What I see when I smoke

Sunrise in late January. I think this was from when I was SICK and was sleeping almost 'round the clock. Otherwise, I never see the sun rise. And, yes, I was smoking when I was sick. It's called Addiction.

Finally, something helpful!

All viable possibilities.....

American Cities That Best Fit You:

70% Atlanta

60% Chicago

60% Philadelphia

60% Washington, DC

55% New York City

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

And more silliness, but actually this one is helpful, too. I kinda love these quizzes.

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

25% Dixie

10% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Have I said lately how much I love T-Shirt Hell?

Northern State - Girl For All Seasons

Girl for all Seasons
by Northern State



It's hard to be a girl these days,
I'll tell you all the reasons
Girls gotta look good in every season
Just ask yourself this girl, Who are you pleasing?
Staring in the mirror Squeezing and Tweazing
If I could turn back the hands of time
Have a dime for all the hateful thoughts in my mind
Like, "I can't do this," and "I can't wear that."
"Are my hips too big?" "Does my ass look fat?"
Might as well be Superman, not a Supermodel
There ain't nothing you can buy in a fancy bottle
That'll ever let you love your own reflection
Girl, close that magazine with your introspection
'Cause you could feel good with just spring and fall
And when summertime comes you gonna have it all

I'll be your girl for all seasons
I'll be your girl for all reasons
Fulfilling all of your needs and
I'll be your girl for all pleasin'
All the four seasons, all of your needs
Stay with your man, for all the wrong reasons
All of your screamin', all of your teamin'
There not enough time in the world for my healin'

Girl, it's a setup and you're meant to fail
You'd be better off on a (?) third rail
Just a few peasants, they don't care about the rest
And, yo, they mix lies into the cement
We drink poison water and Spend 'Til We're Spent
Your youth it fades, crumbles, and ferments
Eyelash curl, this is the first world
But, vanity don't look good on the girl
So when they line us up for roll call
Let me make it clear on which side I fall
'Cause I'm a full-grown woman not some (?) child
This is Northern State, not Girls Gone Wild

I'll be your girl for all seasons
I'll be your girl for all reasons
Fulfilling all of your needs and
I'll be your girl for all pleasin'
All the four seasons, all of your needs
Stay with your man, for all the wrong reasons
All of your screamin', all of your teamin'
Not enough time in the world for my healin'

Clean up your mess, tired of stress
Learn to refresh in seeing you less
I think I can leave by the end of the year
Fight for your right to a life without fear

Horrorscope - meaningless small talk

Scorpio
Daily extended (by Astrology.com)You've never been fond of meaningless small talk -- that's something everyone who knows you knows about you. You'll be even less fond of it now, however, and less tolerant of anyone who insists on indulging in it. What you're after is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If it doesn't happen, not only will you not be willing to pretend it's okay -- you'll end the chat immediately and put some serious distance between you and the offending party.

Yes, it's a baby. Yes, my hormones are going CRAZY!



Baby tigron : A four-day-old tigron cub, Samil, rests on the arm of its keeper at the Italian Circus in Vigo, northwestern Spain. Samil is a cross between a female tiger and a lion. (AFP/Miguel Riopa)

What Women Want (a lot more than money)

What Women Want
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: May 24, 2005, New York Times

Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men?

Economists recently tried to find out in an experiment in Pittsburgh by paying men and women to add up five numbers in their heads. At first they worked individually, doing as many sums as they could in five minutes and receiving 50 cents for each correct answer. Then they competed in four-person tournaments, with the winner getting $2 per correct answer and the losers getting nothing.

On average, the women made as much as the men under either system. But when they were offered a choice for the next round - take the piece rate or compete in a tournament - most women declined to compete, even the ones who had done the best in the earlier rounds. Most men chose the tournament, even the ones who had done the worst.

The men's eagerness partly stemmed from overconfidence, because on average men rated their ability more highly than the women rated theirs. But interviews and further experiments convinced the researchers, Muriel Niederle of Stanford and Lise Vesterlund of the University of Pittsburgh, that the gender gap wasn't due mainly to women's insecurities about their abilities. It was due to different appetites for competition.

"Even in tasks where they do well, women seem to shy away from competition, whereas men seem to enjoy it too much," Professor Niederle said. "The men who weren't good at this task lost a little money by choosing to compete, and the really good women passed up a lot of money by not entering tournaments they would have won."

You can argue that this difference is due to social influences, although I suspect it's largely innate, a byproduct of evolution and testosterone. Whatever the cause, it helps explain why men set up the traditional corporate ladder as one continual winner-take-all competition - and why that structure no longer makes sense.

Now that so many employees (and more than half of young college graduates) are women, running a business like a tournament alienates some of the most talented workers and potential executives. It also induces competition in situations where cooperation makes more sense.
The result is not good for the bottom line, as demonstrated by a study from the Catalyst research organization showing that large companies yield better returns to stockholders if they have more women in senior management. A friend of mine, a businessman who buys companies, told me one of the first things he looks at is the gender of the boss.

"The companies run by women are much more likely to survive," he said. "The typical guy who starts a company is a competitive, charismatic leader - he's always the firm's top salesman - but if he leaves he takes his loyal followers with him and the company goes downhill. Women C.E.O.'s know how to hire good salespeople and create a healthy culture within the company. Plus they don't spend 20 percent of their time in strip clubs."

Still, for all the executive talents that women have, for all the changes that are happening in the corporate world, there will always be some jobs that women, on average, will not want as badly as men do. Some of the best-paying jobs require crazed competition and the willingness to risk big losses - going broke, never seeing your family and friends, dying young.

The women in the experiment who didn't want to bother with a five-minute tournament are not likely to relish spending 16 hours a day on a Wall Street trading floor. It's not fair to deny women a chance at those jobs, but it's not realistic to expect that they'll seek them in the same numbers that men will.

For two decades, academics crusading for equality in the workplace have been puzzled by surveys showing that women are at least as satisfied with their jobs and their pay as men are. This is known as "the paradox of the contented female worker."

But maybe it's not such a paradox after all. Maybe women, like the ones who shunned the experimental tournament, know they could make more money in some jobs but also know they wouldn't enjoy competing for it as much as their male rivals. They realize, better than men, that in life there's a lot more at stake than money.

DVD - Donnie Darko

7.5 out of 10

Yes, I finally watched Donnie Darko. I've had it on my computer for about a year or so, but I procrastinated on watching it. Finally, I got the DVD in the mail, but still I procrastinated. I don't really know why. I wasn't sure what to expect except that it was supposed to be a mind fuck kind of movie and scary.

I think the scary part of it was what stopped me from watching it. For some odd reason, as I've gotten older, scary movies - especially the spooky ones -- are not as funny as I used to think. Especially stories with ghosts in them scare me. I had it in my mind that this was one of those movies where YOUR WORST FEAR is after you, whatever that fear it. A very personal kind of fright that chills you to the bone. Kind of like the movie IT. The book IT by Stephen King is the scariest thing I've ever read in my life. At the beginning of the movie Donnie Darko, the mother was reading the book IT .

And, it's like I knew that.

It's strange because in the past, I thought all of this stuff was hilarious -- all make-believe and the creepier they tried to make it, the more I laughed. All foolishness. I've always been superstitious, but I've never felt as much as I do today that the supernatural is a real and true force that exists all around us. That's why horror movies really tend to scare me these days. Because I think they can really be true. And, I do really believe that. I think these things happen around us all the time.

Anyway, Donnie Darko. Didn't make much sense, and it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it might be or could have been. It's set in the 80's for some unknown reason, but the soundtrack is quite good: Echo and the Bunnymen (ha! just got it!), Joy Division, Tears for Fears, The Church, Oingo Boingo. The score was very good, as well. There were some funny parts, and what I think were nods to other movies. But, none of this held together all that well -- if it was indeed supposed to hold together. I always felt there was going to be something important that was going to happen. It really didn't. Ah, but Maggie Gyllenhaal was in it (whose movie Secretary I HIGHLY recommend!) , ah and Drew Barrymore. Jake Gyllenhaal was very good, but everybody else pretty much sucked and talked like they were made out of a block of wood.

All in all, it was good creepy fun, and worth watching just for the dreaminess and time to let your mind wander.


Cellar Door.

DVD - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

8 out of 10

This was actually a pretty good movie! It was pretty much Indian Jones in a space-age, but set in the 30s or 40s. ?? Film noir, with nods to Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Wizard of Oz. It's almost completely computer-generated, but with filmed actors. Don't ask me how they pulled this off. And, actually pretty funny, too. Extra points for originality.

Aren't I somebody, too?? (Ha ha ha!!)

Last night's series finale of Everybody Loves Raymond left me in
the same dilemma that that show's title has always provoked: Either
the claim of the title is in fact fraudulent, or my relative
indifference to Raymond and his kin excludes me from all
humankind. What about the rest of us—those of us who don't, in
fact, love Raymond? Aren't we somebody too?

(from "Goodbye, Raymond. Hello, Madame President The television industry parades its wares for the 2005-2006 season." By Dana Stevens Posted Tuesday, May 17, 2005, at 12:36 PM PT on Salon.com)

Jane Fonda Film Banned From Ky. Theaters

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. - The owner of two Kentucky theaters has refused to show the new
Jane Fonda film "Monster-in-Law" because of the activist role the actress took during the Vietnam War. read more





-------------------

Oh, mother fucking Christ! Are people really STILL talking about that shit??!!! Get over it you backward, America-lovin', butt-humpin' dumbasses! Trust me, Jane Fonda does not need you, anyways. And, more importantly -- It was thirty years ago, for God's sake! And, admit it, you were really just pissed at your wife because she didn't like being barefoot and pregnant for you anymore. It wasn't really the uppity feminists who got your goat. To reiterate, get over it.

I am in a foul, foul mood.

DVD - Swimming Pool

8.5 out of 10

Excellent!

A murder mystery drama. Slash mind fuck. Sexy, with just enough nudity to qualify as a bonafide foreign movie. See videos here. Created by Francois Ozon, whose film 8 Women I also love.

DVD - Spellbound

Stacie's Vote: 10 out of 10

Cast & CreditsThe Spellers: Harry Altman, Ted Brigham, Neil Kadakia, Emily Stagg, Angela Arenivar, April Degideo, Nupur Lala, Ashley White
Think Films Presents A Documentary Directed By Jeffrey Blitz.
Running Time: 95 Minutes. No MPAA Rating (Suitable For All).

-----

REVIEW BY ROGER EBERT / May 16, 2003
It is useful to be a good speller, up to a point. After that point, you're just showing off. The eight contestants in "Spellbound," who have come from all over the country to compete in the 1999 National Spelling Bee, are never likely to need words such as "opsimath" in their daily rounds, although "logorrhea" might come in handy. As we watch them drilling with flashcards and worksheets, we hope they will win, but we're not sure what good it will do them.And yet for some of them, winning the bee will make a substantial difference in their lives--not because they can spell so well, but because the prizes include college scholarships.

Take Angela Arenivar, for example. She makes it all the way to the finals in Washington, D.C., from the Texas farm where her father works as a laborer. He originally entered the country illegally, still speaks no English, and is proud beyond all words of his smart daughter.We cheer for her in the finals, but then we cheer for all of these kids, because it is so easy to remember the pain of getting something wrong in front of the whole class.

None of these teenagers is good only at spelling. Jeffrey Blitz takes his documentary into their homes and schools, looks at their families and ambitions, and shows us that they're all smart in a lot of other ways--including the way that makes them a little lonely at times. Consider Harry Altman. He is a real kid, but has so many eccentricities that he'd be comic relief in a teenage comedy. His laugh would make you turn around in a crowded room. He screws his face up into so many shapes while trying to spell a word that it's a wonder the letters can find their way to the surface. High school cannot be easy for Harry, but he will have his revenge at the 20th class reunion, by which time he will no doubt he a millionaire or a Nobel winner, and still with that unlikely laugh.

To be smart is to be an outsider in high school. To be seen as smart is even worse (many kids learn to conceal their intelligence). There is a kind of rough populism among adolescents that penalizes those who try harder or are more gifted. In talking with high school kids, I find that many of them go to good or serious movies by themselves, and choose vulgarity and violence when going with their friends. To be a kid and read good books and attend good movies sets you aside. Thank God you have the books and the movies for company--and now the Internet, where bright teenagers find one another.

In "Spellbound," which was one of this year's Oscar nominees, Blitz begins with portraits of his eight finalists and then follows them to Washington, D.C., where they compete on ESPN in the bee, which was founded years ago by the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain. The ritual is time-honored. The word is pronounced, and repeated. It may be used in a sentence. Then the contestant has to repeat it, spell it and say it again.We've never heard most of the words (cabotinage?). General spelling rules are useful only up to a point, and then memory is the only resource. Some of these kids study up to eight hours a day, memorizing words they may never hear, write or use. Even when they think they know a word, it's useful to pause and be sure, because once you get to the end of a word you can't go back and start again. You don't win because of your overall score, but because you have been perfect longer than anyone else; the entire bee is a sudden-death overtime.

Oddly enough, it's not tragic when a kid loses. Some of them shrug or grin, and a couple seem happy to be delivered from the pressure and the burden. One girl is devastated when she misspells a word, but we know it's because she knew it, and knew she knew it, and still got it wrong. They're all winners, in a way, and had to place first in their state or regional contests to get to Washington. When the finalist Nupur Lala, whose parents came from India, returns home to Florida, she's a local hero, and a restaurant hails her on the sign out in front: "Congradulations, Nupur!"

Who's running the country?

The Oblivious Right
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: April 25, 2005
The New York Times

According to John Snow, the Treasury secretary, the global economy is in a "sweet spot." Conservative pundits close to the administration talk, without irony, about a "Bush boom." Yet two-thirds of Americans polled by Gallup say that the economy is "only fair" or "poor." And only 33 percent of those polled believe the economy is improving, while 59 percent think it's getting worse.

Is the administration's obliviousness to the public's economic anxiety just partisanship? I don't think so: President Bush and other Republican leaders honestly think that we're living in the best of times. After all, everyone they talk to says so.

By large margins, Americans say that the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Mr. Bush is the least popular second-term president on record. What's going on? Actually, it's quite simple: Mr. Bush and his party talk only to their base - corporate interests and the religious right - and are oblivious to everyone else's concerns.

The administration's upbeat view of the economy is a case in point. Corporate interests are doing very well. As a recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, over the last three years profits grew at an annual rate of 14.5 percent after inflation, the fastest growth since World War II.

The story is very different for the great majority of Americans, who live off their wages, not dividends or capital gains, and aren't doing well at all. Over the past three years, wage and salary income grew less than in any other postwar recovery - less than a tenth as fast as profits. But wage-earning Americans aren't part of the base.

The same obliviousness explains Mr. Bush's decision to make Social Security privatization his main policy priority. He doesn't talk to anyone outside the base, so he didn't realize what he was getting into. In retrospect, it was a terrible political blunder: the privatization campaign has quickly degenerated from juggernaut to joke. According to CBS, only 25 percent of the public have confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about Social Security; 70 percent are "uneasy."

The point is that people sense, correctly, that Mr. Bush doesn't understand their concerns. He was sold on privatization by people who have made their careers in the self-referential, corporate-sponsored world of conservative think tanks. And he himself has no personal experience with the risks that working families face. He's probably never imagined what it would be like to be destitute in his old age, with no guaranteed income.

The same syndrome has been visible on cultural issues. Republican leaders in Congress, who talk only to the religious right, were shocked at the public backlash over their meddling in the Schiavo case. Did I mention that Rick Santorum is 14 points behind his likely challenger?

It all makes you wonder how these people ever ended up running the country in the first place. But remember that in 2000, Mr. Bush pretended to be a moderate, and that in the next two elections he used the Iraq war as a wedge to divide and perplex the Democrats.

In that context, it's worth noting two more poll results: in one taken before the recent resurgence of violence in Iraq, and the administration's announcement that it needs yet another $80 billion, 53 percent of Americans said that the Iraq war wasn't worth it. And 50 percent say that "the administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction."

Democracy Corps, the Democratic pollsters, say that there is a "crisis of confidence in the Republican direction for the country." As they're careful to point out, this won't necessarily translate into a surge of support for Democrats.

But Americans are feeling a sense of dread: they're worried about a weak job market, soaring health care costs, rising oil prices and a war that seems to have no end. And they're starting to notice that nobody in power is even trying to deal with these problems, because the people in charge are too busy catering to a base that has other priorities.

E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

A Big Meany?

I don't understand this one. Maybe somebody can help me out. Else I will have to read this book. Some day.

You're A Prayer for Owen Meany!

by John Irving

Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire
faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest
this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking
moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT
SOUNDS LIKE THIS!


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.