Thanks Giving

It's been a long time since I updated my blog. A long time. Lots of stuff has happened, but it's a combination of not having internet connection in my place, finally getting an internet connection in my place but not being around to use it, and finally, when I am around, preferring to nap instead of putz around on the net.

But enough about that. I'm behind. You get it.

This is a Thanksgiving post.

I was inspired by Nick's (much better produced) entry about what he is thankful for this time of year, and even though Thanksgiving is over, I think this enitre stretch between Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's is all about reflection on what's good in your life.

I've been in a bit of a stressed out funk lately, but that's not what I'm going to talk about. This is some of the stuff I am thankful for this year:

Pulling a steady paycheck

Intelligent media (Gawker. Pacifica Radio. NPR. The New York Times)

My puppy, who is always a good sport, even though I drive him nuts.

Living in a free, developed, Democratic country (This is not an Obama endorsement. This is more in line with watching what is happening in other parts of the world where women and children are gunned down because they happened to be in the rich part of town. This is after watching millions of people who never had a thing to believe in in their lives get excited about something and actually exercize their rights (obligation?) as citizens and participate in the democratic process.)

Finally finding a good apartment that doesn't have pest problems, noisy neighbors or uncaring building supers.

My family, for helping me move in, giving me furniture, cookware, plates, glasses, groceries, toilet paper and everything else one needs to live in an apartment on a daily basis.

My friends for being patient with me even though I haven't been the friendliest person lately.

Good chinese takeout (and Ellios frozen pizza, when the money is tight)

My old man, for allowing me to boss him around all day, and listening patiently when I'm on about something and loving me anyway.

At the moment, that's what's keeping me sane these days. I think I'm ready for the Christmas season. It will be interesting to do Christmas on a shorestring budget, but maybe this year, I'll be ble to sit back and enjoy the Christmas season instead of worrying so much about shopping.

R-O-C-K in the USA!!!

The fact that the American dollar is burning is really casting a cloud over my personal parade for moving into my new apartment.

There isn't anyone who can convince me now that I won't lose my job in October when the Press is forced to cut more people. When I started this job two years ago, I set a deadline of two years and said no matter what, I'd leave by September 2008. It wasn't for any particular reason, two years just sounded good to put on a resume. Maybe I'm clairvoyant. Hmmmm.....

2008 VMA Liveblog

(From Sunday)

It's VMA time again folks. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the VMA's because even after 25 years of this show alone, MTV STILL can't get their live broadcasts together. As of 9:37 p.m., Jamie Foxx came in with a nearly 5 second delay after the camera cut back to him, Demi Moore walked out onto the stage without her microphone. And the camera cuts are atrocious.

Opening : Britney looks good; she lost a lot of weight. I'm sure her management company threw a shit ton of money at MTV to have her dominate the first 10 minutes of the show. By the way, that’s what actually happens at the beginning of the show: everyone walking to the stage gets an escort to the stage and then off the stage. They also as you, a la cliché, if you're nervous. It's cool; you feel like a rock star.

Russell Brand is still an obnoxious fuck. I'm surprised MTV decided to go so political with the opening monologue. He wasn't ready for this gig; I almost feel bad for him.

9:00: Rihanna’s opening was kind of cool, but she sounded strained.

9:25: Why the fuck did Demi More wear her pajamas?

9:30: This is actually the very first Jonas Brothers song I have ever heard. I was worried that some of those gyrating teenage girls in the windows were going to fall two stories onto the lot.

9:35: Katie Perry sucks live. She doesn't have the vocals to handle a Madonna song. And Madonna doesn't have a spectacular voice, so that isn't saying much.

9:40: Oh Phelpsy, you're so cute.

9:47: Fanny Pak won the dance award? Are you fucking with me? Kabba Modern is the best crew to appear on that dumb show to date.

9:48: Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls definitely thinks she is going to the prom.

9:59: Paramore’s Haley has already kicked both Rihanna and Katie Perry in the teeth in terms of being able to handle a live song. And she says it’s their last show of the year: hopefully that means they’re going to work on some new music. Why bother saying they’re “on the other side of town” like six times if they’re, uh, not?

10:03: OK, someone needs to tell Paris Hilton that having a show where people have to COMPETE to be your friend isn’t cool. Show’s where people want to date you, ok, maybe, but having to solicit for friends doesn’t seem like something I’d want associated with my image.

10:04: Duh, I’m completely aware the show is fake. It’s just a loserish concept.

10:08: I don’t think Slash has changed his clothes in the last 25 years.

10:21: The Ting Tings! They’re so fun and cute.

10:22: Ashlee Simpson is fucking HUUUUUGE. She looks like she is going to eat Pete Wentz.

10:35: I’ve seen Christina Aguilera’s fragrance commercial four times now, and she looks like a tard in every one.

10:38: And, Christina is the first vocalist of the night to lip-synch her performance. Why??? Girl has pipes!

10:52: Britney wins again. Best female video and now best pop video. This is totally make it up to Britney night on MTV’s part. After 16 snubs, she wins awards on a mediocre album?

11:12: And poon tang takes her third award, who gives a fuck. How delightfully scripted.

I am sick of being reprimanded for writing articles in the manner of assuming that my readers will be able to easily understand what I am talking about without dumbing it down. I'm SICK of having to go back and rewrite and spell every little thing out and jam my point in your face so you'll be sure to understand it.

So, the next time you pick up a newspaper, any paper, consider the fact that the paper you are giving your money to thinks that you can't follow what they are talking about without them spelling it out explicitly. Chew on that for a while.

Dear Project Runway,

Please stop editing scenes of the contestants into the show of them saying ""I have NAOOOOO idea WHERE we are goingggggggggg.........." when Tim takes them to their challenge. Every season has been guilty of this.

I KNOW they have an idea of what the challenge is, but of COURSE they can't tell us before they show them getting there. Urgg!!!!!

Black Thursday

If you follow news or the ramblings of gadflys in the blogosphere (Do I ever fucking hate that word), several people used the phrase ""Black Thursday" to refer to Gannett's annoucement this afternoon that they would be laying off about 1,000 employees nation wide at their smaller papers. Read about it here at Gawker. (And, keeping with the theme of the entry, the Gawker post about this only got 740 views and 20 comments, when a posting about some dumb girl who may or may not attend Princeton posting on her Facebook got 24,319 views and 243 comments. I.fucking.hate.EVERYONE.in my generation who has access to a computer.)

(I'll be honest: I was going to call her a "dumb c*nt', but it's not her fault that generation hip values the Facebook updates of complete strangers more than they do keeping abreast of the news by way of honest, objective sources. But I digress.)

This comes on the heels of the Star-Ledger announcing they would sell the paper in October if 200 employees didn't take buyouts, and Hearst also announcing that they were looking to combine the Daily News with another paper, or sell it.

Why this is problematic for me: The Press will be laying off 50 employees.This is the second round of layoffs in nearly six months that Gannett has gone through. I've said a few times that the business is circling the drain, but now I am legitimately concerned that the end of print is coming a lot sooner than we think.

I'm mad.
I'm mad because I am trying to buy my way into an apartment this weekend, and come Monday, I might not have a job anymore.
I'm mad because I spent four years studying a dying industry and didn't bother to minor in anything. Technically, I would consider Radio my minor, but that's not doing too well either. I wish I had tapped into marketing or advertising.
In the event of losing my job, I know I could probably find something else in a timely manner. The next logical step would be to do PR, but the thought of being a PR girl turns my stomach. when I hear the voice of a 20 something fresh outta college girl on the other end of my line, trying to tell me how totally, seriously awesome something that has no relevance to my beat is, and when do I want to speak to the person in charge of it, I literally hiss.

But most of all, I am upset that as as a whole, the career choice of media has failed me as well as several of my friends, who can't even find work in their preferred field, if at all.

I'm dying to go back to school, get my MBA, take culinary courses and open a small restaurant. But I'm afraid of getting saddled with loans.

If anything, I can be a guest judge on Project Runway. They've been using lots of nobodys this season.

To relax my rattled bones, I am going to go watch Colbert Report and Root of all Evil. The nonsensical rantings of middle aged men usually pacifies me pretty well.

Shut up and let me go

Ah, July. It's a magical month, as it's the real beginning of the summer, the 4th, and my birthday.

Like a good American, I spent the 4th getting hammered and jolly in the company of good friends, literally sitting on top of the entire world in the lower east side of New York City.

After an amazing homemade dinner of broiled sirloin and roasted garlic spread on baguettes and three growlers full of decent beer, we sat around the apartment and drunkenly reveled in each other's company to the sounds of Devotchka. Leah and I even caught a bird's eye view of the east village from the roof of the building, while the blueish glow of dusk disappeared for the night, and it was glorious. We ended the evening by watching "Vampiros En Habana!", a Cuban adult animated flick from the 70's that Leah and I uhh-dore, featuring lots of Latin music, naked, ridiculously proportioned women with trembling, naked bosoms, and horribly racist characters. It's really a great, great movie.
Friday was a day where every piece of food I put into my mouth all day seemed like the best I had ever tasted, and the breezes along St. Mark's and Houston Street felt cool and sweet against my skin.


The most important part of the entire weekend, however, may have been the passing of the NFT guide from Leah to me-she got the 2008 version, and gave me her 2006 copy, that has gotten us to one end of the island and back, through a million miles of subway routes, and served as a security blanket for the past two years. I'm very glad to now be able to always have it close.
(I did take it saying, ""So? It's just 2006! It can't be THAT outdated!"

::opens book up directly to section about CBGB's::

"Ohhhhhhh!!! Poo!::

Saturday was spent walking around further uptown and polishing off the rest of the spirits, including popping a bottle of champagne for late afternoon mimosas. I was a bit tipsy on the F while heading back up to Penn Station.

I was sorry we didn't get out to the Brooklyn Bridge to see the waterfall, but we weren't in the mood to rush all over the city; the next time I'm in the city, not for work, I'll get out there.

After a weekend in the city, going back to my closet of an office is a bit easier, which is good because Sunday was horrifically busy, and with a shitty deadline.

My birthday is on Wednesday, which makes me old, and then on Thursday, I'm shipping up to Boston for a long weekend. I can't wait; I haven't been there in years, and it's such a playground. I hope I remember my camera this time, as I forgot to bring it to NYC for the weekend of the 4th (And, the only documentation we have of the whole entire weekend is of me grossing out the boys by tossing back a cup of pickle juice at the NY Burger Company. Pussies.)

Leah posted a way more detailed post of our weekend gallivanting on her blog, AND, there's pictures of KITTIES on it. She will also be eventually uploading the video of me doing pickle juice shots and delighting in the dollar I TOTALLY EARNED from doing so.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Nothing kills the refreshed feeling of coming out of the bathroom to find a missed call from work.

"My boring ass life" by Kevin Smith has reaffirmed itself as one of my favorite books, because it gives me hope for the future. I drift off to sleep with dreams of when I someday write a script or a book or shoot a crappy movie that legions of socially inept schmucks base their entire existence on, those same people will dish out their hard earned money for a copy of my diary detailing little more than what I fed my kids for breakfast, which episode of The Simpsons I fell asleep to, and how often I fuck my spouse. Ah fame-I can't wait to get a big house in LA and fill it with excessive, foreign made shit.

I spent the last hour of my shift today driving up and down Route 36 in Hazlet during rush hour, looking for a graffiti tag that the paper needed a picture of for the next day's paper. It was hot. Everything is hot.

I can't believe it is June 10, soon to be June 11, already. That's the problem with working full time-the seasons aren't really defined anymore. Summer just becomes a lot of excessively hot days spent in a stuff office, that eventually give way to freezing cold.

My birfday is in less than a month. I took the week off from work and am planning a vacation. It won't come soon enough. I want to go to the whole other side of the country and hide in a cave far far away from everything for a little while, but going to New England will have to do.

Pata Pata Pata Pon

I hate Yahoo. Seriously.

I had to create a Yahoo account to join a league's group, and from the beginning, its given me nothing but trouble.

First, it never let me open attachments. Ever. It would say I had an attachment, but didn't display the little paper clip we've all come to recognize and love. Since the league didn't work out for me, I went to leave the group and it wouldn't let me. Not even that, it just doesn't offer a little tab that says "Leave This Group''. Nothing. It took me 1o minutes and multiple page loads to eventually find that option. Even when I entered it into the help search bar, it brought me to a page telling how how to sign up for a username, when I was ALREADY LOGGED IN WITH MY CURRENT ONE DAMMIT.

Yahoo and Aol are so outdated and work horrifically and I don't know why anyone still uses them. Google is totally the "machine", but it always works and never gives me trouble, and for that, I am a believer. My blood boils at the sight of the Yahoo home page.

In other news, I am patiently waiting for my stimulus check to arrive. My shortsighted generation has been buzzing about what to do with the shot of cash. I originally thought of spending it on another tattooing project, but now I'm thinking of looking for a new computer, since my laptop is about seven years old and showing its' age. I just don't want to have to spend it on lame, real world needs, like a car payment or a rent check. Money like that is begging to be spent on irresponsible things.

Credit must go to Andy for hooking me on lolcats and loldogs, even though I publicly announce my hatred for both cats and lolspeak on a daily basis. Lolspeak is yet another example of both the dumbing down of our culture, and the unoriginality of the general public's sense of humor. But dammit, it doesn't stop me from looking at pictures of little grammatically incorrect dogs almost every day. EL. OH. EL.

P.S.-I don't have the proper platform for it, but this website lets you play demos of "Patapon" on it, a weird PSP game where you command a little army of eyeball guys by following a drum rhythm with your controller buttons. It's really neat. I read an article about this game in what I think was the Times, and I've been curious about it since. It's a good time killer, if needed.

All your base are belong to us

Happy Anniversary.

I got a chance to see "Baby Mama", a comedy about a hee-lariously mismatched duo of women brought together by a surrogacy agency.

It was entertaining enough. Tina Fey plays the hard working Philadelphia career woman VP of a Whole Food-ish supermarket chain, Kate Holbrook, who at 37 has baby fever. Amy Poehler is trashy Amy Ostrowski, a surrogate with a mouth breather husband, who drinks a lot of Dr. Pepper and yells every other sentence. After a meeting at Kate's impossibly chic Philly apartment, where Angie and her husband act like fishes out of water, the duo decide to work together to bring a baby into the world. HILARITY ENSUES.

But seriously, it was exactly what I expected it to be. Fey didn't write the movie, but if she had, it would have been so much funnier, I'm sure. Romany Malco was once again sadly but hilariously typecast as the street smart, smooth talking brother with a heart of gold, much like his character in 40 Year Old Virgin, Jay. The chemistry between Fey and Poehler is rock solid and totally believable, which helped the film immensely, especially in parts where the connection between Greg Kinnear's love interest character and Fey isn't really believable. I also laughed at the spoofs on the new agey, natural childbirth movement that is becoming big in this country. But the ending wraps up a bit too neatly and happily ever after for a film starring two women who are so adept at offbeat and black humor.

Bottom line: I'll probably watch it again when it comes out on DVD, but it wasn't one of my favorites. A halfway decent watch, but very much like a not so funny 90 minute episode of 30 Rock.

By the way, when searching Google images for "Baby Mama" to find a picture of the movie poster to put with this (because IMDB doesn't allow pictures to be saved from the site), a million pictures of super-trashy looking women and ugly children come up. Niiiiiiiice.

Easter candy+me-consequence= <3

I'm going to act my sex for a moment, if I may.

I'm out of shape.

Not terribly out of shape, I've found that taking a six week hiatus from the gym (a result of my new work schedule, NOT my boyfriend, as several people have suggested.), my workout stamina hasn't diminished at all. Sure, I'm not as flexible as I was two months ago, but I found that I could hop back on the treadmill or lift the same weights and not get winded, and after restarting my working out full time last week, I found that not only did I feel awesome, it was like I never stopped. And that is the true measurement of how healthy a person may or may not be.

But, I know I've gained a few pounds back (like, all of them), and it's kind of frustrating knowing that had I stayed on track with my work0ut, I would be able to be looking at swimsuits now instead of saying that I'm going to wait another month because I'm totally going to kick my ass into gear and lose a few pounds.

I've taken great pleasure in the last week of watching bitchy gossip sites rip Carnie Wilson apart because she's back up to 200 pounds of after losing gobs of weight after gastric bypass a few years ago, whoring herself out to every possible media outlet and showing her loose skin off in Playboy. I spent two years in Rutgers doing project after project analyzing the public's appetite for famous and semi-famous and not even semi-famous people, and even if you think that you are above it because you recognize the patterns, I'm telling you that there is still a bit part of your brain that just wants to watch people on TV fucking fail at life and be fat like the rest of us.
So that's where my brain has been yesterday and today.

On a lighter note, I've had a lot of energy building up because of the warm weather, and I just want to go outside and run around and play tennis or go swimming. I'm thinking about entering a contest at Work Out World where you work several times a week with a trainer for six weeks, and the person who loses the most weight wins free dues for life. I get bored very easily with working out, and I've never tried working with a trainer before, so it might be something new and fun to try. Maybe.

Today is the last day before Comcast takes the Cartoon Network away from me and makes it available only through digital cable. I am really upset by this and will miss late night cartoons very, very much. This might actually be enough to make me look into getting a digital connection so I can watch Metalocalypse again. I remember when Cartoon Network was first launched, and it was only available through deluxe cable packages.

Lastly, this made me giggle today. A lot. To the point where I was almost late for work. Leah was grossed out by the plug in tongue, while I laughed audibly at the "Stuffoscope".

There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber. None of them were walking and-

Vacation goes so fast. It's kind of unfair.

Today was my favorite kind of day off, and was spent doing menial errands that I don't have time for during the week, going to the gym and watching an America's Next Top Model marathon. Today was also free ice day at Rita's, which I am so glad I partook in. I got the birthday cake flavor, which tasted like the icing on cheap sheet cake. mmmm.


Yesterday we went into NYC and saw the butterfly room at the Natural History Museum, which was so neat and fun. Its kind of like a sealed pod that you go into, and its very warm and brightly lit and filled with plants and flowers and moss and a few hundred butterflies are everywhere, flying up to your face, landing on your shirt, standing on the ceiling, just everywhere. Some of them were the size of small birds, so big you could see their tongues curled under, and some were so teeny tiny I was afraid that they were going to fly into my mouth if I got too close. It was a really neat experience, and I took a lot of pictures on my phone, which I'm trying to figure out how to send to the computer so I can post them.

We also dicked around the rest of the museum, looking at the wall of different animal kingdoms and stuff on the third floor and I must've said "Gross" at least 10 times while Lewis explained the different types of invertebrates and worms and fungi to me. Then we went to Carnegie Deli and partook in salted meats and chicken fat and I was as happy as could be. If I could have changed anything though, it would not have been raining; we did a lot of walking and NYC in the rain sucks, no matter how you slice it.

On a more serious note, probably my best story to date was published this week, pertaining to a group of CBA students going to Asbury Park for a community outreach program. It was a cool assignment and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Check it out.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880319024

I am officially on vacation, and it is lovely. I laid around with my old man all day, catching up on sleep, ordering takeout and watching all of season one of the Venture Brothers, which I've never watched before this week and got sucked right into.

We went to NYC yesterday with his family and toured the uptown area before going allllll the way downtown and riding the Staten Island ferry, which I've never done before and probably wouldn't ever have, if it wasn't on the itinerary.
I was super exhausted from my weird work schedule from the days before plus the tired-ness of walking around NYC all day, so needless to say, the sole purpose of today was to nap.

This evening, I got to finish watching "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters", which is a documentary about mega-nerds going against each other to see who can get the highest score in arcade Donkey Kong. There were multiple parts that made me doubt whether or not it was a real documentary, but it is legit, and it's mildly entertaining, if you are a classic game enthusiast. It was really cool to see guys break a million points and have the screen reset itself, and to see the kill screens (in old arcade games, there was no end screen because the games didn't have enough memory. Once you started playing the last board, you just died. It's actually a more entertaining end than the end of a lot of old Nintendo games.)


So, to recap, I am out of work until the 24th. Give me a call if you want to go on any zany adventures.

One day before vacation

I'm finding that store brand cookies are just as delicious as name brand ones, sometimes even more so, AND you get waaaaay more in a pack. Needless to say, I am thoroughly enjoying my brand x chocolate sandwich cremes that I bought to snack on at work, because baby is on a budget for a while after investing in that car.

On a completely unrelated topic, this story was posted on Comcast today and it's one of the few news stories that I've even found hard to believe because it's so weird. OH, and the girl who is at the middle of the Spitzer scandal is from Belmar! She went to Wall H.S...who is surprised by this? Not me, not really. (This is my newfound reporter humor, the editors always place bets when a national news story breaks that someone involved in a negative way is from Monmouth or Ocean County. And you know what? They're usually right.)

By the way, if you are in the Monmouth County area, check your weekly reporter that is mailed to you, two of my stories were front page this week. Check them out, or my dog will eat you.

It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men

I decided to switch my Lj over to a better looking page. Also, posting photos on LJ is annoying and diffucult and I havent posted photos of anything going on in my life in like three years. It's kind of weird, and I've decided to put an end to it because people my age are supposed to fill web pages with photos taken of themselves at weird angles, their kittens, their infected tattoos, what they had for dinner, ect.















Above, you see my brand new baby, a 2008 Honda Civix LX Coupe. It had only six miles on it when I got it. I've never had a virgin before, and it's awesome. Both my other cars were over ten years old when I got them and I drove them into the ground. I finally decided to pull the trigger on my Honda Accord when both speakers blew out. My car is sexier than yours and you know it. I'm super stoked I'm finally to a point where I can say that.