Time Waster #303

I know, you didn't think there could be another way, but you should check out This Week in Craig. This woman Amy goes through and comments on some of the wackier postings on Craig's List. I think she limits herself to New York City postings, but if they could be wackier than the DC ones, they are.
Sample: hey, are there any drum circles around here?
i used to get together with some people when i was in school and just drum and play with shaky things.. u know, get a groove goin on...outside in a park ... its gets rid of lots of aggression, and gives people a chance to hang with other equally chill people. so, if anyone knows of any circles in the area, or want to start one, let me know, k? thanks.
Oh, hippies. How you do so amuse me.

You want to just drum and "play with shaky things?" SHAKY THINGS? What the hell are shaky things? I think I need to be, like, twenty times higher than I am in order to understand. Oh misspent youth! How I miss thee…


Speaking of which, Craig (Mr. List) really needs to update the Best Of section. It's over a month old. You're killing me, Craig!

Lenten Reflection, Week 2

I've been thinking about a beautiful movie that I have seen a few times called The Color of Paradise. You can read the synopsis at IMDB, but basically it is a story about a blind boy who lives with his widowed father, grandmother and sisters in northern Iran and about his ability to see the world and the good in the world, through his other senses. At one point in the movie, his father apprentices him to a blind carpenter so he can learn a trade. At a heart-wrenching point in the film, Mohammed says something like "My teacher says that God loves the blind more. But if God really loved me, why didn't He give me eyes to see Him?" The carpenter says "God is not visible. He is everywhere, you can feel Him. You can see with your hands." I can't really do justice to the movie or the dialogue, so I strongly recommend this movie to everyone. This reminds me of John 20:29: "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Too often we rely on just one sense to view the world, God, and our relationships.

Moral Turpitude

Just as an example of how bad things have to get before they take your law license away, this guy evidently first drove under the influence of cocaine and then later hit an 8 year old also while under the influence. Now he's pled guilty to meth possession. Click here to read the explanations of his prior suspensions, etc. Hmmm. Interesting. As an aside, he went to law school at Thomas Jefferson, another San Diego institution.

Brother, Can You Spare a Bagpipe?

So, I guess bagpipers have fallen on hard times. I can only assume this from the emergence of bagpiping buskers on the streets of D.C. Last night, it was a man standing outside Bucca di Beppo on the bagpipe. "Scotland the Brave" meets Italian food. But this guy was not as hardcore as the late-50s man in a kilt who was bagpiping in front of the Chinatown metro station. Up till now, D.C. really hasn't had any street musicians to speak of, other than the guy who is always outside the Dupont Metro doing go-go beats on the bottoms of buckets. Now I feel like I am back at Mary Wash enduring the early-morning bagpipe practice going on at the ampitheatre.

Breakfast

Papa Johns is running a test market in Louisville, KY for breakfast pizza items! Yup, pizza pastry. Well, I guess it's no different than spinach croissant (though why anyone would choose that over an almond or chocolate croissant is beyond me.) I wonder if you could get them delivered with some coffee, too. yippee!

Is The Bible Funny?

A recent conference explored humor in the Bible--an oft-overlooked topic, I imagine. Among the verses scholars pointed out as using humor: John 1:42,where a disciple asks Jesus "How could anything good ever come from Nazareth?" (This is sarcastic. Sort of like if I were to say "How could anything good ever come from Moscow, Idaho?")

Mo' Feta Blues

The European Court of Justice will hear a case to determine whether Greece can be the sole user of the term 'feta cheese.' Others, such as feta producers in England, believe feta is a generic term. As it stands, Greek producers have sole use of the term.

Valentine's Day Melange

First, we start off with the business of Valentine's Day Breakups. The article gives five reasons why men break up with women on Valentine's Day (it's usually men who do the breaking up):

1. He's not interested in a deep, committed relationship and doesn't want to lead the woman on.

2. He's scared about the escalation of commitment that often comes with sharing Valentine's Day with a woman.

3. He doesn't want to waste time and/or money on a relationship he thinks won't last.
(my personal favorite---)
4. He's dating several women simultaneously and the obligations of the day - dinner, date, etc. - force him to choose one woman and dump the other(s).

5. He's worried that publicly sharing Valentine's Day with a woman will reduce his ability to play the field.

Next, we have
bad Valentine's Day gifts. These include: Crock Pots, vacuum cleaners, and rug shampooer. Hey, apparently some people need to be told this.

As my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Valentine's Day card from Melissa posted above my computer reminds me: Happy Stake-in-the-Heart Day, folks!

Blogger Beware

Interesting article in WaPo about the risks of blogging about one's work or colleagues Check it out.

Missed Connections

Do you ever read the Missed Connections section of Craig's List? They crack me up because I swear I am at half of these places, but they are never talking about me (which is probably a good thing.)

For example, Anne at McFadden's on Tuesday night. Well, I was at McFadden's on Tuesday night! But my name is not Anne. And theCaribou Coffee on 14th Street? I go there quite often. But I am not a gay man. The Yes! Organic Market on Columbia Road? I go there all the time, but I don't have a pink scarf. (It's kinda funny how many of them do, though....)
Finally, Millie & Al's on Wednesday! I was there! Oh, no, wait, I was there on Tuesday and on Thursday, but not Wednesday. Damn--but with a description like "blue shirt and brown hair in ponytail"--well, it could have been me, too.

Has anyone ever had any luck with this?

Co-Ed Naked Karaoke!

So this bar in Connecticut won the right to sponsor naked karaoke contests. Is this the next big thing for our local hang-out Millie & Al's, which by the way "celebrates West Virginia." Really? I would have never made that connection. I just know about the $1 jello shots. Anyway, there are probably certain karaoke favorites which are best sung clothed. I'm thinking anything by Bon Jovi.

Lenten Reflection, Week 1

Well, I can't answer theological questions (I leave that to Amy) and the usual observations of the fast-food approach people take to "holy day" services was already commented on by Amber, so I guess I'll just have to keep it simple with one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite writers of all time, Henri Nouwen. He writes in Compassion: "We do not have to go after crosses, but we do have to take up the crosses that have been ours all along." What if, in Lent, one didn't give up coffee (no!!!!!!), television (that might be too easy for me), or dessert (now that might be a challenge!) and one didn't take up new obligations, like extra reading or offerings, but one just tried to carry gracefully the burdens we are expected to carry all along--in other words, not try to like an ulta-austere pilgrim, but to act as God calls us to act? In a sense, it's a harder goal than just having a concrete task, such as abstaining from something, to concentrate on.

Girls Gone Wild: Iraq

Oops. Looks like some young lady got into trouble for a Girls-Gone-Wild-esque shirt-up shot taken during mud-wrestling festivities at Camp Bucca. Ladies, we've been over this a few times now. The key here is to not let them take pictures as evidence. It really doesn't help your case.

Radio La Colifata

Or, loosely translated, Crazy Radio. This radio station was created by patients at a mental institution in Argentina. Of the 30% of the participants who have been released from the institution, not one of them has been readmitted. What a great, simple way to humanize mental illness and to give people a non-drug alternative to coping.

San Elijo Beach.Com

It wasn't bad enough that people take their radios and their cell phones camping, thus, in my opinion, negating one of the big reasons you go camping--so you can have some quiet. Now, a California state park in Encinitas is the first in the state to offerWiFi services for only $7.95 per day. (If you are just looking at the Park Service website, it is free.) Perhaps Starbucks could set up a kiosk and they can set up a little shuttle service so you don't actually have to go hiking, you can just be shuttled around the park. I can't wait to be camping and be woken up, not by the sound of the birds, but by the sound of that annoying "You've got mail" AOL voice.

Time-Waster #302

As many of you learned yesterday, I discovered the Best of Craig's List. These are spit-out-your-coffee-funny posts to Craig's List on a variety of topics. Warning: While some of them are G-rated, most of them are pretty graphic. Among my favorites are: Dear Ex-boyfriend, It's Boring To Stalk You, as well as the story of the Democrat boy who posted an ad looking for a date to the Black Tie & Boots Ball (he had no tickets) and what he proceeded to do to the gullible/greedy/naive/unlucky Republican girls who were all over the tickets (and him). The missed connection entitled Blurry Girl is also pretty cute. Anyway, come 3pm when your efficiency/motivation level has dropped to zero, check it out.

POW: GI Joe

Of course, I won't make light of the current situation in Iraq, but I do find it refreshingly funny that the supposed American GI reportedly taken hostage yesterday turned out to be a doll. Even the gun pointed to his head was plastic.