02.27.05
After never knowing what Shannon was babbling about, I have joined Facebook. The thing that convinced me was when Shannon said we don't have to go to our class reunions now because people only go to see what everyone looks like, and now we can see what everyone looks like on Facebook. She was kidding. I think.
From what I can discern, it's a time-sucking popularity game where you add people that you know to your profile. They're called "friends," but I feel pretty damn silly calling someone I haven't talked to since high school, and barely even talked to while in high school, a "friend." Maybe that's why so far I've only added Shannon and Amy to my list, and was surprised when a high school classmate added me to her list. This high school classmate also seems to have graduated from college at an accelerated pace and has gone onto the wonders of medical school, so she has all my respect and admiration. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who decided to get the hell out of undergrad when the opportunity presented itself and wasn't swayed by advisors saying, "But you get to slack off in college, you won't get to in the real world, take the entire four years!" I don't know what kind of people my advisors were used to meeting with, but I sure as hell never slacked off.
Except in Geology 100. And Torts. I'm starting to notice a pattern where slacking off equals a nice C+ on my report card. In my defense, I can't help it if the professor graduated from Horror High and lacks all ability to stimulate the class or do something other than tell us what he thinks the law should be, despite case law overwhelmingly to the contrary. The few times I went to Geo, it reminded me of Ferris Bueller. 300 people in the largest lecture hall on campus, and the prof would put up an overhead and read a sentence with one word missing. She'd want us to give her the word, and would start a 5-minute long silence punctuated every few seconds with, "Anyone? ... Anyone? ... Anyone?" I couldn't handle that, especially not at 9:30 in the morning.
03:45 PM [link]
InStyle
02.24.05
Song of the Day: Anneke Van Hooff - Lie To Me
If my bottle of window cleaner that says "streak free" on it just left a nice streaky mess on my bathroom mirror, is that false advertising?
A few quotes from this month's InStyle magazine that I wanted to comment on:
Designer Roberto Cavalli: "For a woman to look successful, all she needs is to feel sexy. Women don't need to dress for power. Men need to do that. But a woman should never dress like a man, because her power is in the difference between them. Every day I go to work to create what I think of as a form of art, but art that only comes alive when it is worn by a woman at her strongest moment, when she is feeling free, in love with her life and her self."
Actually, I don't need to comment on that one. It speaks for itself.
Hairstylist Peter Butler: "[Lindsay Lohan] told me that she can't wait to go platinum after she finishes her next movie, Lady Luck. She said that she has always wanted to go blonde, blonde blonde." This quote comes immediately after the sentence, "When it comes to her looks, Lohan loves to experiment and go beyond what's predictably pretty."
Being "blonde, blonde, blonde" isn't predictably pretty? She's trading in red hair for platinum? How is blonde hair not predictably pretty when the reason I went from my natural blonde to dark red was because everyone else was going blonde? Then again, she'll probably dye it back after everyone starts mistaking her for her fellow tanorexic, Tara Reid.
06:53 PM [link]
Stop sending me mail
02.23.05
Song of the Day: Robbie Williams - Radio
As annoying as it is when companies online plant cookies in your computer so they can give you ads that are geared towards your interests, I wish they utilized a similar technique when it comes to postal mail spam. Take a look at what was in my mailbox today:
Addressed to "Smart Driver" - "Switch to Nationwide and save up to $242 on your car insurance!"
I've driven twice in the last six months. I don't even own a car. I'm a smart driver, sure, but that's because I take the bus every day.
Addressed to me, strangely enough - "The Total Pre-College Experience: Recommended by Kaplan SAT Prep for Success in College - 3-6 1/2 Week Programs from $3595."
Sorry, I already graduated from college. With honors. And without paying $3,595 for some stupid "prepare for success" program. Trust me on this one: if you're motivated enough to be willing to shell out that much money, you're going to do well regardless. Especially with all the dumbasses in college these days (check out this college professor's blog for some unbelievable stories about pathetic students).
04:39 PM [link]
Home sweet home
02.22.05
Song of the Day: Diana DeGarmo - Boy Like You
I think my dad was highly amused last night when I called home to compare American Idol notes with my mom. She and I had each separately come to the conclusion that Bo Bice was the only worthwhile performer out of the male group. What the heck was with the guys and boring, uninteresting ballads tonight? I was totally disappointed that Constantine decided to go with a boring, uninteresting ballad as well, since he and Bo both have the potential to be a male American Idol who are ten hundred times more exciting than Ruben and Clay. The worst thing that could happen right now is that people vote for the other guys because they're eye candy, even though Bo had more grit and spark than all the others put together. Let's hope the female finalists noticed the judges' disapproval at the "safe" and boring song choices and give us performances worth watching tonight.
I just realized this week that I've been living here for six months already. Six months! A whole half-year living on my own in Chicago. It's very strange, and I never realized how comfortable I've become here until I tried to give Amy and several other sorority girls directions to Michigan Avenue for Friday night's dinner. Suddenly I was trying to see the city from the eyes of someone who has never been here before. Since that moment, I've noticed how at home I am here, as well as in my own apartment. Today as I walked in after being at class, I was surprised at how much comfort I drew from being "home." It's become a place where I feel like it's Mine, rather than just some temporary place, and I'm not quite sure when it stopped being foreign and started being familiar.
At the same time, nothing compares to the comfort of going HOME home, and I'm eagerly looking forward to spring break. It will be nice to do things like watch American Idol with my mom and sister, rather than just talking about it with them over the phone or Instant Messenger.
02:52 AM [link]
Double-take
02.21.05
Song of the Day: Dana Rayne - Object of My Desire
Double-take of the day: Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas is Stacy Ferguson from the group Wild Orchid and '80s show Kids Incorporated.
This may not seem like an earth-shattering revelation, but when I read the fact in this month's Self magazine, I dashed to my CD shelf and grabbed my two Wild Orchid CDs. Fergie has always struck me as very exotic looking, and I never thought her skin color was anything but that naturally tanned shade that always elicits my pale-skinned envy, but on the Wild Orchid covers, she seems quite pale and has bleached blonde hair. No wonder I never made the connection.
Man, when I was little, I thought the kids on Kids Incorporated were so cool. I always feel sorry for the kids of today who didn't get to grow up with the television programs that I did. No She-Ra? Unthinkable. No Carebears? Horrifying. Now Rainbow Brite is just some retro figure that's cool to put on t-shirts that you'd find at Hot Topic. That's sad. Way sad.
01:24 AM [link]
It's one of those non-Jewish days again
02.20.05
Song of the Day: Stellar Project feat. Brandi Emma - Get Up Stand Up
My weekend was bright and cheery since I got to see my little sorority sister Amy on Friday night. It's the first time I'd seen her in 9 months, and I was sorely tempted to kidnap her and keep her here with me. If I had my way, Amy, Shannon, and Melantha would all live within five minutes of me so that I can keep all my best girlfriends close by for spontaneous shopping trips and overly expensive meals at the Cheesecake Factory ($161 for six of us Friday night, oops).
Since I go to what seems to be a Jewish law school, I do not get President's Day off. Either President's Day is decidedly un-Jewish (seeing how there hasn't been a Jewish president yet), or else the school administration decided they were way too generous giving us Martin Luther King Jr. Day off already.
The good news is that my Monday afternoon class is cancelled for the next few weeks since the only thing we're doing in it right now is writing an appellate brief. The professor seems to think we'll spend the afternoon writing. Yeah right, I'll bet you $100 that my bed will be calling my name as soon as I step back in the apartment.
Will and I watched Friday Night Lights this weekend, which prompted me to ask this question: how many movies can we have about a teeny-tiny town where high school football is a religion and one member on the team has a father who played on the same team during his youth and abusively expects his son to be spectacular? I know that FNL is based on a true story, and I can't even remember if the team in Varsity Blues won their state championships or not, but I feel like we need to mix up the high school football movie genre a little.
03:02 PM [link]
Chowin' Down
02.17.05
Song of the Day: Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes
Greymatter 1.3 comes with a "music" and "mood" template that you can fill in, so I decided to toy with it tonight. It's actually nothing exciting, I was expecting some bells and whistles. I'm going to go ahead and keep it though, seeing how I went through all the work of doing it. Rather than listing what I'm currently listening to at the moment (especially seeing how it could very well be "boring lecture about personal jurisdiction"), I'm just going to list a song that I've most likely had on 'repeat' at some point during the day. I'm obsessive like that.
I'm also obsessive about food; I made puppy chow today (it's chocolate and peanut butter melted onto Chex or Crispix cereal and then covered in powdered sugar - I can't believe how many people think I'm actually eating dog food when I mention it), and it's highly likely I'll make a new batch every time I empty my bowl for the next few weeks. Sure, I'll be fat and my teeth will start to rot away, but at least I'll be happy.
In bizarre professor news, the "forgetful" professor announced that he's going to have his wife call him each day we have class to remind him to come, and my Property professor has started asking the class questions about material that's assigned for several days later. And, not surprisingly, the over-zealous, uber-ambitious law school freaks who don't have a life outside their textbooks are able to answer them. Sorry, but if you tell me I need to read a specific set of pages to be prepared for that day's class, that's all I'm going to read. I'm not going to try to read your mind and figure out how far ahead I should read in case you decide to ignore the material for that day and skip ahead a few days to some arbitrary point.
And then I'm going to take my spare time and watch The Stepford Wives. The 2004 version. Damn was that hilarious!
01:12 AM [link]
No more guilt
02.16.05
I will never, ever feel guilty for skipping class again.
Yesterday, during my morning class, I was more-than-slightly feeling the effects of whatever's debilitating my body. All I could think about was going home and getting back in bed to hide from the symptoms that my dad and sister both felt before launching into a week-long flu-like illness. I seem to have caught something from them from two states away.
I almost hung in there for my afternoon class. Almost. It was a huge internal debate, but as my morning class ended, I decided that it wasn't worth waiting through the two-hour gap between classes to sit through a class where the professor emails all the powerpoint slides and notes he uses.
Today, I was talking with a group of classmates, and one of them said they hoped the professor for our afternoon class would actually show up today.
That's right; the professor for the class that I almost sacrificed hours of sleep for did not bother showing up. I would have been so angry if I had actually waited around.
Today he showed up, and he said that he just "forgot" about class. This is the second time he's "forgotten" class. I go to a private law school where tuition is $27,000 a year; professors should NOT just be "forgetting" about class. If they want to email us hours in advance so we know not to waste our time coming in, I'm all for that! This "forgetting" thing, however, is not okay.
Next time, there will not be any internal debate and there will not be any guilt. Okay, maybe there will be some, but it will be short and sweet and it'll be when I'm home in bed. Feeling guilty is just fine when I'm in bed.
02:15 PM [link]
Scrubs
02.15.05
Tonight's episode of Scrubs reminded me why I love the show so much. They were mocking normal sitcoms, and it was such a blunt reminder that Scrubs is an entirely different breed of half-hour-comedy shows. Why isn't everyone watching this show?
I've changes my links page around to get rid of dead fansites and webrings and add in a list of the sites I read each day. I do my links page in the most inefficient way code-wise, so it still doesn't look perfect.
09:17 PM [link]
Valentine's Day
02.14.05
I feel like this day should be accompanied by the Jaws theme.
Nothing brings out the hypocrites more than St. V. Day. During a "single" year, people are moaning and crying about how it's just a commercial holiday and how we need to Focus! On! The! Single! People! The next year, when they're dating someone, they immediately forget all that and gush on about their Valentine's Day gifts and plans.
Luckily for me, whether it's a "single" year or a "boyfriend" year, there's one constant - my parents always treat me to Esther Price chocolate. It's from Dayton, Ohio, where my parents grew up, and they swear that no other chocolate comes close to it.
My actual Feb. 14th wasn't spent with my boyfriend; Will and I went out to dinner on Saturday, and we're exchanging gifts this coming weekend due to neither of us having had time to go out and get them. Our conversation about the gifts went something like this:
Will: "You know our Valentine's Day gifts?"
Me: "You mean the ones we haven't bought yet?"
Our celebrations always seem to get spread out over a few weeks; our one-year anniversary fell on his nephew's 4th birthday party celebration, so that was another time that presents were one weekend and dinner was another. I kind of like it that way - who doesn't want a cause for celebration all the time? Lord knows I milk my birthday for all it's worth - it's my birthday week! It's after-birthday week! I need month-after-birthday presents!
Tonight I went out to dinner with my uncle and his client who is Barbie Doll Divorce Attorney. Meaning, she looks like Barbie, right down to her itty-bitty waist and not-so-itty-bitty chest. We had lobster tails, red wine, and this oh-so-decadant chocolate dessert. I'm overly stuffed and overly tipsy now, and it feels oh-so-GOOD.
Yes, I spent Valentine's Day with a divorce attorney. Man, that better not be a sign.
10:55 PM [link]
Tales of the Ex
02.11.05
Since joining Blog Explosion and inviting so many new people to visit my webpage, I've felt compelled to be entertaining, like a good hostess should be. While wondering what I could write about, I realized that I have some outrageous stories about my verbally abusive ex-boyfriend that definitely have the potential to be entertaining.
So I'll start with a story that started with a trip to a Burberry store. I'm a huge Burberry fan. I think it's incredibly classy and I pray to the fashion gods that it's never given the same treatment Louis Vuitton's Murakami bags were given. In my mind, the Murakami pattern has been forever ruined by everyone and her sister having a knockoff bag.
So while my ex and I were in the Burberry store, I was drooling over a purse. It was a fabulous purse. Then again, I think anything in the traditional Burberry plaid is fabulous.
Later that evening, we had dinner reservations. I took a nap beforehand, and my ex woke me up to tell me to get ready to go. All I needed to do was brush my hair, and I'd left the hairbrush I carry in my purse in the bathroom that he had just gone into. I'm definitely not a open-bathroom-doors-when-people-are-in-them sort of girl, so I just sat there waiting for him to come out so I could get my hairbrush.
When he came out of the bathroom, he stopped and stared at me. The following conversation ensued:
Ex: "What are you doing? Why aren't you getting ready? Get ready!"
Me: "I just need to brush my hair, my hairbrush was in the bathroom with you."
Ex: "I told you to get ready! We're going to be late, get ready!"
Me: "I just said that all I need to do is brush my hair."
Ex: "Don't have an attitude with me!"
Me: "I don't have an attitude. Let me get my hairbrush."
Ex: "I WAS GOING TO GET YOU THAT $300 PURSE, BUT FORGET IT NOW! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A BRAT!"
11:55 PM [link]
Internet Etiquette
02.10.05
While discussing a variety of internet law issues, a guy in one of my classes brought up that he views the Internet as a public place analogous with a public street, and that one should behave online the way he would walking down a public street.
I can definitely tell that many people do not share this view, which is too bad, seeing how it might encourage some decency. Take the undesirable schmuck who sends naked pictures of himself to women online. Would this person walk up to a woman in real life and hand her a naked picture of himself? If that happened, that woman would most likely kick him in the nuts and then go after him with a sexual harassment suit. Online, she's just accused by undesirable schmuck of inviting such naked pictures and other stalkerish behavior simply because she has a public website.
And then there's the pompous, self-important "Casanova" who charmingly tells women online that they have "perky tits" and seems to see nothing wrong with it. As Melantha said, in real life, guys would be required to buy us a drink before subjecting us to such harassment. And after getting that drink, you can get the bouncers to drag the pompous idiot out by the collar of his shirt.
Of course, in real life, the schmuck and the Casanova are probably timid pipsqueaks who shrink and wilt under the glare of a woman who senses their inferiority. When they're online, they suddenly think that hiding behind a computer screen allows them to step outside the accepted boundaries of decency and act as no respectable person would ever even think about acting.
We really need a key on the keyboard that will deliver a good, swift kick to the nuts; it acts as a deterrent in real life, and no such deterrents seem to exist online.
10:40 AM [link]
Internet Elitism
02.08.05
It has come to my attention over the last few months that there are several types of elitism floating around the Internet. They fall into four different categories:
1. Firefox Elitism: People who use Firefox seem to have a big head about it. It involves saying things such as, "Ha ha, you lowly peons, I use teh Firefox and you use teh IE" (until about a month ago, I did not realize that people purposely misspell "the"). Arguments for Firefox seem to include saying that IE is a magnet for spyware and popups, but I've never had a spyware problem (and the new Norton seems to include spyware in its virus scans now) and my Yahoo toolbar has a very nice popup blocker.
2. Scary Movie Elitism: The "cool" reaction to scary movies seems to be, "I was bored. That sucked. I laughed at teh movie." No one who wants to be cool will ever admit that maybe, just maybe, something was a teeny bit scary. Personally, I can't understand how anyone could sit through The Grudge without becoming deathly terrified of Japanese kids suddenly appearing and yowling at them.
3. Music Elitism: I can play the piano. I can't sing worth a damn. That does not make me any cooler than someone who can sing but can't play the piano (not cooler, but probably more damaging to the ear drums). Also, simply because the music you listen to is moody and dramatic does not make you cooler than someone who prefers uplifting, melodic vocal trance -- I like music that makes me happy.
4. Non-iPod MP3 Player Elitism: I've seen people online wage wars against the iPod simply because it's the iPod. I'm not sure if something being "mainstream" makes people think they'd be totally uncool if they didn't shun it, but most mp3 players are pretty similar. Some have bells and whistles such as radios and color displays, but it's all a matter of the consumer evaluating what they want and need out of an mp3 player. But oh no, should anyone inquire on a message board about what type of mp3 player to buy, you can always count on a bunch of idiots saying, "Not teh iPod! Teh iPod is evil!"
I hereby promise to never, ever use the word (if it can be called that) "teh" ever again. It just seems to be synonymous with elitist Internet rants.
04:33 AM [link]
Super Bowl Sunday
02.07.05
I made it through the Super Bowl without getting assaulted like I did last year when Will didn't notice he was squeezing my leg so hard that I yelped. Will was mildy horrified that I played my Gameboy Advance throughout the game and looked up for the commercials. My condolences go out to Kristy for the Eagles' loss.
I turn in my trial brief tomorrow, and I'm panicking because while I finished yesterday, I'm convinced there's something more I can do to it. I'm also not appreciating the fact that as soon as I turn it in, I'm being handed the assignment for the appellant brief that's due in March.
And then there's my realization that real attorneys write these things all the time. I think I want to stay a student forever.
01:04 AM [link]
Maybe there's another explanation for this
02.04.05
This week's Time magazine (yes, I'm finally reading Time during the week that it's relevant!) calls camera-equipped cell phones the "latest must-have tech product, with more than 31 million sold in North America last year alone."
I don't think it's an issue of it being a Must! Have! Product!, but rather that you simply can't buy a normal cell phone these days. When I went to Verizon to trade in my older, non-camera cell after my original contract was up, 95% of the options were camera phones. The other, non-camera-y 5% definitely weren't being pushed by the sales clerks.
Sure, I love the fact that I can have a picture of my sister's Chihuaua as my background (shhhh, don't tell my Yorkie), but I think that camera phones are the most superfluous fad ever.
10:33 AM [link]
Tons of magazines
02.03.05
My mom has been getting me subscriptions to every one of her magazines that offer a "renew and get another subscription free!" deal, so every few months, I start getting something new. "Self" came in the mail today, and I had no idea I was getting that. I even get Martha Stewart Living. I have no idea if I'll ever use a single recipe or craft or home tip out of it, but all the same, I get Martha Stewart Living.
I finally did something today that I've been saying I need to do for the last four years: get all of Jane Austen's books. I went to an absolutely fabulous bookstore down the street from my apartment, and they had a hardback edition of all of her writing on sale for $8.99. I wish I didn't have a trial brief to finish this weekend since I want to dive into it NOW; I'm completely looking forward to reading Pride and Prejudice again.
07:10 PM [link]
My ears are bleeding
02.01.05
The latest gossip in the music industry is that Jennifer Lopez stole the horn arrangement and some lyrics in her newest single from Usher.
I gotta say, what? Has anyone heard J.Lo's new song? The horns blaring in the background rank among some of the most annoying, ear-splitting, headache-causing sounds I've heard in a long while. People are fighting over who gets to use this sound effect?
I'm going to head back to my non-Top-40 music now. Call me if the radio ever starts playing something decent.
12:39 PM [link]