links of randomosity

Courtesy of Neil Gaiman's blog comes this rather befuddling item listing on alibris. I'm not sure how that mistake got made, but it's pretty funny.

Via tiggrrl comes this hilarious spoof of a Mastercard ad. Not safe for workplace viewing!

I'm sure that by now you've all seen http://www.storewars.org/ but if not, go now!

You've probably also heard about the judge who ordered divorcing parents not to expose their child to Wicca or any other "non-mainstream religious beliefs." There's no new news on this one, although legal experts say the appellate court will almost certainly overturn the ruling.

And finally, check out this prime piece of manhood. This guy tried to hire a hitman to attack his pregnant girlfriend to cause her to miscarry. He instructed the guy to knife her belly or hit it with a baseball bat, and then steal something from her apartment to make it look like a random robbery. Why did he do this? Naturally, because she refused to get an abortion, and he was afraid his other girlfriend would find out.

What I really want to know is, how is it that a scumbag like that can get TWO girls, and I can't get any? or what about all the other really decent men out there who can't get a girl? Sure, I understand the appeal of the "bad-boy" thing, heck you all know how I feel about Spike, but hello, Spike is a fictional character. Seriously, if your guy knocked up some other girl, which would YOU rather he do -- tell you about it, or offer another guy a bag of cocaine in exchange for arranging a miscarriage? Dude!

*shake head* This is it, people. Get used to this handbasket, 'cause it's all we've got.

poor planning

The other day I was reading some advice column, and the person writing in described a situation and ended with, "am I being selfish?" And the advice columnist's reply included the very sage observation that "truly selfish people never ask, 'am I being selfish?'"

I think that is true of a lot of things. Particularly, I think it's the case that truly bad parents never ask, "am I a bad parent?"

Keeping that in mind, I continue now to the main point of this post, to wit, it is ten days until Isaac's second birthday and I have made no party plans. Nothing, none, nada, zip, zilch. Until a few days ago I was kind of thinking I wouldn't even bother with a party. And then my mom (who is not at ALL the "you have to do this because everyone does it" type) said, "you do know it's two weeks till his birthday, right? are you gonna plan the party or what?" and I was suddenly like, "OMGWTF! I was going to not give my kid a birthday party! I am a terrible mother omg!!!!!!eleven!!!!"

So now I feel like I have to whip a party together in less than two weeks, and no one will be able to come because it's short notice, and it'll suck and I'm a bad, bad mama. But of course, I know that I'm not, and Isaac won't care because he doesn't know what the heck a birthday is anyway, so if two people show up and he gets cake, it'll be a win from his POV. :)

Now, Isaac's birthday is a Saturday. But it's also the day of Pride, and I really want to go to Pride. I love Pride. So I'm thinking of having the party on the Sunday. Is that terrible?

I'm also not sure what time to have it. On weekends Isaac's naps aren't very predictable but they do tend to take place somewhere around 1-3 or 2-5 or suchlike. Now having the party before naptime seems like a recipe for disaster, because if he gets tired and cranky it could get ugly and there I'd be trying to shove everyone out the door so he can nap. But if I try to pick some arbitrary time in the afternoon to have it, like 4, then what if he has one of his crazy days when he doesn't go down for nap until 3? And if it starts to get too late in the evening, then I have to provide something dinner-ish for the attendees. Augh! So I don't know what to do. Any advice?

Man, I really must get my shit together by next year, when he's actually going to have some clue what a birthday is, what a party is, and most likely what a gift is. Yikes!