jenorosel

10:26 pm: I've just done that whole myspace thing. Feel free to friend me, or whatever they call it.


http://www.myspace.com/elletopo



(edited because I forgot the url)

06:23 pm:

Believe it or not, some animals are straight up cooler than monkeys.

Like this dog.

Still doesn't stop me from wanting my own monkey to help me plot world domination.  If I dressed him up like a small child, could I get a monkey past the "no pets" clause in my lease?

 

(link courtesy of Mike Oliveri's blog).

08:17 am: No peace for the Schiavo's just yet

Jeb Bush seeks probe into Schiavo's collapse

Because the legal system has no current, low profile domestic abuse cases to investigate, right?

I'm not about to claim I knew what went on in that household.  In fact, there's probably only two people in the world who knew what happened when Terri went unconscious.  My gut instinct says there was no foul play but that's just my opinion.

At what point will this end, though?  The autopsy showed she was in a vegitative state with no consciousness whatsoever.  You'd think that would be enough to put the issue to rest, right?  Now Good Ol Boy Jeb is demanding an investigation based on something Michael said fifteen years after the fact, recalling a long ago, emotionally charged moment.  I'd be more apprehensive if he actually knew the very moment she collapsed down to the second.  But because he may have a few minutes unclear here and there that makes him an evil wife abuser.

This all boils down to the fact that the Political Christian Mouthpieces* are using him as a poster child saying he went against God's will.  They never mention the fact that God did call her home fifteen years ago and it's been man-made technology keeping her alive since then.**  In that case, should we be getting ready to crucify the doctors who put her on life support in the first place for going against God's will?

 

* I wanted to make the distinction between good, normal Christian folks and the PCMs who are merely exploiting this family's personal tragedy for their own political agendas with no real concern for the family.

** Mind you, I'm not opposed to medical intervention in the least but if we're going to discuss Man vs. God, let's not mix up doctors and holy entities.

04:53 pm: Although I don't usually post quiz results here....
...this one seems oddly fitting for me.

Which Tim Burton character are you? Pee-Wee Herman There's a lot of things about me you don't know. Things you couldn't know. Things you shouldn't know.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

09:12 pm: Random display of pretty colored lights
Here I sat tonight procrastinating some more on getting writing done when all of a sudden I hear a few random explosions. Once I realized it wasn't gunfire I ran outside to look.

Fireworks. Pretty fireworks.

I don't know where they were coming from or what they were celebrating but it was a full-on, no holds barred firework show. Big fireworks,all the pretty colored puffball ones, the sparkly glitter lookin things. They even had the ones that get a Saturn-like ring going crosswise. Damn, those are cool.

I love fireworks. Here in LA, it's illegal to buy corner-stand fireworks for home usage. Has to do with the dry conditions of Los Angeles and the tendencies for hillsides to burn up on a regular basis. Understandably, but it still sucks for those of us who dig on the pretty lights. Last year I was somewhere that you could not only purchase fireworks, but set them off wherever you damn well felt like. That was fun. I was like a kid in a candy store, except instead of chocolate I was stocking up on explosives. That rocked.

But I digress. There's three of us standing on the building's balcony watching the fireworks go off, oohing and ahhing. Meanwhile, people are walking into their apartments barely acknowledging that things are exploding overhead, never mind stopping to enjoy the spectacle.

My friends, make me a deal: if I ever become the kind of person who doesn't stop to look at the pretty lights I want you to kick me. Hard. K?

But the pretty lights are over and its time to get cracking.

catch you on the flipside,

jen

09:55 pm: A quick question
When doing an e-serial, how long should each section be? One thousand? Three thousand? Five? How long is too long and how short is too short?

Just hypothetically speaking, of course ;)

jen

09:56 pm: edited because of pissy-ness
I removed the old blog entry here because I felt it was a little too whiny. Instead, I point you toward this damn funny bit of flash animation: http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=1184&rtn=main-topten (thanks to Brian Knight for originally posting it) jen

09:26 pm:

There's going to be a big blog update soon, with writing news and all that other jazz.  Not now, though.  I feel like either a cold or alergies or something is coming on and I feel like dirt.

 

But for now, this has to be probably the best flash animation I've seen in a while.

 

Enjoy.  I'm going to go lie down now.

 

jen

10:17 pm: Random things of no social importance

A few things...

 

Just discovered that my coffee pot is broken.  Even though I've got a nice big ol Vanilla Latte from the Starbucks at the corner, I'm already suffering withdrawls.  Must remember to get new carafe thingie this weekend.

 

I learned a couple things from students:

"Skanking" is the pacing around you do in a mosh pit when you're not whacking each other.

"Screemo" is Emo music with lots of screaming.

 

I can actually cook up a mean pot of chicken curry.  Next step is to figure out how to adjust the recipe so I don't have four more canisters of chicken curry in my freezer.

 

"The Pickup Artist" by Terry Bisson is a damn fine book.

 

A good fart joke never goes out of fashion.

 

That is all.

 

catch you on the flipside,

jen

11:59 pm: Shameless Self-Promotion

Preorder my chapbook here.

 

Please.

 

Thank you.

 

05:33 pm: movie review time!

Been a while since I posted a movie review. Just got back from one that I feel compelled to comment on.

Eros.

Premise behind this one is three different directors (Wong Kar Wai, Stephen Soderberg and Michelangelo Antonioni) and their takes on sexuality. Three completely different perspectives, three different episodes. As with most episodic films, the quality was...uneven.

Wai's "The Hand" was the first film, and one of the two reasons I wanted to see this. Once again he's proven to be a master of subtlety. The story centers around a high-priced prostitute and her tailor and the strange, almost platonic love between the two. It had the best damn shots and cinematography of the three. I don't think there was a single frame of film that wasn't carefully composed. And the actors did a fabulous job, saying more with their silences than their words.

"Equilibrium" was Soderberg's (and the other reason I went) entry. Robert Downey Jr. goes to a psychiatrist and recounts a barely erotic dream. While he drones on, the shrink (Alan Arkin) gets bored and...well, I don't want to ruin it for you. Sexuality barely fits into this story and I somewhat wonder how this fit in with the theme of "eros". Don't get me wrong--I loved this bit. Soderberg hasn't been this funny since Schizopolis, and it was a welcome break after the melancholy of "The Hand".

Then comes the third part of the movie and, take my advice, leave before it starts.

Antonioni is the man who brought us "Blow Up", the scathing social commentary. I wonder if perhaps he's gotten all the commenting out of his system, because this section had NOTHING to say. The title was something akin to "The Thread that Binds Us". Story was simple--man and girlfriend argue. He meets other woman. Other woman mastubates then they have sex. Other woman dances naked on the sand. Girlfriend dances naked on the sand. Yeah, that's it. Oh, and I forgot that there are moments of self-consciously pretentious dialogue. There's more plotting, better writing, and more entertainment value in digital video, amateur porn.

Long review short--fabulous movie if you leave before the third act.

catch you on the flipside,

jen

03:53 pm: Day of Silence
As many of you know, I work at a public high school. Today a student handed me a paper that said this:

Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?

Yeah, sometimes these kids make me proud. Anyone know of this happening outside here in LA?

02:07 am: Ah, well.
Off the top ten list again. It was fun while it lasted.

For those of you going to WHC, see you there.

For those not going, see you later.

11:05 pm: Well, ain't this a kick in the head!*

Who'da thunk it?

 

I haven't checked the sales ranking in a while on the fictionwise site.  On a whim (and because I'm procrastinating) I gave it a look.  THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS is up to #4 on their bestseller list of Fiction Works books.

That's just so weird to me, considering I've been so busy working on other stuff to actually do anything resembling promotion since Adam 12 was on television.

Nice to know people are still reading it. 

 

catch you on the flipside,

 

jen

 

* That's something my Grandpa used to say about pleasant suprises.  Still not sure how a kick in the head can be equated with a good thing, and yet I can't stop myself form using that phrase.

 

05:01 pm: Happy Jen Redux

Well, since I've been given the okay, here goes:

 

I shall be a part of Damned Nation!

 

Yeah, pretty happy here :-)

04:06 pm: wohoo!
Just got home from Vegas. Twas a fun trip, but I came home drained.

Then I checked my email and just about shat myself.

Got an acceptance to an anthology I REALLY wanted to be a part of. I'm more thrilled than I can even say.

More to come when I'm sure that I'm allowed to make an "official" announcement. But for now, just believe me that I'm doing a hardcore happydance (which is oddly similar to the hampster dance).

catch you on the flipside,

jen

05:57 pm: Brian Knight joins me for my first time

This has been a very good week for me.

 

I have a chapbook coming out from City Contrasts called NONE OF THIS IS REAL.  It’s my first solo project to see print.  Well, not only did I find out a limited amount will be ready in time for WHC but Brian Knight has provided me with the most generous introduction a writer can ask for.  I loved it, and now my only fear is the introduction will be better than the stories inside ;-).

 

Yeah, I’m a happy Jen.

10:43 pm: mmmm...cherry Tums
I got to write my first cover summary today. It's probably just me, but that felt almost harder to write than the actual stories. Man, did that make me nervous. But it's written and emailed off. Now I feel like I want to yak. Maybe it's from the excitement that the chapbook (my first solo bit to see print) is feeling more and more real as time goes on, and the anticipation....

Or it could be from dinner tonight. Those bobas did taste a little funny.

And it looks like I might get a pretty sweet introduction written for NONE OF THIS IS REAL. More to come when it becomes official.

catch you on the flipside,

jen

09:02 pm: Lifted from Brian Knight's newsletter

Face it, you love books, and you love ebay.  Here's a way to indulge in both and feel GOOD about it:

From Brian Knight:

09:15 pm: Oscars
I watched the Oscars tonight. I think I can sum up the evening in a single word:

Eh.

Yeah, okay, I know that isn't a word, but it still sums up my feelings.

It seemed as though Chris Rock wanted to rebel against expectations, so instead of giving them the edgy, controversial jokes everyone expected, he was more bland than Gary Shandling.

Twas very happy about the screenwriting awards in both original and adapted, but it's gotten to the point where the distribution of the award is getting predictable. The little indie flicks get the writing awards and everything else goes to the big spectacle pictures. How about a no-namer getting an acting award for once?

Mind you, I am NOT complaining about the acting awards. At least they didn't pull a FOREST GUMP on me.

I don't think I care for their handing out awards from the audience. Yeah, I know those are the littler awards for categories so few people give a damn about. But think--these people deserve their stage time just like anyone else. The least we could afford them is a little time in the sun instead of standing in the walkway giving their thanks where you can see people in the background looking bored.

I'm somewhat entertained that they played the cut-off music during the Best Picture speeches. Where were they in such a hurry to get to?

All in all, it wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst. It was simply there. And yes, I'll be watching next year just as I do every year.

catch you on the flipside,

jen