Been sick..

Yuck, cough, sniffle, barf!

I have the flu, I think. It is going around. Four people out of a staff of eight at work have it.

All Star Pop Culture Trivia

Last night was another match of the Portland division of All Star Pop Culture Trivia. Aretha's Hat went into the night with a decent lead in points for the Portland division. After weeks of badgering the head honcho for a Madonna round of trivia, he acquiesced and the Super Six was dedicated to the Queen of Pop herself.

First round was all about Chick Flicks, we rocked this round. 9 out of 10 correct. Second round was the year 1992, we ran the table that round with 9 out of 10 correct. Third round was a tough one for us. Name "THAT GUY". You know... That Guy! Him! He was in that one movie... He played so and so.. name the actor.. 5 outa 10, ouch!. Half time question was "Who of the following did not guest star on Friends? a. Slema Blair b. George Clooney c. Hugh Laurie or d. Kate Walsh" We answered dear ole Dr. Addison Montgomery and thankfully got it right for the ten points. Onto round four for "Name the place" This show was set in what city? 5 outa 10. ouch again! Round five: One Hit Wonders.. some very obscure stuff. We were shaken but not stirred after two bruising rounds with a strong start. Marcy Playground, Concrete Blonde and Luscious Jackson et all. I was really hoping for some Los Lobos. We did alright with 7 outa 10. Going into the Super Six we had accumulated 45 points out of 60 possible.

Question one: What is the name of the James Bond movie that Madonna recorded the theme for and had a cameo in? Our Answer: Die Another Day.

Question two: What was the name of her first single? Our Answer: Everybody

Question three: What is the name of Madonna's first husband? Our Answer: Sean Penn

Question four: Who opened for Madonna on her first tour in 1985? Our Answer: Beastie Boys

Question five: What Oscar nominated film maker directed Madonna's Express Yourself music video? Our answer: David Fincher

Question six: According to IMDB.com what was Madonna's first appereance in a movie? Our answer: (we left this blank) We couldn't remember the exact name of the first movie Madonna appeared in which was a TINY independent film shot in 1979 before she became famous. We also hesitated becasue we weren't sure if IMDB.com would have listed that or the first mainstream film she was in which is Vision Quest.

Drum roll...

We got them all right! GO US!

Now for the scores to be tallied and the winner announced...

WE WON! A resounding thumping of the other Portland division teams. We scored a 60. the next closest team was Google This with 35 points. We have further increased our lead in the league.

Now we just have to keep winning and hope that we get the Oscar Pool points!

Go Aretha's Hat

UK to Fred Phelps... HECK NO YOU CAN'T COME!

Fred Phelps and one of his many daughters were planning on taking their clown show on the road to the United Kingdom. They had planned on protesting outside a local production of The Laramie Project.

Phelps has now been bared entry into the country. UK Border Agency and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith have banned Phelps from entering the UK, saying it opposed "extremism in all its forms".

Song of the Day... Madonna..

Get em all...

http://www.mtvmusic.com/madonna

Watch them all..

In the last two days I have!

He said what?

“They’re mean. They want to talk about being nice. They’re the meanest buggers I have ever seen... It’s just like the Muslims. Muslims are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it’s been taken over by the radical side.” —Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars

Sen. Buttars is referring to the "gays".

File this under.. It's about time!

The Black Eyed Peas have announced that their new album will be coming out mid-summer. June 9th to be exact.

The new album, titled The E.N.D. will be the first in 4 years for the group.

Song of the day... Madonna - Like A Prayer

He said what?

Q: So you don't subscribe to Rush Limbaugh's "I hope he fails" school of thought?

A: That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he is the President of all of the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds, and if he doesn't, it hurts us all. Anyone who is pulling against the President isn't exactly thinking rationally.

That was asked and answered by one Pat Robertson... yeah.. THAT Pat Robertson of the 700 Club.

Song of the Day... Madonna - Frozen

In honor of this week's All Star Pop Culture Trivia Super 6 every song this week will be from Madonna.

What causes someone to do this..

Happy Valentine's Day..

I don't view Valentine's day as the smaltzy romantic mushy holiday that many want to make it out to be. I love it for its celebration of love. I love many things -- above all else, my friends and family. I show them my appreciation and love on this day and many others throughout the year.

With Valentine's Day I get to pretend I am in grade school again and giving the silly cards to everyone and decorating my brown paper sack and taping it to my desk for others to give to me.

So here is to all forms of love and appreciation, so go appreciate someone today or tonight or tomorrow or the day after that.

Heart made out of Conversation Hearts... so damn cute!

Song of the Day... Lady Gaga - Love Game

The newest video from the amazing first album by pop goddess Lady Gaga. I am so excited to go see her in concert when she comes to Portland in March.

All Star Pop Culture Trivia

We won again last night, it was a very close hard fought match. More to come later.

Portland Japanese Garden - Free Admission

The Portland Japanese Garden will be open for free on Monday February 16th from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

The garden was designed by Professor Takuma Tono beginning in 1963, though the garden opened to the public in 1967.

In a study conducted by the Journal of Japanese Gardening, it was ranked first out of 300 public Japanese gardens outside of Japan and considered to be one of the most authentic.

I plan on being there Monday.

Only in Portland

Over at a favorite blog of mine, Blogtown of the Portland Mercury they are featuring a story that really seems it could only happen in Portland. A coffee shop in SE Portland has come under the ownership of its four employees in which they aim to be "anti-profit." The plan is to use any money that the business makes to pay the business expenses and the personal expenses of its four co-owners.

Read the full story here.

Judd Gregg withdrawl...

Sen Gregg (R-NH) has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Obama cabinet position of Commerce Secretary. He cites that he has irresovable conflicts with Obama administration.

"It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census, there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy."

What is up with Obama's cabinet appointments? For a campaign that prided itself on sound judgement in time of crisis and the what was billed as the smoothest quickest transition in history, they sure have made more than a few mistakes in picking the cabinet and getting down to fixing many of the messes made by the previous administration. I find all the rhetoric at this time of bi-partisanship to be a bit disenguine. The Republicans have no interest in being bi-partisan, their interest lies in stalling the Obama administration and attempting to make the new administration a failure. When will the Democrats and especially the Congressional leadership get the backbone that the last two elections have inspired. We won the election with a resounding victory, ACT LIKE IT!

Happy Birthday...

Today in history both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in 1809. They would both be 200 years old today. Probably two of the most influencial people of the modern age, they both carved out huge legacies in their lives. Happy Birthday!

Song of the Day... Madcon - Beggin

All Star Pop Culture Trivia

Tonight is the latest installment of All Star Pop Culture Trivia. Aretha's Hat (my team) has solidly taken first place in the Portland division.

The leader board for the Portland division:

1. Aretha's Hat : 167
2. Team PDA: 145
3. Bologna Nipples: 115
4. Google This: 107
5. The Pussies Galore: 83

Last week we won our first match after two agonizing weeks being the bridesmaid and never the bride. However each week we increased our score and had in many ways the most solid performances for the Portland division thus far.

Despite a strong showing Bologna Nipples was unable to match us in the Super 6 round. We were tied going into the final round and we ran away with it by getting 5 of the 6 questions correct and they only got one correct. We talked with an emissary from Team PDA who had realized by now from our solid performances that they were out gunned and wanted to let us know that they were going to go all Tonya Harding on our asses and we'd be screaming "WHY ME?!?!?!"

Original team member Branden is moving to South Korea and will no longer be playing with us. Adrian may not be able to come tonight due to his sore back but I know he is motivated to come.
George is unsure of his ability to attend tonight.
but Ted and I are both very excited about kicking some butt.

Tom Baxter - Tragic

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Hotmail welcomes POP3

POP3 has finally come to Hotmail, bout time!

You will now be able to forward your hotmail e-mails automatically to google and other services. If you signed onto hotmail years ago and want to transfer to a better service but don't want to leave behind the years of built up use this is finally the solution that hotmail was waiting for.

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

Thank you Windows Live team.. now just push out Windows 7 and most everything will be forgiven for Vista.

A couple years ago the authors of one of my favorite books, Freakanomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner were sued by John Lott. Lott is a research scientist at the University of Maryland and is well known conservative gun rights advocate. Lott claimed that in their book Levitt and Dubner had dismissed a study that Lott had performed that went to show that carrying concealed weapons lowers crime rates. Levitt and Dubner were sued because Lott said they had defamed him and his research because as Levitt and Dubner had correctly pointed out that other researchers had not been able to replicate Lott's findings.

Lott said in the lawsuit that the claims of the authors "damages Lott’s reputation in the eyes of the academic community in which he works, and in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of academics, college students, graduate students and members of the general public who read Freakonomics."

He lost, he appealed and now the appeals court has turned down that appeal stating "To the extent that Lott is complaining about an attack on his ideas, and not his character, he is barking up the wrong tree. The remedy for this kind of academic dispute is the publication of a rebuttal, not an award of damages."

I wonder where Lott stands on the traditional conservative idea of a frivolous lawsuit.

Starbucks Pink Slips..

Starbucks today announced that they are doing some management reshuffling of their business model and with that they are letting go 870 assistant store managers and 500 non-store employees. Rumors are flying that this amounts to every assistant manager across the nation, but the Seattle Times is reporting that the number amounts to roughly half of the currently employed assistant managers.

Starbucks:

Dear Partners,

As we communicated on January 28, Starbucks is reshaping our operating model and organization structure to support the long-term health of our business. This includes both organizational changes and the difficult decision to reduce our global workforce. These changes are necessary as we navigate through this challenging economy, and they are critical to ensuring we have a sustainable and successful business going forward.

Based upon the company's current and anticipated future needs, certain non-store and store positions have been eliminated or restructured globally. In some cases, certain roles or functions are being eliminated, and those partners will be separated. In other cases, there will be a reduction in the number of similar positions. The first part of this process took place last week with notifications in Partner Resources and Partner & Asset Protection.

Today, approximately 500 U.S. and Canada non-store partners are being notified that their positions have been eliminated. Of these, approximately 300 are at the Starbucks Support Center (SSC) in Seattle. Similar notification and consultation processes are currently taking place in company-owned international markets in accordance with local employment laws.

As part of a broader labor efficiency initiative, approximately 870 Assistant Store Managers (ASMs) are being notified today that their positions are being eliminated. An additional 530 unfilled open ASM positions will not be filled. This change reflects our current business environment, along with recent and new store closures and the reduction in new store openings. The ASM role continues to be critical; however, we no longer require as many positions.

A number of organizational changes are being announced globally to ensure that we have the right structure and leadership to support our strategy. These changes include:

• Canada and Latin America will be combined into a single region (Americas) in order to leverage regional talent and leadership and to make SCI more scalable.

• Our U.S. Field Operations structure will be realigned, with DSVPs focused on setting national strategy and implementing enterprisewide programs. RVPs and their RDs and field teams will focus on ownership of their respective regions and on localizing implementation of company strategies.

We are thankful and proud of the contributions our partners make to the organization, and we are committed to treating all partners with respect and dignity - those who are departing Starbucks and those who will stay.

Over the next week or so, partners who will continue on the journey with us will have a series of meetings with their leaders and workgroups. We will use these meetings to map out a direction for the future.

In the meantime, partners have many resources available to provide support. In addition to your leadership team and Partner Resources staff, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is available for all partners. In the U.S. and Canada, EAP counselors are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at (800) 682-0364. International partners may refer to the EAP numbers in their respective regions or markets for assistance.

We realize how difficult it is to say goodbye to partners who have played such a critical role in the success of Starbucks over the years. We thank you for your passion for Starbucks - and your fellow partners.

Regards,

Chet Kuchinad

Koala named Sam saved from the fires raging in Australlia

The fires have killed over 150 people and that number is expected to rise to possibly well over 200, but one Koala named Sam survived.

Michelle Obama on the cover of Vogue

The First Lady who is expected to save the fashion industry is gracing the cover of the March issue of Vogue..

The photo was taken by famed Annie Leibovitz..

I don't know how to say this without sounding like a jerk.. but something went wrong in the photoshopping of this pic...

Michelle is a beautiful woman and this photo just looks off kilter. It just doesn't look right. Her head looks a little small and her hand next to her neck just doesn't match up with the shadows of her face and chin.

Love the dress and her arms tho!

Song of the Day... Morgan Page - The Longest Road

Republican Governor of Utah comes out for Civil Unions and gay rights..

Republican Governor Jon Huntsman Jr of Utah has come out in full support of a legislative effort in the state championed by Equality Utah. The bill, Common Grounds Initiative, would among other things would extend health care benefits and provide for employment and housing discrimination protection.

The Governor, and remember Republican from Utah, has further come out in favor of civil unions.

ABC 4, of Salt Lake City asked Gov. Huntsman:“You support civil unions?”

Gov. Huntsman replied, “Well, its something I have given a lot of thought to and the answer is yes.”

It is rumored that Gov. Huntsman is looking to position himself as a compassionate conservative for a run at the White House in 2012.

I for one will be interested in how he moves forward.

Where dreams become heart attacks...

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

is it bad that at least some of these look like something I would want to at least try? Not that corn dog pizza.. EW!

New Lady Gaga - Fashion

Lady Gaga song from the soundtrack of the upcoming film Confessions of a Shopaholic

I love Ellen and Lady Gaga.. in the bathroom?

I could do without the John Mayer though, I don't really care for him. Oh well this is still fun..

Still A Rock Star...

It is slushing outside right now, not rain, not snow but slush...

Tonight is "That's So Gay Trivia" at Crush hosted by the beautiful Michelle..
Tonight's hints:

• Trivioake: Country Divas (think reba, the chicks, loretta, dolly, etc.)
• Mystery: Literature (think famous characters...)
• Picture Pages: Celebs in High School

I still haven't decided if I am going tonight. I feel like I need a week off, though Aretha's Hat will be showing up to defend our All Star Pop Culture Trivia title this week on Thursday. This week's Super Six hint is "The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences" aka The Grammy Awards.

Song of the Day.. The Ting Tings - Great DJ

Chris "Forever" Brown and Princess RiRi... um wtf?

So reports are all sketchy and not much detail is available so far other than this:

• Chris Brown allegedly assaulted someone late Saturday night after the Quincy Jones Pre-Grammy Bash
• Rihanna is the person that Brown allegedly assaulted

That seems to be it for now...
There are of course so many rumors running around out there about these two even before all this happened.. a mini-recap is necessary

• Chris Brown allegely is gay and dating Zac Efron
• Rihanna is a big diva and broke despite having some of the biggest hits of the 00's

And oh.. where are the paps pictures? Don't they practically stalk these celebrities?

So many questions.. so few answers at this time..
I hope Rihanna is ok...
I hope Chris Brown gets help for what he may have done...
I hope the Oprah/Barbara Walters interview with them happens soon!

And I hope Kathy Griffin talks all about it when she comes to Portland in March!

Come and play with me

Who knows what the heck is gonna happen around here. Hopefully I will enjoy myself, maybe others will be drawn to it and I can finally get my major movie/book deal! HAHA, not looking for that to happen at all.. too much work and I am far too lazy to write a book or a movie. Heck I am not a great writer.

But here we go nonetheless...