Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I am beat and it's late so this will be short. Thanks for the posts! I spent a big part of today working on the tedious details of putting up a new website, and much talk about the forum. Unfortunately, we have to start from scratch, people! ARGH. Oh, this is just so frustrating. The good news is that I can get to the "Who are you people anyway" entries and at least save them. The new forum should be up in a week at the latest. Oh! Oh! Oh! This all just KILLS me.

Thanks for all the posts. Oh the Catholics who think they can do anything as long as they confess! That is so terribly disturbing and screwed up. And I was a bit like that back when I was a Catholic. Thank God I am not a Catholic now. I mean, thank my mind. Or thank those two Mormon missionaries who saved me inadvertently.

Any news? Well, the Jill and Julia show should be open by September, the movie will be released at least on DVD by August or September. Project Runway rules, Mulan and I watched raptly tonight. I vacillate between Obama and Clinton... and even Edwards. I'm getting married in May. I am trying to finish my book by the end of March. (I know, I've said that before...) I had a long talk with a guy in Portland tonight, I'm doing my show, "Letting Go of God" there May 28, and now I have to read a book with Mulan before she goes to bed. That is everything I can think of for the time being...

Julia

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Condolences on the death of your forum. Pooh says it best 'oh bother'.

Finished listening to "Letting Go of God" a year after starting it with ted (too cruel). Loved it thank you, if I ever meet a Mormon missionary I'll give it to him (you have to pay these things forward).

ps is there an RSS feed for this blog?

Unknown said...

I can't wait to see you in Portland!

Anonymous said...

Julia, this article made all the difference in the world to me in terms of my support for Senator Obama. Take a look, if you have a chance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html

I just really think he is our chance to have a transformative leader who can go above the right-wingers in Washington and directly to all the reasonable people in the "red states" who have been duped for all these years, and bring them in to a governing majority that could get things done.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm not sure you can see all of the link to the article, so here it is again:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn
/content/article/2008/01/03/AR20080
10303303.html

If this is too onerous, just google:

"Judge Him by His Laws by Charles Peters"

Anonymous said...

PLEASE PLEASE let us know if you're going to be the winner of the NPR competition! You really would be the best selection out of all of them!

Thomas Harper said...

Hey Julia. I didn't know you had a blog. A good friend of mine just sent me a link.

I love your story. I joined a cult when I was twenty and I'm finally getting back to my pre-cult identity. I'm 41. I wish I would have heard one of your talks or read your literature earlier.

You're doing a wonderful and vital work.

Thomas Harper

Anonymous said...

That Wash Post article does provide a good clue or two about Obama.

This article is also a good one, as it describes why many people support Obama:

If the link is goofy, the article was on the cover of the December Atlantic Monthly. It's called "Why Obama Matters."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama

Anonymous said...

I found Katha Pollitt's article: How Different Are the Top Three Dems? interesting. You have to be careful to not to confuse personality with policy. Your in good company Julia.

Anonymous said...

ps tip to everyone posting links you can make a hyperlink by using: <a href="put url link here">put description here</a>

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say that My friend Jeff and I still, after all these years, still crack up when we mention "the Pasbey's". Love Your work. changed my life!

Sheldon said...

Hi Julia,

I'm preparing for a new semester of teaching psychology to young adults who spend more time watching television and chatting online than they do reading or thinking. As a result, I have to keep up with current affairs in "Hollywood" so I can use examples they can relate to.

This brings me to the parenting skills (or lack thereof) that led to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Just awful!

Does it frighten you that Mulan might be exposed to some of the same "fame pressures" that those two were? Do you think their downfall was more about THEM being famous at a young age? Or maybe the whole thing seems as foreign to you as it does to us (the un-famous)?

Then I'm reading the story of a young girl who committed suicide over cyber harassment by her ex-friend's mother! The girl met a boy online through MySpace, chatted with him daily and began to fall in love. After a long cyber-relationship, the boy suddenly turned on her and said he hated her, never wanted to chat again, etc. Turns out, there was never any such boy. It was a character created by an ex-friend of this girl and the ex-friend's MOTHER! They took turns leading this girl on, and then taunting her. End result, the girl killed herself! See more here http://tinyurl.com/2o5v2j

In this world of Internet access, and kids growing up too fast, parenting must be a terrifying responsibility at times. : /

Petra said...

In this world of Internet access, and kids growing up too fast, parenting must be a terrifying responsibility at times.

Hi Sheldon!

Terrifying responsibility. Perfectly worded. YES.

Sadly, though, I think that there is a plethora of parents who are completely oblivious to the newest hazards out there. Those that think that as long as their children aren't wandering the streets with drugs and guns, after dark, they are safe.

I have two boys around Mulan's age (7 and 9) and have been, thus far, able to shelter them from a lot of external influences. They watch no commercial television and their computer time is limited to about twenty minutes while I am in the room. The big bad world will get its grip on them far too soon, so I try to keep it at bay as much as I can.

Part of the Britney/Lindsay issue, I think, goes way beyond parenting issues and fame. I think "mainstream media" is partly at fault. Twenty-odd years ago, when Drew Barrymore was going through similar issues, the only (somewhat) respectable medium to cover the story was PEOPLE magazine. Otherwise it was just the tabloids that got in on the deal.

The regular news outlets, tv news, newspapers, etc., might have a one paragraph story about Drew entering rehab, but otherwise the story was NOT news. The OJ trial was the beginning of the change I think, and now I believe there is no longer a line between rag mags and real newspapers, between those Inside-Access-Info- tainment-Edition-Extra-Tonight shows and "real" news shows.

I think that if those poor kids were allowed to disappear and heal in peace, rehab might actually stick. I recognize that the addiction to fame plays a PART of the problem (both girls COULD avoid going out in public!).

Now I am just rambling... but thanks for getting my brain working this morning! LOL

: ) Petra

Anonymous said...

I just finished with "letting Go of God" Should that be big "G" or little "g" in the word god. You could have wrote a chapter about how your mind could not come to grips with big G or little g in all so dramatic form. My favorite part of you book was when after your liberation from "god" that all you could do is think. You actually said "I was LOST in thought" As long as humans are lost in thought and their personal story (I thought your story was a bit boring :) the world will continue as is.

Sheldon said...

I'll never understand why people feel the need to write to someone just to say "I don't like your work." Was it really so disappointing that you felt the need to express how ripped off you felt? Are you just trying to make her feel bad? Is this a desperate cry for attention?

The "anonymous" part I get, though. Just enough guts to put someone down, but not quite enough to sign your name to it, right?

Anonymous said...

Oh, Sheldon... how glad I am that I decided to follow this thread because in this uncertain world what is more reassuring, than seeing in black an white that the more things change certain respondents remain the same?
So nice to see you here: who said this isn't the best of all possible worlds?
And you are again berating someone for doing exactly what you constantly do yourself..
Not that it isn't quite human to do it.. and not, of course, that you aren't, above all... HUMAN..(and may I add, rather good looking (as well as dashingtly well dressed.. yes, I've seen you, stood quite close to you as a matter of fact).
Here's the thing though: in open forums anyone can say anything, short of inciting to public mayhem... and they do.
As do you.
And that's good.
Because then you are free to indulge YOURSELF by replying as you have done.
And as I am doing right now..
I hope you don't mind...



Norma Manna Blum

Anonymous said...

NMB, so good to see you! I wonder where all those other forum folk are. I hope the forum is up again soon, I need that haven.

This one is nice too, but it's really for Juia to talk. :)

Best,
Mesorah from LGOG forum

Sheldon said...

This is me, not taking the bait from a bitter old woman who goes by the name of Norma.

And by the way, I never left (either site).

Anonymous said...

LOL...
Why Sheldon, you're right, if inaccurate: you didn't leave VOLUNTARILY.
...
You were removed cyber-bodily by what the bitter old woman imagines was some kind of consensus..
Perhaps even a ground swell of demand.

But nevertheless, by the bitter old woman's standards for both fairness and adherence to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United State, an excessive response to provocation..
For neither the forum NOR the Constitution states that free speech requires that the speech in question be rational or even comprehensible.
Only that it be free, unrestricted, unless it contributes to danger to the physical safety of either the speaker or the spoken to.

The bitter old woman objected to your removal on the grounds that abusiveness, albeit witless and unattractive , , is not sufficient grounds for arrest or even exile.

Thus the bitter old woman was, and still is, on record as believing that as irrational as your self-involved tantrums were.. you were (and remain) entitled to express yourself and should have been allowed to have them.

The thing about forums such as this, Sheldon, is that what one doesn't like (or understand) one can just pass over until one finds something that either pleases or enlightens
And then one can respond, or not, as one CARES to do.
Or is DEMANDED to do as a functtion of one's character, Sheldon.

Sheldon???? Are you fiddling with your cravat?


Norma Manna Blum

Sheldon said...

Actually, you're wrong all all counts, "Norma." But I'll just leave it there and ignore all your future posts, no matter how hypocritical they are. I don't come here to engage in debates with you, although you seem to delight in pontificating paragraph after paragraph, sticking your nose in where it's not wanted, and otherwise taking out the stresses of your lonely life on me and others.

'Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

LOL..
Sheldon, you are possessed of one helluva enviable wit if you do say so yourself.

AND if foot stamping and indulging in snits has become synonymous with wit since those ancient days when I was young (although never, never as bee-yoo-ti-ful as you are) and had a life ...well, not quite as important and productive as yours.

But Sheldon.. SHEL-don... why is MY nose less worthy of being stuck in here than YOUR nose?
Who you?

Norma Manna Blum

Anonymous said...

As a former Catholic, are you aware of the story of Our Lady of Fatima? Are you aware of the PROVEN miracles at Lourdes...oh well...I was away from the church for a while myself and let me let you something my dear I have learned that there definately is a God. I guess you are enjoying making money off of bashing the Catholic Church. Very sad indeed.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous,

I don't think you can say something is provable unless it is repeatable. I am doubting that the miracle you are referring to can be scientifically observed and repeated. Perhaps it did happen. Who knows. But to say that it's provable means a very specific thing -- and that is that it is observable and repeatable under the same or similar conditions.

Petra said...

Triple love the new home page, Julia! Nicely done.

: ) P

Anonymous said...

Dear Julia-I just finished watching your "God Said Ha" DVD and found it to be a blessing. My mother died of lung cancer 8/22/08. I quit my job 12/06, shortly after she was diagnosed, so I could walk through the process of radiation, chemo, etc. with her. Listening to you talk about your brother, parents and other siblings as you went through your brother's cancer, then yours, was oddly comforting to me. I never would have thought that listening to someone talk about their brother puking his way to the ER or "losing" her overy after a hysterectomy would bring me comfort. Grief is weird. Watching my mom get painfully poked for chemo IV's, in her weakend veins, on a weekly basis, is an experience few people in my life can understand. And really, I don't want them to. Thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad you are healthy and have a chance to be a mom. Congratulations on your upcomeing marriage. Say hello to your overy for me the next time it floats by. You're a gift. Thanks again. Lisa in MN

Kathryn Cleve said...

Julia, I am so glad I found this method of communicating to you.
I bought the Letting Go of God CD about the time I was reading The God Delusion and I have listened to your CD about fifty times. I cannot wait to see your pretty self doing the show on DVD. I have always admired you, from SNL to Beethoven (the dog, not the... well, you know.)
But you did something profound and wonderful when you put your own experience into a warm, funny, touching and - above all - smart evening of entertainment and food for thought.
The God Delusion and your CD are the reasons I finally stood up after 40 years of near-ruin at the hand of religion and exclaimed that I was, and am, an Atheist.
My partner and I are active in the Unitarian Universalist church and in social justice projects in the GLBT community and among the homeless.
Best of all, I have a very popular blog called TRUTH SETS U FREE which points out the folly of religion without anger.
http://truthsuf.blogspot.com/
I am pleased to hear you found a good guy and plan marriage and I wish you both all the happiness life can give you.
Fondly, and with profound appreciation,
Kathryn Diane Cleve
in Tampa FL
PS Joy and I ate up Project Runway again this season as we have from the start!

Sheldon said...

PROVEN miracles at Lourdes? This I gotta hear!

The people I've seen interviewed by Dawkins and others even admit that, out of the millions who have flocked there, they've been willing to accept very few reports as incidents of actual healing - and those are always things that could have gotten better on their own, or due to medical assitance the patient received or was currently receiving.

I wonder what nonsense that person's church is filling it's congregants' heads with?

Isn't there a web site called whydoesntgodhealamputees.com ? Might want to check there before you believe such things.

Angela Bailey Estep said...

Hi Julia,

Just out and about tonight, checking out other people's blogs and articles on their website. I seem to have a bit of writer's block for the past week, so really trying to get my mind running with new ideas. Really like your website, found lots of interesting info. Keep up the good work!!

As a webmaster and website owner myself, I believe this article may interest you.

You can get paid up to $4,800/month to add a banner ad on your website. A famous network just offered to pay any website owner up to $4,800/month to show their banner ad on their websites!!

And listen to this...Even if you chose to remove their banner ad from your website after the one month of exposure, they'll keep on paying you that amount every month afterward!!

This is hotter than Google Adwords and can greatly increase traffic to your website.

Read the article. Link http://viralurl.com/acemarketing/CTmoney

Will soon be back to visit again.

All the best....

Angela

P.S. Feel free to comment on my blog page and leave a link to your main website. http://www.netwebmarketer.com/acemarketing

Eunice said...

It won't truly have success, I believe so.