Anniversary yesterday. 2nd since wedding, but 11th really. That's a loooong time, pretty mind boggling really. We had an excellent day, with nice weather and no grating of nerves whatsoever. After a nice leisurly morning of watching more Buffy (one and a bit DVDs left to go), we went to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean (Amusing. Great soundtrack. Currently downloading.) and then hit Red Lobster for dinner. Returned home, and had a nice evening.

Timing was great for it this year. It fell on a Saturday, which is always nice, and it's the three-day weekend for Labor Day. Time to rest and relax, just in time to become a frenzied whirlwind of cleaning action in preparation for Mum's arrival on the 6th.

So, did anybody else watch Evolution this morning? Holy cow. I don't want to spoiler anybody, but no way did I see that coming. What away to kick off the season. Gods that's such a great show.

Two important things to comment on regarding "Wild at Heart":

1. This episode has cemented for me that I adore Willow, and she joins the extremely elite ranks of All-Time Favourite Fictional Characters alongside the likes of Rogue and Gabrielle.

2. The bloody thing made me shed a tear. I will perhaps even concede two. I admit to no more than that.

And now I think that it's probably for the best that I go to bed, it being 4am and all. I've only just completed disc two, gotta get an early start tomorrow.

I just got Buffy season 4 on DVD. I'll see you all in about 22 hours.

Last night I dreamed that I and a group of people (I don't remember everybody, but I think Mike was there, and Candace, and also Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but don't quote me on that last one). We decided, on a whim, to hike up to Mt. Hood. Bear in mind that while I have admired it greatly from afar, I have yet to actually go to Mt. Hood. However I'm fairly positive that, half-way there, you won't be forced to enter this odd way-station (it reminded me of a tourist set-up in London's Tower Bridge) and deal with a half-crazed caretaker raving about ogres.

You might. But I doubt it.

Listening To:I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2

Looking Forward To:My head not hurting at all today?

I was thinking about the doughnuts thing a bit more earlier today, and I think that they must lace their sugar glaze with crack cocaine or something. I mean, why else would people go to such lengths for them?

Maybe it's a secret government plot. Population control through Kristy Kreme. We'd never see it coming, damn them.

...gods, I want doughnuts.

This was quite the red-letter day. A Krispy Kreme shop opened up just down the street. Now I'm sure that you, like me, are turning into goo at the very thought (mmm, a fatty, sugary goo just like Krispy Kreme .... ), however there's nothing like injecting the human element to make your eyes snap open and wonder, is it really worth it?

The answer may be yes, but I think you'll still be shocked at this.

When I went to check the mail yesterday, I wasn't feeling very well, so I didn't pay much attention to what we got, saving the sorting until this morning. A bright yellow postcard caught my attention (as I suppose was the point, what with it bring bright and yellow and all). It was a notification from the friendly neighborhood police. No, no criminally insane escaped convicts. No vital safety improvements. What the police sent out, spending tax dollars on printing and postage, was an alert about the new Krispy Kreme opening, and the roadblocks that will be in place to help with the predicted traffic problem.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Roadblocks. For one week.

Don't believe me? I don't blame you. My husband didn't either until I showed him the card, and you don't live with me, so I expect no more from you. Thus, I scan the postcards for proof. Click here for the front, and here for the back.

Turns out that some people had been queing outside of the store for three days to ensure that they got some doughnuts today. Three days. For freaking doughnuts. Now I admit that they're damned good freaking doughnuts, but that does not, in any way, shape or form, alter the inherent fact that these are DOUGHNUTS.

This is the same species that wouldn't consider taking ten minutes out of their day to help feed a homeless person, but they'll camp outside of Krispy Kreme for 72 hours for a dozen deep-fried sugar pastries. What the hell's wrong with this picture?

Listening To:Some idiots who apparently didn't realize that the 4th of July was two months ago setting off firecrackers in the field across the street.

Looking Forward To:Getting my own dozen deep-fried sugar pastires when it's slightly less insane to do so.

Today's sorta sucked. I think I'm getting a summer cold or something -- terrible headache, sore throat, hot/cold flashes, and a penchant for whining ... Though that's pretty typical when I don't feel well.

Yay for Mike though. He made me soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, and endured my two hour or so Futurama/Family Guy marathon without complaint.

I go back and lie down now.

I need to channel surf at 1am more often.

I was sitting downstairs just a few minutes ago, having just finished politely telling TiVo that no, I didn't need five consecutive recordings of the exact same episode of The Daily Show. For reasons unknown, I decided not to go to bed just yet, but instead to flip through the channels and see what was on.

(It wasn't really "reasons unknown" ... more like I was too lazy to move. But, as always, the mysterious sounds much more intriguing than the truthful.)

I merrily flipped along, stopping only briefly to gawk at Jerry Springer (two men of differing body types were hurriedly stripping down to their boxer shorts and flinging themselves at each other in a manner that I believe was supposed to suggest passion, but instead looked rather like two angry musk ox fighting for territory) until I came to the block of channels reserved for infomercials, school board meetings, and general public access. I'm still relatively new to this cable line-up, so I hit "channel up" about seven times, but that was insufficient to get me over the hump, and I landed on one of the aforementioned public access channels.

The picture before me was of extremely poor quality, washed out and jerky, reminiscent of the modified openings to the MST3K version of Pop People or the one with Atog, or whatever his name was. (You know ... Mr. "I'm HUGE!" "How much Keefe is in this movie? MILES O'Keefe." Alright, I'm done.)

Right, so extremely poor picture quality, but it was of a cute little puppy dog, so in my fatigued state, I watched the puppy. Then I began take note of the messages that were appearing at the bottom of the screen.

Freedom Of Thought: Race Does Matter!

...oookay. The scene changed to a couple of horses chewing on some hay. A new message also appeared.

Save the white race from extinction!

Well now I was really confused, so I started to listen to what the voiceover was talking about. It was, for all intents and purposes, implying that while Hitler may have killed a couple of hundred Jews here and there, the Jewish people were lying about the Holocaust in order to gain an unfair advantage, and they should really get over it already anyway because the war ended 50 years ago.

This was accompanied by an image of a little kitty playing with some string.

New message:

WhiteMan: take A stand for your land!

I made sure to copy that one down exactly as it appeared. This one, too:

Look around Gringo, Your losing the town!

I felt like someone was attempting to brainwash me, ala A Clockwork Orange. Only they had really bad grammar skills, and precious little grasp of basic capitalization rules. By the time we got to ...

Honky: It's okay to be White!

... the voiceover had changed to another person telling me that I needed to expel all non-White people from my proud country of America before the blacks and asians and such took it over. With images of Canadian geese bobbing happily on a lake.

Now I'm so tired at the moment that this really feels quite disorienting. So to convince myself in the morning that I'm not hallucinating, I had TiVo record about 10 minutes. But let's assume that I am, in fact, still sane.

I support free speech, I honestly do, but really, couldn't these people have gotten a proofreader or something? Or at least run their cards through Word first? It's so hard to take these extremist supremacist groups seriously when they can't even tell the difference between "your" and "you're". I mean, they had me with the three-minute clip of the rotweiller sitting still and being a good doggie, but when you stick a capital "A" in the middle of your impassioned call to arms, your message falls on deaf ears.

Supremacist groups take note! You can't possibly save honkies like me from extinction when the "invaders" can speak and write your native language better than you can.

This has been a public access announcement.

And now in other news, it turns out that as of early this morning, Mike is an uncle. (Note that Mike's an uncle. I'm not an aunt because that makes me feel old.) His nephew, one Austin Davis, gets to carry on the fine Chenoweth name, leaving us 100% guilt-free for the girl we'd rather have IF we ever choose to breed. IF. Did I emphasize that "if" enough? Good.

So, yay an' stuff.

Intresting dreams last night. First of all, I dreamt that I was on the space shuttle Challenger, but managed to escape before it exploded by parachuting out. Next, I was in space, talking to a friend who was stuck in a one-room space station-type thingie with red tinted windows. No idea who the friend was, and I don't really remember what we were talking about, except that she was afraid to leave because "he" would get really mad. Finally, I was at a zoo/zoological research facility, talking to one of the wolves who called himself "Nakira". Yeah, talking to him. He was actually quite funny.

Weird stuff. I think my brain has issues.

Listening To:The Imperial March from Star Wars (in my head)

Looking Forward To:Weekend!

Apparently my comic book store (Things From Another World, for those curious) is having a glut of creators coming in next Wednesday. Of the ones that they're getting, I'm most interested in Kurt Busiek, who will actually be at the branch I visit. Unfortunately, wouldn't you know it, my glut of Astro City is still in Louisiana. Typical.

My day progresses nicely. I'm moving into the Great Dune Sea on Tatooine in KotOR. Mike strong-armed me into doing that pending review yesterday, and I think I may actually start working on #8 now (should be easy - no words). I even did the laundry and cleared some stuff off TiVo.

Lazy? Me? Pshaw.

Well okay, maybe a little.

Listening To:Last Night - The Strokes

Looking Forward To:Finishing more stuff.

Did I mention the second part of my birthday present from my incredibly awesome mother? No? Shame on me.

I have received a near-mint copy of Uncanny X-Men #139. I shall proceed to list the many reasons that this is so very kick ass.

1. #139 is the issue where my second favourite character, Kitty Pryde, joins the team.
   
2. Finding a copy this old in such sterling condition is no easy feat.
   
3. With this issue, I now have a complete run of Uncanny from #133 through to the present (#429).
   
4. The icing on the cake: This issue is signed by Chris Claremont.

So very, very cool. Don't you wish you wish you had my mum?

Now I just need to find a plastic case to enshrine it in. Two, actually, as my copy of Avengers Annual #10 (also signed by Claremont -- though I've had that for years now) could do with some hard protection.

Comics are to be w00t.

Listening To:Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads

Looking Forward To:More Jedi action

This staying-up-until-I-almost-pass-out thing is doing wonders for my sleep these past few days. This is the first time in weeks that I've slept past about 8am. Or maybe it's the gratuitous violence in my game, who can say? Although I should be fair, it's actually not all that violent, but who can resist the braingasm at whipping out your lightsaber (blue, for those curious), hearing that world famous sound effect that I can't figure out the onomonopia for, leaping a distance of fifty feet or so to impale it into an evil creature?

Unfortunately it really is wrecking the hell out of my summer to-do list. I did get the e-mail with Amy started, so that's something, but my copy of X-Treme continues to sit here, unreviewed. If Rogue, Sage and Storm could talk, I doubt their words would be for delicate young ears. On the other hand, however, I know me. My obsessive nature will only last for so long, so one of two things is likely to happen: I'll finish the game (thus freeing my summer) or I'll get bored (thus freeing my summer). So it's really only a matter of time. The real issue is whether or not that time will be before the fall term starts up again on 22 September.

What will happen? Will Jet Wolf be able to set aside the controller and accomplish things? Or will she instead become a permanent fixture on the couch and require assistance to move her atrophied limbs come next month? Stay tuned!

Listening To:Over the Pressure - Bubblegum Crisis

Looking Forward To:Is this really a question that needs answering?

Okay, this game is incredibly awesome. It's made by Bioware, so it'll be no surprise when I say that it's very much like Neverwinter Nights in the Star Wars universe. That's a good thing, incidentally.

And just wait until I get me a lightsaber. Oooo. Chills.

Just got Knights of the Old Republic.

There went that to-do list for the summer!

So ... cool ...

w00t, "A" in Math. My 4.0 remains undefeated. Next term promises to be a toughie, so we'll see if I can keep it up.

Mike and I were going to go see a movie this afternoon, but there's bugger all out. It's pretty sad. Pirates of the Caribbean is still out, and I did want to see it, but overall the selection sucks arse.

Today, I think my goals shall be:

- Reply to Amy with those pending As If! e-mails
- Review X-Treme #7

Outside of that, enjoy the overcast weather. I love it when it's like this, it reminds me of London. Only with mountains.

Listening To:Cry - Def Leppard

Looking Forward To:Accomplishing today's goals.

It's the first day of my summer vacation, and I'm being so bad. I haven't done anything at all of any substantial value. I'm levelling a bit on Aard, I did a load of laundry, I obsessively checked for my grade several times, I ... Uh, ate lunch and .. Hmm .. watched some of the many, many Law & Order episodes that TiVo keeps recording for me ...

That appears to be about it.

So. A list for what I would like to accomplish during my summer break. Starting Monday, I have exactly five weeks before school starts, and my mother will be here for one of those, so let's say four weeks. In those four weeks, I hope to:

• Finishing The Untouchables would be nice, but failing that, I'd like to write a few more parts.
  
• Revamp the As If! website.
  
• Do my pending movie reviews, and perhaps start working on some for the NetFlix rentals.
  
• Start -- REALLY start -- on The Lion and the Unicorn.
  
• Complete this class on Aard and remort again (currently level 60).
  
• Finish FF8.
  
• Begin work on Starz.
  
• Get some serious planning, plotting and writing on As If! done.
  
• Finish enough of the project with Jason to launch it.
  
• Complete reviews (and synopsis) for X-Treme and Ultimate, so I can have two series completely done. Unlikely, as that would require me to write 1.5 reviews each day, but hey, this entire list is pretty optimistic.

And while I'm wishing, I'd really like a pony.

Listening To:Gravity of Love - Enigma (Damn, this is a powerful song. If you haven't heard it, rectify your error immediately.)

Looking Forward To:Accomplishing at least one of the things on this list.

Yesterday I received a pleasant surprise. Late July, I placed an order for a Very Yummy Thing. Said Yummyness was not due to be shipped until October; so I was quite (pleasantly) surprised when I received it in the mail yesterday.

To what do I refer? Why, an exquisite X-Women lithographed by none other than Salvador Larroca. Want to see it? Of course you do.





Click on either picture for a close-up. In case you can't tell, however, you're looking at (from the top left): Phoenix (Rachel), Jubilee, Rogue, Shadowcat, Lockheed, Emma Frost, Sage, Psylocke, Storm, and Jean.

<contented sigh> My framed-stuff is so very nifty.

Oh, yeah, in other news, I took my final this afternoon, and I think it went well. I should have my final grade within a few days, but I'm optimistic. Now I'm free for about six weeks (six weeks!) to do whatever the heck I want; just in time for my to start working my ass off again in the Fall.

I'm going back to staring lovingly at my litho and listening to more New York craziness. Whew, glad I'm not on the east coast.

Listening To:CNN

Looking Forward To:Sleeping in without guilt tomorrow.

Totally unbelievably late this time around, but I have the new reviews up at Flatscan.

My final's in two days. Start crossing those fingers now.

<laugh> Hot damn, Melvin apparently warrented a sequel. I'm related to a franchise! WHOO!

It's amazing what you can stumble on sometimes. Through a series of events that I won't bore you with, I bumped into this little thing on IMDB. One of the many crazy people scattered throughout my family's history. Good ol' suicidal Melvin is my great, great something-or-other, I forget what exactly, on my father's side.

Look at that. He even had a driver.

I want a driver.

That's all I need in life. A tommy gun, a gangster to kill, and a driver.

What a generally craptacular week. Not that there were no bright points. I got over 100% on my latest Math test. By this time next week, the summer term will be over. We reconfigured the network and now TiVo is included, meaning that I can drop the phone line altogether (sayonara, Verizon). I got my latest shipment of comics from Mum.

So yeah, there are good things.

But still. What a craptacular week.

Not only is a raining outside -- a bless'd relief given the record-breaking July we had -- but it's actually thundering. A light thunderstorm is one of the few things that I miss from Louisiana. You don't really appreciate how soothing it can be until you've been without one for years.

Ahh, just smell that cool, damp, rainy air.

...actually, it's a little TOO cool, excuse me while I turn the fan off.

Comics are just for kids, right? That's certainly what Texas thinks. Anybody concerned with Supreme Court thumbing their nose at the First Amendment will want to read this.

Today, it's comics. Tomorrow it'll be anime; after all, cartoons are just for kids too.

God bless America.

My friends, I have seen the face of Insanity. For one brief, horrifying moment, she pulled back her dark, silky veil, and allowed me to gaze into the abyss. Should she ever again pay me a visit, I now know the form she will take.

Insanity appeared to me as a grown man wearing a giant foam flower pot hat, a person wearing a very worn and wholly unconvincing full-body lion suit, and a creature that was part Mexican wrestler, part necromancer, with a plastic trumpet around its neck. All of these surrounded an unfortunate soul who was singing Spanish karaoke.

Look upon her, and tremble.

Listening To:My brain asking why? ....why? .....why?

Looking Forward To:Sandblasting this image from my retinas, if that's what it takes.

<gasp!> I just discovered the wonders of cbz files. Comic book scans. FULL comic book scans. Oh, Bit Torrent, you are indeed a marvel.

It's not quite the same as having the book in your hands or in your longbox, but now I can actually reread some of those $50+ issues and not worry about it. Or, perhaps even neater, I can now have interior scans without ruining my own books.

Come on, GenX downloads. I haven't read of your goodness in years.

Listening To:The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd

Looking Forward To:Weekend!