Playdate

So I don't watch American Idol (anymore) OR Kelly Ripa...

and yet this still makes me laugh.  I thought you AI fanatics out there (you know who you are) would appreciate it as well.

Start Your Engines!

The NASCAR race season kicked off today with the 50th running of the Daytona 500.  You know my boys are psyched!  #12 Ryan Newman (or as Will and Milo refer to him, Ryman Newman) came from out of nowhere on the last lap to win his first race in over two years.  Good for him.

I'm taking the boys to the speedway for a tour while we're down in Florida next week.  They'll get a big kick out of it.   

Back when I was a kid, I loved going to the races.  It cost $5 to drive your car into the infield to watch.  You could only see the racecars as they banked around the turns so folks would climb on top of their truck/van/car roofs to try to get a better view.  The seats in the stands were something like $25 - too rich for our blood - but compared to the tickets for today's race which started at $300, quite the bargain in retrospect.  I don't even know if they let the riffraff park in the infield anymore.  When did racing get so fancy?

Anyway, I don't care - I'm glad the races are broadcast nationally so I don't ever have to miss The Great American Race.  I think I heard that they are thinking of building a track on Staten Island.  If so, I'm totally making all of you go with me.  Start saving your pennies.

Boogity Boogity Boogity!

That darn writer's strike

Seriously, if this strike lasts much longer, I'm going to have to start doing yoga on Monday nights.

I've already put a ton of TV shows in my Netflix queue for the start of the year.  I'm not kidding, I have zero items in my Tivo.  Zee- row.  What else am I supposed to do here? 

Anyone want to come over and watch The Dead Zone?  Undeclared?  The first season of Top Chef (I'm hoping they do a marathon on Bravo soon...)?

I just got this really interesting documentary about Helvetica...

I may even get around to watching the end of the first season of Torchwood.

Hmmm.  Actually, now that I think about it, I guess I'll survive.

This is Journalism?

I used to watch network news all the time in my 20s and early 30s but it got so damn dumbed down and sensationalistic that I stopped.  I also had a subscription to Newsweek for over a decade which I canceled for the same reasons. 

Last Thursday I was watching the local ABC affiliate's 5 o'clock news so I could get an update on the weather (We had plans to travel out of town, but the ice storms brought those to a screeching halt).  They were doing a story about the Democratic Presidential Debate that took place in Iowa that day.  Rather than inform us about the various candidate's views on a pressing national issue (I dunno....Health care coverage for children?   The mortgage collapse?  Fucking Iraq?) the journalistic wizards over at ABC decided to talk about Clinton's laugh.  Yes, folks, she laughed!  Film at 11.

You can see the clip here, but basically what happened is the moderator asked Barack Obama how he reconciled his self-stated "break from the past" candidacy with the fact that he has hired many of Bill Clinton's former advisers.  Somebody started chuckling (one of the other candidates) and then Hillary laughed, made a comment and laughed again.  The newscaster giving the story actually said, and I am not lying, "You can hear Hillary cackling here."  Excuse me, what?  CACKLING?  Oh, no you did not.

First of all, for the love of god, the woman laughed.  WTF is the big deal?  Other people on the panel and in the audience were laughing too.  Are we talking about Joe Biden's CACKLE?  Bill Richardson's?  Would we ever?  

Secondly, Obama threw a zinger right back at her, and everybody laughed more INCLUDING her.  You can hear her.  She was joking around, she laughed, and she laughed again when he joked back.  Are we talking about that?  Noooo...instead it's all about this bizarre, grotesque "cackle".  Oooh, look at the witch as she rubs her hands together and cackles with glee.  Bwwwaaaahaaaahaaaa.

Lastly, really?  This is objective journalism, ABC?  Deriding the laughter of the only female candidate in a disrespectful, clearly biased way (the men were cackling too!).  Are you kidding?   I expect this kind of crap from the talk radio/political TV wingnuts and from right-wing lunatics with a computer and internet connection but nary a cogent thought in their heads.  But this is ABC News.  Peter Jennings is rolling in his grave.

This kind of crap makes me so mad I can't see straight.  So far during this campaign we've had to hear the shocking (SHOCKING!) news that Hillary Clinton, in fact, has breasts.  And this isn't the first time we've been subjected to expert analysis of her laughter.  Of course her marriage is always open to scrutiny in a way that no other candidate's is.

I've had it with this nonsense.  Talk about her Senate record, her initial support of the Iraq war and subsequent change of heart (a flip-flop, if you will), bring up the health care debacle during her husband's administration if you must.  We want to hear facts, people, you know, like you learned about in Jernalizm Skool.  Not that her laugh scares you and you saw her boobies once.  My husband is pissed too.  Every time one of you writes or says something sexist and irrelevant I send the Clinton campaign more money.  It's adding up.

I need to see more of this show!

I watched this Japanese Human Tetris show with my sons and we couldn't stop laughing.  There are 2 more clips on YouTube...not nearly enough to satify the soul.  You want more too, don't you?

I'm so boring these days

I have been sitting here trying to think of something to write about....

My sudden zappos obsession?  Does anyone care about that?  (Do I want THESE super-expensive knee high boots?  Or THESE?)

Or...how funny I think 30 Rock is?  Last night I watched the entire episode and laughed so hard that I immediately watched it again.  And the second time I laughed so hard I cried.  Please please please go watch it on the NBC site if you haven't.  Seriously, whoever cast Alec Baldwin in that role should be paid a LOT of money.

Two short clips (not from last night's episode, cos I can't find it on youtube):

This one is with Will Arnett, from Arrested Development.

 

This one includes Wayne Brady (as a "Black").

In other news, mostly all I've been thinking about lately is the pharmaceutical industry.  I've been at work for a month now and I am learning a lot about how much I don't know about pharma, as well as how hard it is to juggle everything.  A lot of the people I'm working with are younger than me, and it's reminding me how I used to just go out after work, to dinner, for drinks, whatever, with co-workers and friends.  It was so easy back then, living in the city, only a short subway ride from home.  And back then I could stay out late and still make it in to work in the morning. 

Yeah... I don't do that anymore.  There are all these functions at work, and I just can never make them.  The logistics involved are just too much to manuever for me these days.

So instead I come home and watch 30 Rock... 

Sigh.  It's okay though.  Right?  Right?

Five things

This is going to sound sooooo cliche, but ...

I was watching Oprah the other day ...

OK, there was nary a bonbon in site, and seriously, it was the first time in months -- MONTHS -- that I have even gotten a glimpse of the lady.

But anyway, I was watching Oprah and she had Dr Christiane Northrup on talking about peri-menopause and menopause. You know, signs, symptoms, and how to survive. And aside from being overly distracted every time they said something like "And this is sooooo important, especially for women 35 and over ..."

I mean, I'm 35 and just days home from the hospital after having a baby, and I want to hear that I'm in the age group that should be worrying about menopause? But I digress.

Aside from that tiny little issue being a distraction, there was one tidbit that really stuck out for me and made me think:

They were talking about anger and how bad it is for you -- not just mentally, but physically -- and how this is a particular problem for women as they tend to put their children and husbands and whatever else is going on in their lives ahead of their own needs ... So women get angry and resentful and it makes them sick. Physically sick. Something about stress hormones and cell inflammation leading to every degenerative disease out there.

I was definitely one of those angry women this summer. I can blame pregnancy hormones all I want, but it was more likely a result of being home with my daughter all-day, every-day (and not doing a hell of a lot more) and not having a clue how to keep her entertained, nor, frankly, much of a desire to do so. As a result, I was no fun to live with. For anyone, including me.

Dr. Northrup's prescription for fighting the anger and staying healthy is to "find joy." And not just find it, but schedule it in and make it a priority. She told a woman named Rachel she needed to find five things that would bring her joy and then do them.

Then she asked, "Do you even know what those five things would be?"

I was impressed because Rachel very quickly said, "At least three of them."

I started thinking. Could I list five things that would bring me joy? I really couldn't come up with a single one right there on the spot.

After what is now several days of thinking about it, I've still only come up with three, and one of them I think may be temporary.

So here goes:

1) I want to play a team sport, either soccer or volleyball. I really enjoyed playing both when I was in high school and have missed them since. I tried being on masters swim teams a couple of times (mostly because it was not only my "best" sport, but also the one I figured would lead to the fewest injuries), but there just wasn't enough camaraderie, and that's something I want.

2) I want to spend more time doing craft projects. That's the one that may just be temporary. I've got a list of projects for which I have the materials, but for which I never made the time to start, much less complete. They mock me when I see them sitting there collecting dust. Perhaps as I tick projects off that list I'll decide I want to do more, or perhaps I'll decide that I'm not as crafty as I want to be and something else should fill that time.

3) Dance, dance, dance. I'm not sure if I want to take a class or if I want to "go clubbing" or on dates to dance with my husband ... or all three. I just know that I have always loved dancing and felt good while doing it. Just seems natural for that to be on the list.

OK, so numbers 4 and 5 are still wide open. I guess it's been so long since I've thought about what I like to do that it's harder than I would really like to admit to come up with five things -- JUST FIVE THINGS! -- that would make me happy.

Yes, I know that's sad. Which, if I were to dwell on it would surely raise my stress hormones, so I won't. I'll just keep giving it thought ... and then try to figure out how to schedule in my joy.

Anyone else care to share their list?

Seinfeld on Crack

Has anyone seen It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (on FX)?

It's probably one of the weirdest shows I've ever seen. Weird and depraved but so funny. Three guys (Charlie, Mack and Dennis) own an Irish Bar in South Philly. Dennis has a sister (Dee) and she works there, as well. Imagine an alcoholic and delusional Elaine. They call her Sweet Dee but I think they're kidding. Nobody seems to frequent the bar except for 3 or 4 transients and the character (played by Danny Devito) who may or may not be Dennis and Dee's dad. In a word they are all losers. No morals, no ethics, no brains, no talent. Charlie is my favorite. My favorite despicable loser.

I'm doing a terrible job describing the premise - so check it out for yourselves (like this one - The Gang Solves the North Korean Situation) and let me know what you think. Just be prepared to be more than a little bit insulted - the most recent episode is titled "Sweet Dee Dates a Retarded Person." This is not The West Wing, OK?

Advertising Rocks!

So I've been thinking (since last week) about how I never listen to any new music, and I realized that wasn't quite true.  When I'm not fast-forwarding through them on the TIVO, that is.

Commercials!  Haven't they been getting better?  And with much much better music?

Old Navy's new ad campaign, for instance, has been playing Ingrid Michaelson (from Staten Island, yo):

And Madeline Peyroux:

And this one, which I really like, but I can't figure out who does it.  Sounds a little like M.I.A.  I think this song was written specifically for the ad campaign, but I can't find confirmation of that.

And JCPenney is suddenly hip, with music from my favorite new artist, Regina Spektor.  I actually stopped this on my Tivo and watched it like 3 times, then sent emails to people saying, hey, have you heard that song on the JCPenney commercials?

And Forever Thursday:

Hmmm, all women singers.  Interesting. 

I  remember about 5 years ago, Banana Republic had this great ad campaign with all this great old funky music -- probably 3 different commercials convinced me to go try to find the original songs.  And "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers is still one of my favorites.

And now I've spent way too much time on this site.  Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks ad music is getting better.  Oh, and... Wilco and VW?  Nice.

Really? So Soon?

So, up until a few days ago, the kids' Internet activities had been limited to games and videos on Sesame Street Workshop, Nick Jr., and Noggin.

But this week we introduced them to YouTube. Why? Well, first we were letting Joseph watch some animated Dr. Seuss books, like Adam's all-time favorite, "The Sneeches."

Then, after growing tired of watching/hearing the same one Muppet Show DVD, Adam decided to see what he could find online.

He found a lot of good Muppets: Mahna Mahna, as well as a variety of full-length shows.

We left the kids alone with the computer, and before we knew it we were hearing foreign lyrics floating into the kitchen from the dining room. We looked at each other with eyes wide, "What are they watching?"

It turned out to be this harmless (if not completely boring) Finnish Polka.

We kept walking in and out of the room, somewhat nervously, to make sure that the video stayed as innocuous as it seemed at first glance. Then we heard techno.

"What are they watching now?"

It was only this:

But we knew FOR SURE that the next thing they clicked on might be something completely inappropriate. I mean, really, people just love to "f" with the Teletubbies!

Fortunately, it was dinner time, and we could relax.

But now, I guess, it's time for a filter. Really? I mean, I guess I knew we'd have to worry about what they were doing online at some point, I just had no idea it would be so soon!