Ohhhh I'm on the bus, and the driver just called the cops, and they
bounced these guys off he bus for being drunk and loud. Adventure!

Sent from my iPhone

Pretty sure I just walked by a couple breaking up. Sitting on the
steps, guy looking earnest, girl crying...

Weird, the things that happen around us, hmm?

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Illusions! On topics of this blog!

Okay, everyone look at this. Thanks to How About Orange, some optical illusions that are fascinating. And guess what? The first one's about baseball, and the third one's about gender. I KNOW, right?!

On the gender one - look at the faces, and let me know what you think about the issue of makeup and femininity. (That word took me about five tries to spell correctly.)

Dating without judging?

I was struck by this comment on today's Harpyness post "Huh, So You're Gay Again?"

I feel like anyone who questions someone else’s sexuality just needs a big cool glass of mind your own beeswax. No one but you needs to “understand” who or why you date. Blah, the judginess of the world is getting on my last nerve this week.

I think because I read Jezebel's pro/con on More to Love, including this comment.

My bf always tells me that guys are just lying when they say they don't like bigger girls. They don't want to be "that guy" in their group of friends and be made fun of for not only being into skinny girls. He used to be that guy when he was younger, but now he just tells them that they don't know what they're missing.

Maybe the judginess of the world is also getting on my last nerve this week. Maybe I'm reading too many blogs. And definitely, that thing that happens to me whereby everything I hear seems to surround the same topic. ("Whereby"? Did that work?) But yes, let's allow people to date whomever they'd like to date. And let's NOT have a show about fat girls who, clearly, are all desperate to date - so it's a good thing they found the one guy who thinks they're attractive. Grrrr. (Also, "real women" is derogatory. There are lots of different ways to be a woman. Or a human being.)

Also, I need a tag for my hatred of Mr. Darcy.

If you like him, read this comic. If you hate him, read this one.

[FORMAL BLOG CORRECTION: I got too excited and am embarrassed to admit that the second comic is not, in fact, about Mr. Darcy at all. UNLESS THERE IS A HIDDEN MR. DARCY SUBTEXT. And I think there may be. Betsy would also like me to add that the Bronte sisters hated Jane Austen, or something? Whatever.]

Criticism and helpful advice.

I'm such a sucker for articles about something I already think about a lot. So in that vein, what to do with your laptop (or other stuff for that matter) when you're working at an internet cafe and have to go to the bathroom. Right?!

A headline that makes me giggle, for some reason - Pope Explains How to Help Jesus. Hehehehe. Like, "Listen, guys. Jesus needs our help. Let me lay it out for you, one more time." What does Jesus need from us right now? And why does the pope need to explain it in so much detail? The article's actually fine (about priests, though, which isn't clear from the headline), but I think the person who wrote the headline is the same person who writes the chapter headings on DVDs of The West Wing. (This might appeal to a very small percent of my readership, but seriously. They're strange, bad-punny, and often only tangentially related to the show. I mean, Aaron Sorkin isn't writing them.)

I'm thinking of switching to capital letters. That is, I'm thinking of being grammatically correct. It's the influence of iPhone auto-correct, I think. Big life change, after ten years or so of insisting on lowercase everything - what do you all think?

Bang Bang.

Overheard at a wedding: "I mean, I'm not happy Michael Jackson died,
but I have a new appreciation of his music!"

Also, just had a conversation with the bartender about how Love Shack
is the worst song ever. Want to know why I talk to strangers? Because
they agree with me, that's why.

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Not my own jokes, no.

I chewed a piece of Carefree sugarless gum and I was still worried.

(Listening to a lot of Mitch Hedberg with my brother.)

Also, I'm pretty good at tennis, but I'll never be as good as a wall.
A wall is relentless.

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Sorry?

One of my mom's friends, on why she doesn't watch Lost:
"It's so frustrating. It's like the game Sorry - you spend all this
time getting ahead, and then someone comes along and knocks you back
to the beginning."

Hear that, ABC? You're like everyone's little brother, in the 80s.

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Are Love And Hate On The Internet Just Love And Hate Of The Internet? - Online love - Jezebel

http://jezebel.com/5312027/are-love-and-hate-on-the-internet-just-love-and-hate-of-the-internet

My life since high school. Here, on the Internet.

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More MJ, overheard.

Dad, with baby: I'm going to dangle her over the railing in honor of
Michael Jackson, okay?
Mom: STOP talking about Michael Jackson.

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invisible knapsacks, MJ.

okay, i'm going to bed, but real fast - postbourgie on the lack of visible leadership in the gay community.

let's talk about straight privilege and how this is another thing i don't worry about. "oh, you're a straight person? you must be just like _______." [let's NOT talk about who i must be like because i'm catholic, though.]

postbourgie always makes me feal realreal uninformed, but in a good way. and then, as a bonus, they have jon stewart's rip on press coverage of michael jackson's death. worth a watch if you, like me, watched five hours of cnn at applebee's the next day. [what? just us, then?]

things babies like.

here's an interesting take on genderizing your baby, which i've blogged about before.

for the record, i'm still mad - and seriously considered getting a new girl babyfriend a "daddy's little helper" outfit [because who isn't?!] but decided that it's not really my place to make a statement about gender on behalf of my friends and their baby. i mean, with my own hypothetical baby, yes. with someone else's baby, maybe not.

but, if you'd like to de-gender your baby, anyone - i'll find you some yellow-green clothes if it's the last thing i do.

"we take this very serious."

grammar alert! [quoted by maureen dowd, who doesn't point it out because - she has already used every possible insult? it's too obvious to mention? she's trying subtlety for a change?]

As Palin’s spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, says, “The world is literally her oyster.”

i'm going to go ahead and link to this wonkette commenter, but feel free to make your own snarky one-liners at your leisure.

in which FRB has some delayed-action hope, then outrage, then feels vindicated.

[old news, guys, but i just got around to finishing and posting this draft.]

well, this is interesting.

Mostly, I feared that single value ethics about abortion, on either side of the debate, would result in a coarsening of our respect for both women and for life.

obviously, this isn't the end. but i've seen a lot of knee-jerk reactions on this. but hopefully, steps [and articles] like this one are good news, hmm? i still have no solutions, but i also don't know where the outrage is getting us - i'd like to see if maybe we can approach this issue with a lot more sensitivity [yes, this is a personal decision that people should be able to make] and a lot less pre-judgment [no, people on the other side of the issue aren't necessarily evil].

[and, this was a separate draft.]

i've heard so many complaints lately, guys. and now, a little parable about one of them.

i was in one of those social situations in which many people are my parents' peers [and in my hometown, too], and i never feel old enough to argue - even when they're talking about something i actually know about. [i don't know everything, but seriously, i do know about some things, and i don't need a lecture about, say, what TEACHING IS LIKE.] and then they got on the subject of how you can never call 800 numbers because the people are always from india. always a crowd pleaser, right? now, i can see where there are problems with outsourcing, but apparently the only thing these people had a problem with is that they're talking to someone from india. and isn't that just racism? right?

[those of you with long memories may recall my epic conversation with the dell man who chatted with me about the friends episode i was watching and tried to convince me to vacation in manila, and those of you who were in the faculty room at the time may remember the nice woman who gave me a free replacement phone even though it was out of warranty. so, for the record, i have some pro-outsourced-800-number bias.]

so then, since my life is a movie, i was looking for directions to the rental car place a few days later and saw a yelp review [in my google results] that said, "do NOT call their customer service number! i ALWAYS get someone in india." then i got lost on the way to the rental car place. so, despite my pro-indian-call-center outrage, i was disappointed to find the toll-free number was the only contact number i could find. sigh.

so, i talked to the nice man in india - who answered right away and gave me very clear and appropriate directions. "no, ma'am, i believe you should have taken exit 4B. just follow the signs for rental car return..." wait. what were people's complaints about this, again? because that was exactly what i needed.

i think that's india three, judgy people zero.

and, this one's especially for my lunch friends - if i can't be the prophetic voice, hopefully i can be a little more understanding.