My (Fashion) Opinion

The day after the Golden Globes or the Oscars or the Emmys or whatever other award show Hollywood is having at the time, there are 'Best Dressed' lists and 'Worst Dressed' lists and 'Point & Make Fun' lists.... You know what I'm talking about: It's plastered all over the internet and the TV; it's impossible to avoid.

Here's what I really think:

The pictures of the women who won best dressed honors always look very much like the women who won worst dressed honors.

Pet Peeve

Treadmill walking/jogging is very boring. S calls it the Dreadmill and I can agree with that, but it sure beats going outside in crappy weather; it's wintertime so there's a bunch of crappy weather going on.
I have to exercise; I cannot function normally without it. However, I have pushed not exercising beyond the point of comfort - I didn't exercise at all for two months from about 2 weeks before The 123 opened until somewhere after the middle of November. Unless you count being on my feet for 18 hours at a time and not sleeping for a couple of days in a row exercise. [My body doesn't think that counts as exercise.] It got to the point that I had a hard time moving when I woke up in the morning - I must've looked about 75 years old hobbling around trying to get moving.
This post is not supposed to be about exercise, but while I'm talking about it I will say I've been very consistent for about 3 weeks and I can move better. Not good, yet, but better. I've been spending time on the treadmill everyday and the only way to make something so mundane bearable is to numb the brain a bit: The TV works well for this.
In the past few months, I've spent even less time watching TV than I have spent exercising. I do that fairly often - just not watch TV. A few years ago I think I must've went about 2 years without seeing anything on the television. Sometimes it makes me look like an idiot when the entire room is discussing a plot or a character from a show that I've never even heard of, but I'm sure that's not the only time I've ever looked like an idiot so I don't let it bother me very much. I remember that length of time because I was in a dentist's office for a check-up and they had the TV going in the waiting room with some afternoon talk show on and I was aghast at the content: the language, the violence -physical and verbal- and the content. This was mid-afternoon in a public place with school age children and the show was not appropriate. I mentioned it to a couple of people and they just laughed, shrugged and blew me off as prudish (or stupid) and naive. The things we can get used to...
Anytime I go a length of time without watching TV I am always re-shocked at some of the crap that is broadcast so nonchalantly. It's getting worse; I don't think this is my imagination.
This time it's the drug commercials.
I have a problem with drug commericials in general. They are very good at telling you that you need this drug because it will make you stop sniffling. They then go on to tell you (because legally they have to) that the side effects could include itchy or watery eyes, stomach cramps, internal bleeding, severe brain damage, and death. And yet, with all those hideous side effects, people go to their doctors and ask for that medication because they have an annoying sniffle. They must or the drug companies wouldn't spend the money on advertising.
I think that's stupid.
I've laughed about the drug commercials for years (since they began to allow them on TV -it was illegal for drug advertisements to be on TV at all up until, what, about 10-12 years ago?), but I'm also shocked by the number of generally healthy adults on a regular regimen of prescription drugs. I'm pretty sure that just about everyone is on something. (That's another scary subject....)
The particular drug commercials that have me shocked this go-round with the TV are the ones for ED: Erectile Dysfunction. I'm not sure I've seen any of these since Bob Dole told us he had that problem. That's been, what, 10 years ago? (Oh, hell, that means my initial guesstimate of 10-15 years for TV drug advertising is woefully short - it must be more like 15-20). Bob Dole was quiet and tactful compared to the ads now. Now they don't leave any room for misunderstanding: the commercials are blatant and outspoken with no room for misunderstanding. Apparently, the ED drug market is burgeoning and competitive.
I haven't seen these commercials with my kids in the room, but if they're watching TV when I'm not there, surely they're seeing them, too. What do they think?
I will have to ask them.

What!?

Why is Congress holding hearings on drug use in baseball?
Don't they have something better to do?

Iraq? Warrantless wiretapping? Re-examining the crappy economic stimulus package?

If they really want to talk about drugs, maybe they should take a look at pharmaceutical companies.

Oh, wait, they can't do that. It would jeopardize their campaign funds.




Argh.

Mind Boggling Diet Shit

Have you noticed that all the current store circulars and advertisements are focusing on organization and fitness/weight loss?

I know that a lot of psychology goes into marketing/advertisement, but this is very blatant:
You made a New Year's Resolution to get off your ass, get fit, and lose weight?
Great! Buy our products -spend lots of money! The more you spend the easier it will be to fit into a size 2! You WILL be smarter and healthier and more beautiful in 2008 if you buy this! and this! and this! Just buy! buy! buy! No matter that you've made the same damn resolutions for the last 17 years - THIS IS THE YEAR! Believe it! Buy it! Be it!

Blech.

Okay, don't get me wrong. I'm all about self-analysis and improvement, but I don't think making an impulse buy of some ridiculous piece of workout equipment is going to get me to where I want to go. Besides, that new 'Magic Leg' machine will most likely function best as a coat hanger and dust collector. And you need another clothes rack, right?

Here's something else I have to make fun of (I can't help myself):

The Diet Fork. And yes, it uses dietfork.com (a nifty little domain name, huh?). And for the tab description it uses 'The Fitness Diet Fork.' I'm just learning about some of these online 'pings' and other such mysteries of internet marketing, but it seems to me that 'Fitness' got thrown in there with 'Diet,' so that it would have double the hit power with search engines (somebody correct me if I'm wrong, or if you understand how all this crap works maybe you can explain it better than I can?).
The website proclaims: "America's First Diet Fork" and "Make Dieting Fun" (which I originally misread as 'Make Fun of Dieting' to which I immediately thought, "I can do that!").
And here's a great quote:

"New York , NY (PRWEB) - June 10, 2007. - A new diet weapon is launched, the Diet Fork. By eliminating over-indulgence, and creating a "chewing fitness" dieters can now assist in metabolism by chewing more, less portions, and taking longer to eat."

Disregarding the grammatical problems, do we really need a 'diet weapon?' What are you gonna do, shoot the food? Or just stab it? Just think, this nifty little tool can eliminate over-indulgence (really?) and create "chewing fitness." What the hell is chewing fitness?

And apparently, one of the 'Key Factors' of this amazing new product is an

• "Uncomfortable grip compelling user to put fork down between bites, slowing the user's eating speed."

What the hell? Turn your eating experience into a torture session and maybe you can finally shrink your fat ass! But, really, I wonder what that means (there is no real picture of the product, just a stylized silhouette of a fork)? Is the handle covered in tiny little spikes? If you get too into shoveling food in your mouth will you end up with blood oozing out of a bunch of little holes?

And, finally:

The website's homepage has both of the required pictures for any real diet:

1. a girl in a bikini
2. large piles of food

What a bunch of assholes.

Got Excuses?

Wow...



Thanks to Sister Skinny for this video. I liked it so much, I posted it over here, too.
I can use all the inspiration I can get.

Speaking of inspiration, Heather is looking for kickass tunes to fuel the workouts. I'll be following along, as I could use some new stimulation on the MP3 player, too.