Mc Chris

1) is coming to Gainesville in November. I will be there. No joke. Not like this Andrew Bird crap.
2) said this:
"last night i watched the vma's and i was so bored, i flew through it on my tivo. if i was reading they'd call it skimming. i dunno. everyone looked fat and rich and boring. nothing awesome and desperate, hungry about it. no connection to the people. it's my belief that the people in the club arent the people. the people like they say in it's a wonderful life, do the living and dying, salt of the earth, blue collar whatever you wanna call it. i think of pissed off surbanite teens as the people, the hobo kids, the squatters, the msi goths. i dont know where this club that mtv thinks we all wanna be in is. dancing with a mixed drink in one hand, placed strategically in the audience like a town hall meeting with the president. it all seemed played out and stupid. next. maybe be[ing] famous isnt cool anymore."
And maybe it isn't.

Oh Fucky Fuck

I have been so bad this week. It isn't even like I have been busy.
People need to worry less about friendships. If you want something, ask. If you want to know something, ask. If you are busy, say so. If you neglected someone for awhile, apologize. Everyone needs to stop being a baby all the time.
CLOTHES:


I'm always looking for cute dresses for work and this one would be perfect if I had a little something to go over it.
And if you're in Chicago, I have heard good things about this place.
The pictures are stolen from my favorite French fashion boutique which I am sure I mentioned before. But look at that top! Look how cute it is. I would look so cute in it. And the skirt is adorable. But that top is perfect.

I'm so excited

My favorite comic book artist has a blog now. He has a new book coming out that I am really excited about. Plus, another REAL book in a few years. I have an awesome mint copy of Carnet de Voyage, first edition. It is probably one of the most lovely and moving books I have ever read. Of course, Blankets is the book that got me in to comics. And I can't read Good-Bye, Chunky Rice with crying.
I stumbled on this person's blog and I really liked it.
Now for a quick rant, if you are talking to someone while sitting in front of a computer and they say something and you don't know what it is (and this especially goes for if you are on AIM) FUCKING GOOGLE IT. Don't ask what it is unless you can't find it. If they recommend a band, type in the band name and "myspace" and give it a listen. We have the fucking internet people. You have no excuse to be ignorant.
Yesterday I had this conversation:
Him: I was reading about the Fox upfront and this guy said "Why would they renew fifth grader?" This guy must be an idiot.
Me: Yeah, it is the only new show that drew any viewers. I am worried ab
Other person interrupts: What are upfronts? What is fifth grader? Why is he stupid?
Me: Doesn't matter.

If you are near a conversation, but not actively engaged and you hear them say a lot of things that make no sense to you, then you should shut up and either look it up or ignore it. No one will like you if you interrupt their conversation with relatively inane questions.

I say this a lot

But Dan Savage, while not right 100% of the time, is a fucking genius.

"And up to now the mainstream media have refrained from calling the right's opposition to the HPV vaccine what it is—delusional, psychotic, homicidal—because up to now only women's lives were at stake.

That's about to change.

Here's the headline from my morning paper: "HPV Factors in Throat Cancer: Study Could Shift Debate About Vaccine." You bet it will. Up to now the HPV vaccine—which, again, has proven 100 percent effective against the cancer-causing strains of the virus—could merely prevent 10,000 cases of cervical cancer in American women every year, along with 4,000 deaths. But now the debate could shift—it will shift—because it's no longer "just" the lives of 4,000 American women that are on the line, but the sex lives of 150 million American men."

Coming at you from all sides

Usually I use slow Friday mornings at work to write short stories that no one will ever read, but I'm not in the mood today.

I was friends with this kid in high school. He was really nice. He had a couple younger brothers and I even met his mom once and she was a wonderful woman. The crime was pretty awful. 5 (young, black) guys decided to go rob a drug dealer and in the process shot him. That is fucked up. They definitely did something wrong. They definitely deserved to get in to trouble for this, but (and I am not saying this just as his friend because I don't even know the other kids) I don't think that the sentences are fair. Ponds, Rera, and Presley were not even present when the shots were fired. The ringleader in all this is Adam Jones who is clearly a bad guy. Look at his fucking rap sheet. He has committed multiple violent crimes. The kid that actually fired the shot, the one that got them in all this trouble that they wouldn't be in otherwise, is clearly not all there. And that is fucked up. These kids are going to be serving many years (though probably not full sentences). Carlos Fuentes will probably get life in prison which is just disgusting.
I have also been keeping up with another case. A friend of mine was friends with one of these kids. These kids beat a homeless man to death with a baseball bat, or 2 of them did anyway. ON TAPE. And they beat other people. Defenseless people that didn't have a fucking home to go to. Just because they could. Look at his charges! It is ridiculous. I want to see what happens here. Clearly, what these kids did was worse. But my friend, and those other kids, are black, lower middle class people from a predominantly white (pretty racist) town in central Florida. These other kids are white and presumably wealthy. Their crime was worse (although you could argue that they are as mentally fucked up as Carlos, though in a different way). I want to see the end result of both these trials, because what I think is going to happen is pretty fucked up and I hope it doesn't come to fruition.

Monday!

If you're not, you should be watching The Wire. It is, by far, the best show on television. The DVDs are crazy expensive, so rent them or something. Make sure the quality of the video is high because the show is shot beautifully and you don't want to miss anything.
Also, while it is not always true British television is generally better. Also, watch QI if you've never seen it. It'll make you feel like the smartest idiot around.
Also, I really wanted this, but they sold out.
Finally, I stumbled upon this which is the lamest/weirdest/most disturbing website I've seen in awhile.

EDIT:
There is a woman who is refusing to consume Starbucks because they have an anti-God quote on one of their cups. Whatever. She's wrong. At least she's not suing. If they had a pro-God quote on their cups and I wanted to get a news story printed about it, people would think I was insane. But I do find it a bit offensive. Not enough to give a shit, but still. This isn't news and shouldn't be in a newspaper. These stories are a huge part of what is wrong in the world right now.

One thing that isn't cool

Don't join a social networking site and then say "Don't add me if I don't know you." The whole point is to meet people you don't know. And then you just sound like a snotty bitch. Also, your shit isn't funny.

But for today:
I know you have all been going to Woot on and off for years as I have been, but it wasn't until recently that I found out that there is a Wine.Woot. I don't drink wine, but I might take it up in order to buy some from this site.

Also, you should be reading Dinosaur Comics.

People are giving away Joost invites all over the internet. If you want to give me one, it'll be much appreciated, but not as much as an i'm in like with you invite.

Also, there is this. I make no guaruntees for quality though. I don't use it.

Music for today: Listen to Heart by Stars. The album or the song, depending on your level of commitment.

"The Secret" Crap

So I was reading on Something Awful about The Secret and all that Oprah crap (I think she is a horrible human being for promoting this shit). The thing is, I totally believe that people that have a happier outlook are happier and do better. The example I read a long time ago was something along these lines:
Two guys are mowing their lawns at the same time. Both men notice it is going to rain. One guy gets angry about how every time he goes to mow his lawn something ruins it and he puts his mower away. The other guy decided to mow a little quicker to get done before the rain comes. He does and his freshly mowed lawn gets watered. He is happy because he finished his chore and got a little reward.
But I don't think that positive thinking manifests itself materially. That is shit. You can't think things into existence. And the second guy didn't get a nice lawn because he fucking willed it into existence. He got a nice lawn because instead of acting like a fucking asshole and blaming the world for his problems, he buckled down and GOT SHIT DONE. So yeah, that is my take on this whole thing.