| Bridesmaid Dresses |
[Oct. 20th, 2007|04:25 am] |
  Well, Marianne, you just missed out on this but since it seems there are so many other weddings in our group, I'll still offer this PSA:
THE UGLIEST WEDDING ATTIRE EVER: specializing in bridesmaids dresses of the 80s, Texas, and those stripper shops down on South Street, complete wth obnoxious yet witty commentary. And yet, this site is so much more. It seems like colored foil and sequins are in. Oh, and bows, lots of bows- but only enough to cover either less than 20% or more than 90% of your body (and the body next to you). Yes, I think I might ditch my Badgely Mischka for that sophisticated number from the Vegas photos: isn't it every man's dream to find the easiest girl in a Vegas show and marry her? Er, um...hm. Actually, I think my dad's wedding tux (tan with cream trim) should be on this site. No, that one wasn't a joke.
I'm not suggesting anything from the above site. I'm only saying that I love my bridesmaids like sisters (especially Kristin) so I will not inflict anything like on them to wear. Of course with the open bar (and the amount of scotch that I hear will be consumed at the tisch/kabbalat panim), it might actually be MORE amuzing to see such things in person. Really, the laughs were worth the lack of sleep. You must see.
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| New York Chocolate Show |
[Oct. 12th, 2007|05:52 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enthralled | ] |
So, for those of you who still posess your chocolate covered cherry, aware or not, this is your chance spend a day of mouth-watering rhapsody exploring all that is divine. Yes, it is the 9th annual New York Chocolate Show mmm...click me, click me now!
Virtually every artisan chocolatier and candy maker from around the world comes to display their tasty artwork for this one weekend in New York, many offering free samples in addition to sales. I had never heard of some of these manufacturer before my first visit to the show. Mary's chocolates, a Japanese confectioner, may sound like nothing special but I can assure you that their green tea and black sesame ganache chocolates will likely be the last sensation that flashes accross my mind upon my death. My sister, who has been going since the 2nd or 3rd year of the event, routinly gets orders from friends to bring back pounds and pounds of their candies for their yearly fix (as Mary's is not available in the US outside of this 3 day span). I got a few thank you gifts for some friends from there last year and they still mention them at every conversation.
Anything can have anything to do with chocolate can be found at the chocolate show, from machinery to process the beans, to scuplture, demonstrations and the simplest to the most bizarre chocolate creations in existance. I can't even whine to you that you should put down your South Beach books because there are a few chocolatiers there that offer LOW CARB/ no sugar gourmet chocolates (that are actually good!). Personally, I will be getting the bulk of my holiday shopping done that day.
The Chocolate Show is Nov 9-11 (Fri-Sun) and I would like to go on Sat. 11/10. FYI, the line, even if you have tickets, is insane so it's good to be there before opening. The $28 per ticket is the best money I've ever spent. Oh, and there is a designer consignment shop next door so if you need a Gucci fix afterwards without the in store attitude (or prices), it's there. Let me know if you'd like to come and I'll order a whole bunch of tickets together. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER AND YOU HAVE TO COME!!!!
PS- I discovered last year that an engagement ring got me a whole lot of anything I wanted in the way of samples, since many of these companies do custom chocolates for weddings and are on the prowl for customers. I suggest that any ladies that come get themselves a very prominent ring and talk about their upcoming weddings :o) |
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| So much for honest reporting |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|06:05 pm] |
Posted by timothy on Monday August 07, @05:30PMfrom the fill-in-gimp-plug-here dept.
fragmentate points to a post on PopPhoto which says "Reuters pulled a photograph of burning buildings in Beirut yesterday after a post on the Little Green Footballs blog outed it as digitally manipulated. The photo, filed on Saturday by freelance photographer Adnan Hajj, ran with the caption "Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs." Fragmentate adds "Another image from the same photographer was found to have been doctored. Whether you're a CNN fan, or a FoxNEWS fan, you have to wonder how much of what we see is fake, or exaggerated."
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| Are those babies real?!?!?! |
[Aug. 5th, 2006|10:09 pm] |
I hate to be the bearer of more skepticism but a friend just sent this too me:
Did Reuters Fake This Photo?
(I would actually post the picture but I don't know how to do it with my free lj account so just click the link)
This is what she had to say:
"Even an amateur can pick that those smoke plumes are faked. NO smoke found in nature has perfect repeating patterns like that. Maybe on the moon with no atmosphere (where of course it couldn’t burn anyway), but not anywhere here on earth!
This is called Photoshop Cloning. And a really, really bad one. It’s one of the first tools you learn to use in Photoshop and even a new student would pick it out in a minute. And here it runs as fact. Wheee…..The blogs are already buzzing. This one was uncloaked by Charles Johnson, owner, keeper, and head lizard at Little Green Footballs…same group that uncloaked Dan Rather’s “Memogate.” Wonder if MSM will make a peep about it."
What do you think? Faked or not? Reputable news source or trash? If it's faked and the news sources is reputable, how should this be handled? And what does this tell you about what's really happening? Why fake news when there's already a real story? If it's not faked, what does it tell you?
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| Palllywood |
[Aug. 3rd, 2006|06:09 pm] |
Alex and I just watched this. It's FUCKED UP (and not about Lebanon). Definitely a must see.
Pallywood
Scroll down to where it says "Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources" and click that link. We watched the second one titled "Pallywood" by Richard Landes. It's eye opening to say the least. It's about 18 minutes long and is available in streaming video, so unless you have dial-up, it's doable. |
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| Nastiness |
[Aug. 2nd, 2006|09:34 am] |
This is really screwed up. Check out the link. I will post more about it later.
Milking it
Oh and by the way, what's strange about the number of aid workers photographed?
Answer here
Could it be a group following around one aid worker? Yup. The same aid worker from the Hezbollah activities of 1996? Sure, if he's experienced and he lives in the area. But why are there never any others, even in other areas? And why is his protocol off?
Another issue raised: Hezbollah claims these children died when a building collapsed after Israel bombed the building (7 hours after with no explanation). First of all, it needs to be said that they waited 7 hours to evacuate this buiding before it collapsed. Seven bomb-free hours under cloak of darkness but I digress. With the exception of the first child, there is no debris, no rubble, no dust, not even much on the relief worker, which, if you've ever seen a building collapse (or go up) you know should be there in spades. And none of the victims look crushed, badly bruised or bloodied to me, indicating that they were already dead before the collapse of the building, but perhaps it's the photographs. However, this has caused some people and the Media to question whether Hezbollah brought in dead bodies from other battles and detonated the building themselves, staging the pictures for PR. I don't know enough this sort of thing and I doubt it's the kind of thing one could tell from internet photos. However, this kind of behavior DOES fit Hezbollah's MO. God this is an aweful, aweful question and I'm sorry to ask but does anyone know more about what these kind of injuries SHOULD look like and if these kids in the photos could have died in this manner?
No matter how or where they died or by who's hand, those are children in those pictures- dead children. That in itself is a travisty as is the loss of any life. But if someone is desicrating their bodies, their memories, or if, heaven forbid, someone took a little less care with their lives for personal gain, that is an atrocity.
For the record, I disagree with the blog's conclusion- I don't think it's an AP conspiracy. If there is staging going on, and I don't know enough to say for certain that it is, the press doesn't have the time or power to do that there. The only one that could be manipulating the situation in Lebanon is Hezbollah.
This entire war is just disgusting. Again, I will explain further later. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 25th, 2005|09:18 am] |
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I am alive and at home. Apparently, my spine had collapsed against the frot of my brainstem. Or at least that's what I remember the surgeon telling me through the haze of narcotics in the ICU. But everything should be fixed. I'll be ready to go back to school 4-6 weeks after surgery (which was a week and a half ago). In the meantime, I'm going to take more dilauded because my head friggin hurts. Silly brain surgery... |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 25th, 2005|09:12 am] |
Alissa: (stumbles into the kitchen)
Dad: Hey, Lissa, what do you think of my tie? (He points at his necktie which is black with a rainbow on it)
Alissa: Um....
Dad: What, you don't like it? But this is my favorite tie. I got it in San Fransisco.
Alissa: Dad, that a gay-pride tie. The rainbow is the symbol of gay pride, especially in San Fransisco.
Dad: Oh. Well if I didn't know that, I'm sure no one else did. It's still my favorite tie. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 9th, 2005|10:33 am] |
How do you know if your boyfriend is a zombie? For instance today Alex said to me
"Hey, so you're brain is going to be easy access for a few weeks isn't it."
"Yes," I said, "if you don't count the layers of stitches."
"Eh, those'll pop right open. Mmm. brain snack pack...."
And when I asked him to give me a backrub, he started biting my knee. I hate when sci-fi radiation puts strain on our relationship. Damn you George Romero! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 8th, 2005|08:32 am] |
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Am I the only one who noticed that healthcare payment provisions are missing from these governement discussion of bird flu The keep saying how dangerous and contageous it is, that we will be overwhelmed and it will be horribly expensive. Yet over a third of Americans lack health insurance. Those of your without health insurance or with high co-pays know that when you get sick, you hold off going to the doc as long as possible, especially if you can't pay for the appointment or the medication, especially if you can't take off from work for even a day without cutting into your budget. Not only will these financial woes keep people from being vaccinated, but it means that there is a greater likelyhood that undiagnosed flu victims will be walking around while contageous. What's more, people may not see healthcare professionals until it's too late. Lack of healthcare will be a serious, serious threat to national security. Now, can the government require quarentine? Of course! But how can they quarentine the undiagnosed? Even if we brought out army medics to check people for free (one cannot compel civilian physicians to do this though I'm sure many would) how could we be sure that everyone would be examined and then not contract the virus the next day?
There is the additional problem if availability of vaccine. Vaccine production is not financially viable compared to making a drug to be taken daily. Thus there are only a handful of companies who make vaccines and this is why there was a flu vaccine shortage last year. If the federal government were to allot moneies to vaccinate all Americans, regardless of insurance or economic status, not only would this encourage vaccine manufacturers to create more product, but it would help keep down the number of victims, avoiding much of the original problem. However, the are those for whom vaccines are less effective and those who decry vaccines as the cause of autism and other neurologic disease. I don't know if the government could compel people to take medication or vaccine but I'll bet there's already legislation to that effect as they are manditory for schools.
Any possible solution requires the governemnt to subsidize some measure of healthcare for Americans. Otherwise, not only are uninsure Americans more likely to get sick but they are more likely to spread the virus to others, insured and uninsured alike. In that way, the governemnt would be creating a public health hazard. But will anyone do anything about this? |
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| Surgery problems |
[Oct. 6th, 2005|09:09 pm] |
There was hardly any traffic on 95 between Philly and NYC today. That was the good news. Another happy tidbit of news is that my surgeon doesn't have to shave as much of my head as the nurse originally told me so I may not chop it all off.
Of course what would be a trip to the Archipeligo of Doom without a few suprises? After a half hour long discussion with my surgeon about the nature and history of religion (he's a very cool Italian catholic with a Jewish wife and a penchant for logic and rebellion), we finally began to discuss the surgery. As it turns out, they're only planning on fusing my cervical spine together and to my head and not covering the hole in my skull. It's not possible to do both because a) there isn't enough room for all the screws for both procedures on the skull and b) there's not enough room under the skin to install both sets of hardware, especially in someone with overly strechy connective tissue which is why I have to have the fussion in the first place. To recap, there are two reasons why I need surgery. The first reason is that when they did the first surgery they took out too much bone and made the hole in my head too big, overexposing my brain. This is called soft spot syndrome. The second reason is that during the first surgery they overstretched the tissue in my neck and it couldn't shrink down enough, making my cervical spine unstable. Now medically, this second problem is much more serious because if I were to get whiplash, the vertibrae could move too much and slice my spinal chord. At least this is my understanding. Also, as it is the muscles in my neck have to do a lot of work to keep the neck stable so they get all tight and then start pressing on my brain. This leads to the first problem of the missing skull. This soft spot syndrome means that things like air pressure and muscle tension push directly on my brain, which is extremely painful. I think it is this, rather than the cervical instability that are giving me problems on a daily basis. It;s not unsual to see these two together. Usually just the fussion is done because the bars that attach to the skull cover up the sides of the hole in the skull. Unfortunately I have a very large hole AND it seems that my brain is very sensitive. Ergo, I truly need both surgeries. Right now my surgeons is consulting with the otehr surgeon to see if they can come up with a way to do both, which they have never successfully done. Otherwise they will probably only do the fussion and if it doesn't work well enough, we would see if another surgery is possible to then cover the remaining hole. Oct. 14 should be interesting for all involved. |
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| Rosh Hashanah |
[Oct. 5th, 2005|08:17 am] |
What do you do if you're on the bima (the platform with the alter in a synagogue) in the middle of the biggest service of the year and when the Rabbi opens the ark (where the Torah scrolls are kept- when it's open everyone stand out of respect) a HUMUNGOUS insect jumps out and starts coming towards you? Now you can't kill the thing because that breaks religious rule and the spirit of the holiday, and certainly not on the bimah. You can't really move too much because you're in the middle of leading 800 people in prayer and you don't want to distract or worry them. Luckily, when this happned to me two days ago, I finished singing the prayer that was the background to all of this and the 3 inch cricket walked right past me to the congregation who didn't notice. But the next day, I decided not to follow the controversial and ancient custom of prostrating myself on the floor before the open ark when I sang a particular prayer.
The next morning had its own interests. I arrived at the synagogue early to warm up and watch the children's service. Upon my arrival, I was told that I would be leading the children's service with the rabbi ("oh, didn't we tell you?")- in 10 minutes. So not only was I not warmed up but I got to pick pieces on the fly. It went well (though I did things with my voice that would have caused my teacher to drop dead if he'd been listening), though as the main service was 10 minutes after the chidren's service I never did get time to warm up. Meh. It was easy stuff and the choir did a lot of it.
We went to a cajun (?) seafood restaurant for lunch- ah how I love the reform movement. When I say we, I mean the family with whom I stayed this trip (two parents, two kids, all very VERY nice), another family with children from the congregation and me. The mother of my host family, Estra, and I had written a Tashlich service for the kids the night before. Tashlich is this old Jewish custom of going to a river between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (10 days of repentence) and throwing breadcrumbs into a river or other body of water to represent the throwing out of our bad deeds and habits. I believe I can hear Alex cringing in his sleep as I mention polluting waters with white bread. So we snagged the leftover bread from the restaurant and climbed down this steep hill to the river behind the restaurant, high heels and all. We probabl looked crazy to anyone in the overlooking parking lot. Meh. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 5th, 2005|08:16 am] |
Hm, slightly ironic, especially on a Jewish Holiday.
 | You scored as The Operative. You are dedicated to your job and very good at what you do. You've done some very bad things, but they had to be done. You don't expect to go to heaven, but that is a sacrifice you've made for a better future for all.
The Operative | | 94% | Capt. Mal Reynolds | | 81% | Simon Tam | | 75% | Inara Serra | | 69% | Hoban 'Wash' Washburne | | 69% | River Tam | | 63% | Zoe Alleyne Washburne | | 63% | Shepherd Derrial Book | | 56% | Kaylee Frye | | 50% | Jayne Cobb | | 13% | </td>
Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 25th, 2005|11:54 am] |
Get your ice skates, I'm making a post!
Things have been, as usual, very busy. I have school 4 days a week. I wake up at 6am and I get home around 8pm. I've flown out to Texas for my pulpit twice so far and I'll be going out twice next month and then once a month until June. I teach 6th grade religous school twice a week, for which I do as much work as I do for my grad program of 17.5 credits (that's my load for this semester). I'm tired and I love all of it.
The only snag is, of course, being sick. But my surgery is in two and a half weeks so that should take care of that. Unfortunately, I need to set up an ftp server so that someone can record my classes and send me the files and school ends for a month on Thursday and I don't think I can get it done in time. Ah well. We will figure this out.
So the 6th graders I teach are highly amusing. They're 7 11-yearolds from Manhattan which means they are exceedingly bright and politically minded. I was expecting to have more behavior problems but I seem to have lucked out and gotten well behaved kids. Well, relatively. Eleven year olds will always have trouble staying engaged in a religious school. Hell, I'm twenty five and my collegues and I talk in class and are tired after our long days of school. We would have trouble going ot relgious school after school, too. THe sercret I've found is two fold. The first secret was to have a sort of reset signal for the class, called a quiet signal. Mine is to just raise my fist in the air. When the kids see this, they finish their sentences, raise their fists and be quiet. It always works. The only downside is that the kids have recently taking to saying "Fist it" when the do it. It's hard to asks them to be quiet when it's taking all of my energy not to laugh. THe second thing I do is to bribe them with candy. When they're good, candy goes into the pot. When they're bad it gets taken out. When the pot is full, they get to split it up. Ah, the promise of chocolate. I tell them for the sake of their sweettooths, they have to behave. Yes, that is my religious school experience: Fisting and chocolate. |
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| Who's editing your news stories? |
[Aug. 21st, 2005|09:20 am] |
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I was just reading through Ha'aretz (Israel's major libral newspaper) online. I went to check the English edition for a word I didn't understand and low and behold, I discovered something eerie: The English and Hebrew versions of the same articles in the same newspaper contain different information and a totally different spin on that information. ( Read more... ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 14th, 2005|11:45 pm] |
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Does anyone happen to be free on Tuesday and want to come with me to Hoboken to help me move? I warn you, I will be bringing lots of boxes of books up to my 5th floor walk up apartment but not too much furniture (a chest of draws and a bookshelf, both light). However, there is unlimited free pizza, free beer and jaegr, free gas and a scenic view of North Jersey for all participants. Call me if you're in. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 10th, 2005|09:45 am] |
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This is a D'var Torah (sermon) about the disengagement sent by a collegue of mine. For those of you interested, you can read one of the myriad of views held by Israelis on the subject of the disengagement. ( Israel at a Crossroads )
Thoughts? Reactions? |
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| It's alive |
[Jul. 18th, 2005|11:07 pm] |
"You're case isn't complicated at all- you have a hole in your head and it's causing you headaches....I'm going base jumping in the Alps next month." - My neurosurgeon, Dr. Bolonese
So after my battery of diagnostic tests, it's official: I need another brain surgery. Turns out I have something called soft spot syndrome which in essense meanse that partially because my first neurosurgeon made such a ridiculously huge hole in my head and partially because I'm just lucky, my brain can't deal with not having a sealed cover on top of it (for those of you who don't know, I had to get part of my skull, one of my vertebrae and as I found out today, snippets of my brain removed 6 years ago because I had something called a Chiari Malformation). Thus my brain is essentially poked and rubbed by my muscles and insignificant things like barometric pressure. This causes swelling which cuts of CSF flow to my brain and turns my spinal column into a literal barometer. For icing on the cake, I was told that my brain is further irritated by the titanium shards scattered about the tissue in the back of my head, probably from the drill they used in the first surgery. Mmm, titanium.
This was a fairly simple conclusion. But at various points in the day I was told by other medical personal that I had cysts pressing on my spine from a faulty duraplasty (part of the last surgery), blocked CSF flow and, my personal favorite, narcolepsy. The first two were due to problems reading the scans (aparently shrapnel plays havoc with brain scans) but I have to have a sleep study done to rule out the latter (which I'm SURE I don't have). Another thing they have to rule out out is that the tissue in my neck got over stretched and that that's part of the problem. According to Doc I'm a little too flexible for comfort, as hyperflexiblility can cause whatever this strechy neck thing is. Unfortunetly, the test for this includes another surgery in itself. Get this:
They're going to cut open my head and stick screws out of my temple bones (you can call my Frankenstein from then on). Then they're going to attach weights to the screws and hang these behind my head while I lay down for a few days to stretch out my neck (sounds medieval doesn't it?). If that feels good, I have the stretchy neck thing and they do the more complicated surgery to fix that. If not, they do the simple surgery to replace the back of my skull. Either way, I'm having brain surgery. Again. Which I'm not thrilled about. But this means that I'm finally going to feel better. That's pretty hot. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 3rd, 2005|05:02 pm] |
Last night I discovered my cell phone to be AWOL. After calling it numerous times with hearing a ring, cleaning out my car and retracing my steps without success, I got worried. As I reached into the fridge for a cold bottle of water to drink during my drive of shame to the Verizon store, something caught my eye. There on the middle shelf, under the cherries but on top of the babaganoush, my cell phone stared at me like a neglected child.
In case any of you are wondering, refrigerators are indeed soundproof. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 3rd, 2005|11:01 am] |
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As ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) physicsninja has announced, there will indeed be organized chaos (and hors d'ourves) in honor of Jaime and my birthdays at my parent's house tomorrow, July 4th. As Keane has to work until around 8 and we can't explode things in, around or above the house past about 10pm, the party will kick of with a jaunt to the airport Ruby Tuesdays for drinks with Keane. Since we're bringing such a large group, he may be able to comp us for a portion of the drinks (whoo hoo!). Then we can head back to my place for middle eastern and American grilling, cake, explosives and, of course, more alcohol.
The Plan
5:00-5:30pm Meet at Alissa's to consolidate cars for drinks at Ruby Tuesday's (that way more of us can drink). If you can't make it by 5:30pm just meet us there. You can call someone for direction if needed.
7:30ish- head back to Alissa's for more debauchery
The Provisions
But to make this happen, we're calling for donations. Luckily we have a fair amount of liquor from Beeman and Alex's party so that should help.
This is the food we have so far: Hot dogs, Kababs, mujadra (lentils and rice), falafel, garlic bread, pita, hummus, cake
Dishes for which we would like people to bring ingredients (but if no one brings them life will go on): shish kabab (not to be confused with just kabab- I promise this is worth the effort), wings, salad, rice crispy treats, cheese and crackers, veggie platter.
Our NEEDS list is:
Bourbon
Triple Sec (long Islands, sangria, etc)
Beer
Chips, Snacks, etc
Juice, Soda, Mixers,
Ice
Plastics
Our WISH list is:
Wine
ground beef and onion (for kababs)
Wings ($12 for a 5lbs bag of frozen wings at Acme), Hot Sauce (for wings- I say chilula, but whatever)
Rice crispies, marshmellows (for the kabobs of course :o) )
Salad
Veggie Platter
Cheese & Crackers
Feel free to bring anything else you want. |
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