*

BCS standings comments…

when did Hawaii get in the top 25??

when did vatech sneak all the way up to 14? and 2 above wake forest??

Tennessee is finally above cal again – there IS justice in the world

our 3 losses: #4, #5, #9 – too bad there are no asterisks in this life, only scoreboards…

(you heard that on Entourage)

I do not know how much I like the idea of us tentatively going to Outback bowl – as much as I like Outback and all, I do not like the prospect of being so frenzied at 11am on the first day of the new year. of course, new year’s days have never been my specialty..

florida st. is going to the Emerald bowl……… hahaha (yes I know we did not go to a bowl game last year, but still)

since we are apparently too stupid to go to playoffs yet, I vote for no rematch in champ game, even if usc loses to ucla. that would just be stupid. but.. florida or lsu in champ would be stupid too. we need a damn playoff!

soulsuck

just a quickie.

the Zales commercial is RUINING lives. something should be done.

Every time i hear that soulsuckingly awful vanessa whatsherface piano music, i think about how no one is going to buy me diamonds for Christmas.

And when guys hear the soulsuckingly awful vanessa music, they think about how much they do NOT want to buy diamonds for girls for Christmas but will probably be pressured to anyway.

And when girls hear the vanessa music, they think about how, even though they want diamonds, they do not want the crappy ones they show on the Zales commercials, but the strategically placed mall-display Yurman ones they saw, which they will pressure boy to buy for them, and boy will either: (a) hear the incessant soulsuck music playing in his head like broken record and accidentally buy a Zales diamond and be forbade sex for month of January, or (b) buy it and cause much bleeding of wallets and .. uh.. gnashing of teeth .. and stuff.

it's just soulsuckingly AWFUL (much due credit to rolling stone magazine for that phrase, which was used to describe clay aiken's new album).

to be sure, my unnamed friend who may be hoping for Yurman for certain occassion is NOT soulsuckingly awful and should get a Yurman since I am, to be sure, NOT.

vacant

so, i'm vacating. i guess the correct verb would be vacationing, but vacating seems more appropriate. Apartment, Charlotte, work, mind - all have vacancies if anyone's interested. the past 2 days have gone something like:

930 - wake up
10 - get out of bed
1005 - eat breakfast, read paper - front to back, including editorials, target and best buy ads, and completion of crossword, cryptic thing, and word jumble (my dad has reign over sudoku - if even 1 number is filled out, he gets pissed) . keep in mind this is JCity newspaper, so does not really take that long if i do not try to find all the grammatical errors.
1130 - work out
1230 - eat lunch (mom has made)
100 - shower (extortion of hot water)

besides that, i watch tv (have DVRed all of this week's south parks and family guys. i really need to get a DVR), read, check email, eat, and buy food with my mom's money.

i mean, i love to travel as much as anyone else, but THIS is what i call a vacation.

some random thoughts:

- i'm reading a book where, yet again, a Charlottean is portrayed as the dumb Southerner. i mean, really, these ppl must have never been to East Tennessee. our waitress at Ruby Tuesdays today asked my dad if he wanted a Millers Lite, and when my mom asked her for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, her face wrinkled up like we had just asked her why she believes in Jesus.

- if you ever watch football whilst running on a treadmill, remember to stay focused, because when the refs blow whistles to stop a play, it makes you want to stop, too.

talk about it

It's currently costing about $2,000,000,000 per week for the war in Iraq.
$104,000,000,000 per year.

In August the Senate failed to pass a bill to increase the minimum wage from the measly $5.15 to $7.25 per hour over the course of 3 years (albeit was coupled w/estate tax cut, so, a stupid political bill anyway).

$104 billion per year = 6,896,551 people paid an annual salary of $15,080 ($7.25 per hour).

$104 billion per year = 8,547,008 people paid an annual salary of $12,168 ($5.85 per hour - what the min wage increase would have been in the 1st year of enactment).

If you want to be more elite, $104B could be

• 7 million more scholarships to universities
• $5.2 million more funding to each of 20,000 public high schools
• money spent finding a cure for cancer.
  

About 1/4th of your income goes to pay taxes.

i'm just sayin...

and i won't go into calculations for the $300,000,000,000 that has already been spent.

i also like writing out all the zeroes, because they stare at me mockingly as i hear my ringtone in the background - yeah, it's all about the benjamins, baby.

red, independent, and blue

so, I know no one wants to hear my opinion on the election, so I’m not going to say anything. I’m just going to type it. you don’t have to listen.

you may have a lingering hunch that I’m a democrat through and thru considering the way I bash dubya through and thru. very very untrue. I am a staunch non-affiliate. proud of it, too, in the way that college GDIs are proud of not being Greek.

my beliefs, like (I believe) so many others really are, are not encompassed in one party or another. I’m very fiscally conservative (CPA, hey!), though I support an increase in minimum wage and do not (unlike my father) think all Dems are commies. I think women should ultimately be able to decide what they want to do with their bodies, but I also do not have a huge problem with people having guns (bullets kill, not guns.. – chris rock?).

The major problem I have with political parties is that definitive line of opinions. If you vote for a certain party, you vote for a whole ishload of things you may not 1- agree with, 2- care about, or 3- even know about. and so, democracy is flawed in the same way American Idol is flawed – stupid people vote for someone because he’s got nice hair, knows how to work the stage, and sleeps with one of the judges.

The other major problem I have with political parties – people, whether it’s because they had household influences or found religion or because they’re black or Mexican or gay or trust fund endowed or East Tennesseean, align themselves with one party or the other and constantly vote “straight down the party line” no matter what incompetent nincompoop is running on the ticket.

The thing I like about the parties – let’s take an analogy. Everyone loves an analogy. Jesus really loved analogies. There is a company. It is called, hypothetically, Coca Cola (red). It has a competitor. It is called, hypothetically, PepsiCo (blue). Coca Cola decides to start using toxic waste in its soda. PepsiCo calls them out on it and captures some of their market share. But then PepsiCo’s CEO gets caught with his dick in an intern’s mouth. Coca Cola publicizes the shit out of it, to the point that he finally gets fired, and they take some market share back.

See? In a word, accountability. Parties provide competition and, thus, accountability. Ahh, the capitalism of democracy. yesssss.

So, the election. In a word, glad. In a sentence, glad that the ads will stop and that laura bush and daryl waltrip will stop calling my mother’s house, glad the House is blue, don’t know how I feel about control over the Senate too. Political changes like this have a direct affect on my job – those damn taxes. While I don’t think anything major will happen in the next couple years, if a Dem wins the presidential race in 2008, then I can’t imagine what that will mean for tax reform. Just writing the word “tax” makes this too dry, though, so I stop.

we’ve still got our very own handpicked idiot in DC (or ranch) heading it all up; at least Condi finally, after many discreet notes were unheeded and accidentally used as TP, sat down with him for a while last night and told him to get rid of that scarlet letter Rumsfield:

"Seriously, George, you can't just keep wiping your ass with everything I say just because I'm a woman."
"But people laugh!"
"I know, George. I know."

life is easy

life is easy. because:

Monday
- was a bad day because I forgot to hold my breath for the whole walk through the stairwell in the parking garage (homeless urination hot spot. i know, v. gross. luckily, not proven)

Tuesday
- was a good day because I got one of my favorite parking spots in the garage – next to the lined-off no parking spots, where i am at ease knowing no one will open their car door into mine. into the left side anyway.

Wednesday
- was a bad day because it took 3 minutes longer to get out of the parking garage because everyone else with a life was trying to get in to park for the Bobcats’ opener

Thursday
- was a good day because I remembered to hold my breath through the stairwell. And I got free lunch. and football and new Office and new Grey are on tonight. ohh, very good day.