Category: politics

Forgive me.

Posted on

man this entry blows

Vote Shiite, Sunni sucks.
Good evening blog, glad to see you in good health. What’s that? You’ve been plagued lately by online poker and Viagra spam? Well, not to worry blog, although you may get ~20 “holdem” and “bigger member” spams per hour, I’ve installed some nice anti-spam features that prevent all but the craftiest spammers from getting a comment through. I know, I also wish that your usage stats were once again meaningful, rather than a record of spambots trying to post comments. It’s the nature of the internet, blog, that’s just the way it goes.

Argh… why does the “war on terrorism” have to look so much like a war on Islam? Word around the web is that we’re posturing against the next member of the “axis of evil,” Iran. It was interesting that the rumour of covert US forces in Iran was this morning’s story, and this afternoon the “Americans evenly split on how they feel about the Iraq invasion” story was the lead headline. But have no fear, the orderly and completely representative democratic election this month will set Iraq squarely on the road to non-barbarianism.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I’ve lost all faith that this vote is anything more than a sham, a parade by the administration for the sake of perceived progress. The news is rife with stories of polling places kept secret out of fear of violence; 60% of voters think they’re voting in a new Iraqi president (they’re not); candidates can’t campaign for fear of death; and more than one million absentee voters are registering from over fourteen countries. This election is nothing more than a dog and pony show, I don’t understand how it will accomplish anything at all. Not everyone can vote, people who are voting don’t know what they’re voting for, and the candidates can’t get their message out even if they did. I guess I’m pessimistic.

Enough about it already, I realize there’s nothing for complaining.

Having my entire music collection here at work with me is awesome. I can listen to such a wide variety of stuff during the day. I’ve got about 80% of my CDs ripped to MP3, so I have almost my entire collection on-hand. I need to get around to ripping that final 20% (which consists mostly of Beatles’ bootlegs), so I can be done with it. After I’ve got everything ripped, there’ll be a period of “cleaning” up the tags and directory structure. But for now, it’s awesome to be able to pick from the same selection I’ve got at home while at work. Just tonight, for example, I got the complete Miles Davis Montreux recordings (a 20CD boxset clocking in at almost 2GB when digitized)… how cool is that to have on-hand when I feel like rad jazz? (Ugh, after downloading this beast it seems like it’s all from the 80s and is with Miles’ electronic band… I dunno if I can get into this…)

I relented from my hardline stance of not doing work-work in the evenings (my much cherished off-time) tonight, mainly because I didn’t make full use of my time at work today… and I’m once again pressed for time this week. Finally made my reservations for the first of my two upcoming trips to Taiwan, the initial jaunt commencing in late February and lasting a week. The second trip comes sometime in late March and lasts 2-3 weeks. I got worried at first, because it looked like my favorite swank hotel was completely booked up the week I was going. The thought of not being able to stay in that now familiar environment really bummed me out… I like that hotel, I feel like the king of the castle there. Anyway, I did manage to book a room for the week, and am now looking forward to the trip, and subsequent sky miles. Too bad I couldn’t arrange something where Sharaun could join me…

Man this entry blows. Goodnight.

Posted on

doubts

YIS for election.
I can’t honestly believe that anyone thinks there can be a successful election process in Iraq just two weeks from now. Some facts about the election process: There are more than 120 recognized parties who are eligible to run no more than 275 candidates each. The people are voting in 275 members to the general assembly. Yes, you read that right, voters are expected to pick two-hundred and seventy-five people off a list of somewhere between 20,000-30,000 names. There is no formal registration process; in fact, eligible voters are being culled solely from a decade-old list of people, which was drafted under Saddam’s regime. In the past weeks, there have been multiple attempts on the lives of candidates and election officials.

I understand that democratic elections have been held under less-than-ideal circumstances before, post-revolutionary war for one… but this Iraq situation seems ridiculous. As a voter, I have a hard enough time educating myself on the 30 names on my ballot… can you imagine trying to sort 30,000 people? How would you even go about preparing to vote intelligently? You wouldn’t. You’d vote down party, religious, or social lines. Can you imagine how daunting it would be to stare down at a ballot filled with tens of thousands of names? I wonder how many pages the thing is. It seems like a farce to me… an elaborate charade. I guess it has to happen sooner than later though, because the of ousting of a government to install another just isn’t “cool” anymore. Would that we could return to the days of “sponsored” governments and US backed coups… y’know, maybe roll the USS Nashville up into the Gulf everything goes smooth. Where’s Teddy when you need him?

I think I know why they call it getting “tight.” After a couple $30 shots of tequila, the skin on your face actually feels tight… stretched, or something. I didn’t mean for tonight to end up like this, I had scheduled a meeting for 6am tomorrow. Luckily, the guy I scheduled the 6am meeting with is crashing in my spare room… a victim of the same tequila and beer cocktail that brought me down.

I’m going to bed. Goodnight.

Posted on

turfwar

Take that, unrecognized papal authority!
Remember the six extra paragraphs I mentioned on Tuesday? They were mostly a boring narrative about the history of the Catholic church, and where other major world religions came into the picture. Don’t ask me, some overreaching effort to aggrandize mankind’s role in defining the divinity of popular faiths. Problem is, it was boring and soap-boxy… and I’m hardly educated enough to point out the mortal makings of supposed God-breathed dogma. But, I couldn’t bear to get rid of so much writing, so I condensed them into a one-paragraph analogy to rap feuds. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Religion is full of interesting history. For instance, did you know that the whole “eastsiiiide” vs. “westsiiiide” thing started with Christianity? That’s right, the Pope was throwin’ up the westsiiide ‘W’ with his fingers, and the Emperor in Constantinople was flippin’ it sideways to show he was down with the east like four flat tires. The result was much like the divisive rift that developed between Biggie and Pac, ‘cept instead of simply polarizing rap fans by the US coastlines, it effectively polarized world religion into two major camps. I guess you could say that Leo IX was the 2-Pac of the Great Schism… spittin’ vicious rhymes dissing Michael Cerularius (the Schism’s Notorious BIG, or Big Poppa, or Biggie Smalls). Pac was only emulating history when he dropped the notorious east-coast dis “Hit ‘Em Up.” A history established when the pre-Schism westsiders penned a fiery dis-track called the filioque clause, to which the east responded to by refusing to unleaven their bread. It was a confrontation, y’all, be sure of it. Too bad the rap-world equivalent of excommunication is to have several caps popped in thine ass. Dirt nappin’…

Ahem… well then, now that that’s over.

I get criticized a lot (mostly by Sharaun) because I say I wanna do something to get in better shape (eat less, exercise more, etc.), but I don’t actually ever do anything. I think the disparity in what I say I care about and what my actions show bothers her more than the fact that I’m not really doing anything at all to get fitter. I’ve always been like that I guess. Motivated, but not quite to the point of action… if that’s possible. Anyway, sometimes I’ll get frustrated and make a statement like, “I’m gonna eat less from now on,” and then renege on it moments later because I just really don’t care. I hate exercise that’s forced for some reason, maybe it hearkens back to my awkward uncoordinated days in middle school gym. I really enjoy things like hiking and… OK, mostly hiking. Any activity that’s a sort of exercise in disguise thing.

I get carried away sometimes. I sat down to write one paragraph about considering biking to work, and the intro sentence for that one paragraph morphed into the entire preceding paragraph. I guess that’s OK, since it makes my entries look more substantial. But back to the point: I was thinking today about buying a bike and using it as my primary mode of transportation to and from work. I live ridiculously close to work, a 5-10min drive. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that’d be something like a 15-20min ride by bike. It’s not much of a time adder, and with some headphones on it would even enable me to get a few more tunes in along the way. Plus, I think I’d like having the time to think… or not think, either is just as well.

I haven’t mentioned my idea to Sharaun, since I know she’ll just write it off as another one of my un-acted-upon “get fit” whims. I can’t blame her, really; and that’s why I kinda just want to go do it, y’know? Go out and buy a bike and just bite the bullet. I suppose winter in Northern California isn’t the best time to decide you want to start biking to work, with the rain and all… I’m also worried I’ll invest in a bike and then never use it, the danger of knowing yourself too well I suppose. But, I almost feel like I could get into it… maybe not from the “healthy alternative” angle, but I figure more likely from the “non-polluting, hippie, holier-than-thou” angle. Maybe if I keep writing, I’ll end up convincing myself. We got a little bonus at work recently, and it would go nicely towards the purchase of a serviceable bike. Yeah… that’s the ticket.

Seems like this article made a much bigger splash in the international media than it did here. A Google news search today finds it running lead on several overseas media sites: the BBC, Turkish Press, Lebanon Daily Star, etc. To me it seems like a big deal, being that we voted for war based on the premise. If they were wrong, why not say so? People have been wrong before… it wouldn’t be the first time, although the stakes me a be a tad higher. I know we have to stay the course now… but isn’t this just a little bit more than simply an excuse for liberals to say “I told ya so?” I wonder sometimes what the history books of my grandchildren will say about this war. Will time uncover an alternate justification that was kept under wraps as a matter of national security? Or will time conclude that a nation voted to go to war based on bad intelligence, or worse, something that amounts to nothing more than utter fabrication and chest-pounding? Ahhh… time… you cloistered little bitch… you keep your secrets well.

Lets see now… we got religion and politics… maybe a paragraph about abortion next, or capitol punishment? Social Security solvency, Medicare? Welfare reform, gay marriage, NAFTA? Shit, who’m I kidding? I could care less about Medicare, I’m no geezer. Alas, I once again feel I’ve bitten off more than I can truly chew… and mayhap overburdened you, dear reader, with ramblings too thick with uncomfortable topics. I call for a return to levity (a bit of brevity wouldn’t hurt either, my good man)! Egad my writing hands are in a strange mood… schisms and rap, liberal huff-n-puff, exercise!!!

Great, now Sharaun’s gonna be mad I swore on the internet again. I can’t win.

Posted on

my moby dick

It's a cam! Duh!!
A triumphant return to work… not at all like what I was expecting. While sitting at home on vacation, my vision of the tasks awaiting me upon my return was of a giant mountain. However, actually sitting down at my desk and taking stock, I’m not in completely bad shape. Albeit, I have a lot to do in the next few weeks – but I think I’ve situated myself in a pretty good position to get things done in time. I guess the guilt of not working made the view-from-vacation seem more dire than it actually was, which is good. Right now it just looks like a couple busy weeks before any lull is in sight, nothing I can’t handle.

Sometimes I get tired of the endless circle that is the debate about the war. If you make one move to criticize anything about the war, be ready for the triad of war defenses: “This is war, bad things happen.” “You’re just a pussy liberal hippy who can only put down this country because real men are out there protecting it.” And finally, “What about all the good that’s come of it?” If you’re a staunch Bushie neo-con, be prepared for some patchily-rank longhair to come at you with “This war is for oil, money, and US interests alone.” “Bush is a megalomaniac, cowboy, look-how-big-my-dick-is, wanna-be Satan bent on world domination.” “People are dying for no reason.” And of course, “Where are the WMD?” It goes around and around. You question the war, you’re an ungrateful hippy; you support the war, you’re a baby-killing, right-wing fanatic.

Can’t we have some middle ground? Where is common sense in it all? Sure war sucks. Good stuff is happening in Iraq, bad stuff is happening in Iraq. Shit, good stuff is happening in my bathroom; occasionally, so does bad stuff. Why does it have to be so black and white? I don’t like war, but I wouldn’t spit on our troops. Where are my common-sense people? People who can have an educated opinion that’s not lunatic rhetoric. Not gun-toting, hippies-would-rather-see-America-raped-by-Islam-than-stand-up-for-themselves conservatives; and not vegan, hybrid-driving, don’t-touch-anything-alive environmentalist liberals. Where are the people who think rationally? Is it just me, or does international media seem to present a lot less polarized or skewed viewpoint than most American media? Here we get 110% foaming-at-the-mouth patriotic God-forcefed imperialism or 110% limp-wristed simpering liberal whining. Yeah OK so I overstated my case a little for the sake of writing… whatever… journalistic license, I think they call it.

As much as I don’t want to recycle unoriginal links… I saw this via MF the other day (although I know BB had it too, and I’m sure other morning-zoo fodder sites like Fark/Fazed will pick it up soon) and it appealed to the voyeur in me or something. Someone noticed that certain webcams all have similar strings in their URLs, and made a simple Google search which pulls up hundreds of unsecured, broadcasting webcams from around the world. On most you can pan and zoom around, and some even have sound. Check it out. And, to add a completely unrelated sentence to this paragraph for the sole purpose of creating a uniform paragraph height that is pleasing to the eye: I only just now gave PF’s “best album of 2003” a shot… and Ben was right, it is damn fine.

I work in a cubicle of shoulder-high grey fabric walls. If the “entrance” (1/4-wall side) of the cube is due-south, my chair faces the north-west corner. On the west wall there is a cabinet where I keep random stuff, including some pictures I’ve taped to the grey metal exterior. A couple of my wife an I in various mountainous locales. Two of my dad in front of the Space Shuttle, those always elicit questions… hey dad, if you’ve got pix of you actually in the shuttle, send ’em my way OK? Three Andy Griffith fridge-magnets, which someone actually once mistook for family pictures. Adam Bomb from the Giant 1st Series, and a Post-It note with an arrow pointing to Adam Bomb from the Giant 1st Series and the words “This is dumb.” On the east wall is my whiteboard, which I try to keep filled with a jumble of math equations and engineering-themed drawings, and three show posters from gigs at the Fillmore (Death Cab, Modest Mouse, and someone I can’t remember right now). Due north (to the right of my monitor) is a shelf filled with books and a Sgt. Pepper standup cutout Kyle gave me back in middle school. Somewhere else there’s a coathook, a couple neon lights, a tangle of wires, spindles of loose burned CDs, and all sorts of crap. I dunno, just thought it might be interesting to paint a picture of where I spend my days. My coal mine, if you will.

In the self-serving statistics portion of today’s entry, I finally found a simple WordPress plugin that outputs the total wordcount for all entries. So far, not counting this entry, I’ve typed 224,278 words since starting this site. Compare that to the 211,763 words of Moby Dick… impressive. While I haven’t yet written my own Bible (1,029,084 words) I have managed to rival the bulk of a literary classic… which must mean my tome instantly qualifies as a literary classic, right? That’s what I thought! You can just mail my Newberry to work, I’ll hang it on my unadorned south 1/4-wall for the world to see. Thanks.

Sometimes I look over how much I write on this thing each day… and I can’t understand it. Where do I get the time? Hahahaha… and… goodnight.

Posted on

what that man said

I don't know what... my obsession is.
Left work early today for a 3:30 appointment. Yeah, an appointment with a lawn mower and my front yard. Since ol’ Ben Franklin took away my after-work daylight, I’ve got to be creative with when I get non-weekend yardwork done. Hey, saw this the day before the election. Seems to say that the real interpretation of Bin Laden’s words on his pre-election tape is actually a threat to individual US states choosing to side with Bush. Dunno how much truth there is to it, but I found it interesting. The website seems credible, and releasing a pre-election video which is directly trying to influence the election makes sense to me. Owell, intro paragraph over.

As often as I’ve complained about my sedentary, cubicle-based, job and my desire for something with a little more “movement,” there is one good thing about it – I get to listen to music all day long. I’ve been lucky, having had a series of jobs where I can indulge in tunes: working in a music store, and desk jobs where I can throw on the headphones and hang out in my own little world. It gives me a great opportunity to hear new tunes. Most of the time, I’m not listening-listening, it’s more like background music – but I do pick up the “feel” of the album that way, which puts me in a better position to appreciate it more if it turns out to be good. Anyway, I have no idea what I’m saying – I just wanted to talk about how I’m happy I have a job where I can listen to tunes all day. There, was that so hard?

I’m going to go against my better judgment and write a paragraph inspired by a TV show… and not any TV show, the new 91210 – the OC. I know, I know… where are my scruples, right? But I’m gonna break it down for y’all, I love that show. I don’t even care, call it a guilty pleasure or something. Anyway, I’m not going to write about the show – I’m going to write about something the show made me think of.

Back in high school, I think our senior year, a friend of mine “ran away” from home. Not in the side-of-a-milk-carton thing, when you’re 18 it’s pretty much your choice to make. He had some problems with his dad, and decided he’d had enough. He moved in with another friend of ours, and stayed in a guest room there. Come graduation, I had grown a lot closer to Jeremy. We were both sticking around the hometown for the next two years, choosing cheaper and easier community college over a four-year school. Our mutual friend, the one he was living with, however, had chosen to move away. This left Jeremy without a place to stay.

On a whim, I suggested he come live with me, at my parents’ house. Out of that casual suggestion, a living arrangement was born. A living arrangement that was awesome. We were best friends, brothers even. Never have I been closer to someone, or enjoyed someone’s company that much. For two years Jeremy lived in our converted garage, just like Ryan on the OC. (I told you it was coming back, didn’t I). Anyway, when I watch that show – I think of those years when Jeremy lived with us, and it just makes me feel good. Every once in a while, I start thinking that the days I’m living in are surely the best days of my life. I’ve thought that a lot, probably every year.

I think that’s the way it should be… every year is the best year. Even when you look back on them, they are still the best years. Today: the best year; last year: the best year. I’ve been extremely fortunate, I try to remember that. I do.

Next week, I already have a couple entries planned. I’m going to write about my New Orleans drug experience, and about getting robbed on the empty streets of Nassau. Holy crap I love this site, reminds me of Dr. Bronner’s soap. The term “bastardy queer” is priceless. Dave out.

Posted on

stop off to top off

GIS for yuppie
The president is still the president, and Americans voted him that way again. No matter what is said about “stealing” the election last time – this time it’s not up for debate. The country prefers Bush, simple as that. I think the democrats made some key mistakes, one of them the fact that they are constantly calling Bush “stupid.” Perhaps not outright, but be it either inferred or insinuated – the impression one would get is that he is too dumb, or inept, to properly lead. Maybe, without knowing it, the dems shot themselves in the foot with this… My bet is that there are plenty of Joe Americans who can identify with Bush’s situation, and view the dems’ assertion of his ignorance as a mocking of their own brainpower. They can give Bush their votes as a big middle-finger to the nerds that made fun of them in school, the jokes that go over their head on Saturday Night Live, and the pretentious, how-can-anyone-think-he’s-funny-compared-to-hilarious-shows-like-Jackass John Stewart. Whatever, be it religious fundamentalists, gun enthusiasts, rich folks, who cares – he won. We, the United States, voted for him, so that’s all she wrote. And that’s all I’ll write about it too.

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain in the downspouts, which for some reason sounds like it’s fed through and amplifier and piped in through hidden speakers in the wall – so dang loud. That means rain on the way to work, and of course, umbrella usage. I mention this because, this morning, as I was walking into work using my umbrella, I realized something: either umbrellas suck, or I never learned how to use one right. (Man, check out all the commas in that sentence, but I think it’s still grammatically sound, right?) I mean, an umbrella has never performed as billed for me. It’s more cumbersome than protective, and I still get wet. I get wet because water rolls off the top and drips on me, I can’t get the angle right to protect my back and front, and it does nothing for my legs/shoes. About all an umbrella is good for is keeping my head dry… and who cares about that. I should invest in a good hooded rain slicker… seems much more (I never remember, is “much more” OK to say?) sensible. Maybe I’m just inept.

I mentioned earlier that I was “chosen” at work to participate in a class in Mandarin. Some college prof is coming to teach us “survival Chinese,” where we learn things like how to talk money, directions, small-talk, and business stuff. According to the official notice I got for the class, I was “identified as a strategic participant” for the course. Now, I don’t know if that means I’m being shipped to China soon or something – but I am excited about free learning (as someone who currently owes tens-of-thousands to the government for education, free learning is appreciated). Anyway, the course is supposed to be “challenging,” and we were urged not to commit to doing it unless we’ll be able to be dedicated in our studies and “homework.” You know how long it’s been since I’ve had homework? Then, down near the bottom of the notice, there was a line which stated something like “… failure to complete the course with a passing grade will result in corrective action.” Corrective action? Now I can get fired for a B, what pressure. Just like I’m from an Asian family! Y’know, like my wife’s kids whose parents make them sleep outside when they get anything less than an A? (Yes, for real.) Apparently we’re learning the culture as well as the language…

Well guys, I’m on my own. Dropped the wife off in front of the airport around six, and began my brief bachelor weekend by grabbing a burger and hanging out at Anthony’s. Later, I think I’ll go home and stay up late watching TV in my boxers. Actually, since I wrote that last sentence at Anthony’s… it fast became 1am and I find myself at home in front of the PC, after a nice evening at the local brewpub. That’s right. As I was passing said brewpub, Ben called me to inform me of a gathering at the very place… so I did a u-turn, and joined the fracas around 10:30pm. Much talk of the election and war and other less-hotbutton topics later, and with two pints downed, the final holdouts called it a night and headed home. ‘Twas good, talking, drinking, coming home at 1am on a “schoolnight.” What a life I live… pubbing it up on a Wednesday night with friends… coming home with that nice ale-inspired-edge to the evening’s writing… and totally abusing ellipses while at it.

I think this is one of my best entries, found it the other day while trying to search through old entries and fix the commas-turned-into-question-marks problem from my WordPress migration. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but y’know what I mean. Or, maybe only I know what I mean. Seriously… I write as much for me as for anything. I can only hope that someone, somewhere, reads this shit with interest…

Sorry if I pissed off any Asians with the Asian family comment, but you know how I do. All of the sudden I want to write until dawn, but I realize I’ve got a pretty decent wordcount for an entry – and I don’t really have much to say anyway. Until I can’t string words together anymore, Dave out.

Posted on

early returns

Duck!
6pm, sitting here watching Peter Jennings (I’m an ABC News devotee) read early returns from the east-coast states. Sharaun and I are waiting until the after-work 5pm crowds die down a bit before heading to the polls. I’m totally wrapped up in the news coverage, it’s kind of like watching a horse race… in slow motion… but there’s some of that same excitement. And… the passing of a paragraph marks the passing of a couple hours, we’re back from the polls… votes cast. Good stuff.

You guys can tune out for a while, I’m about to get super nerdy here.

I finally uninstalled Microsoft Office. One more program that I can now do without thanks to quality freeware. I’ll admit, I like Office. But, faced with really functional free alternatives like OpenOffice.org, it’s hard to justify the expense. I had held onto Office so long for a couple reasons: I love Outlook for e-mail, and I had designed a large Access database to track my music collection. OpenOffice had no good Access equivalent, and I had never found another e-mail app I was satisfied with. Both of those things recently changed.

Since migrating my webpages to a new, FreeBSD-based, host – I’ve taken the time to convert my music collection database from MS Access to MySQL. Having the database in MySQL removed my reliance on Access, so I decided to once again take a look at alternative e-mail clients. I re-tried Mozilla Thunderbird, which I had given up on before because it lacked a decent calendar feature like Outlook. However, with the addition of the Mozilla Calendar plugin, and a slick-looking theme – Thunderbird is all I’ll ever need in an Outlook replacement. So, thanks to MySQL and Mozilla – I was able to completely ditch MS Office for a completely free alternative. And, I can still use all my old Office docs and Outlook mails, because they’re all compatible. Now the only thing that costs money on my machine is Windows XP itself… which I’ll happily pay for. Rad.

It’s late, I’m tired… it all signs point to another four years o’ Bush. Sorry for the crappy entry, Dave out.