Empty Lunchbox

Gay marriage is a question of love

2008-11-11T12:48:00.000-06:00

This is a video of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment from his show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC last night.

Click here to read a transcript of his Special Comment.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Keith.

Thank you.

Perspective

2008-11-05T15:22:00.003-06:00

We did it! After a LONG night of tears, screams, smiles, nervousness and a feeling of adrenaline pumping through my veins, I heard the words I've been waiting for:

Barack Obama has WON the Presidential Race.

And for the first time, in almost 8 years, I felt hope for my country. I had been holding my breath and I was finally able to let go. I had been confident these past few months that Obama would win by a landslide, but there was still the tiniest sliver of doubt that sent a chill down my spine every time they announced that a state had gone to McCain.

I was very touched by John McCain when he gave his concession speech. Even though he looked pained and about to come apart as he gave it, it was the first time, in these many, many months, that we saw a glimpse of The Maverick. The old John McCain, who, had he acted in such a manner as he acted last night during the last stretch of his campaign, might not have lost in such a big way. His supporters, unfortunately, left something to be desired, but I'm sure it was just sour grapes.

Then Obama spoke. And the only thing I could think of was "THAT is what the President should sound like."

Then it happened. I learned the fate of Proposition 8 in California. And I wept. How did this happen? How did we elect our first EVER African-American President and in the same day vote to CONDONE discrimination? I can't wrap my mind around the bigotry that surrounds this issue. There is NO legitimate reason that ANYONE can give me to ban gay marriage. None.

I am still hopeful, however, that since Obama won by SUCH a large margin, that the tides of change ARE coming. The old ways of fear and hate will be washed away by the promise of change and unity.

We WILL be the UNITED States again.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T10:53:00.000-05:00

Here's the Hall Family Jack O'lantern for this year. Since it's Griffin's first Halloween we thought we'd do it right and give him a really awesome scary faced pumpkin.

I hope everyone has a great one!

Changes

2008-10-16T08:44:00.001-05:00

Pretty soon this blog will be going away.

I'm revamping the Haunted Fire website and Ben and I have decided that we're going to remove our personal blogs and just concentrate on posting things about the work that we are doing.

Well, that Ben is doing mostly. Because with the Noodle, I still don't have a ton of time to do much, but I will most likely be working on some stuff with Ben in the near future.

I've always loved baking, so I'm toying around with the idea of starting a baking blog of my trial and error at creating crazy ass confections. Plus, now that I have a bunchkin as an excuse to bake a crapton of stuff, I won't feel guilty about what I'm doing to my ass.

My first undertaking is going to be buying this pan and creating a really cool cake for Noodle's first birthday. I've got about 3 and a half months to get crackin', so time is of the essence.

I'm sure the blog won't be ALL baking, ALL the time. I'll still speak my mind about things that are important to me, and throw in the occasional nerdity. I'll be sure to let everyone know the new URL once I get off my ass and create it.

Thanks for the memories everyone, good and bad.

Sweet Mother of Pearl

2008-10-13T12:00:00.001-05:00

It's coming. THE SIP OMNIBUS.

Should I be this excited about a comic book? No.

But guess what?

I AM.

I hope my bookshelf can tolerate the load.

My Sister On Stage With WEEZER!

2008-10-06T20:45:00.002-05:00

That's right!

Has Hell Frozen Over?

2008-09-30T19:56:00.001-05:00

Are pigs flying?

I'm going to say this once, and it will never escape my lips ever again.

Right now, I'm liking Katie Couric...

There, I said it. I just threw up in my mouth and a small piece of me just died. But my enemy's enemy is my friend.

Weezer in Denver!

2008-09-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

My sister won a contest to play a show with Weezer on October 5th at The Broomfield event center in Denver!

She's THE best trombone player EVER and the show is going to be awesome. I just know it. I'm so pissed that I can't make it down there to see the show.

Way to go Alicia!!!

I don't like Matt Damon...

2008-09-10T19:48:00.001-05:00

I love him.

I Sense There's Something in the Wind...

2008-08-26T21:55:00.002-05:00

And it's this DAMN COOL special edition Nightmare Before Christmas DVD set that I just bought!

Yes, I'm a nerd. Yes, I have an obscene obsession. No, I'm not ashamed of it. And no, I don't see it ending any time soon.

Best Revenge Ever.

2008-08-20T21:17:00.005-05:00

No, I'm not talking about "You Oughta Know" winning Alanis Morissette a Grammy award even though it was written about Dave Coulier (whose career has since gone NOWHERE)... I'm talking about bikini wearing baristas dousing a pervert with boiling water. The story is about a minute into this clip. Enjoy:

The Dark Knight...

2008-07-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

Was absolutely amazing. Ben and I saw it yesterday and were blown away. I don't need to remind everyone how much I love Christian Bale and that Batman has always been my hero, so this movie was like perfect nerd utopia for me.

The saddest part of my experience, of course, was the passing of Heath Ledger. He was an actor that had been relatively low on my radar until I saw him in The Brother's Grimm, and when I heard he was going to play the Joker, I was a bit skeptical. I'm glad to know that my skepticism was completely unwarranted. Heath Ledger did a phenomenal job as the Clown Prince of Crime. I'm sad that we won't get the pleasure of seeing him as an ongoing foil to Christian Bale in the next installment of the Batman saga. He truly deserves a tip of the hat for his performance. I'm thinking Oscar caliber.

So everyone go see it if you haven't had a chance to already, and go see it again if you've already seen it. I plan to.

And we got a special treat of the new Watchmen trailer at the beginning. WOOT!

Who Watches The Watchmen?

2008-07-17T17:14:00.005-05:00

EVERYONE if it were up to me!

Thanks to Chris for sending this over to me. Based on the few minutes and quick glimpses in this trailer, I think this is going to be one of the best movies ever made. Don't let me down, Zack Snyder... don't let me down.

ETA: Well thanks for letting me know it was pulled, Tony!

If you want to see the trailer go to Apple and download it.

I don't like Adobe CS3....

2008-07-15T22:37:00.003-05:00

I love it! (Sung to the tune of Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc).

Yup. I've got it.

And it's Awesome with a Capital A.

On Notice!

2008-06-27T09:11:00.002-05:00

I've decided to make my own list of things that are "On Notice" or "Dead To Me", which is ~~stolen~~ borrowed from Stephen Colbert. Since I'm usually angered or annoyed by some entire group of people, persons or things, it seems only appropriate.

So here it is!

ON NOTICE:
Women Who Don't Know How to Drive SUVs
Fisher Price
Chris Jericho
Cameron Diaz
Cat Litter
The Drive To Ikea
Line Cutters
The Grocery Store

DEAD TO ME:
Spiders
Time Warner Cable
Rachael Ray
Gas Prices
Katie Couric
Back Pain
Family Guy

This list will be updated and reposted as more things annoy me or anger me enough to talk about them more than once.

That is all.

Flaming Letter of Hate... An Ode to Time Warner Cable

2008-06-19T08:07:00.003-05:00

What's that? What's that? Is it The Great Pumpkin? NO, it's ME, Marlena, ON the internet at my freaking house!!!!

But Marlena, how can this be? I thought Time Warner hated you because your internet has been on and off for almost two months, and completely off for over a week!

Yes, that's right. If I believed in God, I would believe that he's been smiting me for the better part of two months. Some of you might say, but Marlena, it's just the internet, go read a book or take a walk. You don't NEED to check your email or look at the latest LOLCats.

While this is true, I also work from home, connecting remotely to my computer at work so that I can stay home and raise my kid. The problem with no internet, is that I CAN'T do my job. So I've been like a roaming nomad from a bad South Park episode, looking for internet wherever I go, babe in tow.

I usually take the Noodle over to my mom's house to work when the internet is down, and the other day she had a dentist appointment so I was just going to go over there and hang out until she got done with her appointment. Well, I have a key to my mom's house, I even have a spare garage door opener to get in. What I DON'T have (or didn't have at the time) was the code to turn off her burglar alarm.

She forgot to not set the alarm when she left and when I got there it went off. And went off... and went off. The alarm company was calling her house and I didn't have her secret password either, so I was just sitting there waiting for the cops to come arrest me.

Meanwhile, I tried calling my mom at the dentist, but since she was having her teeth worked on, she had her phone off and she couldn't talk anyway for all the novocaine she was hopped up on. PLUS HER internet was down (at least her wackadoo modem needed to be reset) SO I couldn't look up the number to the dentist where she was, and I don't know where she keeps her phone books.

So after a Benny Hill type runaround calling Ben to get the dentist's number, calling the dentist and giving a message to the receptionist that I didn't want the police to arrest me because I couldn't turn off her alarm, I ended up having to go to Ben's parent's house with the baby to use THEIR internet.

Oh yeah, and I almost ran out of gas driving out there because Ben's parents live in the sticks and there isn't a gas station for MILES once you get to a certain point on the drive to their house. The other awesome part was that I decided to forgo makeup that day because I was only going to see my mom and Ben and figured they'd seen me enough times without it, that they wouldn't care. Well, let's run it down, I had to talk to two cops, Ben's parents and his grandmother, and Ben's parents have a home office too so they had a client come in that wanted to meet the baby. So my two people went to 8 people seeing me in my awesome no makeup-ness.

Sigh.

So thank you, Time Warner, for making me waste how many countless dollars in gas money driving all over creation with my baby in search of your holy grail of interwebs. Thank you for being the only game in town so I can't switch my service to anyone else. Thank you for being totally inept at taking care of your customers and being THE shittiest company I have EVER dealt with as far as utilities go. I used to work for the Satan that was the power company in Vegas and even THEY weren't as ridiculously lame as you.

I won't even bore you with my many, many service calls that were never done and how lame they are about communicating problems to each other. And today, there is a heinous thunderstorm going on and the internet is now A-OK!

'Tards.

Rays of Light As Seen Through a Glass Ceiling

2008-06-09T20:20:00.003-05:00

As anyone who isn't living under a rock knows, Hillary Clinton delivered her concession speech on Saturday, giving the green light to Barack Obama for the Democratic candidacy for the next President of the United States.

Having a four month old, its kind of hard to follow any schedule that doesn't involve remembering the last time he ate or when he had his last diaper change. But on Saturday I made sure that I was in front of my TV to watch this woman, who has gone farther in the boy's club of Washington than any woman before her, bow out of this, the most historic bid for the Presidency of all time.

I'll admit it freely, I like Hillary Clinton. I think she would have been a GREAT President, even though some people are leary of her seasoned career in politics, thinking that even though she's a woman, that she's just as much a politician as the rest of them. That may be true, but I truly believe that she would have made a BIG difference in the climate of this country, for the better, had she gone on to be the Democratic candidate and, of course, beat the pants off of John McBush.

I also like Barack Obama. I was a bit apprehensive of him at first. I felt that he might have been a bit too green, and something in my gut thought that if he did win the Presidency that he'd be steamrolled into doing whatever everyone else wanted him to do and his promises of change would fall on deaf ears. But in the last few weeks my mind has totally been changed, and to me, it wouldn't have mattered which one out of Hillary or Obama won the nomination. I would have voted for either one and never looked back.

Of course, I'd vote for my cat for President before voting in John McCain, but that's not saying much.

But now I'm getting off track.

Hillary Clinton's concession speech literally brought me to tears. I have to agree with most of the talking heads that this was the greatest speech she's ever given. Every time she said that we MUST vote Barack Obama for President a chill ran down my spine. Her words sparked hope in me. Hope that has sadly been missing in my feelings for this country for the better part of 8 years. Hope that is very small, and very weak, because I can honestly say that if John McCain wins the Presidency it is hope that I'm not sure will ever be rekindled in my love for my country. I cannot even fathom another second of this regime after January 20th, 2009, let alone another 4 years of the exact same bullshit that's going on right now. I can say that I will truly be broken as an American.

But hearing Hillary speak so highly of the man who has been her fiercest competitor, made me cry, and my heart swelled and my mind felt wide open to the possibilities and wonder that I will see the first black President and most likely the first woman President in MY lifetime. Not even 50 years ago a black man couldn't sit at a lunch counter with a white woman, and that same white woman not even 90 years ago couldn't even vote or be counted as something other than property of her husband. I know that being a good President isn't about race or gender, the thing I'm most impressed with is the ability for our country to grow... to progress. For us, as a nation, to look past all the stuffy, old, white males that have dominated our government for so long, and to see that it's OK to change, well, that's a baby step that I am proud to be old enough to appreciate.

I look at my son and I see hope. Hope that one day, he will live in a world where his wife or daughter can be President. And thanks to Hillary Clinton, that day is even closer than I would have ever imagined.

So thank you, Hillary. Thank you for running for President. You didn't make it this time, but I agree with your speech that one day we will launch a woman into the White House.

Oh yeah, and Go Obama!

Ladytron and The Gary Busey Syndrome

2008-06-06T14:35:00.002-05:00

So Ben and I went to see Ladytron last night at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas. It's been almost two years since Ladytron was here, and that was their first time EVER playing in Texas. I think it's pretty cool that I've been to both of their Texas shows. And this time they didn't seem scared that we were all a bunch of shitkicking hillbillies. We have our share of club kids and house-music-heads.

The show was awesome. They were promoting their new album, Velocifero.

I know I'm getting older and that my show days are coming closer and closer to being over, but in all my years of going to concerts, there always seems to be one constant. Something that Ben and I lovingly refer to as: "The Gary Busey Syndrome".

The Gary Busey Syndrome is how there is always ONE guy at any show who seems completely out of place, is dressed like he's just stepped out of the 80's, and oh yeah, he's batshit crazy. He's usually got one or two women on his arm that look bought and paid for, and his dancing is worse than Elaine from Seinfeld. 98% of the time, the Busey is usually standing RIGHT next to us, drinking some alcoholic beverage and grinding on his special lady friend. It always makes me want to simultaneously vomit and elbow him in the nutsack.

At the They Might Be Giants show in March, thankfully we were in the balcony and the Busey was a few rows ahead of us, so we just got the view and none of the fireworks.

This time he was RIGHT next to us and didn't seem to mind my elbow poking into his sweaty, flabby ribs for the better part of an hour. Finally he moved over the two inches it took to give me back my personal space.

I have officially decided that I'm too old now to be right up in front of the stage at shows. Ben and I got up close when Ladytron opened, and by the fourth or fifth song I'd had enough and we had to move to the sidelines. Part of the reason for this move was the two club kids that took some X, then one complained he was hot, and his boyfriend, in his most domestic voice possible, told him that it was his sweater vest and to quit complaining. Once I had the Busey-X-tripping-grinding combo on either side of me, I knew my time in the front was limited. The last straw was the fact that I couldn't see a goddamn thing of the stage.

Now, I'm not short by any means. I'm about 5 feet 7 inches tall, so not a shorty, but I'm not all that crazy tall. Even so, I always seem to find myself behind a perfect storm of guys that are ALWAYS taller than me, blocking my view of any stage that I'm trying to get a solid view of.

I had such a good time and am really glad that we got to see Ladytron again. I hope they continue to come back here, and hopefully I can see them maybe one or two more times before I deem myself too old to attend shows anymore.

Indiana Jones!

2008-05-29T11:11:00.001-05:00

Also something else to go see.

Now.

Do it.

I've heard some people grumbling about it and how cheesy it is, or unbelievable, not like old Indy movies, but if you've ever seen an Indy movie, you know how cheesy they are. You know how no human could survive some of the crap he does, and with this one, just keep in mind that Indy is in his 60's, even though WE know all about the stuff going on in the movie, the characters don't, so give them a break.

I will say that this Indy movie is probably my second favorite of the whole series, topped only by Raiders.

But I will say that if Lucas and Speilberg try to make Shia LeCrap into the next Indiana Jones, I will boycott their movies for LIFE. If anything was going to ruin this movie for me, it would have been him. Thankfully his character was supposed to be an annoying jackass, so he didn't ruin this for me like he did Transformers (though he had help from Michael Bay on that one).

Iron Man

2008-05-18T19:35:00.000-05:00

Go see it.

Now.

Seriously.

It's more than awesome.

Best Jackass EVER.

2008-05-02T23:24:00.001-05:00

Jackassworld

25 MORE Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer

2008-04-30T14:57:00.007-05:00

Ben sent this to me from bittbox.com and I about lost my shit when I read it. If you're a designer, you should laugh and/or cry at reading these. And if you're not a designer, then you should read these and feel my pain. This is the second edition, the first edition can be found here.

1. You've had a client that thought they knew more about design than you.

2. Your clients pay you for your professional expertise and skill, yet you've run into one of 'those' clients, that refuses to take the advice from the very person he/she is paying for advice (you).

3. You've had a client that insisted on using the font "Papyrus," and you had to hold in your barf as you prepped it [the design] for printing.

4. You've requested a vector logo from a client, and instead, they email you a 72 dpi image they grabbed from a website.

5. You've used typography as a texture.

6. You don't have a favorite font because you love "Typography." Not Fonts. Choosing a favorite font would be like choosing a favorite child, it's just wrong.

7. You collect as many free stuffs from the interwebs as you can on your hard drive, hoping that one day, that cool project will come along that you can actually use some cool shit on.

8. You'd rather have a free font than a free gallon of gas.

9. It's hard to talk about frustrations at your job with a group of friends because they have no idea what "Vector" or "DPI" is, just to name a couple.

10. You've had a client ask you to "Make the logo bigger."

11. You've had a client that insists on "filling up the space."

12. You've learned to over-price web design projects because most clients are more picky about their websites than a high school girl picking out a prom dress.

13. You feel like you're "On Call" half of the time because clients procrastinate so much.

14. You know keyboard shortcuts that require 4 fingers.

15. You've lost hours of work because an application crashed, and you had to start over from scratch because you were in the "zone" and forgot to save. Basically, you were having so much fun being creative that saving was the last thing on your mind at the time.

16. You've "Live-Traced" something.

17. You spend more hours per week looking at CSS showcase sites than you do at the gym.

18. The only thing that would make you happier than the demise of IE6 is world peace.

19. You've done everything but give up a body part to talk a client out of a "Flash Intro." Yeah. I said it. Flash Intro. Sad, so so sad. (goes along with #2)

20. You have enough fonts on your hard drive to last you for: 1 font per day for about a decade, give or take a year or two.

21. You know, explicitly, what a "Flourish" is.

22. You worry about negative space as much as the content area.

23. You get phone calls from friends and family members on a regular, sometimes annoyingly-frequent basis, wanting your services for free or extremely cheap. (and the "portfolio" line makes you want to throw something across the room)

24. You've had a client that wants a website they can "update" on their own, but doesn't know shit about websites.

25. You're never more than 99% happy with your final product because you believe that EVERYTHING can be improved upon. (especially with those tight-deadline projects)

MST3K!

2008-04-28T08:40:00.004-05:00

So Ben heard from his internet nerdery that some of the MST3K guys (and gal), who are now known as Cinematic Titanic, were coming to Dallas for the USA Film Festival and they were going to do a live riff of a movie! Ben, being one of the biggest fans of MST I know, immediately called upon our BFF Chris to score some tickets. This past Saturday was the big event at the Angelika (SP?) theatre in Dallas.

They did a panel before the top secret unannounced movie where they discussed why everyone eventually left the show and it's humble beginnings. I'm a pretty big fan of the show as well, so I had a great time hearing all about the back side of it. And we got to have popcorn during it!

The live movie riffing ended up being done to the tune of The Wasp Woman, which was AWESOME. I didn't know how cool it would be to hear a live version of the show we love so much, but it ended up being really cool. A lot of laughing, and some really zinging jokes.

My crowning moment was almost mowing down Joel Hodgson in the hallway of the theatre because I was juggling a mountain of movie snacks so Ben and Chris could hold our seats that were procured with a little bit of geek drama. Joel was standing in the dark hallway and I didn't notice him and barely stopped myself from covering him in hot nacho sauce and Coke. Thankfully I did and wouldn't be remembered as "that girl who ruined Joel's fancy suit".

All in all, it was a really fun time, and there was even a guy there that had made his own Tomservo prop. It was cool, and weird at the same time.

Science! And Batman...

2008-04-23T08:57:00.001-05:00

I always knew reading comics would lead to the horrors of real science!

Parenthood and the Death of Comics

2008-04-21T16:20:00.003-05:00

So Griffin is about to be 3 months old next week.

Where has the time gone? I look at him and he seems SO big now. I can't imagine he's grown that much in such a short period of time, but here I am, packing up clothes that he can no longer fit into.

The clothing of a child is an awesome racket, and one I'd like to get in on. We buy him clothes, some that he has on for the span of five minutes before he's either spit up or peed on it and then he needs to be changed, and he has a small window of about two weeks where he can fit into them. He has several outfits that the only time he wore them was for me to take a few quick pictures of, and then they were in the hamper, never to be worn again.

It wouldn't be so bad if baby clothes weren't spun out of pure gold and laced with platinum buttons. Or you'd think that by how pricey they are. I find myself wanting Griffin to only have one week's worth of clothes just so he can wear something more than once.

But then I look at him in one of his outfits and my frugal heart melts. I immediately want to pack him in the car and head to Target or Babies R Us and buy him another $200 worth of clothes he'll never wear. Speaking of Target and Babies R Us (from here to be referred to as BRU)... I now spend most of my time outside of my house at either one of these stores, with the occasional pop-in to Costco.

I'm totally a mom.

And with that, comes the death of comics. At least, most likely my career in comics. Well, once Ben becomes the famous comic artist that he's destined to be and I no longer have to hold down a real job for a paycheck, then in a dream I might be able to find the time to put stylus to Wacom and color some art. But as it seems now, this parenting gig leaves me time to cry, eat, shower and sleep. And that's about it.

I will say that I think the c-section is probably the greatest medical marvel ever to be conceived. There's this show on TLC that documents the journey to motherhood in 30 minutes called A Baby Story and I've been watching it in the mornings while I feed Griffin to get a sense of what I "missed out on" by not going into labor or having Griffin the "natural" way.

And let me tell you... I didn't "miss" much. No pain during, just the after pain of recovering from surgery to get him out of his dark, squishy hotel. But I honestly had the BEST birth experience EVER. I'm telling you ladies right now: C-SECTION IS THE WAY TO GO! When we have our next baby, I'm totally going to elect for another one. But I think the rule is no more than 6... yeah, nothing to worry about there.

Griffin's head didn't come out cone-shaped, my vajayjay is still intact, no tearing or incontinence and I've got an awesome battle scar to hold over Griffin's head for years to come. My only complaint is the pain afterwards, but everyone's going to have pain afterwards. I'd just rather mine be in my stomach than my hooha.

So yeah... my life is upside down and around the corner right now. But at least I've got probably the best husband in the world. Sorry ladies, but it's true. Ben IS the cat's pajamas and the best Dad ever. Without him I'd be speaking in tongues and running through the streets mourning the loss of my sanity by now.