Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
New Yorker cover drama
This statement from Gawker is the best concise summary of what happened this week with the cover.
"... The New Yorker got in trouble this week for printing a cover that everyone had to pretend not to understand in order to be outraged about how no one would get the joke."
"... The New Yorker got in trouble this week for printing a cover that everyone had to pretend not to understand in order to be outraged about how no one would get the joke."
Monday, June 2, 2008
Current complaints
-Teams of ROTC high school soldier people doing drills and counting their reps by SHOUTING at 6 am.
-The New Yorker fiction issues. I'm sorry, but I think they're boring, and I only read like 25% of the content.
-Every time I walk back to my car, there are seven new scratches and dings on the bumper.
-A hole in the lining of my purse (bag). I thought I had lost my phone or left it at work all weekend until I realized it fell into the hole and I had it the whole time.
-My hair. Boring, grown out, looks bad with bangs, which I really want, but think is not a good idea.
-Why does Mac make their laptops white? It just makes them look disgusting and dirty all the time. They should have chosen a more appropriate color like dingy, brown/gray/green.
-The New Yorker fiction issues. I'm sorry, but I think they're boring, and I only read like 25% of the content.
-Every time I walk back to my car, there are seven new scratches and dings on the bumper.
-A hole in the lining of my purse (bag). I thought I had lost my phone or left it at work all weekend until I realized it fell into the hole and I had it the whole time.
-My hair. Boring, grown out, looks bad with bangs, which I really want, but think is not a good idea.
-Why does Mac make their laptops white? It just makes them look disgusting and dirty all the time. They should have chosen a more appropriate color like dingy, brown/gray/green.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
June round up
Currently ...
Listening to:
Paul Simon & Velvet Underground. I only like music that is 20 years old at a minimum.
Eating:
Tomato and avocado salad with oil and vinegar, homemade pickles (!), these are the foods of the summer!
Drinking:
Sam Adams Summer Ale, port
Watching:
Season finale of LOST (HOT SAYID), and Northern Exposure (also amazing). Not SATC movie.
Traveling:
June brought me to Baltimore, San Diego, San Antonio, and Philly. I know, glamorous. I've got a nice OnePass mileage balance.
Cooking:
Grilling AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE: Meats, veggies, corn, potatoes, anything.
Reading:
Catching up on the New Yorker (always), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Listening to:
Paul Simon & Velvet Underground. I only like music that is 20 years old at a minimum.
Eating:
Tomato and avocado salad with oil and vinegar, homemade pickles (!), these are the foods of the summer!
Drinking:
Sam Adams Summer Ale, port
Watching:
Season finale of LOST (HOT SAYID), and Northern Exposure (also amazing). Not SATC movie.
Traveling:
June brought me to Baltimore, San Diego, San Antonio, and Philly. I know, glamorous. I've got a nice OnePass mileage balance.
Cooking:
Grilling AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE: Meats, veggies, corn, potatoes, anything.
Reading:
Catching up on the New Yorker (always), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Yee haw
I'm in San Antonio. I had a sort of spongy, moist roll with a hole in the middle for breakfast and put cream cheese on it. It was weird, because they called it a bagel.
San Antonio is like Disney world with reeeeally good fajitas. People are also saying hi to me all over the place, and I'm like "excuse me, do I know you?"
San Antonio is like Disney world with reeeeally good fajitas. People are also saying hi to me all over the place, and I'm like "excuse me, do I know you?"
Friday, May 9, 2008
Patricia makes COFFEE nervous.
One thing I really love doing is looking at what other people are purchasing and try to figure out what type of people they are/judge them based on that. I most often do this at the grocery store. Like if you're in front of me in the line, and you've got fruits and vegetables, cheeses, anything whole and raw to cook food with, I automatically really like you and start wondering what your plans are and wish you were my friend. And if all you have are frozen pizza, pepsi, and frozen garlic bread, I scoff a little bit because clearly we have nothing in common.
A little background: I somehow convinced Matt to watch a downloaded copy of You've Got Mail on Tuesday, and we had the BEST time. That is one of those movies you totally forget about and is wayyy better than you remember. I would always say I love Sleepless and Seattle and When Harry Met Sally best, but YGM is just as good, you just don't remember because the AOL lingo and dial-up modem sounds date it and make it look gimicky and cheesy, but it's such a comforting and funny story that makes New York look beautiful, and Meg Ryan's clothes and hair are soooo cute (this is just before she started looking like a crazy facelift, big lips lady). Matt LOVED it too (almost as much as he loved Enchanted), it was a great night.
Anyway, I went to Tunes on lunch to try and find a gift for my mom, and I browsed the used movie section, and they had it there for 5 bucks! So I decided to get it of course, along with Fever Pitch for $2, because that's another one you don't expect to be good but it's actually really sweet and Jimmy Fallon isn't that bad at all! I really don't like baseball at all, but I LOOOOVE baseball movies; they make me feel good about America and life.
So I check out, and I'm thinking, "please don't say anything, please don't say anything" to the guy, because how dumb do I look?? And as he's ringing up YGM, he says "So many of my friends have warned me about this movie." I was totally ready to defend my purchase, obviously, so I shot back "Noooo! You think it looks bad, but it's actually really funny and well done!" And then I proceeded to ramble on about the episode of Undeclared where Seth Rogan's character tries to convince another dude that it's actually an awesome movie (which is true), but I think he thought I was nuts. Tom Hanks is similar in the way that he's so universally known to be Great Actor that I think I tend to forget about him, and he is just so funny in this one. So, as I was leaving, I just kinda yelled, "GIVE IT A CHANCE!!!" which is really sort of desperate of me. He probably wouldn't even admit it if he actually liked it.
From the previously mentioned episode of Undeclared:
Lloyd Haythe: What's your favorite film?
Ron Garner: I tell people Red Dawn, but it's really You've Got Mail. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, a very likable Greg Kinnear ... you think you're better than it, like 'Ooh this movie's going to suck' but then you watch it and it becomes a part of you
Later, while they're watching it:
"It's just ... pleasant. It's like waves lapping against the shore or something. It's like, they're emailing each other, and they don't know, and everyone's reaching out and they're connecting. It's like us bonding. It's beautiful."
A little background: I somehow convinced Matt to watch a downloaded copy of You've Got Mail on Tuesday, and we had the BEST time. That is one of those movies you totally forget about and is wayyy better than you remember. I would always say I love Sleepless and Seattle and When Harry Met Sally best, but YGM is just as good, you just don't remember because the AOL lingo and dial-up modem sounds date it and make it look gimicky and cheesy, but it's such a comforting and funny story that makes New York look beautiful, and Meg Ryan's clothes and hair are soooo cute (this is just before she started looking like a crazy facelift, big lips lady). Matt LOVED it too (almost as much as he loved Enchanted), it was a great night.
Anyway, I went to Tunes on lunch to try and find a gift for my mom, and I browsed the used movie section, and they had it there for 5 bucks! So I decided to get it of course, along with Fever Pitch for $2, because that's another one you don't expect to be good but it's actually really sweet and Jimmy Fallon isn't that bad at all! I really don't like baseball at all, but I LOOOOVE baseball movies; they make me feel good about America and life.
So I check out, and I'm thinking, "please don't say anything, please don't say anything" to the guy, because how dumb do I look?? And as he's ringing up YGM, he says "So many of my friends have warned me about this movie." I was totally ready to defend my purchase, obviously, so I shot back "Noooo! You think it looks bad, but it's actually really funny and well done!" And then I proceeded to ramble on about the episode of Undeclared where Seth Rogan's character tries to convince another dude that it's actually an awesome movie (which is true), but I think he thought I was nuts. Tom Hanks is similar in the way that he's so universally known to be Great Actor that I think I tend to forget about him, and he is just so funny in this one. So, as I was leaving, I just kinda yelled, "GIVE IT A CHANCE!!!" which is really sort of desperate of me. He probably wouldn't even admit it if he actually liked it.
From the previously mentioned episode of Undeclared:
Lloyd Haythe: What's your favorite film?
Ron Garner: I tell people Red Dawn, but it's really You've Got Mail. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, a very likable Greg Kinnear ... you think you're better than it, like 'Ooh this movie's going to suck' but then you watch it and it becomes a part of you
Later, while they're watching it:
"It's just ... pleasant. It's like waves lapping against the shore or something. It's like, they're emailing each other, and they don't know, and everyone's reaching out and they're connecting. It's like us bonding. It's beautiful."
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
HRC driving me crazy
The PA race was the worst. I'm so happy to see that the NY Times is seeing the light and basically retracting it's Hillary endorsement from months ago! I'm on board for all of their criticism. Also CNN is the worst. No matter what happens, the best political news team on television is going to make it dramatic and critical and important! No one thought Obama was going to win PA!! It's not that big of a deal! (More here.)
Obama is campaigning with a strategy not just willy nilly roaming all over the country. That's because the person with the most delagates is supposed to win. That's how it works. It's not like, whoever wins Ohio or Pennsylvania automatically deserves to get the nomination.
Jon Stewart is so funny though. This is what he asked Obama in the interview:
"Do you have a concern that you could win the nomination at the Convention and defeat John McCain in the general and, you know, go to the inauguration and Hillary would still be running? Do you feel... Do you have any concern that Senator Clinton would continue the campaign?"
I learned a new word the other day. I was playing Text Twist on Matt's ipod, and one of the words I missed was "fracas." It didn't even look real to me, but it's totally a word, as I found out, and it means "a noisy quarrel." I think that's appropriate, the word sounds like it should mean some kind of scuffle. Like: "Matt caused a fracas at Jeff's apartment on Hoboken St. Patty's day and ended up with a messed up face."
Then yesterday, it was used in two totally different blogs I read on the internet. SO COOL!
Obama is campaigning with a strategy not just willy nilly roaming all over the country. That's because the person with the most delagates is supposed to win. That's how it works. It's not like, whoever wins Ohio or Pennsylvania automatically deserves to get the nomination.
Jon Stewart is so funny though. This is what he asked Obama in the interview:
"Do you have a concern that you could win the nomination at the Convention and defeat John McCain in the general and, you know, go to the inauguration and Hillary would still be running? Do you feel... Do you have any concern that Senator Clinton would continue the campaign?"
I learned a new word the other day. I was playing Text Twist on Matt's ipod, and one of the words I missed was "fracas." It didn't even look real to me, but it's totally a word, as I found out, and it means "a noisy quarrel." I think that's appropriate, the word sounds like it should mean some kind of scuffle. Like: "Matt caused a fracas at Jeff's apartment on Hoboken St. Patty's day and ended up with a messed up face."
Then yesterday, it was used in two totally different blogs I read on the internet. SO COOL!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Could it have been less obvious??
If you plan on seeing The Crying Game, stop reading because I'm going to talk about the plot, though I feel like spoiler alerts shouldn't be mandatory for films/shows from more than 5 years ago (I was not happy at all when npr told me who killed Laura Palmer two years ago when I was watching Twin Peaks for the first time, though looking back, I really didn't have the right to be too upset).
Am I the only person around today who didn't know what the "twist" was? Probably, as Matt told me (I wasn't allowed to see Ace Ventura when it came out and still haven't, whatever, don't freak out, but apparently it gives it all away). But seriously? In 1992, were audiences actually surprised that Dil was a man? That was just about the first thing that I noticed. Oh well.
Am I the only person around today who didn't know what the "twist" was? Probably, as Matt told me (I wasn't allowed to see Ace Ventura when it came out and still haven't, whatever, don't freak out, but apparently it gives it all away). But seriously? In 1992, were audiences actually surprised that Dil was a man? That was just about the first thing that I noticed. Oh well.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Week of fiestas and siestas in the Iberian peninsula
Matt's deserted me for the past few weeks to do celebrities' biddings and let them touch his shoulders, so finally here's the recap of my trip last month to Portugal and Spain! As I already mentioned, we did very well for ourselves, covering 3 towns in Portugal, and 2 in Spain over 7 day, and averaging 4-5 meals per day. I also found some amazing hostels. And when I say "hostel," I mean hostels where you have a private room, private bathroom, towels, hairdryer, balcony, and daily maid service for 28 euro each.
Because our pilot chose the word "severe" to describe the turbulence expected for our overnight flight, I did not sleep a wink and spent the whole trip over squeezing Matt's hand and hoping I might be doing it hard enough that he would wake up and console me and feel bad for me. But that did not happen.
We started in Lisboa. When we got into the city at 7 am, we dropped our bags off at the Lisbon Lounge Hostel (2 major thumbs up!) and got on a train to Cascais (pronounced kahsh-kah-eesh). Portuguese has lots of 'sh's and 'gshh's.
Cascais is a ritzy suburb of Lisboa on the ocean where they have cute little shops and FREE BIKES. Just give them your passport number and hostel info. So we hopped on the bikes and bopped around the town, ate a picnic lunch by the ocean, and rode up the coast for an hour.
We spent the next day (Easter) in Lisboa, which was pretty empty because of the holiday. We roamed around, climbed to the castle where you pay to enter and explore and get 360 degrees of the area.
In the evenings, we decided to opt out of the clubbing because I don't think I could have kept my eyes open until 2 am when supposedly everything comes alive. Instead, we found the Irish pub (which the guy in the hostel told us was not really very cool to be), and watched the soccer games. Then we got a bottle of wine (average price, you know, like 3-4 euro) and played Rummy 500 and spit at the Lisbon Lounge.
Next we flew to Sevilla (1 hour), and met up with MARTHA!
We ate more menus del dia and explored and walked around. The Plaza de Espana was expansive and gorgeous. The semi-circular plaza contains monuments celebrating the main cities of spain.
Sevilla has lots of gorgeous hand painted ceramics, so I bought several dishes for my home.
We went to a sort of pathetic flamenco show. Not because the performers were bad, but it was a huge bar that contained probably 80% american students studying there (many with their parents, presumably giving them a cultural experience ...) and everyone was blathering and chatting and being so loud while they were performing, it was ridic. We had lots of sangria though, so that was great.
The next day, we went to the Arab baths. This is basically a spa where you spend 1 1/2 hours, splitting your time between 4 pools of differing temperatures (boiling hot to freezing cold), as well as jet pools, a sauna, and getting a massage and drinking tea. This experience cost us 30 euro (16 without the massage). It was serene and calm and relaxing and lovely. We had to wear protective footware to keep the floors clean.
We took a day trip to Tarifa (on the strait of Gibraltar, 35 min boat ride from Tangier). Tarifa is WINDY. It's a major kite surfing location, and it has a surf-town USA vibe. We had lots of fun seeing Africa and talking about how we could see Africa and trying unsuccessfully to fix our hairstyles. We also played with and hugged random dogs in the streets.
Roamed around at night, explored the streets, tasted the local ice cream, looked at Africa.
We had our nightly feast around 10 pm, and ordered tapas galore and local spanish cheeses as well as an extremely large pan of paella. By the time it came we were all stuffed. But it was so fresh and delicious that we all but licked the pan clean.
We had another day back in good ole Sevilla and then went back to Lisboa for a our last day. We decided to go to the SUPER ridiculously charming town of Sintra, in the mountains for the day. We did a hike through a park up to the fortress and had an amazing lunch and soaked in all of the quaint beauty and food and cobblestones and weaving.
Best last day ever. We came home, sadly, and I'm still adjusting.
Because our pilot chose the word "severe" to describe the turbulence expected for our overnight flight, I did not sleep a wink and spent the whole trip over squeezing Matt's hand and hoping I might be doing it hard enough that he would wake up and console me and feel bad for me. But that did not happen.
We started in Lisboa. When we got into the city at 7 am, we dropped our bags off at the Lisbon Lounge Hostel (2 major thumbs up!) and got on a train to Cascais (pronounced kahsh-kah-eesh). Portuguese has lots of 'sh's and 'gshh's.
Cascais is a ritzy suburb of Lisboa on the ocean where they have cute little shops and FREE BIKES. Just give them your passport number and hostel info. So we hopped on the bikes and bopped around the town, ate a picnic lunch by the ocean, and rode up the coast for an hour.
We spent the next day (Easter) in Lisboa, which was pretty empty because of the holiday. We roamed around, climbed to the castle where you pay to enter and explore and get 360 degrees of the area.
In the evenings, we decided to opt out of the clubbing because I don't think I could have kept my eyes open until 2 am when supposedly everything comes alive. Instead, we found the Irish pub (which the guy in the hostel told us was not really very cool to be), and watched the soccer games. Then we got a bottle of wine (average price, you know, like 3-4 euro) and played Rummy 500 and spit at the Lisbon Lounge.
Next we flew to Sevilla (1 hour), and met up with MARTHA!
We ate more menus del dia and explored and walked around. The Plaza de Espana was expansive and gorgeous. The semi-circular plaza contains monuments celebrating the main cities of spain.
Sevilla has lots of gorgeous hand painted ceramics, so I bought several dishes for my home.
We went to a sort of pathetic flamenco show. Not because the performers were bad, but it was a huge bar that contained probably 80% american students studying there (many with their parents, presumably giving them a cultural experience ...) and everyone was blathering and chatting and being so loud while they were performing, it was ridic. We had lots of sangria though, so that was great.
The next day, we went to the Arab baths. This is basically a spa where you spend 1 1/2 hours, splitting your time between 4 pools of differing temperatures (boiling hot to freezing cold), as well as jet pools, a sauna, and getting a massage and drinking tea. This experience cost us 30 euro (16 without the massage). It was serene and calm and relaxing and lovely. We had to wear protective footware to keep the floors clean.
We took a day trip to Tarifa (on the strait of Gibraltar, 35 min boat ride from Tangier). Tarifa is WINDY. It's a major kite surfing location, and it has a surf-town USA vibe. We had lots of fun seeing Africa and talking about how we could see Africa and trying unsuccessfully to fix our hairstyles. We also played with and hugged random dogs in the streets.
Roamed around at night, explored the streets, tasted the local ice cream, looked at Africa.
We had our nightly feast around 10 pm, and ordered tapas galore and local spanish cheeses as well as an extremely large pan of paella. By the time it came we were all stuffed. But it was so fresh and delicious that we all but licked the pan clean.
We had another day back in good ole Sevilla and then went back to Lisboa for a our last day. We decided to go to the SUPER ridiculously charming town of Sintra, in the mountains for the day. We did a hike through a park up to the fortress and had an amazing lunch and soaked in all of the quaint beauty and food and cobblestones and weaving.
Best last day ever. We came home, sadly, and I'm still adjusting.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Expelled: What is it??
Matt saw an ad for something called "Expelled" with Ben Stein, and clicked on it. We both assumed it was a new game show ("Expelled is written in the style of graffiti, and Ben is wearing a schoolboy uniform), as we watched the flash intro to the site, which had "Bad to the Bone" playing in the background and called Ben the "rebel of his generation," we realized it's actually a movie, and we both assumed it was a wacky comedy about Ben as the rebel teacher at a high school.
Next we watched the trailer. It's ACTUALLY a documentary (perhaps Michael Moore-style) about the scientists behind intelligent design and how they've been unfairly persecuted and ostracized in the scientific community for challenging Darwin's theories! What?!? This is BIZARRE.
So I want to read the original paper about Intelligent Design that caused all the stir, but I'm soo skeptical about this movie, and I never knew Ben Stein was so political. Just because you have a different opinion doesn't mean you deserve to be heard when it comes to science, I'm sorry, but not having your paper accepted to Nature isn't a denial of your free-speech rights. The trailer really frames the controversy this way, as if all these poor scientists have been discriminated against. I hope they actually tell us why!
Next we watched the trailer. It's ACTUALLY a documentary (perhaps Michael Moore-style) about the scientists behind intelligent design and how they've been unfairly persecuted and ostracized in the scientific community for challenging Darwin's theories! What?!? This is BIZARRE.
So I want to read the original paper about Intelligent Design that caused all the stir, but I'm soo skeptical about this movie, and I never knew Ben Stein was so political. Just because you have a different opinion doesn't mean you deserve to be heard when it comes to science, I'm sorry, but not having your paper accepted to Nature isn't a denial of your free-speech rights. The trailer really frames the controversy this way, as if all these poor scientists have been discriminated against. I hope they actually tell us why!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
