U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft wants to know if your abortion was "medically necessary". Is he trying to intimidate women with invasive tactics or is he, as he claims, just taking action in reaction to lawsuits against him by doctors who are suing him over the "partial-birth abortion" law Bush signed last year? (Via Salon)

As part of his effort, Ashcroft has subpoenaed records from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and several of its affiliate chapters.

This man needs to be stopped.

Let's see: headache? Check. Stuffed up nasal passages? Check. Pissed off at the government? Check.
Yep, it's just another day in writegrrrl-land but this just-another-day is Friday so I'm trying to hold on to my sanity knowing that there are movies, rock shows, breakfasts with friends and even some reading-for-fun on the horizon.
And that's all for now. My head hurts too much for anything else.

New Mexico's attorney general says that the same sex marriage licenses issued by a Sandoval County clerk are invalid. (Via GayWired). It didn't work, but still that was a great effort on the part of one person and wouldn't it be amazing if there were more people like that clerk and SF mayor Gavin Newsom - people who are willing to break the law in the name of equal rights?

There will always be people who are either ignorant to the rights of the human spirit or, worse, politically motivated - but what I think is even more treacherous is when somebody like Arnold Schwarzenegger says that the issuing of same sex licenses in SF is wrong because it violates Prop 22, a measure approved by voters in 2000 that requires the state to only recognize marriage between a man and a woman.

Hello, it's called civil disobedience, people.

Although Bush has stopped short at trying to put an end to same sex civil unions (which he opposed while serving as the Governor of Texas), he is making it an election year issue with his proposal for a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages.

Dumb question here, but whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Because really, that's what we're talking about here. Unless you oppose same sex unions on "moral" or religious grounds then what persuasive, logical argument could you possibly have against them? Just because you don't like the idea doesn't mean it shouldn't be legal. Ultimately, in the eyes of the government, marriage should just be about a piece of paper -whether you're straight or gay - that ensures you certain rights and benefits in regards to property, taxes, health care, etc.

In any case, I say fine, make it an election year issue. It's about time this country faced up to its responsibility to grant equal rights that are geared towards a non-partisan, non-religious and ungendered more perfect union.

Still here....Just sick and coming down from four non-stop days of writing. I am so bummed to be sick again - with a cold this time - I just want to feel healthy but - I know, I know - that's a tall order with the schedule I've been keeping lately. Indeed, it seems as if my immune system has flown south for the winter and forgot to invite me along for the vacation.

But - thanks to a co-worker, I have discovered the glorious treatment that is Zicam. It's a nasal gel that actually stops a cold. You're supposed to use it at the first sign of getting sick - unfortunately I always think that I just have allergies for the first 6-12 hours of having a cold. Such was the case Sunday night as I sneezed my way through some homework and the SAG awards. Then yesterday I kept sneezing and sneezing and sneezing and NOTHING was helping. Not the allergy medicine, not the cold medicine. It was horrific - like something out of a bad sketch comedy. I was supposed to be writing but it's hard to type when you're literally sneezing every 60-120 seconds.

Finally, at about 9 p.m. last night, I went to the store in search of some NyQuil in hopes that it would knock me out of my misery. As I scanned the shelf, the Zicam caught my eye and I remembered that a co-worker had tried to tell me how great the stuff is. At that point I was ready for anything so, despite its $11 price tag, I picked up a box and took it home. The stuff is a teensy bit messy and it tickles a little but, wow, it works. I know I sound like an infomercial - but look at this way. I sneezed all day Monday and then after I used the Zicam, I sneezed one more time and now, 15 hours later, I haven't sneezed since. I still feel fairly crappy but not as crappy and I'm fairly functional today. Looks like Zicam has a sinus remedy too - going to have to check that out.

Despite my sneezing, I did manage to finish a 2500 word article for my magazine workshop yesterday. The piece could have easily been much longer but I feel like it needs some direction before I continue because right now I hate it. Also continued working on a short story for the fiction workshop - that's not due until next week but it seems to be shaping up OK.

OK, there are a lot of other things I want to write about - why I'm glad Sex & the City is finally done for, why I think more cities should start a revolution and issue gay marriage licenses, bit it will all have to wait for now. There is work to be done and then more work and then homework and then more homework....so, until later.

The Friday Five - on Friday - imagine that...

When was the last time you...

1. ...went to the doctor?
About two weeks ago when the bronchitis was really bad and I got some good stuff: codeine cough syrup, antibiotics and an inhaler.

2. ...went to the dentist?
Six months ago. I'm going again this week.

3. ...filled your gas tank?
Wednesday. I get gas every Wednesday before I go to school in Oakland. Usually that will last me an entire week.

4. ...got enough sleep?
Um. Huh. I don't know. I never feel as if I get enough sleep.

5. ...backed up your computer?
Erg. I don't think I've ever backed up my computer. I know - that's really really bad and I'm tempting fate and all that. Shoot. Now I feel horrible. I'm a bad computer owner.

I know this has been making the rounds for a while...but wow...the 10 worst album covers....is that Rob Reiner on the Country Church one?

David Gest and Diana Ross may marry? I want to scream wrong! wrong! wrong! - but who am I to question love? (Via Low Culture).

Couldn't sleep last night. The cough has returned in full force - which meant I spent half the night on the couch because I didn't want to keep everyone else awake.

Mostly this is OK because I like sleeping on the couch. We have the most sleepable couch and sometimes it is a point of contention as to just who gets to use it for a nap.

Last night it was a little difficult though - the constant painful cough that makes me feel as I'm about to spit up a tonsil, combined with the bright yellow street light that shines through our living window and then, the ceaseless sound of rain. Normally I love the sound of rain when I'm sleeping. When I'm sleeping. When you are awake because you can't stop coughing and there is a yellow streetlight shining through the blinds and to top it all off you had too much coffee before bed because you were trying to stay awake late to study because you spent the first half of the night goofing off watching Gilmore Girls and America's Next Top Model...well...then rain? Not so good.

So yeah, I'm tired today but concentration is required because this is the day where I try to pack a full day's worth of work into a half day and then I commute 90 miles and sit through two classes (plus a 90 minute break) and then commute 90 miles back home.

The good thing is that this semester equals so far so good. So far I am liking my class. Even the Gertrude Stein class. Even though I never want to read another word of Gertrude Stein, I'm still enjoying the way the class is getting me to explore my writing voice in ways that are new to me. Or ways that I had previously put aside.

And the nonfiction writing for publication workshop is going well. I'm learning new things as a journalist - both in technical and creative terms.

Of course, I have yet to to workshop a longer piece in either class - next week is the nonfiction class, the week after I workshop a short story - so check back with me later and we'll see if everything is still coming up wine and roses.

For now there is coffee to be had and papers to be stapled before the next class begins.

And yes, I brought my own stapler so that I don't feel so conspicuous and guilty listening the loud, echoing click of the library's when I have to staple together 15 copies of something.

If you know me at all then you must know how deliriously happy I am to have the new Jim White record in my hands. And how over-the-moon I am to hear of a new Jim White film, Seaching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus.
What started out as a dismal, rainy February day is suddenly that much brighter, that much more bearable.

I am so goddamned sick of Gertrude Stein.

I am a big fan of Rather Good's crazy animation - especially the punk rock-singing kitties, but I have to admit that the potato-gerbil Quizno hucksters scare me.

In fact I thought they were rats and was desperately trying to figure out just what the hell kind of GOOD connection there could be between rats and subs.

But potato-gerbils and subs, I guess that's OK (via Absolutely-Vile).

OK, you know what, no - it's just wrong. I do not want to associate sandwiches with rodents - of any kind.

Jason Mattera, a student at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island and president of the Republican Club has established a "parody" scholarship intended for whites only. Mattera explains that ""No matter what my ethnicity is, I'm making a statement that scholarships should be given out based on merit and need" (via CNN).
So, I guess then that he'll be giving back that $5000 scholarship he received because he's Puerto Rican?

A chilly February post-Valentine's Sunday morning and I'm trying to convince myself to go workout before it's time to study. Maybe another cup of coffee will do the trick. Maybe another piece of Valentine's Day chocolate will induce enough guilt and self-loathing to get me off my ass.

The last few days have been mostly busy. Friday I went to Berkeley for two interviews and it was a good day in that I got to talk to people who are changers and creators and are filled with ideas and enthusiasm and an unflagging desire to throttle the world. I left Berkeley feeling slightly euphoric, lighter than air and imbued with my own desire to change, create and throttle.

Of course sitting in traffic for nearly three hours on the way home sort of dampened the spark a bit but I think it's still smoldering somewhere.

Last night Cory & I went to see The Triplets of Belleville, a gorgeously animated, completely whacked-out film that I enjoyed quite a bit. Very dream-like with the most amazing animation and a morose, melancholy humor. Highly recommended. I was glad to see that quite a few people turned out to theCrest for this (even if one couple did leave two-thirds of the way through). It's good to know that at least that many people didn't go to see 50 First Dates instead. It's the small things that make me happy.

OK, time to get moving. Next up: possibly the workout (will the guilt and self-loathing win out over laziness and apathy?) and a definite workout with Gertrude Stein who is currently dancing on my very last nerve of literary patience. Then perhaps, finally, a viewing of last year's Valentine's Day gift to Cory, the film Amelie - because we are nothing if not behind our own leisure time curve.

Erg. The running shoes await. Damn them.

Hmmm, I thought the percentage would probably be a lot higher:

You are 35% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

I'm at school right now, on break (and THIS is how I spend my time? Yes) and I just have one question (Actually I have a million questions, but work with me here):

Why is that I am spending thousands of dollars on my graduate education and the school can't see fit to provide me with 1) access to a stapler 2) toilet paper that doesn't feel like sandpaper and 3) more than one vending machine and more than two public copiers?


I'm just saying, that's all.

That’s right, Cory and I have been e-mailing all morning about America’s Next Top Model (we watched at separate times since he had band practice last night and have thus been catching up on our thoughts regarding the episode). Sorry for outing you Cory, but people have to know about your ANTM habit.

Anyway, some of those e-mails also involved a Timbaland quote from a recent New York Times Sunday magazine on "The Sound: The songs that define Right Now". In the piece the interviewer asked Timbaland about what kind of music he likes:

I asked him what he likes.

'' 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' he quickly answered. ''I was at the Trump in New York, and my assistant Mike was cutting my hair. I was watching 'O Brother.' I was laughing my butt off. And the song came on -- 'I am a man of constant sorrow . . . ' -- and I was like, 'This song is hot.' Next thing you know, I bought the CD and I would bump it in my car just the way it was. People would look at me like, This dude gotta be crazy. No, I wasn't, because this record gonna sell about 10 million. And what happened? It sold 10 million!'' (It sold 6.6 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.)

''The best music right now is country music,'' he went on. ''The old country music, the old bluegrass stuff -- the lyrics in that stuff are incredible. And the damn melodies? Think about Bonnie Raitt. She's country, right? She made the illest song ever, 'I Can't Make You Love Me.' '' He sang me a line: ''Turn down the lights, turn down the bed/Turn down these voices inside my head.''

Now, why can't modern radio programmers think this way? Why do corporations such as Clear Channel insist on just recycling the same old sounds? Cory made a good point in an e-mail:

"It's a shame that programmers don't play stuff like The Flaming Lips, RADIO4, and The Polyphonic Spree. Music in commercials has been such a big boost for sales, but radio programmers somehow didn't get the memo. Radio should be about people saying, "yeah they're playing that song...I love this" "who is this" "it's from that TV commercial", etc.."

As such, even though I'm happy when a band such as Jet does get some radio play and even though I've yet to become tired of "Hey Ya" (Lord knows I've tried to get tired of it, but I just can't), there's still such a dearth of fresh new sounds on your radio dial.

Why do I even bother listening to the radio? Because A) I want to know what the 'kids' are into - or rather, what's being fed to them and B) every now and then I hear something great and it makes me happy and it reminds me of being in grade school or junior high and feeling euphoric when I "discovered" a new artist that I like. Perhaps I'm just stupid, but I still hold out hope for a radio revival.

Somewhere, somehow, it's got to be in the mix.

So a bunch of medical researchers have independently discovered a link between the month in which you were born and a predisposition to certain illnesses and have come up with December as being the healthiest birth month (via Netscape, by way of The Usual Suspects).

Hmmm...i was born in December and right now I have, in order of misery: a splitting headache, bronchitis and a sprained finger. OK, so the sprained finger isn't a "health" issue, but still...I'm not feeling the December love here.

Interestingly though - for me at least - December babies are "predisposed to respiratory syncytial virus, an infection that causes pneumonia" - I had pneumonia several times as a child, I was even hospitalized for it once. And since there is a link between bronchitis and pneumonia maybe that explains me having the former twice in the last three years. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go cough up another lung.

The Village Voice's 2003 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll has just been posted, my ballot included.

It's a gorgeous pre-spring day here and although I'm not able to spend it outdoors, I do get to spend it at home which is the next best thing. I've opened most of the windows in the house and so there's fresh air breezing through in chilly but sunny drafts and the cats are finding warm spots of sunshine rays in which to bask and I'm playing the new Iron & Wine CD and doing laundry and enjoying the way the dryer smells as it mixes with the early spring February air and I'm also procrastinating on various school projects but slowly I am getting things done and mostly I am just glad to be here in my own space, getting over the bronchitis and enjoying the pretty weather no matter how false such moments of seasonal delight may ultimately prove to be.

A Knoxville, TN woman has filed a class action suit against Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, CBS, MTV and Viacom, claiming that the one-second flash of Jackson's breast has "caused millions of people to 'suffer outrage, anger, embarrassment and serious injury'." (via CNN).

I almost feel guilty wasting so much space on this subject but I'm just absolutely floored by the reaction that a ONE SECOND SHOT of Janet Jackson's breast. Cory & I talked about this for nearly an hour at dinner last night and then, at the end of the discussion. I felt sort of stupid and guilty for even feeding into the hysteria - if even only at the two-person, private conversation level.

The whole thing has just made me sick - no literally. Went to the doctor yesterday to see about getting some high-strength cough medicine.

I was surprised when the doctor said she wanted to give me some high dose antibiotics - because at that point I felt OK other than the pesky little problem of it physically hurting every time I took a breath.
Sure, why not I said I don't want this to turn into bronchitis, so antibiotics will probably be a good thing.
At that point the doctor looked at me like I was stupid.
Oh you do have bronchitis she said.
Great.

And now - because my apparently my body got the memo about the same time I did - I really do feel that much sicker.

AND ...I have to work this weekend.

Tonight and Sunday night.

Not to mention homework.

Whine. Whine. Whine.

OK, time for more meds.

The Shins show last night was really good - even though I missed the first couple of songs because it took me longer to get over from Mills to the Fillmore than expected (thank you - both an accident AND roadwork on the freeway! oh yeah, and i had to find parking of course). Once I was there though I was able to relax w/ free drinks (thanks Loren!) and some of my favorite songs.

Cory thinks he had a Carrie S-K sighting (which, he says, could have been disastrous because then Steven and I would have had to fight over her - ha) .... but alas there was to be no Elyse sightings as she is reportedly in Tokyo on a model shoot.

Steven rode home with us and I made him sit up front so that he could keep Cory awake on the drive home and I could sleep in the back seat.
Sometimes it's good to be the girl.

Today though I am starting to slide into freak-out mode. I have so much homework and work-work that I don't know what to do. I seriously need to get out my calendar and start color-coding it with due-dates and projected finish dates and all the other blah-blah-blah crap. Yesterday in the tea shop on campus two friends from my fiction workshop contemplated placing bets on just when i would have a nervous breakdown this semester.
Thanks guys.

Somewhere in my head there's an entry about me & Cory and calendars ... hopefully I'll get to it before it's completely irrelevant.

So CBS may want to boot Janet & Justin from the Grammys (via USA Today) and they're definitely adding a five-second video delay to the broadcast. The end of live TV as we knew it? Meanwhile, FCC chairman Michael Powell apparantly has nothing better to do than personally investigate the incident (via The Washington Post). My guess is that he just wants an excuse to stare at Janet's breast over and over and over again.

Anyway, tonight is The Shins at the Fillmore. It's going to be a long night because I have class until 9:30p.m. but happily Cory is meeting me down there and other than tomorrow night this may be the last chance we really have to hang out together until next Friday. But more on that dilemma later.

Slept horribly last night. Apparantly that cold that I had back during the first days of January was still hiding out in my body and has now migrated down to my chest - which means that whenever I try to sleep I end up coughing. Seriously, I cannot lay down for coughing. It reminds me of when I was six and had pneumonia and had to sleep in a sitting position, propped up against the wall with a pillow behind my back. I remember my mother sitting with me through the entire night to make sure I didn't lay down.

I wish she'd been there last night, if only to rub my back and comfort me like a child. This morning my throat is raw and my chest aches. It was difficult to get out of bed this morning; the rain, my cat resting beneath the covers at my hip, lack of good sleep all seemed like good reasons to just stay put.

But it's Super Tuesday and everyone's abuzz with the issue of the day: Janet's boob-o-rama (Bush slept through it, Dean finds the FCC investigation "silly" and we're still waiting for Lieberman and Kerry to bust out [pun intended] with their opinions) so, thus, another culturally defining moment in America and definitely not something I should be sleeping through.

The Pixies, one of my favorite bands of the halycon era of my early 20s (ha) is touring again (via Billboard) - only they're opening for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of my least-favorite bands from that time. Which means I probably won't go see them unless the Good Concert Fairy decides to give me some free tickets.

People, it's just a boob. Y'all are all acting like you've never looked at Playboy before. Geez, you can't even really see the nipple. At least you probably couldn't see it on TV.

Now gawk and get over it.