Rethinking Monday
21 June 2010
Please forgive me while I work out some kinks trying to better define DailyCupofJo.com. There’s a lot going on and nothing going on. It’s Monday morning and I’m trying to decide what to do with my girls today. I’m still thinking about my high school reunion from Saturday night. I’m continuing to believe that I will never catch up on lost sleep even as I feel my body and skin rebelling.
Life takes over and now it’s Monday evening. The day has come and almost gone and I’ve come up with a few ideas of where I’d like to take this site going forward, i.e. into the stratosphere. Let’s start the week with a review – of books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, new television I’ve watched, sporting events from the weekend that need to be addressed. Instead of “Monday morning quarterback”, let’s call it Monday…review. It’s not clever but I can be, and it’s my site so I can call today whatever I damn well please.
Over the last month, just about everyone I know has had insanity take over their lives. The end of school, the beginning of summer vacation, weddings, parties, deadlines, presentations, reunions and puppies have colluded to suck any chance of serenity out of our lives. In the last four weeks, I’ve managed to read just one book, Sebastian Junger’s WAR, which I literally just finished ten minutes ago. I saw “Karate Kid” last week with the girls and caught some of the Slovenia vs. US World Cup match. Let’s touch upon these, shall we, even as I promise something more comprehensive next Monday.
For pure entertainment value, I’d give WAR a six on a scale of one to ten. Journalist and war correspondent Sebastian Junger was embedded on and off over fifteen months with a single combat unit in Afghanistan, in the God-forsaken Korengal Valley. When he speaks of the how and why a man fights in war and of his allegiance to his platoon, the book is compelling. For the reader, Junger explains the psyche of a soldier in physiological terms. These passages gave me the impetus to keep reading to try and understand, as a woman, how men willingly put themselves in such danger. I found the day-in and day-out details of where the men were and how they passed the time redundant. The technical descriptions of weapons and warfare were so masculine, I tuned out every now and then because I was occasionally confused and not terribly interested in dissecting my confusion. That said, I’m looking forward to seeing “Restrepo”, the documentary Junger and cameraman Tim Hetherington made about the experience.
It’s a little late in the game to be reviewing “The Karate Kid” but I’ll say this: the Smith family – Will and wife Jada Pinkett and son Jaden – need to leave me alone for awhile as I process their existence. It’s not enough to have Dad be a talented, successful rapper/comedian/actor/producer and Mom a fitter than fit sassy gal actress? We now have to watch their spawn take over the world? I’m not bitter. I just think it’s unnecessary. I was distracted knowing who he was in the Hollywood scheme of things. Jaden Smith is very talented. But do the Smiths have to throw him in our faces? The movie is set in China and should have been called “Kung Fu Kid”, but that wouldn’t have sold as many tickets. It’s also fifteen minutes too long. I also don’t remember anyone asking my opinion. Hence, we have DailyCupofJo.
I left the Slovenia/US soccer match when it was tied 1-1, then popped my head in when it was 2-2. When Bun Bun came in to give me the play by play and report that the match had ended in a tie, she was agitated. She felt that a third goal scored by the U.S. had unfairly been taken away by the ref. Fifteen minutes later, on my Yahoo home page, the headline was something like “Ref makes controversial call in third U.S. goal”. I told Bun Bun she should see what she could do to silence those damn horns.
Tomorrow is Tuesday. That’s all I’ll say.
Please forgive me while I work out some kinks trying to better define DailyCupofJo.com. There’s a lot going on and nothing going on. It’s Monday morning and I’m trying to decide what to do with my girls today. I’m still thinking about my high school reunion from Saturday night. I’m continuing to believe that I will never catch up on lost sleep even as I feel my body and skin rebelling.
Life takes over and now it’s Monday evening. The day has come and almost gone and I’ve come up with a few ideas of where I’d like to take this site going forward, i.e. into the stratosphere. Let’s start the week with a review – of books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, new television I’ve watched, sporting events from the weekend that need to be addressed. Instead of “Monday morning quarterback”, let’s call it Monday…review. It’s not clever but I can be, and it’s my site so I can call today whatever I damn well please.
Over the last month, just about everyone I know has had insanity take over their lives. The end of school, the beginning of summer vacation, weddings, parties, deadlines, presentations, reunions and puppies have colluded to suck any chance of serenity out of our lives. In the last four weeks, I’ve managed to read just one book, Sebastian Junger’s WAR, which I literally just finished ten minutes ago. I saw “Karate Kid” last week with the girls and caught some of the Slovenia vs. US World Cup match. Let’s touch upon these, shall we, even as I promise something more comprehensive next Monday.
For pure entertainment value, I’d give WAR a six on a scale of one to ten. Journalist and war correspondent Sebastian Junger was embedded on and off over fifteen months with a single combat unit in Afghanistan, in the God-forsaken Korengal Valley. When he speaks of the how and why a man fights in war and of his allegiance to his platoon, the book is compelling. For the reader, Junger explains the psyche of a soldier in physiological terms. These passages gave me the impetus to keep reading to try and understand, as a woman, how men willingly put themselves in such danger. I found the day-in and day-out details of where the men were and how they passed the time redundant. The technical descriptions of weapons and warfare were so masculine, I tuned out every now and then because I was occasionally confused and not terribly interested in dissecting my confusion. That said, I’m looking forward to seeing “Restrepo”, the documentary Junger and cameraman Tim Hetherington made about the experience.
It’s a little late in the game to be reviewing “The Karate Kid” but I’ll say this: the Smith family – Will and wife Jada Pinkett and son Jaden – need to leave me alone for awhile as I process their existence. It’s not enough to have Dad be a talented, successful rapper/comedian/actor/producer and Mom a fitter than fit sassy gal actress? We now have to watch their spawn take over the world? I’m not bitter. I just think it’s unnecessary. I was distracted knowing who he was in the Hollywood scheme of things. Jaden Smith is very talented. But do the Smiths have to throw him in our faces? The movie is set in China and should have been called “Kung Fu Kid”, but that wouldn’t have sold as many tickets. It’s also fifteen minutes too long. I also don’t remember anyone asking my opinion. Hence, we have DailyCupofJo.
I left the Slovenia/US soccer match when it was tied 1-1, then popped my head in when it was 2-2. When Bun Bun came in to give me the play by play and report that the match had ended in a tie, she was agitated. She felt that a third goal scored by the U.S. had unfairly been taken away by the ref. Fifteen minutes later, on my Yahoo home page, the headline was something like “Ref makes controversial call in third U.S. goal”. I told Bun Bun she should see what she could do to silence those damn horns.
Tomorrow is Tuesday. That’s all I’ll say.
