May 2003 Archives

WNBA season has started. I'm keeping an eye on my favorite team, the Minnesota Lynx. They're predicted to be the Worst Team in the West. But that's okay because my hometown team (the Detroit Shock) is predicted to be the Worst Team in the East.

Michelle Van Gorp, a center for Minnesota, is from the Detroit area, and I'm positive I played against her at least once in high school. I'm pretty sure we lost that game, too. That girl is huge. I'm glad to see she made it - warning: launching into completely uninteresting Detroit-area high school girls basketball tidbit - unlike two other people I can think of who transferred so they could have the advantage of playing at larger schools. I had a whole thing about the players and schools involved, but it could not be less interesting, so I took it out. I was gonna throw a name out, because I bet somebody would even know one of them, but Google scares me, so I'm not gonna.

On a side note, I'm irritated that ESPN.com's game update for the WNBA doesn't auto refresh like it does for the NBA, the NHL, the NFL, you get the picture.

UPDATE: Minnesota won!

Mel beat me to it (we have the same sources, you see), but these words of wisdom must be shared.

I thought about invasion of the body snatchers but nobody would want her body or snatch.

--Tea, on her boss aka The Cow

I mentioned before that Dean Esmay started a discussion regarding gays and Christians and whether or not they can accept/tolerate each other. He's revisiting the issue and currently the discussion is open to gay people and Christians only (meaning you must be one or the other or *gasp* both). I even got quoted. How crazy is this?

Even if you are precluded from the conversation, it's interesting reading so far, if a tad frustrating. The discussion should be opened up to the general public after a bit, so if you want to hop in on it, write it down and save it for later. Or write it here. Or if you just want to give me some moral support, you could do that, too.

UPDATE: I wasn't going to admit here that I was really tense and worked up over this whole thing while there was a chance that someone from over there might come over here and think me weak (or more weak than they already seem to think I am based on the discussion, or more weak than they may think I am based on the above posts on women's basketball and snatch). I've been accused of not knowing what I'm talking about. I've been accused of being intolerant. I've been accused of being inconsistent. I've been accused of switching my argument around to suit my purpose. I've been accused of using straw man tactics (I had to go look that up).

But now I've got a nice refreshing glass of water with a splash of lemon juice, I'm sitting next to the open window, a cool breeze is coming in, I can hear the rain falling outside, and I'm wearing my favorite pajama pants. I feel so much better, and I don't give two shits anymore.

So far, I haven't developed a better understanding of anyone's viewpoint, and I don't think anyone has developed a better understanding of mine. Nobody appears to have changed their mind on anything. I do, however, have a better understanding of how the issue is framed, or rather, what the issues actually are. So in that sense, I guess the mission has been accomplished.

All the cool kids were watching the premier of The Amazing Race 4 tonight. My random thoughts are as follows.

I'm so excited that they have this running over the summer. Something new and interesting to watch.

Teams I Already Hate: The air traffic controllers/we're old fat men (his buddy couldn't help him down the mountain at all? and being an air traffic controller doesn't get you ON the plane any sooner). The models (sure, let's stop for coffee in the middle of this race).

Teams I Only Dislike So Far: Cindy/Russell (the bickering sexually tense non-couple). The NFL wives (going for the Fast Forward in the first fucking round? you suck!). Kelly/Jon from Miami (engaged and feisty!).

I don't particularly like anyone yet. But I love that South Dakota girl has a foul mouth. Now how did David/Jeff finish the detour? They never showed that. I was sure Phil was gonna have to sit them down and tell them they didn't do it right and had to go back. I thought the gay boys would do better. Or maybe I just wanted them to do better. How could they have such trouble getting to the airport in their own city?

Tune in to Television Without Pity for more (eventually).

By now many of us have already heard of Jane Juska, the lady who, at 67, placed a personal ad saying she wanted to have a lot of sex, and later wrote a book about it.

What actually caught my eye about this Salon article about her was that I know a guy who works in the hotel bar in San Francisco (the Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel) where the interview takes place.

*A Couzens Hall program from 1996 which I may still have a flyer from.

A new Nielsen/Netratings study shows that porn and music are driving European's desire for broadband internet access. If there were a way to consume food via the internet, the trifecta would be complete.

(via Mike Wendland's E-Journal)

In the couple of weeks since I last checked Friendster, my personal network has grown from about 100 to about 1000 4000 people. Of course most of those folks are about 4 degrees out, so I don't actually know them or anything. And you should totally add me. Email me. We'll talk.

I've also decided that New Yorkers scare me. It takes a whole different kind of person to live there and I am totally not that person. I don't think. I've never tried living there, so I guess I couldn't say for sure.

I haven't shopped off the wishlist for my solstice gift to myself, but I decided to combine the Slurpee run with the trip to Best Buy that I didn't make yesterday. I decided to get the Slurpee first but of course they had icky flavors and the best flavor was totally over-aerated and the second-best flavor was not even frozen and I blew off the top* trying to eke out some over-aerated stuff and got stickiness all over the cup and my hands and of course a quick search of the slurpee, coffee, donut, and hot dog areas turned up no napkins. What a waste of $0.94.

Then I had to drive with sticky hands (so digging in the heels of my hands and attempting to steer with my wrists).

And then there was an unexpected detour. MDOT could be a little more forthcoming with the road signs. Putting up one barricade that says that a bridge is closed is really not sufficient. Just because a bridge is closed somewhere in That General Direction doesn't necessarily mean the road is completely closed. I'm sure those folks were darned sick and tired of people turning around in the entrance to their froofy subdivision. After turning around and going another way, I discovered signs for a detour which I'm sure was not marked at the intersection I originally came from.

But I got to Best Buy and not only was Maroon 5 on sale for $7.99, so was Jason Mraz so of course I had to get both. If I end up not liking Jason Mraz, he's going up on half.com.

*Everybody knows that you're supposed to put the top on first and then fill the cup, not fill the cup and then put on the top, right?

I hear it's absolutely gorgeous outside. I should probably go look into that. I put shorts on! Definitely a Slurpee day.

*kicks heels up*

If you don't already read Rossi, you should. She's a professional writer and she owns/operates a catering business in NYC. Her writings on September 11 are unbelievable and her day to day stuff is great, too.

If you need added incentive to read, Rossi has decided to self-publish some of her already-written stuff. The first Memoirable is up this week.

I'm mostly posting this so I'll remember that this is coming up....

Taste of Ann Arbor is this Sunday, June 1. I've never been, but I imagine it's like the Art Fair, only a little less crowded and a lot better food.

And while we're talking about Tastes, this year's Detroit Comerica Tastefest is July 2-6. The last time I went was 5 years ago and I scored tickets to the hospitality tent with free beer and malt beverages. Good times.

Carla and I decided that the pending summer solstice is a good enough reason to purchase Amazon wishlist items for yourself.

If you were looking for an excuse to purchase something off your wishlist (or anywhere else, for that matter), you should really go now, so you can have your new item in time to enjoy it on solstice. Because shipping could take longer than expected, ya know? And some items may need time to be broken in, so you can enjoy them at full capacity on solstice.

Go! Scoot! Shop!

Now that I think I'll have all of my random traveling out of the way in the next couple of weeks, I'm 'bout ready to get a meantime-in-between-time job.

Up until now, I've managed to get by without having to work, hoping that I'd get another real job soon enough. But that's not looking to be the case. I've been in a bit of denial, I suppose, about the likelihood of getting the job that I want. I don't know if it's the economy, or if it's just me, or what. Having no dependents to care for or major bills to pay (except for the car) has magnified my not-so-hidden lazy tendencies. I'd rather not even think about it as I'll probably just end up dwelling on the fact that I feel like a big failure.

Part of the reason why I held out for so long on looking for a temporary job is because I thought that not having to do that would keep this period of unemployment on my terms. I left because I wanted to and now I'm going to do something else because I want to. I didn't want to still be not working. I didn't want to have to "settle" for something.

So I'll continue to scrape the barrel for enginerd jobs and go back to my old employer on my knees. But I'll be sitting on my ass making a smidgen of money rather than sitting on my ass spending up the rest of what I've saved. I've been exploring some opportunities that will hopefully bring in some decent pay. Better pay than I would make working at Starbucks or something. I won't have to think too hard. It'll get me back in that 9 to 5 8:30 to 5:30 groove. More on that as the situation develops.

I'm not ready to make that "working for myself" leap. It sounds good in principle, but my heart's just not in it. Or rather, I'm too scared to try and make it work. And I don't really have extra cash to be putting up for it.

Dude, this sucks.

I just found out my dumb ass totally messed up my archive page with a careless cut and paste (and this happened, like a week ago, oops), so I've been reconstructing this bitch. This page full of stuff that nobody gives two shits about, like my mp3s and all the desktops I used to have. You know what, I just made an executive decision. I'm not putting the desktops back up. The current one only (and a desktop-sized one for sharing) stays on the main page and that's it. Fuck it, muthafucka. I'm having a piece of candy.

On a brighter note, I got myself a copy of Cameltoe! It's so delightfully old school. If I don't get busted by The Man, it'll be available for sharing over there amongst the mumbo jumbo to the right until I feel like taking it down, and on the archive page after that.

I feel sort of bad that I didn't post a little "Lest We Forget" message here, but I guess I'm just a bad American. I spent the entirety of the day (and I do mean entirety - 11 consecutive episodes with only an 80-minute dinner break) with my ass on the couch watching Trading Spaces. As my sister pointed out, it was a little strange for her to be entertaining me in her home, but it was all good. She's growing up and shit. A nice parent-free time.

On a semi-related note, it cracks me up that an unofficial Trading Spaces fan site is named No Ceiling Fans.

According to the weekend circular, Maroon 5's album, Songs About Jane, is only $7.99 (plus tax) at Best Buy. I'm going tomorrow today. I was flipping through their tour info and they've scheduled shows with the likes of John Mayer, Counting Crows, Guster, and Jason Mraz. Bingo! Add me to the mailing list.

BTW, Buzz, I did the 100 things and it even has its own button somewhere over in that mumbo jumbo to the right.

Which brings me to the fact that I've only had this "look" for a very short time, and already I want to change it. We'll be seein' about that. I got it to validate. I feel invincible.

I want to pet it.

(note double entendre)

I don't know what makes me think I can contribute anything to the kinds of discussions that take place over at Dean's World, but I've jumped in on a couple things, the latest being a discussion of Gay Christians. Dean wonders why most Christians seem to be more accepting of gay people than gay people are of Christians. After many many comments and a few ruffled feathers, this is the comment I finally made (trying my best to stick to Dean's original question and stay out of the particulars of church history):

Since the last time I mentioned Neighborhoodies, they've redesigned their website. And upped the prices. I keep getting hits looking for a "neighborhoodies coupon" which I did not know existed. But my sister turned up one such coupon just today. So, if you're ordering a Neighborhoodie, type in "luckymag" upon checkout and get 20% off!

Annika missed the cut for the second round. I'll give her props for getting me remotely interested. I might have to keep up with her from now on.

Both Salon and the NY Times have articles about a song called Cameltoe by a group called Fannypack.

*snicker*

There are apparently a lot of NYC radio listeners that don't know what a cameltoe is. The single will be officially released on June 3 and the album - So Stylistic - comes out in July.

Thanks for all the comments. Heh. Must remember to stop drinking at about 8:00 at night. I've got a little lemon juice in the water today. I hear that's supposed to help me not retain so much (?). And it tastes much better. Must resist urge to add sugar. I have hope. It's supposed to rain this afternoon/evening. I wonder if this will help or hinder the process.

Had a blogger dream again last night (this morning, actually). It wasn't a particularly strange dream, but it very closely paralleled a conversation I had yesterday which was strange, like I projected that or something.

Goals/plans for today: shower, get dressed, get to Ann Arbor, drop some stuff in the mail, keep an eye on Annika Sorenstam, give up all hope for the Pistons, watch some Xena eps on DVD, read at least one magazine, drink that water, maybe treat myself to dinner at Potbelly, maybe play with the layout 'round hyeah some more.

Me: Still peeing. And I'm shedding. Not hair. My uterine lining. In case you wanted to know.

Sports: Annika Sorenstam did alright! It's French Open time (almost, it starts Monday). Pistons play tonight. Not looking forward to it. And I do not give two shits about Lebron James (or his Nike deal either).

Science: There is a picture of Earth taken from Mars.

News: There is an FCC vote coming up on June 2 which could result in relaxed restrictions on media ownership and thus more media outlets being owned by the same few companies. No coincidence that you probably haven't heard it on tv. Visit MoveOn.org to let your congressperson know that you oppose media deregulation.

Me Again: Ooh! I spy crack snacks on the counter....

Need style/layout ideas? Everytime you refresh StrangeBanana, a new one comes up. If you like it, save it before you refresh, because you'll probably never see it again. It looks to be table-free (meaning it's all CSS), too. (via thoughts interrupted)

I've decided I should try this whole drinking more water thing again. They say that after a couple of days of constant peeing that you become more accustomed to it, but I've never stuck with it long enough to get to that point. I already don't eat much solid food (last night's steak fries nastiness was a special occasion) on account of my Slim-Fasting, so I'm wary of adding even more liquids. No I'm not. I just don't enjoy drinking water for the sake of drinking water. Much like I don't enjoy exercising for the sake of exercising. Except forcing myself to drink water is a lot easier than forcing myself to exercise. I'm such a bum. So far I've had two 12-oz glasses in about 90 minutes and I've been to the bathroom 4 times. Strangely, I'm thirstier now than I was before I started drinking.

I haven't watched the of last night's American Idol tape yet, but I know Ruuuuuben won. Go 'head witchya big self, boy! I'm glad he won despite my vote for Clay. What I don't get is why they get to release their singles on the same day. I sure hope Ruben's actually getting something extra for winning. I think he gets an extra million dollars? And it cracks me up that the AP article describes Clay (whom I shall henceforth refer to as clay.d. lang) as "thistle-headed."

I'm hella mad that they're kicking everyone off The Practice. They couldn't just ask some folks to take a pay cut or something? I like all the people that are left, but it's just not gonna be the same. I'd rather see it end this season than watch it limp along next season without half the cast.

Golf bores me to tears, but I want Annika Sorenstam to kick some ass. I don't even care if she doesn't win. I just want her to qualify, and basically play as well as the average guy out there.

Dinner out was so nice! Everyone made it. I was thinking that we wouldn't be able to suitably accommodate everyone's time and geography needs, but it worked out fine. Everyone got caught up on everyone else (those present and otherwise). These are all friends from college, by the way. We all met because we were studying similarly-themed majors, and it's so interesting to see the variety of jobs that everyone ended up in. Times like this I really miss college, but I like seeing and hearing about everyone doing their own thing, too. I had a strange moment where I was thinking "this is what it's like to be a grownup!" I forget what we were talking about, but trust me, it was deep. So deep that I can't remember it.

The beer* was good. The food was ... actually the food was passable. I didn't order the right thing (salmon wrap - it was dry - and I'm not a fan of steak fries). Wednesdays are $5 growlers, if you're interested.

*The flash version of that website has some kickass music and I'm trying to figure out what the hell it is.

Who the fuck looks for this?

There's a group of us trying to get together tonight (I'm even giving up American Idol for this shit). Nobody spoke up and said "let's meet here at this time" so I took it upon myself to do so. And now This Person, who for some reason will only communicate with That Person, has all kinds of restrictions, which she neglected to state before and which are of course contradictory to the plan I picked that works fine for everybody else. If This Person wants to be a homebody and can't stay out late and doesn't want to go far from home and thus wants to make everyone come to you, fine. Just say so upfront instead of making everybody guess.

85% of the time when I try to take charge of a situation this happens to me. And now, based on the vibe I'm getting, I almost don't even want to go. Whateva. I'm sure once I get there it'll be fine. It fucking better be since I'm skipping American Idol for it.

UPDATE: Okay, I need to not go off half-cocked so quickly. All is resolved. No big whoop. This is the second time I've done this in a week. I sowwy.

I really hope this is an unfortunate accident: Explosion Hits Yale University Law School.

I for sure will be vacating the house for the next two days. And I have a good reason to do so, not just "I'm going to wherever to hang out because it's not here." And to top it all off, one little fucker peed all over himself, standing in front of the toilet (in his shoes, on the rug, left a big ol' puddle on the bathroom floor, and now his dumbass dad is here, like father like son). I promise to find something else to complain about soon.

It's damn chillly today, even though the sun's out. How was that?

...another Terry the Terror Clam bit on Jimmy Kimmel. Yes!

I'm so unsatisfied. Mel said there would be loose ends, and there are! Obviously some questions have to be left unanswered so there's something to talk about next season, but still!

What's happening to Sherry? What's happening to Marie Warner? Why did I think she was dead? Why did she look like someone straight out of X-Files while sitting in that fancypants holding cell? What did she mean by "you think you're safe out there, but you're not"? Is Lynne Kresge okay? What's going to happen with Carrie? Are they gonna put the smack down on her for general bitchery and is someone gonna do something to Ryan Chappelle for his general dickery? I knew that chick was gonna put some kind of disease on David's hand, but what was that skin thing she took off her hand? I thought she had just taken a fingerprint or something. When are Michelle and Tony gonna hook up? I guess they need to take some showers first and Tony needs to R.I.C.E. that ankle. Is Peter Kingsley really dead?

I'm glad Mike Novick got fired, fucker that he is. I guess you couldn't really have the VP and half the cabinet resign, especially if the public has no idea what's going on.

I was a little let down. But I can't wait for next season!

UPDATE: Mel has some of the same questions as I do.

If we're just basing our votes on tonight's performances, I'm gonna have to dial 866-IDOLS-02 and vote for Clay "I'm Achin' for" Aiken. Except I can't make myself vote for Clay, but I can't in good conscience vote for Ruben because I really think Clay did better today. So I'm not voting. Maybe. I've still got 90 minutes to decide.

Ruben was good, but not great. Out of his three songs, I liked Imagine the best (and I hate that song). The gospel choir was a nice touch, but I felt he was a little lost in there. He looks so nice when he dresses up; why couldn't he do that all along?

Clay had the far better song choices. Bridge Over Troubled Water blew me away. And what was that "original song" he sang first? That was awesome, too. But the campfire ghost story lighting on his second song was odd.

Seems like a lot of folks are not feeling so hot lately. Y'all get better now, ya hear?

Now that that validation bit is taken care of, I'm off to learn me some Photoshop. I have buttons I want to make. As usual, Webmonkey has everything I need to know.

I thought I was gonna have a daycare kid-free day, but alas, it was not to be. I can see I'm going to have to remove myself from the house and turn the cell phone off if I want this to happen. It's 5:30... where are their parents?

My chin escaped yesterday's popcorn feeding frenzy unscathed. If you must know, I couldn't tear myself away from the computer, so in the interest of keeping my fingers clean, I just stuck my whole face in the bowl. Popcorn sticks to your tongue.

I hate that all the best airline and travel packages are based on having 2 people in your party.

Don't ask me how I know that I can eat an entire bowl of popcorn (parmesan cheese and all) without hands. If my chin breaks out tomorrow, it's pure coincidence.

I feel very strongly that life could be a lot easier if it were socially acceptable to respond to things with the appropriate sports cheer. Okay, maybe not easier, but more satisfying for me.

Basically, these are variations on a "you suck" theme. Sometimes it's okay to tell someone that they suck, but when you do it in a rhythmic fashion with hand motions or percussion, sometimes folks just don't get it. In fact, I sometimes want to carry a cowbell and drumstick with me, because you never know when you'll need it, much like the digital camera.

Por ejemplo, look back on the recent post entitled "Who cares?" When I wrote that, I was totally picturing Michigan Stadium, some newspapers, and the announcing of the opposing teams starting lineup.

I also wish that everyone would know their Margaret Cho so you won't look at me funny whenever I yell "STICK IT IN!"

Continuing in the vein of my wanting to do little work for more money, I've finally found the perfect word to describe my spiritual state: Apatheism! "Apatheism concerns not what you believe but how." It's "a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people's."

That is totally it. I just don't care.

(from Dave)

I called the recruiter that presented me for the kick-ass job that I really hope I get. She said that she got confirmation of receipt of my resume, but hasn't heard anything further and it could be a few days or a week or who knows but if she hasn't heard from them by Wednesday she'll give them a call. I think that's her standard line. She sounded a little put out on the phone. Not sure what the deal is. I've decided I don't like calling her office. Her name is FirstName LastName. Her company is FirstInitial LastName. Every time I've called, a similar-sounding voice has answered, but sometimes it's actually her, and sometimes it's someone else, and I can't tell if they're saying her name or the company name, so I quit assuming and just ask for her by name. Whateva.

I sent some emails to some ex-boss and mentor-types from Previous Employer today. I've been keeping up communication with them since I left, but this is the first time I've specifically asked them about coming back to the company, so I'm nervous to see what they have to say. Like, really nervous. At this point, I'm ready to get down on my knees and beg them to just hire me back in at entry-level. I'd be a bargain. I've even given up all my vesting so they can put off giving me that extra week of vacation even longer.

Ari Fleischer is stepping down as White House press secretary, but more importantly, Adam Felber has coverage of the press conference.

Students Walk Out On Santorum Graduation Speech

More than 100 of the 800 graduating students at Saint Joseph's University walked out before the Jesuit school presented Sen. Rick Santorum with an honorary degree Sunday.

I am one stupid scratchafrickin' [noscript] tag away from validating in XHTML (this page, not the archives or anything else yet) and I cannot fucking figure it out. Some bullshit about it's a block element and an inline element, so you have to finagle something or other to get it to work right. And I'm sure it works just fine. It just doesn't validate. Why won't you validate?

I could just ditch the Sitemeter altogether. And don't mind me while I fuck around with the columns some more. I only even did this because I wanted to put those buttons with the checkmarks on my page. They looked so purty. I need to take these damn pants off.

UPDATE: I got it! I got it! I had the whole Sitemeter code bit inside some [p] [/p] tags so I just took it out and voila! I bet it's because I took off my pants.

I kind of want to apply for this AV tech job at the Detroit Historical Museum. I'm a little overqualified for it. It'd be a piece of cake.

I was just commenting today that a guy I know is not at all interested in finishing his engineering degree because he's always looking to get by as easily as possible - which is exactly what he's doing now by working for his brother - and he wouldn't want to do that job anymore anyway.

Now that I think about it, that's totally what I want. I guess that's what we all want, ultimately. To make some money without having to think too hard. I'm not trying to make a career out of schlepping projectors and VCRs around, nor am I expecting to rescue my credit with it, but it'd pay the bills for now and it'd be a neat place to work.

Why can't she make it easier on me and quit fucking calling? I got a message yesterday from the ex-wasn't-ever-really-my-girlfriend. She apologized for not calling me on my birthday because her cell phone had been shipped off to be repaired and she didn't have my number anywhere else. She's gonna be in town for 10 days in June and wants to get together and for sure wants to go to Dominick's (home of the Best Sangria Ever). And on top of all that, she sounded all happy and cheerful and shit. I haven't talked to her since I visited her in Vancouver last September. I thought it was perfectly obvious why (because she was a bitch and neither of us enjoyed each other's company). I never called her back at Christmas. I never called her back the one time she called in February. Now I have to again go through the agony of deciding whether or not to return her call. Shit shit shit. I do have one thing going for me, and that's that she doesn't know for sure if I'm still in Michigan or not. She could ask one person and find out, though. Let's hope she forgets to ask him. Although I did indicate to him that I'm not so tight with her anymore, so maybe he'll play it cool. For all he knows, I could have moved in the 2 weeks since I talked to him last, right? Ugh.

I was pretty peeved when I got home last night, so I shot off a phone call and an email hoping that would make me feel better. It sort of did. I wanted to blog it. I opted not to, but the ambivalence over that decision keyed me up even more. Eventually I went to bed and woke up refreshed except that the phone call I made while mad last night was returned asking "what happened?" and I got all mad again. But I'm over it.

My other friend who's difficult to have conversations with called me back today, too. Thankfully, that was a relatively short ordeal.

My poor Pistons just lost to the Nets. (Damn you, Jason Kidd! *shakes fist*) The draining tension has left me about as limp as I am after watching an episode of 24. Which reminds me I still need to watch last week's ep, but after that basketball game I can't handle it right now.

I had contemplated all these out of town trips for Memorial Day weekend. I waited too long on CA. I passed on FL. I was still thinking about Minneapolis. But then my sister informed me that there will be a Trading Spaces marathon on, so to Lansing I will go. Looks like I'm pushing Minneapolis into June.

My mom wants to treat me for helping her out so much last week, so I'm thinking dinner in Mexicantown is in order. :9

Damn, that Cher show was good! I knew it would be, but damn! It's a little hard to enjoy the show when nobody around you seems to be the Jump Shake Your Booty type, but I chair-danced, so it was cool. That woman can remix a song like nobody's bidness.

The thing about this show is that it's a show. It's not just someone sitting there standing playing their music with some flashing lights. It's a whole production. Lots of costumes. All the old stuff and the new stuff. Some video that complemented the live action very well. She left out at least one song that I remember hearing last time, but I'm sure there was an different one that wasn't there before. Definitely one of the best concerts I've ever seen (rivaled only by Janet Jackson's All 4 You tour, and they're both good for all the same reasons). I'm SO pissed that I forgot to take my camera.

It was also very cool to be downtown and see so many people around. That makes me feel good and gives me some hope for Detroit. There was some kind of art fair and some jazz music going on in Greektown. There was some kind of country music something or other that involved a carnival going on around Hart Plaza. With all that and the concert going on, there was a ton of foot traffic, or more than I've seen anyway, not counting Red Wing celebratory events or maybe TasteFest. I got lots of compliments on my 313 t-shirt. I hoofed it from Greektown to Joe Louis Arena and I was even more mad I didn't have my camera because it was nice out and I realized that I don't have any personal documentation of all this stuff I see on the news all the time. I might pick a day and go down there again just to do that. And I'm all about free parking at the casinos.

Cher is tonight! Cher is tonight! Cher is tonight!*

In honor of Cher tonight, it is All Cher All Day on the iTunes jukebox (which can be seen waaaay down and on the right there). When it's not playing on iTunes, it's playing in my car.

*Please excuse the recent trend of three-peating and bolding sentences.

Not only did The View win a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show...

PISTONS WON! PISTONS WON! PISTONS WON! They're going to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 1991 (Hammertime!) Hoo-ah.

Sorry, Buzz and Buddha.

AP photo courtesy of ESPN

Well this sucks. On the bright side, it narrows down my viable options.

In other news, the sun's out! I feel better now. Almost good enough to go to the bar to watch the Pistons game. But maybe just good enough to go get a sandwich and a pickle.

I don't have jackshit to say today. It's gloomy out and my mood has gone accordingly. I'm feeling badly about leaving all of yesterday's hissyfit in plain view, so here's some filler.

I want to stay home tonight and watch the Pistons-Sixers game. I've been talking a bit of smack here and there, so it would really be better for everyone if they would go on and win tonight in Philly. I want to watch the Daytime Emmys tonight, too, but only to see if The View wins anything. I don't care about the soaps (but I will secretly root for all CBS soaps because that's what my mom watches and I used to watch them). I said the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever said to my sister on the phone last night. We were talking about how Star Jones totally name drops in a Carson Daly kind of way and how Star could never be as cool as Oprah but she wishes she were. And I said "If I were famous, I would purposely not invite [Star] to anything." Take that, Star Jones (who uses a skinnier foot-double in her Payless ShoeSource commercials).

I want to put warm fuzzy clothes on and completely waste the cute-but-casual outfit I put on this morning. Here's a secret: if I don't get it dirty or sweaty, I may just wear it again tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the Cher concert. The 3rd Detroit stop on the "farewell" tour and my 2nd time seeing it (the first being when she kicked off the tour in Detroit a year ago). At Joe Louis Arena, no less. Did I even know that they had non-hockey events there? I guess I did. I've never been to one. It's not that big of a venue. I'm having a hard time getting excited about it, but I'm sure that will all change tomorrow.

I'm antsy because the recruiter has no word back yet from the super-awesome job that I might get to interview for maybe.

My new project is to see if I can get this site to validate in all the right places. "We'll see about that," it's telling me.

I took a nap. No more sleepiness equals no more grumpiness. And mom really does feel bad. I told her in the grand scheme of things it's more important for her to sell this $380,000 house than for me to see this movie.

I was supposed to go see Matrix Reloaded this afternoon, but my mom fucked that all up.

Let's review: Woke me up at 9:00 saying "I need your help this morning." Spent the next 90 minutes saying "I've been making phone calls so maybe I won't have to go" while I grumpily seeth, drink coffee, and go about my normal websurfing routine. At 11:30 says "I have to leave now for an entirely different reason." Leaves for this entirely different reason which is supposed to only take 2 hours. Calls back 3 hours later saying "I have to run some more personal errands completely unrelated to the errand for which I left you doing my job, and then I'll be back." Arrives back home at the exact time I'm supposed to be arriving in Ann Arbor.

Why I'm a Bad Daughter: I didn't trust myself to mention that I had plans without being petulant, so I faked a cell phone conversation saying things like, "yeah, I'm not gonna make it" and "no, even if I left now I couldn't" and "thanks, but I'll just catch you guys next time." My mom asks, I say I was supposed to see a movie, and she feels appropriately badly. She says I should have mentioned it (I know I should have). I say "you said you'd only be 2 hours so I didn't think it was gonna be a problem." (Which I didn't. I mean, who needs 4 hours to show one house? Oh, wait, Erica's at home so I can go on into the office and do whatever and I don't need to let her know or anything.) And now she's trying to tell me all about this house and I just can't find it in me to care. I've asked a few halfhearted questions and claimed sleepiness (which is not untrue).

I'm irritated. But I feel guilty for being bad. But I'm still really fucking irritated. And this is all so stupid and petty. But I'm fucking sleepy and irritated.

It's not that I resent that my mom needs to go into the office again today to work with a client. It's not that I resent helping her out at home while she tries to a) kickstart her new career and b) earn some more money. It's that after several nights of going to bed early-ish, I stayed up until 4 or so this morning and my mom knocked on my door at 9:00 and said she needed me to help her out this morning and I'm fucking sleepy as hell. Not to mention that now that I've been up for 45 minutes it doesn't look like she's leaving for at least another 45 minutes. And nobody ran the dishwasher last night so I had to pull an old stanky spoon out and wash it so I could make coffee.

I'm pretty sure that when she woke me up I was in the middle of a dream involving me being in Boston with Kimberley and we were going up an elevator in a really tall building and I was freaking out about how high up it was, a tall-building phenomenon I've only experienced since 9-11. So laying in bed half-scared and half-pissed for 15 minutes before getting up has done nothing for my demeanor. And. After all that, Star is doing her fantasy wedding on The View today and I don't want to miss it!

Woe is me.