Not boarding the Catbus

So for those of you who are unfamiliar with the works of Studio Ghibli, the Catbus is an charming creature in "My Neighbor Totoro", and is a huge cat creature with mice-lamps, a Cheshire grin, and lots of feet, it's also in the movie, indirectly indicated as the source of many strong gusts of wind, since most people can't see it when it rushes past them.


 MiniMonster is unlikely to be attempting to board one any time soon. He has no objection to cats, or to dogs...and probably not to mice though we haven't found out on that front, but he's not exactly fond of strong wind.

 I'm hoping when he's old enough to really appreciate the story in 'Totoro' it'll help ease his mind, but unfortunately in the mean time it makes for slightly restless nights. He woke up two or three times last night because we've been having windy weather, though he went back to sleep when he got to curl up with me in his Dad's chair in the living room.

 I gotta admit, it's one of the reasons I do like Ghibli films though. 90-99% of Disney revolves around girls getting married by rich, powerful guys, and having this marriage be -the most- important thing in their life, above anything else. Or bastardizing classic stories and myths to the point of being non-recognizable ((See Hunchback and Mulan)), plus merchandizing until you choke.

 Ghibli films -actually have children.-. They're often about life changing events which require them to show greater maturity, but they're about strength of character, without loosing a sense of enchantment, wonder and magic. They're just awesome films, and so much fun. <3

 I'm gonna go geek out and watch one this afternoon I think.

And now for something completely different

There's not enough awesome sillyness in the world, especially as we close in on the Holidays.

 This made me smile in spite of nearly being clipped by a deranged older woman at the dump while I was trying to get back into my car, and having an really rude lady at JoAnnes decide that my handful of stuff and babystroller were way less important than HER stuff, and bolted around us to cut in line.

Sausage Casserole and Soapbox.

 I made a Potato-Sausage casserole last night as an attempt at a new recipie, it actually came out pretty well, but the potatoes actually needed to cook longer. ((I've noticed that problem with some of Taste of Homes recipes that involve potatoes.)) Also if you *cough* happen to use spicy sausage... leave out the pepper. It was good enough though that we'll probably do a second run at it.

 Otherwise: sorry, I'm rambling today.

 I felt a bit like Geek-Ebert yesterday with the giant Zombie blog, which was kinda fun ((G-Ebert. ;) )), although I felt more growly later when a topic came up on Ravelry about Bullying. I am happy that people are becoming more concious of the enormous harm it can do, but I'm a little annoyed but one of the current blanket assumptions I keep seeing.
 "All Bullies must automatically have abusive/terrible parents."

 I'm sorry... but I flatly CAN'T agree with that as a blanket truth. I'm sure a number of them do. But not all of them, there's just no way. It doesn't take an abusive parent to make certain children crave authority, power, and the 'respect' they earn from making others feel that they are supreme above all others. True, many of these bullies are cripplingly insecure, especially among the girls, but that doesn't mean they come from bad homes. It may mean they've made bad choices, that they've wrapped themselves up in the illusion that the tangled and barbed knot of peer pressure and the urge to climb to the top of the heap by beating down everyone around them actually will MEAN something once they've left school... but it doesn't mean they were abused.

 It's the goddamn Lord of the Flies. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's a little savage microcosm, a tiny island where who has the latest fashion, the best sports scores, and the most important parent make or break you, where if you're new, you're a target, because you're a threat to the established order.

 At some point along the line, it is, weather or not people want to admit it, the BULLIES choice to Bully, and something they, personally, need to take responsibility for. That's the only way I see the cycle being broken. You can stand on a soap box all day long and say "I abuse (insert other person here) because Mommy and Daddy abused me", but at the end of the day, you're the one who made the choice to continue the cycle of abuse.

 Blaming everything on the previous generation's actions is only an excuse not to change, and it's a pathetic one.

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

 So Tilmani and I snagged "The Walking Dead" off of Netflicks and watched the first two episodes last night. It was actually pretty fun ((Tilmani is a big zombie fan)) and we both had plenty of stuff to creep us out, but we also, and I'm sorry to those who have latched on as die hard fans, MST3Ked the heck out of it.

 Our first argument was that the Deputy got all the way to his house without making any attempt whatsoever to find shoes. Arguably there's a lot of stress involved in waking up in an empty hospital, but between having absoloutely no one respond to you falling out of bed, and having no one in the halls, that seemed in our book to be a huge red flag, and that was BEFORE finding an nommed up corpse in the hallway. ((Omnomnom))

 Having a body in the hallway that had clearly been dead for at little while and just -left- there should have also been a major red flag that there was something -really- wrong, and a good sign that shoes, if not other clothing, and possibly an improvised weapon, should be begged borrowed or stolen. Maybe you'd look like a fool if there turned out to be a rational explanation, but if I woke up in an empty hospital and found a corpse on the floor missing most of their midsection, I'd rather look like a fool than the corpse. Just sayin'.

 Since he decided it wasn't a good idea to even tape something to his feet to try and avoid the broken glass everywhere, we scoffed at that for a while, then banged our heads as he marched through a field of corpses. right through the middle. Not around the edges, right down the middle like he was looking for a seat in the movie theater. This while still in bare feet and having just walked through broken glass. Somehow, because it's TV, he didn't cut his feet on anything, but again, I would have skirted the edges. You don't know what killed the people, you know one body inside has been EATEN by something, and, well, corpses in general tend to harbor disease, which you wouldn't want on your bare, potentially sliced up feet.

 Thirdly: After discovering HALF OF A PERSON trying to crawl across the grass and Nom him on the way home ((in boxer shorts and a hospital robe)), he goes into his house (without shutting the front door yet), has a small melt down ((Ok that was understandable)), and then goes outside and sits down.

 Then because apparently he suffered complete amnesia about half of a corpse trying to catch him  in the park, he is completely non suspicious of the guy shuffling down the middle of the road in a suit. Doesn't even blink. Doesn't stop to wonder why the guy doesn't answer when he calls 'hey'...

 Yeah, just a few giant things that seemed to defy basic brain power.

 We also argued about the pros and cons of horse over humvee, though since we were divided on that, we finally agreed that if he'd decided NOT to go into the city ((Where there were more people originally and therefore should have guessed that there might be a much much higher concentration of 'Walkers')), the horse wouldn't have been a bad idea, but going into the city, a car would have been better, if only because it's not made of meat and doesn't spook near Zombies.

 So idiot boy wasted a perfectly good means of transportation because he figured it would be totally awesome to ride a horse downtown...and get it eaten.

 There was however NO argument that the Deputies wife was cheaper than a nickel prostitute, since apparently in less than a month after she assumed her comatose husband had been devoured by Zombies ((Assuming she hadn't been banging the guy since the second her husband went into the hospital)) she jumped in bed with his partner. That's some seriously fast mourning period, even for a troubled marriage. And with such a classy guy too! Willing to abandon other survivors at the drop of a hat... such an beautiful role model for her son!

 This 'Public Service Announcement' has been brought to you by "Geeks preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse"