I've been on paperbackswap.com for several months now, and have sent several books out (including 2 this week).

Why am I annoyed? I have only received 1 book that I've requested so far! Seems a lot of people list books they have no intention of ever giving up in order to gain "credits" to receive books. When I request, it languishes and then I'm denied. :-(

Poop. People are so annoying.

Must get home in time for Fake News Hour Redux. Have been in bed before 11 most of this week. I'm sure my insomnia will be back soon, but until then, I'm not gonna insult Morpheus by not taking his gift of sleep.

Have a good night, you all.

In 2004 and 2005, I shopped an article I'd written about the Drug Wars and how teenagers are especially focused on as a group to hate and fear when it comes to drugs.  I wrote it during a period of "Partnership fora Drug-Free America" commercials that were particularly heinous.  One was two young teenage boys getting high in their parents' study, finding a gun and...fade to black at the sound of a gunshot.  Another was a repeat track of a carful of high black kids going through a drive-through, then accidentally accelerating away from the window toward a little white girl on a bike...fade to black with screeching tires.

Shit like that makes me sick.  My postulation was that it's not teenagers who do the majority of the drugs - it's people over the age of 21, and more and more people between 25-40. 

I got a couple of "good premise, like the style" comments, but it never got picked up anywhere.

I think I found out why:  I wasn't projecting my research far enough.  I should have focused on the parents of those kids featured in the ads.

Well, Susie Bright has summed it up quite well in her blogtoday (it's Susie, so there are NSFW ads/images).  She also ties the fetishization of teen drug culture to how teens are often depicted as sexual monsters or innocent victims of media & depraved culture.

I have been suitably cowed; hopefully my muse will realize that I've been humbled and will show up with good ideas here soon.

Especially those of you along the northern and eastern parts of the United States who are complaining or wow-ing about the warm weather:

It's because of El nino

I'm going to make a t-shirt to wear to work that says, "It's because of El Nino!!"

(Although one guy did say, "I know! The last time El Nino happened, I was in South Florida. Not a great year for me.")

Grump.

I was looking at alumni profiles of people from my high school when I found a slide show titled "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11", complete with burning towers.

Glad to know that no matter where you go, some people will never get the dirt from under their fingernails.  You can take the boy out of the trailer park...oh, you know how it goes.

I almost sent a message, but ignorance like that can only be countered by a large conflagration that I do not personally believe in.

Oh, and thanks ever so much, dudes, for making Saddam Hussein that much more of a martyr by mocking and baiting him at his execution, in earshot of cameras taping it for mass consumption.  Way to go.

Fark.com:  Fark won't be linking to the Saddam execution video. We realize CNN and Fox have it, if they want to run snuff films and call it news that's their business  <--FTW!

I have no problem looking at post-mortem pictures (I don't have a screename at rotten.com for nothing), but watching someone be killed isn't my thing.

All I need to know about "faith-based initiatives" I learned from Dubya mocking Karla Faye Tucker as she pleaded for her life and as he intended to deny her clemency.  The Decider, indeed.

Surfing Fark provides all the amusement one needs on a Saturday night.

Well, all the amusement a person not able to drink can have.

First, Ten verses never preached on.  If only the Sunday school teacher had mentioned these, I might have been a believer.  Or not.

Second, The top 15 strangest coincidences.  As someone who experiences a lot of deja vu and coincidence, this is kind of cool.  I believe in the attraction of people and fate.

Anyone else think that Time's Person of the Year is super-lame?  Way to cop out, Time-Warner.  We all know it should have been Stephen Colbert!  But he just mattered.

Today I got a Holiday card from someone I am most CERTAINLY not friends with, nor will I ever be friendly with again.  It was like looking at a scar - you see the mark, but it doesn't feel like it happened to you, really. 

Here are the Top 50 Singles of 2006.  I'd say 99% of them are puke-worthy.  Though I do dig Gnarls Barkley and I love me some JT.  Shut up.

Ahahaha!  That Laffy Taffy song is on the list!  Can anyone tell me what the hell they mean by that?  I love misogynistic rap music as much as the next 'ho (as my addiction for David Banner's "Play" shows), but even I couldn't make that out.

I had a massage Friday - painful!  Even my facial muscles were sore; how is that possible?!  But I'm not sore at all today.  I could get used to that.

I'm tired.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Dear asshole idiot driver with Michigan plates,

When a State Trooper comes screaming down the interstate, lights and sirens blaring, it is customary to SLOW DOWN and PULL OVER TO THE RIGHT. Pacing me so that I can't move out of the way is not only dangerous, but a good reason for me to sideswipe you and run you off the road.

Fortunately, jamming the gas and cutting you off did the trick.

No love, and waiting to kick your ass on the 18th,
PBG

In other news, the Rolling Stone with Jon and Stephen on the cover was slated for delivery today. I haven't gotten my issue! Wah!

Quote of the day: "I bought some meth, but I threw it away." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one.

Whatever. Have a good weekend! :D

The biggest fluff piece masquerading as journalism in this town:

Jon Stewart: The Left's Answer to Bill O'Reilly

Yeah, me too. I'm thinking Dan Williamson is trying to pad his resume to get a better job with Fox News, or maybe The Dispatch.

The argument could be better made for Keith Olbermann, or even Stephen Colbert (how many pundits can get Wikipedia tied in knots, or instigate vote-running at a foreign website?). Jon doesn't go on many tirades (unless Bob Novak is making noise), and he certainly doesn't tell people to call/protest/boycott anything.

There isn't even insight in this article. It's just right for O'Reilly's ilk, a good header and very little substance.

Does anyone use The Daily Show as their only source for news? I don't know anyone who does. Maybe I'm just naive about that and there are millions of people who are laughing at most of the jokes without any knowledge of why they're funny. :-|

Oh. My. God. I had the worst thing happen to me.

I went to tan (yeah, yeah, I know, but I have a slight problem with SAD; I'm only in there once or twice a week for 15 minutes, max) and I put on a sample packet of tan cream. It was called "Tingle", and claimed to have an ingredient that promised "tight, firm skin you can feel".

Ohholyshititburnsitburnsitburns.

Christ on a cracker - it started tingling, which progressed to burning by the time my 12 minutes in the bed was up. By the time I got home, I was dancing around, screeching, lobster-red. Showering got the stuff off my skin, and Honeybunch slathered me with sanity-saving gel (Bath and Body Works' Put It On Ice, which they don't seem to carry anymore :O) while I took some Benadryl.

But I took a nap and lo, the redness is gone (you could see the section of my back where I couldn't reach to apply the lotion!) and I'm all better now.

Phew.

Talk about truth in advertising!

I'm up early today. Damn insomnia.

For whatever reason, I tend to root for the good guy. Sure, bad boys are attractive, but they've no long term potential. Love 'em and leave 'em, I say.

I've been getting increasingly annoyed at people who've belittled and criticized Steve Irwin and the folks who are upset by his death. He should have known better, he has kids, he never should have let himself be put in danger that way, he had it coming, how irresponsible.

Would you have said that about a police officer? A firefighter? A construction worker? What about the guy who eats McDonald's every day? Who doesn't work out three times a week? Who speeds around another car and cuts them off?

Should any of them be allowed to have kids? If any of those people die prematurely, should we just shrug and say, "he had it coming"?

Steve Irwin was a good guy. He didn't get his kicks from drugs, cheating on his wife, or beating other people up. Whatever clout he did have, he used it to further the cause of conservationism; he respected the power of the animals he dealt with. Steve Irwin was NOT a thing like Timothy Treadwell (the guy from Grizzly Man). Steve did not think of animals as having human emotions. He knew the reality of what he was dealing with, understood the difference between r and K selection. This was just a freak accident, like what could happen at any point in a person's life.

His death does add another level of credence to "only the good die young". Lance Armstong, that one-balled, philandering cheater-pants, he'll live to be 90 years old. Same with Darryl Strawberry - he'll be around to accuse his grandkids of hiding drugs in his glove compartment. Heck, with those stents, Bill Clinton might make 90, too.

And, as we all know, Voldemort Dick Cheney is immortal.

My holiday weekend is pretty much over at this point. I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday (thankfully, only 10-6 Monday and without patrons on Tuesday, and with help), then back to the salt mines Wednesday before Grand Assembly Thursday-Sunday.

I don't know what we're going to do about transportation this week, since Honeybunch STILL doesn't have his car fixed. Yes, we've been living with one car for almost SIX months. And the guy (who, I just found out, is a friend of a friend of Andy's boss, not a close acquaintance) isn't returning phone calls now. Add this to the lack of action on the IRS front, and well.

But back to this weekend! I went to see Elvis Costello on Friday with a co-worker. Good show, I got to drink a little. (I have to chug down a drink, then I'm pleasantly drunk for 45 minutes or so, then sober again. Good times.)

Saturday, we picked up my nephew (who I've mentioned before, and who is 15 now) and took him to visit at my sister's house. Then we went to see Nacho Libre - or, Andy and Zach saw it, while I napped through the middle third.

Today we went to Dad's girlfriend's house for a cookout and swimming. Andy kept making comments on how nice her place is, and it irritated me so much (refer above for source) that I had to just walk away. It's like he doesn't understand simple math - you have to make/have money to buy a nice house. You can't work for peanuts because you like the person you work for and expect to have material goods - you're trading mental ease for house and home.

Wow, I didn't realize I was so resentful of that until just now.

I crashed out when we got back here, so now I'm totally awake. Sigh.