Comfort zone*

I try to blog daily, and some days, it's easier to come up with topics than others. On days like today though, I find it difficult to come up with a respectful transition from talking about tragedy -- whether it's the tsunami or the death of a friend or a concentration camp -- to something more light-hearted. Sometimes, I wonder if I should make this blog more one-note -- maybe a shrill liberal manifesto, or maybe I'll only talk about the things I did or link various interesting news items with no commentary whatsoever -- it would certainly make it easier to move from topic to topic without feeling I'm disrespecting the previous topic.

I blog on the fly -- a brain dump, if you will. The topic closest to my heart at the moment I sit down at the keyboard is what appears here. I'm not sure what people like to read here or what they prefer, but then again, this blog is all about ME -- the only place in the world where things can be all about ME. In other words, I'm just not sure how to handle the kinds of situations, but I think it's important to talk about the world, the things that happened, but at the same time realize that bad things happen and then it's okay to laugh.

* Freshness: canned

Never again

I took this picture at Dachau, a concentration camp outside of Munich, in the spring of 2002; it is a memorial to those who died here and elsewhere and the banner reads 'Never again' in four languages.

Even though it was my second trip to a concentration camp and even though I already knew what I was in for, I still was not prepared for the overwhelming echo of suffering, of pain, and horror that must have gone on here. Auschwitz was but one of many concentration camps set up by Nazi Germany and it is the most infamous for over a million people died -- mostly Jews -- died in the gas chambers or by other methods, some of which are too horrible to even contemplate.



It is not easy to visit a concentration camp and see how terrible human beings can be to each other, but I recommend it; only by walking on such ground can you truly feel the true enormity of what happened.

Et je suis revenue
Ainsi vous ne saviez pas,
vous,
qu'on revient de là-bas

On revient de là-bas
et même de plus loin

-- Charlotte Delbo

In memory

Today, I found out someone whom I had worked with in college passed away last spring. Casey Kane was 28 and even though I haven't spoken to her since a couple years after graduation, I'm shocked and very sad to hear the news. She was one of my fellow editors at the Collegian and in some ways, we 'grew up' together. She came on staff a semester after I did, but we became section editors around the same time, and we ended up on night staff around the same time. I was always impressed by Casey's gumption. She went for Sports -- the only female on the staff for quite a while and she handled those guys like a pro when she became editor of the section. Casey knew how to fill that newsroom with her presence and she was just an amazing person. It just doesn't seem right she's not here any more.

Nope, not the first

I'm always amused by articles about blogging these days -- about how blogging is changing the media, going after journalists, and what a radical departure and oh the power, the POWER of blogging. I always have such a She-Ra moment after reading about just how powerful bloggers are becoming, but I come quickly down to earth when I remember this blog's credo: there will be NO breaking news in this blog, no bringing down high ranking members of either media or administration because I only played a journalist at work, not at home.

Jessica sent me today's relevant link: Chill out, bloggers. The article in general is fun, but this line made me smile: The printing press gave Luther a way to distribute his thesis - an early version of blogging. Next thing, we had Protestants. Now that's power.

Queued Up

Today, I ran to the post office near my office for what I thought was a quick mailing of packages -- 10 minutes, roundtrip, I thought confidently. I'd be back before anyone realized I was gone. Ha! But this was before I got to the post office and realized that lunch at this particular banch was at THREE O'CLOCK. And so there was only one person at the counter, and about two people in line waiting. I hereby propose the following theory: one postal worker + limited amount of time + people who need to mail complicated packages = standing in a line for a very, very, very long time.

The lady who was first in line had a platinum blond rat-tail, close-cropped salt and pepper hair and platinum-hued bangs. She was wearing blue jeans, with a wee bit of thong showing, and a cotton shirt. She held three packages, none of them labeled or addressed. She wanted them to go to the Big City to the West and she wanted them there by Saturday. "Will it get there by Saturday?" she asked. The postman said yes, of course, probably in a couple days. And then she considered. "Do you deliver on Saturday?" And forgive me for my unkindness, but I remember thinking, as she juggled her various packages, "Oh my goodness, I'm standing behind the one woman in America who has never ever used the mail system at any time in her life." To her credit, she did step aside to actually label her packages, and then the next guy went and he was just holding about six or seven envelopes.

I let out a sigh of relief too early, because apparently this guy, well, he didn't label his envelopes properly and he actually had the address wrong on one of them (actually, it kind of scared me when the post man said he knew every street address in the city by heart. This is a city of THREE MILLION PEOPLE AND 80 GAZILLION HIGHWAYS -- I barely know the streets around my area, let alone in a city that's considered among the largest in America). And also, every single one of those envelopes needed to be insured and delivery-confirmation. When that was finally finished, the first lady came back with her packages and now, she wanted to send one of the three packages Cash on Delivery.

I didn't even know the post office still did COD. I don't think the postman knew about COD either, because he kind of looked at her and said, "Huh?" And the lady answered, "Well, I want the recipient to pay me for whatever it would have cost me to send this package." And the postman just kept staring at her. And the lady explained it again. She wanted to mail the package with the works apparently -- insurance, delivery confirmation, express mail -- and I kept staring at the package wondering how something so flat could be worth $100 worth of insurance ( The Scream would be worth more than $100, though I'm not particularly fond of the painting myself).

Meanwhile, the line behind me kept growing. I stared at the clock. I'd been at the post office now for nearly 20 minutes and the postman was sitting there figuring insurance and all the post office works by hand (on a pink sticky, as a matter of fact). When I turned around, I saw a woman with a few packages, all labeled in bright blue market on all sides "John Smith" -- and this made me smile because I assumed she was sending care packages to her son who had just returned to school after the winter holiday break. The guy behind me kept looking at the two packages I was holding and I showed him the front, just to assure him that I'd already addressed them and all I needed was the postage.

Finally, COD lady was done and it was my turn. I gave him the packages and said, "Media mail, please." The postman stuck the postage on the packages and said, "Anything else? Delivery confirmation? Insurance?" And he looked relieved, so very relieved, when I said, "No, thank you." I managed to walk out of the post office at a rather sedentary pace, but the minute I was out the door, I ran for it. Note to self: platform heels are not made for running.

When commutes go bad

So, here's the deal. I've changed my job but my door-to-door commute stays about the same: 15 minutes. This commute is even simpler than my previous one; I drive west two blocks and then north 15 blocks. Easy, yes? I go to work one way and come home the other way. The way to work passes below a railroad bridge, the way coming home, I drive over the railroad tracks. Today, there was a train stuck there just hanging out with absolutely no thought to the fact that it was 5 pm and I was starving because it had been approximately 30 seconds since I had last eaten. So I turned around and went down the side street I had NEVER been down before. Now, smart people would have said, "Why didn't you go home the way you came to work?" My excuse is that my blood sugar had dropped perciptiously in the 30 seconds since I'd last eaten and my brain had left my skull and had already hopscotched over the non-moving train, leaving just me -- brainless and hunger -- in my car.

So I drove down the side street and took the first major street south that I could. All was going well, until I realized I would have to actually veer East, because the road I wanted to continue on was, well like every other street in this city, under construction. I could still see downtown so I figured, "No big deal, I'll just go that way." Until I realized downtown was to the west of me and so I was officially East of Downtown (tm). Now, if this was a horror flick, this is where the ominous music would start playing and this is where you, the audience, would start screaming at the screen at me saying, "Turn around! Go away! Don't you know there's a GUY WITH A MASK BEHIND THAT DOOR?" But of course, as all heroines in any horror flick do, I kept going EAST OF DOWNTOWN (tm). Just to put this in perspective, I was last East of Downtown (tm) over a year ago, when I was brand new to the city. I headed that way to see a fellow fangirl and when I went to work the next day and revealed that to my co-workers, they were aghast.

"You went EAST OF DOWNTOWN? You're the first person who know who has gone and come back ALIVE."

I am NOT kidding about the all caps. The all caps are part of the experience. My co-workers than elicited a promise from me to never, ever go anywhere without checking with them first. And until today, I was very good. I never went past downtown and hung out in my own little neighborhood.

I started to minorly freak when I came across blocks and blocks dilapidated warehouses, hotels and an abandonned house that had the words "KEEP OUT" printed on the corrugated aluminum siding covering the doors; the words were orange and I knew, without a doubt, they were talking to me. Fortunately, the next block I saw the exit for one of the 80 gazillion highways that intersect this city and even though my goal in life other than never going EAST OF DOWNTOWN (TM) is to stay OFF the highways at all costs, I took it. Not only did I take one highway, I took a second highway after that and breathed a sigh of relief. I was finally, finally back into my neck of the woods. No bright orange signs telling me to keep out here!

However, highway number two had some kind of back-up on the eastbound lane, and remember, my brain had already gone home without me, so when I exited, instead the turning on the road I usually take to go home when my commute hasn't gone so wildly wrong, I was like, "Let me drive along the highway..." Ha. Everyone else wanted to drive along the highway too becuase they didn't want to be stuck ON the highway. So surprised was I by the traffic that I didn't even realize when I'd gotten into the WRONG LEFT TURN LANE. And because of all the traffic, no one would let me back into the lane I needed to be in. Keep in mind, folks, I'm literally a block away from my apartment at this point and I've driven on this road a gazillion times and yet I still got into the WRONG LEFT TURN LANE.

So I ended up behind the bread factory and couldn't figure out how to get out. So I saw a parking lot that seemed to lead out to the road that I had wanted to turn left onto in the first place. So, being the smart person I am, I drove across the rutted, gravel pot-holed parking lot and ended up staring at MORE TRAFFIC. A nice guy in an SUV let me through (Thank you, Nice Guy in SUV!) and then I somehow, my heart in my throat, managed to cross two more lanes so I could take a left turn. Just to keep all of this in perspective, the bread factory faces the road I actually live on. So the fact that I had to turn right, and then make a left turn was just another annoyance -- especially since I had to sit through two cycles of the light. And then, when I finally got myself in the right place, I couldn't take a left turn because cars were blocking the intersection and so I ended up doing another U-turn so I could turn on the opposite end of the street.

I finally got home around 5:45 -- a full 45 minutes after leaving my office which is 15 minutes away. You'll all be pleased to know my brain was here to greet me on my arrival. Also, moral of the story: shortcuts ALWAYS work against you. And now, I need a margarita. So, how was your day?

Tech schmuck

I've called my ISP twice over the weekend to ask why oh why can't I post to the newsgroups? I can download messages just fine, but no posting. The first guy I talked to on Saturday was like, "Huh, we have newsgroups?" Now, I know newsgroups aren't as cool as blogs or mailing lists, but they exist and for God's sake, if you're tech support at a company that offers newsgroup access, shouldn't you know what they are? I called again today and the tech I got knew what newsgroups were but then said, "Oh, you have the wrong news server. We changed it." So I changed it to the new news server as directed and that worked even less good than the old allegedly defunct one.

When in doubt, go with your gut. So I deleted my newsserver account, re-added the old allegedly defunct server, so I knew password info etc., was correct and then I re-subbed to my groups. I still couldn't post, even though I was able to download messages, so I turned off my pesky firewall -- to no avail. So I thought I'd give it one more try and voila -- I figured it out. Basically, because of the multiple accounts I've set up through Mozilla, I have two seemag1@yahoo.com identities -- and even though you might think all seemag1@yahoo.coms are created equal, they are not! There is the regular email account through Mozilla and then there's the newsgroup identity and they shall never meet. Basically, I was trying to post to the newsgroup using the email seemag1@yahoo.com instead of the newsgroup seemag1@yahoo.com and therein lies the problem.

Yeah, I don't get it either. I'm just glad I can finally post again.

Buried

I've finally emerged from the piles of laundry that threatened to overtake my apartment. The fact that my apartment is nearly 900 square feet and there was some article of clothing etc., on nearly every square foot means I spent most of my time jumping from place to place and wondering when on earth was I ever going to dig myself out. The laundry piles, which include bedding and towels from my family's visit last weekend, were literally everywhere and spilling out into the kitchen at one point (laundry room is off the kitchen; I'd have preferred it off the bathroom, but whatever).

In addition to the dirty laundry awaiting its turn in the washer/dryer, I also had clean clothes lying flat to dry. I'm pretty sure, given the sheer number of piles -- clean and dirty -- some stuff got done twice. Here's the moral of the story: do not wait until the very last minute to do laundry because then you end up wearing white socks with black pants to work and you will spend the entire day hoping no one will notice. Also, you will spend the entire evening hopscotching, because laundry does not do itself or put itself away.

Two things

First, it's cold here. Some of you may say I'm a wimp, because it's surely not as cold where I am as where you are. I'm just saying, the competitive advantage of this gym-sock smelly highway spaghetti bowl barking dog police infested road rage driving city is the weather and having had to wear gloves and my winter coat four days in a row now, well, I think the weather is falling down on the job.

Second, see elk, see dog see dog in elk. Thanks to Rocky for the link.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Liberal bias in the media is one thing, but a lot of people complain about liberalism on college campuses as well. I've never actually understood the latter, because I believe if you have solid logic and reason for what you believe in, then the professor's bias should have no bearing on the way you think. Is it uncomfortable to hear your point of view assailed or questioned? Sure it is. And I admit, it's not easy spending your time with people who hold views that are polar opposites of your own. When I ended up on easily one of the most conservative campuses in America for my grad school, people were amazed. "Why would you go there? They will eat you alive!" was a common refrain, along with, "There is nothing to do in that town except drink." (BTW, this town is also where I developed a true appreciation for eating burritos the size of my head).

I kept my politics mostly to myself during the two years I was there. It was not easy to say no when a classmate kept asking me money for an anti-abortion group and it was certainly not easy to sit there when a professor harangued 'tree huggers' for nearly 10 minutes in the middle of what I thought was international marketing (not to mention, his endless tales about buying an oriental rug in Turkey. Please). Most of this stuff just rolled off my back because honestly, it was part of the learning experience. Annoying, yes, but it's always good to at least acknowledge there are other points of view out there. I think what got me was when I was shot down for expressing my view that the war in Iraq was a bad thing. There were only five or six of us in the class who were brave enough to say anything and the reaction was amazing and swift, because choosing to question the President's policy in itself was treason.

To me, that's the sad part of all of this polarization. People talk about bias, whether in media or on campuses, as if one opinion is the One True Way (tm) and there's no room for any other ideas. It's almost as if we think we'll be 'polluted' if we even come in contact with the other side and heaven forbid if we should ever be in a situation where we're forced to confront and examine our own beliefs.

Thoughts on the media

Kizmet made a comment here, and I'm responding here, because it's easier for me to think out of the comment box. I thought her comments on the integrity of news reporting and the validity of reporting were interesting. I think it goes without saying this is a liberal blog (g), and my second bias, which most of you don't know about is my strange affection for Dan Rather on the basis that I think he looks like my dad -- even though no one else thinks this. I've always watched Dan Rather because of that; so now you know -- I'm totally shallow about the way I chose my news media.

I used to be a journalist in a past life, so I understand just how important it is to hold on to your integrity and make sure you're reporting the facts. I am not saying in any way that Dan Rather and CBS didn't make a huge mistake in putting this story on the air and people got fired or resigned (and I believe Rather's departure in the spring is related to this story as well, no matter what CBS et al say). Still, CBS isn't the only organization to get their facts wrong -- it happens every single day in every single media because in the end, regardless of bias, media organizations are still human. I understand what feels like to think you have a scoop in your hand, the big story, and the adrenaline -- the idea you have something no one else has and what it will mean when you spill the news. It's a fast-paced environment and you have to run with it, because after all, being first to the wire can often be your media's selling point.

The report on the story from an independent panel says there was no political motivation behind the report, just the aforementioned adrenaline rush. Of course, there is no way any pro-Bush supporter (which I am not, obviously) will believe this. Just like no pro-Kerry supporter (like I was, obviously) will ever believe the Swiftboat Veterans for the Truth was anything but politically motivated.

Which, in the end, still does not excuse the media's softness on Iraq and the lack of WMDs. If the media is truly the watchdog it is, it should have gone after the administration harder, questioned harder about why we were over there; human lives ought to not have bias of any kind. The media's softness is one reason why so many people still believe Iraq was behind 9/11 -- before this war, no American had died at the hands of an Iraqi.

But here's the thing -- it doesn't matter who reports what or how often, because we, as consumers of media, will always take our information from sources we inherently agree with. We liberals (me included) will always read and believe Newsweek and the NY Times and we'll running screaming from the likes of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, etc., and the conservatives will always stick with FOX News and believe that Dan Rather et al are out to get the President. Just like there's no freedom of speech, there's no unbiased media. If CBS has to take hits for left bias, it's only fair FOX News be held accountable for its conservative slant.

On a lighter note, I am also heartily sick of the Aniston-Pitt marriage collapse. You know the media's gone overboard when there are now stories appearing talking about just how many stories were put on the break-up. If there was anything to knock a human tragedy on the scale of the tsunami off the front page, you know it'd have to be something with the far reaching consequences of Yet Another Hollywood Marriage Going Bust (tm). ::snore::

Also, did you all hear me squee last night? Michelle Kwan wins record-tying ninth title.

Happy birthday

The blog is four years old today. Here's the very first post.

Friday Round-Up

I have neglected to mention the so-called DeLay Rule has been repealed. It hurts me, readers, to have to mention something positive in conjunction with Tom DeLay's name, but I must, in the interests of being fair and balanced.

Also, most bloggers aren't journalists. My career as a professional journalist with Very Big Publishing Company nothwithstanding, what goes into this blog is very different than what I did on the job. Writing about one's cooking disasters or what one did all day does not a journalist make. Bloggers may be the brave new frontier, but do not discount the expertise and professionalism of journalists; there is still much to learn.

If the whole deal with private accounts and Social Security is Greek to you, check this artcle out; it's very informative and gives examples of exactly what it means if Social Security is privatized. Either way, fellow Gen Xers, we're out of luck.

The liberal media has fallen down on the job and failed to run with the utter lack of WMDs in Iraq. It boggles my mind how the fact these weapons haven't existed for decade or so and yet no one cares, despite that it was the flat-out insistence on the presence of WMDs that started the Iraqi war, which has cost countless lives. Yet, the so-called liberal media is falling all over itself to chastise one of its own -- Dan Rather. Dan Rather or no WMDs -- which is more important?

'Creationism' is now masquerading under the name of 'intelligent-design'. I have no problem if people prefer creationism over evolution; I understand it's a religious viewpoint. But because it is a religious viewpoint, it has no place in public schools. It can be taught at home or in a church. However, these days 'intelligent-design' is starting to gain foothold across America. It should come as no surprise I believe very strongly in evolution, for the science is indisputable. But don't take my word for it; National Geographic had a superb article not too long ago titled Was Darwin Wrong? The answer is 'no', and the magazine does a wonderful job of setting out the facts in a clear and articulate way. You have to subscribe to the magazine to read the whole article, but it's really worth it.

Places to go, things to read

I came across an article titled The Myth of Peak Oil today and it's long, but good and fairly easy to understand, even if you have absolutely no idea of how the markets work (or too much knowledge, as the case might be). I enjoyed the underlying cynical humor. To wit:

I doubt very seriously anyone at Exxon called the White House and said "invade Iraq for us so we can get exploration and production contracts." If there were commercial quantities of oil in Hell, Exxon executives would not call God and demand regime change. They would buy an extremely nice lunch for the Devil, and they would talk contract and concession terms.

That pesky First Amendment

Some of the bloggers who have 'signed' the Bloggers Bill of Rights have done so because they are concerned about their right to freedom of speech. Let's make one thing totally and perfectly clear: there is no such thing as freedom of speech, or at least not in the way most people want to think about it. People have the right to talk as freely as they want in the United States -- it's the consequences of that speech people don't want to deal with. People only talk about losing their 'freedom of speech' when they say something and as a result, there are consequences -- such as getting fired for blogging about your job, for instance.

When fanfiction.net stopped accepting NC-17/R fics a few years ago, people started saying their 'freedom of speech' had been taken away. No one stopped to think for a moment that fanfiction.net is a private enterprise and Xing, the webmaster, gets to make rules about what he will allow on his server. As a private citizen, he can do that, because see, the First Amendment refers to government, not to the private sector. It's like private organizations -- like say, the Boy Scouts or golf courses -- which can make legal decisions to restrict membership to homosexuals or African-Americans or women because they are private.

It comes down to this: your speech is 'free' as long as no one pays attention and no one cares. Once the words are out there, though, anything goes.

* Generically and generally speaking

Blogger Bill of Rights

The Queen of the Sky (aka the Delta Flight Attendant who got fired from her job for blogging pictures of herself; you can read it yourself here) has proposed a Bloggers' Rights bill. Lots of people are jumping on the proverbial bandwagon to sign up and you'd think my bleeding liberal lovin' heart would be right there too. But, believe it or not, I disagree about the whole idea of bloggers having special rights of free speech.

Here's the thing. When you choose to blog, you choose to become a public person. When you choose to blog, then you have to choose what you will or will not make public. The people in your life, they may or may not choose to go public with you and that's their right and ought to be respected. The same applies for the company you work for. Whether you name the company outright or not, whether you talk about your co-workers in a public forum or not, you take the risk of getting disciplined for what you say.

A company's reputation, the reputation of its workers, those are intangible assets that must be protected at all costs -- even if you think the information is only going out to a handful of people, it's still out there for the world to see. You can't just go around talking about the company anyway you want; when I was working for Very Big Insurance Company and Very Big Publishing Company (neither of whom can fire me now, btw, since I'm already gone), we had strict guidelines on who we could talk to and what we could say. When in doubt, transfer to PR. So even on company time and in company atmosphere, I couldn't speak freely about company affairs, so why is it any different on the internet?

If I chose to blog about people and company in an unflattering way in this here blog and my supervisor found out about it, yes, I would expect disciplinary action of some kind. See, here's the thing, as bloggers, we control what we write about, we control how we write about it, and we control who sees it.

Employment is 'at will'; you don't have a 'right' to a job. You are able to leave at any time, your company is allowed to let you go at any time. That's how it works and unless you're a whistle-blower or otherwise protected by the EEOC, bloggers aren't a protected class of citizen and given the amount of freedom bloggers have inherently over their actions, I don't think they ought to be. Instead, I take the responsibility on myself to watch what I say about people or the company I work for.

Discretion may feel overrated in the anonymous, "let it all hang out" blogosphere, but seriously: Don't. Blog. About. Work. If you can't take precautions to screen your audience, keep your writings away from the general public, then don't do it. It's seriously that easy. See, the company has to look out for itself, and the company can easily say, "I have a right to not be talked about on the Internet in a way that's not approved by my PR department and is not put out by our PR people." And let's make one thing totally clear: you don't get fired for the actual act of blogging, you get fired for what you blog. Big difference.

A fiver

1. Describe the condition of your keyboard:

Good condition, though some letters, namely the 'S' and 'A' seems to be fading with time. Also, after three years, lots of dust and crumbs have accumulated as well.

2. Can you sing, or are you always out of key?

Always and atrociously out of key. Singing is for the car. It'd be for the shower too, if my shower didn't jut up against someone else's apartment. I would never willfully inflict my singing on anyone, except if you're my brother, in which case, I'll sing at the top of my lungs.

3. What keys do you carry with you?

Car keys, mailbox key, apartment key and that's it. I have lots and lots of keychains though, all hooked up together. It's a little scary. My keychain includes: a flashlight, a 'one year anniversary' keychain from Very Big Insurance Company, and a rubber keychain with my insurance agent's info on it.

4. What is the key to personal happiness?

Being comfortable with who you are and where you are in life, and accepting you can't always control the outcome of things, and to always be the best person you can be and to give, freely and unconditionally, without expection of personal reward in return, at all times. Okay, so that's many keys, but I believe you can't be happy without the above. I'm still working on all of them.

5. What gets you keyed up?

Inconsideration. It's one thing if you don't know you're being rude or obnoxious; it's another thing if you know and you still keep doing it.

Hmmm...

I'm sitting here debating about dinner. Not that there's much to debate -- either eat the 'boring' stuff in my fridge (which needs to be whipped together still, btw) or go out and make like cavewoman and hunt and forage, but of course, in 21st century style, namely in my car, with real clothes -- not bear skins -- on and shoes. The shoes are extremely important. You can't hunt or forage these days without shoes. Or a shirt for that matter. Pants, those are optional, apparently.

When I was driving home, I saw an SUV with a John Kerry sticker on it. It amazes me that I still see John Kerry stickers in this red city in this red state. If mine hadn't gotten stolen two days before the election, I would have ripped it off anyway come the concession; my loyalty, apparently, doesn't extend past defeat. But I admire the people who are still driving, proudly, with their John Kerry bumpersticker. It makes me want to go buy a third one (pay for the Ohio recount, hmmm, maybe?) just so I can say, "I'm one of you."

In other news, 30 percent of Americans gave tsunami aid and you go to the polls with the country you have.

Places to go

Check out this really cool archive site. Enjoy :-)

Seema-isms

I not only typo when I'm, y'know, typing, but I also typo when I'm talking. Today, I said, "It's five miles as the pigeon flies." At least I'm putting an original twist on my cliches!

The blog year in review

This was the year of exploding eggs and charcoal pancakes, IKEA and the futon, and politics of a very liberal flavor. This was also the year the blog got a CSS facelift, making it pretty much the only CSS page on my site. This was also the year I ventured out and added new blogs to my sidebar -- places to go, people to read -- and in 2005, there will be still more blogs to add. This was also the first year I made an attempt to blog every single day, though I didn't always hit the mark. Thanks to improvements at blogger itself, I was able to 'can' posts in advance and always have something on hand when inspiration didn't strike.

I want to thank everyone who stops and reads and leaves comments or sends email. My resolution for 2005 is "more of the same," though the politics will be not as much. I can't promise no politics at all, but I will try to keep it light and funny, as much as I can. Thanks!