Monkey Mind

My Favorite Christmas Present… Woof!

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:09:00 GMT

Holy smokes, life has been busy. We closed on the house on Friday the 18th and on Sunday, around 11:30, we brought our two adopted Tibetan mastiffs home.

My stepdad Jeff and my uncle Scott drove all the way to Virginia Beach during that awful snowstorm the weekend before Christmas (they drove THROUGH D.C., which was a disaster zone) to retrieve these two rescues from a Tibetan mastiff breeder who was fostering them with her other dogs.

Here’s some info on them from the rescue website:

These very sweet dogs are in need of a home due to the misfortune of their owner who has lost her own home. Mae and Makai were bred by Donald Davis, a US breeder who passed away last year, so Himalaya Tibetan Mastiffs and Sa Nashoba Tibetatan Mastiffs are working together to find them a new home.

Mae’s registered name is Mei Xiang Saje and her date of birth is Jan. 22, 2001. Her dam is Kyra Rose and her sire is Ely Tanuk. Mae is spayed and in excellent health. Her vaccinations are up to date.

Makai was never registered by his owner, but he is a brother to Mae from a later breeding. His date of birth is February 12, 2003. He is also in apparently excellent health and he is intact. Any prospective home will have to agree to have him neutered.

Makai is scheduled to be neutered on the 11th, per my agreement with the breeder, and he has the same birthday as Jim, which I thought was a neat coincidence. Mae is a little older (they’re both older, really) and is an older sibling to Makai.

They are small for Tibetan mastiffs, but still definitely fit into the large dog category, and they are SO FREAKING MELLOW. I mean, these dogs sleep, they walk around a bit, and then they sleep some more. They are genetically predisposed to love the cold (mountain dogs), so the most excited I’ve seen them has been outdoors (today with all the snow they were going completely bonkers).

Still working on the eating routine since TMs are wary at first and the most prominent evidence of this is that they aren’t eating a lot (TMs aren’t big eaters, despite their size, but still), and they also won’t set foot in the basement.

Bringing the cat over from the apartment went well (dogs didn’t care, cat is a little pissed), and my family has fallen in love with both Mae and Makai in very short order. My little brothers can tell them apart already, which is difficult for most people, and we took them to both Christmas celebrations this year (in-laws and my family) with no hiccups.

The most noteworthy part of getting these two dogs is that I am totally and completely in instant love with them. I mean, for the first few days I would lie on the floor next to them and just stroke their bellies or watch them sleep.

I knew when I met my first mastiff outside of a PetSmart several years ago that the breed was my instant favorite and that I really wanted to get one when I had a place that would allow a dog, but I was totally unprepared for falling in actual and immediate love with THESE two dogs.

Between the new house, two new members of our family, and a lot of family time over the past several days, this has been a truly amazing holiday season. :) I hope all of you had an equally wonderful holiday!

Reading: Light My Fire / Holy Smokes

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:32:38 GMT

Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yeah, yeah. Okay. The last two books in the series lessened my irritation with the second book in this (so far) four book series. This is still just fluff reading, but the fourth book was fun, and actually had me wishing there were more books in the series after reading the ending.

It seems weird throughout this series to vaguely elude to how much more powerful Aising is than she should be at this phase in her Guardian-ness, but there’s never an explanation, never a back story about her family and how she might have ended up a Guardian, really no back story on her at all except for a very poorly constructed back story in the first book about an ex-husband.

Despite all the holes in the plot and the writing, I keep reading. For fluff, it clearly has that addictive quality, which for me isn’t even the smutty bits… it’s more because of the supernatural aspect and the occasional moments of actual humor that have actual made me laugh out loud. Jim is a fun character and Drake has become decidedly less stiff and chauvinistic over the course of the series, although I’m just as irritated with how the author handled the revising of Drake’s character (the whole “I’m going to be empowered and change my man’s behavior by condescendingly treating him like a five year old” dynamic with Aisling is just as sexist).

Good series. Not GREAT series, but good. I wish I could’ve skipped the second book entirely and cut giant hunks out of the others, but despite all my criticism… I still keep coming back for more. ;)
__________________________

Light My Fire by Katie MacAlister

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(No write-up for the third book prior to Holy Smokes, because my thoughts are basically the same, and since I read them so closely together, the storyline blends together.)

View all my reviews >>

Reading: Fire Me Up

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:35:15 GMT

Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Meh. Okay, now I think I’ve figured out this author’s formula, and it’s not great… or at least it’s not great when used for every book. I find myself now irritated at the domineering Drake and the eventually submissive (or really sad and wanting to be submissive) Aisling. Could this main character be more self deprecating and insecure in every aspect of her life? I thought that was cute and humorous when she didn’t know what she was doing, but now it’s just irritating and predictable.

The plots themselves are becoming formulaic… I find myself disappointed to note that the resolution in this book is not even vaguely like the first book… it is EXACTLY LIKE the resolution in the previous book, with a predictable ending.

I’m currently reading the third book, but I have a feeling it will be my last.

View all my reviews >>

Reading: You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:38:20 GMT

You Slay Me by Katie MacAlister

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a quick brain candy read (read it in a few hours’ time) that was mostly successful at being funny and mostly successful at being steamy as well. I like the heroine, and have already picked up the second book in the Aisling series, which says a lot of a fluffy romance read. If you’re looking for fluffy, supernatural smut to read, this is a fun pick that I would recommend, and I’m pretty picky with my smut. :)

View all my reviews.

NaNoWriMo - Down to the Wire

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:10:10 GMT

Holy crap on toast, I have never waited this long to let an enormous quantity of words to build up in order for me to complete Nanowrimo. I’m not even sure that last sentence made sense… I have been doing nothing but trying to catch up today.

I have a little (very, very little) over 40k words at the time of this blog entry. I need 50k to complete my fifth Nanowrimo novel. I am NOT going to fail two years in a row… except unless I do fail.

*oy*

Tomorrow is the last day to write, and I have to work through a majority of that day, so today is THE day to get this stuff done. This is the big day of “get your shit together and write,” and here I am writing a blog post because I’m not sure what to write in my novel.

EGAD. Between switching jobs and buying a house, this just has NOT been a stellar year to write a novel.

*slaps self*

*goes back to writing a hastily composed work of fiction in an inordinately short period of time*

Thursday Write-In

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:32:37 GMT

Getting things done… or at rather NOT done. Fun was had though! :)

Big Grown-Up Step: A House

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:41:30 GMT

I’m sitting at Starbucks, and I should be writing my Nanowrimo novel, but instead I’ve spent the past hour getting caught up on all of you, your blog posts and Facebook updates and comments you’ve made to me that I haven’t replied to yet.

Life is really good right now. Today, Jim and I signed papers to finalize our purchase agreement for our first house. It’s a GREAT house, at a great price due to the current buyer’s market, and most importantly, it means that I will get the dog I’ve wanted for a long time (it already has a fenced in yard!).

Here’s a peek at the house:

Such a big step, buying a house. I thought getting married would make me feel like an official grown up, but that feeling is nothing compared to the process of actually finding and then owning a home. Other than having kids, I’m not sure there’s anything more grown up.

It’s pretty freaking exciting to know that in a month or so, I will have a house that I can do whatever I want with… I will NOT have white or beige walls, I will NOT have generic lighting, I will NOT have to drive to the UPS plant every time I get a package because of a locked apartment building, and I will NOT have to worry about a landlord discovering my cat. Sounds like minor stuff, but when you add up everything you get to do with your living space once it’s really YOURS, it’s really pretty huge.

I’m already planning a huge housewarming, even though we had a housewarming when Jim and I moved in to the apartment we’re in now. We won’t be asking for any house gifts, maybe just bottles of wine or liquor to stock the bar we have in the finished basement. We were really lucky with our first housewarming and with a multitude of amazing wedding gifts we’ll finally have room for, so it will really just be a huge celebration for the sake of having a huge celebration. We’ll finally have ROOM to have a huge celebration! :)

If anyone has any great tips on successfully transitioning into a first home, feel free to leave comments. Tips on taking care of a dog (a larrrrrge dog) are welcome also. :)

NOW I’m going to go write something for Nano. This novel won’t write itself!

Stubborn Spouses

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:32:11 GMT

A testament to how stubborn my husband and I are:

B: Want to watch Fringe?
J: Sure.
B: Okay, it’s on the dvr in the other room.
J: Okay, let’s go.

*I become distracted by a commercial*

J: Hey! Get a move on!
B: What?
J: I’m not getting up until you get up.
B: Well, I’m not getting up until you get up. I don’t like being bossed.
J: Well, I guess we’re not watching tv then.
B: I guess not.

*time passes and eventually Jim, who was lying on the floor during this discussion, begins to pull himself along the floor like a slug, grunting*

B: What the hell are you doing?
J: I have to pee, and I’m not getting up.
B: What are you going to do when you get to the bathroom?
J: I’m going to push and hope for the best.

*hysterical laughter from B’s spot on the couch*

So, I stayed in here typing all of this up, and Jim eventually dragged himself all the way to the bathroom and something must have gone okay because he flushed and then I heard a thump and he is now dragging himself down the hallway to the bedroom.

J: Come on! I don’t have all day!
B: Are you seriously still on the floor?

*silence from the hallway*

So, I’m going to get up and go down to watch Fringe in the bedroom, but not until he actually drags himself all the way to the bed, so he gives in on getting up first.

We are stubbornheads.

I have to go… he’s on the bed and hollering pathetically. LOL.

Reading: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:52:40 GMT

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was overwhelming at times in its hopeless portrayal of two women in Afghanistan whose lives become linked through their shared circumstance.

There were moments where I felt such incredible sorrow for Afghanistan’s bloody, war torn history that seems to never end throughout the reading of the book, and then there are moments of helpless heartbreak at the idea of living an entire life as full of pain as these women’s lives.

I was often angry and mostly just hopelessly sad that women in some countries can live an entire life under the oppressive and violent thumb of both their government and the men in their lives. Even in the triumph that can be found in this book, there is still a lingering sadness. I hope for a better world someday, and gave a lot of thought to what my role is (and isn’t) in making that happen.

View all my reviews.

NaNoWriMo 2009 - Lift Off!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:37:04 GMT

If you’re going to be one of those people that complains about all the Nanowrimo talk during November… shoo. Go ‘way. Not interested. It’s what I do each year, and it’s AWESOME.

For those of you who don’t know, I am the Municipal Liaison for the Canton, Ohio region of National Novel Writing Month, and this is my seventh year with that title (my eighth year doing Nano). If you’re enjoying the madness, friend me up on the site! :)

This year has been really interesting so far, because I started at midnight last night with a specific novel in mind, a serious novel with a lot of heavy topics planned, and it completely TANKED before I hit 500 words. I discovered in short order that completely turning away from my Nanowrimo writing style was absurd and counterproductive, so I took a restroom break and returned to the table with zero plan and a lot of determination.

Now I have 1175 words of a novel that just materialized as I kept writing, and it would appear that I’m now writing about a cyborg man named Wendell who refuses to fight crime and save the planet because of a manufacturing mishap that has resulted in his constantly craving french fries. Since he was supposed to be the planet’s last ditch effort to same humanity, his creator, Peter Stimple, is in seriously trouble with his higher ups, and chaos will surely ensue.

The midnight kickoff at Denny’s last night was awesome overall. There were a few of us who’ve been doing this together for a while now, and new people popped in right at midnight and joined us. Pretty good turn out for the midnight event, so I’m sure today’s kickoff event will be a huge success. :) Happy noveling!

(If slideshow doesn’t appear, photo set is here.)

Update : Work, Family, House, Life

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:28:20 GMT

Man oh man, has life been busy. Those of you friended up on the LiveJournal will see that this is the 4th wordy post today. I have two days off mid-week from work, and it feels like I finally have time to sit and enjoy some reading, some writing, and some reflection on the past several weeks.

Work has been stressful recently, not so much in the always-present aspect of dealing with patients and other people’s emotional and psychosocial wellbeing all day, but the whole picture. I think I’m doing a really good job of just riding with wave with that, and I know it will pass.

Family life is good, although I wish I had more time and energy to give to family time (my little brothers and nephew especially). I think this is related to work and Nanowrimo starting up and the next exciting news item. ;) I was really disappointed to miss a lot of family time this past weekend due to a trial work experiment that involved me working the weekend. It was horrible timing. I spent a lot of quality time with my sister and 11-month old nephew today though, so that was a blessing. :)

Jim and I are looking for (and may have found) a house. Holy CRAP, is that ever exciting! We think we’ve found the right house, and we’re making an offer today at the realtor’s office… our first ever time making an offer on a house. We have a decent down payment, both of our local parental units have taken a look at the house in question and all approve of making an offer. If anyone wants to really get wacked in the face with “damn, I’m a grown up whether I like it or not,” go buy a house. It’ll throw you into grown up mode real quick-like. ;)

Spiritually, I’m in a good place, but I’m pretty sure my family thinks I’ve joined a cult or something (my sister confirms that this is likely the case). I’ve found a really comfortable home in the area of energy healing, meditation, and neopaganism that feels really authentic for me, but really foreign to most of the people around me, which has been interesting to explore. On a really positive note, I’ve found a great group of people locally at Merging Hearts who are very much on the same wavelength, so while I’m sort of out on a spiritual island among family and many friends, I’m much more supported now in other ways. I’m going to my first ever observance of Samhain this Saturday! :)

Dogs are on my brain lately, since we’re looking for a house. I originally wanted a mastiff, and then was worried about my little allergy-ridden brother Ben not being able to visit, so then I spent some time looking into hypoallergenic dogs and found out that Tibetan mastiffs ARE hypoallergenic! :) Pretty much completely in “I want a dog… dog dog dog!” mode now.

Where are you at in life right now? Exciting transitions? Happily resting in a comfortable place in life? Struggling through a rough patch? I feel so out of the loop as I’m moving through my own transitions, so leave links to your exciting news and updates in the comments. :)

Reading: Snow Crash

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:21:06 GMT

[This was a pick for Timshel Book Club, chosen by Brian Layman.]

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to give this book four stars, but I just couldn’t do it. This is the first book I’ve listened to as an audiobook and I really enjoyed it as an audiobook, but I’m not sure I would enjoy it through a more traditional reading process. The narrator really made the book for me overall.

The book seemed pretty thoroughly unresolved at the end for me, and I didn’t liked the narrator’s depiction of YT (there are certain adult scenes that were somewhat disturbing given how young and childish YT was made to sound by the narrator). The relationship with Hiro and Juanita was underdeveloped and strange as well.

Overall, this seemed like an amazing concept that *almost* succeeded for me. It was fun to listen to, but ultimately left me wanting a little more. There were parts that I absolutely loved, but there weren’t quite enough of those parts to give this four stars.

View all my reviews

Great Cause + Bad Twitter Etiquette

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:48:59 GMT

I don’t write a lot about internet etiquette anymore (excluding the occasional snarky comment on Twitter) because I’ve learned to simply eliminate offenders from my viewpoint and move on to people are doing it better and sharing content in which I’m willing to invest time.

I choose to only see @replies on Twitter that are directed at people I also follow, thereby eliminating a lot of unnecessary noise in my Twitter feed, and as my life has become less about the internet itself and more about how I want to utilize the internet to share content and consume content in a meaningful way, I’ve honestly just stopped following people in any social network if they don’t interest me or respect my time.

When I worked for Viddler.com that was harder to do, due to a visible role and a need to outreach and troubleshoot on behalf of users at times. I needed to be connected and visible, and I needed to be accessible, even to those people I didn’t necessarily want to connect with so directly. It’s a relief (especially given that I spend so much of my working day focusing on other people in an intensive way) that this is no longer the case for me. I can come home to comfortable bubble of people I feel invested in, or at least very interested in, and the rest of the noise has died down.

One thing that is frustrating for me in that process is when I really *want* to follow the comings and goings of a project or a person, but their internet practices make it more difficult to do so. A Twitter account, which will remained unnamed (but shown in the example screenshot within this post), really drew some aggro for me a week ago when I realized that this particular monthly project is constantly flooding my Twitter stream with info that is not related to the specific project the Twitter account is supposed to represent. Some of the re-tweets are completely pointless and the Twitter volume is just completely unnecessary and inefficient.

It really bugs me when a project that I really want to support is clueless about the social media that it chooses to utilize and is therefore ineffective in using social media to engage its supporters without annoying them. I actually said something in a reply to this account and, while my feedback was minimally acknowledged, the account promptly reoffended within 24 hours, posting two updates for the exact same event within moments of each other… why? Apparently because all of the project’s followers are perceived to be somehow too stupid to read the first posting directly below the second.

I really don’t bother anymore with calling out people who don’t get social media when it’s easier for me to simply eliminate that person’s annoying buzz from my vantage point, but when you’re representing something I really want to keep tabs on and I really want to be an avid supporter… well, it’s just really annoying to be turned away by bad social networking, and it leaves a bad impression of who’s running the show.

Reading: Local, Issues #1-12

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:46:21 GMT

Local by Brian Wood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great 12-issues comic series that is now available in one hardbound volume. It’s a very quick read and paints the story of a girl named Megan who struggles through finding herself in different ways and relocates at the end of (or between) each issue.

The final issue is a little cliche, but provides a solid ending to this girl’s messy journey, and the coolest aspect of the series is the accurate local scene visually and contextually portrayed for each city featured in each issue. This is a really solid, one-sitting read.

View all my reviews

First Interview : Doctor Anonymous Show!

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:47:55 GMT

This interview with Doctor Anonymous was a WONDERFUL experience and allowed me to really explain a lot about my process, my creative journey, and how I got to this point in the self-pubishing process. I open up a bit about the collection, the significance of the poems chosen, how the title came out, and a lot of other really fun tidbits that make this book important to me.

Thanks to Doctor Anonymous for having me on the show!! Please give this a listen if you’d like to really understand the book and what I wanted to accomplish with this collection:

Linkage:

Doctor Anonymous Show
Interview Preview and Interview Announcement

Last Minute - Book Signing Details!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:24:09 GMT

Come down to the First Friday festivities on September 4th and I will be on the second floor of 2nd April Galerie signing copies of Columbus Groove. It would REALLY mean a lot to see friends and family at this event, because I’m nervous and have very little time to prepare myself for such a quickly arranged signing.

Signing Date: Friday, September 4, 2009
Time: 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: 2nd April Galerie

Come purchase your copy and enjoy all the great stuff going on downtown. First Friday is a lot of fun, with live music, food vendors and a ton of special monthly events! Even if you already have a copy of the book, the evening will be a great time!

Vid: Books Arrived!

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:23:49 GMT

Reading: The Walking Dead Vol. 10

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:10:46 GMT

The Walking Dead Volume 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This volume got me to the point where I’m now reading issues rather than the trades as they come out. I just can’t wait that long to see what happens to these people and it JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER. This is hands down one of the best comic book series I’ve read, and there’s a good chance that I’ll put it ahead of Preacher by the time the series is over.

View all my reviews

Reading: Invincible Vol. 3 - Perfect Strangers

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:26:52 GMT

Invincible Vol. 3: Perfect Strangers by Robert Kirkman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is where this series really starts to get good for me. These are the issues that really got me hooked and now I’m in for the long haul on the Invincible series. Robert Kirkman is a genius!

View all my reviews

Super No-Longer-Secret Project

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:16:04 GMT

I’ve been really busy lately with a fun project, one that I’ve been revising and fiddling around with for close to a decade. I’ve been seriously working on it for a few months now, and it is ready to be revealed…

I’m publishing a book of poetry.

I have a collection of poems that I’ve compiled into a cohesive collection, all centered around relationships, love, heartbreak, and the journey we take to find “the one.” I’ve added poems over the years, cut poems over the years, and I finally have the nerve to take the collection and share it with the world, because really… why the hell not?

Stephanie Smanto jumped on board with some amazing graphic design talents that have only made these poems look better. She typeset the inside and designed the cover, which I am truly in love with. I’m endlessly grateful to her for her patience and her creative eye. The book wouldn’t be what it is without her role in the publishing process.

I feel confident enough that this last proof is the final proof that I’ve released the book for pre-order on the website. Check out the site, which has a description of the collection and a page for pre-ordering Columbus Groove. It will also have ongoing news, such as book signings in the Ohio area and announcements when the book is available on sites like Lulu.com and Amazon.com. There will be a digital format available for purchase as well (stay tuned on the book’s site for info on getting that for free if you purchase the hard copy).

I’ve really been hesitant to talk much about the book, because I’ve let silly insecurities get the best of me up until a week or so ago. Telling people you’re self-publishing can open you up for a long of ignorant and hurtful criticism, usually by fellow writers who want to accuse you of cutting corners or simply not writing anything good enough to be published traditionally. I’ve been lucky enough not to field those comments since announcing this project to writing friends, but I’ve heard the comments all too often before becoming a self-publisher myself.

The truth is, I haven’t submitted this collection to a single publisher, and the process I’ve gone through has not been easy. In choosing to have ownership over every part of this process, I have been completely responsible for the product I’m releasing, including editing, obtaining and approving the best quality design, choosing an appropriate price, submitting the work to the copyright office, and figuring out how and where to sell this baby.

This is much more than just the content of the book for me. I’m releasing a product, complete with packaging that has taken months to perfect, fonts that were painstakingly chosen and approved, page ordering and author bios that were redone a million times, and a game plan that I’ve had to finalize largely on my own, with zero help from a big publisher or an agent.

I’m finally done with the insecurity and I’m really proud of that. I’m proud of the collection, I’m thrilled with the whole package, I’m grateful for the support I’ve received, and regardless of the reception from this point out, it took guts to get this project off the ground. I hope you’ll enjoy the celebration with me. :)

Family Vacation: Put-In Bay

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:09:44 GMT

Here are the pictures from the second big day of the family vacation! :) We went to South Bass island in the Put-In Bay area, rode bikes, had great pizza, drank really good wine and got a few family shots that I’m really happy to have. The pictures of me on the ferry back from South Bass were taken by Jeff, who was playing around with my camera. He took a great shot of the sun setting (the portrait shots of the sun setting over water).

Watch above or click here.

Stay tuned for more vacation pics! It was a great week and I’m just now getting back into laptop mode, so I’ll be catching up on the photo blogging and hopefully edit some of the video this weekend. :)

Pics: Driving to Toledo

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:13:03 GMT

Took some shots of the beautiful sky we had while driving all the way to Toledo on Saturday… great view, and it was a great start to the family vacation. :)

Or click: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timshelyn/sets/72157621667682085/

Vacation Time!

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:01:02 GMT

I’m going on VACATION! I took a full paid week off of work (something I’ve never had enough vacation given to me to do at any other job… very new and exciting for me), we have family coming in from Minnesota (my aunt/uncle and their five kids) and my family (10 people including parents, 5 kids, spouses, and my little nephew) and we’re all going to the following awesome locations:

Sunday: Toledo Zoo, where I will be using the hot lens I rented, the Canon 70-200 f/4L IS, to take hopefully halfway decent photos.

Monday: Cabin in Sandusky near Put-In Bay and Kelleys Island. Jim and I are taking some bikes to ride and we’re just all going to run around the Put-In Bay area having unscheduled fun. I haven’t been on a bike in at least 5-7 years, so that should be interesting. I am less than incredibly coordinated.

Tuesday: Cedar Point, where I will spend some time taking photos and then riding awesome roller coasters and eating unhealthy food and getting a sunburn if I don’t already have one by then.

Wednesday - Sunday: Family time back at home, including at least one bonfire, cookout at my grandmother’s, and general hanging out with family.

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting via blog or Twitter because I’ll mostly be concentrating on REALLY enjoying time off work. I’m sure there will be occasional pictures, but I can’t promise how much you’ll be seeing of me, and don’t expect immediate replies to email. Let the party begin!

Review: Bob Dylan Concert

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:26:35 GMT

Yesterday, Jim and I went to Classic Park up in Eastlake, Ohio to see The Bob Dylan Show (Bob Dylan in live in concert with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp opening). My mom got us tickets a month or so ago, knowing that I have always really wanted to see Bob Dylan live before I die (or he does, which was likely to come first).

Willie Nelson played first, and he wasn’t bad. I think Jim was most excited to see Willie play, but even he admitted that it wasn’t a stellar performance. I think Willie’s getting old and his live stuff just isn’t as good as it used to be. Still enjoyable though, and Willie’s son (who was playing with Willie) is pretty darn good.

John Mellencamp played second, and he wasn’t bad (good energy, good musicians playing with him), but my one big turn off with Mellencamp is that a vast majority of his later work all sounds the same, and this was very evident in everything he played, including a brand new song he played that he had just recorded (I found myself able to sing one of his other songs along with the chord structure of the new one). He’s not someone I would go see as a headliner, but I still enjoyed his performance, and MAN oh man were there a lot of middle-aged women going totally crazy over him… it was almost disturbing. Lol.

And finally, Dylan performed. The first thing you should know prior to seeing Dylan live is that he primarily plays his newer work and it will NOT sound like the album version. This tends to really tick off Dylan fans who aren’t prepared for it, so steer clear of live performances if you want “All Along the Watchtower” to sound like any of his recorded versions. He also tends to play completely different sets each night, so you could see him on this same tour and we will probably won’t have heard a lot of the same songs if we compared notes.

I thought it was a solid performance, and I was really just thrilled to be seeing Dylan live. He played several of my favorites from his last few albums (”Jolene,” “Ain’t Talking,” and “Things Have Changed”), and Jim really enjoyed “Senor.” Here are a few of my clips (the first clip has three different song bits included):

One important thing to remember if you go to see this show while these three fellas are on tour: they don’t play together, or at least they didn’t at this particular show. Jim kept insisting they were surely all going to come out on stage together and play at the end, but it was a no go. Just a heads up.

Overall: Great show, glad we went, thanks so much to my mom for tickets and to my dad for a lifelong exposure to Dylan and a heads up about what to expect when seeing him live. This was definitely a check-off on my bucket list. :)

Review: Mental on FOX

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:34:44 GMT

I have a few things to say about Mental, a fairly new show on FOX that stars a:

“radically unorthodox psychiatrist who becomes Director of Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital where he takes on patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed psychiatric conditions.” (from show description)

My husband enjoyed watching me watch the show this past weekend, and eventually even said, “Umm… why are you watching this? It just seems to be agitating you.”

You know, the show is not really all bad and the doctors are all vaguely interesting as people, but here are some of the things that bug me about the show:

1. Why are psychiatrists the only people who seem to be working with these patients and their families?

Seriously… where are the social workers, the nurses, the aides, the occupational therapists, recreational therapists, and other various people who generally work on an inpatient psychiatric unit? More than one episode shows the main character finding family members and engaging in counseling and doing about a dozen different things that are NOT realistically carried out by the psychiatrist in a typical inpatient setting. It’s a team effort, and it’s really irritating to see my role often completely overlooked or completely misrepresented as something a doctor would do.

Psychiatrists do very important work and I work with many who are very dedicated and mindful and more than competent at what they do, but sometimes (a LOT of the time) it’s a social worker who’s rolling up sleeves and diving into a messy family situation and providing individual or family/couples therapy while the patient is on the psych unit. Did every single important character on the show have to be a doctor? *sigh*

2. Why are all of these patients diagnosed with things or experiencing things in a way that most mental health professionals NEVER see on a daily basis?

I understand the intrigue of rare disorders, but a majority of the public could greatly benefit from better exposure to more common mental illness diagnoses and the difficulties that come with those diagnoses. I would really like more typical psychiatric patients and the struggles that they have to deal with, not to mention the complicated struggles their families deal with as well.

You don’t have to go way into left field to find some really intriguing stories about mental health patients and their loved ones. My work day is completely different every day, and I almost always finish a work week with at least one story that no one would believe if they haven’t been exposed to inpatient or community mental health, so why does the show have to focus so much on rare diagnoses and exceptions to the rule? Try showing the public a more realistic and helpful look at the type of illnesses their family and friends could be struggling with on a daily basis, and there is a valuable, interesting show that people could relate to.

3. Sleeping with a patient’s immediate family member is unethical.

ESPECIALLY when you’ve interacted with that family member during the course of treatment. Enough said.

Overall, I don’t hate the show, and I’ve continued to watch it (I think I’m on the fifth episode), but it doesn’t do a very good job of accurately portraying an inpatient psychiatric unit and all of the hardworking people that spend their days working with patients and their families. They really could have done better with this show.