Radio, Radio

I have bad luck with car stereos. I’ve had my car since 1999. Since then, I’ve been through several car stereos.

Car stereo #1: Just a tape deck. To listen to CDs, I had to connect a Discman through the tape player. The only tape I owned was “Morrison Hotel”, which I think I accquired accidentally. I had to upgrade to a CD player!

Car stereo #2: Worked for a year and a half, and broke after the warranty ended. It simply ceased to read CDs.

Car stereo #3a: This one played MP3 CDs too, which was super cool because then I could burn CDs with over 100 songs on them. Heavenly! Then, something weird happened with the volume control. It would adjust on its own…it would get really loud and I couldn’t lower it. It was awful.

Car stereo #3b: I took it to Best Buy to get it fixed. They returned it to me and it was good as new. A few weeks later, my car was broken into while parked in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. They stole all my CDs, some clothes from the back of my car, and my newly fixed stereo! And only a few weeks before I was going to drive across the country with Matt to move to Massachusetts.

Car stereo #4: I bought a new one at Best Buy, and the guys working there remembered me from getting my stereo fixed a few weeks earlier. The stereo was fine for close to three years. Then a few weeks ago, it stopped reading CDs. In fact, a CD is stuck in there right now. If I try to play or eject it, the entire stereo freezes up and stops working.

So…I’ve been listening to the radio. I gave up on the radio probably 6 or 7 years ago. I often listen to Air America, but sometimes I need a little music, so I station surf on FM. WERS has made a turn for the worse. Getting rid of Jazz Oasis? A big mistake, if you ask me! Half the stations are playing Christmas music. I’m not a Christmas music hater, but honestly, I don’t want to listen to it in my car.

At least once a day, I hear one of the following songs during my radio station travels:

- The Joker
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot
- American Woman

Seriously, that’s all I hear! It’s insane! I guess they’re not bad songs (except for maybe “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” which I don’t enjoy) but do they need to be played that often? There are millions of songs, why play those so often? And they’re on different stations too.

And the classic rock stations just depress me! Sometimes I hear music on there that’s younger than me. If I were a song, I’d be classic rock! And within a few years, I fear I would be an oldie!

Not sure if I’m going to bother replacing my car stereo this time. I don’t drive as much as I used to when I lived in California, so I’m not sure if it’s necessary anymore. I’m simply going to have to make do with what I have, and mostly just stick to Air America. I don’t need to hear “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” anymore.

Holiday Shopping

I started in September this year annnnnd…I am pretty much done today! I feel so relieved. Almost all of it is wrapped, too, in a pile in the corner of our already cramped living room. I’m so excited about some of the gifts that I can hardly wait until next month to start giving them to people! :-)

Happy Turkey Day!

Sorry I haven’t been so bloggy these days!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Oh, Kramer…

OK, by now everyone has heard of the Michael Richards outburst. Obviously, I think that what he said is beyond awful…I was reading Huffington Post today, and there were a few posts about it. I was wrong when I thought there might be some thoughtful commentary on the situation. Instead, I saw some of the most despicable anti-Semitic comments I’ve ever seen in my life. It made me both livid and nauseous, but some of the comments were so DUMB that I almost laughed!

First off, is Michael Richards Jewish? I saw that on Wikipedia, as well as another source at some point, that he is Catholic.

Look at some of these snippets of the comments:

-By the way, is this Richards a hebe or is he White?

-This is TOO funny! A hook-nosed jewboy calling a n***** a n*****! [snip] And what gives Richards the idea that he’s white?

-So Richard may be Catholic, but his actions are Jewish, so critiquing him for his ‘Jewishness’ is rational.

- A racist jew? Yeah. Im not surprised. Chosen people…supremacy….genocide of the palestinians….hates blacks…yeah, it all fits together to paint a picture of a racist people.

-is he even jewish? He’s awfully tall

And then of course there are people claiming that Kramer’s career will bounce back, but Mel Gibson’s will not because Gibson insulted the Jews and the “Jews run Hollywood.”

The initial thread then devolved into:

Person 1: “Michael Richards is Jewish! All Jews are racist!”

Person 2: “No, YOU’RE racist!”

Person 1: “All Jews hate everyone!”

Person 3: “Michael Richards isn’t even a Jew!”

Person 1: “I don’t care! Jews are racist and bad!”

I’ve NEVER seen SO much anti-Semitism in my life as I have on Huffington Post today! These people are spewing hate on a political blog using anonymous names. It’s so depressing. I feel like things are going backwards sometimes. :-(

Plants Need Water, Man!

The time has come! Someone finally uploaded my favorite non-Muppet Sesame Street skit on to YouTube.

Psychedelic, man.

Whatcha tawkin’ about?

Yaaay!

Congratulations to Deval Patrick, the House, and the Senate! :-) I’m a happy camper.

And now for a Mitt Romney quote: “Being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is a bit like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.” [at a GOP audience in South Carolina last year]

Awww, Mitt. You’re such a card. I doubt you’ll be missed, though!

Eric Carle Museum

On Saturday, I took a day trip to Western Mass. It was a lot of fun. Amherst is really cute, Sylvester’s makes a mean brunch, and there’s an Eric Carle Museum! Yes, Eric Carle. One of my favorite children’s book illustrators.

The museum store was really cool. I bought all sorts of things, including super cool holiday presents for friends and family so I’m not going to list them all here and spoil the surprise. :-) But I did buy two prints for my house.

The only downside was that the bathroom and store smelled like one giant Diaper Genie. In fact, while we were in the store, I saw a little boy sitting on the floor, face twisted, contorted, and very red…his dad asked him, “Son, are you pooping?” The little boy nodded. It didn’t help the already putrid odor.

I just need to find a Dr. Suess museum (although there does seem to be a Dr. Suess sculpture garden in Springfield, MA!) and an Ezra Jack Keats museum and my life will be complete!

Get certified in First Aid

Yesterday I got certified in first aid by the Red Cross. Big Brothers Big Sisters organized the event. It was 4 hours long and now I know what to do in an emergency! I learned how to take care of wounds, choking victims, head injuries, etc. At the end I took a test. I was a little panicked because I do terribly on tests even when I know the info. But I only got one wrong on this one. So I am now certified in first aid! :-)

I recommend everybody get certified. It’s really useful knowledge. And if you used to be certified but it’s expired, I suggest you get certified again because certain protocol has changed, including what to do when someone is choking. The last time I took first aid was in Girl Scouts (and I dropped out of Girl Scouts in 1990, so do the math!)…and it’s very different now.

The Axis of Evil does not include Poland

You know what you don’t hear people talking about much these days? The Axis of Evil. Although my favorite old Bushism was, Well, actually, he forgot Poland.”