Yours Truly

Yours Truly
Janet Fauble at home

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Free movies on Epix this weekend.

I caught several free movies this weekend thanks to Epix trying to gain new viewers so that we had a free preview. I will finally see Leonardo diCaprio's Wolf of Wall Street tonight if I remember to put it on. I have made a mental note to see it, even though the previews annoy me.

I finally learned the reason for the obsession with Zombies when I saw World War Z which is one of the more stupid but possibly valid movies of recent times.  It makes me think of the Ebola outbreak in Africa now.  It has the same health organization stamp and fear mongering tactic.  I am rather convinced that real life is often preceded by reel life.

I may even subscribe to Epix for 6 months...it is a maybe at this point. I do not watch t.v. that much to  pay for movies too.   But it is not a bad price at $5.00 per month for six months...problem is always when those six months are up as they fly by pretty fast.

I did see Jack Reacher too and while I liked it in some ways, I hated it in others.  We have so much real violence I don't appreciate vicarious thrills that are just ugly and violent.  Of course, in a movie, there is always a hero who does great things to bring and end to injustice.  

Anchorman 2 was on but it was so dumb that I ended up watching QVC instead.  Finally, horse racing has come on so I am working on both the lottery games and the horses.  Not betting until the PA race with California Chrome this coming Saturday.

Jack Reacher reminded me of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a lot for some reason. Guess it was the Russian prisoner...would it not be nice if authors and movies would not imitate each other so much....?  It seems that carbon copies is the lifestyle of publishing companies and movie land.







Update on iPhone 6

I deleted the previous post about the iPhone 6.  I sometimes just use this blog to air my feelings on a given day and much of it is just to air it out.  Having reread some of it I decided that I would rewrite it.

I did go to Sprint and am leasing an iPhone 6 for two years.  One has the option of renewing the lease at the end of the two years or buying it for a cost of $210 for my phone. I bought the iPhone 6 plus because I like the larger sized phone.

It should be here soon so when it comes in I will be sure to add to this or write another update!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Creative Writing

I am reading Vicky Shecter's book called Cleopatra's Moon which is about the children of Cleopatra and Mark Antony who were sent to Rome following the death of their parents.  In reading this story, the deaths of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra remind me of Romeo and Juliet.  Vicky does include at the end of the novel some information about the historical version of the lot of these children so that one can tell the difference between fact and fiction.

In that respect, I am impressed with Vicky's imagination and ability to spin a story about these children that makes the reader want to know more about each of them. Unfortunately, little is actually known about them historically so that one can only congratulate Vicky for her vivid imagination in creating possible scenarios.  I enjoy reading the tale from this angle as she creates some pretty fascinating and plausible conflicts.

I am intrigued by her descriptions of the Egyptian lifestyle versus the Roman lifestyle in which we gain some insights into the type of propaganda that the Romans used to create enmity and hostility against Cleopatra.  The daughter's memories of her mother are poignant to consider how royalty always seemed to suffer in years gone by.  To be born into a royal family promised not only luxury and power but also fear and death to so many.

I am an avid reader of many books.  For a time, I was always partial to mystery books for the simple fact of trying to solve the mystery along with the detective.  This came from reading far too many Agatha Christie novels where the reader is always matching wits with the writer so that I always tried to figure out the culprit long before the writer finally revealed it. It is a game that way that many mystery writers like to use.    Both Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie likes to place clues to both mislead and to develop the final conclusion.  That is an art in itself.

Historical fiction is fascinating if one is interested in the characters of real life history at all.  Most of the time, the authors who write historical fiction twist and turn the story lines to be more fiction than actual fact so that the history itself is irrelevant to the story.  A few like to follow history as closely as possible to make it appear the way that that author seems to think the characters would have behaved or thought.  Again, one must be careful to note that despite the character being a real personality, the story itself is only the author's vivid imagination which probably is very different from the real facts.

In the case of Cleopatra's Moon, one can only imagine how the children felt when they were taken to Rome so abruptly to live with Octavius.  There is no written record to verify on which ship they were transported from Alexandria to Rome.  I give Vicky a lot of credit for thinking about these young children to write an entire novel about their experiences so that we can appreciate the sorrowful plight that they suffered.  Were they handled with kid gloves or were they abused and mistreated?  We know that Caesar had been assassinated through fear of his gaining too much power and that the Roman soldiers taunted Jesus Christ for his being a King of the Jews, so it is very likely that the Roman sailors probably showed great disdain and contempt for the young royal children of Egypt as well.  One can only wonder.

The important lesson I am learning from Vicky is the use of good versus evil in this story.  She creates a credible story  of opposing forces with enough conflicts to maintain a fast pace in the telling of the story. I am realizing at how difficult it is for me to create conflicts employing evil sins versus good virtues.  I had had difficulty with that when writing a mystery murder story...I could not think like a murderer enough to develop a murderer.  In my other attempts at creating a plot, I have too often omitted evil characters when I realize that i must employ a few.   Some are there historically but I have yet to fully develop those characters.  I think about my own storyline when reading hers.  She has actually done me a favor through her research and her creativity because I can see where I need to  flesh out my own characters more fully than I have.

It intrigues and fascinates me that Vicky is as interested in Rome and Greece as I have been.  Cleopatra is probably one of the most awesome women in world history simply because she is linked with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.  A very young girl who has snared two of the most powerful Roman soldiers in Rome's history is without doubt a woman of unique talents and power.  She has caught the imagination of many a historian and author, and so it is fascinating to see her through her daughter's eyes.

(to be continued).




Thursday, September 11, 2014

Past Few Weeks

Quite frankly, I hope never to go through anything like I have had to experience in the past few weeks ever again.  It has been one of the very worst experiences that I have had to endure and I have hated it more than anyone can know.  Today, I believe that the workers who are plastering the final and last building in this set are finally near the end. Never will I be so happy to see people go than I will be to see this lot of miserable cusses go.

If anybody ever knew what lay ahead for them in this journey of life, probably most of us would say no way to it and find something else to make their days pass. Unfortunately, none of us know for certain what any of the days ahead will deliver to us.  I am ever mindful of all the adages that men coin just to sustain them during their toil on earth, but those are merely means to pour ointment on a miserable condition.  I could take all those adages and throw them out the window in a minute to say just quit kidding yourself so much, buddy.

Because i have had an inordinate and most unusual amount of early morning pain in this experience, I am seriously sorry for all those poor souls who are having to undergo bombs and war weapons falling all around them. Russia and the Ukraine is a sorry situation where so many innocents are being hurt and trapped by evil forces around them over whom they have no control at all, as well as the Middle East where Muslims are warring with one another and trying to involve all of the rest of the world in their own muddled affairs.  ISIS is drawing the USA into another military action to rid ourselves of these barbaric terrorists.  Israel and Palestine have been fighting each other for months on end, killing endless numbers of innocent men, women, and children for no reason at all except the motivation of hatred and envy, and a need for self defense.  What a world in which to live right now...Not good at all to bring children into those areas of the world, but humanity being what it is, people continue to rape and pillage, and unfortunate young are made to be brought into a world of hate and hostility.

I heard Barack Obama last night on his t.v. speech in which he repeats senseless patter about how it is that the USA will drive out the forces of ISIS and how much he hates to admit that he is being brought into another military action in the Middle East. Since most of his speech emphasized the Muslim faith I do understand now why so many believe that he is secretly and honestly more Muslim than Christian.  Obama says one thing but does another and finally, this time he said enough to convince me that he is more than just a little bit tied to the Muslim world. He could very well be a Muslim himself after all.

I am not totally convinced that Barack Obama is a natural born citizen of the USA.  I know that many efforts have been made to prove his birth status.  He is a bit of a problem in that respect.  If proved that he is not a natural born citizen, his entire two terms is that of an imposter.

But his last sentence and attitude betrayed him to me last night on t.v.  I have never seen such hostility and anger come out  of a man after saying God Bless America.  I am stunned even yet as I recall it.

Why would he be so hostile is what I want to know?  He has a very deep hatred burning in him for something.  And I am wondering what it is and why.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Record Rainfall Today

I thought that the harvest moon was supposed to be tomorrow night but I did go out to see the full moon after it was mentioned on the news tonight.  I will try to see it come up tomorrow if I can remember to do it.

We had a record rainfall due to some hurricane spinning off into the Pacific, and it  was so intense that it broke all records for the region.  NBC was calling it the storm of the century.  It has created havoc but I stayed home and would not even try to navigate the roads that were supposed to be flooded.  Since it happens every time we have a storm here I wonder why it is that people dare to try to drive in flooded streets.  My conclusion is that they like trouble enough to seek it for themselves.

I am so tired of the remodeling going on here at this apartment that I was happy it rained so that the workers would not be able to do anything today. I actually appreciated their having to delay the work on the apartment for a day or so.  I am sure that they will be here tomorrow to do their work despite the muddy conditions.

I will cut this short and maybe continue with it tomorrow.  I am reading Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Shecter and am now about to go to Rome in her story of the children of Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra...it has really wakened me up to a lot of things.  I will discuss those things in a different post since I must go to bed now.