Jesus, those poor babies. What the hell is wrong with people?

"Basto called for help, and she and other operators kept ringing Leonardo to keep him awake and help ward off hypothermia. He was able to keep talking to her until rescue teams arrived seven hours later -- with the frigid temperatures acting as natural recharger for his two cell phone batteries."

I should preface this by saying that I have not seen Connie Chung's new show on CNN, nor will I ever watch it. She is a hack, imo, all ego and flash, but without the brains to pull it off. This being my opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the debacle that was the first few days of Connie Chung tonight.

MWAHAHAHAHA

My efforts to take over the world have been thwarted recently by the lack of a reliable Evil Supplier - I mean, how's a girl supposed to rule the world without a decent Polar Ice Cap De-Icer? And it's been hell concocting my Evil Plots from this rinky-dink apartment (not to mention I can't swing a dead secret agent in here without hitting a henchperson, it's so crowded). I could really go for a nice Subterranean Island Base with Optional Volcano Upgrade, or even a simple Budget Lair with Mini-Dome, but how many Evil Realtors are out there? OK, don't answer that question, it was hypothetical.

Well, now all of my evil prayers have been answered and I can fuel my quest for world-domination at Villain Supply, "your best online source for everything EVIL. If you are a supervillain, mad scientist, warlord, dictator, or despot, then this is the place for you." Thank God. Being an Evil SuperVillain is demanding as it is - who needs to worry about where the Evil Tools are going to come from?

Zap2it has an Emmy Shadow Poll up - if you want to get the chance to vote for who you think should win (but probably won't), now's your chance!

Two for the price of one -- a nice story and probably the best headline of the day:

Texans Chip in to Rescue Stranded Chicken-Hypnotist.

"Does the perfect one get off using her glue gun or does she have a sex life? I think we all want to know."

Hilarious Salon column that poses the question we all want the answer to: Does Martha Stewart have a sex life? I actually don't really care, but it was funny anyway.

Salon.com likely to go belly-up. No!

A Google meme, brought to you via davezilla.com...Here are some examples of the results received after typing "Gina is" in Google:

Gina is the self-appointed watchdog, vigilantly guarding the house against her arch-nemesis, Yellowcat
GINA is a flexible, informal and interdisciplinary framework for organizations and their representatives interested in the many different aspects of ageing.
Gina is the coolest person I know
Gina is a World Sieger Eiko vom Kirschental Granddaughter.
Gina is definitely a visual treat.
GINA IS THE BIGGEST F*CKING BITCH EVER!!!!!
GINA is not available to users for free
Gina is intoxicating
GINA is available for $12.95 in California
Gina is a loser
Gina is no run-of-the-mill pageant queen
Gina is a purse
Gina is getting ready to spawn
Gina is the shit
Gina is one of the most well known transsexuals in the world

How about your name?

Site Work

I had some trouble with bad links on my gallery pages when I moved to the new host, and I finally took the time today to work out the problem and update the pages. The Skydiving page, as well as the Vancouver 2000 pages are all set.

Party Time!

I finally got the roll of party pictures developed and digitized for you. There was barely half a roll of pictures, probably because I was more interested in drinking than snapping. Anyhoo, here they are - mouseover the thumbnailed images for a description.

My latest CD purchase (and the first one in a very long time): David Bowie's heathen.

I only had a vague notion of who Bowie was when Let's Dance was released. Which is shameful, considering I was a college student at the time. I made up for that quickly; after buying Let's Dance, I went out and bought every album I could find of his (mostly on cassette). I was amazed by how diverse his musical (and personal) styles were, changing almost with every album. And even I could recognize how innovative, influential and ahead of his time he was. I missed the Let's Dance tour, but caught him in the less well-received (but still amazing) Glass Spider tour, an experience that was only made better by the front row center seats we had. I believe I may still have the styrofoam cup he tossed into the crowd somewhere in a box.

I could have done without Tin Machine, the trio he put together that pounded out hard un-melodic rock - just not my taste, and not what I think he does best. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him in a club setting when Tin Machine came to town. Boy, was that incredible - standing right in front of the little stage, no more than a few feet from the man himself. He could have been up there playing the recorder and practicing pig-calling and I wouldn't have cared.

The next ten years of Bowie music weren't much to my liking, either. As a matter of fact, heathen is the first Bowie CD that I have bought in at least ten years that wasn't a greatest hits compilation. I'm glad I did. With heathen, he returns to the classic Bowie of the late 70s. I've only listened to it once, but what struck me most was the romanticism (I was reminded of the Bowie classic, "Wild is the Wind", a couple of times) and emotion in his voice and the music. If you couldn't already tell, this one gets my recommendation. If you won't take my word for it, maybe these guys can convince you:

"Heathen is the sound of Bowie essentially covering himself -- to splendid, often moving effect. "

But Bowie is also astute enough to realize that rocking out isn't what he does best anymore; he's better off aiming for a middle ground between art song and an intergalactic Tin Pan Alley, and that's where the best parts of ''Heathen'' lie.

I don't know who is more despicable - the scum responsible for "Bumfights", or the dreck who buy it.

(thanks, tvbarn)

Two Towers Trailer



Thanks to TheOneRing.net, you can download the teaser trailer for The Two Towers, the second installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They also have a pretty funny frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer. (scroll down the page). Note: If you've seen the first movie, haven't read the books, and don't want to be spoiled, don't download the trailer or view the frame-by-frame. You've been warned.

"...the paper thongs are strong but uncomfortable."

I don't even want to think about the papercuts.

I had a dream last night that I got braces, something I would certainly benefit from. Weird thing was, my teeth were painted with pink nailpolish as part of the process.

You can add WorldCom to the list of big corporations who are on the front lines in the war on proper accounting procedures. $3.8 billion??

For PayPal users, a scam warning.

Cuties.

"Full moon rises in the night sky above golden domes of the Orthodox Monastery of Caves in Kiev, Ukraine." Beautiful.

Here's a well-written (and funny) article, written on the heels of the "advance in teleportation" made a few days ago in Australia, wherein the author discusses how or whether our future in reality will resemble the future as portrayed in Star Trek.

(thanks, tvtattle.com)

Monday, Monday

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Our summer solstice party was great fun - it was a smaller group than we had anticipated, but I think everyone who came had a great time. There are photos to be developed, and when they are I will be sure to post some here. I hope we got some good ones of the yard - we decorated it with white lights, hanging votives and candles everywhere. I hate to disappoint the voyeurs out there, but there will be no nekkid people in the pictures. You're better off, believe me. ;)

Wait a minute -- is nudity a requirement at a summer solstice party??

OK, I think it's time I started paying attention to soccer.

"When 9-year-old Mary Katherine Smart got up to tell her parents that her sister had been abducted at gunpoint from the room the two girls shared, she saw the man still in the house and returned to her bedroom in fear that gripped her for two hours before she gathered the courage to go for help."

Some of the contradictions in yesterday's report are explained. I still think it's someone Mary Katherine knows.

"Man charged with supermarket foot licking." LOL, that has got to be one of the weirdest things I have ever read.

The investigaiton into the Elizabeth Smart disappearance gets more bizarre every day. Now police are claiming that her little sister was not threatened by the kidnapper, but instead that she feigned sleep the whole time and he never spoke to her. And his physical description has changed. And the little sister claims she saw him in the house a second time that night - when? where? She was roaming around the house but didn't tell her parents until 2 hours after Elizabeth was taken? My gut tells me that whoever took Elizabeth knew her, and her family, well, and that is why the little sister took so long to tell her parents - maybe she wasn't sure she should "tell" on the kidnapper.

Senator John McCain always looks like he's contemplating whose ass he will kick next.

"At times the two Mr. Dunnes seem irreconcilable. He has suffered the worst loss any parent can experience and has dedicated his literary career to avenging other victims. He also hobnobs with the fashion designer Arnold Scaasi and uses dish as a verb."

Dominick Dunne's new Court TV show, "Power, Privilege and Justice" can be seen tonight, and every Wednesday, at 10 P.M. The website says that tonight is the show's premiere, but I caught something this weekend, on Sunday, I think - Dunne and Catherine Crier were dishing the dirt with 4 members of the Skakel jury. The tone was decidedly informal, yet not frivolous. You got the feeling that these people were telling it like it is. Tonight's episode, from the website description:

"In 1976, James Sullivan inherited a multi-million dollar liquor distribution empire from his uncle. Newly rich, he married Atlanta socialite Lita McClinton and the two moved to an ocean front mansion in glamorous Palm Beach. There, Jim was determined to work his way into the town's exclusive high society. But when Lita proved an impediment to his social advance Jim began to carry on numerous affairs. By 1985, Lita could take no more. She returned to Atlanta and filed for divorce. The morning of her divorce hearing, Lita opened the door to a man holding flowers and was shot. Circumstantial evidence pointed to Sullivan as the man behind the murder but, despite several indictments, he was never convicted. For 13 years the case languished until 1998 when police arrested one of the hitmen who in turn accused Sullivan. A murder warrant was issued for Sullivan but when police went to serve it, Sullivan vanished."

registration required for NYTimes article

Federal investigators believe that the Forest Service worker set the Colorado fire intentionally. I had mixed feelings about Ms. Barton last night - if it was truly an accident (the fire started when she walked away from a letter she was burning), should she have to spend most of the rest of her life in jail? But if the feds have evidence that the fire was deliberately set, well...

registration required

In the Thank You For Pointing Out The Obvious category, we have this little item:

"Those supersize portions at fast-food outlets may look like bargains, but they cost Americans billions of dollars in obesity-related illnesses, consumer and health groups said on Tuesday."

Bert and Ernie meet the press to promote their new video, "Word Play".

(thanks, tvbarn.com)

"Beam me one meter to the left, Scotty!"

June Berries



Photographed while being washed in my sink.

We're having a "Summer Solstice" party on Friday, and I've got so much to do to get this place into shape for company. And that doesn't include the decorating, the stringing of the lights...no, just plain old cleaning: the dust-encrusted ceiling fan, the normally neglected top of my refrigerator (tall relatives), the inside of the refrigerator, the dog noseprints on all the apartment windows, you know, the stuff that never gets done unless you have people over to your house who don't normally come to your house. Sheila's doing all of the food shopping tonight, and we'll probably get the booze on Thursday.

As you can see, with our mother having moved out, we wasted no time in throwing a party. I drove over to Rhode Island with her on Saturday, she in her car with Petie and me in the truck with the last of her things. Mary and I managed to get her completely unpacked and settled in before I left to come back to Connecticut that afternoon. I can only vaguely recall the first half of the drive home, since most of that time was spent sobbing like a baby. What a hazard I must have been! Anyway, I felt a terrible guilt, as though I had abandoned her, and I know that's not the case. And it didn't help matters when she sobbed, "I don't want you to go" as she held onto me while we said goodbye and wouldn't let go.

This is a good change, though, for all of us, and while we do miss her and Petie, things are the way they should be.

What type of villain are you?

(thanks, usr/bin/girl)

Come on, give us a smile!

"The old question of how you make spy movies or write spy thrillers after the end of the Cold War has now been replaced by the question of how you make them after Sept. 11. "The Bourne Identity" invokes a different kind of nostalgia: the memory of what it's like to go to a Hollywood movie and be treated with decency."

I was sixteen when Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity was published. It was one of the first "grown-up" novels I had read. I tore through that sucker, I loved it. I'm sort of apprehensive about the new movie, because of the casting of Matt Damon - I like him, but he just doesn't carry the weight of experience that Jason Bourne needs. And he looks like he's twelve. However, after reading this review at Salon, I may have changed my mind.

Daddy



This is a picture of my father taken while we were standing on the beach in front of our cabin last September. We'll be spending today with him down at the club. Hopefully the sun will make an appearance and we can take the boat out for a ride. Otherwise, it's going to be a bit chilly (it's only 52 here!). Have a Happy Father's Day, everyone.

Invisibles

Man, I'm way behind on these. Quick and dirty:

Answers to the last quiz I linked to (76)
Invisibles #77
Answers to #77
Invisibles #78 - Reading is Fundamental
Answers to #78
Invisibles #79

Have fun!

The Gnome Liberation Front (GLF) suffers a setback in Montana, as reported in abcnews.com's Crime Blotter:

M I S S O U L A, Mont. — It looks like it's the end of the line for the Gnome Liberation Front.

After a yearlong string of garden gnome thefts in Missoula police say they've recovered more than a dozen of the small, kitschy statuettes and have identified the culprits.

"We had a Crimestoppers tip come in last week indicating these gnomes were being held in an apartment," says Detective Annie Norby.

Police obtained a search warrant for the residence and found 18 apparently stolen figurines inside.

The gnome-nappers had confessed to authorities, saying the thefts were simply a prank, Norby said.

"The guys were cooperative," she said. Police have not released the suspects' names, since they have not yet been charged. Charges were pending, however, Norby said.

The gnome heists began last summer, with the thieves leaving notes signed by the "Gnome Liberation Front" in many cases. Several of the gnomes later turned up on the lawns of local schools.

Even though the thefts were intended as a harmless prank, Norby said some victims had been distressed.

"I do remember an elderly woman who had a 2 ½-foot-tall figure that was set on fire," she said. "It was actually made by a family member, so there's a lot of sentimental value."

Other victims will be invited to the police station to try to identify their statues in a gnome lineup.

Olaf, a friend of a friend of a friend, was a victim of a "harmless prank", last summer in Vancouver. The GLF never claimed responsibility for the gnome-napping, and the true culprit has never been brought to justice.

Hot geeks in love.

Although I find boxing to be highly objectionable and barbaric, I am sorely tempted to tune in on Saturday night, just so I can see that piece of Trash finally get the ass-kicking that he deserves. Oh dear, that sounded a little barbaric, didn't it?

"Dark Bob", come on down!! Unless you were avid viewers of Truth or Consequences and The Price is Right, like we were, this may not be as funny to you. It had me rolling. And now the Price is Right theme song will be going through my head all day.

(thanks, tvtattle)

Saturns

The 28th Annual Saturn Awards were handed out last night, for achievement in science fiction and fantasy. I'm pleased to announce that a few of my particular favorites were recognized:

Best Supporting Actor: Ian McKellan, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Cinescape’s Face of the Future (Male): James Marsters, Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Best Fantasy Film: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson, Tim Sanders, Fran Walsh producers.
Best Syndicated/Cable TV Series: Farscape
Best Network TV Series: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Best TV Actor: Ben Browder, Farscape
Best Director: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I don't really know how significant these Saturns are, but I do know that Oscar and Emmy have their heads so far up their respective asses that this is about as close to award recognition these guys will see. Congratulations to the winners!

"Ben Affleck? Matt Damon? Johnny Depp? Those guys aren't action stars -- they're pussies! Next up: Moby does Dirty Harry and James Bond goes gay."

Very funny bit of satire on Hollywood's desecration of the role of the action hero. Granted, there aren't many true successors to guys like Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood, etc., out there, but I think they could do better than Affleck and Depp. Like, Hugh Jackman, perhaps?

"A Rift Among Bloggers." And so the bickering continues.

registration required

How could you not love this face?

This woman had a spider living in her ear. It was not a very good housekeeper, though - there were spiderwebs everywhere!

Damn, where did I put those q-tips?

Yay!

Now you'll have to be patient as I implement the design changes throughout the site and verify that all of my hyperlinks are working. Yay!

Can you hear me now?

We're Live!

This will be my last post at this URL. Please go to thisisgina.com from here on in. I will leave this site (pages.cthome.net/dardis) up and running until I am sure that everything has moved in one piece. Here goes nothin'!

Dorothy Moxley finally gets justice for her daughter.

registration required

The Onion strikes again. Hehe.

Farscape Continues

Season 4 begins tonight, at 10:00 P.M. (new time) on the SciFi Channel! Still wondering whether you should bother with the show? Think it's too late to get into it? Read on...

"You're going to have to be confused for a while until you get up to speed. But the journey is worth it because, first, there's something inherently fun about being clueless and mystified but also entertained. And second, the acting and writing is top- notch."

"For the past three years, Sci Fi's ``Farscape'' has been the best science fiction on television: exciting, flashy, often funny and always sexy."

(thanks, tvbarn, for both)

Wonder Twin powers, activate!

Just sprucing things up around here, getting ready for the final move...

"With intense cross-examination Wednesday and again today in San Diego Superior Court, the defense lawyer tried to show that the parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, engaged in such bawdy behavior the night their daughter, Danielle, disappeared that anybody might have abducted the girl and killed her."

registration required

Movin' right along...

I went and did it - signed up for a Geocities Pro account and even got myself my own domain name. How's this for a clever and imaginative URL: www.thisisgina.com. The domain won't be active for about 72 hours, and I still haven't FTP'd the site to the new location, but I'll let you all know when it's time to update your bookmarks.

Most of the improvements that come with this new account/host will be on the backend - much more storage space, higher bandwith, and support for apps that my other host didn't have: php, perl, xml, etc. Not that I can personally write anything using those languages; but I may be able to find ways to improve the user interface with some pre-existing apps that are out there, that I've wanted to use but couldn't because they weren't supported by my host.

I'm hoping the changeover and transfer goes as smoothly as possible; however, I'd like to extend my sincerest apologies - oh, is that what you were extending? - now, just in case. Thanks!

"Last month, in a public appearance to break his silence about the tapes, Mr. Kelly told Black Entertainment Television he had not had sex with a minor and vehemently denied he was the man on the videotape."

Uh, yeah, right - Kelly was married to 15-year-old Aaliyah when he was in his late 20s, yet he has not had sex with a minor. I'm sorry, this guy needs to be locked up.

registration required

Michigan legislature wants to legislate toungue-splitting. First of all - EW. I'm so skeeved right now, I really don't want to talk about it anymore...but I will say I can't believe they're wasting the taxpayer's money on something like that.

Create your own South Park Kid. Here's mine:



I call him Gerald.

(thanks, snarkcake)

the site is in German, but you don't need to speak the language - just click on "body", and you're off!

Flipper is frisky.

My apologies for the lack of posts recently, but real life is impinging on my blog time. The switchover to the new ISP went pretty smoothly, and I'm happy so far with my connect speeds. My ISP is now SBC Yahoo! Dial, which means that I can access my mail via the web, whereas with SNET I was limited just to home access. The change was pretty seamless, too - no increase in my monthly charge, I can continue to pay via my phone bill and my e-mail address didn't change. Now I just have to work on moving this site to Geocities before it's gone!

What's been keeping me busy, though, is preparing my mother for her move. She's been with us for just over 10 months now. She's moving into my sister Mary's place in Rhode Island and we'll be doing the major part of the move on Saturday. Hopefully, she'll be settled in there by the end of next week. At which point, I will get my room back! Ah, privacy.

Hosting Changes

My Internet service is changing, and along with that so will the location of this page. I'm not altogether sure exactly when a switchover will take place, or even what that entails (I just got my new Internet software in the mail today), but if you have trouble in the near future accessing this site, that is why. I'll keep you posted as I know more.

O U C H.

Compassion is forgotten in the pursuit of a story. One of my best friends had something similar happen to her; her mother and brother died under tragic and somewhat sensational circumstances, and the local press was merciless in their attempts to talk to her. Finally, the unthinkable happened: a reporter came to the house, said she was a "friend of Ruthie's" (my friend's mother) in order to get her foot in the door, and proceeded to ask questions when she let her in. That was twenty years ago, but it looks like some things never change.

(thanks, tvbarn)

"His mother found Shawn Woolley's body in a rocking chair in front of his computer. His head was slumped to one side -- still facing a screen of the online game that she says had become his obsession."

"Between 7 pm and 7:40 pm, the National Weather Service issued separate tornado warnings for north-central Fairfield County, southern Litchfield County and northern New Haven County." And we - myself, Sheila, my mother, the two dogs Petie and Marty, and the two cats, Macguyver and Winnie - were all in our cellar, waiting it out. What a sight we must have been, since we live on the second floor and have to go outside in order to get into the cellar. And poor Winnie - she's so ornary, I had to stuff her into a duffel bag, zip it up and run out and downstairs before she figured out how to get out of it (which she almost did!). The storm was pretty fierce, and things were a little scary for about 10 mintues there, but mostly we were just laughing our asses off.

"I don't think either side is that irresponsible to go to that limit," Musharraf told CNN in an exclusive interview. "I would even go to the extent of saying one shouldn't even be discussing these things, because any sane individual cannot even think of going into this unconventional war, whatever the pressures."

Pakistan's President Musharraf assures the world that the current conflict between his country and India will not escalate to full out nuclear war. I feel somewhat reassured. I was reading some of the news stories about this yesterday and I couldn't even write about it, it frightened me so. That level of mass destruction and loss of humanity is beyond my ability to comprehend it. If I think about it too much, I can literally feel the panic begin to settle in, and then my mind just shuts down, a defense mechanism. I think a lot of that is a result of growing up when I did, before the Wall came down and relations between ourselves and the Soviet Union (the only other real nuclear threat at the time) thawed. Now, with the proliferation of nuclear weapon technology wider than ever (and in the hands of countries that are not particular friends of ours), the old fears are starting to awaken.