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 |  Now my story begins in nineteen-dickety-two... |
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2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, Threatening the life it belongs to And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud And I know that you'll use them, however you want to -Breathe(2AM), Anna Nalick ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** For Daddy, the real world gets fainter and fainter every day. -Homer Simpson Homer, Please Don't Hammer 'Em ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
If we shadows have offended,/Think but this, and all is mended,/That you have but slumber'd here/While these visions did appear./And this weak and idle theme,/No more yielding but a dream... -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream |
| So, we show up at the court house only to find that there is no court sessions today, despite what Benn's ticket says. Come to find out, they had sent him a summons that the court day had been moved up to Oct. 20. We never got the summons, because they sent it to the old apartment. Which means Benn has a bench warrant out on him now. So he was told that he needs to call Monday morning between 8-11 and tell them he wants to vacate the warrant and then he'll probably have to be back at the court house at 1 for a hearing. I'm not nearly as upset as I probably should or normally would be. I'm just tired of this whole damn thing. |
I hope to write the entry I wanted to write today later. But right now, I'm a little nervous, so I'm going to write in the hopes of feeling better and at the very least killing some time. So feel free to stop reading now if you wish. As some of you may remember, Benn has to go to court for his traffic violations today which started the whole identity issue. Here's the link to first entry about all this: "Invalid Entry"  . That part has been cleared up, but he still has a 'failure to use his turn signal' and 'driving without ever being issued a license' tickets. I'm thinking, the one about the license is just out right wrong as he was issued a license when he was 16 and every four years since then. What we were told is that in December, he would have finally been told he his license was revoked. Yeah, nice they were going to wait that long, huh? I guess it was probably a good thing he got pulled over for not using a turn signal so we got everything cleared up now. For some reason, he's been advised by the judge that he works with to plea not guilty to both. Which seems odd to me. I guess it has to do with judge's liking less paper work. I would think a judge would appreciate the honesty of him saying he was guilty for the turn signal and not for the license, but hey, what do I know? The reason I'm nervous is because the license charge is a misdemeanor. So, there's a small chance that could result in jail time. At least according to Benn, but we're not lawyers. Even if jail time wasn't an issue, it could still result in a huge ass fine we can't afford. Everyone we've had to deal with so far has been reasonable and sympathetic. I'm hoping that once the judge hears Benn's side of the story, he will be lenient. The judge that Benn works for also said that since it was an election year that may make the judges more compassionate. With the election only four days away, accepting his innocence maybe enough to swing a few undecided votes... I'm just saying... His hearing is set for 1:30. He didn't come to bed until 8:00am. I'm guessing he was nervous too, but that would have made me try to go to sleep sooner so I would be well rested and coherent in front of the judge. He wants to get up at noon. In the past, Benn does seem able to function well on a few hours of sleep, at least for a little while. We are supposed to have more of that martial art training today at 4pm, but I don't know if he'll feel up to it. Which the last one we went to... gr... some things were said that didn't set right with me, but it wasn't so much the instructor, but one of the other guys he was training. I was going to vent my frustrations here, but never got around to it. It reminded me of where I live. I think working on a college campus isolates me from the rest of the city and surrounding area in some ways. The campus is more liberal and there is more diversity. At first the guy said he believed being gay was wrong, but he wasn't going to hurt someone for being that way... Fine, but I could almost tell he was saying that because he thought it was the right thing to say. I have to wonder if he's with some of his buddies if he still says that. Then this came up: I'm sure you remember all the stuff about putting lipstick on a pig still makes it a pig. Well, this individual switched pig with the N word and lipstick with suit to refer to Obama. And apparently he had a 'delightful' funny picture on his cellphone about Obama that I didn't see. Which is probably a good thing. I would have been tempted to smack the guy, but we were training martial arts and this guy knows more than me, so I probably would have just left. It's one thing to disagree about his policies, but this was just out right racism. I'm getting mad thinking about it all over again. I'm not sure if that's better than the nerves or not. I think the instructor saw how upset I was getting and quickly had us go back to training. I'm hoping this guy's training schedule doesn't coincide with ours very often. But it's stuff like that, that makes me very surprised that the polls are showing my state as undecided. *sigh* Well, I guess I forgot about my nerves for awhile and now I'll be simmering with rage for a little bit... Maybe I'll go try to find something humorous... |
I finished American Gods today, and I didn't want to hand it back in.  So I think that means I'm going to have to buy a copy. I did look for one at the local bookstore last weekend, but I didn't see it there. It maybe something I have to go to a used bookstore for or order online. But now that leaves me with what to read next. I was planning on going back to Acacia, but while I was reading American Gods, another book I had on hold came in. This book is called House of Leaves. It was a book I found out about many years ago, when a friend of mine received it for his birthday. It looked really interesting, because just flipping through the pages, there's all sorts of wacky text in it. Like in spirals. The copy we have, has text in different colors. I think it's a horror story or at the very least a ghost story. I did read the first two pages of it, and I'm already pulled in. I really hate not finishing a book. Acacia is a bestseller and it's only a two week check out, where as House of Leaves I can have for an entire year before renewing. Unless, it gets recalled. So it would make sense to finish Acacia first. It's a decent book, I'm just not caught up in it. There are parts that peak my interest, but it just doesn't draw me to it. I don't understand how it is a bestseller, honestly. Although, the author has published other books before this. Acacia is his first fantasy and it looks like it's the first book in a series. Maybe that's why it's a bestseller. Maybe it's a fantasy that mainstream people can enjoy, but most fantasy readers wouldn't. Well, it's been a week or so since I picked up Acacia, so maybe I'll read a few pages and see what happens. I just really hate not finishing it, but now I have so many other shinys to look at... |
Calculon: They were working on Project Satan, a savage, evil intelligent car built out of the most evil parts of the most evil cars in history. The steering wheel from Hitler's staff car. The left turn signal from Charles Manson's VW. The windshield wipers from that car that played Knight Rider. -Futurama, The Honking http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/topstories/3789180.Christian_famil... |
| This is the best link I could find for this video. I couldn’t find it on youtube amazingly enough. http://www.kaneva.com/asset/assetDetails.aspx?assetId=1765761&communityId=0 Anyway, I heard the song earlier and it reminded of some of the stuff I’ve been reading and with the election a week away, I thought it might be appropriate. Which leads me to what I wanted to write about today. I’m not going to try to convince anyone to vote for someone. If you all have been paying attention, you probably know who I’m going to vote for. I would like to throw out the argument that perhaps it isn’t the presidential race we should be spending so much time and effort on. After taking my government class in high school, which happened to be the election year for Bush/Clinton, I realized that all the things the presidential candidates talk about doing are things they can’t do if elected. Sure, he can veto bills he doesn’t like, but Congress can override him if they choose. He can try to use his influence to get things passed. But so much of what candidates talk about doing, are things that need the other branches of government to support. If all our lawmakers continue to vote along party lines, nothing significant may ever get done. Anyway, I think the races that actually will affect everyone the most, are the local and state elections. Yet, everyone focuses on the national ones. In my state, we will also be voting for governor, but you wouldn’t know it for all the attention it receives. I’m willing to bet whoever gets elected governor is going to affect more of my day to day life than who gets elected president. I’d also be willing to bet whoever gets elected into county offices will affect my day to day life more than governor. A few years ago, the county wanted to start charging a wheel tax in order to fix our roads. Plus the last few years, property taxes have been a big issue here. What good is it if our federal taxes are lowered only to have the state and local taxes go up? I’m not here to argue about taxes, but I’m trying to illustrate how things locally can affect us more than things on a wider scale. As for those people who either don’t vote because they don’t think their vote matters or those who vote, but think it’s pointless, I may concede on a national level that’s true. It seems like everyone looks to the national government to change things. I argue that maybe if everyone worked on a local level with their elected officials, maybe actual change would happen. If there’s a law you don’t like or one you want passed, let your representatives know. I’m not saying you can change their minds, but if enough people call and send letters, maybe you can. At the very least, you know you did what you could to be heard. (Although, I don’t think Congress listened at all to the will of the people about this whole bail out thing. However, since they didn’t, now may be the time to boot the ones that didn’t listen out of office or to let them know your dissatisfaction.) As for the health care issue, I was told Oregon has a similar healthcare program like Canada. I could have heard wrong, but even if I did, why can’t each state start its own universal health care program? Our States have a good deal of power. A lot of things that we wish to see on a national level could probably be done on a state level. I don’t know. I could be wrong. I know my arguments are probably poorly written. This is probably why I don’t do many entries with actual substance. It feels too much like homework and it always sounds better in my head. I just wanted to throw out the idea that we may not be as powerless as it seems. If everyone who remains silent because they don’t think they’ll be heard, actually spoke out to their representatives maybe that would make a difference. |
| I came to a realization at lunch this evening, but first a brief background to understand where this realization came from. In high school, I was involved in theater. I absolutely loved it, but I had no intention of being an actress. Being an professional actress never appealed to me, but I often considered some sort of theater career that didn't involve being on stage... except maybe being a dancer, but that's another story. The theater wasn't only a place for those that loved drama and such, but students who couldn't fit in elsewhere often ended up in the group. I was even involved in the local theater productions until I moved away from home. Even within the theater clique, I still wasn't popular. For the most part, I believed I had found a place where I belonged. At least it was the best fit at the time and for where I was. Growing up in a rural Indiana county and noticing you don't think or act like most of the other people can be a bit scary and lonely. So anything that remotely seemed to accept me was a good thing. But I'm digressing. The important thing to know is that theater was my life back then. It still would still be an important part today, but circumstances have dictated otherwise. If I ever have a normal schedule again, I may get involved again. Anyway, back to tonight. After I eat, I take the book I've been reading, American Gods, (Yes, I'm still reading it... I miss the days when I had time to read three to four novels in a week... Of course, now I'm also writing novels in my spare time...) down to the lobby-like area we have in front of ERC. There are chairs and a mounted TV and a big screen TV. Further down there are vending machines and tables and another mounted TV. The two mounted TV's are always supposed to be on CNN. The big screen can be turned to any channel the patrons want to watch. Amazingly, this arrangement doesn't cause many problems. Here's the important thing, it can be noisy, but I'll often read in this area because I usually don't have a problem tuning things out and I'm comfortable in our lobby area. The Lower Level is my domain and I'm Queen of all I survey...  Often student groups come to this area and have meetings. That's usually not a big deal unless they get really loud. As the fourth floor is our only designated quiet area, you have to be pretty damn loud on the other floors to be told to shut up. I settle in to read my book. I don't want to give anything away about it, but for those of you that have read it, I'm on the last chapter of the second part. Well, I'm reading and the somewhat idyllic life the main character has been living during part two, is beginning to crash down around him. Another important character is being taken out of the picture. This should be a tense and emotional chapter and possibly one filled with tiny, subtle clues about plot and such, but a group of theater students come down and sit behind me. They are so loud and obnoxious, I cannot tune them out. One of my student assistants came out into the lobby to tell them to shut up because there had been complaints. If it were just their loudness, then everything would be fine, because they quieted down. After some mumbling and bitching among themselves about it. I don't even know how to explain how obnoxious they were, but the conversations were inane and I just wanted to turn around and hit them with the book. Now, one thing that I can pinpoint to, that annoyed the hell out of me, was one of the girls. We had one or two of these girls in my theater group. She was singing. For no other reason than to be showing off. She'd be talking and then for no reason, just do some singing. It's not that she had a horrible voice, it wasn't the fact that the muse suddenly struck her and she must sing, she was going through her ranges, trying to impress anyone who could hear her. She even went on about how she was a beautiful blond with a fantastic singing voice. This group reminded me of my theater days and how annoyed I became at some of the 'popular' members for similar things. I realized, I'm glad I never fit in there completely. I never realized how someone looking in on it, could find theater people so aggravating, bothersome, and maddening. I think there's a lesson there... I'm not saying everyone in theater is obnoxious, but I see how the boisterous and annoying ones give the others a bad name.(Like any other group of people.) I think it might have to do more with youth, because remembering my civic theater days the older ones weren't annoying at all. Anyway, the whole thing has made me... 'feisty' -is how April put it- this evening. For those of you who read American Gods, when I came back from lunch there was an I Love Lucy DVD case waiting for me because one of the discs was missing. If it would have been Cheers, I may have run out of the library screaming... Especially since we don't have Cheers in our collection. I would like to point out a excerpt from what I did manage to read tonight is absolutely, fucking true: Shadow had noticed that you only ever catch one episode of shows you don't watch, over and over, years apart; he thought it must be some kind of cosmic law. Now that I think about it, as I was eating lunch in the cafe upstairs, one of the student employees came up to me and asked me if I wanted to take a survey about religion... Sometimes, my life is way too weird... If streetlights starting bursting as I pass them tonight, I'm going to be very upset... |
| Every Sunday, before dragging my zombie like carcass to work, I stop by the coffee shop in the Village. The same coffee shop I've mentioned before, that's locally owned and the prices are cheaper than Starbucks. Where the grande coffee means large instead of medium, yet the large at the local shop is still cheaper than medium at Starbucks... Anyway, they have a drink called a Milky Way that I've been getting there since I was a student. The last few years, they're using brewed coffee to make it instead of espresso so it's not as good, but still tasty. I usually get a bagel with butter or if I'm feeling very hungry or know I won't be eating for a long while, I'll get a breakfast sandwich. They have garlic bagels and it took me a long time to try one for breakfast. For some reason, I thought it was too early for a garlic bagel. Silly me, I absolutely love garlic so I don't know why I waited so long to have them on Sunday morning. So the last few weeks, every Sunday, I've been having garlic bagels with butter. There was a time, years ago, I would get garlic bagels with chive cream cheese... very tasty. So after I get my coffee and bagel, I come to work and I'm usually a half hour early. I use that time to enjoy my breakfast and relax before opening my area of the library. Trust me, if I stayed at home for that half hour, I'd be falling asleep on the couch. So it's better that I get to work early. I open up my bagel and find that all the garlic pieces on top are brunt. Yuck. So I had to scrape them all off. Honestly, if I had been preparing a bagel and noticed that the pieces were brunt, I would have at least asked the customer if that was okay and offer to prepare another bagel if they wished. *Sigh*. The one girl I really like wasn't working there this morning. That's one problem with living in a college town, you get to liking one of the employees at say a coffee shop, but they're a college student so the longest they're going to be working there is maybe four years before moving on. Anyway, I just wanted to bitch about my garlic pieces being brunt... *Except for the ones in my head, who have a damn good reason to hate me that has nothing to do with garlic... |
| Has anyone seen the commercial for Dean Koontz's new novel, The Darkest Evening of the Year? I saw it watching TV earlier today and I found it on Youtube if you want to have a peek... Go ahead look... I'll wait... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-jknCy7ktk Did you think it was a little awkward? That commercial doesn't make me want to read the book. The title alone would at least peak my interests, but that advertisement just turned me off. It sounds like he should be collecting money for some animal charity or something. Which then, I don't think it would seem so awkward. I've seen decent commercials for Stephen King's novels, so I know a decent commercial for a book can be done. I don't think I've ever read a Dean Koontz book. He always seemed too popular and that can be a big turn off for me. That's another reason I haven't read the Twilight books yet. Now, my aunt did get me a Koontz book once after Mom told her that I preferred sci/fi and fantasy to the romance books she had been sending me. They just weren't romance books, they were Christian romance books. I did skim a few of the Christian romances because she used to send me tons of them and I felt bad for not reading any. They were interesting and not preachy so they were okay. I never got around to reading the Koontz book, but I think it's still on one of my shelves. Of course, at the time I wasn't even sure Koontz qualified as a sci/fi author. I guess that's why they use the term speculative fiction. Now, Benn says on his mom's side of the family, Koontz is a distant uncle of theirs. It wouldn't be genetic though. His mom was adopted and her mom was adopted. Most of his mom's family lives in Pennsylvania. So I don't know how close that part of the family is to Koontz. I can't imagine it's all that close though. *shrug* Anyway, just thought it was a weird commercial... |
Kitenge: This is the earliest known fossil of a human being. It's over two million years old. Homer: Pffft. I've got more bones than that guy. If you're trying to impress me, you've failed. Kitenge: It's not the number of bones, sir, it's the-- Homer: You. Have. Failed. -The Simpsons, Simpson Safari The scene above played in my head after an Emerging Technology Fair that the University held at the library today. The dean was insistent that all library employees go. Looking around, it was obviously geared towards students which is understandable. I just don't see how it necessarily behooved us to go. There were some neat things and they were giving out free swag. But all I got was one pen and I think it's broke already. Only one of the venders bothered to get my attention and talk to me. He was explaining how the University was using Second Life. Which for the things he was explaining was a cool idea. For the art museum, your avatar can walk in and see the museum's displays that have been digitized. Then he said that for students who are giving a performance, in say the music building, and if they're parents are unable to make it because they live on the other side of the county, well the parents could then attend the rehearsal or performance via Second Life. What I have never understood is why the library wants to have presence on Second Life. Anything a student can get over the internet, he can do so from our webpages. Maybe I'm just missing the point entirely, like Homer up there. When I got back to my desk, I just thought 'If you're trying to impress me, you've failed.' And I know there would be many people who would try explain the point, but I just don't care that much. As my husband would say: If no one cares, Care-a-lot will crumble!  With that being said, I'm now going to go get me some of that rainbow!... And if anyone understands that last line, I'll give them a merit badge or something... |
Last Thursday, I received a book I had requested through inter-library loan. So, I put down the book I had been reading, Acacia in order to read it. Since, my new book is an inter-library thing, I feel obligated to finish it first. But even it that weren't the case, I would have put Acacia on the back burner as soon as I read the first page. I know a lot of people have read this book already, but until now I wasn't able to get my hands on it. It's American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Our library had a selection of short stories he wrote including the small little stories he did to go with Tori Amos's Scarlet Walk album. I really enjoyed the collection of stories and I had read Good Omens long ago and loved it. I've wanted to read it again, but my husband always has it hidden away at work or somewhere else where I can't get to it.  So once I got into the first page of American Gods, I was hooked instantly, I had to wonder why in the hopes of applying it to my writing. The thing is, Neil Gaiman usually always has a little humor in whatever he writes. I learned long ago that comedy can get you pretty far. I learned this lesson in high school when I was running for Drama Club president. It was my senior year and I had another friend, also a senior who was running. Both of us had been dedicated to drama and theater our entire high school career. Well, along comes this sophomore, who only seemed to have a half-hearted interest in drama. His speech before the election was humorous. And he won. All the experience and plans my friend and I had meant nothing because this sophomore could make them laugh. He did very little with his position. And that is only one small way that my senior year went wrong, but that's another story. Anyway, back to American Gods. I think it's more than Gaiman's quirkiness. It may just be his style appeals to me whereas say the style of the author of Acacia just doesn't click with me as well. Don't get me wrong, I can tell that Acacia is well written and the plot is intriguing, it's just not clicking with me as well as other stories. So, when I'm not caught up in Gaiman's story, I'm trying to analyze parts of it. There are instances where I think one of my reviewers would accuse Gaiman of 'telling', but to me it doesn't detract from the story. I try to look at those areas to determine how they differ from mine. So far, I'm not sure if I see much of a difference. But I don't spend too much time thinking it over because the story is so good I want to continue. But I will continue to try to figure it all out. For some reason, every time I think of the title American Gods, I think of the song by Counting Crows, American Girls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfBshRZcrXU Speaking of songs that won't leave me alone, for some reason Anna Nalick's song, In the Rough has been in my head all week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQxFr-GzFXM I really like this part: And I offer no sympathy for that I hear that it was you who died alone And I offer no sympathy for that Better off I sparkle on my own I think I'm going to have buy American Gods eventually. I think my husband would like it, but for some reason he stopped reading new books a long time ago and just rereads everything he used to read...  Hm... Guess I should get ready for work now... Have a good one.  |
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