Dagnabbit!!

I was watching" Our Mutual Friend "last night (like you KNOWED I would be!!) and much to my vexation, right at the start of Chapter/Scene 16 episode 3, I discovered the disc to be all f*&^%$ed up!! It was all choppy, starting & stopping continuously, y'know like when you're loading a 'net video and it doesn't load all at once and it goes into "Buffering..." mode every 2 seconds. And so I got none of the audio and the scene looked like EXTREMELY sllllllooooowwww stop motion animation or something. Awful. From what I could tell, it looked like a pivotal scene too. I did not shift into "Hulk" mode, but I was MIGHTILY vexed, I tell you.
And the nutty thing is I am not wanting to take the DVD back to Borders. Well, of course, I don't want to own a defective DVD, but returning it now will delay my seeing Part IV. My only recourse is to finish watching the miniseries (without seeing Part III Chapter 16-17, unfortunately) and then bring it back to Borders which somehow strikes me as unethical but I'm going to hafta do it that way. Say I brought it back to Borders tomorrow, they don't have an in-store replacement, but they can order one in for me...ETA 8-10 business days. NOT an acceptable solution! I would have the shakes and weepy wistful daydream fits for about 2 weeks! I wouldn't be any good to anybody! This miniseries is like smack to me, I swear.

Additionally, this has made me a pretty good argument for the PMRC (Tipper Gore & co....who brought you the Parental Advisory Sticker on your favorite 2 Live Crew CDs) and similar media gestappo by illustrating how very influential media input can be to the maleable minded. Which is just to say-- I cannot shake the intense urge to talk with the accent and parlance of nineteenth century British gentry. For instance, I keep wanting to modify the word "good" with "frightfully" (although as yet, I have not praised anything aloud that was excellent enough to warrant the "frightfully good!" rating) And just today, I IMed my comrade Robin the sentence: "How cruelly you have dashed my hopes!" It wasn't a random, uncontexted outcry, she had somehow dashed my hopes but I can't recall just now what I was bitching about.

MUPPET NEWSFLASH: apparently in a neighboring town there was an armed robbery at the Shell station. This results in my mom totally stressing--actually going into floor-pacing, hand-wringing mode--because my sister happens to be home alone with the kids (my bro-in-law is on a business trip until Fri). I must confess, I'm being a bit of an unsympathetic bitch about it and going with my gut reaction (to her fretting) which is ANNOYANCE. What does she want me to do?? Go over to Laura's and hold vigil on her front steps with a shot gun? Ahhh, bad idea... methinks ME with a firearm is valid cause for worry. Maybe a more rudimentary weapon. Heeeey, I AM rather handy with a sock full o' nickels... real badass... like Michaelangelo chucks the nunchaku (the ninja turtle...not the painter)

I should be more understanding. I may internalize it more, but I can worry about some pretty irrational shit at times. On the other hand, I would never burden another with my worries if I could see that they were hard at work on their awesome blog.

Let's conclude with a totally un-newsworthy news item (newsworthless? is that a legit word?) The 47th Annual Mr Blackwell's Worst Dressed List was released today. I've got to hand it to the guy... he's kept the same, utterly unnecessary gig for 47 years. Now that bit I admire...it's an inspiration to catty underachievers everywhere (I'm not only club president...I'm a founding member, baby) It's his "wit" that I find lacking. He's getting progressively hokier as he ages, starting in 1969 when he began peppering his lists with puns and rhymey-rhyme limerick-esque humor (check here if you doubt me..oh, I have done my research girlfren... mmmmhmm) As to this year's Worst Dressed list...I have to disagree with him on that first place tie. Britney Spears totally deserves the #1 slot, in my estimation. However, as much as it PAINS me to defend Paris Hilton, I think she was wronged by Senor Blackwell. Now, if this were a "Top Vapid Whores of 2006" list, I would not dispute Paris's getting top honors. But I don't really think she's that bad of a dresser. In fact, I don't even know that she belongs on the top ten. I'm not saying she's my fashion idol or anything, but definitely there are several (at least a dozen) shittier dressers. I think Mr Blackwell just throws some big names , some big popular names, at the top of his list to show that the ol' guy is still pretty au courant. I probably shouldn't dis Blackwell, as he is probably considered the "godfather" of fashion commentary, and in general I am a BIG fan of that whole sartorial snarking thing , but COME ON, this guy's just ol' timey& quaint. I know the 'net is reporting that he released a list...but is the list actually published anywhere?? Perhaps they run off a huge stack of photocopies off it to offer gratis at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce or something like that...