I've been quiet here lately, though I've been posting things on Facebook a bit. I seem to lack multi-paragraph thoughts of late. Work has been hectic and I blame some of it on that. I did try to embed a Comedy Central clip here, but for whatever reason, it didn't work and I gave up and posted it on Facebook and Twitter. Jon Stewart did a wicked parody of Glenn Beck. Actually, I haven't watched Glenn Beck's show (just insane clips of it), but Cliff has and said Jon didn't so much parody him but flat out copied Beck's insanity for laughs. That's kinda scary, but then I suppose the tea baggers are kinda scary, too.

Twitter steals the germs of an idea for posts. I twitter quick thoughts and then before I get a head of steam for an LJ entry it feels like I've already done it.

Over the weekend, I twittered about Mariah Carey's new song Obsessed. She uses auto-tune on it. Why the hell is Mariah Carey using auto-tune? If she wants to be one of the cool kids, she's awfully late to be jumping on that bandwagon. Plus, I tend to associate auto-tune, even super obvious auto-tune, with "singers" who can't really sing. It seems so gimmicky and faddish. I'm not really a Carey fan, but it seems like something she ought to not stoop to. Can you imagine Whitney Houston, Celine Dion or Barbra Streisand using auto-tune?

I saw Men Who Stare at Goats over the weekend. It's was funny, but I'd only give it a B-. I won't spoil it, but the movie wouldn't be nearly as funny without the casting of Ewan McGreggor. Ewan McGreggor played a straight character around loony characters, but the things they made him say with a straight face! It wasn't always the strength of the script so much, but *Ewan McGreggor's* resume. It NEVER stopped being funny. However, if you didn't know who McGreggor was, a chunk of the humor would be lost. I'm thinking this movie will not stand the test of time because of this. However, my buddy and I giggled through all the references. Sorry to be cryptic, but I don't want to spoil.

Cliff and I watched Watchmen, the director's cut, this weekend on Comcast. We skipped the theatrical version. The director's cut clocked in at about 3 hours. It was an interesting, dark alternate look at superheroes and the mid to late 20th century. Imagine if we had superheroes working for us in WWII and Vietnam, etc. Imagine if some "superheroes" were just sociopaths that worked for the US. I didn't care for the ending, but it still had plenty of ideas to think about. I do feel the movie is flawed, but still has much to recommend it.

Finally, I wanted to mention tv stuff. Saw V last week. The pilot was decent, but they need to up their game character-wise. I didn't really emotionally bond to anyone. I think future episodes can do this, but if V doesn't get me emotionally involved, I'll forget to tune in.

I'm watching Farscape, too. I'm deep into season 3. It's entertaining and I'm enjoying it, but it's not a *focus* level show. Characters die and there's no great angst. There are multiple irritating characters. There's a big romance brewing between John Crichton and Aeryn Sun and I just can't get to the level of shipping them. It's like, well I can see they-are-going-to-be/are together, but I'm not passionate about it. I guess Crichton and Aeryn just aren't EPIC like Mulder/Scully or even Doctor/Rose. I'm more interested in the dynamic between Crichton and Scorpius (the big baddie).

Jeez, this ended up being long.

Happy Birthday to likebunnies!

Better late in the day than never!

I always have the best (read: most intense) walks on Monday mornings. It's usually Tuesday that the pain seems to get in the way. Though my Monday afternoon walk gave a pretty good preview of what Tuesday might bring. I'm currently rolling a frozen water bottle under my heel.

Cliff and I went to Foot Solutions on Friday and spent quite a bit. Cliff insisted that I get custom orthotic shoe inserts for my birthday. The walking shoes were more than I'm used to paying for any type of shoe, but they felt like walking on pillows. They didn't have wide, so they had to be special ordered. I'll be getting the shoes when the orthotic inserts arrive. I wish I already had them.

It was fun to have my feet analyzed. Two different machines were used and I had to walk for the Foot Solutions guy to see if I pronate or supinate. I do neither for the record. When I stood on the machine that measured where I put the most weight/pressure, my right foot looked like a severe thunderstorm on Doppler radar with all the reds and yellows. My left foot was more sedate with more browns and blues, though, not without its own share of reds and yellows.

It was a little bit surprising to learn I have somewhat high arches. I didn't think I had "flat feet", but still. My right foot has a higher arch than the left per the machines.

I'm getting the orthotics for both feet. I don't think doing one foot was even an option. I'm hoping that the one for my left foot will help with my left knee. I was taking Celebrex originally for the knee. The knee was getting a bit chronic and I can still feel the occasional twinge, though Celebrex does do a decent job of squelching the pain. I still get tight calves, even though I stretch before walking.

I'm hoping doing all this will fix my various aches and pains while walking. Heck, grocery shopping will get my feet to aching. The Foot Solutions guy said I should wear the inserts all the time, but only my walking shoes will have the removable sole at first. I plan on taking my walking shoes home for grocery trips and eventually buying other shoes with removable soles.

So, I'm hoping this is going to be a happy ending to all of this bother.

I told my husband that I wanted my feet fitted/measured/analyzed for a new pair of walking shoes for my birthday. I found Foot Solutions and we're going on Friday. I'm kinda excited.

I've been religiously icing my heel after walks and in the evening since last week. I have over the counter shoe inserts in the shoes I walk in. I hesitate to report any good news in case of jinxing myself, but this morning, the heel pain didn't seem as bad. I'm still taking Celebrex 'cause the pain isn't gone, but at least the pain seems to be going in the right direction.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will get better.

I had spoken a bit prematurely about my plantar fasciitis slowly getting better. I should always hesitate with the glowing optimism until the end of the week. I went to the doctor and he cursorily looked at my foot and I got a small 3 day prescription for prednisone after I said Celebrex wasn't doing the trick. He recommended some basic stuff I'd already read on Google. He didn't examine how I walk or ponder any causes. He just recommended a heel cup, which I had already done. Well, I take it back, he did recommend freezing a water bottle and rolling it under my foot. I wasn't already doing that.

Sigh. I'm on the last day of the prednisone and it's calmed the heel pain quite a bit, but not completely. I'm definitely going back on the Celebrex when I finish. I have nearly a month's supply at home. Until the pain goes away, I will be taking whatever I have access to. I won't mourn the end of the prednisone despite its higher efficacy because it's supposed to raise blood glucose. I haven't been testing my blood lately, I must admit. I should probably test tonight and see how it has affected my blood sugar.

I don't know if I have unrealistic expectations of what doctor-patient interaction should be, but it seems that I'm not impressed by the most of doctors I've seen. My gynecologist is the shining exception to that rule. I've never felt like a number or just another chore in her office. Most doctors, especially my PCP, seem to be a speed bump to the pharmacy.

This summer I've been suffering from heel pain. I've actually been suffering a little knee pain as well, but a prescription of Celebrex kept it from affecting my walk schedule. However, the heel pain broke through the Celebrex and disrupted my walking schedule for about 2-3 weeks. It maybe wouldn't have lasted that long, but I only stopped my morning walk and kept to my afternoon walks with a co-worker and didn't rest my heel completely. I didn't want to risk getting out of the habit of exercise. Even after 2 years of walking, it seems all too easy to lose the habit.

I diagnosed myself with plantar fasciitis after lengthy consulting of the intarwebs about 4-6 weeks ago. I still think the diagnosis is probably correct and was probably touched off by walking in shoes that should have been long retired. I think there were other issues, but that was the spark. The pain is ~*slowly*~ subsiding, so I don't think I have a bone spur.

The right foot is the one with plantar fasciitis. Anything connected with my right side automatically makes me wonder if my stroke is involved somehow. I already noticed that even though I seem 99.5% recovered from my stroke, there is a subtle strength difference between my left and right side. Nothing obvious, but if put to the test...

Pain makes one closely observe how the body is actually functioning. I noticed that my two feet walk differently in shoes. My sandal wants to slide outward from underneath my right foot. That has made me suspect that my right foot might need arch support. I'm walking in shoes that have slightly more arch support, but I need to go to a fancy sports shoe store and get fitted. I think my right (but not my left) foot is pronated (foot rolls inward when I walk). I really have no idea if my right foot always did that, or whether it's a lost strength issue from my stroke.

Speaking of strokes, an employee from the the department next door had a stroke last Thursday. She's a bit more age appropriate for a stroke than I was, but still only in her 50's. She had her stroke in the evening, but her son didn't take her to the hospital until the next morning. That detail made me wince. That's too late to get the clot-busting drug tPA. I really feel that tPA reduced the damage and made my recovery quicker. I wish her a speedy recovery. I know she's got a lot ahead of her.

Next month, on October 21, will be the second anniversary of my stroke. I just listened to the voice post I made in November after my stroke. How glad am I that speaking is not that hard anymore? Very!

I'm beginning to think that the tea baggers do not have a shred of self awareness.

Yeah ma'am, that's a knee slapper! However, you forgot Obama is the Muslim Hitler communist fascist socialist! And the incontrovertible fact that Obama will take your guns and drive you to FEMA concentration camps before he sends you to the DEATH PANELS!

Is your heart really into it? I hope you're shovel ready!





Um, yeah.

It's been in the news for awhile, but I have to admit that I'm a bit amused by the reality star murder-suicide. That sounds morbid, but stay with me here.

Presumably, reality contestant millionaire husband becomes enraged with his swimsuit model wife in L.A. He beats and strangles her. He freaks out about what he's done and how to avoid being caught. He doesn't go the traditional route of burying her in a shallow grave in a remote location. Sure, it's worked for homicidal drifters for years, but I guess the guy didn't want to do all that driving.

Somehow, the husband thinks the better route is to undertake the grisly task of removing his wife's teeth and fingers to keep police from identifying her. Then he stuffs her in a suitcase and drops her in a dumpster.

If you weren't traumatized by the fact you killed your wife, I would think REMOVING THE TEETH from a CORPSE would do it. Just saying that sounds like hard, gross work. But what do I know? I'm just saying that a long drive with a shovel and corpse in the trunk seems preferable.

Whew! Job done! But wait, the cops find the body fairly quickly. But that's okay, the douche presumably thinks. They won't be able to identify the body. The coast is clear... 'till they identify the body by the serial numbers on her BREAST IMPLANTS!

:insert dramatic accusatory music here:

The douche's suicide in Canada a few days later is practically anti-climatic. Though, I gotta say he didn't pick the easiest route to do that either. He hung himself with his belt in a hotel room closet. That's a prisoner's suicide. Why not just buy a gun and blow your brains out at home? Slit his wrists in the bath? He didn't do much traveling to cover up the crime, but went hundreds of miles to hang himself on his own belt in a closet.

So yeah, tragedy. We've heard so many similar tragedies that I'm jaded. However, the odyssey that this dirtbag millionaire reality tv contestant went through? Dark comedy.

Best of all for this famewhore? He's been pushed off the news cycle by Michael Jackson. Somehow, MJ is still dead with the added bonus that someone might be charged with murder. *shakes head*

I'm cynically amused.

I just received a photocopied memorandum in inter-institutional mail. The memo is to our department head from the Chair of another department. It's not an aged document as it's dated July 30 and meant to relay current status. Others are cc'd on it, yet we get a copy and not the original. o_O I might suspect sending out the copy was a mistake, but this is the second time they've done it. Even *if* they're using photocopies of their letterhead for memos, the signature is clearly photocopied.

Ignoring that glaring piece of wtf, why the hell would they send a paper copy of routine communication through inter-institutional mail? Is email too newfangled for them? Faxing too fast? I'm surprised the memo wasn't composed on a typewriter. Though, it's clear that the table in the memo was made using TABS (and dashes for lines) in an inexpert manner.

I asked my boss how old the Chair and his assistant were. Were they in their 80's? Were they stuck in a pre-2000 time period and communicating from the past? Unfortunately, my boss didn't know.

I'm guessing they take high school dropouts.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200907270040

Fox News graphics department has shaky grasp of Mideast geography

July 27, 2009 5:28 pm ET by Media Matters staff
From the July 27 edition of Fox News' The Live Desk (hat tip to Twitter user StefanoScalia)



The comments at the source are good. My favorite?

"At least they didn't label any of those countries with "(D)". Congrats"

If you would like to friend me on Facebook, I'm at http://www.facebook.com/binah1013

This post was brought on by two occurrences this week. First, I was pleasantly surprised by a mascara I tried. Secondly, I was severely dismayed when a container of green eyeshadow broke in my purse. I guess my purse wanted to experiment with camouflage. Though, dusty dark green keys are quite unpleasant. I've been wiping down items in my purse for two days.

Back to mascara. I have been blessed with long eyelashes, but they are blonde. Without mascara, it is difficult to see what I've been blessed with. As such, mascara is my makeup essential. If you told me I could only use one makeup item for the rest of my life, it would be mascara. I know many would say foundation, but I just don't use it on a daily basis. Powder and occasionally concealer work fine for me. I guess I'm paranoid of the ugly foundation line I occasionally see on the jaw line of women. *shudder*

So yeah, mascara is it for me. I experimented a lot in my teens/early twenties with mascara and was aided by my sister who worked at an Estee Lauder counter and frequently got freebies of all brands. I adored a mascara by Christian Dior, but I wasn't going to pay $27/btl. I tried the old standard, beloved by makeup artists, Maybelline Great Lash and was not impressed. I ended up gravitating towards CoverGirl Professional with the curved brush. Shame that CG Pro doesn't do anything beyond the black-brown spectrum. I like a good navy or plum mascara.

These new mascaras that have plastic bristles kinda got me back in the experimenting with drugstore brands. I tried one that had big bristles last year, but I was appalled. I tried Great Lash again and it still sucked. I tried CG Fantastic Lash and it was okay, but not better than my tried and true CG Pro.

Over the weekend, I gave another plastic bristle mascara a chance. The bristles were smaller. I picked up CG Exact Eyelights in Black Sapphire for blue eyes. My eyes are a muddy mix of blue-green-gray, so I could have picked Ruby Black for green eyes just as easily. They didn't have a color for indeterminate, but not brown. I've been wearing gray shadow lately, so blue seemed a natural choice.

The color is a little bit of a fraud (a slight metallic glimmer), but the mascara did a fabulous job. I gotta say it's knocked CG Pro from the reasonably priced leaderboard. Of course that means the line will probably die a premature death. I'm lucky that way. :/ But it has sold me on plastic bristles. I don't think I'll go back to CG Pro.

What's your makeup essential and favorite brand?

Facebook and Twitter have been stealing my time away from LJ. By the time I think of writing an entry, I've already posted the one liner seeds for a post on Twitter.

I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, but it seems I decided on Torchwood. I thought it would be more wide ranging, but there you have it.

I finally watched Torchwood: Children of Earth. ( Cut for spoilers )

Is an icon well designed if you have to spend a bit squinting at it to make out all the details?

I'm listening to Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri on my commute. It's a book of short stories. What seems to be a common thread, other than the children of Indian immigrants marrying Caucasian Americans with all the cultural compromise that implies, is the pervading malaise of all the marriages portrayed. All last week it was all about how parents' arranged marriages were essentially genial, but loveless. The children's love marriages were on fine on the surface (most of 'em, at least), but underneath somewhat unsatisfying.

Then, the weekend came and we watched Waitress on HBO on Demand. ARRG. Waitress is fine enough movie, but again it was all about less than satisfying marriages. In the titular role, Keri Russell plays a woman in a decidedly unhappy marriage with an unhappily unexpected pregnancy. The people around her also make marriage seem bleak. The movie ends on a relatively happy note, but it certainly is no endorsement of marriage.

I also happen to be watching Six Feet Under. Last night, I watched the S3 season opener. There is one relatively healthy marriage on SFU, but SFU is littered with flawed marriages and relationships.

Granted, I've seen my share of unhappy marriages in my life. I'm not saying these artistic endeavors are unrealistic or bad. However, happy marriages are not a myth. I guess happy marriages don't make for good drama. But damn, I think I need some happy fluff.

I have realized over the last two weeks that my right side is still weaker than my left side in the wake of my stroke a year and a half ago. I don't think it's noticeable in normal day to day activities. It's not noticeable during my walks. What made the last two weeks different is that I spent a little time on some exercise equipment.

Two weekends ago, I did a 5 minute stint on Kim's elliptical machine. The next day, when going down stairs on my walk, I had slight soreness in my right thigh. Nothing major, just noticeable. At the time, I just made fun of myself that doing so little had a lingering effect. I didn't dwell on it.

Last weekend, I did some arm pulls on Lynda's little home gym thingie. My left arm handled the pulls just fine. My right arm was demonstratively weaker. After maybe a dozen pulls, my right arm shook with the effort.

I guess I'm trying to decide if this weakness is really an issue. Though, I will admit that its existence bothers me now that I know about it. If I had access to equipment at my house, I'd be working on strength exercises targeting my right side. However, I'm not going to join a gym or buy equipment. I guess I could look for exercises I can do by myself.

I think what's really bothering me is that it's the stroke rearing its ugly head. Other than pills and messier handwriting, I kinda thought that I was basically done with it. This pops up and makes me realize that the effects of the stroke are hanging on in the background, whether I want to acknowledge it or not.

See icon. Cliff quoted that scene after he read about David Carradine's death.

Cliff got laid off yesterday. His company cut 21 jobs, mostly in the Houston office but a few in Dallas. His office maybe has 100 employees. Cliff's supervisor got laid off, too. Cliff gets a 5-week severance package plus his accumulated vacation. Then, of course, he's eligible for unemployment.

Last time he was out of work (mid 2001-early 2003), it was a looong 2 years. I think we're in better shape this time. He's got more marketable skills and I make 10K more than back then. Last time, there was no severance and no unemployment. Of course, last time we didn't have a car payment and the mortgage payment was less before we refinanced the house last year. The last payment for the car note is January.

I hope Cliff can find a job soon, but we can't be sure. But we've done this before and Cliff makes an excellent housewife! Cliff is bummed, but the house will be cleaner than ever. Though, he might have to switch to Claritin D since he'll be home with the kitties every day.

Still, this sucks.