I really should be working right now…

My landlord is sending someone over tomorrow to inspect the house and take pictures so that they can refinanace it.  UGH.  I don’t keep a nasty house, but it def. looks lived in.  I live with two slobs that don’t know how to run the dishwasher or seem to know where the laundry room is.  Add that to my most disliked room of the house, the bathroom, and I have alot to get done before 4pm tomorrow.  I also needed to rain, but there was no gas in the mower a friend lent me, and then it decided to monsoon so nothing much has gotten done, what with calling the city public works department no less than 30 times  trying to get them to pick up ( I quit counting after I got into the high twenties) to request a form that was not included in my last water bill yet my mother in law received.  

Appearantly we will no longer be allowed to place extra bags of garbage at the curb.  If you have extra, you need to pay $5 extra dollars a month for a second rubbish bin.  I don’t mind, in fact I prefer it to having to go out and pick up trash that vagrant dogs string all over the neighborhood the night before trash day.  But at least send me the form????

Anyways, between that and standing guard over el guapo to pick up garbage he leaves around the house, I haven’t gotten anything done yet. 

So here’s some neat-o animated gifs I found online this weekend!

*I don’t make ‘em, I just find & enjoy them… I think I found all of these on photobucket, even the Vampire Diaries one that has a website name on them.

MLB Blackouts

 

I posted this on my mlb blog on July 3, 2009, and I am closing it down, too.

This isn’t anything anyone who watches baseball (& I assume it applies to other sports- which I don’t watch regularly) doesn’t already know about.  Foremost, my husband has bought me the MLB Extra Innings for the last two years specifically so that I could keep up w/ Tim “The Freakin’ Beast” Lincecum.  On top of the regular cable charges, he shells out for that package for all the out of market games.  I understand blocking out my Rangers- they’re on FSRangers 90% of the time, I can handle missing a game or two once a month.  But that they block out the Astros, the Cards, AND the Royals????

Neighbor, I am Hell & gone from anywhere nears those teams.  It royally sucks.  The only other team I really want to watch is the Braves…

But what with the week of no baseball games during the All-Star week fast approaching, I covet every time Lincecum has come up in the pitching rotation. I very nearly had a coronary Tuesday when my screen was grayed out when I flipped to the Xinnings channel for the Giants game.  Luckily, I found it on a local sports feed on cable.  Sometimes Jesus does smile upon me.

But seriously, come on people!  I’m in the middle of nowhere, my husband & I are both in college, he works 4 10 hour shifts & just jumpin’ in the car, toodlin down the highway to Houston, Saint Louis or Kansas City IS NOT AN OPTION!!   That is why we pay $200 a year for the Extra Innings!   It pisses me off to no end! 

So now, not only do I miss Lincecum pitch Saturday, the hubby won’t get to see the new ATL stud, Tommy Hanson- “so fresh up he doesn’t even have a profile on the Braves site”- pitch. 

At least my Rangers will be on, thank God for tiny miracles

Vegetarian Vampires

For every “good” vampire (the hopelessly romantic at heart brood over) that struggles with their remaining humanity, they are seemingly outnumbered by the “evil” vampire who has a different idea of what a Bloody Mary should be. Why do we seem compelled to root for the “good” vampire? Is it because we see vampires for what they are, killers and beyond redemption because they tend to see themselves as having no soul (at least those who stop to ponder such things, because the “bad” ones don’t seem to give much thought to the impact of their actions)? The vampire is humanity at its very worse. They must kill to survive. Where they are different than a zombie then you ask? They really aren’t much different from a zombie who loves to munch on their former best friends, but vampires can feel bad about it, where as a zombie looks up from lunch with only one thought on his/her mind “MORE BRAINS!”

Literature and the movies don’t lack for “bad” vampires. Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows, Dracula and his upteen movie variations, the stripper vampires of From Dusk Till Dawn, the creepies in Lifeforce, seductive Jerry Dandrige in Fright Night, Salem’s Lot, The Night Flier, and oodles more feature a bunch of meanies who’d just as soon slash your throat as say “howdy-doodie” to ya. But for being so outnumbered, our valiant, brooding, and tormented blood lusting vampiric heroes outshine them.

The anti-villainous vampire seems to appeal for a select number of reasons. One, they are always male- thus opening up the romantic/obsessive storyline. Two, they are always good looking males- thus ensuring a romantic/obsessive storyline. Three, they are brooding and tortured, tormented by their state of being as they wallow in self-loathing. Fourth and finally, they fight evil, either on a large scale for the greater good as a kind of atonement for their past transgressions or even just for the sake of saving their love interest.

Whatever motivates them, one last theme ties them together: Veganism. Or they make a very good attempt at obtaining it…

The most obvious vegan or in style one right now is the tormented Edward Cullen of Twilight fame. Although it must be pointed out that he doesn’t refrain from blood all together, just human blood; he and his family choose to hunt wild game in the forested mountains surrounding their home in Forks, Washington. His eyes turn black from thirst, and transform to a luscious golden hue once his hunger has been slackened. Edward strives to behave, yet has not totally overcome his desire for blood, but is remarkably controlled, even in the face of having to suck the venom of another vampire from his soul mate Bella (which is an oxymoron to Edward, as he fears he is basically a damned soul-less monster).

New to the small screen and sure to rise in popularity is Stefan Salvatore of The Vampire Diaries. This series on television seems at first to be a blatant Twilight rip-off. And quite possibly the series itself is, though the three original books (from what I have learned online- B&N is holding the first 2 books in a double pack for me tonight) in the franchise were published some 15 years before Twilight. From the pilot episode all that can be learned about his eating habits is that he was ridiculed by his vampire brother Damon who loves to hate and eat the humans- to feast on the blood of the vicious sciurus carolinnis, or common squirrel. Like Edward, evidence of his desire is seen through changes in and around his eyes, and Stefan looks rather creepy when he’s hungry compared to the Cullen’s whose eyes simply turn black.

Caleb Colton is a little known vampire from the 1980s movie Near Dark. He’s turned against his will by a lonely beautiful vampire named Mae, though it’s never actually acknowledged in the film that they are vampires. No one comes out and says it, but Caleb figures things out quickly when he runs away from Mae and chokes on a candy bar he buys from a vending machine. He grows weaker and one can only assume near death until he stumbles back to her and she feeds him from her wrist. That is the only time he drinks blood, he’s repelled by the actions of Mae’s vampire family, and ultimately causes their demise (except for Mae- they are both saved by Caleb’s veterinarian father who more or less runs their blood through a Mr. Coffee filter and gives them transfusions).

Mick St. John was the vampire star of Moonlight, which didn’t even see its entire season of 16 episodes air. He’s a quasi-vampire, perhaps most likened to the serial killer Dexter Morgan, because while Mick is not a total vegan, he likes to think he has standards when he satisfies his inner desires. He refuses to drink from women, children or innocent men. He attempts to redeem himself by working as a police detective that only works the graveyard shift, his main focus on hunting down other vampires who lack his style of self-control.

Nineteenth century brooder Louis de Pointe du Lac from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles was turned by Lestat who never seemed to have much luck in the “making an undead best buddy” department. Louis longed for a release from his depression and sadness, Lestat promised him such, but Lestat’s idea of happiness and Louis’ would prove to be very different. Louis feasts on rats and wild animals while Lestat has no qualms with wiping out entire families and enjoys playing with his food. Lestat’s vanity is his is his biggest flaw, and his ultimate undoing at the hands of Louis at the end of the first book, but hey, the guy is “undead” and you can never count out someone who has nothing to loose!

William Thomas “Bill” Compton or Vampire Bill for short is the bloodsucking hero in Charlaine Harris’ universe that features vampires- The Southern Vampire Mysteries series that has now been brought to the small screen by HBO. In Vampire Bill’s world, the Japanese (who create everything that’s really worth a darn) have produced a synthetic alternative (called True Blood and there’s even different blood type alternatives for the discerning blood thirsty palate) to human blood for the recently out of the casket vampire citizens of the world. Vampire Bill chooses to refrain from human blood for a means of survival, but will drain a human to kill them, mainly those who threaten his lady love, Sookie Stackhouse. He also will drink from Sookie, who offers herself freely to him, so whether or not he’s a “true” vegetarian is open to debate….

*Angel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Blade from Marvel comics are also “good” vampires- I didn’t want to leave them out, but didn’t feel like expounding upon them…

Vampire Diaries vs Twilight

One word- Wow! I thought the biggest fear, other than failure, rejection or lack of sales for any writer was to be accused of plagiarism. That’s a big bad word in my book. In high school and college, I constantly refrained from giving citations or quotations as often as possible. If I was required to give a certain number of quotes, I sure as Hell made sure I documented the crap out of them. And so while I love writing and working on my books and various rants (like this one) and reviews, I hate research papers because I am never completely sure what is rephrasing in your own words, citing another piece of literature, using another person’s ideas, or legally quoting.

Personally, I prefer to just skim an article or piece and gather my own impression of the paper and then draw my own conclusions without glancing back at the original document. I write out my own assignment and then if I had to as a requirement for points go back in and find a specific fact to directly quote and then go to great lengths to make sure I adhered to MLA style documentation.

The romance novel world was rocked in the 1990s when it came to light that Janet Dailey had been swiping storylines, blocks of dialogue and possibly even entire chapters from super-romance author Nora Roberts. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/537519/cassie_edwards_and_janet_dailey_plagiarism.html?cat=38 See- ah there it is, my own little quick documentation of where I am getting this information.

It boggles my mind that Janet Dailey seems to have only had to suffer the embarrassment of being exposed, that any settlement was kept behind closed doors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Dailey woo- another documentation albeit not up to MLA standards, but if my laziness bothers you already, you really should stop reading at this point.

Still here? Well, this is going to turn into quite the rant right about now so sit back and hold on…

If you hadn’t already noticed, I like vampires. I started early with Stephen King & Salem’s Lot & The Night Flier. Most people have heard of Salem’s Lot, but few know about The Night Flier. He’s a creepy vampire who is discovered by a reporter who plans to expose him as a killer, but the vampire has the last laugh at the reporter’s expense. Next I moved on to Anne Rice and her Vampire Chronicles. I fell in love with Lestat. Gawd, I was even such a vampire mark (and uber nerd) that I had a vanity tag from the state that read “LESTAT1”.

Why the 1 you ask? Because I was so certain that somewhere out there in the state of Oklahoma there was someone else who had my brilliant thought before me and already had ordered a tag from the state that read “LESTAT”. It was ultimately a painful decision between the vampire tag (that I fear led to an extreme shortage of Friday night dinner proposals) and homage to my musical obsession at the moment, Dwight Yoakam. Being super smart and honestly a bit of an obsessive personality, I thought down the road and realized that “FASTAZU” (there might already be a “fastasu”) might lead to getting pulled over by the police, and that wasn’t really the kind of attention I needed at the time. So the goth-before-it-was-in-fashion tag won out.

Back to plagiarism.

Now vampire wise, I’ve all the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. It was many moons ago, so don’t go all Alex Trebek on me, I couldn’t give you specifics on anything. I’ve tried to read the Southern Vampire Mysteries- those books about Sookie Stackhouse and Vampire Bill that are now loosely on HBO in the form of the series “True Blood.” I never could get into the books, I just didn’t enjoy them, and frankly I’m growing pretty disgusted by the show.

Ooops, there I go again, off on a tangent.

Okay. So I’ve read almost the entire Twilight series by S. Meyer. I haven’t been able to finish the 4th book. I’m sorry but it’s got way out of hand and I just felt stupid forcing myself to read it when I was miserable doing so just because I had so much time invested in the characters. I finally realized that I just didn’t care anymore.

And so this week The Vampire Diaries aired its pilot episode on the CW. The Vampire Diaries? I’d never heard of it. Granted I don’t keep the NY Times best sellers list on the refrigerator, and I don’t work in a library, I just found it odd that I hadn’t heard of it ever, and the first three books in the series was published when I was a freshmen in high school, back when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth.

In other words, these books by L.J. Smith ain’t new. And I have to say- the show is NOTHING like the first book. Names of characters and settings were changed, characters in the book didn’t make it to the show, characters on the show don’t exist in the book, and one key point of the book, the heroine’s complexion and hair coloring, is completely different. In the book, Elena is blonde and blue eyed. In the show, it’s more than fairly obvious that the producers went for a Kristen Stewart (Bella) type. Which is sad, that in a way is a kind of plagiarism, I think. It’s as if they weren’t confident enough in their own product that they felt the need to lean on Twilight.

Well, if anything, The Vampire Diaries deserves to lean a little. Cause Twilight is so clearly ripped from the Vampire Diaries that if plagiarism were a crime punishable by hard time, Stephenie Meyer would be sentenced to the rest of her life in a little hole in the floor of a dungeon, busting rocks with a sledge hammer all day, making license plates all night and spending any free time hanging upside in an iron maiden.

Capiche?

Where to start? I’ll be going by the books, not the movie Twilight or the tv show version of TVD.

Edward Cullen VS Stefan Salvatore.

Sure, they’re both love stories. Okay, boy meets girl, boy has tremendous amounts of self loathing to deal with. Check. A little remote town where self loather can try to blend in and hope to be innocuous. Check. Both vampires go to high school, and the towns folk know there’s a little something off about them, so the ones with anything substantial between their ears keep their distance.

However, the unfathomable beauty and sex appeal Misters Tall, Pale & Dangerous ooze, (along with the high priced cars) only goes to garner them all the female attention in their respective fifty mile radius. They are both eternally on the physical cusp of manhood. They’re both insanely gorgeous, soft spoken and exhibit impeccable manners except when their lady loves are threatened.

Capabilities: They can bend the will and mind of those around them who are weaker (okay that is a given w/ just about any vampire story- so I’m just throwing that one out there). They can read thoughts. Only difference here is that Edward can not read Bella’s mind. Stefan, though he tries not to use the “Power” can read everyone’s mind- except for other vampires. Both are capable of inhuman strength and skill. Both vampires expose their physical strength to their respective lady loves in fits of exasperation, hoping to warn the girls how dangerous they can truly be if they let themselves go. Both stories feature the snapping in half of trees and the unseen lightening fast movements of the boys as they zip around the girl trying to incite fear but only dragging the girls more fully under their sexy hot spells (cause no boy they’ve ever met before can do that!)

Rivals: There’s the jealous girl in each story. Jessica barely conceals her jealousy of Bella, while Caroline makes no mistakes about laying it out on the line for Elena just exactly what the score is. Both Jessica and Caroline are rejected and rebuffed from the vampires, and have little pity parties questioning “what does she got that I don’t?”

Both Edward & Stefan disappear from the story, causing the girls to face danger to search them out. Both Edward & Stefan detest what they are, feel they are inhuman monsters with no souls- both can face the sunlight, Edward sparkles, Stefan only has to wear a ring that has a blue stone in it to keep from turning into a shish kabob. Both stories bring the girls to the “liar” of the vampire, where they learn more about the human side of their undead boyfriends. Both boys choose to abstain from drinking human blood, instead choosing to hunt animals in the forests around their small town. Well, that is one place Twilight didn’t go- there is blood exchanged in The Vampire Diaries, and I’m not talking about Stefan having to suck on Elena to save her life, no- Elena offers herself to Stefan, much like Sookie & Vampire Bill, and The Vampire Diaries takes it a step further and has Elena drink from Stefan’s throat as some weird way of solidifying their relationship.

Eventually there will be a love triangle in The Vampire Diaries… as there is one in the Twilight books…

The word “Twilight” is a big deal in the Vampire Diaries. Is it even mentioned in the Twilight Saga except on the cover?

The Vampire Diaries was first published in 1991. Twilight came out in 2005. Supposedly the author of the Twilight Saga was inspired by a dream of a sparkly vampire in a meadow… I think it’s more likely that somewhere in the past, Ms. Meyer read The Vampire Diaries, filed it away, and that was what inspired her wonderful (though I think I’ve provided enough to build a case of doubt- not original) books.

Now I ain’t sayin’ she’s a gold digger…

Hello Blog

I’m going to start a new blog here at wordpress.  I disliked my blogspot account, and no ones is on myspace any more to read entries there, and facebook has been so screwy lately that I don’t know if anyone even sees my posts at all.  So hello blog world.  Here I am.  Read me.