All Praise Eurovision

So thanks to John Fenn, I've not officially caught Eurovision fever. I was avoiding it, but I just had to read more about that UK song and then the Bulgarians, who I love, are narrowing down and Norway's at a choice of 2 and Iceland ... I mean, come ON how can you now choose "Lygin ein"? You can see snippets of past winners/not-so-winners here - www.eurovision.tv - but I think Father Ted should really have gone all the way in '95. (If it doesn't link in -- and it looks like it's being kiboshed a bit -- you can click here)

courtesy of the cousin/roommate

I can't believe they actually PAY me for this stuff

Today we got a letter from a guy in prison wanting a copy of everything he had purchased from the previous year, because someone had stolen it.

Here's his rap sheet:
1990-07-25 - POSS C/S HEROIN
1990-07-25 - BURG HABIT
1990-07-26 - POSS C/S HEROIN
1990-07-26 - BURG HABIT
1990-07-26 - THEFT O/750
2005-03-17 - POSS C/S COCAINE

***

Then I got barked at because someone wanted our phone number, then wanted to ask a question first, then needed more information on the question, then ended with "SO, are you going to give me the phone number?"

***

This was my favorite question of the day:
please explain how the dial complete hand soap pump works.I have trouble getting the pump to operate- very difficult to push down

A Whole New Me

Just like the old me since my Digital Freedom textbook claims that all bloggers are really 12 year-old girls. Not that I want to repeat junior high, but it made me feel pretty good to be that young again.

So I called the cops yesterday and they say that they can't release my suitcase yet because it was part of a MASSIVE CRIME SCENE with all kind of other stuff. They're dusting it for prints or CSI-ing it or whatever they do with stuff nowadays. I'm supposed to get a call when they're done going through everything. "Don't get your hopes up," she tells me; "but there's A LOT of stuff."

God bless America.

Speaking of, I would just like to say how really great it is to have the Obamas representing our country. We were watching the Inaugural Balls last night and they reminded me of wedding videos with their cute way of dancing and talking to one another in their public privacy.

I find it hard to believe that hate can possibly exist in this country now. Good trumps. Get used to it.

A Whole New U

So, yeah, we watched "Space Seed" last night because we're nerds. It's just the way it works out. Wrath of Khan isn't on BluRay yet so the verdict is still out on whether or not that's really his chest. Those who say "yes" feel pretty strong about it, but I just don't know...

We have started the rebuilding process. I've ordered Om Shanti Om from Amazon and we have a new PlayStation. The phone helper at EA Games was really sweet in helping us replace the Rock Band 2 dongles that were stolen with the console. You can't play the guitar without a dongle, just ask Pete Townsend. Unfortunately you can't buy dongles, so we had to cry to EA Games and they were very, very helpful, Gar bless 'em.

But it was hard going through the BluRay selection at Target because it kept reminding me of what was stolen and, more important, of what I forgot to put on the police report. How could I forget that we had the first season of the Dukes of Hazzard on dvd? Oh well, I guess it won't ever come back. And why would they take it? So random.

What will come back is my red suitcase. I didn't even know they took it, but how else would you carry all that stuff? It makes sense. It may have been used to steal from other people too. The cops found it on Saturday and called because my name is on the tag (way to think it through, thieves). It's been impounded, but I have to wait until tomorrow to find out if any of our listed stuff is at the station with it.

I'd really like to get the stuff back, but by Saturday we had kind of moved on, and this is a little bit of a setback. I just want to hire guard dogs and get on with my life.

Alora. Tomorrow is a new day and a new president and a new future and the past is the past. Tomorrow it'll all be okay.

Speaking of Khan....

Actor Ricardo Montalban Dies at 88

14 January 2009 2:28 PM, PST | From IMDb News

Ricardo Montalban, the dashing Mexican actor who gained fame for two iconic television roles -- that of the vengeful Khan in Star Trek and the mysterious Mr. Roark in Fantasy Island -- died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles; he was 88. No cause of death was given, though it was known that Montalban had suffered from complications after undergoing 9 1/2 hours of spinal surgery in 1993 to alleviate an injury he suffered in 1951 while filming the western Across the Wide Missouri. The surgery, however, did not resolve his medical problems, and he found himself primarily confined to a wheelchair. A career in Mexican films led to Hollywood and an MGM contract in 1946, and he was cast in a number of Esther Williams films (his American feature debut was in 1946's Fiesta opposite the swimming star) as well as westerns and dramas opposite such stars as Lana Turner and Jane Powell.

After leaving MGM in the mid-fifties, Montalban appeared on numerous television shows, though it was his singular turn as the villainous Khan Noonien Singh, one of a group of genetically engineered "supermen" in the "Space Seed" episode of Star Trek for which he became most remembered, and he reprised that role in the 1982 box office hit Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. By the time that film was released, Montalban had also become famous to a new generation of television viewers as the enigmatic Mr. Rourke, the host of the ABC Saturday night staple Fantasy Island (1978-1984), where he would preside over cautionary tales of those who wished to have their most desired fantasies fulfilled. (Around the same time, Montalban did a number of commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba, where his exhortations of the cars "rich Corinthian leather" would become an affectionate pop culture reference.)

After his role as Khan, Montalban continued to appear in television (most notably on the Dynasty spin-off The Colbys) and in film (as the villain of the comedy The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!) until his surgery curtailed his acting career. Montalban continued to work, however, appearing in all three of the Spy Kids films and doing voice work for the television shows Kim Possible and Family Guy. Montalban's wife, Georgiana Young (the younger sister of actress Loretta Young) died in 2007; the two had been married since 1944 and had four children.

Not only, but also ...

Patrick McGoohan Dead At 80

14 January 2009 10:16 AM, PST

Dude. What a week and it's only Wednesday.

What and woe!

Mom just mailed me and said that Shah Rukh Khan was at the Golden Globes. I'm always the last to know...

Now that I'm done freaking out

Thank you all -- yes, we're safe-ish. Somewhat depressed and angry, but safe. Veda appears unscathed and remains cuddly.

So the cop finally came last night and took pictures and I was able to put things back and found my grandmother's anniversary ring at the bottom of my sock drawer. Maybe because the box was white, I don't know, but they skipped over it and it's going into a safe deposit box today along with my Social Security card (found safe, t'anks God) and my vehicle license.

Sure, a lot of stuff can be replaced -- although where we'll get another copy of Om Shanti Om is a mystery -- but a lot of it is just gone. My grandmother's grammar school graduation ring, some glassy gaudy costume jewelry that belonged to my great grandmother -- worthless to anyone else but me and I can't replace it. And we have to go to work today and that's really going to suck. We have to leave and get on with it all and lock down and that's just plain irritating.

Fuckers.

I've got a local game shop in town on the look out for our stuff (because, really, you're not going to find too many people trading in a Bollywood BluRay movie with a Formula 1 game) and I hope they call me before they call the cops. I'd like to go collect on it personally

with a baseball bat.

I can't believe they took a Starbucks card. That's so petty-weird.

And then the worst year got even worse

Thieves broke into the house. They stole the Playstation. They took all of our BluRays and all of our games. They took my great-grandmother's pearls. They took our camera. They took my grandmother's ruby and diamond ring that my grandfather gave her for their 50th wedding anniversary. They rifled through my underwear and pulled stuff out from under my bed. They went through my closet.

They took the Starbucks card my mom gave me for Christmas.

They let the cat out. She came back.

They left the computer. I had the mini Dell with me at school. They left the big TV and the Rock Band instruments.

They took away all of the sleep I was going to get tonight, tomorrow night and the next night and the next.

It's all learning though, isn't it?

Here's what I learned today:

The military is stupid. If you believe in art you should go on one of those programs that studies organic farming in Europe or something.

Planet Earth is really cool, especially while smoking "a lid".

Getting "the memo" is school equivalent to getting THE SYLLABUS and people who get the memo often don't really seem to get the memo.

Yoga is good for you, even more so than the Tylenol with codeine. Go figure.

'Ey, RocCO

So the boy's name is Rocco Joseph, which, as you know, I had some misgivings about. Until I saw who he was named after:

Wheet-wooo. (What gorgeous teeth!)

Everything's gonna be arright.

It's a boy, Mrs Hateful. It's a boy.

The wee brother has a masculine child now, and Pop is so pleased to have "someone to carry on the Hart name" ... since the world is completely void of Harts right now. No first name yet, although the brother was kicking around Rocco or Nico. I'm all for Nico -- sultry singer or Williams driver ... what's not to love? Rocco is Madonna's kid, and that's got a touch of celebrity fun about it, but it's also got a touch of mafia/cab driver. I expect more from my neph. Like being a cab driver who becomes Pope with help from the mafia. (The Pope - the Holy Father himself - has this very day blessed Michael Corleone; and you think you know better than the Pope?)

He was 8 lbs something. (Is that a baby or a turkey? It's a baby. Pretty small for a turkey.)

The Things They Carried

First day of Winter Term and I'm lugging around the following bits of junk:
2 books for Digital Freedom
3 books for Poetry
1 book for MacroEconomics with cd
1 500 page wirebound notebook for all classes
2 report covers
1 yoga mat
1 pair of pants
1 umbrella
1 mini laptop with plug

Added:
1 bottled water

It was as I was buying that bottled water that I was deciding if it was really worth it to carry one more mutha effing thing around. I was already at about 75 lbs of stuff (not counting the overcoat) spread out over 2 bags. But it meant being a dollar lower in weight and I was thirsty, so ...

Then, it turns out that I don't have class from 3 to 5 like I thought, but from 4 - 6. Which means that I can come home for lunch. Which means I didn't have to tote all that crap to school this morning because I only needed 2 books, 1 yoga mat and 1 pair of effing pants.

Which makes me stupit.