• About
  • Comments Policy

So There Was This Today

~ An eclectic kaleidoscope of whatever tickles my fancy, makes me think, gives me pause, grabs my heart, gives me the giggles, or in any way hits me in the feels.

So There Was This Today

Monthly Archives: April 2015

Middle-earth’s “master of light” Passes Away …

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

I agree so much with A Tolkienist’s Perspectives thoughts on Andrew Lesnie’s work and share his sorrow that we will not have any more of his movie magic to enjoy.

A Tolkienist's Perspective

Andrew Lesnie

Andrew Lesnie (1956-2015)

What looked like the start of a positive and optimistic day, soon turned into a melancholic struggle.

Andrew Lesnie, the master cinematographer whose indispensable contribution brought Middle-earth to life, passed away earlier today.

To general audiences the names of actors and directors are perhaps at the forefront of a film-viewing experience.

To someone like me who loves the technical aspects of filmmaking, the work of every major crew member behind the camera is of deep interest.

As with many others, I was introduced to Andrew Lesnie and his work via The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Suffice to say, the impressive visuals captivated my young mind and made me believe in the wonders of Middle-earth.

Peter Jackson may have had the vision and direction, but Lesnie brought the artistry to the moving images.

View original post 360 more words

Advertisement

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Why do People Deny the Science Around Climate Change?

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Video, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

climate change, nature

I’ve been having a bit of a back and forth with a fellow blogger in the comments section of one of his posts in which he states with all kinds of authority why rising sea levels are not and never will be a problem. He is not a scientist of any stripe, so I’m not sure where he gets his information, but it matters not because it is not only bogus, it also makes no sense. I should know better than to argue with these guys because there is no logic in their belief of a mass conspiracy to, well, I haven’t figured out what they think the reason is for such a conspiracy. I’ve been accused of being a loyal follower of a cult (?!) because I believe the science that shows that climate change is a real threat. I find that assertion bizarre, but whatever. So in honor of Earth Day (a day late) I’m sharing this beautiful video. It is a lovely poetic piece. I certainly don’t expect it to change the minds of those whose heads are so firmly in the sand on this issue, if they don’t believe the science, a poetic rapper certainly won’t convince them. I just think it’s lovely and wanted to share.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Beauty in the Mist

23 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

beauty, spring

It has been very dreary in my neck of the woods of late. Always threatening rain, with very little sunshine. I know it is spring and we need the rain. But it seems like weeks with cloudy skies and just a bit of rain. It’s wearing on me to be honest. Texas is supposed to be sunny! At least most of the time.

But this morning as I was walking to my car on the way to work, on another misty, gray, rainy day, feeling a little blue, a bit of beauty caught my eye and I just had to stop and take a picture. Raindrops on a spiderweb surrounded by the most luscious green, and that one little thing gave me such a boost. I hope it does for you as well. Happy Spring!

Spiderweb on a holly bush after rain.

Spiderweb on a holly bush after rain.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Musical Elephants

17 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Video, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

elephants, music

This video made me smile broadly and every time I think about it I smile some more. Elephants bebopping, shaking their booties and playing the piano. What could be better? There is more and more proof that animals are so much smarter and have such a capacity for joy and growth than they’ve been given credit for in the past. We must, must, must, make conservation of all animals a priority. Take a look at the video. You won’t be sorry you took the two minutes out of your life to share in the joy of these elephants!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Equal Pay Day

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Culture, Politics, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

equal pay, women

Today is Equal Pay Day. It is the day that brings us a sort of divisive political holiday, representing how far past Dec. 31 women must work to earn as much as men did the previous calendar year. Put another way, for the average woman to earn as much as the average man did in 2014, she has to work 104 days into 2015. But oops, look how far behind she is in 2015 now. And that yearly difference is not made up during her lifetime. The average woman loses $420,000 dollars of income over the course of her employment years due to this disparity, making only .78 to every $1.00 earned by the average man. And this impacts not only her yearly income, but her retirement income since a) Social Security payments are based on your earnings, but also, b) it’s a lot harder to save for yourself when you’re struggling to make ends meet. And since women still on average live longer than men, it impacts them even more.

In 1936 my grandmother was married with a 10 year old son, a 7 year old son and was pregnant with my mother. This was in the middle of the Great Depression. In May, when she was 6 mos. pregnant with my mother, my grandfather was eating peanuts, throwing them into the air and catching them in his mouth. He choked on one and inhaled it. The peanut in his lung gave him pneumonia. This was before antibiotics and the pneumonia combined with the enlarged heart that he got serving in World War I, killed him a week or so later. My grandmother gave birth to my mother in September and then had to go to work to support her family. Her mother, my great-grandmother Mary Anne whom I’m named after (and who was supported by my grandfather before his death because there was no Social Security at that time) looked after my mother and uncles while my grandmother went to work as a teacher. So my grandmother was working to support herself, 3 children and her mother.

At one point, my grandmother went to the school board to request to be paid the same as the male teachers on staff. Keep in mind that this was in a small town and everyone knew her circumstances. The board unanimously denied her request, telling her with straight faces that the reason men made so much more than she did was because they had families to support. When she politely pointed out that she was supporting her family since her husband’s death, they told her that she needed to get out there and find herself another husband. My grandmother never remarried. She taught for many years and then became a principal until her retirement. She was never paid, either as a teacher or a principal, anywhere close to what her male counterparts made throughout her long career. She was respected and well loved in her school district, but never deemed worthy to earn as much as a man.

It is 2015 and things really aren’t much different. For any number of reasons, there are large numbers of single parent families, the vast majority of whom are led by women. Child support laws are enforced with varying degrees of success from place to place, with far too many places doing a terrible job. The number of men who abdicate their financial responsibilities to their children is outrageous. And yet it is the women who are more often than not demonized in our culture. The vast majority of them work, many times more than one job at a time to support their children, on 78 cents to the dollar. Equal pay is not something that should be controversial. People who earn more money spend more money, benefitting the entire economy. Fewer children would live in poverty if their mothers earned more money. It is far past time that the sexist, misogynist views that women don’t deserve to make as much, or should be taken care of by a male, or whatever goes on in the mind of the majority, male power structure, are cast aside. Equal pay is a win, win for everyone.

10856654_10152707480116610_935817044111021228_o

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

How Do Regular People Afford Flight School?

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Education, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

thank you

It is outrageously expensive. And the cost is on top of the bachelor’s degree that you have to have in order to be a pilot. Take a look at the link below for my son’s GoFundMe page for flight school. Check out his story and regardless of whether it is something you would like to contribute to, please share far and wide. The more people that see it, the more likely there are those who would find it something they would like to help with. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Taking Flight

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

What is the Definition of Beauty?

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Video, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beauty

According to this video from Dove, each person, in this case woman, defines beauty for themselves. And I so identified with what this said. I had tears in my eyes as I was watching it, because as a woman I feel the sting of looking in the mirror and wondering if I measure up to society’s standards and believing that I don’t most of the time. 96% of women would not classify themselves as beautiful although 80% did say that there was something beautiful about them. I applaud Dove for bringing to light how the harsh way media, advertising and male expectation cloud a woman’s perception of herself from a very early age. While not every person is going to find every woman beautiful, because beauty is such a subjective idea, every woman should be able to say that they are beautiful and believe it. What did you think of this video and how women are perceived and perceive themselves? Let me know in the comments!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Playing with Fire (Safely)

07 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Video

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

experiments, fire

I don’t know how or why people think up doing things like this, but I don’t care because we are gifted with really cool videos like this. Even the music is cool in this one.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

My Take: HBO’s Documentary “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”

02 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by 98maryanne in Culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

movies, writing

I didn’t watch this when it actually premiered, I watched a couple of days later on HBO Go, so I had seen a lot of reaction to this documentary before hand. Most of the chatter was terribly negative toward Scientology, some going so far as to say the documentary gave them nightmares, and many people were downright appalled at what was going on in Scientology circles. My reaction to that is, they must not have been paying attention because Scientology has been getting lots of negative press for years and years and years. This documentary was directed by Alex Gibney and written by Gibney and Lawrence Wright. It was a well done documentary and sustained my interest throughout. It was like watching a sordid soap opera, one I just couldn’t quit watching, but there was really nothing new under the sun. And therein lies my problem with everyone’s horror over Scientology, which I will try and explain.

This documentary made clear the absurdity of the “beliefs” of Scientologists and the clear mental health issues of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was a prolific writer and did very well in the science fiction genre. Much of the bones of his Scientology religion was taken directly from some of his early science fiction writing. He was an abusive husband who kidnapped his daughter when his wife tried to leave, took her out of the country and told his wife he had killed her. She ultimately got her daughter back and was able to divorce him, but it is clear he was a dangerously troubled man. He threatened suicide regularly as well. Hubbard began agitating early on to have Scientology classified as a religion in order for it to be tax exempt as he knew that was the best way to make gobs of money, however it was not until after his death that Scientology, under the leadership of David Miscavige, managed to bully the IRS, through thousands of lawsuits by its members and by brilliantly making public the folly’s in the agency’s own actions, into classifying Scientology as a religion. Even Hubbard’s writings were classified as religious texts and cannot be taxed.

One of the main points of the doc was that Scientology is more of a cult than a religion, citing the fact that it is ruled over by one enormously powerful man, David Miscavige who assumed leadership at Hubbard’s death, who brooks no argument or dissidence from his flock, and who uses intimidation and outright abuse to keep them under his sway. The people in the inner circle who do all of the hard work to keep it running are paid something like $50 dollars a week. Scientology also takes enormous sums of money from it’s adherents and makes it extremely difficult for members to quit if they wish. Some of the ways they make life terrible for those wanting to leave is to threaten to, or actually follow through with making public very private admissions made during “auditing” sessions. There were accusations of people being held against their will, their children being taken from them and worse. They also harass and stalk people who manage to get out, especially if they speak out against Scientology.

So basically, Scientology is a set of gobbledygook “beliefs” made up by a mentally ill man, that uses intimidation and quite possibly illegal treatment of it’s members to keep its secrets and is making a privileged few very, very, very rich. And that very wealth is what keeps the average person from being able to afford to fight back.

I believe that Scientology is a scam. I believe that it has suckered intelligent and basically decent people into following tenants that serve mainly to keep them in line and oppressed. I believe that its members are not what is important, it’s the money that’s important. The thing is, I believe those things about religion in general. And I am not an atheist. Just completely not down with organized religion. And that is why I have a problem with everyone’s horror over Scientology.

Firstly, we live in the United States of America. We are a free country. We are free to believe whatever we want to believe. We have freedom of religion. And boy do people believe lots of different things here. And while I may upset some people by saying this, I’m going to anyway, ALL religions have some weird ass shit they want you to believe, do, think about, follow through with and convert others into believing. ALL of them. And most of them have precious little leeway in condemning the practices of other religions when most of them have huge, clanking skeletons in their own closets. As to the uproar over Scientology being tax exempt by being classified as a religion, I think that is outrageous and should be changed immediately. The problem is I believe all religions should have their tax exempt status revoked. They all blatantly break the law by using their platforms for political gain and while I know there are small poor churches that struggle to get by, there are far too many “mega-churches” rolling in the dough while people starve. And don’t get me started on the wealth of the Catholic church. Such wealth would not be a problem if there weren’t people starving, or going without medicine or any number of other things, but there are and that is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Every ex-member who spoke in this documentary about Scientology, spoke of their shame in having been a part of the religion, many of them for decades. Once they were out of the bubble of Scientology influence, they couldn’t believe what they believed for so long and what they did in order to protect it. That to me is the main takeaway of this documentary. People must think for themselves, never allow others to dictate how they should behave and should run for the hills the second anyone tries to make them believe hurting another person is “right” because it is for their own good. It’s all common sense to me, but I know how being a part of something greater than yourself can be so alluring. And when you have charismatic, manipulative “leaders” who are able to make people think they know better it can be hard to discern what is off. But again, every one of those people who have left spoke of a little voice they ignored telling them something wasn’t right. Learn to trust your instincts. Learn to think for yourself. Learn to be discerning. Step outside whatever bubble you’ve allowed yourself to be enclosed in and see how other people live. No matter what you call that bubble. The prison of belief is one of our own making.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Archives

  • October 2018
  • November 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • March 2016
  • December 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014

Blog Stats

  • 5,790 hits

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 168 other subscribers
Follow So There Was This Today on WordPress.com

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • Not So Fun Facts about Rape
  • Biggest Election Fraud In History Discovered In The United States
  • Gary Johnson is Worse than Donald Trump
  • Bernie Sanders vs. The Powers That Be
  • Clinton Supporters are Scaremongering about Donald Trump to Silence the Concerns of the Young and the Poor

Calendar

April 2015
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« Mar   May »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • So There Was This Today
    • Join 79 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • So There Was This Today
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: