IN THE YEAR 2525

Seriously, are we going to make it as a species?
I think I will not see the extinction of homo sapiens sapiens in my lifetime, but we are seriously PUSHING it!
STOP OFFSHORE DRILLING!!!

DJ IdeazGuy Is In Da House:

British Superstitions

Wow what an interesting bit of Brit superstition – just learned this today from one of my facebook friends:

if you mention, see, or talk about RABBITS, it’s very, very unlucky for a fisherman!
Boats have been known not to go to sea if they see one on the road on the way to work!

My Dad was a Brit, and I am quite familiar with the quirky behaviours of Brits, based on very frikkin’ weird belief systems.

I remember Dad forcing me to give him some money, even just a coin, when he gave me a knife for a gift.

ME: thanks for the knife, Dad
DAD: OK you’re welcome, now give me a coin
ME: What?
DAD: You have to give me a coin, some money, or the knife will cut you.
ME: Hahahahaha!!! Pffftttt!! You don’t really believe that, do you?!
DAD: JUST GIVE ME A FUCKING PENNY GODDAMMIT!

BUNKER FRIDAYS ("9/11 IS MY SIDE JOB")

Robson & Jervis… this should be a night of interesting conversations.

LOUIS CK FUNNY COMEDIAN

I have made an awesome new comedic discovery!
These Louis CK videos crack me up!!!

This “Why” video is just the funniest thing!

I don’t hate deer this much, but this is a hilarious schtick!




SOVIET MODEL

No this isn’t a Russian Dating post.

It’s an economics rant.

It’s interesting to me that despite all the talk of impending U.S. Dollar inflation, nobody in the mainstream media is talking about hyperinflation (pah rooskie, ‘geepereenflatzeeya’).
I was ranting about that last year and I’m surprised that nobody in mainstream media ever talks about this.

People seem confused about what inflation is.

It’s not rising prices.

In a natural, healthy, free market, prices rise and fall, depending on natural market forces, namely supply & demand!

Hyperinflation is not a situation where there are a just a few too many paper notes chasing the supply of goods and services. That’s just your garden-variety inflation.

Make no mistake, hyperinflation comes when there is NO FAITH IN A CURRENCY.

Hyperinflation is when you’d prefer to own a roll of toilet paper than a fistful of currency that nobody thinks is worth anything more than, arguably, and only in certain unstocked shops, a kind of state-issued foodstamp.

When I was in Russia in 1992, nobody wanted rubles. With rubles, you could only buy whatever basic (lousy, wilted, generally yucky) food actually did make it to market (most food got misappropriated somewhere along the supply chain by hungry workers).

Most of the food available for sale in Moscow in 1992 was on the street outside the subway stations, not in the grocery store. It was generally for sale in rubles but LOTS of rubles… hyperinflated rubles.

Street rubles, not state-run-shop rubles.

With rubles, the main thing you could safely expect to be able to buy was bread at the bread store, where the state had maintained control even throughout the shift from communism to capitalism.

You could even buy black or white bread.

It was a ruble-oasis.

I had a laugh when i saw a loaf of Russian black bread (”chyorniy klyeb” / черный хлеб) for sale for $50/loaf in the posh grocery store here in Yaletown, flown-in fresh on Aeroflots from Russia to Vancouver, Canada. I remember buying that stuff for kopeks (0.01 of a ruble, like a penny to a dollar), in Moscow in 1992, and damn, it IS GOOD STUFF.

But back to hyperinflation….

If you wanted to buy anything valuable or anything imported, people would demand KKKHHARD KOORANSEEE (’hard currency’), and by this, they meant U.S. Dollars or British Pounds.

Demanding foreign currency for domestic sales was actually illegal, but honestly we had all grown weary with the daily laundry list of completely insane monetary/tax laws – clearly everyone at the top was suffering from nervous breakdowns and insane edicts were being mused over in every radio- or TV-possessing home in Moscow. I remember drinking tea after tea (there wasn’t much to eat) with my Russian friends, asking them over and over again, questions like: “Is it really true that the tax on commerce is now 90%? That’s what it said on the news this morning, right? Is that really true? Can that be true? Are they serious? Holy shit!”

Seriously, I remember some crazy edicts coming from the top in those days in Moscow. The next day, the rules would be changed or the proposed law would not be enacted. Maybe they were thinking out loud and kind of panicking. I guess nobody knew what to do!

I learned the Russian word for panic – it’s “panika” (паника).

None of this really surprised me (OK, OK maybe the 90% tax threats surprised me – but not the general chaos), because I had a basic university course in economics under my belt and I had been taught in no uncertain terms how silly & unnatural the Soviet economic model was.

I remember distinctly in university, taking Economics 101, and how we used to snigger about the Soviet “Command & Control” economic system. Like – HELLO – the only way you can have a healthy market/currency/economy is by letting the market take care of itself.

We, in the West, like to interfere with the market where it seems too harsh, just as we interfere with “cruel” nature.

In some ways this is a good thing, in my opinion. We can have a good effect (ie: a certain level of social welfare), and anyway AS LONG AS WE LIMIT OUR INTERFERENCE, the market, like any healthy, natural ecosystem, can absorb our impact, clean itself, and carry on normally.

Sadly, it seems that the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve in the U.S. has created a command & control economy just like the Soviet model we used to mock back in the 80s. The Fed is busy churning out valueless dollars like sweaty, desperate ponzi-schemers, and the U.S. government has apparently largely taken over the banking business and auto industry…. or vice versa…?

In my 1980s uni class, we KNEW that the childish (Soviet) belief that mere humans could actually print up as much money as they want and attempt to completely control / micromanage the market could only result in disaster.

When did we forget that?

I never took Economics in 2nd year.

I never really think about any of this stuff unless I have to – it’s kind of boring.

Has ANYONE been thinking about this stuff?

Scary.

EXECUTIVE ORDER


Executive Order 11110


MAX KEISER

Wouldn’t it be great to see Max Keiser – & Stacey Herbert I think/hope! – in Vancouver?

View all Vancouver events on Eventful

WHY PARENTS DRINK

A father passing by his son’s bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an Envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to ‘Dad.’

With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Dad:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.

I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice.

But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it’ s not only the passion…Dad she’s pregnant.

Stacy said that we will be very happy.

She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone.
We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy.

In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it.

Don’t worry Dad. I’m 15 and I know how to take care of myself.

Someday I’m sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love, Your Son John

PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Tommy’s house.

I Just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a Report card That’s in my center desk drawer.

I love you.

Call me when it’s safe to come home.

(for more alcohol-related laughs: www.chainsmokingalcoholic.com)

MORE FUN CT (CONSPIRACY THEORY) STUFF

Oh and this Russian guy’s concept of how North America would splinter into republics is seriously the stupidest, most ignorant thing I have ever seen. Wow, he should shut up because he is making his country look bad with this childishness. I didn’t think people took that much acid in Russia….?

DON'T LIE DOWN AND TAKE THIS

http://www.blackouteurope.eu/
The European open internet is under imminent threat

URGENT – VOTING IN EU PARLIAMENT 5th of MAY 2009
Don’t let the EU parliament lock up the Internet! There will be no way back!

Act now!
Internet access is not conditional

Everyone who owns a website has an interest in defending the free use of Internet… so has everyone who uses Google or Skype… everyone who expresses their opinions freely, does research of any kind, whether for personal health problems or academic study … everyone who shops online…who dates online…socialises online… listens to music…watches video…

Millions of Europeans now depend on the Internet, directly or indirectly, for their livelihood. Taking it away, chopping it up, ‘restricting it’, ‘limiting it’ and placing conditions on our use of it, will have a direct impact on people’s earnings. And in the current financial climate, that can’t be good.

The internet as we know it is at risk because of proposed new EU rules going through end of April. Under the proposed new rules, broadband providers will be legally able to limit the number of websites you can look
at, and to tell you whether or not you are allowed to use particular services. It will be dressed up as ‘new consumer options’ which people can choose from. People will be offered TV-like packages – with a limited
number of options for you to access.

It means that the Internet will be packaged up and your ability to access and to put up content could be severely restricted. It will create boxes of Internet accessibility, which don’t fit with the way we use it today. This is because internet is now permitting exchanges between persons which cannot be controlled or “facilitated” by any middlemen (the state or a corporation) and this possibility improves the citizen’s life but force the industry to lose power and control. that’s why they are pushing governments to act those changes.

The excuse is to control the flow of music, films and entertainment content against the alleged piracy by downloading for free, using P2P file-sharing. However, the real victims of this plan will be all Internet users and the democratic and independent access to information, culture goods.

Think about how you use the Internet! What would it mean to you if free access to the Internet was taken away?
These days, the Internet is about life and freedom. It’s about shopping, booking theatre tickets … holidays, learning, job-seeking, banking, and trade. It’s also about the fun things – dating, chatting, invitations, music, entertainment, joking and even a Second Life. It is a tool to express ourselves, to collaborate, innovate, share, stimulate new business ideas, reach new markets – thrive without middlemen..

Just think – what’s your web address? Unless people have that address in their “package” of regular websites – they won’t be able to find you. That means they can’t buy, or book, or register, or even view you online. Your business won’t be able to find niche suppliers of goods – and compare prices. If you get any money at all from advertising on your site, it will diminish. Yes, Amazon and a select few will be OK, they will be the included in the package. But your advertising on Google or any other website, will be increasingly worthless. Skype could be blocked. (As it is in Germany in the use from iPhone, already). Small businesses could literally disappear, especially specialist, niche or artisan businesses.

If we don’t do something now – we could lose free and open use of the internet. Our freedom (of choice in information, market, culture, pleasure) will be curtailed. The EU proposals hold an enormous risk for our future. They are about to become Law – and will be virtually impossible to reverse. People (even the members of the European Parliament who are voting on it) don’t really seem to understand the full implications and the legal changes are wrapped up in something called “Telecoms Package” which lulls people into thinking it is just about industry.

However, in reality, hiding from public view, the amendments are about the way the Internet will operate in future! Text that expresses your rights to access and distribute content, services and applications, is being crossed out. And the text that is being brought in, says that broadband providers must inform you of any limitations, or restrictions to your broadband service. Alternative versions use the word ‘conditions’ – and it is seriously being proposed that you will be told the conditions of use of Internet services. This is made to sound good – it is dressed up as ‘transparency’ – except that of course it means that the broadband providerwill have the legal right restrict your access or impose conditions,otherwise why would they need tell you? If the Telecoms Package amendmentsare voted in, the changes will not be reversible.

We all have a stake in the Internet! You need to act now to save it!
What can you do about it?
Tell the European Parliament to vote against conditional access to the Internet! Remind them that they need your vote in June and that internet still give us the tools to be watching and judging what they are doing! (link a la quadrature du net) You must know you are not alone: hundreds of organizations are working on that and thousands of people have already contact their parliamentarians about this issue.

So, act now:
1 – Email, write to or phone your MEP – follow this link to get theirdetails – a suggested template letter is attached. You can also use the following software that send the letter directly to all the parliamentarians. Believe, they will really receive it and they will really feel the pressure. You are welcome to personalize the letter and include information that will make MEPs wake up, take note and take appropriate action.

2 – Forward this email to everyone you know so that they can take action.

3 – Syndicate this page so that you keep been informed: disinformation is what they count on, we must be aware. Text for people to cut and paste to MEP: The coalition version needs to have instructions for people from each country. coalition members need to get a translated version online in their own languages and link to the LQ site for their own MEPs.

Suggest you indicate:

Here are the MEPs who are important in the process.
Here are the MEPs from [your country] [or list each country of the coalition] .

This is suggested letter / email to send to your MEP. Personalise this email to include your own Internet use in your personal and business life. Change the sentence in red to personalise the email and tell the MEP how you individually use the Internet or just take it off.

Act now

* Why act?
* Tell the EU Parliament to vote no!
* Letter to MEPs
* Other EU countries: find your MEPs
* UK: write to your MEPs
* Join our Facebook group
* Change your avatars

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THE RESPONSIBILITY QUOTIENT?

Was in the shower a while ago where I have my deep thoughts, and came up with an idea to quantify a person’s level of social/sexual/reproductive responsibility. Well, just a beginning, I suppose.
Anyway, I would call it the RRQ (Reproductive Responsibility Quotient).
It is a function of (and the formula… would take years of research):

• age
• number of sexual partners
• number of sexual partners with whom live offspring have been created (data may be unreliable for males)
• number of live offspring
• number of abortions/miscarriages (data may be unreliable for males)

I’m going to create a category of research studies I’d like to see done….

WORM COMPOSTING FOR CITY-SLICKERS

Ever feel bad about the fact that if you live in the city, you recycle your glass, paper, plastic, metal, but all those vegetable peeling, apple cores, and so on just go right, straight to the landfill?

About 12 years ago, I went to a little worm composting workshop in Vancouver and today I just did the whole thing again!

Vancouver has no city-wide composting program so the city subsidizes a 1-hour worm composting workshop and a worm composting bin that comes complete with the bedding you need – AND THE RED WIGGLERS (red wiggler worms are the kind of worms used for worm composting).
It’s simple and it only takes up about 1′ x 2′ of space on your balcony.

The $25 is a real deal – the bin and the worms together would cost more than 3 times that much, and cityfarmer.org gives a great instructional workshop. The workshop presenter today had worm earrings – it was hilarious.

Here’s what you do if you live in Vancouver:
Call (604) 736-2250 and book a spot in the next available workshop
CityFarmer.org runs the workshop at the
Demonstration Garden Address:
2150 Maple Street
Vancouver, BC V6J 3T3 Canada
corner of 6th Avenue and Maple Street
Kitsilano, Vancouver
(604) 736-2250

Here is a step-by-step explanation of worm composting

Here is more about back yard composting from the City of Vancouver

It’s the right thing to do!

W: A MOVIE ABOUT GEORGE BUSH

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: George Bush is a funny guy.

I am so glad Oliver Stone has made a movie about him.

It is now fairly clear that the US economy has been run irreparably into the ground and the whole Iraq thing was a red herring, but I’m thinking that some things may come out of this movie that people need to think about.

Who is the real enemy? George Bush?

Do people really believe that “W” is the evil mastermind who came up with all this stuff himself?

I guess maybe I have read too many Shakespeare plays (it was mandatory; I quite frankly loathe the historical plays but I read a bunch of them in my youth), but I see George Bush as a character in a Shakespeare play.

Dreary Shakespeare histories such as Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VIII, Richard II, Richard III are not, in my opinion, fascinating reading material, but it wouldn’t hurt anyone to pick up a Cole’s Notes or even read one or two of them if you can get through the language barrier (the English was a bit different then). MacBeth and Hamlet are a bit more entertaining and are in the same vein.

In Shakespeare’s day (this is for the benefit of those who have no familiarity or memory of Shakespeare plays), the audience could only get inside the head of one of these guys (these machiavellian English/Scottish/Danish kings) via the soliloquy, a monologue spoken by the actor to the audience alone.

Nowadays, dramatists would rather jump off a cliff than use this primitive method for the character to disclose his/her true thoughts to the audience…. To be honest, though, I would love to see a scene with Bush doing a soliloquy! Can you imagine?! A George Bush Soliloquy!

I’m just so curious to see how Stone has constructed this film!

Here’s a trailer:

Here’s another:

Here is the scene where he met Laura:

This is some discussion about Bush and the movie in the clip below – well worth watching for the kooky clips like George Bush arm-in-arm kind of slow dancing with an Arab guy with swords in their hands:

PALIN, BIDEN, BAILOUT, WAR, HYPERINFLATION

I have to admit that it was with slack-jawed amazement that I watched Sarah Palin ‘debate’ Joe Biden last night. She did OK. I was worried, because I am empathetic and as much as I don’t appreciate her … um… world-view, I have to just cringe in sympathy when the journalists skewer her and watch her suffer. It’s hard to watch when you have a soft heart.
Anyway, it was a relief to see that she has learned how to answer questions like a politician: that is, not answer questions, but yammer on and on about some other subject, from a memorized spiel.
It’s like watching a bear dance. You know that in its natural state it would/should take a bear-swipe at its trainer and then get whipped and whacked, but it is somehow more harmonious to watch it lumber around in a ludicrous parody of a waltz.
It’s all kind of sickening.
Anyway, Palin has learned how to pull an Obama.
That doesn’t change a thing other than my emotional ability to watch her on TV.
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats opposed that bailout which will go down in history as the world’s slickest unarmed bank robbery… “NASCAR, Rum, Samoa, and Wooden Arrows”. I think I’ll write a punkrock dittie with that as a title.
Both the Republicans & the Democrats are warmongers intent on “policing the world” (though the Republicans slightly more so).
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have any remotely practical, realistic plan to deal with the fact that the USA is bankrupt (unless that plan really is the round-em-up-and-chip-em plan that is all over the conspiracy theory websites of late).
I’m all out of energy to worry about this for now. I’ve been wringing my hands for a week, ranting, stressing out, and hoarding canned food. Laugh. Go ahead.
Now I’m emotionally exhausted and there is nothing for it anyway. I can only make this prediction: average Americans (or as they seem to be called now “Joe/Suzie Six Pack”) are going to learn a new word: “hyperinflation”.
If you don’t know what that means, go look it up – here are some good links:

MAX KEISER, FINANCIAL ANALYST – BRILLIANT INSIGHTS

I’m always ranting about how wonderful Ron Paul is, and what a tragedy that he was entirely shut out by mainstream media. I have found another brilliant person who can explain the state of the union as it were: Max Keiser.

This guy is brilliant and funny and I hope he will get more airtime – Al Jazeera English interviews him all the time. Check this out – there’s loads more on youtube.com – oh and you have to skip forward to 1:30 to see Max Keiser (even if you’re on LOW bandwidth, it’s WORTH IT to see this vid!):

U.S. DOLLAR MELTDOWN – WILL WE SEE GEEPER-EENFLATZIA?

I don’t live in the U.S., but I was in Moscow for a good chunk of 1992 when prices (formerly ALL government-controlled) were set free and I am reminded of it all now after the way this past week has played out for the U.S. dollar.

Back in 1992, when I arrived, some Russians, who were well-off Moscow intelligentsia, showed us the stockpile of food they had amassed in their flat. They had done their thinking and spent, obviously, a whole lot of time and rubles in Soviet-style shopping lineups all over town and subsequently had huge reserves of tins of fish, rice, and other dry goods packed into every shelf, closet and crevice of their flat. Although they had saved for their retirement and had significant savings, they chose to invest in food supplies.

I saw them, 5 months later, spending the last of their retirement savings on bread and kolbassa sausage.

I didn’t speak or understand a word of Russian at that time, though along the way I did pick up some of the basics. It was frustrating not to understand the language, given the large amount of general RANTING about the state of things, and I would have loved to understand more of what was going on in the conversations I found myself in the same room with.

I remember saying to one of my hosts: “what is ‘geeper-eenflatzi’?”

In Russian, a lot of the words are similar to English: a general rule is that the sound “h” is changed to ‘g’ in Russian – for example, ‘hamburger’ is pronounced ‘gamboorger’; ‘hyper’ is ‘geeper’….

Pizza Hut’s Russian outlets broke from this convention, I noted with amusement, and chose the gutteral-sounding ‘xh’ sound (like the German ‘ch’ – like a phlegmy ‘k’) instead of Russianizing their name to “peetsa gut’.

There was also much ranting about speculators (’SPEKULANTEE!’ – I never heard this word uttered in a normal tone of voice; always with contempt and rage), none of which I was very savvy about, being in my mid-20s and a bit more ignorant than I am now….

Hyperinflation is something I believe the U.S. will have to endure soon. It means that it’s a very smart thing to go to the store *now* and buy as many flats of tins of salmon, tuna, spork, or spam, bags and boxes and crates of pasta, rice, flour, dry milk… whatever you like.

And I mean NOW.

Maybe some people will find this alarmist or bizarre, but any food you can buy now that you don’t have to buy when it’s 100 times the price and your money has run out is a really good investment.

I currently regard tins of salmon as a type of ‘hard currency’.

The Russian government tried to contain the chaos as best it could. Every day was a new bizarre horror story on the news. I remember the government trying desperately to gain revenues by planning outrageous personal and corporate income taxes from the people/organizations who/which were able to profit from the chaos.

I think when I arrived, that one U.S. dollar bill would buy about 25 rubles, and by the time I left, it fluctuated every day, averaging around 100 rubles to the U.S. dollar. The government-run currency exchanges offered some bizarrely low exchange rate but the usual way of exchanging currency was to go to the Xotel Rossiya where the hotel’s Currency Exchange Wicket was always un-manned and a swarthy Georgian gangster was always sitting at a bench nearby and would do money exchanges at a realistic rate in a businesslike manner.

Throughout my stay in Russia, at least the price of bread and milk were still controlled, although milk was something you could not even buy unless you stood in a lineup all morning and brought with you irrefutable government-issued documentation proving that you had young children in your household. I remember someone giving me some baby formula to whiten my coffee, since it often came with humanitarian aid packages and Russians look somewhat askance at baby formula anyway. I didn’t drink milk for the duration of my stay there.

This post is getting boring, I’m afraid, but I hope that anyone who reads it will at least go and stock up on some food supplies, as they are still available cheap at the grocery store. Whether or not people realize it, food is an extremely undervalued product in North America. The days of cheap food are about to end. Nevermind petroleum, I think we’ve all figured that out by now.

Invest in your own food stocks and encourage others to do so too – I don’t want all of you at my place for dinner when a tin of salmon costs $100 if you can find a seller.

Turn off your computer and go to the store now, OK?

"THE SECRET" – The Western World's Cult of Materialism

I checked out “The Secret” video on youtube. Someone told me I should really watch this video and there is a book too. I forgot all about it (and anyway I practice visualization already – it works!), but then the other day I stumbled across it on youtube.com.

“The Secret” does have some information about visualization techniques, but honestly I look askance at this sort of mental-set of asking “God” or “The Higher Power” or “The Universe” to just haul off and give you the brand new car of your dreams, a hot babe, or a million dollars… just by visualizing it. Just because you wannnnnnnt it.

I think God / The Higher Power / The Universe must get annoyed by so many lazy, greedy first-world citizens begging for fancy new cars, don’t you?

A long time ago, I was down on my luck in Ottawa in my early 20s and bought a book called Psycho Cybernetics at a garage sale for about 25 cents – it’s a real classic on self-actualization by Maxwell Maltz. I totally recommend it: I practiced a lot of the techniques in that book and really learned to manage my life with my thoughts – not that I am any great paragon of financial success, but reading the book gave me a new outlook. And… money/material wealth isn’t everything.

Psycho Cybernetics is worth reading. There is plenty in there about the fact that when you are visualizing a goal, you should have well-reasoned purposes for desiring your goals, in other words, virtuous motivations. Pure materialism is not a part of psycho-cybernetics in Maxwell Maltz’s book. There is a strong emphasis on the fact that you can’t be fulfilled in your life unless you are *giving*.

“The Secret” is, in my opinion, completely focused on greedy, selfish, materialistic pursuits. They actually refer to the universe as having a sort of metaphysical catalog you can order from with your visualization…. How to sell the concept of visualization to hard-core, chronic *shoppers*.

It is a very sad reflection on our culture that so much of this excellent practice of visualization is conveyed in terms of how to use it to get a big cheque out of the blue or how to wrap your fingers around the steering wheel of the sweeeeeet ride of your dreams when you have no reason other than pure appetitive desire.

It’s that kind of “positive thinking” that leads to things like the credit crisis & the now-worthless dollar in the USA.

Guess what: a new car won’t make you happy. Don’t laugh! It really won’t!

Here’s the best retort to The Secret I have found so far – this guy really gave me a laugh!




RED WINE

Just got my 29 bottles of Vancouver’s finest “Chateau D’Alcoolique” Cabernet Sauvignon bottled up at the Neighbourhood WineMakers:

It’s just an unbelievable deal – 29 bottles of drinkable table wine for $100. I can have a party and give out party favours at that rate.

I have bottled it all up and the DRAFT 1.0 label is ready:

I think I need to have a contest. I will gladly give not one but 2 bottles of ChainSmokingAlcoholic 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon (that’s a $7.00 value at least!) to anyone who can do up a nice, posh, wine label. I suck at graphics.

QUEENS Vs. PRINCESSES

I was listening to the soundtrack of Run Lola Run (check out the vid below – it’s a helluva soundtrack – I still haven’t seen the movie) the other day and there is a line in there that just gave me goosebumps: “I wish I was [sic] a princess with armies at her hand”.

I thought to myself, no, princesses don’t have armies at their hands; queens do.
So why the use of the word ‘princess’?
And it is becoming clear to me what feminists and psychologists probably already know: it is preferable in the mind of most women to be a princess (as opposed to being a queen).
Why?!
If you asked a garden-variety guy, he’d probably choose to be king rather than some panty-hose-wearing handsome prince.
The princess wields no real power other than sex-appeal and the ability to bag a handsome prince.
Why do we women prefer to be princesses?
Why are we not powermonger-wannabes but a seducer-wannabes?
It’s an ugly conclusion I’m coming to, but I think we women DON’T like …. responsibility.
The queen isn’t as pretty and she has responsibilities, but she does have armies at her hand.
Ladies, please correct me if I’m wrong!
I got the goosebumps because I realized, I don’t want to be a princess anymore… I’m ready to take the throne (in my dreams)!

MY GUILTY SECRET: I'VE *ALWAYS* THOUGHT PARIS SHOULD BE PRESIDENT

I really get annoyed by Paris-bashers! What is their point? Jealousy? Bitterness?
I think she’s cool… or ‘hot’… whatever. I just like her.
And I like her more since she put out this rebuttal to McCain’s jab at her. I don’t really approve of her calling him old & wrinkly, but you can’t blame her for pulling off the gloves when attacked so publicly.
OK so her energy policy won’t work… who’s to say Obama’s or McCain’s will either?!