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.