Oh… and Happy Friday the 13th.

Am having one of those weeks.

Will try to get my weekly “Mike Rowe is my fiance” post done at some point, but it’ll probably be quiet for the most part.  Unless I get sufficiently worked up enough about something to elicit an emotional response high enough to sit down and write.

And after all this, I noticed one single thing:  Men are whiney as hell when they’re hurting.  ;-)

(I’m sure it’s obvious, but I am NOT Mike Rowe’s fiancee.  I don’t really know Mike Rowe.  I have nothing to do with the Discovery Channel or Dirty Jobs.  I am a fan of both the show and Mike Rowe and someone who has far too much time and creative energy.  An influx of visitors arriving on the site from searching for “Mike Rowe fiancee” precipitates the need to add this disclaimer.  Also, all quotes are taken directly from episodes of Dirty Jobs.  Any mistakes in information are my own and not those of Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs or Mike Rowe.)

Book geek that I am, I can’t believe I just admitted to being behind on reading.

Even more geeky, I have to admit that the whole reason I’m behind on my reading, which I had planned to do yesterday, is because I watched the original V on SyFy (whoever came up with that gem needs to be slapped.  Hard.) yesterday afternoon, evening, and night.  I was in Germany when it was first released in 1983 (though I don’t think it actually reached us on AFN until 1984… not sure about that one) and it was a huge deal.  We talked about it for ages, the anticipation creating an absolute frenzy.  Once it started, all the boys were in love with Diana (Jane Badler) and all the girls swooned over Mike Donovan (Marc Singer). Since the internet wasn’t available, much less YouTube, we didn’t have the option of skipping the wait.

I kind of miss the anticipation factor.

So enjoy the wait on the book thing.  Consider it my way of a giving you a chance to (re)live the 80s.

Some interesting things to note:

1.  Camels are generally easygoing and relate well to people.

2.  They’re highly kinesthetic – affectionate, love to be touched and stroked.

3.  They’re highly intelligent and sensitive.

4.  Fresh camel poop has been used as a treatment for dysentery.

5.  Camel milk is apparently the closest to human mother’s milk.

6.  The benefits of camel milk is in its raw state, which, according to raw milk advocates, is destroyed by pasteurization.

7.  Each female camel can give close to 1 gallon of milk per milking

As I watched Mike interact with the camels, I was struck by one thing:  that he’d make a good father.  Here’s why:

1.  He won’t be too concerned about the possibility of being kicked or peed on.

2.  He’s able to expertly use a rectal thermometer.  (Do they still use rectal thermometers with children?)

3.  Baby spit will have absolutely no effect on him.  (After seeing a camel froth at the mouth, I’m just sayin’.)

4.  He’ll be great with getting kids dressed, including assembling Halloween costumes.

5.  He understands the importance of bonding.

6.  He recognizes the importance of keeping sensitive areas clean.

“She kicked me in the bad place.” ~ Mike Rowe

In the interest of Mike’s future children, I have forbidden him to ever race camels again.  Note to Troy (the cameraman):  Quit egging him on!  ;-)

**Oasis Camel Dairy has an online store.  They can’t sell camel milk, but they do sell camel milk soap in a variety of fragrances.  I’m thinking about trying the milk and honey.  Go check it out.

(I’m sure it’s obvious, but I am NOT Mike Rowe’s fiancee.  I don’t really know Mike Rowe.  I have nothing to do with the Discovery Channel or Dirty Jobs.  I am a fan of both the show and Mike Rowe and someone who has far too much time and creative energy.  An influx of visitors arriving on the site from searching for “Mike Rowe fiancee” precipitates the need to add this disclaimer.  Also, all quotes are taken directly from episodes of Dirty Jobs.  Any mistakes in information are my own and not those of Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs or Mike Rowe.)

In the meantime, I received an email from a former co-worker and current friend who I worked with at the company that shall never be named a number of years ago.  Most of the time we don’t discuss them - we’ve moved beyond that now – but every once in a while something comes up that sparks the snarky-ness.

So, for your viewing enjoyment, I present to you the most fantastic article entitled 15 Signs Your Workplace is Dysfunctional.

One last note.  If you recognize your company in this (mine hit all 15), I recommend bolting out the door as soon as possible.  Crappy economy or not, it’s not worth it.

Trust me.

I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that Gothic fiction has a history drenched in religion – much of 18th and 19th century Gothic fiction either embraces it (The Mysteries of Udolopho and Jane Eyre, for example) or rebels against it (The Monk or Zoflya comes to mind).  What could be considered modern Gothic fiction utilizes it (The Exorcist, for one).  Mostly, though, religion plays a minor role to the horror / Gothic elements of any given text.  When I was trying to decide what the focus of my dissertation would be, I had originally planned to do a screenplay adaptation of one of the texts we studied, but after giving it much thought, I decided I should do a standard dissertation since there is a chance (albeit a small one at the moment) that I would continue on to do a PhD, in which case a screenplay adaptation wouldn’t serve me well at all.

I thought about the role religion plays in the Gothic and asked myself if Gothic fiction could use religious elements then why couldn’t the converse be true:  why couldn’t Christian fiction use Gothic elements?  This is what led to my exploring the idea of Christian Gothic fiction.  Certainly there’s a market for what’s termed “Christian Speculative Fiction” (albeit it a small one) which incorporates any number of genres (science fiction, horror, supernatural thriller, to name a few), and I was intrigued with the seeming misnomer of a combination between Christian fiction and horror.  I mean, seriously.  The battle between good and evil is a basic Gothic trope, and I’d say Christianity is ready-made to address the same struggle.

So, I’ll be periodically posting reviews of books that I feel fall under the genre of Christian Gothic, beginning with the four I used for my dissertation.  That’ll start next week.  For now, here’s a top ten list of books that I’ve either already read or plan to read – don’t worry:  I’ll let you know the difference.  :-)

1.  Demon:  A Memoir – Tosca Lee (read)

2.  House – Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti (read)

3.  Shade – John B. Olson (read)

4.  Isolation – Travis Thrasher (read)

5.  Ghostwriter – Travis Thrasher (read)

6.  This Present Darkness – Frank Peretti (read)

7.  Field of Blood – Eric Wilson (currently reading)

8.  House of Jackals – Eric Wilson (to read)

9.  Coach’s Midnight Diner:  The Jesus vs. Cthulhu Edition – Various (to read)

10.   Coach’s Midnight Diner: The Back from the Dead Edition – Various (to read)

Despite all my research to date, I am not wholly familiar with Christian Fiction.  If you have any suggestions of books to add to the list, please feel free to leave me a comment.  I will also eventually provide links to the books.  Am a bit pressed for time at the moment.

This Top-Ten list brought to you courtesy of OhAmanda who has a wonderful Top-Ten-Tuesday button, but my site is being particularly cranky today, so the button won’t add correctly.  It’s probably user error.  You can read her latest Top-Ten list here.

We should have let the mob that cornered him finish the job instead of letting him sit on California’s death row for 20 years with three hots and a cot, wasting the taxpayers’ money.

This week found Mike Rowe and I once again hitting the extremes in terms of geography.  We started out in Arkansas playing with Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macrochelys temminckii).  Two things of note:  Mike finds it cute that I use to think “Arkansas” (pronounced Ar-Kansas) and “Arkansaw” were two different states when I was little, and he’s not above risking life and limb to prove his bravery.

“Nature, tooth and claw, baby.” ~ Mike Rowe

We spent some time tooling around Dada Creek where traps were set to capture the turtles so they could be measured, weighed, and tagged if need be.  All of this was done with Dr. Roth (I believe) from the University of Arkansas who has been monitoring the turtles’ numbers for the past 15 years.  The turtles are on Arkansas’ endangered species list due to a decline in their numbers brought about by a loss of habitat and over harvesting.

(Not sure why the over harvesting – turtle soup, anyone?)

Studying these turtles may seem like a fairly safe endeavor, but not only do the researchers have to contend with the turtles themselves (who don’t seem to take too kindly to being captured, on the whole), but according to TPtB (the powers that be) on Dirty Jobs (probably the research department), the turtles aren’t the only thing researchers have to worry about:

“Setting the traps to catch Alligator Snapping Turtles can be as dangerous as the turtles themselves.  Sudden summer thunderstorms can roll in over the river and dump torrential rain, forcing the researchers to dodge dangerous lightning strikes while bailing out their boats to avoid sinking.”

Thankfully, the weather for our research excursion was nice.

“Look at you.  Aren’t you handsome?” ~ Mike Rowe

Some points of note:

1.  Alligator Snapping Turtles are the largest off all the freshwater turtles in North America

2.  They’re generally slower than fish and use a “thing” on the end of their tongues to lure fish closer (Mike’s awesome with technical terms).

3.  They can weigh in the hundreds of pounds when fully mature.

4.  They have the second strongest bite strength of any existing animal (according to wikipedia)

5.  They can be quite aggressive.

“Breaking up with a bunch of not-so-dear Johns.”  ~ Mike Rowe

After leaving Arkansas, we ventured our way to a small town just outside of San Francisco for a bout of toilet crushing with Sustainable Crushing Ventures.

The first step is to remove the toilet from its current home.  In a downtrodden bathroom, this is far more hazardous that one would think.  Or maybe not.  There are things left in toilets that are, in a word, disgusting.  I sat back while Mike handled this one.

Once the toilets are removed, they are broken apart to scavenge the different parts:  plastic / rubber, metal, and porcelain.  After they’ve been broken down into their separate parts, the porcelain is sent to the Crusher to be ground.  This Crusher can grind up to 850 tons per hour.  How awesome is that?!

According to GreenYour, the porcelain from recycled toilets can be used for a number of different things:

1.  a planter (I’m not sure I’d want to do this one, but it’d make a good conversation piece.  I’ve already told Mike no.)

2.  new porcelain items

3.  porous drainage material

4.  substitute for gravel

5.  artificial oyster reefs

“Men are always easier.  We’re always less complicated.”  ~ Mike Rowe

This is the part where I extol Mike Rowe’s virtues and tell why he’s the best pseudo fiancee ever.  He loves puppies animals and he’ll clean the bathroom.  What more could I ask for?

“I’ve been yelled at all my life for leaving the seat up.” ~ Mike Rowe

Except that he stop leaving the toilet seat up.  A girl’s got to have her standards.  ;-)

(As an aside, this is where I’m compelled to point out a number of things.  I’m sure it’s obvious, but I am NOT Mike Rowe’s fiancee.  I don’t really know Mike Rowe.  I have nothing to do with the Discovery Channel or Dirty Jobs.  I am a fan of the show and Mike Rowe who has too much time and too much creative energy.  An influx of visitors arriving on the site from searching for “Mike Rowe fiancee” precipitates the need to add this disclaimer.  Also, all quotes are taken directly from episodes of Dirty Jobs.  Any mistakes in information are my own and not those of Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs or Mike Rowe.)