Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Mid-Week Reads: Heroes, Cat and Human


I usually confine these posts to positive stories, and the death of journalist Marie Colvin in Syria is sad, but she seems so awesome and I'd never heard of her before, and I wanted you to know too.

This made me go awwww. See, Guy, THIS is why we should get a cat. 

Have you, like me, never read Twilight because you were turned off by what you heard of the books? Or are  you, maybe, a big fan? I'm not so sure about the second, but if you're in the first group, you might enjoy (as in, burst out laughing at) this series of summaries and comments on the Twilight books.

Following on last week's Cosmocking, I have a whole lot of Cosmocking for you. Let's start here:
Tell him you recognize that she's a siren, and if you had an attractive coworker who was that intent on seducing you, you're not sure you'd trust yourself alone with him.
But... I would. I mean, I'm with me all the time. I don't so much as scratch my nose without my permission. It's not like I'm going to sneak off and do something I don't approve of.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Six Years of Blogging

That's right, I've been blogging for six years. The early posts make me cringe, and there are many opinions I have revised. But I'm glad to see that I've become smarter over the years! If older = wiser, I guess that is a good trade-off.

For those of you who haven't following me from the beginning (which is everyone except the Guy? and maybe Pallavi?), here are some posts that still make me smile, not cringe, when I read them again.

Monday, February 20, 2012

In Which I Reveal My Lack of More Interesting Employment by Spending Way Too Much Time on One Spam Comment

I got this comment on a recent post (which I marked as spam, but reproduce below for your reading pleasure).
Hello Mr/Mrs, 
My name is Kate, I am working for an English Seo Company "Bullseyemedia.co.uk".
 My purpose of writing to you is to propose you so called "Seo Audit for a link", by this I mean, the creation of a good, relevant content for your site, for example one page for one textual link to our resource. All of our content writers are native speakers, who write their articles in really good English.
 
If you are interested in such kind of services, please contact me for more detailed information.

Thanks a lot and wait for your response on this mail: kate@bullseyemedia.co.uk

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mid-Week Reads: Valentine's Day Edition

Ha! Sucked you in with that title. Okay, I have one related link. This applies not merely to open relationships, which it's primarily about, but to all relationships: even in my monogamous, socially-approved long-term partnership, I wouldn't want to use terms of ownership and permanence to describe or define my relationship.

Living on Rs. 26 a day.

Ways email can derail your job chances.

Apparently, having dessert for breakfast will make you thinner. Where's that cheesecake?

Personal update: Funnily enough, for all our distaste of Valentine's Day, the Guy and I spent last weekend (Valentine's weekend?) in Bombay, our first trip together for over six months, and had a very romantic date on Sunday on Marine Drive. And we had a lot of fun with friends, which is a great way to spend any weekend.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

In Support of Free Speech

I think Valentine's Day is a ridiculous holiday. I don't need a day to celebrate my relationship with my partner: if we don't celebrate it enough on ordinary days, we have birthdays and anniversaries. I hate the crap that's sold for Valentine's Day: the CDs of bad music, the ugly soft toys and all the useless pink crap.

But if you think Valentine's Day is the most romantic day ever, I'll defend your right to celebrate it. Forgive me for rolling my eyes at you, but I'll have your back stand by you if the goons come for you.

I believe everyone should be able to walk down the streets holding hands with their beloved, without fear, on this day or any other day. I believe hugs and kisses are appropriate demonstrations of affection, and it only makes me happy to see more love in the world.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Children's Books I've Recently Read and Loved

I still love going through the children's book section at bookstores, and I am thrilled to have several children in my life now whom I have happily picked out books for in the last year: my niece (five), the Guy's nephews (three and five) and a friend's daughter (two). So in case you want to know, here are some books that I got for them and loved.

First on the list is the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. People, it is awesome. I bought the cheapest paperback version, but even so, the paper was great and the colors are so vibrant and beautiful even I sat and caressed the pages! Both my niece and the Elf are now proud owners of this one! It's for really small children who will just love the colors and beg you to tell them the story, or for those who've just begun to read. It also has the numbers one to ten in it, through sets of beautiful fruits, so the little one in your life may even learn to count! (Heck, if you don't have or know a kid, just buy it for yourself to give your shelf some color.)

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Mid-Week Reads: Quick and Lazy Edition

I forgot was too busy to save links for this week's post, so I have only a couple of reads for you. And there will be other posts, I promise! Only not for a week or so, because we're off to Bombay this weekend!

With Facebook's IPO up, this is a good time to read more about Sheryl Sandberg.

The comments in this post have suggestions on how to learn Excel, which is a great idea if you're looking for a job and don't know Excel or want to brush up your skills.

And since that's all I have, let me plug some of my stuff:
Okay, now, what have you been reading?

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Mid-Week Reads: In Praise of Pajamas

I loved this article on why everyone should wear pajamas outside. As Manjoo says, "the idea of being as comfortable in the day as you are at night pisses a lot of people off." Also: "If my pajamas tell the world that I don’t care about fashion, that’s exactly the message I’m intending to convey: I don’t care, or at least I don’t care enough to undermine my own comfort."

On nagging. If the male partner stops viewing it as women's work to anticipate what needs to be done, and instead chooses to do his work without being asked, that works really well!

Jai Arjun Singh on "liberal extremism" and soft oppositions to freedom.

Make sure you don't make any of these self-defeating job search moves.

Don't use any of these nine ways to ruin an interview either.