New Diet Plan

Lady and Gentlemen-

I present to you the newest diet craze soon to be sweeping the nation.
Behold- the recession diet!

Step 1: before you eat anything, listen to the lastest bloomberg market report, check the lastest stock index OR listen to Gov Patterson's latest address on the NYS budget.

Step 2: before you go grocery shopping or order food (order out?! Please, we're in a recession!) Check your bank balance and/or call your credit card companies to discuss your APR.

Step 3: Its a recession- take the train/walk instead of cabs, do your own damn laundry/grocery shopping/whatever other ridiculous things you paid other people to do before the shit hit the fan.

Step 4: Who can afford bars? Cut the alcohol, save your wallet and your waist.

Step 5: Sex is free, and a great workout

Someone will steal this idea and write a book about it- mark my words!

FYI

This is awesomness.

kids will be creepy...

Occasionally I find my future children on overheardinny.com:

They're So Cute When They Do Acid for the First Time

Little boy: Noooo! You didn't die, I died!

Little girl: Argghhh! The crocodiles are coming!

--134th & AmsterdamOverheard by: Tigertail

TIME Magazine -- interesting article on education

So I thought this was interesting...I wonder how many people who have first hand experience with "schools that don't work" would be as opposed to this as the folks they got to comment in this story. I would LOVE it if there were more ideas like this brought up when we talk about education reform. The only way were going to fix the problems we have with our current education system is by thinking big.

From Time Magazine On-line:

"High school sophomores should be ready for college by age 16. That's the message from New Hampshire education officials, who announced plans Oct. 30 for a new rigorous state board of exams to be given to 10th graders. Students who pass will be prepared to move on to the state's community or technical colleges, skipping the last two years of high school. (See pictures of teens and how they would vote.)

Once implemented, the new battery of tests is expected to guarantee higher competency in core school subjects, lower dropout rates and free up millions of education dollars. Students may take the exams - which are modeled on existing AP or International Baccalaureate tests - as many times as they need to pass. Or those who want to go to a prestigious university may stay and finish the final two years, taking a second, more difficult set of exams senior year. "We want students who are ready to be able to move on to their higher education," says Lyonel Tracy, New Hampshire's Commissioner for Education. "And then we can focus even more attention on those kids who need more help to get there."

But can less schooling really lead to better-prepared students at an earlier age? Outside of the U.S., it's actually a far less radical notion than it sounds. Dozens of industrialized countries expect students to be college-ready by age 16, and those teenagers consistently outperform their American peers on international standardized tests. (See pictures of the college dorm room's evolution.)
With its new assessment system, New Hampshire is adopting a key recommendation of a blue-ribbon panel called the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce. In 2006, the group issued a report called Tough Choices or Tough Times , a blueprint for how it believes the U.S. must dramatically overhaul education policies in order to maintain a globally competitive economy. "Forty years ago, the United States had the best educated workforce in the world," says William Brock, one of the commission's chairs and a former U.S. Secretary of Labor. "Now we're No. 10 and falling."

As more and more jobs head overseas, Brock and others on the commission can't stress enough how dire the need is for educational reform. "The nation is running out of time," he says.
New Hampshire's announcement comes as Utah and Massachusetts declared that they, too, plan to enact some of the commission's other proposals, such as universal Pre-K and better teacher pay and training. Still more states are expected to sign on in December. And the largest teacher union in the U.S., the National Education Association, is encouraging its affiliates to support such efforts.
Some reform advocates would like to see the report's testing proposals replace current No Child Left Behind legislation. "It makes accountability much more meaningful by stressing critical thinking and true mastery," says Tracy.

No date has been set for when New Hampshire will start administering the new set of exams, which have yet to be developed. But to achieve the goal of sending kids to college at 16, Tracy and his colleagues recognize preparation will have to start early. Nearly four years ago, New Hampshire began an initiative called Follow the Child. Starting practically from birth, educators are expected to chart children's educational progress year to year. In the future, this effort will be bolstered by formalized curricula that specify exactly what kids should know by the end of each grade level.

That should help minimize the need for review year to year. It will also bring New Hampshire's education framework much closer to what occurs in many high-performing European and Asian nations. "It's about defining what lessons students should master and then teaching to those points," says Marc Tucker, co-chair of the commission and president of the National Center for Education and the Economy in Washington. "Kids at every level will be taking tough courses and working hard."

Right now, Tucker argues, most American teenagers slide through high school, viewing it as a mandatory pit stop to hang out and socialize. Of those who do go to college, half attend community college. So Tucker's thinking is why not let them get started earlier? If that happened nationwide, he estimates the cost savings would add up to $60 billion a year. "All money that can be spent either on early childhood education or elsewhere," he says.
Critics of cutting high school short, however, worry that proposals such as New Hampshire's could exacerbate existing socioeconomic gaps. One key concern is whether test results, at age 16, are really valid enough to indicate if a child should go to university or instead head to a technical school - with the latter almost certainly guaranteeing lower future earning potential. "You know that the kids sent in that direction are going to be from low-income, less-educated families while wealthy parents won't permit it," says Iris Rotberg, a George Washington University education policy professor, who notes similar results in Europe and Asia. She predicts, in turn, that disparity will mean "an even more polarized higher education structure - and ultimately society - than we already have."
It's a charge that Tracy denies. "We're simply telling students it's okay to go at their own pace," he says. Especially if that pace is a little quicker than the status quo.

Only The Christian Science Monitor

I love this...its like.."white people meet poor people, feel bad"
Ladies and Gentleman- I present to you white guilt2K:

My wife made me canvass for Obama; here's what I learned

Charlotte, N.C. – There has been a lot of speculation that Barack Obama might win the election due to his better "ground game" and superior campaign organization.
I had the chance to view that organization up close this month when I canvassed for him. I'm not sure I learned much about his chances, but I learned a lot about myself and about this election.
Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again.

I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.
I am the dreaded swing voter.

So you can imagine my surprise when my wife suggested we spend a Saturday morning canvassing for Obama. I have never canvassed for any candidate. But I did, of course, what most middle-aged married men do: what I was told.

At the Obama headquarters, we stood in a group to receive our instructions. I wasn't the oldest, but close, and the youngest was maybe in high school. I watched a campaign organizer match up a young black man who looked to be college age with a white guy about my age to canvas together. It should not have been a big thing, but the beauty of the image did not escape me.
Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this predominantly black neighborhood.

We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors shouted, "Who is it?"
"We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.

Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.
Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.

We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day's work.
I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."

It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.
It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there anymore.

I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.
I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.
Jonathan Curley is a banker. He voted for George H.W. Bush twice and George W. Bush once.

By: Jonathan Curley

Curtesy of Yahoo news, via livescience.com
It was written by Amelia Tomas- so you know anything written by an Amelia has to be right.
; )

The annual Halloween ritual of candy, scary home-made costumes and trick-or-treating hearkens back to childhood innocence.
But while it's all harmless fun, Halloween is also a playground for myths and urban legends ranging from simple false beliefs to serious issues around children's safety. There are also some odd economic realities behind the curtains that are relevant during the nation's current financial crisis.

So in the darkness of this strange holiday, here are five things you should know:
1. Pure logic concludes that real-life vampires are impossible.
The percentage of Americans who believe in present-day vampires is at a dangerously high level, says University of Central Florida physicist Costas Efthimiou, who debunks pseudoscientific ideas in attempts to enhance public literacy.
Here is the outline of the belief: Legend has it that vampires feed on human blood, and once bitten, the victim also becomes a vampire and starts feasting on the blood of others. This supposedly accounts for an exponential increase of these widely feared creatures.
Efthimiou's debunking logic goes like this: On Jan. 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on, even if our entire species doubled each month.
So whatever you think you see prowling around on Oct. 31, it most certainly won't turn you into a vampire and we won't be living in a real-life, B-rated zombie movie anytime soon.

2. Consuming Almond Joys and other Halloween chocolates does not ward off cancer.
Avoid any wildly simplistic rumors of chocolate sweets aiding in the prevention of cancer this Halloween season. Turns out that it's not the chocolate candy per se that has anticancer properties: The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University finds that it's an ingredient in cocoa, from which chocolate is made, called pentameric procyanidin.
Research at the University of California, Davis, contributes to more delicious findings, that epicatechin, one of a group of chemicals present in cocoa known as flavanols, is directly linked to improved circulation by the relaxing of vascular tissues, and other hallmarks of cardiovascular health in humans.
These studies provide evidence that there are health benefits observed after the consumption of certain flavanol-rich cocoas, but it is still not recommended to inhale Milky Ways in attempts to lower blood pressure or fight cancer.

3. You have a better chance of being hit by a car on a dark street than finding secret razor blades in candies.
Police and medical centers across the country annually take precautions to prevent candy tampering during the Halloween season. Each year, X-ray equipment is overloaded to check Halloween items for harmful objects, such as razors, needles or other objects that might have been placed there to hurt or kill children.
However, few if any threatening foreign objects are found, with the "unfortunate victim" sometimes revealed as the culprit, in search of media attention. Essentially, these precautions are wasting resources and fueling an urban legend, as well as children's fears.
There have been only two confirmed cases of children being killed by poisoned Halloween candy, and in both cases the children were killed intentionally by one of their parents. The best known, "original" case was that of Texan Ronald Clark O'Bryan, who killed his son by lacing his Pixie Stix with cyanide in 1974.
With the exceptions noted above, no child has been killed or seriously harmed by contaminated Halloween candy.

4. Halloween won't save America's consumer crisis.
Many people are under the impression that Halloween is the second-busiest retail holiday of year, beaten only by Christmas. In fact, The National Retail Foundation ranks it sixth overall, behind Father's Day, Easter, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and the winter holidays. So, as for the pumpkin-happy holiday offsetting the Dow Jones from its financial debacle, don't count on it.
October is usually considered a vigorous month for heavy spending - between Halloween shopping and cooling weather driving consumers to search for winter gear - but it's shaping up to be a nationwide letdown, according to The Wall Street Journal. Consumers have clung so far to their newly modest spending habits. What's more, this year's Fright Night comes on the heels of a back-to-school shopping season that was considered mostly a bust, the newspaper reported.

5. There has not been a single case of any child being molested by a convicted sex offender while trick-or-treating.
Foremost, it is fairly implausible that a criminal could molest an elaborately dressed child in costume, outside the front door, in front of numerous witnesses and parents.
The "stranger danger" concern is a relatively recent phenomenon, and the emergence of sex offender laws across the country have resulted in thousands of convicted sex offenders abiding by a strict curfew and not answering their doors to trick-or-treaters on the night of Halloween. However, Georgia, New Jersey and Indiana have recently overturned sex offender laws found to be unduly restrictive, according to JURIST, a Web-based legal news and real-time legal research service.
The fact is there is no evidence that indicates these laws actually make children any safer. In 2007, Human Rights Watch concluded in a report that it is unclear whether sex offender laws "do more harm than good," noting that they might encourage harassment and ostracism of sex offenders who have served their time. In addition, most released sex offenders do not re-offend, contrary to popular belief, and most attacks on children occur in their own home by someone they know.
There is no doubt these special considerations are well-intentioned, but there is no reason to think that sex offenders pose any more of a threat to children on Halloween than at any other time.

brilliant

This pretty much describes my life right now...

....figure that one out Dr. Phil.

Apt

I'm not a huge horoscope person but it pops up in my yahoo news feed every now and again...I thought today's was particularly apt, enjoy:

October 14, 2008
Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)
Trying to figure out what is motivating other people is a waste of your time, so if you have been wringing your hands over a mysterious situation, stop. If someone isn't going to tell you what you need to know, they aren't going to tell you -- no matter how long you wait or how many hoops you jump through. Move on today, and disengage from such childlike behavior. They have been having too much fun stringing you along, and you're no puppet. Too bad for them.

things i need to realize-

- i can't change people, for better and for worse.

- i wont find happiness on the screen of my tv.

- leaving the apartment is a good thing.

- money isn't really the root of any of my problems.

- forgive, forget, move on 

- don't let other people dictate your happiness.

- #2 also applies to a pint of ice cream & a bottle of gin 

- ...but not mixed together, that sounds horrible.

- its ok to be afraid.

- its not ok to let fear run your life.

- its also ok to take your own damn advice.

Woah- its been almost a month since I've updated!! I'm sorry everybody.

Things have just been so weird! Summer turned into fall, my friends all moved away, I started a new job and the global economy is going to shit!!

If you haven't listened to the This American Life special explaining the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the resulting fall-out I highly recomment you do so. You can listen to the podcast on WNYC.com. Actually, all I've been doing recently is listening to WNYC.com.

Its nice to not have heard anything about Brittney Spears for a while though....

Bloomberg might be able to run for a third term, the Red Sox are now an annual contender in the post-season, I actually LIKE my job, my apartment is cleaner than it's ever been and I haven't gone out drinking for a FULL work week. Honestly- if it was for the Cubs sucking just like usual I would really think I accidentally entered into a parrallel universe.

O- and also my bloggy friends, I am going to be an Aunt sometime in March. That makes me very happy but the whole my-sister-is-now-settled-and-married-with-kids thing is already starting to force the focus of familial pressure on me. and we all know I'm no where near getting married. ugh- whats a girl to do?!

DO

NOT

WANT!!

I will update soon and more often, I promise my lovelies.

xoxox-=sticky.

when you were young...you shone like the sun...

Richard Wright- keyboardist for one of my alltime favorite bands, Pink Floyd. Died yesterday of cancer at age 65. Wright left the band during recording of The Wall after fallout with the Billy Corgan-esque frontman- Roger Waters. Wrights leaving for me marked the end of Pink Floyd as I loved them. The complete sound was only complete when Wright was at the helm steering the ship amidst the dissaray that was Gilmore's haunting guitar and Waters' brilliant and divinely troubled lyrics.

Last night I couldn't sleep. When I finally dozed off I had nightmares about conflict and sadness. Perhaps my subconscious was aware before I was that one more great legend has left our world and moved on to "The Great Gig in The Sky".

today's love-- snarky AP writers

This is awesome:

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

For the full article click: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_fact_check

Jezebel.com is fucking awesome-- thank you

Sarah Palin, The Life-iest Pro-Life Candidate Who Ever Scared The Crap Out Of Me
So by now you know John McCain picked some pretty lady from Alaska as his running mate. Crafty! But you have never heard of her before. No one really has.* Sure, she was profiled in Vogue a few months back, but you don't get Vogue for the articles, and the reason for that is that the Vogue profile totally missed one of the most interesting things about Sarah Palin, which is that she found out her fifth baby had Down syndrome through prenatal testing and she went ahead and had him anyway. Do you know how many people do that? Ten percent of people do that. Do you respect that ten percent? I do.** It obviously doesn't change my vote, but I respect it, in the same way I respect John McCain for gritting his teeth and not admitting to his homo Vietnamese captors that yes the war had been a stupid idea, a notion which surely, at some point during those food and light and medical treatment-deprived five and a half years in Hanoi, had to have crossed his mind.*** Abortion had to have crossed Sarah Palin's mind.
Now sure, Alaska is a small place, and it might be hard for an avowedly pro-life governor elected to office on the basis of a platform that can essentially be summarized as "I Am The Only Republican Who Is Not A Corrupt Hypocrite Of Mindbending Proportions" to slip into Planned Parenthood without someone hearing about it. But, you know, not so hard, I dunno. You find this shit out with the first sonogram, in the first trimester, and in the first trimester you can still induce a miscarriage with a few pills prescribable by pretty much any gynecologist. I mean, who knows, maybe in Alaska the gynecologists don't work like that. But ninety percent; that is a big majority to buck. And the ten percent who choose "life" in such a case contains many pro-choicers, people like Sarah Palin with husbands and families and secure jobs and decent schools who just think, in her words, "Well, why not us?" And, "I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?"
It's an interesting line, that actually very much echoes some old John McCain's sentiments on abortion itself. In a perfect world, he and many "pro-lifers" have often argued, Roe V. Wade wouldn't be necessary. But America is very very far from perfect. The whole point of Obama's speech last night is that John McCain doesn't get that. Does Sarah Palin? Of any other former beauty queen and "hockey mom" born and raised in the country's whitest, least populous state whose idea of "culture" is Ivana Trump and whose foreign policy essentially amounts to "My ancestors didn't pay Russia $7.2 million not to drill oil in this state," I would say no fucking way. In fact, I would probably still say no fucking way, but here she is, she signed up for this, now we have ourselves a candidate who will have to go on TV and say, "Yes, I made a choice, and it is still a choice in this country, to give birth to a son who by definition will never be able to pull himself up by those bootstraps Barack Obama was talking about last night. And I recognize that that it is a deeply unpopular choice to make in this country, and that the very deep unpopularity of that choice in the face of all those poll numbers showing us that 59% of Americans believe life begins at conception, rather neatly encapsulates the gulf between the America that my party would like to pretend exists and the one that actually does."**** Well no, probably no one will make her say that, but they should try, because you get the distinct sense watching Ms. Palin, a self-professed feminist, that at 44 years old her views are still malleable, that her ideology is trumped by a momlike dedication to common sense, and that it may be common sense to oppose abortion when you're moving up the political ladder in a tiny state dominated by dudes who can barely get laid.
But this is national now. What worries me about Sarah Palin is that Sarah Palins of this country, the non-ideological non-dogmatic no-nonsense swing-voting suburban soccer mom demo — have up until now had every reason to vote for Barack Obama.
They still do, of course. The key now will be getting Palin to say so herself somehow.
*Fox News has been calling her "Susan" Palan; and unless this is another one of their subliminal tricks — SUSAN; as in "B. Anthony," angry feminists! — that shows you exactly how known this lady is.** Do Linda Hirshman and Geraldine Ferraro and the PUMAs respect that ten percent? It will be interesting to find out. It may even restore "interesting" to this campaign.***It has been pointed out to me that this is unfair. Okay, okay, it is true that what the North Vietnamese basically wanted was for POWs to commit treason and sell out their fellow soldiers. The point, however, was that it if you know anything about what he went through it is inconceivable to think of John McCain, for all his gaffe-ing and flip-flopping and being a Republican and shit, as a guy who 1. is not a guy of unusual conviction and 2. has never been forced to confront the opposing view, or reconsider ideas and policies and principles he had theretofore blindly accepted. So he came away with the conviction that there was something ideologically superior about "Us", and the way we operate — fine, he lived it, ergo, he opposes torture now — but not without entertaining the possibility that maybe there wasn't, or that in any case maybe it wasn't worth trying to prove, because all humans are shitheads and life meaningless etc. I mean duh.**** Indeed, there are many many people, a silent plurality I would even venture, who believe abortion is technically a kind of murder, but that it should stay legal anyway. It is well within the rights of those people to respect and admire someone like Sarah Palin without expecting America to sign up for that, the same way you might respect and admire Michelle Obama's biceps without expecting America to show up at the gym at four in the morning, but more to the point, the VERY same way Michelle talks about how she was so struck by her future husband's decision to sign on to a life of public service when they had all those goddamned student loans. And yet Republicans always manage to make the Obamas sound snooty and contemptuous when they let it slip that, yes, they made some SACRIFICES to get here, as if public service is something to which it is just rational human nature to want to aspire, which is actually the precise OPPOSITE of what Republicans are supposed to believe, which is what makes everything about them so intellectually indefensible.

Awesome News of the Day

So this little piece buried in the depths of MTVs website really impressed me.
You could even say it gave me a little hope regarding the current state of on-line journalism.
...but you know, not that much hope.
So here I post it- in all its glory:
Courtesy of MTV.com http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1593086/20080819/deerhunter_1.jhtml

Deerhunter, The Death Of Journalism And Profuse Apologies, In Bigger Than The Sound
Frontman Bradford Cox reminds us to get both sides of the story.
By James Montgomery
Views
175
On The Record: Probably My First Mea Culpa
This week's column will probably be read by somewhere between 700 and 1,300 people, which is not particularly great. This is because it is mostly about Deerhunter and journalistic integrity, two things which — sadly — people don't seem to care about all that much these days.
And yet, despite all that, I don't have any hesitation writing it; sometimes things like "page views" and "unique visitors" aren't as important as being professional, responsible and fair (that sound you hear is the ad-sales folks sending 10,000 volts of electricity coursing through my chair). So, that's what I'm going to try to do right now.
See, Bradford Cox is pretty mad at me.
For those of you who don't know, he's the mastermind behind Deerhunter — a terrifyingly terrific and prolific band (last year alone they released an album, an EP and a single, all of which are great) — and Atlas Sound, his equally terrific and prolific solo project. I have an enormous amount of respect for him and his music (I named Deerhunter the "Band of the Year" in 2007), though that's not completely why I'm writing this column: I'm doing it because I think he has a right to be upset with me.
Here's why: Over the weekend, Cox, doing what he's done countless times before, gave away free music on his blog, this time in the form of a "Virtual 7-inch" that contained two Atlas songs. The only problem was that this time, when fans attempted to download the tunes, they somehow ended up also downloading the entire contents of Cox's MediaFire account (he had accidentally left it unlocked) — which included demos, song sketches, two fully completed albums and a whole bunch of photos of his friends and family.
Naturally, when that material began to make their way around file-sharing sites, Cox reacted much in the same way anyone would: He sort of lost it, posting (and then deleting) a series of messages on his blog that ran the gamut from denial to anger to bargaining and finally, at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, acceptance. Basically, he rifled through the entire grieving process in a little more than 12 hours. Could he have taken a step back, perhaps counted to 100, or physically separated his fingers from the keyboard? Yes. Did he? No. And maybe neither would you or I, for that matter.
Of course, on Monday, when I wrote about the entire incident on MTV's Newsroom blog, I wasn't considering any of that. I basically recapped the entire event in a condescending tone, put words in Cox's mouth (the whole "Blames You" headline), and did not bother attempting to contact him for further comment or clarification. I was irresponsible and one-sided. In other words, I covered the whole thing the way your average blogger would.
That bums me out. Far be it from me to consider myself some paragon of journalistic integrity — I am, after all, the same guy who penned a passive-aggressive "open letter" to Diddy — but, for God's sake, I didn't even do my job correctly. This was amateur.
And yes, I could blame it all on the fact that I am only in the office one day a week (thanks to "FNMTV"), but the simple fact is that I took the lazy route. I just wrote in my "bloggy voice," filed the piece and moved on.
I hate everything about that last sentence. I can't stand the fact that I now write in two tones: "newsy" and "bloggy." I loathe the fact that I ignored the feeling in the pit of my stomach and filed the post anyway. And I'm sort of depressed that no one — not an editor, not a commenter — called me out on the shoddy work I did. Mostly because I think that confirms my fear that not enough people care about journalistic integrity anymore.
Because, really, why would we? What standards should bloggers be held to — after all, they make no claims about being actual journalists. And furthermore, does being a good journalist even matter anymore, or is being snarky more important than being responsible, correct and fair?
I mentioned a second ago that no one took me to task for the blog post, but that isn't exactly the case. Cox himself e-mailed me about it, and we had a fairly lengthy conversation. The general theme was that he was disappointed with the tone of the blog post. He said he reacted the way he did because someone on a message board had posted the leaked material under a pseudonym that made light of his deceased friend and bandmate Justin Bosworth, and he wished I would have attempted to contact him before filing the post.
I apologized and offered to do an interview with him so he could clear the air, but he declined. Ultimately, he accepted my apology, appreciated my sincerity and ended by saying that he was no longer upset, which sort of made me feel less guilty (but at the same time also made me want to crawl into a hole).
In some way, I'm sort of glad he didn't want to respond, because that would've given me the satisfaction of being able to make this thing right. That's never going to happen now, which is just another byproduct of me not doing my job and falling victim to the prevailing attitude of the times. It might seem goofy, but I'd like to promise to anyone who reads this — be it Bradford Cox or my college buddy Ernest Cox (no relation) — that I won't let it happen again.
Don't worry though. I'm sure next week I'll be back with more fifth-grade humor and thinly veiled, thoroughly unfounded attacks against your favorite band. I am a journalist, after all.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send 'em to me at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.


I say please click on the link above so this articles gets some hits-- prove to MTV that we're tired of reading the same snarky crap we could write ourselves!! This is about journalistic integrity america!!!
xoxo-sticky.

events

Pineapple Express: wait for it on video
The Umbrella Plays: AWESOME, I enjoyed it
12 Ophelias: if there is someone you really, really don't like- recommend this play to them..but don't blame me if they kick your ass.

I've been watching the Olympics non-stop..its pretty ridiculous.
I can't believe all the racist statements Bob Kostas is making...I mean, dude...wtf?

http://www.darfurolympics.org/dayseven.php

awesome news of the day!!

this dude rocks:

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - A former part-time Pennsylvania police officer has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for pulling over a woman while he was off duty — just to give her his phone number. Steven Klinger, 32, was charged with official oppression, or acting outside his authority as an officer.
Police said he used red and blue lights mounted on the dashboard of his pickup truck to pull over a woman in Berwick in eastern Pennsylvania in April 2007. The woman became suspicious when he began asking her if she was married or had a boyfriend, police said.
Klinger was also sentenced Tuesday to three additional days in jail and fined $1,000 for driving drunk in July 2007. Police said he had a blood-alcohol level of .40 percent, five times the legal driving limit.
Klinger last worked for the Dallas Police Department in northeastern Pennsylvania. He is currently unemployed.
He apologized for his actions, and told the judge he had checked into treatment for alcohol abuse.
___

why does my pandora radio want me to be sad?

I don't get it- despite telling them that I like
Spoon
OK GO
The Killers
Polyphonic Spree
and The Donnas...

...all my pandora radio wants to do is bum me out even further on this rainy sleepy monday.

Its not fair! Come on music genome project- how do Tom Waits and Radiohead sound like The Clash?
Do you not take into consideration the inherent "kill-yourself-now-y-ness" of these artists?
And please- don't play Neil Young and tell me it sounds like The Pogues.

You suck.


for your listening pleasure: http://www.pandora.com/

http://www.savemisterrogers.com

Found this on facebook- the website is: http://www.savemisterrogers.com


"In June 2008, Public Broadcasting Service announced that it intends to soon change the way Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the beloved children's television program, is distributed to member stations. PBS will cease transmitting the program as part of their daily syndicated lineup beginning in September. Instead, PBS will provide member stations with a single Neighborhood episode on weekends.

This unfortunate decision essentially silences the special nurturing voice of Mister Rogers in the daily lives of today's children.Local public television stations, who make the final decisions about which programs to offer and when to air them, can still opt to broadcast Mister Rogers' Neighborhood each weekday, but they are much less likely to do so without the program being included in PBS's syndicated feed.We're asking PBS to please reconsider their decision, and allow Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, with its timeless expressions of care for children, to remain a part of their syndicated Monday through Friday schedule.

In the event that PBS stands by their decision, we are urging all PBS member stations to do what it takes to ensure that the lives of children in their neighborhoods can still be enriched each weekday by the gentle, authentic, life-shaping messages of Mister Rogers."





Be neighborly and make sure the kids get to see good ole fred- won't you? -=sticky

sorries

damn so its been about two and half weeks since I've posted on here...I'm sure you thought I abandoned you my pretties! But don't fret- I'm back; just took a little respite to adjust to my new job and enjoy the summer. So far life is going well. I'm going full throttle into the whole getting into graduate school thing so expect some really stressed out entries in the future. But that's not why I'm writing today. Today I want to tell you about movies that I have just seen, that everyone else has already seen...that I thought were awesome...that have already been critically acclaimed. So, essentially I'm re-hashing other people's thoughts and opinion on other people's creativity.

Never said I wasn't a hack.

But anyway-

The Deer Hunter: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/ [come for the wedding, stay for the gaming]
I finally got around to seeing this and all I can say is, its more than just a movie about gruesome battles and russian roulette....it highlights various character's mental breaking points and flirts with the fine line between sanity and madness. I also felt a distinct fear reaction before the Vietnam business even started- as someone born in 1982, the lives the female characters live in this film are so foreign to me that I can't imagine how scared they must have been facing the possibility of choosing the wrong husband, or having him die or expose your child's true paternity. The lack of stability that these female characters unwillingly are forced into seems scarier to me than Walken's character's career and a Russian roulette professional- simply because he has a choice. He could walk away. These women could not.
In short- fabulous, but creepy on many, many levels.

The Dark Knight: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/ [Dude- where's my pencil?]
The first Batman movie to not have "Batman" in the title, this is batman done right. The batman I grew up with. I LOVE!
and for further creepy clown research:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy


Why so serious??

...happy August :)

xoxo-=sticky

Last Day

So today is my last day working for the evil empire. I had my exit interview with Magda Goebbels and the mandatory "hey-were-happy-for-you-but-pissed-your-making-us-actually-have-to-do-work" staff lunch. The only thing left is the equally painful happy hour.

I hope I can adjust working in a positive environment where people are actually pleasant and happy to be working there...I'm a little worried that I can't. I never thought my dating issues would cross over into my working life but is it possible that I have career commitment-phobia?

Will I never allow myself to settle down with a "nice job" prefering instead the emotionally distant and abusive "bad jobs"..you know- the ones that smoke Marb 27s and ride motorcycles? Solely because- when those bad jobs leave me feeling empty and unsatisfied I can always blame them- never myself. Its like a mother fucking lifetime movie.

and this is why I drink.

andireallymeanit!

I AM
SO TIRED
OF PRETENDING
TO BE
SAD ABOUT
LEAVING THIS PLACE

From the good people at www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com

“A Day in the Life of a Middle-Class Republican”

I found this floating around during the last election and thought it was time for it to see the light of day again.
Hope you enjoy (and please forward!):
Tom gets up at 6:00 AM to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot with good, clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.
All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan. Because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Tom gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast — bacon and eggs this day. Tom’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. Tom takes his morning shower, reaching for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount that is contains because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and the breakdown of its contents. Tom dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Tom begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Tom’s employer meets these standards because Tom’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Tom is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get worker’s compensation or an unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should lose his home to temporary misfortune.
It’s noon time. Tom needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Tom’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Tom’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
Tom has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Tom and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
Tom is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification (those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark).
Tom is happy to see his dad, who is now retired. Tom’s dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Tom wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad, Tom gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t tell Tom that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Tom enjoys throughout his day. Tom agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives. After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

some friday awesome-ness

williamsboard.com -- for all your useless hipster drivel needs.

Animals!

I can walk, watch and feed them

for money

genious

 why didn't you think of that?

the exorcism of emily rose

has anyone actually been able to sit through this shit-show in its entirety? 

i mean, its pretty aweful- and if there are 2 genres of movies that i love its exorcism movies and courtroom dramas...but i suppose these are just two great tastes that do not taste great together.

unless this one is just particularly crappy...i think perhaps to enjoy horror movies you have to suspend your practical beliefs...but you watch courtroom dramas in order to feel smart...

...so how can you exercise blind faith and feel smart at the same time?

I think the best way would be to believe me when i say to not watch this movie, and then feel smart you didn't waste your time the next time you hear people complaining about it.

Newsy News

I got a new job!

Its funny, when I was shitcanned at a fourth of july party on friday and it hit me...I have hated my job for so long that I have no idea how to NOT complain about work. It's nuts, I'm nuts. that party was nuts...but now i'm getting off topic....

point is- I only have 2 more weeks of ICSC hell and then I'm off to be the newest Time Out NY employee. It should be pretty awesome. 

I also got my economic stimulous check today. the thing that sucks about it is that its basically only going to bring my bank account back up to $0...well, unless my credit card payment goes through before thursday, then it will still be overdrawn.

I need a way to make some change on the side...short from prostitution or a web-cam business, anybody have any ideas?

so many...

Reasons why July is going to be better than June:

- Sirenfest, hot sticky coney island fun. no bands i'm crazy about are signed up as of right now but outdoor music festivals are an essential party of summer and this one is their mommy.

-Movies at Bryant Park, AMC movie classics style films shown every monday night in the middle of manhattan. NICE

-McCarren Park Movies, to the genious that picked The Virgin Suicides- I should slap you, but i'll just be going to the free crosby, stills and nash show in central park instead. jerk.

- Free shows in central park- i heart, i HEART free anything, especially when there are blankets involved.

-DANTE! WEDNESDAYS! GREENPOINT!

(yay)

-Coney Island Movies, classics, popcorn, ocean...nuff said

- My economic stimulous check will come in the mail..

...one of these days...

..i think...

.....i hope.....

..please?

-i get a new job! IHAVETO!! ITWILL HAPPEN!

So lookout my little bloggy friends- July is going to be crazy! brining with it crazy stories and hopefully some really good pics. 

Updates

The throngs of fans are requesting blog updates- who am I to dissapoint.
So here we go:

I haven't been writing much because I've been spending every waking moment filling out job applications, writing cover letters and creating about 8,000 different versions of my resume. This frantic job searching has filled me with this kind of mania where it's impossible for me to think about anything else. I have a job, in most respects my job is not completely horrible, but just knowing that I am so close to being able to get out of this office is creating this obsessive thought process of "I've gotta get the fuck out of here!!" Its all day- non-stop "GET OUT GET OUT!!"

So obviously I'm going slightly insaine.


So there's that.

I've also recently been slammed with a lot of really bad news lately. This week began with the loss of an old friend of mine. I remember her as being compassionate, accepting and really, really fucking smart. She has so many prospects and touched so many lives. I'm hoping that this tragedy will inspire the people that knew her to stress less, laugh more, enjoy life and appreciate the people in their lives while they're graced with the ability to do so. Also this week a fellow Oneonta-Alum's life was ended in a car accident. It's staggeringly sad when people who are so young and have so much opportunity are taken from us so quickly. Needless to say many of my friends are fighting through their grief and loss. Please people- be good to eachother out there.
Life is so short, together we can appreciate it for what it should be.

I love you

be safe

-=a

Goodidea

So- renting an island is an amazing idea. If your lucky enough to live close to Lake George I highly recommend it!! I realized on Saturday when my friends were talking about when there last vacations were etc...that I HAVE NEVER TAKEN A VACATION.
EVER
SINCE I WAS 8
and I'm sorry- but family vacations that you are forced to go on do NOT count.
And now I see why people take vacations- I feel awesome!!
But- I have this horrible sunburn! I'll post a pic of the burn and more trip details later tonight. Sadly, not too much gossip...mostly just spent the whole weekend sitting on a boat. Sometimes life is totally awesome.

o nos

OYEAH! Ladies and gentlemen- today's reason why drinking and photography do not mix. 

fan fucking tastic.

This is an awesome website. If you haven't been- you're missing out. 

Todays reason why I'm awesome

I rock at kickball. 

and I rock at flip cup.

...and now I'm hungover. yay for saturdays and netflix.

xoxo

Scary NYC News of the Day

Crane Collapses on Upper East Side

NEW YORK CITY-A crane collapsed just after 8:00 a.m. at a construction site near 91st Street and First Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side, according to witnesses and officials. At least two people have died from the incident, according to local news reports.

The collapse occurred two months after a tower crane collapsed on 51st Street between Second and First avenues, killing seven people. The New York Fire Department said that it has pulled people from the wreckage, but their conditions were not immediately known.

According to published reports, the building under construction at the site is the Azure, a 245,000-sf building being constructed at 333 East 91st St. between First and Second avenues by the DeMatteis Organizations and the Mattone Group.

The top floor of a nearby high-rise apartment building had been damaged. A resident at the 23-story Electra, at 354 E. 91st St., tells GlobeSt.com that the crane collapsed into his building, and mostly damaged the top floor, where the administration office is. He explained that there was some flooding on the 4th floor, and the crane tore off a 19th floor balcony. "Last week, Thursday I believe, there was a 40-foot extension added to the crane. They wouldn't let us leave the building," he explains. "As of now, we are told we are not allowed back in the building."

The cause of today's crane collapse has yet to be determined, but clearly, construction safety is still a concern. In April, the city’s buildings commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, was forced out of her job and an extensive review of the city’s cranes was conducted in the aftermath of that March accident.

Source: GlobeSt.com

art?

This is one of my favorite bits of grafitti in the world. o silly hipsters.

more pics to come.  

awkward introductions

well hello there...

Welcome to my new blog- I hope you will find it enjoyable and wonderful. At times it will probably be too much information, possibly gross, creepy, ridiculous, TOTALLY embarassing, but ::hopefully:: always good for a chuckle.

I live in a box, I work in a cube. I go to house parties and spend alot of my time in dank bars with sketchy characters..that would account for the fact that I look like a vampire, have a horrible sense of humor and a rotting liver. I love my friends, I live far from my family, I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. I'm competitive about anything and everything for absolutely no good reason and my work e-mails regularly get blocked due to my own foul language. 

I hope to post on this semi-regularly with interesting news stories, movie and concert reviews as well as funny stories from yours truly; and eventually photos and video documenting my various debaucherous outings. Comment, enjoy, and go in peace. 

xoxo

::sticky::