The Cabin in the Woods

I just got done watching "The Cabin the Woods", a horror film about a group of people who are the unwitting pawns in a complex sacrifice to ancient, hungry gods. Five minutes into it I knew the writing was strong enough to craft a winner, but my oh my did it exceed my expectations. It's funny when it should be ("Good work zombie arm!"), wickedly original without being obnoxious about it, and just plain good. I loved it. Grade: A+

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu" by Lee Goldberg

Today I finished reading "Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu" by Lee Goldberg. When San Francisco's cops go on a work stoppage Mr. Monk is drafted by the mayor to become the temporary homicide Captain. I liked the story, and the dialouge, but dang nabbit I still feel using Natalie's voice to tell the tale is wrong, in part because I don't think Goldberg has enough flair to pull it off. Grade: C+ Book #76 of the year

A Sad but Honest Quote

The ugly truth was that these [psychiatric] patients weren't here to be cured. There were no cures for them. They had illnesses that had to be managed, by them and by those who treated them. They were like ships that would never find a shore. The most you could do was bring them supplies; the most they could do was get used to the rocking, the unpredictability, of the vast, impenetrable ocean below them," - Victor Lavalle, The Devil in Silver

Victory

The Sad Sack Slapjacks won this past weekend, bumping me up to 1-1 on the year. Final tally: 134.50 to 115.40

Fax

Carson Daly: Ryan Seacrest's older, much, much duller brother

That was a heck of a storm

Our power just came back on. I had walked the kids home from school, not realizing there was a storm coming until it was too late. I hustled those kids hard and we made it home in record time, literally setting foot on the front porch just as the wind picked up enough to blow down a nearby tree limb and dump rain and hail in great gushes. The power was out within a minute or two of that, then our street flooded and so did Oklahoma, which is still a lake around Whitnall Ave. Jeez.

re: Smiley - he was fine. took a nap actually

Occupy Wall Street

Lol

150 years on

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, where more than 2100 Union soldiers lost their lives ending Lee's invasion of Maryland. It was more or less a tactical draw (though Lee fled the field) largely because McClellan failed to commit a full 3rd of his forces and would not pursue a retreating enemy (costing him his job). However, it was and remains a significant strategic victory for the Union, allowing Lincoln the means to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and preventing England and France from recognizing the Confederacy. To those who lost their lives on that day near Sharpsburg, thank you. RIP.

Bad News at Work

Crappy news at part-time job today. I'm taking a different shift at FT job, the better to secure long-term employment (I hope). I submitted a new availability schedule at PT, but the GM rejected it out of hand, saying my value to the store was in working X and Y hours and that's that. Well, actually she said a lot of nice things too, but the crux of it is I'm SOL and will be reduced to 'seasonal'. Somehow, by attempting to better myself I've wound up MINUS an income. Grand. Just f'ing grand.

Well, if history holds I'll sleep in the AM til noon or 1, live out my day, crash for an hour in primetime and then head into work. But that was then. Now? Now I have grey hair where I didn't know grey hair could grow. So I'm unsure how to proceed yet.

Benghazi - My Thoughts

The Libyan government, responding to the White House's claim that the embassy attack was merely a protest against an anti-Muslim film, not against a planned assault against the U.S. says Obama's stance is QUOTE  'completely unfounded and preposterous'. 

They state that is was an Al-Qaeda attack, *NOT* a protest.  Intelligence reports from the region warned of the likelihood of an attack days before it happened, the 'protesters' were armed with RPG's, U.S. uniforms, and detailed info about the location of American safe houses, and it occurred on 9/11. Meanwhile, a coordinated assault on a NATO base where Prince Harry is stationed happened on the same day. 

Quit the B.S, and have your lapdogs at CNN drop the smokescreen. We got stung, and stung badly, because the Obama policy of disengagement has emboldened what was once an enemy reduced to hiding in the shadows. PERIOD. 

And please, someone with a respect for the Constitution stop the full court press  against this filmmaker. His work didn't inspire violence, *a culture of intolerance and bloodshed did that*. 

I do not go around murdering people and rioting when Christians are mocked by as*holes like Bill Maher, or when sacrilegious crap like Dan Brown's entire body of work is on the NY Times Bestseller list. But it's the filmmakers fault when these 'protesters' murder and loot in their religion's name? 

Pathetic. Hypocritical. And Pathetic.

Smiley impersonates Mr. Monk

Smiley and I went for a good long walk the other night (~ 3 miles) and he chatted non-stop. While he didn't notice anything amiss, an alarming amount of his conversation centers on worry and anxiety.

Some topics he chose to discuss:

What causes a heart attack? 

Would you (meaning me, Dad) survive getting shot? 

We live on a street that is too busy and has too much traffic. It is unsafe. 

[explaining why he would not walk on the park side of the street]The park is spooky at night. 

[as we passed people eating dinner at a sidewalk cafe] They shouldn't do that.  I would never eat outside. They could be shot!

If you couldn't pay your bills but you still had a job, and we had to move, where would we live? 

Why don't we have a panic room in the house? (!!!!)

Sometimes I think maybe someone with a sword will break into the house and kill us. But probably not. The doors are pretty thick. 

[when told that if someone with a sword broke in, they'd still have to get past me before he'd have to worry about it] Yeah, you are strong. But I think you would lose if he had a sword. 

Why don't we have a panic room? (again)

[when passing across the street from a shop with a flat roof] Do you think if someone was on the roof and they shot at us, they could hit us from here?Even if they did, it would probably not kill us. 

[when asked why the heck he's so obsessed with the idea of being shot/shot at, he looked incredulous and said:] 'Cause  we live in a bad neighborhood!

[when told that we, in fact, do not live in a bad neighborhood but in a rather safe one, he shrugged] Bad things happen everywhere

People are always dying. I do not want you to die. I am only seven and I do not want to lose my Dad. If you died I would be very upset, but I would plan your funeral. I would have lots and LOTS of candles around your coffin. But I would blow them all out before we left because candles can cause a fire and that would be bad. 

I think I will be a good driver when I am older. [by this he means safe; God willing he will be]

[this next quote was actually from a week or two before, at a McDonald's playland] I do not like Ginger playing in that tunnel. Look, the screws [nuts] do not look tight all the way. If Ginger was in that tunnel, and some other kid came in the tunnel, and another kid jumped too much, it could fall and she could be trapped!


When I told him he worries too much and should just concentrate on the here and now, he looked confused.

Smiley: I don't worry too much
Me: You worry all the time. 
Smiley: No I don't. 
Me: Smiley, you worry so much you don't know what it's like not to worry. If I could take it out of your head, it would feel like a bowling ball was lifted out of your brain. 

Sigh. Truly he is my son. :(

A Team Slap Cake

Quote

"Men always want to *die* for something. For someone. I can see the appeal. You do it once and it's done. No more worrying, not knowing, about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I know you all think it sounds brae, but I'll tell you something even braver. To struggle and fight for the ones you love today. And then do it all over again the next day. Every day. For your whole life. It's not as romantic, I admit. But it takes a lot of courage to live for someone, too."

- Victor Lavalle

A Quote from a Friend

We had political saints: respected, honored, inspiring, and [best] of all safely dead and frozen in history. -- Fred Bryan

BVCC Food Pantry Charity Walk

I have some notion that I should try to install responsibility and empathy into the kids, and teach them to give back to the community. Rolling with this thought, I picked the fundraising walk for the Bay View Community Center's Food Pantry as our inaugural "family project". 

Alas, Lisa had to fill in at work for her hospitalized friend so she couldn't attend. Then Lu had a fit and I left her behind (she reconsidered and joined me before the walk began), and I wisely viewed LK as too young to hoof a 3 mile course and dropped her off at grandma's.

 I wish I could say it went well, but it was a comedy of errors. Turnout was pitifully low. There were maybe, MAYBE two dozen walkers, and we accounted for a sixth of the total. Then the kids argued, right there in public, tho' they knocked that off once the walk actually started. There was also a moment I'm sure we'll laugh about in twenty years, but since this isn't 2032 mum's the word. So A for effort, C for achievement. At least the Food Pantry got a bag of groceries and some cash from us; I hope they did better financially than the turnout indicated.

Arab Spring = False Hope

Internal violence has now spread to Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, India, and Germany. Al Qaeda is publicly urging attacks on U.S. embassies and lauding the murder of our ambassador. Iran is being Iran, to the point where Canada has broken off relations.

I said it - in print - at the time; the Arab Spring was not a cry for freedom, it was one group of bullies and thugs overthrowing another for control of the lunchroom. You may also remember that I STRONGLY objected to our use of force in Libya, stating we had no idea what instability the overthrow of that gov't would bring to that country 

This is not a partisan post. This is not an election post. This is the simple truth: aside from tossing a few drones at a problem, this administration has no comprehensive, proactive foreign policy in the Middle East. And American prestige and lives are paying for that gaffe.

The Devil in Silver by Victor Lavalle

Today I had the pleasure of finishing The Devil in Silver, a novel by Victor Lavalle. Nominally, it's about a sane man who is admitted into a psychiatric unit for evaluation. To add to his misfortune, the hospital is terrorized by a flesh-eating demon that preys on the patients. 

That, of course, makes the book sound like a horror novel. Not a bad thing in itself, but woefully off-base. This isn't a horror novel any more than it's "Girl, Interrupted." This is a story reminiscent of Catch-22; full of pain and loss and idiocy but also humor, self-discovery, and yes, some genuine frights. 

I  loved the story and the author's style, which often included witty, tangential asides. 

I'm going to give this book my highest compliment: this guy can WRITE. 

Grade A+

Doctor Who Workout

To further your endeavors for better health!  Keep up the good  work!  - Tre

YaYa

WTH Nightline?

Watching Nightline with Lisa and there's a ridiculous story about a kid who, left alone by his Mom who "didn't see the warning on the package", swallowed some small balls. "He could have died!" she said. I was immediately angry. At the Mom, who's fibbing (what package doesn't have the warning?) and at ABC, who would run such a nanny-state piece. Lisa seconded the opinion, and with vigor. "Why don't we just ban dildo's too, so no one accidentally shoves them up their ass too far!"

Terror in Benghazi

RIP to American Ambassador Stevens and the other Americans killed in Libya yesterday, on the anniversary of 9/11 (how anyone could chalk the date up to coincidence alone is beyond me). Stevens is the 8th American ambassador killed in the line of duty.   I could spend the night commenting on the culture and people that promote such idiocy, or the lauded Arab Spring that was nothing more than the bad replacing the bad, but I'll respect Stevens memory enough to leave that alone for now. Again, RIP.

Huh. Look at that.

Thoughts and Prayers

A close friend of Lisa's had a brain aneurysm on Monday, but in her disorientation refused a paramedic's offer to transport her to the hospital. She then drove herself across town to Columbia St. Mary's (despite living near two hospitals) where they diagnosed her and id'd two other blockages in her brain. Then while they were working on her she had a heart attack and is in the ICU at Froedert. Lisa is justifiably upset and any kind thoughts/prayers for her friend would be appreciated.

Mix and Match

In keeping with a longstanding tradition, I have started my fantasy football season 0-1. Eli was lethargic and my running backs . . . well, damn them all. My WR, TE, K and D all did well, and I crept close to the century mark in points. Break 100 pts in a given week and you'll win more games than you lose, so not all is lost. Yet.

 ***
 Last night we watched the premiere of Matthew Perry's new sitcom "Go On". I liked it, which was a pleasant suprise if I'm being honest, but I don't see it surviving long. It's a little dry and at times a little serious for a primetime network sitcom. We'll watch it again.

 Shows we've taken to recording/watching: "Oddities". "American Restoration". "Great Lakes Warriors" We started watching "American Gypsies" but grew tired of it, or at least I did.

 The kids have taken a shine to Full House, the old ABC sitcom from my youth. They really like it - just as they really like Psych and enjoy The Nanny and American Dad (the latter I object to and ban from their viewing, but a sitter has allowed them to skirt the rule. Ridiculous.) They occasionally watch the Brady Bunch too. YaYa is also into anime, and last week, with my permission, watched the Japanese film 'Battle Royale'.

 ***

 I walked the kids home from school Monday, a good 45 minute walk, and to my surprise three of the kids did it without so much as whine or a whimper. I say three because Olivia was pooped 5 minutes into the walk and was not the best company for much of the route. I had been warned; my sister was so sure she was a 'lousy walker' that she asked Lu to have me photograph the event just for the shock value.

 In addition to walking them home from school I've been trying to walk a lot lately just for exercise. There was the epic hike in the rain with Ginger and Smiley, and the other night Smiley and I walked to the store and back around 9pm, with Smiley carrying a bag of laundry detergent and soda home without once asking me for help. The next evening LuLu and I walked to my friends house and back. I like the idea of getting more exercise and of including the kids in that routine.

****

Saturday I finished reading "Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968" by Eric Hammel. As the title states, it's a detailed narrative history of American efforts in Hue during the Tet offensive. It is very detailed at the small unit level, up to and including estimates of how many rounds were expended during an action, and there's plenty of eyewittness accounts to hold your interest. Some flaws: I think the depth of the detail numbs you after awhile, and certainly puts it out of reach of the casual reader. It's also devoid of any overall context or analysis of the battle, reducing it to just a record of a shoot-em-up. Still, I enjoyed it. Grade: B

Book #74 of 2012

****

Best finale of Bachelor Pad imaginable. What a great, shocking moment! All hail reality TV, and all Hail King Jeff!

Bachelor Pad

Best finale of Bachelor Pad imaginable. What a great, shocking moment! All hail reality TV, and all Hail King Jeff!