Natasha Thomsen's Place

Grog for the blog

2011-12-01T18:33:00.000-05:00

Ok, in case you didn't know, a grog is the best cure for the common cold or influenza, and better than all that stuff with gosh-knows what in it. Try it; you'll like it.

Grog Recipe - courtesy Food.com

Grog
By Mille® on February 16, 2002

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 20 mins
• Serves: 4, Yield: 48 ounces
About This Recipe: "Nectar of the pirates!"
Ingredients:
• 4 cups water
• 1 lemons, juice of
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/2 cup Vermont or Canadian maple syrup
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 16 ounces dark rum
Directions:
1. Bring water to a boil in saucepan.
2. Dissolve sugar in boiling water.
3. Stir in rum and lemon juice.
4. Carefully pour drink into heatproof glasses or mugs containing 1 cinnamon stick each.
5. Serve hot.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 (391 g)
Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
% Daily Value
Calories 364.1
Total Carbohydrate 27.8g
© 2011 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. http://www.food.com/19835
Inserted from

Technology Riding More Power Waves Between Netbooks & Tablets

2011-09-18T01:44:00.000-04:00

Amazing how technology works. The temptation of portability has been around for at least 15 years now with the introduction of notebooks, but the definition of portability continues to ride a wave of ups and downs. No sooner do I get use to crating my 5-pound laptop around the house and overcome my hardpressed feelings about carrying it on an airplane or to meetings, then the netbook appeared. That allows me some light-weight computing power on the road, keeping the majority of my files on a thumb drive and the minimal apps needed to do stuff I really care about (like writing). What's happening now? They're supposedly phasing netbooks out and phasing in tablets, notably led by the iPad and iPad2. That's fine if you consider typing as texting, but it really doesn't work for the serious types, like me. Yes, you can buy a keyboard, but do you really want to cart that around? No, sir, I don't. If men and women can managed to coexist, why can't we have a world with netbooks and tablets?

Times are changing, or is time changing?

2011-08-29T23:45:00.001-04:00

OK, you can rake me over the coals for taking way too long to update my blog, but since the folks who actually read this don't own up to it, I'm not going to spend more than this sentence on an apology. Onwards.

I'm quite caught by this little conundrum: are the times changing (like global warming, it's all happening relative to how we grew up) or is time itself changing? A few milliseconds (in rotation or in travel around the sun) really could make a signficant change in how this planet behaves. Who's to say that 10 of our minutes haven't been stretched or shriveled, imperceptible to us because it's all so "relative"?

There you have it, my thought for this week.

A New Start Day For Royalty

2011-04-29T09:28:00.002-04:00

Getting up at 4 a.m. for royalty is no easy feat. The Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge (aka Prince Williams and Catherine, aka Will & Kate) were married today at 6:15 a.m. (ET) with 2 billion people watching from across the globe. This very choreographed event had a few loop holes, which were encouraging to those of us who live for the unknown, unplanned moments.

Here are some of my own observations:

>28,000 tulips planted for the event, bloomed too early.
>Depite forecasts for rainy weather, the sun came out just as Middleton's vehicle pulled up in front of Westminster Abbey.
>The postman, pub owner, and butcher were invited to the wedding; heads of states were not.
>Proof that life goes on in so many different ways. Traveling the long road from that sad, sad day in August 1997, when Princess Diana died, her unseen, staying influence on today: from her life lessons to modernizing the monarchy--wearing more of their feelings on their sleeves and remaining visible to their public. Also, the preparatory time for her son with his future wife (vs. the 13 times Diana met Charles before their wedding day), who began as friends.
>Will not seeing his future wife until she was at the alter.
>The occasion gave me a fresh sense about weddings, as a symbol of new birth, when the bride (egg) is delivered from the father (sperm)to the younger man (a younger sperm).
>They are marrying on her saint's day (Saint Catherine of Siena).
>Catherine is no longer wearing the engagement ring of Princess Diana, but the ring William put on her finger. [She didn't put one on his during the ceremony? Or did I miss that?]
>A new beginning for the monarchy in the 21st century. A sense of foregiveness for their past.
>The "gold" fixed traditions of the monarchy complement the "silver," fluid, ongoing changes of government.
>2 kisses by the royal newlyweds from the balcony of Buckingham Palance.
>Next great occasion of pomp and circumstance: Prince of Wales' coronation.
>Acknowlegment and support sent by wedding guests, also part of Will's search and rescue unit, to the efforts going on in the southern parts of the U.S. (especially Alabama), ravaged two days earlier by tornadoes.

Suggested sources:
>TIME magazine article about Will & Kate [March/April 2011--find date].
>Lifetime movie, "William & Kate," which skirts around all the former boyfriends and girlfriends, and focuses on their relationship's highs and lows.

Ropes!

2011-03-25T00:06:00.001-04:00

A curio-ponder: It seems the Aurora Borealis are visual evidence of a direct link between the blue (planet) earth and yellow (star) sun, via magnetic "ropes" that connect through the solar winds to the upper atmosphere.

Much to wonder about here.

Proof of this comes from the legendary NASA itself.

Closing the cracks

2011-03-19T01:01:00.002-04:00

Today, I learned that two of my rental properties are within 15 miles of a nuclear power station that IS on a fault line. Soooo, I personally got interested in Dr. Richard Besser's demonstration of HOW to seal a door on Good Morning America (ABC.COM, 3/18/11). (With my luck, something might happen in the once a year appearance to see the properties and how the tenants are doing.) The good doctor used plastic sheeting and duct tape (stretching it across the opening to about 2" around its periphery). Just remember to seal yourself in with everything you need--enough for 3 hours. (No one has mentioned it, but bring something that can serve as a potty seat w/toilet paper.)

I withdraw all my cracks about the useless expense on duct tape in the face of certain death. Besser says you can reduce your exposure to 5 percent by doing this simple thing. (I've also come of age to admit that anything that gives you a shot at staying alive a few extra years cannot be entirely nonsense.)

March Madness Has Been Going on Since January

2011-03-16T11:01:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while, someone who actually reads my blog tells me I've not been updating it lately. This, I tell myself, is a compelling reason to do so, but will that/those persons come back anytime soon to read it? Will they know their observation did, in fact, affect me, and therefore whomever else is reading this? Interesting business this law of cause and effect. Caused and affected by what, we can ask?

I've been working on a blog entry that was drafted in early January--and yes, will edit it into my previous posting since it's still sadly apropos--but let's take stock of what's gone on since January: From shootings in Arizona, to revolutions in the Middle East, demonstrations in U.S. state capitol, to the Japanese earthquakes and tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean. This is all big stuff! Stuff that is causing a real change in behavior, actions, and reactions.

Now stop to consider how all this has affected you. What part of your life? Have you had second thoughts about living or dying? How long did they last? Did they recede like low tides? How lasting were they? Maybe it's supposed to be that way? We are really only left with the shells and flotsam that wash up on our shores, or are we?

Continuing along this theme of radar, in many respects, it acts as a personal "comfort" zone. Anything new could lead to a weird reaction, a sense of "Why should I care?" or "I have more important things to think about," PTSD, ADD, or any number of "disorders" to those balances.

The Japanese may have something right, now that they lived through an earthquake and tsunami that was way beyond what they anticipated or prepared for: The forces of nature are empowered and are not necessarily controllable.

Maybe there's a way to join hands with those forces. Maybe the human race is in for some changes that are bigger than we ever "planned" for in our everyday lives. Keep an eye on that shoreline.

Cheers.

P.S. For the practical-minded, here are some suggestions for being prepared:
*Understand how to deal with radiation (washing off, clothes & jewelry, etc.)
*Preparedness kit (American Red Cross has a backpack kit)
*Wind-up radio and flashlight (doesn't require batteries or electricity, $35)
*Food not requiring water to be cooked (i.e., canned beans, tomatoes)
*Family ICE (In case of Emergency) plan
(Source: Tues 3/15/2011, Good Morning America, ABC.com)

What's Up? What's Not? God's pharmacy & welcoming in 2011

2011-01-05T13:24:00.004-05:00

I was amazed at the juxtaposition of stories on morning television in early January. First, there's the story of African-American honors student, Phylicia Barnes, a 16-year-old North Carolina girl who was visiting relatives in Baltimore and disappeared three days after Christmas. The police, lawyer, and family were baffled/dismayed by the low media visibility of the story, not receiving any national attention for nearly two weeks, only to be overshadowed by the assassination attempt on Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords when it did finally surface. I still need to find out what's happened as of this writing, but last time I looked (early March) she was considered missing and/or dead from foul play. (She could have also been sold to a human trafficking ring.)

This was followed by the news story about thousands of birds, fish, and crabs found dead in the US, Brazil, UK, and New Zealand. A guest researcher/commentator suggested it wasn't so unusual, but "what was once below the radar, is now above the radar," with the vehicles of FaceBook, the Internet, and global television.

That last point is a poignant highlight of human behavior. Some how, a missing youth--even one with a stellar education and reputation--is less newsworthy than natural phenomena, less deserving of being "above the radar."

Humans are, and always were, empowered to choose, but are we challenged with using that power?

Today's blog excerpt is also dedicated to the well-being of that thoughtful lady who has managed to survive living in New York City, keeping herself intact against all odds, including a close call with homelessness.... My hat goes off to you in this new year.

In the absense of having anything else prepared and woefully out-of-date while I remain on deadline, here is what that lady emailed to me, clipped, no doubt from another source, but why shouldn't we be the purveyors of thoughtful information?

Soon coming... my philosophical views and recent revelations from my recent book research into global issues concerning women's rights. If you think this is too much of a heavy-read, or stupid, then don't come back to read my blog.

Happy new year and new decade.

~Tasha

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidney.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers.

And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods. Modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them.

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion,
Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Significance of names

2010-10-05T23:35:00.000-04:00

Don't ask why this occurred to me just now, but it's amazing how some people use the same name all their lives, while others (like me) are constantly changing them. I had a baby name, a girl name, my real name, my new real name, and my latest name. (Not publishing the names for privacy reasons.) Is this something to hide or, on the contrary, is it about growth and wanting to move on with a new feeling by being called something slightly different. Okay...as you see this is my excuse for updating the blog. You wouldn't know that I feel like I have so much to express and little time to do it in, would you?

Inner Mirrors and Outdoor Drama

2010-07-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

A useful thing about blogging is how it reflects the author back to themself.
Not just in the writing--style, word choices, mistakes--but in character: how often entries are made, choice of topics, sophistry or not, meaningfulness on a personal level, or not, and how they relate to the outside world. It says a lot about a person and, like most forms of writing, can serve as a mirror unto oneself.

That's the reflection for today and a meager attempt to distance myself from what I simply can't imagine: Who would bother to read all this? As far as I know, no one reads this (or owns up to reading it). I've learned in recent years that this sort of self-assessment is quite common among artist and not to be paid attention to. Funny thing is, I often sense that there are people watching and just waiting for one more thing to pick on me about. This, supposedly, is another hallmark of artistry and is the reason so many writers go into seclusion when they write, to evade those feelings. Does this make anyone question the process of creation?

Okay, enough on that stuff. Now the sharing of the goods...

Just found out about an outdoor musical drama in the southwest Virginia mountains: Trail of the Lonesopme Pine. This romantic true story about June Tolliver and Jack Hale--a kind of Hello Dolly meets Romeo and Juliet wrapped up in one--was penned by author John Fox (with whom I am not familiar, at all!). Fantastics move over! This one has been running for 46 years! Somewhere off of I-81, just north or south of state boarder town Bristol, one can drive on a four-land highway all the way to Big Stone Gap, VA. So, as soon as I get the specifics, I'll pass these along.

LEVERAGING—A WOMAN’S SKILL?

2010-05-23T14:50:00.002-04:00

Never mind asking why this country isn’t ready for a woman to be president, when it’s rare someone will ask why it was so difficult for women to achieve the right to vote in the U.S., a self-described land of the free, and how they managed to overcome that resistance.

One theory that started to burble in my brain while conducting research in 2006 for a reference book, Global Issue: Women’s Rights, was that women, overall, were perceived as conservatives. The women’s suffrage movement, which quickened in the late 1840s in the U.S., was largely made up of advocates left over from the 19th/early 20th century temperance movement. Men did not want to see their lifestyles—namely centered around work, family, sports, and pubs—dictated to. Many women didn’t either, but they were, of course, the discrete minority on that one.

What I just read in the May issue of the Smithsonian magazine presents yet another set of angles on this.
The mover and shaker behind the Anti-Saloon League, whose cause evolved into what became legislated and known as the Prohibition amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was, in fact, a man—Wayne B. Wheeler. (Read the article for more information about him.) One of the ways he gained momentum for this unpopular gesture for change was to recruit women.

Here we encounter a series of ironies. Renown suffragette Susan B. Anthony was originally rooted in the temperance movement. Being denied the right to speak at a temperance convention in Albany, New York in 1852, because of her gender, launched Anthony on the long road of the suffrage movement. By 1899, she leveraged the two causes for one another, while speaking with an ASL official: “The only hope of the Anti-Saloon Leagues’ success lies in putting the ballot into the hands of women.” The few women who could vote in any of the 16 U.S. states in 1917, helped to push through the 18th Amendment, which banned the right to manufacture and sell alcohol in the United States, through both houses of Congress. Another irony: Senate hearings, which began on September 27, 1918, after fulfilling the three-quarter requirement of state ratification, were heavily influenced by anti-German sentiment—ultimately silencing consumers of Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Miller beer (and we can imagine who they were).

Prohibition went into effect January 17, 1920. The women’s vote became possible on August 26, 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified. Two wins, two causes, after very, very long hauls. That’s not a bad record. Anthony can come back to be my president any day, even if I don’t agree with her.

One, final irony: Utah—now a territory for non-drinking Mormons— became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition on December 5, 1933.

How can a new town be new 50 years later?

2010-04-10T17:03:00.004-04:00

Just attended a Founder's Day celebration in Reston, Virginia.

It was interesting to see there weren't too many people my (middle) age around... most of my peers have also left this "new town" of the 1960s when we graduated from school.

Many of the parents of my peers from these pioneering families--now in their 70s and 80s, as well as founder and visionary Bob Simon, who turned 96 today, whom I had the pleasure of sitting next to--were wondering how to kickstart growth of the place, which is centered not around one but five (originally seven) villages.

I only recently learned that Reston is neither a city or town, but a community in Fairfax County, Virginia, which apparently is also a hot topic that thankfully wasn't raised here. (One of the issues is deciding what kind of government "fits" this community.)

What interested me--for personal reasons, as an associate member of a newer community in East Tennessee, the Template Homestead--was what the guest speaker (Alex Garvin, urban planner, Yale educator, and author) offered as a strategy for moving forward:

(1) Decide who you want to attract (people)
(2) Put aside the money to do that (secure finances)
(3) Identify what they will need (transit within and outside the community, coffee places, street life, find the best form of government, a good map to find the place
(4) Start putting those things in place for when the economy gets better and be ready to receive (1)

But most importantly, he said there is no "correct" way to do this.

For me, Bob Simon's quiet comment was apropos and simple: "He's good."

With so much security prevention, thieves are developing prevention-resistance!

2010-03-24T10:19:00.003-04:00

Recently, an email from my client came through with something for everyone:

Be careful about how you park (with the passenger side doors facing away from the rest of the lot, etc.) and how thieves can now manage to break in without you noticing. (I'm not passing along the step-by-step on how they do that.) The point was that they took one small item but left the GPS system alone, which shocked a colleague: "Oh no, he said, they want the break-in to be so subtle that you don't even realize it."

What we got from this was they look at your GPS to see where "home" is. Now they know what you drive, go to your home, and if your vehicle isn't there they assume you aren't and break in your home." Another subtlety is to leave a purse or wallet and only take one or two credit cards, or checks from the middle section of a check book. By the time you realize there has been a theft, they may have already had a couple days or more to use them. This is another reason they want the break-in to go unnoticed.

The take-home message: remove from the GPS unit home address as "home." Put in a local Wal-Mart address or somewhere else. Park the vehicle in a highly visible place, and keep valuables with you. Most importantly, it may keep the thieves from showing up at home.

Oh, and it may help to periodically walk around your car and check for holes near the door handle. (You can also imagine a blue gas that envelopes the car and repels all harm-doers. That seemed to work for me in New Haven, Conn.--the car-theft capitol of the world.)

________________________________

Still more of the white stuff....

2010-03-03T15:02:00.002-05:00

"Snow has become a four-letter word."
--Chattanooga, Tenn NPR radio station this morning.

I Am Where The Snow is Not!

2010-02-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

In cold, but dry, no-snow, Tennessee...(really, am not missing the shoveling.)
Watching the new Ricky Gervais show on HBO. Hilarious, but maybe just a tad crude. A 30-minute live action talk show literally turns into an animation talk show--British accents and all. 9 pm Friday night.
Is this part of the graphic-ing of reality TV?

Are Plans Possible in an Age of Global Connectedness?

2010-02-21T11:54:00.002-05:00

Is really possible for a country to make an economic plan projecting out, let's say, 5 or 10 years, when we are living in an increasingly interconnected global economy?

This question turned up in my head this morning while watching a Sunday talk show segment. Govs. Rendell (PA) and Schwartzeneggar (CA) were discussing the health of the US economy--Is it getting better or worse?
Both saw indicators at the state level that would suggest it's on the mend--just be optimistic and not overly enthusiastic, as much work is still needed.
Forming better infrastructures to maintain the economy came up, and Washington needs to get better at making plans.

As far as I know, even the best, well thought-out plans don't always pan out, largely due to the change in culture in which they are made. In this case, make that plural--cultures--with economies appearing over the past 5 year that make headlines now, but were developing countries 15 years ago.

If something dire happens in one country, how likely will it impact other countries around the world? For instance, how about all the mortgage-backed securities failing in this country, troubling both European banks and the Chinese? Or Greece and Portugal putting a hiccup into the world stock markets with their debt declarations, until the European Union stepped in to catch out these newest member nations? Or the U.S. ability to recall loans after lending so much money to South American nations back in the 80s and 90s? California is considered to be among the top 8 economies IN THE WORLD. What happens in California could be a harbinger of what's to come to the rest of the U.S., good or bad.

I have been shorted by thousands of dollars by non-paying tenants in rent money in the past 2 years. My only recourse is to find a job so I can pay for what they couldn't... my mortgage. Apart from one hand feeding another, what other plan exists? (There's that interconnectedness thing, again.)

Maybe we should take it up a notch:
Will going global in economic planning make a difference?
Maybe we should think bigger, now that we are all connected.

Musings for the day.

Nutrition that supports sleep....

2010-01-19T00:27:00.001-05:00

Nutrients in salmon, beans, yogurt, and spinach, can be forerunners to a restful sleep, according to RealAge.com (A Web site run by Oprah's physician consultant, Dr. Emhet Oz), which is citing Eat Your Way to Happiness by Elizabeth Somer, RD as its reference.

And courtesy whitehouse.gov....

The ladies of The View, blew out any warped reasonings about why Haiti's experiencing this tragedy. On their Thursday 1/14/2010 show, they discussed the country's misfortune and the significance of helping Haiti to rebuild itself.

Did You Notice?

2010-01-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

Haiti: Go to WhiteHouse.gov and CNN.com/impact, for ways to help. Donations, from $10 to $100, will go a long way in these early days.

Martin Luther King's Birthday: Declared a day of service.

Foreign accents: What's the deal with TV audiences being treated to folks with accents (Easy-Off is one example) or foreign actors coached in American accents. (Two cast members on Brothers & Sisters; 1 on The Mentalist; 1 on now-defunct Eli Stone; and 1 on Gray's Anatomy, are just a
few that spring to mind.) What does it say about people and their semi-conscious or unconscious objectifying of others? My thinking at the moment is world citizenship is more at play than any one nation will ever admit, but nationality and ethnicity tend to polarize people around physical appearance and language. Onwards with the diversity movement!

Well-armed body: More tips for strong-body nutrition (not "diet," which suggests weight loss)... Freeze-dried black raspberries contain even more cancer-fighting anthocyanins than fresh berries do. And freeze-dried fruit can keep for over a year. Freeze-drying the berries concentrates the nutrition, but attenuates it as well. Check this out...

Objectifying women discussion on The View, on Wed. 1/13/2010. Catch up on ABC.com.

Signing off,

Tasha

More Strong Body/Strong Mind, Better Able

2010-01-09T10:19:00.001-05:00

More good info for the health- & body-strengthening nutrition department, which ultimately has its consequences in our mind- and spirit-health. (You need to have a body to be spiritual with!)

Please note the deliberate steps to avoid the word "anti-cancer." For moi, it implies you have to have cancer in order to want to take steps to avoid it. Nutrition and life style strengthen our ability to resist and/or better manage our lives, which are exposed to a host of diseases and stresses.

Enough spiel... so curry, tumeric, black pepper folks... add it in your cooking and eating programs.

Interesting as lately, I'm craving lettuce, olive oil, and black pepper combinations. Hmm...

Check out: Health Discovery: Curry, Black Pepper May Help Prevent Breast Cancer.

Armed body, Stronger body & Broccoli-cheese soup

2010-01-08T14:54:00.003-05:00

You can see I'm more planetary-bound today...

While watching ABC's GMA on TV this morning, I was struck by a physician's personal account about using nutrition to help his body better fight a recurring brain cancer.

Largely plant- and grain-based, the life-style Dr. David Servan-Schreiber is espousing specifically includes the powerful effects of tumeric and certain fats (olive oil). He suggested reducing meat consumption, too. While stress doesn't necessarily cause cancer, he observed first-hand how it weakens the body's ability to fight cancer. Go to an excerpt of his book.

While you're there, check out this easy recipe for
broccoli and cheese soup.

Ciao for now.

We enter a new decade... or are we what's new?

2010-01-06T22:57:00.006-05:00

As we embark on a new year, in a new decade, one has to wonder about the nature of change.
Is there anything we will see happen differently this year? Or, will we be seeing things happening--now, as before--differently? Nothing like a good conundrum with which to start the year.
~Tasha

Sunday in Tennessee on the last day of May

2009-05-31T17:39:00.007-04:00

As I sit here today, ODing on the French Open and relishing its ups and downs, it's a fine Sunday in Tennessee.

Yesterday, I attended a terrific workshop on writing structure and marketing, so there's much to think about. (It kept me up in the middle of night analyzing the movie I just say, "Paris 36," which has a solid three-act structure.)

Okay, before everything is lost, tennis notes: Nadal lost! Both Williams sisters lost in women's doubles and Venus in the 4th round singles; but hey, Andy Roddick is making it [finally] to the quarterfinals!

Now, about that fine Sunday...my gardens are blooming "en abondance."
Here's are some reasons why (apart from all that rain we just got):
>The roses maybe helped along with the coffee grinds--They are all ENORMOUS.
>The vegetable garden is yielding Swiss chard, cilantro, and basil that adds a specifcally strong taste to Cold Green Soup (e-mail me if you want this summer-time recipe)
>My herb garden is yielding at least a kilos worth of Greek oregano (some of which is subjected to my cat spraying on it, but otherwise tastes pretty good).

What's up in your yards?

Okay, truth be told, this is Natasha FORCING herself to update her posts on the blog and venture into connecting it to her Facebook and Twitter networks. Yes, all you so-called friends, you're about to hear from me, but in ways you hadn't imagined. Please bear with me in these experiments to keep everyone so well informed, you'll pay me to remove you from my networks.

Who would have thought of that as a revenue stream?!

Cheers,

Natasha

Dreams Made into Realities

2008-11-05T14:10:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, on November 4th, 2008, still within our life time, we witnessed a dream come true.
May we, and the children of today, experience more moments like this, in the years to come.
What is your dream?
~Natasha

Living in a world of change can be painful.

2008-07-17T13:23:00.003-04:00

On a recent favorite talk show of mine, it was lovely to see ladies hashing out a discussion about what racial terms mean in different contexts; it led to a very moving moment between two women of different races and ages, one young, white, and with athletic appeal; the other, black, older, heavier, and worked all her life to get to where she is now as a famous actress.

What could look like a divide between one generation and another, one race and another, is truly a mark of the transition we are in as a country and as people of the earth when these folks get together around a table and talk (or argue). In this case, the younger one melted when confronted about the "different world" she lives in compared with that of the older one.

Words are like vehicles, imbued with the style and meaning of the driver. If it's road rage or resentment that is being felt or expressed, make no mistake that it was actually meant as a term of endearment.Then there is the case of say one thing, but really do another, turning the meaning into an unconscious statement. For instance, my friends and I say we aren't prejudice, but how many of us have companions or friends of different color? Everywhere I've lived, except New York of course, it's been a hard fact of waking up and realizing that I could count the number of black people I saw that day on my hand.

There's no doubt the world needs the idealism of the younger woman, as a dose of hope for the future. On the other hand, as the older one pointed out, one needs to acknowledge the past and the present, make it conscious, so we can better understand each other now and know what it is we are trying to forgive.

Post-hype blues

2008-06-26T17:48:00.001-04:00

I’m still recovering from the expected, anticlimactic ending of the presidential nominee race on June 4th, when America witnessed the final appearance of a trail blazer, Hillary Clinton. Even if she runs again in 2012, she’ll be recovering paths already found. It’ll just be a matter of breaking a previous record and making it to a redrawn finish line.

It’s interesting that the historical significance of what has happened until now in the American election process has descended into a pile of fire fueled by like and dislike. For me, that has nothing to do with what matters in the long run. At best, she was a victim of circumstance, being part of the old and part of the new (a position I know all too well, being someone who made personal choices considered liberal against old standards, but not respectable enough to put me in any leadership-type roles). Indeed, Hillary Clinton’s duel positions about experience and change were mutually exclusive.

Should Obama make it into the White House, his character dictates that he will likely surround himself with people he has chemistry with. This is also part of the new. Even so, keeping Clinton within arm’s reach (as a White House advisor, perhaps?) could be an efficient and effective use of her experience, filtering out her less effective aspects.

And if these next 8 years don’t clean Hillary Clinton’s slate well enough, someone else—possibly another ambitious woman politician—will no doubt be grooming herself in the wings, preparing herself mentally, emotionally, and physically, to slip into those shoes. Let’s hope whoever it is at least brings common sense, if not some experience at dealing with people here and abroad, a good memory, and running shoes.

How much of a risk-taker are you?

2008-05-23T12:33:00.004-04:00

Whoopi Goldberg just told a wonderful story about feeling like a risk-taker by nature, until she knows what the risks are. She was walking in the woods in Africa, thinking of it as a safe risk ("Hey, I'm from New York!"), when her guide told her about a skinny snake that drops from trees and bites you in the ear to deliver the poison. "What!" she said, "What the hell are we doing walking out here, for!"

I've got my own tale as well. I thought well enough of snakes when living in the Northeast, as mostly my encounters were with the small, 5" garden variety. Then, moving to Tennessee, my encounters started stretching to 2-foot long, 2"-diameter black and blackish red snakes appearing curled up on window sills of abandoned property, in the middle of roads, or stretched across our garden paths. "They don't bother me. I don't bother them," I thought, a carry-over from my New York City days.

We recently discovered two living in our meadow when one got caught in the blades of the lawn mower tractor. The other one soon emerged and ended with a similar fate. Did I feel guilty? No--even though it's actually against the law to keep snakes as pets or deliberately kill them--not until I told the story at a recent graduation party, where all the locals sided with the snakes and their virtues. I definitely lost points on getting in with the locals that day.

Maybe they do eat mosquitos and rid your property of vermin, but I still feel less the risk-taker--especially when my two cats drag them into the house for play. So, I don't deliberately aim a vacuum cleaner at them, but I have a creative move with my barbecue tools and husband's spare wood. My aim is improving each time I get to fling them across into the neighbor's garden.

Spades with Spades

2008-05-08T15:49:00.000-04:00

During a conversation with a friend, who so happens to self-publish her books, I mentioned the idea below, about writing a book on the evolution of technology applications. In essence, it seems that this giddy fascination of mine is to be shared with the few (yet another "esoteric" subject that occupies me in the hours of the night). So, e-book it will be and in my spare time.

On the other hand, she was enthusiastic about another topic that we all share in common. Truly, no one escapes this other story. Care to guess what it might be about?

The Technology Wave -- 2

2008-05-02T15:40:00.001-04:00

Having had a chance to sleep on the idea, it's appealing more and more to me, this trace of technology history, like a wave, since the birth of the personal computer. How about "E-Merging Technologies: The Waves of the Future"--in the spirit of Alvin Toffler's Second and Third Wave works, and be a play on words with the E-bit?

Any thoughts?

I still don't believe there's an advantage to fully developing the idea within a blog, however. That would be like handing over a book proposal to the public. That said, there are areas and positions ("premise" for the literary minded) that may be useful to "debate" here, however. So, let's give that a whirl.

My thoughts are the following. In the 1980s...
>Videotex, electronic bulletin boards, and Apple's hypertext blended into what became a precursor for the Internet
>AT&Ts videophone was the precursor to Skype
>Car phones and other types of modular phones were precursors to cell phones

Do you have to be a techie to appreciate this? It is about the human interface, after all.

E-merging Technology book concept

2008-04-29T00:02:00.000-04:00

Prelude
======
The notion for a book about the history of technology since the birth of the PC (personal computer) was hatched somewhere between the end of the educational panel at the Knoxville Writers Guild's April 26th gala last Saturday, and the first of many glasses of wine that evening.

The air was full of juice and electricity about the latest technological advancements and local applications of web site capabilities, blogging, and print on demand before an audience of seasoned writers. Suggestion to do it as an e-book as part of making the point about the significance of the medium being the message.

So, here we are. Hatching the egg electronically, or is it the chicken?

Luckily, my stints in traditional publishing have been enough to persuade me on these basic points. No matter what, you still need:
>a good story,
>someone else to look over your work and put some editing muscle into it,
>ways to get the work out in front of people

The Story Begins
--------------------------
Sunday, April 27, 2008
This one is beginning inside my calendar of Outlook, so I don't lose the inspiration of the moment, sans spell checker, sans formatting. If I follow the directions prescribed to me yesterday, this now needs to move out to a blog that I then list with the News-Sentinal and the radio station, so it can receive critiques. Against all odds, my heart in my mouth with years of copyright fears digested, I'm going to do this, then see what happens. I now challenge what everyone told me yesterday to see if it's true.

Some ideas to include in this book about
the history of technology since the 1980s
--------------------------------------------------
After the printing press, technology is the next major revolution is publishing.
How technology took the human race by storm
Will the human race be better for it?

Laundry list of stuff (add list later, but includes European videotex, IBM PC, Apple Mac and hypertext, fiber optics, CDI, first viruses [Jerusalem?], frame creation machines and scanners, SIGs, games, copying software, CompuServe, Atari/Commodore 64s, electronic bulletin boards, videophones, audio/videoconferencing, freeze frames)

What obstacles need to be overcome?
Is technology a challenge by the future upon the past?
The medium is the message, but content is everything.
In communities, not groups, is how we see ourselves.
The community of folks involved in any work can help to make the art better, and no matter how good the product.
All content needs integrity
After serendipidity and dating services, the Internet has become the next major way
for people meet each other
Will the human race fight wars through technology (from pac man to "war games")?

How does "The Technology Wave" work as a working title? Or better, "E-merging Technology: The History of Technology since 1980"?

Central Park on a summer's day

2007-12-28T15:50:00.000-05:00

What's on My Front

2007-09-11T13:51:00.001-04:00

Tennessee, 9/11/07. What's the latest?

News from my front....
*Just finished the Harry Potter book and I think the best part is when Mrs. Weasley finishes off a DeathEater for having wacked her daughter Ginny during the battle of Hogwarts. The saddest part is what happens to the house gobblin (I cried shamefully). The funniest is when Potter is trying to slip into the school unnoticed and the whole Dumbledore army appears.
* I'm days away from an adventure to Greece where I will explore the reality of reattributing a family apartment in Thessaloniki.
* Just started Nineteen minutes by Jodi Picoult. The first 19 minutes of reading were great. Now I need to finish the book.

Now for the truly embarrassing, and facing, moment: For the first time in six years (why six?), I'm just recognizing September 11 for what it is, a day on the calendar. In stead of waking up to that painful rememberance, it is now a day like any other, and it should be.

The events that took place on September 11, 2001 are unique and should be remembered in full for what happened, not as the day they took place on. Too often I see people refer only to the World Trade Center, when in fact lives were also lost in Washington, DC and over a field in Pennsylvania. The fact that war in Iraq is nearly a weekly reminder of similar ilke, may be why those events are now taking their rightful place in the annals of the war against terrorism. Much blood and sweat has flowed under the bridge in six years. It's truly a sad condition, this world we find ourselves in.

And together, we can do something to change the world....

Forgiveness: A Means for Survival

2007-07-27T15:40:00.000-04:00

Thurs., July 26, 2007, New York. Yesterday, French television interviewed the 6 prisoners (5 Bulgarian nurses and 1 Lebanese physician) who were just released from Libya, after being held captive for accidently infecting over 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus 8 years ago.
During one of the interviews, an intriguing feature emerged: Forgiveness is not only a samarital act, but a tool of self-survival.

The eldest of the 5 nurses, who is in her early 50s, was asked about being periodically tortured, a subject that was difficult for all of the ex-prisoners to broach. When asked how she felt, she replied that she held no feelings of revenge and that she had already forgiven her captors.

"I would not be here now if I had not forgiven them," she said, implying she would not have had the strength to survive had she spent what little energy she had left in bitterness or revenge.

What Women Can Do

2007-07-25T10:16:00.000-04:00

7/25/07, New York. Cécilia Sarkozy, the wife of the recently elected French president Nicolas, played an essential part in the negotiations with Colonial Kaddafi for the release of 6 prisoners from Libya. In his interview with the press, President Sarkozy acknowledged that perhaps the role of the First Lady can be different as a modern woman.

She needed no titles, no political party, no entourage to accomplish what 8 years of conventional diplomacy failed to do. The 5 Bulgarian nurses and 1 Lebanese physician had been on death row 3 times for infecting over 400 children with the AIDS virus. We will soon find out what she did to accomplish her mission. She was part of a team, some presumably more expert than her at foreign affairs, also representing the European Union.

What qualities did she bring to the negotiation table that hitherto had been lacking?

Is this any indication of what women can do?

Photo: Jardin des Plantes, Paris, France. Dragon created with recycled materials. Dec. 2006.

Is America ready for a female president?

2007-07-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

There was a time when American women yearned for the opportunity to see a female candidate stand for election in a presidential campaign. Now, with no legal barriers to speak of, even women seem ambivalent about putting an experienced one in the White House. “Women once advocated it was time for them to stand for elections and in turn have a voice in legislative issues that affect their lives, but do they have the qualities and skills needed to do that?” asks Natasha Thomsen, author of Global Issues: Women’s Rights (Facts on File, 2007).

Admittedly, three major superpowers—France, the United Kingdom, and the United States—are all holding presidential elections in 2007 and 2008 without incumbent candidates, a scenario that would challenge any candidate, male or female. Many even say our country is behind the times all ready, but when the Group of Eight summit met in June 2007, hostess German Chancellor Angela Merkel was pretty much on her own. Ségolène Royal had just been tested in the French elections and lost to her opponent Nicolas Sarkozy. This begs the questions: what will it take to put a female president in the White House and do American voters really want one there?

Women don’t seem so concerned now about gender but about the kind of person they might empower. Many women openly professed their disdain for Royal’s uppity manner and Hillary Clinton’s popularity is out-weighed by her calculating manner and husband’s razzle-dazzle (despite public disapproval of his adultery record). Nancy Pelosi is often characterized as being on a power trip.

Women today seem pretty bent on empowering a candidate who stands for what they believe in, or not vote at all. The fact that previous generations of women didn’t throw their weight behind a candidate such as Geraldine Ferraro, when she ran as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984, shows they are actually ambivalent about playing the gender card. “What kind of personal and professional development is this now calling for in women?” asks Thomsen.

If it’s anything like the Equal Rights Amendment, which has been awaiting ratification by Congress since 1923, the real worry centers around the use of power. This same argument might apply to the 1981 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which also awaits U.S. ratification. In short, the American Government—presumably composed of men and women—are concerned about the use and abuse of powerful words, more than the issues that gave rise to these political instruments in the first place.

So is this country ready for a female president? Probably as much as Germany was ready for Ms. Merkel, England for Margaret Thatcher, or India for Indira Ghandi. The question is if there a woman candidate who has the qualities, energy, and leadership skills that Americans—men and women—will appreciate and that can guide this country through the shark-infested waters of terrorism, war, and environmental casualties.

Future articles at Thomsen’s web site (http://users.bestweb.net/~nthomsen/clips.htm) and blog (http://natasha-place.blogspot.com/) will focus on what qualities voters are seeking in a president of the United States and how this might impact gender choice. (What exactly is the role of the role models of the 21st century? What do women have to do to not let politics put them into a power-steering mode?) How dress and age might also impact pubic opinion will also be discussed. Other articles will address women’s consciousness and how this is impacting their awareness about women’s status in society—physically, professionally, personally, and spiritually.

Natasha Thomsen is a freelance writer and entrepreneur. She can be reached at nmthomsen@aol.com or http://natasha-place.blogspot.com/. Global Issues Women’s Rights (Facts on File) is available online at http://www.factsonfile.com/newfacts/FactsDetail.asp?PageValue=Books&SIDText=0816068097&LeftID=0.

Blending art and technology

2007-05-10T12:45:00.000-04:00

Who would have know? A predominantly academic-styled master's program ("technology applications") has escalated into mayhem, justifing its presence within the School of the Arts. ("School of the Smarts")

"Interactive" applications strive forward, with technology meeting art, education, and public service. This is part of that relentless push of the new challenging the old--from visual acceptance to psychology and nerves. I spent the better part of the evening at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (better known as Red Burns' ITP) at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. If it wasn't a bag-toting wheel chair to help disabled people manage their carry-alongs, it was a language tutoring program that adapts your conversation to the lessons, or a smell-sensory umbrella that helps you relive someone else's memories. And more, oh so much more...
I'll have to add them in the next day or two, if anyone is really interested.

What do you think about...

2006-10-26T00:47:00.000-04:00

There are so many issues to think about these day, little wonder we simply run from one to the other, often forgetting what may have been urgent one day and replacing it with yet another urgency.

Anyway, here are the issues on my mind these days....

single-sex education
marriage amendment
freedom
the war in Iraq
the World Trade Center and continuing to find human remains

What's on your mind these days?