The Panda Bear on her Blogging, Cleanathon Failure, and Ukraine

Ever so often the Panda Bear gets asked by her fans about how she finds time to blog when she works full-time in her humble but stressful office job.  The short answer is that she has no life.   More specifically, she does not watch much television or see many movies.  Instead she reads and blogs.   Occasionally, people ask how they can help the Panda Bear.  The Panda Bear suggests sharing the blog with friends and posting comments on her site.

The Panda Bear Blog is in part about the overly stressed nature of modern life.  The past few weeks have been an example of the draining nature of the modern workplace.   Problems and prospects in the workplace have sapped all of the Panda Bear's time and commitment leaving her room for hardly any other interests.

This winter the Panda Bear had scheduled some time off to relax and clean her apartment which she has called the cleanathon.   However, her day job issues meant that her "vacation" time was spent on employment issues.   Furthermore, the Panda Bear has had bad colds and did not feel well.   In addition, since February she has been feeling very blue; the Panda Bear does not find cleaning an uplifting activity.     Thus, the cleanathon has been a total failure.   However, like all failed projects the Panda Bear needs to adjust her priorities and move on to the future.

The Panda Bear needs to get back to her exercise and diet routines which both the bad weather and the Panda Bear's colds and terrible winter in New England have interrupted.   Especially, exercise the Panda Bear has been told will improve her mood.    The warmer weather should enable the Panda Bear to take more walks which she likes to do.   While the Panda Bear likes time to relax, she feels too much free time can make her feel down.    Perhaps being busier will help improve the Panda Bear's moodl

During this difficult period of the Panda Bear's life Russia invaded the Crimea.    The Panda Bear has never liked or trusted Putin; she thinks there is no such thing as a good KGB agent.   The Panda Bear feels some sympathy for Ukraine and believes that many Ukrainians probably have believes and values more closely aligned to the West than many other countries that the US is now presently(and foolishly) is helping.

However, Russia and Ukraine of historic ties.  From the Russians and the Ukrainians the Panda Bear sees in the US, people seem to move between the two countries very easily and the people seem very interconnected with each other.   The Russians and the Ukrainians probably have disputes with each other that go back for centuries.

Conflicts in the Balkan area started the First World War.   The Panda Bear hopes that economic sanctions against Russia are enough.   She does not want a major war to start because of problems between Russian and Ukraine.    The Panda Bear also finds it amazing while there is no money to help Americans the US can come up with a billion dollars out of no where to help Ukraine.

The Panda Bear on Woody Allen ,the Movies and Cable TV

The Panda Bear has a cold today so she feels like writing a lighter post.   Since the academy awards on are TV tonight, the Panda Bear thought she would write about the movies and television.  

Not the Panda Bear will be watching the Oscars.   The Panda Bear does not see many movies nor watch much television.    For her both the movies and television are casualties of today's busy lifestyles and a greedy entertainment industry.    The Panda Bear's chief sources of entertainment are books, the internet, social media, computer card games and the radio.    The Panda Bear believes that part of the appeal of these entertainments is that you can do on your own time when you please.   When so many other aspects of one's life is on fixed schedule, the Panda Bear likes activities she can do when she pleases and at her own pace.   Video forms of entertainment require the Panda Bear adapt to pace of the film while something like reading and writing she can do at her own speed.

The Panda Bear believe that both the movies and TV have forgotten their origins of being cheap, easy, unsophisticated and uncomplicated form of entertainment.   It frustrates the Panda Bear that for some things that should be pure entertainment are now require a learning curve to keep up with technology and are expensive.

The Panda Bear admits to being something of a television snob (not that Panda Bear's has intellectual tastes when it comes to television-the few shows she watches are incredibly stupid).  She remembers the time the TV was called the "idiot box". The Panda Bear feels that people should be having better things to do with their time than watch TV.   It is amazing to the Panda Bear that people who have families, work full-time and have long commutes have the time to watch as much television as they say they do.   The Panda Bear is proud of never having had cable.   If you live in an urban area with lots to do and work full time why should you have to pay to watch TV-something that used to be free?  With the internet, the Panda Bear feels people no longer need TV to keep up with the news.   The moment the Panda Bear has to pay to see TV is the day she gets rid of television.

This summer the Panda Bear saw the movie The Butler which she enjoyed.    It was the first movie that she had seen in a theatre that she has enjoyed in about twenty years.   When VHS first came out, the Panda Bear said she would never go to movies again because seeing the movies on tapes was so much cheaper than seeing them in the movie theatre.     Then everything went to DVD and it took the Panda Bear years to upgrade to a DVD player. Then the Panda Bear there was something to seeing movies in a theatre.   However, many movie theatres where the Panda Bear lives have closed.   Furthermore, they are expensive.   Often when she feels like seeing a movie no movie is out she wants to see.   The Panda Bear gets her DVDs from Redbox.   She has the same problem that she has with the theatres in terms of timing of seeing the movies.   When she has time to see a DVD, the ones she wants to see aren't at Redbox.   The Panda Bear have enough time to see movies to make it worth getting a subscription to something like Netflix.

Recently, The Panda Bear was going to relent on her Woody Allen movie boycott and rent Blue Jasmine when the allegations about Woody Allen's sexual abuse resurfaced.    The Panda Bear has refused to see Woody Allen movies since allegations of sexual abuse of his children came out in the early 1990's along with his relationship Soon-Yi.   Many modern families are blended and the Panda Bear's think Soon-Yi was something like a stepdaughter to Woody Allen.    The Panda Bear is not convinced that Woody Allen waited until she was 18 to have a sexual relationship with her and it was not "moral" for him to be in a relationship with the mother and the daughter at the same time.

 The Panda Bear is more unforgiving of Woody Allen that in his work and in his interviews he professes to be a moral person which in the Panda Bear's opinion he is not.   If he claimed to be "sex, drugs and rock and roll", the Panda Bear might be somewhat more tolerant and say he is a wild a crazy guy/artist.

The Panda Bear is a proud feminist and she proudly stands by Dylan and Mia Farrow.   Maybe when Woody Allen dies the Panda Bear will relent and see his films with her belief that art can be separated from the artist.    However, while Woody Allen is alive to the Panda Bear Woody Allen is a rich and powerful man who gets away with mistreating women because the establishment likes his work.