Letters from the Underground

Pain and Fear outside of Las Vegas

This has nothing to do with Vegas, but I've always liked that movie and book title.  Recently, I've been thinking about pain and how it motivates/teaches us behaviors.  Since my mind wanders even at my most focused, I thought I'd write some thoughts down

Why I heart McCain

Yes, I don't agree with him on some issues, and sometimes my faith wanes, but then he does something like this that makes me love him all the more.

Vantage Point

Even though I'm a staunch agnostic, I've made Sunday my day of rest, in honor of my body being old and me generally being on my feet a lot between Thursday and Saturday.  I've been starting my mornings with a jaunt to the local Whole Foods to get a morning roll and a little bit of a walk to get the blood flowing through my legs.  Other than that, I've been trying to catch up on my movie viewing.  The good thing about taking a long hiatus from seeing movies, is that you've got a nice line-up of films waiting to be seen.  Juno and Atonement didn't disappoint, but I'd missed the local showings of No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood, so pickings were slim this last weekend.  The best of a bad bunch seemed to be Vantage Point. (Spoilers after the jump.)

Yes we can...

...get to you Tavis Smiley.  Or at least some Obamacans would like him to think so.  Mr Smiley made the ill advised move of criticizing Mr Obama for not showing up in New Orleans for the State of the Black Union.  I'm thinking Obama has got to be a little horrified at this,but it's the ugly side of populist politics.  With all the enthusiasts, you get same overly enthusiastic people who will do crazy things.  Hillary inspires Bill in much the same way, and McCain, well, doesn't really inspire anyone (I'd like to think it's more of a quiet confidence, but I'm biased.)  Hopefully, Mr Smiley and his family will ride out the election season safe and sound.

My Mind Turns to Ethics

I was listening to NPR's Talk of the Nation the other day, wondering when the next caller to mention Ron Paul not getting enough exposure (someone needs to do a study on how often his name was brought up on NPR call in shows.  There was a stretch there where someone would call up and mention him on any show, no matter what the topic.  "Do you have a question for famed French Chef Jaques Bicotierre?"  "Yes, what does he think of Ron Paul not getting enough media attention?"  Seriously, the man who needs to be pissed is Mike Gravel.  I don't think even he realizes that he's running anymore.  The same people who woke up Fred Thompson need to find him and let him know.)

Where was I?  Oh, hijacking my own blog post. The point of this, after the jump.

Election 08...catch the excitement!

Or don't  Really, it's your vote, do as you will.  As usual, the election has got me all twisted up inside.

The J-Train leaves the staion

I've never really had a nickname other than 'Joe' being short for 'Joseph.'  However, I've decided to embrace, and embellish, a nickname that I'm picking up at fencing.

But my team isn't 8-1 ENOUGH

The Packers are 8-1, and some fans still think they should be doing better.  I find these people annoying.

Heros

Wow, this show seriously needs an eidtor, and an overall plot.  I stand alone in the nerd crowd on this, but then again, I was pretty much shunned after the LOTR debacle.  Sigh.

Nano writology and stuff..

November is National Novel Writer's Month.  I'm going to try it again this year after writing one awful novel (2005) and not finishing an awful novel last year.  This year, I'm going with a melange of things I know well.  Fantasy Fiction (swords and sorcery, not BDSM you pervs) with a distinctive sarcastic flair.  I think I can be snarky about something I love for 50k words.  At least until Thanksgiving, which is usually where the whole thing comes tumbling down.

I'm still planning on writing short little blog posts about my... (more after the jump)