It's lonely being a blogger.

The title of this blog pretty much sums up my feelings at the moment. Julie Powell brought it home for me the other day... or rather Amy Adams as Julie Powell brought it home for me the other day. Or maybe it should be: Julie Powell, as portrayed by Amy Adams, in the words of Nora Ephron - oh I give up! Let me just put it this way.

Last week I was watching director Nora Ephron's new movie Julie&Julia. Julie Powell (Adams) sets up a blog chronicling her adventures as she cooks her way through renown chef Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Part way through the film, she becomes disheartened because she feels like no one is paying attention to her blog. That all her work and her writing is simply falling into some great, big void never to be seen or heard of again.

Sitting in the theatre, as much as it was annoying to here the woman complain - again - I sat there with a certain level of empathy in my heart.

For I know what it is like - feeling like you are writing to no one.

I do have two followers - and I thank them for following me, but isn't it always the case that the grass is always greener on the other side?

A Second Shot at... Fame???

The other day, I was watching an unremarkable television show with my sister. I was bored. I was on my computer. I was listening to music. I was multitasking. And as is the case with multitasking, I was paying little attention to any of the tasks I was trying to accomplish. That is until I heard a name I recognized. Psychologists refer to this as the 'Cocktail Party Effect,' subconsciously you are monitoring the conversations around you, but are only consciously paying attention to the one you are engaged in; that is, until you hear your name mentioned in one of those peripheral conversations you 'weren't' eavesdropping on. Only this time it wasn't my name (let's face it, I am not that famous and it would be just plain weird for a commercial to mention a name like mine).

It was Steven Seagal.

More relevantly, it was the words: Steven Seagal, cop, 20 years, that particularly grabbed my attention. Growing up in a household where my dad idolized Steven Seagal as everything it meant to be an ass-whopping, bad guy tormenting, victim avenging, testosterone injecting man - I was shocked to hear that Seagal took the law into his own hands (albeit in a legal way), as his day job in real life too. Granted, he is not hired as a trained assassin, or by governments, warlords or angry people with way to much money (wait, is there really any difference?).

Steven Seagal has a regular job? Really? Really, really, donkay.

Turns out that not only has Steven Seagal been a cop for 20 years, they are now making a Police-Women-of-Broward-County-or-COPS-esque reality television series out of it too (does anyone else think that Seagal may simply be running through the millions he made of action flicks in the 80s and 90s?).

Lawman premieres on A&E on December. I, for one, will not be watching. Not only do I not have cable in my uni house, apart from the novelty of the whole situation, do not find the show all that appealing. I will stick to rednecks being chase through fields only to have their face smashed into the concrete when they are caught and being given patronizing lectures by police officers telling them what the right course to follow in life is - on COPS.

Deputy Steven Seagal?

Critiquing Society

The strength of society can be measured in how it cares for its most vulnerable members, so the adage goes. If this is the case, then Toronto will likely come to the same end as Nero's Rome. And the 'Honorable' David Miller will be fiddling as it burns.

This is Al Gosling.

Mr. Gosling lost his home in the inferno this past week. No, he is not related to the notorious dysfunctional family from Pennsylvania and will not see a bailout funded by the Learning Channel. He is alone, he is 82 and he is now 93 pounds.

Thanks to a misunderstanding and lack of communication between the federal government department that dispenses his pension check and the municipal department that subsidizes his once humble, now non-existent apartment.

Coming home one day, he found his locks changed and all of his belongings - save the clothes on his back - confiscated. Sleeping under the apartment buildings stairs that night, he was awoken by a cop who brought him to a shelter, saying it wasn't safe under those stairs. While at the shelter, Mr. Gosling could not sleep for the constant noise and was so depressed he couldn't eat very much. As a result of his advanced age and his living situation, Mr. Gosling picked up a bug and was admitted to hospital because of chronic diarrhea.

He is about to be released, without anywhere to go. This is a man who never collected welfare or unemployment - even when he was out of work. He is an old man who deserves to have a rest for a bit. This should be is golden age. Instead it has been tarnished.

Is this how we treat our most vulnerable?? I hope not. If it is, I hope I never get old.

See the Toronto Star for more details. I have contacted the article's author to ask if there is anything that can be done. Details to follow.