Got some stuff to share that has been lingering in the limbo of my browser plus the usual odds and ends of my life to share today, so let’s get down on it, partner.
Did therapy today. Decent session. Got a lot of my feelings of basically being screwed over by life out. Still kind annoyed at my shrink’s tendency to wander off on tangents to what I am trying to say, but to be fair, I think I kind of overwhelm the guy. He is exposed to my mind and my emotions unfiltered, and I put out a lot of voltage between the two.
He has to go into the red hot reactor core of my psyche and deal with me on a level I do not allow anyone else to go near. I suppose I can forgive him for being a little dazed by the Cherenkov radiation.
Still, it frustrates me.
On to the links.
There is a new idea catching on in some places that I am quite interested in : food swaps.
Before your mind goes anywhere gross, these are events where people make a bunch of a favorite dish at home, then get together and swap!
Simple enough, but I think it sounds kickass. I would love to, say, make three or four loaves of bread and swap with people for various things. It would be a great way to meet other people who like to cook, and get some variety into my diet, as well as satisfy my urge to feed people.
In fact, I imagine that is the appeal for a lot of the participants. Cooking for yourself gets boring. But knowing that your home made favorite is being enjoyed by others would really inspire people.
Right now, it works in a very time-honored way : people get together, sign up, fill out swap sheets detailing what they have and what they are looking for, then display their wares on tables like at any flea market or swap meet.
Sounds workable to me, although my drive for efficiency makes me wonder if somehow people could be sorted by what they are offering, so that people looking for specific things can find them more easily.
But that is probably applying male thinking to what sounds like a happy female social system, so perhaps I should keep my optimizing instinct in check for now.
Still, if there is something like that around here, I want in. It sounds like a lot of fun, and hits a lot of my buttons, such as food, sharing, barter, alternate economies, and so on.
Speaking of bread (sorta kinda), I finally got the flour and the eggs I need to make cornbread today, so that will be my next loaf. I have never made cornbread before, so I am curious as to how it will turn out. I have had decidedly, even violently mixed experiences with cornbread before in my life. I have had some that was just plain awful. And I have had some that was amazing, soft and delicate and light and corn-sweet with a tiny bit of kick from spices.
So I have no idea what typical cornbread tastes like. The really bad stuff and the really good stuff were both home-made. Never had store-bough, although I did have some at Marie Callender’s that was quite nice.
Thrilling as the subject of cornbread is, back to linkage.
Check this out : not only did Susan Sarandon go to an LA Rocky Horror showing, but she brought along a 17 year old Natalie Portman and one of her own daughters!
Sadly, she does not supply a lot of details in the interview linked above, so I am forced to wonder : Did anyone there recognize her? She does not look a lot like Janet any more (unless you know what to look for), so possibly not. Did it bring back a flood of memories for her? Memories of a crazy summer making an even crazier movie? Was her daughter (14 at the time) freaked out at seeing Mommy get freaky on screen?
Of all the RHPS players, she is the one who gone on to have the biggest career. Tim Curry has worked steadily but nothing like the big prestige movies Sarandon has done. Brian Bostwick shows up now and then in things. And of course, Meatloaf is a rock star, so he has never totally gone away, even though as an actor, he has not done that much.
He was cool in Fight Club, though.
Finally, there is this clip from the new show The Newsroom that has gone viral :
There ya go, America. The stark truth. America is not the greatest country on Earth. Can you live with that? Can you stomach an America that is not the all time winner of everything? Can you believe the honest, statistical, scientific truth that your country is not the best in the world?
Pick a metric. It is not the most free country in the world. Lots of things are illegal in the USA that are legal other places in the world. It is certainly not the best educated, or the most equal, nor does it have the highest quality of life, life expectancy, healthiest people, happiest people, or any other meaningful measure of hwo good a country can be.
The truth is, you are all trained from birth to shout “USA! USA! USA!” on command and always say that America is number one without ever questioning whether that is true or why that might be.
You get the pleasure of your massive ego without ever having to bother earning it. It is truth before the fact, and anyone who says differently is an America hating Commie, and any facts which contradict this America Number One picture are just filthy lies.
And you know what happens to people who get the reward without having to earn it, right? They get soft, lazy, and mean.
You could be the greatest nation on Earth, but instead you wallow in pool created by the products of your own excessive jingoistic masturbation.
Other countries do not go around talking about how they are Number One all the time, you know that?
And you know why that is? Hint : It’s not because they think you already have the top spot.
It’s because they don’t need to think they are Number One. They are happy just to be themselves.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
America is not Number One in anything any more. And you are just going to have to learn to live with it.
Or do what it takes to get back on top. But you will never, ever do that.
It’s too liberal for you now.