I'm a dumb wife

I don't know when it happened. I don't think it happened all at once. I think it was more gradual. And I've known about it for a while now. But, I think it's time to admit it publicly.

I have become a dumb wife.

There are the simplest things that I don't know how to do because I haven't had to, because the husband takes care of it.

Now, I haven't always been this way. For many, many years, I did things myself. Sure, I'd need the occasional help, but otherwise, I'm perfectly capable of planning and booking trips. I did it many times. But that particular muscle has APPARENTLY atrophied.

Today, I looked at planning a very short solo trip. OK, I figured out when my departing and returning flights could be. That wasn't so hard. But then, I came to the hard part - transportation. And I realized that I've never had a rental car before, at least not while on vacation. Sure, I've had to get rental cars on occasion when my car has been in the shop or otherwise unavailable. Not a problem, never been an issue. But when I've been on vacation, I realized that I've never gotten a rental car before. I've been to places where having a car was actually more of a burden since parking was an issue and there was public transportation aplenty so getting around was pretty easy. I've been to places where I could have used a rental car, but it wasn't completely necessary or vital, so I chose not to splurge on the rental and found other means to get around instead. I've been to places where the husband or someone else was driving a car. And I've been to places where I had my own car since I drove there instead of flying. There was one occasion when I would have had to get a rental car, when I had planned to go to Pennsylvania - Hershey, to be exact - but those plans had to be changed because of circumstances, and I ended up going to New York instead.

I know it's not hard to have a rental car. I've seen the husband do it. Like I said, I've had a rental at home. So I'm not sure why I feel some anxiety at the thought of having a rental car on my own out of town. It can't be that hard. I speak English. I'm a reasonably intelligent person. I have a phone that gives me access to pretty much everything, so even if something happened, like the car broke down, it's not like I'd be stranded somewhere with no means to obtain help.

Maybe it's the actual driving around that worries me. Having a rental car at home is one thing because I'm still driving to places that are familiar to me. When I've driven somewhere else in my own car, at least there's the familiarity of being in my own car, and I'm usually prepared with maps and such. The thought of being in an unfamiliar location in an unfamiliar car and being responsible for getting myself wherever I need to go seems to make me nervous. Usually, it's the husband who's driving in that circumstance, and while I might lend some assistance in looking at the GPS or whatever, it's not just me trying to figure out how to get where I need to go. But even then, again, it can't be that hard. I'm a reasonably intelligent person. This should not be that daunting a task.

There's a tiny part of me that feels a little bit of anxiety about the flights themselves. I have flown solo several times in the last few years, but usually, the husband and I are going somewhere together. But again, I know how the whole flying thing works. Just because I'm not flying with someone shouldn't make a difference.

Except that I have to now fight NOT to be a dumb wife.

I'm not entirely sure yet whether I'll actually be making the trip. It really depends on circumstances and whether timing and scheduling work out. But, even though I feel some trepidation, I'm pushing through them. "Dumb wife" syndrome should not stop me from visiting friends.

record Cal - ifornia roll

OK, so I found out about this article from November 2009 where a record-setting California roll was made by Cal students. OK, that seems funny, and had this happened when I was back in school, I'm pretty sure I would have gone to see it just because it would be funny. Hmmm, but thinking back some more, I didn't eat sushi back then, so I might not have cared after all. Who knows.

Anyway, as I was reading the article, odd thoughts popped in my head. Yeah, I can hear the comments that the peanut gallery is making in response to that.

First off, the article says they made a sushi roll. But then it says they made a California roll. The sushi snob in me doesn't consider California rolls (which I will eat on very rare occasions under very particular circumstances) to be actual sushi since there's no fish or other seafood in them. But, ok, I know that's just a personal quirk of mine.

The article then goes on to say that the students "got their hands fishy". Ummm, and how would they do that making a California roll? The article then continues with a list of the ingredients that were used to make the roll, which include 180 pounds of fish. OK, so they used fish. But that no longer makes it a California roll. A California roll is avocado, cucumber and Krab. There are a lot of variations of this, and in some places, they use actual crab rather than Krab, but then that's specified, and the roll is then given a different name. If actual fish is being used in the roll, then it's just a roll of whatever fish is being used (like a tuna roll, salmon roll, yellowtail roll, etc.). It's not even a California roll with , because I've had that before, and that's a California roll with pieces of fish layered on top. The article doesn't say what kind of fish was used, which I find a bit annoying because I want to know.

So, I don't understand why they called it a California roll. I wondered if it was because the roll was made at Cal, but when they mentioned the previous record-setting attempt in Hawaii, they also called that a California roll. I wonder what ingredients were used in that. Since it was in Hawaii, I wonder if they used Spam instead of Krab.

All these thoughts popping into my head from such a short article.

And yes, many of the comments on the article annoy me. So many people have complete misconceptions about what goes on/went on at Cal because of its history. And even when stuff happens/happened on campus, it's not like every single student participated. But that's a rant for another time. And I also object to the snarky comments about the students APPARENTLY not having anything better to do with their time. Because, you know, a couple hours on a SATURDAY afternoon are going to ruin their lives. Puh-leeze.

too much lotion makes running difficult

Why would a man feel the need to steal 75 bottles of lotion?

1. He has really dry skin but can't afford the soothing ointment that he needs for medical reasons.

2. He was put in charge of prizes for a bridal shower and didn't know what else to do.

3. The reason is probably TMI on so many different levels and I seriously don't want to know.

carpooling with a plastic friend

I've joked with friends before about getting a mannequin and putting it in the passenger's seat so that I could then use the carpool lane, and we've always laughed about that, but I never expected someone to actually do it!

I wanna know what the driver said to the cop who pulled him over.

"Jessica Alba"

I heard about this story on the radio a couple of days ago, about a 21 year old Chinese woman in Shanghai who is going to have plastic surgery to win back her boyfriend, who is fixated on Jessica Alba.

So, your boyfriend decorates the apartment with pictures of a celebrity and constantly talks about her. OK, that in and of itself, I would not be on board with. I don't care that it's a celebrity - I wouldn't want my boyfriend to be that obsessed with someone else. And the "I wish you looked more like her" crap? Yeah, D.O.N.E.

She APPARENTLY did get tired of her boyfriend's obsession and broke up with him, but now, she's so devastated at the break-up that she's willing to go through extensive surgery to LOOK LIKE SOMEONE ELSE SO HER BOYFRIEND WILL LIKE HER. Seriously? How about instead of all that donated surgery, someone donate a mental evaluation to her?

name that celeb

OK, so I saw a picture of someone, and even with knowing who it's supposed to be, I can't believe it's that person. It's a clear case of too much plastic surgery and re-structuring of your face, but seriously, this person doesn't even look like she used to.

Here's the picture.






Do you know who that is?

If not, and you want a hint, hover over the picture for the filename, which will give you her initials.

If you still don't know, here's where to find the answer.

And just for comparison sake, here are some photos of what she used to look like.


And it's not like she's been disfigured or anything - she does look good, unlike some other cases where the person now looks completely weird and bizarre - but it's not her. It's someone else's face.

a jury of your purrs

Many people who get called for jury duty are less than thrilled to have to serve it, partly because it can come at an inopportune time, but I suspect mostly it's the sitting around and doing nothing. People try to come up with all kinds of excuses to bail on jury duty.

Well, here's a situation when the reason not to have to serve is a legitimate one.

I heard about this story today, and it really made me laugh. When I heard one bit of the story, that the wife had included the cat on their census form, then I thought it was pretty stupid for her to do that (I'm just not one of those who considers my cat to be the equivalent of my child), until they clarified that she'd included the cat in the census form under "pets". OK, well, if there's a space for that (even if the form was canine-biased), then that's fine.

But I'm wondering what the jury commissioner thought in denying the request to be excused. Did he/she really think someone was pretending to be a cat to get out of jury service? I mean, I suspect there are ways to check if the "cat story" is true, right? If you watch the video on the page (which is mostly a duplicate of the info in the written story, but you get to see the kitty), it says they even got a letter from the cat's vet, stating that the "Sal" in question is actually a cat. Still, no go.

I'm figuring that with this news story, they won't actually have to show up with their cat and that Sal won't have to set paw in court.

how not to get out of a ticket

Not only was this man an idiot, he was pretty cruel too. A "prank" phone call is one thing. But telling a mother that her son is hurt? That's not funny, no matter how you look at it.

unfollow, unfriend, turn the damn thing OFF!

You very often can't control what other people say. And sometimes, you can't control the fact that you HAVE to listen to them. But there are other situations where you have direct control over what you have to be subjected to.

Some people don't understand Twitter, don't get what it's for, don't get why they're supposed to be interested in what someone has for lunch, or when someone is headed to the airport, or any manner of other things that people tweet. Ummm, ok, well, no one says that any particular person HAS to be interested in that sort of thing, coming from anyone. "Why do they tweet about such mundane things? Why can't they tweet interesting things? Why would I want to read that?" Well, if you don't want to read that, then there's a really simple solution. DON'T FOLLOW THAT PERSON'S TWITTER FEED!!!! As far as I know, no one is forcing anyone else to be on Twitter or to follow anyone in particular. I personally enjoy knowing that kind of information about my friends because it keeps me connected to what they're up to. I also enjoy that kind of information from the "celebrities" that I follow (to differentiate them from the people I actually know). Anthony Daniels is currently traveling around with the "Star Wars in Concert" tour, so it's been really interesting to read his tweets as he travels to different cities.

I am going to assume that the majority of what I tweet is interesting enough to the people who follow me since none of them have unfollowed me. I'm not crazy enough to think that *everything* I tweet is interesting to them. There are particular topics that I tweet about often - Disney, restaurants, movies - whether my attendance at one of those or news about one of those. If they were annoyed by any of those things, I'd figured they'd be long gone by now, because I tweet about those A LOT. And I sometimes tweet song lyrics from whatever I'm listening to. Just because. I'm not really trying to "entertain" my followers, though I will sometimes tweet or re-tweet something that I'm not necessarily interested in but that I think someone on my followers list might be interested in based on what I know about them. I tend to be a lot more flippant and snarky on my Twitter feed than anywhere else online because it's protected and I'm very careful about who I allow to have access to my feed. Some of the things I tweet about are definitely NOT for public consumption.

So what if someone doesn't like what I'm tweeting about or doesn't like the attitudes or thoughts or feelings that I express on Twitter? Well, I suppose they could respond with their opinions about that, but ultimately, it's my choice to tweet what I feel like tweeting, and if the consequences are that someone is going to unfollow me, so be it. There are people I've tested out following and then ultimately decided that it didn't suit me to continue to follow them. One example is the actor Greg Grunberg, most notably from "Heroes" fame. He does have some really interesting things to say - but he also has a lot of chatter and he's very prolific in responding to those who direct tweets at him, and the volume of his tweets was just overwhelming my feed. For me, it was too hard to pick out the gems in the feed that I really liked, so I decided that it wasn't worth it to continue following him.

I rarely tweet about politics because it's not my thing. I don't follow any of the plethora of political Twitter accounts out there. For the most part, the people that I do follow only tweet political things on occasion. But what if some of them started tweeting about political things on a regular basis, as much as they tweet about what they're having for lunch or what they're doing at any given time? Then, I'd have to decide if I was willing to put up with the political tweets to still be able to read the personal ones, or if I was too bothered by the political tweets and would therefore have to forego being able to see the personal ones that I like.

I also follow actors Wil Wheaton and Brent Spiner, and from the stuff that they tweet, it amazes me that people are APPARENTLY tweeting them to tell them to stop talking about this or that thing, and that they really want them to tweet about THIS thing instead. Umm, ok, you can make requests or ask questions, but if you don't like the majority of what they're tweeting about, it's really easy to just unfollow them rather than to bitch at them that you don't like what they're talking about or to try to control what they say, tailored to what YOU want, the "you" of course being a billion people who all want different things. OK, so they don't have a billion followers, but you get the idea.

The same goes for Facebook. There are structural changes going on with what information you're given about what your friended people are doing, but there are ways to manage the flow of that information, and if it really becomes an issue, there's also the option to unfriend that person. But telling someone that they should stop posting about something or that they should post more about something else? Why would someone think they have the right to tell someone else what to talk about on their own page?

And why do people think they can tell other people what they can listen to or watch? I get if someone isn't interested in a particular show or whatever. Over the course of the past however many years, I've spent time listening to radio shows by Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlesinger and Tom Leykis, all of whom have very vocal fans and detractors. There were bits from each that I found interesting to listen to, but for various reasons, I stopped listening to each of them. In the case of Tom Leykis, I always found it interesting that people, usually women, would call up and tell Tom how awful he was and how much they hated him and his viewpoints and such and that he shouldn't be on the air. Ummm, ok, if you hate him so much, why the foxtrot are you listening to him, are you continuing to listen to him, to be listening to him so much that you can mention very specific things about his program? I enjoyed listening to him for a while, but eventually, I started to get annoyed with him more than I was being entertained by him. So I turned the channel. WOW! Isn't that amazing? What a brilliant discovery I made! It seems that no one else has ever figured out that turning the channel or turning off the radio works, that it then prevents that particular person's voice from coming over the device anymore.

I see the same thing happening with television shows. "I don't want to watch that kind of show." OK, idiot, then don't. Turn the channel to something else or turn the TV off. "I don't want my kids to watch that kind of show." OK, douchebag, then exercise some control over your kids and monitor what they watch and don't let them watch shows that you don't feel are appropriate for them. But if you plop them down in front of the television all day and expect that EVERYTHING that comes over the airwaves is going to meet with your approval, then you're a bad parent and a flippin' idiot all rolled into one. Rather than trying to control what a total stranger who's an adult can watch, why don't you actually pay some attention to your own kids instead?

There are plenty of things I'm not interested in. But I'm APPARENTLY a genius in being able to figure out how to not listen to radio shows I don't like, not watch television shows I don't like, not read books I don't like and not read what people write on Twitter or Facebook if I have no interest in them. Where's my medal?

I was just sitting there

So, yeah, I was in Boston early last month.

A friend who'd gotten there the day before to have another adventure came and picked me up at the airport. There was a toll booth on the way from the airport to our hotel, so she stopped and was paying the posted toll fee.

I was sitting in the passenger seat probably checking Twitter or my email on my phone, and it took me a second to register that the toll booth attendant was talking ... and that the talking was directed at ME.

It was one of those where I wasn't paying attention, so I wasn't listening to what he was saying, until something registered, and then I played back in my mind what I'd heard him say.

"Genesis", he'd huffed.

I remembered that I was wearing a Genesis t-shirt from their last concert tour. And I knew that my friend wasn't wearing a Genesis t-shirt, even though I didn't notice that she was wearing a Rockapella t-shirt, though I really should have just guessed that.

He said he saw Genesis on their last tour and he ragged on them because they didn't play anything from "Abacab". I was really too stunned to say anything at the time. I mean, seriously, I was just sitting there minding my own business. Yeah, ok, I had the t-shirt on, but I guess I don't get a lot of comments so I wasn't really expecting one at that point in time, since I didn't know he could even see me well enough to notice my t-shirt, and I mostly wear the t-shirt because it makes me happy, because I saw them multiple times, and it was an awesome concert each time.


It wasn't until later that I could really process what he'd said.


Now, I like "Abacab", but I wouldn't say there are any major standout signature songs on that album, and Genesis has a whole lot of songs in their arsenal that they could possibly play. They played a REALLY LONG SET, and they even played songs like "Ripples" and "Afterglow" for f'ing sake, two absolutely beautiful songs that normally don't get played. They played a ton of stuff that's not in their usual repertoire, and they played a lot of really old songs, including "The Carpet Crawlers".

But the concert sucked because they didn't play any of the songs from ONE PARTICULAR ALBUM?

And for that, I got hassled for it, because, you know, I had some say in the matter, all while I was doing nothing to provoke it?

W

the naked man and Donald Duck orange juice

Multiple years ago, I was at a party. Not a crazy party with drugs and alcohol and such, but just a get-together among adult friends, hanging out, munching on snacks, listening to music, chatting and the like. The party was actually thrown by a friend of a friend who I'd met through another friend, so there were a lot of people at the party I didn't know.

At one point, I'd gotten up to mill around and wander over to the snack table to see what I could find to munch on. On the way there, I passed by a group of people sitting on and around a couch. One particular man caught my attention. He was sitting cross-legged on the couch, with a cushion over his lap. And nothing else. Now, I didn't stare, but it was hard not to notice when he obviously had no shirt on and no pants on. I couldn't tell if he was wearing underwear, but then, I wasn't looking that hard. It was also not a particularly warm time of year where people would be in shorts. I'd also remembered hearing stories from the friend that I'd met through another friend about this particular person who has part of said friend's other group of really good friends.

I had been told that he wasn't an exhibitionist or anything, but rather, that he just didn't like clothes. Sure, he adhered to clothes-wearing in the regular world, but at parties, he had a tendency to just take them off, and his friends pretty much just got used to it.

So I continued on to the snack table and was browsing around when I heard a voice next to me ask if I knew where the Donald Duck orange juice was. That in and of itself was a funny question because even back then, before my Disney-obsession days, I wondered how having Donald Duck on the label was supposed to be some kind of indication that it was good orange juice. Did Donald have some secret interest in orange juice that we never knew about? Were ducks in general experts on good-tasting orange juice?

But more than simply being asked about Donald Duck orange juice, it became even weirder when I realized that the person asking me about it was said naked man who was now standing next to me. I think I turned a tiny bit when I heard the voice but stopped when I realized who it was. No, I didn't look at him to make sure he was the naked one. I kind of recognized his face, and the fact that I could tell that he wasn't wearing a shirt was pretty much a dead giveaway since everyone else at the party had a shirt on.

Now, maybe it's just some weird quirk in me, but if I'm going to be having a conversation with a naked man, I generally prefer that he's someone I'm having an intimate relationship with. Talking to random naked men is not my thing.

I told him that I didn't know where the Donald Duck orange juice was, and he wandered off in search of said juice.

I did make it a point the rest of the night to not sit on the couch or be anywhere near the cushion he had used to cover himself. Ewwww.

Years later, I told the husband about naked man because we were going to a party that naked man might be attending. The husband never encountered naked man in a full state of undress. I think he might have seen him at a party or two without his shoes on and shirt partially unbuttoned, but that was pretty much it. We then happened to no longer go to the parties where naked man might be attending, not because of him, just by circumstance.

And then a few years after that, the husband and I were at some kind of one-night special screening at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. After everything was done, we were getting up to leave, and we had recognized a number of people in the audience since some of the same people tend to turn out for this sort of thing. I saw someone a couple aisles over who was leaving, and the guy looked really familiar but I couldn't place him. I pointed him out to the husband, and it was the husband who recognized him as naked man. How funny to see him at a screening for a Disney movie!


And as a coda to this whole story, we recently had a chance to visit the archives at The Walt Disney Studios, and in the lobby area that we could visit, there was a whole case full of products with Donald Duck's name and picture/face on them, since he was the Disney character who had originally been used to license a ton of products. Inside the case was a carton for Donald Duck orange juice. I laughed.

things I don't understand - Am I invisible or do you just not want to wait your turn?

So I was in a food place today getting a sandwich. The person at the counter was making the sandwich for me, and she was the only employee that was visible, and there were no other customers waiting to be helped. She was almost half-way done with making my sandwich when another customer walked in. He walked around me, went up to the counter to about where she was on the other side of the glass, and he said he wanted to buy a soda, and he had his money out.

Ummm, ok, dude, she's IN THE MIDDLE OF MAKING MY SANDWICH. She's got plastic gloves on to make the sandwich, she's busy, there's no one else to help you, and I was already here when you walked in. OK, so you only want a soda, which mostly just involves her giving you a cup and taking your money since you'd be filling the cup yourself. I'm getting a sandwich that takes more time. But did you expect that she'd stop what she was doing for me, take her gloves off, take the money from you and ring you up and hand you a cup AND THEN go back to making my sandwich?

To her credit, she looked at him and said she'd be with him in a couple minutes. She finished making my sandwich, rang me up and took my money, and then when she was done with me, she asked him what size soda he wanted.

So, did he just think she was standing there doing nothing and somehow, I was just invisible to him, which is why he just went up to her and told her what he wanted, even though she was busy already helping another customer? Or did he think that since all he wanted was a soda, he would get to cut in front of me to get her to help him? I've seen people do that where they're interrupting to ask a question, which I still think is weird since it's not their turn yet, but to actually expect her to stop helping someone else to help him instead?

I don't get it.

maybe he thinks they're really called Bank of Universe

OK, I'm not a fan of Bank of America for various reasons, but really, even I think this dude is insane. I mean, I don't think he has any kind of claim whatsoever, but even without that, the sum of money he's asking for is completely ridiculous.

Who does he think he is, Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny?

yes, I'm sure they have a five-year return policy

So I went to Borders today to purchase something. I was standing in line at the checkout, and the lady in front of me was talking to random other store employee about returning an item. She said that she had the book but didn't have the receipt. Employee said they need a receipt for all returns and exchanges. (This must have been a change in the last year or so because exchanges didn't require a receipt previously, but I digress.) She was annoyed and asked if he was a manager. He said no and called for one and had her wait at the end of the counter.

Manager came over, lady said she wanted to return book, manager asked for receipt, she said she didn't have one, manager said they need a receipt for all exchanges and returns. I couldn't hear the next little bit of conversation, but I then I heard the lady say it was a Photoshop book, and then the manager said that the lady purchased the book FIVE YEARS ago (emphasis mine), so they can't accept it as a return. The lady complained and didn't understand why they wouldn't take it back, especially since it still had a Borders price sticker on it, and they can just return it to the publisher. Manager said they can't do that, and returns can only be done within 30 days after purchase, not five years, and there were also probably newer editions of the book out. Lady continued to complain that some people want to buy older editions of the book. Manager said she was sorry but she couldn't accept the return and maybe the lady could try to sell it. Lady walked away mad, still shaking her head.

Manager asked for the next customer, who happened to be me, and after we exchanged greetings, and I put my purchase down, I said to her, "For what it's worth, I think she was insane to try to return a five-year-old book." She just smiled at me.

I really just cannot imagine someone thinking that it's ok to return a book five years later, especially a tech book. Those things are obsolete so fast. At least with a fiction or regular non-fiction book, that's a different thing, but how much demand is there really for a book for a version of a program from five years ago? Yeah, now that you're done with it, I'm sure the publisher would happily just return your money.

Whiskey.Tango.Foxtrot

So on this particular column of Dear Abby, there was this letter:

DEAR ABBY: The day before my wedding, my fiance's aunt left me a gift. After the wedding I opened it and read the card that was enclosed. It was lingerie, which seemed like a well-intentioned gift.

The card, however, was a bit puzzling. Turns out the lingerie was her own, and slightly used. On the card she said it had been "only used a few times." It struck me as inappropriate to receive "used" (and wrong-sized) lingerie from a new aunt-in-law. However, I do believe she was well-intentioned.

Abby, her gift made me uncomfortable. Am I wrong in thinking it was inappropriate? Any thoughts on how to write a thank-you card for such a gift? -- FLUMMOXED IN THE USA

My first thought?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lingerie should *not* be shared!

I don't know that I agree with the response from "Dear Abby", but I have no idea how I'd write a thank-you letter to that!

bad fashion choices are just the beginning

So a friend was telling me a little while ago about a particular website that documents bad fashion choices. Bad fashion choices are just something some of us marvel at, and let me tell you, there's a lot to marvel at.

This was the particular page that he sent me to - I mean, I know things are supposed to match, but yeah, I do think that's going too far.

I've taken a few pictures myself of interesting fashion choices, but I'm only brave enough to Twitpic them. Some of us had talked quite some time ago about doing a website just like malingering's world, but we never did, so I'm glad she did. I've got a couple of pics I might send her just for her amusement.

And I will admit that on any given day now, and on many given days in my lifetime, a picture of me would fit nicely on the site. I have never claimed to be a fashion maven, which is why sometimes, I wonder at people who seemingly have less fashion sense than even me!


But, as I browsed the site, I found a whole smorgasbord of tasty tidbits!

For instance, this one made me laugh out loud really hard - it's totally parklikeanasshole.com material!


But this one is definitely the Holy Grail of my discovery. OMG. It's not like I go to Dodger games all that much, but the loathing with which I regard beach balls is beyond description. I totally agree with her that playing with beach balls during a game is totally disrespectful to the players and to the people who went to the game to, oh, I don't know, ACTUALLY WATCH THE FRICKIN' GAME????!?!!?!? I mean, if people want to play with the beach balls before the game starts or in between innings when nothing is going on anyway, that's one thing. But that *never* happens. And yeah, same with the wave. Sit the f down - I'm trying to watch the game!


I've added the site to my list of sites to peruse on the right side of this blog.

Thanks for the tip, Mox!

What should Madonna be "aloud" to do?

I'm on a discussion board that has ads in some cases, and I'd noticed a particular ad pop up a few weeks ago, but I hadn't been able to get it to appear again until recently.

It's not a spelling error, so spell-check wouldn't have caught it. And I've tried to twist my head and brain to see if I can force it to make sense somehow (like, you know, how an "ATM machine" could in fact be a machine that spits out ATMs?). But nope - nothing I can do with this except laugh.






I've submitted it to FAIL blog, so we'll see if they end up using it.

playing the victim

Emilia Domingo Raras is 73 years old and has been in prison since 2000, serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

She has recently asked a judge to commute her sentence, stating that she has suffered for her crime, and that being in jail is like being in hell.

What is the crime that earned her this sentence? She arranged for a man to kill her daughter-in-law because she felt she had been disrespected because the daughter-in-law did not invite her into the delivery room when her grandson was being born, and her daughter-in-law did not accept or ask for her advice on how to raise the child.

Her lawyer says that she's "an educated woman with no criminal history before the murder charge". So, if she had no prior criminal history, then by all means, they should have been lenient with her and given her a freebie, right? It was just one little murder, no big deal. If she was an educated woman, then she should have know that there would be consequences to her actions. She can't claim ignorance of the law then, can she?

"No human being should die in prison," she said. "Please give me a second chance. I need a second chance."

No human being should be sliced to death for simply being a mother. Her daughter-in-law will never have even a first chance to raise her own son, to see him grow up. There is no way in hell her murderer deserves a second chance. Her grandson was 16 months old when his mother was murdered. And at the time Raras was arrested, she was babysitting him. It makes me sick.


It's interesting that the article doesn't mention her son at all. I would hope that he has never visited his mother in prison and has no contact with her. She doesn't deserve to be anyone's mother or grandmother. And if she were let out of prison, I would bet that her next move would be to want to see her grandson. After all, her grandson doesn't have a female figure to nurture him, now does he? She could provide him with the support and guidance he needs. No, I don't think I would just be making that up.

If she showed any remorse at all, I could maybe stomach hearing about her request. I still don't think she should be let out only because she's served 10 years in prison and has failing health. None of that mitigates the awful crime that she commissioned. But she's shown that she has no remorse whatsoever: "Raras said she had no feelings of anger toward anyone and had forgiven her victim."

FORGIVEN HER VICTIM? Forgiven her for what? For being a mother? She was brutally murdered, taken away from her young child, and somehow this monster thinks there's anything she did that she needed to be forgiven for?

I hope that Raras' health improves. I hope she lives another 30 years. And that she spends all of it in prison. And any time she whined about how she's suffering and that being in prison is like hell, I'd sit her in a room, and I'd make her listen to a tape over and over again, the tape of her daughter-in-law screaming while she was being murdered. Maybe then she'll understand what suffering is really like.

Her lawyer has asked for mercy for her. She showed no mercy to her poor daughter-in-law. Maybe God will have mercy for her. The courts should not.


Here's an article with the full story.

kung pao tuna hand roll pancit pho

So I was listening to a radio program today, and they were talking about how people are when they're drunk and trying to talk. And one of the people made some comment about how when people are drunk, they're talking so weird and slurring their words so much that they all sound like they're speaking asian.

Excuse me?

Speaking "asian"? And exactly what language is "asian"?

Yes, I was screaming at the radio at that point, especially when he said it again another couple times.


Now, I know that I might be more attuned to this sort of thing than some others. I can understand the use of "asian" in some contexts - ok, so you can't tell if someone is Chinese or Japanese or Vietnamese or Korean or whatever, fine, refer to them as being "asian". And no, I don't know why I have a problem with the word "oriental" when used to reference people. I don't mind it nearly as much when it's used to refer to objects, usually expensive art for some reason, but it just bugs me when it's used to describe people. I'm not offended - it just sounds weird to me. Yeah, I know, personal preference.

But speaking asian? Yeah, it's faster and easier to say that than "speaking Chinese or Japanese" (not to say those are the only two choices, but they seem to be the most widely used as examples), but NOBODY SPEAKS ASIAN. I liken Asia (not the singing group) to Europe. Most people from Europe are not referred to as Europeans for the most part. Sure, in some cases, they are, but more often, they're English or Spanish or French or Italian or German or whatever. Can you tell the difference between someone of those different countries just by looking at them? In some cases yes, but I don't think everyone can do that, and I'm not even sure most people can do that. Similarly, some people can differentiate by sight people of different Asian countries but not everyone can do that.

But it just seems so incredibly acceptable in many cases to lump everyone from Asia into the same group, no matter what you're talking about. Now, some of it may be from ignorance. I will admit that I didn't know that people from the Philippines did not use chopsticks until a friend told me. There are probably a lot of other differences I don't know about that exist among the different Asian cultures. But I don't dismiss the existence of the differences.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've heard "Chinese, Japanese, what's the difference?" when it comes to something that IS IN FACT COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. If we're talking use of chopsticks, ok, I'll grant you that. As far as the look of the written language, ok, I'll grant you that. If we're talking how different they sound from English, ok, I'll grant you that. But if you're talking culture and history and traditions and things like that? NO. I won't grant you that. There are very big differences between them, as there are with the other Asian countries.


So, suppose you were saying that you were craving Italian food and asked for recommendations. And someone told you about a place they knew that had great bratwurst and sauerkraut. And another person told you about a place that had really good paella. And a third person told you about a place that had the best ratatouille. And yet another person told you about their favorite pub that had really amazing Shepherd's Pie. Would those recommendations help you? Well, they're all foods from Europe, so isn't that the same as Italian? No?

Well, on a discussion board I'm on, someone recently asked for a recommendation for a good place for Chinese food. And the recommendations ranged from a Thai place, to a Benihana, to an outright sushi bar. Ummm, yeah, while there might be some similarities between some of the dishes, none of those are actually Chinese food, ESPECIALLY NOT THE SUSHI.


Thank you for reading. I'm going to go lie down now.

But do they offer room service?

Lots of places offer sleeping accommodations with a range of services and unique experiences. But would you pay for the privilege of spending the night in jail? That's what a sheriff's office in eastern Missouri is offering, calling it a "bed and breakfast".

Now, I've not actually stayed at a bed and breakfast before, but I'm going to guess that the normal accommodations are much nicer than at a county jail.

I can't imagine why someone would want to stay there overnight. But if they decide to and then change their mind and want to leave early, they've gotta pay extra.

Weird.