Scribbles from a Hawthorne Fangirl

New on Science Blogs: Obesity Panacea

2010-03-12T17:37:40Z

First, I have a confession to make:

I love Science Blogs and have been reading it for awhile, even though I only just added it to my list o' Links located to the left of this entry.

It's funny. The more I realize that I'm actually good at Life Sciences, the more I'm starting to invest my free time into reading it. Keep in mind, this is something that I would've laughed at 6 years ago...yes it's taken me that long to realize I'm good at some kind of science.

Oh, the damage a bad high school-level science education can cause. While my school was top flight when it came to the humanities, it sucked donkey dung when it came to the maths and sciences. My truly scientifically gifted classmates usually ended up going to the community colleges for their sciences and used the science classes the rest of us attended to take a nap on their desks. It was pretty sad.

And I haven't been just loving Science Blogs, I've also added ontd_science to my FList. I know the ohnotheydidnt mothership "brand" on LJ is viewed as a frivolous gossip site, but the sub-communities for politics, science, creepy stories, and other special interests are actually quite good aggregators of "what's hot" and includes informative posts with links to the source material and where the silliness is kept pretty much to a minimum.

Anyway, I've been recently reading over on Science Blogs a new addition to the blog family there called Obesity Panacea.

Now, what I love about it is that the authors, both PhDs in exercise physiology, write very good, fair-minded, and well-researched information about common "beliefs" about health and obesity, i.e. the usefulness of BMI measurements. The blog also points out that the most important thing you can do to ensure your long life and health even into the geriatric stage is to get up off your ass and exercise (nutrition is important, too, but the stress is on movement, no matter how slight).

But the best thing of all on Obesity Panacea? Debunking the claims of weight loss schemes (their old archive is here, and it's well-worth clicking through). I love those articles.

It's weird how I'm slowly turning into an amateur life sciences geek...

TV Recommendation: Being Erica

2010-03-11T18:51:00Z

Okay, okay. I've been remiss about mentioning that I got sucked into Being Erica (proof positive that Canadians use their inbred niceness for soul-sucking evil) on SOAPnet (proof positive that Americans are just batshit insane).

By the way, I have positively no clue why a show like "Being Erica" is on (of all things) the Disney/ABC-owned SOAPnet. It's a straight-up genre show. Think Quantum Leap meets My So-Called Life.

The series in a netshell: Erica Strange is a 31-year-old fuck-up. She somehow is recruited to go into therapy so she can overcome her problems by the mysterious Dr. Tom. One problem: it's not just any therapy. It's time-traveling therapy where Erica gets to reverse her regrets. As she works through her list, Erica's life slowly starts to improve. However, dark hints are starting to emerge that there's "a price" for this free and supernatural therapy, and it sounds like it's a heavy one.

Now, I don't know how it all started, as I came into the series three episodes into Season 2 completely by accident. I think I caught an ad for the show on another network (USA, I think), and it looked interesting enough for me to give it a try.

I've got to tell you that even after watching the episodes I have, I still can't tell you why "Being Erica" is on SOAPnet.

Cablenets that would also make a lot more sense than SOAPnet for "Being Erica":

USA Network, which I think could really, really, really use another television series with a female lead. Right now they've got exactly one: In Plain Sight. All of their other series, both original and purchased, have male leads. Seriously.
Lifetime Network. While Lifetime has oodles of female-led shows, wouldn't it be nice to have a Lifetime show where the female lead wasn't passively going through life, a victim, a soon-to-be victim, or any combination of the above? Yeah. It would be kind of nice to have a plucky, over-30 heroine who's taking an active role in improving herself on Lifetime, wouldn't it? (Whoops! Forgot they have Drop Dead Diva, but that's one show in a sea of Lifetime crap.)
SyFy. If SyFy wasn't so deluded into believing that only men 18-34 watch their network, "Being Erica" would probably be double-billed with Eureka. However, since SyFy seems to think that women avoid their network like it's herpes, I think the idea of ever seeing "Being Erica" or a show like it on this network is pretty much doomed.

In any case, I am *uncontrollably excited* (see icon) because I found out two things:

Rumor has it that the crack-dealing CBC has renewed "Being Erica" for a third season
Hulu is streaming the entire series on-line (U.S. Audiences only). This means I can actually watch all of Season 1 and the beginning bit of Season 2. Yay!

Yes, "Being Erica" is not terribly deep. It's a cute, fun show that frequently passes the Bechdel Test. It's got a relatable female character who not only actually takes an active role in improving her life, but is actually capable of learning from her mistakes. Not only that, she's over the age of 30. Sure, it's a soap-bubble of a genre show, but it's a show that makes me pretty damn happy in a goofy kind of way.

Definitely recommended.

Congrats to Washington DC

2010-03-09T21:51:40Z

For joining the list of place where gay people can be married.

Bit by bit, people. Bit by bit.

And now, from CNN, a video of the first gay couple to be married in Washington DC.

Please note: After all that nonsense last year blaming the passage of Prop 8 in California on a high black turnout, note that this video has two black women and a black minister. (True Fact: Catholics and Mormons were the driving force behind the pass-Prop 8 campaign, and don't let anyone tell you different.)

Yes. I ~~cried~~ got something in my eye watching this. *sniff*

Ladies and gentlemen...we're gonna win.

A Productive Day...Just Not At Work

2010-03-08T23:08:44Z

However, a very productive day on Facebook.

I found a long, lost relative that I've been dying to find and said relative didn't threaten to stuff me in a canon and shoot me to the moon. In fact, said relative seemed pleased that I pinged her via message and invited me to keep in contact.

I also Fanned a page dedicated to some theoretical high school class reunion for my high school class, which has my actual classmates on it.

Why?

I have no friggnig clue, especially since I didn't give a flying fuck about 90% of my high school classmates when I actually went to school with them. I think it's morbid curiosity to see what these people are doing with their lives, because I've got zero interest in paying good money to hang out with any of them and talk about the rotten ol' days over a theoretical dish of rubber chicken.

Ah, who am I kidding.

I just posted this to show off my shiny new Mythbusters Icon. GIP!

Moving Around Some FList-y Furniture

2010-03-08T17:59:33Z

This was somewhat sparked by the surprising discovery that I had accidentally banned two real people from my El-Jay (I've sent IMs of apology to those people) and not realized I had done that:

I'm desperately trying to clean up my FList on no less than four Journaling Sites and desperately trying to work it so that the majority of individual-people journals are on two journaling sites (the other sites I'm maintaining the accounts for archiving purposes and to comment on communities).

So, you might see me popping up as unfriending you in one place, but adding you as a friend/adding you to my circle in another place. For those people I've already friended on LJ where LJ is still your main journal, I may have simply dropped you from the other service(s) and have maintained you on my LJ FList.

If I've friended you in the wrong place (i.e., your main journal is really at LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, or InsaneJournal), please drop me a line at the Dreamwidth link below to let me know where you'd prefer me to be friending you.

What this boils down to is that I don't enough time in the day, and I'm starting to read things in triplicate.

At the same time, I'm also not going to get all high-handed and insist that I am moving over to X-Y-Z Journaling Site and if you don't go there, I'm not ever going to read you again. People have got very good reasons for maintaining their journaling site wherever they see fit (whether that's LJ, IJ, or DW), and it's not for me to question that.

Hell, I'm maintaining a presence on four journaling sites for various reasons (it would've been 5 had GreatestJournal not tanked), and that doesn't count the sites I use for professional/RL Internet presence.

So you can see the why of the moving furniture.

Remember, if I've friended you on the "wrong" journalizing services (i.e., not your main journal), click on the Dreamwidth link below to let me know where you'd prefer that I friend you.

Reasons Why She Might Not Be So Awesome

2010-03-05T16:26:48Z

Why Strong Female Characters are Bad for Women hits the nail precisely on the head on the frustration I have for a lot of female characters on teevee.

It explains something that has been nagging at me for quite awhile about how women (in general) are portrayed in media, a same nagging that quite a lot women I know have similar problems with, yet none of us can explain exactly why.

Women are either "powerful" (for a given definition of "powerful"), or utterly useless. While the men get to be shades in-between.

Naturally, when women point out that something is rotten in the state of television, the guys around us are all, "But superpowered, kickass, uberconfident women! What's your problem?"

And we're left with, "Yes, but..." and still unable to exactly explain what the problem is.

The explanation usually circles the same conclusion as the article, "Because most of the women portrayed aren't actual people. They're paint-by-the-numbers wish fulfillment for the males in the audience, the little filly that needs to be broken by her 'one true love', or an illustration in how no matter how good you are at what you do a pencil-necked geek with a serious lack of social skills will still have to save to your ass with his manly-manliness."

This is not feminism. This is feminism as defined by men who'd like to think they're feminists, but they're really kind of not.

In the end, this is all very simple: Women like it when women are portrayed as people, not a stand-in for something else, and definitely not when the character's whole reason for existing is to make some kind of point.

It seems that an awful lot of male writers for television and movies don't get this.

(These above points pretty much explain the problems I started having with Joss Whedon's "feminist" writing several years ago, and why I want to pull my hair out when people are still drinking kool aid on this. The only reason why I harp on the "Joss Whedon is not a fucking feminist" thing is because he keeps insisting he is. I keep looking at his stock female characters — which are the same in just about every damn thing he creates — and going, "Just about the only one who counts is Zoe on Firefly, but only because Firefly was canceled before he got bored and decided to give her a lobotomy so she'd be doing stupid, selfish shit for the sake "drama".

It's funny because it's true.

I used to joke near the end of the BtVS-AtS run that Buffy's storyline could be summed up as "It's All About Buffy's Vagina". Issue 33 of the BtVS has only reinforced that joke.]

That's not to say that you can't find female characters who are written like real people on television shows that are running right now, because you can. The problem is that they're really few and far between compared to, say, men on television.

Some of them you can find in obvious places, like Rose Byrne on Damages, or Lydia Adams and Chickie Brown on Southland.

Some of them you can find in the not-so-obvious places, like Maddy Westen on Burn Notice and Juliet O'Hara on Psych.

[I maintain that the Jury is Out on Caprica, although signs point to "promising". Let's see how it goes.]

The fact is, as the article I've linked to points out, women are NOT looking for superpowered women or uber-confident women or perfect women. We would just like to see human beings in the shape of women.

At the end of the day, this isn't really that hard to figure out.

Note to All Male Writers (and Some Women) Everywhere, Whether You're a Pro Writer or a Fan Writer:

Women are people too.

They really, really are people just like you.

Just keep repeating that over, and over, and over again until you get it.

Loves and Kisses — Moi

Yeah, it sounds pretty obvious and dumb, but we gotta start somewhere and right now a lot of people (especially men) clearly need to be put in the remedial class.

In case your're wondering about my definition of "strong female characters who are also flawed human beings", I did a picture-heavy favorites list almost two years ago:

Fictional Women Who Rock My World: Queens, Soldiers, Working Women, and Lovable Scoundrels and Witches.

Five Dreamwidth Invites

2010-03-04T23:20:41Z

Right now, I have five Dreamwidth code invites.

If anyone wants them, click on the link at the end of this post to respond.

I will screen comments so I'll be the only one who might see potentially sensitive and personal information.

It may take a few days for me to get back to you, mostly because I've got to, got to, got to finish my Apocabigbang (sooooooo close, sooooo close, but it's like pulling teeth in a bad way).

P.S. — If you're requesting a Dreamwidth invite, I need your email address so I can send it to you.

Thanks!

Someone Clear This Up for Me... (BtVS Comic Book Spoilers)

2010-03-04T14:28:16Z

I've been dying to ask this now since the BtVS comics spoilers about Twilight have come out, and now that they have, I'm asking...

Before certain BtVS 'shippers RAGE and cancel their subscripions, and other BtVS 'shippers get too happy about the sparkly flying sex I keep hearing so much about...

( You do realize that Twilight is responsible for a lot of deaths, right? Spoilers under the cut... )

So, in short, it seems to me that given who Twilight is, he could've accomplished the exact same goal without killing lots and lots of people (Slayers, soldiers, Oz's wife...) by not wearing a mask and instead going with his real face.

Oh, yeah. Twilight and the Dude Under the Mask is a Douchenozzle, indeed.

Bah! I don't know why I'm even shocked by the crack-tastically crappy writing associated with BtVS any more.

*throws up hands*

Have I mentioned that I'm really, really happy that I don't buy the comic books? I've read them, but I don't buy them.

Pee. Ess. — No, I haven't read this issue yet, but based on the various LJ-based reactions, I'm kind of with some of the Spuffies on this: a certain segment of fandom just got hit with a very, very mean-spirited issue of the comic.

Although, I admit, I might change my mind if comics put a bullet in the brain of all ships, including the new on-going one in the comics (especially the new on-going one).

Because, honestly? I will bake Buffy and her creator a million cookies if in the end Buffy was single and too busy being awesome to bother with any romance at all.

Oh, and give Xander and Giles their own focused issues (I've long given up on either one of them getting anything resembling a story arc or character development) where they're not the butt-monkeys or assholes, you punks.

My Savings Account Is Whimpering...

2010-03-03T21:34:29Z

Soooooo...

I've laid down the money for my kayaking season pass, and because I renewed early I was given 2 free all-day kayak rental passes (you can only use it if you're with me, I think). The price has gone up just a smidge this year.

Then, because I really, really, really, really need to improve my swimming abilities (which can be described as tread water-dog paddle-deadman's float) if I'm going to stick with this kayaking thing, I signed up for swimming lessons at the YMCA.

Also coming right up: paying my federal taxes (because I don't have any Mommy's Little Tax Write-Offs nor do I own property) and the continued fall-out of avoiding dentists for the past 5 years due to dentist-fear (no teeth pulling, but I have a final chip that needs fixing and then they're going to start digging tartar and plaque out from under my gum line. Gah!).

Oh, and did I mention that I have to buy a bathing suit at some point in the next month? And since I'm planning on lessons and taking advantage of the adult free swims to practice, I'm not planning on buying a cheap suit. Not that I could even if I wanted to. Some us have bewbs that don't allow us to walk into a Target and buy off the rack.

My savings account has already begun to whimper. Come May 1, it's gonna be screaming for mercy.

Not to mention that my calendar is already looking like summer-level busy, only now it's starting at the end of April, thanks to the Y lessons

I think I'm just going to hope like hell that nothing emergency-like will be coming up for the next few months, because that would suck.

Jesus Christ. Caught Plagiarizing. Again.

2010-02-28T23:46:53Z

How many of you out there remember Ozmandayus, the Buffy/Xander and sometime Faith/Xander writer who got caught plagiarizing from fics in the X-Files to write his smut? He was also caught doing the same in Smallville, Dark Angel, and Power Rangers fandoms.

Remember how he apologized, dropped off the radar for a while, changed his name to Shawn, and re-entered with a note of apology and promises that he'll never do it again?

Guess what. He's done it again.

Same fandom. Same pairings.

I missed the initial post about this on <stop_plagiarism, but caught today's follow-up post about it.

Worst of all, the specific instance of plagiarism was found in a story in the I Need a Parrot Archive.

Rest assured, I've pinged whiskyinmind about it. It appears I still have my Modly Powers still active on INAP, but as I've been really, really, really remiss about performing my duties over there for at least 6 months, and since whiskyinmind actually owns the archive, I'm letting her make the call.

[Please note: I JUST pinged whiskyinmind on this about 5 minutes ago, and she has limited access to a computer. It may take up to a week for this issue with Shawn to get resolved. I guarantee that the offending story is gone for sure.] — whiskyinmind agreed with me and had me nuke his INAP account. See below for more details.

If it were up to me, I'd nuke all of his stories from the archive, rather than just the offending one where he was caught with his fingers in the plagiarism pie. (Again. Jesus Christ!)

To give him credit, it appears that he's raiding non-fandom original fic stories posted on the net, rather than other fandom stories. That's a marginally smarter way to go about it. I guess.

As for why I'm so completely pissed off about the whole deal (as opposed to my more than usual pissy responses to such things) is that I've been wrestling my apocabigbang for months. Not weeks. Months. And it's been like pulling teeth from a grizzly bear while it's trying to eat me.

Needless to say, this news about Ozmandays/Shawn pulling the same ol' bullshit these many years later after already being caught once does not make my day.

And here I was going to post good news to my ElJay about fic award nominations and such, but I think I'd rather save it until tomorrow when I'm slightly less livid about this.

He did it again.

Jesus Christ.

P.S. — Revenge of the Pissed off INAP Mods: Per whiskyinmind's orders, I have nuked every single one of Shawn's stories off of INAP, locked his account, and sent him the following email explaining our reasons. As for permabanning him, I'm not sure how to do that, so I'm leaving that for whiskyinmind to work her computer magic on.

Please note: There is no appeal for this decision.

Note to Shawn under the cut explaining the reasons why he's no longer welcome on INAP:

( The email to Shawn )

Have I mentioned that geese are also evil?

2010-02-12T20:58:00Z

I may have mentioned in the recent past that swans are teh ev0l.

I hope I have mentioned that barnyard geese can be equally evil.

Behold! Pro-kayak angler Drew Gregory will now demonstrate just how evil barnyard geese can be. (Yes, I laugh at other people's pain. Why do you ask?)

I can hear you out there. At some point after the laughter, you're going to say, "Hey! She hasn't posted crap in a month and when she does she posts a video of a pro-kayak angler getting his ass kicked by a goose.

Well, I've been busy doing the following:

Going to the gym and doing Wii FitPlus
Writing my story for the apocabigbang
Watching by Adventures of Brisco County Jr. DVDs because I desperately need to shut off my post-work brain a little bit
Zooming around in lurker mode on ElJay

Which means that I have not written or posted the following:

Doing my cardio at the gym while barefoot. And how you can do it, too!
A Review of the Awesomely, Hilariously Snarkalicious Wii FitPlus (And why people with body dysmorphic disorders should probably stay the hell away...)
Do Not Call Italians "Guidos" If You Want to Live (and Other Reasons Why the Cast of Jersey Shore Needs to Die) — Rumor has it there's a new season and that they're coming to Revere. Much as I hate that show, hate that cast, and hate the fact that they made ethnic slurs against Italians "cool", I'm almost hoping this will happen. Because the first "Guido" that comes out of these chuckleheads' mouths will end in the locals getting together to set fire to whatever house they're living in while they're still in it. I'll volunteer to bring the makings for s'mores when that happens. Low class, meathead motherfuckers.
Pointing Out the Obvious: If I'm Posting My Thinky Thots in My Own Journal, I'm Not Derailing You in Yours (I would think obvious post would be pretty damn obvious, but not so! Apparently. There are now rules about when you can post your own thinky thots in your own journal without being accused of doing something or other or being something or other, even if you innocently did it wholly unaware that you were supposed to wait a little while before posting your thinky thots. Or better, not posted your thinky thots at all! Even if you weren't aware that you weren't supposed to be thinking thinky thots! Say what? Does someone have a Xeroxed handout or something? Because these rules look really, really wrong to me.)

Why have I not written the above? As you may have noticed, lack of time, busy at work, busy with a fanfic, and I really don't feel like dealing with overwhelming wank about what I am and am not allowed to write in my own damn journal any time I damn well feel like it or why it is not fucking okay to call Italians guidos.

Now that I've mentioned it, I'm sure there'll be wank anyway. Which I'm going to ignore. Because I can.

Look, before you wank, just watch the evil goose attack the fishing kayaker again, okay? It'll help with your (and my) blood pressure to know that we can agree that the video above is just some funny shit.

liz_marcs @ 2009-12-22T17:56:00

2009-12-22T22:58:18Z

The The Sing-Off live show sounded better than the three pre-recorded shows combined — and all three groups really did sound outstanding.

[According to scuttlebutt, NBC pulled in a few sound people that are big in a cappella circles to make what was supposed to be a throw-away talent show a little shinier because, as it turns out, the ratings were surprisingly good for the relatively small price tag attached.]

And can I just say: What a nice, feel good show! With the sole exception of Noteworthy's so-obvious-everyone's-remarking-on-it entitlement issues, all of the groups genuinely seemed to be having a good time and seemed to be genuinely supportive of each other, complete with rounds of hugs.

In any case, I think everyone going into the live show pretty much knew NOTA was going to be crowned. I called them the winners during the opening night, in large part because they do Latin-flavored pop very well, they were better than most of the other groups on the stage, and a lot of their weaknesses can be overcome via technology in the recording booth and improvements in their stage show for live performances.

And unlike some people on the NBC boards (and a couple of other chat boards I've poked my nose into), I think NOTA won the popular vote fair and square for those reasons.

(Note to my geography-challenged fellow Americans on the various chat boards I've poked my nose into: Puerto Rico is a protectorate of the United States, which means that Puerto Ricans are Americans citizens, which also means that the members of NOTA are Americans. They are not "foreigners", nor are they "illegals", nor do they need "green cards". In short: Die in a fire, you racist asswipes.)

I definitely didn't get the impression that the Tufts Beelzebubs (My homies came in second! Go 'Bubs!) were in the least bit shocked that the NOTA won. Besides, 'Bubs (and Voices of Lee) would've been looking at a fuckload of headdaches if they won the Sony contract (they were planning to split the money if they won). Does it go to the group that performed on stage? The a cappella groups as a student organizations where the membership changes year in and year out? To the universities these groups are associated with?

So, not only do I think the right group won on talent, I would also say that the right group won on "ease of dealing with the legal world of Sony for the recording contract". As a bonus, both the 'Bubs and Voices of Lee got a fantastic shot in the arm publicity-wise and financially, since a lot of people were on the boards asking for CD recommendations. Both groups will be fine,

In other news, I was shocked to spot celebrities in the audience:

Harry Connick Jr.
Masi Oka (aka Hiro of Heroes). As it turns out was the musical director of Brown University's all-male a cappella group The Bear Necessities when he was an undergrad student at Brown. I don't know why that makes me happy to know, but it does.
Jack Black. Or at least someone who looked a lot like him.
Peter Gallaggher of The OC. Turns out that he's a Tufts Beelzebubs alumni, which explains why he was sitting in the 'Bubs cheering section. Heh.

I also saw that the SoCals stuck around, and were clapping and cheering for the three finalists in the audience, which was really nice to see.

While there were parts of last night's show that I did fast-forward through (thank you DVR!), there was plenty I watched.

Put me on the list of people who'd like to see this show pop up again next year.

In the meantime, here's a video capture from the Sing-Off of the 'Bubs singing their melody of The Who from the second night:

As it turns out, I'm NOT a wimp...

2009-12-21T22:41:38Z

I woke up this morning with my lower back going into full-on bitch mode at me.

I of course blame this on the Plow Snot that had been dumped at the end of my driveway that came up to — OhSweetJeezus — my chest. Now, I admit I be short (5-feet, 1-inch in my stocking feet to be precise), but that's a fuckload of snow.

Even in snow that wasn't pushed into a tiny mount of Plow Snot, it came up to my knees, which is roughly 16 inches (I have long legs for my shortness). I figure...drifting snow. And I'm being a baby about this (I mean literally, because I was whining the entire time I cut through the Plow Snot just so I could see my car, let alone reach it.)

Thanks to my local paper, I can now officially say that I was not being a baby. My town got whammed with 14 inches of snow. So there.

And my lower back is still in full-on bitch mode, although giving myself a nice big stretch seems to make it happy and calm it down for an hour or two.

In other news, Sing-Off Live Finale Tonight! Go Beelzebubs! Okay, not a chance in hell you're gonna win, but I'll be happy if you beat Voice of Lee, if only because their fans over on the NBC community are kind of ass-hatty.

[Side note: Stay the hell away from from the NBC boards for this show if you want to prevent cranial trauma by head-desk. The FAIL is great there. And I mean FAIL on a scale that I never thought I'd witness this side of a newspaper comments section.]

Apoca-wha?

2009-10-05T14:57:06Z

I think just about everyone and their brother knows that my fanfiction brain has been on a bit of the blink.

Okay, okay, there was Reaping the Whirlwind for the Remix this year...a fic I still haven't managed to finish transferring to this ElJay and I still haven't finished responding to all the comments on it both here and on the remix community.

Anyway, I was cleaning my apartment this weekend after five months' of neglect (I still haven't gotten to my bedroom, but my office, bathroom, kitchen, and living room are ♥ spotless ♥), and I come across a burned hardcopy of my soundtrack to Living History tucked in some odd corner.

You have to understand how excited I was to find it. I thought the entire thing had been lost when a computer motherboard crapped out on me several years ago and forced me to buy my current computer tower. Yet, here was a hardcopy of that same soundtrack. Clearly it was meant to be a gift for someone because it had been burned to my "gift CDs", which are designed to look like 45s.

Somehow these CDs got lost or overlooked, and here was that same soundtrack, complete with tracks that I thought were pretty much gone forever, right in my hand.

I did a little jig when I put the CDs in the player (it's a two-CD set) and...

While the music was playing this plot bunny for a Xander-centric, post-apocalypse story drops right into my head. Mid-size story (not a short story, but definitely not as long as Reaping the Whirlwind), so infinitely do-able.

(Of course, it would be a hell of a lot more helpful if the bunny could help with some additional material for the WiPs, or help fix the stories that are finished but the endings are such messes that I simply refuse to post them until they're fixed — for that last one I'm looking at you "Last Tin Soldier.")

While I'm thinking, "What the hell? Maybe just picking at this will inspire you to deal with all the other stories you've left to rot," I snap on the computer and began picking away at bits and pieces of of this post-apocalypse story idea. I still have to work out some of the rules how this post-apocalyptic world works, as well as a few other things, but I think it's workable.

I'm not an apocalyptic writer in general — although I'd say Ishmael Sings of the White Whale comes fairly close, there are no actual apocalypses involved in that one — I'm finding myself really, really drawn to this idea. I think the premise is fairly unusual, and I'm kind of enjoying making up the new slang words Xander's using. Plus his traveling buddy is...different.

Do I have to tell you that the story's gen? Do I? If so? It's gen.

Anyway, I couldn't figure out there this mania to write an apocalypse story has been coming from. This, as I open my FList this morning, I see some chatter about apocabigbang.

*smacks self on forehead*

I suspect that I had been seeing people on my FList chattering about this fic-a-thon, but due to my horrendously busy schedule I hadn't been paying it that much attention. Obviously the whole thing lodged in the back my brain and, possibly triggered by listening to my Living History soundtrack, the idea for this story just fell from the sky and landed in my brain.

So, I've signed up. (*deep breath*) The first draft isn't due until February. I'm very, very sure I can make this deadline, even if the bunny fairy finally does something about my WiPs.

ZOMG! HEY U GAIS! It's like TOTALLY the LOST WORLD except REAL!

2009-09-09T18:36:59Z

via ontd_political and The Guardian.

According The Guardian:

A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

Read more here....

This link will take you to a story about how the scientists finally got into the volcano's caldera.

You can hear an audio of the adventure here.

And also check out the awesome pictures of the new species. As a taste, check out the newly discovered king bird of paradise. Tell me that doesn't look like a phoenix.

Photograph taken by Ulla Lohmann/BBC and published in The Guardian on Wednesday, September 9, 2009.

Happy 09/09/09 everyone! Wish me luck with my Novocaine adventures, because baby needs her teeth drilled this afternoon.

Working Is Kicking My Ass...So Here's a Video of Fred Astaire Dancing to Smooth Criminal

2009-09-01T19:26:18Z

What?

Hollywood Golden Age Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, and Leslie Caron dancing to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."

What did you think I meant?

Good-bye Senator Kennedy

2009-08-26T13:54:17Z

Sen. Kennedy has died.

He's been senator longer than I've been alive. Hell, longer than most people I know have been alive.

The news of his cancer last year made me feel mortal in a way that I hadn't before. His death has left me on the verge of tears. The man certainly had his personal demons, no one is going to to deny that and only a brain-dead fool would say otherwise. Demons that were certainly bad enough (and deadly enough in one case) to keep him from ever being president.

But as Kennedy later said: letting go of the idea of ever being president made him realize that some people were just better suited to be senators and that he was one of those people.

As senator — as the Last Lion of Congress — he has done more to help the working men and women in this nation than he ever could have managed as president. He was unapologetically liberal in his belief that the the least of us should be protected and that government could be a positive force for change. He fought for that every step of the way, from the minimum wage to the fight for health care reform and some form of national insurance in the US.

If you've ever been grateful for minimum wage because you knew your boss would pay you less if he or she could get away with it, benefited from the HIPAA, used your health insurance to pay for mental health services (Mental Health Parity Act), accessed your state CHIP to get health insurance for your children, taken advantage of COBRA after leaving a job or getting laid off, been glad that local businesses and public spaces were forced to adhere to the ADA for yourself or a family member, been low-income but able to gain access to AIDS treatment thanks to federally funded programs, or taken advantage of Title IX requirements that schools offer women a chance to play sports, you should thank Sen. Kennedy for being the moving force behind these and many, many other bills.

Although the history books will more likely remember his assassinated brothers, Jack and Bobby, at the end of the day Ted is the one who created the lasting legacy — the one that benefits and will continue to benefit the regular citizens of this nation. In the end, that's the legacy that truly counts.

So, good-bye Senator. Some people laughed at you. Some people hated you. Some people idealized you. But a whole lot of people loved you for the things you did on our behalf in the Senate, warts and all. That is why we kept electing you for 47 years, and that is why we're sorry you're gone. We shall never see your like again.

Rest in peace, Senator, and God speed.

For full coverage from The Boston Globe, go here.

Hannaford's Health Programs and Boycotting Whole Foods

2009-08-14T15:34:04Z

I do quite a lot of shopping at my local Hannaford super market — which is kind of a cross between your standard Stop & Shop and Whole Foods (although it's waaaaaaay cheaper than Whole Foods).

Even better, unlike Whole Foods, Hannaford's actually buys locally (where possible) for its dairy and produce.

Anyway, in light of the awful stories I'm reading about where my fellow Americans are essentially left without health care because they can't afford insurance or can't buy insurance at any price due to pre-existing medical conditions, I thought I'd at least offer some kind of solution to people in my backyard that they might not know about.

It appears that Hannaford's holds free nutrition classes (pre-reg required) at select locations.

It also appears Hannaford's has a prescription drug plan for $7 a year.

Just FYI, I'm not a paid shill for Hannaford's. I just happened to be on the Web site and I was floored by some of what I found there. I don't know if the above programs are any good, but it might be helpful to people living in the following states: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.

Now, the reason why I was on Hananford's Web site was because I was discussing my decision to boycott Whole Foods and offering alternatives for grocery shopping.

See Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, in a show of breath-taking ignorance about his customer base, wrote the most insane libertarian rant against not only any kind of nationalized health insurance scheme, but against regulating health insurance plans at all for The Wall Street Journal.

My favorite part is how he brags about giving his employees absurdly cheap insurance that sticks them with, get this, a $2,500-a-year deductible. But that's okay! The company deposits up to $1,800 in a health savings account for those insured employees (note: up to, which is to say, the odds of the person running the cash register getting that amount is practically nil).

Yeah. No. Not a penny more. I sent a politely-worded email to my local Whole Foods and CC'd corporate to inform them that due to their CEO's dickery, Whole Foods will never see another penny out of me. (I was a lot more polite about it.) I further added that I will be henceforth make do with Trader Joe's and Hannaford's, and that Whole Foods can just suck it (again, a lot more polite about it).

To be fair, I only shopped at Whole Foods every other week, and mostly for foods that I couldn't find elsewhere (food allergies suck!). Most of my grocery dollar was spent at Hannaford's anyway, in large part because I can find most of what I need there at a much cheaper price. However, there are some foods I could only get at Whole Foods and nowhere else. I'll just have to find alternatives, or do without.

In any case, for those of you who wish to withdraw your business from Whole Foods, but don't know about any alternatives, here are two Web sites you should check out (via Hullabaloo):

And thank you everyone who's chosen to participate in my Project: Time for a Little Truth, Baby.

For your reference, you can post your stories and/or questions in one of the following posts:

Once again, please keep the stories for both posts coming, and please pass the links around far and wide so people can read for themselves about the screwed up system in the U.S., and the reality of health care in other countries.

Thanks again everyone.

Project: Time for a Little Truth, Baby

2009-08-14T00:18:31Z

This information will make you cry (Americans Only: Uninsured and Underinsured.) As it turns out, even having insurance doesn't particularly help you if you become catastrophically ill.

This information will enrage Americans (Countries with Government Health Schemes: Talk About Your Health Insurance/Health Care Here, natch.) Why should it enrage Americans? Because I imagine there are a ton of Americans out there going, "Yes, yes. We want this. We don't care which one, just pick one!"

Also if there are any Canadians in da house, I've got a question that needs answering here.

Once again, please keep the stories for both posts coming, and please pass the links around far and wide so people can read for themselves about the screwed up system in the U.S., and the reality of health care in other countries.

The truth is out there, and as it turns out, this truth can be discovered by simply asking people for the truth. Viva l'Internet.

And in that vein:

If anyone in the U.S. happens to see a story filed by another American and you think you might know of a solution, or at least be able to point some people to aid and/or help for their situation, don't be shy and speak up. We've got some hurtin' people in there that sure could use a hand.

Comments for this post are closed. Please hit the links listed above to share your stories, facts, and figures.

And thank you everyone who's chosen to participate. A little light on the situation never hurt anyone.

Project: Time for a Little Truth, Baby

2009-08-13T03:53:38Z

Inspired by the Canadians and Britons on my list valiantly trying to correct the lies being spoon-fed to the American public.

This is the explanatory post, if you will.

There are a lot of lies running around out there about Health Reform in the U.S., including painting other countries' health schemes as somehow "worse" than what we have in the U.S. (which is demonstrably not true), as well as the kind of people health reform would benefit vs. harm.

There's a lot that can be said about the proposals floating around out there, some good, some bad. But we'll never reach a solution if we're screaming at each other about it.

What we need is some truth. Facts, figures, and reality on the ground.

Who are the Americans who stand to gain from health reform? And is health care and health insurance in other western democracies really nothing more than bureaucratic factories o' death?

Since this is the Age of the Internet, maybe we should just ask the people who know these things.

So, all you peeps out there in Internet-land: I'm asking you to lay it your fellow netizens. What's it really like out there in the big, wide world?

I will be collecting comments in two posts:

Anonymous commenting will be allowed, open, and unscreened on these two posts only. I will not be responding to any comments, only monitoring to keep the bloodshed down to a minimum.

The idea is to share facts and figures, and to tell your story in a place where people can come and read everything for themselves.

Spread the link around far and wide. All are welcome to comment.

Comments for this post are disabled. Please go to the links above to leave your comments.

Odd Thought for the Day

2009-08-12T14:48:29Z

via someone from high school who linked to me on Facebook (put up under my RL identity to screen this journal from potential snoopy-snoops):

It appears that Classmates (that online class reunion site that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole because I just fucking loved high school...) now allows partial profiles on the Internet.

Out of morbid curiosity, I checked out the list of people I went to high school with.

*boggles*

I may be a fat-ass, but at least I've aged well. (People generally guess that I'm 8 years younger than I actually am, give or take 2 years either way.)

Not only that, if I had some dude take a picture of me kayaking away and put that up on my profile, I'd look a lot healthier by a hell of a lot, too. Actually, fat-ass that I am, I'm actually in better shape than some of the pictures of my former high school classmates, especially the boys.

I call myself a fat-ass, and sure, I look like a fat-ass, but how many fat-asses do you know can row a little over 3 miles an hour? Yeah. That's what I thought. So let's call me, "Heavy, but fit."

Emily Litella: Nevermind

2009-08-12T13:09:56Z

Edit: Today is not my day. I was reliably informed that the character was Emily Litella, not Roseanne Roseannadanna whose catch phrase was "Nevermind."

I did say these characters were before my time, right?

Corrected message begins:

I was pretty much away teh internetz all day yesterday and last night.

I was informed that Tim Hortons corporate apologized for what turned out to be a local regional manager's screw-up. (I hope the regional manager is put at least on probation for not following company policy.)

In any case, in the words of Emily Litella: Nevermind.

Fuck the homophobic assholes at Tim Hortons. I'm staying with Dunkin Donuts.

2009-08-11T13:33:20Z

Tim Hortons just got caught co-sponsoring an anti-equality marriage event in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island, as you know, is the lone New England hold out on legalizing same-sex marriage, primarily because the Catholic Church still have way too much sway over politicians in that state. Although, to be fair to Rhode Island, it does recognize same-sex marriage licenses issues in other states, which means there's a weird situation where gay people in Rhode Island go to Connecticut or Massachusetts to get married and then return home with a marriage certificate Rhode Island will recognize, but won't issue for itself.

The event was sponsored by the excretable National Organization for Marriage (NOM) — aka, the "Gay people should stay in the closet because they're icky" group — which really is a national anti-gay rights organization. According to the Blue Mass blog, it appears that NOM has a butt-buddy in the Tim Hortons organization.

In my mind, that makes Tim Hortons look worse.

Needless to say, Canadians frown on companies who get into bed with American right-wing religious wack-a-loons. The resulting uproar resulted in Tim Hortons pulling out of sponsorship of the event. (Tim Hortons has some store fronts in southern Rhode Island, just in case you're wondering why the company did something stupid like sticking its snout in a Rhode Island issue.)

Well, now that I know what kind of company Tim Hortons is, it appears that I will be sticking with Dunkin Donuts for the foreseeable future.

Kayaking Adventures: How I Saved a Little Old Lady from Getting Beat Up By a Swan

2009-08-09T15:33:18Z

Yay! I can finally post on LJ without anything getting eaten!

Yesterday I was out on the River getting in some quality kayaking in what was the most gorgeous day. My upper body strength must be astounding because I rowed 6 miles in just under 2 hours without hardly any effort, despite the fact I was rowing the equivalent of a cork in bathtub and was fighting the crazy hydrodynamics of a rain-swollen Charles River.

Behold, I am cute and mighty! \0/

( Cut for nattering about the Necky Manitou 13 and Rough Rowing )

Now, no doubt, you want to hear about how I saved a little old lady from getting beaten up by a swan.

First, let me set the scene. There's a section of the river that has a lot of islands and promontories jutting into the river. In this one particular area, it gets pretty narrow, just big enough for two kayaks to pass through. Worse, it's a bit of a blind curve because of the trees growing on the islands and the shore. You can't see who might be up ahead until you're already nosing into the blind curve.

Up ahead, I could see a trio of kayakers consisting of an older woman and two teens passing through this narrow area. Because I was rowing along at a pretty good clip, I was gaining on them pretty quickly, but I figured all three would be through that area before I caught up.

As I turn the corner, I see the older woman is stalled right at the opening that would bring her into the wider river, and that the kids were a couple of yards ahead.

I think, "No problem. I'll just navigate around her."

As I do that, see that a family of swans is blocking any hope of moving forward. We're talking two monster-sized adult swans and five — count 'em five — juveniles. The juveniles were almost as large as the adults, but were still covered in grey fluffy down. There wasn't even a hint of a white feather on them.

Now, I think you need to realize something important here (aside from the fact that swans are evil, I mean). When you're sitting in a kayak and you're barely 5'1" in your stocking feet, an adult swan in the water is as tall as you are. In short, it can look you right in the eyeball while it decides whether or not it's going to kick the ever-loving shit out of you.

And this little old lady in the kayak was shorter than I am.

Needless to say, life was looking to get interesting.

Dramatis Personnae:

Our Heroine (OH)
Innocent Little Old Lady (ILOL)
Evil Mommy Swan (EMS)
Fuzzy Baby Swan (FBS)

Our Heroine (OH): [sees evil swan family with two adults and five cygnets] Oh, shit!

Evil Adult Swans: *glares at kayaks*

Fuzzy Five Baby Swans: *swim, swim, swim*

Innocent Little Old Lady (ILOL): Aren't they beautiful? I've never been this close before!

OH: Don't. Move.

ILOL: What?

Evil Mommy Swan (EMS): *sidles up to ILOL's kayak*

OH: Don't. Move. You might set them off.

Fuzzy Baby Swan (FBS): *darts over to my kayak and settles in about 6 inches from my right hand*

ILOL: Set them off? What do you mean?

OH: Swans are evil. If you make a wrong move, that swan floating right next to your boat is going to go bonkers and attack.

ILOL: It's a bird.

OH: A bird that's big enough and mean enough that it can break bones if it hits you hard enough. You'll end up tipping over and wind up in the the river. So, don't move until I tell you to move.

EMS: *glares at ILOL and pulls right up to her cockpit; ILOL and EMS are now eyeball to eyeball*

FBS: *innocently looks at OH like it can't quite make out what kind of bird OH might be*

ILOL: Ummmm, they're bigger than I thought they were.

OH: [looks at FBS] Don't try and pat it. They'll take off your hand at the wrist.

ILOL: Seriously?

FBS: *looking fuzzy, cute, and innocent like it wouldn't hurt a fly*

EMS: *continues glaring at ILOL*

Meanwhile, Daddy Swan (I assume it was the male because it was bigger than the Evil Mommy Swan menacing the Innocent Little Old Lady) had corralled the remaining four cygnets and had gotten them out of the way of our kayaks.

EMS: *twitches head to see where all her babies are*

OH: Get your paddle in the water. Slowly.

ILOL: *does as she's told*

FBS: *studies OH's kayak*

EMS: *turns glare back on ILOL and makes a warning trumpeting sound without even opening its beak*

OH: Move, move move!

ILOL: *starts rowing like a bat out of hell*

OH: *waits until ILOL is clear and then rows even faster just as EMS starts turning the evil glare on OH*

The whole thing took less than two minutes. During that time, the two teens realized that they had lost their grandmother and were turning their kayaks around to look for her. They saw she was with a second person, and figured she had stopped to talk to me. What they didn't realize that we were dealing with two adult swans who were not at all pleased to see us.

As soon as I caught up to her, the Innocent Little Old Lady said she never knew swans were evil. I explained that kayakers on the river make it a habit to warn if there were swans close by to other kayakers.

Anyway, it turns out that this was the first time this Innocent Little Old Lady had ever been in a kayak. (Good for her!) And that she was there with her grandchildren because she was curious what it was like. She even asked me about lessons.

Awwwwww.

Anyway, she thanked me for helping her out because she didn't even know that she had gotten herself in a tight spot. I told her it wasn't a problem.

As I rowed off, she was telling her grandchildren about our little adventure with the swans.

So, that's how I came eye-to-eye with the Evil Swans and lived to tell the tale. :-)

The cool bit of this story is that I actually got to hear a swan's trumpet. I never heard it for myself before.

It's actually kind of menacing when a swan does it while glaring at you.

The the moral of the story: When in negotiations with Mother Nature, keep in mind that Mother Nature always wins. All you can do is remain calm until the crisis is past.

Tweeting American History: John Quincy Adams

2009-08-04T19:06:21Z

Per the Boston Globe today, the Massachusetts Historical Society will be translating President John Quincy Adam's diary entries into Tweets. The project started Monday.

And what may have inspired this madness, you may ask?

As it turns out, J.Q. Adams's diary entries look exactly like Tweets, often coming in at less than Twitter's 140-character limit.

The subject matter is also about what you'd expect to find in a Tweet, too.

In short, if our sixth president were alive today, his fingers would be glued to the Blackberry and it would be pointed permanently to Twitter

For those who are interested, click here to follow John Quincy Adams's Tweets.

The Massachusetts Historical Society (Motto: "We're second only to Virginia in the 'real American' sweepstakes, damn it! So stop saying we're not real Americans! We're looking at you all 48 Johnny-come-lately states!") describes the project in this blog post.