You Find the Weirdest Stuff When You Google Yourself

I was looking to see if any papers had any announcements from my graduation from Keene State College online, and after not having luck with my search string I just decided to put my maiden name in.

Some of the entries were from my days at The Citizen.  Others were when I was more active in the anti-Scientology movement in the 1990s.  And others were just from random boards I've been on over the years.

Then there was this entry.

It's an academic book on the history of erotic thrillers called The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema.  You can imagine my rather amused surprised when I discovered that she had footnoted a very brief review I wrote on IMDB for a direct to DVD film called Night Eyes 3.  My husband (then my boyfriend) had rented this movie one night, and I had almost forgotten about it until I saw that citation.

I thought that someday I might get cited in an academic book, but not for a movie THAT stupid. :-)

May 20th is "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!"

This was started by Dan Savage, got picked up by Michael Moynihan, and now everyone is promoting it.

So here's the deal.  I plan on drawing my own depiction of Muhammad (don't expect anything resembling anything artist quality -- I'm a writer, not an artist), and am inviting all three of you who read this blog to have your own depictions, as well.  I'll be accepting pictures until May 18th at scooppc11 at yahoo dot com, and make sure to put in the subject line "Muhammad."

Cash4Gold and Consumerist

I'm sure everyone on the internet has heard about this story already, but for those who don't know about it, here it is.

Cash4Gold, who advertises that they pay "top dollar" for gold you send them, is suing two former employees and consumer site The Consumerist over claims that the "top dollar" figure is false advertising. The two employees had posted on a blog and a forum about the practices of Cash4Gold.

Consumerist, now being part of Consumer Reports, employed a different technique to test the employees claims by buying some relatively cheap gold, getting them appraised at pawn shops, then sending them in to Cash4Gold to see what they paid (along with two similar companies). The verdict -- Cash4Gold and the other companies didn't pay top dollar.

Now, to try to counter the bad PR, the Cash4Gold PR person's job has been going into overdrive to try to counter the claims and erase the damage of the story.

Too late. Story's out there all pink and naked.

Moral of the story: don't piss of The Consumerist.

You Gotta Love Crazy Neighbors

(h/t eddiebear at DPUD, via Veeshir)

From Burbia, we have this incredibly insane but funny story.

• Freak neighbor [Paul] complained about his normal neighbor [John] keeping a couple lawn chairs on John's own lawn. John replied with what you'd expect: STFU and, by the way, worry about your own yard which is basically a sh*t-hole.

• Unsatisfied & coming undone, Paul continued -- with a barrage of messages that included a comical "settlement offer" allowing John to keep only 1 lawn chair on his own lawn. John's response: "No"...and then to erect lawn chair towers in his backyard, in addition to discovering for Paul (& town authorities) a leaking underground oil tank on Paul's yard. Not good for Paul.

But wait, there's more! As a summary of the more recent e-mails, apparently John's neighbors are joining in on the fun, as well, and building their own lawn chair towers to tick Paul off. Paul tries to negotiate with John again, saying that his "lawyer," who he admits is not a lawyer, says he has a good case. John informs him that the person in question is a janitor, and he should know because he plays pool with him. But you really have to read the e-mails to get an idea of the craziness of the situation.

This is too entertaining to not keep track of. Especially I'm sure we can all identify with that crazy neighbor on your block.

In our case, it's the woman across the street from us. I don't know her name, but I've had to warn the stepkids not to go on the property because she gets into everyone's business. She likes to watch the neighborhood, and will yell at the kids and the adults if she thinks they're doing something "wrong." Our former neighbors last summer told me that they heard her screaming at her kitten for an hour as if it were a person.

We were fine with her until she decided to mess with us last summer. Not going to say what happened, but we pretty much made sure we had curtains in our windows afterwards.

Blog Gets In Trouble Over Comments that Might Have Been A Set-Up

Over the weekend, Free Republic had a "caption this picture" post featuring President Obama's daughter Malia wearing a t-shirt with a peace symbol on it. Well, a lot of the comments crossed the line when it came to racism, and the blog was forced to take the whole thread down.

I'm not saying this is what happened, but there is something rather fishy about the whole thing.

The guy who reported it for the Vancouver Sun? His name is Chris Parry, and he has blogged in the past under the name "hollywoodoz" at Daily KOS. In the past he had advocated flooding conservative blogs with hate speech so that the site administrators would get blamed.

Is he responsible for what happened at Free Republic? Don't know. Coincidence? Don't know that, either. But it does kill his credibility, doesn't it?

From DPUD:

You know, my first thought on the one comment on the post about the PA swim club here was that someone was trying to do the exact same thing to us. Why I have no freaking clue.

Posted by: alexthechick at July 13, 2009 02:00 PM (SHHaV)

Should Gay Men Be Judging Beauty Pagents?

I really haven't been around to comment on the recent controversy involving snarky celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and his question to Miss California, but from watching it constantly on the news this kept coming up when I was discussing it with my mother.

Actually, there are two questions in here, of which one I already know the answer to. But I wanted to lede off with the main question that kept getting brought up over and over again.

Question One: Should Gay Men Be Judging Beauty Pageants?

I don't know what got in to my mother's head on this one, but this kept coming up everytime they mentioned the story. She didn't think that Hilton should have been a judge because he's gay and he "only likes men." I don't think that the fact that he's gay is an issue at all in this case -- gay men can still determine what an attractive woman looks like. Just because they're gay doesn't mean they are completely dead, or else there wouldn't be so many gay male fashion designers for women.

My problem is not with the fact that they had a gay male on the panel, but that the particular person was Perez Hilton. One, to me he's not really a "celebrity," he's a blogger. Two, he's a bully on his blog -- when talking about the whole incident on his blog he made sure he did what he did to every other celebrity that he features on there -- childishly drew a penis leading up to Miss California. So he has a bit of a reputation. Three, he's an activist -- what's an activist with a particular agenda doing as a judge? I had an issue when Hilton "judged" one of the tasks on Celebrity Apprentice this season, also, because he was not the target audience of the product that the company was going for.

Question Two: Can Miss California Sue Hilton for "Libel" for calling her a "Dumb Bitch?"

This one I also went around and around with my mother about, trying to explain to her that there's a difference between libel and expressing an opinion. Calling someone a "bitch" is not libel. If HIlton said something about her that was patently false, like telling America that she ate babies for dinner or something along those lines, then yes, she can sue for libel. I tried telling my mother that calling someone a "bitch" is not grounds for libel, because if it was I could get sued for everytime I've called someone an "asshole."

But if you venture on to this blog, put your comments below. I'd be happy to get an opinion from people out there.

Other Changes

I decided to delete two of the blogs I started writing because, frankly, I couldn't write to them frequently enough to keep them around -- "The Media Made Me Do It!" and "A Script A Day." I may decide to do those again someday, but not now.

Also, as sort of a way to supplement my writing class that I'm taking this term, I decided to add another blog that I'm going to force myself to write to every day (like when I have some spare moments at night). This one is going to be more along the lines of writing my opinions on my time as an Avon Representative (sort of a supplement and extension to my "Personal" paper project). I figure it's one way I can promote myself, and also I can review products that I try on myself that are new. Haven't thought of a name yet, but I'll post the link under the "Pages I Created" section once it's up and running.

I Know, I Know...

I haven't written here for awhile.

I'm sorry. But an infant keeps you busy. Plus I've gone back to school this term. And I now have two ventures under my belt -- along with now being an Avon representative, I also do insurance transcription during the week as a second job. So far, neither job has brought in too much money yet, but I'm hoping...

Speaking of new ventures -- watch this space for a new one soon. I can't say too much about it yet, but soon you're going to see something different from different authors here at ConChrist for awhile until its official launch somewhere else. Once things are finalized and settled, I'll go into more detail about it.

In the meantime, I'll try to post more in my rare spare moments. I promise.

NH McCain Rally

I was at the door at 4 AM this morning. Then went back to my car 15 minutes later because it was FREEZING!

Around 6 PM I headed back to the door with my son. I had taped some signs to his infant carrier that read "Christopher The Future Plumber, Please Help Me Achieve The American Dream!" From those that were able to see them, they got a huge kick out of them.

I found myself talking with a nice couple who let me stand under their umbrella while we were waiting to get in. I explained that my goal was to get Senator McCain to sign Chrstiopher's onesie so that I had a matching set of signatures. He wasn't wearing it at this point -- after taking a look at it, it was stained with spit-up from the week before, but I didn't want to wash it because then Palin's signature might have gotten washed out or smeared. So I had him in something warmer while I just kept the onesie in my bag.

While I was waiting in line, a young kid who couldn't have been more than 14 years old approached us. He asked if we were moms, then told us that if we wore special hockey jerseys than we could get preferred seating for the rally.

I was up for it.

Of course, I thought it meant being closer to the stage. That wasn't the case.

There were two types of jerseys that were being handed out. One just said "hockey mom" on the back. The other had "Hockey Mom 4 McCain/Palin". I somehow ended up getting the latter. One of the staff people told us that our job was to yell and cheer as loud as we could, in particular if we heard a protestor in the audience. There were none, but we started practicing ahead of time with chants of "USA!", "John McCain!" and (inspired by someone's sign in front of us) "We need a leader, not a great debater!"

At some point during this, we saw the eight shirtless college students come into the arena with their chests painted. Because of the angle I couldn't tell what it was that was painted on their chests, but when they got up onstage it was obvious that it was the word "Maverick." The cheerleader of the Hockey Moms made attempts to engage them in a "Gimme an M!" type cheer.

The one big mistake I made was bringing Christopher's travel system in with me. I had to take it down in order to maneuver the stairs, and store it to the side of the stage and pick it up later. Most of the time I had to hold Christopher during the rally. For a baby surrounded by noise, he did pretty good, only crying during the worst of it. Most of the time he was either asleep or just looking around.

And then McCain came on. It was probably one of his best speeches to date. I think with Joe The Plumber successfully getting Obama to admit that his tax plan was just another form of socialism, it's really energized him into attacking him where it hurts the most -- the current economical issues.

After he was done and he started going through the crowd, I got one of the girls closest to the stage to at least try to get a signature on the onesie -- I had attempted to ask staffers if it was possible, but they couldn't guarantee me anything. So, I waited.

He passed right by the girl, and didn't sign it. Probably thought she was just waving a sign at him. Oh, well. I made one last attempt to ask a staffer, but she said he had already left.

My original plan was to go home after the rally. I opted instead to go back to my mother's house and feed Christopher and myself since I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, and Christopher was crying as soon as I put him in the car and started driving.

But I did get a cool hockey jersey out of the deal. You know how much one costs normally?

Once I get home and can go through the camera, I am going to post some pictures.

An Interpretation Problem

I'm staying with my mother overnight tonight so that I can go to the McCain rally at St. Anslem's College tomorrow morning. I was just going to play a clip of Gov. Sarah Palin when my mother walked in.

"I don't like her," she said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because she's a stuck up bitch," she told me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, she calls everyone Joe Six-Pack, and I'm not Joe Six-Pack."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I work for my money!"

"That's what a Joe Six-Pack is, Mom. Someone who works for their money."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is."

"No, Joe Six-Pack is someone on welfare who lives in a trailer park!"

"No, it isn't, Mom. It's someone who works for a living. We're all Joe Six-Pack."

"Well, that's not how I interpreted it."

"Well, that's what it is."

I should point out that my mother doesn't vote, and really doesn't care about politics. Last time I talked with her about Sarah Palin, in order to engage her in any discussion with her I had to point out that her husband was hot.

It's times like this that I miss having my dad around, because I am sure that he would have some interesting things to say about this election.

John McCain Rally Details

Okay, I am able to go to this one. So expect a post on this rally late on Wednesday.

The details: it's going to be at St. Anslem's College in Goffstown. Doors are opening at 7:30 AM. My mother lives in nearby Manchester, so Christopher and I will be staying with her overnight and will probably leave for the rally at around 4 in the morning.

And yes, he will be wearing the onesie. And I am going to try to get Sen. McCain to sign it.

But I am also going to try to get the local Repubilcans to get on board, too, to either sign it or take a picture with him (or both!).

The Conservative Manifesto

Written by Matt Helm, it's something we should all remember as we go into the final days of this election.

The Conservative Manifesto

If the Communists can have a Manifesto, then we conservatives can have one of our own. Conservatism...

Embraces as its core the concept of the individual as an abstract, rational entity possessing liberty and freedom as natural and inalienable rights.

Believes that all should enjoy an equal opportunity to succeed—or fail—based upon their individual choices, talents, abilities, and the will of Providence or Fate.

Believes in the right of all citizens to participate and vote in open, free, and fair elections in a secret ballot unfettered by intimidation or threats for the candidate or candidates of their choice.

Rejects the notion of equal outcome. While all are born equal, one rises or falls as a result of their own actions and/or the whims of Fate or the will of God.

Rejects the concept of the "social" and its accompanying notions of group rights and collective identities as being a pernicious notion inimical to individual liberty and freedom.

Believes strongly in the freedom of conscience to worship or not worship as one chooses both privately and openly.

Embraces the culture of life in all of its manifestations and rejects the culture of death in all of its manifestations.

Embraces the sacrosanctity of private property and the right of the individual to make use or not make use of the natural resources on his or her own land as he or she deems fit and proper.

Embraces the free market as the ideal vehicle and driving force behind the American economy and calls for a return to the laissez faire principles that made the American economy the greatest in the world.

Believing in the principle that "the government that governs best...governs least" calls for limited government with a true separation of powers between the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial.

Accepts the need for a strong national defense to protect this nation, its people, and their individual rights from enemies both foreign and domestic.

Believing that the right to self defense and to individual liberty is a natural and inalienable right, embraces the rights of all free citizens to keep and own firearms.

Does not oppose the entry into this nation and community of those individuals from elsewhere coming into this land to join us in our peace and prosperity and love of freedom, but we do insist that those immigrants enter this country through the legal procedures as enacted constitutionally through our governing institutions and representatives.

While conservatives do not wish for newcomers to give up all of their old traditions and customs, we do expect those coming to our shores to accept, adapt to, and follow our laws and to participate fully in American society as Americans. As conservatives, we reject the concept of "hyphenated Americans" as divisive and instead embrace the concept that all who are citizens of this great land are truly Americans regardless of race, creed, color, gender, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation.

Opposes any sort of "open border" policy that would allow free and unfettered access across our borders to those who might seek to do us harm.

Accepts that with rights comes responsibilities. As Americans and conservatives, we have the responsibility to exercise our rights in respectful manner and to recognize and respect the rights of our fellow citizens. As Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once stated, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." We accept that, in order for society to function, there must be certain circumscriptions on our rights. However, as conservatives, we maintain that those circumscriptions must be as limited as possible and only to the extent necessary to preserve the rights and properties of others.

Believes that the American experiment is a unique and special one and, while taking pride in the accomplishments of our ancestors, are also humbled by the enormous legacy they have bequeathed to us. As conservatives we are determined to ensure that our progeny have the same opportunities to enjoy their lives in the same freedom and liberty that we and our ancestors have had the good fortune to enjoy.

This is the Conservative Manifesto...or Credo...or Declaration...or whatever you choose to call it. It is who and what we are.

McCain Is Supposed To Be Coming Back To NH

So far it's not listed, but I'm guessing that they haven't finalized anything yet. But hopefully I'll get an e-mail soon on it. If he does, consider this another "Original Content Alert" notice, and I will announce when I am going.

Again, the cute little Christopher will come with me. His unwashed onesie is now waiting in his baby book to be worn again (if I wash it, everything will disappear), ready to have McCain sign, also. Hopefully I can get a picture of him holding the baby, as well.

One thing I didn't think of at the time when Palin was in Laconia was having other local Republicans sign it, as well as having pictures taken with them. So before I leave this rally I'm going to see if I can get them to sign and get their pictures taken, as well.

Follow-Up To Palin Rally

Instead of adding them to the previous post, I decided to put some further observations here. I realized that I wrote the thing so fast just so I could have it up that I left out some fun details.

First of all, to the person with the video camera who took a really good shot of my son wearing his onesie just before Palin started to speak -- what agency are you with? I want to know if the footage was used and where it was seen, if at all.

Okay, some further observations...

-- Here's Granite Grok's take on the event. I am not surprised by the MSM members' reaction to the speech -- they are trying to find anything on her that would be considered an embarassment. But I just remember when I was a reporter and having to cover several Democratic events keeping my tongue in my mouth so that I didn't show any type of bias to my subjects or in my writing.

-- The Citizen of Laconia has their take, too. Reporter Gail Ober said there were about 50 protestors there, but as I was leaving I only saw five -- if it was 50, most of them probably left. Even before I actually introduced myself to Mark Steyn he happened to be walking along with me and a few other people making cracks at the protestors.

-- I had to change Christopher's diaper twice while I was there -- once outside the event, and once inside (in which I pulled a neat trick and managed to do it while he was in the car seat portion of the travel system). While I was doing that, Skip Reilly (owner of a gun shop in Bristol and one of the people in the previous post that I mentioned that I knew from my reporting days) jokingly made the suggestion to keep the diaper to throw at the protestors later. (I had to keep it with me, anyway, just because there were no trash cans nearby I could toss it in -- thank god for freezer bags!)

-- While we were waiting for the event to start, they had this instrumental music on a constant loop. It got so sickening that we asked a staffer to do something about the music because by then we knew it by heart. They changed it to more uplifting, modern music that I found myself singing and dancing to (and got Christopher laughing and smiling). One of the songs was "We Are Family" -- because I was "dancing" with Christopher (I had my fingers in his fists and moving his arms around), I changed the lyrics to "We are family/I got all my babies and me!" I tried it again this morning at home after I fed him, and he was still laughing and smiling when I did it with him.

-- I forgot to mention that security didn't thoroughly check my diaper bag when I entered. I had put my water bottles and tangerines on top just so they could see them and do with them what they wanted. They kept them in the bag. Other than a tangerine coming out of the bag when I grabbed his burp cloth, they stayed in the bag for the most part. The water from the bottle I was sneaking everytime the secret service lady turned her back. I didn't have any money to go get water from the pizza parlor that was still open for the day -- they probably made a killing, along with all the people selling McCain/Palin merchandise.

The Palin Rally

I left the house around 8 a.m. to make the rally. I knew that I was going to have to get there early in order to get a good spot. Of couse, like I said, Christopher came with me. And this is what I put him in.


I thought it was cute. And since he is my son, it automatically is. :D

Anyway, we got there around 8:30 AM and waited in line. Several people who were around me commented on the onesie, because they all agreed with me that he looked cute in it.

While I was in line, I ran into Skip from Granite Grok, and we talked a little bit about bloging in general and the local news scene. At that point they weren't even letting press in yet, so it gave us a chance to talk a little bit. I got some ACORN jokes my way with those who had seen Christopher with me.

Before we could go in, security went over the rules of what we could bring in with us -- no bottles, no hard fruits such as oranges and apples. I asked him quick about baby bottles, and he said those were okay. Which was a relief since I knew that he was going to want a bottle at some point when we were inside.

Once I got in, I got right up front. I ran into a couple of people I knew from my reporting days from when I used to cover their area. It had been awhile, so they didn't know that I was no longer working for the paper or that I had Christopher.

It was a long wait -- on the ticket, it said that the event was going to start at 1 PM. Well, it ended up being more like 2:15 PM when they actually started because she was delayed in Dover (the location of the first rally). By the time she arrived, my back was killing me, I had fed (or tried to feed) Christopher at least two or three more times, and my feet were achy.

But it was worth it.
The crowd was pumped throughout her speech. They were shouting, cheering, and excited to see her. It was like a rock star had shown up to perform at the Weirs.

She hit the points of her commitment to special needs children, the economy, energy, and voter fraud. It was exciting to listen to her in person, and the crowd was pumped to hear her. If this crowd was any indication, if McCain doesn't win, Palin should definitely run for office.

After her speech, my goal initially was to ask her to hold Christopher and have her picture taken with him. Seeing how things were going to work, I had a feeling that it wasn't going to happen that way. So, I had another tactic -- I was going to ask her to sign his onesie.

She took one look at Christopher, and her face just melted.

"Awww, he is the cutest baby!" she said to me. "How old?"

"Two months," I said.

"And what's his name?"

"Christopher."

I asked a staffer to take a picture while she signed it.
I couldn't believe that I got her to sign his onesie!

I had to stay where I was for awhile because I knew that with the number of people pushing to the front to get her to sign I was having some difficulty in getting out. It was a good thing that I had his travel system with me or he might have gotten crushed by the crowd, as well (Secret Service were also telling people to step back because of Christopher). When I was finally able to get through, I headed for the press area so I could show Skip that I got his onesie signed.

While I was there, I also talked with Doug from Granite Grok, as well. We also talked blogs, then he pointed out someone to me that was standing near us.

"Do you know who Mark Steyn is?" he asked.

I did.

"He's standing right over there," he said.

I was impressed. Writers I tend to get impressed with.

On my way back to the car, I found myself walking with Steyn and a few other people. As we approached the drive-in, we talked about the baby, writing and blogging, film, and a few other things. Really nice guy. It wasn't until I looked at his Wikipedia page that he actually lived in New Hampshire.

So I got home later than I thought I would -- my husband was home before I was. He thought it was funny when I told him about my new souvenir.

The onesie is going to get framed. Along with the above picture. It's definitely one for the baby book.

Original Content Alert!

I just got word in my e-mail that Gov. Sarah Palin is going to be in New Hampshire on Wednesday for three rallies. One of those rallies -- Laconia -- is fairly close to me, so I RSVPed and printed up the ticket for the event.

After the rally, I will be posting my thoughts on what happened, and any pictures that I was able to get. I'm going to try to get there early so I can get a good seat, and since I plan on bringing Christopher with me I plan on trying to get a picture of her holding the baby, if I can.

A Note On Doing Product Reviews

Today, I just got my first offer to do an unbiased review of a product on this site from a company. I decided to check out the company, but decided not to for two reasons.

One, the product they were wanting me to do a review on was for a treatment for urinary tract infections. I've only had one in my life, during the pregnancy, so I wasn't the best person to determine whether it actually worked or not.

The other reason is because I'm breastfeeding my son when I can, so I don't want to put anything in my body that could potentially go into the breast milk and affect him.

With that being said, I did want to state that I am not above doing unbiased reviews for products on here, if offered. But there are a few guidelines, so if you are a company that is looking for someone to do an unbiased review of your product, keep these things in mind.

1) My opinion will be totally unbiased. Don't expect me to give anything a good review just because you give me the product to try.

2) Because of the reason stated above, I will not review vitamin supplements or anything considered "medicinal."

3) However, I am willing to try anything else, such as gadgets, baby items, DVDs, etc., and give an honest opinion.

If enough companies contact me on this, the reviews may get moved to yet another created blog specifically for product reviews. Baby item reviews would most likely get moved to Christopher Jacob's Own Little Play Place automatically at this stage. But for now, I'll keep them here.

What I Missed While I Was Out Shopping With Hubby

I come back home to check the blogs, and found out I missed some major goings on.

-- John Edwards admits to having affair with videographer, but denies being father of child. Riiiiight.

-- After this morning's dust up between Georgia and Russia, the U.S. is calling for Russia to cease fire.

Sorry About the Light Blogging as of Late

It's getting close to Christopher's arrival, so I have doctor's appointments galore, plus childcare and childbirth classes (last one of each is on Saturday and Tuesday). And I'm taking a summer class for three more credits towards my Masters degree that is going to keep me busy until the beginning of August.

Today I have some errands to run, so I am going to be out of the house a good portion of the morning. So I'll try to catch up after that.

Another Call Out For Contributors

As of this coming Saturday, I will be 32 weeks, or 8 months, pregnant. Which means in a few weeks I am going on maternity leave.

I'm still looking for contributors who would like to help me out by contributing articles and such for a couple of weeks while I am out taking care of the little one.

If interested, leave a comment here or e-mail me at scooppc11@yahoo.com.