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shadowkat1. Been struggling with negative thoughts lately -- so spent 30 minutes meditating on kindness and handling sadness. It helped. If you can clear the mind -- you can see the world as it is, free of rose-colored or nihilistic glasses.
Anyhow stumbled upon this quote at the right time...as if the universe just sent it my way...
Goodness is real, we perceive it dimly as it is reflected around us, and part of the role of moral philosophy is to improve ourselves, to get us in a position where we can liberate ourselves from fantasy and see things as they really are. By looking carefully – by looking with love – we can see others for who they are. Here is a link between morality and fiction; both want us to recognize what can be the most difficult thing to see – the reality of other people.
(Courtesy of maia, taken from Iris Murdoch Power of Love
Worth remembering when the world overwhelms.
Oh along that thread...Patton Oswalt's response to a couple of nasty tweets, was to research the tweeter. After discovering it was a disabled vet with serious medical bills, in lots of pain, with a go-fund-me link, Oswalt turned around and well donated $2000 to the vet's fund and asked his followers to do the same. The vet was humbled by Patton's actions, and thanked him, stating he was sorry for his harsh words -- he'd tweeted out of rage and pain, and hadn't thought it through or thought about the person he'd hurt on the other side. And was deeply humbled and thankful by Oswalt and his followers kind response.
Also -- to pull myself out of negativity -- I look at the sunset over the water in Costa Rica that I took on my 50th Birthday. It's a pretty sunset.
2. After I read the Matt Cohen's Opening Statement to Congress -- my first thought was...the people who don't want to believe him, won't. No matter what proof they are given. They are just like the Flat-Earthers -- who have confirmation bias. Basically they believe what they want to believe and what their mind tells them is true, all evidence to the contrary. You could put them in a starship, place them on the Moon and point out Earth to them -- and they'd think you'd created an expensive hoax.
Makes the whole thing highly frustrating and also an interesting and somewhat horrifically eerie echo of Watergate. What happened here -- makes Watergate look like a cake walk.(Moral those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat their mistakes.)
3. Last night I got sucked down the rabbit hole and almost depressed myself by reading the bizarre Plagiarism Scandal of Cristian Serruya.
As if independently published writers don't have enough things to deal with -- now we have to deal with nitwits who plagiarize other authors and blame it on ghostwriters they hired from Fiverr. (A Freelancer Web Site -- sort of like Task Rabbit except for freelance writers and business folks.)
Ironically, plastered across my subway on the ride home today -- were ads for FIVERR -- which amused me. They were advertising mainly ghost-writers, accountants, and product packaged folks. Yes, the Universe is having a giggle.
What alarmed me the most about all of this was:
* The writer in question is a former attorney specializing in intellectual copyright law (granted in Brazil -- so it is possible they have a looser take, but I doubt it, having dealt in international copyright law -- no, the latin countries aren't necessarily looser) and everyone pretty much signed the Digitial Copyright Act back in the 1990s, except for China (which is why no one in their right mind will license content or release content to China -- well, not unless you want to protect your copyright.) That's mind-blowing in of itself.
* Several of the romance writers that she plagiarized are well...former lawyers, not only that, they taught intellectual property courses for law schools. (They know more about it than I do. They are also smart enough not to represent themselves.)
* Seriously, she hired a ghost-writer to polish up and help her write a best-selling romance novel. So, she had nothing to say. She did it just to make a buck?
Reminds me of what my creative writing prof told us -- if you have nothing to say or nothing new to say, don't write. There are other, far easier ways, to make a buck.
Make wine instead.
4. Rosewell, New Mexico
Thank god they aren't doing this as a high school series. I'd have been bored and given up by now.
And I appear to have been right about the Isabel and Rosa relationship. Interesting.
Right now, I feel sorry for Max. Honestly, Liz, you're sister is dead -- I'm sure she doesn't care about how people think about her now. Isabel is still alive. I kinda of think Max was right to prioritize Izzy over Rosa. He couldn't do anything for Rosa -- she was dead.
I get that you're angry that Rosa was killed and how she was painted as the killer of the two girls and a drug addict. But Max was dealing with a sister who blanked out the deaths, was having serious blackouts and he was a teenager who had no clue what to do. I doubt you'd have done much differently.
I'm more curious about what's going with Izzy. (I have to admit that I have no investment in the Max/Liz romance. I actually like Max better with the other deputy sheriff, and Liz better with the Doctor. It's rare that star-crossed love relationships work for me on televisions. The one's that have are Farscape's Aeryn/Crichton, Buffy's Buffy/Spike, and for the first three seasons Buffy/Angel.)
My difficulty with Max/Liz, is I honestly don't get why he's into her -- she's been nasty to him. Leading him on. Etc. I get why she might be into him, but not the other way around. (I like Liz, but if I were Max I wouldn't be into her.)
No, Izzy and Michael's relationships are far more interesting. As is what is going with Izzy. And what was going on between Izzy and Rosa. Max isn't that interesting nor are Liz and Max for that matter.
Anyhow stumbled upon this quote at the right time...as if the universe just sent it my way...
Goodness is real, we perceive it dimly as it is reflected around us, and part of the role of moral philosophy is to improve ourselves, to get us in a position where we can liberate ourselves from fantasy and see things as they really are. By looking carefully – by looking with love – we can see others for who they are. Here is a link between morality and fiction; both want us to recognize what can be the most difficult thing to see – the reality of other people.
(Courtesy of maia, taken from Iris Murdoch Power of Love
Worth remembering when the world overwhelms.
Oh along that thread...Patton Oswalt's response to a couple of nasty tweets, was to research the tweeter. After discovering it was a disabled vet with serious medical bills, in lots of pain, with a go-fund-me link, Oswalt turned around and well donated $2000 to the vet's fund and asked his followers to do the same. The vet was humbled by Patton's actions, and thanked him, stating he was sorry for his harsh words -- he'd tweeted out of rage and pain, and hadn't thought it through or thought about the person he'd hurt on the other side. And was deeply humbled and thankful by Oswalt and his followers kind response.
Also -- to pull myself out of negativity -- I look at the sunset over the water in Costa Rica that I took on my 50th Birthday. It's a pretty sunset.
2. After I read the Matt Cohen's Opening Statement to Congress -- my first thought was...the people who don't want to believe him, won't. No matter what proof they are given. They are just like the Flat-Earthers -- who have confirmation bias. Basically they believe what they want to believe and what their mind tells them is true, all evidence to the contrary. You could put them in a starship, place them on the Moon and point out Earth to them -- and they'd think you'd created an expensive hoax.
Makes the whole thing highly frustrating and also an interesting and somewhat horrifically eerie echo of Watergate. What happened here -- makes Watergate look like a cake walk.(Moral those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat their mistakes.)
3. Last night I got sucked down the rabbit hole and almost depressed myself by reading the bizarre Plagiarism Scandal of Cristian Serruya.
As if independently published writers don't have enough things to deal with -- now we have to deal with nitwits who plagiarize other authors and blame it on ghostwriters they hired from Fiverr. (A Freelancer Web Site -- sort of like Task Rabbit except for freelance writers and business folks.)
Ironically, plastered across my subway on the ride home today -- were ads for FIVERR -- which amused me. They were advertising mainly ghost-writers, accountants, and product packaged folks. Yes, the Universe is having a giggle.
What alarmed me the most about all of this was:
* The writer in question is a former attorney specializing in intellectual copyright law (granted in Brazil -- so it is possible they have a looser take, but I doubt it, having dealt in international copyright law -- no, the latin countries aren't necessarily looser) and everyone pretty much signed the Digitial Copyright Act back in the 1990s, except for China (which is why no one in their right mind will license content or release content to China -- well, not unless you want to protect your copyright.) That's mind-blowing in of itself.
* Several of the romance writers that she plagiarized are well...former lawyers, not only that, they taught intellectual property courses for law schools. (They know more about it than I do. They are also smart enough not to represent themselves.)
* Seriously, she hired a ghost-writer to polish up and help her write a best-selling romance novel. So, she had nothing to say. She did it just to make a buck?
Reminds me of what my creative writing prof told us -- if you have nothing to say or nothing new to say, don't write. There are other, far easier ways, to make a buck.
Make wine instead.
4. Rosewell, New Mexico
Thank god they aren't doing this as a high school series. I'd have been bored and given up by now.
And I appear to have been right about the Isabel and Rosa relationship. Interesting.
Right now, I feel sorry for Max. Honestly, Liz, you're sister is dead -- I'm sure she doesn't care about how people think about her now. Isabel is still alive. I kinda of think Max was right to prioritize Izzy over Rosa. He couldn't do anything for Rosa -- she was dead.
I get that you're angry that Rosa was killed and how she was painted as the killer of the two girls and a drug addict. But Max was dealing with a sister who blanked out the deaths, was having serious blackouts and he was a teenager who had no clue what to do. I doubt you'd have done much differently.
I'm more curious about what's going with Izzy. (I have to admit that I have no investment in the Max/Liz romance. I actually like Max better with the other deputy sheriff, and Liz better with the Doctor. It's rare that star-crossed love relationships work for me on televisions. The one's that have are Farscape's Aeryn/Crichton, Buffy's Buffy/Spike, and for the first three seasons Buffy/Angel.)
My difficulty with Max/Liz, is I honestly don't get why he's into her -- she's been nasty to him. Leading him on. Etc. I get why she might be into him, but not the other way around. (I like Liz, but if I were Max I wouldn't be into her.)
No, Izzy and Michael's relationships are far more interesting. As is what is going with Izzy. And what was going on between Izzy and Rosa. Max isn't that interesting nor are Liz and Max for that matter.