I'm very proud of my state for voting against those ridiculous propositions, although I am a little sad that 79 (state negotiated drug prices for low-income citizens) failed, I am gladdened by the failure of the parental notification thing. I noticed a couple of hinky things at the polling place, but I'm not sure whether to be paranoid or not. My roommate and I are turning into quite the conspiracy theorists, and elections tend to set those off.
In a related note, I have going through season 1 of Xena (yay, Netflix!) and the plot of one of last night's episodes gave me pause: A minor king is moonlighting as a warlord and leading The Bad Guys on regular raids against his principality as a way of keeping the citizens in fear and keeping their high taxes for him and his cronies.
I sure hope tonight's episodes include some hot guest star (Ares? Hades? Autolycus?) to distract me from the notion that Our President is getting some of his ideas from campy TV shows.
Scientists affiliated with NASA have invented a new "skin" that will cover robotic devices and "sense" things - actually, NASA explains it better than I can:
Skin!
Sounds kind of boring, but watch this video supposedly demonstrating this new material - you tell me if it looks like a scientific demonstration, or - well, something else entirely.
Here is the video demonstration
Many thanks to gizmodo for bringing this to my attention.
I'm awed.
For years, a friend has held to her theory of dinosaur extinction through homosexuality (I have argued that the plates on the Stegasaurus' spine would preclude such activity, but she will have none of it.) and now, like the million monkeys at a million typewriters, the collective conscious of Making Light has independently confirmed this theory.
Truly, it is a day of thanksgiving.
I say these things in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Ramen.
I got to work this morning and was very excited to find that they put plants up along my cube wall. This way I can enjoy plants and not feel guilty when I inevitably kill them.
In NYC once purchased an African Violet as I was lonely without a pet, and had heard that they are hard plants to kill (my mom kept several of them alive - how hard could it be?). Within a couple of weeks the poor thing was dead, and I left it with in the trash, feeling like an evil plant murderer. Months later I noticed a lush African Violet plant on the top of the fridge - a tall roommate with a green thumb had nursed the plant back to health, and wisely placed it out of my reach.
I've put my little John Crichton action figure in my work plants. What I really need are a bunch of Ewoks.
I saw Neil twice last weekend (once for the signing at Vroman's, and then the next day at the West Hollywood Book Fair - where I was going to go anyway; I am not an author stalker.) and the only thing that looks even remotely Neil-like about that pic is the hair.
As for sounding like Alan Rickman, I'm not sure I think he does, although the card catalog in my brain does tend to file them both in the same "dark hair, British, related to fantasy/horror, dishy" drawer. He mentioned at one of the Q&As that when he first started signing and doing appearances, many people were disappointed that he wasn't a 6'7", mysteriously dressed man with a vague air of melancholy, which is what they apparantly envisioned him as. In person he seems like a very nice man, and not at all like someone who would write about eating babies.
My roommate is in love with Jayne as well, and it's kind of disturbing.
Actually, Adam Baldwin brought as much to that role as Joss - Baldwin was the one who decided that Jayne likes women. All of them. As Gina Torres says, "...Jayne loves women. Maybe not in the way we want to be loved all the time but he loves them all equally... whores, girls, he loves them all."
There are moments in the series and film where he won't listen to Mal, but he will listen to Zoe. And don't forget in "Heart of Gold", where he dressed in his finest to go meet the whores. (yes, I consider this pro-chick, and kind of charming.) In the film, V qba'g guvax vg jnf na nppvqrag gung ur jnf gur bar gb pnyy sbe fuhggvat bss gur ivq bs gur jbzna ba Zvenaqn. (that was hardly a spoiler, but I want to be careful!)
No, it doesn't make redeem him and make him a saint, and unless I were Zoe, I wouldn't want to have him around, but it at least it kept Jayne from being your typical Big Scary Guy With Gun. Joss has also noted that Jayne is the "greek chorus", who says what the audience and other characters are thinking.
He's a pit bull, but he's pretty well trained.
As for Book, I think the couple of lines from the series and the film establish enough - that Book has a pretty dark past (V crefbanyyl guvax ur jnf na bcrengvir.) But I am just as interested in how and why he became a Shepherd.
And may I say that between Sereity and the linguistics of pirates, this thread reminds me of why I love Making Light!
Ah, it's just a direct quote from Jayne, the resident Big Dumb Brute of Firefly/Serenity. I believe the original cliche was something like "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride."
My other favorite Jayne line also makes little sense to those who haven't seen the series; "...that's why I never kiss 'em on the mouth!"
Sorry for the interruption - I'll just be giggling quietly in the corner!
hrc -
Yeah, now you know how I felt two years ago. I loved Serenity, but part of me is still sad that Whedon couldn't continue his story through TV, in such a way that I could spend an hour (or 42 minutes) a week with that crew.
If I won the metaphysical lottery and could grant Joss 4 more seasons to explore his universe, I would like to know more about Inara - why, exactly, did she condescend to join such a questionable crew? What was she running from?
Also, I'd like to know who Vera was, before she was a gun.
Oh, and I'd make Jewel Staite gain back that 15 pounds.
But you know what they say.... if wishes were horses, we'd all be eatin' steak.
Speaking of Muppets, had you heard that writer Jerry Juhl had passed away? He worked on the first few seasons of Sesame Street and was Head Writer on The Muppet Show and a writer/producer for Fraggle Rock. Such a gentle and absurd sense of humor - I wish there were more of him waiting to fill in his shoes.
And speaking of ladies in sci-fi and Serenity, I just "won" a season set of "Cleopatra 2525", which looks to have all the elements of action chicks I have just been deriding - namely, revealing dominatrix wear and impractical shoes. It stars Gina Torres (woohoo, Zoe!) as a "...cryogenically frozen exotic dancer…" (presumably thawed, hence her conscious appearance on the embossed slipcase) who joins forces with two other similarly garbed honeys to, I don't know, I'm guessing fight people and jiggle a lot? I think I may visit Trader Joes and stock up on Dry Blackthorne and enjoy this Sam Raimi offereing in the way god intended - goofy drunk.
But should I watch this before or after "Mirrormask" and "Good Night and Good Luck"?
I watched Firefly before I ever gave Buffy a chance. There was something deeply unappealing about the concept of revisiting high school.
I have since come to appreciate Buffy and Angel, but Firefly is still my favorite, if for no other reason than none of the butt-kicking women ever wears high heels or a push-up bra. Plus, I like my men sarcastic, dark and broody. Loved Serenity, of course, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. Maybe I'll put some comments in ROT-13 a little later.
Ellison remains one of my favorite storytellers, and really like Ellison's writing - including his non-fictional screeds - but when I've seen him at cons, it's as much to marvel at his insufferable hubris as it is to hear interesting tidbits about his life, and that's kind of a shame. He did a great job moderating a panel with JM Straczynski, Ron Moore and, er, someone really big in the gaming industry, at the last con I saw him at, but his own Q&A was less impressive, the highlight being when he called Forrey Ackermann an "ambulatory sack of running monkey nuts."
Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I have a Red Cross related question:
The company I work for just hosted a Red Cross blood drive, and since that is the one resource I have plenty of, I happily donated. My friend who also works for the company wanted to give blood but is unable to as she spent a semester in London in '94 and RC rules specify you can't donate if you spent 3 months or more in the UK before 1996. I imagine this has to do with Cruetzfeld-Jakob disease, but it's frustrating to my friend since she'd gladly give if she could.
Is there any sort of test you can take to prove you don't have whatever crazy virus you might be at risk for, and so qualify to donate blood?
Arghhhh!
I blame you folks for encouraging my hot-sauce eating habit, and also for somehow making me sensitive to peppers.
Here this thread had made me look forward to the quesadillas I was preparing, but then I bit into one and the Tapatio (another pepper/vinegar type hot sauce, Mexican in origin) made my eyes water copiously and swell shut. After much hand washing, nose blowing, and cold wet washcloths pressed to my eyes, I was able to toss the affected quesadilla pieces and Tapatio into an garbage bag, tie it immediately and was forced to use Trader Joe's Creamy Cilantro dressing as a wet-thing substitute (having run out of their lovely habanero lime salsa last week.)
I don't understand - I have been using Tapatio on all tortilla-related meals since I moved out here and have never had a reaction like that. I blame the power of suggestion.
And I still want to make and eat every single chili recipe in this thread.
I'm happy enough to have a novel (several in fact) next to me - piled up by my bed, cluttering my cubicle, jamming up my inadequate bookcase and fighting the action figures for valuable closet space - I don't need any in me. Frankly, I don't know where it would fit.
From time to time I have been known to cough up a short story fanfic, but those are few and far between and never imposed upon an unsuspecting public. I am quite happy to remain a reader, although I always find these publishing stories fascinating.
No blue blood flowing through my veins! (but then again, no slaveowners, so that's cool...)
My maternal (mother's mother) great-grandparents came here on a boat - which disgorged them at Ellis Island - from what is now the Czech Republic. Earlier ancestors in those lines were from my favorite defunct country, Bohemia.
My maternal grandfather also came on a boat - from Samoa - around the 30's, I believe. His father came to Samoa on a boat (he was a Marine) originally from the New England area. Much of that g-grandfather's documentation is in French, so I'm assuming that line goes back to some French peasantry. Grandpa's mother's line had always been in Samoa.
My dad's side of the family I know a little less about, owing in part to a legnthy estrangement with his father. I believe either his father or grandfather came here on a boat from Poland, landing first in Pennsylvania and eventually settling in Chicago. His mother's side of the family - my g-g grandparents - were among the first mormon settlers, although I believe they may have originally hailed from Wales, landing first on US shores around the early 19th century.
I would like to know more about my genealogy because I'm interested in the story it tells - but I am hesitant to bring it up with my parents, as I fear they'll start sending me BoM's and missionaries and stuff when really, I'd just like a few good ideas for a book.
Well, when I was working at the B&N in WI, we did get the odd (in all senses of the word) fundie customer who would bitch about HP, one going so far as to announce to anyone who would listen that "Harry Potter opens the door to Satan in your home!" (as well as one memorable screed from a wholly different fundie customer about the "Strega Nona" books.) New Age lady sounds like she's the flip side of that coin.
Thanks for the info - Even with the lousy exchange rate and overseas shipping, the box-set-plus-1 is cheaper from the UK by about $1.00. I will be getting the "kids" cover though, since I have read all books with US kiddie covers with no embarrassment.
Non-spoiler question here:
I know a few years ago there was a mini-controversy about the Americanization of the HP books on this side of the pond. I would like to have all of them in hardcover, but fussbudget that I am, would prefer to have them as close to the original as possible. Getting them from the UK, even used, is a little expensive what with our lousy exchange rate and shipping fees. I see the Canadian editions were also published by Bloomsbury and the first book retains the "Philosopher's Stone" title. Does anyone know if the Canadian editions were similarly changed, or are they the same as the UK editions?
The Jesus in the Boardroom reminds me of that first scene between Gandalf and Bilbo in FOTR: you know there's some forced-perspective trickery involved, but damn if that wrong-sized table and teacup doesn't completely fool you into thinking the two people are completely different sizes!
Voila! Jesus Baggins!
My roommate just called from the nail salon to inform me she just saw Nathan Fillion. (Cap'n Tightpants was not getting a manicure - she saw him walking down the street.) I hardly think this is fair, as she works in Universal's Archives (which they decided at the last minute *not to close) and she has seen him on the lot. I never see anyone famous!
I attempted my first Chicago Style Pizza, which was 60% right, but the crust was just not *crusty* enough. I am now faced with the daunting task of figuring out what recipe might make the dough less, well, doughy, and more dense and crust-y.
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