The Little Old Lady And The Patriots

My mother is a very petite woman. Most of my friends describe her is "cute." However, she also can be a very stern and prim/proper woman. She prides herself on knowing a great deal about social eticate. She raised me from the time I was small to be a "proper" woman. Of course I've discarded most of what she has taught me, but regardless, these social rules are important and provide some structure for her.

Having said this you might expect that she would not be a football fanatic. However, then you would have to guess again.

My mom and I try to go out to dinner every once in a while for a treat, although tonight I had to bring dinner to her because she said she could not leave her house due to the Patriots game. My mom LOVES the Patriots. She attributes her intense interest in the team to the fact that my family has a personal connection to the owner. However, if you ask her about the stats of any of the players she can tell you in a second.

I think her interest in the team goes beyond her personal connection with the owner. I can say this assuredly, because tonight I witnessed my 65 year old mother doing a reenactment of a play I missed. I watched as my mother, a little, proper and rather weak looking woman, went into in a plank position and then up on her knees and then into another plank position, as she played out three people's interaction on the field. It was hilarious! She was so excited that she was getting herself all worked up.

Sometimes during the plays she would tell me about the family and professional backgrounds of the players involved. It was often more interesting listening to her narrative than that of the professional reporters. She made the football field sound like a soap opera, filled with drama and passion.

I am going to be laughing to myself about tonight for quite a while.

Lesson: Do not judge a book by its cover!

How Many Do You Really Need?

A couple days ago, on my way home from New Orleans, I stopped in at the JFK Airport.

There, I witnessed an interesting sight. I saw a regular sized sports bar with over 15 TV's in it!!

It made me wonder, when is enough, enough?

Bye Bye

Off to New Orleans Tomorrow Morn! Most likely will have interesting stories to tell upon my return. However, for now, it's off to work work work until I leave so I can enjoy my time there!

Borat

To relieve some stress due to academic deadlines, I went to see the movie Borat last night.

I will be having nightmares about a scene in which two naked men wrestle for weeks! It was like nothing I have ever seen before. I think the best way to describe it is just DISGUSTING!!

Overall, the movie was offensive on every level and only moderately funny. I was most suprised and perhaps entertained by the male wrestling scene, but not enough to say that I liked the movie. Having said all this, there is something still somewhat funny about the character itself.

Check out this scene where Borat meets Martha Stewart on Jay Leno, It's pretty funny! There are three possible video options, go to the last one on the page: Borat & Martha Stewart on Jay Leno!

Angry

I wrote a relatively long blog the other day called "Half Baked" which was about baking a pie with the residents at my internship site and how it resulted in a funny-looking pumpkin pie.

However, Blogger.com messed up today and did not list it as one of my post titles. The weirdest part is that, despite this fact, when I pushed the "view blog" button, my "Half-baked" post was still there.

Reassured, I went on to create a new blog, but when I published it, most likely because the computer did not have my "half baked" post in the original title list, the "half baked' post was deleted.

Where did it go and how could this have happened? I'm so confused and, honestly, a bit angry!

What Happened?

A somewhat funny discourse occurred between me and a resident at my internship site today.

The resident walked into the reading room for one of my groups and upon seeing my face exclaimed: "My! What a big difference!" She was referring to how I looked out of my costume and with no makeup. I started to laugh and awkwardly said , "Well, gee thanks!" in a sarcastic manner.

She then apologized saying that I looked fine now but I looked much better on Tuesday when I had black eyeliner on. She then followed this comment by asking "Have you ever considered wearing at least a line of thick eyeliner under your eyes on a daily basis?

If you look at the pictures bellow, you will get an idea of how much eye makeup I had on. I think that would be a bit much to wear daily, but she thought it dramatically improved my features. Alas! All one can do is sigh and laugh.

Love My Camera!

I trully feel that I have started to develop a relationship with my digital camera. I can make it do really cool things because I am starting to understand its quirks and attitudes.

Sometimes it skewes the light when it is feeling funky, sometimes it likes the flash and refuses to work otherwise, but the best times are when it wants to work with me without the flash to create fun dark pictures.

Two days ago my camera decided to cooperate with me to create some fun pictures.

Which one do you think came out best?:

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F)



G)

Bourbon vs Gin

Check out the articles on : Republican Strategies and Micro-Targeting

NPR today covered a story about republican micro-targeting strategies in which they are finding ways to persuade staunch Democrats to start voting Republican. How? By looking at what voters buy, where their children go to school and what they do for leisure activities.

Basically everything we do these days is accessible on a public database and Republic strategists are taking advantage of this. For instance, a woman who has always voted for Democrat candidates may also be part of a golf club, have her children in private school and be against abortion. The Republican strategists could find out this information and leave a message on her machine catering to her specific needs - ie telling her about how Republicans support school vouchers for private education, are fighting against abortion etc.

The micro-targeting research has resulted in Republicans being able to predict which voters are more persuadable almost totally based on their consumer data. Specifically, Republicans more often own snowmobiles and drink bourbon, whereas Democrats more often drink gin, the list goes on, it's fascinating!

The curious element is that the Democratic party has not tapped into this strategic approach to the same extent. I hope it is because they are so strong they just don't need to. Hmm . . .