While I Was Out...

During my absence, instead of doing a little dance, making a little love and getting down tonight, I opted to...


Watch:
What's Happening!! marathon...The Incredible Hulk marathon...Kolchak: The Night Stalker marathon...Vh1: We are the 80's...Something Weird OnDemand...Martin Mystery
Comments: I'm really enjoying Vh1's We are the 80's. I'd assumed it was yet another "I Love the 80's" spinoff, which are fun to an extent, but then there's such a thing as overkill, so I hadn't bothered to watch or paid it much attention. Well, as it turns out, We are the 80's is a 30 minute block of all-80's music videos! How cool is that?! I've been enjoying seeing videos I haven't seen in years, not to mention seeing videos for songs that I'd never seen before. Growing up, we didn't have cable, so I missed out on a steady diet of MTV until I went off to college. I was relegated to shows like Friday Night Videos and American Bandstand (and later on, Night Flight). The video that really took me back (*shown): Alphaville: Big in Japan (though you may be more familiar with them singing the '89 song Forever Young on the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack). I used to think the lead singer was so dreamy...unfortunately he hasn't aged all that well. :(

Also, as I've mentioned before, here where I live, when you have digital cable you automatically have something called OnDemand. OD offers up a seemingly limitless archive of just about everything you'd ever wanna see (movies, TV shows, cartoons, etc.), when you wanna see it. Just browse through the on screen menu, pick out what you wanna watch and click! Fun! It's stopped me from lamenting "There's nothing good on TV."

As you know, I've discovered and rediscovered all kinds of groovy things since I got OD: Ripe TV's Kung Faux, Maude, The Facts of Life, etc. Well, my latest addiction is the newly-added Something Weird category!! For those who aren't familiar with the folks at Something Weird, they are helping to keep the deliciously-cheesy world "B" Horror Movies, Sexploitation films (Burlesque acts: Think Teaserama), Ephemeral Films (Think the "shorts" from MST3K), Drive-in movie trailers and other fair. If you remember (and loved, like I did) the '94 late-night TV show Reel Wild Cinema, hosted by Sandra Bernhard, then you know what I mean. It too was a Something Weird biproduct.

Annnnyway, my point is that now OD offers a Something Weird category with subcategories and I am loving it. Watching movies like Teenage Strangler, Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory and so much more! I have to admit, I think the ephemeral films are my favorite.

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Local Politics:
Recently Proposition 2 (click the hyperlink to go to my past post) was on the ballot and failed miserably (no surprise...remember, I live in Texas). Of course I couldn't escape the topic even if I wanted to. The local news, newspaper and radio was abuzz the closer the voting day drew near, not to mention the aftermath. The "division of church and state?" What's that?

Personally, for me, I could give a shit about the whole kit 'n kaboodle (ring, certificate, cerimony, terminology, etc.) aspect of it all. I think that's all just window dressing anyway. I'm much more interested in the civil liberties aspect of it (having a legal right to insurance, hospital visitation, assets, wills, children, etc.). I wholeheartedly didn't expect the prop to pass, but it's still very depressing to know that you live somewhere where the majority of people have two faces (though, admittedly, some just have the one), are nice to your face and have no problem taking your money (goods, services, taxes for school children I don't even have, etc.), yet behind the smiling facade they'd just as soon send you off to a concentration camp...all in the name of Jesus. Amen...and pass the ammo.

By no means do I expect them to embrace the "lifestyle," but it's just depressing to be surrounded by bigots. You live somewhere your whole life only to find out that the bigots outweigh the good, rational people. It's disheartening. The really sad part is the people in my own neighborhood who had the Prop 2 signs in their yard (A stick figure drawing of a man and a woman and a mathematical-like equation for the slogan: "1 Man + 1 Woman= Marriage"). I even got some pictures of some homemade Jesuslicious signs posted on a telephone pole just up the street. The irony: carved in the sidewalk directly in front of the house that the signs were nearest to (and where I suspect the person lives who put them up, judging from the exterior) was this pentagram-looking star. LOL! Of course, I had to take a picture of that too.

I'll be venting more about this topic at a later date. I may have been out of commission blogwise, but I still blogged about things that went on in my absence.

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Shop:
In addition to the numerous books/CDs/DVDs I purchased on Half.com, eBay, various book sales, etc., I also bought my first new piece of furniture in like 7 years. It feels like a landmark for me since I picked it out and paid for it myself, in lieu of my parents delegating what they thought I should get. Pardon me while I gush:

On a recent trip to the Dillard's outlet, to pick up some new sweaters (the kind that button up...like old fogies like me wear), I noticed that they sold furniture there as well (this is like my 3rd time there...tells you how observant I am). I decided to check out what they had (tons of couches/love seats), and that's when I saw it: The chair of my dreams. LOL! It was a Mission-style chair (well, technically a modern update on the Mission style) with warm brown leather seating and wide arms. Awesome. I'm usually not a leather fan (I've O.D.'ed on it, since it seems like everyone around here gets a hardon for leather furniture and "southwest" shit), but I really liked the design of the chair. Plus, it was big and comfy.

Now this next part is not to brag, but you know how I love a bargain, so think of it as me doing a happy-dance over saving lots of money. The chair was originally $900, but was marked $536...plus, you get to take an additional 20% off of that price, which makes it $429...plus, I signed up for a Dillard's card in order to take advantage of getting an additional 10% off my first month's purchases, which brought the price to $386 x 8% sales tax ($31). So, I ended up getting a $900 chair for $417! WOO HOO! I was super-excited! I was also happy to find out later (according to a friend) that Lane is a high-quality brand of furniture. I lucked out all the way around.

So, I get home and find out that "real" furniture is heavy as fuck. I eventually get the chair inside and I'm being all giggly and queer about it...touching it...standing back and looking at it from a distance...coming in from another room...etc. Then I sit in it and find out...it's also a recliner! Me likee! I started laughing once it reclined because I honestly had no idea that it did that (typical me...rheeee!). It didn't look like a recliner to me. So, needless to say, my parents, who have been harping on the fact that they want me to get a recliner (because I'll like it so much...i.e. they'll like it so much), will be pleasantly surprised as well.

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Enjoy:
• Schlotzsky's cream of potato and bacon soup is to die for! Seriously. It's orgasmic.
• Tootsie Roll Pops
• The latest "Win a FREE iPod Nano" gimmick game: Smacking that monkey with a boomerang never gets old!
• Method's green tea and aloe hand soap. OMG, it smells soooooo good. Also try: Cucumber, Lemongrass and Pink Grapefruit. I thought I'd like the Pomegranate, but it was waaay too sweet-smelling for my taste.
• Wheat Thins sun-dried tomato and basil crackers are great! Perfect with a little pepper turkey, provolone and a dash of Claussen dill relish or peach preserves on top.
• Mini Moon Pies
• Whataburger's new Peppercorn Ranch Chicken/bacon sandwich is amazing. They have great chicken. If you like spicy ranch, you'll love it.
• WebMD's 'Mood Buster Matching Game': Think Mahjong meets Pop-Up Video. When you make a match, a little box pops up with misc. info. Fun! *You need to have Shockwave installed to play