RANT AHEAD! (I collect toys in case you didn’t know)

This right here is what the news is calling “S&M Barbie” and has parents and Christian groups outraged!

Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far. A children’s doll in sexually-suggestive clothing is irresponsible – it’s filth. – The Christian Voice

Okay here’s the catch. This is part of the DC Comics collection of Barbies, which already include Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Woman (which I of course own). This is the character of Black Canary. This doll is so obviously marketed at collectors. If you want proof, well these dolls are the ONLY Barbies you’ll ever find in a comic book store. Of course even when Mattel points out that this is part of the DC Comics’ collectors line, well some moms won’t buy it.

Several mothers, however, aren’t buying it….neither the explanation nor the doll. Los Angeles resident and mom, Roberta Moran, said, “They want kids to grow up too fast, basically. When babies are little they should have babies that are soft and lovey.” Mom Zully Gomez adds, “It doesn’t look very appropriate for a Barbie. It looks like a stripper.”

You know what, save it. Did you buy your kids the “Wizard of Oz” Barbies? OMG you taught your kids about being gay! What about the “I Love Lucy” Barbies OMG, teaching your kids to stay in a marriage with cheating husband! How about the “Gone With The Wind” Barbies? Just insert your own racial injustice saying here. All these Barbies are aimed at the collector market, because Mattel knows Barbie is a collectible!

Finally for those who really are offended by the sexual innuendos. Well you know what, maybe it’s time you learn the HISTORY of Barbie! I don’t know how many people know it, but Barbie IS a sex doll. She IS an adult toy. The woman who “invented” and sold Barbie to Mattel TOOK the idea from a sex doll! Yes she found the doll in Europe (Germany if memory serves me). The doll was marketed at adult men as a gag gift basically, and she turned it into a children’s toy. A children’s toy which Mattel bought and sold to kids. A children’s toy that taught little girls to be pretty and popular they had to be blond, blue eyed and have a perfect unachievable without surgery figure (in case you didn’t know, the original Barbie’s dimensions are not humanly possible unless you have a few ribs removed). A toy that taught them they needed a man to be complete. Need I really go on?

Image: The Sun
News Story Links/Sources: KTLA News, Fox News, MomLogic

P.S. I don’t follow this comic character at all, but the outrage the doll alone has prompted me to buy one when it comes out (cause that makes it even more collectible). That and the fact it’s fabulous!

I took this with my iPhone, to test out how well photos come out with it. Pretty damn good, much better than any other camera phone I’ve ever had. Anyway, this here is what is left of poor Jason Vorhees, who was hanging up on my porch last year as part of my Halloween decorations. I had left him on the porch and had PLANNED to unstuff him, wash the clothes and then sew the shirt to the pants for next year to make him look more human (he was a little top heavy last year). That never happened, and eventually I just left him on the porch thinking “Well pretty soon I’ll be hanging him back up again!” Oh yes, I’ll be doing it again this year and I’m sure I’ll even add some new stuff in.

Last night for some odd reason I had a dream that I was in a horror movie. I was in this giant old mansion of a house running around trying to get away from some monstrous freak, who for some reason was Jason Vorhees. However he didn’t look like Jason, he had no hockey mask. He did have a deformed face and long stringy nasty hair though. For some reason I was running around with some screaming little girl who wouldn’t shut up, which of course made it easy for us to be found. Oh and I’m pretty sure I was a female myself. It was more like I was watching all this happen from outside my body. Hmmmm. We were running up through the attic and then all the way down to the cellar, where we finally escaped out the back door and got to a car. As we drove away Jason watched us from a window and another woman stood in the front doorway of the house in a nasty black dress. For some reason I felt this was his step-mother, why I don’t know. I don’t recall all the details, just that I remember it was very scary. Maybe someone is telling me to make it into a story or a movie.

So just got back from “Mamma Mia.” I enjoyed it, and if you’ve seen the Broadway show and liked it, then I think you’ll like the movie. If you’ve never seen the show . . . . well . . . . I don’t know. Three women were sitting next to me who loved Abba but hadn’t seen it and they liked it. Whether you like it will depend on three things I think. I think you need to 1) really like Abba 2) accept that this movie is going to be cheesy (as in so far over the top cheesy) on purpose and 3) accept that they cast Pierce Brosnan for looks and appeal to a certain age of woman and clearly not his ability to sing (which he can’t, at all, even though he tried, really hard).

The storyline from the show is all there. I won’t give anything away, though honestly it’s pretty much given away in the trailers really. That’s about it, a wedding and three possible dads. There are some twists along the way. I really like what they did with Collin’s character in the movie, and the audience also thought it was hilarious.

The audience seemed to like it over all. There was clapping, laughter and singing. One girl started dancing during the credits, I think trying to get others to join her.

Because a lot of people found my old “Mamma Mia” post through Googling what had been changed, here is a list of things I can recall . . . .

“Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Under Attack” are both gone. “Name Of The Game” will appear on the DVD as an extra. This was a last minute edit, it apparently appeared in previews last month in San Francisco. “Thank You For The Music” runs during the closing credits and is not in the show. “I Do, I Do, I Do,” while not on the soundtrack, is in there. So is “Chiquita,” which is one of the best numbers of the whole film.

Added in was the song “When All Is Said And Done.” However unlike on the soundtrack where it’s a duet, it’s basically just Pierce singing it in the movie.

“Take A Chance On Me” is moved around from when it appears in the show. Rather than happening right before the wedding (the characters are setting chairs) it happens at the celebration dinner for Donna and Sam (which isn’t in the show). This I thought was a good move mainly because they needed something big and well known to sorta close the movie out (I always thought “I Do, I Do, I Do” wasn’t the strongest thing to basically go out on).

“Gimme Gimme Gimme” seemed to have been truncated a bit in the movie I thought to allow for too much talking between the characters of Sophie and Sam.

Oh and yes, the encores of “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo” are there EXACTLY as they are in the show. I won’t say anymore because this is the funny treat of the film/show if you’ve never seen it.

I finally got through my weight loss hump, well sorta. I kept hovering around various numbers, and my weight loss/exercise program kept telling me I was below my calorie target, which could be causing this. Not much I can do really, I retrained my stomach to eat less, I have been doing a lot more exercise and when it’s hot as hell I don’t usually want to eat that much. Anyway, today I made it to 159. Woohoo! I’m sure tomorrow I’ll be back up to 160. It took me a few days of back and forth with 169 too I remember.

I’m going to need new shorts pretty soon, because the ones I have now (which I just bought in April!) are falling below the equator. I’m not sure about jeans, since I haven’t tried any one recently. Oh and no, I don’t want to show my undies to the world as I don’t think it’s “cool,” especially for someone (well) over the age of 18.

Tomorrow will be my last day on week three of that PodRunner Intervals thing. I should actually move forward to week 4, and I may. However having listened to the running verses walking routine on it, I’m scared! It’s mostly running for long stretches with brief periods of walking in between. I knew it was coming, but just like a doctor’s appointment, I dread doing it.

Tomorrow is “Mamma Mia” and I’m so excited! It looks like I’m going to see “Dark Knight” the week after. I think the last movie I want to see this summer is the new “Mummy” movie.

Oh I finally did get that damn iphone last night, and the case arrived this morning, so I can actually take it out of the house without fear of dropping it and destroying it totally. So far so good. It does take getting used to, and it took me a while to figure out how to get everything I wanted on there and working they way I wanted it to. Now I’m basically just waiting for the WordPress App to come out (it was supposed to be out 2 or 3 days ago) so I can blog with it if I so choose to.

I wish I had something fun to discuss, but I really don’t. Therefore I will ramble about many things.

I need to find the time to get to work on my video blogs. I not only want to do the one on the farm, but the dogs too. I’m slowly about start caving and doing some meems I keep seeing around the blogosphere!

Lately I’ve been the pool chaperon. On Tuesday’s I take the kids to the pool while they have their lessons. Normally I just read my school work and take notes. Today I took my laptop for the first time and actually got a lot done surprisingly. I however wasn’t pulled into the pool to play. I take them other times when they beg to go, but usually those times I end up in the pool and don’t get work done. One thing I’ve noticed is the cliques at the pool, especially with the women. They all seem to huddle in little groups and only talk to only those in their groups. Apparently these groups are based on where in the community they live, or in one case the teacher moms. These are women mostly older than me (or at least they look older than me), and I can’t help but wonder if we are all still stuck in high school. By we of course I mean THEM. A few people have come up to me to say hi, but that’s about it. I don’t know, I do always have my nose in a book or something, so I guess I give off the “don’t bother me” vibe. I’m also usually the only adult in the pool playing with the kids (many of the mom’s come in their outfits), so maybe they think I’m weird (or a pervert, which I’m sure some do).

I am breaking down and going to talk to my doctor about allergy shots. He shops at the farm, so next time he’s in I will corner him. Specifically I want to know if they give them in the office and the costs. Otherwise I’m forced to deal with sticking a needle in myself at home, which I don’t think I’ll be able to handle. Fortunately an actual nurse works at the farm on weekends so I can probably get her to do it. My allergies are getting worse each summer I’m on this farm, and this week I broke out in a rash on the backs of my legs. That has happens since I was probably 10 or 11!

Currently the E3 is going on in LA, I think. This is the big videogame convention where all the companies reveal their new big games for the coming year in hopes of wooing people to buy their consoles. So far two things have my attention.

The first is “Animal Crossing: City Folk,” which was announced for the Wii. I have both the original GameCube version and the DS version. This game is hard to describe, because technically it’s a game about nothing with no real overall goals, which of course makes it incredibly addicting. You are this humanoid creature that buys a house in a town populated by animals, who move in and out of town as time goes on. Sometimes they’ll tell you they want to move and you can try and convince them to stay. Other times they just sell their house and leave. You do things like plant trees, collect bugs and fish, dig for treasures and fossils and so forth. You make money, enlarge your house, buy clothes and furniture. It’s like a cute and very simplified version of “The Sims.” The DS version introduced online play where you could travel to other people’s towns. In the Wii version there will be a town and a big city to travel to and shop. There will also be an online component where you can meet people, trade and sell stuff and so forth. The exciting part is they’ve added a microphone (which works more like a speakerphone) so you can chat in real time. The biggest improvement is you won’t be limited to mingling with just people on your friend list, you’ll be able to meet people from all over the world. I can’t wait.

The second game so far that’s interested me is “Lips” for the Xbox360. This is basically Microsoft’s answer to my current obsession “Singstar.” They’ve upped the ante. You now have a wireless mic to bust out dance moves with while you sing and can earn extra points for your moves (how it detects and will rate has yet to be determined). Like “Singstar” there is an online shop (Dustin may have to finally upgrade his Xbox360 to that bigger hard drive), but the big innovation is the ability to port your own songs in from CD’s or your iPod. This rocks for the songs you want to play but they don’t offer. However you’ll have to type in the lyrics, and obviously the video will be missing. I also don’t know if it will have the ability to record video of you singing and an online community like “Singstar,” which makes that game (I *heart* Divaliscious’ hair).

Okay Idon’t have anything else to say 🙂

So I have been wanting to post this for a few days now, but didn’t know how to honestly. I found this over at Keep It Simple and just about died of laughter when I saw it.

Of course the problem is it’s not the most polite thing to post, and I know a lot of women read this blog and could potentially be insulted by this. Well since Aravis referred her readers to a site which in fact used the word “Coochy,” I felt I could get away with this. I do though have to state that for some reason out of all the words on the page I was for some reason drawn to “Coochy” immediately. It was like a magnet that attracted and repulsed me at the same time.

I will, for the faint of heart, post this under the fold. If you wish to see what made me laugh so much, read on. Fair warning, it discusses the female anatomy. There is absolutely nothing dirty in the image, nothing X-rated, and even no profanity.

(more…)

So like a goob, and against my better judgement, I got up way too early yesterday and went down to the AT&T store to stand in like for the stupid iPhone. Let me tell you that line moved so . . . damn . . . slow. Clearly they did not have a good plan in place, had no real idea how long the new in-store activation process would in fact actually take and thus issues were all over the place, which many might have seen on the news. It seems the flood of activations from the stores around the world basically ended up crashing the main Apple/AT&T server and some people’s phones were left screwed up.

So what do I think of the new iPhone? I wish I could tell you, but I can’t, cause they ran out 2 people in front of me! Yes I stood there for 4 1/2 some hours and they ran out, because they couldn’t bother to tell people how many phones they in fact had to sell. Now I didn’t go to the actual Apple store, I went to an AT&T store. I already have AT&T and am eligible for the cheap-o upgrade. I did not trust the 16 year old employees at the Apple store not to screw something up, like tell me I had to pay the non-upgradeable price for the phone or set up 2 accounts so I’d get double billed for the iPhone and my old phone. I had gone in earlier in the week to ask questions at the Apple store and was met with “Yeah, I don’t know,” “Yeah, we don’t know how the activation will work yet,” and so forth. Basically they new nothing it seemed. Then I went to the AT&T store and they could answer every question I asked them. Therefore I decided I’d get the phone from the AT&T store.

Now after they ran out I could have gone over to the Apple Store, which I’m sure still had them. But I had already stood in line far too long and wasn’t going to stand in another line for any more time. I hadn’t eaten and it was hot out. AT&T basically told us if we bought the phone that day, they would be included in the next shipment to the store and our phone would be held, no waiting in any lines for subsequent shipments. I wasn’t about to walk away with nothing, so I did that. So now I wait for a call or email to tell me to come get my phone, which will probably be on Monday.

Since I have no fricken iPhone, I went to the iTunes store and downloaded all the free apps for it that I hope to use. I ended up downloading the Twitter app and set up a Twitter account. I’ve seen it around the web on people’s blogs, I just never got into it. I might add it to my side bar if I find it fun, I don’t know yet. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s basically a system that allows you to post quick blurbs as to what you are doing right now, much like you can do on your Facebook or Myspace profile actually. This however keeps a backlog and allows you to reply to other people’s messages. It seems most useful to use from a phone honestly to update where you are and what your doing, or to reply to others doing the same. Anyway, here is my twitter page, which no I haven’t customized at all.

Janelle at JunkFood4TheSoul posted a nice post about me, saying how basically I was her oldest internet friend, the first person she met on the internet and had known the longest (through my old “Days Page”). It inspired me to write a similar post about the person I’ve known the longest on the net. This requires some back-story!

So I was probably a sophomore in undergrad when I really started getting into the internet. Entering college we all got email accounts and were given free dial-up accounts to call in and check our email. By my sophomore year I had discovered more than just email, venturing onto the web as well as IRC chat. I decided I wanted to make a web page, being able to do so on my school account for free, so I set out to learn how to do it. In the end I made two: one for “Days” and the other for the “Sega Saturn,” an old Sega system. I also quickly found a Sega IRC chatroom and set out to start one for “Days.”

Soon I had met a handful of friends to talk “Days” with and we would become the regulars of the chatroom for the next 5 or so years. Some of us even met up and attended a “Days” softball event down in South Carolina a few years in a row. One of those people was Kim, who is probably the oldest person from the net I know AND have kept in touch with. She likes to consider herself my internet mom, a name she gave herself actually and proudly tells everyone she can. She can be a tad over protective, which has scared a few people I must say. She tends to be very direct and gets right to the point saying things like “Who are you and how do you know my Dustin?” Whenever we were at the “Days” events she’d also keep an eye out for some of the zanier fans, suggesting we steer clear of some of them. One year there was this shall we say interesting guy who seemed to want to follow me around and Kim didn’t like it at all as she thought he was crazy (yes I think he kind of was actually).

Unfortunately people graduated from college, others married and moved on, some got divorced and virtually disappeared, while I entered grad school and became busier and busier. The IRC room eventually died. Most of us tried to stay in contact, but eventually fell out of touch. This was sad as we would litterally meet every single night to talk. Kim and I however remained in touch. Her job had her travelling a lot and she would come into the DC area at least once a year, so we could always still meet up. We are scheduled to rendez-vous in August, unless something falls through with her trip.

Anyway, I soon replaced the IRC chatroom with a java based chatroom on my old web page. Eventually a new regular crowd was formed, and I got involved and brought Kim back in. We’ve since meet up with several of the new room chatters, but not at any “Days” events. We’ve meet in New Orleans and in Las Vegas. Some of us have meet up with each other in other places too. My trip to Williamsburg was to visit one actually.

Over the years many of the new crowd lost interest in “Days,” and eventually I parted with the page as most know. A core group of us still chat every night in a new chatroom I’ve set up here (which is also linked under the webcam on the side bar, which I know I’ve been terrible at turning on lately). We almost never talk about the soaps though, unless something insane comes over us. Most of us don’t have time to turn them on but once a week nowadays. Anyway, if you’re brave enough then feel free to join us! The chatroom is usually most populated in the early morning before noon and after 8pm (EST) at night. The night crowd can get a little rowdy, especially on the weekend when drinking is often involved. So if you have virgin ears, well you might be shocked at some of the subjects which might be discussed. Also the night crowd can be like the deep end at the pool, very daunting and scary, you just have to jump in. Remember many of us have been chatting for years, some of us know just about everything about each other. Just jump into the conversation and have fun!

The new and old chatroom crowd in Vegas circa 2007
Zan, Kim, Shannan, Nica, Myself and the BF (he’s not a chatter, we just talk about him)

I realized I hadn’t updated my “dreams” blog category in ages. Lately I’ve been having some doozies, which I should post about since I don’t seem to be finding much inspirations elsewhere. I do have that farm video blog I promised though, I haven’t forgotten!

Well I thought I’d share this one as it was just bizarre. I honestly didn’t remember it until a day or two later when I was taking a run. I saw a cigarette pack on the ground (damn litterbugs) and it all came back to me. I remember having a dream where I smoked. More than that I remembered the physical sensations of what it was like to smoke: the taste and the feel. This shocked me more than anything, because I’ve never smoked! I’ve never even tried a cigarette! Growing up I had friends with parents who smoked and I couldn’t stay more than an hour in the house without getting headaches. I suffer migraines, which came on when I hit my teens, so clearly smoking wasn’t something I ever felt the need to take on. To this day I can’t stand smelling like cigarette smoke from bars and what not. I will shower when I get home before going to bed to get the smell off me. This dream was one of those whoa, past life experience moments.