Category Archives: Social Media

What Does Voting Mean to You?

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In honor of Willie Velasquez and others like him who have fought so hard to earn us the right to vote, I’m asking you to think about what it means to you personally to have that power, that privilege to vote your conscience.

Think about it and let me know. Leave a comment here or better yet, write your own blog post about what voting means to you, and I’ll add a link to your page here. I’ll also tweet it. Heck, I’ll share it with Latino Public Broadcasting, which co-produced the Willie Velasquez documentary and maybe they’ll tweet it, too. Continue reading →

City Editor Tells it Like it Is

City Editor Tells it Like it Is

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Goodness gracious, I have now officially, beyond a shadow of a doubt, completed two weeks of that mind-blowing, hard to remember it’s name, NaBloPoMo. Three cheers for me! Thirty days, 30 posts–and this is Post #15!

Can you believe it??

Neither can I. Somebody pinch me! Continue reading →

Hannah, Bella and This and That

Hannah, Bella and This and That

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Seems to me Hannah Anderson may be guilty of something. But more on that later. Here’s what’s been on my mind this week: A five-year old kindergartner, Bella Noble, was accidentally run over by her mother’s van. When the mother … Continue reading →

Random thoughts from a Crazed Woman

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I have too much going on, and too many thoughts spinning around my head. How does that old adage go? Oh, yeah. I remember.

So much to do, so little time. Here’s a glimpse of my weekend:

Zumba, zumba, zumba:  I love Zumba. I love to dance, so it’s the perfect exercise. The music’s lively and loud, the Zumba instructors dance with verve and the class is, well, fun.  My only complaint is that I wish I had more time in the day, so I could go more often. Say, three times a week, instead of two.

Saturday Night Gala:  If it’s Saturday night, chances are there’s a gala somewhere in town. This past Saturday was no exception. It’s actually part of my job to get all dressed up, drive downtown, and attend a gala for a worthy cause. This particular one was a fundraiser for The Center, a non-profit that provides resources and support to San Diego’s LGBT community. Great band, large dance floor. Which meant, after networking and presentations were done, I had to dance to the music at least once.

Atlantic Meets Pacific:  Yesterday, I attended a conference called “Atlantic Meets Pacific,” in which editors of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, in partnership with the University of California at San Diego, host two and a half days of lively, provocative topics covering everything from media and politics to energy and health. Fascinating stuff, if you ask me.

Happy Birthday, Regina! (That’s me, standing directly behind my sister.)

So, I took along my son, who is an avid Atlantic Monthly reader/subscriber, and we headed for the opening talk, which was just up my alley: a discussion on the 2012 Presidential Election Politics.

You should know that I am a political newshound, and that’s an understatement.  I won’t regale you with all the details, but know that I tweeted a lot about the political banter, and picked up nine new followers as a result. Which means, if I can get one more follower, I’ll have an even 600!

Best line I heard was from Republican strategist, Steve Schmidt.  When asked, why he though President Obama wasn’t up to par at the debates last week, Schmidt responded:

“The seven P’s:  Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.”

Of course, the audience burst out in laughter when he said that. But you know, there just may be something to it.

Race 2012 Blogging Project:  There are 20 bloggers contributing their personal stories and sharing their perspectives. And, I am coordinating their participation. I love my bloggers, but, honey, it ain’t easy keeping track of the coordination part.  This is sure to keep me busy through the elections.  Which brings me to…

…The Elections: OMG, I LOVE LOVE the elections! I cannot stop watching the news shows, listening to the radio and reading all about it online. I need my fix of politics—and I need it NOW! Can I tell you? This morning, going through presidential debate withdrawal, I turned on the radio and got to hear a pre-recorded debate between Senator Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia, and his  opponent, Wayne Powell.  Let me tell you, this Wayne Powell is a real dynamo!  He is a veteran, having served 30 years in the military, and he has a law degree. As I listened to Powell, I was reminded of the film with James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. For, I found Powell to be compassionate, stating his case assertively and to the point. He’d certainly be a much-needed breath of fresh air in Congress.

Henry:  Boy, if I had a dollar for every time my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel wanted to go for a walk. Why doesn’t driving him around in my car, while I do errands count? Darn, if that dog doesn’t keep insisting on his “constitutionals.”

My Son:  With my son over yesterday, so that we could go to the conference together, I just had to bake a chocolate chip pumpkin bread for him. And then we had to watch the first episode of the new season of Homeland, and it didn’t disappoint. No wonder it’s our favorite show.

Isn’t my sister a cutie patootie?

TV:  Now I know what you’re thinking. “Monica, if you’re so busy, why watch TV?” Simple. Because I LOVE it! I have too many favorite shows and I know I would get the DT’s to give any of them up.  I already mentioned Homeland. And, Sunday nights are the worst now that the fall is here and the shows have returned.  And, by worst, I mean, all the shows I watch seem to fall on Sunday night! Maybe in another post, I’ll confess more of my addiction.

My Sister: My sister is the youngest among my siblings, trailing me, the next youngest, by eight years. Well, today is her birthday, and I’m so very proud of her and all that she’s accomplished. For starters, she’s a journalist for a major daily newspaper, and she’s doing what she loves. So, Happy Birthday, Regina!  Oh, and by the way, if you ever run into her while she’s covering a story, ask her this question:

“Who the heck is Lois Nettleton??”

She’ll know the answer or my name is mud.

So, tell me. What did you do this weekend?

Breaking News: My Brother’s Got the Scoop

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My brother and I have this thing. Call it one-upmanship. Call it a contest to see who can be first. Call it sibling rivalry at it’s worst. He actually started it, many years ago, and in the beginning, I didn’t think anything about it. But, suddenly it dawned on me, and, when it did, I said,

This is how I learned that my idol, Nora Ephron, had passed away.

“Game on!”

And, ever since, it’s been a mad dash to the finish.  Everyone at work is privy to this race of ours, and some have even tried to help me win. But I rarely do. You see, my brother is quite adept at this and he definitely has an advantage, he being in a time zone that is two hours ahead of mine, so I’m often still asleep when he awakens and gets the latest scoop.

Still haven’t figured it out?

My brother loves to be the first with breaking news. He’s a regular news wire, Twitter feed, CNN junkie all rolled into one. He has his finger on the pulse and the other hovering over his smart phone, at the ready, to send out a text to all the family with the latest news.

Plain and simple, my brother was born to be a journalist, a muckraker, a newspaper reporter, a newshound. Yet, he’s none of these.  Not by profession, anyway.

Mostly, he has a zeal for being first with breaking news about celebrity deaths, but on occasion he’s been first to tell me breaking news about celebrity, well, breakups (for example, think Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes).

This goes as far back as Princess Diana. In those days, neither of us had cell phones. I’ll never forget that evening. It was late August, kids were still out of school, enjoying the last days of their summer vacation, and we had spent the entire evening doing one of our favorite things, exploring our local bookstore. We had just returned home, each of us having added two to three books to our personal libraries, when the phone rang.

I picked it up. It was my brother.

“Watch the news. Princess Diana is dead!”  He blurted, and then hung up.

No, wait. This actually started further back than Princess Diana. It was in 1994!

A Friday evening in early June. I remember because I was sick to my stomach. I had gone out with friends from work to celebrate someone’s retirement and we had eaten at this Greek place and though I love Greek food, I got sick. Really, really sick. I couldn’t-keep-anything-down I was so sick. So I was home in a near coma, laying on my bed in a pool of sweat and drifting in and out of consciousness, when the phone rang.

“Turn on the TV. OJ’s being chased by the police!”

That’s all my brother said and hung up. In my delirium, I did what I was told. I dragged myself out of bed and turned on the TV. I watched for the next several hours, what would turn out to be the most incredibly slow chase in history. I wasn’t sure whether my eyes were deceiving me, and to this day, I still wonder how much of that chase was real and how much of it was part of some surreal Fellini-like dream that I was having as a result of my debilitating nausea.

In any case, over the years, my brother must have told me of about 277 celebrity deaths, including Phil Hartman, Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Donna Summers, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Trisha tried to help me be first with news about Andy Griffith.

About a week ago, Andy Griffith died. My friend, Trisha, tried to give me the heads up via text, hoping I’d be first with the news. But she doesn’t have the practice, the experience and the tenacity, that my brother has and so, she couldn’t compete. He beat her text by mere minutes.

But, there’s always the next time. Like this past Sunday, when Academy-Award winning actor, Ernest Borgnine, passed away. I happened to be on my computer when the email alert from The Washington Post arrived with the news. I immediately looked at my texts to see if I’d received one from my brother. Nope. I then went into action and sent a text and an email, not only to my brother, but to all my siblings so they could have proof that I was first with the news.

Well, as macabre as this contest might seem, I’m in it for the long haul. So, until next time, Bro!