Oh my gosh, Becca. That place is AMAZING!!!

Oooh I want this so badly!! =D



*fans self distractedly*

*GASP*

I have to have this!

Any color will do! I'm a medium (probably)!

Also: I just subscribed to this girl today. Ohmygosh her videos are hilarious. The one with her nephew and the hair gel and her nephew and the crab are funny in that "ohhhh yeah family" way. Which is great. :) (Dang, though. That crab one-- kid looks terrified!!)

She's just so energetic and cute and funny and you know what? I need that right now. I need to see regular people being fun and having fun. And her? She's fun. :D

"He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed."
Saki

"Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge."
Paul Gauguin

******************************************************

I've been spending the bulk of my evenings on YouTube lately. Books hold little appeal right now. I don't have much interest in emailing people or talking on the phone. I want to sleep all the time but when I try my brain races towards misery. But I'm not ready to hop on the Prozac Express or anything so don't get all anxious. I'm just sort of... not... lately.

It'll pass. It always does.

But back to YouTube.

I've subscribed to several folks whose videos I really enjoy, and now that I've been watching their regular updates for several months, and going back and watching all of their older episodes, I find myself constantly refreshing my home page to see if they have any new videos posted even though I know they're not due to post anything until the next day.

What can I say? I like these people. Some people follow celebrities. I follow YouTube peo-- well I don't "follow" them. I couldn't tell you much about them or their personal lives beyond what they explicitly share in their videos and that's more than fine by me. But I do enjoy watching their interactions with each other because they're real people in a real medium that everyone has access to. If you're popular it's usually because you're worth the popularity you've received.

I enjoy these people. I really do. I enjoy watching sxephil do live chats with Michael Buckley from the whatthebuckshow. I enjoy whatthebuckshow doing shared vids with nigahiga. Applemilk1988 cracks me up and reminds me- in a very positive way- of every girl my brother has ever dated. I could listen to sykesmarcus recite Shakespeare for hours. And there's almost nothing Kelly at betchslapdotcom could sing about that I wouldn't desperately want to listen to.

Because it's true.

You can't text message breakup.

This week I've been watching Joanna Newsom videos, Jonathan Brandis dedication videos, Carl Sagan videos on astrology, the brain, the likelihood of finding intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy (that's the one I grabbed my entry title from), and episodes of Jesus People. (Watch out, kiddies. It's painfully funny.)

Today two people I don't know subscribed to my videos. What's up with that? And I've logged an average of 116 views per video, and I don't know 116 people. I know 6 of my laughably piddly 13 subscribers. And 2 of those 6 I've only ever met online. (Karen and Rick- I haven't forgotten I owe you drinks if/when we meet.)

I find myself getting irritated when people post comments about videos on the blog where I embedded the video, but not on the YouTube video page itself. It makes me feel like I'm posting to the ether. I find myself getting irritated when I watch a stupid video and the first three pages of comments are all, basically, "wut a faggggg." I find myself getting irritated when fun videos that people love get taken down because of 5 second clips of copyrighted music playing in the background.

You know whose videos fail on YouTube, though their view counts may be high(ish)? Videos posted by megas. Orgs. Big groups. Videos posted with ratings turned off, and no way to comment. Like those Scientology videos? They're a joke amongst YouTubers because the people posting them have totally prevented viewers from being able to interact with the vids in the ways that have made YouTube as successful as it is.

So what is all this? I don't know for sure if I love YouTube or if I mistrust it enough that I want to keep it close. But I think I love it.

*****************************************************

I was Stumbling earlier today and came across a porn site that must've been tagged "nature" or "art" or something 'cause it is oh most definitely porn and it oh most definitely popped up when I hit "Stumble!" *meh* It happens. I still *heart* SU.

I was going to click "Stumble!" again to be taken to another page when I noticed that the girls in the picture didn't look, well, porn-y. I clicked "back" until I got to the first pic in the series so I could grab a screen shot of them in their clothes. To be honest, the clothed shot is about as clean feeling as the later, unclothed shots. They're all of a bunch of smiling, normal looking girls playing around by a waterfall. And not "playing around" as in "wink wink nudge nudge playing around." Just, you know, walking and smiling and splashing. And uh... getting undressed at some point. Y'know: likeyoudo. No sultry looks. No gettin' all frisky like with each other. Just being cute. And outside. And naked.

Here's a screen shot of the first pic. Let's break this down by girl, shall we?

1) Belly flab.
2) Belly flab.
3) Heavy legs.
4) Flat chest.
5) Totally, unquestionably hot. Don't know how she snuck in.
6) Forgettable. (Would that be considered a flaw?)

Anyway: It left me awestruck.

Almost all of these girls- who are all totally cute- have figure features that would eliminate them entirely from the running in their eligibility to appear in conventional pornographic pictures, websites, etc. And yet here they are! On a porn page!

And do you know why this is cool enough to merit mentioning? Because it's a reinforcement of the idea our dearest male friends and favorite ex-boyfriends have been trying to tell us for years: Many men really do find "normal looking" women attractive. Enough so that there can be money-making sites dedicated to that look.

Ta-da!

I think I might bookmark that page, actually. I think I'd like to have it on hand to go back to on days I'm feeling particularly less-than-Megan-Fox-y.

And please: No comments from the female side of the peanut gallery on how almost every woman reading this post probably outweighs them and wouldn't bend over like that in a two-piece and can't be in water when cameras are around or their makeup will run and reveal their acne/ freckles/ fear, etc. etc. I know. I know. I'm just sayin'...

*sigh* Oh man. I just really need to go to bed. This has gone on long enough.

When people who you know have nothing to gain from feeding you a line of bullshit about something feed you a line of bullshit, who are they trying to convince? Especially when it's not terribly harmful bullshit so what was the point in the first place? Especially when it's their own hole they're digging?

Been a rough week. Can't get into it too much here 'cause it's work related and all that. The end o' the tale, however, lands firmly in the "Ruth is working on her resume and actively seeking employment which she will interview for having driven to said interview in a car fueled by gas funded by unemployment insurance payments" camp.

:P

So what do I want to be when I grow up if I'm not gonna be a roofer?

:(

It's become increasingly lonely here as of late at the ol' apartamento. It's the job thing. It's family stuff. It's hard. Everyone's depressed. I keep daydreaming about meeting Bill Gates at the grocery store and helping him track down all of the apples (get it?) that have spilled from his grocery bag and rolled all over the parking lot and to thank me he gives me a million dollar tip and I take it to the bank and put it in the work account and the only thing I ask of my dad back at the office is that we hire a full-time IT person/CAD monkey.

My resume is stupid. And full of how-to notes. And three pages long. Because it's full of how-to notes.

Do I *have* to write a resume? Can't I just show up outside of some company's building and walk in and ask if I can try out whatever it is they do and if I can do it I'm hired? Someplace that'll keep me in my apartment. Someplace that'll give me health insurance. And days off. And a drawer for my pens and not just a place to set my pen cup.

Time to shower and then go to bed. I keep trying to force myself to stay up as long as possible so that when I finally crawl under the covers I'll fall asleep right away and not lay there thinking and thinking and stressing and thinking... but I'm out of things to do. I don't want to be online (shocker, I know), none of my books is that appealing to me right  now, everything's clean enough that I can't be bothered to mess with it, and every time I go to do something that requires a light being turned on or hot water being used (as Silly Strawberry bubble bath isn't nearly as much fun without it) I freak out and turn everything off because I'm so afraid my work endeavors will fail again and I'll be paying for that energy usage with unemployment checks all summer and Lord knows those things don't go far enough.

I didn't cause anything to fail. There's nothing I could have done. All I can do now is keep working, be there, keep my head up and my mind focused and eat during the day and get sleep at night and maybe take a walk tomorrow afternoon.

I'm so sad right now but crying just takes so much effort I can't be bothered to begin. :S

"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
Ambrose Bierce

*************************************

Do I find these guys funnier when I view their videos as political satire or as the real deal?

Hmmmm....



I don't think of myself as a cracker so much as a-- as a wheat thin. As such, redneck comedy is just not generally my bag. But I have literally laughed out loud at every one of these guys' videos that I've watched today.

I think I understood about 3 and a half words of Jackie's "Hannah Montana" monologue in this one:



I don't know whose pics are actually creepier. The pics of these fellas or the pics of Miley in her pop's lap.

"When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty."
    Norm Crosby

"The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal."
    H. L. Mencken

"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored."
    Evelyn Waugh

Haven't eaten since 6 pm last night and lemme tell ya'-- I'm starvin' over here. Yeesh.

And as soon as Beth gets back? Ooh I am SO outta here!

But to where?

If I drive home and make myself a sandwich then I'm spending more money on gas than I'd spend if I ate someplace near the office, but food near the office will cost more. What to do, what to do...

On the other hand, I lose more time by going home to eat, and time is of the essence right now...

But I'm so sick of the food around here! And I do *not* want McDonald's again! Now don't get me wrong-- I love me some greasy cow flesh from Yours McTruly. But my tum-tum's aching from not having had anything put into it in over 18 hours besides about 10 chocolate covered espresso beans that I ate to fend off the caffeine headache I knew was inevitable since I've had no caffeine since Tuesday night.

Ugh.

The body- she's a cruel mistress, no?

But then, is there any other kind of mistress worth being?

"There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you."
Norman Mailer

"Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."
Robert Frost

As soon as this video finished uploading to YouTube-- it is taking so stinkin' long!!-- I will have finished with making Dallas Blogs. Woo hoo, man. Seriously.

I think it's worth attempting to post, though. I mean- I cut stuff and did stuff and whatever. It's like 3% more advanced than the first 18. Still nowhere near as advanced as the vids being posted by foul-mouthed 9 year olds who only seem to know how to post videos whose titles and tags lead you to believe you're going to watch a clip from a show when actually it's JUST A JOKE!! HAHAHA!!!1!111!!!! LOL ITS THI SDUDE AN HE SCREEMIN AND U HAD YER SPEEKERS UP !!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

*sigh*

And now: I continue my wait. And when it's uploaded, it will go right below here.



Yup. Right up there.

Ah-ha! There it is!! :D

Yup.

Dallas Blog. Number 20. We out.

(Dallas Blog: #19)

P.S. swadhyaya aka OhJennyKo: There's a special clip in it just for you. ;)

****************************************************

I'm working on my resume and so far it's slow (boring) going.

I copied and pasted EVERYTHING from past versions and updates and notes and things into a new version. It's a total mess. And so much of it is just--- ugh. So poorly written. Some of it's from right after high school. I had no idea what I was doing or saying and boy does it show.

So here I sit with stuff I've got to completely rewrite, mixed in with template suggestions from various web sites, and more superfluous data than I know what to do with as I've been copying and pasting from resumes used for everything from office jobs to teaching jobs to campus jobs... and it comes to two pages.

I don't know how I want to format it yet. So many that I've looked at don't read well visually, but at the same time I know that the viewing/reading methods that work best for me may not be how others will want to see what I'm including so I'm freakin' out that I'm going to find an awesome, clean, easy to read format and will find out that no one uses it because HR types can't stand it.

Phooey.

Regardless: Once I format it it'll shorten up a little, but mostly I've now got to start cutting things. This shouldn't be too hard since I literally have EVERY job I've ever had on there. Lookin' at 14 total. Gonna shorten up real quick-like.

It's describing the more recent/relevant positions using those God awful "action verbs" that's really getting me antsy. I feel like using them is finding a way to maintain honesty while lying about what you've done. "Implemented redesign of human resources support program" should not be used as code for "When I was sent to buy a can of Folgers for the break room I decided to pick up Maxwell House instead because there was a stick on tattoo inside that I wanted for my kid."

Ick.

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
Sir Winston Churchill

"The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward."
John Maynard Keynes

I'm flying back to Dallas this Monday morning at 6 am.

Yeah. 6 comes in the morning, too.

I'm flying there with one of the techs to pack up some things into the Sprinter we have down there, and then he's driving that back and I'm driving back an F-150 that another guy is meeting us with when we arrive.

I'm bringing Alfred with me, naturally. Though after the last trip he doesn't seem terribly keen on making a repeat performance of the whole "driving back to Wisconsin" adventure...



*shrugs*

Whatever.

(Dallas Blog: #18)

I'm watching Walk Hard and am flabbergasted at how oddly quotable it is. An over-extended parody? Perhaps. But fun nonetheless.

And the visual gags fun.

I'm liking this. I had my doubts. But I'm honest to goodness liking this. Not loving it. There are things missing. But definitely liking it. Yep.

And is that the guy from Napoleon Dynamite playing the radio DJ?

Har har. Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly. And quite a few familiar faces from "The Office." That's always fun. :)

Oop! Another funny thing happened- gotta go.

"Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen."
John le Carre
Tuesday: Juno
Wednesday: My Knees Were Jumping: Remembering the Kindertransports
Thursday: Silverlake Life: The View From Here
Friday: You Should Be So Lucky

So my rent won't go up if I get a cat, but I *will* have to pay a $200 (refundable) deposit. And I still might not even be able to get one because it would be my first cat and generally they only let you have a cat here if you already had it. And it must be spayed and declawed. :P

We went out on the boat today after work. It was raining outside, and a bit windy. There was EE from work and his wife and two of their kids, and AS with fishing poles, and my mom and dad. We only went out for about an hour, hour and a half. And now-- man I'm exhausted. I was so tired all day today. I had a coupon for a free entree at Noodles so I went there for lunch and then went back out to my car and slept for about 40 minutes.

But it wasn't really sleep. It was-- rapid-laying-down, you know what I mean? Like- I lay down and my heart was racing and I was exhausted and could barely sit back up I was so stinkin' tired!! But something just wouldn't let me fall asleep, exhausted as I was. I'm falling right to sleep at night these days. What the heck is up, man?

Flying to Texas on Monday around 12:15 in the morning. Or at least that's the plan for now. It'd be so much cheaper if we could fly even just one week later. I'm going with one of our techs to pick up a few things from the warehouse down there, and then we'll be driving it back up in one of our Sprinters we have down there.

What was it like to be in the medical profession in the 80s? All these people suddenly all dying at once of AIDS and nothing you're doing seems to help at all or make anything better...

Watched The Mist. Wanted to shoot Mrs. Carmody.

Watching Iris. Wanting to be Judy Dench. And Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent are amazing in their portrayals of young and old John Bayley.

"You know many secrets now, Iris..."

It's very quiet here when I get home. I talk to Alfred a lot in the evenings, but I've noticed he doesn't tend to have much to say in reply. I don't really want a roommate, and Mr. Right has yet to come 'round to love me and boss me around and all those other very nice things fellows often do. As such, I'm thinking about getting a pet.

Fish also have precious little to say, and there are times when I'm not around often enough to manage a dog (which I don't even know that I'm allowed to have in this building anyway). Birds are charming, but obnoxiously talkative, especially after Alfred. And while I really like lizards and snakes and things in principle, I'm after something a bit more mammalian.

But oh my God if I get a cat I'll never hear the end of it.

On the one hand I have mild allergies and my family would tease me for being 26, working for my dad, living alone, and adopting a feline.

On the other hand, I like the idea of having something moving around in the apartment so when I hear noises at night I have something to attribute them to, and soft things that make noises on their own are nice to see, and I want to care about something that will die before me, and I've always liked my friends' kitty stories.

There are lots of places in the area I can go to adopt a cat that's already had it's shots and all that. I wonder... I wonder...

I'd have to see if I could even have one here, and how much my rent would go up, and then dump a boat load of money on cat food things and poo things and collar things...

My head hurts. And this movie is awfully sad. I don't want to go to bed, you see. I just want to already be asleep.

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Kenneth Galbraith

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Why isn't she allowed to say "the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts"." Why must she pay thousands of euros for that?

I don't care what religion you're referring to; if you think its presence in your country is an entirely negative one, or perhaps only encourages certain negative things, you MUST say so, because few things in this world- organizations, ideologies, etc.- have such deeply seated, far reaching influence on mankind as his religious beliefs.

I mean-- look at this country. Look at all the awful nonsense that's been pulled since people first landed here, all in the name of the Christian church. I'm a Christian and I have a problem with people doing that, and with the particular things they're doing. And I expect people who aren't to have an even bigger problem with that.

They should speak up, and so should I.

And so should Brigitte Bardot.

Did Martin Luther King, Jr. really say "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."??

*****************************************************

Marilyn Monroe Sex Tape Sells for $1.5M

... Heavily redacted, declassified FBI documents from the 1960s talk about a "French-type" film starring the late actress ...

Uh... "French-type"? Wha-???

Tom Cruise Concerned About Posh Spice's Influence on Katie Holmes

... During another recent outing to Madeo, Katie and Posh shared a green salad without dressing, one piece of fish and one side of steamed spinach, Life and Style reported. They also ordered one regular Coke and two glasses of ice.

“Katie poured half the soda into each of their glasses, then filled up the rest with bottled water,” a Madeo regular told the magazine."

What?! *Gah!* If that's what it takes to be thing-- man I'm just not so sure I want it...

100 Best First Lines from Novels

15. The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. —Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938)

46. Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation.  —Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (1974)

47. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)

78. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.  —L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)

*****************************************************

In other news: I'm an idiot.

I'm reading Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (it's incredible) and I just finished the second book about an hour ago and was all set to dive right into the third book when I realized, much to my horror, that the book sitting on my shelf isn't the third book but the fourth!

I bought books two and (apparently) four when I was in Dallas in November so that as soon as I finished book one I could move right into the next one. I'd intended to buy two through four at the time, but decided to save a few bucks and some space in my luggage on my return trip to Wisconsin, so I put book (apparently) three back on the shelf.

Whoops.

For some reason I cannot understand myself, I spent ages and ages finishing up book two. Don't ask me how or why I did it; glutton for punishment perhaps. In the meantime I've been ignoring the book on my shelf because it didn't matter yet, so I had no idea that all this time I've been sitting here with a book I can't read yet!

Well it damn well matters now that I want to read book three and can't! Doggonit...

I thought it was book one that i put back since i already have it (just in a different edition). I'm so confused. I was sure I bought two through four and put back book one...

I'm picking it up at B&N tomorrow on my way home from work, as well as putting in an order for the WUD script.

*sigh* How am I ever going to memorize that bloomin' thing...

Help!!!

I want to download a free video capture program and I don't know which one to use.

I downloaded Video Caster 3.4 but when I use it I don't know how to make it so you don't hear the instant (but slightly delayed) playback while recording because then I end up with an echo in anything I record. Use this? Know how to make that stop?

I downloaded Video DVD Maker but I couldn't understand what I was looking at. Everything's in very non-userfriendly, pre-Web 2.0 format and it's all in *shorthand* so it did me no good.

I downloaded Debut again but I'm having the same problem I had before-- the sound is about a second ahead of the video and I don't know how to fix that.

I bought Magix Movie Edit Pro 12 today from Best Buy, but I want to make sure there are no free alternatives I should be looking for before I open it up because the guy at the counter said you can't return opened software to Best Buy. :P

If you're familiar with MMEP12 and think it's probably worth a shot for a novice, I'm all ears on that possibility too. I mean-- I *did* buy it, after all. I'm willing to use it!

Help!!

And because I'm awesome, here you go: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, or SBCG4AP on Wii.

*******************************************

I just e-filed my Federal taxes for free with TurboTax and I'm getting money back AND I qualify for the $600 tax... thing...y. Hooray! Oh man-- this is just in time, too. Phew!

I'm a tax loser and it still only took me about a half hour.

Last year I had someone else do my taxes because I'd worked part of '06 for a CA company while living in CA, and part for a WI company while living in CA, and part for a WI company while living in WI. I couldn't keep up with what I needed to do. Plus I'd had to file an extension and had only been able to afford a partial payment.

There. That's my justification for not doing my own taxes last year. :P

Anyway: because I had an accountant do my taxes last year for 2006, on a lot of the forms TurboTax asked me to refer to, well- I don't have them. I have summary documents so the info isn't laid out the same. It would've been a lot faster tonight if I'd done my own taxes last year and had all the standard docs laid out in front of me.

All that to say: if you need to file your taxes still and you've got your own docs, TurboTax was super easy, will be much faster for you, and Federal doesn't cost a penny to prep or e-file.

State filings cost $35 to e-file, but those are the ones that are easier to file on paper, right? I haven't looked through my forms from the library yet, but those aren't as involved, no?

Yay for a tax refund!! =D

ETA: State = So Much Easier

Still did it through TurboTax instead of on my own, but hey: It's filed. It's done. In about 2 weeks my state refund will be direct deposited along with my federal refund. And you know what? That's awesome. And easy.

*******************************************

Just finished About Schmidt. I liked it. I liked how it started. I liked how it developed. I liked seeing Kathy Bates naked. I liked how it ended.

And now I'm going to bed. So leave me alone.

"Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad."
Diogenes the Cynic

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What a loser.

And continuing with the theme...

I watched this video again today and I can't believe how funny it still is to me. I mean-- it's been a good year since I first saw it, and I've seen it since then, but it never ceases to amaze me how glad I am that 1) Kevin Federline knows how to operate a camera, and 2) that Britney Spears knows about time travel.



Britney: *Smack!* *Shake!* WUT?! WUT?!?!

I have a neighbor who plays music with a hugely heavy bass line and he plays it so loudly I almost miss the mariachi music outside our windows in Canyon Country. I seriously want to close a door on his head. A couple of times.

*****************************************************
Affidavit: Report of child brides led to raid

According to the affidavit, the teen bride reported her husband "beat and hurt her whenever he got angry -- hitting her in the chest and choking her -- and that while such abuse was occurring, one of the other women in the home would hold her infant child."

On March 30, the teen called again. She told workers she was last beaten Easter Sunday. Her husband told her if she tried to leave the ranch "she would be found and locked up."

She said church members also told her if she left the ranch "outsiders will hurt her, force her to cut her hair, to wear makeup and [different] clothes and to have sex with lots of men."

Boo-frickin'-hoo. Sounds like a trade up to me, man.

Possibly hundreds of billions of barrels of recoverable oil in the Dakotas? Uh... yeah. Let's do that.

I'm  watching Bend It Like Beckham.

I'm supposed to be watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest but the library didn't have it.

Figures.

So far "BILB" is...  well it's not great. Keira Knightley is skinnier than I've ever seen her, but it's not so bad when she's fully dressed. I'd kill to look that skinny, but honestly dear heart: put a bloody shirt on. You shouldn't go trotting around in a sports bra any more than a girl five times your size should. You look ill. In that white top? Super cute. In the bra? Not-- not your best look. That's why she looked so cute in those Pirates movies: she was more clothed!!

The main girl is a cutie pie herself. Is that leg scar/plot point real?

I think I want to hang strands of Christmas lights parallel across my living room ceiling. Ah- but how to plug in the ends?

It's not a bad story. I mean-- it's a bit predictable in that standard film fare kind of way, but enjoyable nonetheless 'cause of the cultural differences you get to see depicted in a very non-let's-celebrate-diversity kind of way. Always fun.

Angry Momma: Get your lesbian feet out of my shoes!
Indian Grandmama: Lesbian? I thought she was a pisces...

Ugh. I totally want an Indian wedding, minus about 80% of the gayness of the way the straight guys are dancing. The gay guys can dance as gay as they gay well please. But the straight guys? Come on, guys. Less hip swaying, more posturing.

Whoa! I just recognized an Indian actress! How weird is that?? It's this older woman who plays the grandmother in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam!

Oh no. Don't you dare do the predictable Indian movie ending. Oh no you don't... Oh phew!

Yeah. Cute moments, but don't bother unless you can rent it for free from the library.

*******************************

I've moved on to Time Bandits. Wow-- what a cast list. I'm literally just up to the title flashing onto the screen and am already wondering if I should pause this to enjoy it with other people this weekend. This is awesome.

"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her."
Oscar Wilde

"The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time."
Friedrich Nietzsche

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
Walt Whitman

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience."
Mitch Hedberg

********************************************************

I just don't get Venezuela.

Venezuela Beaches Homer for the Hoff

No one pinpointed what exactly about the melodrama revolving around scantily clad lifeguards was more acceptable for impressionable children than the iconic sitcom, but the National Telecommunications Commission reported receiving viewer complaints. ...

Station general manager Perez Nahim told the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias on Friday, when the change went into effect, that the station itself never received Simpsons-related complaints, so he hoped it would continue to have a strong following once it's rescheduled. 

"We are hoping it will continue to have a good rating, because The Simpsons worked very well—so much so that it had the highest levels of viewership for that morning timetable in the history of the channel," Nahim said.

Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint

The work, known as The Vulcan Project, has already yielded a significant discovery: Previous CO2 estimates that used population as a proxy for emissions overestimated the Northeast's greenhouse-gas generation, while underestimating the coal-heavy Southeast's contribution.

I'm watching Death At A Funeral and even Alan Tudyk couldn't save it. And the woman playing his fiance is in no way a sympathetic character and I so hoped she would at least be tolerable. I can't even remember her name... I can't remember any of the names... Unfortunately I do remember the guy getting shit on his hand and cheek. Good God.

Tag line? "From director Frank Oz comes the story of a family that puts the F U in funeral." *shakes head*

Poorly directed, poor acting choices, nothing-- nothing really stood out at all. Except the opening credit roll. That was kinda good. Oh- and Peter Dinklage. One of the comments near the bottom of his page mentions Tyrion Lannister. I almost want to set up an IMDB account so I can get involved in that conversation. Almost.

This one's a big "don't bother."

Coming up: Part 3 of Nicholas Nickelby and 6" of seafood sub. Alfred's almost as excited as I am. He's really got to calm down or he'll never sleep tonight.

ETA: What the crap?! I thought "Nicholas Nickelby" was a 4-parter but it's only a 2-parter, so apparently I've seen it all. I wondered what the heck could happen after the last scene I saw...

At least I had "Dial "M" for Murder" waiting in the wings. And tomorrow I'm off to the library to restock. *sigh* Library movies... *shakes head*