S&M Love Letter

The Five Obstructions is the most twisted love letter to a friend that I have ever seen. At first I was puzzled at why Jorgen Leth would submit to such an exercise, and at what a self-important blowhard Lars von Trier is, but by the end I was quite touched that von Trier had organized this whole sadomasochistic experiment for his friend’s sake. And a bit disturbed that I was touched by it. But touched nonetheless. I can only wonder what von Trier’s relationships with women are like. He probably has a few chained up in his basement.

The film is certainly quite in line with the rest of von Trier’s films, which always feature a tortured and martyred masochistic woman. As von Trier himself says at the end of the film, “It is the attacker who reveals himself.” Just as Jorgen ultimately made his kind of film over and over again in The Five Obstructions despite von Trier’s efforts to obstruct him, von Trier himself continues to visit the same themes, essentially making the same film over and over again. Only in this film, he doesn’t quite break his subject.

Not-Completely-Purple Boots

My beloved new purple snow boots turn out to be slightly different shades of purple.

I should’ve paid more attention when I tried them on.

I don’t feel like returning them, so I think I will leave the darker
one in the sun every day so that it fades to match the other. Until
then, I will be the weird girl who loves her two different-colored
purple boots.

My Latest Mozilla Discovery

I just noticed that if you are using Mozilla’s live bookmarking feature
and you are visiting a site that has an icon in the address bar (like
mine or Guy’s),
the bookmarking feature places the icon next to each post you have
vistited using that feature. Very cool. That way you know which posts
you’ve already read and which are new. I never noticed it before
because I wasn’t visiting any sites with icons. Check it out.

Hugh Macleod

Family Fun

Blogging from Maryland, where one immediate family member has thrown
away the CDs of two of his favorite musical performers because they
didn’t support Bush!

I have spent the last four days alternating between the Playstation 2
and the XBox, which have conveniently been set up on two small TVs
right next to each other in our basement. It’s me and three young boys
at the controls. You would think that would mean endless hours of
silent time staring at a TV screen, but while playing I tend to be
quizzed on what is my favorite color, favorite food, what I eat for
lunch at work, what is my best friend’s name, etc. Also they have a new
gadget called the Eye Toy,
which is a small camera that attaches to the Playstation and projects
your own image into the game, which makes it a much more physically
engaging experience than most video games. My arms are sore from the
boxing game. I may have to get one for myself for the exercise.
Aerobics would be much more fun if you got to actually knock someone
out with each move.

I’m coming back to Boston tonight, and will be wearing my new purple snow boots!

Christmas Spirit

Ah, the choir of Christmas carolers in the Harvard Square station this
morning were especially moving set against the backdrop of enormous
Bank of America banner ads. They even stood partially atop the giant
BofA floor covering for added effect.

She Is One Of Us

A hearty blogosphere welcome to the pseudonymous Zoe, one of my dinosaur offline friends who is now sloughing off the scales and joining the blog-party!

Slate Sold

Let’s hope the Washington Post can hire a designer to make Slate less ugly. Have they ever had a redesign?

Exclusive Icon

Only Mozilla users get to see my new icon in the address bar. That’s reason enough for you to dump IE and download Firefox, no?

My New Hat and My New Hair

Christmas kisses to you all!

Even if you don’t love Jesus.

Sinners.

So Beautiful

A little embarassing to get choked up in the middle of the workday, but this post did it. She is so amazing. If you are not familiar with her blog: her mother has been battling illness for some time.

Belated

It’s kinda cool when people forget your birthday, cuz then you get to
stretch it out over several days as the belated ones make up for their
forgetfulness. And their guilt makes them try even harder. Well-wishes
are always nice, but somehow they’re even nicer when accompanied by
groveling and servile self-flagellation.

More Evil From Google

Big surprise–security flaw found in Google Desktop Search.
Why would anyone want to give Google the power to search your whole
computer anyway? Sounds to me like a disaster waiting to happen.

via Scripting News

This Picture Makes Me Happy

It’s a Burlington Coat Factory Christmas

I haven’t gone shopping in a verrrrry long time so I think I should be
forgiven for having gotten roughly one gift for myself for each that I
bought for others today. “One for her, one for me…” Hard not to when
the stuff at Burlington Coat Factory is (occasionally) so cool and
CHEAP. There is still a jacket there that I will probably go back to
get for myself…it is very cool and marked down like 90 percent
(though still a bit pricey) and I stood there for about an hour trying
to decide whether I wanted to buy it and eventually gave up because I
got exhausted from the decision-paralysis. So now that I’m home I’m
dying to buy it.

Hugh to Happy Trolls:

“So they got too may wedgies at summer camp back in the 70s. Not my problem.”

I’m Waiting for a Blind Date and Was Worried It Was You

The Office Christmas special
#2 redeems all of season two’s less-than-greatness. It is wonderful.
It’s happier than the first Christmas special, yet still manages to be
totally cringeworthy. I think I will now have to rent season 1 again to
re-live the joy.

One Reason Why the Blue States Failed

from Accordionguy’s account of Harvard’s recent Votes, Bits & Bytes conference:

One question from the audience
came from someone who wanted to volunteer for the Democrats’ campaign.
He complained that that he, and many others, showed up to help out but
nobody knew what to do with them.

• Exley:
  Our field program was a disaster. There was no plan, and there were no
  trained volunteers. “It was as if they did not see an election coming.”
• The
  Right is beating Left at what used to be the Left’s game: grassroots
  campaigning. The Left thinks that grassroots politics is “doing neat
  stuff”, but in fact, it’s still talking to people. It fundamentally
  comes down to a cultural problem: we on the Left don’t have trust in
  ordinary people. We don’t know how to talk to ordinary Americans.

Found Porn

via Dazereader, TV news crew (German?) turns peeping tom. Anyone know what the newscasters are discussing?

(obviously not work safe)

Tricksey Spammers

My gmail account has been getting spam lately. The ONLY place that
address is listed is here on this blog, and it is spelled out (see
lower right) to avoid spam harvesters–does this mean they’ve managed
to work around the gmail-dot-com trick? Bastards.

Also, is anyone having a problem with my RSS feed?