Author: kevin

Turns out that George Bush isn’t really my President…

When the going gets rough, the tough head to Crawford, or Idaho or VFW halls

So George ends his vacation with a few speeches to supporters and then another vacation. He moves from red state to red state, from military base to VFW hall, from one group of unquestioning supporters to another; all the while ignoring the mounting body counts in Iraq and rising opposition to the war among the American people. He tries to shore up support for the war by engaging his supporters, which is yet another stupid move from an out-of-touch elitist. Maybe now some of the people that voted for him will start to see their mistake.

George Bush doesn’t want to be America’s president, he wants to be the president of the people that like him and screw everyone else. He has never reached out to those who disagree with his policies or views. He cajoles, insults and belittles them. When politicians attack his policies, he (and Rove) try to destroy them (for example: Barbara Boxer). When those who know challenge his loose fitting of the facts (or lies) to reality he (and Rove) try to destroy them (for example: Joseph Wilson). Now that the American people are starting to question and disagree with him, he chooses to ignore us completely…

It is time for this president to be a man, to be a leader, to acknowledge what is really happening in Iraq and in his own country. To own up to his mistakes (after 1864 dead, can his still claim that he hasn’t ever made one mistake during his presidency?) and to engage the whole country in trying to fix them. Otherwise the next three years will be a comical farce as he jumps around the country from ever smaller red pocket to red pocket in an increasingly angry America; until finally he is just spending 100% of his time in Crawford pretending that everyone still loves him…

Geek test answers

no peeking

West Wing Geek Test: College Kids

Music Geek Test: They’re Canadian! Proudly Canadian! From Toronto Canadian! They’re standing right behind Allison Janey on the stage when she says it. Don’t you think one of them might have said something to the producer or writers? I don’t even own any of their albums and I knew that!

I started wondering if I’d misheard Allison Janey on the show and close captioning hadn’t helped when I watched it. So I did a little web search and found no one else complaining about this. Maybe I did mis-hear it, or am I the first person in the world to have noticed this? I really doubt it. I would imagine some Barenaked Ladies fan site would have freaked out about this. I’m sure I’ll hear from some BNL (as the kids call it) freak who’ll put me right if it was my hearing that was wrong and not the writers of the WW (as the kids may call it, I’m to lazy to see).

Tivo saves television

My second technological revelation today

For one reason or another I’ve avoided getting a DVR. First it was the expense, and then it was the hassle of stringing the phone cord across my den. Then there was the politics of the Tivo company adding new advertisements while you were skipping over the others or supporting the broadcast flag or not developing the Tivo desktop for mac… I decided to go with an alternative. I was going to build a media PC around a Mac Mini, but that was an expensive proposition. Don’t even talk to me about Microsoft’s Media PCs.

Finally, I just broke down and bought the Tivo and now it is all much clearer. The beauty of Tivo isn’t time shifting or skipping over adds. The beauty of Tivo is that I no longer watch crappy TV anymore. I no longer flip around looking for something decent to watch when I am in the mood to watch TV. The side-effect of this is that I’m actually watching less TV, I think. When I’ve watched everything saved up on the Tivo, I’m not really willing to waste time looking for something else to watch. I’d rather just pop in a movie or read a book or something. This is the benefit I never understood or heard expressed this way…

I Got the RSS religion

I finally figured it out

Sure, I’ve been using RSS for a year or so now, using it to keep up on my favorite websites. I never understood the devotion to it that its proponents exhibited at Gnomedex, in blogs and on the Gillmor Gang. Then I wrote my own RSS aggregator as an exercise and it struck me. Sure, there is the “real-time web” and all that stuff, which is cute and fine, but what is more interesting is all the other stuff that you need to keep up with. All of the sudden, I see anything and I see the need for an RSS feed. It all makes a bit more sense now.

I got a fever… and the only prescription is more RSS feeds.

Thinking ’bout video

some links and stuff
The clicker has recently had some right-on takes on stuff:

In this article, Stephen Speicher makes a great point about how the next-gen DVD format wars aren’t about which is better for the consumer, but rather about which is better for protecting the profits of the content distributors.

In this article, he looks at the effect and aftermath of the recent legal decisions on the broadcast flag.

Also, via kottke,

notcomming.com did a nice tribute to Saul Bass’ title work which is some of the most creative motion design work ever. They do a nice trick with a slideshow, but it would be cool if they posted the actual video (probably didn’t want to get sued into oblivion)

Posted: Sat – August 13, 2005 at 04:55 PM