hollybrooke: (Computer-inept Usagi-chan)
I can't believe I didn't include anything about the passing of Steve Jobs in my post yesterday, so I'll say what I have to say about it here.

He changed the world, man. He changed the way we work and play. He changed the way we interact and communicate with each other. He even had a hand in revolutionizing the entertainment industry (he was a co-founder of Pixar). He made what was seemingly impossible, the sort of stuff we dreamed about for the future in "The Jetsons" or Back to the Future 2, possible. And I realize I may be typing this on a craptacular PC while saving up for a much-coveted Mac that I'll be purchasing as a birthday present for myself in December, but the fact that I even have a home computer wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Steve Jobs.

Best Jobs quote?: “Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.”
hollybrooke: (it LOOKS like Jem....)
Jani Lane of Warrant died at age 47 in a motel in California. Damn.

Let's light out lighters and celebrate, late 80s hair metal-style.

Damn.

Jul. 24th, 2011 09:56 am
hollybrooke: (Peter Griffin deals drugs)


Loved her music. It's a shame, really. They say to sing the blues, you need to have lived through them. And she had her demons. (But I'll be honest. When I heard about this on the Internet yesterday, I thought it was another hoax. I guess not.)
hollybrooke: (Beatings!)
It's time for my Annual Celebrity Death Pool!

10. Mickey Rooney.
9. Christopher Plummer (We were watching the cast of The Sound of Music on Oprah last week, and we totally forgot just how OLD he is.)
8. Chuck Berry (And word is he collapsed on stage in Chicago the other night...)
7. Doris Day
6. Kirk Douglas (And NOT Michael; last I heard, he's actually getting better)
5. Jerry Lee Lewis
4. Angela Lansbury (I know, I'm cruel, but she's older than we realize.)
3. Jack LaLaine (He can't be hawking those juicers forever.)
2. Andy Rooney

And number one....I hate to make her my number one pick, but Aretha Franklin. She's been reported to have pancreatic cancer, and that's one of the tougher forms of cancer to treat.

HONORABLE MENTION? Elizabeth Taylor, of course. She'll probably outlive us all! (Her and Willie Nelson and Hugh Hefner.)
hollybrooke: (awesome icon right here)
Last night, Comedy Central was showing the roasts for David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. And it didn't occur to me till last night that three people at Pam's roast are dead now.

--Bea Arthur
--Anna Nicole Smith
--Greg Giraldo

It's like watching old WWE pay-per-views and pointing out all the wrestlers who are dead. Just....depressing. :(


And WTF was this, the Miz FINALLY cashed in his Money in the Bank on "Raw" this week, and I wasn't watching because of how crappy "Survivor Series" ended?! FUCK THAT!!!! Dude, I'm glad the Miz is FINALLY the champ, but UGH. Trying to ensure people will watch "Raw" now that Cena's gone, huh, Vince? Hmm? What a cheap shot.

For the most part, "Survivor Series" was awesome...up until the last match with Wade Barrett against Randy Orton with John Cena being a ref. That match just seemed drawn out and not much really happened, and can Cena actually be a crappier ref than he is a wrestler?! YES HE CAN! And they had to drag out the ending for another ten minutes so he could go around the whole arena saying goodbye the Cenation. Couldn't see you before, Cena, now we REALLY can't! Go off and make another movie! (Eh, he'll probably be back as entry 30 at the Royal Rumble. I'M CALLING IT RIGHT NOW. Entry 30 at the Rumble in January, and he'll probably WIN the damn thing, too.)
hollybrooke: (Bye Bye Birdie)
Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] wonkylibrarian for linking to this on Facebook! Morbid, but interesting.

Like many Americans, you probably think you're pretty charitable. Perhaps you donate money to the needy or ill, give away your old clothes, volunteer at your child's school or participate in holiday gift drives in December.

But you may be missing something. As you're charitable in life, you could also be charitable in death. This holiday season -- Halloween -- you could start thinking about a kind of ghoulish donation: your body.

J. Nathan Bazzel has already made his plans. In 2001, he signed all the necessary documents to donate his body parts to the Mütter Museum, a part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. A friend of his worked there, and he knew that researchers from around the world came to look at its vast collection of body parts.

Bazzel, 38, is HIV-positive, and he wants scientists to learn from his remains.

"If just one person can take a look at my skull and kidneys, which have suffered from HIV and the drugs used to treat it, and learn something from them -- what a magnificent gift," he said.

He's so impassioned that the same year he signed the forms for his postmortem donation, he donated his right hip, which had to be replaced because of damage from an HIV drug, and then three years later, he donated his left hip.

Bazzel, who became the college's communications director two years ago, has already seen the benefits of having real human body parts on display: When high school students come in and see his hips' deformities, his lecture to them on the importance of safe sex takes on a whole new meaning.

Of course, being on display in a museum isn't everyone's cup of tea. So in the spirit of the season, here are 10 ways you can put your body to use after you die. In many cases, you can do more than one.

1. Donate your organs

Nineteen people die every day waiting for an organ such as a kidney, heart, lung, liver or pancreas. Learn about organ donation, sign an organ donor card, tell your family your wishes, and don't be misled by myths about organ donation. If you like, you can donate some organs but not others.

2. Donate your tissue

Your bones, ligaments, heart valves and corneas might not be of use to you in the hereafter, but they can certainly help someone else. Learn about tissue donation, sign a card, and again, tell your family members you've done this so they won't be surprised when the time comes. As with organs, you can specify what types of tissues you'd like to donate.

Eight more suggestions behind the cut. )
hollybrooke: (Neo Queen Serenity)
Well, I made the post on Facebook a couple of days ago, so if you didn't see it, yeah. Kevin's dad passed away early Thursday morning. Today's the visitation and memorial service. (There's not really going to be an actual funeral. He's being cremated, and the process won't be done until Tuesday.)

And now the part that scares me. See, things with me and Dan kind of started going downhill after his brother died. And sometimes I wonder if I would still be with Dan if his brother were still alive today. (Probably not.) So I'm a little worried about how things will be with me and Kevin, now that he's lost an immediate family member as well. I hope not. I really hope not. I just don't want the same sort of thing to happen.

But there's a world of difference between Dan's family dynamic and Kevin's family dynamic. Dan was very much a mama's boy. Both he and his brother kind of were. But I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that they were both adopted. And I wasn't really thrilled with the fact that after his brother died, he decided he would move back out to Illinois with his parents and the suggestion was made that I could come out every other weekend and visit. (I was the one doing allll the traveling back and forth from Lowell to Portage in the first place.) From what I understand, Dan and Becky still live in the same house as Dan's parents (in their little downstairs apartment). Kevin's parents were divorced, and even though Kevin was living with his mom for a while and with his dad until this happened....let's put it this way. At least he's been moved out on his own before, away from either his mom or dad. (Whether it was with Fester in the trailer, or with Walter out in Hammond...)

I don't know, I could analyze this until the cows come home. But I don't want to ramble too much. (That, and I still need to get ready for the service.) Kevin's holding up all right. He told me his mom was having a hard time processing it, though.

Mom and Dad were asking me a little bit more about it. His dad was 58. We figured it out, and we realized that Paw-Paw (my grandfather, Dad's dad) was about 55 when he passed away. And he had prostate cancer. So yeah, that sounds about right. And I think Dad's a little freaked out because he's 51 and having problems with his colon. In any event, I know I'm kind of freaked out. I'm pushing 30, and Mom had her first MS attack on her 30th birthday. I've got a history of cancer in my family (Paw-Paw, Grandma Cozie, Great-Grandma Louise), and I may possibly carry the gene for cystic fibrosis. It's kind of scary to think about.

...My head hurts.
hollybrooke: (Beyonce as BB Homemaker)


I'm not going to cry about it. I was considering going up to Gary for the memorial today, but I decided against it. It's going to be MAYHEM up there today. And let's be honest, when the Jacksons left Gary, they never looked back. Yeah, Michael did come back five or six years ago. And yes, Katherine does make the occasional trip back. But first of all, I'm not a grief-monger. Second of all...none of the Jacksons have ever really credited Gary, Indiana for their success. To me, Joe is just trying to capitalize off of his son's death, and Joe isn't even the executor of Michael's estate. To me, the city of Gary is trying to capitalize off of Michael's death, even though he only lived in Gary until he was about six or seven years old. The city of Gary just needs to get people to want to visit, and touting the fact that the greatest entertainer ever just so happens to have hailed from there isn't really going to help overhaul the city's image.

Yes, I know there are a lot of people who looked up to Michael as a source of motivation and inspiration, but for crying out loud, it's time to let the poor man rest in peace.
hollybrooke: (Evil Homer)
He's been having stomach pain for the last week. It might be his ulcerative colitis flaring up, or it could be something worse. And now Mom's scared that...given the family history and what Grandma Cozie ended up dying of...it might be stomach cancer. I'm scared that it could very well be cancer as well, because there is a family history of it, after all.

Now Mom's worked herself into a tizzy over the "family curse." I, personally, do not believe in this curse. I mean, it's unfortunate just how much of Dad's immediate family has passed away in the last 20 years, but I don't think it's really a curse.

Angela--died in 1988, barely a year old, had spinal meningitis.
Paw-Paw--died in 1991, had prostate cancer. He was 59.
Aunt Pam and Amber--died in 1993. Now that was a freak accident.
Uncle Ken--died in 1996. Let's be honest, he was overweight, depressed, and a drug abuser; he died of a drug-induced heart attack. But if that hadn't killed him, the HIV would've eventually turned into full-blown AIDS.
J.R.--died in 2004. I don't think it's tragic, but I think it's rather remarkable he survived as long as he did with as serious of a case of cystic fibrosis that he had. Doctors had been telling him and Aunt Pam he "wouldn't live another two years" since he was about two years old. Well, he died a few weeks shy of turning 24; it's a miracle he lived as long as he did.
Grandma Cozie--died last year. And once again, it's remarkable she survived three previous bouts of cancer before the last one. I don't consider that a curse at all.

Mom dug up all the obits from when they all died, convinced they all died around this time of year. No, not really. Paw-Paw died in October. Aunt Pam and Amber died in November. Tomorrow will be the anniversary of Uncle Ken's death. However, Angela, J.R. and Grandma Cozie all died in April.

I honestly don't believe in curses, but here's how I feel about this. We're born, we live a little while, and then we die. When it's your time to go, then it's just your time. And there's really no way of arguing it. I'm trying to explain this the best I can without being too blunt. But I've been dealing with family deaths for 20+ years now. I've dealt with my share of unexpected deaths as well. Kevin and I had a talk about this a couple of weeks ago. I kind of felt I didn't cry as much over Fester as I probably should have, because he was such a good friend. But I don't know. Maybe I've just dealt with it as much as I have to the point where I know how to deal with it. But then again, people have different ways of grieving.


In any event, I'm praying that it's just another UC flare-up for Dad and not cancer. I just wish Dad knew to take better care of himself, despite all of Mom's nagging.


And I bet Mom's regretting bringing up all of that divorce-talk now.
hollybrooke: (Cinderella Castle)
Man, I know Dad will be bummed.



LOS ANGELES – Fess Parker, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death comes on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

"She's a wreck," Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The first installment of "Davy Crockett," with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the "Disneyland" TV show.Read more... )


Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, killed a bear when he was only three...
hollybrooke: (Default)
I'm not going to keep track of each week that goes by since Fester passed, but Kevin sent me this tribute link, for anyone who's interested:




If anyone's in the NW Indiana/Chicagoland area, there will be a tribute show for him this upcoming Saturday (March 13th) at the Art Theater. For more details, visit HelpMeMommy.com
hollybrooke: (Coop and Remer (Trey and Matt))
The main reason it's been so long since I've done a proper update is because of the problems I was having with the computer. I didn't get a new one. Rather, I had Hunter try to help fix it, and the best suggestion he had was to just wipe my hard drive clean.

So yeah. This baby is back to the basics. I have NOTHING on here anymore. But that's okay. There was a LOT of unnecessary crap on here.

Mom and Dad came home last night. Mom's still being a bitch, so the trip down there really didn't do her a world of good. The feeling I get from Dad was that the whole time they were down there, he couldn't stand her and she couldn't stand him. So ha. Now he knows how WE feel. But it's good having Bo home!!



On a rather serious note, I'm still kind of reeling from a rather unexpected loss. Early Sunday morning, my friend Fester had a stroke after performing "Hot Patootie" at Rocky and passed away. Kevin called me with the news, and I know he had a hard time dealing with it. So now that I'm online, I have to have my say about what an awesome person Fester was. He was one of those people who you could have a really good talk with about anything, really. He was really knowledgeable about all sorts of movies and comics. He had a soft spot in his heart for the bad movies, in particular.

One of my favorite memories I have of him was probably when I went to Fright Fest with him and Hot Topic Pants (Chris). We were in one of the souvenir shops and looking around at the personalized stuff. He says, "Dammit, I can never find anything with my real name on it spelled the right way." So I ask him what his real name was (because at that point, I didn't know). He says his real name is Derrick, and it's spelled D-E-R-R-I-C-K. So I'm looking around, and I found a shotglass with his real name spelled on it the right way. I call, "HEY DERRICK! I think I found something!" And he bought it.

Then there was the time we (me, Kevin, Hunter and Fester) went to the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight. When the trailer for Watchmen came on, Fester was squee-ing in his seat like an excited little boy. Seeing a big, tall bald guy squee-ing like a little kid is a funny sight, especially over a major movie trailer.

What I will never forget is that he defended me in all of the problems I was having with Zero. The night we had out big blowup, Kevin had to pull me out to his car. Fester had to pull Zero away from me, and after he called me a "psycho bitch," Fester said that was crossing the line and was ready to beat the crap out of him.


(....I'm sick of this. I don't think Fester would've have wanted to have died with me and Zero still having this stupid, childish feud. I would have never been friend with Fester if it hadn't been for Zero in the first place. I'm ready to end this feud with him if he is.)


He was a very good friend, he was a bright and intelligent guy, and he was always good for a laugh. I'm going to miss him a lot, but I'll always remember the good times.
hollybrooke: (it LOOKS like Jem....)
My great uncle Glen passed away a couple of days ago. So now all of the older relatives on Dad's side of the family are...well, gone. It's a shame, because we all really loved him very much. I feel bad that I can't make it down to Texas for the funeral. Dad's making the trip from Alabama, but Mom's staying behind. (They wouldn't have had this problem if they didn't take Bo down with them, because they can't just leave the dog by himself in the house for a few days. And frankly, the only time Mom should be making another huge trip is when they're coming home.)

Which reminds me. I need to get my butt down to the Hallmark store and get a condolence card for Aunt Roberta. Or pick one up from work before I leave tonight.

*tangent* Speaking of work, I came in sixth place in the NWI Food Bank donation drive for our store. I didn't pass what I earned last year, but the worker who earned first place earned a little over $2000. I'm not really jealous or anything. Believe me, I asked everyone, but I got a lot of people either telling me "no," or just flat-out gave me attitude about asking. So for the last couple of weeks, I didn't bother asking.

There's a pizza party this coming Monday for everyone who earned $300 or more, like there was last year. So yeah, I'm not passing up the opportunity for free pizza. *Yeah!*

And now we're taking donations for the American Red Cross for relief over in Haiti. And I have to be honest--I'm not pushing for donations. I know Haiti really needs all the help they can get, but we just got done taking donations for the Food Bank not even a month ago. And I'm tired of getting attitude from people about it. If people want to donate, they can...I'm just not pushing it. I already got one jerk who gave me crap about it. I didn't even ask, but he saw the sign and was all, "Yeah, those people in Haiti are going to be better off than they already were with all the donations they'll be getting."

Asshole, STFU and educate yourself. Even if the Red Cross gets as much as they expect to get through donations for Haiti, that'll only be a fraction of what the total cost is and won't do very much to help, sad to say; it's that bad over there.

And there's that telethon on all the channels tonight. Do I plan to watch? Not really. I've already donated. I'll be working on "Jem" snark tonight, and plan to have it up by tomorrow, since (like I said) LiveJournal will be down tonight for maintenance. It'll be a very charitable episode, I promise. :P

*tangent* The novelty of Hunter as a "roommate" is wearing thin with me. Frankly, I'm tired of him chowing down all of the easily accessible food and waiting on me to prepare something for dinner whenever he has Jess over. Plus, he still doesn't really tidy up after himself. I wish he'd realize that he should at least try to pitch in; just because he's a guy doesn't mean he can't help cook or clean.
hollybrooke: (sparkle lips)
Miep Gies passed away today at the age of 100. For those of you who don't recognize the name, she plus a small group of others helped the Franks hide from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

If it hadn't been for her, Anne Frank's story would've never been told.
hollybrooke: (Default)


We all knew it was coming, but he put up a good fight, and he won't have to suffer anymore.
hollybrooke: (Michael Jackson eating popcorn)
I haven't done a proper post about what's going on with me lately. All I've really been doing is working a lot, hanging out with Kevin, and cleaning. And following more Michael Jackson stuff, which leads me to kind of what I did today, but I'll get to that.

The big thing, though. I've talked about it with Mom, and I'm seriously considering beauty school. I mean, why not?:

A) I spend enough time messing with my own hair and makeup.
B) And this constant urge for me to mess around with scissors since childhood has to be put to good use, I figure.
C) Let's be honest. As much as I would love to just get my college education out of the way, I keep putting it off because I can't afford it. It costs a lot to officially "learn" stuff, which sucks. At this rate, I don't think I'll ever finish up. So if I can't finish college anytime soon, I might as well learn some sort of trade.

I'm looking into my options about where I could go around here. I will update more on that as it comes.

*tangent* I had the Fourth of July off! (That's good.) Fourth of July was rainy and crappy! (That's bad.) Kevin and I went to the Cedar Lake Summerfest, where it rained. We parked our butts in the Bingo tent and played some games. I won $20 after winning a couple of games. Pretty sweet, huh? We then walked around some, checked out all the action that wasn't happening at the Fest, and got cheesecake on a stick dipped in milk chocolate (YUM). Then we made the decision to just go check out the fireworks show in Crown Point, since all Cedar Lake was doing was a "laser light show." The rain let up in time for the fireworks, and it was awesome and pretty and romantic. *awwww*

*tangent* But anyhoo, I went on a major shopping spree this weekend. I bought some not-so-new music, which comprised of whatever Michael Jackson merchandise that hadn't been swiped up by the time I got my paycheck. I ended up getting Bad and Number Ones. I even got a couple of Janet Jackson CDs, as well. (janet. and Rhythm Nation 1814: I had them both on cassette tape since I was a kid, but they're not very listenable anymore.) I also picked up Michael Jackson: HIStory on Film Vol. 2 on DVD, (I didn't even see Vol. 1 being offered.) and a poster of the cover of the Thriller album. I also visited my favorite philosophy salesgirl at Macy's and got some of the Coconut Frosting shower gel/bubble bath. Then I ventured out to Ulta and picked up some Urban Decay makeup.

Then I figured, "...Hell, I'm up around this way, might as well make a little venture up to Gary." So I did, to 2300 Jackson Street. I kind of felt like I had to. Friday, they're doing a memorial service for him at the old Steel Yard; I might go after I get off of work.
hollybrooke: (Drop Dead Fred)
In honor of Billy Mays, I'm watching the "Pitchmen" marathon on Discovery Channel. Plus, Hunter showed me these FANTASTIC Billy Mays dubs last night:







THIS one was MY favorite:

hollybrooke: (Michael and Janet)
So Mom wakes up this morning, and she's all, ".........Who died yesterday?"


I'm all, "Uh...besides Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson?"


Mom's like, "Damn...I thought it was just a terrible nightmare. He really is gone, isn't he?"

Yeah, Mom, I'm still pretty shaken up about it, too. :(
hollybrooke: (Michael Jackson eating popcorn)


The King of Pop is dead.

Kevin called me with the news like as soon as I went on break at work.

I don't even know what to say. I imagine for me, this is like the equivalent of Elvis Presley's death. We've lost one of the greats, if not, THE greatest. And I take great pride in the fact that he and his brothers grew up around here in Northwest Indiana. I can't even think of any current music artist now who could even take his place. Michael Jackson and Madonna were the big music icons of my generation, and he will sorely be missed.





*edited* I would also like to add this. For all of you who didn't get to grow up in the 80s....you missed out. You missed out on the era when MTV was new and fresh and Michael Jackson and Madonna reigned supreme. I remember seeing Michael debut the Moonwalk on the Motown anniversary celebration, I remember Thriller on MTV, I remember seeing Captain EO in 3D at Walt Disney World, I remember all the fuss when his hair caught on fire when he did the Pepsi commercial. Seriously, all of you young 'uns who grew up on Britney and *NSYNC...you missed out.
hollybrooke: (Ariel is sad :()
One of my coworkers died a couple of days ago. I found out at work yesterday, and it just put a damper on my whole day.

He was one of the utility clerks, and he was an older man, too. He had been undergoing kidney dialysis for a while, and I guess his health hadn't been good, but he never let it get in the way of doing his job. Dave was very helpful and nice, and I really liked working with him.


On a similar note, my great-uncle Glen isn't doing very well. He had a biopsy, and it turns out he has cancer practically all over. He's at the VA hospital in Houston, and...the thing is, what we've heard is that it's not as bad as we think it is and that it can be treated, but the fact that it's pretty much all over isn't good. Mom was just on the phone with Vivion, and Viv's already talking about a caravan down to Houston for when he kicks it. That's just being morbid because he's not dead yet. And we just jumped through a bunch of hoops with Grandma Cozie's arrangements, and as much as I love Uncle Glen, I can't just take time off of work to travel down to Houston for him, which sucks.

So I'm praying for him and Aunt Roberta.

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