I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

God, New York state is getting....well, it's getting.

First, the governor propsed taxing sugared soft drinks in what was called an "obesity tax"--basically, a bigoted tax on fat people? Charming.

Then, he gave substatial raises to upper eschelon muckety-mucks in the state, while at the same instance furloughing or laying off a few thousand state worker peons.

Also, this year the state didn't get a bit of legislation passed in two weeks--not even an authorization for a new stop sign in some rural town--because a billionare from Buffalo had an infantile hissy fit, and caused a split in the parties, that screwed up the status quo in New York state's senate/assembly.

This basically meant, that the republicans refused to attend the same session as the democrats--and the democrats refused to meet with republicans--for two stinking weeks...and our lame duck governor just sat there and...peeled oranges, cleaned the lint from his belly button, order subs from Subway...heaven knows what the jackarse was doing, but he wasn't telling his childish little underlings to grow up and stop leaving millions of New York state residents hanging.

New to all this now, is the proposal by state Assemblyman Jim Tedisco that weathly prisoners be forced to pay for their stay while in prison.

And, two state employees racked up over $30,000 in overtime---while digging a "cave" for themselves on the job, where they hid away from everyone, smoking marijauana and sleeping.

The hidden "lounge" was secreted away in the parking garage under the Empire State Plaza--the state's showcase plaza of tall marble sided buildings and fountians, and the "Egg"--a concrete egg-shaped theater and concert venue-- the plaza houses many of the state of New York's main offices, not to mention the state capital, and the state museum and state library.

I don't have any issues with Matt Smith's costume. I was a bit surprised--had hoped for something more drastic, but...it's fine. It's nothing outstanding, but--that's the "new" Who for you, I suppose. The new Doctor is as much an "everyman" as an alien, these days--and, I've gotten used to it...made the adjustment, accepted it, and moved on.

They just went from chic geek to just plain geek, apparently. Huh. Well, OK, whatever. It's the actor who makes the role, anyway. The costume is just the window dressing.

I am even willing to give a "teenager's" Doctor a fair chance. Two views. If I hate it, I will be horrifically sad, but, it's out of my hands and that's that. If I love it, well--it's hard to imagine me NOT loving Dr Who....so I probably will, if not love it, at least like it. It would radically have to delve into the simpering teenage side, and turn into something I totally couldn't relate to, before I'd stop watching it.

But...what the HELL did they do to the Tardis????

Sorry, I adore Dr Who, and really resist being critical without seeing things all the way through--but honestly? The "new" Tardis looks absoultely RUBBISH.

It looks like something a fan would make for his garden. No really, it's...yuck. I hope this isn't the one they plan on using for the whole series...bleh.

Hartnell's Tardis looked more real than the new one! Maybe it's only the lighting, but the "new" Tardis looks--too blue and too new, to me. It may not appear that way at all, on film, but in a photo...it just plain looks like a prop, to me. A bad fake, at that.

THE FIRST TARDIS:

THE LATEST TARDIS:

Well, here in the armpit of northern New York state, it's another long day for me.

I won't be online much today.

One of the ironies of the recession this year, is that, while a lot of tourists are staying away from the pricey theme and amusement parks this year--they are flocking to the roughly 1/2 mile strip of factory outlet shops. Brooks Brothers, Tommy Hilfinger, Reebok, Swank, Eddie Bauer, Nine West, Orvis, Banana Republic, Big Dog, Gap, Timberland, Sox, Jones NY, Coach--and all the rest, are bursting at the seams with tourists flocking from all over the eastern US and Quebec, as well. I've even since license plates from as far away as California and Colorado, as I passed by riding on the trolley bus.

When times get tough, the bourgeois go shopping.

The city where I live is less than 10 miles from largely unspoiled natural wilderness. Millions of trees, hundreds of miles of lakes, streams, ponds and rivers, abundant wildlife, rolling mountains and lush, gentle valleys.

So, what do visitors from Texas rave about?

Our weather, and our pizza.

No, really. They love our weather (well, where ours has had low humidity, and ranged roughly from 22 C to 26 C this week, Texas has had weeks of temps ranging from 37 to 42 C--with high humidity, added in).

We'll be lucky to see 22 C today, it's cloudy and cool. It'll more likely stay about 20 C, or thereabouts. But, later this week, we're to get 27 to 28 C temps, and humid, so some of that southern weather is headed north, I guess.

And pizza?

Well, I guess pizza in Texas is pretty rubbish, 'cos the Texans were raving about one of our local pizzarias..."you put actual meat on your pizzas!" To quote one Texas lady. Erm--so, one is afraid to ask, what the hell passes for pizza toppings in Texas???

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On a much more somber note, speaking of Texas, quite a row going on, down in Paris, Texas.

Seems a couple of good ol' boys were accused of dragging a black man to his death underneath their pick up truck---pathetically and shamefully, this is NOT the first time something like this has happened, in Texas---and the judge let the two white guys off, for "lack of sufficient evidence." Ey? A man is dragged to death--to the point (sorry if you're eating) of having his body literally torn apart and dismembered, 70 feet under a pick up truck, and there's "not enough" evidence? What, they don't have a CSI lab in Texas?

Apparently, well into the trial, some trucker suddenly came forward out of the blue, and said that he "might have accidentally" hit the black man with his truck. Oh, how convenient. And, how many weeks did it take for this WHITE trucker to decide he had a conscious? Riiight.

So, now the sexually insecure, intellectually challenged, spineless white supremiscist KKK members, are staging a march in support of all the defendents...and the Black Panthers will be counter marching against the KKK worms, So....that should be interesting.

Texas police say that the man's death wasn't about racism, because the man knew the two good old boys for years...and besides (I am NOT making this up, the moronic apes who pass themselves as the law down in Paris, Texas, did actually say this)...and besides, they say, it couldn't have been a racist killing, because the black man wasn't chained to the back of the truck and dragged, like another well-publicized case.

**(Ten years ago, a couple of redneck white supremeicist worms, chained a black man up and dragged him to death behind their truck).

One white Texas business owner was handing out papers, in which he insists that the Black Panthers are a racist organization. He doesn't say the same thing about the KKK members lurking about town, though.

The suspect in the murder of the black man, has been jailed before--for murder. He shot a friend in 2003, and got off with only 4 years in prison. The judge in the black man's case was formally the attorney for one of the defendants...and it just gets sicker and more twisted, as you go, people.

I really, really wish Texas would seperate from the Union--Jesus, those people are an embarrassment to us all, and a disgrace to all of human kind.

I'd love to see the look on the racist white trash faces, if Texas was ever given back to Mexico...gosh, that show would be worth buying tickets for.

Stupid, sick bastards. "God bless America?" Why would He possibly ever want to do that?

I was reading where a SFX man was filming shots for a film called "Moon," used a David Tennant Dr Who doll, as a double for FX shots of Sam Rockwell.

Does that mean that Tennant will get a tiny little FX royalty cheque?

It was a loooong day, at work today. We did get an hour for lunch, which was a treat--actually, we spent more time cooling our heels doing nothing, than actually learning anything...thanks to multiple IT glitches.

We have to learn this blinking computer programme, and our trainer, while nice, was a bit rubbish....you couldn't see the presentation screen, and she was telling us five ways to do something that could easily be done in only two--what the hell is the point of that? It's just confusing people unneccesarily. Bit head-up-the-arse teaching techniques.

People are NOT happy. The only one's eager for this, are the new hires--whom of course, don't know any different.

I expect some people will be quitting--including some of the old-timer's. I think the ONLY thing that is keeping at least some people here, is the recession, and our lack of decent-paying jobs...or any jobs at all.

It's really poor, the way management is just dumping all these drastic changes--and fiddling with our work schedules--in our laps without a hint of warning. They must have know for week's, this just didn't happen on Friday, and WHAM! Monday everything changes. Real life doesn't work that way, this isn't a television programme. Things like this take time and planning--although, if today was anything to go by, there was precious little planning involved, the part of both our management and the new client.

Well, another double-shift tomorrow. (Sigh.) I hate learning stuff on computers. I get more exciting watching a laundromat dryer tumbling around. And, I'm, by my own admission, a bit...slow. I don't like being slow, but I am. I can learn, but not quickly. My wonky brain doesn't do..."do this, this, and this." It tends to skip one of the middle "this's," without my realizing it. That's why I'm quite literally incapable of doing algebra, that's why my brain can't function well in reverse, also.

Well, I'm going to bed early. I found a UPS sticker on the floor, outside my apartment do

Erm--door. Sorry, there was just a big crash behind me. I think partly-blind Flamey just fell off of something, again. She does that, sometimes. Mis-judges a leap. She somehow managed to unplug my cable box, causing me to dis-connect from the internet for a moment. No worries. My daft wee ginger girl is just fine, if a tad sheepish looking.

Anyway, I gather UPS may have tried to deliver something--that's going to be a problem, 'cos I'm working days this week, and won't be home afternoons, until Thursday, unless the bloke comes before half-past ten in the morning. Oh well. It is what it is. I've no idea what I'm supposed to be getting, I didn't order anything! Gift from a friend, or wrong door? I'm so tired, I haven't looked at the sticker. It was on the floor, so it might even be an old sticker, for all I know.

I just came home from work, fried up a cracked peppercorn/green pepper "angus" burger that I got from the butchers the other day for a dollar, slipped some frozen breaded onion rings in the oven to get all nice and crispy, and nuked some sweet corn in the microwave. Read a few newspapers online, checked my e-mail box, and...here I am. It's ten pm eastern time, and I'm quite ready for bed already.

Our local newspaper, the Post-Star, keeps crowing--above the fold on the front page, in big bold letters, that one of its editorials has won a Pulitzer Prize.

Well, whoop-de-do.

Here's a snippet from an online article from their "police blotter" page, about a north country man whom was arrested for sexually abusing an underage girl:

The sexual abuse charge is a felony and not a misdemeanor because he is not accused of forcing the girl to have sexual contact, and she is over the age of 11. If she was under 11, the sexual abuse count would be a felony.

Erm--does that make ANY sense to you, dear blog readers?

If it does, I must be living in the wrong century!

Want to know the real irony of all of this? My adjunct professor, who taught my editing course at my four-year college in Vermont, was, at the time, also employed as the assistant city editor at this very newspaper. My prof spent many an hour, telling us how one had to graduate from the likes of Harvard or Columbia or such (basically the equivilent of Cambridge and Oxford), to become an editor/reporter at a city newspaper.

Well, obviously not.

Either that, or Harvard and Columbia have seriously lowered their educational standards.

Why do so many newspapers not take online editing seriously? Why is it vitally important to edit something in print, but not on the internet?

Slovenly, half-arsed journalism....Pulitzer, smulitzer.