From Howard Kurtz: those naughty administration types are creating their own fake newscasts and distributing them to local news stations for use as ready-made segments. They feature actors saying things like "Reporting from X, I'm Julia Y", shots of the President getting standing ovations for signing little-loved laws, and amazing news about the health benefits of hot italian sausage. No wait, that last one was from last week. Same ballpark, though.

Fortunately Bush has already used up his "Cabinet-level Department Creation" card on Homeland Security (or at least traded his other ones away for candy). Otherwise I'd be making snide comments about the forthcoming Ministry of Information. Instead of just inserting them obliquely.

I realize I'm behind the curve on this one, but I'm not on a last-name only basis with Howie "Colonel" Kurtz like seemingly every other crank on the internet. Were you guys all, like, in a frat together or something?

a few things i've seen today:

the black and blue album!

rufus wainwright, all nude, all the time

lotr musical. hey, if something like buffy can pull it off, i'm optimistic (via boingboing.net)

a fun european vacation photolog

tis all.

What I Did This Weekend. back by popular demand...of no one. actually.

friday evening, i had told myself that i WAS going to run five miles in preparation for the 10k i was doing on sunday. there was no getting around it. i had to. so naturally, my evening went like this:
-left a little late from work, because i was messing around on the internet, trying to think of ways to avoid running
-caught the late bus home, secretly thinking that if i got home late enough, i wouldn't have enough time to run five miles before going out
-got home in plenty of time to run five miles. strangely enough, my stomach started hurting
-watched an hour and a half of tv and ate dinner
-felt enormous guilt. decided to suck it up and go run
-ran two miles, panting the whole way

oh well!

tommy and i went to adams morgan that night after we failed in convincing a single one of our roommates to go out with us. apparently staying in and watching, like, 20/20 is a more appealing option. you are all losers! thankfully, susan and kriston ended up meeting up with us at pharmacy bar. ah ha, reading the review, i see that it's owned by a latvian. that explains why tommy and i saw our friend erik brolis there, mr. latvia himself. anyway. i've decided i quite like that place. it's sort of akin to galaxy hut, except a lot darker with much louder music. which obviously makes it cooler. only problems: seating is scarce, and they have only one bathroom. which, after downing about five miller lites, can be a serious problem for a girl. but all in all, had a great time, went home completely drunk off my head around 230am.

saturday morning i went down to d.c. with naomi to pick up our registration packets for the st. paddy's day race. however, i noticed my name was not on the bib number list that was posted on the registration room wall. i went to talk to one of the managers, and showed her my confirmation slip. she took one look at it and said, "the reason you don't have a bib number for this race is that you've actually registered for another race all together."

yes. dammit. not only did i look like an enormous running idiot, i was also signed up for a second 10k in april. no idea how that happened. i could have skipped out on the st. paddy's day race, but i didn't want to abandon naomi, so i went through with it. so. if anyone wants to, you know, run 6.1 miles with me april 17, you're more than welcome.

in order to make myself feel less stupid, na and i then went and ate mcdonald's and shopped at h&m. hurrah.

the rest of saturday was spent "resting" for the race -- long shower, some leisurely reading, napping, eating chocolate, etc. didn't go out saturday night since the race was at 930 am the next morning.

so, race day came along. naomi and i left around 815, after having ingested some electrolyte-y water and a snickers power bar in hopes that nutrition would somehow make up for my complete lack of training. got to freedom plaza, where the race started, and did some faux jogging and stretching while freezing my ass off in my running shorts. i also took a free shot of a starbucks toffe nut latte, which was quite good, though i'm not sure if it was the best thing to have immediately before some long-distance running.

so, the race. it was actually completely fine. the course was mostly flat, and all in all, six miles really isn't that terrible, even though it sounds like a hellish distance. i had stuck a clif gel packet into my sports bra, and so when i started to lag around mile four, i took that out and ingested it and got a power rush, or whatever. i ended up with a time of about 55 minutes -- about 9 minute miles, surprisingly good for me and my slow ass.

anyway, the best part of a race is that you get to throw trash absolutely all over the place and not feel guilty about it. done with your water cup? kick it to the curb! no one cares! someone else is happy to do the cleaning up for you! the second best part of the race is the mad food binge afterwards, free of charge. bagels, muffins, cookies, juice, fruit to your heart's content. naomi and i binged for a while, and then headed home. and passed out. eccetera.

and look! the nyt does the fluffiest of fluff pieces on my one true love, mr. benjamin mackenzie from the o.c., or as he was known in his wahoowa days, benjamin schenkkan. i would have changed my name too.

Out drinkin' with Jess on Saturday, she made me aware of this show's existence. It's called "I Want A Famous Face" and it's on MTV. I haven't seen an episode, but the basic premise is that young people -- the guys in the online clip look to be in college, barely -- decide they want to look like celebrities. MTV pays for the plastic surgery that can make this happen.

This horrifies me in a pit-of-my-stomach kind of way. Everyone knows I like to complain about celebrity culture, or whatever you want to call it. But this is something new and frightening.

Let's digress for a moment, shall we? People say technology has replaced religion, and to some extent they're right. But it's only replaced the practical side of religion: the side that makes your life easier. Technology has replaced prayers for rain or the healing of a loved one, if only because when it fails we can figure out why. But there's another side to the religious impulse, one that is either horrifying or transcendent depending on your perspective: self-negation in service of a greater force.

Well, it looks like celebrities are the new beneficiaries of this inexplicable drive. This show is bringing it all together: fresh-faced acolytes, thoroughly indoctrinated, are trotted out in MTV cathedral as an example for the other young people. And then they literally sacrifice themselves -- bones are broken, flesh is cut, fat is seared -- as they hang someplace halfway to death.

I'll leave conceiving of a compassionate God in a world full of suffering as an exercise for the reader. But I'll tell you this: I don't think Brad Pitt is going to be any less theologically problematic.

good morning! i've decided i'm going to do a new thingy once in a while. it will be called "crazy-ass links of the day."