Three Positive Things for the Week of 9/28
Children’s Book #2???!
Still just an inkling at this point, but I started jotting a couple of random ideas down for the next awesome kids book, and even though it’s a bit in a different direction than I was thinking when we did the first alphabet book a year and a half ago, I think it might be kinda cool!
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping…
This seems creepy even though I’m his Dad … which seems weird typing even 6 months in! … but I’ve noticed lately that I have kind of a habit of peeking into Christopher’s room when he’s sleeping either at night or during the day to check in on him, and it makes me feel kind of good. 😉
Christmastime is Nearing!
Lastly, managed to lock down a few details for when my sister and her family will be coming to visit for Christmas, and don’t tell Madelyn because I think it’s going to be a surprise, but we’re going to spend a couple of days over at Disney World while they’re here! One night we’re going to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which is something that Sara and I haven’t done yet, either, we’ve got a nice room booked at Kidani Village using our brand new DVC points, and I just think that the whole thing is going to be a lot of fun and a very well-deserved holiday vacation.
:santa:
Creator Rights
I don’t understand how a creator can hold so much disregard for the rights of a fellow creator.
I stumbled across a weird, little rant on Facebook earlier today that went something like this:
- Guy raves about a picture that photographer created.
- Guy brings picture into Photoshop and “enhances” said picture.
- Guy presents enhanced picture to photographer as “a gift.”
- Photographer asks that guy not make changes to his pictures.
- Guy gets his feelings hurt over his gift being rejected and decides that they can’t be Internet friends anymore.
There are different types of creators – some are very open to collaboration and embellishment, whereas others are more insular and prefer to create their art by themselves.
I myself certainly fall into that latter category. I really haven’t done very many collaborative works, and frankly if somebody took it upon themselves to improve my work without my consent, I’d be pretty offended by that, even if the gesture was done benevolently. That’s just who I am and how my creative process works – the things that I write are a reflection of who I am, and it just wouldn’t feel right for me to open up the canvas to allow most others to free form in my space.
But that’s just me, and there are tons of other artists who thrive in an openly creative space where people are constantly tweaking and improving each other’s works, adding layers upon layers of creativity as they build to the final work. Almost every major motion picture, TV show, radio show, and many of our favorite websites are collaborative works and they’d never work if only a single creative person held the reins for the entire process.
The thing is, everybody who works in those spaces has made a conscious decision to create like that. It’s not something that’s sprung upon them halfway through the season when suddenly they start getting draft edits back from the other 30 writers on staff. They all know what they’re getting into right off the bat because it takes a certain kind of person to create in that manner.
And neither way is wrong – some people just work differently than others, so while you may prefer working on a team with half a dozen other creatives, when I write the things that I write I prefer to go it alone. But I think that sometimes it’s difficult for those in the collaboration camp to remember that.
To give you an example – if I were to invite you over for tea, and when I went into the bathroom, you took it upon yourself to start rearranging the furniture in my house, chances are I’d have select words for you when I came back! And it doesn’t matter if you’re a master at Feng Shui and your furniture is immaculately arranged in your own home – the point is that it’s inappropriate to come in and rearrange the furniture in someone else’s house without being asked to do so.
Art is the same way. By all means, if you’re the collaborative type and they’re the collaborative type, you should look into ways that the both of you can work together to improve each other’s work beyond what you’re capable of doing yourselves! But you’ve got to ask first because until you know otherwise, you have to respect that copyright belongs to the person who created that work and that you have no rights to make any modifications to it until they’re granted to you.
What you may see as a gift may actually be perceived as an insult to an artist who wasn’t interested in your collaboration in the first place, and as a fellow artist, you need to respect that others may not be as anxious to collaborate even if you are.
TL;DR – Don’t mess with stuff that doesn’t belong to you. (circa – kindergarten?) 😕
![4XOlkR2[1]](http://www.scottsevener.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4XOlkR21.jpg)
Three Positive Things for the Week of 9/21
Dolphins!
Hands down the coolest thing that has happened in a while – we were at the beach last week while Sara’s sister was in town and for a good 15-20 minutes while the three of us were just standing out in the water talking, we got to see some dolphins in the wild!!!
I didn’t see the first appearance, whereas Sara gasped out because she said the thing almost came up on top of me, but then a few minutes later we all together noticed a fin maybe 20-30 feet off in the distance, then it would disappear for a while, then eventually appear with another, and even a third. It was hard to tell how many were there in total because I think they were in two groups at one point, but at best sometimes they were maybe 15-20 feet away – just casually swimming around us while we watched for them to surface, and it was so cool.
I’ve tried to think back whether I’ve actually ever seen dolphins in the wild before or not. I’ve obviously seen them at Epcot and SeaWorld and other aquariums, but that might be it. On the other hand, my wife actually sent me a text message the morning we got married boasting that she’d seen two dolphins playing in the water from her room and this was only down the beach from there, so some six years later I guess I finally got to see mine! 🙂
Pumpkin Spice is Coming…
I’ve been really up in the air about whether I really want to do the site this year, but after picking up a couple of random things on my own volition and still enjoying them, I think that I’ll be doing something … just maybe not quite as overboard as I’ve done years in the past.
Billy Bass Graceland
Just the fact that this little slice of singing heaven exists gives me hope for our next family road trip. My favorite quote? “Almost all of them are brought by women…”
movie thoughts … Saving Mr. Banks
![MV5BMTc0MTQ3NzE4Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzA4NDM5OQ@@._V1_SX214_AL_[1]](http://www.scottsevener.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MV5BMTc0MTQ3NzE4Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzA4NDM5OQ@@._V1_SX214_AL_1.jpg)
I’ve watched segments of this movie here and there over the last couple of weeks, but last night I was feeling a bit laid up and eventually got around to watching the entire thing from start to finish, and I have very fixed feelings about the film.
The movie on its own, I really enjoyed – I thought that pretty much every actor in it was perfect in their own role, from Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson all the way down to the guys who played the Sherman brothers and even Paul Giamatti as her driver. Watching it full out definitely helped me to understand the flashbacks more because I hadn’t seen the very beginning before the Banks had to leave their home in my first couple of go-arounds. Despite all of the frustrations as Walt works to persuade Mrs. Travers to give him her rights to Mary Poppins, there’s all sorts of charm and whimsy to the movie and it was really a lot of fun.
I swear, I’ve been singing Let’s Go Fly a Kite to Christopher for weeks after watching the scene with them all dancing and singing for the first time!
So with that said, the problem that I have with this movie – THE BIG PROBLEM – is that especially coming from Disney, it loses pretty much all of its credibility if the movie wasn’t actually true…
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Mr._Banks#Historical_accuracy
- http://mentalfloss.com/article/51926/story-behind-saving-mr-banks-starring-tom-hanks-walt-disney
- http://orlandoweekly.com/arts/visual/fact-checking-saving-mr-banks-with-disney-historian-jim-korkis-1.1613125
- http://www.hypable.com/2014/01/10/saving-mr-banks-mary-poppins-facts/
Frankly, from reading all of the accounts about how this actually went down, it’s insulting both to those involved as well as to the audience that this movie ever got made, seeing as though it seems that we’re pretty lucky that the breakthrough that was Mary Poppins on the silver screen in the first place barely happened…
The film also depicts Travers coming to amicable terms with Disney, including her approval of his changes to the story. In reality, she never approved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins’ character, felt ambivalent about the music, and hated the use of animation. Disney overruled her objections to portions of the final film, citing contract stipulations that he had final cut privilege. After the film’s premiere, Travers reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequences had to be removed. Disney dismissed her request, saying, “Pamela, the ship has sailed”.
Although the film portrays Travers as being emotionally moved during the premiere of Mary Poppins, presumably due to her feelings about her father, co-screenwriter Kelly Marcel and several critics note that, in real life, Travers was in fact seen crying at the premiere out of anger and frustration over the film, which she felt betrayed the artistic integrity of her characters and work. Resentful at what she considered poor treatment at Disney’s hands, Travers vowed to never permit The Walt Disney Company to adapt any of her other novels in any form of media. Travers’ last will, in fact, bans any Americans from adapting her works to any form of media.
Now I know that as much of a fan of all things Disney that I am, Walt Disney was no saint … but I guess I just don’t get the need to do it again 50 years after the original movie came out … especially considering that in real life, P.L. Travers actually died back in 1996. Despite the original creator of Mary Poppins being absolutely unsatisfied with the movie, Disney got to make it anyways, and it was a HUGE HIT – the movie was undeniably groundbreaking, and it won all sorts of awards, and I just learned that its profits were actually what ended up financing the construction of Walt Disney World right here in Florida!
In the world of cinema, Mary Poppins was a monumental success in every way imaginable.
So why couldn’t that be enough? Why couldn’t a new generation of movie producers in the 21st century leave it alone and not further to sully the history that was so rocky to begin with by offering up this fictional account that seems to only have very loosely actually reflected how Disney came to acquire Mary Poppins for that breakthrough hit that was critical for the studio’s success? Are filmmakers so out of original ideas that they need to twist and contort the company’s history into this puff piece that makes the entire happening seem to be wrapped with a bow by the end when in reality, it seems to have scarred the creator of Mary Poppins for the rest of her life?!
It’s almost as if modern Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks served to have the same effect for Walt and Mrs. Travers’ relationship as the film preached Walt had wanted to do with the movie Mary Poppins to her actual memory … that is, to gloss over all of the bad parts and instead leave everyone smiling and happy and singing at the end, which would be fine if this were a fictional tale but for something that was actually a part of the company’s history instead is wildly inappropriate and disingenuous to the original creative behind that beloved tale.
And that disappoints me because like I said, if it wasn’t supposed to be based on real life, it’s a great story and it really draws you in to the creative give and take behind such a classic, cherished tale, but The Walt Disney Company ought to know better and this is one story that if they were really this far off base with, it should’ve been left alone.
People always like to reference back and say, “Walt wouldn’t have liked this or that!” and it’s typically unfair comparisons – the fact that Mary Poppins still came out despite such friction is a good example that Walt was a bit more ruthless than we’d like to remember him by. But it still does make you wonder – if after getting away with a Mary Poppins 50 years ago the way he ultimately did, would Walt have rubbed her face in the dirt with this retelling of the story behind the story that we got with Saving Mr. Banks???
God, I hope not.
HealthyBlog ’14 – Pics or It Didn’t Happen…
So as I blogged about last time, my focus right now is simply in trying to teach myself how to eat better, and I think for the most part I’m succeeding.
It’s true that last night I caved and ordered pizza because it was a really hectic day and I felt that I’d earned it…
But looking back over these pictures from the last week or so, my meals have definitely been looking better than they did in the past. Big reductions in processed foods – no chips, cookies, or crackers – with fruit and vegetables and cheese for snacks instead, and I’m also not snacking in the late night hours nearly as much as I used to.
It’s a slow process, but I think my body is starting to adapt because the cravings are going down and it’s easier to turn back to a piece that I’m writing instead of agonizing at 12:30am about wanting something to munch on. Which reminds me that I wanted to write something about Snacking While Bored … will have to try and remember that for next week!
Anyways, here are a few of the highlights…
I think one of my next focuses will be learning to make better choices when I’m going out to eat, too. I still don’t think that I did nearly as bad as I have in the past, but I did eat out for a couple of lunches (Subway, Firehouse Subs) and dinner (Chinese) – lunches because I was in a hurry and dinner to spend some time with the wife. And next week is probably going to see more eating out because Sara’s sister will be visiting, so I need to carry these same principles over to when I’m eating out, too.
For what it’s worth, when I ate at Red Lobster a week or two ago and this last week when we had Chinese, I did take food home both times … which is significant because both places typically serve huge meals and I end up gorging myself and regretting it soon after … so that’s something.
Scale-wise, I think I’m going to just avoid it altogether for a while and let myself focus on this other stuff. I’m a little frustrated because it had gone down, but yesterday was floating right back where it had been before, so I’d rather not let it demoralize me as I focus on making changes to the diet instead. I know that the actual weight loss is going to take a long time – no sense obsessing over it if I can make positive changes elsewhere.
Three Positive Things for the Week of 9/14
I saw where a couple of people on Facebook were posting things like this, so I thought I’d give it a try too! Three positive things to highlight from the last seven days…
Robo-Wife
Last week Sara trialed this zapper thing to help with her ongoing back pain and it turns out that it was kind of a godsend. It’s basically like a TENS unit on steroids that they implant beneath your skin, and then it just runs constantly to confuse your body into thinking it’s not in pain. In three days time, she absolutely loved it and can’t wait to get one put in for real, which should make life in general a bit easier for her soon.
Writing Payday
I don’t think I’ve ever felt better about my writing career than I did this week. Something triggered – I know not what – and I made more last week than I did the entire month before. I think this might finally be a turning point, and I’m very excited to see where it goes from here!!! 
Feeding a la Spoon
Granted I think I’ve done it a handful of times before when Sara wasn’t home, but this week feeding Christopher via spoon officially became part of our nightly routine. I think I like the bottles better because they’re not nearly as messy, but I suppose one can’t subsist on a liquid diet forever.
For what it’s worth, at least we’re getting a tiny bit better at putting more of the food in his mouth than on his person… 😉
Dream Journal : Lego Heights are still Heights, etc…
So apparently I was at the top of some hotel that was doing this competition with Legos – I don’t really know much about it, save for that me and a friend were sitting on maybe a 5×5 spire that was extremely high up in the air.
And it was really starting to get to me!
The perspective got a little better when I mentioned my extreme fear of heights to my friend who, after doing some very dickish joking around that a man hundreds of feet up in the air with a fear of heights in no way appreciated, then showed me that there was apparently a lot more to the platform than just what we were sitting on and once I climbed down a little ledge, I could stand on what was the actual roof and suddenly there was much more room and I could see all of the other Lego models that they had built around the roof for this promotion.
Of course, when the people showed up to finally bring us back down, that’s when I had my camera out and wanted to take pictures of all of the new models … but I was rushed down pretty quickly because someone had reminded me that I was terrified of heights!
There were also a lot more people doing the competition when it came time to come down than I realized … maybe they each had their own scary Lego spire to sit on at opposite corners of the roof or something … I don’t know.
…
In another dream last night, I had a review with one of my teachers from grade school and that was really weird. Apparently we had to leave comments “reviewing” our teachers and one that sparked a lot of attention referred to one teacher’s class as “a pyramid scheme” … to which the teacher seemed to take great offense!
…
In another one, for some reason my sister had started calling my Dad by his first name instead of Dad. That was also kind of weird.
HealthyBlog ’14 – Feeling Good About Eating Better…
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It’s funny when you look back and realize just how hard it is at training your body to not want the horrible crap that you’ve been feeding it for years and years and years!
That’s something that I’ve realized lately that I really need to tackle because although I’ve done marginally ok with my last task of upping the breakfast and tea antes appropriately, over the last couple of months I’ve probably circumvented whatever good effects have resulted by stuffing myself full of pizza and chips and other miscellaneous junk food the other five meals of the day.
…so that sucks, but we’re trying…
The last couple of days have been a bit of a mental battle as I’ve tried to steer myself away from my usual snacking and eating and towards that real food target that I’m gunning for. And it’s been tough because we really haven’t done much grocery shopping for actual meals lately – instead, one of us runs to the store and buys whatever they want to eat for the next couple of days … and a lot of it is usually crap … and then a day or so later, the other will go. So on my part, there have been a lot of hot dogs and frozen pizzas and microwave chicken – easy stuff – of course, coupled with lots of junk from the bakery and snack aisles that taste delicious, but end up disappearing and thus making me feel like crap two days later when I’m like, “Seriously – those cookies lasted how long?!”
I’m actually pretty proud of our trip to the store last night, though – lots of produce, some meats and cheeses, and almost no junk carbs to speak of whatsoever!
As you can see, I had kiwi as a snack last night and what inspired this post is the notion that even though at the time I could’ve plowed through a bag of Sweet Chili Doritos just the same, instead I had a kiwi and a cup of tea and not only was it hundreds of calories better for me, but I ended up feeling a lot better about myself when I was done. I think that’s important and is going to come into play here more in the future as I try to reprogram my brain to be less dependent on chips and cookies and other snacks with hopes of enjoying other snacks like fruits and vegetables just the same.
I mean, I’ve done it once before – it’s been over three years since I gave up on drinking soda and I really don’t think that I’ve ever looked back. There was a time when I used to like a Coke with certain meals, but even that has changed for the better – I pretty much steer clear from soda altogether unless it has some sort of booze mixed in with it.
…which isn’t very often at all, mind you! 😉
In a way, it’s a little sad because I’ve enjoyed some of these foods for so long, but it goes along the lines of facing growing older – if I want to enjoy as much of it as I possibly can, these changes need to happen. Plus, the wife and I have talked about it a lot and we REALLY don’t want to pass these kinds of bad habits on down to our kid now, either. I don’t want him to struggle with being overweight for decades because he was taught all growing up that eating five Oreos at a time is ok. I want our house to be the kind of home where there’s always lots of fresh fruits and vegetables around, and we cook actual meals instead of heating them up or deep frying them, and eating is something that you do for fuel, not just because you’re bored.
In retrospect, it’s also a little shameful to look at the calendar and realize that I’ve been conscious about my weight for over a decade now – pretty much ever since I moved to Florida in 2003. That’s way too much of a person’s life to be living it so poorly … if I had a time machine, I’d go back and tell my 20-something self – who was only a little overweight at the time – that it really does get a lot worse if he doesn’t take diet & exercise a little more seriously in between chugging cans of Dr. Pepper and playing Warcraft 3 until four in the morning!
If it takes a little bit of guilt to keep me away from the bad foods and steer me towards the ones that’ll keep me around as long as possible, then maybe I deserve it at this point. And I don’t mean that in a negative way – I mean that very much in a realistic way.
I’m feeling surprisingly good about my direction as of the last three or four days – now let’s see if we can talk the scale into reflecting that. 8)