Here's the blog page for a friend of mine, who wrote this totally funny and snarky take about Lady Fest:

Lady Fest Rant.

Being snarkily funny is such an art and this guy has it down and then some.

I consider myself a feminist, but I'm not into the movement at all, ever since I had that experience in college, where I was told I couldn't be a feminist because I waxed hair off my body and wore nice expensive clothes. Like what kind of bullshit is that?

And what's so ironic is I lived the feminist's dream of power and equality with men. I was the only female in an all male finance department for a company that was trading at $80 per share on the New York Stock Exchange before the market went bad. I sat in countless meetings where I was the only female at the table surrounded by men, men who were either vice presidents or the directors, men who ran the stupid company I worked for. And I was the only chick there and I was respected, well respected. And I wasn't a mannish female. I wore totally rocking suits with thigh high skirts, silk scarves, pearls, pantyhose, heels, and I wore make up and had nice looking long hair! I was in a position of power that most men, and I think women, dream of who work in corporate America.

So all those feminists can say whatever they like about me. I lived the damned feminist power dream and I wasn't even trying to do it. I fell into it by accident, I think, because I'm kind of cute and I was damned smarter than alot of guys I worked with. Most feminists types talking about wanting to enter the sacred world of male power, but 99.9% of them couldn't hack it. Hell, I lived it for 8 years of my life. And my corporate life was never about wanting gender equality or wanting power. I was just trying to do my job and this attitude took me far, very far. I didn't rant and rave about wanting power or equality. I shut my mouth, did my job, worked hard and you know what, the power and the equality came. And if I wasn't so bored with it all, I probably could have gotten alot more of it too.

So all those feminst types can talk about wanting equality with men and power, but I dare any one of them to actually try to have it, to go for it and to see how far they actually get. My guess is not far, not even through the damned front door.

I'm like, girls, women, feminists, put your money, your life, where your mouth is and try to make it in a male dominated world and see how your philosophy, your ranting and your ravings get you!

I guess I'd feel better about Lady Fest if the actually had women there who were women with power. I mean, the Bay Area has tons of female executives, women running their own companies, women like Carly Fiorina who run or are executives at Fortune 500 or 1000 companies, women CFOs or CEO or CIOs. These are the women who are blazing the trails, are in the trenches, fighting the real war of gender equality. But Lady Fest did not. Instead most of the women there didn't have any real power and besides, what women who had any kind of power in America would be caught dead at something like Lady Fest. I mean, come on. Lady Fest is for the very naive young ones or the ones who don't have the guts to take the real male world on, so they can have a place to bitch and moan and complain. The real women who are fighting the real feminist war are out there too busy fighting to bitch and moan and rant and rave.

Lady Fest is for women who like to complain about gender equality but who do nothing to fight the war and who only make it hard for the rest of us who are actually in male dominated companies fighting for the things that these women who attended Lady Fest are complaining about. If you want to fight the war, fight it! Don't rant, rave and complain about it!

So I've been on a major sushi binge since coming back from West Virginia. I have to eat sushi at least every other day and it's such an expensive way to eat.

My favorite all you can eat japanese food restaurant, Todai, is opening a new place closer to San Francisco in August, but I don't know if I can wait that long. I could easily chow down $20-$30 worth of sushi every night easily!!! It's sick!!!

I just checked out the Todai website and they now have a place in Cupertino at Vallco Shopping Mall. I'm trying to resist the urge to go down there and stuff as much sushi into my body as is humanly possible. It's an illness, I swear.

I wonder if it's because I'm craving salt and with soy sauce, sushi is so salty and very, very tasty. On a day like this, I wish I was still living at home where raw fish is half as much as what it costs here and readily available and fresh.

With all the people bieng laid off in Sili Valley and San Francisco, the traffic on 280 is so light right now. In July, I drove to Stanford Shopping Center in Palo and it only took me half an hour. I really like shopping at Stanford, only because it's so not crowded and they have lots of stores. At Christmas, Stanford Shopping Center was a ghost town compared to Union Square or even Stonestown. You'd think with all those stores, people would totally flock there and shop. But every time I've been there, the place is totally empty.

Well, I had my sushi fill for today, but it might just be time for a trip to Todai on Saturday, just so I can stuff my face with sushi and get rid of these darn sushi cravings.

I guess I am really lucky because I have a job that pays well enough for me live pretty darn comfortably and yet doesn't suck up all my time. Sure I could be making more money but then I would mostly likely be in a job where I would have to work 60-80 hours a week, instead of my normal 40 hours. I worked for about 8 years straight like that and it was exciting but not very fun. I breathed and lived my job. I would come home at 10 pm, eat and go to sleep. I didn't have time for anything else. My only friends were the people I worked with and when I did relax, I totally overdid it. I was living from one extreme to the next.

But when I figured out there was more to life than getting a raise and promotion every year, I had to seriously think about finding a job that would still pay well but not eat up most of my time. I think I've found that, at least for now. Now that the transition wasn't difficult. During that first year, I freaked out and felt like a total corporate failure because I wasn't working 60-80 hours a week. What kind of corporate drone was I, if I wasn't living and breathing my job? But now that I'm used to it and finally appreciating the job of coming home at 6 pm, I can't imagine working those crazy work hours ever again.

I mean after all, nobody says on their death bed that they wished they had worked more hours at work. It's hard to get this concept, but it's totally true. If you don't set your life up to follow your dreams, your fantasies then on your deathbed you will be lying there and thinking about all the things you'd wish you'd done, all the fantasies and dreams you put aside because you were busy working too hard. And who wants that? How dang depressing! If I thought I'd be lying on my deathbed thinking horrible thought about what I didn't do in my life, I would kill myself today. I mean, what would be the point of living, why not get it over with now because at least I would have less regret.

This is my new mantra. Be proactive about avoiding misery now and in the future, especially on that dreaded deathbed!

So I'm reading over the interview I just typed up and I'm like, I think I did the whole exercise wrong. I don't know. Character work is so hard. I thought my guy was going to start telling me the story so I would know what to write. Instead he's like telling me that in reality, his father did die but he thinks that if I tell his story over, then his story will change as well. God, maybe I've been watching too many twilight zone episodes, outer limits or even amazing stories.

I'm thinking right now that I need a new character. I like the old Jim Reilly from my first draft better. This new Jim Reilly is bitter, too bitter. I mean, you're supposed to care about your movie character, not think he's the biggest jerk in the world. I thought I wanted my baseball character to be more like a lost soul looking for hit father. Instead he's turned out to be some hustling scumbag in the game for the chicks and the jack. I want him to be different. I want him to rediscover his love for the game of baseball through his interaction with his father, but I don't know how to get him there.

I heard on NPR today that the movie Animal House took 7 drafts before it was complete. And Animal House turned out to be such a great movie. I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I'm only on my second draft. I definitely need more character work though on Jim and the rest of the cast. It will be interesting to hear what his father, his mother, his wife, his brother, his son, his sister in law and all their kids have to say about Jim and what's going on. Especially the dad. Was the dad as mean as Jim says, or is he just looking at life through his 9 year old eyes still at age 38. He wouldn't be the first if he was.