paying for good grades??

where was this "capital gains" pilot program when i was in middle school???

i agree w/ Mr. Fryer something needs to be done to close the academic gap between white & minority kids, but don't think monetary incentives are the answer... and how did suntrust get the contract to be the bank for the kids' accounts??

also read on my lunch break about the shooting on sunday :( it's crazy b/c we road past it a little after it happened... scary stuff

there should be more than 24hrs in a day... or more than 1 me

so took a look at my handy dandy planner this am- my memory isn't as good as it should be, plus i always have 20 diff things to do on any given day! noticed my last college roomie was coming into town today (yeaaaaaaaaah), but in my mind thought it was tomorrow (o, dear).

just spoke w/ her, smoe, & chic-fil-a to coordinate how i'm going to meet everyone's needs. after 5 minutes of stress, a proposition, a happy greeting from an employee at the chic-fil-a in silver spring, a quick internet search, some chuckles, some giggles, confusion, best buy making a great decision, i've arrived at a plan.

here it goes: i'll meet smoe at metro at 4:30 to get his phone (my cell has been out of commission for weeks!); then he'll go to his spanish class until 9pm... meanwhile i'm not going to my historymakers volunteer meeting at 7:30 (i'll go to the one next week). instead of the meeting i'll run w/ the pg running club at 7, and leave at 8:30ish... meanwhile, roomie's flight gets in from ny around 8, b/c she has a hankering for chic-fil-a she's determined to land, take metro straight to chi-fil-a.... here's the kicker there's 1 me, 1 bobbi (car) & 2 lovely folks which need to be picked up from their designated areas.

songs o' the day:
mother, mother (tracy bonham) ... forgot about this song till i saw it on my bro's book of face profile... gotta love the 90s!
mmm mmm mmm mmm (crash test dummies) ... another great 90s song

Banned Books Week 2008 (Sept 27-Oct 4)

so want to go to lunch, but can't leave my desk until 2 (i always listen to bbc's world have your say at 1). they're talking about a super controversial book called the jewel of medina. apparently it's a fake account about Muhammad's child bride. random house was supposed to to publish it, but canceled due to warnings that it would provoke terrorist actions from "radical muslims". gibson square agreed to publish next month, yet the publisher's home was targeted in a firebomb attack on Saturday. w/ all this hoopla i kind of want to read it now (depending on how many pages though)...

i do want to read 1 on the books off of the list of top 10 banned books in '07 though.

are there really certain issues we should never tackle in print? religion? racism? sexuality? sould books be rated? if yes, how/who regulates books? people are silly & are always going to have a problem w/ something. i've wanted to buy my niece the and tango makes three book for a minute, but not sure if my brother think she may be too young (she's 5 or 6?). in addition to exposing kids to homosexuality, it's dope bc it's based on a true story! think i may just buy it for her for christmas & see what happens :)

sad, but true

as a woman looking forward to adopting a son (I call him "carmicheal" for now), i find it very very disheartening when i hear about neglect & abuse of kids. a story out of lusby, md has particularly blown me away. apparently, some loser adopts 3 girls. two of the girls have been dead & in her freezer since february! this went unnoticed, except when the surviving 7 year old jumped out of the window of the room she was locked in (def don't blame her)... apparently she "appeared to be extremely abused & neglected". (click here for full story)


quite horrific i know, so naturally you think where does responsibility lie?? schools to check in? where they even enrolled in school? couldn't the "mom" just say she transferred them out? neighbors/neighbors kids?? the "mom"'s friends/family?? did the girls slip through "the system", another blow for the D.C. Child & Family Services as they are still rebounding from the case of 4 dead girls in southeast earlier this year (from the lil bit i know about the agency, their budget is tight & the folks have like 1,000 cases each)!


too many questions not enough answers! all i know is i'm tired of seeing children suffer b/c adults can't get their crap together. not sure if the problem in dc is funds, resources, regulation, etc but come fenty let's get it together & ind the root (i know it's easier said than done, so i apologize for my over simplification)...


on another note, forgot to post this on friday. a story by kathleen parker, a "conservative columnists" suggesting palin step down, as she is "out of her league" .... your thoughts?

my neck, my back...

my neck, my back... ok more like my right knee & my back.... still sore. it's a beautiful day though so i'll limp and be happy.

sad to report i had a nightmare last nite! didn't know grown ups could still get these... if it makes it any better it was a grown up nightmare though. no, no it wasn't about me not getting a loan for school or my 401k & 1 cent being left in the retirement plan! it was about work though.

had a dream i was at a board meeting for work (i imagine this was december's) & i was presenting survey results when an associate starts freestyling! startled, trustees at the table turn around to find an audience sitting behind us! her rap had good, clean, informative lines b/c the board wasn't upset at all. next a friend of mine from high school gets in on the act & they're going back and forth as the board's eating it up, and i'm left stuck like "huh"? afterward the treasurer of our board comes over to me & says "see, that's what the board wants, to be entertained." i reply "um, that's great but i have 3 more items i want to cover. shall i report them or just write it into the minutes?" to this day i still don't know the answer b/c she made another comment then walked away and i woke up soon after. not sure what that means at all b/c don't have anything planned for monday, so wouldn't be stressed about work... before i went to bed was watching something on tv about fig wasps (nematodes look cool for half a second b/c they're clear but all in all they're disgusting).

random thought o' the day: why do off-brand lucky charms (think they're called magic stars or something) have like a 1:13 marshmallow to oat ratio?? think next time i'll pay more & buy the real thing :)

songs o' the day:

hotel california (eagles) ... regardless of what genre of music you're into think you can agree this song is great! maybe?
my neck (khia) ... raunchy? yes, very! but this song is timeless

10k day!

so today was my 10k (6.2 mi) race... let's just say, um glad it's over! started off going up hill immediately which i didn't expect (didn't bother reviewing the race route), then it was drizzling a bit, worst of all my ipod konked out so i was left to run majority of the way fighting thoughts of me wanting to walk & singing songs in my head (actually glad it happened b/c can't bring ipod to 10miler). smoe went to the run w/ me so he saw me off & was there to meet me afterward... no no not at the finish line... but in the car, sleeping :)

lessons learned: (1)train, train, train; (2) stretch, stretch, stretch; (3) don't go out before a race over 3.2 miles! def shoulda went to bed earlier, but glad i saw smoe's friends, then went to (stood outside) layla lounge & stopped by redhead's bday get together b/c ran into folks i haven't seen in a while. i absolutely adore my friends, they're always up to something fascinating. i.e. redhead's gonna have his name in lights 1 day :); my buddy pedro who works for an embassy in dc was in new york last week for un meetings. i was super jealous until he told me he spent majority of his time in his country's embassy up there, but did have a chance to hear his president speak... apparently some journalists stopped in the lobby & wanted to talk to the president & he replied, you're attractive, africans like attractive females so you should have no problems getting to him... but aparently she never got to speak w/ him.

anywho, the rest of my day flew by as i ran some errands & finally went home bc had a blazing headache.

later met up w/ the 1 & only shrinking violet (her blog). after i picked her up we deemed it "no rules, just right" sunday & were off! i wanted to stop by adams morgan to get something fatty & chocolatey but decided to go thrifting instead, on our way we saw commotion in an alley off of u street (per request we just had to look into the situation)- apparently there was a shooting :(

on our way to the thrift store that didn't exist we passed another 1 & decided to stop there... along the way we had one of our whenever-in town-deep-elitist-mature convos covering essential topics, such as: "why georgia ave looks shady"; "who says 'honky'"; "why 'black parties' run out of liquor, but 'white parties' don't"; "reasons why she shouldn't dress up like a black lady to fit into a halloween party", etc.

my headache from this am is finally gone... probably due in part to the chunky monkey oreo shake i had from silver diner 2 hours ago. goodnite & good luck...

songs o' the day:
romeo (Basement Jaxx) ... another great song is broken dreams (Basement Jaxx) thanks to 1 of my bro's i discovered how awesome this song was and still is years later!!

history channel makes me happy

so i always plan to sleep in on weekends but never do. woke up early, talked to comcast folks and added showtime & starz... again, don't watch tv like that but it's a promo so was actually cheaper than merely having hbo...

after waking up to a debate on the debate last nite decided, for my sanity, to take a break from watching election '08 coverage on cnn, msnbc, fox news etc. so instead of cartoons turned to one of my other favs, history & discovery channels.

on history channel there was a special about the presidents. on discovery that show "dirty jobs" was on. he was exploring the bizness of "sexing chics"... no no kids, not porn but people who separate guy from gal chics (clearly gal chics are priced higher). later on they showed the host as a horse breeder, which doesn't sound that bad until they showed how they get "the stuff" out of studs & I almost threw up the leftover pho I had for breakfast...

on the history channel they had the history of president series... missed half of part 1, saw all of part 2 now i'm about to put the 8 part series (dvd boxset) on my xmas list!! w/ my attention span the show gave me enough info (and fun facts) about each president to keep me interested!! it's def a must see, so check your local listings...

just heard someone say "from the get go", wonder where that expression originated...

songs o' the day:
paper planes (m.i.a.)
swagger like us (ti feat. kanyeezy, wayne, jayz); "learn how to dress just by checkin my fresh (repeat)", "you can pay for school, but you can't buy class" haha!

"ethnic gourmet" rocks

very random, but just got back from the break room where i had a surprisingly tasty lunch!

i had ethnic gourmet's (taste of india) palak paneer dinner (pretty much spinach & cheese cubes). cc happened to be in the lunch room when i was eating so when i first saw it i was complaining about how it looks nothing like the box and the spinach didn't look good at all. after eating it i was a huuuuge fan.

so much so that i went back to get the box so i can write the company & tell them i was impressed. who knows, maybe they'll send me a coupon for more (i've heard such things happen at nice companies). then i went to cc's office, where she ridiculed me & took this pic :)

personal life vs professional life

as more and more social networking sites pop up it's important to know what you're putting out there! i think i'm fairly connected w/ folks via my book of face (facebook to most); linked in; twitter; now this blog. i'm also mindful of the content i send out on all of my social networking sites... i.e. after becoming "friends" with an intern at my organization i def had to go unto the book of face and take down some party pics a friend added!

i'm a fan of transparency and letting it all hang out, but there's my personal life & my work. as a generation Y-er i know the difference, so one would assume that older individuals would as well. unfortunately, that's not always the case.... i was slightly annoyed after reading Twitter, Facebook and Charitable Campaigning. not with the author, as i thought it was a well-written piece (unfortunate that it had to be written though). i was annoyed w/ silly people.

In it, he explains:

Section 501(c)(3) prohibits charities from intervening in political campaigns, either for or against a candidate. The prohibition is absolute; if the IRS so decides it's one strike and yer out. Yet if you pay careful attention to charitable Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, message boards and other social media, you can find any number of accounts associated with 501(c)(3) managers also being used to tout Obama, slam Palin, raise funds for a political party and so forth.

i'm a fan of freedom of speech; i understand this current election is emotional, and too close for comfort for some so it's natural to have pride in your candidate. as a person who works for, volunteers with (several), donates to nonprofit organizations i'm amazed that some would walk so close to the line w/o making clear distinctions of personal thought & thoughts on behalf of their organization. use your organization/work voice to talk about your mission, cause, send messages; use your personal/individual voice to give social commentary.

i encourage those interested to check out the article.

macgyver, money & my life...

so yesterday after getting off work & fake rapping my lil heart out to "vans" i blew off a cbc happy hour i rsvp'd for and went home sweet home. to complete the compliment i got that am i received another one as i walked from metro to bobbi brown (my car). like 93% of compliments i get it was in 1 ear & out the other b/c i was tired...

once home i thought about working out, but decided to eat dinner 1st then relax for a little then run (bad idea)... after eating i realized the satellite signal was down so none of my channels worked (darn you comcast)! i was going to watch smoe's shin shan dvds but decided to watch my fav series: macgyver! as i'm trying to savor every second of viewing pleasure, i've been going uber slow through my macgyver seasons. i'm on season 3 rite now. last nite i had the pleasure of watching episode #55 entitled "kill zone". it started off great, b/c richard dean anderson (actor who plays mac) was in the opening scene!

as it unfolded i realized the episode took it's inspiration from the movie andromeda strain. the only reason i know that is b/c i just happened to see the movie over the weekend on demand... proof again that mac & i were meant to be! just think if i hadn't seen the movie i wouldn't have seen the many similarities in the episode, which made it even more enjoyable :) ok i digress from my nerdiness

so i'm still trying to wrap my head around this financial crisis situation we're in... this am i was reading my time in the gym & they did an awesome job in succinctly explaining what's going on. with this being said, if taxpayers are paying for wall street's excesses, think we need something other than a promise that we're keeping america strong... how about a holiday? to mark the day the hard working, everyday folks bailed companies out??... ok maybe that's not the most logical thing, but i just like getting days off :)

b/c i woke up uber early to work out i also had a chance to read some usaa booklet i got in the mail yesterday. in it they did a spread about myth busters, such as do owners of red cars pay higher insurance (no, not based on color, but if you have a little red corvette yes b/c it's a more expensive car); if you rent does the landlord cover your stuff if something happens to it (nope, but apparently renter's insurance is cheap, etc). one question was "i'm young, healthy, do i really have to worry about life insurance"... that caught my eye b/c it sounded like me. the response was "honestly, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. who will be available to cover your funeral costs" it was advised that the earlier you look into life insurance the better, as it gets more expensive in time. good to know as me dying wasn't even on my radar, point noted usaa...

songs of the day
thom yorke: eraser; i already knew radiohead was great, but thanks to my bro i discovered (late) the lead singer's solo efforts were good stuff too!

child rebel soldier (crs): us placers; awesome song & very cute video! also a pretty good verse from pharrell

forgot your biz cards??

so don't you hate when you're talking to somone and you ralize you ran out or left you biz cards?? this guy had an awesome solution of creating a website folks can access to get his info:
a must read

skipping my morning cup o' joe??

allow me to reintroduce myself ... ok not really, but that songs in my head b/c i was listening to jayz all am as i was working it out on the treadmill!! (yes, yes i was running at 6am as i have that 10k in 3 days... better late than never right??)

bbc world news is the best thing to watch in the am, until i discovered msnbc's morning joe! bbc news is still amazing, but morning joe (think it took imus' old spot?) had a good mix of news & "news you can't use" (random stories) to hold my attention...yes, hold my attention :)

willie is great, joe is joe (a neo-conservative?), but mika seems perturbed about something... you may remember her from the ripping up paris hilton story but it seems like for the past few weeks mika's been a bit angry... this am her & joe were going back and forth about if cbs and/or cbs news knew about mccain blowing off david letterman to do a katie couric interview the same afternoon. after working out i found their banter a bit much for the tired, happy state i was in. which brings me to the title of the blog, think i may watch the show like every other day, i can't deal w/ condescending comments so early in the am... plus i like the bbc reporter's accents better!

outside of that so far so good on this (chilly) thursday morn. after being stuck in random traffic i was rushing to metro, and was told i was "fine as all outdoors" so that's always nice... then ran into a buddy who liked my hair, but not bush or the cbc (congressional black caucus, not canadian broadcast channel for you slowskis). he said he's going to crash an event this week b/c he "doesn't respect them b/c no one's stood up against the bailout bill or even come before america to explain what the bailout would mean for everyday folks"... he's offbeat funny, an intelligent kid, just didn't realize he had a radical side... we went on to talk about motorcycles, bikes (he would never ride his bike outside of takoma park b/c he may run into someone he knows & be embarrassed), some kids he found for me to adopt, etc. the usual banter...

songs of the day:
santogold's "anne"
justice's "dance".... this song rocks!! if you have nothing else to do you should check out the video for their song stress b/c it's 35% entertaining, 65% disturbing but an all around great, creative music video (click here to see it)

david latterman sans mccain

so i haven't seen the david letterman show in years, but def wanted to watch it tonite b/c apparently mccain called today to cancel his appearance on the show b/c economy was in a dire situation so he was "racing back to dc" to get to work on the bailout bill... here's the kicker, he never went to dc! b/c the show was tapped in the afternoon, during the show letterman pulled up a live interview mccain was doing (still in new york) w/ katie couric!!

ha! letterman keeps saying "something smells b/c there's no need to suspend anything" (per mccain campaign's decision to suspend campaigning to focus on "working")... he said put palin to work, that's was vps are for...

best letterman line: did you hear about david blaine? did any of you go see him in central park? apparently he's still left hanging... like lehman brothers shareholders

ok, i'm all newsed out so i'm forcing myself to go to bed or i'll be up all nite watching the same headlines over & over & over... oh how i love the news :)

presidential address...

how come bush never has a presidential address to say "hi" to the good folks of america? it's always something big, usually bad (i.e. war, sexual relations w/ a woman, natural disasters, etc). fyi there's noooooooooooooooooo waaaaaaaaay the presidential debates are going to be canceled this friday, sowwy mccain time to start cramming those talking points!

random, but does anyone know if it's against policy for security guards to hit on store patrons?? as i was waiting in line at tmobile store, the guard was chatty cathy so i talked back since i wasn't going anywhere fast... now i know his life story, including how many hrs/week he works, where his brother works, what he was doing after 7pm, what he likes to order at starbucks, where his mom got his name from (a cowboy from some 80s soap opera she was in love w/)! he asked me out for coffee and i thought about it for 10 seconds though... no, not b/c he was cute but b/c i was tired and there was a coffee shop up the street. but i gracefully declined (i later reported this incident to smoe and he was proud)...

Fast Times at Ridgemont High, lights out at Bowie High & baggy pants?!

i want chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies... guess i'll just settle for my powdered jelly filled doughnut!

oh yes, despite my cravings i'm still training for the army 10-miler (countdown has begun to oct 5th)... in fact i just signed up for a race (10k dash for dads) this sunday to jolt my body into race mode!

last nite in an attempt to get serious about life i finally attended my pg running group run. it was pretty uncoordinated as 5k & 10k training programs are starting this weekend, so tuesday nite was a fun run around the track at bowie high school... shout out to my little cousin who goes there :)

as i talked to 1 of the coaches that was actually there he mentioned how they usually spend about an hour or so running around the track, then leave as there aren't any lights around there!!! what high school doesn't have lights around their track?? after it started getting dark i decided to run one more lap then go home, as i didn't feel like being snatched up! (i'm an adult, who has time to be kidnapped? i had plans to meet smoe later, plus i had to work today.)

once in my car and reunited with padgekins (my cell phone) i called my cousin and asked him the deal with no lights. he said yep, bowie is real bootleg and they (obviously) don't have any night games. he also said they just recently got ac installed into the school!... no educational pun intended, but i guess it's true you can't judge a book by it's cover as the school doesn't look too shabby from the outside...

with this being said, who wants to join me in a bake sale to raise monies to buy his school some lights???

lastly, where does good police work end and fashion police work begin? is it that much of an eyesore to see someone with baggy pants on, that cities need to take action? are there a rack of stats i'm overlooking which juxtaposes baggy pants to criminal acts?? i'm personally amused b/c they walk funny (i.e. saw a little boy sagging skinny jeans in smoe's neighborhood, it was hilarious b/c he walked like someone from the wild west)... i guess not everyone is a amused (or liberal) as i .... Baggy pants crackdown goes national

this week's headlines...

well folks it's that time again where i dump the things i've seen/heard/tweeted/texted oh and talked about recently...

Possible mortgage fraud??? john lewis said it best when he spoke to hu’s graduating class of 2006 (my class!!) by simply saying, “it’s bigger than you”! contrary to what some may believe there’s def a world outside of your personal buppy cocoon, outside of wall street, outside of the hill, etc. the (bad) decisions made by a few effect all of us. I’m still going to grad school, but since economy’s sketch guess I have to take even more time (or actually start) to see what grants/loans are still available. Also, at my kid save meeting on Monday, they mentioned how a lot of adoption/foster care organizations in the area were nervous pervis about the upcoming year since freddie mac foundation funded most of them :(

speaking of the kids, EPA, testing on a kid near you? I’m not a huge fan of ankle biters (kids…other than my lovely niece) but it’s insane EPA approved “legalized human subject experimentation” last february…and canceled an observational study using “early life stages age groups” earlier this month.

i'll admit it, i don’t know much about racing except ralph dale earnhardt jr, the president of FIA (max mosley) is into kinky nazi sex, & lewis hamilton is a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!... apparently he was on trial, but lost the appeal

Pull it together mccain campaign! Apparently the lobbying firm of rick davis, mccain’s campaign manager, was on the payroll of freddie mac up until last month (read article)

oh, the japanese are always reaching for the starts…literally! apparently scientists in japan are trying to build an elevator to the stars


Ok, enough of that on to the real news:
speaking of japan… I was reading my time mag on the train this am (trying to hurry and read all the mags I subscribe to give em to a coworker for her kid’s school) I came across a piece about “what they’re wearing in japan”. Since I used to be obsessed with tshirts, thought it was cool they profiled a shirt (pic on right) which apparently was created after (outgoing prime minister) Yasuo Fukuda replied "I can see myself objectively. I'm not like you." to a reporter who asked if he gave his time in office his all.

Peta asks ben & jerry to use human breast milk in their ice cream instead of cow’s milk ... is it just me or are there bigger fish to fry?? no pun intended peta i don't fry fish, i bake it :)

Sex on tracks will break your back? is it ever that serious?? i think not!

Came across this yesterday, and thought it was touching so wanted to share... pics of how kids in mexico view the drug problem

Per diana ross’ 80s hit “I’m coming out” apparently stars are finally ready to let their business all hang out...clay aiken (clearly) & lindsey lohan came out recently. side note: seems like it would've been fun growing up in samantha ronson’s family, so much creative talent… now I’m just waiting for anderson cooper to admit it, but I doubt he will!

lastly, a pic is worth 1,000 words, not $3million loser! even if you're at a diddy party, you must not let yourself go and be mindful of paparazzi... especially if you're a hedge fund manager these days

songs of the day:
cool kids (such a great duo): black mags
sam cooke: a change is gonna come

DC's 1st Annual Cupcake Contest this Thursday

so i have a friend who's literally miss artsy fartsy, beat on the street dc (2007- until i find someone else as up on local events as her)! she just sent me an email regarding a cupcake decorating contest coming up this thursday, sept. 25th at the washington club in dupont.

the only info she had in the email was this link: http://blondesiview.blogspot.com/2008/09/cupcake-contest-update-rules-for.html

b/c i'm a fatty fat fats anything involving sweets i'm down for. i'll def not attend the hu-cbc event that same evening for this cupcake contest... just have to find more info!

do guns kill people or people kill people??

very sad to hear about the shooting at the finnish school this am... apparently the 22-yr old made a you tube video last week saying "you die next". police took him in & interviewed him yesterday but let him go b/c they didn't have enough evidence to revoke his licence.

i'm already weary of people's bad intentions b/c of the bad stuff that's been going on in the dmv (dc, md, va for you slowskis), so this def doesn't quell those subtle paranoias! why can't folks "shoot" for A’s & B’s in school, instead of fellow students?… still have not come to a conclusion about the proverbial question, not the chicken and the road 1, no no not if the egg or the chicken came first, not if macgyver or chuch norris is better (though chuck norris is amazing, macgyver hands down)... but if people kill people or if guns kill people...

FINLAND'S GUN CULTURE
- 1.6m firearms in private hands
- Only the US and Yemen have higher civilian gun ownership
- All gun owners are required to have a licence
- Minimum age for buying a gun is 15
- About 14% of homicides in Finland are gun-related

this & full article can be seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7630969.stm

Fred Merkle...100 years later

great morning! so as i was watching countdown w/ keith olbermann (1 of my fav shows) last nite and learned about a boy named fred merkle, a 19-year-old rookie first baseman for ny.

do you know him? if not, get familiar, as this man was single-handedly blamed for not running to 2nd base, resulting in him being "out"... leading to the cubs winning the world series in 1908 (and only that year, as they have not won a world series since).

watch the ny mets/chicago cubs game tonite & see if history repeats itself! to learn more about how merkle became “the man who lost the [nl] pennant” (b/c i'mm too lazy to recap the complete story) check out this article in ny times...very interesting stuff.

song of the day (yes, yes another 1 from mr west): good morning

love lockdown

i CAN NOT stop listening to kanye's love lockdown! is it just me or does that song rock?? maybe it's b/c i'm a beat-whore (i literally love any song w/ a good beat, lyrics could be garbage, but if the beats steady me likey)...

my monday was grrrrreat! started off late, no no not due to me but b/c of my bff wmata (see my 1st blog post). work was cool, monitored a lot of (dramatic) dialogue on our message board! plus finally got text for our newsletter off of my plate. speaking of plate, ate lunch w/ a friend from high school who's in town for state department stuff... made me realize i'm a bad friend b/c i keep in touch w/ like 4 people from high school! b/c i'm a bad friend i like to use the justification that when you have true friendship you don't have to speak everyday, week, month, even year :) but seriously i have friends i haven't spoken w/ in months but if i called them out of the blue (after a quick exchange of sarcastic grumbles) we'd chat like we just spoke last week! and that's what it's all about kids... knowing i'm bad at keeping in touch and not giving me crap when i actually do reach out per call/email/text/facebook/tweet, etc.

actually still at the office riiiiiiiiight now. guess i should get a jump start on my non-work life and leave soon... going home? i wish, def have a Kid Save meeting this evening at 7pm so won't be home until around 9ish...

click here to hear my song of the day: love lockdown

tweeting on twitter (tot)

it's no secret, i'm in loooooooove w/ twitter! it's like a mini blog where i can dump my random thoughts out in 140 characters or less. in addition to me talking crap, it's great for news b/c i get updates from cnn, bbc, mnsbc, politico, slate, etc....it's synced to my phone so sometimes i feel too connected w/ the news (plus it's NEVER good news from around the world).

when cc sent me this you tube song about "you're nothing if you're not on twitter" i was amused (yea i know i'm a dork). so from me to you, watch & enjoy: click here for video

A's, B's, C's!

A - army 10-miler... so i'm running the army 10-miler again this year, so i'm really excited!!! i'm so excited i haven't been training as well as i should :) i'm trying to watch my consumption though, i cut out all alcohol & minimized my sweets but i seriously should stop playing around & hit the track!

last year (i trained more) ran it w/ 1 of mi hermanos & mi papa. this year's special b/c my dad (claims) this is going to be his last 10-miler b/c his body isn't what it used to be and he needs to take it easy on his long races. the man's been running the army 10-miler since 1991 (not 2001 b/c the race was canceled)... after questioning him several times about ending his 10-miler days, he finally admitted that he's "going to see how this race goes" and "not going to make any public statements until after the race". i swear he literally said public statements, as if he's going to hold a press conference! ha!

B - board meetings... 3 times a year it's board meeting time and it never fails every time i'm always nervous pervis! thursday am we had our fall board meeting and of course i was stressing about it all week, but it went well, they're great folks, very pleasant and really appreciate the work we do. now that that's over i'll be stress free until, say, dec 10th (the next meeting)!

C - channels... ok, i'm a fan of thrifting (shopping at vintage stores & consignment boutiques), huge fan of music, but not that hot on tv. there's nothing wrong w/ watching tv, but ever since the wire went off the air nothing excites me as much...except the news (i love anything on msnbc and/or bbc world news, actually cspans great too) & cartoons (from cartoon network to nick to pbs kids, it's all good)... i say all this to say i have a satellite so clearly have over 500 channels! this is a bit much for me as i'm sure i watch the same 5 channels! comcast should offer some prorated price that's determined by your activity (i.e. if you don't use all your channels, if you never utilize on demand, rent movies you shouldn't pay the fixed amount) i know this'll never be, but can't a girl dream??

with all this said, i've discovered 2 great channels: the discovery & history channel. i think i'm going to incorporate the history channel into my saturday routine. last saturday i was watching a show about ancient wonders of the world & almost didn't get out of bed to go volunteer, when i came home i was glued to the tv learning how winged animals were evolved & early life of neanderthals! i'm actually watching it now & learning about the history of the hot dog (as a semi vegetarian i'm kinda disgusted). discovery channel is also amazing b/c they have man vs wild (i like bear's accent), how it's made & myth busters (omg they did a 2-part episode about macgyver myths & i was glued to the screen)...ok enough blogging for now, i'm off to watch tv :)

this week's headlines...

I’m saying farewell to the Beijing Paralympics & hello to foreign aid to Haiti?...we’ll see about the latter. So I’ve been weeding through headlines from this week (I’m a headline gal, if one catches my eye I’ll actually read the full story, other than that don't aske me for detail) and found the following worth sharing…

I had the pleasure to waking up to news of the US embassy attack in Yemen ; also it looked shaky for a while, but apparently AIG was rescued by the US Federal Reserve.

Apparently the new number of ill babies is over 6,200 (3 dead) due to contaminated powder in Chinese baby milk (click here for story). Can't think about this as I'm still trying to get to the bottom of if Pakistan’s shooting at US forces or not.

Moving to another part of the world, do you think the rejection of US envoys in South America (Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras) and snuff from Nicaragua will really change with a new administration?? How about the agreement in Zimbabwe? Is there staying power?? Speaking of governments, what’s going on in Ukraine?

Lastly, I’m guilty of texting & walking (almost got ran over a few times), texting & driving (my brother taught me how to drive with my knees so It’s ok), but texting & driving a train is clearly taking it too far. My heart goes out to all of the friends and family of the LA commuter train crash (read more about crash).


Ok, enough of that on to the real news:

So did McCain reeeeeeeally invent the Blueberry (a.k.a Blackberry to most)??

Why oh why is Jennifer Hudson marrying “Punk” from I Love New York2?

Late afterthought: why didn’t PETA say anything about “lipstick on a pig” comment? I know it’s a political expression, but I think PETA people are always looking for a fight, so I could see an anti-animal testing ad campaign w/ makeup and perfumes on different animals… if you’re a PETA person and not hotheaded my apologies for the gross stereotype!

Why oh why is OJ on trial again, and how did the court possibly pick jurors who weren’t biased at all?

Lastly, interesting article I came across this am on bbc (1 of my homepages)…what kind of drinker are you? Apparently, there are 9 types: depressed drinker; de-stress drinker;
re-bonding drinker; conformist drinker; community drinker; boredom drinker; macho drinker; hedonistic drinker & border dependents. Interesting article, check it out.

Ok, think i've dumped enough info for today...ok ok i'm sure i'll be back in some hours...

silent rave... awesome!

so was listening to npr today and they reported on "silent raves": when folks wear their ipods and dance around by themselves, but in groups! call me crazy, but i'd definitely try it once!

then again, i'd probably do (almost) anything that involves me dancing as it's the best thing in the world!

check out a silent rave in nyc... the video is set to a great daft punk song.

ps- i love how the new lincoln car commercial includes technologic

Seth Godin

Just got off of a Network for Good--Nonprofit Marketing, with special guest speaker Seth Godin! He’s amazing, you can tell he really knows his stuff and I love how direct/concise his messages and advice are.

If you don’t know Seth here’s a super brief bio I took from Network for Good’s site:
“His 10 books have been featured on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com and Business Week bestseller lists—not to mention his wildly popular ebooks including “Unleashing the Ideavirus” which more than 1,000,000 people have downloaded. Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry's leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998. He holds an MBA from Stanford, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by BusinessWeek.”

Most recently, he started Squidoo.com which is a cross between about.com & Wikipedia. My organization has 2 Squidoo lenses but think we can utilize our presence more. Our lovely fall intern is helping us out with that and spicing them up a bit more!

Apparently Seth's blog is 1 of the most popular, so click here to take a look at what all of the fuss is about… it’s good stuff!

what kind of place...

what kind of place do we live in when:

• We judge presidential candidates by their mom’s marital decisions? I heard this pastor from Harlem on the radio this am saying he was raised to believe “white women who married black men in the 50s & 60s were trash” therefore “Obama is trash b/c his mom is trash”… then went on to say whoever calls "Bristol Palin white trash b/c she’s a teenage mom is terribly terribly wrong and doesn’t know the meaning of trash". Pastor Manning is nuts, see for yourself.
  
• We judge vice presidential candidates by their fashion choices. Ok ok I can’t even lie as a person who loves thrifting, I’m impressed that Sarah Palin used to frequent a vintage shop in the last frontier state! :) and is it just me or does she kinda sound like the mom (Martha Generic) from Bobby's World?
  
• The Chairman of our Committee on Ways & Means doesn’t pay taxes? (amongst some other shady actions)... oh, Charlie
  
• I have to pay $50 (up from $25, up from original price: free) if I’m not a good packer, or if I have to transport more than can fit in a carry on and 1 checked luggage...
  
• ...and I’m not even touching the financial entities (i.e. Lehman, Fannie, Freddie, Bear Stearns). But i am saying kudos to the (soon to be only) Bank of America as my brother works there… but um, can he get a raise, and not have conference calls at like 11pm? Banker’s hours smanker’s flowers :)

my first blog post: wmata the worst

yeaaah! i've arrived!

i've been talking about creating a blog since this past monday. why monday? because i was stuck on the red line on metro and annoyed...then wednesday came and i was stuck on the train again do to residual delays... then friday came and yet again the metro was not running on schedule due to a "suspicous package". not sure how wmata matches up to other transportation systems around the country but this past week has been pretty awful... not as anti-metro as i was earlierthis week, but i still plan on writing a note to wmata asking why prices have gone up and service/track malfunctions have declined :(

ok enough venting. i'm off to get mexican food then to verizon center for mystics game... hopefully my buddy didn't leave me nose bleeds seats at will call!