in with the new

☮ in 2009!

kool-aid should come out with acai flavor

i just realized today that sunkist soda is a play on the phrase "sun kissed." i have these moments so often - when the origin of a word i've used all my life suddenly dawns on me and i feel like a complete idiot. i'd just never thought about it before. i also just recently noticed, while talking about the "baby phat" clothing brand, the connection between that brand and the term "baby fat." it's so weird how the mind works (and sometimes doesn't work).

OJ's in jail, it's cold enough to use the heater, i've given away my old jewelry collection... i smell change in the air. happy friday!

i'd put "soul provider" on repeat in iTunes so it would get played...

today's topic? as assured, it's NOT POLITICS. how you like THEM apples?

instead, i'll be sharing with you what might just be the number one coolest thing ever (tm). or at least second to the maraschino cherry.

ok, so i loooove well designed things. not enough people master the art of balancing creativity with practicality and minimalism, so when i find something that is all of the above, i must either have it or gift it. like the time a few years ago when i discovered this awesome and award-winning teapot and had to find a reason to buy it so i could reward its creators for their good work (http://www.teamuse.com/article_020402.html).

knowing my affinity for good innovations, k-shrub sent me a link to springwise.com, a veritable candy store of ideas! one that caught my eye is called tony player. the idea is that you join this online service that will then track all of your music-listening preferences (from iTunes, youtube, etc) and create a running playlist for you. then when you go to a club that's being DJ'ed by tony player, everyone there with playlists will have those playlists fed into the DJ's playlist. so everyone is sure to like at least SOME of the music being played, and assuming the crowd is like-minded, most people should like most of the music being played. i find this especially awesome because bad DJs are a pet peeve of mine and i'm getting old, so if the music's not good i'd kinda rather just stay home and play scrabble. sad but true. i just don't understand how hard it is to a) play songs people like, and b) play more than 10 seconds of said songs before switching to some other song. yep, definite pet peeve. just ask the DJs we encountered on halloween while simply trying to make my usual request (yes, for jay-z). the music suuuucked and nobody was dancing, which i never would've told them in those words had i not been sleep-deprived from the campaign and tipsy from the wine. oops. anyway the point is that tony player should definitely have been on the job!

yes, no, maybe so

i love being surrounded by analytical and introspective people, especially those who turn analysis into action. when you think about it, all of life can sort of be boiled down to thinking and doing, where thinking involves any kind of reflection or planning and where doing involves any act of creating or contributing. if every day you're actively thinking and actively doing, then there's a good chance that you and the world are both better off because of it. and if that's the case, you can safely say that you're LIVING. otherwise, i think, you're sort of just passively existing.

i'd been thinking about this topic, and then the other day my analytical friend michelle happened to forward me an article on teddy roosevelt (that sounds really random). at the bottom were some quotes of his, two of which i'm listing below. they were so timely.

"the only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."

"far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

so i guess my point is that we should all aim for a level of thinking and doing that goes beyond our comfort level. stretching a little bit always leads to good things. and being surrounded by fellow stretchers is always good inspiration.

and speaking of analytical people, SPO (minus fargo branch) met over tacos to discuss the propositions on the ballot. oh yes we did. we couldn't come to an agreement on most of them, settling on many 2-1 votes, but we all did agree on the high-speed rail from LA to SF (we don't really need it), on the parental notification law (some parents aren't worth telling) and of course, on prop 8. and we all considered the seriously tight california budget but the three of us each sort of had a soft spot for a different block of people covered by the various props: seriously ill children, crime victims, and... drug offenders.

happy day!

that's what switzerland said

i promise that not every post here will be about politics but until november 4th i'm sort of in the proverbial zone. so this one is about the process of casting and counting votes and why the same country that put men on the moon and eradicated smallpox can't seem to figure out how to do it.

i saw a quick teaser on the news saying that some states are having problems with early voting. i also know that every time i go to my official "polling place," i feel like i'm in a crack house. i also know that the obama campaign has had to create a dedicated voter protection team simply to try to ensure that votes are actually counted. i also remember the year 2000.

i hate paper. i hate having to print things, i hate junk mail, i hate getting the newspaper delivered to my hotel room when i didn't ask for it, i hate files, i even hate file cabinets. so naturally, i hate having to make sure the manual hole puncher thingie punched all the way through my paper ballot. and i hate putting my ballot in a shoebox and trusting that it'll be safe at the crack house long enough for some official to get there and take it.

at best, the whole process feels very 1972. and at worst, suspiciously so. even the iraqis, who are brand new to this whole voting thing, make an attempt at election fairness via the interesting practice of finger staining. i did some quick research as to why it is that e-voting can't be implemented. i don't know about y'all, but if the internet's safe enough for my money, it's safe enough for my vote. i didn't really find a good answer, but i did find that it HAS been done successfully overseas. switzerland seems to really like it, and i like the swiss. even estonia has done it. so i'm sold. as a related tidbit, i also found out that 25% of identity theft happens online... leaving PAPER to blame for the other 75%. ironically, i'm gonna go watch the office now.

xoxo.

encore

welcome to my inaugural blog! well actually, i did have a blog back in the day but i let it die just like all the plants and goldfish i've ever owned. as my own shrink and psychoanalyst, i'd guess their deaths are manifestations of my fickle, impatient, and fearful-of-all-things-permanent nature. but at least for the time being, i'm pulling a jay-z and coming out of retirement because there's SO much to rap about these days.

thanks for visiting. :)

13 days left. yes we can!