The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

23:16 Sep 24 2011
Times Read: 514

Two things that I find common when people write are the mistakes they make with these two words. I make others but I'm pretty careful about these two. The first one is rampant here. I'm surprised people don't know the difference.



Than vs. Then



Than (conjunction) - used to introduce the second element in a comparison



My right foot is bigger than my left foot.

Then (adverb) - at that time; next in order; (adjective) - of that time; (noun) - that time



Take off all your clothes first. Then get in the shower.

Emily drove up to New York with her then boyfriend, Nick.

Let's wait until we're hungry; we can decide what we want to eat then.



The other one I see a lot is your vs you're



Your is possessive, such as Here's your coat where as you're is a contraction of you are. So if you are writing something and especially poetry double check that you don't mistake one of these.



Such as Your the love of my life which should be You're the love of my life.



Many of these types of errors I haven't forgotten. I went to college twice, secretarial school and the school of massage but at the latter I learned physiology and anatomy. I also learned reflexology and polarity therapy. I still make writing mistakes all the time.



I never wanted to learn NLP or Reiki, I consider them fads and always have. I was interested in other things. Of course most of this has nothing to do with writing. I took other writing classes in Huntington Beach from a published author. This was prior to PCs. It was around 1980/81. I don't remember much because back then I was involved with Spiritualism and a new baby. The thing is most writers making many spelling mistakes and grammar as well and I'm one of them. I use Autocrit for over all analysis but beyond that I haven't found a really good site for spelling and grammar and use word and a few other places but they even make mistakes or miss things. I do my best but these other mistakes are common. Noone is another one. It is either none or no one and not noone.

13:40 Sep 23 2011
Times Read: 518

I'm on chapter 20 of one of my stories I have up in here. It's too detailed, too much fantasy isn't he or she perfect descriptions and a bit cliche in places. I will of course retain the original but I'm going to do a good stripping of all that stuff. I have to go with the flow at first and then fix everything. It's not too pretty at first. I see it in other people's writing and that's what we all do in the first draft. I have my own mental picture but others don't always want it so spelled out. It has to be dropped here and there. I'm really detailed in my imaging and I have to slap my fingers and stop doing that. Paranormal fantasy romance doesn't need to be like that. It isn't so much about the romances which she uses to forget a bad experience but more about who she is and what happens to get her to the point where that is revealed to her and somewhat to the person reading the story. I can't tell all in this story because another one follows it. I'm just a ho hum writer when it comes to fiction but I'm not doing it to publish but leave something for my kids they might find fun to keep.

19:55 Sep 18 2011
Times Read: 524

I pretty much have figured out the whole plot to the last story. I have to kill off a character in my story and I know who the hidden protagonist is now and why. Yikes. I am almost compelled to finish this story before all the others before I forget. I guess I should make notes, lol...I'm so loosey goosey about what I write and sometimes I plainly change whole scenes, especially the sexy ones, lol. I don't want to write erotica. I don't even know if I know how but I want the scenes to be romantic and somewhat explicit so people know what is going on but in a subtle way. What I write will interest females and not so much males. I'm not in a place yet where I can think so much from that perspective really. I try, I have to because I have male characters but that is one of my weaknesses.



Oh I really don't want to kill off this character but...eh I have to do it. I have killed one before but he deserved it, lol. It wasn't in this story.

00:21 Sep 18 2011
Times Read: 529

I'm so use to writing non-fiction articles it's hard to make the transition over to fiction.



I read Stephanie Meyer's comment about her characters and how she talks to them. I know how she feels. She must step into her stories and become friends with her characters. It's a hard concept to understand. I do that, it's how I write and at first I don't pay attention to punctuation etc. I just get the feelings down and the action. I guess I write urban romance thrillers. That's the conclusion I have come to. I can't see any fictional story not having love interests in them somehow. People get personal with each other, that's what they do.



Except I get into the characters so much I feel like I know them, they are sort of real. I tend to have favorites but I have to do something to a character I don't want to do. It is best for the storyline but sighs, I honestly don't like it. It's kind of like when Stephanie toyed with a way to get Edward not to leave for awhile but she had to make him do that for the story. I understand how she feels but others probably think we are crazy. At least she has made a lot of money off her writing even if she had no intention of ever pubishing the first one. She wrote for fun and so am I. My goal isn't publishing but bringing to life something in my head.

21:48 Sep 15 2011
Times Read: 533

I got Thor today. I am going to watch it now. I love that movie. I was trying to watch Insidious last night. It has only been a few weeks and other than recognizing scenery (hard to explain), I don't remember much of the movie. I fell asleep so I will try later.



I am going to revise the most recent story I have been working on. I want to do something more with the beginning. Then to write a prologue or not to write one....Yikes. I have one but I don't like it so I am thinking of another tack. I have to see if Wayne is still here and ask him if he did that or not with his books. I know he is over in FB so if not here, I will go there.



I stopped writing poetry at the moment. I'm not inspired and I know it is only for myself. Certain types can't get published. One can do their own publishing but generally it will only be sold to family and friends. People are still rhyming and I just smile to myself. That stuff and the older words like lest and thus and so on aren't used anymore and if the Brits want to use whilst they can but it is not used in American vocabulary at all, except for those gothy people I have met on occasion that are actually very good writers but will never get anything published that is poetry unless they go to a vanity press or do it themselves. Rhyming is passe and considered trite now, unfortunately and I guess society except for a few has moved passed all that. They read it in school but they don't buy it unless forced most of the time. Not saying nobody does but its not popular and now with bookstores closing right and left one would be having to actually be looking for the stuff to buy it rather than browsing through the story and noticing a cute little book of poetry...sighs.



I ordered one of those hearing enhancers made by Bell and Howell. I want to use it in my room because I like to watch movies late at night. I have been having problems hearing my tv anyway. It is about the size of an earpiece for a cell phone. I do have tv ears and as much as they cost, they don't last long and I have to recharge it but don't get me wrong...it does work. The one I have belonged to my father who passed almost two years ago now. Anyway they called and its coming any day. I am surprised because it said allow two to three weeks so now I can hardly wait to get it. It is also one of those kinds of things you can turn up and hear people talk at a distance. I wouldn't eavesdrop, lol.

00:49 Sep 15 2011
Times Read: 541

You know, I don't really mind talking about the past here and I have a lot of it. It's not that important to me really. I don't like to talk about personal things of the present much though.



Looking around the journals again I see a lot of frustrated people, even some who thought I might be making jabs at them. If I was it was only because they are some of the smartest and the best. Sometimes I feel words cover up what the person is trying to convey. I see it being so common for some to write or even speak in a certain way that I just shrug and think to myself, why are they hiding behind the words. This person is too good for that. I can see it. I feel it yet they write the way they do and sometimes talk what I hear even from my own children, talk shit.



I don't know what goes on behind the scenes and why so many have hurt feelings about this or that. Sometimes put in a position of intervening with a lot of people you just can't please them all. It happened to me in places in yahoo where I have been and still am a moderator. We can't take it too personally because after all, this is only the net. Problem is you get to know people from some perspective and after awhile, it does get old if people complain all the time and the more one tries to please, the more some people complain. Don't try to please, just do what you have to do and leave it at that.



I have a hard time with the profanity. My Father was in the Navy for twenty years. He said it all except he would never say two words that are commonplace in here. I flinch every time I see it written and some who do are brilliant people so it makes me mad. It embarrassed me growing up because my Mother picked it up from my Dad. No one else in my circle of friends parents talked this way. It is something I hate to read and after awhile I have to go off and not be here. The problem is if one is gone for long, you are penalized. If you say anything at all everyone thinks you are talking about them personally rather than an idea and they get, hurt, mad, revengeful or all of the above. If they happen to have a high level I know they are probably gossiping over in the clubhouse in the Science Fiction section.



Regardless there is a trend of the same people over and over having their presense being very up front and noticeable. Why I don't know. I was a mouse growing up, intimidated by my parents. So many things happened to me that I learned to speak my mind, I had to speak my mind. Not even constructive criticism can fly in this day and age because so many are on the defensive about everything. I don't know why. Maybe it's the generational gap. Why assume someone is singling out someone to make potshots without knowing for sure I wonder. Maybe some people much younger than I have thinner skins than I once thought. What to do, I don't know what to do really. I can't help if I don't like certain things. I'm no different than anyone else. It doesn't matter if you are younger or older, I really don't relate well to people at any age, never have. So don't mistake my words as a criticism or an arrow being shot to a particular target. It simply is not the case.

15:09 Sep 11 2011
Times Read: 558

I don't know, I really don't want to remember September 11. I was sitting at my computer and the TV was on to my left. I wasn't paying attention but a roommate came out and said do you see that on the television. They were showing the twin towers attack. I couldn't believe it was real but it was. Commemoration is fine but too much makes a mockery of all those people who died in my opinion.



I have witnessed many of these things. I was watching television because I was home from school that particular day and they were showing President Kennedy in a motorcaid and I saw him get shot from a live broadcast. I stood up in shock and burst into tears. Then it was his brother killed.



Vietnam was the worst, many I knew were killed and like many at that time I felt it was a waste of many lives. It was a horror story. These are things I prefer to forget.



Before that, Pearl Harbor, another tragedy here not to mention the shooting of Martin Luther King. We have had many tragedies in the United States. This is one among many. One way or another it has to do with men wanting something and making enemies while their families are home thinking they are safe, protected, but they aren't.

TYPHOID MARY
20:50 Sep 08 2011
Times Read: 568


The Sad Story of a Woman Responsible for Several Typhoid Outbreaks



By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide



Mary Mallon, now known as Typhoid Mary, seemed a healthy woman when a health inspector knocked on her door in 1907, yet she was the cause of several typhoid outbreaks. Since Mary was the first "healthy carrier" of typhoid fever in the United States, she did not understand how someone not sick could spread disease -- so she tried to fight back.



After a trial and then a short run from health officials, Typhoid Mary was recaptured and forced to live in relative seclusion upon North Brother Island off New York. Who was Mary Mallon and how did she spread typhoid fever?



An Investigation



For the summer of 1906, New York banker Charles Henry Warren wanted to take his family on vacation. They rented a summer home from George Thompson and his wife in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Also for the summer, the Warrens hired Marry Mallon to be their cook.



On August 27, one of the Warren's daughters became ill with typhoid fever. Soon, Mrs. Warren and two maids became ill; followed by the gardener and another Warren daughter. In total, six of the eleven people in the house came down with typhoid.



Since the common way typhoid spread was through water or food sources, the owners of the home feared they would not be able to rent the property again without first discovering the source of the outbreak. The Thompsons first hired investigators to find the cause, but they were unsuccessful.



Then the Thompsons hired George Soper, a civil engineer with experience in typhoid fever outbreaks. It was Soper who believed the recently hired cook, Mary Mallon, was the cause. Mallon had left the Warren's approximately three weeks after the outbreak. Soper began to research her employment history for more clues.



Mary Mallon was born on September 23, 1869 in Cookstown, Ireland. According to what she told friends, Mallon emigrated to America around the age of 15. Like most Irish immigrant women, Mallon found a job as a domestic servant. Finding she had a talent for cooking, Mallon became a cook, which paid better wages than many other domestic service positions.



Soper was able to trace Mallon's employment history back to 1900. He found that typhoid outbreaks had followed Mallon from job to job. From 1900 to 1907, Soper found that Mallon had worked at seven jobs in which 22 people had become ill, including one young girl who died, with typhoid fever shortly after Mallon had come to work for them.1



Soper was satisfied that this was much more than a coincidence; yet, he needed stool and blood samples from Mallon to scientifically prove she was the carrier.



Capture and Isolation of Typhoid Mary



In March 1907, Soper found Mallon working as a cook in the home of Walter Bowen and his family. To get samples from Mallon, he approached her at her place of work. Having a strange man come up to you, to accuse you (who seems completely healthy) of spreading disease and of killing people and then be asked for some of your blood and excrement, well, it does seem it would make just about anybody skeptical.



I had my first talk with Mary in the kitchen of this house. . . . I was as diplomatic as possible, but I had to say I suspected her of making people sick and that I wanted specimens of her urine, feces and blood. It did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion. She seized a carving fork and advanced in my direction. I passed rapidly down the long narrow hall, through the tall iron gate, . . . and so to the sidewalk. I felt rather lucky to escape.2



This violent reaction from Mallon did not stop Soper. Soper tracked Mallon to her home. He tried to approach her again, but this time, he brought an assistant (Dr. Bert Raymond Hoobler) for support. Again, Mallon became enraged, made clear they were unwelcome and shouted expletives at them as they made a hurried departure.



Realizing it was going to take more persuasiveness than he was able to offer, Soper handed his research and hypothesis over to Hermann Biggs at the New York City Health Department. Biggs agreed with Soper's hypothesis. Biggs sent Dr. S. Josephine Baker to talk to Mallon.



Mallon, now extremely suspicious of these health officials, refused to listen to Baker, Baker returned with the aid of five police officers and an ambulance. Mallon was prepared this time. Baker describes the scene:



Mary was on the lookout and peered out, a long kitchen fork in her hand like a rapier. As she lunged at me with the fork, I stepped back, recoiled on the policeman and so confused matters that, by the time we got through the door, Mary had disappeared. 'Disappear' is too matter-of-fact a word; she had completely vanished.3



Baker and the police searched the house. Eventually, footprints were spotted leading from the house to a chair placed next to a fence. Over the fence was a neighbor's property.



They spent five hours searching both properties, until, finally, they found "a tiny scrap of blue calico caught in the door of the areaway closet under the high outside stairway leading to the front door."4



Baker describes the emergence of Mallon from the closet:



She came out fighting and swearing, both of which she could do with appalling efficiency and vigor. I made another effort to talk to her sensibly and asked her again to let me have the specimens, but it was of no use. By that time she was convinced that the law was wantonly persecuting her, when she had done nothing wrong. She knew she had never had typhoid fever; she was maniacal in her integrity. There was nothing I could do but take her with us. The policemen lifted her into the ambulance and I literally sat on her all the way to the hospital; it was like being in a cage with an angry lion.5



Mallon was taken to the Willard Parker Hospital in New York. There, samples were taken and examined; typhoid bacilli was found in her stool. The health department then transferred Mallon to an isolated cottage (part of the Riverside Hospital) on North Brother Island (in the East River near the Bronx).



Can the Government Do This?



Mary Mallon was taken by force and against her will and was held without a trial. She had not broken any laws. So how could the government lock her up in isolation indefinitely?



That's not easy to answer. The health officials were basing their power on sections 1169 and 1170 of the Greater New York Charter:



The board of health shall use all reasonable means for ascertaining the existence and cause of disease or peril to life or health, and for averting the same, throughout the city. [Section 1169]



Said board may remove or cause to be removed to [a] proper place to be by it designated, any person sick with any contagious, pestilential or infectious disease; shall have exclusive charge and control of the hospitals for the treatment of such cases. [Section 1170]6



This charter was written before anyone knew of "healthy carriers" -- people who seemed healthy but carried a contagious form of a disease that could infect others. Health officials believed healthy carriers to be more dangerous than those sick with the disease because there is no way to visually identify a healthy carrier in order to avoid them. But to many, locking up a healthy person seemed wrong.



Freedom for Typhoid Mary



Mary Mallon believed she was being unfairly persecuted. Wasn't she healthy? She could not understand how she could have spread disease and caused a death when she, herself, seemed healthy.



I never had typhoid in my life, and have always been healthy. Why should I be banished like a leper and compelled to live in solitary confinement with only a dog for a companion?7

In 1909, after having been isolated for two years on North Brother Island, Mallon sued the health department.



During Mallon's confinement, health officials had taken and analyzed stool samples from Mallon approximately once a week. The samples came back intermittently positive with typhoid, but mostly positive (120 of 163 samples tested positive).8 For nearly a year preceding the trial, Mallon also sent samples of her stool to a private lab where all her samples tested negative for typhoid. Feeling healthy and with her own lab results, Mallon believed she was being unfairly held.



This contention that I am a perpetual menace in the spread of typhoid germs is not true. My own doctors say I have no typhoid germs. I am an innocent human being. I have committed no crime and I am treated like an outcast -- a criminal. It is unjust, outrageous, uncivilized. It seems incredible that in a Christian community a defenseless woman can be treated in this manner.9



Mallon did not understand a lot about typhoid fever and, unfortunately, no one tried to explain it to her. Not all people have a strong bout of typhoid fever; some people can have such a weak case that they only experience flu-like symptoms. Thus, Mallon could have had typhoid fever but never known it. Though commonly known at the time that typhoid could be spread by water or food products, people who are infected by the tyhpoid bacillus could also pass the disease from their infected stool onto food via unwashed hands. For this reason, infected persons who were cooks (like Mallon) or food handlers had the most likelihood of spreading the disease.



The judge ruled in favor of the health officials and Mallon, now popularly known as "Typhoid Mary," "was remanded to the custody of the Board of Health of the City of New York."10 Mallon went back to the isolated cottage on North Brother Island with little hope of being released.



In February of 1910, a new health commissioner decided that Mallon could go free as long as she agreed never to work as a cook again. Anxious to regain her freedom, Mallon accepted the conditions. On February 19, 1910, Mary Mallon agreed that she "is prepared to change her occupation (that of cook), and will give assurance by affidavit that she will upon her release take such hygienic precautions as will protect those with whom she comes in contact, from infection."11 She was let free.



Recapture of Typhoid Mary



Some people believe that Mallon never had any intention of following the health officials' rules; thus they believe Mallon had a malicious intent with her cooking. But not working as a cook pushed Mallon into service in other domestic positions which did not pay as well. Feeling healthy, Mallon still did not really believe that she could spread typhoid. Though in the beginning Mallon tried to be a laundress as well as worked at other jobs, for a reason that has not been left in any documents, Mallon eventually went back to working as a cook.



In January of 1915 (nearly five years after Mallon's release), the Sloane Maternity Hospital in Manhattan suffered a typhoid fever outbreak. Twenty-five people became ill and two of them died.



Soon, evidence pointed to a recently-hired cook, Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown was really Mary Mallon, using a pseudonym.



If the public had shown Mary Mallon some sympathy during her first period of confinement because she was an unwitting typhoid carrier, all of the sympathy disappeared after her recapture. This time, Typhoid Mary knew of her healthy carrier status - even it she didn't believe it; thus she willingly and knowingly caused pain and death to her victims. Using a pseudonym made even more people feel that Mallon knew she was guilty.



Mallon was again sent to North Brother Island to live in the same isolated cottage that she had inhabited during her last confinement. For twenty-three more years, Mary Mallon remained imprisoned on the island.



The exact life she led on the island is unclear, but it is known that she helped around the hospital, gaining the title "nurse" in 1922 and then "hospital helper" sometime later. In 1925, Mallon began to help in the hospital's lab.



In December 1932, Mary Mallon suffered a large stroke that left her paralyzed. She was then transferred from her cottage to a bed in the children's ward of the hospital on the island, where she stayed until her death six years later, on November 11, 1938.



Typhoid Mary Lives On



Since Mary Mallon's death, the name "Typhoid Mary" has grown into a term disassociated from the person. Anyone who has a contagious illness can be termed, sometimes jokingly, a "Typhoid Mary." If someone changes their jobs frequently, they are sometimes referred to as a "Typhoid Mary." (Mary Mallon changed jobs frequently. Some people believed it to be because she knew she was guilty, but most probably it was because domestic jobs during the time were not long lasting service jobs.)



But why does everyone know about Typhoid Mary? Though Mallon was the first carrier found, she was not the only healthy carrier of typhoid during that time. An estimated 3,000 to 4,500 new cases of typhoid fever were reported in New York City alone and it was estimated that about three percent of those who had typhoid fever become carriers, creating 90-135 new carriers a year.



Mallon was also not the most deadly. Forty-seven illnesses and three deaths were attributed to Mallon while Tony Labella (another healthy carrier) caused 122 people to become ill and five deaths. Labella was isolated for two weeks and then released.



Mallon was not the only healthy carrier who broke the health officials' rules after being told of their contagious status. Alphonse Cotils, a restaurant and bakery owner, was told not to prepare food for other people. When health officials found him back at work, they agreed to let him go free when he promised to conduct his business over the phone.



So why is Mary Mallon so infamously remembered as "Typhoid Mary"? Why was she the only healthy carrier isolated for life? These questions are hard to answer. Judith Leavitt, author of Typhoid Mary, believes that her personal identity contributed to the extreme treatment she received from health officials. Leavitt claims that there was prejudice against Mallon not only for being Irish and a woman, but also for being a domestic servant, not having a family, not being considered a "bread earner," having a temper, and not believing in her carrier status.12



During her life, Mary Mallon experienced extreme punishment for something in which she had no control and, for whatever reason, has gone down in history as the evasive and malicious "Typhoid Mary."



Notes



1. Judith Walzer Leavitt, Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996) 16-17.

2. George Soper as quoted in Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 43.

3. Dr. S. Josephine Baker as quoted in Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 46.

4. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 46.

5. Dr. S. Josephine Baker as quoted in Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 46.

6. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 71.

7. Mary Mallon as quoted in Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 180.

8. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 32.

9. Mary Mallon as quoted in Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 180.

10. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 34.

11. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 188.

12. Leavitt, Typhoid Mary 96-125.

Bibliography



Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.



http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/a/typhoidmary_3.htm

17:57 Sep 07 2011
Times Read: 581

The reason I posted prior is because I don't want to see it or hear it. Some things belong in private posts. I don't want to argue with people so I don't name or call people out specifically (there would be a long list) and some things I comment on are topics that have gotten a catalyst because there isn't just one person or one post. The last one I can take usually starts me saying something.



Making observations are one thing...starting fights are another when someone brings themselves over to expose who they are. Some things are best left in the area of wonderment. I will admit in my short time with this profile that there are some people I find rather unsavory and why, it is the things they write. I don't know them so I can't state they are bad people but examples posted of less than seemly words gives a clue. I find it a flagrant disregard for others. I want to have a pleasant time here and it doesn't help to see vulgarity and threats constantly. I get to the point where enough is enough and say something. If I wanted to be rude I could say it to the individuals themselves but I have to believe they don't think before they write some things out of anger. Let's hope that is all it is. I just am tired of reading it everywhere.



I edit comments out and don't read them really when I state my opinions about something I find to be out of line in public with many ages. It is my opinion being stated and I don't care about others. They can put theirs in their own journals...they usually do without thought to anyone else and who might see it. Generally they feel guilty so they name names and start slinging the mud. I am not use to such things nor do I condone them. That is just how I feel. Nothing will change my mind because most of the time and there are exceptions, I try to be a lady. I have had my moments but they are rare and far between and usually in the end, I apologize. If I know I am going to say something that a person will not like commented upon negatively I do it in my journal and I don't say anything but general remarks. Doesn't seem to be the case for others because they seem to need public vindication that what they said is all right even if it isn't, because invariably the last culprit appears in the remarks section of my journal. Just because I saw something doesn't mean they are the only person being a putz about their language. Tsk, tsk, if one is going to say something that is totally wrong whether out of anger or not, they need to think about who might be reading their comments. If they are filled with gross expletives it would make anyone wonder what type of person they are when they know very well there are people as young as 13 here. How can anyone pass that off? All I can think is it is a huge case of brainfade.



If it turns into a laughing matter with friend's figuratively patting them on the back, I have to think about their values as well. I don't really want to hurt anyone's feelings. This is why it is a general topic in my journal. If you know I have looked at your journal then stay quiet, otherwise you make yourself a poster child for my post. The bottom line is think about what you post and the words you are using. If you cannot say anything without crude language then read a few dictionaries. Because I didn't a few months ago and all it accomplished is I hurt the feelings of a very nice person. I did apologize and it was my fault, an overreaction to something silly and a family member butted in and I stayed silent about it for a long time. I had a bad day, what can I say, I'm not always perfect about what I say or do but one thing I don't do is this:



1. Put up personal photos that are revealing.

2. Write in crude language

3. Give people 1s

4. Randomly block people

5. Not consider there are young people here

6. Give people low rates for a difference in taste or for the fun of it.

6. Try to gang up on someone with my friends here because someone said something I don't like.

7. Think I am superior because you have a 1.00 and I am higher.

8. Downrate you because you aren't premium



What I may do is



1. Have a bad day and be rude

2. If annoyed might not log on for a couple of days.

3. Not get involved in all the gossip here

4. Won't be intimidated by someone's stature here

5. Speak my mind but try to do it in a way that no one is named or singled out.

6. Not gang up with others to make fun of someone with my friends in a few journals. I will keep my disagreements to my self or only in my journal.

7. Will answer truthfully as much as I can if emailed here to explain something, even if I know the person won't like what I say.

8. Not put up with name calling from another adult.

9. Not listen when people act high school about things.

10. Try to hold my tongue when people claim to be a really old vampire and other things I know is role playing...to each their own madness, lol.

16:50 Sep 07 2011
Times Read: 593

Sometimes I wonder why people here condone the public display of downright filthy language. I find it to be low to subject children to words like I see in some of the journals. Yes, in this day and age I know they know them and probably use them but older adults should know better. I wonder especially how females can lower themselves to say certain words at all. Things have sure changed and I am glad I am a step out of time because I find it all to be nothing more than garbage. I do not care who is saying it and quite frankly it should not be allowed. I also wonder why people find it funny??? I guess we are desensitized to things these days. No wonder we are always at war, kids are killing other kids and the list goes on. The adults are bad examples for the children.

20:25 Sep 02 2011
Times Read: 600

Wow, it's back again. National Novel Writing Month.



It starts November 1, I believe and why I am giving the link. I personally have never done it because my time is limited and I wouldn't be able to devote what they require I don't think.



Go here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/



National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.



Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.



Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.



Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.



As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.



In 2010, we had over 200,000 participants. More than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.



So, to recap:



What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.



Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.



Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.



When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.



There's more information on the site. I don't know if it costs anything or not. I leave it for others to check out if they think they would like to do this. They have it every year.

Observations
19:55 Sep 02 2011
Times Read: 604

I have been here awhile now and I don't mean this profile or the other one I have. I was here a good two years prior to the two of those. People just don't care. I find that sad. People who post sexual interests, etc other than I'm straight or whatever just don't care about kids it would appear. I feel fetish interests are a private thing and not everyone is into BDSM or should they hear about it on the front of a profile. We have lost all sense of morals I guess. That's what it appears to me. All I can think of is it is done for shock value or look at me I am so cool and soooo dark. It isn't what you do that makes one dark exactly, it is a state of mind and interests and almost not even that. Being alternative in views and other things of that nature doesn't exactly make one dark. There really is no such thing, it is a judgment people have made and people who walk down the alternative path have always been around. In the past, they had the sense to know when to reveal it and when not to or what was proper in mixed company or with children. Not anymore unfortunately. The whole thing has NOTHING to do with sexual practices.



I watched the Million Dollar Matchmaker all day yesterday because I was lying down most of the day. I had to shake my head that she had to warn the male millionaires about having sex on the first date. I mean what is wrong with the women that they let themselves be used? Every time they broke the rules the man never called back. There still is the same double-standard that existed as far back as I remember. Many of the men were UGH and I mean ugh, not to say all the women were beauty queens. She kicks them out if they break that rule or get nasty about things. I personally never liked players and would avoid them because if they are like that, it will carry across into almost everything else one way or another, sometimes including physical abuse. I'm not just talking about men either. Now there are females like that, not to say there weren't in the past but it was more hidden then.



Many of the women had stringy hair and I don't understand that one. I realize some get the curls that go across but this isn't that and many looked like they hadn't washed it in days, lol. I have gotten so judgmental I guess but when some come on there and they can't even raise an eyebrow due to so much botox and try to get people to believe they are actresses and models and they are over 40 and sort of well I won't say it, makes me wonder. I am a movie and tv hound and yet I have never seen some of these people in anything.



I see them say so and so is so handsome and I wonder if they mean some guy standing in the shadows I cannot see. I have never been into looks but to say someone is attractive is one thing and handsome is something else. I have only seen a couple like that on that show. When she went to NYC those men were totally obnoxious and most looked like they were part of the mob. Most were stocky, hard spoken men or just plain weird. One guy, I don't remember if he was from the west or east but he took this young woman to this restaurant that gave them a drink with raw eggs in it and he told her she was going to drink it but she refused and he kept telling her but she didn't and then he wanted her to eat some I think it was duck embryo or that is what I remember it to be. It was fowl and should be spelled the other way, lol. The guy had no clue and had never been married, hahaha...he slid on his money. One doesn't stay young forever and one looses any looks they might have had.



Many of them were so self-centered taking the girls on first dates to do outlandish things because they liked it. That is not how you start a new relationship. One thing that bothers me is business people. If you own a business that is about people like the one I mentioned, whether the owner is female or male, I feel they should stand up to shake hands. It shouldn't matter the gender, at least that is my opinion because they are paying for a service and it takes it out of bounds of gender. I feel it is just a matter of good manners, not required of a woman but should be if she is running a dating service like they are showing.



Men are suppose to stand when a lady walks into the room or into dinner and they are suppose to be seated to be proper. Who does that? No one and especially if it is an elderly woman it is still good manners but I don't think most males are taught this or do it. Men marry and don't do anything at all, most of them so women get used to opening their own door. Times change as they say but this isn't a good change because it has had a domino effect where men, many of them and a lot of females have no manners at all. One guy got mad because of what she said and he called her a something or other whore in Italian when he got mad. He can think that but he just needed to leave. It was very revealing as to the character of the guy and how he would treat a woman in a relationship if he got mad. I considered him a low-life at that point and this one was somewhat good looking and well traveled and spoke about five languages. He was raised in Europe but when he spoke English, he sounded American even though his first language was Italian...I thought that rather odd.



Anyway he should have just let her rant and get up and say something like, if that is how you feel, I will leave. Instead he put himself on a lower level than her. Anyway, I just wonder if anyone learns manners anymore. I think most think they don't matter and are a thing of the past. Let's hope not for our own good. I really don't want to debate this, because this is how "I" feel about things. If your view is different, put it in your journal, not mine.