You Are Viewing Stuff

Granted, I’m feeling more than a little old after celebrating a birthday this past weekend, but I did get a kick out of this ad:

Web Designer Depot is doing a whole post on funny ads, but this one was my favourite. Hey, if I have to get older, I might as well embrace it…

Don’t get me wrong… what he did to Taylor Swift at the VMAs? Totally bad form. You just don’t do that to anyone, let alone a teenager who’s accepting her first award and is probably scared shitless to be there.

But here’s the thing… Kanye probably didn’t have a hope in hell of winning any of the awards he was up for… and it was for video, not even for the music, and his competition was pretty big. But at the end of the awards, who’s the one person everyone was talking about? Kanye.

And in six months, when people think back to the VMAs, they’re gonna be like… who was it Kanye interrupted while giving her speech? Oh, I don’t remember. But damn, Kanye’s a douche.

And, really, that’s probably his biggest goal from standing up there and crapping on that poor little girl. He wants people talking about him. And looking at blogs, twitter and forums after the fact? Kanye is the number one topic of conversation… even though he didn’t win anything. Even though there were much bigger stars and much bigger awards coming out of the event.

Because, honestly? Beyonce’s video was the best video ever? Really? I mean, I’ve never watched the whole video, I’ve actually never been a big fan of watching music videos – I’ve never even seen the one I’m in, for Pete’s sake – but from what I’ve seen, all she does is dance around in a little leotard, right? How is that the best video ever?

But what he was talking about? Not the point… Beyonce was just an easy excuse. The whole point? Look at Kanye.

So, douche move? Totally. Brilliant marketing move? Oh, hell yeah.

I have had this song in my head for over a week and it’s driving me crazy. So now you get to have it in your head:

My senior kindergarten teacher was Bram’s sister in law, so I remember he came to our class to sing with us a bunch of times. Though, it’s kinda scary how I still remember not only the lyrics but the hand gestures too.

I guess it could be worse… I could have made you listen to skinamarink…

So, I have this friend who I’ve known since Junior Kindergarten (and, considering the traumatic birthday I celebrated last week, it scares me how long ago that was…). We kept in touch all through school, even though she moved away sometime during grade 1.  She even used to make up Nancy-Drew-type mysteries and plant clues all over her neighbourhood to give us something to do when I’d come visit. (Which, my 13-year-old self who just wanted to talk about boys didn’t really appreciate, but my much older self now thinks was a pretty darn cool thing to do).

The thing is… after we left school and went out into the world, our paths diverged completely. To the point that we completely lost touch of what was going on in each other’s lives. I saw her a few years ago, and she’d had four daughters, two of whom, I didn’t even know existed. And even though we had a great catch up time all those years ago, and even though I think about her every once in a while, the thought of picking up the phone and calling her kinda scares me, because it’s been soooo long. And I *should* call, because again, soooo long. And yet I don’t. Because I’m embarrassed at how long it’s been.

Well… I’m beginning to feel that way about my blog. At first, I was just so overwhelmed, I didn’t have time to write a blog post. (Well, that’s not entirely true, I have about 20 half-written posts that I never got around to finishing). Then, a few weeks had passed, then a few months, and my blog posts have pretty much dwindled down to just blogging my new releases. And I feel bad that I’ve been neglecting my poor little blog, and you my blog readers who come here looking for some kind of grammatical blogging and not just months of silence. And, yes, a lot embarrassed.

So, I’m sucking it up and facing the music… and making an effort to start blogging again.

Hi. I’m Laurie. It’s been a while. How’ve you been? What’s new and exciting in your lives?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really should go make a phone call…

So, people have already started with the RWA negativity. Bonnie and I? We’ve had nothing but the good times (ok, well, there was the conspiracy not to feed us yesterday, but we’ll pretend that didn’t happen). And, after today, nothing’s gonna bring us down. Why? We went shoe shopping!

And not just shoe shopping… it was the purchase of black-patent Prada pumps for 65% off that makes this blog-worthy.

Oh, yes. This box? Now part of my wardrobe:

And wait! What’s inside?

Look at these pretties:

And the obligatory model shot (And, yes, my legs really are that pasty white. )

Even if it did just start, I’d say I can consider this trip a success. I’m so gonna be wearing these everywhere…

Excuse me now while I go pet my shoes…

Which, when you think about it, is pretty funny, considering I just finished reading my ARC of Michelle Maddox’s Countdown. (And, seriously, what a kick-ass story. I loved it. When it comes out in August, go get it, read it, devour it.)

But no, there are currently several countdowns on the go in my world… Ten days until I leave for San Francisco… for sightseeing and the RWA conference.  Twenty-two days until the start of my month off. One contract will be over. Another will be on hiatus, leaving me with very little to do in the way of work… (Oh, wait, is that 25+ manuscripts in my Samhain subs folder? Hm, why yes, yes it is… ). While I’m really looking forward to the break (seriously, two years of seven-day work weeks is never a smart idea), I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself. I’m so used to have a mile-long to-do list, and my every waking minute filled. This is gonna be hard to get used to.

But it’s gonna be fun trying.

That’s not to say I don’t have plans for my time off, some exciting things I’m hoping to put out into the world. So stay tuned…

It’s O-S-C-A-R.

(heh, do I have that song in your head now? )

Yes, I’m weak. I let T talk me into it.

I’d like you to meet…

Oscar the Rauch

It’s funny… T and I named our future dog, whoever he was going to be, ages and ages ago. We didn’t know he was going to be a weiner dog (He’s a dachshund). T wanted a Jack Russell (I vetoed that one. Way too much energy for me), but when we met Oscar, we fell in love with him. And now we have an Oscar Meyer Weiner Dog.

(No, for those who are wondering, I also vetoed the pet store. We adopted Oscar from a nice family).

He’s been with us a week and a half and already things are a little upside down in the house. But I won’t bore you with all the stories of turf training (or, Oscar! don’t pee in your bed!), or the Hey! I don’t want to go in this dark crate by myself, I want to sleep on top of T.

Because it’s all worth it when you have this tiny little dog with these giant Dumbo ears running at you for a pounce break or a lick-fest.

And who knows, we might even get him over his fear of outside so he actually will help me get my butt away from the computer. *grin*

Dear JJ.

I love loved your shit. Lost, Alias, MI3, I would have followed you anywhere. Except, apparently, Cloverfield.

I’m not sure what the hell that was… but it wasn’t even the tiniest bit close to the JJ Abrams mind-fuck I was expecting or craving..

Man vs. Monster? Could have been a totally kick-ass movie.

A mind-fuck WTF ending after being entertained for 93 minutes? I’d have bought it.

Unsympathetic characters, a completely absent frame of reference, and random violence without understanding the impact on the world, the characters or why or where they came from? You Lost me.

I’m so over you.

Laurie.

Even though I’m notoriously bad at blogging, I’m still seeing a bunch of repeat visitors. So I’m jumping on the bandwagon and playing along with Delurker Day, which I discovered thanks to Kalisah over at I Am Not My Hair.

So delurk, leave me a comment and tell me who you are. If ya do… I have some news. I’m introducing a new feature of this blog tomorrow…  but you’ll have to come back and see what it is.

I know I’m a huge lurker, especially since I read all my blogs on my Google Reader. I love that everything comes right to me and I don’t have to try to remember all the URLs and I’ve discovered a pile more by clicking on links, but I’ve realized that I’m missing out on seeing everyone’s cool designs and their blogrolls, which I used to haunt. I guess this means instead of just working on blogging more, I also need to work on commenting more. Hee.

So, go on. Comment. You know you wanna….