Today is my first Saturday back at Freegeek after a nearly two year hiatus! It’s been good to be back here. Today I’m doing Office Hours which entails sitting in a big lab and answering various and sundry Linux questions on a one-to-one basis. It’s good to be back at the ‘Geek’, as I call this place. These are my people, nerdy, geeky, excited about technology and progressive, very techno-hippy.
Meme (n): an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Will this never end?!
Tuesday’s primary resolved absolutely nothing. Clinton pulled off a win in Pennsylvania which keeps her alive until the next primary in two weeks. Obama wasn’t able to win the victory he needed for her to get out and so it drags on and on. The longer this goes on and the more I see of the Clintons and how they are playing this thing the less enamored of them I become. The day after the primary, I found myself wondering if I would even vote for Clinton if she managed, somehow, to pull off a miracle and become the Democratic party nominee.
What’s more, the primary has been so bruising and brutal that I wonder if either of them have a chance of taking down McCain in November. It is very possible that they may have wounded one another enough that it is no longer possible and if that turns out to be the case the Democrats would have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yet again! Of course, this would be different because this year wasn’t supposed to play out like this. This was supposed to be the year that it was supposed to suck to be a Republican. Their initial field of candidates was lackluster to say the least, white males all, with only Mitt Romney as the fair-haired boy among them and he had liabilities a mile long. Giuliani, Paul, Thompson never really had a chance and McCain was the least favored person for the conservative base. After it became clear that McCain was going to be the nominee, I was salivating at the prospect of watching the general election play itself out. Back then it looked like the match-up could be McCain vs. Obama and the latter was going to sidle up to the former and eat him like lobster!
Then Clinton decided that it would be a great idea to hand McCain his general election campaign and to take several pages from the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy and throw it at Obama.
I thought this was going to be an exciting election, at this point I think I could do with a little bored.
What’s more, the primary has been so bruising and brutal that I wonder if either of them have a chance of taking down McCain in November. It is very possible that they may have wounded one another enough that it is no longer possible and if that turns out to be the case the Democrats would have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yet again! Of course, this would be different because this year wasn’t supposed to play out like this. This was supposed to be the year that it was supposed to suck to be a Republican. Their initial field of candidates was lackluster to say the least, white males all, with only Mitt Romney as the fair-haired boy among them and he had liabilities a mile long. Giuliani, Paul, Thompson never really had a chance and McCain was the least favored person for the conservative base. After it became clear that McCain was going to be the nominee, I was salivating at the prospect of watching the general election play itself out. Back then it looked like the match-up could be McCain vs. Obama and the latter was going to sidle up to the former and eat him like lobster!
Then Clinton decided that it would be a great idea to hand McCain his general election campaign and to take several pages from the Vast Right-wing Conspiracy and throw it at Obama.
I thought this was going to be an exciting election, at this point I think I could do with a little bored.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Our Day Trip to the Oregon Coast
Today we drove the car to the coast. First we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we bought way too much cheese before heading up to Cannon Beach. On the drive there, I managed to pour an Italian soda all over my new khaki chinos which I wore for the first time. Wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t gotten blackberry. At any rate, this precipitated driving past Cannon Beach to Seaside where I bought a pair of cargo pants at Eddie Bauer . Finally we managed to get back down to Cannon Beach where we ate a very late (and gigantic) lunch at Mo’s before driving into town proper and walking around.
At this point, a couple of observations are called for. The first is that I LOVE living now. When I was looking for someplace to buy pants, Fred Meyer’s or something, I pulled out my trusty iPhone (which if I could have it surgically implanted in my body I would) and searched for the closest thing I could find. Not only did it find the nearest Fred Meyers (just outside of Astoria) but gave me directions based upon where I was. Now, THAT is some insanely great tech right there! Later, when I needed to find the bar we are currently sitting in where I am blogging this again, I searched and found the bar not knowing the address just the name and city.
Another observation, on our drive from Tillamook to Cannon Beach, I got a chance to open up the Audi a bit and see what it could do. OH MY GODDESS I LOVE THAT CAR!!! At one point I had to sprint past an RV that was holding up the works, unfortunately, the passing lane was in a curvy part of the road. I punched it, she leapt forward and suddenly we went from doing 45mph (72kmh) to doing just under 70mph (112kmh). We’re hitting curves rated at 40(kmh) mph at 65 mph. The car just leaned into the curve, gripped the road and didn’t let go. I thought I had driven before but now I understand how fun driving really can be!
Friday, April 11, 2008
From the well meaning stupid people are still stupid file
At the protest, Wednesday, about the Olympic torch’s pass through San Franciso, the following sign was carried high and proud by some well-meaning person:
Wouldn’t it be great if to be socially active you actually had to know something about the world? I’m amazed no one stopped the person and said “Ummm, 1936 in Berlin?” Sigh.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Vehicular Musings
Today I become a luxury car owner. It’s ‘only’ an Audi A4 Quattro but it’s going to be ours! What a difference a few days make. Originally we thought we were going to get a BMW 328i. That was what I really wanted but the dealer didn’t come down far enough into my price range. Jaime managed to find, on Craigslist of all places, a 2000 Audi that a couple was selling because they had a baby and a sport sedan isn’t as parental as a Volvo. So their loss (more his than hers by the sound of it) is our gain.
It’s got a Bose sound system in it (this I like) and the instrument console has more of a space shuttle feel to it (and that has always been one of my desires is to get in my car and feel like I’m piloting the space shuttle) and it’s going to cost us less than 9K (albeit just under 9K at $8700).
I finally after so many, many years have a Mac. I’ve always liked Apple computers, certainly since the early 90’s when I was working at Gamescape in SF and we had two at work, along with the one my housemate owned and another that was owned by the person who hosted my D&D group. And now I have one. I love my Macbook! I’m sitting on the MAX, writing my little heart out.
My buddy Todd was teasing me that I would stop riding my bike to work and would soon be as out-of-shape as many of the other folks in the office. I told him “watch me not”. I’m determined that even though I have a car, I’m still going to ride most days. I might give myself the luxury of driving one day a week but the other days are definitely going to be spent on MAX and bike. That way I can write. I have a novel and a non-fiction book about race burning a hole in my head and I want to get them written. An hour each way on MAX will give me that opportunity.
It’s got a Bose sound system in it (this I like) and the instrument console has more of a space shuttle feel to it (and that has always been one of my desires is to get in my car and feel like I’m piloting the space shuttle) and it’s going to cost us less than 9K (albeit just under 9K at $8700).
I finally after so many, many years have a Mac. I’ve always liked Apple computers, certainly since the early 90’s when I was working at Gamescape in SF and we had two at work, along with the one my housemate owned and another that was owned by the person who hosted my D&D group. And now I have one. I love my Macbook! I’m sitting on the MAX, writing my little heart out.
My buddy Todd was teasing me that I would stop riding my bike to work and would soon be as out-of-shape as many of the other folks in the office. I told him “watch me not”. I’m determined that even though I have a car, I’m still going to ride most days. I might give myself the luxury of driving one day a week but the other days are definitely going to be spent on MAX and bike. That way I can write. I have a novel and a non-fiction book about race burning a hole in my head and I want to get them written. An hour each way on MAX will give me that opportunity.
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