I'm a woman. I'm NOT miserable...

I have a Master's degree from a state school (got an assistantship, paid for, so not a prestige thing but OTOH no crushing educational debt)

I have a decent job, and transferrable skills should something happen to that job.

I have a small house in town. Correlation is a small mortgage and a tiny commute to work.

I have hobbies that get me out of the house, and a supportive boyfriend who is starting to enjoy those hobbies with me.

I DON'T have children.

I DON'T feel the need to keep up with anybody.

I'm quite happy. Nothing's perfect (I'd like to lose some weight, there's a leak in my basement, I can't figure out what to do with the grass in the front yard) but in general life is pretty good. Where am I reflected in all this misery?

We didn't "bring them American Idol". The whole "Idol" thing started in the U.K. as "Pop Idol" and has been exported by the no doubt ridiculously wealthy producers around the world. Actually, most of what we regard as the U.S.-culture-eroding reality shows started in other countries--the U.K. (Pop Idol)the Netherlands (Big Brother), Sweden (Expedition Robinson, a.k.a Survivor).

I'm a woman. I THINK.

Here's what I did yesterday:

Went to work, got some things done.

Came home, ate a quick dinner. My boyfriend got home before me and fed the dogs, took the youngest to a local store to bathe him. He's good like that, my boyfriend.

Took two of the dogs to Agility class. Taught a class, worked my dogs.

Came home, ate some ice cream and watched the Project Runway finale with my boyfriend (ooh, there's the dumb woman thing? Right??!?)

Watched the Daily Show, went to bed.

I expect to do nearly the same thing tonight, except that there's no Project Runway and I intend to spend the hour between the two classes I take the dogs to on Thursday nights combing the local thrift store for Ruth Rendell hardcovers and workout wear.

My point? Why, when I read stuff about "what 'women' do" don't I recognize myself? How should I feel about this? Am I superior? Inferior? Not a woman after all?

I said it tastes burned (by which I mean it tastes like the beans were burned), and if you want coffee-chain coffee, Caribou is better (I love their Mocha Java beans for my coffeemaker at home). I didn't say it was unpalatable. I drink a lot of coffee, and if I am on a long road trip I am relieved to see a Starbucks, because it's always better than the heartburn-in-a-cup that is most gas station coffee. OTOH, if it's a choice between Starbucks and Tim Hortons, I'll head for Tim Hortons every time.

I had always heard that Starbucks treated their employees rather well.

And who cares if they named the chain out of Moby Dick? Or "The Rainmaker" (a con man named Starbuck, played by Burt Lancaster in the movie)? What difference does it make?

What's the deal with that, anyway?

I'd rather go to a local coffee shop (and I do) but I prefer Caribou coffee over Starbucks. It just tastes better (i.e. not burned). And for those who blab on about how Starbucks (and other coffee shops) are "elitist"--just buy a regular coffee, eh? It's cheaper than a coffee "drink", and even Starbucks' coffe is better than what you can get at your local gas station.

The only reason I ever buy DVDs is if I don't think I'll get a chance to see the particular movie ever again, or if they're REALLY cheap. Otherwise it's not worth it. I'm waiting for streaming video to be really good and available, or for my cable company to do a deal with Netflix to access their catalog.

BTW, Laserdisc? What about plain ole videodisc players--the kind with with a needle! I have a Hitachi videodisc player that my parents bought sometime in the early 80's, and a collection of movies to go with it. It still works--watched "Gimme Shelter" on it not too long ago.

And the whole Blu-Ray/HD-DVD debate will be moot...

I was so excited when I bought it, and I am STILL excited about it. When I saw the MacBook Air, I wondered why anyone would want one when they could get the EEE PC, which is thicker but smaller, and costs about 1/3 what an Air does.

Apple won't ever be really competitive until they either divorce their software from their hardware, or until they make their hardware easier for a user to repair/upgrade. When the video went out on my boyfriend's Emac, we were going to have it repaired until we realized it would cost us as much to repair as it would to buy a refurbished PC with Vista Home Premium. Oops--there goes another Mac home (and that thing was only 3.5 years old--my oldest PC is 7 years old and works fine. Ugly looking old thing, but works fine).

Similarly, they will never capture 10% of the cellphone market without allowing the iPhone to be used on other cell carriers. Someone else is already making the same thing, but cheaper and more widely available.

Something else that's being ignored is home automation. As prices go down, and incentives to control all the electrics in your home from a central interface go up (energy savings, security) home automation will start looking more attractive--and the least expensive, most customizable systems work well with Windows.

I think for the foreseeable future, people are going to move increasingly toward ever more bastardized mixes of freeware and traditional software that works well with others. Windows apps and Linux apps, in general, talk to each other rather well--I can write something in OpenOffice in Gentoo and move it over to MS Word with a minimum of fuss. LESS important will be the actual hardware you use. And MS isn't a hardware company...

Just sayin'