Wait, ZOMG CHILDHOOD OBESITY has been FUCKING FLAT for TEN FUCKING YEARS? But I thought we were all becoming headless fatties who don't fit into increasingly small airline seats? *eyeroll* Actually, I've known that obesity rates in general have been flat for ten years, and I have still never found the answer if rates before 1998 were ever adjusted for the government BMI changes. I suspect the answer is NO, I suspect the great majority of ZOMG "overweight" people are between 25-27 BMI and thus everything about the obesity panic is largely bullshit that cannot be solved by fat-shaming or diets and that it is the greatest hoax on American society in the last twenty years, because hell, more people knew there were no WMDs in Iraq than who probably believe the obesity panic is cooked up.

Also...I am less likely to buy the "obesity related diseases double!" when pneumonia and depression are counted as ZOMG FATTY disease. I'm not saying that there are no obesity-related conditions, but making everything a fatty disease makes it harder for someone who recognizes the moral panic and prejudice surrounding obesity for what it is -- moral panic and prejudice with liberal dollops of sexism and racism involved like a cool-whip topping -- to take this seriously as something real.

Sweet Jesus, seriously, this is why I hate reports like "OBESITY CONTINUES TO RISE...by like, a statistically significant 0.5%" so hard. Do I think that if we all lived in walkable paradises and stopped helicopter parenting our kids like hysterical weenies who have been lied to by a hateful fear-based media, you could probably get childhood obesity down between 20-25% as compared to the 28-32% it is now? Yeah, I do. Do I think we should focus on that instead of fat-shaming kids and treat all fat people like people while we're working on that?

You guess the answer. *shakes head*

Watching Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

1. I DID NOT KNOW SOCK WAS IN THIS MOVIE. NOR BEN AFFLECK. Sooooooccccckkkkk.

2. "The sad thing is Star Whores: The Phantom Anus is a real porno. It was in the video store ten years ago." --my roommate on the failed fake porno in the movie.

For the record, I am deeply amused by this and wish I'd seen this in theaters. I mean, I paid to see The Dark Knight, why not?

There. I am quite tipsy now thanks to the glories of Rhone white, and while I continue to hate everyone quite strongly, and hate even more that now that I am rather unhappy, the writing comes as loose as a goose (or at least, inspiration), at least I am toasted and watching The Tudors. Why did nobody tell these people that Catherine of Aragon was blonde and plump? Overall, medieval Englishmen liked their women looking like Reese Witherspoon rocking the Kelly Clarkson-at-her-heaviest weight. Henry VIII would have fed Reese Witherspoon some enormous capons until she fattened up and then hit that 'til the brink of dawn.

OH MY GOD, DID Y'ALL HEAR? DARIA DVDS IN 2010!!!! Daria. Who didn't love Daria? If you didn't love Daria (and do not have the excuse of being in fourth grade in the late 90s, thank you, Jenna) when it was on the air, I DON'T KNOW YOU. Okay, also if you are not American, but it's DARIA. She is like, the original snarky fangirl, but without drama but with kind of drama and lesbian undertones, but not if you don't walk. Daria is every woman, it's all in her.

God, I cannot wait for Entourage to start. Princess Vince will no longer be angsty. It will kick ass. Also, more wine. More wine, now.

My anger at my sister is such that I am having a very, very hard time not reaching through the phone and strangling her. Not that she answers my calls, because if you don't suck up and deal with her outsourcing a 50K wedding on you, you're a bitch.

This is why I am pissed gay marriage isn't 100% legal everywhere. I just want a small, fun ceremony in Vegas, where it is cheap for pretty much everyone to fly and get rooms...not on some expensive deal, wherever one's budget allows you to stay...followed by a reception. For lo, I am not a useless princess wannabe. Also, love for me is about the small everyday things and hell, a really kick-ass honeymoon compared to feeding a bunch of people who you may not even really like, but who have to come because they're "family."
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Took the day off the internet yesterday. It was good. I watched the last two Futurama movies, Anji's trainee came over and we had tacos and played some Rock Band, and then we threw those little TNT pellets in the parking lot. Also, I got groceries, because it was also Saturday and that's what I do.

Might have a fun freelance-y gig for a pop culture website going, which is cool because some of the people involved are DC based and get to attend new film screenings, get a decent number of CDs to review, and even some scripts, though right now I just admit that I could not review a script no matter how awesome that would be for the portfolio. I still want to stab my sister in the face for being such a thoughtless person, and it just reminds me that I do so very much hate weddings. (Sorry, Jenna. I like wedding dresses?) As Anji pointed out, it has been a while since the fam has pulled this kind of bullshit and the excuse...that we will have a magical time...doesn't hold water. We wanted to kill each other dead in Orlando, and that's with the knowledge that we are true Disney freaks and I think we all loved parts of Disney World...when we weren't dealing with each other's "quirks."

Me: "So...wedding stress, open use of ganja, and the part where this was a fiscal strain on everyone. Yes. That equals nobody having a nervous breakdown." And when Anji put it that way, there was no way I was going to Jamaica alone.

Boo: We just laid off about 20 people from work.
Yay: I wasn't one of them, and they want to do more frequent, smaller releases, which means more frequent release documentation and hopefully, a smaller likelihood of 8 billion KB articles plus User Guide craziness during those.

Boo: My sister totally reneged on our deal on how much me and my party could pay for Jamaica and I'm going to have to cover a hundred bucks over my high estimate.
Yay: I have the money, I'm going to Jamaica and bringing a family buffer is worth the extra cash.

Boo: Jenna is in upstate New York for vacation.
Yay: We saw each other twice this week and it was mega sweet.

Yay: After being unemployed since late March, my dad has a job that pays just above his old wage.
Boo: He was in a bit of a panic at the idea that I was going to throw an almighty hissy at Kim for, y'know, screwing me over without notice for her wedding, so was like DON'T CAUSE DRAMA like it's my fault my sister is a spoiled selfish brat.

Yay: The book is done.
Boo: We went 15K words over and probably have to cut a little more than I'd like from it.

Overall, this was a stressful-ass week. I vote for less stress, more money, and for the perfect apartment to rear its head in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in early September.

My August is going to be so...*fumbles* the first word that came to mind was "deck." Please to be shooting me in the face now? Last.fm has been recommending me too many damn hipster bands due to my, um, half-hipster, half-lost-in-the-90s electropop ways and it's fucking with my brain.

Anyway, my August. I have pretty much decided on going to Vegas for my sister's bachelorette party, but HEAR ME out. First we have apparently booked this suite (plus two extra rooms): Mirage Tower Suite. Then we have a cabana and bottle and food service at Bare Pool Lounge, and THEN we have a two bottle table at Jet.

Possibly also a lingerie party at Frederick's, because yeah. Bachelorette.

Then there is the wedding. In Jamaica. Here. *shakes head* Damn family obligations.

This was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me without people understanding how bad it was.

My friend Selena has been dead for five years today, and it seems like it is something I will never be able to put into sufficient words. Hell, when Roz reminded me that today was the five year anniversary, today of all days, I could not believe it. After all, it was only mid-June and Selena died in late...oh. Time, of course, is not terribly reliable for me when I am sad. But on June 8th, 2004, she admitted she wasn't feeling well in one of her last two LJ entries. Somewhere around that same time, we had our last conversation on IM.

And on June 25th, 2004, she was dead of leukemia. She was...I'm not sure. 27? 28? Not 30, more than 25, older than me. When she died, just before she died, she had helped me find the strength to get a rotten person out of my life, for me to build up a little strength against the endless wearing down of my soul that was UCSB English. And then she left us in the middle of a conversation.

And I. I was getting an iced mocha latte at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Calle Real while wearing a white t-shirt in JP, my old green Mitsubishi. And Roz called me and told me, either right before or during. And Selena was dead and I called Katie, who had dated Sel for a bit, and we talked about it with what must have been preternatural calm. I don't precisely remember. I remember it was a nice day in Goleta and the sun was shining and I lived a mile from the ocean. Then there were not words, because grief is silence and the longing for something that can never be again.

And after her death came the wilderness, the desert, the time that is never ago and forever ago because it only becomes real in my head in fits and starts, more a dream than some of my dreams, a profound emptiness that only truly broke around me once I left California, left the US, left the continent to end my life as I knew it and begin again.

She would be happy, I know, with the person I grew into.  Time has softened the worst of my rough edges, though it has perhaps sharpened the edges I like sharp. She would be happy that I was in love and that I was happy, in general, with my life and my job and the green-eyed girl who is the last person I talk to every day.

But she should be with us now, and she is not and it is a loss that is so unfair that it takes my breath away.

All right, so I have Windows 7 on my computer now. It was not only pretty darn easy, my data partition on my laptop wasn't touched and so I have all my old docs and pictures and music at my fingertips. Yay me.

First: I am very pleased with my revised BSG book ending. It is less flaky than my usual conclusion now that I've revised it.

Two: XBMC is a very attractive media center front-end. Its screenshots do not do it justice. Granted, it is for a "10 Foot" interface, but given my netbook has a VGA output, and both my HDTV take direct RGB computer connections, this is actually quite useful, especially once I get the media server involved in the weekend.

Three: I did not have a good day with clothes. First the loss of bra, then the random giant stain on my white shirt that I really don't know where it came from. It looked like I rubbed against curry powder. Hmmph.

Irreverent and disrespectful, but also TRUFAX: "Also, let us not forget the real victims here: Jon and Kate Gosselin. The senseless tragedy is that because of the media coverage of this subway accident, dozens of people around the world will never learn that the fairytale frankenfoetus sham marriage of Crotch Clowncar and Moronica Attentionwhore is collapsing in a pool of its own self-fellating narcissism."

*snerk* It does kind of take the air out of 'em, doesn't it? "You go over there, TLC reality 'stars'...REAL news is happening."

Oddly, despite many a DCist commenter noting the uptick in people leery to ride Metro (and, um, not entirely wrongly so...if Red Line is running badly due to terrible subway crash, it's not the best day to deal with WMATA's bullshit), my commute was smooth as silk today (apparently Orange line yuppies don't care about Red line riders?) and I was feeling great...

Until I realized that I had forgotten a bra. ( The Exciting Story of Jen's Morning )
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Have made netbook even more awesome by enabling Skype video chat. It took some make installing, though. Which always makes me feel like a burly lord of technology. I totally need to bite the bullet and install Windows 7 this weekend, after my girl has left me and my roommate is off with family, so then I can have two burly computers.

Plus, probably roommate is getting new computer? So I get to make the old one into a media server with VPN access, getting a hackable linksys router, and creating a VPN media server that outputs to a PS3 or a TiVo and using that as a media center for video, photos, and music. Pity my Vizio is shit for a digital audio set-up.

Okay. Have learned value of investing in Roth IRA for retirement, I get it, gods of finance.

*goes back to financial work*

Okay, so my life is absolute madness these days, absolutely mad madness. There is girl to tend to, there is BSG book that needs to be a manuscript by June 30th, there is the NEVER ENDING GODDAMN RELEASE OF GODDAMN ARCHITECTURE DOOM and the part where product management somehow thinks they own my time even though I do not report to them and the part where I think my company is in desperate need of an autonomous content team, and there is the saga of trying to get someone to treat my low back pain, and there is the part where my sister gets married in about 10 weeks and I'm a goddamn bridesmaid and I need to look GOOD for that and I want to keep up my exercises but I think I need to slot in swimming, too. Plus this weekend is Pride and I'm going to parts of that. Probably just Sunday because I don't like marching in things unless I have friends.

Then you add in my whole: "oh yeah at one point I used to have an online life, and more friends. and I used to write things. that is no longer true," schtick, and then you get to the point where I am trying to deal with the fact that I am busy as hell, a web writer between outlets...and that I have little time to write fiction and...also that my computers and my world are a little disorganized because they are oddly full.

So I have, like, this plan. To have an online life that gives me more of an offline life and lets me do some actual writing that reflects my free time. Also, to upgrade the software on all of my computers and maybe some RAM, too. (The plan is involved. I was actually doing bits of it in MS Project at work.)

Without further ado, I present:

PLAN: GET ONLINE LIFE FUCKING AWESOME

( This is like, the motherfrakking PLAN, man )

Now it is bedtime. More tomorrow. Yay Friday.

Am "therealjennyo" on Dreamwidth (jennyo was taken) and if you want to add it, you can. I probably won't be using it that often, but it was a box on my checklist for compacting my online life (it's a cunning plan that involves too many services!) and it may be where fannish content ends up.

I also have the dreamwidth "jeninmotion" and THAT I may use for actual blogging because there's another devious plan in motion when it comes to that.

Okay, here's my state of the day:

Fucking physical therapy center, getting all pissy because I didn't have the right paperwork and NOT TELLING ME I HAD TO HAVE IT WHEN I MADE THE APPT! *kicks at it angrily*

The crazy thunderstorms today: what. That is all.

Rice with butter for dinner: yuuuummmmmmmyyyyy.

Real Housewives of New Jersey...why didn't I watch these awesome wh0res before? They are possibly BETTER than the Orange County hookers because they own their shit and there's always the vague sense that one of them will fully cut the other. Plus, they're so...Italian. It is good.

Finally, vinho verde? Surprisingly yum. It's got a little bit of bubble in it and I approve. Plus, my bottle was $6.99 at the Total Wine.

Hey, this gives me a chance to show off my pretty desktop:

( 1024x600 )

There are a fairly large number of animal-named programs in my favorites area, eh?

My girlfriend is gone, my roommate is at the zoo with her brother and it's a beautiful sunny day.

So of course I have spent the last two hours pimping the fuck out of my new netbook.

( My Netbook OWNZ )

Even the FREE version of Civilization, Freeciv that was developed for Linux?

Fucking addictive.

I will probably need to nice this up for publication, but this is my favorite paragraph of the 7600-word intro so far:

Further, one cannot even make the argument that a lack of character material is to blame for this dearth of compelling standalones; instead of incorporating material organically throughout the series, the writers instead showcased the leftovers of their writers' bible in "Daybreak (Part One)" (3.19). This episode's rush ironically highlights the disproportionate focus on Starbuck, the Adamas, and even Tyrol and Tigh – vast and rather compelling portions of Roslin and Baltar's past are left untouched until the second to last episode so viewers could...see another episode where Lee Adama ponders his place in the fleet, or Starbuck hates the world and wants to die, or Adama feels the weight of the world and his yearning for Roslin on his shoulders. Apparently.

Yeah boyyyyy. Okay, now everything is niced up, now I really, really, really need to slice and dice the critics into pieces in about 2500 words, wrap it up in 750 and then put this baby to bed.

Also, for the record:Calibre is, in a word? Awesome. Also awesome? DropBox. If you sign up via that link, you'll start with 2.25GB of space, and DropBox works with Mac and Linux, too.
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