Tikkabik

Picking Sarah Palin as his running mate has certainly re-energized the public's interest in John McCain for the past couple of days. And there are a few good things to say about her. She's a Republican from Alaska, a state where "Republican" carries practically the same meaning as "Libertarian" in the lower 48 states. And during her short time in the governor's office in Alaska, she's shown that she's definitely interested in helping the U.S. reduce dependency on foreign oil without completely capitulating to the big oil companies.

Unfortunately, she's also a social conservative with an anti-abortion track record, has virtually no experience on the international stage, and has really limited experience in public service just in general -- the same complaint that the McCain campaign has repeatedly made about Barack Obama.

It's certainly going to make this election an interesting change of pace -- the first mainstream black candidate featured on the Democratic ticket, the first time the Republicans will have nominated a woman to be a vice presidential candidate.

Given that political reform and change is in the air, I'd hope that our country would be less resistant to viable third-party candidates, but unfortunately, even though we have different faces running for office this year, it's still the same old thing.

Posted by flargh at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Listened to Laura Ingraham this morning while I was running a couple of errands, mainly because the Diane Rehm show had something to do with birdwatching, which I couldn't possibly care less about.

First, I'll say this: Ingraham is inarguably the only conservative talk radio host that I can listen to without wanting to get physically ill or irrationally violent. I don't usually agree with what she says, but she's not as dogmatic as Rush Limbaugh, vile and loathsome as Howie Carr or just plain stupid as Sean Hannity.

Anyway, she made a point today about how a recent Gallup poll shows moderate Republicans leaning more towards McCain than was thought previously; some say the Dems are pinning their hopes on winning this November by attracting those folks, particularly in swing states, to Obama instead of McCain.

Ingraham posits that the new momentum towards McCain is the result of McCain and the Republicans appealing to core values that still play big in the Midwest, and one of the things she identified was reform of our horrible public school systems.

Pardon me, but haven't our public school systems suffered even more under the past eight years of Republican administration with boondoggles like "No Child Left Behind?" Not to mention Congress' complete inability to deliver billions in funding they've promised to schools. The Dems can share some of the blame there.

The longer I live, the more wisdom I see in Groucho Marx's comment as applied to politics: "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."

Posted by flargh at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't been able to sleep past 7 AM yet during my "vacation" this week -- I've been go-go-going from the minute I get up to dinner time, it seems like, trying to rush around to do all the things I've been putting off during work hours.

And it doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon. I still have to take the boys clothes shopping for back to school next week, Emmeline has a "meet the teacher" meeting tomorrow that I want to go to, and we'll be heading up to my grandmother's this weekend to pay her a visit on Sunday.

*sigh.*

Posted by flargh at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Your stuff sucks.

The upper portion you see is the body of the screwdriver, which snapped off from the head.

Posted by flargh at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night we had severe thunderstorms roll through -- dramatic lightning and thunder, and in some places, penny-sized hail fell.

About a half an hour before the rain started to fall, Max had a shit-fit. He ran around the house yowling and howling, yelling at anyone who would listen.

We had the television on in the background, and the Emergency Broadcast System took over. The blaring klaxon alarm sounded, and a computer screen began to show information about the pending thunderstorm.

Just at that moment, Max ran to the center of the living room and lied down, sprawled in front of the TV screen, thwapping his tail contentedly, licking his paw to clean his face and groom. His body language made the message clear.

"SEE? I TOLD YOU SO!"

Posted by flargh at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So this morning I was on the phone with my insurance agent, who I've worked with for 16 years now. I'm talking with her about what a homeowner's policy would cost, in the event that Bonnie and I are able to buy our house.

The conversation got quite detailed an in depth, and James silently played his Nintendo DS while I was on the phone.

After I hung up he asked me, "Who was that?"

"My insurance agent."

His eyes went wide. "You have a secret agent? Cool!"

Posted by flargh at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watching the Democratic National Convention last night, I was struck by the choice of music -- Earth Wind and Fire, Sister Sledge, Lenny Kravitz, etc.

All black musicians who don't threaten the white folks at all. You know, sort of like their candidate.

I would have loved to have hacked into the audio system and played some N.W.A. "Straight Outta Compton" ...

Goin' Off On A Motherfucker Like That
With A Gat That's Pointed At Yo Ass

That would have freaked out those folks who look like TGI Friday's rejects with all their buttons and paraphernalia...

Posted by flargh at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What are your strongest skills and/or best qualities?

My ability to terrify the weak and infirmed, my loquacious tenacity in the face of gibbering stupidity, and my ability to clear an elevator after having a large burrito for lunch. Or a small burrito. Or thinking about having a burrito.

What have been your major accomplishments and achievements during this review period?

My proudest moment came when I realized that, in the face of mounting evidence of global warming and in light of our company's own efforts to be more "green," I did my part to help conserve Earth's precious resources by bathing no more than once a week. I recognize that as a telecommuter this feat may not have been noticed by my colleagues, but I'm sure once it will be brought to their attention that they will appreciate the sacrifice I've made, especially given the alienation this action has wrought between me and my immediate family.

What are your key areas for improvement and development?

I'd like to learn how to spit farther than I can spit now. I also can't whistle loudly through my teeth; it's a shortcoming I've felt inadequate about ever since early adolescence.

What training or work experience do you feel would develop your skills and/or advance your career goals?

I suspect that if we were to open a satellite office in Appalachia and put me in charge of it, that would greatly help me towards my objectives.

In what ways could your manager better support you or help you be more effective or productive in your job?

Staying the hell out of my way would be a good place to start. I know Larry's married to the owner's daughter and everything, but seriously. He's as useless as tits on a bull.

Please list 3 suggestions for improvement within your work group.

1. Ernie in accounting talks to himself in a little-girl voice that I find incredibly disturbing. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't only when he was following me at lunch. That I telecommute and eat lunch at home both contribute to Ernie making this a hostile work environment, as I mentioned in my recent harassment filing with HR.

2. I've made this request before and I know that upper management has denied it, but I don't see why we don't consider opening up our Web and e-commerce business to hardcore pornography. It's a growth industry right now, and its increasing number of perverse niches fits perfectly with our customized electronic publishing philosophy.

3. It would help if my local medical marijuana grower were added to our health plan's list of preferred providers. Then I'd be able to buy my weed for a co-pay instead of the full amount.

Posted by flargh at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't have too much to add to this, but if you haven't seen my friend and colleague Gedeon Maheux's treatise on 100 Reasons Why McCain Won't Be President of the United States yet, I strongly recommend checking it out. He makes some very salient points.

Posted by flargh at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gone Baby Gone

This one is an absolute must-see, and now I have to pick up the book too. I'm just disappointed that this somehow got by me in the theaters.

Gone Baby Gone is Ben Affleck's debut as a major motion picture director, and it stars his brother Casey, and it's set in Dot and Southie (neighborhoods of Boston). That should sell it to you, if you're a fan of The Departed or Boondock Saints or Mystic River or any other gritty drama set in Boston.

There's more to it, a lot more -- a stellar cast (Ed Harris AND Morgan Freeman, hello), a story with twists and turns, and a very heavy ending that makes you think.

Rent it or catch in cable, thumbs WAY up.

Posted by flargh at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RickMacMerc recently tweeted for recommendations on Gelaskins for his 15-inch laptop. Here are my thoughts, because in this case, 140 characters is too limiting.

Gelaskins are like a pair of shoes; what fits me right isn't likely to have the same fit for you unless we have similar feet. But I have an old Bob Dob work that looks like Mario and Luigi.

Right now if I were to choose a new one it would probably be this one or this one. But seriously, can you go wrong with picking out more than just one? Their selections are so diverse and unique, there must be something for you that's suitable. And besides, that's why they offer you one free if you buy three.

Posted by flargh at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Submitted for your review and entertainment:

Is the Mac really more than an expensive toy?

and

Lawsuit alleges false advertising for iPhone 3G

People often amuse me when I don't want to rake out their eyeballs with spudgers.

Posted by flargh at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

James: "I'm bored. Don't we need to do something? Run errands?"

Me: "Sorry, I can't, I'm working."

Then, later that evening, he lit into me for not calling his friend's mother to set up a playdate.

I feel bad for James. At eight, he's not jaded like his older brother and sister are. He actually wants to spend time with his folks, even if it's just running errands, because it beats being bored at home. And I feel guilty, because I know it's time with him I won't get back.

Unfortunately, Bonnie and I are both working, and it gives us precious little time, during the day anyway, to do things with him. It's hard for me, because I work in the house -- so it seems like I'm around, and should be available, all the time. But I'm not. And when I'm working, I'm working.

I've been doing this since before James was born. So this isn't a new routine for him. But I think he's gotten a bit spoiled this summer because he's gotten a lot of one-on-one time with my mom, which I know she appreciates, and which he loves, but it means that he feels bored and neglected when an adult isn't paying full attention to him.

I'm planning on taking next week off. But three of the those days are pretty full already, so not even then am I going to just be able to lounge around and spend time as the entertainment committee.

But here's the thing: James has a room full of toys. Plenty of books. And we've had glorious weather, and he has a big playset in the backyard, a hammock, even a Slip 'n' Slide he can use (and which he did, for at least a few minutes today). So it's not like he's locked in the house and unable to do anything.

Posted by flargh at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Both the McCain and Obama camps are taking potshots at each other this week over who's really in touch with the common man. Fact is, neither of these guys is, or to my mind really should be.

So McCain apparently has trouble remembering how many houses he and his heiress wife own. Wish we all had that problem. Meanwhile, Obama's taking vacations on private beaches in Hawaii.

The last time one of our presidents rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue in a brown Buick instead of a limo (Carter) it wasn't particularly well received -- I think we have an expectation that our executives in chief are going to be successful, wealthy individuals, and are going to reflect, for better or worse, the values we prize as a capitalist nation.

Bush notwithstanding, anyway. That dumbass couldn't make money being an oilman in Texas.

Anyway, this whole thing is the same bullshit game that press people have been playing with politicians for years. It started back in the 1980's with Dubya's daddy not knowing the cost of milk; Lamar Alexander got lampooned for it again; John Kerry got hammered for not knowing that a real Philly cheesesteak comes with cheez-whiz instead of provolone; even John Edwards has gotten egg on his face for not knowing what a gallon of milk costs.

It's irrelevant. I wouldn't expect my own wife to know the cost of a half-gallon of milk off the top of her head, why? Because she doesn't do the fucking grocery shopping, I do.

Anyway, McCain and Obama's camps should really lay off the "man of the people" crap. Both of these guys are wealthy elitists; portraying them as otherwise is disingenuous and insulting to those of us who actually work for a living.

Is it too late to vote for Ron Paul? Seriously?

Posted by flargh at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Dunkin' Donuts the other day, and the the total bill came to $9.40. I handed the cashier $10. Then I found 40 cents in my pocket and handed it to her, after she'd already opened the cash register. She actually had to haul out a calculator to determine that she should give me one dollar bill instead of 60 cents in change.

What this says about the current state of the educational system here on Cape Cod is appalling enough, but here's the thing: If you're going to take a job operating a cash register, I believe you should at least be able to perform simple arithmetic in your head.

Posted by flargh at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If there's any question that McCain has surrounded himself with a bunch of fucking jackasses, this takes the cake.

Writing on McCain's campaign blog, Michael Goldfarb takes aim at the "liberal bloggers at the Daily Kos" who insinuate that McCain plagiarized Solzhenitsyn with his memory of a P.O.W. drawing a cross in the dirt -- a scene that would seem to be straight from The Gulag Archipelago, and something that, by most accounts, is only a recent recollection of the senator, further calling the anecdote's veracity into question.

Goldfarb then bizarrely labels this a smear that's "typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement."

Well, you can kiss my D20-rolling ass goodbye. I'm not exactly pro-Obama, but I'm anti-schoolyard bully, and that's what this campaign is turning more and more into, and it sucks, and it's stupid.

Is it too late to vote for Ron Paul?

Posted by flargh at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So there's some question about whether John McCain heard Rick Warren's questions before he appeared on stage with him Saturday night. And the McCain campaign, predictably, is playing the "POW" card. And I'm sick and fucking tired of it.

"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous," Ms. Wallace said.

This is just the latest example I've seen where McCain's camp feigns outrage that anyone impugns his character and falls back on his days at the Hanoi Hilton as a "get out of jail free" card, if you'll pardon the expression.

Earlier this week Gen. Wesley Clark was excoriated for saying, in essence, that McCain's experience as a fighter pilot and as a P.O.W. didn't prepare him for handling national strategic issues. It broke open wide in late June, but in reality Clark has been saying the same thing for months.

"If Barack Obama wants to question John McCain's service to his country, he should have the guts to do it himself and not hide behind his campaign surrogates," Smith said.

So thats what you have to look forward to if you vote for McCain, folks -- any dissention will be met with whining about what a great American he is and how impeccable his credentials are because of his P.O.W. and Vietnam fighter pilot experience.

Posted by flargh at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It hasn't always been this way, but for the last several years, I really haven't been able to get enthused about the Olympics. Sure, there's a spectacle of watching what should be the world's greatest athletes perform, and the venues are always grand, but I'm just not enfranchised to care that much, frankly.

I was always more of a fan of the winter Olympics, anyway -- cold weather sports are more my thing. And I'm long past the point of being aroused at the sight of athletic women in skin-tight gymnastics gear or swimsuits, so there really isn't even a titillation factor in it for me anymore.

(I think it helps that workout regimens have gotten so focused in the past few years that Olympians tend to just look weird and disproportionate. Look at Michael Phelps -- that dude LOOKS like a dolphin.)

But I think my ambivalence about the Olympics is less about the events and coverage themselves than it is a simple realization that much like the farmers in China I read about. I just don't have the time, or the bandwidth, to really think about it right now -- I'm so busy with other things, the Olympics, happening, as they are, on the other side of the planet, seems remote and irrelevant to my life.

Posted by flargh at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That is all.

Posted by flargh at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

see Obama pictures

Posted by flargh at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Isn't it nice to see, in the waning days of the Bush Administration, that our current administration hasn't lost its knack for evil: Bush could weaken Endangered Species Act.

These minions of the apocalypse haven't been content to leave the Middle East as a smoking crater and devastating the United States' political and economic capital. Now, by trying to open drilling in restricted areas and by slicing up the Endangered Species Act, Bush and Cheney are finally able to get done what even the mighty Ronnie Rayguns and his bug-eyed right-wing melonhead alien pod creature Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt couldn't get done.

Dirk Kempthorne is a piece of amazing work. In the same way that locusts are an amazing piece of work on crops. In the same way that syphilis is an amazing piece of work on the ulcerated genitals and rectum of a street whore with lousy hygiene.

Anyone who thinks the Republican party ought to be told anything other than to go pound sand up its ass with a mallet this November is fucking KIDDING themselves.

Posted by flargh at 01:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I desperately want a new iPod. I don't dare say "need," because I certainly don't need an iPod. I have a 30GB fifth-gen unit that's served me well for several years, but it's much too small for my needs these days.

I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro's hard disk drive from the stock 160GB model it arrived with from the factory to a 320GB unit I got on sale at NewEgg.com.

Even before the upgrade, my iTunes library was already considerably larger than 30GB, which forced me to create a special playlist just for the iPod. The first thing I did after the upgrade was to re-consolidate my iTunes library, which I'd spread across two machines some time ago to make more space for "important" files on my laptop (like World of Warcraft).

At this point, my iTunes library has swollen to more than 60GB, and it's nowhere near complete. I've got a lot of music that I have to sync with Bonnie and even more that I still need to rip from our CD collection.

Buying an 80GB or 160GB iPod model is trivial, and after that, I'd have more than enough space for all my songs, with enough room to grow at least for a while. I could even get a decent deal on a factory-refurbished iPod from Apple's own online store, if I wanted to.

But rumors abound that Apple is ready to refresh the iPod product line in September, and it makes me want to wait. I'm not sure what Apple has up its sleeve yet, but I'm hoping that we'll see some significant changes to the product line and I might as well be patient and "get by" with my old 30GB model until then.

Posted by flargh at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I said in my last post, I've replaced the Frickin' Van with a 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's in fantastic condition, but that's not to say it's in perfect shape. There are issues. Fortunately, many of them I can address myself, because they're either cosmetic or require a low enough level of skill that I can do them.

Those include replacing some worn exterior parts, speakers, getting new wiper blades, replacing some burned out lights, and other things which I will probably document in excrutating detail in the coming weeks. My apologies if it's not your cup of tea. But it's my blog, so phbbbt!

Posted by flargh at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)