LostSophia

If I had the time and energy, here's what I'd do:

Take all her stuff and furniture out of her room and stash it someplace not immediately visible. Put her mattress on the floor with a ratty old goodwill blanket and no frame at all, next to a nasty cheep old lamp with a broken shade on top of a cardboard box for a night stand. Continue that theme and basically deck out her room like a crappy shithole SRO hotel room. Then when she gets home and freaks out about her stuff tell her look, education is important for getting a good job when you grow up. If you want to sleep your life away and ditch out on school, then this is what you have to look forward to. If you want to be really mean, make her sleep with her room like that for one night.

Thanks for the advice Josh. I hit up the grocery store and video store, and parked it on the sofa watching mindless cheep TV rentals, eating large amounts of blueberries, strawberries, and mandarin oranges, and drinking tea. It did seem to help. I am feeling a bit better today, although that may just be the dayquill talking. In any case I don't feel quite so conjested (took some cayanne pills, they always seem to help), but I still sound like Marylin Manson. Good grief.

I am home sick today with a really nasty cold. I am not looking forward to work tomorrow. Any suggestions on 'cold cures' or the best way to take care of one's self?

Much much better. Thanks .

That's good to hear!

We're all jealous of Mickey eye's job.

I bet. Sounds pretty choice.

Hey Akhira, how's your ankle doing?

BURLESQUE!!!!! Oh my fucking GOD! Fuck the clowns! Send in the GIRLS!!! Burlesque ROCKS!

I'd have more sympathy for this argument if smug postmodernist half–wits like The Pussycat Dolls and Dita Von Teese hadn't laid claim to the term over the last decade or so.

Bleck. Indeed.

No, no, what I was referring to was good old-fashioned live burlesque with girls who are not twigs and actually have something to shake, along with the sense of humour to get the audience laughing and loosened up. These girls were all honest to god self confidence (the kind that's not afraid to make fun of itself), and a rip roaring determination that everyone should enjoy and have a good time. It was in a very small location, with only about 25 or 30 audience members, so the girls were able to wander all over the little bar and give personal attention to individual tables. There was one girl on rollerskates, one that did a feather fan dance, an amazing sort of heavier girl with gorgeous red curls who kept pretending to get tired part way through her dance (you'd have to see it, it was hilarious), a couple of very talented bellydancers, and this great big black woman (who teaches at the burlesque school in town) who danced to 'Pasties and a G-String' by Tom Waits, and the Richard Cheese version of Baby Got Back. Man, she was awesome!

There was also a game after intermission called "I can do it better!" in which audience members who wished to participate were shown a burlesque move and then encouraged to copy it. The best version for each move won a raffle ticket and a cupcake. I won for the show off your leg move, and Chief won for the booty shake! Lol! I wish you guys could have seen him, all dressed up 30's style, sticking out his lack of ass, and shaking it like there was no tomorrow. Bwahahaha! It was great!

I've spent the past three days being brainwashed into my corporate culture. Apparently this is done by getting us horrifically drunk and teaching us Norwegian drinking songs.

Oo! Oo! Totally jealous! I want to learn Norwegian drinking songs! That sounds sweet!

Also our "culture officer" is frighteningly enthusiastic and the company anthem is Thunderstruck by AC/DC with some terrible alternative corporate lyrics written to sound a bit like it.

Bwahaha! Cool.

I shamelessly got into it and enjoyed myself. I also found out that R&D (where I work) is seen by those outside it (mostly sales) as some kind of weird super secretive organization that isn't allowed to tell the rest of the company what it's up to until it's launched. I found this out today, after having given most of the new people I met a tour around it on Tuesday. Luckily they were mostly R&D guys from the UK so it was all cool.

 

Corporate goal for 2009 is to chill out, get on with what we are doing and weather the financial crisis and kill our nearest competitor.

Wow, the company you work for sounds great! Best of luck there!

Tom's Cajun rare steak!!! "It activates the predator in all humans!"

No Compassion For The Majority!

Between the liquor, the bend and the noise in my head.

Between your mind and my crime

and me into the grime.

Between the gun, the lead and the lies that I said.

Through your sweet breath,

comes the dawn of my death.

Touch me - hate me.

Give yourself to me and break me!

Cut these eyes and I will see.

Kiss these lying lips for me

Stroke this skin and I will kneel.

Brutalize me, I will heal!

Between the bullet and my lip,

and the lies you let slip.

Between the dirt of this soul,

and your heart that's a hole.

Between the place where you hit,

and this face that you spit.

Through your sweet breath,

comes the dawn of my death.

Touch me - hate me.

Give yourself to me and break me!

I escape alot of the time by sitting on my bum and

and analysing my past, you know? Are you through? Are you?

Cut these eyes - I will see!

Kiss those lying lips for me!

Stroke this skin - I will kneel!

Brutalize me - I will heal!

BURLESQUE!!!!! Oh my fucking GOD! Fuck the clowns! Send in the GIRLS!!! Burlesque ROCKS!

Hissing loudly at them to make them avoid me. Works a treat on Mark and Malin's pe(s)ts.

I'm afraid that wouldn't cut it with my little house beast. He would probably take it as a challenge and try to take your feet off at the ankles. There is a reason why we named him Fenrir.

Happy Birthday you Devil!

LostSophia, I agree with everything you've said in your initial post on the whole stereotyping America and broadbrush generalization topic.

 

I've even said some of those things myself, on more than one occasion, for whatever it's worth and whatever good it did.

Hey, thanks. Like I said, I really didn't mean to make such a big deal, it just gets on my nerves from time to time. I do feel like less of a douche though to know it's not just me.

Thanks! Somehow, I think my normal tactic to ward off allergy-inducing cats might not cut it when applied to tigers and lions.

Oh? What would that be then?

I also enjoy your weird yin-yang thing!

Nice line work!

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/456816

 

Pål on TV. Starts at 5:50

 

Very clean shaven I thought.

Yeah, I've been trying to watch that, but it's told me my bandwidth is too low on both the computers I've tried so far. Thought for sure it would run at work. Damn.

Why has it taken me twenty years to get around to buying a copy of Rock Hard by the Pandoras?

Perhaps you were afraid to open it?

I thought that was brandy. or are we not talking George Bernard Shaw?

Nope, Sorry. Although Shaw is indeed good stuff. I was talking about

Wisky hates me

Well, it is the Devil.

If you're allergic to cats, are you also allergic to tigers and lions, or can you cuddle those with impunity?

I don't really know how reliable the site is, but this site says:

"Domestic house cats are not the only allergenic animals within the family though. All members of the cat family are potentially allergenic; this would include lions, tigers, panthers, pumas, jaguars, etc, and this has been found in people who work with these types of animals in zoos, circuses etc."

Does anyone elses city run stock in the parks?.

Sadly no. In Portland, we mostly get juvenile delinquents and other such low-grade offenders to mow them as court mandated community service. As a matter of fact, I used to know a girl who got just that punishment as a teen. I forget what she had done, but in any case, she had to go mow the grass at Mt. Tabor Park. From her account, it was quite the chore, as the hills there were steep enough that they had to work in pairs, one person at the top lowering the mower down the hill on a rope, and one person at the bottom moving the mower over sideways before the first person hauled it back up the hill.

So you are asking us to sort the sheep from the goat-cock swallowers?

Bwahahahaha! No, I think the sheep are the goat-cock swallowers, and interspecies sex is just wrong.

Thanks for the clarification though. I really hate to come off sounding all whiny and pussy-hurt, and to be fair 9 times out of 10 I just ignore it, but it does get on my nerves. So thanks. OK, I feel really awkward now. :Walks off whistling:

I dislike the use of the word 'American' when referring to US folk. America is two continents the US's continent being shared with Canada and Mexico.

Agreed. I do try to avoid that regrettable conceit. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have much in the way of good alternatives. 'US citizen' gets a tad unwieldy after a while, and United Statesian is just silly. Actually it annoys me that we don't have a better term. What do you suggest? Usish? Unitese? Help me out here. Perhaps we could follow the form of turning 'France' into 'French' and turn 'United States' into 'United Stench'?

I think non- US folk just get sick to death of US domination of all media and all politics that suits them.

Very valid point also. Again, the fault of the media, politicians, and the wealthy. Oh yes, and btw so do many US folk. My god, the amount of Fox news and America's Next Top Model that I have to put up with because my clients want to watch it makes me want to scream. Being forced to listen to a US marine character on 7th Heaven talk about the war in Iraq must be some form of purgatory.

I acknowledge the fact that people like you exist but the fact is we rarely see (in the media) or meet people like you and sadly the majority of those I have met fits the stereotype.

Again, I understand that. My point was only that the demographics of the US citizens that get to travel outside the US are not a representative sample, and neither is what is popular with the media. It seems to me that basing an opinion of an entire people on what small percentage is readily available to your immediate experience is a bit like willful ignorance, which is especially irksome when that opinion is hurtful.

I totally understand your gripe and I admit to my part in the hate the us craze that swept the world.

Thank you, I do appreciate that. Honestly I really didn't mean to make a big deal out of it. It's just a pet peeve.

I won't however change my view / opinion. Like it or lump it.

Totally your pejorative, I mean prerogative.

There are more important things to worry about than a few yanks.

Shit! I totally forgot that being annoyed by stereotypes is for crybabies!

OK, this is probably a sore spot for me, and I am likely over-reacting. If this is the case, I would like to apologize in advance and state that this is not meant as an attack on anyone, more just an airing of grievances. That being said...

I am really sick of statements including the words "all Americans". Seriously, making any sort of generalized statement about 305,689,000 people is just insulting. The US government only wishes it could get that much homogeneity and sheep-like following out of us (although it already gets far too much as it is). As many of you might have noticed, I am hardly the most patriotic US citizen, but I will say that in my opinion one of the best things about this country is the diversity. By nature, diversity does not lend itself well to far-reaching generalization, especially in the area of opinions and beliefs.

Certainly, the US foreign policy sucks big hairy goat cock, and I understand why a lot of people would be upset about it (many US citizens are too, I might add). Similarly, I understand that the US image abroad, as projected mainly by the media, politicians, celebrities, and the wealthy, is indeed very annoying and assholish. However, I must point out that this is by no means representative of the US people.

We do not '...all agree [we] are the free-est'. Many of the richest and most powerful of this country likely would agree with that, but ask the bum turning in cans at the Safeway down the street from me. Ask my mother who is stuck in a shit job because she can't risk her life going without medical insurance long enough to get a new job and was driven to her second bankruptcy by the co-pays anyway. Ask my co-workers who work 60-80 hour weeks for shitty wages just to make their bills and then can't take a sick day without risking getting fired. Shit, my boyfriend is 1/4 Native American. Ask him how free he feels. He comes from a line of chiefs and shamans and he has to work as a 'courtesy clerk' at a grocery store instead of helping people find their path in life. The man is amazing, and they have him rounding up shopping carts in a parking lot. Ask his uncle who was drafted into the Vietnam war how free he feels.

Now I would definitely like to say that I am quite well aware that we do have it very good here compared to many places in the world. I am very happy to live in a country where I do not generally have to worry too much about the safety of the drinking water or whether I will be shot down in the street. However, as far as the 'first world nations' go, in terms of the quality of life for citizens I tend to think of the US as being near the bottom of the pile, not the top.

Thing is, it would cost me something like a month's wages just for plane tickets to Europe, and something similar to get pretty much anywhere other than Canada or Mexico. So stop and think for a moment please, about exactly what slice of the US pie people in other countries actually get to see for the most part, and how that just might not be a fair representation of the US people. Even if you go so far as to visit the US, there is a lot of difference between the east coast, the west coast, the south, and the midwest. There is a lot of difference between big cities, college towns, suburbs, and the country. I can tell you there is a lot of difference between SE, NE, downtown, and the west side just in my city.

So yes, fine, there are a lot of stupid, flag-waving assholes in this country. They annoy the crap out of me too. Please do not include the rest of us in that group. [/hyper-sensitive rant]