First Amendment, no big deal?

Oh dear, we're in much worse shape than I would have figured...kids today, I'm telling you...

First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say

In other news

Children's TV fears a funding flap after 'Buster'

As Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is sworn in today in Washington, children's TV programmers and public television advocates wonder whether her protests last week signal a tough new attitude on values in children's programming.

...Spellings told PBS she had "very serious concerns" about an episode in which a little girl in Vermont introduces cartoon bunny Buster Baxter to her mother and her mother's lesbian partner. Spellings suggested that funding for future programming could be in jeopardy.

every morning is a brand new day

oh my gosh, rainbow brite and the star stealer FINALLY came in the mail yesterday. and i FINALLY remember something from my childhood. after weeks of ponies and jem and no memories whatsoever, rainbow brite finally broke my childhood amnesia.

i think i liked rainbow brite more than ponies or jem. I have all the dolls, and a rainbow house for the sprites. and somewhere, there's a fantastic picture of me wearing a rainbow brite shirt visiting someone in a rainbow brite suit (oh, i mean the REAL rainbow brite) at the mall. and who doesn't like color. certainly i like color more than i like ponies and maybe even more than 80's girl pop.

i remember the princess and the pet diamond and the metal horse and the boy and all the color kids. rainbow brite makes me happy, happy, happy. it's too darn bad i'm not a raver, because then it would be socially acceptable to start dressing like her. (do they still have ravers?)

rainbow brite is such a good leader, i should discuss her instead of lame old robert e lee.

since rainbow is perfect and all that's right with the world, and there's nothing contrived or predictable about the movie i won't give the tired recap. it's darn good though! i may just buy it. it's less than $20, much cheaper than that dumb old jem. but i guess she has to raise money to support her home for girls.

the special features are ok for a kid, a rather unfun color matching game. and the dumbest sing along ever. instead of putting the words on the screen so you can read them and sing along, they materialize in rainbow colors as the syllable is being said. kinda pretty, but not very useful for singing along. here's the song:

Brand New Day

Wake up flowers
I've been up for hours
There's work to do
Birds start flyin
No more "me-oh-my"in
There's work to do

Everybody's got a part to play
To start each day in a beautiful way
Every morning when the night goes away
Every morning is a brand new day
Even little things
Need a helping wing
There's work to do
Sun start glowing
Pack away your snow things
There's work to do
Up and at 'em
You can't just hang around when
There's work to do

Everybody's got a part to play
To start each day in a beautiful way
Every morning when the night goes away
Every morning is a brand new day
Morning, Rainbow Brite
Feel the sunlight
There's work to do
Everybody's got a part to play
To start each day in a beautiful way
Every morning when the night goes away
Every morning is a rainbow day
Every morning is a brand new day
And you've got a part to play

super, super fabulosa!

yep, that's from the jem theme in spanish.

it's one thing when you've got the jem theme stuck in your head, it's quite another to have some random song from jem stuck in your head!

4 music cds full of jem songs arrived in the mail on monday. so far i've gotten through the first 3. i don't know that i'm ready to start on cd 4, the karaoke cd (no lyrics included of course, but that's what crazed internet fans are for)

obviously it's a bootleg, somehow. how, i haven't figured out yet. from the episodes on dvd, that's easy enough to figure, but the rest? i know i almost bought a vcd of jem off ebay quite a few years ago, so i guess the material is floating around somewhere.

the first 2 discs and majority of disc 3 are songs directly from the show. and if that's not cool enough, then there's the theme in about 5 different languages (including a different version for the french and french-canadian shows) and then, the fan remixes. who remixes jem? i have no clue, but i'm glad there are crazys around to do stuff like that.

i'm so amused by the content of my new cds that it helps me forget that the sound quality not quite up to snuff on many of the songs.

sandwiches that you will not like

Sandwiches that you will like is a very good PBS special about sandwiches. I highly recommend it. they will never visit Vons

i just had the most retarded sandwich. (yes, i'm name calling during no name calling week)

2 weeks ago i saw someone at work eating what looked like a very good panini sandwich, pressed in one of those fancy grill things. he said it was good, and while i don't usually trust food recommendations from people who regularly eat off the lunch truck, it looked good. it was from Vons. So i got one today. I ordered the ham, swiss and cheddar sandwich and was very excited. since i bought groceries, lunch and i got cash back from the register, saving myself time and energy. i was feeling very efficient. too bad i was soon very disappointed.

i bit into my sandwich very excited, and was at once underwhelmed by my mediocre sandwich. after spending however long it took in the sandwich machine, the bread was barely toasty, and the cheese was only half melted. after a few bites i realized i did not have the cheddar, swiss and ham sandwich that i ordered. i had a cheddar, roast beef and ham sandwich, and a mediocre one at that. there was too much cheddar, bland half melted cheddar, the worst kind--well, not as bad as bland, completely unmelted cheddar i guess. i bet it was bad enough to make those happy california dairy cows unhappy. the sandwich was big though. and i have half left for lunch tomorrow, where i will utilize the toaster oven to its fullest extent

Vons does not make a good sandwich. their regular deli sandwiches all sound good, but the bread is too hard, and there's too much of it. So I stopped eating those. I haven't tried a focaccia sandwich yet, but i'm sure that will be mediocre too.

They have such good deli soup, it's a shame about the sandwiches.

censorship and tolerance

New York publisher faces fierce opposition to al-Qa'eda tome

it's a british story about the American Doubleday. I would have just read it and deleted it from my inbox, but some days would be censors piss me off more than others:

The decision to publish the book has provoked mixed reactions from those who lost family members in the 2001 attacks carried out by bin Laden's followers. "This can only give publicity to their terrible views and glorify what they did," said Tracy Larkey, a British mother-of-three whose husband, Robin, died in the attack on the Twin Towers. "At least they have decided to give the money to charity. It would have been unacceptable if they hadn't."

Jack Lynch, who lost his son Michael, a firefighter, said: "People who promote terrorism are an evil and a cancer in our society. Anything that promotes their agenda shouldn't be distributed in this country."

Also good to note:

The publisher is confident that the terrorist leaders will be unable to claim remuneration for use of their material, since their writings are in the public domain and have been published in Arab countries which have not signed international copyright treaties. "You're not going to see Osama bin Laden coming out of his cave for a cheque," said Ms Herz.

I have a feeling that after a few years as a demure librarian in a sleepy little library, quietly toeing the party line, one day, i'll just snap and join some crazys, like the Progressive Librarians

in related news:
'No Name-Calling Week' Begins in Schools

No Name-calling Week" takes aim at insults of all kinds — whether based on a child's appearance, background or behavior. But a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on the references to harassment based on sexual orientation.

"I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute.

Did you know the guy who wrote Bunnicula was openly gay? James Howe, is also the author of The Misfits (about neither a band or Jem) the book they decided to integrate into no name calling week.

ok, fine, for sure, for sure

I'm one step away from being a valley girl in a clothing store...

times they are a changing. they're finally starting in on the del amo mall remodeling project (without the much teased condos at the mall). so now i can't use my favorite driveway. and they've closed off my favorite lunchtime entrance to the mall. this means there is currently a marshalls attached to the mall building, but without any outlet into the mall. and the whole bottom section that used to house among other things: mcdonalds, the arcade, the cinnabun (and a b dalton bookstore a million years ago), and most recently, hosted a capital one commercial shoot is no more. this is very inconvienent for me, yet i'm very excited about the prospect of new life in that mall.

more disturbing, is that my favorite entrance to the mall looked like something was happening to it. made famous by the 1983 smash hit movie "valley girl" featuring a young nicolas cage, my favorite enterance is a windowed and doored square in a covered parking lot with an escalator up to the mall. granted, it didn't look particularly new in 1983, but i'm going to be very upset if they close it off. not upset enough to stop shopping though. because that would just be silly. but maybe upset enough to not shop in the rain.

it's a darn good thing i'm not from the valley, because i probably would have picked up the accent.-- remember that episode of family ties where jennifer writes a letter in valley speak and mallory has to translate for their parents-- that was a good one (and full of valuable life lessons about friendship)

$5 reading list

i have 1 book to read this semester. it cost $5 from half.com. this is an improvement from last semester when my 2 books cost $100. $50 books that are shorter than 300pgs are unheard of for a person such as myself.

Killer Angels is a novel about the last 3 days of the civil war. it won a pulitzer. we have to read it because it's aboutleadership, apparently. for the core library class "Information Organizations and Management"

I figured that gone with the wind would be the only civil war novel i'd ever read. i guess i was wrong. this one is less than half as long, so that's good. but it also seems to be all about the soldiers on the battlefield, meaning there's no one like dear scarlett to make things interesting. I'm only about 30 pgs in. it doesn't make me want to die yet. Maybe I'll learn valuable lessons about leadership. I highly doubt that anything can teach more about leadership than the baby-sitters club and Jem though. Much less, some dumb civil war book. I should suggest a change of course. I'm looking for any excuse to spend $80 on JEM DVDs.

I'm sure i'll have more to complain about this class later. i thought it was going to be boring yet important things like floor plans, fire exits and budgets. But now I realize it will be one step away from those awful business leadership converstations they have on the apprentice .(the show being my only link to the business world) I started printing out some of the articles(on company paper, with company ink) I have to read. One of them actually has a quiz at the end and one of the questions is something like this:

Effective communication consists of:
a) spreading gossip
b) dominating the conversation
c) rasing your voice
d) expressing your thoughts as clearly as possible and then listening to what others have to say

oh, dear god, kill me now if i have to do an entire semester of this crap.

All I know is if being a librarian is anything like being in the civil war, I'm totally out.

you'll always be in my heart

my semesterhas started, that's why i think i'm exploring other career options such as bachelorette and now, netflix writer.

Somehow netflix knew i was going to need a friend, and even though mail didn't come on monday, they managed to get 2 my little pony dvds to me on tues. the blurb on the outside of the sleeve was quite possibly the best thing i've ever read: (they capitalize everything correctly, i don't)
this heartwarming animated series relives the joy and charm of the original movie. join the magical creatures of dream valley-- mythical and traditional ponies, spike the dragon, a bunny and his master magician, the bushwoolies, the grundies and three humans, Megan, Danny and Molly-- as they work to maintain their community's idyll in the face of threatening villains. Still, all remains good and well in lovely Ponyland.

i don't think i could ever write something that fantastic. i don't know if i should just give up living, or keep trying, forever...If a boy wrote that, i'm going to find him and marry him. i bet he'd be the perfect husband, working to maintain our idyll so all remains good and well.

I watched dvd 1 . the end of flutter valley and the ghost of paradise estates. i wasn't overly impressed

flutter valley was about 8 episodes long (and if you remember ponies, each episode was half a 30 min show, the other half being something dumb like glow-worms or something) so thats about 88 minutes of flutter valley. quite a bit too much. the evil witches the short fat mom, with the short fat favored daughter and the tall skinny, a bit more bumbling less favored daughter and the bees get together to steal the sun stone from the ponies. if they don't get it back by sunset all of the foliage in flutter valley will die forever. so they trap the flutter ponies in a giant bee hive, and they're not able to fly because the honey sticks their wings together. never in the hour they have their wings stuck together do they think "hmmmm, why not lick the honey off" dumb ponies!

meanwhile the bushwoolies meet their cousins, the furbobs who look like a cross between a dog and animal from the muppets. and the furbobs are enemies with the stonebacks (giant armadillos).

so just as it looks like flutter valley is going to die, megan gets the furbobs and stonebacks to be friends, and they go save the ponies and the sunstone and set it into place with seconds to spare. we all learn a lesson, and idyll is restored.

bleh, i say. there are too darn many characters. a bunch of ponies, an army of bushwoolies, and army of stonebacks, some furbobs, a whole swarm or two of bees, 3 witches, and megan and spike. so much time is wasted with the obnoxious and ugly witches and the annoying, ugly bees. i guess they're trying to appeal to boys adn action and such. but i don't need all that crap in my ponies. i just want to see ponies interacting with each other.i like ponies, more than the next person, and i want to see them not the lame ass villians. and unlike good shows where they're always fighting the same villian, the ponies keep getting new ones. bleh.

an interesting note. nancy cartwright is one of the voices.

the ghost of paradise estates is a bit better. it opens with ponies doing super cute things like painting the house and sleeping in beds in a big madeline type dorm room (pink of course).
then teh "ghost" comes, who actually turns out to be a changeling who needs to retrieve a jewel from under the manor, so she has to scare everyone out of the house so she can blow it up. she's not really bad, but being blackmailed. so it turns out that her grandfather broke this stone of ultimate power (or whatever) into 2. and put one part in the deepest part of the sea (or river, whatever) and one on the tallest mountain (which turns out to be the estate, even though it seems to be at a reasonable elevation) so evil couldn't use it for evil. but the evil giant octopus waited patiently until the grandpa was too old to fight and kidnapped him.. blah, blah, blah.. megan and her brother and sister , and the ponies save the day, banish evil back to the depts of river-ocean. and smash the stone into bits too small to repair, restoring the idyll, for a while at least. fewer characters i don't care about=good. insignifigant characters still ugly=bad.

I remember watching ponies before school at my grandma's house, much more than i remember jem, but i guess i don't remember much about the show, or i've gotten it confused with My favorite video when i was little, "my little pony: escape from catrina" there is only one set of bad guys, they aren't unattractive, and along with the suspense of whether the ponies would be turned into potion making slaves for catrina they did fantastic things like play leapfrog in the nursery, take naps, and hold costume balls. not enough pony clothing in the series, i say. and really, not enough ponies.

dvd 2 starts with "the glass princess" Porcina (yes the super fat ugly pig princess) likes to turn things into glass so she can look at her ugly self constantly, but the ponies turn her good and it all works out in the end. honestly, ponies are so cute, why can't the rest of the stuff be cute.
there were 2 one part episodes, about 11 mins each. those were slightly better, because they were short, and there weren't any villians. first the ponies adopt a giant clifford proportioned dog, and take care of him until his family comes for him.. then there was the scavenger hunt, where ponies do cute things like hunt for treasure adn solve riddles.

i don't think i like ponies much anymore. but i forgot to change my queue and disc 3 came yesterday. so i guess i'll watch it. rainbow brite is scheduled for today. i'm excited, and slightly nervous. what if all of my childhood memories are fake and everything i watched was actually crap?

my little pony was made by sunbow, and the dolls are made by hasbro, and the dvd put out by rhino- the same companies that do jem (transformers and gi joe too). also some of the music is by the same people who do jem. 1986 was a good year for them, i guess.

hmmm. reading a fan site leads me to believe that every pony made after 2003 has a magnetic hoof. i guess it's time to open the one lydia gave me and see. it's a rather fantastic christmas pony, it's wearing earmuffs, but they sit on her cheeks, not her ears.

the site lead me to beleve that the intro song on the dvd is not the same song from the tv show. i was suspicious anyway, because the intro is not the same picture quality and slightly a different style. i guess since it's not my litle pony and friends on the dvd, they don't want friends in the song.

i dont recommend fan sites though, because people who run them write crap--i mean treasure-- like this and self publish it, expecting people to buy it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My Little Pony, My Little Pony,
Race to you the Cotton Candy Cafe.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony,
The sweetest place for us to play.
Treats we are sharing
With friendship and caring
.We'll never be apart.
My Little Pony, My Little Pony,
You’ll always be in my heart.

(this is from a 2003 tv commercial)

the show's really over, synergy

all of jem has been sent back now. this made me sad, so i did something about it. even though i was drinking last night, i was completely sober when i purchased a 4 cd set of the songs from the jem show from ebay. it's not a legitimate cd, but the feedback is very positive and they're happy with the quality. i guess next week, i'll have a review of the cds. if anyone wants a copy, let me know!

I downloaded a real audio file last night of 20 mins of jem songs, the quality was not good, but the songs make me happy, much the way the babysitters club songs make me happy.. in fact, there's even a dear diary song, like the bsc. and something about some of the background intro music on the show reminds me of the bsc too.

disc 3 of season 3 part 1 is not nearly as good as the first 2.

KJEM: some college kids get starlight music to sponsor a radio station, of course the competitor is eric raymond. he hires someone who steals the airwaves and broadcasts the misfits concert. college kids learn the value of hard work and fighting for their cause, and everything works out in the end.

The Presidential Dilema: the holograms are invited to play at the kennedy center for the president. but they have to beef up security and synergy can't get her holograms to work. so they have to pack her up and ship her to the kennedy center. but the security catches them, and think's it's dangerous technology. so they cart it off to the cia or whatever and they can't make heads or tails of it. meanwhile, the president (who looks remarkably unlike any president i can think of) is kidnapped by the masked marauder, who has been stealing historical artifacts and wants a president to add to his collection. so jerrica grabs onto the back of hte truck and gets taken to the secret lair. they get backed into a corner so synergy conjures abe lincoln and some other guys to freak the guy out and give up. she then has to explain synergy to the president (the only person to know about her besides the band, and the only male to know) and he keeps her secret, gives her back synergy from teh cia and promises if she comes back to dc, synergy can go anywhere with her.

Rock 'n Roll Express: friends to all, the holograms decide to do a tour of rural areas, by train, and donate the procedes to a literacy chairty. so the misfits sabotage the train, and unrelatedly, a robber, just released from prison tries to steal the chairty money. because they haven't invented banks, and jem carries all the proceeds from her shows in cash. they almost die of course, because the brake breaks. but they don't. the robber is caught and it all works out, except for roxy, who is still illiterate. this is a very unsatisfying character trait. it's mentioned 2x in season 3, but there's never any resolution. she would like to read, but never decides to learn. i guess, now, 20 years later i can find and old roxy doll, and sit her next to the librarian action figure, maybe she can learn to read now.

i have no grand summary, there's nothing to say. i need more jem.

show's over, synergy

i'm done with all the jem on dvd there is to watch, and i am sad. and stupid mlk jr had to go and make the mail stop today, so i won't be getting any ponies until at least wednesday. i think i'll fish my barbie and the rockers vhs out of some dusty corner of my house and hope that it consoles me.

disc 2 of season 3, part 1 seems to be full of very special episodes of jem

The Treasure Hunt - this pits the starlight girls against some girls the misfits hire in a scavenger hunt for a huge prize. the treasure hunt hinges on children's type classic literature-- hiawatha, sinbad, alice in wonderland, robin hood, treasure island. i felt very dumb having only have read alice in wonderland and not getting most of the clues, i did get the final riddle at the end though, something about when they're closed thery're nothing but when open they can transport you to the future, ancient lands etc. of course, the answer is a book. the starlight girls win because the mistfits left one girl behind because she hurt her foot (a precursor to troop beverly hills). then the starlight girls did the right thing by dragging her along, even though it set them back timewise. that girl was the only one who could answer the riddle. of course the misfits were cheating they had an ear piece to talk to their hired tech boy, techrat. and he and his 1986 computer were doing searches that were unheard of in a time before the internet and search engines of today that we know and love. but of course his computer can't answer the riddle. the big prize at the end was that each girl got to pick a first edition book off a shelf. the misfts are mad and we all learn a lesson about how valuable books and literacy are... there's also another episode this season when the holograms throw a benefit for literacy. it turns out that roxy can't read, and now she's sorry. i suppose every writer ever would encourage kids to read if they had the forum.

Aztec Enchantment - the holograms jet off to film a video in some ancient pyramid. some mexican boy tries to steal their video camera, but they catch him, and he becomes an obnoxious pest, trying to get them to take him back to "el norte" with them. at the ruins they meet a man they think is a professor, but really he's a thief who entombed the real professor in the pyramid, so jem conjures up some ancient gods and saves everyone. meanwhile the boy learns that he's connected to the land and wants to help rebuild his village from the earthquake rather than escape to america where he thinks everyone lives like kings the second they step over the border. Even though our friend Raya is ethnically mexican, she was born in america and this is her first trip to mexico, so she can connect with the land too. also in every episode on disc 2 adn 3 she's much, much less annoying.

The Jazz Player -- this seems like something lifted from teh cosby show. for some reason on the music video show teh interviewer interviews the star of some old jazz band. the misfits are not amused they have to share their airtime with an old guy and ruin things. so, for some reason the holograms go to visit him in the tenement he lives in and convince him to get back together wiht his old band. so each hologram goes off to retrieves someone and bring him back to (it seems like they're in CA, sometimes, but sometimes it seems like the east coast) where ever they are. 2:3 others are also broke and happy to comply. it takes a bit longer, and a rainstorm in a boat to get the other one. eric raymond and his jazz contract is defeated. and we all learn an important lesson about music history and respect for the past.

Danse Time: danse is (surprise) a dancer. she is their friend who runs a house for runaways, like a temporary shelter type thing i think. this is in contrast to the starlight house which is a permanant and foster home for girls. she's going to be in a jem video, this is a video for a contest the theme is friendship or something, and the prize is a large amount of cash, of course jem is going to use hers to help the children, and the misfits just want to win over jem. so they tamper with the scenery and cause danse to break her leg, pretty bad i guess. so they stick her in a long term stay hospital/institution type place where there are people getting physical therapy for broken bones, teh blind the deaf, basically everything except for retarded or crazy. she's all mad and pissy because she's in a wheel chair and shes used to being super fit and good at everything active. so her physical therapists keep pushing her, even when she wants to quit. and jem pushes her, because of the money for the girls and magically in 3 weeks she's able to dance and skate as well as before. meanwhile she falls in love with a blind guy, who gets eye surgery and can see again, and she says something dumb and girllike, like "oh, now that you can see, i hope you still like me." she of course, is beautiful, and strong and fit, if you like blond girls with pink and blue pastel stripes in their hair. so the video is made. danse has a boyfriend, the homeless girls get the money, we all learn a valuable lesson about people with disabilities -temporary and otherwise, we all learn a valuable lesson about positive attitudes and perseverence, and it all works out okay in the end.

Alone Again: just when i thought we couldn't possibly have anymore valuable lessons to learn, we get to the drug one. jem gets a temporary foster girl from the city. apparently her whole family died, which would probably put me in a pretty bad mood too. she's so the charicature of the angsty teenager, she says "you don't understand, no one understands" like a gazillion times. So they send her off to school where she refuses to talk to anyone. Then the dealer comes up to her, pretends he understands her troubles, calls her pretty and gives her some pills and tells her they'll help with her guitar playing. They look like benadryl to me: red and white capsuls. but the must be some form of Hallucinogen, because after debating wether or not to take them she does, and her guitar turns into something weird, her book turns into a bird, which makes her think she can fly and almost jumps off the roof. luckily jem saves her, but unluckily jem asks her if she took drugs, she says no, and jem gives her the benefit of the doubt. you'd think this would end her bout with drugs, but the dealer sees her again and gives her speed (even though they never say what it is) this time, even though the look identical to the previous ones. so she's on speed, can't sleep, does a terrible job of playing guitar, but thinks she's better than ever. and keeps the whole house awake because she can't sleep--she's not nearly as useful as alex p. keaton, who, in his drug episode, writes history reports, paints the house and something else...so finally she runs out, and goes to her dealer who demands $30 for another pack of pills. i don't know how much that is in 1986 money, but surely it's more than now. and she's confused. she thought he was her friend, and now he's making her pay. since this is a kid's show, she can't offer him sex. so she has to steal money from jerrica's purse because after like 2 days she's completely hooked. jerrica catches her, but she runs off before jerrica can catch her. and she looks for the dealer, and finds him, trying to push drugs onto ashlee (a starlight girl, also a hasbrow doll) and he's using the same lines on ashlee that he used on her. and now she's totally hurt, because she thought he liked her, and as she's running out the door, jerrica catches her and they drive. and she finally admits she took drugs, and jerrica drops her off at group therapy, which convienently happens exactly at the right time. and the girls in group therapy really do understand her, and the drug problem and she's on teh road to recovery. meanwhile ashlee, who has gotten more stable since the beginning of the series where she tried to run away and join the misfits, turns the drugs into the police. --cut to ashlee and the foster girl (who's name i can't remember) at the arcade. the dealer shows up. money exchanges hands, and the police swoop in and arrest him. turns out ashlee is wearing a wire. is that good practice, having minors wear wires? i dont' know if i can condone that, it always turns out bad on general hospital, and those are grown people. so the dealer is arrested, everyone is off drugs, and we all learn a valuable lesson.

disc 3 coming tomorrow. it's not nearly as good as disc 2 though.

Golden Globes

I don't care all that much about celebrities, I guess. I had no
idea who about 1/3 of the people at the Golden globes were, and
really I guess I don't care to know.

I do know who Lisa Marie Presley is, and I know what happy looks
like, or even content, and she was neither. If I cared, I might
look into what was wrong with her. but i don't, all i know is she
really brought down the show.

Trends: once again women are wearing long sparkly earrings and no
necklaces. i still don't understand this trend. i miss necklaces

the were major trends toward color and ruching. this trend toward
colors is also seen in the issue of teen prom i was flipping
through at the grocery store. although i was kinda more impressed
by those dresses than the one on tv last night.

there were dresses things evoking a greek goddess thing, drapey and
pleated and generally not to flattering

the other strange trend was ruching around the boobs, and/or
generally making them look smaller than they are by making the cups
too small. i don't get it. see hallie berry and especially Charlize Theron,

hmmm. yahoo news has an 187 photo slide show of the golden globes.

Mariska Hargitay -i don't know who she is, although apparently
she's on law and order SVU. she has the drapey thing going along
with major nipple. they sell products to fix that sort of thing for
a reason.

natalie portman-a little too annoying and a little too much looking
like she's wearing an old slip. bleh

Scarlett Johansson- she confused me. i liked her old hollywood
glamour, but something about the dress wasn't quite flattering.
also, she was a bit too pale for her hair color, a bit too albino

the big surprises of the night for me were how pretty claire danes
was and how old leonardo dicaprio looked. i argued with my mom all
night about this. she says, he still looks like a kid. i told her
that was because she's old. and even though he's still young, he
just looks a lot older than the last time i paid attention to him,
when ever that might have been.

i need to go to a ball, i'll show those celebrities how to wear a
ball gown!

what makes me qualified to judge celebrities, especially
considering that i dress worse and worse as time progresses,
nothing except the fact that i can usually form sentences and have
this lovely blog as a forum for all my thoughts.

my picks: best dressed: Renee zellweger in her ballet looking outfit

worst dressed: natalie portman in her slip

worst person ever: will ferrell and his stupid eye patch, that he
made a so called joke about even though it wasn't a joke and it
wasn't funny. i'd never let him back if i were the hollywood
foreign press

showtime, synergy

this is what jerrica says when she wants to change to jem.

i'm halfway through disc 1 of season 3. this is the season things change.

shana gets an opportunity to design clothes for a movie, so the holograms hold a contest to find a new drummer. not to be outdone, the misfits pick up a suitibly tough british chick too.
so the contest is held, there's a line around the block, full of awful drummers. and the finalists are held and they include Aja's love interest (who happens to be stormer's, of the misfits, brother) and the obvious favorite the hispanic girl with pink hair who has self esteem issues, Raya. at the party 3 of the finalists turn out to be mean and jem kicks them out immediately and the final contest is to play onstage with the holograms and the audience votes. Just before the winner is announced Aja's love interest backs out because he has to leave town to clear his head from the fact that his beloved sister is part of the misfits who had Raya's dad's greenhouse smashed to pieces. Of course he can't leave before threatening Eric Raymond with his life if he hurts Stormer (mary) and if he doesn't pay for all the damages to the greenhouse. Of course, Raya is about to say she doesn't deserve to play with Jem if she's not the real winner, because she's lame. but of course, it's revealed that she did win. Meanwhile, Shana decides that costuming isn't for her, and comes back to the Holograms. Raya, being obnoxiously lacking in self esteem runs home to her daddy (who pushed her into the contest to begin with). But the holograms are quick to follow and decide there can be 5 Holograms and hasbro has some nice new dolls to add to the line.

I don't like this new Raya girl. She's way too weak, but i guess that's they way little hispanic girls are, and they want that mirrored on tv? I really hope she learns her lesson soon, but i'm not holding my breath, 2 episodes later she's just as weak, yet a good drummer. If jem is supposed to be full of strong role models for girls, i don't know what the hell Raya is. I guess she's the viewer who recieves help from Jem... Bleh, I say.

I'll finish the discs over the weekend. and will update accordingly

Let us eat cake: Adventures in food and friendship

by Sharon Boorstin

I'm about 1/4 through this book. It's a rather autobiographical story about a woman who grew up in the 50's ended up at Berkeley in the 60 ect. But it's framed from a female bonds through food perspective. Like Under the Tuscan Sun, it's story mixed with setting, with recipes thrown in. I find it to ring rather true. ..and for your amusement:
It wasn't until the second semester that I learned the second important thing about Mills: The real action was at UC Berkeley. (49)

Unlike Under the Tuscan Sun, which is for some reason classified next to the travel books, this one is in with the cookbooks although it's more autobiography than cookbook. That Dewey was a strange man.

And just to make it clear, the book Under the Tuscan Sun is very, very different than the movie. Although, I liked both. In the book the food was just as important as the house renovations and the characters, maybe even more important than all the characters except the main one.

Buyer Beware

the people at target aren't very smart, this i know. but i never realized how dumb they were, or perhaps it's just the lack of effort devoted to quality work.

I walk in to the store and the first thing to see is a section of low shelving with green signs on the top saying "low carb," "low sugar" etc. and under some of the signage there are the low carb products, the splenda, the bread mixes etc. under the same signs on the opposite side of the shelves are twinkies, hostess cupcakes and doritos. so i stopped, did they come out with low carb twinkies while i wasn't looking? no. they just decided to put the twinkies there because they were on sale. those are about the most carb-full things i can think of, the're probably more carb laden than pure sugar. what can possibly be more unhealty, a cup full of lard maybe? but then again, that doesn't have carbs, i think...this is when a camera phone would come in handy.

the bachelorette

i've been too busy writing about jem, i almost forgot to write about the new season of the bachelorette that started this week. this season, instead of a nice sprawling house in the general la area, they decided to go to new york. this should prove to be amusing as the boys all get clastrophobic in their NY loft with bad weather.

This season they let the bachelorette watch the casting interviews and she got to choose the boys who would be vying for her affection. they of course, don't know it. this was the greatest twist ever. i want to be the bachelorette so bad. that sounds like an awfully fun way to pass the day: sitting in a comfy room with producers and friends and judging the boys on tv, sometimes feeding the interviewers questions. So, i've started thinking that working at a video dating service would be fun. Do those things still exist? Also, I'd really love to be bachelorette. Everyone on tv always says choosing people to leave is the hardest part. That would be the most fun part for me (besides the part where they let you try on ball gowns and give you one for free)! you're good enough, you're not and definitely not you...

even with the bachelorette's pre-screening the group of 25 guys, as always, was attractive yet uninspiring. there was the small town kentucky drunk, the lecherous frenchman, the guy who hit on the bachelorette's friend who was disguesed as a waiter and two 20 something yr old virgins who love talking about the fact that they haven't had sex. Off the bat i could tell the bachelorette did not make very good choices. i wish all women on tv didn't have to make awful choices.

Both of the virgins said something like "the greatest gift i can give my wife is my virginity" i can think of something better, how about a little experience so you don't fuck up the wedding night, or better yet how about a giant diamond that 30 african mine children lost their life to retrieve. Virgins (the too old to be virgins, on purpose kind) are the new vegans. Not only do they abstain from things that regular people find to be normal, they bitch, whine, moan and generally see themselves as better than you. Thankfully they haven't started protesting in front on neiman marcus or throwing red paint at condoms, or something. Or maybe they are organized, and are the ones turning sex ed into abstinance ed. (wow, i don't know where that came from)

I'll probably watch again next week, then i'll decide if the cast is good enough to keep watching, because school starts again soon, and i'll have much less time for mediocre entertainment

My cat is missing

He escaped this morning, but it's been like 17 hrs now. it was all fun and games when it was light out, but he can't take care of himself in the dark. he's going to get beat up by a opossum or pick a fight with a stronger cat, he's not very smart.

how does one go about finding a lost cat? i bet jem would know.

he'd better come home

**3:30 am update. He came back, the neighbor noticed and rang our bell. what she was doing up at that hour, we'll never know. i'm pretty sure that dumb cat isn't going to try escaping again any time soon.

did you know?

"evite" means "avoid" in spanish. i learned this from the plastic wrapper that hold the toilet paper. you should avoid giving it to children, so they don't suffocate themselves.

do you think the spanish speaking world uses evite? certainly, i wouldn't go to a party from a website called avoid. is this like that nova fiasco?

so much jem, so little time

i was slightly disappointed wtih disc 3 of jem. while i was quite getting into the characters and story lines, there were no extras except the ability to watch all the music videos in a row--really too much video at once.

but disc 4 made up for it all. 2 episodes of commentary, and interview with the writer and an interview with the speaking voice of jem, who apparently is a pop star now, or wants to be. (so when she comes to la to play a concert, i expect someone to come with me) both of these people peaked in their jem years and have nothing but fondness for it and would love to do another jem. and apparently there are crazy fans who would love to see another jem. one disturbing piece of info i learned was that there were, and currently are, crazy cos players who dress up as jem, or the misfits and actually play the music. this is stranger than anime people because jem is 20 yrs old and it takes musical talent to play music. anyway, the next time a misfits tribute band (the jem ones, not the danzig ones) rolls into town, i'll be there, dressed in zebra and hot pink.

also, the specialest feature of all, a handful of the psa's that ran with the show. remember how inspector gadget always had an important lesson about not talking ot strangers, or not playing with fire. well, so did jem. but hers seemed more random. don't get in a car with strangers, ask for help from someone in charge if you lose your mom, don't lie to your mom about ripping your dress, don't take other people's perscriptions, don't steal jem cassettes, and my personal favorite, don't play with live wires. and at the end of each psa jem tells us "you did the right thing, and doing the right thing makes you a superstar" jem, i do the right thing! i'm a superstar!

disc 3 has the obligatory going to hawaii episode and includes things like luaus, island boys and getting trapped by a volcano. they all learn a lesson, and it all works out in the end. or something.

there's also an episode where they go to some european country where kimber looks just like the princess. there's a case of mistaken idendity and the people trying to do in the princess kidnap her instead. etc. etc. they all learn a lesson, and it all works out in the end

disc 4 leaves us with some very good episodes. there's the indy 500 one where starlight music sponsors a driver, but the misfits cause him to have an accident, so jem just steps in. when pizzaz of the misfits sees this, she pulls the driver she's sponsoring out of his car and tries to beat jem. of course jem wins.even though she's never driven competitively before. and the holograms get to play the victory concert. and the misfits get mad. good wins over evil and it all works out in the end.

then we get to the "jem jam" a 2 part episode, with commentary on the first one. the writer is a little to pleased with herself, working thinly veiled 80's celebrities into the concert. unfortunately instead of having lots of songs featuring these new celebrities, they make the foster girls do the music videos. we learn the back story of Ba Nee (who was being made into a doll, so needed to be featured in a story) who was separated from her family in viet nam or something. and she longs for her dad (and in the last episode of the show --which is far from being on dvd :(-- her dad comes for her. and we have to hear about the writer and her experience with vietnamese orphans and i have to comment again--for gosh sakes, this is jem, a show about a holographic rock star, not a lifetime tv movie. luckily dvds come with fast forward and i didn't have to listen to that crappy song about fathers more than once. Meanwhile Ba Nee thinks one of the rock stars is her dad. but of course, she learns he's not, and it all works out in the end.

if anyone wants to start a jem cover band, i'm totally in. i'll even learn to play an instrument. surely, they're easier to play if they're pink.

at the start of my jem dvd watching i wasn't so into jem. i was kinda mad that i didn't remember anything about the show. but that has passed, and it feels like jem is my old friend now, and i care about her and what she does. this weekend i'm going to watch all of season 3. then i'll be out of jem. i may go into depression, we'll see if the my little pony that's next in my queue will lift me out of that depression.

A dark day for us all

The fantastic Marukai 98 cent store on Hawthorne is no longer just a 98 cent store. It is now a 98 cent, $1.25 and $1.50 store. It's not like they got new stuff, they just up and raised some of the prices. Hmmph. I'm in mourning. I think the first stage is denial, then anger. grrrrr.

I'll check out the Artesia one soon and see if they've followed suit. They tried this a few years ago, it seemed to have failed because they lowered everything back down to 98 cents. Lets hope this happens again.

In order to cheer myself up after my horrifying experience of seeing all the hello kitty merchandise raised to 1.25, i bought myself this barbie nightlight for $6.99, almost half price, from the burlington coat factory. they also have this this one if anyone wants it. I got a hamtaro video too, let's hope it doesn't give me rabies.

I so do not need another animal to be afraid of

Nip from Hamster Fells Young Boy

I've already stopped parking in the lot at work, because someone said he saw an opossum.

So my advice about many animals is now in effect for hamsters: Be careful, they'll eat you.

Saddest Wedding Ever

Wal-Mart Workers to Exchange Vows at Work

if i wasn't so appalled, i'd cry. although, i am guilty of considering the merits of a wedding in the 98 cent store.

It's a good thing i brought my 98 cent strawberry shortcake calendar to work today. it makes me nothing but happy.

Victoria's Secret may be my friend, maybe

But really, i think she's the girlfriend who sticks around pretending to like me, just so i'll spend my hard earned money.

I hate crowds, you all know that.

I went on monday, the first day of the sale. It was crowded, as to be expected, but bearable. Mostly just single women intent on bargain hunting. I don't mind digging around in bins with people who are generally considerate and not obnoxious. it's good because you're sifting through the bins with people who are generally your size, and somehow i find that comforting. I picked up a few things, and ended up quite happy.

I went to a different store at lunch yesterday. Not crowded at all, not even a line for the dressing room. I made a purchase, generally pleased with myself, but longing for Laura pjs.
So i stopped at the south bay Galleria store after work yesterday. They recently remodeled, and expanded, usually it's a very nice store. It was crowded beyond crowded, i could barely make my way around the store, and i wasn't even carrying one of those giant tote bags. and to make matters worse, the crowd was 50% children and super fat people.

Call me mean and horrible if you want to, but 2 of the things that belong least in an underwear store that sells the idea of sexy and angels and tyra banks are children and fat women. First, what is in the store for either of those groups? Some of the stuff barely fits me, it aint gonna work for women who weigh over 100 lbs more. it's a very unpleasant thought, thinking they'd actually squeeze all those fat rolls into something in the store. Please stick to Layne Bryant, please. And children. uggh! as if they're not bad enough everywhere else. We all know that sex leads to children, please don't advertise when I'm being sold on the idea of sex goddesses.

wanting to get the horrible taste of the galleria out of my mouth, i took a visit to south coast plaza last night. The v.s. rivals the beverly center's one in beauty, and selection. And after i got over the disappointment of not having laura pjs, it didn't disappoint. by 8:00 the store wasn't too crowded, and it's super big, so the crowd was dispersed. The women were generally youngish, skinnyish and beautifulish. With the exception of the early college aged rich, snobby, oc born and raised girls in front of me in line for a dressing room, people were generally unobnoxious. after trying on like 5 gazillion things that my local stores didn't carry, i settled on a few things, including an amazing corset top. i'm pretty sure it's for wearing in public, and unlike Lydia, i don't think that very often. So, someone needs to take me out!

in conclusion: when i own a store there will be a minimum age/maximum weight rule, i reserve the right ot refuse service to anyone. this will prove to be counterproductive if i open a cookie store--oh well. also, i might discriminate just based on if i like your look. I should probably give up this library thing and become a bouncer. it's fun excluding people!

because of this v.s. clearance, i'm about $180 poorer. please keep me away from the mall! but i guess i'm making up for june, when i hardly bought anything.

Paul Frank is not my friend.

Neither is victoria's secret, apparently. All I want are Laura pajamas. Pink and polka dotted. But apparently that's the good color, they have all the crappy colors on sale, but not laura colored.

And as for paul frank, he has the cutest pj pants, pink cotton with paul frank characters only in the form of mothers animal cookies (all pink and white and sprinkly). and they were on sale at macys. "perfect," i think. but i try them on anyway. and they're the most bizarre fitting things ever. first, they're low rise, which i can live with, but don't perfer. second, you know how most pj pants are drawstring, there are 2 ends of a drawstring and you tie them together. this was some kind of drawstring loop. i looked and i looked, but the only think i could figure out was that in order to take the pants on and off you had to tie the knot on the loop shorter or longer. paul frank makes no sense and i don't like him anymore. hmmph.

Diamonds are a couch potato's best friend

Diamond Dust May Make Televisions Thin

awesome! I will put this on my wish list after internet fridge that really does something

Truly Outrageous Adventures with Netflix

A few months ago I found out that seasons 1-3 of Jem were on dvd. I also found out that they would cost over $80 to own. So i decided that when my semester was over i'd get netflix for a month. for the meager sum of $18 i could watch all the jem, my little pony and care bears that the us postal service could carry. and maybe i'd add a few actual movies to my queue too, just to round things out. the first 2 discs of jem came last week, and also princess diaries 2 (at the request of my family)

I didn't remember much about jem, only her pink hair, that she was truly outrageous, and the song from the commercial bumper. watching the show didn't bring a lot of memories back to me, like i hoped it would, instead, it was basically all a new show to me.

episode 1 opens with jem and everyone at the funeral of her dad, who even though he was a record company exec, didn't leave jem and her sister with much of an inheritance except the falling apart halfway house for girls, and half the music company that the evil eric raymond was somehow able to keep jem out of in the beginning.

then jem gets a mysterious box containing her now famous earrings, so her and her friends pile into the van and head off to meet synergy (the hologram making computer, who apparently is modeled after jem's mom who died young, but the seires doesn't show that until way later, according to commentary) and they find some kind of red and yellow convertible car, along with outrageous 80's outfits and musical instruments.

each of the 2 discs i have has the writer's commentary on 1 episode. i hope this continues. it's like the set was made for netflix! commentary on episode 1 tells us about the making and writing of the show, mostly. how she was hired to write a cartoon about this doll concept that hasbro came up with. how she named the main good characters after scientists who were making big hologram breakthroughs at the time etc. this was all very interesting.

commentary one of the episodes on disc 2, that was just a bit silly. yes jem/jerrica ran a foster home, but the writer was way too crazy talking about social issues, and kids getting help for running away or alcholic parents or whatever. good v evil, jem v the misfits. i was watching it with my sister, and every few mins i just had to turn to her and say "is she serious, it's jem!" but apparently it did make a difference to some kids. they said after giving away a runaway hotline or something at the end of one show they were flooded with calls. who knew jem was about the issues?

the music is pretty darn good. sometimes it's like a cross between pat benetar and the bangles. I'm disappointed to find that there is not a jem cd i can buy. although, the only other extra on the dvd is the feature to watch all the music videos on that dvd.

there are 2 theme songs so far (and in all, i think)

the first is the jem girls song, it's very catchy, but i don't remember it at all:

Me and my friends are Jem girls
Jem, Jem is my name
Exciting adventure, fashion and fame
Once you're a Jem girl, you're never the same
Come on, come on, and be a Jem girl
Jem, Jem is my name

Me and my friends are Jem girls
Jem, Jem is my name
Truly Outrageous, that's a Jem girl
Glamour, fashion, and fame

Exciting adventure, fashion and fame
Once you're a Jem girl, you're never the same
Come on, come on, and be a Jem girl
Jem, Jem is my name

the second one comes in on disc 2, and is the one we all know and love. we'll see how long i actually love it, because it's bound ot be stuck in my head for the next month

Jem
(Jem is excitement)
ooh
Jem
(Jem is adventure)
ooh
(Glamour and glitter, fashion and fame)

Jem
(Jem is Truly Outrageous)
(Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous)
Woah, Jem
(Jem)
The music's contagious
(Outrageous)
Jem is my name, no one else is the same
Jem is my name

But we're The Misfits, our songs are better
We are The Misfits
(The Misfits)
And we're gonna get her

Jem
(Jem)
The music's contagious
(Outrageous)
Jem is my name, no one else is the same
Jem is my name

Jem!

since i can't comment on every episode i'll have to pick the one that amused me most.

jem and the holograms get invited to play a benefit concert at the great wall of China. The misfits get jelous and get Pizazze's dad to finance their trip to China to muck things up. This is where we find out that hologram Aija (rhymes with rajah, although it also sounds an awful lot like Asia) is actually chinese, even though she has light blue hair and doesn't look asian of any sort.

somehow the misfits realize that the star earrings are very importatnt and manage to steal them while jem is hot tubbing. the holograms manage to chase the misfits ot a moving train where they get thrown out a window, never to be seen again-- or so they think.

the earring falls out the window to land in a farmer/merchant's basket hauling vegetables to town. and in good Chinese form, they get sold to a manufacturer who starts fabricating knockoffs immediately and manages to get an advertisement for them into the local magazine/newspaper within a matter of hours. so, our friend aija, decides to pick up that magazine to see if she can still read chinese and the girls find the adverstisement, and track down the factory where we see the assembly line and huge bins of the earring knock offs. magically, in a show of human kindness, the factory owner's daughter gives jem back the original earrings and just in the nick of time the holograms get to the stage where they prevent the misfits from playing in their stead. good triumphs over evil and jem spreads her message of goodness to all of China. Except the sweatshops are still churning out the earrings---oh well, close enough.

princess diaries 2 was actually very enjoyable, contrary to what the commericals had me believe. she's much less annoying and much more likeable than in the first movie. that was the problem in the books i read, she was so obnoxious and unlikeable that i hoped she'd die, rather than come to terms with being princess. although i don't know what kind of wedding shower involves slumber parties and children.

more netflix updates to come

to be delivered tomorrow: harry potter and jem disc 3