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.)

serious internet roundup. or not.

lexy: you slept with george?! [death glare from christina] oh, no talking unless it's medical.
[meredith walks away]
lexy: so, medically, meredith and george had... sexual... intercourse?

hahahaha. my students also like to say "intercourse" when they're trying to be polite and classy. as in, when they want to be class-appropriate. but when have i EVER used that word? seriously. and did everyone know that outercourse is a thing?

wait, no. this was supposed to be a things that happened on the internet roundup. let's see...
baseball commentary is sexist. oh yeah?
michelle obama is classy. and i know someone who knows someone who met her yesterday. I'M JUST SAYIN.
related - it's possible our president is the cutest president in history.
it's iced coffee weather. hellz yeah it is.
advice for young feminists looking for jobs - or for young d0-gooders, i think.
worth noting that i've seen a lot of inspirational catholic vote videos, but i didn't see this one coming.
subways, worldwide, drawn to scale - this is FANTASTIC. worth a click. i don't know why i find it so awesome, but i do.

but, most importantly - the little mermaid came out 20 years ago. is it a coincidence that i just made a little mermaid reference this week? or do i just love it that much? right. and try this quotation, guys, it's often useful - "isn't it obvious, daddy? ariel's in loooove."

things that happened on the internet while i was on retreat with my students.

well, the main thing that happened was that kirsten sent me a lot of emails about important things i missed on the internet.

:)

kelly kapour has a blog [and a real name and personality] and it is awesome. it's what i wish this blog sounded like, only without the fashion and coolness. also, there's something about the format that i don't like. but i'm going to go ahead and say it's THE BEST BLOG I'VE EVER READ. there, i said it. like kelly kapour, i am edgy. ["today you read some really edgy stuff here on my blog."]

gawker wants to tell us about a self-proclaimed blogworthy product and then ironicalize about it. the word "ironicalize" is totally necessary, and that's totally what they're doing. count it!

my [nerdy and font-loving] friends all want to find out what fonts we are. so far, no one is satisfied with the results. i was all excited about it because it's all PBS and has nice graphics, but NO. i am not uglyfont party itc, and your descriptions are mean, font quiz.

this just in: teachers like to drink, but you need to find the right bar.

heard about this blog, that's now dead, but has a nicely poignant last post.

i dunno, you could put a beard on a picture of yourself for a good cause.

slog has a list of blogfriends and a list of blogenemies. nicely done. do i have enough enemies for that? they also have a nice "let's blog 5,000 times a day" policy.

i need to get this out - i'm annoyed by web addresses that make no sense. especially ones that have a lot of question marks and random numbers in them. youtube is just okay, because at least it's short. nytimes and gawker and jezebel and those guys have posts that have the name in them, which is nice. but i'm really oddly attracted by bartleby's number/number thing.

http://www.bartleby.com/142/180.html

see, wasn't that nice?

wings = hope.

"sure they're messy, but so is democracy."

commonweal again, i know. but it's good. kaveny is brilliant and LOVES colbert.

this is like the rant i have about huck finn being the great american novel. it's a mess. it's a story about thinking your prejudices are right, and then being transformed - almost. it ends unrealistically happily, and as the reader you're like, "wait, that would never happen. nothing's that good." but we're trying...

yup, just in time for the super bowl. and all this talk about whether we like the super bowl [actually, kind of a sweet piece about sports and family, and even baseball] makes me think of a time we all sat down to watch the super bowl with a huuuuge bowl of delicious snack mix. the snack mix was gone before the first quarter was over - at which point my little brother [age 3] goes, "what happened to the SUPER BOWL?!"

priorities in order, folks. stay tuned for my favorite commercials as i root against the steelers.

jezebel keeps making my computer freeze up. WTF, jezebel and your multimedia.

"the pamchenko? no way. it's too dangerous!"

someone recently asked me how often i blog. well. the answer, apparently, is that it depends on the week. so, some thoughts while i sit on the couch, watching the cutting edge. interspersed with thoughts about the movie.

first of all, how creepy is the dad in this movie? "excuse me, honey, while i pressure you and demean you and take charge of your entire life." and how blatant is the sexual innuendo? and how much of it totally passed me by when i first saw this at age ten?

TWO of my former congressmen are now working for obama. clearly, he loves me. big week big week - and i had one of those nostalgic experiences watching the inauguration on a fuzzy tv in the campus ministry office, then running down to class to listen to the rest of it on the radio. [remember the radio?] then we did this lesson from teaching tolerance about inaugural prayer. [click through for a pdf of inaugural pray-ers in history, too.]

i love that part of the movie on new year's eve when they're about to kiss, and you know it because there are SPARKLERS in between their faces. hahahahahahaha. i also love when they kiss at the end of their routine at the end. why don't we see more of that at the olympics?!

my favorite sean casey is retiring! to work for the MLB network! whoa.

no doubt, my favorite part of this movie is the part where she takes the tequila shots. i think of this literally [yes, LITERALLY] every time i take tequila shots. mostly because the first time i saw it i was like, what the hell is she doing? and why is she wearing sunglasses the next day?

a quick search reveals that i blog about misuse of the word literally all the time. seriously. [if anyone's counting, i use "seriously" much more than "literally." what, you don't spend as much time searching my blog as i do? silly.]

new under "things i like" - passive-agressive notes and the flickr page on pointless road signs. this one is definitely my favorite.

toepick!

"so you agree? you think you're really pretty?"

really liked this jezebel post about how to respond to a compliment. i, personally, prefer the enthusiastic thank you with unnecessary details. por ejemplo, in a recent conversation about my new earrings - "THANKS! they were a dollar. at the target dollar spot! you know, right when you walk in the door? i bet they're still there. you should TOTALLY GET THEM."

i once had a conversation with a guy about sports. i mean, about talking about sports. i don't remember what the conversation was about initially, but i suspect that i was worried about guys who don't like sports. especially in the particular corner of middle america where i was living at the time - how must that feel when someone mentions a sports statistic or piece of news that you're totally supposed to know, and you can't respond? girls tend to be able to laugh it off. you know. double standard.

but anyway, the guy i was talking to said that talking about sports is a polite way to guys to make conversation. like talking about the weather. [as my brother would say,] oh yeah? and women talk about their respective appearances?

i bring up the gender issue because it's in the article - and in several very interesting comments. i recommend.

--

have you ever noticed how much "bullish" looks like "bullshit"? as in, "The titans of corporate America were glorified on the covers of Forbes, “trickle down” economics justified obscene wealth, and a bullshit Wall Street gave even working stiffs a piece of the action." i was like, whoa, catholics in alliance for the common good blog. wild.

i got two amaaaaazing voicemails in the past two days.
1. "i'm just calling because right now... i'm watching a movie about the font, helvetica?"
2. "i think of you whenever i hear this band... hang on, i don't know the words... YOU CAN'T COUNT ON ME."
it's almost like my interests are predictable. fonts and counting crows, guys. that's what i like.

twice, writing this post, i've tried to link to previous posts that don't exist. one's about the movie helvetica and the nytimes article about obama's "change" font. [well, here's part of it, actually.] the other is about the time a stranger asked to kiss my shoe. stay tuned.