There is something slightly sickening about potential home buyers taking a bus tour of foreclosed houses ... Check it out.
Or, go straight to the source -- http://www.repohometour.com/
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Would an alpha female settle?
Two quasi-depressing articles came my way today.
The minor article of the two comes from a NY Times review on two diametrically opposed guidebooks for women who want to succeed in the business world. One book, entitled “Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman at the Top,” says flaunt what you got and leverage your sensuality and flirting abilities to manipulate men. The other, “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business” (written by a "reformed alpha male") says don't be a man but be more ruthless. I didn't realize there was still a market for books employing such grossly over-used stereotypes.
The major article I want to draw attention to is from The Atlantic Monthly -- called "Marry Him!" In it, a 40-something single mother tells women in their 30s to settle for Mr. Good Enough and forget about Mr. Right. It wasn't quite the 30 minutes of soul crushing that I was warned about, but then again, I'm not exactly as thrilled to be single as I was before I read Ms. Gottlieb's piece. She does put forth valid and pragmatic insights -- for example, especially in light of the recent spendfest we call Valentine's Day, there is certainly something to be said about today's gooey, over-romanticized, Hallmark-propagated perception of love and marriage. And, since we all settle to some degree or another, we might as well settle while we're younger and have access to a larger pool of men. Then again, I don't quite understand why she is focusing her efforts on finding a man rather than focusing on how to live a fulfilled life as a single mom. Yeah, it's hard but no one says marriage is easy either. Both statuses come with pros and cons, so you might as well make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in.
Regardless of my thoughts on these books or this article, it still seems clear to me that we simply need better men ... and more of them. Or we could follow the advice that I sang oh-so-many year ago in my high school production of Guys and Dolls -- "marry the man today ... and change his ways tomorrow!"
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Aude Sapere: V-Day
So, the Saudis have banned the color red for Valentine's Day. An interesting spin on a mostly ridiculous "holiday."
But it got me thinking about other parts of V-day ... like what exactly we will buy with the nearly $17 billion that Americans are projected to spend tomorrow. Chocolates, for example. 40 percent of the world's cocoa is grown in Cote d'Ivoire, which also happens to employ 100,000 children in hazardous conditions on the fields. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of those children have actually been enslaved and trafficked into the country to work there.
Not so lovey-dovey, eh?
Still, I shall not leave you feeling guilty about wanting to shower your loved ones with something special (although, I will say that there are still 322 more days this year when your loved ones want to feel loved too). Thanks to the Brits at the Department for International Development, you can spend like the American you are and have a guilt-free conscience. Check out the chocolates from Ghana, produced under fair trade principles that support small farmers.
But it got me thinking about other parts of V-day ... like what exactly we will buy with the nearly $17 billion that Americans are projected to spend tomorrow. Chocolates, for example. 40 percent of the world's cocoa is grown in Cote d'Ivoire, which also happens to employ 100,000 children in hazardous conditions on the fields. Between 5,000 and 10,000 of those children have actually been enslaved and trafficked into the country to work there.
Not so lovey-dovey, eh?
Still, I shall not leave you feeling guilty about wanting to shower your loved ones with something special (although, I will say that there are still 322 more days this year when your loved ones want to feel loved too). Thanks to the Brits at the Department for International Development, you can spend like the American you are and have a guilt-free conscience. Check out the chocolates from Ghana, produced under fair trade principles that support small farmers.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A good day
Despite a minor meltdown last night under the pressure of impending deadlines, summer internship hunting and a head cold, today was a good day.
I started out with a stop at my neighborhood polling place, where I was lending support to Barack Obama and encouraging folks to vote. And I brought folding chairs for the Obama volunteers to rest on. That was my civic duty of the day, seeing as independents can't vote in DC primaries.
On my way to the Metro, however, I saw a large group of people congregating on the corner. Rolling my eyes at the prospect of fighting through the crowd to reach the station, I steeled myself toward the center ... and then noticed the television cameras all around ... and then noticed that in the very core of the circle stood Barack Obama himself! Kicking myself for not getting a cell phone with a camera (and hating Blackberry for including one in my model), I waited to shake the man's hand. Which he did. Firmly. And with a piercing eye-to-eye gaze that kinda made my stomach flip in a good way. Seriously, the man has a way of making you feel like he would remember meeting you in this fleeting moment even months later. I excitedly texted the news to my sister, who then promptly called to say that she had been watching him on TV and had been looking for me in the crowd when she received my message.
The day at work was rather unremarkable, save for the fact that I met a man in his late 20s who has never been registered to vote. I just don't understand it. Voting is a privilege and even if you can't find a candidate to support, why would you so freely disregard or decline that privilege?
Classes were rather boring too. Except that during my last class of the night, my phone buzzed with the good news that Obama had won Virginia and Maryland and was likely to win DC (no surprise there). My camera-less but email-enabled phone redeemed itself.
Glad to be at home finally, I just came across a link to Senator Clinton's speech when she cast her now infamous vote for the President's Iraq resolution. And I just want to say that I'm so glad that the Democratic party has the luxury of choosing between two incredibly talented candidates (but please don't screw it up from here). Obama is hands-down the more inspirational of the pair, but reading this speech gave me a new appreciation for our first viable female candidate. And it helped counteract my exasperation with the Texas delegate system.
So, 24 hours after the mini meltdown, I'm not materially closer to landing a summer internship, my deadlines have not been pushed back, and my head is still clogged. But I'm glad to be here in the nation's capital during the most exciting U.S. election period that I've ever seen. It was definitely a good day.
I started out with a stop at my neighborhood polling place, where I was lending support to Barack Obama and encouraging folks to vote. And I brought folding chairs for the Obama volunteers to rest on. That was my civic duty of the day, seeing as independents can't vote in DC primaries.
On my way to the Metro, however, I saw a large group of people congregating on the corner. Rolling my eyes at the prospect of fighting through the crowd to reach the station, I steeled myself toward the center ... and then noticed the television cameras all around ... and then noticed that in the very core of the circle stood Barack Obama himself! Kicking myself for not getting a cell phone with a camera (and hating Blackberry for including one in my model), I waited to shake the man's hand. Which he did. Firmly. And with a piercing eye-to-eye gaze that kinda made my stomach flip in a good way. Seriously, the man has a way of making you feel like he would remember meeting you in this fleeting moment even months later. I excitedly texted the news to my sister, who then promptly called to say that she had been watching him on TV and had been looking for me in the crowd when she received my message.
The day at work was rather unremarkable, save for the fact that I met a man in his late 20s who has never been registered to vote. I just don't understand it. Voting is a privilege and even if you can't find a candidate to support, why would you so freely disregard or decline that privilege?
Classes were rather boring too. Except that during my last class of the night, my phone buzzed with the good news that Obama had won Virginia and Maryland and was likely to win DC (no surprise there). My camera-less but email-enabled phone redeemed itself.
Glad to be at home finally, I just came across a link to Senator Clinton's speech when she cast her now infamous vote for the President's Iraq resolution. And I just want to say that I'm so glad that the Democratic party has the luxury of choosing between two incredibly talented candidates (but please don't screw it up from here). Obama is hands-down the more inspirational of the pair, but reading this speech gave me a new appreciation for our first viable female candidate. And it helped counteract my exasperation with the Texas delegate system.
So, 24 hours after the mini meltdown, I'm not materially closer to landing a summer internship, my deadlines have not been pushed back, and my head is still clogged. But I'm glad to be here in the nation's capital during the most exciting U.S. election period that I've ever seen. It was definitely a good day.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Super Fat Tuesday is over
I still barely understand the whole electoral college setup and now I have to figure out this crazy delegate system!? Sheesh.
We hosted a last-minute Super Fat Tuesday party last night and lemme tell you, it was getting heated all up in the 764 Lounge! Supporters of various candidates all showed up and the healthy debate ensued. I think the most heated topic of the night was whether the Bill Clinton comment that dismissed Obama's victory in South Carolina and compared him to Jesse Jackson was cruelly calculated or innocently blurted out. I hope people who don't live in the DC metro area also host Super Tuesday parties. It makes us a little less dorky.
But I write for another reason! To share the Gang's 20 hour trip to Punxsutawney, PA to see Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog last weekend.
Yes, dear readers, we went, we drank, we conquered!
Sort of.
Along the way, there was a 50-passenger bus with an ornery driver named Tony, multiple rounds of "Asshole" on the aforementioned bus, too many cans of bad beer, long johns, handwarmers and multiple layers in 20 degree weather, mullets (LOTS of mullets. Big mullets.), a Twist of Faite, 27 shots of Jaegermeister on a silver tray, a near-death experience with a gigantic groundhog cutout in a diner called Lily's Restaurant, and 30,000 crazy people on a big hill freezing our asses off for a 45-second glimpse of a bucktoothed rodent. You can barely even see the thing in the photo.
And after all that, the damn thing told the Grand Poobah of the Inner Circle that there would be six more weeks of winter. Yeah, evidently, that whole shadow thing doesn't really happen - according to the official Groundhog Day website, Phil predicts the weather and tells his forecast in "groundhogese" to some white guy in a top hat.
I say it here, once and for all: I will never again go to Punxsutawney. Ever. The town is made up of four streets, three bars, and many bright yellow school buses. That's about it. I'm wholeheartedly convinced that the city rakes in more money on that weekend than the rest of the year combined. I wonder where they spend it all. Groundhog food?
We hosted a last-minute Super Fat Tuesday party last night and lemme tell you, it was getting heated all up in the 764 Lounge! Supporters of various candidates all showed up and the healthy debate ensued. I think the most heated topic of the night was whether the Bill Clinton comment that dismissed Obama's victory in South Carolina and compared him to Jesse Jackson was cruelly calculated or innocently blurted out. I hope people who don't live in the DC metro area also host Super Tuesday parties. It makes us a little less dorky.
But I write for another reason! To share the Gang's 20 hour trip to Punxsutawney, PA to see Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog last weekend.
Yes, dear readers, we went, we drank, we conquered!
Sort of.
Along the way, there was a 50-passenger bus with an ornery driver named Tony, multiple rounds of "Asshole" on the aforementioned bus, too many cans of bad beer, long johns, handwarmers and multiple layers in 20 degree weather, mullets (LOTS of mullets. Big mullets.), a Twist of Faite, 27 shots of Jaegermeister on a silver tray, a near-death experience with a gigantic groundhog cutout in a diner called Lily's Restaurant, and 30,000 crazy people on a big hill freezing our asses off for a 45-second glimpse of a bucktoothed rodent. You can barely even see the thing in the photo.
And after all that, the damn thing told the Grand Poobah of the Inner Circle that there would be six more weeks of winter. Yeah, evidently, that whole shadow thing doesn't really happen - according to the official Groundhog Day website, Phil predicts the weather and tells his forecast in "groundhogese" to some white guy in a top hat.
I say it here, once and for all: I will never again go to Punxsutawney. Ever. The town is made up of four streets, three bars, and many bright yellow school buses. That's about it. I'm wholeheartedly convinced that the city rakes in more money on that weekend than the rest of the year combined. I wonder where they spend it all. Groundhog food?
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