In:

Conversations: Revenge Movies

The Scene: Standing on my front porch with my friend Pat discussing various vigilante/revenge movies. We're talking about 'The Crow', a movie which (shamefully) Pat had never seen.

Me: You know, something that always kinda bugged me about that movie. Why was it that Brandon Lee's character that got to come back from the dead? It was his fiance who was raped and beaten to death, she had a lot more reason to be pissed. It's this whole, 'Man Avenge Woman' thing.

Pat: (nods decisively) As it should be.

Me: PFFT.

Pat: (teasingly) What? That's how it should be. Man protect woman. Hey, come here. (he pulls me away from the porch railing) See? I just protected you from that bee.

Me: BEE? WHERE?! Wait, don't change the subject! Are you saying women can't wreak havoc and take revenge as well as men can?

(pause)

Me: Revenge is an equal opportunity employer, Pat.

Pat: (bursts out laughing) Becca's quote of the day...



Note: Pat really isn't sexist. He just likes to tease me. ^_^

In:

Introducing Andrew

I don't have much time this afternoon, but I thought I would take a moment and plug my friend Andrew's new blog.

Andrew and I have been friends for a few years now. He is an extremely talented musician (fiddler) who plays with local Seattle folk-rock band Handful of Luvin' (also definitely worth checking out, especially this time of year - fantastic summer music!).

Andrew has just recently begun blogging. He writes "Music Musings", which, as the name implies, centers around intelligent, researched, well written and well thought out reviews of bands and albums, old and new.

An excerpt from "The Inconvenient Truths of Ben Gibbard - Death Cab for Cuties "Narrow Stairs"

"From Bixby Canyon Bridge (with Gibbard opening the album with his personal reflections on Jack Kerouac and his stay at Big Sur, CA); the album almost moves like a dark stream of consciousness in the style of a Kerouac beat poem as Gibbard recalls and expounds on topics such as loss of innocence and disillusionment (No Sunlight, Your New Twin Sized Bed, The Ice is Getting Thinner); the inevitability of death and how we cope with it(Cath..., Grapevine Fires, You Can Do Better Than Me), and other topics ranging from love and obsession(I will Possess Your Heart, Long Division, Pity & Fear), to feelings of inadequacy (Talking Bird.) Gibbard tackles a wide array of issues and delivers to his audience a clear thoughtful, yet always somber voice."

Andrew's love and vast knowledge of music is apparent in his reviews, and makes them very enjoyable to read. He doesn't seem to post very often, but each review is worth waiting for.

So check him out. ^_^

In: ,

Of bees and power windows

I was reflecting on my car today. My car, a little 2001 Suzuki Esteem, does not have power windows. I'm very glad of this. Why? Because I can roll up my window ten times faster than the power motor can roll it up when I spy an incoming bee headed straight for me, intent on destruction and pain. I demonstrated this just a half hour ago. It's amazing what adrenaline can do.

I live in mortal terror of bees getting into my car. Not for any good, logical reason - I'm not allergic to them, and it's not like being stung is that big of a deal, but I am reduced to a quivering bundle of nerves when I happen to spot one a football field away, much less one that's sharing a ten foot radius with me. And God FORBID one get into my car.

Which reminds me...

Last summer I was driving my buddy Pat home. We were going through the downtown area of the small city that we live in. It's a lovely little area, good to visit on a weekend and peer through the windows of the quaint little shops and even more appealing because adjacent to the shopping area is a quiet bay waterfront park. Fortunately the speed limit is 15mph, and you're often going slower through the area because of the abundance of pedestrians choosing to cross the street wherever they happen to decide they want to instead of using the crosswalks.

As Pat and I crawled along through town, I felt something bump my leg - wearing shorts made the feeling that much more acute. I instantly got a very bad feeling and reflexively reached down without taking my eyes off the road and swatted at my leg, biting my lip. Pat gave me a quizzical look, but I was too focused on what was going on around my unprotected bare flesh to pay him any mind.

About two seconds later I happened to glance down and nearly choked. Sitting calmly as you please on my seat right between my legs was the biggest freaking bee I had ever seen. I shrieked something along the lines of, "OH MY GOD OH SHIT THERE'S A BEE!" Pat instantly came to attention, and responded intelligently with, "where is it? Oh FUCK, that's a big bee!"

Yes, thank you. I am definitely aware of this.

I'm still not sure how I managed to slowly pull into a mostly empty parking lot and park my car without hitting anyone or anything, but I did. After the car was motionless I sat still as a statue, whimpering and staring down that the biggest bee ever. I didn't know what to do, and I was convinced that if I moved, the bee was rouse itself and attack me with a vengeance for swatting at it.

Pat was my hero that day. "Don't. Move. A. Muscle." He spoke slowly and carefully, apparently afraid I would bolt like a startled deer right into oncoming traffic. He fumbled around for a moment and came up with a CD case, and slammed it down, trapping and probably killing the bee. He moved as though he was going to lift his hand up.

"WAIT!" I screamed. "I'M GETTING OUT!" I flung my door open and squirmed my way out of the car around Pat's hand and arm. "Okay," I said breathlessly. "Get rid of it." Pat raised the CD case and deftly flipped the now dead bee out of the car.

And from then on that be was referred to as the Anti Christ Bee. Epic tales would be told of the battle. I have no idea how far they've spread, but if you've heard tales of The Epic Battle with the Anti Christ Bee, now you know the real story. ^_^

I apologize if I've told this story before - I don't recall ever blogging about it before, but you never know, my memory isn't all that wonderful. ^_^

In:

Things I've learned

  • I learned that when trying to grow plants in rainy Washington, one should always make sure that one's pots have some method of draining. Because as soon as you think it's safe, June willl turn into Juneuary and it will rain for two weeks. Thanks for the rocks suggestion, Anne - and I SUDDENLY realized that you have a blog, and feel very stupid for just now realizing it!!!
  • I learned that my friend Anne has a blog!
  • I learned that when one has to be at work by nine in the morning, one should not stay up until 3AM playing World of Warcraft. Even if you really really really want to finish running Maraudon. I promise you're going to regret it the next day. Even if you did get that really pretty mace you wanted.*
  • I learned from SleepyJane that on average twelve newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day!
  • I learned that I should pay closer attention to the phone numbers I dial while at work. It might be amusing to accidentally dial your friend when you're trying to call a client, but it probably shouldn't happen more than once.*
  • I learned about BlogHer! How I've been blogging since '05 and didn't know about this I'll never figure out, but I think it's pretty cool. I also think going to the conference would be really neat - not that I would do anything except hide in a corner the whole time.

Life is a learning experience. It's still early, I'll probably have more to add to the list by the end of the day.

*Okay I lied, I don't really regret it. I'll be posting about it over at Power Word: Totem later.

**I need to especially take note of this having just completed my second misdial.

In:

The Master Gardener at work

So, remember when I mentioned a planted a bunch of seeds?

I had high hopes of eventually having flowers whose beauty would rival that of all those lovely stock photos I hijacked, but it seems I've already failed.

It's been raining non stop in good ol' WA. For days. And something I neglected to notice when I was filling all those pots up with dirt was that about half of them have no way of draining. I'm pretty sure that the seeds in about half of my pots have drowned in the little mini lakes instantly formed during the first day.

Good job, self. Good job.

So, erm... learning experience, right?

In: ,

I AM a Guitar Hero!

I never thought I'd do it.

But I did.


























I bought Guitar Hero III.


I had played it a few times at various friends' houses, after work yesterday I finally broke down and decided to go get my own copy. I brought it home, stuck the batteries into my gleaming new guitar - I mean the controller - and proceeded to blast my way through the game rocking out to Foghat's 'Slow Ride', Rolling Stone's 'Paint it Black', Tenacious D's 'The Metal', and many other rock songs, new and old. After a few shaky moments I quickly got the hang of the game again, skillfully mastering each song, then forced the game into submission to become a ROCK LEGEND.


And by "skillfully mastering each song" I mean I did okay in the beginning, and by the end I was barely scraping by. Slayer's 'Raining Blood' nearly destroyed me.

And by "forced the game into submission" I mean I managed to beat it. On easy.

And by "rock legend" I mean that after I fumbled my way through the last song the game flashed a congratulatory "you're a rock legend" message at me. I know it what it was really saying: "Wow... you suck a LOT, so here's a conciliatory 'you beat the game' message... don't even TRY this on medium."


The game is way more fun that I had ever guessed it would be. Guitar Hero III was the first of the series I played. I was borderline scornful of the first game, ignoring the great reviews it got, and I completely ignored the release of the second game. I figured it wouldn't be something I would enjoy (give my penchant for RPGs and third person action), and I'm very glad that I gave the it a try.

It's simplistic enough at first - Push the color coded buttons and flick the clicker thingie (enjoying my technical terms?) on the guitar shaped controller. Playing it on easy is great for beginners, and it has a very gradual difficulty increase as you progress through the seven tiers of songs. It also has a fantastic track list.

When you bump the difficulty level up to medium, it becomes a whole new challenge, and I haven't even pretended to try on hard or expert yet. Once you get the hang of it though (I'm still working on that part) it's much more rewarding.

Bottom line? I love this game. I take back every mean thing I ever said about this series.

In:

It's been a while....

....but I'm posting again!

I decided this last weekend that I wanted to grow things. Nothing useful things and/or edible things like vegetables or jack-o-lantern pumpkins, but flowers. Since I rent one side of a duplex I didn't exactly have the freedom to dig around in the tiny yard, but I did get some pots from my parents and I picked up a few more at Home Depot. Along with bags of dirt. And can I just say how weird it feels to buy dirt? Yeah. Weird.

I now have 17 (I think) pots along my trellis fence and around my patio filled with MiracleGro dirt and little tiny flower seeds. And the exciting part is, I have absolutely no recollection of which seeds I put in which pots! It'll be interesting to see if anything actually grows - I manage to kill all houseplants that come through my door, and I've speculated that my touch is poison to vegetation. Plus I think the last time I actually put a seed in the dirt was when I was around 12. Yep, master gardener, right here.

Here's some of the stuff I planted (because I like looking at pictures of flowers ^_^):

Morning Glory. And I actually do know where I planted this, because I want it to climb my trellis that fences in my patio. If it actually works, it's going to be really pretty. ^_^




Snapdragons. Because honestly, who doesn't like snapdragons? I realized when I got home that I had picked up the dwarf version, so they'll be wee snapdragons, but (assuming they grow) they will still be very pretty. ^_^



Moss roses, also known as "portulaca" which I didn't know until I tried to search for them to find a picture and nothing appeared under "moss rose". See, I'm already learning things!




African daisies. I don't usually like daisies that much, but I loved the colors on the front of the seed packet.







Zinnias. Because my mom told me to. ^_^







Asters. Because I saw them and said to myself, "I actually know what these are!".



There was more, but that's all I can remember right now. This is going to be even more exciting than I thought - I can't even recall what I planted, much less where! O_o

OH!

I also planted my very favorite flower, bachelor buttons. ^_^



I mentioned to my mom that if I ever end up getting married, my bouquet will simply be a bunch of those flowers.

Which will be kind of ironic...