Coming to Terms with the New Gmail: 5 Tips to Smooth the Way

So Gmail has decided that it’s updating its layout and there has been a loud and mighty outcry against it. Aside from complaints about primarily aesthetic things such as the replacement of handy text buttons by somewhat hard to parse icons, there are some more valid complaints about the difficulty in actually using the new Gmail. It’s hard to find things that were at your fingertips with the old layout.

In this article I’m going...
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I find this Dove ad offensive

I was at the dentist yesterday and I came across this ad for Dove bodywash in People Magazine:

(click for full size)

The poster on the left shows dry skin and says “Before” and the poster on the right shows nicer skin and says “After”… the three women in a row in front imply “before>after” to me because of where they are standing. They progress from darker skinned and heavier...
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Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

I went into this movie with very low expectations. It was the second movie in a double feature at a drive-in theater and I was anticipating something cheesy and fun, but nothing great. And yet it managed to disappoint…
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The World's Worst Songs To Have Stuck In Your Head

Warning: This Page May Cause Brain Damage, Insanity, And/Or Unpopularity With Co-Workers and Friends.

Everyone knows that some songs are just… stickier than others. They can be great songs! It doesn’t mean the songs are bad…(though it sure makes it worse when they are)… but you can only have a song… or a verse…or a single line play through your head for so many hours in a row before you are ready to...
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Harry Potter and the Nudity Kerfuffle

So apparently Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, is starring in a London production of the play Equus, in which he appears not only nude, but nekkid. Daniel is currently 17 years old and, as must be expected, there are those who are all in a tizzy over the idea of the poor innocent babe appearing naked on stage. There seem to be two primary camps of indignation, which have significant overlap:

Dan is too young!...
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Right of Way

There are traffic rules for a reason. I really wish people would learn them. For example, this morning I was turning right at an intersection. This intersection, during morning rush hour (which it was) is 99% traffic going in one direction, 90% of which is turning left, and 9.9% of which is turning right, and virtually none of which is going straight. I was coming from the other direction, turning right. If you’re following along,...
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The Bathroom Floor from Hell

Many years ago we used to live in a townhouse that we rented in Fairfax, Virginia. The entire time we lived there, the oven didn’t work. Several other things were broken all or most of the time as well. I didn’t like our landlord at all. Besides not being good at keeping the place maintained, he was Iranian and wouldn’t talk to me about things because I was a woman. Whenever he called he demanded...
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Hummus: DotCom Overboard?

I think that the trend of companies and products opening websites is wonderful. I am so much more likely to look up information on the web than I am to call an 800 number or (god forbid) actually GO somewhere. I also like to shop online when I can. It fills my heart with joy when I see a TV commercial flash a web address on the screen.

But then there are some things that...
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My Big List O Pet Peeves

We all have them. Things that just grate on us. Sometimes they are rational, other times they are a bit silly. Some of them bother us a lot, some of them only tickle a little at our irritation. Some make our blood boil, some make us roll our eyes. Whatever level, whatever reasons for existing, I also have mine. And here they are.

People’s “driving” in the Boston area. They call it driving… but I’m...
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How Dare You Wish Me 'Happy Thanksgiving'!?

Ok… People can really piss me off. I subscribe to an active listserve with over 600 international members. This last week there were a total of maybe 10 messages wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. It is a holiday celebrated in the USA, but it really applies to everyone. It is a holiday of giving thanks for what you have, and general goodwill. Well a few people on the list got their panties in a...
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