Archive for the 'videoblogging Week' Category

April 25, 2008 | Filed under: vlogalicious, videoblogging Week

Winding down The Plaid Years, thank goodness. Unlike the last journal entries, these are a lot less eventful (that’s probably for the best) and span a large stretch of time. The Plaid Years should really should be called “College: The Early Years”. I took another couple of stabs at it ’till I got it right. Then grad school took a few more stabs, topped off by a second bachelors’ stab. For someone who clearly did not like school, I sure went to school a looooong time.

The most annoying thing about this diary (aside from the fact that by age 19 I’m a mess-and-a-half) is that not only are the pages not pre-printed with dates but I didn’t date them, either! I guess I though that being deliberately vague was really, really cool. I also didn’t name anyone, I just used their initials. Not helpful. When I’m 80 I’ll have no idea who these people are.

I left out the superpathetic sex bits. Plenty of that in my last post. That’s all you get.

April 23, 2008 | Filed under: vlogalicious, videoblogging Week

Now we are treading in dangerous waters. No life jackets. Pirhanas everywhere. Nibbling. We’re moving on to a new journal. The plaid one. The Plaid Years were…well…plaid. All jumbly and going in several directions at once. Why? Because that’s what being a college freshman is all about. Everyone around you is saying you’re grown up, that you’re an adult, but you’re not by a long shot. What you really are is a 13th grader masquerading as an adult. I’m sure I thought I was a sophisticated Woman of The World, what with my being away at college and all**, but in reality I was just as much of a kid as most of my friends. I slept with a teddy bear and was still having nightmares about The Day After.

I shot video of several journal entries from The Plaid Years, but realized that this one– the first one– should just be out on the loose on its own.

A side note to the Fathers: Yes. It’s true. Your daughters will get older, they will have sex –likely too soon– and it will be a nightmare for you. They might make some questionable choices in spite of the fact that you’ve raised them to be strong, smart young women. You can’t lock them in the basement. Actually, I guess you could lock them in the basement…

Go. Go do it now. Yes. Lock your daughters in the basement. Hurry!

**I was 37 minutes away by commuter rail. Real worldly.

April 22, 2008 | Filed under: vlogalicious, videoblogging Week

The Unicorn Years: Part Two.**

After a couple of years of writing in dated diaries I became embarrassed by the volume of empty pages when I didn’t write so I took to writing entries in blank books instead. The gaps are still there, just less obvious. That’s why the unicorn book lasted as long as it did. It stretches all the way into March of 1986 - the Spring semester of 11th grade - and it’s still more than half empty. I never could resist starting a new blank book.

There is a huge gap between September of ‘84 through September ‘85. The pages for the entire school year are actually ripped out. I have no idea when I did that, but I do remember why: junior year was excruciating. Academically disastrous, friendships obliterated, loyalties tested, epic scale teen-girl drama. I’m pretty sure my best high school girl friend wrote a play about that year when she was old enough to parse it all. You couldn’t pay me to relive high school, particularly that year.

Now we’re getting into the yucky part of being a teenager. Pain, rejection and parental disapproval.

I really should have stopped listening to The Smiths so much. But how could I? They were speaking directly to me.

**Today there may be a ‘Dear Diary’ two-fer. I’m hoping to cram in VBWeek #3 before I go to work. If not, the whole week will be off by a day.  As you can plainly see from my diary entries regarding school, organization and prioritizing were never my strong suits.

April 21, 2008 | Filed under: vlogalicious, videoblogging Week

I’ve been away for far too long. Busybusy, not much to report, just busybusy. What better time to get back into the swing than Videoblogging Week? One video a day for seven days. After NaVloPoMo, a week should be easy as pie.

Last year for VBWeek I reviewed some of my favorite good, cheap foods of NYC. This time, it’s personal.

Pretty much every year for as far back as I can remember someone gave me a daily diary as a Christmas gift. Being the pack rat that I am, I still have most of them. I’m not sure what made me think that reading them in public was a good idea but I was inspired by a recent episode of my favorite radio show in which a man read entries from his childhood journals expressing his deep desire to become the prime minister of Israel. It’s what you’d expect from a teenager’s journal: intense, outrageous and touching. It’s also seriously cringeworthy.

I’m expecting a whole lot of cringing going on here, for certain.

I haven’t read all the way through the diaries and don’t know what embarrassment is in store; it could be really bad so this little project may end abruptly. I can always go back to good, cheap eats, right?

Let’s start with 1983-1984, the years documented in the journal with a unicorn on the cover. From what I can recall, those were very good years. The unicorn years.

April 6, 2007 | Filed under: videoblogging Week, NYC, good eatin'

Click the pic or here for Flash

Click here for Quicktime

Chugging toward the end of VBW07 with my very favorite sandwich, the Vietnamese Bahn Mi. Roasted seasoned pork, some kind of meat pate/boloney slices (I don’t really like thinking about it…it’s beige and shiny and creepy looking) and carrots, daikon, cucumbers, chili sauce, fiery peppers and cilantro on a fresh toasted baguette. A cheap eats no-brainer at $3.50. There are cheaper Bahn Mi out there, but this one is by far the best. I prefer the pork, but they also have shrimp and veggie ones, too. You have a choice between spicey and not, and I always order them spicy but then backtrack and pull off the peppers. I love the flavor they leave behind, but biting into them is suicide.

This funny little shop churns out nothing but sandwiches, and lives in the back of a jewelery shop. You never know when you might want a coral bracelet to go with your lunch. They weren’t too keen on my fliming in there which is why there’s no footage of the store (there was some shouting and waving) but they were nice enough to forgive me and sell me a sandwich.