It’s time to put this bad boy to pasture. While I’ve steered clear of blogging about most Seattle things, this was my first blog. Therefore it’s blossomed from a travel diary, to a pseudo social activist to a wannabe celeb shit talker. It’s been a learning process, so by no means judge me on the blogging faux pas often committed.

You weathered the storm as I rapidly changed the design and categorization. While I’ve gotten honorable links for my post on Sigur Ros and unexpected traffic into the thousands for blogging a rumor that Johnny Depp was going to buy the Croc, I must confess that my little bloggin heart beats on elsewhere.

From here on out, track my commentary via Twitter, over at Cap to the Hill, as well as at the Seattlest.

I bid thee adieu and thanks for reading!

Image: Zany Images

The newest thing from Japan:

According to the gauge – 300mls beer equals 130 Calories. This is exactly what the USDA nutrient database gives for “regular beer”.

although it starts a bit slow, it’s seriously righteous.

this is the type of book that looks mutually good on your shelf, and eastern indians read this before puberty.

just because oprah didn’t recommend it, doesn’t mean it’s not brilliant!

In the off-chance that you’re a broke college kid and you have a tv that doesn’t function when your neighbor turns on his amp (like me), or perhaps you simply haven’t had time to watch the debates…

Here’s your opportunity to play catch-up with what’s goin down on the political scene.

YouTube is rockin my socks with their coverage, check it:

To get you started:

Republican debates 28 Nov. 2007

Democratic debates 23 Jul. 2007

Here’s a little web of our madness:

Click on the mini-chart below to make bigger:

Courtesy of mi amiga, Caroline!

Hope everyone feasted to oblivion…I know my multiple meals of pumpkin pie alone will haunt me in the bikini months.

In case you were curious, here are a few Thanksgiving facts I stumbled upon:

• Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.
• Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird.
• Only male (tom) turkeys gobble. Females make a clicking noise. The famous gobble is actually a seasonal mating call.
• Congress did not declare Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941.
• The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (Now that’s a lot of turkey!)
• On the West Coast of the US, Dungeness crab is common as an alternate main dish instead of turkey, as crab season starts in early November.
• Twenty percent of cranberries eaten are eaten on Thanksgiving.

there are many more, if you’re curious, a little Google search can provide the rest.

MSNBC anchor refuses to report on Paris Hilton

Kudos Mika, these other two need to grow a journalistic pair.

I dare you to look up Iraq on google.com/maps.

Go ahead. Click the link, type Iraq. Push enter.

Sure, you’ll see an outline of the nation, but nothing more.

In a recent quest to not feel slightly less ignorant, I wanted to know where a specific city was that an article about the war took place. Naturally, no cities in the Middle East are listed.

Interestingly enough, the same happens when most of South America, Vietnam, the Phillipines and many others are searched.

On the contrary, I can see the exact street someone lives on here in the U.S. using the same site.

For future reference, if you are searching for an in depth map of Iraq, click here.

Life’s pretty slow right now, therefore I’ll give you something to chew on via my iGoogle. According to today’s Buddhist daily meditation:

It is our earth, not yours or mine or his. We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not destroying each other. – J. Krishnamurti

Look here Foxworthy,

Enough with your snide remarks.  No one is tricked by your wire frames tailored black blazer, you still make a living from telling redneck jokes.  Let’s see the tables turn on the Blue Collar Comedy star.  How hard is it to make off-the-cuff puns at people battling 5th graders at trivia questions, in Fox’s sleepy hit, Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Granted, it’s easy to laugh at an ACTUAL rocket scientist when he can’t clear the first question, without whiz kid, Kyle’s help (pictured above).

But still, I’m not fooled: this show is crap.  Aboslute entertaining crap–it’s about time British reality TV creator, Mark Burnett STOP.  Burnett started this bombardment of reality TV ridiculousness as the main guy behind Survivor and The Apprentice.  The only successful element of this show is it’s timing.  It’s just after sping sweeps, therefore all of fall’s mega hits are sleeping during the summer months.  It’s simply the only explanation why 5th Grader has the ratings it does.

And a side note, I don’t know about other people but I didn’t learn about the goverment in  1st grade social studies, I was too busy learning to WRITE MY NAME and learn the months!

I also object to these children’s last names being published in the credits.  It just seems objectionable, let alone I’m intrigued to see what kind of salary they rake in for this reality mush.

Between American Idol  and this show, naturally accompanied by their hevily jaded news coverage, Fox makes me want to pull an Oedipus Rex and gauge my eyes out.

On the flipside, click here to see if you’re smarter than a 5th grader!

 Alright, bloganaires, summer reading begins!

As finals week concludes, decisions are being made as to which books will guide the next three months.  Screw Oprah, I don’t want to read Middlesex–she’s not the only woman on the block that can create a reading list!

Granted mine will probably not cause Barnes & Noble to go out-of-stock, but that’s not the point!

 Therefore, gather a few titles that spark your interest and pitch em—my book club of two demands some goodies! Thus far we’re planning on tackling Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Lolita. Any ideas? What are  you reading this summer?

Want to join our book club? Why not!

The Stranger wrote a pretty decent article on the Central District–

A Central District Story

A Bar, a Mugging, a Protest, and a Misunderstanding

By Charles Mudede

Everyone at Hidmo, an Eritrean bar and restaurant on 21st Avenue and Jackson Street, was talking about two things last Saturday night.

First, there was the angry e-mail sent out on May 22 by a resident of the Central District after a mugging the night before.

“Last night, [two of our friends] were mugged and assaulted in front of Thompson’s Point of View at 23rd and Union,” read the e-mail. “Thankfully they are OK and were not physically harmed. However, this is UTTER BULLSHIT and is totally UNACCEPTABLE and I believe that it’s time for some HOT HOT BURNER NEIGHBORHOOD REPO ACTION… We’re going to send three clear messages: First, we are not afraid of punk-ass thugs. We don’t need to look ‘tough’ to be strong. Second, there are a metric shit-ton of us around here and we care about our friends and our neighborhood. The thugs have already lost, it’s time for them to go elsewhere. [Third,] our fire-breathing art car(s) with the Mackie sound system(s) beat your boom-mobile any day of the week…. The poor thugs who messed with [our friends] will never show their faces here again, and the story they’ll tell all their little rock-smokin’ friends about how they tried to roll these two easy-lookin’ kids and then the next day a hundred of their friends were on the corner would go a long way…. Clearly, we need to make a long-term effort to make ourselves visible in this community.”

People were also talking about the arrest of 47 suspected drug dealers in the Central District area.

“[We have arrested] 47 gang members and associates who have infested the Central District in Seattle with guns and trafficking,” said Seattle’s Violent Gang Task Force in a press release. “Throughout the six-month investigation, investigators have recovered 31 firearms from a concentrated three-mile area surrounding the Central District.”

The drinkers and diners at Hidmo saw the e-mail and the arrests as connected; both were seen as consequences of the decade-long gentrification—and some would argue the destruction—of the Central District.

“Why are the police taking an interest in drug dealers now?” asked Jace, an African-American resident of the Central District and a rapper for Silent Lambs Project. He was sitting at the bar in Hidmo. “These guys have been selling drugs forever—and now the police want to clean up the streets? Why didn’t they clean them up 20 years ago?” click here for the rest

 Protesters block a road near the G8 summit venue in Germany.

one word says it all: FEMBOT

Read the rest of this entry »

You heard me.   

I’m not sure what the hell E! network producers were thinking when they allowed Sunset Tan to air/be filmed/even brainstormed.  It is by far the WORST show I have ever seen.

The “Olly Girls” aka wannabe Olson twins, except with implants and less brain cells.

Sunset Tan is about “an inside look at L.A.’s most successful upscale tanning salon—and the staff’s wild antics as they work and play together.”

That’s a whole-lot of mumbo-jumbo for orange people with implants pretending to work hard.  Let’s be honest, they’re feeding to the vanity frenzy one coat of orange at a time.  Sunset Tan claims to have clientele of everyone from Paris Hilton to Christina Aguilara.

This is where I pat myself on the back for sitting through 30 minutes of the most mind-numbing ridiculousness that I’ve encountered in a damn long time.  Please keep in mind I like The Girls Next Door and an occasional mid-afternoon soap opera.  The staff is composed of bright orange nit-wits looking to get paid while staring at the door hoping the next US Weekly cover celeb will walk through.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is no way into Hollywood. Remember when starving actors and actresses would split the cost of a studio with like 12 other actors and have 5 other random ass jobs just to wake at 5 a.m. and battle thousands of other hopefuls for a Palmolive hand model spot?

Ah yes, the good ol’ days. 

It’s the creation of shows like this that make people gladly throw out their televisions and cancel their cable.  Let alone feeds into the generalizations people have of Los Angeles and the people lining its sidewalks.