Nordstrom... more like Boredstrom

So, uh ... I'm Jeff. I'm guest bloggering because Rebecca is too busy worrying about business school to type. Or something like that. What's new? Well, I somehow got coerced into going clothes shopping with RB for the first time in our three-year-plus relationship. I guess I've had a pretty good run with it, but my luck ran out when she wouldn't buy my assertion that our trip to Nicaragua was my birthday present to her. Granted, I didn't pay for her trip to Nicaragua or anything, but I figured that maybe my presence alone on a trip to Nicaragua would be enough to be considered a good birthday present. I mean, who wants to go to Nicaragua? Sounds reasonable, right? Not a friggin' chance. But, she made it easy on me by telling me about a pair of jeans she really wanted, and all I had to do was accompany her to Nordstrom and pay for them. It sounded like a really easy way to get out of having to think of a "special" present to buy. I'm such a damn romantic.

I was kind of dreading the trip (I really don't like people, crowds, malls, elevators, waiting, salespersons, clothes, public transportation, or mindless consumerism -- pretty much everything I thought a trip to Nordstrom would involve), but it actually ended up not being so bad. It’s amazing how many cute girls there were wandering around there in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday.

Straight from the womb

I know that some of you have been reading The Bucky Blog regularly. There's a little more going on at that blog than on RBlog these days, mainly because Bucky's developments are much more exciting than recent events in my stress-filled life.

Whether you're interested in the business of pregnancy or not, you should check out these images Clare sent from her latest ultrasound. They kind of rocked my world. It was shocking to me to be able to see that she has an entire little person living inside her body. In concept, I knew this was happening, but seeing it is entirely different. Biology is so weird.

Stupid Emmys

I just started thinking about the Emmys again and the fact that Arrested Development and/or Jeremy Piven didn't win. It's got me all worked up. Arrested Development should have won something just on principle. Can anyone honestly say that Everybody Loves Raymond is better television than Arrested Development?! I've never even watched Arrested Development, but there is no question in my mind that it is at least three billion times better than Everybody Loves Raymond. And I think I'm falling madly in love with Jeremy Piven. I'll leave it at that.

I think I've had too much coffee.

Geminis hate routine

I finally discovered a San Francisco radio station that doesn't make me gag: the new Max 95.7. They say it's new, but I'm not up enough on these things to know whether or not that's just a marketing ploy.

The gimmick behind this station is that they just play "whatever they want." I'm not sure where the tendency for radio stations to play music from only one genre or era came from, but I've always thought that it pretty much sucks. It's terrible primarily because it results in frequent song repetition, so no matter how much you like the type of music the station plays you wind up getting sick of the songs pretty quickly. Plus, who really likes only one type of music?

This new station claims to play pretty much any kind of music depending on their whims. I haven't listened enough yet to be able to speak to the truth of that claim, but I can say that the variety is refreshing when compared to the usual radio station routine. For instance, on my way to work this morning they played Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith, 1975), followed by Legs (ZZ Top, 1983), followed by Rich Girl (Gwen Stephani with Eve, 2004). Now, I'm not saying any of those songs are on my personal top ten list, but I did enjoy them all and was thrilled with the crazy spontaneity that the mix lended to my morning commute.

Why buy a Nano?

I haven't seen or heard much discussion of iPod's new Nano, yet. Personally, I have to wonder why anyone would need one of these things. It looks like it would break easily if you sat on it or dropped it, it only plays 1,000 songs, and doesn't everyone in the known world already own some kind of iPod?

Normally, I wouldn't take the time to comment on something I find so silly, but the Jo-tel hasn't done it yet and someone's gotta pick up the slack.

Pity Emmy

Everybody Loves Raymond is NOT funny. The show is totally grating and annoying. I can't believe that they gave them best comedy series just because the series ended! That's really the only explanation, since ending Everybody Loves Raymond was obviously the best thing that could have happened to prime-time television.

Pray for Baby Spears-Federline

Many of you have written in to ask, and the answer is yes -- I did read that Britney had the baby.

From the Associated Press:
"Spears, who married Federline in September last year, had been previously reported as saying she planned to have the baby by Caesarean section to avoid the pain of a natural birth."

I think that comments on this issue from my smart and funny friends sum it all up for me.

The first email I received on the subject read, "What the *$&#%??! She had previously said that having a child is the next closest thing to knowing God, but she's wimping out of labor? Give me a break! You take drugs to get a c-section (sometimes you're even knocked out), and you would get drugs for labor. Would she rather have the scar than a stretched out cooter that will naturally tighten back up?!"

It was closely followed by a comment from another friend:
"A scheduled c-section to avoid the unpleasantries of childbirth?!  That's a great way to start out parenthood: "Dear Baby, I know you have your 'schedule' and 'needs' or whatever, but I'd rather not be conscious. It hurts!  Plus if I schedule it a little early I don't gain those last few pounds.  Love, Mom."

Yep, that pretty much says it all.

Another thought...

Watching the Enron film made me realize that my inherent distrust of the news media has become extreme. Maybe too extreme. An unfortunate result of my distrust (and disgust?) is that whenever there's a massive, ongoing story -- like the Enron scandal, the Lewinsky scandal, the tsunami, or Katrina -- I tend to totally tune out, almost like I have blinders on. It's bad news for me (no pun intended) because I wind up being out of the loop on everything but the most basic details of events that have major impacts on our culture.

I just can't get around my low tolerance for the manner in which the coverage is presented. Each headline story is seemingly the biggest deal EVER. It's so transparently commercial. I really hate TV news. Local TV news is by far the worst.

Movie Review: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Haas was giving a free screening of The Smartest Guys in the Room tonight, so I went to go check it out. I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed this film, and also how educational it was for a really entertaining movie. I'd totally recommend it to anyone -- especially if you have ties to Portland or California (the everyday lives of people living in both places were impacted heavily by what went down at Enron). Put it on your Netflix list.

For those of you who haven't heard about The Smartest Guys in the Room before, it's a documentary that investigates how the Enron scandal came to be. It goes through the circumstances and events that led up to Enron's filing for bankruptcy, as well as those that followed, but more importantly the film is a character study of the major players involved. The movie asks and answers the question, "How can a business scandal this extreme occur today?"

One thing I appreciated about this movie is that it's not overtly political (though it does cover politics and political consequences of the scandal). You also don't come away with the feeling that the film makers are condemning all big business. They treat Enron as a unique occurrence that should be learned from. I think a lot of us have become accustomed to Michael Moore-style documentaries, where the viewer comes out feeling like she's just drowned Moore's biases and personal agenda. Moore seems so gimmicky and over the top a lot of the time. Though I often respect his stance, I feel he's prone to total overkill.

Test Results

I recently had my first test of grad school handed back. I got an A- and it was a microeconomics midterm. I could have done a better job studying and I also made a few dumb mistakes that I shouldn't have, but I'm perfectly happy with an A-. If I can get low As with spotty preparation and mistakes, this back-to-school thing could be manageable. They might have gone easy on us the first time, though.

I never thought I'd say this, but thank god I took calculus over the summer. We're already using derivatives (and they don't do much math review of any kind) all over the place in econ, as well as several of the functions my calculus instructor insisted that we learn. I know you're wondering if "e" has reappeared, and I'm sad to say the answer is no. There is no "e" in econ, yet.

I never should have questioned the relevance of calculus.

Take that, Turd!

This guy's moving picture blog is way better than Turd Ferguson's.

Sick, sick, sick

I have a bad, bad cold. It's the kind of cold where you can't breathe and you have to blow your nose so much that the skin around it starts peeling. I'm also sweating while I have goosebumps. There are a kazillion crumpled tissues distributed in a little trail that tracks my progress through the day. The path goes from bed, to the couch, back to bed, with a slight detour through the bathroom.

There are many crappy things about being sick, but for me these are the most crappy:

1) When you get in bed to go to sleep all the congestion in your nose plugs up one nostril or the other, but not both, so your breathing is completely unbalanced. It makes me feel horrible. I used to think that was just a weird quirk of mine, until I took a yoga class that involved measured breathing through one nostril or another to achieve inner peace. Or something like that. Okay, honestly, I can't remember what we were trying to achieve because I was just focused on not laughing, but I still think that having only one nostril totally blocked up is enough to seriously mess a person up. Or at least enough to make it impossible to fall asleep.

2) Single people totally get the shaft when it comes to being sick. I think some people might get married or shack up only because they want someone to take care of them when they're sick. It's even in the vows -- "in sickness and in health..." If you're single, and don't live with your mother, you pretty much have to take yourself to Walgreen's to buy tissue and Nyquil, you have to make your own tea, get your own blanket, there's no one to listen sympathetically when you complain for hours on end, and there's no one to offer to make you soup.*

I think there should be a service where you could pay someone to do these things. It would even out the playing field a little and make things more equitable for the sick singles out there.

*That's a little bit of a lie, Matty K. did offer to come make me soup. But I really wouldn't want him to see me in this state. I couldn't be more disgusting and irritable. Plus, when a roommate or friend offers to do these things for you, you feel like you should be smiley and nice, even if you think you're about to die. It's really not the same as a mom or partner who is stuck with you regardless of your whiny disgustingness.

72 hours

Everywhere I turn there is media urging me to prepare for disaster. They say we're supposed to be able to survive on our own for 72 hours after a major catastrophe. After watching all the coverage of Katrina, and knowing that San Francisco is due for "the big one" any minute now, I think I'm going to start putting together a backpack like they say you should.

I notice that nowhere in the literature does it say you should have a shotgun in order to defend your person and property from gangs of looters. As a single woman, my biggest fear about a disaster hitting is being able to defend myself (if need be) in the chaos that would follow. The unique geography of San Francisco means we could be stuck here for quite awhile. There's no easy way out if the bridges go down.

I've been watching too much news.

I miss my Entourage

Today is one of my first Sundays in awhile without a heavy dose of Entourage. I think I'm experiencing withdrawal. One of my coworkers pointed out that the majority of the characters on the show are self-centered jerks, but I love them anyway. My favorite shows are the ones with plotlines centered on Ari and the agency. I like to fantasize about becoming a big Hollywood agent someday... Wheeling and dealing, worrying about my clients' coverage in US Weekly, throwing my daughter a star-studded bat mitzvah. Ah, that would be the life!

I guess I'll just have to suffer until HBO comes up with some new episodes. Unfortunately, they have very strange seasons scheduled, and I can't figure out exactly when that will be. Maybe other Entourage fans know?

In other football news...

I've almost convinced Jeff to rename his fantasy football team "The Candy Unicorn Fairies." Good name, huh?

RAAAAAAAAI-ders! RAAAAAAAAI-ders!

The Raiders are losing right now. I'm surprised that I actually care, but I do. It's sad, and it just seems unfair -- the Raider Nation would appreciate the win so much more than those Patriot fans who are just used to winning everything. They keep showing the the New Englanders in the stands and they all look like boring white guys with guts, drinking beer and wearing red, white, and blue. I don't think there's even one person in a skeleton-monster-with-horns-and-fangs costume among them. What kind of team spirit is that?

RIP White Kitty

Last night, on his way to pick me up at the BART station, Jeff ran over a cat. He said that there was nothing he could have done to avoid hitting the cat. He didn't even see it before the car hit it, because it ran directly under the front tire as he passed by -- its path wasn't more than a half a foot in front of the wheel of car. It must have been spooked by something. Jeff said he was going about forty miles an hour. He had to look in the rear window to see what he had hit and the car behind him hit the cat, as well. The cat was white.

We're both pretty upset about the accident. It's good I wasn't in the car, because I would have cried. Jeff is hoping that it was a wild cat (it ran out of Golden Gate Park) and not someone's pet that will be missed.

I want to take a moment to express some wishes for the cat. White Kitty, we're sorry that you got run over. We hope your death was swift and painless. With any luck, your time on this world was decent and you're now in a place where you will never again know cold, hunger, an unclean cat box, or fleas.

Please take a moment to salute the passing of White Kitty.

Sketchy

I received the following in an email this afternoon:

To: ucb_police_news@listlink
From: ucpolice@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Subject: U.C. Police Crime Alert - Strong-Arm Robbery

Strong-Arm Robbery
2nd Floor, Haas School of Business

On September 7, 2005 at approximately 3:30PM, University Police responded to the Tang Center regarding an injured student. They met with the victim at the Urgent Care Center. The victim (a UC student) told officers that he was involved in a confrontation at about 8:30AM while exiting the 2nd floor men’s room at Haas School of Business. An unknown suspect punched the victim once in the left eye and once in the left ear. The suspect took personal property belonging to the victim and fled the location, exiting the west side of the building.

A suspect has been identified; UCPD is currently investigating this incident.

If you have any information about this crime, please contact:

University of California Police Department
Criminal Investigation Bureau
(510) 642-0472 / 8AM to 5PM
(510) 642-6760 / All other times
As with any emergency situation, if you see suspicious activity, call 911.


I was just right there (well, not actually in the men's room) for class last night at six. Berkeley is really big on disseminating this type of information. I know that they do it to help find the suspects and so students be aware, but it also has a way of making you feel like you're constantly about to be jumped when you're on campus at night.

Tip to "enhance balance"

Last week, at a career center workshop for school, they gave us a handout called "Techniques to Enhance Balance between Family, Life, Friends, Work, and now School." Supposedly the tips were all submitted by former students, attending the MBA program and also working full time.

The handout offers about six pages of suggestions. They vary in their usefulness, but I thought this one was interesting:

"5. Understand Your Frustration. Most frustration is actually self-directed frustration that is transferred to others in order to achieve self-preservation. If you're feeling frustrated a lot of the time, don't assume you've met a rash of incompetent people on the phone, at work, among clients, and in social settings. Find out why you're really frustrated with yourself."

I think it's probably true. Since I read the handout, each time I've been aggravated by someone or a situation, I've definitely been able to pinpoint something else that was really bugging me. I'm not sure what good it does to know that (or how it enhances my balance), but taking the time to analyze it objectively usually provides a nice little cooling-down period.

I suppose self-awareness is never a bad thing.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I wasn't going to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, I was so determined that I would not spend the time it would take to read the 500 plus pages, that I got online and found a plot synopsis the day after the book was released. I thought that knowing how this episode of Harry Potter's adventures ends would cure me of the need to read.

It didn't work. First off, my roommate bought a copy, so the book has been easily accessible in the apartment for months. Secondly, I'm supposed to be studying for a Tuesday night microeconomics midterm. Predictably, I started reading the book in earnest yesterday and just finished up.

With Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling has pretty much completely stopped writing books for kids. This story includes swearing, a lot of making out, plot lines about a knocked-up girl who dies in childbirth, boozing, the walking dead, and a lot of death in general, or discussion of death. The conversations the characters have about death were enough to freak me out a little. One of the character's comments about death being the great unknown, and the fact that it is the unknown aspect of it that causes people to fear death got to me. It's impossible to read this book without devoting some time to seriously thinking about what death means. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince does still include a few of the whimsical elements that initially made Harry Potter so popular (magical candy and what have you), but the vast majority of the focus is on more mature matters like who will hook up with who and bloody fights.

Though J.K. Rowling's writing was never weak, it seems like it is improving as she progresses through the series. It's true Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince does not have a satisfying conclusion. It feels rushed -- too many threads are left untied and some developments are hard to believe (perhaps this is intentional?) -- but overall the writing is better. For instance, in this book readers are more often given descriptions of characters behavior and expressions, than directly told their thoughts and feelings. And if J.K. Rowling is still writing her own books (working in book publishing makes me suspicious of such things) she is a total master of the page-turner. The Harry Potter books have consistently been extremely difficult to put down. Those who haven't read any of the books can ridicule the Harry Potter phenomenon as much as they like, but once you start reading one (especially the most recent volumes) you will keep reading.

Note: I am not arguing that Harry Potter books are life-changing literature, just good reading.

I wish I had a digital camera

Ross and Clare's purchase now has me lusting after a digital camera of my own. I know, I know -- they're not that expensive. For some reason I have a block when it comes to getting off my rear and buying any kind of electronic equipment. It took me eons to get a cell phone. I never know which brand is best, or how much I should be paying. I always just want to buy the cutest thing, and that doesn't really seem like good decision making when it comes to technology. If they made a pink digital camera, I probably would have had one two years ago. Part of my problem is that electronic gadgets never seem totally essential to me. I feel like there's always a touch of frivolity in making such purchases. But, I'm running into more and more situations where it would be handy to have a digital camera. The great blogging that a digital camera would enable is enough of a reason to get one.

I also wish I wouldn't have spent four thousand dollars this afternoon at J Crew. I didn't mean to. They tricked me into it with their demonically cute sweaters. If I had a digital camera, I could show you how cute they are.

Domestically disabled

How does one fold the bedsheets with elastic around the edges? They don't lie flat. There aren't corners to match up. My elastic-rimmed bedsheets always just wind up in a wrinkled heap next to the flat foldable ones and the pillow cases. Can anyone fill me in on the proper technique? Perhaps there's trick to storing them neatly without folding?

Speaking of The Superficial...

Has anyone else noticed that The Superficial isn't very funny lately? I'm not sure if they switched writers, or what, but it doesn't have the same zing. The normally sassy jokes are now a little tired. It can be pitiful when blogs written with the sole purpose of being funny just aren't. It seems like that happens to dudes a lot.

I will give them this -- The Superficial does kick ass when it comes to being first to report the best dirt (even if half of their reports are blatant lies). The upcoming issue of Us Weekly has a four page spread on Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn being seen snuggling and kissing at a blues club in Chicago. The Superficial reported the story first, at least a week ago.

The Daily Dish coverts to a blog?

San Francisco residents have long known that they can fill their celebrity gossip needs at The Daily Dish, an online column of the Chronicle. I've been a reader for about a year.

I just logged on today, only to realize that they've switched up their format. SFGate is treating the Dish as a blog now. You can even comment on each of their postings. Readers don't seem to have figured out the comment funtion of the page though, as there aren't any comments yet.

Now the Dish is almost like The Superficial, sans jokes about poo and whacking off.

Word verification for comments

For some reason, I started getting spam in the comment fields on my blogs this afternoon. I'm not sure if something triggered it, or if it was random. All of the sudden a bunch of bogus comments with links to commercial sites began popping up in quick succession (all but one has been deleted).

To combat this crappiness, I've started using the Blogger.com word verification feature for comments. When you leave a comment, you'll have to type in characters as they appear on the screen in order to confirm that you're an actual human. It's annoying, but spam is more annoying.

Bumpwatch 2005

After weeks of diligent harassment on my part, Clare and Ross finally bought a digital camera. Clare sent me the first picture I've seen of her in about three months. I've stared at it for at least fifteen minutes now, and I can't get over it. I wasn't expecting her to look pregnant, yet. She definitely looks all glowy, healthy, happy, and maternal. Pregnancy happens so fast.

Jeans are out, botox is in

Another update on the designer jeans project: My group got word back from our professor that we will in fact be allowed to interview company representatives as a part of the research for the project. As a result, we decided to ditch the jeans concept and find a small business to focus
on -- a small business where one of us has connections and could easily get the scoop. After considering several options, our final choice was a dermatologist's office. Along with all the actual medical treatments, they offer cosmetic botox injections. We're going to analyze pricing strategies for the bo. I'm pretty excited about it. It's way more interesting than the concepts I've heard from the other groups, and I feel like it has a small amount of personal relevance.

RB is back

Apologies for the lack of posts lately! Full-time work and part-time school have been taking their toll. Plus, this week my parents came to visit San Francisco -- for the first time in three years. They flew out this afternoon and I'm taking the day off, so maybe between my nap and my pedicure I'll have time to get in some blogging.