Feeling really overwhelmed right now.

Things to do:
-Clean my room by Nov 30
-NaNoWriMo
-Catch up on my shows:
House (caught up)
Lie To Me
Glee
Supernatural
Fringe
Heartland (caught up)

-Career work
-X-Mas gift list
-X-Mas card list
-Clean my fish tank
-Finish and mail gifts from LJ meme

There may be other things as well-I have to check my lists.

Ugh. Why do I procrastinate?

FAIL, Maine. FAIL.

I am doing well, if very busy, and thinking fondly of all of you.

I got my H1N1 shot on Monday (I have asthma and so am in the high-risk/high-priority group). I have no idea what the nurse at the clinic did but it like a ! Way worse than the seasonal flu shot (I've had those for the past 9 years). When I went to go home I couldn't close the car door (shot was in the left arm, which is the same side as the driver's side door in my car) and had to reach across myself with my right arm. It's taken until now for me to be able to move that arm without significant pain. Still better than dying of pneumonia though.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo again this month. Haven't actually written anything so far.

Do I owe replies to anyone? I don't think so, but I also can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday.

Would any of my US LJ friends be willing to ship an Ebay item to me? I really want this:
Danvers State Hospital 4 DVD Box set-they are videos people have taken of the inside of the Kirkbride building which no longer exists.
Alas, they don't ship outside the US. I would be happy to reimburse you-we can discuss how would be best.

I've screened all the comments for now.

Reply to icon meme here:


This image originally started as an experiment, where stickers bearing it were stuck to various objects in the US. The experiment was very successful and has now spread worldwide. The phenomena is now called "Obey Giant" and there is a website about it here (this links to the "Manifesto" page of the Obey Giant site). There is a Wikipedia page about it here. There are also various homage or parody versions; my favourite is Charles Darwin Has A Posse, which is a subtle pro-science version.


galatea made this one. I'm strongly against censorship, especially if it is based in religion, and history has proven that when people in power restrict the reading materials of the people, they will usually progress to worse transgressions.


This is a play on words between the song "Shake Your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band and the country called Djibouti, which sounds like "your booty".



I got this icon here. It is both a clever play on those "This icon is..." icons and a reference to an excellent song by the Arrogant Worms, a Canadian musical comedy group. The song is called "A Night On Dildo" from their album Russell's Shorts. There really is a town in Newfoundland called Dildo, and many of the other places there have humourous names. For example, from the lyrics:

"Well you can sail on Quidi Vidi, or look at Joe Batt's Arm
There's Placentia and there's Cow Head (MOOO!), they're so full of charm
Get married down in Kilbride, have a party in Hate Bay
Or have some screech in Fogo and forget about the day"

Bonus photo video:




Bonus:



I got the idea for this one from the virtual tour of Pere La Chaise Cemetery in France. (The site is interesting but graphics-intensive). Among the famous graves were those of Peter Abelard and his love, Heloise. I thought their monument looked interesting, and when I did some more research on them I found those quotes (both were frequent writers) and I liked them, so I made an icon. It's one of my best, I think.
Their story is a classic romantic tragedy.
Other notable burials in Pere La Chaise include Jim Morrison (of The Doors) and Oscar Wilde, whose moument is covered in lipstick kisses.

Poll #1464817 Which Songs Should I Download for Rockband?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

I have temporary access to Rockband 2 and have been given some money to download "two or three" songs of my choice. After downloading Poison by Alice Cooper, I have no idea what to buy next. Should I choose:

Whee hee! I passed my certification course!

Now I have time to catch up on everything else. Hmm...where to start?

Hi! I am still alive, it's just that life and this SafeLearn course are kicking my butt. I think I owe several of you replies (that icon thing for chorus_of_chaos, for example) and I will get to those as soon as I can, but it may not be till next weekend. If I owe you a reply and you're worried I might have missed it, feel free to drop me a line here.

Also, I know some of you have been sailing through rough waters lately, and even though I don't always reply to your posts, you are all in my thoughts.

Best wishes to all!

Random Video Post!

Just letting everyone now that I will be away on vacation in Salem MASS from tomorrow Aug 3 to Saturday Aug 8. I may not have access to the internet during that time, so if I don't talk to you all before then, take care and have a good week!

Anyone else remember watching or listening to this as a child?

The Elephant's Child Part 1:



Part 2

Part 3

The music is by Bobby Darin and the narrator is Jack Nicholson (yes, Jack Nicholson).

From textsfromlastnight.com
:

(901): All I remember is yelling at him to admit he liked Bon Jovi, then accusing him of giving love a bad name.

I can't choose just one, so here is a short list:

Billie Jean
Beat It
Bad
Smooth Criminal
Dirty Diana
Thriller
Speed Demon

Hopefully you've found some peace now, MJ. Thank you for the music.

And my obsession with Supernatural continues. When I was at work today the radio listed concerts that would be occurring in the area in the summer. One of them was in Toronto at the Molson Ampitheater (I think) and featured Def Leppard with special guests Cheap Trick and Poison and my first thought was "What an awesome lineup! Dean would love it!" Except Dean, in this case, is a character, not a real person. Oh well.

Just found this list online-The Babble List: The 26 Most Disturbing Kid Movies Ever. How many of these movies have you all seen? What do you think of the list?

Speaking of disturbing media aimed at kids, I was recently at a concert (featuring Collette Savard) with two friends-my best friend A and an exchange student from Finland. Collette led us all in a sing along of The Cat Came Back, a song most Canadian children know as a result of the National Film Board of Canada animated short film. I don't recall noticing before that the subject matter of the song was disturbing, but it actually is a bit gruesome. That's probably why children like it so much. It's right up there with "Alouette" (about plucking the feathers of a bird) and the song about the jaybird:

"Over in the meadow not so very far off,
A jaybird died of the whooping cough.
He whooped so hard with the whooping cough
That he whooped his head and his tail right off."

Anyone have any childhood songs or stories etc that they liked as children, but are now somewhat distrubed about?

Wow. Way to fail at upholding human rights there, Supreme Court of California. You suck.

Actually, it's a song for Remembrance Day (what we have in Canada to remember our soldiers and peace keepers) but the spirit behind both days is the same.

The story behind the song is as follows:

"On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a drug store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store's PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the store's leadership role in adopting the Legions two minutes of silence initiative. He felt that the store's contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven o'clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the two minutes of silence to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terry's anger towards the father for trying to engage the store clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called "A Pittance of Time"."

(work-safe, but a tearjerker!)

More government regulation. Allowing the finance industry to regulate itself was moronic, and I can't understand how anyone thought that was a good idea. Also, the banks need to go back to serving the people, rather than being profit machines. And the economy needs to be based off of different ideas-the exponential growth model is not sustainable.

I'm kind of unhappy that most of of the responses to this have been for the government to do "nothing" or "not interfere" when that was part of the problem to begin with. *sigh*

And just for fun!

Must somehow acquire this song, since it reminds me of The White Stripes and is made of awesome. It's called "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" by Cage The Elephant.