Gymno

succumbing to peer pressure

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Andy's new toy! Posted by Picasa

I heart Morgan Spurlock Posted by Picasa

He did a talk and book signing at the Jewish Center here tonight. Was funny and adorable and serious in all the right places. Season two of 30 days starts filming in a couple of weeks and should premier around July. Meanwhile, he's working on another movie that should come out next year.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Wow. I should seriously wake up early more often. So far today I have cleaned my room, scrubbed the toilet and the tub, balanced my checkbook, and written a response to one of the reviewers of a paper I'm working on. And it's not even noon! (ok, so I probably just totally jinxed myself and now the rest of the day will be a wash, but I think I can live with that)

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Spent this morning at the capital, attempting to talk to my legislators (one wasn't at her desk, the other was speaking, wonderfully, from the well, against the stupid voter ID bill that most likely passed today (haven't had the heart to look up the results or even if they finally got around to voting)). Was a weird mix of feeling freakishly empowered and frustrated. On the one hand, it's awesome that just about whenever I want, I can cruise into the capital and track down my senator and representative and bend their ear (or a staffer's ear or drop off propaganda) regarding my own pet issues. On the other hand, it's really only useful to limit such comments to specific bills either sponsored by my legislators or being voted on by them in the near future...so while it was cool today to tell people that I am against the voter ID bill, that I think the parenting time adjustment should be deleted from the new child support guidelines, that I am in favor of allocating an additional $700,000 to women's health and domestic violence issues because currently 49 counties in GA have zero rape crisis centers and a shortage of nurses trained in post-assault examinations, and that the MARTOC committee needs to get off its collective asses and vote on two senate bills related to funding for public transportation...it really brought home why progress happens at such glacial speed. But, on yet the other hand, my senator's aide got really excited when she found out I went to Emory and asked me to try and put her in touch with scientists doing stem cell research so she could ask them for input on a new bill the senator is working on, and 6 hours later I already found four people anxious to talk to her and the senator. That was pretty damn cool.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Dear Mr. Saletan,

Prior to writing this weekend's editorial regarding the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, approximately how many real pro-choice activists did you speak to? Because when you say perfectly reasonable things like, "[i]t's time for the abortion-rights movement to declare war on abortion," and "[t]o eliminate it, you have to agree on it: Abortion is bad, and the ideal number of abortions is zero," with this air of a new idea, like these are suggestions that typically cause pro-choicers to recoil, I have to wonder if you aren't actually a pro-lifer in choice clothing? Or perhaps just new to the movement? Honestly, who in their right mind could ever possibly be capable of considering an abortion anything other than a bad thing? Reducing the number of abortions by increasing access to contraception and education has long been a plank of the pro-choice movement. I think it's something both sides of the aisle need to start agreeing on, leaving the religious right and their proven ineffective idea of just teaching abstinence out in the cold.

Random Celebrity Musing

Apparently Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa broke up (caught a preview for some sadly lame-sounding show about her being newly single). I don't really get into the whole celeb relationships thing, but they're both just so adorably weird it seems a shame not to get them as a package.

Spent much of today having trouble breathing. Spend much of my life being too smart...too witty...too careful...too confident...too everything. Those are my thoughts for the evening. Those, and Indecent Proposal is perhaps the only time, outside of Cheers, that Woody Harrelson appears vulnerable. And...nevermind.

Update - In the harsh morning light of sobriety I typically regret drunk posts. And chances are good I'll regret this one. But the truth is, we all need. We all get hurt or sick or tired or broken, and need. Something. Life's a bitch that way.