um...

i like to do online surveys. usually they ask at the beginning whether you or any of your relatives work for a marketing firm, advertising agency, or some sort of company that relates to the contents of the survey, because such people may be biased.

this screen makes me wonder what the hell kind of "recreational activities" they're planning to ask me about.

i will not spoil your speculation by telling you what the survey is really about just yet.

i give

okay, Apple, i'm impressed. the video iPod is really, really, really supercool.

i still have no use for one. but i figured you deserved to know you've finally done something i found more than mildly interesting.

love,

merde

ah, the halcyon days of youth

this story reminds me of the time my father bashed his way through my bedroom door, yanked the phone out of the wall, and delivered a twenty-minute tirade at the top of his lungs because i was laughing on the phone. apparently the phone wasn't for laughing. who knew? it's those arbitrary, spur-of-the-moment rules that get you every time.

but seriously, i'm very glad social services took this girl out of the house. if the mother is encouraging the stepfather to do things like that, she really ought to be charged as well, but at least she won't be able to hurt her daughter anymore.

plus it's always nice to hear a story where social services actually bothers to do something. even though i know for every story like this, there are five more where they didn't, and ten more where no one even bothered to report it because they didn't want to deal with the fallout of accusing the kid's parents of child abuse, and twenty more where no one ever noticed anything and the child never told.

people are disgusting. completely disgusting.