Fear and Loathing in Vermont

David Foster Wallace hung himself.

According to Electoral-Vote.com, McCain's pick for Veep, Gov. Palin of Alaska, might come with some serious baggage:

"...like many Alaska politicians these days, Palin is involved in an ethics scandal. Her sister was married to a state trooper named Mike Wooten. The two of them got divorced and were involved in a bitter child custody battle. Sarah wanted to help her sister so she asked the state commissioner of public safety, Walt Monegan, to fire Wooten. He refused, so she fired him. He protested so loudly that the Republican-controlled state legislature appointed a retired prosecutor, Steve Branchflower, to investigate whether she abused her power as governor. Needless to say, Monegan is about to get a small army of reporters camped on his doorstep. It seems very strange indeed that McCain wants to be associated with someone under investigation for an ethics violation."

Considering this and the fact that Gov. Palin has significantly less experience than, what the Republicans like to call, the inexperienced Obama, does this choice make sense on any other level than Palin is a woman? This seems such a blatantly political attempt to get the Clinton PUMA vote that it's almost laughable.

I hope to see some explanation in the coming days defending the pick of Palin, 'cause it makes no sense to me.

the pats lost and we're listening to metal

Whee.

I'm Posting this from my new iPod touch. I am totally smitten with this thing...

i just fixed a small engine.

as in, my snowblower wasn't starting, and i changed a seal in the gas bowl, and now it works.

this shocks me to no end.

It's that time of year again, the time of year when we are assaulted with some really awful music. I've always loved christmas music, and growing up I was particularly bad. If it was christmas themed, I was sold: I've owned such albums as the Bob River's Christmas Album (which has some really friggin' stupid christmas parodies on it) and the Three Tenors christmas albums (which has a highly laughable version of one of the three tenors singing jingle bells with this godfather-like italian accent).

As much as I loved this music, along with such classics as Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra, as I grew older I began to realize that most of it ranged from just lousy to downright embarrassing. However, I never lost my love for songs of the season. Slowly, I began rebuilding my christmas album library, looking for albums that were enjoyable to listen to, covered a wide range of moods (from energetic to contemplative), and had staying power, viz., could be listened to for about a month or so year after year.

I think this might be a time for a small digression about my musical tastes. ( So I'll cut it, and you can read it or not. )

Over the past several years, i've bought a lot of christmas albums. Some albums were so bad, I listened to them once and promptly forgot about them (I rarely throw things away). Others have stayed with me for years, being the first put in the cd player each year and the last to leave it.

Therefore, as someone who has listened to a lot of Christmas music, I've decided to review some of the albums I would most recommend for someone looking for good music for the season. This is going to take awhile, so hopefully I can post an article in this series every week. I also hope people will post your favorites either to their journal or as a comment here. I'm always looking for a few more good albums!

Without further ado... ( ...my recommendations. )

Well, that's all I'm going to review for now. More coming up later!

yesterday, i was working on my house when, through a stupid series of events that i will hereby fail to relate here for posterity, i fell in to the hole that gives access to our crawlspace.

as i was climbing on something when this happened, i came down at an odd angle. i managed to catch myself as i fell, the result of this being that while i did not fall in to the crawlspace, i twisted my knee badly and had a cabinet fall off the counter and smack me in the head (don't ask). while i believe (and pray) that no lasting damage was done through my stupidity, i don't really know. all i know is that my knee hurts so much that i can only walk at the moment with the help of a knee brace and cane.

of course, i am going to the doctor today, who will examine my injury, probably send me in for an MRI, and prescribe some nice pain killers. of course, i only say "of course" because i have something that many, many americans don't have: health insurance.

until very recently, i had no health insurance, so i still remember what would be going through my head right now. i know i would be freaked out about the pain, but understanding that to go to the doctor and get this all checked out would cost at least $50, my doctor's fee for a basic visit. of course, any sort of helpful diagnostic (e.g., MRI) would be right out. my treatment options, which include both palliative and, well, whatever you'd call the other (e.g., physical therapy), would be basically reduced to "rest and keep your leg up" and a handful of advil.

even more senseless is the fact that the only reason i have health insurance is i got married in september, and my wife has health insurance and putting me on the plan isn't prohibitively expensive.

please, someone, anyone explain how this makes sense? explain why i should get top-flight health care right now, when, had this happened a month and a half ago, i'd be at a loss and freaking out about how i was doing? explain how it benefits our society for someone like me (you know, someone who happens to be married to someone who happens to have health insurance) should be given great medical care, while someone, well, like me a month an a half ago (someone who is unmarried and at a job that doesn't give health insurance) should get an ice pack?

this is why universal health care is so important to me--it is close to home. i know exactly what would had happened if this injury had occurred even one month ago. i know the mental and physical stress i would be going through. but, since the stars have aligned and i have this little card in my wallet, i am at ease and am confident that i will be better soon.

and that's just not fair.

thanks to trinitysite for the info...

apparently, Dumbledore was gay.

now all the christian neo-conservatives will really have something to complain about in harry potter! ;D

to reiterate something kestrel127 said, if you post harry potter spoilers and don't put it under a clearly marked cut to that effect, i will use Avada Kedavra on you.

i'm serious about that.

it's hot. really, really hot. and muggy.

thank god i cut my hair, which makes it less hot.

yes, i will have pics at some point. :)

i'm curious what everybody's current instant messaging contact information is. mine is:

aim: merikus
yahoo: zantoth
gtalk: merikus
jabber: merikus@livejournal.com

let me know yours either through commenting (comments are screened) or by dropping me an im. :)

...i'm a genius.

the guy who was training me for DJing tonight told me this. he let me do the entire gig, and i saved the gig when one cd that we had a song on failed and i found a different version of the song (it's was a bar mitzvah, and hava nagela was a "must play") in our library.

the dj--who has been doing radio his entire life and who trained my boss to be a dj--told me he has never written feedback on any dj he's ever trained, but he was writing down feedback to my boss that i am a "genius at this." apparently, on my second gig, i am "better than at least half of the dj's who have been doing this for years."

and i love it. i am having so much fun with this. the only hard part i still have is in setup and on the mic. but i'm getting better.

apparently my calling is as a mobile dj. well, perhaps that or radio. i think it would be awesome to get in to radio, but i know that finding a paying gig in radio is downright rare. at least i have a summer job that pays well and is fun. :D

amazing bathroom tiles!

taken from internautte