New blog

HERE

Mercy killing

Putting my blog out of its misery, at least for now.



(For my throng of devoted fans: recently grabbed up the chrisbodenner.com domain, so I'll be developing some sort of personal website in the next month or so.)

Northwest sabbatical

Flying out to Seattle (again) tomorrow morning at seven.
Skiing at Whistler with brother and a half dozen of his college buddies.
Working in Seattle, working and visiting with my mom in Portland.
Back on March 1.

Very excited

For tomorrow.

Superbowl ads

In case you missed them: IFILM

A disappointing lot overall, but Ameriquest's "Taser" and "Cat Killer" made me proud to be an American consumer.*


*not really

Anticipating

Interpol and Blonde Redhead

Plug Awards

Went to a fantastic concert event last night at Webster Hall--the first annual Plug Awards--which awarded the best of the best in indie rock. Zach and I got there just in time to catch Saul Williams (who he was particularly impressed with). RJD2 followed with a solid and cinematic set, and fed into the next performance of the Brooklyn rapper Aesop Rock, who was kinda hit-and-miss. Sufjan Stevens played a pair of stirring acoustic ballads, but was dissipated by a rowdy venue of beer bottles and crowd chatter. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists definitely stole the show for me. They blew away their studio recordings of "Me and Mia" and "Little Dawn" with intense onstage energy, so now their album pales in comparison.

Flickr'd some photos here.

As far as awards, click here.

"New Artist of the Year" honors went to the Montreal sextet Arcade Fire, who I saw last Wednesday at Irving Plaza with friends Brian and Mike. By far one of the best live shows I've seen, and it solidified them as my favorite group of 2004. One of the highlights was David Byrne, lead singer of Talking Heads, joining Arcade for the second encore. Plus, to round out the 80s indie rock idols, David Bowie was in the audience! (Sadly, however, like Zach, I forgot my camera, but Brian sent me this link of another blogger who snapped some photos.)

The Bodenners

My cousin, Matt, compiled this neato little site of all the virtual Bodenners out there, including my brother, my uncle, my aunt, and myself.
(I actually found it by surprise, when I got a "bodenner" Google Alert last week.)

The photo below was taken in 1900. My great-grandfather is in the upper right. It's eerie to see a resemblance.


bloggers. old skool.

Traveling thespian

My HS and NYC friend Clint just started a 6-month tour with the theatre company TheatreworksUSA playing Templeton the Rat in "Charlotte's Web." It's his first professional acting job, so I'm pretty proud of him (he was waiting tables for about a year after graduating from the prestigious Tisch School). He'll be traveling all around the country--including his hometown of Augusta, GA--but I'll probably get to see his performance in the city within the next month.

Stranger cover

so perfect

Morning of Mourning

Machuca

Saw a fantastic Chilean film at Film Forum with Zach tonight.
By far one of the best I've seen here in NYC.

Machuca is the story of two Chilean boys--one privileged and one impoverished--who become close friends during the brutal transition from the socialist Allende to the authoritarian Pinochet in 1973 (for those of you rusty on your modern Chilean history, click here).

Bizarre anecdote: The class bully who ruled the school in the film had an UNCANNY resemblence to Nick. Zach and I couldn't believe our eyes.
(I'm ceaselessly searching for a photo of the kid online.)

Babcock 3A

The lovely, soon-to-be-Dr. Katie finally sent me the photos of when she and Nate were here in New York for New Year's.

Here's my favorite:


2005


2002

Zach in New Yorker!

Funny Boys: Success in the City

New form of photoblogging?

PillCam

DODGEBALL!!

My favorite childhood passion was rekindled today, when I played about an hour-and-a-half of dodgeball in the basement of MLK High (conveniently about 10 blocks from my place). I responded to a craigslist ad yesterday for a dodgeball league sponsored through Zogsports, and took Zach along for the ride.

My DB skillz were pretty rusty (partly due to my hangover from Ukrainian potato vodka), but it felt great to get back in the game. We all went out for beers afterward, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the teammates more (the captain is a photo editor at the NYT--#8 on my list of dream jobs). Next game is next Thursday, when we play "Balls to the Wall" and "Feun Schnickens."

Game #1 highlight:
Zach "Headhunter" Klein nearly decapitated a poor girl with a 70 mph fastball (she apparently didn't get the "dodge" part of "dodgeball").


Here's the best pic I could muster with my modest Elph:

Blog Business Summit

I'm trying to get my new employer, GlutenFree Passport, to send me to the Blog Business Summit in Seattle next week. (It's absolutely perfect for what we are doing right now with the website, and it couldn't have been a better coincidence.) I think they'll bite.

1/19 update: Woohoo! I'm goin to Seattle.

Pop's Blog

My lovable curmudgeon of a grandfather (we call him 'Pop') is a frequent follower of my blog, and just recently voiced his interest in starting a blog of his own!

Needless to say, I was quite excited to hear this. He's by far the best story and joker teller I know, not to mention rabidly and vocally anti-Bush (and as a veteran of both Korea and Vietnam, I think he has a little more credibility than most).

So between Pop's jokes and anti-Bush rants (which are often one and the same), I think his blog would be really entertaining.

But I sense that he's dragging his heels on this one, so I need the single-digit number of people who read this blog to VOICE YOUR SUPPORT!



c'mon, you totally wanna see this guy go off on bush

Balltop

Attention fellow male bloggers:
Laptops heat the testicles and may cause infertility

Opening paragraph:
Are you sitting with your computer on your lap? A small research project from Yefim Sheynkin at the State University of New York has found that the heat from your laptop can elevate the temperature of your scrotum by up to 2.8 degrees. That may be nice but the problem is that there is a well demonstrated link between high testicular temperature and infertility.
[italics mine: i love that line]

More friends in foreign lands

My college buddy Nick is currently in Mumbai, India, exploring the world while developing his nifty software venture, BuddyGopher.

Recently, he's been taking paragliding lessons!!
Check out his page.



(nick's the albino indian)

Annoying Liberal Cartoonist

over at the Village Voice.


(I love the irony of Sutton mocking the cliched humor of his characters.)

Marg in London

My dear friend Margaret arrived in London on Saturday to begin a semester-long sabbatical at Wake's Worrell House. (In fact, she's in the same room that Zach stayed in 3 years ago.)

Other than playing in London for four months, I'm jealous she's also taking a class with Angus Lockyer, one of my favorite professors from Wake (he now teaches at the SOAS of the University of London).

Apparently Lockyer is making everyone in his class ("History of London") maintain a blog of their happenings in the city, which makes him that much cooler. Here's hers.

A few camera-phone pics from her new digs:


Scenic Marg


Scenic London

Zach in Time Out!

the good kind.

I never get tired of these photos.



(the full-size version, naturally)

Audioscrobbler

Another rad site passed along by ZAK.

Simply by downloading an iTunes plug-in, Audioscrobbler updates and sorts all the music you listen to into various categories--current tracks, top artists, top tracks--and shares the information with a community of other Audioscrobblers. For me, it's a good way to see what my music-lover friends are listening to, and find out what other bands are associated with the bands I like. The options are limitless.

(My online id is steadily spreading throughout cyberspace, as I willingly submit to the inevitable. )

43 Things

I have 5 so far.


via ZAK

So hilariously good...

Go Sox!

No CIA Left Behind

A1 story in the Times airs the dirty laundry of the CIA, which just released an internal investigation report that concludes "officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks."

The most obvious irony of the article points out that George Tenet--former CIA director who abruptly "retired" July 11 to "spend more time with the family"--received a Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor) by the president last month. Ignoring accountability is one thing, but rewarding failure for political pimping is outright insulting.

But the more subtle irony lies in this paragraph:

"The vast bulk of Mr. Helgerson's report was completed last summer, intelligence officials said, but its completion was delayed while the document was reviewed first by John E. McLaughlin, who became acting intelligence chief after Mr. Tenet's departure, and then Porter J. Goss, who became director of central intelligence in September." [italics mine]

Goss made a career in the CIA before becoming a long-running Republican congressman from Florida,* appointed by Bush (George, not Jeb) in September.

So what was going on September-November that would Goss to delay such a pivotal report?



*your former representative, Pete

Crossfire cancelled

Looks like Jon Stewart gets the first and last laugh.


for NYT non-subscribers:

Mr. Klein [new president of CNN] specifically cited the criticism that the comedian Jon Stewart leveled at "Crossfire" when he was a guest on the program during the presidential campaign. Mr. Stewart said that ranting partisan political shows on cable were "hurting America."

Do you speak American?

Everyone should try to catch the new PBS special, "Do you speak American?," which premiered tonight. It totally fed my already-piqued interest in pursuing a MA in Linguistics several years down the line.

I called my father tonight to wish him a happy birthday (HAPPY %*TH, DAD!!) between the 2nd of 3 one-hour episodes, and discovered 15 minutes into the conversation that we had both been watching the same thing (he was startled to get my call RIGHT when the second episode ending). He's an English teacher in inner-city Kansas City, and obviously passed on his linguaphilia to me.



birthday bum

Andy the Kiwi

Andrea Murray--a friend of mine teaching for the JET program in Hokkaido, Japan--just got back from a three-week jaunt to New Zealand.
So very, very jealous.



Andy skiing the glacier, minus the skis

Maori (or "New Zealand Injuns", for all you anthropologists) reenacting a traditional welcome ceremony

Tsunami
(by the time it got to New Zealand)

Tsurfnami

My roommates' good friend Travas--a Brit art dealer that I've hung out with many a time this past autumn--was in Phuket, Thailand when the tsunami hit.

On the beach.
In the water.
On a surfboard.

A SURFBOARD!

The last time I saw him, we ate at this great little Thai place near my apartment. Thank the gods it won't be the last time; he made it to safety on high ground, and will be in town this weekend. I can't wait to hear his story.

(I doubt we'll be eating Thai this time).


not Travas

Newest issue of CJR

The second and final issue published under my internship, which ended just before Christmas.

It was a great experience, and I learned a lot, but I'm glad it's over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!

2005 turns 0


Marg turns 21



A New Year's resolution: resurrecting my blog

Awful Plastic Surgery

currently my favorite website.

Entries range from the comical to the grotesque to the downright sad.



what the fuck is wrong with these people?

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Haven't posted in a while, largely due to the busyness that is my life right now.

I started my new part-time job last week, waiting tables at the new location of an old West Village staple, The Paris Commune. The place is just starting to get its shit together, so it's been really high strung and stressful, but bundles of tax-free cash at the end of the night tend to lift my spirits. (I've also found rubbing tens and twenties on my feet help to ameliorate the pain.)

The place is a tad pricey, but the food's pretty excellent--a mixture of French and Americana. The space is amazing, the wall-to-wall windows of West Village are wistful, and there's a full bar. Brunch is pseudo-famous, particularly the French toast (although, as a server, you work twice as hard and make half as much as dinner).

Bank and Greenwich, come heckle (and tip) me!

Super NOVA!

I just discovered NOVA's webpage, where you can download many of their previously-aired programs. Happy day!


I prefer 'phoetus'

"Dumb" is so subjective

Percentage of Bush supporters/Kerry supporters who believe:

Iraq possessed prohibited weapons or had a major WMD program...72/26
Iraq gave al Qaeda "substantial support" or direct involvement in 9/11...75/30
the majority of people in the world oppose the U.S.-led war in Iraq...31/74

(furthermore, how can over 15 million Kerry voters be so dumb?)

Find the entire PIPA report here.
Or read the WPost article here.


Even if you retreat to the existential excuse of "how can we ever know?", then base it on common sense credibility; the bipartisan 9/11 committee, Senate Intelligence Committee, US weapons inspector David Kay, and DCI special advisor Charles Duelfer all contradict the Bush administration. Not to mention Bush's own flip-flop from WMD/al Qaeda to Saddam-in-jail/"democracy" as main focus of Iraq war.

Newest issue of CJR!

Foreshadowing?

Selective Service Number:
82 - 0326578 - 3

Date of Registration:
5/10/2000


(via Zach's post)

SS Phantom

I recently caught wind of this truly inspiring homepage (via my brother). It's basically a travel log of a Seattle family that spent over 2 years on the open seas, down the West Coast and then all across the South Pacific. I'm immensely jealous of these two kids.





I could say I'm especially motivated to take such an extended journey now that Bush is reelected, but those sort of people are obnoxious and completely missing the point. If you're so repulsed by another four years of Bush, then why don't you get more intensely involved in the political process of this great country, instead of simply abandoning it?

When the evangelical right felt so repulsed by the social and cultural revolution of the 60s and 70s, they mobilized, organized, and lobbied passionately to push through their political agenda, thus sparking the great conservative takeover of the last thirty years. Such a movement (though detestable by my personal values) is to be admired.

Presidential Purgatory

3 am, and I can't sleep.

File Mag

Justice is wrought

My brother's trusty Suburu Outback was stolen last week, from right outside his house.

Seeing as how he doesn't drive it on a regular basis, he didn't have any insurance on it. Not cool.

Fortunately, it was recovered today, along with the thieving bastard inside.

I would like to address said bastard:

Intense.

Check it

My brother's usually-dormant blog has had a flurry of political posts recently (notably his letter-to-the-editor of Seattle Weekly concerning their selling out over the Monorail project).

His active citizenship is to be revered and replicated.

Read it, or you hate America.

Hot D&D chicks!!

Be sure to check out the suuh-weet "teaser" video here.

Just heard on CNN

"We should blow them all away, in the name of the Lord"
-Jerry Falwell

Steinbrenner speaks

"Pedro, I am your daddy"

Game 7!!!

Another Bush baby

The Skype Revolution!

Free internet telephone service.

Check it: Skype

I'm using it to talk to my friend Andy in Japan, while Nick is currently prank calling unsuspecting Chinese.

Time capsule

Alanis Morissette getting slimed on the Nickelodeon classic,
'You Can't Do That On Television.'

I live in NYC

but I was a Red Sox fan tonight.

(Now it's a real series)

My roommate, Bob, has tickets for Game 6 here in NY; I haven't followed pro baseball since I was in middle school, but I'm jealous.


(pull it. go on...)

Crassfire

Jon Stewart's live appearance on CNN's Crossfire last Friday was the most confrontational feat of media criticism I've ever seen. Other than the obvious jabs that left Begala and Carlson stammering, Stewart voiced what everyone working in my office has been preaching this entire campaign.

A must: Video and transcript

(a better video clip)

For the delight of stoners everywhere...

Magical Trevor

Kerry eats babies!

--spotted scrawled on a sign behind CNN commentators after tonight's debate


awesome.

N8

"I would totally rue eating moist curd loaf"



I agree, friend, I agree.

Speaking of Pulitzers

they're given out 5 floors above my desk.

wow.

I can't remember which publication I got this image from, but here's a related link.


My Pulitzer vote.

A tax, or attacks?

Yet another solid Op-Ed from the NYT (although I really need to start reading other papers):

According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, Mr. Bush's tax cuts, with their strong tilt toward the wealthy, are responsible for more than $270 billion of the 2004 budget deficit. Increased spending on homeland security accounts for only $20 billion.

Reunions

I had some high school reunions of sorts this weekend, when Harshita (taking a break from her Harvard MA in Religion) Greyhounded down to meet up with Clint and me for dinner and drinks in the East Village. The three of us staffed the muckracking, trailblazing Greenbrier Dispatch back in HS.

Also, I spoke to Vince--fellow track star and partner in crime--for the first time in over a year. I discovered he's here in Manhattan as well!, doing financial banking for JP Morgan. Looking forward to bending some laws with him soon.



back in the days of film and scanners



:cheese

The terrorist Saddam Hussein attacked us on September 11.


What, you need proof?

Thanks Mrs. Nick's Mom!

My buddy Nick just airmailed me a batch of cookies that his mother made. The tasty morsels--oatmeal, walnuts, raisins, buttery goodness--are one of my new favorite treats. My day is made.



yummmy!

Ralph's retreat

to Northern Arizona. Six days around Flagstaff and Sedona.

My trip dwarfs in comparison.


rocks harder

Weekend escape

...from the clutches of urban strangle.

My roadtrip ally, Zach, beat me to the blog.


rocks!

Culture

My new roommate and burgeoning pal, Michael, is starring in the off-Broadway musical, How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes. It was part of the recent New York International Fringe Festival. I'm going to see it, tomorrow.


No, I know, but trust me, it's not Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

POD*

Photo Of the Day.
Will try to maintain it, at least as a warm up to photoblogging.


Pete, when he had more hair and more finger.

Another Rumsfeld gem

"At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we'll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country."

Osama been Forgotten

"Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is spending a whale of a lot of time trying not to get caught. And we've not seen him on a video since 2001." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, confusing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein with Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a recent address at the National Press Club. (Newsweek, pg 19)

For me, that pretty much sums this administration since 9/11.

Going through old photos...

The Shark vs. The Cocker Spaniel...place your bets.

Letterman update

The show taped today that I attended is actually airing this Friday, so I actually got to see Julianne Moore (one of my favorite actors) instead of Dr. Phil. Hoo-ray!

Tonight's guest: Dr. Philistine

Clint got two free tickets for the Letterman Show tonight--through a friend of a friend who works there--and he's taking me! (the Ed Sullivan Theatre, conveniently, is two blocks from my apartment). Letterman is no Conan, and Dr. Phil is certainly no John Kerry (who was the guest last night), but I'm really psyched. The exceptional Gary Sinese--who, coincidentally, Clint and I saw star in the Broadway performance of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" three years ago--is also on.

Still, we have to sit through Dr. Phil drool about how to help Oprahfied soccer moms lose weight, despite the fact that the "good doctor" isn't even an M.D., but a Ph.D. in clinical psychology; he's as much of a medical doctor as my history professor. And he kinda lacks credibility as a weight-loss messiah when he himself is pushing 225 lb.
But who needs credibility when you have an army of Oprah lemmings willing to eat up anything you say.

Pepper y Becca

cooties

Couldn't say it any better

Bob Herbert's Op-Ed in the NYT today, "Waiting for the Candidate to Emerge."

For those who don't subscribe online (i.e. my stubborn grandfather), a core sampling:

Mr. Kerry has suffered recently in the polls primarily because of his reluctance to put his authentic self on display. He's run a cautious, soulless campaign so far, saying only the things he thinks he should, and shadow boxing instead of really mixing it up...If Mr. Kerry has a message, he's garbled it pretty badly. If he's passionate about anything, he's kept it to himself. George Adair, a 50-year-old Democrat from Alabama who responded to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, was succinct on this point: "I don't feel I have a clear enough picture of Mr. Kerry's agenda."

By far

my favorite photo I ever took for my college newspaper:


I heart Sigma Chi

More crazy coincidences

-I discovered yesterday that my roommate Nick's sister, Kim, lived in the same town in Maryland I did: she went to high school with my brother (they were in "Hello Dolly" together) and played 4 years of field hockey with my best friend Jason's sister, Allison.

-Becca surprised me yesterday to say she was on her way up to NYC that night with her boyfriend, Pepper. Completely by chance, their hotel is FOUR blocks from my apartment.
Similarly, Clint's high school friend flew up here yesterday with his pregnant fiancee, also out-of-the-blue. They are staying with a friend TWO blocks from my apartment.


This shit happens to me all the time, but I never get used to it.

Mysterious ways

During my four visits to NYC over the years, I somehow didn't make it to either the WTO or Ground Zero. Yesterday, after a field trip with Zach and Liz to IKEA, we popped into Century 21 to purchase more furnishings. Lo and behold, the store was directly next to the site. Quite ironic that after all these years, I finally see it on September 11, totally by chance.

The experience was complete as we gazed up at the spotlight memorial that night on the top of Zach's roof. I shoulda had my camera...

Props to Pat

Between his endearing appearance on Da Ali G show and his unconventional break from the Right concerning the neocon experiment in Iraq, Pat Buchanan is alright with me.*

(Can't say the same for Andy Rooney.)


*Well, ok, not quite.

How low can you go?

Maureen Dowd's OP-ED fires a series of scathing jabs against Cheney's despicable comments Tuesday:

He finally simply spit out what the Bush team has been more subtly trying to convey for months: A vote for John Kerry is a vote for the terrorists.

The vice president and president did not even mention Osama at the convention because of the inconvenient fact that the fiend is still out there, plotting. Yet they denigrate Mr. Kerry as too weak to battle Osama, and treat him as a greater threat.

Mr. Cheney implies that John Kerry couldn't protect us from an attack like 9/11, blithely ignoring the fact that he and President Bush didn't protect us from the real 9/11.

Mr. Cheney warns against falling back "into the pre-9/11 mind-set,'' when, in fact, the Bush team's pre-9/11 mind-set was all about being stuck in the cold war and reviving "Star Wars" - which doesn't work and is useless against terrorist tactics.

Why should the same group that managed to paint a flextime guardsman as a heroic commander - and a war hero as a war criminal - bother rebutting or engaging with critics?

The next nine-eleven: Shitkicker Falls

Zach posts an excellent exerpt from a Slate criticism of Zell Miller's rhetorical paranoia regarding the safety of his children during the GWOT under Bush.

Found a place!

I still can't believe my luck: Midtown (Hell's Kitchen), 52nd/9th, 10 min walk to Times Sq, 5 min jog to Central Park, 3 blocks from 1/9 line...the perfect! location in so many ways.

Please send coupons and nonperishable food items to:

365 W. 52nd St.
Apt. LB
NY, NY 10019

Room hunting blows

Been in NYC since Tuesday night, and I've been pounding the pavement since then. Originally my intent was to find a small room share in the UWS near Columbia, but my options have slightly broadened my search to...Manhattan.

My lowest point came yesterday, when I was supposed to meet with a very prosperous lead in the UWS. Long story short: I wake up early (painfully hungover from a reunion with Zach and Pete at the Corner Bistro), travel almost 2 hours roundtrip, only to get a call from the guy 2 blocks away telling me the room was JUST! rented.

P.S. Thanks for the sympathy, Nate.

More words

Among our egocentric sad sacks, despair is as addictive as heroin and more popular than sex, for the single reason that when one is unhappy one gets to pay a lot of attention to oneself. Misery becomes a kind of emotional masturbation. Taken out on others, depression becomes a weapon.
--Tom Robbins, in this month's issue of Harper's

Wise words

Andy recently sent me a transcript of a speech given by Scott Ritter, former Chief United Nations Weapons Inspector for UNSCOM in Iraq (1991-1998) and highly-outspoken critique of the current war. I thought this closing excerpt was particularly compelling:

But collectively this country, we have stopped functioning as citizens. We have so few people participating in elections. And this is a representative democracy? We're not citizens, we are consumers. We've wrapped ourselves in the cocoon of comfort. And so long as the powers that be keep us waddling down a path of prosperity, we don't want to do anything to rock the boat. But you know what? The boat we're on has just hit an iceberg and it's sinking. And we've got to do something about it. We're being lulled into a false sense of complacency. This is a nation that is infected with a disease, a disease of complacency, a disease that is destroying citizenship, a disease that is destroying the Constitution that defines who we are as a nation.

TR

My brother just posted his trip report
from our Colchuck trip.

Best internet find ever

The Living Room Candidate, an online archive of all the presidential campaign television ads, dating back to 1952.

I always thought TV spots were mindless and cheerleading nowadays, but I had no idea the extent of such inanity until I saw the campaign ads of Eisenhower/Stevenson (I). Look for:

-catchy but patronizing little ditties, such as "I Like Ike" and "I Love the Gov."
-Nixon (Eisenhower's vice) railing against government corruption, promising to "kick out the crooks and the others that have besmirched their reputation in Washington D.C."
-Stevenson's political rendition of "Old McDonald", in which he appeals to the 3-7 year-old demographic
-and, my favorite, a bizarre mock voiceover between "Ike" (Eisenhower) and "Bob" (Senator Robert Taft), hinting at a homoerotic relationship between the famous general and his big-business colleague.

And I thought the current SBVFT ads were scraping bottom.

Affirmative action, Bush-style

The president, responding to minority journalists as to whether college admissions should get rid of the "legacy" factor, actually said this with a straight face: "Well I think so, yes. I think it ought to be based on merit."

A few bullet points to back up this genuinely-held claim:
-G.W. is a third-generation Yale graduate (his daughter, Barbara, is now the fourth generation)
-his SAT score was 1206, almost 200 points lower than the average Yale freshman circa 1970
-at Yale, he scraped by with a low C average

"Well, in my case, I had to knock on a lot of doors to follow the old man's footsteps," [Bush] said to laughter.

Well, maybe just one door--his grandfather's:
-Prescott Bush sat on Yale's board of trustees when his grandson was admitted

Quoted from Nicholas Kristof in his Op-Ed column in the NYT:

Still, assault weapons, while amounting to only 1 percent of America's 190 million privately owned guns, account for a hugely disproportionate share of gun violence...they accounted for 8.4 percent of the guns traced to crimes between 1988 and 1991, and they are still used in one in five fatal shootings of police officers.

Yet, as the column asserts, the president is allowing a 10-year ban on assault weapons to lapse on September 14 (and thus reneging on his 2000 election-year promise to support an extension on the ban).


Which is a big relief for me, since I was afraid I'd have to cancel my upcoming squirrel-hunting trip using my new Browning M2 .50 caliber (belt-fed, of course).

One could spend hours in the archives.

Weekend climbing trip

to Colchuck Lake and Pearly Gates, in Leavenworth, WA.

Went with Ralph and a climbing buddy of his, Eric.
My hands are shredded and muscles sore, but it was a stupendous excursion. I even managed to flail up three 5.8's!

My brother will post a trip report with photos sometime soon.
A sampling...

restin our dogs in colchuck lake.

Just in case

you haven't caught up on Strongbad lately.

Holy crap!

My brother just sent me a link to this article reporting on the unsuccessful rescue of a 600 lb "woman", who was found literally grafted to her couch for the past 2-5 years.


I'll be sure to swallow a frisbee before I ever get to that point.

Hurricane Charley

Nate blogs the details.

Hold tight! Matt and Stacy, Oma and Pop, Dave and Linda, Debbie and Dennis, Morgan and Christopher, Nate and Katie, Mr. and Mrs. Sulick, and Bonny. and yes, Steve.


woah.

Fact check

For years now, I always thought the Manfred Mann song "Blinded by the Light" went something like this:

"And she was blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, and then I rode her in the night"

Apparently, the "correct" lyrics are:

"But she was...blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night"


Whatever, I plead poetic license.

I want to write

like this:

You know how it goes: soon enough, as the process unfolds, the press is quoting John Q. Citizen, a 49-year-old bartender, gun owner and churchgoer from swing state Flohiowa and his wife Susie Q., who owns her own seamstress shop -- both of whom are suddenly as on-message as any campaign spokesperson -- parroting talking points right back at reporters, who dutifully report them as examples of the wisdom of the common man.

The Man as Common Parrot

Volvo 4 Sale

...my big brother's.

Click here if you are one of the dozen people who actually reads this blog and wants to purchase this trusty steed.


Swede ride

Black people love us!

.com



Johnny "raising the roof"

Power Couple

Caught up with KD Katie this afternoon. She's starting classes tomorrow at the UFL College of Medicine in Gainesville.
Nate just finished up his real estate exams, and will soon be amassing a small fortune. He'll be helping support Katie through school, until she becomes the breadwinner in 6-10 years.

Congrats to both!



T-Shirt Party, 2003

Zach, I found your man!

Libertarian candidate for president, Michael Badnarik.

-grew up in Hammond, Indiana
-fellow Eagle Scout
-Indiana University graduate
-fellow computer nerd
-"hobbies include photography (including darkroom developing), camping, sailing", etc.

And the best part is, he's for the legalization of medical marijuana! (in reference to your dear grandmother's struggle with glaucoma).




Zach's grandmother, Beatrice.

Speedy recovery

Megan is going under the knife tomorrow, finally getting her tonsils removed after many years of annoyance.

Enjoy the drugs, Meg.



Meg's surgeon, Hank.

3 more degrees

me -- Betsy's mom -- her co-worker and friend, Jeff Thompson.

Mr. Thompson, a kindergarten teacher at Fort Lewis, recently won the 2004 Teacher of the Year Award sponsored by Disney. What the article won't tell you (and rightly so, since it is largely irrelevant) is that this incredible teacher is gay.

The lesson learned from these two stories: we need less WASP suburbanites and more homosexuals teaching our kids.


P.S. National awards celebrating selfless and outstanding service to the community is one thing, but marriage licences? What's that nonsense all about?

Six degrees of child rapin'

Well, actually only five: me -- Betsy's parents -- their close friends -- their daughter, Anne Bremner -- her client, Mary Kay Letourneau.

The latter just got out of jail here in Seattle. As you likely recall, Ms. Letourneau served 7 1/2 years for engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with her sixth-grade! student (and eventually having two of his children).

yuck e

Tax talk

If you have the patience for economic jargon and statistics, this is a superb article in the Wall Street Journal about the different takes of Bush and Kerry on taxing the 200Ker's.

Via campaigndesk.org

Congraduations Nick!

Just saw the great news from Zach.

On with the roast...



We heart Nick.

Closer look

Friendly plug...BuddyGopher.com

Nick has been harassing me lately about the whereabouts of the vacuum cleaner I borrowed from him the day we moved out of our dorm. We agreed that I was to return the said vacuum to his IT office in Reynolda Hall after I finished using it. Apparently, the vacuum has gone missing, supposedly dropping the responsibility on my lap.
But Nick, as the following photo reveals, I did indeed follow your exact instructions, thus absolving me from all such responsibility.

Like a true friend, I will forgive your insidious accusations.


Exhibit A

Atheists hate babies

http://objective.jesussave.us/babyj.html

omg

I'm still trying to decided whether this site is real, or something cut from the Onion; an actual religious online mission, or the most elaborate satire I've ever seen. I wish I could believe the latter.

There is so much material on this site, I could have an entire blog devoted to it, but here's a good start:

Middle School Level
1st Place: "Life Doesn't Come From Non-Life"

Patricia Lewis (grade 8) did an experiment to see if life can evolve from non-life. Patricia placed all the non-living ingredients of life - carbon (a charcoal briquet), purified water, and assorted minerals (a multi-vitamin) - into a sealed glass jar. The jar was left undisturbed, being exposed only to sunlight, for three weeks. (Patricia also prayed to God not to do anything miraculous during the course of the experiment, so as not to disqualify the findings.) No life evolved. This shows that life cannot come from non-life through natural processes.

Awakened this morning

...by the screaming of jet engines.

The Blue Angels are back in town for SEAFAIR 2004.

Betsy and I have been jumping up every 5 minutes or so, running to the window like little kids to catch a glimpse of them flying by.

Since I can't post photos yet, this while have to suffice.

CJR in the NYT

My brother forwarded me this article the other day, right after I posted my last blog. It's an encouraging coincidence.

Since then I've been frequenting campaigndesk.com, my new favorite blog. This morning's posting pointed out yet another Bush verbal--or Freudian?--stumbling (I think it's cliché to gawk at every little faux pas, but this one is too good):

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

Got a job

...at the Columbia Journalism Review. The CJR is a national media monitor, published bimonthly by the Journalism School of Columbia University. I've been wanting to try out journalism for a while now, so I'm really psyched--particularly since I'll be working through the upcoming election. I'm an Editorial Intern, so I won't make much (and I'll definitely have to get a second job), but the CJR will be a perfect opportunity to find out if journalism is something I really want to pursue.

I start the week after Labor Day, but I want to get there early enough to scout out the Republican National Convention, with camera and notepad in tow. Orange alerts be damned.

Unwired

Incidentally, I am without readily-available Internet access here in NYC. To even check my email, I have to go to the Brooklyn Public Library (of which I am now a proud card-carrying member). Traffic here is so heavy I have only about 30 minutes a day to use a computer before someone else needs it.

Thus, my aspirations for Blogging will have to wait.

Off to NYC tonight

From which I will begin to post more frequently.
Thanks for the encouragement, Nick.

Farenheit 9/11

Just got back from seeing it at the Neptune, but I'm too incensed and depleted to even respond.

How much money is your kid worth?

I don't know what is more despicable, Jackson's alleged sexploitation of a 14-year-old or the unidealistic greed of his parents and lawyer.

Well, at least the 94' settlement taught him a lesson.

Another Disconnect

Most of us didn't need a 9/11 commission to figure this one out

Two Good Documentaries

I recently purchased Capturing the Friedmans, undoubtedly the best documentary I've ever seen. It tells the story of a seemingly-typical Long Island family wraught with deep dysfunction and some pretty horrific accusations of public scandal. Besides portraying a dramatic story, I find director Andrew Jarecki's genius in his ability to present truth where there is no truth.
The film even inspired a video project I created for my photography class this past semester.

It should have won the Oscar for Best Documentary over The Fog of War, which probably won out because of its current political context pertaining to the war in Iraq (and its incredible score by Philip Glass). Go see both.

Political Rant #1: Conservative Disconnects

The Republican party is typically known both for its unabashed patriotism and fervent free-enterprise. However, I can't understand how Bush patriots can also be diehard proponents of Reaganomics, since one of the most unpatriotic things corporate America can do now is move all their factories overseas and outsource all their jobs to foreigners abroad. With Americans losing these jobs of the corporate private sector and (if deregulators have their way) losing government jobs in the public sector, what major employers will be left?
(I hear the military is hiring these days.)

Enough with economic conservatives on to social conservatives:
Recently, activist bishops across the country are threatening to withhold communion from pro-choice Catholic politicians, for obvious reasons. I've also heard of similar standpoints concerning euthanasia and stem-cell research. However, similar outcries are not voiced over politicians who are pro-war in Iraq and pro-death penalty (both of which, coincidentally, are openly condemned by the Vatican). I can't understand how leaders in the Church will condemn the killing of unborn fetuses, suffering terminally-ill patients, and pin-sized clumps of zygotic cells, but won't condemn the killing of American troops, Iraqi civilians, and inmates. (Obviously this is greatly oversimplified, but you get the point.)

I think this archbishop actually gets it right.

Current IMDB crushes

Both redheads: One would get me incarcerated, the other castrated.

P.S. My dream came true last weekend when the former played the latter in an SNL skit.

Flight: American Airlines flight 260 (Non-Stop)
Depart: Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) - Terminal Information Unavailable
" Wed, Jun 30 at 11:25pm
Arrive: New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) - TERMINAL 9
" Thu, Jul 01 at 7:25am
Seat: 29F (Boeing 757 Jet)
Meal: No Meal Served
______________________________________________________
Flight: American Airlines flight 289 (Non-Stop)
Depart: New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) - TERMINAL 9
" Sun, Jul 18 at 7:00pm
Arrive: Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA) - Terminal Information Unavailable
" Sun, Jul 18 at 10:10pm
Seat: 29A (Boeing 757 Jet)
Meal: Dinner

Finally!

Got my laptop back today. After over THR33! weeks in the shop.

I've never felt so impotent. Not because I'm so desperately dependent on my computer, but because my resume and all my writing samples I needed for job applications were held captive on my hard drive.

Injury #1: Every time I attempt to boot my laptop, it either completely fails to turn on at all, or makes it into Windows only to crash suddenly and terribly.
Treatment: Completely new motherboard.
Cost: $700-$800

Injury #2: After I get it back, the first time I attempt to boot, the screen goes almost completely black (the laptop's on, but too dim to see).
Treatment: Unsticking the tiny plastic button that normally turns off the screen when closing the laptop.
Cost: A week of my life.

The only silver-lining to come out of the whole thing was the fact that my laptop is still on warranty, so it cost me nothing (monetarily, that is).

Tim Dunk'n Sighting

Starbucks Coffee
'The Quarry' Shopping Center
San Antonio, Texas
June 7, 2004
2:56 pm

Confirmed.