halloween costume choices

Would you let your 14 year old boy dress up as a male stripper for Halloween? Someone I know did. I actually asked them why they let him. And I got a lame, "Well, it's at a party where all the kids are around each other at the beach during the summer so it's not like they haven't been around each other in swimsuits and he's wearing pants, cuffs, cufflinks and a vest." Um. Yeah. Not quite the same thing. I just don't get it.

Posted by jennj at 08:07 PM | Comments (2)

disappointed

I thought I might see some cool costumes on the commuter rail or T but instead everyone's in a commuter costume! Hehe

Posted by jennj at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)

abysmal

Overall, President Bush's appointees have added far fewer species to the protected list than did the administrations of either Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush, according to the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity. As of now, the administration has listed 56 species under the Endangered Species Act, for a rate of about 10 a year. Under Clinton, officials listed 512 species, or 64 a year, and under George H.W. Bush, the department listed 234, or 59 a year.

Posted by jennj at 12:22 PM | Comments (9)

in case you were wondering

Shopping trip was a success. A few outstanding items I need to get. I'm a little anxious about wearing this new stuff to work tomorrow. Normally, I'm an attention slut, it's just that I bought some outfits that are not typical me and I think it'll be the shoe with a heel that will throw my co-workers for a loop. Heh. But I like them and look good in them so I bought them. Right of refusal worked well yesterday and Y, N and C didn't challenge me when I said no. I did, however, try everything on before refusing (seems only fair) except one time. N brought in gaucho pants and I was like, get those the f* out of here. There's a woman at work who wears black gaucho pants, black boots and a red shirt and looks like something out of an old Star Trek episode. It scares me. Anyway, some of the stuff is trendy (my age) and some of it's just classic. Which is a good mix for me. Feelin' good.

Posted by jennj at 02:54 PM | Comments (9)

national parks and damn it was freezing waiting for the train this morning

In response to my survey many of you mentioned that you didn’t know that all of the options were national parks. Here’s your geography lesson for the day:

Yosemite – Always a national park

Carlsbad Caverns – Was a national monument until 1930 when it became a national park

Death Valley – Was a national monument until 1994 when it became a national park due to an increase of acreage through the Desert Protection Act of 1994

Everglades – Always a national park

Voyaguers (in MN) – Always a national park

Happy Friday!

Posted by jennj at 10:07 AM | Comments (2)

u.s. national parks

Why I'm asking the poll question is hidden in the extended entry, please don't read it until you've responded. Thanks for your help.

In my human ecology course one of our many assignments this week is to look at a list of national parks and pick a _lesser known_ park we'd like to visit and why. Then we are to post in the public discussion board.

One of the students definitely picked a well known national park, The Everglades, for crying out loud. The teacher publicly asked her to pick a different park as it's definitely not a lesser known one.

I then noticed that someone posted about Carlsbad Caverns and that the professor had responded to it. Clicking on the professors response, I expected another "please pick a lesser known park, this one isn't" response, but instead it was "can't wait to hear about your trip after next week!" (the person is actually going to Carlsbad next week).

I've ALWAYS known about Carlsbad Caverns. Maybe it's because I'm from the west coast. But it got me thinking: Do others know about it? Am I really all _that_ savvy on the national park scene?

Hence the poll.

I did look it up and The Everglades (which is bigger than Carlsbad and covers a LOT of land) has over 1 million visitors a year, and Carlsbad Caverns (nowhere near the amount of land as The Everglades) half a million. I've asked my teacher if there's a number she's looking for with regards to visitors and her definition of a "lesser known" park....I wonder what she'll say.

Posted by jennj at 02:31 PM | Comments (9)

conan o'brien

So, like, Conan is doing this whole Skelevision Halloween episode thing. And Larry King is on it. Which begs the question: Why do they need to make a skeleton puppet of him?

*snark*

Posted by jennj at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

shopping...shopping....

I've enlisted my friend Y to help me shop for some work clothes. I need to retool the wardrobe. I picked Y because it turns out she's the same size as me, she's tall like me, actually a few inches taller, and she knows where we can go shopping. And she's a complete clothes horse and apparently loves to shop for others (she's made it clear that our focus is finding ME clothes on Saturday...hahahaha...she even has a game plan she's drafting up....complete OCD). It also turns out that she has some of the same idiosyncrasies as I do about clothing (if my brain even thinks that my pants are too short, I obsess about it cause I hate pants that are too short). And she's also the same shoe size. I typically have to either go to a "shoe warehouse" type place or high-end department stores. It's sad when you are walking down a street that has funky shoe stores and the biggest size they carry or can order for you is a 10 and you're an 11. She, in turn, has asked C and N to join us on Saturday. And the best part: she will tell me if something doesn't look good. I'm looking forward to it.

Posted by jennj at 09:28 AM | Comments (6)

ack

So, let's see.

Bush says on Sunday that we've never been "stay the course". Yet, there are numerous times he's used the phrase.

Then Tony Snow at a press briefing said that Bush has decided to stop using "stay the course" because it "left the wrong impression about what was going on".

There is a difference, to me, between saying that you're going to stop using a phrase versus saying that you never used it in the first place. Now, maybe Bush is being subtle here. Yeah, that's it. See, what he really means when he says "We've never been stay the course" is not that he's never used the phrase. No, no. It's as Tony Snow says, "No, the policy -- because the idea of "stay the course" is you've done one thing, you kick back and wait for it. And this has always been a dynamic policy that is aimed at moving forward at all times on a number of fronts."

So you see, even though Bush had used the phrase in the past, it was because they were some words he strung together. It wasn't the policy.

And THEN, in the press briefing I read this exchange:
Q Is the President responsible for the fact people think it's stay the course since he's, in fact, described it that way himself?

MR. SNOW: No.

*cringe* If the president isn't responsible for what he says, why does he bother opening his mouth?

Posted by jennj at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

yeah

Don't you hate it when you find yourself saying, "I get to leave work early today" and realize that it's just the time you would normally leave?

Posted by jennj at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

i'm confused

I completely get (and love) High Definition television. It's bootiful. It's easy for me to see the difference.

What I don't get are the ads for HD Radio. Huh? How does that even work? And would a Plebe like me even notice?

UPDATE: Well, apparently HD Radio is supposed to have CD audio and less interference. Since I use an iPod like 95% of the time I'm driving, I'm not sure why I'd buy a new stereo for this kind of thing. I guess in the end, if you're a radio junkie then this might be something you'd be interested in. Me, I'm a television junkie so the HD TV is more important.

Posted by jennj at 03:24 PM | Comments (7)

arrrggghhhh

Full post (and video) on Think Progress. Does Bush not even remember what he's said previously??! Here's a part of the post:

During an interview today on ABC’s This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run.’”

Bush responded, ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’

Bush is wrong:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

etc..............

Posted by jennj at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

sunday cat blogging

Posted by jennj at 02:23 PM | Comments (3)

just need to get this said

The response from Foley’s abuser just sickens me. Of course an abuser doesn’t think that he’s done anything wrong. Duh. It sickens me because it shows all of us just what kind of sick rationalizing abusers will go to in order to justify their behavior. And I wish people would point that out every time they quote this asshole. This could possibly be the type of rationalizing that went through Foley’s mind, folks. Wake the fuck up.

In all of this, if you think I’m unsympathetic to Foley, you’d be right. Partly. I am sympathetic that he’s a victim too. I’m not surprised that it’s taken this long for him to finally admit it. I met many, many men and women in childhood sexual abuse support groups who were finally coming to terms with their abuse in their fifties, sixties and even seventies (I was 21 when I finally told someone). So for those asshats who say “What fifteen year old would hold onto these e-mails for three years?” We should be happy that it only took that kid three years instead of potentially never.

Where I am not sympathetic is that I utterly do not believe that past abuse excuses his actions. We do not know yet if he committed any crime that appears in any law book. What I know is that after reading those IM’s, he’s definitely a creepy predator of minors and what he did is wrong. I don’t feel bad for him at all and neither should anyone else. He continued the cycle of abuse and should take full responsibility for his actions. There are no excuses.

And it pisses me off that the MSM is trying to build sympathy for Foley. No way. It’s not up to us to forgive Foley, it’s his victims and their choice if they want to or not.

Posted by jennj at 11:34 AM | Comments (2)

narcs now have a boy scout badge

If you are in Los Angeles and are a boy scout and want to earn another badge, you can now earn the Respect Copyrights Activity Badge. This is how the MPAA wants to fight illegal copying of materials. Uh-huh. At least you'll know who you won't be sharing files with.

Posted by jennj at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

day 2

Today was the second and final day of the global leadership team off site thing. I giggle thinking I'm a part of our departmental "global leadership team". ME? hahahaha.

Anyway, Awesome CoWorker snagged my bosses boss at the meeting to get his signature on two SOP's I've been dying to get him to sign for TOO LONG NOW. While he was signing I took a photo using my cell phone (I will not be posting on the blog even though the picture looks blurry, I don't want to take any chances of any sort of company information being seen).

I will, however, be sending it out to interested parties tomorrow at work.....somehow I think "SOP p*rn" might not be a good subject line for the e-mail....

Posted by jennj at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

this looks awesome

I'm gonna go see this movie when it comes out. The non-blogging husband pointed it out to me and it looks cool.

Posted by jennj at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

oh well

Somehow I'd convinced myself that more people were using public transporation and other alternative methods to get to/from work and other tasks. I wanted to believe it.

Apparently not. Carpooling is down (except in the West), transit use is down (except in the West), walking is down and motorcycle use is down. But there's an increase in people who work from home, so that's good.

America is huge geographically. There are just some jobs and locations that are not conducive to anything but driving alone. At one of the places I lived at in Seattle it would take me an HOUR to get to work on public transporation. My work was only TWO miles away. But because the bus had to go a little out of the way to the mall, I'd then have to get off the bus and wait for a transfer bus, get on the transfer bus and then that went on a circutious route to the building. And then I'd have to walk a block. It just didn't work out. And there was nobody on the way that I could carpool with.

Posted by jennj at 08:40 PM | Comments (3)

but, but, i've stopped watching lost

My friend Elke has informed me that Nathan Fillion will star on the Nov. 8 Lost episode. And I just read that he is signed up for two episodes. The thing is, I decided at the end of last season that the show had completely pissed me off and had jumped the shark. But now....I'm gonna want to watch his episodes. And I know myself, I'm gonna want the background, so ...I'm now back to watching Lost. I'm such a fan girl.

Posted by jennj at 08:53 PM | Comments (5)

true to type

I have been at a global leadership meeting for our organization today and they did one of those stupid ice breakers. We had to answer ten questions and then later in the morning they told us what type of car we are based on our answers. According to everyone mine fits. I can't argue with it:

You are a Lamborghini Murcielago. You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Hmmmm...

Posted by jennj at 06:00 PM | Comments (6)

nbh has a new job

When I read that YouTube was bought by Google, I got a little nostalgic for the heady gold rush atmosphere of the dotcom days of yore. Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to work at a startup again and see if it could lead to something big? Well, Wednesday the nbh got contacted by a friend/former co-worker asking if he'd like to come work at a startup. Friday night he gave his two weeks notice at his old job and signed the job offer on the new. He can't talk about most of it, obviously. It's a great opportunity for him (and us). I hope it all works out! Congrats, honey!

Posted by jennj at 08:25 AM | Comments (7)

dude

This is how Smeagal became Gollum......

Posted by jennj at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

all the news that's fit to blog

I noticed this trend quite awhile ago but it's becoming even more frequent and obvious to me in the past six months. I read a number of different blogs to get my news (some of them were recommendations from all of you way back when).

The trend I'm seeing is that I'll read a news item on a blog. I check into cnn.com on a daily basis just because the headlines amuse me. It's not really my main news source anymore. Anyway, I'll then see the news I read on the blog appear two days later on cnn.com (note, this is NOT a 100% of the time kind of thing, but enough to make me notice). I've also noticed this when I read the free Metro paper on the train.

Now, maybe it's always been two days to get a story to the masses and it's just now become transparent because of blogs. Dunno.

It's becoming annoying to see "old news" on cnn.com and my desire to test this trend by checking into cnn.com is waning because when I go there it feels like "old news".

Anyone else having this problem?

Posted by jennj at 12:22 PM | Comments (14)

polls are closed

I had to remove the poll as it was messing up the formatting on my website. Thanks to those of you who responded. It looks like the white macbook is the preferred choice of discerning cluefairy.com readers.

I'm still trying to figure out when I'm going to buy it. I'm having a hard time letting go of my powerbook. *sniff*

Posted by jennj at 08:34 AM | Comments (5)

help me decide

Well, after three and a half years of owning my precious 12" powerbook that has gone through a cat induced hard drive failure and the battery is currently dying (Mine isn't a part of the recall so my order for a replacement battery has now been pushed to December) is now exhibiting turning-completely-off-whenever-it-wants-to behavior. It's not the battery as it's _plugged into power_ at the times that this is happening. I think it's time to get a new laptop.

As such, what new Mac laptop do you think I should get? Thanks.

Posted by jennj at 11:36 AM | Comments (7)

might add one of these to the blog

Google gadgets for your web page.

Posted by jennj at 09:30 AM | Comments (3)

the foley scandal

Michelle Malkin (right wing blogger): "It's the predation, stupid".

Shakespeare's sister (left wing blogger): "....he now feels no compunction about associating addicts, survivors of sexual abuse, and gay men with his criminal predilections, in order to excuse his inexcusable behavior."

I think these pretty much sum up how I feel about this thing. And I never thought I'd put these two bloggers in the same post....

Posted by jennj at 08:26 PM | Comments (3)

yeah, that went well

Let's see, the past week and a half is craptastic because:

1. Sprained ankle
2. Working with crap project team that I hate
3. Because of crap project team and aggressive timelines cannot attend Vegas conference in two weeks (f*tards)
4. And nbh was just in a car accident

He's perfectly fine. However, the hybrid is totaled.

Posted by jennj at 12:58 PM | Comments (8)

sometimes working with others is no fun

I'm working with a team right now and I believe that I dislike everyone on it except one person. I suspect their feelings towards me are similar. And oddly enough, I'm OK with it. My boss knows how I feel and he recognizes that this is unique - as in, this is the first time I've experienced such a loathesome team. I've worked (still do) on many, many projects over the years at the company and I've built some solid relationships. This team? Forget about it. Two of them have been in town this week and I have not socialized with them. Normally, I tend to go out to dinner with folks when they visit from out of town. I have no desire to socialize with these folks and won't be.

The good news is that eventually we go live and after the initial upswing of operational support issues that occur after go live I can take an even lesser role with them....yippee.

Posted by jennj at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)

another time waster

This is kinda fun: Line Rider

You draw lines and then a cartoon character rides a sled down it. Here's what one person has already done and it's pretty cool.

Posted by jennj at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)

wtf?

"With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act - H.R. 2679 - provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion."

The rest of it.

Posted by jennj at 05:38 PM | Comments (5)

irony

Oh man, here's a quote for you:

"It's vile," Mark Foley, R-Jupiter, told the St. Petersburg Times. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

Foley said this about Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal.

And now look who is throwing it all down the drain. What an asshat.

Posted by jennj at 05:32 PM | Comments (5)