The whole family (dog included) is taking a road trip to Missouri to visit relatives. Internet access will be sketchy.
I bet my iPhone battery runs out way too fast.
Wish us luck.
One of the televisions at the gym features Fox News. My iPod saves me from having to hear the inane discussion, but the captions still catch my eye.
Today I first say the term “homicide bomber,” as in “homicide bomber kills 50 in Iraq.” Turns out that the bomber also killed herself, and the news organizations I found on the internet pretty much exclusively called it a “suicide bombing,” avoiding the redundancy. I’m guessing Fox wants it to sound more menacing and less tragic, but it still seems odd.
Another headline: “McCain becomes sharper in attacks on Obama.” To me, that sounds like about the only way they could get the phrase “McCain becomes sharper” out there.
Also, I learned that the jerk who shot up a Unitarian church apparently did so because of his hatred of liberals and gays. Much as I despise Fox news, I must admit that they did not seem to express admiration for this behavior. Neither did they condemn it or express outrage, near as I could tell. In addition to hating liberals and gays, he was mad because his food stamps were being reduced. Damn those food stamp cutting liberals!
Since my iPhone was stolen (did I mention that thieves suck?), I took the opportunity to get a new iPhone.
The archive of my web site seems to be all messed up, so I couldn’t go over my original review of the iPhone from last year, so I’m going to go over my complaints by memory.
#1: Slippery! The first thing I did with my original iPhone was have it squirt out of my hands like a bar of soap and clatter on the floor. The new one, while equally smooth, isn’t slick. Solved.
#2: No GPS. The solved this reasonably well already with the old one in software, but the new one seems to have true GPS. Solved.
#3: Limited software. Seems to be solved, though the selection sucks for now.
#4: Low speaker volume. The 3G’s a little better. Could be better yet.
#5: Stupid speaker jack that doesn’t work with normal earphones. Solved.
New problems? The battery life seems substantially reduced. Instead of 5 days of non-use per charge, I only get 2. Pretty big difference. Also, even though I don’t do text messaging, it offends me that they’d want to charge me $0.20 to do it now. What, 2 MB emails are free, but a 12 byte SMS costs money? Stupid.
The camera is good, but it’d be neat if it did video. And had a flash.
If you’re already on AT&T, I can’t think of a good reason not to have an iPhone. It’s sweet.
I haven’t checked these numbers (boring!), but according to the Tax Policy Institute, Obama’s tax plan is going to hork you — if you make over $227,000 per year.
If you make under $112,000 per year, your taxes will decrease under Obama’s plan.
McCain’s plan reduces taxes for everybody (especially the super-rich), unless, of course, you count the dollar collapse from the giant deficit as a tax.
Time for a little sexism, I guess.
When I go to the gym, I do a little cardio stuff (usually elliptical or rowing), and a quick circuit of weight machines. I work up a sweat, cool off in the pool, and pat myself on the back.
There are lots of women working out, but the vast majority of them seem to have a phobia of exercise. They do the weight machines, but they set them on the lowest settings, so they’re bench pressing ten pounds. Here’s a tip, ladies: When you lat pull 15 pounds, the weight of your own arms keeps the weights in equilibrium, so you’re actually doing less work than simply lifting your arms over your head. And hey, those step machines have resistance settings for a reason!
It’s as if they fear that a single drop of sweat could drain their lifeblood.
I hate to criticize anybody who’s exercising, even if it’s totally lame. Heck, I think most Americans would double their exercise if they just parked their car across the street, and they’d triple it if they just lost the remote control. Any exercise is better than nothing. But come on! If you’re going to go to the gym, work a little.
The aversion to sweat doesn’t seem to exist in the girls in the other room doing the aerobics routines — and they’re hotter than the ones pretending to exercise in the main room.
OK, I’ll shut up now, before some musclebound girl kicks my ass.
On a whim I picked up a collection of Shirley Jackson (best known for the horrifying tale, “The Lottery“) short stories.
One of my favorites is “Seven Types of Ambiguity.” For me, this is a chilling tale of human evil. It enrages me every time I read it.
This probably makes me weird. Surely few who read this story would words like “chilling,” “evil,” and “rage” when describing it.
Here’s the plot:
A couple comes into a bookstore. They buy some books. They leave. The end.
So why does it make me so angry? For the same reason books by the yard make me angry. To me, books are the core of civilization. Have some respect.
When Katrina hit New Orleans, I was deeply saddened by the flooding of several public libraries, whose entire rare books collections were ruined or lost. People come and go, but knowledge is forever.
In McCain’s speech on foreign policy, several times he repeated a statement that kind of flabbergasted me. “I know how to win wars.” It’s a great thing to know, and he says it with great confidence, but, um, what wars has he won again?
He was in the military, as a pilot. Pilots fight battles, not wars.
He did go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but his not-quite-dead-last class ranking (894th out of 899) isn’t exactly confidence inspiring.
I can’t help but suspect that I know two dozen gaming nerds who know more about how to win wars than McCain.
I’m going to finish by saying something nice about McCain. When he was a POW in Vietnam, they offered to release him early because his father was an admiral, but he refused repatriation until every soldier captured before him was released. I respect that. It shows toughness, and courage, and principles.
But this old man has no business being president. Sorry.
Yesterday we were talking about the Supreme Court, and I talked about how my vast respect for them was hugely diminished by the 2000 election decision. I was disgusted that all the biggest supporters of states’ rights reversed their longime policies to make a blatantly partisan decision to stop counting votes. Disgusting.
I spooneristically referred to this as the “Bore v. Goosh” decision.
Growing up, my first observation of homosexuality was in the movie Deathtrap (Spoilers ahead!) with Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. When they kissed onscreen, it blew my mind. It had absolutely never occurred to me that guys might do that. At sixteen, it was the most perverse thing I had ever seen.
Now that I think about it, there was a brief reference to homosexuality in Logan’s Run (”Do you prefer women?”), but I didn’t get it. The nudity in that movie also blew my eleven-year-old mind, but it thrilled me, instead of giving me the willies. I guess I’m pretty straight.
Until I went to Europe (at seventeen), I had no idea how repressed America was (and is) sexually. I always thought we were pretty progressive — heck, we don’t even make women wear veils! European ads and beaches let me know how dark a puritan state we live in.
In college, we had a discussion about homosexuality, and I blurted out that that sort of thing didn’t happen in Alaska — there were no gay people in my high school. Then my brain sort of caught up with my mouth, and, thinking back, there were at least four gay — or at least bi — people in my senior class (of about 30). That well-groomed nice young man who always hung out with the girls but never went on dates? Duh! We just didn’t know what to look for.
Here’s my question: Did he know he was gay, or did he, without the benefit of Deathtrap, just think he was weird somehow?
I love gay men and women, but the thought of male homosexual sex still creeps me out. Sorry. (Female homosexual sex, oddly, is hot. Again, sorry.) My brain knows it’s fine, but my gut has been culturally programmed toward homophobia. And if that same cultural gut-level programming affects gay people — and it must — then it’s a wonder they’re not all head cases.
Gay people rock. I’m sorry I’m a homophobic idiot sometimes.
