of it sorted out. To my theme park buddies, I’ll be in touch.

Shana and Tim’s movie theater opens this month. They have been blogging about their adventures in renovating the space. You can read about their adventures here I think it is going to be a sweet space to see a film in and I look forward to being able to do so down the road.

Well I should be a little less random and get some stuff done today.

Go see the Muppets if you haven’t yet. Yes, it is worth it.

I am grateful for people helping other people.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 6, 2011

Peter went and saw Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar on a TKTS ticket the day before Thanksgiving when he was in the city. He came out of the show and bought me a ticket to the show knowing that it was one of those plays that I needed to see.

He was right. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I laughed and occasionally felt a little uncomfortable when some of the words hit a little close to home. There were a couple of things that as a writer, the wife of a writer, a book editor, and a stage manager that I may have ‘got’ just because of my background.

From the Seminar Website
In SEMINAR, four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard (Alan Rickman), an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting new comedy. copyright 2011 Seminar on Broadway/Theresa Rebeck

And that’s pretty much a good summery of what the play is about.

The acting is wonderful through out. It was so nice to see Alan Rickman on stage again. Yes, he is impressive on screen but he is one of those actors with stage presence. There is an energy there that is almost palatable. The young writers were a mix of Broadway’s young blood and movie/TV faces that have you asking yourself where you had seen them before.

Lily Rabe has probably the hardest role in the whole thing as Kate which she does a lovely job with. Hettienne Park as Izzy does a lot with what she is given to work with and knows how to give the space to another actor without looking like she is doing it. Hamish Linklater as Martin looks like that guy you see at Starbucks or a coffee house frantically typing on their computer that looks like a writer with a purpose. His character takes an interesting journey that the actor does a good job bring the audience along for the ride. Jerry O’Connell as Douglas has created that character that you know at least one of during your life and they alternate between driving you crazy and being your best bud at the same time.

The set works well over all. The direction is solid. The costumes look like they came out of the actors’ own closets. Honestly they could wear the clothes that they walked in to the theater with. And that is some good costuming to look so effortless.

One of the nice things about this play is that, with the exception of about two jokes that are New York centric, could be set in any city at almost anytime. The story is one that people can relate to even if they aren’t writers.

I hope that this play does get produced in regional theater down the road. I think it would be a solid play with minimal sets and costumes that would speak to audiences on so many levels. My only caveat is that you need a very strong older actor in the role of the teacher Leonard to make it work well.

I am grateful that I saw Seminar with the original cast.

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Posted By Kathleen David on December 5, 2011

Hard to believe that nine years has passed since Caroline came into the world. But there is it.

She has changed a lot in a year. Not as much as when she went from baby to toddler to little girl but still she is growing and changing.

Her tastes are changing as she gets older as are her little friends tastes. She still loved My Little Pony but the current favorite is Monster High. This is the first set of Dolls that she is really interested in. She loved Thundercats (both versions), Young Justice, Ben 10, Phineas and Ferb, Fish hooks, Sponge Bob, Supah Ninjas, Tower Prep, Once Upon a Time, the Muppets, and Big Bang Theory. She likes video games but really likes table top games that she can play with others. Current favorites are Spot It and Swish. I am thinking of teaching her chess.

She is a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction. Some of the books are in series that all the kids are reading (Wimpy Kid books) but others are books that she branched off on her own. Peter and I still read to her which she really enjoys. She has a love of non-fiction especially books about big cats.

She is an active child. She likes going to the track and just running as hard and fast as she can. She is taking Kung Fu and bowling in a league. We can still take her to the playground and she runs around like a nut for as long as we will let her.

She loved her cat Fig and Fig has let us know that Caroline is her human. If Caroline falls asleep on the couch, Fig checks on her to make sure Caroline is ok and then she curls up next to her.

She enjoys school. She likes her classmates and her teacher. She is a sponge for learning. I am trying to convince her that Math is not that hard and is very important. We are on the times tables which is where a lot of kids get stuck for a little while. I have a feeling once we get to algebra and the like, she will love it. She loves codes and solving them.

It is official. She likes music that I don’t care much for, not Justine Beiber but another tween boy group. But that’s fine. She is being her own person which is as it should be.

Next year she goes into double digits, as she puts it. But I plan to enjoy her last year in single digits as she continues to grow.

Happy Birthday My Dear.

I am grateful that I have Caroline in my life.

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