Embed Test

Swapping Asylum Testing

Cheese test

'Human Centipede' vs. 'Splice' -- Which Will Make Gladstone Throw Up?

Georgia Labor Department Posts Stripper Listing

Your Keyboard Can Make You Sick

Band of Horses Creates Gorgeous Americana on 'Infinite Arms'

Swapping Spinner Testing

F---ed Up's Damian Abraham Credits Sonic Youth / Nirvana Doc for Love of Music

Those Darlins' Member Injured, Fundraiser Scheduled, Tour Cancelled

Big Pink Return to Hendrix Studio for Second Album

Muse Announce UK Stadium Tour Support Acts

Swapping Testing

Axl Rose Sues Former Manager Over 'Secret Plan' to Force GNR Reunion from Spinner.

Have You Been Injured During Sex? from Lemondrop.

Art Brut's Eddie Argos Teaches History, Slams Avril Lavigne in New York from Spinner.

It's a Vintage Sex-Ed Video ... Starring Goldie Hawn! from Lemondrop.

Evil in Action

Once again, Radley Balko produces another bombshell investigative article. In his latest, Manufacturing Guilt? he provides video evidence showing the state medical examiner for Mississippi framing a man for murder.

West stands over Oliveaux's body, which now contains a striking red abrasion on her right cheek—an abrasion that wasn't there before. West then takes the plaster cast of Jimmie Duncan's teeth and pushes it into the scrape on Oliveaux's jaw. Over the next few minutes he jams, drags, and scrapes the dental mold across Oliveaux’s cheek 17 times. For the entire 24-minute video, West uses Duncan's teeth mold on Oliveaux's skin more than 50 times.

More terrifying is that the prosecutors and the judge on the case saw the video, and West's bite-mark 'analysis' was still presented as evidence at trial. Sick sick sick.

I'm A College Graduate

Well...IT'S OFFICIAL!!! I have officially been awarded a B.A in English with a concentration in Cultural Studies. I graduated from GMU with a 3.38 GPA!! I'm totally psyched about it :)!!! I can't wait to get my diploma. Mason is weird though, and won't ship it until mid-late February. It's exciting for me however, that my transcript has been updated to reflect my degree completion :)!

Below are some screen shots of a few key parts of my transcript since I can't show you my diploma yet :).

ALSO, I got a call back for a part-time tutoring job. So, wish me luck on getting that :)! I think it would be totally awesome to tutor and help out school kids a few hours a week!

Laters,

Livvy

Now You're Cookin'!

Too cute! Roy helped me make dinner for his first time tonight. I was making some fried, breaded pork chops, and I started out by offering to let him stand on a chair so he could see the counter and watch. But he kept pushing the chair closer until it was right up against the counter, so finally I asked him if he wanted to help make the pork chops? He shouted "chops!" and then watched as I dredged the first one, and then helped me do the rest. He was actually a very good helper, up until the point where he decided he should start dredging other things too. Then the cooking lesson had to end.

I'll have to ask mom, but I think Roy has me beat for earliest cooking experience now. :)

Oh, and while I'm at it, he makes a pretty cute dinosaur:



And here he is, just as the sugar rush started to hit:

Twilight

So, I went to see Twilight on Sunday. I really enjoyed it :)! I thought Bella's character in the movie was much more bearable than she was in the book. In fact, at the end of the movie, I felt that this story was much better suited to film than it was to its home medium, which is rare. Usually the book is better.

My favorite part of the movie though, was not a part of the movie itself, but the atmosphere in which I watched the film. There were the group of teenager girls sitting behind me, who would clap and hoot and sigh over EVERY SINGLE character as they were introduced on the big screen. With the guys, they'd say things like "OhmiGOD...he's sooo cute...I love him [giggle noise]." With the female characters, they say things like "ooohh...she's so pretty...I want to be her..."

The one scene where I expected to hear an "ohmigod" was the steamy kiss between Bella and Edward. The girly teenagers however, remained [uncomfortably(?)] silent throughout. Were they paying homage to the romance brewing between the two main characters? Or were they struggling with their teenager hormones, unsure of how to handle themselves? I guess I'll never know. But, I suspect it was the latter ;).

Go see Twilight! It was entertaining to say the least :)!

Thanksgiving Parade victim of an internet meme

OMG I cannot believe they rickrolled us during the Thanksgiving parade on TV.

Roy was sitting on the couch, glued to the imaginary friends performance, and all of a sudden there is Rick Astley himself, taking over the float. So wrong!

Evil Cat

We were all up at 3:30AM this morning, thanks to Bullseye. And I'm horribly sick with a cold, so I really did NOT need that. Damn cat. What was I thinking, saying I wanted a cat that weighed in excess of 20lbs??? Sure, he's a substantial bit of a cuddle, but his sheer need for the cuddling caused him to try breaking into Roy's room last night to wake the baby up. And his 20lb fat ass is why he's capable of pushing open the door. Argh. I'm tempted to let Roy play with a spray bottle of water today, for revenge.

Big Bad Teeth Chronicles

So, I finally broke down and went to the Dentist this morning after an EIGHT year long hiatus. Disgusting, I know! But, in my defense, I am a consistent twice a day brusher! And I floss at least once a week. So, I never thought my teeth were in that bad shape. So, let this be a warning to those of you who do not go to the dentist for regular checkups: IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! It was just like the one and only episode of Dr. Katz that I remember. The one where he goes to the Dentist, and the Dentist says, "That's odd. Your gums are bleeding." And the dude goes, "They weren't bleeding when I came in here. I think you're doing that."

First, they wouldn't shut up about how dirty my teeth were. Which I didn't think was the case, but apparently I am not an expert on plaque build-up. Then they found like SIX cavities. This is very sad for me because I've only ever had ONE my entire life. So, that is like 1 cavity a year, almost. Soooo sad. Then they did this pressure test on my gums. The notion was that if my gums were healthy, they should not be too sensitive or start to bleed when prodded with a pick...Mine were a little too sensitive; they bled easily. But, they were not horribly sensitive...only just barely over the limit and mostly the sensitive areas were concentrated in the part of my mouth where the majority of the cavities were.

After all this torture, the Dentist tells me that he will not be giving me a standard cleaning today, because my gums need some therapy time. Or whatever that crap means! Basically I got robbed.

The hygenist came and prodded underneath my gums a little until they bled some more, under the pretense of cleaning away the bad germs that were making my gums so sensitive. Hysterical...I know. It hurt so bad, that she had to use a topical anasthetic to "take the edge off." Apparently this is not standard, because she started her "cleaning" without it. While she was scraping, she'd mutter small comments about how hard it is to remove plaque that has been allowed to build up for so long of a time. And then I'd here her increase the scraping pressure. It was horrible. She was also wearing this scary mask that you might see a scary man wearing if he was like welding metal. Except it was plastic. Totally intense.

This whole process was/is called "Soft Tissue Therapy." I will be engaging in it for the next 4 weeks. It includes (HAHA): brushing 3 times a day (not just 2), using mouth wash daily, and flossing daily; so completely different from the typical dentist recommendations...I know! It included a brand new Oral B Triumph electric, rechargeable toothbrush. This is where I got robbed. My bill was 288.00 AFTER insurance! It was close to 600.00 before. That included the 25.00 copay, the 100.00 new patient fee, and then I guess a 163.00 toothbrush?! I didn't think to ask ahead of time...:(. Silly me. I suppose I am not too dissappointed, because my teeth were in pretty bad shape. After all, SIX cavities is a lot. I'm terrified to think how much it will cost me to get them all filled. I guess I will find out on Thursday, when I go in for my consultation :(.

Stay tuned....

Childhood Milestones

Today, Roy started singing. He's said his A-B-C's and even used the same cadence as the tune when he does it, but he's never really tried holding a melody before. This morning, he busted out with "Sing, sing a song" from Sesame Street. I can't wait til he's sitting in front of the mirror in the hallway and making up lyrics and tunes of his own, like his aunt Anna used to!

And also, tonight I read Roy the last story in the Hans Cristian Andersen collection. It took nearly a year to get through all nine-hundred-seven pages of it, but finally did it. So now I'm digging through my books to figure out what to read him next... I was thinking "The King of Elfland's Daughter" because I'm already about halfway through it and I think its really pretty, or I could go in an entirely different direction and start him on some Edgar Rice Burroughs. Any suggestions? (Keeping in mind please, that he isn't even three yet.)

Army Ten Miler

So, this past Sunday, I ran in the 2008 Army 10 Miler, in Arlington, VA. It was exhausting! And even though I trained all summer--only slacking off like the 2 or 3 weeks before the race--I still managed to do pretty terribly. I ran the first 5 miles without stopping, but at mile 5, I guess I lost all of my energy and had to walk for a bit. I walk/slogged the last 5 miles. I was really dissapointed in myself especially because the previous Sunday, I ran 9 miles without stopping, and averaged an 11:33 second mile!! So, I'm like...wtf?!

Anywho, this is my second 10 mile race. I ran in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in 2007, which I think I did decently good in. In that race I averaged a 10:54 min mile (if I remember correctly), but in this one, I averaged a 12:35 min mile, so you can see how I did worse. But, even though I did worse, I still enjoyed myself and look forward to the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler next April!

I also look forward to running the 5k Turkey Trot with everyone in November :)! See you all at the race!

I ran the Army 10 Miler with Melissa and Kristin. Here is a picture! I'm actually squatting down because they are both so short, yet still I tower over them!

Chronicles of Cute

As a hide and seek superstar...


As a mechanic's assistant...


As a lazy hiker...

Letter to my Congressman

* Names have been changed to protect the innocent

Mr. Wolf,

After watching last night's senate debate on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and reading the text of the legislation for myself, I feel compelled to share my views on this issue in the hopes that you will change your mind from your previous vote. While a lot of work has been put into this plan, it still does not address the true issue behind our problems. I agree that the plan will a) stabilize the stock market; b) rid banks of troubled assets to encourage/assist them in lending; and c) most likely profit the Unites States government after a period of years. However, with this being said, I believe that this act is still contrary to the best interests of the American people.



A number of things amaze me about the events of the last few weeks. First are the arguments that we need to act or else millions of Americans will not be able to obtain credit to buy homes and cars. Isn't that one of the basic reasons why we are having this problem? We extended lines of credit to people who should not have been eligible, and we are suffering because they defaulted. What lies next, and is supported by a number of studies in addition to numerous credit card companies raising capital to offset losses, is the impending collapse of our credit card companies when millions of individuals start defaulting on their credit card debt.



The second thing that amazes me is the fact that Congress has rushed to put together a plan so quickly, and there is still no program established to manage these funds. Why the rush when the act that you propose still gives up to 45 days for the Secretary to determine how he will spend the money you authorize him? Shouldn't this be a requirement before we pass this act? I've included an excerpt detailing all of the guidelines that have yet to be established, most of which should be essential to know prior to the enactment of this Act:



Section 101(d) PROGRAM GUIDELINES. — "Before the earlier of the end of the 2-business-day period beginning on the date of the first purchase of troubled assets pursuant to the authority under this section or the end of the 45-day period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall publish program guidelines, including the following:



(1) Mechanisms for purchasing troubled assets.

(2) Methods for pricing and valuing troubled assets.

(3) Procedures for selecting asset managers.

(4) Criteria for identifying troubled assets for purchase."



The next excerpt deals with preventing unjust enrichment.



Section 101(e) PREVENTING UNJUST ENRICHMENT. — "In making purchases under the authority of this Act, the Secretary shall take such steps as may be necessary to prevent unjust enrichment of financial institutions participating in a program established under this section, including by preventing the sale of a troubled asset to the Secretary at a higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the asset. This subsection does not apply to troubled assets acquired in a merger or acquisition, or a purchase of assets from a financial institution in conservatorship or receivership, or that has initiated bankruptcy proceedings under title 11, United States Code."



It should go without saying that we should not pay a higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the asset. Should we not take it a step further and state that we not pay more than current fair market value if we are truly worried about unjust enrichment?


Section 104 outlines the membership of the Financial Stability Oversight Board, which include the following individuals and who will meet 14 days after the first exercise and every month thereafter:



(1) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System;

(2) the Secretary;

(3) the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency;

(4) the Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission; and

(5) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.



It follows later in 104(g) that " (g) REPORTS.—The Financial Stability Oversight Board shall report to the appropriate committees of Congress and the Congressional Oversight Panel established under section 125, not less frequently than quarterly, on the matters described under subsection (a)(1)."



I hope you agree with me when I tell you that this does not provide adequate oversight of money that can already be spent by the time any action can be taken by the board or the panel. Perhaps the board should meet after the establishment of the program guidelines and BEFORE any money is spent and the panel should be required to meet more frequently than a quarterly basis.



Section 108 outlines conflicts of interest. I've included the text below, which is interesting considering the Secretary's decision to rescue AIG, which saved his former firm of Goldman Sachs approximately $20 billion, and another decision to hire Morgan Stanley in August to advise the GSEs, which later collapsed to the cost of billions to taxpayers and investors.



"SEC. 108. CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.

(a) STANDARDS REQUIRED.—The Secretary shall issue regulations or guidelines necessary to address and manage or to prohibit conflicts of interest that may arise in connection with the administration and execution of the authorities provided under this Act, including—



(1) conflicts arising in the selection or hiring of contractors or advisors, including asset managers;

(2) the purchase of troubled assets;

(3) the management of the troubled assets held;

(4) post-employment restrictions on employees; and

(5) any other potential conflict of interest, as the Secretary deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest."



Being that I am simply a school teacher and a veteran of both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, I will not begin to pretend that I understand the sections on executive compensation. However, I did read through Sections 111 and 302, and what troubles me is that I don't believe it ever states a specific dollar amount when it comes to executive pay. I suggest that we tie it to the salary of the President of the United States, but I think that is even too much.



What concerns me most about your statement and many similar statements made by supporters of the act is that you have heard from tens of thousands of voters who have asked you not to support this legislation. However, the assumption is that most of these people are not educated with regards to the overall impact if we do not act now. I contend that many of us understand the impact all too well, and we urge you not to support it.

My Idea for 'The Bailout'

$700,000,000,000* is roughly 50% of the individual income tax collected by the U.S. in 2006. (I couldn't find 2007 numbers.)

So here's my alternative plan for bailing out the economy: Instead of giving the assholes that got us into this mess that $700,000,000,000, why doesn't the Govt cut refund checks equal to 50% of the individual income taxes each of us paid for 2007? I don't know about you guys, but for me, 50% of my individual income tax isn't small potatoes.

A large chunk of that would go to paying down debt. Another large chunk of that would go into my savings account - injecting my bank with the additional liquidity they claim they so badly need. Those homeowners having trouble paying for their mortgage would have a cash infusion that - if they actually are responsible - would go a long way to avoiding foreclosure. Less foreclosures = good for businesses with too many mortgage-backed securities and the housing market. Giving the money directly back to the people who sent it into the Govt in the first place strikes me as a better idea than throwing tons of cash at a crew of executives who made really stupid decisions and are now trying to avoid any consequences for it. And it's more fair, since it's not screwing over renters and people who lived within their budget rather than going out and buying a McMansion on a liar-loan - everyone gets money back, instead of giving money to just the people who couldn't resist doing dumb shit.

Even if a certain percentage of people in financial trouble turn around and blow the windfall on new rims, video games and weed, rather than avoiding foreclosure or paying their bills? They may end up losing their homes anyway, but they'd totally deserve it, and spending all that money still helps the economy.

I don't think my plan is any dumber than giving a bunch of failing companies a shit-ton of cash with no oversight. Instead of giving all of our money to people who have already demonstrated they're too stupid or too corrupt to use it wisely, and just hoping we see the benefits down the line, give the money to us, and we can decide which companies we want to save by investing in them through savings, purchases, and well, actual investing.

* Saying 'billion' just doesn't have the same impact that that insane line of zeroes does. Billion is only two syllables. Typing out enough zeroes to make a billion takes counting up to 11 while I hit the 0 key.

Across the Universe

I just finished watching Across the Universe. It's awesome. I loved it. I think everyone should watch it. It's a musical--utilizing only songs from the Beatles--about two people who fall in love during the 1960s Peace Movement, and how the events and aesthetics of that time mold and shape their relationship (but also the relationships of those around them). I figured it would be fantastic though because it stars Evan Rachel Wood, who I think is a spectacular actress. I can't think of a movie that I've seen her in that I didn't enjoy. Also, it's from director Julie Taymor, whom I also find very talented. She directed the 1999 film version of Shakespeare's play "Titus Andronicus"--probably one of his more twisted pieces--entitled Titus, which I also loved. So, everyone should go watch that too!

I thought Across the Universe not only did a wonderful job utilizing the Beatles' songs as a narrative device, but I felt that it also strongly captured the essence of their music. I think the only thing that irritated me while watching this film ***SPOILER ALERT*** was the fact that Direct TV summarized it as a story about two "star-crossed" lovers. This led me to believe that the ending would be one of those sad and pitiful ones where one, or both, of the main characters die. So, it kind of sucked when the two lovers had hit their low point, and then the direction of the film seemed to be getting more and more uplifting. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen, but it never did. This film had a perfectly happy ending and I kind of felt as if my anticipating their doom hindered the full effect the film could have had on me.

***BORING ANALYSIS*** One of the things I thought special though, was the cinematography of the film. I love artsy fartsy camera, sound, and lighting work because it makes you think. Example: I thought the ending of Across the Universe was at once both consistent AND contradictory with the narrative and cinematography of the film. Just as the Peace Movement frames the narrative, so does the cinematography; It plays around with the structure and shape of the narrative through movement and color. What I thought was most interesting about this though, was that the 1960's Peace Movement was all about freedom of expression and peace, which Taylor shows effectively through her fun use of camera work and narrative, but at the same time fails to express through these very modes. One: She is limited to the film medium, which is made all that more obvious with her manipulation of said medium. Two: The narrative is classic Hollywood. As I mentioned above, the film has the typically happy Hollywood ending, which to me says "conformity." It seems almost tongue in cheek. Perhaps it was, given the time in which the film was made ;).

Anyhow! It's a fun movie to watch :), but also moving. I cried a few times...

It's Official!!

Soooo. It's official :)! Nick has finally gotten promoted. He is now an Assistant Store Manager for Starbucks. He fills out his paperwork on the 3rd, but his title has already been changed. We are happy : )! It has been a very long time in coming!!

CONGRATULATIONS NICK!!!

Death of a Fox

I killed a fox last night with my automobile. It jumped in from of my car and I had no time at all to respond except to scream, "NO! Don't do that!" One second later, and it would have landed on my hood; that is how close it was :(. I started crying immediately and didn't stop for about 40 minutes. After it happened, I turned around to see if maybe I had imagined the whole horrible incident, but no such luck. In the middle of the road was a dead animal. Then--because it was dark and couldn't see exactly what it was I had hit--I started wondering if maybe I had killed someone's cat, which made me even more sad. So, this morning I drove by it again, to see what exactly I had hit--for peace of mind, but also so that I could mourn it properly--and it was not a cat, but definitely a fox.

So, I am so sorry that I killed you little fox. May your soul rest in peace.

Google Chrome - niftykeen

Of course I couldn't resist checking out google's new beta browser, 'Chrome'. I'm actually writing this post using it right now. Initial impression - this thing is nifty. Sure, there will be some getting used to the feel and I haven't gotten into many of the special features yet, but on Vista it's rendering the pages lightning-fast and has some built-in features that are ideal for QA - like the Inspector:

It shows page load graphs, element sizes, and has a full element inspector that will let you go through the source line by line, show dimensions, css, etc. All things I had to install Firebug to do in FF.

Even better is the Task Manager, which will break down memory, cpu and network usage for each of the apps/processes running within your browser. Now you can easily see if it's really your page or if it's the 20 gossip blogs you have open in the background that are killing your browser.

So far I'm liking it. I dunno if it'll replace my beloved Firefox, or even if I want it to, but right out of the box it includes some pretty nifty features that make it worth playing around with.