Blog Master G

I returned last night from four days and three nights in the Big Apple. Well, one of those nights was at Heather and Saahil’s great new place in Hoboken, but close enough to NYC. The trip was for both work and play, and I certainly managed to pack a lot into just a handful of days.

Saturday night Jen and I had dinner with Heather, Saahil, Karen, Joti, and Shrey at a place called House of Duck on 53rd St. Then we hit a Vassar party at Luahn’s on 5th Ave. The “formerly posh club” owned by Stephen Baldwin appeared to have seen better days. Sitting in our corner booth, we laughed at the prospect of paying $325 for a bottle of Grey Goose. Maybe if you’re Jay-Z. It was cool to see folks like Phil, Ben, Anna, Peter, David, Jessica, Trel, Annie, and Jennifer.

Dan and I finally got the chance to hang out, after many unsuccessful attempts at meeting up in either Saratoga or NYC. Glenn joined us for some drinks, too.

It was great seeing you all. Don’t be a stranger here in Saratoga, either.

Watching The Incredibles last night, I felt excited and giddy, much like the row of 6-year-olds next to me. Except I think I laughed more and enjoyed it more than they did. This movie is simply awesome.

The animation is so good you tend to forget you’re watching a cartoon. The story line and the writing are superb. The characters are funny. It’s really a well-done movie and it far exceeded my expectations. And I was expecting a lot. It’s definitely one for the DVD collection. It was also pretty cool to see in the credits the name of one of Pixar’s animators whom I know.

My favorite character? Elastigirl. And not just because of her bootylicious cartoon ass.

The trailer for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith kicked ass. It got me really psyched for the May release.

The Pixar short Boundin’ was adorable. It featured the Great American Jackalope, so how could it be bad?

This morning I dropped off the dogs at The Farm in preparation for our weekend get away to NYC. After charging out of the car to assert her dominance over the gentle, freely running dogs, Stella and Happy seemed content to be running around a pen by themselves a bit later. While standing in the office, Pippin, the staff monkey and “unofficial supervisor of the kennel,” opened the door behind me and cruised out into the barn. He was so fast I wondered why the door was opening by itself. As he perched on a stack of boxes outside the office, I was face-to-face with Pippin when I left the office. I smiled and greeted him with, “Hi, monkey!” I half-expected him to reply, but he just looked at me curiously with his little monkey eyes.

Mark Morford explains why We Are All Dubya’s Doormat:

The truth will soon be hitting much of the conservative nation like a redneck smacks a dog: now that the fear-saturated Right has handed this failed oilman four more unrestrained years to do his dirtiest deeds and a deeply contaminated, well-greased Congress to do it with, he no longer needs their support and he couldn’t care less about their “moral values” or their positions on Social Security reform or the war in Iraq or just what the hell he meant about spending the “political capital” he claims he’s earned by winning the election (by the slimmest margin of any incumbent president in history).

(Thanks, Glenn, for the Morford heads-up.)

Although this is clearly a broad generalization and not everyone who lives in the south is guilty of these attitudes and values, it’s still pretty fucking funny and poignant:

Fuck the South. Fuck ’em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they’d stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves – yeah, those are states we want to keep.
And now what do we get? We’re the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

(Thanks, Shay, for the link.)

And some other links about the rigged election:

• The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
• Kerry Won. . .
• Machine Politics (Wired’s history of electronic voting)
• Rage Against the Machines
• Black Box Voting

(Thanks, Dan, for the above collection of links.)

Finally, how will Arafat’s death affect the Middle East?

A couple months ago I integrated TypeKey comment registration into my site. At the time, it was optional. Now it is required.

You see, no comment spam gets through and actually shows up on my site, but I’m tired of email after email notifying me of all the morons who try to use my blog as a place to promote the sale of propecia, viagra, unsecured loans, and the like.

I love the legitimate comments and the dialogue here, but I’m afraid I must now require TypeKey registration before posting. It’s really not that big a deal, since creating an account takes no time at all. So please, create an account and keep on commenting!

In other news, oh, darn, I’m so disappointed:

US Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned from the Bush cabinet, the White House has announced.

Who will take away more of our liberties and enforce the Patriot Act now?

Yesterday afternoon shortly after 2pm I peered out my window with sheer delight as the first white flakes of wonder came floating down from the sky. It was short yet furious and the thermometer showed only 40, so nothing stuck to the ground just yet. Nevertheless, I called Jen at work and left her an ecstatic voicemail. This morning it’s sub-30 outside and the skies are blue.

Last night we watched Sunday’s episode of Desperate Housewives, my favorite show on TV right now. I haven’t missed an episode so far. If you haven’t yet seen it, put it on your must-watch list. It’s that good. Funny, smart, intriguing, good story line, hot women, racy scenes (especially for network TV). How can you go wrong?

Last week I grew tired of back pain and treated myself to a new chair, which arrived on Friday. I’m still working on getting just the right settings and today am trying a more elevated position of chair and monitors.

As if to make up for last weekend’s sitting around and doing nothing, Jen and I went all out this weekend.

Friday night we went out on the town with Justin and Seth. We hit the usual spots: DA’s, the Wine Bar, Tin and Lint. Ended up at Joe’s house for a bit before heading in for the night.

Saturday we hit the road just after 9am and headed to central New York for Steph’s baby shower. While Jen did the strange things that women do at those things, I hung out with Dave and two other generations of men. It was a good 6-hour round trip and a beautiful day to be on the road.

After dinner Saturday night, we headed north to Sarah and Eric’s place for poker night. There were seven of us playing. I was the first to lose. Since my blog was a topic of conversation that night (Eric dubbed me “Dot Com” and Jen “Lady Fantastic”), I have to give shoutouts to the others in attendance: Andy the Fluffer, Nantucket Steve, and Sean the Yankees Fan. I overcame my poker fear and look forward to getting my ass handed to me next time.

Yesterday we replaced our 16 screen windows and one screen door with as many storm windows. We’re ready for you, winter! Bring the snow. We also raked, had lunch with Anne and Tom at Sushi Thai Garden, and had Jen’s parents over for dinner and a movie (Master and Commander).

I wasn’t too impressed by Master and Commander. It was like a badly done 1805 reality show without producer intervention to create an interesting story line.

Waking up and seeing the ground blanketed in white for the first time of the season is one of the most magical, invigorating feelings. That moment should come along any day now. In fact, yesterday afternoon we had some slush, and snow overnight was possible, so I excitedly peeked out the window this morning in anticipation. No luck yet.

The current weather report says it’s currently raining and snowing, which is not true, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, this week has called for the planting of our blue snow curb reflectors in front of our house (not something we had really known much about, but we took our neighbor’s queue and had seen our reflectors in the garage, left for us by the former owner); last night I loaded up the car with the snow brush and other winter gear; yesterday we had our furnace and radiators cleaned and inspected; in the next couple days, we’ll have to fill the gas can so we can bust out the snow blower when that wonderful time arrives; this weekend we’ll take down all the screens around the house in favor of the storm windows.

Let it snow, let it snow!

An awesome post I saw today:

Ladies and gentlemen, you needn’t fret anymore. We have decided that we can’t live in the United States anymore, because so many of you in the “heartland” are so full of shit. We were all going to move to various other countries, but then we thought – why should WE move?

We are tired of rednecks in Oklahoma picking the leader who will determine if it is safe for us to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. We are sick of homophobic knuckle-draggers in Wyoming contributing to the national debate on our gay marriages. So we have done the only thing we could.

We seceded.

May I present to you: AMERICAN COASTOPIA.

Jane’s plan for secession is along the same lines.

Overall, I feel that I need a break from it all, like Dan.

But first: My favorite international headline from today:

(From London’s Daily Mirror)

P.S. The Brits have the best electoral college map I’ve seen anywhere online. Click on a state to zoom in on detailed results. And weep. But then view the historical results and see how much the country has changed over the years. Note how blue it was in years like 1948 (Truman) and 1964 (Johnson). Also of interest is that in 1984, only Minnesota was blue for Regan. Barely.

This morning:

The instant messages from fellow blue state friends in both coasts began to flow in shortly after 10am Eastern Time yesterday morning, around the time Kerry announced that the math in Ohio just wouldn’t work and he was going to concede the election to Bush. We were all depressed. There wasn’t much we could say or do.

I went through the whole range of emotions yesterday from “He cheated!” to “Fuck this! I’m moving to Canada!” to “I’m tired of thinking about and debating politics so much” to “Maybe ignorance really is bliss.”

And that’s when it hit me.

What if I were to sell my Subaru and buy an H2? Forgo the locally-owned Mexican and Indian restaurants in favor of McDonald’s and Applebee’s? Stop supporting my local hardware store because Home Depot has a bigger selection and lower prices? Cheer when our health insurance costs rise next year because hey, at least we’re paying less in taxes and screw the homeless and the underpaid and the uninsured because that’s more money in my pocket to spend at Wal-Mart, right? Start attending church every Sunday and praise God almighty and Jerry Falwell and thank the Lord that he wants Bush to be in the White House four more years to keep fighting the war against those evil Middle Easterners who hate us for our freedom and want to shove the nukes right up our asses? And speaking of asses: Damn the homosexuals! Those devil-worshipping sinners who are tearing apart the very fabric of God and country and marriage and everything it stands for! Off with their heads! They’re ruining the fabric of the homeland and decaying our moral values!

On second thought, I think I’ll keep fighting for my values and those of 55.4 million fellow Americans who believe that the foundation of our great country was built on freedom and equality for every human being, gay or straight, black or white. I’ll fight for the continued separation of church and state and will yell and scream when I hear that southern churches are encouraging its worshippers to vote for Bush. I’ll fight for freedom of speech and against the Patriot Act. I’ll criticize Bush when he repeals the next clean air act, making the air more polluted for me and you and future generations.

Despite what Bush thinks, we may live in one country, but we are a divided nation. We may share the same basic principles and have the same basic desires — food, shelter, economic security, safety for us and our children — but no one can argue that we see the world through the same eyes. This does not look like a country that shares the same values.

The road ahead will not be easy, Mr. Bush, but it begins with acknowledging, as John Kerry urged you to do in his phone call to you yesterday morning, that we are a divided nation. Let’s start there, and maybe we can learn to understand each other’s differences and work for bettering this country before we continue to force our beliefs and way of life on the rest of the world. I don’t hate my fellow Americans who live in red states. I just know that our lives are very different and we see the world differently. And that’s OK.

One thing we can all do, regardless of political or sexual preference, is “Celebrate life today, not politics!” Poignant words from my Dad.