Tag: Little Rock (Page 2 of 3)

My Twitter Story

April 27, 2010 / melissa / 4 Comments

It is the one year anniversary of the LRTweetup community and someone over there, I think Tsudo, wants us to tell our Twitter story. Or more specifically our LRTweetup story

According to my stats, I signed up for a twitter account on June 16, 2007. Yes, that’s right! 2007. I guess to talk about the twitter story, I have to go back to thePamie story . . . or maybe online journaling in general. Apparently, people have been writing about their lives online since 1994. Here is some history here and here is a fairly accurate wikipedia entry.

I discovered Pamie’s online journal, Squishy, in 2000. This was before blogger and movable type. Seriously, they didn’t exist back then and so people who wrote things on the internet had to hand code each page. Usually this meant making up some sort of template and then cutting and pasting the “journal entry”. She wrote about her day, gave her cats personalities and their own entries, and every Valentine’s day she wrote these hilarious and bizarre poems. It turned out in 2000 that there were a whole lot more of these “online journal” things including this funny guy named Stee who wrote Plaintive Wail, and a guy named Rob who worked IT at a “fancy pants college in New Haven, Connecticut”. Well there ended up being a whole bunch of people that in the grand scheme really wasn’t that many people and they chatted with each other on listserves and forums, had awards for the journals (best writing, best entry, best layout. etc.) and then everybody wanted to meet everybody else and they started having “JournalCon”.

Well I hung out on those forums during law school and met people and all that. I hung out on pamie’s forum (she doesn’t have one anymore). At one point, a bunch of people (who were not me) went to Vegas and sang over the top karaoke at a dive bar. It has since burned down. Pamie has also set up the dewey donation system to help out libraries. It started because one of her local libraries had a wish list of books and she got readers of her page to buy the books on the amazon.com wish list.

And even though Pamie is too busy to run a forum, those connections are still there. I can name weddings that resulted from people meeting on that forum. Yeah that’s a little bizarre even for me. In fact, I think I heard about twitter from one of those folks. I know that my first batch of people I followed were based on connections from there.

And as a result of keeping up with former classmates and friends in DC and those internet folks who I like to think of as friends in the way you would call a pen pal your friend, I’ve been online for quite a while with an ebb and flow of how much time I put into the whole process. Right now in small town Arkansas, I tend to put more time due to the dry county, lack of single professionals in town, and the ease of logging into twitter on the crackberry.

I went to my first LRtweetup to meet David Kinkaide and Blake Rutherford. I am a big fan of their blogs and since they were both going to be at Copper Grill, I thought I would go check it out, meet some folks, and meet some of my “local net heroes.” (damn did I just sound like a nerd groupie. I think I just did). And I did meet them. I also met other people as well and I had a good time and met lots of fun, friendly, interesting people. Oh and I was thinking about moving to Little Rock.

Over the year, I have met other people and gone to other tweetups. It’s a friendly and entertaining group who are there for you when you are up and are praying for you when you are down. They managed to save the dean of UALR Law School’s life. (well sorta) I’ve had the opportunity to meet people that I wouldn’t have met under any other circumstances and to share ideas with people whom I probably wouldn’t have had time if I had to do it one on one. It also reminds me that I am not alone and the world is bigger than the town I am in.

While the internet and twitter doesn’t replace face to face time, it does give you the opportunity to keep in touch and meet people. Strangely enough, the LRTweetup community reminds me of the initial old school online journaling from the late 90s early 2000s which is why I brought it up in the first place. And well social media was around back then, before it was called social media. And like all things social, some of the people I’ve met at LRTweetup will be friends for years and others will fade into the background. The internet doesn’t change human behavior, it only augments or diminishes certain facets of it.

So it will be interesting to see what happens.

As far as the “power of social media” goes. Since so many of the LRTweetup folks are in PR, I will give the where are they now spiel.

Pamie managed to turn her journal into a bona fide writing career in the entertainment industry. One of the fellow online journalling folks named “Glark” and “Wing Chun” (No I don’t know their real names” liked her snark and asked her to write for a website called Television Without Pity. As you can see, Bravo has since bought it or powers it. I can’t keep up. And she has three books in print and has worked on several television shows. Read the about me page.

Stee was trying to make it in Hollywood and now he is a staff writer for Weeds. Yes that Weeds.

Rob published a book called Schuyler’s monster about his daughter being born with a rare neurological disorder that doesn’t allow her to talk very well, if at all.

It will be interesting to watch what great things the LRTweetup community does in the future.

Half Marathon

March 17, 2010 / melissa / 2 Comments

Since this was my second time to run/walk the Little Rock marathon, I wasn’t exactly what you could call nervous or excited. It seemed like a natural thing to do. I was, however, a little nervous about the fact that a back number was not in my packet. I read the fees and it had language about disqualification. So I was a little anxious about that. Then again I wasn’t going to win so what would disqualification get me anyway.

I woke up and my hotel had a complimentary (err included in room fee) breakfast. I ate a bagel and banana. There were a lot of fellow runners in the lobby. One guy had named himself “Sexy Canadian” on his name badge. I got some reassurance that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t receive a “back badge” saying half and others weren’t wearing them so I didn’t feel too bad about not having one.

Then it was time to go. There’s always this buzz right before a race where you feel more alive than you will ever feel in your entire life . . . . until the next race. It’s a mixture of pure adrenaline, anticipation, and nervousness.

AND we’re off.

And I was running… then walking.. then running… then… woah what’s that in my back.

I knew it was going to be a tough race because the combination of cold and constant rain made my training pretty much non-existent. I wasn’t expecting to make the decision to walk from mile 4. So I walked.

And what a walk it was. It was sunny and it was warm. The people were cheering. I wasn’t expecting to be last. Being last is funny because there is a jeep (or van or truck) following you to let the police officers and others know that they can open traffic back up after it passes. I felt like a dictator. A benevolent dictator holding traffic up while I go on my morning stroll.

And my morning stroll became an afternoon stroll as I came in around 12:22. I came in a whole hour later than I did the year before. That was a little embarrassing. But I got my medal and I was quite proud of myself.

Sometimes the best race isn’t the one you win. It’s the race you lose with a blaze of glory. There’s honor in not going gently into that good night.

Okay I’ll stop with the cliches.

Afterward, I ate some “Perks place” grub and got one of the complimentary massages. OH lord. Some women want to marry doctors and lawyers. Screw that I’m all about the massage therapist.

So I finished and managed to knock two things down off my bucket list.

Half Marathon Eve

March 6, 2010 / melissa / 0 Comments

Tomorrow morning is “race day” or the Little Rock Marathon Of course, I’m doing the half this year. My training was not what I had hoped. I let the rainy schedule mess with my schedule and I can’t do treadmills.

It should be interesting. So my goal is to finish it in the 4 hours alloted.

So yee haww.

I do get a big kick going to the Expo. There’s always other races with booths there. They have pamphlets outlining their race and they’ll have medals from years past. There’s all these running gear shops like One more mile and Run like a girl. They have the stickers with the “13.1” and the “26.2” There were several different slogans that i liked including “Yes I run like a girl . . . try to keep up” Another one is “You don’t have to go fast. You just have to go” (or something like that) There’s always the “will run for wine” and “Will run for beer.”

My number one favorite t-shirts are “13.1: I don’t go all the way” and it’s counterpart “26.2: I go all the way”

Yes, sex sells even in running gear.

There’s all the interesting people. There’s people from everywhere. There’s the 50 staters (people who try to run a marathon in each of the 50 states) and a bunch of other folks. The races are addictive. There’s something about them.

I’m typing this in the “business center” of a local hotel and so the pictures are just not here. This year is a little anticlimactic. Last year was my first race and there was all this pre race jitters and while I do have a sense of anxiety and excitement, it is nowhere near the level of frenzy of last year.

It’s surprisingly calm. My only source of angst is that I didn’t get a “back number” and I am scared I am going to get disqualified. I didn’t bother looking in my envelope of goodies to check to see if i had it. They opened it up to show my number and pulled a tag off to designate that I had gotten my t-shirt but no back number. I guess I need to go early. yikes.

My mother came up with me again this year. I’m guessing the Little Rock marathon is going to be a tradition where I bond with my Mom. We ate at Chi’s and let rice be our carbo loading. She’s got a lot of cheering to do tomorrow.

Blogging for Books

September 4, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

Little Rock Tweetup has decided to give back to the community and will be having a Twestival on September 10th at the Clinton Library. This year’s “twetival” will be benefiting Reach Out and Read Arkansas. You can purchase tickets here. It’s 10 dollars and you are to bring a book for a child under the age of 5.

Today Friday September 4, 2009, we were to blog for books. Our assignment was to name a book we liked as a kid. I loved The Monster at the End of This Book . It’s a Sesame Street book and it’s the story of Grover who hears that there is a Monster at the end of this book. He is scared. He tries to get us to stop turning the pages by setting up barriers such as ropes and bricks. He’s all scared and freaked out. In the end . . . . well I won’t tell you the end. read it yourself.

For some reason, I loved this book. It was about fear and overcoming your fear. It is also about how sometimes people worry over nothing and make things scarier than they actually are. It’s a good lesson for everyone, not just kids.

A children’s book that I discovered as an adult is The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts (My Body Science). It’s a Japanese Children’s book about… well you guessed it: Farts. It’s educational and amusing. I mean how can you now laugh at farts. Farts are funny.

Arkansas Literary Festival

April 22, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

I like books. I think reading is a great thing to do and I think reading is important. So when there is an event in Arkansas that focuses on reading or books that I am interested in. I am there.

Needless to say after that introduction, I am in a complete lather over the Arkansas Literary Festival. This is the first year I have had time to go. I didn’t attend any Friday day activities because I don’t live in Little Rock and had some work duties I needed to complete. I did, however, go to the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater fundraiser at the Starving Artist Cafe.

I think I was the only non friend of the theater group there. It was a very small group there. I was a little sad. I did see some former college classmates. I saw some good music, some Shakespearean acting, and got some cake. Cake makes everything better.

The next day, I ended up attending three workshops. ( think they were called workshops): (1) blog.diary.journal; (2) Writing about Music Panel; and (3) Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Film Canons with Johnathan Rosenbaum.

The first panel was intended for people who were newer to online blogging and journal writing. They explained the different formats such as WordPress; blogger and livejournal, among others. They explained that there is no privacy on the internet and to “pretend your mother is reading this.”

Ms. Kearney was President Clinton’s diarist. She attended the senior staff meeting every morning and was given papers as well as computer copies of documents in order to compile a diary that would be useful to historians and regular folk alike. Phil Bildner is a children’s book author and blogger. Mary Anne Radmacher writes about journalling and teaches writing.

The second panel consisted of Kevin Brockmeier and Carol Ann Fitzgerald, managing Editor of the Oxford American reading excerpts from The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing.

Kevin Brockmeier read an excerpt about Iris DeMent and Carol Ann Fitzgerald’s excerpt was about Bessie Smith Brockmeier’s piece was more an analytical set about the music and how it affected him as a listener, describing the emotions felt as he listened, the approach he has to music, and the details of the singer’s voice and instrumentation. Fitzgerald’s piece was more confessional of both her life and Bessie Smith’s including tidbits about Fitzgerald’s friendship with the woman who introduced her to Bessie Smith and Bessie Smith’s legendary temper.

I’m not sure which tactic is best for writing about music and both can be effective. Music, as a aural medium, is almost impossible to explain visually so it seems to be that the best you can do is describe yourself enough so that the reader will find you as someone whose opinion to be valued and describe the experience of listening to the tune in a way that makes the reader decide whether or not he or she wants to experience the same thing as well. It’s a difficult thing to do and especially a difficult thing to do well.

Tidbit: Kevin Brockmeier is a fellow list maker and keeps a list of his 50 favorite books and albums. He carries them with him at events. I got copies of both. Full disclosure: I went to Arkansas Governor’s School with Kevin so I remember him and have watched him over the years. He remembers me as “Sam’s girlfriend” since they both were in the theater arts. No matter how smart you think your friends or people you know are, it’s still a little surreal to see them plastered on the national stage.

The third workshop was Jonathon Rosenbaum talking about Canons of movies. This sounds esoteric but basically this means that people clump movies into groups. They deny they do it but really they do. For example, most of the things you read in English class would be considered “English literature” –in that it’s original text is using the English language, not necessarily that it originated from England — canon.

Rosenbaum was an advocate that everybody gets the type of DVD players that enable you to watch DVDs from other countries (apparently they’re in different formats and aren’t viewable on the plain jane dvd player I got from Walmart for 30 bucks). With the DVD player in tow, you can then order DVDs from other countries like Germany and England.

I ended up buying a lot of books and managed to run out of money before Pub and Perish. I might regret that someday.

I wrote this in detail because my reading and movie loving friend Jennybee missed this due to family togetherness.

Since everybody and their mama has a blog, here’s what some others had to say about their trip to Arkansas.

Phil’s blog: one and two

Rosenbaum writes a snippet here. (our local paper gets some great publicity)

Boondogs are coming.

April 16, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

concert

Who is excited? Just me? okay. I don’t care. I’ll do a happy dance by myself.

Okay that’s not true.

This is a fundraiser for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater and as such I must ask everybody and their Mama to come to help raise money for a good cause. Did I mention the Arkansas Literary Festival is in town as well?

My big fat geek half marathon.

March 20, 2009 / melissa / 4 Comments

For reasons that to this day I don’t fully comprehend, I have always been a person that other people underestimate. For example, my guidance counselor recommended that instead of taking AP English and Calculus that I take a two period class called Office Lab that taught you how to use all the secretarial machines. I ended up being the one who made the perfect score on the Calculus semester test. There was the time this girl told me that my boyfriend was “TOO FINE” to be dating “someone like me.” (How she managed to live with all her hair perfectly placed on her head, I’ll never know). When I had my first meeting with my piano teacher in DC, I bought a piece I could play to show him my level of proficiency. He told me that this was a “very difficult piece.” Yeah I played it. He was impressed. UH HUH. That’s what I thought.

I’m thinking maybe I should get “that’s what I thought” tattooed on my butt.

Sometimes, I have found that I underestimate myself. I’m a perfectionist and see my flaws and weaknesses a lot more than I see my strengths. As a result, I like to do something that scares me a little to remind me that I’m alive and capable.

I began running in DC. DC has some beautiful running routes. There is the National Mall, which has a gravel trail where you can run from the Capital to the Lincoln Memorial and back again. The sidewalks are wide enough that you can run across the Memorial Bridge into Arlington National Cemetery. Rock Creek Park has a bike and running trail.

Sometime relatively soon after I started running, I thought about completing a marathon. It sounded so over the top that I just had to do it. I had a friend doing the Aids Marathon training program and through that I learned about the Galloway Method

So I put the marathon on my bucket list. I then broke it down to the smaller goals with a 5K, 10K, and a half marathon on my list as well.

Life happened. I moved. I gained a ton of weight. One day woke up and realized, HOLY SHIT I”M FAT! I’m really really fat! and started back to running . . very very slowly. So far I’ve lost about 20 pounds.

Last Saturday was my half marathon: The Little Rock Marathon in, where else, Little Rock, Arkansas. I printed out the training schedule on the site and went to town.

As any longtime reader of “run melissa run” knows, I have been panicking about this race for a good two weeks. I’ve never run a race with this many people. I had visions of being trampled by other runners. I’d never run a race this long. Would the hills kill me? Will I lose my timing chip? lots of concerns.

They turned out to be unfounded. I took pictures. Here we go.

This is where I picked up my “packet” with my number, timing clip, and all the necessary items needed for the race. The expo was nice. I met some of the nicest people while I was there. Runners, as a group, tend to be really nice people. Maybe it’s true what they say about endorphins and mood. I saw lots of nice things and ended up doing a little shopping.

I did not buy either one of these t-shirts.

I bought The Stick, which is billed as a “self massager” (no not that kind of massager). IT was worth its weight in gold. I got some gloves, a ponytail headband, a bumper sticker, a magnet, and some jelly beans.

I did my carbo loading at Dam Good Pies. This is an awesome restaurant with great food. I highly recommend it.

I almost wore this shirt to the race, thinking it would be hilarious and might give the spectators a little chuckle. Then I remembered that my pants were black. Oops.

The race itself. Well 6 a.m. is really freaking early. My mother wanted to go with me and since I’m not a morning person, I was more than happy to have someone else with me to wake my sleepy head up for the race.

I started the race with my intent to do 2 minute running/1 minute walk break splits for the duration and I kept this up easy breezy until somewhere between mile 9 and 10.

This picture is around mile seven. Our hotel was on the race route and my mother waited and came outside and took this picture. Obviously, I’m not what you would call pleased with my mother playing Paparazzi.

Somewhere around mile 9 and 10, I got real tired. This route was significantly more hilly than the training area in my town. In fact, Little Rock is a lot more hilly than Melissa land in general. The hills had gotten to me. I began walking up the hill in front of the Governor’s Mansion. After that, I pretty much walked the rest of the route. My goal was just to finish. I didn’t care if I was last.

I finally got to the last turn. I got some lipstick at the lipstick aid station and crossed the finish line about 3 1/2 hours later. One person cut off my timing tag. Another person put my finisher’s medal around my neck.

(my finisher’s medal)

And none other than Mr. TMFW himself put the mylar blanket around me to keep me warm. By this point, I was so tired I wanted him to tuck me in bed with some warm milk and read me a bedtime story.

The post race atmosphere is a little odd. People are tired and yet supportive. I ate a slice of pizza, some chocolate milk, and a banana. I found my mother. I called my Dad.

“Hey Dad”
“So how did it go?”
“It went alright”
“Did you finish all 13 miles”
“yeah”
“REALLY!”

Uh huh that’s what I thought.

I learned a lot during that race. I learned that I need to find more hills for training purposes. I learned that in running, like life, the two biggest things are to show up and to keep going when times are tough. Everything else is gravy.

13.1 represent.

March 16, 2009 / melissa / 1 Comment

I survived. I wasn’t dead last. I’m a happy (and sore) camper. It’s also late. I will write in detail later.

Movie roundup: Towncraft, Supersize Me, and Hubert Selby Jr.:It'll Be Better Tomorrow

February 13, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

TOWNCRAFT

I vividly remember the first time I saw Slingblade. It was a matinee showing in a five screen movie theater in Dupont Circle (Washington DC). I remember scaring the other viewers because of my giggling. The movie itself wasn’t necessarily humorous but there were moments in that movie that were so quintessentially Arkansan and so represented Arkansans and people I knew that I couldn’t help but laugh in recognition.

This feeling of recognition was one I also felt while watching Towncraft.

Towncraft is about the punk scene in the late 80s/early 90s in Little Rock Arkansas. Apparently, one of the cool things to do during that time was start your own punk band or make a zine about the punk bands. Many fourteen and fifteen year old boys and girls began playing in bands. Eventually, venues began to open up for them to play. One guy opened up his own record store. They began making their own records and going on tour —All before they finished high school.

Of course, like all things involving high school kids, the bands break up and the musicians make new bands. This means that each time you see a person talking, s/he has a different band name under his or her face. That was amusing to me.

Several of the bands went to larger cities to try and make it. Some made albums. One guy, Jason White, is now a guitarist for Green Day. This movie is more about people being true to art than actually making. It’s also a nostalgic trip down memory lane for anyone who’s around Arkansas.

Amazingly enough these were my peers. Some of them I have met. Some of the people on the edges on this scene were friends of mine. I’ve seen some of these bands live.

The movie also has a companion website that has all sorts of goodies.

Supersize Me

Holy Shit! This movie scared me. It’s a simple premise. Morgan Spurlock decides that he’s going to eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. He’s also going to only walk the average number of steps as an “average American.” He manages to gain a truckload of weight. He gets liver damage. He develops heart palpitations and one doctor even demands around day 20 that he stop this diet.

All on McDonald’s burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, and shakes.

Hubert Selby Jr.: It’ll Be Better Tomorrow

Hubert Selby Jr. is known as the author of Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn. This documentary includes interviews with Selby, his friends, the makers of Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn, Henry Rollins, and a whole host of other people who have been influenced by the author. Selby, like his characters, endured a life of illness and heroin addiction.

The plans of mice and men will sometimes freeze their butts off.

January 5, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

I had some business in Little Rock and I had planned to call my friend John and take him up on that offer to buy me a gyro from LAYLA’S HALAL. I also planned to go see the Warhol exhibition at the Arts Center. Alas, by the time I made it to my appointment and looked out the window, icicles had already begun forming on the branches of the trees. This meant that I pretty much drove straight back home. I was disappointed by this because my temperment is more suited to city dwelling with its gyro serving museum exhibit seeing tempo. OH what the hell, I really just wanted a bitchin (and free to me because John offer to pay) gyro!

I did discover that my Garmin works and the first time ride with the thing telling me to drive into a lake was a fluke. (seriously it told me to drive straight…into a lake. Okay to be fair the lake wasn’t on the Garmin. The Garmin saw a road there).

In life, I’ve been told I feel too much. In therapy, I get told that I intellectualize everything and don’t let myself feel enough. Who the hell knows?! I do know that even through trying times, I am able to compartmentalize things. If in public, someone is able to yell and say nasty things and I won’t cry. No matter how shitty things are, I have a complete inability to cry in public. Then later in the privacy of my own solitude, I will break down. I guess sometimes, I don’t give myself that appointment with solitude in order to let it out. Maybe I have some sort of emotional constipation where I have a backlog of shit. That was some nice imagery. I love myself.

Compartmentalizing is not completely without its perks. I was able to be sexually assaulted by a man and kick academic ass in the class that we both shared because no one was willing to kick him out of it. I was able to be the Veronica Mars of DC and investigate crime scenes and whatnot. Being able to keep on keeping on is a good thing. The bad thing is that sometimes you keep on keeping on and forget to take care of yourself. You will keep walking on that sprained ankle until you can’t walk anymore. Sometimes you forget to eat or eat everything in sight because you’re just keeping on and doing anything to keep on and keep from thinking about anything of any emotional significance. Sometimes you keep on and don’t see a problem until it’s pointed out by someone else.

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