There's some sort of quip about this

Ever been the the Uncommon Goods website or seen their catalog? Some of their stuff, gift items mostly, is witty or adorable, some of it is repulsively witty or adorable.

A trendy item lately: baby snapsuits, or onesies if you will with little sayings. One, here, says "My mom's a fox." The other says "My dad's a geek." The second one is out of stock. What, if anything does that say about our society?

They also have this piggy bank. Is this the perfect gift for a child or what?

I can't sleep

I thought I would share that. I will be hurting today, bleary eyed and logey. Starting the new part-time job, doncha know. Very exciting stuff. But I guess I will take a nap before I go. Working at the mall. Never thought I'd do that again. The endless vista of opportunities that is retail...

Happy pretty thoughts.

It seems that the planet is angry with us. Which is fine, it has ways of getting back at us and has only just started nibbling at the edges. I think we may be too strong for it, which is too bad. It can't seem to get at the right people. You know who I mean, the guys who are really pissing in Mother Earth's Wheaties. And we (they? we?) can ruin stuff really quickly, almost as fast as the ruination can be wiped out. We just start all over again, really resilient and stuff.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side. -Aristotle,philosopher (384-322 BCE)

from a word a day. again.oh, and there's this one.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. -Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965)

pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile

I was reading this article on the troops coming home, how nobody understands what it is like, and once the parades and parties are over, they are left to readjust to life here. We can't understand what it's like, and we shouldn't pretend we do. Of course, everyone who knows a soldier knows their sacrifice, even if we can't understand what they went through. What little I've heard, man, it .... really really sucks. How's that for thoughtful, intelligent insight? My brother hasn't talked about it to me much. He's been back for two years, actually, seems to be doing fine. Now we just have to wait for his next deployment. It's inevitable, isn't it? If he stays in, he's going to be sent somewhere. My friend's brother has told her a lot. I don't envy her. The big difference there is that she's the big sister, and I'm the baby sister. It doesn't matter if I agreed with them going to war, which I sure as hell didn't. They are soldiers and they go where they are sent and they do what they need to do to follow their orders.

A seperate matter is the fear I feel towards our government. What's next? Iran? Syria? New Zealand? Bad times.

Thriftiness

thriftitude. not-spendiness. If one is a spendthrift, and wishes to become a miser, much contemplation is in order. Here are some quotes I found online.

Balzac, Honoré De
Those who spend too fast never grow rich.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

Cooley, Mason
Thrift is an attractive idea until you get down to specifics.

Allen, Woody
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

Austen, Jane
Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

Here's my horoscope for today.

On MyYahoo page. It's MyYahoo, so you know it's gotta be true. No, it's just food for thought.

Quickie: Be wise enough to ask for help when you need it today -- even if it's just a hug.
Overview: Train yourself to feel compassion for all beings. After all, if you can select who you feel sympathy for, it's not compassion -- it's simply judgment wearing a disguise. Your karma will improve immensely.

So I'm needy and judgmental. Great. What's new?

I get like 5 separate horoscopes on Yahoo. Here's another one:
You've got to do your own thing right now, no matter how much it seems that others need you. They've got to figure things out on your own {emphasis mine}-- and so do you. If you have to go solo, so be it.

I hate horoscopes with typos. At least I hope it's a typo. Here's one from a weeklong forecast that expires today.
You may have less energy than usual on Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan to take it easy --

Damn. Truer words were never foretold. Unless it was like Nostradamus doing the foretelling or something. That guy was sharp.

I woke up super early this morning. Unlike a lot of you out there, morning people, people with lives, I will end up taking a three hour nap this afternoon, I am sure.

So we're back.

We got in late last night. Took a lot of pictures, some of mine even turned out. It's hard to tell what you are getting on that little screen on the digital camera. I had the best margarita I've ever had (didn't taste like tequila) and the worst (super strong and I was way dehydrated. Tried to fob the drink off on the boys after a couple of sips. No dice.) Doubled my money playing slots ($3.50 to $7.00!). The trip was an awful lot like I expected it to be, in good ways and bad. I would definitely go again. There's still plenty to see. I think my favorite part was Fremont Street. The light show was ok, but seeing the old casinos and neon signs was super duper neato. I'm a bit worn down and no good excuse for it! Next time, I'll party totally out of control, I promise!

I am studying up on Las Vegas.

I am watching shows on the Travel Channel. I am learning about the mob's rise and fall in the city, the psychological tricks the casinos use to getcha, and how they catch cheaters. I have even looked at a map.

I'm not going to do much gambling. We have lists of stuff to do, especially free stuff. It's brightly lit there all the time. There are no clocks! No clocks anywhere! So the time will fly by, or it will be hellish and eternal. I think it will be both. Time will leap then gulp, then stagger and crawl.

Packing is fun. I have been told that I don't need four suitcases, because, as a woman, I require this sort of admonition.

You know how sometimes when you apply for a job it takes them for-fricking-ever to get back to you? I am hoping that is still true. I am hoping I don't get tons of call-backs next week on the resumes I've sent out. I am hoping that I'm not in a situation where I need to call a job contact back from a table at the Olympic Hall or whatever that male strip club that some girls at work told us we have to go to, but that we're definitely not going to, is called.

1st day job-free

First I slept in a little bit, no big surpise there. Since getting up I have written half a cover letter, cleaned half the bathroom, exercised enought to comprise one fourth of a workout, and wrote one eighth of a blog post.

I'm thinking about some different directions in life. Somebody recently told me I'm a smart girl who needs a smart girl job. :) So if there are any openings in that, if anybody's heard of a company looking for a sassy Girl Friday type, preferably with health insurance, drop me a line.

I've also been told I would make a good real estate agent. That's a thought. Or I could purse one of the many, hilariously-advertised work-at-home crapportunities offered online. Ideally I'll hit the jackpot in Las Vegas, to distract me from the job search with all the soul crushing obligations that instant, undeserved wealth can provide.

Here are some of my less-resume-friendly qualifications.
-Easily amused.
-Fascinated by fire, shiny things and network sitcoms.
-Prone to confabulation.
-Short attention span combined with inquisitive nature leads to asking "What?" a lot.

anti-corporate social responsibility mutual fund

Finally! All the socially progressive funds were pissing me off. Advertising in Utne. Posting excellent returns. Bitches.

Since opening for business in March 2005, the fund has bought very small stakes in nearly 400 different companies and used these tiny holdings to take their fight to the business establishment. The fund has zinged the Business Roundtable for insufficient vigilance in "defending capitalism and free enterprise against efforts in Congress to confiscate business earnings and shareholder assets." Last December, it challenged Microsoft to "reverse its recently announced plan to stop using PVC plastic as a packaging material." (Here's Microsoft's announcement.) In March it told General Electric that while the fund is all for GE's "Ecomagination" initiative, the company shouldn't put itself on the record in favor of government regulations of emissions. In March, Milloy, Borelli, and a colleague made a spectacle at the annual meeting of Goldman Sachs. (They're angered that CEO Henry Paulson is a tree-hugger, and that Goldman had given land in Chile to a conservancy group.)

On the other hand, God vs. Satan: Who's the better investor?

fun and games and contests and things

Confusing Best Buy customers!: Hey, 80 random people, let's get our blue polos and khakis and hang out at Best Buy.

Encouraging creative plagiarism: Finally! A writing contest for people that just can't seem to find the right words.

Reading

I joined a Barnes & Noble online book discussion on Emma. So I started re-reading it, and this time I don't like it at all. Is it because it's part of an assignment? A self-assigned assignment, I guess, so maybe it's not that. Emma is my least favorite Jane Austen book anyway.

Anybody an Austen fan? I didn't think so, but on the off chance you care, pemberley.com (are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?) is an awesome site.

Jane Austen quotes are so best. I think I like her so much because she seems like she'd be a good friend. A little bitchy, always witty, a thinking and feeling person. Here are some of the ones, from the books and letters I can come up with off the top of my head, so if they're not quite accurate, sue me. Ha, nobody's read this far anyway.
-"Had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner..."
- "Once more in this scene of dissipation and vice and I begin already to find my morals corrupted."
-"Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked."
-"He had nothing but himself to recommend him."
-"I do not want people to be agreeable. It saves me the trouble of liking them."
-"Novels... performances having only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them."
-"I have learned to love a hyacinth."

Oh hell, I had to go and look up a few more. Nothing spectacular I guess but I like them and so there.

"You deserve a longer letter than this; but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve."

"Your silence on the subject of our ball makes me suppose your curiosity too great for words."

"I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive."

Play a game, be happier

Mind Habits Booster Game

In this game you click on the happy face, finding it in a sea of frowny looking people. It's supposed to train your brain to focus on the positive. But all I saw was a sea of pissed off people that I had to go through before I found the one person who was happy to see me. (Check out the happy guy in the baseball cap, I thought he was kinda cute.)