This entry needs some more tags.
I plowed through two books over a 24-hour period this weekend, something I haven't done in... a long time. One was A Beautiful Child by Matt Birkbeck, which tells the true story of "Sharon Marshall," who was kidnapped by a man named Franklin Floyd when she was a little girl, raised as his daughter and then later married him. He forced her into posing for pictures, stripping, prostitution and eventually killed her and her son when she tried to leave. Somehow she made excellent grades (even getting a full scholarship to Georgia Tech) and kept her secrets from everyone. The worst part about it... no one knows her real name. Some of the details about her case can be found here, which is where I first learned about it. It's a disturbing story, but interesting. The book isn't written or edited all that well, but I can overlook that.
I also devoured The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a true story; it's that bizarre. I can't even really describe it. The Amazon synopsis does a good enough job, but still - it's something you have to read. It was for an assignment in my Lit class, and I was only supposed to read the first two parts, but I ended up reading the entire thing in about three and a half hours.
Max and I also decked the halls in preparation for Christmas on Saturday. We waited until Rob was home to put the tree up, but the house is now officially Christmas-ready and looks very festive. Pictures later.
Max was thinking about Christmas gifts and wanted to know if he could get his dad a chainsaw. Roffle.
Oh, and...
This is going to be a little difficult, because I rarely watch TV and the shows I do watch regularly - The Office, Kitchen Nightmares - aren't exactly tawdry or just all-out bad. So my list spans over a period of a few years. I even included YouTube intros because I'm nice like that.
1. Dog the Bounty Hunter - It was the same show every episode - Dog and his mullet would roll up into a trailer park and arrest some Hawaiian methheads, he'd call everyone "bra," his wife and her boobs would be all up in everyone's face (LOLLY LOLLY ICE HEAD) and then Dog would impart some words of wisdom and a cigarette onto his captives. Roll credits. How can you not love that!?
2. Johnny Test - Thanks to Max, I now watch a whole litany of Saturday morning cartoon shows, starting with the new, non-violent Tom and Jerry Tales and ending with Power Rangers. Somewhere in there is Johnny Test, whose sisters are science geniuses and subject him to all their experiments (hence the surname Test). It's animated in a style similar to Powerpuff Girls, which I loved, and Johnny's dog Dukey cracks me up. And the theme song gets stuck in my head for days.
3. E!/VH1 Countdown shows - 25 Most Awesomely Bad Hairdos! 30 Dirrrrtiest Celebrity Secrets! 98 Trashiest Tarts Who Eschew Panties and Wisdom! We all know Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and/or Titanic are going to be in the number one spot, but we watch anyway. I've sat through hours of these when I've been sick.
4. American Idol tryouts - Yes, most of it's contrived crap, but I love to hate the overly self-confident people who go in to try out thinking they're this amazing talent that just hasn't been discovered, get shot down and leave with this attitude like "WHATEVA SIMON DON'T KNOW SHIT!" Cracks me up every time.
5. The Weather Channel - I went through a bout of depression my senior year in high school, and during that time, I didn't want to listen to any music or watch any TV for fear of it affecting my fragile emotions or wh'evs. So I would turn on the Weather Channel to have some background noise and because hearing about jet streams and barometric pressure somehow comforted me. The Weather Channel is still something of a security blanket for me... I'll leave it on all day long if I'm home by myself. I get sort of riled up if I watch it on weekday mornings now, because one of the anchors was really rude to me a few years ago while she was still working at a dinky little station in Indiana and I was dating one of the cameramen.
I also devoured The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a true story; it's that bizarre. I can't even really describe it. The Amazon synopsis does a good enough job, but still - it's something you have to read. It was for an assignment in my Lit class, and I was only supposed to read the first two parts, but I ended up reading the entire thing in about three and a half hours.
Max and I also decked the halls in preparation for Christmas on Saturday. We waited until Rob was home to put the tree up, but the house is now officially Christmas-ready and looks very festive. Pictures later.
Max was thinking about Christmas gifts and wanted to know if he could get his dad a chainsaw. Roffle.
Oh, and...
This is going to be a little difficult, because I rarely watch TV and the shows I do watch regularly - The Office, Kitchen Nightmares - aren't exactly tawdry or just all-out bad. So my list spans over a period of a few years. I even included YouTube intros because I'm nice like that.
1. Dog the Bounty Hunter - It was the same show every episode - Dog and his mullet would roll up into a trailer park and arrest some Hawaiian methheads, he'd call everyone "bra," his wife and her boobs would be all up in everyone's face (LOLLY LOLLY ICE HEAD) and then Dog would impart some words of wisdom and a cigarette onto his captives. Roll credits. How can you not love that!?
2. Johnny Test - Thanks to Max, I now watch a whole litany of Saturday morning cartoon shows, starting with the new, non-violent Tom and Jerry Tales and ending with Power Rangers. Somewhere in there is Johnny Test, whose sisters are science geniuses and subject him to all their experiments (hence the surname Test). It's animated in a style similar to Powerpuff Girls, which I loved, and Johnny's dog Dukey cracks me up. And the theme song gets stuck in my head for days.
3. E!/VH1 Countdown shows - 25 Most Awesomely Bad Hairdos! 30 Dirrrrtiest Celebrity Secrets! 98 Trashiest Tarts Who Eschew Panties and Wisdom! We all know Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and/or Titanic are going to be in the number one spot, but we watch anyway. I've sat through hours of these when I've been sick.
4. American Idol tryouts - Yes, most of it's contrived crap, but I love to hate the overly self-confident people who go in to try out thinking they're this amazing talent that just hasn't been discovered, get shot down and leave with this attitude like "WHATEVA SIMON DON'T KNOW SHIT!" Cracks me up every time.
5. The Weather Channel - I went through a bout of depression my senior year in high school, and during that time, I didn't want to listen to any music or watch any TV for fear of it affecting my fragile emotions or wh'evs. So I would turn on the Weather Channel to have some background noise and because hearing about jet streams and barometric pressure somehow comforted me. The Weather Channel is still something of a security blanket for me... I'll leave it on all day long if I'm home by myself. I get sort of riled up if I watch it on weekday mornings now, because one of the anchors was really rude to me a few years ago while she was still working at a dinky little station in Indiana and I was dating one of the cameramen.