omgwtf!

I’m working. It’s 4:30 in the morning.

The night has been full of the sound of choppers and train whistles. I just looked out my window. Because of the fires, the air was full of poison today and a massive smoke cloud stretched as far as you could see, creeping out from behind the mountains to spread itself stealthily across the sky. My eyes are burning and stinging, my sinuses are freaking out, my asthma is acting up. The moon right now, as I write, filtered through the toxic haze, is full and round and the colour of blood. When the sun rises, it will be filtered, too, and an angry, brilliant orange.

I’m in Los Angeles county. The closest fires to where we are are still a good distance away. Looking at a satellite map of the activity from the Mexican border up to Malibu, we sit literally in the center of a tight little circle of calm - the eye of the storm. Everything around us, north, south, and east, is ablaze.

Wildfires creating ‘utter devastation’ in Southern California - CNN.com

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In one exchange, which apparently took place after MTV News’ allotted hour was up (media outlets were only allowed to remain at the Q&A for a specified hour), Rowling told the audience that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore was gay and had fallen in love with fellow wizard and erstwhile friend, Gellert Grindelwald, according to the Associated Press and Potter fan site the Leaky Caudron. The crowd cheered, leading Rowling to say:

“If I had known this would have made you this happy, I would have told you years ago.”

I cheered when I read it, too. I knew it, I knew it! How TOTALLY awesome is this!? And he was outed at Carnegie Hall, too. Fantastic.

Man, I love Jo Rowling. And now I’m even more pissed off at her for killing him off.

MTV Article from whence the above quote came.

Link to Google news cache for topic.

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I adore the Dalai Lama with as much passion as I despise George W. Bush.

I’m not sure if the Congressional Gold Medal is even worth anything at all when this president is the one awarding it; furthermore, the Dalai Lama is so far and above the token that it’s like he has to stoop to accept it.

But being the gracious man that he is - he’s certainly a better human being than I could ever hope to be even in my wildest fantasies - the Dalai Lama will accept it with that incredible smile that lights up the world and that giggle that sounds like the stars themselves are laughing, so it’ll be okay, because he’s really not above or below anything, really; that’s the whole point, I suppose.

Still, though, it rankles me that this president, of all presidents, is the one to do the honours. I should let the Dalai Lama be my inspiration and rise above that kind of feeling - he of all people understands what having to deal with a corrupt and abusive government is all about, especially when you put it into perspective - but being the base, grubby dirtbag that I am, it’s just too close and the emotions are too raw for me to do it.

I’d say congratulations, but I just wouldn’t mean it. The “honour” is worthless to me, and the gesture is mystifying. My first thought was “hmm, I wonder what Shrub is up to now behind the cover of this gesture?” I just dont believe he’d do anything at all without a despicable ulterior motive. I wish the Dalai Lama would refuse it, to be honest. I really do. But he won’t, because he’s just not that kind of guy. That’s why he’s the Dalai Lama and I’m just some fat schmuck in LA.

Oh, and fuck China.

Dalai Lama brushes off China’s ire - CNN.com

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You know, I read the headline to this article and my geeky soul positively shrieked in joy, even as I knew that with Darth Lucas’ thumb in this pie, he’s going to be pulling a lump of shit instead of a plum out through the crust.

It’s just an automatic reaction; I’m powerless against it. Even though he’s managed to turn the Star Wars legacy into nothing more than a corporate cash cow with no soul to speak of, even though he’s a talent-free, money-grubbing, pretentious, arrogant hack with stupid fucking hair, I am still so deeply in love with the original trilogy, I still believe in that story so much, that I can’t help but get excited. Hell, I even still watch the prequels. I’m a passionately, incurably devoted Star Wars geek.

Note that I did NOT say “deluded.”

I suppose it’s the eternally optimistic romantic in me that’s hoping against all the odds that this actually turns out to be something awesome. It won’t, but a geek can dream, can’t she?

I hate you, George Lucas. I hate you. With gobs of flaming hate sauce.

Lucas planning ‘Star Wars’ TV series - CNN.com

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WTF?

Brooklyn Sidewalk Doodle Draws Graffiti Notice

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Chalk it up to the city’s crackdown on graffiti.

A 6-year-old child’s chalk sketches on her family’s stoop brought her bemused parents a graffiti-removal notice that threatened a $300 fine, the family and Sanitation Department officials said.

“My mom got a ticket for graffiti, and it wasn’t even graffiti,'’ first-grader Natalie Shea said. “It was art, very nice art.'’

AUDIO: 1010 WINS Speaks to the Chalk Offender

But a neighbor apparently didn’t see it that way and called the city’s 311 complaint line about the blue flower drawn earlier this month on the stoop of Natalie’s home on 10th street in Park Slope, a Brooklyn neighborhood known for being family-friendly.

The notice that arrived Oct. 5, giving the family 45 days to clean up the “graffiti,'’ was a form letter sent in response to all such complaints, city Sanitation Department spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins said.

Officials say all complaints to 311 automatically generate a letter.

“If people call and complain, we have to follow it up,'’ she said, but noted that the agency “does not consider a child’s chalk drawing to be graffiti.'’

Nor does City Councilman Peter Vallone, who spearheaded a 2005 city law that requires property owners to get rid of graffiti.

“It was never the intent of my law to capture chalk drawings on the sidewalk,'’ he said.

Natalie’s mother, Jen Pepperman, said she would wash off the girl’s doodles more promptly in future. As for the offending flower, it was erased Thursday by a heavy rain.

1010 WINS - On-Air, Online, On Demand - Brooklyn Sidewalk Doodle Draws Graffiti Notice

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No, no, I mean President Gore…you know, the guy we actually elected a few years back? Yeah, him.

Gore shares Nobel Peace Prize with U.N. panel - CNN.com

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