Open Letter (4)

(This is a meme going around Ravelry right now, it basically just means that you write a letter to something or someone and post it on the internet.)

Dear body-of-mine: Kindly knock it off. I realize that you don’t like having cough-variant asthma; it’s not fun for either one of us. And I realize that since you had a really bad cough Friday afternoon, it was probably not a good idea to go on a double-date to the movies. In my defense, I pre-medicated with an inhaler and drank lots of hot sweet tea to soothe your poor raw throat. Apparently, it was not enough, because you insisted on being given cough medicine with codine in it before you shut down for the night.

Sleeping in till 12:30 on Saturday was actually kinda nice. It screwed over any chance I had of getting things done, but I apparently needed the rest. It was also nice of you to cooperate long enough that I could get my scholarship essay done and mailed and post a review on my blog. The poor thing was looking seriously lonely. HOWEVER: chicken noodle soup is indeed good for you. Particularly when you are not at top performance. If I keep you diluted with water and various kinds of nice tea and cough drops – the nice honey lemon ones, not the nasty medicinal tasting cherry ones that make you feel ill after only three – and then give you hot soup on top of that when you’re feeling down, regifting my offerings to the toilet bowl is perhaps the most ungrateful response a person can get from their body. And then you didn’t even apologize, you just checked out for three hours. Also, making me dizzy enough that I have to lie down on my much-abused stomach with a pillow under my chest to eat dinner is highly counterproductive. If you’d just hold off long enough to let me get some light food in our stomach, I promise you’d feel a lot better.

Yesterday wasn’t much better. At least you evicted Dizziness and Nausea Co. from the premises, but then you invited Earache and Joint Pain over for the weekend, and a Category Three Headache has somehow parked itself over my head. Also, it wasn’t very polite of you to shut down your throat while I was trying to get things sorted with my friends. Both of them told me to shut up, get off the phone, and go to sleep. While I didn’t sleep, working on the shawl and doing Calculus without talking certainly seemed to placate you, and you were nice enough to let me finish up that situation. Thanks also for letting me keep the soup last night down, it certainly helped.

Apparently this morning Joint Pain decided to go somewhere else. That was nice; it meant I wasn’t going crazy with pain. However, I guess Earache decided to have a party to celebrate, which means the Headache has been upgraded to a Category Four. Also, you need to get better security; somehow Bronchitis or Sinus Infection (or both) got in here overnight, and I’ve had to call in the heavy artillery to boot them out. Making me cough hard enough that I think I’m going to hurl is not an appropriate protestation form. Neither is making my breastbone feel so tight I think it’s going to snap every time I cough.

Please get your act together. I have one semester left before graduation, and I really cannot afford to miss weeks of school on end due to sickness. I understand you not wanting to go today and rebelling by waking me up every thirty minutes last night. I didn’t agree with the school board’s decision either. Make-up snow days should be tacked on the end of the year (after seniors graduate), not on federal holidays. However, you’ve now had a day of R&R. Let’s get some stuff done, shall we? ~LT

***

Dear Jeff-the-wonder-PA:

Thank you for getting on the ball and seeing me ASAP. Last time I saw you, my lungs and everything were clear, but you had a hunch and sent me in for an x-ray. Good call: I had bronchitis then too. Now it’s back, and you’ve already put me on antibiotics. You are a wonderful person.

~Grateful patient LT

***

Dear Bronchitis:

Take a hike. Nobody likes you.

~LT (and her mom)

***

Dear Halls:

I like your cough drops. They work quite nicely, and I don’t mind paying a little extra for them because they work so nicely. (And they don’t turn my tongue funny colors like the Kroger generic ones. Just saying.) I also like the fact that they come in little resealable packages. However, if you are going to mark a little dotted line that says “Tear on this line” and expect us to believe you, you might want to make sure that the line is actually perforated all the way through. That way, your already-sick-and-upset-customers won’t be even more disgruntled because they tore along the dotted line and then had to perform surgery on a plastic bag that refused to open.

~LT

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Review: Push

Push (now in theaters)

Push begins on the premise that living among us are parapsychics that fall into several categories.  There are people who can see the future, people who can shove objects (telekinetics), people who can manipulate others’ minds (“pushers”), and myriad others.  They were first discovered in the Nazi prison camps during German attempts to create super soldiers.  Today, these parapsychics are feared by normal people and often locked away by a government agency known simply as Division.  Followers of the X-men saga will immediately recognize similarities between the two; however, I personally feel that Push handled things better than the other series.

The main character, Nick, is a “mover” – a telekinetic.  He and Cassie, a “watcher” – one who can see the future – team up in an attempt to track down a case with a special syrum and the girl who carries it.  The girl – escaped from Division – is a “pusher” and extremely powerful.  Not only do they have to find her, they have to find the case she’s hidden.  All this takes place in a metropolitan city in China, and both Division and greedy parapsychics are after them and their prize.

I really appreciated how this movie handled the whole idea of psychic powers.  That was one of the problems I had with The Last Stand; the Phoenix/Jean Gray was practically all-powerful, and the entire movie revolved around the premise of “How do we stop this creature that has been unleashed on the world?” (For the purists out there, I’m referring to the movie-version of Phoenix/Jean Gray only.  Just so you know.)  In Push, however, the psychics had limits.  They couldn’t do everything, and there were things that could stop them.  Those limitations made them seem a little more approachable, a little more – how do you say in English – human.

Things I didn’t like (and these are kinda biggies):

1) The amount of violence during the fight scenes.

2) There was no explanation of how the psychics got to be that way.  One thing that X-men has over this movie; even if you don’t like the mention of evolution, it’s still a plausible theory.

3) The several “duh” moments that peppered the movie, particularly circulating around Nick.  Nick risks several thousand dollars on a dice throw and then fails to tip the die – since he rarely practices. Nick goes after Carver in a restaurant and, quite frankly,  gets his butt kicked.  Nick goes up against Victor, another pusher, and discovers that he can use his powers to supercharge his punch.  Duh.

4) The serious lack of character development throughout the movie.  Everyone is static.  Yeah, we find out about their backgrounds, but nothing else.

Possible objectionable content: an inordinate amount of violence (particularly from the screamers), an intense sequence where Nick gets healed, a very short sensual sequence (which mostly consists of kissing), language (from Dakota Fanning?  what gives?!), plus a good bit of blood.  It’s rated PG-13 I think, but I say 16+ just for the intense sequences.

Stardragon’s rating: 8.5 out of 10 butterscotch candies

Haven’t gotten to review a movie before, this was kinda fun.

On a side note: let’s have a talk about Internet Etiquette, shall we? (I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the Internet is moving too slowly for me to really care about getting links.)

If you come onto this website, you have stepped into my virtual living room.  My door is wide open, and anyone is welcome.  Pretend I have invited you over for tea or something.  You can look around, ask me questions, hang out for a while.  However, this does NOT mean that you are allowed to insult or verbally abuse me or the other guests in here.  If you would not walk into my house and say it to my face, do not say it over the Internet.  And if you do, don’t be surprised if your comment never shows up on the blog.  I moderate all comments before approving them.

I brought this up because recently, a visitor left a comment that rocked me back on my heels.  She (the name was feminine, so we’ll assume it was a woman) wrote only four words, two of which were profane and highly insulting.  (The comment has been deleted.)  It was on a book review post, but it had nothing to do with the book.  So here’s my point: if you disagree with me, you can bloody well find a way to say it politely.  Please remember that there are people behind the words on the internet and filter your messages accordingly.

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Store Updates… and a survey.

Some items of business….

Item the first: Spilled Paint Scarf.

Stats: 6″ wide by 72″ long. 100% acrylic worked in 2×2 rib. Neither terribly original nor difficult, but I needed a brainless project during exams.

Asking price: $25

Item the second: Winter Camouflage

Stats: Fits an average-sized head (Assuming you don’t have a ponytail or something; then it doesn’t fit so well.) 100% acrylic, my own pattern.

Asking price: $15

Item the third: well, it’s not new, but it is news. All anime tricolor scarves, Timcanpy keychains, and Mokona hats are not for sale in the store. This is because I am planning to go to Matsuricon this coming fall and don’t want to have to make a ton more. Please don’t commission these items from me either, at least not right now.

Item the fourth: the survey.  I want to add some diversity to the anime merchandise, and I’m thinking about expanding the number of scarf designs.  There are already three designs for FMA and two for d. Gray Man, so I’m looking at some other series.  My question is, what would you guys like to see?  Evangelion?  Fruits Basket?  Something else entirely?  Toss out some ideas please; leave the name of the series and a rough description of the design.  Links to pictures would also be helpful; I’m not familiar with a lot of series.  Thanks for the input!

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Um.

So. Uh… if you don’t have local Dayton news, go read my LJ post (once I remove the f-lock)

Long story short, I’ll be putting my knitting content here instead of LJ, because Ravelry refuses to read my Livejournal. (I’m on there as ladytemeraire, by the way.)

Anyway.

The Hobswyllin sock (#1) is approaching completion. The llama earflap cap is still slogging, and the Snowdrop Shawl’s body is done – the edge stitches just need picked up. I also started a Brainless Project – namely, a 2×2 rib scarf in wide swaths of color. During the incident today, I doubled its length. Ha. I really need to put it down and work on other stuff, but it’s a good stress reliever.

I may post again later after I fix some stuff. My internet connection is being a major pain today.

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