In case anyone cares (I don’t really but I just needed to blog about something; and this was semi-interesting and I got to say that America Loves a comeback) in some super miracle of miracles Britney Spears debuted her new album Circus at Number 1. Now, its not enough to be number 1 for the sake of being number one, she sold 500,000+ copies in her first week, coming just under Taylor Swift for 2008s biggest debut. She even outsold Sasha Fierce’s first week… This, along with the great success of Mariah Carey’s Emancipation of MiMi, really does show that we as Americans love a comeback. This is why everyone wants Michael Jackson to get it together. But back to Brit Brit. I can’t even pretend that I didn’t catch myself singing “Womanizer” at the most random times. I’d be sitting at my work desk and the next thing I know I’m humming, “Womanizer oh, you’re a womanizer.” Damn that song for being on an episode of my guilty please, Gossip Girl. I love those upper East Side brats, LOL.
Brit hasn’t had a #1 single since ‘Baby One More Time’ which was a super shocker to me. So I guess ‘Womanizer’ was a good luck for her. And she’s passing digital records also (286,000 online sales) since SoundScan started tracking downloads in 2003. This woman is showing that even though she is a loony as a loony toon, she is capable of selling records. Hell, even her tours are still selling out-they recently had to add a few more dates. See, Whitney (Houston) you too can make a comeback.. just let Bobby go and make your way back to the top… No receipts necessary…
Baywatch Beauty? Not Anymore. What the bejesus have you done to yourself?Talk about a fall from grace! You used to be what some would deem a MILF, but now you just look super rundown. What is going on? This is a picture I found of you back in May, and at 40 you’re not looking too bad. So what has happened between then and now? Now you look like you’re ingesting Meth or some other deathly substance. Giirrrlll, you look like death is coming for you. Is this from having the Hep? I would hope not, because if so you need to find a better doctor. Gone is your signature sultry pout.. You’re hot factor is gone! You need to work to pull it together. Age gracefully. Look at Helen Mirren…
But let’s go over a few things. At 41, you should wear more cover clothing. You can still show off your infamous cleavage with more figure flattering clothes. And maybe its time to leave the tanning alone. Skin cancer is real. A very real danger for people with extended exposure to the sun. And while I think you do some admirable things, like being a voice for PETA (whom I’m not overly fond of) I think you should take better care of yourself. At 41 partying should be a little more limited. But then again, I am not a pseudo-celebrity like you, so I don’t know what that life entails. But anything that can age you this much in under a year is never good. Ask anyone, hell you see Amy Winehouse. Homegirl does NOT look her age which is the early 20s. I know you’re not exactly a spring chicken, but right now you look like someone who had a really bad chemical peel, or worse. Please do something to help yourself. The road to nowhere is a short one, and not easily able to make a U-turn, just ask your friend Mr. M. Jackson.
Not one to point out only the problem I am here to offer some solutions… Maybe pants every now and then. And maybe washing your face, with an exfoliator -no need for the peel. And maybe, jussssttt maybe back away from the booze and any hard drugs you’re doing. If not for your own health at least for your sons. Kids don’t need to see their mother like this. Especially teenagers, you’re kids aren’t so young that they can’t just click on the internet and see what a druggie their Mom looks like. I don’t know how you’re living in Canada, but here you need to pull it together Ms. Anderson!
I don’t know if its been made clear in the past, but I like to cook, I might even venture to say that I borderline love to cook. I am intrigued by the way different flavors mesh and can’t wait to buy The Flavor Bible, when it goes down in price. So, one day I’m blog strolling and I came across this blog, Dolcecakes.wordpress.com which features different baking recipes. Now, while I think I have the cooking thing done pretty well, but don’t ask me to make a Beef Wellington anytime soon, I have not conquered baking. So, on this blog I found her recipe for Chocominty Coconut Cookies. I love mint chocolate so these instantly got printed and I conspired to make them. The ingredients sounded like things I could pick up from my local supermarket,so I decided to give them a go. After all, I love trying new things, and baking is my next goal. Well, there are a few more dishes I’d like to master, but I can multitask..
Now, I don’t know the difference between pastry flour and regular flour. The recipe called for wheat pastry flour, however in the aisle at Stop & Shop they only had wheat flour. On the package it said great for baking so I went with that since pastry flour wasn’t there. All the other ingredients were easy, brown sugar and coconut among them. I get home and set my butter out to become room temperature, which takes forever. I was getting anxious so I put it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Then I let it sit while I mixed all the other ingredients. After adding the butter, I wish it was a little softer, but it was pretty thick cookie dough. I’ve only made cookies from scratch one or two times and they were oatmeal cookies, so they should be dry. Since then Pillsbury and Tollhouse have been my cookie go-tos, so this was pretty dry, but i did as the instructions said and rolled it into a log and refridgerated it for the designated two hours. It instructs you to cut in in 1/4 inch slices, but I had no clue how to judge that, so I decided to wing it and came out with some different sized slices on my cookie sheet. I baked them for the instructed 10 minutes, but they didn’t seem done, so I left them in for a few more minutes. Not the best idea.
Cookies!
After taking them out and letting them cool, I had a very delicious mint choco cookie. However, it was tough on the teeth. Not the best results for cookies. But they were so good, strong flavors.. At first I had doubts because it used so little mint extract (half teaspoon). I wondered if the mint flavor would stand out, and it really does. I will definitely try to make these again, I would like them to have a “gooey” factor, so after I get the recipe down, I might add in some semi-sweet chocolate chips for added “gooey” ness. They may be hard, but they taste damn good with milk! I shall master baking . . . one day…
During the summer I was browsing the EA website and saw that in 2009 they would be releasing the Sims 3. For some, that’s not big news, but to me-an avid Sim lover since they first came out, this was huge news. All I had to go on was that this one would give the user more control over their individual Sim and the neighborhood. Excited and Thrilled were not enough to cover my feelings. My roommates girlfriend is also an avid Sim’er so I broke the news to her and she was equally as excited. So, since the summer months, it has kind of been off my radar due to it not being released until 2009.
Today, or yesterday, I received an email from EA offering a discount because its the holiday season, and all that good cheery stuff that I don’t subscribe to. In the email they mentioned discounts on all Sims 2 things, so this instantly bought up my curiosity as to when the exact release date was for Sims 3. So I Googled them and came across their website, thesims3.ea.com. I watched the video that the developers put together, and saw the endless possibilities, stemming from more choices in age ranges, more job choices, and more house designs.
The biggest new feature is the interactiveness of the town. Being able to join protest outside city hall, to being able to fish in the pond in the park, and being able to drop in on neighbors are all features that are new to the game. Also, it hopes for easier user online transition. Before you had to go outside the game to upload stuff online or even import things from online at thesims2.com. And there are new “personality traits” that are supposed to have a big affect on your Sim and their interaction with other Sims. AND they can have more than one job at time, you can be a doctor with a part time gig playing for a rock band! How cool is that?? A cool scenario presented was this one, “your Sim can choose to Whoohoo at work, but if they get caught then both Sims run out of the office naked. Now, that could be a lesson you don’t want to learn in the real world!” This is about some of the moral choices shown in the game. But I think one of the biggest changes users will see is that everyone ages while you play. In past Sims games you could build two families at the same time. But if you played with family A more than family B they would be on different ages. Now, your seems are alive as your playing with your family out on this free-world.
If anyone is familiar with Sims of the past you know that your control pretty much is in your house and thats it. Life outside the house, like at work, you have no control over. With the introduction of the Sims 2, we saw more control, like your Sims could now “Woohoo” aka have sex, but this takes it to a new level. And in the Sims 2 your Sim could be pregnant, which was cool. And you had teenagers who could sneak out the house and have their first kiss. I was hooked when I got this game. Although having a laptop kinda made me play less, I still liked it. I have the Sims on my Nintendo GameCube too, but I don’t play that as much. I am eagerly awaiting the release of Sims 3, and while I may purchase it off eBay to try to get a discount, it doesn’t make me love it any less, it just means I’m cheap!!
While we are on the topic of TV, this is something DVR could have prevented! OK, I’m joking with that because this is slightly sad
A 72-year-old New Jersey (not the man in photo) man stabbed his friend 28 times after she took the remote. Now, when I first heard this story, I was at my desk at work and my co-worker said that aloud. My initial response was, “what the hell, how can you not out maneuver a 72 year old, how old do you have to be.” Then she proceeded to tell me that the lady was 63. So she was pretty old herself. But let me say, my grandmother is 66 and she could dodge someone trying to stab her. She does not play that! I bet this was a blossoming romance that ended over a debate between People’s court or Judge Judy. I feel sad for victims family, and even for the old man, he’s 73 and going to face jail time-at least 15 years for aggravated man-slaughter. Damn, maybe he should be on People’s Court pleading for a suspended sentence to an old people’s home. I mean, he might have a mental illness, he said that he doesn’t remember stabbing her but that he knew he attacked her. He could easily have dementia. Damn, he probably forgot he was at her house, watching her TV and snapped. You aren’t even safe at home anymore.
Blazing across the internet the past day or so are articles/blogs in response to a CNN article asking, ‘Are you afflicted with ‘Tivo Guilt’? Now, I have no problem with this question, in fact it might be valid, however what they define as TiVo guilt, which we will now refer to as DVR guilt because thats what I call it and TiVo isn’t anything more than a brand, isn’t what I would define as guilt.
The article says that DVR guilt comes from providing users with more than they can watch, and is “turning a joy into drudgery.” Apparently its the age old problem of biting off more than you can chew. With the option to now record shows, sometimes two in the same time slot people are recording shows that they have no intent to watch. OR even if they do want to watch them, they don’t have time to because they’ve let them pile up. And this leads to TV watching now becoming like homework. And apparently this is something that has been around since the ever growing popularity of DVR because a “quick Google search offered articles using the phrase.” OK. Google has articles on everything, so I don’t think that is a valid source. I can Google jdkslau and get six articles more than likely.
So apparently having infinite choices and infinite “opportunity costs” is a bad thing when it comes to TV watching. When people record all these shows, they feel GUILTY about deleting them without watching them. I find this to be horribly stupid. DO you feel guilty when you stop watching a show, especially if it became uninteresting? Usually, no. But now that you’ve set your DVR its a problem? Wow. Guilt.
Now, let me tell you my definition of DVR guilt. Many have said that DVR usage has hampered with TV ratings. It was said that if you record something it only gets counted if you watch it within 24 hours of the original airing. That provides a problem for me. I very rarely do that. So, it sucks when a show that I really do like, and watch avidly and I know other people do too, gets canned due to ratings problems. That makes me feel guilty. I like to let shows pile up and watch them all later, like a rainy Sunday afternoon I can watch 4 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Or perhaps Gossip Girl. I didn’t start watching that show when it first premiered, so while I caught up with the previous episodes online I let my DVR do the work of recording the new ones. By the time I was caught up with those I had all new ones waiting for me. Sometimes, waiting for the next week is nerve wrecking, which I felt this season waiting for each new episode of True Blood.
So I guess the answer is yes, I do suffer from ‘TiVo Guilt’. I am guilty of contributing to the downfall of wonderful television programming. Perhaps TV monitoring should work on that, for instance I think DVRs should count as a person watching. I mean, technically I guess I am “tuned” in.
In case all of you Jersey folks out there don’t know, its now going to cost us more to travel in state. The last two times I traveled on the parkway I saw signs that the fare would increase on December 1st. If you don’t know, some tolls on the Garden State Parkway are 70 cents and some, in less traveled areas of the parkway that you pay going both ways, are 35 cents. Well now those 70 cents tolls are going to be 1 dollar and those measly 35 cents tolls will now run us a clean half dollar. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am upset. I don’t like having to pay to drive. Gas is going down for who knows how long, and now tolls are up. We just can’t win. Driving can be such a nuisance. For those who travel the turnpike that has went up as well. The average 22 mile trip is going up from 1.25 to 1.70.
I can understand the need to raise tolls, but it doesn’t mean that I am happy. New Jersey is in a serious deficit, and Gov. Corzine has to make some changes. This changes will generate lots of revenue for the state, and I guess its better to do this than raise taxes. In an article I read online and in the Rutgers University Daily Targum it said that the revenue earned from these increases will be used towards paying bonds sold to finance past construction projects and to pay for more than 8 billion dollars in new work. New work is said to include 3 new lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike between exits 8A and 6. They also want to add an additional lane on the Garden State Parkway in the Toms River area. Their is also talk of a possible discount planned for EZPass drivers. However, after review of the discount proposed on the NJ Turnpike Authority website, it doesn’t really benefit people who have jobs. The only time the discount is offered is during “off peak” hours. Off peak hours are between 6:30 pm-7am and 9 am-4pm. Weekends aren’t even considered off peak. Bastards! They also have a plan to offer discounts to folks who drive “green” cars. With all the changes and increase in 2012 like they propose eventually it will cost us 4.7 cents per mile on the Parkway and 11.5 cents per mile on the Turnpike. Damn tolls…
It’s always good to hear a feel good story since we are living in such chaotic times. Right before Thanksgiving we were reminded yet again how crazy this world is with the attacks on Mumbai. That was not a great entry into an American holiday. So, over the weekend (my wonderful four-day weekend) I read this article about a 17-year-old boy in Federal Way, Washington who found a “pretty thick stack” of money in the bathroom at his part-time job at Top Food & Drug. After some internal debate about what to do Moisei Baraniuc decided to turn the money in to his supervisor. They then counted the money, all 50 and 100 dollar bills, to a grand total of $10,000!! After counting the money his supervisor called 911 and reported the missing money, police then came and did whatever it is that police do in these situations. Later, a man calls the store and said he’d left it. He said the money was his life savings which he usually kept at home but because he was moving he had it there with him. After verifying store surveillance and stuff they finally handed the money back over to Fred Smith.
This story brightened my day. I know that the kid faced some serious inner turmoil in the time he made that decision. Here he was, from an immigrant family who came here five years ago with $300 and here is a free sack of money that no one has to know about. But then there is the down side. This money means something to someone, they can’t get this back. Flashing through my head would have been that scene from Saved by the Bell, where Zack and the gang were at the mall and found a bag of money. Later they found out they were on a candid camera TV show. Things like $10,000 never just appear. AND reporting it to the police doesn’t always equate to it being eventually returned to the original party, cops “lose” evidence all the time.
This story kept me feeling good for a large part of the weekend though and then I had a personal good experience, well my friend did but since I was there I was part of it. Me and said friend were at the mall doing some mall like things and when we left she dropped her purse outside in the rain. We didn’t realize this until we were obviously not at the mall anymore. So frantically she called Macy’s security and mall security trying to find her purse, but no such luck. So we headed back out that way and scoped out the parking lot looking for her rain soaked purse but no luck. She went into the Macy’s checked around again. We checked the cars that were near our spot and decided we’d wait the people out because if they found it and turned it in they would tell us, right? Anyway, while we were sitting there Macy’s security called her and let her know someone turned it in. So she and I were both ecstatic.. and to celebrate I bought new shoes! Don’t judge me, they were on sale..
It’s always wonderful that good people are out there. We need to see more examples like this to keep our faith alive. We all need faith, or at least I do. Source
Dope. Crazy. Perfectly Imperfect. I'm not the best writer and probably not the worst either, but I am happy while doing it. Stick with me and you'll never be bored! I mean, maybe you won't and maybe you will....
In case anyone cares (I don’t really but I just needed to blog about something; and this was semi-interesting and I got to say that America Loves a comeback) in some super miracle of miracles Britney Spears debuted her new album Circus at Number 1. Now, its not enough to be number 1 for the sake of being number one, she sold 500,000+ copies in her first week, coming just under Taylor Swift for 2008s biggest debut. She even outsold Sasha Fierce’s first week… This, along with the great success of Mariah Carey’s Emancipation of MiMi, really does show that we as Americans love a comeback. This is why everyone wants Michael Jackson to get it together. But back to Brit Brit. I can’t even pretend that I didn’t catch myself singing “Womanizer” at the most random times. I’d be sitting at my work desk and the next thing I know I’m humming, “Womanizer oh, you’re a womanizer.” Damn that song for being on an episode of my guilty please, Gossip Girl. I love those upper East Side brats, LOL.
Dear Pam Anderson,
