VCR's in Hell?

My mind's wandering a little, so bear with me.
First, I found the name of the show. It's called Hell: The Devil's Domain. Sorry, Amber, it doesn't look like there are any repeats, but they do offer it on VHS. I'm sure it'll come on again some other time--I mean, October is coming up, after all.
I was wandering around on the History channel website, and there's a link that tells you stuff that happened on your birthday.
January 27, 1978-Richard Chase, aka The Dracula Killer, was found in a field covered in cow's blood. He suffered from a disease known as Porphyria (a blood disorder, the concept of which is famous in explanations of vampirism), and though deemed sane to stand trial for murders commited (and a disturbing amount of human blood found all over his home), he was thought to be mentally unstable.
January 27, 1302-Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence for political reasons. As he wandered, he wrote The Divine Comedy.
January 27, 1970-Social changes in the 60's and an outdated production code led to the creation of a new movie ratings system, which is used to this day. In 1976 on this date, Laverne and Shirley premiered, and the very first Tarzan movie opened in 1918.
January 27, 1951-First Atomic Detonation at a Nevada test site. Enough said.
January 27, 1985-Coca-Cola sets up shop in the Soviet Union. Cold-War Cola for everyone!
January 27, 1926-John Logie Baird gives his first public demonstration of a television system in London. Those darn Scots make great Whiskey AND invented the TV!

Which leads me to talk about yet another discovery. We were in Gordman's yesterday. Gordman's is amazing, because no matter how many time's you've been there, there's always something you haven't seen before. And, chances are, it's on clearance. Karissa and I have always been Caffeine addicts. When she worked at Tabula, she developed a taste for plain coffee (that is, without sugar/cream). It took a while, but now I drink a lot of coffee as well (though I need my sugar). Imagine my delight when we wander up and down the kitchen isles, and one of the first things I see is JACK DANIEL'S COFFEE. And for those of you who like Southern Comfort, there was SOUTHERN COMFORT COFFEE also. Wow. People have been slipping whiskey and scotch into their coffee for years, and here somebody finally had the idea to market it!
There's no alcohol, it's basically just whiskey-flavored coffee. We tried it this morning (A treat to have while watching my cartoons). Karissa didn't taste anything different, and I didn't either until I added a little sugar. I dont know, I just thought that was cool.

Ahh! Demon-Baby!

Ave Satanus...awww, the Hell With It

I was watching a show about the origins & myths of Hell on the History channel, and I was actually impressed. I know there isn't such a thing as a person without bias, but most of the concepts were discussed by theologians and religious scholars. It was after they briefly covered brainwashing & torture by Satanic cults that they started defining Satanism in its modern form. The kicker was that it was actually being defined by...Satanists! And the History channel people were actually smart enough to seek out the real ones--regular, personable characters who could maturely define what modern Satanism is, and why they perform Black Masses, and especially why they chose "Satan" as their icon.
It wasn't much I haven't already read over, but it's something most people don't really understand. It's mostly thought to involve idolatrous worship, sacrifice, violence, all that crap. Even my dad said LaVey actually made a lot of sense in what he said.
John Milton even pondered this concept, and made Satan out similar to a hero in Paradise Lost.

Birthdays Are Done, Shovelbums, and a Short Tangent on the Merits of Perpetual Insomnia

It must have been a pretty busy couple of weeks for everyone, posts were pretty scant. I did get a small head cold, but it wasn't too bad.
Isabella's last two birthday parties were pretty mild compared to last weekend, so that was relaxing.
After their first two games, I'm wondering how much more I can take being a Vikings fan.
I'm into my third week of school, and I'm still surprised how much more difficult it is to go back to basics and get everything done on time. It's not too bad, though. I am getting a little sick of sketching the same male/female forms like 20 twenty times now. I'm studying shadows more in depth than before, though, and I have to appreciate that.
We've got the Great Lakes Archaeologists staying with us at Travelodge again. They were up last year to excavate a possible buffalo kill site near the Red, and now they're basically doing the same thing by the Golf Course in East Grand. I'm still trying to see if my schedule would allow me to work with them, but I have to make time for that pesky family of mine. If only I could just not sleep. I've always found it to be an inconvenience anyway. I love dreams, but come on! You have to move mountains just to get a lucid one, and for me sleep always wants to postpone itself at night (especially when I have to getup for something in the morning), and come during work or driving. I almost wish I could be like the Nightman and not be able to sleep...but I don't play the sax.

Isabella B-Day Bash

You gotta love family events.

We set up camp at my dad's place early Friday afrernoon. About 3-4p.m., "the girls" showed up. "The girls" are my two nieces, Emberly (12 yrs) and Brianna (aka Nanna, 7-ish years), plus one of Emberly's friends who seemed to hang out with Nanna more the whole time they all were there. Poor Isabella. She only got about two hours of peace. When the girls came, all hell broke loose. Emberly carried Is off, Nanna followed, trying (and whining) to get a chance to hold her, both of them cooing over the baby while at the same time, bickering amongst themselves. Every so often Karissa and I would have to jump in and pull an upset Isabella out of t frenzy.
That night, we decided to go over to Amadon & Josie's, where we helped them clean house and laughed over and over again at a video of a toddler being knocked over by a pouncing kitty. --Oh, and Kevin and I both ended up stepping in rotten yard pie (fuck you Amadon, and quit laughing!).

Saturday, we were expecting to get hit again, and get hit we did. My dad made dinner, April and Kevin showed up among laughing and crying girls, Isabella was trying to take it all in. April was asked by my mom if she would take pictures of Isabella, Emberly and Nanna in pretty dresses, so she had her camera ready, hoping the sun would get caught behind some clouds at just the right time. Ang got there eventually, and informed us thatmy mom got off work at 5pm, and would be getting there shortly. She also informed us that mom wanted us to take a big family picture, and we were supposed to dress nice. She might have told us this before Karissa and I packed Friday morning 90 miles away.

On a sidebar, my mom is notorious for expecting us to be mind-readers.

My mom arrived some time after 5:30 (she got off work at Wal-Mart and apparently hit a time warp on the way to my dad's). There is an unbendable rule at the Hunter house. Dinner waits for no man (or woman). My notoriously un-punctual sister knows ts rule all too well and doesn't raise an issue with having to reheat a plate of the family dinner. My mom, however, never cared much for this rule, and was annoyed that we were already done (barbecues, macaroni salad, and nachos, delicious, in case you were wondering). Five minutes after she arrived, she was criticizing my brother-in-law for what he was wearing.

After a messy divorce from a year-long marriage with a Kentucky hillbilly (who recently was seen pulling his 400lb-ass up to a bank drive through on a lawn tractor--yep, you read that right), she now stays with my sister and the aforementioned brother-in-law, and barely affords rent on a house she hasn't fully moved into yet. My brother-in-law won't say much to her, because he doesn't want to get Ang involved.

We all kind of passed it off, mentioning that we were going to do a casual family pic if anything.

The girls reluctantly changed into their dresses, and proceeded to gripe about how short they were. We set up a place out in the yard, in the late afternoon sun, much to April's dismay. We tried taking pictures, and got a few really good ones, but Is wasn't having much of that. At this point, she pretty much just wanted to be left alone. We let her walk/crawl around for a while, and my mom went in to get my dad for the picture.
Karissa happened to be in the garage a few minutes later, and heard them arguing. a few more minutes later, my mom comes out. April asks her if she wants to do the family pics, and we can all of a sudden feel the mood drop. She says, quietly, "No. That's okay."
She stands around for a couple more minutes, watching Jason take Is out into the field and pick some flowers.
Then, without one word, she walks over to her car, gets in, pulls out of he driveway, and drives off. Not one fucking word.
She was arguing with my dad about taking a family picture. Dad said he had no problem with taking a couple separate ones, but he had no desire to be a the same picture as her. She started arguing, and dad ultimately told her to mind her own business.
Mind you, they had their share of problems, but they went through a very mature divorce procedure. They bicker off and on, but never to the point where she would get like that. This past year, she's been awfully strange, and my dad has been losing his patience with her. If you know my dad, to do this seriously is no small feat. Bottom line, he didn't feel comfortable about standing in the same picture as my mom. He's never once forced us into anything we didn't feel comfortable doing, so I wouldn't have pushed the issue But my mom doesn't take these cues too well.
Being the great nice family we are, once we got over the initial shock of what happened, we proceeded to make jokes about her throwing a hissy fit and leaving. My brother-in-law gave my dad a high-five.

Then we brought out the cake, and set it in front of Is. She licked Scooby's cake butt, we all had a good laugh, and she apparently did not like the laughter, and started sobbing (see April's pic on her blog).
She didn't stay up too much longer.
Later that night, we watched the premier of "Man With the Screaming Brain", which I loved, but Karissa and Dad hated.
The girls came over Sunday too, but after watching the Vikings disappoint us horribly, they left, and we soon got ready to ditch that popstand.
This week, we have to get pics taken with Karissa's mom & sis at JC Penney's, have our own little party, then have a party next weekend at Karissa's mom's house. 3 birthday parties in all! I'm so glad that Karissa doesn't have any little nieces, I don't think Isabella could experience that kind of stress for very much longer!

What did I get out that weekend? Aside from the drama, pizza, and rotten pie, I think I'm getting a sore throat. So we'll see where that takes me.

My Only Post Regarding Louisiana

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html

I was curious as to how Anne Rice would weigh in on this situation, so I looked it up. I pretty much agree with her.

I will admit right here that since Karissa watches Oprah all the time, I end up watching it, too. I used to hate her because I thought she was just like Jenny Jones or Ricky Lake. Honestly, though, this chick pestered Mayor Nagin to let her into the Superdome despite all their protests for her personal safety and health. It's weird evento see all the celebrities coming in to help, whether because of a close affiliation with LA, or because it's good PR, because of the change they go through. They go in concerned, tey come out downright disturbed and traumatized. They actually look like a child does when he's just witnessed the death of his own parents.
Even reporters like Shepherd Smith, whom we never see outside an office, went on location and are a visibly shaken by what they've experienced.
I think the thing that disturbs me is the fact that none of what has happened should be a surprise, and could have been prevented long before the hurricane ever hit.
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
I got that link from Jessica Rabbit's website, but it still illustrates one of the best examples of feet dragging I've seen regarding how the govt. handled the whole hurricane business.
I'm thoroughly impressed by what I've seen from Mayor Nagin and how he's handling all this. He's put up operations in a hotel, half of which had been almost completely blown through by the hurricane, and he's still hanging around New Orleans doing everything he can to help.
I tried to find out what where Pat Owens and Lynn Strauss went during the '97 flood, but I couldn't find anything that actually said they stayed or went.
I know that the Grand Cities collectively have nothing on the extent of damage in New Orleans, or probably any of the other cities devastated along the gulf coast. But there are some similarities, and some good comparisons to make. Grand Forks flooded due to a freak natural event (it was kicked into gear by a blizzard); the dams broke despite efforts to maintain them; water became contaminated; sewer lines broke down; buildings caught fire downtown.
The differences? An overwhelming majority was evacuated before harm came to them. The National Guard responded in a much more timely manner. There were deaths, but as far as natural disasters go, fatalities were relatively low.
Regardless of the differences in size and extent of damage, it is still pretty surprising that it took the federal govt. 3 days just to get people out there--they knew where New Orleans was, they knew what happened. A city of 460,00+ people would be much more difficult to evacuate and provide aide to than a city of roughly 50000, but it's still pretty disturbing given the fact that the Grand Cities didn't have so much dire warning, and they were already proactive in that situation, just caught in a circumstance of bad weather. New Orleans has already tried to get funding for better maintenance of its levees, and when the city flooded, the government acted surprised. It's like Steve Carrell's character from The Office is running our country.
There may be some fundamental disagreements with what I'm thinking, but the federal government DID know about the imminent threat facing New Orleans for a long time before it became one of the "worst natural disasters in American history."
$14 billion. That's what it would take to protect the southern coastal area. Remember that number when the final bill comes rolling in, after Louisiana is cleaned up and after people go back home to try to get back some faint image of the life they had before all this.

Happy Tree Friends

I was watching Ren & Stimpy, and that's what got me to thinking about this other cartoon. The episode I was watching involved Stimpy becoming addicted to tv, and the whole thing played out with this underlying adult theme of herion abuse. Stimpy even overdosed at one point, and went through severe withdrawals while sleeping on a cot in the basement. I'd seen this episode like five times in the past, and never really thought about it before (I didn't even think about the fact that their house is shaped like a tv).

Anyway, it got to thinking about this cartoon I found last year at Hollywood Video about the Happy Tree Friends.
If any of you have heard of this cartoon, you'd understand why I love it. If not, go to this address:
www.happytreefriends.com
You can play the videos right off the website.

I think my favorite character is Lumpy. Anyway, the first time you watch these cartoons, there's a really disturbing element about how they look and act that takes them to a human extreme, particularily in violent situations (which makes up most of the cartoon).
Anyways, I watched an entire DVD last year, and it disturbed me a little. That's how cool it is.