This is my story.

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write six random things about yourself.
3. Tag six people at the end of your post.

1. I hardly ever get tagged when one of these things says to tag someone. Possibly because I don't ever tag anybody when I do them.
2. If I won the lottery I would buy some land and open a no-kill animal shelter.
3. When I get heartburn I prefer drinking a glass of milk as an immediate remedy over commercial antacids. However, I generally don't just drink milk from a glass on a regular basis. I never have.
4. I used to have (maybe still do, I can't exactly see the top of my own head) three freckles in a row in the area where I used to part my hair, and when I was little my mom would joke that they looked like 6's. I think my mom was a lot weirder than any of us ever gave her credit.
5. When I was little I told my mom I wanted to be a boy when I grew up. I have since lost that desire, but I'm sure it's no surprise that I'm more often attracted to women.
6. I have a total of 105 fan fics that I wrote in various fandoms between 2000 and January 2005. I have not completed a work of fiction since January 2005.

True to form. I'm not tagging anybody. Do it if you want to.


As was demonstrated in an interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

Miranda v. Arizona, 1966 - Decided that a criminal's rights included being informed of the right to counsel and the right to remain silent.

Snagged from a few people.

( Where did question #1 go? )

So last time this whole LJ Idol thingamabob was going on, I think there was only one person on my list doing it. Now there are like six of you. Thus I may not vote because of biases and whatnot. There's at least one person doing it who I have met in real life and feel could be becoming a closer friend. Thus, I abstain from voting. Good luck to all of you, though!

I received the annual e-mail from Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, stating when they would be shutting down the site to prepare for the impending novelishness of November. I didn't even try last year. I bought the t-shirt, but I didn't actually participate. Last year and hell, the year before weren't the best years for me, considering the loss of my parentals. Will I attempt it this year? I don't know. My best attempt was during my second year, I believe, during which I came up with 10,000 and some odd words. So that's about 20% to the ultimate goal. I have written over 50,000 words once. It was a fan fiction, but I didn't write in a month, either. I suppose we'll see what kind of motivation I have. November always seems to be an extraordinarily busy month for me. Plus my muse has been pretty much MIA ever since I finished Beyond Expectation.

Got some goodies in the mail today. Received the Gaia t-shirt I ordered along with a little puff ball charm that I attached to my keys and a chibi Moira thingy for Katie to attach to her keys. I also received Drama Queen by Neurosonic. Good stuff. You all should check them out. Just search for Neurosonic either on MySpace or Google for their official site.

Currently addicted to Silent Hill Origins on PSP. It's creepy and zombified, but it's also challenging because you have to explore and make sure you find all the right things in order to solve little puzzles and such. Pretty neat game so far. Oh and I beat Splinter Cell Essentials on the PSP. Rather short game, honestly. Though it was just as much fun as all the other Splinter Cell games I've played. Not a bad game, just shorter than I expected.

Katie and I went to the zoo oner and we had lots o' fun. We did discover how out of shape we are, as we were too worn out to see everything we wanted to see. We didn't see the rest of the bears, only the one type of bear that we passed. We also didn't get to see the elephants, rhinos and such. We did see each of our favorites--the sea lions and the giraffes. I took a bunch of pictures with my camera phone. So I shall share. Sorry if the quality sucks.

( St. Louis Zoo )

Note to self: Bring a real camera next time. It's kind of stupid that my cell phone has a zoom function because if you zoom, the image you end up with gets smaller and smaller the more you zoom.

Anyway, if you're ever in St. Louis, I would highly recommend going to the zoo. It's one of the few zoos in the United States with free admission, and the quality of the zoo is amazing, considering that it's free.

Also, on Saturday, we went to see Katie's mom and we took Tasha along to visit. I managed to get a halfway decent picture of Tasha and Charlie, Katie's mom's dog, together. I had my phone positioned the wrong way so it ended up upside down, but a little photoshop to flip it and brighten it a little, and it looks nice.

( Tash and Char Char )

Tasha went after the cat, Gary, and she got tagged on the snout for it. She had a couple small scratches, but she's okay. I'm hoping she learned her lesson about cats, but I kind of doubt it. She did leave Gary alone for the rest of the time we were there, but I'm not sure she'll remember the incident the next time she sees a different cat. If it's small and runs away from her, she's likely to chase it. It's just her nature.

First reaction: Holy fuck!
Second reaction: Dude!
Third and more coherent reaction: Definitely a love it or you hate it movie. I have a feeling I'll be in the love it group. Although that may depend on how much gore is involved, and considering it's coming from the people who made Saw, there could be quite a bit of gore. I do think it's accurate in saying it will become a cult classic. If Rocky Horror Picture Show can become the cult classic that it is, then I think this can, too.

BTW, Tony Head is officially a god.

First I must say, Office 2007 sucks big donkey balls. I don't necessarily hate change unilaterally, but this shit sucks. I wish I had 2003, or I had at least known 2007 sucked this bad when I bought my laptop so I could make sure it wasn't included. Anyway...onward.

Guitar Hero World Tour comes out next month on the PS2 and Rock Band 2 comes out in November on the PS2. I expect to own both games eventually because I'm a junkie and all, but I'm weighing the pros and cons to which one I want to get first. Basically the deciding factor comes down to the song lists. Thus, I evaluate. Feel free to skip all this if you don't care. :op

Bold and italicized are songs I'm certain I will enjoy playing. (2 points)
Bold are songs I might/probably will enjoy playing. (1 point)
Strikethrough are songs I might not or am certain I won't enjoy playing. (-1 point)
Unmarked are songs I either don't know or can't think of off the top of my head. (0 points)
* denotes songs that appear on both games.
Track lists courtesy of Wikipedia and possibly subject to change.

( Guitar Hero World Tour - 77 Songs )

( Rock Band 2 - 75 Songs [Excluding 9 bonus songs I've never heard of by people I've never heard of.) )

40 points for Guitar Hero World Tour.
46 points for Rock Band 2.

The one song I'm most psyched about is "Our Truth" by Lacuna Coil, and it's on both games. So either way, I'll at least get that one. There are more songs that I'm sure I'll enjoy on Rock Band. Which I guess is why it got more points, right?

I'm watching a Star Trek: DS9 rerun and I find it funny how Chief O'Brien was really highly annoyed by Dr. Bashir in the beginning but they eventually became best friends. Hopefully Spike will keep showing the reruns so I'll see their relationship progress to the point where O'Brien starts liking Bashir.

Non-spoilery Sarah Connor Chronicles comment: Shirley Manson is fabulous.

Drive-by update: I have a job interview on Thursday. Woot.

And meme-age: The rules are simple: List 10 popular (or even unpopular... and preferably canon, because it's more evil that way) ships that you just do.not.ship./can.not.ship./will.not.ship. period. It doesn't matter what your reasons are, but tell us why anyway! Because anti-ships deserve as much passion as real ships do!

( The Anti-Ship Meme )

I have not been nearly as ardent (is that the word I'm looking for? my internal thesaurus is apparently offline) about updating this thinger-mabob. Perhaps because life has been ungodly monotonous since I lost my job...for the most part. So I let it sit for at least a week so I can accumulate things to talk about. That is the plan. Otherwise I'd just be spamming with memes, and while I love a good meme, you can have too much of a good thing. Anyway...

While the premiere of Bones felt like getting together with an old friend after not seeing them for months, I am a bit disappointed. ( SPOILERS AHOY! )

In other TV news, I have two things. I love The Middleman. If you're not watching it yet, you should. I honestly can't believe I love a show spear-headed by ABC Family, but there you go. I do. And also...ONE WEEK UNTIL SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES IS BACK! As Katie said, I hope Shirley Manson can act because having her on the show will be freakin' awesome if she's good.

( My god, these are the first books I've finished this year and we're 8 months in. I am now sad. Book List 2008 )

In personal life news, I have definitely joined CHARIS, the all women's chorus that Katie was once (and now again) a part of. I think I'm getting used to it. We got our practice CDs this week, so hopefully it will be easier for me to keep up now. At this week's rehearsal I was kind of half singing because I can't read music and was having trouble keeping myself from singing the first soprano part because it was the easiest for me to hear.

Also musically related, I am purchasing an electric bass guitar. I found someone selling one on Craigslist including amp, grunge pedal, cable, and gig bag for $100. Anybody who has ever priced musical instruments knows that's a pretty damn good deal. I want to learn to play bass, and if I'm successful, Katie and I would consider starting a band. We know musical people. Stephanie, who I will hopefully resume our friendship with now that we'll be seeing each other at least once a week at CHARIS, plays the drums. So she would be our first pick for drummer. And if all else fails, there's Craigslist. :op And if I suck and can't play the bass, Katie will surely get some use out of it in her own music.

I think that's about it. Job hunt is slow, tedious and as of yet, fruitless. Doing better with my bipap machine, so hopefully won't be as tired. Not much else to report. This got kind of long. Maybe I should just post in smaller, more frequent entries. *shrugs*

I'm a little bummed because someone on my LJ friends list defriended me without warning. I actually thought we were getting to know each other better and were bantering more in comments. I liked reading her LJ. She was rather interesting. Oh well. I guess that's that. She's one of those people who says up front when you first add them that if they ever defriend to not ask back on or ask questions as to why. Last thing I want is to be an LJ drama queen over a defriending. Although there are a few people that I might get a little dramatic about if they ever removed me. I can usually figure out why when someone takes me off their list (i.e. it's probably a mutual reason), but this one surprised me a bit.

What is it with me and canceled TV shows? The Sci Fi channel has been re-running Tru Calling and I've been recording it on DVR to watch at night after Katie goes to bed. When it was originally on the air, I thought I'd probably like it but I never made time to watch it. I think I had too many other shows I liked at that point. Now I'm watching it and really digging it. I think I underrated Eliza Dushku when she was on Buffy/Angel. Faith was an awesome character and she did a good job, but I don't think I ever thought she could play a different type of character. Now I can't wait for Dollhouse. I think it's supposed to be a mid-season show this upcoming season. But having Eliza as the lead in a new Whedon show is bound to be kick ass. Ooh! I just looked at IMDB. Amy Acker's going to be in Dollhouse, too! Sweet!

Our bath tub faucet is leaking. It's really loud, too. It just got loud over the past week, which caused me to notice it, but Katie said it's been like this for a month. It just got worse recently. I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the repair work our neighbor on the other side of the duplex is doing. I'm just worried our water bill is going to go sky high. It's a constant stream that's about as thick as a typical restaurant straw. I'll be calling the landlord tomorrow. Hopefully he can get it fixed quickly. Ever since his prior "repair man" flaked on him, the landlord has been having Mike (the neighbor on the other side of the duplex) do repairs. The old repair man sucked anyway, but hopefully Mike will be able to get to this amidst all the other contracting work he has going on.

I also need to call someone about fixing the lawn mower. It spews white smoke when I turn it on. The front and back lawns each need another mowing before it's no longer our month to mow. I don't want to look like a slacker and leave it long for Mike. It's bad enough we had that prior miscommunication that left the lawns unmowed for the whole month of July.

Le sigh. I should go to bed. I don't feel tired, but it's almost 1 a.m. I need to start going to bed earlier. That's surely partially contributing to my sleepiness in during the day.

Send good vibes. I sent my resume out to about 5 or 6 employment contacts on Friday. Three of them were cold contacts to law firms in downtown St. Louis I might like to work for. The others were to other job postings I found online. I would be happy if I could get a freakin' interview. I've only had three interviews since I lost my job in March. That is really shitty. I need a job!

( Go to Wikipedia. Look up your birth date w/out the year. Post 3 events, 2 births, and 1 holiday. )

Tasha had a dental procedure today. It was her first dental ever and it turns out her teeth weren't in the greatest of shape. For the procedure they put her under general anesthesia and they ended up having to remove six of her teeth. Poor girl. She was pretty groggy when I picked her up. In retrospect I wish I had scheduled the appointment for tomorrow instead of today because Katie and I had our first CHARIS rehearsal tonight and had to leave shortly after I got Tasha home. She's on soft food through tomorrow and has some antibiotics and painkillers to take. She seemed less stoned when we arrived back from CHARIS, though still tired. She's zonked out on her big pillow bed right now. It was a pretty rough day for her.

Regarding CHARIS (all women's chorus, predominantly lesbian but not completely) it was pretty neat. I'll be sticking it out, along with Katie. She and I were ready to sing "It's a Small World" though when my old friend Stephanie walked in the door. Those of you who've been around my LJ since before Katie and I got together might remember Stephanie as my first local lesbian friend who I met through our mutual admiration of Amber Benson. I also had a bit of a crush on her for a while. The feelings weren't reciprocated and when we lost contact and she kind of disappeared, I assumed she was uncomfortable with my prior crush on her, even though Katie and I were already together when she went MIA.

Katie and I exchanged wordless glances at first, as rehearsal had begun and we weren't sitting next to each other due to our different vocal ranges. Katie's an Alto 1 and Stephanie is an Alto 2, so Stephanie ended up sitting right near Katie. Finally we had a break and did the whole "hey stranger" thing. She said she has a habit of getting overwhelmed in friendships sometimes and just taking off; said she spent a couple months in Europe (must be nice!) and just doing her thing. We didn't get A LOT of time to catch up, but we confirmed cell numbers and it looks like she'll be sticking with CHARIS, too.

Small world, eh?

You know, I'm sure they're gracious sports and all that, but I would love to hear what's really going through the heads of the team members on the relay teams of Michael Phelps and Dara Torres. Particularly, I'd like to hear from Lezak, the anchor on the men's relay team. I watched that relay while I was at my bowling league tonight. The U.S. men would've ended up with silver if Lezak hadn't surged forward and picked up the slack that his teammates (including the infallible Phelps *gasp!*) left for him to make up.

Yet all anybody talks about is Phelps "winning" 8 gold medals or Torres being the oldest American female to win an Olympic medal (which she rightly did in her solo race). I'd be a little peeved if I was on their relay teams, though. I'm kind of glad the sound wasn't on so I couldn't hear the media interviewing the relay teams after their races. I have a feeling the reporters were asking questions that would've annoyed me. Questions like, "How does it feel to be on the team with Phelps and helping him win his 8th medal?"

So yeah, I feel kind of bad for the relay team members. At least they have their medals. Maybe they don't even care. It could be that the euphoria of competing in the Olympics and winning medals is overwhelming enough that they don't give a crap about the media attention. I hope so. It would suck if their experience was dampened by the media.

I've been watching this new show on CBS called Flashpoint. Another cop show, but not a procedural. What would be the point with the popularity of CSI? It focuses on this crisis squad that mostly handles hostage situations, and they have snipers and all that. All-male cast except for Amy Jo Johnson, who's starting to look like the "token" female in the cast. That in particular is starting to annoy me. They've done plenty of character development on the three male leads throughout the first four (is it four? maybe five) episodes and they don't seem to scratch much deeper on her character. I can't even remember her name at the moment.

You would think, though, that it would be an obvious plot point to hit on. How did this young, attractive female make it into the "boys' club"? Why would she even want to be there? What's her motivation? How hard it is it for her to be taken seriously in her job considering how freakin' tiny she is? Poor girl is dwarfed by her male counterparts. It just seems silly that they would have her sticking out in the cast like a sore thumb as the only female regular, and then they don't do anything with her other than some standard scenes where she's talking to witnesses or doing cop stuff. Sillyness.

There's been a lot of focus on Enrico Colantoni's character, which is fine. I like him. Loved him on Veronica Mars. But all the focus on the other two male regulars isn't drawing me in like it should. I'm having a hard time caring about them. We'll see, I guess. I'll give it a couple more episodes.

i( Do you know the bold tag? I do! )

Is there anyone on my f-list who has learned Bosnian as a second language, preferably if your native language is English?

The reason I ask: I came across this job posting for a legal secretary. I pretty much meet their requirements, but they also list as a preference (not required) that you speak Bosnian. I'm just wondering if it would be absurd or over-zealous of me to say I'd be willing to learn Bosnian while on the job. On the one-hand, this isn't something that would happen overnight, but on the other hand it could show that I would be dedicated to this job for the long haul by putting the time and effort into learning a second language. It might make me more noticeable at the very least and make them reconsider giving me an interview instead of throwing my resume in the trash like it seems every other employer out there is doing.

I would be willing to learn Bosnian. Honestly, I would really love to speak a second language. I keep kicking myself for not sticking with Spanish into college and actually trying to become fluent. I did well in Spanish in high school, but once college came around I was kind of apathetic and let it go to the wayside. I tested out of the first required semester and barely passed the second required semester.

I'm just wondering what the difficulty level is when it comes to learning Bosnian from English. I've heard some languages are easier than others, but I've never heard anything about Bosnian. Generally when I think about languages employers might want me to speak, Bosnian isn't in the top ten of languages that pop into my mind.

So...thoughts?

[01] -- Look up TEN of your favorite movies on IMDB.
[02] -- Click the "trivia" link in the sidebar.
[03] -- Post a fun and random bit of trivia from each film.
[04] -- Tag five people! Do it if you want to.

( Trivia time! )

I upgraded my cell phone to a Moto Rizr and it arrived today. So I spent most of the night playing with my Rizr while Katie played with my old Razr, which she is now going to use. I like the Rizr. It's shiny and fun. Not as shiny as some of the pretty LG phones coming out right now, but those cost way too much unless I sign a service contract with a different provider. I like T-Mobile and the Rizr was only $20 after rebates and a contract extension. Now we'll just need to sell Katie's old phone, maybe get a smidge of extra cash for it.

Snagged from a couple people. I have a personal disclaimer, though. The following lists do not necessarily reflect my favorites (except for the one about the seasons because it has the word 'preference'). As you all well know, I have a strong Amber Benson/Tara bias. However, her character, episodes, and relationships are not necessarily what I consider the BEST of the whole series. They may be my favorites, but they're not the best in a general sense. I know. Blasphemy. So...what I consider the Best of Buffy.

Best Characters
1. Buffy
2. Xander
3. Giles/Willow
4. Anya/Tara
5. Angel

Best Villains
1. Angelus
2. Spike/Dru
3. Mayor/Faith
4. Caleb
5. The Master

Best Pairings
1. Buffy/Angel
2. Giles/Jenny
3. Willow/Tara
4. Xander/Anya
5. Willow/Oz

Best Episodes
Hush
Passion
Once More With Feeling
The Body
Prophecy Girl
Conversations With Dead People
Becoming Pt. 1 and 2
The Wish
Helpless
Bad Girls
Superstar
Restless
Selfless
Potential

Seasons In Order of Preference
Season 5
Season 3
Season 2
Season 4
Season 1
Season 6
Season 7

( Movies Watched in 2008 )

Went to the shelter yesterday. I walked Cleo and Kiley, both dogs I had walked before. I think Cleo will probably become a regular on my trips, but I would like to try walking some of the other dogs. There was one dog there when I went a couple weeks ago. She was a pit bull terrier who was missing an eye because her previous owners didn't take care of her glaucoma. She was the sweetest thing and totally adorable. Her name was Bubbles. I vowed that if our landlord let us have a second dog and she was still there, that I would adopt her. Well, she's been adopted. Not surprising, as sweet as she is.

And I guess it's just as well, because my sister and her husband are looking to rehome their dog, Rocky. Well, actually he's mostly just Bob's dog. Bob had him before he and Laura got married and Laura never really bonded with him. Neither have their daughters. Apparently it's the girls that are the issue. Their household is just too loud and busy. Rocky's a grumpy old man (about 12 or 13 years old) and too much activity makes him bark at everything. They're thinking he just isn't happy in their home, and they were possibly getting complaints from their neighbors about his barking. So I offered to take him if our landlord allows it and if he and Tasha get along. Hopefully the landlord will allow it. Then Bob can still have contact with Rocky.

Edit: Hee. It's a Rent movie reunion. I'm watching Cold Case, in which Tracie Thoms is now a regular, and this episode guest stars Adam Pascal. Hm. I wanna watch Rent again.

Clued in to this "news" by thrashgrrl, but a different article than what she posted.

MTV Puts Rocky Horror Picture Show Remake on the Slab

( Full Text )

If you clicked the link, you may have seen my comment (twice, oops!) at the bottom of the article. If not, here it is:

I don't think I have ever been more appalled by a movie announcement than I am at this one. There are actors I don't like (Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller), hype I don't understand (High School Musical), and movies that make me cringe and refuse to watch them (Borat). But I have never wanted to actively do something to stop the production of a film as much as I want to right now.

Wow. Just wow. I'm blown away. That was a freakin' awesome movie.

( Spoileriffic )

( Movies Watched in 2008 )

Going out to Katie's mom's to loan her my old laptop. We'll be seeing The Dark Knight on Sunday. Can't wait!

( Movie Meme )