This has a Geek Quotient of staggering proportions, but it had me chuckling.

50 Reasons Why The Lord of The Rings Sucks.

(thanks theonering.net) (expect a pop-up ad)

Baseball players and owners avert an impending strike and save their greedy little asses from an expected fan revolt.

"Fortnum and Mason is looking for a chocolate buyer to travel the world, taste as much chocolate as possible and select only the best for its discerning customers." I think I found my next job.

Back and Rambling

What's today? Wednesday? Jesus, I was thinking all morning that it was Tuesday.

Got back from our camping trip mid-Monday, and it pretty much took me until this morning to recover. Sucks getting old. Last night was my first good night's sleep since before the weekend, and it worked wonders.

It was a great weekend and I will post pictures from the trip as soon as I get them developed. It was the first camping trip for the kids, and they loved every minute of it. Especially the dirt part. Our site was covered in what I wouldn't really categorize as sand, but more like ash. It absolutely coated anything it came into contact with. I haven't been that filthy in years.

We had very little wildlife interaction. The only encounter was with a skunk who was moseying around the perimeter of our site late one night. We apparently weren't all that interesting to him, so he just wandered off into the woods. There was an animal who had a bit more success - we suspect a squirrel - with looting our site. We came back from an outing to find an empty Hostess Donuts box on the ground. I half expected to spy a squirrel with a tell-tale powdered sugar mustache.

Holly and Krys turned me on to Geocaching and Letterboxing this weekend - we hunted down a cache and a letterbox in the vicinity of the campground. Lots of fun. And a great way to get some exercise. If I owned a GPS I would probably be out there right now, on the hunt. Maybe I can borrow my father's, now that his boat is out of commission...

Anyway, good to back. Sort of. Money worries have me a little bit on edge, so to speak, but I think things will start to fall into place soon enough.

A nice trip to the forest.

I'll be away until Monday. Going camping in Rhode Island with Mary, the kids, Holly and Krys. Have a good weekend!

Words escape me.

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest and Astronomically Stupid. LOLOL

(thanks davezilla)

Robert Patrick will star in a new fX series, "Snitch." With a writer from "The Sopranos" and a director from "Six Feet Under", this show has quite the pedigree already. Hey, is R. W. Goodwin the same Bob Goodwin who was a producer on "The X-Files" for the first 5 seasons? Small world.

The 2002 TeeVee Awards. I don't watch most of the shows they recognize ("C.S.I.", "Alias"), but the awards are still fun to read. And Sarah Michelle Gellar get to split the Best Hour Actress prize. The awards include Best New Show, Best Hour Actress, Worst Hour Show, Worst Actresses, with more to come as the days go by.

Hey, I just found out that tomorrow night is the "summer season finale" of Farscape. According to Sci-Fi:

Watch the Season 4 summer finale of Farscape this SCI FI FRIDAY, August 23, at 10:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. ET/PT, after a new episode of Stargate SG-1. Brace yourself, because this summer finale is a shocker! Then mark your calendar: New episodes of Farscape will return in January of 2003!

January?? Frell!

I discover the very funny (and painfully true) Why They Hate Us weblog the week they decide to shut down. You know me, a woman with her finger on the pulse of the web.

This guy oughta put a smile on your face.

"It's like someone has taken my heart away." Poor Ozzy.

Finally

I broke down last night and sent copies of some vacation photos to many of you. Life being the way it is, I fixed the problem with the script on my photo page this morning. You can find photos from my most recent trip to Maine here, which includes some that did not go out in an e-mail. Enjoy!

PS There will probably be more at a later date, when I finally get around to developing my film

Fox will air all 24 episodes of "24" on Sunday, September 1 (Labor Day weekend). The marathon actually begins at midnight on Saturday, August 31. Sleep? Who needs to sleep?

A well-thought-out response from Slayernews.com to the persistent characterization of Tara's death on "Buffy" as homophobic and irresponsible. When articles began springing up about this on the Internet, I was frankly surprised. Granted, I speak from a heterosexual point of view, but I consider myself a fair- and open-minded person. In my opinion, Tara's death was good drama, plain and simple. Sad, yes, but expected in the Buffyverse, where no one is allowed to stay happy for very long.

(thanks, slayage.com)

"They Needed a Study for This?"

To make up for that nasty finger business, here's a remarkable AP photo of tall ships off of Portsmouth. Like a painting.

So, where the hell was I all weekend? Right here, but neglecting my site. I've been embroiled in an XPA Clue game, so watching old XF episodes has taken a lot of my time. I've also been job-hunting, a tedious process that leaves me averse to any sort of computer-use afterwards.

I scanned in a bunch of vacation pics and the page is ready to publish except for one major problem - the javascript I use for opening the images in their own window isn't working and I don't know why. I may have to just change them all to plain links to new pages if I can't figure this out soon. Either way, they'll be posted some time this week.

New Zealander Ted Matthews cut off his own gangrenous fingers. NOT for the squeamish. Like me. Good Lord, I feel sick.

BTW

I read four books while on vacation. All of them were mind-candy beach books, but I would recommend them to all. They were:



(I finished the Martha Grimes book in the sidebar before I left for vacation, but I haven't started anything new since I got back, so it stays.)

"I'm just at that special place, and I wanted to share it with you. Did you know that Elvis bought all the furniture in just 30 minutes?"

Eerily, Mulder's apartment number, 42, is also Elvis' age at his death. Coincidence? You decide.

Unless you live in a cave, you know that today is the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death. Twenty-five years dead and he made $37 million last year.

Anyway, since I'm a bit of a fan, I wanted to note the day with a few items.

Elvisnumberones.com - a marketing site for the new CD, "Elvis 30 #1 Hits", but cool, with a neat jukebox at the bottom of the page that plays snippets of his #1s, along with photos, games and profiles of Elvis as singer, actor, producer/arranger, etc. Many aspects of the Elvis persona are easy to make fun of, but it's nice to be reminded of how talented he really was.

I watched the last half of his '68 Comeback Special (One Night With You) on CMT last night. The program is notable not only for the music but also for Elvis at his sexiest. It's on again tonight at 6:00 P.M. EST. The show included some silly production numbers when I originally saw it quite a few years ago; I don't know if what CMT is airing includes those numbers or not since I only saw the last half. If it does, you can skip those - just watch the "unplugged" portion of the show. Elvis is electric. He would never again equal the performance, and he would later sink into self-parody, but this show captures the Elvis who deserved to be King.

Finally, Elvis on TV this month.

The extradition of Ira Einhorn, accused murderer and highly intelligent whack job.

Like I said the other day, the one thing the Osbournes have in abundance (besides money) is heart. What a good thing to do.

LOL! I think this dude really does have a dead squirrel on his head. You can read the full story here.

Runaway pig update.

Could this bit of news mean that Salon.com may survive?

(thanks, tvbarn)

Wow, I didn't think that such a blatant miscarriage of justice was possible in this day and age.

registration required

True Talent Test

"Are you feeling happy and challenged in your work life? Or are you counting the hours until you're "set free" each day? If your job seems like a prison sentence — or simply doesn't feel as meaningful as you'd like it to be, you're probably not utilizing your true talents at work."

How can an unemployed person resist?

My true talent?

Your true talent is mechanical ability

Given this talent, you're most likely curious about how things work and may enjoy tinkering with machines. Have you ever taken something apart just to see how it would fit back together? If this sounds like you, you may have earned the reputation around your household as a real Mr. or Ms. Fix-It.

At times, people like you can be both self-sufficient and a great help to others because when it's time to change a car's oil or tighten a leaky faucet, you can be just the right person to get the job done. No matter what kind of career opportunity you choose, chances are that you'll enjoy it most if it involves working with your hands or seeing the tangible results of your efforts.

They are so on the money. When I was about 4 years old, I took apart this little fire engine I had, the kind that you could sit in that had pedals and you could ride. Then I put it back together again. Maybe I should be going to mechanic's school.

Take the Talent Test yourself, and let me know what it says. You might want to have a paper and pen handy, since math makes an occasional appearance. Have fun!

A Nebraska bank is giving away money. Intentionally. Excuse me while I go look out the window to see if the sky is falling. Or maybe that fugitive pig will fly by.

Run, piggy, run!!

What is the most deadly of the natural disasters? If it's as hot where you are as it is where I am, you probably answered correctly. The heat wave:

"The most deadly heat wave in recent years occurred in Chicago over a week in July 1995, when temperatures hovered around 100 degrees. Then, over 50,000 people were left without electricity, nearly two dozen hospitals closed their doors to new patients, ambulances lined up around the block waiting to drop off victims, and the county buried 68 people in a 160-foot-long trench. Though there was some argument over numbers, scientists now say that 739 people died that week.

For context, the great Chicago fire of 1871 killed half that many. The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 killed 62, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 killed 26."

registration required

This story about Adam Ant dressing up like a cowboy is very funny, but I think they're missing the bigger picture here.

Adam Ant -- Truman Capote -- separated at birth?

Dude looks like a lady.

Tuesday, right?

It was one of those mornings. I was up relatively early in order to get down to the employment agency and finalize my application for substitute teaching and begin my orientation. My apartment was like an obstacle course, with some sort of mishap around every corner.

I try to get online while eating my cereal (no, I didn't spill it, although I don't know why not), and got a DNS error no matter what site I tried to access. Also couldn't get to my mail server. OK.

I go into my bedroom to get dressed and find that one of the cats, Winnie, has just taken a ride on the Vomitron, puking all over my bed and floor.

After I clean up that mess, I realize I need to close any open windows and put the fans on exhaust to keep the heat of the day out. The only open window is in my bedroom. I reach behind the curtain without thinking and pull the window down. Right on top of my cactus. Not only did I spill the gravel/sand from the pot all over the floor, I managed to stick myself with the cactus needles, a couple of which are still in the palm of my hand.

Finally, on my way out the door, I pick up my soda can to take one last sip -- it's not my soda can, it's an old one, flat, warm, GROSS. As I jerk it away from my mouth...Yep, you got it, I dripped Diet Coke down the front of my white shirt. No time to change, though.

I make it alive to the truck, and as I'm about to pull out of the driveway, I realize that I forgot to put my watch on. I contemplated returning to the house to get it, but only briefly. I was not going to tempt fate by going through that door again.

Luckily, the application process and orientation went well. I'm back now and no mishaps so far...

Filmwise Fun

The boyz at Filmwise have a new contest: Barbie and Ken Go to the Movies. (Well, he's actually a Justin Timberlake doll, but what's the difference, really?) And there are loads of Invisibles quizzes to catch up on. Off I go to waste some time!

Minor league baseball team has a James Traficant Day. Otherwise known as, "Wear A Dead Squirrel On Your Head And Get In Free".

Alright, I admit it - I watched it. The first episode only. I haven't seen last night's episode, the second of the series, and I'm not sure I want to. Anna Nicole Smith is just not interesting enough to be funny or, well, interesting. She's just pathetic. Why I don't find Ozzy Osbourne pathetic, I'm not sure; maybe it's because he at least has/had talent and is surrounded by people he loves and who love him. Smith is just a zaftig caricature of a caricature - the brainless blonde bombshell and her remora-like entourage. And watching her slurring her way through portions of the show, obviously either high as a kite or, just as likely, faking it, makes me uncomfortable. And so I'll probably watch it again, lol.

A couple of articles on the show:

Slate article.
Salon article.

One DVD to rule them all.



I got my "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" DVD last Thursday. I was a bit peeved because I pre-ordered it from Amazon and it came 2 days later than the official release date and was $2 more expensive than what was selling at Wal-Mart, but my irritation faded as soon as I had it in my grubby little hands. The movie makes the transition to the small screen quite well, a testament to its depth; underneath the sweeping landscapes and epic action sequences that leap out at you in the theater there are the characters and their relationships, captured just as exquisitely as the external Middle Earth. You all need to get this for your home collection. If you can wait, the DVD being released in November will be the theatrical version plus 30 minutes of additional footage that was cut for time.

An afternoon spent with Frodo, Gandalf and the gang may be just what I need today.

Back to School

I really have been neglecting you, haven't I? Sorry about that.

After the family troubles subsided later in the week, my social life picked up. I had a party on Saturday afternoon/evening, then it was out drinking on Saturday night. On Sunday, a baby shower in morning/early afternoon and then a christening party/picnic. I'm pooped.

As far as the career (or lack of it), is concerned, I've decided to look into substitute teaching in area school systems. The program is run through an employment agency, Kelly Services, and you can choose assignments via an online database. I picked up the paperwork on Friday and went down to my town's police station this morning to be fingerprinted for the background check. See:



Tomorrow I'll return to Kelly for the interview/orientation process. School begins Aug 26 in some towns - wish me luck!

I have a lot to catch up on, and fill you in on, but for now I'm going to go outside and sit and read and enjoy the beautiful day. Back later...

"Friendly match", huh?

Without further ado...

Let's start things off with a bang.

Vin Diesel is hot.

Amen, sister.

(It's the voice, by-the-way. And the arms.)

Not Quite Back

Maine was wonderful, as usual. But real life has asserted itself upon my return, in a big way, and I'm afraid blogging is way down on my list of priorities at the moment. I'll try to post what I can, when I can. In the meantime, a quick pic for you:


view from the house at low tide