greater flight security
all you have to do is fly naked.
posted by Leila on 10/18/2001 | link | 0 comments

robot luv
new product releases focus on inanimate objects that feel emotions and develop relationships, like this car that cries and this toy cat that adjusts its personality based on its owner.

posted by Leila on 10/18/2001 | link | 0 comments

our copywriter needs some editing
from our propaganda on the airwaves in Afghanistan:

"Attention Taliban. You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death. The Armed Forces of the United States are here to seek justice for our dead."

ordinarily I'd restrain myself
but there was something so icky about seeing male-sized lace panties that I just had to share them with you.
posted by Leila on 10/18/2001 | link | 0 comments

the new place
for those of you who've asked about our new apartment, here's something Noah wrote about it. (note: I think he meant I can't stop talking about the laundry facilities.)
posted by Leila on 10/18/2001 | link | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 17, 2001  
yoga moments
it's before class, and I'm chatting with the gender ambiguous woman who I often see in the studio. she's telling me that she's preparing to travel to L.A. for the two-month Bikram teacher training program that's about to start its fall session. (Bikram is the name of the founder of one of the styles of yoga that we do.) I tell her that I hear Bikram, in spite of his enlightened practice, can be a real dick. I repeat the story I heard from a friend that Bikram once claimed his three favorite things were 'cars, money, and pussy.'

"well," she says. "I like one of those things."
posted by Leila on 10/17/2001 | link | 0 comments

ghosts don't phone home
this article on decreased ghost sightings over the last 15 years is interesting, not just for the novelty factor, but because there's an actual physical connection between the unusual electrical activity that scientists think cause events perceived as "paranormal" and the electronic noise produced by phone calls and text messages.
posted by Leila on 10/17/2001 | link | 0 comments

guys, take note
this is the sort of email we want to get from our love slaves:

We have 6 tickets to the pafff.org opening night movie at 7 pm at the Spangenburg Theater. After enjoying our cinematic experience, we will be attending the tubs at Watercourse Way in Palo Alto at 9:40. You bring the toys and I'll bring the protection. :) Ha!

the clownmobile's history
got this in an email today about my friend Jamie's funky wheels:

back when i first got the car, i took it to circuit city to get a stereo installed. a young man came out to appraise my car. he walked to the front, jotted a couple notes on his clipboard. walked to the back, took a couple more notes. walked to the middle of the car, looked in, turned to me, and said, in his most official Circuit City manner:

"You could do a lot of fuckin' back there."

i swear to god ;)

the "aw!" factor
this is funny.. plus it's kinda cool.
posted by Leila on 10/17/2001 | link | 0 comments

danger comes in all shapes and sizes
"Push comes to shovel: The Modesto Bee reported not long ago that a shipment of miniature gold-plated shovels destined for a Stanislaus County road opening was stopped by customs at the Canadian border. The little shovels were held as possible terrorist tools and later released, but not in time for the miniature road work." (full column)
posted by Leila on 10/17/2001 | link | 0 comments

Monday, October 15, 2001  
leases, wine and torture
what an odd set of activities. between dealing with a fever, signing our new lease, surviving a partner yoga workshop with all limbs intact, making it to a wine tasting and the last day of the torture museum, my head simply can't put all of this weekend's events into any sort of order. cacophonous.

but yes it's true. we signed the lease. Noah read every single line and wrote in clauses. sometimes it's nice having someone around who's more careful than you. wish us luck. we are so very happy.
posted by Leila on 10/15/2001 | link | 3 comments

not so stupid
this list of user-submitted stupid things made me laugh until I cried this morning. it's long, but believe me, you need to read this stuff.
posted by Leila on 10/15/2001 | link | 0 comments

driven by fear
my best friend Krista and I have been talking about letting our lives by ruled by paranoia in these days of uncertainty. she send me this very lyrical piece from Time about living with fear. Her thoughts:

While I think it's best that I didn't travel this weekend (assuming I'd have been in a state of anxiety all weekend, based on my true freak-out Friday) I feel like I've been hiding and need to figure out my role and my life-philosophy in the context of world events. Maybe this is my wake up call to consider my priorities and shift gears where appropriate -- perhaps it took this type of personal anxiety response to really shake things up for me. I don't know. I'll need to keep thinking about it.

he does look kinda suspicious
Bob Dylan's concert security was so tight that he barely made it through the gate.
posted by Leila on 10/15/2001 | link | 0 comments

buried again
the Gold Rush, uncovered outside of my office building on Battery and Clay, has been returned to the earth as promised.
posted by Leila on 10/15/2001 | link | 0 comments

Friday, October 12, 2001  
beyond the call of friend duty
"A man who wanted to stay sober served part of a friend's jail sentence to see whether he could fool the justice system, a newspaper reported on Thursday."
posted by Leila on 10/12/2001 | link | 0 comments

shaky shivery feverish
going home to sleep
posted by Leila on 10/12/2001 | link | 0 comments

Thursday, October 11, 2001  
"I will not die an ironic death"
the strange life of the lead singer of the band Anthrax.
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 0 comments

getting religion
"Thousands of Britons devoted to the ''Star Wars'' films have claimed the fictional faith Jedi as their religion and forced it onto the next national census, newspapers reported on Thursday."
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 2 comments

more from the ailing ad world
product placement may fund stations' bids to survive the recession.
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 0 comments

your own private internet
the government responds to internet security threats by screaming for its own toys: "Soon, the government may not have to worry about viruses and other Internet threats on its sensitive data. That's because it may have a whole new Internet of its own. Government officials asked the computer industry Wednesday to tell them how much the new network, dubbed GOVNET, would cost and how they could ensure their voice and data communications would be protected."

it kind of blows me away how important the internet has become over the last decade, dot-bombs notwithstanding.
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 0 comments

more to fear
the latest FBI press release; be careful out there.

For Immediate Release
October 11, 2001 Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days. The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity.
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 0 comments

we did it
we're signing the lease on saturday. wow.
posted by Leila on 10/11/2001 | link | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 10, 2001  
fighting for it
the thought of two fully grown men fighting over who should keep the ball from Barry Bond's 73rd homerun may seem silly. that is, until you learn that it's currently valued at $1 million dollars.
posted by Leila on 10/10/2001 | link | 0 comments

the public in the private
diveintomark's Mark Pilgrim's boss was none too happy about his weblog: "Welcome to my weblog. I hope you enjoy it. I just got fired for it."

(also, check out the discussion on MetaFilter about the way the web's very accessibility is perhaps changing the public and private freedoms we've come to depend on.)
posted by Leila on 10/10/2001 | link | 0 comments

Tuesday, October 09, 2001  
today
my computer is making a great deal of noise today. I am going on the fifth hour of eating the same salad (don't ask). after work, I am taking Nikas (my hairdresser!) to Bikram yoga for his first time. he is nervous. I just found Blogger founder Ev's testing blogsite (not his public blogsite, his official blogger news site, or his development updates site). I think I have a crush on Ev, kind of the same sort of crush you might get on an imaginary person like a moviestar or politician. ha ha ha. like that would happen.
posted by Leila on 10/9/2001 | link | 0 comments

when advertising revenue plummets
it's time to come up with a whole new concept. like projected "images of advertised products floating in mid-air" in brick and mortar shopping spaces.

I've always thought that a good 80% of the allure of shopping was the entertainment value aspect. a few weeks ago when we were perusing safeway after midnight on a school night, Noah mentioned that we could probably spend a good deal of time in there, playing.
posted by Leila on 10/9/2001 | link | 0 comments

more on that fuzzy line
"In a reversal of roles, government intelligence specialists have been secretly soliciting terrorist scenarios from top Hollywood filmmakers and writers."

now. does that make you feel better, or worse?
posted by Leila on 10/9/2001 | link | 0 comments