It's not fascism when we do it.

A rather disturbing look at our recent national trends.

Anybody else feeling a cold chill?

Puppies! (again)

Mike and I just got back from the zoo. I saw sea puppies! And river puppies! And grey puppies! So!Many!Puppies!

I had a puppygasm.

OMGROFL!!

Mike and I were watching yesterday's Daily Show. Samantha Bee's segment "Gays of Thunder" started, discussing the advent of Garnier Fructis into the sponsorship world of Nascar. Suddenly I notice that Mike is looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Did you get me gay guy shampoo??"

Insert a good minute or so of me almost turning the Roffle into something literal.

Once I'm done, he says, "I'm glad you laughed, because I meant it to be funny ... But seriously, did you get me gay guy shampoo??"

HEE. I love my Mike.

Shiny.

The newest member of our happy little technologically advanced household. In about two weeks, anyway.

Oh, I am drooling. I am so very drooling.

I haven't named her yet. More on that when she arrives. Expect obsessive checking of the order status in the days to come.

Birthday Shopping

This morning/afternoon, I was speaking to my mum on the phone, as I do every morning/afternoon after dropping Mike off at work. We got into a discussion about something or another, and it led to laptops. I mentioned in passing that I could use a new laptop – I love 'Bit to death, and that's part of the problem. I do everything on this computer ... or, well, I try to, and she's simply not built for such things.

The next thing I know, my mother is bullying me into shopping for a new laptop for myself for my birthday.

("But they're expensive and—"
"Shut up! Now look!"
"I'm almost thirty years old, you can't tell me to shut up any more!"
"Yes I can. I am your mother, and I will be able to tell you to shut up until the day I die, so shut up.")

So the past, oh, four hours have been spent reading reading reading on laptops. (And there went the writing for today. This episode hates me.) I'm way more indecisive this time than I was with the last one, probably because now I actually have laptop experience under my belt. That, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I really want it to do. Do I want something with uber battery life that I can use to sit somewhere outside and write all day, despite the fact that I actually go outside to write once in a blue moon, or do I want something sweet and shiny that I can use to do anything, all from the comfort of my own lap? I mean, I could play CoH from the couch. Dude, that's awesome.

Arg. Wracked with indecision.

rrr

It's not even 7am yet, but I'm up. I slept in some weird-ass position and my back hurt no matter how I fidgeted, so I gave up. I look like I slept on my face. On a pillow made from concrete. I just spent a good 20 seconds unable to correctly spell "slept" as anything but "spelt". I hate mornings.

A link for today:

Propaganda films! It's fun, free lovin'! See also here.

Where are Mike and the Bots when you need 'em?

ETA: Roffle. This one cracked me the hell up.

House of Sand and PATHOS.

Just finished watching House of Sand and Fog. A good film, but holy crap, that's some depressing shit.

Saturdays

I didn't write as much as I wanted. There is suckage on that front. I'm currently sitting with the balcony door open, which is cooling the apartment nicely. I'm going through the Netflix rentals (lovin' on Netflix). I watched Clay Pigeons (not too bad, if a little strange) and have just started House of Sand and Fog which, wow, so far very depressing.

I anticipate an evening of snuggling with Mike on the couch while we watch something, and possibly some CoH after.

Life could be worse.

Puppy!

Having a bad day? Puppies make everything better.

Aw. :(

Beam me up, Scotty.

You know you've seen Serenity too much when ...

...you put in a DVD and the Universal logo comes up. As the fanfare finishes, you start saying to yourself, "Earth that was could no longer support us ..."

The Roman Presidency

I had a thought the other day, as you sometimes do. I was thinking about all the Bush/Rove/Plame crap. Not extensively, because it hurts me, but I found my thoughts oddly drifting to the early days of the Roman empire. I was thinking to myself that Bush is, in some ways, like Tiberius.

I am, of course, going with the more stereotypical associations with Bush, and predominently the Claudius version of Tiberius. But work with me.

Tiberius wasn't really supposed to be emperor, but he became as such due to deceit and family connections.

He became emperor after a time of relative peace and prosperity, and it then thanks to him, it all fell to shit.

He had power, to a point, but was in many ways a figurehead – the true power behind the more, shall we say, memorable moments of Tiberius' reign was due to the machinations of Sejanus working behind the scenes.

What struck me most, though, was the thought that if he could, Bush would hand-pick his successor. And I honestly don't think he'd pick the best person for the job; I think he'd pick someone who would be practically guaranteed to become more hated than himself. I truly believe that history is going to look back on Bush's two terms and wonder just what the hell happened and, pretty much across the board, fail to be impressed. I think that Bush probably knows it, too. I also think he's self-focused so much that the knowledge of it will drive him apeshit, if it isn't already. (That's a thought that brings me a small amount of joy, by the way, but then I'm petty like that.)

In other words, I think if Bush could, we would totally have President Caligula coming our way very soon.

Sort of something to think about.

Snapshots in my mind

Okay, so before I keep forgetting: thoughts on Memento. They're really not that mind-blowing, however, so I'm not sure why anybody's looking that forward to them.

Simply put, I like it. I liked it a great deal. I find that often with movies that I get from Netflix (or, indeed, most anything on TV), I tend to multi-task. That is to say, I'll surf the web, post some notes, do any one of a number of things while the TV plays in the background. I'm perfectly able to follow along and everything, and rarely feel lacking for doing it this way.

I mention this, because I got so sucked into Memento that within the first 15 minutes or so, I'd closed Lil' Bit and simply watched. Then I watched it again the next day with Mike. I will probably rent it again when Mum comes up to visit so she can see it as well.

So yeah, good film. I loved the way it was put together, I thought the story was intriguing, and there were so many plot twists that I thought my head was going to unscrew and fall off. And hey, it had Carrie Anne Moss and I actually liked her. (I've only ever seen her as Trinity and thought she pretty much completely sucked.)

All in all, I would put this up there with my favourite mind-fuck films, ala 12 Monkeys. The sort of thing I'd like to write someday (but, in all honesty, probably never will).

Why my family rules.

I have tickets to see Tori Amos on my birthday. :)

Half-Blood Spoilers

With the book just finished, I've posted some thoughts and comments over on my LiveJournal. I'm not just posting here since they're spoilery in nature, of course, and I don't really have the ability to hide such things on DD. If you'd like to read them, click here.

Do not click if you do not wish to be spoiled.

As a reminder, my LJ is configured to accept anonymous comments, so if you don't have an LJ account yourself but have something to say, you can still reply.

The Amazing Chocolatier

We just got back from watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My take?

GO SEE IT.

It was abso-freaking-lutely hi-larious. Johnny Depp was just ... just perfect. I mean, once I got past the "OMG it's Michael Jackson!!" sensation. Which, I admit, was hard for the first ten or fifteen minutes. He was so delightfully malicious as Willy Wonka however. I was cracking up through half of this film, and a good portion of that was on Johnny Depp's facial expressions alone.

Is it like the original movie? Not really. And that's okay. That's absolutely okay. Johnny Depp's Wonka isn't Gene Wilder's Wonka, and that's for the best. Whereas Gene Wilder played it very subtle, Johnny Depp is more absurd. Wilder's WW was someone you could see as a real man, albiet an eccentric one. Depp plays it far more larger than life, which is in keeping with a film that is itself so much larger than life. It's actually a little easier to see Depp's version in the surreal world of the chocolate factory.

The whole thing manages to maintain a classic feeling, so that it could really be set in any time, although there are definitely some modern touches. A major highlight – besides Depp, that is – were the Oompa Loompas. Their songs, like Depp himself, were delightfully absurd. Not so much the little morality vignettes of the original film, these were extravaganzas, borrowing liberally from all forms of modern music.

Speaking of, I loved the soundtrack. I may have to look into picking that up.

Within the first half hour, I had more fun in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than I had in both Revenge of the Sith and Fantastic Four combined. Highly recommended, whether you're a fan of the original movie and/or the book, or have only barely heard of the story before. Don't let the fact that you might be thinking this is a kid's film put you off – it's definitely made to cater to the adult audience as well.

And you know, dammit, I hate to fangirl, but I think I ♥ Johnny Depp.

(P.S: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince showed up today after all. I'll be back in a several hours.)

Don't ask, don't tell.

No spoilers here!
Get your banner

I'll do it, too.

Princes of the Universe

We just finished Disc 2 of Highlander S1. I'm enjoying it more now (I'm also remembering seeing a few of these). I think it's because I've given up on expecting to be wowed, and just enjoying it for the cheese factor. There's something almost MST-worthy about it. Plus, who needs an excuse to hate on Richie?

In personal news, I still feel like shit. But I find it amusing how this week started with me taking care of Mike, and has since swung to Mike taking care of me. We're like one big co-dependent see-saw.

Where have you been all my life?

So. Update.

As everyone is doubtless aware by now, it was Mike's birthday on Monday. We did the whole celebratory thing on Saturday and Sunday however, due to the teeth issue of which, again, everyone here is doubtless already aware. Dinner was yummy, although without much excitment to pass along. I think the most interesting thing (outside of ourselves, of course) was the rather large party who were seated nearby. The woman was bizarrely obsessed with whether or not all attendees had a menu. I swear I heard her ask this question no less than thirteen times, and there were only seven people at the table, including herself.

From dinner we decided to catch a movie, and Mike picked Fantastic Four. My thoughts follow. Note that they're not spoiler marked because, honestly, I don't think there's anything in there you could possibly be spoiled by.

The film was ... decent. That's about the best I can say for it. I wasn't wowed like I was with either X-Men or Spider-Man films, but I didn't come away with a horrible taste in my mouth as I did with Star Wars the other week. By and large, FF simply was. The acting was fair for the most part. Johnny was eminently likable, and was probably the best character in the whole thing. Which isn't really surprising given the character in question, really. I was impressed by The Thing – he didn't look entirely realistic, but they managed to somehow make him not look like a guy in a big rubber pseudo-rock suit either. I thought the emotive range of the character really came across, but I wasn't watching closely enough to say how exactly they pulled that off. That's probably the way it should've been, actually – feeling Ben's pain being the point, rather than marvelling at how it's communicated. I also appreciated the rocky sound effects that accompanied his movements and actions. It added a nice touch of increased believability.

Reed ... I dunno. He was okay. Mr. Fantastic is probably my favourite of the Four, mostly because Reed can be such a fucking asshole sometimes without realizing it. That element wasn't really present in the character in the movie, but I can't say that surprises me since it can make him really, really unlikable sometimes. As a result, however, the movie was caught somewhere between making Reed a character the average viewer could enjoy while simultaneously attempting to show how obsessed he gets with his work, to the detriment of everything around him (a key point for the character). Consequently neither aspect really came through solid. Especially irritating was the way in which the movie presented aspect #2: by having other characters say it enough that we're supposed to believe it. "Oh Reed, you super smart guy, you're so wacky when you're in workaholic mode. We won't actually show it, but since I made a comment just like this not 20 minutes ago, you know it must be true!" 'Show, don't tell' was not a mantra on this set.

Last and, sadly, always least, we have Sue. Sue in this film ... what's the word? Oh yeah, sucked. I don't know if I've seen Jessica Alba in anything else, but I sure as hell know I won't go out of my way do so from this point forward. She was simply dreadful. I couldn't believe for even a fraction of a second that she was as smart as they were trying to make me believe she was (again refusing to 'show don't tell'), and as for her and Reed? I think when the two of them were in a scene together being all longing, I felt my brain trying to escape through my ears. It hurt to watch. I think the guy who played Reed had more chemistry with his clipboard. And don't even get me started on attempting to justify the amount of cleavage.

Doom ... eh. I take or leave.

Finally, the script, which I found mostly banal. Not so much with the funny, not so much with the exciting ... Already I can barely remember half of what happened.

I thought at first that this was my least favourite of all the Marvel movies I'd seen. But then Mike reminded me of Daredevil. So it's not the worst. And it did score major bonus points by casting Stan Lee as Willy Lumpkin – that was a stroke of genius. All that aside, really nothing special.

Not as laughably bad as the direct-to-video FF though, so that's something.

From the movies, we stopped at a new place, Dessert Noir, which I think is purely local at present. An interesting little place, but I think definitely tailored toward the upper class looking for someplace elite to waste some cash. Considering the food, the prices were outrageous in my opinion. Not impressed. If I pay $8 for a tiny little piece of cheesecake, I want to be blown away. I wasn't even windswept. I'm not really sure how Mike felt about his mousse, but personally, I'd rather save 50% and buy a box of those Philly Cheesecake bars at Freddy's. They taste better, and you sure as hell get better value for your money. Dessert Noir – not a personal recommendation.

Last night, we cracked open the Highlander DVD set I bought for his birthday. Wow. It was ... really, really bad. I don't remember them being that bad. Was I looking back on the show with rose-tinted glasses, or did I just get spoiled all to hell by Buffy, Firefly, Veronica Mars, etc? Because ... WOW. I'm hoping these get better, else I'm going to feel like a real chump for being all "Yay Highlander!" to Mike.

Other things of note: The Chosen is on hiatus, so within the next few days I'll be playing catchup on e-mail and The Pack and such. And hopefully will return to more regular posting. That would be nice.

Now I depart, as Mike and I are planning to meet our buddy North Norse on CoH for the next Task Force. Away!

Oh, one more thing: I watched Memento. Someone remind me to post comments.

Because it's festive

Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

Well it's time to celebrate your birthday, it happens every year
We'll eat a lot of broccoli and drink a lot of beer
You should be good and happy that there's something you can eat
A million people every day are starving in the street

Your daddy's in the gutter with the wretched and the poor
Your mama's in the kitchen with a can of Cycle 4
There's garbage in the water
And poison in the sky
I guess it won't be long before we're all gonna die

Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

Well what's the matter little friend, you think this party is the pits
Enjoy it while you can, we'll soon be blown to bits
The monkeys in the Pentagon are gonna cook our goose
Their finger's on the button, all they need is an excuse

It doesn't take a military genius to see
We'll all be crispy critters after World War III
There's nowhere you can run to, nowhere you can hide
When they drop the big one, we all get fried

(C'mon, boys and girls, sing along, okay?)

Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

Well there's a punk on the corner and he's lookin' for a fight
There's an Arab on the corner buyin' everything in sight
There's a mother in the ghetto with another mouth to feed
Seems that everywhere you look today there's misery and greed

I guess you know the Earth is gonna crash into the sun
But that's no reason why we shouldn't have a little fun
So if you think it's scary, if it's more than you can take
Just blow out the candles and have a piece of cake

Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday!
And a pinch to grow an inch!

     ♥ Weird Al

Is he not nifty? Worship the Dork Boy!

Today is Mike's birthday, as I've mentioned. I want everyone to send him greetings. Everyone. Even if you don't know him. Even if you don't know me. I don't care. Flood his inbox. Make him feel loved. Do it here. Do it now.

Cakey Genesis

And on the Birth Day, Jet Wolf said, "Let there be cake!" And it was pinapple, and upside down, and had a very nummy brown sugar glaze on top. And Mike did look upon it, and partake, and it was good.

Cast Spotting

Dude, did I just see Larry in a commercial for a new Ziplock twisty-lid tupperware thing?

500 Mark

Oh, and for another happy today: JWFSD has hit 500 listening hours in the past thirty days (1678 since inception, but this is the first time it's gotten a rolling 500). Pleased am I.

LIVE! From Saturn!

Today is errand day. When we took Willowy in for her first oil change a few weeks ago, we reported that the driver's side seatbelt had this sort of annoying tendency to squeak for no apparent reason. They ordered us a brand new one, and today was our appointment to get it replaced.

So it's 10.30 and we bring her in, then decided to go get something to eat. Lacking the car, we're left to either public transport (not really practical given the time and distance) or walk. Off we go then. Luckily today is nice and overcast. We hoof it a mile and a half or so, and Mike chooses KFC.

[Interrupted at Saturn. Many hours later, this post resumes.]

Mike and his 11 herbs and spices. So after lunch, we just hang out and chat for a while, then begin the walk back. Again, about 20 minutes later, and my feet have resumed Orlando Syndrome and are beginning to hurt. The shoes are mostly blamed. Conveniently, we had plans to go shoe shopping after Willowy was returned to us, sans squeaky seatbelt.

That was the plan.

As we walk into the building, I check my cell phone, only to discover that I'd accidentally set the phone to silent instead of vibrate, and we'd missed their call. I'm checking voice mail while Mike goes to see if the car's ready. It's not, and my voice message conveys a chilling message: "Give us a call." We head into the service area and meet up with our guy. "We have a problem."

It turns out that while they were working on getting the seatbelt out, they discovered that one of the bolts had seized. They'd ruined two wrench heads trying to get it out. Eventually they had to go in through the other side and do something with it. Finally it's free, and they do the work they need to ... but lo, when they try to reinstall the seatbelt, they discover that they've completely stripped the thing. No more threads. Oops.

Now by this stage, I have my polite face on, but inside I'm totally James T. Kirk. "My CAAAAAAAAAAAR!" The guy's exceedingly apologetic, but says they can't fix it there. It has to go to the body shop. How long? Uhm, not sure. So here's a rental car ...

To be fair, the situation was handled as well as it could be. I couldn't make them not have messed up my baby, after all. But we did get that "taken care of" feeling out of it all. They'd already made arrangements with the body shop, and we only had to wait about ten minutes before we had a car waiting to take us to the rental office. The whole mess is, of course, on Saturn's dime, as is I believe the whole squeaky seatbelt replacement thingie since we had it checked within those first 90 days. Still though, I'm worried as one might be when someone's all "oops" with your $20,000+ not-yet-five-month-old purchase.

Our rental car is a white 2005 Camry (LE, I think) which, I must say, looks pretty damn lame in comparison. I do not look as stylin' as I do in my shiny red Ion. The white exterior/tan interior might have something to do with it, but I wasn't at all impressed with the look. Handles just fine though – to be expected on a 2005 model with less then 5000 miles. Driving an automatic is strange as ever though. I had to constantly fight the urge to shift. To quote Giles, "I hate this just sitting here, not contributing."

The car debacle at a standstill, we proceeded to the comic book store. We're only about three months behind in picking up our books on that one. Mike went in while I stayed in the car and caught my mother up to speed (that, and I'm always embarassed as hell when I let the books back up that far). I have no idea how much we spent, but from what Mike says, I'm better off in my ignorance. While there, the guys received some free two-person passes to an advanced screening of some new Ewan McGregor film coming out soon (I don't remember what it's called). They gave one to Mike, so hey – free movie next Thursday. And it's Ewan. <gets dreamy, far-away look>

Okay, I'm back.

From there, off to Washington Square for the aforementioned shoe shopping. (Plus honey from Made in Oregon. Yum!) Mike snagged himself a new pair pretty quick, but me, I'm picky. I've had my current pair of boots since just before our last trip to London, so that was probably ... ohh, 2000? So they're five years old, so what? These boots took all through Paris, dammit! But since I can't go more than about twenty feet before pain, I relented. But I'm picky. See, last time I shopped for boots, my mommy helped me. I don't have her eye to stop me from looking like a complete 'tard when I dress myself anymore.

I checked out a few brands, including Doc Martins (my theory being that between the flannel overshirts, the cargos and the butch voice, I may as well just go all the way and complete my lesbian image). I settled on a replacement Timberlands, which I was going to include a link to, but I apparently have the phantom style that doesn't actually exist on record anywhere. The new shoes are very strange. They don't just give when I walk. What's up with that? Oh, and I joked that my boots had a sole now, so they were probably going to become all broody and repentant. Because, you know – geek.

Our final stop for the day was at Marie Callender's, where readers of of The Chosen will be happy to know that I finally, finally got my pie.

A busy day. One in which, it would appear, I will get no writing done. Truly my biggest piece of irk for the day.

And I haven't even had breakfast yet.

I woke up today with the immediate headline about the bombings in London. My first thought, sad as it may be, was a selfish one – I don't have any family left over there who would reasonably have been at risk. It's always a possibility of course, but most of them live far enough outside of London to have been there. The biggest threats would've been my grandparents, but they're already gone, so ...

That aside, I don't know. I don't seem to feel much of anything, and I've been wondering why that is. I think it's because I just can't bring myself to be surprised. As I understand it, Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility. It's going on four years since 9/11, and with all the focus on Iraq (instead of, say, maybe on people who are actually a threat where it belongs), it was high time for another infusion. I don't think the Olympic thing has anything to do with it, but I'm sure it'll be exploited anyway.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm more aware these days, but the world is, to borrow a phrase from my Texan father, in the shitter. Frankly, the whole thing is intensely depressing. Also due in no small part to the fact that I think we, and so many of the world's economical leaders, are in the wrong. Now I don't think the way to make that point is with a bomb on a crowded bus, but the thing is, we made this situation. Then we didn't follow through in cleaning it up. Instead, we've done it again in Iraq. Whatever "good" may have come out of that invasion, it's overshadowed by all the bad we're leaving behind. It's the Viet Nam of my generation. It's unwinnable. And now we've got tens of thousands of martyrs that future Iraqis can turn to as they further villify the fat, selfish West. I can't say that they'd be wrong to do it, either.

As for London itself, I really think that's just it. I can't be surprised. I can't be shocked and I can't be outraged. What I can do is think about how this will play.

According to the Al Qaeda translation, they cite Iraq as part of the motivation. Now I think this is smart, because the Iraq war can only be seen as A Good Thing from their perspective. It's caused a chasm between the US and the rest of the world, it's polarizing the nations involved, it's (quite possibly irreparably) damaged America's credibility, and it's a catastrophic drain on resources. However, even if it's the smart thing to do, there's no way that this administration will pull out now. To do so would be to give in to the terrorists. It's brilliant reverse psychology. "If they don't want us there, then we should be there." I give no benefit of the doubt to Bush – he has never proven in any capacity that he is capable of rational thought beyond that of a spoiled child who wants his woobie. End result? Further "resolve" to chase down those dirty terrorists. Except we won't actually go after those terrorists. Instead, we'll aim for Iran next, because there's nothing but opium in Afghanistan, and we have a war on drugs, too.

So why England instead of America? My thought is that Blair was possibly getting ready to disassociate himself from Bush. But now London has its own lower-scale 9/11 as a rallying point. The flip to that though is that Londoners aren't strangers to terrorism, so I'm not exactly certain their viewpoint will change, as it did in such a dramatic way in America. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out over there.

Of course, there's always that niggling voice. The one that likes to wear the tinfoil hat. The one that's wondering if this isn't a nice diversionary tactic. The one that's wondering if something big isn't coming. Something Patriot Act-esque. But don't listen to that voice.

As for the people though ... What seems such a shame is that only yesterday, they were thousands gathered excitedly in Trafalgar. It's amazing how quickly things can shift. Londoners are tough people though. They've been through worse than this. They'll be okay.

It's what happens next that we'll have to watch.

London gets the 2012

The 2012 Olympic hosts. There's no longer free room and board for me over there, but hey, it's seven years away. Who knows where we'll be by then?

Good show, London.

Wish You Were Here

I watched Roger Waters and David Gilmour on stage performing "Wish You Were Here". I got goosebumps. I teared up. Seriously. Jet Wolf = Big Wussy.

Live 8

So, who's watching with me?

ETA: Just to date me, I remember watching the first Live Aid. OMG so old.

Gandhi, you're a bitch.

Kissinger regrets calling Indian PM Indira Gandhi 'a bitch'. Headline on the front page of BBC news. I haven't read the content yet, but the headline just made me spit up my water.

The world's a funny place.