Another reason to love Kate Winslet

As if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind wasn't enough.


I found this on moveon.org.(Love this site but take it's postings with a grain of salt) It really makes you think. I love seeing untouched photos with the actual published ones. It is so disturbing. How can we encourage children to grow up and love and accept themselves when we can't do it as adults or as a culture? Downer.

But on the bright side Kate Winslet is an amazing human. I wish all celebs would take a page from her book.

A feeling of...

Do companies have a moral obligation to the places where they make most of their profits?

I was looking at moveon.org and found out that there is protest planned in Apple stores on June 4th. I have no idea what this protest would look like (how many people there will actually be) but was telling Warren about it mostly because I liked the suggested protest chants (“I can sync my iPhone with my Macbook. Why can’t I sync it with my values?” ouch! biting.) and because they knew how to spark my ire/interest linking unpaid taxes to schools and police men. (I find this to be especially interesting because there is always a Spokane Policeman sitting in the Apple Store when I walk by it.) Warren does not trust the validity of the info on move on so I did some looking around on the internet. Does Apple really want to be a part of this so called "tax holiday"?

Here is what I found.
Apple along with many other big name/big money companies (including Microsoft, Cisco, and other tech and big pharmaceutical companies) are a part of this lobbying group called Win America (sweet name!). Their mission being to influence Congress to "pass legislation to offer an immediate reduction of taxation on income earned overseas by innovative American businesses to allow that money to be brought home and invested in the United States." Now mind you there is no law stating that they can't bring the money back themselves but they are hindered by the fact that they want to make as much money as is humanly possible and not lose any money to taxes. This 60 Minutes report byLesley Stahl helps to shed some light on why the companies choose not to return to the US and keep more of their profits. I like when someone calls the tax lawyers maneuvering, "shenanigans".

Now, I am far from an investigative journalist but I am glad that I was able to find more information and educate myself. I am also left feeling a little hopeless because it all seems so crazy. Trillions of dollars, so much money that I don't really even have a concept of it, money that could really be helping people in the U.S. ( I know that one could also argue that this money would just go towards the military budget which is insanely large and towards politicians wacky agendas). But that money is just a percentage of what these companies made just last year. It is mind-boggling.

It is all so frustrating and leaves me feeling perplexed and a little mad at my iPod. Perhaps instead of protesting on June 4th I will just make a conscious effort not use my iPod. Take that Apple.

The Hills/ Laguna Beach News

Kristin Cavallari is getting married to Jay Cutler, the Chicago Bears Quarterback. Why didn't anyone tell me? I really enjoyed reading about it because after his name they wrote "quarterback" and after her name they wrote "actor?" Sadly that doesn't change the fact that she is famous. I have seen some pictures of them and I don't want to sound shallow (but I will) it seems like she might be getting less good looking by association. I mean despite my feelings about her I think she is generally pretty cute.

Have you ever noticed?

I was reading this article about how teachers are not impressed with Arne Duncan or President Obama. I really like how people are running around talking about the disconnect between one thing and another. Buzzwords are the best!

Baller

Yes, I am a nearly 30 year old woman and yes my husband and I played a two on two basketball game with High school boys in our neighborhood today. Needless to say we lost, however we hung in there for a while. It was fun. I really enjoyed the chance to play again and made quite a few jump shots of which I am quite proud. Every day since
Warren has been on break I have rushed home to hang out with him. I love being on break but warren on break is the best. He is so fun to be around these days he seems so light hearted. I love it.

Life in the Adirondack

I have recently become obsessed with Adirondack chairs. I found cute wooden ones with a matching footrest at Costplus World Market (I love this store. I frequently go there for retail therapy when I have had a bad day) but they were way too expensive. Instead I bought some cheap, plastic ones at Shopko in the same lovely turquoise color. The fit perfectly on the back porch. Now I just need the weather to be a tad warmer so that I can properly enjoy them.

Something Borrowed

My friend Kate loaned me this book and I have been devouring it. I am still in the middle of reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (It was nominated for the Booker Prize, blah, blah. Let me just say that it is no Possession) but I feel that I need a small rest from these "chunkster" books that I have been reading. My thinking behind this is that you can't eat cheesecake every night after dinner (despite how much I might like to try) it is just too rich. Similarly you can't read thick (let's be honest) boring books all the time. Sometimes you need a little lighter fair, and this book is perfect for that.

Allergies

I

love spring. It is wonderful to be in the sunshine, despite the fact that it is making my Kindergarten friends a little nutty, unfortunately it also brings back my old nemesis, Pollen. I am already being bested by the outdoors. Any suggestions for fighting hay fever (a term Warren claims never to have heard before. He called it "another farm disease", which I thought was pretty funny.)? I tried the Neti pot but I hate that feeling of going swimming without actually having gone swimming. I find it to be disappointing and I worry that it is making my sinus unable to work properly by themselves (although that is kind of already the problem).

Castle

So I am not sure if you know this but I think that Castle is one of my all-time favorite television shows. I just finished watching the season 3 finale and it was amazing. I had to tell Warren a synopsis of the entire show (he doesn't care and wanted to watch basketball but he humored me) because I was so excited about all that happened. This show is witty and funny and you get to try to solve a mystery, need I say more. I just love trying to find the answers before Becket and Castle do. Did I mention that there is a love between the characters that hasn't yet come to fruition? This makes for interesting and exciting anticipation and banter. Seriously get on board. You will not regret it.

Hot Yoga

I have been enjoying Hot Yoga at the local yoga place. It is 5 minutes from my school and I love it. They have a killer introductory offer and I am so excited to try to stick with this exercise kick. I went after school one day which was great because it made me extra efficient with my time and forced me to leave school at the end of my contracted day. That was the second time that had happened all year.

Thanks Spokane for making me feel good about myself

So I am finally out of the shame spiral. I went for a run yesterday and my cosmic reward was a man yelling at me as I ran by him. "You can stop running you look good already." And this was the first time that I truly loved Spokane.

Today my cosmic reward was someone honking and waving at me like they knew me. Apparently there are not a lot of people in my area getting out and exercising but I am going to stick with it. I am extremely excited to see what happens next time I get out for some exercise. Perhaps someone will give me some money or free icecream (and I will eat it because I have been told I don't even need to exercise anymore).

Things that have been giving me a chuckle lately

The other day when I was driving around in Spokane and was behind a car with one of these

bumper stickers. The two kids in the back were beating each other mercilessly in the backseat. I really enjoyed it.

I love the little girl in this picture. She doesn't care about the wedding hoopla. It is just too noisy.

Snoop Dog's spelling song. (It is actually called If I was You but I really like all the spelling.) He is just trying to teach you some things.