Full review posted to comixtreme.com.

Story: 4.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

America The Horrible

O radical, for spacious cries,
For amber waves of pain,
For rich speculating majesties
Above the poor and lame!
America! America! God shed His homophobia on thee,
And crown thy rich with hypocrisy, from tax haven to the sea.

O discriminee, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for unlawful beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God showed thine ev’ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self ridicule, thy discrimination in law!

O homophobe, for heroes mocked
In denouncing strife,
Who more than self their country loved
But stabbed with a sharp knife!
America! America! May God thy brains define,
Till all success becomes impossible, and ev’ry law malign!

O horrible, for equality dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine politics as pretty as dog cream
Unimproved by human tears!
America! America! God shed His fallibility on thee,
And make thy poor just poorer, stuck in shit up to the knee!

OK, so why did I write this rather radical post? Two occurences:

#1 Bernie Goldberg appeared on Fox News and tried to smear Liberals/Democrats and tried to explain why Liberals hate Sarah Palin. His brainless hypothesis: “She has 5 kids. Liberals don’t have 5 kids. One of them has down-syndrome. Liberals certainly don’t allow that to happen.” I think Jon Stewart’s response sums it up very well: “Go fuck yourself”, later adding “Eunice Kennedy Shriver [one of nine Kennedy children] founded the Special Olympics because she wanted an organized form where she could mock children with down-syndrome. Of course the Special Olympics is to winners as Fox news is to experts. If you show up, you are one”

watch the entire clip of Stewarts coverage of the Palin hype here.

#2 A 10-year-old child from Arkansas refused to pledge allegiance to the flag of the US. His reasoning? The Pledge of Allegiance states “with liberty and justice for all”. The kid thinks this has not been accomplished yet since homosexuals are still severely discriminated in the US. What happened after that? He got mobbed by his fellow students AND teachers alike. I really do love some Americans and how to oversell their patriotism. If that’s not all some (fortunately not all) posters on a Christian forum picked on him even more. Some excerpts:

“These are the types of kids who grow up to be those ultra-jerky liberals who think they are smarter then everyone else because they can articulate well. The kinds of people who take Michael Moore and Richard Dawkins seriously.”

“Eh, the little punk needs to be slapped.”

“If you can’t pledge allegiance to this country get the heck out of it, or change it.”

I think it’s sad if somebody is mocked for a true statement. And some of these idiots should consider what psychological consequences their mocking might have. But well, criticizing the truth is one of mankind’s favorite activity… I’ve got nothing more to say to this…

Myself, Ryan, Lauren and Vawn went to a craft evening at The Deaf Cat cafe, where we had coffee and hot chocolate. We then to join a load of lovely friends at the pub. Its not often that there are so many people that I like to spend time with in one room! Here are a few photos:

L-R: Steve and Ryan, Lauren, Vawn

L-R: Vawn, Lauren, Brodie, Andy, Steve, Ryan

L-R: Me, Vawn, Brodie, Lauren

L-R: Ryan and me and Vawn, Lauren and Brodie, Brodie and Andy

L-R: Steve and Ryan being happy

We then walked home, and waited half an hour for food in the local kebab shop, which was horrible food, and which made me get out of bed to forcibly remove the food via regurgitation. Not pleasant… never again.

Today I had a session of Wet, on the Xbox, and I am over half way through now. I am also planning the restart of my driving lessons, which should be next week if possible! I cant actually wait to get my license… one less thing to worry about!

Jenn xxx

(enjoying my lovely pint of Fruili!)

P.S Check out the new post on Magnolia Fontaine by Vawn, featuring the lovely jewelry that Lauren has created, along with the work she helps create, working for Stephen Webster. These photos include the lovely baby hamsters that they adopted from me I am so happy they have been included! So cute:

This is a follow-up on the article from yesterday regarding the Toronto Humane Society. Terrible stuff to ever have happen. I wonder why when it happens to animals we seem to care more or feel worse….

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/mummified-cat-found-in-humane-society-ceiling/article1379941/

Investigators have discovered a mummified cat inside a live trap in the ceiling of the Toronto Humane Society.

The discovery was made moments before the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was to give reporters a tour of the River Street shelter.

“That’s dry as a bone, it has to have been there for over a year,” the agent who found the cat said. “Maggots have been there and then have left.”

“I’ve been an investigator for 15 years but that sent a chill right down my spine when I saw that,” said OSPCA officer Kevin Strooband.

“This is unbelievable. I’m still reeling … This is a house of horrors.”

bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh.

i HATE today sooo much. its shit. can’t wait for it to end. can’t beleive I’m ILL! like, propper, sick up ill. and im soooo bored.

and as if it couldn’t get any worster, my laptops speakers have gone weirdo on me. its not fair. if i say it enough times maybe things will sort themselves out.

I had two nightmares last night, I think thats what I’m gonna blame all this shit on. the first was, i was mega huge ass saggy man boobs fat. it was horrible, i didnt even have a chin. bleh. nad the second was I was being chased through a field by a flying sheet that kept sing ”baa baa fat kid, I will eats you  now!”

So I didnt exactly sleep very well. :’(

cant wait to get my new ipod tomorrow! ahhhh im actually gonna be devestated if it doesnt come!!! please come please come please come!

wow, just got a notification that I have an email from homebase notifying me that they are currently have a sale. BLEH to that maties, I’m sick.

I plan on having a three post day today, so watch this space. or dont, im sure you actually have a life! Xx

I was with Chris in our local shopping centre. We were meeting up with his mom because we had said we’d look after his little brother for the day. He seemed really happy to see us but Chris’ mom didn’t look well. She looked like she was quite ill. We brought Chris’ little brother into a big department store where everyone liked to hang out.

Chris had to go to the toilet so it was just me and his little brother. But then he said he needed to go to the toilet too. He ran off to the bathrooms and I realised I shouldn’t just wait for him to come back, I should wait outside the toilets. I legged it up to the toilets like it was an emergency or something and I was out of breath when I got there.

I met a girl who I used to go to school with but we’d had a fight and hadn’t spoken in years. She was wearing our uniform from work so I asked her had she gotten a job in the cinema. She started going on and on about it and how much she loved it and how great it was that we’d be working together and so on. I couldn’t get away from her but when I finally did, both Chris’ brother was back from the toilet and hadn’t noticed me standing outside.

This is where it gets kind of disturbing. I went to join Chris’ brother back in the main part of the shop. He was sitting on the ground with his arms around his knees looking really really scared. It was clear something had happened but I didn’t know what. I ran up to him and when I reached him I found out that these guys who were sitting behind him had poured something on him, like oil but I’m not sure what exactly it was. I picked him up and held him in my arms while absolutely screaming at the guys. Chris came up at this point and told me to leave them as cleaning up his brother was the priority. I knew he was right so we took him back to the bathrooms.

The dream skips a bit then because the next bit has me meeting Chris on his break from work. It looked more like McDonald’s than a cinema though. I had bought chocolate nuggets (and spent ages picking them out) to share with him on his break. Our manager and another worker were standing beside us though so I offered some chocolate to them. Chris made a face at me as if to say I was sucking up to the manager so I stuck my tongue out at him. Our manager took some chocolate but the other woman said she had gone off chocolate ever since she had gotten a bad box of it one Christmas. I think that was the end of it.

I was so frightened for Chris’ brother, I woke up feeling horrible. I guess even though it was just a dream I felt responsible for it.

Dreamer xxx

(Please for the love of all that is holy and delicious, do NOT skip the text & scroll directly to the photos.  It’s so much funnier if you understand where I’m coming from)

Y’all know I’m a good baker.  My cheesecakes never crack; my breads always have a lovely brown crust and airy, perfect center; I can bake 96 snickerdoodles in an evening without breaking a sweat.

HOWEVER (there’s always a however), nobody’s perfect.

Boy-oh-boy, am I ever imperfect.

A co-worker has a birthday is this week.  For each co-worker’s birthday, I bake him or her their favorite item – now that everyone’s gotten a pretty fair idea of my repertoire, I’m getting some special requests.  “I love your chocolate chip cookies, Kate.”  “That coffee cake you brought a few weeks ago was great!”  This guy, though, threw me a curveball:  “I want a turtle cake!”

So I thought about what that might entail, I looked around online for some ideas and inspiration, and last night I took to the kitchen to create a delicious turtle cake.

My vision:  chocolate cake (Johnson family recipe), fudgy chocolate frosting, caramel and pecans drizzled atop.  A veritable vision of gooey deliciousness.

It was doomed from the start.  My cakes didn’t come cleanly out of the pans.  The fudgy frosting (Paula Deen’s recipe) was a total bust; neither fudgy nor frosting-y.  I used the wrong plate (amateur mistake; I should know better!), one that was tapered toward the center rather than flat at the bottom.  Just about the only thing that went *right* was the caramel topping (caramels + butter + sweetened condensed milk) with a cup of finely chopped hand-picked pecans from Grandma’s property stirred in.

But still I pressed onward, to the point of full assembly.  And when it was done I stood back, took a good look at it, and bellowed…

“JEFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He ran into the room, came to a full stop, and…laughed hysterically.  It’s just that bad.

Don’t believe me?  See for yourself (Keepin’ it real, yo.):

No, I’m not kidding.  I really wish I was.  I really, REALLY wish I could say “ah-ha! Just kidding!  Here is the real cake!” and unveil a masterpiece of epic proportions.  But I can’t.  That’s it.

Shall we have another angle?

Danger!  Mudslide ahead!  Or, if you squint, Danger! Big Mac ahead!

Despite Jeff’s insistence (though his tears of laughter) that I should take it to work anyway, I just can’t.  I CAN’T.  No one deserves this for their birthday.  Not my worst enemy, and certainly not a co-worker who I feel neutral-leaning-to-friendly towards.

My in-laws are about to be the proud recipients of the ugliest, delicious-est cake in the history of ugly delicious cakes.  Lucky them.

And me?  I’m going to try again after Thanksgiving.  Think I should tweak things a bit for next time?

I recommend bookmarking this post for the next time you need a good, deep belly laugh.  I know I’m sure going to.

PS>This morning I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip muffins with streusel topping and brought those in instead, then showed my co-workers a picture of what I almost brought them.  We all laughed heartily, and I cried a bit inside.

Whenever my leg/foot swells up like last night, the veins pop out in my foot. Yuck. Anybody know why? Is it from the pressure of the swelling?

This is not to be confused with when my foot turns purple. That happens to all my toes and the toe half of my foot. I think it looks kinda cool, and best of all…it DOESN”T hurt to be cold and purple

My upper leg gets veins popping out, too, from swelling. The dent hurts REALLY bad It stings and has sharp pains. Luc kept telling me I had to go to the ER and he was taking me. I told him I’m too big to forcibly move! The fluorescent lights in the ER make me so sick that I have to be feeling like I’m going to die before willingly going.

Perhaps later I will take one of my Vicodins. Tears keep sneaking out because it hurts so much I can feel every muscle in my body tensed up. What a wimp…

Still having gut distress. At this point docs could do a colonoscopy without bothering to clean me out first. Ugh. It HAS to be the Clindamycin.

My leg looks even worse than this Just in the last hour it started swelling up. The dent is a cavern. There are new big lumps and bumps. It itches like crazy. I’m breaking into hives again. I burst into tears and want to hide. I do not want to go back to the ER. The very first time I ever had a real DVT clot in my leg was Thanksgiving day 1984.

My leg hurts really bad….and more by the second. I just got up. My leg is hot and swollen tight all the way up my leg. I moved to the bed and am lying flat. Geeeeeeeeze…it hurts

If I close my eyes will it all go away?

Three days of being miserably sick – three books. The first of which was The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

The book follows three principal point of view characters, plus a slew of minor characters in the second half. Let’s get the important part out of the way first: None of them are likeable.

There’s Captain Jezal dan Luthar, an egocentric little prick whose only reason for falling in love seems to be that the lady in question is “damn fine looking” – it certainly isn’t her personality, take that from me. There’s Inquisitor Sand Glotka, a cripple who hates everybody and their mum and, judging by his name, seems to be the child of Portuguese and Dutch immigrants (kidding, but: the names in the book enraged me with their wanton inconsistency). And then there’s Logen Ninefingers, the only one of the sorry lot that seems to be even remotely likeable, although he is thick as a brick, which doesn’t go far towards endearing him to me.

Supporting characters include Ferro Maljin, an escaped slave woman whose only goal in life is killing and spitting in the face of every other living being on this planet, including her allies. Major Colleem West, who will trick you into thinking that he’s likeable until you find out that he is just as uncaring and egocentric as his buddy Jezal. And Dogman, who doesn’t seem to have a proper name and enjoys pissing himself…

In short, an endearing lot.

The book isn’t helped by being the first part of a trilogy, the part where everything gets rolling. It consists of long, detailed (I’m not using that as a compliment here) descriptions of how our characters become part of the team and what they have to endure to get to the eventual starting point of their mission. One very brief scene tells us a little bit about the larger picture, but since that scene is (no doubt deliberately) written as a conversation between two high mages that already know everything, it might as well be written in Swahili. The rest is mediocre jokes, unending fight scenes and a love story so horrible that you want to tear your eyes out.

Don’t. Read. Trust me.

4th Quater 09 must be the time for horrible album covers.  Adam Lambert knows better than this. Doesn’t he? Is this The Culture Club revisited?

Check out the foolery Adam pulled last night at the AMA’s during his performance. Picture after the break.

Need we say anything else?

Many of you probably watched the AMAs (American Music Awards) last night but there were plenty of offenses last night that stuck out to me.  Lets start with the biggest fail of the night and that being Adam Lambert’s performance of “For Your Entertainment”.  Now I never heard the song until last night and I’m sure it sounds great on the radio, but his performance was god awful.  He shoved faces in his crotch area and kissed the keyboardist as though he’s into girls like that….or maybe that was a guy, to which would explain why he was into that.  Anyways, here’s the performance.

Next up is my two favorite entertainers, Shakira and J LO.  First, Shakira couldn’t catch a break as she arrived on the red carpet wearing the same dress J LO wore recently.  This isn’t the first time it happened as she was also wearing the same dress as Pink during the VMAs.  I demand a firing of her stylist.  Also, I wasn’t impressed by her performance.  She looked cute though, it’s not cool to be wearing stuff other celebs rocked,

Then, J Lo fell on her ass during the performance.  That’s what she get for stepping all over her dancers’ backs.  I knew, since I listened to the song off-rip, that I didn’t like the song but I thought it’d be a good performance and you know, it wasn’t that bad til she fell, but at least she got up like a pro.  Considering how big her ass is, I highly doubt she was hurt.  Here’s the video,

There there was Whitney Houston, crack really killed her voice.  I won’t even bore you with a video, just Google it.  Then Jay Z came on stage with some cornball 1990s comeback line saying “men lie, women lie but numbers don’t”, I gave that a *side eye*, supposedly a rip at 50 cent but he’s also irrelevant, so whatever.

Next, some unknown country group that Talyor Swift brought on tour beat out Lady Gaga for some award voted on by the fans, proving that Lady Gaga fans aren’t as obsessive as they appear to be, seriously, they were too “cool” to send in a text message to vote for her.  Another failure was the Timberland performance with Nelly Fortado and some girl named Soshy both of which I didn’t recognize at first.  Timberland looked exahusted after the performance and I had no idea what was going on in this song but whatever here’s the performance,

On to the things that went right.  I’m not fan of Gaga but I love her song Bad Romance.  She had a weird performance and even though I put it under weird, and overly dramatic with breaking the glass and some weird bird dance she was doing, she at least sang the song good enough,

Rihanna had a great performance, check it out, just happy she didn’t blind anyone when pointing lazers towards the audience,

Also the Jay Z/Alicia Keys song “New York” performance was good, as well as Alicia Key’s separate performance, though her background dancer looked like he was trying to battle dance with her.  Another big thing was that security around the stage must have been good.  No interruptions from Lil Mama or Kanye West…MTV could learn a thing or two about security.  The artists not in this post, I either didn’t watch or thought they did their usual thing.  Ok, now I’m for real this time, see you after Thanksgiving

Would you like to know where the value of a teacup that Lincoln himself could have drank from lies?

Less than five dollars on eBay.

That’s why I’m not listing anything there anymore.

This week the Lions actually won another game! They played against the only team in the league that is worse than them but a win is a win. A lot of fans believe that it is between these two teams receiving the number one draft pick in next years draft. Usually we want to get that pick, but with the amount of money paid to that pick, the Lions DO NOT WANT THAT PICK. Today may have secured the Cleveland Browns that pick along with the financial burden it comes with. We may not win another game this season, but we won the most important game for us today. Down 24-3 at one point the game was highly entertaining, with the Lions making a comeback to win 38-37.

Oh my god this book was so incredibly bad I want to kill myself.

::wailing like Nancy Kerrigan:: Whyyyyyy? Whyyyyyyy? How did it all go so wrong? How can this happen? Why do terrible books happen to great characters?

Oh sweet chocolate Jesus. Ugh.

Okay. So. Sigh. Let’s do this.

When we last left our heroes, Constance had overrun this series and it was all suddenly about her. She killed Pendergast’s evil little brother Diogenes by throwing him into a volcano, then revealed in the last line that she was pregnant with his that-was-kind-of-rape baby.

Yeah.

So then, this one starts off with Pendergast and that damn fucking Constance going to hang out with some Tibetan monks Pendergast somehow knows. It’s been an indeterminate amount of time since “Book of the Dead,” and they hang out with the monks for an indeterminate amount of time, and then the head monk is like, “Dude, Pendergast, someone stole our ancient artifact that can destroy the world. Mind getting that back?” And because he’s a bad ass he’s like, “Yeah, sounds fun.” So he takes off, determines in about 20 pages that the artifact for some reason has to be on this massive cruise ship, which is about to make its maiden voyage, and he and that stupid cunt Constance get on the ship and take off.

Naturally, all hell breaks loose. It’s kind of like “Speed 2″ but Sandra Bullock is not there. I guess, in hindsight, I could say she was the evil captain. We’ll go with that. Some people die horrifically, the captain goes crazy and hijacks the ship, everyone’s going to die, blah blah blah. Despite there being four thousand people on board, Pendergast immediately narrows the list of suspects down to three and far too easily hunts down the guy with the artifact. The book reaches new heights of mind-fuckery with the evil artifact, which turns out to be some sort of wicked mandala, that takes over the mind of everyone who looks at it.
Pendergast catches a glimpse of it, does some of his weird Jedi mind trick stuff (bizzaro!Pendergast was a total disappoinment), some smoke demon thing saves the day, and they return the wicked mandala back to the monks.

Oh, yeah, and Constance’s kind-of-rape baby is the reincarnation of a Tibetan rinpoche.

::resumes wailing:: WHYYYYYYYYYYYY????????

Oh dear god. Why. How could this have happened? This series used to be good! There is nothing good here. There is only badness.

I’m not sure where to start. How about Constance? I love to kick that cunt around. As you may have noticed in my other reviews, I do not care for Constance Greene. She is an unnecessary Mary Sue character who has hijacked the series from its rightful star. There’s even a passage near the beginning of the book that sums it up, let me find it here, ok here we go, on page 76. This one stupid character we get is describin meeting Pendergast for the first time and he goes into all the usual descriptions about the blond hair, pale eyes, albino skin, yada yada yada, then he says: “But even more striking than Pendergast was his so-called ward, Constance.”

No no no. See look here now. Pendergast is awesome enough. He’s freakin’ fantastic. And now we have some stupid woman character who’s better than Pendergast in all ways. She speaks more langauges. She’s far more beautiful. She is captivating. Her voice is like heavenly angels. All of the other characters fall to her feet at the mere sight of her, worship her, talk about how wonderful and striking and perfect she is. My god, it’s so boring.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

We don’t need her. We really don’t. Pendergast is plenty for everyone. We don’t need anyone else. Certainly not Constance.

Oh, oh, and so they’re with the monks, and she of course immediately takes to all the stupid mind tricks and meditation shit, much faster than Pendergast ever did, because she’s just oh so much better. And of course the monks are like, “Look, we have this drawing of a woman who looks like you and its name is Tara Green and her trait is constancy, clearly you are her reincarnation.”

WHY? Why must Constance be some special Tibetan thing? God! It’s unnecessary! We don’t need that kind of shit!

Oh, oh, and don’t start me on the rape baby. Give me a break! The baby, the frigging baby, is the next lama? ARE YOU SHITTING ME? This is fucking crazy! Why must Constance be this important? Why do people find her interesting? If Child and Preston wanted to write the Constance Show, why couldn’t they start a new series all for her and leave my man alone???

So now, what, is it going to be about this frigging baby? Jesus! I had hoped she aborted the damn thing. They lead off about that. At one point near the beginning Pendergast is like, “Um, so, how was the clinic visit?” And she totally bites his head off.”DON’T EVER ASK ME ABOUT THAT RAGRGH!”

Constance you freaking bitch. You march in here, you take over the series, you have some sort of lama baby, you kill his brother, then you fucking yell at him?She spent half this book being a bitch to him. How fucking dare you be so freakin’ condescending. HE IS BETTER THAN YOU.

Oh, oh, and like, how does this time line work out, exactly? So in the last book, she’s been pregnant for a little while, long enough to know that she’s pregnant. Then in this book, we have something like six weeks vanish while they hang out wiht the monks, and then we have no idea how much time passed between books. So shouldn’t she be showing or having morning sickness or something? You put this pregnant chick on a boat in the ocean and she never pukes? I just don’t believe it. But that’s Constance!

But Constance aside. She is not the sole reason to hate this book, although she is a very good reason to hate it.

It’s just very lazily done. My god. The plot was so shitty. It was so much simpler than their other books, and it glossed over lots of details to get to the meat, which was mostly the ship sinking. I don’t really know how to describe it. It’s like how I said earlier, how Pendergast just rushes through figuring out who stole he damn thing, which should have made up the bulk of the plot, but instead is immediately determined in like 100 pages and then is dull for the remainder. Why didn’t that get embellished more? So boring. I felt like the plot was too straightforward, there weren’t enough subplots, and what we had just didn’t make sense. Who killed all those people, and why? Who stole the artifact in the first place, exactly? Where did this smoke demon thing come from? Why does it save everything at the last second?

It was just terrible. Terrible. I can’t explain it. The writing was bad, the plotting was bad, even the description was bad. And usually these guys are so good at that.

Oh, oh, there was even one part near the end, when the captain goes nuts and sets the ship at full speed to some rocks, where they hit something and the rudder snaps off. Rudder steers the ship, right? Ok, so then like 10 pages later, THE SHIP TURNS. Um, how exactly did that happen if there is no fucking rudder? You guys are so damn lazy. Reread your work, pricks!

The new characters we get are so boring. I don’t care about any of them. I don’t care about the security captain, or the commodore, or this old naval guy who’s trying to help people, or the maids, or anybody else. No one struck me as worth caring about. As you might expect, that made the reading…well, painful, to be honest.

The only part I enjoyed was when Pendergast was fleecing the casino, counting cards and fucking up this group of counters who were taking the casino for millions. Ha. That was hilarious. And incredibly hot. But then he kept the money instead of turning it over, and that was so out of character. Um, the man is rolling in snake oil money, folks. He doesn’t need your lousy 300k pounds, okay? Stupid British people. That was so uncharacteristic, and that was before he saw the mandala, much earlier in the book. So there’s no excuse for that. My god.

But yeah, counting cards is sexy.

Also, the authors do a good job of capturing mob mentality, but that’s pretty much standard by now. Still fun to read and imagine, but not enough to carry this brick.

Sigh. Remember when this was a good series? I’ll have to cling to the good times. Like in “Relic” where he shoots the beast in the eye and saves Margo and a room full of nerds. Or in “Reliquary,” when he and D’Agosta hang out with the homeless in underground New York. (Oh Vinny, I missed you so much in this novel). Ooh, ooh, and in “Cabinet of Curiosities,” where he cauterizes his own spleen. ::orgasms:: Oh, oh, and pretty much all of Brimstone, where he and D’Agosta are shagging like rabbits (in my mind). He was soooo awesome in those books, and now….

Now it’s all about Constance.

I hate you so much, Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. I hate how you trainwrecked a wonderful thing you had going. I hate how you created this fantastic character I am head over heels for and then you do this shit to him, shit he doesn’t deserve. How could you do this to me? How could you make me love him, and then do this to him? Man. How could this have happened? How can it go so wrong? I loved him! He was mine and I loved him! And now…now….

Constance.

Heinous. Absolutely heinous. I wish this had never happened. And I wish I didn’t have to read “Cemetery Dance.” Oh, I will. I’ll get to it. But I need a couple months to cool off and forget just how bad this series has gotten. Can it possibly be saved? This reader doesn’t think so.

::weeps and resumes Nancy Kerrigan crying::

76/76

From Monday I am gonna start my Club Penguin world trip! I will be taking some snapshots and I will put them in my scrapbook. I will be waddling round any random server and take a pic of anything that seems intresting. I will also take a photo of some penguin friends and just explore the wonderful place!

I will not forget to share some of the amazing photos I’ll take and you might catch me! You are all welcome to take a picture with me!!! Here are all the info you need to catch me.

Name: Esmeralda718

Wig: The Blonde Sidetied

Status: Member

Good Luck finding me!!

Anyway, I just uploaded my first vid in Youtube! My singing voice is just horrible, squeaky…. I don’t think I am ever gonna make it as a singer. Here it is:

Is the microphone rubbish or is it just me who spoiled the song. Say it is rubbish. Say it. Say it!!!!! I can’t think of a bad enough word to describe it. You can sing along if you want. Here are the lyrics.

                                            ~ Alison ~

I remember, as a child, watching VHS tapes of the original three Star Wars movies. I remember the magic, the wonder, and the depth that was present in that triple masterpiece. There’s no small wonder that the Star Wars saga has inspired more fanfiction, sold more merchandise, and produced more spinoff material than any other creative work in history.

It is due to the saga’s magic, then, that it is subject to such tortures today.

It began with the ‘earlier’ three Star Wars movies: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. These three seemed wrong to me in some way, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I simply shrugged, appreciated the wonderful CG effects, and resolved that it was due to seeing the first three movies at such a formative age that this uneasy knot twisted in my gut as I watched Anakin, the plucky hero, deliver trite lines and hit on a girl easily ten years his senior.

Then things got bad. The first taste I got was Star Wars: Battlefront. This video game was great, in terms of video games of its time. I remember many, many wonderful hours spent sniping my brother’s big droid head as he whined and punched me in the shoulder. Battlefront was a great video game, but I could taste a distinct change in the feel of the saga, if that was how you could say it.

The first three movies had been gritty, real things. The robots fell apart and made wisecracks, the heroes often depended upon the support of others and luck to succeed, and most importantly, they failed. This was replaced by a shining, clean, antiseptic Disney world perfectly suited to wide-eyed children with a sweet tooth for CG graphics and storylines as deep as a rain puddle.

The characters in the first three movies tried hard, they didn’t always cut it, and death was a very real part of the story. Obi-Wan dies because he cannot rejoin the group as they escape the Death Star, Luke loses his hand in a duel with Vader that ultimately reduces him to tears, and even Vader himself dies in the end of the movie after it is revealed that he is the hero. These movies were about lost causes, hope, struggle and redemption found for someone who seemed to be far beyond human feeling.

Contrast this with the most recent three, a whitewashed and generic action-smash-up trilogy that adopts only as much Star Wars as is necessary to keep the name. Death is even more common in these three than in the first movies, but it does so with such shocking blandness that they might as well be cardboard cutouts falling down. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Maul, Jango Fett, then (with a shockingly casual swish) Count Dooku, General Grievous, Mace Windu and all but a handful of the Jedi in the galaxy. Many of these characters are killed in the same movie in which they are introduced, and aside from those required by the first three’s plotline there are no thematic additions.

Anyone who still contends that George Lucas did not steal the first three movies has a staggering truckload of horrible screenwriting and ‘vision’ by Lucas to explain away, and things only get more difficult when you move into The Clone Wars.

An atrocious and hackneyed caricature of Star Wars, the science is almost completely nonexistent in favor of dramatic muscle-flexing and badassery. Even Yoda, once a wise and somber character, cannot be allowed to die a peaceful death. Instead he is resurrected as a calm-but-badass Jedi who plays games with diplomats and kills without hesitation. I have to wonder if he would ever refuse a double-dare.

In short, Star Wars is begging for death. Any geek with respect for plot, depth and screenplay will simply deny that anything after Return of the Jedi is canon.

Vous croyez que ceux qui passent leur Jour de l’An sur une île au soleil ont de la chance? Bon d’accord, un peu quand même, mais en reconsidérant bien la situation, ils auront plus l’air con qu’autre chose lorsqu’ils reviendront avec leur bronzage super abusé en plein hiver. Et si vous en doutez, faites un tour sur l’excellent blog “Pale is the new Tan“, qui répertorie les meilleurs teints hâlés de la toile. Du bronzage catastrophique au fond de teint appliqué au tractopelle, vous ne trouverez plus jamais que c’est fashion d’être le seul à avoir la peau cramée. Même si vous vous appelez Valentino.

Via

My days and nights are all mixed up. I went to bed about 6 this morning and woke up at noon because someone was at my door. Then soon after, my health aide came to help. Not long after she left, the mechanic drove my van here and I drove him back to his shop. Next…to the food shelf. Two guys from my church were there and they followed me home and brought my food in for me!

Mary Lou found me outside, then Beth and Luc came to visit. It was dark out by the time I got to sit down at the computer and try to catch up with things.

This is a new one….not only are my knees swollen, but the side bumps from the inside of my knees swelled up bigger than I have ever seen them. When I walk, they bump together. Owies! Creepy skin and arthritis pain together My neck does not hold up right and the hump on my back is extra swollen and sore. My neck lymphs are swollen, my tongue is swollen. My shoulders are AWFUL!

I have a couple of lab slips for blood tests. The doc is doing CRP and SED rate since I asked him to. He misunderstood WHY I wanted them and wrote it was for myasthenia gravis. It’s for MCTD….mixed connective tissue disease. I think he forgot I have that. My guess is the results will be wicked high. Ouch. IVIg….I long for your healing swirl of plasma!

Although the longest losing streak in franchise history is finally over, the banged-up Carolina Hurricanes still have plenty of problems entering Tuesday night’s visit to Montreal.

The Canadiens, however, are also struggling as they try to snap a three-game home losing streak and beat the Hurricanes in regulation at Bell Centre for the first time in nearly six years.

After Carolina (3-12-4) dropped 14 straight games during a 0-10-4 stretch that lasted more than a month, the team’s first victory since Oct. 9 certainly didn’t come easily.

The Hurricanes led Minnesota 4-1 on Sunday night before the Wild scored three goals, but Jussi Jokinen tallied the only goal in the shootout to give Carolina a 5-4 win.

“It has been such a long time, it’s relief more than anything,” winger Ray Whitney told the Hurricanes’ official Web site. “You still scratch your head as to why we gave up a three-goal lead but in the end we’ll take what we got.”

The club, already playing without top forward Eric Staal and stalwart goaltender Cam Ward due to injuries, had a few other players added to the injury list from the victory.

While defenseman Aaron Ward was scratched for the game with a lower-body injury, three other players – Joni Pitkanen, Scott Walker and Stephane Yelle – left with undisclosed injuries.

The Hurricanes are already having trouble replacing Cam Ward, who is out for several weeks after his leg was cut by a skate Nov. 7 at Columbus. While Manny Legace started and lost the first two games after the team acquired him in the wake of Ward’s injury, backup Michael Leighton earned the victory Sunday despite allowing four goals on 32 shots.

“I just told (assistant coach Tom) Barrasso that I don’t know what’s going on but all I want is a chance to play,” Leighton said. “He said, ‘You’ll get your chance,’ and tonight was my chance and I took advantage of it with a win. We’ve got to get back into this thing because we’re pretty far behind.”

Montreal (9-11-0) is also fading in the standings thanks to a 3-6-0 mark in its last nine games, a stretch that includes just one regulation win.

The team is attempting to bounce back from perhaps its worst effort of the season in a 2-0 loss at Nashville on Saturday night. The Canadiens were outshot 55-20 in the game, with goalie Carey Price tying a franchise record with 53 saves.

“He performed well, there is no doubt,” coach Jacques Martin said of Price. “It’s unfortunate that his teammates didn’t take advantage of a performance like that.”

The struggles were nothing new for Montreal’s offense, which was also blanked in a 1-0 home loss to Calgary last Tuesday after a 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Nov. 7. The Canadiens are 0-3-0 at home in November after winning their last five at Bell Centre in the previous month.

The Hurricanes are 7-0-1 at Montreal since the NHL lockout, and they haven’t lost at Bell Centre in regulation since a 3-1 defeat on Dec. 6, 2003.

The Canadiens probably won’t have an easier time scoring goals if winger Brian Gionta remains out for any length of time. The newcomer, tied for the team lead with eight goals, missed his first game of the season with a lower-body injury Saturday.

Ron – Real not a one-man teamDaniel Sedin to practise with Canucks Sunday

This happened today. It will be properly accounted for at a later time. I am sick and tired.

Good night November 16.

That’s it. I’m going to have to start my own postcard publishing company.
I threw these together for a photo class I’m taking…

Today started out horrible. I woke up with 15 minutes to get ready. I had a shower last night (thank god) so I didn’t need one, but still, Im scared I’m forgetting something for school. I have to leave in 5 minutes (8:03AM).

The day will get better. I’m not gonna let this bad start ruin my day.