Bros and hos (Part 2)

Read Part 1

It's New Year's Eve. In the parts of the world that have not yet already arrived in 2010, people are preparing for one of the biggest party nights of the year. A lot of alcohol will be consumed tonight, and a lot of hangover remedies will be employed tomorrow.

But for bros, tonight may not be much different than any other Thursday night. Cause bros f'in love to get f'd up! And they don't wait until the weekend to do it! One thing that might be different tonight is the location. Bros will be willing to spend some extra bucks to gain access to an environment with increased odds of slaying a slam piece (I can't believe I wrote that).

Bros will roll deep into a party, bar or club event (many already drunk from their pre-game), scout the crowd for the hottest girls, chat them up just long enough to gauge their chances, and be in the right place when the countdown ends. Some bros will have to fall on a grenade (settle for an ugly and/or fat chick so their bro can hook up with the hottie). A few bros won't get lucky at all, but will still have an awesome night because, hey, they're with their bros!

But the primary objective is to score. And that's where the hos come in.

In my day (I am allowed to use that phrase because I'm hitting 50 in 2010, God willing) I loved to party too. I didn't go to college, but I went to a lot of college parties. I once fell off an Amtrack train after pre-gaming it alone, because I had to work while the rest of my group drove from Chicago to East Lansing. It was an epic night. I think it was the night I met my future (and I mean way in the future) husband, so I kinda wish I remembered more of it.

What seems to be different from my party days and what I've learned about the bro culture of today is that I pretty much always partied with a group of people I trusted. We were friends with a lot in common, and we hung out together whenever we could, even if it wasn't a party. All these years later we're still friends, and we still sometimes drink to excess. The only negative consequence of this (besides the hangover) is hearing the same old stories for the hundredth time.*

Anyway, the bros of my day seemed to respect women a lot more. And maybe that's because more women in my day respected themselves enough to avoid being known as a slut or a whore. Today that seems to be a designation with little shame attached, if not a badge of honor. I'll explore that further in Part 3.

*I just thought of another negative consequence...digital photography. I live in fear of finding a picture of me on the internet from a canoe trip in 2008. Damn pre-mixed mojitos!

(continued)

Bros and hos

I recently set out to learn something about a facet of popular culture for which I was almost clueless. It all started innocently enough, with me thinking that two young people I know might want to meet each other. Not that I have any qualifications as a match-maker, but you never know who might hit it off.

The girl I know quite well. The guy - I know one facet of his life (his profession) pretty well, and he seems nice enough. The people he works with all speak very highly of him. So I show said girl a picture of said guy, and am surprised by her reaction. Yeah, he's good looking...but he might be a "bro".

When she tried to explain to me what she meant, it didn't seem to fit what I knew about said guy. But again I don't really know him outside of our professional relationship. So I wanted to learn more. A few words typed into a search engine, and I've got a ton of information for my research.

With billions of pages on the Internet, there are sites dedicated to everything you can think of (and even more to things most people would never think of). And there are plenty of bro sites with awesome stories of all things bro. They even have their own language, epitomized in this essay from The Onion (language warning).

These sites were a lot of fun to read. Assuming that most of what I read was super-exaggerated for comic effect, it seemed like bros are basically a modern version of the Deltas from Animal House.

So I was all set to do a funny take on the bro thing. I was even going to write about doing "field research" by observing the behavior of bros in their natural habitats (said girl offered to be my guide). But then my online research took me to places that weren't so funny.

What if many of those stories I read weren't exaggerated after all?

(continued)

Pooped puppy takes a nap

Meet Slim, the newest addition to our family. She's still very shy, getting used to her new home (my sister's house). She's sweet and fluffy and sleepy and I love her already.

Dogs love you back

I've always been more of a cat person, but let's face it...most cats barely acknowledge your presence unless they want something. Dogs actually do love you back.

Check out these videos of dogs greeting their long-absent owners.

I was in tears by the second video.

Do just a little more

I have given up on a lot of things in my life. Some things I wanted to do I never even started. But the ones I did start...how many of them could have been a success if I had just done a little more?

The line between failure and success is so fine that we...are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more persistence, would have achieved success. A little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Elbert Hubbard
via Walk the Talk

Five o'clock moon

The view from my window tonight.

Knuckle chuckle

A friend recently turned me on to mixed martial arts. I've watched a few bouts, and it is not at all what I expected. What struck me (pun itended) was the grace of their movement. Watching them move reminded me of dancing - right up until the point where our guy got pummeled after taking one to the chin.

The MMA fighters are supreme athletes in extraordinary physical condition. Their training includes, of course, proper nutrition.

I wonder if this is on any of their diet plans!

Check out all the fun stuff at Insanewiches.

For the broken hearted

Seems several of my young friends have recently experienced breakups or that unique heartbreak of unrequited love. And my heart goes out to each of you. I wish I had words to make it all better for you.

All I can say is I know it hurts. A lot. It's gonna hurt for a while, then feel better, then hit you like a ton of bricks again. That is the nature of grieving.

Twice I have fallen hard for guys who did not love me back. I have been loved and dumped (rather publicly) for a prettier girl. At the time, I blamed it on the fact that she was prettier, but that's not why he dumped me. I've also been on the other side of a breakup.

Relationships are the stuff life is made of...the good ones and the bad ones alike. And the ones that were good that then turned bad...well, it's just gonna have to hurt for a while.

You will get over it - I promise! Don't be too hard on yourself, but don't wallow for too long either. Keep moving, living your life and trusting that there is love in your future.

And he might just be as awesome as Mr. Wonderful.

It's not the bait, it's the bite

This is one of those days when the exact words I needed to read appeared to me. I have been struggling with a severe case of temptation in an area of my life that I thought I had a grip on.

When this temptation is dormant, I have zero doubt that I am doing the right thing by avoiding it. Actually, I don't even think about it. When the temptation flares up, it hits hard. And when it puts itself close enough to touch twenty times in one day, it is nearly unbearable.

But I did bear it. I made it through the night. And in the light of the morning as I sat with my hot coffee and surfed my usual web sites for news and such, I came across this from Pastor Greg Laurie:

God never will give you more than you can handle (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). It may not feel that way in the moment, because the fact is that when temptation is coming your way, it looks as though what would bring the most happiness would be giving in to it. The reality is that happiness comes from resisting and overcoming temptation. There is the initial euphoria that temptation can bring, but then you discover that what looks so appealing on the outside is actually filled with poison. That is how temptation works.

Read the rest here.

Being tempted by things that are ultimately not good for us is part of life on this earth. Sometimes we handle it well, sometimes we give in and immediately suffer the consequences. And sometimes we give in and there don't seem to be any negative consequences. That is the worst scenario, because it just leads to more...and it doesn't take long before what we know is wrong becomes a stronghold and it is nearly impossible to break free.

Do I wish that I was never tempted? Sure. But being tempted isn't the real problem. The real problem doesn't come until I give in. Remember, the worm dancing in the water in front of a fish does not cause him any problems until he takes the bite.

Happy Birthday America!

I love this video channel on YouTube. The "embed" feature isn't working, so click on the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qMRVwAvufA

Name that Jesus

I can't believe this image is being used to advertise an online dating service on Facebook:

Can you identify this Jesus?

An American tragedy

"In many ways his tragedy was to mistake attention for love."


Rabbi Shmuley on his friend Michael Jackson.

(h/t The Dawn Patrol)

Clout goes to college

You work hard in school. You sacrifice your social life to study and get good grades so you can get into a good college. You are willing to pay the price with your time and treasure. But when you receive that rejection letter, don't automatically assume it was because you just didn't work hard enough to merit admission.

from today's Chicago Tribune

Hundreds of applicants received special consideration in the last five years, according to documents obtained by the Tribune under the state's Freedom of Information Act. The records chronicle a shadow admissions system in which some students won spots at the state's most prestigious public university over the protests of admissions officers, while others had their rejections reversed during an unadvertised appeal process.

Beyond it just not being fair to pass over qualified candidates in favor of those with lesser merit but better political connections, this practice erodes the value of the degrees issued by any college that does so.

I long ago learned to accept that life isn't fair. Still, this one really burns me.

Think BIG!!!

"Our thoughts become a border around our lives. If we think little, we will live little. If we think big, we will live big."

~Joyce Meyer

3 down, 47 to go

Scratch #49 off the list. Yes, I am seriously behind on that list with only 468 days until my 50th Birthday.

I walked in the Network of Strength Walk to Empower on Mother's Day. Thanks to those of you who donated for the cause. It was a gorgeous day in downtown Chicago, and there were thousands of walkers! This is me with my sister Jean (in the middle) who is a breast cancer survivor, and my other sister Jan.

Right after we were done I hopped (well, more like crawled) into the car for a trip that took me to Detroit then Buffalo then back to Detroit then back home today. I'm a busy gal, and now it's time to get to bed so I can get up by 4:30 to go to the gym.

You make the most of what you got

Life is not fair. Things don't go the way you want them to. Other people are luckier, richer, prettier. You weren't born into the right family or live in the right place or given all the advantages and therefore life sucks.

That's not the way this guy thinks:




(h/t Mike Groom in the ShredderSphere)

Lamb cookies

Made these for a baby shower on Sunday:

They are lemon butter cookies with lemon royal icing and filled with seedless raspberry jam.

They were a big hit!

A sad day for a once-honorable profession (Part 2)

Read Part 1

In school we were taught that a free and unbiased press is essential to our democracy, because they could be counted on to report the facts, to shine the light on what our government and the other countries in the world are doing, to keep those we have placed in power over us accountable to the masses. We were told that a free press reports the facts, investigates all sides of a story and presents "the truth". Seems nothing could be further from the truth today.

If all you watched was CNN, and if the only report you saw was from about 2:00 that afternoon, you would have concluded that the Chicago Tea Party was filled with crazy, ignorant and racist people. I was there on the edge of the crowd around the CNN reporter and watched her zero in on one of the very few signs that was blatantly offensive. Then she interviewed a man who was concerned about the debt our country will pass on to his daughter. She interrupted him, scolded him, tried to convince him he was wrong, and then ended by drawing conclusions about the event that had nothing to do with the reality. She even managed to throw in a dig at one of her competing news organizations, which didn't help her already suspect credibility.

It was obvious that this reporter arrived with a pre-conceived notion of the event. She started with the conclusion and then sought out the "facts" to "prove" it. I was shocked. It would be equivalent to seeing somebody breathlessly proclaim that "Lake Michigan is filled with styrofoam cups!", when all the reporter actually found were a few cups floating at the shore.

I am not saying that other news organizations don't do this kind of thing. I have just never witnessed such blatantly misleading reporting in person before. My point is, don't trust any one source for news. My morning routine includes reading news web sites and political blogs while I eat my breakfast. The first news sites I read are CNN, Fox News and the Chicago Tribune. Whenever I'm in the car, I've got the radio on. My three most-used buttons are for what are considered all news, conservative talk, and liberal talk.

Do not believe that one news source is always telling the truth and another is "in the tank" for your political enemy. What you see and hear is shaped by the political beliefs and objectives of the owners, editors, writers and reporters of that organization.

Don't believe me? Give it a try. Research one current news story using as many different sources as you can find. Carefully read or listen to the reporting and determine how much is "fact" and how much is opinion, dramatization and spin. Then, research a story on the same topic from a different time period (say before this last national election) and notice the difference in how each news organization reported it when a different political party was in power. A very good topic for this exercise would be the national deficit.

Maybe I'm being naive. Maybe the profession of "journalism" was never what it purported to be. Maybe they have never been what we need now more than ever - the guardians of our democracy. But if that were the case, Richard Nixon would not have left office early, would he?

This was actually my favorite sign from the event:

America, and all freedom-loving people, should mourn.

A sad day for a once-honorable profession

I attended the Chicago Tea Party on Wednesday. It was my first ever politcal protest, and I almost didn't go.

For one thing, I'm not comfortable in large crowds. I was once caught in a very fast-moving crowd of people leaving a baseball game - it was almost a stampede - and the fear of being trampled may be unreasonable but it's there. Another reason I almost didn't go was the publication of a report by a government agency that labels people who believe in some of the things I believe in as possible threats to national security. It frightens me to think that my own government may be monitoring me because I don't agree with its policies.

The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press (among other things). These are critical in a healthy democratic society. They are related and, when exercised with integrity, help protect each other. But what happens when the people exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and the press purposely misrepresents it?

At the Tea Party I spent the entire time moving into, out of and around the crowd. I took pictures of signs. I listened to people reacting to the speakers and interacting with each other. I did so with a purpose...I wanted to compare what I saw with what was reported in the news. And I witnessed something that frightened me even more than the government report...the intentional distortion of the event by a major media organization.

If CNN were truly what their motto purports - "the most trusted name in news" - this country would be doomed.

(to be continued)

2 down, 48 to go

Took the CPR/First Aid class yesterday. Scratch #17 off the list.

I really, really hope I never have to use it.