A match made in fast food heaven

Jason Mraz and Meiko would make a cutest little hot-dog-and-curly-fries combo meal...

Meiko ("You & Onions"):

I'm a hot dog
Sittin' in the fog
Waitin' for my day in the sun
And I'm all alone
Far away from home
Just me, my mustard, and my bun

And though I miss you
But time is on my side
And though I need you
But you and onions make me cry

And I'm all beef
But I have a heart
And it's splitting now that you've gone away
And I wish everything was kosher as me
But I'm not healthy for you anyway

And though I miss you
But time is on my side
And though I need you
But you and onions make me cry

Jason Mraz ("Too Much Food"):

You can say that I'm one curly fry in the box of the regular
Messing with the flavor oh the flavor that you savor
Saving me for last but you better not eat me at all
Living in a fast food bag making friends with the ketchup and salt
People say that I'm crazy for not moving on to better things
Instead I'm sitting around trash talking with the onion rings
But it's much too soon to leave this easy life
Pass me the spoon, pass the analytical knife

Cause you're about to get cut and get cut down
It's all about the wordplay all about the sound in the tone of my voice
You gotta let me make my choice alone before my food gets cold
Better shut up or get shot down
It's all about the know how all just a matter of taste
Stop telling me the way I gotta play, you're puttin' too much food on my plate

Believe it or not I super sized my sights on the surprise in the cereal box
My stomach's smaller than my eyes
So I went to see the doctor and he said "turn your head and then cough"
I didn't listen to what he said instead I couldn't wait to get off
He said I can have this but I can't have that
That I should keep wishing I was living the life of a cat because
I ain't the one whose gonna be missing the feast
Just like you ain't the one who seems to be calming the beast

Now you're about to get cut and get cut down
It's all about the wordplay all about the sound in the tone of my voice
You gotta let me make my choice alone before my food gets cold
Better shut up or get shot down
It's all about the know how all just a matter of taste
Stop telling me the way I gotta play, you're puttin' too much food on my plate

Well if you are what you eat in my case I'll be sweet so come and get some
I'm so over it

Now you're about to get cut and get cut down
It's all about the know how all just a matter of taste
Stop telling me the way I gotta play, you're puttin' too much food on my plate

Where traditional dating and online dating meet

I think I've mentioned before that my preferred method of meeting potential dates is through friends. That way, at least somebody's vouching for them and you know they're probably not a psycho (and I stress the probably...because we've all been burned by our matchmakers, right?). So I thought it was kind of cool that someone thought to combine my preferred method and the method I usually have to resort to in one place.

Engage.com is, according to the Web site, "where dating gets social." The cool kids over at TechCrunch explain it better than I could:

Engage differentiates itself from traditional dating sites (Match, eHarmony, PlentyofFish, etc) by getting friends involved in the process of finding you that perfect guy or gal. If you are looking for love (and Engage is certainly geared towards those looking to land serious relationships, not set up transitory encounters), you can invite your real-life friends to become friends on Engage. Once onboard, they sit in a friends list that stays with you on the left-hand side of the site wherever you go.

Or, if pictures are more your thing:

(Courtesy of Engage.com)


I don't know about you, but I think this is an extraordinarily good idea. I've signed up but have yet to build out my friends list, so I'll keep you updated as to how it works.

On a personal note...

I'm going to the John Mayer concert in the Bay Area in July!!!

Can you tell I'm just slightly excited? The stars aligned and it just so happened that, while he's not coming to Seattle (shame on you, John), he's playing the Shoreline Amphitheathre in Mountain View, Calif., while I'm in the Bay Area for work!

And thanks to my status as a John Mayer Official Fanclub member (and proud of it!), I was able to participate in a presale, scored ninth-row seats and will be rocking this t-shirt to the concert:


WOO!

Giving "The Emerald City" a whole new meaning

A 20-cent grocery bag fee, huh Mayor Nichols? Well why the heck not, I say.

...Besides, anything that gives me a chance to buy a new bag is a-okay by me. Personally, I currently rock the large Fred Meyer tote but am seriously considering upgrading to something cuter.

Other fun facts:

• Seattle Public Utilities estimates the city uses 360 million bags a year, or 600 per person (OMG)
• Per SPU, the city would collect $10 million per year from this initiative -- Approximately $2 million would go to provide and promote reusable bags, and the rest would go toward waste prevention, recycling and environmental-education programs.
• Mayor Nichols rocks at this "being green" thing. In the past year he's ended the purchase of bottled water by city departments, proposed requiring all new Seattle taxis to get at least 30 miles per gallon and hosted a conference for U.S. mayors on climate change where he persuaded more than 700 mayors to sign on to a pledge to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions based on the Kyoto Protocol.

Seems it really is easy being green (...I couldn't resist!).

Make 'em laugh

If I had to venture a guess at what the most common answer to the question, "What do you look for in a man/woman?" is, I'd definitely say sense of humor. I mean, who doesn't like to laugh? I think a guy who's witty is instantly more attractive than a guy who isn't (in the same way tall guys have an automatic advantage over shorter guys in my book). I consider myself funny, and therefore I look for someone who shares my sense of humor, or at least complements it. I also think that all of my girlfriends would agree with me here.

In the words of Donald O'Connor, "Make 'em laugh."

So I wonder if men place the same value on finding a partner with a sense of humor as women do. One of my guy friends once told me that he doesn't think women are funny. I protested, and he revised his previous statement, saying "OK, I don't think women are as funny as men." While I'm not totally convinced this is true, The Seattle Times' Nicole Tsong suggests that it's just a different kind of funny:

Boys and girls are socialized early with distinct approaches to humor, said humor expert Morreall. Boys are encouraged to entertain and act out, while girls learn to appreciate a joke, not put on the show.

That dynamic is prevalent in dating. To put it bluntly, men want someone who laughs at their punch lines, while women look for someone who makes them giggle.

There are exceptions, of course, with the rise of female comics who have appropriated male humor, like the brash Sarah Silverman. Others have succeeded with a more feminine style, like funny but gentle Ellen DeGeneres. But in general, men are expected to be the funny ones.

She continues:

In a study published in the academic journal "Evolution and Human Behavior," psychologists Eric Bressler and Sigal Balshine tested graduate students with pictures attached to funny and nonfunny statements and evaluated the way it affected how men and women viewed each other.

They found that humor makes men more desirable to women but does not affect men's view of women.

So my question here is for the guys. How important is it to you that a woman you're dating be funny? And how do you define funny? Is it that she can crack a joke with the best of 'em, or that she appreciates and laughs at yours? And on the flip side -- Girls: Is a sense of humor among one of your top requirements?

If I were a TV character

The glorious invention that is the DVR has made it possible for me to watch way more TV than I used to. No longer do I have to miss good shows because they don't fit into my social calendar! (I guess this is both a blessing and a curse, as many a Sunday morning is spent lazily laying on the couch playing catch up.)

But anyway, I was asked the other day which TV character I'd want to be, and I couldn't decide. Too many to pick from! Which lead me to create the following list...

If I were a TV character, I would:

• Have the credit card limit of Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City
• Be dating Jim Halpert like Pam on The Office (but I'd have a better wardrobe, thanks to the above)
• Have the job of CJ Cregg on The West Wing
  
• Have a wholly inappropriate but very entertaining friend like Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother
• Be extremely witty (but much less depressing) as everyone on Grey's Anatomy
  
• Have parents like Eric and Tami Taylor from Friday Night Lights
  
• Hang out with cute baby chimps like Eugene Cussons on Escape to Chimp Eden
• Have kids as funny as those adorable little Gosselins on Jon & Kate Plus 8

I know I'm forgetting some...

How about the rest of you? Who is/are your TV idol(s)?

Daily ponderings

From an ad on the side of a bus:
"Love is BORN. Everything else is learned."

From Eat, Pray, Love:
"We must get our hearts broken sometimes. This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something."

From Brian Solis' PR 2.0:
"(Perception is) not just about what you want me to think, it's about what I hear and in turn, share with others. You can help shape my perception and perhaps, even influence it, but my perception is defined by my experiences, beliefs, predispositions, and personal agenda. Tell me again why I should listen to you?"