bright yellow and persistent

i finally have internet back

2010-09-11T16:50:00.002-04:00

but now i have no time because i have so much late night internet browsing to catch up on.

tracking mouse movements

2010-05-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

really neato! http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/viewing-the-mouse-tracks-you-leave-behind/

super neato! (flying synchronized mini-robots that can spell things in mid air are way more high tech than some basic computer program that traces movement.) http://senseable.mit.edu/flyfire/#

fuck! the youngsters! social networking!

2010-05-06T08:30:00.000-04:00

from concerned parent in nytimes: "But I do think this whole online social media thing is a huge experiment on our children."

uhmmmm.... let me introduce you to this thing called "the internet," its not going anywhere so get used to it. it sounds like parents in the 60's who were all concerned about the beatles! eeks! pop music!! ahh! also - have you see what happens in shakespeare? such perverts!

hey at least your children wont be complete braindead tv zombies! or greasers or disco freaks. or what about the rave generation (or does that still happen?) raves and house music: definitely worse for your kids than social networking (unless is social networking the new way to score drugs?? or does that still happen mostly via phone/text?? fuck. im old.)

Also, this: "Many schools say they have seen students crushed by criticism of their breasts, their body odor or their behavior at the last party." which leads me to believe that I am still in middle school... fuck, ive got the worst of both the old and not old!!

Link to all the glory: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06formspring.html

texas isnt that stupid - isnt about to fall for the you cant get married but you can get divorced inequality trick!

2010-05-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

texas says no divorce for the gays! even though the gays in the story are like, no, seriously we really dont like each other anymore.

gotta hand it to texas for seeing through the old - if you let us get divorced then you have to let us get married too trick! although it does seem awkward and unfair that they wont grant a simple divorce. which places texas between a hard place and an awkward place.

hey, at least texas isnt arizona - land of the asshats that appears to be actively trying to out texas texas...

new faces

2010-05-02T20:45:00.000-04:00

gack/SO AWESOME!! - dude got an entirely new face! i am so bummed that there are not before and after pics!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18816-briefing-the-man-whos-got-a-whole-new-face.html

wave power!!

2010-04-30T21:16:00.001-04:00

dude wave power is sooo much cooler than wind power. the wave people need to get their fcking wave power acts together so that they can take over! (windmills are prettier though...)

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527505.500-will-the-anaconda-or-the-oyster-rule-wave-power.html

(see also: a nytimes story on windpower in the oceans off cape cod, which is making all those people shit their pants.)

people want local meat but they dont want it killed locally: wusses

2010-04-29T20:30:00.000-04:00

BURN! the nytimes just called people who like to eat "locally raised" meat whiny asshats!! the argument being that these local meat eaters like meat but dont like the idea of it being slaughtered anywhere near them. as a result, there aren't enough slaughter houses! (well that and a bunch of the s.houses got shut down by tighter regulations - which makes you wonder wtf they were doing at those places...)

are the urban wusses going to let the nytimes treat them that way?!? (there hasn't been much reaction to this article, so it appears that yes, the wusses are going to take it)

this comes on the heels of nytimes saying that new yorkers were too pussy to kill or eat fucking dumb ass rabbits.

HARSH! but, it really is about time the nytimes started taking names and lunch money.

fucking assholes: Oklahoma thinks its okay to try to force rape victims to have their babies

2010-04-28T06:59:00.003-04:00

oklahoma is a shit hole of a state and this just serves to confirm that. it is a shame that the only way that they can keep the state populated is by trying to prevent women who were raped or molested from having abortions. real charmers those people are....

From nytimes article on anti-abortion bill that the oklahoma legislature passed after the governor vetoed it twice:

The Oklahoma Legislature voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to override vetoes of two highly restrictive abortion measures, one making it a law that women undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before having an abortion.

Though other states have passed similar measures forcing women to have ultrasounds, Oklahoma’s law goes further, requiring a doctor or technician to set up the monitor where the woman can see it and describe the heart, limbs and organs of the fetus. No exceptions are made for rape and incest victims.

they also passed a bill that says that asshole doctors that lie to parents about whether the child has birth defects cannot be sued. awwesome...

seriously - as the days go by the more of a shame it is that we cannot eject states like arizona and oklahoma out of a union composed of normal states that dont like to treat women and people who arent white, and pretty much anyone else who isnt a white straight man like property.

bright yellow watery egg whites

2010-04-27T19:14:00.002-04:00

first of all, whatever you do, dont try to eat half of the eggs that you cooked while looking to see if the other half - which was contaminated by a bright, almost neon yellow, is edible.

the reason being that you will come up with far too many hits relating to vaginal discharge which is really the last thing anyone wants to be reading about when trying to eat an egg.

i actually never found a really clear answer to my question. while, yellow tinged yolks are fine - it just means the egg is fresh, there isnt anything about super watery, essentially liquid, yellow tinged egg whites.

if i end up with severe vomiting in the next 24 hr hours ill let you know. (i think i avoided eating any of the super bright yellow part and i cooked the part that i ate thoroughly...but who knows)

btw - the technical term for egg white is albumen. dont say i never taught you nothing!

a new kind of bake sale!

2010-04-22T19:07:00.000-04:00

nytimes: school had a bar running during the weekends in cafeteria

I'm totally a few bananas short of a bunch at this point – but I think this sounds like an awesome idea. Why spend time fundraising when you can just have a bar in your cafeteria during the weekends?! Running a bar (if you can get a good flow of customers) is definitely cheaper/more profitable than paying someone to be a development director. Also I hear alcohol is recession proof.

pandora - the story of

2010-04-21T22:39:00.000-04:00

kind of interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/technology/08pandora.html

i am curious to see which of these music players and formats will last. some will certainly go the way of the tape and the cd. into obscurity. no?

a step in the right direction!

2010-04-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/politics/16webhosp.html

obama orders hospitals to let gay partners visit and make decisions for their loved ones in the hospital. this is definitely a step towards recognizing full rights for gay couples.

i hope the win in the supreme court too. although it worries because i think the current supreme court has some fucking a-holes on it. i mean they gave corporations the right to buy votes for fucks sake. they obviously could give too shits about poor and disenfranchised people. roberts and co. are fond of the like the kind of democracy where only rich white men had any say and women and blacks were counted as property. (which is what people actually mean when they say that they support the "original" interpretation of the constitution.)

tv weather forecasters are idiots - here is proof

2010-04-16T21:43:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/science/earth/30warming.html

fascinating - video games, drugs and sex

2010-04-15T21:04:00.000-04:00

okay so, this first link is a super fascinating story written by a writer who has/had a video game addiction and a cocaine addiction...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/21/tom-bissell-video-game-cocaine-addiction

and this is some weird nytimes crap about how people are too tired to have sex:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/research/09beha.html
a totally shocking conclusion...

In the end

2010-04-14T23:12:00.002-04:00

Does everything become boring eventually?

Does working become as boring as staring out the window? Does driving
the same windy road become as boring as driving a straight read?

Why is being a grownup so fucking boring and stupid sometimes? And at
other times so fucking shitty and sad?

I hate it when you realize that those unhappy adults who tell kids that they should enjoy being young werent exactly making shit up. I dont think they were entirely correct but I dont think they are entirely wrong either.

two awesome things ive learned and found via twitter

2010-03-29T20:08:00.000-04:00

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2010/03/24/will-watching-videos-of-the-great-outdoors-make-cows-happy-and-productive/

http://godxiliary.com/alienvspooh/Medium/01.htm

taking it off twitter and putting it back in blog sort of seems backwards but whatever.

retirement is so far away...

2010-03-25T22:04:00.000-04:00

NYTIMES SAYS:
"The long-term costs of Social Security present further problems for politicians, who are already struggling over how to reduce the nation's debt. The national predicament echoes that of many European governments, which are facing market pressure to re-examine their commitments to generous pensions over extended retirements."

WHAT IT MEANS:
the whole great plan where people pay in not that much money and then have nice cushy retirements from age 55 or 65 was built on the crucial assumption that most people would knock off before 80 if not sooner. buut, with wwwaaayyy more people living waaaayyy longer (and with waaaay more medical expenses) the whole grand plan is what you might call - kind of fucked. and so people who are younger than the baby boomers can stop fucking thinking that they are going to get to retire anytime before 65 or 70 and they definitely ain't getting a sweet deal. awesome.

it is kind of fucked that people now can retire at 65 and then still live another 20 plus years . i mean what the fuck do these people do with their time for 20 years!?! catch up on reading? no wonder their brains atrophy.

but at the same time, if retirement moves to 70 or 75, its also depressing as shit to be close to 30 and realize that, knocking on wood you even make it past 30, you have another 40 to 45 years of working ahead of you! (on top of the 8 that you will have already put in) whhhhaaaaaaat! while at the same time there are still union people who will retire after working only 30 or 35 years.

it does make me feel much less worried about going anywhere quickly at least. although i guess you also peak in your 40s or 50s and then its alllll downhill from there....

babies all over the nytimes

2010-03-24T00:01:00.001-04:00

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/the-history-of-childbirth/ i think the link pretty much says it all. is more a comment on a book about the history. one of those read the post so you dont have to read the book unless you have the time for that kind of stuff or the interest.

and then there waas this article about women on an indian reservation having way fewer cesarean births despite being at much higher risk is actually really interesting...

for once i have to say good job nytimes. but at the same time it kind of weirds me out that the nytimes seems to be suddenly obsessed with babies. are they trying to fuck with our heads? are they all having babies in the news room and thus abnormally interested in this stuff?

drinking! its good for women only!

2010-03-23T00:21:00.000-04:00

yeah! fuck you dudes - booze only makes you fatties! ha!

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/women-drinkers-gain-less-weight/

also thanks nytimes for justifying my bad habits. next up: how about an article on how its good to not do your laundry more than 4 times a year?

dear stupak, i still hate you and your friends

2010-03-21T18:30:00.004-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/health/policy/22health.html

i love how everyone conveniently FORGETS that all these freaks trying to back door ban abortion are trying to ban a procedure that ONLY women get. and they are men. how the fuck is that not fucked?! how come no one ever points that out?

these self entitled asshats should have their fucking balls cut off immediately because they obviously dont understand reality and all women should be protected from them.

i still fucking hate a large portion of this country.

is this offensive or just weird? you tell me.

2010-03-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

Accompanying caption in email:
"Name1, Name2 and I thought of our Name3 when we saw this beautiful cat lounging in the sun outside a school in the Bronx"

I just think its weird to say that a stray cat thats lying around reminds you of someone in a good way...

....

2010-03-19T23:51:00.000-04:00

it's weird when new york feels lonely.

why i hate the woods

2010-03-19T21:37:00.000-04:00

this gruesome story was noted not because it makes hiking in the woods alone look scary but because hustler is a disgusting rag.

of course to me this story just adds additional reasons to not go into woods that are inevitably filled with psycho killers. AHHH!! [i am completely serious.]

things that you should not do and then admit to in the nytimes, aka how to brand yourself as a douche FOREVER

2010-03-17T21:51:00.003-04:00

today we have two idiots from texas: they are 22, gave their full names, are engaged, presumably have jobs, argue on facebook and admitted it to the NEW YORK TIMES.

uhm. hey there guys, have you heard of this thing called the internet?? its where things like facebook exist! but the crazy, the absolute crazy thing about it is that people can go to this website called google and then type your name in. and then they can find stuff about you. which is even easier when the article HAS A PICTURE associated with it.

its great when youve done something worthy of press*. its not so great when you are featured in a story about douche bags who are 22 who instead of arguing face to face or privately - argue on their facebook pages... did they think about this for more than 10 seconds before agreeing to essentially tell all their future employers that they are douches??

the more i use twitter the more i find facebook to be annoying as shit and this only serves to prove my point. thanks douches!

(i am sensitive to this as i dont seem to share my name with anyone else on the internet. our friend ashley andrews has a more common name: she shares her name with a girl who was murdered in 2005...and a rodeo queen...)

*btw - thanks a lot nytimes for this scintillating comment on the morons that our education system turns out! yay!

internets! fast internets! fast internets for the sticks!

2010-03-13T12:42:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/business/media/13fcc.html

sometimes the government is good. i hope this doesnt fail too.

Fwd: Building Brooklyn Bridge Park!

2010-03-11T23:35:00.000-05:00

at first i was really creeped out that this dude (aka my man in albany) had some how gotten my email address. but then i decided that its kind of cool that my dude in albany actually sometimes tells me random things that are going on. im not gonna lie - i would definitely consider voting for him. assuming that his seat is contested. whenever he may happen to be up for election.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Squadron [my representative or something....its all albany to me]
Date: Wed, Mar 10, 2010
Subject: Building Brooklyn Bridge Park!

Dear Friends:

I want to let you know about an important victory for our community and our city.

Yesterday, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Assembly Member Millman and the City of New York that will give the City responsibility for building and operating Brooklyn Bridge Park. It's a win for our community and our city, and a significant step toward achieving a true Harbor Park—a Central Park for the center of our city.

Our agreement codifies priorities that I, along with Assembly Member Millman, insisted on: the City's commitment to complete the park, a process for considering alternatives to housing in the park, a veto power for Assembly Member Millman and me over housing construction at John Street and Pier 6, and plans and funding for additional year-round amenities.

This agreement will help us build the park sooner, with many of the changes the community has long been advocating for.

Please see below my press release about this historic agreement.

And, most importantly, a special thanks to all the community members who have been fighting for so long to make this park a reality.

Best,
Daniel

Daniel Squadron
State Senator
25th Senate District

The press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 10, 2010

Brooklyn Bridge Park:

Promises Made, Promises Kept

Squadron-Millman-Mayor MOU Fulfills Senator Squadron's 2008 Campaign Pledge

New York—State Senator Daniel Squadron announced today that he and Assembly Member Joan Millman—with the support of the Governor—signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of New York that will, for the first time, win the City's commitment to complete Brooklyn Bridge Park, mandate serious consideration of alternatives to housing and include plans and funding for additional year-round amenities in the park—all changes on which Senator Squadron insisted. In the agreement, the City will take over responsibility for completing and managing the park. The Memorandum of Understanding represents a significant step toward realizing the 5-point plan for a "real, world-class Brooklyn Bridge Park" that Senator Squadron laid out in August 2008.

Senator Squadron said, "Today's agreement is a great victory for the community and the city. We get a commitment to complete the park, a path to find alternatives to housing, and increased year-round amenities. I want to thank the local community leaders who have fought so hard for a real, world-class park, as well as Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson, Assembly Member Joan Millman, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Borough President Marty Markowitz and Council Members Brad Lander and Steve Levin for their work on making this park a reality. It's a win for our community and our city, and a significant step toward achieving a true Harbor Park—a Central Park for the center of our city."

Senator Squadron's 2008 5-Point Plan is reflected in the agreement announced today:

1) Housing in the park

• 2008 Plan: No new housing within the park's boundaries.

• Promise Kept: A newly created Subcommittee on Alternatives to Housing will conduct an open process to consider alternative financing mechanisms to housing in the park. The City cannot pursue housing at the John Street site before July 2011 or at Pier 6 before July 2013. Both local state elected officials, Senator Squadron and Assembly Member Millman, hold vetoes over the construction of housing at those sites.

2) Park amenities

• 2008 Plan: Create year-round recreation (e.g., swimming pool, ice skating rink, field house, cultural presentation/performance space, affordable waterfront concessions).

• Promise Kept: The new Brooklyn Bridge Park Operating Entity will provide $750,000 toward a recreational bubble on Pier 5, issue an RFP for an ice skating rink in the park, build 2,200 square feet of indoor community space and rooftop tennis courts as part of the planned Maintenance and Operations building, and pursue a permanent floating pool for the park.

3) Designation as a park

• 2008 Plan: State legislation to designate the area as parkland.

• Promise Kept: As a part of the transfer of Brooklyn Bridge Park to the City of New York, the City and State have agreed to support legislation to designate the area as parkland.

4) A linked harbor park

• 2008 Plan: A multi-borough commission on linking Governor's Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Hudson River Park and the East River Waterfront.

• Promise Kept: Last year, Senator Squadron successfully pushed for direct ferry service from Fulton Ferry Landing to Governors Island. He also advocated for a ferry landing at Pier 6, now part of the park plan. The new agreement represents another step toward creating a unified Harbor Park linking Brooklyn, Manhattan and Governors Island.

5) A public review of park finances

• 2008 Promise: An immediate public 30-day audit of projected costs and revenues.

• Promise Kept: Senator Squadron successfully petitioned the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation to conduct an immediate review of projected costs and revenues, and hosted a public meeting in January 2009 to present the updated projections to the community. The new agreement requires an annual audit of its financial statements by an outside accounting firm.

wtf - teachers are just people, like you and me

2010-03-08T20:21:00.001-05:00

It really bothers me that teachers seem to put themselves in a separate category where their firing is somehow more tragic than anyone else getting fired.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/education/24teacher.html

frankly, even a bad school likely has some teachers that are decent, so it does suck that they get fucked because as an entity they are effectively incompetent. but at the same time its reprehensible that as a whole they can't see beyond their own nose - if more than half the students fail to graduate then you have a serious problem on your hands. esp. because those numbers dont even capture all of the drop outs. sure you cant save every student but that isnt justification for having such a ridiculously low graduation rate. you can save some students - there are schools that do it.

and yes teachers deserve to be well respected and paid more but NOT before they start producing or at least moving in the direction of good results. a company that sucks gets closed down not more money to try harder. and like a company that fails - the people that should have to take the heat are the administrators - not the individual teachers. but a failed company still has to let its workers go. so at the end of day the teachers do have to take the fall too. its the same with all the unions at GM -- if you won't help your employer do whats it needs to do to survive and thrive then you cant really whine if they end up bankrupt.

this stuff is really complicated and there is no easy answer or even a right answer. but the one wrong answer is letting a school that has been failing for years and only making minor progress keep going. you have to at least try something else. how can those people look those kids in the eyes know that they are throwing their lives away because they dont want to work outside of their contract?? and frankly, if you dont like that, then dont be a teacher. its a free world, remember?

standing is better than sitting

2010-03-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this

another reason to drink a lot of water - getting up to pee all the time totally burns extra calories! wooo

another great diet is the drop food that you want to eat on a dirty floor by accident diet - difficult to really control but very effective on limiting eating. although side effects include sadness over loss of food.

the vatican just cannot get away from the sleazy gay sex!

2010-03-03T00:22:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/03/04/world/international-us-vatican-scandal.html

wants! plants in bottles!

2010-03-01T23:50:00.000-05:00

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/26/make-your-own-mossarium.html

gooo military

2010-02-12T06:12:00.000-05:00

us military is openly looking to ignore the don't ask don't tell policy.

i love it that they are willing to be rational. then again things look much more appealing when you need every body you can get...

dumb people are stupid and unhealthy apparently

2010-02-10T23:59:00.001-05:00

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/low-i-q-predicts-heart-disease

im never one to turn down a stereotype - but this strikes me as ridiculous because the article fails to make a clear distinction between IQ and actual intelligence.

IQ is a cultural test that reflects whether someone is in the right frame of mind to take an IQ test and measures whether that person can think like a waspy middle class white man*. which many people are not.

* when i was tested i had to identify from a picture what was missing - the picture: a row boat, the item missing - the oarlock. wtf IQ test.

obits and interesting lives

2010-02-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

obituaries are so odd - at their root - they mark the death of an individual. yet, in cases where the individual has led a rather amazing life - they serve almost as a mini celebratory biography. you end up thinking how great or interesting that person was - how they really used their life to do great things. something that you would have otherwise never thought about or realized had the person not died.

this block fellow was interesting and neat.

this is what happens when your education system sucks: tea party

2010-02-07T23:35:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/us/politics/08palin.html

you get fucking morons who are stupid enough to actually use their votes to elect fucktards to office.

meanwhile the liberal educated folk sit around and complain with their thumbs up their asses. (thankfully ive recently heard word of some big liberals who are willing to admit that they need politicians to be as scared of them as they are of the tea party freaks.)

if only our schools could manage to do two basic things: teach children to read critically and enable them to think constructively - knowing that participation in politics is crucial. frankly i dont give a shit whether the kids turn out conservative or liberal - i just want them to not have their heads stuck so far up their asses that they advocate for things that are patently irresponsible and unfeasible.

like palin criticizing obama for the christmas bomber who didnt harm anyone at the end of the day while bush gets away without ANY blame for doing jack shit about preventing 9/11 and doing jack shit to prevent afghanistan from going to hell after it was so close to being under control in the late 90s. what the fuck!!

also - whatever happened to compassion? these tea party people are creepy mostly because they are conservative and they dont even try to hide the fact that they are mean little fuckers. at least the christian right has the decency to fake it.

no one needs hard photos anymore

2010-02-04T22:35:00.000-05:00

seriously no wonder this nytimes writer is a mess - why wouldnt you get the pics scanned and then get rid of the hard copies? i mean duuuhhhh.

the internets, who knew it could take over my life even more!!

2010-02-03T00:29:00.004-05:00

there is twitter and tumblr and good old trusty pals gmail and blogger. soo much! too much! and of course there is google wave that is suppose to solve all my problems but instead only makes my browzer slow and reminds me of aol from the early 90s....

google wave is like me building a rocket ship out of toilet paper rolls and telling everyone that it was a real rocket ship. wtf google!

meanwhile a woman at my work actually came up to thank me for sending a link to a blog - both because the blog was interesting (work related) and because she claimed to HAVE NEVER SEEN A BLOG BEFORE. uhm?? this woman is not even close over 50. but she is a fucking republican - i think there might be a link.

joan rivers - i kind of love her

2010-01-28T23:48:00.002-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/22/greathomesanddestinations/20100122-away-slideshow_index.html

shes crazy and she went to barnard.

sometimes it seems like life is just a traumatizing series of events strung together

2010-01-26T01:06:00.002-05:00

and then you die anyway.

blogger vs tumblr

2010-01-25T00:08:00.003-05:00

interface: okay, tumblr is "coolr" to look at but the layout isnt as user friendly and if you want people to be able to comment you have to hack in and add a comment app. wtf. a pro is that it can do more things that resemble tweeting with the content but whatever.

tumblr also lets you call a message in that then posts to your blog. this feature screams "hipster blogging!" so loud i think it made me deaf. hate.

actual blog look: blogger, i love your l.l.bean functionality but tumblr kicks your ass in the easy breazy style department.

so in summary: blogger is truly completely functional, its easy to see posts, tell when your queue will be posted, figure out what you have posted and allow comments. however blogger is fug.

on the other side of the ring, tumblr is more a pretty face, it cant do comments and its interface is like a tween: awk. but we do like pretty faces. sometimes a pretty face can also be smart, but tumblr is not one of those.

still, i cant quite get that pretty face out of my head. so im using both.

this is why i love the internet, i can have my cake and eat it too!

this is what happens to you when you get old

2010-01-22T06:01:00.000-05:00

an excerpt from an email from my oma:

We had to go to Conn. for our friends funeral which was very sad. We
were friends for 55 years.Oh well, nobody lives forever, right?

kindasortaalmost made me cry.

an exciting new tag category

2010-01-21T20:08:00.004-05:00

"those were the days" - a collection of posts from 05 and 06 when we were hilarious drunks and not much else.

also, i cant believe i ever forgot the international sign for lets have sex again - even for one second!

and remember this: http://www.evany.com/sleeptest/index.htm

its as if i really have become some boring old fucktard that works too much. horrors!!

men: still insecure d-bags

2010-01-20T01:56:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/us/19marriage.html

but nice to see that some of them are finally coming around.

its probably not true but im still going to point to gay marriage and gay couples in general as for putting the who is the main breadwinner question in a different light. two ladies or two men - one will be, one wont.

probably more likely cause - single moms and deadbeat dads.

fuck you massachusetts - you selfish prick assholes.

2010-01-19T21:25:00.003-05:00

first of all, fuck you to the democrats for blowing the race. second, fuck you to people who made a statement by voting for some dude who doesnt believe in global warming and probably has 4 brain cells. brilliant statement assholes.

also, a big fuck you goes out to all the whiny liberals who despite theoretically being "educated" missed the whole part where we dont actually live in a fairyland where people pass perfect legislation. -- im pretty sure that these are close to the same liberals who think immigration in a black and white - legal v illegal issue.

and a big, standing, fuck you goes out to all the conservative assholes that refuse to support health care. i hope you get laid off, get swine flu, get hospitalized and loose your life savings. i have been trying to not wish ill on people but seriously - people who think poor people dont deserve health care - who basically are wishing misery on others, deserve to get fucked.

the ridiculous part is that it doesnt even make sense in a pure dollars and cents way - who the fuck do these people think is paying for uninsured people now? their cats? no fucktards, its the rest of us. we are going to pay either way so why not make it less shady.

and dear baby boomers - good luck when medicare goes bankrupt just when you need it most. i for one will be voting against bailing you assholes out. you can all eat cat food.

and a general fuck you to this country. i mean seriously, how much inbreeding has been going on? why are people so ass-backwards ignorant as to how the mysterious world works? nooo we dont need health care, nooo we dont need abortion, noo we dont need immigrants, noo we dont need to concern ourselves with the environment. uhm - what the fucktard.

seriously i think we might be better off if we let peoples dogs vote.

annoying people ruining environmentalism

2010-01-19T19:30:00.000-05:00

nytimes: new this week! boring yuppies and their problems with being green. joes girlfriend patty wants him to be more eco-conscious, apparently many couples have this problem. this article was so stupid i couldnt get beyond the first paragraph. i think my time was actually better spent looking at pics of the golden globes than reading this crap.

i mean really? nytimes, was there reallly nothing else worthwhile to report on?? i mean nooothing else? at other times i might buy that - but not this time. nytimes, we all know that haiti has been taking up all the coverage - as a result there has to be stuff out there that hasnt been reported on because everything has focused haiti. so there is NO EXCUSE for crap like this. or is it that all the normal reporters are covering haiti so you were left with only weirdos to cover "non-haiti" stuff?? hmm...

gender issues in schools

2010-01-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

some town in texas or somewhere has its undies in a bunch because some weird hippie parents wont make their son get a hair cut. the kid may or may not have weird issues but im pretty sure that a hair cut isn't going to change that. also im pretty sure that if kids in that boys class aren't paying attention its because their teacher is from 1940.

and really, its long hair on a boy. who cares?? the 50s/60s were uhm well over 50 years ago, its time to get a grip. (i love how the school helps to prove that its utterly stuck in the past by referring to it as beatles haircut. wwhhat?)

if girls can have long hair than so can boys. the old folks need to get over it.

mindblowing - haiti

2010-01-17T22:33:00.000-05:00

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/assignment-19/

damn.

libarians and their temperature

2010-01-15T23:59:00.001-05:00

librarians in manhattan have it in their contract that they get comped if the temperature is 65 or below - or if its too hot. uhm its not like they are doing hard labor...

"The issue is how bearable it is in here," she said. "The problem comes when it's not workable. We shouldn't be working in those conditions."

"those conditions"? seriously?? my office was 65 last week and let me tell you it was cold but its not like i was about to keel over and die of hypothermia. it wasn't even cold enough to warrant going home early. i grew up in a house where we werent allowed to turn the effing thermostat above 65 because if we were cold we needed to put another sweater on!

do the librarians realize that their contract makes them look insane and petty? i mean the city is no prince charming but at least have it be 65 or below for more than one day before you get comped?

twittter aka the end of the civilized world - maybe its not that bad

2010-01-14T20:02:00.002-05:00

twitter is kind of entertaining. also its a good way to obsessively check the news without having to always check the news. and if you are a company or an org its a good way to remind people that you exist. but it also gives a really limited view of what is actually happening.

i hate to admit it, but i love it, mostly. and i still somewhat hate it just because i can.

also the twitter technology is kind of/really ghetto. whats up with that? do they have rabbits doing the programming? it would be a super useful tool if they would just sell it it and let someone with lots of engineers build out the functionalities.

i mean, think of how much more useful it will be once they figure out how to integrate it with gmail/google wave.

mortgage defaulting isn't bad

2010-01-13T20:48:00.000-05:00

interesting nytimes piece calling bullshit on businesses saying that home owners shouldn't default because its immoral - while businesses don't think twice about defaulting.

the underlying issue is that its in business' best interest for joe and sally local to eat the costs and not default because if enough people default then its going to screw the businesses. but seeing as how banks are happy to screw their customers every chance that they can get - why should people not stick it back to the banks. that is how capitalism is supposed to work. convincing people to do what is not in their best economic interest isnt capitalism. its trying to fuck with the markets to prevent the basic - if you suck then you get fucked mechanism.

octopie! i love octopuses!

2010-01-12T20:23:00.000-05:00

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-octopus-carries-coconuts-coconut-carrying.html

they are so smart!!

interesting admissions

2010-01-11T23:09:00.000-05:00

government funded study on the effectiveness of drugs to treat depression. apparently, looking at a bunch of large studies, there is clear evidence that the drugs (paxil etc) arent particularly helpful (or any more helpful than therapy) if you dont have severe depression. good to know that the pharmaceutical companies ads really are pushing drugs that won't help you.

and then the UAW (united auto workers union) admitting that they were self interested assholes. damn. apparently, they have finally realized that refusing to do a good job or at least be decent employees might not be good for the overall health and longevity of their employer/paychecks. and proving that unions do foster a sense of fuck you - i cant be fired so i dont care about doing a good job among workers. which is what i would call - fucked up and backwards.

man on the subway talking to his friends

2010-01-08T19:08:00.002-05:00

this guy and his friends were a nutbar goldmine. they looked mostly normal but were definitely not. a few select quotes:

"alzheimers is bullshit - its just malnutrition - my stepfather is almost completely cured after being bed-bound and non-responsive. all because we started giving him raw organic vegetables. and after three weeks he was able to get out of bed. which means its all malnutrition - cancer, alzheimers, aids, diabetes." [i'll give him the kind diabetes that you aren't born with, but aids?? really?]

the friend then asked some question about why the vegetables had to be raw.

the man explained it as such:
"think about it - if you were to stick your finger in a fire it would really mess your finger up and it would start to breakdown - its the same when we cook vegetables - it destroys all the good stuff."

just take a minute to comprehend the logic of that. its close* yet so far away from logic. your finger which you a. dont eat and b. is made of muscle compared with a vegetable which has no muscle and no blood and no feelings because its a fucking vegetable. also - if you stick anything over an open flame its going to get fucked up which is why we dont cook by putting stuff into an open flame. thats the difference between heating and burning. i bet if you put your finger in an oven it would be nice and juicy and good tasting.

(*i get his point about cell breakdown from cooking but thats also related to temperature and for how long and some food you have to cook in order for it to break down enough for it to be digestible like starches. duh.)

gotta love the subway.

the catholic church thinks its okay to molest children?

2010-01-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

could the catholic church stop being such creepy slime bags? (the orthodox jews are just one step behind them in defending child molesters. so perhaps this is a conservative church thing which makes it even more sleezy.)

people's issues with immigrants really scare me

2010-01-05T01:29:00.004-05:00

this weekend at a wedding i met a woman who in discussing her home (georgia or south carolina) remarked - 'its just hard to see people who have only been here a few years with jobs while people whose families have been her for decades or centuries are unemployed'

when she first said it, i was like ohh shit we be going to crazy town and didnt really reply. the full intensity of her comment didn't really register until i thought about it after. she didnt even bother to qualify illegal vs legal.

the more that i think about it the more i am seriously offended and horrified by her remark. what is wrong with this country? she didnt know me from a hole in the wall yet she felt fine saying something that wack in front of me?? (and this was a liberal wedding - not some redneck fest.) i know people are still racist and homophobic but 99 percent of people that i run into have learned to keep that kind of shit to themselves. how is it that immigration not on the list of "dont even go theres"??

the last time i checked this country was capitalist and not a monarchy - you dont automatically get extra fucking brownie points simply for having been here for longer. and frankly i dont even think you should get brownie points for being legally here for decades vs illegal. if someone busts their ass to get here and overcomes a lot of hurdles, then why shouldnt they get a fair chance? (it might be different if legal immigration was remotely fair or straightforward but its not. it never has but its gotten worse.)

isnt that what this country was built on in the end - the promise of a fair chance if you were willing to work hard? the logic behind hating immigrants just because your life sucks for completely unrelated reasons (because lets face it - illegal immigrants are taking jobs that americans wouldn't deign to take) is beyond fucked.

as further support/fuel to the fire - there was also an npr story about a boy in texas or somewhere who came to the us with his parents when he was a toddler. he is illegal but he grew up here and graduated from high school. he is struggling to figure out a way to go to college because he can't get a real job, he can't get a license and he isnt eligible for financial aid. there are many more students in his situation than you would think. and its terrible that this country can't find a way to give them a break so that they can continue their education and earn a living. they are kids - they didnt do anything wrong. to punish them for not being born on the right side of a line is disgusting.

after the npr story aired - npr read readers comments - of which almost all were negative. and this is coming from the supposedly liberal fruitcakes who listen to npr - who commented that essentially npr shouldnt be running stories on illegal immigrants because they dont deserve our pity since there are lots of american kids who also cant afford college. that these people have their heads so far up their liberal asses that they really think that the kid who is illegal isnt as worthy as some kid who is exactly the same only born with the right piece of paper is beyond fucked. as far as i am concerned - if you grow up here and go to high school here then how can you not be a citizen? there is a grey area admittedly, but not for kids who have never known anything else but the US.

who do these bloated liberal fucks think they are? as if their family didnt emigrate to the us at some point in time? as if they can prove that their family crossed all their ts and dotted all their immigration i's? as if its acceptable to punish children for the actions of their parents?

it scares me to remember how ass backwards even so-called liberals are in this country.

and then there is this: the heinous mistreatment of immigrants in detention centers. so hideous.

the best argument for organ donation is the human one

2009-12-28T21:10:00.002-05:00

nytimes on organ donation. a really thoughtful article. why would you not chose to save someone else's life? even if you can prove that the potential organ donor would exist in a vegetative state for 30 years -- why keep them quasi-alive when you could give other people extra years of real life?

death is heartbreaking but keeping someone alive as a vegetable doesn't keep them from being dead. but particularly with children - to save another child's life - how can you look at that living child and say no to giving them a second chance?

organ donation is kind of amazing, and so hard to fully grasp, because it provides something redeeming out of death.

also - death and sedation - the nytimes is really into keeping the holiday season up beat! either that or they figured it was a public service to get people to talk about this stuff. it is kind of depressing to think of how much angst could be prevented by simply talking about these things with loved ones before something happens.

fuck christmas, im done with this holiday

2009-12-27T13:23:00.001-05:00

1. 90% of it is based around being a consumer and spending all your cash on presents that no one needs (i mean snuggies and slankets are pretty practical so maybe they arent a waste)

2. the travel is a fucking nightmare. by the time you get to where you are going you pretty much hate everyone and everything. evidenced by the shutdowns at penn station and all the airline blowing up attempt drama. obviously, its not normal or good for everyone to try to travel at the same time.

3. i cant even pretend like i give a shit about religion. my family celebrates solstice which is dec 21 the day with the shortest light. so thats non religious but still - who cares? im not a kid - i dont need mystical celebrations. if they were relaxing then maybe - but see point 2. not relaxing.

4. it would be a lot more fun to just get a bunch of people together and have a big party, like new years but without the pressure of it inevitably sucking.

5. i dont mind my family but i really hate being forced to spend time with them.

maybe im being debbie downer but maybe this is just a symptom of aging sans children to make the holidays fun. maybe once people i know start having kids ill give a shit but for now im over this crap!

i do still like hot toddies though.

tv makes you fat because you are sitting on your ass

2009-12-17T20:50:00.001-05:00

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/how-less-tv-changes-your-day

who knew.

i wonder if internet tv counts...

motherfuckers at the mta

2009-12-16T19:50:00.000-05:00

proposed and then voted yes 12-0

effective in june - massive service cuts. will definitely make life more painful trying to get anywhere. i dont think this will actually happen but i certainly hope it doesnt turn into mta strike 2.0

the worst is the jackasses in the nytimes comments section who say good riddance to the half price metro-cards for students - because they dont have children and either parents should pay and/or people without children shouldnt have to subsidize those who have them. this is all fine and good if you are talking about wealthy parents or even middle class parents -- but if you take your fucking head out of your out of touch ass you might just realize that maybe there are poor kids whose parents dont provide for them. perhaps those children should have never been born but its a little ass fucking backwards to punish a child for being born to parents who arent wealthy.

that said i kind of think the state definitely should pick up the tab for the kids - they pay for buses everywhere else - they should pay for the subway here.

also, im getting really sick of the bullshit political maneuvering that is the annual mta budget. the mta should first of all air its finances to the public and second of all, the city should be able to appoint at least half of the people on the board. its bullshit that its our subway yet we have zero say in how its run.

the wave take over

2009-12-14T00:32:00.001-05:00

i have a feeling that its only a matter of time before blogs become public "waves"

the format (assuming that it gets a lot better) is really much more suitable.

omg internet addiction! oh no wait, just adhd

2009-12-12T00:27:00.000-05:00

you too can take the internet addiction test! conveniently located on the internet!

also if you need to feel better about yourself, i got a 47 and some weirdos on boing boing got way higher.

unfortunately they forgot to mention that adhd people also have similar issues with spending too much time doing dumb shit and getting distrcted but thats just time management+distraction leading to general life failure. success!

the longest street in the worrrrldd!

2009-12-11T00:15:00.000-05:00

view of yonge st - longest st ever. not exactly coolest unfortunately.

or something like that. i only know and pretend to care because a dear pal lives off the good old younge.

the second best street in toronto is bloor, just because its fun to say.

also: toronto has underground tunnels! wtf. who do they think they are barnard?!

interesting but how are they still around?

2009-12-10T23:18:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/media/02nielsen.html

must be crazy monopoly?

sorry too lazy to put any thought into this one. blame it on the holidaze.

books and reading - how will we do it in 10 years?

2009-12-09T22:53:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/technology/18reader.html

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/01/some-half-formed-tho.html

both interesting. the boingboing one more than nytimes.

i sort of think books are like albums - impractical but irresistible. lovely esoterica.

once you've tried to move with tons of books you start to see the beauty of not actually owning that many. ditto with cds. also book stores are sort of less sleezy than record stores. and i guess records are living proof that you dont have to be relevant to still be around.

also - can we discuss the us postal service? can they just close some stations and cancel saturday delivery (except for netflix)? save some cash and stop delivering me stupid junk mail catalogs. i mean have you been to a post office lately? its like going back in time to the land of obsolete ridiculousness.

dont get me wrong, im a mail lover for life. (checking my mailbox is actually one of my favorite activities. i dont know why but i get a secret joy out of it no matter whats in there. like getting a present. except for when its empty on a mail day which means no one loves me not even junk mail solicitations.) but its also impossible to justify wasting so much cash on something that is still geared up for the pre-email era. cut that shit down!

nyc protected by magical weather square!

2009-12-08T23:47:00.002-05:00

why, thank you weather.com! i thought we were going to get precipitation but i now see that our special blocking shield is doing its job. phewz.

brains! invasive fishes!

2009-12-05T22:41:00.004-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/health/research/03brain.html

this is dorky but cool. a guy who after surgery for seizures had no memory donated his brain to science and now they are beginning to slice it up for study. that is very awesome of him. aww.

still i wish there was some good face transplant news.

instead we also have crazy invasive fishes (which is where they whole bow hunting for fishes sport came from, making it less wack than it first seems)

abortion, more

2009-12-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

more about abortion and stuff - nytimes op-ed.

its well written and an interesting comment on the difference to how older pre-legal abortion and younger post-legal abortion generations view the fight over abortion.

there are also some good random comments in here "menopause militia"

i am for the right to chose and would not hesitate to take a baseball bat to the anti-choice assholes if presented with the opportunity. but i am not particularly worried about actually loosing the right to abortion. it is already limited and continues to be eroded one bullshit restriction after another because roe v. wade snuck through a loophole thats caving in on itself. why wait until roe v wade is just a hollow shell. fuck that fucker. i want a real law that gives me the free and clear right to have an abortion without harassment or fear of the home grown anti-abortion terrorists who have so far been allowed to run free.

maybe my generation isnt scarred by the memories of when abortion was illegal. but we are certainly scarred by the multiple gruesome murders of doctors and nurses who simply provided women their right to choose. abortion isnt illegal anymore but that doesnt mean women have free access to it.

i say fuck roe v wade and its bullshit appeasement. i want the full fucking right for everyone woman out there no matter if she is 16 or 45, poor, middle class rich or an illegal immigrant. i want the assholes that dare to protest outside clinics arrested for intimidation and harassment. and i want people that talk about killing doctors who provide abortions treated like the terrorists that they are. im sick of the bullshit paternalistic "right" that we got with roe v wade.

nobody rocks avocado colored kitchens, helmet hair or finishing school anymore. so why in the fuck do we still have the finishing school version of abortion rights?

and while im at it - fuck the fucking catholic church. child molesting supporters deserve to be bankrupt and destitute.

climate warming shitheads

2009-12-01T20:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html

too lazy to even do a proper hyperlink. the holiday season brain and person fattyness is upon us. my fingers are too stuffed with danish to think about how our planet is going to hell in a handbasket and these shitheads are fucking around on the internet saying that because someone wrote a note about how they smell like poo, obviously the climate is not warming.

i guess its good to know that they are getting a bit desperate.

whats rong with "no prob"?

2009-11-30T20:19:00.000-05:00

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/and-the-winner-no-problem/

the only people that i have ever heard complain about people saying "no problem" instead of "youre welcome" are old people.

frankly i think saying "your welcome" in most cases sounds kind of douchy and at times borderline assholeish. this probably stems from the fact that in about 85 percent of cases where someone says thankyou they dont really mean it. so if you say "your welcome" it can actually come off as snarky. thus the no problem/no worries.

also i simply dont like youre welcome. its twatty.

also obnoxious - the fucktards practicing violin above me. they are not good at it. not good violin is an offense to ones ears. like drowning kittens. aaahhhh

name changing: women and marriage

2009-11-25T18:40:00.002-05:00

this forbes article on a barnard woman who was the first to keep her maiden name and hyphenate her kids name is interesting but its depressing that her daughter was so unimaginative.

i understand that people might like to have the same last name but i also dont understand how so many women accept it without even thinking about what it means socially and culturally. when you think about the historic roots its offensive - women took the mans name because they ceased to have an identity once they were married. why would anyone want to continue such a fucked up tradition? we dont continue weird things from slavery or other wack eras so why would we continue this tradition? it doesnt make sense. why would you want to follow a rule that originated out of women being property?? even if thats no longer true, thats still the history of it. hitler is dead but we arent going to bust out the swastika again and call it "just part of culture"

also what happens when gay marriage becomes legal? who takes whose name in that case?? people cant fall back on the bogus, well its just tradition if suddenly there are people doing something different or at least looking at it differently. perhaps the gays will set a precedent for combining or always hyphenating or taking the better name (i cant believe that more people dont do that - like why would you change your name to one that sucked??) yet another reason to look forward to when gay marriage is legal everywhere.

hyena's are more closely related to cats!

2009-11-24T20:08:00.000-05:00

http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2009/11/baby-hyena-cub-denver-zoo-kai.html

amazing! thanks interwebs.

awesomenessss

2009-11-23T23:33:00.001-05:00

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/16/leopard-seal-teaches.html

i am too lazy to add commentary. make up something in your head. then watch the awesome video.

Why I both love and hate twilight: new moon

2009-11-21T01:29:00.004-05:00

mainly, it is awesomely cheezy.

But its also so trite its offensive. Even though its supposedly "dark," it is still pure disney/christian bullshit at it core. It doesn't say anything about what it means to actually love someone. Its the same old bullshit about how girls should just love their man even if hes a douche. And the end - ugh, give me a fucking break. People actually started laughing in our theater. It was awesome.

Also - the no fucking or even close to fucking? Fuck you twilight!!

Still, the hunky tweens born in 1992 are hard to look away from...

In one case where I will not mock the nytimes, its review of Twilight as one big lame tease is pretty spot on. Good job really pinning down the most recent tween film nytimes.

omg twilight

2009-11-20T23:04:00.001-05:00

oh nytimes, i didnt know you were a secret twi-hard fan...

speaking - there's a gene for that

2009-11-19T22:04:00.000-05:00

nytimes: speaking gene

apparently a whole family in london cant talk right. their holiday get-togethers must be quite interesting...

the nyimes: keeping it real

2009-11-18T21:55:00.002-05:00

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/beaky-the-disabled-prospect-park-goose/

yes, you read that right. a nytimes post about a fucking goose in prospect park. thankfully, comment #12's snark makes its all okay.

what next the wonky pigeon in times square? i mean geese arent even nice animals for fucks sake.

is this part of the nytimes secret plan to make us all eventually pleed to pay for the paper so that they finally stop writing about the most pointless things on the planet?

the pay gap: women v men

2009-11-17T22:32:00.002-05:00

the gender pay gap - nytimes

the article is interesting and the comments are actually kind of interesting as well. i think its a mutli-faceted issue rooted in cultural expectations for who should and should not do what.

first, women get fucked at the workplace when they have kids. and guys aren't forced to also take maternity leave. if both parents were forced to take the same amount of time off (staggered or together) then women wouldnt get fucked over for taking time. while it is certainly honorable for women who go straight back to work, i dont see why women have to always try to be men. why can't men be forced to be like women - with a forced leave - in this case?

second, women aren't expected to negotiate at work or in the home. if you are comfortable negotiating, you come off normal. if you are really nervous, you are likely to ask for less or to come off as a bitch. culturally, its okay for guys to fight but not for women. think of the fist fights in the nhl and the yelling in basketball and the full body contact of football. the rules for women in hockey and other sports with physical contact severely restrict acceptable violence. women who are violent or simply unkind get chastised where the men get away with it.

third, there are a bunch of other factors too. but you can go fuck yourself if you think im going to hand feed them to you.

adhd people have more road rage

2009-11-16T23:40:00.000-05:00

who knew? this might finally explain why i was captain road rage as a teenage.

seriously?? poor women don't count at all??

2009-11-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/us/04rape.html

there was a foul smell and they couldnt figure out where it was coming from? and didn't question the fact that there was a psychotic sex offender in the vicinity??

could society fail poor women anymore?

cabbies and credit card machines - not so bad after all

2009-11-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

first, nytimes give yourself a pat on the back. good article.

second, im glad to hear that technically cabbies are doing better. the 5 percent surcharge is kind of bogus and im sure cuts off enough of the increased tips that its not a huge boost. but hey, at least they haven't lost business.

criminals, nfl owners

2009-11-11T21:32:00.001-05:00

the nfl treats its players like race horses. its offensive and creepily paternalistic.

also, is it not unethical - and illegal - to lie to people about the potential major health repercussions? isnt that what all the tobacco companies did??

also a note for shady doctors. if your response to someone who calls you shady, is 'well he isnt a doctor so his opinion that i am a sleazy asshole doesnt count' -- all that does is provide confirmation that you are a very sketchy, sleezy asshole.

also this woman who is fighting for the players is awesome. for taking this on while possibly dying, is beyond amazing.

damn.

wack.com - non-choice violent abortion fighting assholess

2009-11-10T22:24:00.004-05:00

from the AP via the nytimes: the crazy that killed the doctor who performed abortions claims that it was justifiable necessity because the abortions had to be stopped. also, there are people out there that were allowed to sign a statement saying that they agreed. the guy who wrote the original statement then went on to kill two people in the 1990's. if they are reviving that statement which supported/lead to murders - isn't that something beyond the boundaries of free speech? like explicit intent? like osama bin laden and the jihad wars? doesnt that mean we get to bomb those people? (i would say we should pit osama against the anti-abortion people but they would probably end up loving each other)

but isnt hate speech banned? like if you write something saying that its okay to kill people in support of someone actually killing someone, isnt that crossing some kind of wack job line?? you cant hang a noose on someones door. isnt re-printing a letter written by a known violent killer and saying that you fully support his actions a bit like crossing the line between free speech and intimidation/pure threat?

also, can we please remember that its abortion is not some new fangled thing - abortion has been around for basically as long as women have been having babies. its not going away. ever. its a completely pointless effort to try to eliminate abortions. if these crazies really cared about the unborn they would do a better job of passing out condoms. but obviously they dont truly care because they are completely insane and have no concept of reality whatsoever.

what disgusts me even more than the crazies themselves is that people actually tolerate these fucking lunatics who are almost on par with the KKK. we dont let the KKK use the media as a platform for spewing hate - why in the fuck do these freaks get to? because they are hating on women exercising a choice and its okay to hate women's rights?? oh really??

this is like when the republicans said that killing someone because they are gay shouldnt be considered a hate crime. on what fucking planet do these people live?? im sure that if it was 70 years ago they would also all be lining up to say that interracial marriage was wrong.

they all deserve to be sent to a re-education center where they learn that its not nice to try to force your crazy hatred on other people.

abortion rights needs its own eva moskowitz.

in the meantime, donate to planned parenthood

Weather.com is a hypochondriac

2009-11-06T19:27:00.003-05:00

dear weather.com and accuweather,

Since when is potential frost an event that requires special notice? Oh no my garden plants!? its not even severe weather. its just weather. how can that be worthy of a yellow warning bar??

I'm sure farmers care but I'm also pretty sure that they aren't waiting to hear about it from you.

sincerely,

fuck you democrats.

2009-11-05T22:52:00.001-05:00

nytimes: "democrats near deal on abortion"

also, fuck the stupid ass american public.

which do you think we will get first: gay marriage or the right to abortion for poor women?

likely gay marriage. at least then they will be able to adopt all the babies that cant be aborted.

update: thank god the gays will get to adopt, because it seems that they raise better (more open-minded, socially conscious) children. so perhaps that is how we get a better country finally.

voting: im too lazy

2009-11-04T02:01:00.000-05:00

according to this state report, as of march 2008, there are roughly 4.3 million registered voters in new york city. about 300,000 were inactive. so there are slightly less than 4 million active voters in the five boroughs.

in today's mayoral election - the number of people actually voting: about 28 percent of all registered voters. (might actually be a lower percentage since the number of registered people is probably slightly higher as a result of fall 08)

in a case where bloomberg was expected to win by a landslide -- you get the normal people being too lazy to vote because there's no reason to waste time and all that's left at the polls is the crazies. so the election results come out looking all wonky. if people thought they really had to vote - like if the number of votes that you won by had any bearing - then the results would have definitely been much higher in bloomberg's favor.

what is actually interesting is the breakout of how people voted: nytimes results report w/graphic

who knew that the bronx fucking hates bloomberg. okay, im not really surprised. but still. why vote for thompson? i guess thompson is black so that's something in his favor theoretically, but that doesn't make him suck any less.

why you have to love the internets

2009-11-03T22:17:00.002-05:00

how to open a bottle of wine w/out a corkscrew

brilliant!

the adhd life

2009-11-02T01:56:00.000-05:00

open laptop with intention of checking weather for tomorrow before bed.

get immediately distracted. for two hours.

finally rip self away from internet. go brush teeth.

realize that never got around to actually checking the weather.

return to check the weather. write a blog post about how you forgot instead.

its nearly 2 am. still have not successfully checked the weather. aggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

entertaining in retrospect. but so fucking annoying when all you really wanted to do was check the fucking weather!

there are certainly reasons to be very upset.

2009-10-29T23:31:00.003-04:00

also - gang violence. how is it that two students can be shot dead in separate incidents in the same week and no one really gives a shit because hey, they were basically asking for it.

uhm really??

also - once again ladies vs work mentioning how its totally cool if some women want to be stay at home moms or what to sacrifice their career for their kids, since its their choice. seeing as how, lets see, the vast majority of women deciding to stay home or kill their career are women...and the vast majority "deciding" to not are men. hmm. can you really call that a choice?? you really think the only problem left is that women are treated poorly in the media? really?? isnt that actually reflecting that for all intensive purposes, in many parts of the country women still aren't even allowed to freely chose whether to have a child or not??

(and if you want to talk about poor women. they have even less choices. its take care of kids and try to hold a job while the baby daddy either takes little responsibility or is in jail. but at the end of the day - can you really say that a dad in jail is any worse than a dad that works 24-7 and never sees their kids? at least the guy in jail can blame poverty and a shitty education. what can the asshole who works blame? privilege?)

think of it this way. is is the same as when people say -- oh well, not everyone can go to college but then you take a closer look and you see that the vast majority of the kids not going to college are poor and under prepared, meanwhile their wealthier counterparts go in far higher numbers... there is no way anyone in good conscience could call that a choice.

the same with women having shitty opportunities and giving up. is that really a choice or is that rooted in how we operate as a society?

is it really a choice when women earn relatively little that for some they only barely break even if they work and pay someone to take care of the kids and/or they cant keep job because of the kids.

what if women went on strike and demanded to be paid what they rightful deserved?
teachers*? nurses? social workers? non-profits?

i dont support unions as lazy factories. but i do support the idea of a collective group standing up for itself. the while male establishment does it all the time. why shouldnt the rest of the assorted establishments do it too?

if i had my way poor people would riot in the streets protesting the shitty education their kids get. and women would go on strike demanding to be treated with respect - starting with the money.

*teachers w/caveat that the old crazy ones retire.

update: woman from ms magazine tells it like it is
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/opinion/l27lipman.html

fuck you at&t

2009-10-28T20:09:00.001-04:00

seriously, dropped calls three times in a row in less than one minute? i mean can you even call that a phone anymore? like if your internet video convos are likely to be more reliable, is that a problem?

unfortunately att is like, no actually fuck you as always. we will continue to charge you 10000% the cost of sending a text message. and we will continue to make you buy 500 more minutes that you use just because we can.

id like to kick all the phone companies in the balls.

the cost of war

2009-10-27T01:18:00.003-04:00

http://www.100eyes.org/beware-the-cost-of-war/slideshow/ (profiled in the nytimes)

suffering is suffering, regardless of whose side you are on or where your allegiances lie.

Wine bars, cat breeders, couture fashion etc.

2009-10-26T01:45:00.000-04:00

what do they all have in common? obscure knowledge that has no intrinsic value. that simply exists for its own sake.

went to a snobby wine bar and found it entertaining. its not intimidating when you realize that its just someones hobby. and you dont have to give a shit about someones hobby if you dont want to.

also I just like the idea of comparing wine people to fancy cat people. in my opinion they are all crazy and weird.

booze!

pigs, vegetarianism

2009-10-22T21:43:00.002-04:00

if you give a pig a mirror it quickly figures out how to use it to find stuff that it cant see directly.
i think that might mean that pigs are smarter than me.

but seriously. if pigs are as smart, if not smarter than cats and other dumb household pets, how do we justify eating them?

bacon is amazing but if pigs are smarter than things we would never think of eating doesn't make it a bit harder to justify? i mean wouldnt we theoretically be better off eating dumb as rocks golden retrievers? (j.s.foer in nytimes mag also made me feel guilty for eating any meat. asshole.)

then again my great-grand father raised rabbits as quasi-pets and also ate them. well he ate most of them and then kept one or two of the big fat ones because he liked them. rabbit eating is actually something i can get behind. those things are dumb as rocks and are already programmed to breed excessively - hence the phrase 'multiplying like rabbits.' and rabbits also grow really quickly. and rabbit meat is actually not bad. its slightly more tasty than chicken and about equal with pork.

i sense an ecologically friendly get rich while saving the pigs at the expense of rabbits scheme!

(and i know cuteness to tastyness doesn't actually matter because babe was adorable but that didnt stop anyone from eating him.)

oh noes! the sea blobs!

2009-10-21T23:01:00.000-04:00

sea mucus is as disgusting as it sounds.

scientists also think that jellyfish will become more common as the oceans get progressively more fucked up by global warming.

and then we will move to a spaceship and be blobs people like in wall-e. [insert image of home alone kid here]

why is it only tuesday and other musings

2009-10-20T23:36:00.003-04:00

first of all, why does itunes keep trying to pretend that it can select what i want to hear better than i can?? because let me tell you, that shit is no google algorithm. its like your mom selecting songs based on random words in the title. terrible.

second of all, how is it still only tuesday (for at least 20 more minutes technically)?

third, why did i buy two books at the strand when i have three others that ive been trying to get through since before i moved well over a year ago? i take this as a vote of confidence in the book industry. i mean why in the fuck did i buy more books - i dont even read them!

there is something about the fact that books and records covers are paper, perhaps the smell which makes browsing in a used book or record store wonderful. i didnt grow up with records per se (we had a record player and i had records but mostly i bought in cds). but if given the choice, i would prefer to browse and buy records as opposed to cds. and i think i would prefer to browse books as opposed to e-books. there's just something about the physicality of it. then again, i also have the luxury of being able to walk to two great used books stores from my apartment, one with an amazing selection. but used books are also great and cheap.

at the end of the day, unlike newspapers, there are simply too many books and they are just too convenient and lovely to ever die out completely. however academic books -- that is a different story. as far as i am concerned the sooner google books get those fuckers scanned the better. its fucking ridiculous that we haven't done that sooner. if i had my own book - i would hope that it was something that would be useful and so i would certainly want it to be scanned. why would you want to spend all that time writing a book only to have it stuffed on a shelf for all eternity, read once or twice every 50 years? its ridiculous that people claim to have valid problems with google books. while copyright is certainly something to be considered - why would you hold up a project? why not just sue for damages after if its really that horrible? i mean seriously. fuck off. what are you worried that poor kids might read obscure books about communism?

nytimes mayoral debate recap: giant douche vs turd sandwich

2009-10-19T20:19:00.000-04:00

the nytimes: fact checking the first nyc mayoral debate: bloomberg vs. the douche that is owned by the teachers unions even more that bloomberg (aka Thompson).

bloomberg is no saint for sure, but thompson is a douche plus idiot.

its the classic conundrum: cheez doodle that fell on the subway platform vs turd sandwich. frankly i prefer a slightly dirty cheez doodle to a full turd sandwich.

meanwhile, the original giant douche vs turd sandwich from south park (around time of 2004 election) -- still cracks me up. every time.

also more background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douche_and_Turd
and the full episode i think: http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/808/

crazy people in love with reality tv

2009-10-18T21:20:00.004-04:00

the whole fake child in balloon incident.

damn those kids are going to be circus freaks. or will be going to ivy league schools.

also, you can tell the police are embarrassed that they jumped on the bandwagon so quickly and made a mockery of themselves. everyone loves a media circus.

has our country reached a new low involving children in this shit?

libarrarieis

2009-10-16T20:20:00.003-04:00

nytimes recommended reading: ebooks and public libraries, with a mention of google books. who knew that public libraries already had ebooks? not me!

the article also includes book publishers talking about how they cant wait to put the final nails in their own coffin. including such gems as the one at the bottom of this excerpt:

Pam Sandlian Smith, library director of the Rangeview Library District, which serves a suburban community north of Denver, said that instead of purchasing a set number of digital copies of a book, she would prefer to buy one copy and pay a nominal licensing fee each time a patron downloaded it.

Publishers, inevitably, are nervous about allowing too much of their intellectual property to be offered free. Brian Murray, the chief executive of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, said Ms. Smith’s proposal was “not a sustainable model for publishers or authors.”

librarian suggesting that book publishers figure out a more sustainable model, suggestion includes offer to actually pay per use, book industry's reply: fuck off librarians with no cash.

maybe the librarians dont matter, but then again, why would a struggling industry tell willing customers to eff off? hmmm. maybe they are struggling because their heads are too far up their asses.

ps nytimes, give yourself a pat on the back for some good, insightful reporting.

sad and weird. seriously depressing.

2009-10-14T21:03:00.001-04:00

nytimes: more people are having paupers state done burials and cremations because they cant afford it. there is something so intrinsically depressing about this. ugh.

and then this: domestic violence homicides - up by 7 percent in nystate! (regular homicides increased by only 2.6 percent.) last year domestic homicides in ny state accounted for nearly 18 percent of all homicides. juuuust wonderful...

fucking disgusting.

clotheslines? air drying? drama?

2009-10-13T23:55:00.005-04:00

nytimes pressing news: the clothesline debate rages!

ugh this counts as reason number one to not move to the suburbs where the annoying pricks of the world live in concentration (i know that doesnt make sense bc burbs are actually more spread out but its my blog and my bad pun so there).

the best comment/quote in the article is the person mentioned towards the end who says that the entire reason the house didnt sell was because of the clothesline next door.

of course I'm sure if it was white yuppie clothing no one would really have had a problem with it. its just those conspicuous poor people, who dont know they should let their clothes mold rather than bring "shame" upon the neighbor for living close to a person who might be poor and not a yuppy/wasp/faking poverty. they forgot to mention that.

the nytimes does mention it in the general article - that clotheslines were banned because no one likes conspicuous poor person. but kind of glosses over the deeper class war...

I'm all for clotheslines for whoever wants them. but personally, I fucking hate the things. My mother always dried our clothes outside in the summer - a deadly mix of granola-hippie-ness, plus the god forbid we waste any pennies old immigrant style. (she also washes out and reuses plastic bags... dont even get me started. it doesnt even make any sense! like why wouldnt she doesnt just use tupperware if she is going to not waste plastic or whatever?? my grandmother also does this but somehow it seems less insane.)

but seriously, that clothesline shit stretches out your shirts and leaves everything as stiff as cardboard. i dont mind the stiffness. its the weird stretching that drives me crazy. as i got older i just stopped washing much. a habit that i would like to say that i intentionally continue, except now its just blatant laziness. i do hate other people doing my laundry though.

the end.

calorie postings work the wrong way, oops

2009-10-12T20:51:00.002-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/nyregion/06calories.html

quite interesting actually.

apparently people eat more. might that say something about poor people just trying to get the full bang for their buck? something any logical person would have thought of? and then wouldnt the whole obesity/calorie counting thing then be related to a whole other issue?

my question is what fucktard got all the calories on menu stuff passed without actually doing any real research on it? i mean seriously.

meanwhile god forbid we at least attempt to stop wasting tons of cash paying for uninsured people and just insure them. that kind of rocket science is too just much to grasp for a large portion of the population.

at the same time - what the fuck is wrong with the democrats - why are they refusing to support the war in afghanistan??! this is one case of war that i can get fully behind. its a rather simple concept - i dont want to get fucking blownup in 9/11 part two, or even live in real constant fear of being blown up, seeing as how i actually did and do live in a place such as nyc where i could get blown up, and so i support the war. and unlike iraq - afghanistan is some fucked up shit. pbs had a documentary about it maybe two years ago that was essentially like yeah that afghanistan is fucked two ways from friday and will forever be the source of crazy jihadists. if even pbs is like that place is fucked up - im pretty sure its no joke.

but if the country is over that war - that effectively means that it has already gone back to not giving a shit about nyc. fucking assholes can go fuck themselves.

also fuck bush for ruining the use of fear tactics to get something done. this is a case where i would say the fear is totally justified and should be mongered!! but noo, everyone is too limp dicked to touch it with a 10 ft pole. fucking assholes.

My oma asked about twitter

2009-10-05T08:20:00.000-04:00

And after I tried to explain the basics to her. She ended up with the same questions that I had about it. Nothing like feeling that your grandmother is as or possibly more up to date with new things.

I am so setting up a twitter account for her the next time I visit.

Also hottest topic at the dinner table: the chipmunks that have burrowed next to my grandparents garage, the many ways my grandfather had tried to kill them but failed and additional ideas of ways to off the little fuckers. charming.