TV Review: Cashmere Mafia

Last night I didn't watch the latest Desperate Housewives or American Gladiators...but I did watch the premiere of Cashmere Mafia.

Sigh. Let's go through each of the ladies before I even give my opinion of the show.


Frances O'Connor (the only i've seen her in was Bedazzled) plays Zoe, one of those workaholic moms married to a workaholic husband who put their little precious children in ballet, soccer, whatever. I think she's supposed to be the most relatable character but I don't think any female on the planet would agree. First off, if you're THAT busy...why the hell do you have your kids in so many things? Maybe I"m just weird because the only thing my mom signed me up for was skating lessons, which I promptly quit after awhile (there's only so much ass pounding a little kid can get...ice hurts. Let that be a lesson into adulthood too).

Probably the worst scene was where her nanny called with some retarded crisis and miss BigWig Zoe took the call during the meeting. I absolutely can't STAND when people take personal calls during meetings, and at the very least you'd set it on vibrate and see if they call back if it's THAT important. Then, to top it off, she continued her meeting from her office, where her little precious ones decided to have some sort of WWE smackdown in there. My mom would have beat me with her name plaque and told me to stay quiet or she'd "beat the bloody life out of" me if she had a work thing. And damn straight that's what she should have done instead of offering ice cream to whoever stayed quiet.

Totally not relatable at all.

Next we have Lucy Liu playing the ever adorable Mia. I actually liked her character the most of out all the girls, but I still have the character she played on Ally McBeal in my mind so I kept expecting her to break out a whip or something.

The problem with her character is definitely no fault of the actress' but you'd think girl would have spoken up and pointed out the retardedness of it all. For example, she's engaged to another coworker...if you're a big wig at a company (and even if you're not), you are NOT going to walk down the hall HOLDING HANDS. Even worse, HOLDING HANDS while your boss is explaining how one person will get a promotion and the other will get fired. And you're not going to constantly kiss in the office either. Unless you want HR on your ass.

The other problem is the crap this girl wears. Carrie Bradshaw could wear funky outfits because she was a work-at-home freelancer. You can't wear low-cut bright dresses in an OFFICE. I don't care if it's New York or Timbuktu, no one's gonna wear that sheeot to the office.

Next up is Bonnie Summerville. Let me say, I keep getting her confused with Monica Potter:


But Bonnie Summerville was on Grosse Pointe, which was one of the best shows that never made it past 1 season. That was the show that was a spoof of Beverly Hills 90210. Sigh.

Anyway, her character is pretty refreshing, not because of the usual "oh i'm hip, I work for some makeup company, blah blah"...but because right off the bat her character isn't sure she's gay. LOVE IT. Now that is relatable, not because I have identity issues but it's nice to see characters that as adults still don't now who they are or what they're going to do with their lives.

Finally we have Miranda Otto who plays some ice queen Juliet. She's also a CFO (CIO, whatever) so we're supposed to think she's a tough modern chick who can make it in a man's world.

Girl looks like her face is botoxed beyond belief. I'm okay with Botox for the rest of us, but my job doesn't require me to show expression.

In her first scene, a buncho f guys in a meeting push their coffee cups towards her like she's some exec assistant, at which point she gives some snotty comment about how important she is. NO ONE in a company would ever push their mug towards a CFO, regardless if they're a chauvinist pig or not (unless the dude was the president or some title above hers). You will never, EVER, find a peon pulling a move like that. Which right away just annoyed me, because I get upset when TV/Movie people don't get the concept of office environments (Office Space: they nailed it. Cashmere Mafia: not so much).

Then in a scene where I think we're supposed to be cheering her on (I couldn't tell, her frozen botox face made it difficult for me to understand whatever feeling she was trying to convey) she tells her unfaithful husband that she's going to take on a lover from any man in the room. The husband then looks scared and naturally takes a chug from his champagne. Really? REALLY? 'Cause if I were him I would have been like "great, now i can keep boning my hot chicks without feeling guilty. And i can leave you because we're equal".

Overall, the show misses the mark. It's supposed to be about 4 hip working friends in NY. It's supposed to be a SATC knock off (it's produced by Darren Star after all). Ohhh how wrong they are. For example, working mom Zoe hides in a closet to make a work phone call because her kids are screaming. That is so effed up, either you yell at your kids to shut the hell up mommy iso n the phone, or you go into a bedroom and close the door. You don't' hide in a CLOSET. To top it off, she used a non-wireless hands-free thing...You have a high paying job, a fancy blackberry phone, and you're telling me your company won't spring $30 for a bluetooth earpiece? If you're that rich, that successful, and that desperate in need for tools to help your life, you'll get yourself a wireless ear doodad. Geezus.

Then there's a scene were Mia emails everyone to meet her for lunch. She emails each and every one SEPARATELY with the same message. How the eff you're going to get a promotion at that inefficient pace is beyond me. Obviously the goal was to see her type in her friend's name, and then the scene where that friend receives the email so we can associate the two. At that point I just get super annoyed because I don't need the producers to dumb it down for me like that, i'll eventually catch onto who's who. Geezus. Or maybe they really don't know you can send one email to multiple recipients.

Bonnie Sumerville's character gets her email while she's having breakfast with a boyfriend who's dumping her. The email says "we need to do lunch". So somehow she goes from having breakfast with the ex to walking over and having lunch...which maybe these people who dont' work in offices understand that breakfast = around 8am or before...lunch = 11:30pm onwards for us office folks. You h ave to be at work somewhere in between.

Overall, the show is just plain awful and will probably get axed once the regular shows come back on the air. Sadly, until then, I will continue to watch because I'm so desperate for a SATC replacement (please Lipstick Jungle be better!) and for something that's not a reality show.

(please excuse any weird words in here, i tried BLogger's spellcheck and it's not so great).

Bill Gates' Last Day at Microsoft

Bill Gates is the least funniest person on the planet, but it's still interesting how he got so many people (Even Bono, gasp!) to play into this video. I dig Jay Z.

Le dernier jour de Bill Gates (Bill Gates last day)

And let it be stated...Obama's section was WAY funnier than Hillary. Girl almost makes Bill Gates look funny.

Barack, Bush, and Babylonia

I was at the gym last night (thanks Marlene :P) and I ended up watching three shows:
TMZ (not much to report, it was pre-Britney's latest meltdown)
Celebrity Apprentice (I love you Carol Alt. When i grow up, I want to be just like you. Sadly, that will never happen, but a girl can dream).
CNN

CNN aired Barack Obama's victory speech, and it reminded me of something from the John and Ken show earlier that day: in the grand scheme, the most LIKEABLE (not the most competent) person generally wins. Which is good, 'cause I kinda dig Barack and I think he's very likeable.

THEN i thought...pretty much allt he reasons I prefer Barack Obama isn't his position vs. the other candidates...it's Barack vs. Bush.

Here's the list of reasons why Barack Obama kicks ass, all compared to our current president.
Disclaimer: normally I wouldn't care at all about this, but now that I can vote (if i actually registered to vote), I feel like I probably should take note of this crap.

1. Barack isn't a country bumkin. Apparentlymost of America likes a hillbilly for their president (as evidenced by him winning a 2nd time), but Barack has zero southern drawl. He went to school in Hawaii. I dig that...I don't want someone who grew up on chicken fried gravy to run the country. I do have to admit however that at one point during his victory speech he started to pull the Martin Luther King accent, but i'll let it fly because he was discussing freedom.

2. He wasn't born into politics and had to follow his dad's dream. Call it the Gossip Girl syndrome: boy wants to follow dream X, but affluent and reputation-seeking father wants dream Y. So boy follows daddy's dream ("No, i don't WANNA go to Yale!" "But son, I went there, your father went there, and your grandfather went there. We funded their library. Now hush on these dreams of backpackingi n europe. Here's ten thousand dollars, go buy yourself something nice.") I feel like Barack (or Barry as he was apparently called in high school) truly wanted this for him, for his dreams, not because he was raised into it.

3. He's got the color thing down pat. He's not white. He's not black. Being mixed, he can hang out with all folks. Except maybe skinheads, since his hybrid blood goes against their aerian plan. Georgey-boy is as white at they get. You know how white he is? I imagine the first time he tried Indian food (made mild) he was probably all "ooohhh weeee! Now thayt is sum spah-cey food rih' there!". He's so white it's impossible for him to become any more diverse. If he knew how to use email (and AOL doesn't count), he's the guy who's off forwarding the crap about how people should boycott The Golden Compass because in the books, the kid (allegedly) kills God. Then i bet his autosignature is some religious passage. Basically he's so white that in his super hillbilly white behavior, he actually manages to offend others (like ME).

4. Barry's got a sense of style. It reminds me of a Nip/Tuck episode...Dr. Shawn McNamara gets chided by a homeless guy for wearing Armani and he offers him his old Brooks Brothers suits. Barry's wearing Armani. Georgey is wearing...is it even Brooks Brothers? I feel like whatever he's wearing, it's like an old man who puts on a sport coat over a plaid shirt with beige pants. If i have to see your face interrupting my tv show whenever there's a crisis, damn right your clothes better be aesthetically pleasing.


5. Does Georgey boy even have a sense of humor? If so, does he get that he's the joke itself? I was actually impressed with Barry went on Ellen...not because he made the appearance, but because the guy can clearly roll with the punches. First he danced with her...and for a politician, Barry's got moves. Then they sort of prank called a viewer, which I could not IMAGINE Georgey Boy ever doing. LOVED IT. During the interview the topic of gay marriage came up, and Barry gave the perfect answer. I dont' remember it perfectly, but he managed to give an answer that "protects" regular marriage while still allowing gay folks a marriage thing as well.

6. Barack's catchphrase is "Change". Keep in mind, the entire time i've been in teh US it's been ALL Bush (minus 1 month of Clinton). I'm desperate for that "change", to see what this country is like when there's not some hillbilly running it.

Although to Bush's defense, i was here for less than a year when 9/11 happened, and naturally that's created a profound impact on this country. So i really don't have much opinion on what the US was like before that...all I know is what it's like since, and what I want changed.

**Disclaimer2: i'm not saying i'm pro-Barack vs. the other candidates...i'm simply saying why I like him if i think about him relative to the current president and how he'd do in that role.

When it rains, it pours!

You know how some people have one car problem after another? Well it seems we have computer problem after another.

A year ago we swapped out the old "main" family computer for Kraig's somewhat old Dell computer (it was better...it just wasn't being used because Kraig had a laptop from work he was using). STored the Old Main in the closet.

Computer Status at this time: the Dell, his work laptop, and this ghetto old laptop i've got.

Earlier this year kraig got a new job, so he got one of those Western Digital "MyBook" things (over $200) to put the stuff from his work computer, his work laptop on...well after the IT guy at his old company erased those systems, the MyBook crapped out.

Kraig called WD but basically they said they could give him a new one (it was brand new), but that wasnt the point...the information ON it is what's important.

I took it into my IT guy at work and he said that the disk inside won't spin, he popped off the case and tried to attach it to a regular computer...basically, it was dead. Kraig then looked into a storage recovery thing but those are CRAZY expensive 'cause they have to wear bunny suits and look all fancy to protect the disk when they try to recover the info.

Computer status at this time: The Dell, the ghetto laptop, and an unusable WD storage device.

Then the ghetto laptop got f*cked up REALLY badly. It kept crashing, then restarting, and the only way to get it to stop this cycle was for it to repeat it and let the battery die out. I had to re-install windows from scratch (have you ever tried doing that? It took HOURS. And wiped out everything I had). It still doesn't work great, I get a blue screen about once an hour, so it's good for random web surfing and that's it. Remember the blue screen of death days? It's even WORSE when you get it without having Windows 95.

THEN the Dell crapped out...it gets stuck at the main Windows bootup logo thing...so this morning Kraig and I had to put the Old Main one back in ('cause i've got stuff I need to do that requires a steady system, knock on wood).

Computer status at this time: a Dell that won't work, a ghetto laptop that barely works, an unusable WD storage device, and an Old Main computer that seriously it like working on my old skool Pentium 75.

THEN...THEN...just NOW...i was printing shipping labels for my ebay stuff when my printer crapped out. By "crapped out" i mean, it shorted out. I can unplug it and replug it in and get a flicker of light for a second and that's it.

I LOVE THAT PRINTER. It's an HP LaserJet 4, one of the best printers ever made. That thing is at least 15 years old and has held up SO well. If you go online it still gets the best reviews for printers, and that sucker is still used in businesses. LOVE LOVE LOVE this printer.

So what do I have now?
A super crazy old slow Old Main family computer and the use of my HP inkjet. The inkjet is fine but it's not ideal, for the cost of replacing ink in that sucker I might as well buy a brand new laser printer. Plus i'm a Printer Snob: inkjets, deskjets, whatever, they're unacceptable. It's laser or nothing.

Do i pay to fix the HP? Do I get a new laser? Either way, it'll cost $$...which is ironic since it shorted out while i was trying to print out shipping labels for stuff on ebay IN ORDER TO MAKE MONEY...argh. One step forward, eight steps back.

Cooking with that ghetto free Costco cookbook

Over the holidays Costco gave away this cookbook using, naturally, costco-specific products (which isn't too hard to substitute). Cookbooks are like serious food porn...i could pour over the pages, salivating, oggling, for hours...and repeat it frequently.

I decided today to give two recipes a whirl: the meatloaf and the apple-cheese soup.

The soup (link to cookbook, go to page 77): it's actually pretty tasty, except I added extra mustard powder and tabasco, since I generally think recipes are very bland in flavor (I feel pretty confident in my spice-skills, since a coworker pointed out that whatever I bring in always has the right amount of spices...which I tend to triple in a given recipe). Oh and I used that fat-free oil (Enova) instead of butter, since the whole planet knows I've got an aversion to butter. Only problem is that I was cooking while reading and missed hte part that said to peel the apples before putting them in...ahh well, it still tastes pretty spiffy.

You wouldn't think a cheese-apple soup would be good, but you gotta use granny smith apples which makes it very tangy.

Healthy Mini Meatloaves: (link to cookbook, go to page 147) this is my first ever meatloaf, to be honest I've never really had meatloaf before (unless a bite off someone's plate once counts). It's good, VERY easy to make, except this is what I would change:
- don't bother with the muffin concept...i dunno, maybe i'm weird, but i think a traditional old skool meatloaf format would be better.
- I added like 5 times the thyme and i would definitely not hesitate to be liberal with that. Plus I would add even MORE pepper than the boatloads that i added. Turkey's not exactly the most flavorful meat.
- I would really, REALLY chop finely the mushrooms and onions...even maybe puree them (if i had a mini food processor...not worth whipping out the big one...heh heh that sounded perverted), i don't like big chunks of stuff in my food.

Overall, considering it's Costco, it's a very good cookbook. Instructions are clear, recipes may look like they take alot of ingredients but they're all basic stuff nothing crazy (One thing I hate about Rachel Rey's stuff is that they usually need some white whine...wtf i don't keep white wine laying around, let alone waste the rest of the bottle...not a white wine fan)....

Time to get my Girls Next Door and Snoop Dogg's Fatherhood on...

Movie Review: Au Revoir Les Enfants

I have no idea why I added this movie to our Netflix queue, I think I read somewhere that it was really, REALLY good.

Ummm...riigghtt.

Maybe part of the problem is that I turned the subtitles off, and the last time I saw a movie in French without subtitles was in high school. I speak (or at least, have the caveman vocab skills) Quebec French, not France French, which makes it harder in general to understand the movie. Also doesn't help that I moved from an English/French country 7 years ago to an English/Spanish country...lord help me if I had to speak French under duress, i'd be hosed.

So the movie is about a kid (Julien) who has to go to some private catholic boys' school during WWII. While there he befriends a Jewish kid (Jean Bennet). Then the germans come and take the kid away. That's it. Seriously. THAT'S IT.

Oh did I ruin it for you?! I don't see how this movie won all sorts of awards. The scenes were too long and there was ALOT of scenes that were pointless. Julien gets lost in a forest...i swear that was half the movie. How many scenes of a frightened kid with a camera circling him do you need to make to convey the point that he's lost?!

At any given moment I was waiting for the Germans to come in and do some brutal shooting (doesn't help that i saw Smoking Aces the night before, so my brain was in full-on Gratuitous Violence mode) but it didn't happen. I thought maybe one of the Catholic priests was gonna have his way with the boys, but that didn't happen either. There wasn't even any Boy On Boy action (at best, two boys were scoping out some porn before taking a shower).

If you're in the mood for a slow-paced foreign movie with little point, then I guess I recommend it.

Note: This movie is based on the director's personal experience. Personal experiences don't always make for good movies. You know what I did today? I woke up, had a cookie for breakfast, checked out my email, took a shower, went grocery shopping, prepped dinner, then watched the movie. You don't see me making a frickin' movie! HA or maybe I should...i'm sure i'd win some foreign movie for what is otherwise known as My Random Sunday.

Yeah! New template layout!

Well you probably don't notice anything, but I was using an older template and now I finally got Blogger to update it so I can start adding "modules"...note the new module on the right, where you can view by topic. That being said, clearly that would have required me to add a label topic for each and every blog entry I've ever done, and there's 559 of 'em.

I attempted to go through and update them until I realized (probably around 9 entries in) that that's ALOT of work. Even if you do a search by topic. So...suck it. It'll take awhile. And i highly doubt anyone's going to be reading by topic anyway.

Dammit, now I gotta create a label for THIS entry.

Letter to the Editor

How come you never told me that Ryan Reynolds and Alanis broke up. I thought for sure being that you love him and hate them being together would have blogged about that! I had to find out on yahoo in the best 10 best breakups of 2007!

LOL. They broke up in February, but that was their "No, for realz this time, we're broken up" which never counts. So they broke up long before that in mid-2006, which I'm pretty sure I blogged about 'cause it was about effing time.

Oh speaking of Alanis...

My hatred of Alanis runs deep. She's from Ottawa, I'm from Ottawa, and most people in Ottawa (at least, before I moved) can't stand her either. She developed a pretty bad reputation from the get go as a teen diva. Since she was our only celebrity rumors run rampant. She also went to the same high school as a then-friend of mine and I found it absolutely insane that Alanis taught my friend's Sex Ed class (Alanis was in OAC/Grade 13 at the time, my friend was in 9th).

The second-final straw that made me dislike her was purely my own fault: at 14, I went to the mall with Stacey, Erin, and Mandi...and bought Alanis' tape. TAPE. WTF. You know how much it cost me? $18.99 at Music World. The minute I made that purchase I regretted it. Why did I buy it you ask? Because *gasp* Alanis was at the mall signing autographs! How on earth could I pass up THAT opportunity of a lifetime?!

I always vowed to one day sell the damn thing and finally last week I did. After the purchase and some skimming off the top from s&h fees, I'd say I made around $8 from it. That's $8 US...oh wait, the US dollar means nothing relative to the Canadian dollar, plus factor in the cost of just having invested that $18.99 (that doesn't even include crazy canadian taxes)...yeah I took a pretty big loss on that purchase.

Then...the FINAL straw...when she started boning Ryan Reynolds.

Damn you Alanis! Damn you all to hell!

The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches

It seems that there's a "community" if you will of compiled personal finance blogs (do a search for "pf blogs" and it'll come up. Anyway, I came across one websites review of The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches by Jeff Yeager.

Apparently the author has 6 rules for "ruling your gold":
1. Live within your means at thirty, and stay there.
Well I'm 30 and I think I'm living within my means. But I have massive debt (the house, the cars) but then again, other things get paid in full (credit card bill, property taxes, etc). The blog that I found this from mentioned living the way you did at 25...well at 25 my rent was $1710/month for a 700sq.ft. apartment...no wait that was when I was 23. At 25 my rent was $1400 for a two bedroom two bathroom apartment (hmmm but split with two people, that's only $700 each). If you split what Kraig and I pay, it's around $1400 each...but that's for interest-only which I guess is the same as renting...anyway, forget how you lived at 25. At 25 I didn't have life insurance, disability insurance, homeowner's insurance (renter's insurance is wayyy cheaper)...but true, there's no reason to exceed the lifestyle we have now.

2. Never underestimate the power of not spending.
Oh trust me, I don't underestimate that at all...there's times I'll be at target with a full basket of crap only to later walk out with just a bottle of conditioner. I can talk myself out of any purchase, and I actually get a sense of pride when I do that.

3. Discretion is the better part of shopping.
Once again, this isn't that hard to do. It's pretty easy to look at an item and assess if you NEED it vs. if you WANT it, and where you can find it cheaper. Heck, I have never bought Holiday cards full price, I buy all my holiday crap on December 26th. So doing good so far.

4. Do for yourself what you could have others do for you.
This is a huge deal for me, because I know so many people who hire people to do stuff. I can't justify hiring a maid as much as I'd love to...because we don't even have kids and we're not here during the day to mess up the house, I can't justify paying someone for a skill (cleaning) that I already own. Which is also why I tried my hand at plumbing, and why I still have outdoor motion-detector lights sitting in my office (I know Kraig and I could install them ourselves but since it's electrical, I figure it would help to read ALOT on it first). Every time I've caved and hired someone it's been a huge feeling of defeat, but then again it's also been a necessity (and every single time, at least we tried!)

5. Anyone can negotiate anything.
Now this is where I have problems. If it's something that I used to do (say, banking or retail), then negotiating is not a problem. Other than that however, I'm pretty useless. I tend to take a "oh well, I tried" attitude the minute I get shot down. I remember going garage-saling in the bay area and I had to get Marlene to negotiate a price for me, 'cause I was just too chicken to do it. WTF, too chicken to offend a garage sale woman over something for a buck?!! Definitely need to improve on this tactic.

6. Pinch the dollars, and the pennies will pinch themselves. This is the message that Elizabeth Warren preaches: limit your spending on the big things (like your mortgage), and you won’t have to worry so much about saving money on groceries.
Hmmm well this isn't so easy. The mortgage and cars have already been purchased, and there really was no way we could get around the house situation (we were being pushed out and naturally we didn't know we would single handedly stop the housing market). Plus with my car, I knew that I would have it for at least 15 years so certain factors were important (getting the limited edition so that we could get the dual temperatures...VERY important on long drives to the bay area!). I guess other than having to buy those items (2 cars, 1 house) we've done okay. Heck, I don't even visit my own family because of the cost of airfare. We recently stayed at a super ultra posh Hyatt Regency for only $60 because of Priceline (that would have cost us alot more if I had done something like hotels.com or even gone straight to Hyatt's website). So...I think in the grand scheme it's not too hard to watch yer dough with the big purchases, and if you make them odds are it's out of necessity.
Or maybe just 'cause I'm a chick...i can't imagine buying a house or a car on a whim.


There’s a lot more to The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches. Yeager covers topics like:

* Eating well for cheap. (Yeager tries to buy food that costs less than a dollar per pound.)
* Buying a sensible home and then repaying the mortgage as soon as possible.
* Commuting without a car.
* Cheap entertainment. Yeager encourages readers to make the most of their hobbies.

Ultimately, the message of this book is that stuff will not make you happy. Happiness comes from knowing when you have enough. In his final chapter, Yeager stresses the importance of amassing a quality of life over a quantity of stuff. “Many choices you must make [involve] the trade-off between money and time,” he writes. “By being cheap…you’re valuing time and the things you can do with it more than money and the things you can buy with it.”

Well I'd say I eat cheap, considering my lunch is usually just canned soup and I try to make Kraig a lunch as often as possible...and if we eat out it's courtesy of the Entertainment Book. As for buying a sensible home...yeah well this is southern california. Paying it off will never happen in anyone's lifetime. Commuting without a car is also impossible in southern california, unless I want to take the bus at 5am for a 12 mile commute and most likely get assaulted along the way. Cheap entertainment...lots of tv and Netflix, yeah!

No...it can't be...over...

It's one hour till Sunday, which means there's only a few days in my Xmas vacay left...

Oh the humanity, no! My anxiety is already creeping up. Which maybe contributes to why I screamed at my husband like a madman (madwoman) this morning for using the stupid built-in cutting board instead of a regular dishwasher-friendly cutting board.

Anxiety = bad.

Watched a few DVDs over this holiday...

Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later
I really enjoyed 28 Days Later, mostly because it's concept of a "rage virus" was a fresh take on the usual zombie movies. It doesnt' make sense that dead people attack live people and can move like an athlete on steroids; it does make sense that there's a virus that makes you do crazy sheeot.

Let's just say the original movie is like an Academy Award winning movie compared to the sequel.

The is that 28 weeks later the world decides that you can go back to England because the last of the infected have died of starvation. First off, no one in their right mind would think less than a year later is okay to go back. Secondly, you wouldn't bring back civilians....oh but then you wouldn' thave a movie if you didn't have some retarded civilians effing everything up...

Anyway, I won't even bother with the rest of the review except to say that it's the usual monster comes after the good guys, good guys keep running, monsters keep chasing them, repeat repeat.

Movie Review: Smoking Aces
I was really excited to see this movie, for two reasons:
1. A crapload of people told me it was incredible. I forgot that a crapload of people = masses, and masses of people are generally morons.
2. Ryan Reynolds is ridiculously hot.

The gist of the movie is that there's one dude that has a hit out on him, and the pricetag to whoever can kill him and get his heart is a million bucks. So we follow various groups of hitmen (plus two hit women) plus the FBI agents who are also out to find him before he runs.

Jeremy Piven, who's normally a total blowhard, is VERY good as an egotistical magician who's going nuts in his hotel room knowing that people are out to get him.

And the tales of all the quirky-yet-lovable-or-uber-cool hitmen were very entertaining.

My main beef was the very end...totally predictable AND boring...like they couldn't come up with something else. Except the DVD shows they DID have an alternate ending, which was equally bad.

So...if you don't care about the very end, then I guess it's pretty entertaining. Would have been nicer to have some great fight scenes, instead of just straight-up fight scenes. And you can't go wrong with Ryan Reynolds, beard or no beard. And the DVD outtakes were pretty good.

And because I can, a gratuitous picture of Ryan Reynolds:


I've got out on Netflix "Strangers with Candy" and "Au Revoir Les Enfants", so hopefully those will live up to the hype.

New Year's Goals

Now that I'm on this hardcore thing to reduce the home equity loan, I've found some fantastic websites on cash, frugality, and other random stuff about the almighty dollar. One of these days i'll get around to posting them.

So here's the unofficial 2008 New Year's Goals. The key here is that a given month's goals may be swapped for another month's goals. And any of these goals may get shifted based on a pending trip to Ottawa/Toronto.

Jan
- fill out that Insurance Inventory kit thing I got (doesn't serve much point to have replacement insurance if you can't prove you have the stuff in the first place)
- continue ebaying mags (50% of the remaining amount)

Feb
- ebay the remaining magazine lot
- fill out the Life Doc info

March
- paint kitchen cabinets

April
- paint kitchen cabinets (2 month project...because i know i'm lazy)

May
- paint kitchen walls
- sand, fill in holes, paint front door

June
- complete my other website about cube life(it's already up if you're bored but it's nowhere near complete, email me for the link 'cause i'm not posting it here)

July
- paint upstairs hallway

Aug
- read all the French books i've got (figure this is a good summer goal with beach reading and all that)

Sept
- paint the door trim and handrail
- Liz's wedding (not really a goal so much as a reminder to not do anything crazy this month)

Oct
- complete Kraigart.com for my sweetie

November and December
Free, or to use to complete any of the other stuff that didn't get wrapped up.

And of course, pay down that damn home equity loan.

Bhutto....

So yesterday I was in complete shock over her death...having family in Pakistan, I think i knew how Benazir Bhutto was before I knew who the prime minister of Canada or the US president was...

Since I don't have much to say since i'm so shocked, I figured people would get a kick out of my mom's comment on the situation:

as one political analyst said ... bhutto was not what the west made her out to be, she was corrupt just like the rest of them. blackmailed, imprisoned and tortured her opponents, had her brother killed who started his own political party, stole 2 billion $ from the pakistan treasury while in power. her husband looted pakistani museums selling artifacts on the black market amongst other things. both hardcore criminals and rotten to the core i would say.

I'm usually amazed how far out there my mom's opinions are, but I have to admit...I actually kind of dig that she has the complete opposite opinion of mainsteam north americans. Maybe that's why I like to play devil's advocate at times, because I grew up hearing both sides of a given situation. Obviously Bhutto is being hyped up, there's no denying it...but I'm not going to believe she outright had her brother killed.

Food for thought. Hmmm, maybe we should make that Exercise for Thought, 'cause seriously my brain does NOT need more food. It needs its cellulite-laden ass to get itself to the gym.

The ghetto avenue boys

So I updated my blog template to display a tracker for the 2008 home loan paydown (which is kind of cheating because it includes stuff paid down from this year...but whatever). Scroll all the way down to the end if you're curious to know the status.

If you don't buy clothes or purses that would sure save you at least an extra $200-$300 a month...right?

Good Lord Marlene! :P I think I spent that much a YEAR! But I'm glad I've got support, 'cause I'm gonna need it this upcoming year that's for sure...

Can't believe 2007 is almost over...i can't believe it'll be THIRTY ONE next year...

Bryan: you still owe me pics of your place...

I resolve to create a resolution

The year is coming to an end...and its time to start thinking of NY's resolutions.

There was the year where I vowed to be more refined...didn't really succeed. Suck it.

Then I believe last year I decided to do "monthly goals" which I really liked, but then it got sidetrakced with the goal of getting my PMP certification (which I did get, so I achieved that yearly goal).

Now i'm sitting here wondering what to do for 2008. I'm inspired by AJ Jacobs who went a year trying to follow the bible as close as possible (A Year of Living Biblically...i've got his other book on how he read Encyclopdia Brittanica cover to cover, he's hilarious) so I wondered...what is something that i should do for one year...like my own social experiment?

The only thing I could think of would be: no clothes, shoes, or purses for all of 2008. That's doable, and it goes into the next part of the goal for 2008: I need to pay at least $15K extra towards my home equity loan or else we're in a world of hurt. Yay for the housing debacle. Anyway, back to the no clothes purchase for 2008. For any weddings I have to go to I've got plenty of things I can wear, and I guess if my black boots wear out then I can pay to repair them because I truly do love them.

But...then I remembered that I really wanted to take advantage of spring ski sales and I do need a ski jacket and ski pants...well by "need" i mean, "I have skis and i've only gone skiing ONCE in the past 7 years and to do that i had to borrow someone else's apparel which isn't gonna fly anymore".

So now i'm wondering...can I just say i'll go the entire year not buying shoes, purses, or clothes EXCEPT for one ski jacket and ski pants? That's not exactly an impulse or frivolous purchase, I've been meaning for years to do that.

However, if i truly want to be frugal I could wear the coat and snowpants (oh yes, they're "snowpants") that I had when I was like 14, which is this bright purple and blue coat with bright purple snowpants. They're not stylish, but they're what i wore skiing as a kid (then again, i also wasn't that warm in them...but i do have my old Columbia ski jacket but the zipper broke...but that's also an excuse, i've got workarounds tot he zipper situation you can still zip it up...just not easily...anyway).

So...that's one thought to consider.

The next part is what I already mentioned...$15K has to be paid down on the home equity (i.e. $30K over two years according to my COuntrywide guy)...which is no easy task when you need to spend your year saving $6K just for flippin' property taxes. And that's not really a "resolution" as much as a "fo' sho' you better pay down that loan or else you're homeless"...

OR...i could go back to the monthly goals. Like as a result of the PMP certification there's something that goes along with that (that i won't post) that i'd LIKE to get accomplished at the very latest by end of February, but that's not necessarily up to me...but like one month to paint the kitchen cabinets...another month to paint the upstairs hallway...another month to paint the kitchen itself...another month to do something once and for all with the garage (although i'd like to epoxy the floors, buying that stuff will take away from the $15K that needs to go to the equity), another month to read all the french books i keep meaning to read, another month to truly clear out the spare bedroom (i'm working on it, it involves ALOT of ebaying)...

I also found this website (Weekend Cookbook Challenge) that inspired me...basicallyt he gist is that you gotta open up a cookbook of yours and make one thing in a weekend. As someone who's got a desk job, that's not an easy task...heck, my biggest challenge is going grocery shopping because I can't stand doing it after work, and there's only so much you can buy in advance without it getting spoiled (and becuase it's just kraig and I, lots of times i waste stuff...like 1/4 of onions leave 3/4 to get wasted pretty easily). But i really do enjoy cooking, and I'd like to do more of it.

I could also take Nicole's advice and add to this NY's resolution list to "Join forces with your brother to better manage parental unit guilt trips." which is a fantastic idea...

Stay tuned. The key to a successful NY resolution is to not make it too big where it's easy to fail, but important enough to where you'll want to stick it it.

Kahhh Toe Mahhh Tayy!

Get outta my head

I swear, sometimes I should be shot for my horrible taste in things.

I actually kinda dig this video (mostly because poor Ashley doesn't realize that most people don't know that this is based off a series of paintings from the Salvador Dali museum) and the song...it's awful actually, it really is,b ut it reminds me of some bad early 80s music and purely for nostalgic purposes...i kinda dig it.

Feel free to beat me with my own limbs next time you see me.

Defensive Pessimism

In case it's not super obvious, I have mass amounts of anxiety and I worry like crazy. This used to bother me quite a bit...it's not normal to be in constant Chicken Little mode.

Eventually this year I finally realized that this kind of panicking and anxiety has served me VERY well over my life. Its lead me to be prepared for things that most other people aren't (emergency fund for layoffs, getting an advanced medical directive all set up so i'm not eating cream of mushroom soup if i'm in a coma, etc).

Yesterday I found this article about how bad that kind of attitude is, and that it's possible to still think ahead without the extreme anxiety.

There's a name for the kind of worry that contributes to a positive outcome: defensive pessimism.

DEFENSIVE
PESSIMISM

LOVE
IT!

It's not like it's easy to overcome this kind of thinking. All it takes is ONE incident to validate your feelings. I'm also mildly obsessive compulsive (i need need NEED need doors to be locked)...one time we stayed in a hotel in Florida, all of us with our passports in there, and i ran back down the hall to double-check the door...well turns out, the ghetto hotel's lock was busted and we ended up not only switching rooms, but switching hotels (they accused US of breaking the door...uh it's a key swipe system how do you break that?)...We all would have been effed (Christine and Noel in terms of traveling back to Canada, me with my TN visa in there) if something had happened as a result.

I say, EMBRACE your anxiety. Sure it'll eventually lead to heart disease and an ulcer, but you've already prepared for it so it's not that big of a deal.

When I planned for my wedding, I was one sack o' anxiety for 9 months straight. STRAIGHT. The day of however, even my makeup artist commented onhow i was the most relaxed bride she's ever seen. Both random and orderly panicking had served its purpose; it allowed me to feel like I had controlled everything that could be controlled and barring a tornado, nothing could throw me for a loop.

Part of being a good anxiety-driven patient is to find the most out there "what ifs" beyond what is right in front of your face. Even if I won the lottery and could afford laser eye surgery, the reason I don't is because knowing my luck, that's when there'll be a super bad earthquake. Power outages aren't a problem, but the earth shifting causing that laser to just go "eeeeeebzzzzz" off my eye onto my head is a serious concern.

(This is also a concern with permanent makeup, which I discussed with someone yesterday when I said why I wouldn't ever get tattooed eyeliner, no matter how affordable).

Plus there's also an extreme anal-retentive side to its success. The instant I have to call anyone for tech support, customer support, whatever, I immediately write down their name and the exact time of the call. Now you KNOW the odds are already stacked against you when you have to call customer support for something (especially if it's related to billing and/or fees), so it helps your cause to have the exact individual you can later blame.

Yes, 2008 will be the year where I think I shall EMBRACE my flaws...you say poe-taytoe, I say poh-tah-toem, you say flaw, I say defensive pessimism.

Letter to the editor...

Good Morning
I have book marked and rea your blog now and then. I alwayds find it interesting as a study in the pysche of a young californian feeling old; a feminine perspective on 2007 American culture; an insight into the power of the media to shape values; a psychological study of reflective/non-reflective thoght.

Your blog (and I say it with kindness) also reflects all the narcissism of our age; all the insecurities of woman; the selfish little world in which we can all incubate and from which we can view the world.

The broad range of your reading and the eclectic nature of it, suggests an amoeba, which is warm and still in a petri dish, and moves only when its' comfort is distorted or it experiences some temperature change. It is really all about you, isn't it?

The gossiping nature, critical eye, and empty interests suggest America is lost to your generation, if there are more of you then them.

Uhhh...I have no idea wtf the point of this is. But i will say..."my generation" is a generation of working people who have to deal with the knowledge that unlike our parents, we will have to fight our way through our career job after job after job with no pension plan...our generation is one that is cynical knowing that social security MIGHT be there NOT when we're 65, but 67.5...that we're effed up the A if we get sick because insurance is a complete joke...

Not sure what you mean by "lost"...lost HOW? That kind of philosophical BS is the very reason why many a Poly Sci graduate eventually realized they had to get a real job so they transferred into programs that would give them true skills. Is america really going to get lost? Will no one know what is it? Will it become, in a single generation, a useless third world country? Or is it (most likely) going to keep chugging along as it always has because this isn't f*cking Lord of the Flies?!

And may I remind you Moderator...I'm Canadian. Unless you have a fear of 30-something Canadians taking over the US, you can sleep well at night knowing your precious country is going to be the same in 5 years as it was 5 years ago.

I do have a critical eye...I don't think that's a sign of my generation, I think that's a sign of ME. I was born to criticize...if I could get paid to tell people they're doing stuff wrong then I'd be a millionaire. I have turned many a man from a self-confident warrior into a weeping pussycat.

As for "gossiping", that's purely a sign of anyone with a desk job. The day Anna Nicole Smith died, I got more emails than I did if the company CEO died. I don't think that's a bad thing...we're a generation stuck at our desks but have constant access to mass media, our own lives are boring as hell so we turn to the personal lives of entertainers to add some excitement to the part of our brains that are overworked and in dire need of fluff. Britney Spears' behavior to me is the same as Young & The Restless for the generation before us.

AND FINALLY...yeah of course it's "all about" me...that's why it's a f*cking blog. It's always all about the writer of the blog, that's why it's called Random Thoughts and Gripes (who's thoughts did you think they would be?!), if you want to read about other people go to...uh People.com. My blog is about MY thoughts.

That being said, much like Kathy Griffin, I absolutely adore feedback (both bad and good), I adore other people's viewpoints posted on my blog for a fresh perspective,so bring it on beotches! Especially now that I've got more time to post post post and make the world just a wee bit dumber as a result.

My guilty pleasure

Okay. I admit it. I ADMIT IT. I've been watching NBC's Clash of the Choirs.

To my defense, I only recorded it last night because I wanted to see Nick Lachey. Turns out, I LOVE IT.

I LOVE IT and i'm not afraid to say it!

Basically the gist is that you've got 5 famous singers who get to hand pick their own choir from their hometown, compete, and the winner gets to put a boatload of dough towards some local charity.

I was positive Nick's team was gonna lose after their first performance last night...Kelly Rowland's choir did frickin' phenomenal singing George Michael's Freedom. Fer real, it gave me chills. Even doing a search for the video online today, it was clear that Kelly Rowland's choir kicked ass.

And now...here I am in front of the tv...and who got the least votes and won't be singing tonight? Team Rowland! In favor of frickin' Michael Bolton's stupid choir! (okay, they did pretty good with Living on a Prayer but still).

i'm playing the race card and saying it's because Kelly Rowland is BLACK. Do you hear me people?! America you're a bunch of racist mutha effas....how dare you not support AFRICAN AMERICAN KELLY ROWLAND!

Ummm okay well Patti LaBelle is also on the show...so maybe there's not much validity in my ranting.

**Edited to add: listening to Michael Bolton's choir right now...they sound like a bunch of cheesy karaoke singers. Grumble.

Who's yo baby daddy?

Well since it came out that Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant, I think it's time someone puts the smackdown on Hollywood's baby antics.

1. Stay together at least the length of the pregnancy.
Yeah Tom Brady, I'm looking at you. K-Fed, you're guilty too don't try to creep away in that Ferrari that you bastardized with new rims. Guys, I get it...one minute you're with the hottest piece of ass in LA, next minute you've got a bloated beluga with bad acne yelling at you for not knowing what a diaper genie is...But you gotta tough it out or else you'll become your own gamekiller.

Okay you probably won't be. But you might be.

2. Don't play mum.
It seems that hollywood starlets want to keep some things private. Are you effing kidding me? You get paid NOT for your wonderful acting ability (ever hear how Hillary Swank won an Oscar but couldn't afford her prescriptions?!), you get paid because of what we think of you. WE OWN YOU. And as your boss, I'm required to know if you've had sperm penetration sans birth control. Maybe that violates labor laws, but you should have thought of that before getting violated by Mr. A-Lister.

3. Stylists work for pregnant chicks too.
This is mainly for Britney...I don't think anyone else has broken this rule. Even Nicole Richie looks adorable with whatever her stylist put together for her. And how can anyone forget how Gwen Stefani looked? You may be young, but a fetus means you can't wear fishnets, stripper heels, and anything that looks like you should be a two cent whore.

Hell, even Old Navy's pregnancy clothing is more stylish than the crap that Britney used to wear.

4. Enough with the lavish baby showers!
You're having a baby, not curing f*cking cancer. WTF kind of lesson are you teaching your bastard baby by lavishing them with overpriced blankies and pacifiers covered in bling?! It's just GAUDY. Your baby is not your excuse to be all "oh you got the deluxe edition stroller? I got the uber platinum edition, they only made ten..."...

Christina, that means you. What the hell is this, the opening of a Macy's?!


5. Most important of all...DON'T YOU PEOPLE USE BIRTH CONTROL?!
There's many a college girl who's on the pill. There's many a college dude who carries a crapload of condoms. Why? Because they have too much to lose by having spawn. In an industry that isn't forgiving of sabbaticals, stretch marks, weight gain, and all around flaws, you'd think every chick would get her tubes tied.

Jessica Alba...you're gorgeous. You're flawless. Sadly, you also can't act your way out of a paper bag ("Honey" anyone?! And don't think you got Fantastic Four 'cause of your acting chops). Sure hope you banked your previous paychecks 'cause your career is OH VEE EE ARE...

Random thoughts for the day...

It's midnight on Saturday night...good times eating like a mofo at Carrie's dessert party.

Some very random thoughts that are going through my grey matter.

I noticed that Sandra Lee looks like an older version of Heidi Montag:


Or that Rachael Ray looks alot like an older version of Rachel Leigh Cook:


It's really quite odd to not have true seasons. Even living in Northern California, there's some distinction between say fall and winter. It's a very chick-thing, but I'm kinda depressed that I can't wear a good chunk of my sweaters. It just never gets cold enough here for the super warm and think sweaters.

Now if you're from California this probably seems retarded to you, but it's really REALLY odd to me that I have sweaters that I haven't worn since I moved here because it's just never cold enough. It's like...going through each year with something missing that you used to experience on a yearly basis...it's just ....bizarre. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.

More bitching...

Can someone please tell Rachael Ray that her show's new backdrop is ridiculously hideous? The orange cupboards and green tiles are an insult to my optometric senses. Then there's the weird filter on the camera. It's like the frame rate is slightly slower so the picture is never in focus. The worst of it all (well actually I think the frame rate is probably the worst) is that the camera dude won't just sit the eff still and shoot her normally (uh take that as you will)...it's like he's perpetually jumping around...makes me nauseous.

Just for ol' time sake...anyone remember this FHM shoot?

Girl can't be sexy even when she tries...

Tomorrow I gotta buy $500 worth of toys for this toy drive i'm in charge of...for someone who's not a fan of the holidays, I sure get suckered into alot of festive crap. Santa can suck my balls.