Why do I know who Dane Cook is? I mean aside from the jacktarded movie with Jessica what has he done?

He is an untalented joke-stealer whose comedy record sold very well because of rather ingenious use of MySpace.

I wouldn't really buy anything at Macy's, but I guess I don't care if all the department stores are the same brand. I kind of hate department stores.

This one could have used a "do not eat dinner while watching."

Yeah. For some reason I decided to wait and see how nasty/gory the beginning was before grabbing some food. I was very glad I waited. And extra glad I wasn't planning on having soup .

Here in Utah there was a store called ZCMI (Zions Commercial Mercantile something) that was founded by the Mormon pioneers and pretty much owned by the Mormon church.

There was a chapter in The Great Brain where there were some kids who got lost in a cave, and the townspeople wanted to go try to find them, but they didn't have enough rope, and the main character's father had a little bit of a rant about how the only place that sold rope was the ZCMI and they were closed on Sunday so they had all kinds of problems getting rope. (Or something like that. It's been a while since I read it.)

Project Runway: Totally crazy! I am so excited. The SO is out of town, so I almost waited to watch with him, but I couldn't resist, and now I'm glad, 'cause I'll get to watch it again.

I couldn't believe they let everybody stay, but I'm so glad. I have no idea who will win, and I'm looking forward to everyone's collections.

I thought Uli would be out this week, but she really came through with her dress. It was gorgeous. The print was so much more impressive edited like that. I always respect the designers who are willing to actually listen to Tim's criticism and make changes. It was still Uli, but it was definitely a change, and a positive one.

I liked that Jeffrey made a change, but it was a silly dress, and a silly photo, and nothing to do with him.

I was surprised that Michael froze up! Too much pressure, maybe? Couldn't deal with the freedom? You would think at this point they'd have already been thinking in terms of their collections, and would have some idea of an independent project they might want to do.

It was good to see them work without guidelines, though. It was nice for them to be able to really do their own thing.

Uli's decision to grab Nazri was strategic in two ways, though. Not only did it change up the look of her garments, but it also screwed up Michael. I think it threw him for a loop more than it should have.

Overall, I was just glad to see that I think they all got good direction for their collections. If they pay attention, they'll be able to do really well, I think. Jeffrey will go back to his rocker thing, Uli will be able to be more diverse, Michael will show us some really great sportswear, Laura will expand on her neckline vocabulary. If they listen.

Totally excited about the finale. Not looking forward to the reunion show. I hate reunion shows.

eta: Wow. That was a long post. I'm clearly more invested in this show than I realized.

For msbelle last 5 minutes of CM: they realized that the reason the boy was moved into the padded room was that his kidnapper didn't feel safe anymore, and guessed that maybe this was because the Crimes against Children woman had talked to him in her earlier investigation. With Garcia's help, they figured out that almost all of the people she had talked to were in jail, one was dead, and one was too stupid to pull it off, which left one person. In the meantime, they had run out of time in the auction, and the kidnapper dismantled the room around the little boy, then put him in a trunk and put it into his car. He was just pulling out when the team pulled up, and saved the day at the last minute (OMG I'M SO SHOCKED). They figured out that the boy had been kidnapped when he was 1, and then reunited him with his mother.

I like department stores for some reason. I just can't remember what it was.

Right! Underwear. Good place to see an assortment of underwear. Also hose. I don't buy much other clothes in them, since they're nonsensically arranged. I want all the pants in one place, not all the Elie Tahari. Who the fuck is she anyway?

What's CM? Criminal Minds?

Yep.

At least I hope so.

Alas, again in a skipping-lots-ignoring-ongoing-conversations-and-poking-my-head-for-a-short-time manner, but still, it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still in a risk of sounding a bit strange:

On Sunday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.

This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define to ourselves our faults, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.

On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins. The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books'.

Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody here (or everywhere else, for that matter). I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.

So, since Monday will be, for me, this day of soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I ever offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones?...).

In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around foamy, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Especially now, after meeting some of you in face-space, and having somewhat less computer (and online playing) time, there are so many more opportunities for mistakes and misunderstandings and hurt. Y'all are so understanding, you probably didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and showed me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.

{{Buffistas}}

[Edit: each year I hope I'll be able to make it less long and less ramble-y, and each year I realize once again that I completely lack the ability to write anything concise. At least I'm consistent.]

I love Nilly.

And thanks for the card sweetie, sorry I am so late in responding to my emails.

I love Nilly.

Seriously. The only thing in your life that is offensive to me is all the work that keeps you from hanging out here! And I can't really fault you for that, so.

PR: I love that they kept all four! I think it was kind of ballsy of them. I mean, I'm sure that Michael and Jeffrey (and do we think they're actually Mike and Jeff in real life? The full-name thing is a little weird to me) were the favorites going in to the last challenge, and it seems crappy, in the typical way of reality shows, to insist on axing one of them over one dress at the very end.