Please stop, you’re embarrassing our state.

———

I believe that there was a time when Rod Blagojevich started off as a good guy with the best interests of our state in mind, but I think in time he just got caught up in the greed and corruption that is Illinois politics. I’m sure he’s not the only one who’s dirty, and the things he’s done are probably minor to what others have done, but he got caught. I don’t understand how going on The View and the Larry King show, peddling out his story to the nation - most of whom don’t even live in the state that will be deciding his fate - could help him. He just keeps on saying the same things - “taken out of context”, “can’t call a witness”, “the big picture”, “not what the people want”. Let me tell you something, the people are tired of your mug on TV, I’m pretty sure if a vote was taken by the people, the very same ones who voted you in would vote you out just for the fact that you’ve been a complete tool during this whole thing.

Can’t wait til Saturday Night Live this weekend…it should be quite entertaining. How much you want to bet that there’s another Blagojevich spoof?

Tags: Whine and Cheese by Yano
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A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

Mrs. Harrington

Thanks to Stephanie for this!

Tags: Funnies by Yano
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“You must be the change you want to see in the world”
- Mahatma Gandhi

So, any thoughts on yesterday’s inauguration activities? I watched it after I dropped off Ben and started doing a little play by play, but then I had a conference call (right when they were swearing him in!) and then had to work so I really only did it for the first hour or so. All in all, I am so happy that there was such an incredible turnout. I sat here, in/on my office/couch watching history being made. There were a lot of motions that I felt, that I’m sure a lot of my fellow Americans felt - pride, happiness, hope, amazement…I am looking forward to the next four years. I know it’s not going to change overnight, but I have a feeling that things are going to get better.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts:

• George H. Bush is really getting old. He’s my preferred Bush president. It’s a little saddening to see him struggling to get on the stage.
• Jimmy Carter is still lookin’ good. He kinda reminds of Jerry Lewis for some reason.
• I met Rahm Emanuel once. He was INTENSE, like he was looking into my soul. He was campaigning to be a congressman at my train station, shaking hands with people passing by. He made sure to look everyone in the eye as they shook their hand. Friendly, but you got the feeling that he could make you spontaneously combust with just a look.
• The Bush daughters are lookin’ good. The open letter that they wrote to the Obama daughters was sweet.
• Am I the only one who is completely enchanted by how cute and well behaved Malia and Sasha Obama are?

• I know that Rick Warren was a controversial choice to do the invocation, but when I listened to his words I felt that it could have been applied to all people - regardless of age, race or sexual orientation.
• What the heck was that on Aretha Franklin’s head?
• Was that an encyclopedia that Joe Biden did his oath on?
• Nice to see that Itzhak Perlman is still alive and kickin’.
• I had an 11am call with a client, the same time that Obama was being sworn in. Once we got on the call, they were like, “Can we make this fast so we can get back to our desktops and watch the inauguration?”
• I think it was really moving to see Michelle Obama, the descendant of slaves, standing next to her husband as he said the oath to become the President of the United States, holding the bible of the man who freed her ancestors
• I was really surprised at how short the oath of office was. You blink and the thing’s over. Then again, it was a few seconds longer because Chief Justice John Roberts switched around the words to the oath and Obama had obviously memorized them, then got thrown off when they were switched around.
• Goodbye, George Bush…I’ll miss watching your speeches and laughing with Dave, saying to ourselves, “What a goofball!”.

• I wasn’t as wowed by Obama’s inaugural speech as I thought I would be. It was a good speech, but it didn’t floor me like his DNC 2004 Keynote speech did. There were several memorable lines, my favorite being - “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
• I envy those people who made the trip there to witness history. However, I’m kinda glad I watched it from my couch, in my heated home, as well.
• I watched CNN’s coverage, and as the day wore on, started getting really annoyed when they all started talking over each other.
• With that said, did anyone catch when CNN had Quincy Jones on the phone, and Campbell Brown had a question - when they said she had a question, the first thing Quincy said was something like, “You’re a pretty little thing…” and you could hear the CNN guys laughing and Campbell get flustered. After that, the whole thing went down the drain because he wasn’t listening to her question and one of the guys ended up asking Quincy the question for her.
• Everyone’s been talking about Michelle Obama’s style - I think her daytime dress was great for a first lady, but I’ve seen her wear better. I guess I was expecting a little more “wow!”

• Jill Biden, however, was sassy in her red coat and go go boots

• It was pretty cool (though pretty risky) that the Obamas came out of their car so many times on their way to the parade. I’m sure that they understood how far people had come and how much the moment meant to them.
• I have a feeling that Joe Biden feels like a rock star right now, and he loves it!
• Am I the only one who thought it was awesome that Obama threw up the shaka as the Punahou marching band from Hawaii passed?

• Big props to my ol’ college chum Vernon, who marched in the parade with the Gay and Lesbian Band Association, the first time that any association for gays and lesbians had marched in the inaugural parade. Way to go, Vern!
• At first I didn’t like Michelle Obama’s inaugural ball gown, but when she stood straight she looked elegant in it, which won me over.

• I’m so happy that we’ve got people leading our country who can dance. Well, at least Michelle does. Barack tries, but you know Michelle’s the one with the moves. Their first dance was beautifully done by Beyonce, who got teary eyed at the end when she realized how incredible the occasion was, which, of course, got me teary eyed.

Ahh…I think that’s about all I have. Today was a long, amazing day. I have such hope for the future of this country, as well as for the citizens that live in it. We are recharged, we are excited about what lies before us, and although we are in hard times, we all have the feeling that together we can climb out of this dark pit into the light.

Yes…yes we can.



Tags: Reviews by Yano
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Today during work I got an email from a coworker where she was announcing that she was leaving the company and saying goodbye to the people she had worked with in the email. She was someone that had worked with me on one of my big projects, and even though we’re not in the same department anymore, we still chat every now and then. We even partied it up when I was in Seattle a couple years ago. So I was a little sad to hear that she was leaving, so I wrote her back an email saying how much I’ll miss her and how she’s one of the few people I still keep in touch with “on the other side”.

To my horror, right after I clicked on the “Send” button, I had realized that instead of hitting “Reply”, I had hit “Reply all”. I went into a panic. I looked at the recipient list and saw that there about 50 names on there, peers in my old department, managers, department heads and a vice president of the company. I became “that guy”…you know, the person who replies to everyone with stupid crap like, “Yeah, me too!” or “OK” - stuff that they should have just replied to the original sender. The guy who doesn’t care that they’re clogging up your email box with their email that’s really meant for one person.

I debated on replying to everyone again and saying “Oops, sorry!” but that would have just made it worse. I was using webmail, so I couldn’t recall the email (and really, recalling an email doesn’t prevent people from seeing it - once it’s sent, it’s sent!). So I just gave up and stewed in my own embarrassment.

Now I’m totally going to be paranoid with every email I send, checking to see who it’s being sent to.

Never again!

Tags: Whine and Cheese by Yano
3 Comments »

Lotus (51/365), originally uploaded by Yano.

I love it!

Tags: Uncategorized by Yano
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Dave’s cell phone finally crapped out, not allowing anyone on the other end to hear what he was saying. It’s several years old, and the antenna had been broken, the front display all weird and psychedelic, and it was not allowing him to text message. So we headed out to the store to go and find him a nice, cheap replacement. Because he doesn’t really browse the internet, he doesn’t take pictures, he has an iPod, so he doesn’t really need a lot of bells and whistles. The main requirement was that it was small enough that he could use it for work and that he could do text messaging because I’m tired of getting his voicemail message when he’s in a part of the hospital with no signal.

So we were at the store and debating on a couple simple flip phones that were similar to the one he already has. I was curious about what other phones are out now, and thinking that it’s about time that I consider changing my phone, when I came across this little beauty, the LG Lotus:

I loved it as soon as I saw it. A voice in my head screamed, “YOU WILL BE MINE! YOU MUST BE MINE!”. It was so pretty and purple, with a QWERTY keyboard and a lovely, bright display screen. I touched it, to make sure it wasn’t a dream. I stood there testing out my texting skills, seeing what the internet looked like on it, pretending like it was mine already. Then Dave came by, looked at it, and said, “Ohh, that’s cool! I think that would be perfect for me!” That voice inside me growled, like a lioness guarding her cubs, “Don’t touch her! She’s MINE! MINE, I SAY!” but I managed to say, “Oh, really? Howabout the other phones?”

“This one is a lot thinner, and it’s got a keyboard that will be easier to text with. It’s so light, too!”

Hmm. I replied, “But it’s purple. With flowers.”

“Well, they probably have it in other colors, don’t you think?” he said.

“I don’t know…it might just be in purple.” I said.

So Dave asked the sales guy if it came in any other colors, and was told that it comes in black. “I’ll take that one!” Dave said…

“The black one doesn’t have flowers, does it?” I asked, because really, they could have had a black version with flowers. Dave and the sales guy thought my question was laughable. Really, they laughed out loud.

So Dave bought my dream phone. But my heart will go on - I’m going back there tomorrow to get the sweet purple version. I just need to get all my old texts and stuff off my current phone.

Ahh, my current phone…My precious little MotoQ. He’s been a great little guy. He’ll probably be going to my mother-in-law (unless one of you guys has Sprint and wants to buy him off me)

Mmmm….I can’t wait til I get my new phone!

Tags: Product Pimping by Yano
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On New Year’s Day, me, Marilyn and Fatima had a mini photoshoot with Ben and Jacob. It was much easier to pose both of them than it is when I take solo pictures of Ben - I think because they were having fun impersonating each other. Fatima and Marilyn probably have more pics than I do, since I was talking to the boys and taking pictures at the same time. The prom pose that they did kills me every time I see it. If only Maui knew what we were doing with his son when we were on the second floor!

It’s really obvious how tiny Ben is compared to Jacob - Jacob’s 2 months younger than Ben and has a couple inches and 10 lbs over him!

Tags: Photography, Ben by Yano
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I am addicted to a Japanese fashion virtual dress up site called PoupéeGirl. I was introduced to Poupée by someone follow on DeviantArt who had asked if anyone had an account and I was curious what it was she was talking about. Basically, it’s a site where you get your own avatar/doll that you can dress up in different outfits.

Before I go on, let me state that I’m probably one of the most unfashionable people out there. Outside of my collection of lipglosses, I really don’t keep up with the latest trends or wear “cool” clothes. My work outfit consists of a t-shirt and lounge pants since I work at home, and if I do go out, it’s usually in a t-shirt and jeans.

But this site is totally addicting. To start, you get to pick out characteristics for your doll - eyes, hair, skin color…very much like creating a Mii avatar for the Wii. After that, you can dress up your doll - to start off with, they give you some basics…slim jeans, white blouse, black pumps, slim black skirt, etc. There are several ways you can get more clothes - by uploading pictures of fashion items (shirts, hats, makeup, shoes, etc) that belong to you, purchasing items in the market where people are selling clothes they don’t want, or exchanging shells that you get when visiting other user’s profiles. Poupée has it’s own currency, called “ribbons”. You get ribbons for dressing your avatar every day, commenting on other user’s uploaded items, selling the items your don’t need anymore, or, if you’re desperate, you can buy them. You can then use these ribbons to buy clothes - either from the market or from the shop that has really nice items for a limited time (they just had a kimono event - which is what my Poupée is wearing). I admit…I’ve purchased ribbons - not only do you get ribbons, but you get bonuses when you purchase. Pretty smart business people, whoever started this Poupée.

Here’s a few of the outfits that my Poupée has worn so far (I’ve been a member since late November):

Now the hardest thing with the site (other than wanting to buy EVERYTHING in the market and not having enough ribbons) is that since it’s a Japanese company, a lot of the site is in Japanese. They’ve been slowly translating the site to English since they’ve been getting so many international members, but I’ve been using Babelfish a lot lately! Especially when other members who are Japanese send messages. Luckily, there are a lot of English sites out there that provide translations and forums to help us non-Japanese out. One of them is a community on livejournal. They provide a pretty good FAQ that gives some tips on using the site and what not to do.

Basically what I do with whatever extra time I’ve had lately is surf around Poupée, commenting on people’s items, collecting ribbons and shells, going to the market and buying virtual outfits for my virtual doll…she gets to wear clothes that I’d never wear in real life!

So…if you’d like to join, just post a comment here (make sure you enter your email) and I’ll send you an invite. You could join on your own, but if I invite you, you get a free article of clothing (I have no idea what it is this month) when you accept my invitation. It’s not a real article of clothing - it’s just virtual. *wink*

Chances are, I may post some more of my virtual outfits, just because some of the stuff is so damn cute…I think. As I said, I have no idea what’s fashionable, but I like to pretend!

Tags: Product Pimping, Reviews, Cool Link by Yano
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