Catching Up

It's been a while since I posted, hasn't it?
Unfortunately, I can't claim to have been SO BUSY that
I couldn't find time. My life has been its usual
boring self with a few exceptions, such as Bro S
having to return to the hospital because they found
blood clots at his chest incision - they put him on
blood thinners and kept him for a couple of days - he
has to give himself shots for a week or so then all
should be well. Mom's still in the health center
getting rehab - the cast is off her leg and she's in a
boot now - hopefully, she'll be able to go home soon
but, at the same time, I want them to keep her until
she's walking good.

Good news: I bought the airline tickets for our
cruise yesterday. Everything's a go - cruise is paid
for, airline tichets are paid for, hotel reservations
are made, we only need to set up some shore excursions
now. I am SO ready to go on vacation, and I know this
will be loads of fun but it will be over so soon. I
guess then I'll think about Maui in July....

Wo, what else?

Survivor has started - all that media blitz was a gig
hoo-haw about nothing because it's the same old
Survivor, some of them are more amused by the tribes
than anything else, but it all comes down to surviving
the challenges and tribal councils and I haven't seen
much dwelling on "race" among the contestants - I
think they are just intent on playing the game and
hoping to win $1mil. In their place, that's all I
would be thinking about too.

Amazing Race is on again - so far so good. Most of
the teams seem OK - I really like the tema of Dave and
Mary. He's a coalminer from Kentucky and she's a
housewife and mom - she's never been out of Kentucky,
believe it or not, and so far she's been to Seattle,
China and Mongolia, with about 30,000 miles and
several continents to go. Pretty cool.

Project news: well, we'll see. I'm doing a weigh-on
on Friday at the end of the month.

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Extraordinary Rendition - a Big Load of Bull*&it

Extraordinary rendition.

What a bizarre, innocuous term for a heinous crime. A
crime that has apparently been committed over and over
again by our own government. You know what I think
when I read about cases of people being taken from
their work, people taken from their homes or from the
airport as they change planes, people who are picked
up in the name of "cleansing the world of the threat
of terrorism" and then disappear for years while they
are hidden and tortured and their families and friends
wonder what happened to them and their lives are
turned upside down and OUR GOVERNMENT is the cause of
it all because they heard a whisper, a rumor that this
person or that person is supporting this or that
terrorist group and MAYBE they are or maybe they
aren't but to some government officials it really
doesn't matter, a rumor is enough for them to
terrorize you, hide you for years, send you to a
foreign country to be tortured and it's all done in
the name of FREEDOM and in support of the AMERICAN
WAY? It's criminal.

In my opinion, we have invaded countries for less than
that on the basis of "in the name of freedom and
democracy" - we've condemned foreign leaders and
foreign policies for less then "disappearing" and
torturing people, we have pursuaded the United Nations
to place sanctions on countries who perform these
types of actions.

Are we the biggest hypocrites in the world or what?
We condemn and then we copy. We shake our heads and
then we do worse things. We quote God and the Bible,
and then we break the commandments.

Do as I say, not as I do. That's us.

We cerainly do not follow our own rules.

Some of this stuff we read everyday in the papers and
on the net are clearly violations of the Constitution
- is our Congress asleep? If our President doesn't
have the moral fortitude to follow the rules, why
don't the other hundreds of men and women who make up
our Congress get off their asses and make him?

I get really tired of hearing stuff like "cleansing
the world of terrorism" and "we are the leaders of the
free world" when we repeatedly show ourselves to be
morally corrupt. Why should anyone believe us? Why
shouldn't they get mad or quit listening and hit back?

In the schoolyard, the kids only take so much and then
they get together and beat the crap out of the bully
who's terrorizing them. If we're the bully, then
where does that leave everybody else?

If you don't hear from me again, it'll mean "someone"
took offense that I have an opinion - maybe I'll be
disappeared, too.

I hope the feds pay my bills while I'm gone.

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Project News: Mid-September - another 4!

Here's an update on Project news:

Weighed in today and I lost another 4 pounds! I guess
that's OK for two weeks, but I've GOT TO lose more
than that in the next two weeks of Sept to make up for
the (only) 5 I lost in August (fell short 4-5 lbs).

So, my plan is to step up and actually try to add in
some exercise. How's that for a plan 57 pounds into
this Project? I feel pretty good about the loss so
far since I have not added exercise into the routine
yet - I wanted to get some weight off first.

I'm not talking about jogging and weightlifting, by
the way. I'm talking about maybe walking in place for
a few minutes in front of the TV, taking the long way
to the bathroom at work, that kind of thing. I
certainly don't want to rush into anything! haha

I'll let you know how it works.........next update is
September 29th.

Sad, Sad, Sad

I don't really follow the many-storied fates of Anna
Nicole Smith but her son dying in her hospital room is
the saddest thing. Can you just imagine? She
had just given birth via C-section to a brand new baby
daughter, Daniel flew to the Bahamas to see her, and
went straight to the hospital. He stayed with her
that night and was found dead in his chair in the
morning.

This is one of the saddest stories I've heard - I
don't know why I feel so emotional about it but, jeez,
it's a sad one. I'm still emotional about the loss of
Steve Irwin so maybe that's why I'm susceptible to
weepy things right now.

Rest In Peace, Steve and Daniel.

Rock Star: AFFLICTION (tba), BB:AS (ass, for real)

Well, it's all over. Anti-climatic, disappointing,
wimpy, wimpy, wimpy endings for both BB:AS and RS:SN.

Luk-ass "won" RS - but really, is that a win? Already
they've lost their name because of the court case.
Oh, but I DID think up a new name for them:
AFFLICTION. What do you think? I thought it was
especially appropriate because Luk-ass always looks
like he's suffering from some kind of affliction when
he's on stage. Perfect, huh?

Update: They are now called "Rock Star: Supernova"

And, BB:AS came down to two of the most smarmy, icky
players and the finale wasn't even interesting. Mike
Boogie and Erika? Good grief, could they get any more
uninteresting finalists? If I was on the jury it
definitely would have been a choice between the two
worst players. Oh, and Mike won. Mostly because of
his association with Will - I think people gave him
credit for the whole Chill Town thing and realized
that they at least HAD A PLAN, which Erika did not -
she just floated with the breeze through most of the
summer. Anyway, yuck.

A perfect Final 2 would have been Will and Janelle -
then we would have seen an infinitely more interesting
and passionate show.

Storm & Janelle, sorry, sorry, sorry

It's my fault.

On these stupid shows I pick the one person I like and
stick with them through thick and thin, but, I think
I'm a jinx. So I apologize to Storm and Janelle -
it's probably my fault you both got kicked off your
shows this week. I rooted for you and the stars
laughed.

I'll miss you both - and the unfortunate thing is that
on Big Bro:AS there is NO ONE else to champion -
Janelle was the last - and Boogie and Erika are both
loathsome. ick. blech. ickeeee.

On Rock Star we still have Magni and Toby, but I can't
say I'm backing them because I'll jinx them. And I
CAN'T SAY I back Dilana-gate or Luk-ass because I JUST
WON'T.........

So there you go. It's been fun.

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Big Bro and Rock Star:SN - Coming to the end

I am happy to report that Janelle found her brain, and it wasn't in Will's pants. Since she had the POV Boobie had to put Will on the block - Erika started talking with Janie and rightly pointed out that Will was directly responsible for having her entire alliance voted off. THEN, the good stuff started - J and E went out for a cig (I am SO GLAD that Erika started smoking again if only for this moment) and they started comparing notes about what Boog and Will had told each of them. And they found the stories were the same. They both knew they were royally played, decided to join up, and Janie booted Will's ass. It was a wonderful thing to see.

On RS:SN news, last night we heard a cover and an original from each rawker. Here's what I thought:

Dilana sucked (The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" and a sucky original). There's nothing more to say - the girl is so dead to me. I felt sorry for her though - I know pulled calf muscles are extremely painful. Ouch.

Magni rocked with The Beatles "Back in the USSR" and a pretty good original. I enjoyed his performance on both songs - his vocals were very strong. Tommy: "Those songs sounded pretty much the same. Why was that?" Magical Magni Moment: "Because they were sung by...me?"

Storm blew the roof off with Bowie's "Suffragette City" (accompanied by Dave N - those two were electric playing off of each other - best performance I've seen in a long time.) Then she sang her local hit "Ladylike" which just plain rocks in a jazzy kind of way (she played the PG version, not the R version. Of course.) I loved it, the audience seemed to love it and she got nothing but compliments from SN.

Then Lukas was up and HE SUCKED. He sang Bon Jovi's "Living on A Prayer", which I know the words to but I couldn't understand a thing he was saying - I kept going "what?" what?" Way to ruin a song, Luk-ass. Then he sang an original song called "Headspin" which was so boring I grabbed the remote and surfed till it was over. Maime said she picked up her book and read it. It was gawdawful and he mumbled through the whole song - don't ask me what it was about cause I don't know. Something about his mom. As usual, SN poured the sugar on him, but they must have seen a different performance than I did. I had to laugh because some of his fans on the TWOP forum were all "just wait till you hear "Headspin!!!!! Wow!! That song RAWKS! It's the BEST SONG IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!" So I was waiting to hear something really good - and it bored the hell out of me. Maybe it was in a foreign language or something....like Canadian. haha.

Last up was Toby. His cover was The Killer's "Mr. Brightside" and it wasn't very good. Nothing against Toby, but that version was pretty average - and I LOVE that song. Then he sang a catchy little original that had everybody up on their feet. I enjoyed it, it was fun. Is SN looking for fun? I don't think so - I think they're looking for black eyeliner and angst.

Anyway, Dilana, Luk-ass and Toby were my bottom 3 (Toby just thrown in to make three)

So you know tonight's real bottom 3 will be Storm, Magni and Toby (Toby just thrown in to make three).

I put in 30 votes for Storm.

RS:SN Go Storm! - BB:AS Go Janelle!

I am SO HAPPY that Storm is still in the running on
RockStar - I hope she feels the same! Last week's
"Bring Me To Life" was pretty good but SN didn't
really take to it. She was in the bottom 3 and sang
The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" for her bottom 3
performance. It was great.

So, this week I hear she rocked with house with her
original song "Ladylike" and her cover, which I can't
think of right now - we'll get to see it tonight.

Go Storm!!!

On Big Brother:AS (hee) Janelle's still in there -
it's down to 4 now (Will, Mike, Erika and Janie). As
of now, Mike has the Head of House, he nominated Janie
and Erika, and Janelle got the Power of Veto (I think
we'll see that tonight along with her taking herself
off the block). Mike will have to put up Will for
eviction, and Janie will have the only vote and will
have to evict either Erika or Will. If she's REALLY
playing the game she'll evict Will - she's even
intimated in the Diary Room that she's just waiting
for a chance to do that. BUT Will is playing her so
well, and focusing on her dislike of Erika so much that she
may just forget her goal of playing the game, and
go along with what he's brainwashing her with -
anything to keep himself in. Of course, in the end,
it won't matter if she evicts W or E because she'll
have to win the last HOH in order to stay in with either
event - Mike will take Will to F2 and Erika will take
her Mike-lover to F2. The only way Janie can get
there is to win the last HOH.

Speaking of Erika and Mike - eeeewwwww!!! She
diary-room's that she's "in love", they have a "real
relationship" and she's found her "mate" on Big
Brother. Followed by scenes of Mike in the DR saying
how he knows she's going to be really, really angry
when she realizes he's just playing her for votes.
hahaha, this one is for the books because they're both
so stupid. Janie and Will, on the other hand, flirt
with each other outrageously, but both say they've not
lost sight of the game - they're just having fun. If
Erika is serious about her feelings for Mike and her
expectations of a relationship with him, or marriage,
outside of the house, then I feel really sorry for her
because she's going to get REALLY hurt. We'll see how
this all plays out.

GO JANELLE! and vote out Will on Thursday!

caveat: Although my ideal Final 2 would be Janelle
and Will because I think they're the two best players
ever on BB, I just don't see it happening without an
incredible series of events going her way.

Just some stuff

Boring, boring. That's me right now......nothing much
going on, still trying to lose more weight (that would
be a LOT easier without 3-day holidays) - gotta get
back on the stick now and really slam some pounds off
in September. I "only" lost 5 pounds in August, but
the good thing is that I could tell I'd lost inches by
the "new" clothes I could wear so that didn't feel so
bad.....but now there's NO sitting on my laurels -
I've got to keep it up, go, go go, maybe add some mild
exercise in the mix (my knees are still so
unpredictable - I can be totally pain-free one minute,
then just step down and be in pain with the next step
- grrr, it's frustrating).

Besides that, everything's the same. Mom's still in
the health center waiting for her broken ankle to heal
- she's been in 3 weeks so far with at least one to
go, she still isn't allowed to put any weight on her
leg so she basically just lays there on the bed. They
come in and do "restorative therapy" every day or so
with her sitting on the side of the bed, and she says
she sits in the wheelchair for an hour or so most
days. But after all this time of JUST DOING NOTHING I'm
afraid she won't be able to walk when she finally gets
a walking cast (or I should say "if") - I just don't
know what will happen then.....

It's Such a Shock

I still can't believe Steve Irwin is gone. I've been
a HUGE fan of his for years, I've watched the progress
of his zoo and his family and he almost feels like a
friend. It's unbelieveable. I feel so sorry for
Terri and the kids - they've lost an amazing husband
and father. It seems so unreal.