5/30/2009 08:20:00 PM

Just too funny: A literal version of the music video for TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART.

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5/02/2009 01:14:00 PM

How has this site escaped my radar? I've just spent the last hour or so reading up on autism, shampoo, and other topics in medical junk science. I need to bookmark this one!

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5/02/2009 12:21:00 PM

I went looking for my favorite Harvard/Yale joke, and this site had it. Plus a lot more, just as funny.

Labels: LOL

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4/24/2009 11:04:00 PM

My business partner and I are selling some books on Ebay. The more we sell, the sooner we'll be able to see each other again. So, I guess we're another kind of partners, too, she said with a very big grin.

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4/24/2009 10:09:00 PM

It's hard enough for me to force myself off my ass to go swimming but I've been trying to do that. One of the things that I do to force myself out of the house is to put my swimsuit on at home, pull my clothes over it, stick my underwear in my bag (with towel, goggles, etc.) and go off, so getting ready to go in doesn't involve getting undressed in front of small children, and the shorter interval between leaving the house and being in the pool seems to help.
So, I do my workout. Get in the big pool, the one with water walking lanes, do laps across, walking forward, walking backward, 36 laps makes a mile. Tonight I did 18 laps, go me. Then I get into the rec pool, kept at a temperature approximating that of bath water, and I move around it for the remainder of the half hour, doing swimming laps if my knees don't hurt too much, otherwise pulling myself across with my arms. Then I get in the hot tub for a quick soak, then a shower, get dressed, pack up and go home. I try to time my visits to the hour before closing to avoid small children. Tonight that strategy failed me.

One of the things I like about Fairland Pool is they have a policy that boys over the age of 5 need to use the dressing room appropriate to their sex. As a sop to helicopter mothers who imagine that a pedophile can sweep into a dressing room filled with people and molest their boys right there, without a peep from the boys, they have family dressing rooms, so moms can stay with them.

You know where this is heading, right?

Clueless Mom, or CM, who is already dressed, is waiting for elementary school-aged daughter to finish showering. She has late elementary- to middle-school aged sons in there. They are already dressed. There is nothing stopping them from waiting on the benches in the hallway. Since Mom is dressed, she could shuttle between supervising daughter getting dressed, and waiting boys. Oh, and there are other little girls from other families in the process of getting dressed, showering, etc. If they are not naked, they soon will be.

I wait for Mom to sweep her family off to the family dressing room. Doesn't happen. So I go to confirm with the lifeguard that the policy is, in fact, no boys over the age of 5 in the women's dressing room. An eye-rolling female lifeguard goes in, and I dawdle for a minute or two waiting so it isn't obvious who tattled.

And go back in to hear Mom giving a butt-load of attitude to female lifeguard who shrugged, says something approximating "Whatever" and leaves. (Mom is offered the use of the family dressing room, but rejects it). So hell, no one's using the family dressing room, and since I find being naked in front of little girls distressing, let alone little boys, I use it to get dressed. My experience is, even if it isn't uncomfortable, they'll feel compelled to point out "you're fat" and other observations involving size. Not that they did this, but it's happened to me often enough to make me cringe at the prospect. I really need to start decking children when they pull that shit. It would improve their characters.

I go back to the lifeguards and sourly say, "Way to go." I get the eye roll, one of them says, "Oh, is she still there?" and when I left, they sent in another female lifeguard, possibly one possessing a backbone, to talk her into sending the boys out. I did not want to hang around for CM to take it out on someone, and I was ready to go home anyway.

Now, it was just annoying to me, but if my theoretical little girl were in there, I would be going ballistic. And what's up with having your daughter naked in front of her brothers? I know there are families with relaxed attitudes toward nudity but at that age I would have rather had my blood sucked out by a leech than be naked in front of my brothers. I'm reasonably confident my brothers would have opted for the same fate faced with a naked Eva.

My bad self is always looking for excuses to stop eating right and stop exercising. I'm hope I can keep from using this as an excuse not to go. I already have it's too cold/I'm too tired/my knees hurt too much as excuses, I don't need another one!

Labels: Fairland pool, special snowflakes

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4/09/2009 10:02:00 PM

$17 to $20 an hour for a Technical Writer? Are they serious? In Washington?

What they want (and can afford) is a Medical Tech who can handle a style guide. That's what they should be advertising for.

I was almost tempted to tell this guy the going rate for Tech Writers is at least double that. Or more, considering it's just a contract job.

Betcha this guy makes more than $20/hour.

Sadly, I bet he gets a whole bunch of applications. Heck, I would have applied for this job five years ago.

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4/08/2009 07:20:00 PM

I roll my eyes.

I used to be a lot more tolerant of religion, but refusing contraception advice is crossing the line. Ethically neutered, my ass. When Christians decide to enter health care, they agree to keep their religion away from patients. If they can't handle that, they should find some nice theocracy to go live in.

This is yet another exhibit of why Christianity, which encourages proselytizing, in incompatible with democracy. This is why we keep pushing to keep America secular.

And if GYN-0B doctors leave because they can't without contraceptive advice from women, then maybe we should re-think letting Christians into medical school. They used to deny women entry to medical school on the grounds they would stop practicing once they had children. Let's make it a condition that if you want to specialize in gynecology, you have to swear not to interfere with any legal reproductive decision.

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3/27/2009 09:44:00 PM

Another in my never-ending quest to document all things either Whitley or Eva: the Ugg Whitley boot. Bonus Eva points: Rubber EVA outsole with pod inserts provides durability and better traction.


So you could pair those boots with this blouse, and these jeans, and have a stylish outfit that spells out my name. In order, too, if you go shoulders to toes. And if you consider one of my names to be "Chalker," in lieu of a conventional accessory, maybe I could just use this guy as the ultimate accessory, since he's named Chalker.

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3/22/2009 07:37:00 PM

I wonder if Dave's buddy, the architect, would consider getting business cards like these?

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3/15/2009 12:32:00 PM

The summer of 1997, Torn by Natalie Imbruglia was everywhere...and played every 5 minutes. I didn't like it at first hearing, and subsequent replayings didn't make me any fonder of it. Tom Smith sent me this link in an effort to make me like it a little better.


I laughed but I still hate that song.

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3/07/2009 11:48:00 PM

As I have said before, when the long-lost Whitley family crest is finally unearthed, it will be the hand of god reaching out, with the caption "Pull My Finger."

Proof of this: from an email my brother just sent me.

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3/06/2009 10:03:00 PM

God, but I love Cake Wrecks!

Is this great writing or what?

What this headless, neckless, armless, and legless torso lacks in limbs it certainly makes up for with day-glo orange streakiness. Not to mention that it exudes a kind of sinister intelligence: I swear it's looking at me.

In fact, here's a hypothetical for y'all: You get up in the middle of the night, and turn suddenly to find this cake hopping along behind you. Do you:

a) scream b) laugh c) grab a fork or d) all of the above?

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3/01/2009 04:10:00 PM

Another in my continuing series to bring you all things Whitley-related:



Bonus Eva points for using an Eva Cassidy arrangement.

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