Living Reflections from a Dream

Today as I was getting ready to throw my Lean Cuisine lunch into the microwave, I checked out the nutritional label. 300 calories, ok. 6 grams fat, ok. Calories from fat: 50. Since 50/300 = 16.67%, I think this ok. Fiber: 5 grams, sounds good. Total Carbohydrates: 58 grams. hmm.. I think if you do Atkins, this is approximately the amount of carbs you can eat in a week*. :) I wouldn't know, being a carbohydrate addict, I would never attempt Atkins. So, I guess I'll just sit at my desk and hope I don't literally explode with excessive carb-ness. Ack.. my clothes already feel tighter!

* I figure if there was a big hoopla over 2 grams of carbs less in some Light Beer, then 58 grams of carbs must be a lot.-----
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> How to Be an Iowan for a Day

"That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tonight on American Experience (PBS), there will be a documentary on King called Citizen King.-----
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3. John Stamos - how the mighty (cute) have fallen. I pity him every time I see one of those 10-whatever commericals.
2. Dan Abrams - for having to report on the Michael Jackson case as if it were an interesting legal battle (though he does seem to enjoy it).
1. Diane Sawyer - a journalist who has covered some actual news stories and worked in the Nixon administration, for having to interview 2 local yokels from Louisiana billed as "friends of Britney's groom". Ack!-----
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Find out by taking the 'What Inspires You' quiz.

Expressing Myself inspires me.

You've got something to say, and nothing feels better than letting the world hear it, whether that means you're into singing, writing, designing — or you're just the kind of woman who's not afraid to share her opinion on the issues that matter most to her. Why should you try to blend?

You're a bold individual who definitely gets a kick out of standing out from the crowd. Sure, you might sometimes shock your friends with your loud-n-proud statements, but you know they are often impressed by your courage to show off who you really are. As for you, there's nothing better than the rush you get from being true to yourself and the causes you believe most deeply in.

Link blatently ripped off from Just Donna.

As an aside, I notice that a great majority of the time when I find quizes on others sites, I get the same results they do. Does that mean I only read sites by people who are already like me? Just wondering..-----
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Today I brought my lunch to work and it included a Jello Pudding snack pack (Devils Food flavor). When I opened up my lunch I was so excited: pudding snack!! yeah!!!-----
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create your own visited states map

Somewhat sad. As I was checking off the states, I was thinking I had done pretty well, but this map says otherwise. And even NJ is kind of a stretch for me.. I was there once just to see Syracuse play Seton Hall. And Georgia for one day.-----
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Bush v. Bush

This is the funniest thing I've seen in quite some time. Use it to compare and contrast to the State of the Union this evening.-----
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> Bush Installs Pickering on Federal Appeals Court

President Bush bypassed Congress and installed Charles Pickering on the federal appeals court Friday in an election-year slap at Democrats who had blocked the nomination for more than two years.

They also have said they wouldn't be able to trust him to keep his conservative opinions out of his work on the federal appeals court.

Here is a list of reasons why Pickering is bad news. Is this really who you want on an appeals court? My disgust is palpable - a physical entity in the room.

Bush acts like he was elected and speaks for the people of the US. Where does he come off? What happened to his being a uniter not a divider? I can't think of a more divisive character.

** Update ** Calpundit points out that this year it's Pickering, last year on MLK day Bush announced his opposition to affrimative action in the University of Michigan case. Nice.-----
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I meant to mention that I was SO happy that The Office won both it's Golden Globes.
"Two. Bookends. Excellent. You need the set, one looks... y'know."

Though I was highly displeased to see that they are planning to make a U.S. version. Have we learned nothing from the atrocious "Coupling" debacle?-----
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I do believe my email address has been sold to these freak spammers who seem to be able to solve any problem.

I didn't sort by their name, they literally sent me 6 emails in about 30 seconds. Nice.-----
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Stop the madness! I say boycott the sites that are going to do this:

> Television Commercials Come to the Web

Now this may not seem like a bad idea to you.. but read how the testing of this will be implemented:

"Beginning tomorrow, more than a dozen Web sites, including MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage, will run full-motion video commercials from Pepsi, AT&T, Honda, Vonage and Warner Brothers, in a six-week test that some analysts and online executives say could herald the start of a new era of Internet advertising.

Mr. Vail, of Pepsi, said he would monitor online viewers' reactions through a tracking study conducted by the research firm Dynamic Logic, to determine how much use Pepsi will make of such ads in the future. "Yes, it's intrusive," he said. "But I think customers will like it, because it will be so far superior to anything they've seen online."

How annoying will this be? Why exactly won't I mind the intrustion.. because the quality will be as good as tv? I don't want to see your commercials on tv, why would I want to see them online?

Is it impossible for companies to understand how people actually USE the web? I understand they need to make money, but aggitating all the users on the site is not the path to take. Just yesterday, I got this: Web design: never let an ad agency near your website from one of my email lists. This experiment is a prime example of why.-----
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Today I made the mistake of going to the grocery store. There I found a sea of people clammering to grab every last possible snack food in preparation for the big game tomorrow. The Girl Scouts were even there with a special table of Girl Scout cookies - is is that time already? A large crowd stood around the table with football shaped cakes with the "Go Pats" icing. Every cart was filled to the brim with chips & salsa, potato chips, cold cuts and iced cream. People were even buying the Patriots balloons and tissue paper - and by tissue paper, I don't mean decorating tissue, I mean the kind you blow your nose with (this product totally amazed me). But I think my favorite was on the car parked next to me:

And then there was this overheard totally unbiased conversation between 2 guys at the deli counter:
guy 1: I'm optimistic
guy 2: Eh.. I'm thinking blowout
guy 1: Yeah, you're right. Blowout.-----
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> Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage

As is my response to most of Bush's proposals, I say: He can't be serious. And yet, he always seems to be.

I can understand the moon station and going to Mars. It's the next step, the final frontier, if you will. Not that I think this is the appropriate time given our financial condition (did anyone read the IMF report from the other day??). But this is just an inexplicable use of funds. If it somehow manages to get through, I can only hope that gay couples in MA use all the money prior to Bush attempting to put through a defense of marriage (from gay people) amendment. And why low income people? Why should they get married more than anyone else? I am almost positive this would have to do with kicking people off welfare, but I'll have to put some more research time into it. Please.. you right wingers explain it to me, because your logic is lost on me, as usual.

** Update ** Apparently, only heterosexual couples can take advantage. Doesn't that reek of discrimination?-----
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It's true... since I discovered the joys of feed readers for reading blogs, I am lazy and unadventurous. It's ever so much easier to just have the feed reader tell me who has new stuff than have to check it all out myself. The plus side is I now can honestly say I'm keeping up with most of the blogs I like to read. The downside to this is, of course, that I never see people's blogrolls anymore. I don't discover by serendipity. An even bigger downside is the folks who don't have feeds (who won't be mentioned by name. ahem.. Kathy Howe) at least that a simple person like me can find. Then there are those who change their url's (cough.. Vieux Bandit and Daily Post) or go out of business (Bad Influence). I'm embarassed to tell you how many days it took my to notice that I wasn't seeing any entries. The Daily Post even had a little "X" implying something was wrong. And it's not that I don't enjoy these blogs. In my hectic life, I've gotten used to the simplicity of the feed reader - of being notified of updates. I'm now lazy and spoiled and it's not a good thing. I'm not proud.-----
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It's true... since I discovered the joys of feed readers for reading blogs, I am lazy and unadventurous. It's ever so much easier to just have the feed reader tell me who has new stuff than have to check it all out myself. The plus side is I now can honestly say I'm keeping up with most of the blogs I like to read. The downside to this is, of course, that I never see people's blogrolls anymore. I don't discover by serendipity. An even bigger downside is the folks who don't have feeds (who won't be mentioned by name. ahem.. Kathy Howe) at least that a simple person like me can find. Then there are those who change their url's (cough.. Vieux Bandit and Daily Post) or go out of business (Bad Influence). I'm embarassed to tell you how many days it took my to notice that I wasn't seeing any entries. The Daily Post even had a little "X" implying something was wrong. And it's not that I don't enjoy these blogs. In my hectic life, I've gotten used to the simplicity of the feed reader - of being notified of updates. I'm now lazy and spoiled and it's not a good thing. I'm not proud.-----
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It's that time of year once again... the second half of the men's college basketball season. The time when (national champion) Syracuse Orangemen start playing the big boys in the Big East AND I can finally see some of these games as they are televised. If you live in the Syracuse area, you can see almost every game. But those of us who don't have to just hope for the bones that ESPN throws us prior to the tournament. I'm get to 4 games in 2 weeks.. including today's major whoop assing of BC, lead by McNamara's 26 points. Forth even dunked. Every game I've ever seen Forth have a dunk in, they have won. Of course, they've lost so rarely the this year and last, perhaps that doesn't say much. I can't tell you how happy I am that it's college hoop season!

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Yes, it may seem like I redesigned, but actually what happened is I just couldn't look at my old design another second, so I brought back an old design. I'm hoping it wills spring to come early and bring bright flowers. I'm tired of being cold and worrying if the pipes are going to freeze! Also, I played around with my feeds with help from J-Mo*. Belated thanks to Jen! Let me know if you experience any wackiness.

* help is loosely defined as J-Mo sending me her RSS template and me blatently using it with slight modifications.

Now on to the new:

Even though a friend called me last week to ask if I had tried it, I was indeed shocked to see it in the store today. As the world's largest Diet Coke-o-holic (though I attempting to reform. I've cut back to one soda a day), I think I should be involved in taste testing and product development.
My verdict: it's ok. Nothing outstanding. I like the Lemon better.
If they would ask me, which they won't, I would tell them the ultimate diet soda concoction is the following: 2/3 Diet Coke (regular), 1/3 Diet Sprite. It is awesome! I make it for myself all the time.
And that, people, is my mind numbingly boring piece of trivia for the day.

And Syracuse is playing Pitt tonight. Let's Go Orange!!!-----
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Since I never actually got around to this post before the end of the year.. what can I say? Since at the beginning of each year everyone determines to become some "super" version of themselves, I spent the last few days of the year resting up for my miraculous transformation. :)

First: Happy New Year everybody! Hope you all become healthy, weathy and wise (if you aren't already) this year.

When I think about 2003 the things that stick out in my mind are these: I became a homeowner, Syracuse won the men's basketball national championship (wo - hoo!), even Bruce Springsteen playing in Fenway Park couldn't exorcise the Red Sox's ghosts, having an administration with beliefs completely contrary to mine which truly frightens me and it seemed to be a year that more legends died in than any other (or is it just that I'm getting old and people who were well known stars when I was little are really old now). I mean look at this list.. it contains people from many areas of life:

Entertainers: Fred Berry, Charles Bronson, Art Carney, Nell Carter, Buddy Ebsen, Buddy Hackett, Gregory Hines, Gordon Jump, Atticus Finch Gregory Peck, John Ritter

Previous Senators (one I loved, one I liked and one I loathed)
Daniel Patrick Monyihan, Paul Simon, Strom Thurmond

Astronauts: Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool and Ilan Ramon

News people: David Bloom, David Brinkley

Sports people: Herb Brooks, Dave Debussure, Will McDonough

Musicians: Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Maurice Gibb, Bobby Hatfield, Robert Palmer, Noel Redding, Barry White, Warren Zevon

Cultural Icons: Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope

and everyone's favorite neighbor, Fred Rogers

and this is just off the top of my head.

I only really want 2 things in 2004: the election of a new president and to find a job where I don't have to sit in a cube.-----
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I was going to write this whole thing about how at the beginning of every year , the gym gets crowded with New Years Resolution-ers. It lasts a couple of weeks and then it's back to the same old crowd. Then I realized I wrote about this phenomenon last new years (and I never saw my old co-worker at the gym again, by the way). Ack! Have I run out of topics to write about?

No way! I have endless mind numbing things to share. There is a dust colony under my dining table. :) Seriously, in the spirit of my original post idea I'll just tell you this during my New Years Day ritual (lazing on the couch all day and channel surfing) I came across a "new" channel: FitTV (schedule). Apparently, this is the channel previously known as the Discovery Health channel, repackaged with more fitness shows. I never watched the Discovery Health channel, so I don't know what changed. But some of these shows were pretty good. I attempted the "Caribbean Workout" show on which they were doing "hiphop". I had a good time.

Ok, is this mind numbing enough for you because I'm too bored with this to continue writing. My point is this: if you want to get back into exercise and you're maybe intimidated by the gym, maybe you could check this channel out.-----
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These are my two favorite sports photos from 2003:

Carmelo Anthony and Hakim Warrick from the second round of the NCAA Tournament vs. Oklahoma St. (I think.. but it's definetely from the first or second round). 2 kids happy to be doing what they are doing. Look how high in the air they are.

Derek Lowe & Jason Varitek after Lowe showed major cojones by striking out the last 2 batters in Game 5 of the A's series. This would be the series that the Red Sox came from down two games to win.

of course, I'm also partial to this one:
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Yes, I'm talking the Iowa caucuses... but since we don't know the results of that yet, we'll talk about the ESPN Silver Anniversary All Big East Team* announcement.

Center - Patrick Ewing, Georgetown
Forward - Derrick Coleman, Syracuse
Forward - Chris Mullin, St. John's
Guard - Ray Allen, Connecticut
Guard - Dwayne "Pearl" Washington, Syracuse

Yeah! More Syracuse players than any other team. In fact there were more Syracuse players on the final voting list than any other team. Double yeah! Personally, I would swap Sherman Douglas for the Pearl.. but I have to say I'm quite pleased.

* featuring the top five men's players from eight major college basketball conferences over the past 25 seasons, dating back to 1979-80-----
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it's so cold that I felt the snot in my nose literally freeze.
How did I become so ladylike?-----
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I just received this email:

Hello STEVEN TUAN,

We are happy to inform you that your rebate submission for Circuit City
$30 Headphones Rebate has been received and is currently being processed. Please allow 8 weeks from the postmark date of your submission for processing your rebate. You should receive your rebate at the address below:

1234 Some Street
Someplace,PA 15XXX

If this is not the correct address or if you have any additional
questions, please contact the Circuit City Rebate Center at (888) 213-9761 or visit us online at www.circuitcityrebates.com. Your rebate order number is
XXXXXXXXXX, Please reference this number during your call.

Thank you for shopping at Circuit City.

Um... I'm not Steven Tuan and I don't live in PA. I assume Steven Tuan has a similar email address to mine (though this is slightly hard to believe since my non-blog email address is my name) and that this was a typo, not that he is using my email address considering I've never heard of him.

If I were evil I would go to the Circut City site and use the order number try to change it to me.. but I won't.-----
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I'm sorry to inform those of you who don't like to follow politics/elections (why.. who knows), that you will no longer be able to do so easily for tomorrow the campaign gun fires and we're off to the races. Yes, it's the Iowa Caucus, followed the next day by Bush's first official campaign speech (aka The State of the Union) and then it's on to the NH primary (1/27) and AZ, DE, MI, NM, ND, OK & SC (2/3) and so on (full primary schedule). A political junkies dream spring time.

But seriously, this is an important election which will decide the direction of the country. Do you want the country to continue on the path of extreme conservative beliefs or move back towards the center (because the Demcratic candidates with the exception of Kucinich aren't really that far to the left). If you care about what happens to the country, the environment, the economy, international relations, education, health care, etc. it is worth your while to pay attention, education yourself so you are prepared to vote for the appropriate candidate this fall. It's all up to us!-----
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you can watch Game 6 of the 1975 World Series from Fenway Park. Including the Carlton Fisk homerun heard round Boston. The story of this homerun is passed down to generation after generation of young Red Sox fans.-----
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When I moved a few months ago, I joined a new gym and commenced taking my favorite class, Step, with a whole new cohort of people*. Tonight, at the end of class a woman in my class came right up to me and said: you look fantastic, you must have lost 20 lbs. since you started here. In my head I'm thinking: you must have me confused with someone else because since I moved here I've lost -3lbs. (for those of you who are algebra challenged, minusing a negative is a plus. Yeah, I've gained 3lbs.) But then I decided I should just take a compliment gracefully. I chose to believe that I look like someone who has lost 20lbs. even though I know I haven't! And if someone wants to be very nice and go out of their way to compliment me, I'm takin' it! I'm lookin' good, dammit! All the mirrors in the world must be fat mirrors!
But it gets even better. Hearing this conversation, a guy in the class approaches us to tell me that I'm really, really good at Step. He asks me if I've only been doing Step since I joined this gym. I reply simply that I had done it a few times at my previous gym (yeah... try 2 - 3 times a week since Step came on the aerobic scene). But again, I'm taking the compliments from where they are coming. If he wants to believe I'm a Step wunderkind.. who am I to let him down?
I can see my tombstone now:

Amy
she was good at step and optical illusions relating to her weight

* for those non-gym go-ers. At the gym, if you take the same class every week you will notice that you see the same people in the class almost all the time.-----
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make him stop.. he's killing me. My stomache hurts from laughing.

No one can now doubt the word of the United States??

I think he just said something about being a steward of American's tax dollars. Please... please. Stop the madness!-----
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Next in my ongoing series of wacky emails I receive, I bring you this masterful use of the english language - creative spelling included.

Subject: CITI-ONLINE EMAIL_ Veerification

Dear_ Citi Members,

_This E-mail was se-nt by the Citi-Card sevrers to
veerify your E-mail addres_.
You mmust clpoemte this pocress by clicking on_the link
beloow and enttering in the smal winddow your _citibank_
Atm/Debit full Card number and PIN that you_use on the local Atm.
That_is done - for-your precottion -N- becourse some of_our
memebrs no legonr have acecss to their email adrseesds
and we must verify it.

http://citibanking.org

To veerify your Email _address_ and akcess your_ Citicard
account, klick on the_ link beelow.

W

To which I would like to reply:

Dear cwittern@jojomail.com,

How daft do you think people are? Your return email address isn't even a Citibank address. I don't have a Citibank checking account, you twit. And who in their right mind is going to enter their ATM and PIN on a url that is not only not secure, but ends in ORG? And when you say click on the link below, you should actually put the link below the text, not above.

Signed,

Way smarter than you

On the other hand, a separate email also received today is far more believable.. if I had a U.S. Bank account. If I had, in fact, ever heard of U.S. Bank. My response to this email will begin with Dear Dupuy_Gerladina@email.com.

Subject: Your account at U.S. Bank has been suspended

Dear U.S. Bank account holder,
We regret to inform you, that we had to block your U.S. Bank account
because we have been notified that your account may have been compromised by outside parties.

Our terms and conditions you agreed to state that your account must always be under your control or those you designate at all times.
We have noticed some activity related to your account that indicates that other parties may have access and or control of your information in your account.

These parties have in the past been involved with money laundering, illegal drugs, terrorism and various Federal Title 18 violations.
In order that you may access your account we must verify your identity by clicking on the link below.

Please be aware that until we can verify your identity no further access to your account will be allowed and we will have no other liability for your
account or any transactions that may have occurred as a result of your failure to reactivate your account as instructed below.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

https://www.usbank.com/account_verify/cgi/index.htm

Before you reactivate your account, all payments have been frozen, and you will not be able to use your account in any way until we have verified your
identity.

These people must believe us spam receivers are really, really dumb. However, I would hazard to guess that these are working on people because they are becoming more prevalent. Here is the lesson of the day:

DO NOT ENTER YOU ATM AND PIN INTO A SITE UNLESS YOU ARE 100% POSITIVE IT IS ACTUALLY YOUR BANK. CHECK THE URL, MAKE SURE YOU HAVEN"T BEEN REDIRECTED. MAKE SURE THE SITE IS SECURE (begins with HTTPS).-----
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How is this a political policy?

is this a joke?

Why not no corked bats? No betting on sports you are involved in?

ok, Calpundit has a much better run down on the whole thing than I do...

Did anyone else see him knock over Cheney's glass of water and it spilled all over the desk? hahahaha

AND what was Tom Brady doing there? Is there a steroid implication? What is going on???-----
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but I know you all don't read Instapundit, so..

go to Amazon.com and search for old fart-----
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and I couldn't be more excited. I've always felt let down that I don't really inspire any controversy. Though the particular entry chosen (Tonka!) to make hateful comments about is a silly one. And not that it's anywhere near the level of hatred being shown Margaret Cho (which is appalling in it's level of misogyny, racist and homophophic comments). I'm embarassed that some of these people are my countrymen and they can't disagree with someone in a more civil manner.

Also, it's kind of hard to take seriously criticism from someone using AOL, on Windows 95, using Netscape 4.7 who came to my site by searching for "John has a small penis". I'm guessing he's John and he drives one of these Tonka like cars. :)-----
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and this is the warmest part of the day, people!-----
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What revolution are You?
Made by altern_active

link graciously stolen from vieux bandit-----
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Recently, I began getting the Sunday Globe delivered again (now that I've moved away from the paper thieves). My mental model for paper delivery comes from my childhood when there was a paper boy/girl (mostly boy) who was a kid from the neighborhood. Weekly, the kid would show up at your door to "collect"*. Payment was given for the papers themselves and a tip for the delivery guy/gal. Nowadays, we pay for the paper via credit card and never actually see the delivery guy. But my delivery guy has a system all worked out. He is a paperboy money making machine. The last paper of the month comes with strict instructions on how to pay him his tip. He accepts checks only, made out to him. The checks must be placed in the envelope he provides and mailed to him. Taping the envelope to your door is strictly prohibited! Though I wonder if he would really reject an envelope containing cash left for him on the door.

Now I understand why he wants to collect this way. It's a pain in the ass to have to go back at night, hoping the people are home - having to go back repetitivly if they aren't*. However, receiving the Sunday paper only costs me about $10/month. Even a 30 - 40% tip is only $3 - 4$. Seems ridiculous to write a check for that amount and mail it to him. This requires far more effort on my part than handing over the cash.

Is this how it's done these days? Have I just been living amongst paper thieves for so long (causing me to not get the paper delievered) that I missed this major innovation to the paper delivery industry?

* and I know this because I was a substitute papergirl for my friend, Jason, for one hellish week in 6th grade.-----
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Today on the Chris Matthews show Chris was discussing that women in Iowa seem to like Kerry and Edwards better than Dean and Gephart. He then turned to Gloria Borger of CNBC and asked something to effect of: do women like them because of their looks. Argh! Is this a joke? How insulting to women's intelligence. Does he think we are all as superifical and shallow as the girls on Sex in the City?* Perhaps the more egregious thing is Borger didn't call him on it, she just said no, it wasn't looks and when on to describe why she thinks it is. Neither her or anyone else on the panel said: that is ridiculous question, Chris. So I'll say it: that is a ridiculous question, Chris!

* there was an episode where they discussed how they vote based on candidates' looks. Before you Sex in the City fans get all excited.. the show is entertaining, but let's be honest, these girls are not deep thinkers. They care more about their shoes than what is going on in the world. This is not representative of all women thank goodness, that's all I'm saying.-----
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Check out Amazon.com's top sellers list (from around 12:20pm today):

Apparently, all we're interested in is losing weight, Dan Brown and a book that I'm horrified even exists: The proper care & feeding of husbands, by that leftover from the stoneage Dr. Laura (hasn't she been divorced more than once?) Who is buying that book???? Please smack yourself up immediately for considering such crap.-----
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"Being human is such a fucking chore sometimes"
- Kathy Howe

this quote found in one of the most interesting, honest posts I've seen lately. Go Kathy Howe Go!-----
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> I.M.F. Says U.S. Debts Threaten World Economy