You know how when products advertise certain things, it immediately throws their claim into doubt? For instance, if I advertise that my canned food is edible, or another redundant phrase that is already implied by the fact that the product is canned food, it throws into doubt what I’d already taken for granted.

Another example of this is if I were to buy a gallon of milk, and the manufacturer went out of their way to tell me it was cow’s milk, I would be a little disturbed. What else would it be?

For this reason, Live Chat by LivePerson, a chat software program used by large online retailers, immediately raises a red flag. Is it a live chat? With a live person? How liberal are they with that phrasing? Is it a reanimated corpse equipped with a program for “real-time intelligent customer engagement?” keep reading »

“Why don’t you want pets?” I asked, while lying on the floor and staring up at my long suffering and tolerant manfriend.
“I didn’t say I don’t want pets,” he said, sitting down next to me.
“But… okay, so what type of pet would you want?” I shifted around and began idly playing with the sleeve of a sweater that was draped over one of our dining chairs. “What are the parameters of your hate?”
“The para…” he started laughing. It never bodes well when he starts laughing. “If we’re still together, I mean, if we have a house and we’re still together and we can have pets in the house, and we’re still together,”
“You keep saying that, you keep saying ‘if we’re still together,’”
“If we’re still together I mean, if we haven’t broken up.”
“That’s not making it better, you realize that,”
“I just mean if we’re still together, we’ll be together for ages, and fuck it. We might as well get a dog.”

Apparently five-seven years is his criteria for our relationship to stand the test of time and permit dog ownership. It’s like a prison sentence in many ways.

The Parents Television Council is apparently accusing MTV of making kiddy porn. Why? Because they’ve cast underage actors in a television show that deals with sex and drug abuse.

After screening one of the episodes of the new American drama Skins, (based of off the award winning E4 show of the same name), PTC President Tim Winter had these painfully idiotic things to say:

“The episode included all manner of foul language, illegal drug use, illegal activity as well as thoroughly pervasive sexual content.”

He’s pissed off about this, and he’s not going to take it. Winter has sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary chairmen as well as the Department of Justice, because apparently, the fact that he didn’t like a TV show is serious business. I had no idea that his opinion was a matter of national importance. What a puffed up little twat. But it gets better! keep reading »

This reads like a semi-questionable recipe, but it’s delicious. Manfriend and I LOVED it, and we’ll definitely be making it again. It’s actually (to my surprise) originally a weight watcher’s recipe, and evidently it’s 3 points. If you’re using vegetarian ingredients it may be even less, but I don’t know that much about how WW points work, so don’t take my word for it.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb macaroni (8oz)
1 box Fantastic Foods Vegetarian Sloppy Joe Mix*
- 1 WHOLE (6 oz) can tomato paste (box of sloppy joe mix calls for only 3oz)
- 2 tbs oil
- 1 1/3 c water
1 carton of cottage cheese (16 oz)
grated or slices of cheese keep reading »

I actually remember when Hewlett-Packard had some decent products. My dad used to have an old inkjet printer that would churn out pages – I think it printed somewhere around 250 pages per cartridge. It was black and white, and by the time it was on its last legs, I had to hand feed it paper, but it was a true workhorse.
These days, HP seems to hold its customers in the same regard one might hold a cockroach they’ve just discovered crawling through their silverware drawer. That is to say, with surprise, horror and disdain. Here’s why: keep reading »