I sympathize with Lachelle about when she is asked "where are you from?". She said she has a hard time answering that question. Me too.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri. We moved to Puerto Rico when I was three, so I don't consider myself "from" Missouri. We lived in three separate places in Puerto Rico - the one I remember best was Beach Tower, an apartment building on the Isla Verde beach strip (high tourist area). It was quite literally on the beach; I recall during some really nasty tropical storms an occasional ambitious wave would touch the ground floor. As fond as I am of the Caribbean and as much as I miss it, I am not "from" Puerto Rico.

We moved to Metro Atlanta when I was thirteen. We lived in Stone Mountain while I was in High School; when I went to College in Statesboro, Georgia, my mother moved to Norcross. When I got out of college (after an abortive attempt to attend graduate school at LSU), I moved in with my mother and didn't leave until the mid-90's when she re-married. I bopped around a few different apartment buildings until I met my husband and we moved in together in Decatur, Alabama. Now we live in Hartselle.

So the best guess would be "the South". But I'm not a southerner. *Sigh*. It is a tricky question. I usually answer "I lived most of my life in Atlanta". If they want more detail, I add the bit about Missouri and Puerto Rico.

Like most people, I start my day with the internet. Unlike an old-fashioned newspaper, the internet allows you to pick and choose what you look at. Not that you can't skip the sports section in a newspaper, but I digress.

First I read the comics section: I am addicted to Sluggy Freelance, General Protection Fault, Bruno the Bandit, and Get Fuzzy.

Then I poke around in various blogs - my friends' (and their friends') stuff; then of course Lileks. I'm also fond of Infinite Monkeys. I do read some news - mainly whatever Yahoo has on its main page.

I also visit some message boards - predominantly movie-oriented. I like the people on Jabootu's Mad Movie Dimension. I also read Chud's messageboards, but there's a lot of noise on them. Still, it's a great site (Atlanta based!) for movie news.

Lastly, I read email. I have a Yahoo account where all my mail list mail goes to. I can usually blah blah through most of the posts but the occasional gold nugget shows up (Damian Lewis is going to be the lead in a love story! Yay!! It's a BBC TV production! Boo!!).

Then I visit this site and stare wistfully at the videocam picture of the Charlotte Amalie Harbor. I'll then go visit their USVI travel forum searching for some vicarious pleasure by reading someone's trip report. More often than not the posts consist of people asking the same things (do I have to rent a 4-wheel drive vehicle or can I walk everywhere on St. John? It's only 5 miles wide!) despite a FAQ and a search engine.

Then I try to think of something halfway interesting to write and I stick it here ---->X.

Boo! My allergies are back with a vengeance. My nose itches so bad it's bleeding. Icky. I will probably resume using Nasonex. And as Nancy pointed out to me, not being able to smell might help me with dieting.

After managing to maintain 130 for a long while, I have ballooned up to 143 this month. That's it, I can't take any more. Especially since my clothes are uncomfortable. Let the dieting commence (again)!

I had an uninteresting weekend. I did one AFF jump Saturday; it took a while for the clouds to clear but one of the Tennessee kids from last weekend showed up and did his level 2. He did a great job; hope he comes and jumps again.

Sunday morning was a complete wash, so we watched the South Park movie. Love the show; love the movie. Parker and Stone (who won my undying love when they showed up at the Oscars wearing dresses one year) skewer just about every group there is; but the movie seemed to kick Canada ass the hardest. Well, actually, it seems to strike the hardest at people who want to blame their problems on everything but themselves, but Canada receives a sound whoopin for some reason. And deservedly so! In the movie the Prime Minister insists they apologized for Bryan Adams, but I don't recall hearing that apology.

Then I whooped ass in Civ III. I was tricked into getting into wars with Spain and Greece (by India), but I let them so I could land-grab. So now it's just me (Persia), the Vikings, and India. And Ghandi is looking kind of nervous. Or maybe just greedy.

But I actually got to see a movie in a theater!Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I enjoyed it. I think it's the best of the 3 HP movies easily. It's also the first one I've seen since reading all the books, so I may be prejudiced. I wish that the movie would have explained some things; like why Harry's dad and 2 of his friends were Animagi (while one was a werewolf). Probably cut for time constraints - the damn thing is 2 hours and 21 minutes long as it is! Maybe it will be put in the DVD. Yes, the kids aren't going to win oscars, but I associate them pretty strongly with their roles now so I hope they continue. And yes, that hippogriff was an amazing piece of CGI (as was the whomping willow). Now I want to see the first 2 movies again.

Hooray! My nose is working better today. That onion bagel tasted/smelled terrific; as did my Rooibos tea. I have this honking big bottle of moisturizing lotion next to my computer at work; it smells like coconut and I can actually tell.

The loss of smell is wierd - the only thing I can relate it to is like if you have a loud ringing in your ears blocking out other noises or if you have been out in the sun for too long and you come indoors and can only see things in your peripheral vision for a few moments.

A huge chunk of my after-work life has been taken up by Civilization III:Conquests, an add-on to Civ III which I bought Tuesday. I notice the developers added some things from Civ II, like bananas. Also the mountain chains might have volcanoes which might erupt during gameplay spreading pollution and killing workers/military units or city population. Also I get to build trebuchets, now. How nifty. Haven't had a chance to use one in battle yet but the Spanish are annoyed with me and are amassing troops near one of my cities. Jerks. We'll see how they like my crusaders marching on Madrid!

Pathetic. I bet if I added up all the hours I have played any of the Sid Meier games (Civs I,II,III; Alpha Centauri, Master of Magic and Colonization), I bet at least one year of my life total has been wasted. But they're so damn fun!!

Link o' the day: Cold Fusion Video, another b-movie site. The owner/operator is a devout Mormon. The only way I found out about that was by reading his blog. He also hosts Zombie Mart.

Nancy linked to an interesting site: Women for Women International. I want to read more about them before I fork over any dough, but they seem to be a good cause. Ordinary people get their lives ripped apart in war zones; women have that extra added bonus of getting raped. Not that you have to be in a war zone to be raped, but I digress. I am very fortunate to be an American.

For some reason my brain is taking a nostalgic trip and it involves the first guy I ever fell in love with (who returned some of those emotions - to what extent I couldn't tell you).

Oh, to be young and psychotic again. Maybe not. I don't know if he knew it, but I worshipped the ground he walked on. I dated him in college. His mom didn't like me though (BITCH!) (man, can I hold a grudge, or what?) so there was little chance of a happily ever after scenario. Plus the fact that I found out he cheated on me one summer so I did the normal, 21 year old thing: I slept with a friend of his. And I'm not going to talk about how that all turned out. Let's just say I pretty much got exactly what I deserved.

Holy cabbage soup, I was an idiot. I miss being that passionate, but then again I don't miss being led around by the wrong body parts. Everyone else I dated pretty much falls into the "what was I thinking?" category, except for this nice Jewish guy. I gave him up because I was going back to college, where the aboveforementioned light-of-my-life-who-will-soon-crush-my-heart was waiting.

After a really slimy experience with a yahoo from New York, I quit dating for a long time. Then I met my true light-of-my-life (hi, Jon!). Jon is honest (too much so), cute, and makes me laugh. What the heck else could you want in a partner?

10 random things, mostly movie-related:

Colin Farrell, who is good looking but not on my list, is complaining becase a full-frontal scene he did in some movie is being cut. I would like to add my voice of protest against slicing any wienies. Unless it's Harvey Keitel again. Seen enough of you, thanks.

Micturating is a $2.50 way of saying "urinating". The things I learn from James Lileks!

Claritin and ephedrine probably shouldn't be mixed.

The sequel to Dungeons & Dragons, a godawful movie, is purported to have Paris Hilton. I will watch, maybe even buy a DVD of this sequel, if someone assembles a ballistae behind her and shoots her with it.

Game # 178 of the XP version of FreeCell is a major ass-kicker. I finally solved it, though.

The movie Powers that Be are not going to show the Batman Begins teaser in front of Spiderman II. Instead, it will be shown in front of Catwoman, which is supposed to stink like a wet litterbox in a hot garage. What trailer will we see in front of Spiderman II? Catwoman, of course.

Gary Oldman is doing the voice of Darth Obvious. Or something like that. Bad guy for the third movie. He will always be Sid to me.

I still can't smell anything. My doctor's appointment is next Wednesday.

I'm still bored. Can't you tell?

Richard "Master Thespian" Burton ran like a girl. Boy I'm in a snippy mood.

This week is going to be far more boring than usual, I can tell.

Jon and I went to the Sushi Boat yesterday. We were sorry to see they weren't busy at lunch - they have good sushi plus you don't have to wait 45 minutes to eat. Just sit down and start grabbing dishes. They have really good spicy tuna rolls. I hope their business picks up soon.

I was really happy to learn about the private enterprise mission to outer space. The only way we're ever going to get off this planet is if we find a profitable reason to do so. I am fascintated by NASA but most of our space missions have pretty much been a waste of tax dollars.

We got TiVo wired to our wireless net at home.

Did I mention that I was bored?

Bored.

Word o' the day:

risible
SYLLABICATION: ris·i·ble
ADJECTIVE: 1. Relating to laughter or used in eliciting laughter.
2. Eliciting laughter; ludicrous.
3. Capable of laughing or inclined to laugh.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin rsibilis, from Latin rsus, past participle of rdre, to laugh.

This weekend was the fourth weekend in a row where I had to teach a ground school. I hate talking that much! Anyways, I had four students, all young guys. One was a young military man - a lot of fun to look at. One was a german fella. He was a very nice guy and had a good grasp of english; he resembled the actor (Karl-Otto Alberty) who played all those Nazis in the 60's and 70's war movies which was slightly disconcerting. The other two were friends. They looked like typical tennessee young adults but one of them looked amazingly like Orlando Bloom. Bet he doesn't have much trouble getting chicks.

Speaking of uncanny resemblences, Steve came over too me at some point Saturday afternoon, pointed at a woman (tandem student), and said, "Look! It's Denise Richards!" and I immediately looked at her hooters(!). Embarrasing. Yeah, they were big. I didn't realize it was so cold out, either. She did resemble the actress in question in the face, too.

So I had four ground school students and ended up doing 5 AFF jumps all total. On top of that I did a bunch of parachute packing and ended up clearing about $400. Not bad for a weekend's work.

I am somewhat distressed because I have lost almost all of my sense of smell. I was taking Nasonex, a prescription for chronic rhinitis (constant stuffy nose) which I think is the culprit so I quit using it. The trouble is, my allergies come back with a vengeance after the medication completely wears off. Right now my ability to smell comes and goes randomly. I had a good day Sunday, although I'm not sure I should refer to it as "good". I caught a good whiff of someone's particularly nasty flatulence as well as someone's well-defined foot odor. When I got home and decided to deliberately cook something that would require me to saute onions and garlic in olive oil, my sense of smell had deserted me again. Damn. As anyone who has ever had a cold will know, a large component of the ability to taste is the ability to smell. Unless I put in enough cayenne pepper to shrivel an elephant I can't taste anything. I will be visiting my allergy doc soon for some tests. In the meantime I will stock up on Claratin.

I'm home from work today. Taking a vacation day to bask in my new promotion. Anyway, who says cats don't do anything? Here's some photographic proof:



Pookie guarding the UPS deliveries.

Big fat kitty guarding the bamboo steamer. 

I thought the Dorcus collection was a scream. I am so glad I didn't read Lilek's latest at work. I quite literally laughed myself into an athsma attack last night.

Hey, I got a raise! And a promotion!

I'm now a Senior software analyst. Oh, goodie, more responsibility. Actually I don't mind. Sometimes I'm bored out of my skull.

So anyways: my husband and I finally remembered that TiVo is updated by telephone. We got rid of our land line. So now we're going to replace our networking hub with a wireless broadband router and connect the TiVo up to that. Transport that last sentence to 1977 and see how long it would have taken you to explain it to a denizen of that era. We are living in a science fiction future, except without all the kewl space travel. That's a shame; really.

I had a horrible, vivid nightmare last night featuring flesh-eating zombies. This nightmare had a supporting cast of character actors I recognized, and a soundtrack. I remember the music was more disgusting than the zombies. I remember a really chewed-up corpse tried to attack me while I was sitting on the john so I ripped its arm off and beat it over the head while I was screaming for help.

If anybody out there does dream interpretations let me tell you now: I do NOT want to know what that dream meant.

Oh joy! *Poing* *poing* *poing*

I was at Wal-Mart last night after work and was perusing their $10 DVDs. I found Rustler's Raphsody, my all-time favorite movie that nobody saw.

When I was growing up in Puerto Rico, one of the english-language TV stations would show old Roy Rogers movies. I must have seen them all dozens of times. Now old Roy couldn't act his way out of a wet paper sack, but he was handsome, honest, decent, and could shoot the gun out of a man's hand at 50 paces. And boy did he have a nifty wardrobe!

I'm telling you that to explain to you why I have such unconditional love for this movie. It is a gentle satire of the old Gene Autry/Roy Rogers movies. And I do mean gentle. After so many Airplane!s, American Pies, and Scary Movies, it's a shock to see something not go for the penis/fart/masturbation jokes. Well, there is some cursing. Damn, damn, hell, damn, tee-tee, doo-doo,...

It features Rex O'Herlihan (Tom Berenger), the singing cowboy. He travels from town to town on his horse Wildfire righting wrongs and bringing justice to the frontier. He has developed almost a zen-like attitude about what he's going to encounter when he gets to a new town; he knows without being told about the pretty but somehow asexual schoolmarm that just moved in, as well as the railroad that's being built and how the cattle baron (Andy Griffith!) is oppressing the peaceful sheepherders. He knows the town drunk ('that guy' G.W. Bailey) is going to become his sidekick before even meeting him.

This movie isn't for everyone but I adore it. And like I've said before, it's kind of mind-blowing to see Tom Berenger play such a good good-guy. Not only did he play Sargeant Barnes in Platoon, but he played a homosexual rapist/murderer in Looking for Mister Goodbar (which sucks, I say. Sucks!). Where did your career go, Tom? BTW he was in the hilariously bad Cutaway, which was a movie about skydiving drug smugglers. Berenger did learn how to skydive for the movie. The people who made this piece of poop made the mistake of trying to please both skydivers and the unknowing public and ended up pissing off the former and boring the latter.

Anyhow, check out Nancy's recent amusing comments about the Micheal Stipe stalker she met in Athens once. Obsessions are interesting things, but it's kind of scary to see/meet someone who is full in the grip of one. I can see how it could get remarkably boring having to listen to these one-note defective creatures drone on and on about their undying love. Yeah, I've done my own mental stalking, but never actually sought out the object of my desire. Going to see Ralph Fiennes play Hamlet in London does *not* count! It was my sister's idea, and it's not like we hung around back stage to get a glimpse or anything!

Though if I could get a way-back machine, I'd go back to talk with that red-headed Laertes....

Um! Anyway, here's my link of the week:Boyfriend of the Week. This woman's tastes are all over the map, which is of course, just fine in my book. Not only was Damian Lewis one of her boyfriends, she has an entry for just about all of my listees. Plus, she has two on Owen Wilson, which someone out there might be interested in reading.

If you wondered about accelerated freefall, here is an AFF jump. I'm on the right and J.K. is on the left. He is giving our student a "legs out" signal. My boobs aren't really that square, by the way. I wear a weight vest when I'm jumping with the big guys. 

Here I'm accepting my Gold Badge from J.K. That's my Girl Scout badge for 12 hours of freefall. I am going to get my Gold Wings soon (1000 jumps).  

I stole this from someone who had visited St. John. This is pretty much what you see to your right as you come into Cruz Bay. That little cluster of pink buildings hold both the Beach Bar and Low Key Watersports. The boat to the farthest right is one of theirs.  

This weekend was a repeat of last weekend. Hell, I even landed in the same field as the weekend before when an AFF student decided he was going to pull lower than normal.

I did have 2 students in ground school; a daughter and her father. It was her 18th birthday. He did good; she did great. She had a bunch of relatives call her and try and talk her out of it. Glad she didn't take their advice. She was scared, but once she got out the door she had a blast.

Sunday was rainy, so I read at home. I plowed through The Rise of Endymion, the last book in the Hyperion saga. Good stuff. If I have one complaint it is that Simmons spends too much damn time writing about scenery. After a while I start blah blahing through it to get through to the action. And the last book has a lot of speeches to explain everything that has been going on. But still I have about 50 pages to go and I hope I can finish it during lunch.

When I emailed around for information on how to take over the world, Hitler, Stalin, Blofeld, and Senator Palpatine all replied with this link: Here.

It have given me a lot of super ideas. The one that drives me nuts is what am I going to do with the world once I have taken over and am the Supreme High Chancellor God of Everything I Survey?

Top 10 things I would do if I ran the world

10: Fire all the government workers. Hire only male models with I.Q.'s below 90. I'm not prejudiced; I don't care if they're gay or not. I just want them to be pretty and stupid. They'll be just as ineffective, but at least the scenery will improve.

9: My standing bodyguard would be all male models with I.Q.'s above 90. All 3 of them.

8: Full frontal male nudity will be allowed on network television. Oh, all right, female as well. What the hell, full blown hardcore pr0n! w00t!

7: Move the Capitol of the world to St. John in the Virgin Islands and make it my pleasure dome/lair/hideout. Feed the occasional secret agent who tries to stop my nefarious plans to the barracudas, stray chickens, and feral donkeys. Everyone in the Virgin Islands will be moved to Florida. Everyone in Florida will be moved to Wisconsin; everyone in Wisconsin will be moved to San Fransisco, and everyone in San Fransisco will be moved to Israel. All Israelis will be moved to Utah, where they will just have to get along with the Mormons because I can't think of anywhere I want to put them.

6: Serve beer in high school not that you would be required to attend. I bet attendance would improve somewhat, though.

5: Eliminate Region Coding on DVDs. Tell Europe to rewire to 120 V and switch to NTSC or else. And drive on the RIGHT! Oh, ok in deference to fairness, all Americans must forevermore refer to cookies as 'biscuits' and elevators as 'lifts'.

4: Issue a standing order that anybody who directs a movie with 'shaky cam' scenes in it will be shot on sight. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Michael Bay.

3: All taxes will be eliminated but you must pay tribute to the Holy Temples I'll have built everywhere. Pay what you think is appropriate; six-packs accepted. Unless it's in cans. That will get you burned at the stake. Incidentally, the temples will not be built to me, they will be built to Charlton Heston. Because he's one of *my* personal gods, that's why. His statues will have him in full Moses mode, in deference to my western religious upbringing. Just be grateful I'm not having you bow down to Bill Paxton.

2: All Reality Shows will be banned. I'm halfway tempted to ban all shows about cops, lawyers, and doctors, but I do realize I can't make the world perfect. I will declare a moratorium on amnesia and evil twin plots, though. Joss Whedon, since he's the only one in recent memory who managed to write GOOD evil twin/amnesia teleplays, will be my secretary of state.

1: Establish a Her Royal Highness Shakespeare Company. I know you're thinking my reason for this is peurile, but it's really my plan to prevent any good British actors from being cast as James Bond. Now that I think of it, there is all ready a plot to keep that from happening.

Woo-hoo! *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* Yippee! *shred* *shred* *shred* *shred* *shreditty* *shreditty* *shred* *shred* Whee! *shred* *shred* *shred* -oh, hi ma!! 

Ah, I'm still bored. After politics I need some unadulterated horse poop to soothe myself back into my normal lull.

I watched part of the MTV movie awards last night. I decided to TiVo it at a later hour so I could skip through the boring stuff. One thing I did catch was an appearance and song by The Beastie Boys. My first thought was, "geez, they look kinda old!". Has it been that long since they declared that we had to fight for our right to par-tay?

Well, I ran across this site today:Retro Crush. It has a link to the aforementioned song. Or at least part of it. Damn them, now I have that stupid Madness song stuck in my head.

Whoa, must be really bored today, because I'm going to talk about politics. Bolt now, if you are so inclined.

I have decided it's not liberals who bother me, nor conservatives. It's the hate mongers on both sides. I have arrived at the conclusion that all hate is the same, why you hate is a matter of semantics. This motto sums up the politics of hate: "Shut up, or I'll kill you!"

It's easy to demonize people. If they are monsters, they are safe to hate. That's why Nazi is thrown around in newsgroups with such royal abandon; Hitler being the apotheosis of demonic humans. The trouble is most humans, and I mean the vast majority of us, are not demons and we have reasons for believing and thinking what we do; even if those reasons are based on ignorance and/or faulty logic.

Actually in regard to Hitler this word was a funny choice:

apotheosis
SYLLABICATION: a·poth·e·o·sis
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. a·poth·e·o·ses (-sz)
1. Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
2. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: “Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol's current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Magazine November 17, 1996).
3. An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin apothesis, from Greek, from apotheoun, to deify : apo-, change; see apo– + theos, god;


But fitting, I say.

Excuse me, but I'm going to go blast some flesh-eating zombies, now.

Another link o' the day. It's a Flash Game so you are warned!

Here's 2, count them, 2 top 10 lists for you because I'm bored:

The links, by the way, go to their IMDb filmographies just so you can peruse them and go "Oh yeah, it's *that* guy!".

Top 10 Actors I enjoy seeing in the cast list of a movie:

Most of these are 'character' actors. Jeez, that is such a denigrating term. Anyway, they are always fun to watch:

10 J.T. Walsh
R.I.P., J.T. I always got a kick out of his performances. He always seemed to play bad guys and he never got too hammy. Just hammy enough. If you go through his filmography you will be stunned by how many of his movies you have seen.

9 Adam Baldwin
Not one of the Baldwin brothers. Remember My Bodyguard? How about Full Metal Jacket? He had small reoccuring roles on both The X-Files and Angel. Good looking; he tends to play tough guys/heavies. Brings a good amount of intensity to his roles, like Clancy Brown only not as creepy (see the other list).

8 Philip Seymour Hoffman
Often confused with Jack Black, except he's not a patented asshole. I first saw him in Twister; he seems to be a favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights and Magnolia).

7 Brian Cox
Gained my attention as the first Hannibal Lector (in Manhunter). He was elegant and menacing in a psycho way without the ham. I saw him last as Melaneus in Troy.

6 Chris Cooper
He first came to my attention in American Beauty, he won me over in Lone Star because the love story in that movie involved a middle-aged couple.

5 Scott Glenn
He plays tough guys. Kind of a poor man's Lee Marvin. Again, plenty of intensity without the ham (mostly). I first noticed him in The Right Stuff I think. It might have been something sooner than that. Often confused with Fred Ward, who is often confused with Robert Forster.

4 Ewan Bremner
Scot. Shows up in movies with Ewan MacGregor a lot. He's not handsome, but he is nowhere near as phugly as his IMDb picture makes him. Holy crap, dude! Who did you piss off to get that picture posted? Or were you cast to play Tim Burton in a movie?!!? Anyway, first noticed in Trainspotting.

3 Lance Henriksen
Everybody knows who Lance Henriksen is. I have seen him in a gazillion things; first came to my attention as Bishop in Aliens.

2 Tom Sizemore
I hate the fact that he seems to want to self-destruct. Dude. Quit threatening your ex-girlfriends! I can't remember which movie I first saw him in but he's been all over the map. Tends to play heavies or wisecracking soldiers.

1 William Fichtner
Intensity without getting hammy. See a common thread here? First came to my attention in Equilibrium although I have seen him in dozens of other movies before.

Top 10 movie creeps:

At one point in their career, these guys have played some sort of creep and it got them typecast. At least, when they're in the cast list, I get uneasy. Totally unfair, because some if not all of these guys do an exemplary job in whatever they do.

10 Xander Berkely
Played George Mason in 24. I have always considered him a creep or a jerk. Can't recall which movie did it, though.

9 Tom Berenger
It is so totally unfair that I put him on this list. But I saw Looking for Mister Goodbar. Matter of fact, I double-dog dare you to rent it and watch it back-to-back with Rustler's Rhapsody. Your brain *will* implode.

8 Liev Schreiber
He played such a wierdo in Phantoms I have never been able to watch him in anything else without getting creeped out. That movie is a guilty pleasure, by the way.

7 Dylan Baker
I've mentioned him before. He was in Happiness. I can't watch him in anything else without remembering the scene --- eewww, never mind.

6 William H. Macy
He plays ordinairy joes so well, but I have Fargo stuck in my head. Oh, you betcha.

5 Michael Wincott
Plays heavies a lot; has a low raspy voice. So why is Michael Wincott on this list and Lance Henriksen on the other list? Henriksen is intense. Michael Wincott is creepy.

4 Ted Levine
Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. Need I say more?

3 Clancy Brown
The Kurgan in Highlander. Oh, this is funny! He has an active career as cartoon voices including Spongebob Squarepants.

2 Steve Buscemi
Everything he's ever done! Now that I think of it, Peter Stormare should be on this list, too. Between him, Buschemi, and William H. Macy, was there ever a wierder collection of creeps?

1Vincent D'Onofrio
Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. I remember seeing Adventures in Babysitting where he wasn't so fat or brain-damaged and still being somewhat creeped out. He never fails to make me uncomfortable.

Ha! Alan sent me a URL that is quite amusing: Just go here. Kind of tasteless, but anything having to do with zombies is going to be (kewl!). Includes this little FAQ:

Is Zombie Reagan really that much of an advantage? Doesn't John Kerry have the zombie vote locked up?
No. John Kerry, in fact, isn't really a zombie. He is more akin to Frankenstein's Monster, built out of parts stolen from graveyards under cover of night. He simply claims to be a zombie for political advantage.

I spent a lot of time yesterday going through a lot of the links on Lachelle's site (not linked to out of her preference); she went to the Libertarian National Convention this year. She made a comment about how white the party is; I think it's simply because too many people simply don't know about our party. I don't think he would call himself Libertarian, but IMHO he's doggone close: Thomas Sowell, even when I'm disagreeing with him, writes simply, clearly, and never fails to explain why he thinks what he thinks. His essays on 'cosmic justice' pretty much hit the nail on the head to explain why I am no longer a Liberal.

Absolutely nothing remotely interesting happened to me yesterday when I got home. I did finish Endymion. The sequel is on its way from Amazon, along with another Dan Simmons' book and Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love gift certificates for birthday presents.

It's a well-known fact: cats melt in sunlight. Fortunately, if you remove them from direct contact; they will wake up and ask for food. 

Jon has a few things he has to do before he gets his commercial pilot's license. He's kind of peeved about that. But while he was in town (Madison), he and I went to the Sushi Boat restaraunt. Pretty nifty; you sit at this bar where these little wooden boats circle around with different plates of sushi and other Japanese foodstuffs. You grab what you want and when you are done the waitress totals your bill by how many little plates are in front of you. I can pack away some sushi; at $1.50 a plate Jon and I racked up a considerable bill.

There was this one dish that kept circling around and around; it looked like barbequed baby octopus. I dared Jon to try it; told him if he ate one, I'd eat the other but he wasn't feeling too adventurous. That's what's neat about Japanese food - it looks so tasty and disgusting at the same time.

We finished season 2 of 24 last night. I really liked the first half of the season but the second half kind of lost steam. At least Mrs. Palmer showed up again. Things are always interesting when she's poking around, stirring up trouble. I guess Tony and Michelle are an item now since they had a little smooching session a while back. And Chapelle - could they have cast a more toady looking actor for that part? He just begs to be kicked in the nuts.

But now what am I going to watch? Season 3 just finished up. No word on when it's due on DVD. I've been meaning to watch Stargate SG-1 but I know Jon won't go for a science fiction show. Bugger.

A word of explanation about the photos below. I remember an old episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 where Joel and the 'bots were discussing the lame props in a cheapo fantasy movie. Joel mentioned how if you gave things cool names, they didn't seem so lame. Like the Shimmering Shield of Surrender, Flaming Wand of Fiery Death and shit like that. Look, if you have never watched an episode of MST3K you are culturally deprived. I hear Netflix has a few on DVD...

Here are the two men in my life. My husband Jon and his Big Fat Kitty. 

Here is our lovely Evil Pool of Death. Note the Tiki torches in the background. 

This here's the Veridian Vortex of Doom, A.K.A. the pool skimmer. 

Jon is in the process of taking the test for his commercial pilot's license. If he gets it, that means he can legally ferry passengers for money. Needless to say, mister stressboy has had all his needles pegged in the red for the last week or so.

We did watch 2 eps of 24 last night; you know, nekkid Keifer might normally be interesting, but not when someone is applying ) scalpels, b) soldering irons, c) and tasers to said nekkid flesh. Those scenes were *not* pleasant to watch. And those White House bastards locked Ensign Ro in a supply closet! Heads will roll when Jack proves to be right once again.

Endymion is quite good. I recommend the whole series; just don't ask me to explain what it's about. I hate it when someone asks me what a book is about when I'm reading sometimes. I couldn't sum up these books in less than a thousand pages.

It has been a while since I have read anything Dan Simmons has written; he caught my attention with a short story whose title I have forgotten (Dying in Bangkok? Behold, the power of the Web: his site confirms it). It was about a soldier during Vietnam on leave and a vampire-ish monster who, because of her method of sucking blood, had victims literally lined up around the block. I remember it managed to be quite clinical and erotic at the same time. Anyway, I read Carrion Comfort and Song of Kali soon after that. Song of Kali is set to become a movie as is Hyperion. I doubt either will happen.

Nancy's husband, Mark, sent me this great link:The bad review revue. Ha, nothing rouses and inspires the poet in a critic more than a crappy movie!

P.S. I'm glad you're okay, Nancy. Sorry about your Saturn. I'm very happy with mine and glad I didn't buy that SUV I was looking at 5 years ago.

Here's another link: The Ruthless Guide to 80's Action. This page has reviews of 80's action movies. They spend a lot of time going over the homoerotic subtexts of a lot of these movies (scroll down to the photos of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, and Dolph Lundgren for a great laugh). They love Commando as much as I do. I haven't fully explored this site, so Caveat Emptor.

So besides two links o' the day, I also bring you a word o' the day:

prevaricate
SYLLABICATION: pre·var·i·cate
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: pre·var·i·cat·ed, pre·var·i·cat·ing, pre·var·i·cates
To stray from or evade the truth; equivocate.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin praevricr, praevrict- : prae-, pre- + vricre, to straddle (from vricus, straddling, from vrus, bent).

I was reading an interview with my favorite redhead and he used this word. Mmmmmm, I just love it when a man talks wordy!

Here is our big airplane, a King Air 90. It doesn't have a nickname - though Wiley Coyote might have possibilities. Maybe not. 

Look, ma; no seats! Our King Air holds 13 without the co-pilot's seat - 11 with it. 

Here's more dials, switches, gizmos, doodads, etc. For something that's essentially 2 engines bolted to a metal frame, I'm amazed at what it takes to make it fly. 

Gonna do this backwards for viewing... 

Slow news day. I had another ground school Saturday, and then 2 skydives, a level 1 and level 7 AFF. That was it. Uneventful weekend. Spent most of my time sleeping, or reading Endymion which is as captivating as the Hyperion books.

Well, I did spend Saturday night at the Cullman County E.R. with a skydiver who had a hard opening. No real damage; he's just a hurting puppy for now. I hate that part of my job.

I was outed in the Damian Lewis mailing list I'm a member of; someone apparently did some web-surfing and found my site. A few disgruntled comments about my use of the term 'slamhound', but no real flame-fest. I hope it's understood that sometimes I use a snarky tone when talking about things. I blame all the time I've spent at TWoP.

Jon and I have been freed from the tryanny that is Bell South. Hooray! We are cancelling our land line and getting rid of our DSL line. Cable modem and cell phones make them redundant. We have never been happy with their service, anyway.

Later on when I get home tonight I'll have some more boring pictures to post; they are not of our cats.

Here is his Royal Blubberbutt in all his cutesy glory. Check out the pink nose. 

and here's the Big Fat Kitty. I need a better pic to explain just why he's Big Fat Kitty. 

Here's my 18 year old deaf girl... 

Let's see if this works... 

I'd like to welcome a new reader; well, somewhat new because I don't know when he started reading it. Can't get mad at him for not telling me because I didn't tell him I had started writing it. Hi honey! >>Smooch!<< Love you!

More 24 last night but only 2 episodes because Jon got back from work late. He had a large group of tandems yesterday so naturally it rained and was cloudy most of the day. He banged up his leg on landing and was limping pretty bad when he got home. He also suffered an allergic reaction to a couple of ant bites on that same limb. His foot was all swole up. Not his day.

The 60th anniversary of D-Day is this sunday. The Hitler channel will be showing plenty of documentaries. I'm particularly interested in any interviews with the 101st Airborne; kind of got caught up in their stories because of Band of Brothers. I'm especially fascinated by Richard Winters because by all accounts Damian Lewis's portrayal was dead-on and Winters is really that honorable a man.

Apparently his mother had been a Mennonite (he's from Hershey County, Pennsylvania) and he had a strong religious upbringing. Despite this he only seemed intolerant of incompetence. His best friend, Captain Nixon, was a raging drunk and he never judged him. Matter of fact, in one of the most un-pc things I have ever seen on a t.v. show, Winters gave Nixon the first shot at raiding a humongous wine/booze cellar that they captured from the Nazis. By all accounts he was a just leader who wouldn't needlessly put his men in harm's way. He took "follow me" to serious extremes.

I saw parts of Point Break last night, which is a hysterically macho movie. the director, Katheryn Bigelow, has as bad a raging case of man-love as I do; it really shows in this movie. Anyway, FBI agent Johnny Utah (*SNERK!*) goes undercover in a group of California surfers, let by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), because he thinks they might be bank robbers. Surfing, drinking, chases, and skydiving, ensue.

I won't rag too hard on the skydiving scenes - they were ridiculous; but the photography was beautiful and I think they did a great job of capturing the beauty and excitement of a skydive. This movie is one of my favorite mindless entertainment movies. Plus Keanu is such a joy to look at.

Well, after my near-brush with discussing political issues in my last installment, I shall steer clear and discuss utter bullshit today.

First off, 3 more hours of 24. Yeah, I did notice the Wolfram and Hart toady from Angel, Daniel Dae Kim. Any relation to Daniel Day Lewis? And alas, poor Xander (I never knew that someone actually had that name). It's better to burn up than to melt away, I guess.

And just because I mentioned verisimilitude and gently spanked 24 about some of its computer shenanigans, I shall now gently spank it for its skydiving sequence. What was with the belly mounted reserve? He was using a sport rig - hence the 3 ring release system on his risers. And why were they not connected to anything until he left the plane? And what was with the goggles over the helmet? And the flare on the end of his foot - kinda makes it hard to see the ground, don't you think?

I'm just being mean. I did notice he jumped from a Cessna Caravan, which is a perfectly good airplane to jump from. I've done it myself, but not under those circumstances. Very enjoyable episodes, but with 9 hours left, I have to wonder what they will now concentrate on. Presumably who is trying to undermine the Presidency.

And in further news: IMDb's news and gossip pages, an ever reliable resource (pretend this is a sarcastic smiley), is reporting that that huge prick Michael Bay insists Kate Beckinsale was hired for her part in Pearl Harbor because she isn't that good looking. Jesus, if she's ugly, then I'm a troglodyte. I fully admit that Armageddon is a guilty pleasure; so it Pearl Harbor (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. I'm so ashamed). Michael Bay has an ego that would make Frank Sinatra look humble. If you ever get a chance, the Criterion (!!!) edition of the Armageddon DVD has 2 commentary tracks. One has some of the actors, including Ben Affleck. His comments are hilarious. He points things out like gratuitous helicopters in scenes that helped overinflate the movie's budget, and he does a wicked impersonation of Billy Bob Thornton. The other track includes Micheal Bay, who convinced himself he was creating ART. He is a pompous, perambulating penis.

Nothing happened yesterday. I got home, let the frog out of the pool, made dinner, then finished beating up on the Greeks in Civilization. I joined Jon on the couch where we watched a few episodes of Cops then went to bed. The end.

I am going on yet another diet. This one is due to health reasons. My acid reflux is getting worse despite the Prilosec treatment so I just have to face facts and I have to*sob* quit drinking beer for a while. Maybe a long while. I also need to quit eating so damn much. I'm not going to watch the scale, because my goal here isn't to lose weight, it's to get control of my eating habits.

I'm going to go low carb in the sense of I'm going to knock the usual suspects out of my diet again - sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. and begin eating more vegetables. Protein is never a problem.

The tough thing is the beer. I don't consider myself an alcoholic, but I have gotten into the habit of drinking beer 5 or 6 nights a week. I had four beers last night; I woke up with heartburn. Damn, that hurts too much. So, we'll see how long I stay on the wagon. I'm sure I'll be bugging you about it for a while now. Weekends are the worst; everyone drinks and there's always beer in the beer fridge at the drop zone.

A group of Christians are taking a page from the Free State Project and are trying to organize a movement to move to South Carolina with the eventual goal being to secede from the Union. Good for them, I say. Look: it's wrong to try to impose your will on other people. So it has to be frustrating for like-minded people to live in a place where they are forced to live by someone else's rules. Naturally this cuts both ways. The non-Christians who live in South Carolina may become a minority and will be forced to deal with blue laws and dry counties. Like I do; the price I pay for living in Alabama.

So what am I saying? Am I saying that I advocate the Balkanization of the U.S: libertarians move to New Hampshire, Christians move to South Carolina, Texans all move back to Texas (you know they're dying to become an independent republic again)? Why, yes I am. Liberals could complete their takeover of California.

Would it be so bad for the United States to become a loose federation, like the founders intended? Look at it this way: Wyoming or Idaho or Indiana would not be able to invade Iraq as easily as our mega-nation did. Small means less powerful. That's a good thing.

What about the minorities? The communist that has lived all his life in New Hampshire, the Muslims that live in South Carolina, the Chicagoans that moved to Texas? Either move, or deal with the laws and the customs of the State you live in.

Just like I do, now.

And by the way: the last time South Carolina tried to secede, it didn't work too well. Just a reminder.

A rather uneventful Memorial Day weekend - it was marred by weather. I taught a ground school saturday morning - one student.

She did okay on the jump. Most people tend to overload on their first AFF jump anyway. She passed. The only other jump I did all weekend was a coach jump with another Sandy.

I played a protracted game of Civilization III most of Sunday and Monday at home. I did go back to the DZ Sunday night; went to bed at 10pm and was awakened for a tornado warning. Ah, Springtime in Alabama! The Air Evac people came and knocked on our trailer (Jon and I bought a camper and we stay there during the weekends) to warn us. We put our airplane indoors and waited out the storm. It was somewhat disappointing - no hail, no horrendous gusts of wind, no tornado, just lots of thunder, lightning, and rain, rain, rain.

So I went home Monday morning and let the obligatory frog out of the pool skimmer and played on the computer. I eventually stopped, and started reading Endymion, by Dan Simmons. Good far future science fiction - it's the sequel to Hyperion and the Fall of Hyperion. I'm kind of annoyed it's written in first person. I don't like first person novels.

Monday night Jon brought a stray skydiver home. The three of us ate Chinese food and watched Black Hawk Down, about the Somalian operation that went to hell in 1992. I'm very fond of this movie because it has 3 - count 'em, 3 listees: Jason Isaacs, Ewan MacGregor, and Eric Bana. It also has one of my guilty pleasures: Josh Hartnett. Sorry, I think he's adorable. He's in the same group as Damon and Affleck, and Keanu Reeves.

The rest of the cast isn't too bad, either: Ron "hottie from E.R." Eldard, Tom "Sorry, Heidi" Sizemore, Orlando "Legolas" Bloom, Jeremy "Don't be that guy" Piven, Sam Shephard (for such an earnest looking fella, he writes some outrageous plays), Ioan "It's pronounced YOO-an Griffith!" Gruffudd, and Ewan "I have a better American accent than that other Ewan" Bremner. Oh, can't forget William Fichtner, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite character actors. He's not that good looking (although I was deeply impressed with his nekkid bod in the highly recommended Go) - he's more ordinary than anything, but he's a damn good actor.

Oh, the movie? Erm, these Rangers and Delta Force soldiers try to kidnap some Somalis and find themselves in serious doo-doo when the entire town of Mogadishu tries to kill them. This movie is a keen illustration of the difference between highly trained soldiers and undisciplined mobs (over 1,000 somalis were killed compared to the 19 soldiers). It also is a keen illustration of why the good intentions of busybodies are never going to be appreciated. A very relevant movie to watch considering what is happening over in Iraq.

So! Umm, how was your weekend?