Johnny Cochran Dead

The man who helped the murderous O.J. Simpson get away with murderous murder died from a brain tumour. I feel bad for the family who loved him and the friends that adored him.

Even though he'll be remembered for his despicable career of getting murderers off, his family was more proud of the work he did for the community. Yes. I agree that the word community is vague but at least he did something somewhat respectable with his time and energy.

It's good to know he was dedicated to something other than collecting money from hardened criminals. I wonder if his was a painful death. He probably died a much slower death than Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. Some, including myself, might think that this is a good thing.

I will never forget that ridiculous trial and how it popularized the phrase "race card"; how it demonized the Los Angeles police department; how it widened the chasm between whites and blacks; how it taught the American public that celebrities actually DO get away with murder; and reminded the country how naive we all really are regarding the truths about human nature.
Rest in peace Johnny Cochran.

Tired

I'm so tired this morning.

Up at 6:00. Working out by 6:30. Leaving gym at 7:30. Ate simple carbohydrate post work out meal for breakfast by 7:45. Blowing hair dry by 8:30. On subway car by 9.

I'm achy every where.

I was going to work out last night so I took the R train which lets me out closer to the gym. There were delays on the R line due to a sick passenger at Roosevelt Ave. station and because the MTA was rerouting all trains on to the local track. By the time I got out at Steinway, 45 minutes after getting into the train, I didn't want to work out any more. So I went shopping and then got soaking wet during my walk home. My socks from last night's walk were still wet this morning.

Now I'm here, at work and I look a lot better than I feel. I figured if I dressed up, put on some makeup and looked like a felt great, actually feeling great wouldn't follow too far behind but it hasn't caught up to me yet.

I still feel tired.

Sore arms

I just flew in from Chicago and boy are my arms tired.

Remember that ole chestnut?

Well. I worked out with my trainer Sunday morning. We worked on arms and now I can't lift my arms over my head. I'm very encouraged and motivated by my trainer. I'm also frightened of how my arms looked in some of the pictures we took on Saturday.

Has this happened to anyone else? My shoulders have gotten so pudgy. It's the weirdest place to gain weight in my opinion and it's such a bad place to be puffy. So, I'm not upset Brandon worked my arms. I just wish I could see results immediately, although I expect to see some in a month the way this guy is pushing me. I just wish it were a month away already and I've reached those first visual signs that the gym is paying off.

I know I'm healthier. Blah blah. My already low blood pressure went down which is great. And I'm sure all the other systems are evening out too, considering I'm on a twigs and leaves kind of diet.

Anyhoooooooo. . . . .

Propeller Island City Lodge

Sarah linked to one of the rooms at the website for Propeller Island City Lodge commenting that it is one of the creepiest you could possible sleep in, that it was reminiscent of crime dramas and condemned buildings. I looked at that room. She was absolutely right. It is horrible looking - positively frightening. You would have nightmares sleeping in there. You would imagine rats nibbling your fingertips while you were taking your morning crap.

I was curious to see the other jail cell style rooms in the hotel and I found that every room at the hotel is different and designed to make you feel as if you are sleeping in an artwork of some sort. Some of the rooms are just flat out weird - like this one where you sleep next to lion cages. (for families with hyper children no doubt). This one looks like it could have been Martha Stewart's jail cell. There is this room that shows respect for the solitary traveler by not making them take a bed wtih twobeds or a bed too big for one person. It looks like a nice place to go for a weekend getaway.

But I think this one is the coolest. It's the flying bed room and looks like it really messes with your concept of gravity.

Shopping for the Dress

Here is a picture of me in the back seat of the car kind of dreading the day ahead. I wasn't feeling very well when I started out the day. As you may recall I was feeling kind of down. Sandy picked me up around 10 and we started out. We went to pick up my mom in Long Island and then we headed out to Lillette's in Baldwin. I took this picture to the right, sitting in the backseat, while staring out at the dunes along the Loop Parkway and then the Meadowbrook. I was trying to cheer myself up, wish away my headache, put on ahappy face. I wasn't feeling very optimistic that we would find a dress. Sandy knows one of the consultants and thought we should start there so I could have anice time. I trusted her.

And boy am I glad I did. When we first walked in it looked like a zoo. There were large groups milling around the various brides looking through the racks of dresses. There was a little girl running around waiting totry on a flower girl dress. There was a young woman posing in front of the mirror, trying on her dress for the last time. I don't respond well to crowded busy situations like this, so I let Sandy and my mother walk me through the aisles showing me dresses. When I met Lydia I told her I didn'twant a strapless dress but that's all I've been seeing in the magazines. She talked to me a few minutes and then started pulling dresses. We went into the dressing room and began. The first dress she put me in was strapless. My 43" squared shoulders helped convince her that strapless wasn't the look for me. She agreed and we tried on a few more dresses.


The first dress I fell in love with was this one to the right. I had an emotional response looking at and then seeing myself in it. Wow. I thought this was the one. Two dresses later, this one became a blur. I chose the dress we tried on two dresses later. If you are in my bridal party you've seen it. But the bridal party and my mom and Jon's mom are the only ones.

You'll just have to wait like everyone else. I found a beautiful dress that is perfect for me. In spite of my agonizing headache, the day had a happy outcome. Who thought I would find my dress in less than two hours. None of us did. We didn't even have the cash for a down payment but thankfully the store took $20.00 down.

If you are looking for a dress, you should go to Lillette's Bridal Shop in Baldwin. They will take really good care of you and find a dress that matches you perfectly.

Bumming Out

I signed up for my gym's Buffed Bride program and I had a bit of a shock this morning. My personal trainer (yes. I chose the sadist that tortured by calves) weighed and measured me this morning. My weight hasn't changed in two weeks. My measurements are too embarrassing to mention.

After learning this sad news, I had to work out with Brandon. He's a nice guy, good natured, funny. I worked hard and he made me laugh throughout the workout. He didn't give me a moment to feel upset about the weigh in.

But now, that I'm at my office and it's a little bit quiet, I have to ruminate over what I learned this morning and I feel sad, very sad and disappointed. I've been working out for over a month and I haven't gotten anywhere and on top of that I start shopping for my wedding dress tomorrow. This means I have to get measured again.

I'm very concerned that the bridal shop my maid-of-honor is taking me to isn't going to have any dresses big enough for me to try on and that would make me cry, really cry if that happened. But at least my mom and cousin will be there. My cousin is my maid-of-honor in case you haven't been following the score card.

Back to the work out, Brandon was very supportive and told me he is going to help me. He gave me a diet plan to follow which is ridiculous but should work. I have to eat five times a day now. That means, 3 times at work I have to eat meals. I'm glad my boss is a nice guy. Dieting is soooo stupid. I really hate it. So I'm going to try to look at it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet.

Maybe then it won't seem so gay.

What A Night

Wow. Trivia was packed. There were 18 teams and every seat in the house was filled.

It was great but I'm running late and I hate to bathe and get going to work.

Tuesday Night Trivia

I am taking a break from American Idol tonight to host Tuesday Night Trivia. I will also be showing off my new engagement ring if anyone is interested in seeing it.

Tuesday Night Trivia is played every Tuesday night at the Baggot Inn in New York City at 7:30 pm. I would provide a link but I can't work the BLOG THIS linking tool.

Because we are taping The Amazing Race tonight we can't tape American Idol. If you are feeling generous and would like to do me a favor (no pressure), please tape American Idol for me.

Thank you.

Monday Snuh

I had hard time getting it going this morning.

BANK
I went to my bank to deposit my paycheck. I asked the teller if she was finding this Monday particularly challenging and she said, "Yeah. The weather makes it harder." A woman in line behind me was giggling as she butt in and ejaculated, "Oh. It's all in your head. Hee hee hee." I ignored her even as she was wishing me a good day. For some reason, her niceness was working in direct conflict to my grumpiness. Then I went to the Citibank further up the block to make a deposit for my boss. While it took me 5 minutes to get in and out of my personal bank, I spent 25 minutes at Citibank waiting for the lunkheads in front of me to get the money for their cash drawers or whatever. And to make matters worse, that EXPRESS DEPOSIT machine Citibank has for customers in a rush was completely broken.

ITCH
Work was fine. Unfortunately, I just wasn't feeling it today. Perhaps it was because my night's sleep was interrupted by an itchy foot. I couldn't get my foot to stop itching. From 3 am to 4:30 I was up with an itchy foot. No matter how I tried I could not scratch the itch. Around 4:30 and after 5 applications of moisturizer the itching finally went away. It was the strangest thing. So. . .by 2 this afternoon I was really feeling the burn of lack of sleep which lately has meant a pretty bad headache. I did leave the office at a reasonable hour, made the trains. All went well. Whew.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
I tried to get home early so I could prepare my trivia rounds. I rested my head for 10 minutes before starting my audio round. The round came out great, except for one mistake. I hadn't left enough hang time between two of the songs so I went back to retape the last four songs. My tape machine broke. I have one of those units where the CD, Radio and Tape player are all in one. I've had it since I've moved to Queens. It finally broke down. The machine started eating my tape. I tried another tape just to be sure. It ate that one too but alas that was our last tape!! So, that meant a walk to the 99 cent store to get a new tape. When we got home I redid the round again but I had to use Jon's hand held tape recorder and tape my round holding to the speakers.

It's been a while since I've done that but it still came out okay. It reminded me of pleasant childhood memories when my friends and I would use the tape recorder to create our own radio programming.

After being at the computer all day and every day since I started my job and we've been having SPAM, VIRUS and SPYWARE problems with our computer, I decided to construct my CURRENT EVENTS ROUND the old fashioned way - with a newspaper, pen and paper.

Hopefully Tuesday will be a better day.

The Village

I rented THE VILLAGE from On Demand. I can't say that this is M. Night Shayamalanaolin's best movie. But even a bad movie from M. Night is better than most.

The suspense is agonizing as the viewer is forced to wait and see where M. Night will place his cameo. Oh and then of course there is the suspense created by the story, for the story and through the story.

The unfortunately named Bryce Dallas Howard gave a compelling performance as the girl who sees the world through the blind eyes of hope and love. I found myself crying with her and for her more than once because her acting was so believable. It's hard to play blind but she didn't do too badly. My uncle is blind, really blind, so I grew up knowing how blind people look when they talk to you. I have never seen an actor accurately portray blindness. With that said, she didn't too badly. There were times when you actually believed she was blind and others when she didn't look the slightest bit blind.

Movies and television would have you believe that without the cane and dark sunglasses you can't tell when someone is unsighted. That's not true. Blind people look blind. I've met several and there was never any mistake that they could not see. They just don't use their eyes and that has a very specific look - a glazed over, not using their eyes kind of look.

Still Bryce Dallas Howard did a good job. Her character's name was IVY - a much better name than her given one. Other performances of note came from Joaquin Pheoniz, Michael Pitt and Cherry Jones. Sigourney Weaver was okay - still stunning even without makeup. William Hurt remains to this day one of the most OVERRATED screen actors but he was well cast as the unspoken leader of THE VILLAGE.

I recommend the movie highly. Yes. It does have a silly aspect to it but I would still like you to encourage the able imagine of M. Night by watching his films.

Obituary For A Buffalo

This is an old obituary from a 1905 issue of the NY Times. Jon found it doing some research for an article he's writing.

This is the 100th anniversary of the sad demise of Lady.

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LADY, THE BUFFALO, DEAD

Lady, the pet buffalo of the New York Zoological Garden in the Bronx, is dead. She was a fine seven-year-old animal and well behaved enough to deserve her name. An autopsy was made on her body yesterday, and it was found that a piece of wire which she must have swallowed had reached her heart, pierced it, and caused her death.

Lady was one of the famous herd of buffaloes assembled by the late William C. Whitney. The animal came to the zoo from the vast Whitney forest reservation in the Adirondacks some years ago.

She was seven years old and had quite a romantic history. She was the mate of Black Beauty, the king buffalo of the Bronx Park flock, who two years ago killed his [rival] after a violent domestic quarrel. Then he was mated to Lady. Her sweet disposition had such charms that Black Beauty has been a changed buffalo since Lady became his queen.

Acting Director H.R. Mitchell of the zoo said last night that the piece of wire found in Lady's heart, was of the kind tied about bales of hay and that she probably swallowed it with her dinner on Saturday. She was found dead that evening.

The old attendant at the buffalo reservation who knows best says Lady came to her death in trying to eat up a barbed wire fence that separated her from the inclosure where Black Beauty was browsing.

Clean

This computer is clean. My newly updated virus software found and fixed 8 viruses and quarantined one.

Just one more download. I'm putting spybot back on the computer to protect us against a recent plethora of popups that are no doubt responsible for giving us a virus in the first place.

Cranky and Tired

i feel cranky and tired.

went to bed at 10:30 pm and woke up at 8 am.

perhaps i am cranky because of the technology problems that are plaguing me this week.

perhaps i am tired because i am not eating enough.

still working out regularly. still kind of liking it.

will work out tonight. perhaps that will help with the crankiness or perhaps not.

hmmm.

Random Stuff

On Sunday when we were in Cortland, I bought some hazelnut candles at Pier One imports - on sale 4/$1. They smell outrageous.
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Our computer caught some kind of virus. I spent four hours Wednesday night downloading and updating our virus software, Ad Aware and Spy Sweeper. No virus was found although much spyware was found and discarded.
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I'm trying to install VERIZON DSL at my office - to replace the 3x as expensive RoadRunner. I don't know how to judge the DSL service yet because it's not yet installed. Wednesday, a technician came to change our wiring from fiber to copper. This disabled our fax machine because that is the number where we installing the DSL. The fax machine was supposed to be working again yesterday but alas it was not. Turns out the building wiring does not work with copper and we have to reinstall the fiber connection and get our old service back and start from scratch. I don't know what happened with the second technician last night because I left the office at 5:45. My head was aching with a pounding lack of understanding about how phones operate.
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Today is Friday and on Sunday, Jon and I are officially booking the temple for our wedding. This temple has a full catering facility, so the whole affair will take place there. The gardens are lovely so the photographs can be done there as well. Wahoo?!?! Now all that's left is the DRESS, FLOWERS, PHOTOGRAPHER, MUSIC.
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As I mentioned yesterday, I'm co-hosting trivia on Tuesday night with the Wounded Liberal (see link on right). We are having a meeting tonight to plan our attack on our unsuspecting players.
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If you run into someone you know and they are talking to someone that you don't know, do you go up to them and interrupt and go through motions of introductions, or do you leave them alone because they are having private and intense discussions? No seriously, I'm asking. What do you do? I never know what to do, so I err on the side of caution and leave everyone involved alone.

What do you do? What do YOU do?

Train

Subway travels grow increasingly difficult. People riding the 4,5 and 6 lines yesterday were treated to a day of signalling problems that stopped that line dead in its tracks.

This morning's commute was just weird. There are no problems that I know of on the N/R/W line yet the trains were slow, crowded and irregular. When I transferred for the local at 34th street, I had to let two trains pass. The first was so delayed it ran express. The second was so crowded, I decided to wait for the third.

If the trains had been running well, I could have been at work at 9:15 but instead I walked through the front door at 9:40. I still have bragging rights for the day because in spite of being late I was still the first one here.

Time for coffee.

23rd Street Shuffle

So, I left home early to get to work early to get an early start only to get stopped dead in my tracks at the 23rd St. station at Bway. People were moving at a crawl up the steps that lead you out. I still managed to get to work first. That's always good for one-up-manship.

Things are going well at my new job, so far. I'm actually doing fun and creative stuff and I'm being treated with respect for my intelligence, ability and experience. It almost seems too good to be true. I hope it lasts. Sometimes when something seems too good to be true it often it is.

Did I mention that I am co-hosting trivia next week at the Baggott Inn? More details to follow. Must start my day now.

Bye.

Ponder This

We stopped at a Ponderosa on the way home, in Stroudsberg. At the salad bar, at the Ponderosa, I had an opportunity to ponder many things.

Why is the salad bar so shitty? Why did everyone at the Ponderosa salad bar seem to have an excessive weight problem? How come every time I think about taking some mashed potatoes, a 400 pound person gets in my way? Why was almost every table full with fat families at the Ponderosa? If you could have seen the selection at the salad bar you would understand - fried chicken wings, macaroni and much cheese, pizza, stuffing, gravy, and every fattening thing under the sun that you wouldn't expect in a salad bar. Even the salad and dressings were fattening.

More upsetting were the obese clientele. Just being in there made me want to run to the gym and push people off the treadmill so I could climb on and run for my life. There was a family sitting behind us that couldn't stop laughing, burping and emitting other sounds beyond description.

Surprisingly, my sirloin tips were very yummy. My baked potato was cooked well, very well - a little too well. The skin was completely carbonified. In the middle of my baked potato was a large mound of butter which I removed. I eat butter with complete freedom but that was too much even for me. Jon ordered the seafood platter which was also surprisingly good except for the shrimp which seemed to have completely given its will over to butter. If we needed it, there was melted butter on Jon's plate as well as tartar sauce and a greasy crabcake.
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Leaving the Ponderosa, we got stuck in some traffic on Interstate 80. We still aren't sure what happened. Gradually the traffic slowed down. We noticed police cars on the other side of the divider and then, after about a mile of this, we noticed there were no cars at all moving in the opposite direction. Not one. We crawled for about half an hour, seeing Delaware Water Gap Firemen and NJ State Troopers all along the way and again no oncoming traffic. At the point where our traffic jam opened up, we finally saw where all the cars were stopped like a parking lot. I'm happy we weren't going in that direction because after that it was smooth sailing all the way back to New York.

If anyone knows what happened on Interstate 80 near the Delaware Water Gap, March 13 between 7:45 and 8:30 pm, please let me know. We didn't see anything that looked like an accident or a fire or a shooting or a terrorist attack or a car jacking or etc.

Cortland Weekend

Friday night Jon and I drove up to Cortland to visit with his parents. Getting out of the city took about an hour. Getting through the snow at the end of the trip took about an hour and a half. The hours in the middle were relatively easy.

We visited a friend of Jon's mother. Esther is nearly 100 years old. This is my second time seeing her. She is old but young at heart.

Today we visited with Eva, another friend of Jon's mom. She is younger than Esther but a little bit shier about her age. I'll respect her privacy and keep it to myself. In 1939, her parents moved their immediate family from Austria, to her aunt's house in the Bronx. She talked of being a refugee and told us about a friend of hers who had been involved in the Kindertransport program arranged by the British to get Jewish children out of lower Europe. Most of you probably saw the special on HBO. But I've never met someone who knew about it intimately. I enjoyed meeting Eva. She is a lovely woman and a good raconteusse.

Today, Jon and I hit the Walmart and Super K-Mart in Cortland. We made away with some good bargains. My favorite bargain are the Fruit of the Loom cotton sports bras that I got at 3 for $10.00. But we got all sorts of stuff; a new lamp/magazine rack; a garbage pail with lid for the kitchen and other sundries.

We're heading back home soon and tomorrow we'll be back to our daily grinds. How nice it was to get out of town for the weekend, even up in snowy Cortland.

It's nice to visit family so do it when you can.

Reality TV

The Contender
The Apprentice
Survivor
The Amazing Race

The Amazing Race is not produced by Mark Burnett but somehow it is still good.

Mark Burnett could make anything into a reality show and I would watch it.

He should do a show for geeks.

I Can Walk

After three days of agonizing pain, I can finally walk like a normal person. Wahoo.

This morning, on the train, for the first time, I started envisioning myself as a bride. Ever since Jon proposed, I envisioned the wedding but from my POV or what I would be seeing; Jon waiting for me at the end of the aisle; our guests as I passed them on the way to the chupah (sp?); my parents on either side of me each holding an arm. But I never thought about how I would look to everyone else. This morning, I saw myself with my hair and makeup done, in my dress with a big smile on my face and it made me happy.

It's strange making the transition from someone with very low self-esteem to someone with normal self-esteem. Someone should write a book about the things you can expect when the improvements you've been making on yourself and the changes you strive to make in how you think about the world, actually start to work.

It's nice when you can actually start worrying about things that matter instead of things that don't.

You know what I mean if you know what I mean.

Blogger Roll Call

akaChris saw the musical Lion King on Friday night and recommended that we all see it.

The Anonymous Bloggette wrote about The Anonymous Blogger.

The Anonymous Blogger received 125 comments.

Baby Quentin has a new hat and remains cute.

CandyBlueKite has stopped communicating in words altogether.

Caren bought a new ipod. (use it in good health. Ptoi. Ptoi.)

Human Oddities shrank her cat so it could fit in the palm of her hand.

New Jersey White Trash had trouble controlling his car some time in the last couple of days.

Phil at Phil's Spin Zone is still apartment hunting.

Sarah is getting paranoid at Sarah's Entertainment.

Wendy Fournier's old webblog disappeared and I can't link to her new site without it. (hint, hint)

What a Pain in the Calf

This morning walking around is more difficult than it was yesteray. I can't put my heels to the ground. You should see me walking around. I look ridiculous. All in the name of beauty. If working out hurts this much every time I do it, I'm never going to lose weight.

Okay. So I sound upset and negative. It's discouraging to learn what your body can't do anymore. I know I'm not that old but there is a reason why most athletes are past their prime by their early thirties. The body just wears down. Again, I'm not saying my body is falling part or anything, I feel the effects of getting older.

Walking around this last hour, I'm already exhausted. My mother has friend with Rheumatoid Arthritis. This woman lost a whole lot of weight just from being in pain. Pain is tiring. I'm thankful that my pains are self inflicted and will heal. My mom's friend will always have R.A.

But knowing that other people are sicker doesn't change the fact that my calves hurt more than I remember them ever hurting. You can walk a mile in another man's shoes to get idea of what his life is like before you judge him, but it doesn't do anything to change your life. . .just your mind.

Sunday Morning Classics

Saturday, I worked out with Brandon. I'm considering joining my gyms BUFF BRIDE program, so I auditioned a trainer. Brandon worked me pretty hard. I'm having some trouble moving around today. My calves are suffering the brunt of it. Every time I sit down and get back up, they feel like they did when I woke up this morning. Tight and weird. Straightening out my legs is the hardest part.

I'm starting to hate the women at the gym that treat the locker room like their personal bathrooms. I particularly dislike it when women lotion up in the gym - their feet, their legs, their bellies. Yuck. The truth is I don't like to be around naked strangers. I go to the gym in my gym clothes so I don't have to change. I shower at home so I don't have to walk around the gym naked subjecting strangers to my pale, naked flesh.

The other women I hate at the gym are the ones who work out with their hair down and full of hair spray. They often wear velour sweatsuits and garish makeup and don't hesitate to show as much of their bodies as humanly possibly - to the point where they are almost indecently exposed. Some of those sweatpants ride pretty low beneath the belly. These women are often in my way as I'm trying to get to my locker to retrieve my coat or to put my headset away. They can often be overheard having ridiculous conversations about the stupid things their boyfriends did or said.

With that said, I like my gym. The equipment is great, the locker room is clean (but I'm still fearful of Athlete's Foot), and the instructors know what they are talking about. There are so many trainers walking around, you can always get help with anything you need or advice/instructions on any of the machines.

Brandon is a good instructor. He even called me this morning to see how I was doing. Naturally I told him I was having trouble walking and that I was generally stiffening up all over.

The Apprentice

Yes. I watched the Apprentice last night. It was the entree to am appetizer of Survivor. And it was yummy.

The show focused on the downfall of young Audrey. That team just didn't like her. I don't know what she did but I bet a lot of it had to do with her being younger and prettier than everyone else. People just resent the hell out of young, beautiful people. I liked her. I admire people who don't rely on getting by on their looks and she wasn't on that show merely because of her looks. If that were the case, Angie would never have made it on or some of those sycophants from the other team either.

There is this pompous asshole, (John from Apprentice 3 - I put this here so everyone who searches for his name can come here and see I think he is a pompous asshole) on the street smarts team. He does not like Audrey, so whatever she did there was no way he was going to support her. If anything, he undermined her authority the entire show. What can you do? Audrey was the team leader, see. And she put John in charge of promotions and I think as soon as she assigned him the task, he decided he wasn't going to do shit for her.

Meanwhile, on the other team, the woman in charge of promotions without any direction from her team leader, decided all on her own, to go around and acquire exclusive rights on promoting the same kind of event.

So of course, Audrey's task failed and it looked like her fault because it looked like she didn't delegate authority. John brought her down and I've worked with people like him - people who will only work hard to promote their own self interest. The only mistake Audrey made last night, was stepping up to be team leader. Chris should have stepped up and Chris should have been fired. That guy is just weird. He's a dipper and a spitter and he was chewing tobacco during the task while dressed up as a clown and scaring the shit out of children.

She was out of there because that team didn't support her. Last week's candidate got fired because she showed really poor judgement in choosing the idea for her task and then pushing it forward. John was a dick last week too by the way. Audrey got fired because she became team leader.

Blah blah blah

Blah blah,

Blah blah blah blah blahing blah. Blah blahed blah blah. Blahblah blahblah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahing blah. Blahgity blahminator. Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah. Blah blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah blah &$*%&(# blah blah blah blah blah.

Blahrly,

Blah

Matthew Modine

Matthew Modine is the guest star of Law & Order: SVU. Could he be looking for an Emmy? Or did the Law & Order people decide that their show needed more muscle than Ice T and Chris Meloni? Whatever the reason, it's working. The show is a standoff between Detective Stabler played by Meloni and a serial child rapist/murderer played by Modine. Both men are excellent actors - what a treat for the viewers of the Law & Order shows. To me, the Law & Order shows continue to be the best police dramas on television. I am never disappoined and love the shows so much, I find myself watching reruns on TNT often.
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I worked out and watched the beginning of American Idol. The show was a little disappointing tonight. The women, (Seacrest keeps referring to them as "the girls"), were lackluster as a group. Not that I can sing anywhere near as well as most of those young women but each one of them seemed to pick a song that wasn't quite right for her. But at least they kept me company while I was using the Elliptical machine.

American Idol rocked last night. That weird, sleezy Frank Sinatra wannabe from Long Island is definitely going to be voted off. . .I'm sure of it. His performance was so average. Actually there were only three or four good performances that really stood out last night. The rest ... there really isn't an IDOL in the lot of them.
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Well the snow fell. I looked out the window and I don't see 7 - 10 inches which is fantastic. I love it when the weathermen are wrong with their dystopic predictions.
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My new job is still going well. I'm having a good year.
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The most important thing I've learned in the last two years is the powerful effect a positive attitude can have on those around you. People like to be around happy people. It makes them feel good. I remember a time when I would open my mouth at a party and the negativity would chase everyone away. It took a long time for me to connect the dots. When I act happy, I can't get people to leave me alone. And people tell me things and confide in me. If you act like you want to be where you are and believe it, people will come to you. I'm sorry I had to learn that lesson so late. But I guess some people are just late bloomers socially.

I'm not saying be fake. I'm just saying don't be negative. If you have nothing positive to say, don't say anything. If you disagree with someone at a dinner party, you don't have to do it outloud. You don't always have to express your opinion. Sometimes it's okay to be one of the crowd. And whatever you do, don't act desperate. People will smell it on you before you enter the room.