birth control and me

i've taken ortho cyclen for years because of a condition i have that causes cysts on the ovaries. after switching to the generic - sprintec, i've noticed a number of crazy ass side effects. i'm not pleased. i can't really afford the brand name since the price went up to about $50 from $5 about a year ago (thank you congress). the doctor's office have now called in a prescription for ovcon 35. after reading the reviews of its generic - balzivia or something, those side effects sound even worse. oh joy.

flavor tripping

have you heard of miracle fruit? it makes everything - even lemons, taste like candy. it's a natural fruit grown from the ground - from west africa. they go bad very quickly, and they're expensive - $2 a fruit. this guy in nyc is throwing flavor tripping parties for $15 a head.

flights and hotels

i'm waiting on other people to tell me what they're doing so that i can make my moves.

lots of time other places soon. :D

plastic bags decompose in 3 months

so a teenager from canada named daniel burd has devised a way for plastic bags to decompose in about 3 months. you know i'm always up for a plastic story.

my day in brands

this is a reminder to myself to do this later.

looks like fun. and eye-opening.

socially smoking

this would explain why i have such a hard time not smoking when i go out and see my friends. they're all smokers.

a photo every day

i've often thought of joining those groups on flickr that take a photo every single day, but i'm not sure i have the discipline because my day is so full of other things.

apparently, it's not a new idea to take a photo every day, and someone did just that, with a polaroid camera for many years.

another harpo update

someone in my office just got a phone call from an author who's writing an unauthorized biography of oprah. kitty kelly.

apparently this someone in my office used to work with oprah back in the dark ages when she was a reporter.

the plot thickens. this someone says they're not going to give up anything even though she knows things. duly noted.

excitement. harpo update.

someone i know, knows someone who used to be on the inside people!!

that's right. i think i've got my foot a little closer to the door of harpo.

cha cha now y'all!

ahmed writes home

Hope is all that I have left right now, and I pray to God every day to see it happen. I hope to come back to Baghdad and be able to drive in its streets without fear and without the concrete blocks the army have put everywhere, without seeing any guns, and without hearing about explosions and dead bodies being found every day.

To be able to park and go to a shop without anyone asking me to move my car because it may be a car bomb. To be able to sit on the Tigris bank and enjoy eating a fish with my children, to be able to visit the museum and show my kids the glorious history of their ancestors, to be able to smell the roses in its gardens and to see its sun fall and hug the waves of its river. And the most important of all, is to see the faces of the people whom I love.

ahmed regularly files an audio diary, and he also works for the ny times. he posted that in his blog today because he has left baghdad and is now here, in the town and state where i live. i cannot imagine what it must be like for him - going from a city like baghdad that has been ripped to shreds, its history destroyed, its people and their lives shattered, everything they knew decimated, to a city like the one that i live in. small. college town. people speaking english, white people speaking english everywhere.

i am thankful. i am regretful that i can't and haven't done more.

sober reminders come from people like ahmed. people who you will never fully understand because you haven't walked in their shoes, but people who are willing to share their story so that you can take a glimpse inside their world and maybe begin to comprehend what life must be like for them.

thank you ahmed.

exposed

saw an interesting article on the front page of the ny times this morning
it's from a girl named emily who used to be employed by gawker. and she has blogged about her personal life. several times over. now she's over-exposed herself (her words, roughly) by talking about the whole thing in a front page ny times magazine article.

over-exposure. gotta be careful on that one. makes me wonder and think about all those times that my mother tried to wonder aloud to me about the fact that my generation puts it all out there online and how dangerous that was when you're looking for a job, etc. or anything really, i guess. anyone can google you. i used to be so much more anonymous because i used only my nickname. thanks to facebook i'm not really maintaining that separation anymore i suppose.

food for thought. considering people with addictions usually spill over into another addiction after "handling" another without dealing with the feelings that go with them.

good thing i'm making a heartfelt attempt at dealing with the feelings.

iran and the white house

they're so planning to bomb iran before they leave office. so planning to bomb.

clinton supporter offers $1 million for delegate votes

well. we all know how i feel about the clinton campaign - like it's just as slimy as a lot of things that went on during the first clinton presidency.

now, i feel the slime all over again. taking this with a grain of salt because it is a clinton supporter and not actually clinton, there's only a little doubt in my mind that the folks surrounding clinton and clinton herself would support this kind of move.