Tag Archives: blog post

Murder on Monday

Don’t get your hopes up;  I haven’t murdered anybody.  However, I have Agatha Christie on the mind today.  Why not muse about murder on Mental Meanderings Monday?  Yes, sometimes I just can’t help myself with the alliteration.  Well, here is a title with no alliteration: Death on the Nile.  It is one of my favorite movies.

I could only find a picture of the book. Sorry.

The movie is really a very good adaptation.  The book has a lot more characters and complications.  It is a little too much for me to compare/contrast right now.

OK, I guess it’s time for me to admit, this is another foolish post.  I can’t help it.  I’m tired, I have a headache, it was a difficult weekend.  No matter.  I shall post what I can and drive on.  I’ve been on the Agatha Christie Facebook page looking for pictures to share.  I fear I have not had much luck.

It was originally published under the title of 10 Little [something politically incorrect].

This is another movie adaptation which takes liberties.  I have seen a few versions of this, as well as acting in on on the Ilion Little Theatre stage.  I like it.

Now I must find one more picture to share, because I like to include three.  Hmmm….

Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith and Denis Quilley.

Pay dirt!  Here is a divine photo from Evil Under the Sun, another very good adaptation.  I will write another post discussing what makes a good adaptation and why I like these.  Today, I’m afraid it is beyond me.  I think I’ll go watch a couple of movies.

 

Not a Pretty Post on Wrist to Forehead Sunday

It is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, indeed.  Although, I must admit, my quality of life is improving as I see these words appearing on my laptop screen:  black on white, readable, yes.

I am sitting on the concrete in front of the Martha Canfield Library.  I have been maneuvering myself around trying to get where the sun will not render my screen unreadable.  Oh, how I long for the comforts of home!  Just kidding.  This is not a bad place to be at all.  It is neither too warm nor too cold to be out of doors, and knowing that I am in such close proximity to many books does my heart good.  Yes, the doors are locked so that I do not have actual access to said books.  I just like knowing that they are there.

As you may have guessed this is another one of my Posts For The Sake of Making a Post posts, which is kind of the same thing as a Why I Can’t Make a Post post, but I just now came up with a different way of saying it.  In fact, I am not going to tell you why I can’t make a post today.  I’m not even going to apologize for not making a good post.  However, I will offer this consolation prize:  I might use my Tablet to take a few pictures of Vermont, so a post in the near future might be pretty.  No promises, but I’ll do my best.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

 

Another Post in Haste

Or posthaste, if you like to use old fashioned words (and I do).  I don’t know if I will have time to make a real post later, so I’m going to write a few words now.  Who knows, if I have a chance to get on the internet later, I may post again.  It isn’t likely, though, knowing me (and I do).

So this will make three silly posts in a row (some would use other adjectives; feel free to embellish), after three “real” posts in a row.  Will this be a pattern?  Nah, I’ll just continue to go with the flow, as always.  Oh, this is simply dreadful.  I begin writing a post, because I want to get it done NOW, and I don’t have a damn thing to say.  How embarrassing!  I would even say mortifying!  Or humiliating!  And I don’t even have a thesaurus handy.

Speaking of thesaurus and words, does anybody know the word that means offended but is stronger?  You know, like “mortified” is stronger than “embarrassed.”  I was trying to think of it the other day and came up blank.  The next day I came up with “outraged,” but that wasn’t quite right either, because you can become outraged at a true injustice not only a perceived slight (incidentally, the thing I was more than offended about was not perceived, it was a slight).  I thought of “mortified,” too, but, as mentioned earlier, that is more embarrassed than offended.  I think I may have thought of another one as well, but that one escapes me.  Hey, I’ve only had one cup of coffee this morning.

Ooh, look at that; I’m over 250 words.  Goody! So what do you think: intro, foolish paragraph, paragraph that might (or might not, I admit) amuse.  I’ll call that a post.  Now I’ll hasten on to the other crap I have to get done.  Happy Saturday, everyone!

 

A Post to Remember (or Not, Whatever)

 

Is this the sequel or the prequel to I Dismember Mama?

I did not think I would post lame today.  I thought I would make a Running Commentary, because I was determined to run, a long run, a hard run, a run to get ready for the Boilermaker!  And I did run a long(ish), difficult run.  So there.  But now I’m feeling tired and discouraged and I just want to make a silly post and get on with my weekend.  At first I thought, “Well, I can’t do the picture thing two days in a row.”  Then I remembered there were a couple of pictures I downloaded yesterday but didn’t use.  Such as the above.  I’m not sure if that is an actual movie or not.  If I was a real blogger, I would look such a thing up on some website that I really ought to know about.  And here we come to the ugly truth about me.

Now there’s a shady tree!

Isn’t this a stylish pic?  I love the tree with the big eye and the zombies in the background.  The woman reminds me a little bit of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World,”  of which we have a print on the wall.  It is  different angle but a very similar position.  Now that I am sitting here looking at our print the differences become more glaring.  Oh dear, now the right thing to do is to find a picture of “Christina’s World” to share.

I should have just taken a picture of Steven’s print on our wall. Silly me.

While searching for this, I found many take-offs, homages and parodies of the shot, as well as a few pictures of the actual house.  I found it very interesting.  I’ll have to look for a biography of Andrew Wyeth to read.

Another movie for me to seek out. So much cheese, so little time.

I shall end with another picture from the B-Movie Mania Facebook page.  They were having a two-fer Tuesday earlier this week.  I find that rather delicious.  However, today is Friday, the day I post lame.  I hope everyone is having a delightful evening.

 

Where’s My Head At?

OK, so I had three real Mohawk Valley posts this week.  You didn’t think that was going to continue, did you?  I didn’t.  Anyways, today I’m tired and hungry and haven’t gotten all my stuff done yet (not whining, just giving you the picture).  I just went through a couple of pages on Facebook looking for fun pictures I could share.  The pictures may seem unrelated and my commentary disjointed, but, hey, it’s Non-Sequitur Thursday.  Just go with it!

I went first to a page I recently Liked (actually, more than Like, I LOVE) B-Movie Mania.   While scrolling down, seeing all kinds of cool stuff, I noticed the poster to one a great cheesy movie I saw years before I ever wrote about them or even blogged about anything, The Thing with Two Heads.

I always thought it should be called The Guy with Two Heads.

If I ever come across that movie in cable or find it on DVD, I’ll write a blog post about it.  It’s fun!

In my search for more fun pictures, I discovered a new (to me) Facebook page called the  Trash Cinema Collective.  Ooh, do they have a lot of fun stuff!  Where to begin?

It’s one of those movie posters that looks like it could be the cover to a pulp fiction paperback from the ’50’s.

Ah, if only I had see this movie when I was young and straitlaced.  I might have gotten some tips on how to be more popular with the boys.

Another instruction manual from which I may have benefited.

I finish with an actual pulp fiction paperback cover.  I once had a catalog of a company that sold post cards of these covers.  I sent away for some and eventually sent them all to folks who appreciated them. How I wish I still had the catalog and could order more!  Hey, I wonder if they are online?  Is everybody online?  Once again, I show my internet ignorance.

On the brighter side, I see that I am over 300 words.  I call that respectable for a Non-Sequitur Thursday.

 

Sandals with Socks on Slacker Saturday

I am having a real Slacker Saturday and I’m not apologizing for it.  I may not even apologize for this lame blog post, but we’ll see how bad it gets before I guarantee that.  I went for a short run this morning, because after yesterday’s long run I discovered a blister on one foot.  Yikes!  When I was in the army, I found that if I glopped petroleum jelly on the blister and kept it covered, it would quietly fade away (the computer seems to think “glopped” is not a word, can you believe such ignorance?).  I glopped the last of my petroleum jelly on this one last night and have been resorting to antibiotic gel this morning.  Right now I have on ankle socks and sandals.  It’s quite a look.

As a side note, in the above paragraph, I first put vaseline, with a lowercase V, because it wasn’t brand name.  I realize Vaseline is one of those lost brand names, like Xerox and Kleenex, that people use generically (although I personally always say “photocopy” and “tissue”).  I switched to “petroleum jelly” in the interests of accuracy, and to have one fewer word judgmentally underlined in red by my computer.  I strive not to care what others think, yet I find all that red unnerving.

Where was I?  Ah yes, Slacker Saturday.  To give you a real picture of the day, I decided to take a picture of my sandals and socks combo, so I grabbed my Tablet.  As soon as I turned it on, however, I was confronted by a picture of our peonies my husband Steven had taken the other day.  Being even less device-savvy than I am, he asked me to get the picture someplace where he could share it to Facebook.  I realized I had not yet done so (although I am usually a better wife than that) (or do I flatter myself?). I know there is an easy way to do this, but being only slightly less device-un-savvy than Steven, I didn’t know it.

Well, there is no point in sharing with you all my gyrations in that endeavor, but eventually I got around to taking my own picture.

Would you say sexy legs, or are these even scarier than some of the monster pictures I share?

Full disclosure:  I had to move a bunch of junk off the end of the couch, or this picture would have been really cluttered.  Of course that might have made it more interesting as well as being a more accurate depiction of How I Live.  But I decided to try to make it a cleaner picture.  I suppose pictures are like potato chips; nobody wants just one.  I had been meaning to take a picture of some smaller irises in my yard anyways, so I stepped outside to do so.

I see it is an accurate depiction of How Little Time I Spend Weeding.

They are a little past peak, so I zoomed in on the best two.

I think they are graceful and elegant (my original thought was to say, “Aren’t they purty?”).

So this has been my day.  I ran.  I put on socks.  I took a nap (didn’t mention that before, did I?).  I made this blog post.  Oh, before making the blog post, I washed the dishes.  Yay me!  I am not completely useless!  Thank you for tuning in, and I hope to see you all on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

 

When in Distress, Vampires Often Help

Earlier today, a friend at work gave me some icy-hot (it was Equate brand) to rub on my knees.  It seemed to help.  I have spent most of the rest of the day wishing I had something similar to rub on my attitude.  It’s not even Bad Attituesday!

It is, in fact, one of those days when I disprove one of my own rules: that writing begets more writing.  I just finished and emailed out two articles for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  Shouldn’t I be all raring to go and write my blog post now?  It turns out, not so much.  I was just futzing around Facebook, looking for pictures, because that always seems to be a good fallback post.  Of course nothing appeals.  Maybe I should look again.

When in doubt, look for monsters.  Here are a couple of pictures from Mark of the Vampire.  I found them on a page I Like called Murder, Madness and the Macabre, Our Favorite Nightmares.

Bela and friend.

I gotta get me a dress with sleeves like that.

I’ve seen Mark of the Vampire a couple of times.  I can’t believe I don’t have it on one of my horror collections.  Maybe my husband will buy it for me for my birthday (he usually reads this blog, teehee).

I’ll throw in another picture of Bela Lugosi to round things out (you know how I like to include three photos).  Here he is from Dracula in 1931.

“I bid you welcome.”

He was fine, yes.  I haven’t seen an old horror movie in a long time.  Perhaps that is the ice-hot for my attitude I seek.  At any rate, it couldn’t hurt.  We’ll call today a Non-Sequitur Thursday post (although the title I have in mind is more of a sequitur) and drive on. Thank you for tuning in, and I hope to see you all on Lame Post Friday.

 

 

Not Tired, Tempest!

You’ve heard of the rule, “When in doubt, eat ice cream.”  At least, if you read my blog post of that title, you have.  The only treats I have in my freezer are fudge bars, so I ate one of those.  I don’t think it’s helping.

I am trying to get my blog post done before leaving for rehearsal for The Tempest with LiFT Theatre Company in Little Falls, NY.  This is the group that did Much Ado About Nothing last summer, in which I memorably played Friar Francis and Second Watch (or do I flatter myself?).  Perhaps you read a few of my blog posts about it.  I only have one part in The Tempest, Gonzalo,  “an honest old counselor of Naples.”  I’m still working on the character, but I am basically a garrulous old man.  The way my body has been feeling lately, I will have no problem with the old part.

I will share more about the play, including performance dates, soon.  I may even bring my Tablet to rehearsal and take some pictures.  Won’t that be fun?  And the nice thing about me taking the pictures is… I don’t have to be in any of them! Ah ha ha ha ha!

Yes, the conclusion to be drawn is that a fudge bar is not a substitute to a dish of ice cream when it comes to making a blog post.  Then again, today is Tired Tuesday.  Also, I do not want to be late for rehearsal.  Happy Tuesday, everyone.

 

I Didn’t Mean to be Melancholy

I had meant to make a post about one of my recent Mohawk Valley adventures, but I’m afraid today is going to be more of a Middle-aged Musings Monday, if not Melancholy Monday, or even a Memories Monday.  Oh, all right, I’ll stop alliterating and start blogging.

Today on my Facebook On This Day, I noted that one year ago today we brought our sweet Spunky home from his foster dad’s (I even wrote a blog post about it).  Regular readers may recall that we sadly lost Spunkman (as Steven liked to call him) far too soon (I wrote a blog post about that, too).  I miss having a dog, but the time seems not right to adopt another one yet.

Logging on to WordPress, I noticed a post from a blogger I follow about how she and her guy adopted a puppy, Meet Harper, the Resuce Pup!  Full disclosure:  I do not read all posts by all the bloggers I follow.  This one I read.   Rescue dogs are the best!  And people who adopt them are awesome!  Oh dear, that sounded like I was tooting my own horn, but I was not, really.  For one reason, I have not adopted another dog since losing Spunky.  I don’t know if I ever will, although as I read somewhere, pets happen.

So I am remembering our little Spunky, and our sweet Tabby, who lived with us from 2007 to 2015.  Dogs enrich our lives immeasurably, but so is the sadness immeasurable when we lose them.  I suppose I could say something profound about how you have to have the sad to appreciate the happy, and I even know such a thing to be true.  But I’m afraid it would sound glib and trite, because profundity is not my strong suit.

I also feel I should apologize for intruding sadness into my silly blog, especially when the occasion for sadness is sometime past.  Then again, who can explain emotions and why apologize for them?  I like to say, sometimes you just have to feel that way until you don’t feel that way any more.  I’ll try for a better post tomorrow.

 

Run then Rationalize

As soon as I started my run today, my legs were not happy with me.  I had been up and had coffee but nothing to eat.  Well, if I would have eaten something, I would have wanted to wait a little while for it to digest, and then it might have been to warm and I’d have had plenty of time to talk myself out of it.  I told myself I did not have to run as long as I ran yesterday.  After all, last weekend I ran 67 minutes Saturday and only 45 Sunday.  I had upped my time by the recommended ten percent to 74 minutes yesterday.  It might be a good idea to ran the same today, but I do not always follow the idea course in my running.

I wasn’t going to run any hills, either.  I had made up my mind to that, although I confess I was not as comfortable with that decision. There are a lot of hills on the Boilermaker (that is the 15K road race in Utica, NY, I am signed up to run on July 9, for anybody just tuning in).  I don’t have to run hills EVERY day, I argued.  A little voice in my head said, “Oh, just start running, you’ll talk yourself into it as you go.” As soon as I started running, my legs informed me that we were NOT going to run any hills and we certainly were not going to run for an hour and fourteen minutes.

Cutting right to the chase, I’ll tell you:  I did not run any hills but I did run for an hour and fourteen minutes.  I crossed State Street and ran on a bunch of streets I don’t usually run on, so it was a very interesting run.  I’ll have to walk it sometime with my Tablet and take pictures to share.  I probably won’t be doing that today, though.  It’s not that my legs would object (they LOVE to walk), but it is supposed to be close to 90 degrees and sunny today.  I’m kind of a vampire.  I admire a sunny day, but it doesn’t pay me to get too close.

As I was running, I was narrating in my head.  It seemed pretty interesting at the time, but now I’m not so sure.  Then again, it is Wrist to Forehead Sunday.   I think this brief description of my run will suffice.  Now you have time to read other blogs.  Isn’t that generous of me?  Yes, yes, I know, that is only a rationalization, but rationalization is not always a bad thing.  To prove this I will end with a quote from the movie The Big Chill:

Jeff Goldblum character:  Don’t knock rationalization, where would we be without it?  I don’t know anybody who can get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations; they’re more important than sex.

Tom Berenger character: Nothing’s more important than sex.

Jeff Goldblum character:  Oh yeah?  Ever go a week without a rationalization?

If I do not have the lines exactly right, sorry.  I don’t have a rationalization for that, but I hope you will forgive me.