Thursday musings, debate thoughts.

October 14, 2004

Today I test the limits of my iPod’s battery. I plan on finding out just how long I can listen to it in a row as I work today, and with my boss out of the office I don’t have to be careful about being seen with it. It’s not that I’m breaking a rule, exactly, but the employee manual discourages music at work. Music helps me focus, so I’m less likely to lose my motivation for my current task. Plus it’s just a nice way to pass the day fairly quickly.

I watched last night’s debate between Bush and Kerry, and I have a few things to point out. Both campaigns, naturally, excel at spinning the facts to paint one picture. By leaving out information you can make a voting record, a statement, a press release, statistics, and other minor tidbits benefit either candidate. A lot of people forget that–or don’t know it, which is even more frightening–and so both Bush and Kerry went on and on about the same facts that they both claimed were in their favor. Bush, however, made several gaffes that I thought were incredibly stupid to say.

The first came when Kerry was talking about the shift from Osama bin Laden to Iraq, and how troops had been moved from Afghasistan and Iraq, putting more of the efforts of searching the mountains to Afghani and Pakistani troops. That’s a legitimite concern, in my opinion. The Bush administration has spent a lot of time rightfully villifying bin Laden for his role in the September 11th attacks, and taking him into custody wouldn’t have just struck a powerful blow to his network of religious extremists, but it would have been a powerful moral victory for Bush. Having native soldiers from Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for bin Laden is a bit like having the fox guard the chicken coop, isn’t it? Terrorists still have a lot of allies in that region, and I’m not willing to assume that all of the troops for both states are loyal to the governments that we’re allied with. It would be foolish of me to think so.

In any case, Kerry pointed out that Bush had said at one point “I don’t really care where bin Laden is” or something of the sort. Bush flatly denied saying that. Damn, even *I* remember Bush saying that, because I remember thinking what a stupid thing that was for him to say. Even taken IN context, his comment was foolish and a poor choice of words. That was my first problem with Bush’s performance. Kerry had a factual error or two towards Bush (mostly regarding Bush not metting with the black caucus), but nothing as politically damning as Bush’s comment. My second problem was that he kept opening his comments with a funny statement or and attempt at a joke, but it just wasn’t coming across. He reminded me of the bad stand-up comic up on stage saying “I just flew in tonight, and boy are my arms tired!” and then looking around at the dark room wondering why no one is laughing. Each time he tried it, there was no reaction from the audience, so he lost his smile and began his statement.

Lastly, he made a comment that I thought was in poor taste and will probably bite him in the end. Kerry made a comment that two reputable new organizations had criticized one of Bush’s plans, and he quoted their comments. Bush then opened his statement with something like “First of all, I don’t think it’s a good idea to quote a reputable…well, nevermind.” What the hell was that? I understand that it was a jab at CBS and the accusations that flew over their handling of the damning National Guard memos that turned out to be fake, but his implication was that news outlets couldn’t be trusted with facts or stories. Way to alienate the people who get your message out to voters.

Those are my only critiques of the debate. I can’t attest to the accuracy of various facts thrown around, so I won’t touch them with a ten foot pole. As far as performances went, though, Bush did a pretty poor job given my observations from above. I think he stayed on his message throughout the debate, and for those who already favored him they probably heard a lot they liked. Presentation did not match content, however.

Anyway, moving on. I got a piece of mail the other day from Beloit College asking for money, naturally, and I think I might actually start giving. I don’t have too much to my name at the moment, but they offer an automatic withdrawl program that I’m debating taking part in. I lead a fairly meager life, don’t make a whole lot of money, but I’m pretty much self-sufficient and always have money left over at the end of each pay period. Does that mean I should go and spent all that money? No, of course not, and I’m socking away money for a move next year to my own apartment somewhere. I was thinking of donating about $10 each month, which wouldn’t strain my wallet too much and would put my name in print in the Beloit magazine that gets sent out every now and then. It’s not too much money, but I’ve only been out of school for a year and a half, so I don’t have too much to give. I’d like to support them in some way, though.

I just made two phone calls that I’ve been meaning to make for some time, and it’s good to clear a bit off my mind. The first one was to Columbia House to change my mailing/billing address with them. I’ve been living with my sister for what, six or seven months now? My mailings keep going to my Mom’s house. I’ve changed my address with them about five or six times in the mailings, yet the mailings continue. I tried changing my address online, but the field they provided wasn’t long enough for my current address, and they only offered one line for the address itself instead of the customary two. How obnoxious is that? So I sent in customer service emails to them requesting an address change. Nothing. By now I’m past my obligation period of the number of DVDs I agreed to purchase in a given amount of time, and if they decide to call me on it, I’ll tell them exactly how dissatisfied I was with their customer service procedures and the inability to easily change my address with them.

I’m buying my last DVD and canceling my membership. And not renewing again. No price for DVDs is worth the shenanagins they’ve put me through. They were just as bad as AT&T when I tried for five bills to change my address with them before I finally had to call them like I did Columbia House. Why can’t companies actually read what their customers send them? Guess Columbia House is too busy teaching their foreign call center employees the subtle difference between “Cedar Falls” and the correct “Cedar Hills.” Let me tell you, that’s the thickest foreign accent I’ve ever heard on someone named Stephanie.

My second phone call was the Barnes & Noble so I could clear up my account issue with them and finally use my gift card that my stepmother got me for my birthday. I cleared that right up and picked up seasons 1 and 2 of “Ren & Stimpy” on DVD as well as the 4th season of “The Simpsons.” Originally I was going to get the director’s cut of on or Children of Dune on DVD to go along with “Ren & Stimpy,” but BN’s price for Children of Dune was less than the amount I had left on the gift card after applying the price of “Ren and Stimpy” and they didn’t carry the copy of Donnie Darko I wanted. My copy of the third season of “The Simpsons” is sitting in the apartment complex office right now, and I’m looking forward to watching those episodes, and I knew I’d want to keep watching when I’d gone through that season. The 4th season was about when “The Simpsons” was at its height, too. I was lookign at the episode list, and there are some very memorable ones there, like the Whacking Day episode that guest voices Barry White, the episode where Springfield builds a monorail (written by Conan O’Brien!), and the hilarious one where Homer gives up beer for a month after getting arrested for drunk driving after eating beer-flavored candy at the Duff brewery when he was the DD. I used to love that show, and though I haven’t really watched an episode in more than a year, the two seasons I just bought are back when the show was classic, and back when many of the catch phrases and humorous quotes that have now entered American English were born.

The Oxford English Dictionary already added “D’oh” as a word, let’s hope that, unlike an episode of the show, they don’t add “Homer” as a verb, as in, “to pull a Homer.” I wouldn’t mind seeing Kwijybo, though.

Anyway, today’s kind of a lazy day here at work. I had an hour and a half political discussion with a couple of coworkers this morning prior to my boss coming in, and now that he’s gone I can relax and do the work I need to do. I have a task list that should be accomplished by Monday at the latest, though I need a Spanish copy of Windows XP and Microsoft Office in order to complete that. Ummmm…that might be a problem. My boss said he was going to dig one up, but now that he’s gone I guess I’ll have it on Monday at the very latest. Yeah, that and I don’t SPEAK Spanish. Never took it in school, and one person offered to teach me once upon a time but never got around to it before we parted ways. Other than that, it’s all English and ordering Coke and cheese and French. Whee.

Quick aside about French. Yesterday my sister IMed me when I got home, and she’d apparently been playing around with Altavista’s excellent Babelfish translator and translating things like the opening scroll from Star Wars into French. Anyhow, she translated my preferred name for the French–cheese eating surrender monkeys–into French, but I had to correct her. How do you spell “cheese-eating surrender monkey” in French, anyhow? V-I-C-H-Y. Heh heh. I know that’s mean, but I got a real kick out of that.

So yeah, once I finally get it I’ll be dealing with the Spanish version of XP. I think I can deal with that. As long as I put it on a different machine as mine, I’ll have a comparison machine.

This weekend is already chock full of excitement. My Dad invited me to go over to his house sometime this weekend and make pizza or something, so I think my sister and I might make the trek over there. If I can drag her away from her book for long enough, the FX network is showing an all-day marathon of the fabulous “Arrested Development” show that should hopefully be starting its second season shortly. Five Emmys, baby, and worth every one. She and I watched a few, but then Fox, in its typical “we won’t actually show the good shows and will instead show you ‘The Simpsons’ and endless reality shows” manner, hasn’t been showing it recently. Well we should be able to watch the whole season in one sitting, if we’re willing to sit still that long. Or maybe I’ll just clear some room on my Tivo and buffer the whole thing. I really enjoy that show. FX is slowly becoming a network that I prefer more than the real Fox network. Not only did Fox drop my favorite show of “Futurama,” but ever since I got my Tivo I’ve finally discovered what everyone saw in the canceled “Family Guy” because I’ve been recording the episodes that air around 1 AM on the Cartoon Network. What a great show. FX also shows the aways-good “Nip/Tuck,” and despite the short season of the show, I enjoyed every minute of it, all the way up to the season finale that aired last week. It’s so weird to watch a show on TV that not only allows swearing in moderation, but doesn’t shy away from showing sex on screen, though they still avoid actual nudity. I’m looking forward to the next season of the show, probably airing next June or so. *Sigh*

And so here I am, 1 PM on a Thursday afternoon, little to actually do for the rest of the day. Tonight I go home after work and I watch a bit of TV, make something nice for dinner, maybe head to bed around 10:30 or so. That’s all I really want to do.

Later.

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