You take a dump and then you're home

Two clips to make the wait for the BIGGEST SNOWSTORM THIS YEAR a little shorter...

Louis CK on underappreciation



Patton Oswalt on KFC bowls

New music Friday

I can't stop singing the praises of elbo.ws, a music blog aggregator that a friend introduced me to a while back. The older I get, the less I seem to be surrounded by people whose primary interest is in discovering new bands and liking them before anyone else does (and then, of course, disliking them the second they become popular). While I don't miss the snobbery of "I liked them when they were playing shows to 6 people, 3 of whom were dating band members," I do miss the presence of new music in my life. One cannot live by Bruce Springsteen alone.

So, I highly recommend that anyone with a similar craving for music made in this century check it out. It's a great source for free MP3 downloads as well as the opinions of those who are paying a lot more attention than I am to new releases and up and coming bands.

Here's a link to a folder where I've shared some of the songs that elbo.ws has introduced me to.

DOWNLOAD MP3s HERE

Timesucks

Having spent a good portion of the day reading news coverage of the Blagojevich arrest and having, for now, exhausted that topic, I've moved on to my other daily timesucks. In the interest of these providing diversion for others, here are the websites I check daily (if not hourly):

Tastespotting - food blog aggregator that's actually just food porn (thanks to Lauren for the recommendation)

Gapers Block - things happening in/around Chicago, news and events

Apartment Therapy - decorating ideas for (relatively) small spaces, or for the loft that I don't actually own

Television Without Pity - I like to read snarky recaps of TV shows I've already watched. It's a little like reading the novelized version of the film, but for some reason I'm obsessed with it.

ESPN MLB homepage - for the latest news on trades, injuries, amazing catches, no hitters and steroid abuse

People - don't judge, but I love the daily paparazzi photos, and it's the only place I can read breaking news about how Jennifer Aniston feels about Angelina Jolie hooking up with Brad Pitt while he was still married to Jen ("not cool," in case you were curious).

Not it

A few weeks ago, in an effort to get out of a tedious chore (calling a university to ask for permission to film, which I doubted we would get) I quickly put my finger against my nose in what I thought was an internationally - or at least nationally - understood symbol for "not it." Everyone in the room looked at me like I was nuts, or was caught picking my nose and tried to turn it into something more benign.

This prompted a questioning of the entire office to see who understood that finger-to-nose is a silent "not it" - best used so as not to give away that "not it" is being declared, therefore leaving the last man standing confused as to how all parties had managed to get out of whatever odious task was being avoided.

Only one other person in the office knew what finger-to-nose meant, and he and I share neither age (he's about 10 years older than me) nor geographical area of raising (he grew up in the Midwest, I grew up in Northeast/Mid Atlantic). These were the two factors I figured would contribute, but they've been unscientifically ruled out.

The gesture was used on a recent episode of House which indicates that it's nationally understood, though my survey showed that it wasn't. Puzzling.

Wikipedia offers little help on the origins of the gesture aside from labeling it 'The Nose Game," though it does describe it as a subset of "dibs" (or "antidibs"), which is interesting if you've had a really boring day.

Can anyone offer any anecdotal evidence as to whether or not you know of this trick and/or use it?

How cold is it?

It's so cold that this is what I look like sitting at my desk.



If I had a hat I'd be a J. Crew ninja. I can't even imagine what January is going to feel like.

Too cold, too early

Since before Thanksgiving I've been suffering from what is definitely a minor cold but that has been a somewhat major bummer. In an effort to dredge up some positivity from what seems like an awfully bleak (colder than usual, darker than usual) end of fall, here's a list of things that have made me happy in the last few weeks - in no particular order:

• ordering pizza from Apart (the Apart pizza is especially delicious), employer of the nicest delivery person EVER
• blue eye make-up
• spending quality time with Christianna in DC
• Season 2 of The Wire, which I skipped for reasons that now escape me
• Lauren's seafood stew, even though it didn't turn out like she'd hoped
• the fact that my neighbor did something incredibly neighborly by covering the A/C unit (trashily left, by me, on our shared deck) with plastic so that it wouldn't get snow in it
• this past Sunday, one of the busiest travel days of the year, I touched down at Midway,virtually on time at 5:50pm and managed to walk in my door at 7:00pm.
• the flowers Sarah brought me that sit by my bed
• seeing Slumdog Millionaire and being completely immersed in a fairytale for a few hours
• getting so many "Happy Thanksgiving" texts that I wasn't expecting but made me feel very loved
• spending most of a perfectly good day in bed