NED KELLY, baby Declan grabbing my hat, and distractions!

I had to wait a while for the 407, but it took me to Deb and Dylan's with no problem at all. Got there and instantly started playing with baby Declan (who's 18 pounds - Ayler is fifteen pounds at three months!), while half-watching BEING ERICA. At nine months old, he tried stealing my hat multiple times - I didn't let him touch it too much, haha! He made a lot of spluttering noises, and tried to talk to us; cute! We talked about our days, whether it was hard work being a baby ("they don't share their food, and tell me when to sleep!"), reading baby books, baby Ayler, Steph, Lisa, Vegas (Dylan knows they got married from FB), work venting, toys, steak / salad / cheesecake / ice cream / veggies / kimchi, Grandma, exercise, life insurance, and more. Also watched NED KELLY and some of CENTER STAGE on Netflix... I think I needed the gunfire and violence to take my mind off certain personal things!

Interesting stories - haven't watched a dance movie in more than four years! Got home to find that my parents had called me about tomorrow - I guess 4:30 should be fine if they want to see Big G! We've told her that Uncle Michael is coming, but she doesn't seem enthusiastic about it; we do know she's tired a lot, though. I bet Mom doesn't want to bump into Uncle Michael, haha. Personally, I don't mind if I do! On another note, it's a good thing that Chinese Eric didn't call me; I got home at 10:15, which might be late. Won't be able to call him till maybe Friday, but if people are still in town, I might have to wait till Tuesday. Can I do that?! YIKES! I love him (not in that way!), and this is really bad. At least I know HE isn't like certain other people I could name! Jon also emailed us (me / Harmony / Steph / Nate) about some restaurant in the Downtown Eastside called FAT DRAGON which apparently is a Chinese BBQ / Southern BBQ fusion, and he thinks he's willing to make this an early birthday dinner for me. Hahaha, we'll see about that!

WINTER LIGHT, 80s bands, arugula, and Rice Krispie Squares

Bused to Jeremy's after getting REALLY immersed in gaming stuff (and went to Shoppers Drug Mart at Kingsgate Mall - saw Halloween candy displays / rainbow candy Rice Krispie Squares [I bought 40 in a box] / a 4-pack of Skor bars), where I met him / Eric / Christon / Jon / Pastor Bob. To my surprise, I saw Randal there! We had gazpacho, arugula salad, chicken, frozen yogurt, and different sorts of beer. Discussed influential bands, olive oil, New Order (Eric hadn't heard their songs!), Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Usher, sexy songs, the Smiths, Duran Duran, RED DWARF, Nirvana, Hong Kong and Cantopop, the Cure, INXS, Devo, Yaz, R.E.M., Human League, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Christon / Sam / Emily being considered "old" by Timothy Fellowship standards, and more. Winter Light was set between two church services on one afternoon: suicide, cruel words, love, relationships, gossip, and religious crises - OH MY! After Eric drove Jon home, we talked about characters / existence / sleeping. Interesting!

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI / Sleeping in!

Eric picked me up, and we were at Dylan's shortly; he saw Randal in front of us, and pointed this out. I had no idea about that! There were a lot of people over; I talked to Connie, Wesley, Vicky, Raymond, Jon, Karen, Lincoln, baby Declan, Dylan, Deb, Cindy, Randal, and Geoffrey about Grandma updates, toys, alone time, the sushi documentary (JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI - he's 88 years old and still works every day!), Facebook, Ayler, the dinner last Sunday which I didn't hear about till the next day, old potato salad, beer, chicken, chips, the baby wanting glasses or pants, fans, and more. It was getting pretty warm, yeah. On the way home, Eric said that his family is visiting Kieran in the States for at least a couple of days, so he probably won't be going to church on Sunday. I exulted at the chance to sleep in, and he said I could call my parents (whom I've seen too much of in recent days) / Sam / Ivan. NOPE! Discovered that I'd missed a call at 7:30 from Chinese Eric - DAMMIT! I WAS AFRAID OF THIS.

Shrimp tacos, eating ATM card, Pretzel Crisps

I watched a movie called IN HER MOTHER'S FOOTSTEPS this afternoon - wow! Then I went out to haul a bunch of stuff home and do some banking before I met Chrystal at London Drugs. We had dinner at Boston Pizza; I had new shrimp tacos (Jamie and her friends put the idea in my head yesterday!), and she had her usual salad. Discussed Ayler not wanting people to leave him alone, heavy tanks, movies, Andrea's pregnancy, the nice weather, the Olympics, Nathan, my keeping in touch with people, friends, Micah, gelato, and more. When we went to the gelato place later, she had pink grapefruit sorbetto, and I had cappuccino cookie. After we went to the bakery (where I got a pineapple bun), we hit up Shoppers Drug Mart. I bought lobster noodles, kimchi noodles, six $1 Sidekicks since the sale expires in two days (Tomato Alfredo x2 / Garlic Alfredo Spaghetti x2 / Butter and Herb / Homestyle Cheddar), on-sale original Pretzel Crisps, and more. Decided not to get scones or Oreo Cakesters; Chrystal decided not to get any cookies or marshmallows since she had plenty at home. When I got back to the townhouse, I noted that C.J. of the Puckheads had added me. Also paid my Internet bill since I am responsible!


But Ninten WANTS to eat his ATM card in MOTHER 1... :(

Progress means GROUNDHOG DAY / He's my biological brother, man!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Eric said that I had to make a decision on leaving to see GROUNDHOG DAY at 6:50 - I HATE PEOPLE! At least I was on page 63 of 75, and not 12 of 62 as I was last week; his early worship practices drive me INSANE! On the way over, he tried convincing me that I did like people and that I was buying into bad things... NO! He also said that there were people in the weekly tradition - I KNOW, BUT IT'S NOT REAL LIFE! We also discussed laptop noise (he came over for a while to look into it later), annoying people, empathy for people (not for those who insult me without asking for forgiveness), James (who left a link to Monster Magnet's SPACE LORD for me to look at later), gas prices being as high as 140 lately, traffic, swearing, soap, him and Alistair going to the game tomorrow, buying popcorn / on-sale (pineapple) juice / butter / on-sale pop at Safeway later, Chinese Eric, good news, why he was trying to get me out of the house (I LIKE BEING ALONE, OKAY?!), and more. He also fielded a call from Christon wanting to know about the media player - WAIT TILL WE GET THERE SINCE WE'RE RUNNING LATE! (NOT MY FAULT!)

When Eric and I got to church, people had already set up chips / beef jerky (not Chinese-style) / grapes / dried fruit / drinks already. Randal, Pastor Bob, Raymond, and I talked about KONY 2012, the guy who was caught naked and masturbating, reading banned books (Randal's heard of THREE WILD SWANS?!), C.S. Lewis books (no escapism for Randal!), using the shell cracker implement for crab nowadays instead of cracking the hard shell with our teeth like we did when we were kids, the different types of beef jerky, and more. Talked to Kevin and Christon for a bit, too. Jon came in a bit later, and we were both surprised to see each other - I told him about the envelope that came in for him here, but I have no idea who it's from since I didn't even look!

Also reminded him about Hog Shack on Monday and my money situation; he'd forgotten that Big G would be there, haha! Later, he figured that she might like it anyway since she'd seemed to be fine with it last time - hopefully, she'll treat us since she was in a good mood on Wednesday! Also told him that my White Spot apple pie WAS in my plans, although I'm sure he thought I was copying them! (Harmony was at home sleeping - neither of us blamed her!) The movie was like I remembered - "I AM A GOD! I've been burned, stabbed, electrocuted, and died many times over! LET'S HAVE FUN AND BREAK THE LAW! Okay, I'm tired of this shit!" Thanks to good timing on my body's end, I skipped out on most religious discussion. Said hi to Chris and Sabrina, who were there for the Awana sleepover.

Later, Eric and I went into the kitchen, where Randal was telling Pastor Bob that the movie's art imitated his life. (piano lessons) I'd surprised Pastor Bob earlier by saying that yes, Jon IS my biological brother like we told Randal years ago! (Jon had been planning the Jazz Festival with Jeremy, but noted that he'd have a kid by then - I told Pastor Bob that we had a "family thing" in June, but Jon had to decline because his kid would be two weeks old by then) We gave Jon a ride home after discussing the movie's timeline NORMALLY / joking about Beefy Beef, during which he and Eric discussed Alistair / Harmony napping a lot - being up all night (not good for her) / local pizza places. Then Eric and I discussed St. Patrick's Day / Irish accents / Guinness, Cracked.com, science saying the brain physically rejects new tastes like musical preferences (his is doing it), "excuses" for me and Bible Study (I'll probably be at home doing what I WANT next week - THANK GOD!), curling, death threats, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the 7-11, laptop airflow, screwdrivers / tools, bottled water, friendliness, James' offline YM message (I WASN'T EVEN ONLINE AT 6:55!) and Eric's "response" to it, and more. I'm just glad I will be able to RELAX next week with the familiar swirl of the radio and online stuff around me. :)

PRIEST WHITE?! / Visiting Grandma at Respite

Today, I watched CRIMINAL MINDS / THE FIRST 48 (one of which was about a black boy named PRIEST WHITE - that's a bad name!) / CSI, and ate some muffins. Heard that it was snowing around Vancouver; OH SHIT. Left at 1 to visit Grandma at the respite centre, but made a very brief stop at home to throw stuff out. I experienced good bus timing and efficiency, though!

Got to the respite centre (where there was only one Chinese old person unlike yesterday when Jon stopped by), but made a brief stop at the nearby Killarney Market to buy Grandma three oranges. She seemed pleased with the oranges and the shrimp crackers I bought her yesterday, calling me "good." Watched parts of PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND and A PLACE FOR LOVERS on Turner Classic Movies while reminding her and the workers about our dinner tomorrow night. Grandma wanted me to eat dinner there, and thought tomorrow's dinner would involve Auntie Eva - nope, just us! Due to some stupid buses, I got back at 6:30 wanting something WARM. Noodle soup it is!

Homemade blueberry pie, CARS, flatbread, and teasing me

When Eric picked me up, he gave me a dubious look when I said that I had to get a cuter hat for tonight - the other one was too BLUE! Yes, I am weird. Hey, maybe I want to look cuter than usual when I actually go out to see my friends, which happens more rarely these days! We talked about the lunch for Pastor Bob in two weeks (NOT Sunday as I originally thought!), Chinese Eric (PHO IS NOT ROMANTIC!), what I was doing to make the Canucks lose (especially in last night's shootout - THAT IS NOT MY FAULT!), Steph and Lisa's "news," passports, my being "drunk," my hoping someone didn't hate me for not really talking to them for the past two days (NOT ERIC HO!), stupid drivers, and more prior to getting on Kevin's street. Then his car was essentially boxed in; very annoying!

We found Kevin putting the finishing touches on some homemade curry, so I asked Eric to open the container of wasabi peanuts for me. HE TWISTED THE LID OFF! Damn, I felt like an idiot! My brain didn't even think of THAT at all! At least I got it open, which was my motivation in bringing it tonight! Geoffrey brought some sushi, and Albert brought some shrimp - we haven't seen Albert in at least a year or so, maybe! Everyone had pasta salad, shrimp, sushi, curry, green onion flatbread (like green onion pancakes), sugar and honey in the homemade chai tea (Eric's dietary restrictions?!), homemade blueberry pie, ice cream, and more while talking about Surrey and White Rock / youth / working / RPG / police work opportunities / STARCRAFT II / food health inspections / Houston / Canucks / J.J. Bean's owner being a Christian / Dan Hamhuis, Wally Buono, and David Booth also being open about their Christian faith / annoying phone calls / the best way to reach me / answering machines / IM.

Eric had brought quite a selection of movies, like BATMAN BEGINS / ALICE IN WONDERLAND / EASY RIDER / BATMAN AND ROBIN / THE DARK KNIGHT. Geoffrey was looking through it, and I told him that Eric DID love his Batman movies! We ended up watching Cars - well, almost all of it. There was a scratch near the end of the movie, and Kevin couldn't find his remote afterwards! We could pretty much tell how it ended, anyway - Eric and Kevin had to discuss budget stuff for a bit later, too. On the way home after getting out of the tough parking situation, Eric bugged me about the Super Bowl - yes, of COURSE my Internet friends will likely discuss the game on Facebook and LJ! (so I cannot escape even if I wish to) Also talked about my "best friend" Paul (HELL NO!), Randal, menthol, lotion, gum, my not being on drugs, crab, certain things which seemed really American since we've NEVER heard of them, my making him deaf when he suggested something to do with Chinese Eric, how I was NOT going to eat the entire thing of wasabi peanuts in one sitting now that I had it open, the church website, his sound or worship duties, and more.

Bad Baby Names, Part VII: Jesus' Mom is No Saint

Part VII: Jesus' Mom is No Saint



I have a 20-year-old son named Case Mitchell and an 18-year-old daughter named Cheyenne Autumn. my daughter has some of the most beautiful red hair in the world, so her name fits her to a tee.

Not only does she have beautiful red hair, but Cheyenne Autumn stars James Stewart and Richard Widmark, and is regarded by many critics to be John Ford's most cynical of his later Westerns. She runs 2 hours, 35 minutes and is available on VHS.

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What I do want is a name that is unique and sounds dignified without being "laughable." What I do NOT want is a name that is so different it takes a lifetime to get used to. My mother did that to me, and I fuss with her about it to this day. (I'm almost 34) She named me Zebrena Nanzet (which is a variation of Sabrina Nanzette), which she says she found in a baby book in the late 60s. No matter how much emphasis I put on pronouncing the 'Z' in my first name, people have already started spelling Sabrina. Let me just tell you that I have been cursed with spelling my name everywhere I go. And I do mean everywhere.

We believe you. Poor thing. Having a perfectly normal middle name like Nanzette spelled so strangely.

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What do you think of the name 'Fancy'? For a girl, of course. Naomi found an egg. It hatched into a peacock. They named it Fancy!

Some lady found a Web site. She wrote a name. They named it Insanity!

(You C&W fans out there will immediately recognize this as the name of a shack-dwelling underage hooker pimped by her own mother in the song of the same name.)

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I love my unique name Jetti.

I border many harbors. Sometimes I'm made of rocks and protect wharfs from the tides!

I knew a couple who likes baby names that are active verbs. They named their daughter Meander, she is called Mea for short. If it would have been a boy, they liked the name Run. Another choice for a girl was Harmony.

OK. Number 1: Meander and Run aren't active verbs until they're placed with an object, as in "I meander in delirium thinking 'Run' is a good name." Number 2: I dare... I double dog dare these people to name a girl the verb form of Harmony, Harmonize. I fuckin' dare them! Then have a boy and name him Simonize. Number 3: While I'm at it, I dare them to save everyone the trouble and name Run "The Shits" instead.

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My to-be husband has a thing for "unique" names. He likes names such as "Veto" and Enobi." I like what I call "cool" names, such as "Kiki" and "Jack." We were having dissagrements with baby names till I smacked him upside the head and phrohibid him from naming my children.

Well, I phrohibid you from having kids at all.

Although, it is nice to know who originated the slang use of "cool" - it's this lady! ("They're what I like to call --big finger quotes-- COOL names.") And now we know she's prone to violence against her fiancé for wanting to name kids Veto so they can star in Schoolhouse Rock segments about the three branches of government!

Help me, Kobi-Wan Enobi, you're our only hope!

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I named my little girl Tenlee simply because my husband and I liked it. It is pronounced just like it sounds. I hope she loves her name as much as we do.

Yes, she'll love sounding like a teabag.

"It is pronounced just like it sounds." If it weren't, Dadaism would have a new leader.

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Here are some unusual girls names (and some weird):

1. Vadan

2. Jayken

3. Tamree

4. Cheyenne

5. Shayla

6. Luche

7. Velandra

8. Electra

Good luck to all the parents wanting the best names possible for their little Darlings.

Well, it's finally happened. I'm speechless. Utterly, utterly speechless. She coughs up (and I mean that literally) some of the dumbest names I've ever, ever seen after reading hundreds of these stupid, stupid entries. Then she ends it with that sanctimonious crap about how parents who give their kids stupid names are the ones who want the best for their kids. You know, most people put out an effort to find the worst possible names for their kids because they don't realize they're "little darlings." Not until Super Name Lady points it out to them.

I just.... I think I need a good cry now.

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Can I get some thoughts on naming a girl Emerson? There's no reason behind it. I recently met someone with the name and fell in love.

Does your husband know?

I haven't decided the middle name yet - Emerson Michelle

Emerson Anne

Emerson Mae

Our last name is Kingston.

Emerson Kingston. Try saying it five times fast!

I got an email on this one from a lady who met another woman with a girl named Emerson. It went predictably.

Mom: "... blah blah blah named Emerson."

E-mailer: "That's nice, like the poet?"

Mom: (blank stare)

E-mailer: "Like Ralph Waldo Emerson?"

Mom: (blank stare. Probably accompanied by sound of crickets.) "WHO???"

Stupid public schools.

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I feel a little bit differently. I think that if kids want to make fun of one another, they will find a way. Name your child what you feel is best, and do not worry about later on down the line. Besides, teasing is a part of life, and helps mold us to who we are. I have never heard of no one ever being teased.

Like hell! I knew a kid named No One Opielynn Amstellina Rock Fflur and he was teased like crazy!

'Til he brought that Uzi to school.

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I'm having twins, but I want a common first name and uncommon middle name. How do these names sound?
Girls: Valerie Brigail and Juliet Alelanie
or
Boys: Santiago Joeaziel and Omar Aaron comments?

What the living hell? (How's that for a comment?) The girls' middle names are part of the Syllable Exchange Program, and the boys' names make me ponder what ethnicity this woman is, and what ethnicity she thinks her son will magically have.

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My family's tradition is to spell a normal name unusually.

OK. "U-N-U-S-U-A-L." Pronounced "Cynthia."

My name is Myndi (as opposed to Mindy), my sister is Arika (not Erica), and my brother is Ethyn, not Ethan. My boyfriend's family's tradition is two middle names. His is Tony Marc Joshua. My new baby girl's name has a lot to live up to. The final decision?

What... I get to pick? Hmm, well.... I appreciate the boy getting smacked with a random Y for a change... so how 'bout Yvytty instead of Yvette?

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My problem is I've decided on a name for my unborn son, and it's Jordan. But I have had a lot of people tell me that is a girl name. I have heard of boys named Jordan, but I don't want to give him a girl name. What should I do?

Ah ha! I always had my suspicions about that New Kid.

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My husband and I can't agree on a name. We are having a girl in August. We already have one girl named Brooke Alayna. [Really basic last name] is the last name, so we don't want a REALLY common first name. He likes Amaya Dawn or Amaya Michele. I like Mikayla or Jenna.

Amaya Dawn. Well, am I? Damn it, I asked you! Answer me!

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Are you choosing a name for your baby?
I've never met any namesakes. If you please, name your baby Onarada!

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight! In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight! Ona-rada! Ona-rada! Ona-rada! Ona-rada! Ona-rada! Ona-rada!

(More than one reader has pointed out this is definitely a gag posting - Onarada means "fart" in Japanese. At least... I HOPE that makes it a fake entry!)

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My son's name is Gavin Orion. I'm due in September. The names we've picked out are Lyra Star for a girl, and Dante Randall for a boy. We tried to stay away from family or "too common" names. (ours are Rachel and Jason)

Dante Randall? Look, I like Clerks too, but that's just going too far. And Lyra? No child should be made out of the same material as leotards.

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Mason is my 2-year-old son's name. It is in the top 100 boys names for 2001. I think it is a strong boy's name. Why would anyone make fun of it?

Because they're opposed to his secret Masonic orders trying to overthrow the government, along with Ted Turner, the secret Catholic cultists in the Supreme Court, and the Anti-Defamation League. Duh!

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I am due in November, I just got pregnant. I am having quadruplets! Wow, that's a lot of kids. I am having four girls and one boy.

Um, there's an extra quadruplet. Are you going to auction off your least favorite or something?

The boy's name I am set on. His name will be Anthony [last name] Jr. His middle name will start with "E." My husband doesn't want it said because it's very Italian and hard for everyone to say.

I like it. Anthony That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named [last name] Jr.

But the girls I am having trouble with. I picked out a bunch of names for firsts, but for middles, I want common, traditional names. I narrowed it down to Morgan, Arianna, Savanna(h), Sierra, Sasha, or Alyssa.

I don't know much about computer programming, but I think I can build a program to help this lady name her kids. It's called "Bunch of Letters Followed by 'ah' 2.1." Let's take it for a test-drive:


Kjlasjdah

Wifnah

Odah

RoofingNailsah

Powlwah

Platypusah

Yeah, looks good.

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I had a baby girl 3 months ago, and we named her Lauren Rebecca. (Rebecca is my husband's sister's name) However, it does not seem to fit, and we would like to change her name to Emma Lauren. But my husband does not think it would be appropriate to drop Rebecca since she was named after his sister. I don't want our daughter to have four names, Emma Lauren Rebecca [last name], and we don't want to drop Lauren, either. How do I handle this situation? Please help! I would like to change her name before she starts knowing her name!!

Holy cow.

I fully endorse this amazing insult to her child's aunt on one condition. She explains in no uncertain terms how a middle name (which has been used for millennia) can fail to fit an infant who is just barely old enough to discover she has feet and they can fit in her mouth.

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I am expecting in November. We were thinking about naming our son Kason. I've seen this name only once before, spelled Cason. I loved it then - and then realized that it was the combination of my husband's and my names. (Kay & Jason) Aside from the fact that friends / relatives may think we are crazy.... what do you think about the name Kason for a boy?

Kay and Jason. Making their kids an extension of themselves a little too much.

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It's fun to have a little story behind names for retelling later on. My son's name involves my middle name (Rae), and my daughter has a similar middle name. (Mae) We knew we were getting a son, and so his name worked out to be Graeson. Kinda neat.

The fuck? How did that "work out" when you "got" your son. Brain... hurts...

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Having been a child myself, it seems that it doesn't matter what your child is named. All children will eventually be teased for something, so what?

Wow, you were a child once? No shit! Me, I was born 19 years old, 65 inches long, and weighed 7 pounds, 1760 ounces.

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I love the Lord, am a LDS woman, and would like to name my baby baby Jesus.

Wait, she wants to call him "Baby Jesus"? How will that work after he's 33?

My husband says this is ridiculous because we are not Latino, and he does not even go to church anymore. I looked, and it is a popular name in the US, so it must be that others like me are out there spreading His love. His full name would be "Jesus Joseph Dewey." Can anyone tell me if when you are at the hospital, can you refuse to let your husband have a say in what the birth certificate says? I'm 18 years old and am a first time mom.

Issue 1: Jesus! (Praise the Lord!) Joseph! (Hallelujah!) Dewey. (..... um..... He's a duck, right?)

Issue 2: Have you ever heard anything so romantic, and yet so filled with Our Heavenly Father's purest love alighting from heaven to his children upon the earth as an 18-year-old Mormon girl wanting to have her husband barred from the hospital where she's just given birth so she can name their child Jesus. Joseph. Dewey. Amen.

Merzbow, shamans, ApologetiX, DRAGONLANCE, and durian!

Turns out I took a shower and changed the music from Matt Good to Merzbow at the right time, since Teunis got home literally ten seconds after that! He expressed amusement at the noise music because he apparently used to work with BBS stuff which sounded like line noise! At least I recognized it was a comparison and not an insult, hahaha. We discussed Megadeth, Danzig, his server's video card, Kaili and screws, Melt Banana, the Boredoms, his mom, socks, strangeness, awful stuff, his stepdad being sick, hot chocolate with brandy, Tess, Cake, the Butthole Surfers, Coolio, L.V., and the ApologetiX. Also talked about trademarks / copyrights, Utah laws, looking for broccoli in DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, Myles and Brittney being engaged, cougars, IRON MAN, tacos for his dinner, noodles, his never feeling unwelcome here, respect, durian (Scott also likes the stuff), his religion, shamans / priests, war, Odin / Valhalla, and a movie that he just picked up called Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight with Kiefer Sutherland in it.

SKY HIGH, ENCHANTED, and skiing / sledding / skating / snowboarding

I updated my recap entry while Teunis put on SKY HIGH last night - I remember watching that at Erik's, and it IS better written than the cadaver movie, haha! Had him help me with opening the jar of raspberry jam, and then had a nice simple meal of a sandwich and chicken noodle soup. I saw that the lip balm is on sale at London Drugs, so I can go there if there's no snow... I should just give Martin a birthday card since his birthday is coming up on March 1, haha. Then Teunis put on ENCHANTED - movies as background noise is cool! I just checked the weather outside, and it's snowing lightly - DAMMIT!

This just in from Spoz: If you hate the new photo viewer on Facebook? Hit the F5 key after the picture comes up and it will return you to the old way of viewing the photo, and remove the black box around it. Pass it on!

You Are Sledding

You are a very self-aware person, but you never take yourself too seriously. You have an ironic view of life and yourself. When things get tough, you can get philosophical. You are easygoing and easy to please. You love to break out of your comfort zone. You are too much of a generalist to specialize in anything. There are many fields you dabble in.

Are You Skiing, Sledding, Skating, or Snowboarding?

Blogthings: We Have a Quiz for Almost Everything

Sin and wrath, Cattle Café, and B-movies

Eric picked me up and started bugging me about the snow, but not before he returned Jen's phone call about worship. We talked about Mr. Creep, my "paranoia," hockey, Team 1040, gas prices as they related to current events in Libya (126.9), Mohawks, why I "shouldn't" have disturbances in my psyche (too bad!), the ENEMY, snow angels, and more. Got to the chapel, and Kevin observed that he hadn't seen me in a while on Fridays - hey, I now dislike that since I do my own thing. Borrowed Deb's Bible for the talk on Ephesians 2 - it was way too heavily weighted on sin and wrath for my taste! Kevin, Eric, Cindy, Christon, Martin, and I tried figuring out what to do for Small Group Outing next week: Christon thought hot pot might be an idea (EXPENSIVE!), Cindy suggested doing something for Pastor John (already done), Kevin suggested bowling (I wouldn't go with such a program) and brought up Gloria and Vicky (they're not regular anyway...), I reminded people about budgets, Cindy suggested "sharing and caring" (too positive), and Martin suggested doing something for Pastor Edward since he's retiring soon. I had almost no reservations with that, unless it was scrapbooking.

Christon suggested working on a gift basket at the church, which sounds okay in theory. Talked to Cindy about her students, who behaved better this week. Martin said we could go to the Cattle Café, since there was one in Richmond - I said that it wasn't far at ALL! Christon then said maybe not for me and Eric, but for everyone else... hey, as long as we don't have to go too far at first! We talked to Wesley, Darren (he feels appreciated!), and Andrea before leaving - sports bar stuff is good! Later, Eric and I drove Jon home - we discussed the talk (too religious), Mexican mole (they'd made some at Jon's yesterday - WHY DIDN'T ERIC TELL ME?), Jeremy being sick / having little energy, and more. Afterwards, we discussed the gas cap / snow / Mason Raymond / plans while listening to Team 1040. Got home and thought about last year, lip balm, and more while discussing FOOD and bad writing in B-movies (THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA) with Teunis.

INCEPTION / Gold Salts

I made Henry wait for me while I changed from shorts into pants, plus got some stuff ready. When I apologized, he said it was okay since it was a sudden change of plans - that works! Teresa said she'd meet us there, and Henry wondered if I was the sort of person who asked questions all through a movie... not generally, no. "Then YOU can sit beside her, and bear the full brunt of all her questions!" We discussed VBS: Martin might be doing the second week only, as well. I guess I'll see what happens! Then I wondered who was watching the girls if Teresa and Henry were both out - a friend, which is good.

When we got to Silvercity, the parking lot was pretty packed, and there was this insane-looking lineup! We found Teresa about ten people ahead of us in the rain, and promptly joined her. "All these people CAN'T be here to see Inception... right? Hey, what are you here to see?" "THE OTHER GUYS with Will Ferrell..." "I TOLD YOU!" Discussed SCENE cards, popcorn, the rainy outdoor field earlier at Rock The River, sneaking food in, movies, and more prior to seeing the actual movie. Since I'd been pre-warned by Corey to expect confusion (and that it took place simultaneously in a bunch of different time periods / changed the rules), I thought I had a good handle on the film. It WAS confusing at first, but then I got used to the idea of a bunch of different realities taking place at the same time. At the end, we wondered whether the guy seeing certain people again was yet another dream (deliberately ambiguous ending?) - now Corey tells me that at the end of the credits, you can hear something germane to the plot! HA!

Asked Teresa to help me down the stairs, then got them to wait while I went to the washroom. She said I didn't have to pay her back for the cheap tickets, which was nice! Henry drove me home, and thanked me for coming out - not a problem! Actually, this time works better than trying to fit it in after church and before Sunday Dinner at Jeremy's! Got home, showered, did some of the usual stuff, and am now thinking of going to bed since I need to be up at 8. I can always tag the chat entries later... and Teunis just got home. Discussed dice, RPG, INCEPTION, paying attention to shows, his hosed graphics card which might cost $200 to replace, and more.


Trivia fact for Sunday, Aug. 8: For what ailment have regular injections of gold salts long been a standard treatment? Rheumatoid arthritis. The gold salts, injected in a liquid suspension, help reduce the inflammation and slow the progress of the disease. However, it often takes three to six months to be effective, and can cause numerous side effects. The salts can also be taken orally.

MANOS, HOWARD THE DUCK, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST - yay for 2010?

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! ALL THE BEST IN 2010!!!


Watched Manos: The Hands of Fate (bad), Howard the Duck (bad), and Once Upon a Time in the West (good and subtle) at Nathan's with Christon, his brother Clement, Jon, Harmony, Isabel, Jeremy, Eric, Jen, and Randal for BAD MOVIE NIGHT 2 / New Year's. Eric picked me up, and we discussed a certain email and assorted other things - he thought I was hyper, OR had eaten a lot of brandy beans prior to leaving the apartment. May have been hyper, but no brandy beans! I'm glad Mr. Creep didn't come - it would have been VERY awkward! When we got to Nate's, nobody was there yet - Eric thought that maybe the family friend would let us in, and he did. Went upstairs to see what could be done; when everyone else got there, the unwrapping of the 26-inch LCD TV started. Christon gave us a stack of movies to look through for our "good" choice - LOTR trilogy, BIG FISH, FROST NIXON, UP, ALIEN WORLDS (20 BAD ones!), and more. Jeremy mentioned that he'd only seen the first two of certain trilogies - MATRIX, STAR WARS, LOTR... hahaha! I noticed the Trinity "emotions" magnet on the fridge, and started playing around with it to change emotions - it was too funny, and reminded me of the "Have a GOOD night!" poster on Nathan's bedroom door, with all these happy faces displaying various emotions!

While we spent time making the whole-wheat spaghetti and sauce (and Jen had a power nap), Harmony said that Mom had mentioned having a lunch tomorrow. Not sure if I really want to do that, but probably - although now it looks like I'll sleep through the meal, as my computer clock says 4:33 AM. Jeremy said that he'd had a good time in Kelowna with his family, and Jon called Dave to invite him over even if he was having a quiet night with the parents and Tiffany. Discussed how Nathan's dad had canceled the cable, so we wouldn't be able to watch the countdowns - Christon discovered that the TV in Daniel's room worked for NBC. Then we reminisced about Y2K - "hey, the world didn't end in London!" Eventually, we got to the beer and aged cheddar / blue cheese while watching MANOS - it was SO bad and random, plus it seemed to skip the beginning of the movie! It had these scenes with two students making out which had NOTHING to do with the plot, and we found the sinister stuff really funny! (plus, it didn't really seem to have any editing done at all... let's cut out all the redundant dialogue!)

Then we watched HOWARD THE DUCK - 1986 was better than 1966, and we could tell it was made in the 80s for sure because of the music. This duck gets catapulted from his home planet to Earth, and then gets embroiled in all these adventures - at least this one's plot was a little better, what with dark overlords and such. After that, we decided to eat since the sauce had finally simmered enough ("CORNSTARCH!") - Clement kept to himself, and I noted that his voice was really high compared to Christon's. We decided to keep an eye on the time once we started the third movie - it was subtle, and well done with sparse dialog. A psychopathic character annihilates an entire family, and it's about the widow and vengeance - bloodshed is fairly high in this movie. "Is he worth the bullet? Remember, bullets cost $10,000 in those days, which was a LOT of money!"

When it was almost midnight and time to pause the movie, we decided to crowd in Daniel's room to count down the last seconds of the old year, then we toasted the new one outside the room with champagne! Jeremy hoped that this decade would be better than the last for music AND politics - oh, I agree! The rest of the movie got interesting with more violence, some sex, a mini-massacre, and THE MOTIVATION! After that, we had to pack up and leave - Christon had to leave fairly quickly as he had to drive his dad downtown at 5:30 AM, yikes! Got home (Eric brought up Raymond on the way there!) to find that Billie had left me a New Year's wish - since she was still up, I talked to her in between catching up on a lot of stuff. Her birthday party is on the 8th - Friday - at 5 at her place. COOL STUFF, and I should be able to go if this weather continues!

You Should Celebrate Friendship

It may have been a good year or a bad year, but no matter what, your friends helped get you through it. And you can't imagine celebrating New Year's Eve without your closest friends around. You are always happy to catch up with old friends on this night, and you're hoping to make some new ones too. So this year, raise a toast to old and new friends. They make every day of the year a little brighter.

What Should You Celebrate?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

AMEN TO THAT!

2009 Recap: Chocolate, PEACEFUL, fire oil, and more!

This is the 2009 Recap. Fitting for the last day of the year, no? Vanessa just called, so I need to leave. Yay for having done this in draft form!

JANUARY

* Watched Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story and Fargo at Nathan's with Jeremy, Jon, Nate, white Eric, and Christon for New Year's. Good thing Raymond couldn't make it! (way too much snow, as well...)

* Finished Blogger tagging, FINALLY! YAY! :D

* Went to Elaine and Matt's wedding reception. It was cool enough, but it was too bad I couldn't also make it to Jon and Harmony's engagement party at the Alibi Room! Heard the beer there was EXCELLENT! A few days later, I hung out with my brother's future family - it was FUN, unlike some other times I could name! :P

* Watched BLADE RUNNER / DR. HORRIBLE'S SINGING BLOG with Teunis, Erik, Erica, Kaili, Scott, Alicia, and Kyle. Quirky stuff, AND morbid... yay for death via eyeball-gouging! :P

* Watched the premiere of 24 with Nathan, Jon, Steph, Eric, Vanessa, Phil, Grace, Jeremy, and Christon.

* Watched BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the first nine episodes of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT at Nathan's - Jon, Nate, Phil, Grace, Jeremy, and I had a good time! Also discussed DIM SUM / DUMPLINGS... good times!


FEBRUARY

* Teunis made it out for a Fellowship potluck - good times!

* Got a package of sixteen movies and some Mongolian fire oil from Corey: that rocked!

* Celebrated my sister's and grandma's birthdays within a week or so of each other. Met sister's friend Jonathan into the bargain, too.


MARCH

* Sent Corey and Janina some Tim Tams, and Corey got a bunch of other stuff too: Mars Bars, Aero bars, shredded pork, shredded salmon, Mirage, Wunderbars, Maltesers, and Coffee Crisp! I bought on-sale (dark) chocolate for myself, too: Guylian, Lindt 99% Excellence, Lindt cherry coulis-chili Creation, 90% chocolate, Aero bars, Mars Bars, Aero bars, Mirage, Wunderbars, (original / classic dark / chewy caramel) Tim Tams, and more!

* FINALLY got together with Billie for dinner. I could justify skipping Bible Study for once, but couldn't do the same for ONE ordered Alaska roll that turned into FOUR! (not to mention how we didn't get any miso soup despite also ordering it... never going back to Broadway's Fish on Rice AGAIN!)


APRIL

* Celebrated Vanessa H.'s birthday with her friends, including Kyle. Nice to see him again, and I said more than two words to him!

* Celebrated Mom's old-style birthday, then watched CITY OF LOST CHILDREN at Erik's - good times!

* Began going to the old Green Village a lot with Alan and Polly. Man, they are obsessed with that place. :P

* Saw ALEX LEE at Oakridge, of all the people! It was SO GOOD to see him! :D


MAY

* Celebrated Danielle's birthday / grad at Melia and Angus' place - this was most notable because someone found a box full of USED CONDOMS in the pool room when we were cleaning up! EWWWWWWWWWW!

* Celebrated Erik's birthday at his place with Teunis, Kaili, Alicia, Kyle, Scott, and other people. Watched SWEENEY TODD later on, too - that was great!

* Raymond decided to end our friendship - what a perfidious blackguard!

* Went to the townhouse for Spoons / Steveston Pizza / Timothy's frozen yogurt with Steph, Jon, Harmony, Vivian S., Gabriel, Karen, Lincoln, Richie, Christon, Daniel, Michelle, Vanessa, and Melia.

* Went to Harmony's bridal shower, Guu at Aberdeen for dinner, and Leisure for shaved ice afterwards with the girls. Good to see Holly and Brittney again, despite parking debacles!

* Got stuck in Metrotown's back corridors with Billie - interesting!


JUNE

* Jon and Harmony got married... family weddings are strangely surreal, haha.

* Megan had her bridal shower - I was determined to make it out to this event since I couldn't make the actual wedding. It was much fun! (met Bryant's girlfriend Shirley, too!)

* Terrence came to town for a few days, and mostly stayed at my place. We had sushi a lot, watched Up, had $12 steak at Hamilton Bar & Grill in Yaletown, went to Shoppers Drug Mart / London Drugs / Pearl Castle / IHOP, added each other to Facebook, and watched a bunch of Food Network TV.

* Alan and Tracy got married... I couldn't make it to the wedding, but did get to give them my congratulations in person soon afterwards.


JULY

* Was finally determined to move out - I couldn't live with the stupid mice anymore! Krista had a nice offer for me, YAY! Unfortunately, her dad put the kibosh on it, citing "winter jobs" - PAH!

* Finally hung out with Chrystal in Richmond! Boston Pizza, London Drugs (Fit-Overs!), and Shoppers (scents!) was a good time! Then I went to the townhouse to see Rachel and Lisa, and their mom.

* Went to the Jazz Festival with Jon, Harmony, Jen, Shally, and Jeremy - FUN TIMES! Sound Gallery was very cool!

* Had a good "last hangout" at California Café in Lansdowne with Chinese Eric just before he left again for Hong Kong. Nathan and I had a good time joking about wieners, and then being serious when we gave him advice about a certain situation. Then Eric hung out at my place, and I showed him the wedding pictures. Good to hug him goodbye for now!

* Megan and Andy got married... wish I had a man for these occasions, heh.

* Started the LOCATION project... going back through all my entries was challenging, but it had to be done!

* Got together with Krista and a bunch of her friends - yay for seeing her back in Tsawwassen from Fort St. John! Saw Kyle, Vanessa, and Teunis again... very good for that! Finally met Teunis' friend Wolfie, AKA Jazmin. Interesting!

* Hung out with Krista and Erik at Bubble Queen (at the old Fair Bee location), Future Shop in Lansdowne, and at Erik's to watch Coraline. Good times!

* Got together at the townhouse to celebrate Dad's SIXTIETH birthday!

* Hung out with Billie at Liu's Taiwanese Restaurant and Richmond Centre.

* Saw Brüno with Krista and Vanessa - the air conditioning was really nice in the 33° heatwave!


AUGUST

* Edmond and Alysia got married... why was summer 2009 the WEDDING TIME for everyone?!

* Hung out with Billie at Richmond Sushi and other places, then she slept over - yay for killing that significant memory dragon!

* Looked after Grandma for two weeks while the parents were on a cruise with Alan and Polly. Man, she has memory problems, and issues with impatience / being rude!

* Went to the 2009 Grad Banquet - yay for catered food! Nathan's HOLY MO-FO trailer was HILARIOUS! The beef jerky underpants were an interesting touch... o_O

* Jon and Harmony took me and Grandma out to Chen's for dinner, which was nice.

* Steph took us out to Kisamos in Steveston for dinner... Grandma was actually positive about the food, sort of.

* Grandma took me and Steph out to Timmy's Kitchen in Steveston for dinner. Later, Steph and I went to e.tea on Rupert with Steph, Karmie, Maxine, Grace, Harmony, Sheena, Connie, and Jen. Good times, although I hear matcha kept Maxine up ALL NIGHT!

* Two days later, Grandma took me / Jon / Harmony out for lunch at the same Timmy's Kitchen. At least it was a different meal... we later had Timothy's gelato as dessert, then waited while she bought prawns on the dock.

* Had a homemade ramen / dumpling Sunday Dinner at Jeremy's - Wesley and Lincoln were new additions! I got so discombobulated when I got to Jeremy's that I went up the wrong set of stairs, and actually sneaked into Apartment 206! Luckily, nobody noticed... that would have been AWKWARD! Took the Canada Line (in operation for almost a week by then) for the first time in order to get home - quite nice!

* Met up with Teunis and Jasmine at the Oakridge White Spot - good seeing both of them!

* Erin and Ben got married - yay, weddings! Jon and Harmony had their housewarming on the same day, too! It was especially fun after 7:30, because that's when a certain person LEFT!

* Saw FM for the first time in YEARS - SO GOOD!

* Went to the Richmond Night Market with Jon, Harmony, Dallas, and Nathan. Good times with lamb skewers, dragon's beard candy, curry fish balls, and weird DVD / knife displays!


SEPTEMBER

* Had the Awana orientation session - pretty good times, for sure.

* Celebrated Eric's birthday at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company, and then at Millennium Karaoke near Aberdeen. It was mostly fun, but there were too many Chinese songs! Stupid person who shouldn't have been there... *grumble*

* Erin and Ben had their Vancouver wedding reception - good times!

* Dylan and Deb got married in Bellingham: too bad Johnny had to miss both that AND my birthday! Awana also started on the same day, so I had to miss the wedding. That was okay, though - time with the kids went FINE!

* Nathan had his farewell since he went to the UK the day after my birthday. Too bad Danielle invited a person who shouldn't have been there! Good thing he didn't show up! Brian, Calla, Michelle, Daniel, Brent, Danielle, Jen, Eric M., Christon, Stanford, Jon, Steph, and I had lots of fun at Kishu Star and Dragon Ball!

* Celebrated my own birthday at Kelsey's in Ironwood with Teunis, Billie, Jon, Harmony, Steph, Christon, Andrea, Jeremy, and Eric. Teunis then came to stay for a few days - ah, the peripatetic life with TUBS of stuff!

* Had a Sunday Dinner, and finally saw Dallas again. Met Jeremy's new roommate Ryan, as well. Yay for Hungarian vegetable recipes and good times!


OCTOBER

* Went to Jon and Harmony's to watch the Canucks-Flames season opener with them and Christon. Jon left birthday wishes for Jeremy, and we looked at their extensive tea collection, heh. Too bad we lost 5-3!

* Went to Posh for dinner with Steph, Chantal, Jon, Harmony, Chelsea, Karen Grace, Margaret, Ryan, Vivian, and Gabriel.

* Got to meet my great-aunt (who gave me $200 total!) and my mom's cousin Eric for the first time ever. Yee Poh stayed longer than we thought she would, and Grandma decided to go to Hong Kong with her!

* Started to see a CREEP around MY church. Discussed things a LOT with both Erics, Danielle, Harmony, Jon, Christon, Jeremy, Jen, and other people.

* Grandpa Marr died. :(

* I finally got to sleep over in Coquitlam with Billie! YAY!

* Managed to get a lot of candy over Halloween weekend - yay for Kids' Carnival and 50% off candy at Buy-Low at Kingsgate Mall before a Sunday Dinner at Jeremy's!


NOVEMBER

* Had lunch at Peaceful Restaurant with Danielle, Jon, and Harmony. Quite a good time!

* Went to Women's Group at Karmie's for the first time ever, and liked it enough to keep going!

* Started to get Christmas cards and things from the awesome people at and on my friends list! So good! :D

* Hung out with Vanessa once she was back from Victoria for a few days - good seeing Kyle again too, for sure.


DECEMBER

* Parents went on a Singaporean cruise, then to Hong Kong for Gordon's wedding - and then picked Grandma up. I just housesat for them, which was a good mini-vacation from the MICE and CRAPPY MANAGEMENT!

* Was invited to the Women's Group cookie exchange - I was going to not show up since I can't bake, but Grace said that others faced the same dilemma. So I just bought an assortment of Voortman's cookies, haha.

* Had dinner with Jon, Steph, and Harmony at the PEACEFUL restaurant - it was good times. :D

* Dessert night and bubble tea - yay for seeing Darren and Fidela!

* Saw Grandma back home again - YAY!

* New Year's Eve - hanging out with Vanessa H. at Tapioca Express, and then going to Nate's with Christon / Jon / Harmony / Eric / Jen for BAD MOVIE NIGHT II.

Deb has to be warned about Mr. Creep, too! / Stupid accidental comment stoppage!

Deb wondered what I meant by the message I'd sent to the small group earlier, so I warned her against Mr. Creep! (says she'll pray for me, too...) She might not have noticed him, since she and Dylan have been on their honeymoon till recently, and she isn't a regular Fellowship / church member yet. Trust me, people need to be warned against him before they make their own decisions! Told her what had happened to lead me to go home, too! (next time, I might just hang out at the Superstore two minutes away, as it's open till 11 PM on Fridays...)

Eric, Jon, and Harmony provided me much amusement over the "epic" status message, hahaha. Good thing, since I always need more of that stuff... wooyeah! Mom emailed us about November family dinners: Jon and Harmony choose Thursday the 5th, and he'll skip the Downtown Eastside stuff for the Tuesday, Nov. 24 dinner. (guess that works...) For some reason, Danielle included me on an email she sent to Jon and Harmony apologizing for not making it to the Sunday Dinner. Says that Brent can't make it on the 4th for lunch (but it IS her mom's birthday), and wonders if I can make it. I was really only calling on Jon and Harmony's behalf because they were busy with food prep / thank-you cards, but I'm not resistant to a lunch then. Besides, saying THAT in the email would just seem really abrupt and blunt - and like I don't want to have lunch with them! Guess we'll see how much money I spend on Thursday [food shopping] first... ;) [and Danielle emailed me back personally, too!]


Poo nugget for Wednesday, October 28: Monsturd - This 2002 movie's main character is a huge piece of poo who goes around killing people. Traveling to such places as Butte Country, Monsturd leaves his mark by scrawling "Don't get caught with your pants down!" in feces on bathroom walls. Featuring a chili cookout (to ostensibly lure victims into the bathroom), diapers as body armor, and guns filled with Pepto-Bismol, this movie is sure to bring out the poo lover in you.

Sure, let's see BRUNO... I want AIR CON, dammit!

Vanessa just buzzed me on Facebook chat when I wasn't at the computer. So then I called her instead: sure, I'm up to see Brüno with her and Krista! Maybe we'll have bubble tea afterwards, too. Discussed church, bras, the heat, the hot sun, and more.

[18:07:50] Flami: learning about martyrs: someone just invited me to see BRUNO... should I?
[18:08:49] Corey: I watched it the other night, go for it.. it's not nearly as explicit as I thought it would be. all buttsex is censored and there's not a lot of it, really :P
[18:09:29] Corey: his Bruno segments from his TV show are better, though... this one feels way too staged... the whole point of the character is to get reactions out of other people, not to be funny by himself :P
[18:09:43] Corey: it has some funny stuff
[18:10:28] Flami: well, I would hope it's censored...
[18:15:21] Corey: oh yeah? why's that?
[18:15:35] Corey: movies usually aren't!
[18:16:00] Corey: he mostly does that to add a big censor bar to himself that makes him look like he has a lot more to cover up than there is :P
[18:16:15] Corey: anyway, go see it, it was a lot more tame than I expected it to be
[18:26:34] Flami: because it's BUTTSEX, duh!
[18:26:48] Corey: it's like Borat, but instead of harassing people as Borat, he does it as a really gay guy
[18:27:41] Corey: there aren't any extended buttsex scenes or whatever :P there's a big montage at the start, of inventive ways to have sex with his midget lover or whatever, but they're mostly clothed and there's censor bars on things... it's not that bad
[18:29:38] Flami: .... WHAT?!!! *calls Krista and Vanessa to cancel*
[18:29:57] Flami: as long as it's funnily done and sorta tasteful-ish...
[18:31:36] Corey: well, if the movie offends you, you don't get the joke :P you're not supposed to like his character or the stuff he does... the point is how the other people react to it... the character is a prank on anyone that would be offended by such a thing
[18:35:58] Flami: ah, okay. got it
[18:40:31] Corey: there's a bit from the TV series where he's on the beach and finds an RV full of some college's wrestling team, so he interviews them for his show (Funkyzeit mit Brüno!) ... and they wrestle with him, and he gets them to show off their muscles for him... and at one point, he convinces them to show their asses, and these guys do it for some reason.... he keeps making them yell and get crazy for the camera
[18:41:04] Corey: anyway... at the end, he says: "wow, you guys have been great! Do you have any final message for Austria's gay community?"
[18:41:23] Corey: "WHAT!??!?!"

"yeah, this is a gay show, you've been great!!"
[18:42:56] Corey: the movie is about Bruno going to America to try to get really famous
[18:45:19] Corey: so he interviews people and does various publicity stunts to try to get famous
[18:45:53] Flami: hahahahaha
[19:00:12] Corey: I don't think Borat or Bruno are amazing movies... but the characters (Borat mostly) have a ton of awesome stuff in the TV shows... check out Da Ali G Show for that. there's two separate shows, one season in the UK with a live audience (no Bruno, and Borat stuff is all pre-recorded, not live), and then he had two seasons of a US version of the show, which introduced Bruno.
[19:00:13] *** Auto-response sent to Corey: I am currently idle.
[19:02:07] Corey: it's all a lot more low-key and focused on interacting with real people and getting funny reactions out of them :P plus all the Ali G stuff, which is kind of the same.. Ali G is a gangsta rapper that thinks he's from Jamaica, and always talks about girls and smoking pot. he gets interviews with all kinds of scientists and government people, and acts like a complete moron
[19:03:03] Corey: sometimes they play along, sometimes they just can't deal with him being such a moron and get mad... either way, it's usually funny :P the Borat segments in both series are my favorite parts...
[19:04:16] Corey: there's one where he goes to an anti-fur rally in the UK, while wearing a badge that has something to do with hunting bears... this old lady is talking to him, then looks closer at his jacket and gets really pissed off... "THIS SAYS YOU KILL BEARS!!" "WHAT? YOU KILL BEARS!?!? YOU'RE EVIL!!"
[19:05:01] Corey: "no no, we love animals in Kazakhstan!" "then why do you kill them?!?!?" "eh.... for fun!"
[19:06:16] Corey: and with another lady, he talks about how they have a show about animals in Kazakhstan where they treat the animals so nice... then he goes on to explain that the show is about dressing the animals up in silly costumes, and heating the floor underneath them to make them jump up and down :P the lady wasn't too impressed
[19:07:22] Flami: going now, if I can find my keys


Leslie's just got their Burlesque Dancer Name from Name Generators. I just got my Burlesque Dancer Name. It's Chantal de Ville.

Leslie's just got their Lion King Character Name from Name Generators. I just got my Lion King Character Name. It's Sarabi.

Leslie's just got their Demon Name from Name Generators. I just got my Demon Name. It's Astaroth.

Leslie's just got their Greek Name from Name Generators. I just got my Greek Name. It's Triana Tsamis.

Gray tipsy carts, dinner / movie plans, and Snake Poo!

High-scoring words of the night so far:

DEEJAY (100 points) - against Nick M. [5W]
EXAMS (313 points) - against Nick M. [2W, two 3W, hook off DO to make DOM] {different game}
BRAZE (114 points) - against Adam S. [3W, 2W] (a good deficit-erasing word!)
INARCH (160 points) - against Murray A. [5W, 4W]
SHIFT (177 points) - against Alice P. [4W, 3W]
TIPSY (335 points) - against Pat S. [two 5W, hook off AMEND for a plural]
GRAYEST (224 points) - against Brian W. [2W, 5W]
CART (185 points) - against Jenny M. [3W, 5W, hook off IVY to make TIVY] (a good deficit-erasing word!)
SILVAE (256 points) - against Melissa R. [2W, 3W, 4W]
LEADMAN (176 points) - against Sheldon S. [two 4W]

Interesting rack of the night so far: SEANBOWS (against Amber K.)

New record: I've had three forced wins in the last 24 hours! (Tracy W., Babs G., Karen W.)

Jennifer J. reminded me: It's the 97th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking!

Erik buzzed me on Facebook chat to make plans for tomorrow, which led to me having an MSN conversation with Teunis about Shanghai Wonderful and family dinners. (plans have since changed to Kisamo's in Steveston Village - even CLOSER to Erik's for CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, and I haven't had Greek food since last summer anyhow!) I think it's about time that I returned Erik's vampire book, haha. The Vancouver Giants won in OT against the Spokane Chiefs - YAY!

Poo nugget for Wednesday, Apr. 15: The Snake - The Snake is a thin and winding defecation that can contort itself in a variety of different shapes and sizes. Some Snakes wrap themselves around the bottom of the toilet bowl clockwise, and others go counterclockwise. Some Snakes twist themselves into the shape of a pretzel, while others zigzag across the bowl. Regardless of the final form, Snakes seem to go on forever as they leave your rectum. In the end, however, Snakes never leave you with the same feeling of accomplishment as do poos of a wider diameter. Synonyms: Curly Fry (which makes me think of Jamie), The Long Thin Line, Fettuccine Feces.

Hey, I got a Colorado package!

The mailman knocked on my door just now, and cheerfully gave me a box. At least I didn't have to sign for the taped-up package, heh. It is Corey's package, which rocks! First-class mail?! Oh dear... it contains a bottle of Mongolian Fire Oil from the House of Tsang (no wonder everything was in a box!), and three DVDs of sixteen movies. Trigger Happy TV (2000), Subway Monkey Hour (2002), World Shut Your Mouth (2005), a Dave Brockie Experience (GWAR) live show, Die Hard 1 (1988), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard 3: With a Vengeance (1995), Death Race 2000 (1975), V For Vendetta (2005), Meet the Feebles (1988), Thomas Edison's Frankenstein (1990), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), Zombi 2: The Dead are Among Us (1979), and Videodrome (1983) seem sufficiently entertaining!

You Are Factual

You are highly intelligent, especially in areas that deal with concrete knowledge and facts. You are amazingly analytical. You can make sense of chaos without involving your emotions. If anything, you tend to be overly logical. It's sometimes hard for you to come to a decision, because you're too busy weighing all the options. People turn to you in times of trouble. They know that they can trust you to give good, well thought out advice.

Are You Flirtatious, Fearless, Factual, or Friendly?

I liked the alliteration in this one. :D

Aged cheddar, skating, and FAMILY GUY / FARGO: 2009 is finally here!

I'm glad 2009 is FINALLY here! Believe me, I learned stuff in 2008, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad it's in the past now! ;)


Jon picked me up yesterday afternoon, and fielded a phone call from Harmony on the way to pick up Eric (waved to Veronica): seems she'd be late, since she was making guacamole. (we discussed Raymond's change in plans as he'd heard about it) Turns out Myles dropped her off later, which was fine! Had pasta, quail, some interesting red bean-based Chinese dessert, curry, chicken wings, and more stuff while saying hi to Dave's parents and catching up with Dave himself... too bad Tiffany had to work! Talked about the IIHF Canada-US hockey game (yay for two LATE empty-net goals to make the final score 7-4 for Canada... Tavares also got a hat trick!), the Calgary-Edmonton game, Christmas, blogging, flights, delays, Dennis, wedding stuff, jokes featuring really rushed pre-marital counselling, and other things. When a player named Ryan Ellis was being interviewed on TV, I said this to Eric: "You can tell your Victoria buddy that there's someone out there with the same name as him! Haha!" (I discovered this about myself, Catherine Anderson (geordiecat76), Graham Hurley [Korey's Ontario friend], and of course many others!)

Mom got me my present from Auntie Esther (Laughing Matters: Learning to Laugh When Life Stinks), and I rejoiced because my book collection was in even numbers again. Eric thought the beer had affected me already, and Jon said he'd just get me another book if I liked even numbers so much - CHEH! The guy who wrote the book is featured in the PULSE every time we get it, as well - Dad said I was familiar with that, at least. Yup, and I read it during service most times! (Jon said not to deflect it and say that others probably did the same - meh, shut up! :P) I also got some socks of unknown origin from the family laundry (Jon said to take them!), and saw the green blingy sweater my mom was talking about at the Ho family dinner - I like THAT, but not the matching skirt! (I DISLIKE SKIRTS!)

Seems Harmony was trying to call a friend all day, but instead was calling a wrong number - oops! Grandma was a bit confused as to why there was no US goalie in one of the games, so Dad tried explaining to her the concept of pulling your goalie for an extra attacker... it didn't quite work, heh. Steph would love to be the Mountie making the post-game presentations to the players of the game, for sure! (too bad she's in Regina, heh) I had a bit of beer, and some powerful ginger ale - no pop in that house! Jon decided to see what the beer and ginger ale would taste like together, but selected ME to be the guinea pig! Then he added my Ceres red grape juice to the mix, and was about to add the coffee - ew, no! The ginger ale just seemed to overpower everything else, which is what I told him when he asked how it tasted!

Eventually we went over to Eric's for about five minutes, where the Great Champagne Exchange happened: you better believe we needed the fake stuff as opposed to the real thing! Eric, Jon, and I discussed his mother's cool Chinese ways on the way over, haha. (Jon dropped us off there before going back home to collect Harmony to go to Kendrick's) She can be like a Chinese mother, and not know it - she loves getting us food even AFTER certain SLB escapades, heh! Said hi to his parents, watched a tiny bit of AIR FARCE (Sloppy Second Joe?!), saw this cute blue musical wizard plush that Steph found for them, and got a New Year's hug from Veronica. Eric and I discussed emails, accents, certain friends, Fellowship plans, skating at the oval, fake heart attacks, and more on the way to Nathan's. I was transported into nostalgia when I saw a certain 7-11 on Granville, haha. (Grandma saying that Jon should have bought medicine at Yaohan instead when he was really mailing letters!)

Christon had to help me across the ice rink that was Nathan's front walkway, since Eric decided to find parking somewhere else. Turns out we got there at the same time as Jeremy - I don't mind his seeing me as petrified of the snow, heh. (it's happened before...) Nathan was actually home, which was a good thing since some time elapsed without our seeing Eric! After a while, we started to wonder what happened - then Nate got a call that Eric was stuck in the snow about two blocks away. I certainly didn't mind guarding the house while the guys went to relieve some strangers' kindness! Read some health / pharmacy magazine, had some Orville Redenbacher popcorn courtesy of Christon, quickly checked my email, and started on a 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. box set that Nathan got in the meantime.

Shared the seat and some popcorn out of a bowl with Jeremy, and didn't mind his placing his stuff on my jacket - it was brand new from Regina, I warned him. When it came time for Nathan to order his free pizza, it was entertaining! "Hi, I think I should have a free pizza on my account. What do I want on the pizza? *looks around room* Meat...? Anything else, guys? Mushrooms? Green peppers? HELP!" Hahaha! Had some Tostitos multigrain chips and salsa that Eric brought along, too. Amused ourselves by looking up Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa and chop suey - Eric had never seen the Chinese medicine before in his life, while I said I'd kinda grown up with it. Jeremy said it was the best stuff ever, and I tended to agree with him on that point!

Saw Nathan's dad go in and out of the room while doing laundry - Jeremy was surprised at the dryer buzzer noise, and thought that Nate's house just had random noises all the time, haha. Reminds me: I should do my own laundry! Ha, he should have been at the house a few years ago when the old TV was about to implode, and warned us by making a high-pitched noise which we could hear every time we went into the basement! Daniel was given a huge amount of money to replace it! We also discussed the perils of skating: if you tie your skates up and then feel they're too loose when you go out on the ice, then you have to go back OFF the ice and retie the laces! But then if you feel it's too TIGHT afterwards, do you REALLY feel like going back off the ice again and then taking everything off / putting it back on again!? Very ma-fan, to be sure!

Jeremy described the driving conditions when his dad drove down from Kelowna to pick him up at the airport: luckily, his dad is used to driving in the snow! It was actually snowing when they were in Abbotsford, and they saw these guys trying to race each other... not in THOSE conditions! The whole round trip took about 10.5 hours, which we figured was average given the snow on the roads. At one point, the powdery snow from other vehicles was covering everything: Jeremy was on the phone to his mom to tell her where they were, and suddenly couldn't see anything except white! In that case, you drive and hope you haven't turned the wrong way or anything! He also described a Kelowna Rockets game to us: the shots were uneven (27-11), the score was misleading, they got their own private bathroom (YES!), and it was still a good time even though he missed one family celebration! At least he wasn't delayed much coming home... there was a 45-minute unannounced delay while they were on the plane, though!

While we watched the UNCENSORED version of Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005), Jon called Jeremy to say that he didn't know when we'd be seeing him. That didn't surprise us at all, man! The movie was pretty funny - I won't give anything away except to say that you never know where people get ideas for sex changes and doppelgangers! We finished with about twelve minutes left to go till midnight, so Christon prepped the champagne while Nathan searched for something suitable to watch on TV. The Hong Kong countdown was hilarious (philanthropists and singers on stage, all bundled up?!), Nathan judged some based on musical quality, and we managed to find one from 1987 - that's not even a round number of years!

We found the Christmas tree / Yule log channels - those get high ratings?! Sweet! (and we noted the logs' changed positions every time we went back to those channels - "who's the hand that changes it when it's not on a 15-minute loop?") Saw a few shots of Elton John, some of Ryan Seacrest, re-informed Nathan that Dick Clark had had a stroke a couple years ago, and toasted each other at midnight. Also watched WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? and laughed at the low blows dealt Drew Carey by the improv comics! (Nathan thinks that Ryan Stiles and Jeremy kinda look alike, and have a similar eye mannerism - Jeremy wouldn't know about that himself! Reminds me of how my mom thinks Eric and Jeremy would be too similar to be groomsmen at Jon's wedding - I said, "tall skinny white guys with metabolism / diet issues do NOT all look the same!")

Nathan and Eric played some NHL 2009 - turns out Jeremy and I thought the same thing about the updates in the game. It doesn't automatically transfer data based on current hockey teams, which is too bad. We had to think of it like car models - it's like how the 2009 models came out in 2008! Then Jeremy asked if you could play the same team against one another: Nathan said you could, which made me think of STREET FIGHTER where you could do that too. THAT confused me the first few times I saw it, haha! (Eric says that the hockey uniforms are light and dark to distinguish individual teams, and the announcing in-game is hilarious since the lineups are exactly the same!) Jon called later to say that he was maybe half an hour away, which is about the time Christon decided to leave. "He called you LAME!" "Tell him that HE can drive my dad downtown tomorrow morning, then!" "He says to stay up all night till 5:30, and THEN sleep!" "Somehow, I don't think that's happening!" Hahaha!

By the time Jon did come over, it was almost 1 AM. Jeremy had gone into the Mount Pleasant cheese shop and asked for some aged cheddar, but was told that they only had five-year-old cheddar! If THAT'S not aged, we wonder just what qualifies as such! Jon made some chai tea, got a cutting board for the cheese, and happily took some more beer out. Asked whether I'd had any of Jeremy's stout IPA (or something), but I said that Jer had finished the whole bottle by himself! (the equivalent of three pints?! oh my...) We talked for a bit before watching Fargo (1996) - yay for wood chipper murders! Jon mused that he recalled watching this with Mom once, but she didn't like it very much! After a particular scene in which much profanity was used, I wondered if Mom had objected to the language - he didn't remember! (Jeremy: "Hey, it's in ENGLISH at least!" Hahaha!) Discussed dark comedies, other movies, Jeremy's parents thinking FARGO was uninteresting, Jeremy saying the movie was funnier with us than with his parents, and other things.

When the movie was finished, we watched the commentary while helping Nathan clear up and looking up hockey pool stats. Note to self: Don't attempt carrying four mugs at a time up the stairs, since you'll need to hang on to the railing! Jeremy left pretty much after the movie was done: biking home in the snow at 3:30 AM isn't the greatest prospect in the world! (some of us had been up since 8 AM or so!) Jon, Eric, and I left at 4 AM after Nathan attempted to take a power nap while leaning on the entranceway to the stairs. It was actually snowing outside, but Jon helped me - Eric figured it was easier if Jon drove me home, and he was right. No way was I going around the corner in that weather! Got home at about 4:30 after seeing a car spin out of control (nothing serious), and saw more traffic on the road than normal - it's the New Year's dynamic, man! Discussed accidental calls to Aaron Cheng at 1:30 AM for two seconds (I was trying to play around with Jon's phone to figure out who called him twice in the span of ten minutes), Harmony's real call a few minutes afterwards, Eric Ho, and other things. Quickly checked my messages before falling into bed: Lex, Rob, and Andrew wished me a Happy New Year... and I had to block another ICQ porn bot. Lovely...

IRON MAN, the movie!

Teunis kindly picked me up with his friend Kaili in tow, and we were off to Erik's to watch IRON MAN. Warned me about chocolate on the seat, but it seemed okay - as a precaution, I did wear grungy pants. :P Saw a few people again... someone I vaguely recognized as Krista's dad (I think?), a guy named Kyle, Lindsay, and her mom. We bantered a bit about allergies and nicknames: if white Eric were there, he wouldn't have been able to eat Teunis' creation of a semi-sweet chocolate dessert. Probably a good thing he's seen the movie already and wasn't there, since we didn't leave till 1 AM because CERTAIN PEOPLE were busy being RPG / computer geeks. ;) [and I mean that in the nicest way possible - it's like when Jeremy and Eric were busy studying the schematics of the church floor plan upstairs today!]

Had chips, candy, and other food... we had to keep it away from the dog Lucy, heh. Was reminded of the time we all got together at Edith and Carina's place for a Timothy gathering, and their dog Buffy got into the cake that someone had brought to share! Their mom scolded the dog in Chinese, haha. IRON MAN was interesting - I didn't have the backstory, but managed to get into it well enough. Certain elements (the cave / "Middle Eastern" terrorists / torture / double-crossing?) reminded me of 24 (haven't seen REDEMPTION yet - I should!) - that was pretty sweet. Of course, the song IRON MAN was kinda in the movie, yet not OF the movie. Surprised someone by writing - size is important! I like how Samuel L. Jackson had a very small cameo after the end credits, haha. Someone's IRON MAN bobblehead reminded me of Strong Bad - yay!

Discussed GREEN candy, STAR WARS mechanics / transport, videos, vampire books (thanks to Erik for THE BEAST WITHIN!), tolerable roommates, loss of work time, dislike of people, drums, RPG characters, and more. It was cool - I *may* have done something I normally wouldn't, but I was kinda busy holding a laptop. Maybe next time, and that's all the warning you're gonna get! :P (also rocked out to the Dropkick Murphys on the way home - SWEET!) Right now, Corey is wondering why the heck Samuel L. Jackson was cast as some white guy - how should *I* know?! (also, Kempy added me to Facebook - yay for Spoz being our mutual friend, and Fuzzy Red Records!)

[01:41:19] Flami: the hamsterette: guess what I watched tonight
[01:41:29] Corey: [*insert disgusting suggestion here*]
[01:41:43] Flami: (and if you say HQVID or anything similar, I'm going to kill you)
[01:41:48] Flami: *kills you*
[01:42:59] Corey: [*insert some TMI about porn here*]
[01:43:04] Corey: you'd love it!
[01:43:12] Corey: so what did you watch then????
[01:44:13] Flami: ..... please tell me you're kidding....
[01:46:58] Flami: the hamsterette: watched IRON MAN the movie
[01:51:05] Corey: I am not kidding at all :P
[01:51:38] Flami: do I want to know how you learned this? :P
[01:51:43] Corey: so did you catch the reference to War Machine, who will likely be in the sequel since he said "nah... maybe next time"? :P
[01:51:59] Corey: how can you have been on the Internet for this long and not heard of this stuff? :P
[01:52:11] Flami: ask someone else, not me :P
[01:52:33] Corey: you didn't watch it??? :P
[01:53:48] Corey: Rhodes, the black guy that was an army dude of some sort, I think, is War Machine... which is basically just Iron Man with black and grey armor :P in one scene, Iron Man flies off and Rhodey sees a second Iron Man suit and hesitates and then says "... maybe next time...", and leaves :P
[01:54:09] Corey: except Iron Man will probably be in the Avengers movie next, not in his own sequel, so who knows
[01:55:15] Flami: no... I was answering your question about "how can you be on the Internet for this long?"
[01:55:38] Flami: apparently, some guy named Fury was in the movie for like 20 seconds at the end
[01:56:21] Corey: Nick Fury, head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I don't remember that... but there was someone from SHIELD in it that was following Iron Man around
[01:56:30] Corey: Nick Fury has an eye patch and smokes a cigar
[01:56:34] Corey: I don't remember that
[01:57:29] Flami: Samuel L. Jackson, I think
[01:57:39] Flami: yeah... that Agent guy
[02:05:51] Corey: Samuel L. Jackson isn't in that movie!
[02:06:12] Corey: and Nick Fury is white
[02:06:19] Corey: the black guy in the uniform was Rhodes, which I already told you :P
[02:06:41] Flami: get the video - go past the end credits.
[02:06:49] Corey: the SHIELD guy is at the end, and he helps Tony Stark cover up that he's Iron Man, but then he goes and tells everyone he's Iron Man at the end anyway
[02:06:59] Corey: I might have it on my laptop :P
[02:07:03] Flami: and yes, I know
[02:07:14] Corey: probably deleted it though, but I have it somewhere
[02:07:27] Corey: nope, not on here
[02:08:54] Corey: actually... I should have it on my other computer :P which I can get to over the network (I'm downstairs :P)
[02:09:20] Flami: SNEAKY! *thumbs-up*
[02:09:27] Corey: okay, here we go
[02:09:49] Corey: but it's rared, so I can't get to the file without unraring it :P crap
[02:10:25] Corey: I'll see if it works, but the network is usually too slow for that
[02:11:32] Corey: well... you're right, it is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. (according to IMDB)
[02:11:41] Corey: he goes into a bar and talks about forming a team or something?
[02:12:01] Corey: that was in Hulk
[02:12:16] Corey: and why the hell is Samuel L. Jackson Nick Fury???
[02:12:54] Corey: that's Nick Fury
[02:13:06] Corey: current head of SHIELD, formerly of Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos, which was from WWII, I think...........
[02:13:44] Flami: how should *I* know why he's Nick Fury?
[02:14:01] Corey: pretty sure Samuel L. Jackson doesn't match the visual on that one...
[02:14:21] Corey: they didn't get enough complaints when they made Kingpin a black guy in Daredevil?
[02:14:58] Flami: I have no idea
[02:15:06] Corey: that doesn't mean a black guy can't play that type of role... but with Kingpin, they totally changed his personality to be a black thug type guy... and with Sam Jackson, they'll definitely change it to fit his style...
[02:15:25] Corey: doesn't look like the character, doesn't act like the character... so don't flippin' do it :P
[02:15:40] Corey: that's a classic character, and it would be cool if they did it right :P
[02:20:54] Corey: then if you complain about things like that online, you get called a racist. I see it as making a movie where Superman has a green cape or something :P everyone would complain about that
[02:24:35] Flami: for sure, for sure...
[02:25:44] Flami: some elements of it reminded me of 24
[02:31:44] Flami: must have been the terrorists, torture, and the cave
[02:34:55] Corey: go watch the movie Three Kings, then
[02:36:01] Corey: I don't think it's much like 24, but it does have the torture in caves type vibe :P it's about three US soldiers in the Gulf War (first one, not this one), who find out where a stash of Saddam Hussein's gold is hidden and go off to find it
[02:38:21] Corey: well, I just looked up the Nick Fury movie (which I didn't know was in the works) and the message board for it on IMDB is full of people screaming racism at people that complain that they changed the character..........
[02:38:52] Corey: "The Original Nick Fury Was Black, You Racist Pigs"
[02:38:58] Corey: "Nick Fury was NOT originally black. When the comic came out in 1963, he was a white guy."
[02:41:48] Corey: IMDB message boards are stupid, though... EVERY movie's board has people screaming about how racist the movie is... EVERY ONE :P I think most of them are just trolls to get people worked up, but I bet a lot of them are real.......
[02:46:04] Flami: oh dear... why I am not surprised?
[02:57:20] Corey: however, I did see that the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury is black, and Sam Jackson fits that version perfectly. I haven't read much Ultimate stuff, so I forgot about that. I still think it's a bit dumb to change him in that too, but that's an alternate universe, so it's okay... the regular one is still in the regular comics.
[02:57:45] Corey: Ultimate is an alternate universe that reboots a lot of the hero stories and kind of modernizes them
[02:58:01] Corey: but, that's alongside the regular comics, not in place of them :P
[02:58:40] Corey: the movies do kind of tend to lean toward the Ultimate style, so I guess it fits, but I still think they shouldn't change the character for the movies :P Nick Fury is cool
[02:59:41] Corey: someone on there suggested Michael Biehn with an eyepatch to play him.. that would be about perfect if he put white streaks in his hair, and could talk a little gravely