I'm watching the US National Figure Skating Championships. One of the favorites kinda screwed the pooch on her program and finished in seventh place -- in the whole entire US -- and was obviously devastated. Poor kid. (Note: I have deleted some content in the interest of fairness. If you want to read it, email me.) Recently, I took a look at the eLearning Guild job board. You know, just in case there was something... Read more →
No, I am not above quoting the Beatles! I was reading DC Blogs yesterday and clicked through to a very funny post from The Big Piece of Cake. The entry was delightful, but what really caught my eye was the blurb at the bottom about a show called Listen to Your Mother. This show is about motherhood, Auditions are being held in February. Auditioners prepare and deliver an essay about motherhood, from being a mother... Read more →
One of my current guilty pleasures (yes, I have more than one; shut up) is this "reality" TV show called Ink Master, wherein a bunch of tattoo artists compete for $100,000 and -- even better! -- the title of Ink Master. It is exactly the same as Shear Genius, which was a hairstyling competition and another one of my (many) guilty pleasures, except with needles instead of scissors. There are three judges: Dave Navarro (a... Read more →
This morning on the radio I heard about the Winklevoss twins, who sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea and turning it into Facebook. They were awarded $65 million in cash and stock, and now they're saying "Oh no, that's not enough." Can I tell ya something? If a judge handed me that kind of cash, I would say "Thank you very much" and maybe tear up a little bit. Then I would take a... Read more →
Lately I've been working on a project that started with because I read about how to use PowerPoint to create branched scenarios. I thought I might be able to apply the technique to a course I was developing, so I kind of jumped right in and explored and tried different things and finally learned how to do it. Oh, I can already hear you snoring, but bear with me. This was fun for me. I... Read more →
I meant to write this last night, and then Gilda started up on TCM and I got distracted by Glen Ford and Rita Hayworth. Did people really dress like that? I suppose the rich did. Anyway, here's what I started to tell you. Back in the dark ages, I did a lot of community theater. (I was going to be a famous actress back then and it seemed like a good way to get some... Read more →
I have decided that I really want to be a member of the idle rich. I have not come to this decision lightly; no, I have given it a lot of thought and I have realized that I have all of the qualifications, to wit: I enjoy sitting on my ass. I am quite willing to let other people shampoo my hair, massage my back, and scrape the calluses off my feet. I float on... Read more →
We saw The Illusionist yesterday, a new movie starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. It's a lost-love-found and bad-guys-subverted-in-clever-ways plot, with elements of The Shawshank Redemption and The Usual Suspects. The acting is excellent, the costumes gorgeous, the cinematography perfect. But that's not why I loved it. I loved it for the magic. I know a little bit about magic -- the magic of sleight-of-hand manipulation, the magic of big illusions. I can... Read more →
I was driving home from work this evening after a bad sort of day when I heard the train whistle, the siren song of getting away from it all, and I thought I just might park the car right there on Route 29 and get on the subway to Union Station and buy a ticket on the Capitol Limited to Chicago. I'd definitely get sleeping accommodations, because I just want to have my own private... Read more →
So the Powerball lottery is up to 300 million bucks. I'm reminded of the old joke: Every night Bob prays fervently to the Lord: "Lord, please let me win the lottery. Lord, please let me win the lottery. Lord, please let me win the lottery." Finally one night, Bob hears the celestial voice of the Lord: "Bob, meet me halfway. Buy a ticket." The late, great comedian Robin Harris did a bit about getting rich:... Read more →