We all hate our clients. It's good to hate. It allows us to overcharge and still sleep at night.

Posted by: annika at 06:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Read Part One of my interview. It's even illustrated!

Then go buy How To Blog.

Posted by: annika at 06:59 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 (((bowing down))) : )

Posted by: Jennifer at February 20, 2005 07:44 PM (IKn6K)

2 I thought that the Elton John illustration was a nice touch, although I still think that Boy George would make a better UN Secretary General.

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at February 20, 2005 08:19 PM (muth+)

3 I can't believe Tony Pierce read my (well, my and OS's) blog. I normally assume the only people reading my blog are mutants like me. (This is how I rationalize the relative dearth of traffic. There aren't many mutants like me.)

Posted by: Matt at February 20, 2005 11:04 PM (TLYaI)

4 Awesome!

Posted by: ginger at February 21, 2005 04:12 AM (Fl6Ze)

5 Starts slow, finishes better. Heh, I've only been reading blogs for the past five years. Who's Tony Pierce? Matt, one thing I have noticed is that if you want traffic, you've got to have good content and make it a life goal, or have female tender parts and talk kinda slutty.

Posted by: Casca at February 21, 2005 09:59 AM (cdv3B)

6 Congratulations!!

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at February 21, 2005 11:44 AM (RpVKX)

7 Mmm..female tender parts..

Posted by: JD at February 22, 2005 03:02 PM (J+Gcr)

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Am i the only one who was uncomfortable seeing a dancing midget onstage during the halftime show of the NBA All Star Game?

Wasn't that a bit insensitive, given that basketball is a sport that celebrates height more than any other human endeavor?

i mean, that was worse even than LeAnn Rimes' trashy outfit. What was up with that, anyway?

Update: Even though hardly anybody watched the game, and fewer still probably stuck around for the halftime show, i wasn't the only blogger who noticed the dancing midget.

Nasal Passages had this to say:

Ummmmmmmmmm, so at the half time of the NBA All-Star Game they have some "entertainment." LeeAnn Rimes was cute and her song, while very boring, wasn't bad. But right now there's this band on called "Big and Rich" and, well, they suck! What REALLY sucks about them is they have a little person on stage with them wearing a fuzzy orange hat and dancing with his two canes. Does a midget make for an entertaining half time show?? I think not. It's just all really disturbing....REALLY disturbing!!

But Marti was distinctly pro-midget. Or at least pro-Big & Rich:

They had a midget with a cane in each hand dancing backup.

I got you now.

A midget,

cane in each hand,

dancing backup.

That's just too funny to pass up.  . . . Apparently, this duo invites many colorful characters into their fantasyland, including Limo Larry, a formerly homeless drug addict who ferries off-duty strippers and inebriated musicians around Nashville every night. And Tim the Electrician, a guy with a big mustache and a beer-swigging red macaw named Santana who clings to his owner's shoulder while Tim practices the sport he's invented, championship chair riding. I'm curious to see the rulebook for this one.

My god, you can't make up stuff this funny.

Michael Lorenzo didn't like the music either:

I am appalled.

I just saw 3 country songs too many, a 6'5" rapping self-proclaimed black cowboy, a back up rapper dressed in a mad hatter costume, several small young white boys trying to pop and lock and a midget trying to imitate an animatronic bear.

Posted by: annika at 06:50 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Sacramento blogger Digger has the inside scoop on that idiot lawyer named Pearcy who keeps hanging up the soldier's effigy, then scurrying back to Berkeley.

Look at the sign he displays on the back of his Boxster. What a piece of work.

Update: You simply must see what Rodger did to the Pearcy's Boxter. What a freakin' riot!

Posted by: annika at 06:39 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Attention.

i have unilaterally decided to designate this week as Robot Week here on annika's journal.

i'm not sure what all that will entail, besides putting up the new poll on my sidebar, which i encourage you to vote in.

Oh, and experimenting with a new robot-friendly font.

Maybe i'll do a post about Al Gore...

...in Fortran.

Any suggestions?

Robot week! Come celebrate it with me.

Posted by: annika at 01:39 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Laurie Dhue appears to be retaining water.

Developing...

Posted by: annika at 11:59 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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"It's me versus the world," he told Mr. Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it."

Huh?

You know i love you George, but are you sure Doug was the only wead in the room when you said that?

Posted by: annika at 11:29 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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On ABC's This Week With George Stepopotamus, terrorism "expert" Dicke Clarke made the following pronouncement

Terrorists can't make a nuclear weapon.

i'll ignore the way you stammered when George Will pointed out that terrorists could simply buy a nuclear weapon.

Posted by: annika at 08:46 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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i refer you to these excellent remarks, from Citygurl.

Posted by: annika at 12:27 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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i've just fallen in love. Alas, they're too freakin' expensive.

Posted by: annika at 09:04 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Why hasn't Reese's made a peanut butter cup in dark chocolate?

Posted by: annika at 04:05 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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Intelligence czar?

The first order of business, i would imagine, will be teaching the president how to pronounce "nuclear."

Posted by: annika at 01:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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No no, i'm not expecting everyone anyone to get an annie's journal tattoo...

...although i won't discourage the idea.

Now that i think of it, that would be a great way to advertise - and i need only 93 more links to pass fatbody Oliver Willis on the Ecosystem!

Posted by: annika at 10:20 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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In keeping with this week's grumpy Valentine's Day theme, i've selected the perfect sonnet from my favorite poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
      That you were gone, not to return again—
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
      Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
      And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man—who happened to be you—
      At noon to-day had happened to be killed,
I should not cry aloud—I could not cry
      Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—
I should but watch the station lights rush by
      With a more careful interest on my face,
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.

Which was often.

Posted by: annika at 06:56 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A very nice commenter sent me an e-mail expressing concern about whether i am studying hard enough, with all the blogging i do. i actually try to follow a pretty strict study schedule, and do most of my posts after i'm done for the night, or in the down time between classes.

Actually, blogging has helped me at school. My ability to write quickly, in a form that is closer to final draft quality, is directly related to the daily writing that i have been doing for almost two years as a blogger. My highest grade last semester was my writing class, i think thanks to blogging.

But, as further proof that i have been studying hard, i've decided to let you be the judge. Open the extended entry and you will find a photograph of my study space, complete with annotations. more...

Posted by: annika at 11:11 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 my desk is probably twice as cluttered but 0% of its items could be labeled as evidence that I've been studying.

Posted by: Chris at February 16, 2005 05:27 AM (23bPv)

2 someone loves her some rolling rock!

Posted by: lorie at February 16, 2005 06:38 AM (PPPwU)

3 Someone seriously needs a bigger, flat-panel monitor. What is that thing? 13"? And Toad the Wet Sprocket? They haven't released an album with new music since Coil flopped in 1997. Is that the same year you purchased that monitor?

Posted by: Robbie at February 16, 2005 08:49 AM (AAqv2)

4 hmmm... where's the wine rack?

Posted by: d-rod at February 16, 2005 08:55 AM (T3c0Z)

5 Um, I love Toad too. Terrific, Annie. And thank you for your very kind gift. It has pride of place on my desk.

Posted by: Hugo at February 16, 2005 09:56 AM (Qst0d)

6 Actually, I argue that the Rolling Rock bottles, chips, etc. are evidence of good study habits. You don't have to leave your desk to take a break. Just multi-task...

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at February 16, 2005 12:26 PM (c6rOB)

7 What? No bong? Wow, school certainly has changed!

Posted by: Pursuit at February 16, 2005 01:59 PM (VqIuy)

8 "My ability to write quickly, in a form that is closer to final draft quality, is directly related to the daily writing that i have been doing for almost two years as a blogger". Absolutely right. The more you write the better writer you become. Especially when you expose your writing to a thousands of critics every day.

Posted by: Jake at February 16, 2005 03:21 PM (r/5D/)

9 Lol, I still take forever writing a paper, but blogging has helped me get used to thinking critically and putting my thoughts down. Good ole-fashioned ranting pays off :-)

Posted by: Ron (Naughtypundit) at February 16, 2005 05:30 PM (9Z7dn)

10 Ah yes, Latrobe, PA. I used to like that stuff. Actually, Genesee Cream Ale was the gargle of choice.

Posted by: Casca at February 16, 2005 08:49 PM (cdv3B)

11 It looks like a NEC 17-flatscreen. annika, trust me on this one: you don't need an LCD flatscreen. You might want, but they're waaaay overhyped. They're a great example of form over function. Look good, act crappy.

Posted by: Victor and his seventeen pet rats at February 17, 2005 11:22 AM (L3qPK)

12 i love my NEC. But i wish it didn't hog so much desk space tho.

Posted by: annika at February 17, 2005 06:58 PM (LGiAC)

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Maybe i'm wrong, but isn't there the potential for a dangerous progression of hatred in the recent post-election gnashing of teeth by the American left.

In other words, doesn't this. . .

'I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for,' former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean told Democrats gathered at a Manhattan hotel.

Bush supporters need not apply (we hate that asshole). Also, you should be a student as well. House has 4 easy-going, liberal, intelligent male students and one friendly, intelligent dog.

This sweet little children's teddy bear [for sale at CafePress.com] bears the phrase 'Save America, Kill Republicans'. The caption for the item . . . reads:

Making fun of Repubicans won't get them on our side, but threatening to kill them might be more effective.

The FBI and Auburn police are investigating the discovery of an incendiary device that was left at the entrance of the Placer County Courthouse over the weekend.

The discovery raised questions about whether the device was connected to a series of arsons and attempted arsons in Northern California by someone claiming to be with the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.

. . .

The Auburn Police Department said Sunday's incident was troubling because it diverged from the pattern established in the other attacks. Instead of targeting a site under construction, whoever planted the most recent device did so at a historic landmark.

People need to cool it, seriously.
_______________

* Placer County, by the way, is one of California's reddest counties, voting for Bush 63% to 37%.

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At A Western Heart,* C.B. posts a great fisking of Gore Vidal's apperance on the Australian Broadcasting Company's Lateline with Tony Jones.

Vidal is truly an American Idiot. One of those irrational leftists who likes to go abroad and speak out of his ass. i loved this statement, wherein he accuses the Bush administration of lying, and as support for his accusation, he strings together a bunch of real whoppers.

That is what the people around Bush have discovered: you repeat the lie, and if people look slightly doubtful, you repeat it again more loudly, and you go on and on. Bush went on for about three years getting ready for the Iraq war, saying that Osama bin Laden, responsible for the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, was working hand in glove with Saddam Hussein, who was equally guilty; therefore, we were going to remove Saddam Hussein, because he was so vicious.

The Australian audience for Lateline can't have been expected to know that Bush never made such a statement, let alone repeated it "again more loudly . . . on and on." But i followed the election closely, and Vidal's statement is a boldfaced lie. The closest anyone ever got to pinning the accusation that the Bush administration made an explicit connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein is one sentence in one document. i blogged about this last June.

i think it's despicable that Vidal goes to another country, and uses that line about repeating the big lie (which is a veiled Nazi reference), and then lies himself, thinking he can get away with it.

Kudos to the Australian host, whom i am unfamiliar with, but he did challenge Vidal's assertion that America is a despotic country.

TONY JONES: Despotism, though, and tyranny implies a suppression of dissent. I mean, there's no bar to open dissent in the United States; just simply whether you can get on to the corporate media.

. . .

Gore Vidal, I think you are living proof, however, that dissent is still living in the United States.

* A Western Heart is new international group blog, where i've been recently added as a contributor. There's some good stuff there; i'd love it if you'd go check it out.

Posted by: annika at 10:00 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Ballet shoes- beautiful, graceful, and creative,
you enjoy dancing writing and music. You are
often very poetic and sometimes dramatic. Even
if dancing isn't your thing, you are still very
creative. You keep to yourself aside from a few
close friends that you can relate to. You find
your own ways to express yourself and don't
have a need to br surrounded by tons of people.
A small group of friends is fine.

What Kind of Shoe Are You?(new and updated results!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by: annika at 07:46 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now i know there's a flaw in The Ecosystem. But i quickly captured a screenprint of the phenomenon, before NZ Bear fixes whatever bug caused annika's journal to enter the top 100!

Posted by: annika at 10:48 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Over at Paul's a commenter named EEKer posted the following comment, and i can't decide whether it's a lame idea or a genius idea.

Years ago I was able to convince my wife that it would be really romantic to switch off for Valentines every year. One year she is the Valentine and the next I am. This was a good move. She ate it up and loves the idea. Now I'm off the hook at least every other year. This year I'm coasting!

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