Yep, They Still Get Bonuses

Financial insitutions we bailed out will still give bonuses to their executives, but, you know, they'll be reduced by as much as 70%.

Good to know where my tax money went.

Quote of the Day:

(Wall Street)
Gordon Gekko: The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.


~Sass~

Gen X'ers

This chick nailed it on the head.

***NOTE: If you don't care much for Obama, skip the first few paragraphs. But read the rest because it's a damned accurate portrayal of our generation.

An open apology to boomers everywhere

***ANOTHER NOTE: Okay, I was born in '83, I'm not Gen X. But my parents were baby boomers, so this still counts.


~Sass~

All I Want For Xmas...

... is a zombie plush!



It should probably say something about me that this is the cutest friggin' thing I've seen all year, and I would absolutely *squee* in delight if I actually got one as a present.

Yeah, I'm warped.

But look at it. The legs come off... the arms come off... the head comes off... you can remove its brain. And the little sticky things that velcro the pieces together can be mixed and matched, so you could switch arms and legs and stuff. This thing is so full of win I can't hardly stand it!

So yeah. Someone buy me this thing for Christmas.

Quote of the Day:

(My Boyfriend's Back)
Dr. Bronson: Okay, well, you're dead. Which is unusual, because we don't normally see this much activity in a dead person.


~Sass~

Wal-Mart? Srsly?

Caught up on my daily blog reading and was highly disturbed by a Smart Bitches article.

Apparently, Wal-Mart can make or break an author.

You don't sell well (or at all) at Wal-Mart, you don't get your contract renewed for a second book. Or you have a damned hard time of it. They are the world's largest bookseller (wtf?) and they control your numbers like a pimp controls his 'ho.

As an aspiring first time author, this scares the shit out of me.

Now, Smart Bitches normally only focuses on Romance. I write Urban Fantasy. How does this affect me?

Urban Fantasy is one of those genres that rides the line between three prominent genres: Fantasy, Romance, and Mystery (sometimes a fourth: Horror). And while I don't generally hear about a lot of Urban Fantasy hitting the Mystery shelves, I have personally come across a lot of cross-shelving between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. If the book doesn't sell well as one genre, they can stick it in the other and watch the sales grow. My book has a strong relationship element to it and an editor may even sell the book as the relationship being the major plot point (which is what defines a book as Romance). So I could very well become a Romance author instead of a Fantasy author, and in that case, I'll have to rely on Wal-Mart to get my book out there.

It makes me ill.

But hey, I shouldn't be counting my chickens before they hatch. I'm not published yet, I haven't even queried anything, so I could be worrying for nothing.

But it still makes me ill.

Quote of the Day:

Wal-mart... do they like make walls there?
-- Paris Hilton


~Sass~

Oh Snap

Yes, sir. Yes we can.

/virtual fistbump




Quote of the Day:

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
-- Barack Obama


~Sass~

Tricksy Voters

I so pilfered the image from Google. Couldn't help myself. Fit the post I'm about to write.

This isn't about who I'm voting for, or who I think is going to win, or how very tired I am of this election (good God, are we there yet? srsly).

This is about those assholes that think if you don't agree with them, you shouldn't be voting.

Those of you that read the news yesterday (or even over the weekend) probably saw this, and I read it yesterday too. Thing is, I was so pissed off I couldn't even blog about it. I thought hey, we're in the twenty-first century, there's still some pretty fucked up shit out there but we're getting better. There are debates, there is some progress on the emotional / political / everything front. We're not perfect but we're working on it.

I really, really, hate being wrong.

This article caused me to lose a little faith (a lot, actually) in my fellow countrymen.

In Philly:
-- fliers stating if you have unpaid parking tickets or criminal convictions you'll be arrested at the polls

In Virginia:
-- fliers stating that there are so many voters turning out for the election that there will, in fact, be two elections: Repubs vote on Tuesday, Dems vote on Wednesday

In New Mexico:
-- a P.I. hired by a Repub lawyer harrassed a couple of hispanic women wanting to see proof of citizenship to show that their voter registration was legit

In Pennsylvania:
-- emails targeting Jewish-Americans circulated linking Obama to the holocost, telling them that they "cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4"
-- leaflets saying people with prior criminal offenses will be arrested if they show up to vote
-- fliers stating Obama is more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel

In Nevada:
-- phone calls from bogus Obama supporters urging Latino citizens to vote over the phone


Really? Really? Sigh.

What is it with this fear of "the other guy winning"? Why do people get so afraid about what will happen if their chosen candidate loses? What goes on in their head that they start justifying mistreatment of their fellow citizens in order to validate themselves and their choice for president / senator / governer / whatever? Are we that insecure? It's like someone draws a line in the sand and says if you're not on the right side you are devilspawn and I must kill you now. Literally, I think this goes through people's heads.

But it doesn't make sense.

What kind of conditioning have we grown up with to fear our fellow man that much? Don't get me wrong, I don't want to sit around in a circle holding hands and singing Kumbaya. But for fuck's sake, could we maybe not be so defensive and instead try to, I don't know, restrain ourselves from beating the crap out of each other both mentally and physically every time there's some sort of disagreement? Can we not maybe say, hey, I disagree with you, but this is America and I respect the fact that you have an opinion even if it isn't the same as mine? Apparently this is too hard of a concept for a lot of people to grasp.

Honestly, this sort of thing should be a big clue for the fanatics out there. If you have to resort to trickery, if you have to stoop that low in order to influence the polls, then maybe -- just maybe -- it wasn't meant to be. Sorry. That's how life goes. You can't win all the time, you shouldn't expect to win all the time, and you shouldn't go apeshit if you think you're going to lose. Losing is not a bad thing. It is not the end of the world. The universe will not implode on itself if we find out the other guy won. If I find out my choice for president didn't win, I'm not going to run out into the streets swinging an Uzi around and take out everyone in the immediate vicinity. You know what I'm going to do? I'll be pissed for a couple of days, and then I'll get over it. Despite what either party is saying right now, one person does not have that much influence over our country. Guess what? That's why we have a senate, a congress, all these local levels of government, etc etc. We have those checks and balances for a reason.

Last I checked, we all live in the same country. United States of America. See that? UNITED. It's right there in the name of our country. We are not the OMGPANIC States of America. We are not the GTFO States of America. We are not the Secular States of America.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Grow up, people. Seriously.


Quote of the Day:

(Team America)
Gary Johnston: We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!


~Sass~

Oh My

Remember when I showed you my first 51 word "phase" for the start of my NaNo novel? And I was like yeah, I can so turn this into 500 or 1000 words?

Yeah. It turned into 2200.

This is good in that I now know the phase thing works, but now it makes me think about it harder, because apparently I am very good at stretching word count. (What a surprise, right?) Means I need to map out the rest of my phases with a quickness. (No, I did not have them all planned and ready to go. Come on, you know me, I don't plan. lol)

The minimum word count needed per day is 1667 to make it to 50k by November 30th. My personal goal is 2k a day. I mean, it's only 333 words more, not that hard. Very much obtainable if I remember last year's experience correctly.

Only thing is, I wrote 1630 words on Saturday, and 743 on Sunday. I was supposed to have 3400 words to work with this morning and I only have 2373. Good 1k short of the minimum, and I had planned to write 4k by now. Not a very spectacular start.

Buuuuuut... I do like the story, and I'll continue on with it to see if I can get a decent chunk written this month. No one says you HAVE to get 50k. 40 or 45k would still be a nice accomplishment. It would be more than I've written the rest of this year, anyway. (Pretty sad, I know.)

So how is your NaNo going? Are you doing better than I am? Someone want to have a word war with me this week to keep me motivated?

Quote of the Day:

(Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Janet: What have you done to Brad?
Frank: Nothing. Why, do you think I should?


~Sass~