Well, I finally did it, I now have my own website, this is not to say I have never attempted to get myself a website or blog page in the past, I have, with minor short lived success or complete failure, but I never gave up on the dream of sharing my poems, free verses, experimental prose, flights of fancy, opinions, commentaries and maybe the odd little fanfic if the powers to be at Weebly let me on my own page, so here I am, folks, ready to give you all I have got, well, maybe not now, probably later this afternoon or evening when I get home from doing a little grocery shopping and this next entry will be more of an introduction to who I am, where I came from, and what you will expect fro
Sunday, March 17, 2013 6:15 PM MST
Okay, I promised you guys, some of whom may not know me, an introduction to the person who is writing this blog, namely me. I was born Friday , October 26, 1962 sometime in the noon hour, interrupting a nurse's soap opera time at a hospital in Trenton, Ontario. My father, who was born in Glascow, Scotland and worked for a brief time in New Zealand (I think) before coming here to Canada, served with the Royal Canadian Air Force from the 50s to the early 80s before retiring from the military and working for a short time as a janitor at the office of the Alberta Pork Association (can't remember the name) until he went on full retirement. My British Columbia born mother worked a couple of odd jobs, from bank teller to cashier at a general store to a claims adjuster at an insurance company to help make ends meet. My brother, who is four years younger than me and now my only family contact here in Edmonton, is a fairly well known local musician and journalist. I, myself, was born with Celebral Palsy, severe, but not severe enough to be in a wheelchair, meaning, I can do some things on my own without help like laundry and cooking, but I can't get regular employment (volunteer work I can do, like with the yearly Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival). I love writing, poetry, free verse, experimental prose, opinions, you name it, I used to belong to a local poetry group called the Edmonton Stroll of Poets Society for a number of years until several factors suddenly stopped me from going to readings and writing poetry that included a bit of a creative block, difficult bus schedules (most poetry readings happen at night and from the neighborhood where I live, I have to take two buses or one bus ride on the LRT, to go to where I wanted to go, which is usually downtown or the southside), taking care of Mom after Dad died, social networking, and becoming addicted to the Sims. I continued to write, mainly blogs and a bit of fan fiction which I will be doing again some time this year and hopefully start writing poems (I specialize in free verse and haikus, writing regular style poetry kind of bores me, though I like reading it). In this blog page, as I have mentioned before, there will be everything, including fan fiction, whatever my heart that day desires, a straight up opinion on Pope Francis, a haiku on my oven, a satirical epic poem on celebrity worship, or a wildly humorous and surreal House fan fiction (I don't write serious, dramatic stuff, it's not how I roll, unless I become greatly affected by a tragedy so much, I have to want to put my feelings down in words). Before I signed off for tonight, I would like to give you an example of my writing:
It Wasn't Supposed to be Happening Like This
Jayne was kidnapped by a group of religious fanatics while on her way to get her hair done.
A few days later, the police attempted to rescue the young bride to be,
But wound up arresting her instead and rescuing the kidnappers.
Turned out,
Jayne was more of a fanatic than her captors,
Who decided, along with their leader, to completely deprogam themselves
And go back to their normal lives.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:07 AM MST
The Movie That Changed Genres Every Fifteen Minutes
(1 ) Romantic Comedy
Micki is dumped by her douchebag lawyer boyfriend for a former TV reality star turned pop princess.
She meets cute with her new boss, Hughie Bluefield, at The House of Caffeine.
(2) Melodrama
Mickie and Hughie's sweet romantic interlude is interrupted
By the sudden reappearance of his ex fiancee, Mary Ellen,
Who tells Hughie, she has a fatal glamorous illness and she given a couple of months to live.
The coffee shop owner immediately dumps poor Mickie to marry the woman he had previously
called a cold heartless harlot who only cared about money.
(3) Horror
On their wedding night,
Mary Ellen is suddenly revealed to be a murderous succubus named Xenia,
But Hughie is rescued from a bloody messy death just in time,
By the hotel porter, who also happens to be a monster slayer,
Plus Mickie's twin brother, Morey.
(4) Softcore Porn
Meanwhile,
Mickie has an intense love / hate affair with a sadistic billionaire businessman,
Known only to her as K,
Who takes her all over the world, basically pimps her out to his filthy rich jet setting friends,
Until a former associate of his rescues her and sets her free
After one night of perfect happy vanilla sex.
(5) Faith Based Drama
Mickie and Hughie are reunited at a megachurch (don't ask me why),
They have a big wedding within months,
They start having marital problems,
Hughie seeks help from the new pastor,
Who used to be his roommate at college.
The marriage is saved and Mickie is pregnant with triplets.
(6) ScienceFiction
Cyborgs invade Tropeville,
Everyone, except for some mysterious reason,
Mickie, Hughie, and the triplets, Janie, Billie, and Paulie,
Who have suddenly grown into thirteen year olds,
All turn into slaves of the cyborgs and their mad leader, Kevin Finchberg,
Formerly known to Mickie as K.
Hughie's time travelling cousin, Brian, saves the day
By helping to blast the cyborgs and Finchberg to total oblivion .
(7) Action Adventure
On their way home,
The Bluefields get chased by a psychotic biker,
Who thinks they may have had stolen a million dollars from him,
When in fact,
It was Brian's former wife, Stacey, and her politician lover, Ambrose,
Who gets Mickie, Hughie, and the triplets mixed up
With the mob, several street gangs, ninja warriors, a couple of corrupt police detectives,
and two other psychotic bikers.
Janie, Billie, and Paulie's junior high gym teacher, Mrs Brooks, and her martial arts master
husband help save the day by kicking all the bad guys' asses.
(8) Just Plain Artsy Angsty Weirdness
Mickie suddenly finds herself alone
In an abandoned mental asylum
With her dopperganger and the Angel of Death,
Playing gin rummy non stop,
Until she slowly turns into the Grim Reaper,
Then she wakes up and discover it was all a dream,
Or was it?
The final few minutes of this movie strangely turns into one big Bollywood style
production number,
With every one, including the villians, joining in.
Tuesday, March 20, 2013 1: 51 AM MST
The Way a Television Show Really Works
Everyone who worked on Suburban Shenanigans , including the stars, hated each other
immensely,
However, on Diary of a Drug Addled Medical Examiner,
The entire cast and crew loved each other like brothers and sisters.
Which series lasted well into their second season?
None.
Only Vampire College and Idaho 5-O,
Because a TV series can't simply go on
With everybody either squabbling or being nice with each other behind the scenes,
It's got to be 50-50,
And there has to be a couple of prima donnas on the show,
One producer and one or two stars ,
Nothing more, nothing less.
Friday, March 22, 2013 11:18 PM MST
The Ophelia Wendell Show
Yes, Ophelia, I was an alcoholic and was addicted to everything, including collecting action figures, dolls, and cars, I also was into
crossdressing, cosplay, hentai sex (heterosexual, of course), violent video games, fan fiction writing, hacking into the computers of
government officials, multicorporations, and former bosses and lovers and making homemade beer, plus a little bank robbing,
some art forgery, loan sharking, spraying graffiti on private property, insider trading, and stealing husbands. So you see, Ophelia, outside,
I may be America's reality television sweetheart who can't act, sing, or dance, but really, I'm a shapeshifting alien from the planet Theta
Centuri Delta X nearing the end of my thousand year mission to try to screw up humanity as much as possible, after the show, I will
start turning everybody into slaves, including you, and my people will be taking over this planet Earth, no, seriously, I am an alien.
look at my skin turning green.
What Amber Lee Donnybrook from Trailer Park Princesses, aka Zona Queep XXXVII, did not know, was that Ophelia Wendell, her personal
assistant, Nancy, and several members of the audience were top notch alien hunters who were given news of her coming to the show by
her former manager, who happened to be a shapeshifter herself, but one who is on the side of good, Earth was saved again by our heroes.
A Note for the Extremely Stupid
It's not going to work,
Showing teens the dangers of
Drinking chai tea lattes
Saturday, March 23, 2013, 10:10 PM MST
Why I Don't Participate in Earth Hour
I did not participate in tonight's Earth Hour, mostly because I was out, taking the bus home from doing some grocery
shopping, but really, my heart wasn't set on it and never was. I do care about the environment and do try my best,
even if I wind up failing, to use less power and use cloth bags when going shopping, but I just can not get Earth Hour.
One hour of no electricity ( except for the fridge, heater and the streetlights I would gather) for one night a year is not right,
a hour or two every day at any time that we are awake, seems a little more realistic in my opinion. When I was first aware
of this Earth Hour thing, I thought it was created by some good well intended people who didn't get the true meaning of
saving this precious planet, but lately, I'm not so sure, especially after reading and hearing about big businesses like Shell,
BP, Enbridge, and I think, I may be wrong here, General Electric, companies that are destroying the environment in the
first place, plus a couple of hypocritical politicians from all over the world, including several from Canada, telling us they care
very very deeply and will do anything in their power to educate us in their own way about saving the environment. AS IF!!!
The only way I can partake in future Earth Hour activities is if we, the people, not the government or the big corporations,
decide among ourselves, which is the best time and month per year for each individual in this planet to set aside a hour
of no electricity, except the essentials and it does not have to be mandatory.
Sunday, March 31, 2013 11:36 PM MST
I Hate April Fools Day
I really don't mind the odd prank here and there, as long as it does not give me a heart attack or the perpetrators
act deadly serious as part of the prank, what turns me of on that day is the media getting into the act and using
supposedly serious news items or publicity events ( such as the recent YouTube "contest") as April Fools jokes.
Less than three decades ago, on the first of April, on the front page of the Edmonton Sun, there appeared to be
some "dramatic" breaking news of the Oilers (our hockey team) being sold to some millionaire or billionaire and
we were supposed to take it seriously until we turn to page 2, 3, or 30 where the editors tell us it is a April Fools prank
ha,ha like the last time involving a supposed super blizzard, tollbooths in the Capital Region, and the end of the daily
Page 3 girl. Somehow, I have never fallen for those pranks, since on the front page, there were pictures of people,
obviously actors or staff, doing some bad acting, plus I watch and read the news a lot and never came across any
breaking news of the Oilers being sold, a violent snow squall in Spring (though it does happen), or tollbooths in Alberta
the day before. Sadly, there are people in this world who take those fake news seriously, especially ones involving death
and disaster, one such case, I think I had read, I can't remember and don't know if it was true, someone had a major
public meltdown after being told he or she lost everything due to something that happen (it did not happen, whatever
it was) and that is why I don't like April Fools Day, some pranks just go too far, the jokesters never consider the
sensitivity of their chosen victim(s) and I fear one day, someone will pay the price dearly for committing an April Fools
prank that goes horribly wrong.
Thursday, April 4, 2013 2:20 PM MST
RIP Roger Ebert
I remember first seeing him on his weekly PBS series with Gene Siskel, "...at the Movies" back in the mid seventies
as a tween, their film reviews, good or bad, were startling refreshing to a girl who was used to film critics like Gene
Shalit, Rex Reed, and their Canadian equivalents who, at the time, basically raved or grumbled about a movie
without going further in their explanations as to why they feel this way other than this actor pissed them off
or they didn't like the color of the set (this girl had also yet to discover Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, and Andrew Sarris)
and those two guys, well, just Roger really, made me love movies even more (okay, not every movie out there, I'm
quite picky on subject matter). I haven't been reading a lot of his work over the last few decades, I must confess,
except the odd blog here and there, mainly because of time, but I will try and catch up if I can, not just online,
as I'm pretty certain his books are still selling. One last thing about what I had liked about Roger Ebert other
than his genuine enthusiasm for the art of the silver screen, he also wrote about television, not all the time, maybe
one or two articles if I can remember, and like with film, he was very constructive with his criticism, never going for
just "good" or "bad", same with video games, plus I get the impression from his reviews of the movies he hated,
he did not force the reader to avoid the films, but dared him or her to make their own mind up concerning the
picture they were about to see.
Okay, I promised you guys, some of whom may not know me, an introduction to the person who is writing this blog, namely me. I was born Friday , October 26, 1962 sometime in the noon hour, interrupting a nurse's soap opera time at a hospital in Trenton, Ontario. My father, who was born in Glascow, Scotland and worked for a brief time in New Zealand (I think) before coming here to Canada, served with the Royal Canadian Air Force from the 50s to the early 80s before retiring from the military and working for a short time as a janitor at the office of the Alberta Pork Association (can't remember the name) until he went on full retirement. My British Columbia born mother worked a couple of odd jobs, from bank teller to cashier at a general store to a claims adjuster at an insurance company to help make ends meet. My brother, who is four years younger than me and now my only family contact here in Edmonton, is a fairly well known local musician and journalist. I, myself, was born with Celebral Palsy, severe, but not severe enough to be in a wheelchair, meaning, I can do some things on my own without help like laundry and cooking, but I can't get regular employment (volunteer work I can do, like with the yearly Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival). I love writing, poetry, free verse, experimental prose, opinions, you name it, I used to belong to a local poetry group called the Edmonton Stroll of Poets Society for a number of years until several factors suddenly stopped me from going to readings and writing poetry that included a bit of a creative block, difficult bus schedules (most poetry readings happen at night and from the neighborhood where I live, I have to take two buses or one bus ride on the LRT, to go to where I wanted to go, which is usually downtown or the southside), taking care of Mom after Dad died, social networking, and becoming addicted to the Sims. I continued to write, mainly blogs and a bit of fan fiction which I will be doing again some time this year and hopefully start writing poems (I specialize in free verse and haikus, writing regular style poetry kind of bores me, though I like reading it). In this blog page, as I have mentioned before, there will be everything, including fan fiction, whatever my heart that day desires, a straight up opinion on Pope Francis, a haiku on my oven, a satirical epic poem on celebrity worship, or a wildly humorous and surreal House fan fiction (I don't write serious, dramatic stuff, it's not how I roll, unless I become greatly affected by a tragedy so much, I have to want to put my feelings down in words). Before I signed off for tonight, I would like to give you an example of my writing:
It Wasn't Supposed to be Happening Like This
Jayne was kidnapped by a group of religious fanatics while on her way to get her hair done.
A few days later, the police attempted to rescue the young bride to be,
But wound up arresting her instead and rescuing the kidnappers.
Turned out,
Jayne was more of a fanatic than her captors,
Who decided, along with their leader, to completely deprogam themselves
And go back to their normal lives.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:07 AM MST
The Movie That Changed Genres Every Fifteen Minutes
(1 ) Romantic Comedy
Micki is dumped by her douchebag lawyer boyfriend for a former TV reality star turned pop princess.
She meets cute with her new boss, Hughie Bluefield, at The House of Caffeine.
(2) Melodrama
Mickie and Hughie's sweet romantic interlude is interrupted
By the sudden reappearance of his ex fiancee, Mary Ellen,
Who tells Hughie, she has a fatal glamorous illness and she given a couple of months to live.
The coffee shop owner immediately dumps poor Mickie to marry the woman he had previously
called a cold heartless harlot who only cared about money.
(3) Horror
On their wedding night,
Mary Ellen is suddenly revealed to be a murderous succubus named Xenia,
But Hughie is rescued from a bloody messy death just in time,
By the hotel porter, who also happens to be a monster slayer,
Plus Mickie's twin brother, Morey.
(4) Softcore Porn
Meanwhile,
Mickie has an intense love / hate affair with a sadistic billionaire businessman,
Known only to her as K,
Who takes her all over the world, basically pimps her out to his filthy rich jet setting friends,
Until a former associate of his rescues her and sets her free
After one night of perfect happy vanilla sex.
(5) Faith Based Drama
Mickie and Hughie are reunited at a megachurch (don't ask me why),
They have a big wedding within months,
They start having marital problems,
Hughie seeks help from the new pastor,
Who used to be his roommate at college.
The marriage is saved and Mickie is pregnant with triplets.
(6) ScienceFiction
Cyborgs invade Tropeville,
Everyone, except for some mysterious reason,
Mickie, Hughie, and the triplets, Janie, Billie, and Paulie,
Who have suddenly grown into thirteen year olds,
All turn into slaves of the cyborgs and their mad leader, Kevin Finchberg,
Formerly known to Mickie as K.
Hughie's time travelling cousin, Brian, saves the day
By helping to blast the cyborgs and Finchberg to total oblivion .
(7) Action Adventure
On their way home,
The Bluefields get chased by a psychotic biker,
Who thinks they may have had stolen a million dollars from him,
When in fact,
It was Brian's former wife, Stacey, and her politician lover, Ambrose,
Who gets Mickie, Hughie, and the triplets mixed up
With the mob, several street gangs, ninja warriors, a couple of corrupt police detectives,
and two other psychotic bikers.
Janie, Billie, and Paulie's junior high gym teacher, Mrs Brooks, and her martial arts master
husband help save the day by kicking all the bad guys' asses.
(8) Just Plain Artsy Angsty Weirdness
Mickie suddenly finds herself alone
In an abandoned mental asylum
With her dopperganger and the Angel of Death,
Playing gin rummy non stop,
Until she slowly turns into the Grim Reaper,
Then she wakes up and discover it was all a dream,
Or was it?
The final few minutes of this movie strangely turns into one big Bollywood style
production number,
With every one, including the villians, joining in.
Tuesday, March 20, 2013 1: 51 AM MST
The Way a Television Show Really Works
Everyone who worked on Suburban Shenanigans , including the stars, hated each other
immensely,
However, on Diary of a Drug Addled Medical Examiner,
The entire cast and crew loved each other like brothers and sisters.
Which series lasted well into their second season?
None.
Only Vampire College and Idaho 5-O,
Because a TV series can't simply go on
With everybody either squabbling or being nice with each other behind the scenes,
It's got to be 50-50,
And there has to be a couple of prima donnas on the show,
One producer and one or two stars ,
Nothing more, nothing less.
Friday, March 22, 2013 11:18 PM MST
The Ophelia Wendell Show
Yes, Ophelia, I was an alcoholic and was addicted to everything, including collecting action figures, dolls, and cars, I also was into
crossdressing, cosplay, hentai sex (heterosexual, of course), violent video games, fan fiction writing, hacking into the computers of
government officials, multicorporations, and former bosses and lovers and making homemade beer, plus a little bank robbing,
some art forgery, loan sharking, spraying graffiti on private property, insider trading, and stealing husbands. So you see, Ophelia, outside,
I may be America's reality television sweetheart who can't act, sing, or dance, but really, I'm a shapeshifting alien from the planet Theta
Centuri Delta X nearing the end of my thousand year mission to try to screw up humanity as much as possible, after the show, I will
start turning everybody into slaves, including you, and my people will be taking over this planet Earth, no, seriously, I am an alien.
look at my skin turning green.
What Amber Lee Donnybrook from Trailer Park Princesses, aka Zona Queep XXXVII, did not know, was that Ophelia Wendell, her personal
assistant, Nancy, and several members of the audience were top notch alien hunters who were given news of her coming to the show by
her former manager, who happened to be a shapeshifter herself, but one who is on the side of good, Earth was saved again by our heroes.
A Note for the Extremely Stupid
It's not going to work,
Showing teens the dangers of
Drinking chai tea lattes
Saturday, March 23, 2013, 10:10 PM MST
Why I Don't Participate in Earth Hour
I did not participate in tonight's Earth Hour, mostly because I was out, taking the bus home from doing some grocery
shopping, but really, my heart wasn't set on it and never was. I do care about the environment and do try my best,
even if I wind up failing, to use less power and use cloth bags when going shopping, but I just can not get Earth Hour.
One hour of no electricity ( except for the fridge, heater and the streetlights I would gather) for one night a year is not right,
a hour or two every day at any time that we are awake, seems a little more realistic in my opinion. When I was first aware
of this Earth Hour thing, I thought it was created by some good well intended people who didn't get the true meaning of
saving this precious planet, but lately, I'm not so sure, especially after reading and hearing about big businesses like Shell,
BP, Enbridge, and I think, I may be wrong here, General Electric, companies that are destroying the environment in the
first place, plus a couple of hypocritical politicians from all over the world, including several from Canada, telling us they care
very very deeply and will do anything in their power to educate us in their own way about saving the environment. AS IF!!!
The only way I can partake in future Earth Hour activities is if we, the people, not the government or the big corporations,
decide among ourselves, which is the best time and month per year for each individual in this planet to set aside a hour
of no electricity, except the essentials and it does not have to be mandatory.
Sunday, March 31, 2013 11:36 PM MST
I Hate April Fools Day
I really don't mind the odd prank here and there, as long as it does not give me a heart attack or the perpetrators
act deadly serious as part of the prank, what turns me of on that day is the media getting into the act and using
supposedly serious news items or publicity events ( such as the recent YouTube "contest") as April Fools jokes.
Less than three decades ago, on the first of April, on the front page of the Edmonton Sun, there appeared to be
some "dramatic" breaking news of the Oilers (our hockey team) being sold to some millionaire or billionaire and
we were supposed to take it seriously until we turn to page 2, 3, or 30 where the editors tell us it is a April Fools prank
ha,ha like the last time involving a supposed super blizzard, tollbooths in the Capital Region, and the end of the daily
Page 3 girl. Somehow, I have never fallen for those pranks, since on the front page, there were pictures of people,
obviously actors or staff, doing some bad acting, plus I watch and read the news a lot and never came across any
breaking news of the Oilers being sold, a violent snow squall in Spring (though it does happen), or tollbooths in Alberta
the day before. Sadly, there are people in this world who take those fake news seriously, especially ones involving death
and disaster, one such case, I think I had read, I can't remember and don't know if it was true, someone had a major
public meltdown after being told he or she lost everything due to something that happen (it did not happen, whatever
it was) and that is why I don't like April Fools Day, some pranks just go too far, the jokesters never consider the
sensitivity of their chosen victim(s) and I fear one day, someone will pay the price dearly for committing an April Fools
prank that goes horribly wrong.
Thursday, April 4, 2013 2:20 PM MST
RIP Roger Ebert
I remember first seeing him on his weekly PBS series with Gene Siskel, "...at the Movies" back in the mid seventies
as a tween, their film reviews, good or bad, were startling refreshing to a girl who was used to film critics like Gene
Shalit, Rex Reed, and their Canadian equivalents who, at the time, basically raved or grumbled about a movie
without going further in their explanations as to why they feel this way other than this actor pissed them off
or they didn't like the color of the set (this girl had also yet to discover Pauline Kael, Judith Crist, and Andrew Sarris)
and those two guys, well, just Roger really, made me love movies even more (okay, not every movie out there, I'm
quite picky on subject matter). I haven't been reading a lot of his work over the last few decades, I must confess,
except the odd blog here and there, mainly because of time, but I will try and catch up if I can, not just online,
as I'm pretty certain his books are still selling. One last thing about what I had liked about Roger Ebert other
than his genuine enthusiasm for the art of the silver screen, he also wrote about television, not all the time, maybe
one or two articles if I can remember, and like with film, he was very constructive with his criticism, never going for
just "good" or "bad", same with video games, plus I get the impression from his reviews of the movies he hated,
he did not force the reader to avoid the films, but dared him or her to make their own mind up concerning the
picture they were about to see.