My MySpace bulletin from last night was a big hit

So I'm sharing it here for shits and giggles. Mostly giggles:

Ok, the amber alert system can kiss my ass. it just interrupted 24. like i heard one word of what the amber alert said? I don't think so. I was trying to hear what keifer was saying. that was as lame as it gets. if you want people to care, use a crawl on the bottom of the screen. i am totally annoyed. fox is reporting on it now and it actually sounds like a juicy amber alert for once, but I sure didn't care about it 15 minutes ago while 24 was on. and let me ask you this, amber alert, if i'm at HOME watching TV, what makes you think i'm anywhere useful to helping with an amber alert? I'm done for the day. I'm sitting on my couch watching TV and hope to pass out rather soon because i'm old. I'm not going out. I won't be on the roads tonight. jesus christ.

Birth control review!

People review books, albums, places to stay, restaurants etc. But no one ever reviews their birth control pill on a blog. Or do they? Can you point someone out who does? Someone else has to because that's what's great about women: we share.

A while back I was so excited to find the generic, affordable form of Seasonale because quite frankly, it irritates the hell out of me that I have to have my period every month. I just don't think it's necessary. So I have been on the Seasonale generic for a month and all I can say is it made my hormones rage to the point where my skin has broken out so badly I feel like a teenager again.

You know what? I hated being a teenager the first time.

So I called Walgreens and will soon be picking up the best-ever, never-fail pill: generic ortho-try-cyclen. Ask any women and she'll pick clear skin over quarterly periods any day. I'd rather have both, but looking like a teenager doesn't work at my age. People notice it more and that positively makes me want to kick someone in the stomach. Possibly that urge can be blamed on my raging hormones as well.

The story of the happy little house husband

My boyfriend was up early before me today, scrubbing the shower and doing laundry. Possibly hell will freeze over today or we'll have a blizzard in Phoenix -- the equivalent. My happy little house husband then looked perplexed all of the sudden as he fretted over the laundry. "Oh whatever will I do about this static cling?" That's when Google, or more specifically, Generally Queer.com helped us with some tips.

I'm going to look into some kind of environmentally-friendly dryer ball after reading all this.

BTW, Jon never knew that "GQ" meant "Generally Queer" before he dated me. Hell, if it's going to give out useful household tips, maybe it's time to subscribe!

Before you pay for that iTunes season pass...

I'm a huge fan of 24 on Fox. But it's on the same time as Heroes on NBC! I'm hooked on both and my better half much prefers Heroes, so we ended up watching that. (Usually I win, but not since I made him watch four hours of Jack Bauer in one shot last week).

I've already been spending a considerable amount of time on ABC.com watching Ugly Betty episodes. But I love 24 so much, I thought I'd just download episodes off iTunes. Each individual episode is $1.99, but you can buy the season pass for $44.99. Ouch. That's kind of expensive, don't you think? If I'm going to spend that much, it's going to be on the DVD once the season is through so I can get the bonus features.

Then I discovred MyFoxPhoenix.com, which streams the episodes for free. Take that, iTunes. I know you still have to sit through a really lame Chase commercial, but that's worth saving $1.99 or $44.99.

The obvious answer to my troubles would be to get a DVR and I'm thinking about it. It's just that I'm sort of against giving Cox any more of my money because I already think the cable behemouth gets enough of that. (Don't get me started on APS). Now that I've figured out how to juggle my favorite TV shows pretty much for free...who needs a DVR?

Oh hell, who needs Cox for that matter? Wait -- I can't live without CNN.

My nomination for Word of the Year 2007

If there were such a contest around here, that is. SFGate.com does it every year, so maybe I'll start my own new tradition here. Anyway.

My nomination for 2007 Word of the Year for Phoenix is "particulate matter." It's on my mind and in my nostrils! I've noticed it's actually a part of the Phoenix weather report on the Weather Channel. I keep hearing this phrase wherever I go: particulate matter. It's actually bothered me for some time as I've noticed feeling sick for no reason some odd days, and then realizing later it was not a good air quality day here in town because of particulate matter.

I visited BrinkBackBlue.org today after seeing their billboard at 7th St./Cave Creek and hearing their commercials (likely on my radio station but I can't remember). To say particulate matter has become my pet peeve in the last year and a half is nothing compared to my longtime hatred of leafblower guys. I was nearly postal at the apartment complex I lived at last year because the leafblower guys would begin to make their rounds at 6am! A team of them hits my current complex once a week. Aside from the obvious noise pollution, it's the air pollution that gets me as well even though today is classified as a "good" day according to the Weather Channel.

I think we can ban the leafblower guys in Phoenix just like Palo Alto, CA did years ago. It's about time. I've noticed some of the biggest offenders in the realm of particulate matter are construction companies, but they frequently get busted and fined. It's the leafblower guys who are making us suffer daily without any repercussion, yet I could get in trouble for using a chiminea in the backyard (if I had either) on a no-burn day. (I actually get to enjoy the lovely Southwestern chiminea fire at my parents' house once in a while). We have so few days a year when we can enjoy a fireplace or chiminea, I'd rather get rid of the leafblower guys altogether and make no-burn days a thing of the past.

I plan to live here for a long time yet, so I'd like to clean the place up a bit, you know, restore it to the way it was in the 1980s when I grew up here.

More links:

*Phoenix visibility web cams
*Our air quality forecast
*Southwest region air quality forecast from Weather.com

She's in it to win it! My speculation on media coverage in 2008.

Hillary Clinton announced she's launching an exploratory committee on her website. I found it amusing that CNN's only lead on the story was showing streaming video from Hillary's website. They even had to stop playing the video so they could wait for it to load. Do we even need television news anymore, much less cable?

The web really changed the landscape of election coverage three years ago and I can't wait to see where we'll be one year from now. Back in 2004, it was the year of the blogger. In 2005, we were just regrouping. Then 2006 brought us YouTube and Web 2.0 in all its glory. Will the 2008 election be defined by even more citizen journalism, blogging, del.icio.cious, Digg, Technorati and YouTube? The Hillary story hasn't even made it to the top of the pile on these sites yet. Likely because it's a Saturday morning.

And what role will MySpace play, if any? Are we already sick of MySpace? I'll probably always log on to MySpace just to keep track of all the long lost friends I've found on there, but the novelty has worn off. Hillary should have a MySpace page if he wants to win and so should all the others. It's a great vehcile for releasing campaign material of all kinds. Imagine MySpace next year filled with Obama chicklets, Hillary videos, McCain embedded photos, blogs about young activists' activities, and "street teams" in MySpace groups.

Hillary's announcement includes the promise of upcoming video chats this week so supporters can have a converstation with the Senator/former First Lady/no Tammy Wynette standin' by her man. In 2004, we had blogs. In 2008, we'll have vlogs. It's going to be about much more than JibJib.com now with all that user-created content swimming around inside the WWW. New Internet stars will be born next election year, mark my words.

Video conferencing with Hillary during her exploratory phase? It makes the world smaller if you ask me. Some kid in Iowa is going to get to talk with Hillary online in a way that never would have been available to that kid before. When Bill Clinton ran, MTV invited young people to a forum of sorts where they got an audience with Clinton and got to ask him questions. (Isn't that where "I didn't inhale" came from? It's been so long now I can't remember). Now you can just switch on your laptop and your webcam to get an audience with Mrs. Clinton. You can also bet that kid who gets to ask the Senator via video what her new new healthcare plan is will also get right onto his blog as soon as Hillary finishes answering the question.

The political landscape (or landmines if you will) of 2008 is emerging with Clinton, Obama and Edwards showing up on the Left. Brownback, McCaine and Lord Only Knows who else on the right. I'm starting to keep track though now. It's only starting to get interesting. Will the winner be the one whose campaign was savvy enough to navigate Web 2.0?

Breaking news: men can be trained!

Amy Sutherland applies traditional animal training tricks and tips to the North American husband species -- and they work! I'll be trying these on my boyfriend. No more picking up his boxer shorts off the floor. I will ignore his bad behavior. Ignoring his self-inflicted haircuts may be harder. I think I'll still be hiding the clippers from him. Which reminds me, he's not home right now. I better hide 'em quick!

It's not easy being a vegetarian...

...let alone being a vegan. I think in our language, "vegan" may as well be synonymous with "alien" or "scientologist." I get a lot of crap from people who don't realize they are being rude and ignorant when they make comments about what I eat (or what I don't). So it's time for some comic relief from Sfgate.com's Mark Morford.


jayselz

The Peak Secret Sauce

Here's the latest video from Steve Douglas!



...Yes, our lives at The Peak are so hard. This was something we actually called a "meeting." Be sure to listen online at 987thepeak.com. Especially because I have to cover Monica Nelson's shift tonight and tomorrow night, 7-12 MST. (That's 2 hours behind EDT, kids).

Did Paula Abdul pull a Danny DeVito on The View?

Remember when Danny DeVito went out drinking lemonchello with George Clooney? (Oh, to be GC's shot glass that night...) Then the next day, Danny turned up on The View as such a silly little drunk it was hysterical? If I remember correctly, I think he even sat in Rosie O'Donnell's lap. Well, it looks like Paula had a nice party night with someone prior to doing this interview. I could only imagine who her drinking partner could have been! Simon? Randy? The AI contestants? Who do you think?

The iPhone gets made fun of on SNL

Saturday Night Live has gotten into the game of poking fun at the new Apple iPhone. It's not even on sale yet and it's already thoroughly invaded our pop culture. Apple must be so proud...

The first iPhone joke!

The iPhone obsession is back! And what is better than info about the new Apple iPhone? Jokes about the iPhone. Here's the first one I've laid my little eyes on:

One more thing about the sago palm

I wrote that it found its home next to my bed, but that's only because it needs to stay indoors for another month because it's cold outside! That's according to my dad. Then it will find its new home on my patio where my cat can gaze at it from indoors. He's already proved he can't be trusted around the sago palm, much like he couldn't be trusted around the Christmas tree.

I have finally earned my sago palm.

Sago palms, or cycads, have been a tradition in my family. My grandpa was a gardener/landscaper and my dad was also a landscaper. My father owned his own nursery back in the 1980s at 21st and Bell which is now nothing but car dealerships. So sad. My dad is also a horticulture teacher. He's a genius at identifying plants by both their scientific and regular names.

Then one day, along came a daughter. The tradition of male green thumbs ended as I had no desire to carry on the family business. I've never been one to follow.

Luckily, my boyfriend seems keen to carry on the other family business -- law enforcement. So I figure since I've finally fallen in love with a suitable male companion my father really likes, I must have finally earned my sago palm because my dad gave me one today.

My dad's father gave him two sago palms and he's taken care of them for around 40 years. I got a 15-year-old offshot of one of them. My dad potted it for me in an Ikea pot and after it was accosted by the cat, it found its home next to my bed. I'll post a photo of it later after I download the photos from my camera.

Until then, you can learn about the sago:

sago wiki

Lots of sago info!

The little buggers are expensive.

Don't let your dog chew on these!

Sago palm flower sustains Indonesians stranded at sea.

There was a time when these were so valuable that they were getting stolen out of front yards. I'm guessing those days are gone, as they are going cheaply on eBay. Then again, these are babies on eBay! Not the 40-year-old giants like my dad has.

Wait, just found one going for a "buy it now" price of $285 on eBay.

I know a place where you can eat fake shrimp

I doubt this is an objective in your life because it certainly wasn't an objective in mine. But I have this boyfriend who likes to check online reviews before we decide where we're going out to eat, so he and I ended up at Vegetarian House on 32nd St/Indian School last night for dinner.

Our meal started with hot & sour soup, which was very good, and some spring rolls because I never met a spring roll I didn't like. Jon ordered New York "steak," which was delivered on a freshly sizzling pan. I ordered the cashew nut "shrimp" which looked and tasted very much like actual shrimp to the point that it was both realistic and creepy. It was the first fake seafood I'd ever had. I am not sure I'd order fake surf again, as I feel much more comfortable eating fake turf.

We came away not really knowing what we did eat. The restaurant sells the fake surf and turf in its fridge next to teh juice bar. I took a look and saw packages of fake fishes, chicken and steak covered in Asian lettering. Prices were cheap, so I look forward to a return trip for some of that lemongrass chicken. Jon and I sure like lemongrass and fake chicken and now that I think about it, I can't believe neither of us didn't order it! That was the great thing about the Vegetarian House -- there were pages and pages of choices. Vegetarians are seldom faced with so many choices on a menu.

The one con was the headache I had after we ate. Makes me think there was MSG in the food, but I'll give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt as I've had a mild sinus headache on and off since early yesterday.

D-backs spring training tickets go on sale Saturday

The sale starts at 12 noon. I want to see the Big Unit, but I definitely don't want to see the new uniforms. Yuck. I haven't heard one person in this town say they like 'em.

Join us in the Run to Remember

I plan to walk the 5K, Jon plans to run it. So if you'd like to run it with him or walk it with me, here's the info:

Arizonacops.org

Mark Day's answer to the Will It Blend? guy

This is YouTube entertainment on crack. I'm a big fan of Mark Day simply because I found him on YouTube, then MySpace and I have all my subscriptions fixed so I never miss an episode. He's that good. And I've been putting the Will It Blend? series on Scotty's blog for ages now. It's about time my two YouTube passions merged...

This weekend on the Peak

I have to rip myself away from blogging about the iPhone. So here's my first attempt at blogging about something else. It's Mini's weekend calendar, shot and produced by Steve.

iPhone photo fun

Before you even ask, no, I do not own stock in Apple.

The iPhone makes a call

The people in the call sound like Chloe and Jack from 24, except just far less frustrated and actually quite cheery.

I'm not obsessed or anything...

Another video about the new iPhone...

There's no 12-step for iPhone yet, but there should be

You thought "crackberries" were bad. Wait until June when we can start snatching up the Apple iPhone from Cingular. I may even be geeky enough to go buy one the day they are released. My cheapskate boyfriend is even convinced it's worth the $500 price tag. I've been easily winning him over to the Apple side though, just as I easily converted him to being vegetarian. (That I actually didn't event try to do; he merely got his hands on my John Robbins book one night after I passed out sick on the couch with a cold). He even bought me an iPod Nano for Christmas, which is the coolest thing ever. Next up, we're going to have to purchase a laptop for him.

But back to the iPhone...

I am wondering what my future monthly bill from Cingular will look like once I have this baby in my hot little hands and I'm surfing, iPodding, phoning, SMS messaging, e-mailing and syncing away. I'm a little apprehensive about being the first to buy one, because if you're an Apple fan like me you know never to buy the first batch off the conveyor belt. It's best to wait until the bugs are worked out...then again, I still bought my Powerbook practically the second it came out. It had an issue but was easily fixed. I think it was the video card or something. I don't remember. It was a small blip on my otherwise enjoyable Apple radar.

I also had a couple Treo smart phones, which I somehow managed to destroy, both in the same way -- the flippy little window thing that folded down to cover/protect the screen broke both times. I cracked them at their hinges. Then I gave up on the $400 phone and just bought the Treo PDA for somewhere around $200-250. (Another detail I forget now). I carried two things at that point, the phone and the PDA. Now I even leave the PDA in a drawer since I work at home.

I imagine, if nothing else, my stepmom will at least be jealous of my iPhone. It sure kicks the hell out of her Blackberry.

Anyway, need I remind you how cool my new coveted gadget is?

Cheapest gas in the neighborhood

Here's the site you can use to find the cheapest gas in town. Since the cheap stuff is close to my home, does that mean I live in the ghetto? Or should I just shut up, gas up and thank my lucky stars?

$500 may not be that bad for the Apple iPhone

At first, I balked at the price of the new Mac iPhone. Now I'm just pissed that I can't buy it until June.

Only time will tell whether or not I drop $500-600 on this thing, because I'm generally pretty cheap. I'm still mad the cheapest replacement phone I could buy from T-Mobile after losing my Motorola was a $250 Nokia. That was over a year ago. It seems a silly amount to pay for a phone. The last time I was into smart phones, I broke two in a row and vowed to never again spend that much.

But now that I've checked out the new iPhone online, I have to say it's worth the money. I can't wait until someone reviews it to tell me otherwise. But it would replace my cell phone, PDA, and iPod all at one shot. I could even e-mail from the phone. I could also watch videos on the phone, though I promise not to while driving. I imagine my productivity outside the home (while running errands, hanging out with friends, being stuck in traffic) would greatly increase with a phone like this.

I've wanted Apple to come out with a phone/PDA thing for a while since I've owned a Mac for two years now. I just want something to be a phone that can also sync up my calendar and address book. And here it is.

The touch screen thing is cool, the Bluetooth syncing is cool, all in all -- this could make my life so much easier.

I'm not going to lie...

Watch until the end and then page down:



I won't lie; I didn't get it until the announcer talked about the booze spider. I thought it was a totally serious study until then. My favorite: "building webs was for suckas." Funny as all get out!

One more thing -- Happy New Year! May you achieve all your goals in 2007.