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Things that Robert is thinking about that keep him from accomplishing anything.
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Sunday, October 31, 2004
Weird Dream I almost forgot to mention that I dreamed I was checking into a hotel in some big city (maybe my upcoming Atlanta trip?) and John Kerry was there greeting people getting on the elevators. He was dressed kind of dissheveled, looked like he'd been up campaigning for a long damn time with his coat off, shirt a little wrinkled and untucked. I shook hands with him and said something encouraging, and he asked where are you from, and I said Nashville...and it just totally threw him. It was like he didn't know how to respond or make small talk about my being from Nashville. I hope that's not enough to keep him from winning, but I wonder if that will spell his doom Tue. Like I've said before, his losing may spare him a shitload of grief because, seriously, who really wants to take responsibility for cleaning up this mess? 61 Well, I finally crossed the magical 60 lb. barrier yesterday. Down to 192.2 from 253+. Again, it's probably measurement error after exercising yesterday since I had crossed back under this a.m., but we take enjoyment even in flukes, especially when they're headed in the right direction. Even my size 34 pants are starting to feel loose. If I get under 190, I will officially be at my skinniest (or more precisely lightest) since Aug. 1992, perhaps Feb. 1992 since I started creeping up after my college swimming career, such as it was, ended. Thursday, October 28, 2004
Race is Tightening... No, not the presidential race. The race for Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. If I were handicapping, Pat Tillman would be the leading candidate, and I'd say Curt Schilling has overtaken Lance Armstrong for 2nd place. Michael Phelps is probably 4th, maybe 3rd. If it were my vote, I'd go Schilling, Phelps, Tillman, Armstrong. I can't seem to find any actual odds on the Internet. One note on Phelps: I didn't realize this, but apparently he was a volunteer coach at Loyola College (Md.), my alma mater, for the '03-'04 season. But, I believe he's off to Ann Arbor this year. Monday, October 25, 2004
Count Along with Bono Perhaps Bono spent too much time visiting the Bush administration over African debt relief. You've no doubt seen the iTunes ads featuring U2's newest single, Vertigo. Listen to Bono's countdown though: "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" For the Spanish-impaired, that's: "1, 2, 3, 14!" Perhaps there's a MENSA puzzle that rationalizes this series. Now I Get It In the past week the Bush administration's Iraq/War on Terror has made sense to me. It took the unique phrasing of W's speeches--e.g., "Where does the senator think [al-Zarqawi]'d be? Opening a small business?"--for me to finally get it. By attacking Iraq, the administration is fusing anti-American and pro-Islamic sentiment in such a way as to draw Al-Qaeda to into Iraq in order to divert Al-Qaeda's resources from planning against the United States. It doesn't matter whether Al-Qaeda ever had connections with Iraq, the U.S. was going to force Al-Qaeda to make a strategic decision: to focus solely on attacking the U.S. in the U.S., or attack American forces in the Middle East to thwart a democratic Iraqi regime. If they focus solely on the U.S., other Islamic interests in the Middle East suffer, including the disrespect of having the infidels on their holy lands; if they defend Iraq, then they divert resources from direct attacks on the U.S. At one level, this is a pretty clever plan. Essentially, the U.S. uses its military as a decoy, drawing fire from the enemy so that everyone else back home can go along shopping and blogging without fearing a huge attack. If Iraq ends up democratic, great. But, it doesn't matter because the war uses up resources at Al-Qaeda's disposal, which may be diminishing through other global efforts (e.g., freezing accounts, anti-money laundering operations). It is a war of attrition, modeled after the Cold War--as the administration has been outlining--in which we count on our economic superiority and "will to win" to outlast the terrorists. The flaw in the logic is that it assumes Al-Qaeda cannot (a) engage us in Iraq and within our borders simultaneously and (b) continue to raise sufficient funds to meet its objectives. That Al-Qaeda has not attacked within our borders since 9/11 is not evidence that they cannot attack again. It was 8 years between the first WTC bombing and 9/11. Globally, it was about 5 years between the first WTC and the embassy bombings in Africa; a year later they hit the USS Cole. They are patient and opportunistic, and it is unlikely that Operation Iraqi Freedom will make them impatient and less opportunistic. And with oil in the $50+ price range, plentiful poppy fields, antipathy toward America, and sufficient black market experience, it'll be a while before Al-Qaeda runs short of funds. Finally, it is a less than honest or effective way to use our military, to treat them as RPG-fodder so we can shop online in peace. Sunday, October 24, 2004
Weighting Game No news on the weight front in terms of poundage. Still hovering at about 196. However, in other ways, I've noticed changes:
Hmm...I guess that's it. But, going from about size 38 and XXL to 33 and L isn't too shabby. I figure if I can get into the mid-180s, I'll be set. Saturday, October 23, 2004
Plurality Rules I was just thinking about the election and the chances that Bush wins again with less than a majority of the popular vote: That would mark the fourth consecutive presidential election (Clinton '92/'96 and Bush '00/'04) without a majority of the popular vote. Freaky. I also have been thinking on the red state-blue state division. It occurs to me that the nation may become more red state in the coming two decades because of decisions to have children. Specifically, if red states are more "family-oriented" and express that by having larger families on average, could this cement their majorities? Could red state people in blue states (e.g., rural New England) nudge things to the red side? To the extent that the blue states are more urban and urbane, I would expect them to have lower birth rates and smaller family sizes, limiting their capacity to shape statewide elections. The only remaining hope for the blue states is immigration (new immigrants tend to have larger families and be more Democratic leaning) and migration of the blue-thinking people from red states. The problem is red states can expand their size more quickly. On the other hand, it's not a lock that every child will share their parents' political leanings, but I would bet it's correlated enough to lock us into a red state future. Thursday, October 21, 2004
Miserable Sad Changing your life is incredibly difficult, especially when the change involves somebody you love and care about. So now I find myself having to adapt to my new commitment to graduation and focusing on my life in Nashville without the most important part of my life there to support, encourage, and guide me. And it's all my fault because I chose to pursue this path. It's damned hard not to pick up the phone and call, not to reflexively make mental notes of things to tell her later tonight, not to wonder how her day is going. So, I still do the latter two things and fight the urge to call or email. The immediate future looks long and sad. In "silver lining" news , I started my area paper (a prelude to my dissertation proposal and dissertation). I have a new "2 hours or 2 pages" rule: I have to write at least 2 hours or until I add 2 pages of text to the area paper. Two days in, I've got 4 pages written. I've also set aside a 30 min block to type in or download citations to my bibliography. These are not huge amounts of time obviously, but lately I've been working on the Grand Canyon theory of accomplishment (i.e., epochal erosion yields natural wonder). Friday, October 15, 2004
Crazy Year Today I turn 34. In the past year, I've:
Have I done enough this year? Here's to hoping that all this change and productivity bear fruit this year. P.S. I'm still pessimistic about Kerry's chances. Maybe this year's change will be: "be less pessimistic about things." Thursday, October 07, 2004
Visionary Stern I was listening to the local sports talk radio here, and they mentioned that NBC will institute a 5-second delay on NASCAR races starting this week. This got me thinking about Howard Stern's move to Sirius. I wonder what will be left of broadcast t.v. and radio in 10 years. If I were NBC (or one of the other networks), I might try expanding into the premium cable or satellite t.v./radio markets. First, the network can use it to develop experimental shows relatively free from "taste" issues regarding nudity, swearing, etc. Second, people who are interested in realistic or adult-focused programming are willing to pay to avoid the PAX-ification of primetime and sports lineups. The network can recoup its development costs through subscriber fees. Third, the nets can use these shows as a source of content for the flagship station (e.g., sanitize a show from the satellite world and rebroadcast for the masses a la Queer Eye's treatment with its Bravo purchase), or use the satellite as an outlet for repurposing shows from the flagship (e.g., air "Joey" thousands of times until enough people have been exposed). Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Weight Update I haven't posted any weight news in a while because I haven't been exercising and haven't been seeing huge drops in weight. I stopped treadmillng for the past 3 weeks because I have some sort of tendinitis in my knee. However, I noticed that I am still losing a little weight. I'm down to 195.2 lbs, which is 58 lbs overall. The secret? I think it's that I am awake for an extra 2 hrs per day now. The stress of the job situation made it to wear I would wake up at 5:00 a.m. and not get back to sleep, so I just started getting up and doing stuff, mostly cleaning my apartment or throwing stuff away or whatever. Well, let's say I normally get 8 hrs of sleep per night. That means 16 hrs awake. Now, take 2 hrs of sleep away per night. I've increased my regular daily energy requirements by 12.5%. And the fact that I am doing something beyond sitting in front of the t.v. or computer screen, the increase may be greater. Veepstakes I'd have to say last night was fairly even in terms of effectiveness of each candidate. Accuracy is another matter, but if you look at the 90 minutes they were together, each had his own positive and negative moments. Some random observations:
Veepstakes I'd have to say last night was fairly even in terms of effectiveness of each candidate. Accuracy is another matter, but if you look at the 90 minutes they were together, each had his own positive and negative moments. Some random observations:
Friday, October 01, 2004
A War Worth Winning? No, not Iraq--the presidency. While I thought Kerry summarily trounced the president (not that he was perfect, just immeasurably superior), it occurred to me: why in god's name does he want to stick himself with this cluster fuck in Iraq? Unless he can get the rest of the world to participate and deliver on all the things that need to happen to succeed over ther--which looks fairly impossible no matter who wins the election--all that can happen is for Kerry and the Democrats to get the blame for everything wrong: It may be impossible to win even if he gets all the support of the world, so he looks inept as a leader for not winning; if he can't get everyone together and we lose Iraq, he didn't deliver on his promise to bring in the world, etc. Now, maybe they could out-Rove the Republicans in the coming year (i.e., blame it on the predecessor), but I doubt they could make it work. Maybe Bush needs to win so that things get even worse over there to improve the Democrats' chances in 2008. A rather tarnished silver lining in a Bush victory. |