The Fleeting Nature Of Fame

I was at my local mall today, and I happened to sit down for a minute.  The spot I picked was just inches from where our local celebrity, Fountain Girl, took her header right in to the fountain outside Boscov's. 

(Once more, just for giggles:)

Now, of course we haven't heard much from Fountain Girl lately, after it was revealed that she has all that trouble with the law going on.  And we wouldn't have heard anything from her in the first place, if she hadn't come forward and said it was her in the video.  No way would anyone have recognized her in that grainy security video, so she wouldn't have had to complain about how embarassed she was (so much so that she was going to sue).  Maybe she's happy now that's she's no longer the "it" thing of the moment.

Celebrity can sure be fleeting!  I guess that's a good thing for those folks like Fountain Girl who find themselves unexpectedly in the spotlight and don't want to be there.  Happens quite a lot in this day of the internet. 

And on the other side of the coin are those who actively court the spotlight but have trouble hanging onto it.  Example; our other local celebrity, Kate Gosselin (known locally as The Blonde From Wernersville).  Now there's somebody who has lived, reproduced, divorced, and (badly) danced across our TV screens, and called it a career.  Before her stint on Dancing With The Stars, I had no idea there were so many ways to do the Robot!  Despite her many efforts, though, she and her brood seem to have disappeared from the reality show universe.  No doubt she's up there in Wernersville, plotting her return to TV this very moment....

Itty Bitty Quicky Post

I just signed my blog up with Technorati, and they need to see their code a blog post to verify blog ownership; here it is:  J487J6AVZYQP 

Jazz Fest 2011

Though the quiet little corner of Pennsylvania that I live in usually doesn't offer too much by way of excitement, we do occasionally have some fun things going on.  One of those is the yearly Jazz Fest.

 I'm actually not the world's biggest jazz fan, but I do like some of it. (I liked more of it in the early days when they were just getting started with the festival, because then they were offering most events for free in order to promote things.  :) )   I did get to one event this year; a Steely Dan tribute band called Royal Scam. They were really good!  Like the MC said, just close your eyes and you won't know the difference. They played all the great Steely Dan songs, like Peg and Rikki Don't Lose That Number.  Unfortunately, towards the end of the show the fire alarm went off.  The Abraham Lincoln Hotel, where the concert was being held, actually did have a small (quickly contained) fire in the basement.  Nobody seemed to know what was going on, so a bunch of folks (myself and friends included) decided to leave.  I was kinda glad we did, seeing that there was smoke in the parking garage when we left!  Although quite a few people did decide to stay, and the band resumed playing.  I made sure to pop over to the band's website and tell them what a great show it was, fire and all.  Hope the hoopla won't sour them on playing in Reading in the future! 

You Know, I Could Write A Book

Who hasn't said those words at sometime or another?  Every life is full of stories, it's just a matter of writing them down (old school, I know-everybody uses Word these days).

I've toyed with the idea before, but somehow I never quite got around to it.  Maybe I should; after all, these days you can write your book and publish it as an ebook yourself without having to kiss the behind of a publisher.  But the hard part, of course is actually writing the book itself-so much to ponder. Fact or fiction?  What genre?  I have a lot to figure out.....

Okay, I'll do some trial runs.

1. Internet Guru Book--Let me tell yoo about all the WONDERful methods I've developed to make money on the Internet!  For only the low low price of $29.95 you can downlad my ebook that will teach you to how too make money in your sleep selling ebooks that tell people to make money by selling more ebooks in their sleep.  For and additional $14,95 a month subscription to my special newsletter, I'll continue to send you useles advice for as long as yur willing to pay for it. (misspellings intentional)  Not for me; if I want to use this sort of method to make money, I'll just rob a bank. It's much quicker.

2. Romance-The sun reflected off of Jeremy's long blonde mane, enveloping him in a golden glow.  As she gazed upon him standing by the manor house's grand arch window, Eliza Jane nearly swooned.  Jeremy glanced up and saw her falter.  "Dearest," he cried as he rushed to her side, "did you stumble?"  And then he took her in his arms and the cat walked into the room and yakked up a hairball.  Sorry, not just cut out to write the mushy stuff.

3. Horror- Can't even think anything up.  I'm just no good with blood and gore (yeeck).

4. Dummies- Anything I know how to do wouldn't take 300 pages to explain.

5. Young Adult- Running with supernatural speed, Tyler blazed a trail through the dark woods to the little remote cabin.  As he burst through the cabin door, he caught a glimpse of a red-eyed wolf bounding out the back door. Anguished,he turned his attention to the other occupant of the room. "Ashley, I can't bear it!" he cried. "I must have you-I can't bear the thought of you with that werewolf!" "Oh Tyler," Ashley responded, "it's you I love!  Take me in your arms and bite my neck and" here comes that damn cat again........

6. Politics- Those damn (insert Republicans or Democrats, it really doesn't matter) are RUINING this county!  The will stop at nothing to destroy this country! The only way we can stop this evil is if you do what I tell you to! I don't think I need comment.

Oh well, it's all certainly something to think about.  Somewhere the right subject is out there waiting for me!

Big Big Moon

Okay, they say tonight the moon is a perigee moon- that means a full moon that looks bigger and brighter than the average full moon.

I looked out the window and checked. Yup, bigger and brighter!  And beautiful as always.

Of course, the wackos ( why are there always wackos? ) are out there saying that this big moon will bring devastating tidal waves to coastal cities.  Not even remotely true.  As we've certainly seen in recent years, you don't need the moon involved to have major natural disasters...

People have always gazed up at the moon in wonder.  The enduring myth (sometimes I'm not so sure it's a myth after all!)  is that the full moon affects people's behavior.  And then there's the modern day the-moon-landings-were-all-a-hoax myth, conterbalanced by the we-went-to-the-moon-and-some-moon-humans-came-back-with-the-astronauts myth.  Although just what those moon humans were supposedly using for air up there I haven't a clue.  Just goes to show, give some folks some disjointed unconnected pieces of information, and they'll make up whatever they have to to connect the dots and create a story that makes sense to them.  I guess the human brain just isn't made to deal with coincidences.

And while I was gazing out the window at the lovely full moon, I found myself humming that "Friday" song to myself!  Maybe this giant moon really is working on me.

How To Read Ebooks On Your Cell Phone If It Doesn't Have An Ereader

Whew! How's that for a long title?

Actually, I've been trying to figure this out since I got my LG Rumor Touch last fall.  Great phone, but limited apps, and no ereader.  Now I'm not the sort of gal who walks around reading War and Peace on her cell phone, but it's nice to have a little something with you when you're in a doctor's waiting room or getting your oil changed and all they have to read is the July 2007 issue of People.  So I did some fishing around online about how to do this, and this is what I found. (Note: You must have a phone that can access the internet to do this.)

1. Find a site from which you can download ebooks in the EPUB (electronic publishing) format to your computer.  http://www.epubbooks.com/ is my favorite; there's tons of classic literature on this site that you can download for free!

2. Select and download your books-make note of the file names so you can find them easily on your computer.

3. Go to http://bookworm.oreilly.com/ and set up an account.

4. Upload your epub ebooks to your Bookworm account, then logout.

5.  Using your cell phone, log onto m.bookworm.oreilly.com (the mobile version of the site). Sign in.

6. Ta-da!  There's your list of books.  Click on the book you want to read, and click "next" in the lower right hand corner till you get to the text.

It really is pretty simple, and you'll end up with a list of great books to read anytime, anywhere-and you won't even have to use up and memory on your phone.  Enjoy!  :)

OMG! It's Just So Totally Awful!

It came out of nowhere, and conquered the internet.  You know what I mean; Rebecca Black's "Friday" video.  Never heard of her yesterday, she's everywhere today.   Ah, the power of the web!

Turns out this inescapable little video is a product of one Ark Music Factory, an LA record label that seems intent on producing an army of Justin Biebers and Miley Cyruses to unleash on us all.  Judging from the "Friday" video,  they ain't even close.

I must say I do feel sorry for the young girl singer, Rebecca Black.  One is not able to tell from this video if the kid can really even sing; the whole song is a monotone, autotuned drone.  Imagine being a teenager and having articles written about your first single like "Is The Worst Video Ever Made?". She'll probably hide under her bed for the next six months.

And a note to whoever wrote this little ditty- it needs more words!  You can't make a decent song by repeating the same few inane phrases over and over.  And think about what you're saying!  She can't decide where to sit in the car?  Such insight, such depth of feeling.

Haven't seen it?  Here it is.  And I warn you, as awful as it is, it's one of those things that once it's in your head, it'll NEVER leave!

Land Of The Rising Sun

As I write, the sun is rising on Japan on the first day after the earthquake/tsunami. 

After a day of watching videos of the destruction,  the pictures that are now appearing of the damage left behind are still hard to comprehend.  Mountains of rubble everywhere; where would you even start with putting things back together?  How will they be able to hunt for survivors?  And what happens if that nuclear plant goes kaboom? If I feel this helpless here in the States, how much worse it must be for the Japanese people.

Makes you wonder too, what if it happened here?  We certainly have enough fault lines here; a huge earthquake could happen along any of them.  Now, Americans never hesitate to run in to help when their neighbors are in trouble (New Orleans notwithstanding), but we tend not to plan our infastructure with disaster in mind.  We buy insurance and hope for the best.  The best isn't always what you get...

I'm sure in the days to come we'll all be seeing much more of the unfolding horror story that is occuring in the ancient island nation of Japan.  It's going to take the best efforts of the Japanese (and I'm sure some help from its allies) to rebuild and restore.  Thoughts and prayers are with them.

Adieu Borders

Today I made what may be my last trip to our local Borders store--it's one of the branches that the chain is closing down this month.  You know, it's just too weird to go in that store and not smell coffee brewing.  I'll miss Borders-we also have a prospering Barnes and Nobles in our area, but Borders was always the more cozy and laid back of the two.   I suppose it's not too surprising that Borders is closing, with the rise of online booksellers and mp3 downloading, but I can't help thinking that the chain gave up on our branch too soon.  Things actually started going downhill for our Borders when the big-as-a-barn B&N store opened-it was as if the folks at Borders headquarters gave up the battle right away.  It was at that point that the Borders store started looking a little shabby and didn't carry quite the selection of merchandise it originally did.  And as they carried less and less variety, B&N picked up more & more of the business...so goodbye Borders.

It was really unique in the beginning, the whole bookstore with a coffee shop concept, but I think both chains grew too fast.  And now the business model doesn't work as well, with additional competition from the internet.  Still, I'd hate to think of the world without physical brick-and-mortar bookstores where you can actually pick up a book and flip through it.  E-Readers are nice, but it's just not the same.

Hmmm....maybe somebody should reverse the business model.  Instead of a big bookstore with a small coffee shop, a big coffee shop/cafe with a smaller bookstore/ebook dowloading station.  Any genius investors out there willing to try?  :)

Who Do You Think You Are?

No, I'm not trying to a smarty-pants, I'm talking about the show on NBC.  Each week, they follow a celebrity as they research their family tree.  Sound boring?  It's definately not.

If you've ever done any family tree research (and I have), you soon find out that every family history has twists and turns.  The celebrities profilied on Who Do You Think You Are? learn this pretty quickly.  Most of them (like most amateur geneaolgists) have some idea where to start- little bits and pieces passed down through the generations.  The full story always turns out to be so much richer.

This past week Lionel Richie learned that his great-grandfather,r born a slave, later went on as a free man to found an African-American fraterallnal organization, the Knights of Wise Men, to help others in his community. When you find someone like that in your past, it really is a humbling experience--it's like after all the things  your ancestors went through that got you where you are today, you owe it to them to make something of your life.

Sometimes the end result of family history research can be bittersweet, too.  The previous week's episode of this show was about Kim Cattrall's search for the grandfather who abandoned his young family 70 years ago.  He just up and left one day, and no one had seen or heard from him since, not even his own mother.  Turns out he'd just moved to a nearby town and remarried (without ever divorcing his first wife).  He made a whole new life for himself and raised another family, seemingly without ever a thought about the first wife and little girls he'd left behind.  Tragic, and sad- but in the end,  Kim's mother and her sisters got to meet the siblings they'd never known about.

If you're intested in researching your own family tree, this show is definately a must-see. Knowing who and where you come from adds greatly to your own sense of self, and will serve as an inspiration to you in your own life.

Revvin' Up The Blog

Here's a note to all my faithful readers and followers (all two of you! :)  ).  As you may have noticed, I've been workin' on this here blog.  In the weeks to come, I'm going to try to post more, and on more interesting subjects than just my babbling.  Hope you enjoy!