My grandma (Squirrel) told me last night that Cheerleader Cousin was bringing her kids (a girl and a boy) up to our grandparents’ house to visit today.

So, I asked my mom if we were going over to visit them.  She implied she didn’t want to and also made some snide comment about my cousin.

Now, if you click that above link, you can see my cousin is not one of my most favorite people.  So what my mother said was probably true, but I’m just pointing out that SHE DID NOT CARE TO SEE MY COUSIN OR HER KIDS AT ALL.

This morning, my parents’ land line rang.  My mom answered.

“Hello? . . .Hi, Honey! . . .Yep, she’s here!  You want to talk to her? . . . Ok, here she is! . . .  Chamuca, it’s for you.  It’s Lil’ Cheerleader.”

“Hello?”

“Hi, Chamuca!”

“Hi, is this Lil’ Cheerleader?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’s going on?  Are you guys at Grandma Squirrel’s house?”

“Yeah.”

“And your brother’s there too?”

“Yeah, he’s here!  When are you coming over here, Chamuca?”

“Um, well, I guess I could come over there soon.”

“Ok.  Grandpa is fixing hamburgers, and you can eat with us!”

“Ok, that sounds good!  I’ll see you in a bit!”

By the time I was off the phone, I was amused and flattered that she’d called to talk specifically to me.  I’ve not spent that much time with her, but I’ve given her random presents because she’s the only little girl I know.  (Namely, a scarf I knitted with some leftover yarn, which was too small for an adult.  And some Littlest Pet Shop animals some girl left at my work.)  And she doesn’t have a sister, or any normal* aunts or normal* girl cousins on either side either.  Just me.

Anyway, so I was feeling good after the little ego boost, and my mom had to come and shit on my parade.

“Why was she inviting you?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you call her back and ask?”

“I just don’t get why she would call you up specifically and not invite everyone.”

“I have no idea.  She’s 8 years old.  Besides, I didn’t think you needed an invitation to visit your own mother’s house, Mom.”

Once I arrived at my grandparent’s house, Lil’ Cheerleader came running outside to greet me.  She was wearing a crazy sparkly florescent shirt.  I complemented her on it and told her I had florescent outfits too, when I was her exact age.  She was thrilled.

Old School American Girl rocked. Now Mattel has fucked it all up.

At some point, my cousin whispered to me, asking if I noticed that Lil’ Cheerleader put her hair in a ponytail, to match the one I was sporting.  My cousin also told me that her daughter could not stop talking about me on the drive up, and that she was upset she forgot to bring her American Girl doll.

She was obsessed with buying that doll in the first place.  My cousin and her husband made her save up to buy it, which took her about a year.  She wanted to bring it, because apparently she named it after me.

I mean, how freaking cute is this kid?  I just want to eat her up.

So when I got home, I tried to tell my mom about everything, and she kept acting butt-hurt.  I have no idea what her problem is this weekend.  She even turned into The Bowling Nazi, when we were all trying to play Wii.  Maybe it’s because she’s retiring on Monday, and she thinks we don’t care.

Little does she know, her work is throwing her a surprise party, which a bunch of people are coming to, including family from out of town.  I guess we could tell her, but that would ruin the surprise.  And she always figures out her surprise parties in advance, and she hasn’t figured this one out yet.  I’m excited.

I woke up twenty minutes ago with this familiar feeling. “Oh, I’m not young enough to drink so much”, was my first thought this morning. But, actually I never even got drunk last night. The problem was (and is, very much possibly) sleep deprivation, but, oh boy, does it feel the same as if I had drunk myself into a coma or something.

Anyway, today we (brother and I) are moving to a new flat (we don’t particularly like our flatmates’ idea of cleaning) and need to start packing. The whole room we’ve been sharing is a mess and I feel tired just thinking how much we’ll have to do. Oh, well.

Cats always seem to cheer me up a bit, and hopefully this link will do the same for you. Check out the 17 Things Worth Knowing About Your Cat, by The Oatmeal.

And if you feel like having some more fun, you might as well go see How Everything Goes to Hell During a Zombie Apocalipse and, why not?, try and find out 8 Ways to Tell If Your Loved Ones Plan to Eat You (previews below). Very serious stuff, you know?

On a different note, I’m in love with this bracelet by Three Horses and might try to come up with a project to create something similar (and cheaper, as I find myself quite averted to spending money on something I can possibly make nowadays). For those of you who just want to use the damn thing and not to worry about finding the appropriate materials, click on the image to go to the Etsy shop and buy it (they also have it on gold – yay! -, white and gray).

A few weeks back Cai told me about Warhammer Invasion the card game, and I was really excited about it because firstly, I love card games, especially the collectible ones though I haven’t seriously collected any of them, upon the advice of the boyfriend, and secondly, there’s something amazing about the game system in most cardgames. So far my favourite CCG is Magic The Gathering, and I thought Deadlands CCG was very good too because it incorporated spatial aspects into it.

So since we’re playing Warhammer 40k for miniatures now, and we’ve bought the Dark Heresy rulebook last week, we’re pretty much in the Warhammer Frenzy phase! Today Warhammer Invasion finally arrived, after waiting for weeks for it! Though it’s not a collectible card game, the variety and number of cards in the set allows for a great number of permutations in the deck so I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be pretty dynamic and different each time we play it. This is like our newest baby and of course any parent is excited about his/her newborn! Looking forward to try it soon!

Be sure to catch us at http://timefourplay.blogspot.com for our game reviews soon!

To update a little, Louie and I moved into together, it’s been about two weeks. I’m still upset that the first thing I watched in my new apartment was the Yankees winning the World Series. Louie thinks it’s a good sign, I think otherwise, if you couldn’t tell.

As I settle in, I am growing particularly fond of Louie’s Xbox 360. Why? As most know, I cannot play any of the games that Louie plays. My feeble attempt to play Gears of War resulted in me getting killed in training mode. I like playing Puzzle Quest on my PSP,  thank you very much. But, the Xbox 360 is my little portal to NetFlix and now Zune. Too bad, How I Met Your Mother isn’t available for instant play on NetFlix. I have to patiently wait to my NetFlix DVD to arrive. ::sigh:: Or, just buy the DVDs… decisions, decisions. So, Louie was very excited about the new features on Xbox Live, which included Zune, which made watching The Guild very simple. Seriously, I would have finished The Guild last night, but that pesky little thing called “work” got in the way. This is new addition is probably why I still have a ton of boxes in our bedroom to go through as well.;)

Yay! Isn’t it what you always wanted? A filler post!!

I’m gonna let my geek show and share some videos of my favorite geek/nerd related music. Enjoy!

First up: “Do you wanna date my avatar?”
As a recovering World of Warcraft addict, I LOVE this song and video! By Felicia Day and her castmates at The Guild. (Great online show!)

Next, let me see… Ah! For a mix of just about everything there is to being a geek (at least my own personal brand) “Yuri the Only One for Me” by the LeetStreet Boys. I love the boy band angle. (I really hope someone else gets some of these references…)

And last but definitely not least a song by Jonathan Coulton who I love SO much. Enjoy this live version of “Tom Cruise Crazy” (Apparently JoCo hasn’t recorded any videos. What a jerk! Totally kidding! Although sanctioned videos would be nice… ) with the oh so awesome Paul and Storm. Scientology much?

So, there you have it… I would have included something by MC Frontalot but I couldn’t find any good videos. Is my “geek” showing?

Being both a map geek and a highway geek, this hits a sweet spot:

Eisenhower Interstate System: London Underground-Style Map

After Nat tweeted about Hatched, we were so impressed by the looks of the pancakes that we felt we had to head there to try out the food. Located along Evans Road, it’s a comfortable walking distance from the bus stop on the main road, and it has relatively ample parking space for those who are driving.

Us waiting for the long bus ride from Bukit Batok:

It rained pretty heavily halfway through so we got off along Dunearn Road just outside NJ (very tempted to head in to walk around for fun!) to catch a cab!

Hatched is located within Evans Lodge, adjacent to The Wine Company. It has a sitting capacity of about 40-50 people, and it’s best to make reservations during weekends.

I thought the mist on the window suited the whole rainy atmosphere:

The interior of Hatched was rather interestingly decorated. Apart from the Halloween props, the room was lit with random large light bulbs sporadically dangling from the grey ceiling. I liked the fact that the aircon and accompanying pipes were all black in colour! And yes, the knight in white!

I like this picture taken of me! They had chalk scribbles on a black wall, which was really cool. The eclecticism of that place is a theme on its own I guess.

Yep! This is where we are!

This version of root beer is one of the best:

Cai ordered the Vegie Melt:

This dish was pretty awesome. I especially liked the mushroom mash on top of the baked potato (which was an awesome combination of tastes, by the way.) The avocado and cheese on the burger tasted really good too! The portion was a little too small though.

It has been a long time since I had a decent Cheese Omelette (since the Hawai’i days) so as soon as I knew it was on the menu, I just had to get it! Unfortunately this dish was pretty bad and not value for money at all. The cheese was too little, and almost tasteless. Probably should have used another kind of cheese other than mozzarella.

We had tiny little potato jackets stuffed with scrambled eggs for $10! Really quite expensive for the amount you get and it wasn’t even fantastic. It was just edible.

The pancakes! The two shots there were maple syrup and some orange-vanilla essence thingy.

Cai doing the honours:

Ready to tuck in! The pancakes were not bad, although I thought that compared to the ones we had in The Wine Company, it’s not as good.

We headed to Orchard thereafter to look for this really old Korean drama series, which is the first and only Korean drama that I watch. No prize for guessing which one it is, but yeah, it’s Autumn in My Heart/ Endless Love, the first of its kind in Singapore. No luck getting one with English subtitles No luck finding the ideal denim mini skirt either

We headed to Muji, and we had alot of fun shopping in there. Turns out that other than stationery that’s ‘buyable’, they have alot of other cool stuff like this Mango Pudding dessert that we had to suck from the packet! Very tasty though! And I even made Cai buy this squid ink pasta sauce so that we can cook sth for me!

I thought this was pretty useful:

They should also put the parking rate next to the no. of lots available though.

We ended the week with PS3 games – OverLord II and Soul Calibur IV! Soul Calibur IV was really awesome! I especially loved the graphics and the cool ass weapons!

We also managed to play a little bit of Warhammer 40K today Didn’t manage to finish the game but it was just to test out the stats and all. I think I’d have to read the rules and all that seriously soon to start gaming for real! In any case, it was fun!

The iPhone has proven quite popular – that’s no big surprise.

It’s also no surprise (since we hear about it almost every day) about how many have been sold and how many apps have been downloaded for it.

It’s also been copied in almost every way by every other mobile phone manufacturer out there (apart from Nokia who are either too shit to see its brilliance or too stubborn to take any hints) so I shouldn’t be too surprised that its clearly inspired the advertising agency involved in the advert for Greece 4000.

The advert came on while I was watching MTV (providing a bit of relief really given that MTV is mindless crap) and I was immediately struck at how familiar the music sounded.

(See it on YouTube)

“What is it?” I thought to myself.

Then, it occurred to me… it was my ringtone! The standard one that comes with the iPhone. Alright, they’d added some more musical elements, but in essence, it’s the same ‘tune’.

So, either it’s complete coincidence or, the composer for the Greece 4000 advert was sat at their piano, desperately trying to think of what to play. They were probably playing with their iPhone, using an “I’m Lacking Inspiration” app (which I’m sure exists) – then someone called, breaking the composer’s concentration.

“Bastards! Who dares disturb my research!”, they exclaim, clutching the air with a clenched fist in a matter not unlike a James Bond villain.

Then it occurs to them – “that’s it!”

“Da-da-da, da-da da da-da-da! Perfect!”

Of course, they do change the last two “da’s”, otherwise it’d be blatant copying, but essentially, that’s what they finish with.

They deliver the music to the ad agency who stop snorting cocaine and discussing their Prada shoes for a minute to listen.

“That sounds great – so familiar, too! Let’s go with it! Great, man, great… now, I think we deserve some coke… (snort)”

And there you have it – the iPhone continues to inspire on every level, as does my uncanny ability to describe the inner workings of an advertising agency.

Next up an iPhone ringtone will be in a number one hit, will inspire Pink Floyd to make a new album and will inspire religions around the world to stop fighting and just download some fart apps instead.

It’s the 5th of November. Which makes me remember some things about remembering.

I’m fascinated by memory, and clearly I’m not alone, judging from the large number of movies, stories, songs and such that feature themes of memory. Or loss of memory. Here’s a ThThTh list of some things I can remember:

Some memory-related things that come to mind

• The poem about Guy Fawkes day:
  

  Remember, remember the fifth of November,
  The gunpowder treason and plot,
  I know of no reason
  Why the gunpowder treason
  Should ever be forgot.

• remember the Alamo!
• mnemonic devices: phrases, poems or other sayings used to aid the memory for specific facts, such as:
  • Roy G. Biv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet: the order of colors in the rainbow)
  • homes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior: i.e. the Great Lakes)

  (more mnemonic devices here)



• string tied around a finger: if you need to remember something, you can tie a string around your finger as a reminder that there was something you were supposed to remember. This relies on you being able to remember what it was that you hoped to remember.
• souvenir: a keepsake or memento, typically from a visit to a place to which one has travelled. From the French verb souvenir, “to remember”
• memento: an object kept to remember a time, place or event. From the latin remember:
  

  L. memento “remember,” imperative of meminisse “to remember,” a reduplicated form, related to mens “mind.” Meaning “reminder, warning” is from 1582; sense of “keepsake” is first recorded 1768. (from etymology online)

• Memento (2000): a movie about a man who loses his ability to form new memories.
• The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): a movie in which people can undergo a process of selective memory erasure.
• Chester Tate: A character on the 70s TV show Soap who spends several episodes with amnesia.
• “Tabula Rasa,” a Buffy episode: A spell gone awry causes the main characters to forget who they are. Hilarity ensues. (Seriously, it’s a really fun, funny episode.)
• “The Forget me Knot,” an episode of The Avengers in which Emma Peel forgets who she is. (This was Diana Rigg’s last episode on the series.)
• “Forget Me Not,” an amnesia episode of Gilligan’s Island (Okay, I didn’t actually remember this one, guessed that there was an amnesia episode.)
• For that matter, there are probably plenty of episodes from sci-fi shows like those in the Star Trek and Star Gate universes.
• The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996): Geena Davis plays an amnesiac ex-spy
• The Bourne Identity (2002): Matt Damon plays an amnesiac ex-spy
• Who am I?/Wo shi shei (1998): Jackie Chan plays an amnesiac spy.
• Total Recall (1990) Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a spy whose memories were re-written
• lots more movies and shows with a memory (or loss of memory) theme can be found here:
• “I Don’t Remember,” a song by Peter Gabriel
  

  I don’t remember, I don’t recall
  I got no memory of anything at all

• “I can’t forget,” a song by Leonard Cohen. I can’t forget, but I don’t remember what.
• “Only a Memory,” a song by the Smithereens
• The Persistence of Memory: famous Salvador Dalí painting with melting watches
• memory: a card game also known by the name “concentration”
• memory: a computer component for storing data



• Remember when Chris Farley interviewed people? Remember how he interviewed Paul McCartney? That was awesome.
  

  Chris Farley: You remember when you were with the Beatles?
  Paul McCartney: Yes.
  Chris Farley: That was awesome.

Most people who have worked their way over to this here site probably did so from my Facebook page, and so you probably already know a bit about who I am.  Still, since this is my first post here, I think it would be good to describe myself in a few sentences.

My name is Herbert, and I’m a graduate student of bioinformatics at UC Santa Cruz (Yay banana slugs!).  I’m hoping to finish my master’s degree by June 2010, after which I want to start working in the biotech industry.  I graduated from Cal State LA (Go golden eagles!) in 2007 with computer science and biology.  I was born and raised in Pasadena, CA, but usually I just tell people I’m from Los Angeles.

So why am I starting this blog?  I haven’t done any sort of blogging other than the occasional Facebook note since I was an angsty teenage Xanga user 8 years ago (I’m old), and to be honest I haven’t really felt like I’ve been missing anything.  However, there’s two main reasons I decided to start doing this crap again.  The first is that I quit World of Warcraft and I’ve been looking for a new hobby.  Blogging is kind of similar to WoW, in that it’s online, there’s lots of people who do it, and most people who do it are pretty bad at it but everyone thinks that they’re awesome.  To condense that down to one word, I’m partly doing it out of boredom.

The other reason for starting this blog is actually to help me with my research.  My advisor has become increasingly insistent that I start writing more things down so that when I need to write my thesis, I’ll actually have something to base it off of.  Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever taken classes with me knows, I am terrible at writing stuff down.  My class notes typically consist of little spiral patterns in the borders and vague one-line statements that are useless to anyone other than me (ex: lac operon -> cheese???).  My to-do lists are similarly terrible, also consisting of one-line statements that cannot be understood by anyone other than me (ex: subway -> cheese???).  However, I am now finding that these kinds of lists are no longer adequate, and so to maybe get me to be better at writing stuff down, I am going to start writing stuff more all the time.  My hope is that by getting used to writing things down that aren’t useful in any way, I’ll become more used to writing down important stuff when I’m doing my work so that when the time comes for me to spit out a thesis, I’ll have something to base it on.

All this is nice and such, but there is still the question of what am I going to be blogging about?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I have a lot of interests and a weird sense of humor, so most likely my posts will be varied in their content.  Probably a lot of it will be about weird geeky things that only other geeks will find interesting, another big chunk will be about dinosaurs, some stuff about working out, politics (but only if I wake up without quite enough tar and feathers on me), as well as some highly used buzzwords in order to make my posts go higher on Google.

In conclusion, viagra sarah palin miley cyrus world series swine flu.

I was surfing the Sky box and came across The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen about to start on E4. I remember wanting to see this when it came out but my friends weren’t interested. I finally got round to watching it a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t a bit silly, or that the special effects are outstanding (although they are pretty good) but it’s entertaining enough to watch for a couple of hours.

I seem to remember not working out who the bad guy is til the last minute… I fall for plot twists and turns every time! I still don’t remember who it is, but I’m looking forward to finding out (again). And on top of all the geeky goodness (real old fashioned fantasy heroes etc), there’s fights, a gun named Mathilda (apparently), Sean Connery and some rather yummy eye candy. What more could I want for a Sunday night?!

I’m reading submissions to TC for our 2010.1 issue and got a cover letter that states that the following work is free of the graphic sex and vulgar language in so many stories today. I felt like looking around and doing the “Who do you think you’re submitting to? She who conservatively uses “fuck” about six times a page and thrives on a good graphic sex scene? Yeah so that’d be a “no” on principle but as a good editor, I read the story anyway.

So anyway…

It made me want to take a break so here I am. Of course I should be doing about 87 other things but I want to do something for myself and so here it is.

This is Halloween, so say the residents of Halloweentown. We have a tradition here at Chez Piggyhawk: much like his friend Santa Claus does in two months, Jack Skellington visits Zoe and Holden on Halloween. They leave their pumpkins out and Jack comes to fill them. We’re never sure what Jack will bring. Could be books, toys, art supplies, a shrunken head, a striped worm as big as your leg, a vampire doll…

So I tell my kids during the month of October, “You’d better be good or Jack will bring you a head in a box!”

So today Zoe has been saying to her brother, “Holden, you should be good. Jack Skellington will bring you a head in a box tonight!”

We also talk about what they might like Jack to bring, since Jack can pass any lists or requests that have been made on to his friend Santa. Jack brings small things, although he is particularly fond of books, like his other friend The Easter Bunny. What Jack likes more than the Bunny though are games. Jack likes to bring at least one game and the request by Madame, who saw the commercial roughly 18,923 times while she was home sick for a week, was for Uno Moo. Well I had trouble finding it anywhere I went this week so we’re crossing our fingers that Santa will be able to hook Jack up with an Uno Moo for the kids. It’s shaping up to be a popular Christmas toy so I recommend getting your requests to Jack tonight.

Jack also brings candy for Mommy & Daddy. Jack also might leave a note for Zoe and Holden. You never know with Jack.

Happy Halloween, my tender lumplings.

Part 1 here, Part 2 here.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT THIS MOVIE.  IT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES IN GENERAL.

16) Heart and Souls (1993)

I can't get a decent meal, I can't get a smoke, and mostly, I can't get laid. You turned me into a *goddamn* monk!

This movie is not really Halloween-y, but it’s about ghosts who befriend a child.  They never get sent to the afterlife because the Bus Driver to Hell forgets about them.

And it takes place partly in the 1950’s, and I love period pieces.

It also stars Robert Downey, Jr. who I absolutely love.  Well, non-drug addicted Robert Downey, Jr., that is.  Other actors include Kyra Sedgwick, Elisabeth Shue, and Charles Grodin star.  And a cameo by B.B. King.  Awesome.

This movie makes me both laugh and cry every time I watch it.  If you have not seen it, you need to.  It is amazing early 90’s maudlin crap.  And if you don’t cry when you watch it, you are a FUCKING ROBOT WHO’S DEAD INSIDE.

Please, let me continue to regurgitate all of my 80’s and 90’s pop culture trivia for you . . .

7) Beetlejuice (1988)

I'm a ghost with the most, babe.

Tim Burton, how I love thee.  This is the first of 3 of his movies on my list.  He really was THE dark Children’s Movie director/writer of my generation.

The cast of this movie is ridiculous.  Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder.  All actors whom I love in 80’s and 90’s movies.

Also Winona’s parents are that asshole Ed Rooney and Macauley Culkin’s mom in Home Alone.

I am a loser and have this movie on VHS.  Gotta hook up my VCR before Halloween.

8 ) Teen Witch (1989)

Nobody's comin' to your sweet sixteen party Louise.

I LOVED THIS MOVIE WHEN I WAS A KID.  However, I haven’t seen it in years.

I remember it has the same freaky lady who played the organist in Sixteen Candles.  And when I was a kid, I got Sixteen Candles and Teen Witch confused because of that.  Also, Robyn Lively and Molly Ringwald both have red hair, and both of the movies are about the girls turning 16.

Fun Fact:  Dick Sargent played the girl’s dad as well.  He must have loved witchy women.

9) Edward Scissorhands (1990)

The light concealing cream goes on first. Then you blend, and blend, and blend. Blending is the secret.

- Tim Burton again.  Genius.

- Vincent Price.  That man’s voice gives me chills to this day.

- Johnny Depp.  Such a freak.  I want to have your babies.

- Winona Ryder.  Weird blond hair.  Did you know that her natural hair color is actually blond?

- Anthony Michael Hall.  For once playing a douchebag jock instead of a douchebag geek.

-Dianne West.  She also played the pastor’s wife in Footloose.  And the mother of that whore girl.

When I first saw this movie, I was only 9 years old and didn’t fully understand it.  Years later, I saw it again and loved it.  I don’t have it on DVD anymore because some asshole roommate I’ve had stole it.  I am angry about that because I want to watch it RIGHT NOW.

10) Ghost Dad (1990)

"DO YOU WORSHIP SATAN?" "Worship him? I AM Satan! I command you to stop this cab!"

Ok, this movie an absolutely ridiculous mix of ghosts/invisible man.  But, it’s actually hilarious.  If you’ve never seen it, you need to.  I got my copy of it for like $5 at Target.

First off, it has Bill Cosby when he was still funny and not a weird old man.  Second, it has Kimberly Russell as Cosby’s daughter, who was Sarah on Head of the Class. I fucking loved Head of the Class.  I would purchase the seasons on DVD if they made them.

Also, it has a Omar Gooding, pre-W-W-Wild and Crazy Kids.

This movie has the scariest Creepy Satanic Hobo ever, too.  He beats himself in the head.  No joke.

11)  The Addams Family (1991)

"Pugsley, sit in the chair." "Why?" "So we can play a game." "What game?" "It's called, "Is There a God?" "

I went to see this movie in the theater for someone’s birthday,  and my mother was MAD.  She really doesn’t like “evil satanic” things.

Great cast though:  Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci (before she got weird).

Also, the guy who played Lurch also played Mr. Homn on Star Trek: Next Gen, who is hilarious.

12) Hocus Pocus (1993)

I'm sorry, Emily. I had to wait three hundred years for a virgin to light a candle.

As previously mentioned, I love witch covens.

I also have a weird affection for Bette Midler.  The mother of my childhood best friend listened to The Divine Miss M, ALL THE TIME.

Seriously, Big Business was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid.  God, I have shitty taste in movies.

Also, did you know they only makeup they had to put on Sarah Jessica Parker was brown paint on her chin-mole?

13) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Kidnap the Sandy Claws, / beat him with a stick, / lock him up for ninety years, / see what makes him tick.

Again, Tim Burton.  I didn’t really get into this movie until I was in college, until I became friends with a goth girl.

Actually I probably haven’t seen it since then.  I also haven’t seen the “Corpse Bride” or “9″.  I’m a shitty Tim Burton fan.

I need to purchase this movie and watch it before Christmas.  This is my goal.  Not getting a job, or cleaning my house or anything.  Watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Goal set.

14) Casper (1995)

It's my party and I'll die if I want do, die if I want to. You will die too, when it happens to you.

I saw this movie in the theater as well.  Mom wasn’t so pissed because it isn’t as “dark.”

Again, good cast.  Ben Stein, Eric Idle, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty.

But back then, I didn’t care about that.  I cared about One Mr. Devon Sawa (pictured above).  When Casper turns into a real boy, he becomes that piece of young-man-loveliness.

This movie came out the same year as Now and Then. Both of them had Christina Ricci and Devon Sawa, and their characters in each had the hots for each other.  I still hate that bitch.

15) Practical Magic (1998)

Since when is being a slut a crime in this family.

Yet another witches coven movie.  I also like The Craft.  My friend Bella is a Wiccan and she hates it when witches as portrayed this way.  I tell her to get over herself because she’s only Wiccan to be edgy and cool.

This movie is a super chick flick, but it has Stockard Channing in it, so it’s ok.  Plus, I want to have Aiden Quinn’s babies.

Also, the bad guy in the movie is Luka from ER, who I hate in this movie and therefore, hated on ER.

This movie, among others, makes me wish I had a sister.  A cool sister.  I’m just stuck with a stupid brother who likes to make me look bad to the family because he’s a lawyer and shit.

Also, he’s doing some race for Diabetes now.  Way to go, brother.  I look like a loser now.

So there ye have it.  I have horrible taste in movies.  Judge away.

Chocolate ones turn into Count Chocula. Frosted ones turn into The Count from Sesame Street.

Last night, I finally made my chocolate bat cookies and I made some sugar cookies too.  As I rolled out the dough and baked away, I watched a horrible Halloween movie on TV.  Once Bitten (1985) with Lauren Hutton as a vampire who’s trying to drink Jim Carrey’s virgin blood.

It made me think of my favorite movies I watch now, and watched as a kid, that were Halloween-y.

Here is my top 15 list, in chronological order.  (Actually there are 18, but I’m not counting sequels.)

Also, I wasn’t allowed to watch scary or gruesome movies as a kid, so I never got into them.  Therefore, these are all fairly kid-friendly.

1) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Treguna, Makoidees, Trecorum, Sadis Dee!

When I was a kid, my mom intentionally paid the extra money for The Disney Channel.  She loves her some Disney, because as she likes to say, “Two great things were born in 1955 – Disneyland and ME.”

She would tape movies off The Disney Channel all the time, including this one.  I still have the tape from 20 years ago including original Disney Channel commercials.

This was one of my favorites because IT HAD THE DAD FROM MARY POPPINS IN IT.  And I love(d) Mary Poppins.  Also, there is live-action interposed with cartoons.  It’s like an acid trip.

It also takes place in England, during WWII, both of which I love.  Well, I don’t love Nazis, just historical stories.

2) E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982)

"A deformed kid." "Maybe an elf or a leprechaun." "It was nothing like that, penis-breath!"

This movie was the first legitimate videotape my family owned.  I think we got it at McDonald’s.  And I stole it from my parents’ house when I moved out.  It’s not like there are any grandchildren there to watch it.

Many people forget this movie takes place at Halloween, but remember how E.T. went trick-or-treating, dressed as a ghost?

3) Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989)

Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

The Original Ghostbusters soundtrack was the first cassette tape I ever owned.  I also think I got it at McDonald’s.

The painting of Vigo created an ongoing fear in me, of paintings whose eyes follow me.

Also, whenever I hear “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher”, I always think of this movie and the Statue of Liberty coming to life.  And I love the Statue of Liberty.  I even dressed up like her for Halloween in 6th grade.

Viggy, Viggy, Viggy, you have been a bad monkey!

I’ve heard that there might be a Ghostbusters III coming out, and if so, they MUST have the original cast.  It wouldn’t be the same without all of them.

I just watched both of these in the past 2 weeks and I found myself attracted to Egon.  Which disturbs me because he looks like Screech, who apparently my ex-boyfriend looks like.  Fuck you, Kitten.

I don’t have much else to say about these movies, except that if you have not seen them, you must have grown up in a cave.

4) Teen Wolf (1985) and Teen Wolf Too (1987)

You are an animal! Woooooo!

While about werewolves, these movies are considered Christmas movies in my family.

When I was a kid, we were up at my grandparents cabin in the woods for Christmas.  The only movie we could get on the huge satellite dish, was Teen Wolf.  So I made everyone watch it because I Love Michael J. Fox.  It is now known as, “Teen Wolf – A Christmas Classic”.

Teen Wolf Too is awesome because it has Jason Bateman.  I don’t care whatever other shit he’s been in, he is David Hogan from The Hogan Family.

5) Mr. Boogedy (1986) and Bride of Boogedy (1987)

Oh boy. This I gotta see. Dad's gonna negotiate with Mr. Hamburger Face.

These movies were made for The Disney Channel.  My brother and I loved them so much, we begged our mom to tape them.  She refused to and also refused to let us rent them at the video store.

I have not seen either of these movies in 20 years, but I can still remember that guy’s face and him saying “BOOOOOOGEDY!  BOOOOOGEDY!”.  Freaks me out still.

Apparently, they have never been released on DVD, but I found some guy on the internet who is selling DVD copies. They are totally pirated, but I don’t care.  I ordered them and hope they will be here before Halloween.

6) The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

I always like a little pussy after lunch.

Now, I highly doubt my mother let me watch this movie when I was a kid.  But I purchased it outta some bin at the Walmart and it cracks me up.

I love coven of witches stories for some reason.  One of my favorite books is The Witching Hour. Maybe it’s the feminist in me.  And that I believe I have witchy powers.

This movie is cast perfectly, and although I don’t really care for any of these actors now (except Susan Sarandon), I love their 80’s counterparts.  If that makes any sense.

And the novel it’s based on was written by John Updike, who won a Pulitzer, for Christ’s sake.

Also, the new Eastwick show, sucks donkey balls.

The rest of the list, tomorrow.

So, basically, the World of Darkness is the pretty amazing super-setting, that actually consists of about six or seven different games, all representing some aspect of supernatural phenomena that the world does not know about. Put simply, the World of Darkness is our world, but the things that go bump in the night are real. This super-setting includes Vampire: The Requiem, for a dark game involving dark politics and even darker themes;
Werewolf: The Forsaken, a very heavy game about dealing with the Beast within;
Changeling: The Lost, a lighter game dealing with those whom faeries have changed in subtle but powerful ways;
Mage: The Awakening, an easy to pick up game about mortals who have peered past the illusion of reality;
and Hunter: The Vigil, the most difficult of all the games, about those few mortals who, lacking superpowers of any kind, pick up the mantle to defend humanity from the things that go bump in the night;
as well as Promethean: The Created, and others.

My super-campaign is going to be a single, epic story, that starts with a Mage: The Awakening chronicle titled “The Stars at Night”, dealing with a team of normal humans who wake up one day to find that they can bend reality to their will. These mages will be forced to deal with their own power, while finding themselves thrust into a city where every manner of creature fights for dominance, and the World of Darkness finds itself perilously close to the light.

Não, não é dica. É zica mesmo.

Interrogação piscante!

Ligando o macbook esta semana, fui confrontado primeiro com uma tela preta. Desliguei-o e liguei-o novamente. E lá me veio uma interrogação misteriosa piscando na tela, e nada do sistema carregar.

Conferindo o manual do Mac, descobri se tratar de um caso onde o sistema não foi encontrado. Segui os passos sugeridos pra resolver o problema:

1. reiniciar o computador pressionando a tecla “Option”;
2. inserir o CD de instalação do Mac OS X, reiniciá-lo com a tecla ‘C’ pressionada, e, com o CD em execução, ir no menu Utilities -> Disk Utilities (se não me engano), onde eu veria se poderia restaurar a partição (a qual não foi encontrada); e finalmente
3. tentar reinstalar o Mac OS X, o qual não reconheceu nenhum HD para fazer instalação.

Ótimo, constatei que meu HD devia ter quebrado.

Comprei um HD SATA novo no outro dia, com mais espaço mas com o mesmo número de RPMs, da Samsung. Instalei-o na própria loja, e logo levei mais uns 2 dias para instalar tudo que precisava e voltar à pesquisa. E o PC da casa quebra 1 dia depois.

Lições aprendidas:

1. não dormir com o notebook funcionando em um lugar sem ventilação (vide: tapete);
2. HDs são realmente fáceis de se trocar no Macbook (ver este link da Apple); e
3. o que é aquela interrogaçãozinha piscante.

Mais sorte da próxima vez!

My “new” Nokia 8850 arrived today. As expected, it was completely refurbished, which is to say that it was an original chassis and circuit board, with new after-market covers. It also came with a UK specification OEM Nokia power supply, and two brand-new lithium ion batteries.

The phone is exactly as I remember it, though the covers lack the quality of the originals. I think the original OEM covers were made from titanium, whereas these covers appear to be largely some form of plastic. Update: The original cases were made from plastic and aluminium, but the standard colour finish was confusingly called “Titanium”. My covers are also made of plastic and aluminium, but definitely not as good quality as the OEM items would have been. However, without looking very closely, you’d never know the difference. And I can’t imagine that there are any original OEM covers left that haven’t been scratched to pieces by now, so it’s a reasonable compromise for what is really a ten year old phone.

In use it is exactly as I remember it. By todays standards it’s severely lacking in features, but it meets my requirements perfectly. It’s tiny, it makes phone calls, and it sends and receives SMS text messages. And that’s all it does. Total retro-style for only £27. So far I’m loving it.

The only problem I’ve found is that my Blackberry is unable to write its address book to my SIM card, so I have no simple way to get all my phone numbers transferred to the Nokia. I always thought the Blackberry was rubbish, but honestly, how poor is that?

To Ursula Le Guin! <3<3<3

I don’t even remember what her books were really about, ’cause I read most of them about 12 years ago, but 1) I remember liking them, 2) she’s awesome <3

About 6 months ago, Lobster, Kitten, Tomcat and I had Game Night at my apartment.

Tomcat:  Kitten, I really wanna see Star Trek on Friday.  Are you gonna come with me and Tomcat, Jr.?

Kitten:  I don’t wanna see it.  Theater’s probably gonna be filled with fucking weirdos.

Lobster:  You’re a shitty girlfriend, Kitten.  They went to see that stupid ass ‘Fast and the Furious’ movie with YOU.

Chamuca:  I’ll go with you guys.  I watched Trek as a kid.  And it’s a prequel.  I loves me some prequels.

(Tomcat and I gave each other Vulcan high-fives.  And ‘Lobster the Trekkie’ was jealous because he had to work and couldn’t come with us.)

So we went to the movie, and I sent many texts to Kitten, to torment her.

“your boyfriend bought my ticket for me.  he also bought me candy and popcorn.  it’s a DATE.”

“he loves me now and wants to have my babies.  he is over his asian fetish.”

“he is holding my hand and trying to get me to makeout with him in front of HIS SON.  it is true love.  TRUE LOVE.”

Anyway, the movie ended up being A LOT better than I thought.  It re-ignited my love of the Trek that began as a kid, watching it with my mom.  Yes, Mom, not Dad.  My parents are weird, as previously discussed.

So I started thinking about adding Next Gen to my Netflix queue, but then I remembered that my lover, One Mr. Scott Bakula was on a Star Trek series.  And I’d never seen it.

I know, Scott. I know.

I looked all this Trek crap up on Wiki and found out that Bakula’s Enterprise took place before the Original Series.  Man, I love prequels.  I think because they’re time-travelly.  So I decided to watch all of the series in chronological order, not production order.  My OCD has not been diagnosed yet.

Since I’m currently out of a job, don’t have cable and live alone, I’ve been burning through the disks.  And Netflix got pissed.

Now, through some snafu involving my mail lady being fucktarded by misplacing a disk for many days, and Netflix’s “Report a Problem” button not working correctly, as of today, I will I have 3 copies of the same exact disk.

And you know what?  I might hold on to them for awhile.  Have fun trying to figure out where Data’s evil brother came from all of a sudden, Oregon Netflix Users!  I sure as fuck couldn’t!  Now you can’t either because I have all the disks!!! FTW!

P.S.  Next up is Babylon 5, because Lobster says so.  Then Dr. Who.  And Tomcat will make me watch Firefly.

P.P.S. Kitten was at my house recently, and I made her watch some Next Gen.  She actually got into it, despite faux-bitching the whole time.  Tomcat is pleased and we have hope for her yet.

P.P.P.S. This man is my only hope of finding someone to love me now.

I saw Taz on Monday  :)

She and I met for coffee and talked for like two hours before catching the train and going to get me Max Suit material.  I confessed how big a dork I actually am (I hadn’t until then told her I was making a Max suit, or that I was going to wear it to the movie, or that I had convinced someone else who just so happened to be the same size as me to come with me dressed up, or that after I’d bought the material I would be going to a friend’s house to play table top RPGs…), and she wasn’t as freaked out as I anticipated…I think she seems much more normal than she actually is.

Her hair was so cute that day!  She doesn’t wear it down much, but I love it when she does, and lets it be curly  :)

The RPG I had intended to play that evening was called Scion, and it looks like a real winner.  We didn’t get past character creation, but it has such a great premise!  I really hope this campaign flies, because I made a rock star…  >.>

The GM is Glynn, and the story is that, about 20 years ago, a drunken party bus came through Calgary with a bunch of gods on it (just greek so far…), and we’re the aftermath.  It sounds like my character’s dad started the whole thing (we figured he was Dionysus).  Since they’re the children of gods, they’re obviously SUPERFANTASTIC, and my character’s stats really play well with her characteristics.

And she’s going to bash people in the head with her guitar!!

…Why yes, I am a dork!

And I have such a great idea for what to get Taz for Christmas!

I already have a Portal necklace for her–which, as it turns out, apparently isn’t being made anymore!  It’s the Companion Cube, made out of sculpey I think.  I kind of bought it by accident, haha.  Anyway, she said she liked it a loong while ago, probably less than a month after I met her, so it’s going to come as a complete surprise.

And the second part, is to do with this great idea I have.  Well…I think it’s great, anyway.  I make butterflies out of old magazines and make them double sided so that I can make reversible barrettes.  She really loves Phantom of the Opera–like, REALLY loves.  She says it’s one of the things that helps her cope with her depression.  (If you don’t understand chronic depression, think of it like this: imagine that sometimes, you have a bad day and you can’t breathe.  That’s kind of like when you suffer from depression, and have a bad day.  But you have certain things that help you breathe on these days–For me, that’s pills.  For her, it’s baths and Phantom and things like Found Cake.)  So my idea is that I’ll make butterflies out of scenes from Phantom.

I’m ridiculously sweet sometimes.  I’m not sure how good that’s going to be for me in this situation…

See, I think things can go one of two ways here.  Either I’ll be really sweet and she’ll realise she deserves it, or I’ll be really sweet and she’ll get scared off because she doesn’t think she deserves it.

I don’t think I can help being sweet though…it’s a challenge not to be more so, but she told me I can’t give her things for no reason so I’m trying to curb it  :X

I don’t think I’m succeeding very well, in all actuality…

I’m ridiculous.  LOL

So, I’m really excited about this game, but I seem to have difficulty putting together the game. When we do play, Guppie has decreed that we would play Scott’s game. Which is fine, I like playing Slash, but I have this story to tell that I want to share. I am considering running the game with Duncan, Kerrie, and Dana, but that would cheat our new player out of playing, and it is important to me that Dru be given a fair chance to get used to the game.

I dunno.

Reasons to attend Pritzker? In addition to the more modern medical sciences library, the undergrad library and ‘reading rooms’ look like Hogwarts.

As Jason said, sometimes he expects the paintings to strike up a conversation.

And, the the Great Hall: