Facebook - the last week of May

MAY 24TH

As Lost departs, some good news: Glee has been picked up for a 3rd season. Yes, they're still in the 1st, which means we have at least two more years to watch.

No doubt mold exposure has health consequences, but HGTV is on & the steps taken to contain & remove a *small* amount of mold seem insane. Then a revelation - the contractor started out in asbestos removal. As that biz declined, the owner says they morphed to mold removal & "got the word out about the dangers". Huh. You'll excuse me if I think that translates to "stoked America's paranoia to keep the $$ coming in."

St Adalbert Alumni - Today I ran into Miss Hutch== for the first time in 20 years. Her hair was cut close to the scalp, with a pencil thin ponytail running down her skull to her shoulders. Not quite the traditional look of a Catholic school principal, eh?

May 25th

President Obama said that we rely too much on gadgets. He gave a passionate speech about technology, but he had to stop when the teleprompter broke. - Craig Ferguson

Just finished "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters, a ghost story set in the countryside of postwar England. Waters is a heck of a writer, and her prose sings. Here's the problem: there are literally ~ 9 pages of action in the 463 pg novel, almost all of it retold by a third party. I suppose the last line of the novel is supposed to 'unlock the secret' of the house, but is it worth the effort to get there?

I DVR'd a Torchwood marathon on BBC, the first time I've had a chance to see this Doctor Who spinoff. Much darker than Who, but so far the acting and writing are top notch. The negatives? As usual writer/creator Russell T. Davies tries hard to push his personal beliefs on the audience, which always gets on my nerves.

We're watching the finale of DWTS [Dancing w/ the Stars], and in particular Kate Gosselin's 'rise to the heavens'. May I just say - WTH??? Lisa and I burst out laughing, as did Tom Bergeron, and probably most of America. Oh Lawdy.

Nicole won Season 10 of DWTS, and she deserved the title. The whole finale was over the top but fun to watch. OTOH, American Idol sucked. Bowersox's 'Black Velvet' was impressive vocally but she looked (let's be honest) like a clydesdale in that black dress. Yikes. Meanwhile Lee brought his C game at best. Bowersox will/should take the crown of a crappy, crappy season.

"Studies have shown that a strict dress code fosters a safe and stable learning enviroment with fewer instances of gang violence and vampirism" - Glee

MIB: Am I [wrong]? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress. - Lost

May 26th

The only thing worse than fiction that ignores the moral ambiguity of our world is fiction that creates ambiguity where there is none. Sometimes right is right and wrong is wrong, and watching a character struggle with obvious moral decisions doesn't inspire me: it tells me the author is lazy and ignorant of his characters motivations.

I post this [a link to a Doctor Who disappearing Tardis mug] for no other reason than I saw it on FB and suddenly remembered I owned one as a kid, although it was a much plainer design. I think I paid just as much tho' ($14.95) and that was 20+ years ago!

[re: Fergie's 'London Bridge'] I'm just saying: if you're a heterosexual man and can make it through this video without needing a box of kleenex and a cigarette chaser, then uh, maybe that time at Band Camp wasn't just to satisfy your curiosity. Not that there's anything wrong with that.



Aw, man. RIP Art Linkletter, age 97.

Lee wins American Idol?! I didn't see it coming but he's got a great commercial voice & should do fine. Congrats! As for the finale as a whole, wow, the average age of the performers was what - 81, 82? Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Michael McDonald? Now I love me some BeeGee's, but overall this skewed far older than the audience they want/need, no? Loved seeing Alanis tho'. We should've named one of our daughters after her.

May 28th

Last night I started/finished Stephen King's new release "Blockade Billy", the story of a star MLB catcher that has his records erased forever after he does a little something . . . out of the norm. It also includes the story "Morality". An enjoyable, quick read. B+

Actor Gary Coleman is dead at age 42. RIP.

TV show's don't normally scare me - what am I, ten ? - but Torchwood may be the exception. Case in point, the episode 'Countrycide'. How the hell was that shown on broadcast TV, even in the UK? Folks being skinned and eaten for dinner, corpses everywhere - c'mon that was NUTS.

Got home from work, set the sprinkler out in the backyard for the kids, now cooking dinner and reading Rex Stout. A good afternoon/early evening.

Fed the kids, then took YaYa to the mall to get a new remote from Time Warner & somehow got suckered into spending $6 on scented hand sanitizer at Bath & Body Works. We got home in time to see the last 3 innings of the Brewers game and Hart's walk-off homer. Now I'm settling in for a night of Rex Stout and reruns of 'Justified'.

(radio station) The Brew is no more, ditching its 80's format. And I'll have to change my radio presets, since Smooth Jazz 106.9 has dumped jazz. Dangit.

May 29th

This morning we put our cat Billy, age 15-16 years, to sleep. Many, many tears to start this day. RIP Big Bill - you were The. Best. Cat. Ever.

RIP Dennis Hopper

Angelcakes, our remaining cat, just made a circuit of the house, I'd imagine looking for her friend Billy. She meowed to get my attention but fled rather quickly; sad. On a brighter note, I just watched Corey Hart blast his 2nd homer of the night, a sure HR the second it left his bat.

Congrats to Roy Halladay on his perfect game for the Phillies. (he would later pitch a no-hitter in the post-season)

Thanks for all the kind thoughts today. We didn't cxl any of our plans, hoping to keep the kids minds focused away from Billy. Lisa, Smiley and YaYa went up north to visit friends; LuLu went skating w/ a friend and to a party; I did some yard work, went grocery shopping, wrote, read, and watched baseball. Still, a shitty day.

May 30th

The more you put in a brain the more it will hold - Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout)

I finished "The Father Hunt" by Rex Stout today, a mystery centered around a paternity case. Not the strongest of Stout's plots, but otherwise a typical Nero Wolfe mystery - which is to say, a great read.

May 31st

I just finished writing and submitting a piece for the Journal on a computer with a mouse that doesn't track and a copy of Word that error'ed out and lost the complete first draft. I'm not even sure the attachment was correct, because that was finicky too. Jeez, except for the fact that I was clean, safe, & sitting on my butt, it was one step up from coal mining.