Terri's Cellar Door

Stuff that happens to me, Terri.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Browncoats and Blue States... Oh and I Think I Mention the Dixie Chicks Somwhere in There

*I certainly hope you know what a Browncoat is*

So, I just recently made this really neato icon, naming the Dixie Chicks as honorary Browncoats, and I got a lot of feedback of it. Most ran the gamut of You Go Girl! to Browncoats? Yeah right! So it got me to thinking about this gut reaction I had naming these three women Browncoats, and why I would do such a thing. And I wanted to explain it, just for anybody who might have ever wondered about it. We’ve named other people Browncoats before, but it just seems that naming the Dixie Chicks in anything seems to get people’s temperature rising. Okay, firstly, this is not a flame thread. If you don’t intend to read this post in its entirety your responses are not wanted here. If you intend to just say Dixie Chicks suck (or Dixie Sluts or Dixie Hicks), then you’re not wanted here either. Firstly, I think to myself, what is the meaning of a Browncoat? What comes to mind when we think about Mal, Zoe, Tracey, or any of the others that struggled in their fight against the Alliance? Well for me, it’s pure and simple doggedness. They’re stubborn. They’ll be gorramed if they would have let the Alliance tell them what to do and think, and they’ll be gorramed if they’re going to let them do it now. They’re stubborn people. Now, did everybody agree with them? No way. Just because not everybody was a purplebelly didn’t mean there weren’t alliance sympathizers through and through. And that made it hard for them, but they fought anyway, and even today still fight for what they think. Okay, now to the Chicks. Now, I agree with them, let me get that out of the way here and now. However, if you look at what has occurred with them, you know that they have qualities that our comrades in brown possess. They said what they said. Yeah, we all know that. And they didn’t back down. That’s the main point I’m trying to tell people. Don’t focus on the message, (because some people don’t agree), focus on the brunt they took for it. Yeah, their record sales went down, but they have a whole nother group of fans that they’ve cultivated. And everybody’s talking about how they’re whining. People, they’ve received death threats. Their families have received death threats. Trust me. When they say that they think this thing has gone to far, I’m going to have to agree with them. They never said, don’t burn our records, they never said, don’t play our songs. They said, don’t kill our families. Don’t kill us. That’s a totally different ballpark. People who said they’re whining because people stopped buying their records, obviously don’t know the whole story. So, yes, I would say that they did try to instill that into the public, but I don’t see anything wrong with that. Okay, so they’ve stood up for what they believe in the face of threats of bodily harm. Need I remind you that a man came to their concert in Texas with all intentions of killing Natalie Maines, and was only arrested at the gate? This is a fact people. So, when is doing all of that not enough? When is standing up for something you believe in, no matter what other people think, even when they disagree with you, even when they threaten you, how is that not the makings of a Browncoat? They never said bomb America, they never said Kill the President, they didn’t like the way that things were going, and they said so. Is that so different as what Mal would have done?

Monday, October 23, 2006

Who dares disturb my slumber?

I can't remember where this quote is from. If somebody recognizes it, tell me, please. It's driving me crazy. Anyway, this is kinda a Browncoat post. Firstly there's the website calle Big Damned Thank You. It's made to show Universal (the company that financed the Serenity motion picture) that the fans appreciate the movie, and want more. Though, not so much of the last part, and more of the last part. Anyway, so visit BigDamnThankYou.com, and see some people who are pretty excited about Firefly. Also, made another banner. Mostly for use on sites as I see fit. I dunno, yet.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Yessir, the Check's in the Mail...

Well, I just have to share something with you all. So, there's this movie, and it's called Big Trouble in Little China. And if you've neevr seen it, well you're missing out on an extravaganza of fun, danger, and the occasional Chinese misrepresentation. Let me regale you with some quotes from the movie (courtesy of IMDB.com) to whet your whistle:

Jack Burton: Ok, you people! Sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we're not back by dawn... call the president.

Gracie: [Jack and Gracie are in an elevator, on their way to confront Lo Pan] You have a gun, I hope?
Jack Burton: A knife.
Gracie: A knife? This guy's twelve feet tall!
Jack Burton: Seven. Besides, I can take him.

Eddie: Well sure it was a war. And anybody that showed up was gonna join Lem Lee in the Hell Of Being Cut To Pieces.
Jack Burton: Hell of being what?
Eddie: Chinese have a lot of Hells.
Wang Chi: Jack, listen, I need more of your help. I can't pay you today, OK?
Jack Burton: Oh shit.
Wang Chi: How can I? I need all my cash for Miao Yin.
Eddie: And it's gonna cost. She's got green eyes.
Gracie: Oh no, seriously? Oh, that's an extra to these people. It's like leather bucket seats, it's double the price.

Now, I'm going to be honest with you. I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! Not only is it a cinematic masterpiece, but the dialogue is so quick witted that one can't help but laugh. And it's campy, sure it's campy, but it never forgets that. And sometimes it harps on it, just to let you know that it's in on the joke. So, let me just give you a little summary of the movie. Jack Burton is a truck driver who drives across country in a truck called the PorkChop Express (why? you ask, because he hauls pigs). So, one wet night he makes a stop in on Chinatown, in what I believe is in San Fransico, CA, and he plays a couple of high stakes games with his old friend, Wang. So, the next morning, Wang owes him a lot of money, and Jack plays escort to his friend when Wang goes to pick up his wife, coming in from China. So, once at the airport, they run into Gracie Law (played but the wonderful Kim Cattrell) and Wang's wife, Miao Yin, get's kidnapped. Turns out she's been kidnapped by the evil David Lo Pan(Lo Pan) an elderly businessman, who (when so inclined) can turn into a great magician twelve (no, seven) feet tall. Comic/adventurous hijinks ensue, and by the end of the movie, the bad guy is defeated, the girl (s) is saved, and everything works out in the end. Well, sorta. The movie is just plain fun. I love the action, the characters, and most of all the dialogue. And the way Kurt Russell plays Jack Burton, it's just a trip. He's hilarious, and mostly serious. This movie came out in theaters maybe twenty years ago, but it's still as fun a trip as it was back then. I would say if you're a fan of movies like The Last Dragon, or the Golden Child, then definately check this one out. And if you haven't seen those other two, then where have you been?!?! Go back to the eighties and try them out. For eighties movies, they still hold up well, much like Indiana Jones, or somesuch. Anyway, On Terri's Scale o' Movies, I would definately give this one an 9. I leave you with my favorite quote from the movie, from the indomitable Jack Burton, who is always doling out advice and referring to himself in the third person:

"When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye and asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail." --Jack Burton

Check out a website with amazing stuff about Big Trouble in Little China, links, interviews, and much more than any one website should really have about this movie. Plus, there are t-shirts!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

What's Up Kwanzaa-Bot?











Man, I've been giving these out for three hundred and fourty seven years. So, I decided to write a little bit about slash, which is, for those who don't know, fan fiction between two characters in a usually a sci-fi or fantasy show. It used to just be with two male characters like Spock and Kirk, but now it can mean any non-canon relationship in a show, homosexual or heterosexual(or movie, or something). Example: On the show Xena, there was much slash about Xena and Gabrielle, her sidekick. So much so, that Xena became more of a lesbian icon than a regular female icon. The slash permeated the culture to the point where not only did people associate it with the show, but it was actually mentioned in the show, and became a part of it. I don't like fan fiction. That's just a fact. It's not that I don't appreciate the fans making an effort to be a part of the fandom, it's just that I feel that sometimes people go out of the way with it, and it gets so far from canon that it might as well not even be about the show. I appreciate canon. I also appreciate when the writers on a show strive to keep it interesting and fresh, and subsequently perfect the characters that they care about so much. Anyway, so I try to read as little fan fiction as possible, not only slash, but I'm just suprised at how much slash has practically taken over alot of fanfiction. I would like to mention that I'm going to use the phrase fangirl. And when I say that I don't mean a fangirl like me. Cool, geeky, in love with some fictional character, not 13. I mean, the other kinda fangirl, shallow, obssessed, in love with every fictional character, 13. I can't stand those fangirls. They sit at their computer all day and between writing slash fiction and making icons suggesting the love between Luke and Han Solo, they barely find time to go to middle school. They give cool fangirls like me a bad name. I just can't get with the fact that they put together people who aren't together in the series. Like just recently I got into Serenifly (Firefly the series, and Serenity the motion picture), and you'll see the weirdest combinations of characters. Men, women, crazies, people who techinically should never reproduce. I just can't deal with it. Anyway, that's enough ranting for now. Come back soon and I might talk about something else. Don't rightly know what it is. Well, maybe I do: Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok! Deathklok!

Monday, October 16, 2006

I Just Saw Gallagher and Harry Connick Jr. Beat Up a Guy...

Sunday, October 15, 2006

We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

So, a friend of mine has a story posted on her blog, that she wrote for her Japanese class. And I wanted to see what it said, but I have absolutely no paitence, whatsoever. So, I went to a helpful little website, and had it translated. It's way off, and I knew that almost immediately because it's supposed to be about a Turtle and a Mountain, and it's totally called Pot and Mountain, which is all off. So, anyway, yeah, here it is. I'll probably highlight my favorite parts, funny as they are. Oh and Jess, this isn't a commentary on your Japanese, I used a crappy translator. *hugs*

Pot and mountain (and ま) The む oak む oak, the pot was as for the raw obtaining the pot. However the shellfish (or) from it is clean, the head was and was the わ る. One day (), the river (the わ) speaking unintentionally, the water (only not seeing) increased. You looked at the fish. Does the pot, "go somewhere? "The time it came. The fish, "me (transferring) month (being attached) goes to the place. "It was to question. Is the pot, "so? Why it goes? "The time it came. The fish, "month (being attached) is the party! "It was to question. The pot was the surprise. The fish questions and starts, "the pot, me (transferring) the better ょ. "The time it came. The pot, "is funny, is. Month (being attached) is the party the river (the わ)? "The time it came. The fish to question was and, was. The pot fleetingly it is forcing. "Me (transferring) the ぎ increase it is. "It was to question. Is the fish, "so? "With saying, it went to the party. In (in) the forest (the り) to the line which depends (to be) the っ て, the stone (to do the pot to be) it sat down. Exceeding is, ",! The small (ちto be) the case, the stone (it does to be), you sit down the foot (the あ to do)! "It was to question. The pot (does not do to be), "me (transferring) the stone. It is the pot. Is someone? "It was to question. Exceeding is, "me (transferring) the mountain (and the ま). "It was to question. The mountain (and the ま) being high, the ひ る it was and was. The mountain (and the ま) does, "what (what) do with this? "The time it came. The pot, "me (transferring) month (being attached) does not go to the party. "It was to question. The mountain (and the ま) is not completed, ". Me (transferring) month (being attached) it does not go to the party. "It was to question. Don't you think? the pot so, ". The party the stripe is done, the ょ! "It was to question. The mountain (and the ま), "you think and it is cute! "It was to question. The そ it depends, the mountain (and the ま) with the pot doing the party, it is the べ it increased ケイーキ and アイスクリム and クキ. It fell and increased only the ゃ.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

It's Dangerous to Be Desired



So, Harley's got some t-shirts that you can buy. My own shirt banner is coming soon, as soon as I get it done Maybe. Check out this webiste and maybe buy something. Or not. Though I would suggest the former. Hmmm? Anyway, oh and there are probably something about Firefly soon.


Thursday, October 05, 2006

Funny Metaphors

I stole this from this website. So, I thought I'd post the whole thing in it's entirety so you know, it won't be so much stealing.

Metaphors For The Ages
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Regular blog contributor Andrew sent this along, and I couldn't help but beg him to let me post it here. As many of you know, I am a huge nerd about language and vocabulary, and I have also been known to pretend like I am a writer every now and again. I know if I went back and dug up my old stories from when I was a kid or a teenager, they'd probably be chock-full of ridiculous comparisons, similies and analogies. So we're taking a break from the weather talk today and here are some great similes, metaphors and analogies from some of the country's creative teenage geniuses. (My personal faves are in bold!)

"Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.....

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2.. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie,surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

21. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

22. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

23. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

24. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up. "


Link to the site.

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