Easy Wind and Downy Flake

Test

2018-10-30T14:21:29Z

Test, test, test

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No, I Wasn't Abducted by Aliens....I Think.

2018-10-27T00:03:27Z

And oh yeah, I'm still alive and back from the Midwest. So far no one here has asked to touch my hair because "they've always wanted to see what it's like".

Yeah, I was less than thrilled living out there.

I've always felt like I was a half a step to the conservative side of a center. Out in Indiana, I was a flaming liberal. Yay.

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Nope, Not Working for Me (Spoilerish)

2018-10-27T00:00:17Z

I've seen the first 3 episodes of #13 now and this just isn't working for me.

As feminist as I am, I'm not a fan of gender swapping roles "just because". However, I'll be the first to say that the character of The Doctor doesn't do anything that would preclude the character from being a woman. Still, #13 is just rubbing me like a microplaner rubs a piece of citrus.

Let me count the ways.....

A female Doctor isn't canon (crikey, I never thought I'd be "that guy"). We know that there were Time Ladies on Gallifrey, the doctor has referenced having a wife and #1 traveled with his granddaughter. There's no real good reason for The Doctor to regenerate into a woman

This is a weirdly idiosyncratic thing, gender aside, I don't like Jodi Whitaker as the Doctor. I like the actress (she broke my heart in Broadchurch as she evolved from broken mother to woman's advocate). But while I adore her as an actor, I think she's too pretty, young, and vivacious for the role.

The war that led to the destruction of Doctor's home planet took place between #8 and #9. When they show was rebooted, the iterations of The Doctor from #9 through #11 (Eccelston, Tennant, Smith), got younger with each regeneration. After meeting The War Doctor and finding out that he didn't destroy Gallifrey but saved it, the next Doctor was older (Capaldi), within the age range of most of the Old School Doctors.

I've always thought that, intentionally or not, that this was a powerful commentary on how The Doctor dealt with the guilt he carried when he thought he destroyed his home planet. It was almost as if he was willing himself to be younger, go back in time. The age difference between 12and 13 just feels like a wrong note to me (But hey, every Whovian's mileage will vary).

If they had to have a female Doctor, they should have thrown a ton of money at an English actor over 50 (Helen Mirren, Judy Densch, Emma Thompson, Charlotte Rampling or someone like that). A woman who could project a sober maturity but still have a sensuous gleam of mischief in her eye.

I think they spent too long on the whole, "I'm not sure who I am yet" schtick. Too much, "OMG I forgot I'm a woman now". But this is more an issue with writing. I had the same issue with #12's companion Bill. We established that she was a lesbian in her first appearance and lost count of how many episodes they pulled the "eye roll, I'm only interested in girls, no boys allowed". We get it Bill, we get it.

While we're on the topic of the writing, the promise of no Daleks or Cybermen leaves me cold and (so far) I'm not crazy about the rustic looking, self built sonic screwdriver. I don't even like the new Tardis :(

It still feels like a sci-fi series, just not Doctor Who. If someone told me this was some sort of reboot of Sliders or Quantum Leap I'd believe it without batting an eye. I've been a Whovian since I was a little kid and PBS began showing Doctor Who in the US. They've got me for one more year but then all bets are off if they don't tighten up the stories and writing.

Why yes, I do think about this way too much.

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No, I Wasn't Abducted by Aliens....I Think.

2018-10-23T23:16:56Z

The Next Food Network Star - Rationale

2011-08-15T01:10:11Z

Vic is a dark horse. He might win but I doubt it.

Susie might win because the food network has been trying like hell to get a Hispanic/Latin American food show for the past 2 ot 3 years and so far they have all fallen slat. OTOH, if she doesn't hold it together, she get's too chatty and comes off as childish and ditzy.

Jeff might win because he's cute, he has a great personality and his show idea is different and a lot can be done with it. He might lose because they want a food about latin food or, if he loses it he can go a step too far with his humor.

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Proudly They Serve

2011-08-12T17:48:41Z

I weird little factoid: when I was in high school I was on, among other things, the committee for my junior prom. We had the army Rock Band play and they were absolutely *kick ass*. (They should have played our Senior Prom but I wasn't on the entertainment committee for that one.)

Anyway, you really need to read this article and you definitely need to listen to this cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep". This is probably one of the best covers I've heard of any song.

(Who's Adele? If you don't know you seriously need to look her up on You Tube. She is what Amy Winehouse would have like to have been. Her voice is the kind that hits you square in the center of your breastbone and vibrates clear back to your spine. And oh yeah, she's only 22. I also love her because she takes some serious shit for her weight but she is beautiful in the English sort of way and has the confidence and swagger that I wish more women twice her age had. )

Anyway Listen to the cover (and the original too if you want), I hope you like it as much as I did.

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cinema_babe @ 2011-08-11T13:53:00

2011-08-11T19:40:45Z

I'm generally not a fan of Roger Ebert. I tend to disagree with his many of his film reviews and and a lot of his opinions. However, I have to give the devil his due. Back in 1987 he seemed to see the future of media consumption in a very prescient manner.

Things weren't quite as antiquated as they portray them in the article. Cable TV was a well established entity by then as was Pay per view (which begun in 1980). Laser discs brought the promise of clearer pictures but no one was buying them (I'm not even sure if they were even producing them anymore by that time), but the DVD wasn't under development for consumer use for another few years. He also noted how movie making would drop in cost, which it did, thanks to things like video capabilities in phones and programs like final cut.

Nicely played sir.

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The Next Food Network Star

2011-08-08T01:24:15Z

I'm calling ti for Jeff to win.

1. The topic of his show is unique. You can do a lot with sandwiches from rough and ready to refined. Everyone loves sandwiches.

2. He's cute. Not movie star handsome, but more like guy you dated in high school or boy next door cute. He seems like he could be your next door neighbor and that your families hag out together.

3. He's funny. He can go a step too far but I think they can teach him to overcome that.

4. He's the most consistent competitor on the show.

I think that Vic might be second unless he screws up badly tonight and Susie falls apart. Marybeth is going home tonight. It's not her fault that Penny deliberately sabotaged her (fortunately Alton Brown called her out on that) but she's the weakest when it comes to cooking.

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Fuck Me

2011-08-07T07:19:06Z

3:15am

Still awake

Damned insomnia

Oh well, at least I'm getting caught up on my mail and LJ reading

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Bizzaro LJ

2011-08-07T03:27:45Z

So I'm going to try this whole "posting from Dreamwidth and X-posting to LJ" thing. We'll see how it goes. It's still a bit clunky because with a couple of exceptions, everything I read is on LJ. But, since I suspect that Russia will be messing with LJ off and on for a the next year or so, this seems like a judicious thing to do.

I've also reserved this screen name over at Insane Journal and Scribbld. JournalFen doesn't seem to be letting anyone create new accounts or login with an open ID and DeadJournal requires either an invite code or you have to pay (and I'm not paying for a service that I'm only hold "just in case".

It's funny here, though, because it looks a lot like LiveJournal but it's also different in so many little ways that it's like being in a familiar place and turning down a familiar street but the houses are in a different order. I'm slowly making this journal a bit homier and learning my way around.

Oh well.

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"I Don't Get Why Everyone Is So Upset"

2011-08-06T04:00:40Z

First, hi Eafm, I think you're the first person to follow my journal here. Yay.

Since LJ is once again having problems I'll post this here.

Sometimes I unintentionally toss the apple of discord. But watching what happens after that golden fruit hits the ground is

quite enlightening...

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Grrrr

2011-04-04T15:08:38Z

FFS LiveJournal.

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cinema_babe @ 2009-09-12T08:31:00

2009-09-12T12:32:29Z

This September 9, exactly 5 years ago, I went into surgery and began the first day of my life as a cancer survivor. Over the next few weeks I had a couple of serious setbacks and didn't meet my niece (who was born 4 days after my surgery) until a week or so before Thanksgiving.

On one hand, my body dealt me a shitty hand. It's simply not fair that I was never able to have children and instead of another trip to a fertility specialist, I was detoured to an oncologist's office. 4 chances to get it right and my body failed every time. The day before I went in the hospital I wrote a long angry screed railing against everyone who might have been able to help me but never did. I needed to get that poison out of me before I they made me unconscious and took babies away.

On the other hand, I am the luckiest wretch in the world. There was no reason for the doctor at the student health center to send me to a gynecologist and no reason for him to do a biopsy. By all rights the slow moving invader should have taken an even firmer hold on my body than it did and should still be killing me by millimeters. Back then I spent a lot of time in on-line support groups and there were so many woman who would post about an upcoming doctor visit or some innocuous ache and then they would go silent, never returning to tell us how things went. If we were lucky, a partner or parent or child would make one final post to confirm what we already knew.

For a variety of reasons, I will never be "5 years and done", I will always have a higher risk my cancer returning or developing a new cancer in organs affected by radiation. But I'm alive and my life is full of possibility. I plan for tomorrow and next week and Thanksgiving and next year. I connected with too many women who never got that gift. I carry their stories in my heart and their fierce struggles in my rich, bloody marrow

This is not where I thought I would be 5 minutes before the doctor called. It's more than I could have hoped while I was going through my long, rough recovery.

I am adrift in uncharted water and the sea is a shade of blue that makes my femurs hum. This is my boat and I pilot it alone; I point it towards the horizon; ready to embrace something I do not know.

Happy Survivor's Day to Me!

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Post: The First

2009-06-18T13:43:19Z

A long time ago, this was my first post to my LiveJournal Account. I'm surprised how much of this is still true and what things have changed.

I’ve been thinking of starting a blog for a while and I have no idea how long it’ll hold my short attention span. Here is the merest sliver of who I am:

1. I am the eldest of 2 children.

2. I have no living children and never will.

3. I have been married once. I think that was my lifetime quota.

4. I love to write but can’t punctuate worth a damn.

5. I have lived in New Jersey my whole life and love it here.

6. I swear like a sailor (or truckdriver or librarian or whatever)

7. I love to read, classics are my favorite.

8. My favorite color is deep, clear cobalt blue.

9. I have a sexy voice and laugh (so people tell me)

10. I find it easier to joke around men because I think women take things too seriously. (Yes, I know this is a generalization…..)

11. Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo and Thomas Hardy are my favorite authors. I have read every book written by all three of them (most of them more then once.)

12. I am both fat and beautiful. The “F” word freaks a lot of people out. Sucks to be them. It’s a description, not a slur.

13. I am a movie fanatic; if it’s on film I’ve probably seen it. Feel free to hit me up for suggestions and about what to rent or see.

14. I’ve seen The Godfather over a dozen times. I still jump when Fredo gets killed.

15. I am a technoholic. I will never have a computer beefy or fast enough; never have a flash drive too big. Technology is my crack

16. I know how to bake bread and I’m pretty good at it.

17. My 3 favorite places on earth are (1) Cape May, New Jersey, USA; (2) Bermuda; (3) Laying on the deck of a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic on the way to Bermuda

18. I will carry a purse until it literally falls apart and then I will spend weeks trying to find the perfect one again because I know it will have to last years.

19. The Foo Fighters are amazing. Ben Folds is amazing. The Clash was amazing. God bless you Joe Strummer.

20. I don't like hot weather. I would rather be cold and snuggled under a blanket than sweating and trying to stay cool.

21. I hate camping. I hate the bugs, the lack of bathrooms, and smoke from the fire. Give me a hotel room anyday.

22. I love to surprise people with gifts.

23. Did I mention that I hate the term BBW? Not every fat woman is beautiful and not every beautiful woman is fat. I see the two as independent concepts. Articulating this does not endear me to people.

24. yohannon is one of the coolest people alive. I bow to his awesomeness (And no, you don’t really know me)

25. I am terrified to fly in an airplane.

26. I have a severe phobia of snakes. Spiders are not a bother. I am allergic to bees

27. I am a cancer survivor. To save my life, my doctors performed a radical hysterectomy which left large scar that runs from my navel down to my pubic bone.

28. Feminism is about making life choices. Pick a traditional path, be a trailblazer, we need both kinds of women in society, it’s all good. I think old school feminism has lost sight of this.

29. I am a very sensual and sexual person. Having a hysterectomy *did not* change that (thank god!) I'm always searching for my next orgasm

30. I am pro life but in Roman Catholic sort of way. I think that capital punishment is wrong and I think abortion is wrong. I have no problem with the concepts of wealth, class or status but believe that one must pay a just, livable wage to one’s employees. (Google “Pax Christi”) I am not threatened, upset or freaked out by people who disagree with me; I believe that reasonable, decent people can disagree on these issues. However, there must always be room for dialog.

31. I piss Liberals off with my conservative viewpoints (see #30) and I piss Conservatives off with my liberal viewpoints. I eschew all labels except one: Human.

32. I love driving and want to drive cross country

33. I will talk to anyone about my belief system in an appropriate situation but I think proselytizing sucks.
34. I am a bundle of contradictions wrapped in soft brown skin.

35. I love coffee, the taste as well as the buzz. I used to smoke.

37. I can’t wiggle my nose but I can arch my right eyebrow

38. My favorite drink is a Jack and Coke with 2 lime wedges or a screwdriver made with fresh squeezed orange juice.

39. I don't like the taste of beer.

40. If you think you know who I am, I assure you, you don’t.

41. I am a Gemini; we are the bullshit artists of the Zodiac. I am a writer and talker extraordinaire

Perhaps I will post another 41 some day.

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