Fra pochi giorni sarà settembre e, come di consueto, a Sesto Fiorentino prenderà il via l'ormai famoso Settembre Sestese, un mese di iniziative ludiche e culturali che interesseranno varie zone della nostra città. Cliccando sull'immagine a lato potrete visualizzare il programma previsto per quest'anno.

Le giostre in piazza del Mercato sono già state montate e tutto fa pensare che anche quest'anno Pinocchio si sarebbe divertito nel suo Paese dei Balocchi! ;-) E non scordatevi i fuochi d'artificio che quest'anno saranno sparati domenica 7 settembre a partire dalle ore 23,30...quale occasione migliore per ritrovare amici, compagni di scuola e colleghi dopo i mesi estivi?

Fra tutte le iniziative previste penso che Querceto Alta in Festa sarà sicuramente fra le più suggestive. Cliccando sull'immagine a lato potete scaricare il programma "di Corte in Corte" che Querceto Alta ha previsto per rallegrare le serate dal 7 al 28 settembre.

In particolare sono 4 i fine settimana di settembre che vedranno Querceto Alto protagonista di spettacoli, musica e banchi enogastronomici e tutte le iniziative si svolgeranno all'interno delle storiche corti di Querceto Alto: Corte del Pallottolaio (vi ricordate da dove viene questo toponimo? ;-) ), Corte della Loggia, Corte dei Finestroni.

Last year I was invited to join the District Wellness Commitee, and being a fresh-faced, 20-something, eager-to-please Pisces Administrative Assistant I am, I accepted. Today was our first meeting of this school year, and in the physical, emotional and mental state I've been in, I was anything but well.

(Aries Moon Talking) "I said Buttwell...He he."

After the painfully chipper 30 minutes of strategic planning for this year's wellness goals, I cut out of there and literally ran for my lunchbreak. There's a little sushi bar about 6 blocks from my work, so I made a b-line for it. I needed wasabi.

I sit down at the sushi bar, where the chefs are slinging raw fish and miso soup. I huffily order Udan noodle bowl and a yellowtail roll. I feel like crap. I'm hating work, obviously. I have slept through my alarm every morning this week. I'm ragging, my face is breaking out, I had no time for make-up this morning, and my hair is in the standard "like I give a f**k" ponytail.

I have begged, pleaded and slapped together childcare options these past 3 days, since my daycare is closed for the next week and a half. Today LB went to a drop-in daycare where they charge $10 an hour. I really shouldn't be spending money on organic noodles and raw fish, but I'm in full pissed-off mode at this point.

Suddenly the seat next to me is occupied by a dude in a yellow striped Polo shirt. He looks pretty young, with brown hair and brown eyes. He orders and then completely out of the blue says to me "Are you on your lunch break?"

Ok, I was giving major anti-social signals: Staring in the opposite direction, scowling, sprouting volcanos on my face, you know, the standard "I don't wanna smal talk right now." However, this dude didn't seem to notice or care. Then I looked at him and saw how dreamy his eyes were.

(Pisces Sun talking) "I said dreamy. He he."

We ended up talking for an hour. I was late back to work. I really didn't wanna leave. He works at the same place my best friend does, so as soon as I was out of the sushi bar, I called her to get the 411.

"Oh yeah, he's a really nice guy. Lots of the girls who work here have crushes on him. I don't think he has a girlfriend"

SCORE!

She's gonna drop a hint for me when she sees him next. Being a Leo, it probably won't be a subtle hint, either. Then this may turn into full-fledged stalking/ high school obsession. How ironic that I just wished my vibrator would pull an Pinocchio and "become a real boy."

Word. Universe. Word.

Szablon przy South Circular Rd (wewnetrznej wiekszej obwodnicy Dublina) ktory pojawil sie po publikowanych w mediach podejrzeniach wobec bylego premiera, ze mowi on prawde tylko wowczas gdy sie pomyli / Stencil work at South Circular Rd (Dublin's Outer Ring) which appear after press speculations that former Prime Minister tells the truth only by mistake.

Tu zaliczylem pierwsza w zyciu blokade kola. / At this place I got clamped first time in my life.

Cienki wypatrzyl je w jakims urynowym zakamarku. / Cienki spotted them in some pissful nook.

Slusznych rozmiarow wlepa ustrzelona gdzies w Dublinie. / Really big sticker spotted somewhere in Dublin.

Roman we wlasnej osobie. Zwlaszcza z glosu. Kolejny dwuczesciowy szablon. / Roman himself. Especially by voice. Another two-piece stencil.

ZZIB: Taka madrosc dzis sporzadzilem: chodzisz po ulicy wiec ja szanuj bo mozesz kiedys na niej wyladowac. / ANFSCD (and now for something completely different): I thought today: you're walking on street so respect it 'cause one day you may live there (as homeless).

Il “somaro” non appare, a prima vista, un personaggio affascinante, a partire da esempi celebri, come Lucignolo in Pinocchio: oggi tuttavia, la “somaraggine” si è caricata di significati sociali, nel senso che non è più il singolo ad essere somaro, ma è la società che non mette in grado, il mondo che non permette, eccetera.
Lungi da me il voler ridurre o peggio negare le responsabilità della società e della scuola, tuttavia, per esperienza, c'è un limite (razionalmente) a quello che si può fare dall'esterno per il “somaro”. Dico razionalmente non a caso, come spero di mostrare nel seguito.
Osservo solo che, come in questo “Diario di scuola” di Daniel Pennac, la correttezza politica mostra i suoi limiti: un insegnante di lunga esperienza, come l'autore è, non può nascondersi dietro un dito. Dove la scuola fallisce, non può indorare la pillola, e, come sappiamo da lunga frequentazione letteraria, raccontare delle vicende apparentemente fantastiche non ha mai impedito allo scrittore della saga dei Malaussène di mostrare la realtà in controluce, e di inserire la sua idea di mondo nella narrazione. Unica concessione: il ragazzo difficile, a scuola, è detto Maximilien, quasi per contrasto tra il nome pomposo e imperiale e la povera realtà di un adolescente che cerca di scampare alla scuola, più che frequentarla. Quindi, Maximilien, Lucignolo, “somaro” o “ragazzo problematico” che sia, Pennac decide di dedicargli un romanzo, allo scopo devo dire quasi commovente, di spiegare la scuola e forse la società di oggi a sua mamma centenaria, con l'idea, molto tenera, di farle capire come suo figlio, l'inspiegabile “somaro” di ieri, sia potuto essere un insegnante e uno scrittore di successo. Ed insieme a Maximilien ritroviamo tutti quei personaggi che già in “Come un romanzo” Pennac ci aveva mostrato, i ragazzi ossessionati dalla moda e dalle esigenze mutevoli ma sempre categoriche del gruppo, consumatori di beni e della loro stessa vita.

Penso che sarebbe ingenuo, e forse anche un po' approssimativo, pensare che davvero il successo scolastico si traduca in un più generale cursus honorum trionfale per tutta la vita, in un momento in cui i nuovi poveri sono sempre più letterati e colti (o, girando la frase, la cultura non è ormai indicativa necessariamente di maggiore ricchezza). Tuttavia, questo rende sempre più difficile il ruolo dell'insegnante, dato che non siamo più imbevuti dell'idea illuministica della cultura come progresso sociale, ed anche non possiamo promettere più banalmente possibilità di riscatto, anche economico, che passino per l'aula scolastica od universitaria.
Si tratta di trovare nuove e forti motivazioni per imparare, che non sia l'apprendere un mestiere o ottenere quel posto che viceversa ci sarebbe negato. In realtà si apprende per migliorare se stessi, e per provare dei piaceri spirituali che non sono spiegabili così semplicemente, in una parola profondi (ma qualcuno vuole veramente essere profondo oggi?). Tutte le spiegazioni abbreviate di questa gioia di apprendere sono piccoli tradimenti. E' la domanda tipica che viene fatta all'insegnante: “A che serve, questo che stiamo studiando?”, alla quale si possono dare migliaia di risposte, pratiche e calate nella realtà dei fatti, ma la verità non può che essere un po' tautologica. Si apprende perché non si può fare altro, dalla nascita: è un po' il destino dell'essere umano. Molto filosofico ed elegante, ma non basta forse per fondare una scuola, né, più prosaicamente, per redimere un “somaro”. Per la scuola ci vogliono voti, registri, premi e punizioni, classi, corsi di diverse materie, sperimentazioni, aggiornamenti, ecc. Ma dove tutti questi strumenti, ed altri ancora, falliscono (e lo stesso Pennac non può, con la solita onestà intellettuale che lo contraddistingue, negare di aver fallito in più di un'occasione) ed il “somaro” rimane, al di là di un eventuale fascino letterario, “irredento”, solo l'amore può riuscire. Sembra banale, ma è la bellissima conclusione di questo libro: oltre un certo limite, non c'è incentivo, proposta educativa o sottigliezza pedagogica che tenga, l'educazione richiede un profondo coinvolgimento emotivo e morale: in breve, non si può non sporcarsi le mani. Altrimenti, continueremo a credere che il “somaro” lo crei, quasi per germinazione spontanea o (più seriamente) per determinazione fisiognomica lombrosiana, la società.

First of all, let me catch you up to speed. Fables is about a community of exiled Fables who have taken up residence both in New York City and in the upstate New York countryside. Some of them have been there since the colonial days of America. Now, I can hear your first question: What do you mean "exiled Fables?"

We're talking Snow White, Prince Charming, Little Boy Blue, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, among many, many others. Some evil being called "The Adversary" has taken over all of these characters' homelands, and so they had to flee to our world in order to escape his mastery. The human looking Fables live in Fabletown, their little neighborhood in NYC that goes unnoticed by the "mundies," or regular humans. The non-human looking Fables, such as the three little pigs, the three bears, and so on, all must live in the countryside at a community they call The Farm.

I've enjoyed all the trade paperbacks from this series, but I most recently read The Mean Seasons, the fifth book in the series. In it, Prince Charming has made a bid to run for Mayor of Fabletown, hoping to remove King Cole from office. Snow White gives birth to a litter of the Big Bad Wolf's (called Bigby, who is able to take human form) children, and we get to go on a secret mission of Bigby's during WWII where he fights someone all old horror movies fans will take delight in. As usual, this series is well written with very efficient art. The most amazing part of this series is how credible the writer, Bill Willingham, has made all of these Fables with their day-to-day lives. As you can imagine, the allusions are non-stop, and I must admit I can't keep up with the majority of them.

If I had heard the pitch for this series in a meeting, I would have passed. But, Willingham as made it work exceptionally. I highly recommend checking it out.

You really need to read them in order to get the full effect. Here's the list of trade paperbacks so far:

Volume One: Legends in Exile
Volume Two: Animal Farm
Volume Three: A Storybook Love
Volume Four: March of the Wooden Soldiers (very good!)
Volume Five: The Mean Seasons

But anyways, let's get to the daily goss.

Lindsay Lohan: You know, I'm glad she is happy, and sober, and all that feel-good schtuff, but I'm having a hard time believing she is actually dating Samantha Ronson. Lindz just loves the men too much. Remember that time she went to Italy and hooked up with 3 dudes in a 24 hour period? She is a 1st Class HoHanbag. Look at her. She made leggings with KNEEPADS. She's trying to help out her fellow sluts! Now, she is ruining her reputation! Being with the same person for an extended period of time is unheard of! Unacceptable! And to top it all off, this subject of her attention is a girl with the fugliest vanilla/chocolate swirl dye job ever. I think HoHanbag is just experimenting, or just really connects with Samdawg. I wouldn't be suprised if she went back to the men. She can't stay away! It's not in her nature! In the words of the LA sheriff, I think she has just "gone gay" for Samdawg, and probably to get constant attention.

David Cook: This supposed "heartthrob" looks like he has Down Syndrome in this picture. I have no problem with people that actually have Down Syndrome. It's just awkward when you look like you have it when you actually don't. Sort of like when people look pregnant, and people congratulate them on the good news, but actually it's just a pot belly. AWKWARDDDD.

Katie Holmes: Even Suri thinks those jeans are freaking disgusting. She is trying to convince her SugaMama to stop wearing those same pair of pants everyday, and wear other articles from her ENORMOUS wardrobe. This chick has money! She doesn't HAVE to wear the same pair of pants everyday. And what is with the fly flap always being open so the world can see that she has to button up those pants instead of zippering?! I always hated button up pants. It made going to the bathroom a lot more difficult.  I think I know what this chick's deal is all about though. She never went through the awkward teen years, as evidenced by Dawson's Creek. She just skipped right over it! And now she feels an awkwardness void. She feels like a brainwashed robot, and just wants to be a real person! I bet Pinocchio inspired her. Doing awkward shit, and looking awkward is mandatory in order to be considered a human. She is rebelling against Tom de Napoleon by wearing fugly 90s-inspired pegged genes, and Clark Kent glasses. The pants are a throwback to her days of unawkward teenhood, so she can try to channel awkwardness. And the glasses? Well, those are what we like to call a cry for help. Tom de FAIL didn't let her be in The Dark Knight which was a HUGEEEE party foul, so now she is convincing the world that she should be in the next Superman movie. Hun, Superman was NEVER as cool as Batman. He doesn't have a BatMobile. Deal-breaker.

Demi Moore: A picture sure does say 1000 words. Ashton and Cameron DIAZaster are totally doing nasty times together. Their sexual tension even permeates out of the picture and slaps the viewer in the face. Demi knows it. Look at her face. She is fighting back the tears. But don't be fooled. Demi's tears are not a sign of weakness. They are TEARS OF RAGE. She is plotting DIAZster's downfall. You don't eff with an age-defying woman. Demi and Chuck Norris should totally hook up.

Lily Allen: W T F. Why is she carrying around a toilet?! She should have hired some dude to do this! Lily will now forever be known as The Porcelain Queen. Such royalty should also start wearing a bra. So pointy right now.

Per la rubrica "Le Pagine Parlanti" dedicata al mondo degli audiolibri, questa settimana vi proponiamo un classico amato da generazioni di ragazzi e adulti. "Pinocchio" di Calro Collodi

Direttamente dal sito "Il narratore audiolibri" eccovi un estratto dall'opera di Collodi "Pinocchio". Per ascoltare cliccate il titolo sottostante.

Pinocchio

Breve Biografia:

Carlo Lorenzini (1826-1890) nasce a Firenze: lo pseudonimo Collodi è il nome del paese in provincia di Prato di cui era originaria la madre. Abbraccia idee mazziniane e partecipa alle rivolte risorgimentali del 1848-49. Lavora come giornalista fondando il giornale satirico Il Lampione e continuando poi questa attività scrivendo come critico teatrale per La Scaramuccia. Esordisce nella narrativa negli anni ’50 con Un romanzo in vapore e Da Firenze a Livorno. Si dedica in età già matura alla letteratura per l’infanzia, traducendo alcuni racconti delle fate dello scrittore francese Charles Perrault. Dopo i racconti Giannettino e Minuzzolo, scrive Le avventure di Pinocchio, che pubblicate dal Giornale dei bambini nel 1881 in 15 capitoli, con il titolo Le avventure di un burattino ebbero un immediato successo.

Breve Biografia del narratore

Moro Silo è narratore, voice-over, lettore professionista per le organizzazioni dei privi di vista e insegnante;ha fatto molteplici esperienze nel mondo degli audiovisivi e della musica. L'avventura on line de il Narratore non sarebbe mai cominciata senza l'apporto decisivo delle sue letture.E' attualmente il più importante collaboratore in voce de il Narratore audiolibri, si considera cittadino del mondo e contagia tutti quelli che incontra sostenendo che la gente , un giorno, reimparera’ a raccontare ed ascoltare storie.

Grazie al sito: Il narratore audiolibri

Do you know how to stop people from lying?

Use a "defibrillator" on them.

It would also give new meaning to "getting a paddling".

note:  lie detector - another word for mother.

double note: art by Arianna Papini

http://humor-blogs.com/

took his heart,
they left a spring
in his step.
that he might ply trades-
a smiling dead.

sees all, feels none.
returns as Geppetto's
prodigal own.

on his lap he'll ask:
"will she lie to make
me real again?"

"or do i die as i am?"

for more of my thoughts, click here.

.

EXAMPLE ONE: He left a few hours ago. He announced that he was meeting "the guys" for a couple of beers". He also said he'd be back in two hours. The deadline for THAT was three hours ago. You want to know where has he been but when you ask him, he always gives you the same old answer: “Oh, well I was with the guys. I told you where I was. WE were having such a good time that I didn't realize it was this late. Sorry."

Is he telling the truth ??

EXAMPLE TWO: She said she was going shopping. You two have been on a strict budget. You told her as she walked out the door NOT to put more than $100 on the credit card..you know she has a real weakness for shopping and little sales resistance. She walked through the door with one, small bag but an incredibly guilty look on her face. She won't make eye contact and when you asked her if she stayed within her budget she merely says, "Uh-huh."

Is she lying?

Was he really with his friends, OR.... was he (and the orchestra plays...TA DA DUM!!!) with another woman?

Did she just think she was pulling a fast one on you and the family budget?

Let's start at the start, shall we?

We all lie. Of ALL the wrong things we humans do--and that covers expansive territory--lying is probably one of the most common acts that we carry out.  It crosses cultures, genders, socio-economic status.   As wrong as it is; as deceiving as it deplorable, we all do it...to greater and lesser extends, but we're ALL culprits. 

Most people would condemn lying..... except when there's a good reason for it.

Most lies are harmless.

"Do, I look fat in my jeans?"

"No Baby, you look great!"

Lie.

"I love grilling steaks out on the Bar-B-Q. Tell me, Laurie...how's your T-bone?".

I chisel through the charred exo-skeleton of this once proud bovine and I smile and reply, "It's delicious!"

Another lie.

Innocent, right? Lies are often told to spare the feelings of the people we care about.

OK, so we all fib. But this unified front doesn't make it right.  More often than not, it goes beyond "sparing feelings". There are lies that are extremely harmful and painful and drive a wedge between two people forever. Why? Because the truth has been compromised; a bond has been broken.

This brings me to lie detection.

So, how do we know when we're being lied to? Most people can sense it it. For me, I react viscerally to lies. Unfortunately, I'm rarely wrong.  I can feel it in my gut.  There's a change the voice that's discernable.   It's almost as if the tone has a thin, weak, veneer to it.  As if you can see what you hear.   But that's just me and perhaps it's part of my reporter's training;  that strange Napoleanic code that dictates people in my midst to be guilty until proven innocent.    

So, perhaps you don't have that ability to sift and weed through bullshit.     Fear not, there are ways to detect a lie without one of them fancy polygraph thingies.

One way to know for sure if someone is lying is of course, visa vie Pinocchio-like nose growth. But, unless he or she is Italian; made from wood; manipulated by strings and eventually animated by some opium snorting artists in a West Coast "studio", don't anticipate proboscis expansion to be an indicator.

Lying is an art form, really. Some are good at it and others are horrific at it. And there are, basically, two different approaches to lying. Either you are a natural, born liar and lies fly out of your mouth like spit wads from a lisper trying to say "Saturday's sessions with some silly, sad Sasquatch" ....OR....you have a really, REALLY hard time faking your answers. Most people fall in the second category.

BELIEFS AND BELIEF SYSTEMS

What you believe is very important. Why? Well, because beliefs come from a very deep level in our neurology. Espousing things about our core beliefs can provoke dramatic physiological changes. This is what modern lie detection schemes are based upon.

Check this out: There was an interesting experiment conducted years ago in several different public school systems across the country. At the beginning of the school year, several white lab coat types went to various schools and divided a class of kids with average capabilities into two separate groups. The first group was told that they were gifted...veritable Malcolms in The Middle. The second group was told the opposite: that they weren't "good enough". Sneaky bastards, right? And then to further hammer this point home, researchers kept teaching the students separated and made sure they heard that they were either brilliant or below average all year long.

Well, as the school year neared it's end, the two groups were tested and the results were mind-blowing. The ‘gifted children’ actually started performing like really gifted and the ‘not-so-gifted children’ had fallen apart academically.

This kids is a prime example that believing something can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How does that pertain to lying? Well, if someone believes that lying is OK, then no matter what happens, he or she will always continue to feel that it's fine to lie--almost as if that's his or her divine right. That's because his or her beliefs never get in the way. Beliefs aren't going to trigger any physiological changes for you to read. And don't even try to employ some psychological mumbo jumbo...nine times out of then, it just won't work.

This is why most lie testing techniques aren't fool proof. However, there IS a method, my clever readers, that even the most gifted liar can't fool.

We're talking about LOGICAL FACTS.

THE CONUNDRUM TECHNIQUE

This consists of the following:

STEP ONE. You ask your friend a question that's based on a detail that he/she couldn't possibly know unless he was telling the truth.

Let's say, for example, he stayed out all night long at some bar, then probably you should ask him/her something along the lines of, “I heard there was a big fight in that bar last night and the bartender was stabbed three times....how horrible!"

In effect, you have to lie to catch him/her in a lie.

Quibble over the moral efficacy of that later. Right now, you've got a task at hand. You gotta catch you a liar.

STEP TWO: Shut up, step back and watch for his/her reaction.

If he delays to respond visually or agrees with your little fake story then the bitch/bastard IS LYING, feel free to retaliate by washing the favorite light colored jeans with your red blouse...in hot water.

If, on the other hand, he/she looks at you strangely and responds with something like, “What are you talking about?? I was there all night long and I didn’t see any fight!”

Then unfortunately, if this happens, he/she probably won't snap to what you're trying to do here and he'll start thinking that you're completely insane and he might break up with you. You'll end up homeless, with not a penny to your name and you're heart broken beyond repair because you just lost the love of your life, but at least he's not a liar!

But I digress.

There are some things you can look for that might give away whether someone is lying to you or not. I'm talking about body language for the most part. They are, by no means, the best modes of detection, but more often than not, one or more of these non-verbal cues will indicate you're in the presence of a liar.

1. Liars fidget. They fidget a lot. They shift their feet, they sway while talking and they gesture awkwardly and inappropriately with their hands. Subconsciously, when we lie we feel on display and this makes some people feel uncomfortable. It is this discomfort that makes one act all fidgety.

2. It’s all in the eyes! Liars don’t like to look you in the eye for too long. Or, conversely if a liar is aware of this fact, they may look you in the eye much longer than social norms dictate. Liars also blink less frequently than the norm, as if they need to keep their eyes open and on you in order to assure themselves that you believe their tale. If a person makes eye contact too little, or too much, they may be lying. At the very least they are not comfortable with the subject of the conversation. Shifty eyes, looking away and looking back quickly and awkwardly, is another sign that somebody may be lying. After all, we describe dishonest people as “being shifty” for a reason.

3. Liars touch their face and mouth a lot. This is something that most liars can’t control even if they are aware they are doing it. It is a reflexive psychological response to being untruthful, a symbolic way of stopping the lies from coming out. It can also deflect unwanted attention to what's being said. Interesting. This behavior is most often seen in liars who feel bad about being untruthful or who are being untruthful for so-called noble reasons like sparring another hurt feelings or keeping a promise to another to hold a secret in strict confidence.

4. More often than not, liars look down when telling a story. It’s as if they're thinking of what to say next. It's a well known and well-studied reflexive psycho-social reaction that people who are truthfully recounting a real event look up when trying to recall the details. They're looking up and mentally picturing the events that they are talking about almost as if they are looking at their brain for answers. Liars look down because they're not remembering, but creating a story and they need to look at a blank canvas, like the ground, in order to spin their story and make it convincing. It’s a way of concentrating on what's being said and making it work with what has already been said, in other words  "lying convincingly".

5. Liars mix up fine details. Unless they're people of genius caliber, a liar spins a lie by making a point of registering the core of what's being said for future use, but they often forget the minor credibility building details they’ve incorporated in to their lie. An honest person is more likely to be consistent in recalling smaller details of an event than a liar because the truth-sayer has the mental picture to pull up and think of when asked a question. Brilliant pyschopaths can do this, but your everyday, run of the mill liar lacks this mental picture and therefore has no failsafe way to recall smaller details.

6. People who lie tend to get defensive or they take a defensive posture with others when confronted about the lie, even if they are not actually being accused of lying. When you second-guess a liar they are quick to react in anger in order to put YOU on the defensive and deflect attention from the lie at hand. Even if you ask an innocent question like, “where did it happen again?” or, “can you tell that story over again to Bob?” a liar may get defensive, angry or irritated. In very rare cases, a liar may act like they don’t even know what you are talking about. Inconsistency and a defensive posture combined almost always signal a liar.    Also, angered reactions are indications that you've busted the liar or you've come close to revealing his or her fabrications. 

7. Liars very often preface everything, EVERYTHING they say with an exaggerated, "Uh..." Uttering this monosyllabic grunt enables them to buy the time they need to concoct something plausible. Beware of the person who responds to every one of your queries with "Uh." And guess what? Men do this more than women.

EPILOGUEEPU•

So, there you have it. We all lie at times. We have to fib on occasion--certain situations require it, but there are people who can't open their mouths without lying. These are the pathological liars who who do so to cover up some deep seeded psychological inadequacy. They can very often, beat the system. The above seven things mean nothing to them---they can lie to you by looking at you right in the eye, they never say "uh", they never touch their faces and they do this while sitting perfectly still AND keep perfect track of their filthy, dirty BS ridden lies.

They are sociopaths and many of my ex-boyfriends.

In the simplest of terms: these are the people from whom you should run..... and run like hell.

I'll leave you with this:

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."

That makes a lot of sense; unless of course, Holmes was lying.

,

Lo Specchio Magico - I Cavalieri del Re

È una bimba come te
con grandi sogni racchiusi in sé
mentre danza la sua stanza diventa il palazzo del re

Stilly ancora non lo sa
ma un sogno può diventar realtà
non è facile
nè difficile
forse semplice sarà

Prendi lo specchio magico
fragile e mitologico
simbolo di bellezza e di vanità
ogni tuo sogno segreto con lui diverrà realtà

Prendi lo specchio magico
anche se sembra illogico
ogni tuo desiderio s'avvererà
se specchierai in lui l'amore fedele ti servirà 
La la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la la...

Let me briefly introduce myself: you can affectionately call me Spaulding, Darth Spaulding… I have an appreciation for many films, everything from Casablanca to House Of 1,000 Corpses. I grew up a student of the craft of cell animation mentored by a great artist named Gary Cangemi.  I was schooled in the ways of the force and the pencil and became enthralled with animated Disney features (circa 1937 to 1994).  Over the years though, I, like Chancellor Palpatine, have come to recognize the power of the “dark” side (well, of films at least).  In most cases, the darker the motion picture, the more sinister the antagonists, the deeper the emotion and the better the show!

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Oh, Walt would probably be turning in his grave right now.  We witnessed the emergence of Toy Story (computer animation trumping tradition cell animation), Pirates Of The Caribbean (ah hoy!) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (starring Ra’s Ah Ghul as a lion).  Disney has undergone the worst of transformations since 1995.  What happened to Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword In The Stone and many other classics?

Though I’ve enjoyed Pixar’s collaboration with Disney over the years, to a traditionalist, Toy Story was disturbing.  I know most wouldn’t use that word to describe it, but I, the twisted critic, do.  Don’t misunderstand me; I think Toy Story, Pirates and The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe were all in their own way good films, but to a Disney purest it was heart wrenching.  They weren’t top shelf, but I still give them some much deserved respect.

Why then did I breathe a sigh of relief when I recently discovered that Tim Burton, the dark knight of directing, was working on a new adaptation of Alice In Wonderland?  Puzzling, isn’t it!?  This moves me in ways Pirates never could.  My ship has sailed in; I am no longer lost on the island of Disney “cheese.”  Suddenly, I am intrigued by how much better the Burton version (over the 1951 classic) potentially can be… portrayed in an “Ichabod Crane”-like, or Beowulf-like style.  Wow!  Rest assured you’ll be hearing more from me about this projected 2010 release.

Burton has once again sparked my interests and this time it has nothing to do with Batman.

-          Darth Spaulding

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higgledy-piggledy: they just don't use words like that any more.

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Writers hear two different bits of wisdom when trying to decide what they will write about.  1) Write what you know.  2) Write what interests you.  The second makes a lot more sense, though I can see why people would be discouraged from writing about kinds of people and places they are unfamiliar with.  But would anyone really try to do that?  But maybe "know" is sort of a loose term anyway.  Do writers need to be told these things?  One bit of advice I liked was from Natalie Goldberg.  She said "Write about that topic you just can't stop talking about."   It sounds practical.

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Melville, with these extracts, or quotes about whales, seems to be shouting something.  Something like:

THIS IS GONNA BE A BOOK ABOUT WHALES!

or

I AM OBSESSED WITH WHALES AND THAT IS WHY I HAVE WRITTEN A MASTERPIECE ABOUT ONE!

or

GET READY FOR WHALES, FOLKS!

or

HERE'S A CRASH COURSE IN CETOLOGY

and then

NOW LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE!

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The quotes about the oil in whales jumped out at me (of course they did).  It's just so bizarre to think, especially in light of our current world, there is an animal out there, swimming in the ocean, holding within it a "sea of oil."

What?

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Natalie Goldberg also suggests a writing exercise where the writer picks a word like death, teeth, or sleep, and writes about it non stop for 10 or 20 minutes or so.  "Write everything you know about...  Now go!"

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WRITING EXERCISE: Everything I know about WHALES:

P'Nui told me that she and P'Gwang went on a whale sightseeing trip while she was near Cape Cod.  She saw the tail in the distance. That's all she saw.  One of the extracts mentioned that when a whale snaps his tail, the sound can be heard from three or four miles away.  Whales are outrageous. They hold oil? They sing?  They are giants.

I barely ever think of whales, or think of the fact that one of my best friends has seen a tail of one; sat in the ocean with one.  Maybe my aunt saw some in Alaska, I don't know.  At the moment, seeing a whale seems like it would be the same as going to the moon--something I assumed when I was young that everyone got to do before they died.  A natural part of life, or something.  But now, seeing a live whale in the ocean seems like  something only select people experience.  Though, of course, I'm much more likely to see a whale than I am the moon.

Whales have songs they sing to each other and they travel in groups from the north to the south and then the north again, along the American coast.  Huge distances.  Whenever I think of Jonah I also think of Geppetto and Pinnochio, because they both hung out in whales for a while.  I never read the book of Jonah.  There's a ton in the old testament that I've never read.  My friend read it and she related to Jonah, thinking that she was being disobedient to her call because she didn't feel like meeting the responsibilities of her job.  I think her reaction made me not want to read Jonah--it seemed like it was a story about disobedience and punishment, and that's not a story I necessarily want to read.

Whales change their song every year.  I think I learned this on PBS.  Or maybe I made it up.  I don't know.

Whales are really heavy.  When sperm whales end up sick and on the beach, it's an event to get them back in the ocean.  It takes a Whale Rider to get them back.

I think some whales have hammerheads. No, wait, that's sharks.

Killer Whales, like Willy, are not killers.  They are usually portrayed as heroes or maybe it's victims.  I don't know.  I never saw the movie.  Killer whales are smaller than sperm whales.

Whale hunting may or may not be illegal now.  Lot's of people are into "Saving the whales."  That is interesting, because some of the extracts made it seem like whales were viewed as dragons or monsters of the sea.  Scary as hell.  Of course they would be scary.  If I went with the P's on their whale "hunt," would I be sort of scared?   Humans are powerful creatures.  You know they are powerful when it's up to them to save monsters.

I think some people eat whale.  But I think it's probably against the law.  And I think I heard that indigenous Alaskans used whale "products" for everything: fuel, meat, insulation... More stuff I may or may not have learned on PBS.  Whales are useful.  That's what I think I learned.  I wouldn't want the job to kill it though.

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Melville probably would have appreciated google searches.

Fowlds, front and centre.

Fox, lower right. 

What does it all MEAN?