"Good" - A Sweet-Ass Magazine

I'm almost as jazzed about this magazine's apt title as I am about its content. In the tradition of "Car and Driver," "Horse Illustrated," and "Jugz," my new obsession is equally literal. Everything in Good Magazine is good, enticing, and interesting. It's kind of what I had in mind when I started this blog - although I have the benefit of inferior writing and fewer pictures. I wanted my theme to be, "I don't know - just stuff that's, like, good." So I completely identify with this desire to share things of general importance. You've spoken to me, Good, and I'm listening!

The mag really is everything from travel diaries, to charitable efforts, to political commentary, to filmmaking. This most recent July/Aug 08 issue got me hooked - thanks to my roommate Alie for working long hours lately and leaving her subscription out for me to play with! My personal faves include the travel guide to man-made disasters (a tour through sensational landfills and toxic pits of the U.S. - truly inspired) and the survey of history's most compelling secret society groups (you had me at conspiracy!)

I love this magazine and can't wait to spend the $20 for a year (just 6 issues for now). But get this - the best part is, 100% of the payment goes to the charity of your choice! (How is this even possible?! Won't they go out of business? Please take the money you need, Good Magazine, and stay in circulation!)

**Sidenote: the Good website (sounds like a good website) is also wonderfully informative and available to everyone! I just watched a video about "Vampire Energy" - household appliances that suck energy and cost $ and leave CO2 when they're plugged in - even if they're not on or in use! The worst offender is the microwave. Each day you leave it plugged in is the equivalent of using the microwave on high for 4 minutes. Yikes. Good, you make me want to be a better person.

One Day in Iraq - A Numbers Blog

Did you know that...

For the cost of one day in Iraq, we could rebuild 2215 homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina or pay the annual salaries for 72% of the LAPD?

I haven't been very attentive to you lately, dear Blog and Blog readers - but, I'm happy to share, I have another new project that is now polluting the webspace with great fury!

It's a new blog, "One Day in Iraq," in a completely different direction from SeriouslyJazzed - but likely more interesting and certainly more important. One of my life's goals is finding a way to make social and political issues interesting and digestible to regular people. Like You n' Me! Because the only way a democracy can work is if the people are fully informed.

I recently learned that the U.S. spends $332.3 million each day in Iraq. This number is staggering! But it is also hard to grasp exactly what a number this big really represents. So I got together with some other number-crunchers and we started brainstorming all the other ways that incredible amount of money could be spent. This is not a partisan issue, it is pure empirical data that does not have any political affiliation.

The first products of our brainstorm are up, and I think they will amaze you. And we have a huge vault of ideas waiting to be released. We'll be putting up at least four new figures a week, so be sure to check back often and subscribe to the RSS feed.

So without further ado that I present to you a blog that offers some alternatives for ways we could spend the daily Iraq budget: One Day in Iraq

Also, please send us tips (onedayiniraq@gmail.com) if you have thoughts on ways you'd like to spend that $332.3 million (Blood diamonds? Apple products? Tacos?), along with the sources for your numbers.

Jokes, Man

Since we're on the subject of humor, I want everyone to check out The Soup's new blog on E! Online. It is completely buried within E!'s not-very-user-friendly webpage and is almost impossible to navigate to. But I'll give you the link here. And here.

Our blogmaster, Matt Olsen, is a very funny writer and offers takes on celebrity news as well as a Clip of the Day, "What Your Mother's Watching," and insider Soup info segments.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, The Soup is the show I work/write for, it's on television, a useful diversion - you should try it. It's a joke show, with jokes in it. Fridays at 10pm on E! Or if you're too old-fashioned to watch TV, read the blog.

Hot Pockets - New Video!

Hungry for a sensible snack that won't fill you up and might let you down?

Try "Hot Pockets," a new video I worked on with some of my friends at The Soup! It follows the trials of two young ad men producing the next big commercial for "Hot Pockets."

Zero trans fat, -30 calories per serving (from laughing). Pop one in your compu-wave and make your eyes water!



Written by: Jessie Gaskell, Andrew Genser, Dan Riesser.
Starring: Jessie Gaskell, Andrew Genser, Dan Riesser.
Shot by: Mike Kershner.
Edited by: Dan Riesser

Tapping Resentment: Post-Revolutionary Sexism and the Modern Beer Commercial, Pt. 1

I just saw another beer commercial where the male "protagonist" lies to his girlfriend so he can go drink beers with his bros. Sooo rad dude. But seriously. What the H? Not to get all feministy on you - because heaven knows, that is the worst thing a woman can be - but yes, actually, to get feministy on you. I hate this pervasive image of a woman as the “warden” to your prison, the “gatekeeper” to your personal hell. We are so unreasonable that you actually have to lie to us to hang out with your friends and drink beer? That is insane.

First of all, women like beer. Why are you alienating a significant subsect of your consumership, Coors Light? Maybe because we only drink you at frat parties - and we’re definitely not paying for that.

Secondly, why do guys think they have to lie to go be somewhere else for a night? Will I really be upset about finally getting a night to myself without my sheets smelling like balls? No. By all means, no!

So of course all these ads are doing is perpetuating a stereotype about women as uptight shrews who are out to ruin your homosexual fun. Which makes it so that you don’t give us credit when we actually have a reason to get uptight and pissed about something, like now, because you’ve already decided we’re just being rigid and menstrual, so we never get our point across. And it’s not right! It’s not just! Stop telling me to calm down!

Or maybe it’s just a stupid, uninspired beer commercial.

Positive Feedback

I want to share with you some (thankfully) positive feedback about my Dorm Life character, "Steph," that I found today on Digg.com. You all don't know this, but many months ago I found some extremely dissatisfying commentary about me on a web forum that launched me into a questioning of my entire virtual existence. It hurt a lot that these strangers, probably 40-something men covered in chicken grease and their own semen, could dare criticize my (admittedly hateable) webisode character. But I recovered, I bounced back, I exacted my revenge through a blog about horrible internet commentary (I haven't publicized it yet - but you can take a peak at the beta model - notes appreciated). And see what has happened today! People on the internet have validated me and I feel whole.

Incidentally, this guy "DeadFox" is not an ex-boyfriend of mine, as he would lead you to believe. A future boyfriend, possibly?

+2 diggs by iThenticJoce on 04/09/2008
Steph is the best!

+2 diggs by DeadFox1 on 04/09/2008
Steph? OMG it's my ex-gf!

+2 diggs by iThenticJoce on 04/09/2008
oh lord, no wonders she's an ex! but really she's cute and hilarious! great character!

+2 diggs by hadak on 04/09/2008
The exuberant girl in the pink shirt is really hot.

Dinosaur Poop on Sale

I just found out that this 130 million-year-old dinosaur dung was sold for $960 at a Bonhams New York auction. First of all, I'm disappointed that none of my friends told. Not only am I deeply committed to paleontology, but I'm also a huge patron of DEALS! I love getting a deal. And this $960 of chump change sounds like an absolute steal.

Let's consider the facts. This fossilized poo is from the Jurassic Era - can we say vintage?? None of your friends own anything that old. The big turd looks like a colorful mineral, or geode on the inside. It's beautiful! And it's odorless, unlike your lunchtime floater. And it's a one-of-a-kind piece; no one else at the club will have one just like it. How could this not be more expensive?

Less than $1,000 for a 130 million-year-old relic; that's just a penny for every 1300 years! Seems like a small price to say for a thrilling, unique piece of our Earth's national history - a history that is soon sure to be cut short by global warming and/or nuclear winter. Don't you want to get your hands on one of these dino bran muffins before we all go extinct?

Especially when you consider that a statue of Suri Cruise's alleged dooky sold for $10,000 last year.

And it wasn't even a real BM!

Your Momma's Blog

How the newest generation will insult each other:

• Your momma’s blog is so old, it’s hosted on Blogger.
  
  


• Your momma’s blog is so big, she had to buy unlimited bandwidth to support it.
  
  


• Your momma’s blog is so white, it was on Stuff White People Like.
  
  
  Etc.
  

Check out my post today on 23/6!

Read my most recent post: Eight Belles' Death Not a Blow for Feminism.

And read other posts on www.236.com!