Dryope

Ugh

I had to take the day off to see my doctor (the appt is at 11:45 and it takes an hour to get to work and back home), and when I got there my doctor just said she needed to take my weight and blood pressure. What a scam! I guess it's better than getting a pelvic exam, though.

September?

So there I was, literally surrounded with Jayne hat matter, when some stranger made some comment out of the blue about me being ready for Christmas.

So, of course, I had to set him straight about Firefly and how it's a great show and how it was cancelled before its time and how it's coming out as a movie next April. I was very adamant about that point.

And now I find that it's coming out in September.

Sep-tem-ber.

This is so depressing.

Ma Cobb

<p>I noticed someone was looking for Ma Cobb's letter at my site the other day, so I thought I'd post it here.</p>

<p>My dear boy,<br />
I hope you are well and that you get this soon in your travels.<br />
Thank you for the credits you forwarded. They have helped, as Mattie is still sick with the damp lung.<br />
I made you the enclosed to keep you warm in your travels.<br />
Hope to hear from you soon.<br />
Love,<br />
Your Mother.</p>

<p>Jayne stumbles over the first "travels"--could it be his mother mispelled it?  Just a theory.</p>

Actual Christianity in Conservative America

I don't believe it--actual Christianity still exists. There was an article in the Washington Post today about how a "red state" reacted to their feature article on an Oklahoma teenager's homosexuality.

Ok, so there were the usual jerks doing wonderfully ironic things in the name of Christianity. But there are people in that town who actually read the Bible and accepted the kid. And not just the ones who do it only to "save him from his sin." Some people realized that we're all sinners and shouldn't be judging others in God's name (some of whom even thought it wasn't necessarily a sin anyway).

Here's the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48197-2004Nov13.html

My favorite part:

"[The protesters] raised their signs. Fags Are Worthy of Death. Fags Doom Nation. Fag Church. Your Pastor Is Lying. Others involved obscene drawings and references to excrement. One of the protesters dragged an American flag on the ground.

"A truck roared by from the main road and the driver shouted, LET HE WHO CAST THE FIRST STONE!"

See Jayne Knit

<p>For anyone out there knitting a Jayne hat, there's a bag for you at <br />
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/browse/?y=7&N=0&pv=lourdes.10609935&No=1&Ntk=All&Nao=1&Ntt=jayne&x=20</p>

<p><a href="http://dryope.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/seejayneknit.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=240,height=240,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false"><img alt="Seejayneknit" title="Seejayneknit" src="https://dryope.typepad.com/superfly/images/seejayneknit.jpg" width="100" height="100" border="0" style="float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;" /></a><br />
</p>

(Click for a bigger picture.)

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Things that bother me

1. Using "vehicle" to refer to anything other than a mode of tranportation. As in, "Veronica Guerin is a Cate Blanchett vehicle." Because who would make a film about a crusading anti-drug reporter murdered in the line of duty for any other reason than to prop up Cate Blanchett's career?

2. Using "parens" as if it's a real word and not a made up one used by 1) lazy people 2) grammarian dilettants and 3) insufferable twats. As in "You should separate that aside with commas, rather than parens."

3. Using "hey" as a spoken word signal for quotation marks. As in "Then he walked up to me and said, hey, is this guy boring you?" (Don't believe me? Listen for it. Offenders are often repeat offenders.)

The Big Board

For those of you keeping score, it's now:
Dreamworks 0
Sparks 1
Disney 1

Caring for Jayne Hats / Wool

Someone recently asked me how to best care for the hats, and I realized I totally forgot to tell everyone about caring for wool.

Here's the big issue: don't put it in the washing machine unless you know what you're doing. 'Cause you run the risk of getting a smaller felt hat instead of your big wobbly knitted one. And you'll have to find some way to put it on your dog. Which admittedly would be cute.

There are a lot of websites who talk about caring for wool--the best one I could find is this one:
http://graywolfwoolens.com/woolcare.html

Here are the highlights:

*Wool shouldn't need to be washed normally. I mean, unless it has obvious smells or stains.
*When it really needs to be washed, do it by hand. Use a gentle soap (it recommends a few, but woolite-type stuff is fine)
*It's better not to use really cold water, since wool shrinks. Lukewarm is fine.
*To dry it, wring out the excess water and blott it with a towel. Then stretch and prod it back to the shape you want and let it air dry flat.

This time capsule ain't big enough for the both of us

I'm listening to the Sparks canon, which was shared with me in an mp3 swap with Mr. X (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty).

I'm sure they were immensely clever at the time their songs came out, but...well, except for about five songs, it's completely based in its time and totally unlistenable to anyone not living in the 1970s. I'm talking about a need for total self-immersion here, possibly a time machine.

That, and it sounds kind of like Queen with that guy from Rush as the lead singer.

I mean, if you squint a bit.

Oh, and with overly clever lyrics. So, sort of like Eminem writing for Queen as sung by that guy from Rush. In the early '70s.

Again, you have to squint.

Oddly, one of their songs sound almost exactly like that song from "The Lion King"--"I just can't wait to be king". (I mean, not a good song from "TLK" but, well, there it is.) Anyway, it's "Pretending to Be Drunk". It's much better with the Sparks lyrics.

...Incidentally, it explains my party persona pretty well.

Anyway, despite a dated discography, they have a pretty impressive fan site:
http://www.allsparks.com/home_h.php

Come for the over-the-top Sparks fandom, stay for the cool javascript.

So there's that.

Prie Jesu Domine Dona Nobis Requiem

SMACK!

I am such an idiot. I ran into my *new* (and incumbent) senator at the metro today and I told him I didn't vote for him. This was stupid because:

1. We're a very blue state and he's very blue. He's not used to hearing this and didn't take it well.
2. He was basking in his glory, too, and didn't expect it.
3. Why the hell would you inform some stranger that you didn't push a button next to his name, without being forced into it with hot irons to your feet? And, more to the point, why would you open with it before asking him about some minor point in his (or possibly some other guy's--now I'm not so sure)
platform?
4. I remembered two minutes after walking away that I had, in fact, voted for him.

But I felt much better after a long bath.

Oh--and btw, now is the time for all good liberals to come to the bar to take up drinking. Screw aiding the party. What's all this "Every vote will be counted" stuff at 10am, followed shortly by a "Kerry called Bush to concede" thing. We had to hear it /third hand/ from /CNN/? What's up, Democrats?

I knew Kerry was a flip flopper all along.