Sunday, February 25, 2007

Thank God That's Over

I just sat through the entire Academy Awards telecast (all three-plus hours of it. Oof), and I thought that since I've been kind of negligent in my posting duties lately, and that since it's fresh on my mind, I should say something about it.

However, aside from my delight over the wins of Alan Arkin and Martin Scorsese, I'm too damn tired and sick to say much of ANYTHING. Maybe I'll feel differently tomorrow (probably not), but if not (probably DEFINITELY not) I would like to direct you all to New York Magazine, where the snarky chicas from Go Fug Yourself covered the whole shebang with their usual delightful bitchiness-it's much more entertaining than just reading a boring list of winners, I can tell you that.

So, you all go and read that, and I'm gonna go take a shower and fall into a Nyquil coma, which is basically like my own little post-Oscar party.


Yeah, Vanity Fair ain't got NOTHING on me.

Sunday Music Dump











Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Refresh...Refresh...

I had a particularly insidious bout of insomnia last night. You know, one of those types where you're wild-eyed and madly alert, until about 6am, and then you get reaaaaallly sleepy, but by then it's too late to go to sleep, since you'll have to get up in an hour ANYWAY so you can get the youngin' off to school, so you basically have to hold a cigarette lighter under your hand to keep from keeling over? You know the type? Yeah, like THAT.

In any case, being the responsible and productive adult that I am, I pretty much squandered those golden hours of silence and solitude, and spent most of the night playing video games and farting around on the internet. During the course of my 'travels', I came across this Here. What THAT is, is the Random LiveJournal Picture Generator, which is pretty much what the name implies: a (mostly) random sampling of photos and images found on the various sites hosted by LiveJournal.

There's nothing fancy at work here: it's about 100 images of pretty much everything imaginable, you hit refresh, and you get 100 more. It's just a bunch of pictures-cool, sad, funny, weird, pervy, etc.-but whether it's just the fact that I've had no sleep, or it's got something to do with a curiousity about the nature of humanity and the bizarre things that interest them that I'm too tired to ponder very intensely, I found the whole thing rilly, rilly cool.

Anyhow, before I start sobbing due to sleep deprevation, I'll share a couple of things that jumped out at me-I live to give, I'm a giver:












PS-Some of the images on the site-since they're random and all-are NSFW. Just a heads-up.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Make it Stop

I have an admission to make: I am not the fearless wonder that I'd like you all to think I am. Sure, I have all the obvious, general fears that most normal people develop over time, if they have enough sense, but I've also got one completely ridiculous, pointless fear that has recently been at the forefront of my psyche due to seeing variations on this ad all over the internet:

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

You know, I love horror movies, I imagine I've made that pretty clear by now. I don't generally get scared when I watch them, no nightmares, sleeping with the lights on, that sort of thing. Some have certainly made me uneasy, I can be grossed out on occasion, and I'll even squeeze out a grimace if something on screen looks particularly painful, but overall, horror doesn't, well, HORRIFY me. However, when you throw a dummy into the mix, the deal's off-I'm OUT.

I can pinpoint the approximate time when this whole fear started. I was about 4 years old, and that movie 'Magic' with Anthony Hopkins had just come out. I don't remember the specific details, but supposedly, I saw an ad for it and was a bit disturbed. It makes sense to a degree-the ad was considerably creepy (I think I posted it here awhile back), and even the most brave soul has to admit that there's something OFF about those damn dolls. It should have ended there, but my sister, being the type of person she is, instead of comforting me, went out and purchased a Magic poster, and promptly tacked it up on her wall and the ghoulish spectre of Magic's bug-eyed, wooden visage caused my young self no end of consternation and pain.

Bitch.

I know WHEN it all started, but I'm fuzzy on the WHY. What is it about these inanimate pint-sized balls of varnished evil that bothers me so? Is it the eyes? The movable mandible? The thin little ankles? Do I think one is going to break into my house and give me splinters or something? Mr. Marbles?

There's no logical basis for this fear, and that irks me. Most fears have some basis in reality, eg: you have a fear of heights because you're afraid you're going to fall and kill yourself; you're afraid of small, confined spaces because you're afraid of running out of oxygen and suffocating; you're afraid of the dark because they're might be a deranged killer lurking in the shadows that you can't see who's going to cut your guts out and wear them as a jaunty hat-all of these things can and do occur (what, you've never heard of the Jaunty Hat murderer? It was in all the papers, I swear) But unless I'm mistaken, no one has ever been assaulted by a sentient dummy (and if they have, I really don't want to know about it, thank you).

Despite the fact that I know the chances of me dying at the hands of a puppet are slim to nil, I'm still unable to quell my fear. Perhaps I should go see Dead Silence when it comes out and face my semi-phobia head on. I mean, it can't be that scary, since it was made by the same folks who made the Saw movies, and Saw was a gay romp as far as I'm concerned. Really, I defy you to name me one single frightening thing about it...

Uh, Besides That.