30 March, 2008
I Blame Ronald D. Moore and David Eick for This
The grand experiment is over. After 4-1/2 years, I have cable TV hooked up in my apartment again. I realized that there was just no way I was going to be able to wait until Battlestar Galactica's fourth and final season came out on DVD and hope I could find them online somewhere in the meantime. So, since basic cable (with the Sci-Fi channel) is paid for by the landlord, I went down and got a converter box (my c.1983/4 television isn't cable-ready).
It was a real trip trying to get everything set up so that I could watch TV or DVDs without having to unhook the TV from one box and hook it back up to another. As it turns out, my VCR is the central character in pulling that all together. Until I, in desperation, hooked the converter box to the VCR and the VCR to the RF Modulator (needed to get the DVD to work), I was at a complete and frustrating loss. I still can't get the VCR to work in video mode (so I still can't change the clock on it), but I can easily enough go between cable and DVD, so I'm calling it good.
I watched my first hockey game in two or three years (I still hate the NY Rangers). And I'm not going to be available on Friday nights for the next few months. After 4-1/2 years, there STILL isn't much good on TV and the commercials have gotten even worse. So perhaps the experiment is only partially over, since the TV still pretty much stays off. I'm still happier listening to NPR or my iTunes library and reading.
Labels: whatever
~~ victoria on 5:22 PM ~~ 2 comments
Simon Sunday: Check-up Time!
I got, not one, but TWO notifications from the veterinarians' office recently. It seems Simon was due for his annual check-up and Billie was due for her rabies vaccination. For some reason, when I was on the phone with the V-E-T's office, I thought it might be more efficient to bring them in at the same time. After I hung up the phone, I realized that that idea wasn't so much about efficiency as it is proof positive that I'm fucking insane.
The last time I packed two kitties off to the vet's office was when Simon and Chloe were kittens and I could put them both in the same carrier. If I were to try to put Simon and Billie in the same carrier, there would be blood spilled, most likely MINE. I got them into their carriers, eventually (Simon can really put up a good fight) and out the door. Once outside, where the neighbours could hear them, they both started complaining bitterly and LOUDLY about what was happening to them. But all in all, they were both pretty well behaved.
Billie has put back on some weight, so she's back into the six pound range. That was very good news because I was rather alarmed when she dropped below six pounds. Simon is still twice her size at a bit over twelve pounds. He did the kitten thing of trying to hide himself in my neck and let out his high-pitched mews when he was on the scale.
So, if nothing else, at least Billie now knows Simon's Dirty Secret: For all his bullying and blustering at her at home, he is a great big baby. Not that that made her any happier:
For all the trauma they claim to have suffered today, I think my bank account took the worst of it. But Billie and Simon are both healthy and that's the most important thing.
Labels: Billie, cats, furkids, Simon Sunday
~~ victoria on 4:52 PM ~~ 0 comments
Weekend Decemberists: O Valencia
Labels: music, Portland Rock, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 12:59 PM ~~ 0 comments
26 March, 2008
Giving Jay Leno My Gayest Look
Melissa McEwan over at Shakesville reminded me why I refuse to watch Jay Leno and, inspired by playwright Jeff Whitty's response to Leno, has amassed a very impressive collection of Shakesville's Gayest Looks for Leno.
Yours Truly is in the mix, as is Dan Savage and Armisted Maupin (FTW!). If you'd like to send in Your Gayest Look for Jay Leno, Liss has a link to do so at the top of the "Gayest Looks for Leno" post.
edited to add: Now you can see the gallery of gayest looks for Leno on My Gayest Look. Also posted is the segment with Ryan Phillippe that prompted this response and a link to donate your own gayest look to the gallery.
Labels: extraordinaryness, FTW, yay
~~ victoria on 6:16 PM ~~ 0 comments
24 March, 2008
Weekend Edith Piaf: Mon Dieu
Alas, the sands are all too swiftly flowing through the glass of my 4-day weekend. I'll close it out with a song that, despite my woefully inadequate comprehension of French, moves me to tears when I hear Edith Piaf sing it.
Labels: Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 4:41 PM ~~ 0 comments
23 March, 2008
Simon Sunday: Sleepy, But Keeping an Eye On Me
Simon and I seem to have a bit of a disagreement as to how I should be spending my 4-day weekend. I thought I'd spend it relaxing around the apartment and getting some work done on the computer. Simon thought I was here to do his bidding and to provide Something Big And Warm for him to snuggle with whenever he designated it Official Napping Hour.
Sometimes I get so fed up that I swear that the next time I take time off I'm going to hire a kitty sitter and go Somewhere Else for a few days of peace and quiet. But I know that I'd miss him and Billie terribly and would probably cut my vacation short so I could hear Billie chatter excitedly at me in the morning and have Simon wake me up with his kitty-paw neck massages and his nose kisses.
Labels: Billie, cats, furkids, Simon, Simon Sunday
~~ victoria on 3:31 PM ~~ 0 comments
Weekend Flight of the Conchords: The Humans Are Dead
My birthday present to myself was the DVDs for Series 1 of Flight of the Conchords. Jemaine and Brit Bree Bret prove that funny is sooooooo sexy!
Come on sucker, lick my battery! Genius!
Labels: HAHA, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 3:06 PM ~~ 0 comments
22 March, 2008
Weekend REM: These Days + Bonus Link
This is one of my favourite songs off of an album that is made up entirely of favourite songs. I cannot play Life's Rich Pageant and not dance wildly around and sing (badly) along with every song.
This particular clip is a live version of the song from their 1989 tour, where I saw them twice (for the Portland show, second row, center stage, thanks to my BFF Olivia, who got up at half-past ridiculous in the morning to wait in line for tickets). This was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. Michael Stipe had incredible energy, as did Bill Berry, Mike Mills and Peter Buck. Scott McCaughey from Young Fresh Fellows played keyboards on this tour as well, IIRC. Except for the moments where I stared longingly at Peter Buck's Rickenbacker guitar, I just could not take my eyes off of Michael Stipe all night. Simply amazing.
I thought about posting the video to Perfect Circle because it is such a hauntingly beautiful song. But, hey, links are nice too, aren't they?
Labels: music, rock 'n' roll, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 4:49 PM ~~ 0 comments
Ouch.
Even if you're not a goalie, or a hockey/sports fan, these two things are kind of a given:
1) Giving up a short-handed (meaning your team has the man advantage) goal is bad.
2) Giving up a goal that was shot from the other end of the rink is really bad.
This? This is #@%^$*!!!#@^&*. Poor Vesa Toskala.
edit to add: h/t to Off Wing Opinion and for clarification.
~~ victoria on 3:31 PM ~~ 0 comments
21 March, 2008
Weekend The Who: The Seeker
(Continuing the celebration of my 4-day weekend...)
I've always thought of this as my "theme song" (well, except for the bit about asking Bob Dylan/The Beatles/Timothy Leary), especially during those times when I catch myself dwelling on those things in life that I've sought but never quite found. I dwell on these sorrows less and less, but this song still speaks to me and, well, today is as good a day as any to post it.
Labels: navel gazing, rock 'n' roll, The Who, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 9:26 PM ~~ 0 comments
This Is A Very Special Day
Petulant over at Shakesville tells us the story of how, on 21 March, 2003, he felt a bit peckish and went to fix himself a snack when LO! He gazed upon the image of a wonton in the shape of the Blessed Virgin herself!
You can read more about the Virgin Wonton and her travels on her very own blog.
~~ victoria on 4:20 PM ~~ 0 comments
Twittered: 2008-03-21
Evidently I share a birthday with K-Fed. This amuses me.
Labels: whatever
~~ victoria on 8:31 AM ~~ 2 comments
20 March, 2008
Weekend Tower of Power: What Is Hip
What the heck, it's the start of MY weekend! :-) ToP is one of my long-time favourites: R&B/Funk the way Ceiling Cat intended. Here's a clip of them back in 1973.
Labels: Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 10:38 PM ~~ 0 comments
17 March, 2008
So, That Driver's License Photo?
It's pretty much as horrible as I feared it would be.
Oh.
Joy.
~~ victoria on 9:40 PM ~~ 0 comments
16 March, 2008
Simon Sunday: Trying Out Photobooth
After much internal debate (possibly the subject for another post), I finally made a trip to the Apple Store yesterday and came home with a new iMac. Setting it up and migrating information from the old Mac to the new one was too much for Simon's curiosity to bear and I spent much of the afternoon scolding him for getting in my way while I was trying to work. He probably likes the new computer. He definitely likes the fact that there is more desk space (despite the iMac's screen being nearly double he size of the old eMac) for him to jump up on.
He's not too sure about the camera, though.
Labels: cats, furkids, Simon, Simon Sunday, upgrading
~~ victoria on 6:06 PM ~~ 0 comments
15 March, 2008
Weekend Morrissey: Tomorrow
Because it's time for some Mozza.
Labels: Morrissey, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 10:26 PM ~~ 0 comments
14 March, 2008
It's That Time Of The Year
Happy Pi Day to all my math geek friends!
~~ victoria on 7:32 AM ~~ 0 comments
13 March, 2008
Keith Olbermann on Hillary Clinton's "Suicide Pact"
As usual, he is spot-fucking-on. Do her advisors actually work for the Barack Obama campaign? WTF? Never mind the stupid comments that come from her camp that undermine her campaign, but they don't even seem to be TRYING to get her to get the hell out of her own way! Anyway, here's KO:
Labels: in the news, KO
~~ victoria on 7:24 AM ~~ 0 comments
10 March, 2008
Coming To A Supermarket Entrance Near You
So with the cold/cough/sore throat keeping me up part of the night and the general assyness that is Daylight Savings Time, I also seem to have developed some sort of irritation in my right eye that rendered it all red with glop in/around it. Which can only mean that this morning was the time for:
DRIVER'S LICENSE RENEWAL!
WhoaYeah. That photo is almost certainly going to go down as the most craptacular driver's license photo I've ever had taken (one which I'll be stuck with for the next 10-15 years, thankyouverymuchpleasekillmenowkthxbye), if not the fugliest DL photo in the history of DL photography.
So I've decided to start a grass-roots effort aimed at gathering signatures to get a measure on the ballot allowing people to Photoshop their license photos BEFORE THEY'RE LAMINATED FOR POSTERITY.
Who's with me?
~~ victoria on 8:40 PM ~~ 0 comments
09 March, 2008
Simon Sunday: It's Been A Long, Icky Week
I think I took this Tuesday morning, before I packed myself off to Kaiser because my throat felt like there were 10,000,000,000 fire ants attacking it. Simon looked so gorgeous in the sunny window but I had the lensbaby on the camera and I knew there wouldn't be time to switch out lenses, so I did the best I could with it. It actually turned out pretty good, I think (I'm still getting the hang of using the lensbaby).
Thankfully, the strep test came back negative, but I've had a nasty cold all week. As always, Simon and Billie have looked after me well and Simon made sure I got plenty of bed rest (and snuggles). He has this "thing" where he'll get me to follow him to where he wants me to go, looking over his shoulder every couple of steps to make sure I hadn't gotten lost. Usually, the destination is the kitchen, but more often than not this week, he'd lead me to the bedroom. There were a few times this week where he wanted me to go back to bed but I wanted to stay at the computer for a while longer. When I'd try to adjust him on my lap, he'd nip my hand in frustration. Looking over at him now, he's crashed out in front of the window, as exhausted as I am from the all-night coughing fits and congestion and my constant shifting in bed because my throat hurt so horribly. No doubt he's also exhausted from being so disciplined all week and not taking advantage of the fact that my voice was gone-daddy-gone and I couldn't yell at him. (After a week, my voice is finally starting to come back on line, but I can only manage to squeak at the cats which brings on a new coughing fit...if they could, they'd laugh at me, I sound so ridiculous.)
To add to the chaos, we started Daylight Saving overnight. As usual, Simon just slotted right in and was ready for his breakfast at New7:00 a.m. And, as usual, I'm rather less than enthusiastic about DST (it sucks ASS). I'm just hoping Simon doesn't repeat his DST error of a few years ago when he "sprang forward" an hour every day for nearly a week. The 3:00 a.m. breakfast calls were not the least bit amusing.
Labels: cats, furkids, photography, sick, Simon, Simon Sunday
~~ victoria on 1:31 PM ~~ 0 comments
Weekend Extreme: Hole Hearted
I remember the first time I saw this video. It wasn't too long after my mother died and I was in a period of drinking a bottle (or two) of wine every night and not being able to sleep, so I was up pretty late when this video came on. I had heard some of Extreme's stuff and sort of liked them, but I was totally hooked by the 12-string acoustic opening to this song. And then there was the abundance of Boston Bruins gear; what's not to like about a band who loves my Beloved Boston Bruins? So I watched.
Wait a minute. Did I just see Lyndon Byers? (former Boston Bruin for you non-hockey fans)
So I watched some more.
It IS Lyndon Byers!
And then.
OMG! That's Cam! As in Cam Neely. FOREVER THE LOVE OF MY HOCKEY LIFE.
I grabbed the cable remote and frantically tried to rewind MTV. Mind you, this was in 1991 and TIVO would not be on the market for another eight years or so. Unsuccessful in my attempt to rewind MTV, I stayed up for a few more hours, hoping "Hole Hearted" would come back up in rotation. But the wine finally worked its magic and I passed out fell asleep with two Boston Terriers snoring at my feet. I watched MTV for the next several nights, VCR at the ready, and finally snagged a recording of it.
(For the curious, Lyndon Byers appears at 1:45 and Cam Neely FTLOMHL, appears around 1:48 in the video.)
Labels: Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 12:59 PM ~~ 0 comments
05 March, 2008
Heh.
(I must add to this that my own Simon was completely enthralled with this video, giving it his rapt attention.)
~~ victoria on 3:44 PM ~~ 0 comments
That Explains The Commotion
Simon and I were awakened from our nap by shouting and horns honking and the sound of a helicopter overhead. Turns out there was a mass student walkout by students from Encinal High School (Hi D!), protesting the huge proposed state budget cuts.
California's budget is seriously fucked up and I don't see a way out of it where a lot of deserving and in-need people won't get hurt (since Republicans stick their collective finger in their ear and cry "LA-LA-LA! I DON'T HEAR YOU!" any time a tax increase is mentioned).
I wish those kids good luck with their protest, though I'm not sure where else cuts could be made (administration, maybe?) where learning wouldn't be compromised. As it is, they're planning to increase class size which, in already overcrowded classrooms, IS going to hurt students.
Labels: in the news, sick
~~ victoria on 12:40 PM ~~ 0 comments
04 March, 2008
Poor Me!
I'm sick. I tried for a couple of days to pass of the fatigue and really sore throat as the neighborhood tom cat yowling all night and allergies. Last night (and today), there was no more denial: I'm sick. I packed myself off to Kaiser this morning because there's been some nasty, nasty bugs going 'round the office and I want to be sure it wasn't that or strep throat. I wasn't running a fever when I went to the doctor, but all day long, as warm as it was here, I was freezing my arse off. Drinking tea and water is challenging because that requires being upright--and my body does NOT want to be upright. I made a pot of veggie and wild rice soup and am now pretty much too worn out now to eat a bowl of it.
I know this shall pass and Simon and Billie are taking good care of me, but gaaaaaah! Even my hair hurts right now!
I'm going back to bed.
~~ victoria on 7:25 PM ~~ 0 comments
03 March, 2008
Jesus In A Piece Of Toast? Pffftthhtttt! Whatever.
Here's Ceiling Cat making His glorious appearance!
Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!
Labels: LOL Cats
~~ victoria on 6:04 PM ~~ 0 comments
02 March, 2008
Weekend Wilco: California Stars
This is one of my (many) favourite Wilco songs and it just kicks my ass when they play it live. Sadly, I missed the concert this was shot at. I had checked and checked their site for a Berkeley date and then figured it would be later in the year and forgot about it. I found out about the show exactly six hours before it was supposed to start. My friend, who is a huge Wilco fan (and knows I am as well), never bothered to tell me about it.
He is now dead to me.
Anyway, uh, enjoy! And also, never miss an opportunity to see these guys live! The current lineup is so fantastic (OMG Nels Cline is an amazing guitar player!). And have I mentioned that I have a HUGE crush on Jeff Tweedy? Oh, yeah, it looks like I may have mentioned it once or twice. (hee!)
Labels: music, rock 'n' roll, Weekend Music
~~ victoria on 5:01 PM ~~ 0 comments
Simon Sunday: Alert the SPCA!
There is now video evidence of how mistreated poor Simon is!
Episode Six: The Simon Sebastien Show from Victoria K on Vimeo.
(I found some old short videos I shot on my point-and-shoot digital camera and finally got around to uploading a few of them.)
Labels: cats, furkids, Simon, Simon Sunday
~~ victoria on 4:31 PM ~~ 0 comments
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OTHER THINKERS:
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."
--Augusten Burroughs
