Little gold man for Captain Jack?

I'm all happy.

Hollywood observers are shocked that Johnny Depp walked away with the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards at the weekend, and there's now a strong feeling in the film industry that he could well surprise everyone and take the home the best actor Oscar on Sunday.

The rest of the tiny article goes on to explain that Sean Penn was the favorite to win the Oscar before the SAG Awards were given, with Bill Murray in second running.

First off, Huzzah for Captain Jack! That movie was fabulous, but Johnny Depp's Captain Jack was the centerpiece of the film. If it had been anyone else in the role, I don't think that the film would have held up. As it was, it was one of the most enjoyable films of the past year. That's the difference his role made.

Secondly, I'm not so hot on Sean Penn. Not so much the personal foilbles, being that he's a violent arsehole, but that I can see his acting when he's acting. He never embodies a role. He always shows the seams of his performance, letting you know he's using his craft, rather than just bloody acting. Also, I'm sick and tired of people crediting dramatic roles over comedic. It's a butt-load harder to pull off a comedic role than it is to lament over the death of your fictional daughter. The Academy is perfectly happy with drama that goes over the top, but they get all snobby once they're confronted with comedy (or SF/F, for that matter).

Which leads me to Bill Murray. He's had the performance of his career in Lost In Translation. I've always enjoyed his performances, but this is the one I knew he had in him since Groundhog Day and even more so since Rushmore. My trouble is deciding between Murray and Depp, but I still lean towards Murray. I loved, loved, loved Depp, but Murray's performace was brilliant. I'd be happy with either winning. Just so long as it isn't the overrated Penn or anything from that gawdawful Cold Mountain.

Quick! Before Maggie moves!

From a mailer I get from RightStuf.com:

*** Enlightening Young Minds... With Manga! ***
Set to appear in children's museums around the country, "Jump to Japan" is an
exhibit that teaches Japanese and Asian culture through popular art. Among the
displays will be areas for anime and manga, featuring video and print media from
titles like Pokemon, Yugioh, Shaman King, Nausicaa - there are even plans for a
life-sized Cat Bus from Totoro!

At the moment, "Jump to Japan" is running at the Children's Museum at the Seattle
Center in Seattle, WA. If you're in the area, be sure to stop by with your junior
otaku! And for more information, visit the Children's Museum homepage.

I hope it comes to the Children's Museum in Philly. ... There is a children's museum in Philly, right?

... Cat Bus! There's gong to be a life-sized Cat Bus! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

tee hee!

"Almost Boobs." Tee hee!

Whoops. Okay. Got that fixed.

Hey. Remember this post? Apparently there was some sort of server issue at Enetation.co.uk, which they insist they've since cleared up. I went to one of my commenting links and it seemed to be functioning. So, um, comment away.

Please note I've continued to refrain from saying anything about the A-Rod/Yankees thing.

p.s.

Thank you for the valentine, Halifax. I laughed and laughed....then Mom told me to shut up making so much damned noise, can't I laugh quieter, dammit, and I was sad.

p.p.s.

Thank you, Joss Whedon, for the image of puppet-Angel totting a big-ass sword over his shoulders. I laughed and laughed....then my mom told me I laugh like a horse and what the hell is wrong with me, laughing like that, I must've gotten that from my low-class father, that sunovabitch, and I was sad.

A joke for your five-year old cousin/nephew/niece/child

Q: How does the man-in- the-moon cut his hair?
A: Eclipse it!

"Family-friendly" joke care of The Prarie Home Companion Newsletter.

In other news

However, I did find this amusing. Anyone seen it before?

What do you do with a show bringing in target viewers? Dump it, apparently.or the a$$holes at FOX followed in suit by the d!cks at The WB

This is what the official WB website said about Angel: "ANGEL is currently The WB's second highest-rated series with adults 18-34. And yet what has The WB decided to do now that their number two show has hit 100 episodes? They're cancelling it. As the monster says over the Mutant Enemy card, Grr! Arg!

I'm posting the following here which I found on one of the response pages at Peter David's blog:

*
Quick Postcard Campaign to Save Angel

Unfortunately, emailing networks or posting in online petitions is a waste of time. As soon as they start getting emails, they set up spam filters to delete the mail and they don't ever see what comes in. Waiting around for somebody to organize something is wasting precious time--organized campaigns are going to be great but here's something you can do NOW.

If you want to actually do something that actually might--MIGHT--help to get another season for Angel...

DO THIS TOMORROW

1. Go and buy some postcards that show scenes from your city. Tourist postcards. Postcards that have the name of your town or city or area of the country on them. You don't need anything fancy, just something that will show immediately where you are located so they know this is coming from all over.

2. Write a short message on the postcard in your own words saying that you want Angel to be renewed and support the show. Keep it positive. Don't be insulting. Don't be abusive.

3. Address the postcard to one of the people on the list of addresses in this message. Levin may ignore the cards coming into the WB, but the media outlets will see there's a story in this and publicize it. The names on the list are in order of importance so start at the top and send as many postcards as you want to (or can afford to send).

4. Go and get at least six friends who probably aren't reading this on the internet but would be willing to send postcards, and get them to do the same thing.

5. DO IT TOMORROW! Speed of response is what counts along with the size of the response. Don't wait for instructions from some group. Just DO IT.

Here are the addresses to mail your cards to:

Matt Roush
TV Guide
Box 500
Radnor, PA 19088-0500

The Hollywood Reporter
Attn: Cynthia Littleton
5055 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036-4396

Entertainment Tonight,
Paramount Pictures Domestic TV
Roddenberry Building
5555 Melrose Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90038

Extra
Warner Bros
4000 Warner Blvd.
Triangle Building, 4th Floor
Burbank, CA 91522

Entertainment Weekly
1675 Broadway New York
NY 10019


TNT is the best possibility to pick up Angel since they've gotten good ratings with the reruns and do some original programming.

Turner Network Television
Attn: Robert DeBitetto (pres, original programming)
1888 Century Park East, 14th Fl.
Los Angeles, CA 90067

Turner Network Television
Attn: Julie Wietz (exec vp. original programming)
1888 Century Park East, 14th Fl.
Los Angeles, CA 90067

Turner Network Television
Attn: Attn: Mr. Jamie Kellner, Chairman and CEO
1050 Techwood Dr. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318

Turner Network Television
Attn: Garth Ancier, Executive Vice-President, Programming
1050 Techwood Dr. NW
Atlanta, GA 30318


Rumor is that Levin doesn't accept cards or letters and they get returned, but a flood of mail might make news even if it doesn't get through

Warner Brothers Network
Attn: Jordan Levin, CEO
4000 Warner Blvd., Building 34R
Burbank, CA 91522
(818) 977-5000

*

And, if you want to send cards to Joss to express support and let him know the level of interest, here's where to send them:

Joss Whedon
C/o Mutant Enemy Productions
PO Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213

And to send cards supporting the cast and crew:

Angel Productions
20th Century Fox
PO Box, 900
Beverly Hills
CA, 90213-0900


Now, if you actually want to accomplish something, make some news, and maybe, just maybe, get a sixth season for Angel...

DO THIS TOMORROW AND DON'T PUT IT OFF!

Also, permission is given to repost this message to other lists, message boards and other places that are interested in supporting Joss and Angel. Spread the word and let's do something quickly. Speed counts.
*

Not that I expect anyone reading this to do anything, but I thought I'd try.

How are you?

I've become an especially shitty e-mail correspondent. I've sent letters to folks, but few e-mail. No one who reads this blog has received either from me in a while (outside of birthdays). I actually do care how things are going for my friends, but I'm crap at writing e-mail. I just can't do it anymore. Feels so damned, I don't know, shallow, like I can't write with the right combination of casualness and gravitas required. I can't explain, really. I just can't think of anything to write which fits. So I write occasionally (more than occasionally of late) in my blog, as shallow and inane is fine for a blog. This means I have to rely on my friends sending me e-mails, to which I may or may not eventually send a response (not likely as I've been having trouble with my accounts), or on their posting responses in the comments on my blog, which no one has of late, to find out what's going on, as I'm completely incapable of sending out e-mail. Or calling. Lord forbid I pick up a phone when I'm not stuck on campus, bored out of my mind (when most everyone is at work).

Okay, so, how is everyone? If you are alive, please post as much in the comments. No further detail necessary, unless you're inspired. You can even tell me off on being such a lazy beeyatch that I can't even send e-mail to friends. Not like I don't deserve it.

Please note the complete lack of posting on the whole A-Rod/Yankees thing. cough

CATBUS!

You might remember, way back, I ranted about my lovely new Catbus bag which my buddy, C--, sent to me. He picked it up in Hong Kong, where he's been on assignment for his job at Toilet Paper (not its real name). He came back for winter break and shipped this over to me. I opened the package on the road to NYC and fell in love with my beautisimous Totoro bag and my snazzy Totoro cell phone mascot. Anyway, I'd promised I would post a picture of my bag on my phlog, so here's the picture. I took it just after I'd taken the bag out of the package and stuck my cell phone (bemascoted), my notebook, a pen, my wallet (Kerokerokeroppi), my lip gloss and face powder into the bag.

I looooooooooooove my Catbus bag! (I keep calling it my Totoro bag.) My nephew, P--, is a little jealous of it. He keeps asking me where I got it, as if trying to hint that it might be a good idea if I were to get him something like it. Fat chance, kiddo. I love you, but all catbus items are mine, mine, mine!

What a boring life I lead, Part II: travels of a sheltered American infidel

I've visited 5 countries and live in 1, which totals out to 6 nations, or 2% of the nations of the world of which I have seen a small part.


Create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide on World66.

What a boring life I lead, Part I: these united states

19 out of 50 (37%). That's just sad. Especially when you consider that they're counting D.C. for some reason and that I've lived in three states counted (NY, MD, CT).


Create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide on World66.

Oh, yeah, now I remember. I was f*cking miserable.

Okay, so I've been whining in my posts lately about how much my life sucks, blah, blah, blah. But going through my e-mail has provided me with this insight: it could be worse; I could still be working for corporate lawyers.

The following is from an e-mail I sent a week before I left my last job. Please note the bitchy tone. See? I've always been this annoying. Please note also that what I wrote in this bitchy e-mail was true. Truth in bitching. Aah.

Subject: corporate lawyers have no work ethic

I know this because I work with them and for them and deal with the ones in other companies. The one who will do his job thoroughly, actually perform the requisite due diligence, is the exception that proves the rule.

They are not scum. They are lazy. They are overpaid. If four people look at a document, all of them highly-paid lawyers with much experience and training and industry respect, and it's a flipping college drop-out who catches the error which invalidates the contract, I think there's an issue. I think there's a problem. I think I should be paid a HELL of a lot more, 'cause I'm doing their flipping work FOR them because they feel they're far too important to do the grunt work that is required of them.

I hate these people for their condescension and their excuses and their laziness. The ones here and the ones we deal with. I hope [my brother] never sinks so low as to pretend to practice law in a corporate environment. Because that's all they're doing: pretending. These people are as far away from actual law as I am. They're pathetic, and I have no respect for them.

Dubyah gets a groove on

I'm going through old e-mail (obviously). Found Dancing Bush sitting in an obscured spot. I'd forgotten how much I liked playing with it. Go, Georgie! Go, Georgie! You go, White Boy!

>> > Subject: [ Bra Sizes]

>>> >
>> > Finally...........there is a rhyme to the reason of the strange
>> > designation
>> > given to bra sizes:
>> >
>> > Have you ever wondered why A, B, C, D, DD, E and F are the letters
>> > used to define bra sizes?
>> >
>> > If you have wondered why, but couldn't figure out what the letters
>> > stood for, here is the answer...
>> >
>> > A - Almost Boobs...
>> > B - Barely there.
>> > C - Can't Complain!
>> > D - Damn!
>> > DD - Double damn!
>> > E - Enormous!
>> > F - Fake
>> >

My favorite's "A - Almost Boobs...". It makes me laugh. Ha ha ha. ...Because of this I know I am a terrrible person. Still, "Almost Boobs." Tee hee!

Reading list

The following is a list of books I was required to buy for this semester's courses. This list was inspired by thecomicman's, which is better than mine as he is smarter than I am and a better student and therefore going to a better school and taking better classes. Also, I've been informed by a little roachbird that TCM can swear up a bluestreak which flames and sears the very heavens above. I've been informed by no less an authority than my younger brother that I sound like a complete and utterly dorky (in a bad way) ass whenever I attempt to swear.

Oh, yes. The list.

EAJ102 - Elementary Japanese II:

• nothing, just the textbook, workbook from last semester and a packet with extra assignments in it


ENG341 - Chaucer:


• The Riverside Chaucer
  plus A Chaucer Glossary for idjits like me who have trouble with Middle English


ENG450 - Images of the Writer in U.S. Culture:


• Reading Desire: In Pursuit of Ernest Hemingway by Debra Moddelmog


• Hemingway and His Conspirators: Hollywood, Scribners, and the Making of American Celebrity Culture by Leonard Leff


• Writing in the Real World: Making the Transition from School to Work by Anne Beaufort


• Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses


• The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway


• On Writing by Stephen King

and a packet filled with badly written scholarly texts


EAJ385 - History of Japan II:


• Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai by Katsu Kokichi


• Four Major Plays of Chikamatsu translated by Donald Keene


• Harp of Burma by Takeyama Michio


• Modern Japan: A Historical Survey by Hane Mikiso


• Botchan by Natsume Soseki

Bad student, good napper

Of late I have not been able to keep my eyes open.

That statement is not entirely true.

Of late I have frequently not been able to keep my eyes open. When I can, I can't ever close them. I am alternating between pseudo-narcolepsy and insomnia. Mostly it's the sleeping and sleepiness. I can barely get myself to awlk up and down the basement stairs to get to my study spot.

My study spot is by the basement stairway, on the huge architect's table my eldest sister left behind when she moved to France. Ithas many sources of light and many Lord of the Rings action figures, including two Legolases, one six-inch, one twelve-inch, and teeny, tiny Merry and Pippin. Treebeard is going to come to the table soon to hold the teeny, tiny hobbits in his branchy hands. In the organized chaos there are: two Japanese dictionaries and a Japanese phrasebook; ten overdue library books; a candy jar filled with "Creme" Starburst; more index cards than I know what to do with; various items made of paper; two mugs of writing implements, one with Tigger and Pooh, the other with the Yankees logo; notebooks with last semester's notes; a giant dictionary I took home in an attempt to get some payback from a particularly nasty office; a globe; a Woody figurine; an electronic encyclopedia which no longer works; a photograph of my eldest nephew one Halloween about ten years ago when he was the kid from Where the Wild Things Are; and the books assigned this semester.

I am behind in my reading, as the books I needed to read arrived late (shakes fist at sky a la Jon Stewart on The Daily Show "Damn you, Powells.com!") and have had this irresistable urge to sleeeeeeep. When I have managed to get some studying done, I go to bed late, about 2:30 to 3 o'clock in the morning, and have trouble going to sleep. I can't stop worrying about everything I'm screwing up (credit card debt, familial relationships, friendships, academic standing, health, etc.) of late. Mostly I can't help but think that I just don't have time to go to sleep. I need to study. Study. Stuuuuudyyyyyy. This insomnia, naturally, aggravates the supreme sleepiness from which I've been suffering.

Oh, and there's the Incompletes I have to make up. Soon. Like, practically tomorrow. And I haven't done a damned thing except accrue overdue fees on library books.

I'm whining a lot. This is stupid and my fault and I don't know why I'm doing this to myself. It's bizzare. I've been given this second chance after fucking up so royally seven years ago. Maybe it's knowing that even if I get stellar grades and graduate with honors, I'll still have to be a secretary. I'll be heading straight back to the place from which I was desperately trying to escape by going back to school. Why oh why couldn't I be even slightly interested in being a comp sci major or a business major? Something which could get me a real job? Still, this is a stupid reason for being stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Entrails! Whale entrails!

Here's a picture. Here's another. Here's the story. Here's the story with more detail and a slightly better picture, what with the stuff pouring out in a wave. Enjoy!

Holy... Did you see that?

Um, two-headed baby. Seriously. Look: "Yahoo! News - Surgeons to Operate on Baby With 2 Heads".

Rather, look here. I mean, um, hey. Ear next to the mouth. Another ear on the chin. Nose, two eyes. Mom always told me that fetuses can absorb their twin. Sounded like something from an X-Files episode. Turns out, while rare, it's true, sort of. Really, the one fetus just stops growing, fused to the other. There's even a name for it: parasitic twin, craniopagus parasiticus, meaning the partially developed twin is parasitically dependent upon the fully developed twin.

"The head on top is growing faster than the lower one," said Dr. Jorge Lazareff, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital. "If we don't operate, the child would barely be able to lift her head at 3 months old."

I can't help but think that it looks like something ...oh, crap. The super-famous Hollywood prosthetic guy. One of his jobs. Or...remember the scene in Alien: Resurrection where the previous Ripley-alien merging results are kept in giant test-tubes? Like that. But, for real. Geezie creezie. The baby with the full body, Rebeca, is actually cute in that sweet, sleeping baby way. Will her parents ever tell her that she started off with two heads and that she wound up with the smaller one?

Although the second head is only partially developed, its mouth moves when Rebeca is being breast-fed.

Um. Oh. Eesh.

"You know, just off the top of your head."

quotes from AP article by PETER PRENGAMAN

Update

Poor little Rebeca died from a heart attack after the sugery. She lost a lot of blood, and her doctors believe that the stress of blood loss caused the heart attack. Poor little thing. It was pretty much an impossible procedure, but it had to be done. That second head would have destroyed hers in the growing process.

Second head. Oof.

Oh, my!

Just thought I'd show you how Blogger.com greets me every time I go in to edit my blog.

Welcome back, Sugar.

Every time I read this, in my head, I hear it read in the voice of the venerable Barry White.

Auuuugh! I hate not having money!

I found a present for Angry Rabbit. It would wait until, like, Christmas or something, as I just sent her stuff for Christmas and birthday and such. But it's, like, so Angry Rabbit circa 1998. Auuugh! I want to get it for her, but I can't afford it! This...this makes me so...I dunno...PMS-y. Grr. Whine. Stomp. Desire chocolate. Mm! Chocolate! Oh, yeah. Grr! Whine! Stomp!

I know it's just a stupid gift that I wouldn't be able to give in forever, but it's perfect. But too much for me to spend. It's $35 over my adult family member Christmas present limit. It's too much.

'Sides which, I still haven't made up for the Amazon address snafu with Sam not getting her present this Christmas.

But you know what I mean, right? You see that perfect gift and you think, That's it! and then you look at the price tag and say, Ah, shit. When I was working, I didn't care so much, but being unemployed and living off my mother and loans is a real drag on random purchases.

Please note I've yet to have that moment with a present for Halifax as the inspirational That's so Halifax! presents never cost so much that I worry about buying them. SheepBoy, yes. Maggie, Sam, D---, S---, T---, yes. But never Halifax. I wonder why.

Misc. cont.

I've been ordering a lot of my assigned books from Powells.com. In order to get the order up high enough that I can get free shipping ($50 limit for pete's sake! Amazon.com's only $25), I've been sticking in the volumes of Mars which I don't have. Which was all except the first two. The ones that Powells.com didn't have, I ordered from Amazon.com. Problem is, my orders have been dribbling in, and the Amazon.com orders have been coming in faster (not only is the free shipping limit lower, but the service is faster). So I have Mars volumes 1, 2, 5 and 10. Arg. I want to read my Mars! Grr! No, I can't read them out of order. I...I just can't.

I have to say Mars is the stronger addiction, currently, than Hot Gimmick, but it's easier to sate as the entire 15-volume series has been released in English, while I still have to wait on volume three of Hot Gimmick.

Also, Alice 19th is exceptionally cute.

Yay manga! Yay Tokyopop forcing Viz to start charging less than $10 for their books and making them proper manga format, right-to-left! All smiles.

Oh hey, while searching for a website link for Mars, I came across a manga discount retailer which sells strawberry Pocky. Why couldn't I have found them sooner? waaah! All that money spent on Mars and Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha. Also, stawberry Pocky is the food of the gods. Deadly. Soooo deadly.

Yay! ...I think

You all know, of course, that NASA's decided to scrap the Hubble so that Bush II can have his ridiculous plan for the space station on the Moon and the manned flight to Mars. However, this AP story says:

NASA to Review Decision on Fate of Hubble.

Maryland's congressional delegation also sent a letter to O'Keefe on Tuesday urging him to reconsider.

'The scientific returns we have received from Hubble's service thus far have exceeded our expectations. ... We believe that NASA should make every possible effort to retain this proven window on the universe,' the letter said.

Without the servicing mission, which had been planned for 2006, the orbiting telescope is expected to stop working several years before its scheduled 2010 retirement."

Which means Hubble just might survive. The telescope has contributed so much to science. While the idea of a space station on the moon is SF-geek cool, I don't want to play spaceman if it means we lose the real, hard contributions to science of the Hubble. I've been furious since hearing of the Hubble's planned demise. It's good to read that other people have reacted as strongly as I have. There's even a website petition:
However, I recommend that folks contact their representatives and senators as well. Don't let them scrap the Hubble! sniffle Please?

Another book to add to the list of editions I want to buy when I make my first few million

The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Now Newly Imprinted. London: Basilisk Press, 1975.

This is a limited edition facsimile of the Kelmscott Press production of Chaucer's works, held by many to be the most exquisite book of printed English literature. It was originally published in 1896 by William Morris with illustrations by Sir Edward Burne-Jones. It was the final book printed by Kelmscott Press under Morris and remains the only major effort to illustrate all of Chaucer's works.

Morris had a clear goal in mind when creating this edition: 'A book ornamented with pictures that are suitable for that book, and that book only, may become a work of art second to none, save a fine binding duly ornamented or a fine piece of literature.'

[ ... ]

That this edition was the crowning achievement for both men was not in doubt. Burne-Jones wrote, "Indeed, when the book is done . . . it will be a little like a pocket cathedral."

sigh Please note I'd even settle for a nicely printed replica from the `70's. And yet I still cannot get it. Being without money sucks.

Misc.

The snow didn't hit us too hard up here. Sure, we got a lot of it, but it wasn't insane. I'm sorry I can't say the same for my friends in NYC. Sorry, guys.

Oscar's arthritic hip hurt him so much this morning that he had to eat out of his bowl while lying down. Poor fuzzy.

I've a new addiction: Hot Gimmick, the manga by Aihara Miki.

Hm. It's 8:20 already. I'd better get back to Japanese. I'll probably add more later, as I've not much to say lately.

Oh, sorry I couldn't answer the phone last night, ET. I was feeling sickly. Bleh.

Ooh! What's this shiny, firey globe thing...?AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!...Hey, that hurt! Oh, hi Gandalf.... (whoops)

Whee! I'm still Pippin!


brought to you by Quizilla

Polly wanna cigar?

Naturally, you've all read about Churchill's 104-year old foul-mouthed parrot. "Fuck Hitler," she says, sounding just like the former prime minister of Britain. "Fuck the Nazis." How adorable.

Better yet, though, is the plethora of useless and possibly erroneous information to be found at this site. For instance:

"Robert Heinlein once used the sound effect "*spung*" to describe female nipples changing shape. This is yet more evidence that Heinlein was scary in a bad way."

D'oh

Whoops. Ten days late! Bad Sugar Kat. Baaaad. Baaaaad. Oh, well. It's already been proven via extensive testing that I'm more than a bit of an idjit. Tra la!

Case of the disappearing blogs

A year and a half ago, I was persuaded to start a blog. Everyone's doing it, I was told. You should, too. We don't read your e-mail, anyway. So, I started a blog. I've kept up my blog. I've wasted far too much time on my blog. It's not a good blog, but it's here so I don't have to write e-mail (which I've pretty much stopped doing all together).

So what is everyone I know doing? Stopping their blogs. No more blogging. Bleh-phooie upon the blog fad.

Now I'm debating with myself whether I should bother continuing with my blog, as it is not very good and I suspect my friends for whom I created it don't have the time to read a badly written blog to find out what's going on with me. You know, they, like, have lives and stuff, as illustrated by their no longer wasting precious time on something as idle as blog maintenance.

(As my blog so clearly illustrates, I do not have a life.)

Christmas continues...

Well, I don't know what I did to earn the loot, but the gifts keep on coming.

Doomo arigatoo gozaimasu to...

• D---, my brother's best friend from high school and almost a sister to me, sent me the Angels In America soundtrack, which made me very happy as I adored that film.



• Maggie, who will meet you at 8 at Ray's Pizza, she swears, who sent me the My Neighbor Totoro DVD, which also made me very happy as I also adore this film.

I have such good friends! :)

kingashinnen!

Gung Ho Fat Choy



Happy Year of the Monkey, y'all.

Whoops

First day of classes today. Japanese and Chaucer. Have not done a damned thing to help myself remember my Japanese except to watch Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs: they are in Japanese with English subtitles, so I can catch the spoken Japanese; the text is often in kana, as the characters are in elementary school and the intended audience is about that age, too. Other than that, I'm screwed (especially when it comes to vocab: adjectives, location, building names). Unless I really put a lot of work into it this weekend.

Ha. Yeah. Right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ET!

wow. now you're thirty. that's old. like, i-hope-i-die-before-i-get-old old.

'course, i'm still older than you are, e.g., old-fartier.

welcome to MIDDLE AGE.
Halifax, Sheepboy and i got it all warmed up for you.

cheers! -ltsk

Return of the little trooper

Came back home Monday. Have done little but reset the DVR to shows which are returning and flip through Entertainment Weekly magazines which arrived while I was away.

I have not and probably will not finish the latest Honor Harrington book before the semester starts on Tuesday. It's difficult to focus on the book at this stage, even though I'm half-way through it, as I keep thinking about the movies I've seen instead of the book I'm reading. And nothing's happening in the book. I know something will, it's an Honor Harrington book, but nothing has and that does not stand up again memories of oliphaunts and ships of war and giants.

Halifax's novel is completely beyond my limited mental capacities this holiday break. I'm feeling guilty about that one. How soon do you need the critique, Mr. Slasher?

Mostly I just want to go see a couple more movies (saw Big Fish last Saturday, and it was good) and veg out. Unfortunately, I live in Smalbany, NY, where small films do not come and if they do come, they don't stay long enough for us to get out to see them. Also, I have work to do to prepare for the upcoming semester.

My brain's so dead, however, all I want to do is take the LotR personality quiz over and over again, as I'm just so dead thrilled to be Pippin.

Fool of a Took! the prequel

Made my mom take the Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you? quiz, and she got the following result, which is just so damned appropriate, let me tell you:


brought to you by Quizilla

That's just damned funny

You are going to marry Orlando Bloom. He will
always treat you right and is very romantic. He
will do anything for you. He is very polite and
has deep brown eyes and is very good looking
(which is another plus!). He can make anything
cheesy look really good (like sliding down
stairs on a shield shooting arrows or wearing
pointy ears for example). Congrats!!


Which male celebrity are you going to marry?
brought to you by Quizilla

Just wanted to say...

I don't care how fucking ugly Charlize Theron is in Monster--and therefore how brilliant an actress she must be, because pretty people making themselves ugly is what acting's all about, don't you know--I will not go see Monster. When I want to go see an independent film, I'll go see In America again, which was a very good and moving film about the fringes of American society with brilliant acting which did not require a lead to go from fashion model to bufugly in order to be considered a real actor.

Regarding the dog

It still smells bad. The dog. The places where the dog hangs out. They smell. Bad. I have to wash my hands every time I touch the dog, they smell so horribly of him. It's like OCD: pet the dog, wash my hands. Not because of germs, though that is a concern considering the creature eats his own shit, but because his body odor reeks and transfers easily. I gag when I bring my hand anywhere near my face after petting the dog. He smells that bad.

There is a reason that "dog's breath" is such a nasty thing to call a place or thing. Dog's breath is the only thing which smells worse than the dog itself.

Yeah. You read that right. He eats his own shit. Most of it is shoveled up quickly after his walk and put into a corner of the yard most people don't go. Unfortunately, the boys don't do this and apparently M-- and E-- are begining to slack. I know this because there are shit land mines waiting to explode in semi-frozen form all over my shoe as I follow the dog around the yard, waiting desperately for him to just take a g*ddamned piss already so I can go inside. Or, apparently, to become a tasty snack for the dog.

Yes, you have to dig cat poops (and clumped pee) out of the catbox every week, but they have been deodorized (usually) by the potent chemicals in the sand and are small. You use a scoop and transfer the emittance into a plastic bag and toss it into the garbage, never to been seen or smelled again.

Dog piss is everywhere, and dog poops must be moved immediately unless you want to step in them later. The only reason you'd step in cat poop is if your cat is sick and pooping outside of the designated defecation area.

Cats automatically go to their box as kittens. They want to poop in their sandbox. Dogs must be trained not to poop and piss everywhere they see fit. And even that's not a guarantee, as they get excited and apparently have exceedingly poor bladder control.

Cats just saunter over to their box and do their business. You have to take the damned dog outside and wait, no matter what the weather (and scoop the poop, too, when the dog's done).

Cats don't have B.O. They do have shitty breath, but not because they actually eat shit. They just can't brush their own teeth. Dogs stink. It's not a smell you get used to; your sense of smell has to die before you can stop smellling that dog funk.

Oh, and when a dog farts, you sure as hell know about it. It's worse than some people I know.

Dogs are nice to see for short periods of time. Not to own. Lord above, never, ever to own. What the hell was my sister thinking. She wanted a cat, who would shit in a box in the basement without asking, but she gets a stinking poop machine. Ugh.

Lookalikes on Turner Classic Movies

Turns out that our Maggie looks a bit like Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). I would not know this if I didn't spend far too much time watching old flicks on TCM.

Observations regarding dogs

I will never own a dog.

They poop and pee everywhere.

They are horribly, horribly smelly.

They jump on your furniture and make it smelly.

Your hands smelly after you touch them.

They make your clothes smelly.

They jump on you, scraping you with their ridiculous, useless-yet-huge claws and messing up whatever you're wearing.

They track dirt everywhere.

No matter where they poop, you have to pick it up and move it.

Dogs are cute, but not to own. Leave the dog-owning to the insane, and don't go to their houses. Their houses stink and you will stink, too, after a little while. It's like going to a smoker's house, only the smoker won't jump all over you, shed on you, and get slobber on your shoes. Or chew on any- and everything in the reach of their mouths.

Return of the Fool of a Took!

My elder sister, E--, took the Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you? quiz at my behest and wound up as


which is rather appropriate, considering I'm "Pippin and his complete simple-mindedness". Which I am. See?

Returning to high seas

Went to see Master and Commander again. The screen was okay, but smaller than the one I saw it on the first time. The sound was crap, located entirely to the front. The soundscape in M&C is increadible: there is always the water and the creaking wood of the ship. However, you couldn't hear it in the theater we went to last night. This was very disappointing, as I wanted my sister and nephews to have the same experience I did when I saw it for the first time. My comfort is that their sound system at home is professional-grade (as my brother-in-law, M---, sets up systems like this for his job for major corporations and obscenely wealthy and such). They'll be able to hear every lap of water, every creak of timber and rope.

M&C is a bit like a documentary. You observe what happens during a certain period of time. It's brilliant. I never once thought I'm watching FX. The fighting ships of war looked like they had actually filmed fighting ships of war. Even with this observational, documentarian style which Weir chose, I found I cared for what happened to the men on the ship, to the ship, to its doctor, and I understood a little of what the men saw in their captain and why they were willing to sail around the Horn at his command.

Anyway, it's worth seeing and I'm very glad I saw it again.

Still want to see Return of the King again, though.

Fool of a Took!

"Congratulations! You're Pippin!"


Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Dog

My elder sister, E---, got a dog.

She'd had a cat, Mitzi, who was tiny and sweet, with the prettiest, greenest eyes I've ever seen. Mitzi was hit by a car in September. As of Christmas, E--- had recovered enough to want another cat.

"I want a cat," she said. "I want to get another cat." All during her stay, she let everyone know how much she wanted another cat.

So she got a dog. A six-month old rotweiler mix. From Petco, which is kind of like getting him at Wal-Mart. He was a rescued animal who'd been abused. How, they don't know. Or won't say. Petco had a "vet" check him out for them and they took the dog home and named him Max.

They're not planning on having him see a real vet any time soon, in spite of the history of abuse and his questionable background.

He's sweet and quiet and doesn't jump on you or sniff your crotch or bark or chew on your stuff if it's left anywhere remotely close to the floor. But he will, once he gets used to being here and being somebody's dog and not getting punished for it.

And they're not making any moves to get him professionally trained.

I'm not big on the not-peeing-and-pooping-in-designated-box thing. The walking the dog in rain and mud or else I get a puddle or worse on the carpet is not an entertaining thought. I'm not big on dog smell, either, which is kinda icky and permeates every room a dog habitates. Pet with B.O. There's something very wrong about that. I can handle fur, which can be rolled up with one of those rollers you can buy in bulk from Bed, Bath & Beyond, but body odor is another thing entirely. I'm definitely not happy with wet dog smell, which is super-foul. Like, gagging foul.

I like dogs, just not living with them. Especially when they haven't been properly trained. I'm definitely not the best choice to be the day-sitter for a six-month old dog who doesn't know not to defecate in the house.

This very well might be my last extended visit to my sister E---'s outside of Philly. We'll see.

p.s.

Saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King again today. Went to the "new" theater over on 34th between 8th and 9th. There were all of, like, four people in the theater, as we went to an afternoon showing on a Monday. It was like a private showing. It was awesome, especially since the seats were those nice, comfy stadium seats.

The movie's even better the second time around. It is different from the book, but I don't care. It's what it is, which is my new all-time favorite movie, bumping Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back out of the top spot for the first time since it was released. I'm on a RotK buzz. I'm so happy, I could cry. I want to see it again. (God how I love that sequence where they set off the bonfires from Gondor to Rohan. I feel like I'm soaring when I watch it.)

Well, I want to go see Master and Commander again and The Triplets of Belleville and then go see RotK again. With another huge-ass screen in a private screening. Yah, right. Super wicked-cool.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGGIE!

hope you had a fantabulous day, in spite of it being a workday.

:)-kla.

p.s. my mom says the search-within-books bit of software on the amazorn site is wicked-cool and useful beyond the knowing of it. she asked me to share her thanks. So,

THANKS, SUPER-PROGRAMMER MAGGIE!

A poem for today

The Writer's Almanac - FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2004
Poem: "Any prince to any princess," by Adrian Henri, from The Loveless Motel (Jonathan Cape).

Any prince to any princess

August is coming
and the goose, I'm afraid,
is getting fat.
There have been
no golden eggs for some months now.
Straw has fallen well below market price
despite my frantic spinning
and the sedge is,
as you rightly point out,
withered.

I can't imagine how the pea
got under your mattress. I apologize
humbly. The chambermaid has, of course,
been sacked. As has the frog footman.
I understand that, during my recent fact-finding tour of the
Golden River,
despite your nightly unavailing efforts,
he remained obstinately
froggish.

I hope that the Three Wishes granted by the General
Assembly
will go some way towards redressing
this unfortunate recent sequence of events.
The fall in output from the shoe-factory, for example:
no one could have foreseen the work-to-rule
by the National Union of Elves. Not to mention the fact
that the court has been fast asleep
for the last six and a half years.

The matter of the poisoned apple has been taken up
by the Board of Trade: I think I can assure you
the incident will not be
repeated.

I can quite understand, in the circumstances,
your reluctance to let down
your golden tresses. However
I feel I must point out
that the weather isn't getting any better
and I already have a nasty chill
from waiting at the base
of the White Tower. You must see
the absurdity of the
situation.
Some of the courtiers are beginning to talk,
not to mention the humble villagers.
It's been three weeks now, and not even
a word.

Princess,
a cold, black wind
howls through our empty palace.
Dead leaves litter the bedchamber;
the mirror on the wall hasn't said a thing
since you left. I can only ask,
bearing all this in mind,
that you think again,

let down your hair,

reconsider.

Movies what I've seen in the theater this season

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
  oh my lord, 'twas so very, very good.
  blew me tiny, little mind.
  will most definitely see again.
  am dancing with glee in anticipation of ridiculously long extended version/"director's cut" DVD.


• Love Actually
  very funny, very charming, rather sad without jerking tears.
  very good performances by amazing cast.
  a nice, British romantic comedy.


• In America
  broke my freakin' heart, it did.
  great performances in very moving, delightful, touching, funny film about Irish immigrants in modern-day Manhattan.


• Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
  geeze pease louise, that was awesome to look at, and much, much better than I was expecting or the filmgoers deserved.
  seamless FX, brilliant battles, spot-on depiction of crowded, filthy, superstitious, deadly life on a ship of war.
  would definitely go see again, on very big screen with super-sound.
  yay Lucky Jack! (that's right, another Captain Jack.)
  (added bonus of educational-type website stuff which tells you what the hell the four course is.)

-*- H A P P Y -*- N E W -*- Y E A R -*-

Jerk Squad!! R.I.P.

It once was funny. Now it's not.* Bow your heads, little children. Bow your heads.

*Now there is a funny response which should be left alone but is changed into some sort of personal diary entry whining about parental units or some such shit. If you're lucky enough to get a funny response. Ugh.

Holidays I hate the most

Saint Valentine's Day, naturally, bites it royally. I think it does for every single person. Also for those who are unhappily attached. It's a sucky holiday meant for the priveledged few who are in love and happy about it.

Good thing: cheap chocolates the day after.

New Year's sucks ass even more though. There's supposed to be this whole thing of reviewing the year past and getting started anew on the year ahead. My New Year's events always suck and are always with a parental unit. This year, Mom. It will be very, very bad. I had the opportunity to spend New Year's alone in my elder sister's house, but opted to stay here with Mom. I know all we'll do is fight and maybe drink champagne. I think the only reason I'm here is the champagne, which I like if it's good, and my mom's as choosey as I am about champagne. Every year starts the same and I hate that horrible feeling that I should start afresh but knowing it'll all go into the same shit as the previous year no matter what. I am who I am and all that. There will be no improvement. I don't need that depressing reminder every g*ddamned year. I'd rather just pretend it's not happening, beyond the change in year on my checks.

Good thing: champagne. And sometimes shrimps and cocktail sauce. I like sharing the shrimp tails with Oscar, who likes them even more than I do, which seems impossible.

My birthday, which is not a holiday but shall be included here for pretty much the same reason as New Year's. Except there's no champagne. And most everyone forgets my birthday. It's not that I mind bothering with my age, which is thirty, thank you very much. It's that there's nothing to celebrate at this point. What the hell have I done with my life? How will my life be better a year from my birthday? I won't, unless I can pull off another stunt like just after my 29th, when I quit my job from hell and went back to school. Can't do that. It'll just remind me of how much I haven't done and will never get to do. How nice. Lovely.

Good thing: my nephews still cared about my birthday last time. S-- got really excited about giving me my presents from France. It was really sweet. Lord knows that won't last much longer.

More stash!

More things arrived yesterday.

• From Nice Guy SheepBoy:
  LEGOLAS! 12" figurine. (Can't find a picture of it anywhere.) Now I really can play at Battle of Bath Tub Deep.



• From elder sister:
  a little shopping trip to Eddie Bauer which resulted in more p.j. bottoms, some socks, and a nice sleeper top.

My elder sister likes to spoil me, much to the annoyance of her husband, who considers me to be very spoiled indeed. This may be true, but he doesn't have to give me that dirty look.

Also...

THANK YOU, SHEEPBOY, FOR THE SPLENDIFEROUS LEGOLAS! My nephews are jealous. ;)

LotR diary

Have finally seen Return of the King. Am v. happy that Aragorn has finally taken a bath. Looks v. sexy washed and kingly. Definitely shaggable.

Legolas so cool as to give me fits. Still the prettiest, but also now the coolest. Also v. funny with counting of his dead enemies. Would shag him senseless after battle if were resident of Minas Tirith. Am v. jealous of residents of Minas Tirith.

Think am now in love also with tiny hobbit. Mothering instinct? Perhaps would not shag so much as cradle in arms and kiss tiny forehead. Must see film again to test this. Wonder if so v. pretty, always-washed Legolas would be jealous.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw it!

Finally!

I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Now I have to go see it again.

Especially the part with Legolas and the oliphaunt. (hee!)

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Oh, yum

We brined the turkey this Christmas, then grilled it on a Weber gas grill on the front porch using mesquite chips to smoke it, too. It was sooooooo good. It was the first turkey I've eaten where the white meat was even more flavorful than the dark. It was so tender, so juicy-sweeeeet. Nice turkeyes. Yesss.

We told Mom she has to use that special holiday brining stuff for every turkey from now on. Apple juice and oranges and ginger and garlic and kosher salt and I don't know what else. Some bay leaves. Cloves. Stuff. Anyway, it was good. I ate more turkey than anything else, even the stuffing, which was better than ever since Dad decided to change the age-old, tried-and-true recipe and stick apples and chestnuts into the stuffing. And it was good. But we ate so much turkey, collectively, that we stuffed ourselves too full to eat stuffing, which is usually the first thing to go (followed closely by the cranberry sauce, as we are good Northeasterners and use real cranberries not that horrible crap in a can).

I want to have turkey for breakfast. Or maybe second breakfast.

-*- M E R R Y -*- C H R I S T M A S -*-

Stash!

Didn't get a lot this Christmas, but I got what I wanted.

• From friend C---, who's been working in Hong Kong:
  small backpack-type terrycloth bag with smiling Catbus face and tiny dustmote
  Totoro phone mascot tassle with two of the small totoros, the catbus and a mushroom, attached to a opaque, soft plastic leaf
  SUPERCUTE! will post picture of bag on fotoblog when the server there is running better



• From my eldest sister in France (along with her new husband and my eldest nephew):
  The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Platinum Series Special Extended Edition Collector's Gift Set



• From my elder sister, her husband of, like, 20 years, and my other two nephews:
  super-comfy and very pretty blue-green p.j.s/loungewear from Eddie Bauer



• From Mom and Dad:
  an Xbox and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix and mat

Actually, I wanted a PS2, but Mom insists the Xbox version is the best version of DDR according to "experts" with whom she spoke. She was so pissed when I looked disappointed that it wasn't PS2 that there's no way I can ask her to return it for a PS2. Anyway, I've heard Xbox is moving away from the violence-and-nigh-porn market to video games normal human beings would be willing to play (plus, the Buffy game is for Xbox only, isn't it).

The P.J.s are really pretty and make me very happy as I very much wanted new ones in which to lounge about the house.

LotR diary

Discovered that delicious smoothies fat with carbohydrates. Decided to stick with sliver-of-fudge diet, as can obtain protein from walnuts in fudge. Except for today, when will forego all food except for large Christmas dinner, when will eat only turkey breast meat w/o fatty gravy.

Am thrilled that lovely sister has given special gift box of Two Towers. Huzzah! Can watch extra time of Legolas, who is still the prettiest, even though tiny hobbits v. cute indeed when find stash of apples and "weed".

Still have not seen Return of the King.

LotR diary

Have spent entire day with paper and ribbons. Am disgusted with whole wrapping-of-gifts tradition. Refuse to ever touch paper again, even if as pretty as the paper I saw at shop weekend last.

Still have not seen Return of the King. Am going through elf withdrawl. Am inseperable from Legolas doll. Still upset. Where is beautious elf? Where is sweaty yet attractive future king? Even beginning to fancy tiny hobbits with large, innocent eyes. Must go to shop and find Pippin doll. Am becoming pervy hobbit fancier?!

LotR diary

Am no longer going to make large pig of self. Start mornings with half grapefruit, then delicious smoothie for lunch and dinner. Will be gloriously thin for new year. Go me! Will, naturally, start this as soon as fudge is gone. Tiny bits of fudge will take place of lunch and dinner calories. Shall be v. thin after running off all icky fat. (New trainers for Christmas?)

This dieting and running shall distract me from my complete inability to get to theater to drool at Legolas and Aragorn in v. nice new armour thing with pretty silver tree. Am still v. worried about tiny hobbits.

Still have not seen Return of the King.

LotR diary

Watched first two LotR's on telly. Still v. good indeed. Got weepy when Gandalf fell into doom and shadow, though knew all actually fine and bleachy. Silly me.

Poor hobbits.

Legolas still the prettiest.

Still have not seen Return of the King.

Observations

French toast made with next-day french bread (i.e., stale) is the best. It's, like, in bite-sized pieces. Almost. Next-day french bread soaks up the egg and milk mixture very, very well without losing consistency. When it's done, the inside is like bread custard. I like my slices of french toast extra eggy. It also tastes better if you put a bit of cinnamon (just a bit) into the egg-milk mixture. Not enough that it'd be obnoxious with the maple syrup, but just a bit to make the soaked slices spotty before you put them on the grill.

Waking up with a bloody nose every morning is not fun. Except for blowing bloody snot and boogers into that first tissue. For some reason, that's kind of neat. The headaches which follow are not.

Cats make excellent feet and leg warmers when you are sitting or lying down. Only as long as they're willing to stay still. Otherwise, they can be annoying and must be replaced with a pillow.

Getting up before dawn and watching the sun rise ain't what it's cracked up to be. Sunsets are more dramatic and generally use the same palate as a sunrise, only with more color.

Finishing all of your Christmas shopping by mid-December makes that last week before Christmas kind of boring. Also, eveyone else who is still doing that last-minute shopping will hate you, though they'll refuse to admit it, as hating the well-prepared doesn't seem very much in the spirit of the season.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers both stand up to repeat viewings on a cable network over a weekend. Thank you, Starz! network.

LotR diary

Soaked until pruney, then ate entire half-packet of holiday cookies (baked). Am v. great pig. Christmas tree now all covered in lights. V. pretty and festive. Huzzah for holidays. Will go make some nog.

Still have not seen Return of the King. Am becoming v. frustrated, as even tiny nephews have seen. Will go eat holiday chocolates out of silver guest bowl until feeling better.

GRR!!

I decided this year that, instead of making ET distribute Christmas presents for me, I'd send folks stuff from their Amazon.com wish list. This way they'd get something they wanted and it'd get shipped directly to them.

Except for Sam, la dame de sam {grrrl} d'abolico. The package was returned by USPS as UNDELIVERABLE. God only knows why.

Sorry, Sam. I tried to send you a book, but it was refused. Happy Christmas, anyway.

Importance?

For some reason, in the forty minutes since I posted that last post on Importance and Rank, I've dropped in the Google Importance Ranking System from 3/10 back to 2/10. How disappointing.

LotR diary

Still have not seen Return of the King. Am unusually anxious. Think will take a bath even though out of strawberry bubbles, as bath can be v. relaxing. Will use Legolas doll as bath toy. Battle of Bath Tub Deep.

nudge nudge purr purr

The semester is over. My last exam was Thursday (I think I probably got a B on it). I will now commence sleeping for many, many hours, alternating with the reading of nonessential books. And the critique of Halifax's new novel, though I'm not sure if I'm smart enough to do that. (It looks like a smart-person book.) Mostly, though, I will spend my time making my cats happy by letting them sit in my lap and petting their fuzzy heads. Right now, Floof is circling in my lap, pushing her persian rug forehead against my arms as I type, which makes it difficult to type. Oh, now she's settled down, but she's leaning against my right arm and frowning at me with her ears, which makes it difficult to type. Oops, now she's up again, angry that my arms keep moving.

nudge
nudge
circle
fwap with tail
nudge
sniff
step on arm
sniff
circle
fwap
sniff
nudge
settle
nudge
lean

I'd better go.

Importance!

My official Google importance rating has moved from 2/10 to 3/10! Woo! Thank you, Dear Readers! sniffle I feel so special.

LotR diary

Still have not seen Return of the King. Went to City, saw lots of theaters showing it, but couldn't find street parking. Companion too cheap to park in garage. Grr! Am feeling v. pouty. Will go eat chocolate mint bark stuff bought at mall, then sleep.

-*- H A P P Y -*- H A N N U K A H -*-

I did not know that

Word of the Day for December 6 was:

shibboleth • \SHIH-buh-luth\ • noun
1 a : a catchword or slogan used by members of a group but regarded by others as empty of real meaning b : a commonly held belief
2 : a behavior or use of language that identifies a person as belonging to a group

Example sentence:
Alice urged voters to ignore the political shibboleths put forth by her opponent.

Did you know?
The Bible's Book of Judges (12:4-6) tells the story of the Ephraimites, who, after they were routed by the Gileadite army, tried to retreat by sneaking across a ford of the Jordan River that was held by their enemy. The Gileadites, wary of the ploy, asked every soldier who tried to cross if he was an Ephraimite. When the soldier said "no," he was asked to say "shibboleth" (which means "stream" in Hebrew). Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth," but Ephraimites said "sibboleth." Anyone who left out the initial "sh" was killed on the spot. When English speakers first borrowed "shibboleth," they used it to mean "test phrase," but it has acquired other meanings since that time.

LotR diary

Doll poked me in the eye. Eye now v. sore. Stupid doll.

Still have not seen Return of the King.

LotR diary

Have not seen Return of the King. Have Legolas doll, though. Will go play, then take nap. Beauty sleep. Perhaps Legolas doll would make good teddy bear?

There's a reason why I didn't know this word before today

...and that's because I completely lack this power.

duende • \doo-EN-day\ • noun
: the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm

Stress and exhaustion can be fun

Somehow, I have caught a cold. Head cold. I'm all stuffed up. No coughing. No flu. Just head aches and a stuffed nose. Almost like allergies, but not quite.

I am sick because I am stressed out and overtired. Overtired as opposed to regular tired, which is what I was the rest of the semester. Overtired means I could sleep all weekend long and still be tired. I require sleep muchly.

I am stressed out and overtired because this is finals week. My last final is tomorrow. Japanese. I got a 98 out of 100 on the listening final. This is very good indeed, but I will still have to do well on the written final in order to pull off the A I so desperately need. Japanese is a five-credit course, so any grade I get in it is weighted heavier than the grades I would get in a regular course. An A would pull up my sad, sad average nicely.

I should have been studying this afternoon after the official study session with Kaya-sensee, but I was too damned tired to do anything but watch my soap (I was right about the story arch of one character, but it looks like Mom's right about another, more important story arch, which means she's still ahead of me in the game). Then I took a nap. Now it's time for me to make dinner (in spite of my needing to study and being sick, as my mother wouldn't cook if her life depended upon it, at least, not anymore). Here's hoping I'll still have enough time to get my vocabulary down before the exam at 1:00 tomorrow.

Still and all, it's better to be stressed and overtired because of finals week than it is to be stressed and tired because of the crap-ass job I used to have. Big ol' :p at C--- (the company, not the very nice friend in Boston) and T---- P----. And a mocking "woo-ha!".

LotR diary

Have not seen Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Am not upset, as there are many days left in week. Still have exam, anyway. Will go have nap, to be refreshed and perky for studying.

Observations

If you have rear-wheel drive, it's okay to drive in crappy weather so long as you have a well-engineered vehicle and are a good driver. Four-wheel drive means nothing if it's a crappy car driven by a crappy driver.

This skill, of driver and of engineers, will only go so far if the goddamned town won't send out a plow. There needs to be some attempt made at plowing/salting/sanding the roads if anyone is going to make it. This is especially important if the town has known of the snow storm for two days and known it would be a doozy. It will prevent accidents, as most people can't afford a well-engineered car and are shitty drivers.

Snow tires are a good idea, too. All-weather tires you've had for three years aren't.

Make sure you have something besides a mittened hand to clean out your tire wells if you're going to try and drive through unplowed roads during a snow storm and only have rear-wheel drive and old all-weather tires.

If you know it's going to snow that heavily, put on your boots, even if they're kinda ugly and you're going to Burburry's. The warm, furry clogs will not do, even if they have treads and thick soles which will generally keep your feet above snow. This is because you never know when you might have to get out of the car and push. In fact, you will probably have to get out of the car and push if you're driving to and from Vermont and there is a big snow storm expected and the towns don't bother to do anything about the roads and the car is a rear-wheel drive with worn all-weather tires. If you don't have the boots on, you will get snow all over your feet. You won't necessarily have better traction in the snow the tires are getting no purchase in, but it'll be better than the furry winter clogs. Still, furry winter clogs will keep your toes warmish, so be thankful for that much.

Bring gloves of some sort. Mittens borrowed from your mother will probably not fit.

If you have to drive a car with rear-wheel drive and worn all-weather tires, make sure it's a small car. You will have a chance of pushing the damned thing in that case, and it won't be too scary when you slip and fall while trying to push and the car starts sliding back toward you.

Wear a hat, as the snow will mat in your hair and make it clumpy. When you finally do get home, the clumpy snow hair will start to melt down your back. Your mother will be reminded of the days when you used to go sledding and feel nostalgic and act unusually mother-like, but you will be even colder and wetter than you were outside, pushing the car up a hill during a snow storm.

Take a hot bath immediately after you get home. This will help you not ache so much in the arms and back and legs when you get up the next morning to shovel the sidewalk and try to find the newspaper buried under the snow. You will not have searing hot stabbing pain all over your spine and you will be able to walk without looking like you're eighty-five years old and you will be able to lift the teapot without whimpering.

No matter how much you hurt and how much you had to work just to get home, you will still prefer snow to cold rain and you will still think the snow is beautiful while you shovel the sidewalk and your back barks pain! pain! pain! at you.

Evil bastard caught

I got up late, but just in time to hear my mom say, "Sugar Kat! Come here!" I figured there was something I did wrong (again), so I shuffled to the office and said, "What?" in an aggrieved tone, as I revert to about thirteen years of age when I'm around my mom. She was in her AOL account and watching a live internet news report from ABC.

"They caught him!" she said, waving her hand at me to get closer, not taking her eyes away from the streaming video.

"Who?"

"Saddam."

"Who?"

She gave me a dark, you-idiot look. "Saddam Hussein. They caught him."

Some general-type was giving a news conference and showing pictures of where Saddam had been hiding out when the U.S. Special Forces caught him. The irony of where he was compared to where he had been, and the fact that he could see his palaces from where he'd been hiding, was lost on no one, not even the general speaking.

My first thought was, They didn't catch Hitler, but they caught him.

My second thought was, How do we know this is the real deal? What if it's some sort of fake Saddam they're showing us to make America and the world think the invasion of Iraq wasn't a complete waste of time and money and lives, military and civilian?

Mom said they waited until they had DNA proof that it was Saddam.

I guess they used the DNA from his sons. Or something.

I wanted to listen to NPR, whose round-the-clock news coverage I trust. We had to get in the car, anyway, 'cause Mom wanted me to go with her to Manchester, Vermont, so I could try on a coat at one of the outlet stores there. We listened to the news on the way there, taking pictures of the moutains, hoping we'd make it there and back before the storm hit (no, we didn't). At a certain point when listening to the news coverage, I got goosebumps.

We did some good, I thought. We got rid of a horrible dictator and we caught him and now he'll have to face a court of law.

The goosebumps went away quickly after a little bit of thinking. There are still terrorist cells which have entered Iraq with the increasing lack of law and order since our invasion. They won't go away any time soon.

There will still be Ba'athist resistence, though that may die down after some months more.

There is still no real law and order there, and we don't seem to be bothered to set up any. We didn't bother to get UN support before we went, so I don't think we'll get them to come in any time soon to install UN police forces. (Our guys are military, not police. They are not trained to be police and they shouldn't have to be. Half the problems we have over there are because we're making our military forces play a role they were never trained for. It's not easy to police an area. You need special training and someone to police the police forces in case there's any abuse of power. Ask the NYPD.)

We're pulling out too soon, long before we can guarantee a settled, established native government. We've started this mess, we're responsible. It would be increadibly irresponsible of us to bail out before we've helped the Iraqi people finish the job. We're their government right now, we're responsible for them. They're our colony until we establish a viable Iraqi government. If we don't stay and finish the job properly, take the responsibility our invasion of that nation has given us, there will probably be some sort of civil war followed by a coup which will establish a government not unlike the Taliban (which has been sneaking back into power in Afghanistan since we started ignoring the mess we made there to go make a mess of Iraq).

It's terrifically depressing to think of my classmates getting blown up for no reason.

But they aren't. Saddam has fallen from power. He's been caught. He and his family will never hold sway over Iraq again. They'll never have civilians tortured and murdered. They won't make any more mass graves. They won't be able to reroute a river to destroy a culture as ancient as civilization itself and destroy one of the most fertile lands in the region. Saddam will face some sort of court of law (hopefully an international court of law, like the Nazis had to face, with lots of Iraqis involved). He will be penalized (I think life in prison, for someone who'd held such absolute power and had had anything he desired brought to him, would be exquisite torture for the evil bastard--the death penalty is too easy on him, as he can only die once and he deserves a lot more than one death). Our military forces have accomplished that much, at least. Thank goodness.

Yeah, that's about right

I went to see The Matrix Revolutions with my dad and brother the day after Thanksgiving. Not because I was all psyched to see it, but because I'd seen The Matrix and, unfortunately, The Matrix Reloaded and wanted to see how the finished the story. It was...okay. I'm more angry with books and shows and films which show great potential and don't live up to it than those that suck outright. The Matrix series had great potential. ...sigh...

Anyway, I'm a fan of Ebert's reviews. He's one of the very few whose opinion I trust, and I like his style (especially when he hates something). I read his review of The Matrix Revolutions, to which he gave three stars out of four. An impressive result for a disappointing film, but I agreed with it for the reasons he gave in the review.

Thought I'd share this:

Still, in a basic and undeniable sense, this is a good movie, and fans who have earned their credit hours with the first two will want to see this one and graduate. To the degree that I was able to put aside my questions, forget logic, disregard continuity problems and immerse myself in the moment, 'The Matrix Revolutions' is a terrific action achievement. Andy and Larry Wachowski have concluded their trilogy with all barrels blazing. Their final apocalypse in the bowels of the Earth plays like 'Metropolis' on steroids. There are sights here to stir the sense of wonder, and a marriage between live action and special effects that is about as good as these things get in the movies.

[...]

Note: 'The Matrix Reloaded' was notable for the number of key characters who are black; this time, what we notice is how many strong women there are. Two women operate a bazooka team, Niobe flies the ship, the women have muscles, they kick ass, and this isn't your grandmother's Second Sex anymore.

Yeah, that was an especially cool part of the series, the casual way in while multiracial cast and strong females were used. Black, brown, and white (no yellow or red that I saw) people working together with no big fuss, women kicking ass and getting respect for it but no big fuss made about their being female while doing it.

So, you see, the film didn't suck outright. It was just disappointing. Read the link to Ebert's review and understand. I don't see why I should repeat what he wrote in stating my opinion, especially since he's a much better writer. ;)

Post

This is a post. I am posting. Ta da. There is nothing going on in my life except for the usual stupidity of self, mother, the drunken bastardry of my fellow students, and finals.

I turned in a short story today that I think might not have sucked as much as I originally thought. Volunteers to read? I wrote it in an afternoon (after thinking about it for three weeks). You can tell me it sucks, as I'm pretty sure it does, but not positive, which is why I need a volunteer reader. (Not you, ET, I know.)

I also took the listening component of the final in Japanese. I think I may have gotten two questions partially wrong, but other than that, I should be fine. As in, pretty durned close to A in spite of my inability to remember the gosh darn adjectives from Chapter 2. My Japanese teacher is super-cute in that she seems like she would have been a great anime character when she was a junior high school student (average age of most anime females). She's strict but fair and very funny. I want to do well for myself and my GPA, but mostly I want to make her proud. She's that kind of teacher. I'm glad I got into her 102 class next semester.

I'm not going to say a damned thing about baseball winter moves. Except grr. Grrrr!

I'm dragging my ass about getting presents out and cards out and stuff. I went a little crazy for Christmas this year. I really like this whole buying presents thing. Except for the credit card bill. That part sucks. Other than that, the joy of giving is helping Christmas outpace Halloween as my favorite holiday (mostly 'cause I haven't been able to wear a costume or go to a party in years, which makes Halloween actually kinda boring, outside of the half-price chocolate the next day, which is accompanied by massive guilt of the chocolate binger).

I've come to the conclusion I will never, ever go on another date in my life. This is not because I think all men suck, 'cause not all men suck, that's a stupid thing for anyone to think. It is because I am Sugar Kat the Un****able. I'm going to crawl under a rock after I'm done posting this.

I'm probably failing my second-favorite class (Japanese being my favorite) this semester because the syllabus says I have to turn in every assigned, um, assignment if I don't want to get an F (technically an E as they don't give F's here due to some undue affection for the alphabet). This sucks, as I know my efforts otherwise have been stellar. (You know me. I'd never boast about something like that. I really have worked my big white ass off for that class.) There's always some assignment in a class I don't turn in due to all of my efforts to complete said assignment sucking ass. Worst part is I'm taking a course with the same professor next semester and I'm convinced she now hates me. Intellectually I know that's not true. I'm just a student in her class. What does she care that she has to hand out an F (E). Makes her look like a tough grader, right? Still, my inner six-year old is absolutely sure she hates me. Hate, hate, hate. This is depressing, as I really like the prof. She's funny and super-well-rounded, especially for an English prof. And she is a SF/F dork and a big Yankees fan. She's cool! Wah! She hates me! Wah!

My constantly changing prescription is whacking out my body and mind. I'm in a terrible chemically-induced funk which makes doing anything nigh-impossible (like the Tick, except he was nigh-invulnerable). I am countering this funk by reading books I shouldn't be reading as I've assigned reading to do and really don't have time for the unassigned reading. Read Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets, which was okay, not thrilling, as there wasn't enough maniacal Peter and Bean was a little too whiny (I liked the Caliph stuff, though). This is aggravating my situation, as I am now getting my lazy arse in trouble for not doing the work I need to do because I'm reading unassigned reading. It'll be good to get to the holidays, when I can read all the unassigned reading I want to.

Other problem, though, is I am suffering from constant puking and low-level fevers and gastrointestinal issues and migraines and fatigue beyond any I've experienced and so on. This is also getting in the way of my getting my work done. How? Well, for instance, I'm too busy puking to write up the answers to the assigned questions for a particular project. Or I'm too dizzy from fever to do anything by lie down and close my eyes so I can't write up my journal response to the assigned reading.

I want this biochemical trouble to go away before it fucks up a third semester. Dammit.

I'm gonna go watch Angel now.

Cool!

I read this in yesterday's Times and kept bouncing in my seat with excitement. I wound up reading it out loud to my mom, as I thought it was too cool an idea not to share immediately. Space ports! Whee! That much closer to SF-reality.

Anyway, I wanted you guys to read it, too. This is copyrighted to The New York Times. It won't be available for free through the link (below) for much longer, so I'm posting it on here. I may have to delete it soon, so read up.

Op-Ed Contributor
Fly Me to L 1
By BUZZ ALDRIN
Published: December 5, 2003
LOS ANGELES

For the last 24 hours, news reports have been soaring into orbit that President Bush and NASA are busy preparing their vision for the future of America's space program — and that this vision may involve sending astronauts back to the moon, and perhaps establishing some sort of permanent base there. I applaud the instinct, but I think that a moon shot alone seems more like reaching for past glory than striving for new triumphs.

Instead, I think the next step in our space program should be to create a floating launching pad for manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This is not a task for the unfinished International Space Station, which is intended to be a floating laboratory rather than a bridge to the heavens.

A much more practical destination than the moon or the space station is a region of space called L 1, which is more than two-thirds of the way to the moon and is where the gravity fields between the Earth and Moon are in balance. Setting up a space port there would offer a highly stable platform from which spacecraft could head toward near-Earth asteroids, the lunar surface, the moons of Mars and wherever else mankind decides to travel.

Unlike the Moon and the International Space Station, which is in low-earth orbit, L 1 is not the site of strong gravitational pulls, meaning that spacecraft can leave there without using much energy. Thus L 1 would be the most sensible position for a base that would function as a test area and way-point for robotic flights as well as a support station and safe haven for human exploration of the solar system.

It would also be relatively cheap, at least in terms of space travel. To create a port at L 1 we can use the building methods that have already proved successful for Skylab and the International Space Station — and we can probably get it up and running for $10 billion to $15 billion, significantly less than the International Space Station, which will likely exceed $100 billion in the end. We can also save money by shifting away from using the space shuttle as the transport vehicle and by developing a new, more flexible launch vehicle and crew module to get people and cargo up to the L 1 port.

Unfortunately, NASA's work on future vehicles — including the much-ballyhooed "orbital space plane" — has stalled since the disaster with the Shuttle Columbia. And even before then, the agency had been focusing on the wrong sort of craft: one limited to transporting four astronauts at a time with little or no cargo-carrying capability. Such a craft would essentially be duplicating what the Russian Soyuz craft already does adequately: bringing several astronauts up and back from a space station, but little else. Moreover, NASA's "Supersized Soyuz" approach focuses only on serving the International Space Station, rather than working toward a more expansive vision.

There are better ways to invest our money in a new craft. One that would be relatively quick and easy would be to keep what works in the current space transportation system — the rocket boosters, external tank and trained staff — and combine them with new elements. The tanks and boosters we now use will soon be predictable and safe, as a part of NASA's post-Columbia efforts. And if we stick with them, no new buildings or untested ground-transportation methods would need to be built.

The big change would be to replace the aging shuttle orbiter with a new crew module that would hold perhaps eight or more astronauts, and build a so-called heavy-lift vehicle, capable of carrying cargo, that would attach behind the module. This craft would be capable of variable crew and cargo configurations. The crew module would need built-in escape and rescue capabilities for the people aboard. The early version might have to make parachute or parafoil landings in the ocean, although eventually it should be modified to make runway landings.

Over time, more powerful engines and reusable rocket boosters could be added to make possible sending even larger payloads and more passengers into space at a lower cost per person and per pound. But the important thing for the president to think about at this point is the long-term future of space flight and for NASA to pursue all avenues, big and small, to come up with the best plan.

Unfortunately, NASA has limited its $135 million orbital space plane development contracts to a few giants: proposals by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. As a result, the space agency has shut the door on the smaller, entrepreneurial companies that are responsible for some of the most innovative current thinking on space technology. The farther reaching scope of an L 1 effort calls for collaboration and competition — two qualities that should be part of the cultural change NASA pledged to undertake after loss of the Columbia.

In addition, NASA might even look at a new competitor as a possible partner. The modernized, Soyuz-like manned capsule that China sent into orbit in October is potentially safer and seems technologically more robust than the Russian version. Working jointly with China would not only fill a needed gap when America's agreement with Russia on using Soyuz runs out in 2006, but it would also make a potentially important political alliance. China and America are on the verge of a new space race — with economic competition expected from Japan, Europe and perhaps India — and it is better to start off with cooperation than with confrontation.

The tragedy of the Columbia, combined with China's successful launch, have put NASA at a crossroads. America's continued leadership in space depends on decisions made now. President Bush should realize that the first step is a bold new vision from the top.


Buzz Aldrin, an astronaut on the Apollo XI moon mission, is chairman of Starcraft Boosters, which develops reusable booster rockets for spacecraft.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Another fun word

Can you tell I'm too busy to actually write a post? La, la, la. End of the semester blues. If I could, I'd post the pictures of what my brother has done to his Muppets finger puppets, but I don't have the server space on my blog and they're...kinda evil.

Here's another enjoyable word from the English language, courtesy of Merriam-Webster.

The Word of the Day for December 2 is:

bathetic \buh-THEH-tik\ adjective
1 : extremely commonplace or trite
2 : characterized by insincere or overdone pathos :
excessively sentimental