I’ve posted a few snippets to this blog from my high school history teacher’s posts. He’s a really insightful guy when it comes to politics and the big picture. In the light of CNN and just about every other news agency reaching and digging to find fault in John McCain’s pick for a running mate, it’s nice to read something maybe not less biased, but a bit more rational.
Anyone that has been in my class for long knows that I have been touting Sarah Palin for the VP pick of the GOP for a long time. So today, finally, I am actually excited about this election season. (I am on record as officially “tepid” concerning the campaign of John McCain)
So, why, exactly have I supported Sarah Palin for so long you might ask?
…
Sarah Palin has the additional upside of having true outsider credentials. No one will be able to claim that she is either a Beltway Insider (both John McCain and Joe Biden face this charge), or a Machine Politician, a charge that Barack Obama faces in David Freddoso’s recent book.
In any case, I definitely recommend reading it. He makes some points you’re not going to read in the newspaper or see on FOX News (like any of you actually watch that channel) or CNN.
Xanga: Still Thinking – Palin is the pick
So, I have this pretty sweet guitar called a Vaccaro. There’s a long and interesting history about the company, but suffice it to say my guitar has an aluminum neck encased in maple, a metal headstock in the shape of a “V” with a single coil at the neck and a humbucker in the bridge position. String through body, 3-way switch, coil tap. It’s pretty cool. And I’m trying to sell it.
Now, back in college when I had money I could spend on cool stuff, I bought a Seymour-Duncan SH1B ‘59. It’s a humbucker specifically made to go in the bridge position and sound pretty vintage. And it certainly does. We soldered it in Junior year (I think it was) and it was pretty cool, I guess. But it didn’t live up to what I had hoped it would do. Then a year later I got a ‘69 Thinline Tele reissue and didn’t really touch the Vaccaro anymore.
I picked it up today to play it through my ‘73 Champ and see how it’s sounding and feeling, and it didn’t make a peep. Uh-oh.
So now I have it opened up on my coffee table and I’m thinking of putting the old humbucker back in. The SH1 is cool, but it’s got a single conducter and that means I can’t use the coil tap – which is a bummer. The old pickup sounds good too.
My dilemma in doing this is that I can’t find the tips to my soldering iron. And I can’t find my wood burning tool that has a soldering tip (so that it can serve a dual purpose). So I’m kind of stuck. I probably should just buy a nice soldering gun and case, but I’ve never felt the need to spend $30 on a soldering gun. I should just bite the bullet someday and do it.
Anyway. If you know where my soldering iron tips are, let me know!
They jacked our DSL bill up. Didn’t tell me. Just added $5 onto the price. That on top of me having to pay for a phone line we don’t use. What else is interesting is that through all of the other price fluctuations they’ve had during the last year, our price has never been modified. But now. Apparently they thought it was fine to do this and not notify me.
The first CSR I got said the price increase was because of their new 24-hour tech support and antivirus software. And I don’t use either of those. I was perfectly happy with the service I had before without…
Shoot. Stupid cell interference. Only when I connect with them. I hate this.
So. New things on this site. Comments are fixed and look good. Tags are now in the meta with a snazzy new icon (look below).
And that’s all. So minor update, but things are looking good! Gotta get my résumé updated so I can show you the new and cool document download on the résumé page.
Anyway. I’m glad it’s the weekend. Jess has a thing all day tomorrow so I am going to work on my grad school application. Then we’re headed to eat fish & chips in St Louis with a bunch of friends for September birthdays (I am one of those). So, it’s going to be FUN.
Nester Class 5
rocked out to Nester Class 5. It was pretty fun. There are some crazy freshman this year.
My friend Ryan lives in Denver and he shared this video on his blog.
Did they not think this would fly around the internet? This isn’t France. Those people were peaceably assembled. They were invoking their constitutional rights. And they were threatened and bullied and attacked by the people their tax dollars go to pay to protect and serve the public. It’s an atrocity.
Edit
Randall makes a few good points on his blog as well. As soon as the protestors got in the way of traffic or started blocking streets they went past peaceably assembled. But I’m also sure the police could have handled it a bit than enclosing the crowd between buildings on the left and right and two lines of cops in full
Watching CNN’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention is kind of funny. The major issue of interest at this point is converting the Hillary supporters into Obama supporters and whether or not it’s possible.
It’s funny how quickly the pundits forget the primaries. One of the them was saying that Hillary’s fanclub will easily switch after her speech tonight. That they will all of a sudden realize that Obama will support everything that Hillary supports.
What a load of bull. There were major points of contention between Hillary’s proposed policy and Obama’s. There was extreme concern that Obama is not read (that concern has certianly not gone away). Obama DOES NOT support everything Hillary does. But apparently wishy-washy idealism is contagious.
Dennis Kucinich got up and made an empowering speech saying things like “Up with free trade” and “Up with prosperity”. Obama opposes free trade. The democratic party opposes free trade. And some people think that’s good. They believe that governments playing with and regulating the free market is good. And if they believe that they believe in destroying capitalism. Fair trade doesn’t exist. Fair isn’t real. It’s idealistic. And a farse.
In any case. This is funny.
Hearsay