Leave Barack Alooooooone!

Hey, Feminist Hillary Supporters? Still Want to Vote for McCain?

He called his wife a trollop and you-know-what. Granted, as Slate noted yesterday, as passions have cooled, a lot of the Dems who said they'd vote for McCain have calmed down and come to their senses. I think I maybe just wanted an excuse to post this rather amusing video (which is brought to us by the creator of the "Yes We Can" parody vid). Warning: this one is pretty obscene. [Via Gawker]

Hillary is Mom Jeans

Hey, do you guys remember how Michelle Obama is my new Bicycle? Well, guess what? Hillary is Mom Jeans. The website applies 'Hillary' to thousands of little annoying things that don't really matter, but piss us off to no end. It's 1000x funnier because it's so random and mean. Most heinous: Most annoying (especially because people ask me to do this): And, as we all know: Jameil and I spent minutes of hilarity clicking through the site (and making submissions). Mine? "Hillary shows up to dinner parties empty-handed."

The Root

Recently, logging on to Slate as I do every day, I saw an interesting graphic in the middle of the page where there's usually a "clever" illustration or headline. "Welcome to the Root," it read. It's an African American e-zine (do people still use the term "e-zine?" No? Ok, I'll refrain.). The first thing that caught my eye was a piece by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Princeton's own rising star in politics and African American studies (the intersection of two of my major interests). It seems like she's everywhere these days, or at least here on campus and around town. Poking around a bit more on the site, I noticed that Skip Gates was the editor. Hmm. Further exploration revealed myriad prominent African American writers (many of whom are affiliated with the WaPo, The Root's major sponsor) from both sides of the fence. Conservatives, moderates, liberals. In fact, I'd go so far as to say The Root covers every facet of African Americanism. Except one. Afrocentrism/black nationalism are sorely lacking here. I suspect this is due to the following: it's perfectly fine to be proud of being African American, because you're still acknowledging your American-ness. But being afrocentric, being black doesn't leave room for the bit of whiteness (large or small) we share. But hey, it's a Washington Post endeavor, so I wouldn't expect any less. (Note: is it bad that just looking at Stanley Crouch makes me shudder? And this reaction is not based entirely on his appearance.) With that said, this will definitely be on my list of sites to visit on the regular. We'll see. ____ Listening to: Judy Garland, "Stormy Weather."

"i'm into that now..."

I was compulsively checking Facebook yesterday when it occurred to me that I might have a problem. And when I say "compulsively" I mean every-couple-of-minutes-fingers-blindly-typing-in-www.facebook.com-using- sheer-muscle-memory.

And it's not like there was anything new. Sure, a notification here ("so-and-so also commented on such-and-such's photo") or a message there ("you have received a message from random-event-you-weren't-planning-on-attending"); but these were few and far between. Sometimes I'd be halfway through typing the address before I'd realize that's what I was doing, and I'd shake my head, and still press send. Last night at 11:22 pm I was logging on again to the mobile site with my BB and I realized things were getting utterly ridiculous. A ha! I thought. 48 hours without Facebook. The thing is, Facebook is a useful website. I can keep up with friends in California from high school, my people from HU, folks I meet randomly at parties and such, and the people I actually meet on the site. The company has done a great job of integrating real life interactions with the web. In other words, the "cool kids" are just as likely to be found there as the lames and the (forgive me) "n00bs." It's a concept that works. But like any good thing, enough is as good as a feast (this expression being one I heard on Mary Poppins and didn't fully understand for many years). I just need to learn what "enough" is. I've been pretty successful today. I've caught myself a few times typing that "f" into Firefox, but I ended up putting in Flickr.com instead. I know I'm missing stuff, but it'll be there when I sign back on... ...in 27 hours and 2 minutes. ______ Listening to: the band here at the grill. They just covered one of my favorite Harry Connick Jr. covers, "Something You Got."

the neo

I'm about three years into the blog game, but I've fallen off, and it's time to bring it back. For now, the old blog is hidden from view, stored somewhere in Google's vast servers deep within the earth, and I'm starting fresh. Maybe I'll let you read Incommunicado one day, but we'd probably have to be in deeply in love for that to happen. It's a new year, and while I'm pretty much the same as I've ever been, I'm new, too. the neo.