Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sir Gribblefribbitz, the Exceedingly Nauseous

*Here's an interesting question: What happens if a mosquito bites a zombie, and then bites another non-zombie right afterwards? To me, the question sounded rather odd, but it rather quickly changed into one of those facepalm 'why didn't I think of that??' moments. Regardless, that's the basic premise of a movie called, appropriately enough, "A Little Bit Zombie". After watching enough episodes of "Todd and the Book of Pure Evil", I don't know why I would be surprised that the Canadians are capable of such entertaining horcomgore. Anyway, besides the interesting premise, the movie is notable for liberal and near excessive use of drool, some of the worst brain puns ever, a complete and total anatomic disregard for the actual scale of various brains, one of the best puking scenes since Monty Python, and the greatest product placement for something you thought couldn't be real but is: Tactical Bacon (available online!!). So, if you're in the mood for a bit of over the top horcomgore, check out both "A Little Bit Zombie" and "Todd and the Book of Pure Evil". Both are available as Netflix instant view selections.

*Not having to use any sort of snow removal equipment until December 29th makes for a pretty good start to winter in Illinois, in my book. On the other hand, not realizing just how badly iced over your car is when you're already running late for work is not so good in my book.

*How was I supposed to know the name of the dragon was Steve when I haven't seen the commercial??

*A movie we had first thought was going to be a copy of "I Sell the Dead" proved to have a little more going for it than we first thought. While both movies deal with the same topic, and are set in the same time period, one has zombies, and the other is based on a true story. "Burke & Hare" tells an abbreviated version of how two 19th century Irish laborers in Scotland turn to lives of crime when they find out just how much local medical colleges are willing to pay for fresh cadavers to dissect.  Simon Pegg stars in the just gruesome enough telling of this true story, and Tim Curry also puts in a good performance as one of the doctors competing for the supply of cadavers. It might be worth you while to watch "Burke & Hare" and then "I Sell the Dead" just to get differing perspectives on this rather....interesting....period of medical history. Plus, there are numerous non-fiction books on the exploits of these two 'businessmen'.

*I need to get on the horn in the next couple of days and get some overdue phone calls made. Plus, I should give the Texans a holler and see what they're up to on New Year's Day.

*For me, Will Ferrell movies are pretty much the same (with "Stranger Than Fiction" being a notable standout). Not that I don't enjoy them, but the caricature of a stereotype that tends to define his characters is fairly constant. "The Campaign" with Zach Galafianakis is no exception. It's not satire, it's not a thoughtful send-up, it's a comedy that uses politics as a setting. It's not bad. I got some good laughs, and that's about all I expected out of it.

*OK, so I went to Menard's and bought a replacement fixture for the closet when all I actually needed to do was screw in the light bulb all the way. And I bought a cord for a light socket that could not be disassembled to have a cord added to it. And I didn't realize that the other closet light was a two prong CFL instead of a standard bulb. Geez. What am I supposed to do, check all that stuff BEFORE I go to the store??

*Seems like there's a whole lot more truncated MP3 files in my music library than I had previously thought. Kinda annoying.

*This is the time of year when everyone on the planet is doing their "best of 2012" lists. I just happened to grab the entertainment section of the local paper, and there were three columnists, each giving their own list of the top ten albums of the year. Now, I freely admit to not having any knowledge of, nor interest in, pop music, but I was a bit surprised when I glanced over this article and realized that I only had heard of two of the artists listed. Given, there was some degree of overlap in the choices made, so you could easily say that there were 25 different artists represented on the list. But still, 2 out of 25 isn't a very good ratio, as far as common knowledge goes. That line of thought lead me to another. If I were to pick up a current album by Weird Al, without any previous knowledge of his career, I would have to conclude that he was just a writer of comedy songs, since I would have no insight as to what current music he was parodying. I'm not sure if that would make me like him more, or less.

*Alcohol was a wonderful discovery for me. I'd have a couple of drinks, and I could step out of my shell and be the life of the party. Until I almost invariably wound up passed out on the floor. Which was not really the freedom I thought it was. There was never any real reason that I couldn't have been the life of the party without booze. It was a lot of conditioning that lead me to believe, and fear, that. It was just easier to use the booze route than to go through all the stress and work of tearing apart all those negative things I had let myself believe, and fear. A lot of those things are still present, and in need of demolition. But the task is monumental, success isn't guaranteed, and the thought of being free of those restrictive, yet familiar, things is scary. Why not just continue crafting this tiny bubble of perfected control? Well, to start with, it's tiny. There isn't really room for other people in that bubble. "King Nothing" by Metallica springs to mind when I think about that. So, I don't want to be limited that way, but at the same time, I'm afraid of what might happen if I'm not in control. But, of course, the whole idea that I am in control is ridiculous when you put it into any sort of realistic perspective. So what do I do? Guess that's the part I'm still trying to figure out.

*****

The In-Between Time

(This was originally published 12.27.12)

*The best way to start your Christmas morning? Beats me. I can tell you that it ISN'T having two dogs puking in the living room while you're trying to get shit together and get out of the house.

*Finally starting to feel like winter out there. I really don't like that. At least the first couple of real winter storms this season either missed us or just kinda side-swiped us.

*Watched most of my free time on Friday just evaporate right before my eyes today. The only good thing that might come of it is some tasty goat korma.

*Thank goodness I don't rely on Santa to keep me stocked with new games. Jackass stiffed me again this year. Luckily, the folks over at New Game in Town had a very conveniently timed 20% off sale that encouraged me to grab a quartet of new games. Now, I just need for Ikea to have a conveniently timed 20% off sale so that I can get more cabinets for all my new games.
*Crap. I still need to get the November meeting minutes posted before tonite.

*This is the only time of the year when I can get sick of cookies. Still have candy around the house, but that doesn't really interest me. I'm pretty sure there's still stuff around from Halloween, which shows how much candy I eat. The mere thought of cookies right now makes my stomach do a slow roll and my pancreas go into spasms. That being the case, I'm thinking there will be a lot of stuff going into the freezer in the next few days.

*I am still of the mind that holidays, much like vacations, should not leave you feeling sleep deprived, strung out, and ready to inflict mayhem. Yet, here I am again. Why are there such ridiculous expectations of endlessly repeated perfection on this particular holiday? All it takes is one teeny tiny miscalculation, and the whole thing goes off the rails. Guess I can't operate at that level when it comes to this particular event. The latitude for fun has been weaned out in favor of the mindset that things. Must. Go. As. Planned. Don't like it. Ghosts of Bill? Probably. Or at least shades of them. Starting to realize there's a lot of them out there in places I hadn't realized. Lots of slightly bent and fragmented things that have drifted into all sorts of places. Which is not enough in and of itself to banish them. And some of them are getting stronger, which is doubly problematic. Need to try and understand what I can control and what I can't. And just why there are things I feel the need to control.


***

Sprouting Shrimp Slippers

(Originally published 12-20-12)

*Well, they're still calling for nasty nasty weather tomorrow. Yippee. The possibility of 7" of snow right out of the gate could really screw things up. Not to mention the rain we're supposed to have in the morning before the snow starts. But the shovels and the snowblower are out, accessible, and ready to go. Here's the question I have, though: Just how damn miserable will it be outside if there actually are 60 MPH winds tomorrow?

*The dishwasher is still dead(ish), with a projected repair date of sometime early next year. That news has made someone in the house very, very crabby. The other person in the house really couldn't care less.

*What would my top ten ZZ Top songs be? That was the interesting question I was recently asked. I am currently formulating an answer.

*Thus far, I am not thrilled with the seemingly tiny selection of widgets that are available on Wordpress, and the small number that can be used per page layout. I actually enjoyed the widgets that I had on my Blogger page, silly as they may have been. Maybe I just have to work my way over the learning curve before I get used to this new site.  Did manage to figure out how to embed YouTube videos today, though.

*Why in the world would I even be considering moving anywhere other than somewhere warm right now??

*In response to the many complaints about the high school students speeding through the neighborhood, the city put up a bunch of stop signs and posted a 25 MPH neighborhood speed limit. In my opinion, that should work better than the speed bumps that a lot of people were wanting. Guess I'll have to wait until I'm home on a school day to see if all that has had any noticeable effect on the traffic, though.

*Here's hoping that Steph makes it safely down to TX before the weather closes in.

*The garage has now been sufficiently cleaned, cleared, and rearranged to admit Sheri's car. Yay for small victories. In the process of doing that, I did toss out a bunch of stuff that I had been saving, which always annoys me. I was annoyed to throw out the cardboard boxes because it means that the purple room is as cluttered and messy as it's ever been. I was annoyed to throw out the huge styrofoam coolers because it was an indication of just how little art I am producing. I was annoyed to move one of the piles of maple to the back patio for the same reason (as well as the fact that it had checked beyond belief). Don't really care for that much confirmation that I'm to not getting a lot of things done.

*"Cowboys and Aliens": a movie that somehow managed to be duller than a melted stick of butter.  And considerably less interesting.

*Ebay is a bad bad bad evil naughty place. Just way too many things that I'm interested in there. From Heroscape stuff to pinball machines to old medical texts, they have it all......Dammit.


*

Your New Earworm!




Weasel Pants

 *This was originally published on 12.19.12

*Went hunting up in Volo on Monday. Already having regrets about a couple of things I should have grabbed. Also wondering what I missed in that last building. Still, made a pretty good haul out of somewhere we hadn't been in years. Picked up a nice Fu Manchu mug, which is something I haven't gone out of my way to acquire before. But, all the other Fu Manchus I've seen didn't have a stamp (or the remainder of a stamp, in this case) from the Hala Kahiki on the bottom. Also found an orange Orchids hula girl mug. The finish is dinged and the mug itself is cracked, but I've never seen one in the wild, so I grabbed it. Found a big black tiki decanter, too. If I remember right, Riptide found one of these not too long ago. I'll have to get a picture of it posted, as it is quite cool. Got a nice rattan magazine rack to complement the other rattan furniture downstairs. Should also give me a place to put actual magazines as well. Found a pin-up from a 1952 calendar that will be really nice when I get it framed. And, since I'm still having AD+D nostalgia, I bought a copy of the Fiend Folio that I happened to run across. Bought a cheap medical/surgical book from the late 1800's that is both fascinating and scary. There are also things that I have read in it that made me laugh out loud, most of which would technically fall under the 'scary' category. Sheri found me a nice Hawaiian girl bust that was in a case full of Sriner fezzes. I bought the bust, since it actaully had pleasant features. I was tempted to buy one or both of the fez cases that were also in that booth, but since I don't actually have my fez yet, I don't know if it would fit in either of the cases I saw. Plus, they had Shriner logos on them that would need to be covered up or removed. Lastly, I found a board game from 1977 that just had to come home with me. It's called Dungeon Dice, which is another reason it had to come home with me. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be when I read the name on the box. I was thinking it would be something along the lines of Dungeon, but it turned out to be a game where you are prisoners trying to be the first to escape from the dungeon of a castle. It's got a pretty simple diced based mechanic, and a really cool board. The entire center of the bifold board is cut out to allow for the insertion of a gray plastic tray that you roll the dice in. The cool part is that it actually is molded to look like a stone chamber, thus reinforcing the dungeon theme. Even better is the fact that it is only missing one card, and that card isn't really necessary to play the game. What's bad is I'm wondering if I droppped that card when I was looking through the box to see if the game was complete.



*My hair is fine. Fine, in this context, is a textural description. On the other hand, I still have a lot of hair, which can thusly be described as thick, an indicator of density. Ergo, I need to find a different pomeade to use.



*Winter storm watch is in effect for Thursday. Actually the first one of the winter season, if I remember right. Guess I should go and get gas for the snowblower just in case it actually ends up doing something outside. And I need to get the shovels to a place where I can reach them. And get the garage settled to the point that Sheri can get her car in. Looks like tomorrow will be busier than I first thought it would be.



*I love my "Daily Comics" app. That is all.



*Had one of those moments when I had a fleeting insight into the way things are lined up in my brain. Got a flash of how things between dad and work are similar, which touched off some super weird dreams. Since the processing of that data is causing some turmoil, I think turning that rock over a little further might be a good thing. Might help me drop some baggage and get out from under a few shadows. Might just also involve a change of career.



*Got half a mind just to write a check to Honda and pay off the balance of what I owe on my car. Of course, just as soon as I do that, Sheri's car will crap out completely, and we'll still end up with a car payment.



*I think I should work on copyrighting the term "nut funk".



*Gonna be doing my new blogging from here on Wordpress. Hopefully, I can avoid the entanglements that caused me to stop posting over on Blogger. Luckily, importing all that content over to here was a snap. Now I just need to go on the hunt for widgets and layouts.



*Beer has made me fat. Actually, drinking beer has made me fat. I don't want to be fat. I really dislike jiggling when I walk. Thus, it seems the solution, at least in part, is to stop drinking beer. Other parts would include the obligitory exercise and the mandatory eating better. But, since it has taken me over a year to get to where I am, I don't see it taking any less time than that to get back to where I was. Of course, I come to this realization at the time of the year when the house is being flooded with all sorts of sweet treats. Still, if I can't get started on this now, the odds of me being able to do it later are pretty poor. I know that I'd rather enjoy the benefits of my doctor perscibed medications than the percieved benefits of my self perscribed medications.



*

MacArthur 2.0

*This was originally posted 12.18.12

I have returned to the blogosphere!!
So, first off, here's the disclaimer: Anything posted here is representative of me and me alone, and is not endorsed by any other person, agency, or entity. You don't like what you read, tough. It's MY opinion, deal with it.
I'm doing this right now when I should be on the treadmill. Need to figure out all the controls and whatnot. Hoping to be able to import my entire blog from Blogger, also. First thing I should do is figure out how to e-mail in drafts. Hmmmm....I wonder what this button does....