For safety reasons i have regularly monitored the actuation readings of this blog on a semi-periodic basis. Up until now, i have done this without telling anyone, because i didn't want to alarm you.

Now, with the new federal regulations set to kick in at the beginning of next year, i've decided to make the semi-periodic actuation readings public. i feel it's always better for my visitors to know, rather than to not know. And i am proud to say that this is the first blog in the history of the blogosphere to comply in advance with the upcoming, more stringent federal guidelines as enumerated at Title 51, vol. 3, ch. XVIII, parts 751 to 782, subparts S through T, inclusive.

i hope that by providing this information to you, i have put at least some of your minds at ease. Feel free to contact me with any concerns you might have, but at this time i'd like to remind everyone that to date there has been no credible study linking blog actuation levels to any serious health risk. However, i'm sure you will agree that it never hurts to be safe and informed. That's part of my commitment to you, dear visitor, to keep you safe and/or informed.

Carry on.

Posted by: annika at 11:24 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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The category is "Fuckin' Lawyers," for $400. It's a video clue.

Trevor is in the lead with $1600, Casca has $1200, Victor has $1100, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen and Shelly have $300 each, Ken and Kyle have $200 each.

And Shelly has found the first Daily Double!

The rules for Daily Double are almost the same as on tv, with an important exception. In my game everybody gets to play the Daily Double.

Every response must have a wager in it. The lowest you can wager is $50 and the highest you can wager is either $500 or however much money you have earned already, whichever is higher. Or you can wager any amount in between.

One caveat. Since Shelly picked the Daily Double, his response gets priority. So if you guess before him you run the risk of tipping him off to the correct response. At the expiration of the time limit (10:00 p.m. Pacific time on Monday) the rest of the responses will count in order of their posting.

Since i'm running out of ideas for "Fuckin' Lawyers," this time the clue will be in reverse. i'll tell you who's fucking him, you tell me the name of the lawyer.

Posted by: annika at 09:29 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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Radical Redneck alerted me to this story about child abuse going on in Santa Cruz.

While most summer camps get kids out of the house and give parents a break, a group called Art in Action is nurturing the next Michael Moore . . .

Art in ActionÂ’s 'art and empowerment' camp is being held at the Quaker Center nestled in the redwoods of Ben Lomond. Campers at the 10-day retreat attend workshops on cultural activism, nonviolent action and alternative media.

'The reality is that the media is not actually showing whatÂ’s really going on in Iraq,' said Jouse Bustos, 19, of central Los Angeles. 'By doing this mural, IÂ’m showing whatÂ’s going on.'

Bustos is one of 25 young people attending the camp. For 10 days, they learn to say 'no' to military recruiting, racism and war, and 'yes' to eco-justice, community and love.

Campers spend their time making banners, writing poetry and choreographing dances that represent a vision of 'positive alternatives to the madness of war and oppression.'

'Art is the best way to communicate social messages,' said camp founder Alli Chalabi-Starr, who grew up in Santa Cruz but now lives in San Francisco.

Here's an example of the type of social message that's acceptable at this camp:

Some [campers] glue together pieces of newspaper that will become the giant puppet unveiled Thursday night — the divided face of a Muslim woman and woman of color from the United States.

Stamped across the face will be an American flag, said camp co-founder Maryam Roberts of San Francisco.

The face 'represents silence forced upon both women by their governments,' Roberts said. 'There is a feeling of silence.'

Instead, people like this thrive in the United States, where their message is heard loud and clear wherever they want to spew it forth, from the office of the California Attorney General to the streets of Manhattan. That's not censorship.

On the other hand, i just made a piece of protest art myself. It's a work intended to shake up the establishment and challenge the oppressive orthodoxy of California's ruling elites. i'll sell it to you cheap for $750, which also happens to be the per person cost of that stupid protest camp. It's suitable for framing and i'm calling it "Piss Boxer."

i wonder how many art galleries i can find anywhere who would be willing to exhibit it?

Posted by: annika at 11:25 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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The category is "Fash-ism," for $300. It's a video clue.

Trevor is in the lead with $1600, Casca has $1200, Victor has $1100, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Astoundingly, the two Daily Doubles still haven't been found.

Posted by: annika at 11:25 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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I am 27% Hippie.

I need to step away from the tie-dye. I smell too good to be a hippie and my dad is probably a cop. Being a hippie is not a fashion craze, man. It was a way of life, in the 60Â’s, man.

Take the
Hippie Test
@ FualiDotCom

Via Overlords.

Posted by: annika at 08:02 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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i didn't want to add to any of the Dukes Of Hazzard hype that's been going on, but i have to link to the San Francisco Chronicle's review. It may be the funniest review ever, certainly the most scathing movie review i've ever seen.

There are routine movies and others that blaze a trail. There are routine bad movies and others so horrendous that they redefine bad, that make us look up synonyms for agonizing and abysmal and then gnash our teeth because the language has not kept pace with the decline of film. There are even movies that are so blazingly rotten that they can redefine past experiences and make us look back on recent weak efforts like 'Stealth' or 'Fantastic Four' and think, 'Ooh, that was fascinating.'

'The Dukes of Hazzard' is hardly some routine bad movie. Rather, it's one of the elite, right up there with 'I Am Curious ... Yellow' (1967) and Bo Derek's 'Ghosts Can't Do It' (1990), in stiff competition for the lamest thing ever put on celluloid. Of course, that makes it, by default, the worst film so far of the 21st century, but to say that does little to acknowledge the ambition behind this project. Make no mistake, director Jay Chandrasekhar was swinging for the fences with this one. He was shooting for the millennium.

The movie establishes, with startling economy, that it's about two imbeciles. In a sleepy rural county, a red car comes blazing down a country road, careening and swerving, while the two morons in the front seats yell 'Woo-ooo!' and 'Yee-haaa!' These are Bo (Seann William Scott) and Luke Duke (Johnny Knoxville), the loudest, laughingest, hell-raisingest pair of single- celled organisms ever to get a Georgia driver's license.

Posted by: annika at 08:23 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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i have been remiss in not alerting you to Scorebard's Jeopardy game with a baseball/poetry theme over at Humbug Journal. The game is ongoing right now, and while Scorebard was inspired by the game here, his clues are much harder. i haven't gotten one yet.

Posted by: annika at 08:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The category is "Fuckin' Lawyers," for $500. As before, i give you the name of the lawyer, you tell me who was fucking 'em.

Casca is in the lead with $1200, Victor and Trevor have $1100 each, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Incredibly, the two Daily Doubles still haven't been found.

Posted by: annika at 07:07 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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The category is "Fuckin' Lawyers," for $300. As before, i give you the name of the lawyer, you tell me who was fucking 'em.

Victor and Trevor are tied for the lead with $1100 each, Casca has $900, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Amazingly, the two Daily Doubles still haven't been found.

Posted by: annika at 06:05 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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With the New York Times now "investigating" Judge Roberts' adoption records for the two Latin American children he and his wife adopted, how long do you think it will take for the Times to announce that they have found "irregularities."

My headline prediction: "Childrens Rights Groups Urge Probe Into Special Treatment On Roberts Adoptions."

Everything is proceeding according to the plan i warned you about: Dems hold up the nomination with delaying tactics while the media digs for dirt.

Posted by: annika at 02:05 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Today is Louis Armstrong's birthday.

Don't forget to listen to a Louis Armstrong song today.

Posted by: annika at 08:12 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Satchmo!! My favorite, and I'm probably not the only one here, is "What a Wonderful World."

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at August 04, 2005 12:26 PM (kxatG)

2 Thanks for the reminder Annika. And Amy, you should check out his stuff from the 20s and 30s. "What A Wonderful World" is okay, but he's not really showing off his true skill--wailing on that trumpet--in that particular song. Tight Like This, Basin Street Blues, Saint Louis Blues, West End Blues. God, now I sound like one of those assinine jazz guys who claims that you can only listen to jazz on vinyl and that Ken Burns is a tool. Well, just for the record, all my jazz is on CD and I think the Ken Burns doc was cool. I'm also a sucker for Armstrong's duets with Ella Fitzgerald--and real jazz snobs wouldn't own up to that (too 'commercial'... translation: too accessible)

Posted by: ken at August 04, 2005 03:56 PM (xD5ND)

3 I dunno what it is about that song, but it just seems to make my eyes well up. I'll dig further.

Posted by: Amy Bo Bamy at August 04, 2005 04:38 PM (kR4Xi)

4 Well, Hello Dolly! Actually, there is nothing better than his 1930's version of La Vie En Rose.

Posted by: Casca at August 04, 2005 05:48 PM (qBTBH)

5 I support listening to a Louis Armstrong song every day.

Posted by: irishlass at August 08, 2005 06:36 PM (s/na6)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

The category is "Fuckin' Lawyers," for $200. As before, i give you the name of the lawyer, you tell me who was fucking 'em.

Victor is in the lead with $1100, Casca and Trevor have $900 each, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Amazingly, the two Daily Doubles still haven't been found.

Trevor has shown after just two rounds that this is still anyone's game. So join in if you haven't yet.

Posted by: annika at 05:47 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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The category is "People annika Would Like To Meet," for $400. Victor is in the lead with $1100, Casca has $900, Phil and Trevor have $500 each, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Neither of the two Daily Doubles has been found yet.

Posted by: annika at 07:47 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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An August night and bugs. Sounds like Sacramento to me.

An August Midnight

I

A shaded lamp and a waving blind,
And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:
On this scene enter — winged, horned, and spined —
A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;
While 'mid my page there idly stands
A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands . . .

II

Thus meet we five, in this still place,
At this point of time, at this point in space.
- My guests besmear my new-penned line,
Or bang at the lamp and fall supine.
"God's humblest, they!" I muse. Yet why?
They know Earth-secrets that know not I.

Posted by: annika at 12:19 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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American Beauty and The Ice Storm are essentially the same movie. Through the magic of the Netflix queue, i saw them both on subsequent nights.

Both are about dysfunctional families, mid-life crisis, sexual restlessness, infidelity, teen experimentation, and the secret underbelly of suburban life.

The difference is that one sucked and one was a pretty decent movie. Unfortunately, the Academy bestowed its Best Picture award on the one that sucked. Shows you that the Academy Awards are a joke.

A big reason for the difference was that one movie was about its subject matter, while the other was a thinly veiled political statement in which the subject matter was only a setup for the filmmaker's liberal punch-line.

Ang Lee treated his characters with gentle compassion. The other director had a huge chip on his shoulder against every character except one. American Beauty was the product of a bitter, angry, small mind. If you want my advice, pass it up and rent The Ice Storm.

Update: Perhaps i should be more specific about my objections, since it never occurred to me that anyone would disagree with my opinions on any subject [insert winking smilie here], especially someone whose opinions i respect as much as Professor Schwyzer.

It seems to me that the central villain of American Beauty is the one dimensional homophobe character, and i was a little taken aback by the over-the-top stereotype, which the writer employed to get his point across. The character of Colonel Frank Fitts, United States Marine Corps seems intended as an insult directed solely at conservatives. Here's a caricature with a crew-cut, who speaks with a southern accent, is obviously a Republican, a retired marine, an abusive husband, probably a batterer who beats up his drug dealer son and requires a monthly piss test from him. He's also a closet Nazi. But the big punch-line i alluded to — the "Crying Game moment" if you will — is when the villain, in a fit of emotion, kisses the Kevin Spacey character. The filmmaker's message to the audience is clear: all conservatives are homophobes and all homophobes are repressed homosexuals.

While i admit that some homophobes probably are repressed homosexuals (J. Edgar Hoover, and at least one of Matthew Shepard's killers for example), i have a hard time with a movie whose intent is so obviously to smear the military and conservatives the way American Beauty did. i'm very sensitive to political statements which are designed to insult not persuade, and which are disguised as art. Some have called me too sensitive, but it's no secret that liberal Hollywood filmmakers are often motivated by their hatred of Republicans. Witness this quote from an interview with Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed this year's remake movie, The Dukes of Hazzard:

You know, IÂ’m a very liberal-minded person and I like to tweak Republicans whenever possible.

Posted by: annika at 10:37 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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The category is "Places That Suck," for $500. Victor is in the lead with $1100, Casca has $900, Phil has $500, Skippy and D-Rod have $400 each, Jasen has $300, Ken and Kyle have $200 each. Neither of the two Daily Doubles has been found yet.

Posted by: annika at 07:16 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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Wearing flip-flops for certain occasions is not only something that can get you in trouble, it can also get you killed!

Or maybe just seriously injured.

Posted by: annika at 09:16 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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This is my 1000th post as a Munuvian. Let's celebrate!

Don't forget to check out the Cotillion Ball, hosted this week by Sissy Willis, Portia Rediscovered, Ilyka Damen and KelliPundit.

Posted by: annika at 08:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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i think you all know who's side i'm taking in this controversy.

Posted by: annika at 12:49 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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Waiting for Gore. Leno's doing the "dumb ads" thingie. Not too good tonight.

Leno is marking time until retirement. He's just not into his job anymore and it shows.

Here comes Al, dressed like Belzer. All in black. And that same Paul Simon song as his intro theme. The singer, not the late senator.

Gawd i hate that man's voice. He's fat too.

Oh hell, look at those boots. Patent leather cowboy boots. What a fucking fashion disaster.

He's still bitter too. "You win some, you lose some, and then there's that third category." Yuk yuk, same old sense of humor, Al. Nonexistent.

Trying to kiss up to Leno by saying how great Johnny was might not be such a good idea. Should have done your homework, Al.

Commercial.

Leno: "That famous misquote. . . You never said you invented the internet." Heh.

Another lame recount joke by Al.

Now he's plugging Current, his new cable channel. So far his appearance has been as boring as this post.

So his channel will have a show where you can find out the top subjects being searched on the internet. Wow, how original. Yahoo's been doing that for like five years now.

Al's wedding ring needs to be re-sized. He's got the sausage fingers.

Note to guys: short sleeves with a black blazer and gold buttons look cheesy.

Film clip from something on Current: parachutists jumping off a cliff. Okay, hasn't National Geographic Explorer been doing that shit for years too?

Two segments and he's out. Becuz he's a busy guy. What a snoozefest.

Man that dude's got a big ass.

Posted by: annika at 12:17 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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