Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Brian bought me the foot massage gizmo I asked for the other day. Isn't he so nice?

It just arrived at my office as a surprise and it's so awesome! I love it, it makes my foot feel 100% better while I'm using it.

Thanks, Brian!

NYC is proposing a ban on trans fat in restaurants.

They tried a voluntary ban recently, but have decided that's "not good enough" and that trans fat is as dangerous as lead paint.

Well it's not really comparable, people. Lead paint isn't a fatty food I can decide to eat or not eat. In fact, it's not a food at all. And if you eat lead paint I guarantee that's worse for you than eating trans fat.

Regardless, this is ridiculous. There are already enough ridiculous laws in place if you ask me. Stop trying to "protect" me so much, thanks. This is America, it's supposed to be a free country where people have choices that they are allowed to make. Granted, sometimes they might make bad choices or choices other people will disagree with, but since we're not (yet) ruled by our Chinese overlords, we still live in a democratic society where freedom is supposed to be more important than safety.

Yes, more important. I've talked about this many times before but it's still surprising to me how many people seem to not notice or care or apparently, disagree with this statement.

Here are what some famous people have to say on the subject:

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves." - Thomas Jefferson

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln

"Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Do you think it's silly that I'm so upset about a city banning lard? It's just one more straw on the proverbial camel's back, folks.

Dude, I don't even know what that word means or where it comes from. I sort of get what it is when people do these on their blogs and you KNOW I can't resist something like this.

So, OK, AJWP, here's my 4 words meme:

Bruise:
This makes me think of how when I was on college my junior year I inexplicably seemed to be getting a lot of random bruises on my arms and I also lost some weight when I was too broke to buy fast food and stopped eating fries for every meal. My psychotic co- dependent friends convinced me I had leukemia or something so I went to Health Services and made them do a CBC on me. No cancer. A tiny bit anemic. Um, yeah.

Pickle:
Two things - "Anybody want a pickle?" which only "Menace 4 Society" members will understand, and the following adventures of a pair of random (clean!!!) lost underwear we found in our house and proceeded to "give" to each other with, among other things, pickle juice on them. They even got mailed to somebody's house over break.

Second thing: AJWP and fried pickles. I finally tried them over the summer and I have to admit - very delicious.

Dream:
Nothing that striking comes to mind other than the fact that Rob Reed apparently only dreams about computer stuff because he always talks garbled nonsense in the mornings about passwords and servers and other stuff like that. Sometimes it will be mixed with unrelated stuff but usually there's computer nonsense thrown in there.

Asshat:
This is just a fantastic insult and it reminds me of another favorite of mine, ass-eyes. Great visuals for both.

I'm not continuing it because I don't think anyone will play with me, but hopefully at least Miss AJWP will enjoy mine.

Oh my God, we're so stupid.

AJWP, I never knew that "Sisyphus" was really "SSFFS", like, just an abbreviation. Did you? Ha ha ha ha!

Also, this week from SSFFS:

This Week : Spiderman vs. Legolas

I can't even address this on any level at all. AJWP, Legolas is an elf from the Lord of the Rings, because I know you won't know that.

Also.

Oh, baby. I was so sad last year when Rob and I left our house and walked past Knit Out 2005 and I was all, "Knit out!? What's that? I want to do Knit Out!" and Rob was all, "You can do it next year, we're going somewhere." because we were - lunch or a movie or something. But I was sad to miss knit out.

So now I'm such a spaz that I barely even read a word on their website, I have only noticed that it's in 2 days and so I better figure out what it's about if I want to go there.

Is there free stuff? Is there cheap yarn? Even if there is, I'm not allowed to buy it. SIGH. Still, free stuff - that's fine. Are you just supposed to sit there and knit? Because I have some knitting to do people. Holidays are coming and I have my own first sweater to finish.

Oh baby. If you want some cheese-y ridiculous bubble gum movie fun that's even more unacceptable than Bring it On, you need to watch this movie.

It's pretty funny. The acting is crazy ridiculous, lots of things about the movie are completely inplausible, but it's entertaining.

The main character looks like she's about 8 feet too tall to be a gymnast by the way.

Feel like getting me a Fall Celebration present? Early Christmas? Late birthday? Halloween? Maybe Columbus Day to celebrate my Italian heritage. Ha ha.

Well, in case you do, I could really use this foot massager, since my right foot is KILLING ME due to, as I have self-diagnosed, plantar fasciitis. If I could have this under my desk it would really help to be able to roll my foot on it I think during the day.

And, on another note, just as necessary, though not because of a medical condition, is a new straightening iron. Seriously, especially in the humidity of the summer, this is a lifesaver. I know summer's almost over but if I want to look decent with my dumb curly hair, I either have to get expensive haircuts or be able to put my hair up without looking like a kindergartner (which is what I tend to look like when curls pop out all over the place) straightening helps a lot.

Why do I need a new one? I left my last one in a rental car on my way back from a company retreat. Genius.

So anyway, if you're feeling generous, please go ahead and donate! Ha ha.

This just makes me depressed. I feel like the whole world is sliding back in time. Seriously, is it turning into the second Dark Ages? What's going on?

Dear churches: You can tell people whatever you want to in church, when they go into a museum about SCIENCE then the SCIENTISTS get to tell them what they want. If they don't want to learn SCIENTIFIC FACTS they can avoid the museum. Just like if I don't want to hear your garbage about who is evil and going to hell I don't have to go into your church. See how that works? It's magic.

I mean, what is your explanation for the fossils? Were they placed in the museum maliciously to undermine your religious beliefs? Or is it possible that your beliefs are just about as far-fetched as you believe all those are that preceeded yours?

Apparently not only was the 2000 election stolen, so was the 2004 election. But I guess everyone was bored with it by then.

I mean, I'm not exactly an expert on the subject but this is some pretty damning evidence. And I find it depressing that it wasn't really covered at all by any media. I had no idea there was so much craziness going on. I briefly heard something about Ohio but I didn't know it was anything like this.

So today at work I brought in homemade cupcakes. Now when I say homemade cupcakes I of course mean that I made them at my home from a mix in a box, requiring me to dump powder in a bowl, add 3 eggs and some oil and water and mix it until the lumps were gone. Not particularly challenging or dependent on talent.

People at work were raving about them like I was a master chef. It was crazy. I mean they were good, hey, I love a good cupcake, but it was cracking me up. I kept saying, "Thanks, that's very nice, but they're really just from a mix. I didn't do anything special."

Oh, and the frosting? Just a package of cake frosting right off the shelf. Not even the kind you mix up yourself.

So funny.

OK, so I'm with this guy and I think it's really funny that it's so hard to find the info. You would think that this would be in a travel guide of some sort other than the "for dummies" variety, but apparently not.

Well if you're not eating at the moment, check out eHow or WikiHow for answers.

No, really. This is one of those things that gets me all amped up and makes my brain kind of melt a little.

Do we not learn any lessons? We're now going to fill outer space with junk? Or to be more accurate, surround the planet with junk until we look like a floating garbage barge?

Why are people so ridiculously dumb?

Really, do I even need to say anything else?

• Category: Pet Peeves
• Subject: Verizon

That's really all I need to say, right?

Rob Reed first downloaded Franz Ferdinand music from iTunes a little while ago and it's so catchy and good.

Also, if you want to feel smart, one of the songs on their album that I link to at the left is called "All For You Sophia" and it's about the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which I was too dumb to remember was cited as the cause of WWI. Read about the guy who pulled the trigger on Wikipedia here and you'll find reference to the Franz Ferdinand song.

My favorites from this album are:

• Take Me Out (you may recognize this from a Sony PSP commercial)
• All For You Sophia
• Words So Leisured

I just get the songs stuck in my head.

Is it just me or is having survivor-led tours of ground-zero kind of messed up?

I think it's weird and creepy.

This might be one of the most annoying things I hear people say "wrong". I hear people say, "Sooner than later" all the time instead.

The phrase is "sooner rather than later" as in "it would be better if you took care of this sooner (ie: earlier, as quickly as possible, pretty soon, today) RATHER THAN later (ie: instead of later, rather than waiting, etc.)"

If you change it to "sooner than later" it makes no sense.

If I said, "I'd prefer tea rather than coffee" I couldn't take out "rather" and still have the sentence sound like I know how to speak English, right? "I'd prefer tea than coffee" makes no sense.

Please people, use the entire phrase. It makes my ears bleed when you say it wrong.

I think my iPod is playing mind games with me. I have 300+ songs on it and it's set to randomly shuffle them. It just played Alana Davis' "32 Flavors" followed immediately by Ani DiFranco's "32 Flavors".

Weird.

Oh praise the lord, the students are back. Yes, they are screaming drunkenly from precarious perches on fire escapes in my usually quiet neighborhood. Yes, they are wandering drunkenly in the streets screaming lyrics to songs at one another at 8:30 on a weeknight.

Yes, they are a horrible plague descended on the city.

Anybody know a good city with no colleges or universities? I know there must be some students that aren't total morons but unfortunately you get the bad with the good. SIGH.