It has my ramblings, Crystal’s ramblings, and will include stuff from our other staff also, including our fiction when we feel like posting it. 

Continue to look around our e-zine: http://calliopewriters.com – And remember, the deadline for the Halloween short story contest is fast approaching on October 20!

Instead, I’m going to get excited because I’m growing up in this world. First of all, I am staying late at work most days to finish stuff up. That’s dedication my friends, because evenings are very important to me. This is the first sign that I am becoming An Adult. Secondly, I just bought patio furniture. That’s right, I parted with the precious green stuff to buy a nice little garden table and two cute garden chairs for my lovely west-facing balcony. That is called ‘nesting’, and it’s what Grown Ups do. Now I just need to experiment with the idea of cooking real food and not existing off La Salsa and Jamba Juice. 

It actually just occurred to me in the moment of typing this that perhaps today, with the economy all in a crisis and all, might not have been the best day to buy that furniture, come to think of it. Maybe I should have waited a week or two, made sure I still have a job this time next month. Oh well, too little too late, and if I’m thrown out in the harsh world of unemployment, at least I’ll have my patio table to live under on Santa Monica beach with the other bums.

Changing tack from Twilight, I’ve started reading The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. It’s his one year quest to live by every law, rule, and code of conduct in the Bible. As an agnostic who is also technically Jewish, for him it’s an interesting exploration of the behavior of religious folk and the reasons behind their beliefs. It’s also a journey of discovery – agnostic being another word for ‘religiously uneducated’ in his case, the project gives him a chance to actually learn about religion in order to make an educated decision about what he chooses to believe. I’m not skipping to the end to find out what he concludes on day 365. So far, one month in with an itchy beard and a confusing list of the obvious rules (a la the Ten Commandments), and the lesser-known, crazy sounding rules (such as attaching tassles to clothing), he’s wary of religion, but always respectful. In turn, his biggest reason for undertaking the experiment was so that he could raise his young son with a definite idea what to teach him, which is a totally respectable reason. No matter what the outcome is at the end of the book, at least when his kid asks him why he believes / doesn’t believe in this ‘God’ he keeps hearing about, Jacobs can give him an honest, and, more importantly, informed response.

In other news, I’m sure everyone knows by now that the legend of cinema and salad dressing, Paul Newman, has passed out of this life and gone to the ranch in the sky (geddit? Ranch? Oh hardy-ha-ha). It’s a sad day for the state of Hollywood greats – there are so few true stars left. Modern ‘celebs’ are mostly just ships passing in the night. But Paul Newman was an icon of cinema, an actor who left an indelible mark on decades of filmmaking. It’s just such a shame he had to get old – someone so ludicrously handsome should be preserved in their glory, not allowed to age, and sag, and grow wrinkly.

And, my final thought for the day – ever wondered if you’re a raging egomaniac? Well, just check out your own Facebook profile. Apparently, a new study shows that there might be a correlation between a persons level of narcissism, and how they portray themselves on the social networking site. Call me crazy, but doesn’t that seem a tad obvious? The whole idea of creating a page dedicated to your pictures, your thoughts, your quotes, your biography, is pretty self-appraising. But that’s the world we live in, and besides, most people sign up to spy on their friends’ pictures anyway, not to carefully craft a detailed personal page. So it’s how use your page says something about you. I chose a picture of me that I think makes me look half way decent  - I guess the very fact that I took time to consider it makes me a narcissist. My ‘About Me’ section is empty, mostly because I’m friends (to some degree or other) with most everyone I’m ‘Friends’ with on the good ol’ FB, so I figure no one needs my life story.

And even if they do, they can just wait for my memoirs. There you go, that’s something more narcissistic than a Facebook profile – an autobiography! I’ve yet to start writing one, so I guess I’m doing okay for now. Besides the fact that I just wrote about my own Facebook profile…

Twilight is not terribly well written (Meyer falls into the frustrating trap of both showing the reader what a character is feeling through action, then patronizingly telling the reader again. It confuses the perspective; we shouldn’t be able to read the minds of two characters at once). Despite this, it’s compelling. I stayed up an hour and a half past my normal sleep time last night – yes, I’ve regressed to having a bed time again – because I couldn’t stop turning the page. Stephanie Meyer, you’re to blame for the bags under my eyes and the sallow tint of my skin. You and your dreamy hero, Edward Cullen (let’s mention Robert Pattinson once more, because, why not?). 

Just for anyone not familiar, Edward is a ‘good’ vampire in the small Washington town of Forks. Bella Swan is the new girl in town, and the narrator of the story. He doesn’t drink human blood, but there is something about Bella’s lifeforce that makes her pumping veins more enticing to him than most. Which might explain the connection that leads them to fall in love. 200 pages in, I gather this will become quite a problem for them. It’s like Edward’s a diabetic and Bella’s a human-sized chocolate treat, just waiting to be consumed. As stories go, it’s pretty ridiculous, but very compelling. 

I anticipate another late night tonight.

Just a thought – what is it with celebrities and plane crashes? Just two days after my co-workers Paul and Ted were talking about all the famous people who have died on planes, Blink 182 member Travis Barker and DJ AM have been in a plane crash in South Carolina. They haven’t died, but the four other flyers did. Famous people just shouldn’t fly, there is a hex on them. Or maybe it’s that they can afford to fly in private planes with private pilots, who are not as likely to be as experienced as a jetliner pilot. Well, I hope the two survive their critical injuries and live to defy the curse.

Tentatively titled The Carrie Diaries, the first of two books will appear sometime in 2010 and will delve into the world of Carrie’s teen years. Considering the show (and presumably the book, which I admit I haven’t read) left everything pre-show somewhat vague and ambiguous, it means that pretty much everything in the new books will be a surprise.

Here’s what we know about Carrie’s teen years so far, based on information gleaned from the crumbs thrown our way on the HBO show. Carrie lost her virginity in the 11th grade in the basement of her lover’s house after smoking a joint (kids: don’t follow her cynical example). She used to drive her parents’ Oldsmobile without them knowing. She didn’t grow up in New York City. She had a boyfriend who looked a lot like David Duchovny – they used to make out while wearing their braces, but never went all the way. Her dad left her and her mom when Carrie was just five years old. 

That’s it!

I was always annoyed that we never got to see what her mother was like, or if she had any family at all. Similarly, in the film from this past summer, Carrie (as played by Sarah Jessica Parker, pictured) had a big wedding – and still no sign of a mother, a pervy uncle, or a gossipy cousin. Just Carrie and her three best gal pals. Sweet, but not exactly truthful storytelling. 

So come on Candace, show us whether she developed her keen sense of fashion from Mrs. Bradshaw, or if Carrie was a small-town style renegade. Was she a party-er, or a study-er? A closet writer, or editor of the school paper? I want to know! Bring on 2010.

Carrie Bradshaw (alright, Sarah Jessica Parker): From teen, to fashion queen

The constitution is the cornerstone of American freedoms, rights, and responsibilities, and it’s easy to forget that a written constitution is still an historically new concept. Even the United Kingdom, which prides itself on being one of the worlds oldest democracies, has no single document detailing the rights of its people, which is one of the reasons why so many of our rights are being signed over to Europe. You just try telling America what do to, Brussels!

The constitution is like a living person, growing over the years and developing with the times. So while I sit here reflecting on the Constitution and gazing at my deliciously childish Betty Boop pez dispenser, I can’t help but think of my own development into the person I’ve become today. Life is a cyclical process, and my childhood seems to be catching up with me in some ways. As we here at work celebrated the birth of the U.S. constitution, I had a mini-celebration as I saw a childhood figure of mine at the Founding Day celebrations. She was an actress on a show I was somewhat (alright, very) obsessed with as a child – Little House on the Prairie - and seeing her was like trip down memory lane. I thought of all those times, every Sunday after church, I would go home, drink Ribena, wait for Sunday lunch, and watch my favourite show. Back then the very thought of meeting any of the stars was an impossible dream – California was like another world, and people like me didn’t get to go there (so I thought). Now here I am, attending patriotic events with an actress from the show. 

I wonder how many of the men signing the constitution in 1787 were thinking back to their own childhoods as quill marked paper, remembering the injustice they had hoped to rectify since that time. I’m sure they were mostly looking to the future, excited about creating a better country for their children and neighbours. I’m not really looking to the future right now – thanks to the opportunities, freedoms, rights, education, and blessings I have received, my present is enough for now.

And that’s my little thought for today! Crystal is doing great work in smoothing out the kinks in the new website, but keep on sending us any errors we may not yet have picked up on. And don’t forget to send us your work, and to enter the Halloween short story contest!

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And a little comment about Arthur’s editorial blog. He has recently moved to the state of Kentucky, and appears to be having trouble accessing the internet from his new house. Hopefully this is a kink that will be worked out ASAP. Least of all because I’d like to know what’s going on in my own brother’s life.

Author David Foster Wallace was found dead at his home in Clarmont, California, on Friday 12 September, of a suspected suicide. Suspected because until the medical examiner/coroner/whoever it is that rules on these things, has decided, it’s not official, but he was apparently found hanging, so draw your own conclusion. It’s an incredibly tragic end to the life of a man who has been called one of the greatest writers of recent years since his debut novel Infinite Jest was published in 1996 to critical acclaim. His life is over, but his work will live on.

Taco Tuesday

Mmmm, Mexican food today at lunch. Tuesday is a significant improvement on Monday.

Last night:

I watched Baby Mama, and it got me to thinking that being a surrogate might be a fun way to make some monayy. You get to have that ‘glow’, people give up their seats for you on transport, and everyone thinks you’re a saint for being so selfless. And then I remembered that at lunch yesterday I was playing with puppies in a puppy store in Malibu, and had the hardest time not taking them home with me (though the $3,000 price tag did make that call easier), and if it’s that hard to leave a puppy in a store, how much harder must it be to give birth and then leave the baby with someone else. Thank you, Malibu Mutts, for letting me play with your insanely-priced pomaraneans and yorkies!

So today, September 15th, a Monday (poor Monday, so loathed by all), is the day that, six months from its original launch on blog site Jimdo, Calliope: Voice of the Writers is launched on its very own, brand spanking new website! One new feature of the new site is this – a daily blog from each of the editors. I am author of the Britican Perspective column on the website, one of our weekly editorials. This WordPress blog is a separate endeavor however; a daily-updated blog of my own that will cover anything from my profound musings on life, love, and the universe, to videos I find funny, and links to great articles elsewhere on the vast, expansive interweb. 

Check out the links to the bottom of the site for the daily blogs of my fellow editors Crystal Crawford and Arthur Fisher.

My thought for the day:

The ‘Mon’ in Monday rhymes with ‘fun’, so I now christen Monday as ‘Fun-day’ to survive the most heinous day of the week. On Fun-day, anything goes: listening to cheesy music at work, eating steak instead of salad (actually, that’s an any-day rule), lunch on the beach instead of the work cafeteria…. Join me, won’t you, in ending the bad reputation of miserable Monday. Change your attitude, and kick-off the new working week with some much-needed fun. Monday is but a state of mind.