21. Subscribe to a new magazine and read it before the next one arrives

This is also a boring post. Warning!

I've subscribed to a new magazine and have read it before the next one arrived. Back in Sept. I subscribed to Harper's Bazaar and I haven't had any problem reading the next issue before the new one gets here.

This used to be a problem for me so when I made this goal I thought it would be a big deal. But of late, meaning for the last several months, I've been rather scattered so it's been very easy to read magazines... even easier than reading a book, sad to say. I like to buy 50cent magazines when I go to Half price books and they have a tendency to pile up around here (Mac said when I finally move out and live in my own place and since I'm single I won't be the crazy cat lady, but I'll be the crazy magazine and he'll find my dead body buried under a stack of Elles, Vogues, In Styles, and Ws. He said they should have a special edition of Hoarders for people who are magazine freaks...like me). I get them in huge stacks and can't always get them read in a timely manner. This was another reason I thought I would set this goal.

As a matter of fact, I can take it one step further. I subscribed to a bunch of magazine for the school library and I've taken to reading these during my lunch hour. So, while I read my one I get at home, I also manage to read Entertainment Weekly each week as well as the monthly copy of In Style.

So I met this goal with my own magazine plus 2 extra! As Charlie Sheen would say, "I Win!"

Mags

Random Musings. For today.

If you want to drop by my house and choke or drop dead, that's okay. I'm officially re-certified, officially, in CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. I'm also certified in First Aid but let me tell you, that's not my strong point. I'd be good at keeping you calm and calling EMS. If you're bleeding or worse, I'm not really successful. Blood makes me faint. I'm more useful if I know my limits than if I become a victim, too. So, come on over!

TGIT- Thank God It's Thursday. Since we have a 4 day school week, this is my Friday. And I am so ready for it; it's been a really long week. Though, I wonder, psychologically about this. Since I know it was the end of the week, could I have persevered on to one more day or would today have been my limit and I would've had to take a mental health day tomorrow if we were a 5 day week? Who knows? Who cares? What matters here is that I get a FOUR day, paid weekend. Booyah!

Since I work at a primarily Christian institution, the idea of Thirsty Thursdays don't work with colleagues. Or at least not how I'm used to organizing it... damn.

I'm totally excited that season 4 of Mad Men is now on Netflix! Booyah!

I don't usually watch much television but I'm excited about the start of the new fall season: House, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, and Mike & Molly. None of these are new shows but I like them all the same. And from the few trailers I've seen of new shows... well, I'm not impressed nor excited about new stuff.

I'm totally excited about the NEW magazines I ordered for the school library. I tried to diversify and not take my own personal needs into account. We're getting Game Informer, Entertainment Weekly, Taste of Home, Wired, Teen Vogue, In Style, Newsweek, Popular Science, and Cicada! These are gonna be awesome. I guess the library has had the same old mags for about 4 years so I'm mixing it up a little bit!

Sometimes nothing beats a McDonald's Sweet Tea. However, I was thinking that orange juice, pineapple juice, frozen peaches, peach schnapps, and Malibu Rum, all blended together and poured into a cold glass with a sugared rim! That might beat a Sweet Tea!

Mac is coming home for the long holiday weekend. Only, he has classes on Monday so for him it's not long. But he's coming home anyway. And I'm glad. I think. Remind me I said that later, if necessary.

And finally, I don't have to work at all the next four days. Except laundry.

Booyah,
Maggie O

New Obsession

My new "crack" is fashion magazines. I'm not sure what caused this latest addiction but it's an addiction for sure. I remember when it began but not the why behind it.

One day early this summer I was at Half Price books, one of my most favorite books store on the planet when I found the 50cent magazine rack. I started flipping through and there were a bunch of issues of fashion magazines that I never really read with ferocity. I always thought I should be a lover of Vogue since it was Carrie Bradshaw's Bible but I could never justify spending $5-$8 for a magazine full of clothes that I couldn't wear since I'm a plus size. But there at Half Price books were loads of fashion magazines for just 50cents each. So, I thought 'what the hell' and grabbed a month old copy of Vogue and In Style.

And the obsession began.

Now every time I go I comb the racks and piles looking for the month old copies of Elle, Vogue, W, In Style... I just LOVE them. And there are clothes in there I could wear, and would wear! There's make up tips and shoes galore. And jewelry! And beauty tips and secrets. I've become a huge fan. There is very little of that crap that usually pepper the pages of typical women's mags like sex advice, celeb gossip, or diet tips. These magazines are pretty much strictly, straight up, all about the shoes, clothes, purses, accessories, jewelry, make up and hair. It's terrible, I know, but I just can't help it. I'm addicted. I just sit and pour over the pages, book marking things I think I could wear, searching the 'net for something in my size just like the pants on page 412 of Vogue. I wonder what's happened. I actually KNEW when fashion week started. I actually looked on CNN to watch clips. I can identify a Dior gown at 20 paces. I'm completely and totally hooked!

Addicted so much so that the other day when I was at Wal-Mart the new Vogue, In Style and Elle have the new fall fashion issues out and I couldn't wait. I just had to have copies. And at Wall World magazines are cheaper than the cover prices so I got them for about $4 each-- AND they were each about 600 pages since it was the TOTAL fall issue on 600 in styles for the season. I bought them new.

I actually have piles and piles of magazines all over my room and in the bathroom. All less than a year old.

I blame Vanity Fair because I've been a reader for years and I think it was my gateway drug magazine of choice. Next you'll be seeing me on the street corner, holding a sign, "will work for newsstand fresh fashion mags."

Do you think I need a 12 step program?

Maggie

Remember Mac's magazine?

Remember when I told you that Mac suddenly started getting Maxim magazine when the video gaming magazine went bankrupt?

Well, he did. And though he could've sent in for a refund he decided to keep it.

Well! I wish the publishing company would get their collective acts together. He got three issues then it stopped. He got a letter. In summary, the letter said that since he was a minor child and since he subscribed to Maxim through a school fund raising project, the maturity content was not appropriate. So they gave him a list of other magazines to choose from. There are 5 he can choose from. And they are ALL.VIDEO GAME. MAGAZINES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh My Freaking Goddess! Hello- and why in the world didn't they just do this in the first place???? Can anyone please tell me this? Exchange a video game mag for a video game mag- a direct exchange- tit for tat, so to speak, rather than tat for tits! But no, we had to send half nekkied girls, sex how tos, booze ads, and borderline porn to my 16 year old, when they could've just done this in the first place. Could they BE any more unorganized? Who is running this company? The federal government? I mean, really! Let's get this together, magazine people! It's just a freakin' magazine subscription, for goddess sake!

Seriously. I've rolled my eyes over this so many times I'm surprised they aren't stuck that way,
Maggie

Mac's magazine

A funny thing happened on the way to the news stand... No actually, in Mac's mailbox.

It all started because last Sept. I renewed Mac's subscription to his Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. This is a mag that is target toward people who want to be in the know about all things Video Game related. It was pretty specific and was really written for those who were gamers, using the specific lingo and jargon of that group of folks. Anyway, I renewed it through a junior high school magazine subscription fundraiser sale. Well, what I didn't know was that Ziff-Davis, the publisher of this magazine, had filed for bankruptcy in March 2008. I didn't receive any letter from them telling me so, they were still on the list of possible mags to subscribe to, and when I heard the name of the publishing company I certainly didn't associate it with EGM, even though most of their media mediums relate to technology. Gee, can't believe I missed remembering that 6 months later when I went to renew his magazine. (and if I roll my own eyes any more they're going to get stuck!)

So around last November Mac asks me why he hasn't gotten his mag and I did some investigating and realized they filed bankruptcy. I emailed the company and was basically told they didn't know what would happen to my subscription since they were in Chapter 11. I figured I was just out the $20, which sucks but- alas, what could I do really?

Then last week Mac calls me to say he got a replacement magazine for his EGM. I said something about that being cool. And he starts howling with laughter. He told me the magazine he received was Maxim magazine, sort of a guy's guide to women that is sort of a combination of a man version of Cosmopolitan and Playboy. This is the magazine a random publisher decided to send my 16 year old son in the mail without parental permission to replace a video game magazine. Hmmmmmmmmm...

Several things here: the cover stories for this month are "hot grill on grill action" (yeah, cute play on words... NOT!), "the rise of recession sex", "America's Best beaches", "Hometown Hotties", and there's a half naked celebrity woman on the cover. There are other features: sex advice, movie reviews, celebrity stuff, and one small section or article of video gaming information... the ads are mostly for alcohol and feature lots of scantily clad women who look physically enhanced and really really sexual.

FIRST I want so say loudly and clearly that while I am most certainly NOT the target audience, I believe in the 1st amendment that this can and should be published, there is an audience for this type of magazine, I do not think it should be banned... BUT BUT BUT- this is not really appropriate for MY child at THIS age right now. He can buy it when he's older and making his own choices. While we live in a society with enough social issues to float a battleship, I have enough problems as a single parenting mother teaching my son to respect women and not degrade them without having to do battle with a magazine in the house that, IN MY OPINION, seems to do the opposite. Yes, he is a boy who likes girls and boobs and is curious about sex and probably sees and hears worse on the Internet- I do get all that. But, this was foisted upon him, without anyone asking me as a parent if it was okay. Or even asking him if he wanted it. Some arbitrary company some how made the leap from a gaming magazine to a guy's magazine. This irritates me.

And while I try to be fair and cover all bases here at 'shoes/purses' I will say Mac told me there was a place he could send in a card to just get a refund rather than get the magazine. So we had an option AFTER the fact, but still an option.

So, Mac and I talked about it and one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE about this kid is the head on his shoulders and his sense of humor- most of the time, and this is one of them. Head on his Shoulders: I told him all of my qualms and arguments and reasons why I was opposed. And he acknowledged what I said and felt, he didn't even try to argue the "I see worse on the 'net, or hear worse on the school bus mom" or anything. Mac said he got where I was coming from and he also knows the magazine was full of shit. He said he wasn't so weak that looking of pictures of booze in the ads made him want to run out and drink. He said he knew "real" women didn't look like the digitally enhanced triple DDDs in the magazines- or at least none that he's ever met yet (his words, not mine!). He said seeing these women weren't going to make him respect or disrespect women any more or less than he already did because it's just a magazine. Do I have a good kid or what? Besides, he informed me, he just wants to read it for the articles.

He's 16 years old and seems to, overall, have a a brain functioning somewhere other than in his pants, so I gave my permission to let Maxim come in the house.

Now Mac does have a sense of humor about this. He also couldn't help but crack up laughing over the whole thing. He said this company must not have a single clue about EGM target audience. Mac said most gamers are nerds, geeks, and loners who prefer games over people. He went on to further say that most geeky gamers are terrified of women and know they have a snowball's chance in hell of ever meeting women like those featured in Maxim- he said that "hell, even hot guys would be intimidated with these boobalicious babes" (okay he's 16 and aiming for the funny here...) let alone even needing the sex tips and advise sprinkled throughout the magazine. Mac said "most of us gamers are chubby, have acne, bad hair, are shy, no sense of style, no social skills... even ugly chicks don't want gamers- what the hell do guys like us need with Maxim magazine? Now, put a joy stick in their hands and have them playing some RPG naked, and we'd notice what game system they're playing. Naked would be secondary. Gamers around the country are probably scared to even read Maxim! Don't these publishers know anything? However, I'm cute and lovable- girls think I'm a Teddy Bear so I can handle it" and he gives me a wink and cracks himself up with laughter.

Raising a teenage boy to the maxim,
Maggie