Mortgage crisis

If mortgage companies forgive portions of debt of ignorant home buyers who took out loans they couldn't afford, they had better be forgiving portions of debt of responsible people who pay their mortgages every month.

Monday, Monday

I should name all my posts after songs, like "DeGrassi." Their episodes are all 80s songs though. I don't know if I could express all my subjects in a decade's worth of pop music.

So the Jolie-Pitts are here. The 94.7 DJs did a whole thing about them last week. They're staying at The Undertaker's ranch (or they were until all the publicity anyway- lol), and I was thinking what a strange name that was for a B&B or guest ranch. Turns out The Undertaker is a wrestling guy. It's literally his ranch. Who knew.

I watched "Chelsea Lately" again the other night. It is so funny. I'm telling you, this is EXACTLY the show Laura and I were planning for public access television. I've learned that you have to jump on these ideas while they are fresh... and that being a celeb gets you a much better network and time slot. We could totally have gotten Joe Francis for an interview, too.

Saw August Rush last night. Very good movie. Bring the tissues.

Cute. Real cute.

Yep, I watched part 1 of the Donny & Marie DVD. It was not my favorite. I won't be watching part 2. (No Andy Gibb in a highlight DVD? Bah.)

Anyway, the "cute" actually refers to this:
We Didn't Start the Fire

Saturday Six

I know. It's actually Saturday, and I remembered to check Patrick's blog.

Let me think back to my days working... *blur scene*...

1. When presented with a new project at work that clearly doesn’t make sense to you, are you likely to voice your reservations first or set them aside to work on the project?
I voice my reservations up front. Let's avoid wasted time if possible by discussing concerns as they arise.

2. You are shown a new technology that will be incorporated into your job, and you realize that this technology will actually slow things down. Do you express this discovery before trying the new technology, or do you try it first with the intention of then demonstrating how much more difficult it made things?
I would never try a technology with the intention of showing what a shlump it is. Again, I would voice my concerns. I would be willing to try it though.

3. At your workplace, do you tend to be among the first people your co-workers approach for help in a crisis, the last people they approach, or somewhere in between?
Among the first.

4. Take the quiz: What Kind of Thinker Are You?
Your Thinking is Concrete and RandomYou are naturally inquisitive and curious. You're excited by new ideas, and you are a true independent thinker.
You are interested in what is possible. You like the process of discovery.
You are often experimenting, challenging old ideas, and inventing new concepts.
Rules, restrictions, and limits don't really work for you.
You have to do things your own way, and you can't be bothered to explain yourself.

5. You’re watching television on a rainy Saturday: which has a greater appeal: watching a new show you’ve never seen before, watching a movie or television episode you have seen before and enjoyed, or watching a sporting event featuring two teams you have no strong connection to?
Watching a new show I've never seen before. I almost never watch a repeat of a show, and the sports I watch always have at least one team I care about.

6. Should employers be required to provide naptime for their employees? If you think they should, how much time should be required?
Ahahahahaa! No.

Pirates

One of DD's best friends since 3-year-old preschool is playing Major-General Stanley in their middle school production of The Pirates of Penzance. We saw it last night, and it was very amusing to hear the girls in the audience squealing and screaming after he sang "Modern Major General." The kid's a rock star.

Had to add The Pirate Movie to my Netflix queue. It's been quite a while since I've seen it. Funny stuff!

Websites

Google Analytics has changed their tracking code. You can wait to migrate your sites to the new code, or just suck it up and change it now. They'll support the old code for quite a while, but you won't get any of the benefits of the new code.

One of my websites was featured in a recent newspaper article, and now I've got advertisers out the wazoo. Not a bad thing. Now if I could just figure out how to get my other site into the paper. The LA Times would be good.

As far as volunteer webmistressing goes, the Foundation has subscribed to a third-party service for our region's donations and event registration to be handled directly from our website. We've spent a couple of meetings learning our way around the basics. Now it's show time, as our first big event using it is coming up this summer. I like it as far as functionality, but there are several things that are not customizable. There are places where I just wanna center some text, and the program thinks it looks better left-justified. That little stuff will most certainly drive me nuts. lol.

And I won't bore anyone with the long, sad story of my ineptness as a Microsoft NetMeeting participant. Tried it once. Now I'm back to meetings in person.

American Idol full-length songs

I've downloaded several of the full-length studio versions of the songs at iTunes. Very very cool. Best idea they've had yet. Not just for fans of the contestants, but what a perfect tool for easily finding out who's marketable. And someone is making some serious cash there.

Video editing software

Pinnacle Studio Plus v10.7 is giving me fits with its constant re-rendering and jumpy playback, especially during "pan and zoom" editing. In the end, it seems to be a buggy program, according to users online. I just know there is one magic setting I'm overlooking that will end my issues.

AI

David Cook!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW. Loved that.



My new reduced list of faves:
David C
David A
Syesha
Jason
Brooke

Fan sites- yay!

Thank God for fan sites. IMDB is not going to tell you how far into a movie you have to fast forward to get directly to the steamy scene.

Just saying.

Tuesday assorted thoughts

Life is very different without cheer. Much calmer during the week without practices. We're saving tons of money on fees, trip costs and gas. It's all still really strange though, after four years. We'll get used to it.

Panic! at the Disco has a new album out today, that the reviewers say is less "emo" and may appeal to a larger audience. I'm not sure. I'll have to get used to the new sound. I liked the faster pace of their first CD.

Clinton has gotten herself into a pickle with her Bosnia airport story. I love it. James Carville will back her to the death though. Good for him. How can he be so annoying and entertaining at the same time? Come on Pennsylvania, let's give this thing to Obama. Please. I can't take the stress.

Saturday Six

1. You’re in church, listening to a sermon, when your pastor begins a diatribe that you strongly disagree with. Which are you more likely to do: sit through the sermon and confront the pastor privately afterwards, get up and leave in the middle of the sermon, or say nothing at all?
If I'm fairly close to the back, I would leave. I wouldn't make a big scene, I just wouldn't want to be there. If it would make a scene for me to leave, I would sit through it and not say anything.

2. Regardless of your response to question #1, how likely would you be to return to the same church with the same level of enthusiasm the following week?
Highly unlikely.

3. Based on how well you know your particular belief system’s main principles, how much do you agree with them overall?
I assume this means how much you agree with the principles of your chosen religion. I'd say, about 70%.

4. Based on how well you know your pastor or the person from whom you take the most spiritual advice (or the person who has influenced your beliefs the most if not a pastor), how much do you think you agree with this person overall and how much do you disagree?
N/A. I haven't been regularly attending church, and don't have a "spiritual advisor."

5. How important is it to you that the people with whom you associate most often have views on spirituality that closely mirror your own?
Very unimportant. I think spirituality is an intensely personal issue.

6. To what extent do you believe spirited rallies about racism actually opens the door to improve race relations in this country, as opposed to merely maintaining a level of anger that blocks such attempts to improve things?
Spirited rallying by a single race of people? I think it accomplishes nothing and raises the level of anger. Frank, civil discussions between people of different races is a better idea.

Hoppy Easter

We had dinner at Scott & Julie's last night, where the girls beat the guys at "The Card Game." This is the one that might be Canasta. Whatever it is, we kicked butt... finally!

We saw Dan in Real Life today, and it was good. Not five stars, but worth a watch. Lots of great ideas for family reunion activities.

DH is finally able to play Guitar Hero. DD and I are a lot more musically inclined than he, so we give him a break. Every new level of that thing freaked me out at first. It gets easier if you just keep tackling it.

David Cook

His version of "Hello" was brilliant. "Eleanor Rigby" was freaking awesome.

Human Tetris

Here Come the Newlyweds

Quote of the day---
Me, yesterday while we were watching the DVR recording of this week's "Here Come the Newlyweds":

"Technically, if you're a man in a woman's body, you're a woman, whether you're a man or not."

Ahaha. This was during a discussion about the Freis's. Just saying. Those two are just kind of creepy. Anyone else wonder why Cody didn't tell his parents when he married Dawn? When they are together, she always has her arm over his shoulders and he's hunched over and whining about something.

I want the Moutras to win. Johnnie totally reminds me of Bernie Mac. Hilarious.

Is anyone else even watching this show? LOL

American Idol

Well, I wish I could order my tickets for this year's concert tour now. Great lineup, except for Kristy Lee Cook. My favorites are pretty much the same so far:

David Cook- awesome awesome awesome
David Archuleta- best voice by far
Jason- average voice, but it's all in the packaging
Carly (soon to be replaced on my list by Brooke, I think)- although I don't like that she's had a record contract
Syesha (slipping)- she did well this week, but I haven't been impressed much lately
Ramiele (slipping, too)- she seems really uncomfortable on stage, I hope she gets better

I have never liked Chikezie much, mostly because he's been a back-talker to the judges in the past. I can't stand when contestants do that. (I give David Cook a lot of leeway on it, I know... but he's got real talent) BUT this week, when the judges didn't like Chikezie's performance, I loved it. I think he did a great job!

The Filthy Critic

Mentioned by Stephen King this week in his Entertainment Weekly column, The Filthy Critic is a film critic who writes some pretty hilarious reviews. Check him out here... if you're not easily offended, of course. Check the archives for an alphabetical list of movies.

He has an insightful review of No Country For Old Men, which I finally saw today. All the little Texasisms in that movie made me laugh. Good film.

Obama's Speech

Well, I've now read the entire transcript. On the whole, it's a fantastic speech.

I just can't fathom why the average person would attend a church with Rev. Wright's racist, anti-American and "plain old crazy" rants. Some are saying Rev. Wright is talking about what Black people really feel, but you can't convince me that is representative of a majority of the Black community in this country.

Other people dismiss Wright as an old guy from another generation, like someone's White grandmother (like Ferraro- yeesh), and that those people harbor feelings from lifelong racial tension. I get that. I just wouldn't attend a church every Sunday with a person of "that generation" spouting divisive, outrageous crap from the pulpit.

I certainly don't think Obama is anti-American or racist himself, but I have to say such a public alignment with an extremist is a bit of a shock. The polls show most people don't care about his relationship with Wright, so it shouldn't affect his popularity in the end.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Places You’d Take a Tourist to See in Your Hometown

1. The Capitol Building- of course
2. Congress Avenue Bridge bats at dusk- amazing, especially in summer
3. Barton Springs Pool- brrr
4. Mount Bonnell- the first tourist attraction I saw here, before they put in fences to break your possible 800 foot fall into the lake
5. Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum- especially the Texas Spirit Theater with all its special effects
6. The Warehouse District- drinking, dining and live music on 4th street (if you're college-age, we'd refer you to 6th street instead)
7. Alamo Drafthouse- downtown location
8. IKEA. Kidding. It's a cool place though... How about... Zilker Park and Zilker Botanical Garden
9. Salt Lick. Yes, it's a tourist attraction. Come hungry.
10. LBJ Library- haven't been there yet, but I keep hearing I have to go. Come visit! We'll go together.

Credit Card Fraud Warning

We've had another fraudulent charge on a credit card. Who is at fault and who has pathetic customer service?

Metro PCS allowed this fraudulent charge. Evidently they are a cellular service provider.

CitiBank has had terrible customer service from the get-go. They called us at least once a week since we got the card, trying to sell us insurance or additional services or whatever the deal of the week was. When you call about your account, they give the hard sell on that same junk. When we called about this fraudulent charge, they said we had to figure it out with the merchant ourselves. Other credit card companies have a fraud department that takes care of it, and immediately remove it from your account.

Now that I'm looking for a new card and reviewing the best-rated ones in Consumer Reports (Oct '07), I see that CitiBank is rated pretty far down the list. So are Chase and Capital One, just FYI. Best rated--- USAA, Credit Unions, AmEx and Discover. Discover has awesome customer service. Unfortunately, not everyone takes that card, so we always have a backup Visa or Mastercard.

Big Bend and stuff

My aunt and I talked about the election for a while on Saturday. I'm thinking I may actually have two people I like this time and she's thinking they're all idiots. See what living in Denver does to you? Just kidding. They do have very interesting political goings-on in Colorado and Denver specifically. It's a unique place, I think. Too much fresh air, maybe.

Kathy L went to Big Bend this week with her parents and her brother's family. Their entire motel was on a noticeable slant. Good thing they weren't drinking a lot. She had funny stories about the limited accommodations and the lack of food. She did mention though, that Lajitas is under new ownership and has recently reduced their ultra-expensive room rates to more reasonable rates. It's "the nice hotel" near Big Bend. Actually the only "hotel" there. lol. I've never been to Big Bend, but I'll go if I don't have to camp or stay in a slanted motel. My dad says it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.

I'm trying to get one of three particular positions in Band Boosters for next year. Webmaster would be my number one choice. We'll see. Evidently the President appoints people, so I need to wait for the President to be elected to find out where to send ribbon-wrapped baked goods. Hehe.

Home decor

Vern Yip just designed a bedroom that looks almost exactly like mine! WOW. I cannot tell you how happy that makes me.

This weekend on one of the home staging shows, the designer made art out of wrapping paper. I am SO doing that this week. I have a big empty wall behind my bed, and don't want to spend a lot. She just used a two large matted frames, and composed random designs of a few complimentary wrapping papers inside the frames. Tres chic.

I've been shopping for a pedestal for our sculpture. A pedestal for goodness' sake. It's not something I would buy online, without seeing it first. There should be a central place that tells you where people shop for certain things. We also need a display light. Maybe I'm in way over my head with the "grownup art."

Happy Lion

Awwwwwww.....

Back from the Lake

We were technically at the lake, but didn't get much closer than eating at River City Grille in Marble Falls. lol. It's a little cold to be swimming right now. I wish the Horseshoe Bay Marriott was on the lake, but it isn't. They'll drive you the couple of blocks over, or out to the white sand area by the yacht club. Most of the restaurants and bars in Horseshoe Bay are closed right now as well. I'm thinking this is a resort to hit in the summer with the crowd. It was very relaxing and beautiful though. Hill country views and the lake, along with perfect weather. We enjoyed it.

We visited the LBJ Ranch, which we've never done in all our years 'round these here parts. It was even more interesting than I thought it would be. Our tour guide had a lot of great stories about President Johnson and Lady Bird. There is also a pioneer farm on the land there. Very cool!

We also went to the Benini Sculpture Ranch in Johnson City. It's a huge hill country ranch with a driving tour of all these large modern sculptures, mostly metal. The artist who lives there is a painter, but he does some sculpture as well. We were thrilled to meet him when we went back to the studio to buy a sculpture we had seen there. (Yes, this is me purchasing actual art. No giggling.) He happened to be coming in from doing some work outside. We talked for about a half hour about everything from politics to art to the space program. He and his wife are very gracious, opening up their ranch for everyone to visit. They have the most beautiful view from their house at the top of the hill. If you are near Austin or San Antonio, make a point to see the Sculpture Ranch. It's quite a unique display, and worth the trip.

Juan in a Million

I hadn't been to Juan in a Million before we made the trek to East Austin yesterday morning for their famous breakfast tacos. It was quite good and very inexpensive! I had chorizo and egg. DH got the Don Juan, which I had a bite of. It was really good, too.

They run a LOT of people through that place quickly. Add my two thumbs up rating to everyone else's!

Fall Out Boy's 'Beat It'

Cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" by Fall Out Boy, featuring John Mayer.

If you haven't heard it yet, you can listen here.

AI

Something about David Hernandez has always given me the heebie-jeebies. Around here, the joke is that I have to listen to him without looking at the TV. He really has a great voice! When I watch, though, I just get a creepy-crawly feeling down my back.

I'm thinking either he reminds me of someone in my past, or it's just his nerdiness in juxtaposition with the attempt at sexiness while he sings. It's like Woody Allen pandering to the camera a la Constantine Maroulis. LOL. I really have no idea.

Another thing we're still laughing about is Paula's wanting to pinch David Archuleta's head off and dangle him from her rear-view mirror. Yikes. She should have gone with the less disturbing "I just wanna dunk you in my coffee."

And how about the raves from Lionel Richie for David Cook's performance this week! How wonderful for him.

A Perfect Murder

Had to rent the movie and watch again after reading an article that noted the art pieces in the film were created by Viggo.

I really was studying his art.

Really.

Ten on Tuesday

from here
Ten Favorite Drinks

1. Sweet tea
2. Starbucks Decaf Light Mocha Frappuccino
3. Fresca
4. Chocolate martini
5. Margarita, on the rocks with salt
6. Apple juice
7. Long Island Iced Tea
8. Coke
9. Strawberry-Banana smoothie
10. Crystal Light lemonade

Election Weirdness

The Democratic nomination is looking like it will be made by the superdelegates at the convention. Blech! Let's hope not. Nothing would be worse than a bunch of career politicians deciding such a thing on their own.

Michigan and Florida are both omitted from the delegate count and may or may not have new primaries or caucuses.

And now they're saying how many Republicans and Independents are voting in the Democratic primaries, ever since the Republican nomination was pretty locked up. Some of these "fake Democrats"- and I say that because you have to declare yourself a Democrat when you vote in the primary- vote for their favorite, which may or may not be the true Democrats' favorite. Many Republicans are voting for Hillary, because she would be easier for McCain to beat.

It's all very strange. Hopefully the Democratic nomination will come about with the voters and candidates feeling the process was fair. It would be a shame to have a shadow hanging over what could be a very positive general election in November.

AI Girls

Back to the original faves this week:

Carly
Syesha
Ramiele

The Judy's

DUDE. The Judy's are reuniting to play the Austin Music Awards at SXSW March 12.

She's the ghost in a bikini... ooh-wahhh-oooh...

McCain! And American Idol...

Go McCain! Whee!

While I won't get my wish for today with regards to the Senator from NY, it's great for McCain that Obama and Clinton will still be fighting it out over the next several weeks.

I thought of one thing I like about Clinton- her health care plan. Eh.

My AI guys did SO WELL tonight! Yay! Keeping the faves:
David Archuleta (omg. He is really good.)
Jason Castro (yay! no guitar! and great! except for that last phrase!)
David Cook (wow)

Voting Day

Or "Bye Bye Clinton Day," as I hope to call it tonight.

Anyone remember all the scandals she was involved in during the Clintons' stay in the White House? Whitewater? Travelgate? Talk about special interests.

I'm done now. :D

Had lunch with Melissa yesterday. I haven't seen her in about a year! It was fun to catch up.

A newspaper interviewed me a few weeks ago about one of my websites. The article finally got published this week. It's been good publicity!

And... Senior Coed pandemonium from Sunday!! Can you tell they're shocked? LOL
(click for larger image)

Last Cheer Competition

Turn out the liiiiiiiights..... the party's overrrrrrrr....

And what a party it has been! DD performed in her final all-star cheerleading competition, Cheer America Nationals, this weekend in Houston. She's going to be diving head first into marching band from here on out. Spring band camp (this one time... at band camp...) is coming up and I'll be switching out my "cheer mom" tshirts and doo-dads for "band mom" tshirts and doo-dads. Something tells me the "band mom" stuff isn't quite as sparkly as the "cheer mom" stuff. I imagine it's just as overpriced.

So, Seniors were hoping just to place in the top three in their division at this Nationals. We were up against several awesome teams there. More huge gyms. Seniors came out of the first day in second place (whoa!!) and then the second day, they actually pulled past the number one team to take the National Championship for Senior Open. AMAZING.

The little girls got third (bah) and Juniors got second.

Senior video is forthcoming. Stay tuned for the final '07-'08 choreography that rocked the house.

A funny story-
Cheer America brings up the top two teams of the division onto the stage, then announces 2nd place, and then the champion. This is a new thing, and both teams were sometimes confused in the excitement of it all.

Our team was up with what we all thought was probably the 1st place team. The first-day's 1st placers were totally psyched, doing their chant and jumping around. Our team was just kind of standing there. Finally our team started their chant and while they were chanting, the announcer said 2nd place went to the other team.

The parents were freaking out and jumping around high-fiving each other, and the team was on stage, still just standing there. We were like, "What are they doing?" Ahaha. DD said all they heard was the other team's name, and they weren't sure who had won. Finally the announcer said, "And your national champion..." and they got it. HI-larious. I hope someone got that on tape.

Definitely a great day for Seniors. A nice end to DD's cheerleading, at least for now anyway.