Snow

It snowed in Denver both yesterday and on Saturday. There's more coming tonight - if the weatherman is to be trusted - and you know he is not. A-Basin is still going strong with 60% of black terrain still open and 100% of blue and green. It's predicted to be 70 by Friday and 80 by Sunday in Denver. Sounds like great weather for skiing! I'd like to get a day in in May and another in June if things hold up.

Jonathan 5/14/2008 06:44:00 PM

 
Comparisons

I just love this theme: Young Me, Now Me. Find a picture from your youth, take another of yourself now in as near an identical pose as you can muster, and post the photos side by side. Very fun. I plan to dig through some old photo albums when I'm at my parents' place in a couple weeks and then see if I can pull off something similar. With all the siblings gathered for the youngest's wedding, I may be able to get a few fun ones. The site also reminds me what a contrast I see on web pages at work where I'm stuck using IE6 compared to home where I surf with Firefox; Firefox is far superior.

Jonathan 5/14/2008 06:28:00 PM

 
Narrow Stairs

I've been trying to listen to the new Death Cab for Cutie album a bunch lately. I've probably been through it three or four times, but none of it has exactly been focused listening. It's good. If you like the band, I suspect you'll like the album. There's nothing not to like. Nothing really hits me as poppy tune or grabs me with a great hook. Still, it's all solid DC4C. As the Westword reminded us in February, DC4C songs really have no place on any romanitc mix tape (they were talking about Valentine's Day, but they probably intended it to apply to wedding playlists as well). You're not going to get rainbows and butterflies from Mr. Gibbard, but you aren't really looking for that anyway. Here's the sixth track, You Can Do Better than Me. You can download the entire album from your peer-to-peer peer of choice. Though it went on sale only yesterday, it's been in the internet tubes for at least a week or two now. I'll be checking them out at Red Rocks two weeks from tonight. I'm sure it will be a fine time. Last time that I saw them was in 2006 two days before I shattered my leg, which also occurred at Red Rocks - the leg thing, not the '06 tour; it was at the Filmore.

Jonathan 5/14/2008 05:55:00 PM

 
Waning Obamania

Two stories in the news today have me regretting all of the positive things I've been saying about Obama and doubting the likelihood that I'll actually end up voting for the guy.

First, he's out pimping his Christian bona fides. Eight years of religious fervor in the White House has been enough. We don't need another believer trying to guide the world toward the end days as described by their favorite prophecy. "But let’s remember one thing: Obama has a story to tell about how Jesus came into his life. You can bet we will be hearing more details about it on the stump in the fall." Great. If he wants to continue to dissuade white voters, he'll make great strides by going all black preacher on the trail. At least so far he's sticking with the title Senator over Reverend.

Next comes the speculation that John Edwards could be his VP running mate. I think it's unlikely that he'd actually choose that douche bag as I conspiratorially suspect that there's more dirt out there regarding his alleged affair. But it's impossible for me to not think of the guy as a douche bag, and despite the soaring qualifications that gives him as a national politician, I'd rather not see him representing the country doing anything.

What I would really, really like to see Obama do is to pick Al Gore as his VP. It's not without precedent for a VP to serve under multiple presidents. George Clinton served under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and John C. Calhoun served under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. You may recall that one of Mr. Gore's great successes during the Clinton years was reinventing government - a broad (and highly successful) effort to streamline and reduce the size of the federal government. By 1999: "the Reinventing Government initiative headed by Al Gore has saved $137 billion, eliminated 16,000 pages of regulations, eliminated 640,000 pages of needless internal rules, and reduced the federal workforce by more than 350,000, to its smallest size since John Kennedy was President." The past 8 years have decimated Mr. Gore's previous work. He was good at it once, and he'd be good at it again.

Jonathan 5/14/2008 05:17:00 PM

 
Mischief

This just cracks me up: flashing gifs on epilepsy forums. If I were 733t haX0r, this sort of thing would be right up my alley.

I'm very much enjoying reading the biography of Miki Dora who was quite the mischief maker himself. It's a fine tale about the rise of surfing. I've got Gidget in my mailbox and am looking forward to watching it this weekend. Miki was in the movie as an extra, and the real Gidget, Kathy Kohner, is prominent in the early going in the book. Judging from pictures in the book and the pictures on the movie promo, the real Gidget was even cuter than the movie version. It's nearly enough to tease the Beach Boys California Girls song into my head, but I reckon that song will never again invade my head for long as it will instantly be pushed aside by the Magnetic Fields I Hate California Girls. Man, I find that song infectious. The whole Distortion album is really quite good. Look in the right places, and it's available for free on the etherwebs.

Jonathan 5/08/2008 08:40:00 AM

 
Sub Prime

Here's a great 45 slide cartoon that explains the mortgage crisis accurately and succinctly. It only takes about three minutes to click all the way through. Some of the language is a bit coarse.

Any talk of bailouts for homeowners that are in danger of losing their homes just frickin' pisses me off. I was far from sophisticated or educated when I bought my house, but I didn't get a stupid mortgage or buy what I couldn't afford. I have no sympathy for those going through foreclosure. Well, except for the folks that it's happening to because they had a health crisis that turned out to be expensive beyond comprehension and who now can't pay for both their housing and their medical bills. That kind of thing happens all the time, and it is surprising at how far insurance companies will go to screw their insureds by refusing to pay for medical treatments.

I've gone off on a raging tangent and need to stop now.

Jonathan 5/08/2008 07:43:00 AM

 
Psycho Ex-girlfriend

This is great. I've stolen the whole thing from MadAtoms here (via Wil via Fark).

Despite all the math counting her out, Hillary Clinton fervently remains in the race to become the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. She has become the Democratic Party's psycho ex-girlfriend, and she's not going away without a restraining order.

It's 2:31 AM. The Democratic Party is sleeping peacefully when it hears its phone buzz on the night stand. It rolls over and sees "Hillary" on the caller ID. It pauses briefly, considering pushing "END" and not dealing with this shit tonight. The thought is appealing but the Democratic Party knows that if it doesn't take this call, another one is only minutes away.

DEMS: ...Hello?

Hillary: Hey baby.

DEMS: C'mon Hillary. Enough with this.

Hillary: Don't you get it? You NEED me.

DEMS: No, I don't. It was fun while it lasted but I'm with Barack now. I made my choice, it's done.

Hillary: You can't really mean that. How can you say that after all the good times we had?

DEMS: To be honest, I started hanging out with you because Bill's pretty awesome.

Hillary: But I'm just like Bill!

DEMS: No, you're not. Bill is charismatic, inspiring, and gets me really good weed.

Hillary: Fuck you. You're elitist!


DEMS: I'm going back to sleep.

Hillary: No, no, wait. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. Listen... there's still got to be a chance. Remember when people told George W it was all over. When the numbers were against him?

DEMS: Yeah but...

Hillary: Remember?! And remember how everyone said America didn't really want to be with George W? But they stuck it out anyway?

DEMS: Yeah and they're really fucked up now, Hillary.

Hillary: But WE'LL make it work. Forget Barack, baby. Just take me back and we can forget this ever happened.

DEMS: Look, I think you're a really good Senator... let's just keep it that way, OK?

Hillary: ...I'll see you at the convention.

DEMS: No! Hillary I told you...

CLICK

DEMS: Dammit. Crazy bitch.

Jonathan 5/08/2008 07:09:00 AM

 
Recovering

My brother's dog had two heart surgeries last week. On Tuesday, they endoscopically entered her leg in an attempt to repair a tear in her heart. Three times the patch was put into place, and three times the patch slipped off. The surgery was a failure. On Wednesday, they took it to the next level and cracked her ribs for open heart surgery. Initial indications are that it seems to have gone well. She's exhausted and sore still. I don't think she knows what hit her. Hopefully this will ultimately add years to her life.



Jonathan 5/04/2008 07:31:00 PM

 
Enough Already

Ok, all you journos, you can stop defining superdelegates in every single article that employs the term. We all know. There are no new readers coming to this topic. Quit filling space by explaining the concept every time. We get it. Thanks.

Jonathan 5/01/2008 08:32:00 PM