Shout out

Happy birthday, Mom!

Monitor makeover. Yesterday I left off with home decor, but for something that promises to chase away your computer desktop blahs, check out Jen Segrest’s Pixel Décor, which has lots of retro-kitschy patterns and wallpapers. Cue up some lounge music and you’re all set. The look of her main site at Very Big Design, which includes a daily blog, is swell as can be. Which reminds me of Target’s line of Swell stuff. The Breakfast at Tiffany’s-like TV commercial is great, but I’m not such a fan of the actual products. All the stripes are a bit much.

But back to the digital redecorating, I just spent the past couple of hours learning more about CSS. Currently I use one stylesheet for basic text and color formatting, but once I figure out how to move away from clunky HTML tables, then layout and subsequent changes will be so much easier.

Entertainment notes. As much as I openly love television when it’s good, I love to hate it when it’s bad. It boggles my mind that the same network that carries Alias, The Practice, and NYPD Blue also produces The Bachelor/ette, Are You Hot?, and tonight’s I’m a Celebrity — Get Me Out of Here!, a kind of Survivor for semi-famous people with lots of free time, which airs on fifteen consecutive nights until March 5. Yikes.

Is there really any demand for all the Michael Jackson exposés? It’s like the networks are falling over themselves not to be kept out of the loop. As if there’s anything new to report. Yes, Mr. Jackson has problems. He needs help. Which, to me, makes all this coverage even more creepy and exploitative.

Can’t get enough of Baz’s Broadway bohemians? There’s the La Bohème Colour Collection by Lancôme. I have to admit, that’s some pretty inventive marketing. High-concept glam that’s cheap for Lancôme (just slap together some classic shades from inventory and call it a “collection”), but not so cheap for the would-be Musettas or Mimis among the cosmetics-counter denizens. Seriously, $25.50 for blush?