overactive imagination strikes... again

we watch law and order and csi all the time, along with movies such as kill bill, etc.  so i'm mostly immune to the blood and gore stuff.  but give me a creepy plot-line, and i'll be jolted out my sleep at 4:26 am, positive that Charlie from Hide and Seek is waiting somewhere in the apt to get us.  of course, i've woken up from a dream where i saw a serial killer stab two people to death outside my door.  and yes, the dry heat in the room realy helps - you wake up drenched in sweat, unable to breathe, lungs aching.

which fully explains why avraham needed to be woken up before i could go to the bathroom.  see, i coulnd't find a nightlight, and so i had to turn on the regular light, and now that i've seen light i can't go back into the dark room because i'll freak.

creativity is a curse.

teach your children well

long talk this week with Rabbi Blau and Avs about the issues that crop up whil in israel, primarily the abuse and crossing of lines.  the extent to which women are taught to accept what Rabbis and authoritative figures do and say boggles my mind.

there are also harmful behaviors and attitudes that are taught as a "frum" norm.  things like "girls are stupid and boys are scum".  shocking, really, when you consider taht this is the message being fed to people who then need to walk out and date, and trust a member of the opposite sex.

how do teachers and parents expect young couples to be able to relate if they're being taught for years not to trust each other or themselves?  how do you expect a young wife to keep from cringing in disgust when her husband kisses her?

and the people who propogate this message are revered and respected, invited to speak all over the world to impressionable young people who are trying to learn the right way to behave.

which is only the beggining of the tirade i would like to release, but i will stop before i truly cross the line into out and out lashon hara.  yes, i know some of you will make the case that because this is waring people away from something harmful it is not lashon hara, however this is not the forum to do that.

looks eerily fantastic

When Mean Girls Are Not Stopped

Long Overdue

Leaders Gather to Mark Liberation of Auschwitz
and just think - it only took the UN 60 years to acknowledge that the holocaust happened
 

Survivors, several wearing the coarse blue and white caps from their prison uniforms, dotted the crowd in Krakow, Poland, today.
 

and you thought you had it bad

"Oh, Bob, can you clear out the stadium?"

why europe creeps me out

In 2002 the most common first name given to newborn babies was Mohamed. The name Osama finished at a handsome 12^th position.

fascinating article about populations in Europe, specifically the decrease that is coming up

as i eat my yogurt

there should be a law re: car alarms.  i.e. if it goes off for a long time, the people living around it who are trying to slep can throw rocks at it until it stops.

additionally, if your car is stuck in the snow and you must get it out, which of course entails that awful revving on snow/ice sound, please don't do it at 2 in the morning.  beyond that fact that it really pisses off the neighbors, it's easier to do during daylight hours when the snow's softer.

i look like i've been punched in the face - eyes are swollen almost shut.  apparently watching movies where a spouse is dying and the other spouse is miserable makes me cry.  and in a nod to jet-lag, as i was sobbing on avraham, he began to cry.  not because of the movie, mind you.  because i was sobbing.  hence going to sleep at 9:30 - sleep patterns have now hit a trifecta.

dreading getting on the subway.  my commute's risen to an hour and a half thanks to the overflow from the A/C line.  and it's not faster on the express in the morning.  i suggest that the MTA run the 1 train express from 168th to 96th and leave the 9 train to run local.  if they need more trains, they can throw the A and C trains that aren't being used into service on the 1/9 line.

side point to the fire - officials believe the fire was started by a homeless person.  as you may know, the city has been cutting funding to homeless shelters and closing many of them.  the homeless population has taken up residence in the subway system, the only place they have a chance of not freezing to death.  this very same city that closed the shelters to cut costs now must find a few billion to re-build the MTA.  wouldn't it have been cheaper (forget more humane, they obviously don't care) to simpy provide shelter for the homeless?