PAULA NEAL MOONEY

Blog Wars: Why Do Bloggers Think They Must Curse and Spew Hate to be Effective? by Paula Neal Mooney Twice this long weekend I've caught Blog Wars -- an excellent documentary by filmmakers James Rogan and Phil Craig on the Sundance Channel. Blog Wars covers political bloggers and their effectiveness or (bulldozing) in a variety of campaigns. Thru Blog Wars , I was once again reminded of conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin and other smart folks. I admit I don't subscribe to a lot of political blogs, save for The Huffington Post , but that'll change in 2007. Blog Wars taught me that I need balanced views from both the left and the right. But the main thing I kept thinking while watching Blog Wars was, What is up with this trend that bloggers think they must be so negative and ranting with cuss-filled posts to be effective? I'm not necessarily speaking of the blogs featured in Blog Wars -- I've only scanned those. I'm talking about folks like Mario Ar...

15 Seconds ... by Paula Neal Mooney So wonderfully funny the way the Lord works things out. Just last night I recorded my first ever 15 seconds worth of video on my hubby's cell phone, and uploaded that 15 seconds full of video to YouTube , the first time I ever uploaded a 15 second (or any kind of second) video on YouTube. While on YouTube, my hubby and I caught the 15 Seconds video contest for CBS on the front page. "Wow, look at that," I said, marveling at God's whole flow of life. Check out the 15 seconds rules here and the 15 seconds video promo here: I'll plow thru all the 15 seconds rules later (gotta live my life out of the blogosphere for a little bit, you know?) but here's the gist of it: If you had 15 seconds to tell the world whatever you want to, what would you say? Well, now's your chance to be seen and heard on national television, courtesy of CBS Interactive. Post your 15-second video on YouTube, and CBS Interactive will select one t...

Hey Ted Murphy - You made a black woman take off her hair weave ... by Paula Neal Mooney Well, actually, I only took off my "phony tail" and didn't bother to put it back on -- nor any make-up on my vain face -- on the short video I just shot below begging to win one each of the SWEET "ten awesome new 6 megapixel digital cameras and photo printers from our friends at HP" that you're giving away to us PayPerPosties at PayPerPost, who is generously paying for this post (if accepted) whether or not I'm blessed with one of those HP babies. As much as I would love to submit one, please note that this isn't a video blogging opportunity. Why? Because, like any good PayPerPostie, I read the rules thoroughly and learned that those submitted videos "must be at least 30 seconds in length," and since I only have my hubbby's video phone to record with, this sucker is only 15 seconds. Check it: Okay, so now that I've researched you more, Ted Mur...

by Paula Neal Mooney Just when I was about to write an open blog post to Barbara Walters begging old Babs to hire comedienne Sherri Shepherd for a permanent gig on The View , I caught this little tidbit on Canada.com Canada.com claims that a deal is already being worked out to make Sherri Shepherd a permanent replacement for Star Jones' empty spot on The View . I still sent emails to Barbara Walters , Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck (It's no wonder why Rosie's email option is missing -- all that negative feedback about her Asian news reporter impersonations must've killed their servers.) I begged the ladies to make Sherri Shepherd the "token" View lady. (No, I didn't really say that...) Anyway, if you haven't caught Sherri Shepherd on The View lately, you've missed a real treat. Not only has Sherri Shepherd been hilarious, Sherri's regaled The View's viewers with her tales of woe: Shepherd recently caught her husband, Jeff Tarp...

When I think of my sweet home Chicago ...by Paula Neal Mooney I just finished watching this video of the PayPerPost Postie patrol cavorting about my hometown, the only city I ever knew the first sixteen years of my life -- sweet home Chicago. The little square image brought back so many memories -- my favorite part perhaps seeing the wintry-chilled breath coming out of the subjects' nostrils as they trolled a frigid Magnificent Mile down by the old Water Tower that survived the Great Fire, and the modern Water Tower Place where I've shopped. So many secrets beneath those bustling streets. The pedestrian walkways beneath the rumbling Loop, where downtown employees trot from skyscraper to skyscraper without ever going outside. Memories of the day that a creepy voice whispered from behind me, "Thank you for letting me watch you..." Eck. But there are more great memories than bad from my sweet hometown -- which is why I'd love to do a postie patrol like this and cavor...

Okay, I was going a bit crazy here... I like some of the writings and Christian viewpoints Coulter espouses in her work -- but the divisiveness is not necessary. I don't love Ann Coulter. And now that Ann Coulter has dissed the so-called African-American holiday called Kwanzaa , calling it "a lunatic blend of schmaltzy '60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism," I don't love Ann Coulter all the more for being a white woman bold enough to diss a Kwanzaa celebration in a manner that I always thought but dare not spoke of. I get the Kwanzaa cards in the mail around Christmastime and never appreciate the attention they take away from the birth of Jesus. Kwanzaa supporters will say it's all complimentary, but like Ann Coulter writes, I believe we've been duped into giving credence to some fake fight-the-power holiday. Kwanzaa kinda reminds me of the fake red-black-and-green-Africa-on-a-leather-medallion sporting brothers who went to Florida A & M...

by Paula Neal Mooney I love it when artists put all of themselves into their projects, spilling the truth about their innards -- come what may. Looks like this is what Chris Rock has done in viewing his latest movie trailer for I Think I Love My Wife . Watch it now... Chris Rock is proving he is human and makes mistakes like we all do. Of course, upcoming books will tell just how human he was and how much his wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, must forgive... But I'm glad to see Chris Rock back in the director's chair for I Think I Love my Wife , a movie he also penned. I'm even more overjoyed by reports that Chris Rock may not have filed for divorce after all , and am thrilled that Chris and Malaak Rock -- I still love the way her first name rhymes with Rock -- they were meant to stay together! -- attended the Living Legends Foundation 13th Annual Dinner all hugged up together last month, with reports saying that Rock may not all filed divorce papers after all. Forgiveness is...

by Paula Neal Mooney I feel a little like Dustin Hoffman's character in All the President's Men , a book-turned-movie about two Washington Post reporters whose investigative journalism exposed what later turned into the Watergate scandal that forced President Nixon's resignation. It all started innocently enough, with the reporters covering what was initially thought to be a robbery at the Democratic Party National headquarters. We all know how that ended...if only some sleuth would get to the bottom of that Chappaquiddick incident... Anyway...my plight started just as innocently a couple of month ago, when I tried to submit a post to Digg.com and got an error message. Upon Googling the error message, I turned up not only other legitimate users who've also been banned by Digg, but plenty of accusations that Digg -- who prides itself on allowing average citizens to control their front page news -- and other organizations have paid people to Digg certain stories to the ...

by Paula Neal Mooney There was a certain photographer (who shall still remain nameless as long as he no longer bugs me 'cause I'm not trying to completely ruin his life) that contacted me with an over-inflated invoice because I'd attached a pic he took to one of my articles. He'd displayed it on the web without those cool logos that legit places like Big Stock Photo splash across their copyrighted pics, so I considered it fair game... Anyway, after I got Mr. Shady Photog's email, I removed the photo and went on with life till I heard that said photographer was trying to extract all kinds of crazy payments from another related site for copyright infringement. Help me, Holy Spirit , I prayed. As God always comes thru so creatively for me, He told me to do a little digging into this shady photog's life. I did so and found his MySpace page. Setting myself up with a profile of a pretty blonde white woman, I contacted the photog and pretended to be a poor, gorgeous, m...

Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto ...by Paula Neal Mooney ...that was just one of James Brown's songs that has been ringing in my soul all day. I also loved the haunting, echoing tone when James Brown sang "This is a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman..." How fitting that a man who commanded Santa to go the ghetto and "fill every stocking you see...'cause that was once -- me!" would pass away on Christmas day. It's even stranger and a little more melancholy that the folks close to me who loved James Brown the most -- my grandfather (Daddy Elmer), my mother and grandmother (GranRuby) -- have all died themselves, so I can't call them up and say, "Wow, can you believe James Brown died?" I first felt that feeling when, shortly after my mom died, I saw Muhammad Ali in a Vegas casino. I went back to my hotel and glanced at the phone, but realized that the folks who nurtured me on the sounds of James Brown whil...

The Devil is a Workaholic ...by Paula Neal Mooney Tonight I watched The Devil Wears Prada and was surprised by just how amazingly good it was. No chick-lit-turned-sappy-romance-movie-fluff there. I never got the chance to read Lauren Weisberger's so-called thinly veiled roman-a-clef of her stint as assistant to Anna Wintour, god-in-chief of Vogue , but I'm glad she wrote it. I'm sure Lauren is now glad she took all that guff for daring to write about her demanding boss, seeing as though Streep has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her magnificent performance. Of course, I can't help wonder how much of the book and movie are based on Lauren's real-life run-ins with Anna, a reported career-aholic. I can't wait to see the upcoming documentary about Anna. But The Devil Wears Prada movie really brought into focus what important things in life get left behind (read: family) when we focus too much on any addictions in life...which is why I'm posting this pup...

Confessions of a Corporate Nomad ... by Paula Neal Mooney This is one of my favorite pics of me and my husband -- and not just because of the sideways angle that whichever blessed passerby who took this puppy used to make us look ultra-thin, but that it was taken inside the Chapel of the Holy Cross , a sanctuary actually built into the gorgeous red rocks of Sedona, Arizona. It was circa February 16, 1997. I remember this clearly because we got engaged during that trip. We'd just relocated from Chicago Title and Trust Company, where we met, to work for a different company in Akron, Ohio. Sedona was just a little vacay. I lit a red candle and said a prayer in that church. For how could I have known that four years later we'd leave Ohio to work for a San Francisco Bay Area firm, then move back to Ohio a year and a half later? Corporate nomadism , I call it. Changing cities, chasing that ever elusive higher pay grade...staying one step ahead of the dreaded reorgs. Some of our belon...

by Paula Neal Mooney Beyonce was interviewed in the January 2007 issue of InStyle magazine -- thanks for the heads-up PopSugar.com! Love you guys even though you never responded to my interview requests :-( -- and had some interesting read-between-the-lines quotes about marriage, motherhood and Jay-Z. But more about that later. The thing that stuck with me was Beyonce's response to the weirdest thing in her fridge: "These little Soy Dream ice-cream sandwiches, " Beyonce quipped, saying that the Soy Dream ice-cream sandwiches were "so good, I eat one every night." Hmmm ...my little blogging mind thought...the way folks are lining up ordering the Master Cleanser diet fast that helped Beyonce shed 20 pounds for Dreamgirls (which I STILL want to undertake as soon as the new year comes), I'm sure they'll be chomping at the bit (literally) to find these Soy Dream ice-cream sandwiches. No easy feat, turns out. Googling "Soy Dream Ice Cream Sandwiche...