| Warehouse 13 (a TV post, from me!) |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|11:28 pm] |
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Just finished watching the pilot, and I liked it. It's like a quirky, not-so-menacing Friday the 13th TV show. They have hypertech, steampunk, arcane, and out and out silly stuff on there. Granted, the male-female dynamic between the protagonists is about as usual as it gets, think Scully and Mulder with senses of humor, but I've seen worse. Hell, I OWN worse. What's good, though, is the female lead; it's the same actress that played Bianca on the Dresden Files, and she's playing someone with a sense of humor ( and a stick up her ass). The geeky guy that runs the warehouse is your typical nerd who doesn't get out enough and co-habits with some really weird stuff, but I think this one'll go on the list of shows to keep watching. Now I just have to hold out till Friday and Eureka! |
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| 4th of July, and thoughts of independence flow in the brain... |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|08:48 pm] |
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Independence isn't the same thing as consenting alliance. Standing on your own only means that you don't need a crapload of help to do the simple things. It means having the mental and social tools in place to get stuff done without having to have things done for you or to you without your consent. This makes about as much sense as I can do at the moment, having three trains of thought collide in my forebrain. |
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| Transformers 2 |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|01:31 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Okay, had to get this down before the brain shut down and cleared the RAM cache.
I've seen quite a bit of commentary on the Internet about the lack of plot, the stereotypical roles, etcetera, etcetera, and I've had enough. Here's my take on this.
A) the reason people hate stereotypes is that there are at least three people you know that fall into the stereotype in question. I myself have rednecks in the family, so I'm not just whistling Dixie here. If stereotypes weren't common, they wouldn't BE stereotypes. You may get pissed off about them, which is well within your rights as free thinking being, all at your own option.
B) The lack of plot can be summed up rather succinctly: THIS IS A MOVIE ABOUT GIANT FREAKIN' ROBOTS THAT DISGUISE THEMSELVES AS CARS. If you went to this movie expecting high drama or a romantic comedy, I recommend that you read a few reviews before you see your next film. This one was written to justify **GIANT-ASS ROBOT FIGHT SCENES!!** If you want drama, check out the English Patient, not a movie based on a series of toys from the 1980's.
C) If you're not 1) a child {chronologically, no guesses as to your maturity}, 2) someone who WAS a child in the 80's, 3) a Sci-Fi fan, 4) someone willing to spend a few bucks for some great effects shots, you really shouldn't see a movie called Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
I can recommend a few other films for the humorless, those who lack the background, or would otherwise be operating at a critical disadvantage while watching a movie about GIANT FREAKIN' ROBOTS.
This has been your rant for the evening. Please stay tuned if you believe you've been anally-probed by aliens, we have some extra soft hemorrhoid donuts and industrial grade numbing cream for your bunghole, all for the bargain price of only $19.95! |
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| This week's theme is transhumanism |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|04:28 pm] |
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I've spent the entire week rewatching the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (original), so my brain was already in the cyborg mode, and then my 83 y/o grandmother goes and gets cataract surgery. Not being familiar with the procedure, I didn't realize that they implant a replacement! My grandmother has a posthuman eyeball!! Wednesday, I went down to get my teeth worked on, adding to my own levels of cyborgism. Wonder what's next... perhaps a free wireless implant that hooks into the cerebral nerves for celphone service? Telepresence suits for traveling? The future looks brighter and more metal all the time! |
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| Who voted for me? |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|12:13 am] |
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Somehow, I have become the flavor of the week. Very strange. |
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| Knocking off Cobwebs.... |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|01:45 pm] |
Dear Invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster:
When I take a few days off just to clear my head and plan for future things, please do me a favor and DON'T cause trains to collide, people's heads to explode, and other such things that are fun for a nigh-omnipotent ADD Kindergartener. It makes Daddy's brain hurt when he has to go along behind you and clean up the place.
((Back in the land of the sane, I'm glad to hear that noone I know and love was on the metro when it crashed. I didn't even hear about it till yesterday, I'd crawled into a hole and pulled it in after me when I got home Sunday morning and am now just crawling out.) |
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| Brain, brain, what is brain? |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|11:32 pm] |
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I seem to be having one of those days where my brain refuses to get with the program and retrieve the information I have store on it. Perhaps I should try a Disk Defrag or something. Keep wanting to start projects or do something constructive, but without the data, I'm screwed. Maybe I should just start drinking or something, since I'm not getting any use of the greymeat at the moment. |
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| Initial CTT entry, stardate who-gives-a-rats |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|10:17 pm] |
I'll try to post an expanded post later, I just wanted to put some initial thoughts down on electrons before the feeling passes me by.
This was one of the best weekends I've had in quite a while. The party feeling was enormous beyond imagination. Once I can establish some better order to my currently-addled and sleep-deprived brain, I'll get more specific, probably to some people's chagrin. |
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| Ahhh, Virginia... |
[Jun. 3rd, 2009|01:53 pm] |
THINGS I LEARNED IN VIRGINIA
1) A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road
2) There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in VA.
3) There are 10,000 types of spiders, and all 10,000 of them live in VA.
4) If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.
5) "Onced" and "Twiced" are words.
6) It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.
7) "Jaw-P?" means, "Did y'all go to the bathroom?"
8) People actually grow and eat okra.
9) "Fixinto" is one word.
10) There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there is
supper...
11) Iced tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when
you're two.
12) We do like a little tea with our sugar.
13) Backwards and forwards means, "I know everythin' bout you."
14) The word "jeet" is actually a phrase meaning, "Did you eat?"
15) You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it
is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see...
16) You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH em.
17) You measure distance in minutes.
18) You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.
19) All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable,
grain, insect or animal.
20) You know what a "Dawg" is.
21) You carry jumper cables in your car - for your own car.
22) You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete , Tabasco and ketchup.
23) The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but
require 6 pages for local gossip, VT and high school football.
24) You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
25) You find 100 degrees "a bit warm."
26) You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and
Christmas.
27) Going to Walmart is a favorite pastime known as "goin' Walmartin" or "off
to Wally World."
28) You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good hog killin'
weather.
29) Fried catfish is the other white meat.
30) We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can
drive dag-nabbit.
31) You understand these jokes and forward them to your VA friends and those
who just wish they were from Virginia !!!!! |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 31st, 2009|10:51 am] |
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I've come to the realization that I've been less assiduous about posting stuff on here than I'd like. It ain't like I've got nothing to say, god knows I've got the gift of Gab, but I think posting on here is less like talking with someone than it is talking to the faceless Internet, and I suck at talking to the faceless & silent. The suckiest part about that is with my friends spread all over creation and back, this is sometimes the only way we have to talk with each other, so it's a problem I'm working on. Strangely enough, it doesn't affect my ability to write a story, but being able to write a story and writing posts on LJ for my friends are apparently wired into different parts of my brain. Maybe I'll get it sorted out, or perhaps I just come off more impressive in person than online. Kind of ironic if that's how it works for an inhabitant of the Digital Age. |
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| I'm so hurtin... from a toilet, no less |
[May. 10th, 2009|08:57 pm] |
Long story short, I got to change out a toilet single handedly.
Bad parts: new toilet weighs a bleeding ton! My back is in knots.
I forgot to put in the gasket when I attached the tank to the base, so when I flushed the first time, I got water all over the floor, so I had to disconnect the water, pull the tank off, put the gasket back, then reassemble and reconnect the water.
Good parts: I solved the rocking problem, and my stepdad recognizes my competence (Laugh)
I think I'll go take a muscle relaxer and go to sleep now. |
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| Murphy's Week |
[May. 4th, 2009|04:23 pm] |
It's yet another of those two week periods where 90 percent of what I touch comes out screwed up. I spent 5 hours cleaning up caulk around my tub only to have to do the whole Gdmd thing over again, it took me two hours to get from Alexandria to Rosslyn ( a personal best), I lost six months of handwritten work due to a leak in my glass ceiling, my dishwasher is inhabited by the Ghost of Great Stink, my writing-muse is suffering a massive headache and won't put out, and I've now got people pouting at me because they all have things scheduled for Saturday and I'm already committed somewhere else.
Whenever I have this amount of things going wrong, there's something really good coming my way. It makes the whole thing a little easier to stomach, if not less annoying. I must remember to sign back up for the paying Karma off in advance when I hit my next incarnation.
Given that the last time this happened, the streak started off with me slicing my hand up and I got a year plus of really great stuff, I'm looking forward to my toy surprise. |
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| Thank you, Dame Fortune |
[May. 3rd, 2009|01:08 am] |
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With a minimum of effort, the last of the tile has been installed in my bathroom. This has been an ongoing project for the last couple of months, and it has damn near driven me insane. Thanks be, all we have to do now is put in the trim pieces, fix a hole in the wall, paint, and finish the floor, all of which can be done in about 2 weekends. I'm almost done! |
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| And now, with my feet nailed to the floor, I shall do... |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|02:48 pm] |
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Well, we had to take Shiloh (My german shepherd) to the $$$ vet for reconstructive surgery on his knee. As a result of this, we now have carpet (temporary) all over the floors to give him better footing, we have to leash walk him out when he has to recycle food and water, and if noone's going to be home, he has to wear an Elizabethan collar ( a lampshade, if you need the visual reference). Since the collars are just plain sad, I'm now nailed down most weekdays and into the evening, since my folks want him to wear that collar as little as possible. Ain't it fun? I don't hold it against the dog, he can't help what mother nature has done to his joints, but i'm now pretty much on house arrest for the next 8 weeks. |
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| Long Overdue Post on my Portland Trip |
[Apr. 24th, 2009|09:16 pm] |
SPent a great deal of time just hanging out and talking with John, Becca, and AJ. Second night in, I think I managed to bend Becca's mind into a Klein Bottle, which is a personal best. There is a major=league cool doughnut place called Voodoo Doughnuts that makes everything from KoolAid doughnuts to a "Mr Johnson and his two friends" doughnut, and my personal fave, the Giant Doughnut Doughnut. Imagine a Krispy Kreme that fills a regular size box for a dozen, and you've got it.
First morning there, I walked to the 711 to get coffee, and the genius loci of the neighborhood sidetracked me for an hour and a half and just laughed at my ass. I managed to get it to respect me, however, and we settled into a comfortable co-existence.
John is in my top three of great cooks that I know (includes him, Ben, and Lyssa). The dairy-free potatos gratin was quite good, i must say.
Their neighborhood sits at a 45 degree angle to all surrounding streets, wihich is eccentric even for the Pacific Northwest.
Watched and MST3K'd the classic sci-fi flick Forbidden Planet (yay for old-school homoeroticism and magic space-virgin powers!)
Got quite a bit of work done on my novel, and visited the incredible Powell's bookstore. Only place I've ever been that has used and new books sitting on the same shelf. QUite awesome.
I'd make more of an efort to string this together into a better story, but I'm a little distracted right now. |
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| Back Home, at last. |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|06:53 pm] |
Have to move the bio-clock back to EST. I'm three hours behind everyone else, which is strange.
Had an absolutely WONDERFUL time in Portland, and I will be adding it to my circuit of places to keep visiting regularly. Already missing the company of John, Becca, and AJ, but I like being home, with my stuff and my space.
Now back to the interrupted job-search. And life as it has been. |
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| Author Event |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|04:44 am] |
So, I'm here in Portland, having a GREAT time, hanging with John, Becca, and AJ, and we went this evening to a concert for the book tie-in music associated with the novel Palimpsest. This is the closest I've been to a performing artist while they were performing, and given just how small the 'venue' was in this case, it was pretty cool. The music itself was pretty awesome, and definitely something that should be experienced live ( I have to agree with Becca, some music doesn't record well). The song about a raccoon was intensely amusing, and the re-working of Tam Lin was intense enough that I was watching for a Fey gate to open mid-song. The author of the aforementioned novel was doing some selected readings from her book, and that was pretty amazing, seeing as how she'd thought ahead enough to work with a songsmith to get appropriate 'theme music'. THat kind of multimedia tie in is something that should happen more, as it intensifies the experience for fans of the book.
Having such a great time out here (Portland is the most people-friendly city that I've visited, REALLY cool in my book) that should I relocate, this area is now much higher on my list of potential living areas.
May write more when I'm not so sleepy.
Brain works better with rest.... |
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| Traveling |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|11:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
En route to BWI to catch my flight.
My checkins for the next week will be limited, simply due to being in a new place with new people to see and new things to do.
Mad love to all my peeps, and I'll catch up when I get back.
As for me, into the Wild Blue Yonder I go. |
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