Monday, October 21, 2013

Becca and Becca


          Turns out there aren't a lot of names that sound like mine....well...point is I have seen the movie Julie&Julia many times. I really liked like the movie to be perfectly honest. So if you haven't seen the movie, I would recommend it, for the most part. I guess it depends on the type of movies you like, if you are like me and really go for most of everything BUT horror, because no. No thank you, a million times over NO. But if you aren't and you like more specific movies then maybe not. Anyways this movie is about Julia Child the chef. And Julie something or another, I don't remember her last name and quite frankly I am feeling a bit too lazy to look it up. So Julie is going through a woman's version of a mid-life crisis comes much sooner in our lives as woman stereo-typically mature faster then men. So point is Julie is going through hers and decides to start a blog about doing a cooking challenge. 500 or so recipes within a year. So there is the main idea of the plot, but there is so much more going on. 
           I think in the movie Julie who is doing the blog the food becomes a crutch for her, a reason to get to hide behind all the other stuff that is happening in her life. I mean for some people isn't that what a blog is for? Take the show Awkward for an example, in the show she writes a private blog to vent about her life, to be become a faceless person in the world wide web. The food in Julie's life becomes the all important theme because its easier to fix a messed up meal than it is to fix the problems we have in life. 
          So these problems are going to be appearing in her life even if she tries to avoid them. Is there such a thing though as having a personal blog about our lives, and then not including certain parts? I made a mention before of MTV's show Awkward.

          Well her personal "private" blog went live. oh oops, spoiler alert. Anyways it was a complete mess. So I wonder now, when people post certain things how they don't think it won't come back and bite them in the butt. Yet in the movie Julie writes about her husband, and how he is a saint, that is her thing, what she calls him. And then mentions in a blog post how she burnt some of her food for an important event and decided to call into work "sick". Problem here though is what if you told someone that you work with that you a) have a blog, b) twitter account c) facebook or i guess some people actually use Google+? I didn't know that but okay. 
        Point is though its dangerous if you are friends, followers, or in circles? - is that what Google+ does? Anyways its dangerous game when you are connected with people at work ESPECIALLY your boss. I mean come on... you are just asking for trouble. So in the movie when Julie starts to write blog post that start involving her personal life things get a little rocky. But then I guess keeping blog life separate from personal life is next to impossible sometimes. As a seasoned blogger long before this class, I can honesty say that lone thing a blog does, it becomes part of your life. If you are passionate about it, it really does. So when Julie starts to involve her personal life is it that shocking? Not really, should have wrote a blog post telling the whole world that she called into work sick but really was at home cooking? Hell no. Should she have talked about her fight with her husband, again, no! This is about her cooking and trust me sometimes its hard to keep things separate but somethings really need to be kept separate. 
          Julia talks about her readers a lot. Like a lot, a lot. My readers want me to do this, or that. But I wonder how do people get interested in blogs like that. The other blog I run is a reviewing blog for indie books I know why people would stop by there. Very specific. So  with Julie's blog it makes me wonder, why? I suppose though it comes right down to the target audience, people might have looked up how to make this type of food, but in a different way. And I mean wasn't that Julia's idea in the first place. To make French cooking accessible to every woman in the States? So in different times they are trying to do the same thing in a way. Unfortunately for Julie when Julia Child found out about this is was kinda rude about it and wanted nothing to do with it. In all honesty I don't really know why Julia Child didn't care for Julie's blog maybe she thought Julie was a bored house-wife trying to make money off of her legacy. 
          When it comes right down to it. Bloggers, real, true bloggers, tend to let their lives intermingle with their blog. It make take some coaxing, but it happens. When that happens the blogger needs to be very careful. Julie should have been more careful at times. In the end the blog for her I think was very helpful, she finally faced certain problems. So


Just kidding. 


Monday, October 14, 2013

Reviewer as an Author

          As a writer myself, taking various classes in college and high school for creative writing I think that I have enough experience to say that I could understand where an author's stand point would be when receiving a review. One the biggest things that I hope people can take away from the memoir that I will be that writing is not only an art form at a lot of work, people need to be respectful. Reviewing can be a very powerful tool, both as being a way to make an author feel proud of their book, or make an author feel less dirt.
         I suppose on the things I that I hope by gaining while writing this memoir is also to find a better way to express feelings on a book without coming off as harsh as I might off to other authors. There is a point of being harsh and helpful.
        I understand that reading is a very opinionated thing, while a beautiful piece of literature maybe written but what is entertaining for one reader might not be the same for the next. It becomes even more complex when new genres arrive, and when new ideas are being presented. Genres along with age limits, there are many things that should go into when even starting a book.
        While I am not an avid reader of literature with my soon to be degree it grants me some rights as a reader to make certain statements because I take in the book, I critique with evidence and research. With day to day reviewing of works of fictions I can sort of see the same here, while I will not just say this book was bad. I will explain why I thought this: was it the genre i like, was it to similar to another book, there is a lot that is considered. I hope that people also will be able to take that away from my memoir.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Evaluating Life

I am supposed to be posting three things that could be used as memoirs. Memoirs being: a personal account of an experience. This means a lot of self-evaluating, what could there be that is interesting enough for me to talk about about my past life? Excuse me while I scratch my head about that one for the next couple of days. For now I suppose I will have to do a couple though I am feeling a bit lost. What I find mundane might be extraordinary for someone else, and what I might find extraordinary may very well be mundane for someone else.

*Sigh* Let's try.

1) My adventure in being a small little blog with big dreams. No unfortunately I am not talking about this blog, I am talking about my other blog that I started almost a year ago going in feeling concerned about a lot of things. First being I wanted to review books, not just any books but indie books. Being mean is not something I am very good at it. But when reviewing sometimes you have to be what the authors and dedicated fans would considered "mean". I have actually been part of that backlash even though I try to keep all my reviews lighthearted, and kind even if I didn't like the book. But this little blog has expanded, and has me branching out so much. On top of helping me grow as someone being a critical reader it helped me make new friends, becoming more social (even if it is online). Made me more open to a whole lot of new ideas.






2) Writing and reading with dyslexia. Yeah growing up with a twin that could read at a normal pace and you are a little farther back makes things a bit difficult not only on self-esteem but on many other aspects. I hated reading when I was younger, hated it, and it wasn't until I was in 8th grade did I finish my first really big chapter book. (At least of what I could remember). I had only started writing a few years before that, in 6th grade. Of course that story will never see the light of day, since I didn't believe in paragraphs at the time. Anyways while during English parts of Elementary classes, and even in Middle school I was pulled out to do Special Ed classes. Grammar wasn't something I learned like other people, reading was painful and it was a long road but now I read as if its my source of life. Writing is the same.


3) Riding horses, showing in horse shows, and all that comes with it is more than practicing an hour and a half every day. A lot of people might not see riding as a sport but if one has never done a show I would like to see them re-think what they say after doing one day. One class really. There is so much more to it. It's learning responsibility, sportsmanship, and patience. One can't be going off the handle especially around 1000 pound animals that are meant to be trusting of your level-head. There is also a community of people, which becomes like a little world of our own.