Personality Test

 

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You should try this:

I like my reality airbrushed – but…

They had this posted over at the Huffington Post.  I’m mostly posting this to see if the Disqus plug in works and how it looks.

I appreciate the ability to correct cosmetic imperfections – red eye, pimples, broccoli in your teeth.  I also think it’s cool they can slap in a new background, adjust for lighting, etc. 

I think it goes a little too far when they do reconstruction on photos of real people.  Jessica Alba isn’t too fat and doesn’t need a boob job.  I can understand why so many women have body image issues when they’re competing with physical impossibilities.

Getting old?

In the latest installment of me getting closer to yelling at the kids to get off my lawn...

I can handle the underwear ads, even enjoy them. In terms of modesty, the print ads either use photoshop or special posing underwear to minimize "personal detail". While still being somewhat sexy, they aren't more (or less) than you'd see at the beach.

Up until last month, the above billboard covered what would become the storefront for a Levi's outlet at the mall. (note that Australia is changing the standards and practices so they use realistic sized models). A 'treasure trail' isn't unexpected on a male shirtless model - but the picture on the right is simply wearing the jeans a half inch below where his pubs start. It's not just the men, there are some female mannequins at the mall whose nipples will take out an eye.

I wonder a little if I'd be as disturbed had the model had a little meat on his bones. I'm relieved the store opened before they set up the Santa station right outside the outlet.

(ok, feel free to click on the image to make it bigger then set it as your desktop wallpaper)

Bush's going away present in Iraq

I feel sorry for the guy that threw his shoes. He probably got a serious beatdown and I imagine the legal punishment will be severe.

Obama Nation & Prop 8

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Australia's Seasons - It's Summer!

It's interesting what things are the same in most of the English speaking world and what things are different. Like why does the US drive on the right hand side of the road while England and Australia drive on the left?

In Australia, today marks the first day of summer. In the US the seasonal changes are tied to the spring/fall equinox and the summer/winter solstice. Why does Australia do it on the first of the month? Here is one possible answer:

The NSW Corps changed from its summer to winter uniform on the first of March and from its winter to its summer uniform on the first of September. The starting dates for the other seasons followed this. It is much easier for record keeping if the seasons start on the first of the month rather than an arbitrary date between the 20th and 23rd.

The author isn't sure he's correct (and you can insert astronomical instead of arbitrary), but it's as good a reason as I've heard. He also brings up the point that seasons are cultural constructs and many places have seasons that are different lengths and that vary in number. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has some information on the seasons as defined by some of Australia's native cultures.

Is it just me or does Blizzard's new continent of Northrend seem a little similar to Australia? Yes, I've been enjoying the new expansion to World of Warcraft and it's been eating into the time that I'd normally be making the rounds on my blogroll as well as the time I'd be writing posts. I've been enjoying Twitter for tiny posts (limited to 140 characters), and those can be seen in the right column of the blog (or follow me).

The Week in Twits: Nov. 23-29

• Co-workers admitted that they were afraid the pumpkin pie would be disgusting, but they liked it. 11:49 PM Nov 28th
• I'm really not capable of multitasking anymore... 4:38 PM Nov 28th
• Jumped out at curb to make it to a conf call on time.. waiting on hold.. Outlook opens up and I see the cancellation - Oh, still Tday in US. 10:06 AM Nov 28th
• Happy Tday. We had roast turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, grn bean casserole, wild rice stuffing, rolls and the pumpkin pie is in the oven. 10:11 PM Nov 27th
• Turkey is around $10/k here. Nothing like the $.29/lb specials you find in the US. I'll just get a little from the deli and make the rest. 1:05 PM Nov 27th
• Once again O'Reilly makes up the news http://tinyurl.com/6mvde5 4:03 PM Nov 26th
• I love bacon but this just seems gross http://tinyurl.com/6l366y 3:31 PM Nov 26th
• The world gets an early holiday present!! http://snurl.com/6tmog Ann "Crazy" Coulter's mouth wired shut. :D 10:21 AM Nov 26th
• http://www.lulu.com/content... If I see this cookbook at someone's house, I'm not letting them cook any food for me. 9:00 AM Nov 26th
• Some good news in this neck of the woods http://snurl.com/6t2ga 1:16 AM Nov 26th
• Homemade pizza for dinner tonight. Ham and pepperoni on whole wheat crust. Pan style. The crust was easier to make than I remembered. 12:08 AM Nov 26th
• I'm going to make pumpkin pie to take to work on Friday. I'm betting most people at the office haven't had it before. 5:04 PM Nov 25th
• falling asleep while sitting in a chair isn't the most comfortable 4:57 PM Nov 25th
• Landlord's inspection is done, now I just have to wait for the cable guy. 10:24 AM Nov 25th
• Catching up on some blogs, may take a nap. Today is a cold wet day, so it's good we got just about everything done yesterday. 1:58 PM Nov 23rd
• Just saw (on a friends photostream) that Tim Tams are now available in the US (Pepperidge Farms). They're awesome! 11:22 AM Nov 23rd