Introducing the infant, My Little Pony Skywishes.

OMG you have to go here and watch the video demonstration. Is this sick or what? I love it.

UPDATE: Umm...you also might have a nice cringe at the demonstration for Mattel's Little Mommy Real Loving Baby. And it also has offered a Little Mommy Car seat, for all those 3 year old Little Mommies with licenses who can't wait to take their Real Loving Baby out for a spin.

And Lastly, I could not leave out the Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name Poodle. Not only does it speak English, know your name and come with a chart so you can track it's growth, but once it is fully grown you can pat it's head a few times to make it a puppy again - and the fun starts all over! Wow, those Fisher Price people are really working hard this year!

Censorship. Alive and Well in the good ole U.S. of A.

Comcast, At&t and Verizon are all guilty of censorship. Comcast is angry that people are using BitTorrent so has decided to play with the packets. Just say yes to peer to peer file sharing. AT&T doesn't like pearl jam singing anti-bush comments so they decided to censor that part of the song. I mean, hello...i hate pearl jam as much as the next guy, but if you are going to stream the concert for all the 12 fans they have left in the world, at least let them hear the entire thing! And Verizon got in hot water over text messaging pro-choicers. Oy.

I heart the eff. Soon I may not be able to say that out loud.

I am in Love with Illeana

I am completely and utterly in love with Illeana. Lookee!
Are they not the most beautiful things your eyes have ever seen? I want to pet them. And then take them out for dinner and a drink. Maybe a movie? Then back to my house for a little extra fun time. I must have them in red!
If I ever am lucky enough to wear these shoes on my cute little size 6.5 feet, I will be the happiest human on earth. forever. The end.

tv overload.

I have been home sick with an ear infection & a sinus infection for almost an entire week. It is painful and boring. painfully boring. I feel too dizzy to read so all I have left is watching tv and sleeping. We have just moved and now have the extra super cable package which includes something called On Demand- a feature that magically allows you to watch movies and premium channel tv series. I started watching the Showtime Series Dexter on Friday and have now just finished watching the entire first season of it. All 12 one hour episodes. It's actually very, very good. If you have cable I strongly recommend watching it. The 2nd season starts on 9/30/07.

Freegan

P.S. I am totally enjoying this blog about a newsweek reporter trying to be a freegan for 30 days. Check it out.

Slang for you.

here are some new words that r0x0r!!

baby bear: adj. - when something is "just right." Not too hot or too cold, not too big or too small, etc.
example:
"Are you hungry?"
"Naw man... I'm baby bear."

askhole: Someone who asks many stupid, pointless, obnoxious questions.
God! Jimmy is such an askhole. He won't stop asking me about my favorite teletubby and i'm about to smash him in the grill, kid.

work hot: A person that may or may not be hot, but is the most attractive person in the set of people you work with so you lust after him/her.
Person 1: So this new girl at your work is she hot?
Person 2: Hell yeah...well I mean she's work hot.

pregret:
The feeling of regretting something you're about to do anyway.
Every Friday night, I pregret that I will go to the club. I know I will stand there like an idiot and won't talk enough game to bring anyone home with me.

iPerbole: The hype surrounding any product Apple unveils.
Claims that the iPhone will change the world are all part of the iPerbole surrounding the cultish company

Best joke EVER!!!

q. What is the difference between a cat and a comma?
a. A cat has claws at the end of its paws and a comma has pause at the end of its clause.

Remix!!

I am LOVING this remix of the 80's Level 42 Something about you song. OMG You must listen to it! It is terrible fun(ny)! (I apologize in advance for the link I am sending you to - I could not find the full length version of the song anywhere else. Beware the Booty!) You have been warned.

I am a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

Yay! I passed the test and now I am a CISSP.
I am not a proponent of certifications. But, it was forced upon me by my job, and I am just glad that I passed it and now will never have to think about it again!
oy.

You have no right to privacy.

I'm sure you are already quite familiar with how our privacy rights are slowly but surely being taken away from us...right?
Say hello to the new Protect America bill.
It just barely passed and I am so disappointed and saddened that Dianne Feinstein was one of the few democrats to vote yes for this. If this makes you upset, please join me, and email her and let her know how you are feeling.

everything is better in pink.

omg! Is this HK laptop cute or what? It was only available in Japan for like three seconds several years ago. But I feel like I have been waiting for what seems like an eternity for apple to come out with a pink laptop. One with a shade that matches exactly the pink mini ipod. Is that too much to ask for, really? I would even be willing to pay more for it just because of the color.
Then, today I was googling, trying to avoid studying for the CISSP exam, and look what I found!
The Dell Inspiron 1420 is offering a pink laptop. But it is a Dell. So that means it is hugegantic and clunky and gross and very Not Cute. Even in pink it is Not Cute.
Something a little more exciting is the Sony Vaio VGN-C25G/P. In BLUSH PINK!! Yay! Now this is a serious option.
And if you are in need of a USB Hub, check this out! Hello Kitty moves and speaks in both English and Japanese. Wow! Plus, you are less likely to have people come into your office and "borrow" your USB hub. Very professional, too!

AND!! For the Robot Fan - There is Hello Kitty Robot! For only $6,299.99!! Apparently she also makes a good babysitter, or so the specs say. My friends keep telling me that childcare is expensive, sounds like they are right.
More excitingly, the specs say "It can chat with you in 3 different situations: 1 As a close friend; 2 With the family; 3 Guessing game." hahahaHa!
She even remembers your face and calls you by name.

furry angel of death.

Here is an interesting article about a cute cat named Oscar who has accurately predicted deaths in a nursing home.

CISSP

Lately I have been studying for the CISSP exam. It sucks. I hate it. There is nothing fun about this. at. all.
barf.

Airport Security

This is great!

It's raining cookie dough.

Today I went out to my car and found that it had a huge-gantic ball of cookie dough splattered on the roof and windshield, and little droplings of cookie dough poo in assorted locations. why? Are kids now cookie doughing cars instead of egging them? Or is the Cookie Monster mad at me?

long time no blog

I think your ears need to hear this irritation. have fun.


Have you ever wondered why your ATM pin is 4 digits in length? Here is why.

omg ww $ux0r$!!!

I feel hate. I want to break up with weight watchers. it sucks ass. I have been a member for 4 weeks and have only lost 1.5 lbs. WTF? guess how much weight i lost this week? 0. zip. nada. nilch. NOTHING!! And the funny (or actually very sad and lame) thing is that I worked out more than I ever have. EVER. I went to they gym on Fri,Mon,Tues,Wed and on Saturday I walked 3 miles. On Sunday I had a nice stroll by the Ocean. Each gym experience involved 45-50 minutes of high intensity aerobic activity followed by some weight work for arms and abs. THEN, in additon to all that, I also did Pilates on Monday and Wednesday. WTF!?
I am so irritated and disgruntled.
SUCK IT! My cat can lose weight faster than me and he sleeps 22 hours a day and never goes outside. This is so depressing.
oy.
sad meow.
pathetic meow.

omg ww r0x0r$!!

OMG I am a crazy old lady and have joined Weight Watchers. I went to my first meeting last Thursday and i LOVE IT. and by love i mean love in all caps, shout it out loud LOVE!
I am doing the Flex point plan - whereby a secret calculation, only known by the highly skilled weight watcher mathemeticians, computes a personalized point profile depending on your age, activity level, and other very scientific stuff .
It ROCKS. You are given a book that tells you how many points almost every food item in the universe is and a little abacus type point-calculator device (PointsFinder) to use for items not in the "the book". For example, a fistful of cat cookies (1 serving = 15 cookies) is 2 points. 10 baby carrots = 0 points. You have to weigh in every week and if you want you can stay for the totally cheesed-out meeting. It is GREAT. OMG I LOVE the accountability of being weighed in. I LOVE how neurotic and anal I am about points and finding the best foods with the lowest point values. This rocks so fucking hard core! It's totally worth it. There is nothing about it I do not like.
There is even an inspiring exercise-point-calculator-device-thingie (PointsBooster) that computes how many points you have earned back by exercising. Of course this is also backed by some majorly complex mathematical algorithm that combines your intensity level, minutes of activity, and body weight to compute the final points value.



Hey, and if you have some extra time to see some cute Peeps in little Diarama scenes. Lookee here!!
Does anyone actually eat these things?

ice cream cake!!

Yummy! I love ice cream cake. Isn't there something comforting about it? Memories of birthday parties. Rollerskates. Stuffed Animals. Streamers. Balloons. Hungry Hungry Hippos. Party Hats. Red Light Green Light. Ice Cream Cake!
Last night I was talking to Lamb about how yumm-a-lumm ice cream cake is and that is when he told me he has NEVER had ice cream cake before. EVER. NADA. strange little lamb!! Poor lamb! We must fix this situation. Pronto!

oh no. Here we go.

And it begins..the slippery slope to reversing Roe v. Wade and all that women like Gloria Steinem (and many others) have done to fight for our rights as women. The implications of this are huge. And scary. This affects what rights you have now as a woman, and what the courts may do in the future to take them away.

The Namesake

OMG you have to go see the movie The Namesake. It is soo good. I laughed and laughed and more importantly I cried and cried almost the entire time (yes, even when I was laughing). It was so emotional that I even wanted to cry an hour after it was over. yay! Meow! Kal Penn (from Harold & Kumar go to White Castle) plays his part so well. yay! crying! laughing! more crying! Go see it right now.
Here is a short description of the movie:
"The story of the Ganguli family whose move from Calcutta to New York evokes a lifelong balancing act to meld to a new world without forgetting the old. Though parents Ashoke and Ashima long for the family and culture that enveloped them in India, they take great pride in the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded their children."

love plus one.

I found myself in the time-suck that is youtube thanks to reading my sister's blog and came upon this most wonderful video of haircut 100 singing Love Plus One! When i was 13 I was TOTALLY in love with this. YAY!

This is why i'm hot

Check out this translation of the rap/hip-hop song "this is why i'm hot". Funny?

Birthday trip to bodega bay

Lamb suprised me with a fun trip to bodega bay for my birthday! It was super awesome and beautiful. We stayed at the bodega bay lodge & spa where we had a suite that had a fireplace and a nice view. It was mucho fun y cosas! On sunday we walked along the ocean's edge - the view was tot rad. But it was windy and cold which made me wish I was a fleece wearing subaru driver. Check out who we met while we were on our little walk. Cute!

Papa can you hear me?

This is an excerpt from an actual conversation I had yesterday at work:

Me: "Please do this very long list of things but anywhere it says "santa claus" just ignore it and go on to the next thing."

Human: "I was working on that list you sent me and there are all these "santa claus" items. I don't understand what I am suppose to be doing with them."

Me: "Ignore them. Pretend "santa claus" does not exist"

Human: "The items labeled "santa claus" seem to require additional information that I do not have. Who can I contact about this?"

the lamb that saved me from myself.

I hate tax time. Actually what I really hate is anytime I have a deadline to do anything that is not work-related. Because when it comes to work things, I am very responsible and dedicated and work wonderfully with things like projects and timelines. Really. But in my real life, I rebel from such things. Deadlines? What? Timelines? My idea of a timeline is getting something done whenever I get around to it. You know, that pile of mail by the front door - yeah, that's on my to-do list.
Then taxes come. Usually I wait around until the last possible day and then get really angry that I can't find anything necessary. The w-2s or w-4s or whatever they're called are missing or mis-placed, my taxes from last year are always lost (every year this is me: "you mean you have to keep those?") and whatever else I need is even harder to find. Then I scream and yell and get really angry and confused and then procrastinate over and over and finally the whole process is finished, but only after I have called 3 or 4 or 12 people to let them know how bad it all is.
This year is different. This year I am married. YAY! Married to a very responsible Lambatron who LOVES to do this stuff. He really likes it! And that is only one of a million-kajillion reasons that makes me soo very thankful and happy to have such a wonderful lamb. How did I luck out like this? My karma was so ON the day this Lamb came into my life. YAY FOR ME! What a great marriage perk - no more taxes. Taxes are totally invisible to me now. I love it. I love my lambatron 2000! meow!

Shootin' at the walls of heartache...Bang, bang.

Lamb's Uncle has season tickets to The Warriors and he couldn't go so he gave us the tickets. He is an ex-marine and hard to say no to, plus, we (correctly) thought it would be an interesting and new experience. The Warriors won. They were playing against The Denver Nuggets.
The entire production seemed not well organized and kind of low-budge. For instance while we were waiting for the the game to start and during the game intermissions and breaks, the band "Pride and Joy" would perform. But the sound was soo incredibly bad - sometimes the singers microphones would be on, sometimes off, you could barely here the musicians instruments compared to the singers (when the microphones worked), etc. Tres Low-Budge. The beer was over over-priced. Much more expensy than at a Sharks game. $7 -$8 for a Small to $8 - over $10 for a large. HELLO!! Food was over-priced but not really any more so than expected. And the ticket price. Outrageous! We were in section 120, good seats, and our suggested ticket price was $65. Whoa! And the Warriors wonder why their fan base is shrinking.
You know how when you go to a Sharks game and in the beginning they have a little show and the lights dim and that huge inflated shark goes on the ice and then dry ice "smoke" starts coming out of its mouth and then BAM! Start the loud rock music! And the players appear, skating out of the shark mouth into the smoke as they announce them one by one. Now THAT is dramatic and totally worth the entire game. Plus you get to see fights and stuff.

Ok, back to The Warriors game. The field or court or whatever you call it seemed way smaller than I thought it would be. Pre-Game the players were out practicing and stretching. Some players were on the floor stretching in the exact same position an infant takes when you change it's diaper. Strike a pose - Vogue.
The cheerleaders tried to get us pumped up but I am very sorry to say that they sucked. I mean, yes, they are hot and I know that is part of their job, but the other part - the "entertain" part was Terrible. Hugely Not Good. For the most part they just jumped up and down with their pom-poms like the junior varisty cheerleaders in high school. They had 2 outfit changes and 2 very short (I use the following term very loosely) "dance perfomances". OK - so I don't mean to be too hard on them - but if my J.O.B. is to look hot AND be a part of a dance group, I would work just as hard on the being hot part as the dancing part. They really lack the dancing part. They weren't really moving at the same time when they should have and lots of them were off-time (but not sharing the same off-time). It was like they had just learned the routine 5 minutes ago. Let's just say they shouldn't rush to the auditions for So You Think You Can Dance anytime soon.
The game finally began after a very uneventful dimmed-lights, loud music, attempt to get us excited. (They should take some hints from The Sharks pre-game producer) It was odd - one minute the lights were dark and they were announcing the players and then 2 seconds later they were playing the game. This confused me. The game itself was OK. Before the game started they interrupted Pride and Joy to tell us that if The Warrors scored 100+ Points in this game everyone would get a Free hamburger from McDonalds. Scott was uber excited about the potential for free food.

There was a kid about 4 years old located 2 rows in front of us who kept yelling "Defense, Defense" as his mother stuffed cheese pizza and then later, Dreyers Ice Cream Dibs, into his mouth to shut him up. But he had a good point. The Warriors have the suckiest Defense I have ever seen. And we all know, when you want a kid to shut up and calm down, the best medicine is MORE SUGAR.
Some would say The Warriors actually won the game because they had the highest score. But it could be argued that McDonalds won that night because right when The Warriors scored 100 points, over half of the audience got up and left. What's the perfect ending to a Low-Budget Basketball game?? A late-nite free hamburger from McDonalds! yummmi.

Shakes Alive! Protect yourshelf and your data!

I was just working on a presentation and created this pretty timeline that shows ALL the security breaches by the VA in the last 9 months. WOW! I am wondering why they keep doing this over and over again! (To see it bigger, you may click on it). And all of these incidents have to do with someone stealing the laptop/PC/hard drive/thumbdrive/folders/etc. I think it (FINALLY!) might be time for those old white guys to realize that perhaps it should be a requirement that all sensitive data is encrypted (at rest and in transit)! And let the fall out begin...?



Here's a cute table of the Top 5 Breaches of 2006 (according to CSO Magazine).

Records Potentially Breached	Where and When Made Public	What Happened
28.6 Million	Veterans Affairs Department, May 22	Laptop stolen from employee’s home holds veterans’ personal data. Computer recovered and FBI forensics says no data accessed; veterans agency contracts monitor to see if data misused.
2.6 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Computer data tapes containing Circuit City cardholders’ data mistakenly discarded.
1.7 Million	Circuit City, Chase Card Services, Sept. 7	Worker at subcontractor loses equipment containing borrowers’ names and Social Security numbers.
1.35 Million	Chicago Election Board, Oct. 23	Illinois activists report they hacked into voter database where names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth are viewed.
1 Million	American Red Cross, St. Louis chapter, May 24	Employee with access to donors’ Social Security numbers allegedly uses three records for ID theft scheme.

mmm...Super Stack...

I love when you never change your passwords. In fact, I bet your router right now still has the same out of the box default password it had when you bought it. Sweet!
It's really cute how 3COM's Super Stack's default login/password is security/security. Ahhh...yes...security! Great choice! And Netgear really likes the admin/1234 combo. I have to give Linksys props too, I mean, why bother with a crappy default login/password- it's just way to much trouble. Let's just not have any - blank/blank! Who would have ever guessed that? Well, no one actually has to guess at all since the default username and passwords are published anyways. And while I'm at it, please also make sure you don't spend an extra two seconds changing the default ssid, either. Thanks!

Don't you love stealing wi-fi from your neighbors? Or driving around looking for a signal when on vacation in Kauai? Well - you might want to reconsider if you ever visit Singapore.

valentine, sweet valentine.

Happy Valentines Day!

If you have been wondering what the most perfect gift for me would be, I oh so wanty this! Is it not beautiful and useful and wonderful all at the same time? I think I must have this very expensive leather good.

If you are one of those humans who hates v-day, I think you need something to cheer you up. Check out my friend Bryan's blog - he wrote the funniest entry on how his ATM machine is now envelope-less.

Favorites!

Some favorites!

• Check out the interview with my most favoritest Security Guru, Bruce Schneier. If you likee, he has a blog-a-log you can read too! If you find yourself at his blog, check out his comments about DRM in Windows Vista.
  
• My most beloved Lamb was kind enough to give me my newest most cherished blanket. AND!!! She is famous! She stars as the blanket of The Cheerleader in Heroes! What are the odds of that!! Stay tuned for pictures of her coming soon!
  
• My favorite word = Omaha. What's yours? My most favorite sister in the universe has selected the word lumber as her favorite.
  

out of order

love it.

Number 2.

I am lucky enough to be married to the most wonderful lamb in the universe! He is the perfect combination of sweet and savory! If he was a number, he would be an integer that is the sum of its proper positive divisors, that is, the sum of the positive divisors not including the number (aka a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors, or σ(n) = 2 n). You could say he is my 6, or my 8128. My Perfect Number! yay!

There is one thing, however, that can turn his sweetness into an amalgamation of sour. This thing has to do with his stringent feeding schedule. He must be fed every two hours (give or take 15 minutes). As long as he is well fed, he is the kind lamb I speak of above. If not fed, he is a Grumpasaurus. Grumpapotamus. Grump to the E. My most favorite sister in the universe suffered from this problem, but now that she is older it has subsided (or so she claims...). Low blood sugar = grump.
Weekends are always the hardest for him to stay on schedule. I'm sure one reason is because during the week he has access to a variety of free foods from his geek dot com work breakroom snackdom. At any rate, yesterday we were running some errands and it was after noon and lamb was HunGrrry. I suggested we stop at the closest McDonalds so he could stick something meat-like into his mouth. He agreed and next thing I knew we were at McDonalds in Lafayette, CA. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, this is the nicest McDonalds I have ever entered. I felt like I was in a fast food palace. (It's even a wi-fi hotspot!) wow! And a habitrail for kids! Anyways, I ordered the $1 side salad and when it came time for Lamb to order he said "I'll have Number 2" to which I started laughing hysterically in that I Am A Twelve Year Old Boy kind of way. I just kept thinking of how appropriate that was - he is ordering Number 2 at McDonalds! Or, as Whitney Houston would say "Are you going to drop that on the 1?".

In other news, while we were shopping yesterday we ran into this. Be careful. Easter is coming.

Plus, we FINALLY found a dresser that we both agree on, AND it was 40% off, AND we actually bought it, AND we also bought 2 matching nightstands. How exciting is that!! We now will have a real grown up bedroom! yay!

soap trauma

**If you have not watched today's AMC, you may not want to read this**
I love the soap opera All My Children. I have been watching it on and off for many years, and I truly enjoy the time I get to spend each day with it. It's a good lunch break, a good brain-off break. And with Tivo, it only lasts 40 minutes. Currently, Pine Valley is in a crunch to find the serial killer that is killing off all the girls from Fusion magazine (the girls also own a bar called ConFusion...) . Today the murderer has mistakenly killed Dixie instead of the intended victim, Babe (yes...that is her real name). Dammit Dixie, why did you have to eat those poisoned peanut butter and banana pancakes!

Pan's Laby, Petsmart

2 scary discoveries that were made in the last 2 days:
Pan's Labyrinth and PetSmart.
Scary + Violent = Pan's Labyrinth.
Abusive + Evil = PetSmart
Me = Sad
Anyone who knows me knows that I do not enjoy going to the movies. There is really nothing in it that excites me. Sitting silent and still in the dark for 2+ hours is not my kind of fun. But I had read and heard numerous positive reviews from friends that Pan's Laby was going to be TOT good. I disagree. Ewww. Scary!
Another movie that may get me out of the house is Bridge to Terabithia.
And PetSmart...ahh...what are you doing? Stop it!
Please do not buy anything from PetSmart until they stop selling animals, and go here to take action.

Alienated by my computer.

A new study is out - 65% of Americans spend more time with their computers than with their Spouse. Is this really a suprise for most of us who work with computers?
I think the most suprising (and hilarious) thing in this study is this:
-- A majority of Americans (52%) describe their most recent experience with a computer problem as one of anger, sadness or alienation.
Ha!
In other news...Do you need to get a passport? Read this first. And then check this out.

Cingular is now AT&T. again. or something.

Check out Stephen Colbert explaining the whole AT&T Cingular fiasco. Thanks to my alt dot geeky dot net friend Bryan for finding it on the information super highway.

Pinkemily Cake

I was just going through some old picture sets on Flickr and came upon a photo set taken while I was house-sitting for my sister when she used to live much closer to me...
This is a photo set of how to make a pinkemily (one word) duckinson cake.

Juliana Hatfield

I just purchased the new Juliana Hatfield record. She rocks . The new album consists of 12 live recordings of previously released songs (some songs are from Some Girls cd's also). Love it!
Have you heard her in Some Girls? Or The Blake Babies? If not, I recommend doing it immediately.