Feeling strangely fine

[cleolinda]

Quickie: Your happiness is a growing, living thing -- feed it with truth and optimism.

Overview: Get your career priorities in place and it will pay off in spades. Make some changes to your overall game plan. Others may be startled at this change of pace, but you know this will jolt you out of a rut.

Daily extended (by yahoo.astrology.com)
You're able to make smart decisions when you give yourself a little wiggle room and stop making every choice seem like life or death. Isn't it amazing what opportunities appear as soon as you stop being so rigid? Not only do your pent-up emotions flow, releasing tons of stress you didn't even know you had, but lovely little miracles (or as you might call them, 'coincidences') happen when you least expect them. Enjoy!


Mom's surgery seems to have gone okay; she's sacked out on the couch downstairs with a stack of pillows under her knee. She seems to be in a good deal of pain and a little loopy on medication, but: again, they cut open her knee. It's to be expected. Apparently she'd done something to a "meniscus" as well as torn two ligaments that they hadn't expected (but which explained a lot of the pain she'd been in for the last month or two). My stepfather took the day off to be with her at the hospital and then here at home, but since the hospital had them get there at five-fifteen--in the morning--he was pretty wiped out himself. (Slightly amusing story: I heard them up and about at four-thirty, and since I tend to wake up a few times during any given night, I took Lucky downstairs so he'd get taken outside with the poms and fed. [Usually I have to walk and feed him separately, because he won't leave my room until I get up, so he's kind of on a later schedule than the poms.] So I take him downstairs and my mother looks at me like I grew two extra heads in the night. "What are you doing up at this hour?" "Well, actually, I tend to wake up a--" "It's a crime to be up at this hour." So saith the woman who usually gets up at 5:30 and putters around for an hour when she could be sleeping.)

AIEEEE! Click-N-Ship confirms that my BPAL is, in fact, in Birmingham!

eve_the_just: "If you're in the mood for pimping and wouldn't mind adding another link, Serenity opens today. There's a lot of fans who have wanted this to happen for a long time. It's a continuation of the short-lived, but rather excellent series Firefly. Us fans really want this movie to do well so that Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Angel) gets to make a sequel. The more people we can get out, the more likely our dream is." I really don't know that Serenity needs my help--judging from the comments I get, I'm pretty sure my readership is fully aware of it.

I promised to pimp something else, but I've lost the comment/link. And it sounded really good, too--a music community? Fnarrr.

Report Finds Negative Image of U.S. Abroad, Duh.

Crimes after Katrina may have been overblown, our bad.

Ladies and gentlemen, the author of The Book of Virtues and Body Count: Moral Poverty...And How to Win America's War Against Crime and Drugs:

Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.

"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," said Bennett.

He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Responding later to criticism, Bennett said his comments had been mischaracterized and that his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was "morally reprehensible."

Trivia note for the three people who have read what I did post of The Black Ribbon: Miss Jones' holier-than-thou editor, Mr. Bennet, is named after this guy (with a dash of Pride and Prejudice spelling for flavor). Now you see why.

Harry Potter news: Imelda Staunton will play Umbridge (still rumor, but ooo, nice choice) and casting begins for Luna:

If you are a resident of the UK, then you can also send in an application to the following

Luna Lovegood Casting
c/o Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
Leavesden Studios
PO Box 322
Hertfordshire
WD25 7XJ

You need to send a photo, your age and your contact details and please don't fax or phone the studios, only write.

Do NOT ask me to magically help you get cast. You laugh, but back when I was running the Digest, a very persistent girl wanted my help in getting cast as Violet Baudelaire in the Snicket movie. You know, like I'm not just some Alabama girl with a paid Geocities account and a dream, or whatever.

Hmm, what else... eye twitch is back, yay. I'm sure figuring out what to do for dinner is going to be an ordeal, because while I'm perfectly content to feed myself, Sister Girl has to flail around and demand that someone provide "the family" with sustenance. Maybe I can swing some pizza out of this, though.



   

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

You know, like I'm not just some Alabama girl with a paid Geocities account and a dream, or whatever.

We prefer the term "Internet phenomenon."

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Glad the surgery went well! :-)

And that Bill Bennett thing . . . ugh.

"an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do"

I like how he apparently thought of how possible it was before he thought to mention 'oh yeah, morally reprehensible'. Sheeeeeesh.

I think the best way to be moral, actually, is to ignore the advice of self-appointed 'moralists' like him. lol

[skyblade.livejournal.com]

Imelda Staunton, huh? It makes you wonder why the Harry Potter books haven't deal with abortion. You'd think with all the namby-pamby that goes on between the magical species, someone who's expecting would start to have second thoughts.

[someway.livejournal.com]

[linz-lou.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your mom's surgery went well. =)

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to sit here and happily stare at your icon for a while now... :-)

[fengi.livejournal.com]

What gets me is Bennett uses the dodge of defending against a non-exstent issue. People understood he wasn't serious about mass abortion. They were offended because he seriously equated black babies with high crime rates as if one caused the other. And in case one thinks he wasn't serious about that, he cleared it up in an interview with Jake Tapper:

TAPPER: But why immediately link blacks and crime? Bennett told me on the phone that race was on his mind because of recent stories in the media about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

BENNETT (audio clip): Stories about looting and shooting and gangs and roving gangs and so on. ... I'm sorry if people are hurt, I really am. But we can't say this is an area of American public policy that we're not allowed to talk about, race and crime.

So yeah, boo to anyone who says Bennett advocated some kind of genocide, he didn't do that. He did, however, openly support the sort of bigoted assumptions which have been used to justify all sorts of ugly things.

[elyim.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I can't act for shit, but it's Harry Potter, so that doesn't matter, right? What's Luna meant to look like exactly? I'll so go for it if I look like her. Not that that matters to the casting people, either.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

lol Yah, right now I'm wishing I lived in the UK.

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

FARK.com said this about the Bennett thing:

"Bush criticizes Bill Bennett's comments about aborting African American babies. In related news, George Bush cares about black people"

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

P.S. (apologies for double posting) I think they're trying to rack up the entire Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare cast...Branagh himself, Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton...all three were in Much Ado About Nothing, I'm still looking for Keanu and Denzel though ;)

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

In that case, Richard Briers ought to show up soon, maybe as a batty old wizard in the Leaky Cauldron. (If he hasn't already, I mean, I wasn't looking closely.)
If we're going by Branagh movies, we'll need some Kate Winslet. Don't know who she'd play, but she's nice to look at.
I think that since they insist on an all-British cast, they keep on coming up against various popular or well-known British adult actors, unlike the kids. It seems that they get relative-unknowns in the roles as students, while the bigger names are for the adult characters (probably to draw in the parents of the kids who want to go see the movie in the first place.) At least, if I had tried to drag my mom, it would have been all about 'Ohhh Dame Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon!' Whereas the 11 year olds are all squealing over Dan Radcliffe, and I'm just sitting there going "HUZZAH FOR ALAN RICKMAN!"

Damn I love British talent.

Hmmm...Luna...d'y'think a Canadian could be eligible, since we have Lizzy on our currency and stamps and all? We sing God Save the Queen too, dammit! WE SING IT TOOOOOO!

[vkitty.livejournal.com]

Well, cleolinda, you're just so powerful that it's almost impossible to think that if we ask you, that you can't get us into movies. You're a strangely popular person.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

1. Aww, y'all so silly.

2. This was two or three years ago, and trust me, whatever "power" I have now, I didn't have it then.

[lostieborden.livejournal.com]

SPEAKING of Black Ribbon... *ahem!*

Oh, yes, yes, you've got a book coming out. Well, fine, I can wait... *long-suffered sigh*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You want a spoiler? I can give you a spoiler to tide you over. ;)

[meredith-mae.livejournal.com]

I'm sure figuring out what to do for dinner is going to be an ordeal, because while I'm perfectly content to feed myself, Sister Girl has to flail around and demand that someone provide "the family" with sustenance. Maybe I can swing some pizza out of this, though.

Ugh, my parents are in the process of separating, yet still living in the same houe for now (long story), and my dad has just stopped cooking. Due to anger or depression, I don't know. Which made my mom call my brother and tell him she was picking up pizza last night, although she didn't know what Dad was doing for dinner. Because apparantly they don't care if the other one starves. My mom also asked my brother what he wanted for dinner at 7:00 this morning. Seriously, she's very non-adept at cooking and apparantly meal preparation requires a whole day to think about. *head desk*

You know, like I'm not just some Alabama girl with a paid Geocities account and a dream, or whatever.

Best line of the entire post, today. :-)


The movie theater I work at did a screening of Serenity at midnight last night, and sold 700+ seats in an 826 seat theater. Tonight should be just as exciting. It was really fun to see all the Joss Whedon fans en masse (although I went to a screening of Serenity a few weeks ago and saw many fans there as well).

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

I missed your entry yesterday, or I'd have wished your mom well going into the surgery. As it is, I'll wish her a speedy recovery instead.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen these yet, take a look. "Haunted portraits" that change when you look at them from different angles:

http://www.hauntedmemories.com/newgallery.htm

[neflhim.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for Judi Dench as Umbridge. The interplay between her and Maggie Smith would have been amazing.

[trede.livejournal.com]

She's not fat enough.

I want Bill Bailey for Bagman, not that he's in the fourth film. :P

[ter369.livejournal.com]

... because while I'm perfectly content to feed myself, Sister Girl has to flail around and demand that someone provide "the family" with sustenance. Maybe I can swing some pizza out of this, though.

Is it that Sister Girl doesn't actually like being a chef/aspiring-cook? Or is the issue finances for familial sustenance?

'Cause if you dropped by my house while hungry, you'd get a souffle flavored by the vegetable/protein item of your choice. And I'm no chef.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think it's more a need to be taken care of. Like, "Why doesn't someone FEED US! THAT'S WHAT PARENTS DO!" "Uh, kid? You're nearly twenty."

[kittenscurious.livejournal.com]

what's a lucky?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

My English cocker springer spaniel. : )

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear your mom's knee surgery went ok. Sorry to hear your eye twitch is back. Steak, maybe? Put it on your eye for a while then grill that sucker with mushrooms. Perhaps you should skip the eye phase and go directly to the grill.

Have no fear, I shall certainly not pester you to get casting on any forthcoming production.

Yarha, High Steaks

[ambiguousreason.livejournal.com]

Oh, the music community pimpage was me! It's already____gone and it's really very simple: I post music recommendations and people can download whatever they want. If you don't like what I post, I have a playlist and you can request stuff.

Anyway, I hope your mom has a quick recovery. =]

[elbales]

Best wishes to your mom for a fast recovery. And rest those eyes! Eye strain is a bitch, as you know all too well.

[elbales]

p.s. If you're pimping Serenity, why not pimp this lovely web site?

http://the11thhour.home.att.net/

It's all about the guerilla marketing. Yep.

*goes off, whistling, to tape up some posters someplace*

[wulfric-tonks.livejournal.com]

Damn my mother for not birthing me in England!

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

The menisci are bits of cartilige that keep the leg bones from grinding against each other. I've gotten intimately acquainted with mine over the last two years, since I managed to tear one of them (or possibly both. I'm honestly not sure).

Wishing a speedy recovery for your mom.

[iremos.livejournal.com]

Hi there,

Your blog never ceases to amuse me, and you always post the most interesting of stuff on it. Anyway, I wanted to know if you were up for pimping/linkspamming a program I co-run, since you have several bajillion young writers who read your blog on a regular basis, and it's a good cause.

The Little Owl Mentoring Program (http://mentoring.absynthemuse.com) connects experienced adult writers with young writers ages 13-22 for free. Run by Hope Clark, editor of FundsforWriters.com, who runs the mentor side of things, and Elisabeth Wilhelm, editor of AbsyntheMuse.com, who reps the teen demographic, the program currently has over 85 mentors and 95 mentees on the list. We have international bilingual journalists published in international newspapers, magazine editors, award-winning sci-fi and fantasy writers, poets from Africa, professors and teachers as mentors. If Elisabeth doesn't have a mentor on the list to fit what you're looking for, she'll find the one for you. (We also currently have a great need for mentors, so please pass the message on!) The greatest part is that the entire program is not-for-profit and free.

Thanks. :)

Lis

[mandy0x.livejournal.com]

I should totally sign up for Little Owl.

[kagami-x.livejournal.com]

Dude. Loreena McKennitt. TOTALLY. The Mummers' Dance pwnz my face.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I really like the guitar in "The Bonny Swans," for some reason. Which strikes me as funny, considering it's basically a folk tale/song, and I'm all like, "WOO GUITARS!"

[mandy0x.livejournal.com]

My dad had a torn meniscus the last time he had his knee operated on. I think it was torn. I don't know, it was something with his meniscus.

[rectpropagation.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear your mom is doing ok.

but since the hospital had them get there at five-fifteen--in the morning

Unfortunately, "Hurry up and wait" isn't just something they do in marching band.

Serenity opens today.
I saw it today. Everyone who is a fan of movies that don't suck, that in fact do the opposite of sucking, must see it!

From your horoscope it sounds like your eye twitch is back because you're stressing over dinner. Mine sounds like I wanna get it on with Voldemort: While you normally love people, by the end of the day, you may feel like you need some alone time -- or maybe one-on-one time with you and you-know-who.