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Doesn’t Israel have a right to defend itself?January 5

No.

Nations don’t have rights. Sorry.

How Cheesy and Predictable of Me!January 1

But I can’t seem to stop myself, so here goes:

LISA’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS:

1. Re-start my workout schedule. Up until last year, I worked out regularly, as in, not just every week but generally every other day. Last year, I think I worked out three or four times a month if I was lucky. No more! Starting next week, I’m back at the gym AT LEAST twice a week. I figure I can’t possibly blow twice a week, so once I’ve managed to achieve that low standard for the month of January, I can crank it up higher.

2. Finish my novel and two short stories by the end of January. The novel is up to about 60,000 words, with an estimated completion total of 80,000 words. However, it is really almost enough done for me to start sending out query letters, synopses and/or the first three chapters to literary agents who are looking for new writers (I have a nice list already!). I have two additional short stories I have already written that are out circulating amongst various magazines, but I don’t expect to hear anything back about them til February at the earliest.

3. Repair the drywall in the downstairs bathroom, put together my two new bookshelves and shelve all my books. Hopefully sooner than just “sometime before December 31, 2009.”

Those are mine…anybody else want to share?

Starting the New Year’s off right with vodka-fueled hope.January 1

So I had my normal uneventful new year’s which generally ends with me reflecting that, although the evening did not end how I wanted it to, at least tomorrow my sheets will still be freshly washed and my bedroom still clean. Part of the reason I haven’t been more aggressive about closing in on my target is that he’s just so gosh-darned more attractive than I am, so of course I feel that he is way out of my league. I am, as far as I can tell, hideous. And I’ve been meaning to blog more anyway. Unrelated statements? Not so much, thanks to Penny Arcade:

I’m sure it was meant to be grim, but for some reason that story about videogame characters giving men self-esteem issues as well had us in stitches. Part of it may be that we delight in terrible realities, our receptors for joy and despair being reversed…

“That story” refers to this article about how men and women rate their own bodies as less attractive after playing video games featuring, quoteunquote, extreme body types.

Richard Harris, (author of the research) said that his research shows that simply viewing the attractive game character for 15 minutes can negatively impact the player’s image of their own looks and body.

Judging from most of the gamers I hang out with, this is not yet a crises of our time: even the one who us

This Christmas, why not give the gift of cultural imperialism?December 29 2008

This was at Whole Foods.

Quoth someone who works there and shall remain nameless: “What the fuck? They put those out? I hid them in the back of the store room. I should have just thrown them away.”

The Daytrader EconomyDecember 16 2008

C’mon Americans, the Fed dropped its rate to .25%! Let’s all ogle the stock market while it wanks off to this latest move that’s sure to be as awesomely effective as every other adorable widdle wate cut.

Actually, .25% is something to behold. Does that even cover the paperwork? Soon I hope to see the Fed giving away money to institutions so they’ll take more money and do… whatever it is that they’re supposed to do with this money that will immediately return us to a state of eternal economic growth. Sports eyewear stores and pet psychiatrists everywhere anxiously await the return of our all-consuming consumerism.

The prickly pear that sticks me about the state of the US economy is that America doesn’t really do anything. Sure, we’ve got the movie industry, a lot of IT companies, and a whole buttload of lawyers to export, but these are not the underpinnings of a sound economy. Americans with capital have been trying to flip stocks and real estate monthly, weekly, daily or hourly to turn profit into more profit via financial shell games instead of trying to build or invest in the building of something useful. Even the ping-pong state of the stock market over the last few months has partl