from the mouths of fake-news comedians

i make no secret of my affection for Stephen Colbert, his show, and his general schtick. This segment exemplifies so much of what i love about him, and it includes Bill O'Reilly demonstrating his utter dumbassery, so it's a real winner. Colbert's last exhortation here is chillingly accurate about our culture's ugly little truth- that almost no one really wants to or likes helping the poor.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog March to Keep Fear Alive

sprouted

introducing

Theo Bennett Markle

Born August 21, 2010, 5:37 am

7.49 lbs, 19 inches

Likes: boobs, thumbs, pre-war Scandinavian type treatments

Dislikes: nudity, cold, TBS sitcoms

Hobbies: creative application of urine throughout the pediatrician's office

(photos and video by Jesse Rosten)

as it turns out, people still write poetry

not miserable

Being that i'm just shy of 7 months pregnant, and being that the genetic lottery has determined i'm a relatively lithe person, and being that maternity clothes are UUUUUUGLY and i have no budget for them anyway so i'm just stretching my regular t-shirts and tank tops over the basketball attached to my torso, it's safe to say i'm noticeably pregnant. This of course leads to strangers engaging in conversation with me about my 'state'. The checker at Chevron, the guy at Costco, strangers at church, people in parking lots....en totum. It usually goes something like this:

How far along are you?

When are you due?

Oh, all summer huh?

Do you know what you're having?

Do you have a name picked out?

Is this your first?

Are you excited?

Friends and acquaintances ask if i'm tired of strangers getting all up in my biz and asking awkward questions, but i'm honestly not. (And not just because the questions are usually accompanied by compliments about how great i look.) So far no one has asked me anything terribly personal and, aside from the aforementioned Chevron checker asking 'so are you totally miserable?' i haven't fielded anything i wasn't prepared to answer. The way i see it, people see 'pregnancy' in flashing neon and an instinctual excitement clicks on and they want to connect with it in the only socially acceptable way available to them: conversation. We pass a hundred people every day in the grocery store, coffee shop, bank, etc and have no known way of connecting with them beyond a gripe about gas prices or a comment on what's in the produce section, so when there's something that inspires a fundamental sense of shared experience, who am i to begrudge what comes out of that? Every person born becomes a part of our experience as citizens, and in Times Like These, when things are being slashed and tightened and restricted and hoarded, anything representing abundance and growth and future has an extra measure of wonder thrust upon it. i'm fine with that. You should be too. As thinking and feeling as we humans are, we are also primal creatures. Primally, when our species reproduces, it means we'll have someone to care for us when we're old and infirm and it means the work we accomplish in our lifetimes will not have been in vain because there are future members to take advantage of it and to continue it on to greater purposes. It doesn't bother me when strangers quiz me about my state of fertility, not because i'm soooo enlightened, but because it's obvious they're excited and since i'm excited, why can't we all be excited together? It's good for the tribe. i obviously don't speak for every pregnant woman waddling around in the world right now and there are certainly those who guard their privacy moreso than i do mine, but this is me telling you that if you encounter a pregnant stranger, it is okay to engage her in polite conversation in order to express your primal joy. (Remember: it is not okay to touch her stomach any more than it is okay to touch a non-pregnant stranger's stomach.) Saying, "observing your fertility has made me excited" is NOT a good idea (especially if you're a man) because she'll think you're a dangerously weird pregophile, but you can say, "a baby on the way! That's exciting! Gooo species!!" or something to that effect. Okay? Glad we had this little chat.

**Edited to add: Erin K. reminded me of one line of questioning i've received that, although frightfully prevalent, does NOT fall under the umbrella of 'appropriate' or 'polite' and that is the, 'Were you trying to have a baby?' or 'Was this planned?' angle. i simply do not understand what answer people are looking for with this question. If the answer is 'yes', well then.....boring. If the answer is 'no' then, isn't that awkward? "Oh. So you didn't want to have a baby right now but you're pregnant so.....i'm sorry?" It's just a bizarre line of questioning that yields no fruitful conversation AND is NONE of your business! Honestly. Just be primally enthusiastic that the species is continuing and don't concern yourself with whether it was due to months of temperature-taking and strategically timed hankypanky, one night of boozy inhibition, or anything in between.

Here's something completely unrelated that restores my faith in humankind:

on Bradbury

i realized that i hadn't updated the gem in the sidebar in quite a while, and it's not so cold anymore so i went a-hunting for a new gem. Being between books at the moment, i didn't have a source at hand, so i used the Google machine to find a good Ray Bradbury quote to use as our gem for the next indeterminate phase. Why Ray Bradbury? *heavy sigh* He's only the greatest writer ever. That's all. In this moment i've just decided to read everything he's ever written before i die. i've much to do then. Yes. Much reading lies ahead. If you're a fan, let me know if you have a recommendation for how to tackle my new task. Thanks.

Lovely, i'm glad we got to share this moment....which was inspired by my fear of going to bed because bed is not a happy place for me anymore. It is an itchy place, full of itching. And not sleeping. (HAVE A BABY! PREGNANCY IS SUPER FUN! LIKE TOTALLY!)

Anyway, the reasons a simple gem switch-out got turned into a full post: i hadn't posted in a bit and i kinda sorta promised i would post more, and :there are too many Bradbury gems to choose from and you need more than one to get you through your life. i feel responsible to share them with you. You needn't have read any Bradbury to appreciate him (though if you haven't i gently weep for you). i had the immense, unbelievable privilege to hear him speak and to have him sign my copy of Fahrenheit 451 when i was but a lowly undergrad at PLNU. Internet, he can speak. About life, writing, imagination, work, humanity, great lays and mad geniuses, craft and joy.... it was breathtaking. Literally. i found myself holding my breath more than once. i'm pretty sure i cried too. It was that overwhelming. (you can watch the 2001 interview here, it's about 30 mins long) i've declared this before (somewhere, to someone, though i don't recall): the day Ray Bradbury leaves this earth i will drink heavily and be very melancholy and nostalgic and generally unbearable to be around. i will mourn. Be prepared.

Anyway. Here are the gems i selected for you.

"We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts."

"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things."

"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together."

"If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

"If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you."

"Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for."

"My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off."

"We are anthill men upon an anthill world."

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."

"You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."

"Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. "

"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."

"If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed to trap them before they escape."

and now i understand

For quite some time now i've been mystified by the popularity of Glenn Beck.

i am not a fan.

There are many things/people/trends of which i'm not a fan, but i can still understand at least a bit of why others are drawn to them. Try as i might, i cannot understand Glenn Beck's appeal. Here's where i admit that 'try as i might' means 'i don't try terribly hard.' Frankly, there are only 24 hours in the day and since i only sleep about 4 of those hours anymore, i don't want to spend too much of my precious 20 thinking about why people devote themselves to an angry man and his angry ideas. i guess i just assumed that angry follows angry. Or begets. Or whatever. It's just that it's one thing to agree with someone's positions or ideas, it's another to cheer on that person's vitriol and their propagation of general bitterness and disunity. That's where i lose track of the WHYYYY?? of it all.

Then, in the magical land of Facebook, a friend pondered the very same question (albeit more graciously than i) and later posted the following as how he understands it all to work. Though this video is a few years old and never mentions Glenn Beck, i think it deftly explains his type and the type that are his many fans. Perhaps you too have been befuddled by the hype; here is the key. Or perhaps you are a fan; here is how i understand you. If it's incorrect, please explain.

But i think it's correct.

P. Dinger

You should know by now that i'm kind of obsessed with AMC's original dramatic television series, Mad Men. If you watch it, you know that it is deeply dramatic and that the heart (and heat) of the deep dramaticisms is the character of Don Draper, who is played with seething intensity by Mr. Jon Hamm. If you don't watch Mad Men, this is me sticking my fingers in my ears and yelling 'LALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU YOU'RE NOT TELLING ME THIS I REFUSE LALALALALAAAAAAAAA'. And if you don't watch you probably have no idea who Jon Hamm is, because he was virtually unknown when AMC cast him as Don 'Deep Drama' Draper. You may know him as the classically handsome dude that keeps winning Emmys and Golden Globes for his work on a series that you are not watchingGOODLORDWHYAREN'TYOUWATCHING????????

Okay. i'm calm now. i had some juice and now i'm calm.

So this is mostly for the Hamm fans out there. It's a little outdated, since Mad Men is launching season 4 later this year and this piece takes place on the cusp of season 2 before the viewers learned about THAT ONE THING OMG! and THE THING WITH PEGGY! and HOLY CRAP! WITH THE DUDE! and stuff. It is an interview betwixt Paul Rudd (he of the often crass Judd Apatow comedic films but also the stepbrother in Clueless) and Jon Hamm and it is deeply, dramatically, hilarious. If you only know Jon Hamm as Don Draper, your eyes will be opened and you may have to read the interview twice. The second time you will weep with joy.

Friends, the interview takes place in a mall.

i'm pretty sure nothing substantial gets accomplished besides making the world a little better through funnyness. i think you should read it even if you're never heard of Mad Men (*this is me glaring at you*) or Jon Hamm (*looooong, heavy sigh*) or interviews. HERE IT IS AND YOU'RE VERY WELCOME. Send cookies.

Snippet:

PR: I want to know about Jon Hamm.

JH: Fine. I am an open book.

PR: You are. You're naked.

JH: I kind of thought that's how we were supposed to do these interviews.

PR: When I said, "Jon, I hope you're ready to get naked in this interview," I didn't anticipate that you would actually be physically naked.

JH: Well, it helps me to be emotionally naked if I'm physically naked.

PR: I see.

JH: Thank you, by the way, for also being naked.

song 1

Wow, full circle. A year ago today i was sitting on the floor of Pete's room in Mark and Tracey's house going through the painstakingly-made top 15 lists of some of my besties. i highly, highly recommend having a top 15 'party' of your own with your besties. It's enlightening and fun. It's really easy too: you plan a date and tell everyone to come with a cd of their top 15 songs, in order of toppest to 15th-est, then you take turns going through your choices and why you chose them. The only rule is that there's no judgement. 14 Britney Spears songs and 1 Muse song? So be it. You must ascribe to 'to each his/her own' when engaging in the top 15 sharing circle. Anyway, we made copies of our mixes for everyone. It's best to plan the event a month out to allow everyone time to really think about their lists, because for most, it's a challenging task. Although it has nothing to do with new years, ours happened to be on new years and it's a superb memory.

i hadn't planned on stretching out the bloglist of my top 15 for the entire year, but i just happened to realize today was the anniversary and i'm down to my number 1. How keen! Perhaps it's a sign and 2010 will be a keen year..... hmmmm....

Song One.

You know this song, it's programmed into your subconscious if you were born around or after 1979. It was originally written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher as a soundtrack song and recorded by Jim Henson's alter ego, Kermit, the frog. (Wiki has good backstory on this song, in case you're curious.) Many, many artists have recorded their own versions, to varying results. Sarah McLachlan has a beautiful version and the Dixie Chicks prominently feature the original's signature banjo in theirs. But these are not my choice.

My choice is Willie.

As i've said before, when i began constructing my top 15 it was helpful to list a few artists i knew were important enough to my musical life to include, and then select a favorite song from said artist. One such artist was Willie Nelson, because my siblings and i were raised on Willie, James Taylor, and the Eagles. And because like everyone else born in the early 80s, i was also raised on/by The Muppets, the natural convergence would be the song of all songs, The Rainbow Connection. Is it a little cliche of a choice? Sappy? Sure. But i'm not just choosing a childhood song, and a 'can't-we-all-just-get-along-while-we-follow-our-dreams?' song at that. i chose Willie's version for it's musicality. (Kermit, bless his goofy heart, is not the world's most melodious singer) Sarah McLachlan's version is very musical, but too ethereal. i prefer Willie's version for it's grounded simplicity and guitarity. (Yup, just made up a really awesome word.)

It's a great song because it's a little melancholy and wistful in that Robert Browning 'ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?' sense. (you know, that sense? the one everyone's always talking about? no? just me? *sigh*) It's also very optimistic and inspirational, which is why, i think, i gravitate toward to the Willie Nelson recording. His voice is at times raw, at times wavery, at times imperfect, and those factors, combined with the earthy and bare guitar keep the 'follow your dreams' message from taking over and making it a very saccharine, very American-Idol-finale type of musical gag-inducer. i love Willie Nelson's voice, some songs much more so than others, so when i knew i wanted a Willie song on my top 15 i searched for one that i felt accurately demonstrated why his voice is one of my most favorites and this was obviously one.

Another one of my methods for deciding which songs would make the top 15 was the method of 'would i want this song played at my funeral and what would it say about me if it were?' i know, totally dramatic and self-absorbed, right? Whatever. This was one that made it through that filter.

Concluding, in sum, finally and at last: please to enjoy my number-1-most song of everness, 'Rainbow Connection', as performed by Willie Nelson.

ya know?

Since i seem to be obsessed with common language barf-ups and idiosyncracies, this video - sent to me by my good pal Jamileh - was right up my alley. And since it was all typographyish and designy, i was able to get Josh to watch it with me.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

only suitable for adults

My dear comrade, and first of thousands of roommates, Ashley (of the Northern California Ashleys) is also a blogger. And whence directed to her blog by its author (meaning her), i was greatly amused to find, before i could observe the blog, a warning from the good people at Google and Blogger. "The blog that you are about to view may contain content only suitable for adults," it declared. "In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog." i laughed. Of course Ashley's blog would come with a warning! i half-expected to also hear a husky-voiced man tell me intensely, "The blog you are about to view is rated BL MALVSC. It is intended for mature audiences only." (is it sad that i have that tv rating boiler plate language memorized? yes, a little. But i do watch a great deal of Rescue Me.) Having accepted the warning and perused the blog, i can't really figure out why it's only suitable for adults. i see very little of Ashley's usual colorful jargon, no mention of that one very adult word she taught me in 11th grade, and no dirty pictures. A simple 'holy $#i!' seems to be the extent of the adultry (a word i just made up, not to be confused with adultery), and i learned that word in 2nd grade (i ran out with a rough crowd).

Anyway, Ashley runs. i only run when i'm being chased, and even then i'm more inclined to either-

A. Curl up in a ball and hope to be killed/devoured quickly and mercifully, or

B. Do what no fictional chasee ever thinks to do, which is run like hell for a short distance, then hide like hell and wait for the chasers to run by before you double back and stroll, whistling, to safety. Seriously. i spend most of the Bourne movies (which i do love, btw. Call me, Damon.) thinking, 'if he just tucked himself away in a good spot he could easily evade the baddies.' Then i think, 'i would be happy to tuck away with him' but then we're veering all to closely into the aforementioned adultery.

Like music/food/literature/jesus, everyone has different tastes in exercise. i prefer to go to a gym and take a kickboxing class with 20 strangers and a psychotically peppy instructer. Ashley prefers to run long distances in public. That's her prerogative, which i happen to think is bananas. Sometimes she even PAYS for the privilege to get up at ungodly hours and run long distances in strange cities. She is perfectly welcome to do that, i happen to think she's Mentally Askew. In case i haven't made myself clear, i honor Ashley's choices, ridiculous and bass-akwards as they are. (here's where i admit that my 2nd favorite part of that cinematic gem, Talladega Nights, is Ricky Bobby saying 'with all due respect' and then saying something completely, baldly, disrespectful.)

Clearly, i am incapable of making a blog post about Ashley into anything other than a post about myself.

Ashley also teaches high school English. You can decide which is a more alarming and punishing habit to willingly undertake. She runs because she teaches, kind of like 'daddy drinks because you cry.' (i don't know where i saw/heard that but i can't even think of it without laughing out loud.) You could say, she blogs because she runs because she teaches. To be obnoxious to anyone masochistic enough to still be reading this post, i read because she blogs because she runs because she teaches. In the house that Jack built to catch the spider to catch the fly, alpha and omega, amen.

Her blog is about running and teaching and the highs and lows of both. Also, she's one of the most disciplined people i know, and has been since even before she taught me that one particular very bad word in 11th grade. She's also kind of a riot, so even if you are smart or chicken enough to not have gone into teaching, or if you're self-respecting enough to not do absurd things like Run Voluntarily, i do believe you'll enjoy yourself whilst reading her blog. Here it is. It's also in the list of 'Comrades' to the right. No, your other right.

wobbly bits

This is my friend and once-upon-a-coliseum-roommate Erin, who looks very cute in this picture alongside a greenly-adorned scary lady who is about to try to eat your pet bird. (Man, am i glad that's not me! Can you imagine?? Gah!) Erin has brought herself into the blogosphere and the world of jewelry making. These forces combine like all good combining forces: into candy. Orrr a great blog. Roll the quotes:

These are the nonoffensive phrases my friends and family use to describe their wonder and amazement each time I lose my keys, forget some important event, or misplace a giant kitchen appliance (fine, it was a refrigerator, but I've only lost two in my lifetime).

Now I have to work my oxidizing nerve up all over again, and also buy more eggs.

Notice - I am NOT creating this blog for expert jewelry makers, or Pretty Good jewelry makers or EVEN Not Very Good but Still Managing to Sell that Junk jewelry makers.

These dangly bits are considered by me to be lovely adornments and should not be confused with 'wobbly bits', which generally refer to cellulite-prone body parts that are to be hidden under a sheet while getting dressed next to your sleeping lover.

For more on Erin and her lovely creations which will soon be in an Etsy store near you, visit http://makingprettythings.blogspot.com/

show, don't tell

i've started this post several times but it never seems adequate to the task. Instead of a coherent travelogue you're going to get snippets and impressions and you'll just have to match them up with the pictures and your own imagination. The crux: annual camping trip to Patrick's Point with Pete and the Rostens, plus newcomers Saucy Stella and Chatty Matt.
--
i made a silly playlist. It had Michael Jackson and Cookie Monster and Journey and many many Coldplay songs. 'Viva La Vida' came on right as we reached the last, best Vista Point en route and so we said 'okay universe' and stopped to viva.

Our site was right: backdoor path to the crest trail and the iron ocean and striped sky, hidden from the circling rangers with their rules and the middle-aged crunchers with their matching jumpsuits, close to bathroom, trash and potable faucet of potability. "Do you know the difference between a cactus and a corvette?" i think the forest giggled. Pete slept with Big Agnes every night.

A ladder on a hill, tidepools. Sky: grey, rocks: grey, creatures: red white purple orange. Lives and civilizations under foot, generations of microscopics. A cave! if we had a wand we would have searched for the horcrux. 'Don't worry Harry, don't worry Albus, we took care of it already. Go back to Hogwarts and live long, full lives.' Josh found someone's sweatshirt and stowed it away. How very Josh. Climb back up the ladder, climb climb climb. Strip off layers, kick rocks.
'Sister's my new mother now, mother!' Chips, soup, cheese, Catan.

Everything is mossy and grey and eerie and patient. The walking trails are dinosaur movies. It's all pure and primal and it blinks and turns its head away when the tiny, tiny humans walk through with their clicking boxes and sharp voices. Stella doesn't relax, she is an animal in the animals' land and feels more dog blood in her veins than ever. She alone can protect us from the raptors.

The waves breathe in sand and exhale mist and the birds sing strange songs with more notes than science can explain. There is only green and brown and grey until the tree with pink flowers appears with its big blossoms and then shrinks back into the lush, only to appear around the next corner.




We talk of God and not-God. The fire is too low. We talk of reason and affection and faith and not-faith. The Muddy Buddies make circles of their own volition. i play movie games in my head. 'Brendan Fraser was in Crash with Terrence Howard who was in Hustle and Flow with Taraji Henson who was in Benjamin Button with Cate Blanchett who was in the awful Elizabeth sequel with Clive Owen who was in The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon who was in School Ties with Brendan Fraser who was in Crash with Don Cheadle who was...'
At Lost Coast Brewery they lie to us and then pass us over. We wonder why brew food makes us suffer the things we suffer. Waiting. Vowing to make new traditions next year. Starving. Thinking of a year ago and a Joker vs Gotham. Waiting. Finally sitting. Waiting. Exercising our powers as consumer diners. Turkey sandwich and Great White. Lovely golden Great White. Like water, only beer. Driving in the not-quite-rain. "Lyn was named Princess Of Verbosity," said the verbose one. 50mph is so unbearable.

Luffenholtz, i love you. In 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 years you will either be utterly unreachable or there will be a fancy road and a fancy parking lot and you will be developed and crowded and whitewashed and neon and you will say 'don't look at me' and it will be something more than tragic but nothing less than unsurprising. But you're not yet. You're still hidden and just barely accessible and precarious and rocky and a permanent embrace, high or low tide. You are foreboding and morose but calm and pure. Your sand is in my teeth and it tastes like peppers and apples. Your textures are sharp, gritty and cold and i eat warm food with skins and juices. i validate you by seeking heat against your cold.

Ranger: "That wouldn't happen to be a service dog, would it?" He was too young, too interested in his coworker to believe in law and in order.
Me: "Nope." i didn't say that she also didn't 'happen' to be my dog.

i am alternately hushed and thrilled. i'm like a child unsure of which instinct to trust: my excitement or my reverence. The reverence begets the excitement. i have years of this salt in my lungs, years of moss and sand in the treads of shoes both long since disposed of and under the bed. i have years to go before i sleep.

ahh, spellers...

...the only 12 and 13yr old kids who list their favorite foods as 'dark chocolate' instead of 'HOT POCKETS!' and their personal heroes as 'Nupur Lala' and 'Amelia Earhart' instead of 'THE GIRL FROM TWILIGHT!!!!'.

Congrats to Kavya Shivashankar, who just won the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee with the correct spelling of "laodicean".

things with which i am indeed on board

My cat hunting crane flies in the yard

Schedules

The ending of the Stop Loss program

Eyeliner

Fictional time travel

My friends having healthy, happy babies

Kirk Douglas movies

Granola and yogurt being the new peanut butter and jelly

Reversible clothing

Ceiling fans

Rosemary as a garnish

When my dog looks goofily naked because she's not wearing her collar

All things Dyson

Parmesan cheese dipped in honey

Everyhing's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

Dear NASA....

Now is the time, this is your chance: make outer space cool again. The people have spoken and i promise that it is in your best interest to listen to them. Remember back in the days of yore when Americans tuned in to watch shuttle launches? (i don't. i hadn't been born yet.) These days we gravity-bound plebians don't know anything about what you're sending into orbit (unless it crashes, unfortunately) but now you have the opportunity to make sure at least a handful of goofballs is paying partial attention. Be democratic. Give the people what they want. We want Colbert.

Oops: Colbert wins NASA space station name contest

WASHINGTON – NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.
The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.

NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report" to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.

NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name. Agency spokesman John Yembrick said NASA will decide in April, but will give top vote-getters "the most consideration."
----
This journalist's bias against Dear Stephen is glaring. 'Went awry'?? why not 'went spectacularly well'? For shame. Where's truthiness in the newsmedia when you need it?

latest obsession

There's a show on the We network called The Locator and i can't not watch it. The premise is that this guy, Troy Dunn, and his family run a business locating lost people by request of their loved ones. It's often cases of siblings separated by the foster system and people separated from a parent. The stories are heartbreaking and the capacity of people to survive and to forgive and to love is fascinating. Sometimes Troy's 'searching' gets a little stagey, but he's good at guiding his clients through the very difficult process and getting the story told without it all devolving to an Oprah or Extreme Home Makeover-esque cloying weeper. He has his clients' best interests at heart, not his own reputation. Sometimes the 'lost' ones don't want to be found, and those situations are hard, but the successful reunions are very moving. The best part is that when Troy brings the two parties together, he does it simply and then walks away. Most of the time you don't even notice he's gone because you're caught up with the happy reunion. He doesn't mug for the camera and shout about all the good things he's done and he doesn't lurk around asking pointed questions to try to make them cry. (see: Pennington, Ty, then gag.) It's a well-made show and is very interesting and uplifting.

ohhhhh, so THAT'S where W's brains went

Austin road sign warns motorists of zombies

An Austin road sign meant to warn motorists about road conditions instead read: "The end is near! Caution! Zombies ahead!"
Vandals broke off a lock on the sign in central Austin early Monday and then hacked into the computer to change the words, said Sara Hartley, a city spokeswoman.
When they were done, the sign read: “The end is near! Caution! Zombies ahead! Run for cold climate!”
Before leaving, the vandals reset the password so the city could not easily change the sign. The sign's humorous warning stayed up for several hours before the manufacturer of the computer could reset the password.
Austin officials aren’t taking the spoof lightly, noting it is a criminal act.
“The sign’s content was humorous, but the act of changing it wasn’t,” Hartley said.
__________________
Obviously, this is fantastic. Of all the things in the universe these pranksters could've picked to type, they picked zombies. For that, i applaud them.

Reason #11...

...of why i like Philip Seymour Hoffman: you can read the phrase, "Up next he voices an obese New Yorker with Asperger's in the claymation film Mary and Max" and realize just how much you love the entire world.

like him or not...

...he's your president, and you can't ignore that some pretty sweet art came out of this campaign. And what do we do with good art? we bastardize it!!!