RhymePhile's Rat Race

First it was merely sex addiction. Then it was porn addiction. Now it's being reported that David Duchovny was just, y'know, a horndog and was cheating.

It comes from The Enquirer, our financially failing supermarket tabloid that routinely scoops regular media when it comes to stuff like this. I believe it. They scooped the John Edwards cheating/baby mama scandal, and wield enough power to have celebrities pre-emptively admit guilt for lots of things. Most of the time this surrounds celebrities admitting they're gay; two off the top of my head were Jm J. Bullock and Chad Allen.

As I said before, I feel bad for Téa and the kids, but this is completely unsurprising. This is also my year of fannish disillusionment, from the NY ComicCon, to LJ meets, and now to this.

I've decided that I shall no longer admire the people behind the character. It's always a let down. I'm going to pretend he's righteous alien-crime-fighter Fox Mulder and be done with it.

I was reading Lifehacker yesterday, and they link to Metafilter, where someone asked about places online in which you can buy unique gifts. Someone mentioned Blurb.com, a site where you can create your own photography books.

Now, I haven't researched across the web for places like this, but from what I see, Blurb seems really really affordable for photography projects. I was thinking mainly of spicedrum and foxestacado (which I told you about yesterday) when I saw this site, and myself of course.

The coolest thing is that for $12.95 plus $8 UPS shipping, you can get a 7 x 7, 40-page, full color, softcover book with your photos in it and text. That's the price for just one book. You don't have to order in bulk unless you want to, and then it decreases in price. If you wanted that 7 x 7 book in hardcover with a dustjacket (which you also put photos on) that would be $22.95. You can even sell your book through their store, and make profits. This site is also available internationally, so those of you across the pond can use it too.

They have other size options, like "standard portrait," which is 8 x 10, or "standard landscape," which is 10 x 8, or the mightiest (and most expensive at $54.95 for one book) is "large format landscape" at 13 x 11 in hardcover.

What's really unique about the site is that in order to create a book, you need to download this program called BookSmart. Runs on PC and Mac. It's basically a template into which you plug all your photos and text, with lots of options for layout. You can see a 32-minute tutorial here. It looks really cool.

Of course, seeing photos online and getting them printed are two different things. Here's what I discovered (it's all in their FAQ) about resolution (this is all in pixel):

Square 7x7: Cover 2225 X 2142; Interior pages, full bleed: 2063 X 2067
Standard Landscape 10x8: Cover 3038 X 2555; Interior pages, full bleed: 2884 X 2471
Standard Portrait 8x10: Cover 2530 X 3080; Interior pages, full bleed: 2363 X 3000
Large Format Landscape 13x11: Cover 3955 X 3342; Interior pages, full bleed: 3788 X 3263

Of course not every page needs to be full bleed; there are different layout options for the inside pages that create much smaller images.

What types of images are supported?

1) JPG or PNG format. PNGs should be 8-bit and non-interlaced
2) sRGB color (no CMYK nor Grayscale nor Adobe 1998 RGB)
3) If you’re using iPhoto, make sure your library has its default name and is saved in its default location
4) 150 to 300 DPI (dots per inch or pixels per inch). For instance, a 5x7 image frame should be filled with an image that is at least 750x1050 pixels and no greater than 1500 to 2100 pixels.

I'd love to make a book of my vacation photography, but the problem is I shot all of them for sharing with you guys here, not at a resolution for a book. I'm going to think of some photography projects, and definitely create a book. I hope one of you might be interested enough to look into this, too, and share your work!

So I guess this is what David Walliams and Matt Lucas have been doing -- Little Britain USA! It premieres September 26 on HBO. I need to write this down, because I know I'm going to forget.



Here's a bit of Lou and Andy too:

When Katrina hit three years ago my aunt and uncle lived near Gulfport, Mississippi, which got hit really bad. They didn't lose the house thank goodness, but they had damage. My three near-adult cousins, on the other hand, lost cars, apartments, and one had a boyfriend who lost his business. The youngest was still in high school, and they actually lost their high school. Since then everyone has left Mississippi. My aunt and uncle *just* sold their house and moved to Tennessee only a few weeks ago. Granted, it was for my uncle's job that they had to move, but they and all the cousins have left.

My girl badtyler is in New Orleans right now, and is stuck and has to weather out the storm. It's supposed to make landfall tomorrow.

I hope she's okay!

Don't know if you have net access right now, M, but we're all thinking and worrying about you! Stay safe and be careful.

*giggle* I can't help it. It's just..so...*giggle* it's so Hollywood. I wonder what Téa is thinking right now. I feel worse for her.

Here's another interesting article about Duchovny, and this touches on what I remember, which is when he mentioned seeking help a long time ago when the show was still airing.

One would imagine that this could be the perfect time to publicize such an, um, addiction *giggle*, since Californication begins again September 28. Duchovny's face is also plastered all over the 42nd Street subway connection, and what bothers me is that there's a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. It's just so blatant that it bugs me.

Anyway, here's hoping he works through *giggle* that addiction and he gets better soon.

For everyone on my Flist talking about it, here's former President Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention last night.

I couldn't embed it from the MSNBC.com site, so here's a link to Gawker, where it is embedded.

After listening to his speech, I can only hope at least some of the stuff he's saying about Obama is true. Even if only half of it is true, even if only a third of it is true, we're still a million times better off than we are now.

Skip to 11:44 to hear the quote everyone is talking about.

I'm writing my review for Supernatural Season 3 today, and I need some help.

ETA:
ANSWERED

If you're interested, you can read my review in the comments of this post.

Last week I had a hell week, since my boss went away on vacation when important things were going on, again. I should just expect it at this point. To make it even better, we were having a sale, and I busted my ass all last week to get everything correct. Then when I get in this morning, I discover that NONE OF THE STUFF WAS ACTUALLY DISCOUNTED YET, even though the sale went live 3 a.m. this morning. That's not something I had a hand in. But still, GAH. And also, WTF? And also also, LOLOLOLOL because I give up.

In other news, I've been fannishly bored, and thus haven't posted here in, like, a month or something (but I have been keeping track of mk_drabbles, and the fact that Ellen Burstyn is playing Stabler's mother). I did watch that Stargate: Atlantis episode everyone was so excited about -- just to see why everyone was excited -- the one where Geeky Doctor loses his memory and goes running to Fuzzy Haired Soldier Guy for comfort. I'm sure all of you were squeeing. For some reason.

And now in TV-related news, since it ended last night, I thought I'd do a drive-by post this morning to sum up my reaction to David Simon's Generation Kill, an HBO miniseries adapted from Evan Wright's book that had him on the ground with a Marine recon battalion during the early days of the Iraq War. Here's some sample dialogue from the series:

Marine 1 (whose name I still don't know after 7 episodes): "Homophobia, racism, misogyny, sexism, homophobia...military jargon."

Marine 2 (whose name I still don't know after 7 episodes): "Racism, racism, homophobia, misogyny, military acronym, homophobia, military acronym?"

Evan Wright (as played by Lee Tergesen): [open-mouthed stare; starts to look like he's going to talk, but doesn't]

Marine 1 (whose name I still don't know after 7 episodes): "Misogyny, sexism, military jargon, military acronym, homophobia!"

All: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

Yeah, that about sums it up. I think the only part that interested me was Part 5, and that was only because there was the firefight on the bridge. Otherwise, I felt it to be plodding and slow in many ways. It also makes me really, really depressed knowing that this series is based on actual events, because I'm sure it's not only the Marines joking about being "Burger Kings" -- aka "baby killers."

And the dialogue I "paraphrased" above? All seven episodes are like that. David Simon's The Wire threw you into events as this miniseries does, but unlike Generation Kill, The Wire gave you a whole season to get to know the characters and the slang they used. Eventually you were able to pick it up. Here you don't really get a chance to understand all the lingo.

If this had been a series, then maybe it would have been better. Then again, I don't think I'd be able to put up with all the pure shit that came out of these guys' mouths. There was a voiceover at the end of Part 6 that explained it, sort of, but "brotherhood" doesn't excuse it.

My co-worker C.C. noticed SVU filming yesterday on her way home from work. She only stopped for a few minutes, but another co-worker, C.S., stopped and hung around. Her patience paid off -- photos of both Meloni and Mariska. However, I cropped C.S. out of the photos, mostly because I have a lot of people who read my Flist and she doesn't need her face plastered all over creation.

Photos are really high-res. Enjoy the Meloni!Arms, LOL!










If you want to see both in their full versions (because clicking the thumbnail doesn't give you the full 2 meg file) go here
http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a170/RhymePhile/Melonilicious/

By now everyone and their brother have watched Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Well, I hope you have. If you haven't, you can visit iTunes to watch the whole thing, or, y'know, obtain it via other means *coff*.

BUT! I thought maybe some of you might be interested in a few MP3s I made of my favorite songs from the video/blog/musical. The songs don't have official names yet, so I guessed. You'll notice an abrupt ending to the first song. That's because in the video Dr. Horrible's friend Moist comes in and interrupts the song. It's complete.

Laundry Day, the first song in the musical
http://www.sendspace.com/file/tlaa1l

On The Rise, in which Dr. Horrible embraces evil, a duet with actress Felicia Day (my favorite!)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lyj7ln

Brand New Day, when Dr. Horrible realizes what he must do to Captain Hammer
http://www.sendspace.com/file/86f0is

The Finale, the last song in the musical
http://www.sendspace.com/file/r232nc


These were made by converting the video files on YouTube (uploaded by "Ryhthmdefined2") to MP3 with Mediaconverter.org, a free online app that works wonderfully.

Also! Neil Patrick Harris as the Shoe Fairy on Sesame Street's new season, starting August 11.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/x1057v
You can see the video at YouTube here.

Enjoy!

Did everyone hear about that awful, awful story out of Manitoba, Canada late yesterday? Some poor kid was stabbed and decapitated by the guy sitting next to him on a Greyhound bus!!! Jesus. Apparently the bus was bound for Winnipeg, and around 9 p.m. the bus was quiet and the kid -- described as an 18-20 year old aboriginal male (i.e. First Nations in Canada) -- was drifting off to sleep with headphones on when the insane guy next to him started stabbing him with a huge hunting knife.

I won't go into the rest of the details because they are incredibly horrific. Like, horror movie horrific. As in, don't read the story if you're going to be eating. Unbelievable.

They charged the killer this morning.

More news at the Globe and Mail here. Listen to the audio while you're there too for more information.

Is everyone freaking out about Tales of Beedle the Bard? It's on Amazon right now for pre-order.

The collector's edition is marvelous...hardcover, a reproduction of JK Rowling's original handcrafted work. It's also $100, so keep that in mind, but according to Amazon it's "available in limited quantities." It comes out December 4 (two days after my birfday!) so you have plenty of time to save up!

I'll try to do this without mentioning spoilers.

Remember when I was discussing my spoiler-heavy X-Files: I Want To Believe review and I mentioned a certain controversial part in the movie that really rubbed me the wrong way, yet I couldn't explain it eloquently enough?

Well, gay site After Elton did in their review for the film.

It follows my thinking exactly. Go read it.

Metacritic has a roundup of newspaper and website reviews on X-Files: I Want To Believe, and I thought I'd offer a soundbite or two.

( Some minor spoilers behind the cut )

Obviously I'm going to put everything under a cut, because I'd like to talk at length about the film. When you see the film, come back here to read my thoughts.

( All about the X )

To celebrate the movie tonight:

O HAI MULDER, I WOULD LIKE A SPOT OF TEA!

Do do do do do doooooooooooooooo, dun na na na na na, dun na na na na na, doo doo doo!!!

That's me singing the X-Files theme song. Y'know, I wasn't really excited about the film at first for some reason, probably because it was so far off, but now that it's premiering tomorrow I CAN'T WAIT. All my old XF fangirly squeeishness is coming to the forefront! Mulder! Scully! Aliens! YAY! I even got out one of my old T-shirts (and I mean old, from 1995!) to wear.

I am also completely unspoiled. COMPLETELY. Which means, shhhh, nothing in the comments, please.

In honor of the movie, I put two episodes of the show onto my Playstation Portable. I used a great, free piece of software called DVD Catalyst that converts DVD files into mp4. Mp4 is also the format needed for iPod video. In a few minutes you too can have Mulder and Scully on your iPod or PSP, for free! I put "Bad Blood" and "Small Potatoes" on there, and they look fantastic.

*bounces*

And here's a great article about Scully from Slate writer Rebecca Traister (thanks to dashenka).

I'm going to see it tomorrow night. *squee*!!!!

Via Jezebel comes news that Estelle Getty, who played the feisty and funny (and youngest of the bunch) Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls died today.

She won an Emmy; she starred on Broadway as Harvey Fierstein's mom in Torch Song Trilogy; and she was a big supporter for gay rights (via ImdB).

Thank you for being a friend, Ms. Getty.

I've now been on Gillian McKeith's "You Are What You Eat" plan for a month. I haven't weighed myself yet. I don't do the weighing every day thing. It's too stressful.

According to her, this is a lifelong healthy living plan. However, taking to heart that I'm redefining the way I eat, I have cut corners a bit (I mean, I use diet dressing on my salads. I'm not using lemon and garlic or whatever she wants me to use, gimme a break). I didn't go through the detox plan as seen on her show, because aside from the occasional cookie, I never ate as bad as most of her clients.

The only problem with being U.S.-bound and trying to follow a mostly-British eating plan is that I wasn't able to get a lot of the things I need at my supermarket. I don't have an easily-accessible health food shop (I'm sure there's one here close by in New York City, but healthy eating + Manhattan prices + cheap, chubby Rhymey = pain).

Anyway, I just ordered a bunch of stuff from VitaCost.com, an online health food store of sorts. I got millet, millet flour, sesame tahini, 4 cans of aduki beans, nori strips, umeboshi paste, flaxseed, and a spirulina supplement. If you're like me and had to look up all that stuff on Google, just know it's stuff I needed that I couldn't find anywhere. If you've watched her show most of that should sound familiar to you.

The diet -- ooh sorry, healthy eating plan -- is basically vegetarian. The only meats I do add to some recipes are chicken, turkey, lamb, or fish. I like tofu, and along with the other protein source, beans, I'm doing okay.

Even though I have her cookbook I've gotten into a rut already. My problem is time. If I don't cook something large on a Sunday, I have problems coming up with easy food ideas during the week. By the time I get home at 7 p.m. and exercise (at least an hour), then shower and get my shit together, it's almost 9 p.m. If I don't have something I can basically heat up, I'm in trouble. Since the diet is pretty much fresh vegetables, there is much peeling, chopping, and cutting. I can't follow her "eat before 7 p.m." edict either. It's just not feasible.

My fridge is completely filled with vegetables, of which I'm rather proud. I also incorporate Tim Ferriss' ideas about eating whatever you want one day a week to trick your metabolism into making sure it doesn't go into starvation mode. His tips are interesting, but I take his advice with a grain of salt, considering it's coming from a blonde hardbody who I'm sure has never had an extra once of fat on his body, ever. If I get to eat some choccie biccies once a week, though, I'm all for it.

Although Gilliam McKeith isn't a medical doctor, her suggestions about what foods are needed to fuel the body properly make sense to me. Others may not like her, but this is the first plan that is actually clear-cut and seems manageable for my lifestyle.

I was discussing the Emmys yesterday, but today I wanted to talk more about Mad Men.

I didn't catch this when it aired on AMC, so I've been watching via DVD. I've only just passed Episode 3, which was Don Draper's daughter's birthday.

I don't know how many of you have watched or seen the show, but is it just me with the depression I feel after watching it?

The series, if you don't know, is set in 1959 and focuses on the "Mad Men," or "Madison Avenue" men who run the advertising firm of Stirling & Cooper. Through a haze of cigarette smoke every single character inhales constantly, we're introduced to second-in-command Don Draper, an Army vet from World War II (with a Purple Heart), with a savvy head for marketing and advertising, and also a very large head in his pants, as he either flirts with or has sex with a plethora of women. He's also married with 2 kids and a harried wife who has started seeing a psychiatrist (scandalous!).

The thing is, since the show is set in 1959 we get to see how women are treated in a historical context. This is what gets me every episode. I've discovered that it's actually hard for me, as a woman in the 21st century, to watch women constantly be degraded and treated like shit every episode! Two examples from last night: Don and his wife are arguing about her going to the psychiatrist, and when she starts washing dishes, he yells at her to "Get the girl to do that," meaning his maybe 8-year-old daughter. He doesn't even use her name. UGH. Then while sitting with his boss, Don asks, "What do women want?" (he's trying to sell Right Guard deodorant, now in a revolutionary spray can), and his boss replies, "I don't care." UGH. UUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH.

All the male characters (thus far, I'm only at episode 3 mind you) are racist, sexist pigs. Yes, yes, "That's how it was in those days, Rhyme," you'll say. I know, but it doesn't disgust me any less.

My mother worked for a large firm here in New Jersey in the early 60s (Mom was 16 in 1959), and when I was describing what was happening inthe show, she told me, "Oh yeah, the men back then would always say to me, 'My wife and kids are gone for the weekend. Why don't you stop by my place?'" She tells me that once she stood up to an executive who kept coming on to her all the time. The guy was married. EW.

I love watching the advertising aspect of the show, and how they sit around and Don gets creative when they're trying to think up a new angle for a product, but hell if I can stomach most of the character action. There are only 13 episodes, and I hope I can get through them all. I'm getting them through Netflix.