Monthly Archives: February 2005

evildeb, movies and tv

Bet you didn’t count on my loyal army of prostitutes.

I’m not a big fan of Ann Coulter, but I’ve never read any of her books, either. I’m basing this opinion on interviews I’ve seen, articles I’ve read, and the titles of her books. So whenever I find something that proves I am right in thinking she’s an idiot, it makes me feel happy. [from Wonkette] Along the same lines, I’m not a big fan of George W. Bush. I am not any kind of fan of his at all. So whenever I see something that proves I am right in thinking he’s an idiot, it makes me feel scared and angry. [also from Wonkette] Work to prevent the spread of AIDS worldwide or threaten the effectiveness of international AIDS organizations in order to propagandize your moral values to world that is made up of more than just Southern Baptists? It’s a conundrum, to be sure.

whew. That was serious. How ’bout that word “propagandize?” I put thought into that.

Oh, one more thing, I don’t watch the Oscars. I quit watching it after Titanic won for best picture. But I can’t really escape all the reports about it afterwards, usually on the radio. So, I can tell you that yes, Sean Penn does indeed sound like a dick, or maybe he just takes things too seriously. But what really got me is Hillary Swank. “I don’t know what I did in this life to deserve all this,” ….. “I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.” Doesn’t that make you want to slap her?

Evildeb and I have deep deep prejudices against Ms. Swank. We don’t like her. But we can hardly argue with the fact, after last night’s acceptance speech that she’s got Pluck. And probably Spirit, as well. Can’t get out of the trailer parks without having Pluck. Oh, and I believe you also need a “whole lotta heart.”

blah blah blah.

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books

I was wondering – wise, gay sage that you are – is Coke or Diet Pepsi better for my “self-actualization”.

Ok, kids… excellent discussion of books down below. I love getting recommendations from people. [Hey, loon… remember that one time, on pff when we were all giving each other book ideas and people got mad and then i brought up Nanowrimo and they sent me hate mail? that was fun. good times.] Anyway, it gave me more inspiration to finish Satan’s Bookclub. The design is, for the most part, done. Few teaks here and there. I am actually working on the content right now. I swear to god, I am actually going to finish it soon.

Dr. Stevil has 14 Pepsi cap free tunes for iTunes and I only have one. And I drink far more soda than he does. He is so cheating.

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books

Mystery books for DrnkJack

Oh, I can give you lots of mystery recommendations, but it depends on what type of mystery you like to read. You got your cop stories, your P.I. story, your amateur detective stotries, your cozies, your noir, your psychological thrillers, historical, victorian, medical, whodunnit, suspense, courtroom mysteries, british mysteries… even things called mini-genres like “Culinary Mysteries, Feline Mysteries, Craft Mysteries.” In general, I stay away from the gimmicky stuff. I don’t like all the culinary mysteries out there, I’ve never read a single one that was worth the money the library paid to have it on their shelves. But that’s just me. And, I like amateur detective stories, but you have to be careful. For some reason, there are a lot of hair dressers solving mysteries these days. Latest trend in amateurs. With the exception of Dame Christie and Elizabeth Peters, I’ve stayed away from the cozies, as well.

I like grittier stuff, and I like noir. When I first made the switch from young adult mysteries to grown up mysteries, one of my favorite authors was Rex Stout, who wrote the Nero Wolfe series. And that remains one of my favorites to this day. Set in the 30’s, lots of noir, lots of style and wit. I’ve read every single one of his books, several times over. Raymond Chandler, also very good. Robert B. Parker is famous for his Spenser series, but I can’t read them without picturing Robert Ulrich in my head and I don’t want him in my head. So I stick to his other character series, Sonny Randall. I also like stuff with forensics in it, I like to read about collecting evidence.

Maybe I should just make you a list of some of my favorites. Almost everyone has some element of humor in it.

Robert Crais – Elvis Cole Series. He has two other non-Elvis books as well. He’s funny and dark, and I can’t resist either one of those.

Laura Lippman – Tess Monoghan series, she starts out as an unemployed reporter and turns into a PI. Not a silly female detective series, she gets seriously messed up at times.

Sue Grafton – Kinsey Milhoun Alphabet series. A staple in any mystery library.

Sparkle Hayter – any of her books, she’s what you might call Tart Noir. You might call her that, because that is what she calls herself.

Rex Stout – Nero Wolfe series…. brilliant…. genius.

Agatha Christie – duh.

Elizabeth Peters – Amelia Peabody series. Set in turn of the century Egypt, usually, it’s full of historical, political, archeological goodness. Plus, Amelia is sassy.

Jim Butcher – Harry Dresden series. Won’t be found in the mystery section, but rather sci-fi, as he is a wizard. Full of fun preternatural stuff.

Carl Hiaasen – wacky environmental mysteries set in Florida.

Elmore Leonard – he’s great with the dialog, kinda old school.

Raymond Chandler – you won’t go wrong there.

And, I cannot recommend this book enough, even though it is probably not in the Mystery section,



Down on Ponce, by Fred Willard. One of your better buddy/crime novels. I wish I could write like this guy. This is actually the first Satan’s Bookclub Selection, so you might as well get started now.

General tip, stay away from any books that mention cats doing something in the title, anything that starts with “The Cat Who…” or any books that give partial author credit to a cat.

PS: Go read “Down on Ponce.”

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books

Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.

Today is Louise’s anniversary, her Alien Anniversary. She moved to the US four years ago today. Hooray! I thought she should celebrate by eating a cheeseburger or a hot dog, and then maybe some apple pie, drink some Coke. But instead she says she will celebrate the way she celebrates all things in life “by gorging myself on Chinese food.” Chinese food? That’s doesn’t sound terribly americanish. “It’s AMERICAN-Chinese food. No scary chicken feet type dishes.” I guess that’s ok, then.

This explains so much about my professional life. From the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Justin Kruger and David Dunning

Department of Psychology

Cornell University

I apologize in advance, I got this link from a blog that was on the updated list at MovableType, but I can’t remember which one. So, everybody be aware, I did not stumble across this article all on my own. Despite my über valuable B.A. in Psychology, I rarely peruse the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Although, that might change, that article is golden. I can easily see myself muting the polycom during a conference call and saying, “it’s ok, ‘one of the… features of such incompetence that the person so afflicted is incapable of knowing that he is incompetent. ‘. He can’t help it.” And just knowing that will make it all better.

Speaking of aliens, Louise ditched me yesterday, she did not go to the book reading/signing. She decided to stay late and do her job and finish her Big Reports. Whatever. Personally, I think she was scared because she knew that her streak would bust, that this author would failed to be moved by her accent. She’s afraid to tarnish her winning record. It’s too bad, really. Because Robert Crais was very entertaining and a very very handsome man. She might have enjoyed having him under her Alien Scottish Spell. [or A.S.S as I just this minute decided to call it because I am just THAT brilliant.] But… we’ll never know.

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books

A little less conversation, a little more Elvis. Please.

Tonight I am going to an author reading/signing at Third Place Books, to see Robert Crais, author of one of my favorite mystery/detective series, Elvis Cole. Not only is Elvis Cole one of my many Fictional Boyfriends, but this series also features Joe Pike, another Fictional Boyfriend. Besides all of that, they are just great books. I mean, you’d enjoy them even if you didn’t have literary crushes on the characters. It’s not a requirement. They latest book just came out, I bought it, devoured it, and now have to wait for more. I hate that! It’s always fun when you discover a new mystery/detective series you really like, you have all those books ahead of you to enjoy. For example, when I started reading Sue Grafton, she was already on Q! I had A-Q to enjoy! But man, it hurts when you’ve read everything out, and have to wait for more. I had to wait two some years for “R” to show up. I shudder to think what happens when we reach “Z.” So Louise and I are going to the reading, and I am going to have my book signed, and we’ll see if yet another author falls prey to Louise’s accent. Perhaps I shall ask Louise to politely request that Mr. Crais hurry up and write more Elvis Cole. He will be unable to resist her darling accent. As we all know.

Josh is out of ICU. Which is good and bad. He’s also sick and nauseous, and now that he doesn’t have ICU watching over him, someone has to sit with him pretty much 24/7. Because he’s throwing up every few minutes and coughing up blood. Both of which cause him a great deal pain. So, be careful what you wish for, I guess. The nausea is most likely from the pain medication and the nasty headaches he is having. The coughing is from the cold he’s developed. The blood is not from his lungs, but just his guts, I guess. Poor kid, nasty headaches, coughing up blood, throwing up everything you try to eat… that would be bad enough without all the other stuff. They’ve pumped anit-barf drugs into his iv and they were going to give him a sleeping pill last night, because he hasn’t been able to sleep. And before I hung up with Faye, she said he’d just eaten a soda cracker and a popsicle. Hopefully he kept it down, because I’m sure that would help. Too have food in his system. And some sleep. He’s got such caring friends, however. They have the patient fridge stocked with vegan foodstuffs for him, they come around and give Faye food and breaks, sit by Josh’s bedside and read to him, stay with him throughout the nights so Faye can go home to sleep. It’s amazing. All these people who come by several times a day to check on him. There was a man there yesterday who Josh met feeding people in the park on Sundays. Something Faye says he’s done since High School. He came by twice yesterday. And they all love Josh.

Today Faye is meeting with a lawyer, and will try to get ahold of the police report, to figure out what’s what.

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evildeb, movies and tv

I want to buy you flowers, it’s such a shame you are a boy.

If I were in a band, this is exactly the type of video I would want. I’ve always wanted to visit a Burtonesque universe.

Evildeb took the dragon test and claims she’s also a black dragon. Which is impossible, since we are polar opposites. While I agree she is probably not a white dragon, she can’t be black. I was black first. She should be red or something, that sounds more like her. Exhibit A: she has the S.A.D. You can’t be a dragon of the night and complain about not getting enough sun. Black dragons do not believe in the S.A.D. Red dragons love the sun and summer and noon. That’s Evildeb. She’s just jealous, and she can’t let me have anything for myself, so she claims to be black. Soon I will have to smite her.

Josh is still in intensive care, but we hope he will be moved today. Once the threat of internal bleeding has passed, it’s on to healing all the bones and rehab. The doctors told my stepmom he will have to learn to walk again, once his pelvis heals. We’ll know more once he is moved into the rehab wing. He’s got a long road ahead of him. I spoke with him on the phone and that made me feel much better. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits, despite the pain and 4 missing front teeth. I badgered him into eating whatever the hospital tells him to eat, even if it’s not vegan. Or I will come down there and feed it to him. I’m also relieved that Faye is there, and can get direct info from the doctors. The cop present at the accident did indeed give Josh a jaywalking ticket. I imagine he stuck it in his coat pocket before they took him away in the ambulance. Cold, man… really cold. The driver got a speeding ticket. Faye is going to get a copy of the police report and already has an attorney, so we can investigate any culpability she, or her insurance rather, has. Hopefully enough to get new teeth.

It’s going to be tough, he won’t be able to work for a while, he won’t have any money, and I doubt he will be able to live without assistance. But you know, he has amazing friends with really big hearts. I’ll say one thing for the punk rock/ vegan/ political activist/ nomad lifestyle, you make a lot of good friends all over the country. One of them is flying in from Illinois today. And the local Denver group is talking about having some kind of benefit to raise money to pay his rent for a couple of months. That’s just incredible. He’s a pretty lucky boy.

I have plans to go over to Louise’s house tomorrow to watch “Shaun of the Dead” and eat some kind of animal flesh. Which seems appropriate when one is watching a movie about cannibalistic zombies. As long as it’s not human flesh, or flesh from an aquatic type organism, it’s a-ok with me. Okay, also no animals that I have kept as a pet. And no lamb or veal. I can’t handle that. Let’s keep the flesh in the cow-chicken-pork range.

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Uncategorized

When did I get so mean?

A BLACK Dragon Lies Beneath!

My inner dragon color is BLACK. Click here to try the Quiz!

My inner dragon is one of two harmonious dragons (the other is White). Deep down I’m dark, foreboding, and just a tad wicked. *evil grin* Fun, no? Click the image to try the Inner Dragon Online Quiz for yourself.

“If there ever was an apparition of Evil to strike terror into the hearts of man and beast, your Inner Dragon is it. Blackies are a fairly common dragon and are considered one of two harmonious dragons. Your antithesis is the White Dragon. Together, you two embody the Yin and Yang concept of eastern religions (especially Taoism).

But of course, being a Blackie on the inside you couldn’t care less about that religion garbage. You like to chomp things, cause trouble, make off with people’s significant others, and so on and so forth. Your favorable attributes are night, the Moon, the stars, dreams, psychic guidance, balancing Karma, seeking truth, and helpful dark magic. Everybody’s still got to watch out for you though, because deep down you like to smite at random and have a nasty breath weapon combination of Fire and Acid. *evil grin* Fun, no? ”

Thanks for all the emails and comments about Josh. Currently, I do not know much more, but here is what I do know:

– he’s in intensive care with a lacerated spleen, kidney and liver. However, they have not yet felt the need for surgery.

– he has a broken hip, pelvis and shoulder. All his front teeth are knocked out.

– his brain and spine seem fine, my stepmother has spoken with him on the phone.

– he’s in a lot of pain, and therefore fairly doped up.

He was walking across the street, in a crosswalk, two cars were stopped at the red. While in the cross walk, the light turned green as he was stepping out from in front of the two stopped car, another car came down the third lane and hit him. Technically, he was jaywalking at that point.

She should be in Denver around five, and I am anxious to hear the details after she talks to the doctor. It’s been difficult to get information over the phone, due to privacy laws. And when she speaks to Josh, he’s not very coherent. I would feel a lot better if he were out of intensive care. Those two words scare me. it’s the internal damage that is keeping him there. Hopefully, the bleeding is minimal, they won’t have to operate, and the organs will regenerate and repair themselves.

Mostly I feel kinda sick about the whole thing. And, naturally, my brain looks for any reason to be distracted from work and chores, and this a really good one. I wish I was there. Or curled up in a little ball. One of the two. We’ll see what Faye says after she gets there. His recovery is going to be pretty long, so there may be other times he needs me there more. I am still really worried about the cost of his recovery. Especially the dental work. So I am going to have to win the lottery. Seriously. For reals this time.

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Josh

Now, see, I set some limits on myself, by telling me I could not blog, or read the blogs of others, until I finished a few key items on my to-do list at work, and at home. I finished the big one at work today, but I no longer care that much about the other items. My brother was hit by a car today. I don’t know a lot of details, I’ve been getting emails from my stepmother. I know he got hit when he stepped off the curb. I know that at one point he was conscious and talking. The last time Faye talked to anyone it was one of his friends, and they don’t know the extent of the damage yet. They know most of his teeth were knocked out, he has a lacerated spleen, liver damage, a broken pelvis and a broken hip. Right now, Faye is grabbing some sleep so she can leave early and drive from Phoenix to Denver. So that’s all I am going to know tonight. Not only is his condition serious, his recovery will probably be long. And he is broke and without insurance. The state will probably cover the life saving stuff, but not the physical therapy, or extensive dental work that will be needed. I don’t even know if I should be even worrying about that right now, maybe I should just be hoping he pulls through tonight? I just don’t know.

My stomach is in knots….

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Uncategorized

Attention shoppers, for the next 10 minutes, we will have a special offer. Two million dollars in Christmas coupons in exchange for your lives.

A couple of weeks ago, someone had a box of Tagalongs at work. Girl Scout cookies. Now I have put in an order for girl scout cookies, with the first order form I saw put up by some parent at my Place of Employment. But they won’t be in until the first week of March. And yet… someone had a box of Tagalongs already. So, today, when I went to Safeway, I was hoping to see some Gscouts outside the store, hocking their wares. Sadly, no scouts.

Speaking of fundraising, however, I don’t know if they do this were y’all live, but here organizations take coupons to the products with a sticker that says “oh, you can use this coupon if you want, but if you are a GOOD PERSON you’ll donate the savings to the St. Muckymuck Academy Varsity Cheerleading Team.” I don’t know why, but I always resent these stickers. They piss me off. Like you have any choice! Of course you are going to donate the money. Otherwise the checkout clerk will look at you like you are a cold hearted bitch. And she’ll point you out to all the other clerks, “there’s the girl who wouldn’t give TWENTY FIVE CENTS to help the St. Muckymuck Academy Varsity Cheerleading Team raise money to go to the Cheerleading Championship in Daytona!” Boo-hiss, cold hearted bitch. It’s true, I don’t care about cheerleaders. I don’t let them wash my car, when I see them standing on the corner in their bikini tops, holding up signs and whooping. I wash my own damn car. Well, I drive it through the touch free car wash. I think the parents of the St. Muckymuck Academy Varsity Cheerleading Team should fork over the cash so their privileged children can go to cheer camp. I’m less inclined to get annoyed when it’s something like a softball team trying to raise money for equipment, but I still harbor this irrational resentment.

When I was a kid, we never taped coupons to things in grocery stores, we had to sell things ourselves. And I was shit at it. Which is probably why my career with the girl scouts was so short. [although, I like to tell people I got kicked out of the scouts for beating up a Brownie.] In high school, I belonged to the more service oriented organizations; Red Cross, Key Club. Or academic ones like French Club and National Honors Society. Key Club fund raisers weren’t bad, because we sold candy to our Ritalin deprived classmates. Blow-pops, I believe. They were a big hit. but NHS was horrible! They made us sell terrible trinkets door to door. Christmas tacky christmas ornaments and shit like that. Nothing you could sell to your fellow students. I think, one year, I went to maybe two houses before I decided that a career in sales was not for me. I never did well at fund raising. Some kids had parents who would take their order forms to work with them, and hit up their coworkers. Not me, my mom said I should do it myself. She probably thought it would build character or something. But I am chock-full of character! So I’d sell one to my parents and two to myself but make up fake names. That’s it.

So today, I when I took down a box of Honey Bunches of O’s [with Strawberries] a millisecond before before this mom was going to tape a coupons on said brand of cereal, I didn’t give in. She gave me a look, with a little smile, and I think I was supposed to hold out my box of cereal so she could tape a coupon on it. Instead, I gave her a look that clearly stated, “get your god damn fund raising coupon away from me, soccer mom! Let your kids go out and shill crap themselves! I hear it builds character.”

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