Grocery Reminder

Nothing at all to see behind the cut tag but a recipe I want to try and also? A reminder to myself to buy chicken legs and parsnips the next time I go to the grocery.

Parsnips are like white carrots, right? I think I like them. My grandfather possibly ate them and I possibly tried them at that time. Kinda sweet - right?

Chicken Stew with Cider and Parsnips
Recipe behind cut tag

Also: Angel. Actually there is no Angel behind the cut tag, but my thoughts are with him this fine snowy (!) day.

( Read more... )

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea? SATAN!!!

So - there is a lot to talk about today and I am late getting started talking about it so let's just dive right in, shall we?

First Up:

I discussed this briefly last night with Lum, but I for one was thrilled to see James Dobson attacking Spongebob Squarepants (as you all know, Spongebob hold hands with his best friend Patrick and this makes him gay). This brings Dr. Dobson (as he is so reverantly called) closer and closer to Falwell territory and as we all know (and if you didn't know, I am telling you)- Jerry Falwell is one step away from being so irrelevant he is Swaggert. He only shows up now as a figurehead on pundit-y shows now because he is so insane. He lost most of his power years and years ago because a grown man pointing at a small children's character called Tinky-Winky and screaming "Fag!" is just not dignified. He became the butt of the nation's jokes and that, my friends, is a great way to conquer an enemy.

Real people attacking pretend TV people is just never a good idea. Ask Dan Quayle about it. Heh - ask half the "OMG Buffy is such a bitch for being so mean to poor ickle Spike, I am so glad she gets beat up by the Ubervamp" people if saying that back then was really such a good idea? Buffy broke up with the dude she was sleeping with - how does that translate to "deserves to have the shit beaten out of her"? Murphy Brown was a professional woman with a job and a solid support network in her forties. She responded to an unplanned pregnancy by actually giving birth to and raising the child. Makes sense that the Vice President would blame her for teen pregnancy and dissolution of the family. Yes, it made sense to... well it didn't really make sense to anyone, now did it?

And now we have come full circle and we have sweet little idiot Spongebob and obviously he is not an appropriate character for children to watch on television as he holds hands with his best friend Patrick. Dude.

Let me get this straight:

1. Kids can't watch or read Harry Potter because witchcraft and magic is evil and of the devil. Cappy recently argued this point with one of her youth group leaders by pointing out that the Disney animated Cinderella also contains witchcraft and magic and yet the youth leader condemns Harry Potter (which she has not read) and buys Cinderella stuff for her little girl. Of course Cappy wishes now she never said anything because this woman went home and took all of her little girl's Cinderella stuff away and now Cappy feels terrible because this little girl really liked Cinderella.

Now, I have issues with Cinderella. Actually, my issues are more with Snow White and I have voiced them loudly since I was a small child and first saw the movie and I think I also embarrassed my mother at the theater.... so anyway back to the subject - All Magic, all references to the fantastical, all elements of any super-realism at all are now barred from children's stories for fear the child will become corrupted by Satan. Ooookay.

I am assuming "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" is on this list. Oh, "Charlotte's Web" should make the cut as well. Pigs cannot talk. I don't care how great they are. Pigs do not talk and spiders cannot spell unless the devil makes them do it.

If you let your child see "The Wizard of Oz" then that child is riding a flying monkey straight to hell! Good Witch of the North!! Why Jesus would put a Smack Down on Glinda just for daring to show up! You know, like Jesus does. With the smacking. I swear all of the book of Mark is just Jesus getting into one scrap after the other. That rascally son of god! Sigh. Oh well, Messiahs will be Messiahs and all that.

2. PBS is a tool of the devil. Sesame Street teaches tolerance and love across racial, social and religious lines and everyone knows that Satan loves some tolerance. Tinky-Winky and Bert and Ernie are just teaching your child what to wear to the gay bar! And that Big Bird, he is mighty suspicious with his bright yellow plummage and his proclivity toward nesting. He is on the list, my friends.

Big Bird: Tool of Beezelbub will be the next headlining story on the Focus on the Family newsletter. Y'all heard it here first. When this happens I want credit for calling it, like a fannish Drudge.

3. Children should not hold hands. Rather than allowing them ways to express affection and cooperation and just be kids, it is an insidious device of, you guessed it, Satan, to condition the children to become gay. Because that is just what does it - holding hands and watching TV will make you gay. It will also give a child a sense of belonging and love and security and we know how much Satan is for that.

Think about it - there is no need for a child to hold hands with Anyone! We have those leash like things to string around them now, they don't even have to hold hands with their parents anymore to cross the street. They can just be...walked across on their leash.

Just as Jesus intended.


So in this topsy turvy country, which is supposedly dominated by Christianity, I have to really stop and take a close look at what it means to be Christian in society today.

Apparently if you are a Christian then this just means you are against Abortions and Gay People. Magic is bad as well. Even pretend magic is bad because pretend is one step closer to being.

Of course these stances are all based on the teachings of Jesus and as we all know Jesus never said anything about retribution or compassion or tolerance or empathy or that by looking out for the least in society you are also looking out for him or that the appropriate response when someone slaps you is to turn the other cheek or that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

Hell no. Jesus wouldn't say that. Loving your neighbor might end in hand-holding.

This Post Is Not About Spongebob, Jesus, Satan or Soup...or *IS* It?

OPENING DISCLAIMER:

The following post is not intended as a critique of the Club Vivid Challenge currently underway (which sounds very exciting and I am eager, as always, to see what happens). The following post is just me, whining and navel-gazing. You know. The usual.

Right then. Carry on.

I'm a bit bummed about the Club Vivid Challenge this year. Not bummed like I am wailing at the walls or rending my garments, more like I would love to make a dance vid but I vow to not commit myself to making any vid this year (after my spectacular bailing on the AtS End of Days Challenge and I will feel better when I just *do* that vid) until said vid was finished.

It's not a matter of deadlines. I know all about the Escapade deadline and I am not stressed (well, I am stressed, just... in a different way). I'll have this vid ready by then. If I didn't - I'd have *something* ready by then or not - if I don't have a vid, then no one is the worse for it.

It is more about the *specifics* and the commitment that yes, "I will vid this song" - I can't claim a song with the intent to vid it and know that I can vid it. Half of my vid starts are just that anymore. Just a start. This of course does not stop me from perusing the list and going "OMG I WANT TO VID THAT" [the rest of this sentence is excised due to obvious attention seeking behavior]. And I am greedy and want all of the songs (ALL OF THE SONGS IN DE WORLD) to belong to me. So there is the letting go of that.

Then I have to examine my motivations for vidding anymore. I wanted to make a dance vid - why don't I just make a dance vid? Why does it have to be a dance vid that specifically *plays* at Club Vivid? When did "Oh, I will do this vid for my VVC premiere vid and I'll do this for Escapade and I'll do this for Club Vivid and I'll go ahead and post this vid and hopefully it can get into Nearly New" become how I vid?

And a corollary to that is me listening to a song that tzikeh gave me on a mix this weekend (and oh, the wacky on this MIX... requires its own post, actually) - the "Spiderman" theme song Big Band remix from the second movie and I really want to see that vidded to...Spiderman. And I could do that - I could make the vid I want to see to this song and I could do it to Spiderman and I would probably really enjoy it... but then I had to stop myself and ask "Do you really want to vid the movie song to the movie? Do you want to be that vidder? Isn't that like wearing the t-shirt to the concert?" And I stopped and then I thought that a Danny Ocean, Oceans 11 vid to that song would really work and be kind of sly, but it would lose a lot of the emotional impact the song has originally for me by divorcing it from Peter Parker. But it will play better at Vividcon if I vidded it to Oceans 11 and all of a sudden I was making a decision to not make a vid just for me but to possibly make a vid I am less emotionally invested in based on who I am going to show it to.

Why waste such a good song on a vid that is really only for me? But then, isn't the fact that I would even say that to myself incredibly stupid?

Because there is vidding for an audience and that is fine. This is good. But, I don't know - is it really the end all and be all of how I want to spend my time? Because I have had a blast with this last vid, the vid I'll send to Escapade, and I went into it knowing that the audience would be really small and maybe that helped me just loosen up and enjoy it. And lately, unless I am vidding something that I will never show to more than a few people, I just haven't been having fun with it (for the most part- there have been *moments* of fun).

And it actually helped me have fun on this vid, knowing that not that many people would be in the fandom or would want to see it or would know the context, or whatever. Right now the thought of a lot of people watching it is kind of filling me with a dread and a panic and dear GOD what was I thinking and I am trying to control that, but man. I am not confident. I was and then I wasn't and it happened so fast I could hear the audible hiss as all of the air went out of my float. I'm still sending it to Escapade, though.

But why?

And to be perfectly honest - I like attention. This is the only explanation. Why else would I be excited about making a dance vid for Club Vivid and then not excited about making the same vid just to make it? I am vidding for attention and this has got to stop or be controlled or something because it could actually, possibly, and I have no proof, but I suspect strongly that this might damage my soul.

So, what do I do? How do I get around this and figure out how best to make certain I am vidding because I want to vid and need to express something and reconcile that with the attention whore within?

Because not vidding makes me a bit nutty. Vidding also makes me nutty - but there is a difference in the quality of the nuts. One is Premium Mixed Nut cocktail with plenty of Brazil nuts and the other is mainly salted peanuts with a couple of cashews tossed in.

How do I get from here to macadamia? Mmmm - chocolate covered macadamias. I want to be the chocolate covered macadamia nut vidder.

I Will Be Strong Like Financially Independent Bull

Okay - snafu is hit on the Road to the Budget.

I am suddenly and overwhelmingly hit with the longing to swing by my favorite used CD store when I leave work.

Or Best Buy.

Or even Joseph Beth Books.

Or Comics Interlude.


All of these places are currently on my Danger Zone list and really - I should not ever go to these places as I can often shop and go into stores and *not* spend money but I have never been in any of these stores (except for Best Buy, the rat bastards) and not spent money. Never. Not even when I had something specific I was looking and they did not have that thing necessitating a trip to another store, I still end up buying somethng completely different just because I see it and it is there and I want it.

And I am being sooooo good with the budget. And I need to continue being good as I have the capacity to be soooo bad. And I know that *not* going to these stores is just a temporary thing, let me get a handle on what I *need* versus what I *want* and then I can budget for what I *want*

But damn I want to curl up on my sofa tonight with hot chocolate and watch Carnivale. I really, really want to do this. Or read the last 2 issues of Nightwing. Or something. Joseph Beth also has really good chocolate...

Ack! I hate my late nights at work!