YAAARRRRRR!

it be International Talk Like a Pirate DAY! so string up your jolly rogers and go on account! this be the day when all the secret salty dogs of the sea, hiding them thar eyepatches behind accountant glasses, feel safe to show their true colors: red the color of blood on me saber - black the color of me mutinous heart - and white, because it goes well with black and red. i've got it in me booties to give ye swarthy wraiths a few lessons in Manners.

avast ye villains! i can hear your whimperin brine-filled bellies from here - (in falsetto, hand to forehead - like a wench): "i don't have a proper name, oh wo is me - whatever am i going to do?" have no fear, me hearties, Mad Bess Bonney is here to help: X marks the spot for the first step to ye becoming a right filthy bilgerat. once we know what to write on your tombstone... ah who'my kiddin - ye'll be ankle deep in davy jones' grip 'fore too long. ya see? nowheres to put a tombstone on the vast and lovely sea - but it jus' ain't proper to go on account without a name to strike fear, desperation and mild amusement into the hearts of your closest mates.

next! ye canna be swaggering around town and swash-bucklin and drinkin and wenchin with that pansy li'l voice of yours - firstly no one'll take you seriously, no matter how dark and menacing your name and gate is... but, ach! me parrot be correct - it ain't look like a pirate day (though ye can if ye be two sheets to the wind), it be talk like a pirate day!!! so here be a link or two to help you on your way:
talklikeapirateday.com/wordpress/ even has a translator for you sons of biscuit-eaters who canna be taking the time out of your busy schedule for a proper education. careful or ye'll be keelhauled 'sure, or my name ain't Mad Bess!

thepiratesrealm.com for all your pirating needs! (including where the best miniature golf courses are for us serious pirates)

it be a long trip from landlubber to scourge of the seven seas and ye might need a little more help than even ol Mad Bess here can do ye. this pirate booklist has a genteel progression much like walkin the plank - ye start with dreams of pirates and end up swimmin with the sharks.

well, this be one pirate that has had enough of your ugly mugs! good luck to ye and keep your filthy mitts off me booty or else ye'll find yeself enjoin' a hemp swing!!

fish - you knew this...

...but sometimes you have to hear it again - hear it like breeze through forgotten flowers; like memory. i stumbled upon this poem while looking into quotes to help me write something for my brother's wedding. i thought it poignantly apt.


"You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on."
-David Harkins


sleep well my fishies and in the morning you will feel better - i promise.

love,
mysfit

read! little fishies and be afraid of the dark

jennsee, jennsee!

just because i wait to the last minute does not mean i cannot play. carl v. has started something wonderful! i hereby inform you that i am taking on the Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.) Autumn Challenge. click on the image below for full details and see the outpouring of response (oh and check out how cool carl v.'s prizes are - i reeeeelly want one) - it may even inspire you, but beware, there are many things that go bump in the night and few are pleasant:



mysfit's list of misty horrors:
1. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (current reading - creepy: i woke the other night thinking someone i couldn't see was in my room)
2. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut by Jhonen Vasquez (not sure if graphic novels count but i always read this around this time of year - gory goodness of doom!)
3. Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, by H.P. Lovecraft - (this is a tough choice. i have many H.P. Lovecraft books, but the guy, S.T. Joshi, that does the annotation is so enthralled by Lovecraft and so despises all those who tried to imitate him or who took up the Cthulhu Mythos as untalented hacks that this book is not only creepy but totally amusing).
4. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas - (current reading; for some reason this is a hole in my literary experience and it must be remedied - horrifying? doubtful - dark, thrilling tale of revenge? certainly - dripping with je ne sais quoi? absolutely!)
5. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, by Edgar Allen Poe (another hole that must be filled)
6. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson (one of my all-time favorites, i have a beautiful and austere hardcover of this)

i added the sixth just in case the graphic novel doesn't count as literature and besides, i haven't curled up with the infamous Mr. Hyde in a while. thanks carl v., i will certainly enjoy my autumn much better with this list in mind. (oh and i left A Scanner Darkly off because i'm not sure it falls in the category as i've never read it - but it is on my current list of reading as is Man in the High Castle - and after looking at some of the other lists here, i may have to add The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury and illustrated by Dave McKean - yay!) ok enough!!

love,
mysfit

neglected fish

i'm sorry fishie. it's very difficult still for me to be here. i haven't left you for good, just for now. i'll be back soon.

in the meantime, this flashed across my screensaver slideshow (good band name?) and i wanted to find the image and post it, but there are thousands and my cursory search did not turn it up. jenn wrote this on the back of a coaster (or beer mat, if you prefer). i have no idea when, but it's somewhat chilling. i hope that when i find the image file it will be dated. but now i share...

and maybe i
can't love you
anymore
but every second i spend
with you is gorgeous, and
every moment we've had is
infinite - whatever you
have seen, learned, whatever
you have discovered, this
is still true

               -me

-t-

not a fish, a stingray and something about treadmills

dear jennsee,

so i have some bad news for you. it's not horrendous bad news but it sucks really. that dude who like to wrestle with crocs an piss off poisonous snakes is dead. though he was a bit of a ridiculous specter and probably more dangerous than any of the creatures he encountered, he was passionate and one of the few who really, really liked his job. the world is slightly less interesting without him in it.

Steve Irwin passed away doing what he loved today. the Crocodile Hunter was "was killed when he was lashed in the chest by a stingray's poison barb while filming underwater on the Great Barrier Reef". please, a moment of silence for one of the world's characters.



enough! lets fill the air with music and dance on treadmills! OKGO is quickly becoming a phenomenon. i would really like to meet this band's choreographer: "so, i have four middle-aged white guys - I know! lets make them dance!" check out their videos - especially Here It Goes Again and A Million Ways. Enjoy!

love,
mysfit