Oh, Arnold.

Remember on Aug 6 when Governor Schwarzenegger said that he would refuse to sign any bill on his desk until the legislators can pass a budget?

Yeah, well apparently he didn’t fully mean it.

In a flip-flop, Schwarzenegger signed a $9.9B budget bond for a high-speed rail. (Side note: I’m all for the high-speed rail. Last Thanksgiving, we went up to San Francisco for a few days and got stuck in a 12-hour-long traffic jam trying to drive back to San Diego. It was hellish. Also, the sub in the trunk, which was brand new, got ruined from falling over after we had to slam on the brakes a few million times to avoid idiot drivers)

Aside from the high-speed rail, the Governator has also asked the lawmakers to send him a water bond, a plan to expand the California Lottery, and a budget reform plan to strengthen the state’s “rainy day fund”. The budget reform includes his proposal to increase the state’s sales tax, which I wrote about here.

When Arnold initially took his seemingly hard-line stance, he said “some good bills will fail”. Apparently not the ones he deems important, though.

The question is: If Gov. Schwarzenegger is going to take that stance, should he not stand by it? Threatening to veto all bills is probably not the most effective means of getting a budget passed 58 days into the fiscal year, but if that was his tactic, he should have stuck to it. Reneging like this makes him seem wishy-washy.

It’s not working. His pissing match (and subsequent lawsuit) with State Controller John Chiang over state workers’ wages has resulted in much, either. Despite the Governor’s move to reduce the salaries of state workers to minimum wage until a budget is signed, Chiang still paid workers their full salaries. Chiang has said that they cannot change wages on a dime due to out of date COBOL programming language the state usese for payroll. Many (including me) have wondered if this is just an excuse to disregard the Governor’s wishes, which Controller Chiang has openly disagreed with.

State officials said last Sunday was the ABSOLUTE deadline for getting measures on the ballot for November, and now, with no budget in side, Secretary of State Debra Bowen says the Legislature can change election laws regarding the deadline. Yeah, that’s genius. Don’t operate within parameters, just change laws to suit yourselves!

If the proposals don’t make the November ballot, it is likely that a special election might have to be enacted.

Problem with that? Voter apathy.

Californians have been to the polls for Presidential primaries, local elections, etc this year. I have a feeling that when a special election rolls around, many voters will say “screw it”.

Legislators, Governor, get it together. Enough with the back and forth. Pass a budget. DO YOUR JOBS.

Californians, if you wish to contact your legislator to urge them to act on the budget, you can find contact information here.

If you would like to read the text of Governor Schwarzenegger’s letter to legislative readers, click the continue reading tab. Read More…

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Firstly, I do realize I’ve been a total slacker about writing this weekend. However, it’s the weekend, so I highly doubt any of you were lamenting the fact that you couldn’t visit this website for randomness. (Bonus points if you WERE lamenting, though).

A few things:

A. I just added some photos to my Flickr. Check them out if you so desire. (Actually going to upload a bunch in the next day or so that were taken today).

B. You can also follow me at Twitter.

C. Working on nailing down some very interesting interviews for the website. Details when they’re available.

D. Well, I don’t actually have a fourth thing to tell you, but D is my favorite letter.

Love to you all!

Jordan

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Hello digital gangsters. I just posted a new vlog, do check it out if you wish to hear about my meeting with Pervez Musharraf and some news about the latest on the site!

It’s right up there where it always is on the upper right of the page.

Thanks!!

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The newest video blog is up. Check it out if you so desire. It’s right there to the right, where it usually is…

That interview was dicey for a while! Anyone else had any near disastrous job interviews?

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Cute baby, no? Well, she’s not real. She’s “reborn”.

“Reborn Dolls” just might be one of the creepiest things I’ve seen in a very long time.

Apparently all the rage among a certain set of collectors are these dolls which, as you can see, look very much like a human baby. There is a very labor intensive process that goes into making these…things. Hours are spent making them look like they have actual human hair, sewn in piece by piece to look realistic. They have blood vessels painted on the skin, which is a vinyl so it feels like actual baby skin. They even put magnets in the mouths to make it seem like the “baby” is sucking on a pacifier.

What’s the problem, you say?

Well, there are many women that desperately want to have babies but have not been able to conceive yet. The dolls are gaining popularity among those women. Which makes me worry about their mental health.

Earlier this year in Australia, a woman had a “reborn baby” sitting in a car seat in her car. Passersby at a store saw it and assumed someone had left the infant in the car while they were shopping. Authorities came to “rescue” the baby, only to find out that it wasn’t a baby at all.

I can’t even begin to imagine the heartache someone who wants to have a baby goes through when they aren’t able to do so. I don’t have any kids, nor have I ever attempted to get pregnant, but WTF?

Carrying a fake baby around in the grocery cart must be as torturous as someone on a diet walking around with a funnel cake hanging off a rope around their neck.

Want to get a fake creepy baby of your own? There are a host of places you can do so. I hope your wallet is fat, though. These things can sell for upwards of $1,000. Not only can you buy a baby, but also every accessory you can imagine to dress the doll. You can even buy a “birth certificate” for your creepy little one.

There are hundreds of videos of “reborn babies” online. This one is particularly strange, especially if you listen to the music they paired it with.

If you’re feeling extra curious about the people that “love” these babies, or more about how they’re made, watch this video as well:

Maybe I’m just an insensitive asshole, but I don’t get it.

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So most of the time, I write for this website sitting at a large desk that has my laptop and my boyfriend’s desktop on it. In order for me not to drive him nuts with whatever music or video I’m listening to while I work on things, I wear headphones. He wears them, too, either so I can’t annoy him to death, OR so that I don’t have to hear the racket he’s making with a computer game.

He normally wears a cute little earbud deal, and I have like, these monster cans on my head. Seriously I look like a 2008-era Princess Leia with these things on my head. They’re ridiculously large, but they do the job. They block out the sounds of his computer game (Tribes, and I hate it with a passion): “Hurry up with that station! Target acquired! Return our flag to our base!”, etc and they stop him from having to listen to whatever music I have on at the moment that he can’t stand. Notably stuff like Bright Eyes, or maybe Aphex Twin, or even some crazy gypsy brass band. All of which are completely unbearable to him.

So it’s a pretty good deal.

Until you get a fucking cyst-like object near your ear that is either some sort of cancer, or caused by the wretched headphones of death. I’m really hoping for the latter…

I have this honker right near the top of my ear. So far, my quest to extract some sort of material from it has been less than satisfying, and has actually caused said object to swell to roughly the size of a Tic Tac. I’m pretty sure it’s not as tasty, though.

In order to combat this intruder, I have decided that warm compresses would help. Except I don’t really want to get the entire side of my head wet by holding a hot wash cloth on my ear. (I have naturally curly hair, and keeping it straight is a pain enough as it is, I don’t need any additional moisture to impede my work).

They say necessity is the mother of invention. So, my friends, I have invented an ear heater thing.

It’s not dissimilar to a tampon in the way it looks (no, it doesn’t go IN the ear). In fact, it’s just a wad of Kleenex with hot water on it, rung out, and then shaped to sit on my ear just so. I do believe the Tic Tac is shrinking.

Anyone ever had one of these suckers? If so, how the hell do you make it go back from whence it came? It’s driving me up a damn wall.

(Yes, I’m sorry, I know that was gross and you probably see me in a different way now, but I can live with that)

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