Week 30: Man's best friend

Give us a funny caption for this AP photo of a freshly washed dog. Funniest wins a gift card from Target. We'll pick the winner Monday.

It will be business as usual, probably

Psst. I have a little secret I’d like to share with you – I can predict the future.

Week 29: Deep sea Santa

Give us a funny caption for this AP photo of an underwater Santa and you could win a prize. Funniest wins a gift card from Target. We'll pick the winner Monday.

Local housing downturn could be much worse

A Western fatwah

Welcome to the club, Henry. You'll fit right in.

In Which He Answers His Own Question

Latest Abuse: Cynthia McKinney to run for President

Role and competition

          Competitiveness and dominance are stereotypical male behaviors, while expected behaviors for females include accommodation and passivity. Despite rather general agreement as to those sex-role stereotypes, gender differences in actual, rather than expected, assertive behaviors are less clear.

          Competition is usually defined as the acts of two or more persons who are striving for the same position or object. In the present context, I use this term in the sense of striving for a position of dominance.

          Men are generally more competitive with other man than women are with other women. In cross-gender interaction, a clear pattern does not emerge from the literature.

          To dominate is to rule or control through superior power or influence. Like competitiveness, dominance is considered more appropriate for man than for women.

          Although females compete with males under certain conditions, males do not compete with females. However, males apparently interrupt females freely, thus suggesting that males assume a dominant position. Females tend to "interrupt back," an indication that male dominance is not acceptable. However, females are also more submissive toward husbands than toward other males.

          The prototypical family provides a concrete experiential paradigm for being man or woman, a paradigm that helps organize behavior in other contexts too. Specifically, it is the reproductive and productive functioning of women and men within the prototypical domestic sphere which becomes the concrete anchor for conceptualizing gendered behavior, and accounting for the gendered nature of social action in other spheres. 

          Femininity and masculinity are structured by the functions of the two in the domestic domain — the rest of the gender construction may be thought of as an epiphenomenon of the gendered structure of reproduction.The only way for a couple to survive is to find the way to compete each other, to find the resources inside of that couple to accept and complete each other.

          Life in a couple should not be a permanent competition but a permanent collaboration and sharing of love, trust and support.

Perfection?

                 In Psychology we believe that perfection can and should be attained. Perfection could be defined as the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects while a person or thing might be perceived as the embodiment of such a condition, state or quality.
               The word "perfection" has a special meaning in mathematics,  where it gives aproper name to certain numbers that demonstrate uncommon properties. Except for the mathematical sense, the concepts of "perfection" show a kinship, and oscillate between ideal and approximation. Perfectionists are people who strive to meet very high standards in everything they do, be it in the workplace, in sport, cooking and so on. Perfectionists can be lumped into two categories based on how flexible they are about their standards. Normal perfectionists set high standards for themselves but drop their standards if the situation requires it. Neurotic perfectionists never feel that they have done their job well enough. They are very intolerant of mistakes and extremely self-critical. Seeking Perfection looks at what happens when a hobby becomes an obsession and gets out of control. Striving for perfection is the desire that we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. Perfectionism can be a beneficial or destructive, desire or obsession to be the best.We all seek if not for perfection, and then at least for some kind of personal progress that can bring us joy, contentment and happiness. A person should be understood also in terms of his or her goals, for activities progressively modify and transform one in relation to the perfection of which one is by nature capable and which one freely chooses. All the persons are conscious of perfection that they do not possess, but toward which they are dynamically oriented. The path of simplicity does invites everyone, with no exceptions, to journey along its way, and this is what we must do, accept the path, in the knowledge that it is progress that we are seeking and not perfection.

James Brown's capeman could be out in the cold

Finding your partner

The fluctuations in relationship satisfaction are influenced by other factors, including our own level of tiredness, skills in communicating, problem solving and managing stress, our ability to deal with outside pressures such as work, family, finances and our own dreams, goals and expectations for our own life and our relationship.

In order for a relationship to survive and flourish both partners need to feel they are receiving adequate support. Having these needs met is a combination of each partner having realistic expectations about the other’s ability to meet your needs, creating an environment where both partners are aware of and able to meet each other’s need for support.

In order to determine if an attribute is essential or optional, there are a couple techniques you can use. Firstly, imagine yourself in a relationship with someone who does not possess that attribute. How would you feel? Would you feel constantly frustrated and annoyed? Or would you be mildly irritated now and then? Would you not even notice the absence of this characteristic past the initial stage? Obviously if you imagine yourself feeling constantly irritated, then this attribute is absolutely essential for your ideal mate to possess.

The attribute of physical attractiveness is a peculiar category. Finding your partner pleasing to look at may be important to you and if your ideal mate cannot fulfill your particular requirements for being physically desirable, it is likely to cause problems in the future when you will be drawn to others who are physically desirable to you.

Therefore you should look for a partner that will offer you the true love instead of one that you just find cute.

Video: Duck hunting with a car

Week 28: Bad Santa?

Local phone service will expand – at a cost

Your kids want this for Christmas -- please please please

Beasties will live to Fight (For their right) another day...

Earlier this week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the five acts to be honored this year. They were surf-guitar combo the Ventures, '60s hitmakers the Dave Clark Five, roots rocker John Mellencamp, poet/singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen and pop culture icon Madonna. While each act is certainly notable and deserving of this honor, more interesting is the act omitted -- the Beastie Boys.

The New York trio, known for exploding and exploiting the barriers between rap and rock, had made the short list of possible inductees and, from my cheap seat, seemed like the easiest of inductees. Not only have the Beasties spent 25 years producing infectious hits, but they have also understood and embraced the role of real artists, expanding what they do and how they do it with a sense of sonic experimentation.

But clearly this was not their year.

Here's the thing about the Rock Hall. Similar to the professional sports Hall of Fames, it works off a fairly simple system. Each act selected must have been in the business for 25 years, measured from the time of their first release. A short list is developed every year, usually comprised of previously spurned vets and first time nominees, and from that five inductees are chosen. It's rare for an act to make it from initial list to inductee the first year, and this time there were two strong possibilities -- the Beasties and Madonna. While it might be argued that Madonna isn't exactly rock, her place within the pantheon of popular music is secure. Although I don't rock much Lady M during my daily commute, given the opportunity I probably would have voted the same way.

The good news is that the Beastie Boys remain eligible for induction. Sure, it won't happen this year, but both the Dave Clark Five and the Ventures (a personal fave) sat out for a long time before they got the call. Much longer, in all probability, than the Beasties will. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would wager that this time next year we'll be talking about some other act that was eschewed in favor of the the Beastie Boys.

Poorest of the Poor

At Christmas, we should be generous with everyone -- not just those with less stuff than us.

Christmas Shopping for Boys

Five Lords A Leaping

4B comes to the Chronicle

Holiday spending beginning to exceed annual income

Week 27: Santa overload

Old Rolodex brings back the past

Not All Fun and Games

How would you fix the BCS?

Mysteries of the Universe

A category that also includes Queen and ABBA

Bizarre Commercials: Coke gets weird

Old People Presents

NFL Network acquires broadcast rights to top shows

Today

Today we are going to get flu shots. It could be painful -- maybe even for the boys.

Today I'm thinking about Christmas decorations, about getting the tree this weekend and making sure I have all the empty boxes back in attic before the weekend is over.

Today I'm preoccupied with a party I'm hosting. I know the guests will never see the inside of my closet; why do I sweat the small stuff?

But today I'm also sweating the less-small stuff -- because while the guests won't see the inside of my closet, they'll probably notice those shoe prints on the wall (!!!). Those I should sweat.

Today I'm intrigued by this google which led someone to my site. Person, you might have issues.

Today I feel (slightly) guilty that last night, when the boy was going on and on about how tough life is because dinner is never what he wants and his lunches stink too -- that I opened the phone book to a random name. And I asked that boy if he'd rather go live with, hmmmm, let's see...Ferguson. Ray Ferguson. Do you think Mr. Ray Ferguson might cook something you'd rather eat? And suddenly that boy was pretty happy with the menu around here (so then I assured him of course I'd never give him away. Even if he doesn't gush about my cooking. I'll keep him.).

Today, every time I think about a post, all I want to say is "Henry is amazing! I can't get enough of this kid!" But then I start to think that's goofy. So I hide those sentiments among all this other minutiae.

(Henry is amazing. I can't get enough of this kid.)

Sweet Cuddly Pet

Week 26: Poinsettia power

Video: When Cats Attack

First Citizens wants to be not 'just another bank'

Title game should bypass UGA