What a crazy week. Busy getting ready for two weeks of much needed vacation. Since the work never goes away, it was long days all week at the office. But I did make a little time for some fun stuff like...picking up chocolate and other Christmas goodies for when I visit my swell pal Cranky! Hooray!
My sister just wrote a very sweet and lovely blog post that made me cry. She's on her second crappy week in a row...show her a bit of love. Love Sister.
Why does shrimp scampi hate me so? I'm still bursting out in hives every time I eat it. Last night was a very itchy night...until I took Benadryl...then it was a very tired night. I'm not ready to give up on it yet...even though I do seem to be getting hives from shrimp nearly every single time. Damn! I hope it's limited to shrimp, I looove shellfish.
Anyway, gots a busy weekend ahead and then a drive down to Miss Cranky's on Tuesday! I can't wait!
I read Three Junes and thought it was sweet and well-plotted, but it didn't stay with me or anything. So I when I picked up The Whole World Over, my expectations weren't particularly high. I'm not saying it's a literary masterpiece or anything (I think there was one major character too many), but the characters are well-fleshed out and realistic, the locations are pitch-perfect, and it kept me wanting more. For where I'm at right now, it was an unexpected treat.
"I know, you know, there's no denying it, these are scary and uncertain economic times. Property values continue to plummet like a six-year-old out of a mylar balloon. Retirees are trading in their 401(k)s for a box of Special K. And the dollar has been slapped around so hard it's asked the euro for a safe word."
Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report (11/11/09)
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Although I saw Julie and Julia (and read snatches of it at the bookstore) I'd largely avoided novels by bloggers until recently. Since having my baby, I've followed www.dooce.com pretty religiously -- the author is a "mommy blogger" who is irreverent, funny, and honest in her posts. She also wrote a book chronicling her first pregnancy and post-partum depression, which I recently read. My takeaway lesson from the book is that what works really well as a blog doesn't necessarily transition well into book form. (A sublesson is that if you tend to write in ALL CAPS A LOT, your editor is not worth his/her salt if he/she does not BREAK YOU OF THAT HABIT.) I think that, if I'd read the contents of the book broken up into blog posts, I would have enjoyed it, but somehow the book felt like just that -- a bunch of blog posts stuck together.
Sorry for silence here. Gosh since summer too....too much time wasted on Twitter.
My father called my sister last week and left her a voicemail that went something along the lines of this:
Oh hi S, just calling to see if I could catch you today. I'm going up to Sam's Club to pick up a pie. Hopefully I can talk to you later. I love you very much. Oh, by the way H.J. was given six months to live. [click]
Sigh. That's my father for ya. Of course, Sister and I always joke about his ineptitude at delivering bad news - or any news for that matter, and this was no exception, however, I am really saddened by this revelation.
I did talk to dad yesterday and got the whole story on H.J. H.J. is a friend of our dad's from way back when. I always was fond of H.J., he never talked down to Sister or me (as some adults do when you're a kid) and he has a couple of sons who were a lot of fun to hang out with when we all got together.
He served in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange...Agent Orange that is now going to take away his life from him while he's still in his 50's. He was on a marrow transplant list, but they decided the other day to take him off of it and gave him 6 months to live. Apparently the cancer has spread like wild fire, he even has lumps growing off of his back and under his arms.
Apparently, the VA had to fight just to get the government to acknowledge that Agent Orange was the cause in order for him to secure the treatment he's had to date. Of course, I don't have all the details on this piece of it, but why does it have to be this way?
The way our government treats our soldiers as disposable is deplorable. I understand that it's a soldier's job to put his life on the line, but what about when that soldier survives the war? Why aren't we taking better care of them? These are the types of issues that have always severely bothered me in general, but now I see it happening to a family friend and it makes me ashamed, sad and utterly helpless. By the end of my conversation with dad, who is also a Vietnam Vet, we were both crying.
Veterans deserve our attention every day, not just on a designated holiday. Read the news, pay attention, write to your congresspersons and do what you can to ensure that not only are our soldiers treated fairly in the field, but that our veterans are taken care of for life. It's the least we can do for what they do for us.
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
I first discovered the Star Trek Universe in 5th grade in the form of The Next Generation. I had obviously heard of the The Original Series, but had no interest in it whatsoever at that age. I was one of those pre-teens with a massive crush on a young Wesley Crusher. Of course, watching it as an adult I can see why most people at the time were not a fan of Crusher, clearly he was a device to lure in the kiddies, and, well, it worked! My long-running crush on Wesley Crusher extended into high school where my friend Danielle and I used to giggle about him and Star Trek during choir. I liked Danielle, we weren't exactly close friends, but Star Trek and our crush on Mr. Crusher were awesome things we could share with each other and not feel quite as nerdy as we truly were.
As a kid, I loved the holodecks, the transporters, the replicators and the muted mauve color scheme that was popular in the late 80's and early 90's but still seemed futuristic on the set. I watched as much of the show as I could and remembered seeing the names Rick Berman and Brannon Braga in the credits and thinking what awesome guys they must be... For all of you Trekkies out there who know me, I'll give you a second to digest that. Give me a break, I was a kid and didn't understand the concept of quality yet.
As a growed up Valerae I have watched the full run of TNG, beginning to end, twice on vhs (thank you Columbia House and ebay!) and once on DVD. It saddens me to say this, but after this last viewing I can honestly say that I could still live a fulfilling life and never watch all of TNG again. That's not to say that I'd never like to revisit particular episodes at some point in time, but it seems like it would almost be torture to have to watch ALL of it ever again. Hey, at least it will save me money on not having to buy those blu-rays!
It's hard to pinpoint exactly why I feel this way, but I'm sure I could come up with a couple of reasons as to why I'd never want to watch all of TNG again. Let's give this a go:
- Rick Berman
- Brannon Braga
- Technobabble saving the day
- A dude in a garbage bag killing Tasha (although, that did at least get her and her terrible acting off of the show).
- Tasha sleeping with Data (slaps forehead), oy.
- Tasha's sister (are you seeing a trend with all things Tasha yet?)
- Camel toe
- Technobabble saving the day
- Where all the women at? (No, TWO women in an ensemble cast is not exactly representative of 51% of the population...and yes, I am aware that Tasha was really another woman in the cast, but does she really have to count? I'd count Ro Laren before counting Tasha, but they never did do enough with her.)
- Deanna's useless sensations
- Bad Ferengi
- Q (I know, everyone loves Q and I used to as well, but I found him rather tiresome upon repeated encounters - much like the crew of the Enterprise)
- Wesley saving the day (absolutely loved it as a kid but it feels forced from an adult's perspective)
- Did I mention Technobabble saving the day?
- Scrubbing down the holodeck after Riker's been in there all day.
Here are the things that will keep me coming back to revisit a few specific episodes at the very least:
- Worf (do I even need a reason? Worf is badass)
- The Inner Light (sob)
- Picard (in general)
- Riker's trombone (I'll let you decide if that's a euphemism or not)
- Michael Piller
- Ron Moore
- Alexander
- Lwaxana Troi
And it's been a fun evening. Finally finished the last of Trek. Wrapped up the commentary on the Star Trek reboot a few minutes ago, so I guess that's officially it on that project (until the next film or until I get my hands on the blu-rays of TOS). Wow, only took a year and a half.
Talked to Sister tonight. She's had a tough week so let's all show her a bit of love. I'm raising my glass of Stoli to you, Sis.
I got Mr. Val drunk tonight, which has been a riot. Now the trick is to stay up for the next two hours because there's a Pink Floyd special on PBS in HD at 11. Wish us luck - he's fucked up and I'm ready for bed. Ha! Sounds like we're definitely ready for Pink Floyd.
WTF Ticketbastard? I got my Megadeth tickets, but I have no idea if they're any good or not. On the Ticketmaster site, I said that I'd take the best available at any price level. On the next page they had a seating chart BUT DIDN'T TELL ME WHERE MY SEATS WERE LOCATED. WTF? How can I decide if I'm going to drop $100+ on tickets if I don't even know where they're located???
I can see why Ticketmaster charges a convenience fee now. Oh wait, no I can't. What the hell kind of "service" are they operating?
/irritated
Sorry, I not only had to get that off my chest, but I wanted to push the period post down a little further. God, all of this before coffee. What is wrong with me? Coffee first, Val. Duh! That will make everything better.
Holy cow, I'm so glad I hadn't already splurged on the Beatles Stereo Box set...it's been hovering around $177 for a while now and just came up as a lightning deal at Amazon at 2PM for $99. It's 2:03 and 100% of them have been claimed. I got mine - did you get yours?
