Little obsessions come to rest, right here.

HA!, indeed. Do you know that practically nowhere on the internet do you find reference to the defunct First TV Comedy Network? This guy, Fred Siebert, has probably the most extensive reference to HA! that I have seen since the last "Love American Style" episode ran, in the '90s. (As you can see, I have borrowed his picture, for non-commercial purposes.) HA! was the best. The bitter merger that led them to join with HBO's Comedy Channel and become Comedy Central was no laughing matter... not in the least.

Another one of the innumerable nerdy things I love is Mathnet, and I cruised YouTube today to find some episodes. Lo, some friendly fanboy had put a couple on there, but it's mostly fragments. Why, I wonder, isn't everything available on the internet? Seems like it should be, by now.


That short segment was from a show called Square One, which I watched every schoolday as a child. It was a math show produced by the Children's Television Workshop. The show also featured the head-sticky songs "Archimedes", and the electrifying "Angle Dance," which concerned the measurement of angles. And is hilarious. Dance On!

The quandary that led me to explore these public television shows today had to do with the image I can never get out of my head: the set of "Read All About It," which was a TVOntario show dedicated to reading. It was so freaky-- lots of people who see it say that they were scared to death by it. The show featured an evil silver-painted villain named Duneedun. Scaresville. Here's the first episode. So scary! Eep!


(OMG, also check out OTV's Prisoners of Gravity intro!
haha-- looks like an awesome show! I'm watchin' it!)

This guy, Broszkowski, appears to have dedicated his life to TVO shows, and to the publishing of live Pixies clips! Plus, he has this photo of Feist, which I think is great:

What a Bro! (...szkowski)

I trained the Howitzers upon the murderous creature.

Saw several of these today:

Hooded Mergansers, Lophodytes cucullatus.

They are some of my favorite ducks! I saw them on a little neighborhood marsh lake, which I pass on the way to Sarah's house. I pulled over to get a look at them, but, as they were about 30 yards away, I couldn't get that good a look at them. I was lamenting to the heavens the fact that I don't have a pair of binoculars, when the lead duck flew right over toward me, and brought his little flock with him, males and females. The picture, above, is not a picture I took today, either. But, that's what they look like, those mergansers, on a marshy lake in Georgia in winter.

I tried to see if I was getting any better at searching on the internet. I had forgotten the name of the Hooded Merganser—I even thought it was a grebe! How silly!—so I decided to try to locate my bird on the tubes, using homespun backwards reference. It didn't work. Fortunately, I have some books, made of paper, that are devoted to the subject of bird identification, and I found it in about 5 seconds. During the time when I was searching the 'net (i.e., the time when I was eating my meatball sandwich—yum) and checking Wikipedia for info, I came across a bunch of dinosaurs that I thought were pretty great-looking. Bird-dinosaurs, of course. I wonder why, with all the cloning, etc., scientits can't just bring back some of these awesome dinosaurs and extinct non-dinosaurs, to live among us? Like, where's my ground sloth? There was talk of there surviving one in Argentinia, perhaps, near Patagucci, but I think it was revealed that the fossil was actually the chassis of a 1962 Rover 100, which is weird, because that's pretty far away from England. But maybe it was from those weird slave-owning South Americans or whatever. Still, for me, the giant prehistoric ground sloth is the new ivory-billed.
Scary. Yet cool. Herbivore.

I had forgotten what a Plesiosaur is/was, so I clicked on it and remembered, "oh yeah, the Loch Ness Monster. Duh." There was a little comment on the page which referred to a "bizarre short story" from 1899 called "The Monster of Lake LaMetrie," in which a man's brain is transplanted into the body of a plesiosaur for the purposes of scientific experimentation and criminal punishment. I downloaded it (for free, you can, too).

I wish it was still 1899. God, that would be great.

This is me, today, the Monstera of Slough Saint Simons:

Hahaha. I look like a monster, but am actually an herbivore! (So I will lead you to believe.)

Action Days!

So, these past several weeks since I last posted have been rife with tumult.
I feel like I'd be amiss if I didn't mention the fact that Bekah did not, in fact, make it. She was a beautiful girl, and you can learn more about her from her myspace page. She's missed by everyone she knew.
After that, I was booted from school, which was providing me with many feelings of self-worth and accomplishment.
On the brighter side, for me anyway, my brother came here to visit for, like, a day, and my dad borrowed his car for, like, a day, and then took it to the shop. It has remained at the shop for the past 7 weeks. Alas, this means that he hasn't had what potential employers refer to as "reliable transportation" for the majority of those weeks. He was recently issued a company vehicle, courtesy of Readdick Sheet Metal Works, by whom he is not currently employed. He is not currently employed,

and is looking forward to spending some of his post-matriculatory weeks to months residing in Asheville, NC. As to why this is, I have no idea. But, it should be fun!
I have become a part-time barista, in the meantime of my exile from the arena of technical academe.
I have been thinking constantly about creating some sort of appeal to my expulsion, but I haven't done anything about it yet. I think I'm on the upswing, though; I really do! Ugh. I hate to be about to be doing something. I should just do it.
I have to say, this isn't the most uplifting TL:DR I've ever written.
But what am I doing writing this blog, anyway, that nobody ever reads? You want me to tell you all good things, for some reason? Rent a cartoon, if that's the case, and call me Strawberry Shortcake.
And speaking of cake, today is my dad's birthday, and also my friend Meggan's! Meggs is 30 today! Wow! Dad is 39 again! Sweet!

There are a lot of birthdays right around now. My friend Mark told me that it's because we were conceived on New Year's Eve! So, that's exciting. I feel like my thinking about such philosophical concepts as, say, astrology, have become slightly more sophisticated of late. (What the hell does that even mean? You'll have to ask me personally if you're at all interested, because I'm not going into it here.)
I'm going into this here:

That's a picture of me, swinging through the air on a flying trapeze. (More pictures on my picasa page.) My friend Chad took a few of us girls out on the ropes course on my birthday (29), and it was super-fun.
The day before the ropes course happened, Dad took me to an awesome Jags game, where I got this sweet-ass girl-version of a jersey, ate an embarrassingly large hot dog, and saw the Jags whip up on relatively long-time rivals, the Houston Texans! (Who even knew there was such a team?) One guy had on a shirt that said, "Houston: We Are Your Problem." It was so cool! Dad got a cool shirt, too. We had a ton of fun, and my only regret is that I didn't bring my camera.

Get better, Bekah!

For some reason, I don't have a picture of this beautiful girlfriend of mine, Bekah Rogers, who's currently in the hospital with some pretty grave injuries.
I've been asking everyone I know who prays, to please pray for her, and everyone who sends out other forms of positive energy to please concentrate your thoughts on her, for at least a moment. She's a really beautiful girl, inside and out, and it makes everyone who's met her heartsick to know she's in the hospital now.
All I can hope for is that this positive energy continues to reach her, and help her heal; she's been doing a little better, but she's not out of the woods. It would mean a lot to me if y'all would think about her for a moment.

Meanwhile, that picture's of a place in Madagascar, Bombetoka Bay! You guys know about Madagascar, right? Such a wonderful place, with so many wonderful natural attributes, also in danger of extinction.

There's so much love. Never too much love. And never too little to not give a bunch away. Do it.

Another day, another HOLLER!!!

Sometimes I feel like a childless mom.
Just kidding.
Sometimes I feel like all I do is have fun. Immediate fun! (Which, I know, will be my downbringing...)
But still. I don't have a whole lot to say today, but I did want to direct you all to my Picasa page (except you, Holotone, who will not use anything but Flickr, and that's cool, too) so you can see some pictures of what's been going on with me and my fun, like this:

(Summer Fun!)

and like this:

(Nursing School stuff)

It's so cool, because even school is really fun. It's going to take a lot of work, but I love love love my class and my teachers. The experience is really making learning exciting. If only Sequoyah were in it... she's such a beautiful, wonderful, smart person!
I am really going to miss being in school with these people, I think. However, the melancholy is tempered with the idea that there are only 107 days left in school (counting weekends)! Soon all these awesome people, and I, are going to be RNs! I'm really proud of us making it even this far! We just found out that our Pinning ceremony is on December 5th-- there is a light! I will follow the light! "Nothing will deter me!"

FRIENDS: Now With Even More Benefits!

Hello 'dere.
Today I am just sitting around at 8 AM, drinking pickle juice from the jar, and looking at my pictures from yet another exciting, fun-filled holiday weekend!
Man, I am a lucky girl. My school friend Micia has been telling me to ask for/open myself up to the positive energy of the universe (or something like that), and I have been, for like tests and stuff, but I think it's starting to seep into other parts of my life, because things are good!
Want a run-down? Ok.
So, a week ago, I finished my semester and went on a small vacation-- a cruise, if you will-- with about ten other girls (one of whom was my hot hot sister). It was just for one evening, but it was TOPS, homie! We went out to Tramici, an Italian restaurant here on the island, and then to watch the bluegrass band in Darien! We flirted with everybody and took pictures, and we were all dressed up in our cute dresses! It was so super-fun! Here:

Yes... as you can see, we were having a BLAST.

(I am going to get so sick from this pickle juice, I think! Yikes!)

(I got my comic book back—thanks!)

THEN! I reconnected with my friend Karla, who is just as beautiful as ever, and just the other day obtained an apartment right down the street from me! So we can hang out! All the time! Yay for single divorcee-chicks!

WHICH takes me to the next topic: my this-past-weekend's trip to Asheville, NC.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and you're probably right, because this was a really big deal: I went up there with the intention of visiting with my ex-husband for the first time since I left from our house two years ago. We have started to become friends again, over the phone and interbutts, and it is, so far, one of the most rewarding relationships I've ever had. The thing makes me feel a way I have never felt. So, he lives in Honolulu, and is in this amazing bluegrass band, The Saloon Pilots (who are, like totally famous in Hawai'i, and who were interviewed for a magazing! recently, and who are constantly on the radio there...). The Saloon Pilots were hired to play a birthday party in Mooresville (new headquarters of Lowe's), and they decided to stop off in Black Mountain/ Asheville for a night or two, giving me and everybody else in the area who remembers Mike Carroll the opportunity to go up and hug his neck! He's awesome. (I wouldn't recommend marrying either of us, however.) I needn't have been nervous, as I was at first. We had a radical time, full of fun and adventure and staying up late, just like always: like the old times that were supposed to have been! Here's the band, playing at the Town Pump:

Actually, banjo player Paul Sato is not in this picture, but I like the close-up of the girl Leslie, who totally rocked out on that fiddle like she was playing against the devil himself (not to be confused with The Devil Himself). There are so many more pics on my Picasa page (link is on the R-hand side of this page…) The band was accommodated at the Monte Vista Hotel, which is a place I had only drank in the basement of, beforehand. Really nice place, though, and "homey." It has that Southern Mountain Charm thing on lockdown.

EVEN BEFORE, though, I saw Michael T. and the S.P.s, I did visit with a wonderful friend of mine, Matt McCoy, of the Mississippi "anti-Hatfield" McCoys, which was almost as big a deal as seeing Mike.

For one thing, I hadn't been in touch with Mr. McCoy in ages, either. Let me just say that if you are looking for a person who will always have your back and be down for whatever, just take a left down S. French Broad and keep walking until you get to Matt's house. I don't know how many friends a person needs, but I know Matt can have as many as he wants. Just the sincerest, funnest guy evar. Beautiful and smart, too. Has a Navy nurse girlfriend. Sells ropes. I love it all.

(Pardon the interruption, but the pickle-juice thing is no myth, friends. It will clean you right out. Wow.)

I was so excited, on this trip, that I don't think I ever stopped talking. It was annoying to others, maybe. I just could not stop talking and smiling and laughing and reminiscing. I actually cried from joy at the end of the trip—seriously!

Ooh!

Other things that have happened in the past seven days: saw Anna—rare! Wonderful! She looks great, and is great, and that makes me so happy. She came over and visited my dirty house last week, and lied to me and said it was nice, so that's nice… J

Also, a most auspicious event is about to occur… Probably right now my brother is taking his final exams before graduating from the College of Charleston!!! I am so proud of him for slugging it through! Way to go, Kiddo! College grad! I can't believe it's finally over! (All right: I'll save the rest for the back of teh yearbookz). I am proud of you, though. Totally.

Ok! Looks like it's all tied up in a neat little package.

Oh! One more thing—I came home, and I don't have a roommate anymore! My second favorite roommate ever was kind enough to allow me back my privacy for this school stuff and everything. So, O.D., you can start coming back and hanging out, 'cause you can smoke in here again. Sam, thanks for making it so easy. You rule.

Ok—that's really it. Thanks for reading.

Keeping the Beace!

Hello.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lydia Lee Fahs, And I HAVE PASSED MY CRAZY SUMMER CLASS!

OH! It was a rollercoaster, let. me. tell. you!
But it's all done now, and I am, possibly, the happiest girl in Glynn County (except for those other awesome kids I'm in class with, who undoubtedly also passed it).

For those of you who do know me, thanks for sticking with me this semester, through all my craziness and unappealing tendencies (e.g., getting far too drunk on my few days off, within seconds, it seemed, of my first sip of beer; also, attracting negative attention to myself, when I know I should have been putting out all positive vibes, which is more for what I'm known :).
Anyway, cheers to all the nursing students of Summer 2007! Y'all totally rule!
YAY!

Have a lucky day!