Archive
Nevermind
It made me feel all kinds of old when I was reminded that Nevermind by Nirvana turned 20 this past weekend. I remember when it came out. I remember buying the cd and instantly falling in love with it. This was when music was good.
Haitian Earthquake Relief
Please, if you can, take a moment to give to earthquake in Haiti. The country is completely devastated. Thousands are dead and the survivors have nothing left. Every little bit helps.
I also like Doctors Without Borders but their website doesn’t seem to be working for the time being.
Kiss My Ass 2009
Wow, what a year. What a shitty year. Not just for me but for lots of people I know. We’ve had to deal with illness, death, heartbreak, poverty and mass stupidity. And the common refrain has been “I can’t wait for this year to be over.”
Here is a sample of some of the things that happened to me and mine this year:
– one friend was treated for breast cancer earlier this year. The doctors screwed up and she had to get additional surgery after her first operation.
– another friend is currently being treated for leukemia.
– a guy I knew and liked at work passed away this summer (suicide at 27 years of age).
– my 97-year-old grandfather burned his hands and face in a cooking accident because my cousin is careless. He’s very lucky it wasn’t worse.
– the person I was dating for a year and a half suddenly moved back to her native country. On the other side of the world. Relationship over.
– the possibility of job loss if my company gets sold.
– people close to me in dire financial straits, so much that they send their children to school with no lunch because they don’t have money for groceries.
And the icing on the cake? On December 30 our idiot douchebag Prime Minister took the opportunity to shut down parliament for 3 months at a time when Canadians are too busy to notice and protest. Opportunism at it’s best at the expense of the Canadian people.
And on and on it goes. Boy it was depressing to write all of that out.
Now this year wasn’t all bad. I am now living all by myself for the first time, and it’s going great. Also, I had a surgery in July that I wanted for several years and finally worked up the courage to have. I am feeling much much better now. But those 2 excellent things aren’t good enough to override the overwhelming sense of failure that I have for this year.
So here’s to 2010. You had better be more satisfying than 2009 or somebody is in trouble.
Happy Holidays
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Winter Solstice! Happy Festivus! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Decemberween! Have a safe and happy holiday no matter how you celebrate.
Baby It’s Cold Outside, or No Means No
One drawback to working in a public space is being forced to listen to an endless supply of holiday music. For the past month an a half I’ve been subject to many different versions of “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Deck The Halls.” Most of these songs cause me anything from mild amusement to mild annoyance after hearing it 100 times. But there is one song that I find particularly disturbing.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” was written by Frank Loesser in 1944. He sold the song to the film “Neptune’s Daughter, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It is a duet between a man (the wolf) and a woman (the mouse). The gist of it is that the woman wants to go home because her family will be worried, but the man is trying to convince her to stay with him instead.
Here are the lyrics. The male part is in parenthesis:
I really can’t stay (Baby, it’s cold outside)
I’ve got to go ‘way (Baby, it’s cold outside)
The evening has been (Been hoping that you’d drop in)
So very nice (I’ll hold your hand, they’re just like ice)
My mother will start to worry (Beautiful, what’s your hurry)
My father will be pacing the floor (Listen to that fireplace roar)
So really, I’d better scurry (Beautiful, please don’t hurry)
Well, maybe just a half a drink more (Put some records on while I pour)
The neighbours might think (Baby, it’s bad out there)
Say, what’s in this drink (No cabs to be had out there)
I wish I knew how (Your eyes are like starlight now)
To break this spell (I’ll take your hat, your hair looks swell)
I oughtta say no, no, no sir (Mind if I move in closer)
At least I’m gonna say that I tried (And what’s the sense in hurting my pride)
I really can’t stay (Oh baby, don’t hold out)
Baby it’s cold outside
I simply must go (Baby it’s cold outside)
The answer is no (Baby, it’s cold outside)
The welcome has been (So lucky that you dropped in)
So nice and warm (Look out the window at that storm)
My sister will be suspicious (Gosh your lips look delicious)
My brother will be there at the door (Waves upon a tropical shore)
My maiden aunt’s mind is vicious (Gosh your lips are delicious)
Well maybe just a cigarette more (Never such a blizzard before)
I’ve got to get home (Baby, you’ll freeze out there)
Say, lend me a coat (It’s up to your knees out there)
You’ve really been grand (I thrill when you touch my hand)
Oh, but don’t you see (How can you do this thing to me?)
There’s bound to be talk tomorrow (Think of my lifelong sorrow)
At least there will be plenty implied (If you caught pneumonia and died)
I really can’t stay (Get over that hold out)
Baby it’s cold outside
I guess they didn’t have the “No Means No” slogan in the 1940’s.
So she’s clearly saying no, she has to go home, but the guy is trying everything in his power to make her stay, including aggressive persuasion, guilt and getting her drunk.
A guy I work with called it “the date-rape song.”
What do you think?
My Best Friend’s Wedding? Not so much
I’ve known my best friend for about 15 years. We’ll call her Buffy. For about 9 of those years she’s been in a relationship with her partner, let’s call him Bill.
So my friend and Bill have been together for about 9 years, living together for 7. I don’t really know him, but from what I can see they get along very well, have common interests, all the good stuff that keeps a couple together. Except for one thing: she wants to get married and he doesn’t.
She told him from the very beginning that she wanted to get married. When they moved in together she told him that she wasn’t just going to live with him, that the relationship had to end up in marriage. 9 years later he’s still dragging his feet. This is fine, he doesn’t have to get married if he doesn’t want to. I myself don’t really believe that marriage is necessary for a happy relationship. But he does have to be honest with her about whether they will ever get married, or why he doesn’t want to.
Is he stringing her along? Is she pressuring him too much? Those aren’t questions for me to answer. All I know is that I don’t like seeing Buffy hurt and upset like this.
Have you ever experienced anything like this before? Do things like this make or break a relationship?
Pearl Jam – Just Breathe
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Lincoln University to students: You’re too fat to graduate
Boy, I would have been so pissed if they had this policy when I was in university.
It seems that the good people at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania have decided that fat people are too stupid for their own good unhealthy, so they want to help. All freshmen must be weighed, and those with a BMI over 30 must take a 1 credit course called “Fitness For Life” before they graduate. The only way to be exempt from this class is to lose weight.
This policy is ridiculous for several reasons:
1. The BMI is an inadequate measure of health.
2. The university is assuming that the fat students don’t eat well and don’t exercise, and that they are unhealthy.
3. They are assuming that the thin students are healthy, and that they eat well and exercise.
4. They are assuming that exercise and “proper eating” will cause weight loss for most students.
5. If this class is about health and fitness for life it should be required for all students.
6. Lost of university students have eating disorders. If they are really concerned about health they should address these students health issues as well.
7. Being “underweight” can cause health problems in some people.
8. Shaming people about their weight only makes things worse.
And the biggest reason of all:
9. The students are paying to be educated, not to be lectured about their “health.”
Here’s a revolutionary idea, how about not making people feel bad about their bodies? How about not encouraging unhealthy weight-loss practices? How about not encouraging eating disorders? How about realizing that the students are grown adults who can decide what to do with their own bodies? I think that everybody would be a lot healthier if they weren’t made to feel like second-class citizens because of their body type.
This and That 
What you said