Everyone Else Isn't The Smartest Person You Know.

I have to keep telling myself and remember that everyone else isn't the smartest person that I know. Consistently I look at other people as being tools of endless information. And I've come to realize, it usually isn't the case.

Maybe it shows lack of confidence on my part in what I know, but more often than not I give people the benefit of the doubt that YES they know what they're talking about. Of course the winter Olympics are this year! What? No! They're not! You're an idiot!

Moving forward I'll hold my nose up to everyone until they provide me with proof of information with every fact I'm presented with.

Take note.

What Else Is New?

A quarter of the city's residents infected with HIV live in the Bronx

Interested in moving to New York City any time soon? I'd say it'd be wise to avoid the Bronx.


http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/06/26/bronx.hiv.testing/

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A three-year initiative will seek to give HIV tests to everyone in the Bronx from age 18 to 64, the New York City Department of Health announced Thursday.

A new initiative seeks to reach the 250,000 Bronx adults who have never been tested for HIV.

The announcement comes on the heels of a report released Wednesday that found a high rate of "unsafe sexual behavior" in New York City.

"Of most concern, among men who have sex with men who had five or more partners in the past year, 36 percent did not use condoms consistently," Health Commissioner Thomas Freidan said in a statement released with the report. "This is a core group which is at high risk for getting, and spreading, HIV."

HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS.

The Bronx has been particularly hard-hit, according to the report. A quarter of New Yorkers infected with HIV -- more than 21,000 people -- live in the Bronx, and the borough reports a third of the city's AIDS deaths each year.

The Bronx already leads the way with HIV testing, with 68 percent of adults -- compared with 64 percent in Manhattan and 56 percent in Brooklyn -- reporting having been tested at some point in their lives. But the new initiative seeks to reach the 250,000 Bronx adults who have never been tested -- some of whom may be unknowingly living with HIV.

Don't Miss

• Destiny's Child star takes HIV test to raise awareness

"New infections are still occurring at epidemic rates," Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. said in a written statement, "especially among women and people of color."

According to city officials, one in four people with HIV in the Bronx do not know that they are infected, and one in four of those who find out that they are HIV-positive also learn that they already have full-blown AIDS.

Soraya Pares, 43, a program coordinator at the Bronx Health Center who focuses on HIV prevention, referral and counseling, found out she was HIV-positive in 1991, soon after her newborn daughter tested positive for HIV.

"I was one of those people who thought it wouldn't happen to me," she told CNN.

Health Library

• MayoClinic.com: HIV/AIDS

Pares said the new testing initiative will improve awareness in a community that is in denial about the prevalence of HIV. "It's not just the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered and the IV drug users," Pares said. "Regular people also get infected. It's the same disease."

Since finding out she was HIV-positive, Pares said, she has worked on community health issues -- first as a volunteer and now as a full-time employee -- and has gotten married. Her husband is HIV-negative.

On Wednesday, she watched her HIV-positive daughter, who plans to become a nurse, graduate from high school.

"If you know your status, it's possible to have a fruitful life and still have anything and everything your heart

God Is Funny! See!?

Mr Deity is an interesting and funny take on how the universe was created. "Mr Deity", God, himself is portrayed as an unsure softspoken man with a very high voice who can't seem to finish a sentence without an unnecessary "uh" or "um" thrown about.

There are a total of 16 episodes all with light and happy music that reminds me of watching Frasier. Maybe if I was high I'd be able to wrap my mind around to making some sort of connection about how Frasier and the universe have something in common....



Checking his voicemail:
"You have 2 billion 9 hundred 96 million 804 thousand 7 hundred and 60 unheard messages. Message 1: 'Hey how are you? We thank you for this food'...."
"This is 60%...of my voicemail right here...spam."

New Eargasms: Stefanie Heinzmann, The Ting Tings

Here ye Hear ye!

Introducing:

Stefanie Heinzmann. The other day a friend of mine at work introduced me to her via a YouTube video called, "My Man Is A Mean Man".


He's a...mean man! But he's...my man!

Take a dose of Joss Stone mixed with some Pink voice and Natasha Bedingfield and voila you have Stefanie Heinzmann. I can definitely see this song becoming a hit of the summer. My personal favorite of hers right now, however, is "Like A Bullet"


Just makes you move on your own! But yooooouuuuu are the only one who ever got me! Very catchy! I'll probably be singing that tune to myself for a little while...without even knowing the words.

ON to the next.

A couple of weeks ago I stayed in on a Friday night and watched Pete Wentz's new show on MTV called FNMTV. It's basically a show that plays all new music videos (strangely a rarity on MTV anytime OTHER than between 4-8am) and debuts some new ones. The one they chose to debut in this episode was a video by a group called The Ting Tings and their song "Shut Up and Let Me Go"



Not only is the song awesome but the VIDEO is actually great too! Makes me not cry over the days of music videos that used to have stories to them. Sigh..those were good days.

If you happen to watch as much TV as I do, or not............you may already know this song. It's one of the latest lucky ones to have their shit debuted on an iTunes commercial. As much as I hate finding songs and liking them in iTunes commercials and MTV spots...I found MIKA that way... but this is actually pretty good.

Another favorite of theirs that currently has tangled my heart strings is "Traffic Light"



AMAZING!!!! Simply Put! It's so simple and easy. A collection of random sounds mixed together make something so beautiful. I love as the music drops out and you hear scratching of what sounds like a record and the lone electric happenings.

So take a gander, take a listen...and spread the good word.

Colorful Headline

It wasn't so much the headline that made me want to post this article, but the picture and caption that accompanied it.

Said picture:


Said caption:
"Tina Watson, background right, lies motionless after she drowned in 2003 while diving in the Great Barrier Reef."

WTF!?

Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/21/drowned.bride/

I don't know the finer details of the story to make me choose a side between the dead wife and the husband... which I'm sure will turn up on a Dateline or a 20/20 in the next few months to fix that for me... But I CAN say that I am deeply disturbed that the general public has access to look at this woman dead at the bottom of the ocean. And what do I do? I post it on my blog.

I guess I'm not helping the cause. Oh well.

I Wonder About You.

Dear Girl in the apartment upstairs from me,

I wonder about you. What is it about you and your daily activities that cause you to consistently mimic the sound of dragging chairs across a hard wood floor wearing high heels all the while bouncing a basketball? What is it? I'm curious? I don't know who you are, nor do I know your name. I just know your presence. I may have seen you come in and out of the building 2 or 3 times, but I'm not positive if it's you or not. Right now you're running a vacuum cleaner. I say that's alright. But it is NOT alright for you to drag 13 chairs across your apartment at 11:30 at night when I'm trying to wind down for the night before an early day of work the next day. And it also is not alright for you to REdrag said chairs BACK across to the other side at 5:30am before it's time for me to wake up. Sleep is precious to me. Apparently not to you, as you are continuing to make noise well beyond the time I go to bed and surprisingly way before I wake up. Do you sleep, Girl in the apartment upstairs from me? Do you sleep? I'm curious to see what your apartment looks like on a day to day basis as it sounds like you never stop re arranging. Is it feng shui? I'm not familiar. Have you reached a level of transcendence in your life unreachable to those with standard practices by doing this? Teach me, Girl in the apartment upstairs. Teach me. I think I'll wrap this up before I convince myself to run up there right now in a blind range to "take care of things".

Ah, there you go again. With the chairs.

Best(?),
Jacqueline.

I Had A Dream

...that my mother joined Facebook.


Out of everything and anything that is wrong with that situation, the thing that bothered me most... was that she listed her political views as







Conservative.

What Is This Plurk You Speak Of?

In my navigating the "Everyone" section of Twitter, (hey! I'm bored and alone with no one real to talk to!) I came across not one, not two, but THREE Twitter profiles where people were talking about a similar site called Plurk.

What the fuck is it? I looked. I have an invitation? From someone already on Twitter! Sin...

It looks kinda cool, with the way that you can grab and drag the updates across the screen rather than having to click buttons that MAY OR MAY NOT work to previous pages.


The design of the page ain't to shabby either.

I don't like how it's gone back to the restrictions of the old school Facebook status update days. I can't stand to be held back on expressing how I'm feeling on the internet! Damn it!

It's all coming in my face so much that it makes me think that Plurk has some people who work for them coming together to start a revolution against Twitter...

<3Twitter but...I consider this an open relationship...



**UPDATE**
Just found the nail in the coffin in my possible exploration and switch over to Plurk.
Plurk has no SMS access.
That's all the fun of Twitter!
Next time, guys.

Introducing the Slow Movement Society.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/06/balance.slow.movement/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Edgar S. Cahn is fighting for your right to be lazy! This 73 year old attorney is fighting for our rights to take back the time in our lives and actually slow down and appreciate doing things WE want to do.

I've also gone as far as putting up a craigslist ad for the Philadelphia area. Please join me in my laziness!

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/grp/711223761.html

Ingrid Michaelson, In Review

This past Sunday I was blessed with the chance to get to see Ingrid Michaelson live at the TLA on South Street. Very much worth the $20 spontaneously spent the day before buying tickets, and the $25+ after that spent on alcohol I randomly drank in the middle afternoon because I didn't feel like going back to my apartment yet!

I've only recently been aware of Ingrid since I became obsessed with Sara Bareilles (a little later than I'm proud of aka when I saw her perform on Ellen) back in...March, I believe? Well like the natural music addict I am coupled with my desire to always have MORE MORE MORE! I searched a "likefind" for Sara and beep boop there was Ingrid. I wasn't familiar with her song names, however after listening to a snippet of "The Way I Am" I searched further! And after many a listen my favorites have come to be: "The Hat", "Die Alone" and "Overboard" ALL of which I'm happy to say, she performed on Sunday!

Overall her concert was fantastic. I'm a sucker for performers (especially in intimate situations like those at the TLA or Trocadero) who talk and carry on with the audience. It lets me think in my head that HEY we CAN be friends! And that's exactly what Ingrid did. Right off the top she started off with "Ba da dop!"....Die Alone, and I was sold.

But what has stuck with me since Sunday was the song that she played in a round including 2 audience members with her on stage. It was perfect in every aspect. Sung beautifully, (including by the audience members which was a surprise!) and the lyrics (always my favorite part of a song) are amazing...

The sky looks pissed.
The wind talks back.
The bones are shifting in my skin and you my love are gone.

My room seems wrong.
The bed won't fit.
I can not seem to operate and you my love are gone

(Chorus)
So glide away and so be healed and promise not to promise anymore and if you come around again then i will take, then i will take the chain from off the door

I'll never say, I'll never love
but I dont say a lot of things and you my love are gone

The final chorus is sung 6 times in a round until the last person sings "...then I will take, then I will take...then I will take the chain from off the door..."

IT KILLS ME! I can't do it any justice in words and have tried and failed over and over trying to find it on Limewire so I can take it with me on my Ipod in my pocket. I can only settle for YouTube versions, which are just as good as when I was there. If only it could be louder...

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.
(funny too, this version has the conversational banter I was talking about=) )