I'm lost inside a crowd

Bob *zaz!* zegt:
I think I made a new friend!
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
well, she's not that new, it's that Siska and I've known her for years
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
But we're gonna have drinks soon, which will be a first, because usually we just sort of happen to run into each other
Deemer / I kill with my heart zegt:
that's really nice news
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
yeah
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
of course
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
she IS moving to Vancouver right after we have drinks
Deemer / I kill with my heart zegt:
hah
Deemer / I kill with my heart zegt:
ofcourse.
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
isn't that always the way
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
make a new friend and then she leaves the continent
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
I think you'd like her
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
she has a sense of humour I think you'd really get
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
Is she wasn't leaving the country we could be the 3 surreal musketeers or something
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
and wear funny hats
Deemer / I kill with my heart zegt:
that'd be wicked
Deemer / I kill with my heart zegt:
you can always tie her to a chair
Bob *zaz!* zegt:
I think our friendship might be a bit too new to survive that

Your trusted uh me is at home with food poisoning. Yaaaaay, not. The doctor man took about a gallon of my blood for research, but it's probably just the result of some bad shrimp. I'm not even feeling that bad anymore, not after uh 'cleansing' myself. That really is the least graphically icky way I have to put it. Anywho, while I was there the doctor man also moved up some other tests I need to have done, which were originally for september, but now they're for tomorrow, for some unspecified reason. I'll just go skipping and singing la la la and pretend that doesn't worry me :)

This does mean another day of not going to work. They're going to hate me :s This week I missed work on tuesday due to a broken down scooter, had a free day on wednesday, and missed work today and tomorrow for medical reasons. I can imagine the kitchen gossip now. I can also imagine all the hours I have to make up for next week. Joy. Maybe I should just go and collect unemployment, since I'm finally eligible. The sad thing is, I would get almost twice the amount I'm making now if I just did that.

Anyhow, I was going to discuss several topics and we'll see how far I get before I'm bored or have to rush to the porcelain pony.

Kids today!!!

I have had lengthy discussions about this with both Siska and Rens. Since Rens is a spring duckling himself, I am at least reassured that my concerns aren't just motivated by me being an old ass.

I don't understand what's happened to kids today, I really don't. And I don't understand why the parents let them get away with so much. I'm not even talking about the 'bad seeds', you've always had those, but even the 'nice ones' seem to lack a lot of basic manners. When I was 10, my mother would have thrown a fit if I would dare ask an adult something and not say please and thank you. At the daycare I seem to spent 90% of my time telling children to say those words (and in the process being presented with the scary view that I am a hairy version of my mother, although hopefully a little less ditzy). What bothers me, is that it doesn't seem to bother anyone else, least of all their parents that they don't do it by themselves. We had an ice cream truck in last week, and there were 65 children, who were all allowed to chose an ice cream. Not a single one said please or thank you unless I reminded them. I gave up around kid 49. So why is that? Have we as a society given up on teaching our kids manners? Are the rude obnoxious antics of a Paris Hilton really the standard now? Do parents simply don't know anymore what the appropriate manner is to educate their children in a world like ours? Are they all going to grow up as little Hiltons and Brandon Davises? Because that's scary. And really, Paris and Brandon are rich assholes, but if you act like them, sans all the money, well, kids, that would just make you an asshole.

The 3 of us also lenghtily discussed media towards children. You know the cartoons on Cartoon Network and Nickolodeon? I love a lot of them, they're great, they're funny, they're sarcastic, they have a lot of pop culture references, they tackle very adult issues, they're very ... adult. Maybe they're too adult to be presented to small children? What's wrong with the Smurfs or Siska's old favourite, My Little Pony? Sure, they were cheesy, sure, they were lamer than a paraplegic. But they were perfect for innocent kiddies as far as I'm concerned. I never heard of children masturbating to Smurfette, while I have heard some rather horny comments made by 9 year old boys about the girls from W*I*N*X* Club. And why DO the female heroines of nowadays comics always fight crime and evil in hooker boots, miniskirts and boobtubes?

And shows like All Grown Up, which is another one of my guilty pleasures, because I like it immensely (and Kids Next Door, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom, though I loathe Ed, Edd and Eddy, yuck), but the main characters (the aged versions of the babies from Rugrats) are 9 to 10 years old, and still they're already having relationships and first kisses.

I do find that I seem to grow more conservative as I see kids and teenagers grow, well, grow I guess. Grow a little too fast in my humble opinion.

Classy people in media

Siska dared me to say about media people I do respect, instead of bitching about the ones I don't (she may not have said like that precisely :)) and I found that it's actually sort of hard. You see, the people I don't respect are very easily visible. You can't open the internet without running into them somewhere. Whereas the people I do respect seem to gain that respect by just not being photographed drunk and with their nipples escaping the confinements of their 5000 dollar 'dresses'. For instance: how can you not respect Meryl Streep? What's the last time anyone heard anything about Meryl Streep outside of the Oscar season? Catch my drift?

So, after thinking about it, I did come up with some people that are in the media a lot, but for whom I have a healthy dose of respect. One of them being Hillary Duff, who has appeared here once before, but more in connection to her sister Hailey or Haily or whatever it was, whose fame I didn't quite grasp. I suppose I neglected to mention that I do like Hillary. She has a sweetness about her that doesn't seem to horribly faked, she dates a rocker without feeling the need to tattoo his name on her ass (as far as I know anyways, because:) and I've never seen her breasts or ass hanging out of her clothes, which is refreshing. So yay to Duff even though her name does always make me think of Barney Gumble...

Bette Davis

When Siska asked me about people I felt were classy, of course my first response was Bette Davis, as most people who know me are well aware of my obsession with Miss Davis. Unfortunately she died in the '80s, together with class (hey, look at '80s fashion and tell me I'm wrong!).

Not that Bette was always such a nice person. She was known to be difficult, and even a stone cold bitch at times, but I still feel that she had a certain class. She fought for what she wanted, usually getting it, she took a lot of chances in her work, and she may have been a hard-ass, but she played fair and was absurdly honest about her feelings towards others, such as her much loathed colleague Joan Crawford and (back then) young aspiring actress Faye Dunaway. Anywho, I've written about her once before, including all her most memorable quotes (okay, this one, just because I think it's her at her most rudely honest, right after Joan Crawford died: You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good... Joan Crawford is dead, good!). For those who want to, there's always IMDB and tons of other sites.

For those that are interested, there are two you tube videos of Bette being interviewed at her old age, in which she comments on Dunaway and Crawford. She's especially scathing about Dunaway. Ow, in case you're wondering why she's speaking so strangely and holding her arm like that: she had a stroke a while before this, and never completely recovered on the left side of her body. Here and here.

She also speaks of another legendary (and even more forgotten) actress, Lillian Gish, who still holds the record for being the oldest woman to have ever had the leading role in a movie, The Whales of August, which co-starred Davis. Gish was originally a silent film actress, and she never quite got used to speaking: "I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive."

Conspiracy Theories

Siska also got me onto this, a man named David Icke, who has a lot of conspiracy theories, centering around his belief that the British Royals, George W. Bush, and most other influential people in the world are actually reptilian humanoid hybrids, controlled by pureblood alien reptilians. Among his theories is that Princess Diana was actually killed because she discovered that Charles and Camilla had a son which was sacrificed in a satanic ritual and that she had seen them as reptiles (help me out here, but why would alien reptiles perform satanic ceremonies?). It's really a fascinating read, I enjoyed it immensely, it's almost as stunning as Scientology. I'd say Icke's ideas are a load of crap, but then again, that Paris Hilton does look like she might be part reptile...

The Tiranny of the Everreachability

Another one of my pet peeves and a reason a lot of my friends curse me: I never ever turn the sound on my cell phone on, unless I'm expecting a call, thereby completely defeating the point of cell phones.

What always exasperates me about their reaction is the assumption that everyone should be reachable all the time. I hate it, I don't want to be and I don't intend on ever being. It wasn't that long ago that the wonderful inventions of cell phones and instant messengers seemed silly, and yet we all managed didn't we? Just because it exists, do I really have to throw away all my apprehensions and follow suit?

I mean, really, leave a voice mail, send an e-mail, and I'll get back to you in a couple of hours tops, there is very rarely something sooooooooo urgent that it can't wait a couple of hours, and even if someone just died, well, he or she will still be dead when I get the message.

Isn't there anyone else who sort of objects to the principle of having to be available all the time?

Pfiew, that's a lot of words in a row. Ten to one only two people make it all the way to the end. I don't really have a Boy Toy of the Blog this time, mostly because I don't feel like looking for one, but I do have this video of an awesome comedian, named Stephen Lynch. Maybe some of you already know him, but I think he's fantastic, especially the songs 'Superhero' and 'If I were gay'. He's also incredibly cute in my opinion and I'd totally do him :) His face is very expressive and a little 'off' and I find him irresistably charming, even when he's being very creepy. For those of you that don't feel like watching the whole 21 minute show, all the songs can easily be found separately on You tube as well, really, check out 'If I were gay'.