Archive for October 2006

The monthlies.

• Europe Lesson No. 4: Pharmacists Rule

  Pharmacists rule. They rule the street. The flashing green cross on one block, the flashing red on the next. You know exactly where to go when you start sniffling. My wife and I both got head colds while on our honeymoon. I got it first and then I gave it to my new wife. As [...]

• Update On Jake Tapper / Sideshow Bob Affair

  A long-time reader (chuck) of Jake Tapper’s blog agrees with my contention… “Reyonthehill, I recognized your reference in Jake’s ‘Tennessee Waltz’ blog, but didn’t put two and two together about ads involving negative campaigning until I used the link to the ad itself and refreshed my memory. I think you certainly deserve recognition from Jake, [...]

• Samhain

  Halloween (or, to us pagans, Samhain), is the most important holiday of the year. It represents the end of summer and the final harvest of the year. It is considered the end of the year, the start of the new year, and is a time to reflect on those who have passed.

• Re: Sideshow Bob for Mayor

  A couple days after referencing Sideshow Bob in a comment on Jake Tapper’s blog, Jake blogs the infamous Sideshow Bob for Mayor ad without attribution… Jake- I made that Sideshow Bob joke as a comment in your Tennessee Waltz blog-post. No nod, no thank you, no nothing? Tough room…

• YouTube Purge

  News of the Great YouTube Purge of 2006 is abound this morning, and I offer my immediate thoughts… I understand how people are instantly (possibly momentarily) upset over this, but if I owned the content, I wouldn’t want it passing all over the site either. In my opinion, the reason is is that the owner [...]

• Europe Lesson No. 3: McDonald’s Is The Burger King

  McDonald’s is the burger king. First, you notice people with McDonald’s bags or McDonald’s fountain soda cups walking around town. (Nah, it couldn’t be; I don’t see one.) Then, you see a couple people on a park bench eating french fries out of a McDonald’s box. (Turning your head, you don’t see anything close by.) [...]

• He’ll Be Back

  A former Bush aide has been sentenced to prison (18 months) for his role in the Abramoff-lobbying scandal. What this means is that he will be a high-level aide for another GOP president in, say, 10 years or so. These things are cyclic in nature.

• So This Is What $120,000 Has Given Me

  I try not to do this (take quotes and not add anything substantive or witty, or what I consider witty), but this is too good to pass up… “The NFL preseason is elementary school: it doesn’t matter and you’re just trying to escape without a serious injury. The first eight weeks of the season are [...]

• Cheney: "One Last Question (And It Better Not Be About Torture)"

  You know it is a rough period of time for the White House with headlines like this… “White House denies Cheney OK’d torture.” The funniest thing is not that the White House line is that “the reporter misunderstood the Vice President’s response,” but that the public isn’t outraged he had to be asked the question.

• Sideshow Bob (R-TN)

  Jake Tapper highlights some of the ractist overtones (or is it undertones?) in the Tennessee Senate race and solicited opinions on the matter… I cannot tell if that is a jungle beat or a poor drum solo. But what I do know is that I want a senator who used to sell ice. (Paid for [...]

• Bay Area Voter Guide

  Maybe you have sensed it… As of late, I have been blogging on more personal matters. Aside from revamping many aspects of the website (podcast, video, etc.) and developing new tools (including a new search) which has taken up a bunch of my remaining free time, the larger issue of my non-political blogging as-of-late is [...]

• Stay The Course

  Two weeks before a possible devastating midterm election for the president and the ruling republican party, the White House has decided to drop the phrase “Stay The Course” from their endless rhetoric. If it were only so simple… What this reminds me of is my wife pleading with me to ask for directions when I [...]

• Sensitive Files

  Another real-world conversation with the wife… While discussing the backing-up of files on outside servers, my wife questioned the idea. “Yes, but what about sensitive documents?” “I don’t really have any sensitive documents. I wish I did; that would be cool. [And now using an acting voice (possibly an extra from Office Space); deeper, bellowing, [...]

• Video Killed The Blogstar

  I’ve been growing increasingly weary over the past few months of the online video providers — namely YouTube and Google, who have now merged (oh joyous day). Every video uploaded to YouTube never looks or sounds right. And every now and then, Google’s video system (which is far superior than YouTube, technologically at least) nags [...]

• Best. Headline. Ever.

  You’ve got to admit, this must be one of the best headlines ever… “O.C. candidate defends letter scaring immigrants.” And they say republicans are values voters.

• Blogging Live from the Apple Store

  A brief stop in Corte Madera on the way back from a Petaluma pumpkin patch allows me to blog from a remote location. Will the world of the internet ever cease to amaze? (I think not.) What have I been up to? Besides the Flash-based podcast player (featured in the most recent blog entry), I [...]

• A’s Superfan Network Podcast

  At the last A’s game I went to for the season, right before I left for my wedding and subsequent honeymoon, I podcasted live from the A’s stadium, and the following is a compilation of the best* moments (edited down from over 45 minutes of broadcast), including Nick Swisher’s home run (track 4), Frank Thomas’ [...]

• Europe Lesson No. 2: Wine Is Cheaper Than Coke

  Wine is cheaper than Coke. And not just cheap wine, all wine. And not just at nice restaurants, everywhere. In fact, the price of Coke is so outlandish, it makes it nearly impossible to not purchase a bottle of wine for every meal (except breakfast). My new wife and I just got used to the [...]

• Real Conversations with the Wife

  During an after-dinner conversation with my new wife earlier this week, I mentioned the chaos that was the on-field brawl between the football teams of the University of Miami, Florida, and Florida International University. After providing my wife with some background information that I had learned from skimming a few reports and answering a few [...]

• Morning Politoon

  What defines torture anyway? Toles… Image: Yahoo!

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