Category: Uncategorized

I don’t even remember what happened to friday evening. I probably chatted online, and killed things. I’m pretty sure that was when I got Mesharr to level 14. An entertaining waste of time.

Saturday morning, I went walking with the veggies. I actually ran for part of it. Running with a backpack, especially a poorly zipped one, bad idea. My portable cd player fell out, cover fell off, and cd rolled into the road. I promptly sat down & re-assembled it. The cd wasn’t even scratched. Go me. One of the veggies is another fruit, turns out he knows . Heh. Small world.

Checked out a lower duplex, with a small third bedroom. Like, I’d need a lofted bed degree of small. I may go for a lofted bed anyway. I’d also called in on a couple of for-rent signs I’d seen on the way to the first place we checked out. Set up an appointment for that afternoon to check out another lower level 3 BR duplex. This left us with a few hours to kill, so we scoped out the neighborhood, checked in with a corporate client leasing service, grabbed indian buffet lunch, browsed a comic book store, saw The Hunting of the President. It was pretty good, a summer of documentaries indeed. It outlined the coordinated maneuverings/conspiracy to impeach Clinton. I gave up on keeping track of the name drops in the first 5 minutes, but I feel better informed as to what happened, if not who did what. Worth watching, to my mind.

Afterwards, we checked out Phoenix Games, and Dreamhaven comics/used sci-fi. Both a very, very short walk from either of the prospective new places (the two places are right around dupont & 32nd). We finally got to see the other place, and my pinchpenny reflexes fought for the first one, but the price difference really isn’t that big. And seems to have a definite preference for the second one. Saw & bf on the way back to the bus. At least, I think it was his bf. I’ll have to actually say ‘hi’ to him sometime. =)

Back home, with plans for gaming later in the evening. I baked cookies. recipe for those who requested it

The Hermit

I saw him, he gave a good speech, I was somewhat inspired, but not fired up. The idealization of military service throughout the convention made me somewhat nauseous.

rambling thoughts on military service

So, the humphrey posts an internal site where students can look one another up, and read one another’s bios. They wanted us to answer a few questions:

• Education: undergraduate college(s) and degrees, including year graduated; undergraduate major(s); other graduate degrees if any.
• Work or internship experiences
• Travel/studies abroad;
• General interest in public affairs (what you plan to study; broad career goals);
• Hobbies or favorite activities.

Here’s mine

This report on the environmental impacts of transportation in the US should make interesting reading at some point in the future, when I have time…. =)

Along with a report which “proves” that Most mis-estimates of transportation expenditures are lies, not errors.

Also, several from the Victoria Transport Policy Research Institute, including: Understanding Smart Growth Savings, Evaluating Research Quality, evaluating transportation land use impacts.

So, the funny thing is, I half agree with some of what this guy says. Of course, everything else he says makes me shake my head and sigh. I’d smile if he a) weren’t so pathetic, and b) didn’t represent the attitudes of a large segment of society.

I found this looking for “How the worst get on top”, which is, ironically, being quoted quite heavily by those supporting the party currently in power, to villify, say, the “Liberal American Education System.”

http://www.alabamapolicyinstitute.org/gary-2003-11-5.html

Mostly for my own reference, but if it’s good for you, then great:

www.indyvoter.org
www.democracynow.org
www.progressivepunch.org

After 2.5 years of my usual non-kid-gloves handling, my glasses are pretty scratched. Fortunately, I have insurance…. sorta.

Ya see. The graduate student insurance covers eye exams, without even having to plunk down a copay. On the other hand, corrective lenses get zero coverage. So, I can either get new lenses in the same frames (I suspect that would run less than $100), get contact lenses from the optometrist (for about $180/year after student discount) or order contact lenses online (at about $140/year, going by website values). How much is laser surgery again?

The appointment is on monday.

I watched the DNC last night. As it turns out, Al-Jazeera is giving it more coverage than ABC, NBC, or CBS. A reflection of American interest levels, to be sure, but also, I think, a reaction to how the coverage works.

I started off watching on CNN. Frankly, I was loathing the process. It was mostly their talking heads in a little echo chamber, self congratulatory, circle jerk, adding no content, and obscuring the actual process. I also found out that the major broadcast media outlets are giving it little coverage. They talked about bloggers covering the convention, and mentioned only conservative, republican, pro-war Andrew Sullivan by name, as opposed to the many other bloggers they could have mentioned. They did a bio piece on Clinton, and spent 15 seconds saying that he had done great things for the economy and international relations, then spent 5 minutes talking about lewinsky and impeachment, ending with the question “what more could he have done to prevent 9/11?”. You mean other than telling GWB to make Al Qaeda a top priority? Gee, dunno. While we’re on the topic, I wonder if anyone would like to consider who gave Osama Bin Laden his start in the first place. As well as assisting Hussein. Gotta wonder what Allawi‘s going to be doing in 10, 20 years. But don’t worry, we can always invade again.

I was chatting with at the time, and sharing my observations about the CNN coverage, and how I wished someone would have made a webcast. Then I figured out it probably _was_ webcasting. Google proved me right. Watching the webcast was a totally different experience. This was not filtered through a major media corporation. It was the DNC’s own perspective. And I began to realize the value of the Convention. It’s an opportunity for the democratic party to put its beliefs out there. It was good to hear people who share at least some of my political views talking eloquently and persuasively about them. I would go so far as to say it was inspirational, even with all the differences of view. If only we shared a greater quantity of perspective.

I tried to advocate the sharing of this perspective on gay.com. Apathy and/or hostility characterized about half the responses, though I did get a few people who were already watching it, and one who asked me for the website address. One of the guys told me that it didn’t matter. The government doesn’t make a difference, and has nothing to do with whether or not there are jobs (among other topics). I flamed him. I pointed out several different ways the goverment could affect such matters, and in fact, actively was affecting such matters. He blew me off and said thinking was a waste of time. I sadly believe his attitude represents an all too common perspective. It’s a pity that so few will be seeing it through anything other than a heavy filter. The DNC brought to you by CNN (and other similar media outlets) results in apathy and hostility to politics.

Watch the democratic national convention on the web. http://www.dems2004.org/ the webcast is on the right side under live convention. I couldn’t stand the commercials and echo-chamber-esque republican-slanted commentators. I figure to decide responsibly, I should listen to each side present itself. I intend to do the same thing for the republican convention if possible.

That is all.