That is, my oldest friend since I moved to California.

Suzanne

Yep, it’s pretty much a know-where-the-bodies-are-buried kind of friendship.

And right now, I’m very jealous of her. She is living in Korea, teaching english to a bunch of mostly cute kids. I wish I were in a foriegn country right now. I really do.

Being in another country is a great excuse. You are suddenly allowed to be confused and not quite fit in. You are allowed to enjoy all the trivial tasks in life as if they are and adventure. Going shopping, heck, taking a CRAP can be a mind-broadening experience.

And Su has that blog. She also has free time.

I have a blog, but I do not have free time.

I really really wish I had free time. I feel like I am being swallowed alive.

I already feel like I am confused and that I don’t fit in. But I don’t have an excuse, because I am supposed to know what I am doing and fit it. I just don’t. So I have to cover it up.

Running away to a foreign country has always been my fantasy escape. I usually say “Poland.”

What do I need with all these responsibilities? What are they for, after all? Just to torture me, apparently.

I wish I were living as an ex-pat. It’s just so much more interesting. Then I could torture myself with existential questions and new experiences.

Well, now you all can share my envy by reading Su’s adventures.

I was sick for the last two days. Technically, I’m still sick. But I’m at work so it doesn’t count.

While I was sick, I watched a bunch of movies. I don’t watch movies very often. I usually don’t feel like sitting still that long.

Which is funny, because I can read a book for hours at a time.

But when I watch a movie, I either fall asleep or I pause it and get up to do something else.

I watched I am Sam, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Cold Mountain.

Chris said they were all chick flicks. It’s true, I cried my eyes out at I am Sam. THREE kleenexes.

But I was most looking forward to The Unbearable Lightness of Being, because I’ve read the book. I love Kundera.

The movie was pretty good. Very sexy.

So I picked up a Milan Kundera book, The Art of the Novel.He repeats again and again, The raison d’etre for a novel is to do what only a novel can do.

And what is that, but to stack up words across a page, words to tell about life, what is and what might be?

I think movies don’t have enough words. That’s why I can’t love them the same way.

My site’s been naked all day!
Maybe even longer. I”m not sure what the constaints on Movable Type are.

How embarrassing.

But people are still coming to see what might be there, or maybe to see what old stuff there’s been.

I appreciate your readership. I’ll try to think of something interesting and post it tonight. RIght now, I’m slipping into a coma because I’m tired.

Listening to the debates tonight, I heard Kerry say, “women are earning 76 cents on the dollar compared to men.” This is shocking! I wasn’t sure it was true.

Wireless to the rescue. I looked it up. I don’t see women so much in that role. Unless the guys were making way more money than I thought, I figured it was not quite the story.

But I looked it up. It seems to have some figures behind it. Man, I was hoping that we’d gotten a little further than that.

But this story puts a little thought into the figures. According to her, when you take some important factors into consideration, the wage gap is more like 98%.

Whoo hoo! and Ms. McElroy makes some very good points. I’ve thought about this, in these terms, for quite some time. Leaving aside the prejudicial and sexism stereotypes, what is the major difference between a man and a woman? A woman is the one who bears the children. It takes nine months for gestation. And it takes some time to get over the process of shoving this little person out of your body.

After that, mothers may want to take time out of their career to spend time with the child. A choice that she can make. That is, the lucky ones who have the economic room to not work, or work less for a while. Many women make the choice to have less responsibilities in their career, so that they can be available to pay attention to their child.

This does not diminish a woman’s capacity to perform any of the duties her career may have demanded. The fact is, a choice like that, one that takes a woman out of the running, off the rat race and into the baby track, has wage consequences.

If a man took several months or years out of the prime career growth time of his life to do another project, it is fully expected that he would not be able to walk away with no ground lost. It doesn’t work like that.

And a women should not expect that she can hit pause and step right back in where she left off. That wouldn’t be fair.

If we were to embrace the capacity that women bring to the table, it would be wise to find ways to change the culture of the workplace. Why do we have to work 24-7? Geez.

It would be good to have a jobs that allow for a balance and a challenge. We need that, so that the children don’t get left behind.

But it seems like women are not being left behind so much anymore, and for that I rejoice.

I love my blog. It is so much fun. I am not as diligent as I used to be, writing practically every day. Now, I kick one or two out a week.

But people still come. People are checking it out.

Of course, in silicon valley, I was so behind the times for not having my own website earlier. When I moved to LA, everyone was like “You have your own website?”

It’s just a blog, I would answer.

“A what?”

never mind.

BUT NOW! Blogs are everywhere. And I have one. Even if it’s not particulary political. Anyway, it makes me happy to see blogs mentioned on TV, and advertised everywhere as a matter of course.
Yay blog!

The only question is, will i ever get to go pro? not anytime soon…But Lets stay hopeful

Watching the vice presidential debates. I was mostly doing other things, until I heard Edwards say something like

‘This administration voted against buying drugs from Canada. The current administration sided WITH the drug companies. We will bring drugs in from Canada. We are for the american people.’

This started me yelling.

‘YOU’RE STUPID! YOU ARE SO STUPID! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?’

this drugs are cheaper in canada dealy drives me crazy. Are these guys so short-sighted? Let’s think about this…

Drugs in Canada are cheaper. The same exact drugs! Isnt’ that great! We can just get the same exact drugs from the same exact companies, and just FOOL them into giving them to us cheaper. Because we will get them from Canada. And the drug companies can’t do a thing about it! How great is that! We’ll save SCADS of money.

Maybe this is just an indication that politicians are not very good businessmen. But I think the drug companies of the world, who operate in a free market, would find a way to cover their costs.

Why does canada have cheaper rates? THey’ve taken pains to keep then that way. Canada has a different idea of government prerogatives in medicine.

Is America willing to put caps on the prices of drugs the way that Canada does? Is America, meaning american lawmakers and policy creators, willing to do the hard work of coming up with a workable, sustainable plan for medicine that reflects our american values?

It looks like America isn’t willing to do either. We want the wal-mart approach. Don’t ask what it took to buy sneakers for $6.86, just buy then for all your kids and congratulate yourself on a good deal.

Taking drugs from Canada has major implications. It skews up a trade balance, and puts the drug companies in a new and potentially unprofitable position. Pharmacuetical and biotech companies are some of the few sectors that are still doing okay. Do we need to F* with that, all oblivious of the consequences? aren’t we a little concerned about the health of industry and job generation in america?

Not only that, but all this great research and new treatments for all kinds of things are paid for by the red white and blue. Ask any drug salesguy. Are drugs expensive here? Sure, Some of them are. Are we living longer and being stronger than before? Yes, Decades longer. Do we want to cut off this system that has resulted in amazing advances?

Going shopping in Canada for drugs is a sorry excuse for not taking care of business at home. It’s big deal; the need for medicine is not going to go away. We need to face it and come up with a good plan.

There is a lot of noise around here, Hollywood and LA, about how much a lot of people hate Bush.

The whole Michael Moore thing got everyone talking. Farenheit 911, and all that.

Now, the last Presidential election captured everyone’s interest only AFTER the votes were cast. This presidential election seems to have a little more interest for the public.

Now, I may be wrong, it may be that I am only just now hanging out with people who care about politics. But I am seeing a lot of people, including myself, who are interested in the debate.

Kinda cool.

I watched it, and then I watched it again when it went on the second time.

It was very interesting to see the facial expression and the tones of voices between the two men.

My prediction still stands. I think Bush will win.

This does not mean that I will vote for him, but I have a feeling he will win by a little bit.

I will have to watch the next one. I’m glad that people are interested.