January 28, 2010

iPad, iSchmad

So everybody is talking about this iPad thing, which is good for Apple I suppose. But I'm still not entirely sure what the big deal is. I looked online a little to try and figure out what's so awesome, but it just kind of strikes me as being a larger iPhone or iPod Touch. Personally, I didn't understand why everyone got so excited about the iPhone, either. I've only recently started wanting an iPod Touch, and that's only because I found out you can hook up to the internet with it. I didn't know that before because I don't keep up on these kind of things. I don't even want it for music stuff. I just want it for internet stuff because I don't want to pay for internet service on my phone. It doesn't seem worth the money to me. I especially don't understand why people race to get these new gadgets as soon as they're available. I don't think it makes any sense to buy something new like that until it's been out at least a year so the manufacturers can iron out any wrinkles. Not to mention the price will go down after it's been on the market a little. Maybe my age is showing.

January 25, 2010

Is it real or is it Memorex?

Yeah, I guess some of these are accurate. But, then, some aren't. Guess I don't know myself any better than I did before.

Advanced Global Personality Test Results
Extraversion||||||||||||||||||76%
Stability||||||||||||||56%
Orderliness||||||||||||50%
Accommodation||||||||||||||||63%
Intellectual||||||||||||50%
Interdependence||||||||||||||||70%
Mystical||||||||||||50%
Materialism||||||||||||||60%
Narcissism||||||||||||50%
Adventurousness||||||||||||||||70%
Work ethic||||||||||||||60%
Conflictseeking||||||||||40%
Need to dominate||||||30%
Romantic||||||30%
Avoidant||||||||||||||60%
Anti-authority||||||||||||||||||80%
Wealth||10%
Dependency||10%
Change averse||||||30%
Cautiousness||||||||||40%
Individuality||||||||||||||60%
Sexuality||||||||||||||||70%
Peter pancomplex||||||||||||50%
Histrionic||||||||||||50%
Vanity||||||||||||||||70%
Artistic||||||||||||||||||80%
Hedonism||||||||||||||||||80%
Physicalfitness||||||||||||||||||||90%
Religious||||||||||||||60%
Paranoia||||||||||||50%
Hypersensitivity||||||||||||||56%
Indie||||||||||||50%
Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality test by similarminds.com

January 21, 2010

The post that doesn't belong to me.

@smashadv on Twitter invited me to submit a guest post to his blog Obsessed with Conformity. Anyway, this is what I'm sending him. Enjoy.

I’ve got my book club meeting coming up tonight. It’s the fourth time we’ll be meeting since forming the club a few months ago. It’s also the fourth time I’ve started a book for book club and not finished it. In fact, this time around, I managed to get only 64 pages into the book (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters), making it the least-read book of them all.

Oh, did I mention I’m the one who suggested we read this book?

I should be frustrated with myself for not being able to finish what I start, but I’m not. I’ve been thinking a lot, though, of why I’m not committing to these books even though I have very sincere intentions of reading everything we choose. I love reading, and I’m always eager to find something new and engaging. I also love talking about books and hearing the many different things that other people got from the very same words I read. As a writer, I find it fascinating to know that what I put on a page can be processed and interpreted so many wildly divergent ways depending solely upon the eyes that see it.

So what’s the problem, right? This should be a no-brainer. But when it gets right down to it, I think the reason I don’t worry too much about finishing a book for book club is because the meetings really aren’t about literature to me. Book club is about the social interaction it provides. We talk about the books, for sure. But it’s squeezed in between a lot of other non-literary discussion. The other women and I discuss the normal sorts of things: home life, kids, work, boyfriends, husbands, etc. And it gives me a sense of wellbeing to know other women out there struggle with the same challenges day-in and day-out that I do. This sort of real life human connection is something I think is becoming a little bit of an anomaly when so much interaction nowadays is via social networking media, to which I wholeheartedly admit being a slave. In fact, it’s all thanks to Twitter that this post even appears here. But there’s something really comforting about being in the company of other people and seeing their reactions and hearing their laughter and touching their hands. I have no intention of abandoning my Twitter, Facebook, Google Wave, Blip, or Formspring accounts anytime soon, but I’m going to remember I can’t get a hug from any of them.

Meanwhile, someone has already suggested Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman for our next book club selection, and I swear, this time, I’m going to finish it come hell or high water. Probably.

January 17, 2010

I'm so freaking excited I can't stand it.

So my friend Brian (whose b-day party at Hooter's was a past podcast) and I are going to do a webshow. We met yesterday to start brainstorming and came up with a whole list of episode themes and basically pounded out what kind of structure we'd like for the show. We've picked our first episode theme and we're hoping to get things in place so that we might be able to start shooting something in the next two or three weeks. To say I'm way excited about this project would be a major understatement. I'm as excited about doing this as it's possible for a human to be. Brian and I are equally warped so it's going to be a lot of fun doing this with him despite what the final project turns out to be. Mind you, we're not trying to slap together something shitty, but you never know how people will digest what you give them. We're envisioning a combination of traditional sit-down talk show mixed with some "dramatic reenactments" and interviews. Hopefully people will like what we put together, but even if they don't, this is going to be awesome fun.

January 11, 2010

The worst kind of news

We found out yesterday that the grandmother of one of daughter's best friends is basically dying of cancer. It's a very unexpected diagnosis and comes very quickly after his grandmother initially falling ill. My daughter's friend and his mother live with his grandparents, so my daughter knows her well enough from having been over at his house for play dates and sleep overs. It's a sad state of affairs, and they've given her between two weeks to a month. This particular news comes right on the heels of my having learned last week that one of the Whine Sisters (who you might remember from one of my podcasts a few episodes back) died unexpectedly of what's believed to be a heart attack. When I returned home last Saturday from vacation, there was an email waiting from Julia London telling me that Kathleen Givens had died the night before. According to the email, she was sitting next to her husband, made a strange sound, and when he looked at her, she was out and they were never able to revive her. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, she was gone. And while I'd never met Kathleen, I considered her a friend from the years of back and forth I shared with her through the Whine Sisters blog and email. I'm sad about it and feel incredibly torn for her family. How do you cope with a loss that sudden and instantaneous? About a month before all this, I learned on Facebook that an old college friend of mine had passed away over the summer from leukemia. He'd battled it before, but it returned and claimed him in the end. And even though he'd already been gone a few months when I read the news, it still felt like a punch to the gut. He was only about a year older than I am. This is the first time in my life that I've experienced such a sudden round of death among people in my consciousness and it's scary to me. Maybe I've just finally reached an age where I can expect to say goodbye to people more often than I say hello. I feel like I've been seeing too many people leave regardless of death and it hurts my heart. All I know is that it sucks and I'm not ready to be in that stage of life no how, no way.

January 06, 2010

What in the flipping hell?

Blind Items: I Guess, You Guess

If you followed the link above, this is really the only part that I'm interested in you taking a look at:

This actor may be the last straight man left in Hollywood, but he does have one unusual request that makes us question his past. This one requires one man (him), two partners (in this case both women), and a room temperature traditionally-shaped bottle of Coca-Cola. When he is about to climax into one woman, the other one shakes up the bottle of Coke and shoves it up his bum. The objective is to have two explosions at once. Given his screen history, we’re guessing that this actor rather likes big explosions. And, given his bedroom history, we’re guessing that neither of these women is his wife. (Blind Gossip)

I highly respect this Coke fucker for using Coca-Cola instead of Pepsi. I don't mean to offend any Pepsi lovers out there (Yes, I do), but personally I wouldn't let my asshole drink Pepsi even if it had cotton mouth in a bad way, which it usually does. I give it Pedialyte when that happens. Anyway, my guesses are Charlie Sheen or Josh Duhamel?  —Michael K
What in the name of all that is holy is wrong with Hollywood people? Seriously. How do you even come up with the idea of shoving shaken up soda up your ass as you come? Of all the bizarre sexual things I've imagined (and there's a long list), incorporating an explosive bottle of Coke just isn't one of them. This makes me not want to even contemplate what some sick fuck out there would do with a slab of maggot-ridden steak. Mmm, mmm, mmm. There's just all kinds of crazy up in here.


Posted using ShareThis

January 04, 2010

Podcast episode 34

My wubby Ed came home for a visit. We all got together at our local Irish pub to drink and bask in the glow of his presence. I also use the opportunity to expound upon why I should be Oprah's replacement.