We’re all friends here, right?  Well mostly… I mean, if we were being chased by a zombie hoard of children, koalas, and ex-performers, I wouldn’t trip you to get away….

… okay, that’s a lie… I would absolutely, totally, most likely,  might possibly trip you if we were being chased.  It all depends on whether or not you sent me a valentine as a kid.  Wow, that sucks, doesn’t it?  Too late now… there’s no correcting it.  Just accept it and prepare for the worst.  I suggest watching Thriller and the Night of the Living Dead for accurate preparation. 

But since you obviously cared enough to send me one of those perforated, one-sided, wallet-sized, popular cartoon character valentines as a kid, I can share these fun items with you! 

As I recently posted on Facebook, The Oatmeal is fast becoming a favorite site of mine to get a quick pick me up.  If you haven’t checked it out, you really ought to.  You’ll thank me.  Promise.  Some of my favorites are:

• Ten Words You need to Stop Misspelling (perhaps my favorite)
• How Everything goes to Hell During a Zombie Apocalypse  (See?  I’m even helping you… You can’t say I never cared…)
• 8 Ways to Prepare Your Pets For War
• Oh yeah… and this:

Created by Oatmeal

And of course, I would be doing you a great disservice if I didn’t mention another one of my new favorite sites, Badassoftheweek.com!  Some of my favorites: 

• Godzilla
• The Killer Rabbit
• Joan of Arc
• Nikola Tesla (he’s still one of my heroes)
• Hanzo Hattori
• Bear Grylls (Thank you, Bear, for hours of stunned TV watching…)
• The Emperor (Who knew he was channeling Shakespeare? Iago = Sith Lord)

And just so you don’t think I’m trying to slyly distract you from my goals, I’ve joined Livestrong.com to track my calorie intake (You can see my profile and progress here) and burn off through exercise, and everyone’s comments and emails helped me tremendously yesterday!  So thank you!  I’ll be incorporating much of what you all said into what I’m attempting, and, in fact, I already have after everyone called me on putting it off until Monday!  Great job cracking the whip already, y’all! 

**Day 2 Smoke Free.  it’s hard.  Really hard.  But it’s worth it!**

ROLL TIDE!!!

Tags: Diet & Health, humor, I could totally take a velociraptor, Links, makes me laugh

Okay, I’ll admit it. I avoided this “cult” classic for as long as I could. I like both Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman quite a lot individually, but collaboratively? I was skeptical. In fact, I was worried for them. I would pass the book in bookstores, each volume glaring back at me, taunting me, tempting me, and numerous times I would pick it up and look at the blurbs on the back and put it back down. I was terrified of disappointment from two of my favorite authors. I should have been tied down and forced to read this book 10 years ago. The collaboration I had so feared didn’t only bring laughter on every page, but smart jokes and allusions that don’t care if you understand them. They assume you’re intelligent enough to look it up if you don’t immediately recognize it. Even the footnotes (admittedly, some of my favorite parts of the text) are unappologetic.

The concept isn’t entirely new–there have been plenty of books and films about averting the apocalypse all done with different motivations and with different outcomes. This book, however, makes the approach of the four horesemen something to look forward to, if only to see how they fair against the very young, very normal, Antichrist and Them. From Sister Loquacious, to the hellhound named Dog, this text pits the reader against the ineffable plan to root for an angel and a demon who have been friends for over 6,000 years and have been tarnished just a bit by their interactions with each other and humanity. After all… Hell has all the good musicians!If you haven’t read it, I can’t give this a more positive review than to say you’re not allowed to borrow mine. I know I wouldn’t get it back!

~Dawn Papuga

Tags: Apocalypse, Book Reviews, books I adore, Gaiman, humor