Yay, thanks to Mark for ripping it off Jeremy’s head finally and getting it out to me. Jeremy - get your own. Hahahahahaha w00t! Now all I need is my Team Perez shirt, and I am set up!

You know when you are running around the house, still in your jammies, much too late - and the doorbell rings - and there stands just the person you don’t want to know that you are still in your undies after noon…

Well, thats me. I officially started my “real job” as Project Manager for my beloved blogging network global new media network, b5media, last week - and they decided yesterday that they wanted to add our personal blogs to the Team channel, so here I am. Welcome, and try not to be too bored here. I am putting my clothes and makeup on as we speak.

You want to check out some amazing Photoshop work? Do you love babies? (Do you love Gene Simmons?) Sure you do!

Click here.

Prior to this month, I was a cheerleader for Dell. I really was. We have 6 Dell computers in our home (7, if you count the one that is scheduled for transport back to the hell from whence it came). I loved Dell because they ran well, and because they had incredible support. Sure, I struggled to understand the English of the support team (yes, “Brian,” “Bob,” “Susan,” every one of them), but that was ok, they ALWAYS resolved my problems. Until this time.

My husband works out of town during the weeks. I work with b5media. Both of us rely on our computers for our jobs. So, when Marshall began having problems with the screen on his Dell, I called Dell. One service call later - no resolution. Another long telephone exchange and another service call - no resolution. The technician knew what needed to be replaced, but Dell would not send it. My husband calls Dell - spends a couple of hours on the phone, raises hell, and then arrives a technician with a whole new top half of the computer. Well, the screen was repaired, but it just didn’t jive with the rest of the computer - we are permanently in Safe Mode after yes, another call to Dell. Mark us down for about 8 hours on the phone with Dell now.

Read the rest, after the jump…
Continue reading ‘Dell SUCKS. My trip into dell hell.’

In reading a post today from Suzanne at BlogHer, I both agreed, and was a little alarmed (can you do that?):

So why do we have corporations jumping all over each other to show that they support women by donating to breast cancer charities when they can really do more good by working to prevent heart disease and strokes? The sick truth is that breast cancer is a sexy illness to exploit for fun and profit. Do women want to look at pictures of fatty hearts and clogged arteries when they shop for soup, yogurt, make-up, umbrellas, BMWs, Cartier watches, gym shoes, umbrellas or any other of the many fine products that donate during October to breast cancer causes if you buy it? Does anyone? Not so much. Is it easy to fit “Help fight chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the #3 illness killing women every year” into a marketing campaign? Not so much. However, the words “breast” and “cancer” sure catch the eye quickly, especially when marketers can add a curvy silhouette next to it. (Subliminal message: “Don’t let hot women die!”)

I certainly have noticed, this year above all prior years, the massive marketing campaign for pink products. And, well, I am a sucker for pink stuff, and if I can use that little voice in my head to rationalize buying that little thing - well, I will. This year, I have bought pink labelled Campbell’s Tomato Soup (which I buy and eat regularly anyway), some pink handled Kitchen Aid kitchen shears (which I was in the market for anyway - darned kitchen gremlins always stealing my shears), and some pink hot rollers and a pink straightening iron (was in the market as well - after all, I am a beauty writer). I somehow have managed not to toss my perfectly good Kitchen Aid mixer and go out and buy that precious pink one - but I have thought about devious ways to get away with it, I will admit. So anyway, back to the original topic - Suzanne has a good point there - the corporations are definitely increasing their visibility and their bottom lines by offering a percentage of profits towards breast cancer whatever (research, support, blah, blah, blah). However, breast cancer is one of the few cancers that does not seem to reflect someone’s lifestyle, and therefore those people who are victimized it are not much more than that - unknowing, unwilling victims. Fatty hearts and clogged arteries are things that are a direct result of ones lifestyle, and are preventable (for the most part). Lung cancer, a HUGE killer, is mostly related to your lifestyle as well (not always, I know this). Breast cancer appears to be a genetic problem - it runs in families, and if your mother had it, you are darned likely to have it too. Breast cancer kills - it is not just a little lump that you can lop off and you are all good. For these reasons, breast cancer deserves some support. I do not believe, as Suzanne apparently does, that it all boils down to “not letting hot women die.”

Besides my (yeah, maybe unhealthy) fetish for pink stuff, one of my dearest friends is a breast cancer survivor. She got sick right after my husband starting to mend from his battle with MRSA, and due to the fact that he needed so much care, I was unable to help Selina out as much as I would have normally. She has been through a long and painful, stressful, and emotional battle with her cancer, and 2 years later she is weaker in many ways (although stronger in others) and flatter chested (a staph infection ruined her chances of reconstruction), but she is a champion with a sunny disposition that you would be hard pressed to find in the healthiest person around. She and her husband were role models for my husband and I before she got sick (you have never met kinder, more helpful people in your life), and they are still the same people today. Weaker people would have let their problems defeat them, but not her. I offer my support of breast cancer research and support in honor of Selina, and in hopes that I can help repay her for the kindnesses that she continues to show to me and my family day after day.

So, it is with that spirit that I will continue to support and promote companies that support breast cancer causes, as I truly believe, that for me, it is the right thing to do. Pink out!

The master time waster has wasted a few more hours that might could have better off been used getting some shut eye. But anyway, Hsien, get off your Bloglines and come see my pretty new site. Hahahahaha!

Now, I need to add about 1,984,382 links to my blogroll, but that is going to have to be left to another day. Monday is calling, and I must prepare my pink outfit for lunch with Selina tomorrow - as we are getting passionate!

This is ridiculous. Ridiculous! Apparently a parenting magazine featured an image on the cover of a closeup baby breastfeeding, and the people are wigging out about it.

One mother who didn’t like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

“I shredded it,” said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. “A breast is a breast - it’s a sexual thing. He didn’t need to see that.”

It’s the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public - a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: “lactivists,” meaning those who advocate for a woman’s right to nurse wherever she needs to.

“I’m totally supportive of it - I just don’t like the flashing,” she says. “I don’t want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn’t want to see.”

First off - what is the big deal - we see man boobs every day (if we’re lucky), why, oh why is a woman boob so offensive? And secondly, what husband or son doesn’t want to see a breast??? I know my hubby does, and if truth were to be told, my 8 yr old son is starting to get intrigued as well. Everybody calm down, this is a non-issue.

…sad to say:

Wellllllllllllllllll, after being gone for a week to the beach, I was planning on staying up late tonight catching up a weeks worth of MRSA news, beauty news and Brad and Britney news. *Sigh.* Not happening. I am at a hotel in Houson tonight (kids catching the early flight to Nashville in the morning), boasting fabulous free wireless, and yes, I can connect to it, but most web sites won’t come up at all - about every 20th try I get something to come up. And Gmail is just about totally functionless. There is no link clicking, no changing pages, and therefore no hope of posting anything, unless I want to stay up all night for about 2 posts. Bitch Bitch Bitch. This is supposedly Road Runner Speed Zone - Speed Zone my ASS. I guess it is going to be tomorrow night before I can do anything. I am trying out BlogDesk to see if it works here, and if so, I might still be in luck. I just hope none of these emails in my inbox need a speedy return. *Sigh* *Sigh* *Sigh.*