my wee little cousin

http://www.iba.org.il/

"Go there, click on the IBA English News link on the left hand side. Make sure it's the one with the camera symbol to the right of the words. But hurry. This limited time offer will expire come tomorrow afternoon in Israel. My segment goes from somewhere in the 12th minute till about the 20th. But the whole broadcast is fun to watch."

sorry

picture this:  Friday afternoon, we're all in a rush.  my mother asks me to get somehting for her from the closet.  the cleaning lady is standing between me and the closet.  i move towards her, and she sticks her butt out so i can't pass by.  we dont get along, so to avoid conversation with her as i usually do, i simply step past her.  apparently it was too far a step.  somehitng went pop in my mid-calf.

as per my usual, i ignored it as it progressively got worse, to the point that i was seriously limping on sunday.  on monday i tried to go to work, but i simply couldn't walk.  i tried to work from the library.  i finally gave in and went to consult a PA, who told me i stretched my tendon (the one next to the achilles), but probably didn't tear it.  to recoup, i need to elevate it, ice it, and inhale motrin.  until then, i'm a limpaholic.  like it takes me 10 minutes to go 2 blocks.

so my ankle's swollen and hurting, my mid calf feels like someone is ripping it open with a hot blunt object, my foot is cramping, and i'm spending all day bored on the couch with my leg elevated, because any other position strecthes my calf so much that i'm not gaining anything by elevating it.

i'm bored, i'm in pain, i have no computer here all day (hence my online absence).  and best of all, when i told my mom i have tendonitis, she said "you didn't tell me it hurt that much on Shabbat!".  i said "i did, but you thought i was exagerrating."  back and forth for a bit til i end with  "really, you just weren't listening."

got off the phone before i could get yelled at again for not seeing a doctor sooner.  cause if this isn't better within the next few days, it might be more serious than we thought.  crap-a-doody.  i'm SO not in the mood.

so here's hoping i can walk enough to go to work tomorrow, cause i'm going NUTS.

night night

long good weekend.  am so wiped but in a good way.  finally bought curtains, now just need to put them up and will maybe start to feel like a gornw-up.  hopefull not.  walking funny due to something with my ankle, unclear whether i should ignore it or have it looked at.  have chosen to ignore, prefer limping.  sage green looks lovely with a certain shade of purple.

i'd cross my fingers if i weren't jewish

please say tehilim for meir eliyahu ben sender, a very close friend who is going to get a new pancreas and kidney tonight. or just send happy vibes his way. : )

there aren't even that many people in scranton

In December 2003, about 300 soldiers from the 109th left for Iraq. About three months later, 368 soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 103rd Armor, left McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey for the Middle East. The unit had received its deployment order in December 2003, after receiving advance notice.

this is why we vote blue.

to clarify:

The 55th Brigade is comprised of several subordinate units, including the 2nd Battalion, 103rd Armor and the 109th Field Artillery in Wilkes-Barre. National Guardsmen from both are currently serving in Iraq.

that means that within 3 months, over 600 soldiers from the 55th Brigade were sent off.  and they are now being told that more are soon to go.  proportionately, that's a hell of a lot of soldiers coming from my neck of the woods.

and then, and then...

thank god for music at work.  it seriously keeps me from doing dreadfully dangerous things.  things like stapling my hat to my head, or cutting my hair myself (i did that for all of tenth grade, and it worked...  nail scissors though, not like the big ones i have here).  sometimes i want to punch my computer (only when it's being mean to me) or fall asleep.  then i find good music and turn it up and next thing you knwo i'm bouncing around and it's 3:19!!!!!!!!!  yay!

note to self - i can't type.

if i worked from 11-7 i'd be so much better off.  i'd sleep til 9:30, come in at 10, lalala, i'd be SO happy.  and i'd be back on my natural sleeping cycle.  this working during regular day time hours thing is going to kill me.  i just can't adjust to sleeping from 11-7.  i don't want or need to sleep until 3 or 4, unless i've been unable to sleep for days on end.  then i just fall asleep wherever i happen to be at the time.

there are no more and thens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

funny

the poster child for, well, posters...  tznius ones, at least.

baggy pants will get you every time

Granny stops handcuffed, nearly naked suspect fleeing police

on a cheerier note

father stands up for self and family, goes after the magots who mugged him and threatened to rape his daughters

i think that about sums it up.

and again

slashing at a high school

the thing with a knife is you don't always feel it at first, but after...  after it burns like a mofo.

explosive

4 US students suspected in Molotov Cocktail attack on Palestinians

1. whoever did throw it deserves to be fully punished.  there is no excuse for random terror, from either side.

2. the kids were released for a lack of evidence connecting them to the incident.  avraham's bothered because they created a disturbance in court by singing and saying Tehillim.  i'm reading it as a protest of some kind.

i find that the police tend to over-react in Israel when dealing with the religious.  i hope that there is a full investigation and that whoever did this is caught and prosecuted, but not for being a Yeshiva student in the right place at the wrong time.

hallelujah, jafar...

Medical Journal Calls for a New Drug Watchdog

good idea!  i've been wondering how it is that all these drugs with all these horrible side effects keep getting on the market and becoming industry standard, then suddely they realize it kills people.

the vioxx thing freaked me out.

airport pat-downs

Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation

here's a fun little scenario.  religious woman goes to fly, is stopped either because she's been randomly asisgned or because she set off the metal detector.  guy starts to search her.  (ignoring negiah issues right now.)  he asks her to remove her shirt.  he runs his fingers under her bra straps.  he looks down her skirt.  he, of course, must look under her hat, tichel, or sheitel.

you have the right to ask for two things:
1. you can be searched in private
2. a female agent to search you (although in my experience, they are never around)

you probably dont want to travel wearing a sheitel as they will get beligerent about your wearing fake hair (obviously a huge terror threat).

you also have the right to file a complaint and should do so if you feel anything inappropriate happened.

additionally, ify ou need to get your license renewed and need to have your hair covered, speak to your local rabbi about what you can do and whether there are waivers in your statre re: hair covering in official IDs for religious reasons.

fidgety d

i want hugs and a nap and everyone's trying to placate me with other things.  no no NO!  i want HUGS!

 

i am now throwing a tantrum, but you can't tell.

the email i wanted to send

after 6 weeks of not being cc-ed on important email, i did it.

me:

I must ask that all website related emails be sent to me as well, as there have now been a run of emails sent to Rabbi Kaganoff and Rabbi Luban that I have not received.  It's difficult to help or stay on top of things if I'm not included in the discussion.  Thank you.

If you have any further questions, please do email back.

him:

In an earlier email Rabbi Kaganoff asked that I respond directly to him. I will find that and forward it to you.

i held back from:

"Gary, I'm quickly losing patience here.  If I'm supposed to be able to do my job, I need to be kept in the loop.  If you are looking to only work with Rabbis Kaganoff and Luban, and therefore you prefer to only respond to them, say so.  I doubt very highly that Rabbi Kaganoff wanted to have you email him so he could then forward everything to me.  This lack of communication is counter-productive and frankly disrespectful."

now pondering what to say to this guy if anything.  he's been playing these games since july and the web site hasn't changed at all.  he keeps trying to drop the blame on us, which woudl have a better shot if he would freaking WORK.

/grumble grumble

KYW

high school shooting one hour ago

seemed appropriate somehow

The Joker

By: Miller/Ertegun/Curtis

Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah
Some call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice
Cause I speak of the pompitous of love 

People talk about me, baby
Say I'm doin' you wrong, doin' you wrong
Well, don't you worry baby
Don't worry
Cause I'm right here, right here, right here, right here at home

Cause I'm a picker
I'm a grinner
I'm a lover
And I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure don't want to hurt no one

I'm a picker
I'm a grinner
I'm a lover
And I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I get my lovin' on the run
Wooo Wooooo

You're the cutest thing
That I ever did see
I really love your peaches
Want to shake your tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Ooo-eee baby, I'll sure show you a good time

Cause I'm a picker
I'm a grinner
I'm a lover
And I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I get my lovin' on the run

I'm a picker
I'm a grinner
I'm a lover
And I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure don't want to hurt no one

Wooo Woooo

People keep talking about me baby
They say I'm doin' you wrong
Well don't you worry, don't worry, no don't worry mama
Cause I'm right here at home

You're the cutest thing I ever did see
Really love your peaches want to shake your tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Come on baby and I'll show you a good time

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

rawk

got my me first and the gimme gimmes CD - ruin johnny's bar mitzva.

yay yay!

oh fark, you lark

i figure that if the Fark moderators can shamelessly promore what they want for Christmas, i can too.  although my christmas is called kwanzaaaaa.

Dani's Wishlist

wtf?!

i get this call last night from a college friend i'm not really in touch with lately.

him: so i hear you and avraham are having problems
me: what are you talking about?
him: i hear you're not as frum as he expected you would be.
me: (stunned silence)
him: and that you're a lot wilder than he expected.  and your friends are too wild for him.  and you have communication issues.
me: what are you talking about?

apparently a number (4, to be precise) of people have spoken to this guy about my relationship with my husband.

i hung up and turned to tell avraham.  he looked at me, confused.  we sat there in silence for a minute, trying to digest that the marriage we thought was going so well was all this time a sham.  that we were indeed unhappy and not communicative.  i mean, it was a shock to us, we thought we were getting along splendidly.

the only conclusions we could draw after an hour of watching TV was that 1. the people who are "concerned" are obviously not close enough friends that they felt they could approach us with their concerns, 2. they are not close enough to know avraham, 3. they have not spend a lot of time with us as a couple, and 4. they have no hold on who my close friends are if they went to talk to someone i've seen twice in the past year and a half.

i think that it's a gaggle of girls who secretly love avraham and want to win him over.  poor poor gaggle of girls - i can really sympathize.  when i thought i'd have to live without avraham, i was pretty sad too.

but - NOT NICE!  there is no excuse for talking crap about someone's marriage!  and if it were true that we were having issues, why not come straight to us if you're so concerned?  i mean, if we were having problems, why would we want to talk to someone 3rd hand?  and would we want other people discussing it?  (answer for the dumb ones: NO)

so a gentle potch for the talkie people who put a drop of not-nice into an otherwise amazing weekend.  don't do it again.  it'll really piss us off.

care bear

See what Care Bear you are.

title

i have this issue.  i hate when people are attention whores.  i hate people who blog so that other people will wonder who they are, will fantasize about them...  it makes me physically ill, like watching a girl spread her legs in public to tantalize whatever guys might be looking her way.

yet i blog.  and i blog about myself and my life.  my random thoughts.  i blog mostly because i have a place online where i can dump my thoughts and share them with the people i care about.  sometimes i meet nice people through my blog, and we stay in touch.

but i'm quickly freaked out by the people who will IM me as if they know me because they read my blog.  i run as fast as i can.  meaning with some people (daniel, as an example), they took the time to tell me about themselves.  i know who they are, can relate to some degree, have a mode of conversation beyond what they've gleaned from my writings.

but the fact that people davka look for that, pursue that...  i can't wrap my head around it.  no more than i understand selling yourself.  it's just gross.  and knowing people who get caught up in such blogs  - i don't even know what to say to them.

it's like guys who want paris hilton.  it's just disgusting.  how low do you have to be to let yourself caught in the head games and bull shit?  i mean, paris hilton is a punchline to me.  i kinda feel bad for her, tempered by the knowledge she does it to herself.

argh!!!!!!!  i just don't GET it!

so i'm not sure how i feel abou my own blogging right now.  i know why i do it.  i'm just not sure how many of you do.

wendy liebman says

"don't do drugs cause i saw what they did to my friends.  i would get stoned and they would look all weird to me."

ok,i get the message

You Are the Enthusiast

7 You are outgoing and playful - always seeing the happy side to life. You're enthusiastic and excitable. You love anything new. Multi-talented, you do many things well... and find success easy. You prefer to keep things light with others. Opening up is hard for you.

What number are you?

granted this is also what my friend left for me at work to read about myself.  on a wild hunch, i just HAD to try the quiz (as lifted from devora's journal)

i am the crazy enthusiast, this i knew, fun part is that the book suggests things to try to help yourself, and they're all basically the things i figured out for myself in high school.  and did, which is why i now have an attention span and can calm down when my adrenaline begins to spike.

yay for the internet

hee hee

whoops, meant to tell you all before. emily and i walked out of the bar on 39th and 7th last night (avraham was at a PTA meeting). we get to the corner, and this girl kinda walks into us. we look up, and she laughing so hard. i notice: long pretty blond hair, red lisptick, red heels, pretty. she composes herself and walks on with her friend.

em and i turn to each other.   "was that claire danes?"

... yes.

thank you, david

"Gali girls are the modern Jewish role models.  Kind and compassionate, vibrant and curious, beautiful and intelligent, strong and capable.  Learn to play the Jewish way with Gali girls."

david (whose URL i'd have inserted here if he'd IMed me back with it.  gr) heard that they're shomer.  i need to put an advisory here - anyone who is offended by skin showing between socks and skirts, please DO NOT LOOK.

also, the font keeps making "Gali" look like"Call" to my eye...  whoops.

update: david can be found at http://blogs.yucs.org/~dwallach/

for all those who want to see it

maybe we'll buy it and have a big cry-a-thon on the floor.

if you can't fins this version, it was remade later and called "an affair to remember".  the nice thing is that it was re-done by the same director, so it's a very similar feel, somewhat updated, and in color.  for movie obsessed people (like msyelf and my brother), it's fascinating to watch both.

then that was re-made into this version of "love affair".

also, for those who are probably more familiar with this movie, "sleepless in seattle" was obsessed with "an affair to remember" (remember the whole thing about the empire state builing?  granted, i only saw 3 minutes of SIS, but still).  have to admit that nora ephron knows her movie history.

i'll call myself "angry"

someone just went off on avraham on his blog for being immature.  i'd like to address that for a moment.  number one - don't judge the blog post by the commentors.  number two, someone saying "i absolutely disagree with this" on their blog is not their way of making the people who wrote it feel stupid.  dude, if i wanted to make the people in the jewish press look stupid, i would write into the jewish press and have them publish it there where the writer and his/her friends would read it.

number 3 - if anyone on that blog is immature, it's ME, goddamit!

baba o'riley

Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight, to prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven
Don't cry, don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Sally, take my hand
Well travel South, 'cross land
Put out the fire and don't look past my shoulder

The Exodus is here
The happy ones are near
Let's get together before we get much older

Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland
Teenage wasteland
It's only teenage wasteland

They're all wasted

funk

if you missed it, i've been in a kind of funk for a while.  between people who keep putting themselves in craptastic places in life and coming to to - what, fix it?, exhaustion, and a general sadness taht comes every winter, i've been defensive, down, and easily annoyed.

last night i watched a movie love affair (the original that affair to remember was based on), and i sat on the couch crying hysterically, just cause i needed to.

it's funny how i sit there and sob even though it has nothing to do with me.  but it's haunting, especially when it touches on people's own stupidity making everyong miserable.  so i sat and had myself a good cry, tears dribbling off my chin, eyes red.  it was highly satisfying.

for those who don't know the story, i'm about to tell it:
two people (terry and michel), who are each in their own relationship, meet on a ship as they're going to new york.  they're drawn to each other even though they have their own commitments.  she fights it, and when he realizes that it's more than a passinf flirtation, he tries to fight it too.  they dock one day, and she meets his grandmother.  it's just beautiful.  they see sides of each other they'd missed on the boat, and you can visibly see the connection between them.  on the last night on the boat, he asks her to meet him 6 months, after they've both gotten their lives together.

as they part, she calls over her shoulder, "oh, and do you like children?"
he says "yes, i love them."
she glows for amiute, then runs back to her room.

the next morning she presses a note into his hand, with a plan to meet in 6 months on the 102nd floor of the empire state building.

she quits her job (she was working for her boyfriend, who she also dumps), goes to philly, and builds a career singing.  he breaks up with his heiress finace, and starts working as a billboard painter while trying to sell paintings he has done.  he does a painting of her with his grandmother, and can't bring himself to put it up for sale.

finally the day arrives.  she comes back to new york, buys a new fabulous dress, and runs off to meet him.  her ex runs into her and tries to win her back, but she's so wrapped up in the moment, she barely notices.  she jumps into a cab and rushes to the empire state building, where they're supposed to meet at 5.  as she looks up at the 102nd floor, thinking of him, a taxi hits her.

he waits til midnight and then stalks away.

she hides out, recuperating, hoping she'll be able to walk again some day.  she refuses to have anyone tell him, saying she wants to be able to run to him.  he goes back to his old playboy life, miserbale and heart broken.  he goes to visit his grandmother in medeira, only to find she has just died (leaving her prayer shawl for terry).

one night she's well enough to go out to the theatre with her ex, and he's there with his ex.  they pass each other, and he just looks at her for a moment, hands her something she's dropped, and leaves.  her ex brings her wheelchair and takes her home.

the next day he goes to see her, having found her in the phone book.  she's on a couch, with her legs covered.  there's a heated awkward exchange about the night they were supposed to meet.  he tells her he's leaving new york, maybe never coming back, and that he will never trust women again.  she still won't break, still won't tell him why she didn't come, didn't call, didnt even leave a note.

as he's leaving, he gives her the shawl and mentions that he painted her wearing it.  he tells her that he didn't want to sell the painting, and he was going to throw it away.  but a young woman came in to the art store and asked his agent how much it was, and she was poor and paralyzed.  then it hits him, and he stalks through the room looking for the painting.  when he sees it, a look of complete horror and regret comes over his face.  he runs to her, hugs her, and they're re-united.

tears tears tears

school daze

was at city this morning.  the advisor didn't get in til 10, so i sat like a good little girl and waited.

so it boils down to: stern may have never sent a final transcript, i have no transfer credits, my emglish major declaration never was made official, they have no idea what classes i need to take, regitration will be in january, there's a stop on my record that no one can clear, but i somehow don't need a portfolio or to write a thesis.  not sure how/why people graduate from there.

so i have a gazillion numbers i have to call and a gazillion people whoneed to do things for me, but we know, of course, that they won't get done cauise i won't be there in person to ask them to do it.  cause a voice on a phone just doesn't seem to faze people.  i coulnd't decide if i should spell it phase or faze, but i like the look of faze better, even though phase uses letters for sounds other than the ones they normally make.

4:07

i just want to go home

doublemint

sometimes i wish i still smoked.  when things come rushing up at me through my head, i want a cloud hazing them so i can stare back with some degree of tranquility, of distance.

i remember, i know you, i am you.  i see you.  try to avoid my eyes, try to break away from my gaze.

one day you'll hear me

sometimes i want to turn to the people who try to shut me up and say "fuck you"  "fuck you" and "fuck you"  i want to staple it to their heads in whispery delicate writing

there are things i'm not "allowed" to discuss, things i'm not "allowed" to share.

the more you restrain me, the more i need to break free and scream it from the hills.

watch me, because one day when you think i've forgotten abot all of this, you'll hear my voice echoing loud and strong

and to anyone here who may feel the need to tell me to chill, don't bother.  i'm perfectly calm.  you learn to be.

DEC_029

...

i'm not sure what it means, but 8 people have walked out on bush in the past week.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services chief
Secretary of State Colin Powell
Education Secretary Rod Paige
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
Attorney General John Ashcroft
Commerce Secretary Don Evans
i know i'm ignorant re: politics, but out of a cabinet of 15, isn't that quite a lot of people?

'Dani Weiss' posted on the Tue 16 Nov 2004, 11:08 am

even better:
Secretary of Agriculture, Ann M. Veneman
Secretary of Commerce, Don Evans
Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Education, Rod Paige
Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham
Secretary of Health & Human Services, Tommy Thompson
Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, Alphonso Jackson
Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton
Department of Justice, John Ashcroft
Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao
Secretary of State, Colin Powell
Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta
Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi

just another day

me: i'm hoping that they actually have all of my transcripts now so we can actually figure out what i still need to take
aylana: that would be nice
aylana: i think you're a deluded optimist
me: i mean
me: i'd like to graduate before i have 2 or 3 kids
me: and no i'm not pregnant
aylana: hey, it's not my fault
me: which part?
aylana: either of them really
me: lalalalalalalalalala
me: what will you do when i am pregnant?
me: run about in excited little circles til you fall to the floor convulsing?
aylana: "convulsing"
me: haha
me: it's a good word, isn't it?
aylana: uh huh and accurate
aylana: i think i'll probably ask "but how?"
aylana: and then cry as my last illusions fall to the floor
me: i'll draw you a diagram
aylana: rain check

and they say my family's disfunctional.  *shaking head*

before they die

i would like to see the following performers in concert (no particular order):

billy joel
neil young
tom petty
roger waters
indigo girls (saw them at lilith fair, had mono, was passed out, don't really remember it)
sarah mclachlan (same lilith fair show)
joan jett
dispatch
aerosmith
will think of more later when i can remember who else hasn't died yet

REM

sorry, ors!

my boots came!

Dear Daniela Weiss-Bronstein -

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they live in virginia?!

School District Spent $100G on Santorum's Kids

and you wonder why PA is in debt.

gray

just for kicks, i think i'm getting a fever.

see, i've never been a fan of winter in new york.

winter in ny

today i feel sad tired down
i don't know why
i think i'm worn out from stressful things at work
worn out from people always having to be hard asses
worn out from conflict and strife
want to just relax, fade away
want to sleep
want go home and hug my husband and fall asleep with my head on him
want to not go to work anymore
big sad eyes today

/self indulgent

ta-da

you know those mornings where you wake up, glance at the clock, and realize that to make it to work in any frame called "on time" you would have to be leaving in 3 minutes?  so you jump up (well, get up slowly), look around for the one who was supposed to wake you up (in my case, we call him "Hubband"), see that's he's gone (obviously in shul), get mad at him, waste three minutes staring blankly at his stuff wondering if you yell at it, will it give him the message? and then stumble off to the bathroom.  only to find it's in use!

d: (through the bathroom door, gravelly voice) hey, did you just wake up?
a: yeah...
d: (chagrined) me too.

d walks back into bedroom to start getting dressed.  she looks at the clock for a moment.

v/o, d: (as d stands stupified staring at clock and pile of clothes on granny cart) i can't believe it's 8:30.  i won't get to work til 10, and then i'll have to stay 'til 6, and i don't know what time we're doing dinner, so i might be late.  well, that's what you get for going to sleep at 2:50.  wait... why would we do that on a sunday night?  we know we can't wake up in the morning.  was that saturday night?  ow, my brain hurts.  let's see.  we watched TV, spinal tap, sweetback, blade runner, cleaned up, washed dishes, made havdallah...  which means right before that, it was Shabbat!  last night was SATURDAY NIGHT!  woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  it's sunday!  hallelujah, jafar!

d races back to bathroom door.

d: it's sunday!  it's sunday!
a: yeah.
d: i thought it was monday!  i get a whole day i didn't know about!
a: (using mouthwash, unable to comment on this thrilling realization)
d: you know, when shabbos ends early, you get a whole extra sunday!
a: (using mouthwash and puffing out cheeks.  d reaches over and tries to pop the mouthwash out of a's mouth)
d: haha, i'm going back to bed.
a: (spits out mouthwash, finally, gives the love of his life a strange look)  k.  have fun.

the end

thoughts and things

u2.  interesting, although i'm not sure if this latest album won't kill them.

as you said, great ands are still doing great things, but nuder the radar.  yes, TMBG, Radiohead, Tom Petty, Neil Young.  but the public has just missed out, somehow. (side point: how many people have even heard of the pixies?)

i think part of the prpoblem is that listeners have no idea what it means to stand out as a band.  that's how you have people naming simple plan as the best band ever.  ok, remind me in 5 years, i'll see if i can figure out what song they sang.

indigo girls, one of my favorites, has a huge underground following.  i feel like in 40 or 50 years they'll be re-discovered.  i read once that they have the highest selling albums of any band that's never had a song break the top 40.  but the general public?  they have no clue.

re: U2, were the people who were fans when we were kids still going to play this for their kids?  my father was so beatle obsessed that as a kid i thought they were a current band.  when i found out john was dead (i was eight), i not only was crushed, but called my father in to tell him.

so, yeah.  i want to know what band today is going to resonate with out children (of tomorrow...  ha ha).

also.  finally saw the following movies last night:

blade runner
sweet sweetback's baadasssss song
this is spinal tap

blade runner just wasn't engaging.  ie it wasn't as AWESOME as i'd been led to believe it would be.

sweetback - i wanted to break the TV.  the ppl who shot this movie must have been trying to make every motion sick.

this is spinal tap is easily one of the funniest movies EVER.  combined with the fact that people thought it was a real band...  i think we're going to have to own this one.  and buy the soundtrack!

also

my free ipod came, now i'm waiting on my free flat screen TV.

i think avraham's ipod is on its way too.  yay.

ah

bitter sweet symphony, the verve

marti

interestingly enough, fleetwood mac from 2004 doesn't sound as good as from 197*.  maybe it's cause i haven't been hearing it for 25 years, maybe it's because they're just not doing as many drugs.  unclear.

so the question that remains to be answered - will any band that started in my lifetime still be around and popular when my children are buying their own (digitized) vinyl?  let qualify that with if kurt had lived, they may have started to suck (remember greenday's downfall?  wasn't it bad?  don't you wish sometimes you could go back to the good old dookie days?)

i mean, who the hell is our pink floyd?  our who?  our ABBA (admit that you love dancing queen)?  velvet underground?

my father claims springsteen, but i dont know any cool young people that listen to him.  definitely not his new stuff.

remember when blink was great for 2 months?  and then simple plan for like a week?  counting crows were hot too, once.  wallflowers were supposed to be the next dylan (haha).  i find myself listening to sean paul and dixie chicks cause "rock" isn't doing it for me.  it goes nowhere after all this lead up.  like years of sex and NO orgasm!  what the hell is wrong with these musicians?  are they all impotent?

i'm going to make my own compilation of songs that excited me before the band went the way of my used tissues.  get back to you later.

um

"Nader highlighted irregularities including one reported earlier in an Ohio polling station where 638 voters cast ballots but results showed 4,258 voted for Bush, and 260 for Kerry. "

i know he's not the person so quote for stuff, but if that's true, Nader's right - we need a re-count.

also, he's right re: concession speeches, etc.  *that* is what i hate about this system, meredith.  voters chose ppl who will be voting for presidents.  until they convene and name who they are voting for, no one's won anything.  in that context, a concession speech makes no sense.  not that i expect it to happen, but if 20 of the "bush" electoral votes were to nominate someone else, he wouldn't be president. (saying "argh" in my head right now)

it's a point of legal technicality more than anything else, but the concession bit has always seemed quite the farce to me.

bow your head

i'm ashamed that i forgot.

today is VETERAN'S DAY.  a day in which i like to sit and ponder many things.  and thank people.  the people who fight for us.  the people who let them go and wait for them at home.  the people who don't make it back.

and i'd like to say thank you to my grandfather and his brothers, all of whom were in the air force in WWII.

support the soldiers, always support the soldiers.  they may be the only people ever in your life that are willing to die so that you can live.

so i was thinking

that we should have a "something" so that ppl who converse on the blog can maybe get to meet up in person.  if anyone is interested in such a thing (there a few ppl i'd like to meet in r/l), leave a comment or drop an email.

lalala it's THURSDAY!

honest reporting

if you're interested, here is a one-minute film about arafat from the people at honest reporting.

i've said before and i'll say it again - pray that all those parents and families who don't want their children to die pick up from PA controlled areas and run for their lives (and their children's lives back) to safer parts of Israel.

does arafat have AIDS?

(fark comments on this CNN article) 2004-11-10 03:54:35 PM

The_Other_White_Boy

The AIDS rumor started with David Frum of National Review and goes something like this.

We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight possibly as much as 1/3 of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?

Former Romanian intelligence chief Ion Pacepa tells in his very interesting memoirs that the Ceaucescu regime taped Arafats orgies with his body guards. If true, Arafat would a great deal to conceal from his people and his murderously anti-homosexual supporters in the Islamic world.

Before airlifting Arafat to Paris, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier promised to stand by him. Was that why Arafat chose to be treated in France rather in any of the fraternal Arab countries that supposedly support his movement because he could trust the French to protect his intimate secrets?

i dropped my drink

Crews are also preparing to build a moveable monument in which to bury the Palestinian leader, one that could be transported to Jerusalem one day, Palestinian sources said. Jerusalem was Arafat's first choice for a resting place, but the Israeli government firmly rejected that wish. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/10/arafat/index.html)

seriously, dropped it right out of my hand.  it bounced off of my desk while i sat and gaped.

still true

the thing i love about wednesday is that it's the day before thursday
and thursday is essentially already the weekend, and i love the weekend,
and how sad is it that my week revolves around ending the damn thing?

maybe i missed it

SYDNEY, Australia -- Swinburne University of Technology's center for micro-photonics have constructed a model of the Sydney Opera House, see photo above, that is about half the diameter of a human hair. It is more than a million times smaller than the real Sydney structure. The model was built from a hybrid material of glass and polymer by firing intense laser light into the matter in a liquid state to create what to the human eye appears as an almost imperceptible dot, but under an electron microscope it contains the detail and the beauty of the iconic Sydney harbour side structure. (07/23/04 AP-Swinburne University)

from shevs

20 Ways For Women To Tell That They've Had A Little Much To Drink

1. I have absolutely no idea where my purse is.

2. I believe that dancing with my arms overhead and wiggling my butt while yelling "WOO-HOO!" is truly the sexiest dance move around.

3. I've suddenly decided I want to kick someone's ass and honestly believe I could do it too.

4. In my last trip to pee, I realize I now look more like a homeless hooker than the goddess I was just four hours ago.

5. I drop my 3:00 a.m. submarine on the floor (which I'm eating even though I'm not the least bit hungry), pick it up and carry on eating it.

6. I start crying and telling everyone I see that I love them sooooo much.

7. I get extremely excited and jump up and down every time a new song plays because "Oh my God! I love this song!"

8. I've found a deeper/spiritual side to the geek sitting next to me.

9. The man I'm flirting with used to be my 5th grade teacher. 

10. The urge to take off articles of clothing, stand on a table and sing or dance becomes strangely overwhelming.

11. My eyes just don't seem to want to stay open on their own so I keep them half closed and think it looks exotically sexy.

12. I've suddenly taken up smoking and become really good at it.

13. I yell at the bartender, who (I think) cheated me by giving me just lemonade, but that's just because I can no longer taste the gin.

14. I think I'm in bed, but my pillow feels strangely like the kitchen floor.

15. I start every conversation with a booming, "DON'T take this the WRONG WAY but..."

16. I fail to notice that the toilet lid's down when I sit on it.

17. My hugs begin to resemble wrestling take-down moves.

18. I'm tired so I just sit on the floor (wherever I happen to be standing) and take a quick nap.

19. I begin leaving the buttons open on my button fly pants to cut down on the time I'm in the bathroom away from my drink.

20. I take my shoes off because I believe it's their fault that I'm having problems walking straight.

blrgh

circa still messing up my order every day.  they replace it every day.  do they realize how much money they must be losing?  or is this why they're so over priced?

here's the deal

ptr's been banned from blog-city for the next month.  which is just enough to start all the legal procceedings against him.

yay yay

blah

just had a training session in running database queries.  i hate these things.  once you know basic database searching methods and protocol, you can kinda apply it out.

it took almost an hour and a half.  i think i was openly bored (whoops).

oh well

perspective

i'm much happier when complaining about stupid things. like circa. and the fact that they manage to screw up my order every day.

more on that next week.

w

my brother, who i generally hold ot be one of the world's more intellegent people, sent me an article about bush's IQ vs Kerry's while they were in the military.

as if that changes anything?

keep in mind - IQ is potential.  is someone has an IQ of 100 and pushes himself while someone else has an IQ of 140 and does nothing, who do you think is ultimately going to be mre intelligent?  IQ can change if you don't actually do something with it.

god, if i think about this much longer i'm going to puke.

and so the games begin

18:39	French hospital spokesman: Arafat`s medical situation is complex, he is not dead
18:37	Luxembourg Prime Minister says PA Chairman Arafat died 15 minutes ago
18:28	Al Arabiyeh: Ahmed Qureia, Mohammed Rashid deny reports that Arafat is clinically dead
18:25	Radio Monte Carlo: Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is dead
18:14	Radio Monte Carlo: PA Chairman Arafat is clinically dead; Sources in Paris: Arafat is dead
17:54	Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh: PA Chairman in critical condition, but not comatose

breaking news

arafat's dead

from today's NY times

"Republican leaders were promising to renew efforts to pass bills that Democrats had blocked, like one permitting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge"

please, people, i beg of you.  do not let this happen.  these are preserves.  it will take about 5 years of drilling to produce the oil, and the estimates say that tere's only enough oil there to supply 6 months of consumption.

do not let them destroy the refuge!

hershkagibble

freezing happy tired grinning

and pancakes for breakfast, how yum.  and yay yay yay life

yay games!

From the guys who brought you the State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2002, 2003 & 2004 comes...

(thanks, orly)

this is all i have to say today

http://www.gnn.tv/videos/viewer.php?id=27&spd=hi

bah humbug

this guy gets on the subway yesterday.  there's a single seat open between two women.  as he goes to sit, he murmurs "excuse me" - excellent subway etiquette.  the woman to his right says "What?!"  so he clarifies: "i'd like to sit here".  then he gestures toward the seat.  also fine.

she says "I'M not sitting there.  that seat is OPEN!"

she then proceeds to chew him out for politely giving her notice that his ass was going to be in close contact to hers.

guy looks over at me.  i try to do the sympathetic eye thing without the woman noticing.  he looks mortified.  everyone on the train suddenly has other things to look at.  and the woman sat back, andget this - she looked satusfied!  like she'd put him in his place!

ooh, smack chart.  btw, way to be oversensitive about the size of her saddlebags...

tired

it's already been a long week, and it's only monday.  i don't want questions or sympathetic comments here, i just want to put my thoughts down somewhere outside of my head.  after a weekend which took a lot out of me in many ways i found out that a friend has been in an accident, unclear how serious the accident was.  no one really has any details, so now i just have to wait continue on my general path of blind faith.

no, not blind.  stubborn determined faith.

ok - now back to work.