Anogete's Journal

The moral of the story is that journalism is in the crapper. Let's just all make up stuff.

As if you didn't have enough social networking sites to juggle, I'm here to tell you to sign up on another one. Go to Last.fm and create an account. I promise it is easy, especially if you use iTunes to organize your music. It transferred my entire library and number of song plays to my account in a matter of seconds. It allows me to look for people who enjoy the same sort of music in an effort to find more music I might like. If you sign up, my username is anogete, like always. Be making with the friendlies so I'm not lonely.

Question for you tea drinkers and/or British folks out there. And if you're from the U.K., and my question is ridiculous, forgive the poor American. I love Earl Grey, and I'm under the impression that is one of the most popular teas. I've always steeped a cup from tea bags from the whole foods store or the market, never loose leaf. I've tried many different brands, and they all taste like Earl Grey to me, with very slight differences. There is a little tea shop I go to now and again for loose leaf tea. They sell their own mixes, and I've rarely been disappointed with the quality. However, I had never purchased any Earl Grey there. Today, I felt the hankering for it, so I dropped in and bought a loose leaf bag of it and some apricot-peach black tea as well. I whipped up a cup of the Earl Grey as soon as I got back to the office and was aghast. I'm very familiar with what I believe is the taste of Earl Grey. It's comforting to sit down with a cup of it. However, this recent purchase was not what I have always known Earl Grey to be. It tasted nothing like every other brand of the tea I've tried. And now I'm wondering if I've been fooled by all the other brands I've had or if the tea shop is completely off base or terribly artistic about their Earl Grey. It had more of a licorice flavor that overwhelmed the bergamot, if the bergamot was even there at all. It even has a bit of an anise taste. Don't get me wrong; I like it. It just isn't what I wanted. Have I been mislead all my life? My tongue is sad. Twinings is a favorite brand of mine, and I like their Earl Grey. They're based out of England, and they're reputable. They couldn't possibly have fudged their formula so much; the fault must lie in the tea shop I went to. Right?

God, that was dull, wasn't it? On to more interesting and/or risque things...

I found this article to be interesting, yet also disturbing and rather frightening. The basic gist is that a group of men were asked to complete a survey that rated their attitudes toward women. Then they were shown pictures of various things, foremost being women in different attires, while their brain patterns were monitored. They found that men who rated as "hostile sexual" (i.e. misogynists) reacted to bikini-clad women as if these women were objects, not people. The portion of a person's brain that interprets another individual's intent did not activate because they did not view the woman as a person, but an object. Yikes. The article did make mention of possibly reproducing the study with women instead of men as the test subjects, and I think that would be fascinating, especially considering my oh-my-god moment with the picture from yesterday. I can honestly say that I was all about that fellow's intent when I was looking at that picture. I didn't see him as just an object, and I'm not sure that I could if I tried, but maybe I'm just fooling myself.

I'm exhausted, and I'm going to crash on the floor of my office if I don't get out of here soon. Stress is rebounding off the walls of this building, and I can't seem to dodge it. This entire week has been trying, but today was especially so. We've been bidding work left and right, without anything to show for it due to the current climate of the construction industry. I just spent the entire morning hunched over a typewriter filling out government paperwork and transcribing thousands of prices. My usual workload was pushed aside until this afternoon, which means I had to work twice as hard to get it completed. I suppose I could shove it off until next week, but that just leads to more work on Monday, and I don't have time for that. Tomorrow doesn't look much better than today, unfortunately.



And, you know, my entire day is made worse by the fact that I finished A Game of Thrones last night. I loved it, but I'm super duper depressed because I hate when characters I've grown to love die. I'm totally bummed.

During a moment for mental health this afternoon, I read this interesting article on work place sexual harassment. Specifically, sexual harassment directed at men from their female superiors and other women in the office. Working in a construction company, the sexual harassment from men is bound to happen, though I've never experienced it done in front of me while I was in the room. I have heard tale of certain individuals making comments about me or one of the other three women in this office, but it is never done in a harassing or insulting manner; it's usually meant as a complement. Then again, the crude things probably never get back to any of us girls because the boys know better. Has anyone experienced this in their job(s)?

I don't have or want children, but I was appalled at this news story. I don't see how any mother could make the statement this woman did by saying, "I need my job more than I need my child." The general gist is that she works the overnight shift at Wal-Mart and says this means she only sees her daughter about an hour each day. For the reason, she wants to give up her daughter to whoever will take her. Fortunately, it appears that this woman's brother has stepped forward and asked for custody of the little girl. I couldn't give up my dog just like that, so I don't see how anyone could give up their kid just like that.

Jason and I watched Salò, an Italian film from 1975. Can you say crappola? It has been touted as one of the most controversial and disturbing films ever. I found it incredibly silly and worthy of the MST3K treatment. Once you take away realism, any subject matter loses its disturbing qualities. However, if you want to see copious boobs and penises, then definitely give this one a shot. However, if you do not want to see people eating poop (yes, poop), then you probably want to pass it over. There are quite a few poop-eating scenes with sexual undertones. Ewww. I'm just sayin'...

Okay, going to bed now. I've had my double shot of NyQuil and a large mug of chamomile tea. Oh, medication, I love you.

I was checking the news before going to bed and saw this article on CCN's website...

Bus Passenger Beheaded Seat Mate

I don't know why, but I found the article to be extremely disturbing. Well, I do know why, but I'm usually not terribly bothered by these sorts of stories since they're plastered on the news every single day. This one just really got to me, made me extremely uneasy, gave me (bad) goosebumps. Just the circumstances and the fact that the attacker proceeded to cut off this young man's head while warding the other passengers away with a butcher knife. God, that's so effing creepy. I don't want to go to bed because I suspect I'll have nightmares about it.

A few months ago, I watched What the Bleep Do We Know?, a documentary/film about quantum physics/mechanics. It was fascinating, but some of it just didn't register with me. However, when I saw a copy of the extended edition while out shopping a couple months ago, I bought it. Jason and I sat down and watched half of the documentary footage (about two hours) this weekend. My mind is completely blown. Why isn't this stuff - these experiments - being reported by the mainstream media? Why aren't people losing their marbles over these discoveries? I still find it difficult to wrap my mind around the concepts because they contradict what we've been told to believe all our lives.

( total weirdness behind this cut )

My cold is almost gone!

Jason and I went to see The Golden Compass this afternoon. We both enjoyed it very much. Although, I was a bit miffed that they didn't end it the way the book ended. Everyone should go just to see Sam Elliot steal my heart as Lee Scoresby.

I managed to bang out 3,000+ more words on the SS/HG Exchange fic. I hope to have it completed and sent to the beta by Tuesday evening. Here's hoping...

There were some further developments on the incident I mentioned in this entry. Apparently, the police have managed to find the two young men who they believe murdered the elderly couple three blocks down the street from me. They're magazine subscription salesmen from Dallas. Their motive is still unknown, though I suspect they found some cash in a purse and lifted it for their own purposes. I'm still completely disgusted it the entire situation.

Oh, and I have the cutest flippin' dog ever. He sleeps on my pillow while I'm playing around on the computer. I looked over and saw him giving me this look:

( criminally cute )

Ellen Degeneres Sobs Over a Dog

This breaks my heart. I adopted Ferguson from an agency run in a similar manner. If I could not keep Ferguson, I promised to return him to the adoption agency. If I violated the contract in any way, I was required to pay the agency $1,000. This makes sense, and I understand why that is included in their adoption contract. However, poor little Iggy was obviously in a nice home and being well cared for. Why couldn't they just fine Ellen and perform a simple home visit on the family Iggy is with now, without yanking the dog out of the house with cops waiting in the wings? Ferguson severely disapproves of their course of action.