UGHly love

Finally!  The Ugly Love campaign has come to an end.  Sixty days of watching the Indiegogo campaign to raise money for a possible film of the same name.  The goal was to raise $1,000,000 toward production of the film.  It ended last night with a total of $29,086.  In the last three days of the campaign $16,000 was raised. This amount was more than what was raised in the first 57 days of the campaign.

I don't understand how you see a goal that is no where near close to being meet and just donate dollar amount after dollar amount.  Three $500 donations were made for Dinner with Nick Bateman, the only actor to be cast in this "movie", over the last three days of the campaign.  One donator parted with $3500 for a "Special Thanks Combo" which included all of the previous gifts like posters, personal greetings, signed merchandise, t-shirts, set visit, etc., but also included a special thanks in the films credits and a shout-out on the films Facebook page.  $3,500 for all this.

Now, I have my doubts that anyone actually donated this amount.  My theory is more likely the author and or the producer donated their own money to get the ball rolling on the larger prizes.  I could be wrong, I could just be jaded on this entire process.  However, now that I've said it, you all are thinking it too.

There were nineteen "Perks" you could donate to and came with prizes ranging from a thank you for a $5 donation to Nick Bateman fathering your child for a $1,000,000.  Yes, you read that right.  On the campaign it states that Nick Bateman will father your child.

Now for the fine print which really wasn't fine print at all.  Directly under the ping "Contribute Now" button reads:  Flexible Funding:  This campaign will receive all funds raised even if it does not reach it's goal.  Translation:  If you give this campaign your money, even if we don't reach $1,000,000, we still keep your money.  I tweeted the producer associated with the film, Cody Hackman, asking him if those who donated would receive the prize perks associated with their donation amount.  Not surprisingly, I didn't get a response.  The least they can do is give those who funding, I'm assuming Cody's pockets, some fake swag.

I don't have any hard feelings on this process, I just think the way it's been handled has been shady as hell. And this isn't the first time.  This happened to Sempre author J.M. Darhower as well.  She had been in contact with Giovanni Agnelli who promised her that her book would be made into a movie. Agnelli posted Tweets about it even going as far as showing his office with his staff hard at work turning her beloved book into a screenplay.

All of that turned out to be a big fat lie. Agnelli, who touted himself as a member of the famed Fiat family, was a producer on three films, including Kristen Stewart's "Welcome to the Riley's".  He was a big defender of the star during her Rupert Sanders scandal.  Soon after is when he optioned Darhower's book for a film.

Later he was found out to be a fraud.  If you follow Darhower on Twitter, she expressed her disappointment at being lied to by someone she counted as a friend as well as her need to protect her story.  It was soon after this that he changed his Twitter profile to deleted the association with the Fiat family and to brag about taking care of his nephew.  Now he rarely tweets and "Welcome to the Riley's" was the last film he produced.

After people saw the amazing success of E.L. James and "Fifty Shades of Grey" everyone wanted a piece of the pie.  In a time where Hollywood seems to just be remaking movies and not having an original thought, the book to movie market was hot again.  Even hotter if your book had sold well and right now books that were pulled as fan fiction and published are selling well.

I have not read Ugly Love by Hoover, and have no plans to. Hoover is a good author. "Someday Maybe" and "Hopeless" are fantastic reads.  I have my own issues for not reading anymore of her work and they are personal.  Perhaps I'm wrong and don't have all the facts, but as of right now, I'm not reading her.  I think this campaign was a shame and full of shade from the start.  The producer, while having a decent filmography under his belt, hasn't done anything A list.  They throw together a make shift trailer that seemed very closely related to Fifty Shades.  Cast a handsome lead male for the role.  And voila, a fandom is baited.

Being Thankful

This year has not been one of my best.  There was a lot going on that was out of my hands.  Yet this Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for.  Things that, when I feel my plate is too full, I take for granted.

My children.
Their health.
My health.
Being able to provide for myself and my children.

I look back on this year and where I am now compared to where I was in January.  The year started off with my husband telling me that he wanted a divorce.  There wasn't any hesitation to my response. "Okay", I said.  There were tears shed, but no dramatic sobbing.  No begging or pleading with him to work it out.  Truth is my marriage died long before he got the courage to end it.

Being a single mother is never anything I thought I'd be doing, but here I am.  Doing it. I'm the head of my household and it's been rather nice.  My children and I make some decisions together.  What to have for dinner, where to go on vacation, what color should we paint the kitchen.  It's a very relaxed atmosphere in our home.

It hasn't always been easy this year. My children heard the word 'No' a lot this year, and that's okay. They are older now and understand a bit more as to why they had to hear it.  I am blessed with a good paying job that as afforded me to be able to take care of things on my own.

When I explained to my boss what was happening in my life, she said, "You never know the burden you're carrying until that burden is gone" How true that statement is.  I never realized how much of me had been lost in the last eight or so years of our thirteen year marriage.  I felt less of a wife and mother and more like a nanny.  I would say this often and it was always received on deaf ears making me feel as if my feelings weren't valid.

No more.

My husband and I get along much better now that we are not under the same roof any longer.  He has moved on in his personal life, and while I'm not thrilled with the manner in which he did it, I wish him and her both luck.  She's going to need it.  Not that I'm perfect, but a relationship is the last thing on my mind.  I don't need one right now.  My focus is myself and my children, and it's been rather nice.

My home has has been a much happier home.  More laughter and less yelling.  There is still structure but it's more relaxed.  The children are learning a lot more responsibility and I don't have to be a drill sargent about it.  I've explained to them that what is going on between their father and I has never been their fault.  We talk, openly and candidly, about everything.  It's nice feeling like a mom again.

So, while this year has not been what I though it was going to be, it's turned out to be much more, and for that, I am truly thankful.

Fangirling. Manhattan Love Story Style

I am a Fangirl.  There, I said it.  Fangirling has it's ups and downs, but mostly, it's a lot of innocent fun.  It can get carried away at times.  I've seen it.  I've seen it go very bad.  That's not the kind of fangirl I am.

My latest addition to my Fangirling is the new Fall show "Manhattan Love Story"on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm EST, on ABC.

I love the storyline, the humor, the characters, but most of all, I love the inner dialogue of the two leads Jake McDorman and Analiegh Tipton.

Recently Jake and Analeigh, who are a couple in real life, asked on Twitter for fans of the show to send in their suggestions of places they should visit in Manhattan.  This resulted in a few, okay a lot, of fans sending in their suggetions.  A LOT of suggestions.

Check out that last on the right side, bottom.  Yup. That's my suggestion.  In case you can't read Jake's handwriting, my suggetion is the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.  Not only did they take fans suggestions on where to go, but then started to visit them, calling out the fans who suggest the spot as well.

         

Adding the screen names of those who suggested the loaction is a nice touch.   A fantastic way to make the fans feel included on their adventure as well as a great use of social media to promote their new show.  Well done! 

This fangirl is just waiting for her #ManhattanLoveStory moment to be tweeted.  

                                     

Victoria's Secret does what?

I am just now hearing of the story of Austin Texas mom, Ashley Clawson, and her ban from Victoria's Secret to breastfeed her infant son.  Upon first hearing of the story, I had to wonder if it was a hoax.  Of course Google showed me it wasn't.

This story has stayed with me for the last few days because I still cannot wrap my head around anyone telling a breastfeeding mother that they cannot use a dressing room to take care of one of the most natural things a mother can do for her child.   It's not bad enough that she was told by this Victoria's employee, whom Mrs. Clawson was not even interacting with, that she couldn't use an empty dressing room, but was told she could use "the alley outside the store" to feed her child and that "the alley was so long that if she walked to the end no one would see her"

I'm sorry, WHAT?!!

Does this employee realize where she is working?  What the company that signs her pay check sells? Perhaps she needs to walk out of her store and look at the store windows, maybe catch one of their televised fashion shows, pick up one of the catalogs.  Something to reacquaint herself with the brand.

I'm willing to bet on an average shift at any Victoria's Secret most of the employees are women.  I have to wonder how a breastfeeding woman was so offensive to this one employee.  It wasn't as if Clawson was stripping down and feeding her child in the middle of the store.  She was asking for privacy...to feed her hungry child.

You can read about Clawson's experience here and see what the suits at Victoria's Secret handled their response.  Here's a clue...it was canned.  I tell you who should have been canned. The employee who told her to feed her child in an alley.  Okay, so maybe not canned, but how about a good reprimand, a look at their "policy" (and if what the suits said isn't really policy, it should be), and some sensitivity training.

No woman should have to resort to feeding their child in a bathroom.   There are tons of malls around the country that have family rest rooms and some even include a feeding area.  One Mall I was in had a nice area for not only breastfeeding moms, but an area that allowed moms to heat up bottles, wash them out, recycle baby food jars, etc.  This should be mandatory.  It doesn't take too much to make room for it.

Bookmarks...

You're surfing the net and without fail you find something interesting that you don't want to forget or you just know you will go back to at a later date.  What do you do?  You bookmark it.  You hit that little star in the whatever corner of the browser you're using and you save the page.

Sounds like a great idea.  Always having those handy dandy webpages at your finger tips.  Never not having a page that you know you'll want to go back to later.  It's all fun and games until you realize you've collected hundreds of pages that you haven't looked at nearly as often as you thought you would when you saved them?   They add up.  And going through all of those pages is oh so much fun.

Oh sure, you could just throw caution to the wind and delete all of your book marks without looking at them or batting an eye at the loss of what could be.  Lucky you.  I however am not that ledge living.  My OCD self has to go through, at the very least the titles, to see what link is what.  And that's if I can recognize what the page might be without opening the link.  If I can't, now I'm opening up hundreds of links that I have no clue what they could be.

And even then I find myself looking over bookmarked pages just knowing I will, one day, go back to that page of whatever and do what it is that I saved it for in the first place.

From recipes, to gift ideas.  Hollywood tidbits to fashion pages.  Articles on hometown news to world wide events.  Really?  Why am I saving all of these pages?  Am I ever going to make cookies that look like hydrangea flowers?   As beautiful as they are, and I'm sure the icing techniques are awesome, probably not.  Do I really care anymore about that fifth page of fonts that I saved?  Not really.  Here's the really great part.  Most of the pages I have bookmarked, I end up Goggling for later anyway.  So again, I ask myself, why am I saving all of this?

If you need me, I'll be cleaning out my bookmarks folder.  This time I mean it.

Message boards.

Over the past few years I have belonged to my fair share of message boards dealing with one fandom or another.  Most of them have been pretty easy going.  However, you do get that one board you join where you're the new kid on the block and you slowly feel your way around and wonder, "Is this the right place for me?"

That's kind of where I'm at now.  I've recently discovered a particular fandom that shall remain nameless.  In the interest of finding out more about this fandom, I found a message board dedicated to all things fandom related.  It's an extensive board.  There are a number of topics to choose from to discuss from movies to tv to specific episodes.  There is a lot of room for lots of different discussions.  For someone new, this is very helpful in find out more about said fandom.

Most, if not all, message boards have a certain set of rules that the mods or admins like to see carried out. This is something that every message board or community needs to have. There needs to be order and continuity throughout a board community or it all just goes to hell quickly.   As a member on boards, as well as an admin to a few, I get it.

The levels of rules seem to vary from board to board.  Some boards you have admins who set the rules and trust in their members to behave in a mature, civilized manner.  Only having to step in and remind posters of the rules and why they are there.  A lot of admins generally leave it up to the members to reconcile any differences they may have between one another and remind them a board is a place for discussions on common interests and not a school yard fight.  They aren't there to babysit the members.

And then there are those admins who are rather drill sergeant like in the carrying out of their rules.  They have a set way of how they want their board to look and are obsessive over it looking just that way.  No copyrighted material.  Post only picture links and not the actual picture.  No mentioning of illegal downloads or watching video/movie/shows online.  No mentioning of any personal information in relation to directors, actors, producers, publicists.  Your signature is too large.  Your avvie is not large enough.  You need to post xxx amount of posts within xxx of time or you will be kicked out.  The list goes on.  While I'm all for continuity on a board and can see the validity of some of these examples,  the way some admins monitor their board can boarder on a full time job.  A job that they aren't getting paid to do.  At this point, how much stress over a message board is worth it?

I like message boards.  It's a great place to meet people from all over the world who have a shared interest. I've met some amazing people through message boards and I talk to these people on a daily basis.  Yes, you really can make friends via the Internet and I have.   It's important in finding a message board that suits your needs and interests. If you're getting stressed out over members or rules from admins, maybe it's time to find another message board to post on.  The most important thing to remember is that this is supposed to be fun. When it stops being fun, it's time to move on.

Oh, and one last thing and I know that everyone does this, but it needs repeating.  Post safely.

The life of being in a fandom

The world of fandoms have seemingly gone nuts.  Again.

Haters to the left. Fandom police to the right.  And somewhere in the middle are the fans who are trying to just enjoy it all.

Recently E! posted an article about Robert Pattinson now living in the 90210 zip code.  They mentioned him enjoying his single status with new digs as well as who he has been spending his time with.  No one romantically mind you, but the mention of him hanging out with Mischa Barton (I don't get it either) send the "difference of opinions" into a tale spin.

One side couldn't understand how he could be spending his time with someone who has had past issues as complicated as Barton has and how this would reflect poorly on him.  How they just want him to be working. Never mind the fact that he just wrapped on David Cronenberg's star studded "Maps to the Stars" and has three more films lined up.

The other side questioned her being mentioned at all, that it appeared a rather random mention.  Even taking it so far as to suggest maybe her publicist got the name drop.  After looking at her iMDb list of films coming up, if I was her publicist, that's what I would have done. Not exactly a cream of the crop list of films.  But hey, she's working right.

Pattinson has recently been seen hanging out with Michelle Rodriquez as well and that doesn't seem to be sitting well with fans either.  Mind you, all this "hanging out" seems to be a lot of them being seen in the same place at the same time.  Neither one arriving or leaving with the other.  

Those who didn't agree were called "Fandom Police".  Really?

"Fandom Police".  Can this phrase please be retired?  Since when does having a difference of opinion involve being a police force of any kind?  Isn't having differing opinions what makes the world of fandom so wonderful?  Apparently not.  I find it ironic that someone dictating what anyone, celebrity or otherwise, should be doing, how they should be spending their time, being told to get to work, etc. are calling others "police" or any other form of authority.

When a tabloid site, and lets face it that is exactly what E! has become, have their interns trolling twitter to talk to people who mentioned seeing certain celebrities, you know there's a good chance that there isn't going to be a lick of truth to what they are going to publish.  And yet people eat it up with a knife and fork.

I don't really care if you seek out tabloid gossip and hold it as gospel.  Go right ahead.  However, I reserve the right to call you out for buying into the bullshit.  Tabloids are in the market to make money and they are going to tell you what they want based on popular trends.  They want your hits.  Hits equals money.

Not that I'm telling anyone what to read or how to interpret it, but let's think about what we're reading when treading into the world of entertainment gossip.