Saturday, April 29, 2006

What's in a name.....

Well, this has certainly been an interesting night on Paltalk. I was sitting in a chatroom minding my business, listening to the discussion when I got a pm from someone I don't know, but have seen in rooms. He is a Jewish man who apparently hates Christians for daring to say that the OT prophets prophesied the coming of Christ. He asked me if I would answer a question or be like most Christians and get mad and ignore him. So, I decide to try to understand his view and told him that I would try to answer his questions. Then, I asked this.....'Why do you, as a Jew, care what I believe.'....he came unglued and cussed me out. He used extremely vulgar and offensive terms and then denied that he had done so. I tried to talk with him and for awhile I thought it was working, but then he began all over with his questions (which I tried to answer) and his cussing. I finally told him that we were going in circles and that I was tired of his offensive manner in talking to me. He then told me I was a coward. I just agreed and ignored him.

Thing is, I have never heard anyone who is Jewish being offended by being called a Jew. He wants to be known as Hebrew, which I had no problem with using. But, when I told him that I did not know that word was offensive, he told me that I probably did know and used it anyway. There was no compromise with him. He did not try to treat me with an ounce of common courtesy. And, he was offended when I told him that I was no longer going to respond to his pm and said, 'God bless'. He told me I had no authority to bless him. I pointed out that I only wanted God to bless him. Nothing worked with him. So, I finally gave it up. I was surprised when he said he preferred muslims to Christians. He said that he lived among them and they did not lie about his book. Well, I pray those muslims don't decide to visit him one day with a bomb or big ole knife.

It takes all kinds I guess.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Peeves, rants and silliness..


The other day I was watching FoxNews and something on the ticker at the bottom of the screen caught my eye. Can't remember what it was now, but it was something about someone or some group doing something because of something else. The headline read something like this.......so-in-so is doing this behind so-in-so's firing them.....(more or less). This irritates me so much! I have even heard a news reader say that. And, they also say 'ahead' of some event. Do these people not have college degrees in Journalism? Or, are they just being lazy? I know kids use these phrases and words, but shouldn't the news media be a tad bit more educated?

And, this one just sets my teeth on edge. I absolutely cannot stand to hear someone say 'at ths point in time'....what is wrong with 'now'? People who use this phrase also usually use 'if you will'. AAGGGGGGGHHHHH. Imagine Shakespeare writing........'at this point in time is the winter of our discontent (if you will). See????

So, I decided to go back to CNN. No relief there. Their people must have gone to the same school with the Fox people. So, behind the news folks being so lazy I have decided to skip television news, at this point in time. If you will.


Last week my oldest daughter came for a visit with her two sons. They live in Michigan (I tried to raise her right, but she married a yankee anyway.) And, my youngest daughter brought her son over. I had them all here for a week. It was a good visit, except that my oldest daughter's husband (known as Jackie, even though his name is Bob. Jackie is short for jackass.) was here too and he is just an idiot. But, this is not going to be about him. Or about the visit. I will write about that later.

They all left Saturday and Phil went out with his friends so I was alone here. It was late and I was online, playing Text Twist and listening to the Art Bell show. It was his ghost to ghost night. People called in with their ghost stories. Some of them were spooky too. My desk is against a wall so when I sit at it my back is to the door. It was about 1 am or so. All of a sudden this huge shadow came up on the wall and started getting BIGGER. I slid back from my desk and spun around so I could catch the grabbo in mid-flight. It wasn't a grabbo at all. What it was, was Gumbo on the bed sitting up and stretching. The twerp. I wasn't scared, really. But, I did go around and check to make sure all the windows and doors were locked.

Phil made the cutest movie. Well, cute is not the right word, but since it is late and my brains are oatmeal right now, that is the best I can do. He made it for a friend of his who had to do a report for his Sociology class on cults. He filmed his friend talking about cults, then the movie switched to show another of his friends dressed in cammies, looking into the camera and then turning and running off into the woods. The narrator says....'pity the fool who is gonna die'...something MrT used to say. He was apparently a member of the cult of MrT. Another friend was the Australian cult hunter, Phil was the driver of the super cult hunting van (mine!) and they went off hunting for the cult member. It was funny. One scene was from...shoot what is the name of that movie? the 'need for speed' one. Anyway, the cult member did double duty as the flight director.....the filmed him on the side of the road waving his hands, giving the van the go ahead for take off. Then, it switched to a shot of the speedometer, then, the van took off and when they switched back to Jerry, he dropped to the ground and did the worm. It was so funny. Except for the part where they lit a cardboard box on fire at the front of my van, then filmed it so it looked like the van was on fire. Oh, and there were a couple of times when the van went over speed bumps that sparks flew out from the back wheels. The kid made an A+ on it.

Ok, I am getting sleepy-silly, so, God bless and sweet dreams.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Midnight Confessions......

Well, it isn't 2nd avenue and it isn't midnight, but.......... I had written a post earlier, then my computer froze. Of course it was extremely insightful and will be a major loss to the world.

So, we have Penn and Teller insulting Mother Theresa by saying 'Mother F*****g Theresa'. I agree that she could have given more to the poor instead of using it to build convents. I also thing the TV preachers should use more of the money they take in on helping others instead of having horrible plastic surgeries and buying pink hair dye. Not to mention the private jets and huge houses.

I am not offended by Penn and Teller's using the F word either. I use it at times. What offends me is that more and more unfunny comedians use vulgarity to get cheap laughs. For the record, I have never found Penn and Teller funny.

Look at the Comedy channel. Watch the untalented comedian wannabes resort to vulgarity to get laughs. And, the audience, give the Pavlovian response, and laugh. It is almost as if vulgarity is the new laugh track.

Richard Pryor was a funny man who used vulgarity,but not to get laughs, he didn't need to. He got laughs just by standing there. So did Gene Wilder and Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal and Mike Myers.

I am offended by people, entertainers, who think we, the audience, are not intelligent enough to get the jokes. A friend of mine told me once that AIDS had killed all the creative people. After watching thirty minutes of the new Pink Panther movie, I have to agree with her. I only made it through thirty minutes of that movie before I left the theater. Steve Martin wasn't vulgar, but he over played the character.

I made a list of PEOPLE WHO SHOULD HAVE LEFT US WANTING MORE once. I think it is time to revive it. First on the list would be Tom Cruise.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Dreams or......?????

I know, I know. Everytime I say I am going to write something every day, life jumps up and demands that I deal with it. My friend Leslie spent a week in the hospital with a serious staff infection. Then, after she came home she could not wash dishes, so, as bad as I hate to wash dishes, I go over every other day or so and do them. But, her hand is well enough now that she can do her own.

I think I was going to talk about getting in touch with my family, but, I think I will wait a bit on that.

Ok, so instead I will confess to something......I am a semi-fan of reality tv. Not shows like Survivor or The Apprentice. I watch The Real World on MTV...sad, ain't I? But, I have been thinking that someone should do a Real World type show with people between 55 and 65. Imagine it. There would have to be a flaming liberal, an ultra conservative, an atheist, a calvinist, a Catholic, a JW and a Mormon. For the first season anyway. Seven people, three women and four men. One woman would be the liberal and a man would be the ultra con. I would love to see how people of these ages would relate to each other and how the men would act in the house. Would they walk around in their tighty whities? What about the women? Would they just naturally fall into the submissive role? Would the men sit and scratch their bellies expecting the women to cook? Would the liberal lead a rebellion against the mores they were all raised with? I think it would be a hit.


And, I have been listening to Art Bell too much I think. See, when I was between the ages of two and five I had what I have always considered was an ordinary dream. I know how old I was because of where we were living at the time. Anyway, in the dream a man is outside my window and wakes me up. Next thing I am outside with him, and there are two others there. They are glowing....like the greenish glow from Halloween makeup. One of them holds me in his arms and then tells me not to tell anyone about them and that they would see me again. Ok, now, I know this might could be a abuse situation, I'm not sure, but it is like most dreams....the more I try to remember details the more it fades. Like, when I first remember it, everything is clear, then starts to fade. It was also during this time that I believed that I could float. I can remember standing in a doorway, floating up and touching the ceiling. (Another typical abuse defense, the 'outside looking down at yourself' thing.)

Now, the other night I was listening to Art Bell. His guest was talking about 'shadow people' and other alien type things. All of a sudden I remembered the famous Pascagoula River alien abduction that happened back in the 70s. And, then I remembered that the house I was living in when I had the weird dream was about 500 yards (or feet, distance is hard for me to judge) from the River, and within a mile of where the abduction happened. Weird, huh? What is weirder to me is that I never made that connection till now. And, remember, when I was two or so, UFOs were not so much in the news as they are now.

So, it was either a dream, an abuse situation or I was visited by aliens. I vote for the latter. Come to think of it, I am always seeing something walking just behind me. This is what Shadow People supposedly do. Why they do this, I have no idea. And, I used to hear someone calling my name and there was no one there when I turned around.

Maybe it is time to visit the doc and try out the meds again.

I am listening to Leonard Cohen sing Tennessee Waltz....he is so good. Next up is Lyle Lovitt, Jimmy Buffett, George Jones and Delbert McClinton. Oh, and Tom Waits.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Midnight monsters and 'fraidycats

I know that if I am going to have a blog, then I have to write in it at least more than once a month, but I truly have been so busy that I have not had time to read emails, much less write something here. And, I know that the more I write, the more I think to write about and the better I write. So, I am going to try to post something daily.....


Ok, so, tonight, about an hour ago, my son Phil....my twenty-year old son, who is six feet three.....came into my room and woke me up to tell me that his cat had brought a baby snake into the house. I told him to take it out. He told me that he is afraid of snakes, and stood there looking so pitiful that I got up to see what was what. And, what was what, was, that Kudreau (Phil's cat) and Gabby (one of the four cats that I am keeping for my youngest daughter) were both trying to play with this litte teeninecy (south, or maybe Erwin, for very small) snake. So, I go hunting for something to pick this monster up with, while Phil (did I mention that he is 6'3?) cowers in the door to the dining room half turned so that he can run back down the hall if this man-eating critter turns towards him and the cats are fighting each other over who is going to swat the snake. I finally got a long thing and after chasing the snake around the dining room floor, while holding off the cats (who were getting upset with me for not playing fair and giving them their turn) got the snake outside. Then, I decided that I should try to keep it so we could find out if it is poisionous. So, I went onto the porch and persuaded it to go into a plastic container. Now, even though there is no way for it to get out, me and Phil both feel things crawling on us.

Tomorrow, or later today, I will write about fixing my 1995 Nissan Quest with 220,000 some odd miles on it. And, the long talk with my oldest brother's wife. I have not seen them since 2002, and that was at my mother's funeral.