my interview with the Honorable Stan Strickland
desmond tutu takes on child marriage
a daily dose of inspiration, and then some…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Hope
This week the theme of the weekly photo challenge is hope…. (which I’m full of).
The first thing I thought of? Being hired at Microsoft! Oh, how I am hoping.
I don’t want just any job, I want the best job. I want a job that feels more like love than work. I want to love having my job and I want my employer to love my passion and creativity and hard work, too.
So far, the Microsoft opportunity feels like the best fit. And so, when the interviews are over, I hope Microsoft hands me something that looks like this:
And, here’s another little reminder of hope.
It was spring and all the birdies were building their nests when I shot this picture, at Butterfly World, in Florida. This little fellow was trying to bring that entire twig up to his nest in a nearby tree.
He tried and tried and tried….hoping to get it to the nest. It was amazing to see.
Ultimately, though, he turned to another twig more his size, leaving that one a much bigger bird.
colors
The process of transforming / experimenting with colors is great fun. Here’s a very simple photo that I edited using both Adobe Lightroom 4 and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Here’s a darker version:
Below is the original:
passion
I should be asleep, and dreaming – but I got caught up in colors! It’s fascinating how easy it is to manipulate colors on the computer. I’m engrossed with the experimentation of re-coloring.
Since the peacock is full of rich colors anyway, he makes a great canvas to play with.
Photo by Andrea O'Connell (2010)
This is a first draft of the peacock – I’m not totally satisfied with the clarity – not yet. And, speaking of clarity…..
My vision is improving. I am seeing the importance of passion – only just lately. Truly, it’s everything. Passion is everything. creating is everything. Creating wonderful work is everything.
passion is a pretty good guide. (Epiphany alert!!)
I used to think i was too passionate about work. But work has to be passionately wonderful. If it’s not, why do it at all? For money alone? No.
There’s a difference between “work” and work. In the past I thought personal success was measured by how much money I could make. And, in a sense it is, but it’s not integral, passion is first.
It’s about passion first, then money will come. It’s about creating and doing the work I love to do. That’s it. Well, it’s about time I figured that out!
Life is good.
happy monday in advance
Here’s a quick splash of color to brighten up our Monday – in advance!
Monday – tomorrow – 8:00 a.m., I have my second interview at Microsoft – the second of four.
I’m nervous. So… well. Here’s all I really want to happen: When my mouth opens words come out. In perfect order. With colors as bright as this Passion Flower.
Passion Flower, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida By Andrea O'Connell
magic, passion, madness
The writer, Henry James wrote:
We work in the dark – we do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.
Although spoken by one of Henry James’s characters, these words were also his personal credo. James truly feared his work would forever stay in the dark, forgotten.
After the release of a few of his novels, namely Portrait of a Lady (1881), he released many more short and full-length novels, but few were popular. He knew criticism more than he knew acceptance of his writing. Of course, after his death, in 1916, at age 72, he is now revered as the master he always was.
This Henry James quote reminds me of the theatre – working in the theatre. It’s all passion and madness and love, it is not always a normal life when one lives it. But, it is love and passion. And so is the brilliant musical I saw last night.
Next to Normal is one of those experiences that, if it grabs you, as it did me, it’s bound to hold you for a lifetime. 
The show was chilling and lovely and scary and electric and I couldn’t speak when it ended.
Tears dripped on my blouse down to my lap, wetting my theatre program. I wasn’t the only one crying. Maybe I was the only one with out a tissue, though, but a kind woman gave me one of the cocktail napkins she held on to.
I don’t want to give away any part of the story – if you have a chance to see it, you’ll want to be surprised. It’s best to see it without any preconceptions. It will add to the magic for you, like it did for me.
I grew up in the theatre and love the magic and the passion and the madness and the love that is beyond words when a great play hits you in the gut.
There are a few musicals that will never leave me. I’ve seen many, but cling to a few; Next to Normal is one of those – probably the best among all the greats I’ve seen.
It’s like the musical Rent, edgy, amazing and now. It’s rock and roll and light opera and psychology and slice of life – all in one incredibly structured and fluid and dynamic powerful package.
Next to Normal, is playing for four weeks at the Miracle Theatre, in Coral Gables, Florida. (By the way, I was in the inaugural show, A Thousand Clowns, which opened the Miracle Theatre! picture below!)
Next to Normal is also touring across the Unites States. Catch it if you can – you’ll be so glad you dd.
There’s a reason why it won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award in 2009.
That's Me in the play "A Thousand Clowns" at the Miracle Theatre!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple
This week’s photo challenge is to find a photo that says “simple.”
I know some kid, not too tall though, put this on the tree in his front yard one Halloween and there it stayed for a very long time. Simple. Unadorned. Sweet but kind of spooky in a weird Halloween kind of way.
I took this picture in late December, 2011, in Winterpark, Florida.
Go with God?
Brian Scheuble’s Port St. Lucie, Florida travel agency, hypocritically called “Go With God,” would like a little publicity, thank you very much, but not in a very “Godly” fashion.
Let me back up a moment.
We recently learned that Casey Anthony, acquitted of murder for the 2008 death of her daughter Caylee, is living in Port Saint Lucie. A city south of Orlando. Because of death-threats from maniacal haters, Anthony had moved to that previously undisclosed area of Florida, upon her release from jail.
That previously undisclosed Anthony hide-away, is no secret anymore.
And, Brian Scheuble would rather Casey Anthony not live in Port St. Lucie. You see, Brian Scheuble, co-owner of “Go with God” would like to have Casey Anthony Giddy-Up with God and git right out-of-town. Amen.
And, as a gift from “Go With God,” Scheuble has made a public offering to hand Anthony a one-way ticket out-of-town. 
And, a Strip Bar in Port St. Lucie, although not claiming any alliance with God, would like to have Anthony dance in their strip club, “Body Talk.”
The strip club also got their 15 seconds of fame when they said to a West Palm Beach television station, “Hey Casey, we’re hiring.” Actually it sounded like this: “Well, (guffaw-guffaw) hey there Casey (guffaw-guffaw) Anthony, (guffaw-guffaw), why don’t you git on down here and (guffaw-guffaw) dance (guffaw-guffaw-guffaw-guffaw-guffaw) with us here?“
Oh yes, when you got a gimmick and you can attach a Casey Anthony story to it, you got yourself some free publicity. (Guffaw-guffaw-guffaw-guffaw-guffaw.)
To both these neanderthal-men, Brian Scheuble of “Go With God” travel agency, and to the nameless goon who would offer to hire Casey Anthony as a stripper, I would say: You are no better than Casey Anthony. Kicking a person who is already down is a low and horrible thing to do.
Some people are so hateful, and stupid. It’s mind-boggling that this “Go With God” travel agency could be twisted enough to publicize their hate while maintaining “God” as Captain of their ship. Maybe the God in the title of the “Go with God” travel agency, would prefer a public stoning if running Anthony out-of-town doesn’t work?
Amen?
Dr. King’s Dream – Let it Ring Some More!
Image via Wikipedia
If collectively we didn’t have a group to hate, we’d have to invent one (to hate).
I can’t remember who said that, but sadly, I believe it’s true.
When I was born, in 1957, segregation still prevailed. There were “colored” bathrooms, beaches, water fountains and many other indignities.
Through the years, and again today, my mother said that, when I was two, I could read and I knew what the “colored only” sign over the water fountain meant, but not what it stood for.
She told me that I thought the “colored” fountain had pretty colored water, like Kool-Aid. (Children will see things as they are, without filters or ugly meanings.)
“Did you allow me to drink from that fountain?” I asked my mom, today. “You couldn’t have reached it. You were only two,” she explained. “Well,” I asked her, “Could you have held me up to drink from it?”
As she thought about it, I pressed on, “Was it because of the times?”
“No, you were too little and didn’t know how to drink from a fountain,” she told me.
It was a different time; and my parents were not the type to rock the boat.
I don’t remember being told I could not drink that colored water. I wonder if my two-year old self would have felt let-down, or maybe kind of deprived?
Little did I know that an entire population of Black Americans were deprived of much more than colored water.
We have come a long way since then, but not far enough. I think that either we haven’t come far enough, or we’re regressing. Personally, I think we are regressing.
We have a long way to go in regards to Human Rights, Equal Rights, and certainly with the right to marry, and Gender/Transgender Equality.
People who today will deny immigrants a place in our country have forgotten that Dr. King’s dream was for ALL rights. Human rights, Equal rights, Equal treatment, and basic human decency towards all people.
The leaders here in Florida, in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and elsewhere, need to abolish their bigotry towards immigrants and towards anyone who happens to be different. If the inhumane treatment of immigrants (and the torture of our enemies), continues, it will destroy the rich history of “for and by the people democracy” that continues to make this country appealing to people from other countries who simply want to come here for a better life.
We have to have compassion all people or hate will prevail in earnest across the other States in this united land of ours, destroying the fabric that keeps our country good and strong.
The Dalai Lama talks about compassion a lot. In his book, “Ethics for the New Millennium,” he says that without compassion for the sufferings of others, a person will not be truly happy. He talks about how we must continue to cultivate our inner goodness. If we do, our actions become conducive to the creation of continuous compassion for others Things like patience, tolerance, forgiveness, humility, and so on, are the building blocks of compassion, says the Dali Lama.
The inability to have inner restraint will deny the ability to know compassion, thus happiness, he says.
With the bankruptcy of America, which was put into motion by the wealthy one percent, and by the banks who are not taking responsibility for their actions, we need Dr. King’s words now more than ever:
In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I think it’s good that a dialogue about living Dr. King’s dream by engaging in service to others, is happening in my community.
If we lead by Dr. King’s example, our children will grow into people who are world’s better than the people of the 20th century. Better than those who would erect signs to keep fellow human beings off of “white” beaches, out of “white” bathrooms, and unable to use “white” drinking fountains.
If Dr. King were alive, don’t you think he would tell the haters that the only way to heaven is to have compassion for all people, regardless of race, religion, gender?
Wouldn’t Dr. King tell us that God doesn’t care what your religion is, or how pretty your church is? I think so. I also think Dr. King would say something like this: It doesn’t matter who you pray to, what matters to God is, did you do the right thing? I think what matters is to have compassion for others; to stand for something, and to deny the haters an audience.
I think he’d say something like that. I know we’d listen. But, would the haters listen?
We can dream, right?
a writer’s journal with photography
I just published a book! Well, “Blurb” is doing all the work….I just supplied the photos!
<—- That’s the cover of the book. It’s a photography journal that I titled “Journal of Dreams.”
There are about twenty of my nature photos (birds, butterflies and flowers), throughout the 100 page journal.
It is very easy to create a book and it’s totally free! It’s really fun to create. If you want to make a book, go to the Blurb website: www.blurb.com
You have to download some of their software to create your book, which is really no big deal and they (Blurb) make the rest easy. And, there are many other types of books that you can create. I started out making a date book, but switched to a journal midstream, and it was easy!
Click below to flip through my book. The entire book is there. You can purchase a copy via the link and I think I make about $5.00 (I’m not sure), on sales. I need to look into how that works.
They say they print every book with high-quality paper and binding. I just ordered a copy as a gift to my Mom; so I’ll let you know how it turns out. From what I’ve read, they do a really good job and there are Blurb authors who are publishing and selling their own books like crazy!
I love the idea!
My book is below – Let me know what you think!
Hope you’re having a GREAT weekend!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful
The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge asks us to post a photo that speaks “peaceful,” and this one works for me.
This is Pompano Beach, Florida, which is my home. Well, I don’t live on the ocean and this is not my view, unfortunately (or fortunately, during hurricane season!).
Although yesterday was an incredible day, it was hardly peaceful for me!
Yesterday began with a 7:30 am breakfast-tribute to the memory of Martin Luther King, Stand for Something.
The Broward County YMCA puts on this Martin Luther King Inspirational Breakfast program each year. This year J.R. Martinez – Iraq war Veteran, and more recently, winner of the Dancing with the Stars show, was the Keynote Speaker.
And, former Dancing with the Stars contestant and newly retired Miami Dolphins football great, Jason Taylor was honored with the Spirit Award, from the YMCA.
I’ll write about the event tomorrow – it was very special.
Then, I had a phone interview with Microsoft. Yes, THE Microsoft!!
The other day I wrote something about all the applications and jobs that I have on the burner and how I didn’t want to accept anything from Acme Computers if Microsoft called…. And…
Well….,
They called!
Who would have thunk it? They saw my resume online and called ME? OMG!
Well, I don’t have the job – yet. And, although I want to keep really positive about getting it….well, I’m realistic, too.
And I had another great interview with a firm that I like very much…
Then, last night, I saw a wonderful play about, of all things, wrestling! I am hardly anyone who enjoys wrestling – but I have a new-found respect for the show-business side of it now.
If you happen to be in the South Florida area, GO SEE this play. You will love it!
Playing at the Caldwell Theatre, Boca Raton, FL
Moving Rosie’s shark picture down….
Had to get the picture of the poor shark away from the top of the page. Photo credit: Andrea O’Connell 1/10/2012
why rosie?
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a gross display – such a horrible, horrible sight. I don’t understand how, rather than smiling at the dead carcass of that incredible shark, they are not puking off the side of the boat.
I don’t understand. Rosie Rosie Rosie? Why?
( Courtesy Mark Quartiano ) Rosie O'Donnell has taken her children on several fishing trips off Miami Beach with the well-known shark fishing guide Mark "The Shark" Quartiano
I don’t understand how anyone could do this to such a magnificent creature. Imagine the pain that shark endured? and now the ocean is absent another of its most mighty creatures.
I’m amazed that Rosie O’Donnell would celebrate such a thing. Sure, people have a thing against sharks. But, to kill one like that? Why? It makes no sense!
Granted, there are poachers in the seas all over the globe raping the waters of its treasures. Clearly Rosie isn’t doing that. It’s just that…. looking at that image – celebrating the death of that shark – it’s so wrong.
It is enough to make me cry.
This is not a little Snapper or Salmon.
So, what happens now?
Do you need this shark to feed your family, Rosie?
What will happen to the carcass? Will some local Miami Taxidermist get a new project? Or, God forbid, was the parading of the carcass only for the sake a picture?
I’m sick to my stomach.
bye-bye Baez? Go galumphing!
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch! ~ Lewis Carroll
Beware the Jabberwocky!
The Jabberwocky is running wild in the Casey Anthony saga.
In the Casey Anthony trial after-life, sense is nonsense and nonsense is sense, depending upon the day and where you sit to eat your crumpets and sip your tea.
Oh the Jabberwocky we’d hear if our ears were invited….
Casey Anthony, who eats lies for lunch, is like the sloth who uses its dirty teeth to hide a lying tongue.
The bizarre just gets more bizarre and…. it’s so damn fascinating! (I do enjoy the soap opera-ish-tragi-comedy vaper that lingers after the fact and is still there.)
As it has happened with other stories in this case, it takes a willing suspension of disbelief to swallow a single word attributed to the former defendant, Casey Anthony.
But, oh, today’s salacious gossip masquerading as news, is ripe for a virtual vomit!
First, we have the Orlando Sentinel’s victory in getting the erst-while Judge in the Casey Anthony murder trial, Judge Belvin Perry, to unseal the depositions of both Dr. William Weitz and Dr. Jeffrey Danziger, Psychiatrists who examined Casey Anthony prior to, and toward the end of the murder trial. The depositions, say the media, are so juicy they are bound to cause saliva to drip from the collective lips of all of Orlando.
Here are links to the deliciously deviant depositions:
1. Dr. Jeffery Danzinger. April 7, 2011
2. Dr. Jeffery Danzinger, April 13, 2011 continuation
3. William Weitz, Ph.D., April 7, 2011
4. William Weitz, Ph.D., April 13, 2011 continuation
It would take hours of reading to get through the above just-released depositions about the damsel and queen-of-sloth, Casey Anthony’s mental health.
The depositions are reportedly very interesting and reveal a great deal about the depths that Casey Anthony would sink to blame her daughter’s death on her Father, George Anthony.
By far the most shocking revelation? Casey Anthony suffers no mental illness! Well, so say one or both of the Psychologists. How would they know what was lie versus what is truth? And, that was not their task anyway. They were to determine what, if any, issues would prevent her from understanding the seriousness of the charges against her. And there was another reason, but it back-fired: To have Weitz and Danzinger tell Casey Anthony’s sob-story without the defense having to call her to the stand. Fortunately, the law does not allow that. If anyone told her story, she’d have to do it.
With regards to issues of mental health, I think that people who are skilled liars, programmed to lie about everything, are also able to put on a persona, like putting on a hat, that hides their quilt and their mental illness.
Casey Anthony’s history of lies are well-documented. It takes a clever person to be so devious; you’d have to be smart to keep a running history of all the lies you’ve told. Casey Anthony had to keep all the lies in her head and she had to make up new stories to enhance the original ones while keeping them all straight. That’s work!
Even though her lies go absolutely beyond the beyond of reality, her absolute conviction to cling to a lie, though outrageously cruel, is amazing. She’s told unconscionable tales in which she ensnared her own father as the criminal. Only a desperate defense lawyer would believe them.
If you followed the case from 2008, you may remember how the defense came up with a slew of manufactured stories which they hoped would become the reasonable doubt a jury could cling to. They came up with some doozies, too. Every story the defense floated was defeated by the State evidence. Soon the defense team, after nearly three years of posturing, had nothing to show for the carpet-bagging of their wild theories of the case.
And then there was George.
George the Patsy.
Poor, poor George.
He became a Patsy of the highest order. He was the fall-guy of all fall-guys. He was bashed and bruised and left for dead by the blow-hard and brutal Baez at trial. Buoyed by Casey, she cried…..
One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back. ~ Lewis Carroll
Here are links to some of the Orlando stories: Orlando Sentinel, WFTV, WESH,
The other interesting bit of gossip parading as news has to do with a petulant Anthony, expressing anger about Jose Baez, her lead defense attorney. What’s the fuss? The talk is that Anthony is plenty miffed that Baez is getting all the airtime and press while she has to release YouTube Princess Diaries.
So, Anthony wanted to throw Baez under el-bus-eroo in favor of Man-With-Middle-Finger, Cheney Mason. Well, so says TMZ. But, as it turns out, it’s Baez throwing The Princess Diary under the bus! He’s done got up and left the damsel in distress….and he took her silver slippers, too.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. ~ Lewis Carroll
uh, iPhone jailbreaking? for real?
Image via CrunchBase
There are things in this world, especially when it comes to technology, that wow me. One of those things is something called “Jailbreaking.” It’s something you do to an iPhone that removes the restrictions that Apple adds to the phone and allows you to download a bunch of Apps (applications) for free. It even allows you to download Apps that were created for the Android market.
When you jaibreak your iPhone you can do so many things that you couldn’t do with the Apple version. You can change wallpaper and the icons on your phone; you can video chat, watch live TV, play games that require Flash – like the Facebook games, and so much more.
And, when you jailbreak your iPhone, you also “unlock” it. Unlocking the iPhone means to remove restrictions that keep you with the original AT&T or Verizon carrier. You can take your phone to T-Mobile, or just about any carrier of your choice. That’s a huge benefit because AT&T is so expensive. I can attest to that.
It’s going to cost you about thirty bucks to jailbreak your iPhone, but it will pay off in the long run.
I found out about all this unlocking and jailbreaking is due to signing up as a Consultant with a global outsourcing company called oDesk. I applied through oDesk for a job as a writer for a company that writes about this technology.
Let me tell you a little bit how oDesk works.
The oDesk folks provide the website and a listing of jobs that come from employers all over the world. The employer posts jobs and identify the skills required to do the job(s) they want filled, usually on a temporary basis, though some are long-term. The oDesk system matches the potential employees skill-sets with the skills the employer indicates he or she needs. If a job looks like a fit, the employee can apply to the job, and then wait to see if the employer wants to interview the prospective employee.
So, I applied yesterday to an employer who needs a writer. To my surprise, I got contacted by the employer who asked me to submit work specific writing samples. I had to write two articles about jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone.
He sent me the keywords and I had to strategically place the keywords in the content. The better the keywords, the better Google recognizes what the article is about and the higher they rank the article, thus driving business.
But, I thought, huh? What kind of scam is this?! Jail breaking???
But, I said okay, I’m open to anything.
So, I did some research, and wrote the articles today. But, I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know if my articles were good, really. I enjoy technical stuff, but it’s pretty boring to write about. So, I wrote one of my articles in a kind of a “dude-ish” slang, and the other article I wrote with lines borrowed from Shakespeare! In hindsight, I they may have been too creative. Oh well.
Well, I had no idea what the employer really wanted other than to use the words “jailbreak” and ‘unlock” in my articles.
So, I made them interesting!
I’m working really hard at finding a job. The thing about not working but looking for work, it’s a lot of very hard work! I’ve been working since the wee hours this morning and I’m still at it!
Well, I’m getting calls and responses. And I do have real irons on the fire. It’s all about patience. Finding and securing a new job is a long process and a juggling act, too. You have to keep a lot of balls up in the air hoping the best one will drop first. Nothing worse than saying yes to Acme Computer Company and then have Microsoft call! (I did apply to Microsoft, by the way….I can only hope to be considered….!)
So, it’s a busy time for me. But a good time, too. I’m in a good place with a lot of opportunities… the only thing I need now is patience. Not always my virtue.
I want to do the Post-A-Day Challenge for 2012, like I did in 2011, but I have decided it’s too much. Although blogging everyday has become a habit, it will be nice to take a night off now and then. So, that’s the plan! No pressure this year.
On a totally different note, here’s a present for your eyes! I took this yesterday while I was walking my dog. It was a beautiful day – birds, bees and butterflies were everywhere!
