Stardate 20020223.2115

(Captain's log): RR is having some sort of routing meltdown. There are sites which I have not been able to reach all day (e.g. blogspot.com) and some which have been blinking in and out (e.g. Nando) and some that I've had no trouble reaching at all (WaPo). I know that Blogspot isn't dead because I can reach it indirectly using Anonymizer. It's been strange. Apparently it isn't affecting anyone else's ability to get to me, since my traffic levels today are about what they usually are for a weekend, and I'm seeing all sorts of refers from various blogspot sites (which is typical). RR claims to be on the job and claims to be working to fix it. We'll see how long it takes.

In the mean time, I noticed today that in the last couple of months all the car ads which want to portray a sexy young babe are choosing models with big pouty lips. Of course there's a long tradition of showing beautiful women along with cars, because of the attempt to either make men think of cars as being women, or of trying to convince them that owning said car will get them women. So the women are always young, fashionable, gorgeous and have big tits. But it's interesting to see what women they use at different times, and suddenly big pouty lips seem to be all the rage. Darned if I know why, though. And it seems as if they're all brunettes, all of a sudden, with long straight hair. Time was when they were all blondes with wavy 'dos. Is this the Julia Roberts revenge? Or is there something else going on?

I'm always behind the wave on fashion, if I'm even surfing at all. I buy my clothes for practical reasons: denim wears well and feels comfortable; who could ask for anything more? Cotton T-shirts are the same way; who needs buttons? I last wore my suit when I interviewed for my last job, some 5 years ago now, and its lapels are probably the wrong size (but I couldn't tell you if they're too big or too small). I don't keep up on women's fashions, either. If I were presented with two pictures of two models and one was wearing this year's fashions and one was wearing five year old stuff, I couldn't tell you which was which. But I'd be able to tell you if either model looked good to me; that is timeless.

Except perhaps it isn't; because to me these women look deformed. No real person has lips like that unless they're deliberately poking them out.