Un-Groovied

Three days ago, I noticed that on the side of my blog there were video clips which I had not asked for. They feature a guy talking to ... what I think, is another guy. I could be wrong, its hard to tell. Peering at them closely I wondered how they got there where my little cartoon songs had been. I shrugged thinking that I could just reset the cartoons, which I tried unsuccessfully to do for about an hour. I stared at it for a while. Then I went and yelled at YouTube for allowing morons to hijack my search link. And they are Morons. I clicked on the video to see what had replaced JabberJaw, Atom Ant, and My Best Friend Plank. What I got was an earful of the "evils of cartoons". ... I had to take a walk to clear my head, before my beloved laptop took the brunt of my extreme annoyance. Okay, Anger. It was anger. Cartoons aren't evil. Sure, there are people out there who use cartoons to portray horrendous things, but that is not what I had on my blog. I had rather well thought up and presented music shorts with cartoons. Which I enjoy. I do not enjoy, nor condone someone with obvious social issues blaming all the wrongs of society on cartoons such as Dungeons and Dragons, or the Smurfs.

*sighs*

Guys, go get a freaking life and stop screwing with mine.

Which is why there is no video strip on the side of my blog anymore.

... jerks...

I want my Cartoon Network Groovies back.

PS. I should have known. The minute I rant about this, it would work. We'll try this again, and see what happens. If those idiots show up again though... GRRRRRRR...

PSS (12/16/09) I give up. It keeps showing up with other crap. Back to being Groovy-less.

It All Started with that Chicken...

You remember. That one with the puff-ball head, also known as a Polish? Well, maybe you don't, because I never wrote anything here about the wandering chicken. Mom did though. You can go dig through her blog to find a photo too, because I'm just too darned lazy to go find it for you. However, I do believe that is when it really started. The animal thing while driving that is. That was the day that our neighbor called and asked if we'd seen a small black dog in the area, that looked like an Australian Cattle Dog. Which we hadn't. Apparently the dog of said description had gotten into their chicken yard and gone after their birds with relish. Condiments aside, they managed to avoid having dead chickens, which is actually pretty good, given their track record with their animals lately. In short, their luck has been hovering several miles below the ticking mark for 'bad'. Our chickens weren't out yet, and I was leaving for work early, the reason for which is now escaping me. I was bouncing along to the music in my car, and was almost to the main drag to head down the hill (hill being mountain) when my wandering eyes settled on what I thought was a cat. Until it moved. Cats don't move with William Shatner-esque jerks of the head and body. It was a chicken. A confused, not in a place for a chicken, chicken. And it appeared to be in shock, because when I went back to get it, it just sat down at my feet and didn't protest at all when I scooped it up and deposited it on the seat next to me. I drove back home, called the neighbor who had had the dog attack that morning to ask if she was missing a little polish hen. She wasn't. I needed to leave for work, and didn't have time to go door to door asking,"Excuse me sir/ma'am. Is this your chicken? Here, let me pull back its bouffant hair stylings so you can get a good look at its eyeballs." The neighbor however, would love to have a little polish hen. They're good people, and take good care of their animals. I was not at all worried. The LPH, is still doing very well with the small flock next door.

Well... that was nice for a distraction and all, but it would be nice to go back to not seeing weirdities on my way to and from work. Except I live on a mountain top, surrounded by people, their pets, and wildlife. This means eventually I will come across some other animal under odd circumstances. Probably about a month ago now, I was driving home from work, bouncing along to music once more along a road I'm pretty familiar with since I drive it at least twice a day 6 days a week. There's this curve and then that curve and then a short straight away, and gee, I could probably drive this road blindfolded. So, I will admit to being on auto-pilot to some extent when I came around the bend where the county keeps its boulder supply. Big, medium and small boulders occupy a small recess along side the road, so that the county has easy access to them, and don't have to haul them up the hill to fill in holes when we have a road fallout. Which happens infrequently, but I've got to say it does wonders for your reflexes to come round a bend in the road on a stormy, rainy, windy, foggy night, and find that there is a vast swathe of road missing in your lane. Doesn't that just beat all? Okay, back to the pet rocks. There are three largish sized boulders that stand fairly close to the road, this evening, there were 4. I figured that the county guys just added another one, and paid very little attention to it in the quickly dimming light... until it got up and waddled off into the chaparral. Ah, my brain said, That was a bear!

My brain likes to pull jokes on me. Especially when its late, foggy and raining, and I'm tired from work. Such as the night I was almost home, when I saw something jumping across the road. I slowed to a crawl to better observe the small creature leaping, landing, then pausing before leaping again. And my groggy fore-brain says,"Wow! That's the biggest cricket I've ever seen!" and my hind brain, which has always been the more logical and intelligent of the two replies, laden heavily with acidic rebuke,"You moron! That's a FROG!" At which point my hind-brain rolled over and went back to sleep. It really only wakes up to mentally slap me.

Which brings me to last week. In which I left for work on time, maybe even a little early. You can see where this is going already. I'm doomed if I leave the house early. The thought that I might be able to stop at the big store at the bottom of the long drive down the mountain is usually the cause of such foolishness, but I sadly fall prey to its allure more often than I'd like to admit. Again, it was a sunny, but cold day, and I was going slow. At work I'm something of a bartender. Everyone comes in and tells you their woes while getting a little pick-me-up. In my case I serve books, instead of booze. Lately, everyone had come in to tell me of their car accidents. Not one or two people... this is more along the lines of 10 to 15 people. I don't know whats going on with drivers lately, but I basically was driving with a good dose of paranoia when I rounded the second bend in the road on my way out to the main drag. Two dogs are standing on either side of the road, one is a lightly built brindle color pit-bull, and the other is a neighbors dog that is pretty much terrified of everyone. Terrified dog immediately disappears into the woods in the direction of its abode, and the Brindle just stood there staring at my car as I slowed so as not to hit her if she did something dumb. The next thing I know a small white puppy shoots out of the bushes to my left and races at full speed straight under the front of my car. Being somewhat freaked, I braked hard and stopped. I stayed stopped because I couldn't see the puppy, so I put on the car in park and pulled the emergency brake, then got out. I looked around and couldn't see the puppy, so I looked under the car praying to god, I wasn't going to find it smashed under my tire. Nope, he's not smashed under my tire, but he IS smashed up against the right rear tire. He's not hurt. He's hiding. Took me a good 15 minutes to convince him to come out, and once he did he turned out to be very friendly and good natured. However, every time I tried to get back in the car, he'd go back under it. Which is why I found myself driving around with him in my car trying to figure out who he belonged to for the next 20 minutes. This was becoming an issue, since I need to be to work in like 30 minutes, and it takes me 40 to get there in the first place. Which means I need to find a puppy-sitter. Luckily we've got a nice older couple living nearby, and she took him in and said she'd see if she could find the owner.

The puppy was probably about 6 to 8 weeks old, probably a Pitbull/Labrador mix, and was well cared for, so we didn't think he was a dump. People like to take their unwanted dogs deep into the hills and dump them. I have no idea why they think this is a good idea. We have bears up here. Bears like to eat dog. And if the bears don't get them, the cougars do, and if by some miracle they avoid that, we have the worst predator ever here as well. The hillbilly and their best friend Remington, Winchester or Henry. None too bright sometimes. I cannot count the amount of cats I've come across with pellets in them. Anyway, I believe the neighbor found the owner, and if she didn't, there were several people who said they'd take him. He was a very cute puppy. Did I get pictures? No. No, I didn't. Sue me if you so desire.

This concludes my animal weirdness for today. Please check in again, in the hopes that maybe I will have decided to post something else. Or not. Its fine. Whatever. *sighs*

Well... crap...

My room has been a total and complete disaster for years now. In fact it was so bad it was sort of embarrassing, with all the furniture, and other crap smashed in there (we will not speak of the prehistoric dust-mammoths). There was a walkway to the bed and to the bathroom, and everything else was covered in books. The books are still stacked up there, but I got a lot of it moved to shelves, and furniture moved out into the loft area outside my room. Now I have a lot of room, in my room. I've got everything squared away into their respective places. The bed against an actual wall, instead of a window, my dresser moved to the opposite short wall, and my TV, VHS player (Yes, I still have a VHS player), and Game Cube tucked into a corner on a desk. Only the DVD player was missing. I've got a monster DVD player that came complete with speaker system and everything, but it was just too damned big for my room. Thus its new living arrangements in the loft.

Today after I got out of class (in which I turned in a paper that should have come with an apology for its lack of coherence) I drove to an electronics store where I got a little Sony DVD player for $45. Not a bad price, and Sony products tend to last a long time. When I got home I went upstairs and started setting everything up again. Putting all the cables back into various sockets and plugs. When I was finished I asked Dad to take a look at the mess of cables to make sure I hadn't put any cords into the wrong receptacles, thereby causing smoke, fire and mayhem when I threw the power switch. We threw the switch anyway, began turning things on, and... my old trusty 35+ year old RCA TV wouldn't turn on. Dad tried to get it to work several times, but its little circuit checker clicked on and then shut the TV down within seconds every time. Dad says it might be the fly-back transformer (the thing that creates the picture on older TVs; it zips back and forth across the screen leaving colored lines in it wake, 120 times a second) in which case he can't fix it. If its just a circuit problem, then its a much simpler matter. *sighs* I don't WANT to save more money to get a freaking flat-screen. I like my old clunker. This is not like the car situation, when it would stop dead in front of speeding UPS trucks and refuse to start. This is my little buddy which I've had for years.

Well... Crap. I guess I'll cross my fingers and hope its just a circuit. Dad has another TV sitting around that I can use (if its working) until he can look at mine. The DVD player was all for not. I guess I have to wait longer to watch Astro Boy, the Complete Collection. Until then, it shall sit by the DVD player until we figure out what's going on with the TV.

And eventually yes, I will change the decorations on my blog. ... but I really LIKE Halloween...

I guess wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving wouldn't hurt. Happy Thanksgiving everyone who actually looks at this blog.

... ha ha haa...

Herd Instinct

While driving to work this morning, I was once again reminded that I should write about a certain topic, but continually forget to by the time I get home. Even though I drive right through the reminder again, and grumble about it all the way home. Perhaps this isn't something that bothers most people, or maybe its something everyone just thinks is normal, but it bothers me somewhat. So I will pose a question. WHY do people on the freeway like bunching up together like frightened African prey animals? Its true. There will be long stretches of zero cars on the freeway, and then clumps of shee... I mean cars, packed so tightly together that they could be passing cookies and coffee through open windows. Hell, who needs cell phones, just roll the bloody windows down and have a chat with the cars' occupants clustered around you. Meet someone new; socially network face to face, glance to glance while you drive on the freeway. Its really no worse than having a Borg implant.

Just remember, if you happen to be a herd animal, that if someone slams on the brakes, you're all going to die in a twisted, burning, wreck of exploding horror. I won't be with you. I'm anti-social. I'm the, I'm sure many times cursed, person who drives at a sane speed and in the gaps between the herds. Sure, I'm probably more likely to get hit by a speeding distracted nitwit, but at least I have room to maneuver. While traveling in packs, unless they are synchronised driving teams who train for stuff like this, you run into someone. For the synchronised driving teams out there, no offense intended.

All annoyance aside, I began wondering if there are scientists out there who study driving patterns, and if so, what are their findings? Is anyone even watching the prey drivers and the social-driver loners? Considering only my Mom reads this blog (or at least she's the only one who comments) I'm not expecting answers. But if someone out there is looking for a place to study flocking patterns of the human animal while driving, then I've got the perfect freeway for you to watch. Let me know. I'll point it out.

And at the end of all this, I feel I should say that normally I'm not this cranky, but I today I have a splitting headache. It makes me irritable, cranky and generally unpleasant company.

... perhaps I should've put that at the top as a fair warning...

Slightly Halloween...

Yes, I know we're three weeks off from Halloween, and its only the 9th, but I can't help trying to stuff all sorts of Halloween stuff onto my blog... Except it wouldn't all fit. And some of the gifs refused to cooperate with the blog. I suspect that they're not compatible or something. Last time I got around to fixing up my blog for a holiday, I was using my old Dell (man, I should really just go out and get it a new hard drive. Nothing else is really wrong with it.... except the $900 price tag for a new hard drive. ACK!!) and some of them didn't work then either. Now I'm on the Mac, and some of them that didn't work while using the Dell, now work on the mac. Odd coding or something I guess. I have not the know-how to go in and play with all the 1's and 0's, so I shall let sleeping numbers lie.

Well, I have something of a 4 day weekend, in which I get to do nothing, but sit on my duff and practice the lost art of couch potato-ism. I even got myself movies to watch and Dad just supplied me with a thing of popcorn. On the downside its freezing in the house, and I'll have to bundle up under some blankets to watch my shows, otherwise I will be a frozen couch potato. Having experienced this before, it doesn't make for a enjoyable movie watching experience. We do not have a heating system in the house, besides the wood stove, and we don't fire that up (forgive the pun) until its rained... heavily. Although Dad was kind enough to get the old sucker going last week, because it had rained a little, and it was relatively safe to go around lighting fires. You see, I live in what can be construed as a matchbox state. Forest fires start here at the drop of a sewing needle... especially if it hits a rock and sparks. FWOOSH!... yeah, been there, done that, DO NOT REPEAT!

Now, I'm going to go make popcorn, and tea, and plotz on the couch, and enjoy ridiculous TV shows for a while. I hope. Sometimes my plans go awry, like a wolverine on speed. I'm hoping that this isn't going to be one of those days, as I'd like my 5 days of headache to go away. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Like Christmas! A painless head for .... Halloween?

*crosses fingers*

And in the Second Month...

Last month, it was like wading through a river of loud, obnoxious, smelly, semi-conscious legal adults, (although in many cases I disagree on the legitimacy of their adulthood). This month... its like 2/3's of the people who were on campus for one reason or another... are gone. It no longer takes me 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. There is no longer a reenactment of the running of the bulls in the cafeteria, but then the cafeteria closes at 2p.m. now instead of 6p.m. due to budget cuts. Now you have to go to the little coffee shop and order stuff... and drink coffee while you wait. And just so you are forewarned, the coffee is appalling. A-P-P-A-L-L-I-N-G. I've come to the conclusion that they must find some sort of roadkill to use as a strainer, then burn the coffee beans, let those sit in water for several days, then make the coffee... and then use the business end of a skunk to stir it. Its the best excuse for the taste that I could come up with. Now I have to be honest here, I don't like coffee to begin with, but dear god, on the occasions when I've had coffee, it was NEVER that bad.

So, its October, my favorite time of year. Okay, so Halloween is my favorite time of year... that makes exactly one day in which I am totally happy. Hmm. Anyway, Favorite TIME OF YEAR! I shall carve pumpkins this year, and not just threaten to do so. There are even drawings this time; that I made over the summer with which to inflict emotions upon the pumpkins. Don't feel sorry for them. They have it coming. When I am finished with the torturous ordeal, I shall post pictures. Hopefully. Unless the pumpkins are fallen upon by the ravenous hoard. Aka... the chickens. They discovered my torture victim last year, and made short work of him. Poor thing didn't even have a mouth to scream with. I hadn't gotten to him yet you see. The blog with probably undergo some changes, decoration wise. I'll still be slow putting up posts, considering I am still have 'I-not-terribly-interested-in-posting-right-now' disease. So, what have I been doing in the meantime? Well, lets see...

I decided to solve a mystery. Its called,"Why the hell is almost every anime nut I meet totally obsessed with One Piece?" (okay, not all of them, but a goodly amount if asked what which anime is the best of the best, 95% of the time, they'll say,"One Piece".) Which baffled me for a long time, because I watched One Piece on Cartoon Network, all the way up to where they pick up Sanji at the Baratie Restaurant, and decided that it really wasn't that good. Now, I did two things wrong right off the bat. ONE - I made the foolish assumption that the dubbed version was actually being honest about the original Japanese. Um. Wrong. There's a whole enormous dump truck (equivalent to those found in open quarries) load of things they leave out, that is extremely detrimental to the entire world/culture of One Piece. Yes, culture, because its definitely got one, and you lose it completely with an English dub. I don't know who makes these decisions, but they need a swift kick to the head. TWO - I stopped watching the show way too early. This show doesn't really take off until they get past Sanji. And then it takes off again once the crew gets into the Grand Line. Holy Crap, does it ever take off. How do I know this? Because I sat down this summer, and watched all of it (including the movies), online and subbed. I've said this before, and I will say it again. The people who do the fan-subs do a fantastic job translating. Granted some are better than others, but they are still head, shoulders and quite possibly chest cavities above the dubs.

I couldn't originally stand the show because of the main character. The Americanized version gave Luffy a really REALLY annoying voice, and they made him out to be a total and complete idiot. Not Luffy's fault. What he's actually saying, was not translated into English correctly, because of unknown reasons. ... okay, I have suspicions, such as, the American population no longer has the attention span, nor the willingness to understand a different culture. Plus, I'm not sure the whole concept of the word 'nakama' translates culturally here. I'm not going to try explaining either, because being an American, I can't say that I fully understand it, but I certainly love what I do understand. Secondly, Luffy's not an idiot. He's just never lost his child-like sensibilities, nor the very basic understanding of what's right and what's wrong. Everyone knows the difference between Justice and Injustice... Luffy's just very direct about how he deals with it. Thirdly, this show was presented as a children's show, and while this is true in some respect, there are totally adult dynamics at play here as well. Its funny, its sad, its heart-breaking, anger-inspiring, and even, at times horrifying, but that's what makes this show so good, and also, I have got to say when I go watch this show, I NEVER know what to expect. Its is only predictable in that you know Luffy and his crew are going to eventually kick the bad guys' ass with extreme efficiency, and that no matter what's happening they will always believe in each other, but aside from that... you never see what's coming. You never know when you're going to laugh so hard you can't breath, or cry like a baby. (That happened on more than one occasion) I guess I've become sick to death of the predictable, because I actively hunt down shows like this. I'm just sorry, I saw the dubbed version first. What a mistake that was. I missed out on Luffy for YEARS. YEARS!!! Anyway sorry to those who have no idea what I'm talking about, but to those who have yet to go watch this show, have fun. A show that's been running for over 10 years and still going strong is not something to ignore because you saw it as a kid and didn't particularly like it. So, mystery solved.

I'll stop now. Promise.

PS... okay, so Luffy is a little bit of an idiot, but he's a good person... character... whatever...

Back In Class

It was the first day back to school for me, and I have to say it was rather surreal. I've been attending this college for quite a while now, mostly because I can only handle so many classes, work, and driving before I start teetering on the great sea of insanity. But over the last two years, the amount of students going to this very nice junior college has grown ... A LOT. In the future I will have to be sure to leave for class at least an hour and a half early in order to get a parking spot and get to class on time. Otherwise there isn't going to be any hope of the parking spot or arriving at class... ever. Today, I was an hour early and got a parking spot fairly quick. On my way through the cafeteria, it was so thick with students that I had to skirt the walls to get around the lines, and once I got out the other side the entire courtyard was packed with people going in every direction... And not one of them was watching where they were going. Almost everyone was staring at a hand held device of some sort, texting.

Now, maybe I'm getting old... or maybe I've just never really gone with the "new thing", but I was sort of alarmed. I have a cell phone. I hate the damned thing. I don't LIKE being available to everyone 24/7. I'm one of those solitary people who likes being left alone to do their own thing. There are of course exceptions, but for the most part, I never turn the phone on unless I need it. It never gets used for texting, even though its free to do. It doesn't have a camera in it. I like being AWARE of my surroundings! Usually I don't really care what people do as long as they're not going to get me killed, but today... it was a day I wish I had a camera in my phone, because all of these kids are walking around completely oblivious to the fact that there is a flock of wild turkeys trying desperately to get out of the courtyard. They're darting this way, and that way and making turkey noises and not one kid stopped to wonder what that odd warbley noise was. Not one looked down to see what had just run into their leg... Not one looked around to see turkeys running around their legs. No... they were totally glued to their phones. And they've got Borg implants in their ears! Aka, Ipods. Okay, so I have an Ipod too, but I don't generally have it ported into my head while walking on campus. That's called inattention, and paints a big fat target on your back for any loony who wants to have fun at your expense. But I listen to it in my car. There I have doors I can lock; not to mention a gas pedal with which to mow down said predator.

Do they do this while they drive? Do they do this while they're in class? Do they ever put those things down and look at each other face to face? I'm just curious, because it looked like scenes straight out of Wall-E. I know. I've watched Wall-E at least 5 times this past summer. Fat people, in floaty chairs, letting robots tell them what to do. No thinking involved. Holy crap! I've seen it in real life?! Its the beginning isn't it. Pixar saw it coming and tried to warn us... but half the population didn't look up now did they. Oh well, its their loss. It'll really be their loss if the next thing they don't notice are the rattlesnakes that have been seen all over campus.

... yes.. I'm mean. And no, I'm not a fanatic. Point fingers at your own expense.

Miss Me???

Yes, I know. Its been months, but I seriously haven't felt like writing anything on my blog. In all honesty I was recovering from two semesters of Japanese classes. Can I now speak Japanese? No. Can I watch a movie or anime in Japanese and understand it? No. Can I at least make myself partially understood? Probably, but I would be so damned embarrassed by my attempt I'd have to go hide in a nice dark closet for several days. What was the point you ask? For some hideous reason, I actually like the language, even though I was a total failure at catching on. Which caused a huge amount of stress. I'm rather spoiled in that I usually am able to breeze through classes without too much effort, so when I run into a subject I suck at... I become a human basket case. Two semesters of being a human basket case will do horrible horrible things to you... like make you spend money to have your wisdom teeth removed... (What the hell was I thinking?... okay, I was thinking that the economy sucks right now, and in the near future I might lose my dental insurance ((god forbid)) and I should do it NOW. ) or kick the rather vulnerable ego knees out from under you... or... Well other things that aren't coming to mind right now, but were equally mind numbing.

Thus I decided to ignore everything except summer programs for my job. Except I got tripped up with that... You see, having my wisdom teeth removed also taught me that I have a bad reaction to certain medications. Ugh, that was fun. So once I'd completely destroyed the month of June for myself, I spent the next two months just messing around. Going out to eat, invading bookstore and leveling my bank account in the process, reading said books, and watching Anime online. There's some really good stuff out there! Especially subbed. I have no idea where the hell the big Anime companies get their translators, but my god, they ruin a lot of quality shows dubbing them. *shudder* It still takes me at least 30 episodes into dubbed Bleach to not be extremely irritated with the not only the voices chosen, but the hatchet job they did on the translation.

I did go to see a few movies. "Watchmen" (which Dad and I call "Big Blue". To understand that you'll have to see the movie. I am NOT explaining.) which was one of the most loyal comic adaptations I have -EVER- seen. Well done, if a bit surprising... just because it was so dead on. Others on the list were "Wolverine", which was pretty good, even though I had reservations about seeing it. Marvel has a habit of harping on things, and after a while it gets irritating. Then there was "Star Trek". The first time I saw it, I was so blitzed by the action I couldn't tell if I liked it or not. So, I went to see it again to try and figure out whether I liked it or not... I DO like it. A lot. The characters were so well portrayed and loyal to the original cast that in certain cases it was like they were channeling the original actors. It was almost creepy. Funny as all hell, but creepy. After that I didn't see anything for a LONG time partially because I had my wisdom extracted, and partially because I was so exhausted after work I couldn't even get up the energy to sit in a theater. However, I did go to see "Ponyo" on Monday. I loved it. Its a Ghibli Studio release, and it very much a children's movie, but it was still great. And a couple of weeks back I went to see "The Ugly Truth", which I really ended up loving. Normally romantic comedies are NOT my thing, but I HAD to escape from the house that day, and the theater was my best bet of something to do while down the hill. Ugly Truth is extremely well done, and very funny. I haven't laughed that hard in a theater since I saw "Something's Gotta Give".

I'm sure I did other stuff during the summer, but at the moment I can't remember anything else to mumble about. School starts on Monday, but I've only got one class. And after that I've only got a speech class to take. I cannot fully express my dire hatred of speech classes. Its beyond my ability to explain. If there was a way around this, I would get around it... with all due haste.

I shall possibly post again soon, but don't hold your breath. I'd hate to have your death on my conscience.

Screamer Hen

Alright, I'm doing this under duress. The post that is. Usually I'm not all that inclined to keep up on my blog, because ... okay, I'm lazy and would much rather be watching Bleach at the moment. No, I'm not going to explain. Mom wants me to write up this story. Sooo....

Last night at around 10:30 p.m. I took Morgan out for her nightly rounds of evacuating unwanted materials. Its been hot here, and sort humid, which makes for mild nights, and unpleasant stickiness. As we got out to Morgan's favorite spot for going potty, I heard an odd noise coming from the area of the chicken coop. Those of you who have chickens know that they make a lot of unfathomable noises just for the heck of it. Noises that you wouldn't think a chicken could make. I frowned into the darkness towards the coop, wondering if maybe something got into the coop, then consulted my dog's ears. Dog was... "concentrating" and giving things around her very little attention. Hmm. I moved upwind of the concentrating dog, and wondered if the coop door was even closed and locked. 

Once Morgan was done, we headed back across the driveway, towards the house when the weird sound started up again. "EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee!" I paused and looked towards the coop again. There was a large black hole were the door should be. Nope, no one had locked up the coop. And,"EEEEEEEEeeeeeEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" filtered down to me again. Alrighty then. Morgan and I got a flashlight and trudged out to the coop, I being more interested in the coop, than Morgan who actually yawned twice before we got there. Once we reached the doorway, I flipped on the flashlight and the beam hits an indignant light brahma trying to be down for the night on top of the nest boxes. There's always one idiot who thinks its a good idea. She lets loose with a much more familiar shriek of egg-theft-rage, then emits the "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" again. Ah. Its "Screamer Hen". This is the hen who reaches astounding decibels while you're innocently reaching for the eggs underneath her. If you are unfortunate enough to have gathered an egg from this hen once, you are probably somewhat deaf for about a day. Seriously, her scream makes your ribs vibrate, and it rivals the air horns on the trains that pass my place of work everyday. 

Apparently she didn't appreciate the fact that something was lurking out there in the dark while she was trying to sleep. I wasn't using a flashlight because it was fairly moonlit that night. No need for the artificial torch. Chickens have poor eyesight in the dark, and when she spied two things wandering around out there in the dark and her door was wide open, she objected... quietly, to avoid undue attention. Well, it half worked. Anyway, that's her at the top. Goofball bird.  Not sure when you'll hear from me again. 

Signing off. 

Numb Space

Its already February, and I seem to be hitting my energy limit. In fact I feel a lot like this shot of "Knuffle Bunny" (its a character from a childrens book by Mo Willems. Highly amusing if you haven't already seen it. For obvious expressions upon the face of Knuffle Bunny, I felt the need to use him as a visual prop.) If you can't figure the expression, its one of stunned overload. Yes, that'd be me. I've reached "Numb Space" which is a catch all phrase for when nothing really touches you, but hovers in an eager satellite swing around my numb field. A feeling that I'm totally loving at the moment. It beats the sheer and all out panic attacks I was suffering last semester. Joy. 

On another note a friend emailed to let me know that they had to put their dog, to sleep today. I've been told of the passing of friend's pets before, but this was different. She was a like a person, always there to greet you at the door, always there to sit up and beg you for scratch her, and I'm sure a hundred other little things that are going to be sorely missed by her 'parents'. I too will miss her, very much. Goodnight Topaz, sleep well.

Schooled

I figured if I didn't post something soon, I'd never get around to it at all. School has started again, and against my better judgement I took the second semester of Japanese. During the first semester I was sure I was going to get either an unpleasant grade, or run wild and insane off into the woods. Oddly neither happened, and all the stuff that never settled to the bottom and made sense during the first semester unexpectedly made sense this semester. I still can't speak Japanese to save my life, but I suspect that it has to do with me being extremely apprehensive about saying the wrong thing. Especially when everyone else doesn't seem to have a problem catching on. I'm just a tinsy bit frustrated with myself. Reading and understanding the language is much easier for me. 

What really makes me nuts though is that my teacher, while he doesn't pick specifically on me anymore, he does tend to pause before asking me a question, and then awaiting my answer. Both are given in Japanese... Except he pauses and will ask me something before the question he asked everyone else. Last night it was, 'pause' "Kon'ban wa." Which means good evening, and I replied in kind. I know how to do that much at least. Then he asked what type of car I have, as in what country is it made in. I responded, stuttering a bit because I don't like doing things wrong, and he nodded and moved on. No Kon'ban wa to the next 4 people. I can't figure out what he's trying to do... Make me feel more comfortable? Assess just how miserable I am at speaking his native tongue? Totally throw me off? Or it could just be that I'm unknowingly giving him a beaten puppy expression when he steps up to me desk. The kid who sits in front of me keeps telling me I worry too much. Maybe I am. *sighs*

The second class isn't nearly so dire. Although the time and day of the class sort of makes for long days on Tuesdays and Thursdays because it falls before work, and the Japanese class is after work. This tends to make days that start at 7a.m. and end close to 10pm. Fun! Not! The second class is Western Civilization, and I'm taking it backwards. The second semester first, so on some things I get a little bit lost, but for the most part I love the class. It helps keep my mental platform from tilting too much when I start panicking over Japanese. Oddly, I understand the homework, and I can write now in katakana and hiragana without too many problems. And Kan'ji at the moment is just pure fun. This will probably change later when my brain melts and more grey cells perish before its lava like cascade from my ears.

I keep telling myself that there are only 13 weeks left... only 13.....

 

CGI

In the past I have not been a fan of CGI stuff. For instance I have an enormous dislike of the movie Beowulf, simply because I couldn't stand the CGI effects that compose the movie. There's something inherently creepy about it. The mistakes or rather tiny unneeded movements that are the nature of the human being, are totally lacking in something computer generated. It makes my hair stand on end. However all is not lost, for the Japanese who make incredible CGI cuts for their games, have begun using this talent for movies based on the same games. Some of the first ones I wasn't all that enthralled with, like the first Final Fantasy movie they made. Could've done without it. The next one I saw was FF Advent Children. While the storyline was thick with plot holes that you probably wouldn't have worried about if you had played all the games (which I haven't, sorry, not an RPG fan for the most part) the CGI had improved markedly, and they'd added things like wind, skin twitches and... well lets just say my hair got to relax. 

So, of course when I saw that they'd done another movie, I snapped it up to see if they'd managed to improve or take a nose dive into computer-perfect-hell. The movie in question? Resident Evil: Degeneration. Now I've played some of the games and enjoyed them immensely, mainly because I get to shoot things indiscriminately in the head. Lowers stress levels for me.. and I like the dark. Heh. Sorry, digressing. This thing was rated R for bloody violence, so I was expecting a blood fest. Um, no. The games are much more caked in crimson. What really surprised me was that not only was the CGI good, but the storyline was tight, with few plot holes and very little side tracking of the sub-plots. The action was fantastic, and quite frankly I would suggest this movie over the live action Resident Evil movies that came out over the last couple of years. Even with voice acting that in some cases could've been a bit improved upon, this was way better. It had characters you recognized from the game and end up liking all the more. New characters were well introduced. And even if you haven't played any of the games, this movie makes it so its enjoyable. Excellent movie, and one I would recommend. 

Five Thumbs Up! (I borrowed some, and yes I gave them back)

Post - poned

You know you're in trouble when the Thank You card from your grandmother (which admittedly is addressed to everyone in the household) thanks everyone for gifts, and then asks if you've come out of your room yet. This has to do with the computer. You see, while I don't spend every waking moment surfing the net, I do tend to spend a lot of time watching Anime online. If I truly wanted to not watch Anime, then I suppose I could drag myself away, but I do so love it. Sometimes I do stop and wonder if its an addiction... I've come to the conclusion that it probably is. But, as far as I know, its not hurting me to watch it during almost every waking moment. That's an overstatement, so don't worry.

What does trouble me is similar to the crap I catch for reading comics. There's this incredible stigma against pictures with words encased in squares. God forbid you should be caught reading one in public. Especially if you're over the age of 20. For reasons unknown, and beyond my ability to fully understand, reading comics is seen as a sign that your intelligence level falls far below the norm. While I am no genius, I would not be someone who could be considered sub-par on the intello-meter. Unfortunately that creeping feeling of wrong doing basically sours my enjoyment of comics, manga and Anime. Which is why I tend to hide in my room for extended periods of time. My laptop works just fine in there, and I hide my ill-gotten comics in there too. 

I would like to know -why- I feel like I'm doing something wrong, because I'm not. Does it make people feel uncomfortable to watch me read a Manga? Does it make you squirm inside watching me watch Anime online or on TV? What is it that makes you think I'm being juvenile just because I still absolutely love cartoons? Superheroes? WHY? Seriously I am confused, and quite honestly the air of disapproval that seeps into the atmosphere is most unappreciated. Okay, now everyone can tell me its all in my head and stop being ridiculous. 

Lastly and on a totally different topic, I would've had mini rant here up on my blog yesterday, but our Internet service tanked. Usually they're on the ball, but I guess this was a large outage, and since they rarely have outages, I have no real issues with them. Having worked for an Internet service provider in the past on the help desk, I've got a lot of sympathy for them over the last couple of days. People are NOT nice when they're Internet goes out. They call you every name in and out of the books, and god forbid you end up with a lawyer on the phone. They will twist everything you say, no matter what it is you said in the first place. That was fun. Okay, so it really wasn't. 

Screwed

So, I've had my laptop for about a week now, and everything is going great! Except for the memory that I'd like to replace, because it would bump it from 2 gigs of memory to 4 gigs. I've got the new chips right here, and I've got a tiny screwdriver that should work... except the screws on the back of this laptop are in there so damned tight they won't budge. This calls for me taking it down to one of the computer stores and asking them to undo the screws, which I'd really rather avoid. Knowing most of these places would probably try and charge me for the use of a tiny screwdriver and their arm. I wonder what that would add up to... $20? Probably more, they'd consider it manual labor. Whatever happened to good old fashion kindness and customer service. You do realize that sometimes customer service IS kindness right? Well, I can but try and see what happens. 

This week, I think I'm going to try and see a movie. Now, the problem with this is that there isn't really anything out there currently that I want to see. I managed to miss the new Bond flick before it disappeared from theaters in my area, and then there was Twilight, which is only at night now and I detest night showings. Too many people in the theater with me. If there were a halfway decent horror film I'd go see that, because most of the populace isn't interested in seeing them at a matinee. What I'd like to see is Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. He appears to have slipped back into his Dirty Harry persona, which I've always found most amusing, and was last really seen in the Rookie. (Ah, fond memories) Although my guess is that the character will go deeper than that. We shall see. 

Today I think I'm just going to watch some stuff on my computer and finish laundry.  I mean I'm going to go to this wonderful Anime site I found that streams Anime! And other Asian Dramas. At the moment I'm caught up in MARS (Drama side of the site under Taiwan), and probably will be caught up in Tactics later, which can be found on the Anime portion of the site. Oh, I do love this place, and its practically been home for the last few days. YAY! Anyway, I'm going to go enjoy my day off. Happy New Years to everyone! :)