Ridiculous Thoughts

It may seem a little bit strange

2008-05-08T10:31:00.002-05:00

I'm doing it. I'm taking the plunge, and shifting this blog to Wordpress. Things may be wonky for a while because I don't know how easy or hard this is going to be. Please bear with me.

I'm sorry Blogger. I will always love you, but I need more right now. It's not you, it's me, I promise. I hope we can stay friends?

Stormy goodness

2008-05-07T15:25:00.002-05:00

I love thunderstorms. Yesterday was clear, bright, sunny. Then when I left to go to the kidlet's last orchestra concert of the year the skies were wicked, bubbling, roiling and rather green. Thought I'd catch some vid of it since I carry the cam around for a reason but always forget I have it.

Ahhhhhh... I missed most of the storm though, by the time the concert was over it was mostly just raining and the lightshow had passed us. Ah well. It's early days yet. I'm sure there will be more to come :)

Fish oil and potential changes around here

2008-05-04T12:24:00.004-05:00

So I know very well that eating fish is totally good for you. Problem is, I can't eat fish. Well I can, but I hate it. Like, vehemently despise anything fishy. I've never been able to 'develop a taste' for it and I've tried everything from bacon-wrapped shrimp drenched in honey butter to smoked conger eel.

No matter what I try, there is a gagging, disgusting 'fishy' aftertaste that is the same no matter what the seafood is. And it makes me want to heave. So I've given up the though of ever liking seafood. But I want to take advantage of the health benefits of fish, the omega-3 oils and all that good stuff. Everything I've read says those are so great for you. So I bought some fish oil supplements.

Now, I've never braved buying them before because I fear that fishy aftertaste. But several people assured me you don't get that with the supplements. Well, I'm here to say that, uh, yes you do. At least I do. And it's making me ill. So no more fish oil thingies for me and I'll try to get those health benefits elsewhere. Right now, I think I'm going to go gargle garlic or something to kill this aftertaste.

In other news, I'm seriously considering giving up Blogger for Wordpress for this blog. And I feel guilty about it. I've been with Blogger since before Google bought them. And I love Blogger, I really do. It's a wonderful platform - especially for beginner bloggers. They make it so easy to get right into blogging which is helpful when trying to convince someone who's reluctant to blog because it seems too hard to set up.

But I've been using WP at work for a while now, and I really like it. I love the plugins and it just seems to have more features that I like compared to Blogger. It seems like Blogger is far behind in development. It should the ability to have categories by now and they've only just released the ability to set posts to publish in the future. Come on Google, give some more time and love to Blogger.

I haven't decided if I want to tackle porting all these posts to Wordpress, or if I just want to start from scratch and leave these archived. I'm still pondering. If you see a completely different layout one of these days you'll know I made up my mind. One of the cool things I discovered with WP is a podcast plugin that I think is used over on the Buffy Between the Lines site (which is powered by WP). I tested it out on my TV blog last night and it's fantastico. I've been thinking of doing a little podcast around here and this would make it so simple to do.

What else is up... I'm using a little stimulus check money to stimulate the economy to buy a new laptop. It's so not a high end one, but I don't need anything fancy. All I do at home is some photoshopping, some coding, some video/audio editing and writing so I don't really need a $2000 laptop. But I do need one of my own. I use my daughter's and she's going to be needing it herself soon. I can't be laptopless :) Plus hers is feckin' heavy as evidenced by the fantastically colourful bruises on two of my toes where it fell on them yesterday. I back and forthed on whether I should go to the ER last night because I thought they might be broken. But I don't think they are now. The swelling is gone and I can wiggle them now.

I'm still writing. I've sort of halted the CherryPop story on Ficlets while I concentrate on fleshing it out. I gave up on the idea of writing in a coffeeshop or something. 1. I would be forced to buy a mocha and I've given them up for the most part and 2. Nosey clerks bother me.

Anyway, that's me caught up for now. I'm picking up the new laptop tonight. I can't wait! Off to look for garlic now.

Making the rounds

2008-04-28T21:08:00.003-05:00

Woah two posts in one day? What the..? :)

Something I'm kind of chuffed about at work. I know you should never blog about work, you would not want to get Dooced or whatever, but I love my job, so no need to mock coworkers or rant and rave about the work :)

Last week the paper had a big redesign that we launched on the readers and while it was supposed to be a fairly smooth switch, my experience with big server moves, file moves and complete layout changes means there will be glitches and problems. It's inevitable. So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hold a live chat with readers so they can ask their questions and tell us what they think of the new site.

I'd been looking for an opportunity to try out some liveblogging software I found on wiredjournalists.com called Cover it Live. It's touted as a great way to enhance a readers experience at events like political debates, sports or conferences. So I was thinking we could use it for some sports chat we already do, and then I immediately thought it would b cool to use on 24addict.com when the show is back. I could liveblog it with the folks who hang out there with me. Thought it would be fun. But it had been a while since I found the software and thinking to use it for the redesign didn't hit me until the day before the launch and I gt aproval, and got it mentioned in the paper just in time.

Well it was successful. And it had the added bonus of having the readers come in and actually tell us about errors they were finding or problems with navigation etc. The immediate feedback benefited both sides. I could fix a dead link and make a reader happy and the reader could tell me they felt it was too hard to find something, so the team could fix that and make the reader happy.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty cool idea. And to my surprise, our use of CiL got a bit of buzz. I was interviewed by a reporter for journalism.co.uk, and that piece seems to have gotten picked up by another news media blog. Good publicity for us, and this whole thing is helping me find another niche area that I love working with: social media. I'm loving finding ways to use applications like Twitter and CiL for the paper, as well as working with the online team to recruit and run grandislandblogs.com. Things are changing for us so rapidly and I'm loving being able to help it out and being a part of it. Neat eh? :)

Prince covers Radiohead's Creep

2008-04-28T17:35:00.002-05:00

Amazing.

I hope he releases this. Or did he? I haven't kept up with Prince. Either way, guh.

Thanks a lot Mike

2008-04-24T18:27:00.002-05:00

I've been haunted by this song for two days now.

I played it for Shannon who promptly bought it on iTunes and currently, I am downloading the damn game so I can play it. I can never resist a smartass computer.

And I can't get the song out of my head. I woke up yesterday and today with it in there. It's like a deliciously moist (sorry Tonya) cake.

No longer an audio drama virgin

2008-04-21T21:46:00.002-05:00

I've listened to podcasts before. I've made podcasts before. They were so completely amature and bad (and btw, never ever type the word 'amature' into Google to see if you spelled it wrong) that I was reluctant to admit that.

I enjoy listening to "The Signal" which is Firefly-centric for those of you not into the Whedonverse, but since the iPod in the family belongs to the kidlet, I never really get to enjoy podcasts like I should. I could try listening to them at work with the laptop but the interruptions and noise make it impossibly to really get "into" them there, and when I'm at home, I just have other stuff to do.

But I made time for the Buffy Between the Lines podcast because 1. I miss Buffy and 2. I am in awe at the giganimous undertaking that podcast is. To me (and I say this with full knowledge that Buffy and this podcast will not be everyone's cuppa), this is the awesomest of the most awesome things and I'm genuinely excited to be even a small part of it.

Everyone I've met so far, every main cast member, every writer, editor, crew member right up to Tabz the brains behind the beauty of this project has been very nice to the noobs, very helpful and very patient. I can't say enough wonderful things about BBtL.

I got the chance to write a little promo for the show, and I got to use a couple other cast members in it and 1. It was haaaaard 2. Recording my line in it (which is the first recording I've done for the 2nd season) was nerve-wracking but extremely fun once I got into it and 3. I'm no longer a recording noob :)

Now this post may sound like a gushing fangirl but I don't care. I AM a gushing fangirl, because these folks deserve a lot of props for even thinking up the idea and carrying through with it. The second season cast is over 100 people from all over the place and it's a logistical nightmare that makes my head spin just thinking about keeping everything and everyone organized But they pull it off, and keep us all running smoothly. So big giantass kudos to them.

They have plans to do Angel Between the Lines and Firefly Between the Lines in the future too so woohoo!!

And now I'm off to bed. It's been a crazybusy day. Launch for the new website at the paper is tomorrow night and I'm expecting a lot of little fires to put out before then. But despite the craziness of the day I'm still a bit floaty after reading what one Ficleteer wrote about me :) *lovely sigh* Gnight!

Experiments and bad days

2008-04-18T21:57:00.003-05:00

I had a bad day yesterday. It was one of those days where absolutely nothing goes right, computer "issues", dropping things left and right, noisy neighbours at 3am, pounding headache, forgetting routine things and oh yeah, getting hit by a car.

Oh don't worry. I'm being slightly dramatic on that last one. I was not hurt.

It began with the noisy neighbours. I suppose I should be thankful they weren't having sex. But still, 3am's a bit early (or late depending on your POV) to hold a normal, full-voice conversation on the other side of a wall you know to be thin from having to listen to 2 girls laughing loudly (but during normal hours) at the cat or funny Fark headlines.

So being woken up against my will is never a good thing for me. I get... grumpy. So after a groggy start to the day, I decide to stop by HyVee again after dropping the kidlet off to check if they have any of the Hint O'Mint tea I really love. I've stopped there in the hopes that they have it about 5 times in the past week and no joy. As I'm walking in from my car, a minivan parked illegally decides to back up just as I'm passing it. He hits me and knocks me off my balance a little. I smack his gas tank and give him a very loud, "OI!" He just looks at me like a slack-jawed idiot. No offer of apology or checking to see if I'm ok. Nope. Just a blank stare. Fucker.

And after that, HyVee STILL DID NOT HAVE MY TEA. Fuckers.

So I get to work, realize I've left my red Scheels sports bottle there the night before and so I have no lovely yummy Brita water to drink as is my habit. I grimace at the thought of going thirsty. I hate not having *something* to drink. I make plans to take the bottle home at lunch and fill it up. At lunch, I fill it and walk to the car, feeling better and carrying my water. Then I drop it. Now, it's a tough sucker. The bottle bounces, and if I had better reflexes I probably could have caught it and had a good chuckle at how weird that was. But I do not have good reflexes apparently and all I could do was watch it land, the lid fly off and all my lovely Brita water spill everywhere.

I'm now late for work and besides, if I went back to refill it, the water would be tepid at best. I sigh, pick up the nearly empty bottle and head back to work where a slowbuilding headache begins powering up.

My computer decides to pick this day to do wonky things and I spend most of the afternoon wrestling with it, cursing at it, sighing frustratedly, and finding myself weighing the probability of getting fired over how satisfying it would be to pick it up, walk outside and heave it at the nearest passing semitruck. 5pm cannot come fast enough.

It finally does, and the minute I get home, I sit down, and stay there nearly catatonic until bedtime. Everything bothered me. I growled at the kid over stupid things and promptly apologised and then felt bad for being such a nitpicky bitch and finally I just crawled into bed.

Thankfully today was fine. Nice even. I didn't drop a thing, no one ran me over, the computer behaved and I spilled no water. I even got to duck out of work 15 minutes early thanks to a surprise announcement from the kid that she had to work at 5pm and she had the car.

The cool thing I did this evening was venture out to Hastings (a bookstore along the lines of a Borders or Barnes & Noble) with the laptop with the purpose of getting started writing my book.

Other than being completely ignored by the staff there when I really would have liked to order a cup of tea (you apparently have to hunt down a clerk if you want to order stuff. I say screw that) and one screaming kid, I was quite productive in the hour and a half I was there. I was able to outline almost the entire story so that I have a base to work from. I needed that to help me focus. Otherwise I look at the blank Word doc and feel overwhelmed at not knowing where to begin.

I think I'll try someplace else though next time because Hastings is full of crappy clerks (I did decide to name an annoying character in the story after the crappy store though :) ) I'm just afraid if I go to Starbucks I will not be able to resist the siren call of the beautiful Mocha. God I miss my Mochas. Being good sucks sometimes.

Wow this is getting long. Sorry. Anyway, I made good progress on the book and I can't wait to get in there and really flesh it out. I was looking at self-publishing options this morning (I'm not getting ahead of myself, I was just talking to a columnist at the paper who wrote a book a couple of years ago and he was telling me how he did it.) It looks like I'm going to use Lulu.com to publish it. They don't require any dosh up front which is good because I don't have any :) I'd love to try and get the book published the old-fashioned way via a proper publisher but I don't see that happening.

Except you know, sometimes bloggers get noticed by publishers. It worked for Dooce and that chick who blogged about being a cabbie in NYC. Those guys are part of the reason I began blogging as CherryPop. That and I want to post as her as much as possible so I can inhabit her headspace and do a good job writing this book. It's going to be in first person so yeah, better get some practice. And if cherrypopmcgee.com happens to get some traffic along the way, then cool! Besides, it's kind of fun :) I also hooked her up with a MySpace page for the hell of it too. Why not!

Ok I've rambled far too much. I've got a Dresden book to finish up and then I think I'm off to bedfordshire. Gnighty!

I've been Ficletized

2008-04-14T21:28:00.003-05:00

I about keeled over laughing when I read this. A little exposition for those of you who don't visit Ficlets - A writer put forth a challenge wherein other ficleteers have to describe a day in the life of a fellow ficleteer. Fun right? I entered but I took the easy route and did a day in the life of Wil Wheaton.

I was quite shocked to see my name as an entry in the challenge and after I read it I laughed my ass off. Dude pegged me perfectly!

In other Ficlet news, my CherryPop story has grown to 31 sequels now. Yikes! I'm taking a minibreak from it while I ponder where to take it next and also work on CherryPop's blog. I'm trying to think of ways to get more traffic to it. The more I write the story in Ficlets and in the blog the more motivated I get to turn it into my first novel. But it would be nice to get a bit of a following too :)

Anyway, bedfordshire early tonight, I'm knackered.

ACT time

2008-04-12T07:14:00.003-05:00

Shannon is taking her ACTs this morning. It feels like a bigger deal these days than it was when I was in high school (For those outside this area, the ACTs are like the SATs.) Of course, when I was in high school I had no plans to go to college so I didn't really care about them. Oh I took the and everything but I didn't try very hard and my results reflected that. What can I say? I was an idiot back then. School wasn't important to me at all and I definitely paid for that line of thinking with years of struggle trying to find my footing.

All I cared about back then was hanging out with my friends. I wasn't a bad student or anything - a B average with the occasional C or a dreaded D once (Math you know. I still suck at it.) I did well in language and arts classes. Not so well in Maths and sciences. And I wasn't a "problem" student either. I only ever ditched once, got caught and learned my lesson.

But looking back, I realize I didn't really take the whole school thing seriously. It was all about getting there and seeing my friends and having fun. It didn't occur to me that you could take it seriously AND have fun. I dunno. I think I chafed a lot at restrictions my parents kept setting on me. Not that I blame them. I caused them a lot of grief. Was always grounded. At that time, my friends were more important to me than getting busted for sneaking out to hang with them.

Anyway, I didn't mean to analyze my high school issues here. But it is interesting to watch Shannon go through high school. I always had some idea that she'd have her fair share of troublesome moments throughout high school. Hell, I had enough people get their rocks off telling me to "just wait until she's a teenager" until I came to almost dread it. I think that sucks because at 16 - three years a teenager - she's still a level-headed, smart girl. Not a podperson in sight. I try to give her opportunities to go out with her friends, but she rarely does. Her friends don't seem to go out much either.

Not that there's much for them to do around here. But they could think of something. I just asked her why she never goes out even though I'd let her and she replied, "Because none of my friends like to go out." I don't know what to make of that. The concept is alien to me.

But I'm not going to complain :) And she takes high school a lot more seriously than I ever did. I'm probably a little to blame for that. I didn't want her making my mistakes and wasting her potential and all those other cliched parental arguments. Because I see now, that my parents were right. I'm not a stupid person and I wasn't stupid in high school either - but I did waste potential and I didn't "apply myself" like I should have. I feel like it took me several years *after* high school to figure out what to do with my life.

Whoa. What an analytical post eh? Anyway, the kidlet just left for the test, all bright-eyed (considering it's a Saturday and she's up earlier than she'd like) and ready. I hope she rocks it :)

I am Carmex's Bitch

2008-04-09T15:13:00.003-05:00

Someone wrote a little ficlet talking about Carmex and how they didn't know much about it. So I left this comment:

Carmex is like crack. Goes on so smooth and warm. And then it tingles delightfully and smells so spicy. After a few moments of comforting warmth, a cool sensation spreads over your lips like a soothing mist that protects you from the evils of chapped skin and leaves you with a luscious, soft mouth just waiting to be kissed.

I love the stuff, in case I wasn't clear :)

Oh Hai. I iz stuck.

2008-04-07T18:31:00.002-05:00

So I'm leaving for work this morning and I hear a mewling kitty. I think nothing of it, assuming it's my neighbour's new kitten who likes to popup in their window all the time.

Fast forward to lunch and I come home only to hear the same mewling. "That's odd." I think to myself and I look around. I don't see a thing. And then, I looked up. Waaay the hell up in a tree behind my place is the kitty. It's stuck, it's scared, and a wave of guilt crashed into me as I realized that the poor thing had been up there all morning, hanging precariously from some thin branches, unsure of its footing, freezing (it's cold and wet here today) and I just La La La'd on my way to work and ignored it's tiny mewly cries for help. I will probably burn in hell.

I called the police (part of me just couldn't bring myself to call the fire department. I mean really, they only rescue movie cats, not real ones) who forwarded my request to the Humane Society who then called me back to let me know they weren't going to do a thing. Not going to come and see if they could help it down. Just going to leave it and hope Kitty figures it out on her own. How... Humane. They said they couldn't/wouldn't risk themselves just to get a cat out of a tree. Nice eh?

I spent my lunch hour trying to coax it down with some food. I took these pix because I was debating whether or not I should stay and try to keep helping it down and be late back to work. I wanted proof of what I was up to. But Kitty just meowed helplessly at me when I called to it. It tried valiantly to find its footing, but the branches were so thin where it was that it couldn't get a decent grip. I could tell it was frightened as well. Poor thing was trembling and crying and I never felt so helpless. The kitty wouldn't come down.

So, I went back to work reluctantly. But I thought maybe I could ask around up there and see if anyone had any ideas on what I could do to coax it down. Or if anyone had a spare ladder. I did call the fire department (after asking them not to laugh, and also asking if they really did rescue cats up trees or if that was only in the movies) who told me they couldn't come unless the Humane Society requested them. But the HS wouldn't come so basically, Kitty was screwed.

So I fretted and worried over the next couple of hours. I waited longingly for 3:30 to come so I could go get the kid and run home to check on the cat. Thankfully, by this time, the cat was down from the tree. I do not know how it got down - whether it found its way on its own, or whether a neighbour got it to come down, or whether my strongly worded email to the Humane Society's director did any good. All I know is the kitty is down, and there's no little broken body on the ground.

Oh and I was accosted by a duck as I was helping the kitty. :) For all I know that duck is the reason the cat was up there in the first place.

I got a part!

2008-04-03T22:28:00.003-05:00

Woot :)

Me :) Remember that audition I did a while back for Buffy Between the Lines? Guess I got a part :) W00t! I've no idea what the part entails or anything. It's probably just a little thing, but I'm stoked. (Eesh, I haven't used 'stoked' since about 1987.) I'll be in the 4th episode and I can't wait to find out more.

I'm reminded of high school though. Loved drama class/club. Always wanted the leads. Always ended up with a small part that usually required an accent. Ah well. I have nothing but excellent memories of those times. The whole vibe from rehearsals to closing night was amazing and I'm starting to feel that vibe again as I get engulfed on Skype where the cast and crew of BBtL meetup.

This is gonna be fun.

RickRolled

2008-04-02T22:05:00.002-05:00

I got Rickrolled three times yesterday. All three times were classic too :) I won't explain what Rickrolling is if you don't know what I'm talking about - just click the link :)

The three big sites I visit regularly - Fark, YouTube and even Blogger were the culprits and I laughed my ass off each time. And the beauty of it was each prank was a different kind of Rickroll which was teh awesome. Fark got a lot of people with this one, YouTube sent everyone to the classic Rickroll by changing almost every link on their main page to that video, and Blogger went totally karaoke by promising the Blogger faithful a spiffy new toy to play with, the bastards :)

Anyway, April Fools Day online was a lot of fun.

It's like Christmas!

2008-03-30T09:40:00.004-05:00

Shannon's been out of it for a couple of days with an ear infection but not even that kept her from hunting down the elusive Wii. (For the record, the doc gave her some meds, and she's much better, so don't be thinking I let my sick kid wander around town looking for a game console:) )

As noted in my previous post, she and I have been frustrated and led around by our noses by disinterested and annoyed store clerks who must have had to field a lot of calls asking when they're getting a Wii in (and don't think for a second I haven't felt like an eejit calling around asking for a Wii. My time in England makes me feel like I'm asking to go to the loo.) We started by calling all the stores in town and the ones in surrounding towns multiple times a day in case some came in on their trucks or via UPS. We just missed getting one on Thursday from Best Buy.

When I called Walmart in Hastings yesterday, they said they have 9 of them but cannot sell them until midnight. Now, I was willing to drive to Hastings around then to grab one, but then the clerk told me people start lining up for them at around 7:30pm. I'm sorry but no power in the 'verse is going to make me hang around a Walmart for 5 hours. Not even for a Wii. I figured we'd just take our chances and go to Best Buy right when they open this morning. A friend from work said that was the best time to go.

But, I also thought it would be prudent to call both Walmarts here in town and see if they were doing a midnight sale of them as well. The South store said they had some, but wouldn't be selling them until 7am-ish because of some sort of policy or something. I don't know. Do you see how ridiculous this Wii-hunt has turned out to be? Anyway, Shannon asked me if I would let her get up at 4am and go to that Walmart and wait for it. Against my better judgement, and after repeatedly asking if her ears were up to it, I agreed she could go. I knew how badly she's wanted a Wii for over a year now.

Well the little widget couldn't even wait until 4am. She couldn't sleep at all and I bet anything she had that feeling I used to get on Christmas eve when I was younger. I anticipated my Christmas morning traditions so much I could never get to sleep then. Anyway, she left the house at 3am and went to he South store armed with a book and ready to wait it out.

But when she got there, they told her that the shipment of the consoles didn't come and they wouldn't have any. Can you say 'Crushed'? But then they told her that sometimes their shipments accidentally get sent to the North store. So she called and sure enough, the North store who had previously told us they wouldn't have any, had them all. They told her there were only three left. So she drove up there (carefully I hope, it was raining hard) and triumphantly got one of the last Wii's. She came home, woke me at 3:45am and said "We have a Wii." I had been dreaming about silk trousers being hung out to dry (no idea) so my memory of this morning was a little fuzzy but I do know I had a happy camper who could now get to sleep.

I woke up around 7am and shortly after that, she was up. I asked her why she wasn't sleeping in, and she said, "It's like Christmas!" :) I knew it.

So far, I enjoy the boxing. I like kicking ass. I still think the whole hunting down a Wii thing is silly and frustrating though.

Damn Nintendo

2008-03-27T12:20:00.002-05:00

Why the feck is it so damn hard to buy a Wii? I understand the whole supply and demand thing, but I figured it's well past Christmas now, shouldn't the flow of Wii's produced be back to normal? Is it really THAT COOL of a machine that Nintendo can't keep up with demand?

None of the stores I called in this town seem to know when or if they're going to be getting any. Why is it so secret? What kind of store doesn't know what kind of inventory is coming in a shipment? Seems ridiculous to me.

Ignore me. I'm just frustrated that I can't find one within a 50 mile radius AND I can't find any of the bastards online either unless I want to pay WAY above retail and yeah, that's not going to happen. People who do that are stupid. (Hopefully none of my friends or relatives have done this otherwise I will feel bad for calling them stupid.) Yeah, the kid and I really want to buy one, and we have the funds to get it, but we feel like we're standing in a store waving our money around but no one will take it.

It's weird.

Yikes

2008-03-21T10:51:00.003-05:00

So I'm walking along, pushing my cart, heading for the canned vegetable aisle. I turn the corner and run smack into an ex-boyfriend. Working as a stockboy. At Skagway.
Like a deer caught in headlights, we stared at each other for what seemed like a Very Long Time (but was most likely a split second.)

And then I bolted.

I made a mad dash for the dairy aisle and became extremely interested in yogurt flavours. WTF was he doing there? I thought he left town. Crap crap crap. All this running through my head while I figured out how I was going to pick up the diced tomatoes I needed and avoid him.

He and I dated for several months not long after I returned home from England. I didn't really know him, it was just sort of one of those things, how we met. I was out with a friend from work at a bar and well, he hit on me I thought he was cute and guys don't hit on me much so we started dating. That sort of thing. He was a roofer at the time.

But I had no idea I was dating a guy who, when he drank, did it to get completely falling-down pissing drunk, was a bit of a loser, and evidently fell "in love" at the drop of a hat. He became incredibly clingy. He would come to my job and hang all over me, trying to see how far he could ram his tongue down my throat until finally, I had to dump him. It was weird. I've never done the dumping before and I did it badly, as you can imagine. I mean, I'm all for PDAs and a little smoochiness, but there's a time and place for that, and on the job isn't it. Aside from that, he showed up at my house one night incoherent, drunker than any drunk I've ever seen and he crashed on my bed. And while he slept it off he peed all over the bed. I'd never been so disgusted in my life. Boy had to go.

He came to the steakhouse, where I was waitressing at the time, for dinner soon after the 'Stephanie bought a brand new bed and set fire to the old one' incident. Sat in my section, and I was kind of cold towards him. As I back and forthed between him and my other tables, I told him we should talk. He laughed and said jokingly, "What? You breaking up with me or something?"

I froze and stared at him until he copped on to my meaning. He dropped his fork and began to cry. Right there at the table, tears. Thing is, I didn't feel bad. Just embarrassed and relieved that he would soon be out of my life. If that makes me a bitch, as he came to call me later when the bitter drunk-dialing began, then yes, I am a bitch.

Eventually the calls died off and I never saw/heard from him again. I assumed he'd left town because this town isn't that big. Eventually you run into folk, you know? So that's why I was so gobsmacked to see him working in my favourite grocery store. I go there all the damn time. I'd never seen him there before. Argh. Now I'll have to shop at Walmart. Grrrr.

It's been a long time since I dumped him. I'm sure he got over it and who knows, maybe he's got his act together now (tho.. he's a little older than me. And working as a stockboy.) I don't know. I don't want to know. I just want to be avoidy.

I have never and will never date another guy I met in a bar. Ever. That was the first and last time. Lesson well learned.

NPR Jack Bauer Feature

2008-03-17T08:21:00.004-05:00

Well NET radio let me down :(

The Jack Bauer thing was supposed to air at 7:50am, which was perfect because you know, I only told everyone and their uncle to tune in and that's right during drive time etc. Well, they began the piece, and then clunkily switched to a show about the stock market or something equally dull. Le sigh. It's *supposed* to air one more time at 9:50am CST, but everyone will be busy working by then.

*grumble grumble*

Ah well, the feature piece is online now (which doesn't do my luddite grandparents a lot of good, but there you go), so you can catch it there if you're so inclined and I should just quit bitching. But I woke up Shannon so she could hear it. Imagine her grumpiness to have to wake up and listen to a stock market report :)

And they've put up a blog about it as well an you can comment on how freaky it is that DHS honcho Michael Chertoff is a fan of the show :)

NPR Interview

2008-03-12T21:40:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note for now. I've been so busy! The NPR interview I did a few weeks ago for their "In Character" series on 24's Jack Bauer will air on Monday morning (on St. Patrick's Day! Go Irish!) I don't have an exact time but I got an email from Pam Fessler yesterday saying it's still scheduled for the 17th. If you happen to be listening to NPR Monday morning, feel free to point and laugh at how much I sound like a Kiefer Sutherland fangirl :)

UPDATE: Got another email from Pam on the times it will air:
"The Bauer In Character piece is scheduled to air Monday morning at 6:50, 8:50 and 10:50 Eastern time. That should probably be at 5:50, 7:50 and 9:50 CST (other time zones, you're on your own. I don't do math on Fridays.) If for some reason you miss it, it can be found on our website a few hours later at www.npr.org. Just click on Programs at the top and go to Morning Edition."

She says I'm in a little bit at the end and that it's a six minute piece.

I can't believe I did it

2008-03-09T21:26:00.004-05:00

First, the writing on the CherryPop story is going swimmingly, and I'm having fun writing her blog as well (thought it's harder to do than I imagined.) I have, for the first time in my life, the entire story from start to finish is imagined. I'm fleshing out my characters, and I'm using Ficlets (which just one the SXSW Web Award for CSS design. Woot!) to work out pieces of the story and gauge whether I'm on the right track with it. So far so good!

And for the hell of it, I created a Twitter account for CherryPop too :)

BUT, I did something this weekend that frankly, I'm astonished I did. There is a fan show/podcast for Buffy called "Between the Lines" where they write actual episodes and cast fans as the characters from the show. They put it all together into a podcast and frankly, it's pretty fucking cool. They've finished their first season and are holding open auditions for their second season.

So I auditioned. What the hell right? All you need is a mic and recording software, and you can use Audacity, which is free. I happen to have Audition so I used that. Anyway, I had to record myself using dialogue from the character I was trying out for. I'd love the part of Drusilla, the spacey, deadly English vampire because she's one of my favourites so I did her lines. But I also figured I'd audition for a few other parts too:

Drusilla - Crazy psychic vamp
Cordelia - Total Cali cheerleader type
Lilah Morgan - Vicious bitch lawyer at Wolfram & Heart
Gwen Raiden - Electro-girl/well-paid thief

The links go to the audition pieces I had to record.

I'm sure I sucked immensely but I had fun anyway. But that's not the kicker. The kicker is after I sent my audio and application in, they wrote me back and asked for a sample of me singing because I guess they're contemplating a musical episode. No power in the 'verse will make me post that audio sample so don't even ask. But I did it :) They wanted a snippet sung from any song in the Buffy musical episode, "Once More with Feeling." I sang the first verse of Anya and Xander's song, "I'll Never Tell." (Link goes to youtube, uhh a Sims version of the song. It's weird but all I could find.) My cheeks are blushing just thinking about it. I sound great in my car with a CD blasting (and overpowering my voice) but this was a capella, and I had to rely on my memory for the tune. Shan said it wasn't bad but that I was flat. Ah well :) I thought I could probably induce dogs to howl.

But, fun was had and I probably won't end up with a part, but at least I tried out :) And Mike - They're going to be producing a Firefly version of this :) You'd be great as Wash :)

A Kooky Idea

2008-03-05T17:44:00.002-06:00

Sorry dear readers, I'm still on my CherryPop kick. I had a rather odd idea for this whole thing the night before last. Just as I was turning off my bedside lamp to go to sleep, the idea that maybe I should buy a domain for the CherryPop character popped in my head. I discussed the merits of it with myself and decided I'd do it in the morning. I thought I would use the domain to maybe flesh out the character, keep a journal of my progress as I write this thing - all that good stuff.

But later that day, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to put a blog on the new site and post as the character? A sort of online extension of CherryPop (ohmygod Steph quit saying CherryPop) that potential readers of the book could come to and learn more about the character. It could become a viral marketing thing I could use when it's done. It could be a way for me to inhabit the character, much like an actor does, so I can make her and her weird world believable.

And it has the added bonus of being something that will motivate me if I find my inertia on this waning. BUT I don't see that happening this time. I'm too excited about this :)

Sooooo without further blather, here's CherryPop's blog. Just a post or two right now, remember I just started it yesterday :) But I'm planning to write as her quite frequently as well as continue to add to the ficlet series.

This is gonna be fun :)

For the first time ever

2008-03-03T17:57:00.002-06:00

I think I have a viable idea for a book-length story. Ok, I love writing but I've never been very good at thinking up story ideas. At least, none that would go longer than short-story length. I just couldn't find a way to sustain a long, novel-length story. I never felt like my ideas were good enough or interesting enough.

I've tried everything I can think of too to jump start my stupid brain. Writing exercises, I've started many many blogs aimed at giving me a place to bounce ideas around, NaNoWriMo... nothing was working for me. Then I met Ficlets. The place has been amazing and I can't say enough good things about it. I know I talk about them quite a bit here, and you can see my latest ficlets in the right rail over there --------->
but I think there are several things about the site that make it so perfect for me.

The very short format forces you to try and tell a whole story in a few paragraphs, which means you have to edit and re-edit and piece your idea together like a puzzle to make it work and still be cohesive and good. Sure, you can sequel your story if you need more room, or if you're creating a series. You can even prequel your story (or someone else's!). So you get good practice. The site offers many ways to get inspiration for a story - you can flip through thousands of Flickr images, or use a story starter, or sequel someone else's ficlet, or read the site owner's blog when he throws out quotes and ideas for ficlets. The community has also started incorporating writing challenges you can enter.

My friend used his space to create a nifty challenge called 18-1 where you have to tell a story but the first sentence must be 18 words long, the next 17 words, then 16 and so on until the last sentence is just a word. I've entered many challenges, but that one kicked my ass.

But probably the best part of ficlets is the feedback. I'll admit it straight up. I am a feedback whore. I'll write a ficlet and publish it, then refresh the page until I see someone's commented on it. And people aren't afraid to be honest either. If you suck, they'll tell you. They don't know you. It's not like asking your family or best friend to read your stuff an they'll probably try to be nice. I find I need that constructive feedback. I need to know what works and what doesn't. It's encouraging when they like your stuff because it's mildly thrilling and prompts you to keep it up.

So that's a helluva lot of blather on ficlets, I know. So what's the point? What's the big idea for a story that's got me so excited? Well it's thanks to Ficlets that I had this little epiphany. The other day I was in the mood to write a ficlet but I didn't have any ideas. So I searched for 'zombies' in the Flickr images (I'm in a supernatural frame of mind atm what with the vampire porn and Dresden Files floating around my head.) I found a picture of a handpainted sign that said 'Legalize Zombie Marriage' which I found amusing.

And with that picture, a little ficlet series happened. When I was trying to think up a name for the girl, for some reason calling her CherryPop seemed like a good idea. What a weird name, I know. But I like it. A lot. So my ficlet series is sort of about CherryPop's weird life where the supernatural stuff is slowly being accepted by society as 'real' - ie vampires and zombies and ghosties etc. are really real and CherryPop grew up amongst the "monsters" and now she spends her time helping the the normals to get used to the idea and fight for their rights etc.

Anyway, I'm obviously working on the details in my head, but the ficlet series is practically writing itself, it's so much fun, and I'm making each one up as I go which is probably a bad idea when you're creating a whole world etc. but I can't stop thinking about this idea. I feel so excited about it and I've never had this feeling about anything else I've ever written. So wish me luck and check in with me now and then to see how it's going (and to see if I'm still doing it.) I'm working up a storyline for it tonight and I might write another ficlet for it as well. I hope to get this written and then I'm going to try the self-publishing route at lulu.com because I don't have the first clue about how to approach a real publisher. Anyway, I'd better get to it :)

The day cannot begin

2008-02-29T08:13:00.002-06:00

Without passing by this puppy. Well, he/she is probably more or less past the age of puppydom, but to us, he's the funnest puppy EVAR.

We pass him/her on our way to school/work every morning, and I wish we could just park and watch him. I'm going to assume he's a he because I'm tired of the slashies. He likes to chase cars. An honest-to-goodness dog who chases cars. I thought it was a myth. But this puppy is trapped in his yard, hampered by the fence. But that doesn't stop him. He'll stalk you if you're stopped, and completely WIG OUT if you drive by slowly. He'll spin and spin and spin to get himself revved up and then FOOM - he's off like a shot when you speed up.

I love watching him. I've even taken to changing my route home so I can see if he's out :)

I couldn't catch him doing his spinning thing, but trust me, it's hilarious :)

Holy Guacamole

2008-02-26T21:43:00.002-06:00

I've had far too much guacamole tonight. It all started when my grandfather told me he forgot to send some fresh avocados home with the kid (he knows of my deep love of avos) and then he told me he was going to make guacamole out of them instead.

Damn if that idea didn't percolate in my head all afternoon. I love guacamole (not as much as I love plain old avos though) and my mother's recipe for it is the very definition of perfection. I haven't had it in ages either. Years probably. Every time I buy avos I end up just eating them.

So after work tonight, I made my mum's guacamole. Now I'm heading towards a guacamole coma. But it was so goooooood. There's plenty left of course, but I just think I ate one tostito too many and now I'm waiting for my pepcid to kick in.

Lovely eh? Let's talk about something else.

I've been meaning to mention a book series my friend Tonya has been loaning me. The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books by Laurell K. Hamilton. I think there's about 14 or 15 so far and I'm just on the last one before whatever's currently out there in hardback.

It took me a bit to get used to Hamilton's style of writing. It's first person and there's something else about the style I can't quite put my finger on that took some getting used to. But once I did I really enjoyed them - until the last two or three and I'll get into that in a minute.

Basically, Blake is a necromancer who raises the dead for a living. She lives in a world where vampires are legal citizens with rights, and shapeshifters, ghouls and zombies exist and aren't kept secret. Pretty neat and interesting really. As a side gig, Blake also works with the Preternatural Investigation Team and helps solve supernatural crimes. Blake is spunky, ass-kicky, hot, and has a Master Vampire and a werewolf king in love with her.

Most of the books deal with Blake solving crimes and dealing with the monsters. The latter books sort of deal with her issues with her growing powers, her bonds with the Master vamp and werewolf, and pretty much involve a lot of sex. I mean, the last few books are basically softcore porn with very little crime solving. I never thought I'd say this, but my god the sex scenes are actually annoying.

The wonderful werewolf who was strong and loves Blake and longs for a normal life turns into a whiny petulant loser whom I hope gets killed off soon and after 14 or 15 of these books I still don't have a character I can connect with. By the end of the novel, Blake will have 7-10 vamps and shapeshifters she must have sex with because she inherited some Incubus power from her master vampire. So she's constantly screwing instead of solving crime. Frankly, it gets old. Don't get me wrong - I'm no prude or anything and I'm not bothered by the scenes themselves. Just think they're overdone. I mean, the current book I'm on, Danse Macabre - I'm about 3/4th through it and so far Blake has met some new vampires, screwed a couple of them, then she fought with the werewolf, then she went to bed and shagged three more. And that's about it. I think there's supposed to be some big Vampire 'do she's helping to host but damned if we haven't gotten to it yet.

So I'm disappointed at the direction these books veered off into because they were pretty promising before all the sex stuff. I'm going to finish up the book I'm on because I feel like I have to see it through after sticking with them all this way, but I think I'm done with the series. I'm looking forward to my Dresden books next :)

Now I'm off to bed where I hope my over-indulgence in guacamole doesn't ummm, bother me :)

Let the Wizarding Commence

2008-02-24T13:44:00.003-06:00

I've just bought out Hasting's entire stock of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. For once in my life, in this nowhere little city where things I want are hard to come by, my local bookstore didn't let me down.

Last post I mentioned I'm listening to "Storm Front" which is read by James Marsters and I'll admit to being a total fangirl and James reading it is the hook that got me interested in the series. To my delight, it's really good! James is yum of course, but fuck me if the story isn't great as well. I love the pace, the humour, and the magical world Butcher creates.

So, premise: Harry Dresden is a detective in Chicago who also happens to be a wizard. "Storm Front" deals with him trying to solve some gruesome murders that were done by black magic and along the way he finds himself in trouble with the White Council, with the mob, and with a powerful but undisciplined pseudo-wizard who summons demons and can harness the power of a storm to kill you. Vampires, scorpions the size of French automobiles, and toad-like demons are no match for Harry :)

I love the way he weaves the magical into everyday life. Harry has a dry, cynical wit you often find in private detectives but he's also a good man with the proverbial heart of gold and all that.

So I'd totally recommend the series to anyone who likes this sort of genre. Just don't go to Hastings here in town looking for them :)

The things I do

2008-02-23T20:47:00.004-06:00

Because I love blogging so much, I've gone and started another one. This one's for the paper and will let me babble incessantly about TV. In fact, it's even called TV Babble. Right now, I'm more in lurve with the colours of this blog. Hot pink (pink?? me?? wtf??) and chocolatey-chocolate brown. It's yummy and makes me want a Special Dark.

Anyway, I've been wanting to start up a general blog about the telly for a long time now. The paper is kind enough to let me write the occasional TV column so I figured a TV blog would be perfect. Not quite sure of the tone I want for it just yet but it will evolve I'm sure.

Right now I'm currently listening to my neighbour hack up a lung. They both have that deightfully disgusting smoker's cough that's just full of rancid phlegm and assorted nasties. Think it's time to put the headphones back on and give up on my desire for some absolute silence. The kidlet is off babysitting and Spooks is sound asleep. Apart from their very loud conversation punctuated with sharp, wet coughing, all I hear is the ticking of my cool clock and the carbonation in my Dr. Pepper bouncing off the aluminum.

Ah they seem to have moved off to a different room. Silence has resumed. Still, I am anxious to get back to my audiobook. It's called "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher and is part of the Dresden Files series. It's really good. Funny, smart and feels like a rich world Butcher has created with Wizards working as detectives, talking skulls and a fairy named Toot Toot :) Of course the fact that James Marsters is the voice of the audiobook has nothing to do with how much I like it ;) Although the man could read Rachel Ray recipes to me and I'd still melt like buttah.

Want

2008-02-21T09:19:00.003-06:00

The Darth Vader hot air balloon. Want it.

Now I'm gonna have the Imperial March stuck in my head all day.

Can you hear me now?

2008-02-20T15:11:00.002-06:00

After nearly three years of attending my daughter's orchestra concerts, I finally heard her play. See, her orchestra is filled with about 400 violins, 200 violas, 150 cellos and 3 double basses. The wind section is buried at the back. I never see her except when she walks in and walks out. Nevermind trying to hear her. But it's ok. The music is nice, though it would be better if I could understand the choices the director makes for the concerts. They seem so random.

For example, last night's concert began with Schubert, included some Brahms and Wagner, and ended with... a Wizard of Oz medley. WTF?

Anyway, last night's concert was the first time I've ever been able to shoot video of it. And of course, I youtube'd it so I could showcase my precious snowflake :) If you listen very carefully during the Scarecrow's theme in the Oz medley, you can hear the kidlet's clarinet. Briefly.

15 minutes

2008-02-15T18:17:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week an email landed in my inbox from Pam Fessler at NPR. A few days later I'm sitting down for an interview. A proper interview that requires a stringer to record me, sound checks, photos taken, the whole shebang. It was very exciting and just a little bit nerve-wracking :)

Why the hell would NPR want to interview me? Good question. Luck of the Google search :) NPR has a series of features called In Character where they explore "indelible American characters" in-depth. One character they will be exploring is Jack Bauer. Woohoo! One Google search later and Pam found my 24 fansite, 24addict.com. She emailed, asked if she could chat with me, I said, "Let me think about it." Just kidding, I actually said, "..." and blinked a lot before my brain started working again and I said, "Umm, yes please :)"

So sometime in March, I'll be babbling like a squeeing fangirl about the virtues of Jack Bauer :) And the best part of the whole experience for me is getting a tiny taste of what it feels like to be the interviewee. It was way cool. Many thanks to Pam Fessler for the opportunity and to Brett Erickson for coming down to record it all. I had fun once I got over the nerves.

So now when I publish my book and head off to do book tours, I'll be totally prepared :D

Ficlet Featured Author

2008-02-14T08:56:00.003-06:00

W00t!

I was looking this old photograph yesterday of the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. It's a great photo. But it got me thinking about the one in 1989 that hit SF. So I did a little ficlet on it, which I knocked out in about 10 minutes, and a few minutes later, I noticed that it was showing up as the featured story on ficlets.com. That was a pleasant surprise :)

During that earthquake, I was working at a video store in Marina, CA which is a couple hours south of SF on Monterey Bay. My sister was hanging out with our neighbours, and my parents were at Candlestick up in the city to see the World Series. Then the quake hit.

What I couldn't fit into the ficlet is that when the first shock passed, my boss and I scrambled through the debris of the store checking on any customers. I had to step into the little section o' porn to make sure no one had been knocked out by When Larry Ate Sally, and then aftershocks started to hit us.

We didn't think it was safe to stay in the store so we ran outside - directly underneath the cement overhang that was over the sidewalk (the store was in a strip mall.) Not too clever eh? But it did not come crashing down on us. I do remember, the waterbed sensation then. Felt like the earth was rolling. I watched my car rock like it was trying to do the Wave. It was surreal as hell.

That's all I remember until I got home. I don't remember if I went back into the store, I don't even remember how I got home. All I remember was trying to find my sister and when we were reunited we spent frantic hours trying to contact the G's back here in GI but could not get through. I heard rumours about the damage in SF, especially that the Bay Bridge had collapsed which scared me bigtime. My parents had to travel on that to get home. We had no idea where they were, if they were safe or if they were on their way to the bottom of San Francisco Bay.

In the end, they arrived home, safe and sound. But it took them around 12 hours or so to do it. But we were all okay, everyone we loved was okay, our house was okay. We were very lucky.

The aftermath was pretty devastating around us. The whole of Monterey seemed to be spared and I found out later it was because much of it sits on a granite base which had absorbed much of the shock. But the further up the coast you went, towards Santa Cruz, or the further inland, and it was a different story. Once-proud houses collapsed into haphazard zigzags of wood and glass. Whole buildings imploded. Bridges fell. A lot of people died.

I really hope that's the only natural disaster I have to go through. Then again, I live in Tornado Alley so the chances of that are slim.

Just messin'

2008-02-13T09:38:00.003-06:00

Apparently, my crappy $100 digital camera (not my video camera :) ) can do some fairly spiffy macrophotography. I read an article last night on how to shoot close-ups like a pro and Crikey McNike (TM Nick Brendon) it actually kinda sorta worked.

I messed with it last night trying to get a shot of Shannon's hands as she played her guitar but the light in my room is so ambient (just like I like it) that she either came out paler than pale with the flash, or bright orange without it. I might try again in sunlight or something.

The pic above is just this little wire fiddly toy I mess with at my desk when I'm waiting for programs or pages to load on the comp. But this is fun! I might see if it would work with the photo option on my videocamera too. It has a zoom and my digital cam does not (told you, crappy camera. Want a better one.)

Here's a couple others I did with a mucho better camera. This is Sid the Wily Gnome who guards my monitor (Ok so I like tacky gnomes. I just don't let my daughter anywhere near them):

A Dooce moment

2008-02-11T22:04:00.000-06:00

Been doing a little bit of shopping recently. I can't seem to stay the hell away from Hobby Lobby. So many goodies in there. And bargains!!

Like this clock:

Which opens up into a jewelry box:

Originally, it sold for $40 I think. Guess how much I picked it up for. Go on, guess. Ok I'll tell you: $7. Seven measly bucks. I think that might be the best bargain for something I didn't really need EVAR! It's pretty shiny though. I love it.

Chelsea Clinton visits my town

2008-02-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it, I'm a fence-sitter right now when it comes to the democratic ticket for President. I like both candidates but I'm not sure which one I like more.

Last night, Shannon and I went to see Chelsea Clinton speak at the local HoJo. Nebraska is holding its first Democratic Caucuses this weekend so Barack and Clinton are paying attention to us. Granted Barack actually came to us and spoke in Omaha yesterday and Hillary sent her daughter. I'm not really fussed about that. Some people feel slighted but I didn't.

I sort of had to twist Shannon's arm a bit to get her to come with me to see Chelsea but after it was over, she actually thanked me for bringing her. She was impressed by Chelsea, as was I. The woman is well-spoken and incredibly well-informed about her mother's policies. I'm so glad I went.

I'm still on the fence, but my feet are dangling on Hillary's side.

General blechiness

2008-02-04T06:31:00.000-06:00

What a blechy weekend. I had big plans of shopping 'til I dropped (ok, actually I had plans of finding a vacuum cleaner and a Swiffer wetjet but 'shop 'til I drop' sounds better) and instead I found myself wondering if 5:30pm was too early to go to bed.

I got hit with a whopper of a migraine on Saturday. Woke up with the bastard and it maintained a steady drumbeat against my skull all day. When it finally began to ease up I was left feeling weak and sort of fevery. At least, I think I had a slight fever. My thermometer is broken. All I know is I went from chills to sweating, all day yesterday and I had zero energy to do anything.

So now it's Monday and in waking up 45 minutes before the damn alarm I discover that I'm still not feeling "right." I feel weird. So I'm staying home from work and I intend to bury myself under the covers and read/sleep and only get up to make tea. Unfortunately, the kidlet has also woken up this morning to find she's not feeling so hot either. So she's staying home as well and we get to be whiny and irritating together.

So why am I blogging instead of snuggling up under the aforementioned blankies? Because I'm killing time. I can't call her school to excuse her absence for another 45 minutes and I know if I crawl into bed I will fall asleep. I can't believe they don't have a messaging system set up. That's just irritating.

I'll never get used to it

2008-01-29T13:43:00.000-06:00

The weather in this crazy state does my head in. Here is a sample of my drive to work this morning:

I took the footage thinking that we would probably do a story on the storm in the morning newscast and it would be nice to have some b-roll. And it did get used, which was cool since it's the first time I shot video for the cast AND I used my little pink digicam to do it.

Then I went to lunch. I stepped outside, prepared to do battle with the high wind and blowing snow only to be blinded by clear blue, sunny skies. Le sigh. It's still cold and windy, but it's just weird to go from the wicked weather this morning to calm and sunny a few hours later.

If anyone out there on the Tubes has suggestions for a decent (and by decent I mean free) video converter that will convert .asf files into .mov files, can you email me or leave a comment or something? Or if you know why a Sony DXG 506v digicam doesn't seem to come with the right codecs to display video shot in .mov format, can you let me in on the secret? I've googled til I can google no more and can't figure out the issue and it's the only thing about my little cam that pisses me off.

Rrrrrrrrrrrr

2008-01-25T21:16:00.000-06:00

Shannon is trying to learn how to roll her R's. She's never been able to and I've never been able to satisfactorily explain how to do it. It comes easily to me. My gran can't do it either. It's been a longstanding family joke that she can't and it amuses some of us to occasionally ask her to give it a try.

Shan's never really expressed an interest in wanting to learn how to makes this noise until today when her French teacher teased her about her inability to roll her R's. Ever since she showed up at work after school and told me she had been sitting in my breakroom attempting to do it it's been nothing but rrrrrrrrrr's all evening. My tongue is numb. But, it's been hiLARIOUS because both of us were rrrrrrr-ing all around The Walmart as we shopped and on the ride home.

If you can't imagine what we may have sounded like as we browsed the frozen food section, please play this MP3 about 150 times in a row :) (Just do my bandwidth a favour and right-click on the link and save-as to your desktop, kthxbye)

That was 3 hours ago. She's currently out in the living room watching Family Guy and making that weird little chirp like she's trying to jumpstart her tongue. It's most amusing :)

Captain John Hart - Torchwood again

2008-01-20T20:34:00.000-06:00

Made another little remixy tonight: A Torchwood one this time featuring the awesome, fun dialogue of James Marsters' character, Captain John Hart in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang."

Feel free to right-click and save as:

Captain John Mix

I am actually playing with a tune that *doesn't* have any audio clips in it, but it's slow-going. I think it's more fun (for me anyway) to work in the clips.

Mmm sopapillas

2008-01-19T23:04:00.000-06:00

Shannon was unimpressed with her dinner selection at the local Irish-Mexican place. :) Girl needs to branch out her taste buds. Fajitas rock.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Torchwood Premiere

2008-01-17T09:53:00.000-06:00

Well Torchwood is definitely back with a bang kiddies. The season two premiere was last night and what a premiere it was. If you're in the states and like Torchwood, here there be spoilers so you may want to skippity-skip this post. Just thought I'd be nice and warn you because I know I hate to be spoiled.

SO!

James Marsters needs to join the cast as a regular. The man could have chemistry with a brick wall with those lusty, lingering looks and smoldering eyes. *shiver* That's my way of saying he was delectable in this role. I refuse to compare this role to Spike. Everyone and their editor is doing that and it's silly. James excels in larger-than-life roles and too often he's forced to reign in that ability (Detective Mars on Without a Trace anyone?) So it's awesome to get to see that in him again. I loved it, and if the reviews I've read are anything to go by, I'm not the only one.

The episode itself was fast-paced, funny, a little angsty and full of promise for the season to come. When we last left the Torchwood team, Captain Jack had disappeared when he heard the familiar sound of The Doctor's Tardis arriving in Cardiff. While he was off saving the world with The Doctor and Martha Jones, his team was left to soldier on and handle the Rift activity with Gwen leading them. And they were managing.

But they were still a little bitter when Jack returned and seemed to expect them to fling their arms around him and let him handle everything. No, Jack had to earn their trust again. On top of that, an old lover/conman/time agent called Captain John Hart sauntered out of the Rift in search of a diamond.

I'm not going to recap the episode - mainly because I need to watch it again so I can catch the stuff I missed while I was off in a corner of my head snogging Captain John, paralyzing lip gloss and all. But I will say that even though I've heard that the first season of Torchwood had a rocky reception (can't say I agree, because while some episodes were all right, others were phenomenal, all of them had something to them that made me enjoy the whole season), the second season looks like it has found its feet and hit its stride and every other walking cliché you can think of.

While it hasn't been confirmed, I can't see why the PTB wouldn't want to bring James back for more. He's a ratings goldmine and his character is fantastic. Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I don't care if I am :) It's my blog and I'll gush if I want to :)

So yeah, put me down as a Torchwood lover and I can't bloody wait for more.

I keep meaning to...

2008-01-15T08:23:00.000-06:00

But then nothing exciting continues to happen and I look at the empty blog entry field and wonder what to fill it up with.

I know I really want to use my video cam. I've wanted one for so long and now that I have one, I've no idea what to viddy. Plus I don't have decent editing software to do much creative with it. Just MovieMaker which is fine for the noobs, but when you use it, it shows.

Noobs. That word bugs the hell out of me for some reason. My daughter and I argue endlessly about the pronunciation of it. She says 'noobs' like 'boobs' and I say 'newbie' like, well, 'newbie.' Coming from a telnet chat enviro like I did, the word was always 'newbie.' Noob I guess is next gen. I don't like it because saying it her way makes me think of boobs and I just don't want to go there.

Anyway, I did see a couple of movies this weekend that were recommended to me by the soon-to-be-brother-in-law (ugh. That's mouthful. Need a shorter title for him.) The movie "The Final Cut" with Robin Williams and then "Waitress" with Nathan Fillion and ummm.. The chick from Felicity.

Final Cut was an interesting premise. Matt was friends at college with the guy who wrote/directed it. Dunno if that makes him biased towards liking the film because it didn't do very well box office-wise, but the kid and I enjoyed it. The premise is that parents-to-be can opt to have a memory chip implanted into their unborn children which then records their entire life. When that chipped person passes away, the chip is handed over to 'cutters' (Robin Williams is a cutter) who then edit their lives into a sort of remembrance movie to be played at the funeral.

The problem is some of the people he edits aren't so very nice. His job is to make the memories the loved ones want to remember and edit out the bad stuff. There's a whole secondary plot in which a former cutter joins a bunch of activists who think it's an invasion of privacy etc. but mostly the film deals with a childhood trauma of William's character and how he deals with it.

I sort of wish they'd dealt more with the issues of the chip, but it was a pretty good movie nonetheless.

Waitress was excellent. I'd been wanting to see it anyway since I adore Captain Tightpants, but I didn't realize it was out on video already. It's a sleepy, quirky, funny little movie and we totally dug it.

So that's what we did this weekend, apart from clean house and bake banana bread. Gary was in town for a quick visit and it was great to get to hang with him. We went to see "Juno" which was another quirky, funny, sweet little movie (Thank you Corbin for telling us to choose that one!) and then we got up at stupid o'clock yesterday to meet him for breakfast before he headed back Montana-way. He'll be back in July for his 40th high school reunion (eep!) so a double dose of dad this year :)

I think that's me caught up. I've been mostly hanging out over at Ficlets.com because I'm still addicted to writing very very short stories. I'm up to 46 of the suckers now, not that I'm really keeping track - no honestly. i just had to go look at my totals. I really just dig the writing, although at the moment it seems to be overrun with a bunch of Emo kids who are filling it up with stupid little memes instead of actual, you know, fictional stories. Ahh the intertubes.

Oh! Last night I checked out the first two eps of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." It was great! Summer Glau (River from "Firefly") plays a good terminator sent back to guard John Connor. I dig it. It's not my "24" which was supposed to start Sunday night, but I enjoyed it anyway. *sigh* wish the strike would end. I know it's selfish to want my shows back but the longer it drags out with neither side even back at the bargaining table, the harder it is to feel empathy for the writers. I want them to have a fair deal, but the more I read, and the more I hear from affected folks, the more I wonder if they're just being stubborn? I don't know. I'm so far removed from the whole thing that my opinion isn't really worth a damn. I just hate to think of folks losing their jobs, hurting for money and struggling. I definitely know what that's like and it sucks balls.

Anyway, enough for now.

Hometime

2008-01-08T19:49:00.000-06:00

I think I mentioned before that the kid and I got a spanky new videocam for xmas. It's lovely. It's fun. It's pink! :) I've been waiting for a 2gig memory card so I could record longer and it took bloody ages for it to arrive. Yeah I know I could have gone to Best Buy and picked one up, but I found one on Amazon for 9 bucks so I used some of a gift card to get it. Was not appreciative of the 7 bucks extra it cost for shipping though. Grrr.

Anyway it came today. I'm happy. So did I record something cool and funky to share? No, not really. I recorded the drive home from work basically.

Watch at your peril. And I am not responsible for any nausea caused by our crappy streets :)

So yeah. I need to wash my windows.

Let's see... Oh yes - I watched the last three eps of the third season of Doctor Who. Fan-f'ing-tastic stuff. I LOVE this show and I'm madly in love with a couple songs from it: I Can't Decide by Scissor Sisters and Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders. Awesome stuff.

And for my fellow Torchwood fans... Watch the new BBC trailer with James Marsters and John Barrowman and well... I'll be in my bunk:

Movie review: Sweeney Todd

2007-12-31T09:45:00.000-06:00

I was really, REALLY looking forward to seeing this. Aside from the fact that I like Tim Burton, adore Johnny Depp and worship Alan Rickman, I love the idea of a sort of horror flick coming out at Christmas.

Imagine my utter disappointment in the Dickinson (my town's one and only multiplex) for not bringing it to my town. It's like the Carmike all over again with a theatre chain dictating what an entire city wants and doesn't want. Man, it really ticks me off and makes me not want to see movies at the Dickinson, ever. Thank goodness there is The Grand downtown and while I know Sweeney will probably never play there either since it's geared towards family fare, I absolutely love what the fine volunteers are bringing in there. Kudos to them, big bad BOO to the Dickinson.

So I drove to Lincoln to see it (an hour and a half away - and I was in Lincoln for xmas anyway but I wasn't gonna leave without seeing ST.) Worth it? Totally. Now, you have to enjoy musicals to like this film because if you're the type of person who can't work out why people burst into song and seem to automatically know all the dance steps then Sweeney probably isn't for you. You'll spend the whole movie being irritated.

But if you can get past that and listen to the lyrics (and there's not much in the way of dancing in Sweeney so you're safe there) and watch the whole gory story unfold, then you'll probably dig on Sweeney.

For the record, I didn't know much about the Broadway musical at all. Had no idea it was such a dark and bloody story because man, if I had, I would totally have read up on it. It's tragically awesome.

The story is this (Spoilers ahead and if you live in my town and don't know the story, you'll probably want to skip the rest of this until you can get yourself to Lincoln to see it): A pervy, wicked judge imprisons talented barber, Benjamin Barker on false charges, tearing him away from his beautiful wife and baby daughter. While Benji's sent away, the judge makes a move on his wife which leads to her poisoning herself. The judge takes in the baby as his ward and raises her as his own.

Benji escapes and returns to London with a new name: Sweeney Todd. And Sweeney's got vengeance on the brain. He meets Mrs. Lovett in her awful pie shop and sets up his own barber shop upstairs (which happens to be the small apartment he once lived in with his beautiful wife.)

Sweeney's ultimate goal is to get the judge in for a shave where he will then slash his throat and have his revenge. But the plans get bollixed up as plans do, and a young sailor falls in love with the now teenage daughter of Sweeney who is virtually imprisoned within the judge's home while he spies on her. I don't like pervy Alan Rickman, but I will say he's quite good as an icky sleazeball.

So Sweeney begins slashing throats of those he deems evil and who will not be missed and Mrs. Lovett turns them into meat pies she then serves to the public. The blood flows and spurts and gushes in great gurgly noises as he slashes and bashes these baddies up and the public just LOVES Mrs. Lovett's meat pies. It's cannibaltastic.

The plan gets messed up when the judge finally turns up in Sweeney's shop and just as Todd is about to have his revenge, the lovesick sailor bursts in begging Todd to help him rescue the girl from the judge.

Oh there's more, and it's really quite gory and the music is fantastically dark and wonderful. But you should see it for yourself. I got a bit sniffly at the end. You see, you never quite hate Sweeney despite all the nasty, horrible, evil things he does. I admire any story that can make me sympathetic towards such a creature.

Wow this got long. Anyway, I'd say see the movie, even if you have to wait for the DVD. It's excellent.

The year's end

2007-12-30T21:49:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to think about the things that happened this year that made it memorable. Sort of my own little end of the year thing. Let's see...

Nobody I love died. That's a good. Always appreciate a year that passes with all my loved ones intact. Morbid? Maybe, but hey, it's what I think about.

When I started thinking about this I worried that I'd have very little to reflect on because I tend to generalize my life. Like when someone you haven't seen in a while asks you how your life's been and you answer, "Oh, fine. Same old same old." When in fact, many new things have occurred. So when I thought about this, I remembered that there've actually been a few milestones this year.

My sister became engaged. That's a biggie. Seeing them at Christmas was wonderful because I could just tell how much they love each other. They're good for each other and I'm quite chuffed to be getting a brother :) I always wanted one of those.

Shannon turned the big 1-6 and is driving the car now. She just asked to borrow it tomorrow and I'm even letting her have it to go to a New Year's Eve party. Oh don't worry, it's a sleepover at a friend's with a bunch of girls and she's under strict orders not to go joyriding. I've noted my mileage :) Anyway, I don't need the car myself. I plan to kick off 2008 by watching some Doctor Who.

My father got hitched this summer to the lovely Charlotte in a cozy backyard wedding in Montana and we got to be there. Montana in summer is quite lush. I learned how to split logs with an axe so if I should ever have the need to become an axe-wielding homicidal maniac, I've got experience with the wielding part.

Hmmm what else... Oh I've learned a new trick at work. I can add video/audio editing and producing to my resume. I've always been good at editing sound but never had the equipment or software to work on video. But I do now, muahahaha. And I love it. AND I got a video camera for xmas as well so expect cheesy little videos to show up on this blog soon. Just waiting on a memory card.

My newspaper was sold to a new company. It marks the first time I've been involved with something like this. So far, it's been... interesting to observe.

Carrying on with the geek theme, I've also learned more than I ever wanted to know about DNS transfers and nameserver crap. I hate that stuff with a very intense passion. I'm hoping I won't have to muck with any of that stuff much in the new year. It's a pain.

I'm just going to gloss right over the shite that went wrong this year. Like my fuel pump crapping out and costing $900 bucks to fix, or the recent little car accident, or the fact that I make ok money for this market and yet I'm *still* living check to check. I mean seriously, I have no life to speak of. Where the F does the money go? Yeesh.

On the lighter side of things, I discovered a love for Doctor Who and Torchwood. Netflix is full of win and awesome. XM channel 44 is excellent about 90% of the time. I kinda dig the fact that my cat loves no human apart from me and the kid. Anyone else is just flesh to devour if she got the chance :) I love knowing that I get to go to my sister's wedding in California next October thanks to my brilliant cousin and his fabulous gf. Can't wait to be in Cali again. I'm going to test the vibe and see if it's someplace I'd want to go back to someday. I don't think I'll stay in Nebraska for the rest of my life, but I'm not sure where I'd want to go. But that's a topic for another blog :)

Yeah at the end of the day, 2007 was pretty okay. Ups and downs as most years have, but that's all right. Here's to 2008, though :) I hope it rocks.

Happy Christmas

2007-12-25T23:57:00.000-06:00

Well the Big Holiday is over and I must say that this was a really lovely holiday - apart from getting hit by a car of course. That pretty much sucked.

I think I might be in a bit of shock. Just a little. I've been in car accidents before, but just bumper thumps really. But I keep flashing on the damage to my door and the rear wheel well that was bent in so far the car is not drivable. It was a pretty good smash. I think if we hadn't been in such a tank-like car (a Ford Taurus) the damage to us in the car would have been worse. I'm glad it hit my side and not Shannon's.

What happened was the roads are slick. It began snowing after we got back to town after having a great visit with Aunty Jo and everybody and we stopped at a truck stop to get some food. After we left there, my sister was making a left turn and we began to slide. She wasn't going very fast and was beginning to get the car corrected before we slid too badly, but we didn't get a chance to because a guy in an SUV slid as well and rammed us. Kelly says she saw him in the rearview and felt he was coming up too fast for her liking and sure enough, he was sliding and couldn't stop.

But we're all fine. Kelly and Matty and Shannon are ok, no bumps or bruises and the driver of the SUV was fine as well. I hit my head but I don't have a bump or anything. My left arm's a bit sore but not enough for me to be able to tell if it's from the accident or just my normal achiness. I'm just a little wigged after seeing the damage to the body of my door. It could have been bad. I'm really thankful it wasn't but now Kel and Matt have to spend their last day here sorting out insurance crap and figuring out how to get another rental car to get to the airport. This hasn't been a very good vacation for them - though the spending time with the family was good of course :)

Anyway, I'm knackered and frozen from sitting in a cold car for an hour. Accident aside, it was a wonderful Christmas being able to see my sis and soon-to-be-bro, hanging with everybody xmas eve and I'm really glad Kelly and Matt came with me to meet Jo and Tom, Hannah, Gunter and Becca. That made me all kinds of happy :)

It's Boxing Day now, but oh well, Happy Christmas everybody.

Fa la la la

2007-12-24T00:19:00.000-06:00

It's Christmas Eve day. Both an eve and a day - it's a Christmas miracle :)

It's been a busy week what with getting ready for xmas and the last-minute shopping and the sodding Chex mix I had to make from scratch. And that's literally 'sodding' Chex mix. Apparently, no matter how carefully I follow the simple recipe, I am incapable of turning out delicious Chex mix. It's always soggy and chewy. Once I even burnt it. But my Gran insisted that the mix be one of the things I get to bring to xmas eve dinner and I'm not allowed to just buy it. *sigh* Oh well, she'll just have to deal and maybe next year she'll let me bake a cake or something. THAT I can do.

And to make matters worse, my sister and Matt aren't here yet :( They were supposed to arrive in town around 4pm but due to a really long story, they missed their flight and have to wait to catch the same flight tomorrow (well, today. I haven't been to bed yet.) So that's one day less we get to spend with them out of the already too few days they'll be here. Sucks. There was nothing they could do though and if Kelly happens to read this - I am not mad or anything ;) I just miss ya. Sorry about the douchebag in holey spandex at the check-in counter.

Ah well. Xmas eve dinner tonight should be lovely with all the fam gathered to eat beer cheese soup, whatever the G's serve up, Rick's root beer, and my soggy chex mix. Then lots of pressies :) Then I think we'll drive over to this guy's house who's done a light show set to music. Shan and I checked it out earlier this week and it was way cool.

So with all this going on, plus another trip to Lincoln on xmas day to see Aunty Jo and fam, things will be quiet round here. I hope those of you who pop by here have a lovely Christmas full of family, friends, egg nog (except me, I do not like the nog) and of course, pressies ;) And that's quite enough of that mushy stuff.

Behold, the awesome Torchwood trailer

2007-12-19T10:07:00.000-06:00

The first Torchwood Season 2 trailer! With scrummy James Marsters goodness!

*thud*

Is it January yet?

Impatience is a virtue

2007-12-13T22:42:00.000-06:00

It's 10:43pm and I can't go to bed. My eyes are burning, my contacts are like pieces of sandpaper in my eyes and I keep glancing longingly over at my cat who is curled up on my bed snoring lightly.

I'm trying to import one of my forum databases into its new home on my new server. Apparently the database is giganimous and I've been waiting for it to import for about 2 hours now. I didn't realize it was going to take this long so now I'm wishing I'd started it earlier this evening. *sigh*

I've never been particularly patient. Growing up, Christmas eve was agony for me, so eager was I to get to pressies in the morning that I'd stay up all night, too excited to sleep. I've grown out of that phase now though :) But my impatience leaks out all the time.

On the road, I despise being behind people who drive way below the speed limit. Online, I will curse at my computer if a page takes too long to load, or lags. I've cussed a blue streak at the database this evening. At work, my laptop is being particularly pokey when switching between programs and it's pretty much driving me insane.

Waiting for people who are late bothers the hell out of me. Once, back in Cali, a friend of mine told me she would pick me up when I finished my shift at the video store. I close up the place at ten and step outside to wait for my ride. And I wait. and I wait. Soon an hour has passed. This was the Jurassic era when we didn't have cell phones so I had no way to call her and yell at her. Long story short, she never showed and I walked the five miles home in the dark. The next day I found out I'd been blown off so she and her boyfriend could shag on the beach. Ever since then if someone is late to meet me or pick me up, I panic and get pissed off.

I don't really have a point for this blog other than I needed to kill some time while I wait for this motherf****ing ****sucking piece of **** big-ass database from hell to import.

I think I'll go poke the cat.

Well that was fun

2007-12-09T21:41:00.001-06:00

Damn the internet for sucking up my Sunday night. Apparently, you can watch live webcams of movie premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Le sigh. So I lived vicariously through the lens while famous people showed up for the premiere of P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank and ummm, oh Kathy Bates is in it. And Lisa Kudrow. And some Irish guy who's Very Famous. I can't remember his name because I was trying to find James Marsters :) He had an eensy part in the movie that mostly ended up on the cutting room floor, but hey, it's nice to see him working :)

(Actually he's a very busy boy with a recurring role on Without a Trace, a new CD out, this Swank flick, hie return as Brainiac on Smallville in January, and my most anticipated: a bigger-than-life role on Torchwood starting in January :) Oh yeah, and he'll be the villain, Piccolo, in Dragonball Z live action flick coming out next year. The things I sit through for this guy. Sheesh. Though his Lex Luthor in Superman Doomsday was really good.)

Anyway, watching the webcam was cool even if they're still doing the 'auto-refresh every 4 seconds' thing with it like this was 2003.

Crappy shot eh? I knew some Marsters fans who live far far away and couldn't stay up late on a school night might want to see him at the premiere, so I took a few caps. They're crappy but oh well.

So I had planned to finish watching some Smallville tonight but I got sucked into this premiere. Oh well. I'm hoping Netflix sends my damn Dr. Who dvds soon. Been waiting ages for them.

What else is happening... not much. Work is work. It's... interesting atm. That's all I'm going to say about it. The kidlet's working quite a bit which is nice for her. She enjoys the having of the cash to go do stuff like see the 'Golden Compass' tonight with some friends. One of them is driving and I'm nervous about it. We've had snow and ice off and on for the past four or five days and I haven't been letting her drive the car to work or anything because she's not driven on bad roads yet. So letting some other teenager do it isn't much better. I need to take her to an empty parking lot and let her practice on it, I think.

Amazing how used to her driving I've become. Usually when she's working in the evenings or weekends I let her just have the car. I'm never going anywhere because I have no life, so why not? Now that the roads are fooked, I won't let her and I'm back to being the chauffeur :) It's weird.

Well she just got home so I'm off to get her unwired so she can get to sleep since it IS a school night for her :)

Oh what a night

2007-12-03T20:33:00.000-06:00

Late December back in '63. Or something. The title of the post is just what popped into my head while trying to think up a title.

It hasn't been a crazy night or anything. The kidlet and I spent some time working on a couple of xmas pressies for a couple of rellies. This involved splaying ourselves on the floor and getting up close and personal with a dust bunny or two. I really need a new hoover.

We watched last week's Bones beforehand though - nothing gets you into the Christmas spirit like a dead Santa. But man, is it me or is David Boreanaz just getting hotter? *fans self* Want.

So that's our evening: Some Bones, some drooling on my part, and nicks and blood from cutting stuff for presents. Now the kid is practicing her bellydancing and I'm a-blogging. Soon I will be writing. Still quite addicted to Ficlets.com.

I was looking at some other ficleteers around there and they occasionally throw out challenges to the others. Those are fun to do - well, except the last one I did. The challenge was to write something - in descriptive detail - autobiographical. So I intended to either talk about the time we moved to England, or else how horrible junior high was. What I ended up writing about was the day Mom died. I have no idea why. I never talk about that day, or think about it if I can help it. I cant explain why I chose to write about it and put it out there, but I did so there you go. My subconscious must be trying to tell me something.

But aside from that, I like the challenges. Another one was to write the ficlet in nothing but dialogue and include a shocking twist of some kind. Mine didn't come out right but I liked it anyway. Then there was the vampire challenge - now THAT was fun :)

I think tonight I'm going to pick a picture out of their stock images and write something for it.

And then I'm going to bed because I feel weird. Really tired and a little nauseous for some reason. I'd go to bed now but it's not even 9pm. I'd be up at 3am. Ugh.

Ice ice baby

2007-12-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a year since we had the Big Ice Storm and now we're smack dab in another one. I don't think this one will be as bad, but I just returned from taking the kidlet to work and man, it's very slick out there.

There was about half an inch of ice we had to chip off of the car. It was kind of fun though, especially when it came off in great big chunks. BUT, we wouldn't have needed to do that if the garage door key hadn't broken in half when we were unlocking the garage door to put the car away. We knew the storm was coming so we figured it would b terribly smart of us to get the car inside. *sigh* now I have to deal with the landlord and try to get a new key from the guy who still - a year later mind you - hasn't given us a key to the back door.

Anyway, I took some piccies, but they don't do it justice. The grass in the back looks really cool. Each blade is sheathed in ice. Makes a cool tinkly sound when you walk/slide in it.

Click to embiggen:

Hope that tree doesn't collapse.

An honor

2007-11-29T07:07:00.000-06:00

My sister is getting married next year as some of you know. But she's doing it in Big Sur. The congressman she works for is letting her get married on his ranch there, which will be beautiful and as memorable as only a wedding next to the ocean can be. When I got married, we had a tiny little ceremony at Lover's Point in Monterey and it was lovely. I have fond memories of it, despite how the marriage turned out :)

Anyway, that's a different tangent. Kelly's wedding posed something of a problem for me, namely, how the hell are we going to be able to afford to get to Cali for it? I love my job very much, but I mostly live paycheck to paycheck and being a single parent of a teenager makes it difficult to save. But I don't want to blather about my finances. We're ok, we just can't do much fun stuff like travel to California.

It hurt Kelly wen I told her I might not be able to be at her wedding. It hurt me too. It's been a big ball of stress weighing on me as I try and figure out a way to get both me and my daughter to Big Sur. Sure we have friends we can stay with - that's not my worry. It's the cost of a road trip, of gas, or of plane tickets. I just didn't think I could do it and it broke my heart.

But last night, my cousin informed me that his girlfriend (who he's been with for years and she's part of the fam) has so many frequent flier miles built up that she's going to give us the plane tickets out there. First class even! Of course, first thing I did was cry like a girl.

See, she flies a LOT for her job. All over the world. My cousin said she's got enough flier miles to fly us all to Neptune if we wanted. Anyway, I can't thank her enough for thinking of us and doing this for us. It's so awesome.

So when I told Kelly we will definitely be there now, she asked me to be her maid of honor :) :) :)

I'm full of win and awesome today :) Thank you Rick and Paris :) Love you guys.

Saucy

2007-11-28T08:22:00.000-06:00

I was poking around Neatorama this morning and came across a saucy little riddle from The Exeter Book. The riddle was written approximately 1000 years ago.

Swings by his thigh / a thing most magical!
Below the belt / beneath the folds
Of his clothes it hangs / a hole in its front end,
stiff-set and stout / it swivels about.

Levelling the head / of this hanging tool,
its wielder hoists his hem / above his knee;
it is his will to fill / a well-known hole
that it fits fully / when at full length

He's oft filled it before. / Now he fills it again.

Admittedly, my brain flopped straight into the gutter. Those Anglo-Saxons were cheeky little monkeys eh?

The answer's in the comments btw. Just a bit of fun to start the day :)

Working Title

2007-11-26T22:53:00.000-06:00

I don't have much of anything new to report. Just figured I'd pop in and blather on a little bit before bed.

It's that time of the year when the xmas commercials start up (they aren't irritating you yet - that comes in about a week and a half) and everything gets festive. The kidlet and I usually put up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving, but this year, she had to work (a first!) and so did I (not a first.) So we haven't done it yet. We've got to give the place a top to bottom cleaning as well since my lovely sister and her honey will be here over xmas. Really looking forward to that. We also need to find a weekend between now and then to go to Lincoln so we can hang with Aunty Jo and fam.

Oh, I will be shifting ukmelia.com, 24addict.com and minimelia.com to a new server in the next couple of weeks. For years my best friend and her hubby have hosted my little sites and I am eternally grateful for that but he's closing down his server and my babies need a new home. Truthfully, it will be nice not to have to bother my Chickie whenever the server goes wonky - I always felt bad when that happened. Now I'll just have to deal with tech support and I know how to handle those guys :)

Speaking of the kid's website, I installed WordPress for her to use to blog. It's pretty shiny stuff and I hope she likes it. It will allow her to do more with her own site and while I will always love Blogger, for her, WP is a better fit. Now I just have to nag her to blog. Fancy that :) I can't imagine not wanting to blog.

I know I go in spurts here with my posts, but I'm always blogging somewhere. I love it and think everyone should do it.

I should hit the sack now, it's getting late for a school night :) One last thing tho - wanted to say a huge WOOT to my favourite set designer whose show got picked up for a full season. So... WOOT! :) Now if the talks end well - and soon - in the WGA strike, then maybe the ripples won't be as bad as they could have been and everyone can get back to doing what they do best - entertaining me. :)

Thankful

2007-11-22T22:40:00.000-06:00

It's the Day of the Turkey and stuff(ing) so it's that time when you talk about things you're thankful for and all that mushy stuff.

So here's the superficial, fun stuff I'm totally happy about:

- XM Radio and Netflix.
- The fact that I can spend a bday gift certificate on something totally silly like a vampire puppet and my daughter doesn't laugh too hard at me.
- Cherry Blossom lotion and jasmine perfume
- Buffy, Angel, Firefly - oh hell, Joss Whedon is my God now.
- Swag
- Starbucks venti mochas
- The Internet. Without that I would not have a rockin' job, would not have above-mentioned swag, and would not have met so many completely awesome people.

And here's the mushy stuff:

- My daughter. She is the coolest, smartest, funniest, loveliest person I know and she makes every day of my life a beautiful adventure.
- My family, old and new. They all mean everything to me. Some peeps who stop by here might not know the story behind the 'new' family I've got so here's the short version: I did not know my biodad growing up (but just fyi, my stepfather was amazing and I miss him every day.) and about 6 years or so ago I looked up my biodad's email online, found him, and wrote to him. It went well and 6 or so years later I've got a bunch of new relatives who've welcomed us into their lives and I love them all dearly. And this Christmas, my sister and her fiance are coming back here and I get to introduce them to my cool aunt and her gorgeous family. It's gonna be spiffy :)
- My evil cat Spooky is secretly pretty loveydovey and cuddly. She rocks.
- My job that I love so much that allows me to write and get it published, learn new tricks, and work in a field I adore.

There's more I'm grateful for of course, but I'll keep that stuff to myself. Happy Thanksgiving to anyone stopping by here - even you pervs who think I've got pics of areolas somewhere on this blog :) (Seriously, I love my statistic info. It's great reading.)

Mmm cinnamon

2007-11-18T13:37:00.000-06:00

There is nothing better on a Sunday morning that smelling the smell of fresh cinnamon raisin bread baking while some french vanilla coffee percolates. MMmmmmmmm it's so lovely :)

I've also started enjoying getting errands done in the early morning hours on a Sunday. It's nice to go to the grocery store (a chore I normally despise) when hardly anyone is around. Even Wal-mart seems empty and less frantic during that time. This morning, I was off to the paper to put my column online. No one ever strips the TV column for online because usually it's just a wire piece. But when we write one in-house, no one includes it. So since this column was on the strike, and I wanted fans4writers peeps to be able to read it, I had to make sure to get it online.

Other than that, it's definitely another gorgeous lazy Sunday in this house. Shannon is busy teaching herself how to quilt (working in a fabric store has had this affect on her) so she's been cutting and measuring and sewing all morning. Weird hearing the sounds of a sewing machine in this house because I can't sew to save my life.

I had to make a bag in Home ec back in high school. A plain old two handled bag. I got a C on it. I just don't have the patience or talent. I can sew a button back on and that's about the extent of my abilities. But Shan's really taken a liking to most things crafty and it's fun to watch her create stuff.

She just came in to show me the second block of fabric she's sewn. I can't wait to see the finished quilt! Her first quilt is going to be a gift for her French teacher whom she adores and will have taught her for four years. See, Shan didn't stop at the required two years of French class. She's taking it all four years. My girl wants to be an Etymologist when she grows up (that's words, not bugs ;) ) so she is planning to study quite a number of foreign languages.

Great for me because chatting to her in French has helped me remember the language myself. I took it for 5 years, then I had a friend who grew up in Morocco so she helped keep me from going rusty, and then when we lived at the pub in Engerland (ugh looking at that site I built in 1998 makes me cringe. Wish he'd let me redo it now I'm all professional-y) some of the staff that lived with us were French and so I enjoyed listening to them bitch about the rest of us not knowing I could understand them :) Muahaha I'm evil.

Anyway, I've got zero plans for the day apart from watching various episodes of Angel for the hell of it, and making a batch of Spaghetti later.

I love days like this.

Fans4Writers

2007-11-15T19:20:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty jazzed about fans4writers.com. As a wannabe writer-but-mostly-blogger I felt compelled to learn more about the WGA strike currently going on. It's not a good thing, this strike, and it will affect so many people. I feel bad that it came to this but I also feel a slight sense of solidarity for the writers. I'm not in their industry by any means, but I know what it's like not to be fairly compensated for work I do.

So yeah, I'm supporting the strike as best I can for a chick in the boonies of Nebraska. Since my 24 site 24addict.com is rather popular (why I don't know but hey, I'm not looking in that gift horse's mouth) I'm taking advantage of the traffic my site generates to spread the word about fans4writers.com, trying to rally my 24 peeps around the picket sign, you know?

I absolutely love the fact that entire fan communities are, in essence, rising up and throwing their support behind the writers of their favourite shows. Instead of bemoaning the fact that a lot of these shows will end, will be delayed or will be in rerun hell, they're sending pizza to picketing writers or joining them on the lines. It's so awesome. I wish I lived in L.A. right now.

It's been a long time since I've been so jazzed about a cause. It's kinda nice :)

Blogs blogs bogs

2007-11-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

I'm falling down on the bloggin' thang. I was doing so well too.

Actually I sort of created more "work" for myself this afternoon when I decided to leap blindly into writing an 'Inside the Newsroom' type blog for the paper. I've been kicking the idea around for ages and after building a blog for the Editor's editorial cartoons that he draws, I wasn't going to wait around for someone to give me the go ahead.

It's bare bones right now because hey, I just started it this afternoon. But I plan to post in there daily. Here's hoping I manage to do it. Might be hard to talk about the goings-on inside the newspaper 5 days a week :)

I've also been sort of following the WGA strike that began this week. From an outsider perspective, it's an interesting story to follow. I come down on the side of the writers myself. I'm not going to be fussed if the shows I'm following shut down production - and by fussed I mean I'm not going to whinge about it (I mean, 24 is shutting down later this month and the season premiere has been postponed. But I will not whinge.) I do worry for everyone who will be out of work while their shows are shut down. Not everyone in Hollywood makes buckets of cash and Christmas is a sucky time of the year to be out of work.

I only hope that the differences can be resolved satisfactorily and quickly, so the good folks who put these shows together can get back to doing what they do best.

In other news, my friends Mike and Sarah had their second child over the weekend. She's quite beautiful and I'm very happy for them :) I got to see her today during the obligatory New Baby Tour (Thanks Mike!) and she's the cutest little thing.

Well I think that's me caught up for a while. More babble later!

Ficlets

2007-11-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

I know you're probably sick to death of me going on and on about how much I dig Wil Wheaton (and I don't mean that in a stalkery fangirl kind of way either. I reserve that behaviour for James Marsters, Kiefer Sutherland and David Boreanaz :) )

No I just count myself lucky that I found his blog oh so long ago because he's never steered me wrong when it comes to finding the coolest stuff on the Net. As a writer who's had some success with his nonfiction books and as a blogger - two things near and dear to my heart - I really enjoy following his journey from getting an idea to getting it 'out there.'

Anyway, enough being gushy, I really wanted to to post about the site I found through his blog called Ficlets. I read about it yesterday and as of five minutes ago I've published five ficlets and am so eager to write some more.

The purpose of Ficlets is to write a story in 1,024 characters or less. That works out to about 4-5 short paragraphs or so. The beauty of the idea is then other authors on the site can write a prequel or sequel to your ficlet and pretty soon a whole story is born. It's really fun to see the twists and turns a story idea of yours can take when other people take control. I know the idea of round robins in storytelling is nothing new, but it's still fun.

For instance, a ficlet I posted is actually the beginning to a finished story I wrote while ago. So I know where my story goes, and how it ends etc. The main character is a male. When I posted just the beginning of it, a commenter assumed the lead char was a female. Another writer just posted a sequel to one of my ficlets (my first sequel!) and went in a completely different direction than my actual story did. It's just so interesting, you know?

Anyway, I'm totally hooked and would not be surprised if I stay up far too late tonight reading and writing ficlets because this site is getting me so jazzed about writing. I haven't felt like this about it in forever. It's teh awesome.

Thanks Wil.

(oh and off-topic, but my Vampcakes were a big hit at the office. Woot!)

Vampire Cupcake

2007-10-29T21:49:00.000-05:00

Or "Vampcakes" as I like to call them :)

I saw this recipe for these suckers (Ha!) on BoingBoing the other day and thought they were awesome. So I got it in my head to make 'em.

However, the recipe above looked like far too much effort for some raised on Betty Crocker mixes, so I altered it just a tad - by using a cake mix and a canister of Whipped frosting. It worked a treat so if these appeal to you and you're a lazy baker like me, feel free to ad lib like I did.

The cake mix I chose was French Vanilla (mmmmm) and the frosting is also vanilla. I had a lot of fun making these and cracking cheesy vampire jokes (What does a vampire fear most? Tooth decay!) When I put the cherry pie filling (which ends up being both the 'blood' inside the cupcake and the bite decoration) in the food processor, I managed to squick myself a little. It looked quite gory :)

Anyway here's a pic of the first batch:

And here's the inside after Shannon took a bite:

Neat eh? I'm taking ost of them to work tomorrow. Even made a Vampcakes sign complete with various vampires (Spike and Angel are in there of course! Along with Bela, Nosferatu, Lestat and Udo Kier from Andy Warhol's Dracula)

Dorky? Me? Nahhh ;)

Fascist Groove Thing

2007-10-27T12:14:00.000-05:00

The title's the song playing on Fred right now. It's so bloody repetitive that it's now stuck in my head. Yes I know it was a left-wing social commentary song banned by the BBC at the start of the Thatcher era but my god, it's like 10 minutes of the same line over and over and over and gah! Enough!

I'm starting to get a little tired of listening to Fred. Same groups of songs from the same group of artists all the time. Hello, Fred? There are other bands out there besides Midnight Oil ok? And please please please stop playing The Cult. And get rid of that monotonously dull guy Bill Kates. He sucks.

Ok I think I'm done bitching now.

So the Director of Digital Publishing at Gatehouse stumbled on my previous post about the sale of my newspaper. He was kind enough to drop me an email and say hello and let me know that his company (soon to be my company, yay!) is looking forward to working with all of the papers they acquired from Morris. I thought that was pretty damn cool.

Well first I was all kinds of puzzled as to how he found me until I realized he followed a link from my coworker's blog where she actually named names. I vagued up my own post because I'm overly paranoid about talking about work stuff in a blog. Lessons learned from Dooce, you know? :)

But since the news is public, why be paranoid? :) Full story of the sale here.

After I got past the 'how did he find me' puzzlement, I toured around his blog for a while. I cannot wait to start working for this company. It's going to rock. Some people from GateHouse are stopping by the paper on Monday (so of course we spent Friday afternoon tidying up, putting out the "good" plates, getting coffee ready etc.) for a meet and greet. Can't wait.

Big changes

2007-10-24T19:13:00.001-05:00

So my newspaper got a bit blindsided by the news that we've been sold to another company along with 14 other dailies my current company owns. We were told last night about 20 minutes for 5pm and even the publisher was a bit shell shocked.

Of course there were a lot of shocked faces during the announcement, mostly because I think the first thing people wonder is if they will still have a job. When you have a family to support, you have to be at least a little wary. But we've been told no one's losing their jobs and that our new parent company will work to make the transition as painless as possible.

The next thing you start thinking about is how something like this affects aspects of your job. For instance, in my department, which is the Online department, nearly every tool we use to publish the paper to the web, to schedule and post banner ads is proprietary software owned by our current company. If this sale closes by November 30th, does that mean everything will be taken away and we have to learn/design all new stuff to get the paper online in a month? Impossible. What about our archives? They go back to 1997. How will we transfer all that to new servers? Oh god the DNS transferring will be a friggin' nightmare...

All these thoughts zip through your brain in a space of seconds until you feel a bit overwhelmed. THEN you start wondering what this new company is like. What about your benefits, your 401k, your insurance... It's not long before you start to panic a little and when you come in to work the next day, everyone's office-hopping trying to get a read on everybody's reactions or trying to glean more info.

It's been an interesting thing to observe, to be honest. For my part, I'm concerned about transitioning all our stuff because it will be me drowning in the DNS nightmare (I hate dealing with DNS crap with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns) - I say I'm concerned but I'm also kind of excited. I think this will be good for us.

My paper is pretty forward-thinking and we've been one of the top papers at my current company to lead the way in using the web to enrich the readers' experience. I was told my paper was a deal breaker in this sale. They wanted us, the current folks didn't want to give us up. In the end, their debt spoke louder than their desire to hang onto us. Fine by me.

The new company looks pretty good from everything I'm reading and I think I'll enjoy observing this new experience. I've never been through a major shift like this. Should be cool.

Vets, Vultures & Vampires, Oh my!

2007-10-21T21:09:00.000-05:00

Heh. Some dude just emailed me and offered to buy my 24addict.com domain name for 60 bucks. I scoffed. Sixty measly dollars for a domain I've owned for over 5 years and tended to like it was my own child? What a dolt.

It's up for renewal in a few weeks but this is the first time an offer was made for it. He said, "I assume you are not interested in keeping it for yourself..." Ummm, did you bother to load up the addy in your little browser there buddy? Does it not look like a busy little site full of 24 goodness for the fans? Moron.

Ok, I'm done scoffing at this guy now :)

It's been a nice weekend apart from dealing with domain vultures. Friday evening was spent with my Grampa at the season's final football game at my daughter's high school. What's that? Me at a football game? The hell you say.

Yes it's true! :) The stadium was being rededicated in its 60th year and as it's a memorial stadium originally dedicated to war vets, they invited WWII veterans to the game, fed them up, gave them some cool swag and honored them by name at halftime. My Grampa was one of them. It was really lovely and I think he felt pretty proud.

He served in the Navy on the USS Daly during WWII and the Korean War. Ironic eh? A boy from a landlocked state joining the Navy? :) His Army father was none too pleased. I love listening to Grampa's stories. My favourite one is the pineapple story. While he was away, the ship had evidently way overstocked on tinned pineapple, so it was served with every single meal day in and day out. Well, Grampa didn't like it much to begin with but by the time he was allowed to go home on leave he pretty much never wanted to see another pineapple every again.

So he arrives home to Omaha and at his first dinner back, his family proudly served some pineapple that they had been saving from their rations just for him. The look on his face when he gets to this part of the story is hilarious. He said it was the hardest meal he ever had to eat because there was no way he was going to let them know how much he hated it.

Awww :)

Anyway, the game was fun even though we lost and Grampa went home a happy camper. The rest of the weekend we stayed in (as usual really) because the kid is not feeling so hot and I don't want her to miss class. My first TV column in a while was in the paper Sunday which was nice. I did end up writing about the Vampire debate on Moonlight/Angel/Forever Knight and I nicked a lot of it from my last blog on the subject. I doubt anyone will comment on it though because that column is buried in the paper in the TV section no one ever reads because they all have on screen tv guides. Oh well, I have a nice scrapbook and can sort of say "I'm published" :)

I'm off to see if the vulture wrote me back when I none-too-politely told him to sod off.

Shoes

2007-10-18T21:40:00.000-05:00

This is a totally irrelevant post, much like my last few. Feel free to skip it.

I was ~~forced to go to~~ sitting in a 'Please give us money' United Way meeting this morning (normally I have no problem donating a bit of my paychecks throughout the year because I think the services the UW serves are worthy. Just this year, I'm struggling so much that it just galls me a bit to give them money and be subjected to tearjerker stories by the speakers to get me to give. Makes me feel manipulated) and as we waited for it to start one of the ladies made smalltalk by pointing out how much she adored this other lady's shoes.

See, I don't understand the Shoe Thing. They're shoes. They keep your feet warm or cool depending on he weather and stop you from slicing the crap out of your feet should you meander through a pile of broken glass.

This lady's shoes weren't anything to squeal over either. They were plain black slingbacks (and I only know the term slingback thanks to many episodes of Sex and the City) with a slight heel. What's the appeal? Why were they comment-worthy? I just don't get it.

Now, I'll admit to being happy to find a pair of shoes that look nice on my feet or match an outfit or something. But I'm no shoe whore. I have my 'work' shoes, most of them are all black and go from a loafer to a boot. This summer I've been back and forthing between a couple different styles of sandals. I have some dreaded fake crocs that are marvelous slipons and have lasted a couple of years (and two trips to Montana for ice cold stream wading.) I've got a couple pairs of sneakers left over from my waitressing days and my beloved Doc Martens that I bought in England.

My Docs are actually the most expensive shoes I own (well boots.) Everything else pretty much came from Payless.

So, my shoes are pretty much just perfunctory as opposed to decorative. I just can't bring myself to get all drooly over shoes.

Maybe my problem - if not being a shoe whore is considered a problem - is that I can never find shoes in my size. The cute and fun shoes stop at about size 9. Anything after that and it gets harder to find anything decent. So maybe my lack of shoe whoriness is due to jealousy.

Nah.

I dunno why I felt the need to talk about this. I guess I'm still just baffled as to what the hell was so special about that chick's black pointy shoes.

Rubbish Romps

2007-10-17T08:26:00.000-05:00

Bless the British for giving us National Orgasm Week complete with articles like this one (NSFW).

I think my favourite line from the article is: From poor communication to a lack of inspiration in the sack, we’re getting saddled with rubbish romps and doing next to nothing about it.

Heehee. Rubbish romps. That's so Benny Hill.

One more cover

2007-10-16T21:39:00.000-05:00

Just thought of one more cover I like better than the original. Gary Jules version of 'Mad World' (from Donnie Darko) is just perfect. Admittedly, I fell in love with that song after seeing the movie and I'd never heard the Tears for Fears original so I may be a bit biased here.

XM plays the TFF version all the time and it's just weird to me. It's upbeat and faster. Less moody. Yep, definitely prefer the Gary Jules version.

Just had to get that out there :)

Mmmm fog

2007-10-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Wil Wheaton?

As a writer wannabe, it means the world to me to read a post like that from someone who's brave enough to tell the world how terrified they are of writing fiction. As usual, a far superior writer put into words everything I feel about it myself.

That is all.

What's up

2007-10-15T09:30:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a strange weekend. I feel like I've been in a cave for most of it but that's most likely due to the gloomy, drizzly weather we had all weekend which made my whole place seem so dark.

Not that I'm complaining. Anyone who knows me knows that gloomy/drizzly/foggy is my preferred type of weather. So to me, the weekend was fabulous weather-wise.

I had two netflix vids to watch: 28 Weeks Later and Disturbia. I liked them both, but frankly I could have done without the bloody vomit in 28 Weeks.

I also think I liked 28 Days Later better though both have their merits. Robert Carlyle being one of the best things about 28 Weeks :) I lurve him. But I felt the movie was pretty much just 'flee the rage zombies in new and interesting ways' rather than exploring much of a plot. But that's ok. I enjoyed the look of the film. It must have been difficult to make an overcrowded little island like the UK look deserted and abandoned.

Disturbia was fun. Not really a sleep-with-the-lights-on flick because it spent too much time building up to the climax (is there such a thing as spending too much time building up to a climax? Hehe. A thought for another blog.) but that time was enjoyable and fun so you don't feel too gipped by it. It's a Dreamworks film and it's PG-13 so I ended up watching it with Shannon. She now wishes to build a twinkie tower and I long for a covert plan I can label "Operation Stupid."

Currently, I'm trying to log in to my FTP server so I can edit ukmelia.com and add a new blog I've started. (God I know. Another feckin' blog.) FTP is making me its bitch though so I'll stick the link here until I can get in. It's called The Storyteller and is another experiment that sort of came to me on my drive to work this morning.

See, I had a nightmare last night. Nothing too scary but scary enough to jolt me awake at 2am. It was creepifying and I can remember most of it still. This is probably because I spent the next hour or so thinking about how good of a story it could be. I creeped myself out more recalling details and stuff but it was worth it. I have a basis for a decent little horror story.

And as i was thinking about it again on the drive this morning I got to thinking about fanfic and how most ficcers post their stories online a chapter or two at a time. I figured I'd try the same thing but with my own fiction, on my own terms, in my own blog. I don't care if no one ever reads it but if they did, I dig on the idea of doing the blog version of a radio serial. The whole 'tune in next week to find out what happens' thing.

It will probably flop, but I don't care about that either. This is for me and if someone happens to want to read along, so much the better :) But anyway, I'll be linking it on the right there and on ukmelia.com. It has an RSS feed as well if anyone wants to stick it in their favourite feedreader.

So wish me luck :)

Battle of the Vampires

2007-10-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

David Boreanaz played the title character, a broody vampire P.I. in Los Angeles who's seeking redemption on "Angel." Geraint Wyn Davies played Nick Knight, a hopeful but naive vampire detective in Toronto on "Forever Knight." Alex O'Laughlin plays Mick St. John, a... well I haven't got a bead on his disposition yet but I can tell you he's a vampire P.I. in Los Angeles on CBS' new show "Moonlight."

As a fan of both "Forever Knight" and "Angel" I was chagrined when I heard about "Moonlight." My gut reaction was, "Didn't they already do this with Angel?" And some part of me wondered why the creators of these shows feel compelled to make their heroes involved in some way with law enforcement. They're either private investigators solving cases brought to them or they're actually on the force.

I suppose it's a logical place for them to be. They want to help the helpless so it stands to reason they'd put themselves in a position to help, such as detective work or taking cases as an investigator. So I guess I can get past that roadblock.

But after three episodes of Moonlight, even though I don't mind it, I can't help feeling like the creators are not really very creative. Let's look at some more similarities between the three aforementioned shows:

Tortured Vamp falls in love with feisty blonde:
- Angel never really got over his love for Buffy.
- Mick St. John seems to be falling for a spunky blonde internet reporter.
- Nick's loves weren't blonde but they were plenty feisty.

Vamp feels overwhelming guilt for his past:
- Angel was cursed with a soul that forced him to face hundreds of years of slaughter and mayhem. For most of the show's run, Angel holds on to a slight hope from a prophecy that says if he redeems himself fully, he will be rewarded by becoming human.
- Nick Knight refuses to drink human blood as he searches for a cure that will make him human.
- Mick also won't drink 'from the tap' so to speak, preferring instead to drink bagged blood.

Vamp has an even older vampire, or 'sire' that either guides them or tries to get them back to their old ways:
- Angel's sire, Darla, did her best to make Angel lose his soul and return to his wicked ways.
- Nick's sire, LaCroix was always looking for ways to manipulate Nick in an attempt to get Nick back in the killing fold.
- Mick's comes in the guise of friend who's centuries older than himself. So far his purpose has been to make Mick ensure the fact that vampires are amongst the cattle stays a secret. I haven't quite figured out what his game is but I've only watched three episodes.

When "Moonlight" was announced there was a lot of rumbling from fans of "Angel" who felt the it was 'ripping off' their beloved show. Looking at the similarities I've come across, I think a case could be made for that. But I also think I'd like to watch more of it before I pass judgement.

"Angel" was deeply steeped in a carefully woven tapestry of vampire and demon lore that began as far back as the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" It's richly layered, well-written and had that as its base when "Angel" the spin-off began. I believe, despite the similarities seen in "Moonlight," it will be very difficult to touch the brilliance of "Angel." I don't think "Moonlight" is even trying to do that.

I think perhaps "Moonlight" will strive to be its own show despite borrowing some themes from other shows in this genre. It's beautifully shot. The sets are dramatic and lovely. The use of flashbacks has slowly unraveled a bit of Mick St. John's brief vampiric life and created interest in it. That's one definite difference from the other shows: Mick St. John is a relative newbie to vampirism than his counterparts on "Angel" and "Forever Knight". Angel was around 250 and Nick Knight was around 800.

I'm going to give the show a chance. There are some things I rather like about it such as the fight sequences and well, the vamps just look cool when they vamp out :) And if you're wondering why I'm writing about all this anyway, this will probably be turned into my TV column for the paper this week :)

Early One Morning

2007-10-12T07:05:00.001-05:00

I sat in my room puttering around the Net, impatiently waiting for Shannon to finish putting on her make-up in our one and only bathroom.

"Oi! Kid! Hurry up! I still have to dry my hair!"

An exasperated sigh came from the bathroom. "I'm almost done mom." And in an undertone I hear, "I'm not a kid either."

I grinned to myself. It's fun to wind her up. Of course when she stalks out of the bathroom with only one eye done and gives me the death-ray glare as she passes I realize that some mornings I probably shouldn't do that. She's not a morning person. At all. In fact, I'm not even sure she's fully awake until she is actually getting out of the car and heading off to class.

The clock seemed to tick faster and faster and we both scrambled to get through our morning routine and out the door. Clashing scents of gardenias and ylang ylang clouded the air which sent the cat to the kitchen to hide out until it dissipates.

I grabbed my red sports bottle and filled it up with water because I knew if I didn't have something to drink during the work day I'd feel... well, thirsty. As I poured, I mentally gave thanks to the folks at Brita because I'm too picky about the water I drink.

I debated making some Earl Grey to take along but decided there just wasn't enough time. Oh well. I grabbed a tea bag and planned to fix some when I got to work.

After a frantic gathering of the "stuff" we called out a quick goodbye to the cat and headed out the door.

Sweet merciful Zeus

2007-10-10T19:30:00.000-05:00

The evil neighbours are moving out!

We came home from dinner at the G's (Mmm steak 'n stuff!) to find them loading up a truck and from what I could tell, they're just about done.

Woohoo!!! I feel the need to bang some cupboards!!

As for the shaggers on the other side of us, they must be in a dry spell. Which is fine by me. If they'd just quit smoking, I think I could finally be settled here. Though it is hard to believe it's been a year since we moved in already. I still have decorating to do.

Covers vs. Originals

2007-10-09T10:48:00.000-05:00

I came across a sort of meme that asks you to name 5 covers that were better than the originals. I like it so here are my answers.

In a particular order that will only make sense to me:

5. Personal Jesus - Marilyn Manson (Original: Depeche Mode)
- I love me some Depeche Mode. I really do. And I'm not saying their Personal Jesus is bad. But for some inexplicable reason, I love Manson's version more. Maybe because my best friend Meechie and I used to sing the DM version as 'Your own... personal... Hay-soos' because we were young and thought ourselves terribly funny by doing so. So the song became imprinted on my mind that way. I don't have that problem when I hear Manson's version.

4. Chocolate Jesus - James Marsters (Original: Tom Waits. I also did not intend to shoot for a Jesus theme. It just worked out that way.)
- Now, some may wish to crucify (ha! Crucify. Pun was so not intentional) me for choosing a version by some actor over legendary Tom Waits. Here's my thought process on that: I can sing along with James' version. I love James Marsters as an actor and as a musician and it's fun as hell to sing along to his version. With Tom's it's nice to just listen to him.

3. Running Up That Hill - Placebo (Original: Kate Bush)
- I can't stand Kate Bush and I never liked Running Up That Hill until I heard it done by my boys. They so totally rocked the song and, in my opinion, surpassed the original. Now, this is only my opinion. Any Kate Bush lovers out there can just keep moving. Nothing to see here.

2. Dancing Barefoot - Echo & the Bunnymen (Original: Patti Smith I think.)
- On XM 44 they play both versions of this song all the time and every time I hear it, I can remember back in the day when the only version I knew about was Echo's. It wasn't until I started listening to XM that I even knew Echo was doing a cover of it. I much prefer theirs to Patti's. The only explanation I have is that Ian McCulloch's voice is perfect and haunting and sets the most exquisite moody balance for the song. Patti's is kind of grating and I don't like it much.

1. Bigmouth Strikes Again - Placebo (Original: The Smiths)
- Yeah I know. Will she ever shut the hell up about Placebo? No, I probably won't, sorry. I much prefer Placebo's cover of Bigmouth over Morrissey even though the band did it for a Smiths tribute album. Again, this is not to say I think the Smith's version is bad or anything. I just like the harder edge Placebo gave it better.

So there you have it. 5 cover tunes I like better than the originals. Got a blog? Answer it yourself. Or leave me a comment. I'm a comment whore and I never get enough of them. :)

Wee hours

2007-10-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

I hate having to go to bed at a decent hour during the week. It's now 10:22pm and it feels like I just got home from work a little bit ago. And now I have to go to bed soon because if I don't, I'll be a zombie tomorrow. Being tired and having to stare at a computer screen for 8 hours are unmixy things.

I'm a night person. Always preferred staying up til the wee hours. I just like that time. Everything's so quiet. It's dark and it just feels different. Some people prefer early mornings. They get up at stupid o'clock and read the paper, maybe go to the gym or for a run or whatever. Point is they have the time for a leisurely morning before the rest of us are even contemplating getting up.

Not me. I'm lucky if I have enough time to gulp breakfast before we're piling out the door.

Nope, give me the wee hours.

I don't really know where I was going with this post. When I started I was miffed when I glanced at the time and realized I'm going to have to go to bed in a bit. I'm not tired. I'll just lay there and think too much. Hate getting up in the mornings. I'm fine once I get in the shower and all that but before that, I'm quite the grotesque imitation of a human being.

Anyway, guess I'd better quit stalling now and go to bed. Grumble grumble.

Creepify

2007-10-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

On the recommendation of quite a few people really, I watched The Descent earlier today. I scared the hell out of my cat who was lazily curled up by my hip as I watched the movie on a laptop with headphones on. The first 'scare' made me scream a little. Ok, it made me scream quite loudly and jerk away from the screen.

Spooky was not amused judging by the look she gave me after she scrambled off the chair in a blur of black fuzz and hightailed it out of my room. I laughed, and then the movie freaked me again and even though it's been several hours since it ended, Spooky has decidedly remained absent from my side. Hehe.

So yeah, The Descent was good for some scares, the kind I've been looking for and I appreciate that. Acting wasn't hokey and the effects, such as they needed for a movie about caving, were fine. I won't say it's a movie I'll add to my collection, but I enjoyed the pulse-pounding moments immensely.

I'm about to watch 28 Days Later though I'm afraid this zombie flick's going to be more gore than scare. I'll edit this post afterwards.

...a couple hours later...

It was pretty gory, but not as bad as I thought it might be. Though I have to say that probably the one gore thing I can't really 'take' is vomit. Makes me want to heave. So mix vomit with vomiting blood and yeah, I'll be in the bathroom.

This one had bloodvomit and my mouth has still got that metallic-y feeling in it that you get when you're nauseous. But other than that I thought 28 Days Later was really good. For some reason I thought the main character was played by Jim Caveziel when I first saw him. A quick Imdb while I paused the movie to settle the tummy proved me wrong and it's Cillian Murphy. I only know him from Batman. He's very Phwoar :) Even covered in blood. But damnit, he and Caveziel do sort of look alike. I think I can be forgiven for the mistake.

Also nice to know what Madeye Moody really looks like. I'd never seen Brendan Gleeson in anything but the Potter flicks. Best of all though was Christopher Eccleston. My favourite Doctor playing a baddie was way cool. (I guess it's ok to spoil it some since the movie's been out for 5 years. Fair game and all that. If I pissed you off, I'm sorry.)

Anyway, the movie itself... I read where there are various scenes that are sort of an homage to films like Day of the Triffids, Romero's Dead trilogy and Omega Man. Well I've never seen any of those so I wouldn't know but nice trivia eh? Another bit of trivia I quite like is while filming the mansion scenes, the crew's favorite place was The Wooden Spoon in Downton, Wiltshire. They liked it so much that they gave them one of the dead bodies from the execution pile which can still be seen today sitting at a table. - From Imdb I love shit like that :)

I like end of the world movies like this. I think this one sort of touched on the philosophical quandaries you might face if you suddenly wake up to find the world's pretty much fooked and you're a 'survivor.' Granted, the characters had to pretty much just 'survive' instead of figure out how to 'live' since a plethora of pissed off zombies keep trying to kill them. But I think the best part of the film was when the the four survivors made it to the military barricade in the North. I quite like that they swapped one life-threatening terror for a very different one - psycho soldiers.

In a situation like that you'd think soldiers = safety but in this case it was an interesting twist to have them not be rage zombies but instead they've rather gone off the deep-end from having to deal with them and their intentions and motives are just as deadly as the zombies to our intrepid survivors.

Not quite sure if I saw the correct ending since apparently there were a couple of different ones and I didn't look very closely at the extras or film bio on the disc sleeve but it was a bit weird for me. Rushed maybe and I would have liked to have seen a bit more.

Apparently, there is a sequel. I did not now that. Off to Netflix now.

Tempus fugit

2007-10-04T22:17:00.000-05:00

Can't believe the week's nearly over. It feels like it should only be around Tuesday, not almost-Friday-almost-the-weekend. Where did the time go?

Been busy at work untangling a bunch of DNS crap and producing some Newslinks and entertaining visiting Nebraska publishers who wanted to see the studio. Lots of TV to watch which feels weird. Damn new Fall shows. I really haven't watched much telly this year.

I had a friend once who, when a teacher challenged us to see how long we could go without watching TV, most of us lasted a day or two. She went over three years. She missed the good Cosby years, the silly bint.

Anyway, I've mostly preferred to curl up with the old XM (Fred on 44 is my fave channel, tho I have a soft spot for 50s on Five ;) ) and the intertubes this year. I thought my XM subscription would run out in May since it was a gift a couple of years ago but it's still working. Don't know why. But I spent the spring listening to it like crazy before it stopped. Then I just got used to it.

Ugh I just went into a maudlin paragraph of how sad and dull my daily life is until I realised I didn't want to travel down that road. My life's not really sad and dull. It's full of wonderful moments like being completely silly with my daughter until we're both doubled over with laughter or getting to spend time with my not-so-new-anymore family. Or just today someone brought in to the office a bucket of puppies. Here's one of the little guys:

Isn't he just so pokeable? He fit in my hand he's so ickle.

So it's little day to day things that make life interesting. Not how many cool things you can cram into a lifetime (altho those have their place :) )

Lots of woot

2007-09-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

Big day for kid sis today :) Looks like Cross Country Kelly's going to be Mrs. The Cat. That sneaky boy had been planning quite an elaborate way to propose involving a hot air balloon, a perfect sunset and a big honkin' ring :) I'm so happy for them. And me! I get a brother! I could hear them both grinning like eejits when they called to tell us the news :) Of course Kelly got all sniffly, softy that she is.

Anyway, I'm thrilled for them. Way cool! Here's a pic of them and the Big Honkin' Ring up in the balloon:

For friends and family who'd like to hear the Big Announcement they made on XM Monday night, I recorded it and, well here 'tis :) (Hit play and you may experience some wait time as it loads. It's a big file) -

Well, I didn't ride in a hot air balloon or anything but I did manage to tuck up in my dark bedroom, all the lights off and watched 'Carnival of Souls' Friday night. If I never hear organ music again it will be too soon, but other than that the old film did have some good freakout moments, mostly when the zombie guy would appear as if from nowhere. I particularly liked the imagery of the zombies dancing in the pavilion. In fact, I liked the pavilion altogether - abandoned carnival type place like that - I'd love to explore something like that.

I think I'd totally dig doing the urban exploring thing like this guy does. I love his photos. Doing something like that would be a blast. I know my county has some abandoned type places that would be a kick to poke around in. Might look into that. I want a video camera and a decent digicam first though.

I just had so much fun when some of us from the paper "explored" the Grand Theatre here in town. And it's not even abandoned. We did that for our Halloween edition of our defunct entertainment page/site and I wanted to make it an annual thing but alas... The following year we dinked around 'Witch's Bridge' just outside of town but our new multimedia guy turned it into more of a news 'investigation' thing and well, it wasn't as much fun as just grabbing a cam and wandering around.

But since we no longer have our entertainment section *sniffle* we won't be doing it again this year. Which sucks.

Wow this post is a linkapalooza for a change :)

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was spent doing mundane household-y stuff that is just too boring to put into words so I'll leave it at that. Time to head for bedfordshire anyway. I'm going to attempt to get a proper night's sleep for a change.

Nothing can defeat the Penis!

2007-09-27T15:15:00.000-05:00

So I'm reading this comment thread on Whedonesque which started off as commenting about some site's listing of the "Beer Bad" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the worst ever and ended up as everyone listing their idea of worst (and best) episodes our of the series.

Do you remember sitting in class back in high school, most likely during a test or something, and someone will whisper something funny to you and you just get an attack of the giggles so bad the teacher asks you to step out? Or maybe not quite that bad, but you know the feeling of trying to hold in a giggle fit. Everyone does.

Well, while reading the comments, someone quoted a line from an episode. The line is, "Nothing can defeat the penis!" Mildly amusing line if you read it dry. But hear it in your head with a deep superhero voice. Worthy of a chuckle? Now imagine that you're remembering that episode, the way the line was delivered by goofy Xander, and how absolutely random the line was and how you spewed Dr. Pepper all over the place because the timing and randomness was so perfect and hilarious.

Now imagine remembering all that while sitting at your desk at work, surrounded by your coworkers all diligently working away and concentrating hard. And throw in the realization that you can't guffaw aloud at this because no one here watched Buffy and would find it very funny and explaining it to them would be pointless because by the time you finish, it's just not really all that funny.

Suppress those giggles. Turn bright red in the face as your chest shakes and your hand is clamped in a death grip over your mouth. Desperately try to stop thinking about that damn line! Ummm... baseball... Wrinkly David Brinkley... That time you walked in on your grandma in just her bra... Ok calming down now... PENIS! Oh no!! Breathe Steph breathe... it's not that funny... Oh god the phone's ringing. Shit! Deep breaths... No don't take a drink of water. You'll ruin the keyboard.

Yeah, that was me about 10 minutes ago. I've got it under control now :)

Direct

2007-09-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

I'm directing this week's HuskersHQ talk show. Well, mostly just running the camera switches, but there's no real script so the switches are sort of freestyle.

When I do the daily newscast, I've got a script and camera changes written in. Easy-peasy. So freestyle makes me a little nervous. Especially since it's a sports show. I know SFA about Husker football so I'm hoping it will be easy to tell when to flip cams.

I'm also excited about it. As I learn more and more about video, producing and editing etc, I'm discovering a new thing that I love doing in my field. It almost feels like it did back in college when I was a bit directionless until I discovered the Internets. I had an epiphany moment when I realized I could make a living out of something I love to do as a hobby.

And I've always dug editing. Been making WAV files and soundclips for eons. But I never had really good tools to learn the stuff full force. I do now and yep, it suits me :) I'm gong to be learning how to shoot video next. Looking forward to that.

Anyway lunch break's nearly over. Check out http://theindependent.com/overtime/ tomorrow and let me know how I did :) Or you can catch my newscasts every other day at http://theindependent.com/video/.

...Later that afternoon...
Well that wasn't so bad. I kind of like freestylin' :) I felt stiff at first and afraid to get too crazy with the switching but you really do kind of get a feel for when to throw it to 1 or toss it to 3. AND you don't have to know football either :) It's more about tone of voice and you can just tell when the talking head is winding up his spiel.

I'd do it again.

Proud

2007-09-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

On any given day, I'm extremely proud of my daughter. She's a force to be reckoned with really. It's funny though, because from the time she reached double digits I always had other parentals giving me words of warning like, "Just wait until she's a teenager" followed by rolling eyes and rueful shaking of their heads. They were letting me know that I'm really 'in for it.'

Well she's been one for several years now and I'm still waiting for the Pod Person to appear. Instead, she's pretty level-headed and definitely smarter and older than her years.

Where I'm going with this is we had the first parent teacher conferences of the year today and I went in knowing the kid is doing extremely well grade-wise - she's really applying herself this year which makes me proud. But what I didn't expect are the wonderful things her teachers were saying. I won't gush on here but I left the place practically bursting with pride in my daughter.

I love you kiddo. Well done and keep it up!

Chop chop

2007-09-24T18:45:00.001-05:00

Woke up this morning, took a shower, got it in my head that I needed bangs (that's 'fringe' for you weirdo Brits :) ) so I cut my hair. Then I did hair and makeup and went to work where exactly zero people even noticed.

I hate that. Sometimes I think I could walk into work with one of those electric light-up suits and huge red arrows suspended above my head and I wouldn't get more than a cursory 'Morning Steph' as coworkers barely glance up from their computer screens.

Back in high school, I was the girl with a different hair colour every week. It was sort of my 'thing.' My Creative Writing teacher even signed my yearbook that way: 'To the girl with the rainbow hair...' What can I say? It was the 80s, and I was a little rebellious. Plus I loved experimenting. Got even worse when I had my stint in cosmotology school. I've had about every hair colour you can think of except for blue.

I think a lot of kids go through that 'pay attention to me' phase - not wanting to be normal, wanting to stick out and be an individual who was also quite cool. I never really kicked the habit I guess. Don't want to be thought of as typical. I like to shake up people's perceptions when they take a minute and look at me.

I could pass you in my car, at first glance at me in my office appropriate attire, what sort of music would you think a nondescript chick in boring attire would b listening to? Light rock? Classical perhaps? Surely when you pull up alongside at a red light the last thing you'd expect to hear are the raucous strains of the Dead Kennedy's going on about rioting and how terminal preppies just like to get drunk and be taught how to f___.

Or if I'm in a different mood, and to counteract the thumping beats of some godawful (c)rap song, I might roll the windows down and pop in my Placebo cd and let Molko moan about being a nancy boy at full volume.

Ok I've disappeared off on a tangent here. Point is, I still don't think I want to be thought of as typical or normal and despite appearances or affectations, I probably am anyway. But my bangs look cute anyway :)

Alone

2007-09-22T21:49:00.000-05:00

It's homecoming tonight and the kid is off, all dressed up with flowers in her hair. I took a piccy with my cell and promptly forgot to hit 'save.' So no pics. So it's just me tonight and I'm bored.

I did make a new tune... Finished it up today. It's quite creepy and I like it a lot :) I call it 'Deviant.' I really dig Sony's Acid Pro. It's a lot of fun making these weird songs.

Mostly I've been catching up on my Tivo-ing today. I looked at my playlist and couldn't believe all the shows I forgot to watch. I'm down to the Torchwoods I've recorded off BBCa. I was right, they edited the juicy stuff out for the Yanks. Wankers. I want to buy the DVDs but damned if I'm going to shell out 60 or 70 bucks for a 13 episode series. It's ridiculous. I could buy the entire 22 episode series of Buffy or Angel right now for around 20 bucks. It irritates me that the Torchwood and Who's are so expensive :(

Oh, I watched 'Last House on the Left' last night. It was more disturbing than scary. And I think my intense dislike of all things 70s kind of coloured my view of it. I really hate that decade. Thank goodness I have few memories of it. But, I can see why the film is a cult classic. I just couldn't really get into it. I've got 'Carnival of Souls,' 'The Ring 2' (the first Ring kinda freaked me a little and I've been told the second one is scarier. We shall see.) and '28 Days Later' coming next week.

Well I think I' up for a while. I've had a mocha and I'm sort of wired. Wired and Bored. Think I'll go see what sort of trouble I can get into.

Beam :)

2007-09-21T18:06:00.001-05:00

With a little techno wizardry, I now have a smaller version of the painting I so adore hanging on my very own wall.

It's not perfect and I f'd up the matting as you can tell from the gash down one side but it pleases me for now, at least until I can get better framing or even better, someday own the actual print.

And someday, when I build my home theatre and fill it with props and replicas, this can go next to my VampAngel puppet so I can stop feeling silly for buying it :) Hey, I've got a replica of Sting too. Need a place for all this stuff :) Stop mocking me. Yes you, Mr. 'I bought a Stormtrooper prop helmet on eBay.'

Real Horrorshow

2007-09-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

Came home to find my latest Netflixes waiting for me :) Every year as it gets closer to Halloween I find myself in the mood to be scared out of my gourd by a scary movie. The problem is that it's difficult to find a movie that's truly scary. Usually they end up being mere gorefests.

Gore squicks me, it doesn't scare me. I'll tell you what scares me:

- Freaky-looking woods at night.
- Things I can't see.
- Ghosty things as long as they aren't cheesy.
- It's more terrifying to me to open a door to a basement and not see anything but an inky blackness, not knowing what's down there than it is to open a door and have some ax-wielding psycho chop your arms off in blood-spattering glee.
- Abandoned buildings, mental hospitals in particular.
- Hauntings.

Things that don't scare me:
- Things I can't bring myself to believe if the story's not somewhat plausible.
- Demonic stuff doesn't frighten me. Exorcist - freaky and cool but scary? not so much.
- The aforementioned gore. I'm not saying I'm against gory movies, I'm just saying they don't really scare me.

Eh, that's all I can think of. My problem is that I may be too desensitized to be truly scared. I can't think of a single film since Blair Witch that's freaked me out. Before you send me hatemail for stating Blair Witch is scary I just want to say save it. Some people it scared, some people just laughed at it. For me, it's got the potentially haunted and freaky woods, the creepy things happening at night, increasingly scared kids lost and stumbling on increasingly scary items (the effigies hanging in the clearing? ca-reepy) and the added bonus of all the viral marketing making folks think it was real. I'm sufficiently creative enough in my imagination to let myself go and get truly scared by the film. I dug it. Sue me.

Anyway, so I've been on a quest to find a good scary movie. A friend made some great recs and so I'm looking forward to watching 'Last House on the Left' this weekend. I've also got one called 'Psycho Beach Party' but I just liked the title. Dunno if it's actually scary.

Here's hoping!

...Later that night...

Psycho Beach Party was great! So totally not scary, but more of an hilarious and campy take on Gidget-y type movies and slasher flicks. Boyish gal longs to be noticed by the boys so she ingratiates herself into a bunch of surfer dudes. Little do they know she's a little... off. Anyway it's a cool little b-movie.

The search for teh scary goes on (I will look into The Descent - thanks!)

Whims

2007-09-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

I rearranged my bedroom last night. It was around 8:45 and I hadn't been doing much when I made the spontaneous decision to change the room up.

Actually I had thought about it this weekend but I sort of half talked my way out of it. Didn't want to mess with finding places to plug in things was the big reason against. So the idea had been percolating in the brain for a few days anyway. Last night I just decided to do it. I'm weird like that.

Actually, my room's so small that there aren't a lot of layout options for it so it didn't take long, and I pretty much ended up going back to the way I had it when I first moved in. Bed shoved in the corner, half under my window, free-standing mirror in the corner and night stand with the requisite electronic gear moved under the window.

I've got more room for, well, let's see I could DDR now in my room or I could *really* get into my air guitaring. I could perform one-acts or maybe even turn the larger area into a mini dance floor complete with disco ball and floor lights.

I woke up this morning completely disoriented. Spooky's all kinds of confused. But at least I don't hear the muffled sounds of sex and snoring next door much now that my head's not right up against the shared wall.

Bloggin' the Emmy's

2007-09-16T19:23:00.000-05:00

It's Emmy night. Really the only award I care about is whether Kiefer Sutherland will beat Gandolfini for Best Actor. I don't think he will but we'll see.

The awards seem to be going ok so far, even with Seacrest hosting. Stewie and Brian opened with a song and dance peppered with digs at the other networks (except FOX, hehe) and Seacrest was mildly funny (and blessedly brief.)

Was glad to see Terry O'Quinn win. I lurve him. They're doing the show 'in the round' which is a little strange and offputting. The actors look a little lost when they finish their speeches. They don't know which way to go to get offstage.

I've somehow hit some button on my remote console that has turned on close captioning. I do not know which button out of the myriad of buttons on this damn thing turns it off.
Whahey, Thomas Hayden Church won for something... cool!! I loved him on Wings.

You know I don't like the music that they jack up to get the actors offstage. I know they have time issues, but you know, it's a big moment for some of these actors. They should get enough time to gush and cry and thank God, their drama teachers from high school, their gardeners.. I'd watch it all.

Aww Jon Cryer... He will forever and always be... the Duckman. Best writing in a comedy series. The nominee short films were freakin' hilarious. Conan's writing team won. Good for them :)

Close captioning still bugging me. Which bloody button shuts it off???!!! Argh.

Hmmm Tony Bennett and Aguilera... Not bad. I especially like the dancers in undone tuxes. Yum. Ok I know Christina can sing and all. Good set of pipes and all that but I'm just not a fan of the runs she does. Let's hit every note on the scales while singing one word. Yawn.

Oh man Kiefer looks damn good presenting. 'Scuse me while I go have a cold shower. Holy cow how cool, Robert Duvall won the award he was presenting and Duvall made a point of telling everyone what a good horseman Kiefer is. Cool :) Oh turn off the music already, it's Robert freaking Duvall. Let the man tell his story.

Standing O for Roots. Teh awesome. Took me a long time to get used to seeing Levar Burton as Jordy on TNG. I remember seeing Roots back in the day so he was always Kunta to me.

Yeah I think it's gonna be a Soprano's kind of night. Despite Imperioli not winning Best Supporting, it just won for Best Director. Aaaand it just won for Best Writing.

The Daily Show wins. Again. Which is great :) It's a good show.

Ahhh found the blasted button. Closed captioning is now gone and I can get on with my life.

Yeah ok I've skipped a bit. The Jersey Boys just did a nice little tribute then they trotted out the cast of the show for a final bow which was nice. I don't remember the Emmy's doing so much for a specific show before. Have they? I could be wrong.

It's 8:47pm CT so the show is about 1/4 of the way over....

Jaysis they're STILL doing awards for miniseries stuff. Oh but that's cool, Helen Mirren just won. I've met her you know. She rocks. She looks awesome.

Wow. Al Gore just won an Emmy. Interactive TV something or other. Word.

I'm starting to get sleepy. Nearly 9:30 now and we're only at Best ___ for a Reality Competition.

For the record, I'm going to bed once Kiefer ~~loses to Gandolfini~~ crushes the competition. I'll find out who won the rest in the morning :) If OJ Simpson doesn't dominate the news.

Ah ok on to Best Actor/Actresses in Comedy. Surely that means its nearing the end... Sally Fields is stuttering on stage and I believe she was just censored. How funny. "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no God-" dead air.

And now the In Memoriam but. Sniffle. Steve Irwin... Joel Siegel... Peter Boyle... Jack Palance...Jane Wyman... Tom Poston... Ed Bradley... Pavarotti... Merv..

Hey cool Ugly Betty won. Right on. Very nice speech.

Kiefer time.... Fingers crossed... Aaaaaand.... Fuck. James Spader. I was so wrong. Well that's not unusual. Man, He doesn't look like Stef from Pretty in Pink anymore :)

This livebloggin thing is fun by the way... This way, tomorrow when the coworkers are yakking about the awards around the watercooler, I can just say, "Just read the blog. I said it all there." I can't wait.

30 Rock wins Best Comedy series. I didn't know it was still on the air. But good on Tina Fey, I like her.

Helen Mirren is up now presenting the final award of the night, Best Drama. Winner is, Soprano's. That's great :) I'm happy for them. Damn the cast takes up the whole stage.

So that's the end. 3 hours and fifteen minutes. Not bad really. Was an OK show, nothing spectacular. The thing I think they'll be talking about the most on Defamer is the mispronunciation of Katherine Heigl's name by an announcer and her correcting them when she got to the microphone :) Everyone else will be gushing about Jon Stewart, Colbert and Carrell's group hug :)

!Orange

2007-09-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

Whahey, a new look. I decided one can only deal with so much orange and so I decided to go back to a simpler, basic look. Makes it easier to read.

Anyway look at my shiny new header! That was fun to make and I can switch out the pics periodically for shits and giggles.

I don't have much to write about atm, but I figured I should say something to go along with the shiny new look. Still got a cough but I feel mucho better. Wil Wheaton talked to me... sorta... in his blog comments and I sound like a douche but still! I had a nerdgasm.

There are some new shows I'll be checking out this fall and I may be able to write a column on them for the paper again. I'm going to check out a new one on NBC called 'Life,' which is shaping up to be a cop show with a bit of a twist. 'Moonlight' on CBS- I'll give it a chance anyway. A vampire detective show.. Hmmm.. I think I may end up preferring it when they called it 'Angel' but we'll see. I'm going to pop into 'Without a Trace' for five episodes at least since that's how many James Marsters is guest starring in :) I am fully aware of how ~~lusty~~ silly I get over some TV/Film stars but it's my fantasy life, I'll live it however I want :)

Then of course there are the usual suspects - Survivor, Bones and ummm... well that's it until 24 comes back. I don't have a lot of regulars anymore. Oh Torchwood on the Beeb of course.

Well ok, I guess I had a little bit to write about :)

The Quest

2007-09-11T17:59:00.000-05:00

Remember back in April when I talked about my quest to find a beautiful painting I saw on "Angel"? This one behind the stunning David Boreanaz to be exact:

Well as of today, the quest is over. Thanks to the help of my favourite set decorator, I learned the name of the picture, the actual artist and that is was painted in 1983. It is, unfortunately, unavailable in print. There were limited editions but they've sold out. Just my luck eh? I will be able to get a 3X5 print though so that's just what I'm going to do.

This has been fun trying to track something sort of obscure down. I wanted to say thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions and helped me on this odd little journey. Special, big shout out thank you goes to the coolest set decorator ever. Thanks for staying in touch and for letting me get little glimpses into your world. It's been beyond awesome.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Intertubes?

Sunday

2007-09-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

It's a gorgeous day out today. Overcast and CHILLY! MMmmmm I can't wait for Fall and today feels like a taste of it.

It's been a great day so far. I've got the last two eps of Torchwood to watch this evening, got some awesome emails from a friend, a pan full of lasagna to give to the G's later on, and I'm feeling somewhat better cold-wise. Just have to shake the cough, keep up the meds and I should be kicking it before it gets worse.

I think I'll do a meme since I don't really have much else to say.

This one is weather-related:

1. Where you live, what kind of weather (or weather-related tragedy) do you fear the most?
Well here in the middle of Tornado Alley I'd better say Tornadoes eh? Here in my city, back in 1980 there were seven big tornadoes that touched down and demolished half the town. There was a book and a film made of it (Night of the Twisters.) I lived in Cali at the time so didn't go through it, but I had family here that was affected. We came a couple weeks afterwards and saw all the damage.

2. What kind of weather do you MOST enjoy?
Thunderstormy weather. Barring that I tend to prefer cloudy, overcast days more than I do sunny days. I prefer a chill in the air and low low humidity.

3. What kind of weather do you LEAST like to drive in?
I hate driving in snow. I also hate driving in blistering heat, but at least there's less chance of spinning out on the interstate in the heat.

4. What is the scariest weather-related experience you've had in your lifetime?
I've never really been through truly scary weather-related stuff. Had to go to the basement a few times during tornado warnings but nothing ever came of them. The scariest thing I've been through though was the 1989 7.2 earthquake in Central Cali. I was working in a video shop when everything start rumbling. The closes sound I can think of to emulate it is, if you've ever dragged a heavy chair across a cement floor and you get that sort of stuttering grumbling noise.. That's what it sounded like. The glass was shattering, the TVs were falling our of the shelves, video boxes everywhere... And like idiots we ran outside -right underneath a cement overhang. I remember feeling like I was standing on a waterbed that someone had just bellyflopped onto. I watched my car rock and sway.

My parents were in San Fran at Candlestick watching the world series. My little sis was with our neighbours. So I made it home, found Kelly, and we spent our time trying to get through to family here in Nebby and panicking when we heard the Bay Bridge collapsed in SF. Marina, where we lived, is about a 2, 2 1/2 hour drive from the City. It took my parents close to 12 hours to make it home to us. It was freaky.

5. Share a "weather picture" with us!
Here's the gallery I put together for the paper's site on the 1980 tornadoes. The entire site is worth a visit too: www.gitwisters.com.

Torture

2007-09-07T21:32:00.001-05:00

Oh god today was torture. I got up this morning after a fitful night of flipping from one side to the other because the snot buildup on one side made that side feel like half my face was going to pop like a water balloon. So you flip, everything shifts to the other side but for a few blissful moments you can breathe through your nose and it's heavenly.

After a shower and some meds I was actually feeling a bit better. Got to work, went to the dungeon to produce the morning Newslink, and by the time I came back upstairs the meds were wearing off. But I couldn't take more until 1-ish. And I was stuck at work, having given the car to Shannon for the day. So lunch was miserable and the afternoon proceeded to drag by very. slowly. My head was pounding, I was sneezing a lot, filling up the wastebasket with kleenex, coughing, muscles hurting... I seriously thought I was going to cry at some point. I just wanted to go home.

So basically, I'm still sick :) Don't you just love the graphic descriptions of the common cold? Hehe. Share the pain is what I always say. Judging by the cough that has developed I may be in for a round of bronchitis which, well, fucking sucks if you don't mind me saying so. Don't want to go to the doc.

I have to make lasagna again on Sunday. Was supposed to make it and take it to the G's last weekend but the kid got sick. I made it anyway because it sounded so good. So we've been eating on it all week. Now I have to make it again and the G's want us to eat it with them. I don't wanna. I just wanted to make it for them to say thanks for helping me with the car thing. My thought was they could freeze it or eat on it for a while or whatever. But they want to share, so it will probably be another year or two before I make this stuff again. I'm lasagna'd out.

Anyway, I'm going to go take more meds and try to sleep. Mmmm meds.

Fluids

2007-09-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

It's an interesting process, the catching of a cold. When you sit at a desk working away and your face begin to heat up a little. You might sneeze a couple of times but you won't think anything of it. (side note - god I love to sneeze.) But an hour passes by and you feel a slightly annoying tickle at the back of your throat. You clear the throat a couple of times but by then you can feel your sinus passages filling up with fluids that will either run down your throat and aggravate that tickle, or come out your nose, most likely when you're chatting to someone.

Your head starts to pound a little, the fluids building up make it feel like an anvil and it's not long now before your skin is sore to the touch, your throat begins hurting with every swallow and not even ice cream can soothe it.

All of this happens within the space of an afternoon. By the time you leave for the day, your feet are dragging as you walk out to the car, all your joints hurt when you move, and all you can focus on is coming home, crawling in bed and hope this thing passes quickly.

That was me yesterday, and today was worse. Couldn't even stay at the office the whole day. I don't want to infect anyone and frankly, sitting and staring at my screen was torture. Eyes watering, snot running, voice getting that sexy, deep gravelly sound - well, that part I kind of dig, but it never lasts.

I slept this afternoon but I despise taking naps. I always feel like utter shite when I wake up from one. I finished snagging a couple more episodes of Torchwood while I dozed so I just got done watching those. I'm doped on decongestants that do nothing but make my mouth dry and vitamins. I'm afraid to take echinacea because my skin reacts to it so I'm afraid I won't get over this as quickly as the kid did. She got sick Sunday afternoon and today she's all better.

Anyway, enough whinging. I'd rather go on and on about what a bloody brilliant show Torchwood is. I might even like it better than Dr. Who. At first I was shocked by how, erm, graphic the show is, and the fact they can say 'shit' and 'fuck' on BBC3 after 9pm apparently. American television is so uptight. Stupid censors.

When I say shocked, I mean that in a good way. It's refreshing to me since I don't really watch much of the stuff on the movie channels (Soprano's and that's about it) but you wouldn't catch the unedited Soprano's on CBS or something. I think unedited Torchwood would probably have to be shown on HBO or Showtime. It's premiering on BBCAmerica this Saturday, but I bet the edit the crap out of it :(

If you dunno what Torchwood is, it's basically a spinoff of Dr. Who. Torchwood is meant to be a secret agency dealing with aliens and their technology, and they bastardize that stuff in order to arm the human race in case of invasion. They're a team of five atm led by Captain Jack Harkness who was featured in a few eps of Who. Jack is an immortal Time Agent but his TW team does not know this.

When I say the show is graphic, I mean that in a way I'm not used to. I'm a yank after all I was shocked recently watching something on FX and they said 'Shit.' Blew me away. I grew up with censors an I remember what a fight it was to get them to allow the word 'bitch' on primetime. Anyway, Best example of what they get away with on TW is the second episode.

An meteor crashes to earth and the entity inside escapes and inhabits the body of a young woman. She's a club kid type. The entity basically needs to powerful energy created by orgasms to survive. Weird eh? So this chick is shagging like crazy (and wow do they show more than the love scenes on Yank tv shows. No artfully placed sheets here.) I'm talking up against the wall stuff. Ok, bit of an eye-opener for me, but it was the next scene where the security guy has to explain to Jack and the team how the bloke she was shagging died (oh yeah, once she gets off, whomever she's doing explodes and dusts like a vamp.) He was watching them on cctv cam and having a wank. And THAT would never be shown here.

It wasn't shown in detail on TW either. Was just a facial (ha!) shot but you knew what he was up to. I know I keep going on about me being taken aback but it was only because I'm jealous of how much freer the UK, hell Europe in general is about stuff like that. You don't think about it really, living here in the states , but when you see stuff like this that you know is on a normal channel across the pond, it makes you a little pissed at conservatives who are forever 'guarding the nation's morals' by threatening to boycott blah blah blah if the networks don't conform to their narrow views. Turn the feckin' tv off if you don't like what you see. Change the channel. Guard your own damn morals and let me mind mine.

Well.. bit of a tangent there. Blame my meds.

Anyway Torchwood good. Fluid in sinuses bad and my morals are just fine thank you very much.

Signing off

2007-09-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

Ending a convo on IM with my sis:

Steph says: Ok off to watch some Torchwood.
Steph says: Time for hot omnisexual time agents
Kelly says: okie
Kelly says: nice
Kelly says: when isn't it that time?
Steph says: That's what I'm saying :)

:)

Cold light of day

2007-09-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

Shannon seems unaffected by last night's events with the neighbours. Good. Maybe they'll stick to the truce or whatever. But if the noise becomes an issue again, I'll just make our landlord or cops deal with it. No more going over there.

I'd kill to have my own house.

Anyway, today my Gran turns 82. Happy Birthday even though you'll never read this :) called you so it's all good. And tomorrow you get my yummy lasagne.

Just got off the phone with Kelly. I talk to her all the time online but it's nicer to hear the voice you know? Always fun to talk to her and Matty. I tried helping them walk through setting up a wireless network, but I'm not THAT kind of a geek, you know? I do software, not hardware. I'll make your sites look pretty but messing with WANs and WEPs is beyond my ken. I kept telling them to just buy a Linksys router because it's bingbangboom to set those up. But they have a perfectly good router that works, was cheap but they lost the instructions and so they decided to just wing it on setting it up. Good luck with that.

I whined to Kelly about my confrontation issues. Got some good advice an now I'm back to feeling better. I'll talk to Shannon about it later as well to make sure she's all right with having a wimp for a mum.

Today's gonna be pretty dull. Some house tidying, a trip to the store during the Husker game (best time to shop) and I've got a contest to set up on my 24 site. I'm starting to get solicitations from publishing houses wanting me to review their books about the show they have coming out and one of them wants me to give away 5 copies of the book on the site. Sweet, eh? I love swag. Swag is of the good.

Off now.

Neighbours

2007-09-01T00:14:00.000-05:00

And just like that I can go from feeling pretty good, to pretty shitty over the course of an evening.

Just spent about 20 minutes in the bathroom having an imaginary conversation with our bloody neighbours who sort of scared Shannon a little earlier. It was an imaginary, confrontational rant because I am too much of a coward to actually go over there and confront them.

What does that say about me as a mother, that I can't stand up for her?

We came home and found that the harem next door had their music up loud again. Loud enough to where we could sing along. Not really conducive to doing one's homework. So Shannon went over there to politely ask them to turn it down.

The hag who answered the door - a leathery old tart - went off on Shannon. "You guys and your fucking cupboards and fucking slamming the fucking things all the fucking time. We're fucking sick of it."

I think Shannon was a little shocked that the woman kept swearing at her for one thing and for another, we had no idea that opening and closing our cupboard in the kitchen (on which we share a wall with them) was such an issue to them. Shan tried to explain that we're not over here maliciously slamming the cupboard doors just to piss them off but the woman was having none of it. Somehow they worked out a truce or whatever when the guy who lives there told the old bitch to leave Shan alone. She told Shannon they'd turn down the music if we stopped slamming out cupboards. They shook on it etc. and she came home and told me what happened.

I was angry that anyone would speak to my daughter that way and I was fearful that it could have gotten worse. What I should have done was march over there and demand an apology from the trailer ho. I should have told her that no one speaks that way to my daughter. I should have shown Shannon that I love her enough to face my own fears of confrontation to defend her. Granted this wasn't 'showdown at the OK Corral, gang fight in the alley' or anything, but surely it would have meant something to her if she'd known I would do that for her.. I was angry enough. Why couldn't I do anything about it?

Because I was too scared. I don't know how to confront people and speak coherently. All thought processes leave my head and I trip and stumble over my words and I babble like an idiot, which doesn't exactly come across as 'Yikes, I'd better back off.'

So instead, I imagine everything I should have gone and said to them. I play it out in my head over and over until I get my Angry Speech just right. And then I feel guilty because the moment has passed and it would be weird to go do it now, when I should have done it right after it happened. And I berate myself publicly in this blog for being too paralysed with indecision and fear to stand up for my own daughter.

I like to think that, if Shannon was in true danger, I wouldn't think twice about a confrontation. And this occurrence tonight was fairly minor really. But I think I need to try and figure out how to get past this crappy shyness thing that plagues me and has plagued me for most of my life. No confidence. No desire to actually BE a bitch if I need to. I've never wanted anyone to think badly of me, even my shitty neighbours. I'd rather resolve our noise issues with them peaceably rather than through confrontation. But I don't know if that can happen as long as the aging bitch lives there and acts the way she acts. There was no call for her rant at Shannon and I regret that I let her go over and ask them to turn it down. Usually one of the younger girls (and really, we've never been able to suss out just WHO lives there. people come and go) says they'll turn it down but maybe whinge a little that it really isn't very loud and that's it.

That's why I think the kid and I were a bit shocked by leatherface.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't have blogged about this. Just felt the need to see what a chicken I am in print I guess.

Name Game

2007-08-31T19:44:00.000-05:00

My friend Kat has tagged me so I suppose I must carry on with this particular meme. It's weird though, but ah well. All in fun :)

I guess what you have to do is name a fact about yourself for every letter of your middle name: Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.

You're also supposed to 'tag' other people, one for each letter of your middle name etc. But I don't know enough bloggers for each letter of my middle name. So if anyone stumbling across this matches a letter in my name, feel free to consider yourself tagged. Mike or Meechie and that's about it. Though Meechie's middle name is Demetrius which would be a bugger to do facts for, hehe. Lucky Kat, her middle name is Ann. How easy is that? I think she should do her full name.

Anyway, my middle name is, funnily enough, Melia. So here goes:

M - Many weird phobias. Such as a bizarre fear of Space. The thought of sort of being abandoned or lost and alone in the vastness of space makes me queasy. Closer to home, I have an irrational, impossible ... *thing* about.. this is hard to describe. Ok, I have some of my DVD collection in my room. The boxes have pix of my fave celebs. I have to either turn the boxes so they don't face me or are covered up because I don't want them to see me naked or something. Isn't that freaky? Yeah I think so too. Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that one :) The rational part of my brain laughs at the irrational side quite often. Please still love me :)

E - Easy to talk to. Well, I think I am anyway. I tend to be shy which many people mistake for snobbery but I can assure you I'm probably just too petrified to think of something to say that doesn't make me sound like an asshat. But once I get past the initial hurdle and you know me better, you can't shut me up.

L - Love to talk with an accent. I would so totally speak with several British accents if it didn't make me seem pretentious around here. But I will do it when I'm out and about the town. In the shops or at Starbucks. It cracks me up to be renting a vid at Hastings, talking to Shan with my London accent (luckily, she likes to do it as well) and have the clerk make a fuss. Mean? Nah, just a bit of fun really. Have I ever been caught out? Nope. I've done this since I was in junior high and I delivered newspapers to a retirement community who thought I was an adorable exchange student. Maybe it's just a bid to make myself seem more interesting than I really am. Who knows. Or maybe, just maybe, I simply love doing accents :)

I - I spend far too much time online. That one really needs no further explanation.

A - Am a total grammar nazi. Living in Nebby sometimes does my head in because of the rampant awful grammar. "I seen that movie the other day." "Oh yeah, them are real cute." *shudder* I want to curl up and go to my happy place when I hear stuff like that.

So there you go. Five useless and frankly, bizarre facts about myself. Oh and one more just for fun, 'Melia' is an anagram of 'Email.' It's like the Internet is my destiny. :)

Aunty Jo

2007-08-31T10:29:00.000-05:00

Lightbulbs

2007-08-30T20:48:00.000-05:00

The title of this post is completely random and mostly meant to tease Tonga who cannot seem to purchase the correct lightbulbs for her chandelier. No matter how many times she goes back to return them for the right ones :)

Shannon has a new job. Yes, she no longer works for the DQ. She was a victim of her age and being the low one on the totem pole. They couldn't give her enough hours so they - very nicely I should add - let her go with a good recommendation. She wasn't having much luck finding something else, despite not being limited to a five block radius of our place now that she can drive. But she wanted to turn in an app at a fabric store near here and she found out last night they're going to hire her :) She starts next week. Woot! She's very excited.

School's going well for her so far. She seems to be more diligent about her homework and everything so far. I'm keeping tabs on her through the parent portal and so far, A's all around :) She loves her English teacher this year and that makes me very happy. She says he's just like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. Oh Captain, my Captain :) As long as she doesn't develop an affinity for Walt Whitman.

Looking forward to the three-day weekend though it will be busy. Saturday is my Gran's 82nd bday. The G's are going to Red Lobster (gag) for dinner so we'll be taking over my famous lasagne on Sunday for dinner. My Aunty Jo's coming to town Sunday as well, I think, so I'll have to work out the timing. It will be loverly to see her again.

Monday is free and clear so I might take a stab at some proper writing. I'm happy to say I've got a couple of ideas kicking around that I want to muck with, so yay!

Think I'll try to go to bed early tonight. I'm knackered. I don't sleep well and 2am phone calls from work that require me to troubleshoot while still sort of dreaming isn't helping.

Better

2007-08-29T19:26:00.000-05:00

Nothing broke today. Phew :)

I think the dealership washed my car though - or at least they rinsed the dust off. You'd think if someone is spending $845 bucks there they'd at least hoover out the floors, but no. Instead, a couple strips of plastic that runs around the sides of my car came loose and were hanging off and my Placebo sticker was ruined. Luckily, I had a backup.

Anyway, enough whinging about the car. I feel somewhat better today. Netflix sent me 'Placebo, Once More with Feeling' the videos from 1996 - 2004 and I've been reveling in them. I've been a 'cebo fan since 2001 and to this day I'd never actually seen any of their videos except on crappy dubbed VHS tapes my European friends sent me. SO it was sort of heavenly to see them properly. AND the DVD includes commentary for them all from the band which was awesome.

I discovered Placebo not long after my mother died and something in their music really struck a chord with me. I've talked about this before I think so I won't rehash. But suffice to say Placebo will always be near and dear to my heart and all that mushy stuff. I hope I get to see them in concert again.

So once again, Placebo has picked me up and since today has been so gorgeous weather-wise, we're going to go for a walk when it gets a bit darker. I like walking in the evening, just after the sun has set. I don't know why. It just feels nice. Til then, I'm gonna read a bit. Ta ra :)

Can I scream now?

2007-08-28T11:54:00.000-05:00

The kid thinks there should be a room, either in your house or at work or something that's completely soundproof where you can go and just shriek like a banshee when the need arises. I would love such a room. Or I could do what Sally Bowles does and wait under a train bridge and shriek when a train passes.

Whatever works.

I'm having a bad day/week/summer. Money's been so damn tight and we're just sort of 'getting by' until things pick up this fall. But yesterday at lunch, I go home, fix my mac 'n cheese, head back and when I turn the key in the ignition, my car splutters, coughs and dies. Cough cough, splutter splutter, die die. It's 95 degrees out, I'm panicking because now I'm late getting back to work, and all of my fears about 'getting by' come crashing down on me when I realize I'm going to have to pull money out of my ass to fix the damn car.

So I call my long-suffering Grampa. Bless him. He patiently listens to me as I freak out about what could possibly be wrong with the car and offers his opinion on what it could be as I wait for my long-suffering coworker to leave work, brave the heat and come pick me up.

So once I get back to work, I open the phone book and look at auto repair shops. I'm bewildered as to who to call, who seems trustworthy, who won't rip me off... and in the end I call a dealership who've been nice to me in the past when I had minor fixes.

Never again.

They swing by, pick up my keys and tow my car down there. Grampa picks the kidlet up from school and me up from work and we're carless for the evening. No big. Not like I had anything to do. But it's funny how, when you have a car, staying in is no big. When you don't have a car, you think of a million things you need a car to go do. But we muddled through.

Grampa picked us up this morning and dropped me at work and Shan at school and I promised I'd let him know what the auto guys said when they call.

And now I'm *really* wishing I'd taken it somewhere else. They called. My fuel pump was shot and the entire "module" needed to be replaced. Cost? $845-ish. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS! That is single-handedly the largest amount of money I've ever had to pay for a car repair. Ever. E-VAR. The fuel pump "module" alone was $505. Haven't these people heard of open source? :(

Anyway, I asked about trading my beloved car for something else and was told my car isn't worth much anymore and any car they could sell me would be crap.

So my beloved grandparents, who are the best at soothing their hysterical granddaughter said they would dip into savings and cover the cost and that I can work out a repayment plan with them. I'm alternately relieved and guilty. I hate, HATE that they had to bail me out of a fix. I know they don't want me to feel guilty and that it's all good and paying them back will take a while but they know I'll do it but it's not doing much to improve my stress levels.

I've got my car back and it's running fine and all. But what a price :( I'm going home tonight, I'm curling up on my bed, having a good cry, then a cup of Earl Grey followed by fuzz therapy from Spooky and some Shannon-time.

Bathtime

2007-08-25T21:49:00.000-05:00

Spooky had a bath today. She didn't go willingly. In fact, this lolcat pretty much sums up her feelings about bathtime:

She was pretty pissed off at us for most of the afternoon. But now she's all soft and fuzzy and smellygood.

Since we came back from Montana, I decided to give up on keeping her out of my room during the night. I usually prefer to shut my door when I go to bed, and ever since she was a kitty, she was not the most peaceful overnight sleepers. I think Shannon as a baby was better at sleeping through the night than Spooky is. She likes to meander around the bed during the night. There's nothing like being in a deep sleep only to be viciously woken up because a cat has stepped on your hair, yanking strands out at the roots. All because she just wuvs me so much. Or, I'm a side-sleeper usually. So if I'm laying on my left side, she has to curl up against me so her whiskers tickle my lips. If I turn over, she has to get up, stretch, leap over me using my thighs as a springboard and curl up in her spot again. Apparently, she must alway be in front of me.

Anyway, I used to keep her out at night because I couldn't get a full night's sleep with her dong all that. Sometimes it worked fine, but most of the time she would yowl outside my door and scratch at it until I got up and chased her with the squirt bottle. Then she'd leave me alone for a while and around 5am-ish, she'd start in again.

But I'm stubborn and I thought I could break her of it if I just didn't give in. Years go by and she still did it. So after Montana I said, sod it and just let her sleep with me. Since she's older now she's sleeping more and doesn't decide to walk laps around my entire body at 3am but she still must always be in front of me. And if she wakes me up before my alarm does and I boot her of the bed, she gets petulant.

It's actually kind of funny. She walks over to the doorstop spring thingie and flicks it. Boooooioioioiong. I look over at her and she's just sitting there looking so smug. Like, "Well fuck you then."

Sometimes I miss having a dog :)

Shmoop

2007-08-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight the kidlet and I watched the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie, with Kristy Swanson as Buffy and Donald Sutherland as her Watcher. Wow. First of all, the film is so far removed from everything the series became it's almost painful to watch. That's sort of sad to me because I actually kind of like the movie. I remember seeing it when it came out and thinking it was campy, but fun. I mean, Pee Wee Herman as a long-haired vamp? Can't get more campy than that.

Hilary Swank is in it as well, which I'd forgotten. David Arquette, not to mention Luke Perry (damn, forgot how hawt that boy was) and I think I even glimpsed a walk-on appearance by Ben Affleck but I can't be sure... quick alt-tab over to imdb... Yep! He was 'Basketball player #10.' Hehe. So for a cheesy, campy, almost b-movie worthy flick, it had some folk in it who went on to bigger and better. Oh and Rutger Hauer. I mention him last because after seeing him in Ladyhawke, I can't forgive him for this silly, OTT vamp role.

I've read that even though Joss Whedon wrote this BtVS flick, he's not fond of how it turned out. Or something. I'm not sure of the whole story and I can't be bothered to look it up. All I can say is thank goodness he did the TV show. It was a kickass story idea that deserved better.

But I still love the shmoopy little flick anyway :)

Technosnob

2007-08-23T18:25:00.000-05:00

This whole post is going to make me out to seem like a technosnob and maybe I am, a little. The computer questions and problems people have with what are, to me, fairly simple things boggles me. It's hard to explain what I mean without giving an example.

I belong to a particular email list that's mainly full of chicks who dig certain actor I like. I mostly joined so I could get scoops and info about what the actor is up to. I don't know anyone on the list but I have to wonder how some of them manage to figure out how to turn on their computers much less get online and join an email list.

Ooo catty. These are perfectly nice ladies as far as I can figure out, but when someone sends a link to a photo to the list that ends up truncated and split onto two lines because it's so long (why no one has worked out how to use tinyurl.com is beyond me), it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out you're going to have to cut and paste both lines together in your browser address bar. Instead, a flurry of 'I can't see the picture :( :( :(' posts are made to the list followed by a flurry of explanation emails from members who know what they're doing.

I guess this example just made me think of all of the "I can't find..." and "How do you..." emails I deal with daily at work. Most of the time I can tell the person asking the question is just too damn lazy to look for the info themselves and want me to do it for them. Sometimes the person just should not be allowed to have a computer. I answer all their questions without betraying the 'Oh my god, please take a computer class' tone that tries to creep into my voice and send them on their way because I am a professional and I have to remember that not everyone is tech-oriented, but man, sometimes I just have nod and smile and hope these folks listen when I teach.

I once had a lady ask me to help her out with her computer. I asked her what kind of computer she had and I swear to Elvis this was her actual reply: "I'm not sure... but it does have a mouse!" and she was very proud that she knew that much.

Anyway, I dunno where I was going with this little rant. Just felt the need to get it out there.