It Looks Beatle-ful

"Across the Universe" is a new original musical that builds it's story from the music of the Beatles. It also uses live action, painting and 3-D animation. It looks amazing. Just thought you might be interested. It opens nationwide on Sept 21.

Music Posts Abound

Since I like to follow a crowd, it only seems appropriate that I post about music today as well. I am listening to Spoon, who, until today, I thought that I had never heard.



I realized as soon as the song started that I had heard the song a number of times, but thought it was a new Billy Joel song. I am not a Billy Joel fan, so I was surprised to like his new work. Now I know- it was Spoon.

Here's another song of theirs that I like a lot.



I agree with Doug about finding new music. I feel like it's one thing that will always make you feel young and alive, that new love for a new artist. You love it so much that you listen to it over and over and can't stop thinking about it. And you want to tell the world. Especially when you aren't telling the world that you love Billy Joel.

In yo' Face

I don't get what the kids are doing these days(said in my best crotchety old lady voice). Case in point- Facebook. I don't quite understand it. Its like email, but not. Its like IM, but not. Its like a blog, but yet again, not. Now I have an account, mostly because I wanted to see my cousin's Face (a way better name than profile - c'mon Facebook, get creative up in herre). I have realized that that is how most people get started on it. They need to be registered to have access into someone elses Face, so they sign up themselves. Now you have all of these people, all connected, who are only there to see what the other one is doing, but not listing what they themselves are doing. Do you see the irony in this? I do.

Facebook also has all of these plug-in, add-on things. Some are kinda cool, like a map that lets you list where you have been in the world, and games like Scrabble that you can play with others over many weeks (and you thought Trivial Pursuit took a long time to end). Some of these plug-in are so random, they are more like viruses that people willingly sign up for. I logged in today after having not used it for a month, and found that I had been bitten by a Vampire, a Werewolf, a Zombie, and was been requested to join the Pirates in fighting the Ninjas (which I declined because ninjas rool, pirates drool). For the bites I received, if you "Accept the Bite" it adds the plug-in to your account and you can start biting people. The point? Who the hell knows. To get the most bites, I think. And oh, what an honor that is - to be the most popular dork.

I just looked again. They also have "Gifts" that you can give. Apparently, the gifts are small Clip Art images that you can send to your friends. Awww, that's cute. So I click on the Gift giving option. It informs me that I have one gift to give and after that, gifts are $1 each. Asphinctersayswhat? $1 for an inch square Clip Art image? If these Facebook people are making money on Gifts, then our society is not far from the world portrayed in Idiocracy.

Because I love you all so much, here are a few "Gifts" for you. Stolen straight from Facebook. You are welcome.

Told ya ninjas rool.
(Seriously, who is going to pay a buck for an icon of a grown man trying to emulate the Coppertone baby? Thats just creepy. Or is it sexy? Let me check. No, its creepy.)

The Happiest Place on Earth

No, not Disney World. For me, its the cabin in Idaho. I went a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting my pics from the trip.

Of course, there are not many. I am awful with taking pictures. I like pictures. But when I am enjoying myself, I forget to take them, and when I am not enjoying myself, I don't want to take them. Its a quandary as to when I will actually get the drive. Hopefully when I have kids. Otherwise, the baby book can just be a manila folder with the one picture that the hospital took taped inside, and will end up looking more like murder suspects file than the memories of a happy life growing up in the Symms house.

Purge your Pores

Want to have an instant hot flash? Here are the step by step instructions.

1. While working from home, have ongoing IM conversations with multiple people.
2.Read this.
3. Instead of writing to your husband, who sent you the link, respond with "ass baby! Hilarious!" to your boss.

Here is the conversation that ensued. Enjoy!

[10:48] jensymms: ass baby!
[10:48] jensymms: hilarious
[10:49] bossman: what?
[10:49] jensymms: sorry
[10:49] jensymms: wrong window
[10:49] jensymms: :-\
[10:49] jensymms: awkward
[10:49] bossman: seemed weird?
[10:50] jensymms: my husband
[10:50] jensymms: he is wierd
[10:50] jensymms: and i guess, so am i
[10:50] bossman: I'm not even going to try to figure out what "ass baby!" means
[10:51] bossman: Unless you're talking about PayPal
[10:51] jensymms: hehehe
[10:52] jensymms: he listens to Howard Stern, it was from a letter that someone on the show wrote, apologizing for being so drunk that he missed a friends wedding
[10:52] jensymms: he called himself that
[10:53] bossman: got it.
[10:53] jensymms: anywho
[10:53] jensymms: on to pretending that never happened
[10:53] bossman: I've never heard wedding and drunk in the same sentence.
[10:54] bossman: ok, a few times
[10:54] bossman: almost always
[10:56] jensymms: usually though, you get drunk at the wedding
[10:57] jensymms: he got drunk on friday night , went to bed at 7AM Saturday and woke up at 5Pm Sunday
[10:57] jensymms: thats excessive
[10:58] bossman: That's almost dead.
[10:59] jensymms: yeah
[10:59] jensymms: he is a mess
[10:59] bossman: Was that Stern?
[10:59] bossman: or a caller?
[11:01] jensymms: its a co worker of his
[11:01] jensymms: here is the letter
[11:02] jensymms: http://www.howardstern.com/archive.hs?h=1126
[11:06] bossman: I like the phrase "pig filled with whisky and excedrin pm"
[11:06] jensymms: yeah
[11:07] jensymms: so now you see why I said "ass baby!, hilarious!"

That was very close to one of the most awkward moments of my life, second only to the time when my Dad caught Larry and I in the shower and I denied the whole thing. Ah, the memories! However, this experiment only further proves how awesome my job is.

(Note: my boss does not use the screen name bossman. It is actually assbaby, which, now that I think about it, is rather ironic.)

National Geographic

Our education system is failing. Exhibit 1:


Seriously. She just gave that answer with a straight face. I know that I am not that good at geography; I can find the US on a map, but maybe all of my other geographical issues stem from my lack of owning a map. And the fact that us US Americans have not been helping South Africa, the Iraq and the Asian countries, like such as. This just proves, it really does take a village.

Satisfying

It is amazing what you can pack into a 3 day weekend. I watched two rented movies, tailgated and football game watched for 8 hours, celebrated Doug's birthday for 12 hours (hella fun), and still had time to spend 4 hours swimming and sunning on Labor Day before having a delicious dinner of king crab legs, roasted potatoes with rosemary and grilled zucchini and asparagus.

The highlight was Doug's birthday. Doug, can you have a birthday at least once a month?