toastykitten

This week's Diesel Sweeties amuses me:

Feminists don't hate men. We simply enjoy them on our own terms.

Hello Kitty Klingon kicks it with a Dalek.

An exchange of emails between Judd Apatow and Mark Brazill.

Currently I'm just stressed out. I may be the only full-time employee in my department soon. We'll see how fast my boss can hire someone else, but I am so wary of training someone else on this stuff...

Anyway - I have some thoughts that are eating my brain but I am too hungry to link to anything:

1. Some people pointed me to the stupid Forbes article advising men not to marry "career women". Salon had a decent rebuttal.
2. There's a picture floating around of George Bush rubbing some black guy's head for luck. No, it's not photoshopped.
3. East Bay Express continues to investigate the coming merger of several newspapers under one company. I forget whose it is, but the latest development is that the Bill Gates foundation has contributed significantly to it, although the details are confidential. I find this ironic because currently the San Francisco Bay Guardian - the East Bay Express' competitor, is suing their owner, New Times Media, for selling their ads at a ridiculously low price and undercutting the competition. Anyway, SFBG has been making the same complaints about New Times Media ever since it bought up East Bay Express, SFWeekly, and the Village Voice that East Bay Express is making about the new, mainstream merger.
4. Speaking of East Bay Express, this week's cover story ticked me off. It was ostensibly about the new class of wine buyer (young, cheap, and unpretentious) and how no one caters to them. And then at the end it turned into a shill for the launch of their new wine review column. Bleh.
5. I'm media-obsessed, always. I just read today that the editor of Dwell magazine stepped down, because of her personal conflicts with the direction the magazine is going. I have a one year supply of the magazine, which I got because of my membership in MOCA, and I loved it. It was about people expressing their passion for a topic that they championed and loved, and was all about finding practical solutions for average homeowners, not just upscale millionaires. Dwell itself, right after the editor quit, announced a "re-organization". I haven't picked up Dwell in a while, but I believe it's gotten bigger, and their circulation has actually grown, which is highly unusual in the volatile magazine market.
6. Another interesting development was that Marie Claire changed editors and hired a former journalist for editor-in-chief. I bought the latest issue, and it had Maggie Gyllenhaal on the cover. The big deal, it seemed, was the editor ripping into Ashley Simpson for talking about being proud of how you look and then after the interview went to print, she went and got a nose job. The direction's supposed to be more political, "smarter", and more informed, while still being about fashion. It would be a relief from the Bonnie Fuller makeovers, that's for sure, but I was really disappointed in the fashion spread with different political figures like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, etc. Ok, I get that it's about fashion, but you couldn't have asked them any political questions?
7. Project Runway - the judges' comments about Michael Knight are driving me up the wall. "I love that he thinks!" "He's SO smart!" I'm just waiting for them to say, "He's so articulate!" I hate the Cardassian even more after watching the latest episode.
8. It's going to be the last season of Scrubs! Grr...
9. Currently making creme brulee for tomorrow. It's such a finicky dish to make, but I love cracking the burnt sugar.

Especially now that Guys Gone Wild exists. Favorite title is "Dude, Where's My Pants?"

Other things bouncing in my head:

You know that annoying guy in Office Space who says "Mmmmkay?" all the time? I met the real-life version of him in a very long meeting this week. He is just as annoying in real life.

Random people's opinions on immigration are really pissing me off. None of them seem to get that any changes in the law will also affect legal immigrants, almost certainly not in a good way.

Superman Returns will be on IMAX.

Mark's parents and grandparents are coming tomorrow. Mark previously thought they were coming last week, so I assisted him in the middle of a cleaning frenzy even though I was pretty sick. The good thing about cleaning last week is that there's not much left to do tonight. (And he is doing most of it.)

For whatever reason, lately, I've been resenting helping out with the cleaning. I think I'm just annoyed because even though I spend a lot of time here, I don't live here, and I (rightly or wrongly) don't feel like it should be my responsibility. Maybe I'm just being bratty.

The more I learn about the healthcare industry the more it depresses me.

I finished Danny, Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl. There are a couple of stories taken straight from his autobiography, Boy, and one chapter about the Big Friendly Giant, which would later turn into its own book. It's fascinating watching how the stories inspire more stories.

I hate PG&E. Stupid privatized utilities. (What, you thought California was liberal?) They have not managed to keep the power on continuously for a straight month. Last week, there was a power outage at my office. This week, Mark's power went out.

Wikipedia and women and follow-up post.

Wikipedia and race and New Orleans.

Reverse racism and whether it exists or not.

The Unexpected Movie. Why, critics of the film asked, would a Palestinian make a movie focusing on the disturbing, private problems of one Palestinian family, rather than about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The critics answered themselves: The film is clearly a Zionist trick.

SFWeekly has a feature story on the crappiness of the SF legal system. Different case from the SFBG, but still too similar for my tastes. I don't like the New Times site makeovers. The site design is too busy and the front page wants me to download third-party Quicktime software. No thanks.