If You Can't Say Something Nice...
Say Something Vague

It's Not Too Late To Get Educated

Do yourself a favor and read some of these. If you're on the fence about the election, or just want to be reassured that the decision you made is the right one, these essays are outstanding.

You will see keen political, metaphysical and philosophical observations such as:

"since September 11, 2001, President Bush and his administration have made a mockery of the American commitment to law. Using the threat of terrorism as a reason, they have overridden constitutional rights and treaties to take harsh, punitive action against hundreds of individuals."

And

"President George W. Bush has betrayed every one of [his] grand promises--often as a result of the promises he did keep."

And

"In this President, then, we have a self-described "uniter" who has nominated a succession of right-wing ideologues to the federal bench; a man who has invoked his commitment to "fairness" as he continues to transfer the cost of governance to people further down the income scale; a man who has spoken of "humility" and "honesty" even as, by arrogance and false statements, particularly about Iraq, he and his administration have undermined American credibility in the world. And still his supporters avow that George W. Bush is a man of his word."

And

"The danger has always been that the urge toward metaphysical simplicity eventually obliterates the careful weighing of interests and risks that must guide a great power in its foreign policy. Osama bin Laden, in turning his sights from the "near enemies" ruling in Cairo and Riyadh to the "far enemy" symbolized by New York's mighty towers, had wanted nothing more than an ideological war; he had the great good luck to choose to attack a born-again president and advocate of "moral clarity" who not only was more than willing to give him one but to subsume under its banner a bloody diversion in a complicated, divided country that had up to then been irrelevant to the jihadist cause."

And...well, it goes on and on. Take a few minutes, read a few. I find it hard to believe that you won't find something that resonates with you, your thoughts, those doubts and questions you have in the back of your mind.

Well, I'm Back

But I'm not happy about it. After 1-1/2 days off, I still feel really icky. I would gladly have taken today off as well, but my anxious boss was getting even more anxious. I'm afraid, though, that I'm entering PHASE II of the mysterious illness that has captured Stephanie.

Phase I was general malaise. Achy, nauseous, icky. No fun. I slept for hours upon hours and only felt marginally better. This morning I was feeling a little bit better, not as achy, so I thought I was all clear. HA! That was the perfect opportunity for the gods who make my day suck to swoop in and bring on Phase II.

Phase II is active malaise tempered with full-blown yuckiness. Oh goody. Phase II is a truly horrid headache. No longer just the achy, un-fun headache, this is of the 'somebody please rip my head off' variety. The kind where I really just want to lay it down on my desk because it feels heavy. And, oh yeah, the throat tickle that leads to some light coughing. At lease for now. Yay. Oh, and the runny nose. [sigh]

Yes, folks, it appears that Stephanie has a cold.

We are not pleased.

Stephanie Does Not Feel Well Today

Stephanie feels pretty icky, indeed. She will, in fact, be going home just as soon as that guy responds to a message from her.

Stephanie's head hurts something awful. And so does her tummy. She is feeling nauseous and just plain bad. So bad that she is talking about herself in the third person as a coping mechanism. Not a good sign. Not a good sign, at all.

My Name Is NOT Stacy

Rant du jour:

Why do people always mix up my name with 'Stacy'? I mean, sure, they both start with 'St', but that's pretty much where the similarities end! My name is longer, to start. I also think my name is prettier. This has happened most of my life, and I've just about had it!

I once had a minister in church announce that 'Stacy' was doing this project, and 'Stacy' should go ahead and stand up. I didn't stand up at first because I thought he was talking about somebody else!

The Stacy thing has gotten better recently, except that there's this one woman at work who keeps calling me Stacy. I kept telling myself that it wasn't a big enough deal to correct her, but today I finally did it. I tried to be nice, but I did point out that Stacy is not my name. She kept apologizing and then I felt bad. But, seriously, how hard is my name to remember?! And do I look like a Stacy? I don't think so.

*End Rant*

Thank you for listening

Happy Birthday To The Boy!

Today is The Boy's 30th birthday. Give him some love!

(Feel free to send it here; he reads this site).

To The Boy: I love you, honey. I'm so proud of you and all that you've done and are doing. I know you don't want to make a big deal of your birthday, but it's a big one! It's hard to restrain myself....I'll just leave it at this:

HAPPY 3-0!


Looks like he's already started partying...

I Just Figured Out

how to see how people got to this blog. Um, someone searched "jane kaczmarek circumcision" on Yahoo and my blog came up #7 (although after this post I'll probably be #1.) 'Kay.... Dubious honor. Woohoo. I guess.

Jon Stewart For King of America!

I'm bumping this up from the comments because you need to see it. (Thanks, Jen!) If you have access to any sort of high speed connection, you really need to watch Jon Stewart take on Paul Begalla (the supposed representative for left wing America, God help us) and Tucker 'Bow Tie Boy' Carlson, on Crossfire. He was brilliant, as the English would say.

Tucker Carlson in particular wanted to try to make Stewart look like some sort of partisan hack because he has admitted that he will vote for Kerry next month. What Jon Stewart did instead was point out that his show has far more relevance and takes greater moral responsibility than these shows that are supposed to inform and educate the public.

Carlson tried to attack Stewart for lobbing softballs at Kerry and claimed that he [Stewart] had a responsibility to ask the 'tough questions' when influential politicians are on his show. Stewart pointed out that the lead-in to his show was a program where puppets crank call people. Zow!

Stewart was clearly trying to draw the distinction between fake news and what should be--but is not--real news programming. It's awesome.

That nasty Republican suck up Matt Drudge tries to convince the public that over 1 million viewers dropped The Daily Show over this exchange with Carlson/Begalla. What? Those stoned slackers? (Incidentally, the 'stoned slackers' article comes from CNN, which also owns Crossfire.)

As Wonkette points out, kudos to Drudge for being the first Tochus Leker to try to take on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show for their astoundingly out-of-touch reportage and inability to reach out to the common man. Oh wait...that's not them. They have won news awards despite not being a real news program. I guess the 'elitists' at Crossfire and their ilk have mixed them up!

And, on a final note, whether you are a conspiracy theorist or not, you should enjoy this image. :)

The Greatest Campaign Slogan Of All Time!



So, so apt. I can think of at least one other 'He Who Must Not Be Named'. Heh.

I love this bumpersticker, yo. I totally want one. Almost makes me want to break my self-imposed rule of no bumperstickers on Ruby (my loverly car).


(Bumpersticker from goats.com)

Cartoon, or Deft Political Commentary?

The most recent installment of Making Fiends (Episode 12) revolves around a class president election between candidates backed by the wicked Vendetta and the more sunny, sweet Charlotte.

Neither of the nominated candidates is especially appealing. They are awfully alike in their blandness. The key factors dividing them are their campaign managers.

The Rovian Vendetta uses fear and manipulation to encourage voters to elect her candidate. Charlotte uses facts. Hmmm.

Vendetta is sly, where Charlotte is kind. Vendetta is ruthless, where Charlotte believes in the process.

Vendetta believes in free enterprise--her right to make fiends and terrorize the other students. Charlotte is an advocate of sharing and the president holding a position of benevolent leadership.

It's quite a conundrum. How will they ever hold democratic elections when one party is so willing to use subterfuge and illegal means to ensure that their candidate wins?!

I leave you with two things.

First: the voting song, by Charlotte:

Vote, vote, vote,
vote, vote, vote;
unless you are a goat,
'cause goats can't vote.

Vote, vote, vote,
vote, vote, vote;
unless you are a candied yam,
'cause candied yams can't vote.

Vote, vote, vote,
Vote, vote, vote,
vote, vote, vote;
unless you are a felon,
'cause felons can't vote.

Vote, vote, vote,
vote, vote, vote;
unless you are a can of ham,
'cause cans of ham can't vote.
And lastly, I hear that Vendetta is an 'evil-doer'. Watch out for her!

Jon Stewart Kills Me

Being the Last Living Human Being Without Cable, I only get to watch The Daily Show in snippets on the 'net. {sigh} At least they've made these available to poor little ole me.

So today I was catching up on TDS, and got some of Jon's commentary on a Bush speech the day after the first debate (where, in case you need a reminder, he was TROUNCED SOUNDLY by Kerry). Smirky McSmirkness' was explaining why Kerry's plan to tax the wealthy was bad because the rich could get lawyers. Jon's response:

"Let me get this straight, don't tax the rich because they'll get out of it. So your policy is, tax the hard-working people, because they're dumbasses and they'll never figure it out!? So... vote for me. Good night."

Tee Hee.

Sadly, though, that seems to be exactly what has happened. How else would this guy still be in office with people actually planning to vote for him next month? Sheeple!! Cowed by the rhetoric and the fear-mongering. I mean, this is basic domestic policy stuff. It's not like all us hard working middle-class folks have buckets of money lying around to pay taxes while Bill Gates and the Bush family count their dividend checks and their rebate money.

I Don't Get It

So in Friday's presidential debate, Dumbya talked over the moderator and insisted on responding to a Kerry attack out of turn. And now he's being given props for his 'forceful' and 'commanding' oratory.

In my book, that's not forceful. It's talking out of turn. He once again decided that the rules do not apply to him. The rules, I might add, that his team very specifically helped lay out. The debate rules gave them each a certain amount of time to speak and to rebut. If their response didn't fit within that time frame, it didn't get heard. End of discussion.

But he DEMANDS to be heard, to rebut one of Kerry's comments and he's commended for his behavior?

If it was your kid doing that, they'd get a time out.

Link-a-licious Friday!

(a.k.a. Lazy Stephanie day)

Heh.

Uh...yeah. They really are.

Bizarre (yet addictive) flash 'movie'. In something like 12 episodes.

Not just for Canadians.

AND the piece de resistance: If you don't click through on any of these other links that's fine. But you DO NOT want to miss this one. (Also check out the feature, "Steve, Don't Eat It!")

My [latest] Pet Peeve

Let's just call this pet peeve #3345687923408 (mainly because I've sort of lost track of where I'm actually at). There is a -- let's call it 'small business' -- that I pass routinely on my way to my knitting store after work. The place is called Nighty's and Naughty's. What?! That makes no sense. Let us analyze:

Is it run by two guys named Nighty and Naughty?

This would be just about the only acceptable reason for the otherwise mis-placed apostrophes. I abhor the wild and irresponsible use of the 's when someone means to convey that something is plural.

Option #2 is that it should be Nighty's Naughties. That is to say, Naughties that are the property of Nighty. Whoever he is.

Sadly, I can only assume that since this appears to be a lingerie shop of sorts that what they meant to call the store was Nighties and Naughties. Note the plural use of the words, rather than the possessive. If that is indeed the case, why did nobody catch this before the store opened?

"Oh dear, we've made a terrible mistake with our sign in front of the store. Let us fix it before we drive passersby insane with our ignorance."

I swear there should be a job for someone who cares about these things within each and every city hall around the country. That person's job would be to analyze the business applications of any shop that wants to open in the city. That person would then be able to kick back the application and say, "I'm sorry, until you learn to use proper grammar and punctuation when naming your store, I'm afraid we cannot issue you a business license." I -- I mean this person -- could even make suggestions for fixing the name problem for a small additional fee. Sounds good, right??

***

And if you ever need a laugh, go here. Or here. Some of these have had me laughing so unbelievably hard that people at work are looking at me funny! :)

A Post About The Weekend on Tuesday?

Yeah, because I'm lame like that. When I went to blog yesterday, Blogger was not cooperating. So here's the tale of my fabulous weekend.

Friday night, drove out to Azusa to hang and spend the night with Desiree. We had tickets to the 8 a.m. Fall Trends show at Nordstrom in the Santa Anita shopping center on Saturday. Friday night we had pizza and ice cream, flipped through Bride's magazine (yes, I'm pathetic) and watched Japanese Story (have you seen this movie? oh, soooo good. soooo sad).

I went to bed around 1 a.m. and found that the air mattress I was to sleep on was only about half inflated. Seeing as how we'd inflated the darn thing at 11 or so, I was curious. I slept fitfully all night (which I do anyway when The Boy's not around; shut up) and awoke at dawn after sleeping for maybe 45 minutes, flat on the floor and with a migraine. Goody.

Saturday, way too freaking bright and early, we got gussied up (hardly) and headed to Nordstrom's. We got these cool free gifts--little purse/makeup case things with samples of the new Bobbi Brown perfume Baby, sample size waterless handsoap, a small compact, tinted moisturizer, etc. We sat down to watch the 'runway' show, which was really a video of different cosmetic company reps talking about their new fall offerings, and listened to some speakers from other cosmetic companies. They gave away a couple thousand dollars' worth of cosmetics, but D and I didn't win anything. Then it was downstairs to enjoy the freebies.

We went straight to Philosophy where they were doing mini-facials. They smeared this oxygenating foam on our faces and gave us little hand massages while the foam did its magic (facial peel). They cleaned our faces off, moisturized us and sent us on our way. It was actually really nice because we were in the first group of people to get our facials, so they spent WAY more time on us and were still in really good moods. It was quite decadent. Afterward our faces were sooooo soft. Very nice.

Then we wandered around to look at the other freebies on offer. Clarins was doing 40-minute facial massages, but there was no way to get in that day; they were booked. We went by Origins where D insisted that I try the Ginger Souffle body cream. So the girl gave me this 5 minute hand massage with a scrub and then the cream. My hands were unbelievably soft.

After that we had reservations to have our makeup done at Lorac. I've never tried their makeup before (always assuming it would be waaaayyyyy too expensive), but I really liked it. Very light. And the prices were about what I would pay for Clinique, so I picked up some stuff that I really liked. Desiree looked bee-yoo-ti-ful when she was finished. They started on her makeup much later than mine, so I was standing around with her while she was getting done and we were chatting with the girl doing her makeup. She was a doll. Funny, sassy, talented. Eventually we found out that she does makeup for weddings (in addition to doing stuff for the Emmys and Oscars!) and she said that she would love to do the makeup for my wedding. Naturally that depends on what she charges, but I was pretty excited to have a good lead this far in advance! She also invited D and I to another show in Redondo Beach at the end of the month for Lorac customers. Sweet.

After our glorious day of pampering we headed to Victoria's Secret 'cause I had a couple of coupons for free stuff there, and then we bought some sunglasses at a kiosk outside VS. I got some great 'Don't look at me, I'm a celebrity' sunglasses. You know the kind. They're big and call attention to you, so the celebs wear them and pretend that they don't want to be recognized, when they really do. And we found D some blue-tinted, funky-shaped sunglasses with little rhinestone details. They were 2 for $20--woohoo!

Other than that, it was a pretty domestic weekend. I made banana bread, and straightened around the apartment (not to be confused with actual cleaning, which is much, much harder). Then I knit a bit more on a special, super-secret project that I'm 98% finished with (and that is abominable English right there).

Aww. What a great, girly weekend I had. How nice. :)

My Kingdom For 55 Cents!

I need a soda. Need one, I say!

*And will give my kingdom for the cost of a soda!

I am currently listening to Queen Latifah. Anyone who knows me, I'll give you a moment to retrieve your jaw from your desk/lap. You back yet? Good. Now, it's not what you think. I have not become a rap or hip-hop convert. It is her new jazz CD: The Dana Owens Album. If you saw Chicago, you know that this woman can sing. I heard her being interviewed on Wednesday on NPR and they played selections from this new album. Whoa. Her range is amazing. I was just blown away and, today being payday, went to Best Buy where the album was only $9.99 (man, do I love Best Buy's CD prices). I highly recommend it!

A woman at work and I have been talking for about a month or more about getting lunch together, and today she finally pulled me out of the office and took me to a Persian restaurant near South Coast Plaza called Darya. Mmmmm. We had the chicken kebab lunch special: big chunks of chicken, onion, pepper, roasted tomato and a more than generous serving of white rice mixed with saffron rice. Quite, quite tasty. We finished with this very light mousse dusted with espresso. And excellent service. If you're ever in Costa Mesa, I recommend trying them out.

(Boy, Fridays really do fill me with good cheer, don't they?!)

Well, that's about all for now, folks. I hope you have a great weekend. Ta!


*This is not as impressive a boast as one might think, since my kingdom consists of my cat, my yarn stash and not much else. The ring doesn't count because to get that you will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. To quote Charlton Heston. Scary thought. The Chuck Heston bit, not the rest.