10 x 4 = Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody!

I know the popular misconception is that everyone who's Latino in Los Angeles comes from Mexico, and so folks should be out in the streets partying hardy. But in my neighborhood, half the people are from El Salvador -- totally different country -- and they could care less about a holiday celebrating a 19th century Mexican battle.

BUT since it's a day for celebration, let's start out the morning with a little "Yes We Can", courtesy of House Music United.



I have no idea what's up with the place-setting video. I didn't make it. But can I just say that records like this are exactly why I like Europeans. No Americans these days are gonna throw an Obama speech over a tech-house beat, and we INVENTED house music! Instead we get will.i.am's folksy version, which is all very touching and inspiring, but when I need to get myself going in the morning, this is SO much better.

Disclaimer: If you hate house music and hate Barack Obama because he's an uppity negro and you think his wife will be blasting "Computer Love" from the White House, sorry! Wrong blog for you!

Yeah, let me push "replay" on that clip. I really need to hear that again. Yes we can! Wake up, that is! I will have you know that I did not go to sleep last night at all. I spent my evening getting caught up tweaking a little something I wrote a couple of months ago and then working on another short story I've been absolutely obsessed with. However, I'm feeling a little wired even though I haven't slept. It must be the sheer emotional adrenaline of what I was writing.

That means it's perfect timing for me to swagger jack this meme from Madame hot-blogger herself, 1969! Get ready, because you're gonna learn a whole bunch about me that you had no idea you ever wanted to know. And if you don't want to know, stop reading now and call it a day, m'kay?

Ten things I really liked when I was a teenager that I don’t much care for now:
1) Baked chicken: Vegetarianism sort of lured me away and soured my relationship with chicken. Gosh, I feel so guilty. I've been cheating with tofu all these years.
2) Horse racing: I think Eight Belles death on Saturday at the Kentucky Derby really put the nail in the coffin. But I used to be crazy for the ponies. I even wanted to be a female jockey at one point.
3) Leftovers: I never ate them when I lived in China and that soured me on them forever. I feel like throwing up if I have to eat them.
4) Blue eyeshadow: I really thought I was fly in that light blue. Gosh, it was an '80s thing.
5) Pancakes and fries eaten at the same time: Too much starch and I like for my clothes to fit.
6) Shorts: I just think they're for kids, not for grown women with two kids of their own.
7) Vanity Fair: The book, not the magazine. I recently tried to reread it and it just irritated me. I kept yelling, "Get to the point!" Waay too long!
8) W Magazine: My mom subscribed and I used to love it. I recently bought the issue with Keira Knightley on the cover. Bored to tears by the wack fashions and the lack of diversity in the models.
9) MTV: Too many Tila Tequila shows and not enough actual music. I'm not feeling it and haven't for a long time.
10) Popular radio stations: Same 10 songs playing over and over again and their morning shows? What in the world are they talking about? Radio has definitely changed for the worse -- or am I just getting old?

Ten things I didn’t like when I was a teenager but I really like them now:
1) Talk radio: I love KNX 1070 out here in LA but I used to fight with my Dad over Chicago's very own, WGN.
2) Walking: Walking is the kiss of death for a teenager but now I'm all for it.
3) Television cop dramas: You would never have caught me watching a Hill Street Blues type show as some teen Now I love Law & Order. (Except I haven't watched TV for two weeks now.)
4) Exercise: We've come a long way from the days of Jane Fonda-type pure aerobics. Thank goodness.
5) Martial arts movies: I've been a Jet Li fan for 15 years now. And Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is still a masterpiece by any definition.
6) Ice cream: Three cheers for Breyer's Triple Chocolate.
7) Diet Coke: I'm with you on this one, 1969. But I'm being lured away by Coke Zero.
8) Art Museums: Now that I know the history and the stories behind the paintings, I like going.
9) Shopping: 80's clothes were kind of ugly and didn't look too good on me. Plus, if we were going shopping, chances are my mom was getting something, not me. Not fun.
10) Myself: Yeah, I wasn't too crazy about myself as a teenager. Thank goodness I outgrew that.

Ten things I've never liked and probably never will:
1) Snobby people: If you have to keep repeating where you got your little JD/MBA from, how "good" your hair is, or who your daddy is, guess what, you've pretty much guaranteed that I'm going to HATE you. I could stop this list right here with this one because I will HATE you, do you hear me, H-A-T-E you.
2) Being Broke: Been there, done that. I'll never be money hungry but being hungry because I have no ducats is not something I care to repeat.
3) Big cars: Bad for the environment and I don't know how to parallel park them.
4) Alcohol: I can't stand the smell of beer. Drunk folks tend to get on my nerves, and drunk drivers deserve the slammer.
5) Drama: Especially the sort where people ask me for advice, don't take it and then come crying when their life gets all jacked up.
6) Mediocrity: Come hard with it or don't come at all. If you did your best, fine. But don't tell me you didn't really try or didn't really care what the end result was.
7) Brian McKnight, Wesley Snipes, Tom Cruise, Justin Timberlake and Rush Limbaugh: They all make me sick. Just go away.
8) Greasy Southern Food: Hello! Vegetables can be made without butter and I don't want to eat fried eggs you made with a jar of drippings.
9) Self help books: I have a total mental block against them.
10) Scary movies: I'm still traumatized by watching "Secret Window" and "The Grudge" with my sister two years ago. I seriously can't deal with scary movies.


Ten things I’ve always really liked and very likely always will:
1) My kids: I love them more than anything on this planet.
2) Depeche Mode: In case you didn't know, they're the best band in the world. They just need to hurry up with the new record. Pretty please with a cherry on top?
3) Writing: Ah yes, the reason I did not go to bed last night and the reason I blog.
4) Dracula: The novel, as in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Mina Harker is one of my alter-egos.
5) Orlando Bloom: Is this the wrong time to talk about my unopened Legolas doll?
6) Shoes: I have a particular "thing" for red high heels and I really want some black stilettos with metal heels.
7) Driving a stick shift: I can be a little bit of a control freak and a stick shift helps with that. I'm good at it too. Alas, my current car is not a stick because my husband can't drive one.
8) Traveling: I will go anywhere you want to go. I really like to travel!
9) Jane Austen: Austen's novels are still so fresh and relevant. They're social commentary and soap opera all wrapped into one.
9) Tea: I will drink pretty much any tea that you offer me, not just my beloved chai. I like it plain or with a little milk in it and two sugar cubes.
10: Thai Food: I'm so spoiled because I live right on the edge of Thai Town and in delivery distance of one of the best Thai restaurants in LA.

Whew, I'm tagging some of you...later. I think I need to recover from this post.

Orlando or Silas?

Yesterday afternoon I did something that I've never done before! Want to guess what I did? I'll give you four choices to pick from:

A) I ran five miles.
B) I bought a pair of Manolos with a 4-inch heel.
C) I met another blogger.
D) I watched "Rocky".

They say that in a multiple choice test if you don't know the answer, try to use the process of elimination. And if that doesn't work, all you have to do is pick "C". That way you have at least a 25% chance of getting the answer correct. Besides, the answer really is "C"!

Yes, yesterday I met another blogger! I know, the idea of meeting another blogger can seem a little scary, and rightfully so. The internet provides such a cloak of anonymity that we can come across as being Orlando Bloom:

When in all actuality, we're really Silas:


Uh huh. The worry is that instead of finding that your blogging buddy is the suave and thoughtful person they appear to be on-line, he or she is actually a nefarious killer who wears a hooded cloak and stars in a bad adaptation of a book that wasn't all that great to begin with. Before you know it, you're sitting in a cafe across from this person, wondering how quickly you can sneak to the bathroom to dial 911.

But I wasn't worried about any of this sort of thing because I wasn't going to meet just any blogger. Nope, I met a blogger who I've emailed back and forth with for around a year. She even mailed me a guidebook on France back when I was planning on escaping there sometime this year. So, I wasn't too afraid I'd be chopped into pieces, never to see my family again!

Who is this fab blogger? I got to meet the fabulous Sundry over at Any Given Sundry. We had a nice chat over tea yesterday afternoon and let me tell you, she's so cool and just as interesting in person! I'm glad I met her. But goodness, I hope I didn't scare her to death with how much I can talk! (If I did, sorry!)

What about you? Have you ever met any other bloggers? If you did, did you get along in person? And if you haven't met any other bloggers, would you even want to?

Sleep Aids and Los Angelista Don't Mix

I have been having some CRAZY dreams the past two nights. I'm talking insane, psychedelic, trip-out, scary type dreams. And I'm pretty sure it's all because I've been taking a little something to help me fall asleep.

My sons, with their four year-old and seven year-old brilliance, see commercials on TV for drugs like Lunesta and say to each other, "That's what mommy needs."

They are especially fascinated with the Lunesta commercial because it has that butterfly that floats over all the sleepless adults and makes their eyes close. (I know some ad exec somewhere is pumping his fist in the air over this child-brainwashing triumph.)



I have to admit, I laugh when I see this commercial because when I watch it, I analyze why the people in it can't fall asleep. I say stuff to myself like, "That guy can't sleep because he's trying to figure out how to pay his house note," and, "That woman can't sleep because she knows her husband isn't really working late." I know, overactive imagination. But if you watch the clip, you'll see what I mean.

There really are legitimate reasons people can't sleep. We all know a whole lot of Americans can't pay the mortgage and are worrying that someone's cheating. And if you're wondering what my worries are, well, those particular things aren't my worries. Besides, I don't have a house here in LA because I know there's no way I can afford the monthly payment on a $600K house. So no mortgage to worry about.

Mortgage or not, I'm staying far away from that cute Lunesta butterfly. I always tell my boys that the butterfly/moth medicine might have weird side effects on mommy's body, so no thank you! I don't want to read in ten years about some weird, undiscovered side effect and then say, "Oh, is that why I can't move my arm anymore?"

On the other hand, because I'm tired of feeling tired but not being able to sleep, I figured I'd give a couple of different over the counter sleep aids a try. Saturday night I was in this health food store called the Nature Mart and I picked up a bottle of this stuff called Calms Forte. It's supposed to be a natural, homeopathic sort of sleep aid. The box says "non-habit forming". I like non-habit forming stuff. Except for chai. I don't really mind that chai is habit forming. Plus, I figure it can't be all that bad since I can remember my mom taking this stuff all the time when I was a kid.

Wow, I guess we really do all turn into our mothers eventually, don't we? Hmm...

Anyway, I took these little Calms Forte tablets the past two nights. I give it an "A" for making me fall asleep at a reasonable hour. But the trippy nightmares? Um, no thank you. I don't particularly want to dream about being chained to a pole with a Venus Flytrap munching on my hand. I also don't want to see every person I know walking by saying, "It's too bad you can't get away from that Venus Flytrap. Sucker."

And then, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Darth Vader appeared and said he'd kill the Venus Flytrap with his light saber but I'd have to marry Darth Maul.

It sounds a little funny as I'm writing about it and I can laugh about it now, but in the midst of it, I was scared as hell. You'd be scared too if someone told you, "Marry Darth Maul or die."

Can't you just imagine one of his antlers poking out your eye while you're having sex? And why couldn't Vader have said, "Marry Orlando Bloom or die?" That would've been a very good dream indeed. Sigh.

Alas, I have come to the conclusion that sleep aids and moi don't mix. Or at least that particular one doesn't work for me. I'd prefer dreams where I don't choose to be devoured by a venus flytrap in order to escape a fate worse than death.

Los Angelista's A to Z

This morning while I was over at the fabulous 1969's blog, I saw she'd made a list of herself from A-Z. She got the idea from an interview with Halle Berry in InStyle magazine. I told her I was going to steal it because it just looked like a LOT of fun. Plus it's sunny and 80 degrees here in LA and I can't concentrate on much else! I have all my windows open and there are two hummingbirds singing away. Gosh, I love Los Angeles. So here's me from A to Z. At least, for today it is!

A-Adam-12: Adam 12 is my teddy bear that I've had forever. I don't know how long I've had him but it must've been since I was a baby. My children are a bit afraid of him because he has no mouth and a bad leg. But he's a secret agent and he's been on a lot of spy missions over the years so he has the right to look a little jacked up. Plus he has no mouth because he's gotten a lot of kisses from me. Not that kissing me means you necessarily end up, with, er, no mouth...

B-Ballet: I studied ballet until I was 16. I loved dancing in my pointe shoes. I wish I'd never quit. I regret that.

C-Chai: I looove chai! Some people say, "I need a drink," when they feel stressed. I don't. I say, "I need a chai." I don't mind drinking it when I'm not stressed either. But since it doesn't come cheap from Coffee Bean or Starbucks, I'm trying to perfect my at-home chai brewing recipe.

D-Depeche Mode: My favorite band in the whole world since I was a young lass that tied boys to trees and beat them with sticks. I probably sang "Just Can't Get Enough" to my victim as I whacked him. Hmm. That makes it sound like "D" should stand for "Dominatrix", doesn't it?

E-Ears: I didn't get my ears pierced till I was 18. I have a very low tolerance for pain so after getting the left ear pierced, I almost didn't want to get the right ear done. But I figured that would look a little odd so I sucked it up.

F-Facebook: I was so resistant to Facebook but I've gotten to reconnect with so many people I'd fallen out of touch with. It is sort of awkward though when folks I don't really know request to be my friend. And just because we chatted once three years ago, that doesn't mean you know me. I just ignore these requests and I feel guilty about that. Maybe I should just send the person a message and tell them, "Hey, I don't think we can be Facebook friends because if my car broke down on the side of the road, I couldn't call you!" But I'm too chicken to do that.

G-Gentleman: The older I get, the more I see the value of a man knowing how to be a gentleman. And I see the value of mothers and fathers training their sons to become gentlemen.

H-Hair: I haven't straightened my hair since July of '07. I'm going to cut the straight parts off when my sister comes out to visit me in April. It'll be the first time in my entire life that I'll have short hair but I'm looking forward to not having two textures on my head.

I-I Love You, Mommy: Every time I hear my sons say this to me, completely unpromted, my heart just melts. If those are the last words I hear, I'll die happy.

J-Justice League: I didn't even know what the Justice League was before I married my comic book addict husband. Sure I knew about Batman, Super Man and Wonderwoman, but Green Lantern? Hawkgirl? I had no clue. But now, I am a total Justice League convert. I might even be Hawkgirl for Halloween this year.

K-Kick Butt Cardio: Violet Zaki's "Kickbutt Cardio" DVD has really been kicking my, um, butt. I don't feel bad having a hard time getting through the workout because it's fun and besides, SHE has a hard time doing it. Every time Violet says she's about to keel over and die, for some reason, I feel better. I wish I could hire her as my personal trainer.

L- Leela Thai: Leela Thai's my favorite Thai restaurant in all of LA. They have the best red curry with tofu there. I used to order from them every Friday night but now I'm down to twice a month.

M-Memory: I have a terrible memory. The upside of this is that I've developed the habit of telling the truth because I can't remember what's true half the time, let alone any lies.

N-Narcissism: The reason why I'm doing this A-Z list. But don't worry, I won't fall in love my reflection in a pool of water.

O-Orlando Bloom. He's not the best actor on the planet but I don't really care about the acting. His name should be in the dictionary next to "Smokin' Hot Eye Candy". He's sooo hot, I even have a Legolas doll. Sometimes I take it down from it's place of honor on the shelf and... okay, I'll just stop that thought right there.

P-Pacifica's Spanish Amber. I've been wearing this scent for the past couple of weeks and gosh, it smells so good. I smell my clothes when I take them off because I like it so much. I want to get the candles too but it might be too heavy of a scent for summertime. We'll see.

Q-Queasy: I get queasy really easily. That Alice in Wonderland teacup ride at Disneyland is a nightmare for me. Riding in the passenger seat in a car is sometimes tough for me too.

R-Ranunculus: They're my favorite flower. I try to get them for myself at least once or twice a month and I once got them for free from a stranger at at the Trader Joe's on 3rd and Fairfax.

S-Santa Barbara: Will someone please just buy me a house up there? It's such a beautiful area. Okay, you can't afford a house? A small condo will do just fine. Email me and I'll send you my address so you can send me the key to my new digs.

T-Treasure Hunting. I used to read books about treasures found in lost cities and from shipwrecks. I wanted to be a treasure hunter for a while there. Now I just settle for watching movies like "National Treasure" and "The Goonies".

U-Underwears. My four year old likes to strip his off and run around the house yelling, "Mommy, I don't have on any underwears!" One of these days he'll stop saying "underwears" and instead it'll just be "underwear". And I'll feel sad because I'll know my little wild boy is growing up.

V-Virtus Sola Nobilitas: Also known as "Virtue is the only nobility". It's my family motto. Love it. I even have a key chain with the motto on it.

W-Winter: Did I mention that it's 80 degrees here? Yeah, I love winter in Los Angeles. And now I'm going to listen to "Love Like Winter".

X-Xavier Gold: One of my favorite old-school house tracks is "You Used to Hold Me" by Ralphi Rosario and Xavier Gold. Xavier Gold is the singer and wow, she can SANG!

Y- Youth: I've always liked the Sophia Loren quote about the fountain of youth:

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

Z-Zebra: I used to get called "zebra" all the time by mean children who teased me for being half white and half black. I'll never forget how mean those kids were. I know many of you got called names for a wide variety of reasons. Hopefully we each know better than to call other people names because we know how awful it feels.


A-Z, that's me as of today, the 27th day of February! I encourage you to try making this list because it was really fun. I would tag some of you and turn it into a meme, but I'll let you tag yourself. If you decide to do this, let me know.

Shake It, Shh-Shake It...But Please Don't Break It!

Clearly, the bad thing about being up at one in the morning is that I'm aware that an earthquake just happened. See the nice red square on the map? That was our earthquake.

Now, if I was sleeping like I should be, I'd think the shaking was one of the kids trying to climb into bed with me, or maybe I'd think it was part of a really good dream.

Instead, I've been awake, sitting on the couch, listening to the new Blaqk Audio, thinking too much and writing it all down.

And then the couch started to feel like it was vibrating, like if a really big truck was going by.

But, it's one in the morning so there are no trucks.

Before I knew it, other stuff started to vibrate and move.

There's that feeling of uncertainty and, heck, I'll say it, FEAR, when an earthquake starts. Is it going to be a micro-quake, a light quake or...

IS IT THE BIG ONE?

You know, the big one where all of us LA sinners fall of the face of the earth and float away into the Pacific, which will be a total bummer since I don't know how to swim. But just imagine, this ginormous quake of the future will put TMZ out of business because all the celebrities will be flattened under the collapsed walls of their mansions.

Well, not all the celebrities. Clearly, Orlando Bloom will survive because he's living in the UK these days and hanging out with the very lovely Naomie Harris.

I swear, I look at that picture and totally think they look like my mom and dad forty years ago.

Anyway, since I'm typing this, you can tell it wasn't "The Big One." Plus, I love technology because I can go to to the U.S. Geological Survey website and immediately find out info about the quake we just had. It's been categorized as a "light earthquake" since it was only a magnitude 4.5.

Seriously, 4.5...that's not so bad. A picture on one of the shelves slid off, but that's so not a big deal.

Wow, I really can't believe I just wrote that. Yeah, after almost nine years, LA is definitely home if I'm cool with a picture sliding off a shelf.

Now, back to the writing, listening, and thinking I was doing.

Or, maybe I should just go to bed so I can sleep through any aftershocks.

The End Of The World During "At World's End"

Thursday night found me at The Grove checking out opening night of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". No need for a spoiler alert here because I'm not going to tell you anything about the plot.

I'll will tell you that it's a very very long film. Almost three hours long. Don't get the large drink, okay?

No, it's not the best film on earth, but I wasn't expecting it to be. The fact that the other two were decent movies at all was a nice bonus on top of the real reason the films became successful: the eye candy factor.

I'll go ahead and confess my sins in case you haven't guessed from the picture. My main reason for going was so I could see some Orlando Bloom.

I adore Orlando Bloom. In fact, I like him so much that three years ago, I had an Orlando Bloom themed birthday party. I like him so much that I have a full-size Legolas poster in my office at work.

No, I'm not kidding.
Yes, I completely understand if you think that's a bit freakish and extreme.
No, I don't care whether you think I'm insane or not.

Orlando is hot. He's so hot, I think MIMS wrote his "This Is Why I'm Hot" song while watching some Orlando Bloom movies. But we all know that hot isn't enough for Liz. You have to be hot and a nice guy for me to be down. Orlando's niceness always comes across in his interviews.

If you're trying to think up a reason why he's not hot, like, for example, you want to say he's a bad actor, just admit it, you're being a player hater. Besides, I know I'm not alone in my adoration. In fact, I guess the parents who brought their FOUR children to "At World's End" must feel the same way that I do about Mr. Bloom.

These idiots dragged a baby that looked to be around six months old, some toddler twins, and a bigger kid into the theater. By bigger, I mean that the boy was probably, at the most, five years old. Oh, and did I mention that the baby had a stinky diaper and the father changed it in inside the theater?

Now, in case you think I'm being overtly judgmental, I'll fess up. I let my kids stay up late. I'm not one of those parents that make my kids go to bed at 7 pm, mainly because if I did that, I'd never see them. I'll also admit that I sometimes take my boys out on a weeknight. Maybe we'll get really wild and roll by the Los Feliz Toys-R-Us.

But my kids are not going to a PG-13 rated Pirate movie at 8:15 pm on a Thursday night. Only a truly selfish dumb ass takes their small children to see a movie where there are rotting pirate teeth, monsters and people getting hacked with swords. I mean, all that might scare the children. The poor little children might start to cry.

And cry they did. Profusely. During some of the action sequences, these kids hollered so loudly that I seriously thought it was the end of the world instead of "At World's End." And neither parent got up to take the crying children out.

I get the rebellion. I really do. As a parent, you can start to feel a little resentful that pre-kids, you could go to the movies whenever and see whatever you want. No "Rated G" restrictions to have to deal with. No paying for a babysitter. No having to be home at a decent hour. Hours of Orlando-gazing on a big screen instead of your TV at home...

I guess the parents figured they had paid their $12.50 admission price per child so they weren't going anywhere. Plus, they probably thought that everyone else in the theatre would merely think the wailing was some additional sound effects at the end when Will Turner...

Oh, yeah, I said I wasn't going to tell you anything about the plot. Just know, those kids weren't the only one's in there crying. (Shh...I was crying too!)

These Are My (Pop-Culture) Confessions

I came home tonight and caught the tail end of Access Hollywood (or was it Extra?). In any case, Billy Bush was going on and on about Angelina Jolie's newest adopted child. They had some psychiatrist on the show talking about how the biggest issue the kid will have is getting used to dealing with the paparazzi. I told my husband that I didn't think I could deal with being a celebrity and having a media frenzy wherever I went. He said he wouldn't mind if he had enough money to live comfortably. We debated that for a bit and I stuck to my side of the coin.

For one, I don't think I could pass the fashionista litmus test. I wear too much black and I like to dress down more than I enjoy dressing up. I'd be on the "Needs a new stylist" list every week. Mr. Blackwell would roast me from here to eternity.

Bigger than that though is that I don't think I could deal with being unable to watch people because of them being too busy watching me. I got to thinking about how we're all just a bit too obsessed with pop culture. I'll bet more people in America knew Heather Mills was going to be on Dancing With the Stars tonight than knew that today is the is 4th anniversary of our little Iraq exploits.

But, I'm not a hypocrite so I have to come clean about my own little pop-culture issues. Although confession of sins is not allowed in my religious tradition, I figure that confessing my pop culture obsessions could be a good thing. Perhaps if I believe, like they say in AA, that the first step is admitting the problem, I'll be able to convince my husband to put down the copy of US Weekly that I bought at the Dallas airport on Friday night. He's sitting in bed right next to me, reading about celebrity drug addictions. He just said, "These people are sick!" but he hasn't chucked it into the trash. So, you wanna know:

1. I buy a copy of US Weekly or Star magazine at least once a month. Now, I know that gossip kills the soul of the person being talked about and the person doing the talking. BUT, I get sucked into the stories and before you know it, I'm reading, "Stars. They're just like us." Um, no they're not. I thank the heavens for rent control. They are considering moving to Malibu.
2. Celebrity gossip sites: I used to read Defamer religiously. Now I just check out Popsugar. I found that sites like Defamer and The Superficial had these mean, snarky commentators and I didn't like that.
3. I don't schedule anything on Mondays at 9 pm because I'm obsessed with the show "Heroes". It's on hiatus now and my Monday nights are relatively boring as a result.
4. I like to watch America's Next Top Model. I don't catch it every week but I like to watch it. Except that Ms. J is so annoying and I don't think his/her walk is really all that.
5. I visit Orlando Bloom and Depeche Mode fansites. I even leave comments on the Depeche Mode message boards. I know obscure facts that the average person that buys a DM cd doesn't know. Do these random facts help me in the real world? THAT remains to be seen.
   
6. Sometimes I watch The Real World. I know...it's a bunch of drinking, whoring and arguing. It's the proverbial train wreck. Why don't I just click it off?
   
   I'll leave it at six "problems". And, let me take a moment to remind myself (and you) that I'm not all bad.
   
   My saving graces:

1. I've never seen Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives. Based on the advertisements for Grey's , I now know how the spread of venereal diseases happens so quickly.
   
2. I've only watched American Idol twice. First season. And I have no idea who's on this season. Don't care either....but I do sorta like Kelly Clarkson.
   
3. I've only seen Dancing With the Stars twice. Once was tonight and I only watched because I wanted to see the trailer for Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. The trailer came on an hour and 22 minutes into the program. Waay too long to wait for that. Then, I left it on to watch Heather Mills dance. She was pretty awful and I hope she gets the boot despite her fake leg.

I'm really wondering, why do we all get so obsessed with pop culture? Is it a conspiracy to distract us from what's really going on in the world? And, what are your pop-culture confessions?