Happy Thanksgiving 2010

I'm a lucky SOB.  No deaths, no arrest, no homelessness, no real madness except my own internal madness.  That being said, I have much to be thankful for:

• New readers (9 todate)
• New friends
• New experiences
• New chances
• New methods
• New outlooks
• New ways
• New means
• New travels
• New adventures

 - Thanksgiving Day
 - Canadian Thanksgiving


I'm gonna try keeping the fussing & whining to a minimum, but I want so much.  I don't need it, I know what I need and can't have.  But that's neither here nor there.

All I can do is try.

Thank you all for listening.

Without you I'd doubt my own existence.

Rest In Peace - Ingrid Pitt

Ingrid Pitt, queen of Hammer horror films, dies (Reuters)

Source: Reuters Wed Nov 24, 2010, 7:17 am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Ingrid Pitt, seductive queen of the Hammer horror films who survived a Nazi concentration camp as a girl, has died aged 73, a spokesman for her agent said on Wednesday.

The actress started her screen career in the mid-1960s with roles in Spanish films and minor, uncredited parts in "Doctor Zhivago" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

She appeared in the 1968 classic "Where Eagles Dare" alongside Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, and five years later in the mystery drama "The Wicker Man."

But it was for her roles in erotic horror films "The Vampire Lovers" (1970) and "Countess Dracula" (1971) that she was best known in Britain.

"Underrated as both an actress and a writer, Pitt was a warm but stubbornly enigmatic figure," said Marcus Hearn, a historian of Hammer horror movies and a friend of the actress.

Pitt was also a writer, producing two novels set during the Peron era in Argentina and several horror-related works of fiction.

She was born in Poland in 1937 to a mother of Jewish descent, and was interned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two at the age of five -- an experience she recounted in her autobiography "Life's a Scream."

She told an interviewer in 2006 that she did not particularly enjoy watching horror movies.

"I was in a concentration camp as a child and I don't want to see horror," Pitt said. "I think it's very amazing that I do horror films when I had this awful childhood. But maybe that's why I'm good at it."

Her autobiography also describes Pitt's search for her father throughout the European Red Cross refugee camps and her escape from East Berlin, one step ahead of the police.

"I always had a big mouth and used to go on about the political schooling interrupting my quest for thespian glory," she wrote. "I used to think like that. Not good in a police state."

Pitt collapsed recently and died in London on Tuesday, shortly after her 73rd birthday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Found here

Music to smile about ...

Fitz & the Tantrums - MoneyGrabber



Muse and the Resistance - Uprising

Sometimes you need a little something to smile about, much less alone to dance about.

Take care; new blog coming soon.

Some of these are a little dated

You know you’re an internet addict when …

• ·         You step out of your room and realize that your parents have moved and you don't have a clue as to when it happened.
• ·         Your bookmark list takes 15 minutes to go from top to bottom.
• ·         Your nightmares are in HTML and GIFS.
• ·         You turn off your modem and get this awful empty feeling, like you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
• ·         You start introducing yourself as "Jim at net dot com"
• ·         Your heart races faster and beats irregularly each time you see a new WWW site address on TV.
• ·         You turn on your intercom when leaving the room so you can hear if new e-mail arrives.
• ·         Your wife drapes a blond wig over your monitor to remind you of what she looks like.
• ·         All of your friends have an @ in their names.
• ·         When looking at a web page full of someone else's links, you notice all of them are already highlighted in purple.
• ·         Your dog has its own home page.
• ·         You can't call your mother. . . She doesn't have a modem.
• ·         You check your mail. It says "no new messages. " So you check it again.
• ·         Your phone bill is a heavy as a brick.
• ·         You write your homework in HTML and give your instructor the URL.
• ·         You don't know the sex of three of your closest friends, because they have neutral nicknames and you never bothered to ask.
• ·         Your husband tells you that he has had the beard for 2 months.
• ·         You wake up at 3 a. m. to go to the bathroom and stop and check your e-mail on the way back to bed. 
• You tell the kids they can't use the computer because "Daddy's got work to do" -- even though you don't have a job.
• ·         You buy a Captain Kirk chair with a built-in keyboard and mouse.
• ·         Your wife makes a new rule: "The computer cannot come to bed. "
• ·         You get a tattoo that says "This body best viewed with Netscape 3. 0 or higher. "
• ·         You never have to deal with busy signals when calling your ISP. . . because you never log off.
• ·         The last girl you picked up was only a GIF.
• ·         You ask a plumber how much it would cost to replace the chair in front of your computer with a toilet. 
• Your wife says communication is important in a marriage. . . so you buy another computer and install a second phone line so the two of you can chat.
• ·         As your car crashes through the guardrail on a mountain road, your first instinct is to search for the "back" button.

How to tell when you are spending too much time with your computer:

• ·         You start introducing yourself as "lord at pacbell dot net"
• ·         Your wife drapes a wig over your monitor to remind you of what she looks like
• ·         You check your mail. It says "no new messages". So you check it again
• ·         Your phone bill is delivered in a box
• ·         You name your children Eudora, Mozilla, and Dotcom
• ·         All of your friends have an @ in their names
• ·         You tell the cab driver you live at http://123. elm. street/house/bluetrim. Html
• ·         You tell the kids they can't use the computer because "Daddy's got work to do" and you don't have a job.
• ·         You get a tattoo that says "This body best viewed with Netscape3. 01"
• ·         You never have to deal with the busy signals because you never log off
• ·         You ask a plumber how much it would cost to replace the chair in front of your computer with a toilet
• ·         You start tilting your head sideways whenever you smile :)
• ·         Your spouse says communication is important in a marriage, so you buy another computer and install another phone line so that the two of you can chat
• ·         As your car crashes through the guardrail on a mountain road, your first instinct is to search for the "back" button
• ·         Your computer goes down, you haven't logged in for two hours. You start to tremble. You pick up the phone and dial your Internet access number. You try to mimic computer noise in order to connect.

http://jokes.aspcode.net/13854/Too-Much-Computer-Time.aspx

http://jokes.aspcode.net/11855/You-Might-Be-An-Internet-Addict-If.aspx

Belonging

I've always been kinda on the outside of things.  In all honesty I am damned lucky I got laid, and losing my virginity was to a girl looking for a revenge fuck, a grudge lay to even out her feelings of rejection.

(I still haven't found a way to do that for my feelings of rejection, but that's another story.)  After that I married that girl for a few years.  When she was done with me, my money and my hopes, I went celibate for 6 years, which, in retrospect, should have been when I was looking for every one night stand possible.

Instead I held on to my dreams.  And now that's all I have is those dreams.  I'm a substitute teacher, but it's not gonna pay the Texas Student Loan people back soon, and I can be modest until I make those damned dreams come true.

Today, at the inner city school I mentioned earlier this week, I was asked at the last second, to see if I'd like to come to the after-school luncheon for the staff.  Sadly, the counselor that invited me over wasn't around, so I was uncertain where or who to eat with, and no one was saying, "Mr. G, come sit here with us."

So I picked up a plate, made small talk with some of the staff, and sat alone.  As I finished my meal, one of the other ELA teachers, Mrs. Reyes, called me over.  "Hey, here's some of the other staff on your floor."

My name made the rounds, hands were shook, and I smiled politely.  It was a charity bone, a pity bone, but I took it.  Everyone knows me, but since this is a new site, everyone's still got a little distance for me.  They don't know me, or my zombie phobia, or that I collect action figures, abhor shaving, know the difference between Dr. Pepper & Mr. Pibb, and go to church despite my knowledge of the future, and more than likely, my damnation. 

But in all honesty, I am a bit of an isolationist.  I think if I were to make millions on my writing, I'd be hiding in my mansion like Howard Hughes, saving my excrement, keeping my nails as long as freak show carny, and possibly, not knowing what got me there or why.

The cosmic joke: make millions & hide versus doing something good with it all besides paying my bills.

I may be here for a few more weeks, and I doubt I'll make friends worthy of a Christmas card.

But I know the friends I want, and the feelings I hide.

One day I could become socially grown, instead of emotionally stunted.

Anything's possible.

But there's time.

Good night for now.

It's not a tumor!!

THIS is the substitute I wish I were:

But that ain't the truth. Last week while I was at the local high school the kids texted & Tweeted me out to their friends, telling them I was on campus.

Among the 6th graders I feel like this, but they are getting their lessons done as much as I am teaching or giving them lessons.

So far I've been successful.

It's not a gallery in SoHo or downtown LA but it'll do for now.

Let's just keep going. Next week is Thanksgiving break - hopefully flying in another direction.

Hopefully doing something amazing with my time off.

Ciao.

Early Morning Madness

I'm gonna be off nights gang/dear readers, for a bit. I've been asked to challenge & educate a few classes of primates (meaning 6th graders) who've chased off every substitute teacher in the last week. They've made no progress, had no grades and been destroying the classroom of an injured teacher.

Sadly, his return is a mystery, and I am a controlling SOB and a good teacher, but lacking my certification. (Those attempts were mentioned in my previous blogs this summer & last fall 2009)

I will be teaching 6th grade in an inner-city school, famed for it's gang problems and broken families. I may be teaching in 2 (two) languages, so there could be a LOT of chaos coming my way this week. In the morning I'll stop at Wal-Mart for a few packs of pens, some notebook paper and folders. Since I'll be there either a week, a month or the rest of the school year, I gotta be ready for anything ... even if it means turning the reins over to a 'certified teacher'.

Right now I gotta make those kids successful.

And I've gotta get to bed, get some rest, and think about my lesson plan and what I need to make my days happen.

There is one thing I know I'll be carrying in my pocket when I go, just like when I was student teaching:

It was a special item then, it's still special now.

Good night everyone.

More later.

Promise.

p.s. "If you want to see the coolest Alphabet ABC's, then follow this link here!