so i might have done a search yesterday for "free tetris" leaving our computer with the same or similar virusy thingy that effs up google that we had...oh, a while ago. grumble. we have been running our own anti virus whatever and free online ones, but no luck so far. i am asking for suggestions aka pleading for help.

i have to do loads of laundry one at a time because, although there are two washers and two dryers in my basement, only one of the dryers sufficiently drys (dries?) clothes. i have three loads today. thats three and a half hours. plus folding. grumble.

felly and i had a loverly post christmas day together. as in, we spent all the gift cards we got for christmas. felly had a 50 for Old Navy, we both got a 30 for Olive Garden from my rents, and I had 70 for Barnes and Noble. we spent a lot of other people's money, and it was awesome.

I bought four books with my 70 schmackers. Four. Well, one of the books has four novels in one, so I guess, if I wanted to get technical about it, I got 7 books. Not bad.

For Pleasure (aka, non-fiction)

Octavia Butler - From Seed to Harvest (Includes Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, Clay's Ark and Patternmaster)

Octavia Butler - Kindred

For those of you who don't know, Octavia Butler is one of the first Black Female "Science Fiction" writers...although to classify her work as such is a little misleading. She does deal with some out there stuff like vampires, the future, space travel and the like, but its always very socially progressive and fabulously interesting. I heart her like whoa.

For School

Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to be White - Ed. David Roediger with contributors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Alice Walker and a lot of other authors you should read.

The Michael Eric Dyson Reader by. (you guessed it) Michael Eric Dyson.

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this book includes sections such as Theories of Race, Affirmative Action, Whiteness Studies, Afro-Baptist Radicalism and Rhetoric, Religion and Sexuality, Biocriticism and Black Icons, The Soul Musics of Black Folk, and Hip-Hop Culture, to name a few. It's a big book. I have never read or even heard of this guy before, but I have a strong appreciation for people who are both deeply intellectually theoretical and up to date on current cultural phenomena and are able to connect and intertwine them. I think this guy is one of those people.

I like books. A lot.

Oh and I have an interview on Wednesday. Word.

thanks to (e:janelle) for the chips and dip AND for sending me to the FAIL website. I found this gem there

ug. phew. breath in, breath out.

this will not be another rant about how stupid conservative Christians are in their arguments for gay marriage. HOWever, I came across this in one of my "lefty" (as my father would say) email newsletters. the part the newsletter focused on was this :

"Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?...What troubles me so deeply, and should trouble all thinking Americans, is that there is a real, unbroken line between the jihadist savagery in Mumbai and the hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of our homegrown sexual jihadists. Hate is hate, no matter where it erupts."

This guy, Pat Boone, basically is comparing what is happening in Mumbai, where there were some 200 plus violent murders, to pro- prop 8 protestors. Uhhhhhhh, no, dumbass.

But it gets better. He goes on to say:

"Slavery was abolished, blacks and women obtained the rights to vote, and these true rights were not obtained by threats and violent demonstrations and civil disruption (though these things did occur, of course), but by due process, congressional deliberations and appropriate ratification. This was democracy in action, not mob rule."

ARE YOU KIDDING GUY?
I wasn't even there and I know there was violence...coming from the OTHER side. there is always violence when oppressed groups are forced to fight for their rights.

Oh oh and one more thing:

"No 'rights' were ever granted to citizens on the basis of their sexual habits or lifestyle. There simply are no such 'rights.'"

Really? Then WTF do you call straight marriage?? Is that not a right based on sexual habits and (god i HATE this word) lifestyle? Please MF please.

You can read the whole article here
I know that this guy is kinda extreme. but i also think that there are logical progressions in thinking that there is no harm in saying that marriage is a definition and man and woman and blahdeeblah to all homos are terrorists. its not that far of a stretch, obviously.

i heard Gavin Rossdale's new music sometime recently and I was thoroughly disappointed. Bush used to be sooo cool and now he is playing generic poprocks music that is indistinguishable from the rest of the nonsense out there.

Felly had a theory. That once Gavin and Gwen got married they both started to suck. Gwen was also once so very very cool. Remember when No Doubt came onto the scene and there was Gwen with her combat boots and wife beaters (waaaay before Avril Lavigne)? I mean, Gwen sang with Sublime. Now that's punk rock. And now? Harajuku girls or whatever the hell they are and...hmmm...when was the last time we heard from her?

Now don't get me wrong. I like pop music...usually. I recognize it for what it is however, namely that you take these songs and listen to them somewhat consistently for a short period of time until you get to the point where you might have to kill someone if you hear them humming it one more time. Then, you wait. Wait and wait and wait, until you haven't heard the song in, say, two years, and then you listen with fresh ears. If you still like the pop song from back when, its a keeper. I love shitty music from days of yore. I think it speaks volumes about a moment in time. I don't care if people call it fluff or fabricated or whatever. Perhaps that what it is meant to say. At this moment in time the majority of American youth are listening to fabricated cotton candy music. What does that tell you? Think about it.

I will admit though, it seams we are at a loss for the greats these days. Where are our Sublimes? Our Pink Floyds and Led Zeppelins. Nirvana? Operation Ivy? When was the last time someone put out an album that you could listen to alllllll the way through? I am trying to think...there is Radiohead. Weezer. Oasis maybe? I am (perhaps unfairly) talking about hit toppers here. Oh, maybe I got it. People don't buy actual albums anymore, they just download singles on iTunes, watch videos on youtube (cause MTV is gone) and probably only listen to the first minute of the song anyway cause they are all hopped up on prescription drugs and soda pop and Britney Spears.

I am reading a book...one of those whoa is me I am a feminist who is addicted to man sex book. But she (the author, the main character, whoeveR) made a point that I thought was so true. We have it alllll backwards these days. We are more and more isolated from human beings and more and more connected to everything else we don't really need. Connected to the internet, to television, to clothes and shoes and furniture and Britney Spears. Consume consume consume. Feed me. Cause I am starving. But the problem is that what we are eating is...cotton candy. Fluffernutter. Britney Spears. Not our lovers, our friends our family, humanity. So we continue to eat, cause we are still starving. And perhaps whats more, is that such a statement is cliche. I can't even type it without feeling a little silly cause, well, duh, everyone already knows this, but yet, still, here we are.

Anyone scene Wall-E?? Sometimes when I think about the future, thats what I think about. Millions of human beings floating around with television/computer/phones/ipods (all in one of course) implanted into their little mindless brains. Worthless. Scary. Terrifying.