Boo.

I think last year I rated my favorite horror movies. This year I'll talk about t.v.

I love the month of October as far as television goes. Everyone and their brother does some sort of haunted fill in the blank type show. Plus, you have the fun of watching edited for tv horror movies.

Here's what I recommend:

Ghost Hunters on SCI-FI. What I like best about this show is the relationship between the two heads of TAPS, Jay and Grant. Jay can be really cranky, but Grant is sweet as can be which creates a great balance. I also appreciate that they are looking to disprove a haunting rather than instantly justify the claims of the client...but they are nice about it.

Most Haunted on the Travel Channel. A British import, this show makes me laugh out loud. The host, Yvette (sp?) thinks everything she hears is someone trying to contact us from the spirit world. I don't know how she hears anything because she is constantly talking. She must ask for "a sign of your presence" four or five times in a sentence. If I were a ghost, I'd probably toss something at her in hopes that she would shut up long enough for me to speak. Or boo as the case may be.

Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. This is new this fall and so far it makes me think of an American version of Most Haunted. They waste almost half the show talking about what the claims are. Then the 3 guys are locked into the site (in one episode, they had to install locks on the outside of the door so they would be legitimately locked in) for the night. The main host, Zac, spends a lot of time yelling and about as much time saying dude. It's funny.

Paranormal State on A&E. Bunch of college kids gadding about. Think the Goth AV Club. The stories can be interesting, but most of the time nothing happens. Their resident psychic creeps me out and Ryan, their leader, gets a little too serious in his voice overs. Still, there have been some bizarre moments and just this past week they did an episode on a young woman from Quincy, IL who needed an exorcism.

Keep an eye out for Ghost Hunters Live on Friday night! Save me some candy.

Moving the bus

Extreme Home Makeover has been in the area building a new house for a family whose son suffers from brittle bone disease. They are in the midst of moving the bus as I type. The show should air sometime in Dec. or Jan. You can check it out here.

HP trailer to tide you over

I'm killing time waiting for a rep to get off the phone so I can ask a question. Found this international trailer for HP 6. I think it looks really good--the funny bit at the end had me chuckling aloud. Sorry this is short, but he's off the phone. BYE!

getting your money's worth?

Piper Palin and her (or is it Mom's?) Louis V. bag.




Sarah Palin before she got the call.

While gadding about, I found this write up about the RNC's attempts to dress up the pitbull. It seems like just yesterday that people were yammering about expensive haircuts. Not the most important issue in the campaign, but it fills the time and it's a moderately interesting side note.

when the pretty birds have flown, honey I'm still free

I wish I would have had seats this good when I was in college. After visiting my former college haunt, seeing what college folk look like now, and staying up past midnight 2 nights in a row, I can officially state...I am freakin' tired and I look it. I swear every college person we passed that evening looked like they were 12. The route to and from Assembly Hall took me past almost every apartment and dorm I lived in while in C-U...which I of course pointed out to Jinn.

"I lived in this apartment building the summer between my freshman and soph year...and there's the dumpster that was under my bedroom window. I got woke up really early every Thurs." "That's where the serial rapist ran into the glass enclosure around the stairwell right next to our apartment--we heard the thud when he hit it before he ran off." Ahhh...memories.

The Bulls/Jazz game took a bit to get rolling. Lots of sloppy play in the first half. Plenty of unfinished runs to the basket, missed passes, and just general silliness. Things were much improved in the 2nd half. Both Derron Williams and Derrick Rose are amazing to watch. There were several times I had to look up at the instant replay because I couldn't believe the pass that each of them made.

Could have done with out the Luv-a-Bulls. I'm not sure this game was worth a costume change mid-way through. The first ensemble featured the word "Bulls" in bright red letters on the lame excuse for shorts. Oh, you want me to look at your ass? Thanks for clearing that up for me...I couldn't figure that out from your gyrating hips and thrusting pelvises (or is that pelvi?).

Saturday night brought Mamma Mia. Having seen the movie, I already knew what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by just how strong the woman playing Donna was--she had a great voice and was a solid actress. The guy playing her ex "Sam" looked a lot like David Hyde Pierce. According to the playbill, he portrayed "Electricity" in the propane tv ads! His singing was strong as well.

One of my sales reps is a new dad as of Sunday. His daughter wasn't expected until the end of this week. He's going to be out most of this week so it may be a bit of a rough one for me. I'll either be confused a lot or I'll be bored. He sent out an email with pictures Sun. afternoon and forgot to tell us they'd had a girl! He kept referring to her as "the baby" or "new arrival." They have yet to choose a name. At one point he was saying he wanted to name a girl Camero. I told him he should just buy the pole now if he was going to do that.

Finally, I watched the SNL bits with Sarah Palin and they were so-so. Tina Fey was funny as usual, but Palin, Lorne Michaels, and Alec Baldwin's stuff dragged. I got really focused on watching their eyes shift from the cue cards to half glancing at each other. It didn't even seem as if Alec was talking to Palin. Perhaps he was afraid his eyes would be burned beyond repair if he stared into the face of Satan for too long...

Saving lives Bee Gee's style

Who knew? According to this article, doing CPR to "Stayin' Alive" gives you the almost perfect beat. Kooky.


Was it just me or did McCain look a bit pissy during the debate last night. I was flipping over during commercial breaks while watching Ghost Hunters. My crush on Grant will not be abated.


Looking forward to a big weekend. Friday night will be Bulls vs. Jazz in Champaign. Half court, lower bowl seats. ROCK! Too bad the Bulls have not been doing well in the pre-season.


Sat. brings Mamma Mia. Normally, I avoid musicals at all costs, but I loves me the ABBA and it gives me a chance to hang with Teresa.


Finally today is Jinn's last day at the bookstore. Cheer out loud for a moment in honor of her years of excellent service. On to poker!!

When the cat's away...

Yes, once again, sales reps are out of the office and Disney just got back from an appointment. I'm waiting for someone to assign me something to do. So far this morning I have checked email, changed some things around in my Netflix queue and watched a couple of Arctic Monkeys live videos on YouTube. I also found this performance from The Duke Spirit. I love this band. The lead singer has a sort of PJ Harvey/Debbie Harry thing going. I appreciate their enthusiasm even though they are playing for cameras...and Henry Rollins. Enjoy.

Freeeeeeeeeedommmmmm!!!!

Back when I was contemplating leaving my job at the bookstore, I would often talk about it with Jinn (coolest co-worker in the world). Our plan, at the time, was to leave at the same time. We always hoped it would be the same day.

Well, it ended up not being the same day, but at least we got it to be the same year.

JINN IS FREE!!! Or will be by next week. I don't want to tell her story for her. But, I will say that the incompetence of the management staff in reference to two different events ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back.

It's baffling to me how someone can remain in charge when their own actions create situations that virtually force the best employees to leave. As you can tell, I still have issues with the store and some of the people there. But, with Jinn's leaving, I will get one step closer to letting it all go. Now we just need to get about 4 other people to leave.

On an unrelated note-- is it just me, or does Sarah Palin never move the upper half of her face...unless she's winking? Her "aww shucks" style of speaking makes me want to smack her. The interview with Katie Couric was a joke. She couldn't name any newspaper or magazine that she reads? Seriously? Was she afraid of offending voters with her answer? Does she not read (that's my vote)? Can she not think on her feet? Did the Republican Party tell her what she can and can't answer (and considering how little she is speaking to the press--yet the party is bitching that the press are picking on her--this could be possible)?

Jon Stewart has been brilliant the last few weeks covering the candidates and his recap of the Couric interview is amazing.

lame attempt at vandalism

Okay, before I get to the vandalism bit, let's talk about Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

I should start by mentioning that I love Michael Cera. He is perfect in Arrested Development. I think, though, it is time that Michael follow in John Cusack's footsteps and move into playing someone not in high school. N&N would be a good place to leave that personae behind.

Covering the span of one evening, we follow heartbroken Nick and unsatisfied Norah as they meet, fall for each other, get annoyed with each other, and fall back into each other. There is lots of driving around New York City and various ex's, friends, and puking scenes.

I could do without the puking scenes, but overall I really enjoyed the movie. Nick and Norah are cool without being too cool. I could easily relate to their shared love of music and following them around with a great soundtrack was a bonus.

Nothing about the movie is mind or soul altering, but there is a fun quality to this above average romantic comedy. Norah's drunk friend provides most of the laughs and there are a couple of really sweet scenes between Nick and Norah that are worth checking out.

On to vandalism. When I left the theater, I was in the "afterglow" if you will and just a few parking spaces from my car was this big ass redneck type truck. It was way the hell up on its tires. On each side of the truck was an inscription that read "Lift Your Truck...Fat Girls Can't Jump." GRRRRRR.

I was so annoyed that I went to the side of the truck not facing the entrance to the theater and considered keying the door. Instead, I made a little scratch on some of the lettering. Nothing major, but I felt slightly better.

Oops. Lunch break is done. Gotta go!

Is this me?

One of the blog folk I check out is a friend of a friend--galaxie carol. Anyway, she had a little project for her readers to do and it involved doing Flickr searches for answers to her questions and creating a mosaic about yourself. Here's mine.


1. All a Blur, 2. Crab Rangoon, 3. February 05, 2008, 4. When Waves Collide, 5. James McAvoy kilted, 6. Organic Milk, 7. Its a Dream - Bath, England, 8. 14th August 2007 / Day 226, 9. House of Flying Dagger, 10. for a minute there, i lost myself, 11. A Dog's Best Friend, 12. the cupcake girls

The questions were 1) name, 2) fave food, 3) high school, 4)fave color, 5) celebrity crush, 6) fave drink, 7)dream vacation, 8) fave dessert, 9) what do you want to be when you grow up, 10) love most in life, 11) one word to describe you, 12) Flickr name. And just so I can clarify some of the answers. #5 is James McAvoy, though sadly you can't see his face the way this was cropped. #9 is movie director, #10 is music--esp. Radiohead, #11 is loyal and #12 is mish. Weird eh?

Not quite the secret garden, but close

It has taken some adjusting on my part to get used to my hour long lunch. At the bookstore, I got 30 min. and if you didn't bring you lunch, the actual eating time after buying food usually got squished to around 15 min. Now, I often find myself with time on my hands. I go out for a walk when the weather allows and I have on the right shoes.

During one walk, I discovered a blacktopped trail at the end of the street. I went a little further each day and it never seemed to end. Turns out this path is part of the Rock Island Trail and is connected to a solar system project as well. Seems that Peoria has re-created a scale replica of the solar system and this path falls into Jupiter's orbit.

I don't know if anyone else at work knows about the "hidden" treasure behind us. I think I almost like it better if it's my secret.

Fall Frenzy

Here are the views of the street in front of my home. As you can see, a solid line of cars in each direction. Yesterday was the first day of the Spoon River Drive. Or, as I sometimes refer to it, "lots of crap for sale with grilled pork chop sandwiches." The idea is to drive from city to city along the Spoon River and look through booths, etc. of crafts. Depending on which location you go to, you can find some pretty decent handmade items, or things that appear to have just been removed from a dumpster. Still, if it is nice out like it was yesterday and you live really close to one of the stops like I do, it's fun to get out and walk around. I did pick up a few things and enjoyed a kick ass baked potato for lunch. It all comes back tomorrow and next weekend. Now I gotta go get me some candied almonds before the booth goes away.

Updates soon

Hi all. Don't hate me. I promise to update this weekend. I have a discovery to share, but I need to take photos. Also, I need to watch the VP debate. I was going back and forth between it and the Cubs/Dodgers game. Also, the every popular Spoon River Drive is this weekend and I may take photos then too.

More soon. Oh, and I promise to update the songs. I don't have my password at work and I keep forgetting to do it at home. Urgh.