Happy Halloween!

And coming soon: sexy pedophile costume

Halloween is supposed to be scary, but this is just down right frightening. I get that some girls think Halloween is an excuse to dress like the dime-store hooker they secretly fantasize about being, but this is just getting ridiculous. What happened to good old fashioned witches and ghosts? 

Women loooove abortions

Was laughing in bed last night watching this bit on the Daily Show. I know I've said in the past that funny female comedians are few and far between, but between Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Samantha Bee, I really think female comedians are making a splash in this campaign season, let's hope it lasts.

Obamanomics

An undecided friend sent me an email with this NY Times article detailing Obama's economic policies. As someone who knows nothing beyond minor basics when it comes to the economy and economic policy I found it really interesting and informative.  It also shed light, for me, on why I feel the presidential decision is so black and white and why I have trouble wrapping my head around those who say they are undecided. After reading his email and the ensuing eight page article it really hit me: I am the equivalent of an economic dummy and by default social issue has always taken precedence over economic policy when it comes to choosing party lines. I vote with my heart first... although that doesn't mean my mind disagrees.

In my friend's email he writes: "I'm a die-hard fiscal conservative who is also socially liberal. For me, this makes elections a bit like choosing a punch in the gut or a slap in the face..." 

This is a statement that I could never make simply because social policy will always outweigh economics in my mind, that's just how I think. Don't get me wrong of course I understand that the two are not separate of one another, both policies come hand in hand, but for me the choice will always be based on one hand more than other. Maybe that's a simple, naive way of looking at the world, I don't know. What I do know is, in this instance, regardless of the basis, the choice is clear to me.

There's a movie in here somewhere

I can't decide if this is hilarious or just plain sad. I'm not even sure how to wrap my head around the mechanics of this story. How can a virtual crime be realistically punishable? What does it say about where society is headed when the lines between real and fake have become so blurred?  Technology gives me a migraine.

Just say no to put-out politics.

Putting out for politics.

My vote? Obnoxiously retro.

Manolo No-no

I'm pretty sure Joe Six Pack doesn't appreciate his hard-earned campaign contributions being spent on Manolo Blahniks.

The Lost Effect

I'm still having a hard time accounting for my waning interest in television. My tv love affair began at a very young age and has run full steam until just recently. I'm not sure if my loss of interest reflects on poor programming, me growing up or a little of both. What I do know is that I'm not the only one not tuning in. Of all returning series this fall, with a few exceptions, almost all have seen significant drops in their viewership since previous seasons. 

Over the last few weeks I have been hacking away at my DVR season pass list, eliminating shows I no longer find worthy and I thought I was done trimming down, but suddenly I find myself wondering if Heroes is another show on the bubble. And I can't help thinking that if more dramas in this vein would take after the example of Lost and set an end date for the series, I wouldn't be having this dilemma. 

When I first read about Lost's creators setting an end date for the series I was disappointed at the idea that the series was now limited to a certain timeframe, but in hindsight I think it's the best thing they could have possibly done for that show. Setting a time table creates structure and inevitably determines that every moment has a purpose in moving the overall story forward and when every moment counts then every moment better be good. The problem with Heroes is that they have nothing but time on their hands. Without a set ending, the story is left meandering and running wild. All I keep thinking is where is this going? Will all of this time traveling nonsense really be worth the payoff? At this rate, I may not stick around long enough to find out.

Nanowrimo '08

Sixteen days and counting until the official start of National Novel Writing Month. For those of you unfamiliar Nanowrimo, now in it's tenth year, challenges writers to compose a 50,000 word novel in just one month. This will be my fifth year attempting to make the 50,000 word count, never having come close in the four years past, last year being my best attempt and still weighing in at a mere 17,000 and change by the end of November, I am determined that this will finally be the year I succeed. 

That said I'm still not sure what I plan to write about. In the past I have basically come up with a vague idea a few days prior and plunged in head first with no real idea of where I was going. This year I am thinking I should change things up a little, hoping to have an idea by the end of the week and begin plotting out a rough outline to have ready on November 1st. At the moment I am toying with the idea of a coming-of-age piece about a teenage girl in the early 90s that I have had in the back of my mind for a few months, but I'm still not 100% sold on that idea. I welcome any thoughts and suggestions!

Americans love talking dogs

Interesting article in the LA Times today about the disastrous box office opening for Body Of Lies and what that says about the state of Hollywood. I have been spouting off for as long as I can remember, to anyone who will listen that the million dollar mega-star era needs to be put in check and perhaps flops like this one will finally shine studios on to that idea as well. 

Will the real John McCain please stand up

While cleaning out my stockpile of unread magazines this weekend, I stumbled upon this lengthy piece on McCain in Rolling Stone and ended up spending the better half of Saturday morning reading it, which says a lot that I stuck with it because I tend to not be a huge fan of long-form journalism. While I feel everything written about politics these days (wether it be from the right or left camp) needs to be taken with a grain of salt, I thought this was a really eye-opening piece about McCain. And, yes, Rolling Stone is a music magazine, but when everyone seems to be turning to Comedy Central for their nightly news these days, does that really make it a less-reliable source?

28

Things I am older than:

the space shuttle

E.T.

Trivial Pursuit

student protest at Tiananmen Square

Bart Simpson

laptop computers

Nintendo

Britney Spears

CDs

Where's Waldo

Pac Man

the World Wide Web

Prozac

MTV

disposable contact lenses

Cabbage Patch Kids

the war on drugs

Are you too old to superpoke?

Many factors, but most prominently the quickly impending day of my birth have got me wondering recently about outgrowing certain elements of our youth and how we know when that time has come. Not that twenty-eight is remotely "old" but it certainly is closer to the big three-zero than twenty-one. I have never considered myself an ahead of the curve hipster per say (hence the name of my blog, if you hadn't figured it out already), but I'd like to think I am fairly in touch with current pop culture, I blog, I have an iPhone and I watch the Daily Show. However, it seems lately that a lot of the things that once were a prominent part of my daily life I find I care less and less about and I have to wonder: is it because I am getting older?

Growing up in the MTV generation, it feels odd to outgrow my peer group's namesake, but MTV is just one of many things that I find no longer occupying the hemisphere of my general interests. In fact, television in general, something I literally grew up with, has recently become less relevant to my daily existence. I suppose it could be argued that, like our taste in food and drink, all our sensibilities in life are apt to change and "mature" over time, but for someone like myself, who has never really felt completely grown-up, knowing when that time to mature has come isn't always obvious. Facebook, for example like MTV, is certainly a youth oriented phenomenon and yet I don't feel out of place or compelled to shut down my account simply because I am one day closer to 30. How old is too old when it comes to social networking, is one of the questions raised in this Salon article.

All I know is if I hit 50 and I'm still super-poking, somebody please shoot me.

Satanic Chickens and Hitler

Just discovered this fantastic webcomic that I absolutely can't get enough of. More fun ways to procrastinate.

"You can register while pooping."

Am I the only one who finds this video relatively annoying (aside from a few hilarious lines from Sarah Silverman)? I guess celebrity activists just rub me the wrong way, but there is something nauseating about watching people, who essentially lie for a living, trying to be sincere about a serious cause. Yes, I get it, they're famous and people like celebrities, they look up to them and imitate them, so a celebrity endorsement of an issue, by definition, sheds light on that issue, but besides being a human spotlight why should I care about their opinions on the economy, the environment or politics. Just because you play the president on TV doesn't mean you know anything about running the country.