But I tell you – when she promotes products, I think she forgets that the average American woman does not have deep pockets (or get free products to test). I was looking through June’s Beauty Products, and was absolutely floored when I saw a $28 lip stain, $78 body oil, and $175 perfume. Buying those three products costs more than a month’s worth of groceries for me – and probably at least 1 week’s worth for a family of 4. In this economic time, I still believe in the power of mampering yourself, but $45 lipstick goes beyond pampering.

Related Link: June’s New Beauty Products

The Headhunter’s Guide to the Top 10 Films of 2008

This amusing little blog post takes the heroes from some of the top grossing films in 2008, describes them, and then prescribes a new job for them. My personal favorite is Horton, from Horton Hears a Who:

8. HORTON HEARS A WHO!

PROTAGONIST: Horton the Elephant

JOB SKILLS: Persistence, protectiveness, resourcefulness. Horton has considerable experience in a wide variety of sought-after traits, stemming from his efforts to keep the microscopic community of Whoville from being destroyed by his peers, all of whom do not believe such a place exists. His sweetness, unabashed belief in the goodness of all living things, willingness to do what is right, loyalty and faithfulness would be an asset to any organization fortunate enough to hire him.

IDEAL JOB: No current openings for someone with these assets

If you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare, go check out the best jobs for Hancock and Wall-E too!

I bought this new game that was being raved about for the Wii: “Animal Crossing: City Folk.” I was so excited about the game – about playing something that other people were playing, and that other people loved.

Its too bad that I hated the game. I don’t use the term “hated” lightly, but in this case, I hated it. I hated the controls, I hated that the first thing that I got in the game was a mortgage. Of course, that means the second thing I got was a job. Funny – I already have bills and a job in real life; it seems to be backward to play a game that mimics real life so closely. My goal in playing a game is to avoid my real life for a few minutes (or hours), not to relive it. I tried to sell the game back to GameStop, but they wanted to pay me less than 1/2 of what I paid new, so it came home and went back in the drawer. It’s also posted on CraigsList, in case someone else wants to try it out.

I’ve gone back to playing my other games at home; in particular, I’m working on Super Mario Galaxy. Yes, I know that the rest of the Wii-playing planet conquered the game years ago, but I’m having some fun in trying to beat it. I’ve wasted at least 25 Mario-lives trying to beat one level today. As soon as Heroes is over, I’m going back to it to work on it some more. Bowser – you’re going down!

So, when I saw the headline “How to Make Anne Hathaway Look ‘Edgy’”, I had to read the article. As it turns out, they didn’t make her look “edgy.” They made her look vampy. I understand that after everything that happened with that ex-boyfriend of hers, she felt the need to reinvent herself. We’ve all been through that. But if the type of reinvention that she’s going through is the kind that means squatting in a dress, count me out.

Full story: How to Make Anne Hathaway Look “Edgy”

What Would Tyler Durden Do and The Superficial

These celebrity-bashing gossip sites get me through days filled of spreadsheet reporting, emails that make me want to tear my hair out, and just plain boredom.  They’re most often barely safe for work (they clearly label the pictures that are NSFW, things like wardrobe malfunctions that show nipples and netherregions of the rich and famous), but they’re hilarious. If I could write for a site that actually got read, I’d write for one of these.

Here’s a sampling of headlines from today:

• Tom Brady will be seeing a whole lot of Gisele Bundchen
• Ashlee Simpson only squeezing out one Mini-Pete Wentz
• CALM DOWN KATE HUDSON
• SHORT HAIR SUCKS EVERY SINGLE TIME

Hilarious. And now I’m back to work.

But… I keep going back to the sites, day after day.

Why?

Because these celebrities, who are supposed to have such great lives, are train wrecks. They’re bad accidents that you dont want to look at, but you just can’t look away. These sites expolit all of the gore, make it digestable, and even funny.

It makes me feel better about my “normal” life – where I dont have to worry about shaving my head creating national news.

Edit: And if you haven’t seen enough, check out this page to see some fun photoshopping of how other celebs would look if they were follicley challenged.

In the meantime, here’s a fun wrap-up of what’s new.

• Ionic therapy. They’ve been doing this interesting treatment on my wrist to help reduce tendon inflammation. It basically consists of placing 2 patches on my arm (one with anti-inflammatory medication over the affected tendon), and connecting the patches to a 9V battery, with what look to be miniature jumper cables. 15 minutes later, I have big red spots where the patches were, blister-like bubbles where the medication is being pushed through my skin, and eventually, less pain. After 5 treatments of this, I’m starting to feel more like a human being. However, the skin on the back of my hand is starting to feel more like a lizard.
• Anna Nicole. Ok, so its not really news, but I’m starting to wonder how many days that she’s going to be appearing on Google News. Its very tragic that her bizarre and twisted life came to an early demise, and that 4 or 5 men are fighting over her 5-month-old daughter. The best that we can hope for is that the child will be raised out of the spotlight, and will be able to live as normal of a life as possible, having sprung from Anna Nicole.
• Work. I’ve been at my new job for just over a month and half now. It’s taken some time to get used to just telling other people what needs to be done, rather than just doing it myself. I’m starting to feel like there’s a lot I can learn from this job – and a lot I can bring to it. Oh, and my office got moved – finally. The new location allows me to see a busy intersection in town. Every day I get to see at least 2-3 fire trucks go by, and about twice a week there are ambulances. Its entertaining. We also got a $3500 coffee machine for the office, courtesy of a special bonus that one of the sales teams earned. We all get to partake of the special coffees, teas, and hot chocolate, that come in these super-wastful little packages. But hey, I plan to take full advantage of the machine, especially when the chai comes in!
• Dating. Oh, why bother? Seriously? Its really true that all you do is watch as strange men try to impress you in weird and stupid ways, and then you pick the least disgusting one. So far, I’m not all that impressed.
• Dogs. My mom accidentally got a new dog this week. She’s pretty funny – a 5 lb pomeranian with more hair than brains. We’re calling her Foxy Roxy. Her newest trick is to stand across your foot when you’re sitting down. You can actually lift your leg, with her on your foot, and she just hangs out. She’s entertaining. But Pete hates her. We’ll see how long all this lasts.