Crazy Questions Part Deux

Where would you retire to?

In a house with plenty of bookshelves, a big kitchen, and grandkids in a place with not too many bugs -- some place cold that had a butcher, produce, tavern, cafe, and used bookstore.



If you won a big lottery, how long would you take to tell people?

Only after consulting a lawyer, tax attorney, and accountant to make sure most of it is in safe investments and savings. Then we would fix up the house. Probably best not to tell anyone until they ask, "Did you win a big lottery?"

Favorite Flower

Casablanca Lily



What kind of car do you drive?

Toyota Corolla



Gold or Silver?

Silver

What Book are you reading?

"The Price of Privilege" by Madeline Levine

Favorite Sound?

My son laughing

If you could play an instrument what would it be?

Violin

Who is a person from your past that you would like to talk with?

My mother.

Favorite Season?

Fall



At what store would you max you credit card out?

None! Refuse to spend more on the credit card than what we can pay off that month.

Sandals or tennis shoes?

Sandals

Different Jobs you have had?

Catering, Record Store Clerk, Restaurant Hostess, Waitress, Restaurant Assistant Manager, Telecommunications Supervisor, Computer Operator, Marketing & Sales Coordinator, Web Designer, Web Producer, political activist, writer, mother.

Favorite dessert?

dark chocolate torte with raspberry liquor

Your First Car?

Tan 1977 Ford Pinto Wagon

Favorite Color?

Green

Crazy Questions Part One

What is your full name?

Mother Maven

What color pants are you wearing?

Black

What are you listening to right now?

Sound of harddrive spinning, and washer and dryer from a distance. Listened to "The Teen Titans Theme" over and over for my son.

What was the last thing you ate?

Chicken salad and provolone sandwich on sliced honey wheat bread I made from scratch.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

Burnt Sienna

How is the weather right now?

Sunny-ish, but coldish and a bit breezy

Who is the last person you spoke to on the phone?

my dad

How old are you today?

40 3/4

Favorite drink?

Coffee, fine cabernet, or stout beer

Favorite sport?

walking (that is a sport right?)

Hair color?

Light blond

Siblings?

2 half-sisters, 1 deceased half-brother

Favorite food?

Italian

What was the last movie you watched?

The Last Waltz

Favorite day of the year?

Fourth of July

What was your favorite toy as a child?

Malibu Barbie, her lesbian tennis friend Dusty, and her dysfunctional boyfriend Ken, who just might be gay.

Summer or winter?

Winter

Hugs or kisses?

Hugs

Chocolate or Vanilla?

Hello?!?! Chocolate!

What did you do last night?

Had friends drop by for awhile, then we watched an episode of "American Idol" of where people sing badly.

Favorite smell?

Coffee

Favorite TV show?

Heroes

Happy In life?

Spurts of happiness with dashes of disappointment

What are you afraid of?

Pain

Butter or salted popcorn?

Butter

Favorite car?

Jag convertable or Prius

How many years at your current job?

3 years

Favorite day of the week?

Sunday

What did you do on your last birthday?

Turned 40 without crying or getting botox injections

How many cities have you lived in?

In California: San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Belmont, Palo Alto, Cupertino, San Rafael

In Massachusetts: Boston

Cults I Have Known

The Cults I have known

I am always torn. I like being a part of some sort of tribe or have some sense of longing to belong. I should be total cult fodder, but I have too many trust issues to ever join one. Plus, I cannot get into group-think or excluding those people in my life that are considered "outsiders."

I should know. In my youth I have had brushes with Scientologists, moonies, hare krishna folk, and Amway.

My first and last encounter with Scientology was across the street from an actor's academy that I was attending. In my early 20s I fancied myself as an actor.



It was 1987-88, and these two rather cute young men approached me for a personality test. I am sure I answered the questions subconsciously to please them. They had a communication" class that was only 30 bucks. What could go wrong? What went wrong is that they started using what was obviously brainwashing techniques -- breaking me down so they could bring me up. I would frustrate them purposely. I would say that this class would be good for my acting class. I certainly didn't want to lead them on as to my intentions. They would, in vain, say that this would be good for my life. It quickly became creepy and started not being fun. Given that I was paid up full, I felt that it was time to disappear.

I could only say that my reckless youth gave them my real phone number. Doh!

They started calling me.

At first, I would pretend I was a roomate saying I wasn't here. Then I informed them that there was a death in the family and that I was not there. They would ask for the phone number of where I was at.



I would say, "Dude, I just told you there was a death in the family, what's wrong with you?"



Finally, I would have to say, in the persona of a roommate, that I had moved out and to leave us alone. I have to say they did wonders for my acting.

Later in life, I would have the opportunity to meet a full fledged Scientologist, who had spent hundreds, even thousands on all these binders that were everywhere in his apartment. He seemed like a poor schmuck, but what did I know?

All I knew is that I dodged a bullet just by having trust issues. I don't get Tom Cruise. I dunno, he just creeps me out.

When I lived in Boston, I had tea with the followers of Rev. Moon, who had an office in a student neighborhood I lived in not far from the Christain Science building. It was cordial, but we knew it wouldn't work out.



Then there was the Foxboro Dead Show in 89, where the Hari Krishna gave away tasty macrobiotic food for free. Very cool. After years of people making fun of the Hari Krishna folk for hanging out at Airports, it was always difficult to take them seriously.

My younger years were spent experiencing things before I would judge them to be right or wrong for me. Others experiences may vary.

Early in our marriage, my husband reconnected with a guy he knew who wanted to get together for a business proposal supposedly having to do with computers. The moment he walked in I felt that certain energy that comes with someone who wants to offer something for nothing. In the first 30-40 minutes of his presentation he didn't mention Amway. Instead he focused on being able to work at home and be your own boss.



I pulled my husband aside and told him he was peddling Amway. Then we started to wear him down enough to admit it was the grand pyramid scheme cult, Amway. My husband was so angry at being blatantly misled, that he forced him to stay and watch him go through the math and prove that it was a pyramid scheme. I just said that we like our friends and wanted them to remain friends. We didn't want our income to relying on hitting on our friends and family to buy from us and to join the scheme. This guy reminded me of someone in the cult. Obviously, we never saw this person again.

During the tech boom, when I was a web designer I remembered the Halle Bob comet cult group who suicided themselves after creating their little website (I was able to check it out before the authorities brought it down). I started to be afraid that this may be logical extensionof a life of a web designer and if I didn't change jobs I too could find myself genderless wanting to "join" the aliens in their ship behind a comet. Why wouldn't a job with no real sense of completion or sense of mastery lead to such delusions?

I really don't care what crazy things people chose to believe, as long as they do not bring harm to others in the process.

Never The Twain Shall Meet: Cheney and the Truth

It is not that Cheney wouldn't know the truth if it mistook him for a turkey (or a lawyer) in a turkey shoot. Cheney has a blatant disdain for the truth. Truth is to Cheney as water was to the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz. It would melt the latex off his cyborgian skeletal structure.

So the news today is that Cheney was trying to work his evil mojo over at Wolf Blitzer's place. He claims that talk of blunders in Iraq and/or lack of credibility are "Hogwash." He also goes on to say in regards to a Congressional resolution in opposition to the escalation of the war "It won't stop us." (How so very cyborg-like, Dick. It is nice to know how much you listen to the people's representatives)



Then he says that the bottom line is that they have had "enormous successes" in regards to Iraq. Yeah, that is why the American people booted the republicans out last November because you guys were having enormous successes. Then he says he thinks Rumsfeld did a "superb job."



Dick, can we talk? You have a credibility problem. Do you know why? You have been caught in so many lies they could fill volumes. I don't know anyone outside you, Bush, and your inner circle who would be able to say with a straight face that Rumsfeld did a "superb job"

The conventional wisdom and truth is that Rumsfeld was an incompetent bungler, who you didn't have the balls to fire until after your party got run out of town.



Dick you can go on trying to make the press, the democratic party, and all those who are against your plan on Iraq as wanting us to fail, be quitters, or any number of other ways to suggest your critics want to undermine the country or the troops. If we "fail" or have to pull out in a humiliating matter with all the consequences you claim will happen it will be solely your fault and the fault of the Bush administration and the republican party. It is not the troops that will fail, because they are courageous professionals, but you and George Bush who will be failures. It is this Administration who dragged us in under false pretense and then went on to bungle the operation and misuse our men and women in the Armed Forces. You cannot blame the democrats (ok, you can blame Lieberman) or any of your critics for your failures.

Truth, this is Dick.

Dick, this is Truth.

Parental Manifesto: Part I

Living in Marin means eventually the local mother's group book club would get around to reading "The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids"

Ah! A book about troubled teens in affluent environments (affluent is defined as $120k per year, which places us comfortably below that designation). I will read because he will be around such affluence. Perhaps, it will make us feel better that we are not so affluent. I will read it and let you know. I am not sure if it is counseling against parental over involvement or under involvement. Although it does seem to have something to say about materialism and pressuring kids to achieve a certain standard. It will be interesting because I grew up in Menlo Park, California which is sandwiched between many affluent communities of Atherton, Woodside, Palo Alto, and Los Altos. I grew up with kids whose parents would take off for Europe and elsewhere leaving them free to host kegger parties at their fine homes.

I want my son to find the best fit for him. If he wants to be a firefighter, I couldn't be prouder. I would be *thrilled* if he ended up a general contractor because this house totally needs one. Good general contractors, plumbers, electricians make a good honest living off folks like me who have none of those skill sets. The trick is that they have the skills to work for themselves and hire and manage others, so when he gets to a certain age he can direct others to do the work he is too old to do. At the ripe age of three, he wants to be a doctor (he wants to "help people when they are sick"). As he gets older, he may want to be a surf instructor in Hawaii, political activist in San Francisco, or a stay-at-home dad -- ’s all good if that is what he has a passion and talent for.

I want him to go to college, but only when he is ready to go. I want him to be able to travel and work in the world so he understands and appreciates a college education can do for him.
The benefit of education should be to open the world to children on all the various occupations we can strive for. We cannot all be engineers or businessmen. We need artists, scientists, teachers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, stay-at-home fathers, writers, public servants, and all sorts of thankless jobs. We cannot all serve commerce and run a functional or compassionate society.

Our job is to let our son know that there are consequences in doing bad things, so our child will be a good social being. There is a time and place for gratification and sacrifice. Things do not make us happy, but being kind, being together, and having a sense of humor does bring happiness. Learning, reading, and being inquisitive is what we do. If we do something, we do it well. If parenting is anything at all it is a transmission of values, and passing down enough resources to give our children the ability to live those values. Do we pass down the whole materialist human habitrail or do we give him the tools to live in the world comfortably while living responsibly?

Humpday Newsday

Right now I am recovering from pain in my shoulder from playing Wii tennis. It is a trip to have a sports injury playing a video game.

Today's newsflash: John Kerry is NOT running for President...Oh, thank God! Obama declares "I won't be swift-boated" in regards to his alleged radical islamic education in Indonesia at an early age according to Fox News. It turns out that he was raised in a secular household and these rumors are just political mudslinging. Next!

Gore/Obama, Gore/Edwards, Gore/Clark -- do you see where I am going here? Gore won once, get him a good running mate for once. Stop the Lieberman crap.

About the above graphic...there is a lot of talk about Jim Webb being too harsh in his response. One of the things he brought up is rebuilding New Orleans, which was mysteriously absent from the State of the Nation speech. Republicans talk about compassionate conservatism, but there is nothing compassionate about them. I wasn't around on 360 when Katrina hit. It made me sick, frustrated, embarrassed, and mournful. Then that turned to anger, how Americans were reduced to the status of mere "refugees" and how neighboring counties kept them from escaping with armed police, while republicans were disparaging people for not getting out of there.

Oscar Maven!

As a movie fanatic, I anticipate the Oscars like some anticipate the Super Bowl, World Series, or the World Cup Finals.

A long time ago, I had a grasshopper moment when I was a freshman at an all girl catholic school and I ditched school to go to the racetrack with a friend. With help from a random adult we were able to place bets on a horse of our choice after looking at them in the pen. Of course, I picked the "cute horse" while my friend picked the horse who had the eyes of a vicious street fighter. Of course, I lost my 2 bucks, but I learned a powerful lesson -- you MUST have ice water in your veins when you bet money.



I have since won a March Madness pool knowing nothing of College Football (much to the distress of the boys in the office who were fanatics). I do best when I have no emotion attachment to the outcome. When I take this attitude toward Oscar pools, I always come out on top. Once I love or hate a movie, I will lose this category.

My philosophy is that it doesn't matter who or what should win an oscar, my job is to divine who or what will win. This has served me well in our annual Oscar contests (this will be our 12th year). Before I fill out my ballot, I read everything and make sure I know what each nominated film is about because sometimes that will give you a clue. For instance, if it is about the Holocaust, it will most likely to win. Predicting the oscars is like peeking into a tea cup full of tea leaves and you have to dig through to see the leafy kalidescope that makes the most sense. I will look at:

1. Critics and columnist predictions

2. Other award results

3. The level of studio hype & "buzz"

4. Oscar Historical data at who actually wins

5. Look at the subject matter of a film or actor/actress history - because sometimes actors will win not because of the film they are nominated for but because they were overlooked in an earlier film or are awarded for a body of work.



None of these factors alone can be reliable, but in combination with other factors you can come up with pretty good guesses as to who will win.



Some years are easier than others. I call these "Sweep Years," these are the years you know that a film will sweep, like "Return of the King" for work on the entire trilogy. If you misjudge what is going to be a sweep year, you risk things going badly. Last year, a friend decided to go against conventional wisdom and did slightly better than someone who had no idea about any of the films. Doing your research does make a difference.

So, as a public service to my 360 friends I am going to help you do reasonably well in your oscar pool and maybe, just maybe win it.