Happy Halloween, everyone! This is the 4th photo from my 4th set on Flickr, a meme I borrowed from Helly. I couldn't do the 4th photo in my 4th folder on my computer because I'm just not that organized. If Flickr ever crashes I'm going to go postal.
And Helly, I still have that postcard from Alan! I never throw anything away that resembles correspondence. I'll try and dig it up & post it on the blog. Soon come...
Despite my son's lagging enunciation skills, I have noted some interesting developments in his speaking. For instance, he seems to get the difference between "I" and "you". When his dad lets one rip, he will run up and point his finger at him, and announce "YOU FARTED!"
Likewise when Brenden blows his trumpet, he will say "I FARTED!"
Also, at restaurants especially, he likes to say "I GO POO POO!" if he wants us to take him to the bathroom, or if I get up to go he'll say "YOU GO POO POO! MAMA GO POO POO!"
He can also read one word: "PUSH". He pointed it out to me when we were going out the door of McDonald's last Saturday afternoon.
I've finally made my decision about who I am voting for this year. I don't care for either candidate for the major political parties, and even the Libertarian candidate makes my eyes cross. Therefore I am writing in Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho as my candidate of choice. RLY.
BTW, did you know that 'decision' and 'incision' have similar roots? That's neither here nor there; I just love etymology.
I mentioned last weekend Jon was out jumping off bridges. It was the annual Bridge Day at New River Gorge bridge in West Virginia. Jon told me this story this morning and I thought it was nifty.
Apparently there were a bunch of students and doctor types running around 'studying' the BASE jumpers (clue to you all: Bridge Day is pretty tame compared to some of the other places they jump). One doctor, for instance, was taking saliva and blood samples from certain jumpers before and after their jumps. Other people (sociology students, I would bet) were going around asking questions.
When Jon finished with one jump, as he was leaving the landing area, one of these quetioners asked him a bunch of things. When he asked Jon what he considered his proudest acheivement, the thing he was most proud of in the world, Jon said "my son".
The student then said, "Really?"
Jon replied, "Not a doubt in my mind."
He loves to sing theme to Cops - Baboy baboy, wha go doo, wha go doo... baboy baboy, wha go doo, wha go doo.. (repeat 50 times).
The Bechdel Test:
I can't remember where I read about testing for real women in movies. It's a fairly simple test:
1: Is there more than one woman?
2: Do they talk to each other?
3: About anything other than men?
For me if a movie fails this test it doesn't make it a bad movie, but I have noted I tend to enjoy it more if it passes. I have subconciously applied these criteria to entertainment long before I read the rules spelled out. When I'm writing my "what I'm watching" blatherings I need to start commenting on whether it passes the test or not.
Please note the comic strip mentions Alien - you would be surprised how few movies you will find before (and after, sadly) 1979 pass the test.
Of the TV shows I watch regularly, only Fringe passes pretty much regularly - the show's lead and a representative of a shadowy megacorporation are both women and they talk pretty much every episode about things other than men. I'm trying to think if J.J. Abrams' other hit, Lost, passes the test. I'm sure somewhere along the line Sun, Julia, Kate, and / or Claire talked to each other about something other than the men. Right?
Sarah Connor Chronicles: I can't think of the last time it passed. Most of the time Sarah talks to Cameron, who is a robot so maybe she doesn't count. Plus they are usually talking about John. But sometimes they talk about other stuff.
My beloved Life fails in the 2nd season because Robin Wiegert got replaced by Donal Logue as the "boss". Even then, though Wiegert and Shahi got to have regular conversations on occasion, they usually revolved around Charlie (though most definitely not in a romantic context, but it still doesn't count). Now Logue's character continually sexually harasses Shahi's character. Yeah, that's an improvement!
Battlestar Galactica: It has passed many times! Roslin doesn't get to interact with Starbuck that much but they have; plus Starbuck and Athena have interacted with the other female pilots. I can't forget Roslin's interaction with her assistant, Tory. The 2.0. - 2.5 Pegasus arc was total win with Commander Cain and Starbuck talking about hardcore military shit.
The last couple of movies I have watched that didn't fail were the two Grindhouse movies. Deathproof especially had nothing but women talking to each other, sometimes about men but not continuously. The 2nd half, with all the motorhead talk, was the best all-woman conversation in movies ever.
Jon and I watched Iron Man last night (FAIL). It was decent. It would have been just ok if they hadn't had the smarts to put Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role.
What I'm Watching:
Jon was out jumping off bridges and Brenden was a little sick and whiny (rash, congestion, low fever etc) this weekend so I didn't do much but catch up on my TV shows. Brenden was fine this morning. When I wasn't watching TV he was watching Thomas the Tank Engine and asking me if we could go on a train ride.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles: FOX has given the go-ahead for a full season. YES!! I had a few eps to catch up on and I'm glad they gave a very plausible reason for Cameron the Terminator to look and occasionally act like a teenaged girl (she, I mean it, was modelled after someone John knew. Will know).
Life: I'm still holding my breath for NBC to give this show a full season. The ratings aren't good but then again most NBC shows across the board have bad ratings and 10pm on Fridays is just the suckiest sucky timeslot ever. Come on, NBC, I need my weekly dose of redhead!
Speaking of, the History Channel was nice to me and had a Band of Brothers marathon this weekend and I managed to watch 9 out of 10 eps. I still marvel at what WWII veterans, especially the airborne, went through - not just D-Day but then the total funparks that were Operation Market Garden and Bastogne. I am almost finished with The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which is a unique book in that it wasn't written by a historian but a journalist who spent most of his time in Germany while Hitler came to power. I guess that's pretty common-place now but I believe the author (William Shirer) paved the way for journalists to chronicle history.
Adolph Hitler wasn't a military genius nor even a great politician; he was a total bullshit artist that people were willing to believe simply because they wanted his shit to be true. Not just Germans who were smarting about the outcome of WWI but the European powers that bent over for Hitler because they wanted to avoid another war. Seriously, if I had that time machine to go back into history, it wouldn't be to kill Hitler, but to knock some freaking sense into the French and English who not only went on their knees for Hitler, but they held down his other victims like Austria and Czechoslovakia when he had them annexed (to continue the anal rape analogy. Speaking of, did you see South Park with the shot-for-shot remake of the love scene from Deliverance?). Ugh. All I'm saying is if someone had stood up to that nutbag a little earlier many many boatloads of soldiers (including my grandfather) wouldn't have had to die.
Along with a little Fringe and C.S.I I caught up with my T.V habits. I didn't watch any movies but I did squee and chortle like the geeky fangirl I can be when I saw those stills from the new Star Trek movie. Miniskirts, go-go boots, and pointy sideburns are intact! If Karl Urban doesn't get to say "DAMMIT, JIM!" at least once, I will be sorely disappointed.
Brenden spent Saturday night and Sunday morning puking. We believe it was food poisoning - he couldn't hold anything down and we had to give him water a teaspoon at a time for a while. He was better Monday - I could tell because he begged me to take him to McDonald's and he demolished his Happy Meal, ate a quarter of my Big Mac, and then demanded that I get him a hamburger, which he polished off, too.
Jon and I watched Hitman Sunday night. I wish we had done something more interesting but a totally bald Timothy Olyphant held me in thrall - he's a good actor who doesn't get much work but he shouldn't be so misused! Maybe he had a house payment overdue or something. He can play everything from weedy, psychopathic scumbags (Go and Live Free or Die Hard come to mind) or intense, self-righteous sheriffs (the enormously great and sorely missed Deadwood). But I spent this movie thinking to myself - "Dude, you're BALD! Where's your HAIR?" while poor Timothy was trying to inject some life into this crappy movie based on a video game. Meanwhile, Jon was obsessing over the truly hideous costume design. I'm being sincere when I say it made The Fifth Element's costumes look conservative and tasteful. Other than that, there was some nice blood spatter but that's about it.
I went to see my allergist the always-cool Dr. Krishna on Tuesday for a routine visit and I complained to him about reoccuring sinus headaches, mainly because I was experiencing one right at that moment. He listened to my symptoms, and told me to see my general practicioner because he thought the headaches didn't sound sinus-related.
My GP listened to my symptoms: the headache is always on the left side of my face and feels like its behind my eye ( also at my temple and around my teeth), it always occurs when the weather changes, and lasts for three days. Oh yeah - it's hard for me to work because looking at a computer screen is painful and I can't stand loud noises. I can't stand them anyway but it really drives me batshit insane when I have one of these headaches.
Those of you reading who experience migraines are probably laughing, because those are all classic migraine symptoms.
So my GP gave me some sample meds to try - I'm supposed to take them at the first sign of one of these headaches. I'm also going to keep a diary of when these headaches happen to see if there are other triggers other than the weather.
Doc asked me on a scale of 1 to 10 of the pain, and I'd put it at a 7. A 10, btw, is what I experienced when I had my C-section and I tried to sit up in bed and my weight shifted and I was pulled upright. The pain was so bad I nearly blacked out and was close to puking.
If I'm right about the weather being the trigger, these puppies will be easy to predict, however. Jon won't be able to bitch at me anymore for watching the weather channel all the time.
Last Sunday we took Brenden to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera, Alabama. We took the "Pumpkin Patch Express" which was a train ride to this little area near a vinyard that had some fun things for little people to do like get their faces painted, a big inflatable thing for them to jump on, and a hayride. We got to pick a pumpkin too. Brenden was all about the trains of course.
I think the museum in Chattanooga is the best one we've been to, but Brenden enjoyed himself the most at this one because he's just become old enough to really appreciate these trips. Last night he begged me "Brenden go choo choo?"
"You want to go on the choo-choo again?"
"Yeah!"
"OK, we'll go again, soon."
"Oh, thank you, mama, thank you!" And he wrapped his arms around me and gave my legs a big hug. So yeah, we'll be going again.
What I'm Watching:
Life is back, hooray! The ratings haven't been great though. That sucks. I have to admit the cases-of-the-weak are pretty ho-hum, but the characters and their interactions are fun and involving. The scenery ain't bad, either.
Fringe I'm liking this X-Filesy show, and so are a lot of other people. Good!
Feasting on Waves is over, and that's too bad. The show wrapped up in the British Virgin Islands, with Alton Brown closing the show with a meandering but truthful monologue about the difference between good food and great food (He decided it was love - food lovingly made, especially for family, and lovingly eaten). Translation: if you want great food, stay away from the fancy-pants mango chutney restaurants and eat local.
Children of Men: Science Fiction dystopian story about a world where all of a sudden everyone is sterile. 18 years have passed and the world has gone to hell in a handbasket because no one can have babies. Really: the idea is there's no future so everybody lives with despair. I won't say more, I thought it was a fantastic movie and I think anyone who is a parent will be able to empathize with the main characters.
Knocked Up: Better than I thought it would be, although I'm getting tired of Seth Rogan.
