Thursday, March 29, 2007

Gender-Bender???

With the flurry of all the writing I've been doing lately I have come across some old writing. The following piece, according to what I wrote down (which has to be right- I'm really good about writing everything down) is from July 8, 1998! You can just bet someone had given me some grief at the time, because the idea is mind-blowing when you really start to think about it seriously. But I'll let it speak for itself:

How much of your life revolves around your gender?
Would your life go on if you were stripped of your sexual identity?
How drastically would your life change if you were suddenly just yourself
with that aspect no longer needed and gone?
When one seriously considers these questions it brings you home to your
real self. The one you were from the beginning and the one you still are
underneath all the sexual frivolity.
Think of how many of your activities would cease and how you would start using
the new free time you would have.
Think of how people would perceive you if they had to rely on the way you think,
act,
talk,
etc.
rather than size you up as a sexual object?
Think of how freeing it would be to your body and soul to be able to finally eliminate sexual stereotypes that have colored and pre-formed your life up to now.
Think of how your life would've run if you had never had to deal with the interferences your sexual identity has interposed in your life.
I wonder about people whose whole lives seem to center completely on their gender.
Well, after I re-read this I remembered the confrontation that was the inspiration for this set of random thoughts and self-questioning. To be truthful the confrontation was so awful and WEIRD that I'd rather not tell you what it was!
However, this subject does make me think about people who would be most directly affected. How about strippers, prostitutes, athletes, models, beauticians, actors and actresses (here, a slight nod to Hillary Swank, a rare exception!) and even singers? At one time, singers only worried about what they sounded like on the radio, but now it seems that they need to seduce their audience. Indeed, music should be about sound- not sight in particular. I consider myself to be a part of the MTV generation and yet I can't help wishing we could go back to just concentrating on the music. It could certainly stand some improvement.
Leave a comment if you read this, I am genuinely interested in your opinion on this issue.
"If you are born with it, you'll have it when you're 100". -
Sophia Loren when asked about her endless sex appeal.
; )

Evelyn Wallace
The Castle Lady

www.ilovecastles.com
http://castlelady.spaces.live.com

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Speak softly but carry a big shillelagh!

How was your St. Patrick's day? I have better ones in memory but can't honestly say any of them have been much of a celebration. For one, I've never been a green beer drinker, and if you have more than one Guinness you may find yourself in for a bit of a tussle. As a matter of fact if you're not Irish the latter may knock you on your keester. Keester. That sounds Irish doesn't it?
Well, actually there are a lot of Irish Gaelic words that have crept into the American English language and some of them you use everyday totally unaware that the words origins are not Anglo-Saxon or foreign words. Take the word slogan for example. It is actually from the Irish sluagh ghairm which means "army cry". Or how about kibosh? Doesn't that sound Jewish? I'm sure I've heard Jewish people use that word, but as a matter of fact it's from the Irish word cie bais (lit. cap of death) and is pronounced kye-bosh, and is our word for clobbering someone. Usually it is phrased, "put the kibosh on" (someone) and this was first used in print by- of all people- Charles Dickens in "Sketches of Boz".
The word dun is used by us primarily to say that the color of something is rather dull. It is from the very old Irish word donn which means dark and they used it to describe the coats of certain horses. If someone blathers on here they also rather blather in Ireland, too! (ha ha!) That word came from the Irish Gaelic as well, which is blether. An Irish reel would be rightly spelled righil and being dour would most likely be du`r , however they borrowed that from Latin!
Hooligan as a word is rather strange isn't it? Even for most cultures it would be because it morphed from an Irish name! Originally the Gaelic name was O hUallachain then it became anglicized to Houlihan. It became Hooligan during the 1890s because of a pub song made about the rowdy Hooligan family which terrorized London at the time. Today any hoodlum or young thug is a hooligan.
Well, I think I've about worn this out! I'll share a few more of these with you next year. In the mean time, just for the record, keester isn't Irish. It also is not English. Most likely it came from the German word kies which refers to flinty ground or gravel. I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that one!

Love and kisses from
The Castle Lady
One man's way may be as good as another, but we all like our own best.
- Jane Austin

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Argh!

Today has been one of those days where I want to find a nice big closet, stick my head into it, and scream my head off! All because of some dumb glitch with my PC which it seems nobody from Dell to my ISP can seem to agree on as to what is the real problem.
I spent an hour and a half trying to find the correct source for DLing Internet Explorer 7. Then it took another hour to DL it. (Yes. You read that correct, an HOUR!) All the while my afternoon writing hours are ticking away.
All I know is that everything we've tried doesn't work. I cannot post a single entry from my own PC on my official Castle Lady blog in LIVE SPACES and I have to go to public computers to post my entries!
Needless to say I am beyond frustration and into the realm of giving up on that thing entirely. This problem should have been solved by now and I can't seem to get anyone's help on this problem.
This makes me think of poets like Emily Dickinson who years ago quietly wrote her verses in little booklets she hand-made and then kept them neatly put away in bound packets in a hope chest. She did not have the frustration of trying to figure out how to get a machine to do her will.
I think simple is better. I always did and I always will.
Who loves you like a songbird on the wing? The Castle Lady

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Translations

I've spent the last couple of days translating French text into English and I believe I finally understand what people go through who translate books! They must go out of their mind! Not only do you have to change words to correct usage for the language you happen to be translating it into but you also have to deal with the idioms and word quirks of the particular writer in question of the original language in which the piece was written. Now I think I have a healthy respect for translators. Furthermore, I don't know that I'd want to do this on a regular basis either, because I feel my English suffers, somewhat, every time I have to do any translating of over, say- two to five hundred words.
That may not seem like a lot but that first paragraph I just wrote went well over a hundred words! Well, I think I'm done for the day. I have letters to write tomorrow- about five of them, I think ! At least they'll all be in English. I have a paper to write on Manchester and get it posted on my Castle Lady blog before everyone starts to think I've given up on posting anything on castles! ; )
I have an over due entry on Women in Rock that turned out to be the writ of the century. I have half a book written at this point. Hmmm. Maybe....
Well, we'll see. At any rate, I have a kazillion things to write tomorrow and then I have to do one nail client. Life is crazy but I love the writing life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The Castle Lady coming at ya with lots of kisses!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The Ides of March....again. ; (

Well, here is March once again and I am up to my eyeballs in work. I have so many projects I am working on at the moment you wouldn't believe it and if you could see the amount of space I have to work in you might wonder how I do it.

Well, back to work. I have so little time to get this all done. There might also be a move (i.e. new town) coming up real soon. All you toga wearers should know.... I'm watching you!!! ; )

The Castle Lady with a hug and a kiss!