Did Facebook mess up my hard drive?

Did Andkon?

Did Mazda?

The time for pointing fingers is passed. The time for solutions, both expensive and complicated, is nigh. My poor husband has been working at work, at the Apple store, and at home to fix things. We really need an IT guy (in addtion to: a wife, a house cleaner, a personal shopper/organizer, and more time in general).

I can't even download pictures of the presh new niece, and there is always the slight, horrible chance that all of our data will vanish (again). We did lose all of our iTunes, but I somehow sucked some of it out of the iPod back on the computer.

It's funny how this stuff consumes your life, but it does. Luckily? We're going to write it all off on taxes.

Now for your daily Democratic moment - see this New Yorker article and tell me what you think.

My hard drive, along with my sense of humor and my work ethic, is corrupted.

I plan to get loads done whilst my computer is at hospital: go to Georgia for 36 hours, take all of my pilled sweaters to Goodwill, have a good cry, make meatballs with my daughter, reglaze the tub, and read something silly and fun. Oh, and lose ten pounds. Dream big, I always say!

For now, I'm at work and blogging at work (!) which has many secretive joys. When I go home there will be no computer, which could be a good thing. I did not enjoy seeing Heath Ledger in a body bag this week.

Speaking of that image, go read my buddy's comments about that and doughnut vomiting, and check out my other friends' blogs as well (listed in the bottom left-hand corner). I'll hope to be coming at ya live by Wednesday or so, from the good old eMac. I also ask that you say a prayer to the data recovery gods. And for Pete's sake, people, back up your stuff. It hurts deeply to lose a year's worth of photos, emails, movies, and music. Let me be your cautionary tale.

I first heard the phrase, "Baracks my world" on Will & Grace. I stole it, used it, then quit using it when I decided I was possibly a Hillary girl. (Not because he does NOT Barack my world, but because I didn't want to be an impolite adversary. I would never use something as shallow as looks or presence, or body type even, in a political discourse. No way, not me.)

Now it turns out you can purchase Valentine cards with a variation of the phrase upon them! Just in time for South Carolina.

With all the worries and frets and extra pressure upon Hillary and Barack in their respective ground-breaking campaigns, maybe it's not so bad to focus on something silly and frivolous every now and again.

Welcome, Little Niecelet

8.11!
11:55 p.m.!
1/21!
Get to hold her on Saturday....can't wait.

More Austen hype.

I accidentally invited people over tonight! WHAT was I THINKING...."Northanger Abbey" is tonight. Perhaps those of you with DVR would be so kind as to share your bounty with me sometime this week?

Time was, a Sunday night wasn't complete without a little Simpsons, a little local brew, and some Mulder and Scully....so bring this on!

Even the coolest peeps like "Enchanted".

But will we lurve "Cloverfield"? Or will it make us sick.

Will I be able to sit through "There Will Be Blood"? Or will I need to see the whole movie through my fingers. I've done it before.

The Mac is troubled. My entire music library didn't appear recently. My expression at the moment of realization was something very painful to recreate and may have caused permanent wrinkles. We got it back, but none of our playlists are in the library. Dude. They are still on the iPod but I have the feeling that if we add any music, any at all to the iPod, that we'll lose the playlists. How will we get along without my husband's "Earnest Music"? (stoopid name, excellent mix). I won't be able to recreate "Derby Day 2004" or "Christmas 2006" or "Gum Surgery 2007". The "F*ck Mix" was a classic created by my inlaws, the "Fleurs et Couleurs" playlist started with "Black Flowers" by Yo La Tengo, natch...but what else was on there?

And now Safari is gone. I KNOW Firefox is more cool but Safari was great and seemingly Mac-ish. Dang, dang, dang.

Any advice from you out there with computer saavyness?

What's that you hear? Why, it's the collective sighs of a thousand English-major, smarty girl types.

It Was Bound to Happen

I know, I know...but the more I think about Superbad, the more I like it.

The air smelled like Hawaii today. Then I turned on the tv and Gilad was leading his siliconed minions in lunges with Diamondhead in the distance (from Kapi'olani Park maybe?). No good. So I flipped towards the Weather Channel. Not good either - en route to that channel I got distracted by Cyndi Lauper wailing "Change of Heart" in Trafalgar Square. The song is depressing enough, as is revisiting my freshman year in college, but seeing London on the screen when I'm just not sure we'll get there this year was too much.

Today was a do-gooder day. I drove, with my friend - let's call her "Dakota River" - to a small town west of here (in the torrential rain, not a drop of which seemed to grace my desert town) to visit a woman who was always kind to me but whose main virtue seemed to be that she was old. For your see, I am hard-wired to take care of old people. My mother did it to the nth degree...to the point where her own health and well-being were jeopardized. That is not my ideal model, but when something is in your blood you are hard-pressed to deny the call to action.

Mrs. James is 92. I found out through church records - she would not tell us her age, lest we share that information with her friends at her assisted living center. Despite the years, she was sharp as a tack today. She remembered everything about not only her past life, giving us dates and place names for the many towns where her husband was transferred in his years as a school principal, but spouted information about national politics, local and state issues, and our church, where we met. She doesn't do formal exercise, but she does motor about with her walker all over her living place. She seemed proud to show us where she eats, does activities, and reads. Mrs. James is an avid Cryptoquote and Jumble solver, and reads quite a bit. Is that the secret of her longevity?

Nope. I declare her secret is not worrying. She is a go-with-the-flow kind of gal. She misses our town and our church (and she still donates to causes in both) but she seems well-adapted and very well-liked in her digs. Mrs. James is not exactly an emotive woman, and she certainly doesn't sparkle with wit and laughter, especially at 92, but she is flexible and takes life as it comes. Thus, she is 92, spry, smart, and takes one vitamin, one calcium tab, and eye drops everyday - and that is all.

(I should add that she said growing up in Texas helped her live so healthily. She said they ate a lot of grapefruit?)

The lesson here is: visit an old person. But also? Know me and love me now, because if stress and worry lead to early death, I'm going DOWN.

That Natalie Merchant. Songstress of my youth (along with Sinead, Siouzsie, and Maria), she encouraged me to activism, musical discovery, and a fierce imitation of her that was often featured on WPLS station identification spots.

Now she's floating without a label, and no contract. No wonder, right? Her music is folksy and political, and her voice is a mere whisper compared to others like her, and she can't dance. (Actually, I lurve her dancing style...it's just not very...current.)

So I find an article discussing her six sold-out shows in NYC and I think - wow, good for her, trying out new material, going it alone, and playing live! Amazing. But read the whole article and see that she actually BURST INTO TEARS during a song about New Orleans, and know that the more things change, the more they stay the same. God love her.

Now That's More Like It

I've seen a zillion movies in the past week. Much, much more my speed than the way things have been going.

Tonight: Atonement. Don't tell my book club (if you are in my book club and reading this, I'll see it again, don't worry! But my husband and I both adored the book and he's peevish when I see things without him, and well, you'll just have to forgive me. I reviewed the book when we read it, and I'm the president, so there.) Keira was great, sexy, long, lean, BRITISH, elegant. I love James McEvoy. I loved it - it had beauty and class and color and sweeping waves of cinematic yumminess. Of COURSE I like the book better - but well done, movie adapters!

Friday night: Superbad. You are expecting me to say I laughed until tears ran out of my eyes, and that Judd Apatow can do no wrong (which I generally do think) and Seth Rogen is a genius and etc. but I wasn't feeling it. It's a dick flick, and though I like to say I can swing with that, for some reason I didn't with this film. I did, however, enjoy the hell out of McLovin.

Thursday: Juno. It is SO sweet, and SO tender, and SO snarky/funny....and the soundtrack SO freaking got on my nerves, but I did love it SO. Important! Do read Ellen Goodman's article about it, if you are so inclined that way...

Tuesday: Enchanted. (Thanks for reminding me, A.!) Completely Enchanting. Amy Adams has it down. I was really into it, and desperately into the big musical number in Central Park. WTG Disney.

Tuesday night: The Bourne Ultimatum. Fun, fun, fun, superfun, delicious. I was very pleased all around. Wish I could have seen it on the big screen. I read, in Parade mag, that Matt Damon is so popular because he is an apathetic hero in this laissez-faire age. Bullshit, Walter Scott!

Boxing Day: Charlie Wilson's War. JuJu Roberts looks great in a bikini. She had some interesting eye stuff going on. Philip Seymour Hoffman is stupendous and raises the game of Tom Hanks. The movie didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I could tell my husband was practically reaching climax due to 2 hours of discussion, in SorkinSpeak, about the Middle East. I was able to name that tune, though: during a bombing scene we heard an electronica'd version of "And He Shall Purify" from the Messiah, and having sung that about 20x this season I quickly identified it.

My husband saw No Country for Old Men, and is hoping to see There Will Be Blood. I'm just too much of a delicate flower these days, alas.

Will you forgive me, on this Epiphany, for sharing one more holiday-themed Internet find with you? Who will not enjoy the jolly, high-brow artistry of a slideshow of New Yorker covers???

Panda Bear - Bros

This makes me wanna surf.