Happy Eid!

It's the end of Ramadan and we hope all our Muslim friends had a good month of fasting and iftar, of tilawat and of charity, and observing Laylat al-Qadr. It's an especially poignant and powerful end to the holy month for Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian Muslims who also celebrating the fall of former dictators, Muammar Gaddafi,  Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mumbarak. Hopefully next Ramadan, Syria will be celebrating dictator-free, as well.

Real Talk: Problem I'm Facing RIGHT NOW by Alex Snider

Problem: The sun is too effing bright

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Yes.

Sunday Songs: This is the Story of a Hurricane

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

[Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

more wisdom here

Friday Fiction: Optimism Not Despair by Alex Snider

The death of Jack Layton this week has shaken me to the core. Like many Canadians, the loss is so tremendous and overwhelming considering the success of the last election. He spent 30 years in politics as the underdog, getting tonnes accomplished from the back-benches, it staggers the mind to think of what he would have accomplished as the leader of the opposition. It's just really not fucking fair.

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A Change This Way Comes: What Fresh Hell is This?

Rebekah and I have been toying the idea of changing the blog a wee bit and we've decided to go for it. Nothing major except that it effects EVERYTHING! It might even effect YOU! Cats and dogs living together! Am I being deliberately coy in not divulging what the change is? Yes, I absolutely am. Building suspense is the number one rule to building suspense according to my How to Build Suspense: Simplicity is for Suckers by M Night Shyamalan.

The change, dear friend, is that while the name Once Again, to Zelda is fantastic (it has a certain old-timey charm, literary reference and, let's face it, Zelda Fitzgerald is all kinds of rad) it is not really working for us at this point. There is an online book club by that name, a Zelda Fitzgerald bio-pic starring Keira Knightly (wut?!) coming out, Scott Fitzgerald is a complete dick-weed (I am kind of all about referring to dead people in the present tense) and we just generally don't feel that Once Again, to Zelda doesn't necessarily convey the tone of our blog. So... *drum roll please* we are changing the name to *continue drum roll* What Fresh Hell is This?. 

It's pretty great right? It certainly sums up our proclivity for ranting and social justice. Plus it's a Dorothy Parker quote and she's kind of the greatest. I did have a previous blog by that title but it's now defunct. BTW guys, my personal blog is now defunct. 

There you have it! New title! New beginnings! A new URL will follow but not for a couple weeks, we'll give plenty of warning for those who have us bookmarked. 

A Girl and Her Sister

This is me. I'm holding a picture of my sister when she was four and had a buzz cut (or very close to it) to look like our brother. When she was little, Shauna emulated herself after our brother which meant that when he started loosing his teeth at six (really, his first tooth loss was premature as he lost it by falling and knocking it out on Shauna's head), Shaun at four was desperate to match him tooth for tooth. This photo was taken moments after she had successfully ripped out one of her bottom front teeth. Two years early. Dedicated and adorable. She's just the greatest. 

Good Bye, Jack, Thanks For Everything by Alex Snider

Oh wow, sad news this morning: Jack Layton, leader of the Canadian New Democratic Party (the historically third tier lefty party that brought us such things as Universal Heath Care) succumbed to cancer this morning, only just two and a half months after an incredible, underdog (like, Mighty Ducks underdog) win over the Liberal party for the official opposition against the Conservative party and the lead cyborg, Stephen Harper. I cannot stress enough how amazing it was that the NDP, under Jack, and really, because of Jack given his integrity as a leader and a human being -- wow, this is such a staggering loss for Canada -- leapt from fourth place to second Federally, when few thought it possible. 

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Three Depressing Things in Descending Order

While at the grocery store tonight, Rebekah and I gravitated toward the ice cream cooler (obviously) and stumbled upon what is surely a sign of the decline of the Western Empire: $2 single serving ice cream cups. There are three things terribly wrong with them:

3. They are tiny. I'm pretty sure a new born would get their lil' fists stuck inside. 

2. The brand is called Skinny... wait for it... COW. Lol wut?

1. The cow on the label is emaciated and wearing mascara. 

I felt sad for humanity. We bought the big tub. Tollhouse Cookie Dough. Delicious. 

Sunday Songs: Can Con

Thank-You!

Thanks to every single one of you for making turning 31 so darned fun! Especially to Al, my bestie for life, who always goes out of her way to celebrate our friendship and show how much she cares!


!!!!!!! [BESTIE x BESTIE 1] !!!!!!! from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday to my Number One

It's the 34th anniversary of Elvis' death today, one year from of my and Rebekah's pilgrimage to Graceland, and Rebekah's birthday -- a great day indeed. So please join me in a cyber toast to my co-editor, my roommate, my best friend, my style icon, my proof-reader, my sounding board, my inspiration, my support-system, my movie-encyclopedia, my fellow Criminal Minds buff; to the the coolest, funniest, sweetest, most patient and understanding and compassionate friend I could ever ask for; to my soul twin; to Rebekah. Oh man, I'm so glad you're in my life!

In lieu of Happy Birthday, here is one of our songs: 

(And, GB, I think this brings the number up to ten.)

Friday Fiction: Everything is NOT Alright by Alex Snider

(Gah, again with the delayed Friday Fiction! I'm sorry! I had two migraines in one week! That's a total of five days out of seven spent with an ice pack over my face listening to all five seasons of Dexter. You'd think the migraines would be bad enough without Julia fucking Stiles' voice thrown into the mix. She is the WORST. But here we go: Friday Fiction on a Monday oh man, Tuesday.)

Have you ever been cruising down an Australian river, relaxing and taking in the sights, thinking, "this, this here, is the life", when your boat is rammed by a massive crocodile? An crocodile it turns out you ran over last summer and left for dead on the side of the road? An crocodile with a deadly thirst? A deadly thirst for revenge? Then you've probably lived through my soon to be completed fan-fic mash-up of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Rogue, a charming Aussie thriller about, you guessed it, a giant crocodile with separation anxiety (it's anxious about separating you from it's stomach). Also, this is a pretty awesome analogy of life and incidentally, this week's Friday Fiction, that is: everything is all fine and dandy until it isn't and then it turns out it hasn't ever really been fine and dandy; ignorance is bliss, life sux, you don't love me anymore, blah blah "my eyes are tired from crying" blah.

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One Year On, It Feels Like Yesterday by Alex Snider

 

A year ago today, my grandpa died. It was a loss that still catches my breath, still burns the back of my throat -- holy shit, I miss him. He had been sick for a number of years, and for all those years I would have dreams where somehow the right combination of drugs was found and he would bound into the room, fully healed and from then on he would be the same Pa as always. When I'd awake from those dreams I'd be overwhelmed with sadness, aching for something that could, would never be. Now that he is gone, I still have those dreams, the variation being that he's not no longer sick but no longer dead -- there was a mistake -- and when I wake up I am so grateful for those extra minutes to spend with my Pa.

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