Pop Culture

Reading: Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Listening: Little Wonders by Rob Thomas
Watching: The Office

Star trekkin' across the universe!

It's only a matter of time before Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and the Home Depot set up shop on this potentially habitable planet.

Not Ready to Make Nice

The other day, I told a friend that Bush was right about one thing: democracy could help eradicate the problem of fundamentalism in the Middle East. The problem was that the Bush administration was so steadfast in its conviction that it ignored the lessons of history and the associated needs/wants/desire of culture and religion; the result is a cauldron of simmering tensions and rage that no amount of democracy or capitalism can cure.

We make the mistake so many times of believing that what worked for America is what will work for everyone else or that people even want an America of their own. We believe so strongly that the way we do things here is the way things ought to be done. And when people disagree with us, we call them names and boycott their products. It's 2007, and we still haven't learned how to play nice.

Music, post #2

Anyone who knows me knows I love love love Hindi film songs. Recently, I got to see the movie, Abhimaan, which has one of my all-time favorite sound tracks (you can hear it here). When I was a kid, I wanted the soundtrack to Abhimaan played over and over again, almost to the exclusion of any other music (I'm surprised it wasn't banned after a while). It was so nice to listen to it again during the movie and realize that the songs have not lost any of their magic; in fact, listening again made me decide to replace the old very worn out but still steadfast tape with a CD.

My all time favorite song though is 'Kahbi Kabhi', which you can listen to here. I think it's Lata Mangeshkar at her most perfect :-)

Music!

As always, a seven day download and then it's gone.

Easy Silence from the Dixie Chicks' latest album, 'Not Ready to Make Nice'. I really enjoy the first four tracks of this one, especially the title song.

Say "Cheese!"

Cheddarvision.tv, in case you've ever wanted to watch the birth of chedder. Now you know.

MIA

I'll resurface on the other side of the weekend. Have a good one!

Is it over yet?

Larry Birkhead is the the baby daddy. Can we stop caring about this crazy cast of characters yet?

This is post #1,964

I'm an extreme saver. Other people indulge in sports like helicoptering up the side of a mountain and then skiing down in an avalanche, me, I like to save money. I like to come up with creative ways to do it, and I have this thing, that if I add an expense somewhere, I have to come up with a way to cut the expense somewhere else. It's amazing sometimes where I find the pennies and how those pennies add up. You can call it the 'latte factor', though some people discount the effect of a daily Starbucks purchase on your wallet (and waistline). This year, I wanted to find a way to save an additional $50/month to offset a $50/month expense, for a total of $600. Here's how I did it:

* Raise deductible on my car insurance to $1,000: $100/year
* 10 percent off on my cell phone by signing a new contract: $72/year
* Eating lunch out only once or twice a week instead of 4-5 times a week: $864/year (at $6/lunch)

My other favorite cost-savings measures include:

* Videos from the library instead of Blockbuster: $72/year
* Basic cable provided by the apartment: $420
* Keeping car trips to a minimum to save on gas: $240/year

I also have been buying some canned veggies lately instead of fresh and those are cheaper. But that's not necessarily because I'm cheap, but more because it's sometimes hard for me to consume all of my fresh produce quick enough before it goes bad. So for certain items -- mushrooms, olives, green beans, corn -- I'll buy canned. Nothing beats fresh tomatoes though.

Pop culture

Reading: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
Listening: Not Ready to Make Nice by the Dixie Chicks from the album The Long Way Home
Watching: Loreena McKennitt: Nights at the Alhambra

You again?

I seem to have gone on an unintentional writing/blogging strike, but Urban Legends are always fun to revist for content. Here's one that keeps coming back: reinstituting the draft. Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Draft Fear).

Divining, part III

The tally is in, and without giving spoilers, I think I owe jemima a drabble because she did slightly better than I did on the BSG series finale predictions pool. That's if, of course, we discount revisionist history. If we don't count revisionist history, it's a tie and we're both off the hook, which is the place to be when yuo're a retired ficcer.

Divining, part II

(may contain spoilers for season 3 finale BSG; look away now if you don't want to know).

So jemima and I worked out this deal to our game to figure out what exactly is going to happen on the season finale of BSG and part of the deal was we got to revise our initial guesses after seeing this past Sunday's episode. So we've both revised and jemima's revisions are over here (her part one is over here). Mine are below, after the requisite spoiler space. If you haven't seen the first part of the season finale for season 3, look away NOW.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
Death: Tigh
Disturbing: Tigh, Anders, and Tori are 3 of the 5 final Cylons
Decisions: Death penalty for Baltar
Divorce: Lee & Dualla
Devotion: Baltar marries Six just before his date with the airlock
Destruction: The hope of finding earth before the Cylons

Divining

Note: This post may potentially contain spoilers for season 3 BSG. If you haven't watched more than half the eps, you may want to look away AFTER the first paragraph (or even this one; I won't be insulted).

jemima and I have decided, on the basis of NO spoilers, to make our 'D' inspired predictions for the "Battlestar Galactica" season 3 finale. As of this moment in time, neither of us has seen last night's episode. So our current predictions are based on everything that's happened season to date. We retain the right, after viewing last night's ep, to revise our predictions. We had to provide guesses for five out of six proposed categories, plus one 'bonus' or 'wildcard' category of our own making. The stakes are quite high: the loser has to write the winner a drabble. If none of our predictions come true, then we're both off the hook and don't have to write drabbles at all.

So here are my guesses, with the required spoiler space. jemima will be posting hers on her blog sometime this evening. You'll have to go over there to see what she has to say since I am currently unable to provide the link. Again, I reiterate -- neither of us has seen last night's ep and we both claim to be spoiler free. That being said, you have been
W
A
R
N
E
D

My guesses are:


* Death: Anders
* Disturbing: Roslin confesses feelings for Baltar
* Destruction: Colonial One
* Decisions: Death penalty for Baltar
* Divorce: Cally & Tyrol
* Devotion: Baltar marries Six just before he meets the airlock

Only in America

I went to my first Brooks & Dunn concert yesterday. I was possibly the only person in the house who didn't know who they were or why they were popular. But I was given a free ticket and my only other plans for a Saturday night were a hot date with PBS (support your local station and make a donation NOW!). So off I went to the concert and I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I didn't find myself bopping to the music and the lyrics didn't particularly grab me as anything that I could identify with or relate to. I chalked it up as another experience I'd never had before and could now say with certainty that I don't ever really need to go to another Brooks & Dunn concert.

During the last song, which was kind of catchy, I suddenly heard clapping and people were getting to their feet. I looked up on the viewscreen and saw four Marines marching to the stage. I got to my feet and started clapping as well. It was an emotional scene, even for this hard-hearted anti-war liberal. I watched as they climbed the stage and stood at attention, the musicians and singers dancing around behind them. The camera panned in on the Marines' faces. They were young men, probably not more than 22, clean-cut and handsome and whole. My eyes started to tear up.

I couldn't help but wonder if these men had been to Iraq or if they were scheduled to go. I knew they must know people who had been to Iraq and I wondered if they knew some of the soldiers from our area who died at an approximate rate of one or two a month. I was sure they must know someone who was wounded in Iraq. Do they think Iraq is worth it? I wondered what they thought of the lights, the applause, the ovation, the realization that we love them now, but don't take care of them when they come home. And I want nothing more for these four young men to stay clean-cut, handsome, and whole.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, feeling a little silly for getting all teary eyed over the situation. As I was walking out of the concert hall, I reflected on the recent troubles experieneced by McCain and Obama for using the word 'wasted' to describe the lives of soldiers lost in Iraq. They didn't misspeak. Iraq is a morass for which there is no military situation and our army is essentially standing between two sides firing at each other and our soldiers. It's a three-front battle, one that never had a connection to 9/11 -- a war conjured up by men who had never been on the battlefield themselves and with a blatant ignorance of history. This stupid war has drained our finances, has cost our soldiers their lives, has killed umpteen number of civilians, has destabalized the region, and yet we're not allowed to use 'wasted'. Only in America can the truth be so blatantly ignored.

It made me incredibly sad. Brooks & Dunn put a face to the men and women fighting for our country. But seeing their faces, more than anything I just want to bring them home so they wouldn't be subjected to such a hopelessly inarticulate experiment as Iraq has become. Of course, I would never say that at Brooks & Dunn concert, because then I would just be unpatriotic and dismissing the contribution of our troops.

Writing

I think the hardest part of stopping writing is starting up again. There is something to be said about writing something, ANYTHING, just to keep in the habit, and to an extent, I feel like this blog fulfills that quota. But nowadays, when it comes to being creative, I'm hopelessly lost and befuddled, as if I've never done this before. I'm also a lot more cautious, a lot more careful and discerning, which sounds like it could be a good thing, but it's not. The thing about writing is that you have to just go for it, with a playful abandon, with the knowledge that this thing you put down on paper, it might be any good, and that you're okay with that. That's the trick to being a writer. And it's a hard, hard one to learn.

My two cents

You know the argument that makes absolutely no sense and completely drives me batty? It's the one that runs along the lines of "Stop smoking and you'll live longer" and the immediate response is, "Well, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and so I should enjoy smoking while I can." I hate this argument because it makes no sense. I mean, a BUS? Why are we all getting hit by buses? And there are things that we all actively do to AVOID getting hit by a bus such as not crossing in front of a moving one, or taking the tunnels or bridges or sidewalks. None of those things mean people won't get hit by a bus, but it just means we decrease the probability of that event happening.

That's the same thing with smoking or any other vice that threatens to short your lifespan in a way a raw-vegetable-and-green-tea-and-excercising-every-day lifestyle won't. Yet for some reasons, we indulge in behaviors that are downright detrimental to our health, such as driving our car* one block instead of walking or eating eight pieces of bacon and 27 hotdogs for dinner every night. We wouldn't step in front of a bus, so why do we persist in behaviors that are completely unhealthy and wrong for us? Admittedly, I get more pleasure out of a piece of cake than I do out of a stalk of celery so maybe that's what it is: we prefer to indulge in our short term pleasure and enjoyment, even if it does shorten our lifespan, instead of living a more austere, deprived life that be a certain percentage longer.

Whatever the reasons are, my point is: the 'hit by a bus tomorrow' argument is really stupid.

*An antidote to high gas prices: Drive less and smaller and walk more.

LotD

The Four Unspeakable Truths about Iraq

I gotta get that

Seen on a t-shirt at the gym: "I'm not bossy. I just have all the best ideas."

Ourselves our enemy

Honestly, the only thing missing from the following viewpoint, mho, is the burka. And what's most jaw-dropping about it is that the author is a woman.

Women no longer have a heart and love for children. Women don’t want to do their natural duties (having and caring for babies). Women want to become men, either equal to or superior in home, work, authority and government. Women have so educated the men of today, that they no longer desire marriage. So the few real women which would like to marry and raise a family are either told to go to work by their husband (to enjoy life more) or stay single for lack of a good husband. Many men just flat have no interest in the responsibilities and commitment of marriage because they are already enjoying all the benefits of marriage with some Jezebel without any responsibility or commitment. Once women become men, they are no longer needed in the home. Some have even made their man a house-husband so she can remain "out of the home" at work in the man’s role. These ladies really hate the inconvenience of children. They rather be a run around at the office and soon divorce and remarry. The divorce rate directly follows the rate of women in the work place with men.

Some men therefore, no longer look for a woman as a helpmate (wife), because women have become a threat to their manhood. What happens next? Men then look to other men for companionship instead of Women. And the frustrated woman rejected by men turns to women. It’s no secret that Sodomy is growing today, because people have rejected God’s design for the home and reproduction of the human race. And you guessed it - - WOMEN - - are a root cause"! It started in the Garden of Eden when Eve first lead the first man to complete ruin and lose with God.

Have you ever asked men what they want in a woman? They like quiet and submissive women. Not loud mouth rebellious women. Head strong, bossy, demanding, rude, over-bearing, MAUDE. They like feminine women (in the true sense) who dress like ladies in dresses and have not cut their glory off (long hair). Men do not want women who wear the pants, or men's suits and whacked off hair like men. Men like home-cooking not T.V. dinners or fast food all the time. Men want a woman to listen to them and not try to compete all the time in work, raising the children, and making decisions.

I have no words. None. It's as stunning on the fourth or fifth read as it was on the first. Of course, I understand this is an extremist view and that as a free country, everyone is entitled to extremist views; I'm sure, as a pants-wearing, hair-chopping, voting, working professional, non-married woman, I've got plenty of extremist views in the author's opinion. Let's start with the one where I don't believe women are responsible for all that's wrong with the world or the family and as a woman, I'll be the first one to support most women in most things they attempt (the exceptions being a couple of loonies on both sides of the political aisle) and hopefully succeed at.

Complete article here.