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November 18th, 2009
09:32 am - Words of Wisdom
I can't say that I've learned much during my recent absence from posting--I was already quite aware that my job can occasionally devour my entire life, thanks--but there's at least this:
Yesterday I was in the locker room, changing clothes before taking a long walk through the woods along the river, when an older guy I'd never set eyes on before came out of the toilet area and walked past me. Without a greeting or any preamble, he announced:
"Never eat a fish sandwich and then drink a milkshake."
And he was gone.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) amused
Current Music: "This Heart's On Fire" by Wolf Parade
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November 6th, 2009
05:07 pm - We Interrupt This Hiatus to Report
Real life is still kicking my arse around the room, but since many on the flist might be interested in this historical development, I thought I'd take a moment to spread the word:
Nancy Lieberman knows no fear.
Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman was introduced Thursday as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' affiliate in the NBA Development League, which will tip off in November 2010.The D-League team is partially owned by Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks' president of basketball operations. Hiring Lieberman was his idea, and he's confident young men won't have a problem taking orders from a woman -- at least, not this woman."She's got the skins, the experience -- she knows what she's doing -- so I certainly hope that we're well beyond those issues," Nelson said. "Besides, if you can't respect authority, no matter what form or color it comes in, I don't want you on my team."
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: "Pythagoras' Trousers" by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra
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October 21st, 2009
02:20 pm - In the Belly of the Beast
I'm alive. I'm just been eaten by work.
As soon as I get the chance to build a fire and make it sneeze, I'll be out. Call it mid-November.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) exhausted
Current Music: Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg
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September 25th, 2009
11:29 am - Spuffy
It's her birthday, and I love her, AND she has better legs than you, whoever you are, so I'm posting this picture of her.
Love, W.
Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: "Kitchen" by the Lemonheads
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September 20th, 2009
03:12 am - Counting Yellow Highway Lines
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) spuffyduds and I are returned from an excellent show at the 9:30 club, featuring openers Tomte (German indie rock, sort of like Television with a dash of Coldplay--great dynamics), Rock Central Plaza (terrible name, but an interesting six-piece group of multi-instrumentalists; cross the Mountain Goats with Poi Dog Pondering), and headliners the Weakerthans.
We are also happy to know for sure that our car will start now.
Current Music: "Heureka" by Tomte
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September 15th, 2009
10:11 pm - Just Enough Brains for a Meme..
The Flist speaketh and I respond:
Pick five of your favourite shows, in no particular order, before you read the below questions, then answer them.
1. Northern Exposure
2. The Simpsons
3. Slings & Arrows
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Arrested Development
( Enter if you dare... )
Current Music: "Telephone Line" by ELO
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August 29th, 2009
09:17 pm - When Ven-Dor Strikes!
In case you missed it back in April, allow me to link you to Seanbaby's "6 Superheroes Who Lost Their Shit," which is required reading for any Marvel fans out there. (Hi, likeadeuce ! Hi, harmonyangel ! Hi,resolute !)
Best bit:
Picking a favorite emotional breakdown for The Incredible Hulk is hard since his entire super power is an emotional breakdown. There is no The Hulk unless something can make Bruce Banner flip out. A normal Hulk story is Bruce Banner trying to escape society with the tattered remains of his purple pants, then tripping into traffic or getting stepped on by a robo-suit until he turns into the Hulk. Once you see how accident-prone he is, it’s easy to see why he spends so much time as the Hulk. Whenever Bruce Banner bites into a burrito, it’s only after someone misplaced their swarm of poisonous ants wrapped in a tortilla. If Bruce Banner uses a vending machine, it is Vendor, awoken at last from His ancient slumber.
I will, however, assert that any proper vending-machine-based Hulk villain would have to be named VEN-DOR! or maybe VENDORR! or even VENDORR, THE LIVING SNACK BAR!
Tune in next ish, True Believers, for "THERE SHALL COME A MILKY WAY!" Or, as we call it around the Bullpen, "IF THIS BE MY BUTTERFINGER!"
Excelsior!
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Do You Want to Date My Avatar?" by the Guild
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August 28th, 2009
12:08 am - Whew.
Okay. I have a computer again. It's my new work laptop, and it seems to be functioning properly, except that I can't get access to all my music files yet.
Better still, I spent the afternoon and evening revising one of the manuscripts, and I feel as though it's starting to approach its final form... for this draft, anyway.
AND I've got Kid Creole and the Coconuts playing. And you can't be too down when Kid Creole and the Coconuts are playing.
Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: "Gina, Gina" by Kid Creole and the Coconuts
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August 26th, 2009
09:04 pm - Aiee!
I'm writing this from a library computer because my work laptop, which I've had for three years, is being replaced. At the moment, it's in the IT office, slowly passing its memories on to my new laptop.
As a result, I'll spend tonight without a computer. I can pick it up in the morning around nine.
It bothers me that I'm so bothered by this.
.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/shock.gif) anxious
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August 23rd, 2009
11:32 pm - Just One Look
Looks like Glamour has been getting all kinds of letters. Why? They ran a photo of a 20-year-old model in her underwear.
And the model is a size 12-14.
If you click the link and take a look, you'll see a photo that can be regarded in one of several ways:
a) "Well, it's about TIME Glamour showed a woman who's happy in her own skin and doesn't look like an anorexia patient!"
b) "It's a sad statement about our culture's notion of the feminine ideal that a model who wears a size 12 dress is considered a 'plus-sized' model."
c) "Fine, but one picture isn't going to make up for the zillions of other photos in Glamour that promote an unrealistic body image for their readers."
d) "Bowwwww chicka bowww nowwwwwwwwwwww...."
 e) all of the above
I just hope you won't think less of me if I confess that it took me a good long look to go from d) to e).
Current Music: "Just One Look" by the Hollies
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August 19th, 2009
03:29 pm - The Pompatus of Love
After watching the pilot and second episode of Northern Exposure last night for the first time in a long while--They were broadcast 19 years ago! Ack!--I have come to the determination that Maurice Minnifield may be my favorite television character ever.
Barry Corbin's incredibly expressive face is one reason for my enjoyment, obviously, but it's also because the writers are so obviously having a blast creating a character who in some ways is definitely the bad guy, but in others is motivated by entirely reasonable--even admirable--goals.
Even more fun, of course, is how much fun they're having with the subtext and supertext, if you will, of Maurice's character.
In the second episode, radio station owner, local bigwig, and former astronaut Maurice hears DJ Chris in the Morning telling stories of Walt Whitman's homosexual themes, delivers a hilarious look of consternation, and is next seen throwing Chris through the radio station's plate glass window. It's a reaction that one would expect to be motivated by Puritanism, but Maurice claims it's something else: that he considers Whitman the nation's finest poet, and he does not like to see such heroic figures run down in public . Obviously, Maurice considers mention of Whitman's orientation to be a form of denigration, but it's at least a bit of a surprise to see him motivated by a desire to defend a poet's reputation, rather than a simple desire to quash all mention of homosexuality.
Then, just as we're ready to toss Maurice into the "simple bigot" category, the writers throw us another curve: bachelor Maurice, who brought a beauty queen to town and lost her to his best friend, is now the only person who can serve as announcer on his station, and he promptly begins serving up his favorite music: show tunes. In fact, the first cut he plays is from "Kiss Me, Kate." Yes, the one by Cole Porter, as he points out... and one almost has to assume that Maurice knows about Porter's sexuality perfectly well. Either that or there's a delicious bit of irony going on.
These are the first signs of many that Maurice may have a personal reason for not wanting a public figure's homosexuality to be discussed on the air. Over the next few seasons, we learn a few other things about Maurice: his arguments with his fellow astronauts about which musical was best (his choice: "The King and I")... his shoe fetish, which occasionally crops up even in his dream life... the strangely delicate and fussy furniture in his sprawling trophy-laden lodge... his immediate attraction to a big-boned pistol-packing sheriff's deputy... yes, by the end of the show's run, even though he's clearly sublimating his urges, there's definitely circumstantial evidence that Maurice is at least bisexual.
But what I love is that the issue doesn't ever become fodder for a big to-do. It's just a part of his character. He's not a stock villain, he's not a one-note hypocrite, he's not a stereotype. Maurice is COMFORTABLE being a show-tune-loving shoe fetishist, and if that puts him in a stereotyped category, well, hell, that's not his problem. But it's one of the character's (and the show's) great strengths that we can find him simultaneously sympathetic and offensive, both following and denying our stereotypes. He's a marvelous creation, and he gives the audience some interesting possibilities for theorizing. (And fics, no doubt.)
That's the subtext lying under Maurice. The supertext looming above him, however, is that the character is clearly based on a popular song:
Some people call me the space cowboy... Maurice is an ex-astronaut from Oklahoma who idolized John Wayne
Some call me the gangster of love... Maurice brought a trophy wife to town, only to lose her to his best friend, which has created a rivalry, but he still owns the radio station, the newspaper, and about 15,000 acres of land around town. He's the Original G.
Some people call me Maurice... obvious, isn't it?
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August 14th, 2009
01:30 am - Poetry in the Wee Hours
I have the urge to write a sonnet.
But it's late, so I think I'll go with something smaller:
The woodpeckers out in the trees
Must feel shame to surprising degrees:
When one stabs something dead,
His whole face turns beet red,
And he eats it where nobody sees.
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: "The Ballad of Annabel Lee" from "The Fall of the House of Usher" OST
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August 11th, 2009
10:07 pm - Know Your Artists
After reading a recent post by likeadeuce in which she noted that the Marvel Scene-It game apparently gives you no points for recognizing the work of comics artists, I was moved to wonder: how many comics artists would I be able to recognize by their artwork alone?
Ignoring comic-strip artists such as Walt Kelly and Al Capp, I feel fairly confident that I could get these pencillers (or penciller/inkers):
( Enter if you dare... )
Current Music: "This Is How It Goes" by Aimee Mann
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August 7th, 2009
09:43 am - A Brief Watchmen Fic
Title: Laconic
Fandom: Watchmen (comicsverse)
Characters: Nite Owl, Rorschach
1100 words
PG (a little language, a little suggestiveness)
Notes: Thanks to spuffyduds for the beta.
Originally written as a birthday gift for the lovely and talented likeadeuce !
And no, I don't know why it's stubbornly remaining in boldface, either.
( Hurm... )
Current Music: "With a Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker
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August 6th, 2009
07:38 pm - Back to Manual
Thanks to the ongoing wiring chaos in our kitchen, which was previously confined to the hood fan and light over the stove, we've now lost power to our dishwasher.
In other words, I'm going back to my roots, preparing for some serious dish-dogging. I worked as a dishwasher at a number of fine and not-so-fine dining establishments back in the day, and though it didn't pay as well as waiting tables or even busing them, it was good, honest work, and I like to think I did it well.
I got my first such gig during the summer after my junior year of high school, when I signed on at Chapel Hill's poshest restaurant, La Residence. The good news was that the kitchen prepared a meal for the staff every night I worked, and it was usually pretty tasty (though of course I didn't get to choose what we were eating). Unfortunately, there was much bad news. First, I was technically a POTwasher, not a dishwasher, meaning I got to work with baked-on cheese, charred and blackened cream sauces, and grotesque melanges of grease that had been molecularly bonded to the cookware. Even with hours of soaking, these things were extremely difficult to clean. I was also required to take out the trash after closing and mop the floors. The latter was a particularly nasty job, demonstrating that past moppers had been indifferent enough to leave bits of dirt and food on the floor long enough for them to have been permanently sealed into the wax job. Feh. I left after only two weeks at La Res.
Later that summer I decided to pick up a job at Wendy's, reasoning that it coulodn't be any more disgusting, then quit and and stayed unemployed through senior year and my first year of college. Needing a little cash, though, I started dish-dogging at Swensen's in '82, discovering early on that hot water is in fact the universal solvent for substances served cold. I spread out to working on the cone line, busing, and even occasionally waiting tables, but I thought of myself as a dishdog all along.
I bailed on Swensen's when I left for Manchester, and remained a full-time student (except for band gigging) until the end of my senior year at UNC. Then I signed on to dishwash at Pyewacket, the greatest place for a dishdog ever. Why? It was a vegetarian/seafood restaurant. Except for a few menu items (such as the plaki, which contained a whole baked fish), the dishes were almost entirely grease-free. The food was excellent, the co-workers bright and funny (and really, really overeducated), and the ownership enlightened. At Swensen's, tips were gathered and split among the wait staff (and yet somehow mysteriously always came out to exactly $4 an hour...), but at the Wacket, a portion of the tips collected by the waits was split among the kitchen staff and busboys, which gave us a little incentive to make sure the waits looked as good as possible for the customers. Also: endless supplies of iced Red Zinger.
Pyewacket is gone now, alas, and since I left it for my first grading job at Measurement Incorporated in December of '85, I haven't done any dishes other than my own. Still, there's a certain satisfaction to the job. I like the clarity of it: you know whether the thing you're cleaning is dirty or not, and you know when you've successfully cleaned it. It has none of the uncertainty inherent in teaching; you don't second-guess your decisions, or worry that you could have done the job better if only you'd had more time, or feel that you're not having a direct impact. By god, you KNOW the people using those forks will be using clean ones.
But at the same time, there's this to be said: everyone remembers the teachers who made a difference in their lives. Nobody remembers, or ever even knew, who got that fork clean.
Current Music: "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" by Traffic
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July 29th, 2009
11:47 pm - First Lines
Gacked from likeadeuce and spuffyduds :
List the first lines of your last 20 stories. See if you find any patterns.
Well, since I've written only seven stories here, it's gonna be short, but:
1 “Is it gone yet?”
2 It’s another bright, sunshiny day, and Buffy’s once again awake as soon as the clock-radio flips the digits to 6:30 and lets loose a burst of Three Dog Night.
3 It was the deli tray’s fault.
4 “Gosh, Betty,” said scientist Dr. Paul Armstrong, stepping out of his in-home lab and gesturing at the mistletoe hanging from the doorframe.
5 "I couldn’t read that," says Xander quietly, sitting on the checkout desk, heels drumming against the wood.
6 Dear Sir/Madam, I am MR ELROND HALFELVEN, the contracts verification manager of Eriador Ancient Artifacts Consortium (EAAC)
7 Buffy trudges into the castle foyer, trying to walk smoothly in Faith’s boots—worse, with Faith’s FEET—and sees her own face.
Patterns:
a) I like that third-person impersonal pronoun, don't I?
b) When in doubt, I always go for a participial phrase to follow the main clause.
c) The Buffyverse is in the present tense. Everything else, not so much.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/confused.gif) curious
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July 27th, 2009
06:21 pm - I Been Driving All Night, My Hands Are Wet on the Wheel...
...bowwww dow da dow dow dowwwwwwwwww...
Not really. It just feels that way, since we drove
five hours on Wednesday
five hours on Friday
five hours on Saturday
one hour on Sunday
six hours today
and it's way past half past four and I'm shifting gears into bed.
But I'll probably write something coherent someday soon.
Probably.
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Oh, come on...
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July 17th, 2009
09:56 am - Are You There, Grant? It's Me, Wash...
Poll #1431044 Who WROTE This Thing?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8Which Comic-Book Writer Is Writing YOUR Life?
Current Music: "eBay" by Weird Al Yankovic
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July 9th, 2009
05:09 pm - Iconography
I recently noticed that I almost always use my Chucks icon, and was wondering why that was, exactly. I have others which I find fun and appropriate, but somehow the purple Chuck speaks to me consistently. Or maybe I just forget that I have the option to change it.
But here are the other ones I've picked up, if you're curious:
( Enter if you dare... )
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: "Indiscipline" by King Crimson
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July 6th, 2009
09:50 am - Everybody to the Limit!
Important revelations from this weekend's conversation with likeadeuce and spuffyduds :
( Enter if you dare... )
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" by the Magnetic Fields
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