6 posts tagged “misc.”
So right now I have been stewing over some crap that a relative - or specifically, a relative's SO - has been giving me. He likes criticizing me over how I live my life. What really makes him annoying is that the criticism comes in the form of little digs or snipes. For example, I recently made a comment about going to the gym, and he goes "I don't know how you can stand exercising inside; I'd rather exercise outside." Or, if I mention a T.V. show or sporting event: "Oh, I don't watch T.V. [or follow sports]" On another occasion, he asked me if I was going to be going anywhere on vacation, and I replied that I was planning on going to Japan. He said "Isn't Japan really expensive?"
I replied "It doesn't have to be. If you stay at five-star hotels and eat at Michelin restaurants all the time, of course it's going to be expensive." (Obviously, since he doesn't watch T.V., he has never heard of Rick Steves*. He probably hasn't heard of the Let's Go series of guidebooks either.)
He said "Well, I just heard that Japan was a really expensive place to visit."
"I just won't buy any square watermelon while I'm there," I responded.
Anyways, the little snipes and digs are always delivered in this "I'm-ever-so-superior-to-you" tone. No, you're not superior. YOU'RE A FREAKIN' POSER!
By the way, I found an article on how to grow your own square watermelon.
ETA: And apparently the person who prided himself on being a Luddite just acquired a laptop and is setting up the wireless. Hypocritical much? I think I will go eat some square watermelon and go to bed.
*Yes, I am aware that Rick Steves focuses on travel in Europe (although he has done a show on Iran; very interesting although I'm still not sure what to eat when I go to Teheran). But his point about travelling through the back door is sound and can apply to a lot of regions in the world.
Too funny! I wonder what their reaction was upon seeing the life-sized version. It would have been really funny lf there were little people dancing around the real thing.
And where are they now, the little people of Stonehenge?
And what would they say to us, if they were here tonight?
Alain de Botton received a crappy review on his latest book from the New York Times. He responded as follows:
"I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude."
Wow. This is almost as good as Anne Rice's "You are interrogating the text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it." Only I can actually make some use from this quote. Maybe I will use it on the Other Hot and Anointed One, Lord Thingy. The original hot and anointed one was:
(How the hell did Lord Thingy get in to see the Pope, anyways? One of my coworkers who attends his church saying that the officiating priest was telling the congregation just how hot and anointed LT is this week. I think I just might lose my lunch.)
In other news, the Zidane and Friends soccer match will be on Saturday, and the American Idols tour rolls into town next week. I wish that the promoters of these shows had joined forces and combined the two. Danny Gokey could sing the French song "Coup de Boule," and then Zinedine Zidane could join him onstage and give him an actual coup de boule. (Of course, Gokey can only wish that he were a fraction as hot and anointed as Zizou. No one has written a book called La melancholie de Gokey, have they?)
Today, I was nearly thrown off the treadmill at the gym. It's generally not a good idea to stop on the belt to adjust one's iPod without turning the treadmill off first (or standing on the sides). I'm glad that no one I knew was there to see me make an idiot of myself.
I guess this means that I shouldn't try KNITTING on the treadmill then.
but Milton Friedman is, was, and always will be a douchebag. I never liked his "Free to Choose" philosophy (as one economics instructor I had noted, "free to choose" = "free to die"). More specifically, I thought that he was a hypocrite. He trashed public education and public universities in his books, yet he benefited from both. Jerk.
Anyways, Paul Krugman revisited Friedman's notion that the Federal Reserve Bank could have prevented the Great Depression. Or that it caused the Great Depression. (He notes that it expanded the monetary base, big time, and it's not working.)
Meh.
I always know that I'm in trouble when I agree with George Constanza. For example, he once told Jerry that he wanted to own 360 pairs of underwear so he'd only have to do a wash once a year. (Gross, but logical.) And then there was the episode where he built a sleeping platform under his desk. Unfortunately, George Steinbrenner's grandkids outed him.
Anyways, the National Sleep Foundation found out that many Americans are sleep deprived, and some are so tired that they sleep on the job.
Just how big a deal that is depends, of course, on your job. Last week, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged it should have done more to investigate a tip that security guards routinely took naps while on the job at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant.
D'oh!
(Well, Homer Simpson does that all the time. And he eats donuts when he's not sleeping on the job.)
I think I'm going to go to bed now.
