Woo-hoo! Last night on the Jack Bauer Power Hour: More Evil Women! Sweet! And a Platoon reunion, featuring Francesco Quinn and Kevin Dillon. I guess Johnny Depp was too busy being a gay pirate at that time.

Those episodes of 24 were eerily timely; torture aplenty was going on all over the place. To be honest, beating the crap out of someone who knows where a bomb is going off doesn't bother me. Threatening his family, though, ugh. I *do* like the solution they came up with - Industrial Light and Magic might become subcontractors for the Military Intelligence branches of the armed forces. For a moment, I thought Bauer had put the ultraviolet into black ops.

Since I'm all out of 24 disks, I'll have to watch something else tonight. I've been itching to watch more of the Office, the BBC comedy. Despite the accents the British apparently have the same type of office culture we have here. The kid who was in the British equivalent of the National Guard has me rolling most of the time. "I'm the assistant regional manager!" - "You're the assistant to the regional manager!" And like a lot of BBC programming, it gets away with stuff you just won't see on the networks. The huge inflatable penis, for instance.

I guess I need to go see Shrek 2. Considering how much of a hit Finding Nemo was last year and the strong box office Shrek 2 is doing, I have a feeling we're going to see more goofy animated films. The moral of this story, studio heads, is this: if you want people to enjoy your movies, don't smack them so hard over their heads with political correctness!

Both Shrek and Finding Nemo had some, but it was good! Amidst the fart jokes, Lord Farqhuad (*heh*) and "Eat me!" Shrek had a strong message about looks being in the eye of the beholder. Finding Nemo had a strong message about parenting, and not holding someone down because of his or her disability. Plus it had sharks on a 12 step program, bubbles, and "Mine. Mine! Mine? Mine!" Both movies were funny as hell and had a message without being pedantic. Whoops! I'm feelin a word of the day coming on!

pedantic
SYLLABICATION: pe·dan·tic
ADJECTIVE: Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.

Since I pretty much stopped writing about my diet, I finally got around to changing the name of my blog. I think I found a non-monetary oriented way of publishing photos! I have to do it from home, so be prepared to be subjected to stupid photos of my darling cats in the near future.

Rolled in from another town,
hit some gold too hot to settle down.
But a fool and his money soon go separate ways
and you found a fool lyin' in a daze.
Ha Ha woman what you gonna do,
you destroyed all the virtues that the Lord gave you.
It's so good that you're feelin' pain,
but you better get your face on board the very next train.
Evil Woman,...


Yikes! Jon and I spent 6 hours with Jack Bauer last night. Poop is a happenin, including the return of the Evil Women. That's one thing I love about the show; both of the protagonists have women antagonists who are downright scary. President Palmer's wife is rightly referred to as "Lady MacBeth" at Television Without Pity. What a power-mad, manipulative, harridan! I really like her. I mean, I like to hate her. Then there's Our Lady of the Perpetual Bad Hair Day, (that's mine, not TWoP's), bleep, who bleeped bleep's -oh, hell. If you don't want to be spoiled, go elsewhere. Nina is a cold, ruthless, mercenary badass. Can't wait to see where they are going with her character. Maybe she'll kill Kim and gain 24's devoted followers complete love and admiration.

By the way, if you don't recognize those lyrics, you probably missed the 70's. I used to love ELO. Now I can't stand them. I can sing along with any of their songs, though. Even some of the really obscure shite off of their first 3 albums. I was amused by how many adverts all of a sudden started using "Mr. Blue Sky" a while back (including the ads for Adaptation which was really strange because that song wasn't in the movie).

Today we found a squirrel, 2 robins, a duck, and a moose in the pool. I'm kidding; only the usual assortment of spiders and bugs in the skimmer. One of these days I'm going to actually have to swim in it...

The post office *finally* coughed up the first disk of 24, season 2. Or as one forum wittily put it, the Jack Bauer Power Hour. That guy has one really long, rough day once a year. Think God has it out for him? Apparently; it just got renewed for a 4th season. This season has Jack running around L.A. looking for a nuclear bomb. I liked it in the first ep where he kills a man to get close to a suspect. He responds to Mason's shock with something like "you guys want results but you never want to get your hands dirty." Heh. He just put the black into black ops. Mason's still a spineless creep; Tony still looks put-upon. And Kim's still whiny, but she's a chip off the old block when it comes to action. And Democrat, schmemocrat. I'd vote for someone with President Palmer's integrity, any election year.

Pulled out of our Dead Pool the other day: a big fat hairy dead rat. Can someone explain why some rat would all of a sudden try to go swimming? Maybe he was just leaning over for a drink and he slipped. Still, ewww.

Acid reflux is now under control. I'm taking Prilosec right now. Nothing like burning up your own esophagus. About a year ago I had an endoscopy to see if I had a hiatal hernia. Thank goodness, no. The doctor put me under and when I woke up, I remember being incredibly happy. That was some awesome anaethetic! Unlike the time I had my wisdom teeth removed and I woke up depressed and crying. It could have been the pain, though.

I have a friend whose sister just got into a car wreck. She had a head on collision with another car, and she was high. Plus the police found drugs in her car. I wish drugs were legal, but they're *not*; and they are a stupid, stupid way or ruining your life. I'm not talking about addiction, I'm talking about legality. I hope the other driver pulls through; otherwise we're looking at vehicular homicide. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Happy belated birthday to Nancy. Hope the kid settles down soon. She wrote about her kid's tantrums on her blog recently; I went and found my onery, decrepit old kitty and gave her a lot of pets out of gratitude.

I am still going to the gym. I loathe the cardio stuff. Still love the weight lifting, though. Why, oh why does food taste so damn yummy?

The post office lost disk 1 of Season 2 of 24 (curse their hides), so I channel surfed most of last night. Highlights included the "Good Old Blues Brothers Boys" sequence from The Blues Brothers, one of the finest movies based on an SNL skit. Am I damning it with faint praise? I love their rendition of "Stand By Your Man" ("bay-beh!"). I'm echoing a friend's sentiments here (hi, Nancy!): I miss the skinny, uptight Dan Ackroyd.

Then I watched Mail Call, the program R. Lee Ermey hosts on the Hitler Channel. It's an enjoyable program on military hardware. This episode perked my interest because he did a tandem skydive with members of the U.S. Army's Parachute Team, the Golden Knights. Hell, I'd be a hot skydiver, too, if I got to jump on the taxpayer's dollar, whine whine whine. Well, they do a lot of demos which can't hurt our sport.

For the most part. Some members of the Golden Knights were to do a demonstration jump into the Huntsville International Airport for a huge airshow. They had to cancel because a few weeks earlier, quite a few of them got injured jumping into a race track in extremely high, gusty winds. That was a dumbass thing to do; it puts a black eye on our sport as well as gets people killed. And not just jumpers. People have been injured because a skydiver landed on them. I sincerely hope reprimands aplenty were administered for that stunt.

The followup is our drop zone was asked to fill in. We were happy to do so, although the airport were a bunch of tightwads towards us, especially since I know that the Golden Knights ain't cheap. I was told by some of our ground crew that the audience was told that the Golden Knights had to cancel because of the events over in Iraq. Sure, fine, whatever. In all honesty I guess the truth wouldn't have gone over too well: "The Golden Knights had to cancel because a bunch of them bounced like rubber biscuits on the last demo they did. To fill in, here's a completely different set of dumbasses!"

Aaaaanyway. I love it when skydiving is portrayed in a good light on T.V. so kudos to the Knights and Ermey for that segment. Have I ever told you how much I loathe Real T.V.? Every time I see a skydiving incident the narrators do *not* get the story straight. I'm sure the other sport incidents on that show are portrayed incorrectly, as well.

After Mail Call, I watched a 30 minute segment about American propaganda during WWII. It was interesting and not surprising. Hell, it was propaganda. I'm looking forward to all their programming about D-Day that's coming up; the 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy is this year.

And then hey! It's Band of Brothers for the umpity umpth time! It was the episode Crossroads, where Captain Winters is promoted to Battalion X.O. and is frustrated by all the boredom and paperwork. The ep prominently features a lot of Damian Lewis, including a partially nekkid DL, so yeah I watched it again. For the umpity umpth time.

The Hitler channel rules!

What a nice weekend! Nice and hot. I love Alabama seasons. Winter sucks, but it only lasts through January and part of February. Spring can last any where from two months to two weeks, but it's windy and wet and usually every night we're woken up by the damn weather alert radio. Summer is deadly hot and humid, but Fall rocks. And it usually lasts until December 31st, around 11:30 pm. You think I'm kidding.

This weekend at the drop zone we had a coaches course. A rated Coach is the first rung on the ladder o' instruction. All student skydivers after AFF must be supervised by someone who at least has a coach rating until they get their license. A coach must have at least a B license and 100 skydives and must pass this course. What's annoying about this setup is I can let someone who has 100 skydives and the coach's rating jump with a student but not someone who doesn't have the rating but has thousands of jumps.

Fortunately that condition is waiverable but it still chaps my hide.

What was fun for me is I got to help out with the coach candidate's freefall skills tests. Which means I got to play the Student From Hell. Hey, I went through that course; and the Accelerated Freefall Instructor course, which is 1000 times worse. The candidates were all over-amping on everything so it's always fun to gig them on stupid things, like wearing your helmet backwards or putting your altimeter on the wrong hand. Or 'slipping' off the airplane so they would have to chase you out the door. Best fun I ever had at someone else's (literal) expense.

I also had 3 AFF dives, which are their own form of fun. Remind me: I need to learn my left from my right.

My brother Ed FINALLY got his A license. He also did his 100th jump which means he got pied. This weekend's theme for me was apparantly 'revenge week'.

Here's a three-fer for word o the day. I looked up this word after reading a column this morning:

semiotic
SYLLABICATION: se·mi·ot·ic
VARIANT FORMS: also se·mi·ot·i·cal (--kl) se·mei·ot·ic (sm-, sm-, sm-) also se·mei·ot·i·cal (--kl)
ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or relating to semantics.
2. Relating to symptomatology.
ETYMOLOGY: Greek smeitikos, observant of signs, significant, from smeisis, indication, from smeioun, to signal, to interpret as a sign, from smeion, sign, from sma.
OTHER FORMS: semi·oti·cal·ly —ADVERB

And just for clarification I looked up this one:

semantics
SYLLABICATION: se·man·tics
NOUN: (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. Linguistics The study or science of meaning in language.
2. Linguistics The study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. Also called semasiology.
3. The meaning or the interpretation of a word, sentence, or other language form: We're basically agreed; let's not quibble over semantics.

As well as this one because I didn't know wtf it was:

symptomatology
SYLLABICATION: symp·to·ma·tol·o·gy
NOUN: 1. The medical science of symptoms.
2. The combined symptoms of a disease.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin symptmatologia : Greek sumptma, sumptmat-, symptom; see symptom + Latin -logia, -logy.
OTHER FORMS: sympto·mato·logi·cal (-mtl-j-kl) —ADJECTIVE
sympto·mato·logi·cal·ly —ADVERB

A love that's love and not fade away

My body decided to give me a 40th birthday present: My acid reflux has returned with a vengeance. I won't go into gross anatomical detail; let's just say I know how John Hurt felt in Alien

Guess what I saw Wednesday night? It is in reference to the Buddy Holly quote above. Yep, I actually saw the series end of Angel. Quit now lest ye be spoiled.

Anyway, I was channel surfing, and saw Angel talking to Leslie. I didn't recognize the episode; then I realized it was season 5! I checked the TiVo guide - it claimed I was watching a show called "I got sucked into an airplane engine, but I'm still alive!!" You think I'm kidding.

I cried when Wesley died. I always like the resident weenie, and he made a good one. Goodbye, rogue demon-hunter! My first thought was he died ineffectually, but on the other hand he did something remarkable by creating feelings in Ilyria. Her concern for him made her show up and finish the job he was supposed to do (in spectacular fashion!). I also realize that what remains of Team Angel don't stand a snowball's chance in Hell, but with a grief-stricken Ilyria plus a Hamilton-charged Angel, maybe they stand a teeny chance. One consoling thought I have is that there is indeed a Heaven in the Buffyverse.

And I'm so glad that William the Bloody finally found an appreciative audience for his poetry.

And in honor of Spike, heres my word of the day:

effulgent
SYLLABICATION: ef·ful·gent
ADJECTIVE: Shining brilliantly; resplendent.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin effulgns, effulgent-, present participle of effulgre, to shine out : ex-, ex- + fulgre, to shine;

Jon and I saw Troy last night. In a nutshell: it was good, but not great.

The movie was based somewhat on The Iliad. Some people bitched about there being no gods or supernatural elements in the story. I was quite happy that the screenwriter did away with those elements. Achilles is much more of a badass because he's *not* immune to weapons.

A quick synopsis: Princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom) of Troy are visiting king Melenaus (Brendan Gleeson) finishing up a peace treaty. During their stay Paris and the king's wife, Helen (Diane Kruger), fall in love so he smuggles her on board their ship when they return. A pissed-off Melenaus asks his brother, king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to help him get Helen back. Agamemnon has always wanted to invade Troy so he seizes this opportunity. Both brothers gather a huge invasion force that includes king Odysseus (Sean Bean) and warlord Achilles (Brad Pitt) and his myrmidons. Many battles ensue.

I loved the casting, although except for a cameo by Julie Christie and a priestess of Apollo named Briseis, the women in the story weren't that interesting. Helen was pretty, but in a vague sorority girl way. Cynical me also thinks that all of the other women's roles were chosen by the criteria that all of the other actresses couldn't be as pretty as Diane Kruger. Whatever. Briseis (Rose Byrne) had a lot more personality anyway.

The men's casting was dead on. Achilles is supposed to be pretty, vain, impetuous, and androgynous. And a badass. Brad Pitt spent a lot of the movie nekkid, which is fine with me. I don't particularly care one way or the other about his face, but dang those are some nice glutes. And pecs. And what a gun show! Same with Bana, though I like his face. Didn't care much for the beard. And speaking of Prince Hector, Bana played him as loving, loyal, intelligent, with a strong sense of duty. And Paris was a weak puppy fool for love. Agamemnon is a greedy powermad bastard, Odysseus is a charming, crafty, likeable man. Jest like the book.

It's a tragedy, of course. I had a few eye leak problems when King Priam (Peter O'Toole) goes to Achilles' tent to beg him for his son's body. It was a powerfully sad moment in the translation I read and O'Toole did a great job with this scene. The thing I liked best about this movie is like all good tragedies, it is tragic because you can look down the chain of events and point out places again and again where things could have happened different if only...

And I note that if this wasn't the story about the fall of Troy, modern day audiences would have died laughing at the Trojan Horse. No one would ever be able to accept just how dumbass the Trojan people behaved by letting it into the city walls. Apparently the collective I.Q. of the city dropped sharply when Prince Hector was killed. If that was a spoiler shame on you for not reading your Iliad.

In honor of Homer, word o' the day:

Myrmidon
SYLLABICATION: Myr·mi·don
NOUN: 1. Greek Mythology A member of a warlike Thessalian people who were ruled by Achilles and followed him on the expedition against Troy.
2. myrmidon A faithful follower who carries out orders without question.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English Mirmidones, Myrmidons, from Latin Myrmidones, from Greek Murmidones.

Arg. Back in the grind after a mini-vacation. Have I mentioned to you lately that I don't like my job?

I see my kitty filled you in on the pertinent details of Friday's party. No one called the cops, so I guess we didn't get too loud. Not much to add; I received some pretty kewl loot, including an assortment of dried peppers, 2 bottles of Merlot, a bunch of Guinness, and some books. And a really nifty photo album one of our skydivers put together for me. Man I wish I could post photos.

Saturday I managed to get my 1000th jump. Yay! I finally made it. I got pied for my efforts. It is a skydiving tradition to get a face full of whip cream - nay, my body was coated in sweet sticky goo. Bleah. Drank too much again; I'm going to have to cut back soon.

I did nothing on Sunday and I loved it! I did drag out Civilization III and whupped up on India, France, and Greece for a while. I'd rather not whup up on the Romans, Germans, or Japanese. They're mean! Although a pissed-off Mahatma Ghandi is a sight to behold.

Monday I did my 1001th jump. Jon, Steve, Harold and I did a demonstration jump into the Huntsville International Airport. One of the runways had been extended in a project to allow really super heavy planes to land and the jump was part of the opening ceremony. The runway is now over 13,000 feet long. You know, that's as long as our altitude for skydives. Damn that's a lot of tarmac!

Jon is always harping on his demo jumpers to look and act professional. So what happens? He is standing next to Steve during a photo op moment (a cutting of a banner) and he responds to something Steve says by saying "Steve, you are *so* gay!" And guess who is standing behind him biting her tongue? The mayor of Huntsville!

We finally finished season 1 of 24! I had no idea bleep was the mole! And oh my god poor bleep! I am glad bleep is dumping bleep, though. What a power-hungry bleep! I'm looking forward to season 2. We better find out what was up with bleep the mole; they didn't exactly fill in the details when bleep shot bleep.

Bleep this. I have some work to do. Have I mentioned to you lately that I don't like my job?

Guess how many baby birds I found in the pool filter today?

Any way, I don't feel much like writing.

Oh, Yeah:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday Bill Paxton (and Trent Reznor and Dennis Hopper),
Happy birthday to you!!!!

Vasquez: Hi everyone. Mom is busily working on some of her birthday presents. You wouldn't believe how many people bought her Guinness Stout in a can. On second thought, maybe you would.

Big Fat Kitty:M-m-meow?

Vasquez:What? Jeez, it's okay you tubby mook! They all left yesterday morning! Sheesh. Mom locked me and fatboy up in the attic because of the party Friday. He's still somewhat psychotic. Me, I'm pissed. All those people and I didn't get enough pets.

Big Fat Kitty: Meow. I want to go sit with the tupperware.

Vasquez: WHAT? Fine, hide in the cupboard. I watched out the window. There must have been 40+ people here on Friday. Mom sat with some old college friends. I remember them, they were nice. They all petted me. Mom got thrown in the pool.

Big Fat Kitty: Meow!?! - Ooooooooooooh! What's that?

Vasquez: Hey lardbutt, leave the trash alone. Wait- chicken bones? Mmmm... Hang on a bit folks!

(later)

Vasquez: *burp* Meow, but I love chicken! Mom grilled some Friday night. It didn't go over as well as the ribs she cooked but I like it just fine. And I was so happy; some of their guests came and slept up in the attic with us! Stupid blubberboy went nuts and tried to open the door with his head. Several Times. What a dumbass.

Big Fat Kitty: Meow!

Vasquez: WHAT! SPEAK UP, GATO GORDITO!!! Damn, he's an idiot! He snuck out and slept with the plasticware instead of all these warm, 98.6 degree human bodies. What a pussy!

Wet Thursday. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow, but the forecast isn't perfect. Oh, well; we're going to be renting a tent anyway.

We bought my present, a big honking charcoal grill. It's being 'seasoned' right now; I will be grilling the ribs for tomorrow tonight.

I'm getting amped up for Troy. I'd go see a costume epic no matter who is in it, but this movie has a great cast including listee Eric Bana.

Now there's an interesting contrast. I have no idea what attracts me to a man. Physically, Bana and Damian Lewis have nothing in common. Jeez, I need to post pictures. Lewis is an old blood Brit; tall, lanky, red haired and blue eyed, with the freckled white skin to match. Bana is the muscularly built son of Croatian and German immigrants (he was born in Australia); swarthy with dark hair and brown eyes. Lewis attended Eaton, went to college and is a classically trained actor. Bana graduated high school, he's a motorhead who has a knack for impressions and became a stand-up comic before deciding to act. Lewis is a notorious boozer and slamhound; Bana's a devoted family man (I have yet to see/read an interview with him where he hasn't mentioned his family).

These two have *nothing* in common whatsoever, except that they are both damn good, under-appreciated actors. And they make my ovaries flutter. You know, that sounds painful.

Nothing much else to comment on today; I am purposefully staying away from political commentary. Blah. Not that my little highschool girl crushes hold much interest. Well, let me put it this way: thinking about a cute actor makes me happy (among other things). Thinking about politicians gets me pissed. I'd rather be happy than pissed. If you want to know why America seems obsessed with bullshit instead of things that matter, you don't have to look much further than this paragraph.

I need to change the name of my blog. I'm trying to think of something catchy. Hope you like the new design.

No update yesterday because I was busy busy busy. I ran out of here after a bitch of a day at work (another pernicious bug) and did three AFF jumps at the DZ. Got out of there by 9pm.

Got home after some food and checked what TiVo had grabbed for me. I was delighted to see it had recorded the Pierce Brosnan version of Robinson Crusoe for me, because you-know-who had a small part in it.

He died before the opening credits. So I turned it off and went to bed.

Here's a link to a news story about our skydiving grandmother

Monday we watched 4 more episodes of 24. I'm enjoying them, but they trotted out the Amnesia trick pretty doggone early in the series's lifetime. And a car exploded from rolling down a hill. That descends from cheese to schlock, but hey not all the episodes can be tightwire exciting.

I'm off to stamp out bugs. I must have this stuff done by Friday, Or Else. So in closing, I bring you these words of wisdom from Steve Martin:

Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
Be gentle and peaceful each day,
Be warm and human and grateful,
And have a good thing to say.

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike,
Be witty and happy and wise,
Be honest and love all your neighbours,
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant.

Be pompus, obese, and eat cactus,
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent,
Criticize things you don't know about,
Be oblong and have your knees removed.

Be tasteless, rude, and offensive,
Live in a swamp and be three dimentional,
Put a live chicken in your underwear,
Get all excited and go to a yawning festival.

O.K. everybody!
Be courteous, kind and forgiving,
Be gentle and peaceful each day,
Be warm and human and grateful,
And have a good thing to say.

Be thoughtful and trustful and childlike,
(O.K. everybody on this!)
Be witty and happy and wise,
Be honest and love all your neighbours,
Be obsequious, purple, and clairvoyant.
(Let 'em hear you outside!)

Be pompus, obese, and eat cactus,
(Everybody sing!)
Be dull, and boring, and omnipresent,
Criticize things you don't know about,
Be oblong and have your knees removed.

(Ladies only)
Be tasteless, rude, and offensive,
(Now the men)
Live in a swamp and be three dimentional,
(Everybody)
Put a live chicken in your underwear,
Go into a closet and suck eggs.

What a long weekend. The drop zone was busy on Saturday; many tandem passengers and accelerated freefall students. I jumped 8 times, 4 of those were AFF. 3 of those jumps were with the same student, Michael, who looks to be about 30. Ex-ranger, although he seems more goofy than most ex-rangers I have known. That was a compliment, by the way.

I did his level 5,6, and 7 with him, and was happy to pass him on all three. Passing level 7 means graduating from the AFF program. He's still a student, but he can jump by himself now. He has a bunch of things he has to do to to get his basic "A" license. Poor bastard doesn't know he's going to be my guinea pig for a structured program I'm working on to get newly graduated students intermediate freefall skills to fly with other skydivers (as opposed to learning these skills haphazardly, like I did).

My other AFF jump was a level 1. Good kid. What was neat was his 81 year old grandmother did an AFF jump, too. I was a little annoyed by how many people came up to me and asked me if I was going to 'allow' her to jump. WTF? First off, I didn't teach the ground school, JK did, and he's been skydiving for over 20 years so I expect him to make any judgement call. And where were all those concerned skydivers when I taught that elder gentleman whose skydive nearly ended in disaster? I smell a little sexism.

Any way, I let that man jump because that was his choice. He wasn't senile, he was old. I spelled it out to him and he still wanted to skydive. JK and Jon took the old lady on the jump, and she did okay and landed fine.

I was reviewing my log book; I received my AFF Intructor's certificate May 8th of last year. In the last year I have done 102 AFF skydives, about 225 skydives total. That total is the most I have ever done in a 12 month span, but of course you can jump more if someone else is paying you. I get $30 for every AFF, by the way. Considering this weekend I did a total of 7 AFF jumps, you can see why I am reluctant to work overtime at my normal job (especially since I have to work 8 hours overtime for free before I get paid straight time. Fie on that).

So anyway, I now have done a grand total of 994 skydives. Barring weather, I don't see why I can't get 6 more by next Monday.

Today's word:
pernicious
SYLLABICATION: per·ni·cious

ADJECTIVE: 1a. Tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly: a pernicious virus. b. Causing great harm; destructive: pernicious rumors.
2. Archaic Evil; wicked.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French pernicios, from Latin pernicisus, from pernicis, destruction : per-, per- + nex, nec-, violent death;


Just because I used it in a sentence today and my husband gave me a funny look. I was referring to a bug in an application here at work.

There's a festive poster on a door here at work that reads: Only Positive Attitudes Beyond This Point!. I am itching to make up a little sign that says Or Else and tack it onto the bottom. Just can't seem to find the energy.

My husband's favorite joke: What did the fish say when he hit the wall? Damn.

Nancy's friend, Hally, has honored me today with a musical tribute to my obsession with the changing zoology of my swimming hole. Laughed my ass off, which if you live in a cubicle like I do, can make other denizens curious.

I haven't done a top 10 list in a while. Here is my top 10 movies with a libertarian theme (no particular order):

Gattaca
This movie is one of those that celebrates the human spirit. This science fiction film extrapolates the ideas of genetic manipulation. Ethan Hawke plays a man born of genetic randomness - and because he has a heart defect, society considers him defective (or an in-valid). He doesn't buy into

that and with the help of a genetically perfect man (Jude Law) who was paralyzed in an accident, sets out to achieve his goals in life. Low budget but does a great job of conveying its themes.

Traffic
The ultimate condemnation on the stupid drug war and why we are losing. Fascinating, with a great cast. Topher Grace's speech caps it. Really!

People vs. Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt is a scumbag, and Hustler is a disgusting magazine. And he has every right to publish it. Ed Norton as Flynt's put-upon lawyer is the best thing about this movie.

Tucker:The Man and his dream
This movie is about a man who had some great ideas about automobiles and challenged the giant automaking corporations and lost. A good example of what happens to innovation when Big Industry collaborates with Big Government.

Other People's Money
When I watched this movie, I was expecting Danny DeVito's greedy corporate raider to get his comuppance. The movie cops out a little at the end, but I was gobsmacked by one occurence: DeVito is engineering a hostile takeover of a company and its owner (Gregory Peck) is trying to stop him basically for the sake of the employees and their community. And the movie allows DeVito's character to prove why he's *right* to do what he does!

Rollerball
Odd that I have 2 Norman Jewison movies here. Nontheless, this movie isn't perfect. I didn't *like* James Caan's character. In the future, there are no more cities or states; merely humungous corporations. Rollerball is a game to appease the masses. Caan plays Jonathan E, the best damn player to ever play. The hero-worship of his character troubles the Corporate leaders and they try to get him to retire. He refuses, so they change the rules of the game. This movie is another about the strength of the individual. Could have been better.

Demolition Man
I have a soft spot in my brain for this cheesy movie. In the future (funny how a lot of science fiction is on this list) there is no crime because everyone is lojacked. Unfortunately, a criminal (Wesley Snipes) who was frozen in the past (an economical way to incarcerate criminals) gets freed into this utopian future, so the leaders unfreeze another criminal, an ex-law enforcement official (Sylvester Stallone), to go after him. This movie contains a lot of jabs at political correctness and censorship. Plus it has Denis Leary commentary on steak and gravy fries.

Brazil
All libertarians know that True Evil does not wear the face of a Hannibal Lecter, Ted Bundy, or even (que reverb) Satan. It is the stupidity of faceless, banal bereacracy where people's lives get ground up because of mistakes, and other people become criminals because they simply can't comply with all the rules and regulations that exist.

The Edge
I have yet to see this movie on a libertarian list. It surprises me, because there are some strong themes here. For one thing, Anthony Hopkins is the protagonist and he plays a millionaire businessman. Shock number 1, he didn't become rich by exploitation, trust funds, or just sheer Eeevilness. He is obviously super-smart and made his money by using his brain. Imagine that!

He has a trophy bride wife; he's oblivious to the fact that she married him for his money. She is a model and is having an affair with a photographer (One of the Baldwin Brothers. I'm always confusing them. Alec?). Anyway, this guy is envious of the man's money.Hopkins and Baldwin are thrown together in a bad situation: the airplane they are in gets downed deep in a forest and they are a long way away from any civilization. Baldwin sees this as a chance to murder Hokins and gain possession of everything he owns. But he *can't* kill him right away, because Hopkins possesses a lot of knowledge about survival because he reads a lot of books; and because he's a businessman he knows how to solve problems. He is Baldwin's only hope of making it out alive.

Shock 2: The concept of someone being jealous of someone else's success, scheming to take it from him, but depending on him for everything. This is more of an Objectivist theme than anything. Shocked that this made it into a movie, that's all.

Minority Report
In the future blah blah blah. On this list because it hits on something near and dear to my heart. Here's a troubling philosophy question for you: Would you advocate the enslavement of a few people to save the lives of thousands? Millions? Three precognitive humans see murders before they happen. The police use this information to arrest the murderers before they can commit their crimes. Tom Cruise is a police officer who leads these pre-crime raids, and chaos ensues when he starts working on a case where he realizes the precogs have seen him commit a murder. For the record, no; I can't possibly advocate that. Human beings are not the means to someone else's ends. If I say it's okay to turn someone else into a tool, then I'm telling the world it's okay if they want to turn me into a tool. I'm quite parsimonious in my beliefs; there is no excuse for slavery of any kind, even if millions have to suffer.

That word will be my vocabulary word-o-the-day:

parsimonious
SYLLABICATION: par·si·mo·ni·ous
ADJECTIVE: Excessively sparing or frugal.

I have decided not to spoil myself for 24; the best part of the series is the tension. We watched 3 more episodes last night and I was sorely tempted to watch the 4th but we needed to get to bed. At least we'll have something to watch tonight. Then I can get to that episode of Poirot I taped off the Biography channel. Don't ask.

In conjunction with 24, today's vocabulary word is:

verisimilitude
SYLLABICATION: ver·i·si·mil·i·tude
NOUN: 1. The quality of appearing to be true or real.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin vrsimilitd, from vrsimilis, verisimilar. See verisimilar.


I learned this word by reading a fascinating set of books by Harlan Ellison: The Glass Teat. It is about television - specifically it's a collection of essays about the late 60's early 70's t.v. Okay, now I'm going to have to dig out my copies and read them again.

What does this have to do with anything? Writers have a tough job; they must research enough to maintain verisimilitude; but how much is enough? More than once while watching 24 (and a buttload of other shows and movies) I have scoffed at the B.S. they have computers do. I try to remember that most people are not aware of why computers behave the way they do, but since the computer is such an ubiquitous piece of equipment, writers should at least understand the basics. If a writer is going to write about castles, he should know the difference between a balustrade and a crenallation, a catwalk and a porticullis; if the writer is going to write about sailboats, he better know port from starboard and a jib from a spinnaker, etc. etc. etc. But I try to cut slack. For 24 I have had no problem ignoring some blatant tomfoolery because I have been glued to the edge of my seat for almost every episode.

The worst violator I have seen recently is Swordfish; the hacking scenes in this movie are downright hilarious. Any wannabe writers out there: hackers are most successful when they exploit the weakest link: the human being. Tricking someone out of their password it the oldest and easiest way of gaining access.

No animals died in my swimming pool yesterday, but I did come home and found a couple of rug rats splashing around in it. A friend of ours, Steve, brought his two daughters, Sara and Megan, over for a swim. Cute kids. If I ever have a daughter I want one like Sara. She's fearless. She and Megan once rode in the King Air for a skydiving load. Megan (who's a little older) stayed glued to the copilot's chair, but Sara willingly sat by her dad next to the (plexiglass) door to look at the ground as it whizzed by. Steve isn't the world's most perfect man, but I cut him a lot of slack because he seems to genuinely care about his daughters and takes an active part in their lives (he's divorced).

Big Fat Kitty wants to say meow to everyone out there, and Vasquez wants some food.

Jon and I watched another 4 episodes of 24. We're both hooked; lots of intrigue, danger, and betrayal. Very little sex, but that's okay. Gotta feel bad for the lead character. I mean, what would you do if your family was kidnapped? I was thinking, "there's no way the kidnappers are going to let your family go, so you might as well tell them to go to hell", but on further review, how could he *not* do what he was told? Every moment he complies is another moment where his family gets to live, and another moment something might happen to free them.

I'm working hard not to go look at spoiler sites like Television Without Pity to find out what happens for the rest of the season. I've only seen 8 episodes, so there's 16 to go. Not to say something I'm sure a lot of people have already said, but it's going to be a long day.

I kegged the beer yesterday. As I was siphoning it from the fermenter to the keg, I grabbed a small glass to taste. Nothing tastes off (hooray!) so it looks like I'll have drinkable beer by party time. It's Friday the 14th of May, by the way. If anyone within reading distance just happens to be in the vicinity of Hartselle, Alabama, email me and I'll send you directions. Jon's apparently been out twisting arms and it looks like a bunch of people are attending.

My birthday present is going to be a big honking charcoal grill (Sam's Club is fresh out of ginger-headed british men. Nuts). Jon wants me to cook ribs on the grill for the big bash; I'm thinking yes, but I should grill other things as well. The best thing about birthdays is I get to make exactly the type of cake *I* want to eat. It will be chocolate, of course! Some asshat's going to stick 40 candles on it and set the house on fire. I can just see it.

Speaking of ginger-boy, scuttlebut has it he's going to be in another British mini-series: Colditz, which was a POW camp in Germany during WWII. This time he'll play a British officer. Looks like I'm going to have to harangue BBC America if I ever want to get to watch it. Maybe PBS will carry it. Why couldn't I have a thing for Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise? NooOOOoo, I have to go for the obscure ones.

Stupid animal update: another frog got into the pool. Stupid frog. You know, I *like* frogs. I have eaten a lot of different types of animals, with no remorse. I have even had a stew made out of a cute and fluffy bunny and I didn't even blink an eye. But I had frog legs once, and I felt terrible. Poor frog. Yes, they tasted like chicken. So I'll stick to chicken.

We also have a small tree next to the pool. Jon cut it back some and discovered a bird's nest with eggs. Mama bird was chirping up a storm while Jon was doing this; we were afraid she would abandon the nest. She hasn't; the eggs have hatched. I hope they're old enough to fly away by the time we have that party. And if I find any dead baby birds in my pool I am going to go postal.

Meow.

Vasquez: Mom was uninspired and said us cats should write a bit for her blog. Can I have some food?

Big Fat Kitty: Ooooh! What's that?

Vasquez:I'm sure there's some food around here. Oh, wait, my fur needs washing. *sluuuurp* *sluuuurp* *sluuuuuuurp* *sluuuurp*

Big Fat Kitty: Oh, look! A glass with something in it! *Tink* *tink* *crash!* (sniff)(sniff) kool-ade, I think. Oooh, It made the carpet pink! Hey, Vasquez, your fur needs washing! *sluuuurp* *sluuuurp* *sluuuuuuurp* *sluuuurp*

Vasquez: Get off! Dammit, fatass, let go of my head! I'll wash my own ears, dammit!

Big Fat Kitty You are *no* fun!

Vasquez: What? *sluuuurp* *sluuuurp* *sluuuuuuurp* *sluuuurp*

Big Fat Kitty: I said 'You are no' - oooooooooh! What's that? Yay! Toilet paper!!! *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred**shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shreddity* *shreddity* *shred* *shred* *shred* *toss!*

Vasquez: What? *sluuuurp* *sluuuurp* *sluuuuuuurp* *sluuuurp*

Meh. We sort of finished 10.5 last night. Actually we have the last 30 minutes to go. We had to get to sleep because we go to they gym on Tuesday mornings. Hey, I did 4 chin-ups! Well, I'm happy. Anyway, the movie was stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. But I suspect that the last 30 minutes has Los Angeles sliding off into the ocean, so that will be fun. TiVo rules, even if it seems to be recording every single episode of Cops with a scary sort of monomania.

No stupid animals tried to commit suicide yesterday. What a relief.

Another rainy weekend. I did get in 5 jumps, though. I have 18 jumps and 2 weekends to go for my nice round number.

What sucks about rain are all the earthworms that get washed into our pool. It's not that hard to vacuum them up; they're small and they sink to the bottom. They also die, and that's a waste of a perfectly good earthworm. Stupid earthworms.

Yesterday Jon came into the house cradling a frog, saying "he didn't make it". Turns out the frog leapt into the pool and got sucked into the filter. Jon found him spinning around and around; the filter not strong enough to pull him under, but the frog not strong enough to swim away. Then the frog made a feeble attempt to leap out of Jon's hands, so we put him in the sink and gave him a gentle bath in not-so-chlorinated water. Then Jon took him outside and put him under a tree. Frog wasn't there this morning, so maybe he did make it, after all. Either that or he was an easy target for a hungry predator. Stupid frog.

Last night I was reading a book and all of a sudden I heard this mad twittering coming out of the fireplace. Some bird had gotten caught in the chimney. Because of the stove there is no opening big enough for the bird to fly all the way through; hopefully sometime in the night he flew back the way he came. Stupid bird.

The book I was reading was The Keep, a pulpy horror novel by F. Paul Wilson. Micheal Mann turned it into a movie w/ a great cast: Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Ian KcKellen and Jurgen Prochnow. I liked the movie until I read the book and realized Mann had sacrificed character for nifty photography. Stupid director.

The book is a swift read; it's about a bunch of German soldiers who get stationed in this small keep up in the Romanian mountains. One bored soldier decides someone has buried some treasure in the keep and finds and opens a secret door, letting out Something Eeevil. He gets killed and thereafter the other soldiers get killed off one a night. Considering that the soldiers die by having their throats ripped out (plus the fact they are stationed in Romania), they think they have unleashed a vampire. The German high command thinks otherwise, and sends a few squads of Storm Troopers to figure out what is going on. Toss in a mysterious protagonist who has a psychic connection to the keep, and two Romanian Jewish scholars who have knowledge of the area, and hilarity does not ensue.

This book is one of Wilson's earlier books. I really enjoy his Repairman Jack novels, as well. He wrote three sequels to The Keep, which I have started to re-read. The sequels contain an apocalypse that would turn Joss Whedon green with envy.

Jon and I watched the first part of 10.5, which is as bad as it should be: a series of earthquakes on the west coast is causing major disasters and one dedicated scientist insists that they are merely precursors to The Big One, wherein California, Oregon, and Washington will receive new coast lines. Is that so bad? I don't really have to say it, but I will: Stupid TV show.