osheas::blog

more music charts

After a loooong week in San Jose working the CLA 2008 conference, we’re back home catching up. Even better, we have NO travel plans for at least two weeks! We actually had a lot of fun. Here’s a photo of us in action:

We didn’t have to wear those outfits the whole time, thank goodness.

Here’s my exciting link of the day: there is now an OFFICIAL Monty Python YouTube channel! No more crappy clips cadged from old VCR tapes - the gang has posted really high quality versions of classics like the Penis Song and the Ministry of Silly Walks.

What a year: Obama wins AND we get a Monty Python YouTube channel! Life is good…

For the first time ever, I felt emotional, engaged, involved in an election. There were tears in my eyes when Obama gave his acceptance speech, something that has NEVER happened to me before. But the sense of victory is tempered by the fact that Prop 8 passed here in California. Under this bogus proposition, gay marriages are declared once again illegal. *sigh*

We have a road yet to travel as long as any of us continue to be disenfranchised and disrespected. I guess few victories are unambiguous. To all our friends who were dissed in this election, we stand with you. Change is here and will keep on coming. The tsunami of history is on your side.

After working all day, I have to go pack in preparation for a trip to Orlando. Nope, sorry, it’s a working trip, not  a vacation. So it goes. But I have to do some linking before heading out. if this election does nothing else, it sure has generated some funny video!

• Bush Endorses McCain and Palin
• Paris Hilton Gets Presidential with Martin Sheen
• Ron Howard’s Call to Action

Okay, gotta go pack now!

McCain and Obama are debating one last time tonight. Meanwhile, the stock market is down 700+ points today. I’m voting for Obama but I also think that no matter who is elected, they’re going to have a tough time of it without raising taxes in some way. So here’s my idea: institute a federal sales tax, say, of 1-2% on everything - everything, including Internet goodies. No fuss, no muss, no weasling out of it because you have a really good accountant. I know, I know, it’s not very complicated and there are no earmarks or entitlements or other doublethink nonsense. But just think about it - it’s an easy way for everybody to pay their fair share AND actually generate revenue rather than just spend it.

Wow, where does the time go? I’ve been so busy working, traveling and being traumatized by the upcoming election and the economy that I just haven’t had the time or spirit to blog. I’ve been watching the SNL takeoffs on Sarah Palin & John McCain and it is too eerie how like real-life the skits are. I mean, I’m as qualified as Sarah Palin to be Vice President and I know for a fact that I AM NOT qualified! What the hell?

The thing that really bothers me most about the election is the hypocrisy of John McCain. This is the guy who sold himself for years as the maverick, the outsider - and what does he do? He sells out to the far right because he wants to be President so badly he is willing to sacrifice all of his supposed values to feed his ambition. Shame on him!

I am reminded of a great quote from the movie The American President: “We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people.” John McCain is not proving himself to be that serious person. And God knows, Sarah Palin isn’t either.

The thing that bothers me the most about the economy’s implosion is the arrogance of the corporate world. Where are the greedy CEO’s who have been profiting for years on the crappy banking and mortgage practices (nicely explained here) that have been providing them with massive bonuses? One absolute criterion of any bailout plan should be that any company who gets bailout money gets NO CEO bonus money until that company pays back every cent they are loaned. And hey, let’s cut back on the top management salaries, too, until all of the money gets paid back.

*sigh*

From our friend Mary:

There once was a woman named Sarah,
As foolish as Scarlet O’Hara,
Her experience is scant,
Which is why I must rant,
It’s not Halloween; still she can scare ya!

The iPhone 3G has been out since Friday, and we still haven’t been able to even touch one, much less buy one. The at&t stores have been sold out within 15 minutes of opening since the Friday launch, and the wait at the Apple Store is a couple of hours.

I decided to spend the remainder of my tax stimulus check upgrading, but the challenge will clearly be to actually find a store that has them in stock and where I won’t go grey(er) waiting. *sigh* I actually may do alright in this upgrade. If I can sell my iPhone 2G for $200 on craigslist, I’ll pretty much break even.

In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for playing around with the iPhone 2.0 software and third party apps. My fave downloads so far (all free):

• Pandora (Internet radio player)
• Currency (currency converter)
• Light (turn your iPhone into a flashlight for a few seconds)
• Twitterific (easy to send tweets)
• Box Office (find movies playing in your area)
• Hotels.com (find hotels & book rooms in your area - wherever that is)

The apps all work well, but I have noticed that they drain my iPhone’s battery. Since I have this enforced wait to satisfy my iPhone fix, I am now leaning toward a 16GB in white (you can only get white in the 16GB size). It’s dumb, but the white one will show a lot fewer fingerprints, etc, than the black.

Argh! All of this talk has made me think maybe I will go stand in that three hour long line at the Apple Store after all…

Here’s a cool idea: Earth Hour! It’s tonight at 8pm. Make your own statement about global warming (or global climate change as the Bush administration euphemistically prefers).