Living Reflections from a Dream

I'm having one of those days where I have so much to do that I'm literally paralyzed at trying to decide on what to work on first... naturally, this leads to quiz taking.

"You are a smooth chick."

You have a knack for greatness. For the record,you are:

67% Un-telligent!
which is significantly higher than the current average of 60%

Here is the custom report of your personality that led our team of geeks to conclude (with confidence) that you are resourceful and sly woman:

"The subject shows a very high level of intelligence, and her sense of observation is one of her best qualities. Considering this, she shows a lot of potential, but that's only part of the equation.

"Also, as much as we hate violence, an occasional mauling is one way to solve day-to-day problems like unpleasant coworkers or pesky door-to-door salesmen; she just isn't tough enough, sir, and she avoids any solution that involves violence.

"Finally, the subject displayed a poor (and a little bit boring) sense of humor, a decent and respectable sense of morality, and a barbaric self-confidence. The balance of these three traits is important; high levels of confidence, medium levels of morality, and a good level of humor make for the strongest individuals."

Final Score: 67% Un-telligent

> See how Un-telligent you are-----
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I received this as an email joke, but it totally describes my life... Someone asked me what I did last Sat. and I couldn't account for my time, and it's because it went something like this:

This week's Below the Beltway column in the Post describes many americans as intellectually lazy -

This made me quite sad. Why would actively want to dumb yourself down? Yet, it seems that many of us do just that. I'm sort of frightened for our future.

Then I remembered from my tutoring days, that there is a test you can do on reading material to see at what grade level a story was written. In MS Word, you can perform a similar check - after checking spelling and grammar, Word displays Readability Statistics, under grammar they show the Flesh-Kincaid grade level. So go and check the level you are reading at...
I just tested this post and it's written at grade level 5.8. Then I tested a document I wrote for work and it was at the 10th grade level. I've got some work to do myself..-----
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I am keeping a close watch on where my new digital camera is.. After his tourist trip through the south and midwest, it's almost here, it's almost here!!

May 09, 2003 05:53:00 AM SHREWSBURY MA US IN TRANSIT TO
May 09, 2003 05:52:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US DEPARTURE SCAN
May 09, 2003 05:17:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US ARRIVAL SCAN
May 09, 2003 01:11:00 AM LEXINGTON KY US DEPARTURE SCAN
May 08, 2003 06:06:06 PM LEXINGTON KY US ORIGIN SCAN
May 08, 2003 11:22:28 AM US BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
May 08, 2003 07:30:00 AM CAMPBELLSVILLE KY US SHIPPED-----
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if you use all the ice cubes and don't fill up the ice cube tray... the next time you want ice cubes, there won't be any*

it's also true that if you use the last of the toilet paper and don't refill the roll, the next time you're looking for TP, there won't be any*

** unless you have an ice cube/toilet paper fairy and let me tell you, that person may just be harboring anger towards you that could show itself at unexpected times.-----
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To see Bill Clinton giving the commencement speech at the world's greatest university and home of the NCAA Men's Basketball Champions: Syracuse University. Look at Bill wearing a National Champs hat! Look at Chancellor Shaw - no wonder he's retiring. If they made me wear that getup, even if it's only once a year, I'd be running for the hills, too.

> Dome's a global stage For Clinton and graduates-----
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I need a Corona and some quesadillas right now!! oh, it's all over - now that I've thought that: they will be mine, oh yes, they will be mine.-----
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who knew? There is a festival for everything...

Art of Beer Festival (AOBF) - May 24, 2003-----
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1970s-set 'Grease 3' in works

Grease 2 wasn't bad enough? Michelle Pfiefer was lucky to have survived that.

** Update: I've been thinking about this. Do you think they could get Stockard Channing to return as Rizzo? She could be an example to the youngsters.. look how far she has come: she dumped Keneki, reformed Martin Sheen after his trips through the Badlands and Apocolyse Now and look at them now: President and First Lady of the U.S.-----
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This weekend is BookExpo America. How funny do you think this panel will be:

Saturday May 31
Book & Author Luncheon
LIVE 3-5pm ET/12-2pm PT
Al Franken, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
Molly Ivins, "Bushwhacked"
Bill O'Reilly, "Who's Looking Out for You?"
Pat Schroeder, Assn. of American Publishers, President & CEO - Moderator

Fortunately, it will be broadcast on C-SPAN2. Check your local cable listings.-----
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Any time you are at an all day meeting and the phrase "portal ecosystem" is being used.. it's going to be a long day. Especially if you look around when this phrase comes up and everyone else seems to be taking it seriously.-----
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is motivated by his alma mater's National Championship. He can't let Carmelo show him up that way!

> Coleman plays new position with newfound energy-----
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Yes, I did just spend 15 minutes attempting to find out if there should be a line of space between "Select One" and "Option One" in a dropdown on our site. Yes, I did. And it's a highly contentious issue... factors that must be considered (with a number of people):

with the space, the number of options causes the user to have to scroll to see the last one. We don't want to seem like we are discriminating against the option starting with "W" do we?

a screen reader* will read the line as a "space", thus blind people will have to hear that extra word while listening to the site

there is no consistency to this across any of our web sites - some dropdowns have the space, some do not. Some use the abbreviations for words, some do not. A recommendation comes: Perhaps there should be a project to standardize this. Note: I'm all for this, as long as I don't have to be involved

If there is no space, people may get confused and thing "Select One" is one of the options. What happens if they pick that?

This is my life? This is what I spent years in school for? To deal with insane people?

I'm waiting for the inevitable meeting on this that will be called - and the subsequent weekly meeting on the status of making everyone consistent.

* a screen reader is software primarily used by blind people. It "reads" sites to them and they can listen to navigation options, the text, etc. The one we use to test with is especially funny as it has a robot voice, but you can select from a number of options as to what you would like the voice to sound like. Cracks me up that some one thought of that.-----
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Bill Clinton thinks the 22nd amendment (look it up) should be changed... but that he doesn't expect it to apply to him. I say it should be so we could apply it to him.-----
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After the most atrocious winter in memory, the sucky weather just never never seems to end. It's should be spring! I could see my breath this morning - the heat is on in my apt. I'm so sick of this!!

In other news.. my new camera is here and I LOVE it!! All I'm going to do is play with it for awhile. :)-----
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and welcome to my site..

I've been meaning to mention this guy: he believes the world would be a friendlier place if we all wore name tags - that way people would be more inclined to talk to each other. He wears his!

Read about him here:
'Hello, my name is' one friendly guy

Find out even more on his site:
His Site

Find out what it's like to be a name tag wearing fool in his book about his name tag wearing experiences-----
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I'm sure everyone occasionally finds things in their refrigerator that over time have metamorphisized into something unrecognizable (right?!?). It happens to me far more often than I would like to admit... last week sometime I found a jug of milk in the back and thought: ooh, look.. I've made feta cheese. But today's story involves the kitchen cabinets. Scavenging through the cabinets, I discovered a box of Wheaties rammed into the back, hidden from view by other, more desirable cereals. I vaguely remember buying these, but it seems as if it were quite some time ago. A glance at the front of the box confirms my suspicions: the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots are depicted. Eek. I try to think back to whether the Patriots won the Superbowl last year or the year before. I know it wasn't this year. This isn't good. I decide to look at the expiration date for guidance (cereal seems to last forever with all the preservatives, after all). Dec 02. I may have to rethink that new career as the next Martha Stewart...-----
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Take the What
animal best portrays your sexual appetite?? Quiz
-----
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Carmelo to go to Detroit. I don't know why, I just don't.

No idea what I'm talking about? Go Here

No idea why I would care about this? You must a new reader... Go Here-----
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I love this ad for the Mini Cooper that is in the new Fast Company... a little cut out car. It must have cost a ton to do, but look at it. I showed it to everyone at work today and now I'm showing it to you. It really makes me want one...

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Yes, it's that time of year in Boston.. Graduation season. And I do mean season as there are SO many schools here that for about a month or so there are graduations every weekend and some during the week. Today: BU (above). There they are, lined up like cattle ready for the future (where they most likely continue to be lined up like cattle). Ah.. graduation, the ending of one phase, the beginning of another phase of life. A happy time for those graduating and their families... and for them only. I hate the graduation season because it interupts my otherwise pleasant city life. An endless amount of parents and friends from hicksville, usa who have no idea how to get around the city, are horrified by city customs and city dress, who cause endless traffic nightmares (partially due to not knowing how to get around and partially because they have no experience with the aggresive nature of city driving required to get around). Those that aren't brave enough to drive, clog up the T. Do you know what it's like to be on a train full of people with mortar boards on their heads - one quick movement and someone could loose an eye! Not to mention the parents all stressed out about how they look, what they are wearing, do they have enough batteries for the camera.. and the flowers. Does everyone need a bouquet to graduate? Of course, there is almost always a Red Sox game on the same day as each graduation to make the situation worse.
I have a bad attitude you say? Yes, I do. I just want my city back. I shouldn't complain really. After graduation season, many of the students leave and it's so much easier to get around, find parking, go biking and generally enjoy life. I don't know.. perhaps I'm envious of their youth, perhaps it brings back the horrid memories of my college graduation when I was too hung over to sit up straight. Literally the most excrutiating day of my life and hot (very rare in Syracuse). No, I think it's just that they get in my way.

So happy graduation day, Boston students.. now go back to where ever you came from*.

* People who are from Boston, and go to school here are excluded from this rant. Congrats, Bryan!-----
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and I after you wake up, get angry and start doing something before the right wing fanatics in the administration destroy the economy, although it may be too late already. Krugman's Op-Ed: Stating the Obvious says:

I keep trying to come up with reasons why so many Americans don't seem to care what these crazy people are doing, and the only thing I can come up with is their too busy watching tv. It boggles the mind that not too many people seem concerned that Bush is driving the country into the ground with his religious fanaticism, which doesn't even make sense to me as what I learned in CCD was that it was Christian to be kind to those less fortunate, not kick them in the teeth so the well off can have more tax cuts. This is definitely not what I think Jesus would do.-----
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In case you haven't been following the FCC nightmare, Chairman Michael Powell (yes, Colin's son) is attempting to change the ownership rules for media.

> Read Ted Turner's Editorial on the issue

Do you really want everything you see and hear to be decided for you by a big corporation? If you don't, you can send this statement to your representatives at MoveOn.org:

On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission is planning on
authorizing sweeping changes to the American news media. The rules
change could allow your local TV stations, newspaper, radio stations,
and cable provider to all be owned by one company. NBC, ABC, CBS and
Fox could have the same corporate parent. The resulting concentration
of ownership could be deeply destructive to our democracy.

Congress is supposed to guard against monopoly power. But the
upcoming rule change could change the landscape for all media and
usher in an era in which a few corporations control your access to
news and entertainment. Please join me in asking Congress and the
FCC to support a diverse, competitive media landscape by going to:

http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/

You can also automatically have your comments publicly filed at the
FCC.

When the folks at MoveOn.org talk to Congresspeople about this issue,
the response is usually the same: "We only hear from media lobbyists on
this. It seems like my constituents aren't very concerned with this
issue." A few thousand emails could permanently change that perception.
Please join this critical campaign, and let Congress know you care.

Thanks.-----
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I didn't even turn on my computer yesterday... no email, no blogging, no surfing - no nothing. I don't remember the last time I didn't use a computer for an entire day. The thing is - I didn't really miss it. I may have to do that more often.-----
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I'm sure I will appall my few conservative readers (and I know who you are) when I tell you that I have been waiting with bated breath for this book to get published on May 20:

which will give me a few weeks to get through it before this one comes out:

Right now I'm reading:

because I desperately need to understand how something this stupid and narrow minded got to where he is - president select.

Ooo.. gotta go, time for Will & Grace. If only Jack or Will would have some gay sex on tv just to piss off Rick Santorum and the bushman.. ha!-----
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and I'm happy to be back after a little meltdown at my hosting provider knocked me off for the day.-----
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seeing something beautiful can make your whole day

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Today I bought an iced coffee and the cashier put in bag with the rest of my purchase. As I'm going up the elevator, I hear it swishing around. When I get back to my desk I see she put the iced coffee on it's side at the bottom of the bag so the rest of the things could fit in the same back. Half of the iced coffee is swimming around the bottom of the bag. I wonder what in her life experience would lead her to believe this would have worked out.-----
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This is not what you want to see for the upcoming 3 day weekend...

it is actually worse. As it currently stands there will be rain every day until next Saturday, but this in New England and all that could change (hope, hope!).-----
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First, my Photo Friday is up and second, I've started my May Day experiment (where you'll discover just how boring and average my life is.. the jig is up!). Are you doing May Day?

> See my May Day-----
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I don't pay that close attention to it, but I went in today and my portfolio has tripled in the last 2 days. Yippee, I say. But I understand why... for instance, why did Blogdaddy go from around a $2 or $3 share price to $46 in a day? Now.. Dave is worth every penny, but what happened today to increase his price so much? How is valuation determined? This is why I invest solely in stock funds in real life. This too complicated for me.
Also, although in Beta I had 2 url's that were combined. Both of my url's are now back - even it's the same url, one has a slash at the end. Bizarrely, one's share price is more than triple the other. Huh??? It's really the same site. I'm totally lost and confused.-----
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Today I randomly discovered that Howard Dean (a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate for those of you not paying attention) has a blog - on blogspot no less. I love that he has a blog.. this is one of the greatest uses of blogs. He is in the know on who the other well known political bloggers are. Pretty cool. Not only is he blogging, he is using his primary site very well and organizing Meetups and getting donations. Subsequently, I found a very intriguing article in the New Republic (registration required) on use of the internet for his campaign. I must say that though he can be brash at times, I'm liking him more and more. I LOVE his letter to FCC Chair Michael Powell on today's front page.

Anyway, I decided to check in with all the democratic candidates and see if they had blogs. I would love to do a more complete site review of each site, but I'm stretched for time right now, so I'm just giving you blog or not and initial impressions. The general consensus is: lots of red, white and blue, lots of "donate now!" and tons of bad photography.

Howard Dean - Blog: yes, but needs a better picture at the top - he looks slightly dorky.

John Kerry - Blog: No, but interesting separate site for Kerry Gear (you know you want some)

John Edwards - Blog: No, but can adjust fonts larger and smaller - yea accessibility! Odd that the Welcome to the Site is at the bottom of the page.

Dick Gephart - Blog: No, but one of the few good photos of a candidate.

Bob Graham - Blog: No. Not too bad, actually, but is he trying to appear younger by making those kids look like they are his? They must be his grandchildren.

Dennis Kucinich - Blog: No. Horrid picture of him, he looks 12.

Joe Lieberman - Blog: No. I laughed out loud at his picture. Perhaps he is getting ready to strangle George Stephanopoulos.

Carol Moseley-Braun - Blog: No, but at least she looks good.

Al Sharpton - Blog: No, but the photos aren't bad, just blurry.

George W. Bush ok, not really... here is his real site. Well, it's purple not red, white and blue. Absolutely no content - just like him! It welcomes you to the "temporary georgewbush.com". I can only hope that george w bush in indeed, temporary.-----
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Look at this! My new digital camera sat in Shrewsbury from 11am Sat. until 10pm this evening (vs. the speedy Columbus, Ohio center where it only stopped for 35 min.) What was going on? This means it will get to Watertown tomorrow and not be delivered to me until Weds. Grr...

May 12, 2003 10:06:00 PM WATERTOWN MA US IN TRANSIT TO
May 12, 2003 10:05:00 PM SHREWSBURY MA US DEPARTURE SCAN
May 12, 2003 02:48:08 PM SHREWSBURY MA US LOCATION SCAN
May 10, 2003 11:37:00 AM SHREWSBURY MA US ARRIVAL SCAN
May 09, 2003 05:52:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US DEPARTURE SCAN
May 09, 2003 05:17:00 AM COLUMBUS OH US ARRIVAL SCAN
May 09, 2003 01:11:00 AM LEXINGTON KY US DEPARTURE SCAN
May 08, 2003 06:06:06 PM LEXINGTON KY US ORIGIN SCAN
May 08, 2003 11:22:28 AM US BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
May 08, 2003 07:30:00 AM CAMPBELLSVILLE KY US SHIPPED-----
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You will sink in a mire. You like to think you're normal, but deep down you really just want to strip off your clothes and roll around in chicken fat.

Link spotted over at Snarkalicious

** just for the record, I don't really think of myself as normal. At least I hope I'm not.. really, how boring!-----
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I wake up extremely late, rush around getting ready, have a shocking moment when my hair doesn't come out that bad considering I spent 5 seconds on it... I have moment of minor annoyance when I realize that I've rushed all the way here in my frazzled state only to find that exactly one other person in my dept. has made their grand entrance here yet (in fact the guy who sits next to me just got here). Since there is no time for breakfast so once I get to work I'm back to my usual dilemma (muffin as big as my head or fruit cup), but I put off the internal debate on this because I have some things that must get done. Every 15 min. or so, my stomach growls and I have a mini debate with myself, but can't come to a conclusion. I really want something sweet, but since I'm quitting drinking soda (which is a whole other story - I need a 12 step plan), I sit here drinking tea. Tea is just not doing the job. After a tea I have to go to the bathroom where I see that the hair I was so pleased with earlier has gone amiss and I now have some sort of Shaun Cassidy shag do going on. Now I'm back at my desk, staring at my second glass of tea with distain, stomach growling, hair all over the place, sucking on a hard candy in hopes it calms my stomach down.. wondering why I'm grouchy. Well, 20 min. to lunch.. I wonder what I should have for lunch.. hmm.. the debate begins again.

** Update: I spilled tea on myself and dropped an entire forkfull of lunch onto my pants. excellent!-----
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Sometimes small things can make your whole day...

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A couple of days ago something I wrote here caught the eye of a writer at a major newspaper and I was interviewed for a story he was working on. Very exciting.. he said it would probably run in the paper yesterday. I went to the papers site yesterday and couldn't find the article anywhere, so I figured it hadn't made it in for that day. Today I went back to their site and the article is there, but only an abstract is available and guess what: it WAS in yesterday's print edition. And I missed it. Naturally I'm now forced to pay money to see the whole article, with my name up in lights. Imagine... ME on the web (we will ignore the fact that I can see my name on the web here everyday).

** Update: ok, the article was about a survey that AAA and some other groups did on driving safety - 90% of people admit to driving dangerously (eating, talking on cell phone) during the last year. Basically, I recount this story which I think is a bit of an extreme.-----
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Today I went to buy the Sunday paper and the store didn't have any because "someone burned them before the store opened'. Why would anyone do that?

Today I also discovered that if you put Coffee Mate in cold coffee it does not dissolve. I find that frightening for some reason.-----
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Not only has it been rainy and cloudy all weekend... not only do I have to be digusted by listening to W. go on and on about honoring veterans who fought for freedom, all the while he is busy taking freedoms away from US citizens, but I'm sick. I believe that I have thrown up more in the last 36 hours than in all my previous life combined. And here is why: the Art of Beer Festival.

Sometimes I can drink and drink and be fine, other times I drink very little and I'm wasted. The Art of Beer Festival was one of the latter occassions. The fact that it was for the most part all you could drink, didn't help. I really didn't drink that much. I didn't drink than my friends and they were fine. I was anniliated..out of mind.. behaving like a lunatic. It was not a pretty scene. When I first saw the sign that last call was at 10:40, I thought: that blows. But now I'm thrilled because who knows what would have happened had I been allowed to continue drinking.

There were many excellent beers there and we got 4 oz. samples of each one. Perhaps it was that I liked the one which was 20% alcohol that got me in trouble, but I only had one! And it's unfortunate that all these wonderful beers were vomitted up at a high velocity later in the evening. Yesterday, I spent all day on the couch, more ill than I have ever been in my life. Throwing up every hour - even when there is nothing in your stomach can be fun - not. I drank of glass of water and immediately threw it up. Now, this may sound familar to some of you, but I've never, ever been sick like this in my whole life. So I laid on the couch and watched movies all day, drifting in and out of consciousness. During one movie, someone was eating a sandwich and I became insanely jelous. I wanted to be able to eat a sandwich and not hurl immediately after. I wanted my life back. I hate being sick. And I couldn't even go online because that would require sitting up and there was no way that was going to happen. I weighed myself and I've lost 3lbs. since Fri. The sick thing is my first thought was: wo-ho! This is not a recomended weight loss routine!

So happy Memorial Day to you all and remember to be grateful for your health.-----
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I've seen Dawson's Creek maybe twice in my life, but for some reason I was clicking around the tube this evening and there it was and I got sucked in. Turns out it was the last episode ever. Now, I've seen the commercials, I know the basic plot.. the one girl went out with one of the guys, then one of the other guys in their group. Tension.. whoopee- right? I don't know what it was about this show (perhaps that one of the friends dies and everybody puts their life in perspective - hope I didn't give anything away there). I was bawling throughout the whole show. I even taped West Wing so I could finish watching the second hour. Bawling! Over a ridiculous, stupid teenager show! I'm really losing it.-----
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As opposed to just liking it as I did until today. The red sox won.. yeah! So it took 2 errors and 3 batters getting hit with pitches in the 9th inning, but we'll take it. Of course, when this is your view....

I learned a lot about baseball, like:

I was facinated by the little rituals each players perform when they get up to the plate. Here is Nomaaah.. he plays with his wrist things a few times then kicks the ground with his feet. right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot.. then gets into position.

And I developed a raging crush on Mike Sweeney... well, on his butt as I took 1, 2, 3.. 4 pictures of it (the lesson here is that I really shouldn't be allowed to have a camera when drinking)

my co-worker informs me that he is engaged and "very religious". My response: why do you know these things?-----
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and that is all I have to say about that-----
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Today is the first day it's officially warm enough to go pantyhose free to work. Yes, I work in an environment that allows this. No, I would never go back to the suit and heels bit. Pantyhose should be illegal in the summer.. you're hot enough without that. I hate pantyhose even in the winter (yet, I love tights - odd), but they are needed for warmth. Bring on summer!-----
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Yesterday I had a completely new and innovative idea: I put all of my shoes on the shoe rack in the closet, rather than in a big pile in front of it. Now the closet door closes and everything! Radical!-----
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In case you didn't notice, last Fri. Bush signed an order increasing the debt ceiling by $984 billion to $7.38 trillion- the highest in US history. The next business day (Tuesday) he signed his big tax cuts. Make the connection, people: we are increasing our debt to pay for tax cuts for rich people.

The sad thing is it isn't going to help. The 2001 tax cuts haven't done much for the economy, unemployment continues to grow and those who are employeed may be underemployeed or hanging on for dear life. See Bob Herbert's editorial yesterday, Caught in the Squeeze

Earlier this week I was depressed by the
the Time article, Where Did My Raise Go?, which basically gives the same news.

The other day on the Today show, they did a story on underemployed males. They featured a guy who used to make $300K and now works at the Gap for $10/hr. My first thought wasn't "wow.. how does he manage that?", but "The Gap pays $10/hr?"-----
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