Monday, July 17, 2006

holy mackerel

Busy doing my nutrition term paper on seafood. Just dropping in to post that kids and women of child-bearing age should NEVER eat mackerel, shark, swordfish, or tilefish. They're loaded with mercury, which is a neurotoxin. Why that's not required to be labeled on menus beats the hell out of me. More on fish later.

It's 107 degrees in Napa today!

Monday, July 10, 2006

You need a puppy.


*****BREAKING*****

I just did a Petfinder adoption search for Patterdale Terriers and there are nine 8-week old Patterdale puppies at a shelter in Long Beach. I mean, just look. Get yourself one today, thank me tomorrow.

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6516033

doppelganger




I was unloading my car the other night, and up the street trots a little Maisie doppelganger. She had a collar with a phone number, so I soon got her back to a grateful owner. I asked her if she was a mutt, and he said yes. Then I showed him Maisie and said she was a Patterdale Terrier, and he was happily gobsmacked. His vet had said his dog Stella had a lot of Patterdale, and he'd never seen one in person. Stella was just like Maisie in temperament -- well-mannered, sprightly, affectionate, non-yappy, friendly to all -- I'd adopt another Patterdale in a minute. Best dogs ever!

My photos suck, I know. I still haven't figured out how to photograph my little black dog (the difficulty being that she's littler and blacker than any other dog I've photographed.) Somebody please google it for me and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

keep 'em away from me


As directed by You Can't Make It Up, I did a Flickr search for "creepy."

Y'know what comes up on every page?

Babies.

all we need is time

Check out Tamar Lewin of the NY Times on "At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust"

Some quotes:

"Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor's degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women."

"In two national studies, college men reported that they studied less and socialized more than their female classmates."

"Men were more likely than women to skip classes, not complete their homework and not turn it in on time." (I believe I have some Professori readers who can comment.)

"At Harvard, 55 percent of the women graduated with honors this spring, compared with barely half the men. And at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, a public university, women made up 64 percent of this year's graduates, and they got 75 percent of the honors degrees and 79 percent of the highest honors, summa cum laude."

And yet...

"At Brown University, men made up not quite 40 percent of this year's applicants, but 47 percent of those admitted."

How tiresome.

Gradewise, men currently cluster a tiny bit at the top & bottom of the GPA scale, but the majority spread across C-averageville, while women are getting A's and B's. Men are a disproportionate number of academic probation lists and virtually all the discipline cases. (Discipline cases? In college? Gimme a break. Toss their asses.)

One thought is that because boys mature slower than girls, they aren't as ready to structure their time appropriately upon leaving for college at age 18. (I'm here to tell you age doesn't matter. They never will be.) Boys in the Times article also say social pressure exists against hard academic work - it isn't cool for dudes to study. Why the hell should it be, when currently men still make higher starting salaries than women?

This statistic gives me comfort:

"Men now make up only 42 percent of the nation's college students."

If that trend keeps going, eventually you'll have the same gender stats in the white collar workforce. More women will be in managerial positions, simply for a lack of qualified white-collar workers, if not for reasons of fairness and capability. What right-minded manager would promote men who've been coasting on C-average sense of entitlement, stacked up against women with academic honors and a work ethic cultivated since their teens? So what if the woman may take off for awhile to have a kid. The pool of temporary or replacement workers will be female-dominated, too, with the same superior CV's.

My advice to teenage girls is they don't need my advice. Keep doing what you're doing babies, and thanks for changing the world.

Teenage boys don't need my advice either. They have Laura Bush.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

dear computer, please do fuck off. love, me

Gmail does contextual ads - here's what popped up in my email today:

I Used to Miss Him But My Aim is Improving

Not Your Ordinary Breakup Survival Guide
www.improveyouraim.com

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Arabian Knights


Here's me and Bear out at Point Reyes. Dana and I had an epic day galloping on the beach, climbing hills, and racing across dunes.

I love the corner of Forever's ear in this shot.