More about the WGA Strike

I've been challenging myself to justify my increased curiosity and interest with the WGA strike, compared to the lesser attention I've paid to other labor strikes (such as the NWA workers). I've come up with several possible explanations that, combined, seem satisfactory:

1. It's Hollywood, which makes the strike a form of entertainment. I actually just watched a bunch of videos from the frontlines, with various Hollywood stars who have chosen to join the picket lines to support the writers. And I felt pride for some of the stars who did so. Gawd.
   
2. It has the potential to impact my daily life much moreso than most other labor disputes, even though that disruption is merely a "bummer" instead of any kind of inconvenience. Although really, how am I going to live without The Office?
3. It's getting more media coverage, of course, than a "typical labor dispute" (I actually heard someone say that on TV last night).
4. I once thought of myself as an amateur writer (and, in my dreams, I still imagine myself writing the next great novel), so in a completely cheesy, melodramatic way, these are my peeps in the picket lines.
   
5. It seems to me, at least, that this strike is very black & white. I've yet to hear anything close to a compelling argument supporting the industry's side of this debate. It comes down to this: they're greedy bastards who don't want to share a single penny more than they have to with the creative people who make them all their money.
   
   In contrast, the NWA workers' strike is much more gray for me. I mean, I still side with the workers, but I can at least recognize that Northwest (and all airlines) are faced with some very difficult financial circumstances right now. It's not an easy industry. From a purely financial point of view, layoffs and pay cuts and benefit cuts could possibly be justified.
   
   In other words, I can at least see two sides to that issue, even though I have a pretty strong opinion of which side is in the right. I can't say the same with the WGA strike. Because it's so obvious that greed is the one and only motivating factor for the industry, I have become emotionally invested in seeing the WGA stick it to the man.
6. Ron D. Moore, who was a staff writer for Deep Space Nine (my favorite sci-fi show of all time until...) and is currently executive producer of Battlestar Galactica (... came along), has taken sides with the writers. And seeing as how I basically think of Mr. Moore as a God, I don't see how I could disagree with him.

Cheers, darlin'

I didn't get laid off. But, there's always next quarter!

I'm impressed

Several things have impressed me this week:

• Ron Paul, or rather, his legions of fans, have raised over $4 million in one day online. More impressive still, that money came from about 35,000 contributors, which averages out to about $115 per contribution. It's like Howard Dean all over again, except this time the candidate really is outside his party's mainstream. Not that that's a bad thing.
• For some reason, I'm rather captivated by the Writers Guild strike in Hollywood. It's kind of interesting to watch a strike play out in an industry that isn't critical to the day-to-day lives of most Americans. Which is not to say that the writers don't have good cause for the strike, and that its not important to them. I think they've got a right to royalties from the booming distribution of telivision and movies via the Internets. So I hope they win. But soon, because I'll be really pissed off if this strike messes with my TV watching. (Actually, the real threat of this strike to us viewers is a greater proliferation of shitty unscripted American reality television.)
• I'm impressed by some of the Ecospot entries, but I already said that. Now I've said it again.
• Al Franken and Mike Cirisi, the two Democrats running against Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), each recently polled in a statistical dead heat with the incumbent. I'm impressed with both candidates, but moreso with Minnesotans who appear to be wising up to Coleman. I'm sure Paul Wellstone is smiling from his grave.
  

Ecospot

Ever watched Current TV? It's strangely addicting, that viewer-generated content. Anyway, Current TV is holding a little competition (Al Gore might have something to do with it...), in which viewer's are competing to create the best 60 second eco-ad. You can watch the semifinalists and vote for them here. I'm really impressed with the creativity of some of the entries.

I Can't Get Behind That (Special Video Edition!)

I can't get behind Hillary Clinton.

Mayor Makes a Funny

I'm not Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak's biggest fan, but he made me laugh today. The UpTake has the video of this quotation:

“When we were bidding on the convention… the head of the Republican Party called me and said ‘Ya know, it’s coming close and you guys are great contenders here, but I need you honestly to say that you’ll work as hard for the Republican Convention as the Democratic Convention.’ And I said ‘Well, to be perfectly honest, I think I’m going to have to work a little harder on the Republican Convention.’ And he said ‘Why?’ And I said ‘Well, because I want to make sure the protest areas are comfortable for my wife and kids.’ ”

Badda bing!

I'm not sure whether I'll get the hell out of dodge when the right-wing wackaloons come to town next year or if I'll stick it out and join the protests. Leaning towards the latter, though, if for no other reason than the I'm still debating whether to get the hell out of dodge when the all the right wing wackaloonscamaraderie among protesters is always fun. And if Rudy's their nominee, then we could all protest in drag, which would add greatly to the experience.

Excuse me

So this is my second attempt at blogging, and its going swimmingly, don't you think? It's been one month and one day since I last posted. I'm sure I've lost at least half of my 5.7 readers in that time.

And what, dear svenden, can you offer as a grand and satisfactory excuse for this neglect?

Work.

And there goes another .43 readers.

I've been in hurry-up-and-wait mode for the past few weeks. This is a common phenomenon in the product development arena, in which everyone rushes to meet an unrealistic deadline, but something inevitably falls behind, and because "capable project management" is an elusive theory that is completely foreign to Project Managers, the unrealistic deadline gets pushed out a couple months.

Which brings us to this very moment, where I find myself sitting at work, twiddling my thumbs. So what have I been doing this past month? Let's bring you up to speed...

I got sopping drunk and sopping wet (in that order) at Oktoberfest in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I got older. I cleaned the shidayzies out of my house (it sparkled, I swear). I went up to Calgary to sing, dance (poorly), sightsee, take some pretty damn good pictures, do the full monty, and enjoy some excellent home-cooked Indian cuisine. I got sick. I was told I may get laid off, or that I may get a promotion. I got sicker. I got better. I got sicker. I got betterer. And I got told that I'm probably not getting laid off.

And now I get to go to a meeting. Woot.

Wally

In today's Dilbert, Wally says the following: "My alleged loyalty to this company is second to none." My hero!

Given all the layoffs and general suckiness around work these days, I'm extraordinarily tempted to add that to all my work emails.

Way to go, Al!

People with the first name of "Al" seem to be among my favorites of late. Al Franken is newest on my list. In case you've been hiding under a box for the past couple years (and really, who would blame you?), you're probably aware that he's campaigning to be the next US Senator from Minnesota.

His opponent, the not-so-honorable Senator Norm Coleman, recently went on the offensive, if you can call it that, by taking out an advertisement in the New York Times (hey Norm, just so you know, you represent the people of Minnesota; we have our own newspapers, thank you very much). Well, I'll just let Al explain (courtesy the Minnesota Star-Tribune):

I'm a satirist by trade. And as a satirist, my job was to point out the absurd, the hypocritical, the ridiculous in life.

It's been a banner week for ridiculous.

Case in point: On Tuesday, Sen. Norm Coleman took out an ad in this paper criticizing me for criticizing a Senate resolution that criticized MoveOn.org for taking out an ad in the New York Times criticizing Gen. David Petraeus.

It is, of course, ridiculous that the United States Senate spent a day debating and voting on a resolution condemning an advertisement while our troops remained in Iraq, fighting a war with no end. And it's doubly ridiculous that Coleman, of all people, is still playing politics with this issue.

After all, he voted last week against a resolution that condemned personal attacks on anyone who had served our nation honorably. That would include Democrats like Max Cleland, John Kerry and John Murtha -- proud American veterans who were the targets of political attacks not just on their character, but on their patriotism. In 2004, when Murtha (a Silver Star winner) called for better armor for our troops, Coleman himself accused him of "emboldening the enemy" and "undermining the morale of our troops."

And as his reelection campaign gets underway, it's worth noting that Coleman has hired the same media consultant who ran ads in Georgia that juxtaposed pictures of Cleland, who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam, with Osama bin Laden.

I guess now it's my turn to be attacked. I've been to Iraq four times to visit our troops; I know the incredible sacrifice our men and women in uniform make every day in service to our nation. But Norm Coleman is who he is -- so he's accusing me of "undermining our troops."

Frankly, I'm used to this kind of smear -- it's what happens when you speak truth to power in George W. Bush's America. But I think Minnesotans have had enough of this kind of political gamesmanship. As I go around the state, I don't hear a whole lot about ads in the New York Times. What I do hear is that Minnesotans want this war to end, and that if this president won't end it, they want the Senate to force him to end it.

There are more than 160,000 troops currently serving in Iraq. We should honor their service by providing them with the best possible medical care when they return. We should honor their sacrifice by refusing to allow this president to keep them there in the middle of a civil war. And we should honor them by taking seriously the difficult debate about the best way, or at least the least bad way, to end our engagement in Iraq.

Bush and his allies in Washington have blocked increases to veterans' benefits, refused to be held accountable for the mistakes that ruined our military's efforts in Iraq, and dodged every effort to bring our troops home. Instead of solutions, Norm Coleman offers political games and pointless attacks.

As a satirist, I find the whole thing ridiculous. But as a Minnesotan who wants to bring the troops home, I also find it sad.

Gosh, that was intelligent. Hmmmmm, intelligence in an elected official... not sure about that. However will Americans relate to him?

Oh my god, TV's not gay enough

This is just a theory of mine, but is it possible that part of the reason the gay community and its issues aren't taken seriously could be that organizations like GLAAD spend their time and resources on irrelevant studies such as this one? They looked at nearly 100 television programs and counted the number of regular gay characters appearing in them. We've gone from 9 (last year) to 7 (this year).

"While we acknowledge there have been improvements made in how we are seen on the broadcast networks, most notably on ABC, our declining representation clearly indicates a failure to inclusively reflect the audience watching television," GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano said in a statement.

Obviously we have a crisis on our hands. I mean, how is the gay community going to survive without Will & Grace and its two (and a half) completely realistic gay characters to accurately reflect what it means to be gay?

Next week, GLAAD will be revealing the results of its study on whether there is enough lesbian sex being portrayed on latenight Cinemax programming.

Politics on the brain

I must admit, I'm confused and baffled by Senate Republicans. They got bitch-slapped, hard, by voters last year because of the Iraq War. So, with another election coming next year, you'd think they'd have learned their lesson and would want to do whatever they can to sever the link between the war disaster and "Republican."

Yet, they still voted down the Webb amendment this week. And what did that amendment try to do? Well, I know this is really controversial, and its such a FUCKING LIBERAL idea, but it would have required that troops have as much time at home as they spent on their previous tour of duty. (I know, its a pretty unpatriotic idea. Leave it to the Democrats to come up with such nonsense.)

Of course, Democrats should be out there accusing Republicans of not supporting our troops -- because they're NOT. But no, all Majority Leader Reid had to say this week was, "We still have hope that we can come up with something that will get us a majority of the votes." Way to lead, sir.

I Can Get Behind That

My whole life I've kept a running tally in my head of the companies I hate the most. Because, you know, it feels good to rank my hate. Since I was about 14, Northwest Airlines has been at the top of that list. There's just nothing at all complementary that I can say about NWA. Yet, I've been forced to fly with them my whole life because I've always lived in cities with NWA hubs (Detroit and Minneapolis) or in small towns that were only serviced by Northwest regional jets.

This year, however, I discovered a new choice: Midwest Airlines. Yes, to get home it requires a layover in Milwaukee, but that's about the only disadvantage I can think of. The legroom is sufficient (though not luxurious); the seats are wider so you don't feel like a human sandwich with your neighbor(s); the staff is friendly and attentive, as opposed to cranky, overworked, and underappreciated by their company; the prices are way cheaper than Northwest; they fly into and out of smaller airports, which saves a bunch of time; and, they provide complimentary (that means "free," for all you Northwest passengers out there) freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on their flights.

The Best Care In The Air: I can get behind that!

That didn't take long!

Less than 90 minutes and already Windows Vista has crashed. I'm not sure this was worth even the $50 I've paid for it...

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind PCs. Like, seriously, I don't understand why the entire population isn't using Macs.

I just got a new PC (through a combination of gift certificates, work bonuses, and rebates, I will end up paying about $50 for it). It took nearly 40 minutes from the time I pressed the power button to get to a point when I was in Windows Vista and could use the computer at will.

Of course, by "use at will," I mean that I was free to spend another hour of my time deleting all the shit that came preinstalled on the thing, and telling HP Total Care Advisor to stop caring so damn much and leave me the hell alone. There's so much crap in the taskbar that I don't even know where to begin. I think I've deleted 4 different copies of AOL already, and I haven't even launched Windows Explorer yet (oh, I see that Vista calls it "Computer"... how clever).

When I bought my Powerbook a couple years ago, I pulled it out of the box, put it on my desk, turned it on, and started playing. It was that easy.

And people wonder why Apple has fostered such unwavering loyalty from its customers? I'm starting to regret even getting another PC. (That feeling will change as soon as I install Civ4.)

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind the changing presidential primary and caucus calendar. Every state in the union now wants to be the first caucus or the first primary. State legislatures and state parties in California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, South Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Maine, Montana, Ohio, and just about every other state except Hawaii and Rhode Island have already or are currently considering moving their state's place in the primary/caucus calendar forward.

It's turned into this giant screwed up game of leap frog. And as a result, one of two things (or both) will happen:

1.) Each party's nominee will be chosen before we even ring in the new year because the game of leap frog will have pushed the earliest states into December. This is ridiculous on principle of course, but think about the day-to-day consequences. How much do we already enjoy the Holiday season? Throw in some serious presidential politics and see how much better it gets.

2.) Eventually every state will leap onto the same day or cluster of days, and we'll have a national primary. This is a really, really bad idea, people. The entire point of caucuses in a few supposedly representative states is to allow candidates to vie for the nomination without needing to raise and spend money on the same level as they would for a national campaign. It's a system that favors the wealthy likes of Hillary Clinton and discourages candidates like Kucinich and Ron Paul -- who contribute a lot to the discussion and debate even if they don't win the nomination. Furthermore, a national primary means that all the candidates will be fighting for California, New York, Texas, etc. because they have the most delegates. While I agree that Iowa and New Hampshire wield too much power as the first caucuses and primaries, I do think there's value in gaving states like them an important say in the nomination process.

I have a radical idea. Let's stick to the same calendar we had in 2004, only this time around, let's not count/reveal any of the votes from any of the caucuses or primaries until all of them have been held. That way, when Iowans choose the wrong candidate, they won't be starting a tidal wave.

I have another radical idea. Let's use instant runoff voting in all of the caucuses and primaries, so that each state isn't an all-or-nothing win. Instead, each state would divide up its delegates based on the percentage of votes each candidate got.

I have another radical idea. Let's legislate mandatory spending caps for both the nomination process and the general election. How different would the election be if candidates had to use their money wisely because there's not as much of it? My god, they might actually have to campaign with substance (and I'm not talking about the kind you inhale, although that probably wouldn't hurt either). Now that really is a radical idea.

House

The cranky doctor, not my dream home. When House first aired on TV, it was on at the same time as something else I wanted to watch, so I wasn't able to watch it. But I've always felt like I was missing out.

So I recently added it to my Netflix queueueueueueue (sorry, its fun to rapidly press the 'u' and 'e' keys), and I was right, its a very entertaining show.

Unfortunately, its turning me into a hypochondriac. Everytime I sneeze or cough, I expect blood to come shooting out my nose. Anytime something aches, I fear it's Hepatitis E. I had a headache this weekend, surely a result of my activities the night before, but I couldn't help wondering if I had an aneurism. I mean, every patient Dr. House sees is experiencing symptoms that have an initially obvious diagnosis. But then out of nowhere a turtle claws its way out of the patient's foot and suddenly a new diagnosis is needed.

I wonder if the number of hypochondriacs has risen in the US since the show debuted...

Fanmail Friday

Today is Friday, which starts with the letter 'F'. Fanmail also starts with the letter 'F', so I thought I'd take advantage of this wacky coincidence to open a few letters. (Think Strongbad without the sweet animation. And the cute but unidentifiable sidekick.)

Dear svenden,
You so dope, yo!
Sincerely,
Hizzah (in da hood, yo)

Thank you so much for the compliment, Hizzah. I've been having a crappy day at work, so you have no idea how much your thoughtfulness has brightened my day! Although I do want to be clear on one thing in the event that for some unforeseeable reason I ever decide to run for public office: I do not now, nor have I ever, condoned the use of dope or any other illegal substance, no matter how incredibly awesome it might make you feel. Life isn't about having fun or letting loose, its about following the rules, even when they're dumb.

Dear svenden,
I gather from your blog that you're a sci-fi geek like me. What do you think of all the rumors running around that Tom Cruise has been cast in the upcoming Star Trek movie?
Thanks,
imarriedavulcan@hotmail.com

Wow, you got me pegged, you Vulcan-lover you! I was actually once a crazy Trekkie, but I've mostly left that in my past. Still, I can't help but be interested in the new movie. Although there's not really anything about it that has me excited. A prequel? Recasting Kirk and Spock? Seems rather illogical to me (Ohhhh, I got you there, didn't I?!). And Tom Cruise? It just kind of seems like they're trying to scare away all of the Star Trek fans. And all of the normal, mentally healthy people in the world, too. But, at least they'll get all of Tom Cruise's fans to the movie. Well, whichever ones aren't already living on another planet, schmanet, Janet.

Okay, I got time for one more:

hay their svenden,
totally din't meen 2 do it but i swallohd my pay chek how do i git it bak?
k thx,
rOb

Wow rOb (wtf?), that sucks for you. But these things do happen. I suppose. Anyway, you're in luck, because I can actually get another check sent out to you right away. I know people. All I need you to do is send me $30 for the 1-hour shipping cost. Given your questionable intelligence, I can only accept undigested cash. Give me a call and we can arrange a meeting place.

Well thanks to all of you, my 5.9 readers, for your letters! It's good to feel the love every now and then. Keep 'em coming!

Try and stick with me...

I just dropped a vitamin on the floor in my cubical. Accidentally of course. But the charming dark paisley pattern of the carpet has provided the pill total camouflage. Someday, I'm sure, someone will find the lonely little goob of flaxseed oil. I wonder what happens to flaxseed oil if it sits out for weeks? Months? Years?

All of this led me to the following question: what does a flaxseed pill look like inside? Is it liquid? Or some kind of gelatinous goo? If they didn't cost so damn much, I'd go ahead and open one up to see. This one that's rolling around on the ground right now would be the perfect sacrificial subject, if only I could find it.

Speaking of rolling around, I swear that one of my cats did a somersault this morning. I had only been out of bed for about 5 minutes, which means I was practically still asleep, but it seemed pretty vivid at the time. And not altogether unlikely. He's demonstrated some impressive athletic ability before. Like the time he walked from my living room to the bedroom on only his front two paws.

And speaking of far-fetched stories, I don't know if this is for real, but it is side-splitting funny (headphones advisable if at work). To set it up, I'll just say that its a story involving a redneck, four little old women, an umbrella, and a very descriptive narrator.

And speaking of crazy shit, my friend wants me to try singing Xanadu the next time we go out for karaoke. I'd have to be in a very special drunken state to do that. Yikes.

Also speaking of crazy shit, this random guy at the gym last night approached my trainer to tell her that she needed a little more mascara. And also to educate her on the little known fact about the English language, that the letter K can be used to replace the letter C, but the letter C cannot be used to replace the letter K. After he left, we spent the rest of our training session scripting the experience into an entire episode of Seinfeld. The episode revolved around Kramer, who made the suggestion to Elaine regarding the mascara. Elaine then made the comment about the K's and C's, which led Jerry into suggesting, since K can be used instead of C, that Kramer respell his name to Cramer. And then George flipped out because that would be such a big commitment - after all, once you go to C you can't go back!

We declared ourselves brilliant after all that. I'm sure you agree with our assessment.

Also, while I was at the gym last night, and, also, speaking of funny sitcoms, Family Guy was on 2 of the 4 televisions, and everyone on the cardio equipment was laughing in tandem. It was totally awesome.

And finally, speaking of televised fiction, I watched the pilot episode of the remake of Flash Gordon last night. Holy suck! They get the award for worst casting ever. The woman playing Dale was okay, but the guys they got for Flash and Ming were entirely unconvincing. And the story itself was awful and completely not believable. Two twentysomething former lovers do not suddenly get sucked into a dimensional portal and wind up in the prison of some alien emperor without feeling a little freaked out. Instead, they offered their cell mate a piece of gum. WTF?

*Poof* -- and svenden suddenly reappeared!

Here's the thing, I sit in front of a computer most of the day at work, so I have little desire to do so at home. Ergo (woo hoo! there's bonus points for using that word), if I am insanely busy at work, my blog gets neglected.

Wherefore (hm, not sure about that one), we are brought to this moment in time when I find myself apologizing to my 5.23 readers for leaving them hanging for the past couple weeks. All I can say is, get used to it. I'm loaded with several projects at work that are all due at about the same time, so things are a little corybantic (show some love to the thesaurus!) around here.

But I have a break in all the corybanticism (shwing!), so prepare for a mind dump...

First off, check this out! That's the 10 day forecast for my zip code, and there isn't a single temperature above 89 degress!! I'd run naked through the street celebrating, but its been so damn hot this summer that streaking has become common practice for most of the population.

Hopefully this forecast won't change at all, because I'm supposed to go to Valleyfair on the 23rd. 80 degrees and sunny for a day of rollercoaster mayhem? Works for me!

Lots of traveling coming up. Going to spend Labor Day weekend in Ontario on the boat. Headed up to Calgary in October (which, unfortunately, will be too late to see The Shatner Show). Then to Seattle for Thanksgiving. Back home to Detroit for Christmas. And then hopefully a week of skiing in Colorado sometime in January/February.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm going to Vancouver in 2010 for the Winter Olympics? Yep, I just made it through the qualifying rounds for speed skating. I crushed Apolo Anton Ohno's time. He's bummed that he won't be competing this go 'round, but he wished me the best of luck. Not that I'll need it.

Things have settled down here after the bridge collapse heard round the world. I'm quite confident that we'll have a new bridge this time next year. The Republicans are coming to the Twin Cities for their 2008 "How To Fuck Up The Country Some More" Convention. So of course, the rebuild will be rushed and not thought about. I guess they're going to unveil the plans this week for the new bridge. I'm quite confident they took plenty of time and energy to get it right this time...

*Poof!*

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind stupid shoppers. They're inconsiderate, socially inept idiots who are usually too busy talking on the phone to keep out of the damn way. Carts get stopped in the middle of the aisle. People don't slow down as they turn a corner. Mothers let their children run around causing havoc. Bargain hunters stop their cart in the middle of the entrance, blocking everyone else from entering, while they read through the coupon sheet to see if their Depends are on sale.

Well, last night, in a Seinfeldian sort of way, I drew the line! There was this one woman who was talking on the phone, thus paying zero attention to anyone else. I'm convinced she didn't even know what she was grabbing off the shelves. Yet, she would leave her cart crooked, blocking the entire aisle, while she stared blankly at the shelves (too busy talking to stay on task). After about the third time this happened to me, I decided to take action. It was in the cereal aisle -- a cluster-fuck on a good day. After I picked out my Cocoa Puffs, I headed down the aisle, approaching her cart. Rather than stop, I just kept on going. Rammed right into her cart, knocking it out of the way. She was furious of course, used some profanity, but I just kept on moving. A little further down the aisle, I passed another gentleman who smiled and said, "Nice job, buddy."

I didn't see her again until the checkout line. She was one lane over from me, still blabbing on the phone. With only one free hand, she was unloading her cart one item at a time. The cashier and the bagger were waiting on each item as it moved down the conveyer belts.

I saw her in the parking lot, too. She was leaving the store as I was leaving the parking lot. I imagined sideswiping her cart with my car, a mental image which kept a smile on my face all the way home.

I guess he won't be running now...

I fear that my blog is becoming little more than a passive spam delivery mechanism. On the bright side, it's all really great spam! Yippee!

Like this video/commercial:

Get your trek/geek on!

This is absurdly fun and funny: Play the Kirk vs Picard game! I never thought of using tea, Earl Grey, hot, as a weapon. Nice.

ahem.

(via Daily Kos)

Yay for YouTube!

Seriously, the CNN/YouTube debate last night was vastly superior to any of the other debates we've had so far. How entertaining was that? People are so funny and creative, which was such a nice contrast to the cookie-cutter candidates on stage.

And even Anderson Cooper was good as moderator. I appreciated his attempts to really press the candidates to Answer The Fucking Question!

I'm also surprised to say that the debate helped change my mind a little bit about some of the candidates. Take, for example, Joe Biden, who really seemed to rise above the other candidates on the Iraq questions and, especially, the Darfur questions. He totally shredded Bill Richardson on the Durfur question. Richardson was all, "We need diplomacy!," and Biden was all, "Fuck diplomacy, we need to send troops!" Of course, Hillary chimed in with the appropriate follow-up to Biden, "Too bad all our troops are tied up in Iraq."

Speaking of Bill "This Is What I Would Do" Richardson, who I've had high hopes for. He sucks as a candidate. I don't think he gave one good answer the entire night. Fortunately, he had Mike "It's Not Fair!" Gravel and Dennis "Text Peace" Kucinich to steal the I'm-Stupid spotlight. I mean, come on, "Text Peace"???? WTF? How is a text message going to change anyone's mind? That's gotta be the dumbest campaign gimic I've ever seen.

As for the Big 3, I felt that Edwards surpassed the others, although Hillary really didn't do too bad. Obama, however, not so much. Hillary really spanked him in questions about diplomacy. I really like how Edwards kept hammering at the need to take on the special interests. Good
luck buddy!

I really cannot wait until the Republicans get to do this. I'm sure the questions will be real winners. How many unborn babies have you saved, Senator McCain? Senator Brownback, can you tell us just how much you hate gay people? Governor Romney, I think we can all agree that the French people and everything they stand for is an abomination, but what would you do to address this crisis? Rep. Paul, why are you a Republican?

I Can Get Behind That

I just found the coolest web site, yo! It's so fly!

Okay, sorry, I'm not good at sound hip. And the fact that I just used the word "hip" to refer to something other than the body party pretty much proves that point.

But seriously, you need to go check out Galaxy Zoo. It's a web site put together by some astronomers that lets you help with their research. The basic premise is that they've got all these images of galaxies that have been taken by telescopes over the years, but there's simply not enough people or computer power to look at all these pictures and start classifying them.

So, at the Galaxy Zoo, you can help out by looking at pictures of galaxies and categorizing them. There's a quick 10 minute tutorial, and then a 15 question quiz just to make sure you got the right idea, and then you can start looking at galaxies. But be warned, its strangely addicting and you may find it difficult to stop.

Online astronomical collaboration: I can get behind that!

---

p.s. - In case you're not one of the millions who are already using it, go download the seti@home screen saver and lend your unused computer processor power to the search for extraterrestrial life.

Blenders

I use my blender on a nightly basis, to make my protein smoothie for breakfast the next morning. I'm using this cheap Walmart blender that I think I bought while in college. It's as lame as lame gets with a blender, and it really doesn't do a very good job of blending things.

It's kind of like if you had a car with square wheels. Or if you tried using a walkie talkie as a cell phone to call your friend in Luxembourg. Or if you had one piece of string when what you really needed was a grocery bag. Or if you had ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.

Anyway, I need something that is gonna last me a while. Also, something that isn't going to cost me $400. And something that won't leak while it sits in the fridge overnight. And something that isn't such a freakin' pain in the ass to handwash. So I went online today to check out some consumer reviews and came across this little gem at Amazon:

I have not actually used this product myself but I purchased it as a replacement for one that broke and it belonged to my sister. She seemed happy to get it and even though I have not asked, I think she's happy with the way it works.

I'm convinced! LOL

want!

What to do the next time a soliciter calls

This guy deserves an award of some kind. It's an 8 minute vid, but its 8 minutes well spent, I promise.

"I had an orange river of grease running down my leg!"

Yep, this story takes the cake for being the most hilarious and disgusting news item of the year:

Dieters have been flocking to drugstores to pick up Alli, the first over-the-counter weight-loss pill to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, despite the scary warning: Stray too far from your low-fat diet and you just might poop your pants.

It gets soooooo much better from there:

It can strike any time — even in the early hours of the morning. One user writes: “(Y)a know how when you start moving around in the morning ya pass a little gas. Well, I did and then went into the bathroom and to my horror I had an orange river of grease running down my leg.”

I love how the article makes all of this sound like fun. As if its a game to see if you can eat unhealthy while on this pill and avoid leaving a trail of your own shit wherever you walk:

Fellow cheaters advise each other on the best clean-up methods, and some even suggest using panty liners or Depends. One frugal user noted, “I’m thinking that infant diapers might be a cheaper way to go, just use them as a large pad.”

And there you find the truth: this pill is part of a conspiracy to boost sales of Depends adult diapers.

The bright side: You'll be able to smell the stupid people while they're still far enough away avoid.

Live Earth

I watched/listened to quite a bit of the Live Earth concert this weekend while putzing around the house and hanging with the neighbors. I think the best performance I saw was, weirdly enough, Alicia Keyes and Keith Urban covering the Stones' "Shelter." I had no idea Alicia could rock like that. You go girl!

I also really enjoyed Duran Duran in London, KT Tunstall (surprisingly entertaining performer) and Melissa Etheridge in Jersey, and, of course, the penguin band in Antarctica. I caught about 20 seconds of Foo Fighters, which looked fantastic. I hope to find the full video of their performance online soon.

But the two people who hosted the coverage on Bravo? Wow, they need new jobs. I don't think they got through a single segment or interview smoothly. It was painful. Some of the PSAs were amusing though. And was that William Shatner doing the voice overs? Hawesome. ;)

It is rather amazing when you think about all the artists and how diverse they were. You almost can't help thinking instead of those artists who didn't participate.

Hopefully the concerts will do some good. Gore is smart to feed this issue to the public via pop culture and music. And in particular, he deserves credit for gearing the concerts towards younger audiences with artists like Kanye West, Ludicris, AFI, Linkin Park, etc.

I Can't Get Behind That: Special Scandal Edition!

I can't get behind presidential pardons.

I won't regurgitate all of the outrage that has been spewed in response to Scooter Libby's pardon commutation. I'll merely defer to the smarter people: what they said.

But here's the question I haven't yet heard discussed: why should the President have pardon power at all? We have plenty of appeals processes in place to give convicted criminals ample avenues to get out of jail. Why should the President be able to trump the court system? It really does seem like the kind of power a King should have, not a democratically elected (well, supposedly) President.

Or, at the very, very least, shouldn't the President be barred from pardoning anyone who served in his administration? Isn't there just a slight conflict of interest there?

And how long do you think it will be before Scooter Libby is awarded some Presidential Medal? You know its gonna happen at some point. Some day we'll see Bush on TV, at a podium, along side which will stand Rummy, Brownie, Condi, Libby, Gonzie (hey, best I could do) and all the other champions of the "honor and integrity" that Bush promised to bring to Washington. And he'll place shiny medals around each of their necks and say to each of them: "Heck of a job."

That question has always bugged me!

This is so weird. Ever since I took an amateurish interest in astronomy as a child, I've always enjoyed pondering such unweildy and mind-blowing questions as, "What exists beyond the edge of the universe?", and "What existed before the Big Bang?".

Well, about a week ago, I stumbled upon what looked like a nifty astronomy blog, called the Bad Astronomy Blog, that I decided to plug into Google Reader. Today I read my very first posting from that blog, and low and behold, it answered one of my unweildy and mind-blowing questions!! Or at least, it offered a possible answer. It's an enthralling read, check it out: What happened before the Big Bang? Here's the meat of it (elipses are mine, to shorten):

It’s been thought for sometime that there may have been some previous Universe that existed "before" ours. This is a difficult idea, because in the Big Bang model, space and time were created in that initial moment. But if Bojowald’s solutions are correct, it leads the way to understanding this previous Universe. It was out there, everywhere, and it contracted. Eventually it became an ultradense, ultrahot little ball of space and time. At some point, it got so small and so dense that bizarre quantum laws took effect...

What Bojowald’s work does, as I understand it... is simplify the math enough to be able to trace some properties of the Universe backwards, right down to T=0, which he calls the Big Bounce. The previous Universe collapsed down, and "bounced" outward again, forming our Universe. No doubt the physical aspects of this previous Universe were somewhat different; the quantum uncertainties at the moment of bounce would ensure that. It may have been much like ours, or it may have been quite alien. In his equations, it’s the volume of that previous Universe that cannot be determined. How big was it? It may literally be impossible to ever know.

This is great, I appreciate that people smarter than me are putting thought into my unweildy and mind-blowing questions. But I wish they would avoid generating new ones in the process...

So the universes (hm, never used that in a plural sense before -- is it universi?) have been "bouncing" up and down for kerjillions of years. Has that been going on for all of time, or did something happen that started the bouncing? And if so, what was that something and what did the universes look like before that something?

If there are multiple universes, they must be contained within something bigger, right? Just like there are multiple galaxies within a universe, there must be multiple universes within a _____? I need a name here, people. For now, I guess I'll just go with ploink. I wonder if there are multiple ploinks out there, too?

But perhaps most perplexing, if our own universe might have existed in a very similar way before the Big Bang/Big Bounce, then does that mean that we're now living in reverse of our pre-Big-Bounce counterparts? I mean, if they were headed towards a bounce and we're headed away from it, is it possible that their universe worked in reverse of ours? Did they die first, grow younger, and then get shoved inside their mother? Did they walk backwards? Did they read a book from the back page to the front page? Did they always know the winner of a race before it even started? And was pooping like eating to them, and eating like pooping? (Hey, that's where logic took me. Blame the Vulcans.)

Just Dew It

Mountain Dew is a god-send. I drink it about once a decade, not because I don't like it, but because its the closest thing I have to coffee (which I don't like). If I drank it regularly, I'd build up a tolerance to it. Instead, I save it for those days when I really need a pick-me-up.

Like today. About 10 minutes ago I could barely keep my eyes open. And now, I can't seem to make them close, even to blink. Or maybe they're blinking so quickly that I don't even realize it. All I know is, my energy level just quintupled.

All of which ought to make the next hour or so rather interesting. I'm helping interview someone for an open position at work. I hope the candidate can keep up with me.

(Polishes off a 20 oz bottle, in under 10 minutes...)

Hell, I hope I can keep up with me.

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind family drama, and I can't get behind people who won't apologize for or even acknowledge the mean-spirited and hurtful things they've done. How do you get past something when you can't even agree on what the something is?

It's totally fiction, I swear (part 2)

Picking up where we left off, a follow-up meeting to yesterday's:

Presenter: "Hi again, everyone. Just want to thank you for all the feedback yesterday. Sorry we can't implement any of it, the developer will start building the new tool tomorrow. Okay, so lets finish going through the screens. I welcome your input."
Me: "Why is that whole section going to be inactive when the tool goes live?"
Presenter: "Well, because we can't reach consensus on how to use those fields."
Me: "So, we're going to build it, wrong, and fix it later?"
Presenter: "Well, not sure we'll be able to do that. It's not in the budget to pay this developer beyond the initial development phase."
Me: "So, we're going to build it, wrong, and not fix it later?"
Someone Else: "Isn't this exactly what got us into trouble with the old tool?"
Presenter: "Don't worry, this tool will be better."

Woo hoo!!

How cool is this? I estimate I now have a full 4.3 readers! And, here's the more exciting part, my blog now has an international audience!!! Kick ass! I think he's Portuguese, at least that was the language that Babel Fish had the most success with. Unfortunately, he was just spamming his own blog, which is apparently about how to create a T-Shirt. Fantastic!

I just love starting my day with this kind of random shit. It makes me all warm and confused.

It's totally fiction, I swear

Summary of a meeting I sat through at work today:

Presenter: "Hi everyone, I'd like your feedback and suggestions on this new tool we're developing."
Me: "Ok. Well, that particular field doesn't make much sense to me. Can we reword it to be clearer?"
Presenter: "Nope, sorry, we don't have time to make changes to this new tool."
Someone Else: "You know, that section there will take a lot of work on our part to complete. Could we do it this way instead to save us a bunch of time?"
Presenter: "Nope, sorry, that's too complicated to implement. We don't have the time."
Presenter: "Well, thanks everyone for your input, I greatly appreciate it."

This gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce my 2.7 readers (hey, the number's growing at least) to my Slogan for Life: Whatever... Oh well.

(Someday I'm gonna get a tee-shirt made of that. It will say "Whatever." on the front and "Oh well." on the back.)

I Can Get Behind That

I recently re-upped my membership to Minnesota Public Radio, because they totally rock. Anyway, I opted for a membership gift this year, and got a super-snazzy Camelbak water bottle! It's so much better than the boring, beat up, worn out, and boring-blue Nalgene that I was using. This one is green (so hot!), and has a pivotable-straw! Oh the gadgets!! I dare say, its almost sexy.

Also got an MPR tote bag, which is handy and will help me fit in at the local co-op when I go there to buy my $6 gallon of milk and $4 tomatoes. But its the Camelbak I really wanted.

My new MPR Camelbak: I can get behind that.

Let X = X

This is the best news I've heard in forever! Not only are they releasing a remastered edition of Laurie Anderson's Big Science for its 25th anniversary, but Laurie is at work on a new album to be released next year!

Weird timing for this rare bit of news, because I've been on a total Laurie Anderson kick lately. In fact, 4 of the 6 slots in my CD deck in the car currently house her albums. And I've been gaining some insight into my own life because of it. Take, for example, Let X=X, which can be found on Big Science:

I met this guy - and he looked like he might have
been a hat check clerk at an ice rink.
Which, in fact, he turned out to be. And I said:
Oh boy. Right again.

Let X=X.

Yeah, sometimes things really are just as they seem. You don't have dig for hidden meanings and hidden agendas in everything that people do. There's someone I need to say that to. And he just so happens to be a Laurie Anderson fan as well, which gives me the perfect "in."

Here's another of my favorite Laurie Anderson lyrics (from My Eyes):

If I were the president
If I were Queen for a day
I'd give the ugly people all the money
I'd re-write the Book of Love
I'd make it funny

I thoroughly approve of both of these proposals.

Boston Travelogue

Boston's a nice town, reminded me a lot of Minneapolis, actually. Only bigger. And with a river and an ocean instead of inland lakes. And with people who talk funny (oh yah, Minnesotans are perfectly normal, eh).

Actually, the only time I had trouble with the Bostonian accent was at the car rental counter. It was like a different language. At least the clerk was cute. I just focused on that and signed when he asked me to.

My hotel was in Cambridge, right across the street from "Hahved." I was surprisingly comfortable with the very likely reality that I was the least intelligent person to be found in a 5 mile radius.

I spent most of my time in the business meetings or downtown, where I did a lot of walking and a lot of trolley riding. It's really a very pleasant and clean metropolitan city. I enjoyed the historic landmarks, such as the Old North Church (pic at right) where the lanterns were lit for Paul Revere's ride. Its kind of cool to stand there and picture it all playing out.

I totally geeked out when I found the building that was used as the exterior of the Law Offices of Cage & Fish on Ally McBeal. Its some religious services organization in the real building. Nevertheless, it was worth a picture (below).

I walked around the Boston Common and Public Gardens. As I travel more, I find that inner city parks are a really important part of a city's image and appeal. It's what Detroit lacks.

One thing that I would not recommend doing while in Boston is going to the Museum of Science. I really was not impressed. I suppose children would have fun there, but there's not much for adults. I actually fell asleep during the Planetarium show, which was entirely unoriginal. But the seats were cozy and reclined!

I crammed quite a bit in for just two short days. If I have occasion to go there again, I would really like to get out of the city and see more of the countryside. Maybe go down to Cape Cod.

I don't understand

Let's play make-believe. Pretend you're getting dressed in the morning. You've just put your Hello Kitty boxers on (because your girlfriend thinks they're hot). You slip on your jeans, followed by socks and a bitchin' pair of sneakers from Payless. Then you put on a slick, sexy plaid button-up (with a unique coffee stain on the right sleeve - "It sets me apart!"), and as you fasten the last button, suddenly your hair turns a charming shade of mauve.

Confused, you take off the shirt and your hair reverts back to its natural color.

Now, really confused, you put the shirt back on again. Charming shade of mauve.

Your brain tries and tries and tries to make sense of this situation, but when it fails, all it can do is fall back on logic. Which first tells you that this shouldn't be happening at all, there's no logical explanation. But, logically speaking, all you can do is accept it and try to figure out how to fix it. Logically.

So, you try putting the shirt on inside out. Charming shade of mauve. You try taking your shoes off, and then putting the shirt back on. Charming shade of mauve. Perhaps your hair is freaked out by the boxers, so you try dressing without them. Still a charming shade of mauve. Maybe if you try a different shirt? Charming shade of mauve. You try every nonsensical, frankly absurd combination of clothing and sequence of getting dressed, but each time you end up with: charming shade of mauve.

Now, imagine how frustrated you would be. Welcome to my day at work.

I Can Get Behind That

After all this traveling, I've decided that the video iPod is the greatest invention of the decade. Furthermore, the ability to download TV shows and movies to the video iPod is freakin' genius. I watched nearly an entire season of a TV show while waiting in the airport, waiting for a shuttle, riding on the shuttle, sitting on a plane, etc.

Now, I'm not sure I could get excited about watching, say, Lord of the Rings, on my iPod. But your basic TV sitcom? Hell yeah!

Watching TV on my iPod: I can get behind that.

5ives

5ives is hit and miss, but this one is definitely a hit:

5 things you might do with "all that ass"

1. open a modest home ass business
2. serve hot meals of ass to the less fortunate
3. hold a weekend “Ass Sale” on your lawn
4. make colorful ass gift bags for the holidays
5. give sympathetic testimony for recovering hump drunks

Welcome to Boston, where the local time is "Late."

Have you ever seen that movie Duets? It's nothing too special (although the soundtrack is FAB!), but Paul Giamatti's character is a traveling businessman, and in one of the opening scenes, he's on a business trip and goes to his meeting, starts the presentation, and (long story short) finds out he's in the wrong city. Ooops.

And now I understand how that could happen. I was on vacation last weekend, flew back very late Sunday night, and had less than 12 hours to turn around and leave again for a business trip to Boston. I've never felt so disoriented, and so disconnected from life and the world. Air travel is such a mentally draining activity, I found that I didn't really care about anything. I was just moving from one line to the next. Waiting, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more.

I don't want to see an airport or an airplane ever again. Which, of course, is an impossible dream, but its feeding my righteous indignation right now, which feels good. I'm embracing my self-pity at the moment. Its getting me through the day, which is a good thing, Martha, because I am in desperate need of the weekend.

---

P.S. - All of this is not to suggest that I didn't enjoy my vacation or my business trip. Quite to the contrary. I just wish they'd invent the damn transporter already, so we could go from one place to the next with the sliding of a few curiously imprecise controls. Oh, how grand would life be, to have our molecules scattered across the airwaves.

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind Northwest Airlines. At all. Their planes are uncomfortable. Their flight attendants are cranky. They cost too much. They're almost always late. And they make you pay extra for an exit row seat. That's discrimination in my book, against tall people.

On the bright side, I made it to Detroit in tact, with all my luggage. Hoorah.

Thank god, the boycott was killing me.

I'm a little behind the times in finding out about this, but its great news nevertheless. In response to pressure from consumers and environmental groups, Apple will finally start greening its products. In fact, according to Greenpeace, Apple has announced a plan that's even more aggressive than Dell's to remove the most toxic chemicals from its products.

Which is great news, because I just wet myself watching the new Mac OS Leopard tour. The new desktop design and Finder look beeeeautiful! And now it sounds like I can go ahead and upgrade with a less guilty conscience.

I'm still not going to dish out $1.29 for one song, though.

I Can't Get Behind That

I can't get behind iTunes' new DRM-free music. Don't get me wrong, I love the DRM-free part, but it costs too much money. $1.29 for one song? What planet, schmanit, is Steve Jobs from? I still grimace every time I see a $0.99 charge on my credit card statement.

The truth is, DRM doesn't bug me in practice. It has yet to limit my use of music. Conceptually, it offends me, but not so much that I'll pay 30% more per song on principle alone.

I feel so weak.

More presidential stuff

This weekend I caught some recaps of the presidential debates from last week. Obama surprised me. I actually saw a glimmer of the candidate we all hoped he'd be, after Wolfie asked the candidates if English should be the official language of the United States:

"I have to say that that kind of question... this is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us. You know, you're right. Everybody is going to learn to speak English if they live in this country. The issue is not whether or not future generations of immigrants are going to learn English. The question is: How can we come up with both a legal, sensible immigration policy?... And when we get distracted by those kinds of questions, I think we do a disservice to the American people."

He's absolutely right. Why are we wasting precious debate time on a stupid question like that, when there are more important issues on which I'd like to hear the candidates speak? You know, like the war in Iraq? The planetary destruction that global warming will reap upon us? Paris Hilton's jail sentence? It's just like the flag-burning non-issue. It's piece of cloth, people. I realize there's symbolism involved when someone burns the flag, but shouldn't we be more concerned with the loss of actual lives in this out-of-control war? (Yes, Hillary, I'm looking at you.)

On the republican side, they seemed a little bit less off-the-deep-end this time around, although I didn't see as much of their debate. I enjoyed Tancredo's response to the question of how he might use Former President (ooo, I like the sound of that) Shrub in his administration. It was a total bitch slap. Say what you will about Tancredo, but at least he's not afraid to speak his mind, even when it means talking badly of our Holy Annointed King (that's pronounced hack).

Chain-chain-chaaaaaaaaain...

Went out Friday with a coworker and her friends to a new bar downtown, called Sneaky Pete's. Your standard sports bar fare. But the reason we went was to root for a friend of hers who was a finalist in a singing contest the bar has sponsored. The finalists all got to sing one song with local band High & Mighty. My coworker's friend was, in my mostly un-biased opinion, the best singer of the bunch (she totally owned Chain of Fools), but she lost to this overacted hipster dude who did his whole song with a bottle of beer squooshed into his shirt pocket.

But anyway, this was my first time seeing High & Mighty, and wow! They rocked! They're a disco/funk/soul cover band, and some of their covers were better than the originals (they totally made Brick House enjoyable again). I look forward to seeing them again sometime.

It's also got my karaoke gene itching again. The friend of my coworker (how'm I doing at keeping it anonymous?) who lost the competition occasionally runs karaoke at a bar in Bloomington, so I'm gonna have to check that out sometime. Svenden misses the karaoke. :)

And now for some substance

For my first post of substance on this, my new and shiny blog, I thought I'd pontifamicate on the presidential race. That is, afterall, how I got into blogging to begin with (four or so years ago when I signed up with the then-unknown Howard Dean campaign).

Sadly, there's no Howard Dean this year, not in name or conviction. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I can't in good faith say that Dennis Kucinich (D) and Ron Paul (R) are lacking in conviction. But even if either of them manages to garner any sizeable support, let's face it: generally speaking, their views and opinions are too extreme to ever win them the nomination.

Of the candidates with any chance at winning their parties' nominations, there are to me two big giant stinking disappointments: Barack Obama and John McCain.

Obama was hailed as the great hope of the Democratic Party. He was going to be the next Great Communicator. He was elegant. He was tall. He was fresh. He was intelligent. He was Black. And, yes, he was articulate and clean. Then he jumped into the presidential race and turned into just another politician, playing the polls and getting into press release wars with other candidates over who has the most money and who has the nicest ancestors. I expected as much from Hillary, but with all the hype had hoped Barack could "raise the level of debate." So much for substance.

And then there's John McCain, once considered the single pillar of candor and honesty in Washington. Now? Yep, just another politician playing the polls. I may actually have considered voting for him if he'd been the same kind of candidate this time around as he was in 99/00. Instead, he's taken an obvious right turn towards the conservative Christian wackaloons (I use this word to distinguish from all the perfectly rational and actually compassionate conservative Christians out there).

I had hoped that this election would restore at least a shred of decency to national politics in this country, but I'm running low on hope. Although, if Big Al were to change his mind...

About the title

For those who aren't familiar, the title of this little blog is a lyric from The Last Resort by The Eagles. It's like my entire worldview in a song. Its about our unending search for paradise, and the tragic irony that everytime we find it, our very presence destroys it. Don Henley is a songwriting genius. I mean, check out these lines from the song:

Some rich men came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus, people bought 'em

I love the way he sings it, so that you can't tell if he's saying "... and Jesus, people bought 'em" or "... and Jesuspeople bought 'em." The song is such a great criticism of organized religion.

BUT, don't get me going on religion. I'll save that for later. All I really wanted to do here was explain the title of the blog. Not that the meaning of the song really has anything to do with my blog. I just liked the dichotomy of that particular lyric, it seemed to be applicable to the idea of blogging -- how it can foster courage in conviction while keeping things anonymous.

Profound, huh?

A new beginning

Once upon a time, I had a livejournal, which was pretty active for a couple years. But most of my friends stopped using theirs, and I hung on for a while before eventually losing interest myself. Not sure why exactly, but for whatever reason I have recently had the itch to once again share my opinions of the world. I'm sure all 2.5 of my readers will find them insightful.

What you can expect from this blog
I'll surely write about politics, entertainment, hobbies, my crazy cats, and other random life observations.

What you shouldn't expect from this blog
I'm going to try and leave the personal life journaling out of this. If you're interested in that stuff, call me and I'll happily share. I just don't feel like sharing it with the whole world. And the whole world probably doesn't feel like hearing about it.

So that's the plan, we'll see what happens...