Lars Lindstrom: I was talking to Bianca, and she was saying that in her culture they have these rites of passages and rituals and cermonies, and, just all kinds of things that, when you do them, go through them, let you know that you're an adult? Doesn't that sound great? 

Gus: It does. 

Lars Lindstrom: How'd you know? 

Gus: How'd I know what? 

Lars Lindstrom: That you were a man 

Gus: Ahhh. I couldn't tell ya. 

Lars Lindstrom: Was it... okay, was it sex? 

Gus: Um. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's uh, yeah, yeah it's kind of - it's uh - no. Well, it's kind of sex but it's not uh, you know? I don't know. I don't know. It's - uh - good question, good question. 

Lars Lindstrom: Yeah, but I have to know 

Gus: [dryer buzzes] Hold that thought.
Gus: [in basement] You know, you should ask Dagmar 

Lars Lindstrom: I did ask Dagmar. And she said that I should ask you. 

Gus: Okay, you know I can only give you my opinion. 

Lars Lindstrom: That's what we want 

Gus: Well, it's not like you're one thing or the other, okay? There's still a kid inside but you grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not what's right for you, what's right for everybody, even when it hurts. 

Lars Lindstrom: Okay, like what? 

Gus: Like, you know, like, you don't jerk people around, you know, and you don't cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you're wrong, or you try to, anyways. That's all I can think of, you know - it sound like it's easy and for some reason it's not. 

Ok, I just felt the need to post about this movie I just saw.
--"Lars and the Real Girl"--

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805564/

In my opinion, this movie is awesome and has a lot to say about the potential for human compassion.

You may ask your self...would you be Bianca's friend?

In the study, presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 103rd International Conference in San Francisco, researchers compared the effectiveness of washing cotton sheets with regular laundry detergent at various temperatures in removing dust mites, dog dander, and pollen allergens.

The results showed that washing laundry at hotter temperatures was significantly more effective than warm water at killing dust mites as well as other allergens. For example:

Washing laundry in warm, 86- to 104-degree Fahrenheit water killed only about 6% of dust mites.
Hot water washing (at 140 degrees Fahrenheit) killed 100% of dust mites.
Washing in hot water also removed nearly 90% of dog dander compared with about 60% removed in warm water washing.
Hot water washing removed nearly 97% of pollen in the laundry compared with 69% at 86 degrees Fahrenheit and 95% at 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
The study also showed that steam cleaning of the sheets was equally effective as hot water (140 degrees Fahrenheit) washing at killing dust mites and removing dog dander and pollen.

In addition, researcher Jung-Won Park, MD, PhD, of Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues found rinsing laundry twice in cold water was also effective at removing all traces of dog dander in laundry washed at any temperatures.

Yet another breathtakingly talented friend of Sashi...

I forgot about this guy for a while, but for some reason he came to mind today.
I am so fascinated by his artwork. His name is Theo Jansen. His artwork is powered by wind.

http://www.strandbeest.com/movies.html

OMG OMG OMG!
If you like horror movies, and suspense and down-right creepy-ass ghost stories....run! don't walk! to the theater playing "The Abandoned" right now!

This movie has restored my faith in the horror industry....now, if only others follow suit in their own way and don't just try to copy the format.

http://www.theabandonedonline.com/

--------And this one is edited, but I couldn't find an un-edited version.

After-Christmas nookie is good, especially when you don't even have to take your boots off.


:)

Well, not tomorrow morning but the next I will be leaving for Louisiana!  I am all excited and my tummy has butterflies!  I haven't seen my family for a whole entire year.  I am eminently excited about spending Christmas, ACTUAL Christmas with my family for the first time in at least 9 years.  Damn retail will suck your soul dry.

It has been an extra treat all this week because work is catering lunch every day.  This has meant that I do not have to bother myself with cooking and in it's place can perfect my vacation planning and packing.  It has also saved me about a week's worth of grocery money.

I am a bit concerned about my tire that was allegedly repaired this past weekend (it appears to be a little low to me; could be my paranoia) and the fact that my front breaks are not exactly up to parr.  I just replaced my rear breaks, and I know most of the breaking is done with the front but the rear breaks were in worse condition.  I am just asking that everyone keep me in mind this Saturday and wish me a safe trip.

I hope you all have wonderful, magical holidays and I will try to update from Louisiana to let you know how the trip went.

This weekend was very productive, and actually very enjoyable at the same time.

My front driver-side tire has been losing air for a couple weeks now.  At first I thought it may have been due to the cold weather.  I remembered there was free air beside the Auto Zone on Summer Ave and went there two or three times in the past few weeks to fill up my tire.  This weekend was a different story.

Before the shopping extravaganza with catgoyle, I wanted to fill up my tire with air.  I went to Auto Zone and found that someone had broken the nib on the air hose!  It was completely useless.  I didn't have any quarters on me, but catgoyle did, so she gave me three quarters to pay for some damn air.  I just can't believe people want to charge 75 cents for some damn air!  Anyway.....I went to a gas station and attempted to use their machine.  Someone had gotten a quarter stuck in the stupid machine!  GEEZE!

I gave up my air search for that day and vowed to go by the ATM in the morning to get out some cash so that I could purchase a bottled water in order to get change for another air machine I knew of on Poplar.  Good thing I checked the machine before making change, because there was a large sign on it that said "OUT OF ORDER".  Ok, this had to be a sign from the gods telling me to bring the car to the shop and get the damn tire looked at.  I promptly took it to the Firestone Mastercare and got it all patched up.

I managed to finish the rest of my Christmas shopping on Saturday, and then my grocery shopping on Sunday; both were relatively painless.  I also had my glasses tightened up on the side that was loose, and even had time to make taco salad and bake a cake.  WHEW!

I want to thank catgoyle again for being so awesome and thoughtful in her gift she gave me this weekend.  I would also like to thank her for being:  inspiring, magnificent, considerate and kind-hearted.

:)

...and thank you to all who put gifts in my virtual stocking too!

Happy Halloween!
This is Diamanda Galas doing a Billie Holiday song. Enjoy.

You Are 48% Open

You are a fairly open person, but you also like to maintain your privacy. You definitely will tell all (okay, almost all) to your closest friends... But strangers and acquaintances only get a peek into your life.

Big surprise on that one, right!?

Do radiators usually just go off by themselves? I wish I had a visual of how this system works. The radiators stopped sometime this morning...:(

It wasn't freezing when I woke up or anything,...I just like to know I have control over when they go on and off. So far, no control. I am familiar with how to turn them off and on, but someone else is behind the main controls on this one.

Oh, and to those of you who are afraid of me burning myself...I am fairly positive the radiators are positioned in such a way as not to make it easy for that sort of thing to happen. The only possible place would be the bathroom, but again, I would really have to try hard to accomplish that...or be really drunk.

Lyeth was sniffing around the radiator in the bedroom last night trying to figure out where the hissing sound was coming from. It was cute.

I didn't even have to sleep with socks on last night either! Radiator heat gets an A++ in my book! The warm air seems to permeate the blankets and sheets to make it feel like everything is freshly ironed!

I am bored once more.

What is everyone/anyone doing this next couple of days?

I don't want this boredom to linger through my weekend.

Matisyahu is playing in Nashville on Sept. 20th.....I would really like to go,...but tickets are really fucking expensive. The cheapest ones I see are $80!

Does anyone want to recommend a good place to get my eyes examined, that's not in Germantown?

I would like to get some decent frames at the same time, too.