It's just water...

Thanks for the congratulations, everybody: it does feel good to hit a goal, that's for sure.  Unfortunately, between a very pokey rheumatologist appointment this morning and the steroid related fibro-flare I knew was coming (Stupid steroids), I feel a bit like a wet Mogwai right now:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o2vw_iYBAyY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Definitely untouchable, and barely able to shift in one direction or the other, and very, very glad I finished my words yesterday, so that pain brain is not keeping me from meeting the quota.  Gonna rest up for today, just make it through.  (Also, maybe I'll watch Gremlins, one of the least Christmas-y Christmas movies I love to watch.) 

"Moo!"

Just a little smile for your Friday night. Hope you've got something to look forward to this weekend. :)

Disability related linkage

Here are some disability related posts/pictures I've seen in my recent travels through the series of tubes that comprises the internets:

• Here's an exceptional post by Miss Britt aboutAccepting her new "normal" as she discusses her depression. It is just... amazing.
• Also of note is this post, and the (as always) fantastic comment section, about disability and body image over at FWD.
  
• I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this news: A German toy company is making stuffed animals with ascribed mental illnesses - A turtle with depression, a snake with hallucinations, a sheep with a personality disorder. I've been thinking about it since I saw the initial report, and I still can't decide if I like the idea or not. On the one hand, why not? Why shouldn't there be a percentage of dolls and toys who have illnesses, just like there's a percentage of the population that have illnesses? On the other hand, how are they going to handle it? Is it going to be just one big stereotype on top of another: How do you play a personality disorder? The website, which is called the Asylum :sigh:, is not in English, so I can't exactly tell what the poster is saying about the toys, besides it's about "psychoanalysis" and "treatment" (which seems to be hugs). I just don't know. What are your thoughts?
• Here's a picture of wheelchair fail, via Friends of Irony.
• And here's some wheelchair win, via Tots and Giggles. It's a Wii Balance board based mobility aid that moves using weight sensors, so as the baby moves, or leans, so goes the board. It's pretty amazing work, and I can think of an astronomical number of implications for other types of mobility aids and improvements. From their literature

  We hope to use what we learn from this work to develop systems to allow safe, purposeful powered movement for infants with physical disabilities. The next phase of the research will be to study the same research questions using different control systems, and working with children with disabilities.

  
  
  

I always have 23000 links that I mean to post here, and then I get overwhelmed and wind up forgetting. So here's to remembering for once!

A sweet little song,

because everything I'm writing looks as if I've forgotten how to combine consonants and vowels into words. So, here: Zooey always cheers me up. Zooey and hula hoops? Even better.

"Has anybody seen my tambourine?"

Tim Curry is Halloween.

A lot of people have Halloween traditions that revolve around The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I don't think I've ever even seen the whole thing. For me, Tim Curry has some films in his reperitoire that are quite a bit scarier:

Between It, which basically ruined my sister's childhood & ability to go to birthday parties without melting down (and which, sorry SisterJ, they are remaking :yay!) and my favorite nonsensical Halloween 80's throwback treat, The Worst Witch, there is plenty of proof that Tim Curry is an excellent actor, appropriately cheesy, and just a creepy, creepy guy.

Evidence: He hates orphans; he wanted the rainforest destroyed; he ruined the word "poppet" for me; he plotted to kill a king; and he did it all with a smarmy, oil-slick sneer. He can be funny, could be charming - No: he is charming - but at the same time, you can't kind of tell he wants to rip you to pieces as soon as you aren't paying enough attention.
This is a guy who just can't help it: He's creepy in two Christmas movies... and a Muppet movie, for goodness sake. So here's a little Tim Curry to get you in the Halloween Spirit:

"And that's the way it is..."

I was too young to watch Walter Cronkite on the evening news, but, as kind of a history buff, I've since seen a lot of his reports. The two that stick out so clearly in my head right now are the ones in which he is openly emotional - reporting the assassination of JFK and the moon landing several years later. I can't really relate to a newscaster that everybody trusted implicitly (nowadays there's little on television that can be trusted, news or no, IMO), but his humanity is what is striking to me - His deep sense of mourning when he announces Kennedy's death, his obvious awe and abundant JOY when Armstrong takes that first "small step."





Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.

"That's the way to catch a beau..."

That's from More New Math. Let me just add that NTE's Insomnia = The Pull-out Couch of Death (TM) + YouTube Videos of Haley Mills Movies = Having "PollyaANNNAAAA" or the totally anti feminist lyrics from Femininity "You must walk feminine, talk feminine, smile and beguile feminine ... Hide the real you" in your head all freaking day long.


Just in case you were wondering what "every girl should know"



You're welcome. (bangs head against desk) Go play Jeopardy, boost your IQ.

Piddle ...

I'm listening to the traffic that follows the 4th of July spectacular here - perhaps you saw my across the river neighbors on the television? - and am glad to have spent this fourth here, at Grandmother's house. I know I've done (more than) my share of complaining about the fact that I am still here (66 days and counting), but that's only because I long for home. My bed, my things, my complete ability to not get dressed for 37 days in a row if I so choose home. The company here is splendid, overall, though, and I'll admit I may just have been in the place I needed to be tonight.

Because, since I've been sick, the 4th of July was something I did with Nana. With the rest of my family moving off to one rooftop or another to try to catch the best view of the fireworks, Nana and I would watch the Pops, mock the line dancers who couldn't hold the beat (could FIND the beat), and shake our heads at the fact that people needed karaoke words for Yankee Doodle Dandy. She would walk away in disgust as acts like Aerosmith "paraded around like pansies" or Big & Rich "screwed up even the Star Spangled Banner". I would tune her out or in, accordingly, waiting till she came back from her latest cigarette to tell her about the doofus with a really tall Uncle Sam hat. And she'd be settled in with her last hot cup of tea by the time the fireworks started, and she - who didn't really understand the point of special effects in movies or anything like that - would be captivated, would gasp and point out her favorites like any member of the crowd. It was something she didn't really enjoy in person ("too much smoke, people & bother," she'd say), but on TV, it made her face light up. It came back to me, all in a wave tonight, that she's not just at home watching without me, that I won't get to watch them with her again. And so, the tears then, and now, as I sit listening to the honking that she would've cursed, because it's still hard to know that.

Watching tonight with Grandmother & UJ was different - UJ was pissed at the people in the street who let their dog run loose, for one thing and so it was a bit tenser than usual - but it was good. It was happy. Grandmother didn't let the fact that she's not a singer stop her from singing along to the patriotic music (like I do), and she appreciated each extra sparkle and twinkle that the fireworks could provide, each time a little painted face came up on the big screen. It was good for me, and I think, good for them (I guess they don't usually watch: which - sacrilege!) I heard the stories of when they used to go to the fireworks, of when Arthur Fiedlder was leading the Pops, of the time my eldest cousin pouted all the way back to the car (because my uncle made them leave early to beat the traffic - I don't get that either).

I miss Nana - all the time, every day - but today was a little bit easier because I was here.

But here's a movie I introduced my Revolutionary-War-Lovin', 5th-Grade-Teaching Nana too, and a song, just for her.

Did you ever see that movie...?

In other news, Yes, I am still at Grandmother's. No, I do not want to talk about it right now. Except to say - Did you ever see The Money Pit? It was always one of my Dad's favorite movies, and anything that made my dad laugh hard enough to cry was in frequent viewing rotation in our house.

It's about a couple who buy their "dream house" and how the house then crumbles around down around them, making the couple crazy bit by plastered bit. It's a hilarious movie, if only because Tom Hanks does that little barking laugh thing that he does, and I find that pretty dang funny. Here's the laugh:




Anyways, during the movie, there's a running gag: each of the workmen (contractors, plumbers, electricians) who come to work on the house all promise that their work will be completed in "two weeks". Months pass, work continues, and yet, always the reply is "two weeks." The "two weeks" quote became one of our family sayings, whatever we'd all say when somebody asks us how long what we're doing is going to take and we really have no frickin idea. It's really come around to bite me on the ass though, this time. Because I've been hearing "this weekend" for the past 2 months. So "this weekend" is really just code for "two weeks". It's not as funny when it's true.

But the scene where Walter (Tom Hanks' character) is stuck in the rug? Always funny. Always. (Sorry, the only clip I could find was of very poor quality.)

I know, I know: Where have I been? Long, much delayed explanatory post to follow ASAP, but in the meantime, Here: have a video. Click the link. Let's get this thing passed.

A new ballet

Amazing. Ballet is so beautiful to me, and I love it when there is something new to see.

My love for Celebrity Jeopardy

Seriously, people... Celebrity Jeopardy is SO awesome because they make the questions ridiculously easy to answer in order to make the celebrities look smart. Which is probably not all that easy. Tonight's episode included exactly two questions to which I did not readily know the answer. It also included a question under the category of "Weeds" that mentioned the word 'tumble' to which the answer was "tumbleweeds," so you shouldn't be all that impressed. But it sure does make me feel smart. :D

I also have a deep and abiding love for all the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy parody skits, particularly those with Sean Connery.



I don't know if it's Celebrity-fied again tomorrow night (Alex was talking about Tournament of Champions, which is the exact opposite of Celebrity Jeopardy and makes me feel pretty dumb, usually), but you should try to catch it if it is.

I have been posting videos from You Tube all week,

and none of them are here... Were they here and disappeared or did they never appear... must investigate.

And, of course, I can only remember one of them for re-posting purposes...

Well, here you have it: a song that's been stuck in my head all week, here to taunt you during the weekend.



I'll be back later today, I hope with more things, but I just saw that there were no new posts up and that was confusing to me. ... Any ideas?

Is there some sort of reason that people consider Groundhog Day to be a Christmas movie? I found 2 clips (so far) on YouTube that include Groundhog Day in their Christmas montages... I don't get it. I think it's pretty clear that that is, in actuallity, a GROUNDHOG DAY movie. In fact, it is the only Groundhog Day movie I can think of. So let's not gyp Groundhog Day, here people: let it have its one movie - Christmas has plenty of its own to chose from.