Just a note

I will continue to ping this site until everyone can update their Blogrolls. If you get a notice I have updated just click on through to the new site http://jacksragingmommy.com.

*trumpets*

So it's a bit like dressing up for a dance in junior high, thinking that if people see you looking different then they will suddenly realize the treasure they had in their midst the whole time without seeing it.

A bit.

I am proud to announce the launch of I Am Jack's Raging Mommy on it's new, "real" webpage. Flippy and Leigh-Ann have provided me with free hosting, and my ex is paying for the domain name. (He's so my bitch)

So change all your blogrolls, and links (and button codes) over to the new url at http://www.jacksragingmommy.com . It'll be easy enough to do, just drop the .blogspot from your existing link.

I'm still working on figuring out Word Press coding and themes and all that craziness, which you'll be able to tell as soon as you look at my links page.
Existing comments from this site didn't transfer over, so show me some love so I don't feel so lonely over there :)

What is it good for?

I was watching the footage of the Marines evacuating US citizens right now, and they were saying the White House wants to send troops in.
What troops? We barely have what they want for Iraq! Are they going to move the troops over? That isn't what they signed on to fight. People have already been told that their terms are indefinite and now they is an entirely different war they are supposed to fight?
If they don't do that are they just going to start drafting people? I personally will start a convoy to Canada if it comes to that.

What people often don't realize (The following is an opinion/theory of mine. You may disagree or be pissed off. Sorry about that) is that we "won" WWI and WWII because we went in after they'd already been going for a while and we had fresh supplies and troops. We are already stretched thin on those things due to Iraq. We'd be highly ineffectual and run a huge risk of making things worse for our own country. We can't even provide armor for the troops already in action. What are we supposed to use for any troops we might send to Lebanon?

Then there's the question of why are people like Newt Gingrich so fucking eager for this to turn into WWIII? I feel like he's a Japanese Schoolgirl at an N*Sync concert he seems so gleeful about all this. He wants President Bush to officially declare it. Perhaps Newt will change his stance on female combatants. There aren't any jungle swamps for the women to be in for over thirty days so the hygiene problems shouldn't arise. God I despise that man. I have ever since I lived in Georgia, long before he became speaker of the house under Clinton.

The whole thing is making me sick. I've honestly been terrified for Jack for the last few days. What kind of world did I bring him into? He's only a baby! I have no idea what kind of future he'll have and that scares me. I've been seriously contemplating Canada for while now. If they do chose to reinstate the draft I may just do it. Hey Jen? Do you know the rules for becoming a citizen?

I know that I am likely overreacting, on 9/11 one of my first reactions was "Oh my God! We just saw WWIII start".
I desperately want to be wrong.

Tags: war, wwiii, hezbollah, iraq

Sweet Dreamscapes. (My puns suck. I am not Joel Siegel)

Just a short note to say that I am immensely diggning Nightmares and Dreamscapes . I am a huge fan of Stephen King but the movie adaptations are usually crap. (Excepting Brian De Palma's Carrie, and Kubrick's The Shining. )
So I didn't really have high expectaions, but I had very high hopes. Luckily it's great and I'm in heaven. With Nightmares. So many bad puns.

Should have my news for you soon. Free JRM Loves Me button for anyone who can guess it. Flippy doesn't get to play since she already has a button and already knows my news. Have fun playing!

Tags: Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King

Squee!

Very big (for me) very cool (again, for me) news coming soon here at Jack's Raging Mommy.
Stay tuned!

That's Queer

I saw a preview for a fall series (Vanished) on Fox a little bit ago (I am watching Hell's Kitchen ) and I was thinking "Who is that guy? It's not Mal, but it looks kind of like him. I know who this is! Man! This is bugging me."
So I looked him up...
It's Gale Harold, formerly my man Brian on Queer As Folk.
Totally messed with my head. Not something I expected to see him doing, but I am really excited now, almost as much as if it had been Nathan Fillion.

Tags: Queer As Folk, Hell's Kitchen, Vanished, Nathan Fillion, Gale Harold

Sunday Confessional

I've decided to not sit on my ass crying any more, and to dispense with the confessions.
My goal for this is that every Sunday I will confess something I am usually too ashamed to talk about, or that I haven't gotten around to yet, or whatever.

I've been depressed the last few days (this isn't the confession) and I wasn't going to do this, because I didn't feel like posting if I couldn't talk about something real. Then I said, Fuck It. I can talk about something real without it being something that makes me weep, and I'm sick of being a prisoner to my computer anyway.

So TAH DAH!
My very first confession. I hope you like it.

My name is Maleah.

Despite what you may read on the internet, Maleah is an Americanized spelling of the Hawaiian name Malia (or Melia- I've seen both), which means Mary.

Back in the day Bing Crosby's brother Bob had a dance band and his daughter, Maleah June, was the singer. (Oddly enough I was also born in June)
My grandmother loved the name, but her first husband wouldn't let her use it, which is why I have an Aunt Marlene.
She told my mother the name and voila! I am Maleah.
I was almost Maleah Wave, but that is another story entirely.

So now you know, and you prolly understand a little better why at first I chose not to use my name. When paired with my last name (maiden or married) I am the only one. Which is really cool when you think about it.

Tags: identity

I had a very bad evening last night.
Weeping, wailing, the whole nine yards.
Bad bad bad.
I don't want to talk about it.
believe it or not there are actually things I don't talk about on here. I know. So now you are wondering how bad it is that I wont talk about it. But really, it's not all that bad, it's just that... well, I don't want to talk about it.

I'm not sure why I am even bringing this up, except that maybe I might not be around for a few days. I need to get out of this depressive patch.
But I'm okay, I promise.

BlogHer Envy

I'm not going to BlogHer.
Don't get me wrong, I want to go. I want to go so much I am already having jealousy pangs when I read who is going. And who gets to speak, and on and on.
I want to go! I want to meet these women I like so much. I want to hear them speak. I want to be good enough that I could be asked to speak. But alas I am none of these things.
I can't afford to go, I don't have any one to watch Jack. Though if I could afford to go I'd just take Jack and use the nifty BlogHer day care they have this year. I could show him off, and people could see that I'm not exaggerating when I say how cute, and brilliant, and amazing he is. Cause he totally is!
Then again, if I didn't bring Jack I could drink. Well, actually, it'd be better if I didn't drink. No one would ever speak to me again if they met nervous, drunk JRM. Trust me on this one. So taking Jack would be like protection, and a buffer so people would think I'm cooler than I am.
But it's moot, because I don't get to go.

And I'm jealous.
As hell.

I don't want to be one of those girls who whined and bitched all over the internet last year about being left out of the Mean Girls sleepover. I know anyone can go. I know it's not a club and that these women aren't the bitches back in high school. I don't hate anyone for getting to go, or for talking about getting to go.
It's the fact that I don't hate them that makes me want to be able to go so much. I admire so many of these women so much. It's kind of like those heterosexual girl crushes I used to get when I would have sever cases of hero worship back in High School. Something about large groups of women always make me feel like I am in High School again. I'm sure a therapist could have a field day with that one.
A therapist could have fun with a lot of things about me, really.

Have I mentioned lately that I'm a terribly insecure person?

But the point really is that I am very happy for everyone, and really excited, I am just also really, really green.


Tags: BlogHer, jealousy

Goddamn Blogger

This shit is really starting to fucking piss me off.
Part of my template is gone again. Luckily I had some things saved since the last time, but not everything.
I can't really justify paying for hosting though, so right now I'm stuck.
FUCK.

Guess what this is

Because I know you want to know

Odd bodily problems I have right now:

• Swollen lip where I bit the crap out of it. Then, you worry it with your tongue and it never heals. Don't you hate that?
  
• Pain in my left boob. I should perhaps worry about this one.
• My left eye has been twitching all day. I wonder if it's connected to the boob thing.
• Giant red zit on my nose. GIANT. I should get Joe to take a picture of it. (Edited to add: Attempts to take a photo of the zit ended in my rolling on the kitchen floor in hysterical laughter. )
• Scabs from blisters on my feet from the heels at the wedding. I'd take pictures of them, but that's just going too far.
• Several torn up cuticles. I bite my nails when drunk.
• Strange zit like bump-thing on the back of my back neck that never actually changes. I should have that looked at.
  

Books

I am a reader. There was a year, when I was 11 perhaps, that I read Francis Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess every night before bed. The entire book. I would be thrilled when a new Babysitter's Club book came out, and be done half an hour later. I've always known that others didn't read as fast as I did, it took me a lot longer to realize that there were people who didn't read at all.

What? How is that possible? How many things were better than cracking open a book, either a new venture or an old friend and getting lost in their worlds? In junior high I was already a college level reader, and read anything I could. I read Roots and the unabridged Les Miserables in the seventh grade. I tried reading Wuthering Heights that year as well, but it wasn't until High School that I was able to get into it, and have now read it and Jane Eyre over 15 times each.

This year after seeing all these read 50 books in a year challenges that came out when people were starting to break their New Year's resolutions. Fifty books? Well, that's approximately a book a week. It's a great plan for most people, especially people who have never thought of themselves as readers . This could open a whole new world for them, and maybe I could find some other addicts.



So without setting a specific number goal for myself I made the goal of keeping track of how many books I read throughout the year, and what those books were. Two weeks ago I finished book number 100, Riding The Bus With My Sister. I am now on book number 109. I own over two thousand books, and there are a few I haven't read, mostly non-fiction treatises into different cultural groups. I'’m fascinated by anthropology, but fiction will always be my first love.

I have certain writers I always return to; Orson Scott Card, Maeve Binchy, Steven King, Alice Hoffman, Alice Walker, Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman round out the top few. These are the books I turn to when in a certain mood, or have read all my library acquisitions for the week. These are the people whose characters and creations I can become so absorbed in, so at home with, that I view them as friends.

It makes me sad when others don'’t have this passion for reading. A teacher I had in the fourth grade complained to my mother that I would read in class when done with my assignments before the other students. My parents removed me from that school system not long after. I had an ex who was so disturbed by how much and how quickly that I read that he would put me down about it. I never understood that hostility, but I did understand enough not to marry him. For a while I was a closeted reader, not telling people how much I read, and not sharing the names of books who had touched me on a deep level. This made me sad, until I realized that being ashamed of reading was preposterous. Now when someone notices I have a different book than the day before I admit I finished the other rather than claiming I gave up on it. When I finished The Dark Tower in less than a day I announced it from the blogtops.

My reading, my love of books and words has played a large part in creating the wonderfully quirky, and trivia filled woman I'’ve become. I'’ve already started in on the boys too. Going to the library is seen as a treat, and book readings are often requested at any given weekend we have visitation with my step-son. We give books to our nieces and nephews, and donate to libraries and book drives.
My greatest dream is the day that all kids beg for books instead of new Game-Boys or PSPs.
Let'’s make it happen.

Bitch

I play poker every day, and Suzan just kicked my ass.
Not cool :)
It's on now beyotch!

What a day

Suzan is one of my favorite people. She lets me babble at her when I'm drunk, and we are going to play poker, and we totally would have gone to see Clerks II together if it weren't for the pesky 12 hour drive between us.

So she hooked me up with the template code for my archives and recent posts that I was missing. The code was fine, it worked, my preview looked perfect. So somewhere between successfully previewing the page and the save change step, I deleted almost all of my template. To the point where all you could see was raw code.

First I tried using a cached page from Google, but it didn't show any new posts and every time you saw Jack's Raging Mommy on the page it was highlighted from the Blogger search. So I copied that code to save my personalizations, and assigned a new Blogger template entirely.

I spent the next few hours reapplying my HaloScan comments, link lists, Blogroll, etc.

Which is why I currently have boring basic Blogger template, because I am a little too terrified to adjust the background settings right now.
It also has kept me from starting my Sunday confessional series, which I think you'll like, but I'm too sick of blogging right now to start.

The End.

Tags: blogging nightmares

June Books

The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio- Terry Ryan
I Am Legend- Richard Matheson
Under the Skin- Michael Faber
The Worthing Saga- Orson Scott Card*
One Door Away From Heaven- Dean Koontz
Doomsday Book- Connie Willis*
To Say Nothing Of the Dog- Connie Willis*
Memoirs of an Unfit Mother- Anne Robinson
A Hat Full Of Sky- Terry Pratchett
Nine Stories- JD Salinger*
The Life an Humor of Rosie O'Donnell- Gloria Goodman (Written before she came out, not the bio I was hoping for)
Thud- Terry Pratchett
Property Of- Alice Hoffman
Riding the Bus With My Sister- Rachel Simon (Book #100 for the year)
Blackbird House- Alice Hoffman
The Stranger House- Reginald Hill
The Best Of Cemetary Dance Vol. 1- Edited By Richard Cizmar
From The Dust Returned- Ray Bradbury
Mara and Dann- Doris Lessing

* re-read

Tags: Reading list

I am so the coolest!

I just won my first (play money) tournament on Party Poker after only one day of tournament play. I've also placed in the top three four other times.
I'm so tempted to buy into an inexpensive tournament. There are some on Poker Stars that only cost around $5.
Who needs professional blogging. I could just gamble!
(Yes, I have an addictive personality. Oh? You could tell? I'm surprised)

I rock!

Tags: play money poker tournaments, poker stars, party poker

Whoa!

I wondered when she first filed for divorce what was up. I thought cheating. I was wrong.

Kathy Griffin is divorcing Matt because he was stealing from her.

And the Season begins!

So the Emmys made the new nomination rules this year, to be more all inclusive. It's been referred to as "The Lauren Graham Rule" and naturally she and the show were snubbed. If I didn't love awards shows so much I wouldn't watch. But I do, so I will.
These are my thoughts.

The Emmy nominees:

Animated Program Camp Lazlo, Family Guy, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, The Simpsons, South Park

Um. Does anyone else see something very incongruous in this category? I mean, between Adult Swim and Saturday morning there are enough shows to have separate children and adult categories.

Casting, Comedy Series Desperate Housewives, Entourage, My Name Is Earl, Weeds

When Desperate Housewives first premiered it was touted as a drama. The Emmys nominated it as a comedy last year (which I thought far more appropriate) and this last season showed it in the writing. But this is about ensemble cast, so I have to go with Earl. They had a far more ensemble feel than DH did this season.

Casting, Drama Series Big Love, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, House, Lost

Looking at actual casting and not just the ensemble aspect, I have to go with Big Love. I think that ensemble acting I give to Grey's Anatomy. No wait, Big Love. Ack! Big Love. Final answer.


Directing, Comedy The Comeback, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage (2 eps), My Name Is Earl, Weeds

Directing? I'd have to know what episodes were nominated. Overall I am going to say Weeds, but I don't watch CYE or Entourage (though I did watch it in the beginning, I just hated it)

Directing, Drama Big Love, Lost, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos (2 eps), 24, The West Wing

Big Love. I ADORE Lost and West Wing, don't get me wrong, but Big Love is some of the best TV ever.

Lead Actor, Comedy Larry David, Kevin James (King of Queens), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Steve Carell (The Office), Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men)

I would rather see Shaloub get it, but it's a show preference. I am just not that big on The Office. Larry David is being himself, and really, so are Charlie Sheen and Kevin James.

Lead Actor, Drama Christopher Meloni (Law and Order SVU), Denis Leary (Rescue Me), Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Kiefer Sutherland (24), Martin Sheen (The West Wing)

Again, love me some West Wing, but this wasn't an important season for Sheen, so I am going with Chris Meloni who I think I might like in an unhealthy way. I like Dennis Leary, but Rescue Me lost a lot of it's charms for me last season, and what I've seen so far this year, they aren't back.

Lead Actress, Comedy Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Stockard Channing (Out of Practice), Debra Messing (Will and Grace)

Who it should be: Jane Kaczmarek. Who it will be? Messing as a goodbye to W&G.

Where the hell is Lauren Graham?

Lead Actress, Drama Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Geena Davis (Commander in Chief), Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: SVU), Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under), Allison Janney (The West Wing)

Kyra Sedgewick. I would love to see Allison Janney win, and she may since it's the last year of the West Wing, but Sedgewick deserves it.

Supporting Actor, Comedy Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), Sean Hayes (Will and Grace)

Will Arnett. Bryan Cranston in second, but I don't think either of them will get it.

Supporting Actor, Drama William Shatner (Boston Legal), Oliver Platt (Huff), Michael Imperioli (Sopranos), President Logan (24), Alan Alda (West wing)

Alan Alda. Or Oliver Platt. Just dear GOD not Shatner.

Supporting Actress, Comedy Cheryl Hines (Curb), Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives), Jaime Pressly (Earl), Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds), Megan Mullally (Will and Grace)

I have to pick Elizabeth Perkins, though I would get such a kick out of seeing Jaime Pressly win. That would be a hoot.

Supporting Actress, Drama Candice Bergen (Boston Legal), Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy), Chandra Wilson (Grey's Anatomy), Blythe Danner (Huff), Jean Smart (24)

This is tough. I share the Emmy's hard-on for Oh, but Chandra Wilson rocked so hard on Grey's. Can they tie?

Guest Actor, Comedy Patrick Stewart (Extras), Ben Stiller (Extras), Martin Sheen (Two and a Half Men), Alec Baldwin (Will and Grace), Leslie Jordan (Will and Grace)

Since I've seen none of the performances I am going to pick Patrick Stewart. Just cause that would rock.

Guest Actor, Drama Michael J Fox (Boston Legal), Christian Clemenson (Boston Legal), James Woods (ER), Kyle Chandler (Grey's Anatomy), Henry Ian Cusick (Lost)

Desmond! Desmond!

Guest Actress, Comedy Shirley Knight (Desperate Housewives), Kate Winslet (Extras), Cloris Leachman (Malcolm in the Middle), Laurie Metcalf (Monk), Blythe Danner (Will and Grace)

Kate Winslet.

Guest Actress, Drama Kate Burton (Grey's Anatomy), Christina Ricci (Grey's Anatomy), Swoosie Kurtz (Huff), Patricia Clarkson (Six Feet Under), Joanna Cassidy (Six Feet Under)

I had to look up Kate Burton on IMDB, then I decided on Ricci.

Comedy Series Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Scrubs, Two and a Half Men

Where are The Gilmore Girls? Fine then. Scrubs. But I'm still pissed.

Drama Series Grey's Anatomy, House, The Sopranos, 24, The West Wing

Grey's Anatomy, easy. But where are Big Love, and Nip/Tuck.

Music/Variety/Comedy Series The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, Real Time with Bill Maher

Daily Show. Colbert's too painful too watch because he's so convincing. Then again, maybe that means he should win.

Reality Show Antiques Roadshow, The Dog Whisperer, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, Penn and Teller: Bullshit

Bullshit! Not only because it's amazing, but because I want to hear them announce Bullshit! as a winner.

Writing, Comedy Series Arrested Development, Entourage, Extras, My Name is Earl, The Office

Arrested Development. Or Earl, but the writing was better on AD

Writing, Drama Series Grey's Anatomy (two noms), Lost, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos

Grey's. This season was mindblowing television.


What do you think? Who got left out (other than Lauren Graham) that has you pissed off? In what ways am I utterly wrong?
Let's hash this out folks!

Tags: Emmys, awards shows, nominations, television

Stupid Hiltons

This is a story of how the Doubletree Inn and Suites in Omaha, NE is a terrible hotel. Now, my sister-in-law paid for the room, all $85 a night for god knows how many family members. Since I didn't have to pay perhaps I shouldn't complain, but I see it as since she put out so much money the experience should not have been as bad as it was.

For me, the first bad sign, and the worst thing, it that there was no WiFi. None. The Super 8 in Rolla has WiFi. The Iowa rest stops and welcome center had WiFi. But a major, and expensive hotel in Omaha doesn't? I could have opted to pay a daily rate to use their dial-up, but to hell with that.

Right after I found out there was no WiFi another of my sisters-in-law came to the desk to get her meal tickets. (We got free breakfast buffet. More on that later) The clerk wouldn't give her tickets for her kids, since the computer only showed two people in the room. Now listen, if you aren't going to register kids since they are free, that's one thing, but then you aren't going to feed them? They also charged her $25 for a rollaway bed. $25 fucking dollars for a ROLLAWAY? If only this were all.

Now, I will point out that the people at the checkout desk were very nice, and professional and helpful. They were almost the only people in the hotel who were, but I do want to make it clear that so far my beef is with hotel policy and not the desk staff. The breakfast staff was another story altogether. The hostess was rude and dismissive, the servers wouldn't take our drink orders, so I had to ask a busboy. Then when I got my milk there was something severely wrong with the flavor. It wasn't spoiled, I know from spoiled milk. This had something added to it. My best guess was orange juice, but that's only because I don't want to think about how much worse the possibilities are. I've seen Fight Club after all. The food itself on the buffet was seriously sub-standard.

Our room was decent enough, and clean, and we got the requested extra pillows (Joe and I sleep using an obscene amount of pillows) but the showerhead was hanging half out of the wall, the TV Consisted of 4 ESPN channels, Fox News, two local network channels and HBO. Local phone calls cost $1.25, and there were fines for using a calling card as well. There was a bottle of Aquafina in the bathroom, with a tag that made you aware it cost $4.
Since we had my computer in the room, and all our other belongings, we chose to not have the maids clean up. So we put up the Do Not Disturb sign and told them in person we didn't wish to have our room cleaned. Yep. They did it anyway. And yes, we have gotten to the point in the story where I'm even complaining about my room being cleaned.

Despite the room being $85 a night (before taxes and fees) we still had to pay $6 a night for parking, all of us had problems with the key cards not working properly, the phones didn't work, it would take 5 minutes for anyone to answer at guest services when they did work.... the whole thing just really sucked. I'd blame Paris (Doubletree is a Hilton hotel) but God knows that she hasn't ever done any real work for the company.
I filled out the little customer (dis)satisfaction survey, but nothing will ever come of that. So I decided to use what little influence I have on the internet to encourage all of you to avoid the Hilton Family chain of hotels the next time you have to travel. I know I wont stay in one again.

Tags: Bad hotel, hilton, travel woes, doubletree, omaha

Lazy

I am so lazy, and unmotivated, but I owe you at least one post about the trip, and I really should get around to writing it, but I don't wanna.

So I changed my Template.
Yay!

Well, hi there!

So we're back, and we were hungover as predicted. That will happen when you have open bars two nights in a row. (Not to mention hitting the hotel bar afterwards. God how we drank)

I think I'm going to have to break it up in to a couple posts to tell all about it, the two main themes right now being how much Doubletree Inn and Suites in Omaha sucks donkey balls(there's a reason there was no drunken blogging), and how much I hate being an in-law. (I don't hate my in-laws, but both I and the other in-law present felt very marginalized during the whole thing)

Jack apparently had a great weekend and didn't miss me at all. My mom dropped him off yesterday and I didn't get greeted with smiles or him reaching for me and saying hi. He just kind of looked at me like, "Oh, there she is. All right then." and then when my mom left he started to cry. Once he saw Joe he started to smile and say hi and ran over to him. I'm so loved.

Mostly I am just glad to be home, to have my baby and my own bed, and to not be in heels anymore. My feet are still sore, and I have so many blisters it's freaky. Not to mention the toe that lost circulation and was basically asleep for a whole day. My poor feet :(

How were your weekends? I guess I should actually go read some blogs now and find out.

Tags: there's no place like home