Month: November 2011

I love this feeling. I have things to do, but I also feel like I have enough space to take my time, or even do nothing at all if I feel like it. So what have I done?

– Fed the cats and gave them all their meds.
– Added a new post to my Unbelievable blog.
– Updated my Wish List at Amazon. This involved some very wishful thinking! (Desk speakers!) Oh wow, just learned about and entered the Amazon Wish List contest. Okay, just lost some time fantasizing about all the things I’d get if I won. I should add “a new puppy.”

I took this at choir rehearsal yesterday.

Ye Shall Have a Song is the chorus at the end of Randall Thompson’s Peaceable Kingdom. I’m going to be writing a lot about this over the next couple of weeks. And Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir.

But for now, I’m going to retire to the couch and watch tv for hours and hours and hours. Because I transcribed all day yesterday, and I just blew out my voice singing high A’s at choir rehearsal just now. Still it was glorious and fun and satisfying and I’m so happy right now. This is what group singing will do for you.

Ye shall have a song and gladness of heart.

Buddy, who was once so camera shy, and who has CANCER, is camera-friendly and doing fine and looks as beautiful as can be (in my humble opinion).

The ads on Craigslist asking for writers but offering no pay drive me absolutely crazy. “We don’t pay, but this is a great opportunity to get published,” blah, blah, blah. Where to begin? I know they are targeting beginning writers, but even for writers just starting out this is bullshit.

The authors of these ads never say anything to substantiate their claim that this is a good opportunity. Anyone can slap up a website or blog. What are they bringing to the table that makes it a good opportunity for the writers? It’s almost always a start-up so there is no audience. They never say “we have well-heeled investors getting behind our effort, so we think it’s not unreasonable to believe we have a decent shot,” etc. (Of course if they had investors they would be paying the writers something.) They never detail their experience and background which might also give some credence to their claims. Who are YOU? Why should anyone jump through whatever hoops you’ve held up to impress you?

Worse are the “established, famous” writers asking for assistants without pay, offering valuable experience and contacts in return. If they were truly established they would pay their assistants. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of talented writers out there who are struggling, these are hard times, but the number of them who could genuinely make working for free worthwhile is small. And the people who put up these ads don’t sound like they are in that pool, they invariably sound like jerks. So much so I can’t believe anyone responds. But I also can’t believe anyone answers the “write for my blog for free, it’s a great opportunity” ads. Do they?

I went back and took another picture of those Jimmy Choo shoes I think are so beautiful. My first shot was so bad.

They have a lot planned, I read. They must be down at Wall Street now, I can hear the buzzing of helicopters (which can’t be possible, they’re a mile away). I should turn on the news. I can’t get down there myself, but there’s a rally at 5pm in Foley Square. My friend Chris (we’ve known each other since we were 13!) is visiting, maybe she’ll be up for checking it out.

Update: We have to go to Foley Square!! There will be singing! From their website:

DINNER: Take The Square – 5:00 p.m.

At 5 pm, tens of thousands of people will gather at Foley Square (just across from City Hall) in solidarity with laborers demanding jobs to rebuild this country’s infrastructure and economy. A gospel choir and a marching band will also be performing.

Afterwards we will march to our bridges. Let’s make it as musical a march as possible – bring your songs, your voice, your spirit! Our “Musical” on the bridge will culminate in a festival of light as we mark the two-month anniversary of the #occupy movement, and our commitment to shining light into our broken economic and political system.

An explosion of gingko leaves on my block. I took this last night heading home from my monthly MBSR meditation group.

I just gave A&E’s show Hoarders another shot, what can I say, I’m human, it’s hard to look away. Sure enough, I was punished. Everyone was. It was an hour of child abuse, or rather a half an hour. One of the hoarders, Eileen, clearly has mental illness beyond the symptoms of hoarding. This is what I don’t understand about this show—when they come across people like this, people this mentally ill, they should stop the cameras and address it. I want to hate the woman, but clearly she’s severely damaged. Those poor children. Well, I guess at the very least now that the show has aired Child Protective Services is aware of the situation. But this is not entertainment.

It’s a rainy, dreary day here in the city.