Quote of the Day

"Now that the Republican ticket is defined, you're going to start seeing bumper stickers that say Racists for Obama."

--Dennis Connors

O and Joe

Rarely am I happy to be woken up at 3:19 a.m., but last night at that time I was pleased to receive Obama's text message announcing his VP. I stuck the glowing phone in Chris's face, waking him up too.

"It's Biden!" I squealed.

When you get your dream ticket in the middle of the night, it's awful hard to go back to sleep.

This is a good choice for Barack. Biden is no yes-man, and that says a lot of about the confidence Obama has in his own judgment -- he's willing to be challenged. I've heard him mention in the past Lincoln's strategy of filling his cabinet with his rivals. If he's going to follow that mold, this is a good start.

Anyway... There's a certain harsh reality that comes with getting your dream ticket. What if they win and get to the White House and suck? I'll feel silly. So my rah-rah fandom lasts only until Inauguration Day. After that, they'll have to earn it day by day.

Veep me, baby II

It's 9:40 PM on Friday, and still no VP-announcing text message from Obama. I feel like an expectant father.

So I'm a Control Freak

A friend from high school and his wife are coming to visit me Labor Day weekend. He had many things he wanted to do, but I narrowed them down and tried to make a plan, because I need a plan, both for each individual day of my life, and for weekend visits.

I told him our options:

Me:

If you want to do the Sam Adams brew tour, it only runs on Saturdays, so you'd have to go into Boston as soon as you get here on Saturday. Fenway Tours and Science Museum are open Sundays.

SATURDAY:
1. You go into Boston for the brew tour and we will stay home.
2. We all hang in the suburbs, maybe go to Walden Pond or to Lexington/Concord, and then we'll make dinner.

SUNDAY:
We'll all go into Boston, go on a Fenway Tour and then hit the Science Museum (and maybe see 3-D shark movie?!?) and then have dinner.

Him:

That sounds like a plan to me, man. Then do you wanna plan out the
rest of my life? It would make things so much easier.

Frozen treat

I'm currently experiencing the strongest Coffee Coolata ever made. It's already gotten up and walked across my desk several times, and when I stirred it up it gained its own gravitational pull.

I expect to have a black eye and a fat lip by the time I'm done drinking this sucker.

Leave Netflix alone!

It drives me crazy when people hate on Netflix. The company's had shipping problems the last couple days -- it's a minor thing, I'm sure; there's no reason it should be a major headline on every news site.

Give Netflix a break! I'm not offended by this problem. I don't mind waiting an extra couple days for my movies. I've been a Netflix member since 2002 and this is the first inconvenience in an otherwise stellar record of service. I do not want the credit they're offering to cry-baby subscribers to make up for this. If you think you deserve a credit because you had to wait an extra day for your copy of Bring It On 3, you're a d-bag.

Recently I got an email from Netflix about a lawsuit. Apparently in 2006 Netflix was the target of a class-action lawsuit (which I almost always think are bullshit on principle, and this is no exception) for something ridiculous like "it's false advertising to call the service unlimited because postage takes time," etc., etc. Netflix lost. As part of the settlement, and because I had a membership during the period in dispute, Netflix is giving me a free month of upgraded service. I don't want it! I wish I could opt out. I don't want Netflix losing money on me. (It is, after all, the only service I can think of that has actually gotten cheaper over the years.)

Because what if there was no Netflix? I wish people would think about that before they sink their vampire teeth into Netflix's neck. When they bleed the company dry and force it to fold, are these people really going to drive to Blockbuster instead? I don't think so!

In closing: Leave Netflix alone! *Sob*

Update: I received two Netflix discs in the mail today, on schedule.

Veep me, baby

With Obama's V.P. pick imminent, there are a lot of names still swirling around. Since everybody and their uncle is getting in on the speculation game, here are my official picks:

Obama will choose either Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, or Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

I don't know much about Sebelius except that she's been a successful governor of a very red state and has a prominent role in the Obama campaign. Conventional wisdom says Obama needs a stodgy white man to offset his blackness, but I wouldn't be surprised if instead he doubles-down on the newness factor and adds a woman to his ticket.

It's been no secret that an Obama/Biden ticket is my dream ticket. Biden is a foreign policy god. It's true he puts his foot in his mouth a lot, but that's only because he has room in there because there's never any bullshit coming out of it.

Will it be one of these two, or someone else? Time will tell.

Sigh of relief

As the news about John Edwards' affair comes out, the Democrats breathe a collective sigh of relief that their nominee only got lei'd.



Haha. I crack myself up.

Liveblogging the Opening Ceremony

8:05 - Quite a building, that bird's nest.

8:08 - President Bush enters the stadium and takes his seat. Ugh. He's a disaster, but he's our disaster, and when they say that the office is bigger than the person, I guess this is what they mean, because I feel some modicum of pride that he's there.

8:10 - 2,008 drummers moving in unison. Costas suggests that they're kind of... intimidating. He's right. Apparently the drummers were told during rehearsal to smile a lot. I can see why.

8:17 - "...To the more than one billion Chinese watching tonight." Further intimidating. One of my recurring dreams is an invasion nightmare wherein I look out the window and find the streets filled with foreign soldiers. This isn't helping.

8:22 - They're unscrolling across the floor a video screen the size of a football field. Color me impressed.

8:23 - It just occurred to me that all the performers so far are male.

8:24 - The video scroll is the world's largest LED screen. This is what $300 million buys, apparently.

8:32 - These flowing block things are incredible.

8:52 - It's like TRON come to life.

8:59 - OK, I'm bored now. Let's see some pole vaulting.

Olympics is for lovers

The Olympics is starting at just the right time. I have massive presidential campaign fatigue, so it's a relief that the campaigns will be going on semi-hiatus while the world turns its eyes to Beijing. For the next couple weeks I'll happily allow the news to move my attention away from John McCain's energy plan and place it squarely on Michael Phelps's sexy new mustache.


Let the Games begin!

A Summer Thought

When I was a kid, I thought that the waves only crashed onto the beach during the summer.

As an adult, I watched Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, and felt surprised that the waves were there during the winter beach scenes.

Why so serious?

Some belated thoughts on The Dark Knight:

A fantastic action movie -- surprising, twisty, tense, scary -- but not quite enough mythical Batman mystique for me. With the decision to make this movie as real-world as possible (even more so than Batman Begins), there's a trade-off, and the result lacks poetry.

Batman isn't just an action-movie star interchangeable with Nicolas Cage or Denzel Washington. He's been around for almost 70 years. He's an icon and an American myth, right up there with Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan, and The Dark Knight didn't treat him as such enough for me. Begins did. For example, the scene where Bruce's parents are murdered (the crucial moment of the Batman legend) felt like an opera on screen; it had the weight it deserved. The Dark Knight has no equivalent moment. We never even see the Batcave.

Heath Ledger was amazing, though. I read somewhere someone say that everyone else who's ever played the Joker was merely a caretaker for a role that Heath now owns, and that's definitely true. My fondness for the sweet blond Heath Ledger over the course of his entire too-short career has been well chronicled in this blog... that he was able, after all my swooning, to make me afraid of him, is the highest praise I can give.

On a final note, it's nice to see a DC character trounce Marvel! Now let's see if Batman can beat Titanic.

Long Awkward Pose

As if people don't look awkward in posed photos already. This website is encouraging you to document their lameness by videotaping instead of snapping a picture.

It's kinda mean.

It's a trick I could totally get into pulling.

Quote for the day

"You know, they think it is funny that they are making fun of something that is actually true... It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant."

--Barack Obama, responding to Republicans mocking him for recommending that drivers keep their tires fully inflated to increase gas mileage.

Gettin' some tail

Ben: This guy from Billerica is on the shooting team in the Olympics. He's super hot. It says he's a descendant of Daniel Boone.

Chris: The woodsman.

Ben: Yes. Daniel Boone was super hot too, you know. That's where the phrase "Getting some tail" came from. Because he wore those coonskin caps with the tail. When the ladies back in that day hooked up with him, they told their friends that they'd gotten some tail.

Chris: Is that true?

Ben: No but it sounds good, doesn't it?