Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Are they kidding??

Surely they jest:

Downloaded from http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2007/11/20/early_sesame_street_shows_not_for_kids/4213/

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Volumes 1 and 2 of "Sesame Street: Old School" come with a warning stating the first episodes of the beloved U.S. series may not be appropriate for children.

"These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child," the statement said.

The long-running series began in 1969.

Asked by The New York Times why the warning was necessary, Carol-Lynn Parente, the show's executive producer, mentioned one installment that depicted Cookie Monster chewing on, then eating a pipe during the parody "Monsterpiece Theater."

"That modeled the wrong behavior, so we reshot those scenes without the pipe and then we dropped the parody altogether," Parente told the Times.

She noted that Oscar the Grouch's extreme grouchiness in early episodes doesn't set a great example, either.

"We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now," Parente said.

Seriously people. Let's just put all the little kiddies in a bubble. No sense in showing them any of the heartache or bullshit they'll face in the future.

I'm so disgusted.

D

Sunday, November 18, 2007

long time...

Yeah, it's been a while. Anytime that I could log in to blog, the damn thing was down. I really have to find some kind of solution for that. I'm not at all thrilled that my hosting company doesn't think it's important enough to figure out the cause. Bastards.

Anyway, a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. So much that I wasn't looking forward to blogging because I knew I'd be typing for a year. So I'm just going to summarize.

  • My Dad had a heart attack at the beginning of the month. It was scary, but he's fine now. Modern medicine is amazing.
  • I took allllll the kids with me up to the flyball tourney in Maine - 6 dogs is too much.
  • I have two rescues in foster (hence the 6 dog reference). I put them up on Petfinder yesterday so hopefully they'll have homes soon.
  • 2 classes at the same time was absolutely ridiculous and impossible. I had to drop one of them. I'll figure out how to make it up
  • My friends brought me back a couple of T-shirts from the flyball Nationals - one of them was the team shirt - pretty freakin' cool
  • My mother is coming to visit for the holidays and for the first time she's staying with me.
  • My boss is leaving our department at the end of the year to become an analyst in another department. I have mixed feelings.
  • Jay and I went to see Jonathan Davis last night. He did an acoustic set, which was incredible. We had the most amazing seats - 2 away from the stage, about 10 feet from him. It was freakin' amazing.

It's 37 degrees today and I am not happy about that. I've been thinking about what it is I want out of life. Right now, buying a 300 acre fairly working farm in the southern (read warmer) part of the country sounds very appealing. I could just move to Australia and manage Mag and Geo's farm. They'd probably let me. :) I wonder if Australian flyball is the same as regular flyball. Since it's a 4 hour plane ride from Perth to Sydney, I think an RV would absolutely be needed.

Or maybe I'll just be a snow bird and find a nice little place in the south to spend the winter in. That sounds good too. Oh, and a place on the beach for the summer.

I think I have to win the lottery. Maybe I should play once or twice.

The kids are all doing well. Tweak and Freddie still like to have their little spats every now and again. Ok, every day. He'll get all uppity when she walks by him, for no reason. So she goes into Border Collie mode and starts following him (herding him) in that low to the ground stance with that specific stare. He just loves that. They eventually go for the same thing at the same time and then it's fight time. He's going to be a polka dotted Min Pin with all the little scars he's accumulating. Millie just looks at them with disdain and Pacie stays under the covers, lying right next to me, ignoring them all. Until the cat steps on his head, then he fidgets.

Next week is Thanksgiving. We're again having it at Carolyn's house. Dad & I will cook, Iyman will fry the turkey. I'm soaking it in a brine the day before. I did it last year and it was dee-licious. I'm heading down to New Jersey that night to stay with Susan and pick up a few cases of dog treats.

Now, I'm off to do some more work. Then I have shopping to do. Then I have to get my ass in gear and get my Xmas list going so I have an idea on what I'm going to get people. Usually I'm done by now. I'm so behind the ball it's not even funny. Sigh.

D

Thursday, November 1, 2007

I'm soooooo stupid...

I do it all the time. You hear me bitching about it all the time. But I honestly don't know how to stop it.

What is it?

I bite off more than I can chew. *Constantly*.

Class started up again for me today. I took the first half of the quarter off because of that insane web project that was due (which isn't finished btw, I'm *still* waiting for content on it!!) Because of that, I'm in 2 classes at the same time - Intro to Business and Presentation Speaking. Normally I only take one class at a time but if I didn't use the money, I would've lost it.

I work full time. I own 4 dogs. I kinda like having a social life from time to time. I need to train Tweak and the rescues that come in the door. One class fits into that perfectly. Two classes?

Insane.

Plain and simple. I've sent a note to both instructors explaining the situation and asking for a shitload of pity. Doubt it will work but it was worth a try.

I've looked over what's due for this week's class. Can you say screwed boys and girls? Oh yeah. I'm screwed.

!-- begin rant --!

I have 3 chapters due in one book, a group paper due Monday, a quiz Saturday, I need to log into some stock market tool to pick 4 stocks, and I have a critical thinking paper due. That's one class.

In the next class, I have 5 chapters to read in one book, 1 chapter to read in another book, and a scattering of pages to read in yet another book, I have discussion questions I need to answer, a presentation outline due, an audience analysis paper due, and a presentation.

I also have to log in to each class every day and read all the new postings on the discussion board from the other students. Then I have to think of something clever to say in response to those postings and respond.

!-- end rant --!

What I need right now is a nice frosty pint of Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby ice cream. Or two. And a beer. Or two.

Did I mention I'll be at a flyball tournament in Maine all weekend? With 6 dogs?

Make that 3 of each.

D

dream or vision?

I had the most puzzling, most sensual, most troubling dream last night. I can't go into all the details because I'll start blushing but it was really, really weird.

Some of it was that I was shopping with someone (can't remember who) and all of my stuff was stolen - wallet, keys, cell phone, car, etc. Then there was a bag dropped off with some of my belongings, shirts that I actually own, pictures I took. The police came by to take a report. They had stopped by my house first and nothing was there - not even the house. The bag of stuff that somehow showed up and my dogs were all I had left of my life. I don't even know how the dogs got to the store.

Then there was this guy and we won't go into that (although I know this part of the dream came from a book I'm reading.)

Then there were some kids in a gang and I can't quite remember that part. Then the store's registers went down (I was at the store the whole time) and I ended up troubleshooting and fixing the problem. (I'm assuming that was in relation to work.)

It was very, very clear when I woke up... not so much now. Where last night was Samhain, I don't know if it was just a dream or if I should be prepared for a turbulent year.

Weird stuff dude.

D