Well, as promised in my post "random thoughts #1", I have started reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. And honestly, I'm not quite sure what I think of the book. I am more than half way through it. I have read all about how great of a person she is and what she has acheived in life. (that was sarcasm-sometimes lost in translation, no pun intended). She has introduced me to her daughters, her husband, her parents and in-laws (mostly her mother in law) and told me all about her heritage. She has shared stories about how she has chosen musical instruments for her children and how she expects them to excel (because it is the Chinese way). She has told me about how she disciplines her daughters (because it is the Chinese way). She has told me why she has chosen to treat her children the way she does-because it is the Chinese way. But "the Chinese way" seems to be more of an excuse than a reason. Unless I have missed it she hasn't really explained to me the Chinese way. She has told me how her parents came to American, worked very hard and expected much from their children. Respect was expected and rewards were not given. She explained how her children are expected to do great and excel in everything they do because she and her husband have put a roof over their head, food in their stomach and clothes on their back. Things she has given them are little and not rewards (but are sometimes bribes).
I'm still trying to form an opinion of the book. As for her, I know we wouldn't be buddies!
Further reviews to come once I finish the book. I encourage others to read it. Share your thoughts.
This may turn over a new leaf for me-I can be the new Oprah! Well, only in the aspect that I can do book reviews and start a book of the month club! HMMMMM...what a thought!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
One and a Half Men
I have blogger's block. I have been sitting in front of my computer waiting for the words to just flow from my fingertips because I know that there are many of my friends just dying to read what I have to say. So today's topic of choice is Charlie Sheen. Many think the man has gone off his rocker. Calling him bipolar. A freak. A wacko. I have even referred to him as a narcacistic drug addicted whoremonger. One of whom we all loved to watch on Two and a Half Men. And didn't he play himself rather well. So that's my point. When "Charlie" was just a fictional character we all loved him. Laughed endlessly at him. Couldn't wait to see what/who he was going to do next. Crazy enough, he even had one of his ex-wives play the girl of his dreams that got away on the show. But when the fictional "Charlie" stepped off of Mars we were all appauled at his behavior. Well, his behavior was just fine as long as no one talked about it or acknowledged it. But when he decides to open his mouth and let the whole "middle class American" in on his Men are From Mars lifestyle we all seem so shocked. He, himself, told us we were not able of comprehending what was going on in his head like he was some sort of extra-terrestrial. I sooo couldn't help but laugh at that one! The life of a rock star/movie star. We love them as long as we can continue to keep up the facid that they choose for us to believe. They do their movies, sing their songs, live in their mansions, throw their parties. We choose to believe that their parties are all glitz and glamour. Drinking a little wine, having dinner, talking about old times with friends, playing cherades and saying goodbye at the end of the night. Like the wonderful parties of the early years with Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Marlon Brando and the list goes on. But didn't they all have their checkered pasts too. People just chose to ignore them. And the stars chose not to speak of them. Keep them quiet. And when something did leak out it got swept under the carpet by publists and managers. The difference here is good ole Charlie boy didn't keep quiet. He decided to talk about it. Get back at someone. And now what? We all think he is a little weird. What we know for sure is....he likes to do the cocaine (got caught but has he ever been charged with anything?). LIkes to spend money on hookers and porn stars. (Hugh Hefner has half naked women living in his house too but you don't hear him talking a bunch of shit. And believe me those girls aren't cheap). Moral of the story Charlie....you should have kept your mouth shut, finished your season of Two and a Half Men and no one would have thought you had gone off your rocker. Life goes on. Guess they could name the show One and a Half Men now!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's signs
Ok, we all know how I can fixate on things sometimes. Well, I have chosen to fixate on a sign that has been bothering me from the first time I read it. So maybe I am misinterpretting it. The sign reads: Quality means doing something right when no one is looking. I'm sure some of you have seen it. I looked up the word and there is nothing in the definition that would lead me to believe that is correct. I have decided (for myself) that a better word for the sign would be Integrity or Benevolence or Morality. I just needed to get that off my chest.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Extended Dysfunctional Family
When you spend more time at work than what you do with your own family you begin to think of you co-workers as your family. You become close to one another. You love one another. Hate one another. Talk about one another. Defend one another. You share in each others joys: meeting new ppl, dating, engagements, weddings, having babies, birthdays, anniversaries. You also share in each others sorrow: sickness, worry over loved ones, family moving out and moving on, deaths of loved ones. The people you work with often know more about what is going on in your life than your actual family. They are quick to tell you they love you, need your help or tell you thank you. And they are also quick to tell you when you screwed up or when should keep your mouth shut and quick to offer their opinion whether you want it or not.
Webster's defines family as a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not. It defines extended family as a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit. And dysfunctional is defined socially impaired. Not sure I agree with the definition of dysfunctional as it relates to the family but we will go with it for the time being. So lets take the parts to make the whole of the term extended dysfunctional family. A basic social unit, not dwelling together consisting of a family nucleus, functioning as a larger unit which is socially impaired. Yeah, that works.
So what makes up the extended dysfunctional family. The "mother figure", someone that cooks for all the family meals, tends to all your needs and is good at letting you know when you are out of hand. The "kind and caring aunt", she keeps things together and softens the words of the mother figure when you get out of hand. The "big brother", always quick to crack a joke, get on your nerve and make fun of you in front of the rest of the family. The "big sister", she is the one that gives good advice and you try to follow her lead. The "fitness guru", the one that is always in shape, eats right, working out or playing sports that you only wish you could be half as good. The "twin", the one that you are most like that your other "family members" would swear you were switched at birth. The "weird little sister", probably bought from the gypsies because at times she is a little awkward and is a bit artsy. The "crazy aunt", you never know what is going to come out of her mouth, sometimes it doesn't make sense so you just smile and nod. And the "uncle that is a sports nut" so you just let him be in his recliner with his cooler of beer and stay out of the way when the Steelers are down. There are many other dynamic individuals that make up the extended dysfunctional family but there is no need to make the list go on forever. You get the picture.
I was going to ramble on some more about the parts of the "family" but I think most of you get the picture. And I must say, I do love each person in my crazy extended family, even though we have our differences, we all know we have each others back when the time counts.
Webster's defines family as a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not. It defines extended family as a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit. And dysfunctional is defined socially impaired. Not sure I agree with the definition of dysfunctional as it relates to the family but we will go with it for the time being. So lets take the parts to make the whole of the term extended dysfunctional family. A basic social unit, not dwelling together consisting of a family nucleus, functioning as a larger unit which is socially impaired. Yeah, that works.
So what makes up the extended dysfunctional family. The "mother figure", someone that cooks for all the family meals, tends to all your needs and is good at letting you know when you are out of hand. The "kind and caring aunt", she keeps things together and softens the words of the mother figure when you get out of hand. The "big brother", always quick to crack a joke, get on your nerve and make fun of you in front of the rest of the family. The "big sister", she is the one that gives good advice and you try to follow her lead. The "fitness guru", the one that is always in shape, eats right, working out or playing sports that you only wish you could be half as good. The "twin", the one that you are most like that your other "family members" would swear you were switched at birth. The "weird little sister", probably bought from the gypsies because at times she is a little awkward and is a bit artsy. The "crazy aunt", you never know what is going to come out of her mouth, sometimes it doesn't make sense so you just smile and nod. And the "uncle that is a sports nut" so you just let him be in his recliner with his cooler of beer and stay out of the way when the Steelers are down. There are many other dynamic individuals that make up the extended dysfunctional family but there is no need to make the list go on forever. You get the picture.
I was going to ramble on some more about the parts of the "family" but I think most of you get the picture. And I must say, I do love each person in my crazy extended family, even though we have our differences, we all know we have each others back when the time counts.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Storage Wars
I am an addict. I can't help it. It's like a moth to a flame. I will stay up late to get my fix. I have to have it. Seems like I can't go one day without it. I am a reality show addict. There, I said it. Hello, my name is Michele and I'm addicted to reality tv shows. My fav one of all was the Bret Michaels series of smut and sluts. Oh! he should have used that as one of his titles. Right now I am addicted to You're Cut Off and Storage Wars. The first one is a new one. And the girls are psycho spoiled brats. The parents have decided that they are tired of supporting all of the spoiled ADULTS and send them off to live in a house that looks like it was decorated by a grandmother with every tacky piece of yardsale junk she could find. They have to share bedrooms and actually work. Oh, interesting twist. The one that works the hardest as some weird job gets a room of her own that some 13 year old girl would envy. The first job was picking up tennis balls and golf balls at some country club. I will admit I was a little jealous that they were finding so many golf balls. (like I don't have enough). The second one is just an obsession with finding out what is in those stupid storage buildings. I even stayed up late Sunday nite so I could find out what was worth so darn much in one of them. Now you want to know to, don't ya? Profitted the guy well of 6000 and he only spent 400! I want to own storage buildings!
Oh the time I have wasted watching stupid stuff on tv. Just think of all the things I could have done if I weren't checking facebook, blogging, watching tv. I could be exercising (though my excuse right now is it is just to darn cold). I could be doing something productive like cleaning my house or organizing the upstairs. Or I could be spending time with the family. Playing games. Talking. So, tonight my blog is short. I will BE INSPIRED to spend time hanging with the kids. Doing something other than homework. I will let you know how that turns out!
Oh and as for the storage building-it was rare coins and paper money! Got him a mint full. He decided to keep it for his kids!
Oh the time I have wasted watching stupid stuff on tv. Just think of all the things I could have done if I weren't checking facebook, blogging, watching tv. I could be exercising (though my excuse right now is it is just to darn cold). I could be doing something productive like cleaning my house or organizing the upstairs. Or I could be spending time with the family. Playing games. Talking. So, tonight my blog is short. I will BE INSPIRED to spend time hanging with the kids. Doing something other than homework. I will let you know how that turns out!
Oh and as for the storage building-it was rare coins and paper money! Got him a mint full. He decided to keep it for his kids!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Random Thought #1
It is 12:46am and I have no idea why I am awake. In an effort to make myself sleepy I have read the latest updates on FB, played some stupid game where you make words out of 5 random letters, checked out the other blogs I follow and then decided to post one. This should be interesting! Please ignore any misspelled words, lack of capitalization where needed or lack of proper punctuation. And 5 minutes ago i had a really good idea to blog about and now it has left me.
For future reference: any similarities to persons real or fictitious are purely coincidental! you know yada yada...blah blah. that thing they post at the beginning of movies so no one gets upset or sues them. yeah that is what goes here.
So i decided i want to read the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. It's about a Chinese woman living in the states that is a graduate of Yale, married to a Yale graduate, Jewish. They have both written other books. I think he is a lawyer. I can't remember exactly. Anyway, she has decided to raise the kids "the Chinese way". No sleepovers, no play dates, no participating in school plays, they must master the music instrument of her choice: violin and piano. And practice several hours a day. Any grade below and A is unacceptable including an A-. The list goes on but that is all i can remember right now. (and it is bothering the heck out of me that i am not capitalizing the i's but not enough to go back and change them) (random thought #1: for those of you that want to keep count). So i read an excerpt from the book online. In it she refers to pretty much anyone not of Chinese decent a Westerner. And refers to herself as a Chinese mother but not all mothers that are Chinese belong in that same category. yeah that was confusing. Anyway, what I found interesting is that she believes that Westerners have coddled their children too much and raised them to be weak and not living up to their full potential. Or so that is what I have gathered from the excerpt. I really need to read the book. There has been a lot of controversy over the book and I understand why. She belittles her children. Makes them feel less than human. But on the other hand I do understand what she is trying to do. Be it right or wrong. I'm not the one to judge that. After all, I'm not Chinese. But I think what she is trying to do is make them better ppl by pushing them to always do their best and sometimes in order to be your best you have to be pushed by others. And I think she feels that it is her job to do that. (yes, I started cap. the I's: random thought #2). Anyway, I will have to read the book and then let you know what I thought afterward. That is just my first opinion. Don't we all do that? Form an opinion before we get all the facts or read into things that may not be true.
We form opinions of ppl all the time. Co-workers, friends, not-so-friends, family. But do we ever stop and just ask ppl if things are true or do we just go on believing what we are told? Happens all the time. Funny how when we here something we believe it to be the truth when it comes from someone we trust. And why is it always easier to believe the bad stuff? We hear ppl gossiping all the time at work. All work. Yours, mine, your spouses work. But how often do we stop to say "hey, do you really think that is true?" We just go on, and maybe even spread it around ourselves. Funny how when we don't think facts are straight when it comes to other things or want to get information we go to "the source" be it internet or a book. But why do we never go to "the source" when we choose to talk about one another at work or our family? Is it because we are afraid that the gossip is just to good not to keep talking about it? Is it because we just don't care enough to find out the truth? Maybe it is that we just don't want to get involved or hurt someones feelings. Well, today I aspire to BE A BETTER PERSON. Get the facts, man.
For future reference: any similarities to persons real or fictitious are purely coincidental! you know yada yada...blah blah. that thing they post at the beginning of movies so no one gets upset or sues them. yeah that is what goes here.
So i decided i want to read the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. It's about a Chinese woman living in the states that is a graduate of Yale, married to a Yale graduate, Jewish. They have both written other books. I think he is a lawyer. I can't remember exactly. Anyway, she has decided to raise the kids "the Chinese way". No sleepovers, no play dates, no participating in school plays, they must master the music instrument of her choice: violin and piano. And practice several hours a day. Any grade below and A is unacceptable including an A-. The list goes on but that is all i can remember right now. (and it is bothering the heck out of me that i am not capitalizing the i's but not enough to go back and change them) (random thought #1: for those of you that want to keep count). So i read an excerpt from the book online. In it she refers to pretty much anyone not of Chinese decent a Westerner. And refers to herself as a Chinese mother but not all mothers that are Chinese belong in that same category. yeah that was confusing. Anyway, what I found interesting is that she believes that Westerners have coddled their children too much and raised them to be weak and not living up to their full potential. Or so that is what I have gathered from the excerpt. I really need to read the book. There has been a lot of controversy over the book and I understand why. She belittles her children. Makes them feel less than human. But on the other hand I do understand what she is trying to do. Be it right or wrong. I'm not the one to judge that. After all, I'm not Chinese. But I think what she is trying to do is make them better ppl by pushing them to always do their best and sometimes in order to be your best you have to be pushed by others. And I think she feels that it is her job to do that. (yes, I started cap. the I's: random thought #2). Anyway, I will have to read the book and then let you know what I thought afterward. That is just my first opinion. Don't we all do that? Form an opinion before we get all the facts or read into things that may not be true.
We form opinions of ppl all the time. Co-workers, friends, not-so-friends, family. But do we ever stop and just ask ppl if things are true or do we just go on believing what we are told? Happens all the time. Funny how when we here something we believe it to be the truth when it comes from someone we trust. And why is it always easier to believe the bad stuff? We hear ppl gossiping all the time at work. All work. Yours, mine, your spouses work. But how often do we stop to say "hey, do you really think that is true?" We just go on, and maybe even spread it around ourselves. Funny how when we don't think facts are straight when it comes to other things or want to get information we go to "the source" be it internet or a book. But why do we never go to "the source" when we choose to talk about one another at work or our family? Is it because we are afraid that the gossip is just to good not to keep talking about it? Is it because we just don't care enough to find out the truth? Maybe it is that we just don't want to get involved or hurt someones feelings. Well, today I aspire to BE A BETTER PERSON. Get the facts, man.
Peanut M&M's
I am a football fan! And I LOVE the Patriots. Yes, I am watching the game as I type this and I am not a happy camper.
I have always liked football but never really got to know all the ins and outs of the game. Until this year. I joined on of those fantasy football leagues and I will brag that I came in second in my league. (Brian came in first in his, but he has been doing this for years.) So i think I have the better bragging rights since it was my first go around. This has been a great learning experience for me.
So I was inspired. Check one off the bucket list. Not that being on a fantasy league was on my bucket list but that learning something new was.
I think we should seize the opportunity to learn something new everyday. Sometimes it just doesn't reach out and grab you. And sometimes it doesn't have to be anything major.
What did I learn new today? I learned that the 1956 movie Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was filmed at Cave In Rock. See, it doesn't have to be anything major.
I also learned that I don't have to eat peanut M&M's while watching the game. Since I had the stomach bug nothing seems good. So this weekend I have passed up on peanut butter pie, Friday nite Mexican food, anything on Saturday, peanut M&M's, fun-dip and peanut M&M's. All in my quest to eat better (and not feeling well helps).
Be Inspired: Learn something new each day!
I have always liked football but never really got to know all the ins and outs of the game. Until this year. I joined on of those fantasy football leagues and I will brag that I came in second in my league. (Brian came in first in his, but he has been doing this for years.) So i think I have the better bragging rights since it was my first go around. This has been a great learning experience for me.
So I was inspired. Check one off the bucket list. Not that being on a fantasy league was on my bucket list but that learning something new was.
I think we should seize the opportunity to learn something new everyday. Sometimes it just doesn't reach out and grab you. And sometimes it doesn't have to be anything major.
What did I learn new today? I learned that the 1956 movie Davy Crockett and the River Pirates was filmed at Cave In Rock. See, it doesn't have to be anything major.
I also learned that I don't have to eat peanut M&M's while watching the game. Since I had the stomach bug nothing seems good. So this weekend I have passed up on peanut butter pie, Friday nite Mexican food, anything on Saturday, peanut M&M's, fun-dip and peanut M&M's. All in my quest to eat better (and not feeling well helps).
Be Inspired: Learn something new each day!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Be Inspired!
I have been inspired!
Along with the New Year comes changes that everyone wishes to make. My changes are posted on my bulletin board at work as a daily reminder. One change I hope to make is to BE A BETTER PERSON. Easier said than done when you work with some of the ppl I do! The second one is EMBRACE CHANGE. This one was originally directed solely at work but I have come to find it ringing through my head at other times during the day! We will see how those work out.
I have also decided to BE INSPIRED. This one I will have to post at work tomorrow. I am being inspired by my sister. She has decided to make a blog so I thought to myself---"self, this sounds like a great idea. you should try it."
What do I hope to gain form doing a blog? I hope to be able to touch a life, inspire myself and do something totally out of character.
SO here goes....we shall see what happens!
Along with the New Year comes changes that everyone wishes to make. My changes are posted on my bulletin board at work as a daily reminder. One change I hope to make is to BE A BETTER PERSON. Easier said than done when you work with some of the ppl I do! The second one is EMBRACE CHANGE. This one was originally directed solely at work but I have come to find it ringing through my head at other times during the day! We will see how those work out.
I have also decided to BE INSPIRED. This one I will have to post at work tomorrow. I am being inspired by my sister. She has decided to make a blog so I thought to myself---"self, this sounds like a great idea. you should try it."
What do I hope to gain form doing a blog? I hope to be able to touch a life, inspire myself and do something totally out of character.
SO here goes....we shall see what happens!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)