Here’s what pisses me right off.

Matt, who got a DUI, has paid thousands of dollars in fines for his court costs and will not have a license until August. He did not hurt anyone. He did not get in an accident. However, he was driving drunk. Do not do that. There are consequences for actions. I accept that.

But remember how fucked up the system is?

Evidently the consequences are much lighter if you’re a cop. Even if you get in an accident, which shears off a power line, which then falls on the road, causing about $10,000 in damages, while driving under the influence of alcohol and prescription sleep aids, you will get off with a Class B misdemeanor, which will not suspend your license and cost you less than $600 in fines, with no jail time, all while you’re on leave with pay.

This is why I am losing faith in the system.

Why girls are awesome.

*talking to coworker*

Me: I am having a hard time writing. And my butt hurts.

DarthByron: Oh, does it?

Me: Yes. I worked really hard at pole last night and my butt really hurts. Your butt would hurt too if you did the things that I was doing!

DB: I’m sure it would.

Me: That’s probably not the only thing that would hurt, though. Wrapping yourself around a pole is not really conducive to having male genitalia. Bad planning on god’s part, that whole external genitalia thing.

DB: I don’t think god was really taking pole dancing into consideration when he designed people.

Me: Good point.

An achievement.

When I get a wee bit on the drunky side, I inevitably make this face several times throughout the night.

Pursed lips, a hint of a smirk. I do not have a set of party pictures without at least one photo with this face, usually there are several.

But this weekend I got through an entire night without one picture like that!

See! Wouldn’t even know I had imbibed.

Winter is lame.

These were all taken in the last few weeks. It does not look this warm anymore. Boo.

A smattering of entertainment.

A principal in Massachusetts evidently has banned meeping at his school after students used the word to disrupt classes. He evidently had to do the ban because the students ignored requests to “Stop meeping.” Can you blame them?

Lady Gaga is insane. But I am totally in love with her new Bad Romance video. The message of the song, not so great. But the fetishized awesomeness is deeeelicious. For a relatively tame taste of the song you can watch from the beginning to 1:58. Also, with how bizarrely she dresses, I never realized how pretty she is I think this video shows that off.

I really admire this little kid, who refuses to say the pledge because of his belief that there is not liberty and justice for all in America. Of course his views are shaped in large part by his parents, but I still know very few children with character strong enough to think about a problem and come to what he sees as a logical conclusion. Props.

Anyone else getting annoyed with Pandora? Grooveshark is my new favity fav.

And this is why I don’t watch Fox News. No matter what Hannity says no one mistakenly uses two-month old archival footage. It was deliberate. And I really dislike their perpetual and purposeful distortion of the news. I know there are other journalists and media outlets which have a slant, but in my opinion Fox is the worst of the worst. I’m sick of them.

Finally, I give you a really lovely song that Andy told me to listen to. It’s a good one.

Here I am!

Weight Loss and General Healthiness Week 4.

Evidently I am destined to not look good in any of these pictures. That is my fault for taking them after my pole class though. I have just started a whole page for it and will keep adding to it, then put up a post for any of you interested in what’s going on.

I do want to clarify, based on some of the comments from my earlier post, that my aim is not just weight loss (although it would be nice to fit my clothes well again). But when I moved, I wasn’t getting out anymore. I wasn’t walking to school or the grocery store. I also had more money to buy yummy food and wasn’t going anywhere, so just kept eating the yummy food.

I have never been on a diet. I am not treating this as a diet, but an attempt, through a series of small changes, to become a healthier person permanently and feel better.

 

grumble grumble

There are articles I must write on the fly. Attending and reporting on an event within hours. Others I have days to craft and article. I try to make them better, more appealing. Lately I’ve been reading a book of award-winning journalism and have been trying to change my writing style and to become better, instead of settling for the mediocrity that is all to easy to slip into sometimes.

Which makes it more annoying when I find a few small word changes, nothing big, nothing to really get worked up about, but not what I wrote and subtly different from the words I had chosen. Editors are lame.

A world without internet.

At work, we have recently switched from one internet provider to another. On Monday it went down for almost seven hours. Today it was down for two. These are based on messages I sent to my coworker during the desolate internetless hour.

I have used the names of some people I worked with, but ended up changing them slightly, so as to not hurt feelings if anyone finds this, as it is all in good fun and not meant to be malicious.

day one: internet out

day two: internet still out.

day three: reporters restless. facebook use at standard-examiner at an all-time low.

day four: office filled with employees milling about, nattering to each other and bitching about internet being out.

day five: a grassroots no internet protest brewing among employees.

day 6 and 7: employees internet reservoirs filled by weekend internet home use.

day 8: IT dismayed to find internet still out. blame it on qwest. employees point out that it’s IT’s fault we have qwest.

day 9: blackberry and iphone usage skyrockets among s-e employees out of desperation to get out of internetless desolation.

day 10: internet on for an hour! employees scramble to check emails and blogs. internet goes out again. use of prescription anti-depressents in ogden triples.

day 11: amorie’s and nichole’s positions eliminated, as no use for internet people without internet. pickett suggests going back to comcast. IT refuses, saying qwest is just as good. they just need time to work out upgrade bugs.

day 12: in act of bravery and courage, di lewis leads revolution against IT and qwest in attempt to reinstate internet positions. negotiations begin with cuba johnson. lewis points out he must be commie dictator because of name. lewis suggests sanctions and tourism embargo. johnson and other IT employees barricade bottom floor. lewis begins siege.

days 13 and 14: employees somewhat mollified by weekend. lewis holds vigil at downstairs entrance, preventing supplies from getting to IT. in act of treachery, kate terry lowers supplies via the staircase.

day 15: IT now subsisting on stale candy bars and sugary drinks from vending machines. negotiations begin. publisher assures workers all will be fixed and asks people to remain calm. his office is looted in hopes of finding a verizon card to use in a laptop. looting mission unsuccessful and mutiny breaks out among the rebels. lewis barely manages to hold on to leadership positions. questions of government brutality arise and UN peacekeepers called in.

day 16: rebels receive word that amorie was rushed to the hospital today after taking too many anti-depressants. rebels point to her as poster child of qwest switch and beg for mutual understanding.

day 17: the paper has come to a halt as employees are totally unable to function without internet. eventually end up in gibbering piles on the floor because of existential questioning of purpose of life without internet, ability to live without technology, the future of the human race, pathetic evolution from hunter-gatherers into miserable piles of flesh unable to survive without highly processed foods and electrical impulses between glowing boxes.

day 18: morale at an all-time low. revolution at standstill. IT have begun digging tunnel to outside.

day 19: HURRAH! INTERNET BACK ON! all introspection and care for others forgotten! employees immediately return to life of mindless self-absorption and inanity.

This is late.

But I figure honoring veterans is a year-round thing, right?

I had to report on some stuff related to the opening of a new veteran’s home the other day. Several veteran’s turned out to watch the casting of a bell for a memorial tower.

You’re never more aware of the sacrifices people are making as a part of our military until you see a flag-draped coffin. Or until you see a crowd of men, some young, some old, some in uniform, others in jackets with Semper Fi emblazoned on the back and see the scar running down one man’s head and the leg another is missing and the toll it has taken on these men and women who gave their lives and their health and their youth to be a part of something larger.

My grandpa was in the Pacific. If the war had not ended, he would have been one of the first to invade Japan.

I just feel really honored that there are people willing to do things like this for me. For everyone.

Sometimes I wonder if I have just royally fucked up.

I began scrapbooking a bunch of Denmark stuff today.

Oddly it was not the pictures or the tickets or tour books which got to me.

It was a series of homemade postsecrets sent to me over the course of my time there that left me crying and messy on the floor.