You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2008.
The best way to describe mixi is the Japanese equivalent of Facebook. And this is the subject of the site’s most recent update/announcement email (click to enlarge):
The Japanese text is all basic site stuff. There is no explanation for the baby-holding. But hell, I’m on board.
Or, rather, to make up for not watching the debate: I exercised my right to vote.
I have heard a lot of bullshit from a lot of people over the years as to why they don’t vote, and as you might gather from my calling it ‘bullshit’, I don’t think much of their reasons. I don’t give a damn if you don’t like either candidate, if you don’t totally support their policies, if you think they’re both evil and full of shit: one of them is going to be your president. So maybe, rather than rolling over and accepting the will of the masses, like we have in years past to our country’s great detriment, you should do something that expresses your beliefs, even if it doesn’t give you the immediate gratification of bending the world to your will. Change is hard. Change takes a long fucking time. But if you want change, doing a write-in vote for someone who really inspires you is still going to matter more than not voting at all. If nothing else, it’ll stop you from sitting on your ass and poking at your crushed little heart because woe the world is horrible. BOO FRICKING HOO, NOW VOTE.
You only stop making a difference when you stop trying to.
EDIT: That said, kindly research the options before you do connect that little arrow on the ballot sheet. Democracy only really works with educated masses. And if, after thorough, well-informed research, you decide to vote for John McCain, that’s fine, and I respect your decision. I will just never, ever be your friend.
Just so we’re all on the same page: Yes, I am watching Project Runway instead of the debate. Whatever, no one’s going to spoiler the debate before I watch it on Hulu.
And yes, I am on Team Leanne. GO LEANNE GO. Now let the liveblog begin!
21:02: Leanne was selling a vest from ep 5 on her Etsy site earlier, but I would much prefer if she put up that jacket.
21:04: Kenley. Shut. The. Hell. Up.
21:05: See, Korto has a much better approach. She isn’t stubbornly rejecting Tim’s opinion – she’s taking it into consideration, even if she doesn’t ultimately follow it. You don’t have to follow everything someone says to still be respectful of them.
21:07: She follows Tim’s advice… and still comes off kind of an asshole. It’s a gift.
21:10: I must disagree with Leanne here, despite my strong reaction against her personality, I like some of Kenley’s dresses. MUCH AS IT PAINS ME.
21:17: NO TIA NO, do NOT get dog shit on Leanne’s clothes!
21:20: I have liked some of Kenley’s feather and flower hair accessories before, but now she’s just got something sprouting from her head and it’s not good.
21:27: Heidi totally calls bullshit on Jennifer Lopez’s “foot injury.”
21:28: Kenley: “Maybe I should have improved my attitude!” upon seeing Tim Gunn is the guest judge. YEAH, KENLEY, MAYBE.
21:34: I did not love Korto’s collection in pictures as much as I did seeing it on PR just now. It really is beautiful, and though I am STILL FIRMLY ON TEAM LEANNE, I would not be sad if Korto won. The fans were a cute touch.
21:36: That said, Leanne’s collection is. gorgeous. I would wear every piece from it (except maybe the Y-shaped top). It looks like waves, it moves like waves, it sounds like waves, each piece is its own individual, beautiful thing yet so clearly part of the same collection.
21:44: Thank you, Michael Kors et al, for calling Kenley on her continued copycatting. Intentional? Probably not. A result of her being totally egotistical and refusing to pay attention to other designers/other peoples’ opinions? Yes.
21:46: Aw, Heidi says “idears!”
21:48: Half of Leanne’s collection was sustainable textiles. GO LEANNE. She’s also the only one who keeps her shit together.
21:51: Oh God, we are going to cut to commercial and I need to know who wins now!
21:56: VICTORY. Kenley is not the runner up! My wishes are realized. And her graceful exiting interview? “It’s bullshit.”
21:57: LEANNE! LEANNE WINS! VICTORY!
21:58: And as a parting gift, Korto is both the runner-up and fan favorite, so she gets $10,000. Not as good as winning, but nothing to sneeze at, people.
This was a crazy season, Project Runway, but I’m glad you discarded all your nonsensical nonsense in the end and picked the right designer. I am really looking forward to Leanne’s work in the future – not to mention the change I hope she can inspire in others, to be more conscious of what they use and where it comes from in their fashion. Best of luck to Leanne in all her future endeavors!
The liveblog returns! Liveblogging episode 5 of the season, “Power Hungry.”
21:07: This show has officially made me never want to ride in a plane, bus, or elevator ever again. On the plus side, when I have to anyway, magnetic men do not seem to be among my fellow passengers.
21:15: I want a floating necklace for my birthday.
21:18: Mean boss near electrical implement? Deeead.
21:19: Well, at least down one arm.
21:22: You guys ran into someone altered through science to tap into the Ghost Frequency, how is this so weird?
21:25: This episode makes elevators fairly creepy, but not quite so creepy as the original version of <i>The Eye</i>.
21:26: Figments of one’s imagination don’t generally take the elevator. But then one could imagine an elevator opening and one’s figment stepping out. Who knows.
21:36: Who knew outdated technology and nature could save the day! Casette tapes and pigeons, the stuff of heroes.
21:38: Oh how I worry about that pigeon.
21:39: Um gross. He is either a ghost, a zombie, a hallucination, or someone else completely, and whichever it is Olivia should not be making out with him.
21:42: Given a man is being held against his will for use in deadly experiments, I’m having some trouble getting into the jaunty mood of this GPS magnetized pigeon chase.
21:46: Okay, I am now forced to acknowledge a point my friend Stephanie made: Olivia et al are supposed to announce/identify themselves when entering a building or pointing a gun at people. I suspect this show needs an FBI consultant.
21:52: Oh shit! The crazyman is in on it! Though Walter continues to walk the fine line of knowledgable vs deus ex machina.
21:53: I’m not sure how you plan to explain shooting off a door lock to break into a building, Olivia. ‘I saw my dead boyfriend go this way’ probably won’t cut it, even in your department.
21:57: I’m also not sure how Agent Scott was going to propose, given their relationship was a secret and revealing it would’ve gotten one of them transfered, but whatever, it adds extra tragedy/romance.
I’m not sure if chatting with Stephanie (who loathes Fringe) colored my opinion of this episode, but I found it a little lackluster. No Massive Dyanmic, no discussion of this incident’s link to the Pattern, and Agent Scott traipsing about being sort of mysterious and sort of annoying. Here’s to hoping the setup from this week leads to greater things next week.
Dean Winchester said it, so it must be true! “So what – go vegan, stay human?” To which the answer is yes.
Can we all just agree that Leanne and Tim Gunn riding a tandem bicycle is the cutest thing ever?
Also, Project Runway needs to stop ripping off Project Runway: Australia. The designers were told to make a wedding dress for their final challenge – and when they returned from their two months of work, told to whip out a bridesmaid’s dress, too. Aside from giving them a more merciful two months to work on the dress (and the rest of their collection), this is an exact replica of Australia’s final challenge. I’m not sure the monkey in the back room (the producers?) who comes up with these challenges is even trying anymore.
Blaaaaaargh.
My most frequent thought while watching the debate: “STOP SAYING MAVERICK.” I’m glad Biden got sick of it, too, and called that shit out.
And that he pointed out Cheney’s sociopathic expansion of VP power, and consequently implied how terrifying it’d be to see Palin follow in his footsteps.
All in all, though, disappointment. This was not, as some crack-smoking commentator said, “so much better” than the presidential debate. People were just expecting both of them to screw it up in their own special ways, and when they were equally mediocre, somehow it was great.
Some day I will become weary of expecting real answers and strong, well-reasoned arguments from politicians. But today is not that day.
Liveblogging episode four of the season, “The Arrival.” I’ve got a bit of a tummy ache tonight so my commentary may be less than stellar. Not that I held it to such high standards before, but you know.
21:03: Was that a gastronomically caused disaster? He had an interesting meal there.
21:08: Oh no my cousin called at an inopportune moment, I missed the beginning of the witty banter.
21:10: Was it just me or did that building appear to be CGI?
21:12: “Do you feel like sharing?” “Noo.” Someone did not pick up some essential kindergarten schools.
21:15: My guess? MOLE PEOPLE.
21:16: I thought that weapon looked a little funny. Apparently it shoots force beams of light. I wait in great anticipation for when lightsabers start showing up.
21:20: Apparently, reverse psychology DOES work.
21:22: I amend my guess: ALIEN mole people. That would account for both the non-aging and the baldness. Or, alternatively, the kid from Powder.
21:24: Aluminum foil hats! Also, I’m not sure they make root beer floats to go.
21:25: Nooooo Walter what are you doing! Leave Astrid alone!
Commercial: That Apple ad just called the iPod touch “The funnest iPod ever.” The grammarian in me is dying on the inside. “Funnest” is not a word! It is “most fun”.
21:27: No device that puts electrical wires up one’s nose is meant for good.
21:33: Speaking of reduced wit, Peter seems a little off his game this episode. Maybe being harassed for root beer floats by his father has drained his energy.
Commercial: I’m both impressed and horrified that there is a fifth Saw. It makes me think I should try to get through the third one again, but I just didn’t have the stomach for it.
21:37: To amend my earlier statement: nothing good can come from a pair of wires stuck up ones nose attached to one’s brain. Though I do doubt that would cause pain, since the brain doesn’t have, you know, pain receptors, and I’m pretty sure the only thing accessible up the nose is the frontal lobe. And really, Peter is already morally suspect without having that part of him zapped.
21:41: Seriously Olivia, have you never heard of backup?
21:42: “He’s got a gun!” Understatement of the year.
21:43: Your bullet thing ran away.
21:53: That is a rather steely-eyed driver’s license photo sir.
21:58: I wonder how much careful planning went into the contents of Olivia’s refridgerator. Hey, Agent Scott! How ya doin’?
I found this episode a little lackluster in comparison to the three previous, but probably because it was much more involved with the overarching mythology of its characters. Also, maybe because there was no Massive Dynamic involvement? I do miss our one-armed redhead. Next time!
The Chinese government has always scared me a little bit. I know I’m not exactly alone in this. “You can take this subway line to get to the mall,” a friend told me when I was visiting her in Hong Kong, “but don’t fall asleep or anything, or you’ll wake up in China.” There were some murmurings when Google agreed to censor search results in China, and, you know, there are those ongoing human rights violations that sort of got swept under the rug during the Olympics. (Not that, with China’s economic force as it is, they had to be swept very far.) Now that the tainted milk scandal that I touched on briefly before has reached new heights, and MSNBC reported today that the Chinese government is trying to do a little damage control.
Lawyers in Beijing said law officials there had nudged them to be “aware of the general picture” and to heed and have trust in the government’s handling of the scandal.
And because this is the Chinese government, I worry about how hard they “nudged” and what the consequences of not heeding the government’s handling are. I worry, too, that China has become too much a juggernaut for the world community to do anything about it if/when/as they cross the line. But, for once, the numbers that give the country its leviathan status may work against the government – there are just too many people and too many sick babies to make everyone hush and go home.
