Bye bye vibration

I finally realized that you can turn off the vibration option on your cell phone. I have tolerated it for a long time now, but with the new model I'm currently using, a Sony Ericsson F100i, I have found that the vibration is strong enough to wake the dead.
Why have a mute option if the vibration is going to be as loud as the ringer itself? There have been times when I have muted the phone so as not to be disturbed, and even placed it between two thick pillows to avoid hearing it vibrate. With this phone, even that doesn't work. You can be in a deep sleep, and still wake up from that bloody phone. The only way to avoid being bothered by it is either turning it off or throwing it off a cliff. The second option has become more and more appealing lately.
What's even worse is when I'm teaching a class, or worse, in the middle of an interpretation, and the thing starts ringing. Everyone can hear the vibration, and all over the room you see people looking around, peering anxiously at their bags going "Is it mine??" "No I think it's mine". And then I have to confess, "No, I think it's mine". Or if it's someone elses I do what everybody else does and check my phone too, just in case it's mine, even though it's totally inconsequential since I'm not going to answer while I'm working anyway, but I habitually check it anyway, as most of us do. They invented the mute button so we could avoid this, but I'll be damned if it doesn't happen anyway.
Is the vibration function supposed to serve as a sex toy as well? Because given its strength, I can certainly see how that would be possible. Is this what they had in mind when they designed the Sony Ericsson F100i especially for women? It's small and dainty and the buttons are tiny, but what it lacks in size it definitely makes up for with its vibration function.
Anyway, now I can blissfully say that this no longer is a problem for me. Praise the option to turn off the vibration! No more "BZZZZ...BZZZZZ...BZZZZ!!!! A sound I have slowly grown to despise, as much as fingers on a chalkboard or gum being chewed.
Yay!!!

I hate animal movies

Not because I don't like animals, but because I love them and it seems to be a must in any Hollywood moving featuring an animal that the animal must in some way get hurt or die. I just can't bare to watch this. Why would I want to see that? I don't care if it's a supposedly happy ending where the animal is at peace because it sacrificed its own life to save a human being. To me this is a terrible ending. The animal dies while the human lives! I mean, no offense to humans, but I'll take animal over a person any day.
Yesterday I caught the ending of this horse movie called "Amanda", and was appalled when they used the horse to drag a flipped-over jeep upright so that the people inside it could get out. It was apparently some kind of emergency. The horse died a painful death in the process, blood seeping out from the wounds it got from pulling on the reigns. My god!!! Why do I need to see that?? And it didn't help that seconds after the horse had gotten the truck to an upright position, we hear rescue sirens approaching. If they had waited 2 more minutes the people in the car would have been saved and the horse wouldn't have had to die to save them! This made me so mad. It was supposed to be one of those sappy Hollywood moments where we cry tears of happiness over the fact that the horse gave its life for its owners. Well all I could do was curse their stupidity and lament the fact that this beautiful animal had to die such a sad death. I couldn't stand the little boy, played by Kieran Culkin, who was the main character, and who came up with this brilliant idea in the first place. It was like nails on a chalkboard watching that whole agonizing scene and I wish I had changed the channel instantly instead of putting myself through that horse crap (pun intended).
It doesn't matter how happy the ending is, I refuse to watch a movie where an animal dies. I cried my eyes out watching "Eight Below". Yes, the dogs were eventually rescued, but what about the ones that died? I just can't cope with it. I should be able to, since they're only movies, but when it comes to animals it's like my common sense and rationality fly out the window.
Then I remind myself that horrible things actually do happen to animals on a daily basis. Like that awful case of a beautiful German Shepherd who had to spend 10 years tied up in a backyard in her own filth with no toys, no comforts and being abused by her owners. If I got my hands on her owners, I don't think I would ever stop hitting. I'd subject them to the very same treatment that they inflicted on their poor dog. I.e I would pee on them, tie them up and let them soil themselves and allow them to live in their own feces etc. See how they like it.

I'm slightly hormonal today, and rather cranky, and am realizing that this post turned into somewhat of an angry rant. Oh well. When it comes to animal abuse, I'm slightly psychotic. I'd like to form a vigilante and go after all those morons who get their jollies out of torturing animals. A mere fine just isn't enough of a punishment.

I better end this post now and take a few deep breaths, and try to get that lame horse movie out of my head.

Elvis is my king

Never in my life have I been so affected by a singer as when I discovered Elvis, at the age of 18. It was like being hit by a bolt of lightning, as corny and cliché as that might sound. There's just no other way to describe it.
I was working in a photo frame store in a mall at the time. I was bored with the job, as I always am with repetitive things, and it was hard to get the days to pass without letting out a scream of frustration. It was a slow day, and as always I let my mind wander. Suddenly Elvis crossed my mind, and I swear it was like this jolt inside my stomach, the kind of feeling you get when you see someone and realize you're in love with that person. All of a sudden I was hooked, and on my lunch break that day I ran up to the library and started digging out any information I could find on him.
An obsession was born. As always, whenever I really like something I go overboard. My whole world became Elvis for years. I bought his music, his movies, his biographies, framed huge posters of him and hung them on the walls of my girlhood room. I dyed my hair jet black to look like him and even tried to dress like him. Bright pink and purple shirts and black suits. On the anniversary of his death I lit candles and placed a red rose in the memorial garden in the local cemetery.
The obsession eventually wore off when I went out there and got myself a life of my own, but the love for Elvis and his music is still there. There has never been anyone like him in my opinion. I find it amazing that he can have such an impact on someone like me, who was barely out of diapers when Elvis died and who was never exposed to him or his music growing up. Yet for some reason he grabbed me, the same way that he continues to spellbind people, young and old. Isn't that pretty amazing, considering he died in 1977 and his music style is so far from what's popular today. It may not be cool to like Elvis, but the fact is millions of people still do. And I don't really care if it's cool or not. I still love his music from the 50's, when he just had his breakthrough. I don't count his movie music from the 60's when I say I like Elvis's music, however when he made his come-back in 68 his voice had deepened and although I by far liked his 50's stuff so much better than what he did in the late 60's and 70's, I really like his voice here. You can hear the depth of it in the remix of A Little Less Conversation, which by the way rocks.
The only other person who comes close to having that special quality that his voice contained is K.d Lang. As far as charisma goes, I don't think there is one singer out there who even comes to close to Elvis.
He's magical. He's my hero. And yes, I am aware that he died fat and strung out on prescription drugs in his bathroom. So what? That doesn't change who he was in the 50's.