I saw a lot of reviews last week for the movie, Funny Games. Additionally, a preview of it ran before we watched a rented DVD of Michael Clayton last weekend. Yeah, I get it, Funny Games is a film that explores society's fascination with violence as entertainment.  What the European director, Michael Haneke perhaps doesn't realize is that actual ( Read more... )

We are having a big party here on Friday night. I am supposed to be cleaning the house in preparation. 
I'd rather sift through boxes and find photos of myself as a disgruntled twelve year old.


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I'll be defending my thesis tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm CST.  Think encouraging thoughts for me!  If all goes well, and I'm confidant that it will, I will be given the green light to graduate with my MA.

The idea of graduating is crazy and thrilling.  I can't wait to read books for fun again!

I have tendencies.  For instance, a cockroach scuttling across the floor will cause me to shriek and bellow for someone else to come kill it.  Oddly, this tendency does not extend to snakes.

I like snakes, even when I find them in my basement, so long as they are not poisonous.

Yesterday, while doing laundry in the basement, I encountered a snake.  ( Read more... )

Our neighbors have a dog.  It is a medium sized, hunting type dog with lots of energy.  His name is Gus. Dogs like this need to go out and exercise at least once, but ideally two or three times a day.  Another neighbor up the street has a black lab who gets to go on long walks three times a day.  We never hear the black lab barking, but we hear the ( Read more... )

The garden is starting to slow down production now that it is fall.  We are still getting quite a few peppers and the basil and chard are still thriving, but the tomatoes are done for the year.  We have 9 butternut squash to harvest still.  I bought a tiny 4 pack of butternut seedlings at the grocery store in July, when everything was wilted and ( Read more... )

• "She male"? What is this, the 1950s?
• Ohh, an "alleged meth dealer and a transsexual?"  Well heavens to Betsy!
• Didn't the YouTube video of this make the rounds 5-6 weeks ago?

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The world needs more cute in it.


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So, I went to check the journal of a friend here from livejournal. She hadn't updated her journal in 3 weeks, which was unusual.  I read the comments of her last post and learned that she passed away a few weeks ago.

She had some health problems, but this was unexpected.

I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me.

Tonight while walking the dogs, a police car pulled over and a female police officer jumped out and started heading towards us.  We were like, "uh, what is going on!?" for a second.  The cop, a petite blonde woman, asked if she could pet our dogs!  She explained that she used to have a Boston Terrier and missed her a lot.  She stood outside her ( Read more... )