What Is Malbela?

Malbela, which is the Esperanto word for ugly (literally translated, "unpretty"), is the weblog of Robert Mungo. A webdesigner, a college student, an international man of mystery... except for the "international" and "mystery" parts. Find out more...

Elsewhere...

• portfolio
• flickr
• iPod Contests

Archives

The past comes alive here at malbela!

Malbela MiniBlog

Quality links in an all-natural casing.

coming soon.

Look & Listen

The music & books that influence malbela.

Contact

we don't bite. at least not for what you're paying us. feel free to contact us.

« August 2004 | Main | October 2004 »

I think I gave up this morning...

I think I gave up this morning.

I'm serious. I really am pondering if I care or not anymore. I'm tired of working on the paper. I'm tired of being broke. I'm tired of being behind in my classwork constantly. I'm tired of getting up at 5am and going to bed at 1am and then just totally crashing on a Wednesday or a Saturday and ruining my week because my body decides I need a nap, whether I like it or not.

I'm tired of so many other people around me saying they need to concentrate on other things and not noticing (or maybe just not caring) if that means that there's more left for me to do. And you all know me. I can't leave things undone.

I'm tired of having to remind myself that I go to college to take and pass classes. That's it. The paper's extra fun. It's not the most important thing. Other people have apparently learned that. It could explain why we're 6 days after article deadline and I've gotten two articles.

Ugh... this didn't start out as me bitching about the paper. But that's how it ended up. Why does it keep ending up being about the paper?

Maybe I can find a job where I can sit around & knit all day.

I mean... outside of Bangladesh.

Finally... a quiz with some truth to it.

Lestat then slurred "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

Anne Rice is one of my favorite authors, yet one I can no longer claim to absolutely love. I used to wait for the release of one of her books with bated breath. Hell, I was even a member of her fan club. I argued on her side when her fans were divided on Memnoch The Devil, a book which casts Lestat into the battle between God & Lucifer). Hell, I was even (quite literally) a card carrying member of the Anne Rice/Vampire Lestat Fan Club. Now it seems that she's no longer happy with her fans, especially those who dare say her books aren't as good as they used to be. It may take a moment to find Ms. Rice's screed due to the large number of recent reviews/responses. (Via Metafilter poster headspace. Visit headspace's site when you get a chance.)

But Anne, though she claims to be intellectually above everyone else, has made some poor choices. This was the woman who seemed ok with the fact that her erotic classic Exit To Eden was rewritten to include what surely should be classified as a WMD: Rosie O'Donnell in a Corset & Fishnets.

We're talking about a movie so bad that Roger Ebert, who gave it a half star in what surely was a moment of pity, said

"It's supposed to be a kinky sex comedy, but it keeps getting distracted. On the first page of my notes, I wrote "Starts slow." On the second page, I wrote "Boring." On the third page, I wrote "Endless!" On the fourth page, I wrote: "Bite-size Shredded Wheat, skim milk, cantaloupe, frozen peas, toilet paper, salad stuff, pick up laundry."

Couple with that the fact that she also had no qualms about the Studios cramming 2 and a half of her books into the 101 minute Queen Of The Damned. Thanks Anne!

After Memnoch, Her books seriously went down hill and became more confusing. Characters would come and go, new vampires would appear with no reason and explain their previous absence from known record (and from being destroyed by the Queen during her killing spree) by saying, "Oh... I was asleep. Yep, asleep. In the Artic. Under a sheet of ice."

But I kept with it. I read every single book in her Vampire Chronicles when it came out. I tried to get into the Mayfair Witches books with no success. And that's where the problem started.

The Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches have always been loosely connected. They both largely take place in New Orleans. They both involve an secret organization called the Talamasca, which studies and chronicles the occult. But they really existed in two seperate New Orleans, each it's own world. Then came Merrick Mayfair. The novel Merrick, while offically a Vampire novel, featured Merrick Mayfair, who happened to be the from the black side of the Mayfair family. Of course being from the south, Merrick was never mentioned (at least to my knowledge) in the polite society of the Mayfair novels.

When she brought these worlds crashing together, I couldn't take it. There were references to the Mayfair novels that I didn't get and Anne, via her website and her books, seemed to suggest that this was my fault. How dare I expect to enjoy any of her work if I wasn't prepared to enjoy all of her work.

Going back over her work, it's easy to see that she's telling the truth when she says she has no editor. It explains why sometimes her stories seem less like tapestries and more like a ball of tangled yarn. It's easy to find loose ends and you may destroy the 'work'... but there'll still be stuff you can't untangle.

And I'd love to know Anne use one of the worst literary tools ever: The Person Shift.

The first two books in the series set up a premise that goes like this:

• Anne Rice doesn't exist. It's a pen name for the writer of the books
• The interviewer from Interview With The Vampire wrote that book because he didn't feel anyone would believe him. BUT...
• Lestat himself wrote the second book as an answer to the first

This is where the Person Shift comes in. In The Vampire Lestat, Anne shifts from First Person to Third Person. Lestat starts off saying "I", then says that it's easier to describe the action from the third person. Suddenly he's psychic and calling himself Lestat.

Since Anne states that "Lestat talks like me.", I can only picture her at home. "Christopher Rice, pass Anne O'Brien Rice, your mother and International Bestselling Author and Modern Master of Horror, the mashed potatoes."

As a writer (and proving to be as long winded as Rice by the letter), I can tell you that it is impossible to find Third Person easier to write in. First person is always easier to write in because humans naturally describe things from their point of view. 'I did this, I did that.' Its that simple.

And I've tried to stay away from talking about Chris Rice's books, but I must. He is one of the worst writers on the planet. His books are predictable, his plot twists silly. C'mon... two of characters fall madly in love and are the only ones out of many who don't DIE in the last chapter, and then suddenly it's "Surprise, we have the same dad!"?

What the Hell? Your mom taught you how to write, didn't she?

In closing, I guess I'll simply state that I probably won't ever read Blood Canticle. It's not because I don't want to see The Vampire Chronicles end.

It's because I don't want to see them end badly.

Today's Playlist

After yesterday's emo/goth bonanza... it's time for something a bit more upbeat.

iTunes Is Trying To Kill Me softly with it's song.

iTunes is trying to kill me. So far tonight has been a big emo meltdown bonanza. Death Cab, Dashboard, The Cure and just a little Weezer & Wilco thrown in.

I feel sad.

Therefore I feel good.

Arrr! International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Arrr Matey! Tomorrow is Talk Like A Pirate Day! You can take a quiz to find out your Pirate Name! I'm Dread Pirate Flint: Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr! Here are some more pirate links: Blackbeard the Pirate Piratesinfo: It's info! About Pirates! Lady Pirates!

Which Is Worse?

Which is worse?

The fact that MJ owns a copy of J.C.'s 'Schizophrenic'

OR

Or the fact that I'm listening to it and importing it into iTunes?

Edit: My GOD. Marla rips CDs much slower than Sam or even Endora does.

The Internet is my Trapper Keeper

This is what I do in class when I'm bored. We don't doodle on our notebooks anymore since they invented Photoshop. The internet is my Trapper Keeper.

Those are my favorite Brushes that used to be available through Nocturna, btw. Anyone know why she killed her site?

A post that's full of crap

The new IT building doesn't face the rest of campus. That's just one thing you notice when you walk up to it. It's facing away from the main part of campus, toward the still unfinished bookstore. I sat in the computer lab this morning, editing an ad for the paper and watched the rain slide down the walls and into the vacant windows of the building.

The IT building is nice. There is lots of light colored wood, chrome, and polished steel. Every computer in the building is black with large monitors. The floors are all either tiled or nice neutral carpets. There are lots of windows.

The whole place has the feeling of a major call center that hasn't installed the phones yet. Sort of a 'Sweden Meets Bangalore' type of feeling.

But there's a lot of things wrong with this new building, as there are with many new buildings. The bricks on the outside weren't up to snuff and large sections have had to be repeatedly ripped out and redone. There stairwell seems to hide, most people can't even find it, stuck in one back corner. There is still scaffolding around the outside of building, blocking the view. The roof leaks in every classroom on the 5th floor. Perfect for the multimedia lab.

Then there are the bathrooms.

The bathrooms are something special. There are five stalls in the men's rooms. FIVE. Women won't understand this, but men are going "Five? Why so many!?". Men's rooms usually get a couple of stalls, one of them handicap. A couple of urinals. That's it. 5 stalls and several urinals is strange to men. We're used to getting the... (sorry, I've got to)... shitty end of that stick.

What's even more amazing about these restrooms is that everything is done with electronic sensors. There's no need to dirty your hands touching faucets or handles. The toilets and urinals flush when the sensor is unblocked, the faucets turn on when you put your hands underneath. Seems like it'd be a nice clean restroom... right?

This morning I walked into this nice new bathroom & pushed open the first stall door. Wrapped in plastic like a christmas present. This is the sanitation staff's sign for "Will react like Old Faithful if flushed".

I pull the door closed again.

Next stall.

Someone has urinated all over the seat, the wall, the toilet paper holder, the floor. And they didn't flush.

Wait... they didn't flush? How...

I don't question it. Next Stall.

... Oh.
... My.
... God.

What happened? This is disgusting! Even thinking about it hours later makes me a little ill. But how did they get away without flushing?

There are some sort of Gastronomic Gymnastics going on in there. The Swedish Judge must be involved somehow. That's the only way I can figure out they were able to use the facilities and not flush. I normally have a problem keeping the thing from flushing while I'm using it. Breathe a little and suddenly you're on a bidet.

Well, however it works out... I hope we won the gold medal.

Oh, and consider more fiber.

Google moves 'Invite' link, causes unprepared geeks to cry

Don't worry. You still have your gmail invites, google has moved them closer to the top of the screen since a lot of people couldn't find them where they used to be located, under the Labels menu.

Of course, they gave hundreds of people heart attacks when they thought they'd lost all their invites.

Old placement:

New placement:

Kneel before Zell

So... Zell Miller is a Democrat for Bush.

I could try and come up with a joke about this. But it's so god damn funny on its own that I'm not going to bother.

Especially when you read this speech on Miller's senate website.

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its "Digital Dozen.

Hmmm... suddenly I have a craving for breakfast. Something belgian perhaps?

But then again, what do we expect... He's a democrat.

This is where I start using four letter words...

According to Electoral-Vote, Bush is currently winning with 280 electoral votes to Kerry's 242. Also of note is that Nader is not on the vote in:

• Arizona
• California
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Montana
• North Carolian
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• Texas

13 out of 50 states, and these are only the states he is currently not on the ballot in. There could be more states added to the list soon.

What is surprising, at least for me, is E-V's current projection of the winners, based on the linear regression lines. Currently Kerry is still projected as the winner with 298 electoral votes. I find it interesting that DC is the strongest Kerry stronghold, where he's currently projected to get 89% of the vote in November. Bush will pull in more states, but fewer key states.

Also surprising is that the final projection for North Carolina is 50 percent to Bush, 49 percent to Kerry, and 1 percent going to other parties. North Carolina is a battleground state this year! We must all get out and vote this year. It's as simple as that.