O Captain, My Captain...

Since the beginning of this year, the world has lost many celebrities and entertainers, and the world is a poorer place for it.

Dear readers, I, like many others, was stunned at the death of Robin Williams from an apparent suicide, that is true, but his was not the first death this year nor will he be the last.  Unfortunately, Williams seems to be all the news agencies can talk about.

As of today's date, 27 celebrity deaths have occurred since January 1st.

Elaine Stritch - Broadway legend
Sid Cesar - Actor
James Avery - Actor
Phil Everly - Musician
Russell Johnson - Actor
Dave Madden - Actor
Ruth Duccini - Actor
Pete Seeger - Singer
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Actor
Shirley Temple Black - Actress, diplomat, ambassador
Harold Ramis - Actor, director
Reuben Askew - Former Florida Governor
David Brenner - Comedian
John Pinette - Comedian
Mickey Rooney - Actor
James "The Ultimate Warrior" Hellwing - Pro wrestler
Dr. Jack Ramsay - Hall of Fame coach and broadcaster
Bob Hoskins - Actor
Maya Angelou - Poet, author
Ann B. Davis - Actor
Don Zimmer - Baseball figure
Ruby Dee - Actor
Casey Kasem - Radio host
Eli Wallach - Actor
James Garner - Actor
Robin Williams - Actor, comedian
Lauren Bacall - Actor

Rest in peace.  You will all be missed.

Regards,
Ryleigh Trent

Humph!

Put this one under the heading of *face palm*

My sister and her middle son are having an online argument regarding gay rights.  He’s for it, she’s not.  

He believes that being gay is how you’re born.  She thinks that people just get up each day and make the decision to be gay as if their attraction for people of the same sex is like choosing whether or not to wear skinny jeans, (Hint: skinny jeans are NEVER a good idea) mix stripes with polka dots, wear flip-flops instead of boots during a snow storm or to stay single instead of getting married and having children.

Coke or Pepsi?

Vegetarian, vegan or carnivore?

Cat person or dog person?

Car, truck, mini-van or motorcycle?

House, apartment, trailer-single or double wide, houseboat, RV, condo or a cave in the mountains?

Hot or cold?

Wine, beer, hard liquor or soft drinks?

Classic rock, hard rock, lite rock, country, alternative, rap, R&B, blues or ska?

Heels or flats?

White collar or blue collar?

Plane, train, bike, car, public transport or walk?

Hard copy or eBooks?

Cell phone or land line?

Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, white or black?

Gay, bi or straight?

I could go on, but I think we all understand that our choices are just that, choices.  We make hundreds of decisions each day based on our education, upbringing, culture.  What we don’t get to choose is what color hair we have, whether its fine or thick, curly or straight.  We can’t choose what color our eyes are or the color of our skin.  

Products exist that allow us to make changes the parts of us we don’t like.  What we can’t do is change something that’s built-in.  

Being gay, straight or bisexual isn’t a choice any more than deciding that you don’t want to have a natural inclination for heart disease or cancer.  We didn’t choose to be male or female, tall or short, big or small boned, to have asymmetrical ears or a big nose.  We didn’t choose to have goofy looking toes, but we can choose to have our toenails painted in order to make the best of what we were born with.

I know that there are people out there who do not believe the same as me, and that’s okay.  God gave us the intelligence to make choices for ourselves.  He made us different from each other on purpose, so life wouldn’t get boring.

Me?  Well, I’m a live and let live kind of person.  I have friends of all colors, nationalities, cultures, religions, genders and sexual orientations.  I have friends who are married, single, divorced, separated, in monogamous relationships and in open relationships.  What I don’t have is the right to judge them anymore than they have the right to judge me.

In case anyone hasn’t figured it out, I am FOR gay rights, just like I would’ve been FOR women’s right to vote and handle their own affairs, and FOR the end of slavery.

Every individual has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness no matter what form that takes.  If that means one of my male friends has fallen in love with another man, then I’m happy that he’s found someone that makes HIM happy.  If my female friend falls for another woman, again, happy that they’ve found love together.  I’ve always said that it’s hard enough to find that one person who makes your life complete, and if that other person is the same sex as you and you’re happy together, great.  If that person is of the opposite sex, great.  The important thing is to find your other half, the one person in this world that makes you feel whole.

As for me, I’ll go to sleep tonight knowing that I’ve been the best possible example of one of God’s children I can.  And that makes me feel good inside.  I only ask that you at least TRY to do the same.

Remember life is a test.  God is testing us every minute of every hour of every day.  Judgement Day is coming for all of us.  When you're standing at the pearly gates and God opens The Book of Life, will your name be written there?

Think about it.

à bientôt,

Ry 

Camp NaNo

I've officially reached the halfway point in Camp NaNo, just over 25K words.

The first time I competed I wrote a total of 200K in one month.  The last two NaNos I barely made the 50K.

What's the problem?  Why can't I get my brain to work?  More and more it seems that I'm unable to concentrate on the task at hand.  The words "easily distracted" have always been out there in reference to my attention span, and it's gotten steadily worse over the years.

In case you, kind readers, haven't figured it out, I am not happy about the situation.  If I'm not able to concentrate then how do I expect to keep a full time job?  I can't afford to "retire."  It seems like the only solution is to take on several part time jobs that don't require a great deal of brain power and hope that gets me through.

Pray for me/Wish me luck.

Thanks,

Ry

Is it just me...

I asked a question of several of my online friends today.  Only one responded.  No biggie, except that she doesn't seem to understand the question.

What I'm looking for is a way for my characters to describe their professions that makes them seems boring and innocuous.

Back in the day, I watched a series called Ironside.  In one episode, Ironside referred to his job as a police detective as "civic improvement."

Now the question...

Would "civic improvement" and "quality assurance" be apt, if very loose interpretations, of spies and assassins?

Example:

Natasha Romanoff is on an undercover mission.  She meets a man in a bar and they strike up a conversation.

Man: What do you do, Natasha?  What's your business?
NR: I'm in quality assurance.
Man: As in "this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes"?
NR: *grin* Something like that.  All quite boring actually.  What do YOU do?
Man: Civic improvement.
NR: *wrinkles nose* Sounds boring as well.
Man: *shrugs* It can be.

What do you think?  Does that work for the situation?

ttfn,

Ry

Camp NaNo

Yesterday, I checked my NaNo word count and it was around 17, 265.  Went back later and somehow I lost 1,000 words.  HOW does that happen?!

It's incredibly annoying, frustrating, irksome.  Pick your adjective.

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Tonight's the night for the ukulele jam session.  Oh boy.  We meet at a Chinese buffet.  Every time I go there for a jam they give me 'tude because I don't eat.  Just get drink refills.  They've stopped refilling me after the second one.  Do they really think doing so will make me want to eat?  I don't eat enough at meals to pay $11.00 for all-you-can-eat.  Huh!  Nice try!

*sigh*

ttyl

Ry

Greetings from the underworld.  Not really, but it was fun to write.

So, finished the first part of my Camp NaNo story.  The second part is a rewrite of another story. I'll be starting from scratch, but keeping what I've already written in case some of it can be used at a later time.

Hopefully, I'll make my goal of 50K words.  I've had a good start.  16,620 so far.

The first story was the last three chapters of something I'd already started.  That and this blog have made up the 16K + so far.

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Watched a show on Reel channel about Robert Downey Jr.  A former associate in the movie industry had the nerve to say that RDJ isn't as good an actor now as he when he was on the drugs and booze.

Ask Cap if I can borrow his shield.  I wanna throw it at this guy.  Better yet, get Hawkeye to give me archery lessons.  Just let him know I'm only available at night.  LOL

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I need an assist.  The second story for NaNo is an SGA fic about the son of Rodney and Jennifer.  His name is Sam and he's wicked smart like his parents.  After getting two doctorates and one masters, he decides to take some time off and tour with his band.  This causes a rift between Rodney and Sam with Jenn caught in the middle.

But being smart isn't Sam's only superpower.  To find out what it is that makes Sam so special, read the story The Life of Sam when it's posted to fanfiction.net.

Sleepy time.

TTFN

Grazi,
Ry

Dear readers, I've been thinking about Captain America: The Winter Soldier and have come to the conclusion that whomever is in charge of HYDRA is an idiot.

HYDRA was only thwarted in their attempt to take over the world because Project Insight was stopped before it could be fully launched.  Can we all agree on that point?

Good.  Now think about this.  If HYDRA had been patient just a little longer, Insight would've been launched and they could've taken over the world without a problem.  But no.  After 70 years they were suddenly anxious to achieve their goal of global domination.  And what was the first thing they did in order to get the ball rolling?  They tried to assassinate Fury.  If that's not a big tipoff that something's going on, I don't know what is.

Yes, I know they went after Fury because he wanted to delay Insight, but if HYDRA had just sat back and kept stirring the pot, fomenting unrest in the Middle East or what have you, they could've had it all.

To quote Bobby Singer, Idjits!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled ranting.

Grazi,
Ry

Breakfast.  In the U.S. for most people it means eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, cereal-hot or cold, croissants, milk, juice, coffee, tea, the list goes on.

For me, anything can be breakfast.  This morning I had leftover pizza and a small Coke Zero.  Chicken and pineapple pizza.  Yum.

What's wrong with having whatever you want for the morning meal?  As long as you "break the fast" it shouldn't matter what you eat.

The Old English word for dinner, "disner", in Old French, "disjejeunare", in Latin, actually means to break fast and was the first meal eaten in the day until its meaning shifted in the mid 13th century.  It wasn't until the 15th century that “breakfast” came into use in written English to describe a morning meal, which literally means to break the fasting period of the prior night; in Old English the term was morgenmete meaning "morning meal."

When you look at what other countries and cultures consume for breakfast, pizza isn't so strange.

What's for lunch?

Grazi,
Ry

Watched two of the Jason Bourne movies today and it got me thinking about a few things.

Men in Black:

I have two nephews with the first initial J.  If they both joined MIB, what would their new names be? Could we go with middle initials?  O for one and E for the other.  Come to think of it, that might not work either as I have a third nephew, the oldest, whose first initial is E.  His middle initial is D, so that could work, I suppose.

Bourne Series:

If there were such a thing as Treadstone, would they take either of "my" boys or do the candidates have to be family-less?  Nothing was ever said about David Webb's family, leaving us with the assumption that he has none.

Outcome only seems to require is that your "loved ones" think you're dead.  But then there's the pesky pill popping every day, unless you can get Dr. Shearing to viral you off.

Speaking of which...  I noticed in Bourne Legacy that only the deaths of Outcome One, Three, and Four are shown.  Nowhere in the credits or on screen did the filmmakers show the name/death of Outcome Two.  Will O2 be in the 5th Bourne movie?  Man or woman?  American, British, Russian, Aussie, Kiwi, Brazilian?

The question about O2 bugged the hazmatta out of me until I finally wrote a fan-fic about it called The Iron String.  It's a crossover of Bourne, Stargate Atlantis and Castle.  Yes, a strange combination to be sure.  A friend, a Kiwi, asked for an Aaron Cross/John Sheppard crossover. Castle's Javier Esposito was my idea.  And she loved it!  In this fic, O2 was a woman who had met Aaron when he was still Kenny Kitsom and they struck up a friendship.  Once their Outcome training was complete and they were sent off on missions, Kenny/Aaron and she never saw each other again until this story.

We all know the best fictional teams come in threes or fours.  This team consisted of Colonel John Sheppard, Detective Javier Esposito (formerly Special Forces), Aaron Cross (formerly Outcome 5, Private 1st Class Kenneth James Kitsom), and Harper Finley (formerly Outcome Two, June Monroe).  When Aaron and Marta are hiding out in a motel, he gives her ID that says her name is June Monroe.  She asks if he knew June Monroe and he says "Not anymore."  That's where I got the idea for having sort of an OC as a foil for Aaron.  (Considering I don't care for the Marta character nor do I think they make a "cute" couple.)

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So now the middle nephew is playing a first-person shooter game called Battlefield 3.  This one is set on Kharg Island.  Lots of shooting, of course.  And he almost always wins, or his team does when he plays online.

Oh joy!

Getting sleepy.  More rambling later.

Grazi,
Ry

Greetings Fellow Carbon-Based Lifeforms

Welcome to my first ever blog.  Wow!  I really did it.  First things first.  Thanks for reading.  I'll try to make it interesting enough to keep bringing you back.

Hi.  My name is Ryleigh Marie Trent.  I would say that my profession is "author", but I've never been paid to write so make your own determination.

What do I write?  Mostly fan fiction, though I plan on branching out soon.

Other hobbies include playing the ukulele, hula dancing, annoying my younger siblings, cooking, and Internet surfing.  Not necessarily in that order and not the same order every day.

That's it for now.  I'll cogitate and get back to you.

Grazi,

Ry