Everybody knows that women take forever to get ready…..right? Maybe not. Dania has figured out a way to shorten that process and change outfits faster than you can say….a really long word. Not only that, but she changes her hair color during the routine as well. I can think of quite a few other activities where this skill could come in reallly handy.

If not today, maybe tomorrow…..keep this instructional card handy to help you through the tough times.

I think i might have finally solved the problem of the confusing homonyms included in the title. Using context for clues, we can almost always determine usage, so why not chop it down to one word that represents all three:

thei’re

So thei’re ya go, mark this neolgism in that thei’re dictionary.

You know you’ve met someone from the south when it takes two terms to order the correct soft drink (and you know that person is from the good part of the south if they use ya’ll in the surrounding sentences as well, but I digress). Now you can begin to break down the geographic demographics even further. Soda? Pop? No thanks, I’ll just have my coke.

Just received a Wall Street Journal news update:

“President Bush said he plans to temporarily halt deposits to the strategic
petroleum reserve in an effort to relieve pressure on gas-pump prices, which are edging toward $3 a gallon nationwide. Bush also set steps to ease environmental standards governing fuel grades.”

Unfortunately the strategic reserves have little to do with the actual reason gas prices are skyrocketing. The best that thing this halfhearted symbol will do is to console the average driver that our governement is doing something to ease pocketbook pangs at the pump. Commodity markets may take this into account and slow the elevating prices, but only slightly. It also seems a little questionable to stump on alternative energies and the environment for the last couple of months and then ease environmental standards. Our gas prices will keep going up over the summer due to consumption, but hopefully we are nearing the end (in the midwest anyways) of the springcleaning/mtbe-to-ethanol switch that has been a factor in the prices.

An interesting look at gas prices for those of us in the Dallas area:

With refineries performing spring cleaning, the removal of MTBE, the switch to ethanol, and the summer vacation season coming, it doesn’t seem like these prices will be turning around any time soon.

Academy Awards season, if nothing else, puts great (according to whom?) movies back at the box office and fosters the desire to indulge in one of America’s favorite pastimes. Although only half of the movies I watched this weekend in Victoria were nominated, that may be because the other half were new releases.

After my Saturday morning reintroduction to cable (still no TV at the apartment), Mike, Jen, and I went to go see 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis and Mos Def. Bruce had forgotten to get a haircut and thus had more hair on his head than I can remember. Mos Def was perfectly cast and ate up the role. The movie itself was a better than average cop drama. The plot twists, however, were fairly predictable.

The next two movies were DVD choices at Mike’s parents house. Pride and Prejudice was, well, an 18th century romantic story that felt just like that. Once you get over the overelaborations and the dramaticism, the movie was well done, especially Donald Sutherland. Walk the Line came as close to perfect as a movie biography can get, considering a career that spanned 50 years with as many gold records. Let’s leave it to Mike’s mom to truly set the record straight and note the largest imperfection of the movie when she commented that June and Johnny wished they looked that good in real life.

The nightcap of the evening was a movie I did not anticipate seeing, maybe due to the fact that I had only seen on short preview for it and was still unsure of the purpose or content. Dave Chapelle’s Block Party was a fantastic surprise from the moment it began and the list of musical guests was plastered on screen. To hold a block party in Brooklyn, get Michel Gondry to document it, and invite performers such as Mos Def (yeah, twice in one day), Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Big Daddy Kane, Cody Chesnutt, The Fugees (reunified) to perform all backed by the musicality of The Roots is a once in a lifetime show to be sure. Chapelle’s comic punctuations and the musical background combined to form a great music documentary that anyone who enjoys hip hop will no doubt be thrilled to watch.

All in all, I’m still not caught up on AA movies, but sometimes a weekend filled with movies and friends can be worth the six hour drive!

Finally got the four things meme in my inbox (thanks chris 😉 ):

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Audio Engineer (bar)
2. Audio Engineer (studio)
3. Woodworker
4. Computer Security Consultant

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. Mallrats
2. Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Office Space
4. Star Wars Trilogy

Four places you have lived:
1. San Marcos, TX
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Alameda, CA
4. Flower Mound, TX

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. The Daily Show
2. The Office / Earl
3. The OC
4. How I Met Your Mother
(Finally kicked my most severe HGTV habits)

Four places you have been on vacation
1. Cancun
2. Washington D.C.
3. Colorado
4. Spain

Four websites you visit daily:
(Please edit to read “RSS feeds you read daily”)
1. The Unoffical Apple Weblog
2. Gizmodo
3. /.
4. My customized Google homepage

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Mac’n’Cheese
2. Real BBQ (That’d be the kind that takes hours and hours, not grilled meat as foreigners – non-texans – tend to understand the term BBQ)
3. Venison
4. Peanut Butter (kept me alive through elementary and middle school)

Four places you’d rather be right now:
1. In a clean apartment
2. Hawaii
3. Overlooking the mediteranean from a balcony in Greece
4. With friends

Four of your favorite things to do
1. Driving…anywhere
2. 4 hour meals with friends and wine and several dessert courses
3. Enjoying mid-October Texas evening weather outside beside a chiminea
4. Listening to music

Four of your favorite drinks (alcoholic or non….ANYTHING)
1. Dr. Pepper (Dublin varietal)
2. Milk (2% please)
3. Shiner Bock
4. Old Speckled Hen