"When a woman ceases to alter the fashion of her hair, you guess that she has passed the crisis of her experience."

Yep, dyein' my hair again... second time today. It came out ok, but it was exactly the same light brown-with-a-little-green that my eyes are and... no. Just, NO. So I'm workin' on it.

(Later) Oh. Huh. My bro calls it "Leelu Dallas Multipass red," and... it's not quite, but close. Put it this way, my eyebrows are too dark. Whoops!



It's actually closer to this, except darker on the bottom layers, which makes it look like I get outdoors a lot more than I really do:



and 5 minutes of dye on my brows was enough to lighten them the necessary tiny bit, so yay.

Oh, holy crap.

So, it's a good thing I got the lease on the new apartment started early, cause my inadvertently deadbeat brother isn't coming up with any rent at all this month, and we're quite possibly getting chunked out of this place. F--in bummer, man. Everything was looking pretty good, and now.... shit. Of course Dan's horribly pissed and wigged out about his credit rating and about a sudden kamikaze move (damn, that's exactly what I didn't want!), and I'm frantically hitting loan websites trying to get some help with the sitch, which isn't working so far. Family is family, but dammit.... this is so far from okay.

On top of that, I impulsively got all my hair chopped off yesterday by a different (cheaper) lady than usual, and it's... not fabulous. She was the type who thinks her idea of what your hair should be is better than your own, and, well, it wasn't. Oh well, it'll grow, and I can pull it back in the meantime. It's sorta like this, when Hana chops off all her hair in "The English Patient," only chin length and curlier. And more like Prince Valiant. :(

My mommer'n'em get here today, which is nice, I'm just hoping I can get into a halfway decent mood to hang out with them. Argh. Bad words. Argh!

Same time, next year?

It's 5:20 am. I've been awake an hour. Sound familiar? I iz annoyed. I'm also WAY too good at freaking myself out- I just went outside, and when I picked up my Camels, they were beside my copy of "World War Z," so I started thinking, "What if there were zombies out here? What if they were the fast kind?" I smoked that one really quickly.

Speaking of night terrors, I've managed to mostly get over a lingering problem I had with Jason Voorhees, especially since working Horror Nights year before last... I was walking along the lake where the Jaws ride is, behind the cabins, at dusk, looked up and saw SIX Jasons, machetes in hand, walking toward me. I swear, I almost peed on myself. I saw this little Spanish movie called "A Real Friend" recently, and it was amazingly helpful on the Jason front- though the "real friend" was actually modeled on Leatherface, same principle. The movie's from an awesome series called "6 Films To Keep You Awake," and FearNet was showing 'em all in turn til the jerks at Brighthouse yanked the channel and started charging for all the movies it used to carry. Bah. S'okay, they had 'em online for free at the website, so I finished the series anyway. And- tangentially- has anyone else noticed how many awesome Spanish horror movies there are out there? SHHHHHH!!! Don't tell anyone! The last thing we need is another Hollywood no-imagination-'ho-fest of swiping sweeeet scary movies and dumbing 'em down. The J-horror mess has been pitiful enough. /rant. Sorry, I get grouchy when I wake up for no good reason. Wordy, too.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

It's dreadfully embarrassing, but I've somehow become a way-late-in-the-day "Watchmen" fangurl. It's probably because I've had so many comic book boys for friends and boyfriends- I tend to smile indulgently on their obsessions without actually paying much attention (ME? Not doing research?!? GASP!) until I inadventently join in (Yay, Doctor Who!). I've only recently realized that the Alan Moore interest sparked by "From Hell," "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," "V for Vendetta," the new "Watchmen" movie, adds up to some cool shit I've never bothered to read up on, which is just not like me. I liked every one of those movies except "LXG," which was so wrong on SO MANY LEVELS- I know opinions on Wold Newton stories in general are divided- I'm still not too pleased with my beloved R.A. Heinlein's attempt to bring it all back home, but I love, love, love Kim Newton's "Anno Dracula" for the name dropping and world building and... okay, I'll stop. Point is, fantasy fans are what they are, no matter which genre name/discipline/denomination they're willing to admit to, and I feel like a doofus. I was blown away by "Watchmen," reading it preparatory to seeing the movie. I don't have much to say critically (this is why I wasn't a successful English major. "Gah!" and "Sweet!" don't make particularly incisive commentary). Seriously, though.... DUDE, I liked the book, and I'm not as pleased with the movie as I wanted to be. It's like a slideshow of someone's vacation- it LOOKS right, it LOOKS like what they told you, but... it's got no balls (yes, Ozymandias, I'm lookin' at you...), no oomph. It does NOT help that I've developed a weird thing for Mr. Scary Anti-Hero of 1985, the Comedian (I dreamed he was macking on me at my granny's funeral- weird). I've become consumed by this visual world, and ever more irritated that the moving version is so... wrong in some ways, and boring in others. Ach. I'm a giant weirdo, and es que obvio que I'll have to move past this latest obsession, cause I can't be the Silk Spectre for Halloween (I look dreadful in yellow), and even if I were, people'd think it was about the movie rather than the book, which would be highly irritating. *sigh* Read the book, y'all- there's cool related stuff on the web: an Alan Moore interview here, some really interesting conspiracy-theory type stuff , even theses on this world. It rocks, way more than the damn economy news does- yet it still fits in with what's happening now.

Good stuff.

Oh, dear.

Just watched "Little Miss Sunshine"- yeah, I know, I'm like three years behind on that- and it was aight. Steve Carell was really good, and I was so relieved it didn't get overly twee, or self-conscious trying to show outsider types (yeah, Napoleon Dynamite, I'm lookin' at you). Not good enough to buy, but not bad.

Anyway, it's a slow day. I'm a bit tranked, so that adds to the draggy feeling. The doc and I have talked about the idea that 100 percent better isn't a quick process, that sometimes 50 or 80 percent can be enough "better" to get by. I just want the energy to put up Xmas lights and wrap presents, maybe stay at work a whole 8 hour day. When's 80 percent gonna hit?

(Later)
Gonna have to call a mulligan on the dressmaking dummy. One problem with being, er... A Whole Lotta Girl is that it's really tough to get the bits and pieces stuffed without structural collapse issues. Cloth squooshes, wet tissue paper won't stay put, and tinfoil... well, if you've seen the nutjobs' hats, you can imagine. Kinda Gaultier. I'm thinking 3 layers of duct tape filled with Great Stuff foam for the next go round.

Keep on rowing away on a distant sea...

So I did something I don't do about a week ago. I refused to acknowledge an apology. I'm sorry, but it was crappy- a buddy called it "doin' the Jesse Jackson,"- you know, when a politico apologizes "if I offended anyone" instead of admitting what they did. I feel rude, but I just couldn't deal with replying. I wouldn't know where to begin. Fudge it.

Freaky happenins with my beloved tardis tonight- stopped at the gas station after work, and it wouldn't crank back up for 15 minutes. Battery-opped stuff was comin' on fine, no scary alternator clickies, it just... didn't go. Gonna drive it around for a while this weekend in case the 1.5 mile run to work is too little for the batt to properly recharge, and of course I've got the Roadside boys on speed dial.

On a happier note, it's rolling up on Halloween again! Sure, we're 2 months out, but that's only for you lazy peeps don't sew yer own costumes. I'm gonna be Mrs Lovett- I know, lotsa emu's will probly do it, too, but I've got OCD-level attention to detail and a good figure for corsets in my favor.

Now THAT was a Batman movie!

WIDE awake. Hyper. Gotsta be at work at 7 am, and I may be going back to the movies for round two afterward. Okay, rewind: worked for a minute this am, swam, napped, bought a sexy plum-colored tank but didn't buy the saffron Calvin Klein dress ($32!) cuz it didn't look quite right. Got four hardbacks for twenty bucks at the bargain bookstore ("Duma Key" for a DOLLAR!), had fish'n'chips at The Cricketers Arms, went to the movie. I was ticked we got a smaller theatre, but it was good- it got hella hot, but not unbearable, and I didn't have to deal with the migraine inducing THX the big 'uns usually crank up. As for "The Dark Knight"...... DAYUM. It's as good as you've heard. THAT was the Batman movie I expected and didn't get with "Batman Begins." It's rilly, rilly good, y'all- complicated, long, and this sibilant, tongue-flickery, mordant Joker...... dude, it's been a while since I heard that much inappropriate laughter from uncomfortable audience members, and that was kinda interesting. I do need to point out that this commercials-before-the-trailers thing has gone all kinds of Ourobouros when they show a tv commercial for "The Dark Knight" in the theatre before playing "The Dark Knight." That's just wrong. The movie's sweet, though- keep an eye out for the two shots of the Joker sans makeup- none of the reviews I've seen have mentioned it yet, and I'm kinda surprised, considering how important the event immediately following seems. You'll see! Ooooh, and the trailer for "Watchmen" is cool, cool, cool. Yeah, I may go again tomorrow.

Miami Beach STINKS!

Seriously, that was the smelliest town I've EVER been to. I used the restroom in two different places, and they were just horrifying. Lotta hoochies down there, too, even big girls who should've known better. Dan and I parked by a CSI: Miami van, which was just awesome OGP, even though they're different on the show, and saw "The Hulk" to kill time. It was... loud. I had to leave before the end, because my neck med's side effects include panic attacks, and I was having a little bit of a problem, but I don't think I missed much. I like Edward Norton a lot, but I wish his ego didn't screw up half his movies. He's amazing when he's acting instead of soapboxing, and this felt like the latter.

The Eddie Izzard show was... alright. After a small controversy when it was discovered that the row our bloody expensive tickets were for doesn't actually exist (and BOY were those some rude theatre employees), we ended up with good seats about twenty feet from the stage. Eddie's a handsome devil (he has the bluest eyes I've ever seen- hm... well, top three, anyway), and wore his usual jealousy-inducing shoes. He could've used a bit more eyeliner, but the cerise coat lining matching his shirt was quite nice. His tour is only halfway through, so the show is still a bit wonky. The beginning was good- he did very funny bits about playing "air violin" and dinosaurs in church, but... it mind-smelled like he was in a bad mood. It just wasn't as smart as he usually is... re-using the damn giraffes was one thing, but barf jokes?... from Eddie? Really? Come ON! I'm wondering if "The Riches" has affected his normal accent as well as his inclination to do other ones (he didn't do James Mason when he was God, or Sean Connery with the 'hashashins'!), and he was a bit... dickish about Americans, and not in his usual I'm-taking-the-piss kind of way. Maybe the miamismell (would that be a miasma? A miasmi?) had gotten to him, too. Oh, well- it was lovely to finally get to see him live.

My neck is a bit better, but I'm furious that ibuprofen is working after an eighty-five dollar doctor visit for meds that didn't help. I'm feeling very... resigned right now. Disliking yourself sucks, because after all, there's not much choice- you can't say, "You know, I think I'd rather be Carmen Miranda today." Besides, I'm out of fruit.

This old house

I swear, I HATE maintenance men. This is the second day I've waited around the house for them to show up- and yesterday was SO GORGEOUS- and they haven't bothered. The main one even stopped in late yesterday to apologize (and stare at my boobs) and promised they'd be here to re-do the vinyl today, and have they come by? Of course not. Well, tomorrow I'm doing whatever I please, and if it interferes with their hectic schedule of not keeping appointments, that's just too freakin' bad!

(5 minutes later)
I'll be darned, they just got here. I should've posted earlier.

(20 minutes later)
Y'know, the new vinyl's a nicer color... that's kinda cool.

(2 hours later)
DAMN IT, you can totally see a slant in the line of squares alongside the bathtub. And this guy wasn't nearly as neat with his caulk as Borat was. I coulda done better, and I'm not good with caulk AT ALL. (stop that snickering!) But hey, at least I can stop envisioning the floor collapsing while I'm eyebrow deep in soap and singing "American Girl" and plummeting downstairs to land in the neighbors' john, terrifying their sweet little daughter (we recently had the best conversation EVER about why blowing bubbles is awesome) and putting her off Tom Petty forever. It's always nice to scratch a potential catastrophe off the list. So, like, bonus! Next I think I'm'a watch me a zombie movie.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The entire concept of "credit" is such a friggin' scam. I've been looking at car stuff, figured I might as well bite the bullet and find out exactly how much lower the nonsense with the student loan nazis has driven my credit score, and- get this- because I couldn't confirm the name of the new bastards the SLN's sold my loans to (without, y'know, telling me or anything) from a multiple choice list of ACRONYMS, Experian blocked my access to my own credit report. Of course, if I download, fill out, print, and mail in their looooong form with copies of all my id and my "10-digit PIN code" (WHAT? WHAT PIN code?!!? Does everybody have one and I was out sick that day?), they'll consider mailing me the number in about 3-6 weeks. All this because I don't know the name of a company I never did business with! Please, spare me the lectures about being a responsible consumer- my point is, if you don't start the game knowing the rules (and I didn't) the system is set up to fuck you for life, and it makes me really frustrated and angry and depressed. C'mon, I just want a decent car without having to do anything illegal to get it. Then again, that would probably be less complicated.

(Later)
Realized I've never given Robert Piguet's Baghari a proper try since the large sample came, so I piled it on. Feeling much better now. Still pissed, but I smell terrific!

(Even later)
The Baghari's turned overwhelming in this hot weather- getting headachy- but it is a good scent overall. Watching "Blacula" in between family phone calls- it's a big weird day for us. Yay for divorces!

(Way, way later)
"Blacula" was GREAT! No, seriously, it's actually a good movie! Y'all should all go rent it right now.

Holy crap!

1) The plumber actually showed up! Damn, I KNEW I shoulda washed my hair earlier. No tub for a day or so = not fun.

2) The Eddie Izzard tickets came, and they're just beeyootyful. I may sleep with them.

3) "Children of Men" is a damn good movie, but I feel like a doofus for not recognizing Michael Caine (he's up there with Sean Connery in the Ridiculously Hot Old Guys category).

4) I'm sniffin' Bond No 9's New Haarlem today. Started pretty, faded to popcorn, still smells like it 4 hours in. Dan and the plumber (this is a very... er... forward sort of plumber) both like it. It's better than Broadway Nite, which I said- and Dan agreed- smelled like prossies, but not nearly enough better to be the delicious HG I hope to find. My insanely cheap full bottle of Fendi Theorema should arrive today/tomorrow, and I'm in the bidding for cheap-OH Badgley Mischka, so at least I won't smell BORING for the forseeable future. :)

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

So I'm trying to watch this movie, but I think the butt-itch factor is getting so high I'm gonna have to give up on it for a while. Harry (Robert Downey, Jr) just discovered this broad he and Gay (Val Kilmer) found dead (and whom Gay then accidentally shot) earlier in the evening, only now she's in Harry's shower stall, and he accidentally peed on the corpse. Oh, dear. Never mind the prior boobgrabbingmisunderstanding between Harry and his high-school sweetheart. I don't mind the complication, but I'm starting to wish someone would kill Harry's dumb ass so I can stop squirming through his various humiliations. It's not as painful as watching Ben Stiller, but pretty close. Meh. Gonna see if there's anything else on.

(Later)
Well, "Eastern Promises" is great, and "Constantine" is great fun, so two outta three worked. Not a bad average.

Bad movies, King Arthur, and The Doctor

I've found a distraction from the insanity of job hunting and still trying to get the house organized- Doctor Who is the shizzle, y'all! I never got into it when i was younger, but a friend-of-a-friend made us watch the entire first season of the new ones, and I am all over that show. Got a LOT of years to catch up on.

Believe it or not, I had no idea they were finally making a film version of "The Dark Is Rising" 'til this past Sunday. Dunno how I missed it, as my fascination with wiki-spidering is less than 4 months old, but I did- hell, I've looked the books- and Susan Cooper- up within the past three months, definitely one rainy day just before I moved, and SAW NO MENTION of this crap adaptation. Dammit! I'm horrified by the alterations, and by the way John Hodge (whose prior work for Danny Boyle I'd enjoyed very much-except, of course, 'The Beach') has butchered the novel, with the bullshit excuse that no-one really remembers the series anyway- WE DO, ASSHOLE- but, whoa. I don't want to go into the fantastically detailed sort of rant I've read elsewhere, the kind I subjected Dan to (for HOURS) on Sunday. I discovered the sequence in the 4th-maybe 5th-grade, and just... oh, I loved them. Had to buy one each month with my allowance money, as the Scholastic paper (remember those?) featured only one per month, and there are 5 total in the series. I loved them. Those books ate my head, absorbed me utterly, in a way few others ever have.

I've spent this week job hunting, in a half assed kind of way- in Tallahassee, you COULD apply online for some things, but it wasn't the best way to get a job- or even an interview. In Orlando, you HAVE to. If you go to job fairs, all the booth-people do is hand you business cards and tell you where to apply online. So strange. I did have a good interview with Macy's (for two different malls!), and I've got one for The Mouse tomorrow, but nothing seriously promising yet. OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING BANKRUPT. Ahem.

Side note: Don't EVER buy Sam's fragranced trash bags. They smell like cheap elderly whores.