therealljidol | Green Room - Week 3

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Green Room - Week 3 - Day 7

I got the call last night from Ratzinger asking if I could take over the job.

I can’t say it was entirely unexpected, after all, I knew that I was on the short list last time around. Apparently, the work that I have done with Idol has been noticed and they wanted to speed up the process of getting me on board. So Ratzinger is resigning at the end of the month, and I will be officially announced soon after that!

It’s going to be a lot of fun! I’ve already been writing out some practice decrees, so that I will be prepared to get the ball rolling, in the right direction on Day 1! And by “right direction”, I of course mean activating the Vatican Monkey Army for immediate deployment!

The transition from a “free world” to “under my boot” will be startling for some people I’m sure. But hopefully they won’t last long anyway…

Until then though – we have a poll! Or, as I like to call it “practice for global domination”! http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1895227

So make sure to get out there and read, comment and vote for your favorites!

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First?

yay for FIRST!

Woohoo!! First bump!!

Woo, Firsties!

Yay first!

Yay for first :)

BIG CONGRATS, Gary! of course, I know you're going to leave us far behind and eventually forget us all. :o

All hail Pope Hippie Kicker the first!

I KNEW there was a reason I left the Church!

Although I bet I can outrun Gary in that dress. ;)

He'll be too busy kissing that guy that looks like Dumbledore to chase you. I always see Emperor Palpatine, I mean uh Pope Bendict, doing that, so it must be a requirement. A really strict requirement, apparently.

This!

Fifth?

ETA: Woot!! Fifth bump!! (I'm going to F bump any fifth-- position. :D)

:facepalm: Oh Lord, monkey government. It's the end of the world as we know it.

Edited 2013-02-11 15:05 (UTC)

Well, a congress of monkeys can't be any worse than a congress of, well... congress! Bananas for everyone!

Valid point!! I'll take a banana.

Here you go! =)

Would you like any peanut butter or chocolate sauce with it?

Mmmmmmm....chocolate. You spoil me friend!

Did a lot of reading but not much commenting due to getting my husband back from Rehab.

Tough field with lots of good writers.

I want to quickly do another shout out. This time for

momebie. I loved her entry. It was both engaging and exciting, and I think it should be doing better in the poll. If you haven't read it yet, do check it out!

Thank you, dear. ♥

Seconded!

YOU GUYS.

*nodnodnodnod* For sure!

I think it's time for a cuddle pile.

I loved it too!

WHO WANTS TO JOIN ME IN A CUDDLE PILE?

Dog pile on the momebie! Dog pile on the momebie!

Congrats Gary! So happy for you! AW

ARE YOU PLANNING TO STEP ON US? /Fury

I'm pretty much really looking forward to the Uber Schism this will no doubt create. I do love watching the Catholic church chase its tail.

In other news: I ONLY HAVE A THREE DAY WORK WEEK. WOOOO.

When I saw Gary's announcement, first thought was "talk about a 'Papal bull'..."

Shout out to the "Buddy Christ"! Love Him!

B.C. loves you too!

I called my devout Catholic grandfather this morning and told him about the Poor. He said "Good. I never trusted that damn Nazi, anyway."

My grandfather fought in WWII, and I didn't want to school him on the fact that participation in the Hitler Youth was mandatory. He turned eighty-something last week, so I'm just going to let it go and allow him to have his "I told you that he was bad news, but nobody would listen! And I hate those Nazis!" moment.

I'm also going to add that he can be kind of conservative at times, but he also still says that FDR was the best president ever. He also wanted Hillary Clinton to be president because she was "tough", and said at one point "Yeah, it's probably time we had a lady president. Why is the news making such a big deal about it?"

Edited 2013-02-11 15:21 (UTC)

I am can't wait to call my grandma. She's a devout Catholic.

She's also very, very, very Polish.

I'm expecting to hear something along the lines "I KNEW my anti-Nazi novena would work!" She's probably out at Perkins right now, having a celebratory breakfast. :)

Haha, Anti-Nazi Novena. Oh, man. I'm sure Grandpa said a few of those.

Personally, I'm actually not believing this poor health thing. There has been so much financial scandal coming out of the Vatican in the past few years -- not to mention the sex abuse and Benedict signing some shady documents allowing this stuff to continue when he was still a Cardinal -- that I think he's getting out while he can, if he isn't being outright forced to do so. But, that's probably just me and my love of insane conspiracy theories.

Question: What's a novena? (I know I could probably look it up but I like the personal descriptions better.)

It's a set of prayers said for nine days, usually with a Rosary and with a specific intention in mind.

A full Rosary takes like two hours to complete, if I'm remembering correctly.

Geez nine days!! Is that a full on your knees nine days or just an umbrella nine days?

(Thanks for the information, I love learning about other religions.)

That's an umbrella nine days, not a solid nine days. Though I believe you can get bonus points or something for running your novena in the newspaper, at least that's what people do in my neck of the woods.

I remember my grandmother going to Novena during Lent. I think it was in the evening, like during Vespers or something. And it would be for what seemed like two hours. Or maybe I'm getting it confused with the Stations of the Cross.

Your grandfather sounds like a cool guy. :)

Yeah, he's pretty funny. Yesterday, he was complaining about his sister, and it was hilarious.

The idea that a reigning Pope would step down just for you to take over the papacy and "crush the free world" is preposterous.

I figured out years ago that Ratzinger was just your "sock puppet", and his whole supposed tenure as the Pontiff of the Western Church was a carefully orchestrated deception on your part to inflict maximum pain and suffering when you finally decided to step out of the shadows and publicly reveal that you have, in fact, been ruling this pitiful excuse of a planet for about a decade.

Well played, sir. Well played.

PS: Too bad for you that while you were busy with your convoluted political shenanigans, I went and anointed myself The Man Who Would Be King Of The Popes... and after I crown myself you'll be reporting to me. But if you behave and do as you're told, I'll spare a hippy or two for you to kick for my amusement... *MAYBE*!

And you will be FRIST of such Kings!

YOU'RE DNAMED RIGHT ABOUT THAT!

Wow. I love that I used to work for the Catholic Church, essentially all Pope news all the time, and I had to hear from Gary that the Big Guy is stepping down.

I didn't even know they could do that. Which shows you just how shitty a religious reporter I was.

I didn't know they could do that either. I thought being the Pope was a job that you left feet-first.

This is the first papal resignation since the 1400s!

I agree. In my lifetime I have never heard of a Pope stepping down.
My husband thought he might apply for the job but I told him he had to be a cardinal for a while first so he backed down. It will be interesting to see what happens for sure.

I thought being the Pope was a job that you left feet-first.

It is.

I was just replying to another post that I never expected to see a Pope resign in my lifetime. I didn't know there was a dispensation for it either :boggle:

I was just talking to a friend of mine who is Catholic. I really thought it wasn't possible, given the belief behind the process of becoming Pope. I mean, like in communion, in the Methodist church, the cracker and grape juice are symbols meant to represent the body and blood, but in the Catholic church, they believe in transubstantiation, that the wafer and wine actually become the body and blood, which is why you can't leave leftovers or crumbs or whatever.

I always thought the process of becoming Pope was similar, in that the rite conveys the identity of "God's Voice on Earth" onto the man, that the belief is that he is not the same as he once was, which is part of the renaming.

It seems to me that's not something you step down from.

I could be wrong about the Pope-making process though. I'm going to call another friend tonight.

Right? Like to me, it boils down to, what has been made God cannot be unmade God. Right? IDK.

Exactly.

This is the first papal resignation since the 1400s!

Well *my lifetime* didn't encompass THAT much history...so it has actually occurred before.

I have read, I have made many comments, and I have voted! W00t!

Lots of good stuff out there this week, but the standout for me was

audreybuttercup's.

The only thing worse than a Vatican Monkey Army would be their air division - the Vatican Flying Monkey Force (see Wizard of Oz for earlier varieties)! They can fling pooh with the best of 'em!

Edited 2013-02-11 16:13 (UTC)

Dresden Files flashback - flaming demon monkey poo.

There was flaming demon monkey poo?!? I may have to check this show out!

The flaming demon monkey poo was in the books. :)

The show was good - ended too soon, but the books are better (I think they always are).

I just went and looked up the books and now I've GOT to read them!

You're right, I always do like the books better. The show just popped up on Netflix and I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch it or not. I think I'm going to read the books first. :D

If you ever do audio books, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Dresden books on audio, because James Marsters is the narrator, and he is simply brilliant. Honestly, I always liked him as an actor, but I had no idea how talented he was until I heard him do these books. I know there are scenes in some of the books that are no where near as entertaining in print as they are in the audio book, just because of his voices and expression.

(I'm a closet DF fan. The kind that can quote bits and tell you what book things are in, etc. I don't blart on about it normally, but I do hang out on the fan board a bit.) :)

I haven't read all of the Dresden books, but we've gotten through quite a lot of them on audio CD's, they are great for long car trips! Love them, and it's fabulous that the audio books are narrated by James Marsters... *sigh*

He. Is. Brilliant.

Unfortunately he doesn't narrate Ghost Story, which makes me very sad, but he's back for Cold Days, with brand new hilarious character voices. :)

Yes, I've heard that was done on purpose - since Ghost Story is apparently told by his spirit (I think? We just finished the book prior to that one IIRC) they wanted it done by a different narrator.

No, he was scheduled to do Ghost Story but the book was delayed, and by the time they were ready to do it he was in the middle of another project. They didn't want to wait for him. They should have, IMO. The other guy is OK, but it's just not Dresden.

I have seen several people say that the way they think about it so it's not so bothersome, is justifying it because of the incorporeal aspect. It's still a good book, it's just that it would be so much better.

:blushes: Gosh thank you. :hugs you:

The Vatican Flying Monkeys!! I love it!

Let's also not forget the Vatican Hey Hey We're the Monkees! That's a force to be reckoned with.

Oh, did you HAVE to go there???? I was joking with a friend about the fact that I have had some terrible temp jobs that have involved weird uniforms, but can you imagine being the temp for the Pope?

Which led to the idea for the movie 'Temp pope.' And, of course, 'Temp Pope: The Musical'! (Yeah, I went there)

Now, obviously, with a soundtrack by the remaining Monkees...

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm envisioning a whole "Pleasant Valley Sunday" rewrite. Oh this could be so good!

Davy Jones would have made a great Flying Monkee, LOL.

LMAO!! I can just see him in the little hat.

This conversation caused me to make a joke when I got back from lunch. It's ridiculously windy outside and when I came back my coworkers wanted to know how bad it was. I said it was so bad I had to rush inside before somebody dropped a house on me. Ba dump chink. :headdesk:

LJ Idol, bringing bad humor and puns together.

LOL - I'm a horrible punster! Now I want an icon of Davy Jones with wings, a vest, and one of those little flying monkey hats!

Just as a stupid aside, I was going to make a joke about whether he asked you to take the job in his Hamm or Cliff voice but I didn't think anybody would laugh.

Ahahahaha! John Ratzinger - I got it! :)

:grin: Yay!! (Can you imagine Ratzenberger as Pope? I just picture him sidling up to the rest of the clergy and expounding on the difference between the Popemobile and the Batmobile.)

I would have laughed, because I'm dumb and at first I thought that's who Gary was talking about. It's been a long few days for me, okay? ;-p

:laughs: You're not dumb at all. My very first thought was "Why is he joking about Cliff Claven calling him to take the job? Huh?". And then I had the "Oh duh I'm a dumb sh*t!" moment. I'm blaming lack of sleep. LOL!

Kid is on his way to the pediatrician (again), booooo.

I'm almost through chapter 10 of my book edits/rewrites/reworks and yaaaaay. Writing in order is weird but kind of awesome. Too bad I seem to have to write totally out of order first before I can do it. :)

*hugs*

Hey do you want another prank? I sleep in hand lotion and cotton gloves for dry skin, and the gloves sometimes come off during the night. It took me like thirty or forty minutes to clean hand lotion out of my hair this morning because I was scooping it out of my eyes, etc, without realizing I was getting lotion all in it. (Two showers, essentially, because the hot water runs out in fifteen-twenty minutes in this house.) I use what's essentially petroleum jelly with Aloe Vera in it, so you could probably have them use straight petroleum jelly. Ick!

Finally got some cold medicine.. anti-drowsy kind, even. Which makes me feel a little... over-stimulated. But I guess it's better than being a zombie.

I'm working on the reading--doing pretty good so far, but abandoned commenting at this point, so I can do the reading part.

I started taking an Open Course Ware class last night and feel pretty excited about that.

It's raining here and I need a cup of tea. Then I need to read more and do some laundry.

*hands you tea*

(deleted comment)

Yeah, her entry has really stuck in my head. It was such an excellent piece of writing--just hit everything perfectly.

I just finished reading. Are we still doing rec lists?

rattsu's story about defeating Bloody Mary stood out for me this week. Other favorites were

theun4givables' tale of friendship,

porn_this_way's poem, and

kathrynrose's piece about secrets and the keeping or telling of them.

Edited 2013-02-11 20:01 (UTC)

Thank you so much! I've had mixed reaction this week, and it seems my story changes meaning for some people on the second read. I would like to try to figure out how to tweak it so that it's clearer on the first read, if anyone wants to join in the discussion in comments on the post.

Thanks again for the recommendation.

You're welcome!

It's subtle, I think, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Then again, it has the same meaning for me the second time through, so I might not be the best person to ask.

Thanks. I suspected you "got" it the first time, because I don't think anyone who didn't would put it on a rec list. It's not as good an entry without the other layer.

No, it isn't; and I did consider that, but I looked back and there was the line, "I already have a secret," at the end, which was really where the whole thing clicked for me -- I had my suspicions about the House before that, but that was the spot I was sure. So I was like, "Yeah, I read it right," and added you to the list.

Mmm, the only thing I can think of is that there's no mention of the House between when you first introduce it and the end, so perhaps people have started to forget. But I'm not sure how you'd work something like that into the test scene, either.

Yeah, also someone else said they didn't realize The Back Yard was the same yard at The House.

I think I just went too subtle. Thanks for the thoughts!

You're welcome! Sorry they weren't more helpful.

Aw, thank you. <3

You're welcome. :)

Hey, thanks for the shout-out!

You're welcome!

I am almost done with my reading, with two of my favorite authors saved for last. Lost a little time this weekend because I'd opened myself up to writing a little fanfic, and it was not as easily done as I'd hoped. As in, neither is finished yet (and these were supposed to be drabbles!).

Should be voting in the next few hours...

I hadn't heard the news about the Pope. Interesting.

I only found out about it because I was reading my FL on my phone while at break at work!

Got a new haircut. My weekend has now started. I got vodka and blankets and will now speed-read and vote.Hell, those 12h shift weekends are killers!

Good luck! :)

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Green Room - Week 3 - Day 7

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You don't fool me, Gary!

Re: You don't fool me, Gary!

Re: You don't fool me, Gary!

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