Thursday, March 31, 2005
Alien Apocolypse

If you've heard of that Sci Fi movie Alien Apocolypse, don't watch it. It was a total waste of two hours of my life.

Unless, of course, you want to have something to have a good laugh at.

Basically, there was some probe mission going on in space, and the people on it were in cryogenic sleep thingies for forty years. Aliens took over the world to harvest wood, they were like giant termite things with sonic rifle weapons, and lived in a giant wooden pod thing. The astronauts came back, one of them broke a leg and was all cynical saying that everyone was dead and the world was ruined blah blah blah. They encountered humans with rifles, and they shot the one with the broken leg and took the others prisoner. They were obviously taken to meet the leader of the alien people, becuase they were dressed differently. The black guy was the first one to go after the chick with the broken leg, and naturally it was a horrible death by the aliens - they bit his head off and swallowed it. Then of course, the blond haired chick and the arrogant doctor got it on. They tried to escape, the arrogant doctor got away, and the blond haired chick got caught. The arrogant doctor found a village of people living in a valley which the aliens apparently didn't know about even though they had bounty hunters out and looking for any humans to enslave for the harvesting of wood. They all think that the President (of course) is building an army and is going to free them all. So the arrogant doctor goes out with a few people to look for the President, finding more people along the way. They find Mr. President, who of course was sitting on his ass doing nothing. Well, he was painting a picture, but that's it. So they go back and Mr. arrogant doctor leads a small rebellion against the aliens. A bunch of timid people with bows and arrows vs. aliens with sonic rifle things and tanks... Anyway, when it looks as if they're about to be defeated, Mr. President shows up with an army that he apparently built in five minutes. Also with bows and arrows. And of course the puny barely-armed humans with no armor defeat the aliens with their huge tank. Then the people stand around talking about how the doctor "put his hands on me and I was healed" and all kinds of religious inuendos. Then they went on a mission to free all the humans in all the saw mills and kill every last alien.

Now, this only brings to mind one question: if the humans with bows and arrows could defeat the aliens, how did the aliens establish a possition of power in the first place?

It was also a cheap rip off of Braveheart. They kept screaming "freedom" all the time. And their budget must have been about five dollars.

Octaman was better.

I tell ya, Sci Fi is getting pretty desperate.

Niki dropped off at 09:02 p.m.

Thursday, March 24, 2005
Shannon

I got a lovely call from mom last night, and I'm still trying to figure out if it's good news or bad news.

Shannon is living with her dad now. He's trying to get custody of her. Reason being, Angelique is in jail. Again. She was caught driving on a suspended licence (again), and got arrested. She was evicted. She was fired from her job. Her car got repoed.

Now Dan is driving Shannon back and forth from school, because she now lives outside of her school district. He can't change her school unless he has custody papers. Naturally, this is hard on him and on Shannon, not to mention his job.

I give the man credit, though. He's a bit old to have such a young daughter, and the age difference between him and Ange is questionable. But at least he provides for Shannon, he loves her, and he wants what's best for her. That's what she needs, because her mother doesn't even want her. He's more willing to let her see the rest of us than our own flesh and blood is. That'll be good for her, to have such a large family to love her and support her. Before, when she was with her mother, she barely got to see us because Ange decided to use Shannon as a punishment to Grandma for not paying off her truck.

Mom got a call from one of Angelique's "friends". This lady asked mom if anyone had heard from Ange, to which mom played dumb to see what the lady would tell her. Apparantly she's getting calls from Ange asking for money, for a place to stay, crying that she lost Shannon, and saying that she called the family and that nobody would help her. Which is simply not true, none of us have heard from Ange at all.

I told mom that if Dan can use my help in any way to get custody of Shannon, I would be happy to testify. Angelique told me herself that she doesn't want Shannon. This was when she was still living with Grandma, and Gram was getting on her about paying her bills. She told Ange that if she didn't pay her bills, they'd take Shannon away. Ange just responded "I don't care, I don't want her anyway". Shannon deserves to be with her dad. He's more stable, he wants her, and he loves her.

I just hope the poor kid doesn't wind up with some kind of complex when she's older. Which is one reason it'll be good for her to see the family.

I desperately want to get back to New York now. I want to see Shannon, and hang out with her. Do girlie things with her. Shannon is a girlie princessy kind of girl, she needs another girl to do those girlie things with. I'm not exactly a girlie kind of person, but I can pretend well enough.

Another thing: Apparently Ange took off for two days with some guy. The details of this are hazy, and we still have no idea where Shannon was during that time, who was watching her. If anyone. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Ange left her alone for two days. She's just like that.

It hurts to be saying this about my own cousin. But she's a terrible mother, and she doesn't deserve Shannon. The scary thing is, she almost had another one. Thankfully mom was able to talk her out of that one. She does bad enough with just one, she doesn't need to be having any more kids. In the case of Ange, mandatory sterilization sounds like a good idea.

I really really really hope that Dan gets custody. And now is the time to do it, while Ange has no job, car, or place to live. Courts usually rule in favor of the mother, but they need to consider the father despearately in this case. He's much better qualified to be a parent than my cousin. The only reason Ange would fight is so she'd be getting child support from him. If he gets custody, she'd have to pay him.

It'll make grandma happy to see Shannon more often, too. Grandma's been pretty down about the situation, and what her own granddaughter did to her. Which is the same thing Angelique's brother did to them. At least Chris is coming back around though. He's married to someone we like, she's great with his kids, and he stops in sometimes. Doesn't erase the past, but we never disowned him, and we're glad to see him again.

Gah... large families are so dramatic sometimes. Sometimes I wish I had a small family.

Niki dropped off at 10:44 a.m.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Squeeeeeeeeeee

This thing is so awesome! It's not the fastest, but you can't expect desktop speed from a laptop. It pays DVDs though. I've got it sitting right here on the desk playing a Garfield DVD.

You know you're a computer nerd when you're surfing the net with one computer and watching a DVD on another.

Garfield is great though. And so are laptops that play Garfield DVDs. Speaking of DVDs, I've got to get the other volumes. Someday. Because Garfield is the shit.

Niki dropped off at 11:17 a.m.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005
^_^

My laptop just came in ^.^ We haven't got the internet hub for it yet, but it's here and it's cool and I like it.

*runs off to set it up*

Niki dropped off at 10:32 a.m.

Sunday, March 20, 2005
Blaaaaaaaaaaah

I've been absorbed into the world of gaia. 'Tis very addicting, and the reason I haven't been posting in a while.

Matt's article 15 still hasn't come in yet, which leads us to believe that they're doing something more than an article 15. Seeing how they normally get that done in a week. And it's been.... 2 weeks. We're hoping that they'll have discharge papers there when he goes to sign the article 15. But we don't know. For now he's working down in the visitor's center, writing up temporary visitor's passes for people. Sure as hell beats sitting in the warehouse doing absolutely nothing.

I'm also reading The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. A classic I've missed out on for too long. It's absolutely wonderful, I love it. I haven't a clue what I'll read next, I'll probably want Lasher and Taltos, seeing how they're the next in the Mayfair chronicles. But I always have the rest of the Vampire chronicles and Cujo to keep me occupied until I can find them in the bookstore.

I broke down. I gave in to Matt's wish for a laptop. Lord help me. He's been wanting one for quite some time now, but to get one that'll do all the things he wants it to do and run all his games would have been hella expensive. So... we got one for me. It's a dell, and yes dell sucks, but it was a good deal. And I don't think we'll be trying to take a dell laptop apart, especially not after the desktop fiasco. It should be here Tuesday. The great thing is our tax return was more than enough to pay for it, so we don't owe a dime on it. I'm getting excited about the idea. We're constantly trying to use the computer at the same time, so this'll be good for us. Bad for my reading list, but good for us.

And I am such a moron. I accidentally made this entire post a link, because I somehow closed the anchor with an i instead of an a. Don't ask me how, seeing how the i and a are pretty far away from each other on the keyboard, and require the use of different fingers... but I did it anyway.

Niki dropped off at 04:57 p.m.

Thursday, March 10, 2005
Stupid People

I just got a PM on TCS from some 8th grader, this is what it says:

"HOW ABOUT YOU I HAVE A BOYFRIEND AL REALLY"

My response: I'm married already

You gotta love the stupid people who PM you thinking they're hot shit.

Niki dropped off at 04:06 p.m.

Monday, March 7, 2005
Catch Up

Matt and I went on vacation, we just got back a couple days ago. It was so great to see everyone, even if we didn't get to see everyone for very long.

Jodie's baby is so beautiful. She has Jodie's dark blue eyes. They gave me a picture, and we seemed to get along just fine, and that made me happy. Things will probably never get to where they used to be between us, but at least we don't hate each other. Maybe some day we'll be able to be close again. But for now I'm happy with getting along.

Matt's Consciencious Objector case was denied, but that's old news. He applied for forshaping, and we found out just this morning that that was denied too. They want him to arm up and go back on flight, and he said no. So now they're going to punish him. We don't know how yet. So if I drop off the face of the internet for a long time and never call anyone, it's because they docked his pay and we can barely afford Ramen Noodle let alone the internet and long distance calling. In which case I'll get a job and pray I make enough to make ends meet.

But I'm pre-stressing. There's no sense getting worked up over something that ain't even happened yet. And there's no saying that that's what they'll do. Hell, maybe they'll toss him in jail and y'all will see me a lot sooner. They could make him move on base and I'll be working my arse off to keep everything spotless for inspections. Maybe they'll just kick him out dishonorably. Who the hell knows? We sure don't. I'll keep you posted.

We've made plans for renovating Grandma's basement for when we come back permanently (whenever that'll be). We're going to build a wall from the corner of the closet to beside the door to split the bedroom into two rooms. The door to the bedroom part is going to be a sliding mirror door. So that room will be a computer / dressing room. And that way the bedroom won't get the sun rising in our faces, and it'll be a little more private.

I LOVE PAPA'S CAR! God I miss that car. That is the best car I've ever driven. I want it.

Aaaaand... that's about it.

Niki dropped off at 09:27 a.m.