Monday, September 08, 2003
To elaborate just a bit on a point I made in my last post...
Whether you want to acknowledge it or not it really is not ok for our government to be watching us. It's irrelevant that you may not have anything to hide. Remember that this country was founded through revolution on the ideals of freedom and liberty not security and unquestioning patriotism.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
- Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775, Speech to the House of Burgesses
12:58:46 PM 
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By the way Heather, I think your dad is a great dad for supporting you the way he does but I hate his political views and I'm glad I got in to a fight with him about it that time in Saratoga!
12:29:45 PM
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Bush wants (and of course is going to get) 87+ BILLION additional dollars. Where is the money coming from again?
Hey all of you stupid Americans... you do realize that this is real money don't you?
We've already bailed out the airline industry 2x recently;
Given Amtrack 1.5 Billion dollars;
We're building the Dept of Homeland Security, the largest government office in our country's history - and that's saying something!
note: It's also significant that this effort will be used largely to keep tabs on American citizens, even if that isn't the direct intention. This isn't me being overly paranoid, it's only logical. if you want to separate the good from the bad then you have to look closely at both the good and the bad so you can identity members of each group as a prerequisite for being able to separate them.
And whether you want to acknowledge it or not it really is not ok for our government to be watching us. It's irrelevant that you may not have anything to hide. Remember that this country was founded through revolution on the ideals of freedom and liberty not security and unquestioning patriotism.
to steer this back on point... there are other necessities that we absolutely must spend money on in the future including: the power grid (I haven't seen a short term price tag on this), healthcare, education (which is currently being undercut in the name of saving a fraction of the money that Bush is throwing around).
and much much more.
This is small government? So the Republican vision of small givernment is to spend money on everything except social programs?
We're spending more money than we ever have before and in entirely new ways (in addition to all of the old ways), we have less personal freedom now than we did 4 years ago, the economy is still in the tiolet as projection dates for a turn around have come and gone, Bush continues to throw money away.
Do any of you honestly feel more financially secure having received your pathetic $400.00 child tax credit? Are you aware that it cost the country 81 billion dollars for you to get a check for $400.00?
And can I ask what you did with the money that will make a significant difference in your children's lives?
Of course everything that has happened in the past is inevitable in the present (I'm sure someone else has said that in a more eloquent way) but it didn't need to be this way.
Bush said in his speech last night 'We can't go back.'
Ain't that the truth. This should be the motto of his administration.
11:18:04 AM
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I had a pretty lousy weekend.
Jenn was in Chicago at a friend's wedding.
I spent the weekend cleaning my apartment (which still isn't close to being clean). I'm all for being productive and keeping a clean house but I've done the same thing every weekend for my entire adult life. At this point it feels like I'm just looping and so I hate doing it.
I did spend some time talking to Heather, which is fun (most of the time ;O)
I watched a lot of college and pro football, which I'm happy about. I saw:
the Miami vs. Florida game and some others;
I saw the Patriots get destroyed by Buffalo, which I couldn't be happier about (the Patriots just don't deserve to win).
Boston pro sports is about as screwed up as Boston politics, which is as screwy as the Boston & MA economy.
I watched Bill Parcels lose with Dallas.
If I bet my conscience this weekend I would have won a fortune.
Jenn got home close to 7:00PM last night. We went downtown so that I could get something to eat, but of course everything was closed. I ended up eating Wendy's at Post Office Square and then walking home. I desperately wanted to sit down at some little cafe somewhere, nurse a large coffee and just relax, but everything was closed. It's a small thing, but that frustration of walking home feeling like I had a very simple goal and no way to accomplish it kind of sums up my life right now, which put me in a pretty miserable mood.
When I got home I made a few weblog posts, watched another football game and ate some random stuff (a mixed greens salad, french fries, an apple, twinkies and milk) and then went to bed after 2:00 AM.
11:06:56 AM
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Apple has sold 10 million songs through their online Music Store.
This is really quite an accomplishment. Great technology can do amazing things!
10:34:52 AM
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Apple updates their iMacs.
The design of the computer hasn't changed.
The new models contain faster processors (up to 1.25GHz G4), support faster RAM, include faster NVIDIA graphics processors, USB 2, 80GB hard drives... and more of course.
There is a 15" model with lower overall specs for $1299.00 and a 17" model with better overall specs for $1799.00.
You can find the press release here.
10:29:21 AM
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New 20 ($399.00) and 40 GB ($499.00) iPods replace the 15 and 30 GB models at the same price.
At 40 GB the iPod a beefy portable hard drive. Keep 10GB reserved for your music and assume that you have 30 GB available for data and you can literally carry your entire digital life in your pocket (and it's both Mac, PC compatible).
There are just so many applications for this for small/med sized businesses (administration), the enterprise (allow users to roam without resorting to network intensive schemes (which drive up infrastructure and security costs) and individuals (keep an inventory of your possesions for insurance purposes, your medical history...). And of course the device supports contacts and scheduling/calendars, free form notes, and can be adapted to many of types of information.
Watch out for new accessories/new features coming soon from Apple.
You can find Apple's press release about the new iMacs here.
9:48:29 AM
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It's 2:18 AM. I'm eating twinkies and drinking milk before bed.
Not healthy, but fun.
(sorry about the sentence fragment.)
:O)
2:18:37 AM
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Heather is being way too nice to Julie. This is the equivalent of a puff piece. Julie is just a horrible person; one of those cookie cutter, self agggrandizing, disasters of a human being. She can sap the soul right out of you using her powers of vanilla passive aggression, sobbism. I'm surprised she doesn't implode. Nothing is good enough for her except somehow her state college diploma and her average fiance. She's one of those people who can warp and twist their perception of reality until they come out on top. You can't talk to Julie. You have to interview her. You have to sit back and throw her leading questions about how wonderful her life is and then sit back and act amused; never taking the focus off of Julie.
I could go on forever about this but I'll settle for a couple of anecdotes.
I knew Julie in college through Heather. For the first few years she didn't have a boyfriend but she had her high standards (fair enough, everyone is entitled to through own standards) and then senior year along comes some idiot frat guy. Julie, who would settle for nothing sort of perfection settled for a short, 1/2 ugly, typical, binge drinking, loud, borderline retarded ass of a frat lemming.
Heather and I went to dinner with Julie and this guy (his name was Dan or Bret or Sam, Chuck, Hank, Tad... something like that) and for the whole meal he tells stories about his frat and their special frat handshakes... that sort of thing... and how he never gets a speeding tickets because if he ever gets pulled over he just starts drinking with the cops and blah, blah, blah.
Julie gets up from the table and this guy started shouting about how aeful Julie looked that night and that she didn't know how to dress, and then something about having sex with other people and on and on, before Julie finally returns with a proud smile on her face. She should have flushed the guy down the toilet and dated the turd. She spent what seems like most of senior year with this guy.
Now she's getting married. I don't know the guy but I know that he's successful enough to buy a cardboard cut out of a house in the middle of nowhere. I was there once to take Heather to a party (this party is what led to the end of Heather's relationship with Julie).
The place was unfurnished except for the stereo on the floor, the alchohol and the awful people. Anyway, Julie treated Heather like crap all night after requesting that Heather attend and after Heather had spent the day helping Julie prep for this very sophisticated soiree or a kegger.
At the time, Julie was counting coats (literally) as a Grade 1A accountant or something like that. She's such an important person.
Fast forward several years and Julie's getting married. I would say it's just a prelude to the divorce but Julie is certainly not above looking beyond an affair or two or two dozen so maybe these two crazy kids stand a chance. I say fuck Julie and pitty this poor guy (I'm' sure he may be an ass but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt).
Oh yeah Mark, he's some piece of work too. It's no coincidence that he is the last of the bunch still getting along with Julie. If this demented, repressed, mother fucker doesn't have a couple of heads in his freezer I'd honestly be surprised.
What a motley crew. Heather have you ever said thank you to me for taking you away from that disaster of a situation when we moved to Boston?
2:12:14 AM
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Here's another one. God damn it...
It's an interview with Andy Roddick on ESPN and the interviewer makes this observation.
"You know most 21 year olds at this point are headed back to college and you just won a grand slam, received a million dollars and got a hug from Mandy Moore. How good is your life?"
Man what a bunch of suckers, college kids... losers. I mean can you believe it? Kids wasting their lives at college instead of swinging a racket. Where were their parents when they were studying instead of practicing tennis?
His response was something along the lines of I know I'm so lucky...blah blah blah...
We have so many people in government and there are interest groups of all sorts making sure that kids don't hear a swear word or see violence or nudity but kids are inundated with this message that pro atheletes, star actors and musicians are the paramount of success.
Education and a career is offered as a poor consolation for those who don't have what it takes to be successful. It's the wrong message and this is where the real damage is being done.
You have very visible personalities with stories of how they broke all the rules and took irresponsible chances on the road to eventual super stardom, wealth and fame. Of course, the countless other broken people who did the same sorts of things only to come up a little short or not get the fortunate break are invisible and forgotten (but not gone. They get to live out the rest of their miserable uneducated, frustrated, pathetic little broken lives in obscurity and ruin.
It really is such a horribe message to tell kids that the way to get ahead is by not doing what they're told, by acting out, by breaking the mold. This just isn't going to work out for the vast majority of kids out there. Sure maybe one in a million or one in ten million (I hope I can track down some statistics. If I can I'll post them) but these aren't the type of odds that you'd want to bet your kid's future on.
Kids have a much better chance at success by focusing on their education, and starting as early as possible. Do well in elementary school and you'll be perfectly positioned to do well in high school. Do well in high school and you'll have an easy time getting accepted into the college or university of your choice. Do well in college and go on to grad school or move on to career. You can do whetever you want to do and the odds are pretty good, assuming you do the work to the best of your ability, that you'll be successful going this route. Then buy your tickets and watch the trained idiots bounce their balls, sing their little songs or play pretend, all for your amusement. And then go home, and enjoy your life.
1:46:51 AM
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The media can be out of control. I'm not going to stay up late worrying about Kobe Bryant. I won't bother dicussing his current legal issues... he is at least partially responsible for the situation he is in and I don't have much sympathy for people who have every advantage and ruin their lives seemingless just for the entertainment value of it all and then act surprised when they succeed and expect to be able to just take it back. That having been said this is exceptionally rediculous.
Apparently Kobe Bryant has a cousin Tony Bryant who is possibly, somehow involved in, or may knowledge of relevant to the Michael Sakakel/Martha Moxley case. And who's picture do they paste into the story... Kobe Bryant. This is all about something that happened in 1975. Kobe Bryant hadn't been born yet in 1975.
I guess I can see making the connection... but including the picture I think is much too much. We all know what Kobe Bryant looks like. The picture is really too much. And of course the story mentions the rape charge.
Hey fry Kobe Bryant... I could care less. The guys obviously a complete f*ing moron.
Oh, I mean... poor Kobe. How could he have known that a chick who would be willing to spread her legs in a hotel room for a complete stranger would be unstable.
Where do these woman come from? Maybe there's a clue buried in this headline from the Associated Press "Bryant, Accused of Rape, Named Teens[base '] Favorite Male Athlete". The award is Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Award. The voting happened before the accusation of rape but the awards show was held after Bryant's arraignment. Kobe Bryant was met with cheers of support and approval at the awards show.
While accepting the award, Kobe had this to say, "An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere," (paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
What a noble victim. Really it's not his fault. It's my fault and it's your fault. It's the fault of the parents and children cheering this idiot on at the awards show. If those parents would just offer up their tween daughters then maybe this tragedy could have been avoided. When will we stop disappointing our heros.
If you can't cheat on your wife with some random stranger at a The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera, who can you cheat on your wife with?
12:47:45 AM
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