Dare I Take the Plunge?
There’s an interesting question posted in The Daily Post today that made me think about a few things. it’s something I think everyone has in the back of their minds somewhere that they always consider and rarely do anything about. Here it is:
What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? What would have to happen to make you comfortable taking it?
I feel like I have taken some risks in my life, but not very big ones. This is actually a topic for another question I have in mind for later in the week, so we’ll have to get back to that particular approach another time. In the mean time, thinking about a chance I would like to take makes me consider a lot of different things I said I would like to try at one point in my life. After I recovered from being ill, I tried to promise myself that I was going to do more of the things I always said I would like to do or want to do. Sadly, life and reality always seem to have a way of getting in the way of what we would really rather be doing and other responsibilities and issues come along that need to be taken care of first, so everything gets pushed to the back burner. it’s just the way things work out for the majority of us along life’s path.
So what risk would I like to take but haven’t been able to? Well, I don’t know how much of a risk it would be, but I would love to be able to actually have the time, energy and confidence to stick to it and actually sit down and try to write something. I have had a couple of ideas for collections of short stories, but I just never seem to have the time to sit down and plan everything out properly and actually get down to the writing of them. I think a big part of it is having the time to do it while taking care of the other responsibilities I have on a regular basis, but there is another factor involved, and I think a lot of people have to deal with the same thing when they do not move ahead with something they really want to do. A lot of it has to do with confidence and the fear of failure. You have wanted to do this thing for so long and take this risk that it would be devastating to not be able to do it or even worse to find out that you just aren’t good at it. I think that is what holds me back more than anything else out there. Sure, I can make the time to do it if I really wanted to do so, and part of me wants to be able to do that. However, there is a larger part of me that doesn’t really want to find out whether or not what I write is any good or not. I guess we are all our own worst critics and it is hard to determine how good your work is until someone else sees it, I just have a hard time doing that myself. I guess it is something I will need to get over on my own. Sometimes it seems like it would be a lot easier if the risk I wanted to take was something like skydiving or driving a race car – something more tangible that I could just do and be done with. Writing takes so much more that it just doesn’t work that way, at least for me anyway. I guess what would have to happen for me to be comfortable enough to do it is to feel like I am really good enough to give it a try and that I actually have the time set aside to do it and then I don’t think I would have as many issues with it. Once I have built my confidence up enough to give it a try, I think I will move closer to reaching that goal.
So that’s my risk that I hope to take one day. What is your risk? It can be anything that you have always wanted to try to do. It doesn’t matter whether it is something physical or mental. You can answer the question here or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll also ask some people on Twitter and see if they answer.
On with the rest of the day. Check back again this week for some other questions, queries, posers and ideas, and anything else that may come along that I feel like writing about. Who knows, maybe I’ll start taking a risk today.
Filed under: Questions, Writing | 2 Comments
Tags: biggest risk you would like to take, confidence, question of the day, taking risks, The Daily Post
I like to watch movies of all kinds. I’ll pretty much watch anything – goo, bad, indifferent – and the genre doesn’t really matter that much to either. This is particularly true if I am dealing with some insomnia, as happens to me from time to time and is something I have to deal with quite a bit recently. The thing is the movies that are typically on at 2 AM are not usually of the greatest quality, so you get to see somethings that may not come across your television screen otherwise. For example, last night was one of those nights where I ended up watching “Boogeyman” and then “The Human Stain.” “The Human Stain” actually has some pedigree to it, being based on a novel by Philip Roth and stars Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman and Gary Sinise, but I have to say I wasn’t particularly impressed with it, at least no more than I was with Boogeyman, which stars Barry Watson (of 7th heaven fame) and Emily Deschanel (of Bones).
Boogeyman, and many horror movies, are typical of what you usually find on movie channels at 2 AM. The thing is I do like horror movies, so I will watch just about anything when it comes to that genre, and many horror movies end up being along the lines that I like, which is that they turn out to be campy. To me, campy is something that appeals to you because it is so ridiculous. Now anyone who watches horror movies knows a lot of them fall into this category, whether they intend to or not. The great thing is that there are a lot of other movies that fall into this realm as well. I saw two very recently on cable late at night; one you are probably very familiar with, the other maybe not so much.
The first was “Flash Gordon.” Anyone from my generation is pretty familiar with this movie. I am sure when they initially went into making it they thought they had a real winner on their hands, but if you look at this movie now you realize just how cheesy it really is, which makes it all the more appealing. The soundtrack is well-known because it is done by Queen, which even adds more to the campiness of the movie. I did some digging around after I watched the movie not that long ago and came upon some great trivia facts about this movie and the people involved:
1. The movie actually has 2 Academy Award-nominated actors in it – MaxVon Sydow (for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) and Topol (for “Fiddler on the Roof.) Yes, Dr. Zarkov is actually quite famous for his role as the lead in “Fiddler” and has played the role thousands of times, including in the movie and on Broadway, for which he was nominated for a Tony award.
2. Kurt Russell was in line to play Flash Gordon but turned it down because he thought the character was a little lacking, which anyone who has seen the movie can tell you that it is.
3. George Lucas originally wanted to make this movie, but the rights had already been purchased to Flash Gordon, so he made “Star Wars” instead.
4. While Sam Jones may not have gone on to great fame from the movie (though he spoofed himself in “Ted” recently), there are some famous people in this movie besides Max VonSydow and Topol. Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond, is Prince Barin. Ornella Muti, who played Princess Aura, may not be famous in the U.S. but is very famous in Italy. Richard O’Brien, who plays Fico, one of the Hawkmen, is much more famous for having written “The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Kenny Baker, famous for playing R2-D2, has a bit part as a dwarf. So does Robbie Coltrane, who went on to be much more famous and is known for his role in the Harry Potter movies.
5. The entire cast was actually signed to make several movies, but the first one did so poorly the whole thing was scrapped.
The movie looks really cheaply made, which is part of what makes it so fun. To me, it is the ultimate camp movie.
Another one that I saw recently was “The Shadow.” Older folks will know that “The Shadow” was famous for being a radio show and magazines long before any of these other superheroes came along and a lot of Batman is actually taken from the Shadow. The thing is it took them almost 60 years to get around to making a movie about it and by then, I think it comes across as very campy. Perhaps that was the intent all along, and if you have never seen it, give it a watch sometime to see what I mean. There’s a quality cast, including Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Sir Ian McKellen, Tim Curry, Jonathan Winters and a half a dozen other famous character actors that you will recognize along the way. The movie itself did not get very good reviews when it first came out in 1994 but it has developed something of a cult following on DVD and after. Personally, I thought the whole movie was pretty silly. Alec Baldwin really hams it up, as does most of the cast, and maybe they were just having fun with it, but it’s a little labored for my tastes. it is however, definitely one that falls into the camp group for me.
So that brings us to today’s question then, which is:
What is the campiest movie that you have seen and loved?
There’s plenty out there for you to choose from (take a look at the original Batman series with Adam West and the movie they made too if you want real camp), so pick the one that stands out to you the most. You can answer me on here in the comments section or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll ask some people on Twitter too and see if I get any response.
I guess that’s it for now. I am tired from not having slept much last night and have some work to do, so I guess I need to get to it. Let me know what those campy movies are; I may need something to watch tonight!
Filed under: Movies, Questions | Leave a Comment
Tags: Flash Gordon, question of the day, The Shadow, whaat is your favorite campy movie
After reading The Daily Post this morning, I saw that it asked an interesting question today regarding faith and when you realized you first had it or didn’t have it, whatever the case may be. This time of year always brings up questions of faith for me personally. Five years ago this week, my father passed away after a bout with cancer. Even though I was raised Roman Catholic and went to parochial school until I was 12, I never really considered myself religious at all and I don’t think I had a lot of faith at that point. Actually, my thoughts at the time were more along the lines of why would a man with a wife and six kids and grand-kids not take care of himself well enough to let himself die at a young age and what kind of God would allow that to happen? I had always felt like religion was kind of forced upon me up to that point and had some resentment towards the church and God because of that. If anything, my father’s death made me feel like I had even less faith than ever before.
It was shortly after that I stumbled across William Paul Young’s book “The Shack” when I was walking through a bookstore. I had never heard of the book at that point but for some reason I picked it up and read what it was about. The story line sounded interesting to me and it felt like something that I not only wanted to read, but I had to read. I could identify with the main character of the story. I felt the resentment, hurt and loss and a complete lack of faith and I think I needed something to get me back on the right direction and this book just happen to come along at just the right time for me. I read the book, read it again, and then bought copies for each of my siblings, for friends or anyone else who might show an interest. I can’t say the book turned me into a Born Again Christian and I didn’t start going to church regularly and I certainly was not a religious zealot of any kind, but the book did help to restore some faith for me.
Flash ahead to a year later in June 2009 and I was lying in a hospital bed in a coma dying from something no one could figure out. While I was in my own little world of the coma, people were praying for me all around the country. Family and friends had started prayer chains, my name was remembered at masses in churches, people prayed at my bedside. Michelle even prayed at the hospital with some people who were Orthodox Jews who were also praying and thought they should join her. You know what? I think it made a big difference. It may have taken several months in the hospital for things to start to resolve themselves and I didn’t come out of the coma until late August of that year, but I survived and I think prayer and faith had a lot to do with it. And while I was in my coma world, my father did visit me several times and I always told me I was being looked after and watched. That’s one of the things I actually remember clearly from the whole experience.
When I was finally moved to Helen Hayes Hospital for my rehabilitation, I was visited every few days by a deacon who was at the hospital. In the past, I don’t think I would have given much credence to his visits and he probably would not have stopped by after the first time. However, something inside me wanted him there every time he came. He would offer me the Eucharist, which I had not taken in many years, and I always accepted. Then we would say a brief prayer, chat, and he would be on his way. And each time it happened, it made me feel better, as if someone was helping me along on my journey to recovery.
I may not have returned to church and I still may not be a very religious person, but I have come to realize that having faith and being religious do not necessarily have to go hand in hand. I can still believe in God and all his work without walking through church doors or anything like that. Do I pray every day? No, I don’t, but I do it a lot more often than I ever had in the past because I do believe in its power and I believe that it is a way that we all can communicate with God. I know it’s not for everyone and far be it from me to force my ideas on anyone else – I don’t like it when it’s done to me and wouldn’t do that to anyone – but I truly believe that having a little faith can really help see you through rough times.
So here’s the question if you feel like answering:
Describe a memory or encounter in which you considered your faith, religion, spirituality — or lack of — for the first time.
You can leave an answer here in the comments section or catch up with me on Facebook or Twitter. I am curious to see if anyone else has had an experience that has helped them along the way.
I do have some other ideas and questions to come along in the next few days, so stop on back and see what comes along. I promise I’ll be here – have a little faith.
Filed under: Questions, My Story, Blogs | 5 Comments
Tags: question of the day, William Paul Young, The Shack, faith, having faith, spirituality
It Puts a Smile On My Face
So I was good for a while and posted regularly on here and then last week I seem to get away from it again. Sometimes it just seems like there are too many things going on all at once and I just don’t have the time to do everything that I want to do anymore. Anyway, enough complaining about that. Let’s get down to some writing today. I have a few different topics I want to cover in the next few days, things I’ve written down recently that I’ve come across in different places, but this one in particular seemed like a good topic for today and good question to ask.
Name one thing that kids do to make you smile.
There are few ways you can go with this. First of all, if you don’t have any kids of your own you can just think about children in general and what it is that they do that makes you smile. It also doesn’t have to be something that is happening to you right now; it could be something that your children used to do when they were younger that would always put a smile on your face. I’m sure if you think about it, there are quite a few things that kids do each and every day that can make you smile. In general they just seem to have a lot more fun than we adults do anyway. I watch my nephew Liam one day a week and just within that one day he is sure to do at least 5 things that can make me smile. One of the things that we do on a regular basis when he lays down to take a snap is that he will tell me a knock-knock joke. Now sometimes the joke is an actual joke and sometimes it’s just something that he thinks it’s funny, which very often turns out to be even funnier than the actual jokes. His favorite one:
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Cow.
Cow who?
It’s an animal Uncle Mike.
It’s hard to imagine a 2-year-old not being able to do something that can bring a smile to your face.
By the same token, Sean not only used to do many things when he was little that would make me smile, but he still does things today even as a 12-year-old that will make me smile every day. There are many times where I’ll be sitting out here working on the computer or getting dinner ready or reading or doing something else and I can hear him in his room singing at the top of his lungs to one song or another. Just listening to him enjoying music and having a good time is enough to make me smile. Michelle and I always smile when we hear him burst out laughing at something that he may be watching on TV or watching on the computer in his room. He has this particular laugh that he gets when he is really enjoying himself for having a good time that you just can’t help but smile when you hear it.
So what is it that you see that children do that can bring a smile to your face? Think about what you’ve seen today or just seen recently or as I said, even when your own children were younger than what is it that they would do where say that would always make you smile. You can leave an answer on here in the comments section or you can catch up with me on Facebook or on Twitter and leave an answer there. I’ll ask a couple of people on Twitter as well and see if they come back with anything that I can share with everyone.
I guess that’s it for now. I need to get back to doing some real work. As I said, I do have a couple of other things that I plan to write about over the next few days or so, so check back and see what comes along. I hope you’re all having a beautiful spring day like we’re having here are in my neck of the woods in New York. Have a wonderful day and hopefully someone will bring a smile to your face.
Filed under: Family, Memories, Questions | Leave a Comment
Tags: bring a smile to your face, one thing kids do to make you smile, question of the day
When the Daily Post put up their topic today regarding talking about a journey you may have taken, I immediately turned to one that for me is physical, emotional and in a way, spiritual. It takes me back to my illness in 2009, that affected me greatly then and still has an effect on me now. There are many things that helped me get through the entire ordeal, not the least of which is the support I received from my family and friends both in person and through prayer. I am convinced that if it weren’t for all of them, I would not be here to write about all of this today.
But today I want to write specifically about one of the final legs of that journey for me. I have written about what happened to me many times in the past several years, and if you want to read more about it, you can check this post here. I am sure some people are tired of the whole story, so I won’t bore you with it again, but once I came out of the coma and was well enough to be moved from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, they moved me to Helen Hayes Hospital. Helen Hayes is a rehabilitation hospital in Nyack, NY, which is much closer to my home here so it would be a lot easier for Michelle and others to come and visit me. I can distinctly remember being loaded into the ambulance for the ride north to Helen Hayes. I could barely lift my hands at this point, let alone do anything else, and it was going to be their job to help get me moving.
It was weird being at Helen Hayes at first. I was placed in a room by myself because they really had no idea what had made me so sick and didn’t want to expose me to anyone else who might have illness or have me pass something on to someone else, so I was basically in isolation for the first couple of weeks. The only people who came in were the nurses to give me medication, my visitors, the therapists who worked with me in the room for the first few days and then someone sat with me in the room all night long because I was still on oxygen and had a speaking valve, which they took out at night so I couldn’t talk. It would be eerie to wake up at 2 AM and see a shadow sitting in a chair in the center of the room watching me (or not watching as they did seem to fall asleep sometimes). It reminded me of the nightmares I used to have in Columbia Presbyterian at night (a whole other story).
Anyway, things at Helen Hayes move quickly at first. They want to try to get you moving right away and my goal was to try to get out of there as soon as I could. In order for that to happen, you have to progress. There were people who had been there much longer than I ended up staying there. They would help me into a wheelchair every day to bring me to one of the therapy rooms for physical therapy twice a day. When I first got there, occupational therapy came to my room twice a day as well. I also had speech therapy as I had to re-learn how to talk and I had breathing therapy as well. you wouldn’t think you would have to learn how to breathe correctly, but there is a lot more work to it than you realize when you have spent months on a ventilator breathing for you. It was a lot of work, 8 hours a day, five days a week.
Which brings me to how Charles Osgood helped save my life. As the weeks went on I worked harder and got stronger. There was no therapy on the weekends so you had that time to yourself. When I first got there and for many weeks after, I was not allowed to try to get out of bed on my own, so I would be stuck in bed until someone would come to help me into a chair or a wheelchair. Visiting hours started a little later on weekends so I would have time to myself. When your immobile, time to yourself is not fun. You can’t really do anything, so I was at the mercy of my television. I had just started to get use of my hands back so I could do things like change the channel on the remote now. Sunday mornings I would have my breakfast (and the food at Helen Hayes was a thousand times better than Columbia Presbyterian) and watch TV, which is when I discovered CBS Sunday Morning. Now the show has been on for many years, but I never watched it before. For all the weeks I was at Helen Hayes though, Charles Osgood and crew and the stories they covered were my link to the outside world and what was going on. I could watch about all kinds of stories and Charles’ approach to all of the stories was informative, relaxed and while often serious, he always seemed to have a friendly tone. More than once I think he helped me through some pretty lonely moments and mornings when no one was around. In a way, he inspired me to do more on my journey to try to work harder to get home.
After 2 months in Helen Hayes, I was allowed to go home on Halloween 2009. It was a Saturday. Everyone was glad to have me home, though I still had a lot of work to do. I was still on oxygen, could only walk with a walker and still had many months of physical therapy to go through. Just getting in bed that first night was tough. I would wake up in the night and hear my oxygen machine humming, but I was glad to have Michelle by my side instead of being alone. Then, the next morning, there was my good friend Charles, almost as if he was welcoming me home and making me comfortable. I was able to watch him from my own bed and feel even better about myself and my situation.
Now here I am, almost 4 years later, no oxygen, walking only with a cane, typing away here at my keyboard. Sunday morning has just passed into Sunday afternoon, but I still enjoy my mornings with Charles and gang. They continue to help me on my journey, giving me things to think about, laugh about or even get emotional about. My journey still continues on; it will always be there as some part of me, almost as my legacy, but my experience has vastly changed my approach to life overall and, as hard as it may be to believe, that show has played a role in it. Thank you Charles.
Filed under: Celebrities, Emotions, Family, Memories, My Story, Questions, Television, Writing | 2 Comments
Tags: CBS Sunday Morning show, Charles Osgood, Helen Hayes Hospital, my journey, tell about a journey, The Daily Post
I Don’t Want to Meet Him/Her/It
It’s a rainy, dreary, cold day here in my part of New York today, not at all the ideal day you want to have to kick off the first unofficial weekend of summer or a three-day weekend, but hey, we work with the cards we are dealt and move on.Since we’re trapped inside today, Michelle is napping, Sean is in his room on his computer and even the dog is asleep, it leaves me with some time to do some blogging and writing. I was looking through my book of ideas for today and this one seems like a pretty good question to broach for a day like today:
What fictional character would you be afraid to meet in real life?
If you are a fan of horror movies, scary books or horror fiction, then you probably have come across several characters who might fit the bill for you. There have been some great characters created in books and on film that I know I would not like to meet at all. Actually, you probably wouldn’t really want to meet any of them in real life, since most of them seem to have a pretty psychotic bend to them and could do anything at any moment. For me personally, I think one of the scariest characters I have ever read about and seen on the screen is Hannibal Lecter. In my opinion, the books are much better than what the movies have to offer. While Anthony Hopkins does a great job with the character, the character in the books is much more frightening. Whether it is because they alter details because some of what happens is not really suitable for the screen I do not know, but the images that Thomas Harris creates for you in his books give a person who is brilliant, refined and insightful but so depraved and indifferent to those who he sees as beneath him is pretty frightening. If you have never read “Hannibal,” which comes after the “Silence of the Lambs,” the book is ten times more disturbing than the movie is. Even though the book makes Lecter somewhat more heroic in certain aspects, the scariness of his character still shines through. I think meeting him in person would have you feeling on edge at any moment, unsure of whether he was going to engage you in conversation, slash your throat or eat your brain for dinner. He would be my choice.
So what character would you choose? There are a great many that you can choose from, so think about who scares you the most and who you would not want to meet. You can leave a comment here or write me on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll ask some people on Twitter too and see who answers. Thanks to everyone who answered yesterday’s question about who you would want to be stuck on an elevator with. There were lots of great answers from people on Facebook and a special thanks to the actor Harry Shearer for answering me on Twitter.
I am working on a few other things and ideas, so keep checking back to see what comes up next. Stay dry and have fun today.
Filed under: Books, Fiction, Ghosts, Movies, Questions, Television | Leave a Comment
Tags: fictional character you are afraid to meet, Hannibal Lecter, horror fiction, horror movies, question of the day, scary books, scary fictional characters, silence of the lambs, Thomas Harris
