weekend pickthrough- springing forward into delirium edition.

WHERE IS THAT THIRD ARM COMING FROM!?

losing an hour is the worst. here it is, 2 am, but it feels like 1 am- except for the fact that i’m not gonna get more than 4 hours of sleep, whether i like it or not. it was opening weekend for my show (not too disastrous!), and then i decided to make lentil soup (more details on that tomorrow), and write a blog post for coupon evolution that i should have written on thursday…

tomorrow is gonna be a sleep deprived mess anyway, so i figured i’d squash out at least one more post before i lapsed into a coma. we haven’t picked through the weekend in a while, so here it is (i didn’t say i’d be squashing out a good post):

the financial walk of shame.

every year, various outlets compile lists of companies that they think won’t last out the next year.  in a way it’s sort of interesting, but it’s also exceptionally depressing. whether a mark of the lousy economy, or just the evolution of popular technology (i mourn your impending death eastman kodak!), it’s kind of like watching the dinosaurs die out right in front of your eyes, and not be able to stop it.

last week, the borders company sent out this letter to their customers, letting them know that shit was going down (chapter 11), but that everything was still essentially “ok”. except that it’s not ok. with tons of stores closing all over america (our maine locations are safe for now!), it’s hard to have faith that a little reorganization (whatever that means) can fix what’s broken. the chapter 11 email of shame is almost always a last spasm before death.

but more than the sadness over the loss of yet another US business, i feel empathy for the man who had to write that letter. the first time i got laid off when i was 22, i had to call my mom and beg for money for food and rent. she actually turned me down (a story for another day), but that phone call was excruciating. admitting to your loved ones that you’ve gotten yourself into financial trouble is one of the most embarrassing and complicated situations that a person can be in. can you imagine having to make that call to an entire country?  having your financial missteps broadcast and analyzed by the wall street journal?

so with that, 2 questions:

1. what dinosaur store/brand/company will you be saddest to see die out?

2. have you ever had to do the financial walk of shame?

weekend pickthrough- full moon malaise edition.

i don’t know what happened to me this week. every post was like giving birth to a 20 lb. baby. so tired. so uninspired. so grouchy. yesterday, i picked not one, but three petty fights with people that i cared about (all which were swiftly resolved, but still). i’m off my game and i’m not sure how to get it back. think there’s a discount mojo bin at the new mardens?

…friday passes…saturday passes…sunday passes…

for example, i left this weekend pickthrough woefully unfinished on my computer desktop for 3 full days. in addition to that shame, i should also get some sort of ball dropping award for not getting my shit together this week and missing out on the chance to tell everyone about a couple of totally awesome events that happened this weekend:

1. the vegetarian food fest. this is especially egregious because A) it was free to get in and full of free samples of awesome cruelty-free foodables (i even scored some coupons!), & B) because i was there handing out gazpacho and kick ass vegan cookie bars on behalf of the very amazing northstar music cafe. it was wonderful, and i wish you could have been there. sorry i’m an asshole.

2. portcon! ok, not everyone is a comic book/anime/gaming/ whatever nerd- but if you are, this would have been the best (had i told you about it in time). and even if you weren’t willing to lay down the $30 for the 3-day pass, you could have at least headed out to the mall to check out the throngs of be-costumed teenagers digging for bargains at the hot topic and just generally trying to freak people out.

anyway, consider the following pickthrough items to be my most sincere apology to you for my checked out week. i am placing full blame on the simultaneous arrival of the full moon and being stricken with lady business, but you can feel free to place full blame on me for being a lazy sack.

the most ridiculous cease and desist letter ever sent (spoiler: involves unicorn meat).

this is the only logical way to prevent our children from being exposed to unsafe text books!

shit. first i feel guilty if i forget my reusable bags at home, now i need to be afraid that they’re crawling with bacteria? this is bullshit. when did we become such pussies about everything? humanity is covered in bacteria, i’ll take my chances.

thanks to my frequent trips to the sketchy east end rite aid, my photo of their hilarious back alley graffiti made it onto unseen portland!

the most absurd slide show ever compiled by the new york times.

i know that after the sandwich party i vowed i would never do another house party again, but this would be too cool. will you come over?

three words for you: gential recognition software.

kate over at a sweet disorder shows us some hot summer shit that we can actually afford (bitch is the master of polyvore).

oh, and if you see the members of incredible local act isobell vibrating intensely with glee, it’s because they’re headed to FUCKING NATEVA. and we should all be very proud. and maybe they’ll rub up against zooey deschanel for us.