Stuff and Nonsense

So I'm reading the Twilight books because...I don't know why, exactly. Curiousity, amusement, something.

Anyway, I thought New Moon was marginally better than Twilight, and Eclipse is better than that first two simply because in Eclipse we actually get back stories. Badly executed stories that are shoehorned clumsily into the plot, but stories nonetheless.

So, yes, better than the first two but still full of eye-rolling moments.

The first major eye-rolling was Roselie's back story. She was from a well-off family during the Great Depression. Her father was still rich because he, get this, worked at a bank. A bank. Because banks were so stable during the Great Depression, apparently. Research is for wimps, I guess.

Then there's the bit I just read. This nearly broke my brain.

Jacob declares his love for Bella, says he doesn't expect her to feel the same way, then forces a kiss on her, and feels no remorse, even though she goes 'totally limp, just waiting for it to be over' and breaks her hand (because all of the sudden he's rock-solid.) hitting him for attacking her. And he actually says something along the lines of 'you know you wanted it.'

And then her dad, when told that Jacob forced a kiss on Bella making her so angry she broke her hand defending herself, says 'good for you, son.' Worst. Cop. Ever.

I do appreciate the fact she's actually pondering how hard it will be to leave her real family. Finally some logical emotion. I still really don't get what Edward and Bella see in each other.

I got a call from the Principal today - he talked to the boys in question and got the full story from them, and one of the boys had disciplinary action taken.

So that's good.

I'm just working through this, so forgive me if it is a bit confusing.

Charlie stayed late at school today to finish up a project, so he didn't start walking home until 4. He saw some boys 'pretend fighting' and decided to join them. Somewhere along the line, he touched one of the kids in the crotch and the kid told him 'don't be a homo'. Then I think Charlie decided to leave, and at that point one of the boys pushed him down, hard enough that the front of his pants were covered in mud and his phone went flying out of his backback. This upset Charlie.

Apparently one of the boys helped Charlie find his phone, and then he called me in tears. I picked him up at the park and on the way home we saw the boys, so I stopped to talk to them. Not sure if this was a good idea, but I wanted to find out what happened. I am still not sure if the boys were being mean to Charlie, or were including him in their rough-housing which turned out to be rougher than Charlie could deal with.

I told the boys that Charlie has trouble understanding people sometimes, and, for example, he certainly wasn't touching the kid's crotch in a sexual way. I also pointed out 'homo' is extremely offensive, because who am I to pass up that sort of opportunity?

I know some of these kids know Charlie - and at least some of them know he is Autistic. One of the kids is in class with Charlie.

I honestly didn't get the feeling they meant to be cruel to Charlie, but I can't be sure. This sort of thing gets me so paranoid, and Charlie really needs to learn to interact with other kids more, but I don't know how to get him to do that.

He's fine now, and still planning on going to the school dance so...we'll see what happens next I guess.

What to do, what to do!

For one day only (apparently) Amazon is selling any series of Doctor Who (new series) for $32! This is an awesome price! But do I really want to spend $32 on myself right now when Christmas is almost upon us? And which do I buy? (Don't really need series 4) I'm so torn.

Series 3 has Shakespeare Code and Blink, but I'm not sure how many of those episodes I'd really watch enough times to make it worth it. But it's Doctor Who! On DVD! With Extras! For $32. Ack!

Is it sad that I wish LJ had a 'like' feature, as Facebook does? This way my people on my flist would at least know I read their posts when I don't have time to actually respond.

This sort of thing seems to happen more frequently than I would've imagined: Write a blog about funny cakes, get a book deal. Write a blog about cooking and get a book deal AND a movie deal. Tweet stuff your dad says and land a book deal and possible television show.

Makes me wonder, like all those 'memoirs' that turned out to not be true, if this is made out of whole cloth. I rather hope it is true, because it is one of those 'it could happen to me' kind of things. I'm a regular person on the internet! Just like him!

Although I doubt it, really. The key, it seems, is to stick to a topic, something I can barely do in a post, let alone a whole blog.

Also, poor Stephen Fry got caught in a flounce. I think it seems he handled it well, ultimately. And now the guy who called him boring got his own 15 minutes of tweeting fame, so there you go.

I don't remember before Sesame Street, but, at 2 1/2 years old I was the target demographic 40 years ago, and I do know I adored that show with every fiber of my toddler being.

When we were staying at my grandparent's house, I would pretend the door between the kitchen and the dining room was the door to 123 Sesame Street.

One of my most beloved toys was an Oscar The Grouch puppet. Came in his own trash can.

For some reason, I was obsessed with the idea of seeing what Sesame Street was like at night-time, and was thrilled when there was an episode that happened at night.

I liked the muppets better than the animation, but I can still sing 'OneTwoThreeFourFive...SixSevenEightNineTen...eleven twellllelve!' and can still recite 'a loaf of bread, container of milk, and a stick of butter'.

I think Oscar was my favourite muppet, but it was a close race. Kermit the Frog trying to interview fairy tale characters always made me laugh, and The Monster at the End of The book was one of my favourite stories.

By the time Charlie came around, Sesame Street had been hijacked by Elmo changed, but I was really glad it was around for my son's childhood, as it had been for mine. His first birthday was Sesame Street Themed, and for his 2nd Halloween he was dressed as Big Bird.

So happy birthday Seseame Street. Thanks for my childhood.

This weekend I went to the mall with a friend, and we went into Nordstrom's which is a super fancy department store.

In the shoe department, I saw they carried Jimmy Choo's. Now I'm not a fashion maven by any stretch of the imagination, and I don't know to many designer names, but I DO know Jimmy Choo, and I knew there were the things women are supposed to long for.

So, for fun, I tried on a pair, just so I could say I had a pair of Jimmy Choos on my feet in my lifetime. They were really beautiful, and surprisingly comfortable, despite the heel. This is what they looked like.

Nordstrom charged $575, I think it was. It boggled my mind that a pair of shoes would ever cost that much ever. Is it worth it, I wonder. Do you think they quality is such that, should I ever buy a pair of shoes that cost more than my car payment, they would last forever and never go out of style?

It would be nice to have the sort of income where buying a pair of $500 would be something I could indulge in, even though I like to think I'm not the type of person who finds it necessary to spend ridiculous amounts of money on shoes.

What about you? What kind of spree would you go on, if you could? What ridiculously expensive item of unnecessary clothing or accessory would you want, if you had the chance?

Happy Guy Fawkes day!

Also 10 more days 'til the next Doctor Who ep!

Dracula's Ball was so much fun. I love the effort everyone put into their costumes - so much originality abounding. One of my favourites, ( was this one )

An evil tin man. Zombie Dorothy was with him. He had her on a leash. There were quite a few people on leashes. Some for Halloween, some, I think, because it is how they roll.

As for my friends and me, our costumes were fabulous. My Brilliant Friend kirathaune outdid herself. Our costumes were amazing, and my Other Brilliant Friend Wendie did our makeup and she's a professional make up person so I felt like I was in a movie Halloween party.

( see the costumes of awesomeness )

And there were some Doctor Who fans in the house, which made me happy. I saw this one guy wearing a gas mask so I said to him, 'I have to ask, are you my Mummy?' That wasn't what he was going for, but he was a fan, so got the reference, which was pretty cool. And later I found a guy dressed as Tom baker, the ( 4th Doctor ) Oh...and in one of the dance floors they played this Doctor Who song* and lots of people were singing along. One guy dressed as Jesus was ( rockin' out )

( little asterisk thingy )

Finally, Charlie made an awesome Doctor Horrible. Most people didn't recognize him, but one woman we came across did and gushed over his costume, so it was totally worth it. ( Charlie )

Hey guys.

I made a post two years ago asking what everyone's earliest Halloween memory was, and got some fun responses, so I thought I'd do it again.

You could substutute 'favourite' or 'worst' for 'earliest' if you'd like.

My earliest memory is on the post I made two years ago. My worst was probably the year I got sick. I forget how old I was, 10 or 11, maybe younger and I was really sick. It was one of those illness that just sap your energy, but I really wanted to go out. I remember putting a costume together - a dress and a hat or something, and I made it about halfway down the block before having to give in and go home. I was so sad, and my mom was very sympathetic.

So, what about you flist?

I was flicking through channels this morning, and stumbled across this movie that came out in 1981 (and amazing how '70's the early 80's were. More on that another time). The movie was called Full Moon High, and was a 'comedy' i.e. bad, low budget, no-name type movie that tried to cash in on the whole 'Porky's' phenomenon.

It occured to me then that there were quite a few Werewolf movies in the 80's - Not tons, but a few, so then I thought, hm...I wonder if Werewolves were the monsters of the 80's, and then Vampires were the monsters of the 90's and now Zombies are the monsters of the oughties

I have no research or real evidence to back this up, but it kind of works, when you think about it.

We have Teen Wolf in the 80's, and Buffy in the 90's, and several zombie movies over the last few years. Yeah there's overlap, but still...

Werewolves are generally consisdered to be unable to control themselves. Vampires are usually completely in control, and zombies are in control but single-minded.

Do you think one could reasonably posit that each monster represents fears or hopes of that particular decade?

And what monster do you think will be in the teens? Frankenstein? Ghosts? Banshees? Demons?

I...I...I really don't have any words for this.

Is this a good thing? I don't know. Who is it marketed for? Do kids even know who Debbie Harry, Cindi Lauper and Joan Jett are, and would they really want them in barbie doll form?

Even more frightening is the thought that it is being marketed to people my age. If I start collecting punk rock barbies, I think I might want someone to put me away for my own safety.

Does Debbie Harry Barbie come with a Studio 54 play set? Actually, that'd be kind of cool...

I got a spambot email that used a friend's email address - should I be worried about a virus?

This is the text of the email:

Heya,how are you doing recently ? I would like to introduce you a very good company which i knew.Their website is www.lehonest.com .They can offer you all kinds of electronical products which you need like laptops ,gps ,TV LCD,cell phones,ps3,MP3/4,motorcycles etc........Please take some time to have a check ,there must be somethings you 'd like to purchase .
Their contact email: lehonest@188.com . MSN: lehonest@hotmail.com .
Hope you have a good mood in shopping from their company !
Regards

Gotta love the Engrish, anyway. And who knew you could count a motorcycle as 'electronical'.

And then, to top it off, for some reason I can't yet figure out my DVR didn't record Castle. It's a little thing, but frustrating.

Day isn't starting off well, and it's 7:34.

So, Halloween is in just a few days. I'm quite fond of this holiday, and I'm really looking forward to it this year - my friends and I are going to Dracula's Ball</i> at Shampoo in Philadelphia.

My brillant friend kirathaune is, naturally, making our costumes and my equally brilliant friend Wendie is a make-up artist, and so I think we're going to look awesome. We're doing a sort of 'steam punk/vampire' type thing.

I do wonder if the crowd will be light as the World Series is playing that night, but something tells me people who go to things called "Dracula's Ball" may not care that much about baseball.

What are your plans for the day, flist? Are you wearing costumes? If so, what? Do you even enjoy Halloween?

I posted this on a couple of my communities, but figured I should subject my regular flist to it as well.







Charlie practising his evil laugh for Halloween

My BFF's daughter lent me her copy of New Moon, and I figured since I'll probably go see the movie, if only to mock, I may as well read the book.

Let me just say,nothing makes me feel so old as reading a book in the Twilight series, because I just cannot see how five thousand pages of a teenaged girl wangsting on about the pain in her life because of the loss of her boyfriend, whom she'd known for less than a year, is in any way romantic.

Well, I'll give SM a couple of points for at least attempting some sort of conflict with the evil vampires, or whatever, but once again it is just pages of nothing actually happening, overblown descriptions of what boys look like, and Bella whining.

There is this one section where, appropos to nothing, Bella starts thinking about Romeo and Juliet (possibly because Stephanie Meyers remembered that Bella is supposed to be smart, or something) and that just made me laugh because the whole point, I think, of Romeo and Juliet is that they were idiots who took infatuation way too seriously with disasterous consequences. That's the point, Joss, it's compelling.

Anyway...I do apologise, because I know there are people on my Flist who really do like these books, but I am just so far removed from understanding the pathos that it is hard to take seriously.

Maybe I've just never been that in love.

The other day I was bored and reading some Jack Chick Tracts, you know, as you do, and I read this one about this couple who'd spent 50 years in underdeveloped parts of the world. They get on this plane and sit next to this guy who'd been in jail for manslaughter.

Now, here is where you may wonder who will be preaching to whom.

Surprise! Manslaughter guy had found Jesus in prison*, and eagerly asked how many people our couple had 'saved'. He assumed hundreds - he only ever saved his cell mate.

He was horrified to find out that they didn't bother to try to convert these people, but simply did things like improve the living conditions to try to make their lives healthier and longer.

This being Jack Chick, the plane then crashes and everyone dies, and the murderer and the old couple go to stand in front of No Face, er, God, where the old couple are told they suck and have to go to hell, while Murderer got to hang in Heaven. Because apparently doing good in the world means nothing unless you believe in God in a very narrow and specific way.

I don't know about you, but if the only people who were in heaven were asshats who managed to find God at the last moment, and preachy people who believe that 95% of the world are sinners, I'd rather go hang out in hell. I'm sure the music's better there anyway.



*Why, what did he do?

There was this PSA on when I was a little girl.

It was a boy and his grandpa fishing on a lake. The boy says to his grandfather 'What does prejudice mean?' cutely mangling the word.

Grandpa asks why the boy wants to know, and the boy responds by telling him his 'Jewish friend' Seth (or whatever, it was 30-some years ago) said he was prejudiced.

Grandpa gently tells the little boy that he is, indeed, prejudiced because otherwise he'd have just said 'my friend Seth'.

You'd think, with all that sort of touchy-feely post 'peace and love' mentality that I grew up with, the world would be a bit kinder now.

Yet we still have people saying things like 'I'm not racist. I have black friends'.

Sigh.

Have you guys seen Castle yet? You totally have to watch that show. It is just so funny and good, and gets better every week. It isn't original, really (He's a writer! She's a cop! And they fight crime!) but the characters are so appealing and charming and the chemistry is fabulous and it stars Nathan Fillion. What more could you want? Go watch it. Seriously. I'll wait.

Meanwhile, on House. Who else thinks that 'Thirteen' is totally The Wesley?

I've been watching Cougar Town, and I rather like it. I'm not sure how long the premise can hold up, but it's well done and amusing, and I like it.

I like Glee, too, but I find myself DVRing it and then watching it when I've nothing else to do. Ditto with Bones.

Oh, and who else watches The Big Bang Theory? Seems all my best shows are on Monday - How I Met Your Mother, House, Big Bang Theory and Castle. Thank goodness they don't all crash into each other.

Charlie loves iCarly right now. I don't know why.

So, what about you? Any new shows you like? British friends, anything I should be keeping my eyes out for? (BBC America did show Being Human, at least)