So our thanksgiving dinner went well. We had 8 other people over including my parents, my brother and his wife, the scientist’s parents and grandmother, and our friend Grue. My cousins and aunt from the socialist state could not come not make it over as postmen and nurses do not get a 5 day weekend like some of us. I was looking forward to getting to see them… maybe next month.
Things have been pretty relaxed since everyone left. We’ve pretty much just hung out doing not much of anything (only a little bit of house work and some shopping). I can’t remember the last time I had this much time off in one go. It is amazing how much more motivated one is to do non-sitting-on-one’s-ass things, when one has been sitting on one’s ass for a couple of days. With that focus, I will do some looking around for employment opportunities (not sure what I am looking for…) and maybe plan the built in bookshelves/cabinet/drawers for our loft. The scientist is planning on using the space for an office where she can do work and have space for the baby, which means I need to try and get it done by May (though I’m hoping to get it done in by the end of January). I’ll probably need to recruit some help as I’ve never done any framing… I’ll post the plans when I have them done. What I’d give to have a drafting table. Anyone know of a good open source drafting program?
Now, this amuses me to no end. iPods and Jihad… I don’t see a correlation, but what do I know?
I don’t own an iPod. I would never wear an iPod… If this is your primary focus in life - the machines… it’s going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America… did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them? …I really fear for the United States because, believe me, the jihadists? They’re not playing the video games. They’re killing real people over there.
Bill O’Reilly
I think this is up there with the tubes thing.
The scientist and I caught the end of this 20/20 segment on Friday. It questions why women in America do not get more maternity leave, and why child care costs so much (upwards of $10,000 per year per child).
For example, of 168 countries surveyed in the world, only four offer no national maternity-leave program: Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, and the United States of America.
Not getting more time off could possibly make things a little difficult for us this coming May. I’ll probably end up working a 4 day week, but that means we have a kid in day care for 10 hours. Is that good for a two month old? Hell, why don’t I get paternity leave! We’re both going to probably use up a sizable chunk, if not all, of our vacation time. Anyway, it’s an interesting story (though I don’t think there is enough outrage… it seems like tired acceptance) and you can watch it if you don’t feel like reading.
I’ve never been able to find a online list of ice times for Jackson Landing in Durham, so I went there in my car and took a pictures of the 2006-2007 schedule. Blame Motorola for the poor picture quality.
Don’t blame me if the times are wrong. I’m just doing this out of the kindness of my heart (and to give me some place I can find the times).
On the way in to work I was listening to some commentary on what the new Democratic NH government will do, courtesy of NHPR. (The scientist and I were sort of discussing the same thing last night) A professor from St. Anselm’s commented that the democrats need to make sure they do not follow their first instinct of fiscal irresponsibility while trying to resolve the education issue. I don’t understand this. In my experience the main offenders of fiscal irresponsibility have been the republicans (though I suppose they have been in power my entire political life). They started a war and cut taxes for god’s sake! He did echo some of the scientist’s comments from last night, in that the NH population has not become more democratic but that the republican party has become less New Hampshire-esque (i.e. pandering to social conservatives who should get their big fat heads out of our bedrooms). So I guess he wasn’t all bad, but can someone explain why republicans are supposed to be more fiscally responsible? Is it because they believe in lower taxes? I hear that ‘Goldwater‘ Republicans believe that if you raise spending on one thing you have to cut equally from another (which just makes sense, though it leaves out raising taxes), but are there any ‘Goldwater’ Republicans left? Because if there were, I think that the election on Tuesday might have been different. What does anyone else think? This is, of course, assuming that we can have a fair election and that big money does not own our representatives.
So what will the democrats do? Here’s what I think:
- Raise taxes
- Force our children to have sex with strangers
- Force our children to have abortions
Oops… that’s what Fox news thinks. Let’s try that again.
- Education, as a state, what do we need to do? how much will it cost? can we pay for it?
- Tax (optional), change them if item 1 requires.
- Increase NH energy independence
- Increase environmental conservation measures (clean air, more money for state parks)
What do you think?
I’m sure all of you know that the Dems did pretty well this election, but do you know how well?
- Democrats now have the majority in the House (Monday: 253 R, 147 D; Wednesday: 237 D, 163 R)
- Democrats now have the majority of the executive council. (Monday: 3 R, 2 D; Wednesday: 3 D, 2 R)
- Democrats now have majority in the State senate. (Monday: 16 R, 8 D; Wednesday: 14 D, 10 R)
I wonder what will happen over the next two years with a democratic majority. Maybe they’ll actually do something about the education problem. It should be an interesting couple of years.
I pretty sure Sununu and Gregg are both glad they weren’t up for re-election this year.
If you plan on voting you should do it today. I went this morning and found out few things:
- the polls opened at 8am not 7,
- most people also thought the polls opened at 7 (or the ~100 people in line make me think so),
- it was cold outside,
- the Diebold Accuvote scanner did not work and there was quite a bit of confusion. I’m hoping there is a hand count because, if not, I’m pretty sure that some people’s votes may not be counted, and I include myself in that group. Who does one contact about this sort of thing? Why is there always so much confusion surrounding elections?
I wont get into Diebold poor name choice, but this is why it is important to have a paper trail. What would happen if I had voted on an electronic only machine? Would I know there was a problem? Would I know that someone could go through and count the votes manually just to make sure? No. I would not.
P.S. Remember the amendments on the back of the NH ballot (I forgot them and had to go back into the booth).
P.P.S. It looks like Vermont has more interesting choices on their ballots.
P.P.P.S. If you are bored, check out the Presidential Speech Tag Cloud. It shows you the major ideas/words in each speech by every president.
From DFNH. Among likely voters…
NH-1
47% Bradley (R-Incumbent)
42% Shea-Porter (D)
NH-2
37% Bass (R-Incumbent)
45% Hodes (D)
There is more polling information if you want to check it out. (Oops, got the Bass and Hodes numbers backwards. They are fixed now.)
Last night’s Bruins game was fucking awful. Okay, I take that back. The first 50 minutes were fantastic. The B’s dominated the Saber (who have yet to mark up their loss column this year) for the first 2 and a half periods; notching 4 goals and only giving up one. But then they fell into the prevent defense (dump and chase, I guess). They needed to skate and keep attacking! But they didn’t and the Sabers score 3 goals and ended up winning in the shoot out. WTF. It looked like the Bruins just stopped; like they became another team! I thought I was over the frustration from last night but the recap on the radio this morning flared it up again! Damn it.
To sum it up the Saber fought back even with a huge deficit, they never gave up, and the Bruins were/are unable to play an entire game. This is why the Sabers are in first place and the Bruins are second to last. Sigh.
I little while ago the Scientist and I rented The Libertine with Johnny Depp. The story follows the extraordinarily debased life of the Earl of Rochchester (John Wilmot) 1647-80. I really wont go into it much (the poem below pretty much outlines the character). The only reason I bring it up is that I read through 3 or 4 of his poems for my Brit Lit course. I had thought the movie was a little over the top but after reading the poems I think it was pretty accurate. Here is one of the shorter ones entitled “Song”:
Love a woman? You’re an ass!
‘Tis a most insipid passion
To choose out for your happiness
The silliest part of God’s creation.
Let the porter and the groom,
Things designed for dirty slaves,
drudge in fair Aurelia’s womb
To get supplies for age and graves.
Farewell, woman! I intend
Henceforth every night to sit
With my lewd, well-natured friends,
Drinking to engender wit.
The give me health, wealth, mirth, and wine,
And, if busy love entrenches,
There’s a sweet, soft page of mine
Does the trick worth forty wenches.
The other poems were much more lewd, but this one shows his selfishness, his disdain for women and marriage, and his love for drink and young boys (I thought the page reference was fitting). At the end of movie (his life), when he is dying of the French Pox Rochester “finds” God. Which, I suppose, is supposed to be a moral lesson. Perhaps, ‘A life without God (religion) is a life of sin’. I have not found it so…
For more poetry of this sort click here.
Turkey Day, et al.