Real letters about real women
4:32 a.m., May 22
Eat Fruit....
I started writing on The Reader blog recently, simply for fun and to put out some fun little fiction and non fiction stories and some that had more depth. I am not a trained writer or the type of writer that has to take on the system, (I do that at the polls) ...and I try not to judge too much. We all have judgment, no getting around it.
I expected to get critiqued by people. That's just the way the net is...with anonymity comes poor manners, outright rudeness and heavy duty judgment. Some people call it being real. Though they only have brass ones cause they can hide behind a keyboard. And then there are the followers, that have the gang mentality and egg it on. In my business it is called staff splitting, in slang terms it is called $h*t-stirs.
They live for their big moment then seize it. Sit back and watch the action. Then when it slows, they throw in another little stir. It makes them feel accomplished. And it keeps the focus off them. Cause usually when they follow the leader and in essence heap praise by being a minion, that leader won't focus on them. Then they can scapegoat it off on the leader. Survival....I get it.
I understand...if it were not for the issues in many peoples lives, I would not have had a job in mental health work. Or do the volunteer work I do now. So, like I said, I've been around it and I get it. Flinging their words in my direction is no issue to me. I am secure in my life and what I do and have done. But then they turned on each other. Lobbing personal epithets about one another.
That's what they want, to staff split, and scare off any potential competition. Whether they be "good writers" or "bad writers"...they want them gone. Big fish in a little pond syndrome. In turn, losing all credibility. It isn't the written word they are so concerned about, it is mathematics.....Less writers, easier to compete and get a possible win. Being in the spotlight. It's a matter of importance. Being important.
Being important in the eyes of the public doesn't matter to me. I would rather be substantial. Thanks. Anyone can be put in an important position. It's what you do with it that counts.
So, As I was talking to my daughter, my 3 year old granddaughter overheard me saying that a thread had broken down to childish cranky behavior....Out of the mouths of babes....She walked by, and said. "Gramma, if they're cranky, give 'em a time out and tell them to eat some fruit so they can poop."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Comments
thestoryteller June 30, 2010 @ 8:57 p.m.
Great job--perfect ending. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a "bad writer." There are beginning writers and people that haven't mastered how to be good yet. I don't have an education in English or lit either. Any schmuck can put words on a page; to capture an emotion is more of a struggle.
I thought of "Michael" as being written in a style that was dreamy and thought-filled. I thought in terms of "what is this writer trying to say?" rather than this is crap!
So Ms. Grant had her moment. She thought she was big stuff for winning a hundred dollars. I'm flattered. In her book, my wins must make me a friggin' genius.
Most of the stuff that went on in that thread, had been building up for over a year. It had nothing to do with you. I feel the air has been cleared, and I feel better about being on this site than I ever have.
You're a strong woman. Taking the hits is the hard part about being a writer. It isn't all about the words.
a2zresource June 30, 2010 @ 9:28 p.m.
I started blogging here after a federal trial jury returned guilty verdicts in 2007 for UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. SDG&E (http://www.google.com/search?q=sdg%26e+guilty). I and a number of other people living in Lemon Grove and Encanto were named as federal crime victims. The picture you see with this comment was taken last year, nearly a decade after the Encanto Gas Holder site in Lemon Grove was supposedly cleared of friable asbestos waste material, which is what we still believe that white storm runoff residue in the picture was. From the Proposition 65 lawsuit we were involved in after the federal guilty verdicts, we obtained the kind of documents in discovery that would have gotten Erin Brockovich a nice bonus (she's still a member of my FEMA emergency management training group at myspace). We lost the Prop. 65 thing after I had a heart attack last year and couldn't write enough of the right stuff fast enough to oppose summary judgment in favor of SDG&E and Sempra Energy, although Judge Hofmann called my plaintiff-without-attorney effort "herculean."
I see the Reader as a viable alternative to the Union-Tribune, where Reader bloggers are free to follow fact OR fiction, even if the facts are not obtained with a staff of 15 like some U-T ediorial staffers think things ought to be.
I started out blogging about things I knew, such as things I discovered about SDG&E and its parent Sempra Energy. This evolved into following DJIA and Wall Street Masters of the Universe (mostly not here but at myspace), Royal Bank of Scotland and its connection to Dubai as a destination of smuggled Congo conflict Gold, and the connections between Royal Bank of Scotland and Sempra Energy through RBS Sempra Metals and its practices at the London Metals Exchange and the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange once 60 Minutes broke its story on Congo conflict gold last year. I now find myself reading San Diego City Council docket items in my spare time...
I have a degree in mathematics. It interests and fascinates me. See: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs...
I don't consider myself to be anonymous. Anybody who wants to see my name can go to http://eghvsdge.stickywebs.com and find it all over the court documents from the Proposition 65 case. I encourage it as it may teach others about the nature of corporations as artificial persons under the law.
I generally consider fact to be stranger and much more complex than any fiction I've ever run into.
As a writer, just write. If it's good, most of us will appreciate it, including the vast majority who will read without leaving any comment at all.
If it's really, really good, the kind of stuff that comforts the afflicted as it afflicts the comfortable, a lawyer on the other side of the conference table may show you your own blog postings in a hostile deposition and then demand to know if you wrote them.
"Yes, I did."
thestoryteller July 1, 2010 @ 7:55 p.m.
The problem with literary types is that the use fancy words to say nothing, while I use simple words to say a lot. They think language is the key to good writing, which is why you have to force literature down the throats of school kids.
There are other elements that "intellectuals" seem to miss--like originality and risk-taking. That's what really gets an editor to sit up in his chair. If he has to tweak the punctuation here and there, let's just say no editor has complained to me yet about it.
If msjlee wants to see what I went through (an experience similar to hers) just over a year ago, go to the neighborhood blog winners and read the comments under "A Neighborhood Affair to Remember." My take as to why it won is that the editor recognized the joke. Unfortunately, the other bloggers didn't.
thestoryteller July 1, 2010 @ 10:40 p.m.
I think it's a good idea not to start all that again.
There is a story behind it, however. I was talking to the guy it was about. He was charming, and I went all ga ga when I talked to him. When I hung up, I just sat at the computer and typed it out in about ten minutes. I had my finger poised over the delete button, and then I thought, Wouldn't it be funny if I posted this on my blog? I thought jaws would drop because I hadn't seen anything like this before.
I thought, what the hell? And posted it.
When I got the e-mail that I had won first place, I couldn't think of anything I had in the running. I sent my husband's picture and info, and got a response from the editor. He said the "Craigslist piece" had won, and since it's from a woman's point of view, he'd rather have a picture of a woman, although he could write it off as creative writing.
I couldn't believe it. I sure didn't want my face next to that story in every Reader in the county!
I think it won because there was nothing better. And then certain high-minded posters criticize the low quality of the winning stories. Well, kick yourself in the butt then, because your stories must have been worse.
Another reason it may have won was because it gives a middle finger to the rules, which is what the Reader is about. I certainly didn't consider it a threat to the classics.
I got offended when SDaniels said that the stories were bad because I had been in a winning category several times. Later I realized that I'd won under different usernames, so she may not have known that. Even when I explained that to her, the fight was on. I couldn't stop it. She wasn't going to like me one way or another, so what?
The hs teacher that posted his nasty put down on that thread, gets an e-mail from me, every time I get published. The heading says, "Oops I did it again!" I also calculate the money I made per hour for that particular piece as compared with what a teacher makes. I haven't gotten a response.
a2zresource July 2, 2010 @ 11:35 a.m.
RE #4:
I figured out that I was "not competitive" when my one stringer submission died on the vine. Blogging for free suits me fine right now, but I really, really need to do more servicing of that $70K+ in Sempra Energy court costs I still owe for getting dusted with asbestos like the Feds said we were.
As for politics, mark me down as "conservative" as for me wanting to conserve American strategic and economic dominance. Make that "left-handed conservative" because I don't think we are going to see the kind of innovative thinking out of Wall Street Masters of the Markets that will keep us as a nation on top of the heap... there's too much money in their own individual fortunes to be made from speculating overseas and betting against us here.
a2zresource July 2, 2010 @ 11:40 a.m.
RE #12:
I could be wrong, but that's the worst Bill Horn political ad I've ever seen...
MsGrant July 2, 2010 @ 11:49 a.m.
But "it has everything to do with accountability and integrity", A2Z!!!!
a2zresource July 2, 2010 @ 12:34 p.m.
RE #15:
Or the lack of it!
MsGrant July 2, 2010 @ 12:40 p.m.
I love it!! We all know who this is intended for. Thanks, Reader!!
a2zresource July 2, 2010 @ 1:46 p.m.
Wow... the administrator has been busy!
MsGrant July 2, 2010 @ 1:49 p.m.
I know!! Isn't it great?
Joe Poutous July 2, 2010 @ 2:07 p.m.
It would be so killer if instead of "Comment removed by website administrator" there were big fat sharpie crossouts like the ones you see on de-classified government papers.
Maybe only 6 letters out of 7 sentences left from really bad comments.
nan shartel July 2, 2010 @ 2:37 p.m.
i much appreciate the little comment blurb below the "Post a comment" here now
msjlee ur previous blog was treated most disrepectfully...and that's 2 bad
unfortunately when these kinds of comment wars start rolling downhill is usually the direction they roll in
some commentors have something relevant to say...others r merely flamers
unfortunately most blog sites have them
i've in the past tried to bring humor to mediate the difficulty
it works sometimes...sometimes it doesn't
arrogance is outweighed by decent behavior and civility loses the battle
it's my hope u don't find one of ur blogs in this kind of situation again
Darshan...Nan
MsGrant July 2, 2010 @ 9:40 p.m.
Thud. Sound of jaw hitting earth. Are we allowed to comment anymore? This is obviously the work of someone who posts under many monikers, and who the reader has decided would be their means to eliminate first (and other) place bucks. Ugh. Nothing worse than a shill. I suppose I shall be the first legitimate poster eliminated for not adhering to the rules.
antigeekess July 3, 2010 @ 12:30 a.m.
"Gramma, if they're cranky, give 'em a time out and tell them to eat some fruit so they can poop."
LOL. That's pretty funny.
:)
Robert Johnston July 3, 2010 @ 10:09 p.m.
I see that you won first place in the Reader's Blog Contest. You did good--now keep it going! There is nothing so perfect that it cannot be improved upon, and in the case of writing anything (be it poem or blog thread), you need to simply do one thing--WRITE!
Again, congrats on your prize, and let's have some more from you! --LPR
JohnnyJ July 5, 2010 @ 1:50 a.m.
I COME HERE ONCE A MONTH BECAUSE MORE OFTEN WOULD FRUSTRATE ME. WOMEN ALL JUST COMPLAINING ABOUT EACH OTHER AND WITH NOTHING TO SAY OF INTEREST.NICE TO SEEREADER STAFF WORKING TO CLEAN UP AND TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE. OH AND FRUIT LINE WAS PERFECT
kstaff July 22, 2010 @ 4:52 p.m.
With all due respect... THIS won first place???!!!
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 5:02 p.m.
19 There is no accounting for taste. Fruit or otherwise. Check out the other winners and get back to us.
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 7:33 p.m.
Maybe the site needs to have a separate entrance for men and woman just like the white and non while water fountains in the south before civil rights ? If males want to dominate the site, it would require the submission of the women bloggers. Some seem to have gone this route already with their syrupy praises for some rather pedestrian writing samples. But, as I said before, there is no accounting for taste in fruit or writing. Should there be an official Forum God and could there be an official Forum Goddess ?
MsGrant July 22, 2010 @ 7:59 p.m.
I myself have been rather bewildered by the males being entranced by a questionable author photo....as the truth is far less beguiling.
David Dodd July 22, 2010 @ 8:04 p.m.
Can't speak for anyone else, but apparently comment #21 has decided that msjlee is a man. Personally, I couldn't care less what anyone looks like. I care about the human being. I think this won the blue ribbon because it was the right thing written at the right time. Timing is everything.
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 9:10 p.m.
The photo is of a woman which the author mentioned that she took of "herself" at 3 am if one reads the blog carefully. I see some bloggers portrayed as males if you take their photos at face value. Should I be concerned that these males are really women ?
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 9:13 p.m.
"Gramma" is what the blogger is called by the grandchild. Not Grandpa, Gramps, or Abuelito. I think we can safely assume the blogger is a female.
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 9:15 p.m.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Grasca July 22, 2010 @ 9:26 p.m.
Is it safe to assume that males respond to a pretty female face over the content of the writing ? I would think males are more discriminating. They are, after all, the purportedly stronger of the species, and display their literary chops so frequently on the site.
David Dodd July 22, 2010 @ 9:43 p.m.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Joe Poutous July 23, 2010 @ 7:19 p.m.
re # 27
Nah, we are all dumb dumbs.
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