The Dauntless Muse

Unexpected Side Effects

2011-03-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

So lately I've been very committed to getting healthier (and more importantly back into my expensive jeans that I haven't been able to squeeze myself into for ages). This has involved being very motivated to work out and eat properly. The exercise and the eating healthy is working out pretty well for me - I've been feeling more energetic during the day, I'm seeing some progress on the scale, and most importantly, I'm really proud of myself. It's a great feeling.

That being said, there has been a rather unexpected side effect. I call it CBHS - CheeseBurger Hallucination Syndrome. Some of the symptoms of CBHS are as follows:

1.) Believing that any meal can be improved with the addition of cheeseburgers.

Example:

Dinner has been prepared, a lovely Asian soup. Jordan takes a bite, and turns to me, mentioning that he's not sure about one of the spices, and asks what do I think would make it taste better? I'm looking into my bowl, and all I see is -

"CHEESEBURGERS," I blurt out.

Jordan raises his eyebrows at me. "Cheeseburgers would make it taste better?"

"Cheeseburgers," I confirm, suddenly unable to speak any other word. "Cheeseburgers."

2.) Randomly finding yourself pulling into fast food drive throughs with no memory of how you got there.

Example:

I'm driving home from work, singing along with Cobra Starship, idly thinking about my day, and I'm planning to go immediately to my apartment complex gym when I get home. I glance down for a second to change the volume on my stereo, but when I look up I find myself staring at the McDonald's drive through menu. My window is open, and the McDonald's employee is politely asking me what I would like to order. I'm stunned. I open my mouth, intending to explain that I've changed my mind, but what comes out is...

"Cheeseburgers. Lots of cheeseburgers."

3.) Inanimate objects appear to be cheeseburgers.

Example:

I'm playing Resident Evil 5 on my Playstation 3, completely absorbed in killing things before I run out of ammo. I've just had a snack of baby carrots and an apple, and I'm not particularly hungry. I glance down at my controller and freeze. Instead of my controller, I'm holding a beautiful, juicy, perfect cheeseburger. My eyes widened, and I slowly lifted it up, mouth opening, preparing to take a huge bite, when -

"Becca, what are you doing?"

I glance over at Jordan, then back at the cheeseburger, feeling a pang of sadness and loss when I realize it's changed back into a PS3 controller. "Nothing," I mutter. "Just wishing I had a cheeseburger..."

It's very important to be wary of CBHS. This dangerous syndrome can also occur with other foods as well - the nasty shock you get when taking a bite of low fat cottage cheese expecting it to be marshmallows is rather disturbing.

The great and wonderful DOSBox

2011-02-22T10:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was on the phone with my mom, trying to remember the name of a game we used to play almost twenty years ago.

"It was that one, you know, with the knights, and they're running around Spain, and the intro music goes dun duuuun dun dun... we had that giant map that we kept having to look at!"

Fortunately Mom knew exactly what I was talking about since I'm pretty sure most people would have written me off as a raving lunatic at that point.

Thus I set off on my Mission - to find and download Vengeance of Excalibur, a 1991 DOS RPG. My shiny Playstation 3 sat unused and neglected as I curled up on the sofa and took a trip down memory lane. DOSBox, a handy DOS emulator, allowed me to experience old favorites from the early '90s just the way I remembered them. Vengeance of Excalibur, Prophecy of the Shadow, Zork text adventures, King's Quest...

Don't get me wrong - I love our newer video games, with their hyper-realistic graphics, their smooth gameplay and control schemes, their good (and bad) voice acting... but there is definitely something to be said for our old favorites. Sitting in front of a computer typing commands into a text based RPG can be just as satisfying as staring dumbstruck at the latest Final Fantasty CGI cutscenes.

You also tend to notice things about older games that you may not have noticed when you first played them. Like how King's Quest V is really a story about one man's EPIC acid trip.

Detailer vs. Shower Puff

2010-03-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

Axe. They have all these hideously sexist commercials that invariably leave me massively irritated every time I accidentally see one. I've managed to successfully avoid them for quite a while now, but the other day Jordan and I were pulling up something to watch on Hulu, and lo and behold, a commercial for the new "Axe Detailer" paraded itself before my eyes.

I started to laugh. "It's a man poof!"

Jordan looked at me, confused. "A what?"

"A man poof!"

Amused, Jordan argued with me for a short time, but I stand by my initial assessment. Here is the Axe "Detailer" (a.k.a. man poof):

The Professional Photo Shoot

2010-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

I love my new job. I really do. The constant challenges of real estate are always exciting to me, and I love the small group of people I work with. But when my boss asked me to schedule a photo shoot for new team photos and a portrait of me for my business cards, I immediately hated my life. Having my picture taken is something I'm usually okay with, but a professional photo shoot? Ack!

Dutifully I called the photographer and scheduled the appointment, and on the assigned day, the three of us - myself, my boss, and the buyer agent - all drove to the studio. The photographer instantly put me at ease and I started to relax. She was gentle, soft spoken, and her studio felt homey. She chatted with us for a while, then sent us to the area where she planned to take her pictures. I looked down to make sure I was standing where she had asked me to, and when I looked back up, everything had changed.

Her eyes blazed red behind her camera, and I swear I could see tiny horns poking up from her forehead. "Rebecca! Get closer to Frank! Get that hair out of your eyes! Rob! Put that hand in your pocket!" The orders were barked with ferocity, and we scrambled to obey. She grinned at us, baring sharp, pointed teeth. "HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!" I managed a bright false smile, shaking in my 4" heeled pumps.

The ordeal continued for several excruciating minutes as she snarled and snapped. Finally she walked over to me and raked my bangs out of my face. "Do you have any hairspray?" she asked. I told her I didn't, and felt my eyes widen as her eyes flared a brighter red and steam trickled out of her ears. "I'll fix it with Photoshop," she grated to herself. I resolved to have at least eight cans of hairspray in my car from then on out.

The shooting continued until she was satisfied. "All right," she said cheerfully, all trace of the demonic presence inhabiting her slight frame gone without a trace. "Let's take a look!" She loaded the photos onto her computer and projected the results onto a screen against the far wall. She offered friendly, gentle advice on which photos she would recommend. When we had decided, she turned to me. "We're doing a portrait of you by yourself, right?"

And it started all over again.

By the end of the two and a half hours that we were there, I felt like I had been raked over the coals. But the photos turned out nicely.

Revitalized

2010-03-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

So, there was this time back in August when I said I was back to blogging, which was apparently a lie. After writing that post I logged in a couple times over the next couple days, wrote drafts for a couple of posts, then didn't log in again for months. For the rest of the year, actually. I wasn't really putting much effort into anything, I was just dragging my feet through life.

It was a few things that actually brought me snapping back to really living and enjoying life, rather than just passing through it with my eyes closed.

The first thing was finding a new job. I went from wasting my hard earned knowledge and skills in the real estate world at a part time job where I was lucky to be getting 15 hours a week to being employed nearly full time at a different company with a completely different outlook on the job. It was incredible how much of a difference that made. I've been working here for almost a month, and the positive energy, lack of drama, and solid "we are a team" feeling combined with being able to do the work I really want to be doing has left me with a much better outlook on life. I mean, I'm going to have my own business cards again! YES!

The second thing was a conference. A real estate conference. Or 'retreat', as they were calling it. The man responsible for putting it together is one of the few professional real estate coaches left in the midst of the economic crisis, and after attending the two day event, I could see why. The man was amazing. He left me infused with such energy and so many new ideas regarding my professional life (some of which carried over to my personal life) that it managed to make me more excited about my career than I've been.... well, ever. I used to scoff at motivational speaking, regarding it with the same kind of distaste I have for steamed broccoli, but after spending the first day attempting to "sort through the bullshit to get to the valuable information" as I told one of my friends, I just started to listen to all of it. It made me think that every now and then, a good dose of inspiration by way of motivational speaking really isn't bad, and can in fact be extraordinarily helpful. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to go paying attention to every fool with a microphone and snazzy suit, but there is some real value to be had from certain speakers.

The third thing? People. My friends, my family, and most especially the man I've been seeing for about six months. Jordan has helped me more than he knows. He's smart, funny, incredibly caring, and inspires me to be a better person.

So when I say I'm back this time, I do mean it. I'm back. I'm back to living life whole-heartedly, not mired in resentment and depression. I'm back to pursing the things I want to pursue, trying to attain my goals. And of course I'm back to blogging. ^_^

WHAT?! Yep, I'm back!

2009-08-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. A loooong while. I didn't intentionally give up blogging, but a lot happened. Well, actually just one thing happened, but it had a huge impact on my entire life.

The day before I was about to make an offer to purchase a home, I lost my job.

Amazing what that one thing can mean, especially in today's economic climate. The day it happened, back in mid April, I was sure I would be able to find another job right away. After all, I had skills! Important, office-y type skills! Important, office-y type skills that thousands of other unemployed souls shared. Jobs? Not easy to find. Not at all.

I lost my duplex and had to move back in with my parents. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than grateful that my parents were able and willing to give me a place to stay, but it hasn't been in ideal situation for either of us. When I first moved out, almost five years ago, I never thought I would be living with my parents again. Then, BAM - I went from being pre approved for a home loan to moving back into my old bedroom.

I was in a pretty rough spot for a while. I had lost a job I truly enjoyed and excelled in and suddenly was forced to rely on other people far more than I was used to. Add on top of that months of not receiving any sort of response to any of my job applications (welcome to the recession, Becca) and I wasn't really in an awesome state of mind. But, things improved, as they tend to do if you hang in there long enough. I'm working again, albeit only part time, and I'm still in real estate, an industry I enjoy quite a bit. Besides, I'm sure as hell not going to let that real estate license go to waste - it's expensive to get and maintain, dammit! Things aren't perfect, but I'm lucky to be working again, and I'm lucky to have a place to stay.

I suddenly realized that I missed blogging. I miss pouring my meaningless rants and observations out into the internet. And I miss my bloggy friends.

Here's hoping I can reconnect.

I'm happy to be back.

^_^

Conversations: George Washington's Secretary

2009-04-12T00:31:00.001-07:00

The Scene: Pat and I are lying in bed about to watch some Vin Diesel action flick.

Pat: There's something I need to tell you. About me.

Me: Oh?

Pat: I..... I'm George Washington's secretary.

Me: Huh. Hasn't George Washington been dead for a while?

Pat: I'm from the past. I was sent here into the future... to tell you... that you must go to Washington DC and talk to the scientists there!

Me: .........

Pat: You tell them that they have to go back into the past and bring me some coffee!

Me: I'm pretty sure they had coffee back then.

Pat: Yeah, but I don't want to go get it! You tell them! And tell them to bring me a donut! I want donuts! And they'd better be Krispy Kreme donuts! If they don't do it, George Washington is going to be really mad. But they don't get to call him George, only I do, 'cause I've worked for him for twenty-five years! I've worked for George since birth! You TELL them!

Me: .........um..........I have to go to the bathroom.

I quietly get up, slip over to the computer and log into Blogger.

Pat: I can hear you typing!

It's Friday...

2009-04-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

...and I have no brain function left to share with you. I must jealously horde the last little bit to myself so I can make it through the work day. A work day that will include handling a client whose house is closing sale in two weeks yet just managed to burn the hell out of his formica kitchen countertop, trying again in vain to figure out just WHO THE HELL I'm supposed to order title from on a bank owned property, and, my favorite, ceaselessly nagging my co worker to GIVE ME THE CONTRACT ON HIS NEW LISTING. YOUR PAPERWORK. GIVE IT TO ME. IT'S REQUIRED BY LAW.

I will also be combating the urge to write all my emails in caps.

However...

see more Lol Celebs

This made me laugh! Pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.

Supernatural: an opinionated look at season 4

2009-04-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

SleepyJane just asked me what my thoughts were on the fourth season of Supernatural, and I'm sorry to say it opened the floodgates.

I haven't written about Supernatural lately because I have some severely mixed feelings about it. As everyone knows, I adore this show. Which makes it extremely painful for me to admit that I'm... shall we say... less than impressed with the current season.

The first episode, 'Lazarus Rising', brought my favorite Winchester back from hell and introduced the main premise of the season - demons, angels, and the apocalypse. It was a strong opening, and I was excited about the first few episodes... until it slumped into a downward spiral with poor writing, angsty angels, and a gradual loss of the well played family drama between the two brothers, which was one of the factors that turned Supernatural into one of my favorite shows. I don't mean their reversal of roles, or their growing animosity towards each other - I know exactly where the writers are going with that - but it lacks the delicate writing and balance that the show has previously displayed through three whole seasons that made their relationship feel so realistic.

There were a few truly great episodes here and there, but the majority of the season made me cranky and disappointed.

It didn't come as a surprise that the writers chose to take this season of Supernatural down a more traditionally biblical path. After all, demons are common enough, why not bring a dose of the divine on in? But the season's descent towards the traditional apocalypse, hell on earth, Lucifer rising, blah blah blah... To me, it shows a departure from the unique, and a complete lack of imagination. It's been done before. Again and again and again.

When 'On The Head Of A Pin' aired, I thought it was one of the most intense and well written episodes of the season. I was wary of the subject matter, since Dean is brought in to torture a demon (and I have some strong feelings on torture in the media), but it was beautifully written and flawlessly acted by many of the people involved. I allowed myself to get excited again.

Then.... 'It's A Terrible Life'. An episode that could have been much funnier than it was, and seemed to point to the fact that the writers were having trouble creating any kind of plot device without angels being involved. Still, I kept my hopes up.

'The Monster At The End Of This Book'. Last week's episode. I couldn't have been more disappointed. It started out humorous, not too bad... a filler episode. Then.... a prophet? Protected by an archangel? Puh-leeeze.

This twisting of the show to become so Christian/apocalypse themed bothers me because Supernatural has always skillfully walked a line between the unique and the traditional, and this is just.... lazy. Unimaginative, cookie cutter, bland. The writing has suffered in more ways than one, and honestly, if Jensen Ackles wasn't around constantly proving that not only does he have a pretty face, he can act, I can honestly say I would have thrown in the towel and given up on the show.

I'm not looking forward to the Sam vs. Dean season finale. And honestly, I'm not particularly looking forward to season 5. I am glad that although the series has definitely been renewed for a 5th season, word is that there will not be a 6th. Supernatural is running out of steam, and it's painful to watch the show slip into mediocrity, where it does not belong.

To be perfectly fair, although I'm derisive now, my opinion may change slightly when I have a chance to watch the season back to back on DVD without the long breaks between new episodes. It may flow better. It may not be as bad as I think. But from where I stand right now... I doubt it.

I'm sorry, oh faithful Supernatural fans, but I did say this would be opinionated. What do you all think?

Supernatural article from Entertainment Weekly - Worth a read! =)

Conversation dos and don'ts with Becca

2009-04-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

Clothes

DO tell me about the awesome deal you got on a jacket from Macy's!

DON'T mention how I've been wearing my jacket inside out for two and a half hours. At work. Where I'm supposed to look professional.

Gardening

DO tell me about how the last few days of sunny weather have inspired you to spend more time in your garden.

DON'T say a word about how I shrieked and ran away from a bee while trying to plant my flowers.

Driving

DO share a funny story from your drive test back when you first got your license.

DON'T remind me about that time I was singing at the top of my lungs to Green Day and merrily drove right through a red light.

Work

DO tell me about how your day went. Share your high points and low points.

DON'T point out the lines of blue, red, and black ink across my temples that happened as I stuck various pens behind my ear during my work day.

Movies

DO get into a spirited debate with me about movies. I love them, and I love arguing about them.

DON'T mock me when I can spout lines from Joe's Apartment. I'm embarrassed enough already, I promise.

Video Games

DO argue with me about the merits of the various Final Fantasy games.

DON'T screech at me when I'm playing Silent Hill or Resident Evil - I'm jumpy enough already!

DO talk to me about Supernatural!

DON'T YOU EVER SAY AN UNKIND WORD ABOUT JENSEN ACKLES!

I don't know why you would want to, but I'm just sayin'....

Twilight

2009-03-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

It was Friday night when I broke.

I was sitting at my parent's dining room table eating homemade pizza. Innocent enough, until I opened my mouth. "Mom," I said, "I feel like I need to at least watch Twilight. I've spent too long mocking it without having read the book or seen the movie."

Conveniently, Mom just so happened to have the flick in the house.

So it came to be that I watched Twilight.

I promptly went out and bought the first book the next day.

It was hard for me to admit that I had actually enjoyed this immensely popular teen fiction. When I want to read about vampires, I pick up Laurell K. Hamilton or something similar. I'll have blood, sex, death, sadomasochism, and badass chicks with my supernatural fiction, please. But there was something about the simplicity of the story that captured my attention (and I'm a sucker for a vampire romance... no pun intended).

However, I do have several major issues.

I'm no stranger to Stephanie Meyer - I read and enjoyed The Host, though I thought her origins as a young adult author clung too heavily to her "adult" novel. It had the potential to be truly excellent, but skirted too many deeper issues for me to say more than 'The Host really held my attention, and it could have been really good." I felt similarly about Twilight. The writing felt clumsy and clearly aimed towards young teen girls, yet there were a few moments when it really shone.

I have another problem with the book. Bella bores me. I mean, she bores me to tears. The elements of her character that make her interesting and likeable were completely clouded by her obsession with Edward. Instead of granting her some semblance of independence, Meyer took her protagonist and viciously wrung out all trace of character, leaving her limp as a wet dishrag. And oh my God the teenager angst. I have so little patience with it!

Oh, and can we talk about stalker Edward? Yes, teenage girls, it's romantic to have some guy trespass into your home and watch you sleep.

Yikes.

A quick comment about the film - I thought it was terrible. There's just no getting around it. Robert Pattinson was lovely and actually very good, but the special effects were atrocious, much of the acting was wooden, and the script was painful.

All that harsh criticism aside, the simple truth remains that I did enjoy it - both book and movie. But I enjoyed it in a hey, that was kind of fun sort of way, not in a OMG I love Twilight, it's SO GOOD! kind of way. I feel no pressing urge to run out and get the second book. I feel no thrill of excitement contemplating the release of the next movie. I'm left with that wanting more feeling - not wanting more of the story, just wanting more substance to the story.

I guess what I really want are more adult, interesting characters, and a more adult, interesting romance.

This is why I shouldn't be allowed to read teen fiction.

Travel

2009-03-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

One thing I haven't done near enough of in my life is travel.

When I was much younger my family would take cross country road trips from Washington to the east coast to visit family, so I have seen quite a bit of the U.S. But as far as my adult life goes...

I went to Boston that one time?

There are so many places to see in this world, and no good reason not to see them. I had this idea in my head that travel was astronomically expensive, out of reach for a small town office drone like myself. Then my cousin flew out from Boston. Total price of his round trip tickets? Around $300.

I did some quick searching and found I could end up in a lot of places in the U.S. for under $200, and outside of the U.S. for under $600. Completely shattered the "traveling is WAY to expensive for ME" thought, and left me with a fair amount of excitement. Working on my finances for a month or two has freed up a surprising amount of money, and if I was so inclined, I could afford to head out of town right now.

My new plan is to try to take two trips a year. One within the U.S. and the other outside of the U.S. I'm not going to have any destination in mind, I'm just going to check around, find out where it would be cheapest to fly to, and head there for a few days to a week. I'll see places that I never would have chosen to visit, and while this may or may not be a good thing, at least I'll have seen them.

Most of my vacation time has been eaten up by taking days off here and there, then the week long vacation last week, but I plan to go somewhere random this fall. Maybe September or October.

It's going to be difficult for me. I've been described as a "homebody" on more than one occasion, and I can't in all honesty deny it. What can I say? I love sleeping in my own bed. But... there will really never be a better time to start seeing new places. I'm not married. I don't have children. I don't have major debt. And I don't want to be sitting in my rocking chair knitting socks when I'm eighty thinking to myself, "man, I wish I had actually done some of that stuff I talked about doing when I was younger."

It's within reach. Not necessarily within easy reach, but with a touch of planning and good financial management, definitely within reach. Now all that's left is to do it.

Tired....

2009-03-25T10:04:00.001-07:00

A week of vacation.

Saint Patrick's Day.

Kitchen full of alcohol.

Cousin visiting from Boston.

Whew.... yeah, I'm still wiped. Real post soon, I promise. ^_^

My cousin Jared and I. Good times. =)

He makes me laugh...

2009-03-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Me: **hiccup** So what I'm saying is **hiccup** that you should really **hiccup** think about what**hiccup** ....I give up....

Pat: You sound like a poorly buffered internet movie.

Me: .......

Social networking on the internet

2009-03-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

I'm addicted to social networking sites.

There. I said it. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

It's been years since I joined good old Livejournal and Myspace to stay in touch with out of state friends. At first I cared very little about it and logged on sparingly, if at all. But... then I realized I could find people online that I hadn't spoken to in years. I found my cousins online. I met a man I dated for over a year online. And thus the addiction began to grow.

I think the growth of social networking on the internet is a wonderful and fascinating thing. We can keep in touch with many of our friends at once by a simple text to Twitter, we can find people we haven't seen in decades on Facebook, and we can connect with people across the globe with similar interests on a variety of sites. However, I do believe we're paying for our transition into this crazy online world by giving up a measure of basic human interaction. This doesn't mean I think we're all running around like introverted hermits with no social graces. We have friends, we have professional lives, we still make phone calls and get together for drinks. I think it's more a sense of closeness, a sense of community that we've lost or are losing.

Instead of going to a local bookstore and finding a book group to join, I looked online. Instead of seeking out a knitting group, I went online. Instead of calling my cousins, I'll write on their Facebook walls. I know I'm not alone in this.

This is a bit of nostalgia talking, but does anyone remember what it felt like to get an honest-to-God handwritten letter in the mail? When I was a kid, it was the best feeling in the world.

I hear people wailing about these drawbacks to living online pretty frequently. And really, all I have to say is that nothing is perfect. In gaining the ability to freely talk to and connect with people halfway across the planet at the drop of a hat, we have to sacrifice something.

Well...

This was originally intended to be a post in which I said "hey guys, LOOK LOOK here I am online! Come find me! I looooove online communities!" I guess I got a little carried away. ^_^

I'd love to know what your favorite networking site is, and where I can find you online! And now I'm curious if anyone else feels like they've lost something because they've spent so much time on the internet.

I can be found...

On Blogger (no way, bet you guys didn't know THAT!)

On Facebook

On Myspace

On Twitter

On Playfire

On Shelfari

On deviantART (tragically, it appears that somehow ALL my uploads got removed.... O_o)

On Last.fm

On Ravelry (knit & crochet community, invite only while it's in beta)

On Mog (still working on this one, but it pretty much looks awesome)

What's YOUR professional best?

2009-03-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

You haven't seen me at my professional best until you've seen me leave a message for someone I hate.

The message I left was businesslike and respectful, giving the agent the information she needed without sounding angry, upset, condescending, or arrogant. There was a chipper, nearly sweet lilt to my tone.

All the while, I was making THIS FACE:

That may actually be an exaggeration. After all, it's hard to hold one's jaw in that position while talking. I also may or may not have been making stabbing motions with my pen.

I know this isn't a real post, but I'm working up to resuming my blogging duties, I promise. ^_^

The haircut

2009-02-24T12:32:00.001-08:00

While Becca is a touch disappointed that there is simply nothing to be done about her huge nose, she does love her new haircut.

2009 Oscars Fashion

2009-02-23T14:42:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Oscars... I have such a love/hate relationship with you.

Frequently I sputter in outrage over the movies selected to receive the prestigious awards. Frequently I cry out in frustration at the long acceptance speeches. Frequently, and this is my favorite part, I shriek in horror at OSCAR FASHION.

Yes, the only reason I watch the Oscars at all is honestly just to check out who is wearing the ugliest dress, and though Oscar Fashion was kind of boring this year, I had plenty to scream and avert my eyes from.

Behold my discoveries.

Amanda Seyfried may well have escaped my notice completely were it not for the giant bow in the middle of her dress. Without the bow, the dress would have been boring, but sometimes boring is the lesser of two evils.

Beyonce, your dress was as terrible as your performance. In fact, I don't even want to talk about it.

I really like Heidi Klum's shoes. I do not love her dress. The neckline sort of makes me feel like her dress wasn't quite finished yet, but she wore it to the Oscars anyway even though there were still a few seams that needed to be sewn. "I'm Heidi Klum!" she probably announced airily. "Everyone will think this is what it's supposed to look like, and I'll be stunning!" You are pretty neat, Heidi, but no, bad dress.

Jessica Biel gleefully snatched a curtain from her picture window and wrapped it around herself with a flourish while brandishing her empty wine bottle. "I'm going in THIS! I'll just tuck a table runner into it, and I'm ready to go!"

I think Marisa Tomei is a stunning creature. However, and you may not be able to tell from the angle of this photo, from the waist down her dress looks as though it was created by stapling a bunch of those fold-out paper fans together. TOO MANY PLEATS!

The next time Melissa George appears at the Oscars will be for her ground-breaking role as a mermaid. Seriously though... super skinny, tight, constricting dress suddenly exploding into a mass of tulle? No.

Miley Cyrus.... if I never hear her name again I'll die a happy woman. I'll also die a happy woman if I never have to see this dress again. I just... I don't even know what to say about it, except.... EWWW.

I actually think Penelope Cruz looks lovely. Lovely if she were at her own vintage wedding. Which, if I may point out, she is not.

Sarah Jessica Parker. How I loathed you in Sex and the City. How I have often scoffed at your clothing, and true to form, last night was no exception. I am somewhat grateful to you, however, for your attempt to look like a fairy princess with smashed boobs bulging out of your dress certainly gave me something to laugh about. (Seriously, you can't tell so much in this picture, but the boob bulge was BAD.)

Now I don't actually know who Vanessa Hudgens is (or even how to spell her name) but I do know that the random sprouting of feathers and whatsits from her chest, paired with the boufy (shut up, that's a word!) bottom, really make this dress a piece of work. A piece of burn it in a bonfire work.

Now that I've insulted several famous women on their choice of outfit, I'd like to turn to the actresses that I thought looked amazing:

Although I was not fond of (and by "not fond of" I mean "hated with a firey passion") Amy Adam's necklace, I thought her dress was stunning. Dramatic, flattering, and interesting without looking weird from any angle. Lovely.

I heard Freida Pinto caught a lot of flack for wearing this dress because it was "too old for her". To be honest I can kind of see where the nay-sayers are coming from, but the color is so gorgeous on her, the lace is so pretty, and it has such an awesome sari-like feel to it, that I say good job.

This is Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman. I don't know who Georgina Chapman is, but her dress is awesome. It reminds me of some crazy tapestry or maybe an awesome rug. I know it sounds weird, but I really like that dress!

Natalie Portman is a wee, petite sprite of lovely. I'm not 100% crazy about the color, but I just love the overall look.

Most everyone at the Oscars feel into three catagories: LOVE IT, GROSS, and BORING. There were a few, however, that I simply couldn't figure out how I felt about.

I think Jennifer Aniston is quite pretty, even if she's never been one of my favorite actresses (and MY GOD I hated 'Friends'!) but I think her dress is okay. It's the hair that's making me nuts! Elegant, fairly simple dress, with that hair! I just... I don't know.

Kate Winslet could show up at the Oscars wrapped in a shiny black trashbag with thigh high hooker boots and I would still comment on how gorgeous she was. But still... I'm not crazy about the dress. And again with the hair! You can't really see it in this picture, but it totally ruined everything. With great hair I'm pretty sure I would have liked the dress.

Taraji Henson has an awesome name and an awesome necklace. However, I can't decide if I adore her dress, or if it looks like someone ran in circles around her really fast with a roll of paper towels.

Lastly, there is always a person or two who you love because they're so crazy, and you secretly hope they'll show up wearing something bizarre.

Mickey Rourke, the only man who stands out enough in a crowd to warrant making it into my blog post. How I adore you and your craziness!

As far as award show getup goes this is tame as far as Tilda Swinton is concerned. But... it's TILDA SWINTON! I both worship her, and am sort of scared of her.

And so ends Oscar Fashion 2009 with Becca. I missed the Oscars last year, but I did cover Oscar fashion in 2007. The formatting broke when I transferred it from Wordpress, there are typos, and the writing is poor, but you get the idea.

Until next year!

*Photos were jacked from here: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/02/oscar_red_carpet.html

Haircut guilt

2009-02-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

I know it's time for a haircut when my mom has been haranguing me about it for about a month, and throwing it, still damp, into a ponytail before I go to work starts to seem acceptable. Happily, my delightful 19 year old sister has contracted a friend of hers to cut my hair today.

Fortunately this friend isn't some random 20 year old with grand aspirations and a pair of dull scissors just waiting to butcher a haircut. This friend went to haircutting school*, has been working for a while at an upscale salon, and gave my sister one of the best haircuts she's ever had, so I have faith in her abilities.

But.

I have guilt. Serious guilt.

I've been going to the same hairdresser for years. And by years I mean that I've been visiting her whenever my hair starts to look like an encounter with a weed whacker would do it some good since I was a child. This will be the first time ever I've had someone other than Belinda cut my hair. I feel like I'm betraying her, especially in this tricky economic time when it's more important than ever to keep loyal clients.

But this girl, Caroline's friend... she's coming to my house to cut my hair, which means I don't have to try to get off of work early. And, umm, haircutting house calls. How could I resist?

I may have trouble sleeping tonight, but I'll just keep repeating haircut house call, I'm saving gas money, haircut house call, I'm saving gas money...

Nope, not helping. Guilt. I have it.

*I actually have no idea where people go to school to learn how to cut hair. I guess it's not called "haircutting school", but you get my point. ^_^

Bits and Pieces - Friday!

2009-02-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's Friday and I'm suffering from sleep deprivation at the tail end of a long week. I had a couple of ideas for a real post but couldn't seem to concentrate on writing any of them. Apparently I have the attention span of a gnat this morning. So instead of a post with actual content, we have Bits and Pieces!

Not all Unexpected Encounters are unpleasant. My neighbor Liz and her husband came over last night for snacks and conversation. They are absolutely lovely people, fun and friendly, and I am so grateful that Liz come over to introduce herself earlier this week. Plus, she kicks ass at Halo 3. I mean... my God. I didn't even know what hit me.

The new gym I joined is pretty slick. Small, sparsely populated, and full of everything I need. Perfect. I'll be setting up an appointment with a personal trainer next week sometime. I'm on my way to a sexy, sultry, muscular physique. Seriously though, I'm focused on training myself in discipline more than anything else right now. I need to stop saying "I'm just too tired, I'll work out tomorrow." If I can conquer my gym procrastination, I'll be well on my way to Rhona Mitra Badassness*.

I meet with my grandmother every payday to work out a budget and go over my finances (I'm profoundly grateful that she's willing to act as my financial advisor, 'cause God knows I need the help!). This payday I came within $0.50 of my planned budget. It feels absolutely incredible to be so on top of things. Go me!

It's a skimpy Bits and Pieces posts, but I've got nothing else.

Except...

Happy Valentine's Day!

*Silly spellcheck, of COURSE 'badassness' is a word!

Unexpected Encounters Part III

2009-02-11T11:49:00.001-08:00

I've had a string of odd encounters while living in my duplex. Take a look at Part 1 and Part II. Actually... does three count as a string? How many encounters would it take before it became a string?

It was my usual quiet Monday night. I had played some World of Warcraft, eaten a peanut butter sandwich for dinner (being to lazy to actually prepare something), and was curled up in bed reading when the doorbell rang.

Startled, I turned from my Patricia Briggs werewolf novel to glance at the clock. 11:15. PM. I was seized by a sudden fear that it was my parents at the door. Maybe they had tried to call to tell me my younger sisters had been eaten by zombies, but I hadn't answered! I snatched up my cell phone. No missed calls. No texts. Probably no zombies.

Cautiously I slipped out of bed and hurriedly pulled a sweatshirt on. Maybe the cops were out looking for Ricky again. It was unlikely to be my parents since they hadn't called, and Pat had a key. I hesitated when I got to the door. If I scream, my neighbors will hear me, I reminded myself, but still I hesitated (I haven't started my diary yet, after all). Or, maybe it was Jensen Ackles! I was brightened considerably by the thought. Stella hopped up on the windowsill and shot me an impatient look.

"Who's out there, kitty?" I whispered. "Is it Jensen, Mom and Dad, or a serial killer?"

Stella ignored me. Ungrateful cat.

When I finally opened the door I wasn't presented with the killer from Friday the 13th, my parents, or (tragically) Jensen Ackles. The young woman standing outside with a shy smile on her face was small and blond, huddled in a gray sweatshirt with her hood pulled up, and looked decidedly harmless.

"Hi," she said uncertainly. "I'm your neighbor from across the street. I hope I didn't wake you up, I saw your lights on."

"Um... hi," I replied. "Don't worry, you didn't wake me up. I'm Becca..."

"I'm Liz," she said, smiling. "I'm so sorry to bother you, but I've been meaning to come over and introduce myself for a while now. Plus our refrigerator just stopped working, and I'd love someone to talk to."

We chatted for about twenty minutes.

And then she went home.

Ah, life and all the little random surprises. Anti-climactic, I know, but hey - that's what happened! ^_^

Photographic Reflections

2009-02-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

I was thinking back to my vacation to Boston in 2007 today and felt like sharing some memories.

The Houses

I swear to God every single house in Boston has a PERFECT YARD. I love houses, so I took a ton of house pictures while I was there. It was only later, after I was going through my photos, that I realized every single yard was impeccably manicured. I'm sure there must be unkempt lawns, but I certainly didn't see any.

The Public Gardens

The Boston Public Gardens are absolutely beautiful. My sister and I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the park.

The Bridges

Do I even need to say anything about this? Seattle sure as hell doesn't have anything this cool. The Space Needle? PFFFFT.

Harvard Yard

Or, as I was instructed later by my aunt, "Hah-vahd Yahd".

Harvard Museum of Natural History

Little sis Caroline and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in addition to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, but I have to confess that dinosaur bones can occasionally beat art as far as I'm concerned.

Provincetown

Such character! Normally I despise crowds, but even though Provincetown was filled absolutely to the max with people, I was totally relaxed. The diversity of the people and the stores that populated the downtown area was so rich and exciting.

Beaches

Yeah... I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life hanging out there.

Family

Caroline and I stayed with our aunt and uncle, and spent a lot of time with our cousins. Since we live across the country from each other we only get to see each other face to face every few years or so if we're lucky.

So the best part of the trip? Family.

Oh.

But I did see get to see Dropkick Murphys. In BOSTON. That might trump family.

Taken Movie Review

2009-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Taken (2009)

*1/2 out of ****

Liam Neeson is a badass for whom I hold an unabashed adoration. Action flick, comedy, or drama, I'll watch it just because Liam Neeson is in it. Plus... I mean, the man did voice acting for Fallout 3. How can you not love that?

Now that we've established my near worshipful feelings for Mr. Neeson, you can understand how excited I was when I first saw the previews for Taken. Action movie starring Liam Neeson - and it gets better - written by Luc Besson! My favorite movie genre with one of my favorite actors. Umm... yes please? This caused me to overlook a few things that should have been glaringly obvious.

Premise: CIA spook Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) has retired from government service to attempt to rebuild a relationship with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Kim runs off to Paris for summer vacation with a friend, and while on the phone with her father, is kidnapped by an organization of slavers specializing in forcing girls into prostitution. Bryan flies to Paris and comes down on the organization like the wrath of God in single minded pursuit of his daughter's kidnappers.

Okay. Liam Neeson was fantastic, as always. And this movie had a lot of really great elements. Fight scenes that were well choreographed and filmed, great one-liners, satisfying explosions... it was an action movie. But honestly, if I didn't like Liam Neeson so much, I'd be slamming this movie a hell of a lot harder.

This all goes back to my very strong feelings about torture in entertainment (yeah, I know I couple of you are saying I told you so). Once again, the "good guy" - loving father just desperate to get his daughter back - resorts to torture to gain information that he needs. Without even batting an eye.

Now, my feelings about this one are complicated. What wouldn't you do to get your child back from a ring of slavers? Especially if you had already found a trailer full of drugged girls prepared to be raped, and were imagining your daughter going through the same thing? Would you electrocute a man into telling you what you need to know to find her? Unfortunately the scene is treated cavalierly and no consequences are presented, as usual, and the end of the scene is shockingly brutal.

Actually, there are scenes throughout the entire film that are shockingly brutal. From his apparent complete lack of compassion when in the trailer with the bound and drugged women, to the torture scene, to his shooting an innocent woman in the arm ("It's a flesh wound. But if you don't get me what I need, the last thing you'll see before I make your children orphans is the bullet I put between her eyes"), it all adds up to his character being a single minded, unfeeling monster. Not a good way to portray your main character.

The last thing that left me with a sour taste in my mouth was the complete lack of any sort of attempt to put a stop to the women trafficking. Maybe there was something that got left on the editing room floor, but the film left you with the impression that Liam Neeson saved his daughter and just decided to pretend he didn't know about the fact that young girls were being kidnapped, drugged, raped, and forced into prostitution. "Lalalala, I have my daughter back, all is well in the world, wheeeee!"

It was disappointing. This movie had great potential, but smothered all the good things it had going for it with a cold, mostly unlikeable main character (he was adorable and sweet for the first fifteen minutes) and a profoundly unsatisfying ending.

"If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

Monday Perspectives: Anxiety Dreams

2009-02-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

In my dream, I was playing World of Warcraft and suddenly decided I needed to buy a strategy guide for instances and raids. I was unimpressed with the wealth of information online, and wanted to be able to page through a book. I hopped in the car and headed to my local game store where I found the shelves completely bare except for the book I wanted.

"What's going on here?" I asked the clerk, surprised. I gestured to the empty store. "Are you guys moving?"

"All the game stores in Washington are closing down," he told me forlornly. "The economy is so bad, no one's buying video games."

I was struck speechless, horrified, imagining not being able to wander into the store and browse the used section, looking for a good deal. It was too heart wrenching to comtemplate, so I turned to the one item left on the shelf, the World of Warcraft Instance and Raid strategy guide.

"Two hundred fifty dollars?!" I cried.

"Sorry," the clerk said, and started playing with his PSP.

I stared at the book, trying desperately to figure out how to work that two hundred into my budget when I - woke up.

It's funny how sometimes when you have a dream you know exactly why you had it. I live down a couple of side roads off a main thoroughfare that was once lined with businesses. The RV dealer is long gone, and one by one parking lots that were once packed full of shiny new cars have been emptying as the dealerships declare bankruptcy. The movie theater parking lot is sparsely populated, even on a Friday night. The coffee stand looks sad and alone without the usual stream of cars going through.

Small restaurants, coffee shops, car dealerships, tiny local stores.... all disappearing. It's one thing to read about the suffering economy in the news. It seems alarming in the abstract, yet clearly someone else's problem. After all, no matter what the news says, things are fine. Yes, I will stick my head in the sand, thank you. Then people you know start losing their jobs.

I've been thinking about it a lot as I work my way out of a hole I dug for myself with my finances. I'm extremely fortunate in the fact that my grandmother, who had a career in the banking industry, has been willing to act as my financial advisor and help me climb back up. I'm becoming acutely aware of how important money management is, and how imperative it is that we live within our means.

I'm not really sure where I originally intended to go with this post. All I can think about right now is how grateful I am that I don't have much debt and that I still have a job. And the fact that I'm profoundly grateful it's not up to me to fix everything. So that secret movement to take over the government and install me as Supreme Dictator... yeah, let's hold off for a little while on that, okay?

World of Warcraft Controversy

2009-01-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

I originally posted this on Power Word: Totem, but thought it was worth another post. It may be World of Warcraft related, but it has enough real world significance that I threw it on here as well. Plus, I'm having some serious writers block. Give me a break. ^_^

The Art of Persuasion.

I was playing World of Warcraft and running my toon Härpy around the Borean Tundra powering through quests when she ran into that one. It took me by surprise. I carefully read the quest text, then re-read it.

"It is fortunate you're here, Troll.

You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these.

You, however, as an outsider, are not bound by such restrictions and could take any steps necessary in the retrieval of information.

Do what you must. We need to know where Lady Evanor is being held at once!

I'll just busy myself organizing these shelves here. Oh, and here, perhaps you'll find this old thing useful.... "

"WTF is THIS?!" I typed incredulously to my boyfriend. "I'm being told to torture a prisoner?"

Until just recently, America had a president in office who staunchly defended the use of torture techniques. Movies, television shows, and video games constantly glorify that barbaric approach to gaining information, and suddenly I was faced with my favorite game jumping on the filthy bandwagon.

I used to scoff at the idea that the entertainment industry was the cause of violent crimes. When the Columbine shooting occurred I shrieked in outrage every time I read an article that held metal bands responsible. "I listen to metal, and I'M not about to go shoot up a school," I snapped. "How about some personal accountability!" But since then I've seen our entertainment become more realistic and grim, and witnessed the emergence of the "torture porn" cinematic genre. When Hostel was released, I'm ashamed to say I went to go see it. Within the first half of the film I literally felt sick to my stomach, but worse than the film was the fact that I was surrounded by young men who laughed through the entire duration of the movie.

I am still reluctant to blame the media, blame entertainment. It still feels like a cop out to me, a way to dodge the personal responsibility. But I don't think there's any escaping the fact that we are building a culture of desensitization - perhaps have built. And I know that this quest seems insignificant. Click, click, the prisoner says a few cheesy lines, and it's done. From how I look at it, it feels like all Blizzard is doing is adding to the commonplace nature of torture, and not only that, promoting it. What does Librarian Normantis say to you?

"You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these."

Even in desperate times such as these. I say that in desperate times such as these, and by that I mean the world we, as players, have to inhabit in real life, we need to stand up and object to this casual integration of brutality into our every day entertainment.

This is a smaller point, but one I'd still like to mention.

Children play this game.

I'm a twenty-four year old adult, I was raised with very strong moral values, and I know the difference between right and wrong. World of Warcraft is rated "Teen", and I know twelve year olds who play. Now don't get me wrong, I believe very strongly that parents should be involved in what their children are doing, and the games that their children are playing. But even if you're an attentive parent and you're watching your fourteen year old play WoW here and there, it seems all right. Cartoony graphics, bloodless battle. Odds are you probably wouldn't notice the quests to torture helpless prisoners slipped in there under the radar. What's next, torture in children's books?

And don't even get me started on Forsaken biological warfare.

A Lack of Vehicular Mishaps

2009-01-27T16:22:00.000-08:00

I've been extremely fortunate to have never found myself in a vehicle versus vehicle battle to the death, which is how I tend to think of car accidents. The closest I've ever come was running into a deer going 55 mph. The poor suicidal thing leapt right out in front of me, leaving me literally no time to react. Even if I could have swerved, I wouldn't have. Huge trees on one side and a steady stream of oncoming traffic also going 55 mph makes that decision pretty easy. The deer, a fairly small specimen, crunched in the hood of my car and nearly came through my windshield. My insurance barely covered it.

If a wee little deer could cause that much damage, then what could one of those giant behemoth trucks do to my small Suzuki Esteem? This isn't something I ever really want to find out, and I find myself shooting baleful looks at the huge trucks and SUVs whenever I see them. "You constantly park in parking spaces too small for your size almost blocking me in, you're bad for the environment, AND you'd probably kill me if you rear ended me," I think viciously at them.

Never in any of my imagined scenarios of death-by-behemoth-truck did I imagine that I would be the one doing the colliding. But that was nearly what happened this morning. Nearly being the key word there - I still have never been in a car accident.

When I got up I was profoundly irritated to find that it was snowing again. I've had enough of snow this winter, and I swear if I see one more flake come down before next year, there's going to be anger terrible to behold. And possibly tears. I swore, incredulously told my kitty to look out the window, then sighed and went about my morning routine. There was barely any snow on the ground and I knew it was supposed to warm up, so I figured I would at least try to get to work.

I drove slowly down my side roads up to the main drag, and everything seemed fine. The roads weren't slick, and I didn't detect even a hint of ice. Until I got up to the main road. There was an enormous truck in front of me, his brake lights coming on just as I reached the speed limit. I pressed my brakes. Aaaaand.... as I'm sure you've guessed.... nothing happened. I kept slipping and sliding along a huge, random patch of ice, yelling "stop, fuck, stop!"

I managed to get my car over to the shoulder where there wasn't any ice right before plowing headlong into the bed of the truck. I think I've said this before, but I have no snow/ice driving skills. None. I think it's pretty amazing that I managed to stop.

I almost turned the car around and went home, but I found I was absolutely terrified of that stretch of road. Better to continue on to work than to chance something like that happening again. Which really is too bad - I totally could have squeezed an extra couple of hours in bed out of that one. "It's to icy for me to get to work. I'll be in as soon as it warms up a little." Such a wasted opportunity.

I'm still convinced that somehow it was the behemoth truck's fault. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll figure it out. Don't worry.

Bits and Pieces: January Edition

2009-01-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

I cleaned out my fridge two weeks ago, and it's taken me this long to be able to talk about it. It was terrible... the horrors... I just.... no. I can't. Not yet.

I went to go see My Bloody Valentine 3D opening day. Except... the 3D part? I wish. I was all excited about seeing flames and pickaxes and murder victims flying off the screen at me (and I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't have been upset about shirtless 3D Jensen Ackles), but apparently my town is small and backwards enough that my local theater didn't have the correct projectors to play the movie in 3D. If I wanted to see it in 3D my options were to either take the ferry into Seattle, which would cost an arm and a leg plus taking over an hour, or drive all the way to the next county. Because none of the theaters in my neck of the woods were playing the flick in 3D. ERRRRGGGHHH. But despite the disappointment, Jensen Ackles was still hot.

I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft (I know, big shock) and I'm ready to kick my WoW blog, Power Word: Totem, back into gear. I took a deep breath and erased the 20-odd posts or so that were already there and decided to start fresh. The Matriarch of my collection of random toons, Harpy, dinged 74 the other day. She's slowly forcing her way to 80.

I spent some voluntary time at work this weekend working on my Adobe Illustrater training program. Watching the training videos made me feel like I was watching a bad stand up comedian. Mr. Illustrator Trainer made an attempt to be funny with this gem: "While holding down your mouse button, hold shift, ctrl, and alt to do xxx. But now we need to change this other thing. You're out of hands! Unless you're an octopus. But if you're an octopus, I guess you don't have any hands, just tentacles! HAHAHAHA!" Really? Who thought it was a good idea to record you while you're sounding like an idiot?

Ancient History

2009-01-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, before Becca had a Blogspot blog, she had a Livejournal. The year was 2004, which would make Becca 19 (but she turned 20 in September '04). During this period of time Becca was still living with her parents and two sisters. She hadn't yet made the move to her first apartment (and by apartment I mean glorified 350(ish) square foot garden shed in someone's back yard), and in fact didn't even have a driver's license yet.

Becca was having a blast dating a fantastic guy named Ian (whom she has remained friends with), and was working part time as a glass blower's assistant and as an office assistant at the real estate company where she still works - though now, five years later, she has her real estate license and the back of her business card says "Listing/Marketing Coordinator".

Becca posted intermittently in her Livejournal, and used a small JPEG of Tank Girl as her profile picture. Her posts were generally short and used more as a communication device with her friends, since when Becca had a Livejournal all her friends had a Livejournal too.

Perusing Becca's old Livejournal entries were somewhat amusing:

"March 10th, 2004:

I just finished watching the second disc of 'V'. LIZARD BABIES!! HAHA!!! LIZARD BABIES!!!"

Stellar entry. Becca conveyed her thoughts so intelligently, yet left her opinion open to disagreement and healthy debate...

What's next? Ah yes, parts two and three of "The Housesitting Saga".

"March 13th, 2004:

Still housesitting. Still watching bad movies on the Sci-Fi channel. Tonight it was 'Snakehead Terror'. I decided not to watch 'Shark Hunter' which was on after 'Snakehead Terror' because I've already seen it.

Wow. That's sad. "

"March 14th, 2004:

Sci Fi channel movies watched today include 'Return of the Living Dead 3', 'Day of the Dead', 'Route 666', and 'Dagon.' Still bored."

Absolutely RIVETING! Before Becca was posting her painfully amateur movie reviews, she was simply listing off the titles!

"June 28th, 2004:

"Post offices are evil! I've always hated post offices, maybe even been a little afraid of them, and Nils made me go into one! I knew something bad was going to happen because of this, and I was right! We walked into the post office, deposited the mail in the proper receptacle, got back in the car and started it, and the CD player stopped working!!! It won't even eject the CDs that are already in it, so it has effectively eaten my Therion CD! Post offices are EVIL!"

Apparently Becca was once superstitious about.... post offices?

"August 29th, 2004:

So I dreamed last night that we all went to Oregon, and when we got there Sean told us that his shower was possessed by an evil spirit and we couldn't use it. O_O So we decided that we all had to take a shower, so we hung like fifty crosses up in his bathroom. We came back later, and all the crosses were upside down, the shower was still possessed, and we still couldn't use it. XD"

Then Becca actually went to Sean's apartment in Oregon, and was relieved to find that his shower was not, in fact, possessed.

"September 9th, 2004:

Well, I'm being hired as an artist's model for $15 an hour for two weekends this month. The glassblowing studio where I work is hosting a head/shoulders sculpting workshop and one of the people I work with is taking it and asked me if I wanted the modeling job. O_o I've never even thought about doing something like this before, but hey, $15 an hour to walk around and look serious. I can do that. XD "

Becca has a slew of photos that she took of the roomful of clay sculptures that were fashioned in her likeness. It's sort of creepy.

Okay, I'm done talking about myself in the third person.

It was fun re-reading a year's worth of silly journal posts from 2004 (I can't quite make myself call that LJ a blog). It made me a little nostalgic for the days of no bills, staying up until 6AM playing video games, and dating Ian. Things were a lot easier back then, and I had a blast.

2004 was a good year.

Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can dredge up some photos from '04 - the days before I had a digital camera - and scan them!

Irritation of the day

2009-01-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

I just have something quick. Something that's been bugging me since this morning.

WHY have they not invented panty hose in some kind of material that doesn't catch and tear on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING???? ERRRGGHH!!!

If I'm wearing a skirt it's impossible to not wear them - it's cold outside, and feels vaguely unprofessional to show up at work with bare legs in the middle of winter. And even though I always do my absolute damndest to try to keep them from tearing, it's inevitable that within two hours of leaving my house they'll be completely destroyed.

I believe that the person who invented panty hose did so as an evil scheme to separate women from their money. And IT'S WORKING.

>_<

Resident Evil: Degeneration Movie Review

2009-01-13T09:00:00.001-08:00

Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)

**1/2 out of ****

Because I have a deep, abiding love for zombie movies/games and Resident Evil titles in particular (despite my disappointment in the last live action Resident Evil flick), when I discovered that Capcom had created a CG Resident Evil movie, I immediately popped onto the computer and added it to the good old Netflix queue. So now, because it's been about a trillion years since I added to my list of amateur movie reviews, I'm posting about it!

Premise: Zombies. This time in an airport. Enter the infamous Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. After escaping the airport, they trace the outbreak to a terrorist organization and suddenly there's a guy who turns himself into a giant monster, and... umm... there were zombies. And stunning CG. Is it my fault I didn't pay attention to the plot?

Really, I don't even know why I'm bothering to review this. If you've played the Resident Evil games, you're going to get a kick out of seeing Leon and Claire running around killing zombies in mind blowing CG. This is hardly a film to showcase phenomenal acting or sharp writing. The plot is sort of incomprehensible (though that may have been because I was half asleep through the last third of the film) and the characters typically one dimensional. But hey! It's not only a movie based on a video game, it's a CG movie based on a video game that was produced by Capcom! You can't expect too much from that!

Confusing plot, poor writing, and over the top voice acting aside, I really enjoyed this flick. Really, my only complaint is that at 97 minutes it felt too long. I could have lived with a shorter version. There is only so much Capcom driven CG zombie/mutant madness I can handle without starting to get a little irritated.

Well, that and I kept reaching for my X-Box 360 controller because I couldn't shake the feeling that this was the new Resident Evil game and the intro was about to end.

Oh, did I mention the neat CG?

Split personality

2009-01-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

This is me:

This is ALSO me:

They're going to lock me up one day.

Why I've decided to keep a diary

2009-01-08T12:40:00.001-08:00

I decided this year that I need to start writing in a diary again. I was pretty good about writing when I was fifteen and sixteen, and let me tell you, re-reading the things I wrote back then is freaking hilarious! The angst! The drama! In addition to the hilarity, it really makes me happy that I'm not a teenager any more.

Humor is not the reason I want to keep a diary again, although it probably will be pretty funny to look back in ten years at my twenties ("the angst, the drama!" my thirty-four year old self will giggle). No, the real reason is that if I'm unexpectedly murdered, I want the attractive police detective or FBI agent to have something juicy to search for clues in.

I get such a kick out of reading a book or watching a movie where someone is murdered and the investigator discovers the treasure trove of wicked little secrets - The Diary - in the victim's bedroom. Stories of stalkers, illicit affairs, furious parents... all held within the pages of The Diary, and inevitably leading to the arrest of the murderer.

Now, if I was murdered, the attractive cop or FBI agent wouldn't have a diary to read, thus lowering the chances of my murderer being caught. Clearly this problem needs to be rectified, because we never know when we might find a serial killer waiting for us in our coat closet.

My diary won't be a composition notebook like it was when I was fifteen, nor will it be a cute or pretty book with 'Diary' emblazoned on the cover. No, mine will be a forbidding, thick, leather bound tome that I'll keep hidden under the false bottom of a dresser drawer. The detective who finds it will feel a chill when he touches the cover, not quite able to bring himself to pick it up yet, because a book like that just screams 'scandal'!

Of course, it will be quite a let down when the detective starts reading:

"Jan. 6: Came home for lunch today. I had a peanut butter sandwich and some vegetable beef soup. SOOO GOOD! Kitty has fleas again."

"Jan. 7: I remembered to pick up some Advantage at the vet's office for kitty. Pat's coming over. We're going to play Grand Theft Auto and watch Resident Evil movies! Yay!"

"Jan 8: Forgot to set my alarm last night! I've never gotten ready for work so fast!"

Obviously I'm going to have to introduce some more scandal to my life to make sure my diary isn't a disappointment in the event of my murder. On the plus side, my blog will get a lot more interesting! Don't expect all the details of my new, scandal-filled life, though - I have to leave some secrets for The Diary!

It's not an obsession

2009-01-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

I don't think I'm obsessed.

Do you?

Okay, so maybe that's a question that I don't actually need answered right now. Sleep on it. See how you feel in the morning. Then let me know.

Tragically, it's been over a month since I've been able to get my weekly Supernatural fix. Even though I'm not crazy about the direction the show is taking this season, and in fact spent the last two brand new episodes snarling futilely at Pat about how angry it's making me... I WANT TO WATCH A NEW EPISODE. You might be thinking this is mostly because Jensen Ackles is divinely beautiful, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Up until now the show has been amazing, and I've been singing it's praises since I first started watching it. I watched it for its brilliant writing, great acting, and magnetic story. Jensen Ackles was just a bonus. A huge bonus, granted, but just a bonus. Now, though... with the writing slipping so much, it is starting to turn into a 'damn, I really want to watch Jensen Ackles in something new' rather than a 'I can't wait until the next episode! SO EXCITED!'

I think the show starts airing again next week, and I'm clinging desperately to the hope that the writers will haul it out of its slump and make me fall in love with it again.

BUT! Even if the next brand new Supernatural episode doesn't grace our televisions next week, I have something else to look forward to:

Coming out January 16th!

Why would I be looking forward to My Bloody Valentine 3D? Aside from the fact that it's a horror flick in 3D, of course. Who wouldn't want to go see a 3D horror film?

Well, this:

Yes, Jensen Ackles stars in My Bloody Valentine.

Come on. You know you're excited!

I know there's not much substance to this post. But seriously, with two whole photos of Ackles, do we really need substance?

Learning to Knit

2009-01-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy doing things with thread and yarn. I sometimes cross stitch, but not very often. I'm working on a pattern so epic that I really need to be able to sit down and work on it for a couple of hours to make dragging out all my materials worth the effort. But yarn... ahh, quick and easy, instant satisfaction.

I know how to crochet, or at least I know how to crochet one thing. It's called a granny square. When I crochet a granny square, I have a process. I assemble a huge amount of yarn of all different colors, work on it until it's big enough to cover a queen sized bed, and call it an "ugly blanket". TaDA! Finished!

My mom had been bugging me about learning to knit off and on for a long time, and I had been resisting. 'I'm not even remotely interested,' I told her. Two straight sticks that looked like I should only pick them up to eat Chinese food seemed a bit overwhelming compared to my single crochet hook. I couldn't fathom how knitting could possibly work. Then one random day I suddenly decided for no reason whatsoever that I needed to learn how to knit. So I went over to my mom's house, and she taught me the basics. A couple days later I had finished my first dishcloth (apparently I have perfect tension, yay!), and mom taught me a few more stitches.

There are just so many things one can knit! Sweaters, hats, gloves, and scarves, of course - but did you know there are also patterns out there for things like knitted penis (complete with balls) shaped chap stick holders?

I'm inspired to continue to learn about knitting. I never had any ambitions with crochet, I was more than happy with the one thing I knew how to do and had no interest in learning anything else. But with knitting I'm excited about learning more and being able to do more and more advanced things. You know, like penis shaped chap stick holders!

Being mauled by a rabid cat

2008-12-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

While I was getting ready for work today (and by that I mean that I was rooting through my clean laundry hamper trying desperately to find clean clothes that matched) I was thinking to myself, gee, self, you should really think of something to write about. Fortunately, my sweet, loving, adorable little kitty decided to help out.

"You need something to write about?" her wicked little eyes seemed to say. "Here, I'll give you something to write about!" She launched herself at my defenseless hand and gashed my forefinger and thumb with her vicious claws, then ran off, chuckling to herself.

I was struck speechless as I watched the wounds instantly start gushing blood, mostly because I couldn't figure out which profanity to utter in my cat's general direction.

This was what it felt like attacked me:

But this is what actually attacked me:

I'm beginning to see a striking similarity.

In other news, I was tagged by Heather Rose over at Mad Madam Mim's Mimsy (absolutely LOVE that blog title) to list seven quirky things about me. And even though I'm having trouble thinking about anything other than the fact that my finger and thumb look like they got trapped in a running garbage disposal, I'm going to give it a shot!

1. In my computer room, I have a big piece of black posterboard tacked above my desk. On it are a slew of band stickers from a bunch of concerts I attended several years ago, because at one point I thought it would be neat to have a collage of band stickers. On black posterboard. >_<>

2. Speaking of Into Eternity, I was at one point determined to have a one night stand with bassist Troy Bleich.* And actually may still be determined to have a one night stand with Troy Bleich.

3. There was a time when I absolutely hated olives. Any kind of olives. But I just thought they were so neat that I desperately wanted to like them. So every time they were available I would force myself to have one or two, and now actually enjoy limited amounts of black olives on pizza and sub sandwiches, and almond stuffed green olives. Behold my awesome willpower!

4. I have never had a cavity. (knock on wood!)

5. I hate wasting soda, but I can rarely drink a whole can. So, to remedy this problem, I'll put the partially finished soda in my fridge with the full intention of finishing it later. Of course I never do, so if you ever open my fridge you're likely to find at least two or three forgotten half empty soda cans forlornly awaiting being emptied and tossed in the recycling.

6. I don't mind cleaning my bathroom, but hate cleaning my kitchen. I usually have a clean sink and toilet, and a counterful of dirty dishes.

7. My cat is psychotic and bent on destroying my hands, but I love her to death anyway. ^_^

The rules were to tag seven people, but I'm tagging anyone who wants to share their quirkiness with the internet! But since I don't completely disregard authority, here are the original rules:

Link to your original tagger(s).

Share seven facts about yourself in the post-some random, some weird.

Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs/twitter.

List these rules.

*I got closer to achieving this goal than I would ever have thought possible, by which I mean I actually hung out and had a beer with Troy after a few of his shows, and he remembered who I was. Then I stopped going to concerts because I was broke. Pretty sure he wouldn't remember me now. *sigh*

Snow makes me CRANKY

2008-12-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

I know I've been absent, right after I promised I would get back to posting. But here in my little corner of western Washington we were smacked hard with about nine or twelve or a thousand inches of snow. This might not sound like a lot, but it's rare for us to get more than an inch or two maybe once or twice a year. And when I say rare I mean that the last time it snowed this hard was probably about twelve years ago.

Unfortunately this means that the entire town grinds to a screeching halt. Roads don't get plowed or sanded until you're ready to start screaming in frustration, and even then it's only the main roads that are cleared, and none of the little side roads that people actually live on. My neighbor's friend actually had to haul my car up three side streets to the main drag with his giant truck so I could get to my parent's house yesterday.

And by the way, Neighbor's-Friend-Whose-Name-I-Didn't-Catch, I love you forever and am leaving everything I own to you in my will.

I was stuck and unable to get anywhere under my own power for a week. That's enough to make you sort of hostile. Cranky. Somewhat homicidal, even. I still can't park in my driveway, so every time I have to go somewhere I have to tromp through eight billion miles of snow, ice, and slush to get to my car. Which means I'm wearing jeans and work boots to work today, but hey, I'm AT WORK so if anyone complains I'm going to kick them in the shins. And these work boots? Steel toed.

Whew. Sorry. Still sort of cranky. Anyway, all that is why I haven't really felt like posting.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I certainly did. You know, after my father and grandfather had to come out and push my car down their unplowed side road after I got stuck halfway down.

Five things

2008-12-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

So I know I said there would be a real post coming soon. I have two posts written and saved, but the accompanying photos are still living in my camera because I haven't had time to transfer them to my computer*. After expending all my creative energy writing two whole posts I was completely tapped.

Fortunately the 20Something Blogger December carnival topic came to my rescue.

"A wishlist of 5 items, one for each sense (that's an item for sight, one for smell, etc)"

Sight

That's right. Jensen Ackles. Even though Supernatural is on hiatus until next month, The Most Beautiful Man Alive still finds his way onto my blog. If someone could give him a call and tell him he needs to come live with me, that would be great. Thanks!

Smell

Most incense can instantly put me in a good mood. It's relaxing and smells wonderful. On the rare occasions that I am actually motivated to clean the bio hazard zone (a.k.a. my home) I love burning some incense right after I finish cleaning.

Touch

Yesterday I visited a local yarn store and spent nearly my entire lunch hour just touching and marveling over all the different textures. I love yarn.

Hearing

Dropkick Murphys. One of my all time favorite bands to see live. I've seen them three or four times now, and I've never walked away saying, "well, that could have been better." They always put on a fantastic show. They're playing again in Seattle on the 23rd of February. If you need me, I'll be in the pit.

Taste

*SWOON*

*In other words, I am exceptionally lazy.

Bits and Pieces: December Edition

2008-12-12T08:55:00.001-08:00

After a bit of a hiatus which may or may not have been caused by a sudden obsession with 'Bones', I'm back! And because I'm sure you're wondering what I've been up to for the past couple of weeks....

I... uh.... watched a lot of 'Bones'. Two whole seasons to be exact.

I got my Christmas tree! I visited a tree farm with the full intention of finding the ugliest tree I could in the reject pile (a.k.a. the clearance area) and despite my best efforts, actually ended up with a really nice looking tree!

I got my eyes examined to the tune of $257. Because everyone loves an extra $257 bill to pay, especially in December. It's not like we have anything else that we need to spent that money on, like gifts. Oh, wait....

I learned how to knit! Which has been a lot more fun than I expected it to be! I am rocking those knitted dishcloths. Although I have yet to figure out what one is actually supposed to do with a dishcloth...

I've had a conniption fit two weeks in a row when I rushed over to Pat's house to watch Supernatural only to discover the episode to be a rerun. I knew they were breaking over the holidays, but I was thinking they were back by now. Last night after enduring my shrieks of rage at the television (the only expression I could find for my now extremely severe Supernatural Withdrawal) Pat looked the show up on the internet and pointed out that the next new episode wouldn't be aired until January 15th. ERRRRGH.

I realized that it's been so long since I got new Netflix that my little Netflix widget shows that there has been no recent activity on my account. And by 'recent' I'm pretty sure they mean there hasn't been any activity for, oh, six months? Time to put the movies in the mail...

I also caught up on all my favorite blogs, and while doing so, realized that Sleepyjane has presented me with the Superior Scribbler award (which she probably would not have done if she'd known I was going to go AWOL just to sit in front of a TV and watch 'Bones'). Go visit Sleepyjane's blog, she's wonderful!

I would like to pass the Superior Scribbler award on to some wonderful writers that I've recently discovered. Each of these bloggers are most definitely Superior Scribblers.

Arjewtino

Miss Musing

Wild ARS Chase

Misunderstood Milly

Music Musings (okay so this one isn't new, but he's finally posting again! Yay Andrew!)

I'll be back with a real post later, promise. ^_^

I had a dream the other night...

2008-12-01T13:07:00.001-08:00

I was a crazy bad ass special agent who had the power to turn back time by several minutes at will. I had an important mission to save the Dalai Lama from something dire, but I needed the help of an old friend of mine, a female mercenary.

I found her house looking fairly ominous. Before I could walk up to the door and knock, the mercenary and a second woman came leaping out of second floor windows, landing to my right and left, while a man appeared in the front doorway. They all started shooting me. I pulled my guns and started to shoot back, then stopped. Faintly irritated, I thought 'well THIS isn't going to work' and turned back time.

I finally got the mercenary to join me, and we went to visit a Haitian soothsayer who could see the future. We reached her house and walked in without knocking. She had hundreds of tiny snakes held in jars of embalming fluid all over the house. I immediately got the creeps and told the mercenary that we had to leave. She told me not to be stupid, and we wandered around until we found the Haitian. As soon as she saw me, she threw a handful of tiny venomous snakes into my face, and I turned back time.

We decided to forget about the Haitian.

I finally reached were I was supposed to be and found that I had to impersonate the Dalai Lama. This sort of seemed somewhat blasphemous, but I was doing it to save his life. I disguised myself by putting on some robes.... and that was it. Prepared and clearly looking exactly like the Dalai Lama, I went out to sit cross legged on the roof of a car for some kind of procession. I was openly armed with two swords, two guns in shoulder holsters, and a Rambo knife. Everyone was fooled by my ingenious disguise. At the end of the procession, the bad guys finally saw through my charade, and I was forced to engage in an epic action movie battle that would have made an action hero you could name proud.

It was awesome.

Things to be thankful for

2008-12-01T09:36:00.001-08:00

My Thanksgiving was wonderful. I spent a good five hours or so with my parents, grandparents, sisters, and one sister's boyfriend. There were traditional dishes like turkey, gravy, stuffing, crumb coated potatoes, and green bean casserole, along with the slightly different brussel sprout thing* and pumpkin rolls. I ate myself into a coma - almost literally. Directly after dinner I staggered to the sofa where I promptly fell asleep for an hour, despite repeated attempts to keep me awake by my little sister. I even missed the call for dessert. Falling asleep was no mean feat, especially since when we're all together, my family is very loud.

My favorite part of the evening was when I sat with my two younger sisters reminiscing about the past and sharing our fond memories of each other.

Caroline, 19, chuckled at a sudden thought. "Hey, remember that time years ago that you dragged me up the stairs by my hair to do your chores?"

I laughed. "Oooh yeah, I remember that! Matt was over!"

"Yeah, and he thought it was hilarious!" Caroline looked down at her arms. "Your nails were all long, and you scratched me up."

"Now that part was an accident."

"Oh, I know!" Caroline grinned. "But the pulling me up the stairs by my hair part wasn't."

"What about that time you threw a glass of water on me when I was in bed asleep, and I chased you up the stairs, punched you a few times, then repeatedly slammed your head into the wall with the door!" I shook my head, remembering the event. "I was in a rage!"

Caroline burst out laughing. "OF COURSE! I was terrified! If I'd only run just a little bit faster I would have made it to Mom's room, locked the door, and gone out the window!"

"Teach you to throw water on me," I said with a laugh.

Susannah, 11, smiled smugly. "I was an angel."

I gave her a look. "Oh please. You were an unholy terror. You were biting way past when you should not have been biting any more. I was hauling you to your room for time out once, and you bit me so hard you drew blood through my sweatshirt."

"I remember the biting," Caroline groaned.

At this point my dad, who had been watching us, laughing intermittently but mostly just staring, broke in. "Do you guys have any good memories of each other?" he asked.

Silence.

Caroline sobered, lost in thought, then visibly brightened as she turned to me. "You read the Shannara books out loud to me! That was great!"

"That was great," I agreed.

Silence.

"Umm.... that's about it," I said to my dad.

We all laughed.

We were joking around, of course. We've had a lot of really great times together that didn't involve violence. I realize that the conversation related above makes us sound like homicidal maniacs (me, especially), but I promise we're not. We were rambunctious kids always testing the limits with each other, and these things that seem to horrific when hearing about them for the first time have really turned into a huge source of amusement for my sisters and I. "Hey, remember that time when you kicked me in the face and broke my glasses"** is always great for a laugh, however strange that may sound.

It sounds cheesy, this last holiday being Thanksgiving an all, but it's times like that, when we're all together and having a good time, that reminds me to be thankful for my family. Thankful that we're all together and relatively healthy and sane. We may fight bitterly at times, we may go through as many awful patches as good ones, but there really is no replacement for family.

Now if only the aunt, uncles, and cousins would move here from the east coast, we'd be set!

How was your Thanksgiving?

*The brussel sprout thing and I have a love/hate relationship. I hate looking at it, but then I eat it and I love it but hate it at the same time because even though it tastes really good I can't stand the texture. Then I look at it and think, "I don't want any more" but I remember how good it tasted so I try it one more time and love it but hate it too....

**That was Caroline kicking me in the face. Just for clarification.

When you lose your keys...

2008-11-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

This morning I really did not want to get up. And when I say I really didn't want to get up, I mean that I repeatedly pushed the snooze button for the alarms on both my clock and my phone until the alarm on my phone stopped displaying a snooze option.

I rolled out of bed, blinked blearily, and started looking for clothes. My cat was curled up asleep on my bed so I poked at her. "If I have to wake up, you have to wake up," I snapped waspishly. It was childish and mean, but Stella just blinked her big eyes at me, stretched luxuriously, then curled up into a furry ball and went back to sleep.

I went through the rest of my morning ritual in a daze, mostly thinking about the fact that I have a four day weekend coming up and I would be able to sleep in for all four of those days. Aside from the yearning for my bed, the morning was going fairly smoothly until I was ready to walk out the door and couldn't find my keys.

I don't lose my keys. I just don't. There are three places I put them when I walk in the door; my dining room table, a basket on top of my tower speaker, or the front pocket in my battered old leather jacket. They were in none of these places. I checked the kitchen (actually clean for once), the mess on my dining room table, the living room, the computer room where I had spent most of the evening playing World of Warcraft, my bedroom, even the bathroom. They were nowhere. Mystification quickly turned into panic when I realized I was running late.

"Kitty, where are my KEYS?!" I shrieked.

Stella, of course, refused to get up and help me find them. Which in retrospect was probably in retaliation for my behavior towards her earlier.

I finally dug my spare car key out of a jar filled with pens, spare change, gum, inch long plastic ninjas, and an earring, tromped out to my car, scraped the ice off my windshield with a seldom used credit card, and went to work ten minutes late.

I found my keys three hours later in my purse.

It's just one of those days.

Recovering

2008-11-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

Well, after being sick Friday through Monday I finally feel almost human again. Awful headache and wracking cough aside, that is. Sitting around at home being too miserable to enjoy the three day weekend I ended up having left me lots of time to reflect on deep, philosophical truths.

Reflections on being sick:

It sucks.

Reflections on cold remedies:

If you put enough Jameson in your vanilla nut tea with honey, you will start to feel much better.

Reflections on sneezing 50,000 times:

Ouch.

Reflections on bad movies:

While Scott Speedman is very attractive, he is still a terrible actor. His presence does not make watching Underworld: Evolution acceptable. At all.

Reflections on World of Warcraft:

If you're sick and spend all day on the computer playing WoW, you will get an even worse headache. Also, there are too many Death Knights.

Reflections on Thanksgiving:

I'm actually going to have a four day weekend that I can enjoy!

Reflections on blogging:

Too sick. Leave me alone.

Reflections on working out and the gym:

Too sick. Leave me alone.

Reflections on CONTINUING to forgot to put the Netflix in the mail:

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Reflections on my family:

They bring me cold medicine when I am sick and cranky and don't want to leave the house. Also, Mom is very sympathetic and lets me whine as much as I want. Which is a lot.

Reflections on my boyfriend:

Pat takes very good care of me. Unfortunately also facilitates spending too much time on WoW.

Reflections on being back at work:

Reflections on that photo:

Too sick. Leave me alone.

Bits and Pieces vol. 2

2008-11-20T09:37:00.001-08:00

I have an amazing story to tell that involves time travel and amateur haircuts, but I must wait until I get the photos off my phone before telling that story. It's just not as good without visuals. So until then, we have bullets!

I've felt like I've been getting a cold for the past two days, and I still can't tell if I'm really getting sick, or if it's just really bad allergies. Regardless, I'm cranky. My sinuses are so pressurized I feel like my face might explode, I have a headache, my nose won't stop running, and my throat is scratchy. SEE?! I AM JUSTIFIED IN MY CRANKINESS!

I got to play a little bit of Fallout 3 last night, and.... WOW. Just WOW. I need an X-box 360. Now would be nice.

Pat is helping me put my new DVD drive into my computer this evening before Supernatural so I can finally install Wrath of the Lich King! /cheer!

Speaking of Pat, I learned that when Pat assures me that he didn't ruin the ramen noodles, he actually did ruin the ramen noodles. Next time he is not allowed to "fix" the ramen. It's one of the few things I actually can prepare without having an anxiety attack. I will handle it.

The new gym I joined is amazing. Easily the cleanest, best smelling gym I've ever been in. Cardio machines all benefit from the several fans affixed to the ceiling (but not ceiling fans, real fans), there are rows of flat panel televisions on the walls, and sparkling new equipment. I still haven't gone as much as I should have, mainly because I haven't really felt all that great.

My phone is still amazing.

I just spellchecked this post before publishing it, and you would not believe the amount of typos I managed to make...

Family geekery

2008-11-19T09:30:00.001-08:00

My littlest sister is turning twelve this year (we're going to carefully ignore the fact that I was confused for most of the year and actually thought she was turning thirteen). It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that she was sinking her teeth into my arm as I carried her to her room and throwing the most incredible tantrums. Instead of biting and shrieking, she now plays Guitar Hero with me and asks me about comic books.

Susannah is twelve years younger than I am, and it's always been more of a challenge for me to connect with her on any level. Then I called my mom one day and Susannah picked up the phone. "GUESS WHAT," she exclaimed when she realized it was me.

"What?" I asked.

"My PS2 memory card wiped itself again! I didn't touch anything!"

"Damn!" I was honestly shocked, because as every gamer knows, there are very few things worse than having your whole freaking memory card wipe itself. "We really need to get you either a Sony brand memory card or that off brand that I use, can't remember the name. I've never had any problems with them. Damn that sucks!"

She sighed. "I'm not really worried about the Champions of Norrath files or most of the other stuff on there, but I lost my Kingdom Hearts file! There are some hard bosses in that game!"

And it was right about then that I realized my little sister is a gamer.

She also just watched the X-Men movies and is suddenly very interested in comic books. I wanted to laugh with delight when she starting asking me "so does this happen in the comic book series? What about that? How did that happen in the comics? Can I borrow some of your comic books?"

I was just about her age, maybe a year older, when I bought my first comic book, an Uncanny X-Men.

She's old enough now that I suddenly see things I can relate to. I'm excited to start introducing her to comics. First the big name companies, Marvel and DC, then I can start showing her the smaller independents. I can take her to the Seattle ComiCon. I can play video games with her.

Dealing with a twelve year age difference is hard, but I think we're going to have a blast.

The new phone

2008-11-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

I wasn't even sure what I was going to write about today, but I told myself STOP PLAYING WITH THE PHONE AND POST!

So naturally since I'm not allowing myself to play with it, I might as well post about it.

<------ this is my new phone.

It is amazing.

Now I loved my last phone. It's your basic Samsung slide phone with a great interface (and makes cheerful little noises when you push the buttons). It was hard to convince myself to give it up. But.... this phone... it's like alien technology. It still boggles my mind that in this day and age we can hold a slim piece of electronics, poke at it with a finger, and instantly have our email, instant messaging, a map, music, movie times, or our calendars miraculously appear before us.

Oh yeah. It can make calls, too.

I got this thing on Sunday and literally have yet to avoiding touching it for longer than five minutes. I'm pretty sure I was even reaching out to stroke it in my sleep.

What an amazing age we live in.

What I find even more amazing is that in just a few years the things I find so astonishing now will either be commonplace or obsolete, replaced by a new wave of technology that I can't even imagine.

I wish I could still be alive a hundred years from now, just to see what the future of technology actually brings us.

Conversations: The car ride home

2008-11-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

The Scene: Pat and I are on our way back to my place after watching Supernatural and eating amazing homemade meatball subs with his parents. Pat is driving. I'm throwing a fit about street signs.

Me: What the hell? WHO NAMES THESE STREETS?! No seriously, I want to know whose job it is to name streets! Who gets to decide that a street is called Widme?! Or Big Rock?! Or Noll?!

Pat: (is laughing, and trying to pretend he isn't) Becca, a lot of these streets are people's names.

Me: Hidden Springs? Are there hidden springs down that road? Can we go find them?

Pat: No.

Me: Why not?

Pat: Because then they wouldn't be hidden anymore, and they'd have to rename the street.

Me: So? Anyway, I still want to know who decides - WHAT?! Seriously, Bjermerland?!

Pat: That sounds like it should be a nordic fortress or something.

Me: Well, there is a fortress down there.

Pat: There is not.

Me: Have you been down there?

Pat: Yes! That's where the driving school is!

Me: The fortress is new. You probably haven't seen it yet.

Pat: (turns off the headlights as we approach another street sign)

Me: (screeching) What are you doing?!

Pat: (turns them back on) Nothing. Just keeping you from reading every street sign we see.

Me: Knock it off! You're going to get pulled over!

Pat acquiesces to my hysteria and leaves the headlights on. There is a brief moment of silence while we hear some radio talk show mention Hilary Clinton is going to be Secretary of State (no idea if that's true, just barely heard it in passing).

Me: I don't even know what the Secretary of State does. What does the Secretary of State even do?

Pat: Mmm....

Me: You have no idea.

Pat: (gives me a look) Of course I know. The Secretary of State names all the streets.

Me: (laughing) Oh yeah?

Pat: When the Secretary of State first walks in his or her office, they're handed a bunch of boxes. In the boxes are lists of streets that all need names. The Secretary of State tries to name as many they can as quickly as possible. Because then they get more points. And if they get enough points, they get to go into the Street Naming High Scores Hall of Fame.

Me: Wow. I had no idea.

Pat: (laughs) If I was in charge, the government would be awesome.

Another thirty seconds of silence as my mind races around to places that aren't useful or intelligent in the slightest.

Me: Hey, remember Kongs?

Pat: WHAT?

Me: Kongs!

Pat: Are you just making up words now?

Me: No! They're dog toys! Rubber dog toys that go like bloop bloop bloop (making hand motions to indicate a small top widening to a larger base). And they're open in the bottom, so you can put treats and stuff in there.

Pat: I think you're making this up.

Me: Am not! They're red and black and who named that street CALDART?

Pat: That's probably somebody's name!

Me: CALDART?

Pat: Yeah! Look, Jensen! That's somebody's name too!

Me: All streets are not named after people!

Pat: Yes they are. Look, 10th. That's totally somebody's name. (a few seconds later) Highway 305! I'm totally naming my first kid Highway 305.

Me: You shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the naming process for your children. Why are you so stuck on the idea of streets named after Transformers?

Pat: ........ WHAT?

Me: I mean... I mean people's names! I was just thinking about the Transformers and my words got mixed up!

Pat: (laughing helplessly)

Me: Look, Viking! Are you going to tell me that's named after a person?

Pat: No, that's named Viking because there used to be vikings who lived here.

Me: You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.

Pat: Of course I do.

Me: Do not.

(we pull onto my street)

Pat: You'd better watch it or I'm going to have the Secretary of State rename your road Becca is a Stupid Dumbface Lane.

Me: That would be a pain to write on an envelope.

Pat: You're right. And all your neighbors would be mad at you.

Me: I don't think you would really do that.

(we pull into my driveway and Pat parks the car)

Pat: (laughs) No, I wouldn't. I love you.

Me: Love you too. Lets go play Guitar Hero!

World of Warcraft Geekery

2008-11-13T09:48:00.001-08:00

When I finally made my way to the Gamestop register, I smiled nervously at the cheerful man behind the counter. I could tell he was just as excited about the product release as I was, and didn't mind being at work at midnight. Which of course made what I was about to do even more humiliating.

"I fail at life and didn't pre-order," I admitted, my face flushing in shame. I couldn't look the man across from me in the eye. "Any chance I can still get a copy?" The last was almost a mumble. I couldn't bring myself to raise my voice. Surely the rest of the line behind me would hear.

"That dumb chick," they would whisper to each other, snickering behind their hands. "She didn't pre-order and thinks she can still get a copy. HA! I pre-ordered my collector's edition, like, a year ago."

Instead of laughing in my face and sending me out the door wrapped in a shroud of embarrassment, the Gamestop employee graced me with a benevolent smile which transformed his face from that of an ordinary human to something radiant that clearly transcended the mortal plane. "I've still got a couple copies left," he told me. "I'll get one for you."

I nearly cried with relief. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" I gasped. It was all I could do to not fall to my knees in gratitude. I still had the presence of mind to realize that although he was obviously a divine being, he might not appear so to the rest of the line behind me.

He pressed the box into my hands. "Servers are going to be a mess tonight," he said gently as though bestowing a saintly prediction.

"Yeah, no kidding," I replied. I flashed him my best smile, thanked him again, and moved away from the register before the line behind me started foaming at the mouth and/or having seizures.

Yes, I am now the proud owner of a brand-spanking-new copy of Wrath of the Lich King. And yes, you bet your ass I tromped out of the house at midnight to stand in a huge line in front of my local Gamestop. Fortunately I wasn't alone in this geekery - Pat and our friend John were there too.

The time we spent waiting in the line was fun. We babbled happily about instances, Death Knights, inscription, siege machines, and all the grand new things that were coming with our purchase of WotLK. Periodically when discussing a raid, Pat would call out "looking for more heals! Need four more heals!" to which he received responses such as "what about DPS? I'm DPS!"

We also got to see a lone woman dressed in a guild tabbard and wearing a full length black cloak. Honestly, not a huge deal. I'm sure in the larger cities there was a lot more dressing up going on. Really the only reason I mention this woman is because she had to be in her fifties. I would generally expect teenagers or especially geeky twentysomethings to dress up - not women nearly old enough to be my grandmother! But you know what? I hope she had a blast, and if she wants to dress up, more power to her.

The wait was actually very short. The Gamestop had set things up very efficiently, and they powered through the line in what I'm sure was record time. It helped that most of the people there had pre paid for their copies, so all they had to do was waltz in and flash their receipt.

Ah.... good times.

Of course...

...I can't actually install WotLK yet because my freaking DVD drive is still broken.

/epic fail.

For once, a productive day

2008-11-12T11:48:00.000-08:00

Happily, yesterday was a holiday which meant no work for me. And while having a day off in the middle of the week completely throws off my internal calendar*, I'm really not going to complain too much about it.

For once, I actually had a productive day off.

Come on, now, no scoffing! I'm actually serious!

I woke up at about ten and dawdled in bed playing X-Men Legends 2 on my PSP until noonish when I suddenly realized HEY! I've got stuff to get done! I cast aside my Cleaning Inhibitor (which is what I'm calling all of my video game consoles at the moment), threw on some jeans, put Kansas in the record player, and cleaned the crap out of my dining room. I then proceeded to take all the recycling out, throw away all the pizza boxes in the kitchen, replace Kansas with Uriah Heep, put a load of laundry in, and wash windows. I then tromped outside, found my seldom used gardening gloves, and got rid of all the dead potted plants that were making my patio look like the courtyard for a Gothic Castle of Doom and Despair. Err... a Gothic Duplex of Doom and Despair, anyway.

I had some errands to run so I went to take a shower, only to realize that I had no hot water. This happens when you have an itty bitty hot water heater and a washing machine hooked up wrong so it always washes clothes in hot water, even when you tell it to use cold (which is totally Andrew's fault** ^_^ ). Refusing to be deterred from my unusual burst of productivity, I put my I-haven't-showered-yet-today hat on and took off to return library books (HA! No fines for me! THE DAY IS MINE, LIBRARY!), pick up contact lenses, buy kitty litter, light bulbs, and lipstick***, and drop by my mom's house where my ex happened to be hanging out to return some of his stuff.

With all these things accomplished I had barely enough time to get back home and take a shower before I met up with Pat and his friend Lucas to go see a movie. What movie did we go see? Well, of course the only terrible, low budget horror movie out right now; House. Surprisingly enough, I got a kick out of it. I'll write a review later.

On the agenda today: Clean the kitchen while listening to Boston and possibly Foreigner, clean out the refrigerator, clean out my car, and join the gym. Possibly try to start sorting out my back room?

I plan to get as much done as possible before my usual lethargy sets in. Wish me luck!

*Seriously, I actually went so far as to prepare the Monday morning staff meeting agenda before remembering that it was Wednesday.

**Although if he hooked it up wrong three and a half years ago and I never fixed it, does it really still count as his fault?

***Because clearly when making a trip to your local drugstore to buy kitty litter and light bulbs, you must also peruse the makeup. Or is that just me?

Wow, talk about footnote happy today! Good lord!

Oh, how things change...

2008-11-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

You know, I never used to get freaked out when I played survival horror video games. I stoically plowed my way through the Silent Hill series, cheerfully played the Fatal Frame games, and got cranky with the controls in the old Resident Evils. I was never jumpy. I never got creeped out. One of my favorite things to do was drag Nils over to my place and shriek with delight at how terrified he got when playing Silent Hill.

It was always a good day when I found out a new Silent Hill game had been released. I would call Nils, and our conversations would go something like this:

Me: HI!!!!!

Nils: Hey! What's up?

Me: GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nils: What?

Me: THERE'S A NEW SILENT HILL GAME! YOU HAVE TO COME OOOOOVERRRRRR!!!!!!!

Nils: Oh, dear lord...

Me: (maniacal laughing)

And yet, somehow the tables have turned.

Pat and I were playing Obscure last month. The two of us had just started the game, both of our characters had guns, and we were creeping through a basement. Suddenly a door exploded into a million pieces, revealing some kind of horrific monster. Pat immediately started mashing the "shoot" button, then stopped and gave me a look when he realized he wasn't accomplishing anything - he was looking at the pause screen. This happened because while his first instinct was to shoot the monster, apparently mine was to leap a mile into the air while jabbing my finger at the "pause" button.

The other night we were taking turns playing Resident Evil 4.

Pat: Stop running! Stop running! Turn around and shoot them! You have to stop running!!! (exasperated look as I press "pause") Becca, you can't just run away from everything!*

I still don't get creeped out. But my god am I jumpy! I'm not really sure how this happened, and I'm still not even remotely jumpy when I watch horror films, but for some reason these games startle the hell out of me now!

Clearly the only reasonable response to this unpleasant discovery about myself is to play as many survival horror games as I possibly can to retrieve my previous nerves of steel.

*My response to that being to give him my own exasperated look and snap, "It's just a game, Pat, quit being so cranky!" Because seriously, it's not the end of the world if I want to run away. And I was just trying to find a strategic position to shoot from, anyway....

Early morning panic

2008-11-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

I started writing this in August and never posted it - mainly because I was too lazy to get the photo I needed out of my camera. But here it is!

I woke up this morning with a start. Disconcerted and groggy, I flipped my clock over*. 6AM? I don't think so. But as I rolled over in a huff, prepared to go back to sleep with a vengeance, I froze.

The walls of my bedroom were bathed in an otherwordly reddish light. Gasping, I tried to think of what could be happening. Zombies? Nuclear explosions? Gathering my courage I whirled around to look out of my bedroom window, prepared for the worst, mentally calculating how long it would take to find pants, scoop up Stella, and flee from the path of whatever impending catastrophe happened to be barrelling towards me.

It turned out to be unnecessary.

Wow.

I got up, went outside to my front porch, and sat on the railing while I watched the sun come up.

*My alarm clock lives upside down on my nightstand because of its horrendously bright blue display that lights up my bedroom better than the 60 watt bulb in my lamp.

Preview my application to marry into Canada?

2008-11-04T18:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite bloggers, the generous, selfless, Canadian Ben over at No Ordinary Rollercoaster is offering his hand in marriage to some lucky individual desperate to escape America in the event that Senator McCain wins the election. I've decided to prepare an application just in case it becomes necessary. I would love for you all to review it and give me suggestions to help ensure that I appear an extremely desirable marriage prospect.

Okay, here it goes!

RE: Need to marry into Canada?

Dear Ben,

Let me first say that I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving us the chance to escape a country that would flounder and suffer under the despotic rule of another republican. You are most certainly a gentleman, willing to sacrifice for the good of another. And you're hilarious. And beautiful. And amazing.

(Do you think I went overboard with the flattery?)

I would first like to address the requirements you laid out to prove that I did indeed read them, and I know what I'm applying for. I will not address every single requirement; I believe this will unnecessarily lengthen my application, and I understand that you are a busy man with many of these to sort through. If you would like clarification on a particular point, please feel free to contact me; I am at your beck and call.

1.) A man of your impeccable taste of course deserves to have his spouse cover all of his travel, living, and marriage expenses. Even if you had not specifically indicated that this was a requirement, I would have simply assumed that this would be the way things would work.

(You don't think he'll guess that I'm totally broke most of the time, do you?)

8.) I feel that I have a very good grasp of what will constitute your problems and my problems. Your examples were very helpful. I would be very good at solving "someone is dying in the living room" and "dog poop everywhere" problems. I am also frequently at a loss when I am desperate to give someone a massage and when I have free concert tickets. I believe we will compliment each other very well.

9.) Oh, Ben. You listed "ninja" as a trade that would be useful to you. Don't forget that not only am I a Winja, I am a superhero. Just think of the possibilities.

12.) I despise sci-fi shows, and am more than willing to sync dirty looks. If you choose to accept my application, we will be Dirty Look Masters. People far and wide will fear our Dual Dirty Look Combo.

(No one should mention to Ben that I love sci-fi shows. I mean, MY GOD, the new Battlestar Galactica? WOW! And Firefly was totally one of the best shows ever. So SHHHHH!)

15.) I am a Winja and a superhero. I am not concerned.

I would now like to discuss some of the reasons I think I would be a wise choice. One of the most important, at least in my opinion, is that if we were ever faced with a zombie outbreak or placed in a teen slasher flick, you, the newf, Calvin, Theo, and myself would all escape alive - I am inundated with horror scenario knowledge. I will bring a diverse collection of DVDs, music, books, and video games with me, which, according to requirement # 5, will all become yours. And last but not least, I am sweet, funny, encouraging, am very good at giving advice, and will always give you my honest opinion when you ask for it.

Now, if we are to enter into this marriage arrangement, I have two requirements. This may seem a bit presumptuous, but although I would very much like to escape this country, I am not a doormat.

1.) I require someone to watch Supernatural with me. You will definitely not find this onerous, I promise. I mean, Jensen Ackles. 'Nuff said. "Watching Supernatural" entails curling up together and squealing at the bounty of stunning men provided by the show.

2.) I'm bringing Stella, my cat, with me. She's loving, adorable, and so sweet you won't believe it.

(Okay, I'm definitely lying about that one. He didn't watch that video I posted where she wouldn't stop attacking me, did he?)

I look forward to hearing from you and participating in your reality TV show.

Love,

Becca

P.S.

Just think. We could be a part of your family for four to eight years!

So, what do you think? Hopefully it won't be necessary to send it in, but you never know. I like to be prepared. ^_^

Post Halloween Sugar Comas

2008-11-04T16:38:00.001-08:00

I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off all damn day, and I am taking a break.

And to preface the rest of this: Yes, I voted. I now have full right to complain bitterly and at great length if the election doesn't go the way I want it to.

I'm sort of drifting in and out of a sugar induced coma. On Halloween, I sat in the grocery store parking lot and debated about whether or not to buy candy. There are a few small children in my neighborhood, and while I was skeptical that I would be visited since my porch light has burned out (and apparently I can't be bothered to replace the bulb), I had this sick feeling that even the pitch blackness surrounding my front door wouldn't keep them away. I could envision two scenarios;

Scenario 1: Small, excited children trying to be adorable/scary while scoring as much candy as humanly possible ring the doorbell. I huddle in my dark house watching Dawn of the Dead and pretend I didn't hear. Feel guilty for the rest of the night.

Scenario 2: Small, excited children trying to be adorable/scary while scoring as much candy as humanly possible ring the doorbell. I answer the door and explain that I don't have any candy because I was miserably unprepared for the holiday this year. Feel guilty for the rest of the night.

Since I was already having enough trouble with Halloween this year without battling guilt, I marched into the store (skipping the alcohol aisle, be proud of me) and found the candy. I stood looking at the giant bags and thought to myself, sure, I really only need one just in case kids to drop by, but... they are two for $4. So I bought a bag of Almond Joys and Butterfingers. My two favorite candy bars. I also happened to find THE FUZZY GREEN CUPCAKE MONSTER OF DOOM*.

Naturally no children knocked on my door or rang my doorbell. And what do you do with two giant bags of mini candy bars that were two for $4? Well, you eat them, of course. Which is also what you do with a Fuzzy Green Cupcake Monster of Doom.

You eat them all weekend. And all Monday.

Hence, the sugar coma.

Blargh.....

*I'll post a picture later. You will understand.

Bits and Pieces

2008-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am currently having a love affair with Vinyl. Yes, Vinyl with a capital 'V'. I'll be doing a full post about this sooner or later, but I want to have photos of my turntable and albums first. (Plus I don't really know what I'm going to say, other than "EEEEEEE VINYL ROXXX!!!!!")

My parents were tossing around the idea of getting a puppy, and now they're leaning towards 'no'. I mean, why would they be so selfish as do deny me the pleasure of their puppy? My plan was to go over and play with the puppy, then go home and let them deal with the potty training, chewed furniture, barking, etc. I thought it was perfect. Apparently they didn't agree. *sigh*

I'm kind of bummed about not doing anything for Halloween. I didn't carve pumpkins, I didn't decorate, and I have no reason to dress up. Therefore I intend to sit at my dining room table feeling sorry for myself while working my way through a bottle of Three Olives vodka and listening to Jackson Browne. Because there is no better way to be depressed than to drink heavily while listening to old albums. It'll be a blast. Want to come over?

I've been put in charge of the re-design of one of my company's websites. I'm kind of excited about it!

I finally paid off my $40 fine at the library. Yes, this fine consisted solely of overdue fees. A lot of overdue fees. Naturally after I had paid, I walked out of the library with about ten to fifteen books. I think my friends are taking bets on how long I can avoid new fines.

I have two weeks before Wrath of the Lich King comes out. Which means I have two weeks to get a new DVD drive for my computer. O_O

Crooked Little Vein

2008-10-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a fascinating little book.

I say "little" because although "Crooked Little Vein" by Warren Ellis has almost 300 pages (which doesn't exactly classify it as "little") it is an amazingly fast read. I do read quickly, but even so I blasted through the book in just a couple of hours.

"Crooked Little Vein" is Ellis's first novel - he has spent most of his career writing comic books for Marvel, Wildstorm, and DC, and you can definitely tell. The book is fast paced, rich in dialog but thin in detail, and honestly kind of reads like a graphic novel without any graphics. In most books I would say this is a detriment, but Ellis pulls it off perfectly.

The premise is completely unrealistic but fun, featuring a private detective main character (whom you can't help but feel an odd mixture of affection, distaste, and sympathy for) and a host of strange supporting characters traversing bizarre, gag-reflex triggering, often shocking situations in their hunt for a magical book misplaced by the White House. Novels looking to get in your face by throwing shocking situations at you are a dime a dozen these days, but what makes Ellis's debut really interesting is how surprisingly deep it is.

My favorite scene saw Mike, the main character, having a conversation with a serial killer on a plane. He ends up telling the serial killer about crawling through America's underground, to which the serial killer asks him to share his experiences. Mike does, all he gets for a response is, "I've seen most of that on the internet." The serial killer goes on to discuss what can now constitute "mainstream" and "underground" in this day and age. Really an interesting chapter.

All in all, it was surprisingly thought provoking, but certainly nothing that will give you an epiphany and change your outlook on life. The perverted scenarios are a little off-putting, but I think they actually really enhance the message Ellis was trying to convey instead of just being there to shock you.

Let's hear it for finally paying off library overdue fines!

Satisfaction

2008-10-28T10:05:00.001-07:00

Work has been crazy since Friday. My boss and office manager were out of town until this morning, which means that aside from the sporadic and brief appearances of a few of the buyer agents and office assistant, I've been manning the office solo.

And why is it that whenever you're left alone in charge of your entire professional world that everything just goes to shit?

If I were to vent about everything that happened from Friday through Monday this post would be the length of a novel. A novel like The Stand, not a short story. Let me put it this way; I woke up at about eight in the morning on Sunday with my jaw so tight and painful that I couldn't open my mouth. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Know what causes that? Grinding your teeth in your sleep.

But somehow it all becomes worth it when you're cleaning your kitchen while listening to Billy Idol's Rebel Yell on vinyl, and you realize...

I had the skill, the finesse, and the knowledge to handle every crisis that came up.

And then you smile as the realization that you're awesome slowly sinks in, you finish loading the dishwasher, and you almost don't even mind going to work the next day.

Almost.

Okay, one more Jensen Ackles post

2008-10-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, I PROMISE this is the last Supernatural related post for a while.

But I had to post this video of Jensen Ackles goofing off during the credits of the last episode. Mostly for my mom, since she neglected to watch the credits...

I'll post something more substantial soon, I promise. ^_^

Conversations: Gmail Chat with Mom

2008-10-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Caught my mom online this afternoon. Naturally we started talking about Supernatural, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki.

marmay5: god, those boys are seriously adorable. Why don't you go and get one?
We could use them around the holidays and such.

me: LOL

marmay5: I bet they play a mean game of Zombies

me: sure, I'll get right on that....
OMG I bet they would!
can I have both of them, maybe?
menage a trois?

marmay5: Sure.

me: I'd totally be down for that

marmay5: Looks like they're familiar with each other anyway.
Adding you wouldn't be much of a burden.

me: hehehehe down ALL THE TIME lol

marmay5: sigh You're nasty. Seriously.

me: you'd never see me again
I'd be too busy having sex

marmay5: No, you'd have to come up for air to at least have a holiday meal and play Zombies. or World of Warcraft

Ahhh.....

Good, intelligent, wholesome conversation....

Jensen Ackles and... Bai Ling?

2008-10-23T09:55:00.001-07:00

Well, the next all new Supernatural episode airs tonight, which means it must ALSO be post-stunning-picture-of-Most-Beautiful-Man-Alive-day.

I really love Supernatural day!

The rest of this post has absolutely nothing to do with Supernatural, but I can't say I'm going to be really upset about staring at Dean while I write.

Oh....

Yeah, I'm supposed to write.

I am currently fascinated by Bai Ling. I know, kind of random, but it's true. I haven't seen her in many films, but after seeing her in those... umm.... outfits.... on Go Fug Yourself (a website my mother made me aware of - it's hilarious) I was strangely, intensely curious about her.

Then I discovered she has a blog!

Called simply "Hello", it looks like the blog has been around since 2007 and is filled with odd posts that are strange, bizarre, and yet somehow infinitely endearing. Between the massive quanitities of photos and videos of herself, Bai Ling writes cryptic sentences such as:

"Not to use your mind but your feelings......like those crazy people do, in between......

I found myself sometimes like twins, body and heart? Or heart and body? Never cross the red line.......

Tiredness is the time of confusing, just like how I feel right now, but something, someone is still keep me awake and wondering and going insane..... "

So if you get a second, pay a visit to Bai Ling at Hello. It's a trip.

And here it is

2008-10-22T20:58:00.001-07:00

20SB Vlog from Rebecca M on Vimeo.

I realize I sound like an idiot. Be nice. ^_^

Also, my memory card ran out of space before I told my story. Oh well. ^_^

Vlog entry.... kind of....

2008-10-22T18:31:00.000-07:00

So I recorded a vlog entry. It's kind of bland, but hey, my first time ever! Still getting used to it! However, I almost had the file tranferred from my camera to my computer when my battery died. So until the camera lives again, here is a video I actually forgot about from the shenanigans at Fort Worden this summer with Nils!

(This is us trying to pretend that the Fort Worden bunker is scarier than it actually is...)

(Oh, and Nils swears a couple times. Just a heads up.)

Untitled from Rebecca M on Vimeo.

Okay, so I just have one thing. First line I say? "ARE YOU VIDEOING?"

MY GOD.

I speak the English good.....

Vlog Day

2008-10-22T10:16:00.001-07:00

When I checked my email this morning I had a message waiting in my inbox from 20 Something Bloggers, sending me a helpful reminder that today is "vlog" day. At first I decided to ignore it. Film myself and post it on my blog? I'd look like an idiot. Nooooo way. No thanks. **ignore**

But then....

I realized that it might be kind of fun.

So I'm going to make an attempt this afternoon. O_O Scary! New! Different!

Eeep!

In the meantime, here's a lolcat!

Which reminds me, I need to watch The Matrix again!

The Monday Perspective: Marriage

2008-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well holy crap, look who actually has something to write about on Monday morning! I only got about three hours of sleep last night, so bear with me if this isn't written all that well.

I was talking to my mom the other day, basically being outraged over the fact that same sex marriage is only legal in four (I think? Can't remember) states. There is really very little that can piss me off faster than discussing that sad state of affairs. Four states.

My mom mentioned that one of our family friends (wickedly smart and notoriously argumentative) doesn't believe in same sex marriage. Before I flew off the handle, she added that he doesn't believe in marriage period.

Brian has been married for a long time with two lovely daughters. He loves his family. His point, then?

Marriage is a religious institution and therefore should not be recognized by the state at all. There is a division between church and state for a reason, and really, when I think about it, he's right. Civil unions should be recognized, not marriage. If a couple wants to get "married" within their church, fine! Go for it! But you should have to have an official civil union to have that "marriage" recognized by the state.

The rights granted to a married couple should not be granted to them because they're married, they should be granted upon a civil union.

So I guess right now you could say I'm "pro civil union" and "anti marriage" now. ^_^

I'm curious - what do you think?

Oh yeah - Supernatural!

2008-10-16T13:35:00.001-07:00

I suddenly realize I do have something to write about - my very favorite TV show ever aired, Supernatural! We are going to overlook the fact that this post is mostly pictures, okay?

This post will contain some spoilers, for those who watch and haven't seen the most recent episodes. But first, some Dean pictures (because I can't write about Supernatural without flashing The Most Beautiful Man Alive's face on my blog)!

When the first episode of the fourth season aired, I was beyond excited. My favorite Winchester, dragged out of hell and resurrected by - wait - an angel. The angel Castiel was played to perfection by Misha Collins as a cool, somewhat uncaring being with a complete disregard for humans injured and the body he had possessed. I loved it.

However, during the next few episodes I'll admit I was starting to get concerned about the direction the show was taking. Castiel began talking about the end of days. While I've still enjoyed every single episode I've seen, I'm concerned about the main premise.

The apocalypse? It's been done before. It's been done nearly to death. It's going to take some very creative writing to keep the show as unique and interesting as it's been up to this point. Beyond that, dealing with the apocalypse is a very touchy subject. Stray too far from actual scripture, and you run the risk of making people angry. Stay to close, and you risk making some viewers start thinking of the show as purely religious entertainment.

That being said, I have faith that if any show can walk that fine line, it will be Supernatural.

For the most part, the acting as been absolutely phenomenal. Jensen Ackles has truly been shining (and no, I'm not just saying that because of his stunningly good looks, I promise), especially in the last two episodes I've seen. Jared Padalecki has been good, especially in the last episode, but he has been completely overshadowed by Ackles and his incredible, believable, displays of emotion.

Fortunately the notorious Ruby (still can't remember the actress's name) whom I slammed in my last Supernatural discussion has made only a few appearances, and even then for only a few minutes at a time. I think I'm not the only one who was so disgusted with this replacement actress.

It's Supernatural night tonight - Pat and I will be ensconced in Pat's living room, lights turned low, eyes fixed to the TV from 9PM to 10PM. And I guarantee I won't think about World of Warcraft once.

Well...

Maybe during the commercials.

All in all, aside from my concerns about the main direction of the show, it's been amazing. So far I've been more impressed with this season than the third, and so long as they keep up the good work, this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons in the shows' career.

Oh, and....

What?

I most certainly did NOT blog about Supernatural just so I could search for Dean pictures....

I have no idea why you would think that.

Thank you to SleepyJane for giving The Dauntless Muse its first award!

2008-10-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

So I've been totally and completely consumed by World of Warcraft since Tuesday when THE PATCH released, changing everything. I'm hard pressed to concentrate on anything that doesn't have to do with WoW. While I'm at work I'm constantly thinking about the game and the changes, how they apply to me, etc.

I've been very hard pressed to think of something to write about that doesn't involve WoW. But I'm still reading everyone's blog (and am getting more and more ashamed of the fact that my brain is so centered around a video game).

I would very much like to thank SleepyJane for giving me the "Perfect Blend of Friendship" award!

I'm touched and honored that she would think of me when giving this award. Her blog is smart, funny, honest, and heartwarming - if for some reason you've never visited, go do it now!

I would like to pass the love to Country Mouse, Anne, Mary, Nils, and ShallowGal - I love you all!

So, how about... that, uh.... the weather looks kind of...

...So I was thinking that if I don't put points into Unleashed Rage, I could put some points into Convection, which would help with mana consumption. I don't use Lightning Shield so I don't need Static Shock... is it really worth it to put points in Earthen Power? Well, I am doing a lot of BGs....

Illustrator training

2008-10-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

My office manager signed me up for the Lynda.com training programs, specifically so I could learn more about Adobe Illustrator. A graphic artist recently redesigned several of our template files in Illustrator, and it has been a battle trying to scramble around and figure the program out so I can tweak my templates. I'm a Photoshop girl, damnit!

The training videos have been great, and I like the instructor.

"....we can enjoy a no tears, no tantrums, all smiles training experience. Let's make Illustrator behave!"

Awesome, Deke! I am all about avoiding tantrums and making Illustrator my bitch - I mean, making Illustrator behave! Let's do this!

An Office Dweller's Monday Perspective: .....Mondays?

2008-10-13T09:42:00.001-07:00

You know, last week when I posted the "Monday Perspective" on real estate I intended to do something similar each Monday. Choose an issue, write something semi intelligent that proves I haven't killed all of my brain cells, publish. I even made a special label to file these posts under.

What I neglected to remember was that most of the time on Mondays I have difficulty focusing on anything, much less expressing my opinion in a reasonably coherent manner. This is pretty much what runs through my head on Monday mornings:

I'm soooo tired/COFFEE/the weekend went by really fast/COFFEE/do I have the meeting agenda completely prepared?/COFFEE/why does the phone always ring a bajillion times in the morning?/COFFEE/I need to remember to write that number down/COFFEE/COFFEE/COFFEE

So....

Yeah. I got nothin' today.

Becca watches the vice presidential debate

2008-10-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, Becca knows she's going about this backwards. But hey, at least she's doing it! Again, it should be noted that the reactions documented here are solely Becca's opinions of the debate, not what she knows about the candidates, blah blah blah.

First impressions:

Becca thinks it's a little inappropriate for Governor Palin to ask Senator Biden right off the bat if she can call him "Joe".

"Darn right..." "Heck of a lot..." Becca wonders if Governor Palin realizes how uneducated she sounds. Especially compared to Senator Biden, who so far is speaking beautifully.

Governor Palin said "Darn right" again.

Governor Palin just straight up said she will not reply to questions as they are posed. WOW. Well, at least if she's going to not answer questions, she's going to be up front about it.

Governor Palin said "espoused". Becca wonders if it was on her Word a Day calendar.

Governor Palin seems very smug and amused. Becca can't figure out why.

Becca would like to take a moment to note how, aside from Senator Biden's occasional slips in mixing up Senators Obama and McCain's names (which now that Becca thinks about it, is fairly troublesome?), he sounds extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, whether or not Becca agrees with everything he says. Oh, and he's pretty much actually answering the questions asked. Novel concept.

BRAVO! Senator Biden destroys Senator McCain's health care plan by *gasp* explaining realistic consequences!

Becca is wondering if Governor Palin was told that answering questions is optional.

Becca is agog (which is her new favorite word)! When Gwen Ifyll tries to pin down Governor Palin to get her to answer the question, "due to the financial situation what promises can't you keep", the governor says, "well, I've only been at this for five weeks, so I haven't promised a whole lot." Becca wonders if the governor is actually running for vice president, or if this is just a bad joke. She's really hoping this is a bad joke.

Governor Palin has ignored so many questions Becca isn't even sure it's worth commenting on any more.

Governor Palin does not believe that the climate changes are manmade. Senator Biden does. Becca is pretty sure she's going to have to come down with Joe on this one.

Becca simply can't listen to Governor Palin talk about Iraq any more.

Becca will be honest - she doesn't know as much as she should about Iran and Pakistan, so will refrain from commenting on what the governor and senator have to say about it.

Becca is a little confused, but she thinks Governor Palin is saying "no" to diplomacy with enemies, and Senator Biden is saying "yes"? Who can reasonably say "no" to attempting diplomacy?

Becca is kinda zoning out.

Becca's attention is caught when Governor Palin basically says that the democratic ticket is focusing too much on mistakes made by the current administration, then goes on to say that yes, she agrees that there have been huge "blunders" made, but gee, we shouldn't think about it, we need to look forward to the future and to change. Becca thinks it is important to see mistakes identified, fingers pointed at them, and politicians saying this is what went wrong, and this what I will correct. Becca also thinks that Governor Palin wouldn't know where to point a finger if she wanted to.

Becca thinks Senator Biden is sounding a little manic! She thinks he needs to take a deep breath.

Becca is cringing as she listens to Goveror Palin once again ignore a question. This one regarding when and if nuclear weapons should be used. Her obvious complete confusion as she searches for something to say is just painful. "...can we talk about Afghanistan for a minute?"

Senator Biden did not answer the question either. Becca is irritated.

Becca thinks it is kind of funny that they keep the current question being debated at the bottom of the screen. The questions seem to rarely have anything to do with what politicians are talking about.

Becca is zoning out again.... and there is still an entire half hour left.

Aww, Governor Palin is such a quaint, adorable "Washington outsider" who just "doesn't understand how you guys work..."

Becca is reading blogs and not really paying attention to the debate.

Becca needs a break.

Break.

Whew. Okay, Becca's back.

ZZZZzzzzZZZzzzzz........

Becca is jolted out of her doze by Governor Palin triggering her gag reflex. Again. "Say it ain't so, Joe!" Becca is too disgusted for words.

Becca is completely bowled over when Governor Palin makes a "shout out" to her husband's elementary school class ("and remember, you get extra credit for watching this debate!"). What does she think this is, a talk show?!

Senator Biden slams Governor Palin about her lack of understanding about what kind of power the office of vice president actually holds (based on her answer to a question about VP power). Yowch.

Becca is having a harder and harder time paying attention to the debate.

Becca is extremely impressed by Governor Palin's compassion when Senator Biden briefly got choked up discussing losing his wife and child. Very impressed. She is not being sarcastic at all.

Becca is ready for the debate to be over.

Becca is chatting with her mom on Gmail again.

Becca has to admit she really hasn't been listening to this last fifteen minutes at all.

Becca is laughing at Governor Palin again. The governor is making her closing statement, and says that she really enjoys "being able to answer these tough questions". Becca would like the governor to state which questions she has actually answered. Heh.

Where Governor Palin babbles on in her closing statement about fighting for freedom, and how we face the danger of "sitting back in our twilight years telling our children and our children's children about a time when Americans were free," Senator Biden recaps some issues, and overall sounds pretty much three times as intelligent as the governor.

And it's over!

Conclusion?

Becca is disappointed that she didn't get to see the governor's very remarked upon wink at the camera - she wasn't able to actually watch most of the video since she was trying to work and write a blog post at the same time.

But seriously.

Becca has honestly come to realize that she could never, ever vote for Senator McCain. She could never cast a vote that would put Governor Palin that close to the presidency.

Ugh...

2008-10-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

I had one of those mornings. One of those wake up with that sick feeling because you absolutely know you're running late mornings. Sure enough, glance at the clock - 8:21AM. My alarm had been blaring for about a half hour in a futile, good faith attempt to drag me out of whatever dream I was mired in, and honestly, I have no clue how I managed to sleep through it.

So, yeah... quick fact? I usually need to be out the door by about 8:20 if I'm going to make it to work by 8:30.

By 8:24 I was dressed (in matching clothes, no less), hair combed, teeth brushed, and in the car ready to go.

By 8:31 I was pulling into the office parking lot.

I ended up being alone in the office until after 9AM. Talk about rushing for no reason.

Excuse me. I'm still a little.....

O_o

......ugh.

Becca watches the second presidential debate

2008-10-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Becca sat down at her desk this morning and started listening to the last presidential debate. She would like to note this is solely her opinion of the debate and does not reflect what she knows about candidate track records, voting records, etc.

First impressions?

Becca wishes Senator McCain would stop calling everyone "my friends". Becca is not the senator's friend, and she is pretty sure that most of the people the senator is addressing are not friends with him either. Becca is sure the senator does have friends, but she is also sure that he can't possibly even be acquainted with most Americans.

Becca wishes both senators would stop being rude to the moderator, ignoring his attempts to insist that they actually answer the questions that are being asked and ignoring their time limits. (Becca is aware that this is nothing new.)

Becca is intrigued by listening to Senator Obama talk about energy.

Becca notices that Senator McCain is still calling everyone "my friends".

Becca is very nervous about Senator McCain's health care plan.

Wait, what? Did Becca just hear Senator McCain suggest putting health records online? What does that mean? O_O Becca thinks that sounds awfully unsafe, and isn't sure she likes it - at all!

Becca realizes that she really misses John Edwards.

"America is the greatest force for good..." "We are peacemakers and we are peacekeepers." Becca thinks that Senator McCain may be thinking of a different country? This doesn't sound like the America she knows.

Becca is pretty sure that Senator Obama really doesn't have any idea what he's talking about when it comes to foreign policy.

Becca notices that Senator McCain is still calling everyone "my friends."

Becca is wondering how Senator McCain intends to bring troops back "with victory and with honor". She thinks it's a little late for that. Especially the "honor" part.

Becca notices that Senator Obama is dodging the question about whether or not we should invade Pakistan in pursuit of terrorists. Oh wait - Senator Obama is now saying we should invade Pakistan, err, we should "stop coddling" them.

Becca appreciates what Senator McCain has to say about Pakistan. She thinks he sounds much more level and reasonable than Senator Obama.

Becca feels like her brain is melting and is having some difficulty paying attention to the debate. She has no idea what question the senators are responding to at the moment.

82 minutes in and Becca is chatting with her mom on Gmail. Is she listening to the debate? Not really.

Becca thinks the Senators are talking about Iran?

Becca's eyes have rolled back in her head.

"What I don't know is what the unexpected will be." Gem of a quote from Senator McCain. It pulls Becca out of her politics-induced stupor and makes her smile.

Finally! The end of the debate!

Conclusion?

Becca is voting for Batman.

Aaaaand we're back

2008-10-08T14:30:00.000-07:00

After an excruciating day and a half filled with XML and Photoshop after I had the sudden realization that I could no longer stand my template, I have my own brand new layout and header.

TaDA!

There is still a good amount of work to be done, but it's functional. AND I have my blogroll back. WHEW!

O_O

2008-10-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm popped on to read all the blogs on my blogroll (for some reason I still don't use a reader) and had a panic attack when I realized I don't have a blogroll.

GOD.

I have got to get my blog pulled back together!

Under Construction

2008-10-07T13:43:00.001-07:00

In the process of finding a new template!

An Office Dweller's Monday Perspective: Real Estate

2008-10-06T11:12:00.000-07:00

!Dry, Boring Post Warning!

Oh, the beautiful world of real estate sales.

The Monday morning staff meeting started off fairly quietly. The Boss was out of the office taking a class, and one of the agents was off getting a certification (real estate agents sure like those important looking letters after their names), effectively leaving the meeting with just four attendees; myself, Office Manager, and two agents. We discussed a new listing, bickered good-naturedly over who was holding a house open for the agent tour tomorrow, talked about our newest overhaul to one of the company websites....

Then we arrived at our list of closed and pending sales.

It's no mystery to anyone in the country that the real estate market has plummeted, a fact that is driven home every time I look at statistics, and especially so when I glanced at the office's closed/pending sales report this morning. There's not much on there. It's a low number. Scary low. Lower than I've ever seen. Granted, here in my small corner of Western Washington we're not as bad off as some parts of the country, but it's still not a pretty picture.

There are a few things I wanted to touch on here concerning the real estate market in my town. The first is Washington's new(ish) "Distressed Home" sales law. This law, enacted somewhere around June of this year, created new duties for real estate agents and brokers who were selling "distressed" homes; that is, homes that are in danger of/ in the process of foreclosure. An agent/broker who agreed to help someone sell a "distressed" home is now a Distressed Home Consultant, which entails additional duties and much greater liabilities, including the potential for incurring much greater actual damages in the event of a violation of the law. From my take on things, this was an extremely important step that needed to be taken. Foreclosures have skyrocketed as homeowners default on mortgages, leaving them vulnerable to foreclosure rescue scams. Unfortunately the extreme increase of liability associated with taking on the responsibilities of a "DHC" caused many larger real estate offices to refuse to allow their agents to accept a distressed listing, leaving homeowners little option but to have their homes repossessed, something I'm sure the banks weren't all that thrilled by. They don't want the houses back.

The swell of foreclosures was met by an equal tide of cheap new construction homes, leaving resale houses to linger on the market.

Interestingly enough, home prices have not fallen all that much in my county (in comparison to other areas). Of course, the trade off is that there are fewer and fewer sales. Home prices are being forced to adjust until affordability is again on par with income, and from my personal experience, sellers are unwilling to acknowledge the fact that prices are dropping. They insist that the price of their home is exactly where it should be. The value of a home is a touchy subject for homeowners. It can be deeply personal, especially if the homeowner has done a lot of work to the property; put in a new deck, perfected the landscaping, added that bonus room.... they are often unable to recognize the fact that prices are dropping around them as their home spends more and more time on the market, with newer, lower priced listings leaving them behind, trailing in the dust. All listings are engaged in two separate battles - a pricing war and a beauty contest. Homes have to win both to even attract a showing, much less a reasonable offer. Top real estate agents in the country are now encouraging brokers to be extremely selective with the listings they accept - taking a listing is extremely draining financially with all the marketing and time necessary to attract a buyer, and if the seller isn't motivated and understanding of the current market, it is frequently, to be perfectly honest, not worth a broker/agent's time to attempt to sell it.

As more houses maintain an unrealistic asking price and don't sell, additional houses appear on the market, swelling the inventory.

Of course in conjunction with the rising home inventory, it has become more and more difficult to obtain a loan. We had a meeting last week with a lender from Countrywide that we frequently do business with. Countrywide has recently been purchased by Bank of America, and the lender expressed considerable relief. "Hey, at least Bank of America still has money," she told us. She explained a lot about mortgages that were still available though it is more difficult to qualify.

I'll admit, I'm not as knowledgeable as I probably should be. I don't know all that much about loans, though I do think it's probably a good thing that companies aren't handing out mortgages left and right to people who can't afford them. What I know about the statistics and seller reactions are what's staring me in the face every time I come to work. I could do more research, but I don't. Why? Honestly, I'm kind of freaked out. It's not a real fun time to be working in real estate. Agents are having their own homes foreclosed on, and dropping out of the business. An agent working in my office, two years older than I am, told me today that he thought he was going to have to find a second job. He's brilliant at what he does, and has done exceedingly well in the last couple of years, only to tank in this difficult market like so many other agents.

So....

Most of this morning's meeting was taken up by discussing the market. One of the agents asked my office manager (my boss's husband) and asked if he had ever seen a market this bad.

Office manager shook his head. "Honestly? No."

I know this has been a pretty disjointed ramble, but hey, it's Monday. Give me a break. ^_^

(By the way, I had to write that note backwards for Photobooth. My handwriting really isn't that bad, promise.)

The anti domestic goddess

2008-09-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

I fail at domesticity. I've touched briefly on this subject before, accompanied by humorous depictions of Wonder Woman cowering in fear at the prospect of having to clean my house, and not so humorous lists of odd items discovered while cleaning and their locations.

I don't just mean the cleaning angle. I am useless in the kitchen. One night Pat and I were making dinner, and I offered to take over putting together the macaroni and cheese while he ran to the store for something. He gave me a look. "Do you even know how to make macaroni?" he asked accusingly. I was offended for a moment. It wasn't like this was homemade-from-scratch-macaroni, this was in-a-box-Kraft macaroni. So, lets see.... uh.... boil water, add macaroni. Remove when finished, strain and follow the directions on the freaking box. Then I realized that his question was totally, one hundred percent legitimate. Considering my cooking (or lack of it) track record.

I occasionally even have good intentions. I own several cookbooks, all purchased with the intention of finding dishes that I couldn't live without learning how create, then slowly perfecting them until I was praised far and wide for my culinary prowess. Sometimes I get one out, page through looking at the pretty pictures thinking, this doesn't seem that hard, look, this is like cooking for beginners.

Then I order pizza.

Ah, but my domestic challenges don't end in the kitchen. I don't even own an ironing board. Or an iron. If I roll out of bed and search through the pile of clean laundry for a shirt to wear to work and it happens to be so wrinkled it looks like someone took it out of the washer, balled it up in their fists, and stowed it away for a week, I'll shake it futilely for a minute or two, then put it on anyway. It's supposed to look like this, I assure myself.

I suppose one day I'm going to have to figure out how to take better care of myself. It's not as if one can float through life without an ironing board, the ability to clean your kitchen before something starts growing mold, knowing how to do laundry without dying your underwear pink, and the skills to refrain from poisoning people with your cooking.

But pizza sounds really good tonight...

Of Firemen and Dirty Houses

2008-09-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

Oh, chimney fires....

I was driving to work this morning thinking about what my life had been like a couple of years ago and saw a fire truck go by. No lights, no sirens, just meandering along. I found myself laughing.

I believe it was New Years of 2007*. I had a friend over crashing at my place, and I had fallen asleep on my living room sofa, as I did quite frequently at that time. My friend had started a fire in my wood burning stove, and everything was all cozy, cheerful, and warm. I remember waking up briefly in the middle of the night and seeing the room completely choked with smoke. I was vaguely alarmed for a minute until I saw my friend busily doing something at the fireplace. Oh, he's got it handled, I thought, and immediately fell asleep again.

The next morning everything seemed to be fine. My friend took off to run to the store, and I started picking up a bit - my place was a pit, as usual. I was in the dining room when I caught a whiff of smoke. I shot a glance at the stove. It sat there, innocuous as ever, doing its best to look completely innocent. I wasn't fooled. I marched over and pulled open the door.

There was no fire, not even any residual burning embers, but the inside of the stove was filled with smoke. I slammed the door closed and glared at it for a long moment. Don't you dare, I thought at the stove. This is unacceptable. Reluctantly I pulled the door open. Smoke flowed out into the room, and I slammed it closed again. I grabbed some shoes and walked outside to look up at the chimney. There was definitely smoke. Not just a little bit of smoke. There was billowing smoke.

I did some creative swearing, Fire Fear** suddenly raging full force. I knew it had to be a chimney fire, and I was furious. I knew the chimney had been cleaned and inspected less than a year before - there was no reason for anything to be catching fire up there. It was a good thing there were no visible flames, or I may have had a panic attack and fainted before I was able to call anyone.

And of course the first person I called was my friend. "You need to get back here right now!" I shrieked into the phone when he picked up. "This is your fault!"

"What?!" he asked, confused and alarmed.

"Just get back here!" I snapped, voice still shrill. I hung up the phone and waited outside until his car pulled into my driveway a couple minutes later. He got out of his car, and I stabbed a pointed finger towards the chimney.

"What?!" he asked again.

"What do you mean, WHAT?" I cried. "LOOK! There's smoke! There shouldn't be smoke! Something's on fire, and you're calling the fire department, because this is your fault! You're the one who wanted a fire last night!"

He cringed, knowing about my fire fear, and wisely didn't argue with me, even though in retrospect I was possibly overreacting. "Okay, okay."

I followed him inside and watched as he checked inside the stove, then called 9-1-1. "This isn't an emergency," he said calmly to the operator, "but we've got a bit of a chimney fire going here..."

I had calmed down a bit now that the situation was being handled, and suddenly was struck by a deep horror. Firemen. Were coming here. To my house. And it was a mess. I exploded into action, attacking the pile of stuff on the dining room table.

My friend watched me, bewildered. "What are you doing?"

I gave him in incredulous look. "My house is a mess!"

He raised his eyebrows. "Yeah.... it's always a mess."

"I know. But there are strangers that are going to be walking around in here! Firemen, for God's sake! Come on, help me clean!"

My long suffering friend helped me clean as much as we could in the few minutes it took the fire department to arrive.

And oh yes, they made quite an entrance.

I live on a tiny, quiet little dead end street in a duplex. So when the fire trucks came roaring into the neighborhood, lights on and sirens going full force, it drew some spectators. Including my new neighbors living in the other side of the duplex whom I hadn't had a chance to meet properly. After assuring them that no, our duplex wasn't going to burn to the ground, and hi by the way, I'm Becca, I went inside to watch the firemen.

One of them was hot. And by hot I mean really hot. And after a moment, I realized I recognized him. He looked at me and gave me one of those funny little smiles that said he recognized me but couldn't quite place who I was. I had met him once and instantly lusted after him - he had dated a crazy former co worker for a couple of weeks. He was responsible. He owned a beautiful house. He was gorgeous. And did I mention that he was a fire fighter? Uh, sexy?! And now he was here. In my house. My messy looks-like-a-hurricane--and-a-tornado-had-its-way-in-here house. Putting out a chimney fire. Looking at me with my tangled hair, sloppy sweat pants, and ratty t-shirt.

I listened to one of the older men tell me I need to have the chimney cleaned and inspected again before using the wood stove, waited until they had all filed out of my house and driven away, then did a face plant into my dining room table.

"No more fires in the wood stove," I told my friend. "Not ever."

*I could definitely be wrong about this... I have a terrible memory for past dates. But I'm pretty sure it was '07... except maybe it was '06.... damnit.

** I am so paranoid about fire it's not even funny. Before I go to bed I wander around and make sure everything electronic that emits heat is unplugged. I run my hands over the stove burners to make sure they're off because I don't trust the knobs. I sleep with a fire extinguisher next to my bed. No, I'm not kidding.

What to do when you win the lottery

2008-09-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize that I need to win the lottery.

People ask me, what would you do with all that money?

I'll tell you.

I would go on a Free People shopping spree.

And winning the lottery is exactly what you'd need to have a Free People shopping spree. Because that super cute square neck tunic cami? $98. Big, cozy, bright orange fuzzy sweater? $118. Beautiful-edgy-and-perfect-for-work blazer? $188. True Religion jeans? $228.

It's ridiculous how much people (myself included) are willing to spend on clothes.

.......

..........

.............

I actually had a lot more I was planning to say about this, but then I started looking more at the Free People site. OH MY GOD. I need that and I need that and that would look great with that.....

Excuse me. I have to go buy a lottery ticket.

WoW Kittiez

2008-09-19T10:46:00.001-07:00

Oh, LoLCats, my guilty pleasure...

more animals

The moment I had long been waiting for...

2008-09-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

It was exciting. It was intense. It was well written. And except for the one atrocious actress stepping in to fill Katie Cassidy's role, it was everything I had hoped for.

Yes, I watched Supernatural's season premiere last night.

And just in case anyone was worried, Dean Winchester (a.k.a. Jensen Ackles) is still the most beautiful man alive.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Okay, now we can move on (unless you want me to find and post more pictures of Dean? No? Damn).

I had re-watched seasons one, two, and three in preparation for the fourth season (meaning I've watched every single episode two or three times now... wow, that's sad) and the season premiere definitely didn't disappoint.

Except for one thing.

WHY WHY WHY did they choose to replace Katie Cassidy, who was a very decent actress, with What's-Her-Name-Never-Mind-Who-Cares-Please-Go-Back-To-Acting-School?

I mean seriously, this woman opens her mouth and her voice is so irritating that it instantly makes me cringe. Which isn't her fault. But the fact that her lines are wooden and her expression robotic is.

She might as well just been blatantly holding the script out in front of her during the few (thank goodness) scenes she was present for. It probably would have had about the same effect.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I guess no television show, not even Supernatural, can be perfect one hundred percent of the time.

Moving on from heinous actresses, I think it's wonderful how the character development, which has been deep, consistent, and believable through all three seasons, appears to be on a great track with the fourth season.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the premiere episode left me beyond excited. I have a feeling that this season is going to go in a really good direction. You know, as long as they quickly get rid of/replace the drama school dropout.

I know what I'll be doing every Thursday night. ^_^

Spam mail, my favorite thing

2008-09-17T08:38:00.001-07:00

I was glancing at my spam folder today to before I cleared it (and... you know... to make sure Blizzard hadn't tried to sent me a beta key for Wrath of the Lich King) when I stumbled across this pleasant and uplifting subject line:

"Dumb and poor? Here's a simple way to make MONEY!"

I'm in!

Thank you, spam mail, you're once again proving that you can be a useful source of self esteem boosts and clever get rich quick schemes!

And this is what I did on my three day weekend...

2008-09-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ah, another vastly productive extended weekend.

First, I played World of Warcraft.

Then I thought about cleaning the bathroom, but played WoW instead.

Then I watched some TV.

Then I played WoW.

Then I went to bed.

Repeat for two more days.

Okay, so I didn't sit in front of my computer all weekend. Saturday evening I went over to my parent's house for a fantastic dinner of scallops, pizza, and soapipillas (no idea if I spelled that correctly). I can be blamed for that one - but hey, a girl can have whatever she wants for dinner on her birthday, even if it is bizarre. Right?

It was a blast hanging out with my family. When all of us are together, it sometimes feels like the most relaxed, boisterously controlled chaos ever. It's a welcome contrast from my oh-so-quiet house, and my favorite place to spend my birthday.

And, uh.....

Okay, I did that, watched some Supernatural, and played WoW. That was my weekend. And it was amazing. ^_^

Geekery ahead; you've been warned.

Most of my weekend was consumed by my need to play which eclipsed all else. And as far as World of Warcraft goes, it was a productive weekend.

First of all....

WRATH OF THE LICH KING RELEASE DATE!

11/13/2008!

WHOA!

From the unofficial release dates I was seeing that ranged anywhere from December to first quarter '09, I wasn't expecting to see WotLK until at least after Christmas. WHOOPS! I was wrong! And I'm ridiculously excited, even though there are some changes I'm not thrilled about, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the new talent trees, and.... well, I'll save judgement until after I've had a chance to play. I know I'm resistant to change, and after I have a chance to get used to the things I'm sure it'll be just fine. Besides, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. The changes are what they are. So it goes.

I finally got my loooong neglected holy/disc priest to 70 and realized with a sinking feeling as I reviewed her reputations, gear, and talent build that when I was leveling her I still had very little idea what I was doing with Outlands content. Ugh. But on the upside, I can still heal 5-mans like nobody's business, even with an atrociously low bonus healing number. And seriously, I'm not even going to say when that bonus healing is. It's that embarrassing. But hey, my first 70! Exciting!

My current favorite, Harpy the troll enhancement shaman, reached 67. And her rep, gear, and talent build is about what it should be. It better be, with all the time I've put into researching this stuff. I'm kind of disappointed that I won't have much time with her at 70 before WotLK comes out with it's new level cap and slew of new content. It would have been nice to work at being 70 for a while, get my feet wet with raiding, dailies... I've still never done EotS.

And, last but not least, two new baby alts! Orc hunter, 7, and Belf pally, 14. Yay!

See? Productive weekend. ^_^

Bumbershoot 2008

2008-09-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

I love going to Bumbershoot.

It has a strange name, but Seattle's music and arts festival that spans three days over Labor Day weekend every year is an absolute blast. I generally only go one day out of the three, because to be honest, I can only handle one day of wandering around a jam-packed festival ground for five to eight hours. Bubble of personal space? Non existent.

I always go to Bumbershoot with the express intention of seeing two or three bands, then spend the rest of my time wandering around and stumbling across new music that I never would have discovered otherwise. This year I went specifically to see The Offspring and Flobots. And my great random find for 2008?

Cheb i Sabbah & 1002 Nights

From Bumbershoot's writeup:

"Known as a DJ whose talent is mixing Arabic, Asian and African sounds to rock a party, Cheb i Sabbah will be performing with 1002 Nights, his troupe of dancers and instrumentalists, and Riffat Sultana, a singer who comes from a rich lineage of Indian and Pakistani musical talent."

My group of friends and I were slowly making our way towards the Flatstock rock concert poster exhibit when we passed the Fisher Green stage and had to stop. The bizarre mix of techno-y dance-y type beats with traditional middle eastern sounding music was absolutely arresting. They had already amassed a huge crowd of happily dancing people which we promptly joined (though SOME OF US were too 'tired' to dance... I would prefer not to name names.... but it was NILS). The dancer on stage was extremely talented and a blast to watch... I have no idea what exactly she was doing, but it looked vaguely belly-danceish. I couldn't see very well.

And that was the only musical act I stumbled across that I thought to myself I NEED TO LOOK THEM UP LATER.

The vendor areas were chock full of awesome hippie goods. Rainbow clothing, duct tape wallets, jewelry, masks made out of silverware, airbrush tattoos, art of every kind, more clothing... you name it, it was probably there. My personal favorite were the handmade journals... soft leather covers filled with recycled cotton paper... totally "tree free", as I was told by the vendor. There was a particularly stunning huge sketch book that I would have killed for.... and I would have had to with a price tag of $200. Oh, if only I was less broke... I definitely made sure I picked up one of their business cards, and I'll be saving that website.

And that was Bumbershoot in a nutshell. Lots of fun. Walking back to the ferry, though, was less than fun. Note to self - make sure I have cash for the monorail next time.

My calves still hurt...

XKCD

2008-08-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Oh, Guitar Hero...

Visit xkcd.com!

Conversations - The Winja

2008-08-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Pat and I are standing on my front porch. Our lunch breaks are over and we're about to head to our cars to go back to work. The beautiful sunny weather we were enjoying a week ago is gone, bullied and shoved out by the typical Washington clouds. It starts to rain.

Pat: I'm getting rained on!

Me: Well... come here then. *I grab his arm and haul him under the eaves where I'm standing.* There, see? No more rain.

Pat: You saved me!

Me: I know. It was a monumental task, but someone had to do it.

Pat: *stares at me suspiciously* I think you're some kind of witch.

Me: Yes, you're right. I am. I'm also a ninja, remember? I'm a ninja witch.

Pat: *suddenly struggling to keep a straight face* You're a WINJA.

Me: ...........

Pat: Or a NINJITCH!

Me: The correct term is Winja, Pat. Not Ninjitch. Now get it right before I cast a curse on you. Because trust me, a Winja is the last person you want to piss off.

Would YOU piss off a Winja?

I didn't think so.

For a second time

2008-08-18T09:23:00.001-07:00

It could almost have been just another party. A gathering of about ten or so friends sharing some good food and good conversation with nearly that many children running around, shrieking with laughter

Except that it wasn't.

A boy, maybe eight or nine, came running up to my friend Josh. "I'm leaving!" he said.

Josh grinned at him. "Oh yeah? Where?"

"To join the army!"

It's tricky for me to read Josh these days, but it seemed to me that his smile became a little more empty as he chuckled. "Oh, okay."

The boy stood in front of Josh for a moment longer, quiet. Then he took a deep breath. "Don't die, okay?" he burst out.

"I'm not going to die," Josh promised him. The boy nodded hurriedly and took off running. Josh looked at me, smiling ruefully. "I made it through once," he said. "I can make it again."

Saturday was Josh's going away party. Josh, who was supposed to get out of the military this year, has been stop-lossed and is being sent for a second tour of duty in Iraq.

Yeah, it could almost have been just another party. Except that it seemed every few minutes, someone was asking Josh, "so when do you leave again?" Except that the men were asking him about the last time he was there, and what he expected from this time around. Except that a small boy came up to him asked him not to die.

I've known Josh since I was four years old, and while there have been long gaps during the years where we've fallen out of contact, I still feel fortunate to be a part of his life. Josh is one of the best men I've ever known. I'll be thinking about him every day while he's in Iraq, and I'll be thinking about his wife and two small children.

Regardless of how any of us feel about this conflict, it's still an everyday reality for far too many men and women in the service and their families and friends. And all we can do is cross our fingers and hope like hell that they come home safe.

Be safe, and come home.

Nils has a blog!

2008-08-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

I have been remiss in my duties, for I have neglected to tell the world that the bestest honorary big brother ever, NILS, has a BLOG!

Nils had a blog an eternity ago (2006) which he started to chronicle his family's trek through Europe. He made exactly three posts, then abandoned the project. Now Nils is back with a slick new layout and a great sense of humor, entertaining with posts that include....

"...I do not understand my subconscious. Most of the people who I talk to about dreams, like friends and stuff, are all, "I had this dream last night where I cleaned my kitchen, but everything was upside down. Crazy."

So then I'm like, "Wow, that is weird. I had a dream last night where I was in a State Park that was also a shooting range and there was a Poodle-Eating Puma terrorizing our campsite. The end of the dream was me tackling the the Puma as it tried to eat our friends second poodle, the first having been the first victim of it's spree."

So go visit Nils at Musician's Choice.

And because I love the URL...

http://penguinboxers.blogspot.com/

We must make him post more!

It's Wednesday!

2008-08-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, which would be because I've done absolutely nothing exciting. Certainly after my harrowing experience at Fort Worden, little things like my flowers blooming and Stella the kitty actually seeming to regress back to kittenhood and lunge at my ankles during inconvenient times just kind of seems to pale in comparison.

But!

I have made some very positive changes in my lifestyle. Changes that I've been saying I need to make for a very long time now, and lacked the drive to actually implement.

Healthy eating and a hard workout routine.

Exciting? Well, it might not sound like it, but for me it is. I feel ten times better than I have in a long time. And I'm really excited about the personal trainer-created weight room routine that my friend and I have been doing - it makes every other weight training routine I've ever done look like a kid's game of make believe. So entire body weight training three times a week, yoga twice a week, and cardio five to six times a week plus actually eating right will eventually transform me into THIS!

Okay, so maybe I won't be as bad ass as She Hulk.

Maybe. Maybe I will transform into She Hulk. You never know.

.................

But... you know.... without the green skin and hair and all.

Fort Worden Adventure

2008-07-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the (very long... don't say I didn't warn you) photographic tale of Nils and Becca's Fort Worden Adventure!

CAST:

NILS

BECCA

Becca had gotten the day off from work after manning the office solo for nearly a week with the express purpose of visiting Fort Worden with her best friend and honorary big brother Nils since their work schedules rarely allowed for days off at the same time. After trekking out all the way to the park, Nils and Becca were very excited to be at the beautiful coastal area (and, more importantly, not at work).

The day was starting off wonderfully. Nils and Becca were armed with a flashlight in anticipation of exploring the old bunker, gummy sharks, granola bars, and Propel water. They were a little bit sad that it was so cloudy and not sunny and warm so they could play in the water, but they weren't about to let that dampen their day. Then they walked on a little farther, and noticed the first ill omen.

Nils and Becca were a little bit concerned about the tsunami hazard sign, but the beauty of the park soon let them forget their concern.

Then....

Terror struck!

Fort Worden was infested with ZOMBIES!!!!

Fellow park goers were being attacked left and right! Becca and Nils had no idea where the zombies had come from, but there was no time to ponder these mysteries! Becca and Nils fled to the nearest secure looking structure, but it was locked.

So Nils and Becca fled to the ominous looking abandoned bunker in the distance!

Nils and Becca immediately started exploring the old bunker, looking to a place to hole up while they figured out what to do. The bunker seemed safe at first, and after a little while of searching, Nils and Becca allowed their guard to drop. Nils leaned up against a wall to take a break, then the zombies STRUCK! They seized his camera case and tried to pull him down to the room below!

Becca quickly picked up her camera to capture Nils in this hilarious position before she rushed to his rescue. The zombies were strong, but fortunately she and Nils were able to pry his camera case away from the zombies before he was dragged down. Nils cursed at Becca for taking a picture before helping, then he saw the photo and laughed. All was forgiven.

The two continued their exploration through the bunker. They seemed to be staying above the zombies, which appeared to be trapped in the lower level. Suddenly Becca remembered! She had a cell phone! They were saved! All she had to do was call the White House and demand immediate national guard assistance! Becca pulled her phone out of her bag and started dialing when she tripped and fell, dropping the phone down a grate! Without thinking, she lunged after it!

(Becca was tempted to be mad at Nils for taking pictures instead of rushing to her rescue, but after a moment of reflection she decided not to say anything.)

Nils was getting angry. "That's it!" he told Becca. "We have to get that phone!"

"No, Nils!" Becca cried, still shaking from her near brush with death. "There are zombies down there, in case you haven't noticed!"

"Well, what else are we going to do?" Nils demanded. "I'm going, you stay here!"

Paralyzed with fear, Becca watched Nils descend to the lower levels.

For a while Becca quietly pondered a life without Nils in a world filled with zombies.

Then she went after him. Unfortunately, her first attempt to find Nils didn't go very well.

Becca finally found Nils racing up a flight of stairs with zombies hot on hot on his heels!

Reunited, the two took a deep breath.

"What the hell are we going to do now?" Becca demanded. "We don't have a phone, we're totally surrounded, and there are zombies all over the lower level!"

"Well...." Nils was unhappy. "I guess we should go practice martial arts on the beach and prepare for the worst."

Becca thought he was kidding.

He wasn't.

Becca chose instead to quietly meditate on the inevitability of death, and even though being eaten alive by zombies wasn't really how she'd like to go out, she decided to accept it.

Suddenly Becca realized something. "Stay here," she ordered Nils, and before Nils could regain his balance as he came out of Shaolin Bear Strike, she was off, tearing across the roof of the bunker and down the ladder.

Five minutes and she was back with the phone. The national guard showed up a half hour later, killed all the zombies, and after giving Nils and Becca a thorough medical examination to make sure they weren't bitten, they were released and sent home.

What did Becca realize that allowed her to retreive the phone so easily?

Becca is really a superhero.

But don't tell anyone.

Housing comparisons

2008-07-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

This morning I was reading one of my very favorite blogs, in which Le ShallowGal talks about House Hunters. She showed me what one can buy for under $300k in certain parts of the country.

I work for a real estate company in Washington, and have for about seven years. I'm pretty out of touch with the real estate market in the rest of the country, so to read that there is actually a place in the US where one can reasonably expect to purchase a five bedroom house with a pool for under $300k completely blew my mind.

Now we're going to play the comparison game! I'm going to do a quick search and pick out a few houses from my area in Washington, then pick a few random states and do the same.

So, for around $300k in my neck of the woods one can reasonably expect to purchase these:

Two to three bedrooms, small lots, definitely no pools. And that first one is a manufactured home.

Of course, $300k would be completely out of my price range, along with the vast majority of other young adults in their mid twenties. Lets think about the first time home buyer and take a look at what we have for under $200k.

Ermm, no offense, but eww. Tiny, old manufactured homes on itty bitty lots in my least favorite area of the county.

BUT! Lets check a couple of random states!

If I felt like moving to Portland, Maine I could buy this:

So it's pretty ugly, but with some paint and landscaping it could be cute. I kinda like how weird it is. And it's four bedrooms, two and a half baths on over an acre with an in ground pool. For $158,200. And I love Maine.

Or if I took off to Huntsville, Alabama I could get this (I just have to point out real quick that in Huntsville one can get an ACTUAL HOUSE for under $20,000. WHAT?!):

Uh, this is pretty cute for a first time home buyer. Know how much it is? $65,900.

Hazen, North Dakota?

Three beds, two baths. Over two thousand sqaure feet. Larger lot. $89,900.

I've reached a conclusion.

I'm living in the wrong state.

It's frustrating to look around where you live and think to yourself, I will never be able to buy a house here. I hate paying rent, but even with the housing market crashing and burning and prices dropping like stones everywhere I look, there's still no way for me to buy something halfway decent.

Single men and women with decent jobs cannot buy a house in this area, unless they want to take a dive into the nasty part of the county. And I think there is something seriously wrong with that.

Where the site views come from...

2008-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

I visited my SiteMeter stats today for the first time in a looong time. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of my site hits come from people googling various search terms for Brazilian Wandering Spiders.

Maybe I should put a disclaimer in the header:

"The author of this blog knows very little about and is in no way, shape, or form an expert on Brazilian Wandering Spiders. She has an irrational fear of them and has made two or three blog posts about them over the past three years."

Anyway...

It's nice to know I have a niche...

Monday pet peeve

2008-07-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

I have to have a very loud alarm clock to wake me up and convince me to get out of bed if I expect to get to work on time (especially recently - I've been having a much harder time getting up since I started dreaming about Dean Winchester.... I've gotta stop watching Supernatural....).

One of the things that I hate the most about my morning ritual is this alarm clock. But not when it first goes off. No, I understand and appreciate the need for the alarm to go off at 7:30AM, even with the vast amount of emotional distress it causes me. What I hate is when I push the snooze button then get up and go take a shower without actually turning the alarm off. Then when I get out of the shower, feeling a little bit more awake and alert, almost cheerful, and I'm greeted by the hideously abrasive BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP that never ever stops. I rush into my bedroom swearing and clutching my towel with the ultimate goal of ripping the alarm clock away from the wall, running to my back deck, whirling it above my head, then releasing it, where it should fly down the street and into the bay, never to be seen or (more importantly) HEARD ever again.

So far I've managed to control my rage by the time I reach my bedroom and just flip the little switch that turns the alarm off before stalking off to get dressed.

It's just one of those random pet peeves that drive you absolutely nuts. And on a Monday morning, it's not really a great way to start the day.

So......

Happy Monday everyone.

Summer plans

2008-07-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

It's July 25th. Which means it's almost August. I was startled when I noticed the date this morning, and was struck once again by the realization that the warmer, sunnier months really do just fly past while you're looking the other way.

I always have a double handful of grandiose plans for summer (visit Prague), and three times as many simple plans (visit the beach once a week). Usually by the time I've realized that I haven't done any of the things I wanted to do, it's midway through September and it's nowhere near as warm and beautiful as it was a month or two ago. So I shrug, and I say to myself "I'll do it next year."

Well, suddenly next year has rolled around. Want to know how many times I've been to the beach this summer?

Zero.

As I get older it's becoming more and more important for me to make sure I do more than go to work, put my nose to the grindstone for eight hours or more, then come home, play some video games or watch a movie, and go to bed. I want to be doing so much more than that, but generally by the time 6:30 rolls around, I've finished work, I've gone to the gym or my yoga class, and I've finally gotten home. I think about taking off to the beach or riding my bike down to the store for strawberries, and I just can't make myself get off the couch. I'm tired.

I'm also tired of sitting around the house doing nothing.

Before it's over, this summer:

I'm going to Bumbershoot for sure, and maybe Warped Tour. Both are summer music/arts festivals that I have a blast at. It's been years since I've been to either one.

I'm going camping for at least one night.

I'm going to the beach, damnit!

I'm visiting Fort Flagler.

I'm going to Seattle to wander around and hang out.

I'm going to ride my bike more.

I'm going hiking at least once.

And so end my summer ambitions for this year.

Maybe next year I can go to Prague...

Judas Priest Photos

2008-07-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Nils ^_^

Judas Priest

2008-07-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

I slept really well last night and have regained my power to speak in complete sentences. Which means it's time to write about the Judas Priest show.

WaMu Theater was a pretty neat place. My only complaint about the venue was that it was all seated. When I go to a metal show I like to be right down in the middle of the crowd, moshing and shrieking and pounding my fist in the air. It's euphoric, being close to the stage, battered and bruised, high off the music that pounds right through you....

So yeah, chairs? Not my favorite thing.

Since I didn't find out about the show until a few days before they played, our tickets weren't the best. Nils, Ian, and I were only a couple rows from the very back. But what seemed like bad luck at first actually ended up working out really well. WaMu Theater isn't that big, and although I couldn't make out the expressions on the musician's faces, we did have center seats and a full, unobstructed view of the stage. There's definitely something to be said for that.

Testament opened. Now, when I first started listening to metal all those years ago, there were three bands that got me hooked. Metallica, Queensryche, and Testament. These guys have been around for a while, I think somewhere between '85 and '87, and although I hadn't listened to them in a long time I was really excited to see them.

I ended up being pretty disappointed. The music was fine, very fast, simplistic, and thrashy, though I didn't particularly enjoy the tracks they played from their new album, Formation of Damnation. The band simply has little to no stage presence. I found myself leaning back in my chair thinking about things I needed to buy on my next grocery store run, and trying to decide whether or not I was going to go to my yoga class the next day. And it might be just me, but Chuck Billy sounded like he was trying really hard to do his best James Hetfield impersonation.

Ultimately I remembered why I don't listen to Testament any more.

After waiting through Testament's allotted hour of time we sat on the edges of our seats waiting impatiently for Judas Priest's stage set up to be completed.

Now I'm going to take a moment here and say I have seen a lot of live music. Especially a lot of metal. I've seen Cradle f Filth, Children of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, Nile, Hammerfall, Edguy, Into Eternity, Nevermore, Opeth, Amon Amarth, Stratovarius, Gwar, Dragonforce.... the list goes on. The only reason I mention this is because when I say Judas Priest put on one of the BEST shows I have EVER seen I want you to appreciate that I have seen my fair share of bands.

So.

Judas Priest put on one of the BEST shows I have EVER seen.

Wow.

They started with a track from their new album, Nostradamus. Rob Halford appeared clad in a floor length, metallic silver robe, holding a staff taller than he was, banging it into the ground as he hunched over and shuffled around like an old man, screaming the lyrics "I am Nostradamus!"

Over the top? Yes. AMAZINGLY AWESOME? Yes.

From there he switched to a more conservative long silver trench coat and proceeded to deliver one of the best shows I've ever seen (yeah, yeah, I know I'm repeating myself). The entire band was dynamic and energetic, really catching and holding your attention. I can promise I wasn't composing a grocery list while they were playing, that's for sure.

I was glad that they only played two tracks from Nostradamus. It was nice that they recognized that the crowd (a wonderfully diverse group of people ranging from my parents' age to young adults to kids) in all probability wasn't there to hear their new stuff, they're looking for the old classics. They played 'Between the Hammer and the Anvil', one of my all time favorites. 'Painkiller' and 'Breaking the Law', of course. They played one track from Angel of Retribution and I was sad that it was 'Angel' and not 'Judas Rising', but it's still a fantastic song. Additional highlights included 'Electric Eye' and 'Hellbent for Leather'. Rob Halford drove his Harley out onto the stage and sang 'Hellbent for Leather' from the back of his bike - over the top and awesome.

The only thing that could have made the show better would be if they had played my all time favorite Priest song, 'Ram it Down'. But I'll give them a break. After all, they've been around for a good long while, it's not like they have a shortage of material to choose a set list from.

I had a couple people say to me before I went that Priest wasn't going to sound decent or put on a good show. "They've been around since the '70s, Becca. They're old guys. Why go? They don't sound good any more." All I can do is laugh at those poor, foolish souls. Of course I didn't get to see Judas Priest when they were in their prime so I don't exactly have much to compare my experience to, but I don't care how old those guys are, they still sound amazing.

Anyway, if you're a Priest fan, don't hesitate to check them out as they make their way across the states. Ignore the people who say that since they're older they can't blow your mind with their massive power of Awesome, because they can and will.

This is what happens

2008-07-23T11:45:00.001-07:00

This is what Becca looks like after she spends all night watching Judas Priest rock Seattle and hanging out with her friends. Then goes to bed at 6:30AM. When she has to be at work at 8:30AM.

Becca is not enjoying work today.

**Edit**

Just in case you were wondering, Becca is still not enjoying work.

Somehow Becca has managed to sound reasonably intelligent when speaking with clients, but she's tripped (several times), walked into a wall (once), and knocked her phone into the garbage can (twice. unfortunately no, I'm not kidding).

And now that she's writing this, she's realizing that this isn't all that different from a normal day. Except on a normal day she doesn't have anything to blame the clumsiness on...

Conversations: A plague of...?

2008-07-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Scene: Pat and I are sitting outside about to water plants. Pat appears in a contemplative mood. I am contemplative as well. I am contemplating very seriously how to bypass the spider webs without actually touching any of them so I can get to my hose.

Pat: I wonder what it takes to reach 'plague' status.

Me: Huh?

Pat: You know. A plague. I wonder when it becomes a plague, and not 'that nasty bug that's going around'.

Me: Oooh. (I'm thinking about something that logically should come before plague. I'm searching for the word, and I can't for the life of me remember the what it is. Of course, NOW I remember. EPIDEMIC. But I didn't remember at the time, so the silence stretches on as I wrack my brain which apparently retains information about as well as a colander retains water. )

Silence.

Me: I don't know.

Pat: But plague doesn't just apply to illness. Like 'a plague of locusts'. How many locusts does there need to be to have a plague of them? And can that apply to anything bad that there are a bunch of?

Me: Definitely. Like on my back deck there's a plague of bees.

Pat: (laughs) I think that any more than one bee is definitely a plague. And you definitely have a plague of bees on your back deck.

Me: And in my kitchen there are a plague of dirty dishes. And in my hallway a plague of disorganized CDs. And in my bedroom a plague of laundry...

And at work today I've been harassed by a plague of phone calls while simultaneously trying to handle a plague of faxes and help a plague of clients....

Concert time

2008-07-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite thing to do is go to concerts. Give me a metal band in a small venue and I'll be happy for weeks. Somehow I have been to exactly zero concerts this year.

So, kicking off my new concert calendar for the summer and fall is........

JUDAS PRIEST. Playing with TESTAMENT.

Small venue? Well, no. But how does one pass up the opportunity to see Judas PRIEST? I certainly haven't figured it out.

I'm going to have Ram it Down stuck in my head all day now.

Ouch...

2008-07-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

The worst part of a bad sunburn isn't the day or two after the initial burn when it feels like someone tarred your back and set it on fire. You're expecting it to hurt, you're prepared for it. It sucks, but you suck it up and deal with it.

No, the worst part of a bad sunburn is when it's been almost a week. You've been religiously keeping the burn moisturized with aloe lotions and it's finally starting to not hurt that much any more. You're even able to go to your yoga class and stretch without crying.

THEN.

Suddenly, without warning, huge sheets of skin peel off. The skin underneath HURTS LIKE HELL and the aloe lotion that was the soothing balm you relied on so heavily a week ago just makes this new skin STING (and when I say sting, I mean STING). So you're back at square one, with the tar and the fire feeling, except you weren't ready for it this time and it really really hurts AND it's still not done peeling so it itches....

Damnit.

This sucks.

Wanted Movie Review

2008-07-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Wanted
R
2008
*** out of ****

I wasn't expecting anything out of this movie. I mean seriously, I'd heard some pretty awful reviews. It's always great when you go into a theater expecting to see the worst thing to ever hit the big screen, and end up with something ten times better. Besides, how could I not go see a movie about a bunch of assassins led by Morgan Freeman?

Premise: The Fraternity. A deadly brotherhood of assassins (plus one woman) formed a thousand years ago, graced with near supernatural abilities, taking the names of their targets directly from fate. Enter inconsequential cubicle dweller whose life gets completely turned around when he is recruited by The Fraternity to hunt down the traitor who killed his father.

Okay, I'm going to come out and say it now before I go any further.

Why does Angelina Jolie look like a holocaust victim? And furthermore, why does she think that she can be an action hero with arms that look like toothpicks?

I spent every scene where she did something that would have required any kind of strength or stamina laughing behind my hand. Oh, and the scene where she's beating up McAvoy? I wasn't even bothering to laugh behind my hand. I'm assuming her character was meant to by alluringly dangerous, and Jolie fails utterly and completely to provide that kind of magnetism. Why is this stick-thin ideal still perpetrated? Who thinks that sunken cheeks and frail limbs are attractive? If Jolie ever wants to act in an action movie again, I would suggest she gain some freaking weight. MUSCLE, Jolie, MUSCLE. It is your friend.

You know who would have been BAD ASS as Fox?

Rhona-Fucking-Mitra.

There's an action heroine.

It's too bad, really. Fox was a wickedly cool character who was beautifully illustrated and fleshed out through the film, and held true to her motives until the end.

Anyway. I'm done ranting now, promise.

The movie was surprisingly well done. I wasn't so sure when it started - it has a pretty shaky beginning - but if you can get through the silliness of the first third you can start to appreciate the character development and killer action scenes, especially the ones that start popping up towards the end of the film.

James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson, main character) did a fine job. His character's transitions from Disinterested Slacker to Eager Wannabe to Determined Warrior to Wrathful Son were very black and white and didn't allow for a whole lot of room for easing into each phase of the character, but McAvoy did very well.

The storyline was entertaining and fun to follow, and though it throws in the usual quota of predictable twists here and there, it leaves you satisfied. This movie also features my new very favorite 'go in guns blazing' scene ever.

(Keep in mind before you watch this that this flick is rated R for a reason, and this is a violent clip)

Anyway, surprisingly good movie, I'd recommend seeing it if you enjoy action films. Aside from my aforementioned problems with Jolie, I enjoyed this move quite a bit. Don't take it too seriously - it certainly doesn't take itself too seriously. And the very last scene in the film is worth the price of admission all by itself.

"This is me, taking back control of my life. What the fuck have you done lately?"

What every cat needs

2008-07-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Engadget, it's been too long since I've visited you...

My cat, and many (if not all) of the numerous other cats I have encountered, would go bananas for this. But I can't help but feel it seems a tad unnecessary...

"Cat Faucet solves elusive cat drinking from sink issue, we sigh in relief

Cats like to drink from everywhere but the places they're supposed to drink from, and for that they offer no excuses, reasons, and just walk away, tails in the air. This independent spirit, though, means that we're often stuck turning faucets on and off for thirsty felines because heaven forbid they drink from a dish. One crafty soul has solved this gripping conundrum with an IR detector, valves, some plastic tubing, and a whole lot of moxie. The detector can even suss out if the subject is human or feline in order to keep the faucet from triggering every time someone walks by. Our test subjects won't comment on the new tech, but they've stopped complaining and have become extremely athletic and hydrated super-cats of doom. Still reading? Peep the video after the break of hot kitty drinking action.

"

Okay. Come on. My cat loves the bathroom faucet, but I'm not going to go rig up or purchase some special contraption to attach to my plumbing just so she can spend all day wasting water. She has a bowl of fresh water changed multiple times a day, for crying out loud.

I love my cat as much as the next person. Although Stella is still a little too bite-happy for my nerves, she's the 'person' who greets me every day when I come home from work, sits and watches movies with me, always wants to be in the same room with me, lends me her moral support when I have to clean the bathroom or kitchen, makes me laugh when she decides she wants to play fetch.....

...........

...............

So, uh..........

How do I get one of those things....?

For Michael Turner

2008-07-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

So this afternoon my mom texted me at work with this:

"Hi. I just saw that Michael Turner died. Wasn't he one of your favorite comic book guys?"

My first reaction? NO WAY. Impossible!

Unfortunately I was wrong. It's true.

Mr. Turner lost his battle with bone cancer at the age of 37.

Michael Turner has been one of my favorite comic book artists since I realized that other companies existed beyond Marvel and DC. I was first captured by his art in Top Cow's Witchblade. His stunning attention to detail captivated me. When I looked at his comics, I thought this is what I want my art to look like. Top Cow swiftly became my favorite publisher and I was quick to pursue series that featured Mr. Turner's art, and from there anything that Mr. Turner happened to have illustrated a cover for. At comic book conventions, the first thing I did was go searching for anything Turner related.

It wasn't only his artistic ability that was hugely inspirational to me; in 2002 Mr. Turner left Top Cow, and by January of 2003 he had founded his own publishing company, Aspen Comics MLT, which featured offshoots of the Fathom series and urban fantasy story Soulfire.

My most heartfelt condolences to Mr. Turner's family and friends. I never personally met Mr. Turner, but no artist has ever inspired me more. No artist has ever made me so excited to pick up a comic book. His journey through the comic art world, from Top Cow background artist to creating his own company, is... aw, hell, I know I've used this word too much already, but it's inspirational. His art and his comics will always have a special place in my heart.