Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Here are a first couple of photos from my new camera that I just got for my birthday! Emily the kitty and Billy the dog. Oliver was hiding somewhere. They are pretty good, I think. It's a 2 Megapixel camera, which is great for posting online or printing small pictures. We have another camera for bigger prints. It's really tiny and awesome. I can take it anywhere. I'm psyched! Thanks, Rob! As he said, I never thought I'd have my very own piece of technology. It's exciting. What's next? I guess that one might have to wait a while.

It's really too bad he has to worry about us soulless Americans. Actually, he doesn't technically need to worry about me since I'm not Catholic, and therefore it goes without saying that my soul is surely lost.

Duh. Maybe it really is true that to get in better shape you need to exercise and just eat healthy foods. I'm as astounded as you.

Bruce thinks he understood my point but he didn't. I'm not equating America with Saddam Hussein's regime, I'm equating torture with torture. I'm saying an American torturing an Iraqi is no more acceptable than an Iraqi torturing an American. It's not more acceptable because it happened in smaller numbers, it's always unacceptable. Yes, hopefully all the Americans involved will be brought to justice but that doesn't excuse their actions. If you think it's OK to behave that way, then there is something wrong with you. The same thing that's wrong with anyone else who decides it's OK to torture people, including Saddam Hussein.

But then, if you really pay attention, people all over the world are suffering, starving, being tortured, so there's really no point to getting upset about one incident or another. We might as well just go on ignoring each other and sitting in front of our TVs.

That is the question, my friends.

I guess I will choose not to panic but reading stuff like this does put a little pit in my stomach.

If this is true (which I'm not doubting, I just have no basis to know myself) then what an interesting turn of events. God, will the Republican party not stop F*&%ing everything up? Ever?

Dan rocks.

My main point when I linked to this article, by the way, was not to compare Bush to Saddam Hussein or anything, but just to point out how stupid the guy was who wrote this article. Dan makes the point better than I did.

Sorry, but I think that Ted Kennedy has a valid point. I love how we don't think it's OK to equate rape and sadistic treatment of Iraqi prisoners by American military personnel with rape and sadistic treatment of people by Saddam Hussein. What is the difference exactly? That it was fewer people? Did the US military torment them in a nicer way? Is it better to be raped by an American?

Basically, the point is that we stooped to his level. That's the point. If you don't like his point, then I guess that just proves he's right.

This is really fun... my friend Joy, with whom I was on staff at ASP sent me this fun thing she found which was a list we kept of a horrible day we had where many things went wrong, which called our "loser day":

J & J's Loser Day - Tuesday, July 29th, 1997

1. Joy takes longcut
   

2. Group gets FIRED!
   

3. Haul makes funny noise.
   

4. Joy gets sucky drink (but drinks it anyway).
   

5. Group gets fired.
   

6. Family said we did sucky job and don't want us back.
   

7. Genie didn't take lumber (that they no longer need)
   

8. Went wrong way to get to Creasy's first.
   

9. Creasy's doesn't have underpinning.
   

10. Creasy's has 60 lb. bags of concrete. (not 80)
    

11. Can't find "easy to find" glass store.
    

12. Sawdust stinks & so does Rose Musk air freshener.
    

13. Creasy's charged us for 80 lb. bags so had to fix ticket = 20 minutes.
    

14. We see gross dead dog.
    

15. Haul's brake fluid completely empty - Garanimals?
    

16. Stepped in sump pump gunk.
    

17. Joy can't play "Silent Night."
    

18. Brake fluid spills all over car.
    

19. Sawdust in face.
    

20. Turn signal not work.
    

21. We go to West Virginia.
    

22. 84 lumber does not have underpinning or glass.
    

23. We don't get windshield and/or mirror fixed.
    

    BONUS** flirted with 2 car salesmen hotties in Princeton. :)
    

24. "You don't look like no squirt to me. You look pretty DAMN GOOD. Heh-heh." - to Joy @ Princeton Lowe's
    

    ----HELLO, Sexual harassment!
    

25. We have to open account @ this Lowe's apparently.
    

26. We say forget it, pay with check & leave.
    

27. Jenn smashes Joy's fingers with door.
    

28. Jenn closes door in Joy's face.
    

29. 33 mi. to Tazewell, then 24 mi, then 29 mi....
    

30. Joy forgets stop sign.
    

31. Haul makes more noises, runs low on brake fluid again. We crawl under Haul @ WalMart.
    

32. Need to go to glass company to get big window.
    

33. See "easy to find" John's on the way home from Princeton, W.V.

I'm sure most of this isn't funny to anyone, but you have to read it anyway because it's funny to me, and sometimes this site is only about entertaining myself. If you want to know more about each, click "see more".

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Wow, I think a certain governor should look up a certain word.

This is an interesting quote:

"I'm afraid that even some educators have become less devoted to exploring and testing different positions and viewpoints than they are to promoting their own bias," said Romney, who was awarded an honorary degree. "Bias is shallow thinking. If you have life all figured out in neat little packages, you're in Neverland, not the real world."

Mr. Governor, I think it's you who is living in Neverland. And I don't see how some professors wearing an armband to symbolize equality is them being unwilling to discuss different viewpoints. They're listening to your stupid viewpoint, right? But they certainly don't have to agree with it.

"I learned a long time ago that if you want to get anything done, you have to stop everything that you're doing."

If you just want to see a funny picture of me, then go here. But if you want to look at all of Rob's pictures that he's in the process of posting right now, then here is the index page.

We have roughly one zillion more pictures to organize and post. Actually, they're mostly organized so just need to post them.

Bastards! This sucks! In fact, I haven't even read the whole article yet but I'm not pleased. This was an awesome tradition.

I agree that people are riding these things like lunatics, but I don't see why we need to ban them. Can't we just make people follow the same rules they're already supposed to follow for bicycle or motorcycle riding? This is another case where we already have a law that controls it, we just have to enforce it instead of wasting our time making more special laws about it.

One cop says they're hard to catch because you can't chase them in police cars - they ride up on sidewalks, etc. Well, get some motorcycle cops after them. Or horse or bicycle cops. Don't we have enough vehicles for police officers in this city to figure it out?

Of course, yesterday Rob and I almost got killed by some idiot racing down Main Street in Charlestown on a minibike, ignoring a red light.

If only there was a law to prevent people from being idiots. Now that would actually do some good.

Hey, I just sold a laptop to one of these guys on eBay and he sent me a link to their site. Their music is good, you should check it out. You can download their single on iTunes!

Oh my God, doesn't this city have bigger problems than too many cherry trees?

I'm pretty sure it does. Also I don't know whose view they are talking about. I guess I'll have to go over and see for myself. I think a bigger problem the Esplanade has is the fact that Storrow Drive runs right past it. I'd rather look at "too many" trees than any cars.

UPDATE 2006/03/16: Also, if the view that we're talking about is the view from someone's multi-million dollar brownstone in Back Bay, I don't feel very sad for them.

The post office is right. Guess when it's not important to deliver the mail? When you think you are taking your life into your hands. That's when. I love how the idiot from Boston Housing Authority is reprimanding the post office...:

"It's their responsibility to deliver the mail."

Hey, guess what? It's probably the city's job to make neighborhoods safe enough so that the mail carrier isn't afraid to walk into it for thirty seconds to deliver the mail in broad daylight.

And by the way, as Rob is pointing out right now, the comment that "an incident can happen anywhere" isn't true. We are the only country in the world with so much gun violence, but everyone in the world has access to guns. There's something else wrong here, folks.

Maybe Mitt should marry him.

Sometimes you just have to say Thank God for Cambridge.

I think it's awesome that there were tons of supporters and only a handful of protestors. I'm glad there weren't hundreds of protestors there to spoil it.

Congratulations everyone!

Amy and Annette are radio stars!

I'm so glad they can finally LEGALLY do what every heterosexual couple with a pulse have always been able to do.

Congratulations, Amy and Annette!

If MySQL does want a more extreme image, they may want to get rid of the dolphin in their logo. Just an idea.

Don't worry, Dan, they will.

Really. Please. Just shut up. You're wrong.

Rob is working on some new plug-ins for my site so if you notice anything weird it's probably just him futzing around. For instance, right now all my posts say "HELLO1" in them for no reason. That's his fault.

Thanks for working on my site, Rob Reed. Everyone will just have to suck it up. I'm sure my legions of fans will be able to cope.

The most annoying part of this article is this:

"Elsewhere Thursday, a Christian legal group sued the mayor and city council of San Jose, Calif., over their decision to recognize the same-sex marriages of gay municipal employees who wed elsewhere."

What Christian legal group? Why does anyone think there's a need for a Christian legal group? What is the point? To go around oppressing non-Christian people? That doesn't seem very legal.

People like this are not making a good name for the church in general. I mean any church. What is the point of religion again? Oh, that's right. To persecute people who are different from you. I forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

So a woman gets into a car accident and then because of an insurance problem has to walk around with a piece of her skull missing for months. That sounds horrible, right?

Well, please be sure to note that she wasn't wearing a seatbelt, didn't have a driver's license, and was driving under the influence. Oops, you just lost all my sympathy, stupid. The next time you decide to drive drunk with no driver's license and can't even be bothered to fasten your seatbelt, don't come crying to me when your brain falls out of your head. You are a very stupid person.

My Dad is all distressed because his alma mater is offering a minor in video game design.

I say, sign me up!

I can't help it, I truly hate these people.

Hi, I would like to introduce you to an idea - it is called "freedom". As in freedom from oppression. As in freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion. As in you can't stop me from doing something you don't like just because you don't like it.

I wish this country would just grow up. I think that people should pretty much be able to do whatever they want as long as they aren't hurting anyone else or interfering with anyone else's rights. And I don't mean someone's right not to be offended.

Hey, stupid Americans (not that all Americans are stupid, I'm talking to the stupid ones): let's not start behaving like a bunch of drunk frat boys when we're in charge of POWs, OK? I mean, how stupid can you be? Apparently, you can be very very very stupid.

And gee, what a surprise that there might be retribution. Do you think? This poor guy didn't deserve to have his head chopped off, but in general we seem to like to bring trouble upon ourselves. I don't understand it.

Oh baby. My wrath is about to come down on the Friendly's in Charlestown. They close at 10pm and tonight we wanted to get ice cream there so at 9:42, as I was walking down, I called to put in my order so I could just pick it up and go. The person who answered the phone said, "No, we're closed," very rudely. Then I said, "Don't you close at 10?" to which he said, "Well, we don't take ice cream orders over the phone." That isn't true because I've placed them before. Oh, and he's still being really rude. So then I said, "OK, well I guess I'll just be there in a minute." Then he hung up on me.

I planned to go down and confront him and talk to the manager but at the last minute chickened out partly because it's creepy down there and partly because I'm bad at confrontation. But I wish I had. Listen folks, if a restaurant closes at 10, it closes at 10. Not 9:30, not 9:45, not even 9:55. Sorry, I worked in a restaurant and that's how it works. So eat it or get the f out of the restaurant business. Idiots. If everyone would just do their job well, even down to the biggest idiot ice cream scooper, the world would be a better place.

I don't know how many people care about Survivor anymore but I can't help myself.

And after watching tonight's (Sunday's) finale I have to reiterate that Lex is a total ass and he needs to take the proverbial log out of his own eye before he picks the splinter out of Rob's. What an idiot. I'm just glad some people called him on it.

Sue Hawk is pathetic. Jerri is ridiculous. Big Tom makes himself look like a dumbass constantly. I wish Ethan had spoken up and said something about what a hypocrite and a dick Lex is. I like Shii Ann more now after what she said at the final vote and tonight. Alicia - don't even get me started. Someone should sew her mouth shut to make her stop sounding like a moron.

Now the audience gets to vote on who should get a second $1 million. Maybe I should put up a poll about who people think should get it. Hmmmm.

Oh, and I wish Rob and Amber hadn't apologized for how they played. Like Jenna said at her vote, they should step up and take credit for getting to the end. Everyone needs to get over this hurt feelings stuff. It's ridiculous. Every person starts out saying, "It's a game" and ends up getting their feelings hurt and saying that you shouldn't lie and backstab, etc., even though that's basically the only way to win.

It will be interesting to see who wins the second million.

My, how ladylike of you. I never understand why people take pictures of things like this. Do you really think that what you're doing isn't wrong? Or do you just think your stupid friends will keep the pictures under their hats? How dumb are you, exactly? Can it even be measured?

"I hear people saying things about technology every day that I wish I could kill them for."

• Rob Reed

Seriously. Sorry, Friends, I know I'm supposed to love you, but for about the last 9 of your 10 years you haven't been that funny.

All I know is that people like Heather who are in grad school get lots of respect from me. Whatever issues I have to deal with at work and trying to keep our messy apartment clean, etc., are nothing like having 6 finals to study for and take in the next ten days.

Likewise, Rob Reed, though he only took one class this semester, is a superstar for pulling through and coming out with an A... and for getting such perfect test scores at the end of the course... 2 100% and one 99%. That's awesome!

I am scared of the day when I may go back to grad school. It might not be a pretty sight. Maybe I'd better make something else work out for me.

I'm wearing high-heeled sandals with wooden heels that make kind of a lot of noise in parts of our office because we have hardwood floors in the halls, etc. So this was a conversation I had today.:

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This guy really needs to quit it. What a creep-o! Dude, nobody is flattered by this kind of attention, it's creepy. Take a hint, Heather doesn't want to hang out with you for "some fun" and what business of yours is her life anyway? Why are you making creepy comments about how she's a sex maniac?

Good thing she's coming here this summer so we can protect her. Maybe psycho Sam will find a new person to stalk.

So my super-smart boyfriend got a 99% on his third test in his class this semester, and he gets an A in the class! Good job, Rob Reed! I'm proud of you! You did awesome!

Unfortunately it appears that our illustrious president's great public speaking abilities are catching, a la this quote from a White House spokesman:

"This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday night.

Check out the whole article here.

So you should go check it out.

As Dan points out, this is unbelievable. Some affiliates, conveniently owned by a broadcaster who is a Bush supporter, decided that saying the names of the Americans who have been killed in Iraq is designed to undermine the president's plans there. Guess what, Bush, everything isn't about you, you stupid asshole. All the news program did was read the names - it didn't make any statements about the war one way or the other. Get over yourself. God, I hope you're not re-elected.

I missed my friend Sara's baby shower on Sunday. I'm such an idiot. I got an "evite" about it at my work account a couple of weeks ago and accepted. However, it seemed so far off then that I didn't set any reminders for myself or put it in a calendar or anything.

Then I came in to work this morning and had an email reminder from Friday night at 8:30pm about the shower which was YESTERDAY.

I was even thinking about her upcoming shower over the weekend, but I thought it wasn't for another week or two. Maybe my brain knew somewhere that it was in fact this weekend but it wasn't smart enough to tell me in a clear enough way.

Sorry Sara! Now I'll have to make you extra nice baby gifts. SIGH.

Hey everyone, guess why I don't ride crazy roller coasters?

OK, that's not the real reason. I'm just too scared of them. I don't like the feeling of my stomach dropping on the hills, etc. But regardless, this doesn't inspire any confidence and make me want to try any.

Happy Birthday, Patrick Shawn Murphy!

Our president is just FAN-TAS-TIC, isn't he?

If you don't think it does, you're just wrong. I just got my first spam comment. Now I have to remove it. I had to take down my real email address too and put up a spam-blocking email address on my site. Why do people have to ruin everything? The people who really ruin things are the idiots who actually respond to spam, making it worth the effort for the spammers.

So, if that's you - knock it off!