Plastic Surgery: Magical cure for bullying!

Bruce Cockburn once sang: The trouble with normal is it always gets worse. Seems to fit in this case--I mean this idea of parents fixing their childrens' bullying problems with plastic surgery. I understand the impulse, and I'm sure there are cases where it's warranted. But man... slippery slope.

And also--this doctor is insane.

Is cosmetic surgery the answer to bullying?

Nadia Isle, 14, had been taunted since Grade 1: “Dumbo” and “elephant ears” were the cruel refrains of bullies who took issue with her ears.

By age 10, the Georgia girl was begging her mother for an operation, so Mom did some digging online and found the Little Baby Face Foundation, a non-profit that delivers free surgery to children born with “facial deformities,” kids who in some cases have been bullied.

Mother and daughter flew to New York for an otoplasty, which involves pinning back the ears. Disturbingly, the organization’s founder, Thomas Romo III, decided Nadia needed plenty of work besides her ears, going to town on her entire face.

“I love thin chins, but I don’t want it as pointy as that chin,” Dr. Romo announced. He also gave her a nose job, ostensibly for the purpose of symmetry.

When CNN’s Sanjay Gupta asked the doctor why he decided to operate on facial features neither Nadia or her bullies ever took issue with, Dr. Romo replied, “She didn’t recognize that.” (Globe and Mail - thanks to my bro who sent me the story.)

Packing With Cats

Photo Essay & Update (mostly cats)

First - I've already surpassed my reading goal for the year. Because while at Harvey's I read a bunch of the children's books she has there. heh heh. So I upped my goal to 100.

 

This was my "bedside table" at the garret. 

Chino is sleeping on my super nuclear jogging suit (warm and fuzzy.)

Look his little tail is shaped like a question mark.

My books, oracle cards, notepad, feather stick, and mixing wand. (Everyone has a mixing wand on their nightstand right?)

All my stuff, tossed on the bed to pack.

Cats always like to help--Mystery is no exception.

So helpful.

So so helpful.

    

Does this eye shadow make me look like an adult?

Every once in awhile I'll hear someone refer to some aspect of their lives as not being grown up. One person I know says they need a more grown up living room color. Someone else refers to their little basement bachelor suite as not being an "adult apartment." I once worked with a woman who thought she needed to get married (her boyfriend was non-commital) and get a house in order to grow up.

I can understand wanting to change any one of these aspects of one's life. Paint colors, bachelor apartments, and non-commital boyfriends have the potential to become tiresome/inadequate, as much as anything else. But I don't apply maturity levels to any of them.

I do think there are some emotional/psychological states that mark the passing time. For example...

Babyhood to toddlerhood: Discovering you're an individual.
Childhood to adolescence: Questioning everything you've been taught.
Adolescence to early adulthood: Rediscovering you're an individual.
20s to 30s: No longer thinking you're the center of the universe / know everything.
30's to 40s: Stopping to care what everyone else thinks of you.

and so forth. And there are people who get stuck in one of these states. (If you're still going on about The Catcher in the Rye when you're 50... you might want to broaden your philosophical horizons.)

But paint colors, cars, homes... these are just things. Things should only reflect our taste, need and idiosyncrasies. Like "I hate stinky bus people so I got a car" or "All landlords work for the FBI so I got a house." And if your parents, friends or colleagues say different... [insert raspberry.]

Song of the day: I swear to you this started playing as I wrote this post!

   

Writing Excuses Season 1 - My fave episodes

As mentioned before, I'm listening to the podcast Writing Excuses starting with season 1, and I just realized I'd better post my Favorite Posts after each season, rather than months from now when I'm done.

Season 1 Best of...

#1 Blending the Familiar and the Original - My dad recently heard that musicologists have found that the music that pleases us is that perfect balance of hearing the expected, and then having the unexpected thrown in. This podcast is about that idea, applied to lit.

#2 This Sucks and I'm a Horrible Writer is about more than just pepping you up when you're feeling down on your writing. It's more about learning to finish things, and some of the common ditches writers fall into that prevent them.

#3 We all fall into the too much exposition trap sometimes, so this discussion on the subject is good. It's with Patrick Rothfuss, who's written one of the most popular new fantasies in the last few years.

Bonus - If you have a specific interest, like horror or humor, it's worth doing a search on their site. They have good discussions on these too--which is nice since most topics both here and elsewhere tend to be about sci fi fantasy. They have good SFF sub-subjects too, like writing religious systems.

 

• The above links will take you to the episodes which are free to download.
• The whole archive is here. It's free, but if you don't like all the downloading you can buy previous seasons on dvd here.
• If you want to follow them here's the itunes link, or use their RSS feeder.

_______________________________________

If you want to know more about the podcast...

Right now Writing Excuses is a four person team, but in season 1 it consisted of:

Brandon's written fantasy, like his Mistborn series, as well as young adult humor-fantasy, and is now the guy finishing Robert Jordan's series. He's the formal host of the show, and the straight man. The kid who sits in the front of class and takes notes, and for the podcast--keeps things on track.

Dan's his longtime writing friend who has a series about a teen sociopath, and writes other horror.

Howard has been writing a long-time online sci fi comic (Schlock Mercenary), which I've been reading it's quite funny. He and Dan play the part of the kids in the back of the class making jokes, with Howard as the butt of half of them.

That's our hero: Schlock

But actually all three make really interesting contributions to the discussions. If they disagree, they don't go on and on and they don't tend to beat subjects to death--they're good at stopping themselves or each other if they go off track or stop making sense. And they're funny.

I really recommend the podcast. And if you start with the newer ones, Mary's really funny too--she writes a series about a magical Regency world.

Every one of these articles weakens you

"What I tell Sophie, when we talk about life in general is, 'I hope you grow up to be Sophie and not the girlfriend of some guy,'" he explains. "Women have to stop defining themselves by men. You take the guy's last name. Every women's magazine says 'The 10 things he's interested in,' 'What is he thinking?' 'Where is this going?' 'Do I have my mother's hips?' and every one of those articles weakens you."


This is a re-post from September 2007 :-)

Sadly this is progress right now

I like the show Leverage. In part because I like "team" shows, like The A-Team. Where each person fills a different role, and their personalities clash.

Also because I find it oddly progressive.

It's about an ex-insurance investigator who's hired to do a job, along with 4 other people who are all thieves. They make so much money on this first job that they decide to keep doing jobs together, but they can do Nice Things for Nice People cause they don't need the money.

So the "brains" is just ordinary white dude hero typical tv guy. Kinda dull.

Cat burglar on the left, grifter on the right.

But the grifter is a woman, she's English, she's beautiful but isn't sex-on-wheels-eye-candy, and she though she has a history with Brains guy, she doesn't just exist as a romantic foil. She's necessary to their operations (she does a lot of the conning) and she's funny. (She's trying to have an acting career outside of grifting, and she's terrible.)

Shockingly sensible burgling clothes!

The other woman is a cute blonde, but she's the sociopath. (Blew up her father's house when he wouldn't return her stuffed animal as a child.) She's the cat burglar, and though she's always wearing tight black clothes for rappelling and such, once again--not a sex object. Plus she scares everyone.

Psych

I'll also note that though the show isn't as funny as my fave, Psych, they one-up it in the female character department. Psych has a female detective, and a female chief of police, and they're competent; but they play the Straight Man character. Whereas the male detective, our hero, his sidekick are all Characters. Even the generic cop underling has a more distinct personality. In Leverage, however, the two women have just as distinct and funny characters as the men, from the pilot on.

The tough guy is a white dude with Fabio hair, and he's on the short side. At least for a tv dude. Now... this is the funny/smart bit... they found a better way to do the A-Team thing, where there's all this violence but no one dies. Our tough guy hates guns. He beats everyone up by hand, and always removes the cartridges from the guns after.

Finally there's The Black Guy. I'm often disappointed by this role. For example in New Girl's first episode the character was a coach, and he shouted all the time--he was funny, he wasn't a cliché. By the next episode they'd changed him out for a cool basketball player. Le. Sigh. But the character on Leverage hasn't disappointed me. Though he talks street, he's explicitly not from "the hood." He's not comfortable fighting and shooting, and he isn't uneducated--he's the computer whiz. And as he keeps pointing out to the others, this is the age of information, so his role is key.

Gus in Psych

Similar to Psych, where the black friend sidekick is very funny, and not a cliché either. You can't pigeonhole him as The Cool Black Dude, or the Angry Black Man or whatever. He's a rounded character.

It's sad that this all comes out to "progressive" television, cause it's pretty bland. It really should be the norm by now.

"Did you just kill a guy with an appetizer?"


"At least Eliot gave me a hug."


"You fell for that."

 

Story Soundtracking: Ahh relief

Some people when they make a soundtrack for the book pick maybe 20 songs--the idea being to play it when you're not writing, to inspire you, to find ideas, keep you in the book's mood.

I tried that this time but just ended up with a mess on my hands. I need multiple lists for the various moods of the book, and some just for background music (Eg. a bunch of Rat Pack songs for when I'm writing a particular character). I know what the "core" songs are and I go to them when needed; but I need a mch bigger pool to play in.

Having finally found my heroine and my hero, I fixed up my playlists this past week. There's 837 songs.

Ahh relief. Now I can work. By the way, for those who want to make soundtracks but have trouble finding songs, I often just start with what I'm listening to at the moment. Often the music mood I'm in corresponds to the mood of the book. Or it helps set the tone for it, even.

Here are three songs from my heroine's files.

Love Joan Armatrading - impressed she wrote something this good late in her career.


Very romantic song by Buffy Ste Marie.
I met him on a pow wow trail
He was singing and I was a dancer
To the heart beat drum, heart beat drum...



And a french song I like.

Patti Smith: A love song

Oh I forgot to post!

Here's one of Patti Smith's most beautiful songs, written for her deceased husband. The whole album Gone Again came out after the death of her husband, her brother, and some friends/peers.

And in case you need more Patti...

Chorus on REM's "E-bow the Letter"

Elly Belly's Brood: Episode 2

I've got to start posting all the pics I've been taking since April. I was going to go in order, but Harvey might need some pics of her beloved Zoe. (Episode 1 here.)

Cat Warning: Some cat pics intermingled with Zoe's section, cause we have to discuss her obsession with them.

First: Ella the Cat

My mum's cat Chino loves to be outside. In the day he sits on the back deck, which I call his living room. Elly Belly is the same, she's outside 80% of the time. (Not an exact number... sometimes she sleeps in the basement so she's inside and I don't know it.) I've given up trying to keep her indoors at night cause that's Her Time. If I keep her in she goes nuts and starts trying to throw herself out of the roof window, even if it's not open wide enough.

 Ella's night living room on the back patio.

Queen of the Faerie.

She comes in for regular cuddle check ups.

I think a hawk tried to get one of our chickens this week! 

Zoe had gone indoors, but Ella was with me... I think she scared the hawk off with her Stare of Death. Now when I sit out there with chickies, I make Zoe stay with me--but Ella doesn't need to be asked. She's the real guardian of the household.

 

She likes to take her walk when we do. Not with us, like Chino did. Just off on her own.

Waiting for walk.

  

"Catcha later chachis!"

 

Waiting for us when we return.

 

Second: Zoe the Pupsicle

Or "Zo-zo" as she's been called this week.

She comes for regular snuggles too.

If I stop petting her she sticks her snout under my hand.

 

It's easier to give her shnoogles if I invite her to do the forbidden: Sit on the couch!

Shhhh. All the best babysitters let you do something naughty, right? Mine did.

  

I don't do anything exciting, outside of walk time.

To amuse herself Zozo chases Ella, and sometimes Ella chases her.

But otherwise there's a lot of this.

 

Until I say the word: WALK.

Then a magical transformation happens!

She leaps up and runs for her leash and drags it around the living room and frolics and acts like a freak. It's adorable. 

Here we are down at the bay.

Waiting for her ship to come in?

 

 Being a poodle she's a big tracker. I brought her to my parents' neighborhood and she tracked a bunny for 2-3 blocks (she shnuffles along the ground, nose to grass, until I finally see what she's smelling.) 

She's always on the lookout for her fave prey: CATS.

There are a couple cats who hold their own against her. This cat came right down to the edge of the property and meowed at us, over and over. Exactly like a dog. You can see how tough he/she is!

And this is the old Siamese who stares Zoe down. In all the times we've passed this cat, Zoe has never made a lunge for him/her.

But other cats...

Here's one warily watching our approach...

 "Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat!"

My patented Cat Leash Hold. Even carrying poo! Pretty talented of me.

Zozo: "Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat!"

Moi: "NO CAT. NO CAT. NO CAT."

I use it when we see deer too.

This dog takes off so fast, if you aren't expecting it you're almost pulled off your feet. 

"Deer! Deer! Deer! Deer!"

"Bunny! Bunny! Bunny! Bunny!"

"NO CAT NO CAT NO CAT NO CAT!!"

Lunging for deer and cats is hard work.

At the 40 minute mark we always stop for a drink.

I time my walks to make sure we're out for an hour at least. I walk 30 minutes towards something, and then circle back. (Yes, my watch is upside down. Clearly not awake when I put it on. I depend on the walk to wake me up.)

Super red Anglo Saxon Face. Can you tell I'm not used to regular exercise?

My mother's neighborhood was flat, but Nanaimo is hilly. So I've upped my workout by 30 minutes, and incline. ;-)

Puppy Eye View of Maffeo Sutton Park

"Is it water bowl time yet?"

She's so pretty, she gets lots of attention. Here we are on the Queen's boardwalk. A guy from Lac St Jean, and his dog, stopped to say hi. Got to use my French.

Rare pic: You can see her eye!

Walking home we also stopped and talked to two guys about their dogs etc. And a little later to a guy on a motorized buggy thing, about Zoe's cat obsession. (A lot of oldies driving around on these buggies!)

Like Sassy, my mum's poodle, Zozo is conscientious about checking pee mail.

That's it! I brought her once to see a house my parents are considering buying. She's such a good dog, she sat nicely tied up in the yard. And I brought her to my parents' place, where I went to help Stepmommy with some chores. She sat nicely nearby. Philea the African Gray really likes Zoe! She watches her and talks to her. Today was cooler so we went to a forest-ee walk at Bowen Park, which added 30 minutes to our walk... oh poor unfit moi. Gonna try to bring her to a nearby island this week.

I'd never get to know the town if it weren't for Zozo!