How Duran Duran ruined my world (and still secretly rocks it)

While poking around the internet on a lazy afternoon, I came across the VH1 online box set of Duran Duran videos. Interspersed between the videos are commentaries from band members. I think I was 11 when I first fell in love with Duran Duran, and I’ve never looked back. Well, I have, hence the perusing [...]

A tribute to my former life . . .

I just saw this compilation on a gossip site, and I knew I had to post it myself.
I have two basic reactions to this video. One being that I feel a bit sorry for these girls, as I know how humiliating it is to screw up on a stage. Two being that I feel a [...]

New fiction - but beware, it’s a little NSFW

I’m posting a link to a new fiction story by my author-boyfriend. It’s good, but it’s a bit dirty. After all, it is published by Nerve. However, this is a big deal. It’s literary smut, people, and it pays.
So, as I’m putting the finishing touches on my uber-serious article on bird flu, please check out [...]

Procrastination, Part Deux

Well, I still have that article to write on bird flu. I’ve managed to do some more research, gather articles together, and I even know what I am going to use to ground and structure my argument. However, I still haven’t written anything. Oh, I have some lame segments, perhaps the beginnings of an introduction, [...]

Affordable Apartment Hunting

When you are looking for an apartment in an overly-crowded city with a high standard of living, your life can quickly become frustrating and unbearable. I lived in New York City for about 8 years, so I know this rule of modern life well. However, I was much younger then, and I’m trying to be [...]

The 10 Driving Commandments

OK, I admit that as a baptized Catholic (clearly not a practicing one), I could not resist posting this.
Today the BBC reported that the Vatican had just issued the “10 Commandments” for driving (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6768395.stm), as part of the “Pastoral Care of Road Users”. This was something that I could not resist checking into, as both [...]

The Negative Side of Having “Potential”

Summer is stretching its long arms out in a near mind-crushing expanse of potential. Classes are over, the days are longer, and I have a summer stipend which means I have nothing but time and sunshine in which to write. I have no deadlines and no one expects me to show up for work at [...]

How to Survive a Road Trip

Having just completed the long journey from New York City to Berkeley, California, in a car, I can tell you that road trips are difficult. You see a lot, you do a lot, you are stuck in a space that is four feet by four feet for hours at a time. Some of it is [...]

Pig Death Mystery Solved

I take it back. There is disease news to disseminate from the road.
Officials in China have confirmed that the microbe causing the mysterious epidemic in Guangdong, in which 300 pigs have died, has been identified. According to the Xin Hua news agency, it’s apparently a common pig illness called ‘blue-eared pig disease’. The People’s Daily [...]

Year of the Golden Pig - with an ironic twist . . .

The New York Times reported last week that an epidemic was killing pigs across the border from Hong Kong in mainland China, in two areas in Guangdong province.
This is ironic because this is the year of the pig in China, and the mystery disease allegedly began to surface immediately after the New Year celebrations. I’m [...]