All of this news about Heath Ledger’s death in New York City has me thinking a lot about New York. I want to focus on the positive memories I have of that city. I go up often to see friends, but usually it is also to take in a play. I try my best to see as many stage productions that Liev Schreiber is in as possible.

The first time I went to NYC I was in high school and went up with friends for a journalism thing at Columbia University. We ended up finding time to see A Chorus Line and OPENING night of Les Misérables. Opening night. And, I don’t mean opening night of the revival. I mean March 12, 1987.

Yikes, I feel a little bit old.

I was not even sure how I would like the play. We sort of fell into the tickets and to this day I am thrilled we had the opportunity to experience the play the way we did. Talk about memories. That was a massively memorable trip. We followed it up next year by seeing a little show called Oil City Symphony, as well as Into the Woods, starring Bernadette Peters. We also spent a little more time in the city and made time for some sightseeing tours.

The last five times or so that I have been up to the city, I’ve spent time with friends and seen some good theater. I’ve actually not been up since Liev Schreiber was in New York Public Theatre’s MacBeth in Central Park. So, that was about a year and half ago I guess.

Hey, if you’re planning a trip to NYC anytime soon, make sure you check out the website for Trusted Tours & Attractions. They are running a promotion where you can win a free handheld GPS just for signing up for their website. A GPS could come in good and handy.

I have not even read more than the breaking headline on CNN’s website. I suppose I am too shocked and weirded out to click the link to read the story. Heath Ledger being found dead just seems surreal. He’s not old, he’s a dad, he is a huge pop culture icon for my generation and the generation right behind mine.

Actually, I’m not sure CNN’s site even has a link to a story – just a red headline at the top of the page. I suppose I will end up looking around to find out more details.

Poor Matilda.

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New York City police say he died at  3:26 p.m, so this is very new. He’s only been dead about an hour and a half. The 911 call that came in was for a cardiac arrest call, but I am sure more details will be forthcoming. Some sources are reporting there was a drug overdose involved. The New York Times actually had this to say:

When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed, with pills scattered around his body.

I really liked the guy. I know there he was the ex of my very favorite actor’s current gifrfriend (and motehr of his child), but all biases aside Ledger was a highly skilled actor and quite simply easy on the eyes.

NOTE: For the love of all that is good, DO NOT go to the Wikipedia entry on Ledger. Someone has ALREADY hacked it and a huge picture of a penis comes up in front of the text. Sick puppies in this world.

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On a semi-related note, when I think about Heath’s young daughter Matilda (not yet two), I think about how he is not the only very young Hollywood star to die lately and leave behind a little child. It turns out that Bred Renfro, who was burried yesterday in Knoxville, had a son that he kept out of the spotlight. He was named only as “Y” in the obituary and it has been confirmed his about four and lives in Japan with his mother. His full name is a Japanese name.

I have been interested for a long time in the concept of home brewing beer. I have several friends who do it. Some produce excellent beer. Others should just pack it in and choose a new hobby. I was given a bunch of home brew supplies recently via my local Freecycle group and now I am going to give it a try. I have a few more supplies I need to acquire first.

It’s the era of the internet, so there is no need for me to trek about looking for local stores that sell Beer making equipment. Sites like Monster Brew have everything I need available online. And, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times – I love being able to shop from the comfort of my bedroom while wearing only my underwear.

At first it was kind of cute to see the media refer to Jennifer Lopez as JoLo. Then, the media jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and began assigning similar nicknames to almost any celebrity that made even obscure headlines. Take the first part of the given name and mash it together with the first part of the surname and there you have it.

Simple, yes?

This morning, though, I read a headline on the Tampa Tribune’s website that took this little nickname trend a tad too far: ScarJo engaged?

I gave the headline a second of thought and realized they were talking about Scarlett Johansson. ScarJo? Ew. That’s just creepy. It’s not a nickname that is in the least bit flattering. Scar Jo. Sheesh.

And while I’m on the topic, apparently Johansson is engaged to Ryan Reynolds. I guess I am just moving too slow mentally, because it seems like quite recently that Reynolds was engaged to Alanis Morissette and talking up her charms all over the place. Love is a fickle thing, indeed.

OK, upon further investigation, I am convinced it’s not ME who is moving at the wrong pace. The article confirms that Reynolds just ended his engagement with Morissette last February, and moved onto Johansson by April. Yikes, man.

There are days I find it difficult to contemplate just shopping around for a new cell phone plan for car insurance policy. It feels to me a lot like buying a mattress. The products are all so similar that I can barely find the justification for price fluctuations between companies. Then, I just get confused and decide to stay with my current company for a couple more months.

I have an old employer who is setting up a new business. He hired me to do odd jobs like design his logo and help choose communications providers and office software. I’m hoping that once the business takes off, there might even be more work for me. Right now he is trying to decide to whether to go with refurbished used cisco or brand new ones. I have heard that it is always best to just go for the new models and equipment, but he has a sales guy giving him a pitch. You know the drill. He is just as confused as I get when I start looking at those cursed cell phone plans. And, when you are not an absolute expert on a subject, you want to be able to trust your sales person to give you all the information you need to make an informed decision – when in actuality, it is a very biased process.

Thanks goodness for the myriad of review sites you can access online. You just have to apply some common sense in interpreting the opinions of others and then an more informed decision is yours for the asking.

Cell phone plans still confuse me, though.

I usually avoid situations where I go to friends for business issues. If I have a friend with a store, I might try and patronize that store if I like the product, but for the most part I have had a bad track record with mixing friendships and business.

I mostly have small examples. I have one friend who is a hairdresser. Her clientele is loyal and she works at a high priced salon. Nonetheless, she had never done a good job on my hair cuts or color. I have given her repeated opportunities and I have never been happy. And, when I have had my hair cut by someone else, she notices and is hurt.

I have another friend who sells insurance. I made the mistake of telling him I was interested in a life insurance policy that would benefit my daughter if something happens to me. Now, instead of nice social visits at his home, dinner with my family and his family is always interrupted by him trying to hand me a llife insurance quote. I feel like I can never just go to his home for a relaxing visit. I have to be poised and ready to deal with his hard sell.

I’m not even going to start on the neighbor who harangued me about joining her pyramid scheme travel company. I never, ever felt like we could just sit and talk. She was constantly focused on recruiting new people and it permeated our time together.

I’ve never gone into business with a fined. That might be a different issue. I can see starting a small business with someone I already know and trust, as long as we had the terms set before we even started.

I got rid of so much when I moved from Gainesville to the Tampa area. Then, I got rid of even more when I moved out of my big house after the divorce. Still, I have so much more than I really need to have and my storage facility bill is proof of that. Of course, now that I am living with family I will need a storage facility, but not such a large one. I really can downsize.

I am going to start with the easy stuff, like books and old clothing. I have kept a lot of what my daughter has outgrown, and I tend to keep all of my old clothes as well. I have quite the collection of fine lingerie from when I was married, and if I were to really examine the issue – I really don’t need a whole bunch of pretty under things. My life is focused on being a mom and a happy, single person. I have no desire to be in another relationship right now and fancy lingerie is seldom worn for pure comfort.

I also have enough art to cover the walls of a very large home. That, though, is something a little more difficult to get rid of. Art is a personal thing and I fear that if I give it away or donate it, the value will be lost. You buy art based on personal tastes and that varies so much from one person to the next.

Oh, and toys! We absolutely need to go through my daughter’s toys and downsize. I had a lot of on her infant toys in boxes and gave them away before my last move. I had to do it on a weekend she was not home. You know how kids are. If she had seen any of things I gave away, she would have protested even though most of the toys had not been played with in almost two years.

Most major, and even minor, holiday spur a rush of advertisement s from thr jewelry industry. There always seems to be a reason that we need to buy gold and diamonds, according to these ads. I like jewelry to a point. I am not the type that likes to go out in public dripping in gold, much to the chagrin of my ex’s family. They were stunned that I did not follow their examples and drape myself in gold chains and buy a costly ring for each of my fingers, and some of my toes. I personally just like a few modest pieces of high quality jewelry.

One of the things I have noticed is that the jewelry ads on TV tend to focus on men buying jewelry fro women. For the most part men’s jewelry is pretty much overlooked. I know men still wear watches and rings, though necklaces seem to be large out of vogue for men, save for the very young. You just don’t see lavish, emotional TV spots urging women to buy expensive jewelry for the men in their lives. I wonder if this is an untapped emotional buying market? With the role of women shift into more powerful ranks every year, it seems just as rational to tell women they should make large emotional purchases for men as it does to tell men to purchase for the women in their lives.

There was supposed to have been a pre-trial hearing in Clearwater, Florida this morning to look at the charges against Nick Bollea, son of wrestler Hunk Hogan, surrounding his August 22, 2007 car crash. The hearing was delayed this morning and will now occur February 6.

You might remember that Bollea’s car crash injured his friend John Graziano. Graziano is at James A. Haley VA hospital in Tampa, incapacitated due to the massive head injury he sustained in the August crash.

“Nick continues to focus on John’s health, which is improving daily,” said Bollea’s attorney, Kevin Hayslett.

I’ve not found any other sources that confirm that Graziano’s health is improving.