(no subject)

[cleolinda]

So, yesterday was my mother's last day at her old job, and she doesn't have a new one lined up yet--the one she was interviewing for turned her down. Because she was overqualified. So... there's that. She's talking to a headhunter now about some opportunities they know about, but she'll basically be at home for at least a week, if not longer ("Looking for a job is my job now!"). Which on one hand could be really fun, because we'll probably go to a movie (I'm all but bribing her to go with me to V for Vendetta) and go out to lunch, probably at Panera while Sister Girl's on duty, at least once. On the other hand: Micro. frickin'. management. So it is in my best interest to get her out of the house and back into a job tout de suite, so I will be focusing all my Good Thoughts powers on getting her a new gig.

Another reason we need her back at work: for the money (duh), in no small part because the pool guy came and removed the tarp and it is scariness. (The pool, I have to add here, was already there when we sold our old house and bought this one. My mom was at her old Birmingham Steel job, the one with the better salary, and she and my stepfather had just gotten married the year before; we were sort of flush in a way that we haven't been since Birmingham Steel closed its corporate office. I'm telling you this because I feel weird bewailing our financial situation in one sentence and talking about our swimming pool in the next. Like a lot of Americans, I suspect, we live exactly at the breaking point of our means, if not beyond them.)

Anyway, my stepfather had checked on the waterline and discovered that it was way down at the bottom--more than you could account for through evaporation alone. There must be a leak, and we were hoping it wasn't the return of the carpenter ants. So Pool Guy comes out and detarps the pool. And Mom comes home for lunch. And Pool Guy asks her to come look at it. And then she comes back in and asks me to come look at it. I'm getting kind of intrigued by this time, so I go out there. There's a thick four or five-inch layer of algae on the wall at the waterline... but it's very, very low, which suggests that most of the water drained out pretty early on, and the amount of sitting water has been relatively low. In fact, the shallow end of the pool is completely uncovered by water--I hesitate to say "dry," because...

"What do you make of those marks?"

There's a thick coating of algae on the pool floor, but it's... unusual. There's a parting in the middle where it looks like something large was dragged--or dragged itself--down into the deep end, which is a sloping pit of four or five feet of semisolid green sludge and leaf detritus. The strange part, though, is that there are several ribbon-thin drag marks rippling down on either side of the main drag, as it were. It looks weird. Unearthly, even.

"I hope you've got a few hundred dollars stashed away for a rainy day," I tell my mother, "because I think we're about to have to get into some Pthoolhu removal."

A few things:

>> Judith Miller's New Excuse: "The former Times reporter tells Vanity Fair the 'slanderous bloggers destroyed her." Interestingly, she does not or cannot name any of the blogs that "slandered" her.

>> Man Shot Dead at Calif. Denny's Restaurant. "The shooting was the third in a Southern California Denny's in three days. In Pismo Beach on Wednesday, a transient with two guns walked into the restaurant at lunchtime, fatally shot two men and wounded a married couple before committing suicide." What the hell is going on down there?

>> Is the new owner of MySpace trying to erode civil liberties? From my friend sweetdaddydavid: "You should hip folks to the current anti-MySpace movement. MySpace is being used by its owner (Rupert Murdoch) to erode internet freedoms and is openly censoring its users. Notice how now that every major crime story focuses on the criminals online usage/msg board postings? Not a coincidence. Just like with those BSC kids that burned the churches, the government is making its case for censorship/wholesale spying on US citizens by implanting the thought that these crimes could be prevented by monitoring EVERYONE'S internet usage.

Go here for more info. That link contains links to the groups currently protesting Internet censorship on MySpace."

The first link ("Is the new owner...") is to our discussion in the comments, because what I had noticed, even before he told me this, was that every time a blog or journal was mentioned in the news in the context of a crime, it was always MySpace. I noticed this because--I know this is going to sound weird, but--I was disappointed in a "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" kind of way because I kind of wanted LJ to get that kind of attention, instead of MySpace being The Hot New Thing. And then I'd think, "Well, at least LJ isn't being mentioned in conjunction with a crime, so we've got that going for us." So when David brought this up, well--it started to make a lot of sense. Scary, scary sense.

>> Holy crap, this stuff is cute. Also, the creator has a livejournal! And is not a criminal!

>> Remark About Gays Shadows St. Pat's Parade. "Dunleavy set off a firestorm this week when he told the newspaper: 'If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow Neo-Nazis into their parade? If African Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?' Referring to the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, Dunleavy said, 'People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?'" You know, I find myself saying "OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE" a lot lately. This is not going to be an exception.

>> Fashion Designer Oleg Cassini Dies at 92. He's the one who dressed Jackie O when she was First Lady, if the name doesn't ring a bell.

>> Her dignity having gone into the Witness Protection Program after three Star Wars prequels, Natalie Portman is now pretty much shame-proof.

(The Phaaaaaaaaaaantom of the Anarchy is theeeeeeeeeere...)

Comments

[gravities.livejournal.com]

Best of luck to your mom.

My parents recently got rid of our pool entirely (they're in San Antonio), and it was one of the best decisions they ever made. God, the maintenance that goes into those things. In an amusing side note, they Craigslisted the whole filter setup, and a plumber bought it and even closed up the pipes for them. So now they're not only steady Ebayers, they're Craigslist believers, too.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a reason I should hate myspace! (well, besides the obvious platform for attention-whoring)

[decor-noctis.livejournal.com]

Yes! Me too! I've been saying for months now that MySpace is evil. All my friends are on it but I'll stick with my nice LJ thank you.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Remark About Gays Shadows St. Pat's Parade. "Dunleavy set off a firestorm this week when he told the newspaper: 'If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow Neo-Nazis into their parade? If African Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?' Referring to the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, Dunleavy said, 'People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?'" You know, I find myself saying "OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE" a lot lately.

St. Patrick's gotta be spinning in his Guinness, between that and this:

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-18T063423Z_01_N17345832_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-AIRPORT-ADAMS-COL.XML

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was delayed at a Washington-area airport on Friday for a secondary security screening, a Homeland Security Department official said.

Adams had been scheduled to fly from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Buffalo, New York, for St. Patrick's Day appearances with Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of New York but was unable to make the trip because of the airport delay, said Teresa Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the congressman.

Earlier on Friday, Adams, along with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and other Irish leaders attended a meeting at the White House with President George W. Bush.

A Homeland Security official declined to comment when asked if Adams' name had appeared on a terror watch list. Sinn Fein is a political ally of the Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which has sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

"There are privacy restrictions that preclude us from talking about individuals on no-fly lists," the official said.

In a statement, Higgins said Adams' name indeed appeared on a terror watch list.

"This is a man who has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to promoting peace and the unification of the 32 counties of Ireland into one united republic," Higgins said. "That his name would appear in this untoward manner and that appearance, in the end, ruined his ability to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Buffalo is sad and unfortunate when one considers Gerry Adams' leadership in the decommissioning of the IRA's weapons and his commitment to the Good Friday agreements."

The Homeland Security official told Reuters that as Adams "was traveling to Buffalo, he was routinely going through (standard security screening) and he had a very thorough secondary screening.

"He was never arrested and he was never detained from the department's perspective," said the Homeland Security official, who declined to be named.

The official declined to explain why Adams underwent the secondary screening.


Yeah. The leader of Sinn Fein is gonna hijack an airplane and fly it into Buffalo City Hall. (Some in this community might give him an award for civic improvement if he did.)

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The leader of Sinn Fein is gonna hijack an airplane and fly it into Buffalo City Hall. (Some in this community might give him an award for civic improvement if he did.)

Would you be this upset if they'd done the same to the leader of the political wing of Hamas? I have serious issues with the "war on what's left of our civil liberties terror", but if you're going watch people affiliated with terrorist organizations, then you should apply that logic across the board, and not give some people a pass because their terrorist group of choice is backed by a politically powerful ethnic group.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Ah, so a gay and lesbian organization is now the equivalent of the KKK or Neo-Nazis? Good to know. ((I'm going to make myself a Clue Bat, I swear...))

And the Pancake Meow stuff is adorable, but I know if I ordered any I'd either 1) try to eat it, or 2) consume even more junk food than I already do to make up for the fact that I couldn't eat it. lol

Speaking of food, I now crave Panera. The nearest one is an hour away. Woe.

Oh, for fucksake is right

[ginmar.livejournal.com]

Um...why is it dipshits like this never realize what big flags they're waving when they say something like this? Dude, relax. No one will be looking at your ass.

[ladykatiewench.livejournal.com]

Could it be an alligator? I am from Florida and yesterday went out to our lake that is famous for being the home of gators. There was a family visiting from upstate New York and they were so shocked to see an alligator. And it swam right up and stared at us. My friend, who is also native around here, and I left before the thing decided to crawl up the bank. The yankees didn't believe us that it could do that and stayed to watch it.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm in Alabama, which is pretty close to Florida, but... I don't see where an alligator would have come from in the first place. Now, if you said it could be an aquatic wererooster, I could possibly believe that, as we actually have a rooster who fell off the poultry truck living out behind the house.

[sualocin.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm not the only one that thought V and Phantom had so so mant simliar things. :)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh, the comparison was in most of the reviews I read. I think the guy's lair tipped them off. ; )

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

I'd signed up for MySpace on a whim, though I never used it. After reading those artices, I just cancelled it outright. I'd like to be as little of a pawn of Rupert Murdoch's as I can possibly can be.

And that 'Phantom of the Anarchy' photo cracked me up. It seems to be trying for dramatic but all I'm getting is...cheesy. Still going to see the film though.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The best part is that the look on Natalie Portman's face is like, "Sigh."

[bardintraining.livejournal.com]

My guess for The Secret of the Streaky Algae would be an otter.
We had the same problem about two years ago with our pool. (I'm assuming it's an in-ground pool rather than an above ground?)) Are there any ditches or rivers near your place that go to the sea or a lake? It could be a river otter, but in our case it was a sea otter because aren't river otters nearly extinct in the Northwest?
In any case, best have an animal expert of some kind check it out before it builds a nest under your deck and births baby otters. Few things are scarier than a pissed mamma-rodent the size of a SmartCar.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The closest thing to a body of water around here is the reservoir--no otters. : (

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

I thought this might be up your alley: a RealPlayer version of the OMGBANNINATED Scientology episode of South Park. (http://hollywoodinterrupted.com/cblog/index.php?/archives/40-HI-EXCLUSIVE-Scientologist-Tom-Cruise-Blackmails-Viacom....html)

[wumbawoman.livejournal.com]

I got this when I tried the link

This Account Has Been Suspended

Damn that Tom Cruise!

[mckennl.livejournal.com]

"Pthoolu removal"

Oh man. COMEDY GOLD!!!

[karl-moebius.livejournal.com]

Poolthulu *gigglesnort* But how does one go about fighting the eldar god of the tiny tiny seas? strong sticks? stiff resolve? harsh language?

[are-there-stars.livejournal.com]

I saw V for Vendetta yesterday afternoon and for the entire movie, I could not place V's voice AT ALL until my boyfriend goes, "I think that's Agent Smith!" and I immediately went, "ELROND!?" but it was after the movie so it's okay.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes. Poor guy doesn't get to show his face the entire movie, does he?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

See, I wouldn't be able to resist saying, "What's wrong with prostitutes?"
--
Here's my take on the MySpace thing:

1) Murdoch is a thin-skinned anti-free speech nogoodnik who will gladly censor people without any governmental encouragement. That's not to say the government might not choose to help things along at some point, but I'm not seeing any evidence of it yet. The government might not like bloggers, but if they wanted to shut them down, they'd arrest key political bloggers on trumped-up charges, same as they do in dictatorships elsewhere. I don't think anybody on myspace qualifies as a "key political blogger" however. The people being shut down are the people who are anti-Murdoch.

2) On the myspace crime issue: Since Murdoch bought myspace, a few isolated problems among millions of users are now being used by Murdoch's political enemies to slam him. For example, "Pirro Attacks Youth Web Site As a Threat (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E1EFF3C550C728CDDAA0894DE404482)" appeared in the NYTimes a couple of weeks ago. Pirro is running for re-election.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

As a journalist, I can tell you that unless you're watching Fox News (which we call Faux News), there is no great conspiracy to push MySpace. The only reason MySpace gets mentioned more often is because most internet-related crimes involve young teens, and they prefer MySpace to any other platform for reasons passing understanding. We usually don't identify the actual site used unless it's germane to the story - when some creep convinced a couple of teens to meet him and very much badness ensued, we simply said he met them on the internet.

Frankly, I've been pushing for us to stop evaluating whether a crime is a big story because they met on the internet. It's soooo sexy, gets parents all scared about watching their kids online... ignoring the fact that most assaults on children and young people come from family members, friends of the family and their own relationships, not crazy wackos on the street OR on the internet. But that's my personal pet peeve.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

and they prefer MySpace to any other platform for reasons passing understanding.

This is so true, and yet I have no idea why. I thought LJ was the Land of 1000 Teenies, but apparently MySpace came and took them all away (so... thanks, you guys?).

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

I don't know why the scented dessert jewelry thing put me in mind of this -- I guess it was just the cuteness factor -- but I feel the need to whore these adorable plushies.

Kristin Tercek's Cuddly Rigor Mortis (http://www.cuddlyrigormortis.com) line. I guess I should have done this around Halloween, since they're spooky-themed plushes, but what the hey. She has a livejournal (http://cuddlyrigormort.livejournal.com), too, and she's uber-nice.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

And also, I presume, not a criminal?

(LiveJournal: Bringing you more non-criminals since... after that girl killed her mother.)

[arpeggiodreams.livejournal.com]

OMG PISMO BEACH. A) so not southern california. completely central california B) omg i go there all the frickin' time.

pismo is like... the beach of choice for EVERYONE around here.

AND DENNY'S. WTF. Denny's is sacred. I thought everyone knew that.

(no, but one time, someone got shot in the women's restroom at the jack in the box in town. my mom refuses to go inside, she'll only order drive-thru)

[r-a-black.livejournal.com]

Icon love. >:)

[lezopez.livejournal.com]

Dude that picture of Nat Portman you linked? Was easily the creepiest part of the film (in my eyes, anyway.)

POTO is a favorite among me and my friends for "Saturay Night Movies We Like to Make Fun Of" so we sadly spent most of the movie giggling at the similarities. And nearly got kicked out at "At least she didn't wake up in a swan shaped bad!"

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeee. And at least he doesn't make dolls of Evey.

[livinthegoodlfe.livejournal.com]

My mom got laid off from Cingular Wireless a few years ago because of movement of jobs to Austin, Texas. Best of luck to yours.

V for Vendetta looks crazy awesome!

[tanz-fanatika.livejournal.com]

I don't see the V/Phantom comparison. Having read the V graphic novel, it's difficult. There are some surface elements that are similar in a V graphic novel to basic Phantom plot comparison, but there aren't a ton. I've not seen the movie yet, so maybe there will be more based on a movie to movie comparison. But I'm a bit biased because I think V is brilliant and Phantom puts me to sleep.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I love (Crazy) Alan Moore and I can't wait to read the book, but having seen the new POTO movie and seen a lot of stills/reviews/spoilers from V, I'd have to say the comparison lies in

1. Guy with cape and mask
2. makes off with young girl
3. and takes her to heavily art-directed lair.
4. Guy tutors girl in music/terrorism.
5. Has seemingly supernatural powers of sneaking around, fighting, taking people out, etc.
6. Guy likes to terrorize people (the Phantom less so, but he does drop that chandelier, he does commit a few murders, and he does like to make people think he's a ghost so as to keep them away from his lair).
7. Mild/weird unconsummated romance; tragically parted at end.

I don't think it's as blatant as to be "The Phantom of 1984" or anything (at least not in the book, from the scans I've read), but I love the way Alan Moore works old allusions and tropes into stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was playing with the Phantom concept, and the filmmakers then ran with the similarities.

[sheilazc.livejournal.com]

I love the food jewelry. I totally just bought some and got a pancake necklace for my friend's birthday! Yay dessert jewelry!

[aliaspiral.livejournal.com]

Pancake Meow stuff is cute, but im still wildly in love with the plushies at My Paper Crane (http://www.mypapercrane.com/").

Seriously, i fell so in love, i iconned the smore. *points*

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

The sad moldy bread and burnt toast are my favorites. I saw them at Bazaar Bizarre in Boston and I was soooo close to buying one, but didn't have the money.

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

I knew MySpace was evil. I just KNEW it!

It was the little people inside me telling me that it was owned by an evil, evil man and THAT was why it sucked ass.

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

Re: Judith Miller - Honey. When it's written, it's libel. J. Jonah Jameson taught me that. What's your excuse?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee. I was waiting for someone to catch that. : )

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Re: Phantom of the Anarchy

Sweet Loki, am I glad I'm not the only one thinking that! It was on the cover of the entertainment section of the local newspaper here, and immediately, I thought, "Is someone cribbing from Andrew Lloyd Webber a la Schumacher?"

[squishysquidgy.livejournal.com]

Just like with those BSC kids that burned the churches
Is that what the Baby-sitters do in their spare time? ;)

[callmesyd.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, that wasn't just me. XD