Now face North

"Stand" by REM


So Stephen King's novel, The Stand turns 30 years old this year. (Last month, actually.) There's an interesting interview with Mr King here where he talks about The Stand and apocalypse(s) and his upcoming collection of short stories (yay!) and Sarah Palin (oh, but I mentioned apocalypse already).

Anyway. Time to talk The Stand/King memories/thoughts/whatever.

I remember when I first read The Stand. I was 12 (or maybe 13) years old, and it was the first Stephen King book I ever read - I was so ambitious back then! I began with his longest novel I could find!
Of course I was hooked from there on out.

And because I'm too tired to really coherently write much of anything, here's how King's work breaks down:

Stuff (that I've read) that rocked:
The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon, Pet Semetary (creepy-ass ending), Duma Key, On Writing, Insomnia, Misery, all of his short story collections, The Running Man & Rage [Bachman Books].

Stuff (that I've read) that did not rock:
Lisey's Story, From a Buick 8, Dreamcatcher, Gerald's Game, Dolores Clairborne, Blaze & Regulators [Bachman Book], and It [Waaaaay too long].

I've not read the Dark Tower series - question for those who have: Worth it? I know about the whole "Stephen King is a character in the book at the end" bit, and I'm cool with that. But is the series worth the time to get into and read completely?

There are plenty of other books of King's that I've not included on the above list, mostly because I couldn't remember them, or they just didn't quite fit into either category - Firestarter and Carrie, for instance. Oh! Salem's Lot. That one rocked. At least I think it did....I should probably give it a reread.

What about you? Have you read The Stand? Did you enjoy it? What about the (mostly crappy) mini-series from the mid-90's?
Oh, and that brings up the topic of film adaptations of King's works... which is probably better saved for another day, because there have been a lot of them.

MY CALENDAR IS ALL OUT OF WHACK

ALL DAY LONG I'VE BEEN THINKING THAT TODAY IS THURSDAY, WHEN IT'S ONLY WEDNESDAY. (ALTHOUGH NOW, IT'S ALMOST OVER, SO IT REALLY IS ALMOST THURSDAY. I WONDER IF I'LL END UP THINKING THAT TOMORROW IS FRIDAY.)

I HATE WHENEVER THAT HAPPENS, BECAUSE WHEN I REALIZE THE TRUE DAY, IT'S ALWAYS DISAPPOINTING. IT'S LIKE, 'AWW, MAN, I STILL HAVE AN EXTRA DAY TO GO UNTIL THE WEEKEND.' SO IT FEELS LIKE A PRACTICAL JOKE THAT GOD IS PLAYING ON ME. STUPID PRACTICAL JOKING GOD.

OH, AND, YEAH, TODAY WAS ALSO INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GOOD ONE.

blocked

I was going to blog about how after talking to my sister today, I realized I've blocked out/forgotten a great deal of my life. And I was going to blog about everything my sister and I spoke about (one of the downsides to not talking to your family in so long, is there's a LOT to catch up on when you do talk again. One of the upsides is that that means you've got lots to talk about.) ...but, I really don't want to blog about either. I've been thinking about not blogging anymore, period. Of course, I'm going to continue posting every other day for the remainder of 2008, but the following year? Well, we'll see how things go when we get there, I guess.

P

Books:
I've read books by Chuck Palahniuk before- Fight Club and Choke, and I'm fairly certain I've read Survivor, although I can't really remember anything about it if I have, other than vagueness of what the plot is.

But anyway, since I knew I enjoyed those previous novels, I decided to pick up some other Palahniuk books.

Lullaby (260/life) is amazingly good. It's about a reporter - Carl Streator - who discovers that there is a thing called a culling song - an eight line lullaby from Africa - that has the power to kill people when read to them. (Or even simply thought at them, as he finds later)
Realizing that such a weapon would spell certain doom for humanity, Carl hooks up with a real-estate agent (Helen), her Wiccan secretary (Mona), and her secretary's boyfriend (Oyster) in order to obtain all the copies of the spell and destroy them.
At least that's what Carl wants to do. Seems that everyone has a different idea of what to do with the power of the culling song ...and the other spells that exist.
With Carl killing people with his thoughts alone, you'd think that it would be hard to feel sympathy for him, but after reading some of the saddest twists ever, I ended up pitying Carl. Or at least understanding him better. And he truly did want to control his power.
...anyway. After reading the book, I wiki-ed up 'culling song' just to see if they truly exist. That took me to the entry on the novel, and I found out that Palahniuk wrote the song after his father and step-mother were murdered, they caught the guy who did it, and he was asked to sit in on the trial that would decide if he got the death penalty or not. Knowing that personal bit to the story made the impact even more powerful.
So, yeah. Lullaby is highly recommended.

CDs:
All 3 P CDs were good! Amazing.

Panic! At the Disco's new one: Pretty. Odd. is too. damn. catchy.
At least, the first half is. It drags for a little in the middle, then picks back up again at the end. But good god, I spent more hours last week with bits of We're So Starving, Do You Know What I'm Seeing?, She's a Handsome Woman, and The Green Gentleman [Things Have Changed] stuck in my head than I'd like to admit.

I also greatly enjoyed The Fragile Army by The Polyphonic Spree. But, then, I knew I liked that band, so I expected to be happy with this album. They just make you happy.

What surprised me was the last disc. It was Texas by PlayRadioPlay!
The singer's voice is emo, the lyrics are angsty and juvenile (or amusing and juvenile, depending), and the music is a mix of electronica, and synth-pop. Which makes it sound like it should have every strike against it. And yet...I really liked this disc. Go figure.

DVDs:

I watched Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde, which was enjoyable and fun, although not nearly as good as You Can't Take it With You or It's a Wonderful Life.

um.......

You'd think I'd learn. Don't blog (or attempt to) this late at night. Or, if you do, make sure you've got topics lined up beforehand. Otherwise, you wind up doing what you're seeing now - me simply filling space with nothing to say.

So...I'll just turn it over to anyone that wants to comment. Free for all! Just say hey, or tell me a joke, or drop a song lyric that's going through your head, or the funniest thing you've seen on television this week [for me it's from Pushing Daisies: "We are Italian." "Part time."], or what you last ate, or what you plan on eating, or what books you are reading, or a funny (or annoying) personalized license plate, or ask a question that has been plaguing you, or give a prediction on the upcoming election, or relay some good advice you've received in your life, or recommend a vampire movie, or tell me what you're going to be for Halloween, or link to a good online game, or spoil a movie, or tell me your economic plan, or give a shout-out to Joe the Plumber, or try to type a sentence using all of the letters of the alphabet...backwards, or drop some trivia on my ass, or get medieval upon my ass, or drop some medieval trivia upon my ass, or solve a math equation, or post a math equation, or start a story, or finish a story, or finish this post.
You know. Whatever.

sign of the times

There's this payday loan place right down the street from our house that I pass daily on the walk to the bus stop. Outside of it, they have put up a sign that originally read:

NOW HIRING

but a few days ago, the W was removed (or fell off on it's own). Heh.

O

Books:

On a recommendation from Kirk, I picked up the Joyce Carol Oates book, Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (405/part) for my "O" book.
The novel is about a small town in the 1950s where a murder takes place and how it impacts the lives of Iris Courtney, a white teenager who witnessed it happen, and Jinx Fairchild, a black teen who committed the crime.

This was the first book by Oates I've read, and I will definitely pick up more in the future, because she is a very talented writer. However, this novel did seem uneven to me. The parts that were good were really good, but certain characters [Leslie Courtney, and the entire Savage family at the end] just did nothing for me. What's amazing though, is that even during the sections that didn't hold my interest, the writing was top-notch. If that makes sense.
And as stated, the novel was overall quite good, so I'm glad that I read it. Thanks, Kirk!

CDs:

Both of the "O" artist CDs I got were actually good! What are the odds?
I grabbed a "best of" album from Oasis - Stop the Clocks is a 2 disc compilation of the Gallagher Bros' work, and was quite enjoyable. Although I'm a little peeved that neither disc had "You All Everybody" on it. ;)
The other disc I picked up was Blame it on Gravity by the Old 97s.
Awesome CD that, if I still had in my possession, would definitely be on repeat right now. Just a lot of fun. Also, someone needs to make a Chuck related fanvid to the song "Dance with Me". Seriously.

DVDs:
I picked up 3 DVDs, but only got around to watching 2. They say that's not bad, though.
The one I didn't watch was Off the Black, but it looked interesting. Some other time, perhaps.
I did watch The Out of Towners, which was a nice distraction. Jack Lemmon's increasing frustration through the film = LOLness.

I also watched The Omega Man, which ...man. The 70s were, in many ways, really messed up.
But, at least now I've seen all 3 movie versions of Richard Matheson's novel, "I Am Legend". Maybe I should read it someday.

Four more years!

Four years ago I made a post arguing against voting (which wound up being the post that has generated the most comments on my blog to date. I guess voting [or not] is a hot topic. I wonder how many comments this entry will inspire...). And while a good percentage of that post still rings true, I have decided that this presidential election I am going to cave in to The Man and actually cast my ballot.

Oddly, having made this decision, I'm finding that I'm also encouraging other people to do the same. At least two of my coworkers are also voting (for the first time) come this November. Yay?

Anyway. What I'm posting about today, my friends, are the reasons for voting for John McCain.

Here we go!

[-] For the lulz. Seriously. Mocking McCain (and Palin) is the bread-and-butter for late-night commentators such as John Stewart and David Letterman. Won't somebody think of the comedians!?!

[-] President Fey. The plan is as follows: Sometime between now and November 5th, we need to kidnap Sarah Palin, and replace her with Tina Fey. Then, once we elect McCain/Faux-Palin into office, we just wait for nature to take it's course with McCain, and voila! President Tina Fey. Brilliant!

[-] Here's the thing. At my work there's a new guy who is a Republican through and through - he's a conservative, Amur-i-can, jingoistic bonehead. He's also quite well off financially. Most conservatives are (right?) So, I figure, thinking like they do (or at least, voting like they do) will result in becoming like they are. If I vote Republican, perhaps I'll be rich like a Republican. And money is the most important thing in this life. Lord knows supporting liberals hasn't paid off for me. Maybe it's time to switch tactics.

[-] And McCain's promise to raise the Child Tax Credit to 7 thousand per child is just more evidence of the above. Sure, we would need that extra money to just be able to afford the status quo as the dollar continues to erode, but, hey. I don't see Obama giving us handouts.

[-] He's gonna win anyway. America has proven time and again that it's voters are ignorant, racist, and fearful. Obama may be leading in the polls, but I know far too many people who are still planning on voting for McCain (I know of six off the top of my head. Seven if you think I'm seriously going to vote for the old man), and then, of course, there's DieBold to take into account...

[-] His name. I never get tired of saying "McCaaaaaaaain!!" (Which is a Simpsons reference.) Sure, Obama's name is fun to say too, so I guess in this case it's a draw.

[-] McCain is a crasher. Who better to drive this country into the ground than the guy who crashed 4 airplanes during his military career? But really, things are bad. Do we want to elect the guy who has a chance of improving them slightly, or the one that will guarantee to fuck them up hard core?


In case it wasn't obvious, this is (mostly) meant as a joke. Of course I'm going to vote for the sane(r of the two) candidates. Although points 3 & 4 do have some merit to them.
Anyway. I'll open it up to the floor now, and to make it more interactive, ask for your favorite funny political videos. I've probably seen most of them (I've seen all 3 of Tina Fey's Palin skits on SNL, as well as the time McCain dissed Letterman, and a few of the Daily Show's stuff, but it's always good to see things again, so link away to your favorites)

A-ha!! Literally!

This amused me greatly:

things i need

to blog
to sleep
sleep
and, um. also, you know, to blog about sleeping. (Yes, I am UTP@, why do you ask?)

...I got nothing else, really. hopefully next time i go to blog, i won't be so exhausted. i blame my tiredness today on the fact that last night's sleep was disrupted by having had nightmares involving john mccain chasing me. ...that dude is one scary maverick.

M + N

Two letters for the price of one.

Books:
In the M books, I read a book involving a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost, some zombies and dark magic. There were plenty of times when this book tried to be funny, and wasn't, and a number of times where it was mildly amusing and/or clever, but nothing truly hilarious. The story moved at a pretty brisk pace, and while it wasn't superb or anything, it's not like I went in expecting high literature.
No, I didn't read Twilight, or any other Stephenie Meyer book. Instead, I read Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez. (268/night)
The story was about one of those road-side diners you see in movies (and on freeways in the middle of America), only this one has a problem with zombie infestations. Duke (werewolf) and Earl (vampire) are travelling through and opt to help the owner (a large woman named Loretta) clear them out. Eventually they discover that there is someone behind the rising dead and they deal with that individual, but I don't want to spell out the entire story. Like I said, it had moments of funniness - the local law enforcement is comprised of one man: Sheriff Marshall Kopp (ha!!); doing true Black Magic requires you use Pig Latin; zombie cows - but it wasn't laugh out loud funny. I'd probably read another Martinez book just to pass time, but I won't actively seek him out.

I also picked up (and started to read) Steve Martin's Shopgirl. I didn't finish reading it, however, simply because I ran out of time. Sure, I could've kept it for longer, but I moved on to the N book, and simply wasn't in to it any more. [shrug] The 30 or 40 pages I read were good, though. I like Steve Martin.

For the N book, I grabbed Fear Itself by Jonathan Nasaw. (327/Pender)
This was a page-turner thriller about soon-to-be-retired FBI agent E.L. Pender, and his replacement, Linda Abruzzi, who track down a serial killer named Simon Childs who kills people with phobias...by first using their fears to torture them. Yeah, it sounds a little convoluted, and it is, but it's also something I couldn't put down, because chase scenes, whether on film or in books, are just compelling to me.
Apparently, Pender has been used in other novels that Nasaw has written, and he occasionally made references to past cases, so maybe I'll seek those out someday down the road.

CDs:

The "M" music selection was huge! I got 4 albums for that week:
Heretic Pride by the Mountain Goats [great band, always like stuff from them]
Rabbit Habits by Man Man [eh. Turned out to be 'experimental' and 'noise' for my liking]
Haarp by Muse [Muse is a good band, but this was a live album, and not one of the better live albums. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it when I put it in]
@#%&*! Smilers by Aimee Mann [another great artist, and this was good stuff too]

The Ns were Nirvana's Nirvana [probably simply because I was blogging about them recently]
and Norma Jean's Redeemer [which turned out to suck horribly because it was thrash-metal-growl-instead-of-really-sing nonsense]

DVDs:
I watched Marathon Man ("Is it safe?" Yikes, dude!) which actually started pretty slowly, but by the end really really had my interest, and Metropolis, which was bizarre and awesome and oddly compelling.
And then the Ns were Network (so many great quotes from this one! "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!!" "You have meddled with primal force of nature, and you. will. atone!!!" "I just ran out of bullshit, you see.") which was great, and also North Country, which made both me and Steph cry (if you've seen it, you know the scene I'm talking about).

And now it's time to go out and pick up the Os.

bang bang the hammer's in my head

"Hammerhead" by The Offspring

oh, lord. i have had the wrorst freaking headache since shortly after lunch. it's still here, and that's why i'm not blogging about the debate (Matchup of the Century!!) or the economy (Wheeeeeeeeeeee!) or my M stuff from the library thing (even though that's way overdue now, because I should've blogged about it when we went to disneyland...and, man, that was almost a week ago areayd??).

Um. So, yeah. I'm just going to sit down and veg out and hhope that the politicians don't compound this headache any worse, because that might just result in my skull actually exploding.

The two titles I had for this entry were: "I'm having Disney spells" and "Fiscal irresponsibility is fun". Neither was really grabbing me, so I opted to go titleless.

So. Here's how it went down:

Saturday, around noon: Steph was wearing her Disneyland shirt. I said something along the lines of, "Man, Disneyland is great." The idea of taking a spontaneous trip down there, using my credit card to finance said trip, came up and was batted around for a while. I made some arguments against it - my stance basically being, "Yeah, it would be great fun, but we really shouldn't, because, you know, debt?"
And the response was, "Yes, but it's fun."

And so we talked to the 8-ball, who confirmed that we should "MOST LIKELY" go to Disneyland, and we got ready, and around 5pm, we got on the freeway.

Woo!

We arrived at the hotel in time to watch a tiny bit of SNL (the first act only, because we had a long day ahead of us, plus, you know, the open & Weekend Update are the only good things about that show anymore) and then we went to sleep.
We woke up Sunday, had the Continental Breakfast (read: Corn Flakes) and then drove around parts of Anaheim looking for a working ATM so we could have cash on hand. (Never did find one out there. We wound up getting money from an ATM inside Disneyland instead.)

We got to Disneyland's parking garage at 9:11am, and into the park itself around 9:30.

Highlights of the day in the Happiest Place on Earth include:
Space Mountain (that theme music is just rocking)
Big Thunder Mountain (the wildest ride in the willllderness!)
Star Tours (although I really believe they need to change it up some. It's been the exact same 'movie' for nearly 20 years now. [holy crap. i'm old] But, really, with that type of ride, you'd think creating a new adventure wouldn't be that difficult, and it would be a bigger draw for people to come back if they knew that it would be different every now and again, ya know?)
the Matterhorn (downside to this - during this ride Saren's digital camera got dropped [in the bobsled] and wound up ruined as a result. Majorly uncool. We're planning on taking it back to the store we got it from and/or seeing about getting it repaired)
Splash Mountain
Astro Blasters (a Buzz Lightyear based ride where you can shoot lasers at different targets as you move around, with each target you hit, adding 100 points to your score. I got a total of 47,200. Because I'm cool.)
Autopia (not a lot of fun, really, but the girls like(d) it)
Winnie the Pooh Ride (mostly for Irina's reaction to this. She was in heaven on this. Mostly because she is on a "Winnie the Pooh Pooh" kick lately.
The Haunted Mansion (was all decked out in it's Nightmare Before Xmas garb, which, in my opinion, makes it better)

After hours of walking and riding and spending more credit-card-money on way overpriced food, we decided to head back home. We left the parking garage at 9:11pm. And as we were driving home, I began to do that head-bobbing-because-I'm-falling-asleep thing, so, to make a long story short (too late!), in Barstow we stopped and got a hotel for the night, and the next day I called in to work.

We got back into Las Vegas Monday afternoon (when I blogged briefly) and spent the remainder of the day recuperating from the exhausting outing.
As for the expenditures? Well, ironically, today Capital One sent me an email from their Fraud Department, wanting to confirm some of the latest charges. (I was honest and confirmed them. When will I learn??) But I'm not really worried about the fact that we can't afford to have spent all that extra cash. I mean, pretty soon the government is going to bail us out. ...Right?

All in all, the Spontaneous Trip to Disneyland 2008 was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that we went, even if we ended up paying for it in several ways.

And lastly, since this is the final day of September (where does the time go??), here's the Wordle Cloud for the entries from this month.

Welcome back, space travellers!

I didn't blog yesterday because we went to Disneyland.

Seriously.


We're just now back (I had to call in to work as a result, using my final 'sick' day of the year) and so I'm blogging now to make up for it. But I truly am wiped out (yesterday was a looooooooong day, and today has been one where we're all kinda feeling it) so I'll have to wait to provide all the details manana.

That's debateable

While I didn't get to see the entire debate (had to make a dinner run, so I missed about 20-25 minutes) tonight, I did have some thoughts on the matter:

[-] When it came to Osama bin Laden, McCain always mentioned the name "Osama", while Barack referred to him simply as "bin Laden". Classy, McCain.

[-] I'd like a count on how many times Obama said, "That's not true" while McCain was speaking, because it was a lot. And yet, I don't think McCain ever said that about anything Obama said, because, well, Obama seems to be more...honest.

[-] McCain was a POW?!?! Why have I not heard this before?

[-] Republicans (or anyone opposed to voting for Obama for whatever reason) will have the reptile-brain excuse of "Obama = Big Spender".

[-] Amusing (and odd) that when Jim Lehrer wanted the candidates to speak to each other at the beginning, that neither of them would. (Although Obama did address McCain several times later on, whereas I don't think McCain really ever did.)

[-] "I've got a bracelet." "I've got a bracelet, too." Awesome.

[-] "You seem to think the war started in 2007, John. It began in 2003." Heh.

[-] Lehrer: "What are the lessons of Iraq?" McCain: "You can't have a failed strategy." Um... WHAT.

[-] I'm both dreading and highly anticipatory of the debate next Thursday. I'm sure Palin will provide numerous amounts of eye-rolls, laughter, and cringes, but will I be able to tolerate 90 minutes of her? Although I'm not super-familiar with Biden, so I do look forward to hearing more from him.

He's the one who likes all our pretty songs

"In Bloom" by Nirvana

Today, September 24th, is the anniversary of the release date of Nirvana's Nevermind album. It came out in 1991 (seventeen years ago!!).

Is it cliché to say that Nevermind is one of the best albums of all time? Perhaps. But it is. (certainly in the top 20)

Is it cliché to say that Nirvana shaped the 90s (for better or for worse) musically into what they were? Perhaps. But they did.

Is it weird that even though I consider it a fantastic album that I could listen to many many times [and have in the past when I owned it] that I don't have a copy now? ...Actually, that is kinda weird. I should rebuy it next time I get some spare moolah.

I would go on about other Nirvana/Nevermind stories I have, but, you know, nevermind. Instead, I open it to the P@riots out there. Please share your Nirvana related opinions/stories/feelings/memories. Everyone's got something to say about that band and/or album. Let's hear it.

Spaghetti Sauces

Back in the day (we're talking '93/'94) when I worked at the RJ (that's the Las Vegas Review-Journal) I discovered a toy plastic lizard on one of the shelves at work. The toy was that sort of squishy plastic that's fun to squeeze. It also had a suction cup on it's belly. It was yellow and had a long tail.
I adopted the lizard, giving it a home in my car, using the suction cup to stick to the window, and placing its tail underneath the sun visor latch.

I named the lizard Ragu. (Yes, like the spaghetti sauce)

I kept Ragu for the entire time I had that car, which means he went with me on The Trip.
I even took him out when I ended up abandoning the vehicle, but, somewhere along the way, Ragu and I lost each other, and I have no idea where he wound up. I miss that stupid piece of plastic and often wish I had a replacement lizard. But I've yet to find a toy like him.

Moving on, I have not yet broken the big news (that Steph is the *other* spaghetti sauce) to anyone at work, or in my family. (I guess I've just let the few people who didn't already read it over at Steph's blog know, so, um, there's that.) And I suppose if anyone I work with reads my blog, I'll find out tomorrow when they confront me on it. Heh.
Otherwise, I guess I'll wind up telling my coworkers and my parents and sister...soon.

Connor vs Palin

Sarah Connor - expects Judgment Day is going to happen within her lifetime (and is trying to prevent it).
Sarah Palin - expects Judgment Day is going to happen within her lifetime.

Sarah Connor - has issues with police.
Sarah Palin - has issues with Alaskan State Troopers.

Sarah Connor - occasionally works with emotionless cyborgs.
Sarah Palin - occasionally works with John McCain.

Sarah Connor - when we first meet her, is vastly unqualified to be the second in command of John Connor's resistance army.
Sarah Palin - when we first meet her is vastly unqualified to be the second in command of the United States of America.

Sarah Connor - in the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, had semi-annoying voice-overs.
Sarah Palin - has an annoying voice.

Sarah Connor - definitely don't want to get on her bad side.
Sarah Palin - definitely don't want to get on her bad side.

Sarah Connor - is fictional, but you kinda wish she were real.
Sarah Palin - is real, but you kinda wish she were fictional.

L

is for lazy, apparently.

Book
As She Crawled Across the Table by Johnathan Lethem was the "L" book I picked up, but I don't know how many pages it has nor what the final word was, because I didn't read the entire thing. I managed to get about 30 pages in - and it wasn't bad, my mind was simply elsewhere, and I wasn't able to focus on novel-reading this week. I didn't have a backup book, so for the first week in this experiment, I don't have a complete book to report on.

CD
I grabbed two CDs from the band Liars ("They Were Wrong, So We Drowned" and "They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top"). Both were standard CD fare - meaning that they were okay, but nothing outstanding.

DVD
I checked out two L movies - "The Last Man on Earth" which was a take on the novel I Am Legend (done before The Omega Man and I Am Legend). This movie came out in 1964, and had Vincent Price in the lead role. It was also completely cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. I loved the "acting" that the child who was dying of the disease portrayed. And the "nighttime" shots of him driving that are in broad daylight. And the montage of Vincent Price doing vampire hunting is classic.
It wasn't a bad movie overall, I mean, it entertained me, and that's all I'm asking for in a 60s horror flick, so kudos.

I also picked up "The Life of David Gale", but we didn't get around to watching it.

The Jello Question

If you found yourself encased in a tomb of jell-o, would you eat your way out or just push your way out?

blankety blankety blank

It's not that I don't have things to blog about, it's that I have too many things to blog about. And while all of them are interesting (varying degrees of, of course, ranging from zero to zero-point-zero-zero-one), when I give them a little more thought before starting to type them out, they seem... nonvital? Argumentive? Small? Something. Whatever, it stops me from doing it.

So, I sit here, trying to think of something to type that is going to be of importance and generate conversation and thought and be witty and all that good stuff that goes into a well-crafted blog entry, and I get frustrated that nothing is coming. Vicious Cycle.

A couple of the posts were political in nature, and I may still write them before 11/4/08. We'll see.

I also considered writing about how in the past week we've racked up another 1700 dollars in debt (more, actually, but at a certain point it's ridiculous to even keep accurate track), but ...well, I guess I kinda just did write about it. Not in detail, but that's where the devil is, so I'll let it be for now.

Part 6 of spELlcaster was another consideration. Alas, the mood for writing fiction was not there. Truly. Also, the direction that I'm planning on taking it in my mind is potentially one that the fans (ha ha!) won't appreciate, and so I'm procrastinating.

There's also the depressing post about my deteriorating body as I get older, but *nobody* wants to read about that, least of all me.

All in all, this entry was ...here. But I'm banking on being in a better mindset on Thursday. See ya then!

K

This'll be brief, as it is very late - we just returned from having a date night out, we went to dinner & saw "Burn After Reading", which is very funny - plus I don't have a lot to say about the K items. Well, except...

Book:
I actually grabbed 4 books this time around. I picked up Tick Tock by Dean Koontz as well as Odd Thomas by the same. I also grabbed The Colorado Kid by Stephen King and A Disorder Peculiar to the Nation by Ken Kalfus.

I read all of Tick Tock (325/you), and was upset with myself for days afterward. WHY do I continue to torture myself with Koontz books? I know they're going to suck, and yet...
As I was reading this one, I was thinking, "Well, this is undeniably a lame-ass Koontz book - it's got the too-perfect protagonist, the beyond-perfect-and-also-independently-wealthy-female-love-interest, it's set in California - at night - while raining, and they're up against unbelievable odds. But at least there isn't a dog."

And then I got to page 125, where Scootie was introduced, and while I didn't say, "Oh for fuck's sake" and throw the book (I was on the bus at the time, and would've probably hit another passenger), I really wanted to.
It's not that I dislike dogs, it's just that Koontz puts an uber-intelligent canine in every.single.story. And he sings their praises non-freaking-stop. Just...enough, dude. We get it. You like dogs. How about making some realistic human characters instead? Or realistic dialogue. Or cut back on the similes. Or remove some of the editorializations (surprisingly this story didn't include any digs at psychology or proselytizing for Christianity, but nearly every other novel he's written in the past ten years has). Or learn what true humor is (Koontz is like a robot who has looked wit up in the dictionary, but doesn't quite grasp how it works).
Bah!

I started reading A Disorder Peculiar to the Country on September 11th, which was apt, since that's when the novel takes place (to begin with). I quickly zoomed through the first 110 pages, and then stopped for the night. ...and then I just lost interest somehow. It was good while it lasted, but once I put it down, I simply couldn't get back into it. [shrug]

I didn't even crack Colorado Kid or Odd Thomas. But after reading Tick Tock, I have sworn off Koontz (again) for good. Well, except for whenever the 3rd Frankenstein book comes out. I'll read that, just because I need to know how that story finishes. But, seriously. If I ever think about picking up another Dean Koontz book, smack me.

CD
I heard the new Kaiser Chiefs song - "Never Miss a Beat" on the radio about two days before we went to the library, and I liked it, so when I saw their first album, "Yours Truly, Angry Mob", I figured, "this might be good!"
And it was!

DVD
I got the 2005 King Kong remake, partly because the K selection was pretty slim, and partly because I'd never seen that. While it's a bit long at 3 hours, I got to say, it was a very engrossing movie, and the T-rex/T-rex/T-rex/Kong battle was AWESOME.

I ain't freakin', I ain't fakin' this

"Shut Up and Let Me Go!" by The Ting Tings


Work was hellishly long today.

Not related, but still noteworthy - I miss the times when I didn't care about politics. I'm nearing burnout on Sarah Palin, and yet, I can't seem to turn away. She's like a trainwreck. A scary psychotic trainwreck. What is up with the inability to quit things that are bad for you?

Kinda a boring entry, but today was a kinda boring day. Oh, look! Time to go watch the Charlie Gibson/Sarah Palin interview.

It's exactly like a Greek tragedy

So tomorrow is the 7 year anniversary of 9/11/01 (I originally typed 9/11/08. Time is meaningless!!)

The only thing I'm going to say about that is that even to this day, seven years later, whenever I look at a plane flying in the sky, I can now easily envision it flying into a building.

******

John McCain is so totally going to win (or steal, same thing) this election.

And that sucks a gigantic amount of donkey balls.

*****

I pretty much have to watch a movie a day for the rest of the year if I want to see 200 of them by year's end. I'm beginning to think it's not going to happen.

*****

They say "Mo money, mo problems" but I gotta tell you, "No money" does not equate "no problems".

*****

Why is that this week has been three Mondays in a row?

*****

In case you want to check on the status of the earth in regard to the LHC.

*****

Never do have a good ending for these types of entries....

spELlcaster Part 5

In case you've forgotten.

"Me? Why would it...?"

Agent Stone shook her head and put up a hand to stop my questions. "I don't know. And it wasn't you personally it asked for. At least not at first. It wants to speak to all the Spellcasters. Anyone that can bend, it wants to have a visit with."

"...and?" I said, "Have you contacted other spellcasters? Do you intend to grant this ..thing's wish? Because, frankly, it sounds like a trap. Gathering all of us together like that is just asking for trouble. Especially since it was planted by a Fuman. I..."

Before I could continue I was interrupted by the sound of an engine outside revving to life and tires squealing, along with the lights inside flickering, and Aesop making an angry yowl from inside the bedroom. I noticed that Agent Sticks was missing, and had been for a while. I dashed into the bedroom and found the man holding Aesop gruffly as he squirmed in his arms, attempting to get away.
"Put hi..."
This morning was turning into one in which I was unable to complete a sentence, as I was interrupted again, this time by the sudden emergence of the sedan through my bedroom wall smashing into me, Agent Stone, and Aesop.

J

Book:
V: The Second Generation by Kenneth Johnson (443/future)
Remember the series V, from the 80s? The one about reptilian aliens that arrive en masse on Earth, claiming to want to help us, but are truly here with sinister plans? Well, Kenneth Johnson has gone and written a sequel to it. I watched most of the series as a child, and of course, thought it was fantastic stuff. But, most of my memories of it have faded, so I have no idea how it would stand up now (I'm betting time hasn't been entirely kind). Regardless, V: The Second Generation read like fanfic. Sometimes really good fanfic, sometimes really bad, but overall, it just felt like an overlong continuation of a series from way back then. But, then, I did read the entire thing, and it did have moments that I could easily visualize as being a movie or tv show [don't know if that's a good thing or not] and there were certain subplots that held my interest, so, um.... I guess the bottom line is that I would not really recommend the book, unless you are like a die-hard V fan.

CD:
I picked up 2 discs - The Jesus and Mary Chain's 21 Singles, which I didn't get around to listening to all the way through (doh!) and Jimmy Eat World's Chase This Light, which I did.
I've heard the first single off that album - "Big Casino" on the radio plenty o' times, and it's...decent. It's also pretty much what you can expect of the whole album. Catchy tunes, mehdiocre lyrics, and just more or less an Everyband type of sound that doesn't really stand out in any way.
A coworker told me that their album with the trophies on the cover ("Bleed American") is better, but I've not heard it, so I don't know.

DVD:
I watched Joy Ride, which was a better-than-average-but-still-pretty-much-shite thriller about a psychotic trucker with the ability to time travel who decides to stalk a couple of twenty-somethings.
Um. In the movie he can't truly time travel, at least it's not explicitly stated as such, but it's really the only way to explain how he's able to do the things he can do and know exactly what our 'heroes' are going to do before hand.
And, slight spoilers for the crappy movie ahead, what is the deal with horror/thriller movies always having to leave things openended for a sequel? I mean, seriously, what would've been wrong with having the time travelling trucker dying and staying dead? One self-contained story is plenty sometimes. No need to keep things going on and on.
I also picked up Junebug but we didn't get around to watching that. Maybe when Steph gets to the Js she'll grab it. It looked more like her type of flick anyway.

Hurry up, Hulu!

The last season of The Shield began airing on FX a few days back. We don't have cable (Kirk is correct, it is so not worth the price), but if there were a show that I would be willing to pay for, it would be The Shield [or The Daily Show or Mythbusters or {possibly, but only because I've heard good stuff about} Battlestar Galactica or Dexter]
Fortunately, we live in an age where paying for television isn't necessary! Because we've got the internet!

Unfortunately, the site where I was going to view The Shield on - hulu.com - currently only has clips (the hell??), and a graphic reading: "Full Episodes of Season 7 Coming Fall 2008"
Which, cool. But, dude. Could you vague that up some? Do I actually have to wait until September 22nd? But that's so far away!!! Look, there are stores with Halloween candy out already, and the temperature is now getting down to the 70s in the morning, new shows are popping up on network television, so I think I'm not being unreasonable. It's safe to say that Fall is here. So, bring on The Shield. I need to see what happens to Vic and Shane and Dutch and Claudette.

Bad Associations

There are certain songs that become associated with moments in your life (or, in the instances I'm about to talk about, are associated with television/movies you've seen) that you wish ...weren't.

Here are two quick examples:

Mony, Mony by Billy Idol.
There was an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 that featured this song when the girls were having a slumber party at Brenda's house.
It was a completely cheesy scene (um, duh, P@, it was season one of Beverly Hills 90210!) and it ruined a perfectly decent song. I mean, seriously, why has my brain retained that?? Bah!

The other song is Losing My Religion by R.E.M.
Whenever I hear this, I think of two things. One is the awesome music video, which is a good association. But then I also think about how that was the song that was played when Brenda and Dylan broke up at the end of season one of Beverly Hills 90210.

And, yes, those two examples are predominately on my mind due to the fact that the remade 90210 is going to be starting in about 30 seconds...

so. It's late(ish) and there's a lot more to go with spELlcaster, but it's not going to happen tonight. (Sorry!)

I need to get the pooka to sleep, and then probably head off to bed myself. I'm annoyed with myself for not having started writing this sooner, because I know I could've completed it if I'd tried harder. But I will do so. I'm going to spend the next day or two finishing it up (I have a good idea of where it's going up to a point, and then...it's kinda up in the air) and I'll be sure to publish it once it's done.

And, since it's end of the month, here's my wordle.net of August:
http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/154859/Augustblog

spELlcaster Part 4

"A seed? ...Like a child?" I was thoroughly confused. Fumans had left things behind before - vehicles, documents (largely indecipherable, although there were large groups of people attempting even to this day), weapons (oh, and the US military had had a field day with those), and various knick-knacks that presumably meant something in the year 748,282 AD [which is where we had determined they were traveling from], but had those of us still in the 21st century were only frustrating puzzle pieces. But they'd never left behind anything living.

Thus far the time travelers modus operandi had been to appear - generally outside some sparsely populated town - and then take things. Or people. Or animals. ...and then vanish again.

Sometimes they stuck around for a while, taking in the sights, and grabbing various souvenirs, but none of them had been in our time for longer than three days at a time. And the last one had appeared over a year back, when it had been believed that we had stopped them. "We" being us spellcasters, of course.
Because the Fumans were impervious to everything that the various world militaries had thrown at them. For the most part, conventional weaponary was ignored by the future humans. Occasionally they'd strike back, as if they were annoyed by an insect buzzing at them.
They had also largely ignored any attempts at communication - probably because they couldn't understand us. Or were choosing to. Lord knows we couldn't understand them.

The only thing that got through to them - in any way - was bending. We could hurt them with bending, we could stop them from moving, we could stop their weapons from destroying things, we could even send them back, and plug up their time traveling capabilities. Or so we had thought.

"No, not a child," Stone told me. "A plant. A ...well, a ..carrot. Sort of." She touched a few buttons on her handheld device and turned it to show me a photo. I saw a large glass aquarium, approximately 7 feet tall, filled with soil and a gigantic orange monstrosity. It was triangular and wrinkled and did somewhat resemble a carrot. But it also had a face. A human face.

I wrinkled my face in disgust. "Almost enough to make one swear off being a vegetarian," I joked, handing Stone her computer back.

"Yeah," she said, "Well, it gets odder. Two days ago, the carrot spoke. And it asked to see you."

spELlcaster Part 3

I led the two agents into my living room, mentioning them toward the couch, while I headed toward the kitchen. "Either of you care for something to drink? I've got bottled water, or I can put on some tea or coffee."

Stone, sitting on the couch, shook her head. "I'd rather just get to business, if that's okay with you, El."
Sticks was still walking around the living room, investigating my bookshelf, looking at the artwork on my walls, taking it all in. The stress of having these two intruders in my home was building. Especially given my history with their organization. If they truly needed my help, they could've been much more personable, and at least attempted to put me at ease.

I ground my teeth and opened the fridge, grabbing myself a bottle of Aquafina and making my way back into the living room. I stood, leaning against the wall, facing Stone. I took a sip of the water and said, "So. How'd you guys find me?"

Stone raised an eyebrow slightly. "I thought that would've been obvious. The RDA is able to track all spellcasters. Of course, having several in our employ is helpful, as well."

Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "I didn't think that the RDA was still using spellcasters. After the president was turned into a dinosaur during..."

Stone cut me off, "Yes, that was an unfortunate misfire."

"Well, bending can be unstable," I said. "Which is part of the reason I've stopped."

The two agents shared a look at each other. Sticks spoke up, "You are still able to bend?"

Offended, I said, "Of course I can! I just choose not to. It does take a toll on us, you know. There are many reasons why bending shouldn't be done. Least of which is the accidental transformations of political figures. When we spellcasters bend, we are fucking with reality. Playing God isn't something that should be done on a consistent basis."

Stone cleared her throat, stopping my tirade. "Well, you may change your tune when you see what we have to show you."

"Yeah," I said, "you mentioned that the Fumans have returned."

"It appears so," Stone said, "two weeks ago, one was spotted outside of Wiluna, Australia."

Despite not wanting to get reinvolved, my interest was piqued. "Did it take anyone? I don't remember hearing about this on the news."

"We kept it away from the media," Stone responded, "but, no, this time it didn't take anybody. It left something. In fact, it was a seed."

spELlcaster Part 2

My mind began racing.
Fumans? The RDA? Needing my help? ...no. Nonononono.

I opened the door.

Agent Stone and her partner stood there stoically. Agent Stone flashed her credentials, her partner did the same - he was identified as Agent Sticks. Oh, the RDA, always with the jokes. Sticks and Stone? The message was clear to me - they could break my bones. Names, of course, despite what the children's rhyme promised, could hurt you. If you were a spellcaster, like myself, knowing names could hurt a LOT of people.

"May we come inside, El?" Agent Sticks asked. I could sense his vision scanning the room behind me, no doubt trying to locate the elusive Aesop.

It bothers me that I considered bending to get out of there. The desire was so strong. The past eight months had not been easy for me. Bending is, according to some, a vital part of who I am. Imagine trying not to breathe for eight months, or not to blink. Fortunately, I do not buy into that particular philosophy. I was proof that spellcasters do not have to be benders. And now, the government was here to ask me to break my streak, to bend again.

Okay, that was unfair. They hadn't asked me anything yet. But Stone had mentioned Fumans, and the only way they'd been defeated previously had been through bending, so it stood to reason that that's what they'd expect of me. It wasn't like I had any other skills to battle time travelers with, after all.

"Do I have a choice?" I responded to Sticks' inquiry about entering my abode, as I opened the door and allowed the Reality Defense Agency back into my life.

spELlcaster Part 1

Aesop woke me, making an alarming racket that nearly caused me to involuntarily bend. I didn't, of course, even after gaining my senses and realizing what Aesop's incessant noise meant, because I'm done bending. Have been for eight months, ever since I acquired Aesop and went into hiding.

But now. Aesop's constant siren song could only mean one thing.

They'd found me. Or, rather, us. Aesop was just as wanted as I was, if not more so.

I picked Aesop up, and stroked his back several times, causing him to turn off his alarm mode, and he began to purr. He flicked his tail, and the computer screen to my left blinked to life. A GPS style map of the area around my apartment was displayed. A man and a woman were getting out of a black government issued sedan and heading toward the door.

Aesop looked at me, the question of What now unspoken, but certainly requiring an answer. I rubbed Aesop's chin, which shut off the computer, and turned on a few lights in the living room. "Now, Aesop? We see what they know and we do what we always do - improvise."

A knock on the door.

"Showtime."

I put Aesop down and approached the door. "Yes?" I asked, peering through the peephole. I could see the male agent had been the one to knock. The female agent held a handheld computer of some sort. Aesop may be able to manipulate it, but it could take up to 15 minutes before he would be able to. Could I delay them for that long? Would I even have to?

"Is this the residence of --" the male agent began, but was interrupted by the female agent who said, "El, this is Agent Stone with the RDA. We know you are in there. We know you have the cat. You need to let us in so we can speak with you." She paused momentarily, probably swallowing her pride before saying, "We need your help. It looks like the Fumans are back."

Stolen from Min

Your result for The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test...

Rupert Giles

55% amorality, 36% passion, 55% spirituality, 55% selflessness

Utterly calm and resolute in the face of danger, utterly devoted to his loved ones and comrades in arms, and utterly willing to do what is necessary to ensure that good overcomes evil. Giles knows the score, he knows that sometimes virtue relies on good men getting a little messy, and he's willing to take that on himself, largely so that others don't have to.



You might share some of that.



You most closely resemble one of the most popular heroes in the Buffy universe.



Congratulations!



If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in the following:



Nerds, Geeks & Dorks



Professional Wrestling



Love & Sexuality




America/Politics




Thanks Again! -- THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST

Take The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

Hooray! (Although the answer to question 22 was "Yes")

I

Before getting started on the blogathon posts, I figured I'd get my Library A to Z entry out of the way.

Book:

Setting Free the Bears by John Irving (280/bears). This is John Irving's first novel, and also, the first novel of his I've ever read. I've seen several of his movie adaptations, of course, but never actually read any of his books - I tried to read A Prayer for Owen Meany years back and couldn't get into it.
I don't know if I'd read another Irving book, because, while this book was impressively written, it was just difficult to get through. Particularly the middle section (entitled "The Notebook") where the narrative switches to another character, and focuses in depth on his mother & father's history before he was born. Since this was taking place in Austria during World War 2, it goes into a lot of the history of the area and was just not nearly as interesting as the other parts of the book.
Eh. I'm not expressing myself clearly, but I just know that while this story was okay, it wasn't something I'd recommend or force myself to do again.

CD:

The "I" music selection was not very large, unfortunately. Most of the discs were Indigo Girls or Iron Maiden selections. But I did manage to pick up two CDs from artists I've not heard of previously, and surprisingly, they turned out to be better than average! Hooray!
I picked up Returning to the Sea by a band called Islands reminded me of Of Montreal, which is a good thing. They've got titles of songs like, "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby", and "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone" (which turned out to be the weakest song on the disc, in my opinion, but still). Overall, it's upbeat and funny and good stuff.
I also got Inland Traveller by Isolation Years, which appears to be a Swedish rock/pop group (according to Wikipedia, and also based on the fact that all the singers names appear to have umlauts). It's not a perfect disc, but I enjoyed the songs to a degree where I'm willing to add them to our iTunes library.

DVD:

I grabbed two "I" movies, but we only watched one. Impostor was a scifi movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel, and starred Lt. Dan as a government agent who might just actually be an alien spy with a bomb in his chest.
There was, of course, a twist ending to the movie, but it turned out to NOT be what I had suspected, so bravo movie-makers for actually blindsiding me! (Of course, the movie still wasn't spectacular, but then I wasn't going in expecting anything remarkable. Just wanted an entertaining 90 minutes or so of popcorn fluff. And that's what was delivered.)
Also grabbed The Illusionist, but never got around to viewing it. Maybe some other time.

In regard to the blogathon... I'm not certain I'll be posting every hour today. Or even twelve times. There are other things to do today (library trip for example) and frankly, my heart isn't totally in it. We'll see how the day progresses.

Show me the money!

Heh.
Okay, this is kinda a lame entry, but I've just wasted the past two hours or so reading about Sarah Palin and giving myself a headache and I don't have anything else to blog about anyway, so, I'm going with this.

Using this site as a reference, I'm listing the top 100 money-making-movies (in the US) of all time. And then bolding the ones I've seen. Feel free to do the same on your blog. Cuz everyone loves lists!

1 Titanic
2 The Dark Knight
3 Star Wars
4 Shrek 2
5 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
6 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
7 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
8 Spider-Man
9 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
10 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11 Spider-Man 2
12 The Passion of the Christ
13 Jurassic Park
14 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
15 Finding Nemo
16 Spider-Man 3
17 Forrest Gump
18 The Lion King
19 Shrek the Third
20 Transformers
21 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
22 Iron Man
23 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
24 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
25 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
26 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
27 Return of the Jedi
28 Independence Day
29 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
30 The Sixth Sense
31 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
32 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
33 The Empire Strikes Back
34 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
35 Home Alone
36 The Matrix Reloaded
37 Meet the Fockers
38 Shrek
39 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
40 The Incredibles
41 How the Grinch Stole Christmas
42 Jaws
43 I Am Legend
44 Monsters, Inc.
45 Batman (1989)
46 Night at the Museum
47 Men in Black
48 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
49 Toy Story 2
50 Cars
51 Bruce Almighty
52 Raiders of the Lost Ark
53 Twister
54 My Big Fat Greek Wedding
55 Ghostbusters
56 Beverly Hills Cop
57 X-Men: The Last Stand
58 War of the Worlds
59 Cast Away
60 The Exorcist
61 The Lost World: Jurassic Park
62 Signs
63 The Bourne Ultimatum
64 Hancock
65 Rush Hour 2
66 National Treasure: Book of Secrets
67 Mrs. Doubtfire
68 King Kong (2005)
69 Ghost
70 The Da Vinci Code
71 Aladdin
72 Alvin and the Chipmunks
73 Wall-E
74 Saving Private Ryan
75 Mission: Impossible II
76 X2: X-Men United
77 Austin Powers in Goldmember
78 Kung Fu Panda
79 300
80 Back to the Future
81 Wedding Crashers
82 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
83 Ratatouille
84 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
85 Batman Begins
86 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
87 The Mummy Returns
88 Armageddon
89 Superman Returns
90 Gone with the Wind
91 Pearl Harbor
92 Happy Feet
93 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
94 Ice Age: The Meltdown
95 Madagascar
96 Toy Story
97 Men in Black II
98 Grease
99 Gladiator
100 The Day After Tomorrow

Blogger's dozen

With that blogathon right around the corner - it's 2 blog-days away! - I'm starting to get nervous about things to say. I mean, hell, I have a hard enough time blogging once when it's one of my blog-days, 12 entries? That's ludicrous!

So, as I generally do when I get stumped, I'm having someone else help me solve my problem. I'm turning to ya'll.

What I need is 12 topics/idea-generators/fully written entries. Last time we had a blogathon, I went with the gimmick of using track titles from a CD with 12 songs on it. Pretty clever, no? I wouldn't mind doing that again, but finding an album that has twelve songs is not as easy as you'd suspect. And then, having the entries actually pertain to the titles would be another trick.

But I don't necessarily have to go with the CD-titled theme. If anyone has any other ideas, believe me, I'm open to suggestions.

(oh, and of course it goes without saying that anyone that wants to "sign up" for the blogathon and participate on Sunday, please do so.)

H

Book:
Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston (305/button).
This book made me want to steal money from the mafia. That's what Henry Thompson, the protagonist of this fast-paced noirish story, did. 4 million dollars, to be exact, and he winds up paying for it in many many ways.
In looking this up at Amazon, I discovered that this was actually the 2nd in a trilogy of books. Once I've got more free-time to read [got to move on to the "I"s right now] I may just have to look up the other two novels. Because as Six Bad Things was ending, I realized that I really didn't want it to. I liked Henry, even though he often makes really bad decisions, and people who are close to him generally end up, you know, kinda dead. So having two other stories about him? I'm down with that.
Huston writing grabs you, and definitely leaves you wanting to know what's going to happen next. Recommended.


Music:
I picked up 2 CDs this go around. PJ Harvey's White Chalk and The Helio Sequence's Keep Your Eyes Ahead
Harvey was okay, but nothing great (pretty much the standard when it comes to music lately, it seems)
The Helio Sequence was a mix of pretty good and decent, with the 2nd listen having things grow on me more. We'll download this disc, and I suspect that certain tunes will get a fair amount of play as I listen to them more.

Movies:
Watched Hoffa yesterday. Good movie. A little long, and some scenes struck me as unintentionally funny [mostly the riot scenes...for whatever reason, mob violence tickled my funny bone during this flick], but overall a pretty decent bioflick. Not anything I'd own, but certainly not a waste of time or anything.

I didn't have anything to blog about today (which makes me worried about how things are going to go on the 31st, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I get to it), so I thought, "I know! I'll play Scrabble with the girls and write a Scrabble Story! (link goes to an example, along with the explanation of what exactly a Scrabble Story is. Other examples: Here and here.")
Saren and I started a game, and a story using the words, but since the game wasn't finished [one of the cats ended up displacing many of the tiles, and we were kinda stuck anyway], neither is the writing. C'est la vie!

Anyway. Here's what did get written. Scrabble words are underlined.

I was watching the Olympics on TV when there was a knock on the door. I got up and opened the front door and saw a bassinet at my feet. Inside was not a baby, but a worm. There was also a note that read, "You must bring me to the leader of the humans before next Tuesday."
I searched for further instructions, but found none.
I picked up the bassinet and brought it inside. I set it down next to my TV dinner that was thawing on the counter.
"This is not happening," I said. Then the phone rang.
"So much for my idle night," I thought. I picked up the phone and a voice I didn't recognize said, "Read the note again."
I looked at the paper again and saw something I had not noticed before. It was more of the message only visible when the light hit the page the right way. It read, "Life on earth is in danger. You must get me to the leader of the humans. Listen to the instructions on the phone."
The person on the phone spoke again, "Be at the corner of Main Street and Vegas Drive at 10:17pm. Bring the worm. Do not be late."
Before I could respond, they hung up.
I shook my head at how odd the night had become so quickly.
My cat woke up and came into the living room, shaprening her claws on the couch - at least some things were still normal.
"Sue!!" I yelled at the cat, "Get down!"
Suddenly the worm jumped out of the bassinet, and somehow pushed Sue away from the couch.
I stood in shock as Sue scampered away in fear. I watched as the worm got back in its home. And then it spoke to me. It said, "Well, are you going to take me to your leader, or what?"
And that's when I passed out.

I want to ride my bicycle

"Bicycle Race" by Queen

Story time!

This took place many, many years ago, so a lot of the memory has faded (because I've got a less than stellar memory to begin with, and as I get older, it seems to get worse), but I'll record here what I can remember.

I was 10 or 11, or maybe 12, or maybe even 13, but certainly no older than that. One fine Saturday afternoon I went out for a ride on my bike around the neighborhood (man, I miss that. Just going out and driving. I used to just go out and drive around aimlessly in my car during my early 20s as well...)
Anyway.
So I'm riding around, just cruising the blocks, not doing anything in particular, when the neighborhood bully shows up.
Yes. There truly was a neighborhood bully. He was an older kid - or at least a lot larger than I was - and I can vaguely remember his features. Tall, blonde, thick chest, a somewhat dim expression on his face most of the time. He had a reputation for beating up other kids in the neighborhood, and so I tried to stay out of his path as much as possible (I'd never actually been beaten up, and neither had any of my friends [that I recall] but the rumor was strong enough for us to not want to risk finding out if there was truth to it.)
Today, however, he spotted me. He was on his bike and I was on mine. In my mind I can see us facing each other, both frozen for a moment - like one of those nature programs where predator and prey size each other up before taking any action. (Although that may just be my memory inserting dramatic effect)
Regardless of how much the start of the encounter may have resembled Wild America, the result was the same: A chase.

I pedaled fast.

No, I pedaled fast.

He pursued.

We zipped all over the neighborhood for quite a while - and I was seriously breaking all kinds of land speed records. I mean, I was booking. Houses and trees and people in their driveways were just blurs as I sped past them. I tried shaking the bully several different times, but no matter how fast I went, or how zig-zaggy my path, he seemed to stay on me. And he was laughing. And threatening me. "When I catch you, I'm gonna pound your face in."
"You better drive faster!"
And so on.

So I took it up a notch. My legs were on fire I was going so fast. The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. That day, at that moment, I was going 186,281.

I was in the middle of the street when I saw a car coming, so I hopped up onto the sidewalk. I took a moment to look back and saw that I was actually getting away from my pursuer. Yes! I was going to live another day!

I turned my attention back to the sidewalk, and saw that a light blue van was backing out of it's driveway. I gripped the hand-brake. The bike stopped. And...I was airborne.

For roughly 3 or 4 eternities, I flew through the sky. Then, gravity remembered it had a job to do, and I landed.

Face first.

As I sat on the ground, bleeding, crying, and having the onset of a asthmatic breathing attack, the driver of the van got out and scooped me up in his adult arms. He asked me where I lived and I managed to stutter out my address, which was only one street over, if I remember correctly.

I'm not sure if he carried me all the way there, or if someone (maybe even the bully?) went and got my father, but somehow I got home, and tended to my wounds.

The other things that stand out from this experience:
1) It was amazing (and odd and unexplainable) that I did not fly into the van. I hit the brake before the van, but I remember being on the ground on the opposite side of it. Did I fly through it? Perhaps, because I can semi-clearly remember my bicycle lying on it's side under the van, and stating something to the adult who helped me.

2) I had a black eye when it was all said and done. My face apparently hit the handlebars on the beginning of the flight. No memory of that happening, either.

3) The next Monday at school, I remember the bully laughing at me and my scarred up face. Jackass.

4) Beside the scarred up face, the black eye, and scraped knees, I was otherwise unharmed. Well, I guess my pride was a little damaged. And I never did go quite as fast on my bike again.

In an alternate universe

...Kevin Spacey guest starred on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and/or Angel) as Cordelia's father.

...Lost would exist in book form (instead of/as well as television?). It would be a 7 book series (like Harry Potter!). Each novel would be the equivalent of one of the seasons. Each chapter would be one of the episodes.

...Writers, directors, producers, and actors involved in gratuitous remakes would be heavily fined and possibly face jail time.

What alternate universe(s) would you like to visit?

G

G already? This year is flying by.

Book:
Mad Dogs by James Grady (332/"Yeah"): This would probably make a decent movie. The premise was rather unique. It was about five CIA agents who had gone insane due to things they had witnessed on the job. Sure, there are stories with rogue spies, but the concept of these men and women who are broken protecting America is one that I had never thought of before.
Anyway. These ex-spies are in an insane asylum in Maine (which is top-secret, because, naturally the US Government doesn't want to acknowledge that the CIA employs humans with faults) and their doctor winds up being murdered. The way the death goes down, it's obvious that they are being set up to take the fall. So they escape to track down the killer(s) and clear their names.
The whole idea of 5 people who have spy knowledge, but are also slightly off-kilter mentally being hunted *and* hunting others is just really, really cool. Like I said, it would make for a fun movie.
And the book is pretty good, too. At least for the first 200 pages or so. Around that point, something happened and I just lost interest. It was a struggle to finish the book, and I have to admit that there were moments/pages where I was skimming rather than really reading everything. Not sure exactly what the problem was - it may've just been me. I mean, I did pick up 4 "G" books, and 2 of them I didn't even open. (The other one I read about 2 pages of). And then today when picking out the "H" selection, I had a very rough time finding anything to grab me, so maybe I'm just in a reading lull. It happens.

Music:
On a Wire by The Get Up Kids:
What is it with music in this gimmick? I am having the hardest time finding stuff that is better than just "Okay". This disc by The Get Up Kids (whom I've at least heard of, although I don't think I know any of their songs off the top of my head) was just "okay". Not bad, but nowhere near great or even memorable.
I also picked up my first Soundtrack - it was for Garden State, and I was all, "It's got the Shins. And I've seen the movie, and enjoyed it, and enjoyed the music, so this should be a good one."
But. Um... It wasn't? Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, but all the songs sounded like whiny emo crap that just irked me. [shrug]

Movies:
I watched Grumpy Old Men which was slightly amusing. The Sunshine Boys/The Odd Couple did it better, but whatever. There are worse movies out there. Like God Has a Rap Sheet. I managed to get to the 50 minute mark before deciding that no, it wasn't going to get any better, and turned it off. GHaRS was about 8 characters thrown together in a New York City jail cell, wherein one of them is an elderly crazy looking guy who claims to be God. They're supposed to discus religion and politics and philosophy from the various points of view, but I don't think they got that far in the movie because it was just dull. The God character was intriguing, but not enough to continue wasting my time.

OMG!!!!11!!

Dude.

Our eldest is now eleven. Eleven.

....


ELEVEN!!!

What's up with the marching forward of time?

Anyway. A partial list of things done today - playing MarioKart (while listening to Cake's "The Distance"), Saren opening gifts [among other things she received: A CD player for her room, Weezer's red album, a digital camera, some fantastic colored pencils along with a new drawing diary, an invitation to Hogwarts School of Wizardry], eating at Sweet Tomatoes, the destruction of many planets and moons, and now we're popping popcorn and getting ready to watch The Spiderwick Chronicles.

I'd say that today was a really good day. Happy Birthday, Saren!

darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there

Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles

Randomish entry here folks. Lots on my mind. You've been warned!

(In my mind, that "You've been warned!" sounded extremely ominous. I think it lost something in the translation between brain and screen, though.)

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind folks that on the last day of August, there's a gimmick going on that everyone should participate in. (if you feel like it. but you totally should feel like it.)
I'm planning on doing all 12 hours myself, but I'm still looking for a CD with 12 tracks to generate titles/ideas...

The nearest McDonald's to our house has been demolished. Um, purposely. Apparently they're going to rebuild it all high-tech-like. If the pictures of a futuristic looking McDonald's on the fence outside the demolition site are to be believed, that is. I hope it is. FutureDonald's! Woot! Flying cars & (killer) robots & Sausage McMuffins with Egg 24 hours a day!!

From the "I'm not made of money!" file - 7-Eleven recently raised the prices on refills of Big Gulps. From 79 cents [eighty-five with tax] to 89 cents [ninety-six with tax]. Yeah, yeah, everything's going up, but still. That's almost a dollar! For refilling my cup? And the weird thing is that the price for a new cup didn't increase. So basically all they did was lower the incentive to reuse the ones I already own. I'm not happy with this plan at all.

Also from the "not made of money" file, but additionally filed in "you have got to be kidding" - we received a letter today stating that a Park Restoration Project will be (or already has been) done on the park behind our house. (I'm voting "will be", because, um, no. There's been no work done on it that we can see.)
Anyway. This project apparently will/did cost $66,000, and since we are the owners of said park, we need to pay this. ....Yeah. A phone call or two is in order here. Because I seriously doubt that Stephanie and I truly own that park (although how cool would it be if we did?) so, um. Guess I'll be dealing with contractors and maybe folks from the City of Las Vegas tomorrow in order to get this straightened out. Either that, or they can try to collect the money owed them from us...ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I've viewed 75 movies this year, there are 140 days left. Not quite a movie a day left, but I need to step up a bit.

Rementioning the Blogathon.

I need a haircut again. It's only been 2.5 months since I last had one, but I guess that's long enough. How often do normal people cut their hair?

How can it be 103 degrees outside (at almost 7pm) and yet my feet are freezing?

So there's a managerial position at work coming open - which would mean more money, although more stress - and I'm going to apply for it. My confidence in getting the position waxes and wanes on almost a daily basis. Gotta love the rat race.

And...wrapping this up, I'll just do a request of youtube videos that have made you smile or laugh or whatever recently.

F

Books:
B. H. Fingerman's Bottomfeeder (268 pgs, last word - "everything") is pretty damn good.
It's the story of Philip Merman (like Ethel, but no relation). Philip is 54, but doesn't look a day over 27, which is how old he was when was attacked and left for dead in a subway station.
Turns out that, yes, Philip is indeed a vampire.
And as such, he needs to eat. And, yes, it needs to be human blood.
So Philip tries to choose victims that nobody will miss - homeless, criminals, the mentally insane.
This works for him, more or less, until one day when he meets another vampire who shows him a different way to survive, and he begins to question his lifestyle.
The ending was one I saw coming a million miles away (well, not the end-end, but a particular plot twist was truly not a surprise) but Philip has such an enjoyable voice that going along for the ride with him as your guide more than makes up for it.
I'd recommend this. It's certainly a unique take on the vampire novel.

Music:
FM Static's Critically Ashamed was...I don't know. It reminded me of Bowling for Soup or Fountain of Wayne. You know, one of those bands that believes they're clever and/or edgy with juvenile type lyrics, and would probably get played ad nauseum on Mix 94.1.
The other F disc I picked up was Holding a Wolf by the Ears by From Autumn to Ashes. Which turned out to be a death-metal band. So, you know, not good.
F bands = Fail, apparently.

Movies:
We watched The Frighteners. Although why I have yet to figure out. It starred Michael J. Fox, was directed by Peter Jackson, and was about ghosts scamming people. Sounds like a perfect combination for fun. Except that it sucked out loud. Too much CGI, too many outrageous storylines, too many jokes that just didn't work. Blah.

I'm worth eight.

How many goats are you worth?

Worthwhile

So, lately, the stuff i've been watching has been...less than stellar? Three movies in a row have been eh.
The Frighteners - which is one of my "F" movies - was superbly awful. (More on that in a few days when I cover my "F" choices)
Then last night we watched Terminator 3, which I knew was a weak installment. The girls agreed. (Spoilers ahead for T3)
Harper said that it wasn't as good as 2, and the things that bothered her the most were that Sarah Connor died. (I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!)
And also, that "Big John" was not as cool as "Little John". She also said that "Big John" reminded her of that "guy from Buffy". I tried to figure out who she meant - it wasn't Xander - and today it hit me...she probably meant Johnathan, since we recently watched Superstar.... edit. I just went and asked her again, and she informed me she was thinking of "the guy that Willow loves". Oz? Really? I guess there's a slight resemblance.
Anyway. Saren said that 3 was funnier than the others, but that it didn't make it better. Very true.
Tonight we watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which ...didn't hold up as well as I had thought it would. I mean, parts of it were still chuckle-worthy, but overall, not that great a movie. Definitely better in my memory.

So my question is - what are some movies that you guys have seen recently that have been worthwhile? Because I'm getting kinda sick of watching things that wind up being letdowns.

"What do you think about?" "....Jumping Jacks."

Two days ago, we watched the first two Terminator movies.
Finally, the girls have some context for when we play "terminator" (which is more or less just 'tag', wherein I chase them by walking in a robotic fashion).

One hilarious thing I noticed this time around during the first movie - when Lt. Traxler asks for a cigarette, and his partner hands him the carton, only for him to realize he's already got a lit one in his other hand. Just a tiny throw away scene, but it made me chuckle.

Other thoughts from the first movie - Saren asked about Pugsley, which I found amusing, because I remember also being curious about the iguana's fate. I really hope that the series mentions him at some point. Or maybe someone should write some fanfic regarding the lizard...

Harper said that the only scary part was when "the Terminator was taking out his eye".
Personally, I think the only scary part is the hair on Ginger (Sarah's roommate/friend), but the eye-removal scene was pretty gruesome.

T2 was loved by the girls. They were both pretty upset by the fact that Terminator died in the end. And Saren and I have discussed some of the finer points of time-travel paradoxes. (Namely - why is John still there if the future has been changed? Still one of my biggest peeves from the whole mythology.)

Harper's favorite line: "You can't go around killing people!"
"Why?"

We picked up T3 from the library on Sunday as well, but haven't gotten around to watching it yet. I've warned them that it's not quite as good as the first two, but they're still interested.

And starting this Sunday, Fox will be reairing the Sarah Connor Chronicles, season 1, in preparation for season 2. Yay for killer robots from the future!!

E

Books:
Category 7 by Bill Evans & Marianna Johnson (so, um, I guess this could count as my "J" book, too?) 383 pages, last word "sushi".

This was about "the biggest storm in history". A hurricane that is so massive, they had to create a whole new category for it (in real life, hurricanes only go up to 5) that hits New York. There's a way to stop the storm, using a top-secret military weapon - but the catch is that it has to be used in the hurricane.
So, basically, it's a disaster movie, but in book form. Except that this book has nothing to do with the other Category 7 (that made-for-tv movie with the same name from a few years back) - and that's a very good thing, because that was really bad.
Not that the book was all superb or anything. In fact, as time has gone on, i've lowered my opinion on the book quite a bit. When reading it, it was enjoyable, although very slow moving for the first 200-or-so pages. But once the storm actually hit the city, it became incredibly intense and not-put-downable.
All good so far.
But, the denouement was...nonexistent? And at least one of the characters' behavior was beyond comprehension. (Climbing out the window? Really?)
But, up til then, it was good enough to keep my interest. And the idea of weather manipulation is presented in a very intriguing (and possibly?) realistic manner, so there's some food for thought. Overall, if you happen to pick the book up, go for it, but it's not one that you have to absolutely read.

Music:
I had 3 discs in the E category, because I just couldn't choose one.
I'll save the best for last.
First up was The Vegas Years by Everclear. This album is a bunch of covers. I picked it up because I do like Santa Monica a lot ("swim out past the breakers, watch the world die" = great lyric, imo) and I'm willing to listen to cover songs, since, I, you know, know them, usually.
But this was bad.
Really. Really. Really bad.
I couldn't get through the whole disc, honestly. Sorry, guys. I'll still listen to Santa Monica, and even Father of Mine, but perhaps they should just stick to original material, and leave covers to ...other people.

Next up is What Are You On? by East River Pipe.
The songs on here were really short, and started off pretty decent, but it seemed like each one didn't quite live up to its full potential somehow. I don't know. I liked it, but I guess not enough to keep it.

Last, and certainly not least, was Meet the Eels: Essential Eels 1996 - 2006, Vol. 1.
Now, I've heard the Eels before - in fact, we own Daises of the Galaxy, and Beautiful Freak was one of the last cassette tapes I ever bought (sadly, I don't have that anymore, as I wore it out. Confusingly, I've never gotten around to replacing it in the musical library either on CD or electronically), so I knew going in that I'd like at least some of the songs on this.
Fortunately, I enjoyed 98% of them! (The "Get Ur Freak On" cover, while amusing, doesn't quite seem to fit. And the final two tracks were ..eh, but dude. Eels = love.)
Bonus? It's a two-disc collection, with disc 2 being 12 music videos of the Eels. AWESOME!!
The Eels are not only creative musically, but when they make music videos (remember when you didn't have to go to youtube in order to see those?), they go all out. Here's a couple for your enjoyment:
First, their first, "Novocaine for the Soul". Yay for flying Eels (heh)!



Now, "Rags to Rags", which, in addition to being a great song, has a hilarious video. Crotch shot!



and, this one takes a really odd turn...



Okay. I could go on, but it's getting late. Just trust me. Eels are awesome.

Movies:
I had two, but only watched one.
The film I didn't watch was End of the Spear, about some missionaries who live with a tribe that was cut off of civilization. I didn't watch it mostly out of time restraints. Maybe I'll pick it up at some later date in the future.
The one I did watch was Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. And, yes, it was as cheesy as I expected. The weird thing is, I found myself feeling more sympathy for the saucermen than the earthlings. I doubt highly that was the intended result, but there ya have it.

Blog-a-thon 2008

Mark your calendars folks.

August 31st, 2008, I'll be participating in a blog-a-thon! (Um. And hopefully others will be as well.)
What's a blog-a-thon, you ask? Well, it's just like the one that took place 5 years ago on that date...
(And what's even cooler was that both 8/31/08 and 8/31/03 are Sundays.)
You can also look here, which sums things up pretty nicely, although a few things are out-of-date in regard to the upcoming edition. Namely, you know, it's taking place in '08 instead of '03... and Steph's email address at the bottom of that page is not accurate. And, of course, nobody's signed up to do this except me. But otherwise, the site linked to is right on.

Summarizing it: On the 31st, I (and anyone who wants to participate) will blog once every hour for 12 (or 8, or if you're really ambitious, 24) hours. ...that's pretty mcuh it. (Yeah, I went the long way about explaining all that. And it probably doesn't read very sensically. [dude. is sensically even a word?] But, you know, you try running on 5 hours of sleep every night for 5 days ina row, and being me, and see how well you communicate.)

Anyway. The point is this: End of the month = lots of blogging by yours truly. And you? If you're game, let me know. Together we'll bust this internet thing up. Or something.