grrrrr.

dear drunk guys who brought your beer on the bus,
you give cubs fans a bad name. also, you smell like a dorm party.
regards,
b

random news roundup.

Gilbert's argument is that feminism and the unyielding demands of employers have propelled women away from taking care of their small children during the day and toward jobs that they don't necessarily like much. Gilbert thinks that "an intellectual elite of well-paid professional women" make paid work seem better than it is for many women, and household work more "servile, tedious, mind-numbing."

this is from an article about how we started blaming parents when bad things happen to their children. [interesting article overall, although one of my friends thought it was hilarious that i was reading a parenting article. i had one of those moments where i really didn't get it. you know? i was like, what? i was reading slate. what's your problem.] this paragraph, though, was the most interesting part to me. maybe it's not a new idea, and the author of this article disagrees with it, but here's my read - maybe we should be talking about the fact that mothers wanting to work and mothers needing to work are two different issues.

With the wisdom of hindsight, it is clear that the link between educational excellence and economic security is not as simple as “A Nation at Risk” made it seem. By the mid-1980s, policymakers in Japan, South Korea and Singapore were already beginning to complain that their educational systems focused too much on rote learning and memorization. They continue to envy American schools because they teach creativity and the problem-solving skills critical to prospering in the global economy.

this is kind of interesting - i guess that, in the 80s, we thought that japan especially was going to rise in the global economy because their kids were so brilliant, and it hasn't really happened. which raises the question of whether teaching our kids to be successful in life isn't the same as teaching our kids to be successful on standardized tests.

i think my DVD player is dying. i remember buying it - i had gone in to buy the $30 dvd player, but the slightly sleazy guy at best buy told me that i would come home at 3 a.m. and it wouldn't work. [damn best buy guy, knowing my life.] so i got the $50 dvd player. three years later, i want to watch friends and episode 4 on every dvd won't play. grrr. i don't really want to buy a new one, but i'm at the stage in which i have to trick the dvd player into playing. and tricking technology never turns out well for me.

the man's got a point.

"there isn't anyone who hates anyone as much as people hate the cta."
- drunk guy on the belmont platform.

i mean, he had a point. two brown line trains had gone by while we were waiting for a red line. odd that a friend from mexico had just given us all a rant about how terrible the cta is - which, compared to mexico city, it apparently really is. i had agreed that a city that's very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter isn't an ideal place to have an elevated track, and then, wouldn't you know it - a cold front comes in, and i'm on the platform freezing.

clearly, i still love the cta. don't you all worry. but what IS this with people talking to me while i have my ipod in? isn't the whole point of ipods that you're being completely anti-social? isn't that why people hate them? i mean, honestly. i've already decided to be kind of passively rude. and yet, i've had more conversations while trying to listen to npr podcasts...

other insights by drunk guy:
"even the buses aren't running on schedule. because they would never schedule three buses right behind each other."
"i don't have to be drunk to know the cta's shit."

ain't that america.

- you're no good, nate.
- yeah, that's why i act out and i'm all angsty...

hahahaha, so we're watching gossip girl [obvi] and all of sudden the voices don't work. oddly enough, the dramatic background music does work, leaving roommate with the perfect opportunity to make up voices for the characters. nice.

okay, this is SO RIDICULOUS.



"thank you, your holiness. awesome speech."

awesome speech. awesome SPEECH? awesome speech!! oh, man...

man, i could have posted this from the bus.

got this email today from one of my favorites:

On the metro right now and just saw a sign advising people to take the
green line train to the papal mass on april 14.

Pope + helpful public transportation (equals*) something that reminds
me of b.

*my blackberry doesn't have an equals sign.

things i love about this email:
1. public transportation
2. the pope
3. use of a blackberry

there was a actually a controversy about a metro ad featuring the pope as a bobble-head doll. it even made wait wait this weekend. you can't make this stuff up...



the article is actually called "Pope Bobblehead Ad Given the Bounce." you REALLY can't make this stuff up.

insights to be gained from this post:
1. if public transportation is good enough for the pope, it's good enough for me.
2. i want a blackberry so bad.

NEW THE OFFICE NEW THE OFFICE NEW THE OFFICE.

[let me just remind you all that i'm like the sports guy.]

pam's hair is SO GREAT. i can't get over it. she doesn't even look like a regular person anymore.

first laugh of the night - michael sleeping on a bench, for some reason.
second - michael's plasma TV.
third - angela not allowing michael to hug her. using my teacher voice, incidentally.
fourth - "what am i supposed to do with this?"

michael: kind of an oakey afterbirth.
jim: what was that?

"and we're not going to think about your stuff being destroyed..."

jim getting the wrong answers! that's one i'm going to try.

jan's jealous. despite her fake boobs.

OMG accusing pam of wanting to date michael.

is that dwight's mom?

most. awkward. dinner. ever.

"not now, dwight." i love that the cops know him.

--

"thank you for going all the way with the CTA. have a pleasant evening. peace!"
- CTA operator, when telling us about a delay. weird, right?

"this is a list of what i should have been..."

so, since pope fever is alive...

"Firstly you have to know what we really want, right? Christianity, Catholicism, isn't a collection of prohibitions: it's a positive option. It's very important that we look at it again because this idea has almost completely disappeared today. We've heard so much about what is not allowed that now it's time to say: we have a positive idea to offer..."

heyyy, my class. nice.

and also, this...
"I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry. A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important."

this interview is courtesy of whispers in the loggia, so i can't take credit for being on the ball myself. not like i used to be. [sigh. to have a desk job again and spend more time keeping my fingers on the pulse of the church.] really, i was touched. amazed that someone can speak like that, just brillantly, and touched because i really do get the feeling that he's thoughtful. i don't know, he's a hardliner - but see what you guys think. obviously i think we have far to go from what he says, but i think i like how he chooses to say it.

[i was a little mad at the misquoting of chesterton's "angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly," but it strikes me that it's a case of translation and re-translation.]

i was going to be all, "but he's no JPII!" and link to my favorite speech of his [which i heard live in 2000], and i realized i haven't posted it before. how's that possible? here you go.

It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness, he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fulness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

mmm. sometimes i think i have the best job ever, you know?