i tried to be like grace kelly

You've all heard about SOPA and the various website blackouts, so I won't rehash that. However, here's a BIG piece of breaking news somewhat related to it:

Swizz Beatz is CEO of Megaupload.

That's right. The rapper/producer who is currently married to Alicia Keys owns Megaupload.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!

First: I got back from Medieval Times about a half hour ago. It was Marianne's birthday, so I went with her and a bunch of her other friends. We were in the Yellow and Gold section, and Marianne caught a flower from our knight, who then went on to lose in the first round of the joust. The Blue knight looked a little bit like Ben Barnes, circa Prince Caspian. He had that same nice mane of dark hair and swagger. Good times.

Second: today at work, a woman asked me to heat a bottle for her baby. I actually ended up doing it because it was only for thirty seconds and the woman was very nice, but still. I think that's up there with one of the stranger requests customers have had for me.

Third: I get emails from FirstShowing.net, and in the latest digest the fourth story immediately caught my eye: First Official 'Skyfall' Photo Features Daniel Craig as Bond in a Speedo. I am easy like Sunday morning. Immediately clicked on that. It wasn't until I took a second look that I saw that the article above it held equal interest to me.

And then my brain goes, "Who would win in a fight: Captain America or James Bond?"

Speaking of Bond, I have become kind of fond of that theory that James Bond is a codename and/or the idea that Bond is a Time Lord. It makes it interesting, and then something like this happens, and your brain goes, "Wouldn't that be cool?"

(And this is one long aside, but I've had this stupid idea going in my head for a few years now: James Bond, James Ford, James Kirk, and James Norrington all in a bar. Think of the conversation.)

Fourth: I joined ljrevival, and have picked up a few new friends along the way. So hi to the new people! [waves]

Fifth: I think I'm going to take a break from my regular Tumblr, because lately, checking my dashboard feels like an exercise in giving myself an anxiety attack, especially in regards to a lot of social issues within society writ large and within entertainment. Here's the thing: I know that to not acknowledge various amounts of inequity is just not possible, and possibly even foolish. But lately it feels like day after day I'm getting this stream of "this is your daily dose of why the world is terrible" or "this is your daily dose of why you, as a black woman in America/the world are oppressed", and it just makes me feel on edge and anxious and completely powerless, and I find absolutely no power whatsoever in seeing a stream of news that basically amounts to "the world does not care about you."

( This gets kind of deep and wordy, with talk about identity and racism and why I am sick of reading negative social justice stories on Tumblr. )

That got so long because it's been building for a while.

NOTE: I am usually not this serious business, because I am terrible at being serious. This is part of the reason why I don't talk about major social issues unless it's something that really gets under my skin, and usually in that case I resort to capslocking like an angry twelve year old or heavy amounts of sarcasm, because that's how I deal when I'm angry.

At any rate... that's what I have for tonight.

I have a terrible guilty conscious, in that if I forget to do something I constantly think about it and when I have the chance to actually do it, I'm so scared of offending someone by being late that I keep putting it off, or I start avoiding the people involved. Why do I do that?!

NORMAL TALK COMES TOMORROW, I PROMISE!

I was feeling good--I took Pepper for a nice long walk, and I was going to go to the movies or watch more episodes of Ouran High School Host Club on Netflix when I got back.

And then I got to the front door and realized that my keys weren't in my pocket.

I spent almost three hours retracing my steps along the path. I walked it backwards and forwards. I knocked on doors. I kept telling myself that I would see them in the grass or in a pile of leaves; after all, I had a ton of identifiable key chains and baubles on it: my Fisher Price corn popper key chain, my red loop key chain from Reebok, my car's remote lock, Blockbuster and Kroger cards, and the little flashlight my dad just gave me for Christmas. (My dad is a big Practical Gifter.) The keys had to be out there, and I just wasn't looking hard enough.

There are two things that really suck about this, the first being that I had my cell phone with me--and I usually don't take my phone with me when I walk, and that's partially because the workout pants I wear when I walk Pepper don't have pockets, and I need to hold on to my MP3 player and the keys and the leash at the same time. So the phone is usually dead weight. But I had it with me today because I was wearing the hoodie. Usually, when I wear a hoodie, I keep the player in one pocket and the keys in the other so that I will know that there's a balance there. Having the phone threw me off.

The second thing that sucks is that I also had one of those little carbine hooks on the key ring. I found it in the parking lot at work, and for a while during the summer I would clip it on to the leash for practical purposes and because I shake my keys so that Pepper will keep walking and not get too caught up in sniffing the grass. If I had been thinking, I would have clipped the keys to her leash.

And now my dad is on this thing about changing our locks, and me having to get one of those bar locks for my car. Because I am so sure that if some unsavory character picked up the keys, they are going to go to every house within a five mile radius and try to unlock the doors and steal the cars. I will give him the house locks, but seriously, if someone is so utterly bored and depraved as to go around and DO that and then make off with my van, they fail at life even more than I do. If you want my van with 160,000+ miles on it that bad, I hope you get struck by lightning.

PARTY PEOPLE, I NEED YOUR HELP.

I am going to HOPEFULLY be done with my Yuletide story tomorrow, and I need a beta! I'm screening comments, so if you would like to help, drop me a line! That's all!