Dewey’s Dartboard

I got back home yesterday and it was a long drive.   And I had to work today and it was a long day. Chris came home from a trip to South Carolina so that was really nice.  We had a nice dinner.

My laptop came today and we went to DHL to pick it up.   It is a HUGE 17″ and I have to get used to it.  I also have to get used to Vista.  I am not sure how I feel about it so far, but it could be that it is just different.  Things seem to be working OK and I am playing around with it.  So we shall see.

I have been a bit quiet toward the end of the week, mainly because we were in Yard Sale Mania as my mother and sister and I prepared for the annual after fourth of July yard sale and they wanted to sell some stuff so guess who got to organize the whole thing?

Also, living with my mother and sister is a trip because they stay up until two and are yelling up and down the stairs at each other all night.  My sister had an ear infection so it was even worse this week.  “Mom, you wanna piece of pound cake?” “I don’t know, are you having some?” and on and on and on.

But all in all it was a good week. I like Edinboro.  Quiet town.   Nice people. 

So, I am back.  Will try and check in with all of you tomorrow.  Getting ready for bed, now. 

Night, all!

Well, I finally broke down and bought a new laptop.

It is a dell Inspiron 720 and as in the above picture, mine will be pink.

I should get it somewhere in the second week of July.  They were having a great sale at Dell and I got mine for a little over $300.00 off.  This model even has a little webcam, so if you are lucky, you might get a video post from me!  Although, this is a scary thought.  I will have to think about this carefully.  Do I want any of you to see my mug? 

So, I will have no reason to complain for the next three years or so.   Right now, I am in Edinboro on my old Toshiba.  I am going to reformat this one to the factory settings and give it to my sister.  I am just not sure how to do that.  I might need to take it home and grab the disks.     I think there is a way I can do it through the control panel but I am not at all sure how.   I am going to play around with it later.

On the down side of the day, we ran out of coffee filters and forgot to get any.  I am planning a trip over to the Sheetz for something large and caffeinated to get me started.   Luckily, the Sheetz is not too far away.

I love this Sheetz. We don’t have them in Baltimore.  This one is amazing.  They make smoothies and frozen creme drinks and coffee drinks, much like a Starbucks but more selection and cheaper.  And I love cheaper.

Hope you are all having a good week. 

Java Bear tagged my partner Chris with a  Road Trip Meme, and he tagged me, so hear goes.

This road trip meme is apt because I am currently on a road trip.

This is what you need to do:

– Pick five CDs for the trip.

– Pick three essential items.

– Pick one outrageous wardrobe item (something that will make you stand out at a party; you must own this item already).

Five CDs

Doris Day - Day by Day/Day by Night.  I always listen to Doris on the way home.

The Non-Stop 80’s Party CD

Ultimate Kylie  - Greatest Hits

Something by the Irish Boy Band - Westlife

The fifth will have to be a  Book on CD.  I always take a book to listen to but that will change with the trip. Currently I have the Host by Stephanie Meyer and Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian.

Three Essential Items:

My Cell Phone, in case I get stranded or have a problem.

A Bag-O-Books. Usually six or seven.  Or eight.  But I always have a bag.

My dog Lola.  Can’t go without the dog!

One Outrageous wardrobe item:

Probably a summer reading club T-shirt.  I am wearing my “Wild about reading” one now. But I am not that outrageous. And I don’t even want to stand out at a party.

I will tag Tiger Yogiji and Coco!   Have fun!

I have been terribly concerned as of late.

I have been watching the new season of Doctor Who and I have really been enjoying it so far.

I especially love Donna Noble as a companion, played by Catherine Tate, above.

Apparently, Catherine has only signed on for one year with the Doctor.

And there has been some foreshadowing in the series of something that might happen that could be unpleasant.

And I don’t want Donna to die.

I know she is a fictional character and she is not real and I should not be getting all teary eyed at the thought of her demise, it’s just that I am sure that something bad is going to happen.  And I am not prepared.

If you watch Doctor Who and the spin off series Torchwood, you may remember the final episode of Torchwood and how they really knocked the viewer for a loop.  And not in a good way.

I am afraid that Doctor Who is going to follow suit. 

And I realize the episodes have already been filmed and are done and once they show them, Donna’s fate is sealed.

And all I will have is one season to spend with her, and the Christmas episode, the Runaway Bride.

So please, if you have any power to change Donna’s fate for the better, please do so.

Doctor Who fans will love you for it.

And Catherine, come back.  Donna is a great companion.  I am not ready to see her go.

Maybe she can figure out a way to bring the dust together that was Kylie Minogue, and she can come back too!

I am going out on a limb here, and am going to post, once again, a book related entry.

I have not been keeping statistics, but I think my book related entries get the least amounts of comments, and I think only on one occasion did someone actually go out and read the book I suggested.

But I will soldier on, because that is what I do.  And I have a doozy for you.

And, to further amaze you, it is NON-FICTION.   Yes.  Dewey is reading a work of non-fiction.  Isn’t that amazing?

Of course, it does fall into the “true crime” category, and therefore is understandably about murder.  But if any of you have been paying attention, I seem to be all about murder.  But this time it is true!

I am reading Savage Grace: The True Story of Fatal Relations in a Rich and Famous American Family by Natalie Robins and Steven Aronson.

It is the story of Barbara Baekeland and her son Antony.   The Baekland line is famous because in the late 1900’s, the grandfather Leon Baekeland invented Bakelite.  Bakelite is a plastic type material that became wildly popular in the 30’s and 40’s and was turned into many things, including jewelry and radios.

The grandson, Brooks Baekeland was a terribly handsome man and married a woman named Barbara who became quite a jet setter.  They had apartments in New York, London and Spain.  

They only had one son, Antony, and the relationship between Barbara and Antony seemed to be very strange.  Antony was gay but that fact seemed to destroy the mother and the rumour is that it caused the mother to enter into an incestuous relationship with the son.   Creepy.

Well, one day in the early seventies, something in the son snapped and he stapped his mother with a kitchen knife.  He was sentenced at the Old Bailey in London and at the point that I am now in the book, he is a Broadmoor hospital, a psychiatric clinic for criminals.

The book is really interesting.  It is told through gathered interviews and letters,  but seperated in such a way that the story just flows.   You get a peek into the rich and powerful lifestyle and realize that money does not become the cure all for everything.

You also learn a lot about Bakelite itself, its discovery and its uses.   

I am only about 75 pages in, but I am fascinated.   It really is an engrossing read.

The book was written in 1985 but has been reprinted because of a recent movie starring Julieanne Moore.

So, if you are too lazy to read the book, see the movie!

I do not work  until one this afternoon, so I slept in, almost til ten!

I think I needed the sleep.  I feel much better today.

So much so that I bring you a funny.

This is “Blame Halo 3″ by this guy on Youtube named James@War.  He makes great parodies of songs, and I love this one. I will try and bring you more, when I am in the mood.

Well. I have some coffee to drink.    And a book to read.   And I probably will accomplish nothing before I head to work, aside from reading blogs, watching videos and goofing off.

Oh, and maybe playing with the dog.

Weeks half over!

Oh so shitty. It’s amazing how shitty I feel.

And I wonder, can this shitty feeling be so real?

I am grumpy.

And I have a headache.

And I did not sleep well last night.

And I have a short temper.

And I am trying my hardest to smile through my clenched teeth.

And somehow I am managing to make it through the day.  Just barely.

But I did have a vanilla shake at McDonald’s for lunch.  That cheered me up just a bit.

And I have been trying to keep happy songs in my head and that is helping.

And I know that I will be able to take a short nap when I get home which may lead to my not getting up from the couch ever for the rest of the night.  Who knows?

Anyway. I just wanted to let you know how I feel.

So if I happen to comment on your blog and it seems like I am in a crappy mood it is because I really am.

And Gosh Darnit, I am going to stay this way.

I have been on a real 80’s kick this past week. I have been listening to 80’s tunes. I have been watching 80’s  movies.  I have even watched “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” because a certain Dr. Sparky recently chatted about it.  But that is another story all together.

What I did watch last night was one I had not seen in a long time.  I even had the soundtrack on LP.   I can still remember the hooplah when the film made its debut.   Everybody in town was excited to see it.

It was Flashdance

The reason that I remember Flashdance so well was because I grew up in the burbs of Pittsburgh.  And Flashdance was filmed in Pittsburgh.  We didn’t get that many movies filmed in the city at the time, so this was a very big deal.  People would drive to the city to catch sight of Jennifer Beals.   Everybody wanted to cheer for the Altoona girl made good.  Everybody wanted to go to the theatre and ogle at the scences set in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

And watching the film again at 42,  I can appreciate the scenes of Pittsburgh.   They are really filmed quite nicely and I can remember parts of the city by watching the film.   But nice scenery does not a movie make.

I realized, watching the film now, that it really HAS NO PLOT.

None.  Nada. Nothing.

You get this chick who is a welder by day and dances in a bar at night.  She wants to join a ballet company and fills out the application.  She is afraid to turn it in. She finally does so. She auditions. She wins. End of story.

There is some fill in scenes about her friend who is an ice skater who tries out for an ice show and fails, only to become a stripper.  There are a few scenes with her divorced boyfriend, who she thinks is two timing her but is really only going out with his ex-wife.  There is the friend who is a comedian who tells ghastly horrible ethnic jokes.  And there is the creep at the bar that likes to feel her up.

But none of these stories lead anywhere.  You never really get to know any of the characters.  There are many scenes without dialog at all, just killing time to make the movie an hour and a half long.   Oh, and the pretty shots of Pittsburgh really do help to pass the time.

And then, finally, there are some MTV pop video numbers when Jennifer Beals and her stunt double dance at the blue collar bar.  This was mainly to sell the soundtrack which I bought.  And they were totally 80’s to the max.  80’s tunes, 80’s moves, 80’s hair.    And they brought the song “maniac” to the foreground, and made it a hit.

And as I am watching it now, I could sense the time going by. Time that I could never get back.   And I fired up the laptop, and kept the movie rolling as I read blogs, looked at my email, and played youtube videos.  

And now I realize just how bad the movie really was.  Well, not bad. It was filmed well. And the dancing was good. And I still like the music, somewhat. But it really needed a script.  It needed a plot. It needed something.

I wonder, if I watch “Footloose” again, will the same thing happen.  Or will it be another film that was good at the time but loses it in age. 

Ah well.  You live and you learn.

And today we bring you… Grease 2!

The first example I bring you from this marvelous movie is “Score tonight!”  How can you go wrong with a choreographed number set in a bowling alley!   And, the song features Lorna Luft, who, as you should know, is Judy Garlands daughter!    With her in the cast, how can the movie be bad?

Oh how I loved this movie.  Of course, I also loved the first one  (that had the Olivia Newton John factor, how could I not?)   But the second film had its own kind of charm.

I mean, where else can you find Michelle Pfeiffer singing “Cool Rider?”

I always wanted a cycle and a leather jacket, and I could be a T-Bird.

Or maybe I wanted a pink satin jacket and I could be a pink lady!

And, to end this post, because I can, here is Olivia…. with Hopelessly Devoted to You from the original.

Have a fabulous fifties inspired Sunday, or just have fun whatever you may be doing!

ALA had a contest.

ALA would be the American Library Association for those of you not in the know.

And, this contest involved writing a song based on your favorite book.

And making a video and sending it in. 

And they have five finalists!

And they are hysterical.

Especially the one about “Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse”

Though the one about “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is a bit creepy.

But I have the link!

http://www.gale.cengage.com/librareo/

And you can watch too!