2016!

Dear You:

A simple number, illuminated on a black background.

That is everything I want.  The illuminated everything shining through.

Tonight -  CNN (Anderson Cooper and his best friend), random college football, beach fireworks and no internet action.  So, as I exit this last 2015 day, here is the question:

What illuminated action do you want to take this new year?

XO
Salud!

J

Christmas Eve Eve. The Christmas list edition!

See photo and Google away!  Ms. Woodhull ran for president (quite progressive this woman) more than a century ago.  Smart, cunning, and she scared people to death.  I wonder why this fast (supposedly) and ambitious nation has yet to vote a femme into the Oval Office?  We will change that in the coming year.  This is my vision-quested listicle for 2016!

BIG PICTURE:

1.  My USA will elect its first female president.
2.  The Patriots will win another Super Bowl.
3.   Many deadhead authoritarian structures will fall and new ones (independent energy, independent labor) will take their places.
4.  "Brick and Mortar" businesses will be revived; new ones will be created.
5.  The economy will shift . . . in interesting ways.  (Buy stock, darling.)

JOYCE PICTURE:

1.  I will NOT (or just say NEVER) grade another essay or associate with regressive, uptight faculty divisions.  I will, instead, remain in the open world of trade.  I will be bizarre in the bazaar!
2.  I will continue my status as wild cat savior here in the beach zone.
3.  I will learn to speak and read Spanish (seriously, how many year has that been on my list).
4.  I will gain muscle mass :)
5.  I will continue to be thrilled by the song/video "Live Your Life":
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koVHN6eO4Xg

'Tis the season to be jolly.

Love, kisses, and everything you want . . , I wish!
Your Joyce

Retail!

Dear you:

Since I am walking away from the goofy repression of low-pay-high-stress college adjunct professorship life (and yes, walking away from the less than lively colleagues who creep me out), I am working as a seasonal retail hire at a legendary old store.  It is really fun.  But I am all over the place.

Have you ever viewed the wonderful old film Auntie Mame (is that the title?) starring Roz Russell? Her free-spirited character faced financial disaster so she gamely entered the work force.  She too was all over the place.  I identify.  Just making it up as I go along:



Crazy!

But, considering the drama on planet earth now (yes, another shooting, more sorrow), you and I are lucky people.

Belated kisses,
Merry etc.
Auntie Joyce

Fragile but strong enough . . . go fly your kites and defy the joy killers.

Dear you, dear world . . .


Friday the 13th, 2015, another day of fragile life on planet earth.  Paris.  Us.

I read this argument a few years ago; I recall a discussion of religious fascism and how it would be the 21st century disease.  How do we spin our dogmas into "justifiable" horror?

During the Taliban reign in Afghanistan (90's and probably resurfacing now), kite flying was against the law.  Kite flying.  Something airborne and lovely, prompted by a running body, a fragile human body loving its brief time on planet Earth.  What is the essential motivation behind banning that?  And relating to Friday, why target people eating, watching sports or listening to music?

Joy killing.  If that is the "religious" motivation, it simply sucks in its stupidity and vanity.

We are all fragile, but strong enough.

Go fly your kites and defy the joy killers.

Love and kisses, really!
Joyce

People, politics, and pumpkin pie . . .

Dear you:

Did you watch the latest hearings, attempts to prosecute/catch Ms. Hinton for . . . anything? All extremist motivations aside, every viewer should have been blown away by her unwavering toughness.  ELEVEN HOURS!   Eleven hours of questions she has answered before.  Eleven hours of looking at that dude with the pointy white hair.  (That would have done me in totally.) And she never lost her cool.

Cool people.  What a good thing it is to be a cool person, in politics and elsewhere.  It seems that "passion" is praised excessively these days.  I hear about passion for careers, passion for hobbies, passion for food, passion for passion.  I am getting pretty tired of passion.  I may be becoming passionately dispassionate.  I've never been a fan of lethargy or passivity, but I am looking back at a good many of my passionate choices and am not sure they were as beneficial (or FUN!) as my "cool" choices.   For example:

PASSIONATE CHOICE 1985 -  accepting a dinner-theater Christmas gig instead of amassing waitress cash in NYC.  Stupid.
CONTRASTING COOL CHOICE 2012 - subverting scamming students at St. Pete. College before my exit-move to PCB.  Smart.

But it's not about me.  It's about today's TOP FIVE cool people:

1.  Ms. Clinton (as noted)
2.  Tom Brady (performing quite well during this season's fabulous revenge tour)
3.  Anonymous writing student I taught at the University of South Florida (name withheld to protect the talented) who created the coolest stories that never featured zombies or anatomically impossible sex scenes. (Warning - if you sign up to teach a basic creative writing course, get ready for hilarious descriptions of sexual acts as imagined by the innocent.  I was especially fond of one scene -- created by a virginal writer -- who thought he knew all about his heroine's GEE spot.  No, he wasn't kidding.  He thought it was called the GEE spot due its "ah, gee, that felt good" associations.  Actually, he wasn't cool, but I do want to hand him a high score for adorable.)
4.  Anderson Cooper
5.  Justice Ginsberg (the notorious RBG)

October is winding down; all things Thanksgiving are approaching.
Yes.  Pumpkin pie is cool!  Please do not blame the pumpkin and the classic pie for all the bullshit, "passionate" products that make us nuts:  pumpkin coffee, pumpkin cake, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin toilet paper, pumpkin tweezers, and (OMG) pumpkin spice anything.  Never mind; it isn't COOL to hate on helpless spin-off products.

Enjoy what is left of 10/2015!

Wishing you cool pleasures . . .

XO

Joyce

WE WILL HAVE SO MUCH WINNING!!!!!!

Dear you:

Syria, shootings in Oregon, flooding in the Atlantic states.  What, me worry?  Never!  I have the promise of The Donald assuring me we will have so much winning.

Winning.  I suppose that means different things to different people. My version of winning is NOT at all like Mr. T's or many of his supporters.  Break it down, "listicle" time again.

Winning according to Joyce:
1.  Gigging in enough dough to pay bills and eat well.
2.  Avoiding the trap of extrinsic motivation.  (If I do this, my department chair will love me etc.)
3.  Enjoying immunity from random opinion.  (Yes, I pretend I'm a Billboard Top 10 star when I work out on the beach.)
4.  Pretending I am immortal.  (This is only disrupted when mailings from AARP or Funeral Benefits Inc. arrive in my mailbox.)
5.  Maintaining physical and intellectual flexibility.  (I can still fall into complete 180 degree splits and can read books written by my adversaries . . . kind of.)

Winning according to Donald:
1.  Talking about my piles of dough.
2.  Manipulating people to fall into traps of extrinsic motivation.  (Don't piss Donald off.)
3.  Enjoying immunity from logic.
4.  Knowing I am immortal!
5.  Maintaining physical and intellectual weirdness.

Choose your 5 actions, from Joyce or Donald, and execute them for your own brand of WINNING!

I guess being alpha and in control is a sign of dominance (a sort of winning), and I have to hand it to Donald for achieving that . . . power.  Speaking of power, check out this clip from Trevor Noah's show compliments of Time:

http://time.com/4060432/trevor-noah-donald-trump-african-president/

Hilarious!
Frightening!
Perfect for Halloween season!

Go forth and win, baby.

XO

Your Joyce

Hey, bartender!

Dear you:

Last Wednesday's Republican debate featured the best stuff first.  Mr.Graham, referring to his bar-owning family legacy, quipped if he is president we will DRINK MORE!

I'll drink to that.

Should I chat about the latest perplexing banter or controversies?  Or should I just stick to Donald, The Movie . . . something we are all watching helplessly.  What is up with The Donald not teaching the weird "Obama is a Muslim and not born here dude" the facts?  Oh wait, The Donald was one of the original birthers.

I am quite confused about this whole religion thing.  What does 'god' have to do with a socially constructed institution called religion?  Gettin' all literature teacher here,  aren't our religious texts simply writings authored by people?  Talk about unreliable narrators.

Buckminster Fuller (check him out on Wikipedia for an impressive resume of thinking and doing) said god is a verb.

I'm getting way too deep.

Happy September, sliding into fall . . . the best one ever, we hope!
Kisses,
Your Joyce