I guess they don't call them "killer" for nothing

A trainer at SeaWorld was attacked by a killer whale during a performance. The whale dragged the trainer underwater by grabbing the trainers foot - twice. Talk about scary. It seems really weird, but then again, they are wild creatures. As sad as it was to see Steve Irwin die from the stabbing by that stingray, I think these are reminders that the creatures we co-exist with are still wild. And no matter how much we think we know about them, there will always be an element of danger when working with them.

Interestingly, I was watching a video of it on MSN, and they followed up with this little gem from National Geographic. Poor little sea lion - how was he to know that he'd become a mere beach ball in a game between two killer whales? At least he gets out alive, which, I must admit, surprised me.

Déjà vu

This is an interesting article about déjà vu, the feeling that you've experienced something before. There was a theory that, "the phenomenon occurs when the image of a scene through one eye arrives at the brain before the image from the other eye." But, apparently a blind man experienced the feeling both through smell, sound, and touch. This lends more credibility to the theory that, "the experience is caused when an area of the brain that deals with familiarity gets disrupted."

I've experienced déjà vu many times in my life, although I used to experience it a lot more when I was younger. I also used to have premonitions, but haven't had one of those in years. The brain is definitely strange territory in research, and completely fascinating to me. I remember learning in a psychology class about people who have split-brain surgery (usually because they have a lot of seizures, and such), so that the two sides of their brain no longer communicate with one another. So, a person could be in the middle of reading a book and they will suddenly put it down (without meaning to) because the side of the brain that is reading is different than the side of the brain that controls the arm.

Can you imagine? That would be so odd. I learned a lot of other cool stuff in that class. I think if I'd have thought a little more about my major in college, I could have done psychology instead of political science. But, I learned a lot of cool things in poli sci, too, so no harm done there.

Snow update

I haven't yet seen the second round of snow start, but it's supposed to start in the very early morning around here. So, it may be another day of working from home. It's nice that I have that option when the roads are unsafe, or when I get sick.

Over the past few days I haven't left the house except to take out the trash and to get my mail out of the mailbox. Although I still have food and drinks, I will be looking forward to getting out again soon. But it has been nice to have my own personal pajama party in my place :)

Weird November weather

This has been a really odd month for weather in the greater Seattle area. The first part of the month was full of rain and flooding. Just check out this picture for an idea of the flooding.

Now, we're dealing with snow. I've lived in this area for my whole life, and I remember when we used to get quite a bit of snow, and it would stick around for maybe a week or so. But in recent years, we typically get snow for one day and it quickly becomes ice covered with wet slush. This, of course, makes for very difficult driving conditions. People from all over make fun of us for the driving problems that we encounter, but I have to say that the snow we get here is very different from other places. Because we're close to the water, the temperature doesn't stay cold enough to keep the snow dry. Then when it freezes overnight, the road ways become ice and when it snows again and heats up a bit, you get slush on top of it. It's not like driving in drier snow. A friend from Denver, CO, said it was deceptive to drive in snow here because it's very different than what he's used to there.

In any case, I just watched the ground outside of my apartment go from wet rain to covered in snow and ice pellets. Should be fun driving tomorrow. And of course, this is all in time for rush hour commute (although rush hour is now more of a three-hour span). I now hear sirens going, so someone probably plowed into the back of someone else on the road. At least I have power. L. got back up to his place this morning (in Snohomish county) and found that his power was out and the whole area was covered in snow. Crazy weather.

NaNoWriMo update

I'm still at the same word count as my last update post. But, I've decided that I'm not going to finish by the end of the month. Like most things in life, I'm terrible with a deadline and when I attempt to do something at a frenetic pace, it becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. I had the same thing happen when I wanted to turn my card-making hobby into a business. All of a sudden, the thing that gave me an outlet for my creativity turned into something that I *had* to do. No fun there. So, I'm going to keep working on my memoir and keep going with the quantity-over-quality focus, but I'm not going to worry about finishing it by the end of the month. I'm finding that by writing things down, I remember a lot more and I get off on weird tangents occasionally. So, it's a good exercise in memory and in exploration of feelings.

Fast Food Nation

I saw Fast Food Nation over the weekend. I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed, because I didn't think that the film went quite far enough with some of characters and finishing up parts of the story. The last scene is definitely brutal, but if you eat meat, you should be able to watch it and appreciate where your food comes from.

So, I'm sort of unsure what to think. It's definitely important to get the word out about how the fast food industry affects our lives at more than just the waist-line. Like most books made into movies, I think that the book is a better option if you want to know the whole story. But the movie could be a good introduction to people who are curious what the whole thing is about.

Another NaNoWriMo Update

I'm at 17517 words (30 pages). I have a long way to go still, but it's going pretty well so far.

Movies, movies, movies

This last weekend, L. and I took some time to go to the movies. There are a bunch of films that we've wanted to see, but we usually get too busy to see them until they come out on video.

First, on Saturday we saw Stranger Than Fiction, which was really good. Will Ferrell did an excellent job, as did the rest of the cast. It was a really interesting concept for a movie.

On Sunday, we saw Running with Scissors, which is the movie version of Augusten Burrough's memoir. I read Running with Scissors about a year ago, and was completely blown away by the story. Although I liked the book Dry a bit better, Running with Scissors certainly laid the groundwork for what came in Dry. Anyway, the movie version was fabulous. Annette Bening was wonderful as Augusten's mother, and Joseph Cross was perfect as Augusten. It's definitely a heavy movie due to the subject matter, but it spares you some of the details that are covered in the book that would probably make for more of an NC-17 kind of rating.

I'm thrilled to see that Fast Food Nation has been turned into a movie. I can't wait to see it. The book was great, and totally changed my perspective on food. With the exception of Halloween, I have not eaten fast food since around May or June of this year. I actually read Fast Food Nation a couple of years ago, and it changed my eating habits somewhat. But then around May or June, I read Chew on This (which frankly was a lot like Fast Food Nation), and watched the documentary McLibel. I then decided that I would avoid fast food as much as possible. There are just too many reasons to not eat fast food and support that industry. Of course, it goes deeper than fast food, but I've been trying to buy more organic products and food, such as meat, that comes from farms that support sustainable agriculture and humane treatment of animals.

NaNoWriMo Mid-month update

8,647 words. I got behind due to the flu last week and then needed to catch up on work stuff, but I should be back on track now. I can tell that it's helping my creative writing process, but there is really no organization or anything to what I've written. And it's not really a novel, but a memoir. But, I'm still aiming for the 50,000 words by the end of the month.

K-Fed wants sole custody of children and spousal support

Yes, you read that right. The sponge just gets spongier. In further proof that this guy just needs to get a vasectomy and stop passing his trashy genes onto unsuspecting offspring, he actually thinks that he should have sole custody of the children. Somehow, I don't think that his track record really qualifies him to be a sole parent, let alone a sperm donor.

Public service announcement: Women, K-Fed is not father-material; stop having sex with him.

On a related note, I wonder what kind of spousal support he'll get. I mean, Britney Spears was clearly the bread winner in that couplehood, so unless she had a really good prenup, she'll probably have to do something to keep him in the lifestyle to which he's become accustomed. Poor girl. As much as I love to hate her, and hate to love her, she was just a girl when she got married and started having kids herself. I think we all have someone in our past that we regret; it's just that most of us didn't have it broadcast from here to Timbuktu. But good for her for kicking him to the curb - where he deserves to be picked up with the rest of the trash.

And somewhere, Shar Jackson is smiling...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Aside from this really crappy cold/flu thing I have at the moment, today is quite a good news day:

• Rumsfeld is out!
• Democrats won control of the House
• Democrats are close to winning control of the Senate
• People around the world are cheering the changes

Now, let's just hope that the democrats can get us out of the mess we've been led into by the republicans. I'm sure that they won't be effective on every front. After all, Bush still has his line item veto power. And things, such as prisoners in Guantanamo, prove that this administration has no respect for rule of law and civility. But, it's a start!

The Pineapple Express and Election Day

Western Washington is a ginormous mess today due to rains and the resulting floods. After reading this article, I asked myself why anyone would be crazy enough to actually go to the Seahawks and Raiders game at Qwest field. They should just dress those people into some straight jackets and bus them off to the looney bin to deal with their obsession. Or someone should kick Paul Allen and the designer of the stadium for building it without a roof - for a sport that takes place in SEATTLE in the FALL.

On the bright side, tomorrow is election day, so the crap-ola political ads will finally be over. I was listening to an audiobook, Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff recently. I thought it was quite eye-opening that during the naturalization process, everyone is instructed to say that voting is the greatest right in our country, and then when Rakoff walks out the door and asks for a voter registration form, there were none. As he points out, you'd expect that they would be clipped to the other paperwork they receive or at least have some in the lobby. But according to his account, he was informed that the church group that used to hand them out no longer does so. I guess that could be a good thing if it was the crazy religious right handing them out. Who knows?

I definitely have no room to talk about the outcome of this election. I am not voting this year, although only partially due to my own doing. Due to some mix up about my name change, address change, etc. after the divorce, I didn't receive my absentee ballot this year. In the past, whenever I moved and updated my driver's license, they automatically updated my voter registration at the same time. Considering I have moved every year since starting college ten years ago, I have some experience with the process. I assumed that this time was no different. However, I didn't receive my ballot at the same time as everyone else (in mid October). Now, here's where my responsibility comes in. I downloaded a form to send to my county to have everything updated, but I forgot to print it out in time to be sent in and updated for voting in this election. So, I will be ready for the next election, but not for this one. At least it's not a presidential election, although there are some important offices at stake this year.

The odd part is, they had no problem finding me for jury duty. Blech. I get to take part in that fascinating process later this month.

NaNoWrimo Progress

Count em' - 6005 words! Only 43995 left to go...