All Over the Place; Bear With Me

Ugh, lack of posting.

Not a whole lot has happened since my last post. There was a good amount of Studio Drama in several different ways but it’s all been resolved and I think we’re back to being our happy little Studio Time bubble of crazies.

I mean really, there’s only so long you can work with people before something happens. I have to say, we’re a good group of crazies, though. We bounce back, we forgive, and we move on.

I’m going to Famous Footwear tomorrow to buy a pair of fur-line clogs (my old ones from a year and a half ago went to The Great Closet In the Sky, no more treads and you can only superglue them so many times…) because I can’t bend over to tie my shoes and all I have are ballet flats.  I wore them today and they were fine until the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and I thought my feet would fall off by the time I got home. So clogs it is, and Mom thinks that it’s a good idea.

Also, I’d like to get this out:

I want to apologize to anyone that feels that I might be being a crappy friend or that has caught me in one of my mood swings.  Chronic pain is a beast (that will hopefully be tamed soon, I hopehopehope it will).  I don’t expect many people to understand the pain, necessarily, but rather that if I do get irritated or I don’t look happy, it probably has nothing to do with you.

My pain gets worse as the day wears on. I am physically and mentally worn out by about 5pm.  I don’t know how many are familiar with the pain rating numbers (rate your pain, 0 being no pain at all, 10 being the worst and unbearable) but by mid-day and evening, it’s usually around a 7 or 8.  I consider my episode of Christmas Eve to be a 10, which I know doesn’t give much of a perspective to most, but that’s how I try to judge it.  And why am I even thinking about it this way?  I’m supposed to keep some of a record for my appointment next week so that they can assess what needs to be done.

This turned out to be much more of an explanation than I planned, but I’m hoping that it will help people understand that it’s not really anything I can control and that as much as I hate it, it does put me into a not-so-great mood at the end of the day.  I am trying–and getting better about it, I hope–to not take it out on/at others.

I realize that I might not be the most pleasant person to be around lately, and I really do feel bad, and for that, I apologize.

I need to be knitting more.  It’s meditative and puts my mind to something positive. I think I’ll start trying to put aside a bit of time each day to do it: it’s because much more than a hobby now.

On a completely unrelated note, I got to see Clayton today.  I realized the other night that I haven’t seen him in a few weeks, so we met up after I was done with work and went to Caribou.  We talked about a lot and I think that I’m in a better mindset now about a few things.

And! Last thing: I think that tomorrow I will upload the production projects that I have done so far this semester for WCRX. They will be here soon, I promise. (:

This past week has been out to get everyone. March (and warm weather) needs to get here fast,

To/Die/For - One More Time

Author defines Dubai censorship-Globe & Mail

PUBLISHING TEMPEST

Atwood retracts censure of Dubai festival

Guy Dixon

The Globe & Mail: February 23, 2009

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090223.AATWOOD23/TPStory/Entertainment

Margaret Atwood, the doyenne of literary festivals, issued a mea culpa over the weekend explaining that she may have been too hasty in cancelling her appearance at a Dubai festival this week and declaring that a British novelist had been censored before fully understanding all the facts.

“Having leapt into this dog’s breakfast, I have it all over my face,” she wrote in a statement for the British newspaper The Guardian on Saturday.

Atwood is known for her strong defence of the freedom of writers, and her role in anti-censorship group International PEN. But in this case, Atwood said she misjudged the case. Atwood was scheduled to attend the inaugural Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature. She was possibly the most celebrated Western author on the roster, which also includes British poet Simon Armitage and Giles Foden (The Last King of Scotland).

But then last Tuesday, news of a British writer who is not attending, Geraldine Bedell, convinced Atwood to cancel.

Bedell decried in the press that her novel, The Gulf Between Us, was being banned because, she said, one of its characters was a gay sheik. Bedell and her publisher Penguin had hoped to launch the book, which Bedell describes as a romantic comedy, at the Dubai festival.

But the festival rejected the book in September. For an unspecified reason, however, news of that only exploded on the world literary stage last week when Bedell began to claim censorship.

Bedell, who writes for The Observer newspaper, wrote in a blog entry for sister paper The Guardian that the director of the festival responded to the book with a long list of reasons why the novel wasn’t suitable.

“After all the initial excitement on both sides, they took the book, sat on it for a long time and finally came back with an almost comically long list of reasons why they couldn’t have it at their festival,” Bedell wrote in her Books Blog entry. “These included ‘it is set in the Gulf,’ ‘it talks about Islam,’ and ‘it focuses on the Iraq war and could be a minefield for us.’ ”

Bedell alleged that this amounted to censorship - or self-censorship to avoid a political fallout. “I’ve worked as a journalist in the Gulf, and I recognize what’s happening here: It’s a kind of self-censorship that’s terrified someone else - other people - might be offended, regardless of whether the material in question is really offensive at all,” Bedell wrote on the blog.

Festival director Isobel Abulhoul seemed to add to fuel to the fire by reportedly responding in a widely reported statement that “I knew that her work could offend certain cultural sensitivities. I did not believe that it was in the festival’s long term interests to acquiesce to her publisher’s request to launch the book at the first festival of this nature in the Middle East.”

That’s when Atwood got involved. “This was a case for Anti-Censorship Woman!” Atwood wrote in her Guardian mea culpa Saturday.

She could not be immediately reached for comment yesterday. “I nipped into the nearest phone booth, hopped into my cape and coiled my magic lasso, and swiftly cancelled my own appearance; because, as a vice-president of International PEN, I could not give my August Seal of Elderly Writer Approval to such a venue,” she wrote in the paper.

What Atwood says she believes happened this time was that instead of simply responding back something to the effect of “thanks, but no thanks,” which would quell any further controversy, Abulhoul, directing this brand new Dubai festival for the first time, made the mistake of being too candid with her remarks without realizing how they might be construed.

Atwood’s self-deprecating tone is intentional because, as she explains, this was before she spoke to the festival director. Publishers ask festivals around the world all the time to help to launch a book. Those requests are routinely accepted and rejected. It’s the normal course of business in the industry.

Atwood says she was told by Abulhoul that the book wasn’t being banned from the festival nor from Dubai. According to Atwood, Penguin claims it is being banned because a local bookseller told them so. Yet the book isn’t even due to be published until April. In short, Atwood says she doesn’t know what to think, but seems to argue that terms like “banned” and “censorship” may have been thrown around carelessly in this case.

So she is contemplating making an appearance through a video link with the festival, although not in person. The festival will also now host an event with International PEN talking about issues of censorship.

As Atwood concludes in her statement, “Books are seriously ‘banned’ and ‘censored’ around the world, and people have been imprisoned, murdered and executed for what they’ve written. A loose use of these terms is not helpful.”

Empowering Ttruth for Today 20.02.09

YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN ALL THE NECESSARY RESOURCES YOU NEED FOR THE RELEASE AND MAXIMIZATION OF YOUR POTENTIAL (2) - PHYSICAL/HUMAN RESOURCES:

Read Genesis 1:26-31; 2:8-17; 2 Peter 1:2-4.

As a Kingdom Citizen and a child of Covenant, you’ve been blessed (empowered) by God (Gen. 1:28). Through this empowerment, you were provided for with all the resources that you need to fulfill your purpose and accomplish the mandate that God created you for. The apostle Peter reiterated the truth that you have been blessed by God with all things that pertain to life and godliness. He writes that… “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:3-4 NKJV). God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. These resources include:

• Spiritual resources like the Word of God, the gifts of the Spirit, and the Full Armor of God


• Physical/Human resources


• Material resources.


• The resources of the soul.


• The resource of time.

You are a spirit being because you are made in the image and likeness of God. Since God is Spirit, and you have the very essence of God, the real you is your spirit man. In order for you to be able to do that which God wanted you to do on earth, He formed and fashioned your body and put your spirit in it… “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV) Without your body, you cannot function on earth. Your body was given to you to help you fulfill the purpose God created you for. Therefore, it is your responsibility to take proper care of your body. Misuse and abuse are the result of improper care and inappropriate habits of the body. The body was given to you by God for use to accomplish your assignment on earth. There are certain things that are permitted for the body and others that are not permitted… “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body… Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?“ (1 Cor. 6:12-13, 15a). You are not permitted to use your body inappropriately because God gave it to you for a purpose. It is therefore your responsibility to take proper care of your body and use it exclusively for the purpose of releasing your potential.

When God put the man in the garden He had planted, He saw that it was not good for man to be alone and that the man needed a helper (Gen. 2:18). God therefore formed a woman out of the man and presented her to the man (Gen. 2:21-22). The woman was given to the man as a helper - to help the man fulfill his purpose. The man could not accomplish the assignment God gave him without the woman. In the same light, you cannot fulfill your purpose in life alone. God will connect you with people who will help propel you towards the accomplishment of your purpose in life. Adam was given Eve; Moses was given Aaron, Miriam and Joshua; David was connected to Jonathan; Elijah had Elisha; Jesus had His disciples; Paul had Timothy, etc. God will bring people in your life that will come to support the vision He has given you and run with you to the accomplishment of that vision.

Therefore, be careful how you use your body for it was given to you by God for a purpose. Also be careful how you treat the people around you because among them, are those God has assigned to help you tend and work the garden of your life were God has put you. Use these resources and don’t abuse them. If you do use them properly and appropriately, you will release and maximize your potential and therefore fulfill your purpose on earth. Shalom!!!

Dr. Sebastien F. Kema

Indians can help the U.S to tide over depression

 

You may be aware of the popular New York Times Columnist and author of the famous book ‘The World is Flat’, Thomas Friedman.  In his latest post he has mentioned that we Indians are capable of bringing the U.S. out of depression. Sounds Interesting? Please read on.

 

” Indians can help the US tide over the depression like crisis that the world’s largest nation faces. At least this is what the noted writer and New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, believes. He writes in his latest post on the newspaper’s website - “Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration.”  

 

He further quotes Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express - “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans. We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate - no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”

 

A wonderful mantra for survival indeed! But whether it will find favour within the US is highly doubtful given Obama’s rhetoric regarding saving American jobs by putting restrictions on offshoring. Friedman has indeed long believed that the developed world cannot maintain or improve productivity by closing their gates to immigration and offshoring.

 

In viewing the American immigration laws as too restrictive and damaging to economic output, he said a few years ago - “It is pure idiocy that Congress will not open our borders - as wide as possible - to attract and keep the world’s first-round intellectual draft choices in an age when everyone increasingly has the same innovation tools and the key differentiator is human talent.”

 

Friedman argues against opponents of free trade that by exporting low-skill and low-wage jobs to foreign countries, more advanced and higher-skilled jobs will be freed up and made available for those displaced by the outsourcing. And so, he writes in his latest article - “Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn’t through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing free trade. No, the formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat.”

 

We Indians love you, Thomas! ”

 

Blood Tribute

I received yet another packet of my childhood back today from my mom full of priceless photos of me as a child, old cards and various scraps of art. It may be weird for a mother to shed such unique mementos so cavalier and these are not the sentiments (the kind most of us like to hang on to reminisce over) of a loving person so much as they are narcissistic coin, blood tribute intended to purchase good will without actually earning it. Sure enough, I find little notes referring to “love,” “family” and “forgiveness” mixed among the loose photographs and hacked out photo album pages.

Love: What is love without respect if not obsession with possession? If my mom actually loved me as an individual she would display some compassion and interest for what I think and how I feel. She does not do this. She loves me not for who I am but for what I do for her; in this case, attention and image. She feeds on and therefore needs attention, what psychologists call the “narcissistic supply.” And doesn’t jive with a “good mother” image to have one of her children avoiding her like the plague, no matter how she explains it to others.

Family: My mom and the “family” she refers to completely fail as support network and are therefore relatives at best. I can depend on my dad and my sister. My mom, her proxy husband and narcissist clone brother are completely unreliable, selfish, terrible people. That they don’t understand that is wholly irrelevant. It is enough that I do. Of all of them, my mom’s asshole husband has actually stood up for me more than my mom has. This is a guy who’s douchebaggery cannot be overstated. He is abrasive, rude, selfish and not very likable. And yet, he has tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to defend my position against my mom’s actions on more than one occasion. Like when my mom decided she was going to be best friends with one of my first girlfriends who betrayed me with my best friend and in all other ways completely devastated me at the time in spite of my protests. And that’s a hard thing for me to concede, given the dickishness of this guy who is basically a tool of my mom broken in by his own iron maiden mother and four sisters.

Forgiveness: My mom has never admitted a mistake in her life, much less apologized for one, so this ongoing appeal to forgiveness without acknowledgment either of 1) what she is trying to buy forgiveness for or 2) repentance for it does not meet the requirements for forgiveness. If I had to guess, she may assume that I’m angry with her for essentially disowning me and that is what I need to forgive her for??? Again, she doesn’t say because there is no dialog with my mother. I have noticed however that she (and my brother) projects her hypersensitivity on me and completely disregards any of my attempts to have an actual conversation, opting instead to treat me like the victim who she, herself, feels that she is of me who needs to do what she says in order to heal.

This is by far not the first packet of it’s kind that I’ve received from my mom. I’d me surprised if my mom even remembered what I look like she’s sent so much of me back. This one had a sticker with the words “Worth 1000 Words” sealing the lip on the back of the envelope below the clasp. But the one word it is not worth is the one word that would mean more to me than all these recorded relics: listening. My mom does not listen. She’s the kind of person whom one might get the impression is simply waiting for one to stop speaking so that she can, and sometimes not even waiting but talking right over you.

Naturally, telling her to do any different is a futile act that I’m not going to make the mistake of repeating this time because my efforts are used to make me appear like the angry, problematic person she believes and convinces others I must be. And she may indeed suffer and cause others around her to suffer and those people, her proxies, may indeed take it out on me as if it were my fault but it’s not, I know it’s not and I can much more effectively and convincingly express how it’s not. I only care that the attacks can be repelled so that they do not consume my life, period.

*Asking mom for forgiveness...V/H/A Of the week: "RESPECT YOUR PARENTS!!!!!!"*

First photos of Spencer James Lamberty!

Spencer James Lamberty resting after a hard
first six hours of existence as an independent entity.

We had a very nice visit this evening with Spencer James Lamberty, who mostly looked baby-like and slept, and his happy (and every so slightly tired) family. I took a bunch of photos, a few of which I’ve posted on Flickr (here and there) and Facebook. More photos below the fold.

Congratulations to the whole Lamberty clan!

The proud parents

The happy family!

I'm dancing with tears in my eyes, fox trot tempo 1930

The Recession is no joke

I just read that Starbucks are at risk of going bankrupt and closing hundreds of shops. That really surprises me since it seems like their business is always booming whenever i come into any Starbucks. But then again it is kind of pricey there. I actually care about this company because time to time i like to get a blended drink or something. And its because its always conveniently located anywhere you go haha. I guess Coffee Bean (which i actually think is better) is where i have to go if starbucks takes the ultimate fall which is on the west side. Damn the west side for having everything. As some of you know, Circuit City is going bankrupt but i never shop there. Now if Best Buy is on that same level….I don’t know what i would do haha. Gap, Sears, and K-Mart are also in trouble but again i don’t shop in any of those so whateva haha. Just thought i’d throw that in.

Starbucks Prank

Musings on Moving Beyond the Ego's Use of the Law of Attraction

While doing research on my newest book (the follow up to my Beyond the Secret book), I was reviewing some of my favorite texts from various spiritual teachers I admire. I was particularly struck by what I read in Wayne Teasdale’s THE MYSTIC HEART about some of the ideas of Thomas Keating’s writings on “the false self.”

To summarize, Teasdale shares how in our early years if we do not get what we need in the way of security, love, and a feeling of mastery and control over our environment, we will compensate for it in the following ways:

1) Not enough of security as a child — compensating with an over-emphasis on material prosperity.

2) Not enough love as a child — seeking out the approval of others (even pursuing fame to do so).

3) Not enough control as a child — attempts to dominate others at work, in the family, and everywhere!

GOODNESS! No wonder so many people stress using the law of attraction to get money, approval, and as a means to control their environments. How riddled they must be with feelings of fear, believing inside they are fundamentally unlovable, and that they are out of control in this world and need to compensate for it all by using the law of attraction to find ways to be totally in control. And, maybe this is why research showed a few years ago that despite how prosperous American’s were they scored very high on the unhappiness scale. How sad, because it means that essentially we have way too many children (both young and inside the bodies of adults still) who feel insecure, unloved, and out of control.

This said, perhaps the antidote to using the law of attraction in a more spiritual (versus egotistical way) is to show people how to feel inwardly secure (which comes about by knowing how to wisely intuit and rely upon the Divine), loved for who they are (no matter what the outer appearance of their lives), and using surrender (and my formula of Surrender-Align-Contribute) so they no longer feel the need to control and give it over more to the Divine flow!

Well, I guess that is what the spiritual quest is all about really. Learning how to heal the wounds of our childhood to help us overcome the ego and live in the light, love, joy, and freedom of the Divine!

Blessings as you pursue yours!

Lisa

Destiny's Child - Through with love karaoke