First there was this.
Then, LeVar Burton responded.
Michael Ian Black at once threw down*, and the LeWar was on.
* (At which point, I have to ask, what kind of culturally dead cretin does NOT know LeVar Burton played Kunta Kinte in Roots, let alone one who makes his living largely by commenting on American mainstream culture? Srsly.)
It's a battle royal between the cool hip of Mr. Geordie LaForge, the Reading Rainbow Man himself, LeVar Burton, and the tragically trendy, culturally shallow (I can only surmise) Michael Ian Black. He with the most followers wins.
So get thee to Twitter, my peeps. Get an account and choose a side. You'll be glad you did. ;)
Peace out,
Katie
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Whisper To a Scream
On the way home from work tonight, I heard a song I haven't heard since junior high. Since I was working on the farm with my dad. Next thing I knew, I was sobbing and dealing with the realization that my dad is dead. He is dead. I will never see, hear, speak to, or hug him again. I have not seen him in almost 6 years. I sat in my car and screamed for an hour, and it's hard not to cry now. But I can't, because I don't want to upset my mother. My heart is raw, and it hurts in a way you can't know unless you've lost a parent or child or maybe sibling. You might think you know, but you don't. I imagine losing a child is worse, because children are not supposed to predecease their parents, and there's just no way you can prepare for that. But you can't really prepare for the loss of a parent either, and I feel like I'm going to explode with the pain of it. I want my daddy. Just one more fucking time, I want my daddy. I want to hug him and be hugged and tell him I love him. I want to know that he is okay, in a good place, and I want to be able to look at him and say I love you, Dad. And I hate God, that it doesn't work that way. I do. I hate him so much, because He could make it happen, but He won't, because that's not how it is, and it's arbitrary and stupid, and I want my dad.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
I still have ashes under my fingernails.
So, it turns out scattering ashes in real life is absolutely nothing like it is in the movies. They do not waft gently on the breeze, nor are they particularly easy to get out of the container. In point of fact, they resemble not so much ashes as grey sand with tiny bits of grey shell mixed in. They're also heavy. I suppose it makes sense that a 250 pound human being compacted down to a 4x6x8" space might be a little heavy, but it's still a shock when someone places that box into your hands and you find out that it's not at all like a box of fireplace ashes and is in fact about 15 pounds worth of stone weight. Seriously, it may as well be a lead brick, for the weight of it. That was my first shock of the day.
The service was nice, if sparsely attended. There were 30-50 people there. The minister had known Daddy for about 35 years, so he spoke well and personally. I said something clumsy and brief, and my Uncle Charlie, my dad's baby brother, told a story or 2. Then we sang Old Rugged Cross (always a safe one), and retired to the fellowship hall for a reception. My stepmother and siblings were there, and that was nice. I saw my friend Tommy Oliver, who I hadn't seen in 30 years, and that was wonderful. It was so great to see him, and it means a lot that he came. I wish he'd stayed longer, but he had to go back to work. I also saw 2 of my old teachers, Mrs. Stuteville, who taught me math in 8th grade, and her BFF Ms. Jarrell, who taught me HomeEc at another school in 9th & 10th, and who was a real lifesaver to me in those years. Both of them are loving, wonderful women I am grateful for knowing, and 2 of my favorite teachers. I wish they'd stayed for the reception, as well. I was looking forward to the chance to visit with them.
After an hour or so, the family left to go back to the farm and scatter Dad's ashes. I asked the minister how to do it, and he said well, most people just used their hands or emptied directly from the container. Emptying that way seemed pretty much like emptying out a container of trash to me, so I chose to use my hands. We got back to the farm, and me, my brothers, their significant others, my uncles, cousins, 1 stepbrother, and Daddy's cousin Joyce went down to the river in the back pasture to scatter, and when we got there, I got made the de facto ash disperser, whether I was up for it or not. I asked Darth Brother did he want to do it, and I guess he saw my face, coz he said well, he'd help if I wanted him to. I said if he wanted to help, I'd appreciate it, so he stepped up, and so did my stepbrother. Yoda Brother and I opened the box, and then my Uncle John said a really nice prayer (he's a minister). Then I reached into the box, which is where I got my second shock of the day: human remains do not break down into ash as you most likely think of it. As I said before, they look like sand and tiny bits of shell, and their consistency is that of the part of an ocean beach where the waves are washing in - very dense, very compact. Except that they are totally dry. But the top layer looks like silt, so you think it's going to be soft, and then when you try to reach into it, you find you have to really dig - I actually broke a freaking nail doing it. Seriously, it was shocking.
But I grabbed a handful, and then so did my stepbrother, and then my brother, and they both got the same shocked looks on their faces as I know I must have, and my stepbrother even said "oh, wow," in a strangled tone, and then quickly turned away and let his go, and then he broke down and had to walk a bit away to compose himself. My brother said something under his breath when he reached in, and he let his go too, and then everyone just looked at me, and no one would take any. So I took a few more handfuls, but you seriously can not grasp how many ashes are in a box like that until you're in that situation - I mean it, it's like a neverending supply. I finally had to give up and tilt the box so that I was holding the top of the bag in one hand and supporting the box in the other, and tried to gently sift the ash from the box, but no matter how well you do that or how the wind is blowing - and we had a good stiff breeze - the bits of bone still fall to the ground, which is just unsettling in the extreme. I mean unsettling. There's your father, on the ground. It just isn't right. So I just kept walking and feeling like I was doing it completely wrong and stupid, and everyone but Darth Brother and Stepbrother stayed back where we started, and after I'd gone about 50', I turned and asked my brother what I should do next, and he didn't know either. Then Stepbrother said that we were standing just above the point in the river that my dad liked to swim in, so I asked if we should go down the bank and finish there, and they didn't know what else to do, so the 3 of us did that, and they stood at the top of the bank while I scattered ashes on the sand there and then walked to the river's edge and let the wind carry the rest downwind, which it did pretty well, and it was a really pretty spot, with an old fallen and hollowed out tree and everything. I looked down to where all the bits of bone had fallen into the river and sunk to the rocks along the bank, where they were pretty bright against the green algae, and I told myself well, it was okay they were in the river, because it was sort of like they were gold, and while that was bothersome, it was better than on the ground. Then I realized I only had 1/3 of the box left, and I want to bury some under a tree on the property and put a marker there, so the 3 of us sealed the ashes back up and then climbed back up to where everyone else was and had to be careful not to step where we'd scattered ashes - you could clearly see the heavier grains and the bone. Let me tell you, having to warn your brother not to step on you dad is not for the faint of heart; it was yet another surreal moment in the day. When we rejoined everyone, we stood telling family stories a while and took some group shots, and then broke it up to all head our separate ways. There's more to it, but I'm going to skip it, as it was all estate-related about the need to buy more cottonseed for the cows ASAP and get them to market, etc. Basically we all broke apart and headed home. I stopped a few times to take pictures from the roadside, which helped, but jeebus, what a freaking bad day.
And I still have Daddy's ashes under my nails. I had to dig so hard into them that they're way under the nailbed, and I just can't get them out.
The service was nice, if sparsely attended. There were 30-50 people there. The minister had known Daddy for about 35 years, so he spoke well and personally. I said something clumsy and brief, and my Uncle Charlie, my dad's baby brother, told a story or 2. Then we sang Old Rugged Cross (always a safe one), and retired to the fellowship hall for a reception. My stepmother and siblings were there, and that was nice. I saw my friend Tommy Oliver, who I hadn't seen in 30 years, and that was wonderful. It was so great to see him, and it means a lot that he came. I wish he'd stayed longer, but he had to go back to work. I also saw 2 of my old teachers, Mrs. Stuteville, who taught me math in 8th grade, and her BFF Ms. Jarrell, who taught me HomeEc at another school in 9th & 10th, and who was a real lifesaver to me in those years. Both of them are loving, wonderful women I am grateful for knowing, and 2 of my favorite teachers. I wish they'd stayed for the reception, as well. I was looking forward to the chance to visit with them.
After an hour or so, the family left to go back to the farm and scatter Dad's ashes. I asked the minister how to do it, and he said well, most people just used their hands or emptied directly from the container. Emptying that way seemed pretty much like emptying out a container of trash to me, so I chose to use my hands. We got back to the farm, and me, my brothers, their significant others, my uncles, cousins, 1 stepbrother, and Daddy's cousin Joyce went down to the river in the back pasture to scatter, and when we got there, I got made the de facto ash disperser, whether I was up for it or not. I asked Darth Brother did he want to do it, and I guess he saw my face, coz he said well, he'd help if I wanted him to. I said if he wanted to help, I'd appreciate it, so he stepped up, and so did my stepbrother. Yoda Brother and I opened the box, and then my Uncle John said a really nice prayer (he's a minister). Then I reached into the box, which is where I got my second shock of the day: human remains do not break down into ash as you most likely think of it. As I said before, they look like sand and tiny bits of shell, and their consistency is that of the part of an ocean beach where the waves are washing in - very dense, very compact. Except that they are totally dry. But the top layer looks like silt, so you think it's going to be soft, and then when you try to reach into it, you find you have to really dig - I actually broke a freaking nail doing it. Seriously, it was shocking.
But I grabbed a handful, and then so did my stepbrother, and then my brother, and they both got the same shocked looks on their faces as I know I must have, and my stepbrother even said "oh, wow," in a strangled tone, and then quickly turned away and let his go, and then he broke down and had to walk a bit away to compose himself. My brother said something under his breath when he reached in, and he let his go too, and then everyone just looked at me, and no one would take any. So I took a few more handfuls, but you seriously can not grasp how many ashes are in a box like that until you're in that situation - I mean it, it's like a neverending supply. I finally had to give up and tilt the box so that I was holding the top of the bag in one hand and supporting the box in the other, and tried to gently sift the ash from the box, but no matter how well you do that or how the wind is blowing - and we had a good stiff breeze - the bits of bone still fall to the ground, which is just unsettling in the extreme. I mean unsettling. There's your father, on the ground. It just isn't right. So I just kept walking and feeling like I was doing it completely wrong and stupid, and everyone but Darth Brother and Stepbrother stayed back where we started, and after I'd gone about 50', I turned and asked my brother what I should do next, and he didn't know either. Then Stepbrother said that we were standing just above the point in the river that my dad liked to swim in, so I asked if we should go down the bank and finish there, and they didn't know what else to do, so the 3 of us did that, and they stood at the top of the bank while I scattered ashes on the sand there and then walked to the river's edge and let the wind carry the rest downwind, which it did pretty well, and it was a really pretty spot, with an old fallen and hollowed out tree and everything. I looked down to where all the bits of bone had fallen into the river and sunk to the rocks along the bank, where they were pretty bright against the green algae, and I told myself well, it was okay they were in the river, because it was sort of like they were gold, and while that was bothersome, it was better than on the ground. Then I realized I only had 1/3 of the box left, and I want to bury some under a tree on the property and put a marker there, so the 3 of us sealed the ashes back up and then climbed back up to where everyone else was and had to be careful not to step where we'd scattered ashes - you could clearly see the heavier grains and the bone. Let me tell you, having to warn your brother not to step on you dad is not for the faint of heart; it was yet another surreal moment in the day. When we rejoined everyone, we stood telling family stories a while and took some group shots, and then broke it up to all head our separate ways. There's more to it, but I'm going to skip it, as it was all estate-related about the need to buy more cottonseed for the cows ASAP and get them to market, etc. Basically we all broke apart and headed home. I stopped a few times to take pictures from the roadside, which helped, but jeebus, what a freaking bad day.
And I still have Daddy's ashes under my nails. I had to dig so hard into them that they're way under the nailbed, and I just can't get them out.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
My Life is Like Star Wars...Sort Of
I have two brothers. One is cool, generally calm, generous, caring, and values family beaucoup. The other is snide, selfish, sarcastic, and doesn't really care all that much for any of us. I love the first brother. The second one? Not so much. I mean, I love him, coz he's my brother. But dude: he is Darth Brother to my other brother's Yoda. My mother is a kinder, gentler version of Grand Moff Tarkin. Or maybe the Emperor. She adores Darth Brother beyond all else. And me?
I'm Princess Leia in the bad dress and ridiculous hair, hanging out in the detention center on the Death Star, and today, my life was a garbage chute of epic proportions.
Where the hell is Luke Skywalker when you need him?
I'm Princess Leia in the bad dress and ridiculous hair, hanging out in the detention center on the Death Star, and today, my life was a garbage chute of epic proportions.
Where the hell is Luke Skywalker when you need him?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Home, Sweet...Wait
I'm at my mom's at last, and will be for the next few days, at least. Here, I get my own room and an actual bed - score. I spent last night on baby brother's sofa, and it was not what I would call conducive to sleep. Neither was the hissy fit pitched at 7am this morning (5am California Time) by his fiancee's 3-year-old daughter, who is a pampered, spoiled little princess. Oy. She can be charming when she wants to be, which is when she's getting her way or about to connive her way into it. The second one of them attempts to restrain her wishes, that changes, and faster than we like to think the weather does here in Texas, which let me tell you, is pretty damned fast. I once went into class on a bright, shiny, sunny and fair spring morning for which I had dressed in a sleeveless shirt and my hair in braids, and when I got out 45 minutes later, the temperature had dropped a full 50 degrees (no, I'm not kidding), and it was hailing. HAILING. As in, hard little rocks pelting from the sky with considerable force.
But I digress. That was a pretty unbearable situation, so I'm happy as heck to be here at Mom's, even if it means getting up at the buttcrack of dawn and accompanying her to her office for the day. A bed, people. A real, sheets, blankets and pillows bed.
Awesome.
Even if it does come with a litany of all the things that are wrong with me as a human being.
Did I mention how much fun Chez Doyle is, even without the paternal unit? Again, oy.
Okay, must go try on funeral wear now. My mother never gets rid of anything, so God bless her little heart, even though she probably won't be able to fit into a size 10 again before her 85th birthday, she has Ann Taylor in that size hanging in the closet. In black, grey and navy. Oo-rah.
Peace out,
Katie
But I digress. That was a pretty unbearable situation, so I'm happy as heck to be here at Mom's, even if it means getting up at the buttcrack of dawn and accompanying her to her office for the day. A bed, people. A real, sheets, blankets and pillows bed.
Awesome.
Even if it does come with a litany of all the things that are wrong with me as a human being.
Did I mention how much fun Chez Doyle is, even without the paternal unit? Again, oy.
Okay, must go try on funeral wear now. My mother never gets rid of anything, so God bless her little heart, even though she probably won't be able to fit into a size 10 again before her 85th birthday, she has Ann Taylor in that size hanging in the closet. In black, grey and navy. Oo-rah.
Peace out,
Katie
Dollhouse - FOX Strikes Again
Dear FOX execs:
Put down the Sharpie and step away from the script, NOW. You are screwing with my Whedon, and I do NOT appreciate.
*sigh*
I finally got to see the Dollhouse premier on Hulu.com, and I don't think it's unfair or overreaching to call it a travesty. It misfired on all 8 cylinders, with wooden acting, bad dialogue, confusing subplots, gimmicky bits, and seeming red herrings galore. There was barely any Whedon present in a show Joss both wrote and directed, which I have to assume is because FOX execs could not just sit back and trust the Whedon, so they supplied the first cut of the pilot with copious and plentiful notes...probably a 4" D-ring binder's worth, if the end result is anything to go by. Every so often, I saw Joss' touch, but for the most part, it seemed a jumbled mishmash of jump cuts, flash, and painful, Intro to Acting acting and trite, melodramatically enigmatic dialogue. It's hard for me to believe the opening scene was pure Whedon, since Joss has the tightest grip on dialogue I've seen come out of tv-land, and that scene was excruciating in it's lack of connection, either character to character or characters to viewer. It angled for mysterious and hit "wow, that's really bad," instead. :(
Understand, I love Joss. I fell in love with BTVS roughly 60 seconds into the pilot. Angel's pilot was a tad raw, but it did not suck and still had enough Joss in it to keep me coming back every week until it found its stride and surpassed Buffy. I hated the Firefly pilot, but it turns out that was FOX's fault, and when I saw the real pilot, Serenity (parts 1&2), I fell in love with Firefly, as well. Dr. Horrible rocked it from the get-go. Which is why the premiere of Dollhouse was more than a little crushing. I'll keep watching, because I have faith in Joss, and I saw enough of him in it to know that if FOX allows him to do his thing, I'll love Dollhouse too. But it has to get better (a LOT better), or I don't know how long I'll last. And that means FOX needs to back the hell off and let Joss do what Joss does.
Here are my problems with the pilot:
Olivia Williams is just plain bad. You can drive whole fleets of trucks through her pauses, and there's nothing going on behind her eyes. I don't buy her for a second as the Badass Leader of Science's Answer to Wolfram & Hart. She had no connection whatsoever to her own character, let alone her character connecting to anyone else. When I saw the opening scene played as a clip on Craig Ferguson, I thought it must look so horrible because it was taken out of context, but no, that scene was dreadful, and mostly because Williams was so awful, though the dialogue wasn't good either.
Speaking of dialogue, it had very little of Whedon's touch to it. There were moments that screamed Joss, but so much of it was bland and rushed, I wondered how much was edited by FOX and whether or not the pilot started out as something longer that got whittled down. I also felt rather bludgeoned with the obvious - how many times do they think I need to be told Echo can't remember x-event? I get it - she has her memory tinkered with. I don't need to hear 5 times in the space of as many minutes that she can't remember what happened to her leg. I really got the feeling FOX kept sending the note to Joss that this or that wasn't clear and could he please emblazon it on a baseball bat and beat the audience to death with it. I have no other explanation for the obviousness of the entire first act (and a few other things throughout the episode).
I like Eliza Dushku, but that was not her best work. She doesn't play Stepford well at all, and she really needs to for the pilot, at least, to have worked. If she's going to keep having "I don't remember" moments, then the Stepford needs to be a LOT better.
The whole subplot with the FBI guy is heavy-handed. It really needs to be more subtle. More like Wolfram & Hart was handled on Angel. As it is now, I could not possibly care less about the idiotic FBI guy. I also don't care for the actor, and I definitely do NOT think he's hot, like everyone else in the known world seems to believe he is. Ew.
None of the characters mesh at all except for Echo and her handler. They do not connect. Whedon takes his time building character connections, and I get that, but still. All his other shows, the characters had reasons for sticking to each other when they collided. Dollhouse is missing that. Except for Echo & her handler, no one sticks. They all just bounce off of each other and continue on. It's aggravating. Whedon gets ensembles like nobody else, and this show does not feel like an ensemble. It's just a bunch of actors thrust together. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they all hate each other. It's disappointing.
I do not dig flashbacks in general. They're trite and tend to be confusing. I understand why that convention was used in the pilot, but I really hope it's not going to be a common occurrence. I don't give a damn what Mr. FBI was doing in his flashbacks, especially. So he beat somebody up. You told me that in the dialogue. I could not be less interested in seeing it.
The Whedon Audience Pact - wherein Joss brings the intelligent and trusts us to keep up - was violated, big time. I blame this entirely on FOX execs who clearly have the brain power of ducks and figure if they can't understand it, the audience won't be able to either. News flash: I am smarter than the average FOX exec. So is most of America. Or at least the demographic this show is aimed at. The idiots watching Dancing with the American Idol Survivor wouldn't get it, but they aren't watching either. Nor are they likely to, no matter how dumbed down it is. SciFi is not their cup of tea.
I disliked more, but that's all I can think of right offhand. And I blame it entirely on the idiots at FOX, since I've gotten pretty good at spotting unfettered Whedon, and that was not it. But I actually liked stuff too. To whit:
Dushku and Amy Acker are back in the Whedonverse, which is full of Big Bad, and that tends to serve up a giant plate of fun.
There were Joss moments, and they ruled. Echo's "I think I'm too old for you," was fantastic - well-written and perfectly delivered. And the bit in the lab where Lab Geek says the blue parts of Echo's brain scan show fear. Handler: "They're all blue." Geek: "You see where I'm going with this." Excellent. I can also see there are arc subplots in place and ready to play out in true Whedon fashion.
I like the concept of a girl wiped clean every day and where that might go when all hell breaks loose.
I like most of the casting, and Whedon has set up the conflict with Echo's character well: we know she didn't volunteer willingly for the program and that something is going to go awry with her programming. I'm betting that's going to be worth watching. I just hope everything else is too.
Put down the Sharpie and step away from the script, NOW. You are screwing with my Whedon, and I do NOT appreciate.
*sigh*
I finally got to see the Dollhouse premier on Hulu.com, and I don't think it's unfair or overreaching to call it a travesty. It misfired on all 8 cylinders, with wooden acting, bad dialogue, confusing subplots, gimmicky bits, and seeming red herrings galore. There was barely any Whedon present in a show Joss both wrote and directed, which I have to assume is because FOX execs could not just sit back and trust the Whedon, so they supplied the first cut of the pilot with copious and plentiful notes...probably a 4" D-ring binder's worth, if the end result is anything to go by. Every so often, I saw Joss' touch, but for the most part, it seemed a jumbled mishmash of jump cuts, flash, and painful, Intro to Acting acting and trite, melodramatically enigmatic dialogue. It's hard for me to believe the opening scene was pure Whedon, since Joss has the tightest grip on dialogue I've seen come out of tv-land, and that scene was excruciating in it's lack of connection, either character to character or characters to viewer. It angled for mysterious and hit "wow, that's really bad," instead. :(
Understand, I love Joss. I fell in love with BTVS roughly 60 seconds into the pilot. Angel's pilot was a tad raw, but it did not suck and still had enough Joss in it to keep me coming back every week until it found its stride and surpassed Buffy. I hated the Firefly pilot, but it turns out that was FOX's fault, and when I saw the real pilot, Serenity (parts 1&2), I fell in love with Firefly, as well. Dr. Horrible rocked it from the get-go. Which is why the premiere of Dollhouse was more than a little crushing. I'll keep watching, because I have faith in Joss, and I saw enough of him in it to know that if FOX allows him to do his thing, I'll love Dollhouse too. But it has to get better (a LOT better), or I don't know how long I'll last. And that means FOX needs to back the hell off and let Joss do what Joss does.
Here are my problems with the pilot:
Olivia Williams is just plain bad. You can drive whole fleets of trucks through her pauses, and there's nothing going on behind her eyes. I don't buy her for a second as the Badass Leader of Science's Answer to Wolfram & Hart. She had no connection whatsoever to her own character, let alone her character connecting to anyone else. When I saw the opening scene played as a clip on Craig Ferguson, I thought it must look so horrible because it was taken out of context, but no, that scene was dreadful, and mostly because Williams was so awful, though the dialogue wasn't good either.
Speaking of dialogue, it had very little of Whedon's touch to it. There were moments that screamed Joss, but so much of it was bland and rushed, I wondered how much was edited by FOX and whether or not the pilot started out as something longer that got whittled down. I also felt rather bludgeoned with the obvious - how many times do they think I need to be told Echo can't remember x-event? I get it - she has her memory tinkered with. I don't need to hear 5 times in the space of as many minutes that she can't remember what happened to her leg. I really got the feeling FOX kept sending the note to Joss that this or that wasn't clear and could he please emblazon it on a baseball bat and beat the audience to death with it. I have no other explanation for the obviousness of the entire first act (and a few other things throughout the episode).
I like Eliza Dushku, but that was not her best work. She doesn't play Stepford well at all, and she really needs to for the pilot, at least, to have worked. If she's going to keep having "I don't remember" moments, then the Stepford needs to be a LOT better.
The whole subplot with the FBI guy is heavy-handed. It really needs to be more subtle. More like Wolfram & Hart was handled on Angel. As it is now, I could not possibly care less about the idiotic FBI guy. I also don't care for the actor, and I definitely do NOT think he's hot, like everyone else in the known world seems to believe he is. Ew.
None of the characters mesh at all except for Echo and her handler. They do not connect. Whedon takes his time building character connections, and I get that, but still. All his other shows, the characters had reasons for sticking to each other when they collided. Dollhouse is missing that. Except for Echo & her handler, no one sticks. They all just bounce off of each other and continue on. It's aggravating. Whedon gets ensembles like nobody else, and this show does not feel like an ensemble. It's just a bunch of actors thrust together. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they all hate each other. It's disappointing.
I do not dig flashbacks in general. They're trite and tend to be confusing. I understand why that convention was used in the pilot, but I really hope it's not going to be a common occurrence. I don't give a damn what Mr. FBI was doing in his flashbacks, especially. So he beat somebody up. You told me that in the dialogue. I could not be less interested in seeing it.
The Whedon Audience Pact - wherein Joss brings the intelligent and trusts us to keep up - was violated, big time. I blame this entirely on FOX execs who clearly have the brain power of ducks and figure if they can't understand it, the audience won't be able to either. News flash: I am smarter than the average FOX exec. So is most of America. Or at least the demographic this show is aimed at. The idiots watching Dancing with the American Idol Survivor wouldn't get it, but they aren't watching either. Nor are they likely to, no matter how dumbed down it is. SciFi is not their cup of tea.
I disliked more, but that's all I can think of right offhand. And I blame it entirely on the idiots at FOX, since I've gotten pretty good at spotting unfettered Whedon, and that was not it. But I actually liked stuff too. To whit:
Dushku and Amy Acker are back in the Whedonverse, which is full of Big Bad, and that tends to serve up a giant plate of fun.
There were Joss moments, and they ruled. Echo's "I think I'm too old for you," was fantastic - well-written and perfectly delivered. And the bit in the lab where Lab Geek says the blue parts of Echo's brain scan show fear. Handler: "They're all blue." Geek: "You see where I'm going with this." Excellent. I can also see there are arc subplots in place and ready to play out in true Whedon fashion.
I like the concept of a girl wiped clean every day and where that might go when all hell breaks loose.
I like most of the casting, and Whedon has set up the conflict with Echo's character well: we know she didn't volunteer willingly for the program and that something is going to go awry with her programming. I'm betting that's going to be worth watching. I just hope everything else is too.
Monday, February 16, 2009
When It Rains...
I woke up this morning after 3 hours of sleep to rain pouring into the house. Literally. Right over an electrical connection and next to the big, nearly-flat-screen tv. I moved the electronic equipment I could and was lucky enough not to get electrocuted, since as I said, I'd had 3 hours of sleep and was not exactly alert or thinking clearly. Luckily, the equipment in question was wet from splatter (like, really wet), but not sitting in water, and not apparently wet enough to shock me, which is happy. Then I grabbed a towel and stuffed it as best I could into the leak area, and went to wake up TB.
The second I opened the door, I could hear and smell water. I stepped out of the hallway and into the kitchen and discovered I was standing in a huge pool of water and that a huge section of roof was leaking. I threw a towel into the pool and shoved a bin under the leak to catch most of the waterfall and then woke TB up, who had to figure out where the water was getting in on the outside and then how to stop it coming in on the inside. (I mopped it up while he was doing that.) He never did find either place, but he did manage to stop the ceiling leak, and there are towels stuck in the wall leak, and a bucket underneath it, and please God, don't let the rain frigging torrentially downpour again tonight, because we won't be able to stop it.
I have to leave tomorrow for Texas, and I do not want to go. I do not want to go to my father's funeral. I do not want to scatter his ashes. I do not want to deal with the memories I will have to face. I do not want to deal with the family bs I will have to contend with, not the least of which is my brother Tom irately and asshattedly refusing to let my stepmother (ex-stepmother) attend the service. I have to buy clothing for the funeral, because at 160 pounds, NONE of my funeral-appropriate clothing fits any longer. I washed my jeans and because the air is 100% water right now, they refuse to dry. I can't throw them in the drier, or they won't fit. The fucking airlines will probably lose at least one of my bags, anyway, since almost every time I check a bag, it goes missing or someone steals something out of it. I do not want to fly. I do not want to stay with my brother or my mother. I do not want to be stuck without a car for 2 entire weeks (plus 2 days).
I have about $250 left in my checking account, and after 3 weeks have still not been able to talk to a fucking human being at EDD to ask the ONE question I need to ask in order to file for an extension. One fucking question. That's it. What is my base period. That's it. What is my base period? Is it the original base period I filed with, or does it change to the base period 18 months from NOW? I have bills I need to pay, and I can't because I don't have enough money, and I don't know when I'll have any money, because fucking EDD won't answer the motherfucking phone. Great time for TB to have to shell out $350 for a plane ticket, plus more money to feed me while I'm in Texas, as well as to buy funeral-appropriate clothing. His salary has been drastically slashed, and he has no work anyway, so times aren't any better for him, what with having a mortgage to pay.
Bygones to those of you among the non-cussing. I realize I shouldn't say the mf word, but really, I can't be any more stressed out than I am right now, so please just deal.
The frigging DVR is possessed. It recorded at irregular times all week, so I missed the last 5 minutes of every single program it recorded. It was set to tape on the hour for everything, but for some fucked up reason, it started and ended 6 minutes before the hour for everything it taped. Until tonight, that is, when it just decided not to tape anything. Even if I had the show on and pushed record, it would say it was recording, but nothing happened. It also said it taped stuff that had come on before I noticed it wasn't taping, but those shows it said it taped are not in the recordings list and can't be viewed if it did. Then it went completely haywire and while I was watching the last show of the night, from 10-11, it kept turning itself off or searching for signal or downloading the program guide, over and over again. I saw nothing of that show, either. I don't know about you people, but when I'm living on the frigging edge, I need my damn television. TV keeps me sane. TV is escape. I love television. When I was a kid, the only time my parents shut the hell up and quit screaming at each other or us or hitting anyone was at the movies or during a tv show they liked. Nobody hit or yelled at anybody during the Waltons or Bonanza or Happy Days, damn it. TV is safety and happiness and all things good and wonderful in the entire world. I frigging love tv, and I need it to function properly. More than anything in the world, I need my frigging television. So for it to be major malfunction right now, of all fucking times in my life, is NOT okay. I'm just saying.
Dear California Politicians:
PASS THE FUCKING BUDGET SO I CAN HAVE MY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS AND SO CAN CALLI'S HUBBY.
My benefits were supposed to automatically roll into an extension. They did not.
I need to pack.
I also need to empty all my disks for my camera, forward some of my mail so I have access to certain information while I'm gone, and get my electronic boarding pass. I'd really like it if my frigging jeans would dry.
I will probably forget something I really need to have, like the right shoes or Pete.
It just started raining again, and not lightly, either. Any bets on how long before rain starts pouring out of the wall directly in front of me?
:(
kd
The second I opened the door, I could hear and smell water. I stepped out of the hallway and into the kitchen and discovered I was standing in a huge pool of water and that a huge section of roof was leaking. I threw a towel into the pool and shoved a bin under the leak to catch most of the waterfall and then woke TB up, who had to figure out where the water was getting in on the outside and then how to stop it coming in on the inside. (I mopped it up while he was doing that.) He never did find either place, but he did manage to stop the ceiling leak, and there are towels stuck in the wall leak, and a bucket underneath it, and please God, don't let the rain frigging torrentially downpour again tonight, because we won't be able to stop it.
I have to leave tomorrow for Texas, and I do not want to go. I do not want to go to my father's funeral. I do not want to scatter his ashes. I do not want to deal with the memories I will have to face. I do not want to deal with the family bs I will have to contend with, not the least of which is my brother Tom irately and asshattedly refusing to let my stepmother (ex-stepmother) attend the service. I have to buy clothing for the funeral, because at 160 pounds, NONE of my funeral-appropriate clothing fits any longer. I washed my jeans and because the air is 100% water right now, they refuse to dry. I can't throw them in the drier, or they won't fit. The fucking airlines will probably lose at least one of my bags, anyway, since almost every time I check a bag, it goes missing or someone steals something out of it. I do not want to fly. I do not want to stay with my brother or my mother. I do not want to be stuck without a car for 2 entire weeks (plus 2 days).
I have about $250 left in my checking account, and after 3 weeks have still not been able to talk to a fucking human being at EDD to ask the ONE question I need to ask in order to file for an extension. One fucking question. That's it. What is my base period. That's it. What is my base period? Is it the original base period I filed with, or does it change to the base period 18 months from NOW? I have bills I need to pay, and I can't because I don't have enough money, and I don't know when I'll have any money, because fucking EDD won't answer the motherfucking phone. Great time for TB to have to shell out $350 for a plane ticket, plus more money to feed me while I'm in Texas, as well as to buy funeral-appropriate clothing. His salary has been drastically slashed, and he has no work anyway, so times aren't any better for him, what with having a mortgage to pay.
Bygones to those of you among the non-cussing. I realize I shouldn't say the mf word, but really, I can't be any more stressed out than I am right now, so please just deal.
The frigging DVR is possessed. It recorded at irregular times all week, so I missed the last 5 minutes of every single program it recorded. It was set to tape on the hour for everything, but for some fucked up reason, it started and ended 6 minutes before the hour for everything it taped. Until tonight, that is, when it just decided not to tape anything. Even if I had the show on and pushed record, it would say it was recording, but nothing happened. It also said it taped stuff that had come on before I noticed it wasn't taping, but those shows it said it taped are not in the recordings list and can't be viewed if it did. Then it went completely haywire and while I was watching the last show of the night, from 10-11, it kept turning itself off or searching for signal or downloading the program guide, over and over again. I saw nothing of that show, either. I don't know about you people, but when I'm living on the frigging edge, I need my damn television. TV keeps me sane. TV is escape. I love television. When I was a kid, the only time my parents shut the hell up and quit screaming at each other or us or hitting anyone was at the movies or during a tv show they liked. Nobody hit or yelled at anybody during the Waltons or Bonanza or Happy Days, damn it. TV is safety and happiness and all things good and wonderful in the entire world. I frigging love tv, and I need it to function properly. More than anything in the world, I need my frigging television. So for it to be major malfunction right now, of all fucking times in my life, is NOT okay. I'm just saying.
Dear California Politicians:
PASS THE FUCKING BUDGET SO I CAN HAVE MY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS AND SO CAN CALLI'S HUBBY.
My benefits were supposed to automatically roll into an extension. They did not.
I need to pack.
I also need to empty all my disks for my camera, forward some of my mail so I have access to certain information while I'm gone, and get my electronic boarding pass. I'd really like it if my frigging jeans would dry.
I will probably forget something I really need to have, like the right shoes or Pete.
It just started raining again, and not lightly, either. Any bets on how long before rain starts pouring out of the wall directly in front of me?
:(
kd
Monday, February 9, 2009
Unbefrigginglievable.
I will bet anything on the planet that if she were white, this would be all over the national media. I hope the family is able to sue the livin' crap out of the police department and that kid gets the college fund to end all college funds out of it. Assholes.
My dad died this morning.
It was unexpected and most likely a heart attack. He was 76.
No, I'm not handling it well.
I don't know when the funeral is. Will be having a conference call with my brothers sometime probably today to talk about it. I think we should do a cremation, but the one brother I've been able to talk to doesn't want to.
I can't afford $1000 to fly back for a funeral. A cremation would allow me to get a decent airfare. Because of how the blood pooled, the casket can not be open. I haven't seen my dad in 5.5 years, and I can't see him now.
I'm thankful I talked to him on the phone 2 weeks ago and that it was the best conversation I've ever had with him. I was going to call him this weekend, but I wasn't able to get the time. That sucks.
later.
No, I'm not handling it well.
I don't know when the funeral is. Will be having a conference call with my brothers sometime probably today to talk about it. I think we should do a cremation, but the one brother I've been able to talk to doesn't want to.
I can't afford $1000 to fly back for a funeral. A cremation would allow me to get a decent airfare. Because of how the blood pooled, the casket can not be open. I haven't seen my dad in 5.5 years, and I can't see him now.
I'm thankful I talked to him on the phone 2 weeks ago and that it was the best conversation I've ever had with him. I was going to call him this weekend, but I wasn't able to get the time. That sucks.
later.
Just because you can vent doesn't mean you should.
Sorry for that last entry. The little voice in my head said it wasn't appropriate to post, but I didn't listen. I have since changed it to draft so it won't show. Just because I need to vent doesn't mean you guys need to deal with my angst. Sorry.
Boy, has it been angsty here the last several months. *sigh*
So, I will be moving my computer out here to the garage. But I have to do my taxes first. Assuming I can hold out that long. The laptop has more problems than I knew. I cleared a gig off of it last night and then tried to run defrag, but it will only clear about 80% and then tells me there's an error with the drive and that I need to run scandisk. After 3 hours of unsuccessful attempts at that, I finally managed to get it done, but then when I went back to defrag, I got the same error message, and I can't get scandisk to run succesfully again - not that I should need to; there are no errors with the drive. Scandisk keeps telling me Windows is writing to the drive, so the process continually starts over. Defrag tells me there are errors and that the drive is being written to, and in safe mode, I keep getting the Screaming Blue Screen of Death. It's all I can do not to take a hammer to the keyboard, at this point. I ran Norton, but it finds nothing. Still, something is going on. Performance just keeps getting worse. All of which is a longwinded way of saying I'm jonesin' for the web and will probably crack really soon. I need email, people!!!
I took the pups on a walk during a break in the rain today, and they were so well-behaved, it was awesome. High on the success of that, I took them to Petco. You can imagine how well that went. They tag-teamed me, people. It was not pretty. I can't take them both in there anymore. It's just too frustrating, and I sound like the worst pet owner in the entire world to all the other people in there with dogs who do not require constant behavior checks. You know: dogs that do not bark at the other pets, sit the first time when told, and do not attack the cookie bar with wild abandon while their owners are trying to pay for purchases.
And what is up with that, anyway??? They're renovating the store near my house, and someone had the brilliant idea to put the cookie bar right next to the first cash register - the one that's usually the only one open when I'm in there. There are about 4' between the register and the cookies, and Napoleon - who is built like a tank but moves with the lightning speed of a cobra - views the cookie bar as his own personal smorgasbord. My life was a lot easier back in the halcyon days of intelligent cookie bar placement. Alas.
I need to get my teeth deep-cleaned. This fills me with serious anxiety because a) I really, really hate the dentist, and this is a visit I already know will end in pain, and lots of it; b) even with dental insurance it's at least a $300 procedure, and I have no money to pay for it, what with having no job and no unemployment benefit any longer; and c) the gingivitis thing is getting pretty bad and gross, and I know that the longer this goes on, the more damage I am doing to the roots of my teeth. Oy. Now I'm having an anxiety attack. Let's change the subject.
Napoleon looks so cute when he sleeps. Even though he's almost 8 months old, he still has a puppyish look about him. Razzle didn't look like a puppy at 8 months. He looked like a young dog, but a dog. Napoleon still looks puppyish, and when he sleeps, it's magnified by about 100. He's so aggro and hyper during the day, that catching him all quiet and vulnerable just melts me into a big gooey puddle of puppy love. I love both of them, but I admit, I feel more tender toward Napoleon. I'm sure it's the same dysfunctional part that falls for the worst guy in the world for me, thinking he's just tragically misunderstood.
Good lord. Law & Order is on, and once again, I am struck by how often the show hires the worst actors in the entire world to play the non-recurring roles. I don't watch the show generally, but I've had it on late nigths when I'm on the web or reading, just for background noise, don't ask me why. I don't watch it because I find the writing generally ridiculously melodramatic and sloppy, and because bad acting makes me want to hurt people. Seriously, I can't have it. It makes me absolutely insane, and there's no excuse for it. There are thousands of good actors auditioning in Hollywood (and thousands more who are merely serviceable) every single day who are passed over for no-talent hacks merely because someone found the hacks more attractive than the actual actors. I so very much wish we lived in a meritocracy. :( What I *do* like is the old Twilight Zone, and that comes on from 2-3am, so as soon as L&O is over, I'll be watching that, and then going to bed. :)
I'm going to make a run at my taxes this week. Cross your fingers and knock wood, please. I will need it. I'm also applying for an extension on unemployment. I really pray I get it and that it's the same amount it was, so that I can afford a visit to the dentist. (I have no credit anymore, so I don't qualify for a payment plan. Who'd a thought not owing money would make it harder to borrow? Jeebus.)
I had a paragraph here about how much I want to slap people like Mitch McConnell and his cronies until they cry, but I decided to make it go away. Suffice to say I can't believe the Republican party continues to flog the same dead horse they've been flogging for years - the same one that got us where we are now and has us sliding rapidly downhill. Mudslides are pretty destructive, people, and we're riding a helluva big one right now. :( Barney Frank was freaking awesome on Meet the Press today. I love Barney Frank. He might get a little out there now and again, but I have to love a guy who is not afraid to call bullshit, especially in Washington. And Barney Frank is not afraid to call it.
Okay, gotta go scrub my teeth for 10 minutes and floss, all to no avail. :( I welcome all ideas on how to handle that whole thing financially. :(
peace out,
katie
Boy, has it been angsty here the last several months. *sigh*
So, I will be moving my computer out here to the garage. But I have to do my taxes first. Assuming I can hold out that long. The laptop has more problems than I knew. I cleared a gig off of it last night and then tried to run defrag, but it will only clear about 80% and then tells me there's an error with the drive and that I need to run scandisk. After 3 hours of unsuccessful attempts at that, I finally managed to get it done, but then when I went back to defrag, I got the same error message, and I can't get scandisk to run succesfully again - not that I should need to; there are no errors with the drive. Scandisk keeps telling me Windows is writing to the drive, so the process continually starts over. Defrag tells me there are errors and that the drive is being written to, and in safe mode, I keep getting the Screaming Blue Screen of Death. It's all I can do not to take a hammer to the keyboard, at this point. I ran Norton, but it finds nothing. Still, something is going on. Performance just keeps getting worse. All of which is a longwinded way of saying I'm jonesin' for the web and will probably crack really soon. I need email, people!!!
I took the pups on a walk during a break in the rain today, and they were so well-behaved, it was awesome. High on the success of that, I took them to Petco. You can imagine how well that went. They tag-teamed me, people. It was not pretty. I can't take them both in there anymore. It's just too frustrating, and I sound like the worst pet owner in the entire world to all the other people in there with dogs who do not require constant behavior checks. You know: dogs that do not bark at the other pets, sit the first time when told, and do not attack the cookie bar with wild abandon while their owners are trying to pay for purchases.
And what is up with that, anyway??? They're renovating the store near my house, and someone had the brilliant idea to put the cookie bar right next to the first cash register - the one that's usually the only one open when I'm in there. There are about 4' between the register and the cookies, and Napoleon - who is built like a tank but moves with the lightning speed of a cobra - views the cookie bar as his own personal smorgasbord. My life was a lot easier back in the halcyon days of intelligent cookie bar placement. Alas.
I need to get my teeth deep-cleaned. This fills me with serious anxiety because a) I really, really hate the dentist, and this is a visit I already know will end in pain, and lots of it; b) even with dental insurance it's at least a $300 procedure, and I have no money to pay for it, what with having no job and no unemployment benefit any longer; and c) the gingivitis thing is getting pretty bad and gross, and I know that the longer this goes on, the more damage I am doing to the roots of my teeth. Oy. Now I'm having an anxiety attack. Let's change the subject.
Napoleon looks so cute when he sleeps. Even though he's almost 8 months old, he still has a puppyish look about him. Razzle didn't look like a puppy at 8 months. He looked like a young dog, but a dog. Napoleon still looks puppyish, and when he sleeps, it's magnified by about 100. He's so aggro and hyper during the day, that catching him all quiet and vulnerable just melts me into a big gooey puddle of puppy love. I love both of them, but I admit, I feel more tender toward Napoleon. I'm sure it's the same dysfunctional part that falls for the worst guy in the world for me, thinking he's just tragically misunderstood.
Good lord. Law & Order is on, and once again, I am struck by how often the show hires the worst actors in the entire world to play the non-recurring roles. I don't watch the show generally, but I've had it on late nigths when I'm on the web or reading, just for background noise, don't ask me why. I don't watch it because I find the writing generally ridiculously melodramatic and sloppy, and because bad acting makes me want to hurt people. Seriously, I can't have it. It makes me absolutely insane, and there's no excuse for it. There are thousands of good actors auditioning in Hollywood (and thousands more who are merely serviceable) every single day who are passed over for no-talent hacks merely because someone found the hacks more attractive than the actual actors. I so very much wish we lived in a meritocracy. :( What I *do* like is the old Twilight Zone, and that comes on from 2-3am, so as soon as L&O is over, I'll be watching that, and then going to bed. :)
I'm going to make a run at my taxes this week. Cross your fingers and knock wood, please. I will need it. I'm also applying for an extension on unemployment. I really pray I get it and that it's the same amount it was, so that I can afford a visit to the dentist. (I have no credit anymore, so I don't qualify for a payment plan. Who'd a thought not owing money would make it harder to borrow? Jeebus.)
I had a paragraph here about how much I want to slap people like Mitch McConnell and his cronies until they cry, but I decided to make it go away. Suffice to say I can't believe the Republican party continues to flog the same dead horse they've been flogging for years - the same one that got us where we are now and has us sliding rapidly downhill. Mudslides are pretty destructive, people, and we're riding a helluva big one right now. :( Barney Frank was freaking awesome on Meet the Press today. I love Barney Frank. He might get a little out there now and again, but I have to love a guy who is not afraid to call bullshit, especially in Washington. And Barney Frank is not afraid to call it.
Okay, gotta go scrub my teeth for 10 minutes and floss, all to no avail. :( I welcome all ideas on how to handle that whole thing financially. :(
peace out,
katie
Saturday, February 7, 2009
WTF, BTW
What is UP with all these damn people looking to hire via the classifieds? The ones who want you to email your resume into them, but they never once respond to let you know they got it or they're considering or the position has been filled? Seriously, is it so damned hard to set an auto-responder to say "We got your application and will get back to you whenever," or "Sorry dude, the position has been filled"?
Seriously. This is a crap economy. At least have the decency to acknowledge you received my resume.
DUDE.
Seriously. This is a crap economy. At least have the decency to acknowledge you received my resume.
DUDE.
Bored, Now.
Stranded in the garage with the pups since it's been raining. This is frustrating on a number of levels, not least because I can't do anything it occurs to me I should do. I had to go get the paperweight I call a laptop (circa 1998) so that I could - kinda - surf the web. I can't even tweet effectively, because the laptop can't really handle the semi-live stream that is Twitter. It's not handling Blogger all that excellently well, either, but I think it will actually publish when I tell it to. I guess we'll find out.
I should explain about the garage, I guess, so you don't think I'm sitting in my car or have perched my laptop precariously atop a pile of tools. A) It always had carpeting, for some reason. B) TB turned the garage into a music studio several years ago. It's not fully finished out - there's only drywall on 3 sides (the 4th is concrete block) and the carpeting has been removed in places - and the walls are all lined with work tables and shelving units, but it's a very large garage, and the center is entirely open...and covered with a large rug. Since the dogs and cat have a tenuous relationship at best, since we got her back, Meows has the run of the house, and the pups have been banished to the garage...along with me, now, since TB seems to be stunningly unable to function around them. So he cleared out the bedroom and turned it into his office. He disappears in there with the door closed all day, and I am stuck out here. It sucks. Ass, to be precise.
Did I mention there are no windows? Where the garage door would be has been walled over with a door to the outside and no windows. It's a cave. TB wants to cut a window through the wall from the bedroom/office into the garage, which idea I think is remarkably bad, and I dread it. That's where the washer/drier sit, and the shelves which hold all the laundry stuff and have some things stored on them, all of which he has already removed 2x (losing every single one of my lingerie bags, in the process - bags he swears he has never seen, despite having had to hold all 7 of them in his hand at some point in the moving process). Plus, he has a remarkable propensity for not finishing stuff he starts (as do I), so I know that not only will there be sawdust, drywall, and other crap all over everything in the garage (which now includes the bed and all my bedroom furnishings) for *weeks*, but a huge, gaping hole in the wall for god knows how long, but certainly for at least a week or two. In the process, I suspect that the single outlet in the entire garage which is wired for the washer and drier will also cease to function, and it will be a month before it's repaired. I know that because the other outlet for those appliances - the one the cord to the washer would actually reach - quit working 10 months ago, and it has never been repaired. We have to use a 100' outdoor heavy duty extension cord to reach the other one - the same frigging cord he uses for everything else in the garage, so every single freaking time I want to wash anything, I have to track down the frigging cord, unplug it, move it back to the damned washer, and plug it all back in again. It's gotten to the point where I will wear every last stitch of clothing that I have, including stuff that doesn't really fit anymore or that I hate, just to put off the arduous task of laundry as long as possible.
But I digress. The bottom line is that I'm bored and frustrated. I need to get stuff done, and I'm not only stuck dogsitting, but I'm stuck doing it in one single room of the entire house. I'm going to have to bring my computer out here just to get work done, and I so don't want to. I already sleep out here. If I bring my computer out here, this frigging room will become my whole life. :( Not to mention, nothing I own will be safe from Napoleon's neverending quest for things to destroy.
I swear to you people, you never saw a more destructive dog. Oh sure, you think you have, but so trust me, you have not. I thought I knew what destructive was. I once owned a german shepherd who not only ate more than his weight in my leather shoes, he also chewed to pieces parts of the house, ate one of Pete's ears and tore into the other, destroyed the trashcan and ate the broken glass that was inside it, went through more rolls of paper products than I can count, and ate various and sundry items anyone left lying on the floor - items I don't remember anymore, other than the fact that I had to give a lot of money to roommates for various objects they had once owned prior to Atilla's presence in the room.
Napoleon makes him look like a rank amateur. He has already gotten to numerous objects we would rather he not destroy but can do without, TB's Docs, TB's rubber boots, 4 couch cushions, 2 doggy beds (through both the covers and the inner layers, and promptly set about pulling out and eating the stuffing), at least 3 heavy duty dog bed covers (in addition to the 2 above), my grandfather's antique armchair, various cords for electronic equipment, a flashlight, numerous writing implements (including a Sharpie), several of my shirts, several "indestructible" dog toys (not even counting all the "tough" toys he ripped to pieces), several cardboard boxes, the Victorian pool table and its slate, the dining chairs, the doorjam into the house, 2 puppy gates, a large kangaroo paw plant, 2 large cistus shrubs, an upright rosemary shrub, AND the succulents planted around it, 2 ficus trees, a very large jasmine shrub, the inside of 2 of my car doors, my gearshift, several towels, a blanket, the gate at the top of the driveway, and 3 cell phones, all 3 of which were thankfully in leather holsters which took the brunt of the punishment and saved the phones. (I am now a staunch believer in the use of cell phone holsters.) That's not all, it's just what I can think off right offhand. And to be fair some of it is only badly damaged. Most of it had to be thrown away, however. I'm telling you: destructive. Just the dog to leave all my computer cords and documents lying around. :(
I'm watching the DaVinci Code. That should tell you how bored I am. Actually, I've seen the last 30 min. of it before, and it's a lot better than the book. Everyone complained that there was too much talking in the film, which I always thought was ridiculous - the book is nothing *but* talking. Why would they think the movie was going to be any different? I like watching movies set in Paris, though. It takes me back. It also makes me feel a little "homesick," but it's cool seeing places I've been and know pretty well. :)
I am eaten more junk food today than you would think possible. And all of it in one hour. Blach. I feel kinda like hurling.
*sigh* While I was writing this, another dog toy has been destroyed. Seriously, I don't think there's a toy on the planet worth my money, since they're all expensive and easily destroyed.
I didn't get to go to Saint-Sulpice when I was in Paris. I wonder if the Rose Line really does pass through it with markers and everything? I didn't go to the Louvre, either. I wonder if that will be my thing: I will visit Paris dozens of times but somehow never make it to the Louvre (or up the Eiffel Tower).
Napoleon is bossing me to let him outside. I love when he does that. He doesn't growl, whine, or bark. He makes a wookie sound. It's hilarious. I have to take him out. And then go get something hot to eat, since all I've had is triple cream cheese and crostini and a bunch of cookies. Not exactly a nutritious breakfast. I need to get back to my Paris habit of yogurt and fruit puree blended together, with two pieces of whole wheat toast. That was yummy. :)
ttyl, peeps.
xo,
kd
I should explain about the garage, I guess, so you don't think I'm sitting in my car or have perched my laptop precariously atop a pile of tools. A) It always had carpeting, for some reason. B) TB turned the garage into a music studio several years ago. It's not fully finished out - there's only drywall on 3 sides (the 4th is concrete block) and the carpeting has been removed in places - and the walls are all lined with work tables and shelving units, but it's a very large garage, and the center is entirely open...and covered with a large rug. Since the dogs and cat have a tenuous relationship at best, since we got her back, Meows has the run of the house, and the pups have been banished to the garage...along with me, now, since TB seems to be stunningly unable to function around them. So he cleared out the bedroom and turned it into his office. He disappears in there with the door closed all day, and I am stuck out here. It sucks. Ass, to be precise.
Did I mention there are no windows? Where the garage door would be has been walled over with a door to the outside and no windows. It's a cave. TB wants to cut a window through the wall from the bedroom/office into the garage, which idea I think is remarkably bad, and I dread it. That's where the washer/drier sit, and the shelves which hold all the laundry stuff and have some things stored on them, all of which he has already removed 2x (losing every single one of my lingerie bags, in the process - bags he swears he has never seen, despite having had to hold all 7 of them in his hand at some point in the moving process). Plus, he has a remarkable propensity for not finishing stuff he starts (as do I), so I know that not only will there be sawdust, drywall, and other crap all over everything in the garage (which now includes the bed and all my bedroom furnishings) for *weeks*, but a huge, gaping hole in the wall for god knows how long, but certainly for at least a week or two. In the process, I suspect that the single outlet in the entire garage which is wired for the washer and drier will also cease to function, and it will be a month before it's repaired. I know that because the other outlet for those appliances - the one the cord to the washer would actually reach - quit working 10 months ago, and it has never been repaired. We have to use a 100' outdoor heavy duty extension cord to reach the other one - the same frigging cord he uses for everything else in the garage, so every single freaking time I want to wash anything, I have to track down the frigging cord, unplug it, move it back to the damned washer, and plug it all back in again. It's gotten to the point where I will wear every last stitch of clothing that I have, including stuff that doesn't really fit anymore or that I hate, just to put off the arduous task of laundry as long as possible.
But I digress. The bottom line is that I'm bored and frustrated. I need to get stuff done, and I'm not only stuck dogsitting, but I'm stuck doing it in one single room of the entire house. I'm going to have to bring my computer out here just to get work done, and I so don't want to. I already sleep out here. If I bring my computer out here, this frigging room will become my whole life. :( Not to mention, nothing I own will be safe from Napoleon's neverending quest for things to destroy.
I swear to you people, you never saw a more destructive dog. Oh sure, you think you have, but so trust me, you have not. I thought I knew what destructive was. I once owned a german shepherd who not only ate more than his weight in my leather shoes, he also chewed to pieces parts of the house, ate one of Pete's ears and tore into the other, destroyed the trashcan and ate the broken glass that was inside it, went through more rolls of paper products than I can count, and ate various and sundry items anyone left lying on the floor - items I don't remember anymore, other than the fact that I had to give a lot of money to roommates for various objects they had once owned prior to Atilla's presence in the room.
Napoleon makes him look like a rank amateur. He has already gotten to numerous objects we would rather he not destroy but can do without, TB's Docs, TB's rubber boots, 4 couch cushions, 2 doggy beds (through both the covers and the inner layers, and promptly set about pulling out and eating the stuffing), at least 3 heavy duty dog bed covers (in addition to the 2 above), my grandfather's antique armchair, various cords for electronic equipment, a flashlight, numerous writing implements (including a Sharpie), several of my shirts, several "indestructible" dog toys (not even counting all the "tough" toys he ripped to pieces), several cardboard boxes, the Victorian pool table and its slate, the dining chairs, the doorjam into the house, 2 puppy gates, a large kangaroo paw plant, 2 large cistus shrubs, an upright rosemary shrub, AND the succulents planted around it, 2 ficus trees, a very large jasmine shrub, the inside of 2 of my car doors, my gearshift, several towels, a blanket, the gate at the top of the driveway, and 3 cell phones, all 3 of which were thankfully in leather holsters which took the brunt of the punishment and saved the phones. (I am now a staunch believer in the use of cell phone holsters.) That's not all, it's just what I can think off right offhand. And to be fair some of it is only badly damaged. Most of it had to be thrown away, however. I'm telling you: destructive. Just the dog to leave all my computer cords and documents lying around. :(
I'm watching the DaVinci Code. That should tell you how bored I am. Actually, I've seen the last 30 min. of it before, and it's a lot better than the book. Everyone complained that there was too much talking in the film, which I always thought was ridiculous - the book is nothing *but* talking. Why would they think the movie was going to be any different? I like watching movies set in Paris, though. It takes me back. It also makes me feel a little "homesick," but it's cool seeing places I've been and know pretty well. :)
I am eaten more junk food today than you would think possible. And all of it in one hour. Blach. I feel kinda like hurling.
*sigh* While I was writing this, another dog toy has been destroyed. Seriously, I don't think there's a toy on the planet worth my money, since they're all expensive and easily destroyed.
I didn't get to go to Saint-Sulpice when I was in Paris. I wonder if the Rose Line really does pass through it with markers and everything? I didn't go to the Louvre, either. I wonder if that will be my thing: I will visit Paris dozens of times but somehow never make it to the Louvre (or up the Eiffel Tower).
Napoleon is bossing me to let him outside. I love when he does that. He doesn't growl, whine, or bark. He makes a wookie sound. It's hilarious. I have to take him out. And then go get something hot to eat, since all I've had is triple cream cheese and crostini and a bunch of cookies. Not exactly a nutritious breakfast. I need to get back to my Paris habit of yogurt and fruit puree blended together, with two pieces of whole wheat toast. That was yummy. :)
ttyl, peeps.
xo,
kd
Monday, February 2, 2009
Listening To: Marian Call
I love, love, love this album. :) I've been addicted to it ever since I first got it, so I'm actually going to do something I have never before done in my life, and blog "review" an album. And when I say "review," I mean, tell you everything I like about it. I am not a music critic. I just know what I like. :) Call has a good voice and harmonizes beautifully and interestingly. Her lyrics are smart and thoughtful, and since I'm a big lyrics girl, that's important. I can't stand a song with bad lyrics, no matter how catchy the tune is. Bad lyrics will just crush a song for me. Some of Call's songs grew on me after I listened to the lyrics. I started out liking about half the tracks, which is a higher percentage rate of like than I usually get out of an album on first listen (and sometimes any number of subsequent ones). All the others grew on me by 3rd listen, thanks to Call's lyrics. Now I like nearly the entire album, and the songs I don't necessarily *like* I still listen to because the lyrics are solid.
Track 1 - I'll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks it's Chic (the Nerd Anthem)
Snappy in the same way the cantina song from Star Wars is. Infectiously geeky and adorable, with lyrics like, "My superpower's draining fun from parties," and references to pop culture, historical nerds, and numerous geek stereotypes - both accurate and not.
Track 2 - Good Old Girl
Possibly my favorite song on the album, Good Old Girl is a smokey little number about both ships and heroines. It's a little downbeat but hopeful, with great harmonies. I sort of marvel that she can write a song about both vessels and women and have the lyrics equally applicable to both. Excellent use of metaphor, with lyrics like, "Her structure's sound, her clock is wound/Through mistreatment and neglect, she'll give whatever she's got left/And she's run aground; she's run aground/But on the weakest breath of wind, she'll up and navigate the din of love and lies..." and "It's far too much to take, but my girl don't know how to break, so she'll make, she'll make a way/She's a good old girl, she'll fly true." It does a syncopated bridge thing a little over halfway through that's pretty neat too. I just really like the song, and since I've been having a tough time the last several years, it really resonates with me.
Good Old Girl - Marian Call
Track 3 - Don't Try
I will admit I do not care for the intro, but the song is a love song, and a very pretty one. It starts slowly and sadly but blossoms into a lovely and thoughtful song about why and how we fall in love, perhaps because of a person's imperfections, rather than in spite of them. "You won me when you stumbled as you got up to dance/ when you tried to fly, and instead you took that fall/Oh, I want to love a human, afterall/You had me when you drew the curtain back and let me see/There was no one else behind that veil but you."
Dont Try - Marian Call
Track 4 - Dark Dark Eyes
The only song on the entire album I do not particularly care for, and yet I can't bring myself to say I don't like it. It's an old-fashioned sounding waltz, vaguely reminiscent of mountain music.
Track 5 - Vera Flew the Coop
It's like a steel guitar road song with a Thelma & Louise style heroine who, not surprisingly, meets with a bad end. I didn't like it that much at first, but it rapidly grew on me. I especially like the crooning lie-lie-lie's between verses.
Track 6 - It's Good to Have Jayne on Your Side
The only track on the album Call did not write. She fudged a couple of words. It was originally a song called "Shaner," by Justin Boot. It's ridiculous fun when you know she means it as a tribute to everyone's favorite antihero, Jayne Cobb. :) It's also catchy. I find myself singing it at odd moments nearly every day.
Track 7 - In the Black
Every time this song starts, I think I don't like it and am going to hit the skip button. Since I'm lazy, I don't, and then I'm glad I didn't. It's sort of about struggling and falling behind. It's kind of blues, kind of western. It's the kind of song you'd want to hear sitting around a fire in the wilderness when that guy who always has his guitar with him starts strumming stuff and singing half to himself, half to the rest of you. I can't really explain it any better than that.
Track 8 - Got to Fly
Funky, kicky little number about escapism and finding that world we all thought we were growing up in, before we found out reality was not half as cool as we'd been led to believe. Quick, witty lyrics like, "Thank you for calling, I'll get back to you soon/If you should get a message from the dark side of the moon/You'll know that that's me/Baby, you'll know I'm there/The reception's lousy baby, but the view's beyond compare/So if you wanna call shotgun on my rocket, well you oughtta, baby/Let's let's, baby, let's let's let's fly."
Got to Fly - Marian Call
Track 9 - It was Good for You Too
As I understand it, Call actually wrote this for a contest called Sing a Song of Saffron, based on the character Joss Whedon wrote for Firefly. She won the contest, and if I have my facts straight, it motivated her recording career, an incident for which I will be eternally happy. The track is a smoky jazz croon I can easily imagine Call singing dressed in a long, slinky black sheath, standing behind a blocky, old fashioned microphone, bathed in a white spotlight.
I really think you should hustle over to imeem and stream yourself these and more of Call's tracks, and then go buy the album. I can't wait until I start work again and can buy her first album, Vanilla. Marian Call rules. :)
Track 1 - I'll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks it's Chic (the Nerd Anthem)
Snappy in the same way the cantina song from Star Wars is. Infectiously geeky and adorable, with lyrics like, "My superpower's draining fun from parties," and references to pop culture, historical nerds, and numerous geek stereotypes - both accurate and not.
Track 2 - Good Old Girl
Possibly my favorite song on the album, Good Old Girl is a smokey little number about both ships and heroines. It's a little downbeat but hopeful, with great harmonies. I sort of marvel that she can write a song about both vessels and women and have the lyrics equally applicable to both. Excellent use of metaphor, with lyrics like, "Her structure's sound, her clock is wound/Through mistreatment and neglect, she'll give whatever she's got left/And she's run aground; she's run aground/But on the weakest breath of wind, she'll up and navigate the din of love and lies..." and "It's far too much to take, but my girl don't know how to break, so she'll make, she'll make a way/She's a good old girl, she'll fly true." It does a syncopated bridge thing a little over halfway through that's pretty neat too. I just really like the song, and since I've been having a tough time the last several years, it really resonates with me.
Good Old Girl - Marian Call
Track 3 - Don't Try
I will admit I do not care for the intro, but the song is a love song, and a very pretty one. It starts slowly and sadly but blossoms into a lovely and thoughtful song about why and how we fall in love, perhaps because of a person's imperfections, rather than in spite of them. "You won me when you stumbled as you got up to dance/ when you tried to fly, and instead you took that fall/Oh, I want to love a human, afterall/You had me when you drew the curtain back and let me see/There was no one else behind that veil but you."
Dont Try - Marian Call
Track 4 - Dark Dark Eyes
The only song on the entire album I do not particularly care for, and yet I can't bring myself to say I don't like it. It's an old-fashioned sounding waltz, vaguely reminiscent of mountain music.
Track 5 - Vera Flew the Coop
It's like a steel guitar road song with a Thelma & Louise style heroine who, not surprisingly, meets with a bad end. I didn't like it that much at first, but it rapidly grew on me. I especially like the crooning lie-lie-lie's between verses.
Track 6 - It's Good to Have Jayne on Your Side
The only track on the album Call did not write. She fudged a couple of words. It was originally a song called "Shaner," by Justin Boot. It's ridiculous fun when you know she means it as a tribute to everyone's favorite antihero, Jayne Cobb. :) It's also catchy. I find myself singing it at odd moments nearly every day.
Track 7 - In the Black
Every time this song starts, I think I don't like it and am going to hit the skip button. Since I'm lazy, I don't, and then I'm glad I didn't. It's sort of about struggling and falling behind. It's kind of blues, kind of western. It's the kind of song you'd want to hear sitting around a fire in the wilderness when that guy who always has his guitar with him starts strumming stuff and singing half to himself, half to the rest of you. I can't really explain it any better than that.
Track 8 - Got to Fly
Funky, kicky little number about escapism and finding that world we all thought we were growing up in, before we found out reality was not half as cool as we'd been led to believe. Quick, witty lyrics like, "Thank you for calling, I'll get back to you soon/If you should get a message from the dark side of the moon/You'll know that that's me/Baby, you'll know I'm there/The reception's lousy baby, but the view's beyond compare/So if you wanna call shotgun on my rocket, well you oughtta, baby/Let's let's, baby, let's let's let's fly."
Got to Fly - Marian Call
Track 9 - It was Good for You Too
As I understand it, Call actually wrote this for a contest called Sing a Song of Saffron, based on the character Joss Whedon wrote for Firefly. She won the contest, and if I have my facts straight, it motivated her recording career, an incident for which I will be eternally happy. The track is a smoky jazz croon I can easily imagine Call singing dressed in a long, slinky black sheath, standing behind a blocky, old fashioned microphone, bathed in a white spotlight.
I really think you should hustle over to imeem and stream yourself these and more of Call's tracks, and then go buy the album. I can't wait until I start work again and can buy her first album, Vanilla. Marian Call rules. :)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I'm seriously considering writing a cookbook.
I need to get all my recipes together, write down the ones that aren't written down, and see what I've got. Dinner tonight was awesome, if I do say so myself. I finally - FINALLY - perfected my chicken, mushroom, and sundried tomatoes pasta. Seriously, I surprised myself. So yum. :)
I had a super lazy day today. Which is good I guess, coz tomorrow will really suck. I have a lot to do just to file for extension of my unemployment benefits. God, this economy sucks it. Bush sucked worse than Hoover. Even the lady at EDD was all, yeah, it's bad; Bush's policies really screwed the country economically. Awesome.
Operation Guitar Hero is underway. I will find some way to obtain that videogame, if it's the last thing I ever do.
Man, I'm being pulled in a million different directions, right now. I need to: find a job, build Pete's website, build my new small business website (rebranding Dragonfly to allow a wider variety of stuff, not just jewelry), build the photography website Calli and I are going to sell prints and cards of our work from, build the landscape design site I have in mind selling pre-made plans and designs, design more plans/designs, write Pete's book, write Napoleon's book, write my book, figure out how to build another website I have in mind that will hopefully make money and require hiring other artists, and pack up all the stuff I own that I'm not using and put it into storage.
Whew. That's a lot. In addition, I should also do some work on my Squidoo lenses, which have fallen into sad disrepair and neglect.
No wonder I'm tired all the time.
Today, I recommitted to my Photo of the Day project. Here's one of the photos I took:
Peace out,
Katie
I had a super lazy day today. Which is good I guess, coz tomorrow will really suck. I have a lot to do just to file for extension of my unemployment benefits. God, this economy sucks it. Bush sucked worse than Hoover. Even the lady at EDD was all, yeah, it's bad; Bush's policies really screwed the country economically. Awesome.
Operation Guitar Hero is underway. I will find some way to obtain that videogame, if it's the last thing I ever do.
Man, I'm being pulled in a million different directions, right now. I need to: find a job, build Pete's website, build my new small business website (rebranding Dragonfly to allow a wider variety of stuff, not just jewelry), build the photography website Calli and I are going to sell prints and cards of our work from, build the landscape design site I have in mind selling pre-made plans and designs, design more plans/designs, write Pete's book, write Napoleon's book, write my book, figure out how to build another website I have in mind that will hopefully make money and require hiring other artists, and pack up all the stuff I own that I'm not using and put it into storage.
Whew. That's a lot. In addition, I should also do some work on my Squidoo lenses, which have fallen into sad disrepair and neglect.
No wonder I'm tired all the time.
Today, I recommitted to my Photo of the Day project. Here's one of the photos I took:
Peace out,
Katie
With a Rebel Yell...
I finally got to play Guitar Hero at Jonny-C's tonight, and IT'S FRIGGING AWESOME!!!
Dude! I NEED a Wii and Guitar Hero, damn it! It is so patently unfair that I do not have one. I can not believe that a) I went so long without ever participating in the wonder and marvel that is this videogame, and b) I had to leave it behind and come home to my house, a place without whammy bars and ripping song tracks. Oh, sure, there are real guitars in this house. A garage full. But I do not play those. I play a synth axe. A plastic marvel of innovation and creative genius, nirvana in lightweight molded polymer. I want to marry the guy who came up with Guitar Hero so that we can play it all the time and have little Guitar Hero babies, a veritable band of axe-slinging, bass-chewing, drum-pounding little geniuses in clunky black boots and artfully ripped jeans. I want to get so good at Guitar Hero that men weep for their failure at ever coming close to what I can achieve with 5 push buttons and a whammy bar o' death. And I want to play Eye of the Tiger without a single mistake. In my sleep. *sigh*
Dude! I NEED a Wii and Guitar Hero, damn it! It is so patently unfair that I do not have one. I can not believe that a) I went so long without ever participating in the wonder and marvel that is this videogame, and b) I had to leave it behind and come home to my house, a place without whammy bars and ripping song tracks. Oh, sure, there are real guitars in this house. A garage full. But I do not play those. I play a synth axe. A plastic marvel of innovation and creative genius, nirvana in lightweight molded polymer. I want to marry the guy who came up with Guitar Hero so that we can play it all the time and have little Guitar Hero babies, a veritable band of axe-slinging, bass-chewing, drum-pounding little geniuses in clunky black boots and artfully ripped jeans. I want to get so good at Guitar Hero that men weep for their failure at ever coming close to what I can achieve with 5 push buttons and a whammy bar o' death. And I want to play Eye of the Tiger without a single mistake. In my sleep. *sigh*
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