miss pretty

MISS PRETTY




In many ways this will be a satirical blog.  At least I envision it could be, funny and whimsical. I think it comes with the subject, pretty women.  Miss Pretty.  And is a code phrase for me.  Reminds me how I am a nerd, now and then.  Started out as a  Woody Allen prodigy.  Got lots of girls hitting on me, because they saw Woody on the big screen.  Neurotic.  NYC.  All that and more.  A talented guy, and they thought I might be like that.  Never was.  Got distracted easily.  Wandered off.  The Hunt and The Chase, and I would drop into a bookstore and come out the otherside, feeding my fantasy-side and not paying enough attention to Miss Pretty, to keep her around for very long.  We could write a whole blog about pretty women, but it is so unnecessary.  Young and Pretty. 




And replacement therapy works.  We get older.  Never forget those one night stands with Miss Pretty, but then that’s all there is.  One and Done.  Miss Pretty.  Shirley.  Surely, as I write this, you can hear the echo response.  "Are you kidding me.?"   And that is why this is my attempt at being funny.  Comes when she said, "Are you crazy….it’s hot here!!! "   And she, not me:  could have easily said, "I’m hot here.  Pay attention."   All follows from a blog I wrote recently.  Winner in Winter.  And is a contrast in place and style.  And so this a follow up.  Miss Pretty.  My blog for today.







I am in the mood.  Miss Pretty gets me in the mood.  Taunting.  Basic challenge.   Being with a beauty, or just mentally being in a beautiful place.  Been there and done that.  Experience and once or twice have seen Miss Pretty with her makeup off.  Natural and private.  And it always impresses me, we all are human.  And did write a blog about winter and it being cold in New York City and surrounding area, where the Super Bowl will be played.  Miss Pretty will play you.  Be a challenge from the moment you ask, "Can I buy you a drink?"  And even with the cold and bundled up, in Times Square and in the surround, she is there.  Miss Pretty.  Where there are cameras, there are some that just stand out.  Gets me in the mood.  I am ready.



Some are just truly competitive and talented at the same time.  Hate to lose.  Like the physical.  And was reading about John Elway, the super QB from Denver fame, now the GM of the Broncos.  And when I read this, "…… John Elway can be a very hard friend to have."  Immediately Miss Pretty came to mind, and for a moment I was going to not post this blog.  Figuring enough has already been written and said about the Super Bowl 2014.  But then she did it again.  Miss Pretty inspired me, when she went public and said, " No way Stoney, AFL all the way!!"





So now I’m back.  Was not going to post this blog, but now I feel the challenge.  Let the best team win.  As long as its the Seattle Seahawks.  Now sounds like a man.  In control.  Wants it his way.  And all I know for sure, Shirley.  Is that by late Sunday night this matter will be settled.  And that is the end of Miss Pretty.  I wander off.  The game is over.  You win or you lose.  Game Over.




So unless your team is playing in the Super Bowl, I have to ask, "What’s all the fuss?"  And am looking for a simple answer, when I know its not that simple.  Sports or Business.  Market Branding.  New York City, or across the river in Jersey, where its not that pretty, but you get by.  Jersey isn’t really a Miss Pretty place.  The City might be.  Dress up.  Walk around.  Take it all in.  And if you have money, this is the place.  Super Bowl Action.  And the headlines say, " Super Bowl  is the largest weekend in U.S. prostitution."  Not sure I need to click on that to see what that’s all about.  Learned a long time ago by watching Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning Movie, Manhattan:  Not a good idea to mix wine and women and football."  Just not a good idea.  But lots of people before the game, looking for action.  If you have money, you can find it.  You probably know this more than myself.  Bookstores.  Subway back and forth across the river.  And so it goes.  Super Bowl weekend and I do ask, 

"What’s all the fuss?"


MISS PRETTY. 

winner in winter

WINNER IN WINTER




 

Wednesday and midweek.  Yesterday was Sexy-Tuesday on one of the blog spots I visit.  Also for Super Bowl activities, it was Media Day.  And its mandatory that players show up and talk to the people.  Contracts and Business, and this is what the Super Bowl represents to me.  So I decided to stay home.  Be warm and safe.  Become part of the problem, if you see it the way I do.  Sports and Business. Winter Olympics in Sochi, the killing zone.  Wait should we censor that.  Pull out your smart zone and challenge that.  Fact Check.  Killing Zone.  Winter Olympics.  Sochi.  Somewhat annoying, that everything you do and say is being watched and sorted and you become what you say or write.  Only its all done in shades of gray.  Indirect.  Who knows what the guy sitting next to me on the subway or in the Subway Sandwich Shack is doing.  Pulls out his phone.  Does his thing, and next thing I know, I am defending myself. 

Not much room for error. 


And that is where I find myself.  Super Bowl Week.  Wanted to blog about it each and every day.  Have something to say, about The Big Game.  But am learning as we go along.  Snowden and Wikileaks, and I watch the Fifth Estate on Hacker TV.  Nothing is as it seems.  Traitor or Whistleblower.  Basic sabotage.  And so it has established a trend for me.  Be careful what you eat.  What you say.  And where you go to watch The Big Game.  Hope I can stay on topic.   Winner in Winter.  My blog for today. 


Super Bowl.  Nfl.  Winner in Winter.  Something for everybody.  And I don’t need to go into details.  To each his own.  We love this.  And am reading a google news banner that says,"Many American Fans believe G-D will determine the winner."  I mention this because it falls in the zone where we all have an opinion and its valid to say what you will.  If for some reason, The Fact Checkers sanction you, well that is just how it is these days.  Winner in Winter. 

 


 Stay positive.  Stay warm.  Stay home, if you feel threatened by the guy sitting next to you, with his smart phone doing a background check on you.  Modern times, and the more we treat each other the way we want to be treated, it all works out.  Just different now.  Big Screen.  Has become an Ordeal to go to the stadium to see the game.  I did it a few times this year, ok so I am a fan and a fanatic, so I went to 12 live games.  Endured it all, and my reward is that the team I sponsored with my hard earned money, is playing in the Big Game.



All the action will be in New Jersey and New York.  Super Bowl Week.  Game is on Sunday.

Here is a link to my eyes on the action.

Www.earthcamtv.com


Web cams that spot the action around the world.  This week they are setting up in Time Square in New York City.   You can also smart phone for information about all the activities.  One thing I learned is that I can not afford all of this.  Media Day and all the stories that come with this event is overwhelming for me.  I am about the game.  Forget the noise level.  Forget the beer.  Forget about the Weather.  Just play the game and see what happens.  But wait.  That’s no fun. 


And isn’t the way they do it.  But only this week, where the NFL has total control and you are just a fan.  Come to New York.  Stay in New Jersey if you must.  Its just across the river.  But be aware, of the guy sitting next to you on the smart phone.  Nothing is as it seems.  Winner in Winter.  Live and in person, or watching on The Big Screen.  Come Sunday will find out.  Who wins. 

 


 And who does not.  AS for me, I’m good.  I have a plan.  Will leave it to others to make it authentic and fun for me.  "Pass the chips.  Lemon-aid, no beer.  I’m on a diet.  Woe is me."  But not to worry.  I’m good.  Super Bowl  on Sunday.  Winner in Winter, TBD  ( to be determined ).  And now I say a prayer.

  "Be safe and warm.  Be happy."   Amen.

maybe next time

MAYBE NEXT TIME





I woke up this morning, very early.  3 am on  Sunday morning.  What to do, becomes the early morning inquiry?  In the old days, you would be considerate.  Stay in bed.  Go back to sleep.  Don’t wake the family.  This applies if you have a family, or are living at home, and other people get involved if you stir before the sun comes up.  But now we flash forward.  It is 2014 and my family has become the Seattle Seahawks, a football team with a new quarterback, some good players, and promise.  Promise, it will only happen this week, that I wake up and start on about this subject.  Football.  Seahawks from Seattle.  The Super Bowl. 



And each day and week varies.  Not often that I carry on like this.  But getting back to the point I was making, 3 am and you are wide awake.  You live alone, so there is nothing keeping you from waking up and getting your day and Sunday started, way before perhaps one should.  What to do?  This week its me turning my computer, looking around and encounter more of the same.  Google news and this is replacing the local newspaper.  And Google news, and all I see is headline banners about death and killing.  It falls into broad categories.  In my area.  Around the world.  A few cities over, but far away for me to ask, "Why are you telling me this?" 



And best not post that on Facebook.  Best not tell that you woke up at 3 am, and have come to this social network place, straight away.  Straight away from the smart thing to do, I have veered off course.  Found my way here.  And now at the keyboard, writing.  Its  quiet.  I have a cup of tea in front of me.  I have decided to ignore the mall shooting, and the executions in Egypt and well it seems. Bad things happening everywhere.  This is how they package the news.  Bad news first, everything thing else in small print, if you know where to find it, on the digital news channel.  Ok, I am being small minded and closing myself off.  Shying away from the gloom and doom, saying:

 "Maybe Next Time." 



And will expand on all that as time permits.  In a blog.  At 3 am.  Sunday morning.   And you finally figure out what he’s doing.  No smoking gun.  No smoke rising from the chimney.   So its safe to assume he hasn’t lit the fire yet.  Early morning, and just outside is fog rising off the body of water that is walking distance from where he sits at his computer.  And it might be cold, after all its 3 am.  But maybe not, as we have not yet asked, "Where do you live?  South of the Equator, perhaps?"



It was just yesterday, or so it seems, that I promised to not bore you with football conversation.  But in 7 days, the NFL is playing the final game of its 2013 season.  They call it the Super Bowl.  It has become quite the entertainment package.  New commercials and we watch and then talk about it around the water-cooler or fountain when we return to work on Monday.  Ok, water-coolers are old fashion.  So my age is showing.  And people might not go to work these days, but stay home and find a way, to have an alternative life, without work.  Unemployment happens.  We go to college, but then find out.  China has all the jobs, and they aren’t issuing you and I a passport and work permit.  So instead.  Its football about what he lives and speaks.  Even in a casual blog, written at 3 am on Sunday morning.   And you look in.  See what’s going on.  Agree.  Not really interested in a mall shooting in Denver or even concerned about more dead bodies in Egypt or Syria.  Not really interested in The Seattle Seahawks or football or The Super Bowl.  But Maybe Next Time you will write the blog.  And it will be more sensible.  Perhaps.





 
No longer is it 3 am in the world or at my place.  Having breakfast now.  Clicked on something called, "Free Shipping.", and for the moment my mind is not on football.  But warning of shots over the bow of this ship.  More killing, death and taxes.  And all this week, more football.  Once the game is over.  Next Sunday Night, I will come to my senses.  My team wins, or maybe not.  And they will be saying, "Maybe Next Time."  And that is the point of today’s blog.  Sunday Morning and maybe, just maybe I should be talking to G-D, and not you.  But I am thinking, we still have time.  19 more hours of today.  Anything can happen. 



And I tell myself, " Its never too late."  But then it all gets away from me.  Suddenly its next week.  My team loses the big game.  I go silent.  Repeating the mantra.  "Maybe Next Time."  But then again, I did mention this not as  gloom and doom, nor as a downer-blog.  Looking for the rainbow at the end of sky, we call The Meadowlands.  Looking for good weather.  Looking for the perfect outcome.  Hawks win.  You lose.  And I smile.  Smoke in the chimney.  Things are heating up.  Life seems to be coming at me from angle now.  Getting busy.   Gone is the peace and quiet.  Gone is my dream about victory.  The body count is adding up.  Time to go to Facebook and see what other’s are saying.  Maybe Next Time is my exit clue.   Stage Right.

a chance to talk

A CHANCE TO TALK






I am making a day of it.  No time schedule.  Its Saturday.  Afternoon now.  Sun is out, but it is cold.  I’ve decided to stay inside for now, which gives us a chance to talk.  My theme for this blog.  We can discuss and churn the topic, and discuss if I have gone too far, with or without you.  Odd way to start a blog.  In community and group, these words travel.  And is odd to ask, "Have I gone too far?"  But then again, its all accidental that you have found me.  Or is it.  I suspect when we afford the time, it comes down to the point I am making.  This gives us a chance to talk.  Let’s begin.



No regrets, if we start in the middle, and avoid the extremes.  General and yet not war talk.  Don’t care if the protesters show up.  I am online.  You can add a virus to me position, make it difficult for me to converse, but in the end, I buy anti-virus and what you did and why you did it, is moot.  Just saying, "life can be annoying on line and in a digital community."  But we will find a way.  Doesn’t matter where we start, the end is where its at.  Did we talk.  Did he or she demonstrate a passion for the subject.  Do you feel loved? 

No regrets.  There is more to it than meets the eye.  Visual and Appealing.  Well maybe.  Words written or spoken or put to music and enhanced by stage presence and gestures.  We have a chance to talk.  It is important that we do it.  No regrets.



 

I like it if you and I were talking to each other, or to The Pope.  Activate the experience, outside the church, and do not let politics creep in.  Cloudy, with a chance of joy.  You pleasure me with your words.  And I am in rapture, pure in simple, because of you.  We have a chance.  We talk.  And is that it.  Women soldiers returning home.  We discuss it.  Women in Combat.  " And childbirth must wait."  She said.  "Guns and Butter come first."  Is that what we are saying?  Experience shows me what to talk about, and what to avoid.  Downtown and Sophisticated.  Shopping around for a common topic.  We walk together, but in different worlds.  Not the place we are that is important, as long as we are online, and a major improvement with smart phone in hand, I can show you around.  You can see for yourself, what it is like, to be in that place:  cloudy with a chance of joy.



Pick your subject and talk.  Time is precious.  We don’t have all day.  Should this concern me.  No telling.  It will all come out, eventually.  Concern and deployment.  Where are you taking me, what is your point?  Does it come down to making better choices, and being careful what we talk about.  Organize and let it pour out.  Words and feeling.  Participate as much as you wish to, and then just be gone.  A chance to talk and time is precious.  People make the difference.  No salesman, please. 



Talk is a collaborative effort.  I need you.  You need me.  Or somebody like me.  Empty chamber and no ammunition.   War of Words, or wait, we must change the subject.  Have agreed.  No war.  No politics.  No Richard Sherman.  And there you have it.  No regrets.  Parents and Child.  Lover and Friend.  We all tend to struggle here.  Stormy and with clouds.  But then I remember.  When I am with you, talking.  Comes   Cloudy with a chance of  joy included.  And when its all said and done.  You Make My Day.  And Clint Eastwood said it best, as Dirty Harry (inspector Callahan. )  Forgot to count my bullets and my shots.  Was that 5 or 6.  And the idea is simple.  Empty gun or one in the chamber.  And he asks.   "Feeling Lucky?  Go ahead, make my day."  And so we don’t talk about war or politics.  We talk around the subject and we do good.  A chance to talk and we did well. 





 
Have next week to talk about football and The Super Bowl.  Manning, but no Eli.  Giants are waiting for next year.  As for me, its all about next week.  The Big Game.  Seahawks and Broncos.  Marijuana States. Washington and Colorado.   And the more I read what the national sports writers have to say. I am happy.  We had our chance to talk.  And that is classical to me.  Cloudy with a chance of joy.  When I talk to you.   It’s just the beginning and I want more.  No regrets.  When I talk to you.  I am happy.  True.  True. 

A POINT WELL TAKEN

A POINT WELL TAKEN

Middle of the week, and the people I look forward to seeing and talking to are all busy.  Some are at work.  Some are just missing, which means they have something better to do, than turn on their social media device and email or chat or voice/webcam flirt with people at a distance.  And I see this as a welcomed break from the constant alerts that come to my screen, anytime somebody I don’t know, does something on google or facebook or Twitter.  Yes, it is true.  I could turn it all off.  Disconnect and take care of the things I need to do, but then again, over the past 10 or more years, I have let this become me.  Computers and the Internet have taken over.  Newsprint and local newspapers and TV, have dropped away.  






 

And little by little, we are left with banner headlines that mean less and less to me, as I withdrawal from the front line.  Little by little I am pulling back, limiting how much time I devote to others, and in the vacuum that this act makes possible, I accept the fact that without you, life becomes more difficult.  Life Without You.  Maybe that should be the title of this blog.  It isn’t.  A Point Well Taken is my topic for today.  And it points to the fact that something in my life or daily routine is missing.  Is it blogging?  Must I.  Should I.  Blog. 




 
And comes about, because its winter now.  The storms are more constant now.  The holidays are over.  Football season, for all intents and purposes is over, unless you are a Denver Broncos fan, or in that rare bird case, like me:  A Seattle Seahawks fan.  And so I write.  And it has a trickle down effect.  Read and Write and chuckle at the way, this all becomes entertainment on a cold and dismal day in the heart of winter.  A Point Well Taken.  Perhaps.










I knew this would happen.  It is a quiet morning and I am tucked away, far away where the sun doesn’t shine.  No I am not suggesting that discomfort or silly ass we find on Twitter or Facebook, or in the headlines.  Of course if you have no idea what I speak about, there might be a good reason.  Like, A Point Well Taken, you might be unplugged and driving to work, making the commute, alone with others in your car, or on the subway, or just walking to work.  Millions are out there, and work is what they do, to put food on the table.  But most are not unplugged.  Is the new world we life in.  Earplugs and cell phone and smart screens.  Never alone.  





 
And maybe that is how we like it.  Not sure.  I am a loner.  Not a loaner, as in the car you are given to drive to work, when your car breaks down.  Loner, as in set apart and far away from all those things you really care about.  Friends on the Internet.  Work.  Family.  More money.  A Point Well Taken.  I am none of the above.  I am Stoney.  The blogger who seldom  blogs anymore.  Perhaps forgotten, perhaps not.  He did say, long ago:  "  When winter comes, I will blog more."  And so at least for now, that self-fulfilling prophecy has come true.  How wonderful.  Well, maybe.
 
 A Point Well Taken.


 

Here I am.  Tucked away.  Warm and Cozy.  With music.  With computer turned on.  Sipping tea.  Starting a morning ritual that takes away the feeling of loneliness, that has engulfed me, ever since I decided to Unplug.  Unplugged and forced to find something else to do, rather than live online reading what Richard Sherman has to say.  "Richard who?"  And I laugh.  Maybe you are not.  Seattle Seahawks and now seeking attention from the rest of the world.  "Far Away.  Winter in the clouds and cold. Miserable.  Without you."  And its our time to shine.  Sure it is only football, and it is February 2nd we are looking ahead to.  Super Bowl.  And you say, "Who cares?"  And this brings me back into my day.  It is true. 

A  Point Well Taken.




 
Who cares?  Seattle Seahawks.  Denver Broncos.  Mountain places and in the heart of winter, not the perfect place to be.  Remote and Distant.  Who cares?   If I pretend to be unplugged.  The major point of going public with my private thoughts, is to get it out.  Just say it.  Without you, there is something missing.  And is this important or another blinking light on the screen, reminding us we should be careful about what we click on, online.  Identity Theft.  And you tell yourself.  "Don’t want to be that guy.  Boring.  Boring."  Click.  Click.   And run away.  For now.  Be well, all.  Something is missing in my life, and I wonder:  "Is it you?"  A Point Well Taken.  Perhaps.  Well, maybe.  Have a good day.  Now back to my regular state. 

Unplugged.