The Inmates Run the Asylum

I've been working three jobs for a while now. I'm lousy with time, but I know I've been doing it for over a year. There hasn't been one week that I can think of that I didn't have to work at at least one job. Even the week of Christmas, I worked. For me, a break is when I only have to work one job during the week.

You know what? I'd like a vacation.

I realize that I don't work REAL jobs. Teaching homeschool to the nieces, babysitting for the neighbor's 13 year old grandson, working floorset for a clothing store once or twice a month, I know they all don't count in the real world, where I'm nothing but a worthless, slacking loser. But for me, they count. And I want a break from them.

I'd like a break from some of the household chores, too, the grocery shopping and cooking and such.

Is it wrong that I want to take a solo vacation? To just go somewhere for a week (hell, I'll even take three days), have no obligations, not have to go anywhere. I could just sit in a room somewhere and write all day.

I sound like a wife and mother. Sometimes I feel like one, only I'm a single mother and my two kids are older than me. I'd like to leave them on their own for a week, let them fend for themselves, then come back and see who's still alive.

I'm working on it. I'm saving up the money so I can run away for a few days.

I need the break.

Yesterday the writer's block question was something about what cover of a song do you think was better than the original. I was going to answer it yesterday, but I got too far behind in my work and I didn't have time.

I do not have the education or ear required to judge music, however I will say that Ricky Skaggs, Bruce Hornsby, and John Anderson doing a rockin' bluegrass version of "Super Freak" is probably my favorite cover of all time. It just...it shouldn't work, but it does. It's fantastic. Unfortunately, that was the best version I could find in my limited ten minutes of searching.

Kid Rock doing "Fat Bottom Girls" is a very close second, though.

It's a tie for third between Bikeride's "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)" and The Echo Orbiter's "I'm a Believer". Unfortunately, I couldn't find freebies of either of these online. However, I believe both of these songs and the album they're on (Through the Looking Glass: Indie Pop Play the Monkees) is on iTunes. I highly recommend the whole album.

Tell 'em I sent ya.

Tonight begins AMC's Fearfest. They're showing nine of the Friday the 13th movies this year as well as five of the Halloweens.

But, of course, they're showing the really good stuff at awkward hours (1941 version of The Wolfman at 4 in the morning? Really?) and the crap at prime hours. Seriously, no one wants to see House on Haunted Hill 2 and I still refuse to accept Constantine as a valid offering.

This programming fail is only made up for a little by the AMC website featuring some films online, including White Zombie and Fiend Without a Face.

That's right, AMC. While you're shoving Keanu Reeves down my TV's throat and calling it horror, I'll be watching Bela Lugosi go to town with creepy.

'Cause that's how I roll.

Sharktopus has joined Pterodactyl and MegaPirahna in my top tier of SyFy movies. It was so deliciously bad that I'm pretty sure it gave me heart disease.

Eric Roberts was hands down the best actor (and he looked like he was having the most fun). The girl who played his daughter couldn't decide on an accent. The hero could only handle too emotions: dick and washboard abs. A lot of the other roles could have been cast with cardboard cutouts and it would have achieved the same effect. And Sharktopus was by far the most likable character in the whole film.

It was horrible and I loved it.

Bless you, SyFy. Bless you for this Saturday night crap that will probably one day give me a stroke.

Shockingly enough, I have not OD'd on Internet now that I have it back. Oh, I've spent some time playing catch up and getting my ducks back in their rows, but I'm not mainlining it like I was before it broke up with me.

I must say, though, it's been nice being able to check something as I think of it instead of having to wait until I go to my mom's to check on it, if I remember it and if I have time.

And for your own amusement, I got distracted for about an hour from typing of this very short entry because I needed all of my skills to flip back and forth between the Cubs game and Barney Miller.

Clearly, what little multitasking skills I had have atrophied without the Internet.

As a proper A-Team fan, I was not pleased to hear of the big screen remake. I admit, I made an angry face and maybe some angry noises. And then after years in limbo, things progressed and the casting came out and my face went from angry to O_o because I was not expecting Liam Neeson (and I cannot spell the man's last night right on the first try; sorry about that Mr. Liam). And with all due respect to the nice people they hired to fill the iconic roles (though I don't know how Quinton "Rampage" Jackson would like being called nice since he's a retired UFC fighter, but if he doesn't like it, he can come find me and we'll sort it out), I was most definitely going to take a pass at this recent reimaging of my childhood.

I was firm in this until just a little while ago when I caught the end of a trailer for the movie.

I laughed. So help me, I laughed. And, unsurprisingly, at least for me, it was Murdock that cracked me up.

So now, I'm torn.

Now, I kind of do want to see it because it's entirely possible that it might be entertaining and they might have actually tried to capture the essence of the show and the chemistry of the characters without going too far into parody or too far into serious business.

BUT! Trailers are also designed to show off the best parts of the movie and sometimes what you see in the trailers are the ONLY good parts of the movie.

Also, I am quite firmly against encouraging this kind of behavior, ie, paying to see remakes. For example, I might be a little interested in seeing the new A Nightmare on Elm Street to see how Jackie Earle Haley (who I do love) interpreted the iconic Freddy Krueger, but I'll wait until it comes out on the TV. But I am almost willing to break this rule for A-Team.

The other strike against seeing the movie (in the theater, at least) is that Jessica Biel is in this movie for some reason and I find her to be a pretty big turn off. And if her role is as significant as I fear it is, then I don't want to see this movie without the option of scene selection.

So, yeah, that's my current superficial dilemma. Thankfully, I've got time to decide, since it doesn't open until June 11 (I think) and I'm not an opening day kind of girl anyway. I might wait until I see some reviews before I make a final judgment.

Damn you, trailer, for peaking my interest! *shakes fist*

I got sucked into watching some awful Judd Nelson/Kristy Swanson SyFy movie. The badness and Judd Nelson's hair were truly mesmerizing.

It was like someone decided they wanted to make a movie about a black hole, but felt it wasn't enough for a two hour film, so he added in bits of an unfinished script about an electicity monster and set the whole thing in St. Louis.

Someone actually said, "The air is gusting."

If that doesn't put the badness into perspective, nothing I say will.

I kinda wish I taped it, though, because it is ripe for MiSTing. I had some great jokes going and I only watched an hour of it.

Speaking of badness, I taped Man with a Screaming Brain last night and I think I'm going to watch it tomorrow. I can't think of a better thing to do with my Sunday.

one_more_cherry and gypsyjr, sorry I couldn't make it on AIM to chat tonight. It took me an hour to post this entry because the Internet kept flaking out on me. Maybe next week.

I have an slightly addictive personality. Anyone who's read this journal for any length of time knows that I smoke and waste a lot of time playing Internet games (if I liked mixed drinks more, I could have a career as one of those old ladies that plays the slots all day in Vegas).

About, well wow, almost fifteen years ago, I developed a pretty serious addiction. It didn't last too long, maybe only a couple of years, but when I kicked the habit, I was sure I kicked it for good.

Until recently.

Lately, what with having no day job and hitting a bit of a rough patch with my writing, I've found myself sliding back into a routine, into a world that I left all those years ago and I'm not proud of it. I feel my resolve weakening and I'm not sure I can stop it. I feel the temptation, the pull, and as much as it sickens me, I want to give in to that guilty pleasure once again.

That's right, kids. I've found myself watching General Hospital again.

At first, it was so innocent. I was just flipping channels and something or someone caught my eye and I stopped. I didn't know who anyone was or what the hell was going on anymore and I moved on. But that taste was enough to reawaken an old joy in me.

Then I started making a point to be watching TV when I knew the show was on so I could "flip channels".

And then tonight, I watched a whole episode on the soap network.

I need help. I need support. I don't want to be hooked on a serial daytime drama again! *wails and flails*

Okay, I'm totally being an ass here, but it's actually all true. GH was my deep dark secret, my ultimate guilty pleasure in high school (well, aside from algebra... I still love algebra), and for whatever reason, the stars have aligned and I'm starting to get interested in it again.

I fully anticipate a complete downward spiral into the girly pit of chronic soap watching (unless there's a ballgame on...then there'll be a lot of flipping back and forth and splitting of attention because, yeah, Go Cubs).

This really does hurt the hardcore badass part of my personality.