Mind Vomit by the ikss

little ashes where my television used to be

As some readers might recall, I have been without a television for many months, now. A year, actually. As some other readers may have surmised, this has been quite a hardship on my psyche. Traditionally and since I was but a wee child, I have watched much, much television. I blogged about it frequently. I had distinct opinions about the relationship between Audrina and Justin Bobby. I had many a conversation by the water cooler about who should be America’s Next Top Model. Therefore, the lack of boob tube activity in the ikss-household has been rather distressing.

I have discovered Hulu, which has kept me supplied with the latest episodes of 30 Rock and Modern Family and also introduced me this year to the absurdly funny and oddly touching Raising Hope (bringing back to the airwaves the delightful Martha Plimpton, whose work I grew up with and who looks crazy good—far better than she did when we were teens). Hulu can be unreliable, however, as has been proven in the cases of Top Chef and all of the Real Housewives shows. They don’t always show all of the episodes and/or might show them out of order.

I can watch The Amazing Race on the CBS website, thank God. I am waiting for the latest season of some shows—Nurse Jackie, Hung, True Blood—to come out on DVD. This does not make me happy, but such is the life of the Unemployed Bum.

The Old Man has Apple TV and, as such, can purchase television shows if we deem them worth the investment. We therefore purchased one of our favorites—Rescue Me—and watched it right along with the rest of you normal people with regular televisions did. Frankly, I was disappointed in this past season, but that is not what this blog entry is about.

Though, were I honest, I would admit that I sort of lost track of the direction of this blog entry like two paragraphs ago.

All evidence to the contrary and good-natured whining aside, I actually don’t miss my television very much at all. When I spend the night elsewhere and have the opportunity to watch it, I rarely even find something worth the watching. Though the lack of television does offer me a lot of time for reading, I would love to say I’ve developed a new hobby, have devoted extra time to volunteering or have had the time to finish writing not one but two novels. None of these things are true. The truth is, I just use Netflix a lot more now than I used to.

Let’s peruse my recent Netflix activity, shall we?

sex trafficking victim shoots her pimp & gets life in prison?

From @Change.org:

Free Sex Trafficking Victim Sara Kruzan

Sara, who was once her elementary school's student body president, met the man who would become her pimp when she was just 11. After acting as the father figure she never had for two years, he raped Sara at age 13 and trafficked her into the commercial sex trade.

For the next 3 years, from 6pm to 6am, strangers would pay Sara's pimp to rape her and other adolescent girls he recruited and preyed upon.

Finally, physically and psychologically traumatized, Sara snapped. She shot and killed her pimp.

Her punishment? Life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The sentence was handed down by a judge in 1994 against the recommendation of the California Youth Authority, and before there was much awareness about the violence of child trafficking or an appreciation for the trauma of adolescent sexual and physical abuse.

The sentence was extreme and unjust. And it can now be overturned by one man: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Governor Schwarzenegger is leaving office at the end of the year, and will soon be considering clemency petitions. In response, there is a grassroots movement building to call on Governor Schwarzenegger to commute Sara's sentence to time served.

Join the movement to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to free Sara Kruzan now.

Tragically, the sexual exploitation Sara suffered is not unique. But what makes her case especially poignant is not just the injustice of her life sentence, but her response. 

Rather than descend in hopelessness, Sara has found redemption in jail and become an inspiration to all those around her. She has graduated from high school, is on her way to completing her college degree, and started the prison's Committee for Youth to serve as a mentor to younger women. She was recently voted "Woman of the Year" at her prison. 

However, without intervention from Governor Schwarzenegger, Sara will likely die in prison.

Don't let this happen. Sara has more than paid her debt to society with 16 years of incarceration. It's time to set her free.

Call on Governor Schwarzenegger to free Sara Kruzan now.

For more information on Sara's case, click here. 

 

the great wall of china of tampons (or, my tampon is better than your tampon)

Any men who follow this blog may want to skip this next entry. I will be discussing a woman’s Red Tent time. As I am assuming this grosses you out to even ponder briefly, I will understand your not wanting to read the rest of this post. Should you chose to continue reading, however, I will not be held responsible for said grossing-out.

I recently purchased an entire box of defective OB Tampons. Well, in truth it’s not the tampons that are defective. It’s the little plastic wrappers that go around them.

And before we go any further, I know: Ooh, gross! OB’s don’t have applicators! That means you have to put your finger all up in your business! Eeeeewwwww....

I understand these tampons make you squeamish. I’ve had this conversation in many a break room across Corporate America over the years. But trust me on this one, ladies: Ain’t nothin’ getting past that OB Tampon. I’ve used all kinds of tampons in my many years on this planet. We’ve all had to break down and buy one out of a public restroom vending machine (assuming it’s stocked and nobody has stuffed the quarter receptacle thingamabob with gum), or we start our period unawares while at our friend’s party and have to use one of hers. I even worked for a company for a while who supplied us with free tampons. They had a huge box of them in the restroom and they kept it stocked (napkins, too, by the way, though if you could walk around with one of those things between your legs, you must have grown up riding horses). I know, right? Screw the 401k—the tampons were the greatest benefit of that job. I have to admit that I could not justify spending money on OB tampons when I could get “others” for free. For that several-year-stretch, I used an off brand. But I had some extra vodka money.  Anyway, OB tampons are the only ones I would trust without wearing a sanitary napkin to catch delightful “surprises”; and really, what is the point of wearing a tampon if you have to wearing the friggin’ 2x4 between your legs anyway? 

fic list

Settle in, kids. It's gonna be a long one.

The other day, I sent an email to The Holder of the Fic List (the Fic List being, for those of you who don’t know, a list of Twilight fanfiction stories which have been downloaded from the net and saved in pdf form. Copies of these fics are therefore available even if the fics have been or eventually will be pulled from the ‘net). I assume there is more than one holder of such a list and database of fics, but this is the only one I know about and it has been talked about a lot lately.

Before I launch into what will inevitably be a long-winded explanation of my feelings about downloading copies of people’s work and possibly distributing it, let me say first that I perused this fic list a few weeks ago and was delighted to find a couple of fics that I never got the chance to read, Poughkeepsie, being one of them. If I promise MrsTheKing that I will buy three copies of her book should she ever publish, do you think I’d be excused for reading this, even though she pulled it moons ago?

Anyway, so as I was perusing the list I saw that my own fic, The Cocky and The Cougar is listed. This seems odd to me, since my fic is still readily available online and I have no plans to pull it, but whatever. I honestly didn’t and do not care. Plus, based on some emails I’ve received over the past few months, I think some people are confused. They know I’m working on original work on the hope of publishing and in light of how many people have been pulling fics to publish them with Omnific or TWCS, well, they put two and two together and assume that’s what I’m doing. So maybe that’s why it was downloaded—a preemptive strike, as it were. Except that I’m not pulling the story. Cocky/Cougar is a work of Twilight fanficton and will never be pulled for publishing. My own personal feeling is that converting one’s fanfic into an “original” piece of fiction and publishing it is, at the very least, immoral and it borders on illegal. I just don’t think it’s right and I gotta tell you that I feel kind of shitty saying this in public because there are people that I am friendly with who are doing just that. 

originals, in swedish, with subtitles in english

Last night, the old man and I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I keep wanting to call "The Girl with the Red Dragon Tattoo". I assume that, in my version, Edward Norton* would pop up as an FBI agent) - the original film, in Swedish, with subtitles in English. LOVED it.

Noomi Rapace, who plays the girl in question, is really great in this film. I warn you - there are a couple of scenes in the first half of the film that are hard to take. This girl has led a harsh life, to be certain, and we see a bit of it on screen. What is etched on Noomi's face in those scenes, however, in contrast to her wide, curious eyes in later ones, is something fairly remarkable to witness. I also really liked Michael Nyqvist in the lead role of Mikael Blomkvist. I found him charming and sweet and even sexy. The relationship they develop makes perfect sense and my chest gets a little happy ache even reflecting back on it and little ways he would smile when he looked at her.

The mystery was sufficiently interesting and surprising. Easy enough to follow without being easily figured out (I hate it when I solve the mystery before the characters do). Of course, now when I read the book I will know what happens, but I am going to read it anyway.

We're watching the sequel tonight. I may well have found my latest obsession.

I am interested to see how American filmmakers fuck this film up when they make their version next year.

how twitter relates to red velvet poop

I sent a tweet the other day, in which I said that since I joined Twitter a few months ago I find that I have little to blog about. I love my blog and have been keeping one form or another of online blog or journal since 2001 so this epiphany saddened me. But it is true. Of course, there is also the little fact that I didn’t pay my bill at typepad for a few months, but the fact remains that I now tend to boil down what would formerly have been a blog entry several paragraphs long into 140 characters.

Case in point: Let’s take a look at what I have tweeted so far today, Thursday, November 5. It is 12:19pm as I begin writing this.

iksswrites ikss

I woke up with such a hunger this morning.

4 hours ago

Quickly followed by...

iksswrites ikss

I also need some food...

4 hours ago 

Admittedly, I might not have made an entire blog entry about the fact that I was hungry. But long time readers of this blog know that I’ve been known to write about far less interesting subjects.

OK, then 3 hours ago, I tweeted that The Cullen Campaign by @belladona1472 has updated. I really enjoy that story and it is conceivable that I could write in this blog about how much I like it, because it is intelligent and witty and sexy and plays out in front of a backdrop of politics, which you all know just gives me wood all on its own. It does have a large audience already, though, so I doubt it needs me to speak on its behalf. I will say this: This is the fic that beat out The Cocky and The Cougar for Best Car Fuck in the Golden Lemon Awards. The fact that it is still one of my all-time favorite fics, in spite of my justifiably bruised ego and hurt feelings in relation to that award, is a testament to how good it is. 

There are a few other fics I am thinking about writing recommendations for: All that Jazz by javamomma0921, Pressed for Time by twanza and Chele681 and Tangled Up in Blue by TxBirdie. For now, suffice it to say that I adore these stories and these (along with TCC) are probably my favorite works in progress right now. You can read their summaries and click links at the sidebar to the right, there. --->

red velvet heaven

As I lick the last bit of vanilla frosting from my fingertips, it comes to mind that perhaps baking cupcakes last night was not the smartest thing I've ever done.

And they're red velvet cupcakes. Eating them leaves my tongue red, so I can't even front and pretend I'm not eating them.

what's up with that writer chick?

Yes. Apparently, I am still alive.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I had a small issue with Typepad. Something about not paying the bill...

Being unemployed has it's drawbacks.

But now I'm back. Much has happened in the months since you've heard from me, of course. I will use this entry to discuss my writing and will be back later to dish on that whatnots and happenings because they so deserve their own entry. 

The Cocky and The Cougar has been completed. My original work, The Previous Fall, sadly has not been completed. My workshop with Fictionista, however, has.

Now that The C&C is finished, I am working on The Cocky Speaks (which is written from Edward's POV). Chapter two is in the hands of my extremely-busy beta and should be posted shortly. I am also working on Charlie's Story. This is the story of Charlie, natch (and Renee), specifically the Charlie we were introduced to in Chapter 4 of Cocky/Cougar. Chapter 2 of this story is pending.

I am also in the process of posting The Cocky and The Cougar at The Writer's Coffee Shop (TWCS), for those those didn't catch it on ffn or Twilighted. Plus, I may well decide to pull my stuff from Twilighted (I consider it pretty much daily) and since it is actually too smutty for ffn and could conceivably get pulled at any time for violating their Terms of Service, I felt it wise to post somewhere else where the smut is allowed and I don't have to deal with Twilighted's aggravating validation process.

Some of you may recall my talking about How to Write a Love Song. I started working on this at the same time I started writing Cocky/Cougar, but stopped once C&C (along with Previous Fall) took over my life. I always intended to get back to it and assumed it was going to be a work of Twilight Fanfic. Well ... (very) long story short, after five chapters, I have decided that this is not Twific material. It needs to be an original piece of fiction. So that is what I am making it.