Happy New Year

There are just too many choices of end of year recap/new year prediction/favorite things/best of kinds of blog posts--the possibilities are overwhelming me and taking away any urge to post at all. So I'm just going to do a hodge-podge of random end of year/new year things and hope for the best.

Best Things of 2009

1. My Macbook. I could pretty much stop this list right here--that's how good it is.

It is, in fact, so good that I can't think of any other best thing of the year. I'll have to come back to that part.

Resolutions for 2010

1. See 2 movies in 1 day. I was originally going to go for 3 movies in 1 day, but I think that's a bit much for me, so I'm going to settle for 2.

Again, I'm coming up dry...that's the only resolution I can think of right now.

Favorite blog posts of 2009

1. Ask And Ye Shall Receive review of this blog. Call me a masochist but I love this review, even though it's totally reaming me up the a$$ for being a crappy blogger.


2. What if Your Personal Brand is your P*ssy. Sorry but if that's not the best title of a blog post ever, I don't know what is.


3. Gen Whine in the House. I haven't gotten that riled up about something in a while.


4. I Used to be Way Funnier. Sadly, it's true.

That said, maybe I should add to my list of resolutions that I'll try to go back to blogging about stuff other than social media. Then again, the only time anyone other than my mom and sister read my posts is when I blog about social media. Sigh.

At any rate, to any of you reading this post now, I wish you a fabulous, healthy 2010. (pronounced two thousand ten; not twenty ten, just fyi.)

Tiger Again

I usually don't read the Washington Post Sports section but this morning--as he was eating the delicious breakfast squares I made (in case you follow me on Twitter or Facebook and all my cooking/baking of late is confusing you, this is the one time of year when I suddenly am seized with the desire to cook and bake so I do it a lot...maybe this will be the year the habit sticks and I start doing it year-round..)--Patrick said "read this" and pushed the Sports section at me. "Of Tiger Woods and the man in the mirror" (sorry, I think you have to register (it's free!) on the Washington Post website to read this but it's worth it) is an interesting, if slightly confusing in it's veiled-ness, read. Basically the author is fessing up to his own sex addiction and saying that, in "the culture of the elite athlete...infidelity isn't merely condoned, it's strongly encouraged."

I say bravo to this guy and he's right. He talks about "bored, rich alpha males on the road for 270 days a year" and how infidelity is "an equal-opportunity addiction, costing manicured, polished stars such as Pitino their coiffed reputations and unknown, dumpy software salesmen their families and jobs."

At any rate, it was a good article.

Happy Holidays

I tried to find a really cute Japanese holiday-themed video, but they were all like 5 minutes long and looked more like anime porn clips than cute cartoons so we'll have to make do with this. Just pretend it features a holiday tune and wish yourself a merry Christmas and happy new year from me!

FIO Blogging=Posterous

I have found the winning FIO combo in life: AudioBoo plus Posterous. Audioboo has an iPhone app, which means you just dictate into your phone--as if you're talking on the phone, just to yourself--then it automatically posts the resulting stream-of-conscious genius to Posterous (a FIO version of blogging where you can post via email or voicemail).

The only crying shame of the whole arrangement is that you can't post from Audioboo to Blogger--because if you could you'd be hearing a lot more from me. As it is, I tried it yesterday and posted to Posterous, so I'll have to settle for posting to Posterous than taking the extra step of writing some perfunctory post in here linking to it over there. Like this.

Or you could just subscribe to my Posterous.....

Good Things

Just a few random recommendations for you:

• Awesome blog I just learned about--if you like The Bloggess, you'll want to read More is Better. Because the more hilarious bloggers out there who swear way worse than I personally dare to, the better.


• I'm on disk 9-the last disk--of The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank and I seriously might cry when it's over because it's so good.

I haven't shared any videos lately; let's see what I can find....



Ok, me and my sister might be the only ones who think that's entertaining...now, here's one EVERYONE would find entertaining



Ok, so I made that one and I'm the one who finds it entertaining...better quit while I'm ahead.

My Advice to Tiger Woods

Patrick told me that Tiger Woods has announced that he's taking an "indefinite break" from pro golf because he's so mortified about the world finding out he's a cheater. This is what I have to say to him: who the fuck cares? You are not the first man on the planet to ever be outed as a cheater, a pervert and an asshole. Get over yourself and don't be such a pussy. Moping around your house and/or cowering from the media isn't going to put your marriage and/or family back together and it just diminishes you further in the eyes of the world. Go back to work, act like nothing happened, and next week some other celebrity will do something stupid and we'll all forget your indiscretions.

Guest Post By Matthew

My 11 year-old son is sick with strep...again. I'm sitting with him on the sofa and I asked if he wanted to write a guest post and he said yes, so I'm turning this post over to him:

I'm sick and I don't feel good :( I have been bored ALL DAY LONG. I hope I get better soon. Bye bye.

I'm Ok

I didn't mean to freak anyone out with my last post. Living with depression is like living with diabetes or any other chronic ailment--you get used to it (ok, maybe that's insensitive of me to compare to an illness I've never lived with...you know I don't mean it in a bad way). You have times you feel fine and times you are far from fine, but if you're willing to accept that no, you're not just imagining it and no, you can't just snap out of it and actually address it, you have a way better chance of living a relatively horrible-dip-free existence.

Why am I writing about this all the sudden, anyway? A) because there are so many people blogging about social media that I myself am pretty sick of blogging about it so I'm sure other people are twice as sick of it as I am and b) because I am trying to do my part to de-stigmatize depression. NAMI is the first and only non-professional association I've ever paid to join and I joined because I applaud what they're doing. I am particularly impressed with their Stigma Busters program.

In keeping with my periodic book theme, here are two great books about depression:

1. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression


2. Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression

*Disclosure since now it's required by the FTC: I do participate in the Amazon affiliate program; however, I am too lazy to remember how to do their links so these are just plain old links to Amazon--I won't make a penny if you buy the books. And I wish I could say I got either the NAMI membership or the books for free, but nope, no such luck. Isn't blogging a blast when you have to disclose minutiae like this?

Depression Sucks

If you read this blog--or know me in real life--you know I'm a very TMI person (much to the chagrin of my dear mother). My life is an open book for the most part...and not just because I like attention. I actually am a shy-ish person and don't love attention, but one thing I honestly believe is sharing my own experiences if it helps someone else. Because most people don't talk about stuff and suffer in silence, which is heroic and all, but you only live once...why live it in silent desperation when you could just spit out what's troubling you, deal with it and move on?

So it's in this spirit that I'm writing about depression, something I don't really write or talk about but something I deal with. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's horrible...and this time of year it usually switches over to some version of horrible. The shorter days or whatever, I guess....all I know is I hate it and wish it was a feeling I'd never experienced. Or that could at least be banished with regular use of the magical pills they make for this purpose. Sadly, though, that's not the case. They work fine...until they suddenly just don't work fine anymore. Which is what's happening in my world right now and it sucks. Nothing like starting a new job, trying to enjoy the coming holidays with my family--oh, and of course dealing with stuff like kids with strep or tooth abscesses or ex-husbands who make you want to pull your hair out but you have to just breathe it out and do nothing because that's what good divorced moms do--then getting knocked down by a big ol' wave of depression.

Dealing with depression--especially when you're a grown up with a job and a husband and kids and a house to keep--is like having a broken leg (or maybe two, depending on how bad it is) and having to walk to the doctor by yourself. While smiling and looking like nothing's wrong with you. You can't tell anyone because of the stigma of mental illness--of craziness. Any other illness people could know what you're going through, could offer to help out or at least give a sympathetic smile or something. Depression, though, you can't talk about it so nobody can know you're suffering--you have to not only figure out a way to get through it, but also have that way include looking 100% normal both at home and at work and not interfere in any way with anything else going on in your life. You can tell your boss you have a stomach flu when you have that, or a sinus infection when you have that--but you can't call in sick with depression. Or I suppose you could...but then good luck to you when they label you crazy and an employment risk.

At any rate, I'll stop now....suffice it to say that depression sucks and someone needs to invent a cure for this shit. Oh, and one that doesn't make you fat or lethargic or anorgasmic or constipated or sahara-mouthed or any of the other charming side effects you get to pick from now.