Just a second...

By the time someone turns away after saying this, isn't their second already up? Why not just a minute? But then they might take several minutes. Or just a moment since moments don't have a definite length?

Just a second while I prepare for the next blog post...

Happy New Year!

So the world didn't end...

Well, gosh darn it, I guess I'll have to continue this blog after all. And make New Year's resolutions. And finish writing that novel. And eat all 21 bags of York Peppermint Patties I bought yesterday. Plus the bag of 3 Musketeers Fun Size Candy. Well, there goes my resolution to get healthier.

Oh, well. Happy holidays!

I'm a writer. No, really!

I'm a writer a la Nick Miller of New Girl. Ok, so I don't knock my computer to the floor to avoid writing (the thing's expensive!) but I do manage to avoid the dread - did I say dread? I meant beloved - task using other methods. No, not by getting drunk at the zoo in lieu of life experience, there are plenty of other ways to gain "life experience". I'm a busy girl, you know. I had to shop all Black Friday. And Cyber Monday. And Cyber Week. And Cyber Month?

Being a writer is the best! In what other profession is it acceptable not to do the work? I have writer's block, damn it. It's an occupational hazard. I'll get the work done whenever. Really! In my spare time - not that I have any. You know, after the shopping. Or after I catch up on my shows, like New Girl.

Captain America 1966 Cartoon - All those who oppose his shield must yield

• Why, Bucky, of course you can be my sidekick! Never mind that you're just the teen mascot

  

  Are those micro-shorts?

  and not a soldier. I'll train you so well, you won't need armor, a shield, superpowers or a weapon either. You won't die under my watch. Oh, whoops, you did.
  
• Red Skull's delusional! Then again, what would you expect from someone willing to bake in a hideous head-encompassing mask and gloves 24/7? He actually thought that he and Cap were alike, that Cap would sympathize with his story of how he was plucked from obscurity to become a fearsome figurehead (then disposed of his puppeteer leader). And how did he think crushing the weak and helpless would give him great power? Presumably, they're weak and helpless because they have no power to take.

  

  Not a happy camper

  
  
• He's athletic! Just check out those cartwheels! No one else could make it look so easy, like he doesn't even really have to use his hands or feet!
  
• That's one sharp shield! "All those who oppose his shield must yield." Even if the opposition is his own parachute. He accidentally sliced the strings with it and went plummeting.
  
• Is it just me? The prisoner escaping to cause so much trouble in one episode wasn't even restrained! They sat him in the back of an open air truck with no handcuffs or guards, or at least no way to keep him from literally falling off the truck. And expected him to be a good  little boy and stay.
  
• That A wasn't sewn on or woven into his mask? He removed

  

  Horns of plenty?

  
  

  
  

  and replaced it as easily as a velcro patch or magnet to put some device behind it.How doesn't it fall off in the heat of battle?
  
• After they brought him out of frozen death and he became the leader, all of the other headlining members of the Avengers were mysteriously always busy or away. He had to work with the B team. Wow, even  Wolverine's pointy do has nothing on Quicksilver's hair!
  

Get Captain America - The Complete 1966 Series on DVD now! 

 

• Episode 1: The Origin of Captain America, Wreckers Among Us, Enter Red Skull
• Episode 2: The Sentinel and the Spy, The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull, Lest Tyranny Triumph
• Episode 3: Midnight in Greymoor Castle, If This Be Treason, When You Lie Down With Dogs
• Episode 4: The Revenge of Captain America, The Trap Is Sprung, So Dies A Villain
• Episode 5: Return of Captain America, The Search, To Live Again
• Episode 6: Zemo and his Masters of Evil, Zemo Strikes, The Fury of Zemo
• Episode 7: Let The Past Be Gone, The Adaptoid, The Super Adaptoid
• Episode 8: Coming of the Swordsman, Vengeance Is Ours, Emissary of Destruction
• Episode 9: Bitter Taste of Defeat, Sorcery Triumph, The Road Back
• Episode 10: Doorway to Doom, When the Commissar Commands, Duel Or Die
• Episode 11: The Sleeper Shall Awake, Where Walks the Sleeper, The Final Sleep
• Episode 12: The Girl from Cap's Past, The Stage Is Set, 30 Minutes to Live
• Episode 13: The Red Skull Lives, He Who Holds the Cosmic Cube, The Red Skull Supreme

 

Deals! What do purchases say about you?

Deals! Deals! Deals! The funny thing about deals is that they can make you buy things you never intended to. I didn't really need a waffle maker, I just thought it'd be cool to make my own fresh and everything. I used it a total of one time before shoving it somewhere I can't get to it without a complicated set of maneuvers involving boxes and back pain.

I subscribe to daily emails from Slickdeals.net and 3-hourly ones from Fatwallet.com to keep track of deals. It means, of course, that I miss out on most of the deals which usually get snapped up in minutes, if not seconds. Which is fine by my wallet, which would never survive a whole day of real time deals.

And what are these deals for? What would these purchases say about the people buying them? Some of this stuff is supposed to be for reselling on eBay, but even then it means there's quite a market for this stuff. As far as I can tell, Slickdealers/Fatwalleters/eBay buyers are chocolate-loving, coffee-loving, rice-loving, body building, computer building, media loving, gun toting fashionistas quite possibly with revolving balances on lots of credit cards. After all, you can never have too many candies (like Candy House Chocolate Truffles in Gold Foil - Reception Accessories (Google Affiliate Ad)), K-cups, rice cookers, pounds of whey protein, computer parts, BluRays, TVs (like Samsung 46 " Black LED 1080P 120HZ HDTV - UN46EH6000 (Google Affiliate Ad)), ebooks, guns, shoes, and credit cards. Especially when they're 70% or more off or even free! Never mind that you'll never read all those ebooks; they just look cool on your 50% off ereader.

Coddled Kids Run Wild

You know you're old when you find yourself saying, "Those damn kids!" Kids are more wild than ever and it can't help when parents coddle them more than ever. If you're a coddling parent, no offense, and give your kids some room to learn to live without you, because someday they'll have to. (Sorry, but you really had to hear that.) If you're a coddled kid, grow up and stop hiding behind your parents; one day you'll have to stand on your own. (Sorry, but you really had to hear that, too. And please stop throwing rocks at my window.)

Why are grade school age children running around unsupervised all day and night during the school year? They meandering down the center of a busy avenue right outside my window. Yes, really. Cars zooming by all around them. It's a miracle none of them have gotten run over yet. Singly, in pairs, or in small groups, they just roam the streets without any adults during the school day in a neighborhood where at least one registered sex offender lives.

Isn't it enough that they get more snow days off than any previous generation did? It wasn't too long ago (not decades anyway) when I had to walk to school the day after it snowed six feet. On top of several more feet from previous days. Now they cancel school if the forecast even mentions flurries (but the sky doesn't even manage a single flake). Apparently, it's all about the probability of over involved parents ready to sue. Lay off guys, your kids are going to have to slip and slide on ice/sleet/snow sometime.

How are kids supposed to learn if you don't make them go to school? How are they supposed to manage when you're not there to hold their hands, provide for their every whim, and do everything for them? Please don't do their homework for them, you might get it wrong anyway. Ever seen that show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? Most American adults really aren't. Nowadays, parents are getting to involved with their kids' professors and even their job interviews. When's it going to stop? Are you still going to do their work (and laundry) for them when they're middle aged and you should be retired? You should be relaxing then, and they should be taking care of YOU. Instead, they won't be able to care for themselves, let alone anyone else.

The Invincible Iron Man 1966

• Where do I get one of those suits? Why settle for an electric car that you charge from any old outlet when you can have a rocket powered, beam emitting suit of armor? I wonder if he's got international adapters for that thing?

Shiny!

• Can you hear me now? You've got to love the visual sound effects. Zitt! It's not just a zit but a zitt, watch out, it might squirt something deadly! Wok! Watch out for flying woks! Bong! Well, now that would be quite a smoke. The one I like most though is Fwoof! It sounds downright fluffy. It's also interesting how Clank! and Ring! came out sounding like the same glub.

• Upgrades and more upgrades! He upgrades suit 3-4 times in 13 episodes: switching to a less clunky (and less blinding) suit by episode 2, having another utterly destroyed by an enemy later on, building a brand new one to save his pal Happy Hogan (who happened to be posing as him, etc. The iron suits rusted, yuck! He got challenged by a Titanium Man. He really should have built one of adamantium or vibranium, or a layer of each, or something.

• Politicians will be politicians. Isn't it comforting to know that politicians weren't any smarter way back when? Congressman What'sHisFace keeps demanding Tony Stark to appear before Congress to reveal the secrets of Ironman's armor. Because, you know, telling a bunch of politicians -- and whoever else might be lurking around -- will ensure that the country remains safe. Safe from who? Ironman, an independent agent who -- although constantly fighting on the side of good -- might, by some extremely remote possibility, turn on the country at any time? From the bad guys continually trying to take over or destroy the world who would love the increased opportunities to steal said armor secrets?

Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't seem to have a completr set of these available, but if you're nearly as old-fashioned as Al Bundy and you still have a working VCR (but sadly no Betamax), individual episodes are on VHS.

Episodes 2 & 5: The Death of Tony Stark & The Crimson Dynamo

Episodes 7 & 9: If I Die, Let it Be with Honor and The Other Iron Man

You'll have to find  the rest yourself.

• Episode 1: Double Disaster, Enter Happy Hogan, Of Ice and Men
• Episode 2: The Death of Tony Stark, The Hands of the Mandarin, The Origin of The Mandarin
• Episode 3: Ultimo, Ultimo Lives, Crescendo
• Episode 4: The Mandarin's Revenge, The Mandarin's Death Ray, No One Escapes the Mandarin
• Episode 5: Crimson Dynamo, The Crimson Dynamo Strikes, Captured
• Episode 6: Enter Hawkeye, So Spins the Web, Triple Jeopardy
• Episode 7: If I Die, Let It Be With Honor; Fight On, For A World Is Watching; What Price Victory?
• Episode 8: The Moleman [sic] Strikes, The Dragon of Flames, Decision Under the Earth
• Episode 9: The Other Iron Man, Death Duel, Into The Jaws of the Death
• Episode 10: Cliffs of Doom, The False Captain America, The Unmasking
• Episode 11: My Life For Yours, Black Knight's Gambit, Menace of the Monster
• Episode 12: Dream Master, If A Man Be Mad, Duel In Space
• Episode 13: The Beauty and the Armor, Peril in Space, As A City Watches

I'm a Windows Curmudgeon

I stuck to Windows 3.1 forever. Then Win95, and now XP. I  really don't want to move on, not to Windows 7 and definitely not to the upcoming 8 (where they can track everything about you but your very thoughts, wear a foil hat just in case). What I really want is a Mac; but can't afford it, of course.

But when the Internet tax beast rose up in PA, I had to make one last Amazon.com purchase before it hit. Which is why I bought this lovely thing : ASUS N56VM-AB71 Full-HD 15.6-Inch 1080P LED Laptop.

I figured it might be time to move on to something past XP. I was wrong.

On XP, I press the Windows Key. Then press F. That opens Firefox. So quick and simple for anyone with even moderate hunt and peck typing skills.
On Win 7, I press the Windows Key. The press F. The accursed "convenient" search box gives me a list of stuff. I have to press arrow keys a bunch of times to maybe get the the option I want; I say maybe because sometimes the arrow selection is stuck who knows where. Or I have to scroll the trackpad over from across the infinite expanse of my screen to fiddle around the list and just when I've got the pointer positioned and am ready to click, bam!, the pointer slipped, and I clicked the wrong thing! I could pin Firefox to the Start menu in that nasty white box on the left but that too requires some strange voodoo involving lots of arrow keys and/or slipping mouse pointers.

On XP, everything was fairly fast.
On Win 7, everything takes forever with a lot of thrashing to load. This is on a system that's 20x more powerful than my XP rig!

On XP, fewer warning when I try to delete crap.
On Win 7, TrustedInstaller won't let me delete the hideous sample music, and videos, and pictures, and wallpapers, and Multilingual User Interface (MUI) files for languages I'll never use (I speak, read, and write only US English, please uninstall the rest so it doesn't take up my entire drive and resources, thank you). Yeah, I did find the fix. But no one should have to go through all that. Why bother deleting the crap since the hard drive has plenty of space, you ask? Because every time you do a disk defrag, or search or malware scan, your system will have to go through the 1000s of extra files. Because that's so many more files to be infected/impersonated by malware. Because I love to delete! (Oh, did I say that last one out loud?)

On XP, the search was fast.
ON Win 7, the "better" search is agonizingly slow AND can't find what I know is there. How is this improved search?

And I've only been at this a few weeks! More crap to come, I sure!

Texas mails (un)dead people

Texas tried to purge its voter rolls by sending mail to potentially dead people. A judge temporarily blocked the effort after 4 voters filed a lawsuit. How do you suppose those letters went?

Dear Sir or Madam,

We think you might be dead. If you're not, please give us a holler and thank goodness we haven't lost a taxpayer. If we don't hear from you in 30 days, whether you receive this letter or not, and whether we receive your reply or not, or whether we decide to "lose" your reply, then you won't be able to vote anymore.

If you really are dead, so sorry for disturbing you. We will forward all tax inquiries to your surviving relatives. And you still won't be able to vote anymore.

Regards,
Your friendly neighborhood government agency

Hey Texas, don't you have bigger problems like drought and stuff?

For more on the whole debacle, try reading here.

Random Ravings on Ice Cream or How I Scream For Ice Cream

Mmm...caramel

OK, I admit it: I sometimes try to eat the very bottom of the ice cream cone first. I know, I know, it's really stupid because the melting ice cream drips out and I end up with a big mess. But I'll think, if I can just get to it quick enough, I can leave more of the good part -- the ice cream -- for the end! It's the same reason I eat the pizza crust first; which usually works out better unless you're trying to eat all of the crust first, including the stuff from under the toppings (in which case you might as well just dump cheese, sauce and the works in a pot to cook, no pesky crust to get in the way).

But back to the ice cream. You know those ready made ice cream cones you can buy like Nestle Drumsticks and Blue Bunny cones? The ones with the chocolate-lined cones, the peanut-studded chocolate shells, and and the solid chocolate plug at the bottom to protect against leaks? I'm not a big fan of chocolate. No, really, I prefer vanilla. And caramel, and mint, and fruit, and plenty of other stuff. Yeah, I know, blasphemy! That whole feel-good chemical thing, I don't really get it, or notice it, or whatever. Maybe I'm on too many drugs (allergy pills only, the strong stuff which is the only kind that work for me). And the taste of chocolate: if you ever tasted the purer stuff, it's very bitter like black coffee, and as with coffee, I'm OK with it -- if flavored correctly -- but not head over heels. It takes tons of sugar to make it really palatable and then you can end up with something so sweet it feels like your teeth are rotting every time you take a bite (the feeling I usually get when biting into chocolate cake or brownies, but curiously not Snickers which I actually do like). So I could take chocolate or leave it, or better yet, let YOU take it.

Catch those yummy bunnies!

Anyway, the chocolate plug at the tip of the ice cream cone, that's why I like to chomp off the bottom first. I keep hoping that I'll get just enough to leave a thin layer of plug intact, but the blasted things are always different sizes, damn it. Blue Bunny actually has a strawberry version with a strawberry shell on top, but still has that chocolate lining and plug at the bottom. And a Caramel Lovers with chocolate shell, cone lining, and plug. Just make solid strawberry and caramel plugs already! Then maybe I'll eat my eat down for once.

I tried to look up the origins of the Moose Tracks flavor, but could never find the why of it. Why is it called that? Blue Bunny has a flavor called Bunny Tracks which is very much the same. "This creamy vanilla ice cream comes loaded with your favorite goodies - chocolate-covered peanuts, peanut butter-filled chocolate bunnies, a thick chocolate fudge ribbon and a peanut butter caramel ribbon for a delicious ice cream treat!" The way I figure it: the peanut butter-filled chocolate bunnies are hopping through a winter landscape of creamy vanilla ice cream, laying chocolate-covered peanuts and leaving smears of a thick chocolate fudge ribbon and peanut butter caramel ribbon. But no, this stuff really is delish. Please try it. And the chocolate stuff too if you must.

I'm am not a lazy procrastinator

OK, I tried blogging once before several years ago and never made it past a handful of posts. For this attempt number two, I sort of meant it to be a weekly blog, and I've already missed a week! Not a good sign.

Of course, there was Labor Day weekend. And 9/11. And Neil Armstrong's demise. *moment of silence* And a bunch of other stuff. I so wasn't levelling up my agent in Marvel's Avengers Alliance (BTW, if you play, friend me). Or reading LJ Smith books. Or searching for banana oatmeal cookie recipes.

Um, yeah. I've been all about respectful and mourning and diligently removing crapware from my new PC.

Do Norse Gods Smite Lowly Mortals For Snickering?

The Mighty Thor DVD - The Complete 1966 Series
 (Marvel Super Heroes)

• He's giving! Who knew the mighty thunder god entertained sick children in the hospital? He's also a doctor with his own practice which never seems to suffer even if he has to run out and save the world all the time. Why doesn't he do those sick kids at the hospital more good by treating instead of just entertaining them? Plus, he even generates special effects for Hollywood movies! Did they pay him for it? He could give the money to those poor sick children. Why didn't they use special effects? Or did hiring a god cost less?
• Daddy wuvs him! His father, almighty Odin, loves him enough to forgive almost anything, but not before dishing out a very brief (15 minutes max) lesson. Daddy takes 1/2 his power and repents, all his power and gives it back, bans him from Asgard and lifts the ban, ditto with Earth, makes all of Asgard fight him, etc. But he's not the only one to get Daddy's fickle treatment; Loki's been chained to a rock, then given temporary rule of Asgard, sentenced to years of toil with the trolls, then set free, etc. But Odin really loves Thor. In fact, his TV is usually set to the Thor channel. Yes, they get some sort of TV in Asgard. Why not? After all, it is closer than Omicron Persei 8.
• He keeps changing! (And changing) One moment he's Dr. Don Blake in a suit. The next he taps his cane to the ground (having suddenly changed from suit to what looks like either a hospital gown or short sleeved scrubs). And finally, he changes to Thor with his mighty hammer. What's with the gown/scrubs quick change? Is he afraid he'll rip the suit (a la Hulk's shredded shirt and pants)?
• He's got weird hair! (But super strength hair gunk) As Dr.

  

  Now you see it, now you don't.

  Blake, he's got a short, (more) modern do. With one tap of his cane/hammer, he suddenly sprouts a glorious godly mane. His helmet covers all the hair in front. And then it doesn't and he's got a weird piece sticking up on the left. A piece that defies gravity more easily than his whirling hammer. A piece that only shows up when he's looking dumbstruck, mystified, puzzled, or worried. Then the helmet comes off and he's got smooshed limp girly hair longer than mine's ever been. Maybe his luxurious locks are why Loki (whose ponytail is limper than a dead horse's) hates him so?
• A mighty mallet indeed! Spinning his hammer allows him to fly! It provides slightly more lift than an entire bag of hammers but is much less cute than Bugs Bunny's spinning ears. He can also spin it to make time stand still! Which apparently only affects dying women named Jane but not nefarious villians trying to kill him. The enchanted hammer always returns to him! Nope, it keeps getting trapped or tricked. Then again it's got the IQ of a, well, hammer. Thor's hammer does other miraculous things that he suddenly needs it to do! (Like fuse elements to cause a nuclear explosion. Did he care that innocent people were nearby?)
• You Jane, me Thor. In a cartoon full of two dimensional characters, Jane is thinner than a sheet of tissue paper. Superman's Lois Lane and Spider-Man's Mary Jane Watson both had spunk, Iron Man's Pepper Potts was loyal (and besotted with Tony instead of the hero), Hulk's Betty Ross had smarts and caring. Jane has ... beauty. That's it. OK, so she's also a nurse for Dr. Blake's inconstant practice. She's weak, a fainter, kind of whiny, the perpetual damsel in distress. When Hercules woos her, she goes along to make Thor jealous, resulting in a battle that must have caused millions of dollars worth of destruction. (Talk about getting two guys to fight over you.)  She's sort of two timing (before she realized she loved two sides of the same coin), thwarting Thor to save Dr. Blake (which did NOT impress Odin). The one thing that's mentioned again and again, the only thing that stands out, is that she's beautiful. And that's it.
• Check out that rainbow bridge to Asgard, home of the mighty gods! It's so My Little Pony. Thor's faithful friend, Baldr, rides across it on a cool horse. Heimdall stands guard there with his sword. Thor just kind of slides up and down it as if it's, well, a fun slide in a playground.

• Unleash the sounds of war! Ka-Pow! I get. Blam! Sure, why not? But what the heck is Blap?

Watch The Mighty Thor 1966 cartoon for yourself!

• Episode 1: Trapped by Loki, Vengeance of Loki, Defeat of Loki
• Episode 2: Chained Evil; Sandu, Master of the Supernatural; Enchanted Hammer
• Episode 3: Enchantress and Executioner, Giants Walk the Earth, Battle of the Gods
• Episode 4: At the Mercy of Loki, Trail of the Gods, Return To Earth
• Episode 5: The Absorbing Man; In My Hands, This Hammer; Vengeance of the Thunder God
• Episode 6: To Kill A Thunder God, The Day of the Destroyer, Terror of the Tomb
• Episode 7: The Grey Gargoyle, The Wrath of Odin, Triumph in Stone
• Episode 8: Mysterious Mister Hyde, Revenge of Mr. Hyde, Thor's Showdown with Mr. Hyde
• Episode 9: Every Hand Against Him, The Power of the Thunder God, The Power of Odin
• Episode 10: The Tomorrow Man, Return of Zarrko, Slave of Tomorrow Man
• Episode 11: Enter Hercules, When Meet Immortals, Whom the Gods Would Destroy
• Episode 12: The Power of Pluto, The Verdict of Zeus, Thunder in the Netherworld
• Episode 13: Molto, the Lava Man; Invasion of the Lava Man; Living Rock

Akin's an idiot, but not the only problem

Can we get a dunce cap on this guy?

Unfortunately, not funny or ridiculous, but outrageous and sad.

Oh, no, he didn't! "Legitimate rape" versus "forcible rape"? Can you imagine a smug rapist representing himself in court: "Your honor, yeah, I did slip her a mickey and do her when she was out, but see, it was legitimate rape. Now what about putting her dad in prison for beating me up? So what if she was only 10? I have rights, you know." Or how about  a serial rapist saying, "That kid can't be mine. You can't make babies with forcible rape. Womens' bodies know how to get rid of that stuff."

U.S. Rep Todd Akin, a shining example of the American educational system, NOT.

But check out this article on why Akin is not a isolated case of politicians against women.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/21/opinion/granderson-gop-rape-abortion/index.html