APS

I got this email from ExchangeEveryDay, one of those early childhood things I subscribe to since I'm in the field, and actually read this one. The last two bullets-- classic examples of American Parents Syndrome.

A Norton Online Living Report, reviewed by the Center for Media Research, found some interesting and some concerning trends in online activity. For example:

• Out of thousands of children and adult Internet users surveyed in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, France, Brazil, China, and Japan, 52 percent report having made friends online.
• 46 percent of users who made friends online said they enjoyed those relationships as much or more than friendships made offline.
• Parents in the U.S. reported their kids are online two hours a month.
• U.S. kids report spending 20 hours a month online.

basic tv

I see the same commercials over and over. (And on the lines of TV, I have complaints in general about the new DTV-- my antenna doesn't pick up channels 18 and 30.) I don't feel like I really even watch that much TV. But it's the beauty of DVR TV viewing, with the ability to pause, rewind and fast forward at the convenience of a button, and shit, skip commercials altogether!, that has poisoned my enjoyment of watching TV, for now I must wait through each 30-second commercial segment: Round Table $6 lunch buffett, the new 90210, the usual disgusting Carl's Jr. ads with the mouth/chewing/meaty-juices-dripping noises. The rub is the Wild Water Adventures commercial that pushes the new Ghost Slider ride. I see this blasted thing each and every time I turn on the tv, no matter how short of a time period. I couldn't find the commercial online so I grabbed a reminder for you from their website.



aaaaah!

and I hope you now have the, "Wild Water Adventure Park!" jingle in your head and can identify with the annoyance, irritation and repetition of this commercial.

xoxo, biz.

gotta find my passport

i did not know Greece looks like this

purple pie-ness

linus is my cat's name. her full name, or when she's being adorable: linus purple pie-ness. don't remember how the "purple pie-ness" came about, and I don't spell "pie-ness" so phonetically in my head but any other way written and it looks too much like penis, and I don't want to associate that with linus, as she is female and not at all a purple penis.

there's plenty more background I could give you on linus, like where she came from, how I named her, how old she is, etc., but she's a cat (and my pet and I do love her in a pet-way), but you all don't want to read about that.

here's what I do want to say: she likes almond butter. is that bizarre? I think she might like it more than I do. when I'm eating on the couch as i normally do, she gets a whiff of it and is attracted to my plate like white to rice. it's crazy. and I googled it-- she's not the only cat who enjoys herself some almond butta.

my challenge to you: should you have a cat, try this almond butter theory. with a little reward system, we may be able to change all sorts of stereotypical human-cat relationships with this discovery.

home girl

Yesterday I cleaned. It had gotten to that point where if I didn't clean, it would subconsciously stress me out until I would be forced out of my laziness. Plus I had spent 3 hours cleaning my parents' house that morning after the fun fourth party, so I was in the swing of things. I vacuumed, mopped for real (that means with Mop N Glo-- perhaps the first time using a mopping product instead of just water and a washcloth since moving in 3 years ago), dusted, laundered clothes, changed sheets, scrubbed the tub and counter tops and sinks. I was sweating.

So after a lazy, sleeping-in morning, I decided to tackle the dusty fan blades. Not sure what possessed me to do this, or the ironing of some great napkins that brother brought back for me from Mexico, but I rolled with it. Awkward to have a vacuum on a chair with you while reaching for the fan blades. Nonetheless, success and I'm quite thankful for being tall today. On my way down the hall from one room to the next, I noticed my dusty A/C vent. Vacuumed that. Thought I should perhaps replace the filter, since who knows when that happened last. Struggled for days with the old fucking screws to unhinge the thing, eventually stumbled upon a new filter, replaced the old and was singing praises for about 5 seconds until I second-guessed the proper installation of the filter. The direction of the air flow. It sucks air from inside! Arg. Checked the package. Yep, had it wrong. I had replaced it the way I found it. I grumbled out loud, struggled with the fucked-up screws again, turned it around, with the "arrow toward the direction of the motor," and I think more air is coming out of the vents. Has it been working harder to cool/heat my place for the past long-overdue-to-change-the-filter period of time? Here's hoping my energy bill is less.

Oh, and just in case you're imagining me cleaning to the tunes of the awesome music I own, I was not. Fox 26 terrible weekend matinees. mm hm.

stolen.

"Friday, June 20

In somewhat lighter news, today brings The Case of the Missing Woman Who Was Not Missed, courtesy of the UK's Daily Record. At the center of the story: Hedviga Golik, the Croatian woman who was born in 1924, and who was found this week after sitting dead in front of her television for 42 years. As the Daily Record reports, Golik was last seen by neighbors in 1966, when she would have been 42 years old, and next seen in 2008, when her skeleton was found by authorities hoping to establish who owned the woman's "empty" flat. "The cup she had been drinking tea from was still on a table next to the chair she had been sitting in," said a police spokesman. "Nothing had been disturbed for decades." As usual, neighbors were shocked. "I still remember her," said Jadranka Markic, who was 9 when Golik "vanished." "She was a quiet woman who kept to herself but was polite. We all thought that she had just moved out and gone to live with relatives." Here's hoping The Bones of a Woman Who Sat Dead in Front of Her Television for 42 Years gets the international gallery tour it deserves."

`stolen from Seattles's The Stranger, Last Days

another StumbleUpon find

Stolen from Mark Jenkins