Friday, April 19, 2013

Chechens?

First, my sympathies to those in Boston. A shooting and bombing high-speed chase. How terrifying.

Chechens? That comes out of the blue. I wouldn't have guessed that in ten thousand chances. Are the Tamil Tigers going to make an attack now?

These guys were here for a decade, apparently, after escaping the war-torn hell-hole of Chechnya.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Rainy day loopie.

Woke up to thunder and rain. My cat hid under my desk like a scared puppy, but like a nice puppy comes out when I called her. (Who was the person that observed that a good cat acts like an average dog? Most dogs would never come out when they're rattled by a thunderstorm.)

I took a bus to my therapist, only to discover the appointment was cancelled. Yes, they called me. The message was on my phone, but my phone was off and being recharged. They also called my Skype, but by the time they did my computer was off and I was getting ready to leave.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Writers' support and dreams

I wanted to continue about Roger Ebert, but for the next two days I have to finish a critique on a friend's book. He's a member of my writers' group. Or I think it's going to take two days. Then I have about a day to get my "taxes" done (that is, put in for a tax credit my case worker told me about).

I can't speed read a manuscript. It has to be read the old-fashioned way. At least there's not much in the way of line corrections with this book. Commentary is important.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Goodbye, Roger Ebert!

I couldn't go on without noting the passing of Roger Ebert. It's startling how much he was liked in his final years, since critics had never before been known for their popularity. He broke new ground on that.

In the seventies and eighties, I remembered I would tune in to Sneak Previews on KETC-PBS Channel 9, even when I didn't plan to see any movies that month. He and Gene Siskell were just that interesting. I admit that I liked him a lot better than Gene. When there was a movie I loved and (frequently) had no one to talk to about it, he and Gene Siskel fulfilled that role.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

ADHD: What is it like?

Tuesday I caught NPR's Talk of the Nation and heard a segment about adults with ADHD. Guess what? They're finding what I already found out. The condition, diagnosed in children persists into adulthood. It usually isn't just a stage.

As someone who had symptoms in childhood, with parents who made the decision that the treatment was more harmful than the symptoms, I can say that it's a very real disorder and can have a very negative lifetime effects. Because it wasn't treated, I was forced to deal with it as a moral failing. This lead to overwhelming guilt, demoralization, depression and anxiety disorder. It also generated or aggravated incidents that saddled me with PTSD.