Winter Song
Winter Song with Ingrid Michaelson
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Winter Music

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WTF is up with my office plant?

Buttars Named Worst Person! Yippeeee!

Yeehaa! Our local homophobic, racist, buffoon of a state senator has finally been nationally recognized for just how stupid he is! Two thumbs up to the staff of Countdown (link to clip here).
Apartment hunting with pets over 30 lbs sucks.
I really, really hate looking for an apartment. I have a cat and a 75 lb black lab mix dog and it is pretty damn near impossible to find a liveable apartment on the east side of town that has working plumbing and fully intact walls while not charging an arm and a leg for deposits and rent. Seriously, what the hell? I hate this. I have gone through this numerous times since I moved out of the dorms six years ago and after I got Wyatt it got multiple times worse. Yeah, he's 75 pounds and a mix of black lab and something and a previously abused rescue who everyone loves but is he allowed in an apartment? Noooooooooooooo. He's been in apartments with me since I first got him, he doesn't need a yard! Why is this hard to comprehend that large dogs don't need their own freakin yard? I'm not one of those stupid people who leave their dog outside all the time chained to a tree or in a miniscule dog run; Wyatt stays inside while I'm at work and always will! He's more well-behaved than a lot of small children and some adults!


In regards to apartment communities, please explain to me how the phrase "all pets allowed" somehow means all pets except dogs over 30 lbs? There IS an option to click that says "small dogs allowed" or "large dogs allowed" but instead whoever fills out these profiles sacrificed clarity for laziness and just clicked "ALL pets allowed" when it is clearly a lie! Oh, I even found one that said, and I swear it looked exactly like this, "VERY PET FRIENDLY!" So I call. Nope, they are only VERY PET FRIENDLY! to dogs under 40 lbs.



I have been tearing my hair out in frustration. I've gone through this before and undoubtedly will do so again but for the love of all that is holy, EEGADS! GGGAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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My Top 10 Jenny Songs
10. Jenny Says -- Cowboy Mouth

Catchy. That's all.


9. Jenny Gotta Dance -- Bay City Rollers

Bay City Rollers are classic! Everyone needs a good Bay City Rollers song.


8. Jenny Don't Be Hasty -- Paolo Nutini

I first heard this song on a Jackson Gap playlist; for the month we played that all I heard were "Jenny, stop being hasty" jokes from the staff.


7. 867-5309 (Jenny Jenny) -- Tommy Tutone

Damn you, Tommy Tutone! This song has been demoted for instigating endless jokes about my phone number. For example, this is a common conversation:
Me: Wait, you don't have my number.
Them: No, I do.
Me: *quizzical look*
Them: 867-5309! Hahahaha!
Me: *roll eyes*


6. Jenny was a Friend of Mine -- The Killers


I saw them in an old warehouse in downtown SLC before they were famous. They hadn't even released their first album yet. Ask Jessie, she was there.


5. Jenny Wren -- Paul McCartney

Bonus points for being rare. You can't find this sucker anywhere.


4. Jenny Again -- Tunng

Beautiful song.


3. Jenny -- The Mountain Goats

So Jenny isn't mentioned by name in this song at all, but I love the Mountain Goats anyway.


2. 27 Jennifers -- Mike Doughty

This counts because he goes through Jennifers, Jens and Jennys. If I recall correctly, he ends up with a Jen. It also makes me laugh because the year I was born, my two name combo (Jenny Lynn) was the most common two name girl combo for newborns. There were zillions of Jennys, Jens and Jennifers in my classes ever since.


1. Jenny -- Flight of the Conchords

Best Jenny song ever. It even has a live performance video that I will post here later.


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So You Wanna Work For Obama?
Be prepared to fill out the mother of all job applications (pdf file available here.)

Here is the final page, only required by potential Cabinet members:


(Ok yeah that is satire courtesy of the bored folks at 236.com but still pretty darn accurate.)

Watch This, Sir
The folks at 23/6 were bored....

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.
Prop 8: Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done Unto You
I know, I know. Olbermann again. Whenever something worth commenting on has happened lately, I have been lazy and instead of writing my own thoughts and comments I have deferred instead to the words of Keith Olbermann. Mainly it is because whatever Special Comment of his I happen to post here happens to say more or less what I think but was written much better than I could ever hope to write it (translation: I'm lazy, a bad writer and have no time.)


The passing of Prop 8 in California only spurred one thought from me: WTF?


That is all the writing genius I could muster through my impatience with conservatives, the LDS Church, and anyone else who wants to continue to strip rights away from other people who are not like them. I respect others' beliefs and do not like to have others force their beliefs on me or anyone else.


Do unto others as you would have done unto you.


With those words, I give you this very heartfelt, beautfully written Special Comment by Keith Olbermann, from last night's Countdown.


Catching up: My Election Night Pics
My Election Night 2008 was spent at the Utah Democratic Party big huge celebration thinger at the Radisson Hotel in downtown SLC. Other than taking more time to get up the stairs to the actual party than it takes to get through the spaghetti bowl during rush hour, it was loads of happy happy joy joy fun. Some poor soul was trying to charge people to take their pictures with the Obama standup but by the end of the night it was such a free-for-all with the fake President-elect, he gave up. We may have not turned Utah blue this year, but with a 36% statewide Obama popular vote, we turned it a nice shade of red-purple! (If you are unfamiliar with Utah voting patterns and think 36% is not high at all, consider this: in Rachel Maddow's long-winded football metaphor for the presidential campaign last week, Utah was McCain's one yard line. ONE. Utah is so deep red it makes Arkansas and Mississippi jealous.)








Catching up: Halloween as Abby




YES. WE. DID.








Woo-Hoo!
Behold, a fabulous, leaked clip from this Sunday's new Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons!




This is obviously a parody of the original voting machine satire, which was made for the 2004 election in Florida:


A Campaign Comment Everyone Should Listen To
8 Ways to Survive the Next 8 Days


--Posted by Bob Powers on 236.com
Free Esha
I just learned of this sad story from an article on CNN and had to share. Please spread this story of Esha to everyone you can; Esha did nothing wrong and is being held without trial or answers. Esha's arrest is unconscionable and she should be released as soon as possible!



Esha Momeni, women’s rights advocate and a volunteer of the Campaign from California was arrested on Wednesday October 15, 2008, while on a visit to Tehran. Momeni who is a photographer and graduate student was arrested in an unusual and illegal manner after being pulled over on Moddaress highway, by individuals who identified themselves as under cover traffic police on the pretense that she had unlawfully passed another vehicle while driving. Esha was arrested and taken to Section 209 of Evin Prison, managed by the Intelligence and Security Ministry.


Prior to her transfer to Evin, security officials searched her home and seized property, including her computer and films which were part of her thesis project. The security officials had an arrest warrant and court permission to search the home and seize property.
--Free Esha blog
What The Pf(bleep)?
Best. Daily. Show. Opening. Ever.

Evil, Vile Hatred of The Lowest Form
This has gotten ridiculously out of hand. First some right-wing nutjobs are shouting things like "Terrorist!", "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" at McCain-Palin rallies when Obama's name is mentioned (a note: what do they think this is, Alice in Wonderland or the 16th century?), but NOW we have slashed tires at an Obama rally, death threats to Obama supporters who display Obama/Biden lawn signs and a baby black bear has been brutally killed . And it's only Monday.


WHAT THE F*#@ IS GOING ON WITH THIS COUNTRY?!?!


Where is all this hatred coming from? Is the naive, racist, pro-KKK mentality still alive and well enough to incite this much evil across the country? If you don't like a particular candidate, that is all fine and good. I, for instance, despise and loathe Chris Buttars, LeVar Christensen and Jason Chaffetz, but I would never in a million years threaten to kill their supporters' entire families! Much less kill and dump a baby animal (or any animal) as some sort of morbid, sadistic, messed up symbol!


Where has the morality of Americans gone? Where is our sense of decency?


From Western Carolina University:
A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.


Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.

“It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” Johnson said.


From Chicago:
Two supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found handwritten death threats in their mailboxes Thursday and reported them to Villa Park police.


A 74-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man with Obama signs in their front yards near the 600 block of South Villa Avenue received similar letters that had a Villa Park Village Hall return address. "Get the Obama signs off your property—now," the letter reads. "Failure to obey this order will result in the immediate death of all family members." Both residents said they will not remove their signs, though the man, who had voted Republican for 25 years before switching parties this year, said his wife is worried about letting their 7-year-old son play alone outside.



From Fayetteville, North Carolina:
Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.


Sheriff’s deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. Many of the damaged vehicles were parked on Wilkes Road. Representatives from Obama and Sen. John McCain’s campaigns said they were unaware of the acts.


Susan Lagana, the North Carolina communications director for Obama, said it was extremely disappointing and unfortunate that “people would have to experience something like that.” Mario Diaz, communications director for McCain, did not respond to a call late Sunday.


Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

“This is an embarrassment to this city and to me as a citizen,” Revis said. “I’ve seen women out here crying and men cussing. This is a crying shame.”
A Prevaricating, Mendacious Truth-Stretcher
This is a person running for office who has been confronted with an uncomfortable and inconvenient fact and her response to that is to look into the camera and lie to you enthusiastically and repeatedly. I know I'm not supposed to use that particular "L" word, the "liar" word in politics. It's considered impolite. But sometimes, the most important thing you need to know about a politician is the frequency and enthusiasm and skill with which they lie to you.


Saying a politician is a prevaricating, mendacious truth-stretcher or whatever other thesaurus words we can come up with for lying is just far less efficient than calling a lie a lie, and a liar a liar.
-- Rachel Maddow



You Betcha You Can Put Lipstick on A Wingnut
This Week's Political Roundup


Richard Cohen, Washington Post: "But what about Palin? Can you imagine the reaction of the press corps if Clinton had given the audience a "hiya, sailor" wink? Can you imagine the feverish blogging across the political spectrum if Clinton had claimed credit for stopping a bridge that, in fact, had set her heart aflutter? What if she had shown that she didn't know squat about the Constitution, if she could not tell Katie Couric what newspapers or magazines she read or if she had claimed an intimacy with foreign affairs based on sighting Russia through binoculars?

Ah, but the scorn, approbation and ridicule that would have descended on Clinton -- I can just imagine the Journal editorial -- have been withheld from Palin. Much of the mainstream media, grading on a curve suitable for a parrot -- "greed and corruption, greed and corruption, greed and corruption" -- gave her a passing grade or better. I agree with Palin. It's the mainstream media that flunked."


Dana Milbank, Washington Post: "McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'"


Joe Biden, DNC VP Nominee: "That is not patriotic and it will stop, it will stop in an Obama-Biden administration! Enough! I've had it up to here! Don't lecture me on patriotism! I'm dead tired of being taken advantage of. I'm getting tired of it."


David Letterman: "So now, in an attempt to save his [McCain's] campaign, they’re talking about coming back. You see what I’m saying? So we said, 'Sure, we would love you to come back.' And even on the phone, he said, 'I’ll bring…Sarah.' But they’re being squirrely. Politicians can be squirrely. Because we have a date picked. We do this show every afternoon at 5:30. He wants to do the show at 5. So one –- we have no guarantee he’s going to show up, period. And we’ve kind of already rearranged our schedule on his behalf to save the economy, right? By getting that big-headed kid in here to talk about the politics. You know what I’m driving at? I just don’t know if we can trust him. And by the way, I don’t need to remind you that the road to the White House runs right through here."


Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show: "As you may have noticed, there's a really scary economic meltdown happening in much of the world right now. As you may also have noticed the Republican presidential ticket seems more frightened of Barack Obama than it is of consecutive 700-point stock market drops and whole country is turning up bankrupt."


Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: "Get the (bleep) back to work! For (bleep)'s sake!" (just watch the video, eh?)


John Cleese, as read on Countdown:
"An Ode to Sean Hannity:


Aping urbanity


Oozing with vanity


Plump as a manatee


Faking humanity


Journalistic calamity


Intellectual inanity


FOX Noise insanity


You're a profanity


Hannity."
Fond farewell to Yankee Stadium

The first thing I did when I visited NYC for the first time was to track down a New York Yankees cap and proudly wear it for the rest of my trip (or at least most of it). Unfortunately, I did not make it to Yankee Stadium, as the party I was with did not want to leave downtown Manhattan. In retrospect, I should have ditched his ass and hauled out to the Bronx for a REAL baseball game and some genuine, old-fashioned New York memories. But alas, this is as close as I got to the legacy of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig, and as close as I ever will get to the real Yankee Stadium.


That's right, the New York Yankees played their last game in that 85-year-old stadium last night (vs Orioles, NY won 7-3). All week I have read stirring, and in some cases, tear-jerking recounts of memories made in that stadium over the years. It seemed like everyone had a Yankee memory of some kind, from watching the games from behind first base as a kid, to spending every Sunday for 10 years in the same seats with a spouse who recently passed away, to the first games after 9/11, the New York Yankees and baseball in general have been a defining part of our journey as Americans.


I didn't play or watch baseball as a kid, I didn't get the experience of staring in awe and reverence at players I had only seen on baseball cards, as so many others had. For a time, I actually considered it boring! I was raised on football and basketball; those were the only sports my family ever watched or talked about. The Utah/BYU football game was The Holy War and the Utah Jazz only made it to the playoffs if we paid fervent attention to every minute of every game. So you will forgive me, dear baseball aficionado, when I admit that my introduction to baseball was through Field of Dreams.


Ever since then, an aura of mystery, magic and maybe even unearthliness has surrounded this game. There was something about it that I didn't understand but felt just the same. There is a reverence to baseball, to the classics and to the greats, that is not present in other sports. I understand now how cheating in this game, whether it be by cork bat or human growth hormone, can shame every legacy, every player, every fan.


So it is with sadness that Yankee Stadium is bid farewell. Hopefully someday, I will finally see the Yankees play in their home city. On that day, whosever number is on my blue and white striped jersey, you can bet he loved being a Yankee.
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BODY WORLDS 3 @ The Leonardo

The Body Worlds 3 exhibition in Salt Lake City officially opened to the public today and I wanted to spread the word about how amazing this exhibit is. It is such a stroke of luck that The Leonardo here in Salt Lake City was able to score a showing of Body Worlds and everyone (who can handle it, that is) should take the time over the next 4 months to come see it. Check out The Leonardo's website here for hours and prices. This exhibition will be here until early January, but don't put it off until the last weekend. If you go, come visit me! I work there most nights after my real work.

Picture of "Skin Man" © Institute for Plastination & Dr. Gunter Van Hagens
Live from New York! Palin/Hillary opening sketch
For anyone who did not see SNL's season premiere on Saturday and for anyone who just KNEW that Palin looked like Tina Fey, I give you....the 2008 Opening Sketch. I must say, Tina Fey nailed Palin's funky regional accent. Enjoy!




Overcome -- September 11, 2001

Special Comment - 9/11
Some Thoughts on Polling
The science of polling has always mystified me, mainly because I have never had the time to buckle down and learn all the rules, eccentricities, ins, outs, ups and downs that come with it. So I present the following excerpt from an op-ed piece in the City Weekly (Salt Lake City, Utah) for discussion.


America is set to dump the party that’s hosted the past seven years, and the GOP brain trust is aware that polling data suggesting a close presidential race is wildly inaccurate. Pollsters can’t contact the cell phones of all those Obama-loving younger voters who don’t own landlines (the only ones pollsters are allowed to call). Those members of the youthful demographic who are being surveyed prefer Obama by 20 plus points. The very poor (primed to actually vote this time) and the highly educated (also strongly Obama) are likewise less reachable by telephone. --Jim Catano, City Weekly 9/4/08



Can this be true? Is it possible that modern day polling firms have not taken issues like this into account when doing their calculations?


In college, I had a political science class from a professor who was (and is) not only the prominent pollster in the area, but was also Karl Rove's political science college advisor. Now, I wanted to take what this professor said seriously, but given the fact that he namedropped faster than attendees of the Sundance Film Festival, I was inclined to dismiss him as an egocentric spawn of the devil. However one of the things he did hammer home was the point that because of little issues like those mentioned in the quote above, polling will never be as accurate as we would like.


Your thoughts? Is Mr. Catano's point valid?
Ok, that's it. I'm mad.
I have been planning on a special post for next Thursday, but something happened at the Republican National Convention last night that demands I mention it now.


This post will be expanded later today when I am not sequencing DNA on the other screen, but for right now, THE RNC CAN GO TO HELL.


UPDATE: I apologize for leaving you hanging, I have been figuring out how to word my explanation without taking away from the therapeutic post I have planned for Thursday. Until then, and in explanation for my anger, I defer to the anchor who covered 9/11 from the streets of Manhattan for 40 days straight:


DNC 2008
Good news! Even though I tried everything to get to the Democratic National Convention in Denver and failed miserably, my friend Renelle was tapped at the last minute to volunteer with Studio 08 (formerly the Democratic News Service). Renelle is a fellow Obama-phile and current Park Ranger in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park with an addiction to exotic chocolate; but this week she will be "greeting senators/governors/Obama's people/etc. as they come in for interviews... running all over the stadium tracking down those same people if they're late for the interviews and politely (but forcefully) shepherding them into the studio." Perhaps we should lend her our shepherd's staff from Sundance 08 (according to McCain, Obama IS one of the biggest celebrities in the world so it should work the same eh?)



She has already run into Anderson Cooper and a whole slew of other anchors, but her goal is to meet Chris Matthews and MY goal for her is to meet Keith Olbermann for me. They are co-anchoring MSNBC's "The Place For Politics" coverage of the DNC every night this week starting at 7pm EST, so that should kill two birds with one stone! The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is also there all week running amuck through the streets of Denver. Wish I was there!
Waiting for that Magic Text Message


Who else has spent the past few days literally hanging onto their cell phone 24/7 willing it to buzz? Or sleeping with their phone next to them hoping for that early morning (3 am? Haha!) alarm of the tidalwave of text messages from the Obama campaign releasing the name of his VP selection?


Every news organization has spent the past week or so reading every possible tea leaf they can get their hands on with the hopes of deciphering who the magic choice will be; everything from how many bagels Sen. Joe Biden hands out to reporters on his front lawn to the intonation of Sen. Obama's frequent quotes of "I know but I'm not telling" have been gone through with a fine toothed comb. The latest, and possibly most helpful, description of said VP choice came from Sen Obama himself, saying that he/she will be someone who is:


"...independent...feisty...stand up to him in the WH...help the economy...ready to be President..."


The short list every news outlet is giving: Sen. Joe Biden who is known for mouthing off, Sen. Bye of Indiana, and Gov. Tom Kaine of Virgina which is a huge swing state


MY short list: Sen. Joe Biden who is known for mouthing off (and buying breakfast for stakeout reporters), our dear favorite former Wicked Witch of the West, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and our favorite Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar-winning former VP Al Gore.

For some reason, my gut is telling me that he's going to pick Hillary. Which would actually be pretty cool if she would only leave the hubby at home and back the hell off and not try to run a co-presidency. Who will it be? It's kind of like having a huge present under the Christmas tree for weeks before Christmas and not being allowed to open it. You can shake it, poke at it, ask a zillion obnoxious questions, but wait for that moment when someone (he? she? it? cat? dog? bagels? Bill?) jumps out of the box and yells "Surprise!"

UPDATE: I couldn't get the light on my cell to stay on long enough to take a picture, so I pilfered one. Keep in mind the time in the pic is EST, my phone buzzed at 1:09 am.
Bad McGee!
Heyyy lookee at this, I can embed NCIS scenes! Sweet.


Watch CBS Videos Online
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Keith Olbermann -- Special Comment
I watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC on a regular basis because he is extremely intelligent, thinks fast and is actually pretty darn handsome. His show is not for the weak at heart, the ulta right wing Republican or anyone who is easily angered. However, his recent 10 minute Special Comment diatribe on McCain's recent campaign blunders was so sharp and so honest that I wanted to share it. Watch at your own risk, my dear Republican friends. (Go Obama!)


Butterfly Lake excursion
Wyatt and I spent the weekend at Butterfly and Mirror Lakes in the High Uintas, here are some pics...







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Apparently Google is having issues
A bunch of my images have gone MIA and logging into the backend of Blogger has been a royal pain. A couple days ago, Gmail account holders (including me) couldn't get into their email. Now if you go to the Blogger Help Group forums for help with blogging issues, you can't get into half of the forums because it says they no longer exist, when they were working fine yesterday. Think for a minute what would happen if Google was hacked or totally crashed.... I have always been against completely digitizing every part of life because of what could happen when someone pulled the plug. Americans wouldn't know how to function without their internet or computers. Take down the entire global network and see what would happen.
LOLcatz



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Music Playlist and a Poll
You may have noticed the playlist that starts playing when you read my blog (if you want to turn it off, its on the bottom of the right column.) UPDATE! It no longer starts automatically, you have to hit play. I add tracks and rearrange this playlist often, in order to reflect my current mood. I love music and I love to share good songs I happen to come across, so check out my playlist often if you are in need of new music.


For example, if you are into World of Warcraft, take a listen to "It's Warcraft!" by Merlando, it's HILARIOUS.


I have added a poll and would love all of you to contribute! And yes, I am serious. It's in the right column above the playlist.
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X-Files: I Want To Believe


I started watching The X-Files when I was 13 years old. I watched it obsessively for the next 8 years, taping every episode onto a specially labeled VHS tape and bleeping out all the commercials. My junior high and high school lockers were completely plastered with pictures printed off the internet of Mulder and Scully; my bedroom was covered in XF posters, pictures and framed art; even my college dorm had its own XF Wall. I bought every magazine with XF on the cover and even bought an extra copy just to rip the pictures out of so the first copy would be kept in pristine condition. I owned every XFiles soundtrack, every poster, every action figure (I ripped them out of the box, I'm not lame enough to keep them in.) I had an entire binder full of XF fan fiction that I printed off various websites and message boards back in the day. My high school nickname was Scully but it was in college that I got my first Scully haircut. Anytime I need a login name/screenname/etc, you can bet the numbers "3 6 92", "10 13" or "11 21" are involved. (Pop quiz: what are ALL the meanings behind those numbers?) I was also a member of both X-Philes Anonymous (XPA) and X-Phile Relationshippers Anonymous (XPRA)....hello, my name is Jenny and I have a problem....



I ramble because it has been difficult in the past several years since XF went off the air to explain to people just how obsessed I was/am. This show has been a HUGE part of me for over half of my life. I also ramble because it was for us, the obsessed fans that have stayed obsessed over the years, that this movie was made. Chris Carter said they made this film with us in mind first, while striving to introduce a new audience to the franchise second. That brings me to my thoughts on the movie.



I, an obsessed X-Phile relationshipper, loved the movie. It was different: it felt different, it looked different. DD and GA have been saying in interviews that it was not easy getting back into these characters after so long, especially since the time that has lapsed in the movie parallels real time, as the movie picks up 6 years after we last saw M & S. It was the same for me; it took about 15 minutes to get back into the X-Phile groove and that only happened after they were on screen together.



[SPOILER ALERT!]



Mulder and Scully are no longer with the FBI, Scully is working as a surgeon at a Catholic children's hospital and Mulder is on the lam. The FBI comes to Scully as a means to find Mulder; an agent is missing and they think he can help with the case because it involves a potential psychic. Scully, with much longer hair, heads to a remote, snow-covered house in rural Virginia, lets herself in and finds Mulder, looking very much like a grizzled mountain man, in a room covered with clippings and pictures of paranormal phenomena...remniscent of his old FBI office. Faster than you can say "Hey, this chick showed up at my door named Samantha looking for you", M & S are on the case. Provided Mulder gets a lift to DC from a government issue black helicopter, of course (instead of being chased by one this time).




The plot that follows is classic creepy XF Monster of the Week, a la Flukeman or "Home". Two women have gone missing and the only clue is a bizarre, disgraced-by-Catholic-sex-scandal priest who claims to have seen these women in visions. A very elogant storyline pulls M & S from snow-covered fields in Virginia, to her hospital, to the home they share and back to the snow (the first movie had shloads of snow too, what's up with the snow?)





Did you catch that? They share a home. They are a couple. AND IT'S ABOUT DAMN FREAKIN TIME! The 'shipper in me squealed like a little kid given a lollipop when Scully was laying in bed and you heard Mulder say "I can feel you thinking" before he poked his head up and started cuddling with her.





The one point of the movie, music and poster I keep coming back to is how sleek and silver the whole feeling is. It was filmed in Vancouver, which explains the habitual grayness, but it had a very different, much more mature, cleaned up feeling than the previous movie or any of the episodes. It wasn't going back to what they had done before and redid it, it was something completely new and I think they totally "nailed it". Mark Snow did some wonderfully different music this time around, much more emotional on a personal level and less chasing-aliens-in-the-dark (check out "Home Again" on the soundtrack.) There is also a delicious new version of the theme played over the end credits by an artist named UNKLE (I added it to my playlist, it should be playing as you read this).




It was creepy, it was cute, it was mature, it left me wanting more. Which is what XFiles has always done, left you with more questions than answers, always leaving you unsatisfied with the meager amount you had been given. It wouldn't be The X-Files if we had seen everything and been told everything, now would it? CC & Co did not make this film for the critics, they made it for the fans and they did a damn good job. I want more.
You know, I haven't eaten since 6 o'clock this morning and all that was was half a cream cheese bagel
Sousa....Muppet Style
Tis the Season -- Part 2: Offending The Pyro God
In this post, I will present conclusive proof that I am indeed cursed or have in some way offended the pyro god. Read on.


After setting up Taylorsville, shooting it and cleaning it up, a bunch of us headed over to WestFest to clean up that show until the wee hours of the morning. Apparently the newbies assigned to WestFest did not get the memo that pyro is more heavy lifting and cleaning gigantic messes than it is glitz and glamour...*sigh* BTW, West Valley-ites, ya'll need to learn how to use a trash can. That was seriously the nastiest venue I have ever been in.


Now to the good stuff!


July 3 - Centerville - One person does not a crew make


Now I might feel flattered that my crew thinks I have a whole show handled, but seriously. NONE of my crew showed up, called, answered their phones, anything. Thanks guys! So I wired the entire show by myself (but some guys did show up for the show and cleanup.) This was after the Ogden Standard-Examiner hung out during load-in taking pictures and videoing my boss doing his dog-and-pony "this is how a firework works" show (see the resulting story and video here.) Whoever picked the picture of me that ended up splashed all over the front page of the July 4th edition really needs a lesson in exactly what photograph is worthy of the front page. Eegads.


July 4 - Magna - Those poor homeless stick lizards


To tell this story, I defer to the written stylings of ulta-conservative LDS-owned and operated thinktank The Deseret News:

A fiery encore to the Magna municipal fireworks display Friday that burned 50 acres and caused $250,000 in damage was technically the fault of the company staging the show although the firm was not negligent, according to the results of a Unified Fire Authority investigation.


UFA spokesman Ben Sharer said investigators found "hundreds" of spent fireworks casings in the field, owned by the Kennecott Co., across from Magna Park, near 8400 West and State Route 201. Sharer said that although the blaze appears to have been caused by the casings, which were apparently carried into the field by high, upper-level winds on Friday night, there is no cause to believe the display company was negligent.


The company was issued a permit for the show after passing a UFA inspection and providing proof of a $1 million liability insurance policy. Sharer said UFA fire inspectors found the company's safety preparations prior to the show had "exceeded regulations."


The fire was brought under control by UFA firefighters, with help from Rocky Mountain Raceway, Kennecott employees and nearby residents. Sharer said the lack of water access in the area required fire crews to utilize water-tender trucks to battle the blaze. Equipment was brought in by both the raceway and Kennecott to aid UFA crews.


No homes or large structures were threatened by the blaze, though a small shed and multiple power poles, all Kennecott-owned, were consumed by the fire.
--Deseret News, July 7, 2008

Here's the gist from someone who was there. It was not windy on the ground. About 5-6 minutes into the show, a really high top-wind took a crackling waterfall shell off its trajectory and blew it across SR 201 where it burst too low to the ground. The crackling tails did not burn out before they hit the ground and ignited the dry grass. I was standing behind the shooting table, spotting, when I saw it hit the ground. The fire had spread to a nearby tree by the time I had booked it to the UFA fire marshal at the other side of the field. He said "well, its already lit, might as well keep shooting unless something else heads that direction," so the show continued. I stood with the fire marshal for the rest of the show and nothing else went awry. By the time our show was done, the fire had engulfed power poles, transformers and was headed toward a small pumphouse. It was still burning when we finished cleaning up and headed back to the shop hours later.



Final tally:
6 power poles
+ 6 transformers
+ 1 pumphouse/shed
+ 50 acres of stick lizard homes
= $300,000




Ouch.
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Tis the Season -- Part 1b: Where I Left Off


Sorry about that diversion from the topic at hand, those who were wondering why I've offended the Pyro God. Got a little distracted back there, I apologize. Look for Part 2 of my venting about J. coming soon! Yay for you! But first, back to pyro.





Taylorsville Dayzz is always the weekend before the 4th of July, and this year it fell right on top of my 10 year high school reunion (Go Bruins!). So reminiscing with people from my teenage years was bailed in favor of our largest fireworks show of the year...sorry Class of '98....





According to NFPA federal law, after the product (fireworks) is on site, there must always be a license-holder babysitting them, even overnight. Some companies hire security, we do it ourselves. As I do every year, I took most of these two weeks off from my real job, packed up my camping stuff, threw Wyatt in the car and camped in Taylorsville for 4 days. What happened next led me to suspect that something was cursed.




WEDNESDAY NIGHT -- Midnight. Pitch black dark (the street lights in the parking lot don't work so well). Wyatt is tied to a tree, I'm in the tent, no one else is around. A car pulls up about 20 feet away from my tent, no lights on. The car turns off and just sits there. Well, I'm not sleeping with some strange car a stone's throw from my tent! I climb out and sit on the grass behind Wyatt (who you cannot see, by the way, he vanishes into the night). About 5 minutes later, a guy gets out of the car (mid-20s, Hispanic, facial hair, didn't speak English very well).




Him: "Hello."




Me: "Can I help you?"




Him: "How are you?"




Me: "I'm great. Can I help you?"




Him: "Can I park here?"




Me: "No, the park is closed and this is a closed site. You need to move your car out of the park."




Him: "Can I park here?" -- creeping closer to us (Seriously creeping!)




Me: "No, you can't. You need to leave." (sitting behind Wyatt, gripping my knife but sans phone...it was in the tent)




Him: "Why can't I park here?" -- creeping even closer




Me: "See all these racks? These are loaded with large explosives. No one can be near them. You need to leave."





(At this point he is about 10 feet away from us)




Wyatt: "Grrrrrrrrrrrr" -- very low scary growl




Him: jumps back, "Is that a dog?" (I said you can't see him in the dark)




Me: "Yep."




Him: "Is he nice?"




Me: "Nope."




Him: "So I can't park here?" -- backing up




Me: "Nope."




Wyatt: "BARK BARK BARK!! GRRRRR! BARK BARK!!" -- goes full on guard dog





Creepy guy gets in his car (4 door dark colored Lexus), drives around the parking lot twice, very slowly, then drives out and away from the park.





After having my potential episode of Dateline flash through my head ("Tonight on Dateline..what happened to the girl pyro and her dog? Why were her remains found in the canal? Who would kill over fireworks? Tune in tonight at 9.").....Wyatt and I spent the rest of the night in the car with the doors locked. Creepy guy never came back. (Yes, I told the cops the next day when they came back through.)





THURSDAY NIGHT -- 4:30 AM. All the racks are loaded and ready to be moved onto the field. Wyatt is asleep on the lawn, I'm in the tent. The sprinklers come on. Right into my tent and all over the racks. Poor Wyatt was laying right on top of one. Within half a second, everything in my tent is soaked. I'm running around in bare feet, without my glasses, trying to cover up the loaded racks with plastic. After I get them covered, I find my glasses and my phone at the bottom of about 6 inches of water in my tent. Phone is dead. (Boss bought a new one later.) Wyatt is drenched and pissed. I look like a drowned rat. Some of the paper finale mortars got wet before I was able to get them out of the water but everything else turned out to be ok (after a few hours of drying in the sun).



FRIDAY NIGHT -- A slight mishap whilst setting up the small show that shot at the end of the band Imagine yielded one freaked out boss and three very pissed off pyros. Ow. My head hurt for the rest of the night. But I did get to watch that show from a distance, which I haven't done since high school. Chuck shot an amazing show beautifully choreographed to "Hey Jude". It reminded me of watching Stadium of Fire with my high school boyfriend. It was lonely and quite sad, but still a beautiful show.



SATURDAY NIGHT -- Our largest show of the year. Murphy's Law states that the longer you spend timing the show beforehand, the more your timing will go to hell during the show. The first part was shot to the Neil Diamond impersonator performing "America". Everyone and their dog has shot to America, we shoot to it at least once a show (sometimes twice!) Now I was raised on Neil Diamond, his was the only music that both of my parents could agree on. The first concert I went to was Neil Diamond, when I was 12. I know that song very very well, so it was really cool to shoot while it was performed live. Kinda made me a little giddy.



The rest of the show was um...fine....I swear... Us four shooters had some timing issues...but we made up for it and ended the show on time. Something during the finale burst practically on the ground and flew right at the table, I got hit with several gold crossetting stars before I managed to duck (hard hats are happy things). While we were cleaning up, we found that one of those paper finale mortars that had gotten wet in the sprinklers muzzle-burst (the shell burst right before it came out of the mortar, blowing the top part of the mortar to smithereens). That is why sprinklers are BAD.






Top fireworks picture from KSL.com Picture Gallery, Sugarhouse 2008 by Paul Spaullino; lower fireworks picture of Taylorsville Dayzz 2006 by Jamie Peterson

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Tis the Season -- Part 1: T-Ville & WestFest
I firmly believe that either this pyro season is cursed or that I have, in some way, offended the Pyro God. That is the only plausible explanation for the sequence of events that unfolded in the past two weeks...except for the eternal excuses of shit happens and Murphy is here to stay.


I posted the only pictures I actually took of this season thus far in a previous post (see below), but have found a wealth of pictures of our shows on the KSL.com Picture Gallery website. If they had photographer names posted, I will associate their names with their pictures. I am not stealing their work, I'm giving them free publicity! :-)



These two pictures are from WestFest, taken by a Scott Strohl (who we apparently need to hire as a staff photographer). I love these pictures, especially the one with the glow sticks. Very nicely done.
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NEW TEMPLATE INCOMING
To all those lovely, non-existent people that somehow manage to wander over to my funky blog:


I hate all the packaged Blogspot templates. I have tried most of them and they all drive me nuts. (I mainly hate how they center down the middle of the page and only give you 2 columns to work with, in case you were wondering)............so for the next couple days, my blog template is UNDER CONSTRUCTION (like I-80!). I'm not very good or fast at HTML, so be patient. Hopefully when I'm done messing around, it will look a whole lot better.


Oh, and if anyone has any template suggestions, please throw them over as I love advice.


Thanks all!
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Taylorsville Dayzz 2008: Otherwise known as Why I Did Not Attend My 10 Year High School Reunion
I had nothing else to do one morning after being rudely awakened by the sprinklers other than dry out and take artsy-fartsy photos of random pyro stuff. My sisters are artsy, I am not. Putting my camera on BW mode is as close as I ever get.






Pyrotechs do not like sprinklers. Especially when the groundskeeper fails to TURN THEM OFF.


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