Hop To It!

THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THE YEAR

2008-08-05T13:03:00.000-04:00

I'm 23 today. Feel free to celebrate in your own way.

Hop to these

2008-07-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

More great posts from my reader. In no particular order, as always.

Sex. Justice. Change - SD Courts: Abortion Providers Must Lie to Patients
Add this to the travesty that is Mount Rushmore, and it's easy to see why South Dakota is rapidly rising on my list of least favorite states.

ABC News - Albino Animals: Ghosts of the Wild
Eerily cool slideshow of all-white animals. Thanks to mental_floss for the link.

Unmana's Words - The 60th Carnival of Feminists
Very nice collection of posts with a special focus on India. Go read it right now!

Sign the Justice for LaVena Johnson petition. Google her if you don't know who she is. Then tell your friends.

Consumerist - Frugality: 7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy
My library also offers free internet access and (even better) free printing up to 20 pages per day. WAY better than the $1.49 per page Kinko's tries to charge.

Five Martini Lunch - The McClane Theory
What do you think about that, chief?

Plurk that!

2008-07-23T20:21:00.002-04:00

Small change in my sidebar. I've given up on Twitter and its bustedness and I've moved on to Plurk. Won't you join me?

Picture it: Indeterminate after-death location, 2008

2008-07-22T22:59:00.007-04:00

I'm just heartbroken that my favorite Golden Girl, Estelle Getty, has died a few days before her 85th birthday.

I grew up watching this show sitting at my Grandma's knee. I didn't get most of the jokes, but I loved watching it with her anyway. I remember running my hands up and down her shins, fascinated at how smooth her legs felt in her nylons. She dressed just like the Golden Girls did.

I always thought (and still do sometimes) that when I get old, I'm going to move to Miami and share a house with three other old ladies and we'll eat cheesecake and crack wise and occasionally confront serious issues, like interracial marriage, AIDS, substance abuse, etc., with humor and hugs.

Update: It seems I'm not the only one who can't seem to pull herself together over this. Here are a few worthy tributes that I've found:

Go Fug Yourself (Including the video of Sophia and Dorothy singing "I Got You, Babe" in full Sonny & Cher costumes.)

Towelroad (Featuring quotes from her Golden Girls co-stars and a video-montage of some of Sophia's best moments from season 1. I loved it when she busted into the kitchen with the big knife!)

Takepart (A top-10 list of her other roles. Also click through for a link where you can donate to the Lewy Body Dementia Association. Hop to it!)

Lifetime, which shows Golden Girls reruns like a million times a day, will be airing a marathon in Getty's honor on Friday, which was supposed to be her 85th birthday. I'll be watching and eating some cheesecake.

Hop to these

2008-07-18T13:26:00.001-04:00

Some of these are a week or two old, but still worth a gander if you haven't seen them already.

This Time Syndrome
Woah. So many times I've shaken my head in dismissive frustration at people who suffer from this very syndrome, but I never knew how to say it. Very well put.

They Bite! Ugly Bug Faces
Gross/Engrossing. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

Favre: "I got the itch." And other anecdotes.
DON'T DO IT, BRETT!

Your work or your life?
Tough call. Will my life pay my bills?

Warning - Habits May Be Good For You
Procter & Gamble, etc. participating in something good? This is blowing my mind.

Still No Justice for LaVena Johnson
I wish the US military wouldn't be so closed up about this, because they're making themselves look soooooo suspicious. Spread the word. Don't let them bury this case.

Figure out how much you should be paid
AND figure out how much you're really worth to your company.

Pardon the Interruption

2008-07-11T01:57:00.004-04:00

No, not that ESPN show where 2 old guys yell at each other. I'm going to be spotty here for another week or so. I'm entertaining some family (aka opening up my apartment as a free crashpad to the chagrin of my mind-blowingly patient bf, so they can enjoy New York City on the cheap) and all of the "Ooooh take our picture in front of this!" does not make me inclined to blog.

Also, I'm lazy.

How to track all your blog mentions

2008-07-05T11:55:00.002-04:00

Bloggers are such attention whores. What else is the point of speedlinking posts? (Actually, I've read every post I link to and want to share them because I think they're awesome. But that's neither here nor there.)

If you want to track down every mention your blog gets out in the blogosphere (hate that word, btw) there are a couple of ways to make sure nothing slips by you.

First, set up a couple of Google Alerts. Here's what I have set up for this blog:

"Hop To It!"
link:hopstoit.blogspot.com
link:http://hopstoit.blogspot.com
link:www.hopstoit.blogspot.com
"hopstoit.blogspot.com"

Adding the "link:" before the address lets the Google spiders know to search for a (you guessed it) link. "Hop to it" is such a common phrase that I set the alert to once a week so I don't have to sift through daily updates of unnecessary mentions. If you have a more unusual blog name, feel free to set it to once a day or as it happens for faster notification. Also important: I put it in quotations so that the search would be for the whole phrase, not just the individual words.

The second thing you should do (if you haven't already) is set up an account with Technorati and claim your blog. They've got their own spiders scouring the internet for blog mentions and you can find them on your Blog Reactions page. Here's mine. Here are a few for blogs that are more popular than mine: The Curvature, The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, Pandagon. Check it every week or so. Sometimes Technorati will have blog mentions up that Google Alerts never finds and vice versa.

The third way to track your blog mentions is by using Yahoo! Site Explorer. Type your URL into the search bar on top. On the results page, click "Inlinks" and then show inlinks From All Pages to: Entire Site. Here's what mine looks like. Here are a few for the same, more popular blogs above that are more popular than mine: The Curvature, The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, Pandagon. I check this every few weeks or so. Note that the results tend to be a little redundant.

So that's what I do to keep track of my blog mentions. Any big ideas or easy methods I'm missing?

Unfreakingbelievable

2008-07-02T21:25:00.001-04:00

I hate Walmart. You already know why: low pay, crappy benefits, sexual discrimination, ruining Small Town America, exploiting cheap Chinese labor, etc.

So consider me floored when I saw the cool new milk jugs, designed to cut down on wasteful packaging and shipping, and found out they were from that big box store I hate so much.

I'm not going to start shopping there or anything, but it's still pretty sweet.

Good Humanity Sunday: I'm just not feeling it anymore

2008-06-29T12:19:00.004-04:00

I've decided that, thanks to my dearth of posting (hey, freelancing is time-consuming!) I'm going to post Good Humanity Sundays on the last Sunday of each month instead of every Sunday. I may change my mind later. See you in a month!

If you've found some proof of good humanity on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

Hop to these!

2008-06-20T18:45:00.002-04:00

More enlightening goodness from my reader. A surprising amount of WTF.

Pro-Lifers Say No to Habitat For Humanity. Click through for a link to contact HfH and express your displeasure at their decision.

The World's Second Oldest Profession. An ode to the genius waitress.

Pro-Life "Ethics" Shockingly enough, they appear to be lacking.

House OKs surveillance expansion, telecom shield. WTF? I'm absolutely contacting my Congressmen and bitching about this. I can has privacy?

Cindy, you brought this on yourself. Also WTF? Republican women make my stomach hurt.

10 Reasons the Diva Cup Can Change Your Life. TAMPONS HAVE BLEACH IN THEM. Hat tip to The Digerati Life.

Teacher Accused of Branding Kid With Cross. Yeah. Seriously. Ugh.

Duo Surprises Drivers with Cash for Gas. I had to end this on a good note. Hat tip to the Good News Network.

Vampire Weekend broke my phone

2008-06-14T22:17:00.010-04:00

I went to the Vampire Weekend concert at SummerStage today. As we were waiting in the scorching sun in line, I was bitching the whole time about how hot I was. Well, actually, my friend was the one waiting in the scorching sun. I was standing like 5 feet away in the shade, but I was still bitching about how hot I was. Really, I'm very fun to be around; I swear.

Then it started to sprinkle and it was so refreshing. I even stopped bitching about how hot I was. And then somewhere during the Born Ruffians' opener, the sky opened up and unleashed a goddamn monsoon on us.

It didn't stop either. I ended up completely soaked from head to toe, including my phone.

Notice how the key lights are on, but the screen's completely blank. LAME.

It was worth it though, because we were FRONT ROW. And I have photos to prove it.

It's ok guys; I'm not that mad. You played a kick-ass show at the very real risk of electrocution, including a spectacular Tom Petty cover with Andrew WK. So I forgive you for breaking my phone.

RIP Tim Russert

2008-06-13T20:10:00.003-04:00

GODDAMNIT.

I didn't really expect to be so struck by Tim Russert's death today.

Flags in Buffalo are flying at half-staff.

I love guys that make it big and still seem so approachable, so everyman.

I'm going to buy his book, or find it at the library.

Fuck.

Very Poor (Failure)

2008-06-11T12:57:00.000-04:00

As a 1930s wife, I am
Very Poor (Failure)

Take the test!

I'm wearing this like a badge of honor!

Don't call me a flatass

2008-06-10T10:02:00.000-04:00

Lots of my friends, most of them in fact, have pretty bodacious figures. I wouldn't put them in the same league as Kim Kardashian or anything, but they have frequently told me about how black guys find them attractive.

I, however, do not.

I'm actually pretty happy with my body overall. I've never had a problem buying jeans from The Gap or Express. I've never had to rummage for the "curvy" styles. Nobody's going to confuse my ass for a shelf.

But I do not (repeat: do not!) suffer from Oregon Butt Disease.

Growing up, my cousin T had what was affectionately called a "bubble butt." Her brothers referred to her not-so-affectionately as "tank-ass." She was understandably self-conscious. And in what is not an uncommon way of coping, she decided that I had a flat ass and delighted in telling me so. For a little while there, I believed her.

And so began a lifetime of my voluptuous friends trying to feel better about their insecurities by making erroneous judgments about my figure. My typical responses being "Oh yeah, I totally wish it wasn't so easy for me to buy jeans right off the rack." or "I can't believe that you just got stuck in a spot I was able to slip through without a problem. I'll go get the butter."

But y'know what? FUCK THAT. I'm not going to apologize for not wearing Apple Bottom Jeans anymore. And I'm done appeasing my friends that need to shoehorn themselves into their clothes.

'Cause I'm hot.

Good Humanity Sunday - 6/8/08

2008-06-08T22:13:00.001-04:00

New York City is caught in the sweaty grip of a seriously bitchy heat wave. So, in an effort to save electricity so desperately needed by my air conditioner, I will keep this brief.

Today's Good Humanity Sunday focus are two of my new heroes: Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson of the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). They've embarked on a cross-country journey to seek out and destroy typos in signs across. And they're awesome. (Yeah, I just started a sentence with "and." So?) They even got a nice writeup in the Chicago Tribune.

You may be asking what getting rid of typos has to do with good humanity. Well, that's easy: good humanity is intelligent humanity. So if you haven't browsed through Strunk & White since Intro to Composition, you might check out Eats, Shoots & Leaves and brush up on proper punctuation. Also, it's funny. So hop to it.

Good Humanity Sunday: The Triumphant Return

2008-06-01T22:49:00.000-04:00

Good Humanity Sunday is back! And the triumphant return brings the very cool site, Just Cause. It's a whole site of good things and I'm crushing on it really hard right now.

The mission of JUST CAUSE is to shine a bright light on individuals, corporations and the change agents who are working for the greater good. To inspire people to get involved, to reveal and help people understand the relationship between charity and community, to educate people about how to MAKE A DIFFERENCE and impassion them to TAKE ACTION; to give them a technology platform to enable that action.

Here are a few articles from Just Cause that I thought were awesome:

Scoring for Children Living with Domestic Abuse: The Joe Torre SAFE AT HOME Foundation. (See what they did there?)

Voices for Children in Transition.

Making Cars Cleanly.

Such a cool site. I totes bookmarked it, and I hardly bookmark anything.

Send me your proofs of good humanity! If you've found some on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

WTF Texas?

2008-05-29T23:26:00.003-04:00

Why do you have to be so sucky that you make the rest of us look bad by association? You would have a polygamist compound characterized by religious zealotry and misogyny in which little girls are forced to marry old men and are then raped and forced to have their babies.

And only you Texas, only you would then decide that your own CPS workers (who shockingly did the right thing despite being from Texas by removing the children from that fucked up situation) had overstepped their bounds and then returned the children to their rapists and oppressors.

Remember when you were your own country? That sounds like a good idea right about now.

Sharon Stone apologizes

2008-05-29T11:12:00.002-04:00

You guys, we can all breathe again. Thank your deities. Sharon Stone has now apologized for her dumbass "the earthquake in China was karma" remark.

Why the outrage, really? Since when do we expect celebrities, especially "sex symbols" (a term I use very loosely) (pun absolutely not intended, you sickos) like Sharon goddamn Stone to be articulate and knowledgeable of world events? Their job is to play pretend. A child's game, turned into a very lucrative career. Stop expecting them to be all smart and shit.

Panties for peace: awesome or insulting?

2008-05-28T14:02:00.003-04:00

I just can't decide how I feel about this. Canadian women are sending their underwear to the military Junta in Burma/Myanmar/whateverthefucktheycallthemselvesthesedays.

"The Panties for Peace! campaign is basically aimed to play on the military junta's superstitious fear that contact with a woman's undergarment will rob them of their power," organiser Mika Levesque of the Rights & Democracy Student Network told IANS.

I hate the word panties. Ick.

Hop to these

2008-05-23T18:17:00.000-04:00

It's a wonder how I find time to do anything else with so much awesomeness going on in my Google Reader.

Feminism 101: On Anger. Can you still call yourself a feminist of you're not pissed?

Drama Joe. Just try not to be charmed by this kid. It can't be done.

NYT Takes on Purity Balls. You HAVE to look at the slideshow.

Harrison Ford Official Chest Waxing PSA Now in Hi-Def. He did it to save the trees, see.

Generation Y has no culture. Teh oldz is jus jellus cuz he sux!!!!!!!1122121

No date, no prom for you! Leave room for the Holy Spirit!

25 Ways to Help a Fellow Human Being Today. Who wants a massage?

Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act. This is one of those bills you might want to contact your Congressman about.

Word to your sunblock. That's happened to me. More than once.

Fuck it! Let's do it live!

2008-05-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

ME (11:51:30 AM): how many times is too many to watch the bill o'reilly flip out dance remix video?

My friend (11:51:47 AM): umm... i don't think there's a limit

ME (11:51:52 AM): ok good

ME (11:51:59 AM): cause i've watched it like 5x this hour

My friend (11:52:04 AM): rofl.

My friend (11:52:38 AM): i love it when people do this

Free anonymous rape kits are not all they're cracked up to be

2008-05-14T18:26:00.003-04:00

Starting next year, rape victims can get free, anonymous rape kits performed at the hospital without having to file a police report. They can choose to file one later, however.

"Sometimes the issue of actually having to make a report to police can be a barrier to victims, and this will allow that barrier to cease, to allow the victim to think about it before deciding whether to talk to police," said Carey Goryl, executive director of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

So I guess I'm happy that the option for the anonymous rape kit exists. But really, how about some goddamn training for the police officers who make reporting so traumatizing for the victim. This is like saying that self defense class will help women ward off attackers, when we know that isn't the case. How about preventing attackers in the first place?

And hey, while we're at it, how about acting like rape is a serious goddamn crime with serious consequences? Let's stop with the "oh, she's lying" or "oh, she just doesn't want to feel like a slut" mentality and just BELIEVE women when they report a crime. Do we disbelieve theft or simple assault victims? No! When no one believes that rape is a serious crime, shit like this happens and my ovaries explode.

Hop to these

2008-05-13T10:01:00.001-04:00

Look what I found lurking in my RSS feed!

Bloggers use filtering to fight back against PR spam. I'm for this. It's spammers like these that give good PR people (they do exist!) a bad name.

On FLDS polygamy in Texas. As told by a former Muslim polygamist.

Heather Mills pledges funds to legless woman, then backs out. Ugh. She sucks.

Need a laugh? ALL WOMEN LOVE YOGURT.

How to make money without a job and why you should. Here's why: so you can give it to me.

Things Younger Than John McCain. Just read the whole blog. You will LOL.

Poultrygeist. Mmmm. Delicious.

He's blind and 78, but this bowler still sees a perfect 300. Consider my heartstrings sufficiently tugged.

Sometimes I wish I had beautiful long blonde hair and ample cleavage. I do! Or I can just say that because this is a (mostly) anonymous blog and you'll never know!

This is the league of STAND THE FUCK UP AND DANCE! Why aren't the Celtics better? Hmm...

Growing pains of the non-Kirk Cameron variety

2008-05-12T17:21:00.003-04:00

Still working out the kinks here. I've been ignoring the comments because I forgot to tell Blogger to inform me when I get them. Duh. Sorry guys! I still care about you!

I've also made it so non-Blogger users can comment, so you do not need to display the mark of the beast to be a part of this club. (I was going for a Kirk Cameron/Left Behind series reference. Too much of a stretch?)

What it isn't

2008-05-12T13:34:00.002-04:00

This is not a personal finance blog, even though I will write about money sometimes. If you're looking for some great personal finance blogs, here is a good place to start.

This is not solely a feminist blog, even though I will write about feminist issues and I'm a badass chick. If you're looking for some excellent feminist blogs, start here.

This is not an environmental blog, even though I'm an evangelist for sustainable living. If you're looking for some green-themed blogs, you'll find some here.

This is not a Gen Y blog, even though I'm a card-carrying member. If you're looking for some 20-something blogs, go here.

So what kind of blog is this? Uhh... All of the above, I guess. Plus some bitching thrown in for good measure.