Kellinator Jones and the Temple of Snark

Today was already a horrible day, but it got a whole lot worse three minutes ago when a spoiled rich asshole in a white convertible ran a red light and nearly ran me down in the process. 

We made eye contact. He waved.

If you ever wonder why I call it the University of the Damned... this is why.

I'd heard some rumblings on the radio about 99X becoming the first "digital only" station or some bullshit like that (seriously, I'm pretty damn sure there have been "digital only" stations for a while) but had pretty successfully ignored it because that would require giving a damn or something. Then this morning in the car I got the unpleasant surprise of "The Bert Show." Turns out what they really meant was they're replacing 99X with Q100 or one of those crap stations and sticking 99X on teh intarwubz where I can't listen to it in my car, which is the only place I ever listen to the radio anyway. 

I'm pretty annoyed because I don't know of a single other Atlanta station that doesn't suck, except the Georgia State station, which is too hip for me anyway. Oh, and NPR, but really, I don't need anything intellectual distracting me while I'm trying to drive. James likes Star 94, but anything that plays Hannah Montana is just not what I'm looking for. Anyone got any recommendations? Because I really don't need to be fucking with my CD player in traffic.  

It bums me out. 99X wasn't always great, but it was pretty dependable for a morning show that jibed with my sense of humor (most of the time) and music that usually didn't want to make me gouge my eardrums out (that Korn Bizkit phase of theirs notwithstanding). Bringing back the '90s alternative ruled. I guess really it's sentimental; I found 99X right when I got to Atlanta and eight years later, it's one of the few things from back then still in my life (I feel like I've gone through three personalities or something). 

In that vein, I am going to try to come back to LJ a little bit, for real this time. I don't expect I'll be posting or commenting much, but it would be good to try and catch up with what's going on with my friends. 

Tonight at 10, the Holy Grail of trainwreck TV...

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

 Like I said, going to the special hell...

I call it... the Jester Bag! 

 

It's designed to hold your yarn while you crochet on the go. I've got more of a writeup at my crochet blog if you want to check it out.

http://madcrocheter.blogspot.com/2007/12/sooper-secret-project-revealed.html

and to tell the truth, I kinda like it that way. :) 

I'm sure I'll use LJ again, when I have something to say. In the meantime, I've started a crochet blog over at madcrocheter.blogspot.com, and it's linked up to my Ravelry page (I'm kellinator on Ravelry, and if you work with yarn you need to get on the waiting list right now, because it rocks), so that will probably be my main form of online noodling for a while.

Life is beautiful, isn't it?  

We got the girls a cat tree last weekend. Katie promptly tried to eat it.  

Okay, I've gotten into animal rescue lately, I've been meaning to make a post about how I got into it and stuff, but as usual life throws a curveball that breaks the pane-glass window of how I was neatly going to represent my life (my lord, that may be the worst sentence I've ever blogged) and here I go.

I attended Rep. Stan Watson's hearing in Decatur last week to discuss the conditions in Georgia animal shelters. He brought a little friend from the Department of Agriculture whose name I did not catch, much to my woe. At one point a citizen asked why the Department of Agriculture was not enforcing the 1990 Georgia Humane Euthanization Act. Said Department of Agriculture guy says rather snottily that there is no such thing as the Georgia Humane Euthanization Act.

Well, guess what hit the AP today.


So I'm mad as hell because this guy told us a bald-faced lie. What, did he think we couldn't read? How stupid does this guy think we are, really?

So what is proper procedure when a government official has lied to you? I'm planning a letter to the editor (will need the guy's name first) and a email asking Rep. Watson why I should believe anything he says when he brought Liar Liar Pants on Fire to this meeting and introduced him as his buddy, but that doesn't seem like enough. Now I think I understand why so many people drop out of civic life altogether.

Could someone please shoot this show and put it out of its misery?

Okay, so I did something colossally dumb.

I was at Wikipedia looking up a manga raistlinbrown mentioned (I've recently been surprised and amused to discover that over the past four years I've been slowly becoming otaku, but that's another post) and made the mistake of looking up Persona 3.

James got Persona 3 a couple of weeks ago, and I was not that into the battles but kind of fascinated by the Japanese high-school sim aspects of the game, to the point where I insisted on watching him play those. (I dubbed one NPC his boyfriend. Then I made fun of the character when he said he was going to study at home instead of the library so he could watch TV while studying. James responded with a bemused "yep, that's my boyfriend." Isn't he cute?) After a while James suggested that I could play through the game doing the sim elements and he could play the battles for me, the next day he thought that maybe I should just play the sim elements on his game, then the day after that I started my own game and he hasn't gotten to touch it since. So for the past week I've been eating, breathing, sleeping and pooping Persona 3.

So what did I do, because I'm a compulsive dumbass who does dumbass things I know I shouldn't do like pick at scabs? I read the entry. So now I know all sorts of plot twists that would have shocked the hell out of me IF I HADN'T GONE AND READ THEM. James is making fun of me. And bringing up the fact that I skipped to the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I had my reasons, please stop throwing rocks at me. You too, JK Rowling. Think of it as a compliment).

He asked if I was still going to finish it. I replied "of course I am!" as if I thought it a silly question, which of course it
absolutely is. Sure, in this case I do wish I hadn't gone and spoiled things, but I honestly don't think it'll have a huge impact on my enjoyment of the game.

And of course, this leads us to spoilers.

James abhors spoilers. In the past I've told James small spoilers for Smallville, thinking he would be excited at the sneak peek, and he's totally flown off the handle*. 

I, on the other hand, grew up on Days of Our Lives. For Days fans, spoiler-hunting is a celebrated sport (probably because the show moves SO DAMN SLOWLY that you have to know a good payoff's coming or you'll switch to C-SPAN out of sheer frustration**). Spoilers are in every soap magazine, usually on the cover. They're part of the fun.

So, I ask you: Are spoilers cheating, or good new-fangled scour-the-intarwub fun? Someone, I think it was invadersteven , said that spoilers don't ruin the fun because then you have the pleasure of seeing how the work gets to the conclusion. Though I'll admit, I've been having to practice extreme self-control to avoid Bleach spoilers.

Of course, James downloads the new episodes from Japan, so that means I also have to practice self-control not to spoil 10dimensions and eaterofgodz***.

So I ask you, friends: 

(Actually, I need to ask a different question: How do I embed a poll in a post I've already written? Like right here?)

Also, streamweaver once expressed that there should be a statute of limitations on spoilers, and I have to agree (even though at the time he had just spoiled Serenity for me, it was months and months after the movie came out****). I really don't think people should have complained about me describing the "Snape kills Dumbledore on page 556, there, I just saved you $20 and 8 hours" the week before Book 7 came out.

Finally, for those of you who remember Star Wars from the original theatrical releases: Did you realize that for me, Darth Vader has always been Luke's dad? 

* Keep in mind this is James we're talking about, so "flying off the handle" is saying the following in an incredulous high-pitched tone of voice: "WHY did you tell me that?!"

** Incidentally, James loves C-SPAN.

*** Actually, it's enlightened self-interest. Julie might smack me. 

**** As opposed to now, when that movie simply does not exist. Do you hear me? WE DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXISTENCE OF THAT MOVIE.

People would rather be right than happy.

And if you think this is about you, then it probably is. 

ETA: Unless it's not about you... oh, never fucking mind. :P