Stephen’s Neighborhood

I want to enroll in the auto-debit program, but it requires a printed and mailed application with a voided check which is completely retarded and needlessly complicated. Basically every other website on earth lets you set up auto-payments online- even your own site lets you enter- and keeps on file- the exact information the application asks for when doing manual online payments. So is it just that you want to make it as inconvenient as possible so fewer people will enroll and get that token .25% interest reduction? Heck, I'd jump through your hoops to get it myself, but my printer is broken and I can't buy a new one because I'm giving all of my money to you. I hate you Citibank, I hate you so bad.

P.S. GO TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE, KIDS. DO NOT TAKE OUT A $30,000 LOAN WHEN YOU ARE 19.

I know I'm a couple years late in saying this, but Vista is not that bad. Does it have some stupid, annoying, and inconvenient features? Yes. Is it ruining my life? No. I can still get shit done. Now Internet Explorer ruins my life on a daily basis, but that's another story.

 

It all started when Photoshop told me I needed more RAM. I'd been rocking 2 gigs pretty happily since '05, but lately I've been dealing with lots of crazy big PSDs and- silly me- I increased my preferences in Photoshop to use all the RAM it could. Well, in actuality you're not supposed to do that, because then the system doesn't have enough memory to run on or some crap, and it basically ruins your life and leads Photoshop to tell you you're so memory deficient you can't even save a JPG. Simple mistake!
So I started looking into buying some more RAM, which lead me into looking at what type of RAM my motherboard took, which lead me to discover it took the oldest crappiest RAM available, which lead me to hunting for new Motherboards, which of course lead to searching for Motherboard/Processor deals, because my old processor was the way wrong socket type for any new motherboard out there.

So I found me a deal on http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/... because I wanted it... neeeeded it RIGHT NOW and just couldn't wait for shipping. I found a bundle package with an AMD Phenom X4 9550 and an Asus M3N-HT Deluxe for $300 bucks total. Not a crazy awesome deal, but not a bad deal, since the MB by itself usually goes for around $250 and the processor alone is $150 online.

I was upgrading from an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800, which is honestly still a really good processor, and an Asus A8N-SLI Premium, whose only shortcoming really was not supporting the newest fastest RAM.

I still agonize over giving up the X2 for the X4... because even though the new one is Quad Core and I was super excited about that, it's technically a slower processor for single tasks (2.2ghz) , while the old Dual Core was 2.4ghz. Aaahh...but I do a lot of multi-tasking, so it's probably worth it... probably..

To make sure I would notice a difference in speed I upgraded from 2 gigs of DDR PC2700 RAM to 4 gigs of DDR2 PC6400 RAM (for $100) and went on my merry way. I installed the upgrades with ease... and found, to my horror, only one IDE port and 6 SATA ports on my new motherboard. I have 2 IDE hard drives, 1 IDE optical drive, and 2 SATA hard drives. You can daisy chain two nearby IDE drives together, but not three. So I had to choose between hooking up just my hard drives, just my optical drive, or going back to Fry's to get a PCI card with IDE expansion slots.

It was then I got to thinking... ol' Photoshop could only use a max of 2 gigs of RAM anyway (3 with some workaround I'm too lazy to do), so everything ran about the same... maybe slightly faster, with my $400 worth of upgrades. It was too late. I had to keep going to make it all worth it.

And like a ferocious feral dingo with a taste for blood, I had the taste for buying electronics fresh in my mouth, and I couldn't get enough!

So I disconnected my optical drive, booted up and went for TigerDirect. I bought a new video card (Nvidia 9800GT), a new terabyte SATA hard drive to replace my ancient IDE drives, a new wireless N card, and yes.... Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit. To be continued...

Shock and awe! It seems that there may be a new serial killer lurking somewhere in the United States. On June 21st the body of Megan Lynn Touma was discovered in the bathtub of her hotel room at the Marriot Fairfield Inn. Touma was assigned to the 19th Replacement Detachment on Fort Bragg. At the time of her death, she was seven months pregnant. Her body went undiscovered for four days due to a "Do Not Disturb" tag which had been left on her door. Only after having received complaints of a foul odor did the hotel manager investigate Room 143. According to the affidavit, the bed in Touma’s motel room had been pushed slightly away from the wall. A nightstand and a lamp that was on it were askew, but there is no mention of a struggle. Police say that the decomposition of the body made it difficult to tell the cause of death and it is still being examined by the State Medical Examiner.

On June 25th an "oddly smeared" letter was sent to the Fayetteville Observer who reported it to the police. They agreed to withhold publishing the letter until it could be linked directly to the crime scene to avoid causing needless alarm. It turns out that they didn't have to wait long when only 2 days when police released a list of items removed from the crime scene. Among them were 2 sections of drywall containing a “red substance suspected to be blood” (which turned out to be lipstick) forming the signature symbol on the letter. The following was subsequently published.

I've decided to be extra frugal for the rest of this month and for most of July. Why, you ask? Well it's always a good idea to be a little frugal but I really need to save up for Comic-Con July 23rd - 27th in San Diego (I've also been spending too much lately). My pass is totally free due to having an awesome boyfriend and getting a press pass. He already got a hotel room too. I do plan on buying some of the many exclusive toys that will be for sale. There will probably be a few other things to catch my eye and lets not forget that I need to eat while I'm there.

The weekend before that is a Vegas trip. Hotel has been paid for by somethingawful.com but I once again need to eat, and we plan on seeing some shows. I am so gonna see Penn and Teller again!

So how am I going to be extra frugal this month? I have some ideas. First off, I need to force myself to walk to work every day. No more sleeping till the last possible minute to drive 3 minutes to work. By doing this I will look great in a swim suit for my trips and I will save money on gas. This will also force me to pack a lunch everyday because I won't be able to drive home for lunch breaks like I usually do. I just need to not give in when the coworkers all go out.

I am also going to try this thing called cooking that I've been avoiding. I can actually cook well if there is a recipe in front of me, I'm just too lazy to do so. I'm dusting off an old cook book with quick and easy recipes and stocking up on ingredients. I'm going to start with soup recipes since they all share a number of ingredients, which also last a long while in the pantry. With this list combined with stuff I already have I saw that I can make New England Clam Chowder, Cheddar Cheese Soup, North Country Corn Chowder, Chicken and Orzo.

Lentils
Chick Peas

Spices:
Cayenne Pepper
Bay Leaves
Nutmeg
Old Bay Seasoning
Worcestershire Sauce

Dairy:
Kraft Singles (not part of a soup recipe but I like em on sammiches).
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Milk
Whole Milk or Light Cream

Vegetables:
Celery
Medium Onions
Potatoes
Scallions
Red Bell Pepper
Frozen Corn
Garlic

Pasta:
Orzo Pasta

Canned Section:
Canned Clams
Clam juice

Meat:
Boneless Chicken Breast

If this works out then I'll know what's good to keep on hand all the time too. Also, I will be getting my stimulus check sometime next month, just not sure if it will come in time for trips. It's still very good to save.

Yesterday June 9th, Democrat Dennis Kucinich presented Impeachment Articles to the House of Representatives against George W. Bush.

This site includes video from the C-SPAN coverage. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_presents_Bush_impeachment_articles_0609.html 

The boyfriend is in London for a week. Before he left yesterday, we had ourselves a fun weekend. Thursday we went and saw DETHKLOK. Now, I really don't like death metal too much. Most songs sound the same to me. That's actually part of why I like Dethklok and Metalocalypse.. the show started out making fun of metal. It's gotten more serious about it though. There were some opening bands I didn't care for. One being Chimaira. I remember my high school boyfriend liked them so that turned me off to it more. Haha. Apparently Dethklok saved Chimaira by bringing them on tour. A cartoon saved them.. Dethklok was great! You get to watch cartoons play and sing in music videos while the real band played. It was kinda funny watching Brendon Small belt out lyrics with this deep voice, when he is a kinda small man. He created the show, does voices and plays guitar. He also created Home Movies.

I was thinking that perhaps the reason I didn't care for the other metal bands was because I didn't get to watch cartoons? During Dethklok, random mosh pits formed throughout the venue. It was the same venue I saw MSI in a couple weeks prior.

On Saturday we went to the Sex and the City showing and party at the Arclight in Hollywood. I worried that we would be over dressed and that everyone else would just be casual in jeans. But when we arrived, there were a lot of women dressed up fancy drinking Cosmos. I was one of the very few that had a guy with me so I felt special. It was fun watching the movie with a martini. After that we walked to a little restaurant.

Now I know Sex and the City is girly and the thought of it makes most men flinch, but I fuckin saw DETHKLOCK on Friday, I'm entitled to girlyness on occasion ;) I've also seen most testosterone fueled films that have come out so far this summer and am looking forward to more.

Death metal and Sex and the City.. great combination for a weekend.

Alright Heather (oh driving force of my blogs as of late), so you want to hear a story of murder do you? Well this is a story that is sure to satisfy as this is to be a story of murder with intent, precision, and certainly with repetition. This is the story of Jeffery Dahmer. And while the vast majority of you have likely heard his name before, I am willing to bet that you know precious little about the actions committed and of the underlying intent behind his methodical tasks.

 

Contrary to what many erroneously believe to be the standard criteria for creating a serial killer, Jeffery Dahmer led a childhood no more deprived than your average middle class family. And although his parents harbored a strained marriage Dahmer and his younger brother, David, were afforded every opportunity that one can expect. However while David grew up to live a life free of depravity, Jeffery had already been impaling cats on sticks since he was a young child of 8. Using the chemistry set that his father, a chemist, had purchased for him Dahmer would use it to preserve small mammals and use their flayed skins in his experiments. The small wood past his backyard housed an array of decapitated animals hoisted up on sticks; he was fascinated with gutting the still living creatures to sustain his curiosities of their inner workings.

 

Dahmer knew by the age of 14 that his particular sexual fetish was homosexual necrophilia. At age 18, he actualized these fantasies after picking up a shirtless hitchhiker named Steve who had been returning home from a concert. Dahmer knew right away that he craved his body. The two got drunk and had sex. Shortly after Steve was ready to go home and Dahmer was devastated. An extremely lonely boy, he was prepared to do anything to keep his much desired company so he killed his first. Having been through the routine with animals on countless occasions, it was easy for Dahmer to decide to dismember the body and discard it in the woods behind his house. It would be years before he committed his next murder.

 

His frequent cruising of gay bars lead him to a shared hotel room with Steven Toumi. In a later confession Dahmer, who characteristically gave rather graphic accounts of his murders could remember nothing at all of this one save for waking up next to Toumi’s corpse. He packed the body in a suitcase and relocated it to his grandmother’s house where he, in his mid-twenties, he was still living. After having sex with Toumi’s rigor mortis riddled body Dahmer dismembered it and simply threw it away.

 

His next victim was to be claimed only a short 2 months later with 14-year-old James Doxtator whom he picked up at the same bar under the guise of paying Doxtator to pose nude for him. Dahmer prepared a drink for the boy drugged heavily with sleeping pills and the two had sex. This was to become a routine part of his killings. As soon as Doxtator passed out, Dahmer strangled him and wasted no time in cutting up the body and disposing of it in the trash. He repeated this in another two months with Richard Guerrero. These are the only bodies that Dahmer did not keep mementoes from.

 

At 28 he moved into his own apartment in Milwaukee, which was to become the stage for his most notorious crimes. His first souvenir came from Anthony Sears. Anthony unwillingly donated his head to Dahmer’s collection. The head was boiled like an artichoke to make the removal of the skin an easier process. He then painted it grey to mimic a medical model and became quite fond of masturbating in front of Anthony’s disguised skull.

 

In just over a year he had murdered 12 people in his apartment as a part of his ritualistic weekend entertainment. He had a particular fondness The Exorcist III and would often share this movie with his potential victims. Always careful to sedate his victims before bringing about their demise, he was in the habit of strangulation and post mortem anal rape before dismembering them while in the nude as to not sully his clothing. Before dismemberment he would often wait for rigor mortis to fully set in so he could prop up the corpses to pose for Polaroid pictures. He would remove the genitals and preserve them in formaldehyde. The torsos he would dissolve in an acid bath and flush the slushy mess down the toilet in segments. The rest he consumed.

 

But the real point of Dahmer’s obsession was not death more so than it was about seeking companionship. He began performing home lobotomies in an attempt to create an army of zombie sex slaves rather than wasting his victims on a sedated death. He would have much rather preferred that his victims remain alive, but he found their death preferable to their leaving; eating their bodies as an attempt to have them live on inside him. He would drill holes into the skulls of the men he brought home and pour acid on to their brains. Needless to say, these attempts failed… in all but a single case in which the man lived in a state of retardation for 2 days before succumbing to death.

 

A racist and self-loathing homosexual, Dahmer typically killed gay black men. So ashamed of being a homosexual he had great difficulty engaging in sexual activities with men that were not drugged or dead. But after sex, he says he missed the feel of their heart beating close to his. In eradicating a countless number of gay men, it was as though Dahmer was in some way lobbing an attack against himself and destroying the “shameful evidence” of his relationships. While this may help us to understand why a person harboring a severe personality disorder may wish to kill, it fails to explain his cannibalistic and desires of necrophilia.

 

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Jeffery Dahmer is how innocuous he appeared to those around him. So much, in fact, that when a naked 14-year-old was seen stumbling with bleeding legs from Dahmer’s apartment the police returned the boy to him. After having summoned up the courage and where with all to flee, the drugged coffee had taken effect and the boy was incoherent when the police came knocking at Dahmer’s door. He then proceeded to explain calmly to the authorities that the boy, he claimed was 18, was his lover and they had suffered an argument brought about by the boy’s drunkenness. The cops popped into to the apartment where the boy sat quietly on the couch not attempting to escape. They discovered nothing more than a pile of clothing and left. Had they checked a bit further into the bedroom they would have found a naked and trussed corpse on the bed.  Shortly after they left, Dahmer made another failed attempt at creating a zombie love slave.

 

His final attempt at murder took place with Tracey Edwards who began to suspect he was drugged after becoming severely dizzy after a single rum and coke. Edwards recalls being told: “You’ll never leave here. This is how I get people to stay with me- you will stay with me, too. I’m going to cut your heart out; soon it will be mine. It’s time, it’s time!” However, as serial killers RARELY announce their intentions, serious doubt has been cast on Edwards claim to this. The man was able to fight his way out of the apartment and lead skeptical authorities to the scene where they would soon discover the remains of 11 victims; most of which could only be identified by their dental records.

 

Inside his abattoir dwelling was a virtual warehouse of human remains. He had by this time amassed: several human heads perched on and inside the refrigerator, multiple skulls stashed in the closet, random parts stored in a blue plastic bin, hands in a lobster pot, an assortment of bones in a cardboard box, a freezer full of lungs, livers, intestine, kidneys, among other entrails. And let us not forget his collection of cherished Polaroids including one of a torso in the process of being dissolved from the nipples down.

 

The “Milwaukee Monster”, declared sane, was convicted as guilty for 15 out of his 17 victims and was charged with 15 consecutive life sentences (a total of 936 years). He lived out his days at the Columbia Correctional Institute behind an isolated glass cage where he died in custody by being beaten by a mob of his fellow inmates in 1994.

 

Jeffery Dahmer, all his life, had been looking for love in the wrong places. lol!  

Last night I'm sure neighbors could hear my crazy laughter as I blew shit up in GTA4. I'm not all that far though because I've hardly had time to play. It took me a few tries to take this guy out in a car chase. I'd loaded up on ammo and armor before because I'd get shot at by his friend but I was running out of money to buy more so the final time I just went for it without shooting at all. I fucked up my car and ended up taking him out with a shitty cab. He and his car burst into flames and he ran around on fire before dying. Vehicle after vehicle ended up plowing into the wreckage only to blow up and cause their drivers to run around on fire, screaming in pain. An ambulance arrived at the end. Niko just stood there on the phone with his back to the scene. I thought the explosions would never end.. I really love moments like that in this game.

Anyhow, I posted my interview with The Birthday Massacre's bassist, O.E. on TurkeyWithSound.com. It was a lot of fun and O.E. was really cool. He remembered me from another show all because of Turkey. Thanks, Turkey. As for the show itself, it was great! I didn't get to be up front with my camera cause for some lame reason they told photographers to stand behind the pit area. I could see alright, just my shots were all generic and a lot of them blurry. I put those up here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyssatucker/sets/72157605284088522/detail/

London After Midnight went on first. I didn't care for them at all but I took pics to test out the lighting anyway. They were a very generic goth band that hardly moved around the stage at all aside from some head banging from the guitarist and bassist. That was pretty much it. The Birthday Massacre are always full of energy what with 6 people up on stage. You would have thought they were the headliners, but not this time. This time it was Mindless Self Indulgence. I had so much fun dancing to them this time. Usually I try to get a spot up front but as the years go on, I stay back. I was in the small pit for the whole night moshing and dancing. I was pretty much dead by the end of it. I thought MSI were losing their touch and wasn't blown away by the album as I have been with all their others but they are redeeming themselves with that show. Part of me wanted to just take off and see them the next night in Vegas with my friends that were going but I didn't. Their new album is now starting to grow on me. So many of the songs were dance worthy. I'm just not sure it works as a whole. I don't know. It was a lot of fun though.

Those that know me today might not know how much I used to be into the punk scene. In high school I would go to punk shows a few times a month seeing greats like Circle Jerks, Subhumans, D.I., The Adicts, The Dickies, The Skulls, Angry Samoans, and many that I was too drunk at the time to remember. I would wear my jean jacket and bust out fishnets and look all sorts of crazy. I'd mosh and get covered in bruises. Often I'd see drunks passed out or puking, and there was that memorable night where someone got the shit beat out of them at a T.S.O.L show which contributed to the band's shows being considered as too violent and they were monitored in the future. But overall, the shows were bringing everyone together. If you fell in a pit, someone would pick you up. I'd feel like we were all looking out for each other and would talk to anyone.

One of my favorite bands to see was The Adicts. I've seen a lot of bands but they still sit up there as one of the best live acts I've seen. I miss seeing them and need to get back into that. You'll probably never see them in the rock and roll hall of fame even though I think they deserve to be there as much, if not more than The Clash or The Police. They could be yet they choose to remain underground so they don't lose their die hard following of Droogs. They are probably one of the oldest bands with it's original lineup still intact every since the late 70's.

Anyhow, my friend Gnatty who would accompany me to the majority of those shows is seen in the documentary Punk's Not Dead with her nephew, Tadd at an Adicts show. She finally found a clip of it. They are within the first minute where they talk about the clown band.. I thought it was pretty cool.