Peace Offering

Well, it's been a long time. So I've decided to share a few of the sites that have been keeping me occupied (and away from Blogger) recently. Here they are, in no particular order:

Weather Underground
As you may know, I'm into the weather and like to be informed about meteorological news. This site is great for all browsers, and my favorite feature is that it tells you how the next day's weather will compare to today's. For example, currently "Tomorrow is forecast to be nearly the same temperature as today." Why don't all weather sites and forecasts give you this information? 'Cause isn't that what we really need to know, anyway?

YouTube
Well, duh. But some of my preferred searches include "Tegan and Sara The Con," "Beth Ditto Friday Night Project," and "kittens falling asleep."

Ikea
The entire Ikea catalogue is now online. It's so mezmerizing!

Re-ment
So many minis!!!

Vagina Pagina
This is a great resource for women's health topics with useful and cool links to other health sites, sex-info sites, blogs, etc. Plus, no matter how your pronounce it (en español or rhyming English), it has an awesome name.

CuteOverload
Something happened and CO wasn't as cute as it had been. But now it's back with the full-on cuteness. (Whew!)

What sites have YOU been browsing/obsessed with?

Major League Woes

In case you didn't know, I became a baseball fan (well, an A's fan, to be more precise) during last year's play-offs. The fandom had been slowly growing ever since I went to a few A's games--and saw some games on TV; and heard some games on the radio; and sometimes saw the game on the TV and heard it on the radio (simultaneously) two summers ago. (Guess who I was living with!) But it really came into fruition the day I followed a game on ESPN.com, alone in my apartment, while wearing a rally hat and yelling at the cold computer screen. Suddenly, I was a Fan. And I had a few new crushes: Barry "Dreamboat" Zito (of course), Bobby Kielty (for the hair), and Nick Swisher (for the somehow gross-yet-alluring stoner quality). Well, and Houston Street is pretty cute too. In any case, I followed the play-off games and learned all kinds of fascinating facts about baseball and the team (but mostly about Dreamboat). Oh, and how I learned to love the LingO!

And then they lost! So sad. But I was looking forward to the next season 'cause, as you know, there's always next year . . .

But then--tragedy! Dreamboat left! (Yes, he deserves the money, but what about me?!) What was I to do? Follow him to the Giants--and that terrible orange color? Abandon all of my other junior Dreamies? But I couldn't leave Barry! He's 6'4"! He does yoga! He plays the guitar while surfing! (Well, something like that.) Oh, and he's a good pitcher.

So, anyway, now that the season has begun, I've decided that I must stay true to the A's. I check in on Dreamboat every once is a while, but it's so hard to see him in that drab uniform. And who cares about those other people walking around on the field with him? Unless Albert Pujols suddenly shows up on the Giants' roster, I will never be able to muster any more interest in that team. I do hope that Barry is happy there, though. And I sure hope he likes orange.

Anyway, the point of this post is just a lamentation over the loss of Dreamboat. I still have faith in the A's. And I'll keep wearing my rally hat! (Until they move to Fremont. Then I'll spend my days hatless, crying over times gone by--and for all of the dreamboats I once loved.)

Alanis, Fergie, or Jennifer Love Hewitt?

My supercool and awesome friend Gaby sent me this link to a crazy video on YouTube. You need to watch it now! And then tell me: Is Alanis making fun of herself or Fergie? I can't really tell. And, weirder still, I hope Alanis is making fun of herself because I'm feeling very protective of Fergie these days. Ever since I learned all of the words to "London Bridge" for a karaoke party a little while ago, I've had a soft spot for Fergie. I think it's her unabashed embrace of the nonsensical that has endeared her to me. (Or the fact that her case of swamp ass just might rival mine! I don't believe that "peed her pants" theory--also thanks to Gaby.) I do NOT like the Black Eyed Peas with Fergie, though. I don't know why. Well, I have an idea why, which has to do with a little song that some of us may know as "Let's Get It Started." But that was still Fergie. So, who knows how my mind works? Anyway . . .

Also on the topic of Fergie, I submit that she and Gwen Stefani are actually very similar. Some may say that Fergie is a bad imitation of Gwen, but I'm not sure that it's so one-way. Thoughts?

New Study Disses Day Care

Today, the New York Times reported (here) on a study that claims that young kids who are in day care for at least 10 hours a week for at least a year are "more disruptive" when they start school. And, apparently, this diruptiveness continues through 6th grade. (But then what? Everyone becomes equally disruptive? Or I guess the disruptiveness jusst becomes an equal-opportunity thing by that point.) In any case, I can't decide if the article itself is pointless--along with the study--or if it's just the study that's crap. This is how the NYT describes the new-found evidence of the day care/disruption connection:

The effect [of day care on behavior] was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.

So, what's the point of this study? And why report on it as if the findings mean anything? I may have a bit of a personal bias against the anti-day-care position, partially because it seems to go hand-in-hand with a discussion of stay-at-home vs. working moms. Um, hello? Haven't we decided that mothers are not the only people who are responsible for or capable of taking care of children? And maybe the problem is with how preschoolers are scoialized in general. Or the weird chemicals, hormones, antibiotics, and mutant genes in their food. Or the way they are expected to behave/are treated once they get to school. But it's probably just easier to blame it all on moms. 'Cause we know they don't care about kids anyway.

Hello again.

Hello, dear readers. I'm back! It's been a while since I posted here, but--in my defense--I do have two drafts of posts waiting to be born. I'm not going to post them now, though. One will eventually show up here and the other will probably just remain a reminder of time gone by. But I will tell you that my list of pet peeves includes the words, "tummy," "yummy," and "comfy." And now, in the spirit of newness and positive thinking, here are some things for which I am grateful:

• modern dentistry
• hippie food
  
• The Search for the Next [Pussycat] Doll
• karaoke with friends and/or strangers
• flash drives!

And there you have it.

Who are you rooting for to become the next Doll? I'm not totally sure. Probably Sisely. But I don't have as many strong feelings about the Dolls (except toward one contestant, but to say it would go against my positivity pledge). I do, however, have very strong feelings about Diana on America's Next Top Model. (I heart her! A lot.)

Blog for Choice

MNS told me that today (ok, technically yesterday, but I haven't gone to sleep yet so for me it's still today) is Blog for Choice Day and that bloggers for choice are encouraged to blog about why they're pro-choice.

So, here it is: I'm pro-choice because I believe that no one should be forced to give birth. I've never articulated my stance so succinctly or in that exact way before, but I think that that's it in a nutshell. At a reading for her co-edited book, Bitchfest, Lisa Jervis encouraged the audience to start calling the anti-choice movement the "forced childbirth movement;" and I liked the idea. I don't know if it's necessarily the best possible phrase out there, but I do find it helpful to move away from the notion of "choice" as what appears to be the only widely recognized way to articulate a "pro-choice" position. "Choice" is tough to define and harder to assure that everyone has. "Choice" also has a kind of flippant or mutable connotation that doesn't always suit abortion--"choice" as a broad concept, I think, is difficult to separate from the more ubiquitous and specific notion of "consumer choice" in the US. Abortion isn't merely about "choice" or even "rights," but about labor, health, opportunity, binary gender, notions of family . . . the list goes on. To frame the debate as an issue of "choice" may, strangely enough, move the discussion too far from the fundamental issue in the "abortion debates": who decides when and which women can or cannot give birth? But even now we're touching on forced sterilization, reproductive healthcare, organization of the workplace and the economy . . . again, the list goes on! So why not just parse it down to the bare bones problem: no one should be forced to give birth. Sounds right to me.

What does everyone else think?

Charlotte and Miranda choose their choices.

Total Overload

If you do nothing else today, go to Cute Overload. Watch the videos of the tiger cub and the scuba diving cat. You. Will. Die! Of cuteness!