Real Life gives me a time out

I've been reading so many great things that I want to comment on, like this and this.

Unfortunately, after 9 straight days of rain, we discovered a few inches of water in our basement, so I've been busy with cleaning up from that. And I have a few other things going on, like school and my two jobs, and figuring out exactly how much in debt I am so I can try to get out of it, and working on a few other painful things that I would much rather avoid, but can't. So I'm going to be quiet for a while, and then I may take November off while I work on my National Novel Writing Month novel, although I may not. I'll probably still comment on other blogs from time to time, but LW will be pretty quiet. I think. Oftentimes as soon as I announce things are going to be quiet around here, all hell breaks loose (hopefully, this time it will involve the words "Rove indicted".)

I gotta go now or I'll miss my bus.

Battered and Bruised

Upper right arm. Lower left arm. Left shoulder. Right thigh. Left wrist. On my back, at the bottom of my ribcase. I've got huge bruises in each of these locations, and I cannot remember doing anything to get them. Maybe I've been sleepwalking.

Margaret Thatcher hates freedom

A friend of mine pointed me to Tina Brown's column about Harriet Miers in the Washington Post, which contained this gem about Margaret Thatcher's opinion of the Iraq debacle (Iraqle?):

The former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Lord Palumbo, who lunched with Mrs. T six months ago, told me recently what she said when he asked her if, given the intelligence at the time, she would have made the decision to invade Iraq. "I was a scientist before I was a politician, Peter," she told him carefully. "And as a scientist I know you need facts, evidence and proof -- and then you check, recheck and check again. The fact was that there were no facts, there was no evidence, and there was no proof. As a politician the most serious decision you can take is to commit your armed services to war from which they may not return."

She must be a pinko commie or sumpin.

Coming Out Day

Today is National Coming Out Day, and since I read about it at Pam's House Blend, I assumed that the guy standing behind me in line for bus passes was celebrating. He was wearing blue jeans and a jean jacket with gay pride buttons and patches all over it.

The credit card machine wasn't moving, so I turned and asked him if he was celebrating Coming Out day. He said, "what?", so I asked him again. He said "I didn't know it was coming out day, I dress like this all the time! Honey," he said, "I've been out since I was 13, and my mom knew long before that."

We chatted for a while longer, and I said something about how I believe in equality for all people, so I hoped that our Civil Union law would become a gay marriage law at some point, except it sounded all pompous and serious, and quite frankly, I'm not happy with how my end of the conversation went, although he was delightful.

I'm a fucking bitch

I was at my SIL's house yesterday, and my brother-in-law, who was also raised Irish Catholic, with a brutal father and a neglectful mother, and he even had to sell crap (did I tell my sock story yet?) - we have a lot in common, my BIL and I - and anyway, he was telling us how it takes a lot of effort to light his fuse, but once lit, it explodes in no time. That is my temper exactly. It takes a lot for me to get angry, but when I do, I am a raging psycho.

Well, today was one of those days. I can't even get into everything that set me off, because I feel slightly foolish about getting so ridiculously pissed off over something that, in retrospect, seems like such a small deal. But I lost my shit today, and I ended up having to apologize to every single person who lives in this house. I am my father's daughter, and I'm not too proud of that.

Better than Big Box Office

You know, I love Serenity, and I hope it does better at the Box Office this weekend, but this is almost the bestest gift I ever could have gotten, and if he actually gets indicted, or {tremble} goes to the pokey, I will not even care if Serenity never comes out on DVD*.

*Not entirely true, but still - Rove going down would be sweet.

Stop reading the comics and this is what happens

I was a devoted reader of the comics page when I was a child. We would get the paper early in the morning, and while we were eating breakfast, I would pull out the designated "entertainment" section of the paper (sometimes known as Entertainment; also seen as Life, Living, and now they've run out of all ideas and just call it by the date), fold open the last two pages, and read every single comic. Even Gil Thorpe and Mary Worth and Apartment 3-G. I even would read the comics that were listed in the Classified section (in my youth, those were Marmaduke, The Family Circus and Ziggy.)

The golden years for me were when the paper ran Bloom County, The Far Side, and Calvin and Hobbes. Even when Berkeley Breathed ended Bloom County, we still got Outland every Sunday.

I stopped reading the comics regularly after Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes and Larson stopped drawing The Far Side. I'd pick them up every now and then, but the love was gone.

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed Monkey reading the comics, and she said "Mom, I don't get this one." I went over to see which one she didn't get, and horror of horrors, it was Mallard Fillmore. Mallard Fucking Fillmore, in my paper. I am outraged, and I immediately sent a letter of protest* to the paper. I haven't received any reply yet.

OTOH, Sio got a letter from Senator Bill Frist yesterday. She wrote to complain about those who are trying to get intelligent design added to the science curriculum. I'll have to share his letter with you guys later, because Sio brought it to school to share with her Bio teacher. Oh, the bullshittery!

*My complaint was not directed toward the political slant of the strip (although clearly I disagree emphatically with that slant), but over the fact that it isn't funny.

If you were wondering

You're probably asking yourself, "Why isn't maurinsky opining on the great topics of the day? Where are her observations on Tom DeLay's indictments? How does she feel about Harriet Miers? When will we know what maurinsky thinks about Judith Miller? Will she ever stop talking about that damn movie?"

I'm here to answer your questions, oh dear reader(s).

Maurinsky is tired, oh so tired. The only night of the work week that isn't booked through December is Friday. She is also burnt out on politics, and does not feel that she has anything to contribute that isn't already being said, and more eloquently, elsewhere.

In addition, Maurinsky's oldest is in college search mode, and we're going to visit several schools over the next few weekends.

And Maurinsky's going to make a promise to you, dear reader(s): this will be the last time she uses third person in a blog post about herself on Laughing Wild.

Congrats, L & L!

Yesterday, my co-worker L took advantage of the new Civil Union law in CT and got herself hitched to her partner of many years. Or, as L my co-worker says, they got "civilized".

Big Damn Movie Review

I've been mulling over Serenity for several days now. I saw the movie at a preview screening in June, and I'm afraid I was still feeling a little too "squee!" at seeing the Big Damn Heroes together on the big screen to analyze the movie at all. I saw it Friday night, and I was so emotional over several of the events that happen in the movie that I couldn't really cast a critical eye. The third time I saw it, I was pulling an Amelie and turning around to see how everyone else in the theater was reacting to the story.

I think I actually need to see the movie a few more times before I can distill my thoughts into a review. It's hard for me to be objective, because I love the characters, I love the ship, I love the whole Firefly 'verse, and while I know they aren't perfect, I'm not ready to criticize yet.

There was a moment towards the end of the movie, where things seemed hopeless. I didn't see actors who might have to play dead - I saw the vulnerable genius/psychic River, terrified when her brother is hit, but finding the strength to take care of him; I saw the mercenary Jayne, a man who, motivated by fear, has made himself tougher and stronger, but realizing that he might be at his Waterloo, resolves to keep fighting; I saw a young doctor suddenly lost without his medical bag, realizing there is no way to retrieve it.

Here we were, watching a movie where the captain of a space ship dresses like an extra on Bonanza. It's a 'verse where there are shotguns, horses, and guns that shoot out a pulse beam that knocks you out without killing you. And it felt so real to me because Joss Whedon knows how to pull me in, and he lucked out and got a bunch of actors together who were perfect, so I wasn't thinking how cute that Sean Maher is, or how hot Nathan Fillion looks when he wakes up (well, maybe for a moment...); I was looking at Captain Malcolm Reynolds, who lost his faith when he was on the losing side of a war that he hasn't really finished fighting yet; I see Dr. Simon Tam, who gave up his life to save his sister's.

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that I'm not ready to be critical yet. I won't promise that this movie is the next Star Wars, because I've never seen Star Wars and I don't want to lie to you. I can't tell you that this is the greatest movie ever made, because there are movies that surpass it artistically, plotwise, actingwise, etc. But I will tell you that the movie is damn good, that it provides tons of action, some very scary moments, some big laughs at just the right times, and if you see the movie, I might even get a sequel, which will let me spend more time with this crew that I love.

Loki's review is here.

A beautiful day

Early fall days in Connecticut don't get much nicer than it was today. 60's, sunny and to top it all off, today was the first day of the Civil Union law. I hope that this will end up being just a first step on the road to full equality for gay couples.

I am a huge geeky dork

You Can't Take The Sky From Me

In slightly less than 12 hours, I will be in the movie theater with my huge geeky dork of a husband, and probably about 100 other borderline insane fanboys and girls, to watch Joss Whedon's Serenity. I'm starting to get twitchy with anticipation, and I've already seen the Big Damn Movie!

Reading, Watching, Listening

Reading

Two days ago, I started reading In Cold Blood, because I wanted to be familiar with it before I check out the movie Capote. I recently read that Capote's goal was two-fold - to write a true crime novel and to argue against the death penalty. I haven't finished the book yet, but thus far, I haven't seen any anti-death penalty proselytizing, although Capote is so deft a writer that perhaps it is subtly implied. His first goal is met masterfully, however.

Up next, I will be reading Adam & Eve's Diary, found and translated by Mark Twain. And Sio is trying to convince me to read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which was the textbook for her AP World History class last year.

Watching

Because of school and choir, and because I canceled most of our cable, I haven't been watching much television. But we signed up for Netflix and I've been re-watching I, Claudius. Loki and I are also gearing up to see Serenity this weekend. He's getting together a group of his college friends to go to a midnight showing on Friday at midnight, we're seeing it with his sister and her husband on Friday evening, and we'll probably see it one more time this coming weekend. Is this entirely insane? I don't think so, I feel so personally invested in the film, and I so want it to do well, because I'm not ready for this to be the last story with these characters.

Listening

I am completely OCD when it comes to music - I listen to the same artist, the same CD, the same song, over and over and over again. Ben Folds Five and Ben Folds' solo CDs have been on constant rotation at my house. I listen to Rufus Wainwright as I surf the web late at night. I recently added a CD of David Bowie songs my sister burned for me. And Monkey likes to hear The Talking Heads when we're in the car (and I'm totally willing to oblige; More Songs About Buildings and Food may be one of my all-time favorite CDs. I'm thinking about getting something by The Decemberists on The Chemist's recommendation. I picked up a Kings of Leon CD, but haven't listened to it yet, and I've still got that Le Tigre CD that I haven't listened to.

So what about you? What are you reading, watching, and/or listening to?

Bush's $3000 Bike

I know, it's a lot of money for a bicycle, but if you look carefully, you'll see it has some key equipment that Bush really needs.

Shorter Tony Blankley

We must destroy America to save America from America's enemies!

Alternative Shorter Tony Blankley:

America's enemies want to destroy her, but they can't if we do it first!

Halfway there

I was just checking over the list of the Top 100 Banned Books, and I've read almost half of them (47 out of 100). Although I don't think you can actually read Sex by Madonna, it's more of a looking at type of book, and yes, of all the books that are on that list, that is the one that most deeply shames me. Well, that and the Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series, which makes me wonder why Monsieur deSade has fallen so out of favor, because everything that was in the Sleeping Beauty books was written by deSade first.

(I'm not even a little bit into BDSM in real life, but I like reading about it sometimes.)

Loki's reached the end of his rope

My husband's outrage-o-meter has reached a new high.

I don't know where Loki is planning to live, though. Me and the girls are registered foreign born nationals of Ireland, so we could live anywhere in Europe (if we aren't pragmatic and don't care whether we have jobs or places to live or food to eat, anyway), but Loki is all American. How does one become an expatriate?

Barbie was right

Math *is* hard.

I only got a 75 on the test, which was disappointing, because I thought I did better. I have a few bones to pick with the teacher. First of all, she only gave partial credit for three questions about what property was demonstrated by the question - because I only wrote commutative or associative or distributive, and didn't include the operation. However, the question asked us for the property, not the operation, so I think I should get full credit for those questions.

Also, it was only by chance I found out that that particular section was worth 12 points. The teacher took one point off each question for not listing the operation, but instead of taking off 3 points, she took off 6 points from my test. I only discovered this when I overheard someone else ask the teacher why she got 6 points for the section when the person who sat next to her, who had the exact same answers, got 9 points.

So I'm going to go to class early on Wednesday and point out that the questions asked for the property only - the problem itself told us the operation. And I'm going to ask that on the next test, we are told how much each question is worth, so we can tell on our own whether it was graded correctly.

That was the post that was

Via Shakespeare's Sister

The name of my 23rd post was Everything's Okay.

The 5th sentence was: Monkey got out of the car to hang with him, but she locked all the doors so no one could take her stuffed animals.

I'm not sure if that is at all representative of the nature of this blog, but there it is.

Instructions:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

Passed on to whomever wants to do it.

A Sunday Sermon on Reason

Go read Driftglass.