Happy Pride!
This year's pride parade featured more churches and corporations than I remember from before, and was a lot less risque than previous years, but on the whole lots of fun. Until, that is, the fundamentalist protesters started prosteltyzing as I walked home. They were surrounded by cops for protection and stationed about a block away from the parade route, but it was a really unfortunate last image...Especially after seeing so many churches and synagogues marching with inclusive messages (including Catholics for gay marriage, which was a float I did not expect to see).
Aside from that, good times all round. But I didn't wear the best shoes to walk home 20 blocks after standing for two hours, so now my feet are blistered and achy. Sigh. The things even I do for fashion are somewhat amazing.
- posted by Heidi @ 4:03 PM

 
Cheney Dismisses Critic With Obscenity (washingtonpost.com)
- posted by Heidi @ 1:58 PM

 
NBC5 slideshows are always quite entertaining. The Jack Ryan Slideshow is particularly amusing. Though pictuing Jeri Ryan in full 7-of-9 regalia while outlining the allegations is slightly tastesless. And hi-larious.

I'm just excited because everyone thinks he's going to drop out, and if he does Obama will be virtually unbeatable. Hah!
- posted by Heidi @ 1:51 PM

 
Obama lets opponent do talking

and here's the New Yorker article about Obama that I referred to earlier.
- posted by Heidi @ 8:13 AM

 
Chicago Tribune | GOP leaders say they felt misled on Ryan file
- posted by Heidi @ 10:38 AM

 
After a blogging drought I'm posting a lot today. It must be summer.

My new phone arrived from AT&T today and according to the three people I've talked to with it so far it's a big improvement. Not that that is hard.

For my law and business class tomorrow I have to read 4 chapters in a ridiculously large textbook and then brief Brown v. Board. I'm assuming we do that case first because of familiarity, but I'm not sure.

For my other class, the prof sent a stern email advising us to form study groups before the first class. I was hoping this would lead to a flurry of requests for groups to the email list, but it hasn't. I can't decide if this means everyone already has groups or if everyone is simply procrastinating...like I did. I don't want to be the first person to email the list if everyone has groups because, well, then I look desperate. I checked the class list, and the 10 people in the class that I know are not people I really want to be in a group with. Which makes me think I need to make a desperate plea since there's no one I want to email individually. It's a fine line between social ineptitude and academic need.

I'm taking the day off of work tomorrow to run errands and get a haircut. Yay!
- posted by Heidi @ 9:00 PM

 
Now, I may be mistaken, but I thought we had moved beyond the time when it was just okay for men to force their wives to do something they were not interested in.
Jack Ryan effectively admitted in an interview with Chicago Public Radio that the allegations in the custody hearing are true. But he also commented that they were irrelevant and silly, and if that was the worst that could be said about him it wasn't a big deal.

i'd like to say that it is a big deal. And it's not that I ever even remotely considered voting for him, but as a woman I'm more than a little offended by the suggestion that repeatedly trying to coerce your wife into sexual acts she did not want to do is irrelevant. It speaks to character. and if he's going to be a senator, my senator if he wins--whether or not I vote for him--I don't want him carrying that outdated misogynistic assholish attitude with him to DC.

So endeth the lesson.


on another note, I'm writing nasty letters to AT&T wireless this AM. I will soon have a new phone--but this time it's not my fault. I've been getting crappy reception and people have had a really hard time hearing me since I got my new ultra-sexy phone. I was assuming that AT&T's GSM network, commercials notwithstanding, just didn't have good coverage right now, and I called to see if I could switch back to the old network. Turns out any time ATT doesn't have good coverage in an area I can manual switch to another carrier's network without being charged, so that's not the problem. Nope, there's a "known problem with the audio software" in my phone. So they have to do a warranty exchange. But a warranty exchange costs $15.
So I'm livid. $15 isn't much money, but they sold me a defective product, realized it was defective and did not inform me, and now I have to pay to have it fixed??
Total BS.
I told them on the phone when I was lodging my 3rd formal complaint that I would bad mouth ATT to all my friends. Consider them bad-mouthed. I've had no problems in my previous years with them, but this is so uncalled for.

- posted by Heidi @ 10:17 AM

 

R. Sen. candidate Ryan's divorce file a bombshell
in a nutshell, actress ex-wife Jeri Ryan says he took her to sex clubs where he tried to force him into having sex in front of strangers.

oops.
- posted by Heidi @ 9:08 AM

 
This morning I came in to work and the computer told me my keychain was missing. I was annoyed, but whatever. I remember my passwords (I only us 2 for most non-personal info websites. I just have to remember what random numbers I stuck in the middle to make them the right length). So that was a pain, but not a catastrophe. It should have been a warning of things to come, but I am not so clever, evidently.

I synced my palm to my computer first thing this AM, as is my Monday-morning habit. Only when I looked in the palm and saw that the datebook was empty did I open iCal. iCal is empty too. No events. Nothing. Not today, not last week, not next month, nothing.
So, if I had plans with you anytime in the next several months, I don't know what they are. And all the backups I can find are useless (by which I mean overwritten by blank data).

on the upside, my address book is fine.

I looked at the log from my last sync. "events: 509 deleted" is the cruel and unusual part. I am not happy.

- posted by Heidi @ 2:50 PM

 
Workshopped to Death, Without Reaching a Theater
- posted by Heidi @ 10:09 AM

 
Horse-slashings case solved
- posted by Heidi @ 7:12 PM

 
NPR : Celebrating the 'Bloomsday' Centennial

The BBC goes copyright free
- posted by Heidi @ 8:21 AM

 
Sorry it has been ages since a real post. Last week was finals, then the weekend was crazy (but wonderful) and now I'm ba-ack!

Note of warning: for the next 7 weeks, I'm likely to be wedding obsessed. You'll see why in a minute. But isn't that better than being baseball obsessed? Withering social commentary may be splattered throughout as well, but who knows.

So, my brother is getting married in less than 2 months. They really want to get married before next summer, they want it to be warm, and it's the only time that the bride's brother, who lives overseas, can be in the US. So, 2 months.

My mom is planning the wedding, with help from my sister and soon-to-be sister-in-law. It will be at my mom's house in NH, which has spent most of the last 25 years being ignored by all except my brother. It's where he proposed, they've spent a lot of time there, etc. The wedding ceremony (which my mom termed non-traditional and non-religious) will be outside underneath a tree--apparently the trees roots are in two and then grow together into one, and it's all very symbolic and sweet. I'm one of the bridesmaids. As each of the happy couple has 2 siblings and one sibling-in-law, the 6 of us plus each of their best friends from childhood are the wedding party. Women outnumber men, but that's always true in my family. Except among my cousins, where men outnumber women almost 2-1.

My father will be attending. he's in charge of the bachelor party. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My parents have now been divorced for over 20 years, but I suspect it will not be easy on anyone. My dad has also never met my stepfather. But I just have to remember that despite much worry and stress, my dad was an absolute angel at my sister's wedding.

I've volunteered to throw a bridal shower, probably in NYC. This may get shifted to a bridal luncheon the day of the wedding, which would actually be easier for me, but we'll see.

SO that's the update. It's very exciting, though a little bit mad. The email inviting me to be a bridesmaid had the subject "welcome to the mayhem". I was amused.
- posted by Heidi @ 9:42 AM

 
Informal poll: if you were a bridesmaid in an early august wedding, which of these dresses would you prefer?
- posted by Heidi @ 12:49 PM

 
Reagan funeral drinking game
- posted by Heidi @ 4:51 PM

 
A grass-roots campaign--women in baseball
- posted by Heidi @ 8:34 AM

 
I actually thought this was a joke at first: 'Avenue Q' Thumbs Its Nose at Touring for Vegas

Rex Reed misses the way broadway was
- posted by Heidi @ 7:14 AM

 
Honesty about Reagan... t r u t h o u t . Credit to Margo for the link.
- posted by Heidi @ 9:49 AM

 
Procrastination!
For the record, when I started to type in the title of this post, Safari auto-filled. Clearly I have posted about my procrastination proclivities before.

I've discovered a brilliant new technique:

Redesign your professor's power point slides!

It started out as a good idea--put the three or four most important slides from each lecture (the class in question averaged about 35 slides per 3 hour lecture, and there were 10 lectures) into one presentation. Then run the slideshow a billion times until you have it memorized.

One flaw: if you have studied strategies for effective power point presentations, then your professor's slides won't seem good enough. A former prof of mine likes to call it "power no point" since most presentations are designed to make the least important part--the header--the most memorable. My most recent professor didn't fall victim to all the bad habits (which include, among others, slides that say "three strategies" in enormous bold text and then list the three strategies in tiny fonts), however he did fall prey to the "I have tenure and therefore it doesn't matter if my slides are ugly" trap.

So I pulled slides. I made a new document with the most relevant ones. This helped studying. Then I ran the slide show once and got really sick of the white-text-on-taupe-background-with-bad-clip-art style that my prof seems to favor.

The really brilliant thing about this form of procrastination is that you think you are being productive, and therefore are entitled to regular study breaks.

On the upside, at the end of this endeavor I will have 25 really nicely designed slides that convey the most important points of the course. I will also have lost about 4 hours of my valuable study time.

Good thing I'm taking the day off work tomorrow to study.
- posted by Heidi @ 10:45 PM

 
The Tony's were pretty darn good this year, but looks like they wereeven better during the commercials

Memorable moments (IMHO):
1) Having someone I know be thanked in an acceptance speech (next step: be thanked myself. After that, accept one myself. Here's to hubris)
2) LL Cool J and Carol Channing!
3) Hugh Jackman in gold lame pants dancing with Sarah Jessica Parker
4) Avenue Q!!

Overall I was excited by all the winners, and thought the presentations went well. A couple rocky moments, but that's the beauty of live entertainment!
- posted by Heidi @ 6:30 PM

 
With the Mob as Competition, the Tonys Go for the Glamour
I have to say, I'm not convinced that the people who watch the Tonys are the same ones who watch The Sopranos or the NBA finals.
That is, it takes a certain addiction to either musical theater or award shows to sit through the Tonys, and people who are that addicted will watch the Sopranos one of the other 25 times it is shown during the week.
And Mary J. Blige is singing a song from Chorus Line? How could I even think of missing this?
- posted by Heidi @ 9:24 AM

 
Does anyone else think that Eliot Spitzer occasionally is too focused on his "causes". The New York Times > New York Sues Maker of Antidepressant Drug Paxil. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence, I realize, but I could provide some anecdotal evidence that giving Paxil to people under 18 is sometimes for the best. And I think it's likely this lawsuit will only make parents panic, thereby decreasing the likelihood that some people who really need it will get Paxil.
Of course, I know that some drugs are overprescribed. And I know there are many that are overprescribed in kids. But I worry for the ones who need this medication who won't get it now...and will therefore have the hell of adolescence magnified several times over by a pain of depression that could be eased.
- posted by Heidi @ 3:26 PM

 
Loving Hating Michael Riedel
- posted by Heidi @ 7:54 AM

 
Julia Roberts pregnant with twins

Who will run the MPAA?

Showtunes last night was fun, and even the newbies seemed to have a lot of fun. It was a little crowded because of the International Mr. Leather weekend, over which our favorite bartendeer was presiding (and therefore not bartending). It wasn't all of the usual clips--for better or worse--and some favorites had apparently been played before we got there. But unlike the last couple weeks, I let myself have more than one drink. So that was fun. I smell overwhelmingly like smoke this morning though, which is unpleasant.

and what in the world is wrong with Derek Lowe?
- posted by Heidi @ 8:15 AM