Lists

I'm not doing that blog-every-day thing, but I enjoy any post topic that allows me to write in short, numbered bursts.

Things I Found Out When Reformatting My 7-Year-Old Desktop (which I did because it is the nuclear option against an extraordinarily pesky pop-up bug)

1. I had most of final season of Sopranos downloaded, and at around 350 megabytes a pop, that's a lot of wasted space.

2. Five years ago, my friend Adam renamed all my IE taskbar bookmarks. Silly names, but it made me laugh almost every time I noticed. I will miss those. "Washmypost.com" isn't that clever, but hey--five years!

3. I'm glad I don't collect porn, or I'd be really sad today. I did manage to save most of my mp3's, but I ran out of room on my laptop (!) so I'm sure some were lost in the glorious formatting fire.

4. Most of the stuff I saved over the years--literally about 98% of it--is utterly useless and wasn't worth saving for even a month, let alone seven years.

5. A reformatted computer may be a bit obsolete (it took almost an hour to download and update Windows, including restarts) but boy is it fast.

It's a brave new world! I'm basking in the sleek easy running of an unencumbered CPU!

Stuff I Thought About in the Last 24 Hours

I dreamed that I was Barack Obama last night. And that my tooth was cracked and falling out. I am well aware of the supposed significance of teeth-related dreams, but usually (75% of the time) I am me when I dream. So armchair psychoanalysts can have at that one.

I also had one of those dreams where I woke up really angry at the person in the dream. But for the first time that I can recall, this is also true in real life. So while the reasons for the dream-anger (bad driving, which is just strange) faded, they also segued right into the actual reasons I am not pleased. It's not a fun way to start a Friday.

Does anyone else think Iron Man might actually be good? Robert Downey Jr. always brings something noteworthy to his roles, and so far the trailers place movie quality somewhere north of Daredevil and hovering around X-Men or X-Men 2. We'll see.
Update: In searching for a link to Iron Man, I noticed the short description of the movie is "Wealthy Inventor Tony Stark Fights Evil Using a Suit of Power Armor!" Yikes. Minus a letter grade for that mouthful, and for a completely gratuitous exclamation point. "Fights Evil Using a Suit of Power Armor" pretty much states the emphasis without need for assistance from punctuation.

LOST is starting to scare me now. It's like when you were a kid, and you really really wished it was Christmas Day, and when Christmas Day starts you're totally stoked, but then as you near the end of present unwrapping you're thinking, "Crap, I guess that was it." And no matter how good your presents were, they can only achieve some fraction of anticipatory hype you had built up in your head. Last night's LOST was like that. We learned so damn much I started wondering how this show is going to go another 30+ episodes. This season is a just busting out, but damn guys, ease up on the throttle a bit!

I got a "settlement" or something from 24Hour Fitness that gives me 45 free days of membership. Also, it appears to be transferable. Does anybody want that? I already go to a gym that is much more convenient. Well, "go" might be a bit of an exaggeration.

The Old Standby

I was going to rant about this whole Roger Clemens thing (of course he's guilty, but really Congress? Nothing better to investigate? ARE YOU SURE?) but then I was beat to the punch. She always summarizes far better than I could hope to.

So you get a survey-meme-thing!

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I am about 3 weeks overdue for a haircut.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$34

3. What's a word that rhymes with "DOOR?"
Abhor.

4. Favorite planet?
Venus. Who knows what lurks beneath those methane clouds. Venutians, probably!

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
An unknown string of numbers that turned out to be Hilary. Damn Switzerland!

6. What is your favorite ring on your phone?
I keep mine silent most of the time. Or on vibrate. Otherwise it plays "London Calling".

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Gray button type. I'm at work.

8. Do you "label" yourself?
What? If I'm asked to, usually I write "Sam".

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing?
Don't remember. They're on my feet and I'm not taking my shoes off for this.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Bright right now.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I think she's cool. Her bangs are out of control though.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
I don't really remember, which probably means I had passed out.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
"Happy Vday LUV u all"

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
I'm not sure. There's a RiteAid a few blocks away, but I'm downtown.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"the"

17.Where would you be if you could be anywhere right now?
I'm actually sort of okay with right here. If I were somewhere else, I'd feel guilty for not being at work.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
Um. I choose not to answer this.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
I take vitamins every morning... probably some Tylenol on Monday.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero!

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
27 was complicated but full of interesting stuff. Since then the complicated has outweighed the interesting.

22. Your worst enemy?
Dr. Demento.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
The "crystal" background that comes with XP.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"Yeah, it all went out fine."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
See, if you could fly, I bet you could make a million bucks a few hundred times over. Also, flying would be cool. That's win-win (win), baby.

26. Do you like someone?
I choose to answer Kim's sidenote: it's in every single meme because these are written by people who think "liking someone" is the biggest secret you can have. Oh, and no.

27. The last song you listened to?
Something on the radio last night, but I can't remember what. It may have been BTO.

This is Weak

The Post has a story by Dana Milbank on the new "accusation" that Obama is plagiarizing phrases for his speeches. It's probably the stupidest thing I've read in the Post this year.

"Criticizing pharmaceutical companies' ads, Obama joked: "You know those ads where people are running around the fields, you know, they're smiling, you don't know what the drug is for?"

Compare that with this staple of the 2004 Edwards stump speech: "I love the ads. Buy their medicine, take it, and the next day you and your spouse will be skipping through the fields."

This is so completely stupid it makes me cringe. I have made the exact same "joke" about those ads--as have thousands, I'm betting--and it's not even phrased the same way.

Of course, Milbank has other "examples" and most of them are completely useless. Another:

Edwards, accepting the party's vice presidential nomination in 2004, said, "Hard work should be valued in this country, so we're going to reward work, not just wealth." Obama, in turn, has been heard to say, "We shouldn't just be respecting wealth in this country, we should be respecting work."

How are these the same quote? The same sentiment, for sure--but if you are going to plagiarize you have to steal it without changing the point. Otherwise you're just improving.

Honestly, I'm not sure if this is supposed to be an article or an opinion piece; I've been away for too long to remember what Milbank's deal is. But this is just pathetic. Of all the quotations cited, only one (near the end) is identical. And the explanation is clear--an adviser who worked on the previous campaigns.

I'd make a bigger point about media attacks, or Obama backlash, or something, but unlike Milbank I'm smart enough to know when I don't have the information to back up my argument. Well, okay, I do that all the time. But I won't here.

I Had Forgotten About That

I would think that if it got more play, the fact that Hillary co-sponsored a bill to ban flag burning would hit her hard among us liberal types.

But even I, that great bastion of knowing stuff (like the word "bastion") forgot that even happened. Fortunately, Richard Cohen reminded me.

He also sums up, quite nicely, why I don't support Hillary. She is a politician of the highest order; willing to sacrifice anything for votes. And Obama may not be perfect but I still trust him more.

I know I've had worries, but the more I read and watch, the more I believe the only way the Democrats can lose the election is if it is Clinton v. McCain. Huckabee would be easy enough to beat, and word is out that Romney is throwing in the towel. But McCain has that centrist appeal, and has locked horns with Bush enough times to convince America he might not make the same mistakes.

Clinton has her record as a Senator, which is spotty. She has her record as First Lady, which conjures up lots of uncomfortable memories for most people. And she has the fact that she's a woman, which is probably enough to push a small group to vote for her to make history.

But whatever happens, the candidate selected by the Democrats will make history. So I'm picking the one that doesn't attack the 1st Amendment for political gain.

"Always Two There Are..."

When you end a serious, or even semi-serious relationship, and you end it without cheating or some other serious infraction of the relationship code, often it's not really over. It seems over, and everyone is very sad and there is much The Cure playing. But sometimes you try to be friends immediately, or after some laughably brief intermission.

This isn't always a mistake, but it almost always leads Break-Up Number Two. That is, you hang out to varying degrees (sometimes it may seem like no break-up ever happened at all, sometimes it's all talk and no face-to-face, etc.) but inevitably you have to break up again.

This happens for a variety of reasons. The most common is that one person still wants to be in the relationship, and the other one is lonely enough to let them pretend that may happen. Eventually somebody wises up, and you get Numero Dos.

Sometimes its because one of you has moved on to a new relationship, and the other person wasn't ready for that. And sometimes it's just because you fall out of contact--usually this is with less serious relationships, or it merely masks one (or both) persons meeting somebody new.

So... it turns out I have no point to make beyond the above, it's just my whiny way of saying that it sucks when that happens. But if I can't whine on my blog, where can I whine?

Writer's Note: The quote is from Star Wars, but the rest of the line ("...a master, and an apprentice.") makes no sense in this context. It does make sense in the context of me being a giant dork, and even when confronted with Serious Life Things, I am blessed with a continual loop of "Star Wars" quotes in my head.

One Man's Opinion: Obama v. McCain

It's not necessarily shaping up to be that way just yet, but Obama has the momentum and McCain the delegates, so it's a possible outcome of all this primary craziness.

I am worried about this match-up, and here's why: McCain is a bit nuts but he has come across (in the past, outside of primary season) as centrist. He's fought with the present Administration a number of times, and is not your typical "standard bearer" for the GOP.

This concerns me because given Obama's weaknesses (experience, and possibly race) I worry that undecideds will flock to a man that seems just as tough as GWB but with more smarts and a maverick approach. I disagree with that assessment of McCain, but I think it is possible that opinion will turn that way.

Obama, on the other hand, has rhetoric and "change" on his side, but will that be enough to sway voters with racism in their hearts? Will his inexperience be the reason that cloaks the racist voter's decision to go with McCain?

I suppose this is more a series of questions than an actual opinion. I find myself less happy with Hillary every day (people keep reminding me of past deeds that I really, really hated) but I also believe she has no real advantage over Obama in the above-mentioned areas. Instead of "inexperience cloaking racism" her candidacy could be a much more straightforward "outright dislike cloaking sexism." Which, let's be honest, isn't much of a cloak. People just dislike her--she panders too much and Bill, surprisingly, has come across more egotistical and paranoid than at any time during his actual presidency.

My real hope, I suppose, is that McCain somehow blows it and it becomes an Obama v. Romney match-up. My gut feeling is that Obama can take that race easily, because people don't trust Romney. McCain may seem like your crazy grandpa sometimes, but most of us inherently trust our crazy grandpas.

On the other hand, I'm also starting to think that Obama/McCain is win/lesser win. I feel guilty about that because I detest Republicans, but McCain would at least be a new kind of a wrong-headed thinking. Sad to say, but after eight years of Bush, almost anyone looks good.

More Fragments

or, "I Can't Be Expected to Formulate Entire Blog Posts!"

Plenty to discuss, but not time in which to do it! So let's hit up the highlights, shall we?

• I'm still unconvinced that Hillary is the best candidate. Much is being said about deep-seated sexism, or the fragility of feminism when it is forced up against the real prospect of a powerful woman in power. However, I don't really care about that--longtime readers may recall that I've never really been an HRC fan (see, e.g., this post). But my disagreement with her politics is hard to focus when so much of the discussion centers on gender.
  
  Bill is going a bit nuts these days too. If they're not careful, the Clintons are going to self-destruct themselves right out of this race. I'm still leaning towards Obama.
  
  
• I saw Cloverfield. I am aware that there are wildly varying opinions on this movie, so here is mine: I liked it. If you can get past the indestructible-camcorder gimmick, it's a pretty good take on the monster-movie genre. People are complaining about the aforementioned "shaky-cam" as just a gimmick, but it really is central to the plot. And I was happy to see that they didn't just use the camcorder aspect as an excuse to not show anything interesting (ala Blair Witch). People who compare the two movies are really missing the point--aside from the medium, they aren't alike at all.
  
  Another criticism is that good-looking hipsters who populate the cast are idiots. This is true, but it is also true that most good-looking hipsters (cinematic or real) are idiots. I found most of their actions quite reasonable. And I enjoyed the extended backstory (the first half-hour), because it made the rest of the movie far more believable. Even if they are borderline retarded in their decision-making.
  
  I thought it was entertaining and (if you aren't prone to nausea) worth seeing.
  
  
• It's still raining here in Oakland/Bay Area/Northern California. What the hell, man? It's also bitingly cold. Good reason to stay in and work on my Call of Duty 4 skills, I suppose. The Playstation controller is still kicking my ass pretty handily.