Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

It is totally illegal that Rod Stewart has the number 1 pop album this week. This is what Rob Reed says:

"People do not know how to spend their money. Give it to me. I'll spend it for you."

Rob got a lovely mailing from this moron today. He would like us to know that he thinks that no child should ever be confused by the idea of same-sex marriage and so therefore there shouldn't be any same-sex marriage. There is a very stupid cartoon on the front of it that looks like it was made by a ten year old with scissors cutting and pasting. His two main problems apparently are that:

1. Teachers will be mandated to teach from kindergarten on that homosexual relationships are an equal alternative to marriage.

2. Religious institutions will be limited in their freedom to speak out against certain ethical issues and to govern themselves

Then he wants to point out that he wants to help us by "taking back our right to vote on marriage to protect our children", in addition to also being in favor of charter schools, term limits and lower taxes.

Wow, what an agenda. He is protecting our children from being confused and he is also in favor of charter schools which I think are a horrible idea since we need to fix the schools we already have, and then he wants term limits - on who? He doesn't tell me. And he wants "lower taxes". For who? How much lower? How are you going to make up the difference? What programs lose money? Not charter schools, that's for sure!

Yep, he really bowled me over. I don't even have the energy to go into all the reasons why this guy is just very very wrong.

Pretty funny stuff. The FCC sucks.

Pretty funny stuff.

Here is a really unfortunate story. I just heard on NPR something about some crazy sport in Afghanistan which I missed the name of but they likened it to a version of polo. Then described it, saying the riders (representing different warlords, by the way) flog their horses and each other, and that the goal is to carry a dead goat from one end of the field to the other. Nice. I think maybe this country has some deep-seated issues.

Check out the site that was spawned by a project in Rob's Comp 15 class at Tufts. Yes, he's a little over the top.

Seriously. First, go check out the wide variety of both sane and crazy comments here about the girl who died after being shot by a pepper spray ball from police at a riot near Fenway after the Sox won the pennant.

Now, please also note my earlier post on this subject, here. OK, now this is what I have to say - get ready, it's momentous.

People are stupid and crazy and they do stupid and crazy things. However, let's not get out of control here. Let's read up on our facts before we start calling the police murderers. Even from far away you coule plainly see on the news from the crowd scene in Kenmore square that night, that the crowd was completely out of control. I'm sure there were some people there who were not out of control, but there were an awful lot who were. People were starting fires, throwing all manner of things from trash cans to furniture to pieces of broken windows and signs and whatever else they could smash up all over the place - into other signs and buildings and people. There were fireworks being set off in the crowd by other people in the crowd. There were cops there in riot gear and I think they waited too long to break it up. However, all they seemed to do was push the crowd away and try to break them up. They apparently opted to use pepper spray and this girl that died was accidentally hurt by it. I'm sure that whatever method they were using to do it has been tested and carefully developed and isn't supposed to kill anybody but accidents happen, especially when there is a crowd of thousands that has turned into a crazy lunatic mob.

That having been said, now I'll make everyone mad by saying if you choose to go to Fenway and get drunk and then run around in the streets like an idiot, even if you're not destroying anything, then you made your bed and you get to lay in it. Sorry if that means you might get hurt. People need to get control of themselves. Don't be stupid, it's a bad idea.

Now after all this fuss, if one single person participates in any crazy street rioting surrounding the World Series then I don't want to see it on the news or hear one complaint if someone gets hurt or even killed. You know it will happen anyway because people are so astoundingly stupid.

Don't come crying to me. I hope next time the cops have their billy clubs out.

Check it out.

Don't be sad that you're 30. Just think of it as one year closer to being done with school! Hey, you're closer to being 18 than you are to being 45. I'm just giving you a hard time, 30 isn't old by any stretch. You can call yourself old when you're about 75.

Have a happy birthday! Do something fun! Eat cake and ice cream!

Oh, hooray. I can see why your team that you love so much winning the pennant and finally going to the world series would be cause for you to stumble out into the streets in a crazed mob and start destroying everything. That makes perfect sense to me. Man, I love Boston so much! Let's go wreck up the place! I don't know what the police were waiting for. I don't want to see them gently ushering these idiots away from Kenmore Square, I want to see teargas and billy clubs. Seriously, show me a little police brutality. I'm disappointed.

It's also interesting how I can find very little in the news about this, as if it were no big deal. It looked like a big deal to me when people were throwing furniture through windows, tearing down signs outside of businesses, setting fires in the street and shooting off fireworks into the crowd. I guess I must be wrong.

Not that I'm a fan of the Yankees' fans throwing crap onto the field either, by the way. I just wish people weren't such idiots about sports. Well, I guess I just wish people weren't such idiots period.

I guess Rob had it right. People really are just gorillas who wear clothes and watch TV.

Ha ha. I ask because I have spontaneously managed to fit in size 10 pants again, like in the olden days of early high school. Maybe it's the lower cut waists, I don't know. Maybe someone gets to the store before me and cuts out all the 12 tags and replaces them with 10s. I don't really think that because also all my size 12 pants that I've had for ages are too big now. Anyway, what did I do to accomplish this amazing feat? I ate badly and didn't exercise.

For more on my plan for better health, click below.

Read the rest

I'm not entirely sure yet how I feel about that idea. I guess it's kind of cool because Massachusetts is his state and obviously Boston is the center of politics here, and Copley Square is certainly a good location. However, of course, I have to point out that I tend to have issues with "events" being held at the public library. I won't go into that too much at the moment but will just say that since it's a public library, nobody should be able to book it for private events, especially not during hours when the library is normally open to the public. So you'd think a night-time event would be OK but the more I think about that it's not true. The library is open till 9pm most nights of the week and you know that because of security, etc., the whole day and maybe the day before Copley Square is going to be a mess so I guess now I'm back to having a problem with it.

Well, I guess we'll see what Menino says. It isn't definite yet.

Seriously. I've said it before and here is someone else saying it. I don't think I'm a disorganized person but some stuff about this article rings a bell with me. I don't want the stuff but when I go through the stuff and try to get rid of it I don't know how to get rid of it. I think I need this, I need that, so-and-so gave me that, if we throw this out we'll just buy another... etc. It's really a sad state of affairs. Of course our problem is further complicated by the fact that our apartment is so small now and has so little storage space. I really do just wish someone would come in and take care of it for me and I wouldn't have to look at it. I bet I wouldn't miss anything in about 80% of the boxes we still haven't unpacked from our move. I also wish we had more money. I would just pay my ultra-organized friend Miss Amy Jo to come and organize me. She would help anyway now but I'd feel better if I could pay her and then run away and not be involved. SIGH.

I found these a while ago and might have posted about them to my website but I think it was my old site so I had to re-post this link again. I like them a lot.

I want these too! They're really cool! But get them for Heather first, since it's almost her birthday.

Ok, one more thing... these shoes are totally cute and more polished looking than sneaks. I'd love a pair in every color! Dorky but true. I really like them. But get them for Heather first. ;)

Yarn-crafters of the world - don't pay BR $58 for this, make it yourself! I already wanted to make one but now I really think I need to in order to prove I can. SIGH.

One of the guys in this band bought our laptop from us in the spring and I really like the songs on their website. What do you think? If you like it, I think you can find them on iTunes.

This might seem obvious. But the reason I am pointing out that the US couldn't join the European Union isn't a geographical one. The EU doesn't let any nation join that has the death penalty on the books. I'm listening to a story about Turkey's efforts to join the EU on NPR and they had to abolish the death penalty before they would be seriously considered.

Way to go, USA.

At least that's what the AKC says. Dalmations are supposed to be naturally clean. Whatever that means. They don't mention the brown mouth smudge that comes from who knows where and gets on everything. Gross.

Anyway, here is more information about Dalmations:

The have a great sense of humor and many of them smile when happy.

It's true about the smiling. Billy's sense of humor seems to pretty much be "F-you." He must watch too much South Park.

If I don't get a big pile of money from someone or something (like, oh, the lotto) soon, I'm probably going to start killing people. So everyone should probably start wishing me the best in the monetary department. And also, just in case I don't get a big pile of money, you should probably be really nice to me, because if you're not, then you might be the first to get it.

As usual. Rob Reed says what we need is more math and less Dr. Phil. Check out his post "A Trip to the Bookstore".

Finally, here are my pictures from my trip with my Grandma to my parents' house in Knoxville, TN. There are some funny ones in here. Please note that Rob needs to make me my own template again - this one has links to his site and his email, but they're my pictures! Enjoy!