Yeah i haven't written in awhile. Lots of stuff has been going on and I'm not really in the mood to go in detail.

Today was the first day I've ever donated blood. It's not that I never WANTED to give blood...but in the past either I had something that required brainpower (like exams), i was way under the weight limit, or I had gotten a piercing. So today I scoped it out and figured taht I could fudge my weight enough in order to meet the requirements.

First they make you read this big huge schpiel about HIV, making sure you didn't have man-on-man sex, that you didn't travel to Random Country X...since I scoped it all out online I pretty much whipped through that. The volunteer lady was trying to get the attention of the nurses who were sitting around yakking. I was like "you need to holler!" but she told me they get mad at her for that...I'm like "you're a volunteer, you can yell all you want".

This is a side note: there's a type of person and job that basically means you do the crappy stuff but you're not exactly the type who'll fare well beyond a government job. I love slacking off or whatever, but I'm all about impressions. And government-type jobs offer such a guarantee, people don't mind taking hour long smokes breaks and all that. I'm not saying all government workers are slackers...my dad is a government employee and he works his ass off...but i can also say that ALOT of people i went to high school with who were slackers somehow ended up in the government. Put it this way: your perception of job stability is drastically different when you have a government-type job. It's not like every little project is what's going to make or break the organization and cause everyone to be laid off. I've done government work, i've done private sector work, and there's a HUGE difference in attitude. If today's blood drive had been run by an organization that had stocks, competitors, etc...there's no WAY those chicks would have been sitting around while a "customer" was waiting.That's the beauty of job stability...people will ALWAYS need blood.

So finally one chick came over and brought me beyind a screen where music was blaring so no one would hear us chat. She pricked my finger (which i knew was gonna hurt like a mofo 'cause they use the same tools that diabetics use, and i've used mine before when scoping out how much pain it was for me to take blood regularly from my cat). That was to check my iron levels. Then she put this paper stick thing in my mouth...it was a disposable thermometer. Took my blood pressure...then she left me alone to fill out some info on the laptop.

The questions pretty much consisted, once again, about man-on-man sex, diseases in South America, and whether I've ever had Hepatitis. Once that's done, they brought me over to a bed that looked like it came straight out of M*A*S*H. They scoped out my veins...which is pretty easily, since my veins look like a bodybuilder's on steroids...they bulge out of my arms.

So I'm chatting with the two nurse ladies about my cell phone (I thought it was going to take like an hour so i wanted entertainment) because they thought it was cute, and i'm asking them all these questions about who's most likely to faint, cry, blah blah...i asked if i could see the bag after its done...they asked me to turn away to not see the needle and I"m like "blah blah needles dont' bug me"...

Ohhh there's a REASON they don't show you the needle. I don't even know how that thing pierced my skin. It was crazy ass huge. My initial reaction was "dayyyyam...that is a big ass needle"...but the other nurse yelled "look over here! Think happy martinis" and did this cute little dance.

Then I sat there for a few minutes squeezing a ball, being bored out of my mind, my arm started to hurt, and i got super cold. Shortly after they disconnected the bag (they let me feel it...it's all warrrrm), they somehow managed to hook up one of those plastic thingies they normally use to draw blood and then take some more samples in a tube. After that I drank some water, juice, had some cookies...

I got to stand up and cheer when I found out taht I had the record so far that day for the fastest blood-pint-filling...6 minutes! And that's from rounding up! Woo hoo! One dude was there for like 20 minutes, wtf.

When I left, I was all "thank you ladies, I'll make sure to recommend you to all my friends"...uhhh not that the blood bank works that way. Overall, a pretty good experience...the literature part is a pain and having to sit around bored (and FREEZING) is a pain, but the actual blood withdrawal was a snap. The nurses were fabulous, and that volunteer was nice to let me quiz her about life in retirement (the secret: pay off your house and your car and retirement will be a breeze).

The nurses told me that high school kids are most prone to donating (way to go kids!), and chicks more than guys. But lots of high school chicks are anemic, so they faint more. And when one girl faints it becomes mass hysteria 'cause girls get all "omg my best friend! ohhhh myyy gawwwdd!".

I'm pretty surprised, I knew the stats were pretty low for donation...but i didn't know if was 2% out of people who are ELLIGIBLE! wtf! So subtract people who travel, weigh too little, and enjoy man-on-man boning, only 2% of the leftover people donate?! WTF people I didn't even meet the requirements and I still stepped up to the plate! I'm nto saying if you know you've got HIV to donate, but geezus...

Anyway, that's my story for today. I'm done chugging water and I'm sneaking in a diet pepsi 'cause i gotta have at least ONE (which is better than my normal 6-8...and yesterday I drank tea at work...its getting better people).

In quickie tv news:
1. Lost has picked up its pace and gotten SUPER good.
2. Heroes better get back on track, lately I've been pretty bored. Someone needs to shoot both Jessica/Nicky and Micah.
3. Desperate Housewives: slowly catching up, forgot how good that show is.
4. Notes from the Underbelly: my new favorite show. LOVE IT.


This weekend's home improvement project: replacing the faucets. Let's see how much can be accomplished with the least amount of water damage.

Letter to the editor...

Sears guy $80 or spend $10 and 15 hours of your time trying to get it to work.

I'd rather have the guy put it in with a warranty, and spend my 15 hours doing something more productive... like sitting on a couch watching UFC re-runs and Joe Dirt for the 20th time.

Good lord it didn't take us 15 hours, and the thermostat is right in the living room, so the TV was on anyway. I'd say...maybe 1 hour of actual installation time, and maybe a total of 2 hours research time but that doesn't count 'cause I did that with a laptop while watching tv anyway (and I like researching this stuff).

So...3 hours plus newfound electrical knowledge for $10...vs. $80...not worth it. And the warranty is only for one year, which is hardly worth it for an $80 piece of plastic.

In the past 3 years of owning a home, I've learned:
- how to replace and install a chandelier
- how to replace and install a bathroom fan
- the "proper" way to drill holes in wood to avoid splitting
- how to maintain a garbage disposal when the kitchen pipes lay flat
- how to replace bathroom showerheads (no easy feat when the pipe thingies are INSIDE the wall not outside like now...thanks 1980s for making retarded home building decisions)
- how to clean and maintain outdoor wood structures
- heck, how to use a cordless drill
- kraig learned how to change out the plugs
- and a bunch of other random stuff....

Right now i'm researching how to replace the bathroom fixtures. Yay for plumbing.

All of that seems pretty minor, but for Kraig and I that's pretty huge. When he grew up, his brother was the construction guy and took care of everything. As for me, when I moved out of my parents' house, I always rented (and my dad is an engineer fo the Coast Guard, so he took care of crap himself)...so needing anything beyond a hammer and a screwdriver was wayyyy out of my realm. Now...i actually LIKE reading home improvement books and scoping out Home Depot...

The way I figure it, there's no excuse for me to pay money if its something I can do myself. Like washing my car...is it a pain? Sure. Is it time consuming? Yep. But..wtf, there's no reason why I can't do it myself and then treat myself to a pedicure later (okay well I wouldn't treat myself to a pedicure..but..well it gives me an excuse to meet up with friends for lunch instead of staying in).

Now the odds of me being able to replace the carpet with hardwood...that's a whole other issue because the cost of the mistake is significantly higher than just hiring someone (who already has the tools and can get things at a discount)...although if I had the tools already I wouldnt' mind learning from someone else how to do it. Oh and I don't have the vacation time to take days off work for it. BUT...in theory...i really would like to learn how.

That being said, I really just want to win the lottery so that I can sit around, watch tv, get fat, get liposuction, and never have to lift a finger ever again.

Video game article...

Since so many people ask me about my husband's job (since most of all of ours is about as interesting to discuss as the merits of watching paint dry), I read this article today on MSNBC about video game making as a profession...from a wife's perspective, they nailed it:

Sure, it's a cool job. But do games pay?
Annual survey finds that industry's median salary is $73,000
By Kristin Kalning
MSNBC
Updated: 3:00 p.m. PT May 2, 2007


When I told my mother I was dating a guy who made video games, there was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

“Is that a good way to make a living?” she asked.

She needn’t have worried. That guy, who became my husband, has a great job in a booming industry. His colleagues are smart and talented. And the salaries are nothing to sneeze at. According to Game Developer Magazine’s annual salary survey, the median salary in the video game biz is $73,000.

That sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? These folks aren’t saving lives or even doing your taxes. So why would the typical game developer — whose average age is somewhere between 31 and 35 — make twice as much as the average social worker?

“Because the industry as a whole makes a lot of money,” says Matthew Tateishi, a San Francisco-based game designer with nearly 13 years of experience. “And for the most part, a lot of that gets passed on to the employees.”

Big business, big salaries
Of course you’ve read the stories about game-industry revenues topping $12.5 billion in the United States last year. Video games are big business. I know my mom read that story. It’s bragging ammo when her friends look skeptical about her son-in-law’s profession.

But if you think game-makers spend all day playing “Quake,” think again. This is a fast-paced, competitive business with inflexible ship dates and punishing hours.

Exactly. This is why I can rarely commit to anything with Kraig in terms of formal plans, because I never know down the road if he's going to be stuck at work. Heck, awhile back we had to flake on Rena's bday because Kraig was working late on a Saturday night.

“If you want to work nine to five, this is the wrong industry,” says David Riley of the NPD Group. “Deadlines are fierce.”

So are the pressures. Only about 10 percent of games released in a given year will make any real money. And every few years, the technology changes — new hardware, new software.

“Who knows how to program for the PS3 right now? Nobody.” says Marc Mencher, president of GameRecruiter.com. “It’s a limited talent pool.”

Steep learning curve
To stay cutting edge, development teams need to learn all new systems every couple of years. Artist, programmers, designers — nobody’s exempt from the steep learning curve. And the fan base can be punishing if a game doesn’t meet expectations.

It's pretty crazy...I'm in tech, but in the grand scheme the technology just improves over time. It's not like things stay the same for 2 years and then suddenly there's a brand new thing to work with. And it kind of blows for us, because for him to stay current that means he's gotta own the most current game systems...wtf we can't afford a PS3, XBox 360, PSP, and a Wii! (So we just have a Wii).

This tends to translate into some pretty long hours — called “crunch” in the game biz. The industry is rife with horror stories that sound like urban legends: Two years worth of 70-hour weeks, no weekends. Postponed weddings until ship dates. Guys phoning the office from the delivery room.


“Full-time game developers in most states are classified as exempt, meaning they're not eligible for overtime,” says Jill Duffy, managing editor of Game Developer Magazine and the principal researcher on the salary survey. “Developers do work immense amounts of overtime.”

Game Developer’s survey cuts across all disciplines in the industry: art, design, programming, business and quality assurance. And it’s a national average, pulling in salaries earned by developers in places like North Carolina as well as high-rent areas like San Francisco.

High cost of living
With a few notable exceptions, most game development hubs are in expensive areas like the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Seattle. So when you factor in cost of living, says Marc Mencher, president of gamerecruiter.com, that average salary just isn’t that high.

“That might be the average across America,” he says. “But who’s going to be able to live on $73,000 in San Francisco?”

One of the most telling metrics of the survey, says Duffy, are the home-ownership numbers. While California game-makers pull in the most money — a median of $79,000 per year — only 36 percent of those surveyed own a home.

“The outdated American standard of having a wife and a kid and a house is pretty hard in the Bay Area,” says Dan Chao, a producer and designer with PlayFirst in San Francisco.

When I first moved to the bay area someone told me this, which is very true: the bay area is meant for single guys. If you've got a wife and kids, forget it. It's not that it's impossible...obviously that's not the case. But even renting something half-decent in and around san francisco will run you over $2500 for a 1 bedroom apartment. If you think Orange County is expensive, figure this...the median home price here is like $400K, whereas in San Francisco it's $800K. That's nuts to pay for a place that probably doesn't even have a garage.

Chao, who got a degree in computer science, worked as a programmer in the “core” games industry — the one that gives you PlayStation, “World of Warcraft” and “Final Fantasy.” A few years ago, he switched gears out of programming, and then into the more relaxed casual games industry.

“People are getting paid less in casual games,” he says. “But you can really leave work at 6 or 5:30 and you’re not sitting there working until 2 in the morning.”

What's a casual game and how do I get my husband into it?!!!!

Wanted: Better quality of life
Quality of life issues are coming to the fore in game development, says Mencher. As game developers move from their 20s into their 30s, they want more stable jobs — and are even willing to trade life in the hubs for lower-cost areas.

“Five or six years ago, it was impossible to pull people from San Francisco and L.A.,” he says. “Now I call and they say ‘get me out of here.’”

Some developers “age out,” tired of the long hours, the constant pressure and the ever-present fear of the pink slip. Which is why it’s so important, says Duffy, for young people looking at games as a career to know what they’re in for — and have a backup plan. “You’re very likely to get fed up with the game industry,” she says.

True dat. I sometimes feel bad because I know Kraig's missing out on opportunities because of me. When we were engaged he had an offer for a company north of LA (don't want to give away the exact location)..but it was so pricey to live there and so when he scoped out the more affordable, commutable areas he realized it wasn't an option if he was going to be married; a place that's safe for a single guy isn't necessarily safe for a married chick and potentially children.

Such was the case with Ron Little, a senior-level programmer from Half Moon Bay, Calif., who left the business altogether in 2001.

I have no comment on that, just that I wonder if Ron Little ever got called Chicken Little when he was...well...little.

“I took a salary cut to go out of game industry, but I was tired of the volatility,” he says. “I wanted more time with family.”

But after programming tools for a civil engineering company for nearly six years, he accepted a position as a senior software engineer at Sony — back in games, with a significant salary bump.

But Little says he’s motivated to jump back into the fray for reasons other than money.

“It’s enticing to have your work be appreciated by a lot of people,” he says. “And it’s a rush to see your product on store shelves.”

Christine Miller, a Seattle-based level designer with seven years of experience, agrees. “$73,000 sounds great until you realize you've just spent 6 months or more working 80 hour weeks, your friends forgot who you are and you haven’t seen your new niece or nephew yet,” she says.

“But I can't picture doing anything else.”

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Victory is ours mooo ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa....

I am the master genius....I did mass amounts of research and figured out why there were thermostat problems...Kraig played electrician and followed my feeble attempt at leadership...and VOILA....thermostat works.

I feel ALOT better for not paying the Sears guy over $80 for the thermostat installation considering this one was one sale for less than $10 at Target.

Mel Gibson's the Passion Fanclub....

So what you are saying is that you don't relate well to your parents generation? Therefore they deserve to get skipped? Sounds like age discrimination to me.

Didn't your mom & dad love you enough?

Ahhhh...its not age discrimination...It's discrimination against the "next in line to the throne" so to speak. If you're running for president, prime minister, next in line to being King...just do everyone a favor and let your kid take that spot.

And don't be dissin' my parents! Only *I* can make fun of my parents!!!

In other news, I was all for giving the thermostat a second attempt, however after some research online I started to get freaked out about horror stories about electrocution and not knowing if my thermostat is 24vdc...vac? Aaack see!

After realizing that I might have to admit defeat to the thermostat, I picked up Family Handyman's issue of "Essential Home Skills" (Family Handyman kicks ass for any homeowner...too bad I had a subscription when I was effing renting and I threw most of them out) so even if I can't change a thermostat at least I can learn How to keep my appliances humming as well as how to Burglar-proof your home.

Letters to the editor...

Marlene: lol Kraig just rolls with it...

I haven't seen this movie, but I have seen pix and lil video clips of Jessica Simpson which makes me almost wanna get it. There are better movies out there right now, so I think that I'll pass.

Yep, there are WAYYYYYYYYY better movies out there. And all of those pix/videos that you've seen are pretty much 99% of what you'd want to see anyway. She's barely in the movie, and when she is (other than the stuff you've seen), she's trying to look "tough" by fixing some plumbing (and no, you don't see any cleave or a$$)...I figured at the very least watching her half naked would be good inspiration to work out, but even that infamous bikini scene (when she walks in the police station) was all of 15 seconds...so do a search on YouTube and you'll save yourself the pain of watching that horrible, HORRIBLE movie.

In other boring news about my life, Kraig and I spent 2 hours this weekend trying to replace our thermostat with a nifty new one because our old mercury one was pretty ugly...and...well needless to say we now have a big chunk of the wall with a different paint color and a thermostat that doesn't work hanging from the wall by the cords. Sure hope it doesn't get crazy cold or crazy hot anytime soon or else we're screwed. Hey Honeywell: maybe your retarded website could have information on replacing crazy old models, maybe you could surf the web and realize that every message board on thermostats also say that your site sucks for replacement info, maybe you could start printing model numbers on ink that doesn't FADE so that in the future people don't have to go blind trying to read wtf the numbers are, maybe you could tell your moron webmaster that the search engine doesn't work and keeps returning errors...


"By the power of grey skull...damn you Honeywell! Damn you and He-Man all to hell!"

If your monkey arrived in the box dead....

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Movie Review: Dukes of Hazzard

Uhhh...movie review...so far, sadly, Jessica Simpson is probably the best actor in this movie. Minus the friend with no pants who blows up the safe, he plays a smart-but-hillbilly pretty well.

Only watching this 'cause I don't have anything else recorded.

I know i'm supposed to root for the Dukes even though they make illegal moonshine for a living....but I really WANT the crap beaten out of them and if that's a legit excuse for it, fine by me...At least Jessica Simpson has a job as a waitress....

Yep. I'm on the Police's side for this movie...you can't go wrong, the main police chief is the Other from Lost who boned Juliet. Don't mess with The Others. Even if they show up in Hazzard county.

Botox appointment has been scheduled!

May 12th.

Sweeeeeeeet.

I hate neighbors. They blow goats.

One of the reasons I wanted to buy a house was 'cause I had this rationale that I didn't want to have a kid down the road and deal with neighbors above, below, and on either side of me making a ton of noise keeping my kid up. I didn't want to climb up stairs, or deal with crappy parking, and random retardedness that comes with renting.

Well...most of that was right. Except the noisy neighbor part. Thanks to the wonderfully overpriced world of Orange County, we got a condo...aka townhouse...thankfully we're an end unit so its just one shared wall....

Which you'd think wouldn't be so bad...

If I wasnt' next door to a dude who looks like a pedophile. I'm sure one day this will bite me in the ass and he'll stumble across this blog, but something tells me those odds are remote. Especially since he never remembers my name anyway.

He's super creepy. With a southern drawl. He's got this crazy loud motorcycle, a huge ass SUV, and like 10 toilets in his garage.

He's got a frickin' jungle in his little backyard...which wouldn't be so bad if mine wasn't connected with just a wall separating us...he's got one tree that's pretty much growing into MY backyard, and i'd hack it down if I had a ladder and a saw...and i refuse to buy a ladder and a saw just to deal with it based on principle...

He also smacked into Kraig's car, and didn't say anything until our other neighbors told him they saw that he's the one who backed into him. So now things are especially awkward (exchanging hundreds of dollars between neighbors always creates awkwardness)...

But all of that STILL wouldn't be so bad...if he just didn't work such dumbass hours so that he can stay up ALL night listening to his really, REALLY bad jazz/rock music. And what with one shared wall, needless to say, this irritates the crap out of me.

Right now, I have my tv on super loud to countereffect HIS loud tv. Sometimes he falls asleep with a DVD on loop...you know on a DVD how the main menu is like 20 seconds long and then loops around? Yeah...that's what I gotta hear when I try to go to sleep. Actually I think right now he's listening to music. I don't know. It's loud, annoying, and I don't see how I have a half million dollar house but STILL have to be subjected to thin walls and the sound of my neighbor picking up his phone.

Now...you'd think I could knock on his door and tell him to shut the eff up right? Wrong. Because he's got a middle unit, there's no actual front door. You either get in through the garage or through the back gate, but he keeps it locked. One time I tried to throw little rocks at his window to get him to look out, but that didn't help (plus I got scared that I would break a window or something).

Anyway, that's my bitching.

Life is as interesting as a piece of lard

Okay so I haven't written jack. I've tried to think about stuff to bitch and gripe about, or comment on (come ON...I Love New York should be enough right?), but the sheer act of thinking and writing at the same time makes me tired.

In other words...my life pretty much revolves around going to work, running one errand after work (today's errand: going to target to pick up birthday decor to decorate an unsuspecting coworker's cube), then going home and sitting my ass down in front of the tv.

What's even MORE sad is that I bittorrented a bunch of south park episodes (which i can watch over and over till the cows come home) so I can watch them on my cell phone while working out, but somehow that's not even enough to drag my ass off the couch to go to the gym and...watch more tv.

Sad. Very sad.

I don't even LIKE Mythbusters but I'm too lazy to get off the couch to NOT watch. (Can you really split a boat in half if you drive super fast and smash into a pole? Apparently you gotta turn it last minute. And if you have a truck full of birds, and the birds start to fly, does that make the truck lighter?)

Sad. Very sad.

In other random boring news, I took Friday off work 'cause I gotta get fingerprinted for my US citizenship. GOod times. I also have my botox appointment, which at this point I'm thinking about putting the money towards something educational...since my ass sits in front of the tv anyway, maybe my MIND should be getting pumped, not my face.

In case anyone cares, in preliminary tests, the truck with birds doesn't change weight when the birds fly.

Grandma's boy...

Watching Grandma's Boy right now...


Pretty funny so far, and even though there's no WAY a hot chick would come in all dressed up to work at a video game company...but at least the main guy has the same laptop that Kraig's company gave him, so that's relatively accurate (pfft and they didn't give him a mac...enough of seeing those things in movies! Sorry Marlene, but you're the only person I know with a mac laptop)...

If the scene of the dude lifting up the couch to vacuum (and all the dead cats) doesn't make you laugh out loud, something is so very VERY wrong with you.

Indians of the world...UNITE!

Okay so I'm only half-Indian...but I totally support my peeps!

By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

It's not just Apu anymore.

After years of relative anonymity, performers of Indian heritage are establishing a small but growing presence in TV and film, breaking stereotypes along the way. From Sanjaya Malakar of American Idol to actors on some of TV's most popular shows, U.S. viewers are seeing a broader range of performers who trace their roots to the world's second most populous country.

"Things are opening up — very slowly, but it's definitely happening," says Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays genetics professor Mohinder Suresh on NBC's Heroes, TV's biggest freshman hit.

Navi Rawat, a native Californian of Indian and German heritage, encountered a first when seeking the role of mathematician Amita Ramanujan on CBS' Numb3rs. "It was the first time I was cast in a role specifically written as someone who was Indian," she says.

Woo hoo...i'm sorta like that...a native Canadian living in California of Indian and Austrian heritage...POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Other actors of at least partial Indian descent on network TV include Naveen Andrews, ABC's Lost; Parminder Nagra, NBC's ER; Mindy Kaling, NBC's The Office; Ravi Kapoor, NBC's Crossing Jordan; and Aasif Mandvi, CBS' Jericho. Kal Penn, who stars in the film The Namesake, appeared this season on 24 and is in an ABC pilot, The Call.

Rawat says it's good for audiences to see that actors who share the same heritage can represent a range of birthplaces, backgrounds and appearances: "They don't fit one stereotype."

For decades, people of South Asian descent rarely were series regulars. (Kavi Raz held that status in the 1980s on St. Elsewhere, and Apu is a long-running animated character on The Simpsons.) In 2002, CBS' Presidio Med, a medical drama set in San Francisco, premiered with no doctors of Asian heritage.

That many of the characters have a medical or scientific background shows TV is starting to reflect a reality in which many doctors are of South Asian heritage (not to mention medical correspondents, such as CNN's Sanjay Gupta), says Karen Narasaki of the Asian American Justice Center, a civil rights organization that has studied diversity on TV.

Oddly, acting opportunities grew in the aftermath of 9/11 as films and TV cast actors of Indian heritage as Middle Eastern characters, says Ramamurthy, a Chicago native who speaks in Indian-accented English on Heroes.

Narasaki wants to see Asian-Americans getting to play all roles, such as Penn's stereotype-defying stoner in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and not just those that fit a newer stereotype, such as "the model minority." TV also needs more diversity on its writing staffs, she says.

Kaling, also a writer on The Office, called on her knowledge to write "Diwali," an episode that featured the Hindu festival of lights. Says Mala Chakravorty of the online Indian-American magazine NRIPulse.com: "It brought about this sense of cultural sensitivity and acceptance."

Letter to the Editor...

I haven't had a hamburger since 6th grade camp. I only ate it because that's all we had for lunch n' I was hungry. I have no problem with other people eating burgers, but I guess I just don't care for the texture or taste of ground beef. I never really ate steak that much either, but in the past few years I have grown to love a good steak. I mostly eat chicken.

Hmmm, what about ground turkey or ground chicken burgers?

Anna: good lord you SO didn't offend me! And I've seen cows being slaughtered too...in the grand scheme, that's life (I'm certainly not down with letting cows randomly roam free...as far as i'm concerned, a cow is sorta domesticated)...it was more like: it was effing CREEPY as hell to see something so cute get shot in the head, no matter how quick and painless it is...plus, i DID use to work at McD's, and I know how nasty in general it is to eat anything there (including the ketchup...shudder...ALWAYS ask for the packets!!)

Remember, I"m the girl who thinks chicken meat comes off the chicken tree...raw meat creeps me out, especially when I've seen it ALIVE beforehand.

Which is why I had a chicken pita today for lunch with Carrie...if I don't see it raw, then it's just another vegetable as far as i'm concerned.

NORM: heck yeah In N Out rocks!! I'll probably crave it once I get that image of the cow shlopping off the conveyer belt out of my head.

Enough with Don Imus already!

You know what I don't get? WHy every radio station and tv show are saying "hey, what's the big deal with Imus, he's been doing this for years"...well if it's not a big deal, why the eff are you still discussing it?!!

The only reason I know who Imus is is 'cause of Howard Stern, and since I love Howard I pretty much was biased as soon as I heard the story. I mean, come ON...who does this old creepy guy think he is calling some chicks "nappy headed hos"?

Well...then I actually HEARD the clip from his show...what the BLEEP is everyone freaking out about? Okay, granted, I'm not black. I'll give you that. And I'm also not from the east coast, which is his target audience. I live in Southern California where even the whitest kids think they're gangsta...must I remind people about BuckWild from Flavor of Love season 2? She's from Rancho Cucamonga for God's sakes.

Thing is...it's not like he just started a rant. He was chatting about women's basketball, about how scary these chicks looked (and dont' tell me that a team of somewhat professional women's basketball players wouldn't creep you out, they're tall and muscular and jock-ish), and he's talking about how the other teams were like "dang, these girls are scary looking!" and he called them a bunch of "nappy headed hos"...not in a BAD way, but just in a "these girls are tough, I wouldn't mess with them either! They look rough!"...

Was it the smartest thing to say? Obviously not. But to his defense, he's one of the first radio "shock jocks", he didn't get where he's at because he's held back...you can't have your shock jocks showing restraint whenever you see fit. Suddenly NOW you want to fire the guy?

Plus it's not like the dude's got a written script. News flash: radio jockeys ad lib. For HOURS. You can't take alot of time to THINK when you're ad libbing your content. If he'd said "damn, those ugly ass whores should be shot", that's one thing. But to say "damn, those chicks are scarrryyyy!" is another. And okay, for him to call them "hos"...well, wtf...if he were black, would he still be under fire? I get that only black people can call each other the N-word (Alanna, you're still my niglet though! booyah!), but "Ho" is for Whore, and that goes across all races...

As for the "nappy" comment, do a search in google...Take a look at some things that come up...
Nappy Hair Affair
But A Nappy Hair Affair (ANHA) is about so much more than hair. It is about reclaiming and respecting our culture. We have been conditioned to hate one of our most unique characteristics-our hair in its most natural state. We have been conditioned to accept European standards of beauty and to reject our own. ANHA exists to cause a shift in such negative mindsets and promote a positive image of people of African descent. We do it through support, affirmation and education.

So wouldn't that imply that it can also be a GOOD thing to be nappy haired?

Nappturality
Napptural hair is the type labeled "bad", nappy hair that needs to be "fixed."

This perception needs to change. We need to stop being afraid of our hair. We need to learn about our natural hair. We need to see natural hair worn on women who have embraced it. And the only way we can do that is to showcase our natural hair on its own merit without seeing it compared with other hairtypes.

See! Spread the word people! Nappy might be a GOOD thing!

Okay, okay, I get it...you think I'm stretching. And I kinda am. But really...point is...it's not THAT bad...it wasn't meant to be malicious, he was chatting about sports, if they had been big tall WHITE chicks he would have made an equally rude comment (and really, I'm not afraid to say how female athletes can be frickin' scary)...but people, he APOLOGIZED...cut him some slack and let's move on. There's a pretty big difference between what Imus said vs. Michael Richards.

On another note, I'm finally trying to catch up on Lost...at least now I know what happened to John Locke and why he ended up in a wheelchair...I bet in 50 years if they ever watch reruns they'd say "wow, things would be so different if that happened now 'cause he could get some stem cells and fix his spine..."....kinda like how we watch movies now and think how things would be SO different if the victim could just dial *69.

Movie Review: 16 Blocks

So thanks to the joys of 1 week free HBO, I recorded a bunch of movies (i.e. be prepared for more bad movie reviews).

16 Blocks

16 Blocks stars Bruce Willis as a tired, overworked police officer who clearly hates his job, his life, but loooves his liquor. He's ready to go home but then finds out he's gotta take a dude (played by Mos Def) to the courthouse so he can testify.

Things go crazy sour when it turns out that Mos Def is gonna testify against some big wig police officer dude, and everyone is out to get him. For some reason, Bruce Willis decides that even though he hates life, he wants his liquor, he's got a limp, and he sweats like a pig...he's gotta get Mos Def to that courthouse, 16 blocks away, with all of the NYPD chasing after them.

This was a pretty entertaining movie, I definitely recommend it. My main beef is that Mos Def's voice or accent or whatever he's got going on with his mouth is irritating beyond belief. Buddy doesn't shut the eff up at ALL during the movie and you can't understand half of what he's saying other than random babbling about how he wants to make cakes.

Ummm...and that's my review, since I don't want to give away anything else.

Effing nasty...going vegetarian...

Listen, it takes me ALOT to get grossed out. I love Nip/Tuck, horror movies, all that stuff.

The last time I got super creeped out was when I saw the footage of that Canadian figure skater who got whacked in the face by her partner's skate blade.

Anyway, I rented Fast Food Nation. I had read most of the book, but had to put it down after reading hte chapter about how the cows are killed...not that I'm all pro-animal rights or anything, but it's pretty horrific nonetheless.

That was a few years ago and I got over it fast enough to keep eating red meat (I can't give up my chicken! As far as I'm concerned, chicken meat comes from trees). Well...for some stupid reason I decided to watch the movie.

Wait, let me backtrack. I've SEEN cows slaughtered in real life. I've been to farms in Canada and seen cows get shot and then their necks slit. I've been to Pakistan where, after Ramadan, everyone's cows and camels had their throats slit and then my family would chop up the meat in the backyard courtyard area...At age 12, I sat with a cow's head on one side of me, and a pile of MOVING meat next to me (it was explained to me that electricity still goes through meat long after the animal is chopped up). I took my cousin's broken necklace and placed the beads in the cow's eye socket.

Seriously. It takes ALOT to gross or creep me out (exclusing spiders. Spiders FREAK ME OUT big time).

So I'm watching Fast Food Nation, not really paying attention 'cause I was catching up on my magazine reading...getting kind of annoyed with the illegal aliens in the movie (don't get me started on that...WHYYYY did i pay $70 to get biometrics done AGAIN?! My fingerprints didn't change mother effers...department of Homeland Security is EFFED UP), getting annoyed with the extra random footage that wasn't needed, kind of surprised that a low-budget movie would have people like Bruce Willis, Wilmer Valderamma, Greg Kinnear, Avril Lavigne, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, which is a pretty significant list, and being reminded of my days working at McDonald's.

Finally I get to the part where they show REAL footage from slaughterhouses.

Holy CRAP. I threw everything on the ground and curled up on the couch with my shirt covering my mouth yelling "ughghg!...aaachghghghg...ughghghhhhhh". Listen, cows are kinda cute. They have those big doe eyes, they're kinda stupid, they're funny-looking...so when you see one just standing there and then a gun against its head and it gets SHOT and then it jerking around and all the blood trailing out of it and then it strung up and all the blood just pouring out and the scenes where the intestines are slopped into a big bin...seriously vomit inducing.

I do believe...I'm done eating meat*.

* for at least a week anyway.

The whole industry really IS effed up. I'm anti-illegal immigration, however I don't think that gives the right for anyone to start abusing their power over those people. I'm not okay with food being that...artificial...while trying to act relatively healthy (I don't care what anyone tells me...the lettuce at McDonald's might as well be deep fried. NONE of their salads are healthy. Their WATER isn't healthy. Basically, only eat their if you're hours away from dying of starvation). And one thing that I remember from the book was that the success of places like McDonald's is that they hire teenagers on purpose, not because they're cheap but because they don't COMPLAIN...in hindsight, I was exposed to some seriously dangerous conditions and I was burnt SOOOO many times I would go to school comparing my war wounds with the other people who worked at McD's. You think an adult will tolerate that crap? I can buy whatever I want in order to ensure proper ergonomics at my work station so that i don't get back pain. BACK PAIN. Compared to burning yourself, that's pretty minor.

Argh I don't know what my point is. Just that I don't want to eat a burger for awhile. And that I think I need to adopt a baby cow.

I'm the whitest brown girl EVER.

Went to a crazy hip hop cardio class with Alanna and Janet tonight.

Now back in the day (and when I say "back in the day", that means 10 years ago when Stacey dragged me to 7am step aerobics classes at Ottawa U), I could totally keep up.

However, keeping up to like...Paula Abdul...is NOT the same as keeping up to remixed Ludacris and Justin Timberlake...I had all the dance moves of an 80 year old tone deaf senior citizen.

Moral of the story: I blow goats.

Time to watch Fast Food Nation. Stay tuned for the review. It'll be better than The Inside Man i'm sure (which can be summed up as...Clive Owen literally WAS inside...the entire time.)

Rena kicks ass...

Props to the birthday girl...check out her pics of cakes she's made...she needs her own tv show! These cakes look gorgeous!

Movie Review: THE DEPARTED

Movie Review: The Departed

Yeah yeah I know, everyone's seen this movie except me. Suck it. I'm anti-movie theater so I gotta wait till stuff comes out on DVD.

For reference sake, "the departed" is a fancy shmancy term for "the dead guy".

The movie takes place in Boston, noted by the crazy accents. Key players:

Jack Nicholson: local meanie "ohh i'll have you shaking in your booties" mob boss. Don't mess with this mofo. Likes his cocaine big time.

Matt Damon: as a kid, Jack Nicholson took him under his wing. He goes to police academy and ends up working for the state as some big wig, all the while secretly maintaining his ties to Jack.

Martin Sheen and Marky Mark: heads of the undercover cop department. Only they know who's undercover...the rest of the police force (including Matt Damon) have no idea who in the bad guy world is actually a real cop.

Leonardo Decaprio: dude who also graduates from police academy, but when he applies to the police force Martin Sheen and Marky Mark flip out on him that his entire family is full of criminals and theythink he's fake. SO...they offer to let him be an undercover cop.

And so begins over a year of hell for Leo, 'cause he's a legit cop working for Jack Nicholson acting like a bad guy, while Matt Damon gets praise and promotions when really he's a bad guy acting like a cop.

Alot fo suspense...alotta gun shooting...alotta swearing...oh somewhere in there Matt Damon's girlfriend, who's a cop psychiatrist, befriends Leo on the side...which is a killer for her since Matt's got one of those male issues where he can't get it up and she's jonesin' for some good nookie.

It's a fabulous movie...worth all the accolades given to it. There was ONE movie mistake: a scene where Jack Nicholson is freaking out about the rat on his team, one moment Leo has nothing next minute he's got a cigarette in his mouth. I have to admit, some endings are predictable but in this case, I was like...WTF! I kind of get the impression that they ran out of ideas on how to wrap everything up so they just winged the most violent outcome.

Hey, worked for me. I give this movie 9 out of 10 stars.