Pictures to Prove It

Creep

Hurt (NOT for Kids)

Getting to Know You

Via Aimee. . .

1. What time did you get up this morning?

With the kids home on Spring Break, I got to sleep in to 7:30 or so.

2. How do you like your steak?

Rare.

3. What was the last film you saw at the movie theatre?

300.
Next up should be Grindhouse.

4. What is your favorite TV show?

Scrubs.

5. What is your middle name?

Evan

6. What is your favorite cuisine?

Japanese or Mexican. It's hard because I think I may like Japanese more, but I have more Mexican options around here and am able to eat it more frequently.

7. What foods do you dislike?

Tuna.

8. What are your favorite chips?

Ponch and John.

9. What is your favorite CD at the moment?

"Semper Sexualis Fidelis," a mix CD by various artists compiled by me.

10. What kind of car do you drive?

1990 Plymouth Voyager. I really, really miss my Ford Ranger.

11. What is your favorite sandwich?

Um. . . I'm not big on sandwiches.

12. What characteristics do you despise?

Liars, and people who intentionally cause harm to others.

13. What are your favorite clothes?

That I own? The t-shirt I'm wearing right now. Unfortunately, I think it may die soon. . .
Although I have to say that I'm more fond of various cuts of non-grannypanties women's underpants. They can be very flattering on the aforementioned ladies.

14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation?

Nowhere specific. Somewhere warm, sunny, with a beach and in the Mediterranean.

15. Favorite brand of clothing?

Lately I've been digging on Threadless Tees. And if you keep having me answer clothes questions this may end up turning into an advert for them.

16. Where would you want to retire?

I'd like to be able to afford to retire before I put too much thought into where to retire. Somewhere warm, sunny and with an ocean, and probably still in California.

17. Favorite time of day?

9:31 p.m.

18. Where were you born?

A hospital. California.

19. What is your favorite sport to watch?

Hockey. Participate? Volleyball.

20 & 21 & 48 pertain to questions as if this were an e-mail chain letter and not converted to a blog meme and so I answer them not.

22. Pepsi or Coke?

Pepsi, the Diet Jazz variety, preferably in Strawberries & Cream.

23. Beavers or Ducks?

Beavers. Though one of my favorite "things" is a "Ducky."

24. Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Night owl.

25. Pedicure or Manicure?

Manicure. I can't handle people touching my feet.

26. What did you want to be when you were little?

A stuntman.

27. What is your best childhood memory?

Gingerbread cookies with my grandmother.

28. Piercings?

Yes, and considering more.

29. Ever been to Africa?

Not unless Marine World Africa USA counts.

30. Ever been toilet papering?

Sure thing.

31. Ever made a crank phone call?

Not util adulthood.

32. Been in a car accident?

Affirmative.

33. Favorite day of the week?

Friday.

34. Favorite restaurant?

Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach.

35. Favorite type of dog?

I don't have one.

36. Favorite flower?

Orchids.

37. Favorite ice cream?

Coffee flavoured.

38. Favorite fast food restaurant?

In-n-Out Burger, despite the Christianity in the cups.

39. How many times did you fail your drivers test?

Zero, but I crashed more cars prior to taking the test than I have since taking the test.

40. From whom did you get your last email?

eBay.com. Buy my shit, people.

41. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?

Best Buy or some similar electronics store.

42. Bedtime?

That depends upon the day of the week. Rarely before ten; rarely after midnight anymore.

43. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?

Most? Denise's. I know nothing about her.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?

Lash.

45. What are you listening to right now?

Somebody's dipshit rap music (as opposed to good rap music) playing too loud over their headphones behind me in the computer lab I type this in.

46. What is your favorite color?

Teal, closely followed by pink.

47. How many tattoos do you have?

So far I have two.

49. Favorite magazine?

If I exclude comics as magazines, the Advocate, if I don't, the Walking Dead.

50. What time did you finish this meme?

5:15 p.m.

Virtual Insanity

One of my local papers today had an article about how the US Marine Corps is instituting a ban on tattoos on their servicemen. Those who have tattoos now are ok, so long as they don't get new ones, and tattoos on new servicemen aren't acceptible.

Marines who violate this ban can risk imprisonment and dishonorable discharge.

I really have to sit back and wonder at the mindset of people these days. I get that image is important (especially if on, say, the hands, neck or face), but isn't it more important to have competent soldiers being enlisted regardless of whether they have any permanent skin markings? Aren't there other avenues of "poor image" that perhaps need addressing a bit more than soldiers with tattoos?

Seriously people, in the grand scheme of things why should this even be on anyone's radar? Has the USMC run out of qualified homosexuals to kick out of service?

That's That (Do What We Want)

Allright, so folks may be waiting and wondering how things went at the preliminary trial. Keep in mind, I actually wasn't allowed inside the courtroom for the preliminary trial (there's a real fear of defense attorneys suggesting a parent present would be coaching the child on what to say--something I've never done; I'm always telling Lash: speak loudly and clearly and just tell the truth).

Anyhow, we arrived at the courthouse at 9 in the morning, and met the other victim and his mother. Lash wasn't called in to testify until 2 in the afternoon, and was in the courtroom testifying until 3:45.

The district attorney reported to me that Lash did perfectly, that he couldn't have done any better. We should all be pleased with his testimony and proud of his bravery.

Bryan was there (the right to face your accuser and all that awful Constitutionality protecting the criminal more than the victim). He was dressed in his prison orange jumpsuit and his hands and ankles were shackled the entire time: this actually helped reassure Lash of his safety and helped lift his confidence, so it ended up being a good thing. He looked like a schmuck.

The date for the jury trial will be set on April 6th. I'm also going to have to testify at that trial as well as Lash.

Minutiae:

Lash watched a lot of Justice League Unlimited on DVD in the hotel. The district attorney fed us many Mexican food meals. The children's waiting room at the courthouse has nothing to entertain parents (I got to watch Home on the Range and Daddy Day Care; I really just wanted to sleep).

Bus travel blows.

Anyhow, we're home now. The kids are on Spring Break and I have school tonight. . .

Riders on the Storm

Lash and I just arrived at our hotel in Stockton. The bus rides were long, uncomfortable and crowded (first bus--no one would move so Lash and I could sit together). Second bus made us late meeting the DA down here.

Lash hits the stand for the first time tomorrow. He'll have a victim's advocate sitting beside him for feelings of comfort and safety; I believe I don't get to be present at all.

Weather was actually fairly prettily rainy, and has a nice coastal-feel to it (even though Stockton is a landlocked armpit of a town).

Sorry to those who came too late to view the video clip below; just google "tickle me emo" and you should find it.

Bonanza

50 Book Challenge #8: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt. Got this book originally as a gift from Drew. Now I imagine the plot of "real-life person's life intersecting with their fantasy reality to save the world" (which is actually one I read whenever given the option anyway) and its fantasy reality of an old west comic book was the first draw of the book in Drew's decision to get it for me (knowing I love me my comic books and my cowboy genres), an interesting bit of serendipity is also that the novel takes place in my childhood backyard of Santa Cruz. A huge plus reading this was the personal intersection I was able to supply for myself with the setting of the novel. Setting, and its accuracy, really boosted enjoyment of this novel. Nicely, it was also a fairly fast-paced read.

The general plot's been done before (but what general plot hasn't?), but it was still fun. The story is engaging, though sometimes predictable. Come the end, my only gripe is that the climax seemed both rushed and anti-climactic. Otherwise I'd give the book a solid A grade, instead I give it an A-/B+ and definitely recommend it to anyone who's a fan of westerns, comics, girl power narratives, alternate realities. . .

Thanks, Drew.

Who I Am Hates Who I've Been

The post previous to this one was my 500th post. To celebrate, I've included this wee little Youtube video in order to better educate John about the emo-ness of his young one.

911 is a Joke

50 Book Challenge #7: Love Monkey by Kyle Smith. I can’t begin to talk about this book without first sharing my reasons for reading it. Last year there was a tv show, cancelled swiftly, called Love Monkey starring Tom Cavanaugh (whose work I’ve loved since his previous tv show, Ed—why isn’t that on DVD yet? He's also J.D.'s brother on Scrubs.) which was based loosely on this novel. I say “loosely” because having finished the book, the only things it had in common with the television show, which I enjoyed a lot and found to be far more innovative and culturally conscious, were the main character’s name (Tom Farrell), two ancillary characters in the novel who play much bigger roles in the tv show (and are substantially changed in translation themselves, for the better) and the NYC setting.

The novel is about an awkward schlub who can’t get a regular girlfriend, pines over the girl who cheats on her boyfriend with him (but only when there’s something substantial for her to get out of it; he’s apparently blind to how badly she, Julia, plays him through the whole novel) and messes up every other male-female interpersonal relationship he has by shitting where he eats, as the saying goes. Smith’s lead character comes across as incredibly shallow and vapid, but self-aware and spineless. He has a token black caricature friend whose only role is to show Farrell just how oversexed and stereotype-fitting he is. I could go on about the deficiencies of character, but I won’t bore myself further. I do have another gripe though, and that’s that the book climaxes with the 9-11 attacks but they really don’t do anything for the book except place it in a specific time. The attacks don’t change any of the characters or plots substantially and just give the writer, through his character, an outlet for finding places to make mockery of the event.

Clearly someone somewhere read the book and enjoyed it enough to make it a tv show. Somewhere along the line they changed it a lot in order to make it a viable tv show. In the oddest turn of all, the tv show was far superior to the original text. Unfortunately, aside from me, and the actors’ mothers, it was probably only watched by fans of the book who checked out quickly when they noticed all the changes.

Top 5 Movies or Television Programs Superior to the Book They're Based On:

1. Superman 1 and 2 (and yes, they're one movie to me)

2.Love Monkey

3. V for Vendetta (I really didn't like the comic and the movie was more relevant to me as an American than the anti-Thatcher undercurrent of the comic)

I can't even think of a 4 or 5 right now; that's how rarely it happens

Enjoy the Silence

It's spring break for me and, lucky me, I have papers to grade. So, if you e-mail me or check in here, I might be busy. I'm going to try and have a light presence here anyway, but you know how that goes.

In the meanwhile, watch some Black Donnellys, the Riches and Prisonbreak and let me know what you think.

Fly on the Windshield

Hola kemosabes! At the moment, I'm over at Chrissy's. The kids are all at play with Bionicles. The girls (Chrissy, Jira and Denise) are all watching Brokeback Mountain. It's the first time for all three of them so I'm doing my best to shut up, not heckle the film (as I've seen it too often and have some problems with the characters) or ruin its story for them. So I'm trying to locate some obscure punk bands' music at Chris' request (the Dollyrots, Go betty Go, Guano apes, Fly Leaf and Tsunami Bomb) all unsuccessfully.

I should be grading papers...that'll have to happen next week instead.

I've had the song "the Warrior" from the '80s stuck in my head all week and I can't remember who the chick is that sang it so I can just find and listen to the song and purge it from my system. Ugh.

Denise pissed me off today. She's always doing things like writing in letters to people inaccurate things about our home life--things that paint me horribly and her saintly. This time out, she insinuates that she's the only person who does the housework at home. I'm so tempted to not do ANY housework through the coming week just to put a highlight on how incredibly full of dung she is. Ah well.

No snazzy little photo in this post, not until I get access to all my snazzy little photos at home.

Have a good weekend peeps.

The Sun Always Shines on TV

The Sci-Fi Channel had a Tales From the Darkside marathon yesterday morning, which I DVR'd. I watched one episod with the kids where this mother who nags her kids about all the things that will happen to them if they do this or don't do that gets a magic necklace that starts making her statements come true. She ends up accidentally turning herself into a pillar of salt. The kids really dug that.

Last night I got Shortbus from Netflix. You might remember the controversy surrounding it for having the actors actually have sex in the story rather than simulate it--of course "mainstream" films in Europe have done this for over a decade; they're just also incredibly depressing. This was a very sex-positive story of a handful of peoples' journeys through relationships and sexual discovery. It wasn't really at all titillating, but it was very good. Definitely not one to watch with the kids.

Also got Confetti, a Britcom about three couples in competing weddings: musicals, tennis and naturalist (the winning wedding theme would get a house). It has the actors who play Daisy and Brian from Spaced and a bunch of actors from this other show I used to watch but can't remember the name of. "Daisy's" wedding theme was 1920s/30s musicals, except neither she nor her fiancee could sing or dance...

Four stars and three stars respectively.

Rock You Like a Hurricane

This past Friday, already incredibly jealous of Adrienne for having seen it before it was released, I went out and saw 300 with Brian and S#1 (that's code for none-of-yer-damn-business).

I bought my tickets online and then that night invited Chrissy to come along, only to find out the show had sold out. I really need to make it up to her and take her to see it soon.

Can I just say I loved it? If the adaptation of Sin City was fabulous (and I know I have readers who disagree), this was a masterpiece. Really, I think the director caught the Frank Millerness of the book completely. The colours were right, the shots were fantastic and spot-on. Body parts matched Miller's drawings exceptionally well (as an odd example, Miller has a tendency to draw fairly large erect nipples on shirt-free ladies; each instance of breast in this movie had me finding myself thinking "wow, that's a Frank Miller nipple!" Truth.

OK, is the movie, or the comic, historically accurate. Not quite completely. But so what, it isn't a history lesson, it's effing entertaniment for the masses and dime fine entertainment at that.

So anyway, if you're going to watch only one movie with a number for its title this year, skip the Jim Carrey flick and go see 300. Especially if you're a patriot.

White and Nerdy

Figured I'd start these long overdue updates with some far out nerdiness reporting. Let's start out with plastic crack nerdiness:

Two weekends back, Bandito, Lash and I went down to Roseville in order to participate in two, count 'em two, HeroClix pre-release tournaments. At these, participants buy three boosters of the as-yet to be released HeroClix edition and form teams with them to face off against other folks' teams. Additionally, all participants get rare purple-ringed figures for showing up, and the top few get more prizes. But really, just do it for the fun of playing the latest set before the regular joe gets to.

By the way, I'm on a school computer and lots of the keys stick so if there are lots of typos, more than usual, it's all their fault.

At the first tournament, I was able to make an awesomely powerful team and I totally dominated the first two rounds of the tournament (there were 5 rounds at tourney #1). Rounds 3-5 my dice refused to roll higher than a five (on two dice) ever, so I lost often and lost badly (but was not a sore loser). Lash had lots of fun, but won none of his matches. At the 2nd tourney we fared just as poorly, but Lash did win one.

Last weekend was the Hero Clix marquee tournament for the new set (again, each participant buys three boosters to build teams from--winners get limited edition figures and all participants get limited edition pogs--this set was the o.g. Wonder Twins.). This time around I was all about the smack-down and took first place (and got a pretty little plastic Supergirl in her black "brainwashed by Darkseid" costume and Lash got second place (out of eight) and its prize of see-through Detective John Jones.

As for the new set, I got enough from my case to build two complete sets and am selling the second on eBay hoping to recoup some of the costs of the case to begin with.

Now on to role playing nerdiness:
Right now Denise GMs two separate D&D games (running them on alternating Sundays). One has a large group, the other a smaller group. Chrissy's oldest son and Lash get to play in the small group, which we keep much more kid friendly. We have this one long-time player, in both groups, who's been long known to ALWAYS get exceptionally good rolls whenever anyone isn't looking or when her character's life depends on it, or when she makes characters, or always. And she absolutely sucks at the role playing aspect of role playing games. Still, I generally feel that, if that's how she has to play in order for it to be fun for her, and it isn't hurting anyone else, just ignore it and simply reward the other players better. Lately Denise has been getting more and more openly irritated with her and I sense a bit of an explosion on the horizon. Le sigh.

Every other Saturday I GM a game at Casa Taylor. On nights where Bandito is able to make it, we play my Exiles themed superheroes game, and on nights when he doesn't make it (as of last week) I GM a Deadlands game. Both games are fun and have a good group. Terry (the gal above) is not a member of either. In superheroes they're currently in the DCU during Zero Hour (colliding through different comic companies due to a Galactus incident that sent them to Invincible's corner of the Image U.) and have no idea what they're supposed to do because their deus ex machina (aka the Tallus) is on the fritz due to the reality shifting nature of Zero Hour. They had a lot of fun dealing with multiple Batmen and Robins; next time they get Superman and his enemies in Metropolis. Anyhow, this weekend was the inaugural Deadlands-when-Paul-ain't-here session and it went very swimmingly. They don't realize it yet, but I'm adapting a lot of pot elements from Y the Last Man and one of my favorite tv shows and putting them in a tumbler with two parts horror and shaking.

Lastly, our pal Brian is popping his own GM cherry by starting his own Deadlands game on Sunday evenings with his roommie/cousin, cousin's girlfriend (very very nice breasts, and I'm not even a breast man), a couple of his other friends and me because I know the rules in-and-out and can help him when stuck on something. He has always been such a character in the games he plays with us. His GMing takes this to the Nth degree and it's a tad surreal. It's been great fun so far, but runs too late into the night. I'm playing a Chinese-Irish kung-fu boxer.

Last week one of those players wanted to get into some long discussument over whether Cyclops or Wolverine would win in a fight. Like I give a fuck (though I'd want Wolvie to gut that family-abandoning, wife-murdering, adulterer Cyclops all over Graymalkin Lane).

Speaking of comics not to give a fuck about:
Almost everything from Marvel Comics.

So they "killed" Captain America. Come on, people, they won't keep that one for long. It would be like killing Superman. Personally, I'm just tired of seeing panels of Captain America (Civil War #7), Ultimate Captain America (Ultimates 2 #9 or 10) and Iron Man (Civil War: Frontline #11) crying like little sissies.

Brian K Vaughn's finished his run on Runaways. Sigh. I'm really going to miss him; he's grown to be one of the most consistently good writers in comics over the past few years (of which there are so very very few--him, Kirkman, Willingham, Seagle and sometimes Whedon & Giffin, and if he could write on time, that Young Avengers writer.) Now Whedon's going to ake over Runaways. Given what I like about Astonishing X-Men (his other regular book) I have high hopes, though I already miss the kids being stationed in California (he's moving them to super-hero central: NYC) and Whedon's first issue isn't even in my hands yet. I also worry that Whedon's spreading himself too thin (something that plagues a lot of comic writers who also do films or tv--thankfully Vaughn's spreading himself too thin only makes his TV shows suck--Lost--and not his comics) with Astonishing, Runaways, Buffy season 8 and the Wonder Woman movie.

Speaking of Vaughn again, Y the Last Man, the best comic produced today (I challenge you to prove otherwise), ends in less than a year. That will leave me with one good book at DC: American Virgin. That and anything with Black Adam tearing people in half for the murder of his wife and brother in-law.

Last week I picked up my comics and only had 4 books, so I commented "wow, small week this week" and the shop owner snapped at me that it was actually a really big week, but now that I've dropped almost everything it just seems small. Wah. Comics are effing expensive; too effing expensive to waste money on when they start to suck. It took me a long time to ge to this point, and now I only get like 1`2 books a month.

ABC

50 Book Challenge, books number 5 and 6: Twentieth Century Pleasures by Robert Hass and A Faithful Existence by Forrest Gander. Both of these were books by poets writing criticisms of other poets, their own personal writing strategies, etc. Hass' book seemed pretty swayed by biases, but was ultimately more engaging and coherent. Gander's book dealt a lot with translation, a subject of importance for me, which I really liked, but the preponderence of this book is a bit esoteric and beyond my patience threshold.

Where'd You Go?

Not much to say right now. Have spent good amounts of the last week sick again. Sigh.

This weekend was filled with HeroClix pre-release tournaments (more on that later) and nerdgaming (also more later, including the all-new Deadlands group).

Just want y'all to know we're alive and well, and I'll be posting tomorrow or so.

Hot For`Teacher

Remember way back when in March of 2006 where I wrote a post about dumbing myself down in school and not talking in class much for fear of seeming too smart?

Well this semester I've found this real big comfort zone in my theory class where I find myself talking a lot (I think it helps that the professor seems very anti-elitism and a bit Marxist) and getting decent amounts of good response from the professor.

Last night, however, made me a tad uncomfortable. A week ago we turned in our first papers of the term. Last night the professor put up overhead transparencies of the three she thought were the best written papers. Mine was one of them (and I can't help feeling my mention od socialism and elitism might have influenced this slightly).

Yes, yes, yes, I know. Congratulations on a job well done.

Still, I'd rather have not been made a public spectacle like that (regardless of our being praised anonymously, most of the class knew the paper was mine). There's a few reasons for this:

First, now I have to feel as if there's now an expectation set before me that I have to maintain or surpass from here on out, which is much easier and less stressful when you don't know you're the teacher's favorite writer.

Second, it created the notion of classist segregation: now those who didn't meet her top tier are resentful of those of us who did, and I have to be honest and say that it did make me feel a litle proud to know that, if at least for a short while, I was better than my peers.

It's almost enough to make me want to shut up again.

Heroes

Spoilers, people.

So last night's Heroes was interesting, I guess. Nicely done, some questions were answered:
*How is George Takei's character resourceful enough to so easily track Hiro in Las Vegas?
*What was the nature of Claude's past with HRG?
*More of Claire's origin and the probable reason her mom is in constant motion.

Actually, that's not really a lot of questions answered (and in some ways, the teasers for the next episode are more intriguing--what the Hell is Simone doing not dead?

Of course, every answered question poses new ones:
*Is the Haitian working for Claude or someone else?
*How did Claude survive the shooting and fall from the bridge?
*What happens to Matt now? To Claire and the Haitian?
*If George Takei knows all about the heroes, why would he let Hiro continue on his mission so easily?

I don't know. It's always nice for a show to keep us guessing, I just wish it would answer a bit more at the same time. Though I'm thankful fo a week free of Nicky-Jessica and BlackPryde.

Reading Rainbow

50 Book Challenge #4: Raw Recruits by various writers. I'd been feeling a need for a little titillation. But this anthology of military themed erotica just proved monotonous and lame. Is there no good erotica? Book #5 is done as well, but I won't review it here yet--I have to review it for class on Wednesday and I'll post that review here then.

Now I don't normally watch the Academy Awards (not gay enough), but I DVR'd last night's event because some morbid thing in me had to know if that awful Little Miss Sunshine would walk away with a bunch of awards (it only got Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin, deservedly, and Best Original Screenplay, which given its competition seemed a bit much). Aside from Arkin's performance, the only bit of this movie worth watching is the talent show sequence in the last few minutes of the film.

On the home front, I seem unable to completely shake this cold I've had the past few weeks. Sigh. Aeia got sick Friday night, but she's fine now (I think it was just the food). Rael is becoming more and more of a boy and less and less of a baby each day. His comprehension of language seems further advanced than it was with Lash and Aeia, which is a trip, but he's still proving more stubborn than Aeia ever was, which is a lot of` stubbornness.

While we were HeroClixing at the comic shop on Saturday, a homeless man, using the store's awning for shelter from the rain, possibly overdosed and definitely died in front of the store. Thankfully the kids didn't see it happen and I've kept them from finding out about it. I'm so much keener on sheltering them now.

Throw it Away

I am so fucking done with Grey's Anatomy.

Who Will Save Your Soul?

As reported all over our local news, the city of Paradise (just outside Chico) has assembled and voted for a fourth time on a proposed Bible History and Literature class for their high school. Righteously, it was turned down again.

Ignore for a minute the conundrum and headache such a class would create if you wanted to be equal: there'd have to be classes on the Quran, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Book of Moron, the Tao Te Ching, etc. (i.e. every recognized religion's religious texts).

Ignore the always scary and ever-present increase in the Religious Right gaining footholds in our politics (As an aside, the those of you who used to play my online nerdgames, remember in 1999 my fictional US had the Mormons gain control of the White House starting in 2008; how much scarier and deja vu is it now that Mitt Romney's thrown his Moron hat into the ring--I'm sorry Drew, but if he must stay around, I'd rather he be caged into Massachusetyland).

Ignore the obvious Constitutional issue such a class would raise (especially since ignore #2 could also lead to overturning that Amendment or portion thereof, after Roe goes first, of course). Everyone else has.

As a parent, and occasional educator, what I want you to not ignore is this: as school budget "crises" (how long can it be a crisis if it's been that way for decades now?) continue to diminish the number of music classes, art classes, health education, sports etc. from our public schools, too many of us are devoting time and money to try and promote religion into our schools, or to fight it (which they should, for ignore #3). More and more, we (and I'm not one of we) find ourselves replacing any and all aspects of culture with Christian doctrine. My kids each get one hour of art (which includes music) per week. If we can't support the arts, health or sports in our schools, where are we supposed to find the funds to support religion?

Justice for All

Adjudicated record. This occurs, among other times, when a minor commits a crime (misdemeanor or felony) and rather than convict the minor of the crime, the minor is given probation, community service, etc. No marring of their criminal record occurs.

We very recently found out that prior to his being placed in our home, Bryan had been given an adjudicated record for doing some sort of sexual battery act against another minor. I am at a complete loss as to why anyone who is guilty enough to be given probation for molesting a child would even be dealt with so leniently. My best guess is that the parent of the victim didn't press things, whch let Bryan get off virtually scott-free so that he could commit this crime again, and again (as the reason we moved our case out of county was because of another victim and combining the cases provides a better chance of him receiving an extremely stiff penalty). Honestly, I feel disgust towards any and every person involved in this past act of his.

We learned of this a couple weeks back, though, so it isn't quite the focus of my vitriol here. In these past weeks, something has been festering inside me because of this. A newer anger. The various county and private agencies involved with placing Bryan in our home never informed us of this past adjudication against Bryan (of course, he would have then never have entered our home). I really hold these people who knew about his past and kept it from all of his future foster parents responsible for what he's done to his two (that we know of) victims since then. Agencies whose job it is to protect children, instead put them in danger without giving the children's parents any warning of the danger they faced: to me they're guilty of molesting my son as well.

One of my close friends has encouraged we sue these agencies for this. It's so tempting, not for any chance at making them pay financially, but to make them publicly responsible for what they helped cause to happen. It's so tempting. But I also feel as if the last thing I want to do is keep this ordeal as an issue in our lives, or to profit off of Lash's victimization. But it's tempting.

I don't know what to do.

Manic Monday

I'm bogged down by homework (and CSU, Chico doesn't give us today's holiday off) but wanted to do a posting drive-by to assure anyone who cares that the bad mood isn't so bad anymore (mostly that I'm not pissed at everything and nothing at once).

Also, found out this weekend that Kenn married Ellie and want to extend my heartfelt cyber congratulations their way.

Oh, and did anyone catch the Legion of Super Heroes this weekend? It focuses on the Legion of Substitute Heroes and was sweet.

Bad Mood

I'm in a really bad mood today. No reason.

One Week

It's been a long week and I've been a little busy here at casa Peterson. I've been a little flu-ey, but better now. Spent the week organizing my remaining comics and playing a little Dead Rising on XBOX360 (Drew, does yours freeze up every now and again? Mine does and it is annoying).

Trial news: the preliminary trial is set for the end of March, so a month and a half to prep Lash emotionally.

Last week my oncologist had me go for my yearly chest ct: I'm a-ok folks. No sign of remission.

I'm tired and literally have no idea what to say right now. I'll be back more regularly next week.

Oh, and finally, I've put the last of my comics up on eBay. Check them out or don't, but if you do bid, and win, mention this blog and I'll take 5 bucks off your total.

Weekly Update

It's been a week...

Spent Monday morning freaking out thinking I had a paper due that I wasn't ready for. Thankfully, I was wrong. I have two more weeks on the paper.

Tomorrow I have the appointment with the oncologist that I was supposed to make back in September. I know, I'm a dumb ass about taking so long on that. On the bright side, I continue to feel very well, breathing-wise. I have a cough, but it's just this flu circulating around Chico.

I finally finished all the races on Burnout: Revenge, so that leaves me two weeks to beat Dead Rising before I take the 360 back to Rent-A-Center. My latest ebay round isn't going so well, so it might be a while before I can swing a real one.

We met with the DA and a bunch of other folks attached to helping our side in the coming trial. Right now, it's fairly definite that Lash will be testifying--twice. We're supposed to find out the date of the preliminary trial (the jury trial comes much later) on Thursday afternoon.

Had to write another cento for poetry class. Don't know if I'm going to share that one here--it's a little racy.

I hate typing on this laptop. It gives my biceps a cramp--bad angles. I can speed hunt/peck like I can on he desktop.

50 Book Challenge: completed book #3: Sylvia Plath; Collected Poems. Next up is some book of essays by Robert Haas.

Congrats to Chrissy on her new job. I'm happy that someone in my circle is finally able to do something they actually want to do, career-wise.

We're having Aeia's birthday party this Saturday, but let her open our gifts and Aimee's gifts on her actual birthday. She liked everything, even the socks and underwear. I have to help her paint this cute dragonfly wind chime that Aimee sent on Thursday.

Netflix latest: Sherrybaby. I liked it, but was a bit annoyed at the character of Sherry and the decisions she makes. Mindhunters. This FBI, whodunnit was a good deal better than I ever expected, but still no better than just rental fare. Dungeons and Dragons: the Complete Animated series. The first childhood cartoon that's held up for me as entertaining. And the kids dug it. Next up is Last Kiss. I hope Zach Braff's as good in this as in Garden State (one of my favorites).

Shorty

My foot still itches and my throat's still scratchy. Yech.

Aeia turns seven tomorrow; her party's next week, and thanks to Aimee for the presents. She's been on a big irresponsibility kick lately. It's annoying.

Rael can now open doors sometimes. Yesterday he threw a two hour tantrum after having an ice cream scoop taken away from him. He's threatening to be the most terrible Terrible Two I've had to deal with. Lash was generally responsive to command when he misbehaved, and while Aeia was horrible, I worked 8+ hour days at the library back then and didn't have to deal with her as much. If Rael doesn't improve I will lose my last threads of sanity.

Football fans: enjoy the Super Bowl tomorrow. I'll be nerdgaming.

Oh, I got this FANTASTIC letter from the Mormons. I'll have to share it later. Right now I'm off to breakfast.

memes again

Your Life Path Number is 9

Your purpose in life is to make the world better You are very socially conscious and a total idealist. You think there are many things wrong with the world, and you want to fix them. You have a big idea of how to world could be, and you'll sacrifice almost anything to work towards this dream. In love, you can easily see the beauty in someone else. And you never cling too tightly. You are capable of great love, but it's hard for you to focus your love on one person or relationship. You have a lot of outward focus, and you tend to blame the world for your failures. You are often disappointed by the realities of life - it's hard for you to accept the shortcomings of the world.

What Is Your Life Path Number?

You Are 28% Capitalist, 72% Socialist

You tend to be quite wary of businesses, especially big business. While you know that corporations have their place, you tend to support small, locally owned shops. As far as the rich go, you think they're usually corrupt and immoral.

Are You a Socialist or Capitalist?

Your Penis Name Is...

Mr. Big

Penis Name Generator

Blah-ditty-blah-blah

For some reason (the day is DULL), I'm watching Tyra Banks. It caught my attention as I surfed--she was telling the media off for the way they make women feel about their body image; told them to kiss her fat ass. So I stopped. . .and then dealt with her self lovefest over her recent photoshoot, pointing out how imperfect she is. . .though she, to her credit, did spend the rest of the time defending heavier as healthier than too-thin. Bleh. It was a bit vapid; not my thing.

My vapidity: I'm hating on my profile photo, but have no good self-pics (no one uses my camera but me, so few shots of me...). I'd love to replace it with a photo headshot of me any of you might have, or even an artistic rendering. Help me out. E-mail me a new profile pic and we'll get a new me on.

Yesterday we had to write a ten minute Cento in my poetry class (I'll be evil and make you look up a definition of the form). It was more fun than I expected.



This Is The End Of Them

(a Cento)
by D. Evan Peterson



The sea was a botch of red and whites,

the heavy surf still breaking violently,

spouting out blood and water as it rolls

where mariners had fabled news of its corruption,

stretching beyond us to the blue beard of God.




With you, my cousin, guns cradled on the tide,

this is the end of bilge and backwash,

hurdling muscles heavy with sand,

of the red flag hammered in the mast-head.

Cry out in the long night: "If God Himself had been by our side."




This is the end of running to these Atlantic shoals

the entangled, screeching mainsheet,

sailors who pitch its hell-bent deity

if God Himself had been on our side.




So, it's a first draft, and Denise doesn't get it.

Slow week

Nothing all that exciting to report right now.

Spent the weekend doing the usual nerdgaming and HeroClixing with the kids.

I've been spending some free time playing the Xbox360 I'm using from Rent-A-Center. It's fun, but no PS3--I'll probably not be keeping it in favor of trying to save for a new one rather than their used one (we'll revisit the online gaming talk then, Drew).


The likelihood we'll have to take Lash to testify is pretty much a hundred percent.

I've started wondering which prison my father's incarcerated in this week.

I might have to skip school tonight because Amazon hasn't gotten my book to me yet, though I ordered it more than a week ago. And that sucks.

Memey

Ten Things About You

1. I'm brunette
2. I have 3 kids, so far
3. I am unmotivated
4. I tend to fight stress and anger with shopping
5. I do not know more now than I didn't know then
6. Mental stimulation turns me on
7. I am working on a Masters degree and second Bachelor's degree
8. I hate to shave
9. I am more and more withdrawn
10. I skipped almost every day of school my highschool senior year and still graduated ninth in my class

Nine Things You Love

1. Kids
2. Chinese food
3. Assorted people who know who they are
4. Shopping
5. The human body
6. Beef
7. Music
8. Video games
9. Pleasures of the flesh

Eight Songs You Love

1. Your Song -- Elton John
2. Pioneers -- Bloc Party
3. Creep -- Radiohead
4. Sweet Caroline
5. Behind the Wheel -- Depeche Mode
6. Somebody Told Me -- the Killers
7. Beyond the Sea
8. Waltzing Matilda

Seven Things You Wear Daily

1. Deodorant
2. Cologne
3. Shoes
4. Glasses
5. Rings
6. Shirt
7. Birthday suit

Six Things That Make You Smile

1. My kids
2. Comedy
3. Presents
4. Special people
5. "Special" people
6. Sex

Five Things You're Looking Forward To

1. PS3
2. August
3. Heroes on Mondays
4. Grosse Pointe on DVD
5. Finishing my degree

Four Things You're Scared Of

1. Loss
2. Failure
3. Dying
4. Falling

Three Things That Annoy You

1. Cigarette smoke
2. Belligerence
3. B.O. you can't get away from

Two Of Your Favorite Books

1. The Stand
2. The Drawing of the Three

One Thing You Can't Live Without

1.

My Week Thus Far

Drew recently mentioned some 50 book challenge on his blog, and I've decided to give it a go--reading 50 books in a year. If Dubya can do it, anyone can, and I've practiced too much illiteracy over the past couple years. So far, I'm off to a slow start, having only completed two books (both of 'em trashy "beach reads"): Going down in la la land by Andy Zeffer and Hard by I forget who. The former was pretty boring, the latter was engaging but nothing special.

Speaking of special--Amazon is having a 50-60% off sale on TV shows on DVD right now, making me wish I had more money. If you jones for tv on dvd, check it out.

School began this week. I'm in a Theory of Literary Criticism class that I need to finally complete my MA (hopefully in the fall) and Poetry: Form and Practice. With them I've decided to take up jogging on my walks home. Last night was a real bitch of it.

The winter holiday went off fairly well. The kids all had a grand old time and I was able to get Denise her laptop for her Yule-slash-anniversary present. Which after that, bills and tuition, my grant is gone and I'm broke-ish again--I couldn't get my PS3 (this is me pouting a lot). And of course, the van picked after this to decide to let us know it was dying, so I don't know what I'm going to do along that end. Hmph.

I went with Chrissy last week to drop Chris off for basic. It was really hard (moreso for her, natch) and we're all already really missing him.

Ain't it cool news: Rael is really working hard at communicating. He still makes no sense most of the time, but he's got "mom, Lash, bye-bye and night night" down, and earlier this week I told him "I love you" and he replied with "I love (pause) too." That was cool.

It ain't cool news: They're offering Bryan a deal--10 years (probation in 8.5) and two strikes; if he turns it down it'll go to trial and he could get life, but that would mean Lash will have to testify after-all, which wasn't the case when the trial was still in our county. Hmph. I don't like the downsides to either option; I want him there forever without putting Lash through it all again.

More news later, folks!

Had my check-up today:

They're doubling my fatigue meds. . .even though I haven't been expressing fatigue issues any more.

My cholesterol is improved all across the board. Yay. Now if I can ever remember to take my lipitor, it'll improve even more.

My weight has had virtually no change, so holiday eating hasn't had me taking new wins or losses.

I don't have leprosy--it's just athlete's foot.

Supporting the Troops

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First Sentences: a 2006 writing re-cap

I stole this meme from a friend in 2005, and redo it now for 2006 in 2007.

Take the first sentence from the first entry of each month for the year and post it again.

January:
I'm going to have soooooo much trouble remembering not to write "o5" on all of my checks and correspondence for a good few months.

February:
Had my first meeting of Religion in Film on Monday.

March:
Saw Dave Chapelle's Block Party last night with the guys & Walker.

April:
How have you been?

May:
My buddy Chris wanted some rec's for horror genre comics.

June:
Of course, I leave out the best part of last weekend while posting about movies and such earlier this week.

July:
I am just returning from seeing Superman Returns with the Taylors, Robert, Kenn, Lash and Aeia.

August:
Yesterday was our usual "swim day" but we ended up not doing it because while Chris and I worked at vacuuming the pool, we discovered some creepy nature had decided to join in the swimming and so the pool got blasted with an abundance of chlorine instead.

September:
Getting back into the school groove has been kicking my ass a little.

October:
Ah, how often I wish I could do this...

November:
As of this moment, I have only 46 papers left to grade.

December:
It's odd, though I've been doing it for for nigh on sixteen years, no matter how often I perform in front of a crowd, I always get the nervous jitters and consider backing out.


Instructions: Copy and paste the questions to your blog (with your answers, not mine), and tag at least three others to do the same.



And with this one, I tag no one. But do it if you fee like it.

2006 in Review Jan-Sept

January:

The year starts a bit debauched at pals Ian & Kenn & Dusty's Place.

Tattoo Numero Uno:

Denise and I anniversed.

February:
The month we learn just how screwed we'd be financially for the rest of the year: very.
Though I did blog a lot of music that month.

March:
Superhero nerdgaming commences!
March 14th I find out about what Bryan did. Argh.
Finger of Passion play the Vet. Hall. My buddy, Bandito is the drummer.

April:
A Passover without latke :(
Apparently, grading papers and writing papers made me a very dull boy.

May:
Shel and Travis visit, yay!
I had to replace or tv, grr!
I got physical, enh.
We begin a long line of dying fish.

June:

So, I turned 32.

July:

My buddy Kenn moved away, and I convinced Phil I was Canadian...again.

And more swimming.

August:

New Tattoo--getting my Starman Geek On:

Car trouble, and lots of it, kicks off here.
And then there was the pineapple incident.

September:
I break the month off with vague allusions to Grey's Anatomy.

2006 in Review Oct-Dec

October:

Messy bedrooms...

Halloween, baby!

Also, the very enjoyable visit by the very wonderful, Aimee.

November:
What I am thankful for--Chrissy's integral role in the apprehension of Bryan, may he rot in jail.

December:
Such an odd little month for me filled with poetry readings, my art being published:

The month was a real downer financially, as I wasn't able to fulfill my kids' Christmas wishes as well as I'd have liked, not that they noticed. This was also the month of winning spelling bees, private personal crises and the posting of far too many memes.

And I was roped into cooking the Christmas ham, as I am apparently well-known for cooking a kick-ass ham. And well, the ham was kick ass.

And then of course, New Year's Eve and Christmas in My Liver. Yummy.