G passed something quite interesting on to me. This link to an article on History Network News gives an excerpt from a new book by Daniel A. Farber: Retained by the People: The 'Silent' Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don't Know They Have
I realize that any discussion of writing from over 200 years ago needs to include the time and place in which it was written, but he's given me a spark of hope that individual rights are still something this country should and can consider.
I found the below quiz via POC's blog. Now I'll warn you that this is advertainment, but it's beautifully done. It's also for a trilogy I have not yet read, but which I've just ordered from Barne's and Noble. So, in a way, the advertainment worked on me.
Whether you choose to be sucked in or not, take a look at the match below. I'm VERY curious whether or not the people who actually come her and know me believe the statements to be true, so I've left it unlocked. If you have an extra minute or two, please click and tell whether you agree that I'm modest, shy, assertive, etc.
While I think some of it is true, there's an issue. Like many tests of this nature, I second guessed every question. For instance, when the quiz asked if I believed in FATE I had to contend with the fact that I do believe certain events are slated to happen. That said, I also believe that we have the power to change our interpretations and involvement in those events. In some cases, I believe that extraordinary individuals can cancel the events out alltogether. In retrospect should I have said solidly that I believe in fate? or was my neutral answer more accurate to my belief that we can effect change? (and I do mean effect, not affect there)
The one question I know the answer was 100% true to was the one that inquired whether or not I asked a lot of questions: I strongly agreed that I did. Anyway, the quiz will lock itself in twelve days. I'm curious to see what shifts occur during that time as the 10s of you out there let me know what YOU think I am.
They've just renamed my department at work. Can't tell you to what because of my rules. That is, I can tell individual yous out there one at a time, but not the grand unknown you who may be reading this because you are thinking of hiring me and are doing the typical internet check. See? I'm a good boy, I don't blog about work other than in oblique ways. You want to hire me, yes you do! After all, I can use oblique in a sentence! I can copyright on the side...and edit stuff too! (Just so you know, I'm aware that I omitted the technically required multiple hyphens up above...in the interest of keeping things pretty...we are in Marketing after all)
Anyway, they changed the name of my department and it ROCKS. Will look very impressive on the aforementioned resume.
And Dad, if you're reading this, I just got your message and I love you too. Let's catch up this weekend.
So these products still taste as good (or as bad) as they ever have, but would we rush out to buy them if they weren't lacquered up by highly paid food stylists?
Finally saw The Devil Wears Prada the other day. I expected I'd like it given that I work in the suburbs of the fashion industry, but it surprised me by being even better than I thought it would be.
The fact that the primary actors did a great job and that Meryl Streep's character wasn't a one dimensional boss from hell probably helped a lot, but I also liked that the movie didn't skewer the fashion world. The scene where Meryl Streep explains in detail how the down market blue polyblend sweater Anne Hathaway was wearing originated in couture was pretty dead on. We're all sucked in whether we like it or not. Well, except for nudists I guess.
Doesn't mean I'm extolling the virtues of the industry, but it's really no sillier in scope than any other.
There's a lot to be said for my current job, but the thing that ties me most tightly to it is the flexible schedule. Not many jobs would allow me to be sitting here at home on a Friday afternoon relaxing. Instead, I'd be watching the clock tick away slowly to five o'clock.
I can only hope that wherever my next step takes me will have equal flexibility.
I admit it. I waited until this weekend to do my taxes. (Sure, I actually had until tomorrow, but I knew that I wouldn't want to be facing them after a full day of work.)
I got a nice lump of money back. I always do thanks to claiming minimal exceptions. Not sure why every year I procrastinate all the way through to April. The goverment's making interest off of money that should be sitting in my bank account...well, okay should be going towards the credit card so that I can pay less interest there.
I file electronically now using HR Block Tax Cut software and it's relatively simple. (A pain to find all my deduction paper work, but not a heinous task that needs to be avoided for many months.) Why don't I do them earlier?
No answer really, just a question I asked myself this morning in the shower that's stuck with me throughout the day, so I'm typing it in here in hopes of thwarting taxing dreams.
So, this is crunch week at work. Makes the other busy weeks seem like idle days. Okay, I probably say this at least 10 times a year, but this time it's REAL.
We're putting together our...well, the posters and signs I help make, it's the guides that show all of them. Each with it's own many digit order number.
Yes, the images are of easy-on-the-eye models, but after a while they all start melting together in my mind. A mass of molten models mingling maniacally in my mind.
Work, sleep. Work, sleep. Work, sleep. Drink entirely too much scotch over the weekend. Work, sleep. Work, sleep.
On one hand, I'm feeling a bit stuck in a rut. On the other, there's something afoot, but I need to stop drinking too much scotch over the weekend or it'll never materialize.
Living so close to wine country and having a fondness for a good red wine, I can't help but get caught up in the latest debate raging through the wine world.
Actually, it's not a new debate. I first learned of it several years ago on our trip to Costanoa, and it may be even older than that. We had a Bonny Doon wine there that had a screw cap and a little advertising piece that explained why screw caps were, in fact, superior to the cork. It explained that most wineries won't switch because of the stigma screw caps seem stuck with: that of only being used on cheap inferior wines.
Since then I've encountered more and more brands that employ a screw cap. Some of them excellent wines. In fact, most have been as good or better than the corked wines within the same price range.
That said, there's something in the experience of decorking a bottle that I miss when opening up one of the screw tops. I'm sitting here with a perfectly fine Syrah on the desk waiting for me to take another sip, but the screw cap opening of the bottle lacked something that leaves me feeling just a touch deflated. I suspect I'm missing the mini ceremony of getting out the corkscrew, placing it carefully over the head of the bottle, making sure the twists are true, and then the satisfying POP as the bottle releases the cork. A mini winegasm if you will.
Seeing that cork is less environmentally friendly, I'm not going to advocate we keep it forever. Change can be hard, but is often for the best. Still, I'm glad that this change seems to be moving along slowly, and that I can anticipate many mini ceremonies in the future.
