my life in two pictures

The problem is I'm in a cycle, hopefully not a downward spiraling cycle but....

my real lunch (say what $100 digital camera?) next to a real Sarah Michelle Gellar

You see, I haven't been cooking much lately. The closest I come is microwaving half an acorn squash. Maybe I'm still impressed that my idea of fast food is a Cliff bar or quality bread and humus. An apple. Some carrots. The problem is: I subsist on my fast food. Do you know how long it takes to get full off of some edamame here, some cucumbers and vinegar there? So my fastfood is really (lazy) slow food and because I am so slow at eating and cannot eat one-handed (which rules out reading a book, something I mostly do while brushing my teeth) I watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer during meals and the next thing I know I'm telling myself: just twenty minutes longer, Buffy's mom just DIED! And how is she going to kill Glory, the god, and will she ever love Spike and what's that voodoo doll thing? What? A sexy robot? HOLD ON! They're the same person!!!!!?!

Man. Good thing I like my job or there'd be no reclaiming me. Also, don't spoil the answers to those questions.

another reason for buffy

A New York Times article on how bullying starts young young young young young these days or maybe always.

I felt vindicated when they cite shows like Hannah Montana, that have extremely self-centered protagonists, as having a negative effect on young girls. However, they compare Montana to Brady Bunch girls which is a little ridiculous. Why not Buffy?

  
Also, an interesting article about how women are treated in France. In the article they point to  the World Economic's 2010 Forum ("world economic's" links to a description of the forum, "2010 forum" to an article about the 2010 forum) that says France has fallen from 18th place to 46th place and now ranks behind Kazakhstan in gender equality. But I've been reading up on the World Economic Forum and it ranks countries by how much they've progressed or digressed in the past year. Alors, it seems the forum compares progress and not the actual standard of equality. And France fell in ranking because "of the departure this year of several high-ranking women from the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy." That being said, it doesn't seem terribly appealing to be a woman in France, even if it is France*.

And don't think I want to make career women out of us all, one woman says she quit her job to be a stay at home mom and she feels pressured to by (French) society to go back to work.

Oh and please don't leave any comments with lame jokes about how French people are stupid (unless you're one of the five Monty Pythoners–Gilliam is from the US and therefore has to abide by the same rules I've set for everyone else. Then I would have to say that I don't really understand why you're reading my blog. Go away). Those jokes are so old, widen your repertoire.

And note, the U.S. only recently broke the top 20 and is now above Canada but behind Latvia. I am currently looking for the actual Forum report because, well, newspaper articles interpret what they want. At this point you might point out how I could be in the wrong about the Hanna Montana genre of tv shows for this same reason but then I would have to touché you back by saying it's what I want to hear so it works for me.

and more from the Buffy side:





*My number one reason for saying no when someone asks me, "don't you wish you were alive back in such and such a day and age," is because I want to stay in a time period where I've got more rights.

get a life much?

I've got a Linda Ronstadt singing in my head.

"You go to my head, with a smile that makes my temperature rise
Like a summer with a thousand julys"

Which interestingly enough reminds me of family vacations.

Last week in my city a girl was brutally beaten and raped in the middle of the day. My roommate told me this right as I was about to head out the door on a run. I still went running because no  $^*&%#  is going to hold that threatening power over me. But that roommate and I had a conversation about the national sex offender registry. She'd never heard of it and I can't keep myself from looking things up when there are questions in the air. There's a compulsion in me that if there's anything one doesn't know one really must pull out all the stops and find out everything. It's impossible to resist. 
And so the internet and I pulled up a map and started checking out the various sex offending dots in my area and then suddenly realized I didn't want to know.
 
I don't want to know.

That's not an idea I'm very familiar with. 
(And then I wished I was Buffy the Vampire slayer with ridiculously amazing strength.)
    

in the end we have the same idea

I'm going to fill your triptophan brain with my Thanksgiving stuffing.

You see, I'm thankful my parents moved 1100 miles away from their families to the remote upper midwest and I want you all to know it. Our Thanksgivings were always the oddest of holidays growing up. We invited all of the family-less people over for the day. There were Australians who'd bring scones and vegemite, people from church we'd drive 45 miles (one-way) to pick up, and professors from my dad's university. One of these colleagues was Milton. Milton would always bring his flute or Native American recorders to play for us. It just doesn't seem like Thanksgiving without Milton.

I miss the stalwart, make-do, band-together spirit of my UMW more everyday.

Thanks, Mom and Dad. I think we have had the best life ever.

And I don't like vegemite. Not thankful for that.



And I have recently (as of today) become thankful for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.





Annnnnnnd end scene.