h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's sad that people don't think before giving pets as gifts, or do a little more research. Pets are cuddly and cute and fun and sources of tons of great photo opportunities, but they also need lots of attention, and they don't always want to cuddle or play (or sleep ) when you do.

So I'm sure that the right kitteh will present itself to you soon.

I work within walking distance of the Chicago Humane Society, and when I take walks on my lunch hour, instead of playing cards, I always walk past and look in at all the adorable kitties. I'm surprised I haven't taken a dozen more home.

Me too!

There's an old campaign that never quite fulfilled its objective; "A dog is for life, not just for Christmas". We're always regaled with stories of strays, neglect, and people weighing down sacks they throw into the lake.

Suffice it to say that any pet I end up caring for will probably be looked after better than I look after myself.

Of course it would. It'd probably find itself well pampered, in fact.

Blade Runner was lovely. Sonically and visually more vivid obviously, but I think it lingered in places more than before, adding more of a noir feeling. Maybe it was just being in the cinema. It's been ages since I'd seen the last cut so I couldn't tell. But where Batty said "I want more life, f--ker" it's now "father".

I'm such a baby. Getting there I found a dying pigeon by the wall outside, crying out but unable to make a sound. It looked like he'd flown into a window. I scurried around looking for someone with the stones to put him out of his misery, then got back to find a lady had picked him up, was coddling him and who, happily, kept pigeons. I could tell she was a fluffmagnet with a bag that said "I CATS". She wasn't sure he'd make it, but said she'd take him home and look after him in his last hours. Poignant precursor to the evening, really! But I was so heartbroken for the poor thing, despite swearing at all his kind not hours before.

I haven't seen the Final Cut of Blade Runner. Just the original theatrical version, and that '92 director's cut (which is my preferred version). I own that one on video, and like it, in spite of a burning hatred of Harrison Ford and not being a fan of Ridley Scott. It's the only movie either is involved in that I've liked.

Anyhoo...

I *always* feel heartbroken for poor broken little birds. There's an initiative here to get people in high rises to shut lights off- or cover their windows- at night so the poor things don't fly into the glass. But still, at least once every couple of weeks or so, I'll walk past one of their little bodies on the sidewalk. Once, during the summer, I watched a gull catch a little sparrow in its beak. I hate gulls, and felt awful for the poor little sparrow, but I let nature take its course, I guess.

You know how I get when it comes to little critters.

It's hard not to be. Especially when you see them screaming in pain but can't make any noise.

Watching Constantine at the mo, which I taped last night. Pretty good, even though Keanu is running things.

Not watching anything at the mo. K and Herman are still in bed, the lazy bums. There was something I wanted to do this morning before they got up, and I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.

Yesterday, we ventured out for a couple of errands. One of those was a visit to a little shop called Horrorbles, located near K's work. It's in a crappy little southwestern suburb called Berwyn, which is sort of an in-joke, as it's the official shop for items related to a local syndicated TV show called Svengoolie.

http://www.horrorbles.com/catalog/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svengoolie

Anyway, K and I watch the Svengoolie show, and he'd been to the shop to get my Christmas gift, and wanted to take me with to show me all the other cool stuff they have. We got a DVD of the complete series The Space Giants (more late '60s/ early '70s kiddie kaiju) and a late '80s horror flick, not unlike Dog Soldiers, called Scarecrows. Watched it last night- it was actually pretty cool.

That sounds like a laugh, a lot like MST3K

The B3ta competition of the mo is change a letter in a movie title. A lot of the entries are appalling, but some less so.

http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/movieletterswitch/popular/

"Dos Boot" is cool. "The Constant Hardener" made coffee come out my nose.

While we were at Horrorbles yesterday, I finally got my official Svengoolie rubber chicken. And then I fell asleep before the first commercial break last night and never got to throw my rubber chicken at the TV.

"Momento", "Loltergeist" and "Pron" are pretty damn amusing, too.

I really liked The Otters

Shame I don't have Photoshop anymore. I could have done Scatface. Or The Umpire Strokes Beck (again).

Had an adventure-filled yesterday, although that wasn't what I had planned at all. Poor K apparently passed a rather large kidney stone.

Ouch! Can't imagine how that's gotta feel, though no doubt I'll find out. Hope he's feeling better soon.

He's feeling fine now, but man, he was hurting yesterday. And of course his medical insurance card was left at work, somewhere... I'll be really annoyed if we have to pay for an ER visit and CAT scan and then wait around for the insurance company to pay us back. I guess it's a Guy Thang, though, that tendency to leave anything that might be needed in an emergency somewhere where you can't get to it.

Sure, it's by the Really Useful Things. What a treat to go through and wondering if you've got to shell out for it.

I just saw a poster for the war movie "In Which We Perve". Sounds of barrels being scraped. "The King & E" was quite a lugh though.

I guess I'll have to have another look at the link when I get home (no access to that site from the office) and see what else they've come up with since yesterday.

I was trying not to think of the reality of your beloved's experience when "Islands In The Stream" came on the radio.

Oh, dear. I'm not sure he'd have appreciated that.

This week is shaping up to be a busy one. Sigh. How goes the good fight over by 'dere?

Not so good. Chancellor Dahling says he wants to cap public sector pay rises to 2% for three years, inflation is at 4%, electricity and gas are going up 10-17% and I'm just generally pissed off about work anyway.

F19585?thread=4941745&skip=40

Yeah, our electric bills are set to increase by 50% or more within the next year. I only pay about $60 a month in spring/winter/autumn (for the time being, anyway), but during summer it's closer to $200 a month. It's frustrating.

If it's any consolation, 3% per year is the annual average pay raise in these here parts. I only got 10% last year because it turned out I was hired in at around 2/3 of what I should have been. I think inflation is only at around 2%, though. And thankfully housing values are supposed to be taking a dip as a result of the sub-prime lending issues, so hopefully we'll find a condo for less than $350K within the next couple of years. The, with luck, while a mortgage would be likely to cost as much as rent each month (we're currently paying $2200), at least it might not wind up being much more.

At least I've got the good fortune to like my job, as far as having to work goes. It's much better in the private sector, even if the pay isn't as good.