Let’s discuss

So this story conflicts me. On one hand, I think it’s awesome that this woman had the balls to take her halflings with her to report to duty, b/c I disagree with how out of hand this war has gotten (or even its validity in the first place, if we want to go there), and she was honorably discharged years ago and deserves to be able to raise her young family. She already sacrificed for her country and there is no one to watch the kids if she is pulled for IRR.

On the other hand, I’m sure a large majority of soldiers have families, and it’s never really convenient to do a tour in that life stage, obviously. And, mostly, I have a profound respect for the gravity of the commitment it takes to serve in the military that continually protects my pampered ass, and I don’t think that it should be (or is) treated lightly.

So there you go. I know some of y’all are military brats, and as I’m fascinated to the point of anthropological study of that entire world, I’d really love to know what you think.

Yes, we did

(thanks, j, for the share.)

I voted! Niiiiiice!

So I exercised my cool-ass civil duty today, and the whole time I waited in my 40-minute line (so yeah, vote early if you can, kids, I imagine next Tuesday may be craaaazy) I kept giggling thinking of Borat in this:

Things that perplex me

1. How this man did this. There is a video on CNN that has an interview with him, and he doesn’t seem to get why that would be ridiculous – outside of having gone behind his wife’s back. It leaves me speechless, honestly.

2. How illiteracy can travel all the way to print:

(A client’s label for my work – sorry it’s kind of blurry.)

3. Who called my cell phone three times in the middle of the night from a local hospital.. but didn’t leave a message. I have no friends or clients pregnant, and I’ve head-counted the people closest to me for injuries. It’s really frustrating to not know if something happened or if it was a wrong number.

4a. How the Ben Folds concert was originally $30 general admission, but has since gone up to $70. No one wants to go with me when it costs that much, and I can’t blame them.

4b. Why this cussing and epithet-filled song doesn’t offend me more. In fact I totally love it.

5. What in the hell this license plate of the owner of the company next to mine means: RGTRUDR

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SO, if anyone has any ideas, you let me know, thanks!

Living in a cave

Or: House-sitting for a family whose internet is broken.

Until I’m done, read this and start a debate! I expect profound comments when I get back, people. 😉

Jon Stewart for President!

Seriously. This was one of the funniest clips I’ve ever seen from him.

(And when we laugh, EVERYTHING seems better, no?)

Long time no post

Sorry! But I’ve been filing away things I wanted to share, so even if I’m copping out with all the links, my intentions are good (and totally random). That said:

1. This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the debate. And everyone should watch this at some point, because Tina Fey has officially creeped me out with the realism of her impersonation. I also like this and this and this and this.

(Thanks to my blogger friends and those who shared those with me.)

2. This is a genius (and simple) way to explain the mortgage crisis crizap: subprimecrisisinanutshell-1. A situation that has lead to this, which should make the above stick figures lose sleep.

3. Driving downtown yesterday, Jack declared that we were in Nyun York City. God I love that kid. He also hit another milestone:

Sigh.

4. Finally, I give up, and fully admit that I am who this site is talking about. Pretty much always.

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Happy Sunday,

XOXO

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You know apathy is no excuse this election

OR: I steal everything from Jamie McJ (and should be paying her some sort of fee, perhaps).

So check your status and/or register to vote, before you miss the deadline.

Did you know he attended Harvard?

(Doesn’t qualify his opinion politically, I know, but it sure adds to his hotness. The fact that I happened to agree with every word only adds to our destiny together.)

(Gracias Abby. I love you also on this rainy morning.)

Consumer geekaroid* and other tangents

Float trip recap:  It was cold and wet, and the river and campground were empty: I was in hog heaven. But, to prove irrefutably that we must be old, there were 13 people – average age… 29? – and after we cooked dinner on Saturday, we were all in our tents by EIGHT THIRTY. And given that Lo still likes to poke me in the forehead to wake me up at 6:15 most days, I wasn’t complaining, but still…

Secondly, my friend Rachel wrote a great post I had been planning to link to. She’s much more defined about the constraints of her faith, but I agree with the sentiment regardless. It taps into a lot of the cynicism (and hypocrisy) I’ve always felt trying to fit into what I consider the modern ‘American Christian’ mold, and why I’ve sort of decided to be done with it all, honestly. And I suppose I should explain a bit more, considering this is (for me, at least) a pretty big departure from where I was at, but truthfully, I’m just too tired to attempt to muddle through it right now. So let’s just say this election is evoking a lot of pent up frustration, and I’m feeling more outspoken – but content – about MY idea of faith, than I have in years and years and hm… well.. ever, really.

(Huzzah for self-actualization, eh? 😉 )

So, MOVING ON, today’s YTT clip is one of the funniest phone calls I’ve ever heard. Most of the lines are used in our group’s lexicon, so if you ever hear me call myself a ‘plump Scotch girl’, you’ll know why. There are a couple cuss words (i.e., prolly not safe for some workplaces), but you have to find a way to watch it somehow, because the best is at the end* when he thinks the phone has hung up..

Enjoy!

This makes up for slacking this week, mkay?

Huh. So this is the song I half-way thought about posting for the YTT installment I obviously didn’t do this week. It’s ‘Fake Empire’ by The National, and is easily in my Top 10 (of all time, perhaps). Such cool tempo changes and trumpets and piano and drums and stuff.

Anyhoo, reading Jamie’s blog today introduced me to the video below, which, happily, has my song in the background. I don’t think it’s nearly as cool as the will. i. am video, but regardless, it’s timely.

Therefore, tadow, we have two lazy (and unoriginal!) posts in one. 😛

Hope your weekend is well, friends. I’m headed to another float trip, but this time the weather will be a balmy… 70 degrees, so I’m curious how the river will feel this time. Good times, though, surely.

Ciao!

I feel like making popcorn

For realz. I know zilch about politics, but had I realized just how exciting it could be, I would have become an amateur (political) pundit YEARS ago!

First the Palin announcement. I didn’t blog about it b/c what more could I say besides BITE ME IF YOU THINK I’M STUPID ENOUGH TO VOTE FOR HER JUST BECAUSE OF HER (OR, MORE SPECIFICALLY, MY) OVARIES. I got into a heated debate (wih a guy, of course) about whether she will pull any HRC voters, and I just don’t see how. Her stance is pretty much opposite, and in my opinion, the women voters who would choose the Republican ticket simply because she’s female might have possibly already been in that camp anyway. And I’m not trying to be bitchy – I really just think Palin was a bad choice if your demographic are Hillary-voters. Whatever.

But then, if I wasn’t already stoked about watching the RNC after the DNC, I hear about this! And then this!

What? Possible baby cover-ups! In a three-day-old VP nomination! Holy shit!

And obviously I’m a horrible person for spreading gossip which I absolutely admit could be crap. But the fact that I could just as easily believe it’s true surely says something about.. well… something, right? It just seems to give me some sort of smugness that my disenchantment with government can be so quickly validated, during what is my first real attempt to grow up and take the whole election process seriously.

Who knows. Obviously if Bristol has a baby the whole thing will be moot, duh. Two pregnancies, two babies. But, like everyone has said already – because nothing I say here is original, I know that – if Bristol conveniently miscarries, I will absolutely join the queue that believe the scandalous cover-up theory. Which then of course gives me not a little bit of schadenfreude towards McCain, because if you’re going to make such a poor decision of leader in the first place (for experience if nothing else), you surely should have taken the time to discover her massively neocon-backlashed secret.

And more than that, it will make me somewhat sad for Palin. I just feel like she’s going past an idea of ‘token’ straight to.. patsy, of some sort, though I’m not sure why that word comes to mind. I guess at this point I don’t think I dislike her, I just get the feeling she’s being used.

MOST importantly, however, is that I actually don’t judge her if her daughter IS (or, really, was) pregnant; which is probably the real reason I won’t be voting for her, because obviously I don’t fall in her actual demographic of voters.

Surely there’s irony in there somewhere.

Lazy Sunday post #17

Got this from a gal on my parenting board. Never heard of him, but I think it’s pretty clever.

Running for Office: It’s Like A Flamewar with a Forum Troll, but with an Eventual Winner

Things I dislike very strongly

(We don’t use ‘hate’ in this house, but my eyeball hurts, so it feels like a pouty start to the morning. 😉 )

1. Idiot drivers

2. Seeing dogs on the side of the highway

3. Narrow-minded fools who have lost the ability to really have empathy

4. That there’s no regulation for credit companies

5. Inexplicable charges on the cell phone bill

6. Sucky servers in restaurants (unless I can tell they are totally overwhelmed)

7. Pre-recorded political phone calls

8. The band Jane’s Addiction

8b. (Tied with Mariah Carey and Oasis)

9. People judging my decisions on how to parent Jack’s autism

10. Onions

Dems I’d like to see win, in order:

1. Barack Obama

2. Susan Sarandon

3. Shrek

4. Al Sharpton

5. My mailman

6.

7. Hillary Clinton