The Mechanics

Good morning one and all, it's mechanics day.

I have a meeting this morning so I won't be able to write today.

I wish you all a creatively inspiring day!

Cheers.

A demain.

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning everyone!

I doubt any of you have missed the headline this morning about the Austrian man that held his daughter, and three of their seven children, imprisoned for twenty-four years.

My father made a comment to me this morning that is very true, he said: If someone wrote this story in a book no one would believe it.

The critics would say that the author had created a fantastical, larger-than-life story.

Well, I think life is already large enough and I think any author would be hard-pressed to 'make-up' a scenario that hasn't occurred somewhere at some time in history.

Where do these stories come from but the human psyche (which is linked to the consciousness of all humanity after all)?

It is for this exact reason that I am not comfortable critiquing books.

In the short story class I was taking (and one of the reasons why I stopped going) the teacher kept commenting that events in people's stories would never happen in real life. I bit my tongue more than once when he said that because he was implying that life is slow-moving and rather boring. Well, maybe his life is, but not everyone's.

I bet that a lot of the events in people's stories were based on their real experiences or things that they'd witnessed. I found this assumption, that he knew what would happen and not happen in this world, very pompous (as well as closed-minded).

I find the events that happened in Austria tragic and horrific, but do they surprise me? No. I would never have come up with such a twisted story even for a book, but life has a way of shocking you.

I think it was Woody Allen (and likely many other people) that said: Art reflects life.

That's what I think too and it's a wild world out there!

The Voice

Good morning one and all.

It's voice day.

Today I am going to talk about the conscious and unconscious part of my voice.

My voice can be very conscious especially if the material is technical in nature, but my voice can be very unconscious too.

I think some people would argue that no one can ever be completely aware of their voice. I think this is likely true.

I have found with my own writing that the more emotional the material is the less conscious I am of my voice. It is easier for me to be very objective with my writing when it is technical--the grammar and tone and style then become my paramount concerns.

But when I am writing poetry, for example, I am somewhere else in my head. Of course I still think about grammar, tone and style, but I am also trying to convey emotions, feelings and an essence that does not have to sound like anything else I have ever written. That is likely why I love writing poetry so much.

Technical writing is a corset and poetry is flip-flops, for me.

This does not mean that because I am not bound by dictates that my poetry is not serious for me. It is.

In fact, I doubt I could maintain my sanity without it. Needless to say I take it very seriously for that reason alone, but there is something to be said for feeling completely free to express yourself any way you choose. How often do we feel that free in life? I would say not often enough! (This is likely the reason why I often dream of speeding in fast cars. Pure freedom.)

Society puts lots of constraints on what we can do, but what we can think is our own.

Poetry rids my body of the taboo, scary, intense, violent, turbulent emotions that I was raised to suppress. Allowing me to then feel and express all my other emotions as well.

I am thrilled that I found poetry as a budding adolescent girl. It has kept me on an even keel with myself since then and has added a dimension to my life that I haven't always had outside of myself: Freedom.

Open Forum

Happy Friday one and all!

Today is a PD day at my son's school so we are off to walk the doggie at the park soon.

It's been so beautiful for so many days now that my face is tanned and I feel spoiled walking my dog twice a day in this gorgeous weather.

I bought a hammock and I am going to hang that up this weekend. I have two trees that are the perfect distance apart in my backyard and I've been wanting to get one for years now. Well, the hammock's sitting on my table and all I need is the rope. I am closer than I've ever been before!

I wish you all a wonderfully creative weekend and I will see you on Monday.

Enjoy and have one on me!

The Journey

I aptly named Thursdays journey day because they are often a day of reflection for me. And this Thursday is no exception.

I have been finding a lot of serendipity in my world these days and I believe coincidences do not occur by chance (despite the definition).

I went out for a couple of brew at my local bar last evening feeling kinda down for no particular reason. Maybe there were a number of little reasons that added up to a small sadness.

I ended up talking with a former NHL player that is American/French Canadian and he was the serendipity that I am speaking of. At first he appeared like any other guy wanting to chat at the bar. Over time I realized that he was not regular and he slowly got more and more of my attention.

He told me that he has written a book on some of his experiences while playing in the NHL. He said it will shake up the League, of that I have no doubt. (I will not divulge the crux of it here as it has not yet been released by the publisher.)

As we talked he noticed some things about me that could not have been guess work. He actually had me in tears at one point though I kept a brave face (I didn't want to seem like a lush about to ball, anyway I didn't have that much to drink.) And maybe you're thinking he was trying to pick me up, but, though he may have thought of it, I really don't think that was his agenda.

No, he simply wanted to talk with someone that could actually understand what he was saying. That is something I absolutely understand. We had a great conversation and I realized that maybe some people can see things about me that I didn't think were that perceptible (well at least not on the first meeting anyway). He proceeded to say 'Remember Jackie, there are no coincidences. You needed to hear these things tonight.' I wholeheartedly agreed. It was true.

Oddly enough I hadn't consciously gone out looking for anything. I often hang out there and just chat with the staff and head home. I do meet some great people there too, but that wasn't on my mind last night.

I really did need to hear what he had to say. I have always found it a challenge to find people that I can really talk with: People that can really understand what I mean when I say things. They don't have to agree, in fact we spent a lot of time arguing too last evening (I can be very stubborn, but never closed), but just the fact that I can talk about ideas close to my heart and be heard is a big deal for me.

One thing he did say to me is something I have heard before in a very different context, but I have never forgotten it. He said 'You are different, you think and live outside the box therefore you must make a difference in this world.'

I guess I have known that for a while, I'm just trying to figure out exactly how. I think I'm already on the path to that difference, it's just still a little unclear.

He gave me the look in the mirror I needed to realize others are seeing in me things I am also seeing in myself. Sometimes I just am not quite sure where to go or how to proceed. I am at a down point that always requires a lot of reflection and peace. It is at these times that I spend more time with my animals and my son, they are centering and healing for me. It is no accident that I got my dog last week and that I have some time to think before I start a new work project next week. Life looks after what I need when I need it.

Serendipity indeed!

The Mechanics

Good morning one and all.

Today is mechanics day and I'm going to talk about using parentheses effectively.

Parentheses (or round brackets) usually enclose additional information that explains, amplifies or provides comments on adjacent material.

Parentheses can solve some punctuation problems too.

For example: Carla Tavares (a recent MBA graduate) , Lisa Thompson and three students...

as opposed to

Carla Tavares, a recent MBA graduate, Lisa Thompson and three students...

Parentheses can be very usefully (if used properly) and can provide a certain flexibility under certain circumstances.

For example: The bus pulled away from the station. I waved at Kris (knowing somehow that he was really gone this time) as the bus continued on out of sight.

There are, however, certain ways that parentheses should not be used.

First of all, parentheses should not be overused.

They are like any other form of punctuation, if you use them too much the reader will get fed up and likely stop reading. Parentheses also break the flow of the document visually so use them sparingly for this reason as well.

Some authors that I work with use parentheses to tell jokes. I would caution against this. If your work is for a large audience there is no guarantee that all your readers will get the jokes and it is disruptive to the flow of a text.

One of my friends told me about an author that inserted (...) into his text. That is a definite no-no. Parentheses are there to add further information and clarity to a document or to make a comment, but NEVER to add to the ambiguity of the material being presented.

As I have mentioned before (in a previous mechanics blog), ellipses (...) should be used very sparingly in any document. The most I have ever used them is in preschool books and that was simply to guide the little eyes onto the next page.

I really like using parentheses when the right moment calls for them. They can be like a breath of fresh air from the usual punctuation options.

They are like em dashes that way except they lack the wonderful punch of the em dash.

Instead, parentheses kinda slip in there and add something (sometimes a little gem even) of detail.

I would describe them as the soft kiss on the cheek of knowing. They stimulate you with a gentle nudge, and make you feel more knowledgeable than you were before.

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning one and all.

I usually write a blog today on writers in the media, but I have a job interview this morning.

I will catch you tomorrow with my mechanics blog. Have a great one!

The Voice

Good morning one and all. It's Monday!

I write a lot of different types of materials, from poetry to children's fiction to high tech pieces, and I realize that I do this to strike a balance.

I write poetry to slip into my own inner-world. It's almost as if I'm in a coma while I'm writing. The part of me that writes poetry is haunted and ancient and I release a lot of emotion and stress through my poetry.

When I write children's fiction it is serious yet playful at the same time. I want to engage the children so I craft the sentences simply but pack in lots of detail and emotion and action. I almost want the children to be able to feel what I'm writing--making it a full-body experience. That is the way children live and how I think they should read too.

High tech writing is completely different: It is devoid of emotion. I think it is wonderful for that reason alone. When I write high tech content I can be completely technical without having to appeal to any emotions whatsoever. I can be up-front with the decision makers about the features and functions of a specific software and how that software will address their immediate tech needs. That's what writing for the technology industry is all about.

It is only recently that I realized I had struck an eclectic, but highly functional, balance in my writing life. I can't always be in an emotional coma, nor can I always be emotionless, so I've opted for the extremes and something fun to balance out the middle. It works for me.

Open Forum

Good morning one and all and welcome to Open Forum.

I haven't been writing as much as usual recently. I have been going to workshops and meetings and it's surprising how much time it takes out of my schedule.

I also have to get my taxes ready. Yuck!

I think I am going to put that off until Monday.

The whole neighbourhood is slowly finding out that I have a new dog. It's funny how the neighbours' kids seem to find out first of all. There are certain things that kids just always notice and dogs rate high on their Hot News list.

I had forgotten how friendly people are when you've got a dog. Other dog lovers flock to you like birds of a feather. But complete strangers will walk right up to you (even if they don't have a dog) just to say Hi to your canine friend. I received some amazingly warm and open smiles from people I've never met simply because of Zack's presence. I think people feel safer with people who like dogs. Maybe there's a certain kindness surrounding dog owners. Hard to say. Of course, if I were walking a Pit Bull I'm sure the reception would be completely different. My dog is cute and silly and jaunty--so he engenders smiles and giggles.

I don't know if it has ever been studied whether some animals have chi, but Zack definitely does. He exudes a tranquility and gentleness and intelligence all at once. I know that may sound silly to some of you and you may think I'm anthropomorphizing, but honestly I'm not. Anyway, there's a lot of chi in our house these days. Between Zack and me, we have a great aura going.

I wish you all a fabulous weekend. How could it not be with weather like this?!

Cheers, and see you all on Monday.

The Journey

Good morning to you all. It's journey day.

The weather is finally spring-like and really gorgeous. I have seen robins, blue jays, a bird of prey, squirrels (of course), a rabbit and other birds I don't know the name of yet.

Yesterday was the first afternoon I was able to sit out on the deck in the sun and be truly comfortable. The sun was warm and the breeze was almost balmy at times.

Today is supposed to be even warmer with the temperature going up to 20C apparently. I hope so. There is something so liberating about being outside. I actually woke up and felt expanded this morning. I felt, for the first time in months, that I'd really taken in some fresh, invigorating air. I think every cell in my body was saying thank you.

I think I am beginning to understand why nature and the outdoors has always been an inspiration to artists. The Group of Seven is an excellent example of how the Canadian landscape affected those artists. Many writers have been inspired by their surroundings as well. I remember reading Doris Lessing as a teenager and her descriptions of the veldt in Africa will stay with me forever. After I saw the film Out of Africa I understood why Doris had been so struck by the landscape and colours and sounds around her.

When I was a girl we went to Arizona for a family trip and the colours of the rocks and soil and the dry, oppressive heat of midday will stay with me forever as well. And the first time I drove into the Eastern Townships here in Quebec and saw the blankets of trees enveloping me from all angles I just knew I was home somehow.

As a child I spent a lot of time in Haliburton at a cottage on a lake and I think that experience changed how I viewed the outdoors. When we went there all routine ceased. We lounged, swam, laughed, sunbathed, lazed, rarely washed, became one with the scent of the firs and the earth and just experienced. I think I am coming back to that simplicity again. Maybe my new dog Zack has done that. Maybe walking with him and rubbing his belly and being covered in dog hair have taken me back to when only relationships and peace mattered. I really can't say, but I feel inspired by the coming spring and the birdsong and the tranquility all around me.

The Mechanics

Good morning one and all. It's Wednesday and mechanics day.

I want to talk about proper nouns today.

We capitalize proper nouns, such as London, Bill and Jaguar because they are nouns referring to a specific place, person or thing.

Common nouns, such as house, cat and park are not capitalized.

A new trend is emerging, however, where some individuals choose not to capitalize their proper names. I sent off some poetry to a Canadian anthology and one of the editors did not capitalize his names.

I respected that, but wondered why.

I haven't done any research into why people may be doing this, but I doubt it's because they want to be viewed as common nouns.

I suppose there may be a certain snobbery behind it--to try and look different, perhaps. Or maybe the argument would be that it is snobby to capitalize people's names in the first place. It's really hard to know.

I think that proper names are capitalized to make the distinction that they are simply not common. If you had a sentence like this for example, 'The jaguar was in the shade under the trees,' and we did not capitalize the 'j' then how would we know if this sentence was about a feline or a certain type of car?

The capitalization of proper nouns does provide a certain clarity as far as the writer being able to clearly express the intended idea.

I will see if I can find any articles on the new lower-casing proper names trend (and if any of you have some ideas please let me know).

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning one and all.

I know I haven't posted a blog about writing for a few days now, but a lot of new things have been happening and I'm getting distracted.

Yesterday a sprightly, waggly tailed Basset Hound named Fred arrived in our lives. He is lively and mellow all at the same time. He's 3.5 and pretty mature most of the time, but has this flippey way of arching his body and jumping when another dog is walking by. It's incredible how much a dog can communicate without saying anything at all!

Last night I climbed into bed and put a cozy blanket on the floor for Fred. He walked over to the side of my bed and with his eyes asked me if he could come up: I said Yes. He happily curled up on the end of my bed and made content little groaning noises, sometimes he even snored a little. He woke me up a couple times to go out and for belly rubs. His routine has been up in the air since his family had to find him a new home: Allergies.

I predict that over the next couple days he'll settle in and sleep through the night.

My son doesn't know about the dog yet (he's been asking me for a dog for years) so I am going to meet him at the school bus with Fred today. I can't wait to see both their faces.

When I was walking Fred this morning every time a school bus went by he looked up and wagged his tail. And every time he saw a child he did the same. Obviously, Fred loves kids.

This is a really great adventure and Fred is a wonderful addition to our lives.

The Voice

Good morning one and all.

I have an appointment this morning so I may write my blog later, depending on how my day unfolds. I am happy to say that it is a beautiful sunny day today and it certainly does put me in good spirits.

Have a great one everyone and maybe you'll see me later on.

Cheers!

Open Forum

Happy Friday one and all.

I am off to a workshop today so I won't be able to write my Open Forum blog.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday.

The Journey

Good morning all. It's Thursday and Journey Day!

I always like commenting on my journey as a writer. And inevitably it ends up leading to my journey as a person as well. I am now a professional blogger and I just posted my second blog about pizza. I really love pizza (had some last night for dinner actually). I think writing about pizza inspired me to eat some. Though it doesn't take much to encourage me to eat pizza--that's a 'twist my rubber arm' scenario.

There's not much else that I wouldn't want to live without (I'm talking about food and drink here). Green tea perhaps, muffins, a good filet mignon now and then, scallops, champagne, stuffing...OK maybe there's more than I realized once I started thinking about it.

Despite all that I'm not a big food person. It was only when I was pregnant with my son that food tasted amazing, I mean I cannot describe how wonderful food was when I was pregnant. (If food tasted like that for me all the time I would weigh 300lbs for sure. Food was magnetic.) Now, food tastes good, but regular as it has done all my life except about 6 blissful months.

But pizza has always been, and still is, my absolute favourite food. Served hot right out of the pizza oven, luke warm when you go for the second piece and cold out of the fridge first thing in the morning--it's all just sooo good! No matter how you slice it (sorry I couldn't help the silly pun) pizza is food created by the Goddesses.

Thank you Goddesses, thank you for filling my life and belly with your scrumptious creation (as I wander down to the fridge for a piece of Hawaiian)!

The Mechanics

Good morning to you all. Today is mechanics day and it's spell-check day.

Spell-checking programs help you eliminate misspelled words at the proofreading stage and they can be great for finding specific words in your document. You can use the 'search' feature and find specific words in your document and 'replace' them with another word. I used this a lot when I worked in-house. The first time I found a word that didn't conform to our style guide I would simply 'find' and 'replace' it with the correctly spelled word. Then I knew that word had been corrected throughout the document.

Spell-checking programs do have drawbacks however and it is really important to be aware of them:

1. Spell-checking programs cannot detect the omission of words.
2. They do not flag correctly spelled words that are incorrect in a specific context, for example Ewe bake too manly arrows, as opposed to You make too many errors.
3. Unless the spell-checker is part of a larger grammar-checking program they do not identify words that are grammatically wrong. For example, the sentence He do not understands, would not be flagged.
4. There is one caveat to the search-and-replace function that is important to know. If you change a word such as honor to honour in the search-and-replace function you will automatically create misspellings of other related words, such as honorific, honorary and so on. This will require you to go into the document manually and change each instance of the newly misspelled words.

It's important to remember that though spell-checkers are great tools they do not negate the need for experienced editors and proofreaders.

I have had people ask me, when I was commenting on the poorly edited Montreal Gazette, well don't spell-check programs fix that? In this case the question was about a verb and its subject not being in agreement, as was the case in the Gazette. I said: No, spell-checkers do not check for grammar errors. The look on the person's face was of the blank-stare variety. It was obviously news to them.

Fair enough, not everyone is a writer or has to use word processing programs for their work.

But it also helped me understand why so many materials are published without being properly edited. Some people do believe that a spell-checker is all they need.

I am here to say, though spell-checkers are great tools, they do not guarantee a grammatically correct document. In fact, you can end up with Ewes baking too manly arrows, so watch out!

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning to all.

I read an article in The Montreal Gazette by Donna Nebenzahl that I found particularly disturbing because of its scope and complexity. The article titled Bus stop often the start to a life of misery outlines the fate of a lot of young, vulnerable women here in Quebec. Quebec Youth Protection estimates that several thousand young girls are sexually exploited here, in Quebec. Several thousand!

Apparently the increase in gang activity has increased the number of young women being sold as commodities. Some pimps settle debts by giving their girlfriends to rival gang members for sex as payment. Imagine! There is something so horrifying to me about people's daughters being used and abused repeatedly, and right under our noses.

You might ask why they don't run away from their captors. Well, they have nowhere to go. They either come out of abusive family situation here in Canada or they are from other countries that fear the police and other official authority figures. Often their families are forcing them into this 'better way of life.' So the gangs and pimps don't even need to lock them up. The women would never leave and disgrace their families. And the gangs threaten their families in their home countries so the young women are literally giving up their lives to save their families.

This is a vicious circle.

How can this circle be broken? I'm really not sure. I don't have enough knowledge of the big picture to even hazard a guess. Obviously, conjugal violence, poverty, hopelessness and organized crime are all very big problems that would need to be tackled from many different angles before progress would be made. My opinion, however, is that most of these problems begin at home. I have never understood why we are educated-to-death in our society about everything except the reality of being parents and raising and disciplining children.

When people have children they introduce all their own dysfunctional behaviours and patterns from their childhoods right back into their children's lives. There are very few parents that see the dysfunction of how they grew up and actively do not perpetuate that cycle.

The proof is in the way our society is behaving. I have a friend that is a child psychologist and she told me that there are very few children that are well mentally. After seeing articles in the newspaper about teenagers in crisis and this article today I am beginning to understand what she must see all day every day in her office. She was visibly scared for future generations.

We hear about the atrocities being perpetuated in other countries and I can't help but think we are perpetuating many here as well. People don't seem to care about the women that they ogle at strip clubs or seek sex from at escort services. Very few of those women do what they do voluntarily. Our world has become obsessed with instant gratification--no matter what the cost.

The cost here is human dignity and freedom.

It's too great a cost and horrifying in its implications.

The Voice

Good morning to you all.

It's Monday.

I usually discuss the writer's voice on Mondays, but I have a rendez vous this a.m. and I am going to do research for my next Montreal City Guide blog, so I will be brief.

Writing the short story that I ended up presenting to my short story class interestingly taught me about where I was when I wrote it. It was mid-December when I wrote it and I was not where I am now as far as honesty is concerned. What do I mean exactly? Well, I think I was still seeing people for the roles that they play, such as mother, dentist, boyfriend, husband, child...and so on. Rather than seeing people for what they really are. It's true that some people get so caught in their roles that that's about all you can see, but for most people there is more--that is if you have the insight and courage to look.

In December I don't think I was ready to look yet. People are not the sum total of their titles, accomplishments or behaviours. Nor are they really a label of any kind, thankfully. It is easier to 'label' people, it makes them tidy--at least in your mind. But no one is tidy or describable by a collection of words. An odd thing for a writer to say I realize, but I do believe that there is an essence to everyone that goes beyond thought.

I didn't take the time to get to know the characters in my short story. And for me that was the key to how I'd been living. Not with everyone, thankfully, but with enough people that I was pushing people I cared about away. About two weeks ago I suddenly realized what I'd been doing. After resolving a relationship I'd had I realized that it was time for me to stop self-protecting.

Life in not about being perpetually happy. Life does involve suffering--I am sure we all know that. Trying to avoid pain only puts more attention on the situations that cause you pain and thus a vicious circle begins.

I am not sure what I was trying to protect myself from. Maybe I just wasn't ready to know myself really, really well.

I no longer feel that way.

It was a breakthrough both personally and professionally. Rather than living with my eyes wide shut, I can just be. It really doesn't have to be more complicated than that!

Open Forum

Good morning one and all. It's open forum day, the day I set aside to talk about whatever I feel like.

Well, my new blog for Montreal City Guide will be live at 8:26 am today. It's kinda exciting really. A broad audience will read that blog and also the people I feature will likely check out my comments as well. It was a lot of fun writing it--though it took longer than I expected. I spent at least twice as much time on the City Guide blog.

I guess that makes sense. This blog is my personal space and, though I take it seriously, I know that it's not as accessible as the Montreal site is. I am also promoting Montreal on the City Guide site. I'm not really promoting anything here. Here I am connecting with other writers and anyone else who's interested.

I can imagine the diversity of people that visit the Montreal City Guide site. They may be tourists looking for accommodation and things-to-do in Montreal, Montrealers might check out the site to keep up on what's new and happenin' and web users might just come across the site from just about anywhere.

Our technological age has certainly brought people from all over the world closer together. It's really cool that I can write this blog, and the City Guide blog, knowing that I am reaching people that I would never have any contact with otherwise. People that live all over Canada, and even the world. That's pretty awesome when you think of it!

I can imagine that's what a writer feels like when they have a first book published. It must be somewhat exposing to be suddenly at the finger tips of so many people. That's the timelessness of books as well. You never know how many people will read your book and be changed by it. And you also never know how many years might go by before different people pick up your book at just the right time in their lives.

Writing is liberating, yet daunting in its responsibility at the same time.

As John Updike said so well: To be in print is to be saved.

The Journey

Good morning to all. Today is journey day.

I am now on the road to blogdom. I am thinking about what's happening in Montreal from a very different perspective. What new and exciting and fun? That's what my brain is starting to notice--everywhere!

I did research for my first blog yesterday and people came to me with ideas for other blogs. It was as if the energy that I had focused into the community was coming back to me like a boomerang.

It was really inspiring. I know writing this blog for Montreal City Guide will also get me out and about more. When I go to concerts I will film an excerpt of the concert on my digital camera (this will require me to actually read the instructions for the thing) and then YouTube the song and post it on my blog. (It was Anne that gave me the idea for this. Thanks, Anne!)

I have a friend that's in a band and I will go to his next concert and film away. I can get information about the band from him and make it into a cool piece on an up-and-coming band in Montreal.

I will have to keep a list of ideas because I get the impression I could lose track.

I like it. This is part of my writing journey that I know I will thoroughly enjoy!

The Mechanics

The answer is yes.

I have been hired by the Daily Pixel Network to write a regular blog for their Montreal City Guide site.

I can write about whatever interests me as long as it relates to Montreal and its environs. I am really excited about it.

I like the idea of coming up with all sorts of ideas and I can talk with people directly to get information about their restaurants, up-and-coming events and concerts--really anything that interests me.

I am supposed to keep my own voice. They don't want all the bloggers to sound the same. I like it.

So I am now officially getting paid to be a blogger. What a lot of fun that is!

The Writer's Weekly

Good morning one and all.

Today is Tuesday and the day I usually talk about writers or writers' concerns in the media.

I can't think of anything this morning, however.

All I can think about is the ridiculous piece on Paris Hilton coming to Montreal to promote her new shoe line. The first 200 people that buy a pair of her shoes at Browns will get to meet Ms. Hilton herself.

She claims her shoes are durable and comfortable. Right! That's exactly the kind of image she portrays. The heel I saw was at least 3 inches high! There's nothing comfortable (and hopefully durable) about Paris Hilton.

I have never understood how a person can be popular simply because they have money. She doesn't 'do' anything. She's never worked, doesn't have a talent or skill that I know of but she's treated like a celebrity nonetheless. At least most stars have some reason for being considered a star: They act or sing or dance--something.

In a lot of ways Paris Hilton represents the worst of our shallow culture. If tomorrow she didn't have any money anymore no one would give her another thought. And she doesn't seem to mind that her status is solely wrapped up in her wealth. She parades around like the queen for no reason whatsoever.

I guess there are some things I will just never relate to--and this is one of them!