Pour rouler au hasard, il faut être seul.

idioms: shit the bed

2009-11-02T19:11:33Z

so i have taken to using that delightful expression first introduced to me by coco73 whenever i screw things up (which is often).

it's amusing, and supplies accountability and lulz at the same time. it seems appropriate for all manner of screw-ups.

well almost all. consider the email i just sent my group because i accidentally overslept and failed to give the project one last look over before it was to be submitted at 9am:

"i'm really sorry everyone. i set my alarm but obviously shit the bed on waking up."

... yeahhhh.

i'm gonna go with "appropriate for all manner of screw-ups except for those actually involving YOUR BED" where people are inclined to take you at your literal word.

road highlights

2009-09-02T15:32:00Z

no mountain goats this time but we did see:

-prosthetic (?) testicles hanging off the bumper of a truck in Calgary.

-Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk

-the most ridiculous 20 questions solutions ever: oil, cytoplasm, monocle. (how was i ever going to guess oil and does it really count as "alive"?)

next stop, van!

yak, ralph, etc

2009-06-25T21:56:51Z

INT: d & i enter the elevator after lunch

ELEVATOR: *reeks*

ME: it smells like fresh vomit in here.

D: it smells like someone vomited, and then cooked it in a fry pan on high heat.

ME: it smells liked someone vomited, cooked it in a fray pan on high heat, then ate it and then vomited it back up.

D:... and then cooked it again.

also: as i was getting out of the car after lunch i told derek i'd see him later and blew him an overexaggerated sloppy kiss. he decided an appropriate response was to bust out an exaggerated thumbs up, followed by a salute. i said "i show you a gesture of my undying love and you deem it appropriate to respond with a thumbs up & a half-assed salute?" to which he responded with a double thumbs up that turned into finger guns and culminated in a finger moustache (with head-shaking and lip flaring).

i know, we are totally digusting and five-years old between the two of us. and that's why it works.

things i'd write about if i still wrote film papers

2009-06-19T15:45:23Z

i know a lot of straight-up dudes who absolutely love Back to the Future, D included. i enjoy elements of the series, and by elements i mean mostly the fact that there is a time-travelling Delorean and the character of Doc Brown because Christopher Lloyd's portrayal is endearing and wacky and wonderful (memo to Andy Dyck: take notes! that is how it's done!). but in general i find that the film series has little of interest for me as a woman and a feminist. plenty of people have written about BTtF and revisionist history; i am certainly not the first to point out that these are, at their core, movies about men revising an already patriarchal world so as to better fulfill their patriarchal fantasies. for marty this is moderate rockstardom, and wealthy tennis-playing parents. well-adjusted in BTtF basically means reagan-era yuppiedom. i get that it's a marker of the times but it would have been nice if jennifer did more than pass out and lorraine had any interests besides snagging a guy. i love Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton but it's kind of ridiculous that the only woman who enjoys a moderate amount of mobility in the story resides furthest in the past.

also, the scene in Back to the Future part II where rich future Biff basically tells Marty exactly how to get the Almanac back with zero hesitation makes me want to tear out my hair. I guess you can wank it that he's still supposed to be stupid and a stupid person wouldn't figure out that it came from the future and so it might be possible to go back and undo that event, but seriously. Evidentally Future Biff should have read Watchmen.

and if the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tack

2009-04-21T14:19:26Z

me: i am spectacularly behind and sinking. i tried to stay up all night but that failed.

imperfectmedium: aw, i'm sorry dude. is there anything i can do to help?

me: well not really... peace that passeth understanding?

imperfectmedium: you might have me confused with jesus. it's a common mistake. ;)

me: you do both look good in a strappy sandal. i almost wrote "stroppy" sandal: the sandal that gives you guff and always plays devil's advocate in an argument.

[House]: !?

2009-04-07T17:59:33Z

if chavvah and i weren't such diligent office workers we would totally be emailing back and forth about last night's SHOCKING episode of House. rest assured, we're model employees, the both of us, and so we totally aren't talking tv on company time. ever/at all.

basically--and d and ninthscompanion can comfirm this, i spent almost the entirety of last night's episode exclaiming "Kutner!? ... Kutner!!" every few minutes. i was so thrown that i barely even registered meatloaf's cameo or the soap operatic drama of him/his wife's diagnostic process.

the discovery scene at Kutner's apartment was really jarring and visceral, what with 13 sliding around in the aftermath. i thought it was a good choice to shoot it removed, from the door frame, literally framing the event through the panic/devastation of foreteen. also, on a purely selfish note, i really like Kal Penn and am sort of glad that his last live scene in the show as House congratulating him on a good idea.

anyway, the ep just got more rattling from there with House blaming kutner's adoptive parents for his death (not that suprising) and then actually telling them he was sorry for their loss (very surprising).

at first i was totally with House in the "murder!" camp, but then i realized it's because we're most interested in House's pov--or at least i am--the writers position the viewer to provoke a House-like reaction to the event. Kutner has, now that i think of it been built up as a ying to House's yang. They take similar diagnostic/practical risks--ie patient on fire!--with the big difference that Kutner appeared, on the surface, to be happy and well-adjusted and passionate about what he was doing. it seemed to drive/inspire kutner, while for house, it's a lifeline, the one thing keeping him moving at all. that the work wasn't "fulfilling enough" for Kutner is harrowing for House, who despite all his talk of the meaninglessness of most things, derives meaning from his ability to think differently, solve problems.

of course House would immediately become obsessed with trying to locate missed clues and offend and horrify everyone around him by returning to Kutner's apartment and suggesting murder--a solvable puzzle--- when the rest of the characters are 100% certain it was suicide and trying to grapple with the devastation/guilt. (i know some folks are still convinced it wasn't suicide, but i'm pretty sure House wouldn't go all L&O on us in that way). i think the writing for and Laurie's portrayal of House in this ep was excellent--note to writers: submit this ep to the emmy committee!-- because even as other characters accuse him of just needing/wanting the puzzle, you can see that he has a personal stake in Kutner both as an employee but also as a reflection of his own worth.

the writers really didn't set us up for this at all, which is risky, in terms of writing. normally shows approach this sort of thing through dramatic irony and asides, so that the audience is more clued-in than the characters. we've been given so little of Kutner's private life--I think the only solo Kutner scene we got was when he goes to apologize to the man he bullied as a teenager?--that we're in the same position as the characters. interesting choice, which is potentially really alientating/rage-provoking for many of the fans.

if you care about the real-life reason for killing the character, it's because Kal Penn wanted to leave the show to take a job in politics. specifically, he's going to be working for Obama! (doesn't that make you love him that much more?) there's an interview over at Ausiello if you want more of the deety deets on that.

unfortunately fox decided to put up a really questionable memorial page that sort of resembles a shrine, as well as a memorial facebook for the character which has resulted in a whole bunch of "omg, is kal penn rly ded?" freakouts on various House boards. oh Fox, tasteless is your middlename.

[Essen]

2009-03-27T20:47:16Z

Rest o Yesterday

half a fudgecicle (shared with D!)
ninthscompanion-made chicken korma--chicken, spinach, store-brand korma sauce--over rice.

coke zero
gigantic london fog latte

TODAY

lunch with zur_the_weird at The Food Tree (Korean Restaurant) near campus:
assorted kimchi (pickled veggies, think a ginger with sushi-type situation)
shared pork mandu (korean dumplings)
cheese ramyeon: (korean soup) with noodles, soft melty cheese, veggie broth, onions, red peppers etc

nutty water (is it a hint of green tea, maybe?)
sweet iced coffee (sooooo delicious!)

(imperfectmedium, feel free to correct me/supply me with additional details on what i ate if you know them!)

my lunch was nourishing for both body & mind today as it included a very lengthy/engaging conversation with zur_the_weird about relationships, HAES, FA, philosophy, travel, Zizek & Star Trek. on my way back from lunch i went into the breakroom to refrigerate my cheese ramyeon leftovers, where i ran into Curly-Haired Slam Poet. we jawed about Vancouver, the superiority of socialist German social health policies (3-year paid parental leave! govt-subsidized spa health treatments to help treat addictions!) and cat personality traits.

[Essen]

2009-03-26T21:26:59Z

i am late/behind because i was on campus all day for work & the GLAM & then a board mtg. also, winnipeg has received roughly four feet of swirling snow since yesterday. it is a very dark feeling to go back to your winter coat and big stompy SUV-equivalent boots when only two days prior you frittered about in flats and a breezy cotton trenchcoat.

Yesterday's additions:
sammich with lettuce, tomato, cukes, cold cuts and mustard (Free!)
potato salad (Free!)
cantalope slices (Free!)
brownie-ish dainty thing (Free!)
(an event was ending when i walked into the cafeteria so they let staff/students raid the spread. everything tasted especially good because it cost NOTHING!).
poutine* (more like POOtine, because it sucked and i paid for it. cafeteria REALLY let me down on that one).
doritos (chez chavvah)
cinnamon hearts (chex chavvah)

water
7-Up

*for the uninitiated, poutine=fries, cheese curds, gravy.

TODAY:

nuked scrambled eggs
2 slices brick bread* with butter

water
coca-cola

*ugh, D came home with this incredibly bland/dense loaf of bread and it's like a mile long so it's never gonna be done! gotta make grocery shopping happen this weekend. srsly.

[Essen]

2009-03-25T16:49:39Z

Yesterday's additions:
green chicken curry: chicken, red peppers, onions, pea pods, green jar sauce (PC Brand) over jasmine rice.

gin n tonic

i'm digging this wholen nightcap thing.

HEUTE

half strawberry half vanilla Jogurt with sliced banana (or "ape steaks", as my Tante Connie likes to say) and granola.

water
coke zero (cold now!)

i go back and forth on soft drinks. i actually tend to like the taste of aspartame-sweetened drinks better--i blame my aspartame-obsessed mother who raised me on sugarless jellos and the like--but the diet/zero versions of soft drink never seem as fizzy as their sugar-sweetened siblings. and i care about fizzyness almost as much as flavour!

[Essen]

2009-03-25T03:17:56Z

scrambled eggs*
rye toast with butta
travel jogurt with granola
dregs of tuner casserole
handful of assorted candy from my classmate (swedish berries, micro mini eggs)
glazed donut (from t-ho's)

wattah!
swig of coke zero (it was warm, so i lost interest! stupid t-ho's!)

*i like to make scrambled eggs in the microwave because i never overdo them that way and they come out juicy & fluffy everytime. (is it weird to say eggs are juicy? do i mean moist? succulent?) basically you mix the milk & eggs & whev as normal, nuke for 1 minute. remove and fluff with fork! then nuke for another 45 seconds.

[Essen]

2009-03-23T17:20:32Z

i'm home--took today off since i worked all day saturday-- ~~trying not to read ridiculous Jon & Kate + 8 gossips online~~studying for my marketing midterm tomorrow. this allows for all day mini-meals like i like!

me-made guacamole*
multigrain tostitoes (best-tasting chips ever, imho. but you have to get the triangle ones, not the rounds which for some reason aren't nearly as good!)
bowl o tuna casserole
strawberry yogurt
bowl o tuna casserole

2% milk (but i could like, "totally drink Whole Milk if [i] felt like it!")
lots of water with lime slices
giant ass frappucino which kept me going until 3am.

*guacamole recipe: mashed avocado, pressed garlic clove, squeeze of lime wedge, tbsp of salsa of your choice, 3 tbsp sour cream, salt n pepper. this gives a snacky amount for 2 ppl. for a party or something, i'd do at least 4-5 avocados.

random guacamole story: according to my mom the 70s saw a proliferation of absolutely terrible incarnations of guacamole at church lunches and bad house parties. hosts bastardized the dip by adding things like pineapple and beets and copious amounts of mayo & occasionally booze. when i lived at home i used to make ground round tacos a lot and my mom would shudder when i'd put guac on it. once i reassured her that people don't generally add pineapples, beets, gelatin and marshmallows to their guac in this day and age, she felt brave enough to try it again. and she likes it! the end.

[Essen]

2009-03-22T17:22:08Z

additions to yesterday:
brown rice with soy sauce
rootbeer

Heute!
melted cheese sammich (pumperknickle with kraft single nuked in the microwave)
chocolate covered dried strawberries
salad: butter lettuce, croutons, feta, pine nuts, radishes, cukes, olive & sundried tomato vinaigrette
chunk o cheddar
vanilla almond cereal with 2% milk
some cadbury mini eggs
some salt n vinegar chips
tuna casserole*

Wasser
tonic & rose's lime cordial
gin n tonic (drinking totally helps me study for my midterm!)

haha, i am a moonflow culinary cliche!

*tuna casserole is a copy of theoryofgravity's improv recipe which she posted earlier in the week. egg noodles with brussel sprouts, tuna, basic bechamel, chedder and bread crumbs. D says, "thanks for the recipe!"

[Essen]

2009-03-22T01:44:11Z

late posting because i had a saturday work meeting (necessary, but still, BOOOOOO) and a work event to attend after that.

(brawny!) strawberries
strawberry jogurt
almond granola
cranberry apple muffin (from tim horton's or, as i like to call it, t-ho's)
hummous and sugar snap peas (shared ap @ Eat! Bistro)
beef taco salad: lettuce, beef, peppers, tomatoes, ranch dressing, sour cream, guac (@ Eat!)
raspberry chocolate trifle (@ Eat!)
chocolate covered dried strawberries

Wasser
coffee with 3 sugars & a cream (from Human Bean)
pink lemonade (@ Eat!)

GUESS WHAT MY FAVOURITE FRUIT IS?

[Essen]

2009-03-20T15:42:38Z

First, additions to yesterday's:

gin & tonic (imperfectmedium came over for a night cap!)
vanilla almond cereal (dry grazing).

Mein tägliches Essen

vanilla almond cereal with sliced (bodybuilder!)strawberries & 2% milk
hot dog (or, as we call them around my house Heiss Hund*): european wiener, hot mustard, kraft single
savoury potato wedges (from safeway deli)
chocolate covered dried strawberries (think high-end glosettes!)
mexican chili chips
appetizer suppa: bags of gold (spinach & cheese in pastry sheet) and mini chicken empanadas (from safeway)

(Stilles) Wasser
coke
milk (2%)

random fact: i am very picky about texture in breakfast cereals and also after taste, as in THERE CANNOT BE ONE. i like cheerios, but i do not enjoy the way they linger about my palette hours after i am done eating them. i also don't like cereals that get stuck in my cavernous molars, so i avoid those. because toothpicks are inappropriate around work colleagues.

mundane question if you feel like answering it:
do you brush your teeth prior to eating breakfast or after? i generally do after, because if i don't, like today, i end up having to eat too close to when i brushed them and then the food tastes strange.

*fyi, Heiss Hund (literal importing of "hot dog" to German) actually means "horny dog." if you want to order a hotdog in germany, you would ask for a bratwurst or a wiener. unless of course you would like a randy german shepherd.

[Essen]

2009-03-19T15:04:55Z

Daily Essen

I will put these up once a dayish, and add to them throughout the day as time/capricious whim permits.

strawberries (sport doping i think, b/c holy shit they were huge!)
peach yogurt (cuz Sarah Haskins told me to!)
almond granola (bulk bin)
chicken salad* sammich on pumpernickle with kraft single & hot mustard!
salad: butter lettuce, pine nuts, feta, radishes, cukes, sundried tomato & kalamata olive vinaigrette.
blood orange (anyone else read bunnicula?) because imperfectmedium hooked me up with her dealer.
GLAM** so dinner was eaten out at Stella's:
chicken curry plate= chicken curry, jasmine rice, shaved coconut, banana slices, & slice of bread with butter & mango salsa
pecan square

Viel Wasser
blood orange & mango MASH^tm drink thing @ Stella's

random fact: it is very difficult to find your average 2.8% yogurt in travel form in my grocery store. almost all of them are diet/low-fat/soulless. i am of the opinion that diet/low fat yogurt tastes kinda like sour cream on account of the aspartame and that FRUIT-CONTAINING YOGURT SHOULD NOT INCLUDE SAVOURY UNDERTONES!

*the chicken salad is Paula Deen's "chicken sliders" recipe minus the shaved almonds because d is weird about cold meat + nuts

**amusing acronym of the people in my writing group.

Wo bleibt das Essen, Essen, Essen,..

2009-03-18T21:15:26Z

theoryofgravity linked me to the origins of the incendiary food log and i'm thinking that as triggering as i've found food lists in the past, i like the idea of trying to disarm that trigger by writing down (publicly) what i eat without judgment (or writing down what i eat as a way to tease out/confront unconscious judgment). i'm going to put all these entries under a cut. oh, and call them with "Essen" because the german noun for food is also the verb for eating and the german's even have a song they sing when food takes too long at restaurants which i find both amusing and obnoxious. point is, german wurst is the best.

(abroadallmylife, you know the "wir haben hunger" song of which i speak, yes?)

also, is it weird that when i think about enjoying food i automatically think of friar tuck from rocket robinhood?

Daily Essen

I will put these up once a dayish, and add to them throughout the day as time/capricious whim permits.

french vanilla yogurt
salad: butter lettuce, radishes, cukes, pine nuts, feta, vinaigrette
chicken salad sandwich
oreo icecream sandwich
cara cara navel orange* (where are the blood oranges, already?)
multigrain tostitoes & southwest salsa
hot dog: european wiener with hot mustard & a kraft single
yam fries
runts!

lots of water (owing to new sigg which keeps it cool & fresh & thus inspires me not to dehydrate in my dry as cspan office)
coke

[observations: no weird gastro reactions to anything today. this means i can add butter lettuce to my list of Digestible Raw Greens which up until recently had one item: Spinach. also, i'm feeling pretty satisfied post dinner. though i was "nothing will satisfy me except for maybe devouring a solar system" ravenous when i got home from work. maybe an egg earlier on?]

*i am told i eat oranges strange. i do not peel & section but instead cut them into eighths & then use my thumb to loose them from the peel and pop the wedge into my mouth. it's sticky, but this way i avoid skin/white business which i hate the texture/taste of.

[dollhouse]: anyone else care for some perfectly crunchy lettuce?

2009-03-10T21:41:24Z

i've been meaning to put up a Dollhouse weekly discussion post because i know a bunch of us are watching and it's exciting to have new joss product to (not necessarily) swoon over. eps 1-4 will be mentioned--SPOILERS for all--under the cut.

I'll get us going. ep 1. not a bad intro, action-y enough to hold the attention of fox network execs/viewers who are irritated by unnecessary crap like character development and showing-vs-telling. now that we got that obligatory fox dig out of the way, we can move on. i didn't hate the pilot, but i didn't love it. someone elsewhere noted that they didn't feel the role/clientele of the dollhouse was particularly well explained. and i'll give them that. it wasn't clearly established why patron-of-the-week needed a "doll" negotiator to handle the kidnapping as opposed to just hiring a normal negotiator. it's a good question, especially since we alredy see limitations/problems on the imprinting procedure triggered in this first ep (too soon? definitely not a slow or arc-like build to the show so far. remember when Angel had to go to a more episodic format to help ratings? could this be joss's pre-emptive strike? spare the subtlety, secure the show? not sure, but it's a theory) my feeling is that dollhouse is going to be patronized by criminally corrupt type people--PotW seemed mob, didn't he?--who can't/prefer not to go through normal (read: legal) channels.

i mean, you've got to be a little bit crazy/corrupt to be ok with the whole idea of someone being tailor-made to you anyhow.

which brings me to ep 2. Ah, The Most Dangerous Game storyline, a staple of the sci-fi genre. imperfectmedium already joked with me that most series save this for the fourth or fifth season when they run out of ideas, but joss is either ballsy or clever or pandering (or maybe all three?) and getting it dealt with second out of the gate. difficult episode to watch on account of the extremly misogynistic PotW, but it works well to establish the stakes of being a doll and also addresses (in its most extreme incarnation, anyway) the character of its clientele. i repeat, thinking it's ok to treat a live human being as your play thing--sexually or otherwise--necessitates a cracked--if not smashed to smithereens-- moral compass. at least from where i stand.

stand-out in ep 2 is that we get some actual character development vis-a-vis the echo/handler relationship, which is (obvs) similar to the buffy/giles relationship. neither chooses the other--especially true in this case, where trust/action is programmed/cued by certain words (hi, River Tam!)--but Boyd actually is, as echo noted in the first ep, "good people!" and has a high regard for her, earning her trust--even if she can't remember it--from week to week, especially in the Echo-as-hunted scenario. Does anybody else get a bit of Book-ish vibe from Boyd? I mean Boyd is obviously more physical, since he's an ex-cop, but I'm curious to know how the ex part came about. he's totally got a ~*~#Dark Sekrit#~*~

i've been picking up echoes (har) of BTVS in the show, possibly because La Dushku plays unprogrammed/sex doll Echo a bit like SMG tackled the Buffybot. i was a fan of the buffybot storyline because it suggested people's flaws are what makes them real/desriable, and i think ep 1 was a bit bittersweet for the birthday boy. Echo-as-love-doll can never truly be satisfying to her clients--if they are decent humans--because well the time limit, but also because a large part of what makes being with someone meaningful is agency--the sense that that person is choosing you of their own free will.

i don't have rave reviews of 3 & 4. I just didn't enjoy them as much. La Dushku, bless her heart, is just not much of a singer, unfortunately, so I found ep 3 kind of a stretch in that regard. also, the composite of Rihanna/Beyonce--Rihyonce, if you will--was a little too caricature "WAAAAH FAME!" for me. the idea that Echo retains a cleverness/specialness that allows her to interpret missions beyond the most literal level, is interesting though. Could have even been a little subtle if they didn't spend the last ten minutes of the ep discussing that. I appreciated the "scowly baby" line--a BTVS line if there ever was one!. ninthscompanion and i have started referring to Topher as Wander, btw. i mean how could we not?

the most interesting part of ep 4 for me was the remote wipe, but it was also the most troubling. i know the rest of you having been saying this since ep 1, but the remote wipe really hammered home for the breakneck speed at which this show is moving. i feel like the writers might be too hastily deploying some of these plot points, and the show might feel more substantial if there was a bit of breathing time. again, i'm forced to wonder if this has everything to do with the PLOTHAMMER! type folks that seem to run Fox.

the last thing i'll bring up is that i think from an actor's standpoint, this show could really do great things for La Dusku the way Quantum Leap did for Scott Bakula. It must be fun to get to play a completely different person from week-to-week. I mean there are layers of acting involved in playing a character who should be memory wiped but kind of isn't and has the personality of someone different simultaneously (hi, ripley! hi, illyria!). it is my personal opinion that joss being an atheist (he often refers to god as "the sky bully") is part of the reason we see themes of the tenuousness of identity/memory so often in his work. if you don't believe in a higher power, then you are your physical and emotional life. if you don't have control over one/the other, than who do you become?

every single day forever and ever

2009-03-05T15:13:57Z

so my doctor just called and apparently i have a B-12 deficiency and will have to take largish amounts of vitamin B-12 "every single day forever and ever" because i would basically have to eat TWO WHOLE ~~CAKES~~COWS daily to get enough of it from food.

i haven't been to the doctor in three years and am wondering if all the tiredness and feeling like my brain is broken is on account of the lack of B-12.

"B-12 deficiency can also cause symptoms of mania and psychosis." !!!!

this funny in light of my recent homicidal rage issues. but those, might i remind you, are TOTALLY FOUNDED.

also, under causes on Wikipedia:

"Chronic intestinal infestation by the fish tapeworm Diphyllobothrium, that competes for vitamin B12, seizing it for its own use and therefore leaving insufficient amount for the host organism. This is mostly confined to Scandinavia and parts of Eastern Europe (for example, in preparers of gefilte fish, who would acquire the tapeworm by sneaking bits of fish before it was cooked while making the Eastern European delicacy)."

because, let's face it, when am i not preparing/eating raw gefilte fish in Eastern Europe!?

okay, so i know tapeworm jokes are in poor taste. i probably only think tapeworms are funny because i've never gone through the pain of having one. also i imagine them as these wide-eyed cartoon worms hanging out under an umbrella in the stomach. sort of like lazy vacationers chilling poolside at a resort, and less like the big scary symbiotic freaky Alien shit they actually are.

the morning after

2009-03-04T17:58:35Z

have reverted to my normal role of mild-mannered ~~scientific genius bruce banner~~ arts administrator.

last night's class wasn't actually awful. Bipin, perhaps taking note of the vitriol that spilled into my emails actually showed up to class after all, claiming he'd made some sort of survey for the final part of our case study. of course, he brought no evidence of the survey and as of now has failed to send me digital evidence, but i am holding out some small hope for him. evidentally my tactic of sending the draft with nothing attributed to him was the visual slap he needed to move him to do actually do shit. or at least to move him to care enough to lie about actually doing shit.

i think we're gonna go see watchmen on friday. i made a conscious decision not to re-read Moore's opus this year because i knew that there was no way a feature film could come close to approaching the masterful intertextual paen/critique of the comic genre. i am not kidding when i say that this is a text that CHANGED THE WAY I THINK ABOUT COMICS. it's right up there with Perks of Being Wallflower in terms of texts that make me feel like if i could write something that's even a 1/100th as amazing as this, i will finally be able to call myself accomplished.

bezier observed, astutely as he does, that a movie that was really out to capture the thrust of the text would position itself as a critique of the superhero movies as opposed to being a slavish frame by frame filming of the comic. from what i've seen in trailers so far, i think the best we can hope for is a competant superhero action story. i re-watched X-Men the other night--there are so many things i love about that movie--so i'm feeling optimistic about Hayter as a screenwriter capable of doing something entertaining if not deep with the source material. (then again, that tepid turd that was X-Men 2...). This is why it's better for me to not be holding the text prominently in my mind while watching the movie. There's no way I wouldn't be wanting it to be more, and this way i can enjoy it. If the rumours about Owl killing Rorschach instead of Dr Manhatten are true though, i'm gonna be annoyed.

i still think Dr Manhatten looks too Vegas and happy glowy though. it could be that he comes off cooler to me in the comics because the colour palettes are so quintessentially 80s neon. it just seems to me that if you're going to darken-up everyone else/the atmosphere you probably should not have gone with "string-of-blue-christmas-lights" for Dr Manhatten. (i don't care if that's what radioactive energy actually looks like, it's not like everything else is so steeped in realism!) i may change my stubborn mind about this, but i doubt it.

Merry VD F-list!

2009-02-14T17:09:10Z

it might be a played-out quotation by now, but ralph wiggum still warms the ashen hole where my heart used to be.

this morning i woke up to my gentleman of choice pulling a bouquet out of the closet. stealth floral arrangement!

i hope you all enjoy some McLovintoday!

(and clearance chocolate tomorrow!)

W stands for winsome

2009-02-08T19:37:36Z

this post is here because everybody mocks me for watching terrible W movies, but today i learned something vaguely interesting as a result of the winning combination of shitty made-for-tv cinema and brain's propensity to confuse celebrities/fuse them into gestalt entities. so uh, take that!

so i'm watching some sort of horrible movie with Melissa Rivers and William Shatner. Melissa Rivers has just learned from papa Shatner that she is... ADOPTED. he told her because she appears to have a life-threatening illness. now and has to travel to B.C. to meet her birth parents. of course the only way to travel to B.C. from Seattle is by ONE-SEATER SEAPLANE.

i accidentally tell chavvah that Melissa Collins is in the movie because somehow Joan Collins and Joan Rivers get swapped in my brain. this prompts me to google Joan Collins to see if she even has a daughter named Melissa. She doesn't. but she does have a daughter named:

Tara Cynara Newley

!!!!

you know what this means: i'm practically related to joan collins, you guys!
no wonder i'm so into Dynasty!

ETA: and i just realized that it's melissa gilbert. LOL

complaining post is complaining

2009-02-03T17:15:38Z

i have my first marketing class tonight. it's from 6:00-10:00pm at Red River. The Notre Dame campus (aka hour busride across town). i was told in the summer by a friend of a friend that i would probably enjoy marketing more than the other business classes i need to take because it has "creative" elements. i fear that this will be like the dastardly List A requirement from my hons eng. undergrad all over again. "you speak German?" quoth everyone "well you're in luck! you should take Old English because you'll find Old English comes naturally!" *big knowing grinning faces of satisfaction and encouragement*. and so i show up for my first day of Old English feeling all confident, like i have an advantage and WOW was that ever NOT THE CASE. as it turns out, speaking/writing modern German is markedly different from studying a dead language that is inconsistent, varies by region and has about 500 words that function as both nouns and verbs with completely different meanings in each form. also i effing hate Beowulf. stop looking at me like that! you try to read that fucker in OLD ENGLISH and see how much you love it then.

i am trying to be positive about this course, but it's difficult because it's a FOUR HOUR night course--which is about my time-limit for things i actually LIKE doing--and it's way the hell in the middle of nowhere and it prevents me from going to Speaking Crow (open mic poetry) which i love. i keep reminding myself that it should help me towards a job with benefits and more financial stability, and that's helping a little. it would be nice not to eventually be able to deal with some of my debt and not have 80% of my monthly income gone to bills in the first week of the month.

i'm also getting anxious about my grad ap --you all remember that hilarious wacky fun time back in the fall, with great fondness, don't you?--which is idiotic because it's one thing i really can't control at this point. i would be able to push it completely from my mind had i explicitly told d to keep it under wraps. now everyone on god's smog-covered earth knows that i applied and so that's all family/casual acquaintances ask about when they see me. so when are you moving? what program did you get into again? how long is the program???? I DIDN'T GET INTO ANYTHING (yet). STOP ASKING ME. I WILL TELL YOU WHEN I'M GOOD AND READY, PERSON I VAGUELY KNOW AND/OR RECOGNIZE. OR NOT.

d keeps making me check the online status of my ap and it keeps saying "incomplete" because i'm about 99% sure they don't actually update the online status of the aps at all. i know everything was received because i tracked it all like some sort of postal bloodhound, but d convinced me i should email the advisor to confirm it was all received which i did and am now regretting because i'm going to seem like a Pestering Applicant and i work in admin so i feel i can speak with some authority when i observe that no one likes that guy.

i actually liked last night's ep a surprising amount, all things considered. cuddy needs to get rid of the forehead eating bangs--because like 80% of her expressive acting is in her brow!--but i enjoyed her pranking House. clearly i am all about the Classic Slapstick because i LOLed when House went sailing over that trip wire. thank god they finally gave wilson a teensy bit of story. i think we all saw the cup thing coming, what with that intense close-up/lingering angle in the opening shot but i still found it touching because i'm a total sap for wilson and RSL really brought the earmest sentiment last night. i refuse to comment on foreteen because i hate that pairing a celestial amount--like supernova of hatred-- but i will say that if i ignore them and put another couple in place of them the writing in the bookend bedroom sequences was at least kind of cute. i quite enjoyed aspects of the pow. i mean you wouldn't be wrong to point out echoes oftmnsince the pow was all about giving up her high-powered job and helping taub and wilson achieve happiness as she laid there probably dying (let's face it, that bullshit is absolutely everywhere--Zach and Miri anyone?) but it is interesting for a medical drama to actually challenge the core of the genre which is "being a doctor is unquestionably the most moral/rewarding thing anyone could do ever." now just learn to write interesting things without falling back on bullshit hollywood tropes. it's not that hard. i promise.

also i have nacho-flavoured cheezies in my desk. preferred breakfast of ~~champions~~ dread-filled poor neurotic people everywhere.

what kind of dorkery is this?

2009-01-28T22:06:42Z

the highlight of my day today was discovering that Kimmy Beach is on facebook.

the corresponding low point was realizing that she doesn't allow anyone to add her. now how will she ever know what her poem comparing Mr Dressups Tickle Trunk to the Arc of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark has meant to me lo these years?

in other news, the lack of REAL groceries but seemingly never-ending bounty of candy in our household has resulted me in consuming a fuckload of conversation hearts.

and now my stomach hurts. most likely it's because my insides are yelling cheesy come-ons at me.

BE MINE! U AND ME! REAL LUV!

ugh.

lucid dreaming

2009-01-27T16:42:20Z

yesterday d was somewhere between asleep and awake when i finally made it to bed--he'd went to take "a short nap" after House last night, and never returned--and when i scooched in beside him the following conversation took place:

D; I'm so stressed!

Me: well, yeah. but you probably don't want to sleep in your jeans and belt and on top of your giant george constanza wallet...

D: *sighing irritably* don't interrupt me, can't you see I'm in the middle of a very lengthy and time-sensitive installation process?

Me: *still thinking he might be awake* do you mean those MP3 files you're copying to the PS3? those were done like three hours ago. it's midnight. you know that right?

D: *more irritable sighing* OBVIOUSLY NOT! This is the NEW SYSTEM. I've been working on it for the last year, and tonight is the soft launch. I can't make any mistakes! Or we'll lose the contract with the new administration.

Me: who's the new administration? do you mean the Obama administration?*

D: I can't believe this kiosk isn't working. I bet someone left the touch screen out in the rain!

Me: it's "MacArthur Park"! but with electronics instead of cake!

D: *wakes up* what were you saying about cake?

Me: don't get excited, i was just having a dreamspeak conversation with you.

D: Oh. so you weren't offering me cake, then?

Me: No. we don't have any cake. i wish we did, though.

D; *promptly goes back to sleep*

*not flip, d's company has programmed kiosks for the U.S. government in the past.

in other news, i'm tidying up the adult poetry evaluations for work, and both the poems being evaluated and the evaluations themselves are DEAD DIRE. we pay the judges, who are poets with BOOKS OUT to do write these, but obviously we don't pay nearly enough because i've so far i've thrice corrected the word "meataphors"--not a pun, the poem is not about sausage!-- in the first paragraph of the one i'm working on. the one i tackled yesterday was worse in that i actually had to add content to it. the person had submitted ALL TERRIBLE TERRIBLE ACROSTIC poems and the judge didn't even comment on their use of that form. i knew that if the acrostic form wasn't acknowledged, the person would be all "they just DON'T GET my edgy use of the acrostic form" and call and yell at me about it, when really, unless you're like Edgar Allen Poe in the 19thC or in the second grade, acrostics are generally not the best vehicle for self-expression. i said as much in the comments i added, but much more gently, pointing out that perhaps the form was more limiting than inspiring, and that maybe writing in free verse would open up new possibilities for more vividly articulating "a fun day at the beach." YEAH.

speaking of House... i don't even know about this show anymore. the Cuddy baby apathy was at least kind of unexpected but all the Hameron stuff was a bit much for me. also, i'm annoyed that Wilson is now some sort of gradfather figure who appears now and again to dispense folksy life wisdom. i'm not quite ready to abandon ship, but i've got one hand on the dock. foreteen is just sort of ridiculous. and total feminist fail. i'm so tired of the harlequin trope. deep down every single woman--especially one who is tough and gutsy and career driven--just needs the sex of a good man to convince her that the world is a magical romantic place and she should commence pro-creating postehaste. if she turns you down, it's because she really actually wants you, but isn't sure she can handle the magnificence of your life-altering cock of wonders. irritating tropes aside, how can she not notice that foreman has GUILT WRITTEN ALL OVER HIS FACE at her at all times? ARGH!</cut>

the musical fruit

2009-01-06T04:11:17Z

this week i planned to make one of the three dishes i cook successfully which is a spiced moroccan chickpea soup. the situation is that d came home with all these tins of fava beans instead of chickpeas because they are in similar looking tins and he was in a rush.

my question to y'all is can fava beans be successfully subbed in for chickpeas (in terms of taste/texture)?
(i googled, but results were inconclusive).

or alternately, is there some sort of other awesome use/recipe for fava beans that you swear by? keeping in mind of course, that i am pretty basic in cooking skills (no foams or emulsions, or bean ice creams, please) and that i abhor any sort of cold bean salad because i grew up attending church potlucks where the Seven Layer Bean Salad is the pinch hitter for the Holy Trinity.

any and all advice is appreciated!