Sometimes, Melissa runs her legs. Sometimes, she runs her mouth.

Month: April 2009 (Page 2 of 2)

Happy Easter Ad from Italy




Italian Easter Ad

Originally uploaded by Hugger Industries

The Italians aren’t like you and me.

Life is . . .

ridiculously good right now.

Just ran 10K. Still puppysitting Breezy the wonderpup.

Things in the near future that make me happy like a kid in a candystore.

  • After reading this post about the crazy workouts that Madonna and Gwenyth endure to stay movie star thin, I’m not feeling so bad about the chub right now. Two hours a day. That’s a part time job.
  • Riverfest! is coming in six weeks. The B-52s. Willie Nelson! My guess is that they will be playing at the same time to cause me to rue the lack of cloning technology in 2009. This is a fun event and worth the road trip if you live somewhere not so close.
  • Memphis in May is also coming. Can you tell I like live music? Just a little bit? Steve Miller Band, Katy Perry, The Cult, Al Green, Korn and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic.. Oh and did I mention there was BBQ? Uh huh.
  • OLD 97s in TULSA
  • Macarthur Park 5K. Someone left the cake in the rain! oops I’ll shut up now.
  • Arkansas Literary Festival. Books books and more books. Oh and David Sedaris is coming to read in October. Yeah I know what I said about his latest book. I’m still going to be there.
  • Arkansas Shakespeare theater presents Boondogs. Raffles. I love the Boondogs.

So yes there’s a lot to do and see. Fun times hanging out with friends are a coming.

30 day shred….

Jillian Michaels’s 30 Day Shred

As far as my exercise routine goes, I don’t really have one. I run. I kept up with the half marathon schedule for the Little Rock Marathon most weeks and that was it. I had grand plans to do the 100 push up challenge or the 200 sit up challenge. Well, I slacked on those. So when I was in target and saw this DVD sitting near the Slumdog Millionaire, I picked it up.

OWWW!

Okay. This DVD has three different routines that are in levels of intensity. I did the lowest. It’s a 20 minute circuit training routine with a brief warm up, 3 minutes of strength, minutes of cardio and one minute of abs. Lather, rinse, repeat couple of times and then cool down. The strength training is compound training with squats and arm raises or lunges and bicep curls. Every minute counts and there is no resting. Since the circuits are so short, you can pull through them …. oh yeah I only got 30 more seconds. arghhghahghaghagh… yes I’m done. You will feel it the next day.

One reason I really like this DVD is because Jillian doesn’t pretend that exercise is all fun and that some day you are going to wake up and love this. No, she point blank tells you that you want to get in shape and you got to work to do it. So it’s motivating without that lying crap like when you go to the doctor and he says “this is only going to hurt a little” No she says, “feel that pain, that means you’re getting stronger”

So yeah you’ll feel shredded all right. Now I’m wondering where all my shredded fat goes. I guess Tyler Durden has it.

When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

I checked When You Are Engulfed in Flames out of the local library along with some other books.

David and his sister Amy are what you would call “eccentric” people. They are from North Carolina. David is gay and writes funny stories based on his life. Actually, I think they may be true or based on true events— similar to an online journal or a “diary style blog” Of course, his writings happen to be funnier and are published in magazines and book form. Well some of them are funnier. That time Pamie and AB Chao had Vince run over the fish was pee in the pants funny— funnier than Sedaris. Or the time, AB Chao ran over some lady. Yes she hit somebody with her car. Yes I’m going to hell for laughing about it.

Ahem… anyway. So when Sedaris scores, he scores big. You will laugh so hard and think he’s the greatest story teller ever. When he’s not, you’re looking at the last page of the book to see how much longer you have to read.

This book was the second. Not to say that there aren’t some funny stories in here or that it’s not worth reading. It’s just not one of his best and some of the tales/essays had me skimming and seeing how much more I had left of the book before I get to turn it back in to the library. Not a good sign.

Maybe its’ because in the South, telling stories about the goofy stuff you did is part of the cultural landscape. It’s what we do in the country. Sit on the porch, drinking tea (or Coke… I hate tea), listening to Uncle Glen talk about what happened at the Piggly Wiggly this morning when this one woman bought six boxes of tampons.

If you’re a fan read it. If not, try one of his other books first. He really is funny. This just isn’t his best.

Thoughts that are maybe keen observations but maybe not

Why is it that the people who dish it about the most are the people who can’t take it?

Why is it that the people who bitch about not wanting twitter to be about “what you had for lunch” the ones telling you that they’re giving a speech somewhere. How is that different if the place where they’re giving a speech an exclusive engagement from which the peons are not able to attend? It’s not unless you add that it’s a little bit of snobbery in the same way that the nuveau riche talk all the time about going to “the club.” Yeah, it’s more obnoxious than the average “I ate here” because there’s an added sense of elitism and entitlement added to it.

Besides, “I ate here and it was awesome” is a short succinct restaurant review which could qualify as “news.” Any complaints of the whole thing when you know your own tweets are just as inane and self indulgent just reeks of entitlement, narcissism, and hypocrisy. (oooh big ass words)

I believe the phrase, “if you don’t like it, don’t read it” applies.

Yeah that crawled up my butt and died.

It’s a good thing I didn’t sign up for the local 5K because I overslept for it. Sleeping in is a good way to celebrate birthday week.

My brother’s birthday was yesterday. He had chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My brother attempted to write “Happy Birthday” with some Betty Crocker stuff called “sugar cookie icing” It looks like she poured ketchup on the poor thing. My internet is down so no pictures of this bonafide cake wreck until later.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

The Reader

I got a copy of The Reader while I was capital city for a meeting. Of course, I knew the outline of the plot and that Kate Winslet had won a lot of awards for her portrayal of the older woman in this movie.

This is about the fifteen year old boy who developed hepatitis. As he was going home from school, he threw up and an older lady helped clean him up and get him home. Months later when he recovered, he went to her house to thank her for being so kind to him. They have sex. She likes him to read her stories. One day she just ups and leaves. Years later, he discovers that she is on trial for Nazi war crimes.

OH MY.

Apparently, this book is so controversial that it is not on goodreads.

The story is not very graphic and is in hindsight from the young boy when he is an older man. It\’s an easy read and the writing itself is very sparse. This might have to do with the fact that it\’s an English translation of a German story.

The most interesting part of the story to me was the tension between the now grown children and their relationship with the older generation who had been Nazis. Everyone else in the world is able to denigrate them as “bad people” but how do you reconcile that when it’s your Mother or Father, the same person who fed you, clothed you, read bedtime stories to you at night, and played games with you as a kid.

Don’t be fooled. It’s no Lolita.

Where are the women?

Arkansas Business published a list of 25 for the Future of course it has only 3.5 (the half is a brother sister duo). Of course, it also has many of the “sons and daughters” of the very important people of Arkansas. Of course, the Arkansas Times blog chimes in with

No kidding. Looked at our corporate boardrooms, state commissions and other positions of power lately? White males, paternalism and devotion to gender role stereotyping dominate. (Just try and get on the state Game and Fish Commission if you don’t have a penis.) So, no, I won’t be joining those shooting the messenger.

I love that. I love that like a bullet to the head. If I had remembered for two seconds when I set foot on Arkansas soil with my tier one law school degree and a dream that many, many people still think that women should be good little wives and very important attorneys would call me “sugar” at meetings or that I would be encouraged to do family law instead of criminal law or a whole long laundry list of other shit, I would have handcuffed myself to the Greenville bridge and refused to come home.

Okay that’s a hyperbole. It’s a lot more slight than I would like and a “very important attorney” did call me “sugar” the whole damn time. I’ve decided the next time someone calls me “sugar” I’m replying by calling them “Honeybritches” I don’t care if it’s Mike Beebe, Mike Huckabee, or Satan himself. Honeybritches it is.

Yes it’s annoying. It’s very annoying. I lived in liberal, less paternalistic quarters for far too long.

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