I hate phone spam....

But something interesting. 1. I hate, hate, hate, hate being called at inappropriate hours of the night about nothing in particular. 2. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate phone spam even more.

so I've been phone spammed. Turns out that there is this "guy" who keeps calling both my cell phone and my home phone in attempts to get me to call him back. I realize now that this is that part of a new set of scams that are now infiltrating my cell phone. Damn-it all if it hasn't happened to me.

The only reason I remembered ANYTHING about phone scams is because of 60 Minutes, and a piece they did about phone scams. Regardless now my poor little cell phone is getting rung at least once a day from a Mr. Michael Rodes/Mr. Mariani/Ms. barbara etc, etc, etc. all from a (716) 650-6240. All saying that "you need to call me, this is in regards to a very urgent legal matter" and they tell me to call a 800-695-9134.

so my "jerk-alert" went up. I'm on the whole a really good citizen, no accidents, good credit, no jail time...I know what you're thinking - it gets expunged when you turn 18 - but really I'm basically a good kid. So when I get a call saying "Call me - its an urgent legal matter!" I'm suspicious. So I did a basic google search, and came across another blogger, who was complaining of the same thing. The connection didn't take much to figure out.

I did a little more sleuthing, only to find out that the (716) phone number was for the Northern NY area - specifically Williamsville, NY. It also turns out that it is for and AT&T prepaid phone. And considering that several phone distributers are right there, and just a short drive across the border from....you guessed it Canada! It didnt' take much for me to figure out that this was a phone scam. The problem is that I'm figuring that it s a pre-paid phone, in Canada, So I'm kinda up the creek without a paddle.

So I decided to be activist in my own lazy way. I figure that I can't stop them by myself, but I that I can help someone else by at least putting this stuff out there, hopefully keeping the blogsphere safe. So when you get an automoton/pre-recorded voice telling you to "call me, it's urgent" and they are calling from a number you don't recognize don't reply. ESPECIALLY if its coming from (716) 650-6240. This is an out and out phone scam. Just hang up, and Don't let your curiousity get to you. Its not worth it.

uh. yeah. here's for civic duty.

Just blog-it, Dammit!

In this pre-Christmas, post-Thanksgiving slump, I find that I really have be half-assing everything that would normally take in my entire attention. Especially those things that I love to do. Writing letters, reading good books, being social and generally being a smart-ass.

I find that I am rushing around doing everything cock-eyed in an attempt to just have it done. You know that feeling...that exhausted but overslept idea that you really need to stop and do something else. What that something is I haven’t the damndest clue, but its that gnawing feeling at the base of your gut that makes you want to run away. or run screaming through a building with your hair wild, teeth bared and throwing feces as you pass people by. (stay with me here...)

Its this inter-holiday madness that causes that strange feeling somewhere between 'blah' and 'keep going or you're gonna crash.' I most certainly not a wintry person, at least not in my adult years. Winter was one of those times when we used to love being outside and doing nothing BUT being outside. I would have to be dragged in, against my will, with cold blue fingers and a rosy nose; Cold to the bone but couldn't be happier. I'd sit by the fire and warm my numbed toes and hold my cold and bruised bottom to the flame.

Now? now I'm in a mad rush to do anything but be here. Do anything OTHER than what my responsibilities require of me. Is it that end of year crush that makes me this way? because really there is no rainbow on the other side of 12/31/04. In fact I can be pretty certain that there will most likely be either a bed, or a toilet or both. Really not a whole lot to look forward to, if you ask me. But I am most certainly going to blame some one else, (actually anyone else) for whatever goes wrong for 2005.

there were bets. I've lost most of them, but I'm still betting that I'll be here. I like getting my paycheck at the 15th and the 30th. It allows me to keep up on the sarcasm and the avoidance at work. It also keeps me poorly dressed, and interminably depressed.


yay me.

Woman signs for Mexico men's team

"A woman footballer is joining a national men's league side in Mexico - a move which would be a first in the sport in North and Central America.

Striker Maribel Dominguez - who has scored 42 goals in 43 games for the national women's team - has signed for Celaya, a club official confirmed. "

- courtsey of BBC News...

Personally I think that this is amazing news! a sport that for everywhere else in the world is considered soley a mans sport is either a) pulling an amazing publicity stunt, or b) an amazing feat of bravery by the mexican football team. Now admittedly this isn't the first time that a woman has been wooed to play with the big boys, but irrespective of that...her scoring is still pretty freakin amazing

For my mom

This is what I want for Christmas/Channuka/Kwanza!!! (yes I know its confusing, but it means I get 13x's the presents! 9 nights of Channuka + 7 nights of Kwanzaa! see mom I CAN count, phbsssttt!!)

For all those years of telling me I was wrong. Now I can tell the world how absolutely right I am! I knew that I was right!!! So there! (to see what the shirt looks like you can click on the image. It should load it in a new window...Sorry for the egregious directions...My mom is 65.)

ooooh!oooh! I want the Cold!!!

Yep you heard me...I WANT the cold! along with Mono, and maybe some hallitosis as well!
(pictured in order as they were listed) So lovey and cuddlley...I want to have them all for myself I mean look at Mono - so cute and lavender too! who knew? No me? Although the cold, being that nice arctic looking blue seems to fit right in. And who doesn't want halitosis! he's everybody's favorite germ...especially when you are forced to work with some one who is a "close talker" and has never met an onion bagel he doesn't like.

..::Pimp Juice::..

..::Pimp Juice::.. That's right...You heard it...Pimp juice. From none other than Nelly...

I wish to high heaven that I were joking, but I am not. The fact that it has been brought to my attention by my boyfriend...who noticed it at a strip club vending machine, (I'll explain later...) And then later was able to find it in liquor stores along the 6th St. Corridor in San Francisco. I am scared. No, I am insulted. (for those of you who may not know, the 6th St Corridor is considered a "bad" part of town, which is in the process of gentrification, but is still very much the 'loin.) He has gone so far as to purchase several novelty cans. I was ready to assume that was it. But Lo! to my dismay it wasn't. Pimp Juice has a website AND merch. Must have items like the "I am a P.I.M.P (positive, intellectual, movtivated, person) T-Shirt. T-shirt my ass, no intellectual individual would intentionally buy this item other than for the kitch factor, because that is all this is going to end up as. I only wish that it ended there. But it doesn't.

I am so sorry, and saddened for the future generations when they have G*D damned NELLY offering them P.I.M.P. scholarships. that's right, you heard me correctly P.I.M.P scholarships. WTF!? Are you going to tell your parents when $5000 suddenly appears in the mail with PIMP Juice emblazoned all over it? I am sorry, but there is no self respecting individual who would ever willingly complete and enter that contest only to face the ridicule and aftermath of actually having won a "PIMP" contest. Convince yourself that its only money, and you are not only selling your soul for an un-original, degrading, mindless, 15 second fad/ad that by tomorrow will leave you cold and in the fetal position crying in self-pity, but you are making yourself out to be the whore NELLY wants you to be.

Beyotch, where my money!

The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All Time

Taken from John Scalzi's website http://www.scalzi.com

With choices like An Algonquin Round Table Christmas (1927) , where Dorothy Parker gets sloshed live on the radio; or Ayn Rand's A Selfish Christmas (1951) makes it difficult to choose from a favorite.

But if I must...it will have to be a two way tie between "The Village People in Can't Stop the Christmas Music -- On Ice! (1980)"

"The Village People mobilize to save Christmas after Santa Claus (Paul Lynde) experiences a hernia. Thus follows several musical sequences -- on ice! -- where the Village People move Santa's Workshop to Christopher Street, enlist their friends to become elves with an adapted version of their hit "In The Navy", and draft film co-star Bruce Jenner to become the new Santa. All in a sequence which involves stripping the 1976 gold medal decathlon winner to his shorts, shaving and oiling his chest, and outfitting him in fur-trimmed red briefs and crimson leathers to a disco version of "Come O Ye Faithful." Peggy Fleming, Shields and Yarnell and Lorna Luft co-star"

and

"A Canadian Christmas with David Cronenberg (1986)"

" In this 90-minute event, Santa (Michael Ironside) makes an emergency landing in the Northwest Territories, where he is exposed to a previously unknown virus after being attacked by a violent moose. The virus causes Santa to develop both a large, tooth-bearing orifice in his belly and a lustful hunger for human flesh, which he sates by graphically devouring Canadian celebrities Bryan Adams, Dan Ackroyd and Gordie Howe on national television. Music by Neil Young."

MERRY ChrisaHannuKwanzAdan!

I need to get back to bed

Bristol University study on Sleep and obesity comes out to say that on average "Individuals who spend less than 8 hours of sleeping are shown to have a greater likely hood of being heavier." According to Dr. Shahrad Taheri of Bristol University.

of course it doesn't help that at the current pace most americans get less than that...in fact averaging about 6.9 hours a night according to the NSF (National Sleep Foundation - is there a foundation for everything? christ...i suppose there might even be a national foundation for habitual rose sniffers....oh shit. they do...)
Regardless, Its not enough that the stress of the day results in late afternoon cofee drinking, or that in the evening it tends to lend it self to holiday binge drinking, sleeping pills, making it difficult to rouse yourself from bed, so you compensate when you finally rise out of bed with no time to exercise with heroin expresso-mocha-lotta-sugar-cream-concotion with a side of Kruller/crossant...no wonder your ass is getting fatter.

uh yeah...I have frustrations. Lots of them. Last thing I needed was someone else telling me I already don't get enough sleep, and that's why my butt is getting bigger.

Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says

Great! Just what the world needs, even more confused, oversexualized, mis-infomed teens. Just freakin great.

Taken from the Washington Post:
"Congress first allocated money for abstinence-only programs in 1999, setting aside $80 million in grants, which go to a variety of religious, civic and medical organizations. To be eligible, groups must limit discussion of contraception to failure rates.

President Bush has enthusiastically backed the movement, proposing to spend $270 million on abstinence projects in 2005. Congress reduced that to about $168 million, bringing total abstinence funding to nearly $900 million over five years. "

So corporations like The Medical Institute Get to put out 'educational' pamphlets that proport (incorrectly) that :

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person." (no medical proof, yet...)
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears. (Absolutely, not possible)
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse. (its less than 3%)

And my favorite:

• touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy
  

Now just looking at this quick list of things that are being outlined...doesn't this sound like middle-school variety urban-legendary lying? It does to me, I mean if at least the last supposition about pregnancy and "touching of genitals" were true, I would have had at least a few kids by now... Regardless what makes me mad is not the whole "don't have sex...stay virgin!" line, its more about lying to kids in an attempt to scare them INTO abstinence.

Now having friends who were teen pregnancies I can understand the desire to keep our kids from having kids. And, yes, I do agree that abstinence is the best and only way to prevent children from getting/having STD's or unwanted pregnancies, but lying? Positing subjective observations like "50% of gay men have HIV" as medical fact? Come ON!! (incidentally gay males aged 20-25 - the actual rate is something closer to 30%, and the spread of adolecents infected with HIV is an even 50/50 for both hetero/homo girls and boys, as reported by the CDC)

So it sounds to me like this, and other Abstinence-Only organizations can basically produce medically incorrect data with literally no check? I mean I knew about this waaaayyyy back in 1999, (and I have to admit I hated it then) and it only comes up now, 5 years later...in comittee?
Nevermind the fact that a company like "The Medical Institute" is out of Austin, TX and is one of the larger distributers of this very bile...but its the fact that our federal dollars are being pumped into falshoods and lies.

Ken Jennings' 'Jeopardy!' streak ends

Taken from USAToday: USATODAY.com - Ken Jennings' 'Jeopardy!' streak ends: Ahead by $4,400 going into "Final Jeopardy," Jennings stumbled on this Business and Industry clue: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year. Jennings wrongly answered, "What is FedEx?" real estate agent Nancy Zerg of Ventura, Calif., responded, "What is H&R Block?" making her the new champ — and a likely future Jeopardy! answer. (She finished with $14,401; Jennings fell to $8,799.)
"As for the question that stumped him, Jennings says he does his own taxes, so a tax-preparation service didn't come to mind. H&R Block has offered him lifetime financial services. The company estimates he could expect to pay up to $1.045 million in taxes on his winnings, another game show record."

Everyone is so jucied about Ken Jennings winning streak ending. I've seen /read him being equivicated to sports, messianic men, etc, etc. Really people...it was interesting while it was happening....but to equate knowledeg to triva? Not really the same thing.

Now for those of you out there, it should be obvious by now that there is more than a little spittle, venom and spite hidden in there. And I know that I'm not the only one who dislikes Ken Jennings...but to be honest, I'm jealous. Really, Reallly Jealous, and there should be no question why. Think about it for a minute....all those years of sitting at my mothers side being forced to watch Jeopardy every night at 7 pm (PST) when I could have been out being a rocus adolecent and teenager, has made me a jeopardy queen. That's right QUEEN i tell ya!

Regardless. I should have won that money. I KNEW all the same answers, even the two Double Jeopardies he got wrong, AND the Final Jeopardy answer...It just pisses me off that a mormon boy gets all that money - only to give 10% of it in tithings, and another 40% of it in taxes.

damn.