Nerdery Week: Through the wilderness

As I'm sure anyone can tell from my Nerdery Week posts, I am completely and utterly free of all obsessions. OK, that's more than just a little white lie. Perhaps my biggest obsession is with her Madgesty, the Queen of Pop music, Madonna. Love her (like I do) or hate her (like many others do), there's no denying her marketing savvy, ability to do a pop song like no other, and her natural tendency to have her finger on the pulse of what is up and coming (although that seems to have faltered a bit in recent years.)

As a teenager, I had a poster of Madonna from the Who's That Girl tour book on the back of my bedroom door. It featured the look that I now profess to like the least - the platinum blond (almost white) hair with the dark eyebrows. That poster has disappeared without a trace, but here's the image - how young she looks! An iconic picture, but I still hate the look.

But enough about Madonna stuff lost in the shuffle! What Madge items can be found in my office now? Ask and you shall receive. Probably the best place to start is my iTunes. Limiting artist to "Madonna" this is what you get (you'll have to click on the image to get anything out of it):

Granted this contains some mash-ups, 5 different Blond Ambition Tours, 3 different Confessions Tours, 4 different Re-Invention Tours, and a bazillion and one fan-made mixes, but still. It's 1535 items, SIX DAYS worth of Madge. But perhaps the most embarrassing thing about posting that is the fact that I was actually listening to "Hey Poo You" at the time.

As you walk into my office you see this in the corner.

The picture on the left is a puzzle that my parents picked up for me somewhere when I was in high school. As we did with a lot of puzzles in our house growing up, we mounted it on a piece of plywood and hung it up. The only problem was, I never actually put it up on a wall. Part of the trouble was it was so dang heavy!! The puzzle is quite big (not sure of the actual dimensions and too lazy to go measure) but damn, talk about another iconic photo of Madonna. The only way it would have been better is if it had been this one (probably my all time favorite photo of Madonna) or this one. The second image on the wall is an official Confessions Tour poster, the only official tour poster that I have. (I had a Drowned World one, but it was crunched when we moved.) Framed and containing the tickets to prove we were actually there, it took me forever to actually get it on the wall, but it hangs with great pride now.

Speaking of tours, whenever you go to a Madonna tour, you are inundated with merchandise. Most of it is shoddy tour merchandise to be sure, but that has never stopped me. I am not a big fan of tour shirts (seriously, they're paper thin and so damn expensive) but the tour book is always a must-purchase. Each of the tours I have been to, I have picked up one of these. Usually they are quite pricey, in the neighborhood of 30 bucks, but they are far and away one of the more durable tour souvenirs.

(left to right, Drowned World Tour, Re-Invention Tour, Confessions Tour)

Also from the Confessions Tour and frequently found in my office, is the Confessions Tour mug. It is my coffee cup of choice - if it's clean, I'll probably choose that one. If it's dirty, I'm liable to clean it so I can use it. I am a huge mug enthusiast (and if that doesn't ratchet up my nerd credentials a few notches, I don't know what will) and usually pick one up from just about everywhere we go. Sadly, this is a replacement mug from the one I actually purchased at the tour because of an unfortunate run through the dishwasher by the former.

I alluded before that I have very few true Madonna collectibles. This next item is one of the few. I blogged a while back about how I came to own Madonna's Sex book. And the French version, no less. Take a few minutes and read that if you like, because I really do think it's a great story. But here's the Sex book, as it appears in my office.

I will not post any of the pictures from the actual book as this is still a somewhat family friendly blog, but perhaps most importantly, I have friends that read from work and I would hate for them to get fired because of the Sex book. But if you are curious as to what my favorite photos are look no further than here (link NSFW!! but hilarious!) or this one (again, link NSFW!! but hilarious!)

One final Madge related item. It's Moodonna. Complete with cone bras on her udder. Found this in a toy shop in Iowa City (OK, didn't exactly stumble upon it. I went searching for it.)

Her tag has the following poem in it: "Like a beanbag, (whoo!) stuffed for the very first time, Her music is great, but her acting's a crime. Now check out those udders, She's the talk of all Mudders. This material cow is way past her prime!" Even then they were declaring Madonna "over."

I could go on and on (and, arguably, already have) but that's enough for now. Suffice to say, my Madge love is one of my least cool things, but it is not one I would trade for the world. The woman has made music that is the soundtrack of my life. It has seen me through incredible highs (not that kind!) and equally incredible lows. And based on that alone, I will buy the new album, no matter what the CW says about her attempt at hip-hop.

Nerdery Week: The itsy bitsy spiders

Tonight's Nerdery Week post is going to be a quick one as I'm wiped out from work today. But fear not! I have tomorrow off work so I am going to endeavor to post several times. Until then, this will have to tide you over.

Matt asked me after I posted my second Nerdery photo (the one of the shelf in my office above the TV) what that big spider on the top shelf was. Why, it is none other than Shelob from The Lord of the Rings.

Shelob is yet another gift from my daughter (and my wife), who found her on clearance at either Target or K-Mart shortly after we moved to Ames. I have a special soft spot for Lord of the Rings stuff (but that's another blog post altogether) and Shelob is probably one of the coolest of the LOTR figures I managed to get. Although there is a Balrog for sale as well, but at $130, I just don't think it's worth the money!

However, Shelob is not the only spider-like creature taking up space. If you look carefully, you can also see a lesser known, but no less cool spider in the Empress of the Racnoss. This insane looking creature was the villain in the Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride." The Empress is probably the best thing about that episode, and the figure they created based on her is gorgeous. Oh, and did I mention, HUGE?


And a side view as well, to show what a big butt she has.

I bought the Empress at Mayhem Comics here in town just after Christmas with some Christmas money that was burning a hole in my pocket. I had wanted Heidi to pick her up in London, but the exchange rate was so bad, plus there was the whole having to bring her back to the States on a plane thing. Oh well, good thing I ended up finding her in town anyway.

That's it for tonight. Better posts tomorrow, I promise!

Winter frolics

It's no mystery around these parts that we're IMMENSELY tired of winter. This morning, it's 1 degree F. With the wind chill, it's nearly -10 degrees F. And I have to walk to work. Fun times.

Anyway, Heidi took Anna to school this morning and, upon her arrival back she said "There's a snow penis on blahblahblah Avenue." I did a bit of a double take a said "What did you say?" She replied, "There's a snow penis on blahblahblah Avenue. You can see it from 13th Street. It's in front of someone's door, almost as if whoever did it was mad at the other person."

This I gotta see, even though I was certain there was a more logical explanation.

I rush through my shower so that I can drive out to the scene of the crime. This is what I found. (house number purposely hidden to protect the innocent.)

If that is not a snow penis, I don't know what it is.

Wow. What a way to start the day. Although I'm sure it's nothing compared the shock the people living in that house will start their day with.

Things like this make my inner 12 year old boy laugh with great delight.

Let's see it again, just for fun.

Priceless.

Nerdery Week: In the Nerdery, no one can hear you scream

I have an incredible fondness for all things Alien, even though it is probably not cool to like Alien any longer. But when have I EVER been about liking things that are cool? Regardless, there is no denying the coolness that is the Xenomorph, if for no other reason than the thought given to the life cycle of the thing. In the Nerdery, there are many things devoted to the Alien. Here are but a handful.

My most prized Alien possession is the original Kenner 18" Alien figure that was available for a very short time in 1979 before pressure from parents led to it being pulled from shelves. This was actually given to me as a Christmas present from my folks that year (were they cool or what?) In mint condition and in the box, these things sell for upwards of a few hundred bucks on eBay. Of course, mine went in the sandbox too much to be worth much of anything money-wise, but as far as sentimental value goes, it's priceless.

As you can tell, it is nowhere close to mint condition, but it's mine! And all the pieces are still there.

More recent acquisitions include this Warrior Alien that I picked up at Toys R Us in Cedar Rapids on a random stop. He doesn't stand up very well (much to my chagrin) but he does come with eggs and facehuggers. I still remember Anna being 3 years old and playing with this, calling the facehuggers "spiders" and the Alien "that scary guy."

And then, one Christmas, Anna gave me the Queen Alien. Her goal that Christmas was to "give Dad something scary." She had help from Heidi, naturally, but the Queen was a perfect addition to the collection. It was more an Alien vs. Predator Queen than the Queen from Aliens, but it got the job done. I have been known to tell people reaching out to touch the Queen "Get away from her, you BITCH!"

The next item was purchased thanks to a bonus check from work. Since I think that money like that is meant to have a least a small percentage of it spent on fun stuff, I decided to splurge and spend the nearly 30 bucks on a plush Chestburster. I love the Chestburster, making quite a splash upon its entry into the world and running completely on instinct, it's easily one of the best stages of the Alien's development. And what better than a plush Chestburster to cuddle up with? Well, suffice to say I have NEVER cuddled up next to the Chestburster. Instead, he is on display in the Nerdery, where Anna famously referred to him as "the baby scary guy."

One final Alien related item, and another that dates back to my childhood. In my room that I shared with my brother growing up, this mounted Alien puzzle hung on the wall. My mom is forever sending stuff from days gone by my way so that I can make up my mind what I want to do with it. However, the Alien puzzle was one that I claimed quite vehemently. It now hangs right next to my desk. You can spot it in one of the first Nerdery posts I did, but here's a closeup for you. It has a companion puzzle in the King Kong one that hangs next to it (also from my childhood bedroom) but that's another post.

I also have a few Alien books as well (mostly the novelizations of the movies and a few of the original stories written based upon the movies) as well as the essential Alien Quadrilogy, which features a highly superior extended cut of the much maligned Alien³. Seriously, if you have a chance, check out that version. Even though David Fincher didn't participate so it's not truly a "director's cut", it's the closest thing we'll ever get to one.

So that's it for today. I promised myself I would be done with this at 12:30AM and it's now 12:31AM, so not too shabby if I do say so myself.

King of swords

Heidi is really the Tarot expert in our house. She's read tons of books on it and has a very good understanding of the cards. A few weeks ago, she gave me a spare King of Swords card that came with a deck that she purchased and told me to put in on my desk. (You can see it in the first picture in the previous post at the very left edge of the picture. Hint: it doesn't look like the picture in this post. That King of Swords is from the classic Rider-Waite deck.)

She's told me what it means a hundred different times and I can never remember. So I did a little reading this morning and this is what I get out of it. It's a good card for me to keep in mind. I swear that "he was gonna do that!" will be the epitaph inscribed on my grave stone. I am full of good intentions, but because I am easily distractable, I frequently lack follow-through. This is to my detriment, not only in social situations, but in work situations and other arenas as well.

So for me, the King of Swords represents the action needed to back up those good intentions. There are times in life when you just have to buck up and do the things you have to do regardless of how little you actually want to do them. The King of Swords provides that reminder to me. In fact, I finally got my flex benefits stuff taken care of after the e-mail has been sitting in my inbox for weeks. Mostly, I just didn't want to deal with it, but it was getting to the point where I really needed to, and my desire to not do it was going to cost some money. And since we can use every little bit we can get, I finally got it accomplished. And that is such a mirror to so many things in my life: I just don't want to deal with it, so I'll push it off until it goes away (which never happens.)

The King of Swords has earned its spot on my desk. He is a gentle reminder of what I aspire toward. It is on days like these (not the most fabulous) that I need that kick in the pants a bit more than usual.

Work beckons.

Nerdery Week: The desktop

A man's nerdery is his castle, or something like that anyway. For all the pop culture things in the room, the anchor of the room is my desk. There's no doubt about it. So no Nerdery Week would be complete without a look at the desktop (and the desktop on the desktop, of course.)

OK, you're reaching my inner sanctum at this point.

This is the spot from which I do 98% of my blogging, surfing and music listening. I'm not sure that anyone else on the planet has a desk just like this one. And for that, we should all be thankful.

One's choice in desktop wallpaper says a lot about a person. Mine is, naturally, Madge gyrating on the mechanical horse during "Like A Virgin" at the Confessions Tour. This is one of my favorite wallpapers to use because it is such a fantastic shot from the tour and I always love it when she dusts off the moldy oldie hits for another go-round.

Some of the things you see here are permanent items. For example, the three items taped to the side of my monitor have been there for quite a while. The top item is one of my favorite zombie cartoons that I clipped from the Toons (an independent Ames publication featuring cartoons, mostly of the political variety) a few years back. The second is a love note from my daughter. The bottom is a quote by which I attempt to live each and every day (presented to me by my lovely wife.)

Additionally, there is also an action figure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor from the long running British series Doctor Who. Heidi bought this for me when she was in London this last summer. If I have a mancrush, it is probably on David Tennant. He is so damn nerdy cool!

Other things on the desk that you can spot are various pictures of Anna, a cup from a drug company that I've been carting around for years (Floxin - the caffeine compatible quinolone!) But one thing that's hanging out on my desk right now that is decidedly in transit is that Madonna single. It is limited edition blue vinyl pressing of "True Blue" and I've blogged it before, but I am still thinking of having it framed so that I can hang it up on the wall. It's truly one of the few Madonna collectibles I have (more of those coming later in the week.)

It will probably be framed sometime in 2038. For now, it's on my desk.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. Am I really going to have to do multiple posts a day to get everything in?

Nerdery Week: Welcome to the Jungle

My Nerdery is in the basement in the back of the house. Half the basement in our house is finished, and in this finished room is where you will frequently find me either surfing or blogging or just listening to iTunes. It is not much, but it is mine. I don't have a whole lot of time to post this morning before work, but I thought that this would provide a good overview before I delve into the specifics of the Nerdery.

So, as you come down the basement steps and round the corner, this is what you will find.

That crappy paneling was there when we moved in. There are plans to paint it eventually. There are also plans to replace the carpet. This will begin once it becomes legal for me to use Monopoly money at Lowe's.

And here's a shot from another angle.

See anything intriguing? Rest assured, explanations are forthcoming. But it is now time for me to head out into the ice and snow and put in my 8 hours. (or 9 or 9.5 as the case may be.)

In the meantime, here's a link to other Nerdery Week posts today (updated as they come in):

1. Matt's shelf in his home office
2. Caryle and her books
3. TKT's desk
   

How will we feel 20 years from now?

It was 20 years ago that I first started listening to Stevie Nicks. She had always existed on my periphery prior to that, but in the winter of 1987-88, I bought up her solo albums and really started listening to her, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Her music is a huge part of the soundtrack of my sophomore year of high school. Listening to the first three albums (Bella Donna, The Wild Heart, and Rock A Little) is like stepping into the Tardis and being magically transported back to those times. That is not all good, but it is what it is.

Matt and I were discussing "Illume (9/11)" the other day which is a Stevie track from Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will album. For me, that's an example of a song in which Stevie is being deliberately spacey and obtuse. While at times, that is exciting and cool, there are also times that it is highly annoying and I'm all "just stop that already!!" So it got me to thinking about what makes my favorite Stevie Nicks songs my favorites. What better time than a Friday when I don't work to ponder Stevie songs? I limited myself to her solo work, as including Fleetwood Mac would have rendered this list an impossibility. So, here they are (in no particular order as is usual, and links to YouTube videos where I could find them):

Dan's 12 Favorite Stevie Nicks Songs

1) "Stand Back" - (from The Wild Heart) - If a gun were held to my head and I was forced to pick my #1 favorite Stevie Nicks song, it would be "Stand Back." Stevie talks about how it has an energy that comes from nowhere, and it's true. Those big synths, the driving drums, it's near perfect. Without a doubt, the best dance song Stevie has ever done, even though the video is VERY swing choir (but still infinitely better than the scrapped Civil War one.) Not as crazy about it live as, despite what Stevie says, I feel like she's a bit bored with it.

2) "Blue Lamp" - (from Heavy Metal: Original Soundtrack) - A fan favorite, and certainly in my top five. It's an incomprehensible song about God only knows what (although this is interesting.) I love this song because it's a straight on rocker with a great melody. One of the highlights of the Crystal Visions DVD is watching her lay down the vocals for this song when it was slated to be on Bella Donna. Those very vocals I swear are the ones that we hear now on the song.

3) "Think About It" - (from Bella Donna) - Featuring a lyric that got me through my overly dramatic, melancholy-for-no-real-reason teenage years ("Even when you feel like your life is fading/I know that you'll go on forever, you're that good/Heartbreak of the moment is not endless/Fortune is your life's love.") this is one of my favorite album tracks on Stevie's stunning debut album. A demo version of "Think About It" showed up on a expanded remaster of Rumours from a few years back and I almost like that version better!

4) "Blue Denim" - (from Street Angel) - Another straight forward rocker, but this time from her critically maligned 1994 Street Angel album. What I love about it is how it hearkens back to early Stevie, especially at the end of the song when she speak/sing/yells "Well, I'm going away for a little while to remember how to feel!" While the album itself has not aged well, this song is a good addition to her catalog.

5) "Nightbird" - (from The Wild Heart) - Written in the aftermath of friend Robin's death from leukemia, I listened to this song time and time again as a 15 year old trying to figure it out. The funny thing about The Wild Heart as an album is how it is such a bridge between Bella Donna and Rock A Little, almost as if it is the offspring of those two albums. It has both the acoustic/classic rock sound of Bella Donna, but is also quite synth heavy (although not as much as Rock A Little.) "Nightbird" is, I think, a good example of this.

6) "Greta" - (from Street Angel) - Another one from that critical and commercial misfire, but when I first heard this song, it had a classic Stevie sound about it, including speak-sing (Ooh, she's got a movie star view!) Well, behold the power of the internets because "Greta" is actually a song Stevie wrote for The Wild Heart. No wonder it had that classic Stevie sound! The demo is much cheesier, but Stevie is not in a daze on Klonopin in that one, as she is on the version on Street Angel, so really, it's a toss-up as to which is better.

7) "I Can't Wait" - (from Rock A Little) - Oh, how I love this song. Rock A Little as an album is rather dated (in a good way at least for me), but for some reason, "I Can't Wait" is just timeless. With vocals famously laid down in one take and the fabulous "how will we feel 20 years from now?" break-down, I just love this song from start to finish. I am also especially fond of the pseudo tongue twister "In secret she says she needs to see him but no words are spoken." "Stand Back" was given the remix treatment last year. I think "I Can't Wait" should be next.

8) "Trouble In Shangri-La" - (from Trouble In Shangri-La) - After the duds of The Other Side of the Mirror and Street Angel, Stevie was back in her finest form since I can't even remember when with this album. And this song is a latter-day classic for her. Having Sheryl Crow produce was a stroke of genius, even though Lindsey Buckingham is still her best producer. It's always great when you've kind of written an artist off as never being able to top what they've done, and then they prove you wrong.

9) "Mirror Mirror" - (B-side to "Blue Denim" single) - A leftover track from the Rock A Little days, it sure sounds the part. But since I have such a soft spot for Rock A Little, it's not surprising that this song makes the list. It was the B-side for the cassette single (those were the days, my friend) of "Blue Denim" and truthfully, it was the only reason I bought the single!

10) "Bella Donna" - (from Bella Donna) - This song gets me with the first 5 notes. Those ascending piano chords that open the song and the album are among my favorite musical moments. I think what makes Bella Donna such a great album is that it was her first solo record and she just had massive amounts of unreleased material to choose from. I also think she benefited quite a bit from Jimmy Iovine's production. I remember reading in Rolling Stone that he was very unforgiving with her, telling her that she needed to stop thinking that she was a part of a supergroup and think of herself as completely unproven. And really, as a solo artist, she was at that time. (The song in the video linked is actually a demo - the finished version is much more epic.)

11) "If Anyone Falls" - I played this song till my ears bled when I was 15. It is heavy on the synths, some guitar (not much) and a classic Stevie vocal. Plus an extremely cheesy video. Enough said.

12) "The Nightmare" - (from Rock A Little) - There are many that think this song should have been jettisoned from Rock A Little in favor of "Mirror, Mirror" or "Thousand Days." I would have to disagree vehemently, as it was, after "Talk To Me" and "I Can't Wait" the third Stevie Nicks song that I really "discovered." It is spacey and out there and Stevie at her most coked-out, but it starts out with an energy (perhaps left over from "Stand Back") and it never lets up. And it contained yet another line crucial to my adolescence in "This is not the world, not the world, not the real world!"

Yes, I was a handful as a teenager. But not in the ways you might imagine.

There were so many good songs that did not make the cut. "Edge of Seventeen", "Talk To Me" and "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" are notably absent. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that these are the ones that, when I listen to Stevie, are likely to get the most play. You'll notice that it is heavy on the first three albums. There's something about that trilogy of albums, the ones that were already released when I discovered Stevie's solo work, that is magical.

Wow, this has been kind of fun, even though it has sucked up my entire morning!!

Myers-Briggs introvert

I've noticed that I'm tracking more serious these days, which does not bode well for Nerdery Week. But fear not, I will pull my 12-year-old boy out and he will be on full display next week for all the world to see. But in the meantime, you're just going to have to deal.

I haven't taken a Myers-Briggs personality test in a long time, so when I stumbled across one tonight quite by accident, I thought I'd try it again. It's been so long, that I couldn't remember my MB type, although I distinctly remember the "introverted" part. This is what came up.



Wow, I had no idea I was THAT introverted. One of the things I remember most is that when Heidi and I were engaged and had to do the required pre-marriage counseling at the church, the pastor had us take the Myers-Briggs personality test. If I recall correctly (and Heidi, correct me if I'm wrong on this one), it was one of the first times that Heidi realized that I really needed time on my own, to recharge my batteries so to speak. Who says those pre-marriage counseling sessions are a waste of time.

I remember Heidi testing on the extrovert side of that, although I think she would argue that she is more introvert now than extrovert. Exactly how these two introverted people birthed a phenomenally extroverted child is either evidence of God's sense of humor or karma coming back at me.

And even with 100% introvertedness on that test, I like to think that I can still overcome my natural tendency toward keeping to myself. Keeping this blog is a huge exercise in that, for I am constantly pushing the envelope in my own way. The funny thing about me is that I really am an introvert, shy by nature and more likely than not to keep on keeping on and not seek out something new. However, those times that I have stepped outside my comfort zone I have more often than not been rewarded by the universe.

I may always be the introvert, but watch out for introverts. Still waters run deep, or so I've been told.

And seriously? Artist, creator? I don't think so.

He's listing

TKT did this little list thing over on his blog, and since we'll practically be blogging in tandem next week for Nerdery Week, I thought I'd give it a go. It was harder than I thought it would be!

Candy - Twizzler's Pull and Peel Licorice, cherry variety.
TV Show - Doctor Who, Tennant version.
Movie - Between movies right now. The next one I want to see is King of Kong. Wil Wheaton said it made him want to spend about a hundred dollars in an arcade.
Breakfast Meal - Twin Cities Blend coffee from the co-op and those greasy hashbrown potatoes in the hospital cafeteria.
Lunch Meal - Whatever the hospital cafeteria ISN'T serving.
Dinner Meal - Tamale soup (at least that's what we had tonight.) It was yummy. Even Anna ate it!
Vending Machine Purchase - Dr. Pepper. It's not in the fountain at the hospital cafeteria. If it were, I'd probably weigh 500 pounds.
At This Point I Should Point Out - I generally don't drink regular pop. I will make exceptions, but it's liquid candy, empty calories and is bad for your teeth (says the coffee drinker.)
Pen - I'm grooving on the green Sharpie at work quite a bit. It's fun to write with.
For Laughs - Red Pen, Inc. Just discovered it, so it may get old fast, but I got some good laughs out of it today.
Don't Like - Robyn. In my circle of pop bloggers, that is complete and utter heresy.
Don't Care - College sports. In this college town (and as a man), that is complete and utter heresy.
Cartoon - Powerpuff Girls. Girl power rules.
He Who Can Do No Wrong - David Tennant. Seriously, the new Doctor Who? Fantastic. And he can even pull off drag convincingly.
She Who Can Do No Wrong - Madge. Even when she's bad, she's pretty good.
Best Monster - I'm with TKT on this as well...zombies! Like there's even any competition.
Worst Monster - Godzilla from the 1998 Godzilla movie. Heidi was seriously MAD at that movie. I like the movie for what it is (bad), but the monster. Dumb.
Most Over-used Monster - Killers in those torture porn movies. Thank God that genre has about run its course. Not scary, just gross. OK, except the Saw movies are not bad.
Best Natural Disaster - Hot Hail. There's just not been enough of it since Ming's death.
Worst Natural Disaster - Avian influenza
Shoes - Slip on shoes that need no laces. Shhh! I can't tie my shoes.
Tattoos - None for me. None EVER for me. Although I did say that at one time about piercings. So never say never, I guess. Although if I were a betting man, I'd bet on the no.
Neck Tattoos - Um, heck no.
Worst State in the Union - I can't do this! I'm sure they all have their fine points.
Best State in the Union - Ditto, I haven't even been to all of them yet!
I Wish I Had - PS2 so I could be playing Guitar Hero THIS VERY SECOND. See what has been unleashed?
I Wish I Didn't Have - so dang much debt.
Reading - The Other Side of the River. A book about race relations between two sister cities set against a backdrop of the death of an African American teenager in the early 90s.
Also Reading - Nothing else at the moment, although Monster Island is waiting in the wings.
Last Best Book I've Read - I totally dug The Rising. A cool twist on the zombie genre.

Fellow bloggers, give this a go if the spirit moves you.

Why oh why oh why oh why

For reasons completely and utterly unknown to me, I have rediscovered "Jimmy Jimmy" - that Madonna MASTERPIECE from True Blue. It contains some of the most stellar lyrics Madge has ever written, including such gems as:

"Why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why do fools fall in love with fools like you?"
AND
"Oop shoo boop, oop boop shoo la la la"

It is Madonna cheese at, well, nearly the all time worst. But I can't get enough of it these days.

However, in all seriousness, it has a killer bridge as so many Madonna songs do.

I will not post it here though. Despite the fact that it is 22 years old (WTF??? When did this happen?) and this blog gets very little traffic compared to some sites, Madonna's people will surely find it and then sue me into bankruptcy. But you can watch a fan made video of it here, and listen to the song.

That is, if you dare.

For the record, Madonna's look in the picture above is one that I consider to be her worst. And that's including the "Boy Wonder with a gold tooth" look from the Erotica days.

Grocery run

Heidi is all down for the count with strep throat. Seriously, I think she was about ready to rip out her throat this morning, it hurt that bad. So I insisted that she get to the doctor and sure as shooting her strep test came back positive. But she is now in possession of amoxicillin, so she's on the mend.

But since she is sick, it fell to me to do the big grocery run tonight. This is not my usual territory. I don't do it well, but I am can be taught and am willing to learn. I can do the small runs, but have NEVER done a big grocery run all on my own. So admittedly, I was nervous. I needn't have been. When I got home from work today, I was presented with what can only be described as a work of art. Behold, the grocery list.

You'd have thought that it was compiled by Leonardo da Vinci. It is a thing of beauty. I hesitated posting it here because I always say that you can tell a lot about a person by the contents of their grocery cart (so let the armchair psychoanalysis begin), but it is rather generic. However, it is detailed enough to enable a doofus like me to get the grocery shopping done. I think what I love most are Heidi's editorial comments, especially the ones concerning marinara sauce and chocolate for her.

I started at 7pm, and left the grocery store at 8:30pm. The first 10-15 minutes involved taking back a multitude of cans and bottles for redemption, so I'm not really that slow, but damn! That was a lot of groceries. The only ones that gave me real trouble were spinach (it looks just like lettuce!!) and ricotta cheese (not in the cheese section.) And Heidi was right (as I already knew), listening to your iPod while you shop does give everything a nice rosy glow. I used to listen to my Walkman all the time when I shopped for myself. Granted, that didn't involve nearly as much. I actually had to leave the cereal aisle this time.

But even with my iPod, I still was reaching the end of my rope at the end, mostly because I wanted to be DONE and home.

So that was my night. Oddly enough, I have an odd sense of satisfaction rather than an overwhelming sense of having wasted my night. I'm going to have to remember that.

We've spawned the devil

It's been kind of a weird day today. Nothing seriously weird, mind you, but weird nonetheless. I started today with an odd sense of inertia that it took me quite a while to shake off. In the end, I'm not sure that I ever really did.

Last night I played Guitar Hero for the very first time with my friend Matt. And I must say that I did not do too badly for myself! Most of the songs on Guitar Hero are distinctly in either the classic rock or hard rock/heavy metal vein, so I wasn't even sure how many of them I would know. Surprisingly, I knew quite a lot of them. And boy, does it make a difference when you know the song. Still, I couldn't get over how hard some of them actually were! "Crazy On You" was so damn difficult, even at my low level of play! I started out on "easy" but progressed rather quickly to "medium." By the end of the night, Matt told me that I was probably ready for "hard." Now, I am bound and determined to buy my own PS2 just so I can have Guitar Hero in my house, something that I can easily afford from the tax refund we will be getting. I'm not sure how my wife will feel about this, but it's cheaper than upgrading my iPod or Madonna tickets.

Today, a leaked copy of Backwoods Barbie landed in my inbox and I just had to give into temptation and have a listen. No worries, I will still go and buy it when it is officially released at the end of the month because, well, it's Dolly! Very solid work from Dolly which will get absolutely no play on country radio whatsoever for no other reason than she is in her 60s and country radio has turned its back on the legends of its own genre. Her cover of the Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy" is pure camp hilarity. My sister had what was probably the best reaction I have heard yet to the track. This was her quote: "Okay, I went through three reactions during that song. First was oh my god, why, second was this actually kinda works, and then I thought, no it's too much. I'm still conflicted."

Other than that, I spent a large portion of the day reading The Other Side of the River as I try to finish it to make room for Monster Island, which arrived from the library much faster than I thought it would. My biggest problem with reading these days is making time for it. That is not to say that I don't have the time, but I don't often use that time very wisely. Mostly, it is spent being a zombie in front of the computer which is something that I'm going to work on starting soon. The trouble is I just crave input, and it's so easy to get that from the internet. However, I feel like I end up wasting a lot of time just zoning out, kind of like a crackhead just looking for one more hit. This is not to say that I am no longer going to use the internet, but I think I may need to be a bit more judicious.

I also cleaned up my office today in preparation for Nerdery Week. I was just not in the mood to expose my nerdery as well as my general tendency toward clutter. I'm probably going to have to write a few of those posts early and save them as drafts so as to not be constantly writing posts that week.

I have had a nagging sense of unease all day for no apparent reason. I don't know where it came from or when it will pass. What I probably need is a good night's sleep, which as many of you know, is pretty much a coin toss with me (especially these days.) There are a few things to be uneasy about which I will not go into in great detail here, but I recognize most of those things as being out of my control. Once I recognize that, I'm usually pretty good at putting them out of my mind. But for whatever reason, not doing as well with that today. *shrug*

But as we all know, nothing cures nagging uneasiness (or at least makes you forget about it) like Eddie Izzard. We have The Definite Article out from Netflix right now, and even though I've already seen it, I died laughing as Eddie described his youthful experiences with a clarinet and his band teacher, Mrs. Badcrumble. I beg of you, if you don't normally watch embedded YouTube clips, you owe it to yourself to watch this one, especially starting at about the 2 minute mark.



Classic stuff, I tell ya. And is it me or does he look like Anne Murray in that clip?

The one thing I will be accomplishing this week is taking care of my flex benefits so I can get the goddamn email from them out of my inbox. I am so incredibly sick of looking at it every time I open my email, I can't even begin to tell you.

There's been a load of compromisin'

I would like to say that I have been wildly productive today, but the sad truth is that I have not been. I mostly have been a layabout with nothing better to do than play random songs in iTunes and search for obscure 70s Cher video on You Tube. I have been successful in the latter quest, finding some real doozies, mostly from her mid-70s variety show. There were musical numbers with the Jacksons, the Osmonds (singing a Stevie Wonder medley of all things!) and Elton John. Seriously, why is The Cher Show not on DVD? OK, it's probably due to music copyright and low demand, but I'd buy it!

But it was this one that really made me smile. Especially starting at about the 2:28 mark.



Glen Campbell and Cher! Wow. Didn't even know that existed. The only reason that Glen Campbell is even on my radar at all is because my mother is so incredibly fond of telling the story of how, as a child, I could not get enough of the song "Rhinestone Cowboy." My mom had the 45 of it (she had a ton of singles) and she's right, I did listen to it endlessly. She tells of how I would put the headphones on my ears (the big 70s kind, none of those iPod earbuds thankyouverymuch), spin "Rhinestone Cowboy" and dance around the living room, tethered to the stereo by the curly headphone cord. There's a picture of it somewhere. It's probably even been scanned but I don't have it on my computer. My father undoubtedly has it on his as he's scanned almost all of our family pictures.

It's probably one of the first examples in my life of how a song could hook me and pretty much hold me hostage. It has happened countless times since then. Music like that is very comforting to me, taking me back to a time when things at least seemed simpler. In many ways, I hope that I am providing that kind of environment for my own daughter. Not that she has to, at some point 30 years from now, write a blog entry about how dancing around to a Cher song or falling asleep to Kate Bush every night was crucial to her development, but I often wonder if home feels as safe to her as it did for me. Certainly, her life is very different from mine, the biggest difference being that she's the only kid.

In any event, here's "Rhinestone Cowboy." (Grab it while you can, limited time only.) And when you listen to it, just imagine this little guy in headphones dancing around the living room.

Write-in candidate

This morning, Heidi asked me the following question. "If you were voting in a primary or caucus today, for whom would you vote?" While I think that any Democrat will be an improvement over the current President (well, a purple turd would be an improvement over him) and certainly a better choice than any of the Republican candidates, I'm just not sure.

I admire Hillary Clinton's tenacity and her ability to weather the 15 years of Republican attacks. I think she has some good ideas, but I also think she has behaved deplorably on the campaign trail in several instances. And as for Barack Obama, he seems to be long on ideas and short on details and plus, I just think that especially if he goes up against McCain, the Republicans are going to play the "experience" card big and bad, which is perhaps his biggest weakness. Overall, I am more inspired by Obama than I am Clinton (who seems more and more to be the maintainer of the status quo), but still, I just am not sure. My allegiances switch with the day. I worry that they will continue to fight until the day of the convention, which will be bad for the party and extremely bad for the nominee.

Don't get me wrong, on Election Day, whichever of these candidates that (eventually) gets the nomination will get my vote. I just wish they'd team up. Together, they would be unstoppable.

However, when we were talking about it, I was watching an interview with Cher on YouTube (she's been making the rounds in the last few days) and I was saying to Heidi, "You know, I'm not really a one-issue voter, but really, Cher -- I mean, CLINTON has a more clearly articulated stance on LGBT issues than Obama."

But honestly, Cher has a better track record on LGBT issues than either of them, so, based on that:

CHER IN '08! (ok, not really, but you know what I mean.)

Honestly though, the fact that McCain does not believe we need to amend the Constitution of the United States to suit the whims of religious radicals makes him just a little bit more palatable to me. Although judging from some of the stuff on the net, I'm not even sure that McCain knows what he thinks!

It's official: Nerdery Week is Feb. 17th - 23rd

Overwhelming response, I tell ya! We have a ton of people playing along with Nerdery Week. It should be tons of fun. It starts Sunday, February 17th and runs all week. 7 days of all things nerdy.

I think what will be the most fun about this is seeing all the different kinds of nerdiness that there are out there. And I say that with love and affection! No two nerds are exactly alike although there are certainly places of overlap. But perhaps what links us all is that embrace of all things nerdy, no matter what they are.

I am so happy to be surrounded by so many people who really do appreciate their inner nerd. It has taken me a long time to get here (more on that during Nerdery Week) but it's a great destination.

TKT had some great instructions on his blog, so I'm just going to copy and paste them for those of you who are may not read his blog:

1. Take a picture or two (or eighteen).
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Write about your workspace.
4. Slap 'Nerdery Week' somewhere in the post's title.
5. Link back to other people engaged in complete Nerdery nerdism.

Should be great. I know I'm looking forward to it, both from the standpoint of blogging my own nerdiness as well as seeing others'.

Not ready for the home just yet

I just found out last night that it appears that Cher is BACK!

Via PerezHilton: Like A Phoenix, She Rises Again!

And now, it's confirmed!! I'm there with bells on.

But no sequins. I'll leave that to the drag queens. They wear them much better than I would.

The places you'll find nerds

Regular readers will know that I'm not a fan of features on here. They are too difficult to keep up and do not fit in well with my "I'm going to write about whatever the hell I feel like writing about" tone that I like to keep in this space. Plus I don't like pressure to write about a specific thing on a certain day or every so many days. But as Stevie Nicks says, like a willow I can bend.

Blogging buddy and fellow Midwesterner TKT from Tappity Tappity referred to his office in a recent post as his Nerdery. I thought that this was a brilliantly appropriate term for mine as well. As Wil Wheaton once said, "I'm proud to be a geek...I can imagine [not being a geek], but it's just about the most boring goddamn thing I can imagine." My sentiments exactly.

So starting probably the week of February 17th, we're going to be spotlighting our respective Nerderies and highlighting the very things we should probably be ashamed of. There will be zombies. There will be Madge. You might even get a shot at seeing the very desk from which I blog on a semi-regular basis. (Note to self in the best Mommie Dearest voice possible: CLEAN UP THIS MESS!) I may even do a video blog. Not sure about that one - I hate how my voice sounds and I just don't think I could handle putting that much up on the blog.

If you're interested in getting in on this, by all means, let me know. It's going to be a week to celebrate nerdiness in all its fabulousness. That week is also National Engineering Week which, oddly enough, fits in with the theme.

Nerdery Week may not be as highly anticipated as Cloverfield, but hey, it's all I have.

Heidi made me do it

I'm not usually one for memes, but I couldn't resist this one. It's probably complete rubbish, but it was fun nonetheless.

You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes.

Drowned World memories

Last night on the walk home from work, I was listening to the audio from the Drowned World Tour. Not my most favorite of Madonna's tours, but still, it was my first so it holds a special place in my heart. Despite the fact that our seats redefined nosebleed (seriously, there was nothing above us but ceiling), I will never forget the moment that Madonna walked on to the stage and Jeff's all "THERE SHE IS!!" and I'm saying "Where?! Where?!" because the stage was so smoky and foggy.

Anyway, here's the song I heard on the way home last night. It's "Frozen" which was one of two songs that I really wanted to hear on that tour that ended up being included in the set list, the other being "Secret." I kept a strict media blackout of all things tour related in the run up to going to that concert. Definitely could not do that now.



Whenever Madonna hums, it melts me to the core. I have no idea why. It just does.

Pushing midnight

I promised myself that I would come home from work and go straight to bed. As usual, this is proving to be more difficult in practice than in theory. It is not because I am wide awake - I'm not. I'm actually quite tired. And for all the worrying about how the lack of computers at work for a couple hours would affect us, it really ended up being a non-issue on my shift so that just goes to show where worrying gets you.

Every time I work the evening shift, I think "I'm going to go home and get right in bed and get a good night's sleep so that I can be fresh for the morning." This is especially essential when I have to get up and be back to work at 7AM the next day, but even then, it's hard for me to convince myself that going to bed is the best option. I used to say that I could get so much more done in my life if I didn't have to waste time sleeping. When I was in college, I used to stay up until the most ungodly of hours, either journaling or playing games or goofing around on ISCABBS (nerd alert.) So legendary was my propensity to late nights that it was not unusual for me to get phone calls at 3AM and not even think twice about it. Sadly, I am no longer 21 and do not bounce back from that kind of thing as quickly or as easily as I used to.

I think the reason I resist going to bed is because I don't sleep incredibly well. I feel like I wake up A LOT. I usually have a hard time falling asleep and even though I have drugs for that if I need them, I have to be in a bad way to use them because, well, I'm a pharmacist and I've been trained to minimize pharmaceutical use. And when I do sleep, I dream like crazy. While sometimes, they are those dreams that are refreshing and enhance my sleep experience, usually they are those dreams that are disturbing, full of images I don't understand and bother me long after I've gotten out of bed and tried to start my day. At least recently, that's how it's been.

I know that if I did even a little bit of exercise, my sleep would probably improve. I am full of good intentions in that realm, but never seem to be able to make the time. I'm always either too tired or working a weird schedule or chalk it up as yet one more thing that would keep me from being with my family. The red wine I'm drinking right now probably doesn't help either, but damn it feels so good after a hard night at work. I have always been so much more of a wine guy than a beer guy, even though Stella Artois is quite good. It makes me long for the lazy summer Sundays at Prairie Moon Winery.

So for now, I keep on keeping on, for it's all I know how to do. But the last year has seen so many changes in me, in how I look at life and how I approach life's inevitable problems. These changes have provided me with great joy and great sorrow. And keeping on keeping on is, frankly, getting old. I do realize a lot of this has to do with the never-ending winter and I've been much better at taking care of myself as far as my SAD goes these days. I've been kinder to myself and allowed myself the fun things that make life worth living rather than just trying to take on everything and cut myself no slack.

Right now, I wish I could find just 15 dollars to go buy Casey Stratton's new record, but honestly, every last cent in this paycheck is spoken for. So I will be patient and wait one little week at which point I can purchase it completely guilt free. Sorry Casey, you'll have to wait a bit for my money!

And with that, I'm off to bed. I will hope for the best.

Near celebrity encounter

So I went out to volunteer for an hour in Anna's classroom which is usually akin to taking a bullet for Heidi because she has worked all morning and either wants some time to work on her stuff or is just tired and would rather I go. No big deal, really. It's just that EVERY TIME I go, they are doing something supremely messy. The first time, it was glitter art with glue. The last time, it was food coloring on coffee filter snowflakes. Today? It was sponge painting with tempra paints. Good God, and I was in my work clothes already.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. But when I was signing the volunteer book in the office, I had a most surreal experience. The secretary was addressing someone in the hall behind me. "Mrs. Ritchie? Mrs. Ritchie?"

I half expected to turn around and find Madge herself standing there.

No such luck though.

Damn.

I was born from love

First off, even this guy that has not one iota of interest in football can recognize an exciting football game when he (doesn't) see one. What a thrill last night's Super Bowl must have been to football fans!

Second, this is the upmteenth morning in a row that the first cup of coffee has been heaven on Earth, a slice of nirvana and the second cup makes me want to throw up. You'd think I would have learned by now.

But that's not what I'm really wanting to write about this morning. As my wife will tell you, I am the most suggestible person on the planet. I will try almost anything once and usually need just a slight nudge to act on something. Nowhere is this more true than it is with the music I listen to. All Heidi has to do is mention a song in passing and I'm all "Oh, I HAVE to go listen to that!!" Such is the case this week. My five albums post has gotten me all into those records, and specifically the song "Stoney End."

I cannot shake the feeling that "Stoney End" started out as "Stoner End" and was changed due to record company pressure, but I digress. It's one of those songs that's been on my radar for nearly 17 years and I still really don't know what it's about. I've had my ideas in the past, and true to form, I've molded the lyrics to fit my life situations (as I have done to all my favorite songs when the situation warranted.) The first version of "Stoney End" that I ever heard was Barbra Streisand's version, so that is the definitive version in my mind. The album Stoney End has a couple other Laura Nyro covers as well - "Hands Off the Man (Flim Flam Man)" and "Time & Love" - but for me, "Stoney End" the song is where it's at. She belts it out like she hadn't just spent the last decade doing supper club numbers and show tunes. And funny enough, it really works.

It wasn't until the beginning of the 2000s that I heard the original Laura Nyro version of "Stoney End." Had I not heard Streisand's version of it prior to hearing Laura Nyro's version, the original would be the definitive, but without Babs, I may never have heard it. It truly is good, but Laura does not have Babs' pipes. However, she does have a funky harmonica at the beginning and truthfully, her vocal delivery is much more authentic than Streisand's. Discovering her version of "Stoney End" caused me to start digging into Laura Nyro's catalog. I found that I really was familiar with a lot of her songs, thanks mostly to other acts having covered her songs. The Fifth Dimension performed a large number of her songs (and turned most of them into hits) as did Blood, Sweat & Tears and Three Dog Night, albeit to a lesser degree than the 5th Dimension. I grabbed most of those familiar songs and one classic album of hers. Eli & The Thirteenth Confession, as I've written before, is an album that I really need to own on vinyl. Listening to it in crystal clear CD (or mp3 as the case may be) seems to be defeating the purpose. This is a classic album of the 60s and deserves to be listened to in that way! And she is so classically beautiful on that album cover!

I figured that there were no other versions of "Stoney End" out there. How naive could I possibly be!? Over the weekend, a buddy of mine pointed me in the direction of Maynard Ferguson's version of "Stoney End" in response to my 5 albums post. I was eager to hear it, and I was not disappointed! It is a great version of this song. Even without the words, it still works. This got me to thinking this morning, how many other versions of "Stoney End" are there? Well, a quick search of iTunes and allmusic provided the answer. There are not many more, but there are a few. I just HAD to download Diana Ross' take on it and I'm not surprised to say that it does not even come close to touching the three versions previously mentioned. There is also a version by Beth Nielsen Chapman (not on iTunes) which I would love to hear. Beyond that, there are some other covers by lesser known acts.

Wow, who knew I had this much to say about "Stoney End"? I told you I was suggestible. If you've read this far, bless you. I'm not sure I would have.

Oh, and DirecTV is coming to our house today. If the universe collapses upon itself between the hours of 12PM and 4PM CST, you can blame us.

In researching this post, I found out that on the Target version of Streisand: Live In Concert, a live version of "Stoney End" was the bonus track! Curses! FWIW, you can listen to it on YouTube.

Additionally, as XO reminded me, Sandra Bernhard points out hilariously: Barbra "crimped her hair and then she went down the stoney end. She never wanted to GO down the stoney end!"

Not your typical Super Bowl Sunday post

So it's Super Bowl Sunday and as usual, the Super Bowl is not on in our house. Instead, Anna and I are watching Annie (the one from 1982) which is, if you want to be honest about it, not a very good adaptation of the stage musical, but you have to give them credit for trying to pull off a big old musical production in the 80s. That was pretty much a losing bet back then. However, Carol Burnett as Miss Hannigan is casting genius. Surely there are drag queens out there playing Miss Hannigan. And if there aren't, there should be.

In Bright Lights, Big City (one of my all time favorite books), Jay McInerney writes "Men don't trust other men who don't watch the Super Bowl." Or something like that anyway. To that, I say a resounding "whatever!" I was just talking to a friend today who seemed as disinterested in the Super Bowl as I am. How refreshing that was! Mostly, I just want to know what happened at half-time and which commercials were hits and which were misses. And you know what? You can watch all this online later and, most importantly, on my own terms. Of course, the fact that I never developed a taste for football probably plays a huge role in that. My dad didn't watch it, so consequently, neither did I. I can fake it pretty well during college football season and you can bet I'll know who won tonight before I go into work tomorrow, but beyond that, nothing.

I've also spent quite a chunk of time getting the taxes done. Once again, I managed to dodge the alternative minimum tax, although it seems like it's creeping closer to reality every year. Usually, I use Turbo Tax or Tax Cut or some such tax software, but this I did it the old-fashioned way, at the card table with, pen, and calculator (even though the only functioning calculator in the house was the one on the MacBook.) It turned out pretty well for us, which is good, even though thanks to the 11th-hour change to the laws in the alternative minimum tax, the refunds are supposed to take 7-8 weeks to arrive. But I can't find that anywhere on the IRS web site. So who knows. Anyway, it was a good thing.

And on Tuesday, which is also Super Tuesday AND Fat Tuesday, Casey Stratton is releasing his new record Orbit. I wish I could go buy it on Tuesday, but sadly, that's waiting for the next paycheck. Also on the radar, Guitar Hero on Saturday night! I've never played and fully expect to suck, but what the hell? I just have to get through 5 days of work. What a sad thought for a Sunday night when the week hasn't even begun.

It's a hard knock life, indeed (not really!)

It makes me sick

I was going to take the weekend off from blogging, just because I feel like I've been expounding here more often than not lately and I kind of needed a break from the computer. But then, I went and watched Sicko this afternoon, and I feel the need to say something. Maybe vent. But to say SOMETHING.

I have enjoyed most of Michael Moore's stuff (save that short lived TV show he did) but have recognized it for what it is: documentary with a sensationalistic edge. Granted, I usually agree with what he's saying, but it's still my responsibility to look at it critically and make sure I'm not totally being taken for a ride. In all of Moore's documentaries, it's pretty well established that he has taken some facts and figures and presented them in a way that lends credence to the point he's trying to make. And really, who can blame him? It's his movie and he's trying to make a point, so to claim that making documentary that has bias in it is somehow morally reprehensible is a bit of a head scratcher for me.

Anyway, Sicko hit very close to home for me, by and large because I am in health care. It's what puts food on the table and keeps the lights on in our house. And while Moore takes aim primarily at managed care and HMOs and health insurance compaines, we are all part of that system, so in the end, we are all a little bit culpable for some of the things that Moore exposes. A lot of the cases that Moore shows us in Sicko are nothing short of horrific. Health insurance claims denied through hocus-pocus on the part of the insurance company. Bonuses given to medical directors that denied the most claims, Plans cancelled because of trumped up charges that the enrollees hadn't disclosed "pre-existing conditions" like a treated yeast infection. What I witnessed in Sicko is that these corporations basically have the power to decide who lives and who dies, who gets life saving treatment and who does not. It's putting a price tag on human lives which to me is, well, sickening.

Of course, this is not breaking news either to me or to the country at large. I've had plenty of experience dealing the insurance companies both as a consumer and in the course of my work. Just last summer, prior to starting kindergarten, Anna got the raft of immunizations that all school bound kids need. Not a one was covered by my insurance (I hadn't met my deductible.) They would rather pay for her to have polio than pay for the shot. Professionally, I don't deal with third parties on a daily basis in my current job, but when I worked in retail pharmacy it was a daily battle. And when a claim didn't get paid or a copay went up, guess who bore the brunt of the patient anger and dissatisfaction? You guessed it. 's one of the reasons that I work in hospital even though you work Christmas and weekends and overnights. I just can't take the interference of third party payers in the doctor-patient relationship. And, I'll be honest, I don't like getting yelled at.

Just looking at the pharmacy in the UK that Moore visits made me want to move there tomorrow. My favorite line of the whole movie is when Moore asks him where the bread, milk and detergent are and the pharmacist says, "I haven't been trained for that many years to be selling detergent." That was ALWAYS how I felt when I worked in retail pharmacy, and honestly, where I worked was a pretty good work environment. I can't tell you how many calls the pharmacy would get for Beanie Babies back in the late 90s when I was working part time to pay for my Pharm.D.

Moore focuses a lot on the uninsured people of America, but what about those of us that have health insurance? I'll be honest, a catastrophic illness in our family would be devastating financially to us and I bet to a lot of families like ours. Sure, I may pay only 10% of the total hospital bill, but (as I'm fond of saying) 10% of a lot is still a lot. So we think we're safe, but really, we're not, which I think is even worse.

We've been brainwashed for 50 years to think that a government run health care system is evil incarnate. Moore shows us the Canadian, UK, and Cuban systems which are free to their citizens. Granted, he shows us the sunny side of it, and there's certainly more to it than what he shows, but compared to what we have here (which basically amounts to bankruptcy-by-health-care), it seems like its worth a try.

There is no quick fix, that's ultimately the saddest point in the movie. We can't pass universal health care tomorrow. I know that I'm not the best person in the world to be reviewing this movie because I'm not objective, but the way insurance companies view their job in this country is appalling. We should be ashamed of ourselves. We should be ashamed of our system that really is broken, despite all the fancy equipment and cutting edge drugs. We should be ashamed because we're letting the least of us down, and for a nation that puts so much emphasis on family values, we should be disgusted.