http://valkyriesaerie.typepad.com

Has eaten the last four postings…I don’t know where they’ve gone. I might migrate back to Typepad.  The ONLY reason I had moved was because WordPress was free and good.  Now it’s just free. Argh.

1. I can perform weddings. Ok, so I got a license for it online through a Unitarian church. But hey, need a quick and free ceremony, I’m your girl. As long as I know you are sincere in your desire to get married. No fake marriages performed on MY watch.
2. I hate slugs. Ok, more of an irrational fear. A phobia, really.
3. Red used to be my favorite color until I discovered how awesome purple was.
4. Electric Blue by Icehouse is my favorite song in the whole wide world. Youtube it.
5. I have no sense of direction, nor do I care to develop it.

I am back, safe and more or less sound, from my trip.  It was fun!  Washington D.C didn’t really look like I expected it to, but I got some great pictures of the Vietnam Memorial.  (I write for the Punisher in a Marvel RPG and was thinking it might help clarify some of the character’s anger. Boy, did it.  I just about cried and was haunted by the names….and there were a lot of them…written in stone.)

I got pictures of the Lincoln Memorial when it was overcast and then when it was sunny.  Beautiful, either way, but it shone a brilliant white when it was sunny.  I ended up walking a lot.  Got exhausted.  It was a long trip….fourteen hours of driving,  four hours of looking around, and not much sleep was obtained at the hotel. Had a weird vibe.  Plus, Julie snores.  I kid, I kid.

When we went to Washington D.C, we met up with some WoW friends and partook of some Thai cuisine.  Not only was it beautifully presented, it was delicious.  Unfortunately, Thai food doesn’t agree with my diabetes, so I ended up not feeling so hot. (258!!!) BUT….so good….  Well, ok, I really oinked out too.  Couldn’t help it. Wanted to try everything .  My favorite dish? Fried rice with shrimp and assorted spices. Yummers!   Oh and the sweet and sour veggie platter? DEE-LICIOUS.

I had such a great time. 

Now to get caught up on my Marvel Uncensored writing duties…. Oi vey!

Day 1  07-02-09  (Portland to Phoenix)

Getting through airport security wasn’t so bad.  Not as extensive as I thought  it would be.  I think I was expecting a strip search….Or at least hoping for one! 

The actual getting into the air is slightly discombulating.  I’m not that great of a writer that I can accurately describe what I was experiencing at the time.  It IS cool, though, the sensation of being hurled into the atmosphere by an enormous machine that shouldn’t be able to lift itself off the ground—let alone sixty or so other people and all their luggage.  It’s quite amazin, if you stop and think about it. My butt is currently residing in an aisle seat near the escape hatch. So—if something goes wrong, guess who is going to be numero uno out that hatch?  That’s right, baby.   Me!  Nyah, I think I’ll let the screaming baby behind me out first.  Hey, I’m all about the children.  Or at least about keeping them quiet and happy.

Also, note that airplanes are not really fat friendly.  I’m not too big to NOT fit in them, but I need a belt extender.  Yippee Skippee!   And the bathrooms are miniscule!  I don’t see how anyone can do a mile high anything! I can barely get my rear in there.

So why am I going to go to South Carolina?  To go see my World of Warcraft sister, Julie aka Rivermyst.  This trip is going to be beneficial for me. It will. I can feel it in my stank bone, as Cletus from the Simpsons would say. 

Anyhow, I’m about to land in Phoenix and this is the first leg in my 12 hour journey across the country….and I have to say—so far so good.

(Adapted from my travel journey)

My blood sugar tests out between 130-140.  Better, but not where it should be.  It’ll take a couple more months.

Glad people seemed to enjoy my Unsucky Vampire Post, even if there was some disagreement.

I will respond to e-mail. I will do a better job of it!

I will respond to comments and also comment MORE on my friends’ blogs.  I’m pretty opinionated in real life, but shy in my online life. Go fig.

Oh, this just in from a latest scientific research project :  Women are most likely to recoil in horror from ugly babies, even their own.  Guess the old axiom about having a face only a mother could love is wrong.

(I’ll talk about Michael Jackson, but not right now. I am still bummed.  A major part of my childhood has gone.  I loved his music, and pitied him, rather than hate him.)

Finally, in dumb ass criminal news…

Clackamas, OR—

A  man, who shall remain nameless—well, ok, I’ll call him Doofus McGee— called 911 for having been shorted money by a McDonald’s. Said he was robbed.  The dispatcher told him that he could be arrested for dialing in an non emergency call and hung up.  The idiot called twice more before they sent an officer to pick the moron up.  Apparently, the dispatchers had realized that A) the caller was mentally deficient or B) they didn’t want to waste an officer’s time.  I’m going with the latter explanation.

Well, I’m off!  To South Carolina!  Expect photos when I get back.

Just a Few Words

Before I amble off to finish putting my clothes away and get ready for work.  (I like to procrastinate and put all my clothes away at once.)  I am so sorry I haven’t been blogging lately as often as I’d like, but I’ve been trying to do activities that don’t involve a lot of self examination….mostly just mindless cyber swashbuckling and fiction writing.

I have vacation next week.  Can hardly believe that in a few days, I’m heading off to the South.  Woot!  Then Washington D.C.  I am really excited about that.  Blogging will definitely be sporadic, at best.

Dagnabit. I was hoping to get back to a regular schedule!  C’est la vie.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to figure out how to get the photos from my phone to my computer when I get back.

I need a break.  This one coming up will do just fine, though I’m a tad nervous about flying by myself.  But hey, I think I’m a big girl.  Operative word being think!

Take care and kick ass for me.

Forty bucks short of rent that was due the 1st. No money for food. No money for my medicine. No money for gas to get to the bus station so I can get to work.

No money for hope. 

I’m going on a downward spiral.

By sucky, I mean good.  That’s what vampires are supposed to do, right?  Suck?  So the opposite of that would be unsucky. That, by my new definition, means that a sucky vampire movie is excellent, two fangs up if you are into that, and an unsucky one is bad, a sacriliege of vampiredom.   The movies listed before are in order, from MY favorite to my least favorite…still a good movie, but not quite up to snuff.  I have judged each movie on their beauty, the actors’ skill at portraying their characters, what they add to the mythos of the vampire…that kind of thing. 

Unsucky movies are a combined effort of craptitude and everything that makes a movie…awful.    In the case of one movie on my unsucky list, it’s simply portraying vampires as one-sided villains.    So …enjoy my list!

Sucky

1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  This has to be one of the most visually stunning movies, I’ve ever seen.  The acting is wonderful, especially from Gary Oldman, and even Winona did pretty good in it.  It is lavish and seductive and incredibly romantic.  Plus, I like a few of the historical touches of the real Vlad that Francis Ford Coppola put in the movie.  The real Vlad the Impaler’s (One historical figure I am FASCINATED by) did toss herself out of the castle wall, though the reason she did that is a tad unclear. My favorite vampire movie ever.
2. Interview with the Vampire.  Tom Cruise? As Lestat?  Brad Pitt as the whiny, but handsome, vampire Louis  I could understand,  but Cruise? As Lestat? I was dubious at first, but I watched the movie.  Like the movie mentioned above, it was made with much love and attention to the book…in fact IWTV is a very good adaptation of it.  Wonderful, beautiful vamp flick.
3. Lost Boys.   Mmmmmm. A young Kiefer Sutherland. Hot. Wild. Untamable.  But also acted his ass off in this tale of vampires trying to survive in a rural setting. Lol.  No, it’s more of a tale of a young man being seduced into a tribe of uncivilized ruffians.  Yeah, like IWTV, this has some homo-erotic undertones, but it’s still a movie worth watching, especially when you want to get the bad taste of wanna-be vampires …like…say ….Robert Pattinson out of your mouth.
4. The Hamiltons.  I happen to really like this movie.  It’s a story of a family of rather disturbed siblings trying to survive.  It might not be everyone’s pint of blood, though.  I just happen to enjoy the twist.
5. The Wisdom of Crocodiles.   I’m not a big Jude Law fan, but I have to admit his acting was on par with the villian/victim of this film.  I don’t know how a villain can be a victim also, but he pulls it off.

Unsucky Vampire Movies

1. Twilight.  Who else saw that coming? Huh?  Read about 1/3 of the book before I tossed it to the ground in disgust.  So I know the movie will unsuck. Yeah, I haven’t seen it all, but I have seen enough to know that it unsucks for all eternity.
2. Dracula 3000.  If you value your sanity, do not waste your money on this piece of garbage.  It has a 1.8 rating on IMDB.  It unsucks so much, it blows.  Casper Van Dien, you should be ashamed of your hot self. Oh, and fire your agent/manager for letting you star in this.  You are capable of so much more, hottie.
3. Van Helsing.    Love Hugh Jackman.  The dude who plays Dracula,  who is obviously trying to channel Gary Oldman’s performance? Not so much.  It’s a glossy, shiny movie with lots of special effects and not much sense.  Good for a Saturday night with nothing else to do…as long as you pick it apart ala Mystery Science Fiction 3000.
4. Underworld.  Another pretty movie.  It’s not a bad movie, but it really doesn’t explore the vampires in depth, other than to make them look bad.  Lycans rule, vamps drool seems to be the motto of this flick.
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer.   The movie blew.  It sucked.  So laughably bad….  If you need to see a Buffy in action, go see the TV series, which shouldn’t even bear the name because it is so incredibly better.

Well, that’s all for now.  My hands are tired.   Comments always welcomed!