the Diva Platform

Fun Friday Spam

Not a Rant 28.11.2008 No Comments

It’s Black Friday today. In the US, it’s the mother of all shopping days, and the predictor of how the retail shopping season may play out.

Though I don’t go shopping today (a. the crowds scare me, b. the idea of focusing on stuff so much that you line up at a store hours beforehand to save a few bucks both scares and depresses me), maybe you are, which means you don’t have a ton of time to read the usual long, thought-provoking (yeah, right) blog entry.

So I’ll just give you the subject line of some spam that I got in my e-mail. It’s from “ebaY”–and that being misspelled should give you a little clue that it’s a scam, and the subject was this:

Dumb + poor? Here’s a simple way to make MONEY!

Since I’m not dumb, I didn’t bother opening it, but really, I felt bad for somebody who thought they were dumb and might be taken in on whatever scam is involved.

Being Grateful

General Rant 27.11.2008 1 Comment

I know this is a thing I picked up from Oprah. She recommended trying to live a life full of gratitude, which makes sense. I’ve got a pretty good life, a life that’s full, and I’ve had my share of opportunities.

Oprah recommends writing down 5 things you’re grateful for every day, and as you continue to build up the gratitude, you’ll not only gain perspective on your life, but you may also open the door to further opportunities that can help you build an even richer life.

So in my personal journal I do try to write down what I’m grateful for. Granted, I’m grateful for a lot of food products, and I’m grateful for the basics a lot–a roof over my head, the Boy, great friends, good health, the fact that I get the chance to try to make it as a writer–but it’s nice to realize some of the more unique things that make life interesting.

Today being Thanksgiving here in the US, I thought I’d share my five with you. Feel free to add what you’re grateful for!

Getting back in touch with old friends and staying a lot more connected with them.
Moleskine notebooks (especially now that they come in cute fashion colors!)
Chocolate. And bacon. And good beer. And champagne.
That my tastes have evolved for the better as I’ve gotten older.
The great feeling I get from exploring the world–both thousands of miles away, and even different neighborhoods in my own city.

My Not-So-Expensive Favorite Things

General Rant 26.11.2008 3 Comments

Today is apparently Oprah’s annual “Favorite Things” show, where she dishes on all the stuff she thinks would make great Christmas gifts. This is the show you want to be in the audience for, because the audience gets one of everything–and in the past, these have been some pretty great gifts. This year, however, Oprah’s taken the economy into play, and it’s going to be her thriftiest holiday ever. Gifts for $2! $6! One won’t even cost a thing! Isn’t that fabulous?

Not if you’re in the audience. I saw the commercial for this show last night, and I immediately thought, “Boy, it probably sucked to be in the audience for this show. You find out you’ve won the ‘Favorite Things’ lottery, and this year Oprah’s gotten all cheap on your ass.” Seriously. If you’re not familiar with this show, it’s really unbelieveable. Last year she gave away an HDTV refrigerator. To get in the audience of this episode is to strike gold. Oprah will announce it’s time for her favorite things, and women go batshit crazy. Some probably cry and/or wet themselves, because they know they are going home with some good stuff.

Not this year though. It’s apparently going to be “Oprah’s Favorite Things (from the Dollar Store),” and I bet about halfway through, the cameras won’t even bother to pan the audience anymore because they’ll be so disappointed with their haul.

Oh, I know. It’s good that Oprah’s trying to budget. People just don’t have the same kind of money this year, and we all need to learn how to live within our means. But I’m just sayin’, if I was in the audience, I’d secretly be thinking, “Why does she have to be on a budget this year? Oprah doesn’t have means to live within! Why does she have to be all money-conscious when I’m here?” Wouldn’t you?

Recommended Viewing

Not a Rant 25.11.2008 No Comments

The Boy and I got into a little movie renting habit over the weekend. We’ll do this every once in a while–have spurts where we rent a ton of movies or a TV series, and then we won’t watch anything for a few months.

One of the movies we watched was a documentary called “Bigger, Faster, Stronger*” that came out this past summer. We’d both wanted to see it, but it was in and out of the theater within a week. Surprising, because it was excellent.

It’s a documentary about steroid use in America, and the key to this being such an interesting movie is that the writer/director/narrator’s two brothers both used steroids. He talks to both of them and looks at baseball, football, powerlifting, pro wresting, and Olympic sports. It’s interesting to see how people rationalize taking them, and there’s a lot of debate on whether or not they have adverse effects. And there’s plenty of really scary muscles. Oh, and Joe Biden (who I suppose could be thought of as a scary muscle too, but it’s funny to see him in this movie, given recent political events).
If you do rent it, be sure to watch the deleted scenes too. Most of the time, I can see why scenes were deleted from a movie (they weren’t that good), but here the deleted scenes were so interesting that you wondered how they didn’t get in. But I guess that would mean the movie would be way over two hours.

Still, it’s well-paced, well-written, and a fascinating look at the efforts ordinary people go to to be seen as someone special.

It’s Holiday Time!

Not a Rant 24.11.2008 No Comments

Well, it’s that most wonderful time of year when I’m gearing up for some of the annual holidays that are nearest and dearest to me. That’s right. It’s time for Repeal Day and Day of the Ninja.

The sad thing is that both of these are celebrated on December 5, so it makes planning a celebration tough. Does one wear 1920s garb, or a ninja hood? Needless to say, I may simply ninja my way into a bar to have a drink.

Still, I have to say that Repeal Day is pretty important to me. Yes, if you don’t drink, you may look askance at me while I imbibe, and think that I’m going to hell for tippling. However, I like to enjoy a beverage–and not get totally trashed. Simply put, a well-made cocktail or bottle of beer is of the finest pleasures known to man.

So, I’ll be looking forward to lifting my glass (and maybe stealing off with yours) soon. Hopefully your holiday celebrations will be as exciting.

Thanksgiving Wrangler

Brushes With Greatness, Not a Rant 21.11.2008 4 Comments

My handbell choir rehearses once a week, and usually afterward, I ride the train with my standmate Dee. It’s nice to chat for the commute home because we don’t really talk during rehearsals. In fact, since we perform in a straight row and I’m in the middle, I rarely talk to the women on either end.

So it was nice to see Effie coming toward us on the El platform to share the ride with us. She doesn’t usually take the train, but this week was an exception. We talked about our Thanksgiving plans: The Boy and I hadn’t yet figured out what we were doing, Dee was headed off on the Amtrak to central Illinois, and Effie was going to a couple of Thanksgivings in the northwest suburbs.

Effie remarked that Dee might want to get to Union Station early because she’d have to work around the crowds coming downtown for the Thanksgiving Day parade. And after we talked logistics for a few seconds, Effie casually let it slip. “Yeah, I’m holding one of the balloons in the parade.”

Whoa. Wait. What??!! “You’re one of the balloon wranglers?!” I asked excitedly. “How’d you get that gig?”

“You gotta know a guy,” Effie replied calmly.

“And you know. A guy,” Dee and I said in unison.

“Yeah,” she replied. Then deftly changing the conversation from how she got to know a guy, she said, “I went to balloon school on Saturday.”

“BALLOON SCHOOL???” I cried.

Dee laughed at me. “Your face totally lit up when you said that. You’re excited about this, huh?”

Well, yeah. I mean, it’s the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and even though I usually sleep in on Thanksgiving and never remember the parade’s on TV, let alone actually go downtown to watch it in person, I do know that the balloons in these parades are pieces of Americana, and being a balloon wrangler is a coveted position that few people get to do. I think it might be easier to get a ticket to the Inauguration than it is to become a volunteer balloon wrangler. Heck, if I knew a guy, I’d definitely get up early on a holiday and wrangle a balloon.

Effie explained that at Balloon School, they learned the basics of handling a balloon. It took place down at the Museum of Science and Industry, where there’s plenty of room to maneuver a balloon, and they got to practice on Paddington Bear. It wasn’t all that difficult, except that they’ll have to get the balloon underneath the El tracks. Every balloon’s got a different owner, with a leader who knows all the intricacies of said balloon and can yell out directions.

I also learned that some balloons can spin–and by that, I mean that when there’s a lull in the action, the balloon wranglers will run around in a circle to make the balloon spin, which is pretty exciting for one of those massive balloons.

Needless to say, it was cool hearing about the parade, and I’ll make more of an effort to get up and watch it this year. Because I know a girl.

A Boob Symphony?

General Rant, Not a Rant 20.11.2008 4 Comments

Normally, I don’t pay too much attention to the banner ads in my Yahoo e-mail account, but lately they’ve been pretty targeted toward a woman of my age: Create your own “Boob Symphony” at Playtex Bras.

I usually see the big “BOOB” float across the ad just as the page changes to go to my Inbox, and I had the same reaction for quite some time. “Did that banner ad just say, ‘Boob’?” I’ll ask myself. And the new page that loads never has the same banner ad, so it takes a few refreshes before I can confirm that Playtex really is promoting boobies in my e-mail.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that–I just think the ad campaign is a funny, human take on the bra and boobs and how we think about them.

Then I looked at the site, and I saw that Playtex recommends replacing your bra every 6-9 months. Um, Playtex? Even at $12.99 for your basic underwire bra, replacing a bra that quickly can add up. I mean, with just the cheap ones, you’re probably talking a good couple hundred bucks a year, if not more, because you need a couple weeks’ worth of underwear at any given time. And that dollar total isn’t even taking into consideration the 10.25% sales tax I’m stuck paying.

But what do they mean by 6-9 months? Is that if you wear the bra every day? Once a week? How often are we talking? Or is the 6-9 months just to get you to buy more bras?

The Next Election

Not a Rant, The Fever 19.11.2008 Comments Off

If you thought the elections were over, think again. And I’m not talking about the three senatorial races that haven’t yet been decided, I’m talking about the election that will be held in October 2009: The Olympic Election.

You may know this already, but next year, the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics will be named. The cities in the running are Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Chicago.

In Chicago, of course, we know that we’re bidding. It’s on the news a lot. You see ads. Every time the CTA has a major problem, the initial reaction is something like, “This won’t help us get that Olympic bid!”

But what I didn’t realize is that this isn’t just a Chicago thing. It’s a national thing. Last week I went to CHI 2016 Headquarters for a meeting with some other social media networkers. We talked about the bid process, the status, and what happens next, and we also talked about their website and marketing efforts, especially in the social marketing arena. I have to say that marketing has to be a really difficult job nowadays, with all the different outlets you have to use to get your message out. So many outlets, with fewer eyeballs for each. But CHI 2016 is trying.

Hosting an Olympics is a big deal. And it costs a lot of money (just read the mess with London 2012, especially in regards to the recession). Money, supposedly, that the average taxpayer won’t have to cough up, but a lot of money for somebody/some companies nonetheless. It’s seven years of planning for about a month to six weeks’ worth of events (Olympic + Paralympic Games). A lot of people get involved. The city and country are on display to the world.

And for all the trouble that winning the Olympics might mean, it still would be cool to host. Yes, there will be issues, like those the International Olympic Committee made in their initial assessment of the Chicago bid about construction costs/overruns/corruption and whether or not the transportation situation will be good enough by 2016. Still, Chicago is an amazing city that’s totally underrated. I mean, a lot of the world isn’t really familiar with our city beyond Michael Jordan, Al Capone, and now Barack Obama. It’s funny to hear tourists gush about how wonderful Chicago is–how clean, how manageable, how beautiful. Hosting the Olympics would really showcase our city in wonderful ways.
I heard anecdotally that Chicago’s bid is based along the lakefront, with Grant Park, Washington Park, and Lincoln Park all playing a major role in the event sites, but Olympic officials thought “lake” and didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Until they got here and saw that you can’t see across Lake Michigan. That the lake may be bigger in area than the countries those people are from. Once they were here, they saw how wonderful Chicago is and how possible it would be to have the Games here.

And it is possible, but the bid needs the support of the nation. So if you’re in favor, cast your vote.

[A little 2016 HQ dish: The bid office is amazing. You step out of the elevator and are greeted with the logo painted on each elevator door. Different sports are on the walls in the office. The main view is Millennium Park and Grant Park, so you can see where some of the events will be staged from the office. TVs and digital picture frames show different stills of athletes and their feats. There's a wall of memorabilia that includes torches from different Games. Needless to say, I was a little geeked out. I've even managed to snag a volunteer gig with the bid team, so I'll be putting in some time there on a weekly basis. Awesome!]

No Communion for You!

General Rant, Politiblog 18.11.2008 2 Comments

Even though the US Constitution says there should be separation of Church and State in this country, that rarely seems to happen. There have been fights to get the Ten Commandments posted in courthouses, our Pledge of Allegiance says we are “one nation under God,” and clergy all over the country regularly get political on the pulpit.

The latest priest to make a hubbub over the election of Barack Obama to the presidency is The Rev. Jay Scott Newman, a priest at St. Mary Catholic Church in Greenville, SC. According to this story in the Boston Globe, which does a nice job of compiling the sources, he’s urging all parishoners who voted for Obama NOT to take communion because Obama is pro-choice. [If you read one of the early comments, the Catholic Church is also anti-death penalty and anti-Iraq War, so really, this pastor should've said the same thing if McCain had won. Touche!]

Missy alerted me to this story last week, and this reaction to Obama really made me sad. But then, I’m a Methodist, and my church says that if you believe, please come up and take communion. We’re not going to stop you if you haven’t made profession of faith (a formal declaration that you confirm your faith in Christ, which you make sometime in high school. When I did it, I was part of a class. We watched a crappy video series for several and went on a fun retreat. Confirmation was a special Sunday with a ceremony during worship, and it was pretty cool). We don’t stop you if you haven’t taken your First Communion and know how to receive the communion wafer. And I like this inclusive attitude because Communion is a personal experience you have to remember Jesus dying on the cross to save you. If you don’t believe, why bother going through it? I mean, then you’d just be eating a hunk of bread (or wafer) and dipping it into/sipping some grape juice (or wine), and what’s so great about that if you don’t believe?

Anyway, I’m getting off the subject a little bit. The Archdiocese must’ve blown up because they have a response on their website saying that the Church doesn’t really have a place in determining that how you vote affects your ability to take Communion. I can imagine that the Monsignor went ballistic (peacefully ballistic, mind you) over what this priest said and had to do damage control pretty quickly.

Still, it’s sad that people–especially those in positions of authority in a church–want to judge your personal actions and use them against you. I suppose this priest can be applauded for taking a stand and trying to do what he thought the Church said, but if your Christian beliefs led you to vote for Obama, how can any one person judge you on that basis?

The Extra Birthday Present

Not a Rant 17.11.2008 2 Comments

The other weekend the Boy and I (and Brother S) went to Ma & Pa Jaracz’ to do some work on their house. For me, that meant some yardwork. For the Boy and Brother S, it meant putting some siding back on the house.

I also got my birthday presents from my folks. These were a much-needed sweater and a classy-looking laptop bag, both of which I really like. But wait, my mom said, there’s more. “I didn’t sign the birthday card, so you can reuse it.”

Yep. Spoken like a true child of Depression-era parents.

Of course, I put the card in with my stationery because I do plan to reuse it. I can’t waste a perfectly good card, you know. I’ll just have to make sure I give it to someone who remembers the Arthur Andersen debacle, since that’s the punchline. If you’re the lucky recipient, be sure to thank Ma Jaracz for the laugh!

Fun Friday Spam

Being Grateful

My Not-So-Expensive Favorite Things

Recommended Viewing

It’s Holiday Time!

Thanksgiving Wrangler

A Boob Symphony?

The Next Election

No Communion for You!

The Extra Birthday Present

The Latest of Jill on Twitter

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