Dumb dog
This dog has a rogue foot! Really funny video.
So, ginko is supposed to be good for your memory. Well, the only way it helps my memory at the moment is by reminding me all day that when you step on the trees' berries, your shoes smell like dog crap and vomit all day. I can't imagine what it must be like to process ginko into little tablets. I wouldn't touch one of those things if you paid me. Granted, the trees are sturdy and the leaves are beautiful, especially when they turn into canary yellow little fans in the fall. At the moment the leaves are completely carpeting the muddy path through Rose Park that I walk through to get to work. So, that would be nice except for the fact that those little vomit berries are hiding under the beautiful carpet of greenish-yellow leaves! Those sneaky bastards! They are especially sneaky because to avoid the berries people tend to plant all male trees... but the trees will change sex if you do that! Every other one! There's a street near us that I know to avoid when walking the dog around this time because the sidewalks got completely covered in vomit berries. Every few years they tie warning signs to the trees that say something like, caution, we will be spraying these trees at such and such a time. Spraying means, I think, attempting to stave off the berries by killing them or something. So I'm not the only one who hates the vomit berries. I'm just the only one who has them all over her shoes today.
This site called bookcrossing.com tracks books that are "released" and "captured," i.e. left somewhere and picked up by someone else who checks it in on the website. It reminds me of a literary version of Where's George. I think it's a nice concept, but I am too lazy to register any books on it. Plus, I have of late been selling anything on Ebay that I think I can get a buck or two for. So, I'm more likely to sell books than "release" them if it's not going to be to a friend or family member.
I am listening to My Life by Bill Clinton on my iPod. I just got past the MOnica Lewinsky part. I like how he says "I did meet with her alone after that for about 15 minutes." If he thought "sexual relations" didn't mean sex, what the heck does he think "meet with" means? Heh. "Mr. President, you have a 2:30 meeting with..."
We turned the A/C on last night. It's downright balmy out there. In the Traverse Record Eagle (the "wretched eagle," according to a woman whose sale-by-owner house we looked at this summer) there are photos of kids sledding and playing in the snow on Thanksgiving. I told Ben this, and he said he thought that was great, and that he thinks he looks much better in his winter clothes than his summer ones!
A Christmas tree went up in the lobby of my building yesterday, along with a very large wreath. In public spaces in DC, decorations are going up, too. Gold bows on lampposts, lights, etc. Maybe it's due to the fact that I converted (this will be my second "Jewish Christmas") and am exposed to a more negative outlook on Christmas, or the fact that my family is not having family Christmas this year (having something to do with me?), but I am not enjoying the Christmas explosion. And this year it started the day after Halloween. Christmas toys and decorations went on sale at CVS, other businesses started playing carols and decorating. Ben likes to remind me of how much he hates Christmas, especially because of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and I try to remind him that it's nice with my family. He agrees, but we don't even get that this year. We are the family McScrooge.
I should point out that Timbuktu is actually a town in Africa. One of the countries that my friend Katie is in at the moment. See my previous post. But anyway, the point is, we are still seriously considering moving to Traverse City. Which, I guess, qualifies as "Timbuktu." Last night, as we were entering DC via Route 50/New York Ave., I mentioned that a girl in my French class had gone to the big warehouse club there, now called LOVE, and I said to her, "oh, you mean the place with all the stabbings?" She was surprised, but I wasn't. So my husband says he's not surprised either, and then after a pause, the question again.
I hope she won't mind my posting her email here, but seeing as it was a mass email I don't think she will (except that she says she likes to read about ME on my blog). So here is an email from my wonderful friend Katie about her final weeks in Africa before coming back to the states and to DC!! I've hotlinked things here for a geographical reference (hey, she said get out my map...):
I was reading the Onion this morning and found a little snippet that made me laugh, especially because of the most recent posting on the Bucky Blog (see sidebar). Here it is:
All Of Pregnant Woman's Favorite Names Used Up On Cats
November 23, 2005 Issue 41•47
EUGENE, OR—Seven months pregnant with her first child, veteran cat lady Claudia Beck, 38, said Monday that she has already used all of her favorite names on her cats. "I've got Madison, Emily, Tyler, Jonathan, Claudia Jr., Dakota, and Todd," Beck said. "Then there's Smokey and Midnight, who are strays I feed." As of press time, Beck and the baby's father, animal-shelter assistant Rich Delgado, were considering naming their child "Boots."
So, I'm feeling in a photo-like mood today. Here's a photo my brother took (also available on his blog site, see sidebar). He took it from the front yard of our family place up in Michigan. It's a great example of the sunsets we get there. We will literally interrupt dinner to run outside to see sunsets (for those of you out there who don't love food, interrupting dinner is a pretty big deal for us!).
"What I love most about deadlines is the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
I saw a whole bunch of movies recently.
On Wednesday, Ben and I went to Circle Bistro on Washington Circle for a wine-pairing dinner hosted by the wine store in Dupont, Best Cellars. It was really good. There were a few setbacks to the night, including a huge rainstorm and resulting traffic, and Ben did his usual "I'll give them FIVE minutes and I'm leaving to get a hamburger" when the start of the dinner was delayed about 20 minutes. I knew that could end in disaster, because the first course was scallops (or, A scallop) and he sure wasn't going to eat that! But the food did come, and the bonus was that I had already paid before we got there, an all-inclusive price. AND it was a four-course meal, with two wines to taste with each course! And not just taste, mind you, they poured a good 3 ounces of each wine. And they equipped us with tasting note sheets, with names and descriptions of each wine and space for me to write things, which in the end was mostly things like "Ben likes, Jen doesn't like," and "Jen LOVES, Ben HATES."
The SPAM emails I get are always the same, but I am actually entertained by the names they think up to send them from! I get several different names a day. I am embarassed to say I almost look forward to seeing what will show up next. This morning was Manifesto P. Epidermis. Others this week: Jujube E. Sentimentalist, Placed C. Chauncey, Pullouts I. Jackdaws, and Mullato A. Howsoever.
There's a pentecostal church on the corner of 14th and T. Ben and I noticed it was being sold a while back, and I asked a man leaving the building what it was going to turn into. "I don't know, luxury condominiums, probably." Yesterday when we were walking around town (it was gorgeous out), we wondered how much it sold for when we saw the banner across the building "The Lofts at 14th and T!" Apparently, the church sold for $10M!
From an article in today's Post:
But many would-be buyers have withdrawn from the real estate market, saying prices are just too high to consider making a purchase. Dan McGrath, an organizer for the Service Employees International Union, and his wife, Teresa, who works at the Environmental Protection Agency, have been married for four months, have a combined income of about $100,000 a year and would ordinarily be good candidates to become first-time homeowners. But the McGraths, who live in the District's Shaw neighborhood, have been shocked and repulsed by the prices for homes in the area, including the $400,000 price on one 800-square-foot studio they visited.
"We can't figure out who -- for the life of us -- would buy a place with two doors for $400,000," said McGrath, 28. "We want to think about a future but homeownership here is just not possible."
Sigh. Now there's a warning out about the birth control patch. I complained about the patch in an earlier post... now it seems there was good reason.
An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but has escaped the terrible desire to write.
I really hate it when people buy jackets and coats and suits, and don't cut the thread that stores use to tack together the bottom of slits. I am forever seeing people wearing jackets that bulge at the butt because the wearer didn't bother to cut the thread, and his or her butt requires the spread that the slit is there for!! The same goes for floor-length coats; the slit is there so your feet can move! It's not there to make your coat look like it has a foot-long rip in the seam. I have a feeling that people think it's supposed to stay that way, like keeping mattress tags on after buying a mattress.
Now I'm taking (well, Ben and I are taking) a Hebrew class. It's very stressful to start a new language and feel completely lost. I couldn't even come up with the word for "I" when asked in the first class last week. The teacher was like, uh oh, you know the alphabet but no vocabulary? I didn't say that I knew all sorts of words, like "baruch," "menorah," "mitzvah" (and "bar" and "bat"), "ish" and "ishah," "mikvah," and the jewish list goes on and on. I guess my knowledge of Hebrew isn't very applicable to an everyday conversation. If I can't say, "Hello, my name is Jen, and you?" I can't communicate in the most basic way, let alone carry on a conversation! So, last week I learned some vocabulary:
I thought the photo associated with this washingtonpost.com article on iPods was really funny!
Not that I want to, of course, but I theoretically could get away with a good crime with the new technique I've discovered to prevent leaving fingerprints: Krazy Glue.
So recently at my office I have started getting spam email. It started coming from "Doctor," advertising all kinds of DISCOUNT DRUGS! Leviltra, Celebelx, Vioagra, Cidalis, and the like. It came through the social email list we have set up. Now, after much complaining by the staff here, we no longer get the "Doctor" emails, but now we do get emails from, for example, "Remunerate H. Twiddles," and in the last day, I've gotten one from Eyesight I. Zeta and one from Belligerent H. Stepbrother. They both want to sell me "The best toolkit for fixing your erection: Vitagra, Cigalis, Leviztra and more! Sweet price of OUR SITE". IT here says that they filter out literally millions of spam messages every day, but these still get through because the name they are sent from is not what appears in our inboxes. Those sneaky bastards!!
I saw my ex-boyfriend while walking home from work 2 days ago. We were passing in a crosswalk, and he called me by my maiden name and I thought that was funny. Our conversation was also funny:
Forbes has put together an interesting bunch of articles on how bloggers can sully the names of corporations. I think, at least I hope, that I have not written myself into a similar proverbial corner, and that I never will. I don't need to deal with that.
----
Attack
of the Blogs
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
----
Web logs are the prized
platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo.
----
Gregory Halpern knows how to hype. Shares of his publicly held company, Circle Group Holdings, quadrupled in price early last year amid reports that its new fat substitute, Z-Trim, was being tested by Nestlé. As the stock spurted from $2 to $8.50, Halpern's 35% stake in the company he founded rose to $90 million. He put out 56 press releases last year.
Then the bloggers attacked. A supposed crusading journalist launched an online campaign long on invective and wobbly on facts, posting articles on his Web log (blog) calling Halpern "deceitful,""unethical,""incredibly stupid" and "a pathological liar"
who had misled investors.
The author claimed to be Nick Tracy, a London writer who started his one-man "watchdog" Web site, our-street.com, to expose corporate fraud.He put out press releases saying he had filed complaints against Circle with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Halpern was an easy target. He is a cocky former judo champion who posts photos of himself online with the famous (including Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of this magazine). His company is a weird amalgam of fat substitute, anthrax detectors and online mattress sales. Soon he was fielding calls from alarmed investors and assuring
them he hadn't been questioned by the SEC. Eerily similar allegations began popping up in anonymous posts on Yahoo, but Yahoo refused Halpern's demand to identify the attackers. "The lawyer for Yahoo basically told me, 'Ha-ha-ha, you're screwed,'" Halpern says. Meanwhile, his tormentor sent letters about Halpern to Nestlé, the American Stock Exchange, the Food & Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (involved in Circle's anthrax deal).
[...]Fighting
Back
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
You Can't stop bloggers from launching an allout attack on you or your business if that's what they decide to do--but you can defend yourself. Here's how.
MONITOR THE BLOGOSPHERE. Put your own people on this or hire a watchdog (Cymfony, Intelliseek or Biz360, among others). Spot blog smears early, before they can spread, and stamp them out by publishing the truth.
START YOUR OWN BLOG. Hire a blogger to do a company blog or encourage your employees to write their own, adding your voice to the mix.
BUILD A BLOG SWARM. Reach out to key bloggers and get them on your side. Lavish them with attention. Or cash.Earlier this year Marqui, a tiny Portland, Ore. software shop, began paying 21 bloggers $800 per month to post items about Marqui, while requiring them to disclose the payments. Marqui's listings soared on
Google from 2,000 to 250,000 results. Never mind that one blogger took the money
and bashed a Marqui marketing strategy anyway.
BASH BACK. If you get attacked, dig up dirt on your assailant and feed it to sympathetic bloggers. Discredit him.
ATTACK THE HOST. Find some copyrighted text that a blogger has lifted from your Web site and threaten to sue his Internet service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That may prompt the ISP to shut him down. Or threaten to drag the host into a defamation suit against the blogger. The host isn't liable but may skip the hassle and cut off the blogger's access anyway. Also:Subpoena the host company, demanding the blogger's name or Internet address.
SUE THE BLOGGER. If all else fails, you can sue your attacker for defamation, at the risk of getting mocked. You will have to chase him for years to collect damages. Settle for a court order forcing him to take down his material.
Who
is Pamela Jones?
Daniel Lyons, 11.14.05
The blog mob loves to spout off about First Amendment freedom, except when it seeks to deprive foes of the same. And so it was that bloggers came to the defense of one of their own--a mystery woman named Pamela Jones--and succeeded in having a story about her retracted and getting its author all but fired.
Jones has become a star in the blog-riddled Linux software movement. Her blog, Groklaw, sprang up in 2003 to cover a Linux-related lawsuit that software firm SCOGroup had filed against IBM. It cranks out lengthy articles, and it archives every document filed in the case.
Jones describes herself as a journalist, yet her blog is unabashedly
pro-IBM, insisting from the start that SCO's claims are groundless. She won't
discuss her background or reveal where she lives or even confirm that Pamela
Jones is her real name. Her Web site is registered through a proxy service in
Arizona that shields her identity. PJ (her nickname) lists no phone number and
won't say how she funds her operation.
I just had a flashback to elementary school, maybe third or fourth grade. I was in my "Language Arts" class, and we were doing work in pairs. I wrote the word "colledge." The boy I was paired with said that wasn't how it was spelled. I was immediately horrified that I had misspelled something, and I didn't really believe him that I was wrong. He said he didn't think there was a "d" in the word. I said I thought there was. The teacher came over to see what we were doing and said, "Why would you think that?" I couldn't explain it, but realized later it was the word "knowledge" that mixed me up. Why would college and knowledge be spelled differently if they sound exactly the same? If I had ruled the world when I was 10, they would be "college" and "nollege." Though now I know there are rules and word origins and all that crazy stuff.