help my niece - donate to her fundraiser!

yeah, i'll be the first to admit it: people are puzzled when i mention that my niece has 4 legs and big floppy ears, but it's true! Madison is adam and codi's baby, and she also happens to be a basset hound. they're all going to waddle around Dwight, Illinois next month and will be at The Largest Basset Gathering In The World!

you can sponsor Madison and donate online by using this link (in addition to seeing a pic of Ms. Madison herself!), or if ya see me in person, hand me some cash and i'll make sure it gets into the right paws. c'mon now, i don't go beggin' for donations too often and it's a lot less obnoxious than me hitting you up to buy a 49 cent candy bar for 3 bucks...

birth control methods...

sister-out-law Codi (well, if my brother and she don't get married, she won't be a sister-IN-law, right?!?) and i were chatting online last night, about the Supreme Court and a variety of women's issues, such as birth control. she showed me this page - yup, homosexuality is a birth control method - "No co-mingling of sperm and egg means absolutely no chance of pregnancy"

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

mom actually refrained from going in to work on friday, her normal friday off, and we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

it's not too often that Roger Ebert and i disagree about movies - our movie tastes are very similar. this time around, even though we both give the movie 3 stars, his review of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is just flat out WRONG.

"Johnny Depp may deny that he had Michael Jackson in mind when he created the look and feel of Willy Wonka, but moviegoers trust their eyes, and when they see Willy opening the doors of the factory to welcome the five little winners, they will be relieved that the kids brought along adult guardians. Depp's Wonka -- his dandy's clothes, his unnaturally pale face, his makeup and lipstick, his hat, his manner -- reminds me inescapably of Jackson..." says Ebert.

i have heard that comparison made elsewhere. the people that say that must've been watching a different movie than i was - the movie i saw showed Willy Wonka as a person with a disdain for all other people, but especially children. Willy's not a child molester, he just wants to find an heir to run the factory when he's gone. in fact, the only similarity i found between Depp's Wonka and the Michael Jackson of 2005 is their strange, unnatural color.

Ebert also says, "What was he thinking of? In "Pirates of the Caribbean" Depp was famously channeling Keith Richards, which may have primed us to look for possible inspirations for this performance. But leaving "Pirates" aside, can anyone look at Willy Wonka and not think of Michael Jackson? Consider the reclusive lifestyle, the fetishes of wardrobe and accessories, the elaborate playground built by an adult for the child inside. What's going on here? Bad luck that the movie comes out just as the Jackson trial has finally struggled to a conclusion."

i didn't think of MJ at all during the movie - a couple of times during the movie, i got the impression that depp was perhaps channeling Carson Kressley, actually - but overall, i think johnny depp put johnny depp's interpretation of willy into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - making it a good movie, just as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was, but for different reasons.

perhaps ebert got it backwards - Jacko's channeled Willy Wonka in the past - but the review of this movie was definitely wrong.

*8-)

Live Fast And Dye Your Hair...

what sound is it that a guinea pig makes? i know it's not an *oink* or *snort* or anything like that, but alas, i AM a guinea pig - for Kat and whatever she fancies regarding my hair coloring.

this time, it was PLUM PASSION - a temporary hair color from MANIC PANIC - a look at their website makes me think Cyndi Lauper uses this stuff - cool! *8-)

i have purple hair!!!!!

women, roadkill, and tunnels...

the lungs of a cigarette smoker, a couple of women standing over caulderons, a dead raccoon, and a railroad track leading into a dark tunnel - just a few of the things i saw in the Rorschach Inkblot Test i took today...after the test, i asked the doc (phd) administering it if my answers proved that i was crazy - while i couldn't quite get an answer out of her, she said that for what it was worth, some of my answers matched those of other people - lots of people saw a butterfly in one pic...

after that, it was off to a room to answer 500+ yes/no questions...dunno how long it'll take to get the results of this psychological evaluation, but at least it's over and done with...