Thirtysomething

FUG

Holy hell, this is some bad fashion all around.

Labels: society, style

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 1:37 PM 0 comments

Pirates Vow Revenge

When I was a kid, I really didn't think I'd grow up and wind up watching pirates on TV. Like on-the-news-TV. But here we are.

I love this. I just love that the pirates--people who illegally seized ships, hold people hostage, and demanded ransom--are vowing revenge. Clearly, these pirates have been wronged. I mean, people should be allowed to steal and blackmail without consequences, right?

Labels: random, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 9:27 AM 0 comments

Queen of the World

Look, I was pretty surprised by the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown thing and even more surprised that Rihanna would go back to him. Because you figure, it's hard to be any hotter or any richer than Rihanna, so why would she need a dirtball who (allegedly) hits her? You are RIHANNA. You are fierce. You do not need him.

But who I am to judge such things? Especially when Oprah is out there casting her judgements?

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 12:02 PM 0 comments

Home Alone

Seriously, what is up with this?

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 7:41 AM 1 comments

That's a Whole Lot of Family

Wow. I haven't really spoken with anyone about the whole octuplet thing that seems to have a so many people buzzing. Partially because, um, I don't really care that she had 8 babies-- that's so her nightmare to deal with, not mine. Also, because the infertility community goes a bit beserko if you criticize anyone who has undergone fertility treatments.

My understanding is that there are many ways to eliminate or greatly reduce the possibility of having a pregnancy of eight freaking babies when undergoing fertility treatments and that, for the most part, doctors and patients are fairly responsible for doing what they should to reduce the possibility of multiples in excess of two or three. So when I heard about the octuplets, I had the passing thought something had medically gone awry.

Now it comes out that the woman has 6 other kids.

So now, you know, I sort of have an opinion. Who the hell let this woman who has 6 kids undergo a pregnancy that resulted in 8 additional kids? And on the other hand, how do you put limits on someone's reproductive rights? I mean, I guess no doctor is going to say "Really? You already have 6 kids, you don't need a 7th." But this is eight additional kids, who, while they are doing very well by all accounts, were at a tremendous risk for all sorts of medical problems AND who, as far as I know, qualify for medicare pretty much from birth.

Sweet Jesus.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

It Starts This Young

We're considering switching day care centers. Rolo's current day care is, well, fine. I mean, yeah, they dipped him in bleach, and they've done a few other things that haven't thrilled me, but that comes the territory in day care. The teachers genuinely love the kids. Rolo loves his teachers. If he was to stay in this day care for the next year or two, he'd probably be just fine. No worse for wear.

And yet.

The reality is that the teachers, while loving, are glorified baby sitters. I'm realizing what I want in a day care for an infant and what I want for a toddler are two different things. Teachers with early childhood education degrees might start to matter now. For the most part, Rolo sits in a room all day. Yeah, there might be songs and some art work, but I can't say I'm overly convinced that there's a whole lot of interaction and learning going on.

Does that matter? Now, at not even 18 months old? I don't think getting him into the "best" day care or preschool is the first step towards Harvard. When is "fine" fine and when should you want better for your child?

So I started to hear about another day care--actually, no, it's a preschool. They start taking kids at 18 months old. Anyway, I passed by it a few times months and months ago and since then, a buzz has started. The mother of one of Rolo's "friends" at his current day care told me about it and that she was going to enroll her son there. Weeks later, another mother approached me to tell me she was switching as well. Then, while speaking to a colleague from work, it came up that his son attends this new preschool too.

I got the information, spoke to the owner on the phone. Sounded great. Is considerably more expensive, but I went to look at it anyway. It's radically different than Rolo's current situation. There are pros and cons. The kids rotate through rooms throughout the day that focus on art, music, library, learning and gym. They actually have access to a gym so that the kids can run around even when the weather is too bad to take them to a park. Teachers are either early childhood specialists or have degrees in a specialty, like art or music. They all seem nice and caring. These are all the pros. The cons are the price, that it's new and therefore they are still "tweaking" their systems, they don't offer daily reports and it doesn't offer the kind of routine Rolo is used to--for example, it's not like Rolo would have just one teacher like he has now, the teachers rotate through different groups of kids. So from a "continuity of care" aspect, it's not like you can go to one person and get an idea of how your kid is doing. I don't know that they emphasize practical knowledge like, say, how to use utensils. Also, it's a little hippy-dippy (flooring made of recycled material! they compost waste!). Not sure if that's a pro or con.

I left feeling torn. Realizing that educationally, this place is way better. But, it's not as structured. And frankly, while I think he would grow to like it, Rolo is going to lose his shit if we switch him. Transition isn't always easy for him. Then again, maybe Rolo would adapt better to change in a different environment, one that wasn't as structured.

I had another realization after I left, one that sort of slapped me across the face. At our current day care, Rolo is decidedly in the racial minority. Will be even more so once his two friends switch over. All of the teachers at the entire day care, with the exception of 2, are African American. This new preschool? All the teachers I met are white. It's a majority of white kids too. An interesting example of socio-economic segregation. The white kids go to the more expensive, more educationally-driven school, taught by the higher-degreed teachers. This is a preschool, people. The realization was both stunning and obvious.

You know, I wasn't ready to deal with this yet.

Labels: Rolo, society, winter of my discontent

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:42 AM 0 comments

Change

Yesterday, I voted for Barack Obama. I'm not at all sure I made the right decision.

Until recently, I was one of those "undecided voters". The group that critics said must be stupid or lying, and should forfeit their right to vote. Hey, David Sedaris even weighed in, as though his opinion has anything to do with anything. To his much-publicized quote on undecided voters: To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?” I ask, who is the flight attendant? Is it the media, who are having on-screen orgasms over Obama's victory? Yourself? Because his comment assumes that the choice is obvious, which of course to someone who had already decided, it was.

What critics of undecided voters rarely took into account is loyalty. How difficult it can be for one person to be affiliated with one political party for one's adult lifetime, to be born and bred into that party, but to vote for another. I get the impression that most undecided voters were either independents or Republicans. In theory, I never thought voting for the other team would be difficult. Not until I had to actually do it. It would have been different if Obama had completely won me over. But he had not. So should I stay with the Republican ticket, what's familiar? Or should I take a leap of faith across the other side of the aisle, even though I have some doubts about the candidate. I can't tell you how much I thought about it, worried about it, lost sleep over it. I'm used to being a Republican and hearing that political party get trashed. It always rolled off my back. But the criticism that undecided voters got? To say it made me angry would be an understatement.

I don't believe the two candidates were alike in many ways. I don't believe they were "the same", as critics accused undecided voters of thinking. I liked qualities in both candidates, different qualities in each. And I was/am fearful of some other qualities, again different for each. What I can say, which was encouraging, is that for the past 2 or so presidential elections, I always asked, when referring to the candidates "This is the best we could come up with?" But not this time. Although very different, I think both candidates had a lot to offer. Do I believe my life will be better 4 years from now? Or eight? Possibly. But I think that's largely dependent on me, and has little to do with who's president.

God forgive me, and I pray to that God that this never comes to fruition, but a small sliver of me didn't want Obama to be president for fear he would not be able to serve out his term. A heinous crime that might cut a life, and a presidency, short; something that would tear this country apart unlike anything we've seen before. But that? That is not a reason not to vote for the man.

I'm not all that worried about the economy. Which is to say that it of course concerns me, but the economy has historically had its ups and downs, and while by all accounts this is a pretty big "down", odds are pretty good that we'd be in a better financial place eight years from now regardless of who became president.

I've become a skeptic in my old age. Or perhaps I always was. I wanted to be excited by this election. Everyone else seemed to be. But more than anything, I was wary. Wary of the Republican party. Wary of interviewed Obama supporters who said things like "I won't have to worry about my mortgage anymore or gas prices anymore or all my bills", as though Obama was offering some sort of "debt-free" program that I was not aware of, or at least, am not eligible for. Wary of other nations who are so overwhelming enthusiastic about Obama. I could choose to believe that they sincerely want better relations with the United States and I hope that's the motive. But I don't believe these nations have Americans best interests at heart. One of my greatest concerns is how this country is viewed by the world, so for all that global and national enthusiasm, probably for that reason, I pushed Obama button. In high school terms, I succumbed to peer pressure. But I am still afraid how Obama will handle the ugly side of world politics.

Regardless, here we are. The dawn of a new day. You'll notice I turned off the comments for this posts, because I'm not interested in anyone's opinion at this point.

You have 4 years, Mr. Obama. Make me believe I made the right decision.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 6:50 AM

Champs

I live close enough to South Street to tell you one thing: the city is freaking crazy right now.

I expect to see my husband some time shortly before sunrise. Two years ago, I would have been filing out to Broad Street (probably not South Street), partying. But now, I sit home, with a sleeping baby, different responsibilities, listening to the crowds outside instead. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish I was out there too.

But I am giving my office a couple of hours off Friday to see the parade.

Labels: i like stories, Living, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:08 PM 0 comments

It's a Sad Story

And Michele Davis-Balfour should probably stop talking.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

Pushing the Race Card

This morning, I watched an interview on CNN that outlined how McCain's ancestors owned slaves. Ouch. McCain denied it, but then presented with evidence, he claimed it wasn't something he knew about. Maybe. Maybe not.

But is it relevent? At the time of this post, I can't find a link to this morning's story.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 6:10 AM 0 comments

Oh Joe

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.” he told a fundraising crowd in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday. “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” You can read about it here and here.

Good going, Joe. You just reinforced the Republicans fears that our enemies think they can walk all over Obama.

And for the record, I think Palin is right. Biden isn't getting a whole lot of press about this comment (unless you're watching Fox News), but if Palin said something similiar about McCain, it would be the lead story of the day.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:54 AM 0 comments

9/11

I find it absurd that police in Nowheresville, Massachusetts are demanding September 11th off when NYPD don't get it as a holiday. I'm not opposed to September 11th eventually being a holiday per se, but the idea that it would begin in Massachusetts is completely ridiculous.

Labels: random, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:47 AM 0 comments

And More Good News....

I'm not a "big government" kind of girl. I don't believe that its the government's job to fix everything. Sometimes bad things happen, but that doesn't always mean that government should swoop in with an answer.

The bailout, the ones months ago, to help out people who were facing foreclosure? I wasn't a big fan. I'm going to say something wildy unpopular: in a good number of foreclosures, people took out morgages that they couldn't afford. Now you can argue that the morgages lenders mislead these folks into thinking that they could afford the morgages. But I'm all about personal accountability.

My brother works on Wall Street, and I can only imagine that he's not having the best day. He's even less sympathetic about the morgage crisis than I am.

Regarding today's $700 billion bail out, I'm not sure what to think. Fundamentally, I don't think a bail out is a good idea. The reality is that there are market crashes and sometimes things have to get bad in order to get better. But then again, I'm not a finance person. And many finance people, and ESPECIALLY the media are panicking about the current financial situation, so maybe the bail out isn't a bad idea? I don't think people in this country would be able to cope with a depression, line the one in the 1930s. I mean I just don't think we're equipped for that kind of overall hardship for an extended period as a country.

Watching, waiting.

Labels: money, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 11:01 AM 0 comments

Danger, in the Game When the Stakes are High

So.....how are you? Anything new? Watch anything interesting on TV lately?

I haven't said much about Sarah Palin here. Mostly because I'm not a particularly political person but also, because I've had a bunch of different thoughts about her that have evolved over the last week, and most of them contradict each other.

First off, I couldn't believe there wasn't some more qualified, less baggage kind of lady politician out there for the VP pick. In fact, the day Sarah Palin was announced, my husband came home from work and the first thing he said to me was "So, John McCain committed political suicide today, eh?"

But then, by yesterday I actually had to turn off CNN and tune into Fox News (which I usually can't watch without laughing). I was so damn sick of every CNN anchor asking every female they interviewed whether she (the interviewee) would be able to handle the VP position with small children at home. The urge to start clawing at skin was great.

I don't agree with many of her opinions. But the hair on the back of my neck still stands up on end when I hear people trashing her, resorting to her family or the fact that she was a beauty queen. I think she's a young, attractive, family-oriented woman who happens to also be a politician and I think that scares the shit of people.

I mean if you want to go after the ethics thing or the lobbying thing, or the thin resume thing (although, pot? kettle?)fair game. But people seemed to be assuming she was some sort of completely inexperienced idiot and, I couldn't help but get the feeling that it had something to do with...her. Like her gender.

So, last night, there I was, a registered Republican, unsure of who I am voting for come November. So many pros and cons to both sides. So uncertain of this Sarah Palin person, this person that so many predicted was going to fall on her face last night, that I stayed up well past my bedtime to watch her speak.

I don't care who you are, or what your political leanings are, Sarah Palin was awesome. Okay, I think she could have backed off some of the Obama-slamming. And I don't agree with some of her views and I don't know that I'll be voting for John McCain this November, but I can't help but admire a woman who just had a baby, is a mother of five, in the midst of all sorts of scandal, and delivered a speech like that to millions of people. That woman just had a baby 4 months ago, and she's a freaking vice presidential candidate for the United States of America.

Awesome.

Labels: random, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 9:51 AM 2 comments

VEEP

I'm not suggesting he picked her ONLY because she's a woman, but it's a pretty interesting trick just the same.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:35 AM 0 comments

What the Hell, John Edwards?

I'm rarely disappointed by the actions of political figures, usually because I expect nothing of them, but I sort of liked John Edwards. More importantly, I have a tremendous amount of respect for his wife. So, I am surprisinly disappointedly by this.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 1:07 PM 0 comments

Opening Ceremonies

So let me get this straight. President Bush is the first U.S. president to attend the Olympic opening ceremonies on forgein soil, but he didn't attend the opening ceremonies in Italy or Greece in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Instead he's attending the ceremonies in China.

China.

Awesome.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 7:06 AM 0 comments

Pegging It

I tried to ignore this.

Good freakin' God, Katie! Get it together! I've seen at least 4 photos now, in 4 different outfits, all with the baggy, rolled jean action.

You must stop. Please. I'm begging you.

Labels: society, style

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 11:15 AM 2 comments

This Just Gets More and More Interesting

You know, at the time Heath Ledger died, I thought one of the strangest parts of the story was that the person who found him called one of the Olsen twins before calling 911. But now that she's requesting immunity, it's stranger still.

Labels: society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 12:22 PM 1 comments

Apparently I'm More Out of Shape Than I Thought

According to MSN, San Francisco is America's Most Walkable City.

According to the article, the ranking comes from a survey where people can rate cities based on what amenities are within walking distance from an address. Apparently topography was not a consideration.

Labels: random, society

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 9:38 AM 0 comments