Herbert the Pervert

Before going into my blog, I am probably going to be officially moving this blog to Wordpress this weekend. Right now I'm adding tags and learning about the features before officially moving. I will be sure to make a note of it when I go "live."

Anyway, I wasn't a loyal Family Guy watcher until I got cable in March. Before March, I mainly didn't watch Family Guy since it was on the same time as Desperate Housewives and, of course for me, DH takes precedence. So now I always end up watching Family Guy reruns on TBS, on On Demand and on Sundays when they've stopped reruning DH reruns (seriously...what's up with that? Thank g-d they're showing on On Demand). It really is an insanely funny and weird show. Now, I don't know what this says about me, but one of the characters I *always* look forward to seeing is the old guy, Herbert. I only found his name after a Google search. I won't type the things he says, but luckily YouTube doesn't fail in providing me video to help me:





And JibJab has a nice long video, but they don't let you embed.

It seems, though, that Family Guy or its affiliates get really upset about clips being shown on YouTube. But I think those three work well. And as for why I like him, I think it's the dark part of my brain that still finds shows like Beavis and Butthead funny.

And just for fun, here's some more clips from Family Guy clip:

Blogger vs. Wordpress

Before starting this Pish Posh Etc. blog, I kept a very political blog. I kept it before the 2004 election and I trailed off writing in the middle of November 2004.

Anyway, I started this blog with Blogger since it's what I've used before and what I'm used to. I have started shopping around, though, and the verdict seems to say that Wordpress provides a really great platform. For fun last night I imported my Blogger posts to a Wordpress blog and they moved over really well. So, I might poke around with Wordpress more this weekend, but I really like that they offer more templates. Here's what I had so far: Pish Posh Etc Wordpress. I think that template is a little more "me" than any of the ones offered by Blogger and it seems they have many features built in that you have to add here (the counter/tracker, to name one). It has more bells & whistles, but I think I'd like to get some more bells & whistles around here.

Keith Olbermann on the Soup

Over the weekend I was watching The Soup and was surprised and happy to see Keith Olbermann making a cameo. He actually made fun of the whole thing on Countdown last night too. Anyway, here's the clip from The Soup:



and here's the cut to the Legally Blonde part:

Fun weekend

I had a fabulous weekend in New York for my birthday. When I got in Saturday afternoon, I did some shopping at Macy's. Of course, in that Macy's, the plus sizes are on the 7th floor. I guess that goes to show the lengths they'll go to to keep people that aren't model size from the general public. Their plus size department, though, is so huge and nice so it's worth the adventures on the escalator. I did end up getting some clothes. Afterwards I hopped the subway to Union Square area. All over Union Square people are selling Obama memorabilia. I love that his candidacy has generated so much enthusiasm. I keep thinking that, even if things don't work out (and God, please let Obama win!!), this has been such a memorable campaign and it's great seeing people this excited about a candidate. So, anyway, I strolled over to Strand bookstore and got myself mesmerized with the $1 book racks. Of course at the end I ended up putting back most of the $1 books, except ones for my friend's 1 year old son, and got the more expensive ones...I got A TV Guide to Life: How I Learned Everything I Needed to Know From Watching Television and Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope.

My friend then met up with me there and we had dinner at an Indian restaurant and had dessert at Max Brenner. We finished up the night by seeing the film Mamma Mia! at the AMC in Times Square. The film was fantastic...great music, sexy Pierce Brosnan, and of course Meryl Streep played a great part.

And Sunday we got up late and met my other friend for brunch at the Tick Tock Diner and did a whole buncha shopping in mid-town. I have to finish with a little story about the Bolt bus. This was my third time, I think, taking the Bolt bus and I have yet to be disappointed. On the way back I was really impressed, even though we did get stuck in tons of traffic out of New York and I missed my train (and had to take a cab home...damn bad Sunday Septa schedules). Some guy thought he was on the bus to Boston (how the driver or he didn't realize this is beyond me) and realized his mistake when we started crossing the bridge. The driver had some Bolt associate meet us at the first rest stop in NJ and drive him back to the Bolt stop. Now that's some great service!

I will leave with a clip of Abba:

On turning 29

I turn 29 today, one year till I turn 30. I didn't think I'd be one to care that much about ages, but this year I'm getting a bit introspective, which I suppose is natural with a milestone birthday a year away.

Most of my college friends seem to be settled in careers and/or settling with partners. I'm not doing any of these things and I know that these days it's common for 30-somethings to still be in transition, but I guess I grew up having certain expectations for my age. I know I have accomplished quite a bit, but I still don't see it as enough.

Sigh, I will stop at there. Next weekend, if I don't have to work, I was thinking of having a Sex & The City marathon. I did just get the last part of season 6 from Amazon. I think watching that will help me.

In tribute, here's an episode of Friends that's appropriate for this morning...it's where they all recall their 30th birthday.

The annoying end of Will & Grace

Ok, I promised myself no more TV blogging this week, but what the hell. When I go into work late I end up watching sitcoms on Lifetime most of the morning while I'm doing stuff around the apartment. So...right now they are showing what I think is the last season of Will & Grace. Now, I really do love so much about Will & Grace and I still contend that the Karen/Jack storylines are so much more entertaining than the Will and Grace storylines. But of course since I love the show so much I do care about Will and Grace. I started getting bothered by the show when they brought in Harry Connick, Jr. as Leo. I couldn't stand Leo's character and didn't like his relationship with Grace at all.

So, around then I really watched the show primarily for the Karen and Jack's stories. I really had no feelings one way or another about Vince, the cop Will ended up marrying, but I was happy they finally let Will have a long term boyfriend after all these seasons. That was one of my issues the series too.

Anyway, right now they're showing an episode of W&G where Grace is pregnant and having Will help her with her Lamaze class.

Of all the series finales, in my mind, I think Will & Grace had one of the worst. The Jack & Karen stories ended good and funny, as expected. Then I hated that Grace took Leo back after he did all that cheating on her. But I found it extremely unrealistic that Will & Grace went 20 years without talking at all. As for their kids meeting at college and falling in love...that was a little too unrealistic for me too.

It really made me upset that such a generally good show went out in such a bad way. Boo!!

A good Jack, Rosario & Karen moment:

Egg on my/your face

I have started hearing the idiom, "egg on my [your] face" more and more often. I never really knew what it meant, but this morning I did a quick search on it to find the meaning and possible origin of the phrase.

I did find my answer. As for the meaning or implication:

It often implies that you have made a serious mistake, but more strictly it indicates that something you have done (or some turn of events) has left you looking extremely embarrassed or foolish.

About the phrase's history, the World Wide Words website, a site that traces word/phrase origins mentions a few possible roots:

It feels like one of those expressions that have been around for ever, but the evidence suggest that it’s an American expression from the middle of last century (its first known appearance was in an American television series about 1951). It’s possible, though, that it is somewhat older, though I haven’t been able to find it in my large collection of out-of-copyright e-texts, which suggests it is more recent than the 1920s.

I know of two possibilities for where it came from. My assumption to start with was that it was a comment on a minor social gaffe at a meal, when poor manners or sloppy eating left egg around your mouth. The late John Ciardi, however, suggested an origin in the lower and more rowdy kind of theatrical performance, in which an incompetent actor would have been pelted with eggs and forced off the stage.

The full origin can be found at the link above.

Also, if you recall the theme song of Frasier, there's a part where he sings about scrambled eggs being all over his face...so, I always find origins like this interesting.

Seeking Happily Ever After

I came across an interesting sounding documentary while looking at the Feministing blog today. I think I stumbled upon it somewhere else a few weeks ago, but I took some time to peruse the website today. Being an almost 30 single woman myself, it especially piqued my interest. From the Seeking Happily Ever After website's summary:

There are more single women in their 30s today (by choice) than at any other time in history, according to a recent US Census. Why now? Are women redefining happily ever after? Filmmakers Kerry David and Michelle Cove decided to find out. They went underneath the bubbly surface of Sex and the City to talk to hundreds of single women and find out what's really going on.

The documentary has interviews with single women over 30, discussing both their happiness and even their struggles with their position. No longer is the Cinderella story considered what every little girl wants.

They have a nice little preview video on YouTube:

Flashback

I have about 13,000 songs on my iPod and usually people are shocked to hear that, but I really love my music and listen to pretty much everything. I am probably what you would call a music geek.

So, occasionally a certain song will come up and my mind will automatically flashback to the time when the song meant a whole lot to me or was the soundtrack to whatever was going on in my life. Today that song was Here and Now by Letters to Cleo. This wasn't super popular, but reminds me of my high school years and just the whole atmosphere that was my life in the early 90s. These days I wish I had those problems I had then...back then I thought my petty little issues were going to be the end of my world, but now I'd love it if my only problems were how to get a certain guy friend to see me as more than that and wondering if I'd find a place to fit in. Anyway, today when this song came on I played it at least 3 times...it takes me right back to that place since, as I recall, I played it over and over when I was that age. I did find a video of it on YouTube. I love YouTube for having so many quirky videos like this easily available.



And eek! I found the video of Beavis & Butthead making fun of it. :) Their making fun of it was still funny to watch for someone that loved the song. Ah, the good ol' days when B&B was considered such a "dangerous" show. :)

Estelle Getty, RIP

I was sorry today to hear about the passing of Estelle Getty, best known for playing Sophia on the Golden Girls. She played such a great part on the show and, luckily, the show has become part of TV history and we will probably be able to enjoy reruns of Golden Girls for many years to come. So, here's to you, Estelle, and may you rest in peace knowing that you had such an important impact on the world.

Here are some great Sophia moments:

Larry Mendte melodrama

I have been following the story about Larry Mendte with a moderate amount of interest. I don't usually get into these types of Philadelphia stories that they beat into the ground, especially considering all the problems in this city that will take forever to resolve. Michael Nutter's doing a great job and I still say I'm so proud of our city for voting him in. But...my discussion about the troubles in Philadelphia can be put off for another blog.

Back to Larry Mendte, though...of all the newscasters in Philly, he's one that I've always felt a certain fondness towards, moreso since I officially moved here. Larry and his wife, Fox news anchor Dawn Stensland, live in Chestnut Hill and on several occasions I've seen him come into Starbucks. He's always seemed like a generally good guy. My friend H worked with him, too. After graduating college, she got a job at NBC-10 through an internship she had there, and told me about what a rough time she had with the majority of her co-workers at the station, including one of the weekend anchors that really treated her like crap. She said, though, of all the anchors there, Larry Mendte and John Bolaris were among the nicest ones. Larry always made people laugh and was always telling jokes about Dawn's absent-mindedness. So, knowing what I know of Larry and the fact he was a bright spot for my friend during one of her more difficult times, I was very disappointed to hear of these allegations against Larry. Now that Larry has been convicted and will likely be go behind bars for these charges, I'm still not going to be quick to jump down his throat. What he did was certainly wrong and he should get some punishment, but I hope he eventually comes out of this learning a good lesson and maybe gets back into the media in some form.

High Fidelity

Today I finally got around to watching High Fidelity all the way through. I generally like John Cusak and dig his characters. He played the brooding, introspective Rob here that recalls all his past relationships and wonders where everything went wrong. I really wasn't wild about the character of Laura, who he ended up getting into this spiral over, but I enjoyed following the story of him getting to this point.

I especially loved the record store Rob owned and he and his friends' obsession talking about music and talking so geekily about different artists. Jack Black gave a great performance, playing a wacky character he's generally good at playing. The general soundtrack to the film went along well with the whole story.

Latest celebrity crush

I haven't really had any wild celebrity crushes since Jared Leto, when he played Jordan Catalano on My So-Called Life.

from My So-Called Life in 1994

2008

I still think he's cute, but I generally like him better with maybe a little stubble and not overly greasy. I don't follow him, though, as much as I did in the years after My So-Called Life went off the air.

My latest celebrity crush, though, is on Jason Bateman. I was too young to have one of those crushes on him in the 80s when he was on silly shows like Silver Spoons or Valerie. He has gotten my attention recently after his great performance in Juno and in my rediscovery of Arrested Development. He's certainly one that has gotten better looking with age. I don't understand the hype about the young Jason Bateman, but he's really aged well. Besides his physical attractiveness, he always plays such great characters and really fits well into the roles he plays.

Jason Bateman then, with sister Justine:


Jason Bateman now:

Insomnia

I am having a little insomnia tonight. I've finished all my "fun" stuff I have to do online and really don't feel like watching TV so I'm looking for music to download. From Limewire of course. There are a few sites I frequent to help lead me good music because, honestly, not everything is on iTunes and I like being able to find weird and unique music, often music that no one in my age group really listens to.

My favorite site is Digital Dreamdoor Music Lists. I appreciate that the owner has included all kinds of genres...surf music, blues, doo wop, etc. Not just the plain ol' country, rap and pop. I like that in his 90s lists I have found songs I haven't thought of in *years*. Some of the 80s tunes bring me back, but the 90s were all on during my turbulent adolescent years and I have a real warm spot for those tunes...even ones that I hated at the time. I guess it's all just nostalgia now.

I have also gotten into Pandora. The lists aren't there, but I like that they can help me find music like R.E.M. (though there's NO ONE like R.E.M.).

So all this should help me doze.

Delaware County

I did a little driving around Delaware County today. I have an interview in Drexel Hill this week and I wanted to do a little test drive since I'm not too familiar with the area. And while I was there I stopped in to visit a friend in the area. I used to be in that area all the time visiting my friend Isabella, who has since moved to Ireland, but I haven't had a reason to be there for awhile. It's generally a nice area, but I'm not sure if I'd move there if I got a job out there. There are these Swiss Dairy stores I've been fascinated with, but never got a chance to visit. Maybe I'll pop in there after my interview this week.

The new 90210

I'm still not sure how I feel about them doing a spinoff of Beverly Hills 90210. I loved 90210 and part of me thinks they should just let the show go already. But then I admit that I'm curious to see the show just because I loved 90210 and I also just saw this article:
Shannen Doherty Returns.

Apparently Brenda will be playing a visiting drama teacher and Jennie Garth will return as Kelly, playing a guidance counselor. I think it would be nice if they could get any of the guys to come back. I know I'd love to see Steve Sanders again.

Not Desperate Housewives!

Despite what you might think from my blog so far, there are really very, very few TV shows I watch religiously. Most of the shows I do watch religiously are ones that have been long canceled...Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Seinfeld, Friends, Sex & the City, My So-Called Life, and many of the old sitcoms they rerun all over the place. I guess I'm an old fart in that I can not get into any of these reality shows or reality type shows and prefer my television to have a story and script. Of course there are exceptions for shows like Colbert, Daily Show & Olbermann and some news type programs.

Anyway, one of those few shows I still watch religiously is Desperate Housewives. I know the show has lost fans over the years, but I think it's still really well done, has great quirky story lines and fantastically developed characters. And in the Darren Star (and the late Aaron Spelling) tradition, you really get some nutty characters and great cliffhangers. Ugly Betty does a great job with this too, but Desperate Housewives does more to fuel my need for fluff.

I always like surprising people by saying I love shows like Melrose Place,
Dawson's Creek and 90210. Since I think so much during my regular day, shows like this really do a great job sucking me in and distracting me from everything else I'm dealing with since they have such intricate stories. The Office is funny and does have tiny bits of drama thrown in, but, obviously, not to the extent of DH.

So I was disappointed when I saw this headline on Yahoo! today:

Housewives Saying Goodbye to Wisteria Lane.
“I’ve made the decision that after seven years I will probably keel over in a hump,” Cherry explained. “I love my baby, I love working with these gals, but the idea of letting anyone else take the show from me kind of makes me sad and sick to my stomach...I’m going to take it for seven years, and we’re going to get out while people still like us.”

I'm guessing he's trying to pull an act like Seinfeld with DH, which I do think makes some sense. Right now I'm up to season 9 of 90210 on the Soap Network and, really, as much as I love the show, they really did drag it out too much by the end. 90210 without any of the Walshes doesn't really make sense since, really, the initial premise of the show was about Brenda & Brandon trying to acclimate to life in Beverly Hills. I know there were lots of Brenda fans that jumped ship when she left, but the Brandon character still made the show valid.

So, there will be 3 more seasons of Desperate Housewives. Of all the ladies, I really hope that Marcia Cross keeps working after the show's over. Her character has been one of my favorite parts of the show from the beginning. Cross always plays such a good, insane person.

Interview results

I think I did really well in the interview I had today. I'm writing up my "thank yous" right now. I've tried not getting too excited about good interviews lately, though, because I keep getting disappointed.

Earlier this year I sold all my Friends DVDs, but I keep thinking about episodes during the first season when Rachel is struggling trying to find a job in fashion. There was the one interview she thought went really well, but they went around and hired someone else. It was that episode where they were all playing poker. I love the poker part of the episode too. :) Of course, that guy Mark ended up finding her a job, but up until that point, I can totally empathize.

I was happy to find that episode here on YouTube...in 3 parts.:




Anyway, I have been appreciating Rachel's character so much more lately. I used to love Phoebe the best. I still like Phoebe's character, but, really, I love the storylines with Rachel too. I've been thinking of the one where she has the eye issues too...that is completely me too.

I found a clip of that too:

Heat wave...again.

It looks like we're getting another heat wave in Philadelphia. It looks like it will be for the next few days. I hate these heat waves. I always want to camp in my apartment watching TV, but of course I have to live my life.

Tomorrow I have some job related ventures. One interview at a non-profit and a meeting with a staffing agency. I need to get some grocery shopping in too. The cost of everything is so insane lately. I use one credit card only for gas and my bill has gone up so much since last time. I did, though, get a BP gift card so that will help with at least one tank of gas. I'm glad I got the BP card. I was using the AAA card for my gas for awhile, but the BP one has this great reward benefit. Plus there are BPs all over the place and they're one of the most environmentally friendly gas company.

Over last weekend I ordered the whole series of Arrested Development and I've received seasons 1 and 3 so far. Maybe I'll be lucky to get season 2 by the weekend. So maybe over the weekend during my downtime I'll get to camp out and watch them.

FrozFruit bars

I have become completely addicted to FrozFruit bars. The coconut ones especially. Mmmm....and they're healthy too.

In more "Please let it die" news...

I was a huge X-Files fan until David Duchovny left the show. Seriously, what is X-Files without David Duchovny? So, when I heard about the X-Files movie that was coming out this year I was really disappointed. I love X-Files, but the show ended 6 years ago and I really think it's time to move on. I'm definitely glad they're still using David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, but just let the show rest already. I'll probably end up renting the film from Netflix since I'm curious, but I really hope this will be it.

In other "let it die" news, I saw this on the Entertainment Weekly blog today:

Will you see Scream 4?
From the article:
Scream 4 is an apparent go, eight years after the last installment hit theaters. The news was buried in reports about Showtime's new deal to be the home of the Weinstein Co.'s and Dimension Films' pay-cable premieres. I haven't read any details about the movie — it's not even listed on IMDB yet, so you know it's in the early stages — but I'm already wondering if I'll see it. I've stopped doing horror (I like to sleep at night), but I could be talked into it. I saw the first three films, during daylight hours, and I'm a sucker for a self-referential script. What about you?

I did like the first two Scream films, but this is another one that I really didn't want to see resurrected almost 10 years later. Knowing the Scream writers, though, they might poke fun at the next sequel following after so many years, but eh. Can we please come up with more creative ideas for films rather than rehashing old TV shows and film series? And about this Get Smart movie? I love Steve Carrell, but this film really butchers the old show. On the Get Smart TV show, Agent 99 and Maxwell Smart were about the same age. In the film adaptation? How about the age difference between Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway?

So much for Alaska

No doubt that this news has spread. Let's see what Congress does. I know my rep will vote against it, but the other Democrats...I'm not so sure.

Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling

Also in the environmental realm, while searching for articles about drilling in Alaska on the Sierra Club website, I came upon this article:
Schwarzenegger slams Bush on global warming

From the article:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Bush administration's decision to delay a decision on regulating greenhouse gases showed that it did not believe in global warming.

Schwarzenegger, in an interview with ABC television broadcast Sunday, said it would have been insincere for the administration to take action on the harmful emissions with only six months left in George W. Bush's presidency.

"Well, to be honest with you, if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway... because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office," he told ABC on Friday.

Schwarzenegger spoke on the day the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report offering no new action against emissions and calling for 120 days of public comment, essentially leaving any decision to the next administration.

Taking action at this late stage in Bush's second four-year term would not have been credible, said Schwarzenegger, who signed a historic bill in 2006 that made California the first US state to impose limits on global warming gases.

There's the young 20 something in me that still laughs at the idea of the Terminator being the governor of California and I have read about his work here and there. I must say, though, from what I know of his record, I admire him for taking such a stand for environmental issues and having a reasonable stand on social issues. So, three cheers for Arnold for doing such good.

Flooding of interviews

High class problem of the day, apparently my newly fashioned resume has gone over really well and I'm getting many interviews. That's definitely good news, right? The only problem is trying to schedule interviews between my work schedule. I mean, I really can leave work for so many doctor's appointments and it would be kinda nice to have some vacation time accrued when I leave so I can cash those hours in.

I think my boss knows I'm looking too. He knows I'm not happy with this whole nonsense with the phones.

Well, the good news is that it looks like I'll be off this weekend. The one good thing with the phone nonsense was that it gave me days off during the week so I didn't have this problem.

The right wingers come running in

So some right wing bloggers found my post from yesterday about Tony Snow's passing and I've gotten a whole bunch of hits to my blog. I think I should be a bit flattered, though, because they listed my post along with posts from Huffington Post and DailyKos. Considering I have had only one or two political posts in this blog (so far), I find it interesting that they were clumping my blog with them.

And last night I had people posting nasty comments and calling me filthy names. Of course I deleted all those comments. First off, the people that post comments like that are really to be questioned. I guess they aren't as moral as they like to think they are since they're using such bad language, and by using such language they really aren't coming off as classy or really that intelligent. So, now that I have that out of the way, I think everything the Bush administration has done has been immoral and at this point, I really don't understand how anyone can be so blind to the damage done to this country and the world by the Bush administration. Tony Snow wasn't as bad as others coming out of this administration and it really was a hell of a job being a press secretary that continued to promote Bush's lies. But the fact that he spent his last years being the spokesperson for such an evil regime makes me have little respect for him. I'm sorry for his family's loss and that he died so young in such a painful way.

Fixing my laptop

Last year around the holidays, my Gateway laptop crashed and has been a paperweight ever since. I was intending to buy a new laptop, but I think I can try to make a learning experience out of this by rebuilding the whole thing. I'm going to buy a new hard drive and run Ubuntnu on it. So, we'll see what becomes of this little experiment.

Bang bang!

I had another one of my crazy nightmares last night. I don't remember much detail, but I was at a convenience store. It wasn't Wawa and I don't think it was 7-11. It may have been like a Kwik Stop place. I was waiting in line at the register and alongside me, looking at the area with chips and salty snacks was a guy holding a gun right next to his body. I tried mouthing to the cashier that there was a guy there with a gun, but she didn't really notice I was trying to talk to her. And at that point I worried that he'd see me trying to get her attention and get me for doing so. He did see me and at that point, he lifted up his gun to start shooting. Just then I forced myself to wake up.

So, I don't know why I have such nutty dreams. This isn't the first semi-violent dream I've had. Maybe someone can analyze them to death for me.

Go play in the street

My paternal grandfather always used to tell us to go play in the street. I forget what context he said it in, but I think it was when we were at their house and bored.



So today at the supermarket parking lot I saw some really neglectful parenting. I put my bags in the car and got into my car to back out. But the "parent" in the car next to me was so preoccupied with loading her bags in the car that she didn't notice her son running around in the parking lot, standing behind my car (which was turned on and had my lights on). Now, this is a very busy lot and is adventurous just to drive in. If I were a parent, I'd have my child wait in the car while I was loading, especially if I knew they were that active. Or she should have at least said something to him and told him to settle down. Someone more impatient than me, and I was feeling impatient today, might have said something to her, but I just waited for the 5 minutes for her to put her bags away while her kid ran all over in the parking lot.

Oh no, not cilantro!

In the latest news in Everything in the World Will Kill You, KYW posted an article today that now cilantro and jalapenos are being linked to the salmonella outbreak too. They say about the investigation...

And therein lies the frustration. Seven weeks into their investigation, federal health officials aren't shortening the list of potential culprits but adding to it. Now jalapeno pepper (in photo) producers are being probed alongside tomato distributors, and even fresh cilantro is under suspicion too.

As for me, I still love my cilantro and my jalapenos. Actually, these days I prefer habaneros if I'm making something hot. But, of course that's beside the point. There's part of me that does feel concerned with all these alarmist alerts, but I do think the media pushes stories like this to distract us from real issues. Of course there should be concern, but not everyone has the money to buy all organic all the time. I suppose this all goes into the Omnivore's Dilemma.


In other news, I have another interview for next week and a call from someone late in the day today that I need to return tomorrow. So, it seems like my interviews have been coming in waves lately. I was getting worried for awhile that I wasn't getting any calls, but I have at least 3 and possibly 4 coming up now.

Complete idiot's guide

I was intrigued by this chapter...it sounds very, very familiar!

The Unreasonable Demands Boss

Like, Omigod!

I had to get a physical for work today and I have lost 11 pounds since January. It's not much, but I guess what I've been doing has paid off.

I was contacted by a staffing agency today and am seeing some good opportunities through them. So, we'll see what happens there. They did say they get positions from non-profits, which I thought was promising.

Tonight I'm watching all my Aaron Spelling soaps. They're coming down to the end of 90210, tomorrow they're showing the episode where Kelly & Brandon decide not to get married. I'll be working and missing it, but I don't care so much. I was never much of a fan of the Kelly/Brandon relationship. I like them both apart, but wasn't wildly amused about them together. I still find myself much routing for Donna & David. I know they get married in the series finale, but I'm intrigued to watch the follow up to it. I think I route for them like I route for Billy & Allison on Melrose Place. Except I'm not finding Billy as adorable as I did when I first decided to get myself sucked into this show. I do find him more intriguing than Jake (Grant Show), but eh. Right now I'm in the season where Marcia Cross's character just blew up Melrose Place and Kristin Davis is on being all vixen-esque. I must say that it feels really odd seeing Kristin Davis playing such a nasty, manipulative character on here. She certainly has talent for playing someone like Brooke and going on to play a character like Charlotte on Sex & The City.

In unshallow news, today I shipped back the Thinkpad I ordered from Overstock. It officially went defective over the weekend, making really loud clicking sounds when I turned it on. I didn't do anything unusual...just tried connecting to a wireless network. I might look into installing a new hard drive on my old Gateway laptop and maybe running Linux on it. I have no idea how to go about doing any of that, but during my bored time at home I'm planning to read up on it.

Goodnight Bush

My mom read me Goodnight Moon all the time when I was a child. So, I'm a little sentimental about the book. That same mom pointed me to this new book that's coming out, Goodnight Bush. It sound interesting. As for me, I'm not so sentimental about the book that I'm offended by this parody...I love the idea!

Open Goodnight Bush: An Unauthorized Parody, and you might recognize the cozy green room with striped curtains, a fire glowing in the fireplace, a full moon outside in the starry sky.

But look closer and you'll see that the painting over the fireplace shows an oil derrick with stealth bombers flying around it. In the fireplace, there's a ballot box burning that says "Florida 2000." And snaking around the side of the fireplace is a tiny microphone.

Goodnight Bush riffs off Margaret Wise Brown's classic children's book Goodnight Moon to satirize the Bush administration, co-authors Erich Origen and Gan Golan tell NPR's Melissa Block.

In place of the bunny rabbit character in the children's book, a child-like George Bush is tucked safely in bed "surrounded by toys that represent different facets of the Bush administration's legacy," Golan says. A tiny Osama bin Laden peeks out from many of the pages, and a shotgun-toting Dick Cheney whispers, "Hush."

Those who hold the original dear to their hearts might say Goodnight Bush amounts to sacrilege, that Origen and Golan have turned something beloved into something really dark. One illustration, for example, shows a plane knocking over two towers made of building blocks, and it says "Goodnight towers," a reference to the World Trade Center towers destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.

"The book obviously isn't for children," Origen says. "At the same time, it lets us look at the past eight years through the eyes of a child. And it lets us see how far Bush's reality is from the reality anyone would want for their children."

The authors say the book is illustrated with "naked simplicity" to show respect and sensitivity.

"I think people really understand there's a real poignancy to many of those images, and that's the way it was intended," Golan says, "because the last eight years have been full of all these tragic incidents and it's really that combination of kind of flippant absurdity that we've sometimes seen from the president, and that's in the book, but at the same time a real seriousness about what it is that we've lost."

And here are some pictures:

Golden Girls

I had an interview today and am not sure how it went. But the salary was below what I'm looking for (and I don't think it'll be negotiable since it's a startup non-profit with not much $$ to begin with). At least I can see it as another interview experience and I was able to make a good contact. The woman I interviewed with actually knows my workplace and has helped put together a sneaker drive for us around the holidays with her kids' school. The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. I pretty much slept late, went to the interview, came home and watched TV for the rest of the day. I caught an episode of Golden Girls I like...of course I like most of the episodes, but in this one, Blanche's daughter plans to have a child by artificial insemination and she's very much against it...there are jokes made, ha ha. But in the end she's accepting of it and realizes that she loves her daughter and this is her decision. I love that the show was actually open talking about such topics. When I was young I didn't really get Golden Girls, but when I watch it now, I can truly appreciate it. It might have been one of the last shows (on network TV anyway) that was along the lines of All In the Family, Mary Tyler Moore or Maude in its frankness and ability to make light of real issues.

Of course I love some shows on network TV that are still on...The Office, Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives. But none of them even touch that golden era of sitcoms.

Countdown

I always feel a little disappointed when I turn on Countdown on MSNBC and see Rachel Maddow instead of Keith Olbermann. I do enjoy seeing Rachel Maddow and always like when I'm able to catch her radio show, but I don't think she gets as sarcastically funny as Keith. Ah well. The show still provides such a good alternative to the bull from Bill O'Reilly. Speaking of Fox News Channel, over the weekend they had a show that seemed to go on forever about "liberal bias" on college campuses. I guess that since most people are now realizing the neocons are driving this country (and the world) down the toilet, they're back to talking about BS like this. Hopefully this will be a good sign for Obama.

Also yesterday I stumbled upon a show on MSNBC about a Philadelphia resident, Marie Noe, that killed 8 of her 10 babies from the 1950s through 1967. She didn't confess to the crimes until 1998. I found it interesting to learn about the views of mental illness and what this case had to teach us about both postpartum depression and multiple personality (which they eventually diagnosed her with...she's in her 80s now). I found the article, written by Stephen Fried, that was published at the time of the investigation in 1998. Read the whole thing here.

Rainy day

It's a rainy, ugly day today in Philadelphia. I was in NJ visiting family yesterday so was on the road back in the nasty fog this morning. Yuck! But I always think days like this are a blessing since I don't feel guilty staying in, watching TV and relaxing. I am making pork lo mein for dinner tonight so that should be really yummy.

Right now I'm watching CSI. I have only dappled in watching this show, but since I'm an X-Files fan, I think this show is right along my alley.

Not much new to add today. Just popping in with a quick "hi."

Jessie Helms & the 4th

I'm trying to think if there's some type of dramatic irony that Jesse Helms died today, on the 4th of July. But we certainly weren't better having known him.

In other news, I had to work today...there were no phone calls. This executive director has such insanely bad management skills I'm just hoping that eventually our corporate office in Pittsburgh will realize that she's the reason there's been so much turnover this year. But hopefully by then I'll be gone. I got help from another friend in pumping up my resume so hopefully that will give me even more bites. I've gotten some more rejection letters, but am hoping that one of the two jobs I'm interviewing for will work out. I'm just getting so tired of looking.

Anyway, my cat Sylvia is sitting next to me staring very intently so I need to do something to appease her.

Things that suck about job hunting

I found this after doing a Google search for "job hunting hard."
Things that suck about job hunting

I liked a whole bunch, especially:
Having to write a “personal statement” when really, all you want is a decent job that pays well and some coworkers that don't suck.

Looking at job listings online and they're filled with stupid "WORK FROM HOME" listings and other useless garbage.

Knowing that one or two page document isn't going to sum you up as a person or a worker, but you're forced to make one anyway.

Not finding ANY job postings that are suited to what you do in ANY way for weeks on end.

Having people asking you "How is the job hunt going?" over and over.

Finding a great job to apply for and you make it to the interview, they basically tell you that you're the best person for the job so you get all excited and then they hire someone else.

Interviews that you know aren't going well within the first two seconds, but you can't get up and run screaming from the place.

Having EVERYTHING go wrong the day of your interview, so you show up late, not at all, or on fire.

Job posting requirements made by the HR department instead of the actual department you'll be working for, so they make no sense and ask for tons of things that only robots have.

Being thanked for your time after the interview when it's just been one big waste of time and you both know it.

Being interviewed by about five people all at once, with them asking you questions, scribbling down what you answer with and then whispering amongst themselves.

Not being able to find the way into the building, or where the reception area is, so you're wandering around outside in front of the all the office windows looking like some sort of crazed idiot.

Having to go to about ten different interviews for one company because their interviewing process is SO stupid and every level of the organization just HAS to get involved.

Guilty Pleasures

Well, I'm going to be starting on my wacky schedule soon. I'm hoping things will be resolved soon.

On another note, I've been watching Saved By the Bell at night instead of Jeopardy! I never watched Saved By the Bell when it was on, but it is weirdly interesting to watch. Right now there's a very young Tori Spelling on playing the girlfriend of Screech.

And tonight I'm planning to watch The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I know it looks like such a horribly bad, sappy, cheesy, (insert more synonyms here) show but I am strangely intrigued. Maybe it's because it's written by Brenda Hampton of 7th Heaven fame. I used to watch that show simply to watch how bad it was...very train wreck-like. And I'm suspecting this show will have that same train wreck affect. I'm curious too that Molly Ringwald is playing a major part.


Apart from that, the job at Project HOME was filled, but I have 2 interviews coming up. So here's hoping. This past weekend I went to see my friend Kim in New York on Saturday. We didn't do much, just walked around in Chelsea. And I got me some Krispy Kremes and goodies from Zaro's. I also got some beauty products from Lush, namely their Cupcake mask and their Brazened Honey mask and a bottle of their Curly Wurly shampoo. My Bolt ride went well...they were running 15 minutes late in the morning, but it went very smoothly on my way back. I talked to my friend Izabella over the weekend too. She sounds like she's doing ok in Galway...she was working at a US company that just laid her off, though. But she was pretty much talking me into moving to Europe. I've always been tempted to just pick up and move somewhere where I don't know anyone, but I don't think I'd ever have the nerve to actually do it. Anyway, she said there are lots of other Polish people in Galway and that everyone's just *really* nice. She liked Dublin better, mostly because they had more salsa clubs and it was bigger, but she still likes Galway.

Sunday I was supposed to see Sex & the City with Laura, but she canceled so I just stayed home and did job hunting. I ended up making some steak tacos, using soft tortillas, but they turned out too spicy, even for me. No other wildly fun cooking things this week. Today I made bratwurst simmered in Yuengling and topped with caramelized onions. That's not that wildly exciting, but it does taste good.

Will blog again later. Can't wait to see what happens with this pregnancy scare on The Secret Life of the American Teenager!