Tag Archives: Occupy Wall Street

A very interesting day..

I finished my newspaper work on time, and even turned in the right file this time. (Whole other story and not a pretty one, mind you. It was evidence that my tech skills are that of a dinosaur even if my words occasionally are more highly evolved. And Nov 19  issue looked great and they had tons of timely previously cut material to cover my boo boo. Less than half of what I write sees the page usually, although most of it is available online, due to space constraints.

Anyway, anyone who wants to read my current professional work can find it at www.santansun.com. Nope, no byline, but most of the articles in the AZ Arts section are cobbled together by yours truly from press releases, websites and phone calls. My stuff is way at the back starting I think on page 58 through page 65 and the new Editor rewrote my best headlines, but hey, no words are sacred and that is the way the professional writer flavored cookie crumbles or the one about Warhol influenced art at the post office would have the  headline “Pop goes the easel”.

My nano novel is going slow. Will get back to it in the morning. Had to say hi to the blogosphere. Need to go to bed now if I am going to write before going to my “boot camp” training in the AM.

I am not going to talk about the Occupy movement and how that all went down. I don’t have enough clear facts about what happened to cognizantly defend  my initial  reaction (which I have to everything including social networks and GPS), namely “OMG, I am living in that Orwellian dystopia future I read about as a teenager. ” Then after thinking these thoughts, unfortunately and like so many of the rest of us, I go back to my routine. Mostly I go back to what I normally do because I do not understand the purpose of the movement or how I can actually effect their goals. I do oppose the use of police force to squelch free speech and I do believe money and the few who have most of it control large portions of our government. I think that’s evident from the inability to get anything done in Washington, regardless of what percentage of persons in America believe we need infrastructure jobs or the rich paying their fair share of taxes, Big Brother won’t let it happen.

But I also go back to what I do because I cannot save the world if I can’t even tend my own garden of needs. I have bills to pay and mouths (to BIG canine mouths besides mine) to feed, and people who depend on me to meet my responsibilites. I try to change the world a little bit by smiling and saying thank-you as often as I can, by buying local and buying organic if I can, by not consuming more than I need. My commitment is to “Ahimsa” as I understand it and integrating that into my daily small decisions and choices is my own Occupy movement. I am trying very hard to occupy with mindfulness the life I was given. I respect those whose path is different than mine, whose options and choices allow for them change the world in bigger, louder headline ways and don’t believe that resorting to sneakiness or force to stop them is right

So I guess I did talk about what happened to Occupy camps across America, but I am done now. And off to sleep so I can go work on the whole Slow Old Fat Triathlete becoming faster and thinner (however still getting older).

Happy Thanksgiving if I don’t get back before then, And don’t forget Small Business Saturday!

FTR: I am alive and nano’ing

I am nano-ing.

I am back at my training.

I am also working very hard at another goal that right now seems as impossible as the triathlon seemed this time last year, and that goal is to get out of debt. Therefore I am working very hard taking all hours I can get as a nurse and doing a wee job with a local newspaper that actually seems to care about writing the local stories rather than just placing words on paper to fill the space between sold add space, which unfortunately seems to be the case in many of the free local papers.

(side note: If any readers know of paid copyediting work or paid non-byline writing opportunities I am all ears….or does that metaphor work on line? My dream job as a writer would be to again be writing the precis on the back of books, or be a book length published poet, because no one ever knows who those writer’s are.  My brief brush with author fame and notoriety convinced me I really am much shyer and much thinner skinned than people realize)

Anyway, I really do mean to blog more frequently but that being said, we know which road me and my good intentions are on so here are my top 5 blogs to read when sadly mine is silent. (and I am doing 5 not 10 and doing this  “from” favorite not “to” favorite because I am ever the rebel.

1. http://whatever.scalzi.com/   Scalzi is the grandpa of the online blog and although his claim to fame is sci fi writing there is no shortage of politics, humor and cuteness here. I especially recommend finding his Thanksgiving Advent section if maybe a smile is in order. Has a bit of a Mental Floss/NPR vibe.

2.http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/ Another blog I have read for at least a decade I believe. On which we have watched Wil Wheaton grow from a man I would have considered capable about lying about his “Mema” to someone who I would want to bake my own Mema cookies for cause he is that cuddly. This blog has more of a “People”magazing/LOLCats.com feel somedays, other days feels like reading a modern day Emerson.

3.http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/ This one is I hope self-explanatory, if not, click on the link and read a few entries. Everybody should floss daily!

4. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/ OK, this is often kind of like window shopping in the really expensive stores, other times, like his post on Mandelbrott it is as close to formal education as I get these days. (and yes, I really, really want the Angry Birds Board Game!)

5.http://imarriedanomnivore.com/ I have followed her and her recipes since she was on Blogspot. Sadly I haven’t added her to Facebook because I am weaning myself off facebook if it wasn’t for certain old friends and poets I would be done with it.

Anyway, I must get back to updating my nurse credentials, actually cooking and eating breakfast and adding to mynovels  word count if not its plot.  Later this week (in preparation for MY big shopping day “Small Business Saturday”) my five favorite local businesses and five favorite not as local but still not evil empire size shops.

But hey, whats your favorite blog or website? I really want to know?

P.S. I expect once I am sure of the facts (I know crazy of me isn’t it to check those out first) that there will also be a blog about the not very “American Values” response happening around the country to the Occupy movement.