So....that happened....

I got my DNA results from Ancestry.com finally!

In spite of what my co-workers believed, it turns out that I'm not an alien. *Or* there's a huge conspiracy to cover up my alien origins and the Men in Black will be coming soon. One of those two things. :)

In the totally not a surprise category, I'm Super Super White. Super White. Like...IDK. White.

Filed under, kind of a surprise....there's a lot of Scandinavian in there. Which, to be fair, the Scandinavian DNA blob covers a chunk of Germany, as does the Eastern European DNA blob. And I know there's some Czech in the family on my Grandfather's side, so that all makes sense really.

The Irish thing is new. Though, looking at the blob, it covers Scotland which is where I was told my biological father's family is from. So that might just be a matter of genetic semantics, I guess. It thrilled my other coworker though because we've had this fun Ireland vs. Scotland thing going and now she says I have to come to her side since I'm Irish. Bah.

Jamie Fraser forever!!! LOL

I do find the Italy/Greece trace kind of interesting. I'm guessing that that's likely from my father's side as well, since my mother's side is all German/Easter European. And I keep remembering that little old lady at the Greek Orthodox church who insisted that I *had* to be Greek. Well, okay, maybe a little then. :)

The trace regions that are less than 1% I find more interesting, even though from what I read on the site they may turn up to mean nothing because they're such a low percentage. But if they *are* true genetic traces, how far back are they that they even show up at all?

All in all though, no real surprises.

The Vikings clearly Got Around though. :D

And now my Peruvian coworker (she who declared me an alien) has agreed that while I'm not an alien I must be a Viking vampire - since Romania is included in the Easter European DNA blob and Vlad Dracula is part of the little write up Ancestry does on the region.

I can work with that.

An Illustrated Story

This one's for Heather. :D

Warnings: There's a rude gesture at the end. Picture quality is variable. Life is hard. Water is wet.

~~~

*wanders onto a Muslim messaging board*

"Salaam! My name's Amber and I'm a recent convert. I'm very happy to have found you all and I hope you'll have patience with me as I try to learn more about my faith."

"Salaam! Mashallah sister, welcome!..."

"...but sister, where is your hijab? Where is your haya? Please, sister, consider Allah's instructions in the Qur'an, this is best for your iman."

~~~

"Salaam! There aren't a lot of Muslims where I live and I have been having trouble learning how to perform salaah properly. I was wondering if any of you had advice on where to look online?"

"Salaam, sister! Mashallah, you look beautiful in your hijab! But is that make-up? Astaghfirullah! Such adornments should be for your husband only! They draw too much attention and invite fitnah!"

~~~

"Salaam! I am struggling to make the five daily prayers, especially fajr. Is there any advice for what I can do to help motivate myself? I know that the prayers are beneficial, and I love them, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get up consistently."

"Salaam, sister. Your hijab...there is too much color. The sunnah of the Prophet (SAW) shows us that black is the best color. I tell you this for the good of your iman and so that you are not a fitnah to others."

~~~

"Salaam, I'm still hoping to get some advice about my salaah. Especially going into Ramadan I want to make an effort to solidify my practice."

"Salaam, sister, I say this with the best of intentions, but even your face is an attraction. We are told to lower our gaze, but sister, you must take responsibility as well. Your adornments are only to be for your husband, sister."

~~~

"Salaam, I have found a masjid in the next town over but I'm having a hard time finding a way to fit in. I'm shy, unfortunately, and there aren't many converts at the masjid."

"Salaam, sister. The color. It's not appropriate. The sunnah is black. And your niqab is not proper. There is still too much temptation."

~~~

"Salaam, I was wondering if any of you had ideas about how to approach my HR department about prayer space at my work? I usually use an empty conference room but the other day someone walked in on me and it was a little awkward."

"Salaam, sister. Your eyes are too alluring."

~~~

"Salaam, I - "

"Sister, you should not be speaking to non-mahram men. Ask your husband these questions and please, for the sake of your haya, be silent with other men. Also, sister, your name. You should change it to a good Arabic name."

~~~

"Salaam. I will not be changing my name. There is nothing un-Islamic about Amber.

"Also, dear brothers, who have been offering me such unsolicited advice, I would like you to reflect on a verse from the Qur'an.

"'Say to the believing men to cast their gaze down and guard their modesty; that is purer for them; verily God is all-Aware of what they do.' Surat an-Nur, ayah 30.

"You worry about your gaze and I'll worry about mine. Capiche?"

Actual Lunch Time Conversation

Discussion goes from how much menstrual cramps suck to how it's still preferable to having to sit on your junk every day. From there:

Me: They're just so *ugly*. (in re: penises. Because they are. Don't lie. They're not aesthetically pleasing and you know it.)

G: I know! All dangly and wrinkled...ugh. So much better having everything on the inside.

Me: It's a design flaw. I know the Bible has that whole thing about God noticing Adam was lonely and giving him a girlfriend, but really, it's God correcting the problems in the first release. We're Human 2.0.

G: *laughs*

Me: The first time Adam got kicked by the...the freaking *horse* or tripped over something. God went... "Hmmm....that's going to be a problem. We'll fix it and release a new version."

This all being accompanied by much laughter and hand gestures as we mime flipping the penis inside out and tucking it inside. Because we're five and we had the lunch room to ourselves. Ten minutes later a guy came in and couldn't understand why we were having so much fun. :D

what hanging out with you guys has done to me - I'm looking at you, Becky and Zuhura...

Excerpts from my shopping trip this weekend to pick up toys for my girl from the Angel Tree at work:

*ponders coloring books* If I buy the Princess coloring book am I perpetuating the gender stereotype? But her card lists that she wants dress-up clothes! *buys a mix of coloring books*

*ponders tricycles*...Why are there no gender neutral cycles? I don't want to buy her a very specifically 'boy' bicycle in case she's a *pink* kind of girl, but...but... *buys the Dora the Explorer trike* At least she's an explorer and multicultural!

*ponders dress up clothes*...Maybe she doesn't want to dress up as a faerie! Or a Victorian lady! Or a bride in a big white dress! Maybe she wants to be a policewoman or a firewoman or an astronaut! Or a physicist! Anyone ever think of that? *buys the cowgirl outfit*

And this is just internet exposure!

testing...anyone out there?

*laugh* So, anyway. I'm going to do another post on Mere Christianity tonight. I'm such a slacker.

Today's announcement:

I appear to have developed a newscaster crush on Anderson Cooper.

I bet you all didn't realize my secret identity...

I just started receiving reviews on this story that I'm writing. It's actually part of a series, and the commenter has gone back to all of the stories to comment. Which is awesome. The funniest part: I am apparently an awesome, awesome feminist person who writes and touches on so very many important topics for women. I write strong women who aren't trying to be masculine and it's all very realistic. About abuse and recovery or just plain not dealing with it and how it messes with relationships. Also, the mob's maiden/mother/whore complex vis a vis a woman dating the head of the outfit who does not fit in the 'mob girlfriend' box. I win at life, essentially. *blinks* Hah. AH-HAHAAAHHAAAAAAAAAA.... I am flattered, pleased and amused all at the same time. So, congrats. Apparently I'm secretly a feminist. So secretly, *I* didn't even know it. :D

*twiddles thumbs*

I let Susanne in on the secret earlier, but the fact of the matter is this: I have been absent from the blog this weekend because it is hard to get someone to come install the internet up in heaven.

That's right, you heard me. I was the ONLY person raptured on Saturday. So it's just me and God up here, chilling. Truth be told, it's a bit boring. I'm apparently *not* allowed to smite people, in spite of having access to all the lightning and thunder one could want. Something about me being judgementally impaired or something like that. There's a lot of thee's and thou's in God's vernacular, so it's hard to translate. There's a reason I never finished reading the KJV Bible. Mostly I just nod and tune him out.

So, before I got sucked up here, and wasn't that fun, what with my fear of heights and all. All I'm saying is, phenomenal cosmic powers and he can't teleport people? Had to do that whole slow float thing? Meh.

Anyhow. I'm still reading VBV. The chapter I'm on right now is about the symbolism of the hijab. Not bad so far, but nothing new, so I don't really have anything to say about it.

My random thought for today has been this: would it be so bad if there was no God? No divine nothing. Just people and the universe.

Preparing for Ze Rapture

AHEM!

As some of you may be aware, according to this gentleman, the world is going to come to an end on May 21, 2011. I don't believe this to be the case for many reasons, the largest and most important of which is that there are still somewhere around ten Dresden Files novels to be published and God Himself would not end the world until I know how this story ends. Mostly because He knows if He does, I shall find some way to make the rest of eternity hell. Don't think I won't!

Anyway. On the off chance that I'm wrong, I assume I will be left behind. Therefore, I propose this:

All of us who will not be chilling in heaven on the 21st, it is our duty to record the events! So get your cameras ready and, when you see people being raptured up, take pictures and post them. We need to record the event for posterity, such as it will be.

Razzle Dazzle 'Em

And lo, I have just read some of the worst baloney I have seen in a good long while.

Heather pointed me to this site on Qur'anist perspectives when I was asking her some questions. I finally got around to poking around on the site and I recalled that SarahO had said, when I said that the only proof of the Qur'an is Mohammed's claim at being a prophet, that there were more proofs of the Qur'an on the site. So I went looking for those articles, to see if they were saying anything I hadn't heard before. The first article I came across was 'Qur'an and Self-Reference' and I then spent the next ten minutes trying to decide if I wanted to laugh hysterically or...no. Just laughing.

The premise of the article starts out with the concept of self-reference. Which is a real thing, mind. It exists and is really kind of fascinating and mind bendy if you get into it. For a general idea, I refer you to the Wiki article on the subject. The fascinating thing is that the author of the article seems to be making an attempt to prove that the Qur'an *must* be true because it contains no logical issues of self-reference. I can't actually speak to that, nor do I think it makes any difference, because I don't read classical Arabic.

For example, he says that the Qur'an states: "If it had been from anyone other than God, it would contain many contradictions." - 4:82. What does that prove, you may ask? Well, according to this theory, if one can find the word 'contradictions' in the Qur'an, multiple times, then the Qur'an has failed the self-reference test because it says one thing, but that thing is incorrect because the statement it makes is provably, technically wrong in that the word or phrase is used inside of the work in a way that contradicts the statement.

It's an entertaining game, really. But does it prove that the Qur'an is from God? Is that really the 'test' that God or Mohammed intended for people to use to verify the Qur'an? I don't think so. It's clear that the intent was not for people to sit there and count the number of times any given word was used. The intent was for the phrase to refer to instances of contradiction, rather than instances of the word 'contradiction'. To view it otherwise is to play a pseudo-scientific game with the words.

The author is taking something that is scientific (when it refers to maths, for instance) and applying it to a religious text. Ignoring all the context and basic knowledge of language in order to prove a point. It sounds, let's say 'good' and probably convinces some people. They see this and are amazed by the 'science'. But it's just a linguistic game. It doesn't *mean* what he says it means. And that makes it funny, in the sad kind of way.

The rest of the article goes on and on about the numbers of times words appear in the Qur'an and the meaning of the numbers and blah, blah. I fully admit to letting my mind drift and only skimming those parts. Numerology is a bunch of babbly crap, no matter which religion is trying to make use of it. Our brains are wired to see meaning and patterns. Even where there are none. We see something and our brain will reference it to something else that we know and we're suddenly, 'Aha! It has SIGNIFICANCE! It is a SIGN!' When, in reality, it's nothing. We're making it up without realizing it. The brain. Fascinating. So, really, the number of times a specific word is used in the Qur'an, or the Bible, or whatever, means bupkiss. Especially to me, since I know this and patently Do Not Care. I am Unimpressed By Your Numerology.

The author of the article couldn't resist getting one dig in on the Bible though, at the very end.

"The Bible is not free from paradoxes (contradictions) of self-reference. The famous "Epimenides paradox" is well known. Paul, writing to Titus, says about the Cretans:

12. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13. This witness is true….(Titus 1:12-13- The Bible)

An analysis based on self-reference tells us that if the statement that Cretans are always liars is true, then since "one of themselves (a Cretan)" said this, it must be a lie, since Cretans always lie (according to the statement made). So if the statement is true then it is a lie (based on self-reference). Only if the statement that "Cretans are always liars" is false can this "witness" be true. So it is a paradox, a contradiction that cannot be resolved. This shows that the author of Titus had no idea what he/she was talking about."

*cough* *eyes it* *laughs so hard she hurts herself* Author, allow me to introduce you to a rhetorical device known as hyperbole. It's been around for a long, long time. It is the use of exaggeration in order to make a point. But you go on and believe in the utter intent of every sentence to be absolutely 100% factually true. I'll be over here, thinking of what a silly, silly duck you are.

Southern Culture - Tips for the Outsider

I think there might need to be some sort of a 'visitors guide' or something set up for people who come to the South. Here're some things friends and I came up with last night while we were talking about Southern culture.

1. Southerners want people to like us. Not just 'tolerate' us. We want to make people happy. We're bred/brought up this way and it's deep in there.

2. We tend to take people at their word. If you say you're going to do something, we expect that you will do it. And if you don't, then that's it. Of course there are exigent circumstances, but we're not speaking of those. Just instances where you promise to do something and then don't. There are usually no second chances - you've lost us forever. There's some wiggle room, of course. Another Southerner will likely get more leeway than Someone Else.

3. We expect exaggeration and bluster from politicians, not regular people. If you say something, we assume that you mean it. So watch what you say, because people will still settle their differences the old fashioned way in some parts.

4. Southerners are not putting on airs. We are, in fact, friendly, hospitable, and civil. If we're sharing freely with you about ourselves, it means we trust you. But, like #2, if you break that trust, it's gone forever. And we're easily offended. If you've offended us, we will likely just cut you off entirely until you make amends. And even then, it will never be the same. We like a lot of people, but we don't respect them until they've earned it.

5. We gossip. It's not meant to be harmful, though it does get that way sometimes. It's just the way we talk. We share information, but it's boring unless it comes with an interesting story.

6. We can take criticism, if it's done properly. That means you do it civilly, or you do it with some humor. We don't just go straight for the throat. If it's to that point, it's too late and it's already a fight. That's the Yankee way. And we all know they're not brought up right.

7. Brutal honesty is rejected. It is a virtue to maintain civility through slight dishonesty. 'Little white lies' keep society from burning to the ground, people.

8. Do not yell at a Southerner. Ever. Do not interrupt us while we are talking unless the building is actively burning down around us or Timmy is stuck down the well. Do not mock us, jeer at us, or make a public spectacle. We are speaking. You will get your turn, and we expect you to speak politely as well when you've got the 'floor'. If you cannot do this, you will be cut off and we won't even acknowledge that you exist until you've made amends. I'm not kidding. We shun people. You don't have to agree with our opinions, you just have to be able to express yourself like a full grown and proper human being.

9. We're always early. And we always leave late. It's just polite to be on time, and 'on time' just happens to be at least 15 minutes early for us. Seriously. If we actually arrive somewhere at the time we're told to be there, we're late. And leaving takes a lot of good-byes, so expect the ending time of anything to be maybe half an hour after it's 'ended'.

Jon Stewart on Glenn Beck's Impending Departure

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

My god, I love this man!

You can't see it, but Beck's departure is making me do a happy dance. Not that that means he'll be gone from the public eye for good, which is disappointing. But I'll take what happiness I can get! :D

"Glenn Beck still had the third highest show in cable news ... Maybe Fox News thought it would be useful to pick some random talk radio host rehashing all same tired old John Birch Society conspiracy theories to seed ultra-conservative viewpoints into the news cycle, while making the rest of the network seem centrist by comparison. But, he then began to believe his own messianic delusions and became a giant pain in the ass. So they dropped his ass."

Freaky Happening!

This is a funny story.

So, yesterday, while I was waiting for Myrddin to get his new tires, I went and saw the movie Insidious. Not particularly scary, but it was about a haunting. So I was in the ghost-y state of mind.

Around 7 pm or so, I was getting ready to change out the cat litter boxes. I brought the big bag of litter into the house and set it down next to the kitchen counter so I could get the garbage bags out from under the sink. As I'm bent over, pulling the bags out, I see the lid of our kitchen trash s l o w l y start to rise. So there I am, crouched over, looking at it and going, 'Oh crap!'

And then I realized that I'd set the bag of litter partially on the little pedal that raises the can lid. So as it settled, the lid was raised. Slowly. :D

Sex Inside of Marriage

I am...mostly amused by this post. But I want to write it, so I will!

Candice just recently did a post reevaluating her stance on sex toys in Islam. (Also, this post has nothing to do, specifically, with Candice's post, which is why I'm not replying over there!)

After I read it, and stopped giggling (which, I mean no insult or disrespect, okay? But it's *amusing* to me that there has to be religious rulings on what is and is not acceptable in the sex life of a married couple.), I remembered that there are Christians who have these hang ups too. And that, also, amuses me.

My point of view is this:

Once you're married? Anything that is consensual and pleasurable between you is a-okay!

The point of sex (aside from reproduction) is to bring the couple closer. To make them one. Right? It's all about closeness and love and intimacy.

Here's the thing. Everyone has kinks. Everyone. You may not *think* it's a kink. You may think it's the most vanilla thing out there and 'kink' only applies to whips and chains. And you'd be wrong.

Do you like having sex with your spouse in the middle of the day? Does that make it extra special? Extra arousing?

That's a kink. And I'm not even talking about especially bendy sex there. Just plain, old fashioned, sex.

Anything the idea of which serves to heighten your arousal and enjoyment is a kink. Got it?

ALSO, *gets on soapbox*, in spite of the general perspective on BDSM sex, it too is meant to be all about closeness and love. It's not just about the sex - it's about the trust and the ability to give yourself over to someone else. Got it? *hops off of soapbox*

The important aspect is that everything done during sex between two people must be done out of love and mutual pleasure.

Which is why *I* personally think that it's very, very, very important for a couple to discuss their sexual preferences and needs prior to marriage. I'm not talking like, first date or anything. But when it's serious? When you're considering getting engaged?

This is a talk that needs to happen. Because if you're not sexually compatible and/or not willing to try the things that make your spouse happy? You're going to either have a really miserable marriage, or a really short one. Or a little bit of both.

I know, for myself, that I have certain very specific kinks. I own those kinks and a lifetime of sex without them would not be fully satisfying to me. So if and when I find someone that I want to marry, we will be having that talk.

Demonstrating a Fairly Loose Understanding of History...

We went and saw The Eagle this weekend. I loved it. It hit me right in my ancient Rome kink. Also my military battles/armour/uniform/marching kinks. I have issues, I know. :) Also, Channing Tatum is easy on the eyes.

Anyway, it's set around AD 160. So we watch the movie, I drool a lot and go SQUEEE in my head, and all that. Then we have the post movie discussion. And her first question was,

"So this was set in AD 160, right?"

"Right."

"That's after Christ?"

"Yep. AD. Anno Domini. After Christ."

"So, weren't all the Romans Christian?"

*head**desk*

I should probably explain that what prompted the question was watching Tatum's character pray to several Roman gods, chiefly, sanil, Mithras. :)

Budding Miniature Obssession

*blinks at dashboard* according to it, this is my 700th post. What now? Really?

Anyway.

I was googling miniatures the other day, for a sekrit fangirly thing and now I find myself sort of, um, fascinated by them. By the Victorian doll house kind and all the little tiny things that go in them.

I do not need a Victorian doll house just so I can buy tiny things to go in it.

WHY ARE TINY THINGS SO CUUUUUUUUUUTE?

^-^

I got a new monitor for my work computer. It's biiigggggggggggggg.... ^-^

I feel more productive already!

:-D

Also, "We can't giggle. It's a crime scene." Ah, Sherlock. My newest obsession. Though given that it's a remake of Sherlock Holmes, it's actually one of my oldest obsessions given a cell phone!

edit: It occurred to me, the level of irony involved in making a post saying how much more productive I feel at work with my new monitor, while at work, clearly not working, but rather making a post about it on my blog.

LOL

Okay, so we went and saw The Rite yesterday. I enjoyed it. My friend Donna's problem was that it was 'inspired' by true events. So on the one hand the possessions weren't *movie* possessions, with the ubiquitous head spinning, etc. and on the other hand, 'the writer always tries to blow up real events so they're more dramatic'. So it was both not spectacular enough, and too spectacular. :)

Anyway, we always stand around and talk after the movie. Walk through the mall, since the theater is in the mall, that sort of thing. Deconstruct the film and just generally yammer on. So we're talking, and talking about the movie and angels and demons and Donna tells me that a while back, when we'd been having another conversation after another demons movie she'd taken the wings off of an angel statue she has in her house because I told her that angels don't really have wings.

At which point my jaw dropped open and I couldn't decide to laugh or not. I mean, okay, yes, I stand by the fact that angels don't have wings as we depict them. Angels don't have physical forms in the same way that people or anything else material does. They're described as having wings in visions in the Bible and so on, but that's just...a vision. A representation of the reality toned down so our brains don't explode. So they don't have giant bird wings, as lovely as they look in art.

But I never expected her to go around 'editing' a statue! She was saying, 'Well of course I did! I want him to look right so the angel's aren't insulted!'

I just- what do you say to that? Between giggles I did my best to explain that the angels weren't going to be insulted if the art didn't look exactly like them.

Doubts = ze Debil!

*grin*

One thing that annoys me every single time I see it is the immediate accusation toward *anyone* who is having doubts or questions about their faith that it's ze Debil! *pauses for overly dramatic bumbumBUM music to play* messing with them.

Look, doubt and questioning is a natural part of a healthy and active human intellect. We stagnate and die when we don't think about things and thinking about things, poking at them and worrying at the edges can sometimes lead to doubts. It's natural. It can be painful, especially if you come up with answers that don't match what you want them to be, but it's a good thing.

If God didn't want us to question then we'd have the intellect of a gerbil, okay? We don't. We're the smartest things on the planet. Well, aside from the dolphins and those two mice who aren't really mice. They don't count, though, cause they're not from around here originally. But I digress!

My belief is that people who jump on that particular band wagon at the first sign of thoughts in another human being are those who have had doubts, have been unable to find answers that satisfy them and instead of accepting reality and finding another way to move forward have turtled back into their shells and refuse to invite thought. They can't answer the questions and rather than put out any answers that have satisfied them, because they're afraid that they won't stand up to another persons scrutiny and that that will hurt their own faith, they accuse ze Debil! *bumbumBUM* who is a handy scapegoat since he's not about to appear and defend himself any time soon.

I also do not accept ze Debil! *bumbumBUM* made me do it. :p

10 Favorite Movie Moments

We were discussing this on lunch at work. These are my current top ten. Subject to random whims. :)

1. Princess Bride - Buttercup has been abducted, rescued, captured, rescued and abducted again. She has just found out that her latest captor is the Dread Pirate Roberts who murdered her beloved Westley years before. In her anger she shoves him over the side of a rather large hill, screaming that he can die for all she cares. As he's falling/rolling he cries out, 'As you wish!' which is what Westley always said to her. And what he meant when he said that was really, 'I love you.' Realising that she has just tried to kill her Westley she throws herself down the hill after him. They land together, reunited. (And one assumes bruised.)

2. Princess Bride - Westley has been Mostly Dead all day due to the evilness of Humperdink and his minions. He, Inigo and Fezzik have stormed the castle to rescue Buttercup, who has just been forced to marry Humperdink (and really, with a name like that his parents were just asking for him to be evil). Inigo has run off to fight the Six Fingered Man, Fezzik is elsewhere and Westley has managed to get himself into Buttercups room. She returns from her wedding believing Westley to be dead (again) and prepares to kill herself. Westley (who cannot move - from being Mostly Dead) calls out and stops her. They have a tearful reunion and then Humperdink shows up. He threatens the lovers and then Westley threatens him back, describing how he's going to cut Humperdink up but leave him alive to suffer. And then he rises, slowly....raises his sword until it's pointed straight at the camera and says: 'Drop. Your. Sword.' And Humperdink does, like a little sissy.

3. Princess Bride (shut up. I *know*.) - Inigo Montoya has spent his *entire* life hunting for the man who murdered his father. He has finally found the Six Fingered Man, dueled him and is winning. Because he's Inigo freaking Montoya, that's why!

"Offer me money."

"Yes."

"Power too. Promise me that."

"All that I have and more. Please."

"Offer me anything I ask for."

"Anything you want."

*stab**leans in close*

"I want my father back you son of a bitch."

4. Jaws - Pretty much the very end. 'Smile you son of a bitch!' Where Brody shoots the air tank and the shark explodes. Totally not realistic, and yet *awesome*.

5. Jaws - When Brody is chumming the water and bitching at Quint and Hooper, not looking at the ocean and the shark comes up behind him and then sinks back down. And then he looks back and notices and the whole, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.' happens.

6. Inception - THE WHOLE MOVIE! ALL OF IT! *cough* But if I *must* choose a fave scene, then I'd have to say (as hard as the choice was to make) the weightless fight scene. Badass.

7. Aliens - Towards the very end of the movie. Pretty much everyone is dead and Bishop and Hicks are out of commission. They're back on the mother ship and the alien queen has Newt. Ripley gets into the exoskeletal suit and comes out fighting. 'Get away from her, you bitch!'

8. Alien - The end of the movie. Ripley thinks she's escaped, the only survivor and is actually stripping down to go into cryo sleep when she realizes that the alien has made it onto her escape pod. She has to move so quietly and slowly, get into a space suit so she can space the damn thing. Awesome scene.

9. LOTR: The Two Towers: At the siege of Fort Eorlingas, when all is dark and Theoden is ready to give up. Aragorn gets his blood going, gets him back into the fight. And Theoden's line: "Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath. Now for ruin. And the red dawn!" ROHAN! *charges about with sword*

10. LOTR: Return of the King - Eowyn's fight with the Witch King: "I am no man!" *stabbity*

Christmas Traditions

Do you guys have any 'weird' family or personal traditions for Christmas?

Family wise we have this ridiculous glass pickle ornament that *must* be hung on the tree every year. My grandmother insists that it's a German custom. So far as I can discover, it is not. It's a strange marketing ploy that it's a German tradition, but not an actual tradition. None the less, that ornament is there every year. It's a running family joke.

Personally, my Christmas is not complete until I've watched Alien (and sometimes Aliens). Because nothing says joy to the world like a chest bursting alien life form. :)