We ate our first cutting from the garden tonight. I harvested both the Simpson lettuce, buttercrunch, spinach and India mustard. I also pulled a green onion. We made it into a salad with some fetta cheese and ranch dressing. I thought it tasted alright. And I haven't come down with a flesh-eating virus (yet). I planted a couple of cucumber plants this week and they're starting to come up now.

We are all George Lucas' bitch.

If you're interested, you can stream Get Behind Me Satan, the new album from The White Stripes, here. So far it definitely sounds like a new direction for them.

Well, I have been here for about seven months now, at the new job. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Pretty much total autonomy, seclusion, and full command of my own music-listening! I've got a cubicle in a corner, in the middle level of our administration building. Ruth is my boss, and treats me the way an employee wants to be treated--with respect and without nagging.

Just as a refresher, I coordinate registration for various satellite sites for the adult degree completion programs. We have seven sites, each site with its own directors, assistants, admissions associates, etc. I and one other lady represent all things Registrar for all of the sites. I process all registration, grade sheets, rosters, transfer units, etc. I'm also in charge of tracking our probation students. Yes, I've already kicked several students out of school for their academic performance (or lack of it), and even a permanent disqualification for a student who had already previously been disqualified. Fun times!

The general rule of thumb for this program is that there are always exceptions. This pretty much goes against my OWN general rule of thumb: "You are not an exception." But the funny thing is that I kind of enjoy all the little weird circumstances. If everything went perfetctly, it would be so boring. Sometimes I have to do a bunch of detective work to hunt down professors who don't give grades, or students who don't register, or the notorious professors who don't quite understand the legitimate circumstances for a grade change (long story). Together with my coworker, we enjoy cracking down on students and professors alike. The program has its glitches, and we work to improve them. I'm glad it's not a well-oiled machine, and that it probably never will be completely.

Another thing I've been discovering as I spend more time here: which sites have it together and which ones don't. It's like night and day between some of them. The ones who don't have it together are hilarious. Actually, that why I thought about writing this post:

Today I wrote a site staff member to ask if s/he knew whether a certain student was going through any bad circumstances, since s/he had basically a 0.5 GPA for the term, and technically is eligible for academic disqualification. The staff member writes back, "When you say Academic Disqualification, how serious is that?" Wow. I thought that was pretty bad, the person in charge not knowing what Academic Disqualification was. When I wrote back and explained what it was, I got, "Wow! That's not good!"

Uh. No, no it's not. But at least you entertain me.

Anyway, I'm doing well here. This is the party office, and we have parties at least twice a month. I like that everyone here knows when to have a good time and when to get to work. I'm very satisfied and thankful for where I am right now. : )

Paris Hilton Hack Started With Old-Fashioned Con

When hotel heiress Paris Hilton found out in February that her high-tech wireless phone had been taken over by hackers, many assumed that only a technical mastermind could have pulled off such a feat. But as it turns out, a hacker involved in the privacy breach said, the Hilton saga began on a decidedly low-tech note -- with a simple phone call her own stupidity.

When the Hindu's Riot.

Team America - World Police (Uncensored and Unrated Special Collector's Edition)

Link: http://silentbobspeaks.com

According to this article, the next Sin City movie will be based on Miller's Dame to Kill For. I've read some of this one and it's a great story. It would also include most of the cast from the first film.

Rodriguez added that he wants to keep the cast if possible, which included Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and Jessica Alba. "We'd always thought Dame to Kill For was the story [for the sequel]," Rodriguez said. "It has all the characters. Mickey's in it. Clive is in it. So it would be great to bring everybody back."

I'm excited already. Sin City definitely gets my vote for film of the year so far. In other related news, Kevin Smith had this to say in his blog:

On the ride home, I call Shannon McIntosh at Miramax Home Video to see how my footage for the Cannes reel went over and to talk about the possible “Sin City” signing at the Stash with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller when the flick hits DVD in August.

Sweet. I am so there.

In preparation for this movie (which I created a post about previously, which then disappeared between editing posts on wbloggar and b2e), Ric and I watched Episodes 1 and 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that yesterday we would be all prepared for the final episode in the Star Wars prequels. I hadn't watched either of these in quite some time, and was finally able to come to terms with the fact that I really can't stand about the first hour of Phantom Menace. I was also able to see that I must have built up Attack of the Clones too high before seeing it, because this time around, I rather enjoyed it.

I had never even seen the original Star Wars movies until they were re-released into theatres when I was in high school. So of course, I had a lot of catching up and paying attention to do. I'm finally connecting all the dots of the storyline now that I've seen most of the existing movies a few times each. Thus I'm glad I prepared myself for the third, because it made it all that more interesting.

Honestly, I'm not quite sure why anyone would complain very much about Episode III. The dialog may not have been stellar, but the actors all made it work. The "love" scenes were many times better than those of Attack of the Clones. In watching Revenge of the Sith, I couldn't help but wonder at Hayden Christensen. His character had so much more depth, not only in writing, but in acting. In retrospect, I think some of his annoying characteristics in AOTC might have been more intentional than I first believed. Seeing the difference of his maturity in each film really made the entire story feel more cohesive.

As for how Skywalker becomes Vader, I was very impressed. This wasn't just a story of how Anikan was a snivelling, angry guy who just wasn't meant to be a Jedi. It was about how he was manipulated. It was about how his weaknesses let him get confused. I was surprised and delighted to see that the transition really showed a struggle. Watching him try to decide which side was right... seeing him want to follow proper Jedi protocol while wanting to stay loyal to the Republic and restore peace to the galaxy.. It was more than I expected from George Lucas, to be honest.

All in all, espcially after having just seen the multitude of weaknesses in the Phantom Menace, I was really thrilled with the results of this movie. I think I had perhaps a couple of minor artistic choice/writing complaints, but they were very minor. Color me surprised and pleased!

A memo has turned up that gives some clues about how people are selected for Bush's Social Security town halls. He has visited 26 states holding what appear to be forums for discussion of what the public thinks about Social Security. It's generally known that these are little more than cheerleading sessions made up of pre-screened participants, but this memo shows how specific the Bush camp gets when they're casting for these parts.

The memo went on to solicit several types of people "who he would like to visit with" -- including a young worker who "knows that [Social Security] could run out before they retire," a young couple with children who like "the idea of leaving something behind to the family" and a single parent who believes Bush's proposal for individual investment accounts "would provide more retirement options and security" than the current system.

I've got no problem with the President promoting his plan, but these meetings are a farce. They're dishonest and they show how afraid he is to hear what people actually think. I hope I'm not the only one who sees the beautiful irony in his plan. He's working so hard to drum up fear that the system is about to collapse, but his solution is to have younger workers pay in less, which will create a funding crisis for older workers. And much sooner than if the system is left alone. It doesn't take a Yale graduate to see that you can't actually fix the problem that he's talking about unless you a)increase the retirement age, b) decrease payouts (across the board or by means-testing) c) raise taxes.

(via Wonkette)

Not so good of a logo.

Via Digg

A few weeks back Stacey, Brian, and Amanda came to a missions conference in Long Beach and then hung out with us. Brian and Amanda were here just for a day, and I forgot to get a picture of them. But here are some pictures from the Getty Museum when we went with Stacey:

It’s been a while, but I trust you remember how to play. Here’s something Stephanie said the other day (out of context, of course):

S: “I don’t have ears to hear. I’m a heretic!”

What is Stephanie talking about?