re: argh

(Comments from LiveJournal)

Kat: You see that book? The one by the pretty man? Yeah, I'm going to borrow that from you.

And how did I know the instant I saw him, that he was undeniably one of your current (and possibly everlasting) deep, dark, and guilty pleasures?




(BTW, this means I get Johnny.)

~*~

Russell is pretty. And funny. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to search for and watch "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006" on YouTube; he and Noel Fielding comprise the third team, and they are wonderful together.

Why does my fondness for Russell mean giving up Johnny [Depp]?

[...] I finally finished the book of Lovecraft stories I was reading, so I'm only just on Chapter 5 of My Booky Wook. It's hilarious one minute, and terribly sad the next--but you can definitely hear Russell's voice throughout. It's excellent.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

yesterday's fake-holiday activities

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Yesterday was good for nothing. I should've done laundry. Instead, I watched most of Season 2 of Dexter. I'd forgotten many of the subplots, so it all felt sort of new and interesting. I still strongly dislike Lila--which makes sense, I suppose, as we're not meant to like her. Still. What a skank-ho'.

I also messed around with my iPhone some more; and, on that topic, two more good and useful applications that also happen to be free:

Wikipanion, because it's about as close as we're going to get to an actual Hitchhiker's Guide. It's Wikipedia in a more iPhone-friendly format than you'd get browsing through Safari.

Stanza, because I don't want a Kindle, but I like the notion well enough. Hand-held electronic books (plenty of them for free if you're meaning to play catch-up with the classics), with changeable fonts and background contrast. It pulls from a variety of sources, including but not limited to: BooksOnBoard, Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, and Fictionwise. And while I definitely prefer physical books, this makes for a good alternative if I run out of space in my bag or just forget to pack one.

And I discovered that it was much better for reading in bed when I'm cold (good grief, I was cold last night). I can burrow under the blankets and I don't need a light to see the text.

Mainly, I just keep thinking of little things that interest me and inspire me to seek out applications that correspond to them. Really, anything that deserves a button on my bookmarks toolbar has been given a search in Applications.

The one I've been avoiding downloading is Facebook, though it's in the Top 25 on the App charts. I think I probably share enough of myself as it is with LJ and Twitterrific. LiveJournal to satisfy my verbosity while maintaining a relative privacy (hello f-lock), and Twitter for the more public and more meaningless bits of life (Stephen: "twitter's right - every little thought that pops into my head is worth sharing"). Facebook still feels like giving and receiving much unwanted information. I'm okay with checking in at my desk, but I don't especially need it at my fingertips constantly.

What else? I started making icon bases for Disco Pigs. You can see them over at phantasm_bunny. Cillian Murphy's character Pig is a careful combination of adorable and creepy, which, by the end of the film, slides in favour of scary. I enjoy Cillian like that though (see: Red Eye and Batman Begins). The images, so far, come from The Cillian Site, but I think I might do some of my own screen-caps for my next part in the icon base series to see if I can't up the image quality a tick or two.

Other fun things to do: beating up lawn gnomes and flamingos (or being beaten up by lawn gnomes and flamingos) in the ZOMG! game on Gaia. The wasps found on Rancho de Bill frighten me, though. They're no more difficult to fight than the gnomes or the flamingos, but--they're giant frackin' wasps! BLEAH. Oh, well. My virtual purple sari and Colbert also make me happy.

... Is it wrong that I'd like to wear an actual sari? It feels somehow socially and ethnically incorrect--but they look so nice and vibrant!

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

argh

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

The perplexing contents of my overfilled bag:

I am as Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club, which would be more amusing if I could find my driver's license in this mess.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

thank you, Mr. Oliver

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Tea Party Tyranny
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Taxation without representation? They don't even understand what that means. They may not like their current representation--but at least they have the opportunity to vote and change it. I really wish this "movement" would inspire some of them to crack a history book and learn something--but I doubt it.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

re: neither irrelevance nor home-feeling

(Comments from LiveJournal)

Nicole: I was thinking today, while I was reading said Metro, that I'm surprised there aren't more instances of T-riders beating up T drivers out of rage for what they read in the Metro while they're on the T. I think the Metro is largely to blame. That headline/picture(s) on the front page today was extreme. Every other week it's "they're cutting service and raising prices!" "no we're not!" "yes they are!" I'm kind of tired of getting all worked up over it for possibly nothing. If they do cut nighttime service in half, I will most likely need to find another job. As it is, it takes me 25% longer to get home at night than it does to get to work in the morning...

~*~

I think most people would blame the Metro's tendency to fan the fire before they would blame the T drivers (which is [maybe] why no one has been attacked yet). It's not like the drivers can control their schedule; they can, to a point, so far as efficiency goes, but on the larger scale they have to listen to dispatch. The only time I see anyone get annoyed with the drivers is when the drivers are themselves being rude.

Cutting nighttime service is a mistake on so many levels. I'm not sure how it is on the other lines, but trains on the Newburyport/Rockport line are crowded enough as it is, even later in the evening.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

neither irrelevance nor home-feeling

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

The cover of today's Metro is pretty grim for those of us who use public transportation in the greater Boston area. The T has a $160 million budget deficit, and the proposed remedy is service cuts. Brilliant--because if people can't take the T, the MBTA will certainly earn back that deficit. Oh, yeah. That'll work.

More useless complaints:

The T loses money because it's a slow and antiquated system that can't provide service to as many riders as it should (were it faster and more reliable). They spend all their money on cosmetic [stuff] like the Arlington stop (which still isn't finished, though I see workers there every single bloody day), yet the Green line as a whole is entirely defunct--especially at street level. Trains that are beholden to traffic lights and thrown out of schedule by automobile traffic? ... Miserable. You might as well be in a car at that point, and it shouldn't be surprising that some people choose that route instead.

Ugh. And then ...

Entering North Station from the Garden, there were members of the MBTA security handing out fliers of the "See Something, Say Something" variety. Shiny, colourful fliers. I didn't take one. Past the ticket turnstiles, said shiny fliers are crumpled and strewn down the escalator and patching little sections of the floor in glossy scarlet and white, abandoned by their five-second owners. And all I can think is: How much did those cost?

If you see something, don't say something. That takes too long, and whatever it is you're seeing might disappear while you're flapping your gums. Just pummel the perpetrator about the head with a bag (or, you know, whatever's handy). It's faster, more effective, and you'll eventually attract some sort of official attention if you carry on like that.

P.S. If you're the sort of person to actually take my advice, don't really do any of the aforementioned things. I kid. Well ... insofar as safety goes. If someone is physically attacking you on the T (or anywhere else, for that matter), I think you should feel free to pummel away. Self-defense and all that.

...

I also can't help but be reminded of Lovecraft--because I'm still stuck there. Towards the end of "At the Mountains of Madness", the vague allusion he supplies in describing the shoggoth creature is quite recognisable to anyone who rides the T. A man named Danforth, having glimpsed the oncoming bulk of the creature, falls to pieces and the narrator observes his chanting: "South Station Under--Washington Under--Park Street Under--Kendall--Harvard. ..."

We don't say "Under" anymore, but the stops are still there, though Washington is now Downtown Crossing and Charles/MGH has been added to the list.

Anyway, I think the T is a kind of monster--just not as resilient a one as Lovecraft's shoggoth, which is a shame.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

it's heee-eeere

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

(from CafePress)

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

"An Apple A Day"

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Last time on TheJokerBlogs--following a murky session of hypno-therapy, Dr. Hugo Strange attacked Patient #4479 ...

And now, new from TheJokerBlogs (and not pranking us this time)--AND including a brief appearance of Dr. Crane:

I must say the voice of the guy playing Jonathan is really spot-on with Cillian Murphy's, even if his physical appearance is off.



And of course now I want a WWJ[oker]D? t-shirt.

Happy Birthday, Heathus!

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

do not want

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Didn't lose my phone. It was sitting on my nightstand when I came home last night.

Darn. (I only want a good excuse to get a better phone, and I can't in good conscience buy a new one until this one dies or is lost.)

~*~

Other things I find when I get home: another pamphlet from the Jehovah's Witnesses. They left one at the back door last week, which I noticed and brought inside--because it's wrong to leave litter lying around like that. Then, earlier this week they left a second one in my actual mailbox. I decided I'd just leave it there, as it wasn't high on my list of priorities. Finally, I came home yesterday to find one folded and stuck behind the mail box. Civic-mindedness was crushed by irritation, and so I left the litter there. I'll probably clean it up when I get home if it's not blown away in the meantime.

They're very determined, I'll give them that. But why give the same household the same pamphlet three times over? If I've not read the first one, I'm not likely to perk up at the sight of two more copies. And if I have read the first one, I don't need two more copies, do I?

Does this sort of thing qualify as harassment? I don't think it would bother me as much if they actually came to call when I was home. Then, at least, I could respond in person and scare them away.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

inaccessible

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Huh. I've left my phone somewhere; and, aside from not being sure where that somewhere is (I hope it's at home), I'm feeling mostly all right about it.

I didn't really notice until I thought, That's weird. Usually I've received about two dozen twitter txt messages by now [split fairly even between Neil Gaiman and Russell Brand on most days]. And then I discovered my mobile wasn't in its traditional place.

Oh, well. I'll just have fifty txts to erase when I get home (or, you know, not at all if I've lost it somewhere between here and there).



Just another excuse to put off getting a [likely expensive] haircut, really. Can't call the salon without my phone, and office phones are not to be used for personal non-emergency reasons like haircuts.

I'm very good at procrastination and justification.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

everyone's a comedian

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Getting much better at headstands. Why are you doing headstands? I dunno, just felt inspired to improve the quality of my headstand (having full carpeting in a room helps, because who wants to do a headstand on a hardwood floor?). Jon Stewart and Aasif Mandvi--yes, they're just as funny upside-down. On a related note, laughing while you're doing a headstand is not something I recommend. Also, whenever I do my craptastic headstands, I think of this:

Must stop staying up when I know I'll just want to die in the morning when the alarm goes off in the dark.

I just really wanted to get my laundry done--because everything that I should've done over the weekend is getting dragged out over this week's evenings. It's the same thing with grocery shopping. There's no reason I couldn't have gone on Saturday or Sunday. I just didn't--and then had a wonderfully anxious time driving there and back through rush-hour sunset traffic (a million cars and pedestrians that you can't see with the sun in your eyes: AWESOME).

On a positive note, I have clean clothing and food, so life can't be all bad ...

It was dark and overcast this morning, whatever Weather.com has to say about it. Oh, it's 29° and sunny! No. First of all, it was in the 30's. Second of all, it was not sunny. Weather.com should be above April Fool's (though that's probably giving them too much credit--knowing what the actual weather is and deciding to say something else in an attempt of [albeit dull] trickery).

The cover of weeklydig is pretty good. It's an apology from AIG that begins: "We're really, really sorry!"

Gmail's April foolery is one-upping itself from last year:

Autopilot by CADIE: The easiest email could possibly be.

YouTube thinks they're brilliant, too. And they are, sort of. When you're on the main page and you click on a video link to watch, it sends you there but everything's upside-down. Go look! I'm not kidding (that would be a lame April Fool's, anyway--"made you look! I'm so clever! I can lie on the internet!").

Also on YouTube, there's a new video from TheJokerBlogs--but it is also a prank (of course):



I need a haircut. Pronto.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

is it sad that I'm looking forward to this?

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

we only come out at night

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

I keep thinking about painting (the walls, not a fresco). Several things need to happen before I can do that.

* wait for it to warm up enough to leave the door open for aerating purposes

* wash the walls (a cat lived here and there is no doubt hair and other gunk I can't see); however, before I wash the walls, I must:

* figure out how to do this without stripping or eroding the plaster

* remove whatever is on the walls (frames, masks, etc.)

* vacuum the floors, so that dust and dirt aren't kicked up while I'm washing or painting the walls; but before I can vacuum the floor, I must:

* move everything out of the room to some other room where it will probably get underfoot and annoy me

I'm going to need a long warm weekend for this project.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

go fish

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Headphone cord fishing... Ooh, caught a big one! [by the button on his jeans] ... YAY! x

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

yes, you heard right

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

"Erm, I was looking for a book by Russell Brand, but I can't find it where the kiosk is telling me it should be ... Do you have any idea where else it might be in the store?"

"Is it listed as 'In Stock'?"

"Yep." I wouldn't be bothering if it weren't.

"And the title?"

"... Erm. ... My Booky Wook." *blush* It's not until you have to ask for it aloud that you realise how utterly ridiculous you sound by desiring it.

*smirk* ... Clickclickclickclick goes the keyboard. "And the author is Russell Banks?"

"Brand."

"Brand." ... Clickclickclickclickclick ... "And the title again?"

ARGH. ... Why do I get the feeling he's doing this on purpose? ... "My Booky Wook." *grimace*

"Right." Clickclickclickclick ...


And after that and a browse through the featured stacks (something I'd already done before asking for assistance), he couldn't find the book anyway. He asked if I wanted to order it, but I didn't bother. One, there's a Borders across the street. And two, I had a feeling he'd just make me give him the information all over again.

So I went over to Borders, and, lo and behold! They had plenty of copies in their Media section. I would've been lost in Biographies (where Barnes & Noble had it listed) if I hadn't done a search at their kiosk as well. And I begin to wonder if it wasn't in B&N's Media section, too ... Oh, well!

Also, the clerks at Borders were much less judgmental about my purchase. Or, rather, they were judgmental--but in a approving and non-mocking way.

So--I'm now a proud owner of My Booky Wook (but not so proud that I appreciate having to repeat the title aloud too often to people who have no idea who Russell Brand is, let alone having any concept of his particular level of silliness that would warrant such a title).

I really am happy to have the book, though. I think it'll be an entertaining read.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

degree of extreme

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

The cover of the Spring 2009 BU Arts & Sciences reads:

"BU (extreme) South - Geomorphologist David Marchant and his team of students discover Antarctica's secret past"

But, of course, because I'm still stuck at the mountains of madness, "secret past" makes me think of starfish-headed tentacle aliens in a labyrinthine city ...

And then Professor Marchant's Earth Science class, but that was pathetically secondary in my thought process. Yeah, I had a 9 AM class with him in Freshman year, and it was about as stirring as Lovecraft's "Mountains" (unfortunate for a morning class and a morning read, respectively).

Marchant is like my very own Dyer, and because of this little morsel of information regarding his travels, I will now be imagining him in place of my original mental sketch of Professor Dyer (in spite of the fact that Marchant is actually much younger than Dyer is meant to be). Yay!

~*~

I've listened to about a half-dozen of these in the past two days. "About," because I downloaded the first six but fell asleep listening to one last night.

My original notion of Russell Brand came from that Andrew Sachs prank phone call business. I listened to the audio of the radio programme long after the fact, and it wasn't so much scandalous to me as it was blown way out of proportion. I heard about the VMA nonsense a bit later, but I didn't really care ... because, well, I don't care about MTV.

But after watching Brand's special from New York City on ComedyCentral, my opinion of him has improved. Sure, he's an eccentric little giraffe (and a manwhore, to boot), and a lot of his routine is specifically grounded in moments of personal embarrassment, but he also has this marvelous ability to slip into beautifully poetic rambles. Very entertaining overall, so I went in search of more--and, indeed, found more.

Then, today I was watching movies on the Instant Queue and picked Penelope, because I remembered that a coworker had suggested it. And who should make a very brief cameo in that film but Russell Brand? I wasn't even paying attention at that point, to be honest (because I tend to web browse all the time); but then I heard that voice, to which I've become quite attuned with the aforementioned radio broadcast .mp3s and falling asleep to it and so on, and my brain went: Russell?! And there he was talking to James McAvoy's character! Very, very brief cameo, but it makes me feel as though my subconsciousness is dragging him around with me.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

"building a henge, are we?"

Local park getting own version of Stonehenge

WUT?



"Its monolithic stones will tower 7 feet above the ground with an additional 5 feet anchored into concrete rings below ground. The circle will be 20 feet across with a stone tablet in the middle."

... Tower? These stones are going to tower at 7 feet?


LOL with me now.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

"Hypnotized"

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

New from TheJokerBlogs:

"Dr. Strange? ... Yeah. And I'm Professor Giggles."



"There's only one thing we do--and it helps both of us."

HO. LY. CRAP.



ETA: Actually, the guy playing Dr. Strange makes me LOL at the end every time I watch this.

"You son of a BEEECH!" XD

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

my fandom isn't naturally huggable

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

So I'm working on making it unnaturally huggable.

I haven't worked out his face or hair or clothing yet (and, in saying that, I realise I've actually not done much at all--urgh), but this is my progress on my Joker plush.

Note: head not actually sewn into place yet; it's just balancing there for the picture.

... Well, I had to something with myself today.

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...

but ... I'm already AWAKE

(Cross-posted to LiveJournal)

Snow day ... This never happens.

Not that I'm complaining, obviously; it's just weird. How much did we get, anyway?



So ...

I guess this means I go back to bed. Maybe.

Yes?

Turn the page ...

Close the book ...