March 2008 Archive

March 26, 2008Farewell, Godspeed.
So today’s the day. It was hitting me hard on Monday, being sick and tired and generally miserable, but it’s since passed. There are days now that I don’t think of him. But the days I do think of him are still more frequent.I’ve been careful not to build this day up, and I honestly put it out of my mind until 3am Monday morning.The one thing no one ever tells you about losing someone truly close is how much you will miss them when you do think about them, when something reminds you of them--a photo, a phrase, a memory, a smell, a sound.
I’ve lost friends, acquaintances, cousins, and grandparents, and nothing, NOTHING, prepared me for losing him. Nothing.There's a sad sort of clanging
From the clock in the hall
And the bells in the steeple too,
And up in the nurs'ry an absurd little bird
Is popping out to say "coocoo."

Regretfully they tell us,
But firmly they compel us
To say goodbye to you.

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night,
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu,
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.

So long, farewell, Au'voir, auf wiedersehen,
I'd like to stay and taste my first champagne
So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye,
Good bye

I'm glad to go,
I cannot tell a lie.
I flit, I float,
I fleetly flee, I fly.

The sun has gone to bed and so must I
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye.

And then I wrote this post, and found this picture, and sobbed inconsolably.

Posted by Karabou at 8:26 PM EST

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March 24, 2008
...

Miss you every day.
Posted by Karabou at 10:13 AM EST
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March 18, 2008Doomsday spoilers ahead
Tanya and I went to see Doomsday tonight. While I enjoyed it, I still had some problems with it. Here are my thoughts…1) Thirty-year-old gas will not run in a car. Neither will 30-year-old vehicles work, much less haul ass.2) Forty-five years from now, GPS devices will not be as big as a relay race baton. They’re not that big NOW.3) If a speeding van hits a body in the road, it will not explode into flames and fly end over end. This was almost as good as the cougar scream for the sound effect of a car crash in Terminator 3. If you don’t believe me, watch it.4) Love at first sight is dumb.
5) I’m so tired of the black guy always dying. I honestly thought he was going to live, but no, the white man lived. Surprise! Not.6) I was expecting the Road Warrior/Escape from New York mash-up. I was not expecting a Braveheart ménage trois.
7) The timeline jumped all over the place. I THINK it was 45 years in the future, but sometimes they’d say 30 years and sometimes it was 25, and then some random years were thrown out there as well.8) Foam grenades may stop you from dying in a falling elevator, but you do not just walk out with no evidence of foam anywhere. Someone’s gonna have to cut you out of that shit.9) If there are 80 brazillion cows walking around outside the city, why would you resort to cannibalism? Go eat a f-ing cow.
10) What it lacked in story, it made up in senseless gore: bunnies exploding, cows getting run over by tanks, gratuitous projectile vomiting, splurting blood…you name it. 11) It was better than Bloodrayne.
12) WTF happened to David O’Hara’s face?13) Rhona Mitra’s hair was kickass. 14) I hope to Christ that was a prosthetic nose on Malcolm McDowell.
15) Chopsticks in the hair never go out of style.
16) Expect a sequel.

Posted by Karabou at 10:43 PM EST
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March 17, 2008Tie a yellow ribbon around the amputee
What a weekend.

Friday, I wasn’t feeling great and decided to just go home after work, rather than go do trailer checks. I ended up running a few errands, and when I got home Kev and Brian wanted to go get some dinner. I told Kev to pick, so we went to this Chinese buffet down off of Dorothy somewhere. I think my mind has blocked out anything to do with where it is because it was so awful.

How do you screw up lo mein? Seriously. I admit Chinese buffets aren’t exactly the height of cuisine, but this one was the pits--downright disgusting. The only thing I could choke down were some sauteed mushrooms and General Tso’s chicken. And even those were lacking. The crab rangoon was okay. And when you walked into the place, it had that awful, fishy smell, and there was more moisture in the air than the steambaths at the gym. The whole thing just felt unsanitary. Yuck, yuck, and double yuck.

Yesterday, I fell down the bottom of the basement stairs. I was carrying a laundry basket full of clothes and thought I was further down the steps than I was. So that last step and a half about killed me. I came down hard on my good foot, screaming all the way down. lol Kev came running, yelling, "Are you okay?" I really didn’t know if I was--my foot was hurting like hell. Then I started laughing once I realized nothing was broken. My foot hurts to walk on, but it’s okay otherwise. I just wrenched it.

And then, a few minutes later, I was going upstairs to the PC room with stuff in my hands and almost went over backwards on the top step. I decided I’d had enough of stairs and just stayed up there for a few hours. I’m beginning to think I should have one of those motorized chairs for the staircases.

I watched The Man Who Cried, which should be titled The Man Who Sucked. It’s one of those movies where nothing happens. The synopsis sounded interesting, but it really wasn’t accurate.

I also watched Restoration. I had watched it when it first came out on VHS because I was in love with Robert Downey Jr. since Weird Science. It was sucky, but you got to see him semi-naked a few times. Rowr. I can’t wait to see him as Iron Man. He really can be an incredible actor. It’s shame he has so many demons.

And I watched Last Holiday, which was as sappy and predictable as I expected. But I loves me some Queen Latifah. I got all three movies off of Showtime’s freeview weekend last week. They didn’t have much on, which was disappointing. But that’s Showtime for you. The only thing remotely worth watching on that channel is The Tudors, which I’ll have to rent sometime. Angi has turned me onto hot Tudor-on-peasant action, and there’s no going back.

Posted by Karabou at 9:31 PM EST Top

March 14, 2008Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.
A U.S. soldier in front of a bus hit by a roadside bomb near Nasiriyah, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday.
The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no "smoking gun" after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.
The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.
The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."
Although other groups, like the September 11 commission, have concluded that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda, the Pentagon was able to analyze much more information.
The documents cited in the report do reveal that Hussein supported a number of terrorists and terrorist activities inside and outside Iraq.
"The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," according to the report. Read excerpts from report (pdf)
Most of the terrorism was aimed at keeping Hussein and his Baath party in power, according to Pentagon officials.
"State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training and resourcing of terrorists," according to the report.
The report cited such examples as training for car bombs and suicide bombings in 1999 and 2000, both of which U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled to contain since the rise of the insurgency in summer 2003.

Posted by Karabou at 8:22 PM EST
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March 13, 2008Yes, androids dream of electric sheep. I’m sure of it.I’m at a dinner party, a very hoity-toity fancy one, apparently being thrown by Z-Rob’s mom. (lol) Everyone is in tuxedos and fancy dress, and then I notice that 20-year-old version of Javier Bardem is there. Shirtless. And he is H-O-T. Yeow.

For some reason, we all get in the car to go to a surgeon’s office, and I’m scratching Javier’s back in the car while he drives. I don’t even know how that’s possible, but he was enjoying it. (Mental note: If I ever meet Javier Bardem in real life, I should try to scratch his back. He’ll love it.)

When we get there, he turns into Kathy Griffin, who is making terrible jokes at the doctor trying to examine her, while four of us look on. I don’t even like Kathy Griffin, so I don’t know where that came from.

Then Patrick Swayze sits down next to me, and I say, "How are you doing Patrick? I’m so sorry to hear about your sickness." He says, "I’m doing just fine." And then he’s suddenly being green-screened before my eyes, and he’s got a man’s ass between his hands, which makes him look like he’s doing super gay innuendos, even though he’s just trying to explain how his treatment is going. I’m laughing so hard I can’t speak, and he just keeps looking at me like why are you fucking laughing at me? I’m talking about cancer!

But the green-screening is apparently like someone is doing Candid Camera on him. He doesn’t know it’s there, but everyone else can see it. And it just gets funnier and funnier. I’m positive I was laughing out loud in my sleep. I woke up during it.

Posted by Karabou at 8:22 PM EST Top

March 12, 2008Things you see while driving...
On the way home tonight, I was driving next to a guy riding a Harley with the biggest, fattest beagle I’ve ever seen strapped to his back in giant duffle-bag-like pet carrier. The dog was sitting in it with his head and front paws out, like a papoose. And it was wearing goggles. Fantastic.

Posted by Karabou at 8:22 PM EST Top

March 11, 2008The deep and meaningful Pooh quiz
IT was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!
ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.
WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) What are my anxieties about and b) what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.
You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 92% on Ego
You scored higher than 96% on Anxiety
You scored higher than 72% on Agency

Posted by Karabou at 7:41 PM EST Top

March 10, 2008I want to wash my hands, my face, and hair with snow.
What a waste of a weekend.

We ended up with like 10 inches of snow, I think. We didn't leave the house all weekend. They finally plowed our street yesterday, and the piles of snow are 3 feet high. Everyone I know was sent home at noon. But not us. Oh no, we shan't affect "productivity." I left at noon and just took a half day vacation. I wasn't risking my life for this company. They wouldn't give a shit about me if I died; they'd just replace me and keep going. So why should I risk mine for them? It just drives home the fact that my company doesn't view it's employees as people. We are numbers. Machines. Do the work, be "productive," and keep the money rolling in. That's all they care about. Not us. Sickens me.

Kev and I did manage to finish Flight of the Conchords Season 1, and we watched Eastern Promises. Which, by the way, was very good. Viggo's naked bathhouse karate fight was highly amusing.

Last night, we watched Idiocracy, a Mike Judge film. It was amusing, although not as funny as Office Space. And last week, I watched Little Children. I went into it with the mindset of, "if this doesn't grab me in the first 15 minutes, I'm turning it off." And, shockingly, it did. I was riveted. Kate Winslet is just fantastic. I just kept waiting for her to say, "Get round here cause I'm fudding myself stupid and I'm bloody loving it."

Posted by Karabou at 11:01 PM EST
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BZZZZ! BZZZZZZZ!
This spike of warm weather has me so energized it's ridiculous. I'm ready to do back flips down the cubicle aisle, except that I forgot my belt, and my pants would likely fall off. Which is something else that excites me beyond words. Stop working out, and the weight falls off. Granted, it's probably all muscle, but whatever. I've got to be in a swimsuit the first week of April, so I'll take what I can get.

Amy and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl. If I hadn't read the book, I might have enjoyed it more. I tried really hard to separate myself from the book, but it was just too hard. I loved the book, and the movie left out things that were so important, not to mention compressing time to the point where the whole thing seems to have happened over the course of a week. Like Amy said, I'm disappointed we didn't get to see Henry get old, fat, and impotent. It's kind of crucial to Anne's downfall, but whatever.

I'm making slow progress getting out of the boot. My goal is to be in the ankle brace by the time I go to FL. I could live with that.

If you haven't watched Flight of the Conchords, you're missing out on life. Watch it. Wut? Wut?

And now I'm going to go do some one-armed push-ups to celebrate spring.

Posted by Karabou at 10:16 PM EST

February 27, 2008
That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit...
We had our first adventure into home ownership when I got home last night. I walked into the house to a brisk 58F. I couldn't get the furnace to kick on yesterday morning, but I thought maybe the thermostat was just in sleep mode or something.

I called Kev's dad, and he said it might be the pilot light, so I called a friend of ours to come over and check it out. Unfortunately, he discovered the furnace has electric ignition and, therefore, has no pilot light. So it looked like the ignition was out. The furnace room was filled with gas, so we cracked a window to air it out, and by that time, Kev was home.

We discussed suffering it out until today to try to avoid the emergency fee, but it was 16F last night, with high winds, it's damp outside from all the snow, and the temp in the house was dropping rapidly. I was wearing 2 layers on the bottom, 3 on the top, and was nestled into a huge blanket with a huge electric space heater pointed right at me, blasting me with delicious inferno. And my hands and nose were still ice.

We were concerned about the pipes freezing, even if we trickled water through the faucets until we got someone out. It was going to be so cold that I just didn't want to take the chance of our pipes bursting and having to deal with the house flooding on top of the furnace not working.

Posted by Karabou at 9:24 PM EST
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