The Egg Song

Blech! Twee as can be! I can't stop watching! Actually, the ninja eggs are really cool.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/eggsong.php

On the bedside table:

Culture Jam by Kalle Lassen

Just Finished: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less

This reminds me of a much geekier and all-encompassing version of the Cajun Man skit on SNL. :-)

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3fs8i/hist/hist.html

Oh, and this is just wrong.

http://www.weddingbetting.com/coupleresults.cgi?id=49

Baseness

Here's a letter to the editor that I wrote and was published in the Huntsville Times today, concerning the actions of some miscreants at the local high school who decided it would be a really cool senior prank to find a homeless guy and force him to pull down his pants in front of people in the school hallway. I DO NOT understand the depths of cruelty and ignorance that humans can display. What sickens me is the reactions of other people:

Huntsville High degenerates

Besides the obvious, what I find so disturbing in the wake of the Huntsville High incident, are the reactions from many of the community.

On the WAFF online comment board, there are reactions such as "Yeah, next time a homeless woman would be better" to "These are teenagers pulling a high school prank" to "Why don't the police focus on real crimes," etc.

Maybe I am over generalizing here, but I would bet that all of the degenerates involved in this incident come from among the more wealthy homes in Huntsville, and have never had to or will have to worry about too much, not materially anyway.

I think that those of us who are blessed with mental and physical health and other comforts can sometimes amass an arrogance of having so much, as well as a spiritual void where others less fortunate are concerned.

The onus is on us to protect and care for others in our community, not use them as puppets for entertainment.

For any us to pass off these oafs as having fun and games or "kids being kids" makes us no better than those who support tyrants and dictators.

It all contributes to a corrupt and worthless society, and that's a very real crime.

Ann Lee Phillips,

Huntsville, 35811

This may not be a very Christian sentiment, but sometimes I wish they would bring back those stocks that you could stick people's hands and feet in, and throw rotten fruit at them.

A compliment

A friend today told me I was squirrelly, but he meant it in a nice way.

Unsung Heroes

I am fortunate to work with (besides my husband of course) one of the nicest guys ever. In fact, he is so nice you wouldn't guess that he is also in one of the neatest bands I've ever listened to. This month's GQ has an article on the Unsung Heroes of Music, with a list of nominations by writers and musicians. So, way to go Sex Clark Five, nominated by A.C. Newman of the New Pornographers. My friend would probably be horribly embarrassed to know I wrote this here, but that's because he is truly a humble person. Good thing only about 3 people read my blog!

You should be able to listen to a clip and see the list here:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?&id=content_4372

Oh yeah, and THIS guy doesn't know what the hell he talking about:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia/archives/2006/04/an_unfortunate.html

By the way, I nominate my husband as my muscial unsung hero, for his awesome keyboard playalongs to Bryan Adams' Heaven while I am trying to listen to it on the radio, and his participation in the St. Stephen's bell choir.

Socks Chasing Panties on a Hamster Wheel

That last post wasn't really as cryptic as it sounds. I was in a terrible mood that day, had just written a somewhat long, detailed post, and then the ghost in the machine decided to erase it in one swipe before I saved it. Bah!

Anyway, the last two days have been nice. Work hasn't been completely insane, and have actually started running again and looking forward to doing so when I come home from work.

I had a Hitchcockian experience yesterday. While running up a tree-lined hill, a bird decided to start dive-bombing my head. I have been swiped at before, but this was really the most ferocious little creature I have ever encountered. I think he took at least five dives at me, all the while chirping angrily. Or maybe it was a she, protecting her nest. I haven't seen The Birds since I was ten, but it made me remember how creepy that movie was. It's really like these tiny dinosaurs flying around, with their cold reptilian instincts.

On Sunday - the day of the terrible mood - I went to see Friends with Money. I really like all of the actresses in it - Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, and Catherine Keener, but I LOVE Frances McDormand. She was awesome in Fargo, and Laurel Canyon. Here, she plays this spastic, angry woman, but she is so likeable. I identified with her because she goes around blowing up at people who steal her parking space and all of these little indignities and affronts, when the root of the problem is much deeper. You just see her simmering all through the movie. Finally, she is in Old Navy when a couple of cuts in front of her. You know, those awful people that jump through the line when a clerk opens another register when you have been waiting longer.
Anyway, she loses it and is kicked out of the store, and while she is walking out in a fit of rage, she breaks her nose on a plate glass window.

The past couple of years, I feel like I have been on that low boil. Getting mad about things on a deeper level, bottling it up, not confronting the actual problems and then embarrassing myself by giving the finger to people on the highway or screaming or punching the wall or throwing things. And when I saw this character in the movie getting so angry she ultimately causes physical damage to herself, I knew that I had been approaching this level of anger, that any day now I am going to just blow - and I don't want that to happen. But at the same time, I want it to happen, like a little kid, show everyone how MAD I am, and feel really gleeful about it!

Oh well. This is why we are called adults, although many of us these days seem to think we are entitled to act otherwise. I often catch myself doing childish things, like whining on a blog :-)

On a happier note, I saw this line in an ad for laundry detergent yesterday and it cracked me up: "Imagine some socks chasing some panties around on a hamster wheel."
I'll buy it if I get to see that!