One Billion Good Men Aren't Taken

My Mr. Perfect for Me
Taking me To Disney World

There are literally at least a billion eligible men out there, each just waiting for the right woman to let him sweep her off her feet.  I think if you really want to find the right guy you have to... Go Look for Them.  Obviously Mr. Perfect for You isn't in your kitchen.  He's not sitting on your couch watching TV.  But beyond that, let me ask you.  Have you met a billion men?  Of course not.  And yet you're willing to give up?  There's your first mistake.  Maybe you can actually travel around the world and meet some of the men the world has to offer.  Of course if you were that adventurous, frankly I think you wouldn't need my advice on meeting someone to begin with.  There are some milder ways to meet people.  Take a class, join a gym, do some volunteer work.  Go out and enjoy yourself or do something that will double to help you meet someone and improve yourself.  That's called multitasking.  And don't turn your nose up at hanging out with new female friends.  All of those women have contacts that are, you guess it... men.  That's called networking.  Look at you, all learning and stuff.  And one final way you might be able to meet someone is through a good online dating service.  I recommend OK Cupid... not only is it a great service, it's free.  Don't frustrate yourself if a guy isn't interested.  He's not Mr. Perfect for You.   And besides you have a lot a men to go through, a billion remember?  So you don't really have time to cry over ones that don't work out.  That reminds me of my final bit of advice, one I have broken time and time again in the past, to my own dismay.  Do not, I repeat Do not, revisit old flames.   Did I mention there are over a billion men out there?  Please don't waste your time going back to the leftovers of a meal you didn't really care for to begin with.  By the way, everything in the post can also be applied to women if you're a guy out there looking.  Just saying.

A Sit-Down with Ann Brashares by Barbara Eastwood

      Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down and talking with Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  She was promoting her new book, The Here and Now.  She read a passage from it and she even discussed the process by which she wrote it.
     In the particular passage, that Ann read from, the protaganist of her book, Prena, mentions a repulsion to Jelly Beans.  Brashares explained it as being due to how adults sometimes attempt to use candy to manipulate children.  She even shared a personal story about how as a girl her father had seperated from her mother.  The new woman, her father began seeing, used to always put out a bowl of candy, trying to win her and her siblings over.  These insights are just a few of the ways that Brashares writes to relate to her younger audience.
     Like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann's newest book is a young adult novel.  She shared that her novels are especially suited to young people the age of her older children.  She has children ranging from ages 3-18.  Though her older children enjoyed her telling them stories when they were younger, Ann did say that they are not as inclined to read books written by their mother.  She explained that as an author, you show many facets of yourself in your writing.  Children aren't always comfortable seeing so many sides of their parents.  Not surprising, considering that love shows up as a theme repeatdly in Ann's works.
      Her newest book is no exception.  Originally titled The 12th Rule, before the publishers changed it, her new book does have many science fiction elements.  However, her development of the story began with Ann's love of another book about relationships called Summer of My German Soldier.  She said before she had ever decided to add elements of time travel to her novel, she knew she wanted to have a story about a young person developing a relationship with an immigrant from some war torn place.  Deciding that place was the future, was a decision that wouldn't come until later.  Ann said she often lets her characters in motion help her decide where the story is going.  She has a general plan outlined before hand, but compares the process to a GPS, saying that sometimes it needs to reroute.

     If you're interested in reading her latest book, pick it up at your local bookstore.  If you don't want to read, you can wait.  According to Deadline Hollywood, an agreement has already been made with Alcon and Alloy to make The Here and Now into a movie.

This Image Calls it Genocide.. Happy?

When my mother died after having a great deal of health problems the doctor asked us if we wanted an Autopsy.  My brothers and I saw no reason for this.  We loved our mother and we would mourn her and dearly miss her.  However, we didn't feel the need to label her death with whatever specific ailment finally caused her to give way.  Having said that, if I was one of the 1.5 million Armenians killed in 1915... I don't think I would care if they called it murder, genicide, a horrible tragedy, or just a very dark time in history.  Call it whatever you want as long as you remember to mourn me.  I think we when we start mincing words so much, that when someone, who had no involvement in the killing of these people, expresses their condolences we meet that with anger because they don't call it genocide, we missing the big picture.  If this tragedy was happening today, I would expect are president to do what he could to stop it.  Seeing that this event happened nearly a hundred years ago, why don't we call it what it is?... people using a tragic day in history to to sell an argument against a political figure that for whatever other reasons, justifiable or not,  they just don't like.