I t has been a law-school-application-heavy weekend as I'm rushing to get my applications done by my self-imposed deadline of Thanksgiving.
I'm torn on the "Diversity Essay," where several of my schools offer me the chance to write an optional essay about how I contribute to the diversity of the law school. I am loath to not do anyting that the admissions office says I could, but I'm honestly not a terribly diverse person in the demographic sense. I'm a white married chick who grew up above the below and below the upper in a suburb of Washington DC. I'm white, anglo-saxon AND was raised protestant. I am a member of a small and somewhat unusual religion, but UUism's culture isn't so different from the mainstream culture.
I think I will contribute to the diversity of anyplace I am in an intellectual sense, but to submit a diversity essay about that seems like reaching and I don't want my application to come off as desperate. But I could be wrong there. Maybe "intellectual diversity" essays are expected from mainstream white people. Maybe it differs with the school.
I know someone who does admissions work who will know the answer to this and will call her on Monday, but several of my schools could stand to be clearer on the point.
In other news, I called up the Chalicerelative to talk Thanksgiving logistics yesterday.
"So did you get your law school test results back?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, a couple of weeks ago."
"You never told me, you pill," she said. "How did you do?"
"I got a 171, that's 98th percentile."
"Wow!" the Chalicerelative said. "That's amazing, Miss Sue!*"
"I was OK with it."
"I mean that do you so well. I just can't believe it!"
"Well, I did always have a knack for logic stuff."
"Still, how on Earth did you manage to do that well?"
Usually, when someone on my Dad's side of the family wants to compliment my intelligence, they say I'm almost as smart as my father, so I'm sort of used to that line of thinking, but her obviously sincere shock was a lot to take.
CC
*Only the Chalicerelative can call me that. So don't. And don't put "Whatever you want, Miss Sue" in the comments. That's not cute, it's obnoxious.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Saturday, November 18, 2006
OK, that's just gross
In preparation for the long-awaited arrival of our housemates, I am cleaning out the cabinets in the basement apartment where my brother used to live.
And may I say that Aunt Ada Doom (who saw something nasty in the woodshed) ain't got nothin' on me.
CC
Ps. A cookie to anyone who gets that reference.
And may I say that Aunt Ada Doom (who saw something nasty in the woodshed) ain't got nothin' on me.
CC
Ps. A cookie to anyone who gets that reference.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Quote of the Day
“Whoever said ‘laughter is the best medicine’ never had gonorrhea.”
-My Name Is Earl, which theCSO and I watched for the first time last night and really enjoyed.
-My Name Is Earl, which theCSO and I watched for the first time last night and really enjoyed.
Slept better, thanks
I didn't intend to imply that my sleeping issues nightmares were connected to my recent lack of emails. Indeed, my sleeping issues have been with me in one form or another for most of my life. I don't write about them often although I did here
These days I'm having less insomnia and more nightmares.
FWIW, I describe a few of them here, hereand here.
(Being able to Google search within one's blog alone is a beautiful thing.)
That said, I DID read Ms. Kitty's post about her activities of yesterday and I did sleep a lot better. Pretty much from midnight through seven a.m., which is about as good as my sleeping typically gets.
So people can feel free to play virtual coworker again today if they like.
It's a cool clear day in Virginia, much nicer than we've had all week. (Seriously kids, I was wanting to build an ark.) Tomorrow morning, I pick up my grass-fed, free-range turkey and start putting togeether the early parts of Thanksgiving dinner. It's going to be a small Thanksgiving this year. Oliver is still in the slammer and we're not having any guests other than my family. If Jason can remain out through Thursday, it will be Jason, the Chalicerelative, my folks, theCSO and me. I'm going to steam my green beans and garnish with dried cranberries this year.
LinguistFriend will stop by on his way up north. He will be here Thanksgiving weekend and I'm especially looking forward to showing him the "Famous UUs" service my church traditionally does the Sunday after Thanksgiving. He'll have to tolerate a family dinner as Jason and Oliver's birthday is the 26th, so I will make another dinner for the same cast of characters plus Linguist Friend. I'm thinking either a pork loin roast or turkey curry with the leftovers.
But enough about me, what's up with y'all?
CC
These days I'm having less insomnia and more nightmares.
FWIW, I describe a few of them here, hereand here.
(Being able to Google search within one's blog alone is a beautiful thing.)
That said, I DID read Ms. Kitty's post about her activities of yesterday and I did sleep a lot better. Pretty much from midnight through seven a.m., which is about as good as my sleeping typically gets.
So people can feel free to play virtual coworker again today if they like.
It's a cool clear day in Virginia, much nicer than we've had all week. (Seriously kids, I was wanting to build an ark.) Tomorrow morning, I pick up my grass-fed, free-range turkey and start putting togeether the early parts of Thanksgiving dinner. It's going to be a small Thanksgiving this year. Oliver is still in the slammer and we're not having any guests other than my family. If Jason can remain out through Thursday, it will be Jason, the Chalicerelative, my folks, theCSO and me. I'm going to steam my green beans and garnish with dried cranberries this year.
LinguistFriend will stop by on his way up north. He will be here Thanksgiving weekend and I'm especially looking forward to showing him the "Famous UUs" service my church traditionally does the Sunday after Thanksgiving. He'll have to tolerate a family dinner as Jason and Oliver's birthday is the 26th, so I will make another dinner for the same cast of characters plus Linguist Friend. I'm thinking either a pork loin roast or turkey curry with the leftovers.
But enough about me, what's up with y'all?
CC
Thursday, November 16, 2006
So why do people hate Hillary so much?
Normally, I’m the one who explains the more reasonable aspects of conservatism. But this one leaves me totally stumped. A conservative UU blogger has named Hillary “Shrew of the year.” I hear constantly about how unpopular she is and how much people hate her.
Um… Why?
To be honest, I don’t understand hating politicians at all. You can disagree with them, but how can you hate anyone you don’t know? Can “hatred” of a national politician possibly be any less shallow than a Junior High School girl’s “love” of Justin Timberlake?
I go back and forth on understanding when liberals say they hate a politician. I’ve heard liberals say they hate Bush for starting a war we didn’t need that killed people and while I think that’s kind of a waste of emotion, I intellectually understand it. I know someone who often says really angry things about Condoleeza Rice because if she’s a Republican, she must have turned her back on her people. (I think this argument assumes that Condi’s “people” are the poor, and I’ve never heard this person criticize a white Republican for abandoning the white Republican’s people, though the person does have plenty of other critcisms of them so I guess the poor aren’t white people’s people. Y’all can unpack this further for yourselves. I know the person is a well-meaning good person, but I’ve never understood that argument.)
But Hillary? Honestly, she’s a little socially conservative for me. I mean, I’m down with “safe, legal and rare,” but criticizing violent video games is a little too soccer mom a position for my taste. She's weirdly conservative on flag burning, was a little too supoortive of the war in Iraq for me to especially like her. Like Bill, she’s basically a populist and populists tend to believe in legislating behavior. But then so do conservatives. We can’t know what Hill is like as a person. That said, I’m confused by the image of her as this ball-buster, because honestly, ball-busters leave cheating husbands. And I think they raise kids who are more screwed up than Chelsea Clinton, who at least on the surface seems like the best behaved and most stable president’s kid of my lifetime.
I get that Hillary is some sort of symbol for bitchy women, but I don’t quite know what she’s actually done to earn that reputation, particularly since her personal life offers a good deal of evidence to the contrary. Can somebody clue me in?
CC
Um… Why?
To be honest, I don’t understand hating politicians at all. You can disagree with them, but how can you hate anyone you don’t know? Can “hatred” of a national politician possibly be any less shallow than a Junior High School girl’s “love” of Justin Timberlake?
I go back and forth on understanding when liberals say they hate a politician. I’ve heard liberals say they hate Bush for starting a war we didn’t need that killed people and while I think that’s kind of a waste of emotion, I intellectually understand it. I know someone who often says really angry things about Condoleeza Rice because if she’s a Republican, she must have turned her back on her people. (I think this argument assumes that Condi’s “people” are the poor, and I’ve never heard this person criticize a white Republican for abandoning the white Republican’s people, though the person does have plenty of other critcisms of them so I guess the poor aren’t white people’s people. Y’all can unpack this further for yourselves. I know the person is a well-meaning good person, but I’ve never understood that argument.)
But Hillary? Honestly, she’s a little socially conservative for me. I mean, I’m down with “safe, legal and rare,” but criticizing violent video games is a little too soccer mom a position for my taste. She's weirdly conservative on flag burning, was a little too supoortive of the war in Iraq for me to especially like her. Like Bill, she’s basically a populist and populists tend to believe in legislating behavior. But then so do conservatives. We can’t know what Hill is like as a person. That said, I’m confused by the image of her as this ball-buster, because honestly, ball-busters leave cheating husbands. And I think they raise kids who are more screwed up than Chelsea Clinton, who at least on the surface seems like the best behaved and most stable president’s kid of my lifetime.
I get that Hillary is some sort of symbol for bitchy women, but I don’t quite know what she’s actually done to earn that reputation, particularly since her personal life offers a good deal of evidence to the contrary. Can somebody clue me in?
CC
Be CC's virtual coworker
Linguist Friend and I are virtual coworkers. Every morning we swap emails with lame chitchat about our lives, how we slept, what we're having for dinner and what is going on at our respective offices. What people who are good friends with their coworkers talk about at the water cooler.
He's in Miami at a conference without email and I'm really starting to miss it.
So tell me, how did you sleep? Any plans for the day? Any gossip in your offices?
I didn't sleep well, took a long time to get there and kept waking up. I've been having nightmares recently.
My day looks pretty dull. Lots of monkey work and I haven't figured out what I'm making for dinner. Maybe pork stir-fry.
And the big gossip in my office these days is that one of the partners liked to take his secretary to lunch to talk over business (FWIW, knowing the two folks involved, it is inconcievable it could have been anything dirty) and another secretary said the first secretary was getting special treatment. So now EVERY boss is supposed to take out EVERY secretary for lunch once a month and at least one secretary is openly unhappy about having to go.
Also, the office Christmas party is coming up. It's semi-formal and nobody has anything to wear.
So what's up with you?
CC
PS. Re: America's Next Top Model last night. If I were Tyra Banks, and an African-American girl on my reality show was supposed to kiss a male model, and that male model said he didn't like black girls, I would say "I don't like unprofessional bigots" and fire his ass. I realize that "Kiss him anyway, and make him look like he likes it" is the answer in the real world, but the real world doesn't have challenges where people have to do their own makeup in five minutes and still look like a model.
If your reality show is going to be contrived and unrealistic, I think they should occaisionally use the contrivedness and unrealism to do the right thing.
He's in Miami at a conference without email and I'm really starting to miss it.
So tell me, how did you sleep? Any plans for the day? Any gossip in your offices?
I didn't sleep well, took a long time to get there and kept waking up. I've been having nightmares recently.
My day looks pretty dull. Lots of monkey work and I haven't figured out what I'm making for dinner. Maybe pork stir-fry.
And the big gossip in my office these days is that one of the partners liked to take his secretary to lunch to talk over business (FWIW, knowing the two folks involved, it is inconcievable it could have been anything dirty) and another secretary said the first secretary was getting special treatment. So now EVERY boss is supposed to take out EVERY secretary for lunch once a month and at least one secretary is openly unhappy about having to go.
Also, the office Christmas party is coming up. It's semi-formal and nobody has anything to wear.
So what's up with you?
CC
PS. Re: America's Next Top Model last night. If I were Tyra Banks, and an African-American girl on my reality show was supposed to kiss a male model, and that male model said he didn't like black girls, I would say "I don't like unprofessional bigots" and fire his ass. I realize that "Kiss him anyway, and make him look like he likes it" is the answer in the real world, but the real world doesn't have challenges where people have to do their own makeup in five minutes and still look like a model.
If your reality show is going to be contrived and unrealistic, I think they should occaisionally use the contrivedness and unrealism to do the right thing.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
First-person account from a guy who was in the Borat movie
Earlier this week, Bill Barr wrote about the Borat movie and how predatory the producers had been in the way they used the small European village where they filmed the opening scenes.
Salon had a Pollyanna-ish article about how the Americans in "Borat" mostly thought it was funny and didn't really have a problem with it.
Anyway, Andrew Tobias offers a different American perspective on the issue. Here's Texas hotel manager Borat calls "Vanilla Face" in the movie describing his experience.
CC
who wonders why it is that Girls Gone Wild has been pulling this crap for years, yet even I don't start blogging about it until it is similar behavior in a different sort of movie.
Salon had a Pollyanna-ish article about how the Americans in "Borat" mostly thought it was funny and didn't really have a problem with it.
Anyway, Andrew Tobias offers a different American perspective on the issue. Here's Texas hotel manager Borat calls "Vanilla Face" in the movie describing his experience.
CC
who wonders why it is that Girls Gone Wild has been pulling this crap for years, yet even I don't start blogging about it until it is similar behavior in a different sort of movie.
Meg, honey, call me. We’ll go get Chinese.
O k, so I’m reading my UU world and I run across a sentence in Meg Barnhouse's column Good Fortunes that really disturbs me.
“Some people pick their favorite Chinese restaurants by the Bourbon Chicken. In my family, we do it by the fortune cookies”
Ok, this sentiment is all kinds of crazy. We’re a little serious about restaurants here at the Chaliceblog. You don’t choose a restaurant by its lagniappe. For goodness sakes, pick your Chinese place by the food. Or whether it’s convenient to your house. Or the condition of the ladies’ room. But by the fortune cookies? Please. That’s just sorry.
Also, Bourbon chicken? In a Chinese restaurant.
Really?
I never even saw Bourbon chicken until I lived in Louisiana. I thought it was strictly a cajun thing. I called in two southern culture consultants with Louisiana backgrounds and they were with me on that one. Bourbon Chicken is way a cajun thing and if a Chiense restaurant is serving it, that restaurant has no interest whatsoever in authenticity and has totally given itself over to southern-fried chinese cooking. One of my southern culture consultants crystallized my thinking in the simple words “If she’s eating bourbon chicken at a Chinese restaurant, she’s going to a Chinese restaurant that's pretty damn crappy.”
So I read the rest of the article, which is essentially about Meg writing her own Rob-Brezney-esque fortunes, a task that obviates picking a restaurant based on fortune cookies, I might point out.
So now, she can pick chinese restaurants with actual good food.
What makes me even sadder is that Meg has totally missed out. A bit of judicious Googling revealed that she is minister of the UU church in Spartanburg. Which means that she lives like an hour and a half from Columbia, SC where one of the best Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to, The Orient, used to be. It was run by a small lady named Louise from Taiwan. If she liked you, the thing to do was go in, refuse the menu and say “Hey, Louise, make me dinner.”
When you let Louise cook you whatever she felt like cooking, the food that resulted was worth spurning ANY fortune cookie for. Sad to say, this place closed a few months ago. I spend every Christmas in the Columbia/Charlotte area and I have no clue what I’m doing Christmas Eve as I’ve had Christmas Eve dinner at the Orient for three straight years.
Anyway, Meg, if you’re reading this, totally call me next time you’re in the vicinity of my hometown of northern charm and southern efficiency. We’ll go get Chinese someplace with octopus on the menu and ducks hanging from the ceiling.
It’ll be yummy, I totally swear.
CC
“Some people pick their favorite Chinese restaurants by the Bourbon Chicken. In my family, we do it by the fortune cookies”
Ok, this sentiment is all kinds of crazy. We’re a little serious about restaurants here at the Chaliceblog. You don’t choose a restaurant by its lagniappe. For goodness sakes, pick your Chinese place by the food. Or whether it’s convenient to your house. Or the condition of the ladies’ room. But by the fortune cookies? Please. That’s just sorry.
Also, Bourbon chicken? In a Chinese restaurant.
Really?
I never even saw Bourbon chicken until I lived in Louisiana. I thought it was strictly a cajun thing. I called in two southern culture consultants with Louisiana backgrounds and they were with me on that one. Bourbon Chicken is way a cajun thing and if a Chiense restaurant is serving it, that restaurant has no interest whatsoever in authenticity and has totally given itself over to southern-fried chinese cooking. One of my southern culture consultants crystallized my thinking in the simple words “If she’s eating bourbon chicken at a Chinese restaurant, she’s going to a Chinese restaurant that's pretty damn crappy.”
So I read the rest of the article, which is essentially about Meg writing her own Rob-Brezney-esque fortunes, a task that obviates picking a restaurant based on fortune cookies, I might point out.
So now, she can pick chinese restaurants with actual good food.
What makes me even sadder is that Meg has totally missed out. A bit of judicious Googling revealed that she is minister of the UU church in Spartanburg. Which means that she lives like an hour and a half from Columbia, SC where one of the best Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to, The Orient, used to be. It was run by a small lady named Louise from Taiwan. If she liked you, the thing to do was go in, refuse the menu and say “Hey, Louise, make me dinner.”
When you let Louise cook you whatever she felt like cooking, the food that resulted was worth spurning ANY fortune cookie for. Sad to say, this place closed a few months ago. I spend every Christmas in the Columbia/Charlotte area and I have no clue what I’m doing Christmas Eve as I’ve had Christmas Eve dinner at the Orient for three straight years.
Anyway, Meg, if you’re reading this, totally call me next time you’re in the vicinity of my hometown of northern charm and southern efficiency. We’ll go get Chinese someplace with octopus on the menu and ducks hanging from the ceiling.
It’ll be yummy, I totally swear.
CC
American Academy of Religion folks
So, who's coming to DC for the AAR meeting?
Want to have dinner some night this week?
Want to have dinner some night this week?
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Sunday Cat Blogging
We gave all four cats a bath this morning.
Esperanto here is the smart cat. She knows that if she hangs out around the erotica collection, nobody's going to throw any more water on her.
CC
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The guy I had a crush on when I was seven already has a receding hairline...
But he's also a doctor.
My ten-year high school reunion was fun.
CC
who will likely write about it in more detail later.
My ten-year high school reunion was fun.
CC
who will likely write about it in more detail later.
The guy I had a crush on when I was seven already has a receding hairline...
But he's also a doctor.
More breaking news from my ten year high school reunion will likely follow.
CC
Friday, November 10, 2006
Little kids often dislike CC
So a coworker has brought her kid in. Kid is coloring pictures of the Disney Princesses.
CC walks up to kid.
"My favorite Disney princess is Belle, because she likes to read and I do, too. Would you color me a picture of Belle so I can put it up at my desk?" CC says
Kid says "No." in exactly the same icy tone she might have used had CC asked her to eat a bug.
And people wonder why I don't reproduce...
CC
CC walks up to kid.
"My favorite Disney princess is Belle, because she likes to read and I do, too. Would you color me a picture of Belle so I can put it up at my desk?" CC says
Kid says "No." in exactly the same icy tone she might have used had CC asked her to eat a bug.
And people wonder why I don't reproduce...
CC
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Quiet few days
Sorry I haven't posted much. After the election, I'm finding myself with surprisingly little to say. I'm glad the Democrats won. I have mixed feelings about Nancy Johnson of Connecticut not getting re-elected. I liked being able to tell people there was a UU Republican in congress, but as she was the author of the largest entitlement program in history (the prescription drug plan) I can't say my Libertarian side was ever too happy with her.
PB is talking about not gloating and that's my inclination, too.
Also, if I hear Ted Haggard's name one more time, I'm gonna scream. I don't care if he's being held up as an example of hypocrisy, the evils of the closet or whatever other thing you always believed that he's such a great example of.
So anyway, play this video a few dozen times:
then pipe down when you go to church, m'kay?
CC
PB is talking about not gloating and that's my inclination, too.
Also, if I hear Ted Haggard's name one more time, I'm gonna scream. I don't care if he's being held up as an example of hypocrisy, the evils of the closet or whatever other thing you always believed that he's such a great example of.
So anyway, play this video a few dozen times:
then pipe down when you go to church, m'kay?
CC
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
CC shuffles off to bed
I can't believe I'm going to bed with the Virginia senate race a virtual tie. But when I was congratulating a wise chap I know who is good with words on the Strickland/Blackwell victory tonight, he reminded me that I do in fact have to go to work tomorrow.
As I'm going to sleep, the Ds are up 21. To give y'all one more bit of perspective on how huge this is, the day after election day two years ago, I wrote a press release touting that the congressional fundraising firm I then worked for had been around for 12 years and none of our incumbents had ever lost. The only way any congressional client of my old firm ever left was to fire our firm and hire someone else, or retire.
Assuming that no clients left after I did (and if they did leave, they did so at their own peril,) my old firm lost two tonight. And a non-client with whom CC had an extremely gross and unpleasant encounter also lost. At that time, CC was too embarassed to even tell her bosses, but almost wrote the man's wife to tell him about his tacky behavior. Suffice to say, Washington chicks need not fear his poor manners anymore.
Goodnight.
CC
As I'm going to sleep, the Ds are up 21. To give y'all one more bit of perspective on how huge this is, the day after election day two years ago, I wrote a press release touting that the congressional fundraising firm I then worked for had been around for 12 years and none of our incumbents had ever lost. The only way any congressional client of my old firm ever left was to fire our firm and hire someone else, or retire.
Assuming that no clients left after I did (and if they did leave, they did so at their own peril,) my old firm lost two tonight. And a non-client with whom CC had an extremely gross and unpleasant encounter also lost. At that time, CC was too embarassed to even tell her bosses, but almost wrote the man's wife to tell him about his tacky behavior. Suffice to say, Washington chicks need not fear his poor manners anymore.
Goodnight.
CC
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
It's true tonight, but it's a headline one didn't see very often, considering the Skins' record
"Heath Schuler wins"
(You're likely going to hear many variations on that joke over the next few days, but I thought of it first.)
CC
(You're likely going to hear many variations on that joke over the next few days, but I thought of it first.)
CC
Wahoo!
Vote. Then check in with Philo
CC
BTW, if you experience any irregularities in voting today, whip out thy cell phone and call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, the hotline for the National Campaign for Fair Elections. EFF lawyers and many others are standing by across the country to take legal action to remove malfunctioning voting machines, keep polls open, etc.
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