Which Blogs Would I Take to a Desert Island? (click the link back to where I saw this and then click the link to the original. Interesting.)
This was hard. It’s been in the back of my mind all morning and when I was sifting through my feeds during a little break I just took I think I was able to narrow it down. I think.
Daily Dose of Addiction – Blogs Read More »
I was seeing posts about this “new TV show about eating disorders” mentioned on message boards I was reading and wrote a note to remind myself to check out Starved. I’m glad I waited til after I was officially finished working. Had I looked earlier, it would have ruined what has been “Nancy White Day” around here and made it very difficult for me to keep on working. I’m just that ticked off about this.
* The picture on the network page was enough to trouble me. Not funny.
* Watch the preview clip. A man obsessing over the scale, an anorexic man, maybe the fact that he’s a man is supposed to take the edge off since most people don’t associate anorexia with men? Whatever, not funny.
* Then, we see him eating chocolate cake out of the trash, confessing to his support group and we see a woman in his support group say “If you were a dog, I’d kick you in the face.” Not funny (and where are the PETA people???)
There is NOTHING funny about this, nothing funny about eating disorders. Imagine all of the people out there who are hiding their eating disorders, it is a well hidden illness, having to sit through this show while their family members laugh. All of those people suffering in silence because they are afraid to tell people who love them. Those people won’t be laughing and they won’t find it any easier to tell once the first episode is over.
I don’t generally encourage people to boycott television shows or write to networks but today I am. Join the NEDA and tell these people what you think.
eating disorder, starved, anorexia,
bulimia, compulsive eating
Daily Dose of Anger – Starved Read More »
I am probably more envious and jealous today than I was while Blogher was actually in session. Large gatherings of women are amazing things and here are some examples of what I mean (click the links, they’ll open in a new window and you won’t lose your place!):
The quickest and easiest way to get an idea about what makes women driven gatherings and men driven gatherings different is to take a look at the photos from Blogher vs Gnomedex that TW linked to (thank you Denise for making me write that blog post, TW says or should say). Which event would YOU rather attend; the one with all of the obvious emotion or the one that’s stiff and stodgy looking?
You could also take a peek at Nancy White’s comments, as Scoble also suggested you do. Her thoughts about community are what make her the “Blogher” I’d most like to meet, (though after reading all of these recaps, some others are running close seconds and thirds!) And don’t miss this prime example of why she remains at the top of my list. Nancy White gets it!
And then there were the celebrity sightings! Oh My (insert deity) DOOCE!!! LOL I do not know how many times I have read that over the course of the last few days but I laugh every time I see it. I love women gushing over their heroes! (Do the guys gush over Scoble? I bet they don’t!) I’ve been the gusher and the gushy and from everything I read it appears that everyone did it just right!
And then there was another celebrity, La Queen Sucia, who made some (IMO) great comments about not generalizing about men but turned around and shut down her blog (which has now been removed so I can’t even link you to it so you can read for yourself – you can, however, read a really nice post about the incident at Blogher) and in doing so suggested we all turn off our computers, quit blogging and head outside for a walk – where it’s real. (As a side note, while I appreciate La Queen Sucia’s choice and support it I was appalled at the fact that she suggested we all stop blogging and find something real. So, I suggest you all take her advice the next time you consider picking up her chick lit – a term she finds offensive and a term that I adore – and instead, turn on your computer and blog or read some blogs. There is some really REAL stuff going on in the Blogosphere, it doesn’t just happen in chick lit or while walking in the park).
Speaking of real – it doesn’t get more real than another woman whose work I’ve respected, Amy Gahran, forever! I have linked Contentious so many times! I can’t even begin to tell you how many. Some of my friends and coworkers probably think I’ve got some secret crush on her, that’s how many times I’ve linked her! And look, she does it again – she takes on Winer and she comes out like you wouldn’t believe. I have total respect, TOTAL.
Speaking of OUT, ha! I love that Koan Bremner flew all the way across the world and took this type of chance. Strong women ROCK! (Listen to the MP3 later, it’s fantastic!) I hope next year she bites a bigger bullet and attends a mommy blogger session. It won’t be easy but I think it would be healthy. I’ll sit next to her in the audience and support her!
There are dozens more wonderful Blogher posts and recaps and bloggers that you really HAVE to go and visit. I can’t link them all or talk about them all, I don’t have TIME! Click the blogroll, add them to your feeds, do whatever it takes to make these women a part of your life. It will be worth it.
And last but not least, why women’s gatherings are Better Than Christmas
Daily Dose of Women – Blogher Read More »
TW says I have to blog about this and since she listened to me and blogged about gnomedex vs blogher, I will take her suggestion. I guess.
Is There a False Food-Memory Diet?
People develop food preferences as children and their food memories often determine their choices as adults. Well ummm, yea, that’s why the phrase comfort food actually means something to most people, right? This part of the study makes sense. What doesn’t make sense to me as what kind of students are these that would look at fake survey results, surveys they filled out, and not realize something was wonky here? I don’t think I could adopt a memory as my own based on a survey result paper handed back to me from some grad student or something. I’d need my mother to tell me some long drawn out story about my strawberry ice cream illness (would you like me to tell you about canned Franco American Macaroni & Cheese, cause that’s a memory I’ve got about food and illness…).
I am just not buying it that these students didn’t choose ice cream on the follow up simply because they decided to believe a piece of paper was true even though they didn’t have a vivid memory or a mom telling them that this was what happened. You notice they still chose chocolate chip cookies, right? Could it be that strawberry ice cream simply isn’t all that popular of a dessert item, especially not next to chocolate chip cookies which probably hold a lot more positive and REAL childhood memories than some fake strawberry ice cream memory?
This study goes further and suggests that students selected asparagus (on a form, they didn’t serve these kids actual food – they’re college students who may be starving and will in reality eat almost anything generally) because they were given fake positive childhood memories. Couldn’t it just be that 20 year olds have grown up and actually had a decently cooked asparagus rather than some floppy and soggy thing from a can that they’d been served in childhood?
I think it probably is possible to give people false childhood food memories over time and/or through hypnosis but by handing them back a fake survey that they supposedly completed themselves? That just makes no sense.
And besides, if this did work, would you really want to trade off 25lbs of fat for the loss of real memories and live your life with false ones? There really are better ways to lose weight, trust me, I know these things.
Daily Dose of Diet – Memory Read More »
“I’m the least creative person I know,” is the response I’ve gotten from my pal Drums n Whistles when I’ve suggested she do a certain SOMETHING. In fact I’ve heard her say it on NUMEROUS occasions. And what do we see today? This Masterpiece! Least creative? Ha!
DnW also spent a lot of time telling me that blogging wasn’t for her. It wasn’t the type of thing she could do or even wanted to do or would be helpful to her. Ha! Look at this and yes that noise you hear is my smirking laughter, hehehe!
This entry isn’t about me gloating and enjoying the “I told you so” feeling, well it is but it’s not JUST about that, it’s just a wee reminder to all of you women – When I give you advice, you should take it! I AM ALWAYS RIGHT! Better to just give in right away and do what I suggest or deal with having to say “I admit it, you were right!” It always happens, eventually.
When will you people learn? 😉
Daily Dose of Advice – or I told you so… Read More »
Last week I was reading some message boards, (imagine that), and I ran across a really nice mommy asking questions about Scarlet Fever and I decided right then, I needed to post about this.
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase “Scarlet Fever”? Do you think about all of those books set in the 1800’s where people died from Scarlet Fever? Do you think of Helen Keller? Do you think of that relative who often says “I had Scarlet Fever when I was a kid and almost died”? (My ex, the dirtbag, is notorious for spitting out this little tidbit). If you’re a mom and a doctor mentions Scarlet Fever while examining your young child who is obviously very sick – high fevers, horrid rashes and icky looking throat, then I bet you think of one of those things.
Being the mom you are today, you’d head for the leading source of reliable health information on the web – WebMD and you’d search for information about Scarlet Fever, wouldn’t you? And what would you find out? You’d find out it is strep throat with a rash. Huh? How can that be? Tons of people died from that! What about Helen Keller? What about Denise’s dirtbag ex? How can it just be strep throat with a rash? There must be something that WebMD (and my doctor) isn’t telling me, right?
Wrong. Scarlet Fever IS strep w/ a rash. It’s also something that really does need to be treated and not allowed to run its course or it could develop into a more serious issue. That’s what we all need to wrap our brains around. Scarlet Fever, treated, is not serious. Scarlet Fever untreated, is.
Doctors need to explain that part to mommies when they mention Scarlet Fever. WebMD should do a better job of acknowledging that we’ve read those books, we know Helen Keller’s history and we all have a relative like my dirtbag and address our fears up front so we don’t have to worry and fret that somebody is not telling us the whole story!
Now do you know what’s sort of funny here? I planned this blog piece more than a week ago. This morning, I mentioned on a message board that it was one of the things on my To Do List for the day. And guess what happened – Michelle was diagnosed at the ER in NJ today with Scarlet Fever. I’m not kidding you!
She called me yesterday from Great Adventure to ask me if I was sure she wasn’t allergic to something because she had a horrible rash and Benadryl was not helping. I said she wasn’t, that I knew of, and asked her all of the normal rash questions. (And I considered having her take a photo of her rash and email it to me; I will admit this though my co-workers will spit out their coffee when they read this). I suggested she stick with the Benadryl, grab some anti-itch lotion on the way home and watch it for another day. Apparently this morning she woke with a 104 temp and felt like death warmed over so her sister took her to the ER (no sign of her dirtbag father).
Yep, strep w/a rash. Life is funny. And luckily, I’ve already done the research so I’m not fretting and thinking about all of those folks who died back in the day, or Helen Keller or my dirtbag ex – well I am, but I know those are unreasonable fears that all moms have.
Daily Dose of Health – Scarlet Fever Read More »
| You are Agonistic |
 You’re not sure if God exists, and you don’t care. For you, there’s no true way to figure out the divine. You rather focus on what you can control – your own life. And you tend to resent when others “sell” religion to you. |
Daily Dose of Religion – ha! Read More »
No folks, this is not a post about my sister, it’s better than that! It’s about Blogher. Or more to the point, it’s about how it’s just NOT FAIR that I am not there watching all of these women talk about blogs and actually blog!
Watching the Blogher flickr photo feed is not the same. Reading the blogs of women who are actually blogging during the conference is just not the same.
Hell I’m not even a “real” blogger like these chicks (and the non-chicks) but I know a really amazing event when I see one (or read about one). And if there is one thing about me that you certainly have to know, it’s that I really like being in on a good thing.
So here I am, blogging from my bedroom with one kid banging around over head while another stomps around his bedroom because I was tired of hearing him tell his sister that she’s a nightmare and the third child is at the hospital with her mother seeing about a roller skating injury. It is sooooo not fair! I want to be in California, I love California. I want to have my laptop and my coffee and be surrounded by blogging women and not grouchy kids and smelly dogs, watching the appearance of dark clouds outside of my window (which means we’ll probably have more tree limbs down this evening).
Look at this session titles! These are ME, aren’t they? They couldn’t be any more ME if I’d come up with them myself:
Daily Dose of Jealousy – NO FAIR! Read More »
No this is not another Patrick Scoble post about over-privileged children, it’s better than that. I was surfing through my feeds last night and started to laugh and couldn’t stop laughing. I then went in search of the phone, telling TW I had to call my mom to find out if she’d actually read my blog. Why did I need to call my mom at 8:30 at night to ask this question? Because, I’m about to confess, not that this is at all a secret or anything but I’m going to confess to everyone that I am one of these entitled brats – a 40 something year old entitled brat. (Upon reading the comments, it seems we are a rare breed and a breed to be despised. Whatever!)
From the original article in the NY Times:
A generation ago, adult children visiting their parents’ homes might have left with a Tupperware container of lasagna. Today, many of them stealthily make off with toiletries, groceries, sometimes clothing and even furniture. It is an apparently widespread practice, born of a sense of entitlement among young adults – and usually amusedly tolerated by parents – that gives new meaning to the phrase “home shopping.” Like most adults, the pilferers have set up their own households, but they seem not to have given up the expectation that their parents should provide for them in certain ways. They loot their parents’ houses to cut costs, or because they would rather not pay for incidentals. Or because they want things with sentimental value.
I do not believe that I have ever left my mother’s house without a pair of her socks. (Well, I have, when I lived around the corner from her for a year sock theft was minimal but did still occur.) I tend to tell people I don’t like to wear socks and it’s true. I do not wear socks with sneakers, (all of you people going ewwww, just hush because my feet do not stink, thank you), I do however wear socks around the house ’cause I do not like my feet to be cold. And, I’m horrible about going outside in sock feet and then getting frustrated because the socks are cold which then makes my feet cold. The answer to that is “get another pair of socks”. So, I obviously under pack socks and my mom has all of these great, never worn socks in the top left dresser drawer in the rose room. (I wonder if they’ll still be there when she moves to her new house in Charlotte. They’d better be or I will have to sniff out their new hiding place)
After years of doing this, one of the first things I do when I enter the rose room is to check and see what sort of new cool socks my mother has purchased to replace all of the other pairs I took home last time I was there. (It’s been a long time since I visited her; I bet her sock drawer is seriously overflowing!) TW has taken to buying me cool socks but it is just not the same as taking my mom’s. Don’t ask me why, I’m sure a therapist could assist me in figuring that out but I’m not troubled enough by it to actually make an appointment and find out!
I have also pilfered books from her shelf, though generally in plain view and when she says “No you can’t take that one,” I usually leave it behind. I say usually because while I can’t remember a specific time, I’m sure I’ve accidentally slipped a book into my suitcase that wasn’t in the original pile. 😉
I plundered her attic for old kid toys that may have belonged to me or to my children but more than likely belonged to my sister (ha take that mother of the heir to the throne!). When we lived in the same neighborhood for that one brief year, I did take a scoop of cat food because I forgot to buy it and didn’t feel like turning around and going back to the store. I also still have a small screwdriver that I thought I returned but didn’t and then just didn’t feel like taking back to her before I moved to Florida. If she needs it back, I can probably find it and return it when I take the piano sometime in the next two years. (No I’m not stealing the piano, I’ve been told to take it or else…)
I have read all of those comments on Meta Filter and I just cannot believe more people don’t do this sort of thing! I also can’t believe how many people are troubled by it, lol. I don’t take the toys that belong to mom’s s/o (though he has some that I covet). I have not stolen the rocking chair or the old school desk, though I plan to take them when I take the piano, hahahaha! What’s wrong with lifting a couple of pairs of socks (or ummm 20 pairs of socks) and some dog food?
Oh, and from the comments as well – I did take a blanket from my father and step-mother’s home without asking them. It was a Clemson throw blanket that belonged to my grandmother. I didn’t think they really wanted it, not like I wanted it, but I also thought that if I’d asked I might have been told no out of spite. TW says that’s dumb, that the evil step-mother wouldn’t have done that, but that’s how she makes me feel so I took it and have enjoyed it ever since.
Daily Dose of Entitlement – I’m a thief! Read More »
TW blogged about her nice workday with RJ and I’m glad the normally bouncy, talkative, busy RJ was quiet and sweet but I spent most of the day wondering why it was I had insisted it be RJ who went and the other two who should be left behind.
It started innocently enough, the Starbucks and the Krispy Kreme but I should have known it wouldn’t last when the two staying with me started to cheer because RJ was going to have to do WORK at the office and they were going to have a wonderful, relaxing and FUN day at home with Denise. I hate that sort of thing so decided on the spot that we’d clean the garage – or at least play at cleaning the garage. That stopped the cheering and jeering at RJ’s expense but left me with a 15 minute drive home that I did not enjoy.
E quickly warmed to the idea of cleaning the garage and talked nonstop about just what we would throw away (RJ’s stuff and Chris’s stuff) and what we were definitely keeping (her stuff). J did what J does best and tried to muddle the process by distracting me with some talk about video games that I did not understand. (J and I both need to listen to more Patrick Scoble podcasts because J would definitely be considered a lame 12 year old. We’re trying to make him into a real boy but it’s hard, he has some really weird parents…)
By the time we got home, I was feeling about the way I did when I blogged my symptoms a few days ago and I was regretting the first wonderful Caramel Macchiato I’ve had in days. So, I did what all moms in my position would do – I turned on the TV.
The quiet lasted for about an hour and then the typical, “Get out of my seat!” “Quit touching me!” “I am not stupid!” “I was watching that!” started. Then there was mayhem because J has lost his gameboy charger. It was plugged into the wall in the living room for the entire month he was in Vancouver. I saw it on Monday when J arrived and immediately picked up the gameboy. Where it went after that is anybody’s guess. I helped search the living room for a bit and offered ideas about how to go about cleaning the bedroom that he insists he just cleaned in order to find it but we had no luck.
From there it just went downhill. E decided she needed to talk to me, nonstop, preferably while holding onto my mousing arm at the elbow. When I tired of this, she brought her pillow and neopets plushies down and crawled under my desk with the old, tired, smelly dog and talked to me from down there. J sat in Michelle’s computer chair, the one formerly known as mommy’s, and made his groaning noises for about an hour.
Lunch was only a success because I served Krispy Kremes alongside what turned out not to be E’s favorite soup oh and somewhere along the way, the evil black dog drank J’s hot chocolate from Starbucks and J refused to clean up the cup paper that was all over the living room. Apparently the dog assumed responsibility for cleaning up the cup since he had it last? The Schwan’s guy showed up unexpectedly, (unexpectedly only because I forgot he told me last time he was switching to Thursdays), and saved me briefly with banana popsicles that E has been asking for all week. (The kid is weird, she hates bananas but loves these popsicles and the yellow smiely lollipops skeeter sent us from Hawaii ages ago.)
We never did make it to the garage. We did, however, survive the day with only one 5 minute bout of crying from E when J put his feet in her hair and pulled for a really longgggggg time (according to E). We also never found the charger for the gameboy so his highness thinks that tomorrow we should just go buy another one. Ha! It wasn’t as crazy as Life Aboard the Ark but the next time a kid goes to work, it’s not going to be RJ!
Daily Dose of Kids – Those Left Behind Read More »