Both Hands

Terrified

I have my second job interview for a position at the headquarters of my company tomorrow. I'm terrified it will go well and I'll have to honstly think about moving...to Michigan.

When I applied for the job, I wasn't even sure I would get an interview. The position seems pretty tailor-made for my experience, but I've never been really good at touting my own accomplishments. I had my first interview with the HR Department in the middle of the vacation last week. It threw the relaxtion vibe off a bit, but it appears I did well enough, I've gotten to the second interview and all.

I've spend the last few days discussing Michigan with Shelley, who took a position there a few years ago, moved while 5 months pregnant with her first child, really liked it, but ended up moving back to San Diego because her husband was miserable. No problems in that area. Frinklin is thrilled at the prospect of moving someplace it snows. He's from the Pacific Northwest--he likes the cold.

I've never lived anywhere other than Southen California. I'm not great driving in the rain, let alone the snow. The thought of ICE on ROADS is frightening beyond belief to me. I keep telling myself that plenty of people deal with these things every day and are just fine. People already live in Michigan, many of them really like it.

And then there's the moving in general. With dogs. And cats. And birds. We gave the turtle to a friend of my sister almost a year ago. But still--that's a lot of pets to move. Do they allow pit-bull mixes in apartments in Michigan? Can we afford to rent a house? What area should be even begin to look in? This seems so complicated at the moment. And right before the holidays?

Can I do this? Am I really grown up enough?

For Kids?!?

This is wrong on so many levels.

This sucks.

Damn. Double damn. Frinklin and I have spent the last 24 hours torturing ourselves with the following discussions:

"What were we doing a week ago right now?

"Um...checking into our hotel."

"What about now?"

"Ah....eating at the ESPN Zone?"

"And now?"

"Riding on Splash Mountain at Disneyland. In fact, we were going down the big drop...now."

My favorite new commercial...

...even if it's for Nike.

Go here, then choose "watch the commercial" in the bottom left corner.

Then come back and tell me how much you love it.

The return!

I'll post all about the last week in the near-future. For now, I stole Jen's list of the 100 most banned books and Erin's key to

what I've read = *
What I own = **
what I want to read = BOLD

*Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
*Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
*Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
**Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
**Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
**The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
*It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Dieby Robert Newton Peck
**The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
**Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel (and how embarrassed am I that I OWN these?)
*The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
**A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
*Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
*The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
**The Witches by Roald Dahl
*The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein (I wouldn’t really say I’ve READ it, but I’ve looked through it)
**Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry (I LOVE Anastasia! That reminds me, my sister is 12 years old…time to get her reading this series ASAP)
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
**Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
**Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
*What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras (again, I’ve looked through it—I work in a bookstore!)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
*Beloved by Toni Morrison
**The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
**Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
**Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
**A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
*Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
*Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole (I think I’ve seen every sex book for children…ever…)
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (I TRIED to read this. I did. But it made me sick to my stomach)
*What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras (again with the teen sex books?)
**Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
*Guess What? by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
*The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
**Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
**Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Does it count extra that I’ve read this about 10 times between junior high and high school?)
Native Son by Richard Wright
*Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
**Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle (I LOVED this book growing up, and got in trouble at age five for sharing it with my friends)
Carrie by Stephen King
*Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
*On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
*Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
**The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
*Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
*Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
*Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
*How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

This next week

Blogging will be light starting...well, now. Frinklin and I are having our long awaited wedding reception tomorrow and we'll be out of town for a few days following. We may even--gasp!--not have access to a computer for several days next week.

The Bookstore Conspiracy Continues!

I got a comment from EvilWhiteGuy today regarding my response to people just postive that bookstores are hiding Unfit For Command from them:

Have you seen the Borders' Employee Union chatboards? Here's an excerpt:

"You guys don't actually HAVE to sell the thing!
Just "carelessly" hide the boxes, "accidentally" drop them off pallets, "forget" to stock the ones you have, and then suggest a nice Al Franken or Micheal Moore book as a substitute. Borders wants those recommends, remember?

I don't care if these Neandertals in fancy suits get mad at me, they aren't regular customers anyway. Other than "Left Behind" books, they don't read. Anything you can do to make them feel unwelcome is only fair. They are the people pushing retailers to cut costs, don't forget. And they would censor your speech, your books, your music in a heartbeat, so give them a taste of it!

Don't get mad, get even!"

Originally I defended this quote from the Union website as an emotional response from one person). I still support that idea. Individual people can come up with some really stupid thoughts. All sorts of right-wing blogs have put up this particular "Borders Union Employee" quote as proof of a conspiracy (make sure you check out all her trackbacks). Well, maybe they should have told the complete story. I went back to the Borders Union website today to pull quotes from other employee posts that completely disagree with the idea of hiding books or "forgetting" to put out the stock onhand. Instead of the website, I got this:

Dear visitors from land of blog:
Thank you for your interest in the Borders Union web site. Please be aware that it is not the policy of Borders Books, or of any of the Unions that represent its employees, to "hide" or refuse to sell a book based on political content. Borders management can be expected to take appropriate disciplinary measures if they catch employees interfering with sales.
Some people who post on our bulletin board do not work at Borders. We do not verify employment. According to IP Address records, the person who posted the "let's hide the book" message was also posting under another name, responding to the messages he posted under his first name. Under his second ID, he claimed to be a conservative who was shocked that Borders employees would not tolerate diversity of opinion. This suggests to us that this was a troll who was trying to manufacture controversy. His account(s) have been deleted. He was a new user. Other, long time users told him his ideas were bad. We are temporarily ending user registration to prevent further incidents of trolling. Accounts created on September 15th have been deactivated.
We have temporarily blocked access to a portion of the site in order to protect our webserver from crashing due to high traffic. Please be patient. The site will return in full when traffic levels ebb….
Since Borders, like many corporations, refuses to pay a Living Wage, Borders local customers have the option of speaking to an underpaid manager if they feel an underpaid floor employee is pursuing an agenda different from the sales agenda of the corporation.
Have a nice day.

Hm. Interesting (I’ll leave the Living Wage discussion for another time). I finally found the Google cache of the page via EvilWhiteGuy and was able to pull an important response:

From “Withrow�:

I really, really disagree with this point of view. Booksellers have an ethical obligation IMO to present different points of view and not get in the way of freedom of speech. What you're suggesting is a form of censorship, only worse, because you're not being up front about it.

So—I’ll give the right-wing conspiracy freaks this—there is a "conspiracy" when it comes to Unfit for Command. A couple of booksellers in bookstores might be hiding the book from you. It’s always possible. However, I maintain that there is no widespread conspiracy throughout the country regarding this book, just poor planning on the part of the publisher, or maybe some clever marketing.

James the Old Asshole

I received the following comment from "James the Old Guy" on this post:

I guess the National Guard turned out to be more than a two week vacation in the summer and help on the old colleage fund. Voter [sic] for whoever you want but joining the National Guard and whining about the country deploying you is chickenshit.

Just for clarification; my cousin is far from chickenshit, James. She is obviously going to Iraq. The National Guard paid for her college that got her the degree that she used to get the dream job she won't be accepting. She understands and is appreciative. There is no whining from her about leaving.

Next time, James, read a little more carefully and see that I am your whining chickenshit before calling out my cousin, the National Guardswoman, who could probably kick your ass. I can take it. But I don't take kindly to those who choose to beat up on my family.

My favorite doormat

Which I also happen to own. I blame Gir for starting this.

I hate late night phone calls

Frinklin's dad had a heart attack last night. His stepmother called just after 10pm to tell us. I picked up the phone and had to tell Frinklin the details. It appears that it was not a major heart attack--he was at the hospital before it ended. He has two stints in. We're waiting for more details now.

Getting married was a surreal experience. I really felt as though I was not in my body at the time. It happened again at this phone call. I tried to think like my own, very capable, mother. She always knows how to calm people down and get the necessary details.

Please send your prayers to Frinklin's Dad and our family. He's going to miss our wedding reception next Saturday, but we hope to go visit him in Seattle soon.

Well this is a little disturbing.

You're a werewolf. Werewolves were mutated people
who would transform into wolf-like beings and
lose control of themselves. Often times
when a little child would go out into fields in
Europe, they would encounter a werewolf and be
eaten. They had charatceristics of their human
selves but were also hairy with canine like
teeth and strangely shaped heads when they
transformed. They often had bad tempers and
would lose control of their actions very
easily. They were excellent hunters though.


What Mystical Creature Are You? (Pictures)
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Found at Practical Penumbra

I'd make a lousy soldier's wife

I found out last night that my cousin is being sent to Iraq in two weeks. She's in the National Guard. She will also be turning down a job with a major production studio in LA; she's giving up her dream job to go to Iraq.

I'd say it's pretty much impossible for me to vote for Bush come November.

Stealing of comments

This is one of the best comments I've ever seen:

"you should watch scrubs, dude. it's the best TV show ever.

EVER.

better than quantum leap."

found in the comments of Defective Yeti's review of Garden State.

Adopt a Celebrity--someone needs to teach those people some morals!

I recently adopted a celebrity, and I encourage you to do so as well. Check out Eden's Adopt a Celeb site, and then check out her excellent blog so anyway...

You even get to pick your own celeb! Once I got over Eden's having chosen Eddie Izzard herself, I found someone I'm quite happy with.

My very own celebrity is now residing toward the lower section of my sidebar.

Damn you Joey McIntyre!

Oh Joey...all I wanted was to see the New Kids On the Block reunited for one performance. One performance! You couldn't do it? Jordan signed on. Even Jonathan was ready to go (and he was the shy one!).

But no. You even acknowledged that fans all over were wanting it--but you just couldn't.

Then you said something stupid.

"I wouldn't want to do it for one night. I would want to reunite and see what happened from there." Something to the effect that you would want to re-form the NKOTB.

Joey, no one wants that. No one. But thanks to you, Danny wouldn't even speak on camera, and Donnie "wants to focus on his acting career."

Just one night. That's all I wanted. One night, so I could savor the sweetness of my childhood dreams once again. Who can forget the classics "Please Don't Go Girl!" and "You Got It (The Right Stuff)."

And who could forget "Hangin' Tough"? Are you tough enough?

Beal

I feel so much pressure to come up with something good...I'm having my best day ever...all because Jennifer of All Things Jennifer is apparently hosting the second coming at her blog. She's had over 100,000 hits in the last few days--some of it has brushed off on me.

And all I've got is beal.

Beal.

Beal.

Beal.

Check out the archives! They're great!

Heh.

To the person who Googled "Zach Braff naked" and ended up here,

I wish.

ATTENTION NEIGHBORS!

I hearby ban all vehicals from entering our neighborhood when I can hear the vibrations of your crappy-ass music over the roar of your over-tuned off-road engine of your hideous vehicle. I've got no problem with music, if you enjoy it, play it. I just don't want to hear it ALL DAMN DAY!

Good Stuff

It's hard to find good stuff. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places? But I found it. Here it is:

One Before - "So one of my toes, the one we like to call Middle Left, or occasionally—after hours—Barry, has decided to play dead. Not playing dead as in cute fluffy puppy dead, but dead as in rigor mortis dead. All kind of swollen and stiff and deadish."

Happy Bunny is me. I am Happy Bunny.

Wow. What is that smell??


What Happy Bunny Are You?
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Jew for Jesus?

So many points to Jen at Jen's History and Stuff for linking to Britney Spears, a BAPTIST, wearing a ROSARY with a KABBALAH shirt.

*Credit for descriptive quote

I hate the idea of "stealing" a thought or an idea, but I couldn't fit the credit for the awesome descriptive quote at the top of the page, so I'll do it here...

"Telling girls to be independent thinkers, that's much scarier than telling girls how to give a blowjob." is from Marjorie Ingall, formerly of Sassy Magazine, as quoted in the Fall '04 issue of BUST magazine for the article "The Secret History of Sassy". Check it out!

I find this rather sickening

Ha ha. Look at the purple heart bandaids. Isn't that hilarious? I'm sure everyone who has been awarded the Purple Heart will find it ever so amusing. While they were passed out to mock John Kerry specifically, I find them pretty offensive in general. Haha. You were wounded while VOLUNTEERING to fight in a war. Haha. Sick.

Presidential Loyalty

Took the George W. Bush Loyalty Quiz and got this result:

No, I'm still not over it

Lactose Incompetent is thanking Rush Limbaugh. I will have to second him in that, although it pains me to do so.

At the same time, I'd like to give a big "F-You!" to Sean Hannity's show for starting the idiotic conspiracy theory that caused all sorts of hysteria over bookstores supposedly refusing to carry Unfit for Command.

Alan Keyes is such an idiot

Found at Drudge Report (God help me):

Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, said Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a "selfish hedonist" because she is a lesbian.

Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney "is a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."

Aside from the totally unnecessary low blow at Mary Cheney; does Mr. Keyes mean to imply that infertile people shouldn't be allowed to get married either, as they are not able to procreate?

Damn you! You selfish hedonistic infertiles!

(Frinklin pointed out that people beyond child-bearing age would also be exempt from marriage--selfish hedonistic old people!)

Finally...an answer I like!

Morpheus


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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