http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/index/ en bob@scratchingtheitch.com Copyright 2008 2008-05-12T01:18:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/tv_crushes_of_old/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/tv_crushes_of_old/#When:01:18:00Z On the channel that automatically displays when I first turn on my TV (channel 1, usually has advertisements and inticements to get the HD box that I ALREADY HAVE), they were playing older sitcoms from my youth in an effort to get me to buy some channel that plays them 24/7. On it they were playing The Facts of Life.  Which reminded me, I had a big crush on Nancy McKeon, who played Jo.  Blair didn’t really do it for me, but Jo?  Jo was t3h hotness. Who were your TV crushes from way back when? ]]> Ramblings 2008-05-12T01:18:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/what_defines_a_monster_anyway/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/what_defines_a_monster_anyway/#When:15:03:00Z So I’m assuming you’ve read the case from Austria of that guy, Josef Fritzl, who kept his one daughter in a cellar, repeatedly raped her, and kept some of the resulting children locked in the cellar with her for a couple of decades. I’ve not the stomach to try to imagine how someone could do that.  I mean, how do you get up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror while shaving, say to yourself, “Whelp, think I’ll go fuck my daughter in the cellar I keep her prisoner in this morning.”, and not know, KNOW, that you are absolute evil? But that’s not what’s got me perplexed this morning.  This article, “Incest dad upset at media ‘monster’ image”, has me completely shaking my head.  From the article: Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, said his client had access to a television in jail and was closely watching coverage of his case, which has garnered worldwide attention. Mayer said Fritzl was bothered by the fact that he was being made out to be a monster.  He said Fritzl told him, “I’m only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts.” Can someone please explain this to me?  Can someone tell me how someone who commits monstrous acts isn’t a monster?  Isn’t someone who bakes a baker, simply from engaging in the act of baking?  Isn’t someone a liar is they utter falsehoods?  How does keeping your daughter locked up in a cellar, raping her for two decades, and keeping 3 of the resultant children locked up with her, NOT make this guy a fucking monster of epic proportions? I understand he probably has some justification in his mind that what he did wasn’t so bad, or that he’s just a regular person with a bit of a secret, a small skeleton in his closet.  Or cellar, as the case may be. When you’re looking in that mirror in the morning, however, I bet you know, you KNOW, you’re looking at the face of a monster. ]]> Ramblings 2008-05-08T15:03:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/watching_another_rifftrax_again_tonight/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/watching_another_rifftrax_again_tonight/#When:03:04:00Z This time, it’s one of the Star Wars movies, probably Episode I.  I will inform later how this one went. *** UPDATE *** We watched Episode I.  The riffing was good.  It’s even better now that I’ve figured out how to get the sound for both the DVD and the riff track at the proper levels (you have to modify the settings for the audio codec).  Very funny stuff.  You should really consider it if you liked MST3K. ]]> Ramblings 2008-05-03T03:04:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/our_town_is_taking_in_refugees/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/our_town_is_taking_in_refugees/#When:01:18:00Z People from Kashechewan on James Bay in Northern Ontario have been displaced by rapidly rising water levels and ice flows, worse than people in the region can ever remember it being.  Well, they’re sending upwards of 1000 of these people to Southwestern Ontario to be put up for a few weeks until the water levels subside.  Click here to see and read about the story. It’s great that the city I was born and raised in is the kind of place that would put these people up, no questions or complaints. ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-28T01:18:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/rifftrax_rocks/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/rifftrax_rocks/#When:14:51:00Z Just watched the RiffTrax-enhanced version of Spider-Man last night.  Oh holy shit, is that ever funny! RiffTrax is the guys who used to do Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Well, they’re still doing it.  You don’t see the silouhettes at the bottom of the screen, but now they don’t have to just do their comedy magic to old crummy films.  They do them to new releases. 10 out of 10.  I highly recommend this service. ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-26T14:51:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/its_earth_day_as_every_day_should_be/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/its_earth_day_as_every_day_should_be/#When:20:36:00Z Happy Earth Day, everyone!  Go out there and pick up some garbage, maybe plant a tree, and/or perhaps cut down on the amount of electricity you use. Today, when picking up our eldest from school and walking home, HRH Princess Katherine suggested that we pick up all the garbage we see on our walk home.  Provisionally, Her Majesty and I agreed (no kleenex or other *really* gross things, we said). Now I want to address the cynics out there, who say that having an Earth Day is stupid because we go right back to our shameful ways the other 364 days of the year, or that our picking up garbage (hey, a plastic grocery bag full of garbage is quite good for a 5 minute walk) is irrelevant because it’s just one tiny path in our whole city, which in itself is just a nothing little town on the grand scheme of things. And I say, that’s thinking about it all wrong.  Every day we raise our awareness of our planet (and more specifically, how shitty we treat it) is one more day than if we had nothing at all.  Every plastic grocery bag full of garbage we pick up is one bag full of garbage that isn’t still lying on the ground.  Every tree you plant, every light bulb you switch off because sunlight was available, every walk or bike ride you take instead of taking the car, it all adds up.  It especially adds up if everyone pitches in. So what if no one single thing that I and only I do can completely solve the entire pollution problem on this planet?  That’s absurdist.  And yet that’s the very reasoning that cynics will use when mocking Earth Day or scoffing at people who pick up a bag full of garbage on their walk home.  You can’t look at percentages of the whole and ridicule how small an effort it is.  However much effort is put into cleaning up our planet is more than nothing. So do something good for your planet today.  Continue to do that tomorrow, and so on.  And to the cynics out there?  Fuck you in your stupid asses with the garbage the rest of us picked up today. ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-22T20:36:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/once_more_under_the_knife/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/once_more_under_the_knife/#When:06:35:01Z My youngest daughter is having an operation today.  Same problem that my eldest had (bladder reflux), but the operation this time is much less invasive and, overall, much less scary. HRH Princess Katherine was opened up, and her ureters pushed further into her bladder and sewn in place.  Effective, but a serious surgery. HRH Princess Allison is going to have a much easier time of it.  They go in through the urethra, and essentially inject some silicone stuff (or something like that, the actual composition of which isn’t relevant to this entry, suffice to say it’s magic stuff that does the job) right underneath the opening of the ureters into the bladder.  Anyway, it solves the problem in something like 90% of cases.  Not that all surgeries aren’t serious, but this one is decidedly less serious than the first one. At any rate, if you could spare a moment for prayer/mojo/good-thoughts/wish-her-Godspeed for a successful surgery and a quick recovery for my little girl, I’d sure appreciate it. Now, if I could just get to sleep tonight, that’d be great. *UPDATE* The operation went fine, it was successful, and the doctor is “80% happy with it”.  The right side, he said, may need another treatment, but we’ll know more after the ultrasound in a month and the post-op VCUG in three months.  She, as usual, was a trooper all around, and came out of the anaesthetic is reasonably short order (she takes after her old man), and is outside playing now. ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-16T06:35:01-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/anyone_else_a_fan_of_eli_stone/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/anyone_else_a_fan_of_eli_stone/#When:00:48:00Z I’m rather enjoying the new show Eli Stone.  It was apparently a mid-season replacement they threw in there to keep people watching during the writer’s strike, and it caught on like gangbusters.  But seriously, what’s not to like?  It has a very original premise, and it incorporates musical numbers in almost every show (many of Eli’s visions take the form of a song and dance routine), and it’s well cast and acted, and it’s got Natasha Henstridge and her Amazingly Hot Everything. I was rather pissed when a couple of shows that I liked got the axe post-strike (hello, Journeyman and Bionic Woman, anyone), but there are some good new shows that I enjoy.  I wish Heroes would hurry the fuck up and get back to the entertaining me thing, though. How about you?  What are some of your shows that you watch nowadays? ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-15T00:48:00-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/it_really_is_a_better_way_to_watch_television/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/it_really_is_a_better_way_to_watch_television/#When:14:47:01Z So the wife and I got a decent tax return this year.  And yes, I realize that it’s money that the government took too much of in the first place and so it’s not actually found money, but what ever, okay?  Get off my cloud. We decided we’d actually get some stuff with it.  She got a laptop (her computer operated like shit anyway), and I got an HDTV.  And yes, I also realize that it seems *my* gift is really *our* gift, but again, leave me alone. It’s an LG 32” LCD, 720p (1080p isn’t needed unless you’re in the 40+” range).  It’s the perfect size, and we got it at a clearance sale, so it was quite discounted from the MSRP. And you know what?  TV and movies really are a lot more awesome in HD. ]]> Ramblings 2008-04-08T14:47:01-05:00 http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/the_water_problem_is_simple_to_solve/ http://www.scratchingtheitch.com/index.php/site/the_water_problem_is_simple_to_solve/#When:14:11:00Z So now scientists have found traces of pharmacuticals in the water supply.  Trace amounts of heart medications and the like.  Some claim that this is a more serious threat to the public health than PCB or lead contamination. Here’s the solution: we should be drinking distilled water. Duh. ]]> Ramblings 2008-03-31T14:11:00-05:00