Favourite things

I've been seeing/hearing a lot of blah blah blah about Oprah, and apparently she has favorite things. What makes her so special that everyone cares about her favourtie things? I have favourite things too - and if she can pelt you all with them, so can I. Just because she picks commercial products doesn't mean I have to either. I'm going to guess that she's got a whole pile of her favourites too, but I'm just going to list 10, mostly because no one is sponsoring me, giving me things for free OR going to read this and think "Hey, I should get these things!" It's purely an exercise in futility, but I'm okay with that.

1. Coffee
How can you go wrong here - it's hot, it's awesome and it has caffeine. No year is a good year without it. And even if it is a bad year, coffee will help you through it.

2. Flannel
You read that right. Be it blankets, sheets or comfy pj pants, flannel is THE way to go. It's warm, it's fuzzy and it's not a hair-magnet like fleece is. It's available in many colors and designs - allowing you to have awesome comfy pants that reflect your true personality. Yay for flannel.

3. Jupiter
Yes, the planet Jupiter. It's huge, it's awesome and it's out there RIGHT NOW just spinning around and doing what Jupiter does best. It has lots of interesting moons too.

4. Coffee mugs
Without them, my hands would get burnt while trying to get the coffee to my mouth and I'd cry.

5. Sketchbooks
I don't know about anyone else, but I always have at least one on the go. I'd be stuck watching horrible TV that my husband/visitors/family like watching and would end up being so sarcastic that they'd strangle me if I didn't have something to distract me. Also, I like drawing. No, I don't draw horses or unicorns or anything like that - I'd be hard pressed to draw anything like that - I draw abstract things. Don't go looking for my art in a gallery near you, it's not there but I do accept offers for those wishing to buy them. Well, I would if anyone offered that is. (Don't get all offended if you ARE my husband/visitors/family and I whip out the sketchbook - it's nothing against you, it's just what I like to do. It shuts me up (mostly) so be thankful I'm not yammering over your favourite shows!)

6. Cheddar cheese
Life isn't life without some cheddar cheese; the older the better. I can't say enough about how much I love cheddar cheese - so I just won't try. For all those that are lactose intolerant, I feel super sorry for you.

7. Gingerbread
Since the holidays are rolling in, the availability of gingerbread products has reminded me how awesome they are. Gingerbread cookies are awesome - and I prefer them without any embellishments - no icing, sparkles or whatever else. Just give me the straight gingerbread. I'm a fan of most ginger products actually, snaps, ginger ale, root beer and so on. I'm not a fan of super-sugary gingerbread, but I'll still eat it.

8. Toilet paper
Don't laugh - it's important. Without it, we'd be picking leaves out in the forest and running the risk of selecting WRONG. Though, you can go wrong with toilet paper too. Ready for TMI? I thought I was getting a yeast infection one time because the paper we bought was SO rough and horrible. Seeing as I'd never had an infection before, I was all panicked, and then realized it was ONLY after using the paper that I'd feel like something was going horribly wrong. I switched out all the rolls in the house with DECENT toilet paper and sure enough, all was well again. When you're a guy, it might not matter as much if you sandpaper off your ass hair, but when you're a chick, it's not just your ass that is getting mauled.

9. Plastic bins
Lame, I know but damn, these things are useful. I can sort out things, stack them away in a corner and wait for hell to freeze over. If it weren't for these, I'd have to use cardboard ones that fall apart, get wet and destroy things and don't have nice little handles and lids. If I were to chop up a body and need to get it out of the house cleanly, I'd be using a plastic bin.

10. Digital cameras
I've recently purchased a Sony a330 and I like it a lot. I can point it at things and take photos. I can give it different lenses. I can play around with the settings and make it do what I want. I like it, I like it a lot. I've had a digital camera for well over 10 years now and they're great. Taking hundreds of photos and then deciding which I want printed has saved me a LOT of money over the years.

HALLOWEEN!

Halloween ROCKS.
It was a good year for halloween. Kids and adults were scared, pumpkins looked good and while it was cold, it didn't snow or rain. Lots of compliments were given to the pumpkins and the decorating! Apparently, no one else does anything like it in the entire neighborhood. The biggest competition was the house that had cobwebs in the trees, and the few who actually carved their pumpkins instead of just placing them outside uncarved. I'm not sure if this means I live in the lamest neighbourhood ever, or we're just the coolest house ever. Maybe a bit of both. Mzebonga and McDiablo even helped out this year - what a TheInsaneDomain party it was. Well, there was candy and creepy stuff, that counts.

Hockey mask over a plug-in pumpkin.

The cat pumpkin I carved!

The Jack Skellington pumpkin I carved!

Where oh where does the time go?
Every time I look at the date, it seems to have jumped by a week or two. What is going on? Is it ALIENS who are stealing my time? I got sick for a while and it sucked about two weeks out of my life - but the rest, well I just don't know where it went. I guess summers are supposed to go by in a blur of fun and fuzziness - or something like that. Maybe?

Oh well, no one but me reads this, and maybe a few of my stalkers. Though they've probably given up too.
But you know what, that's okay.

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!
Oh yea - the best day of the year will be upon us soon. I hope you are all out there thinking of costumes, crazy ways to decorate your home/room/face/whatever and more.

I plan on making people SCREAM for their candy this year - and see how much I can get the neighbours to hate me. When they come over to scream at me, I'll throw candy in their mouths, well okay, just the wrappers. Not that I've got a thing for candy, but if they're going to bitch, I'll give them something new to bitch about, and the odds are they will choke on the wrappers. Then I will have corpses to decorate my lawn with - FOR FREE!
"But officer, I thought they were fake until they started to smell..."

Halloween should last a week and everyone should be MADE to dress up. We have all these other crappy holidays that suck money out of us for no good reason, let's really celebrate the one time of year we can truly dress up, plaster our houses with crazy stuff  and try to scare the hell out of kids that normally just get in our way the rest of the year. Those kids are the same ones that make noise outside of my house with their laughing/crying/laughing/screaming and it's MY turn to give them something to scream about. Plus, they will see that I'm crazier than they think - and NOT to mess with me the rest of the year. Not that they do, but if they were even thinking of it - THEY BETTER THINK AGAIN. That's right - crazy skulls, dolls heads on strings and other creepy decor does that. At least in my mind. Now maybe you can understand why halloween is a good time for me to 'express' myself. Frightening I'm sure. Go on, join in!

Woah - what time is it?!

Summer?!
Is it just me, or is the summer whipping by incredibly fast?! I can't believe it's August already. What the hell is going on?! WHERE oh where is the time going? I demand that I get some of it back. Send it to me in an unmarked paper bag.

Remember when TheInsaneDomain was fun and cool?
Yea, those were the days. Sigh.

Killing the Peeps - NEW! Killed by campfire.

Blasts from the past :
Horses are evil   / Band names & Album titles

Bend you over my knee and see how much you can take.

Your voice is mine.
If I could tear the voice box out of anyone and use it as my own - I'd take Mike Patton's. Sure, I'd sound like a guy but I could sing and sing and sing and it would always sound awesome. Though, if I were taking his voice box, I'd take his skull too. I mean, why not? It would make for a good conversation piece, and to tell it in his own voice would be even more interesting.

I'm still my own book club.
I finished reading Lost Horizon. It wasn't bad, even though it was written a long time ago. There was no horribly sexist moments and it was a nice read. I'm glad I picked it up. I also started and finished reading The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. It's somewhat a mystery book, but was well written and I enjoyed reading it. The 'bad' guy wasn't a cop-out, and nor was the ending of the book in many ways. I'm now reading a book titled Attack from Atlantis.

WHERE is the insanity?
Oh grow up. Sorry. Well, there HAS been insanity thanks to the G8/G20 summits. Some of it good, some of it bad. Some people need to stop acting like idiots, both inside and outside of the summits themselves. As for my OWN insanity - well I'm not sure where it's all gone lately. This drought of insanity has gone on for far too long and it's pissing me off. I killed the questionnaire and no one seems to be sending in questions anymore - I'm wondering what to do with the insane domain overall. I know it needs an overhaul, but it's such a daunting job at this point. One day something will change and it will be given new life, but I guess for now it's a rotting corpse, festering away on the internet.

Awesome links.

Little People Project
This is awesome photography and truly art. (And no, it's not the Fisher Price Little People.)


The Scientific Method 
A funny poster for kids demonstrating the scientific method at work.

Passive Aggressive Notes
Gotta love these. They remind me strongly of the jackasshole letters Schizoid found.

Ask JCP
That's right, I still update this section. Now that the Questionnaire is dead (yep, dead), this will be the section that I now update. If you don't ask me anything, then it too will die. I will blame YOU. Yes, YOU. Go on, ask me questions. I know you want to. DO IT.  I just answered some questions today.

I am my own book club.

Books I've read lately 

Aftermath - Charles Sheffield
The one thing that irked me was the casual reference to 'something' that had caused the supernova. Don't just hint at an alien species and leave me hanging! Then again, I'm a big sci-fi fan and I always want more about alien species, within reason of course. Other than that, it was a decent read. Sorry, I don't have much more to offer you on this one.

Timescape - Gregory Benford
This is a true hard sci-fi book, in that there is no hocus pocus explanation for time-travel, and it's not people going through time to magically make things change in the past. It was nice to actually have some believable and interesting scientists, having to deal with the political and funding crap that most (likely) do have to deal with. It was interesting to read that version of the future and past - and to see how things were resolved without creating major plot holes or paradoxes that made no sense. I liked this book.

Deepness in the sky - Vernor Vinge
An interesting premise for sure, and it was fun to read. The description of the alien species was done well enough that they were alien, but not so alien that they weren't able to be related to in any way, or alien for the sake of being alien. I was disappointed in the end though - I was hoping for more details, information on how two new species began to work together and so on. Otherwise I enjoyed reading it.

Atlantis - Greg Donegan
The whole book ended up being far too vague for me to truly enjoy. Ok, something scary bad is going on, but what? I don't like when books use that vague alien presence thing and then wave it away without any explanation. Come ON, you can think of SOMETHING! It's like LOST, they build it up and then shrug at the end. I'm getting tired of all this dialogue and character building when the MAIN plot gets shrugged aside. Yea, I'm a sci-fi fan, as I've said before, so I expect at least an attempt to explain what this alien entity is. Instead, it's all wrapped up without a real explanation and I'm to just be happy with the fact that everything ended 'well'. I'm not.

Time's Eye & Sunstorm - Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
Two books of the same series - and I wish there were several more. Of course, I have read other books by Clarke, (what kind of sci-fi fan would I be if I hadn't?!) and I don't recall enjoying them quite as much as these two. I'll be sure to check out some of Baxter's now that I've read these two books. Anyway, the first book is quite different in many ways from the second, in that it pits two historical figures against each other in a strange-world setting. It sounds a bit fantasy-ish but it's not. The way they explain what has happened and how people from various times relating to each other works well. I can't say much more than that - but it's a good read. I had both books before I started reading the first - and was able to pick up the second immediately to continue reading. Each book can be read independently of the other, but I did enjoy them both. The second book is in a different setting than the first, but retains a character from the first. Both books are well written and explain what is occurring with science, but not so much that your head spins. Anyone who is interested in science, astronomy and the universe will be familiar with much of it already. Even if you're not, you won't be totally lost.

Currently reading

Lost Horizon - James Hilton
Why am I reading it? It was on my bookshelf and I haven't read it before.

Bah to you all.

I'm HOT.
Just in case you were all wondering, I am indeed very hot. So hot that I'm becoming irritable. Yea it's great that winter is over, but it should be spring and autumn only. Summer is WAY too hot and it's not even June yet.


F U LOST.
I don't give a flying crap it ended with a fuzzy "oh isn't that great it all worked out when they were dead" moment, I didn't spend six years watching for that load of shit. I watched for the supposedly deep and well-thought out mysteries - things that I found interesting and different from any other show out there. Of course, it turns out that they, along with other lazy writers of the world, find it easy to make up mysteries, but never follow through with putting any answers forth. The last season sucked and I had hoped that things would get good, but they didn't.

Yea, I understood the ending alright, it just sucked. Six years spent watching and trying to figure things out, only to have them go "but it was about CHARACTERS." F that.

Don't try to trick me by pretending you're using science in your story, only to turn around and slap me in the face with religion. They are worse than lazy writers, they are liars, cheats and idiots. Why bother even writing in half the shit they did if THAT was the ending? What a waste. It could have been great.

Thanks for screwing it all up guys, and thanks for ruining what little faith I did have in TV writers. Now I know that even when a show seems to be rooted in science and good story writing, it's just a trick.

Surprise!

Shame.
Naughty, naughty - I haven't posted for far too long. Sorry about that. But also, not sorry about that.
I was sick for a few weeks, spring has arrived and I've been getting rid of a TON of stuff. (Maybe if it were all weighed, it would equal a ton.) It feels good to clean house and get rid of the things that clutter up your life.

An F for Gardening
I've decided I hate gardening and like landscaping. Plants and things don't do what I want them to do - they change shape, they blossom into stupid flowers and don't even get me started on crap that invades the few things I do like.  So the gardens can fend for themselves, I landscaped around them and what happens, happens. I'll tend to my one rose plant and the many rocks that are always the same size and in the same location that I left them in.

Bah.
I suck at planning visits and stuff. Now that summer is rapidly approaching (and I do mean RAPIDLY), I'm trying to figure out when who comes where and for how long and blah blah blah. I'm always afraid I'll screw something up and tons of people will show up or we'll stand someone up or blah blah blah. I like visits but I suck at planning them. I need an event coordinator, that's just the sort of person I am. Send your resume to me if you wish to apply.

Speaking of needing help.
A robot should be made to help me out. It won't look human (that would creep me out too much and I'd be forced to spray it with the hose until it went crazy and ate my house before it explodes.) but it would be moderately shiny and very helpful. It could cook, clean, finish house projects, and answer the phone for me.

I am my own book club.

The Dark Tower : VII
I finished reading this one about a month(?) ago, and I just had to mention that I 100% approve of the ending. The last 300 pages of this book didn't get read for over four years because I didn't want the end to taint all the time I had spent reading the story and having those characters exist in my mind. I decided to just FINISH it, and did. Thanks for writing it all Mr King.

Forget it Heinlein.
I got through Stranger In A Strange Land, but I just can't get through Number of the Beast. Though your writing is a product of the time it was written in, I just can't deal with your writing anymore. It's sexist and several chapters in, I'm hoping the characters meet a swift and painful end so I don't have to endure another chapter of them. Heinlein's idea of a 'strong woman' is today's vapid bitch. Bah to him, I don't care if he's a master of this or that, I don't like his writing. There, I said it. Let us never speak of him again.

Books I've also disliked lately:
The worlds most mysterious people - The title is the only truly mysterious (and legit) thing about the book.
Numbers - A lot about nothing and refers to biblical sources a lot. It was such a lame book, I'm not even bothering to go find out what the real title of the book was.

Currently reading:
Skeptic magazine

Next on the list:
Under the Dome - Stephen King - Yep still on the list, it's a big book and I'm sort of wanting something shorter at the moment. But it's still on the list!

Maybe I'll just go read something random off the bookshelf. 
Ah my bookshelves. I went through and got rid of a big bin of books last week. After setting up three bookshelves in the basement, I arranged all my books and was able to dedicate a shelf to books I'd like to read. I like seeing (most of) my books together. There are still some in boxes, but those are items that I'd like to keep out of the sun and safe from prying fingers. So, I will grab a book randomly off that shelf and see how it goes. I'll be sure to keep all of you who don't give a shit posted on my progress.

The first rule of book club...
That's right, I'm in a real life book club. Score +500 geek points for me!
It's fun though - and you should all try it.