I Have A Problem

I become easily obsessed with American Idol. So, tonight I watched the guys sing and tomorrow the girls will sing. I will not be watching the boring Thursday show in which we find out who got voted off. Why waste an hour of my time when I can check out the website on Friday?

Here are my thoughts on the competition this year:

-There's a really cool rocker chick named Amanda and I hope she stays in at least until the Top 12.
-Mr. Australian guy is just not doing it for me. Why do people like him?
-Ditto on Mrs. Irish girl. She has amazing vocals and always picks the wrong song.
-What's with the cute, teary eyed kid who can't stop talking about people less fortunate than himself and singing sad songs? He's turning into a parody.
-The tall, blonde girl named Brooke is fun to watch. They call Simon "Mr. Happy" every time she sings because of his "washing up liquid commercial" speech in which he described her singing as "happy and yellow."
-I have a tough time deciding between David Cook and David Hernandez, but this week it was definitely David Cook.
-Either Syesha or Asia'h could become my favorite female Idol this season.
-The guy with the dreads has a beautiful voice.
-Ramiele is my favorite girl. Here's hoping she picks a good song this week (not like last week when I couldn't vote for her because of song choice).
-Why does Danny dance? Someone should tell him to stop trying . . .
-Whatever happy pill Paula's taking is starting to frighten me.
-Randy never stops talking about singing and performing technique. Wait, that's how he's always been.
-Simon is still the voice of reason and after Paula's long, flowery speeches I really like to get the opinion of someone who does not have an open mind.

And those are my thoughts on American Idol this year. Enjoy the show.

Where Am I?

I am totally here. I just don't have much to say. I thought I would post an Oscars commentary. But I just didn't feel like it. I'm glad Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor. Why didn't Ellen Page win Best Actress? Stupid Academy. Anyway, I was going to give out my own set of awards, but can't seem to come up with anything funny enough. So whatever.

I was going to post some commentary on the election as it struggles along. I do not have much to say. I am sad that I will not be able to feel proud to vote for anyone this November. That's the way things look at least.

Looks like I might be getting a house soon. So that's exciting. And time consuming. I am going to be working more hours starting next week. Not too much more though. But it will bring in a few more bucks and that's always a good thing.

I will try to come up with an actual intellectual post in the near future. In the meantime, I am alive and around. But my brains are definitely smelly.

Interesting

It looks like torture may not be all it's cracked up to be. I'll be the first to admit that I always thought torture worked. I didn't like it and I certainly don't agree with using it, but I assumed it worked. Otherwise, why do it? The answer lies at the end of the article where it states:

'"The larger problem here, I think," one active CIA officer observed in 2005, "is that this kind of stuff just makes people feel better, even if it doesn't work."'

Castro Resigns

Fidel Castro resigned today. He's still not dead.

My favorite quote from the article is this:

"Fidel Castro is widely expected to retain a strong voice in the country's strategic decisions for the time being."

No kidding. That's the understatement of the century. Fidel Castro is going to keep as tight a hold of his power as he can until he's gone.

Everything In Moderation

Here is an interesting commentary on the McCain problem. I agree that we should perhaps calm down, take a step back and think about compromise. That's how politics works best after all. I am just not sure if I can actually trust McCain or other neo-cons to follow through on such a plan. McCain already told us at CPAC that he might listen to conservatives if they wanted him to change his policies. His promise might not be good enough for me. I might need some more evidence to back up a statement like that. McCain might have to oppose embryonic stem cell research, or he might have to try to get troops out of Iraq, or he might have to understand what's wrong with the economy. McCain might have to do something about border security -- something that doesn't grant amnesty to illegal aliens. He might even have to come up with a fiscal plan where the government does not spend more than it brings in. Or he might have to be somebody other than McCain. Yeah, I like that last sentence best.

The Race Annoouncer -- That's Me

Virginia: McCain won on the Republican side. Obama won the Democrat primary.

Maryland: McCain won again. Obama won again.

D.C.: Same story by wider margins.

I cannot say I am surprised by any of the outcomes of these states/district. Except perhaps that Obama is doing so well. That's how the Dems are, however. They will shoot themselves in the foot every primary by picking a really liberal candidate who can talk pretty. Republicans prefer the inarticulate guy who's willing to take action whether it's necessary or not. I am still surprised about McCain coming up as the forerunner. He's incredibly unpredictable when it comes to Republican values. He switches back and forth so often. I remember a time when it was thought that he would become an Independent and change the balance of power in the Senate. I respect him for what he has been through, but I do not want him to be president.

Oh, yeah, and Ron Paul's numbers continue to be existent, but low.

Count Them Votes!

Huckabee is contesting the results from Washington state. The state Republican Party chair declared McCain the winner with only 87% of the votes counted. McCain was less than two percent ahead of Huckabee.

Ron Paul won 21% of the votes counted so far in Washington.

The Plot Thickens

Huckabee won with 60% of the vote in the GOP Kansas caucuses. McCain came in far behind with a measly 24% and Ron Paul only got 11%. In Louisiana, Huckabee came in first by a slim majority. Ron Paul received 5%. Washington is still too close for me to tell who has won and not all the votes are counted. I will update when it's closer to 100% of precincts reporting.

Obama won four races. He won by a wide margin in each one. Take that, Hillary!

My thoughts are conflicted. I won't vote for McCain. As far as I'm concerned he has betrayed the Republican party several times over. I won't vote for a Democrat. I don't want to have to vote for Huckabee. He's too liberal. There just isn't a candidate who I can get behind this year. Of course, that's why I worked so hard to get Ron Paul the nomination. I guess I'll start researching Congressional and local races. I officially can't care about the presidential race anymore. But I'll keep updating on it. It's fun to watch.

Super Tuesday Is Over Now

As usual I am linking to the results of the election. Super Tuesday was yesterday. 21 states voted in primaries.

For Republicans the results were still mixed. McCain is considered to be ahead now. Ron Paul beat Huckabee in a couple states and he came out ahead of McCain in Montana and Alaska. I just hope he keeps getting his message heard. I'm going to say right now that I won't vote for McCain. He clearly knows nothing about the economy which I think is the most important issue right now. *cough* RINO *cough*

For Democrats I don't think we can make a generalization yet either. Clinton won New York and California, but Obama won more states and with higher margins.

The race continues to be interesting. Frankly, I am enjoying this year's primary/caucus season more than any other I have witnessed. I want to see this go back and forth all the way to the National Conventions.

Don't Forget To Breathe

If you plan to see the movie There Will Be Blood then my best advice to you is, "Don't forget to breathe." It's easy to forget when you are watching the most powerful acting performance of the last 20 years (that I can remember). Very easy. Daniel Day-Lewis deserves to win the Oscar for Best Actor. Hands down. It will be a gross injustice if he loses to Johnny Depp or George Clooney. I could not be more clear if I hosted the Oscars myself. That man should win. I don't think any of the other nominees could hold a candle to Day-Lewis's performance in Blood.

To be fair, I only recommend that you go see Blood if you are okay with a bitter storyline, an ending that does not tie up loose ends and watching a person get driven mad by his obsession. I went to see the movie because I thought it would be good research for my writing. It turned out to be so much more than that.

The beginning of the movie jars the audience into its setting and main character. After that you could not walk away if you wanted to. The soundtrack at the very beginning is like the sound of someone holding his breath. It's frightening. The intensity of the acting -- with no dialog for the first 20 minutes -- is gripping. I found myself identifying with Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) from that first moment.

Blood is the story of a man obsessed with making money. He starts out with gold and silver mining then moves on to oil drilling. At first he doesn't seem like such a bad guy. You can tell he swindles people, but he's so good at it that you cannot hate him. As his character develops and things happen to him you begin to see him losing his grip on reality itself. He becomes so engrossed in his own successes that he just hates everyone. I know this sounds horrible, but you can't stop watching. You almost feel like you are Daniel Plainview until it's too late and you suddenly realize he has gone completely mad.

The anchor that makes Daniel Plainview a believable character is his son H.W. For some reason Daniel loves that little boy. Reviewers have said that H.W. was just a prop for Daniel. But I think they're wrong. H.W. was Daniel Plainview's "rosebud," so to speak. He was the one thing Daniel cared about, but Daniel did not love the boy more than Daniel loved his own success. I thought it was interesting that Daniel hated everyone except a child. He was happy when H.W. was a little boy and before H.W. had an accident that handicapped him. Daniel risked his life to save H.W. After that he abandoned the poor kid and became even more obsessed with his oil drilling.

The movie features one other compelling character played by Paul Dano: Eli Sunday. Eli is a preacher under the compulsion of his own obsession. He makes an excellent contrast to Daniel because he is just as obsessed with spirituality as Daniel is with money. I feel bad for Paul Dano, however, because his performance -- which was good -- seemed pathetic in comparison to Day-Lewis'. It would be difficult for any actor to play opposite Day-Lewis in Blood. Eli, at first, welcomes Daniel to his town and helps Daniel buy up the oil rich land. When Daniel scorns Eli's church, however, Eli becomes embittered and wishes he had not allowed Daniel into the community. The two men eventually become enemies. It was interesting to watch them. The one obsession against the other. But both end up in a bad way.

Which leads me to the ending. I'm not going to give it away, but if you prefer happy endings then you will hate this movie. It was truly a remarkable thing to see. When I walked out of the theatre I was so full of different emotions that I had no idea what to say about the movie. I felt like I had just awoke from a dream in which I was a different person. There is so much in a thematic sense in Blood. The characters, the oil, progress. I can't even begin to explain it all. I might have to watch it again . . . Or just buy it on dvd when the time comes.

Retiring The Bum

If you have kept up with my blog lately then you know I have been annoyed with myself. I often refer to myself as a "bum." The main reason for that is I don't always get things done when I need to and I have been unmotivated for the past year. I think I may have learned the secret to motivating myself: positive reinforcement.

In retrospect I'm not sure why this was so difficult to figure out. When I was a kid I used to get up at 6am every morning and do my schoolwork (I was homeschooled). I normally finished by noon and had ample time to play outside in the mud (I enjoyed mud and frankly, Michigan is a mudhole). I am doing the same thing really, I get my work done and then I get a reward (mud). The main difference is that now I have to come up with a better reward and that can cost money. For example, since I completed my housework and made it to the gym this week I get to go see a movie. Next week I might do something more mundane like playing Civ IV. That's the only game I play. I find it's a constructive way to deal with my kneejerk neo-conservative leanings -- don't judge me I was once just like you, I mean, I was educated by neo-cons. Conquer a few virtual civilizations, win a virtual space race, set off a few virtual ICBMs and I'm all set to talk about what's wrong with the economy again. So, it's a very rewarding game. I digress as usual. I find that fun is a lot more rewarding when I know I have done my work. I must have forgot that fact in college since I had to grab fun when I could because most of what I did was study, study, study.

Housework and exercise are not the only things I have let slide over the past year. I have become terminally bad at sticking to my writing. I have jumped from one novel to the next with gaps of two months in between a couple weeks of frenzied effort. The hard working times never last. So, I have set down and really started editing my 2005 NaNo novel. I have the prologue in ship-shape condition. I have even allowed people to read it and tell me what's wrong with it. If you want to be one of those people and I trust you then send me an email and I might let you read my work. It's good to get all the feedback I can -- not that I will take everything you say seriously.

I feel a whole lot better about myself now. I realize that my problem has not been that there is something terribly wrong with me. It's been that I know I am not doing my best with my responsibilities. I think it's time for the bum to retire. Of course, if I get sick then the bum can come back for a few days.

Keep It Coming

It's pretty amazing to think that only a few states have voted for presidential candidates so far this year. Next Tuesday we will have 20 states voting on the same day. That still will only amount to a little over half the states in the U.S. I think we should let the election drag on and wait a little longer to make those assumptions on who's winning. But then I'm not the press. I'm just your average American. Since when does my opinion count?

Yesterday was Florida's vote. McCain won despite embarrassing himself with a misquote of Romney that he refuses to back down on. And despite the fact that McCain knows almost nothing about the economy. Romney came in next, however, proving that he is still doing better than anyone else (I think). Ron Paul received 62,000 votes, but in Florida that amounted to 3%. Not that he was counting on Florida. Oh, and goodbye Rudy!

On the Democrat side it doesn't really matter because the DNC took Florida's delegates. I'll report the numbers anyway. We have flip-flopped again. Clinton soundly beat Obama. Obama should announce it's because of all those old people. Don't you think? "Well, I never had a chance in a state with a lot of old people." As for Edwards, when is he going to stop wasting his money and get out of the race?

Some Things Never Change

. . . George W. Bush is one of them. I watched the State of the Union Address for the first time in several years yesterday evening. Most years I just read it afterwards. This being President Bush's last year I decided to watch him give his speech one more time. There were a few solid moments of the speech where I would have been standing and applauding. But most of it was all about spending more of my tax dollars on more wasteful Federal programs. He did throw in a nice tribute to balancing the budget at the beginning. He even laughed when he told Congress that he was not going to approve an unbalanced budget this year.

Bush is taking that veto pen very seriously these days. He had to ease into this whole presidency thing. So, about his 6th year he decided he could try vetoing something. I guess he ended up enjoying the veto so much that he can't put the pen down now.

I have to admit I prefer watching a Bush State of the Union Address to a Clinton one. Why is that? Bush may make errors in words and sentences (not yesterday), but he doesn't keep talking for two hours. Nor does he insert all kinds of sickening, flowery language in his speech. He just says what he means. If that makes me doze off, well, at least it's better than feeling like I want to go vomit.

It was actually funny watching the speech last night. GWB was having such a wonderful time giving his last State of the Union Address. He looked so comfortable standing up there. He seems to have stopped caring about the criticism we as a country focus on him. On one hand, that's not good. But on the other hand, I do have to feel some respect for the guy. He took the job of president and he's definitely one of the most hated presidents in his time. Still, he never gives up on his decisions. I can't get behind all the spending or wars of regime change. But I have to admire his unapologetic perseverance. I have to admire his resolve. I really have to admire his ability to finish the speech in only one hour . . .

Inventing Slurs

I wish people would stop creating new racial slurs and labels of a negative sort. I mean, you never really know when you're going to end up saying something totally insensitive anymore. Maybe we should take the route of George Orwell's 1984 and start shrinking the language instead of coming up with new meanings for words. He tried to make a good point with that whole idea, but I really think he missed something.

Back And Forth

Yesterday South Carolina held its Democratic primary. Obama came in ahead of Hillary by nearly 30 points. Edwards should just quit. His own state would not elect him for prez. The race continues its chaotic spiral. What will happen next? What will Hillary do? Whatever she does, it won't be pretty . . .

My Annual "I Don't Get The Oscars" Post

Yes, the nominations are in for the Oscars. As usual I have only seen one of the movies nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. That would be Juno. It's very good. Somehow I don't think it deserves Best Picture, despite the fact that it's the best movie I've seen all year. Of the other movies nominated for that award none of them were popular at all. I think I'd be interested in seeing There Will Be Blood. But the others don't sound up my alley. As for best actor, well, I'm glad Viggo Mortensen finally got a nomination. I doubt he will win, but that's okay. He should get some more roles and that's all I'd like to see from him. I hope to see Ellen Page take Best Actress home with her. She was amazing in Juno.

Of course, the movies that I actually watched mainly received technical nominations. Those would be Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Ratatouille, Transformers and 3:10 to Yuma. Speaking of which, I am very disappointed that none of the actors in Yuma were nominated for Oscars. That movie was incredible. I plan to buy it, soon. It's so sad that Westerns have lost their place as notable movies anymore. At least the '90s are over. The only Oscar nominated films in the '90s were crappy, message flicks that bored me to tears. I mean, at least I can say that a few movies on the Oscar Nominations list interest me rather than that I do not want to see any of them ever. That's a little bit better than things used to be.

The Confusion, Er, Election Continues

Nevada: Romney won by a lot. Ron Paul came in second! It's not much more decisive than Romney winning Wyoming, however, because hardly anyone showed up to the caucuses. At least, that's my opinion. The Republican Party still appears confused.

As for the Democrats, Clinton is in the lead. I'm really not sure why the recent Clinton camp shenanigans haven't turned voters completely off toward Hillary. I mean, really, I don't consider Obama to be the nice guy either (considering his tactics in Illinois elections), but something is definitely going on with the Clinton campaign. Ever since that one time Obama did better than Hillary it's been scary. Doesn't this jog a few memories of the last Clinton White House? Why do we want that again?

South Carolina: This was a much more decisive victory for McCain. Still not sure if that makes him the front runner. It probably puts him equal with Romney. As for Ron Paul, he came in ahead of Giuliani, at least.

On the Democrats side we will not find out until Jan. 26th because they have a different primary date for each party.

To Sing To The Whole World

I have spent the last two years unable to watch my one addiction: American Idol. Yes, I love that show. No, I don't know why. Simon is my favorite of the judges because I nearly always agree with him (but I would not say things the way he does). Randy and Paula are fun too because they're a lot more enthusiastic and normal than Simon. They definitely ground the show.

Yesterday's show was 2 hours long and I almost quit watching it. But they kept teasing me at the commercial breaks with an upcoming contestant. He was a guy in a costume. When they finally brought him out (the last 7 minutes of the show) I thought, "I've waited this long, this had better be good." Boy, was it. Here it is for your viewing enjoyment. Watch him as he "sings free of charge" "to the whole world." The greatest 7 minutes in American Idol history as far as I am concerned.

Confusion

The results of the primaries continue to prove that the Republican party is a mess. Huckabee, McCain and Romney have now all been first in the first three primary/caucus states. Actually, Romney came in first in Wyoming, so he has done better than the other three.

As for Ron Paul, he did really well in Michigan. He totally beat Giuliani and Thompson. We're talking more than double the votes Rudy got and almost double the votes Thompson received.

Word has it that Michigan Dems are not satisfied either. That's probably because the DNC refused to acknowledge the primary when MI moved it up. Take that MI (my home state) for forcing Iowa to move its caucuses up so they infringed on the holidays.

Crisis of Faith

There's something about being young and involved in politics that you can never get back once you've passed the age of 25. The enthusiasm I felt when I was in highschool and much of college has flown away on the winds of time. I look at kids these days, the ones who are into politics, and I wonder where they get their passion. I know I don't feel that strongly about political involvement anymore.

I have done a lot of work this past year for Dr. Paul, but it was very much head oriented rather than heart. In my head I know we should not be this in debt as a country. I do not want government funded health care. I think that redistribution of wealth is immoral. I consider the Iraq War to be too similar to the Clinton era "world police" position of the U.S. The store of arguments I have about my political ideas are almost solely intellectual and come from years of study. Did you know I did far more to get George W. Bush elected then I did to get Ron Paul the nomination? I am neither proud nor ashamed of this fact. It happened. George W. Bush will always hold that special place of being my favorite political candidate of all time. It's not that I think he's done a great job. I simply no longer have the same sense of devotion as I had for my party and my party leader during his first campaign for president. I can look at GWB and see the things he has done wrong. But I also see something else.

I see a kid with a lot of hopes and dreams wanting to do everything in her power to elect the person she thought was the best. I see a rally with a thousand people pushing me up against a stage while I reached up to shake the hand of the man I knew would win the presidency and do his best for my country. This is why I cannot hate Bush, why I never will. His 2000 race for the presidency was the funnest political moment of my life. I was motivated to pass out literature, call people, go to rallies (2, in fact) and talk about my beliefs -- which weren't very developed -- nonstop.

Is it any wonder that I have wanted to leave the Republican Party for the last four years? I just don't feel into it anymore. I want to help make government better. But I don't feel purposeful like I once did. Perhaps it's all just a maturation process. We grow older, we don't care about the things we cared about when we were young. I am still very interested in politics, I am just not caught up in them anymore. This might be a good thing. Now I can finally remove myself back from my own arguments and consider whether they are logical or not. Still, it makes me feel lost. To remember the way I once was and wonder why I have no motivation anymore is difficult. What changed me? Was it just growing older? Or was it realizing that I don't know everything? I don't know what's best for the country and I even picked a candidate to support who wasn't what's best. Is it just that I have learned to doubt myself?

If I had the answer I would give it. As it is, I now understand that I can only get anywhere by motivating myself. It's hard work to take the steps in life which I think are necessary for me. I have always been proud of my ability to self-motivate. But I think much of that was based on my somewhat irrational, youthful drive to make my dreams come true. So, I guess I have work to do. And no, this whole rant does not pertain only to politics.

I'm Only Going To Say This Once

I have said this many, many times both to myself and to a few close friends: Never trust someone who is too open the first time you meet him or her. Run away.

For some strange reason I cannot seem to take my own advice no matter how sound it proves itself to be. This particular bit of wisdom has proven true countless times for me. A year ago I was stuck in a cubicle with the most horrible person I have ever met and I had to work with her. I started out, three months earlier, as her friend. But she was far too open a person. She told me most of her life story and medical history in the first 5 minutes of meeting her. She seemed funny and fun-loving. So I ignored my qualms about how much information she gave and tried to befriend her. Little did I know that in only one month I would be hiding in the bathroom every chance I got just to have some peace. Of course, the bathroom being one with stalls that you have to come out of when someone else needs them she would find me in there. And if she found me in there she would take that as an opportunity to start a fight. My workplace was not safe for me anymore and people even started to mock me behind my back. Apparently I was weird because I had a colored frog toy that shone with pretty lights when you squeezed him. He sat on my desk. Soon the whole company knew about my toy frog. I also got in trouble with said person for "yelling" at her. Now, if you have ever met me then you know I cannot actually raise my voice to a yelling level. But, yes, I did tell my co-worker that she was disrespectful and unprofessional. I believe I used the phrase, "There is a line and you crossed it," once as well. I tried to get her to understand that getting her work done was the most important thing. It did not go over well.

Sadly, that was not the last time I disobeyed my own admonishment. I have done it again! I am not going to tell the story, because it would be unprofessional and disrespectful to do so at this point. But I want my audience to remember my words. You cannot trust people who give too much away at the first hello. If you want to try to be friends with them do so at your own peril. Even if the person turns out to be nice (and many of this type of people do turn out to be nice) he or she will inevitably abuse your friendship. The person who is careless with the things that are dear to her is even more careless with the things that are dear to other people. Friend is a title to be earned, not bestowed. Do not give in to the temptation to call someone your friend before the "getting to know you" portion of the relationship is over. Especially if the person starts referring to you as his or her "friend." That early into the relationship it's just not appropriate to bring up the f-word.

I am reminded of an episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry's new friend asks Jerry to help him move to a new house. Jerry goes on a long rant about how he does not feel that the relationship has reached a point where the other guy can ask Jerry such a thing. It's supposed to be funny, but it is so not funny when you have something like that happen to you. So watch out.

Oh, and if you're reading this then I'm not talking about you.

Ah, Logic #14

The media gets it wrong all the time. This presidential primary race is solid proof of that fact. I totally wish the media would stick to reporting and analyzing and get out of the business of predicting. It takes real research and education to predict. Yes, that means more than the research and education necessary to report what's happening.

He's My Candidate

. . . and he was on Jay Leno Monday night. Enjoy the show.

Heartless Tease

Three trans-dimensional beings with no "prime directive." Abandoned U.S. military bases transformed into nuclear power plants. One third world, totalitarian dictator who wants to live forever. The total devaluation of the U.S. dollar. A band of civilians trying to establish an underground currency.

What do all those things have in common?

NaNo 2008.

A story of ______ and betrayal!

I Was Right

Ron Paul did do better in New Hampshire, by about 7,000 votes. Percentage wise he did not do better because he had 8% in NH and 10% in Iowa. No small feat. Especially since he beat another top tier candidate by a heck of a lot of votes -- this time it was Thompson.

As for the rest, I remember distinctly saying NOT Hillary. Why don't people listen to me?

What An American Wants

Iowa's voting has told me one thing. One thing that I already knew. We want something different in a government than what we have and we're going to use our voting power to get it. I think what we Americans really want is optimism. Optimism and NOT Hillary.

Comments Available

You can now comment on my blog using the OpenID option. That means that as long as you have a blog, you can post a comment. If I start getting anonymous annoyances again I will have to go back to google accounts only.

Caucus Impressions

There is much I could say about the Iowa caucus experience. I am not really sure where to begin. A caucus is like a huge Party meeting without the formalities and familiar faces. Since most of my readers have probably never attended a meeting for their political party my description is useless. I'll start from the beginning.

I arrived at about 6:20pm at the caucus location along with my husband. We started to walk inside only to discover Hillary and Obama signs. Democrats were everywhere. A few questions later we learned that the Republicans were meeting on the other side of the building. We found our way into our meeting room and registered. Craig went to make signs directing people on where to go because most people -- Dems and GOPs included -- were confused. I put on my Ron Paul button, stuck a Ron Paul sign on the wall and sat down waiting to see if anyone would approach me. Several people did. Most of them thought that the Ron Paul campaign had sent me over and wanted to know if I could help the chairperson get people registered. I explained that I was a caucus voter just like them and a volunteer for the campaign in my own precinct. I talked for quite a while to a lovely, elderly woman who supported Ron Paul. I met a few other Ron Paul fans. It was great.

At a few minutes after 7pm the meeting began. The first order of business was electing a secretary to help the chairperson. I volunteered because it meant I would be able to make sure nothing bad happened to the votes. No one objected to me being the secretary.

Thus followed a lengthy period of standing on a hard floor in very high heels. My feet still hurt. We had a series of short speeches for each candidate. My husband gave a speech for Ron Paul and it was very well spoken. I passed out voting ballots. Then I collected them making sure that each person turned in only one ballot. I counted votes along with a representative from each of the campaigns. A little over half the people left the room at that point, not caring to stay for the rest of the meeting. We selected precinct delegates. I decided to be a delegate. Then I got all of us delegates and alternates signed up while the chairperson called in the vote, supervised by the representatives of each candidate. The last order of business was to choose important issues to go to the Platform Committee. Oh yeah, and choose a representative to the Platform Committee.

That's when my true party animal nature came out. I could not help myself. A few months ago I vowed to avoid the Iowa GOP at all costs. But now, I am one of them. I volunteered to represent my precinct to the Platform Committee. Part of the reason I decided to do this was, well, I need more responsibility or I'll continue to be a bum this year. Another part is that I really do not appreciate the recent turns the Republican Party has taken. I have not done much good as an independent. I think I am going to try changing the party from the inside out instead of standing to one side aloof and mysterious about my views. I now know of a candidate who champions my own political ideas for this country. Even if he does not make it to the nomination, I can still take his ideas and insidiously work them into the party structure. Wait, I am giving away my hand. Perhaps I should not say anymore about this . . . Then again, perhaps I should. Perhaps I will, at the Platform Committee meeting.

After all that Craig and I went to the Ron Paul post caucus party and hung out with fellow volunteers. It was fun. Ron Paul showed up and made an excellent speech. He gives me hope for America. And even if he does not win the nomination I am thankful that I got to be a part of this movement.

Announcing For 2007

It's time for the most exciting blog event of the year. At least, the most exciting blog event on this blog. I am about to announce the 2007 Neville Chamberlain Award. You can check out '05 and '06 if you've a mind.

Before I announce the award I would like to share a little about why I do this every year. I choose, each year, to celebrate the good things in life. That culminates in Christmas and New Year celebrations. However, I cannot help but notice some of the cowardly things that happen throughout the year. Some of the things that people do are just downright spineless. They should be celebrated too. I do this by highlighting the most spineless act of appeasement committed over the past year. Now, this includes the international political spectrum. Naturally, you want to know what the receiver of the award gets. I would say nothing. Nothing but the sound of my lack of respect and the knowledge that he, she or they did something incredibly cowardly.

This past year was a tough one to come up with a recipient for. Hence the late post. I spent a lot of time thinking. In the end I discovered that I was going to have to give the award to a most undeserving recipient. The most spineless act of appeasement which I could think of was entirely unoriginal. It's actually a cop out. Neville -- my holiday monkey who was contracted to give the award each year -- would only allow me to take his picture while he was thumbing his nose. That's how lame the act that garnered the 2007 Neville Chamberlain Award really is. Not much I can do, you know. Without further ado, I would like to announce that the 2007 Neville Chamberlain Award shall be given to:

Harry Reid.

For the infamous "Harry Reid Rush Limbaugh smear letter." Incidentally, anyone who signed that letter gets the NC award as well. As the story goes, Rush (of whom I am not really a fan, but that's irrelevant) made some disparaging comments about a man who claimed to have been a soldier in Iraq, but who really had been booted out of boot camp. The media took offense and began calling for Rush to resign etc. ad nauseum. People got upset. The long story shortens to Harry Reid writing a letter to ask Rush's network to dump his show.

Basically, Harry Reid caved to the media and general populace pressures on the Democratic Congress to do something. That's why the rest of the country voted the Dems in anyway, right? So they would do something to oppose conservatives. Something to limit free speech. You know. The only thing Reid managed to do was write this stupid letter and get some of his buddies to sign it. Not much of an appeasement. Any other year I would say Senator Reid should get an honorable mention. This year, I am lacking in good candidates for the award. So, here you go, Mr. Reid. *sound of a whoopy cushion*

Dilemma

I have a serious problem. I am trying to decide who should get this year's Neville Chamberlain Award (see here and here for further info). This year, as my husband just pointed out, has been a year rife with spineless acts. But I can't think of any "spineless acts of appeasement." That's the qualifying factor, after all. I am taking suggestions. However, do not be offended if I do not use your suggestion. It's my blog and I do things my way, so there.

One other small problem. I seem to have lost Neville, my holiday monkey. He was supposed to have his portrait taken again this year for the award. But he is nowhere to be found. I wonder if he found a better job and deserted me.

I'll post a This Year In Review post soon. I hope.

'90s (Melo)Drama

My quest to catch up on a decade of missed movies is making me realize why I didn't watch those movies in the first place. Is it just me or does every drama movie made in the 1990s suck? Okay, I have not yet seen Unforgiven and I did like The Shawshank Redemption. Although, the latter had the typical '90s bent where everything horrible that can happen to a character will happen and then the ending will try to make us feel good about ourselves. Or something like that. At the same time, Shawshank was a lot deeper than most '90s dramas so I can't knock it. I can, however, knock every other '90s drama I have ever watched.

Movies are one of my hobbies. I admit I am a picky viewer. Before I rent or go to the theatre I spend hours reading reviews to decide if I will like the movie I'm thinking of watching. I frequently change my mind and don't bother spending the money. Basically, I need to enjoy a movie. If I can tell I'm going to hate it without going to the trouble of watching it then why watch it? Sometimes I ignore the reviewers, however, as in the case of The Alamo (2004). Sometimes ignoring reviews is a good thing. In fact, I would say ignoring the reviews I remember from certain movies made in the 1990s would have been a great idea.

But no. I had to watch Dances With Wolves, Legends of the Fall, Shakespeare in Love and The Cider House Rules. That's about as much sampling as I am willing to do at this point. Some movie maker should have done the world a favor and burned the scripts before producing such total crap. I can tell you right now that I am never going to watch Fight Club or Titanic. My motto for dramas made at that time is "zip, zero, zilch." No more. Nada. I'm not doing it to myself again. Let me explain my objections in more detail.

For starters, Dances ushered in the era of bad '90s epics. It was definitely the one that started the crappy movies. Now, I believe the federal government was pretty horrible to Native Americans. Don't get me wrong with what I say next. After watching Dances I just had to wonder, how can the viewer consider the Native Americans to be compassionate in this movie? They slaughtered this poor girl's family, but then they took her in and cared for her? Does this seem counter-intuitive to anyone besides me? I mean, logic, people. If they had not killed her family then her family could have cared for her and nobody would have been, well, dead. Moving on . . .

The next movie crime I have listed is a conundrum to me. Please tell me, does anyone even understand Legends of the Fall? It's the horrible story of a horrible character who lives a horrible life and sleeps with a lot of random people and everyone loves him because he's speshul, but the audience is never told why he is speshul. He just is. In reality there is nothing redeeming about him whatsoever except that he might, possibly be attractive to some woman somewhere when he himself does not look like a woman. And he fights a bear or something like that.

Shakespeare deserves little more than a footnote from me. Good job Colin Firth. As for the rest of it, the story was eaten by the message and the characters were ridiculous. Cider Houser Rules manages to have good characters, but the plot is pointless, meandering and completely overcome by it's cumbersome, hamfisted message. That message being, of course, the same pro-abortion argument that every "pro-choicer" ever makes: People can't control themselves. They're going to have abortions anyway so they might as well be clean and legal. Oh, and what about cases of rape and incest? Puhleeze. Those arguments don't even address the broader picture. We're talking about human life. Not to digress.

These examples prove one thing to me. '90s dramas were formulaic. The characters were mostly pathetic. The plots were long, winding and predictable. Emphasis was placed on the oddest, most meaningless moments in the whole movie. Wherein certain characters would suddenly act in ways they would not normally act. The message was the only strong part of the movie and it was shoved down your throat with a pitchfork. The music. Oh, the music. Make it stop, please make it stop. There's just nothing redeeming about these movies. I would say the only reason to watch them is so that you can hone your critical thinking skills.

My quest has ended. Henceforth, I shall only watch movies that seem good to me. The decade of 1990s movie making can sink back into its mire because I am done pursuing it. That is, except for the action movies and some of the family movies. Those were decent if not good.

Christmas Day Is Here

Merry Christmas to all my readers. What more can I say?

Chrismas Is Here

I am ready for Christmas in the sense that I've bought all the gifts I needed to buy and I've mailed all the cards I needed to mail. But not ready in any other sense. I am ready for a short vacation and a change of scene. That will be nice. But when I come back I'm going to have a lot to do.

Normally at Christmas time I write a profound little article about how wonderful Christmas is and what it means to me. This year my thoughts on Christmas are completely jumbled. All I can think about are my own inadequacies. There are things I want to do in life that I have not done. Christmas serves to remind me that I am getting no younger. This is the first year that I have not exactly felt joy at Christmas. I also do not feel like expounding on my favorite Christmas stories -- A Christmas Carol, the nativity story, It's a Wonderful Life. Stories are my thing, as my devoted readers probably noticed a long time ago. This Christmas season I just don't feel like writing about them.

I don't want to sit here and be all self pitying either. The fact is, I am my own worst enemy. I am the reason I have not done everything I want to do. I know, I had a sinus infection and am now sitting here with a terrible tension headache. That's a pretty good excuse. It's not really the problem, however. The problem is that I quit motivating myself on a long term basis after I left college. I'll have moments of inspiration. For example, the month of November when I wrote 80k words of a novel. I still can hardly believe I did that. Look at me now, I've quit taking the time to edit my new novel already. In fact, I'm mad at all my characters and really mad at my writing style.

I don't think I'm being hard on myself when I say that I am not doing enough. I need to focus on math so I can take the GRE in the spring or summer. I need to get my apartment in order. I need to spend more time at the gym. There's just a lot I need to do.

But talking about it does little good . . . Writing myself a grand little schedule on my lovely, new palm pilot does little good. I mean, if I'm not going to follow the schedule what does it matter to write it all out? It's just a momentary appeasement for that guilty conscience. The only way I'm going to change these problems is if I start doing stuff and refuse to quit. No "and's, but's or tomorrow's" allowed. Here I go.

By the way, Merry Christmas!

Raising The Money

Ron Paul supporters do it again. This time we raised $6 million in 24 hours. Go us! This is very encouraging news.

In Association With Other Ron Paul Supporters

I thought I would direct you to this article written by a friend of mine about why he is voting for Ron Paul. It's a better read than anything I've written on the subject.

While I'm at it here's something funny pertaining to Ron Paul. I can so relate to this having attended one of the few colleges in the U.S. that teaches Austrian economics.

Snow

When in doubt discuss the weather. I am currently in doubt. I have lots of good ideas for posts, they just do not seem to lead anywhere. I often think of something good to write about and then I will wonder what my conclusion is. Then I realize that I cannot write a post with no point. So, instead, I am going to discuss something completely pointless: snow.

Yesterday we had a nice dump of 4 inches of snow. It started snowing after 11am and kept snowing until late at night. Naturally, the worst of it came during rush hour traffic. Naturally, everyone wanted to get home early. So, naturally, everyone tried to go home at around 3pm. I get off work at 3pm, of course. Traffic was moving 10 mph on the expressway. I was stuck in it, so I should know. I thought it would be the best way to get home, considering none of the other streets were cleared of snow.

I pulled (or slid) onto the expressway and there was a car stuck in the bank on the side of the road. Above me. I kid you not. The car was practically vertical. Looking at it only one thought passed through my mind: "Abandon hope all ye who enter." For better -- more likely worse -- I was stuck on that interstate for five miles. It took me 45 minutes and my car came close to overheating.

Now, I know there are at least 5 lanes on the interstate I take to get home. Interestingly, yesterday afternoon there were three lanes. No one could see the lines on the road to tell where to drive so we all just followed the car in front of us. I was almost to my exit and I had been enjoying a lot of good music on the radio plus a lengthy traffic report. Suddenly, a song started and it began with this line: "Think of somewhere cold and caked in snow." I ask you, what freaking idiot would play a song like that right after they have done a weather report discussing the fact that snow covers the streets of the city they are broadcasting from and traffic is moving at 20mph because of it? What freaking idiot? So, no more radio for me. Why would I listen to something that is just going to taunt me?

I made it to my exit successfully and -- amazingly -- did not slip into a ditch on the exit ramp. I got all the way home in fact. But then I ran into a little problem. There was a car stuck in the entrance to the parking lot at my apartment building. Well, I parked at a different building, then moved my car after the stuck one got un-stuck. When Craig got home his bus got stuck at the bus stop outside our apartment building. They were still there an hour later.

I enjoy driving in the snow. I really do. It gives me a rush. To me it's like those people who jump down volcanoes or run into hurricanes. I am drawn to driving in the snow. doing donuts in the snow, getting into skids and then getting out. Driving in the snow is like a drug to me. It gives me a sense of euphoria and control over my environment that I get from nothing else. I just do not like everyone else being there when I am driving in the snow. I prefer to be the only one on the road. So please, next time you want to drive in the snow think about me and just don't do it.

Can I Go Home Now?

I just wrote an 80,000 word novel in 30 days. That's about 278 pages double spaced. I wrote the equivalent of a 10 page paper every single day for a month.

So, yeah, can I go home now?

I have editing to do before anyone else will be allowed to read this book. But you can ask about reading it. In fact, I encourage you to ask. I like the attention.

Edit: My NaNoWriMo group was on the news. Can you guess which one is me?

I Am A Winner

Every year in November I finish the month feeling like I am on top of the world. This year is no different. I am a winner again! I have 55k so far and I have hardly slowed down since getting to 50k. I am just going to write this novel until it is finished! Go me!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends!

I am thankful for the fact that no one got hurt in the car accident I was involved in yesterday afternoon. No, it was not my fault. In fact, I prevented it from being as bad as it could have been.

I am also thankful for my family and my friends whom I will not be seeing today. And I am thankful for my husband, who I get to spend the whole day with!

All Of These Stories

I am now at 49k words. You are no doubt wondering why I have taken time off from writing my book to write a blog post. First, at 49k on Nov. 21st it's kind of obvious that I'm going to win. Second, I generally write in the evenings. I've found it's more conducive to how my mind works. In the evening I am far less likely to criticize my writing because I'm tired. At the end of the day I also feel a sense of urgency to get the words written for the day. So, essentially, I write posts in the morning and sometimes in the evening on my livejournal -- which is my official NaNo journal.

I have a lot of stories cooped up in my head. On my count I have written almost five first drafts of novels. Two of them are the first volumes of two different epics. Of course, in my mind an epic is not what it is in, say, someone like Robert Jordan's mind. My characters are not all black and white, good or evil. I like to introduce some ambiguity to make the reader think. For example in the one epic I wrote where the good guys have to destroy a nameless evil (so, so cliche) I have it so the biggest good guy of them all took the bad guy's power away from him before he was a bad guy. So, doesn't he have every right to be annoyed and try to conquer the universe? I don't know, that's for the reader to think about and for me to flesh out in the ensuing books.

This is the problem with my writing and the reason why I probably won't go as far with fantasy as I might with science fiction. Basically, the more popular fantasy novels are the ones where the good guys have to destroy the figurehead of all evil. I have only one story that does that and it's nowhere near conventional. Another example from that book is that I made the Chosen One decide to become a villain and eschew his "destiny." My one other epic is the story of a curse and how it affects the lives of the people it was placed on. It's essentially fantasy parody because I have a prophecy (or curse), a young boy going on a journey and a bad guy who is only a bad buy by accident. Then in the book I am currently working on for NaNo, well, it's not epic at all and I just decided that the good guys should kidnap the main character. So, I'm a bit nontraditional to say the least.

I started reading science fiction again just to catch up on the genre and discovered that I enjoy it more than fantasy. My science fiction is very different from any of the stuff I have read recently. The biggest difference so far is the lack of cyberpunk in my writing. I had never even conceived of such an idea before reading some cyberpunk. The thing is, it doesn't really interest me. Who cares how many strange operations a person can get and whether or not they can have a gun inside their skulls? The characters are always what interests me. That's why The Speed of Dark is my favorite work of science fiction. It's all about the characters.

That's how I try to write. I try to incorporate some themes -- not too blatantly. Then I try to center the story on the characters' personal journeys. One of my trademark moves is to have a "me character." However, the "me character" is never allowed to be the main character. It's always a supportive character. The definition of the "me character" is that this character will have one or two attributes of myself. Chaucer put himself into his works. However, he obviously did not take himself too seriously, because his "me character" was always a total idiot. I digress about digressing . . . Characters make the story, so that's what I try to focus on.

In conclusion -- because you have to have an "in conclusion" -- I have a lot of stories in my head. I wish some of them would get out on paper in a more perfect form and I could sell them to people.

A Bird In The Spotlight

I learned an important fact yesterday evening: a bird in the spotlight is worth two good jokes. Craig and I went to see Brian Regan perform at a place near where we live. Brian Regan is a comedian who has been around for a number of years. I consider him to be the funniest man in American, possibly the world. His jokes are all clean and with no swearing beyond the word "hell."

Yesterday he was about a third of the way into his show. It was funny. Let me tell you, I will never think of automated phone systems the same way again and I used to navigate those things like a pro when I worked with insurance. Anyway, he started a new joke and suddenly a bird flew into the spotlight. I actually thought someone had released it as part of the joke for a moment. But, no, it was just in the theatre. It took refuge up above the stage. Half the crowd made a high pitched bird noise. Brian did not see the bird, so all he knew was that people were making a really weird noise. He laughed it off and made a few jokes about the audience response. We laughed and he got back to the show.

Near the end of the show Brian Regan introduced a joke with the words, "A bird flew into our house." At that moment the entire audience went into throes of hysterical laughter. A bunch of people made the bird noise again. It quickly became apparent that Brian had no idea why we were laughing. He still managed to make a joke out of it, but every time he tried to start the joke again we would go into gales of laughter. Eventually he got the joke told. When he came back on stage for his encore he asked the audience what was going on that we had laughed so much at the beginning of a joke. So we told him about the bird, whose presence he had not noticed. He will definitely never forget us.

Shock, But Mostly Awe

I just received a phone call from Jim Guest. He asked me to make phone calls to other Ron Paul supporters to make sure they're going to come to caucus night. I said yes. I knew he was going to be in town tonight making phone calls. I did not expect him to call me.

Julian The Shark

I give you fair warning that this post is coming from the mind of a recently embittered Smallville fan. It's too big an angry rant for my livejournal. Warner Brothers may have jumped the shark on their hit series. For real. So, if you have no interest in the show or have not kept up on the current season, you might not care to read further. Spoiler alert.

First off, who wrote tonight's episode? The dialog was less than fresh. There were two people who took that crappy dialog and worked it. They would be John Glover and Michael Rosenbaum. John Glover plays Lionel Luthor, father of Lex Luthor and by far the best character in the series. Michael Rosenbaum plays Lex Luthor a man on a journey to become the biggest baddie of them all. I suppose that Tom Welling (Clark Kent) did a good job as well. I add that his lines were not as crappy as everyone else's.

Second off, why has Lionel turned into a bit part? It's as if the screenwriters have forgotten the masterful character he was in seasons 2,3 4 and 5. It's as if they've lost their minds. The problems between him and Lex have ceased to exist, yet they still hate each other. Am I the only one who thinks this bears some more thought and fleshing out? Come on people, give Lionel back his character. I liked it better when he was evil. At least he had an important part to play then.

Third off, bringing in Lex's "dead" brother Julian jumped a shark. Maybe two sharks. It hurt. Giving him the role of the stupid, annoying, horny editor at the Planet may have jumped an additional shark. This destroys one of the most important parts of the whole series. Again, the Lex-Lionel conflict. Possibly my favorite episode of the entire series was 3.19. In it we learn the truth about Julian's death, which, until then we were under the impression that Lex had caused. Lex gets back some repressed memories from his childhood to discover that his mother killed Julian. Yes, this is horrible, yes, she was crazy. But more than that, it is in that episode that Lionel realizes that he has hated his son for 20 years because he thought Lex killed Julian. They cannot go back and change that by making Julian alive. It doesn't make sense. It's wrong. It's jumping the shark. I won't stand for it. I'm an angry fan. I wish I could pretend this had never happened. It's completely inconsistent with the rest of the show. I can only hope that they will do a decent enough job with this tangential problem that I can gloss over it and pay more attention to the other characters story-lines. I can only hope. Desperately . . .

NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul

. . . and it's taking up all my time.

Philosophy of Stories

A wise man once told me -- and I paraphrase, "Philosophy means nothing, we should just tell stories." I tend to view my life through a kaleidoscope of stories. This is why I write and this is why I wish to share some of the stories that have made me who I am. I will focus on the stories that I enjoyed before the age of 19 (that's when I went to college) in this post.

1. Horton Hatches the Egg: When I was very young I had a cassette tape that played this Dr. Seuss classic. I would listen to it every day along with my twin sister. The thing I remember most about the story is Horton's stodgy motto: "I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful one hundred percent." I took that to mean exactly what it means, except that I am not an elephant. I hold myself to a very high standard of doing what I say I will do. I used to think this came about after my experiences selling puppies to deadbeats who never showed up when they said they would. Or simply because I am a Christian and want to give people a good impression of Christianity. But no, the fact is, I hold myself to that standard because a story drilled it into me at a very young age.

2. King Solomon in the Bible: You might wonder what this story had to do with me. Well, I'll tell you. One of my favorite Bible stories was the one about King Solomon's wisdom. I used to ask mom to read that to me from the picture Bible at least once a week. I took it to mean that wisdom is good, but it's difficult to come by. Strangely enough, I always understood why what Solomon did in the story about the baby and the two women who claimed it was a wise way of acting. I also understood that he lost his wisdom in certain circumstances (around attractive women, or just women). We all have weaknesses that outweigh the bounds of our wisdom. Or, rather, we are all fallen and even wisdom cannot keep us from doing stupid and wrong things. We need God's forgiveness.

3. The book of Job: I have read Job more than any other book in the Bible. It's effects on the way I live my life are multiple. First, there's Job's absolute stubbornness. He just would not curse God, and he refused to believe that the reason for his torment was his own doing. I am a stubborn person too. If you say something to me that I completely disagree with then I will not back down. I've got myself into trouble because of that. Which brings me to the next bit of Job's story that shaped the way I am. How I choose my friends. I am very picky about who I am close to. I am not exclusive, however. I will hang out and have a good time with lots of different people. I am picky, however, about who I confide in. Obviously, poorly chosen friends can have a negative effect. So I choose as wisely as I can. The third thing I learned from Job is reverence. Another term for that would be the fear of God. I have never heard God speak from a whirlwind, but I know he can. Then there is the subject of suffering. From the book of Job I learned that suffering is a part of life. You cannot get around it no matter how good you are. Some people choose to whine and complain about suffering. I try my best to accept suffering and make the most of this imperfect life. Lastly, I have the patience of Job. I kid you not.

4. Mouse Soup: My favorite book was Mouse Soup. I memorized it when I was three years old so that I could read it to myself before I knew how to read. Mouse Soup taught me that you do not have to be the biggest and the strongest in order to succeed against bigger and stronger odds. You just have to be a thinker and you have to keep going. Mouse Soup is really a Machiavellian story and it made Machiavellian principles quite clear to me at a very young age. This book also gave me an appreciation for the use of words and stories. A good story can turn a bad day around. In Mouse Soup the stories he tells save the little mouse's life. It's an extreme example, but it works.

5. Frog and Toad books: These books taught me many things about devotion, perseverance and loyalty. I would read them again and again because I so admired the friendship between Frog and Toad. To this day when I think of happiness among friends I think of Frog and Toad. I also think of those two creatures when I have bad dreams or do garden work.

6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Holmes is a remarkable character. Perhaps best known for the phrase, "Truth is stranger than fiction." I always laughed that a fictional character said that. The important thing I learned from Holmes was to pay attention to my surroundings. You can deduce a lot if you just take the time to observe the world around you. It took conscious effort for me to train myself to watch the world and determine the meanings of what I saw. Now it's a subconscious skill.

7. Pinocchio: Pinocchio was the first longish book that I ever read. It's really not that long actually. I adored this story from a very young age, having watched the Disney movie over and over again. But the book is so much better than the movie. People always tell me that "Pinocchio lied." My response was always, "Yeah, and he repented." His life was a long struggle of yearning. Just as my own is. He wanted to be better than he was and he could not be that of his own free will. Nothing Pinocchio did could make him into his desire to be human. Just as nothing I do will make me perfect or wash me clean of my wrongdoings. Only God's grace can do that.

Stories shaped my character and that's why I am a story teller. I'd better get back to writing my book now. What are some of your stories?

Get Over It, Already

Raise your hand if you are tired of the GOP looking for Ronald Reagan. Both mine went up. I remember back in 2000 people talked about how Bush was like the next Ronald Reagan. Now it's election cycle again and we are all groaning about how there is no Reagan Republican to elect.
My response is this: Ronald Reagan was there when we needed him. He spent a lot of money. I like him, he's not my hero, but I like him a lot. He was a great man. He helped bring down communism and he made the economy better for a while (my problem here is that I am complimenting government for helping us out with something that government should not be involved in -- the economy). But he's gone, people. He's gone. Get over it. Right now we do not need Ronald Reagan. We do not even need a Reagan Republican.

What we need is a very, very conservative voice that will reintroduce some of the important things about our country that we have forgotten. For example, sound foreign policy, not borrowing millions of dollars from China every day, letting the market work instead of centralizing economic control and spending less money (because we're out of money). We also need optimism. Which, I might add, Reagan had. We need something to hope for. I really don't see anything like that in most of these candidates vying for the presidency. The hope they're offering is an empty hope to anyone who knows anything about how all this spending is going to affect our country.

The way I see it, I'm going to have to deal with the fact that we have huge debt problems and our money is losing value. I would rather we turned this ship around right now than continued heading for that rock over there. Reagan was great, but the problems our country faces now are not the same as the problems he steered us through. We need somebody else. So get over it. He was there when we needed him, now we need a different guy (no, I do not mean to say that only a man can be president, I just do not like Hillary).

Making Headlines

I would just like to draw your attention to the fact that Ron Paul's campaign raised over $4 million in one day. There are two amazing things about this 1) the money is still coming in and 2) most of these donors -- if not all -- are regular people giving as much as they can.

Hooked On NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo starts in a few hours. I am bouncy with anticipation. I do not intend to stay up until midnight and then begin writing. That's just not how I work. Instead I will get up in the morning and write and write and write. NaNoWriMo is such a great time of the year. I think I prefer it to hunting season when I was a kid. I do not hunt anymore, I do not like killing animals. It's just a matter of personal preference. I will eat them, but I will not kill them. In a way, NaNoWriMo has replaced my need for something fun and solitary yet not solitary to do during the month of November. That sentence could use a nice overhaul, so let me explain. When hunting one tries to find a place alone, however, when the sun rises above the trees one can always see glimpses of orange not too far away. Those are the other hunters who are also trying to find a place alone. As the day wears on you will hear gunshots from all around you. Sometimes it's like a war zone or something. Eventually you will return home to get on the phone with your neighbors and ask who got a deer and then your relatives call.

NaNo is similar, it just takes longer to get your novel written and -- in my case at least -- you are more assured of winning. I write alone, but there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world writing at the same time. They can talk to me and I can talk to them via the forums at the NaNoWriMo website. I am not afraid to write a book the same way that I am afraid to shoot an animal. I think I liked hunting best because I could just sit there outside in the quiet. If I saw a deer I did not actually have to kill it. I could just tell everyone that it was an impossible shot. Of course, that never happened, but it was an idea that crossed my mind. Not so in NaNo. I never even think of losing, let alone doing it on purpose! I would not do NaNo if I was not absolutely certain I could win.

This year I have decided to dedicate this month of writing to my friend C. who passed away a couple weeks ago. I worked with him back in Indiana and I am pained at his passing. He was also a writer, not published and he liked sci-fi. It's a very sad story. Of the friends I made back in Indiana he was not the closest, but he was one of the few at my workplace who got to know me when I was just a temp instead of waiting for me to be a permanent employee. Most people do not talk to the temps because we do not stick around. So that meant a lot to me. I never took the time to tell him that. I was unable to be there at his memorial, in fact, I did not find out about his death until after his funeral. So, I am going to give him my own memorial by basing a character off of him. It's the least I can do.

I guess I better get to work on my last few plot notes and character sketches. The big day is tomorrow! Wish me luck!

The Tale Of Two Rallies

On Friday I went to a Ron Paul rally. I listened to Ron Paul give the best speech I have ever heard in my entire life. Most of the speech appeared completely unrehearsed. I saw RP look at his notes once and only once. He looked his audience in the eyes and I am absolutely certain there was no teleprompter behind us. That man was not reading, he was speaking from his heart. He explained some rather complex concepts to us about the economy and how it connects with foreign policy. But it was all perfectly understandable. For once I felt like a speaker was not talking down to me, and actually believed I have the intelligence to understand something other than an upbeat blurb. I got a Ron Paul button and a sign. I cheered with the crowd. From where I sat I could have taken two steps and been standing right next to Ron Paul. There were quite a few other people up there with me. And we all sat neatly in our chairs and clapped when Ron Paul said something that was good to hear. We made sure not to clap or cheer too long, you know, let the man have his say. I gave Ron Paul a standing ovation along with everyone else at the end. Then I quietly decided to let the people who had never met Ron Paul throng him and I went home. Actually, throng would be the wrong word to use. They lined up in a neat greeting line and walked up to him in an orderly fashion. All in all, there were 300+ people at the rally, which, I think, is good.

Contrast that experience with the Bush rally I attended back in 2000. Yes, I did go to a Bush rally. No I do not like Bush and even in 2000 I had some misgivings about him despite my concerted efforts to get the man elected. Easy to say in retrospect . . . I digress. There were about a thousand people at the Bush rally. I was near the front of the crowd. The rally was held in a small stadium and the people had to stand on the cement floor to listen to a speech that we had heard many times before. When Bush entered they played some upbeat and overly loud song and we all cheered like he was a rock star (which he is not). Bush did not look at the crowd much of the time, or at least, not where I was. This may have been partly because he was standing on a platform high above our heads. At the end of the speech I got smashed against the side of the stage by a mass of screaming, struggling people. It is amazing that nobody got hurt. I managed to get a sign I had autographed by Bush and I managed to shake his hand as he walked past me. But he did not look me in the eye or even see me. All he saw were my hands sticking out of the crowd. The people right next to me on either side did not get autographs or handshakes. It took me hours to leave the rally. The press of the crowd was overwhelming and infuriating.

I think the biggest difference between these two rallies would be accessibility. Ron Paul supporters feel like Ron Paul will listen to us. He's a regular guy, just like we are and he has no sense of celebrity-ness even though he's famous and we all love him. When Ron Paul is there we are very excited, but we do not have that same desperation that drove the Bush fans to crush me against the wall. We do not mob RP, we just walk up politely, say hello and ask him some questions. I am sure not every RP supporter is that nice to him, but the majority are. There is no one attempting to keep us away from Ron Paul although there is security available. They just do not have much of a job. The Bush people made it impossible for his potential constituents to talk to or reach Bush by putting up an actual fence between us. That made people crazy, it made them feel like Bush was not hearing them. I doubt that we would have mobbed Bush if he had been standing on our own level and we had been asked to line up. Had we been able to ask him questions like Ron Paul supporters can we probably would not have been such a messy crowd.

I am not going to compare the actual candidates in this post, just the rallies and the way things were done. I can definitely say that "it is a far, far better thing I do now than I" did when Bush was running.

This Am I

Taking a different angle on my life than the usual serious note you get on my blog, I have decided to tell you a few stories about myself that may shock. I am not always the cool headed, political analyst you read about on here. So, I will begin with a story from yesterday and go back through the years to reveal a few more incidents in my life that may surprise my noble readers.

1) Craig and I went to the mall on a whim last night. It was already 8:30pm and I was not sure when the mall would close. I was banking on 9pm as we live in that kind of a town. I paused after passing through the door of the mall to scrutinize the hours. Of course, they were on the outside of the door, so I was reading them backwards. I muttered to myself as I did this, "10am to 9pm Monday thru Saturday."

Suddenly Craig said, "Why are you staring at the man?"

I was surprised by this, because I had seen no man at all. As we walked away I asked Craig what he was talking about and he told me I had been staring at a homeless man who was standing right in front of me as I looked at the door. I guess the guy was eating a sandwich and started to look surprised at my concentrated stare. So, yeah, apparently I accidentally ogled some homeless guy with a sandwich. Out there somewhere, is a person who might recognize me the next time he sees me, but I will never know what he looks like. All I saw were the store hours and tell me, how would this guy know I was reading store hours? Who reads store hours backwards through a door?

2) I lived in Washington, D.C. for a while and I worked in one of the House Office Buildings. One day as I was on my way home from work -- keep in mind this was not my first day -- I got on the elevator and pushed the first floor button. When the door opened I got off and started walking. I arrived at the place where the outer entrance should have been, but it was not there. I started wandering around the floor searching for the entrance. I began to panic after 20 minutes or so. I was trapped inside a building, would I ever get out? I noticed the red exit signs and decided to follow them. They took me to the elevator and stairs. Yes, indeed. I had got off on the third floor instead of the first (of a four story building, mind you).

3) Craig, myself and my roommate went to Wal Mart one time near Halloween during my senior year of college. We were just walking into the entrance when I noticed something moving to my right, out of the corner of my eye. My peripheral vision is extremely good, my reaction time is even better. I turned to face a monstrous, dancing, singing skeleton and I screamed for all I was worth. Then I realized it was not real. There was a woman mopping the floor nearby and she just about ended up rolling on the floor with laughter.

So, there you have it. Three stories that illustrate the fact that I am not perfect. Are you disillusioned?

Changes Effective

Frequenters of my blog may note a couple changes in my sidebar. First, I have switched my Ron Paul logo to an actual Ron Paul promotional thing and linked it to his official election '08 site. Second, I removed the Pence '08 link and very cool looking icon. I believe I have paid enough homage to the idea of Mike Pence running for president. He is not going to, that's sad, but I am making the best of things by throwing my support behind an even more fiscally conservative gentleman. Lastly, I replaced Pence's spot with my NaNoWriMo participant icon. It is linked to the NaNo site. I used to have this particular icon and link down at the bottom of my list of links. I decided that it deserves a higher spot on the list, so there you go.

Back In The Race

It has been a while since I have done anything related to the Ron Paul for president campaign other than read the news. Today I finally rejoined the ranks of the committed and crazy. I went to the campaign office in my town and made phone calls. Fortunately, they were what we call "warm calls." That means the people had already put their names in the hat as Ron Paul supporters. The idea was to get them to register Republican, go to the Iowa Caucus on Jan. 3rd and maybe even recruit more supporters.

It went fine. I am not a big fan of making phone calls to random people. But I signed up to help out every week. The fact is I need to help and I know it. I care about this cause, I need to put my best foot forward. That's how I am. When I care, I act. I do not just sit on the sidelines and watch other people act. In fact, doing that makes me feel like a less worthwhile person. I am proud of myself for working the phones.

After I made it through one page of numbers I asked to do something different for a while. Like I said, I hate making phone calls to random people. As I get used to the idea I will probably be less apprehensive about it. But after the first time I needed something else to do so I could blow off steam. Most Ron Paul supporters are pleasant and interested people. I did have one guy get mad at me because he was on his way to catch a plane and another gal got annoyed because she was heading to class. A) I am a volunteer B) they're the ones who answered their phones when they were busy. People always put blame on innocent parties for their own issues.

Oh well, for the most part I got to talk to some interested and excited RP supporters. That was good. I'll keep trying. It's all I can do.

T-Minus Fifteen

The only fact my brain seems capable of processing at the moment is that I only have to wait 15 more days until NaNoWriMo. Another year has passed. I used to count the years by my birthday or by New Year's Day, or both. Now I count them by the 50k word novel I write in 30 days or less. I am so excited I have almost nothing to say. Of course, this being the final days before I become a recluse I should work harder at writing some interesting posts. We will see.

So, this year I am doing a rewrite of a fairy tale which no one reads. Hence, there's not point in me telling you what it is. It reminds me of Robinson Crusoe in that things keep happening which add to the plot, but there is not a central fantasy plot so to speak. It is a story of events and characters. There is no main bad guy or evil thing that the main characters have to overcome. This is mainly because I think books like that are kind of stupid. Not all of them, but I am rather tired of the Evil Overlord trying to destroy the known world for no reason whatsoever. At least no reason that said Overlord is capable of describing. I am also tired of the Perfect Hero saving the day by being more powerful than the Evil Overlord. Where is the suspense in that? However, I do like big battles at the end. So maybe I can throw in one of those.

I have no main Evil Overlord and my story will be from the point of view of what should be a side character. For the bad guy I just have an ambitious guy who made a mistake. The only way out of the mistake is to conquer the kingdom. Oh yeah, and there's some magic, a witch, a pair of brothers and some weird animals who can talk. Not sure what to do about the animals yet, they frighten me with their cliche-ness. I am writing the story from the point of view of the bad guy's girlfriend. I thought it would be fun to write a story with a female lead for once. A new step for me. She's not a bad person either. Yes, I have a hero, or a couple of heroes. The focus is not on the heroes nor is it on the bad guy being bad. It is on the development of the main character and the events that occur to change that character. The story is the journey. In a way it is my own journey as well. I learn as I write.

After all, there are two main points to NaNoWriMo. The first is to write your heart out. The second is to try something you have not tried before. I will employ both this November. Wish me luck!

I Am Just That Good

My friend at Audendi tagged me with this task:

Make a list of five strengths that you possess as a writer/artist. It’s not really bragging, it’s an honest assessment (forced upon you by this darn meme). Please resist the urge to enumerate your weaknesses, or even mention them in contrast to each strong point you list. Tag four other writers or artists whom you’d like to see share their strengths.

1. Subtlety - I write subtle, if you know what that means. I am good at writing with subtlety. I have spent the last year or so working on subtleness in writing. Before that I had a knack for writing humor without the blatant comments, I simply did not practice that knack. Now, however, I think I have earned the right to call it one of my writing strengths.

2. Wit - This does not just mean that I am funny. There is more to wit than humor. Wit requires intelligence. You know, the ability to mock someone without that person realizing that you are mocking them. I am able to do this in writing. Of course, most of the time the reason the person I am mocking does not know I am doing it is because he or she is too important to read my blog.

3. Action - To me action is the part where you tell the reader what just happened. I can tell people what just happened and it will make sense. It might take me a few times writing the story for the sense part to come in, but it does. Specifics are important to action, so I always focus on the specifics.

4. Insight - I can pinpoint the problem and strike to its heart instead of just edging around it. I can summarize the heart of the issue in a way that is both instructive and entertaining to the reader. That is insight. I may not always get all the main points of an issue, but I am only one woman with one point of view. I see the big picture and I do my best to bring up what I see to be the central point. And I am damn good at it.

5. Humanity - I have both humor and insight, but I am not above the rest of the human race and I do not seem to be so. I come across as able to relate to the average person. I am down to earth and easygoing even when I am in the throes of describing my biggest pet peeve.

I suppose that I should tag some people now. Consider yourself tagged if you want to participate in this exercise. Yes, Little Cicero and Emily that means you.

Another Year

It's my birthday. Yesterday it was pouring rain. Today the sun is out and it is beautiful. I don't see a cloud in the sky. Here's hoping I have no birthday clouds either.

Oh yeah, my car broke down yesterday so I may not be able to go to work today. I am not seeing how this is such a bad thing. Unless, of course, I do not get the car back in time for Craig to take me out to dinner.

Edit: Yes, I got the car back in time for work and for a good birthday dinner. To those of you who want to tell me happy birthday and cannot do so because of my blog's google account requirement I can explain. I got some anonymous spammers a while back who said nothing helpful. I found that changing my blog to google account only comments kept the spammers away.

Time Waits For No One

Sometimes I pause to wonder what I have accomplished in my life and if I will ever accomplish anything. Looking at people who are much younger than myself and are already famous and seem fairly well balanced scares me a little. Perhaps I should not compare myself to others. I know, we all do it. It's probably only a discouragement in the long term. Maybe it pushes me a little to work on the goals I have for my life. But then again, maybe it just makes me cycle into a few moments of self pity that will never help me get anywhere.

I want to be an author. I have completed the second draft of a fantasy novel. I am tied up working on the second draft of a science fiction novel -- my current masterpiece. It requires a few more chapters added to the middle of the book, a new ending (I have planned for that) and a total revamping of the bad guy character. He's too stupid. I also want to do something consequential with my life. Like being the CEO of a company or something. Someday it might be nice to use my poli-sci background writing for a political journal of some kind. Oh yeah, and I would like to have a family at some point in all this.

I know I said a while back I was thinking of going into psychology or social work. I changed my mind. Among other things I do not have the drive to spend the amount of time necessary to learn all that. However, I did have an alternative idea -- suggested to me actually -- about going to grad school for Public Administration. I have been looking at the universities in my area and have discovered one very good PA Masters program. So, now I have to study for the GRE and take it. Another scary beginning step.

There are many things I want to be and it seems only one thing that I am: a dreamer. I hope that changes sometime in the near future. After all, I am not getting any younger.