I Can Has Couch.
went to the local Salvation Army store the other day with VC and Missa, and found a couch. (Love seat, actually, but it’s a bitty apartment, so it works.) I was tickled. I got it for $25, and it’s actually a decent couch. You already know what it looks like — it’s that brown plaid fuzzy material with the wood arms, wood ridge along the back. It comes automatically with every first apartment. I’m pretty sure I owned the full sized version of this couch back in the day.
It fit in the van, and it was light as a feather — for a couch — which is great, because there’s three flights of stairs to negotiate to get this thing up to my place. My living room actually looks like a living room now. It’s pretty cool.
I got to utilize the couch for the first time last night, as I planted my ass to watch the pilot episode of Supernatural. Dr. Celestine had went on at length about how much he liked this show, and I’ve been trying to watch it ever since. I tried BitTorrent, which hated me for Supernatural, I tried finding it other ways, and finally, my dish washer at work revealed that he owned the whole first and second seasons on DVD. So I borrowed the first season, only to discover that my DVD player hated my VCR, which in turn hated my TV, all of which meant that I wasn’t going to be watching any DVDs. They argued for weeks. Finally, VC came over and slapped them around a bit, got them to settle down and start working. Fucking electronics, they’re like kindergarteners, I swear.
So, anyway, after several months, I finally got to watch Supernatural. I watched the pilot, very first episode. I liked it. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t great or anything, it was a pilot. It was written almost entirely in cliches, and the actors kind of phoned it in . . . but it had a couple of cool things in there. What hooked me was the “Woman in White” concept. (Okay, quick rundown: Dean and Sam, brothers, monster-hunters, trained by monster-hunter dad, Dad’s gone missing, sons are trying to find him. Dean is the tough guy, Sam is the one who “tried to escape the life”. Right.) So, Dean and Sam, looking for Dad, Dad was investigating disappearances on a stretch of highway, turns out it’s a ghostly woman killing guys, yaddayaddayadda, mayhem and monster-killin’ ensue. Dean and Sam figure out that the ghostly woman is a “Woman in White”. We’ve all heard this ghost story, it’s been around for hundreds of years. Pretty wife, unfaithful husband, wife catches him, kids are killed, woman haunts area killing unfaithful lovers. I, myself, have heard at least six versions of this ghost story. They turned it into a category of monster, with it’s own rules for killing them and dealing with them. I was floored. I’d never thought of it before.
Originality. Potential. Right there, in the pilot. And classic rock. Lots and lots of classic rock.
Okay, I’m sold. Now I’m going to have to watch the whole thing.
Meanwhile, I suffered my writing epiphany last week, closeted myself in the Bat Cave, and cranked out 20,000 words in a week. This is phenomenal for me. Chapter one ain’t bad. Chapter two is a bit rocky. I’m about to start chapter three.
Things are going well. I’m writing, I have a neat TV show to watch until Dexter comes on again, I’m out and about and having a good time, the bills are paid, and I’m steadfastly ignoring CNN for fear of having an embolism over the primaries. Life is good.
PS: The video up top? It is the funny. I giggled for a good ten minutes.
May 10th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I’m so glad things are working out for you. Keep up the good work! I always knew you could do it! Love ya lots, MOM
JavaElemental Reply:
May 12th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I don’t think it counts as “doing it” until I actually get something published.
But thanks! 
May 11th, 2008 at 12:15 am
So does that mean you missed the delegate who is selling his vote to Obama for 20 million?
He says he’s doing it so he can help more latino’s vote.
But no-one asked him the obvious question, If you are selling your vote then what does it matter if more latino’s vote?
Makes me not want to vote.
JavaElemental Reply:
May 12th, 2008 at 10:48 am
No, I heard nothing about this. Link, please?
Bo Reply:
May 12th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
hold on i’m looking.
It was on headline news the other day.
here’s one.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2008/may/democrat-super-delegate-selling-vote-20-million
The Delegate in question is Steven Ybarra from new mexico
ah here we go.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354716,00.html
May 11th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Supernatural… I started to watch it when it came out. It was difficult to watch simply because the WB got crap reception here most of the time, but clever adjustments of the rabbit ears made it viewable. However I stopped watching it when the WB went away and went to the broadcast band of UPN which had a signal so weak you could only tell that something was trying to be broadcast; figuring out what it was just wasn’t possible (not an exaggeration). And I didn’t like it enough to consider buying the DVDs. The same for Smallville.
I would tape shows based on the reception of the night.
As for the primaries, since politics infuriates me as much as my medical history, I’ll be brief: McCain, Hillary, or Obama cannot win a general election. One of them will simply wind up with a handful more votes than the rest. McCain is 8 years too late, Hillary is 4 years too early, and Obama is too soon to know if or when. Whoever gets it will only serve one term; death or anger will prevent them from serving beyond 4 years.
Since Obama is going to wind up with the nomination, one or two quick things to say about him: most of the catch phrases he spews, ideas he projects, and “I will work with both parties” he inspires has been uttered before and enough people gobbled it up then. It was 2000 and George W. Bush was running against Al Gore. That’s right. I said it. Obama is nothing more than George Bush the Democrat. To top that off, his voting record is more to the left than Hillary (that is, when he votes at all) and as president he won’t get anything done because the Dems will not have enough of a majority to get anything of remote significance passed and sent to his pen.
He will do nothing to change the world’s view of the US. One reason for this is the statement already made that he will invade any country believed to be hiding, knowing or otherwise, people we/he wants caught or killed. And he won’t even inform the invaded country that it’s happening much less ask for permission. Known to everyone else on the planet as “Act of War.” Ring a bell?
Lastly, where can I download that video?!?!?! That’s freakin GOLD!
JavaElemental Reply:
May 12th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I have a terrible time watching network TV, just because the writing is often so shoddy. I’m having the same problem with Supernatural. It’s a good story, but the cliched shortcuts they take to keep the story rolling just bug me to death. I keep thinking, “But [insert good show like "Dexter" here] didn’t have to do that!”
These candidates irritate me to death. I can’t stand seeing any of them, hearing any of them, reading about any of them . . . These people are six shades of useless. Ain’t a one of them any different than the other, and none of them have what it takes to actually solve any of our problems. I’m seriously considering just writing in Jesse Ventura for my own amusement. I’ll likely be basing my vote on which of them will provide the comedians with the most fodder. That way, I can at least get a few giggles out of their short and forgettable administrations.
As for the video — ain’t that great? I love where he drop-kicks the Mac. I laughed and laughed . . . I think you can click through to Google videos at the end and get the full-sized version, and there might be a download option there. If not, try going to Google videos and searching for it by the guy’s name. I’m not sure how else to get it. If it was Youtube you could rip it using Realplayer, but I’m not sure how to get a Google video.
Kilroy Reply:
May 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I found the video in downloadable form. It was surprisingly easy to find.
Go to Google and search for ‘crash different’.
The link (was the second one on mine) to Jeremy Zawodny’s site has an mpg link to download it. The file is called “bitch.mpg” I assume for “rant.”
Or just go here:
jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000555.html
The file is 48MB, just FYI.
I showed it to my mom at work. She needed a good laugh. Work lately has been, well, you’ve heard me rant about it before so just put ditto marks under it. Anyway, she loved it.
Turns out the guy made it in 2003.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:33 am
*ahem* Medea *ahem*
No wonder it’s ‘It’s Own Monster’. It’s been done, um, to death… *ahem* The Others *ahem*.
But if they have an original spin, might give it a go. Thanks!
June 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
[...] He went on about it so much, I finally tracked it down to watch it. I started reviewing it here, actually. I watched the first episode and enjoyed it, and several [...]