pinketysocks

with super tuesday looming, i think we should all feel reassured to hear that marvel comics, after killing captain america a year ago, has brought him back - in a manner of speaking. hope springs eternal. we can all go on.

10 things baking soda can do ... and when you consider that a box of baking soda is 33 cents, wow! what a steal. o how i love useful things.

this is cool too -- if you have extra (unused, please) dental floss sitting around

ok, so i'm sure i'm as vain as the next girl -- but this, this is bigger than that. we're stuck in our skin for our whole life -- here's how to take care of it.

but good skincare isn't worth anything if you can't get off the airplane in one piece. so here's how to escape down an airplane slide (because, Time Magazine, there aren't enough truly newsworthy events happening these days. Ledger, the economic stimulus plan, the presidential election, Britney Spears custody battle, Valentino's leaving -- does any of this ring a bell?). Well, safety first, folks, safety first. (ok so honestly i think this article is ridiculously cool).

also. i think im going to vote for McCain -- i mean if I have to vote republican. which i don't. because texas has an open primary. so i MIGHT vote for Obama (especially if clinton is in the lead after super tuesday), but McCain is my republican choice at present. fyi.

so i'm back in graduate school. and as usual i'm out of my league. i'm not sure how i keep managing to get into these situations that are so clearly beyond my comfort zone. i'm scared of the other people in the class, and i miss my old MA days, with the sense of cameraderie that came from having the same 8 people in class every week.

this is different -- now i have classes with 3 people from the english department (and, for those of you who understand this inference, they are of the cool-modern-lit-kids kind) who sit impassively staring at the 5 of us who are in the iSchool. the iSchool isn't humanities -- its things like digitization, data management, information architecture, library science, manuscript conservation -- the study of the preservation and dissemination of information. maybe the other iSchool kids were glaring at the english kids -- i couldn't say. i was too busy being terrified.

and seriously should i know that I.A. Richards coined "new criticism" ? seriously? sigh. how did i miss that?

don't get all confused. i follow the presidential election like i follow the world cup. i'm not a fan except in election year, and i'm obsessed with the rotation and primaries much more than i care about the actual result. i registered to vote much like i wish i had bought a world cup ticket. iowa was a good caucus. i'm kinda jealous of all those iowans, getting to be in a caucus like that... im thinking about moving there for the 2012 election. maybe. can you take fandom too far? i don't fault new hampshire too much -- we knew they were going to be unpredictable. crazy state -- all made up of independents -- that's gotta be intense. obama and clinton -- its like a fight in the middle of the field. things get messy when theres this much power at stake. michigan's primary is today. wyoming had their republican primary... kinda like those games where andorra plays ...anyone. no one really cares much. 

some thoughts on our nation:

i'm literally speechless. (the ultimate must-see)

things that you would not do at home / come naturally on the floor"

actually, they don't. they don't at all. they come less naturally than anything else i can imagine. i know this because on saturday, i took waltz lessons. and although waltzing doesn't come close to being natural, i am proud and uber-excited to say, i learned how to do it. okay, so i'm definitely not a whiz at it, but i got all the basic steps down, and provided a dance partner didn't try anything too tricky, i could totally work my way round the room without making a complete fool of myself.

the lesson was actually a lot of fun. there were more people than i thought there would be -- as it turns out, that was because saturday night was the Great Waltz Ball, and lots of people were honing their skills. or acquiring them. grace and i went, paid the parking meter, and trotted around the room. because there was a slight shortage of guys, we rotated partners the entire time. i personally appreciated that, because i got to dance with some very accomplished waltzers who offered no end of advice, and a few total novices who confused me slightly :) but everyone was super super nice, and in the end grace and i were really glad we went.

i wish i had known about the ball earlier; i'd have loved to have gone. but getting it together with so little notice proved more than a match for me. next year maybe. i'll keep practicing my steps until then.

so. the questions of the day are

1. why is it so annoying to people when other people say "sorry" all the time? seriously. this is fascinating to me. there are lots - and i mean lots of lots - of things that annoy me about people i know. but really, you just have to overlook things and like people or dislike them based on real reasons. and i think most people operate under that kind of standard. but when it comes to the repetitive apologizer (which i sometimes am), people feel totally free to be annoyed. and free to tell me that they're annoyed. i think thats what i find so interesting. like i dont tell my friends the things they do that annoy me. one just doesn't DO that. but with saying sorry a lot -- everyone feels free to say "ok thats really annoying." so first of all, WHAT is it thats so annoying? is it that it forces the responder to say "no problem" over and over again? is it that people are generally annoyed by timidity (i know i am, curiously enough)? and secondly, even if it IS annoying, why do people say so, even though there's lots of other annoying things that we DON'T outright condemn.

2. did i really get sore arms just from thinking about lifting weights tuesday?