Archive for the 'Life in General' Category

November 24, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up, Writing Movements, contests

Saturday morning, the hubby and I went to see Twilight. I don’t think he really wanted to see it, but I kept asking if he was going with me because I was going to see it by myself if he didn’t.

I don’t think he wanted to stay home by himself, so he went with me.

I never read the book, but I wanted to see the movie. I had no expectations going in, didn’t expect to be disappointed if it wasn’t like the book (are they ever?).

I liked it.

In some ways, it reminded me of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer T.V. show. Y’know, with the whole YA factor appeal. Some of Robert Pattinson’s facial expressions were funny. Especially the one in the classroom. And for some reason, I was expecting him to turn into a pile of ashes when he stepped into the sunlight, but apparently, their “kind” of vampire doesn’t do that. Someone care to explain that?* I could just read the book, I know, but I would rather have the instant gratification of knowing the answer now rather than later. I don’t know if they plan to turn her other books into movies (again, anyone care to weigh in on that?*), but I’ll go see them if they come out.

I just feel sorry for the stupid fool who was stupid enough to release a portion of her WIP. Because of that one person, 1) the author will probably no longer trust you with her work and 2) you ruined it for the ENTIRE NATION who was looking forward to reading the last installment. What did this person think would happen? If I had been as heavily invested in this series as everyone else, and then read that the last book may never be published, I would’ve been seriously pissed. It would be like watching the series finale of a favorite show and then not knowing what happened to the characters. coughAngelcough.

Much sympathy going out to all you Stephenie Meyers fans. A word to the wise: don’t screw with an author’s work. You really don’t want to see our bad side.

Sunday, I took my braids out. This is what it looked when she was all done removing them: CLICK FOR BIGGER VIEW

It’s kinda fuzzy, but that’s what you get when you take pics with your camera phone. The Finger in the Light Socket look is very “in” right now, isn’t it? LOL.

And then here I am all straight and pretty: CLICK ON PIC FOR BIGGER VIEW

What a difference chemicals can make, eh?

Writing Movement - To quote Fiona Apple, I’ve been a bad, bad girl. I didn’t write at all last week. Holding out my hand. I know, I know. Go on, feel free to give me a virtual slap on the wrist. I’m totally procrastinating with this short story, can you tell? I gave myself until the end of the month to finish the first draft. So, really, I have until Sunday to reach that goal. I still got time, folks. I’ll get on it, I swear. I’ll do some writing this week. Maybe I’ll finish before Thanksgiving.

So, how was your weekend?

*Would you like to pre-order a copy of A Royale Pain? The first person that answers my questions about Twilight will be given the password for the protected offer page.

Technorati Tags: Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Robert Pattinson, Angel, Stephenie Meyers, Fiona Apple

November 21, 2008 | DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Music Queue, Random Thoughts

Why can’t men just man up?

I had a serious love jones for Rob Lowe. Back in the day. Serious.

I was a MONDO fan of New Kids on The Block (Jordan Knight was my fav). Mondo like pictures on the ceiling mondo. Yeah. It was bad.

I loved listening to N’SYNC. (JC Chasez was my fav) Not so much Backstreet Boys, although I thought Kevin was pretty hot.

I have a Mrs. Robinson..thing…for Zac Efron.

I freakin’ LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Linkin Park. They are, without a doubt, my all-time favorite band. I have all their albums, I have “Bleed It Out” as my ringtone when the general public is calling me (friends and family have special songs. I’ll make that another post) and I will never tire of hearing their songs on the radio. They. Are. The Shit.

I freely admit it. There is no shame in my game. I was cheesy. I’m probably still cheesy, but I can freely admit all the above.

So I don’t understand why my hubby cannot admit that he loves Beyonce.

MY HUSBAND LOVES BEYONCE

BEYONCE IS MY HUSBAND’S FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST

Yeah, babe, I said it.

The cat’s out of the bag.

Everybody knows.

And yet…

The world didn’t fall off its axis.

No one’s pointing fingers at you and whispering behind your back.

No one thinks you’re dorky for liking Beyonce.

There’s a video of this one song* that she sings (don’t ask me what it is because all I hear in my head right now is “Single Ladies”) and he likes the video because, among other things, one of the guys is a really good dancer and he wished he could dance like that. When I told one of my co-workers this, and then told him (because I wanted to know the name of the song), he nearly had a heart attack.

“What did you tell her that for?” he protested.

“What’s the big deal?” I mean, really, what was the big deal?

“She doesn’t need to know that. Gawd.”

I didn’t get it then and I still don’t get it now. Was it because I mentioned the dancing thing? Maybe it embarrassed him. Did I make him sound lame when I told her that? If so, that was not my intent. I mean, if he loved, loved, loved Elton John (we have nothing against homosexuals), then yeah, he’d want to keep that to himself. I’m sure thousands of men love Beyonce and have no problem saying, “I love Beyonce. I love her music, she’s a great dancer, and I think she’s effin’ hot.” He could say that to my face and I wouldn’t care. I mean, do I get all upset that he has a picture of her on his computer instead of me? No. I’m on his cell phone, though, so I’m not gonna complain.

He teases his BF for listening to bands like Styxx, Foreigner and Journey. And really, it’s just teasing and his BF knows he’s just giving him shit for the hell of it. But dollars to donuts, his BF never says “Yeah? Well, you listen to that girly Beyonce crap.” LOL. As serious as his BF is, I can’t picture him saying that becuz it would be laughable. It’s like a deep, dark, shameful secret or something. Case in point. He bought her new album the day it came out.

Checkout person: “We’ve been selling a lot of these today.”

Hubby: “Yeah, my wife really wanted it.” Um. Really? Since when?

LOL. That’s what I did when he told me that. I laughed out loud. If I’d been there with him when he’d bought it, I would’ve released an unladylike snort and looked at him in disbelief. And then before I could contradict that preposterous claim, he would’ve hustled me outta there like a misbehaved child….(damn that was good. Hang on, I need to write these sentences down to use later on)

Despite my comment in Random Thought #6, I’m not totally hatin’ on Bey-Bey (aka Sasha Fierce. WTF??!). I do like her choreography and I do like some of her songs (”Baby Boy, “Upgrade”, to name a couple). I’m just gonna get sick of hearing “Single Ladies.” Repetitive songs like that tend to tap dance on my last nerve after a while. I’ll be glad when she finally comes out with another song.

I suppose it could be worse. He could’ve picked a rapper who cusses every other word.

*All I can remember at this time is the one line: “Naomi Campbell walk. Do the…Naomi Campbell walk.” Would you like to pre-order Book One in the DA series before the general public? The first person that can tell me the title of that song will be given the password to the protected pre-order page.

Technorati Tags: Rob Lowe, New Kids on The Block, N’SYNC, JC Chasez, Backstreet Boys, Zac Efron, Linkin Park, Bleed It Out, Elton John, Styxx, Foreigner, Journey, Random Thought #6, Naomi Campbell

November 20, 2008 | In the News, Life in General, Random Thoughts

~ How cool and brave is this 14 yr old girl? Did you hear about this? Amazing. I feel a story idea coming on…

~ People Magazine voted Hugh Jackman as the Sexiest Man Alive. I know. Sit down before you fall down. Not Brad. Not George. Can you believe? All I have to say is “It’s about damned time.” The hubby was like “Really? It’s not like he’s been in anything that exciting.” Lemme break it down for ya.

1) He can sing. And dance. Guys who can do both–and well–are sexy. Besides, he’s done Broadway. That’s more impressive than any blockbuster movie, right?

2) He looks fabulous without a shirt. Remember that scene towards the end inVan Helsing?

3) He looks totally hot in black leather and titanium claws shooting out of the back of his hands. Storm may be my fav character of all time from X-Men, but I love me some Wolverine.

4) Australian accent . Um, yeah, hel-lo, need I say more?

He may not be as popular as Brad or George, but it’s always the quiet ones—so to speak–that surprise you. Yay, Hugh.

~ I thought this was hilarious. Me and my co-workers were talking about that Gordon Ramsay dude today. And while I agree that Mo Suresh needs to be drop kicked, I don’t think the accent is fake. I mean, the actor who plays him is of Indian descent (his name is Sendhil Ramamurthy) and when he does interviews, you can still detect his native accent.

~ I’m sick of hearing “Single Ladies” by Beyonce. Why? Because my hubby bought her CD yesterday (that’s Random Thought #7) and took it upon himself to search out—and record–all her upcoming TV performances. Mind you, the SNL skit with Justin Timberlake was freakin’ hilarious, but I can only deal with “All the single ladies…all the single ladies…all the single ladies…all the single ladies…uh-uh-oh-uh-uh-oh…if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it” for so long before I want to throw something against the wall. Namely the remote control. And as far as performances go, they’re all the same: she’ll be wearing some one-piece bathing suit type get-up, the track will play in the background, and in between singing there’s lots of hair flinging. And dance moves. The most annoying thing, however, is that stupid metal glove-like thing she wears on one hand. Lame. Lame. Lame.

~ Cueing up “Sistas Are Doin’ It For Themselves” by Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin. The first female 4-star General was appointed. Are you kidding me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How. Effing. Cool. Is. That? The first African-American president (I thought that only happened in shows like 24) and now, for the first time ever, a female 4-star General. I don’t know if I can handle two historical events in one year. If this isn’t the perfect example of female empowerment then I don’t know what is. So all you ladies out there remember this. The next time someone tells you “No”, “You can’t do it”, “You’ll never make it,” pull out this article and say “Um, yeah, it’s already been broughten” Add the head-bob-finger-snap for full effect.

~ Did you know that Samuel L. Jackson was an usher at MLK Jr’s funeral? Me neither. I found that out yesterday. From Henry Rollins. Former rocker dude now has this show “Spoken Word” on the IFC channel where he does interviews. I’ve never seen it, but the DJ’s on my fav station were talking to him and he was explaining what his show’s all about. Apparently, the interviews are not your typical interviews. I might have to check this out…

I had a lot of thoughts today. Can you tell?

Technorati Tags: People Magazine, Hugh Jackman, Van Helsing, Storm, X-Men, Wolverine, Gordon Ramsay, Single Ladies, Beyonce, SNL, Justin Timberlake, 24, Samuel L. Jackson, Henry Rollins

November 17, 2008 | Book One, Book Stuff, DA Series, Draven Atreides, Life in General, Movie Queue, The 4-1-1 on Me, Weekend Wrap-Up, Writing Movements

The bulk of my weekend, Saturday, went to a meeting-slash-picture taking event for the ISO. About 10 of us ladies were at Little Jen’s house from 2pm until late. I didn’t leave there until close to 11pm! But we had so much fun. We had Lolita Hayes (whose speciality is taking burlesque and pin-up type pictures) do group shots and individual shots. Once I get those, I’ll be sure to post them. We’ll be taking our stuff to the streets. Literally. Our local costuming club, the Arizona Dune Sea Garrison, has been invited to march in the Fiesta Bowl Parade in Jan 2009. We are going to freeze.our.asses.off. but we’re going to look good doing it. LOL. I’ll be sure to post pics of that as well. In the meantime, here are some candid shots of me: CLICK ON PICS FOR BIGGER VIEW

l-r: hair-do from the back, hair-do from the front, and then all made up

l-r:getting my eye make-up done, chillin’ in the kitchen, restin’ the dogs…not to mention the gams.

Sunday, the hubby and I went to check out Quantum of Solace.

We both liked it, but the hubby thought the first one was better. I really liked the theme song by Alicia Keys and Jack White. It honestly doesn’t sound like her. I’m thinking that they’ve been playing it on the radio and I remember hearing it and thinking “Who is that?” It’s a new sound for her, I think, but I liked it.

Writing Movement - I forewent (don’t know if that’s a real word, but I’m using it) the story mapping. So not my style. I’ve got good stuff up to page 5 then re-wrote 5 new pages. Didn’t do any writing today, but I’ll get to it tomorrow. I’m giving myself until the end of the month to get the first draft done.

So, what did you all do this weekend?

Technorati Tags: ISO, Lolita Hayes, Arizona Dune Sea Garrison, Fiesta Bowl Parade, Quantum of Solace, Alicia Keys, Jack White

November 13, 2008 | Life in General, Random Thoughts

All sick people need to be quarantined. Seriously.

Despite the fact that it’s November here—temperatures are still in the 80’s during the day, but it’s getting cooler in the evenings—I hear people at my job hacking up their internal organs.

When this happens, I want to wear a Hazmat suit. For the next 4 months.

The last thing I need is to be sick when I’m trying to rack up a week’s worth of PTO.

In a perfect corporate world…people would earn both sick time and vacation time. Personally, I can’t remember the last job I had that did this.

In a perfect corporate world…there would be a Sick Wing/Room/Building. For people that have no sick time or insist on coming in and infecting everyone else, they have to work in the Sick Wing/Room/Building. All work and food will be delivered via laundry shoot.

In a perfect corporate world…if people insist on coming in and infecting everyone else, they have to wear rubber gloves.

Of course, the perfect corporate world for me would be no corporate world at all. I’d be working from home, for myself, instead of for The Man.