A Skewed View

I've been seeing people embrace and celebrate the phrase "Ok, boomer" lately. I've found that this disturbs me. I've realized it's because I believe people shouldn't be PROUD of being disrespectful. You may think you had cause to disrespect someone else. Perhaps you even feel they disrespected you first. But showing anyone disrespect should not be something you take pride in. It should be something that you look back on, when you look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day, and say "Well. I could have handled that one better." Especially if your argument is they deserved it by disrespecting you first. Because then you're saying it's wrong when others do it to you, but it's something you take pride in when you do it to others. And if there's one thing I abhor even more than disrespect, it's hypocrisy.

I don't dislike Don Cherry. But let's face it, his patriotism has always bled into the "anti-foreigner" camp. Usually anti-Europeans. Mostly the ones in the NHL. Again, that doesn’t mean that I dislike him. It means that I disagree with the way that his mind seems to work. He is a voice from another time. A voice from when we didn’t know better. And that voice has profited him well, as it has many people who, like him, speak their minds regardless of consequence. That’s not a bad thing, being honest about one’s opinion. Not staying silent because of who might react. It’s admirable on its face. But this adds a different dimension which is less admirable: perpetuating stereotypes that have no basis in fact. Stereotypes which form the basis of knee-jerk, us-vs-them rhetoric. We know better now than to foster that rhetoric. So, I think moving on from Don Cherry was just a matter of time. That isn’t what has captured my attention about this situation, though. What capti...

If you want a recap, that is. Years ago, my last post set off a reaction that is inexplicable to me to this day. How my statement that I was going to listen to myself above all others could have been interpreted as anything except empowering my own choices remains beyond me. Ironically, it put me off sharing my thoughts and feelings any more. I decided that being honest about where I was emotionally wasn't worth it if I had to labour under other people's reactions to that honesty. I decided it was best to keep it all to myself. Quite the opposite of empowering, you might say. And you'd be right. What's changed since then? Events since that post have proven to me that getting my thoughts and feelings outside of myself is much less damaging to my physical and mental health than damming them up inside in an attempt to protect other's thoughts and feelings.  If my choice is between chancing someone else's negative opinions or my own health, I'm going...

Yes.

“You need to decide: television or movies.   You can’t try to write both and expect either format’s producers to take you seriously.”   “These days you have to be a generalist.   You have to show you can be flexible and have proficiency in a wide range of formats.   No one will take a chance on a new writer who appears to have a tunnel-vision approach to the industry.”   “Stick to one genre.   If you write comedy, become known as the go-to comedy writer.   Anyone seeing you’ve written comedy specs and drama specs will think - and rightly so - that not only do you not know what you are doing, you don’t even know what you want to do.”   “Have spec scripts in a wide range of genres.   There’s too much money on the line for anyone to take a chance on someone whose abilities may be limited.   If you can’t show them you can do more than one genre, they’ll assume you can’t.”   “Send me a half-hour, a one hour, and a feature sample ...

I believe I am done.  Volunteering for small film festivals, that is. Last year I volunteered at one that told everyone to come two hours earlier than necessary.  When someone from the festival finally showed (two hours later), his only comment was "Yeah, we originally needed everyone at five, but then we figured out that would be too early."  I see.  But you didn't figure out you should tell any of your volunteers this.  Later, after I had been told not to let anyone else in because we were at capacity, I apologized and turned away the next person who showed up.  He turned to one of the festival organizers - the one who had told me to turn away people - to complain.  The organizer said "Oh, she's just a volunteer.  I'm telling you you can go in."  Alrighty.  So when that festival mass emailed all previous volunteers to ask if we're coming back, I promptly allowed it to go right in my recycle bin. ...

Found in some old newspaper clippings I've kept because they tickled my funny bone: "It's hard to say you're sorry, especially when you're infallible.  But Benedict offered words of apology.  He's sorry people felt bad.  That's known in Vatican terminology as a "me-a-kinda."  It's a time-honoured tradition in the Catholic Church dating back to the Inquisition when Pope Innocent IV said, 'We deeply regret the fact that so many non-believers happen to be flammable.' " (I don't recall the story to which this refers.  I would cite the author or the paper if I could, for this is no doubt deserved of citation.)