It's ok, Associated Press, the Mormons like Jesus too.

You know it's got to be a special piece of bad journalism when it's got some of the left's very best defending Republican presidential candidate, and Mormon, Mitt Romney. And, in fact, it is: a particularly bullshit "news" article by the A.P. highlighting the "polygamy branch" of the Romney family tree. Apparently Mitt's great-grandparents were polygamists, though he is against the practice and has been married to one woman for 37 years. (For the record, how many other Republican front runners can say that?) As Shakespeare's Sister rightfully points out, this has "zero fucking relevance" to the campaign. This is no more relevant to Romney's campaign, or life for that matter, than it would be to know that any other politician's great grandparents had been strong proponents of Jim Crow laws, though they themselves of course are not. Bringing it in to the campaign, let alone calling it news, insults the public and the media establishment as a whole, and I really hope that this gets called out somewhere other than the many blogs that have written about it. SS also brings up the obvious religious implications inherent in making big news out of practically fabricated biographical information (insinuating Romney supports polygamy)- while Mormons are indeed Christians, they aren't the right kind, the "strong leader" kind, the sober up and find evangelical Christianity then go make war in the Middle East kind. And that's who America likes to lead it.

Right into the ground.

yay God: oscar edition

Just a brief note to express my happiness that Scorsese (and The Departed!) finally, finally won that well-deserved Oscar, that Jennifer Hudson, Helen Mirren, Forrest Whitacre, and Marie Antoinette's costumer won theirs, slight disappointment for Kate Winslet and Leo Dicaprio, though I'm sure they'll get theirs eventually, and a reference to go fug yourself.com for the best dress commentary tomorrow- and my God were there some bad dresses.

Now if you haven't seen it- go watch The Departed! and Infernal Affairs. It's not exactly the feel good movie of the year, but it's pretty freaking fantastic.

did anyone beta test web 2.0?

It's about one a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning, a normal time for me to be up on any night really, but especially on a weekend. Sadly there's so much nothing to do around here I contemplated going to bed a couple hours ago but got sucked into flickr and last.fm, which brought me to updating the blog. I was talking to my sister recently about the horrendously named "web 2.0", which is the phenomenon of web community networking sites, wikis, etc. Blogs fit in to the category, so does Wikipedia (natch), as does flickr, my love of loves, last.fm, the facebook, del.icio.us, and any one of the ten or twenty of these sorts of things I use or hear about every day. Even things with a strong real-world component, like Netflix, buy into web 2.0 and hype their "friends" feature, which I've been using recently with sick fascination to either denigrate or be impressed with the movie choices of my friends. I didn't realize quite how plugged in I was to all this networking technology until I reached the low of trying to get my completely anti-book sister to join Shelfari, a (really cool) site dedicated to sharing and exploring reading habits. After she told me to go and peddle my zeal for literature elsewhere, a message which was delivered via facebook, I think I hit a social networking wall.

I frequently try to get my friends and family members to join me on websites I find particularly cool, especially if it's related to something they are really interested in already. However, no matter how much some friends love their digital cameras, I can't seem to get them on flickr. Same goes with music lovers and last.fm (or any other music site, pick your poison.) It seems that my interests, which include technology, music, lit, writing, photography, film- all the things to which these sites cater- match all of my friend's interests but one important one. The technology one. While I have a few friends who participate in each site, with the exception of facebook, that be all, end all of social networking sites, it seems like there is some idea of "trouble" or "work" built into the idea of doing things online. I'm not sure where this comes from exactly, but there must be some kind of critical mass at which people say, I'm done with new technology for the moment. For a lot of people, that catalyst may have been the iTunes-iPod combo of death, which controls the experience with such a heavy hand that the more freeform method of some networking sites may indeed seem like a lot of work. But I really think that the benefits are worth the five minutes of clicks it may take to figure something out.

Last.fm, for instance. Could I like it more? I don't know. Jonesing for some new music? Hate the radio? Just plain bored of hearing the same songs every hour? Yeah, me too. Know what bands you already like? Fantastic. Type it in a box, they play you bands kinda like that one. Hate a song? Skip it. Love it? Tell 'em. Get a custom radio station of all music you actually like. Imagine that. Make friends with people who like music you do and get some recs. Been listening to music like Ben Folds and feel like some music like Gnarls Barkley instead? No problem. So why the heck are people like, yeah, that sounds cool, but it's too much work to do it. ?!?! Same rules apply with flickr, the photo sharing site that stole my camera-happy little heart way back when it began, and has since even made a paying member out of me.

My bottom line: web 2.0, while possibly the lamest name ever coined, has brought us some damned cool websites, and I'm tired of everyone's lazy excuses for not joining them. While I can 100% see why not everyone might take it upon themselves to write a blog (you may be asking yourself why I do, as do I at times like this), if you have even slightly more than a passing interest in music, join the ranks of last.fm users and find your new favorite band. Or, allow me to peddle my zeal for literature and suggest a visit to Shelfari.com-it's new, it's got teensy books on a virtual shelf, it can help you settle that pesky problem of forgetting what books you want to read, and it will allow you to become a proud participant of the web 2.0 "revolution". And come on, don't tell me you never wanted to be part of a revolution.

Well it's been a while since I've written anything of substance, and I only put up the dog pictures under force of threat by multiple people, so I think it's safe to safe I am totally neglecting my blog. What I am wasting my time with instead? I'm ashamed to say not a whole lot. While I was busy with packing and moving and leaving school, it was easy to take a few minutes and write something, or waste hours online reading the news while I avoided doing something else. But now that I have nothing to avoid it's way easier to just do nothing. I check my email but other than that I've even been away from the computer, unaware of politics, scandal, bad outfits, or any other web items of interest and I still remain surrounded by about twenty boxes worth of junk that needs put away, clothes that need unpacked, and I still haven't really found a job.

So, you might ask: What the hell am I doing with myself all day?! Well, usually I don't really know. Today I spent a good two hours screwing with our wireless network. Honestly it really doesn't seem that bad when I get up and waste the whole day and then go to bed until I start writing something like this, which underscores exactly the amount of nothing one is capable of achieving in a day. While I'll have a job by next week, and then no more time to waste, this is still pretty unacceptable, isn't it? I'll get it together kids. For the blog. Because seriously, I am boring even myself to tears.

gratuitous dog posting

So we're having what the weathermen are calling the "Storm of '07" (ominous, right?), which means about a foot of snow and assorted wintery crap, and while it's causing all kinds of problems for the humans around here, my dog is loving it. In honor of that, and my sister and Stephen's persistent bitching, here are some photos of his first real snow:

Ben- Storm of '07

The link will take you to the picasa web album. Cheers!

lord help us all

So it's been awhile since I've posted and a lot has gone down since that not sucky Monday. In my own life I am in the process of moving, which is the reason for my shady lack of posts. Out in the real world, however, the Colts won the Superbowl in a rainy game upset, Repubs are blocking debate about Iraq in the senate (Reid says: you can run, but you can't hide. Nice.) , and Boston is getting it's panties in a twist over glorified lite-brights used to advertise for the next Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. These things are alternately surprising, depressing, and hilarious, and all have been commented on in excess by my blogging friends and peers.

Instead of putting in my two cents, which anyone bothering to read this I'm sure has either heard or can guess, allow me to direct your attention to these links:

Armed America: Portraits of Americans and Their Guns
Fascinating, and the portraits are fantastic.
(hat tip to Stephen)

Vivavi
Sustainability and green living meets beautiful, really freaking expensive furniture. Sigh.

And this, which needs no words: