Rapier's Wit

Whoa! So much time between posts. What gives, man?  A quick synopsis: Cancer Chemo Radiation Scans Blood work No more cancer 50th birthday  The most earth shattering event ... we cancelled cable!! I'm also no longer strapped to a wireless contract. I know what freedom truly feels like, kids. Although, Netflix has me wrapped around its little finger. For a time, Amazon Prime streaming held me in its grasp. Rather than renew, I sweated through the withdrawals ... or was that menopause? Anyway, Netflix provides us with plenty of entertainment. Cutting the cord was not nearly as traumatic as I had always pictured it being.  When I called the demon company to cancel I was prepared for battle. If you ever had an AOL account and tried to end the relationship you know what I am talking about. You get passed from automated message to automated message that declares you're next to be helped. Then, a human being answers. However, you press 1 out of habit and accidentally...

Well, America has crowned its 8th Idol. The rabidly rapid thumbs of tweens, soccer moms, good old fashioned Christian folk voted for the 23 year old married boy from ... some state that isn't California or Florida. What's his name? I already forgot it. My pick from the auditions was Adam Lambert. I hoped Danny Gokey would have brought new game, but he bored me to death only to awaken me with the guttural growl-howl. See, Adam Lambert possesses that je ne sais quoi that theatre people dig. He proved that he could be the balladeer as well as the Steven Tyleresque rock wailer. I'm not comparing him to rock gods like Steven and surely not Freddie Mercury. Molds were broken when those men were created. However, along the same vein, I believe Glambert will etch himself in similar "rock." Kris Allen (see, I do remember his name, but I wouldn't had he not wooed the fastest texters in the west.) Kris is mister middle of the road. He's a good kid with a good ...

As I sit here in my bra and underwear trying to chill after a hot shower I make certain my webcam faces toward the ceiling. I have this nauseating fear that one day the device will malfunction and it'll be LIVE MARISSA!! (That's not intended to sound sexy. If you saw me you'd realize this fact.) I'm finally off work after working 6 days in a row. Griping about working is probably not a wise thing in this economy where people are being laid off left and right. My sympathy to those who want to work but the state of our affairs is preventing it from happening. My legs and feet ache due to my job requiring me to stand for most of my workday. Support hose may be the ugliest thing, but my gracious! They are a Godsend by the end of an 8 hour shift. Today is the day I get a crown. I know you realize what a princess I am -- well, at least a duchess. It's not the lovely bejeweled tiara I so lovingly deserve. No, this is a dental crown nearly costing as much as the Roy...

I'm a celebrator of birthdays. I know a lot of people prefer to play down the anniversary of their births, but I find them all together fabulous. Sure, there are a select few I wish had never been born, but on the whole, I want people to know I appreciate their presence in my life. Even if I've never met the person, their existence on this planet has pertinence to my life. With that being said, I want to wish SEAN DALY of the St. Petersburg Times a very happy birthday. I pray he makes more of it with his family than he did last year. I won't go into it (he blogged about it), but he found himself in the Daly household dog house. He's embarking on the last year of his 30's. For a guy with a glorious full head of hair, gorgeous gams (you should see him in Mantyhose), and an infectious laugh, you'd never know he was so close to entering the second part of his life. I'd be an idiot to gloss over the fact that he's the co-host of a wildly, world-wide popular ...

I love to snark. I love American Idol. I love Sean Daly's Pop Life blog. Put them all together .... I love to snark about American Idol on Sean Daly's Pop Life Blog. Participating on a blog that is part of a newspaper which is family friendly sets limitations on what you can write. Foul language isn't permitted. Dropping the f-bomb is a big no-no. Expletives in general are snagged by the censors aka the blog police. Some words that many people deem harmless, such as, slang for body parts are slammed down and beaten into submission. For what it's worth, I don't think a lot of people under the age of 21 frequent Sean's blog unless he's writing about his big brother like relationship with the Jonas Brothers. ::fist bump:: I believe it was last week -- it really seems like this season of Idol has dragged on much longer, but alas it's only two weeks in to a long assed journey till the crowning of season 8's most popular performer. Sorry, I'm easily d...

I was driving home the other day and this song came on the radio. I immediately started wigglin' my tuchus in my heated leather seat. The mood of funkiness I had was totally exorcised from my head. I was transformed and feeling the kind of funk that's good! When I arrived home, I had to look up this Michael Franti guy. How I hadn't heard of him before is beyond me. The band name "spearhead" was ringing a bell, but I was clueless none the less. Myspace provided me with all the tunes I needed to get hooked. Youtube provided the visual to share. In natural form for me, I emailed my favorite music critic about the aural medicine I received -- Sean Daly . This took place over the weekend. Imagine my delight when I logged on to his blog yesterday. I read MY NAME and partial credit for alerting him to this song. Go me! Yeah, I high-fived my badself. Sean is always very generous in giving me props when it's deserved. He hadn't heard the song yet and declared that ...

A parent's greatest; yet bittersweet, moment is seeing their child make firsts: His first bath First full night's sleep First Tooth First word First step First boo-boo First birthday First day of school First Funyun screeeeeeeeeeech His first what?! You read it correctly. The inaugural taste of Funyuns took place today. The Man-cub became one with the beloved snack of my favorite music critic and Stuck in the 80s podcast co-host SEAN DALY . Sean warns listeners and fans to beware of the Salvador Dali-nightmare inspiring effects the Funyun can have when consumed along with a large glass of water too close to bedtime. All more reason to keep the Funyuns. Who doesn't like a trippy-trip from time to time? There is currently a radical movement to oust the Funyun as the official Stuck in the 80s snack to bring in Munchos or Bugles. BAH! I say. It wasn't long ago that I won the coveted signed bag of Funyuns for getting the mystery 80's tune correct. I admitted that I sor...

The most recent Stuck in the 80s podcast is my inspiration for the above photos. I can't take full credit for their discovery. Myspace friend Ebonyeyez had these posted in her photo albums. I just couldn't resist snagging them and using them for my own purpose. She has fantastic finds tucked away in her photo albums. If you haven't checked out the Stuck in the 80s blog and podcast I have to ask. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR? You can download it from the blog or find it on iTunes. It's not hard and I promise that you'll laugh until you snort. This week, Sean Daly discusses an incredibly embarrassing moment when he goes to the doctor to have his man junk checked out. For Sean, it's not unusual for him to talk about personal things on the podcast. Like, when his Forever Fiancee gave birth to their second daughter. However, this adventure gives the listener insight to a whole new side of the adorable SIT80s co-host and music critic of the St. Pete Times. Ho...

Well, the lord, god, king guru of Stuck in the 80s -- Steve Spears -- joined the troop of commenters on Sean Daly's blog. I feel for Steve. He lives and breathes the 80s. I offered to send an emergency team to be ready with a crash cart. Yes, our beloved 80s are being taken to the curb and kicked around ... a little. It wasn't horrific. Well, not completely horrible. Y'all know by now I love Michael Johns and Jason Castro. I support David Archuleta's vocal skill. However, he needs to stop listening to his mom on his song choices. He needs to, in Simon's words, be careful about getting too depressing. Despite what some of my blogging buddies say about Michael Johns' performance, I think he owned it. Yes, he had some bum spots. However, he took a song and gave it the INXS treatment. I thought for certain he'd just go with INXS and make everybody happy. It is my guess that he's already tired of being compared to the late Michael Hutchence. It's an ...

I'm giddy whenever I add something new to my iPod. There is no doubt that music is an integral part of my existence. I prefer a new playlist over a new pair of shoes. And I love shoe shopping. What makes music so different is that it never wears out. My feet never get sore with a new CD. I have never had blisters as a result of building a new mix for the iPod. Some of the playlists consist of new artists I stumble upon via myspace, but more likely from Sean Daly's Pop Life blog . I have shamelessly downloaded more music since becoming a comment regular. When it comes to the timeless tunes of my youth, I rely upon Steve Spears' Stuck in the 80s and his blog/podcast devotees for song suggestions. Recently, I was racking my brain for songs that are great, but put on the shelf and in need of a good dust bunny removal. This was due to a blog post by Spears. I was asking a friend his suggestions for such a list when it hit me who needed to be on that list: Joan Armatrading . I...

Nice, huh? He's married, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate his artistry and delivery of a song. He's taller than Ryan Seacrest; which means he's probably at least 5'6". This is Michael Lee Johns who leaves out the Lee portion of his name. The producers of American Idol had this fine performer go last on Tuesday night. They know what the viewers want and need. His vocal performance wasn't the strongest, but he owned that circular portion of the stage. As one of my Pop Life co-bloggers stated, "Crocodile Hunkee goes back to the Val-Kilmer-doing-Jim-Morrison thing and the girls drool pumps go all the way up to 11" ~ Jeff in Cuba He performed "Light My Fire." I'm relieved he didn't inhabit the essence of Jose' Feliciano. Randy Jackson said that he felt MLJ was feeling the spirit of former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence. I don't know and don't care who he is most inspired by. I want to see more of this man wh...

Although I stand at 5'11" barefoot, I am not referring to myself in the title of this post. I've been called Amazon Woman countless times. For some reason, it never strikes me as flattering. It's like being told, " you're a big boned girl -- you carry your weight well ." to which I think in reply, " Uh, thanks ... you realize you just told me I was fat in a backhanded way, right ?" I've learned to live with it. Amazon.com is the culprit I refer to in the post title. I've never had any complaints about service with them. In fact, I find it all too easy to order on that site. It has everything I could conceivably ever desire. OK, not everything , but you get my drift, yes? I've been purchasing quite a few MP3s as a result of getting a digital download gift card with the purchase of my 8GB iPod Nano. I seriously needed someone to tell me what a GB was prior to buying. I'm going need a bigger one. That's what SHE said ::snort:: ...

In 1999 I found myself newly single and totally out of my element regarding dating. I'm not one of those girls who finds herself drowning in male suitors. I'm also inclined to have more male friends and acquaintances than female. Men do not fix up their chick friends with guys they know. It was once explained to me that guy friends don't do this because it will cause one of two things to happen (possibly both): 1. Should the female friend ever get drunk enough to have friendly sex with him , it surely won't happen if she's dating one of his friends. 2. If things don't work out, he might lose a really good friend or two. I sought out attention and possible dates via the Internet. I was broke and unwilling to pay to put my mug on a dating website. That left me trolling the AOL chat rooms. I had various screen names. I learned that having anything with sexy, hot, gr8, etc in your name was a sure fire exclamation from chat roomies yelling, err, typing in caps PICS? ...