Thank goodness tomorrow's payday.

Wow, it's been wicked busy in work lately. I think the House and the Senate teamed up and said, "How can we drive PDE absolutely crazy?" and decided to schedule FOUR hearings on the same day. One of which (mine, of course) lasted three and a half hours. Gah! And I had to sit and take notes and stay awake the whole time.

I haven't been posting as frequently as I used to... mainly because the new job requires me to do more actual work than the last one, so I don't have as much time to surf the web during business hours. But here's some fun/weird news from the past few days:

Aaron Sorkin is writing the script for a Flaming Lips musical. Okay, let's pick out how many things are wrong with that sentence...

Apparently, you may no longer be allowed to boo at sporting events. Just as long as they don't ban throwing snowballs at Santa Claus (and the opposing team, of course), Philly fans should be okay.

Wise advice from Senator Jim Webb (D-VA): When entering buildings with high security, always hand your firearm to your aide.

Is there anything Google can't do? Now you can figure out where you'd end up if you dug a hole straight through to the other side of the world.

Here's a little more on the Veronica Mars tragedy-in-the-making. Seriously, Veronica in the FBI? Don't we have enough FBI shows? But I'll take messed-up VM over no VM, so I'd still watch it. But I better get my LoVe!!

Maybe VM lovers need to take a cue from James Marsters fans. Apparently, they are mailing their boxers to Shoreline Entertainment, in order to encourage the release of his movie, Shadow Puppets. While I applaud the effort, I find there's irony in knowing that JM does not wear boxers.

And speaking of James, this is the funniest frickin' thing I've ever heard. Bloopers from the Summer Knight audio book. "They can tell if you're from France, they can tell if you're from Spain, they can tell if you're from England. They just can't tell if you're from Latvia, or Estonia... Okay, she's from Latvia.... how do you do Latvian?" Pretty clever, though, figuring out that a European accent you can't place would be eastern European. And I love the random expletives in the middle of the Latin. "Yes, and we could take the two hours to figure it out phonetically, or..."

Say it ain't so!

First, I must begin with some horrible, horrible, terribly foreboding news. Veronica Mars may be getting canceled. Please join me in egging the CW offices this weekend. But, on the upside, it looks like Angel is being continued in the same Joss-approved comic format as Buffy. Hey, maybe Rob Thomas can do a VM comic, since that seems to be the trend.

This is kinda cool, in a disturbing kind of way - they're making a Little House on the Prairie musical. As much as I love Little House (the books and the TV show), I'm forced to ask "why?" Even weirder: Melissa Gilbert (the original Laura Ingalls) and Patrick Swayze are playing Ma and Pa Ingalls.

I don't actually watch Dancing with the Stars, but I've been hearing so much about Heather Mills' leg, I admit to a morbid curiosity about whether it will fall off while she's dancing. Maybe Kelly can weigh in with an expert opinion.

Oh, and how awesome is this - there was a three-way tie on Jeopardy. I love it.

Here's a nice article about how I used to have a really important job. I'm still goggling over Hillary's "thousand donors" at the "second million-dollar-plus fundraiser in three days." We maybe had a thousand donors total... and only did two million dollar fundraisers the entire campaign. Man, I'm a little bit jealous of Kathy right now.

In other political news, I love it when candidates and organizations make their interns wear animal costumes.

And this Peep Research website had me and Teresa cracking up for hours at work today.

Quotes of the week:

Dresden Files
"Who are you talking to?"
"The dead. They hunger for human brains. The feasting will begin at sundown." - Harry

24
"Did someone push you down the stairs?" - Karen Hayes
"No, I tripped over your ineptitude." - Tom Lennox

Black Donnellys
when Kevin complains that there's not enough dinner for him
"Well, you shoulda thought of that before you let Tommy steal the casserole. Have some squash." - Mrs. Donnelly
"I don't like squash. I don't even like saying it." - Kevin

The Colbert Report
"Did you know there's wheat in your ice cream?" - Stephen Colbert
"Wheat? I thought they said weed." - Willie Nelson

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, it's the big 2-3. Don't I feel old? As it turns out, I share a birthday with the guy who eradicated diptheria. Doesn't that just put your life in perspective... Also, yesterday was Pi Day. If you're a big math dork like Becky, you celebrated it. Me? I just like the pie.

Seriously big news: Bravo bought Television Without Pity. No lie. What does this mean?

Your daily dose of random: Because everyone loves a good dolphin story... And in more crazy animal news, someone got the bright idea to give squirrels birth control. Clearly, they didn't get the memo that squirrels are cool.

"Sorry, I'm feeling ambivalent."

Heh... I love Chloe. Watching the madness that is 24... Jack just disarmed a guy with a gun using a belt. Awesome.

Anyway, I found another article about the madness that is the 2008 election. It's kind of interesting (or maybe it's just me) how the campaigns have to change their strategies based on the primary schedule - running a "Feb. 5th" campaign or keeping the money in Iowa and New Hampshire. And of course, the primary schedule changes every week, as states scramble to be influential.

There's kind of a cool article about Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked. I have to admit, I didn't like the book as much as I thought I would. He's realllllly wordy and rambly, in a Victor Hugo kind of way. But I still desperately want to see the musical.

Eliza Dushku is getting a new pilot called Nurses. I don't know if I can see Eliza as a nurse... maybe a naughty nurse. Well, let's just hope it's as entertainingly ridiculous as Tru Calling. Those were some good times. And if you read further in the same article, you can read about the unique, original new series about a vampire P.I. That is, assuming you're not already watching the Lifetime series Blood Ties, about a vampire who falls in love with a human woman. Remind me again why they canceled Angel?

Guess what! The Swiss invaded somebody!

Oh, and by the way, the new Vice President is evil and Ricky Schroder is a jackass. (That was a 24 update, in case you weren't watching.)

One week

Officially survived my first week of work at the new job. Important lesson of the week:
When creating documents that require the Secretary's signature, you must get authorization for said signature. This is in direct contrast with my previous job, where not only was authorization not necessary, but forgery was accepted and encouraged. This may require some adjustment of my moral standards.

I've started answering the phone, which is always an adventure. Generally, it is legislators calling about their whiny constituents' education problems. I swear, the things people call their representatives for these days. But I, like George Bush, am a problem solver. I solve problems - like how to get a copy of your GED transcript or school nurse certification, or determining the best course of action for a teacher being fired for self-defensing a student, or figuring out what the hell PLGIT stands for.

Weirdo constituent of the week award goes to Abigail (name has been changed to protect the identity of the stupid), who sent a letter urging the Secretary to "cosponsor and support" a global warming bill being proposed in the U.S. Senate. Is she confused, or just insane? We kindly advised her that her concerns might be better addressed if she told them to either her senators or the Dept. of Environmental Protection... because as much as we care about global warming, well... they don't call us the Dept. of Education for nothing.

I'm home this weekend for Stephanie's baby shower, and my birthday. Seriously, if people don't stop getting married and having babies, I'm gonna... well, I'll probably start to panic that I haven't made enough progress in procuring the significant other required to do those things. I have four weddings this year - FOUR. And that's not even counting the one I'm not invited to. This is seriously getting out of control.

Speaking of out of control, how about the Presidential primaries? They're talking about moving almost ALL of them up to Super Tuesday, which would be utterly insane. It'll be a total shit show. I really like the idea of the rotating system, where each region gets a turn to go first. It's really the fairest way to do it. Of course, on the other hand, the campaigns are starting so damn early that there's really no reason to draw out primary season... the main reason for not having them all on the same day (like the general election) is so people get a chance to see the candidates tested over a period of time, while catering to a number of different demographics, depending on the state. Having them all on one day is considered unfair because it doesn't allow candidates to build momentum by winning one state at a time, and favors the candidates with the most money. But we've got candidates announcing a year before the primaries even start - that's plenty of time to build momentum and test candidates. And ANY system you set up will favor the candidates with the most money. But it'll still be a shit show.

I really like this article about the role of the Presidency - it's the kinds of questions I'd like to see answered in a campaign, but which will never happen. Instead we will focus on the stuff that doesn't really matter, and that has no impact on how a person will run the country. *sigh* I long for the return of really good debate in a Presidential election. Oh hell, I just long for new episodes of The West Wing.

Since it is the 10th anniversary of Buffy, I would be remiss if I didn't celebrate by posting this EW review from 1997 and an interview with Joss and co. from before the show even aired.

This made me think of Kelly - a NY Times article about the "TV equivalent of chick lit."

And this is quite possibly the most awesome thing ever.

Work Schmerk

Well, today was my second day of work, and thus far the only day that didn't involve a 3 1/2 hour snooze-worthy orientation, so I can definitely say it was my best day so far! Today I went to a hearing about funding an initiative to provide students with laptops, and wrote an analysis on a bill to put panic buttons in schools.

In other news - March 10th is the 10th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! I recommend celebrating by watching as many Buffy episodes as possible, ordering the season 8 comic, and and reading this article - even though they're on crack, because they think that the Angel series finale is one of the best ever. There's also an LA Times article about season 8.

You can also watch the first six episodes of Jane Espenson's new show, Andy Barker, P.I., online. And Drive now has a website. Also, you know those cavemen from the Geico commercials? They're getting their own show. Best part? It's a drama. (Okay, maybe not.)

And finally... Columbia students are protesting Matthew Fox. Kelly, you're better off without them.