and once again with the testing

i have nothing to say, i just like playing with rss and javascript.

On the Oscars

I hate the Oscars. Not the show. Not awards in general. No, I hate the way it turns me against the nominated movies.

I don't go to the movies much, and my Netflix queue is a mile long. So it's rare that I've seen many nominated films when the awards are actually given out. But it's also rare that I want to. Even before the nominations come out, I have this immediate, irrational distaste for "prestige movies." If something has even the faintest smell of Oscar-bait, I'm out. And after the nominations, forget it. I just assume it's pretentious and over-hyped and I don't want to see it.

While that's probably true of Benjamin Button, I'd probably like Milk and Slumdog and Revolutionary Road. But now I hate them, just because.

I do enjoy a good musical montage though!

Caveat Emptor

Hey! Um, so I haven't blogged in quite a while, huh? I thought it had been longer, actually, but I did have to look to find that out. I've been feeling like getting back to it again lately, I'm not sure why. I've considered posting about shaving cream, Twitter, and video game boss fights, but of course, I'm back with a rant.

I was listening to Planet Money (which is amazing and you should all listen to it especially if you don't think you care about politics and the economy and don't know what's going on) and an otherwise very smart-sounding economist said something about people losing their homes "through no fault of their own" and I nearly threw my iPod out the window.

I've come close to blogging about this many times, but I thought, "Hey, I'm not that smart, I must be missing something." But I don't think I am.

Look, I know that lenders and brokers were "predatory," and I know that anyone who bought a home two years ago or so couldn't reasonably expect the bottom to drop out so dramatically. But what ever happened to "buyer beware?" Whatever happened to reading the fine print? To understand what you're signing when you're borrowing thousands of dollars? Especially the part about how the interest rate can change?

We need money education in this country almost as much as we need sex education. Maybe we can combine them. "Condoms cost less than babies!" College kids need to know that a credit card is not free money. Grown-ups need to learn that no one's going to just give you a house. There's nothing wrong with debt. Debt is useful. Debt can be a gift. But it is, by definition, something you have to pay back.

When Boy and I bought our apartment, we opted for a fixed-rate mortgage because, well, it's fixed. Our interest rate was higher than it would have been if we'd done an adjustable, but an adjustable, well, adjusts. And it does so unpredictably. We understood this in 2004, because we'd done our research. A higher rate now was worth less risk later. We knew going in what our payments would be, and we knew that if we did nothing, they would never change. We knew we could afford them. And that they won't go up, so as our salaries (hopefully) do, and the overall cost of living increases, their value will lower. We also, for various reasons, had to take a no-income-verification loan. The bank took a chance based on my good credit rating (unlike later, when they started taking chances based on nothing at all). But again, we knew we could afford it, or we wouldn't have done it. Because otherwise we'd be homeless.

Now, I should say that we had a fabulous, smart, ethical mortgage broker, which I know was the opposite of the case in all these sub-prime schemes. And those people should be punished. But I still don't see how that lets the borrowers off the hook. When I spend or borrow lots of money, it's as much my responsibility to do my homework as it is the salesman or lender's not to con me.

The situation has escalated, and is dire, and has so many effects elsewhere – I'm not saying I'm against bailouts or assistance (though I'm not saying I'm for them, either), I'm just saying "through no fault of their own" is bullshit.

Tell me why oh why are my genetics such a bitch

I have a playlist that i constantly change with whatever my favorite songs are at the moment.

Right now it's about 90% Repo! The Genetic Opera, Rock of Ages and High School Musical 3.

What does that say about me as a person?

Seriously?

Other People Say Things Better Than I Do

DVR Break-Up: Heroes

I'm not quite at the break-up stage yet, but I couldn't have said it better myself.

Word. Dope, even.

More 90210 memories, from The Ben Stiller Show. Jeanine Garafolo's Doherty is beyond genius.

Sort Of Live-Blogging 90210: I Have Questions

The original Beverly Hills 90210 is weirdly important to me. It wasn't just the beginning of my ever-more-inappropriate-as-I-get-older obsession with teen soaps. I'm the same age as the characters (after they did a year twice), and during my senior year every major high school event in my real life synced up with the show. The prom episode aired the week of my prom; Donna Martin graduated the week of my graduation. It's not like 90210 had any relation to reality, but in my memory we all watched it. Teachers watched it. We were strangely invested. So while I only watched sporadically after that season (and what I did see pretty much sucked), I will always have a deep and bizarre affection for the show.

So I was both nervous and excited for the new version. The genre has been done so much better since 90210 invented it, I couldn't imagine how a remake could be anything other than either stale or a Gossip Girl rip-off. And I was sort of right, but I got totally sucked in and strangely enjoyed it anyway. I also had lots of questions, so I found myself live-blogging it. Unfortunately, real life kept me from watching the 2-hour premiere in one shot, so "live" is a relative term. But here it is!



I love the reference, but how can Andrea Zuckerman's daughter possibly be in high school? I didn't watch much of the college years, but I figure the earliest that child could have been born was 1995, right? Maybe she skipped a grade? Just weird. And why would a teacher say "How old is that girl, 30?" Poor Gabrielle Carteras.

I know they're trying to shock us, but who gets a blowjob in their car in the parking lot in FRONT of the school at the beginning of the day? There are people EVERYWHERE. Even Chuck Bass wouldn't go there. Well, unless he wanted to get caught.

Why does a public school have a board? Like I don't think it's the school board, it sounds like a board of directors.

Theme song! FINALLY! Oh, this kind of blows.

How did I not know Rob Thomas is behind this? No wonder it doesn't completely suck. Yet. Let's hope a future plot involves a sassy girl detective.

Okay, I'm relieved to see that blowjob boy is in fact kind of a moron. At least it's a consistent character trait.

Oh, duh, "Silver." David and Kelly's half-each-sister. Aw.

Has Joe E. Tata done ANYTHING in the last 10 years? For that matter, has Nat? At least with Kelly (and from what I've read, Brenda) the actors have done some stuff and they've also made an effort to write some mostly believable growing up and moving on with their lives into the characters. Nat, apparently, is completely unchanged. I suppose that should be a comfort but instead it's just kind of sad. He's like the Mr. Belding of Beverly Hills.

Oh I'm so glad the "cool" teacher who's also the lacrosse coach (presumably he's the only teacher we'll ever see) just made a homophobic comment during practice. That's classy, guys.

"Why don't I drive you home and we can swap stories about his penis?" Heh.

Um, yeah, there is no chorus in Spring Awakening. There's so much disbelief to suspend here, but this is what I'm choosing to be bothered by. Also, what the fuck are they doing with their arms?

Does anyone thing naming the lead mean girl Naomi and casting an Elizabeth Berkley look-alike is a reference to Showgirls? I hope Naomi stays mean and doesn't go the way of Kelly in the original first season. I don't have high hopes.

Hey, Not-Brenda's parents are ungrounding her. I wonder if she's already snuck out to go to the party. Unlike the Not-Walshes, I've watched TV before.

So we've got a clear Not-Brenda, Not-Kelly, Black-Brandon and Silver-Sister. I guess Ethan is the Not-Steve. Where are the Donna and Dylan equivalents?

I didn't watch the original show at the end - am I supposed to know who Kelly's baby-daddy is?

Why is there not a single homo on this show? It's Los Angeles in 2008, people.

I like how the outside of West Bev looks exactly like it did 15 years ago but they've apparently completely gutted and renovated the inside.

Hour two is slightly trashier than hour one, and therefore better.

Brenda! As weirdly forced and tacky as these original cast cameos are, I hope they bring back everyone eventually. And give them all awkwardly high-school-aged relatives.

Do people still say dope?

Next week: Kelly's mom! Dope!

When Animal Planet Meets Logo

A month ago, Radish was diagnosed with a bladder infection, which was causing a urinary obstruction. This freaked us out (and was no fun for him either) but it's quite common in cats, and we and our vet were confident that after a couple of days of in-patient care followed by a course of medication, he'd be fine.

Not so much. He was better, but "better" involved mild incontinence, which required him to be locked in the kitchen, and a damaging amount of licking himself (apparently a cat's response to basically any problem), which required him to wear a cone on his head.

Then today he got worse, and was clearly blocked again. And because it's a holiday, this meant taking him to Kitteh and Puppeh ER (Vetrinarian's Hospital, the continuing story of a quack who's gone to the dogs). In spite of the traumatic subway ride into Manhattan, and as much as we like our local vet, there was actually something very comforting about the shiny, well-staffed, open-on-a-holiday hospital.

Long story short, at the recommendation of both our regular vet and those at the hospital, we left Radish there to have surgery to enlarge his urethra, thus making it easier for him to pass future blockages. Y'know how they enlarge a male cat's urethra? They remove his penis!! Sure, he's neutered and doesn't really have any use for it, but OWIE!

So I guess it's a good thing we gave him a unisex name. Please leave your suggestions for his drag name in the comments.

And because a cat in a cone is usually as funny as it is sad, here are some photos:

We tried this neck-brace-like collar for a day. It's supposed to provide more mobility and vision (he kept bumping the cone into things) but still keep him from bending enough to hurt himself. He got out of it in a matter of hours.


So we went traditional:


I'm looking forward to 2 more weeks of post-op cone hi-jinks!

Clumsy Kitten