Ugh.. fester

Well, back from "the City". Many many MANY thanks to Anne-Catherine and Nagui for generously playing host for the weekend, and thanks as well to MS HYLARY for coming and visiting me on Sunday. 

Oregon FINALLY had it's primary Tuesday night. I was sad to see Steve Novick lose, but all around it was a great night for Democrats. Senator Walker does not get to be Secretary of State, which is a good thing. 

Wednesday I attempted to take "the Hill" at OHSU on my bike. Got to Doernbecher before I felt like I was going to hurl, and it was time to walk from there. But, it certainly gives me a goal for the summer bike-commuting season. 

Today I woke up and felt as though my sinuses were coated with concrete. No choice but to call in sick today. Hopefully sleep and Valencia oranges will get me straightened out. 

Talk about a hiatus...

So I was looking at my blog... the blog I haven't updated in 4 months. 

I'm sitting the E terminal at PDX waiting for an hour to get on my plane, because I'm that chump that takes the 2-hours early thing seriously. 

I've already started the unwise spending for my weekend to San Francisco. Actually it all started two weeks ago with some serious cash expenditures for my new bike (which, admittedly, is pretty bitchin'). But at the airport, I suddenly became the owner of books by Richard Dawkins and Hugh Laurie. I'll take poncey English quasi-authors for 1000, Alec (alright, Hugh Laurie isn't poncey, but still). 

Anyway. 30 second recap on the last four months. Became a reserve police officer. Bought a condo. Almost sold the Jeep. Kept the Jeep (in defiance of all financial logic). 

Fin. 

Hi, Here I Am

Yeah, so, turns out when things get busy, this falls to a lower priority. That's OK with me, it's not like anyone reads this thing anyway. 

But, here I am. It's 0959 on MLK day, I just woke up (which is glorious) and will spend my day studying for my spanish class, writing this, watching the Blazer game, grocery shopping, etc. All at a leisurely pace. Sweet. 

OK, a few things. The Presidential Race: First off, Fred Thompson, please stay in the race as long as you like, because you're jamming up Mike Huckabee's gears. Despite Mike being a pretty convincing populist, he's also clearly taken the crazy-train to crazy town. 

Second, it's nice to see the Democratic race become a two-man (er, person) affair. Obama and Clinton, Clinton and Obama. Finkle and Einhorn. Whomever gets the nod, it's not the worst thing ever, but I'm pulling for the Senator from Illinois. 

I'm about to watch the Blazer game that starts at 1100 PST. I'm hoping for a win here (they won over Atlanta in the pre-season) and some bolstering of our young team's road-wins record. Rip City will be back for sure if Roy, Aldridge, Pryzbilla et. al. make the playoffs. 

Tried to go to 80's Video Dance Attack at Lola's Room this week, but that didn't really work out (abruptly canceled). Instead, I finally went to the Sandy Hut, the Jolly Roger (as an adult) and off again to the Space Room, where I crossed paths with Sarah X Dylan for the third time in basically a week. She likes the place and I live next to it, so I'm really not trying to stalk her. She did comment that she's now "in love" with Metric, who are effectively the greatest band ever. So that's pretty cool. Pretty bizarre that I found them by listening to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) while working at a desk job in the London. My life is neat :)

Soldiers Singing From the Grave

Found this on Rick's site. Bring a tissue. 

The Race Is On

I've added delegate counters on my page for the duration of the primary season. I just watched Obama and Clinton speak and heard Romney and McCain speak earlier. 

First of all, the indication is that the dollars Romney poured into his campaign just didn't match McCain's obvious a) integrity and b) retail campaigning skills. As a moderate Democrat, if a Republican had to win this race, I think I'd take McCain (Giuliani is just a little too 911). Giuliani reminds me of a joke from Yellowknife, where I used to live. There are four seasons in Yellowknife. Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Road Construction. I don't know why :)

Obama gave a speech that, if you hadn't seen the first few lines, you'd thought he'd won. The man is a talented orator, and his style and brevity reminds me of another member of Congress from Illinois whose words have been quite immortalized in American history. 

The Clinton "comeback" is not all that surprising, if nothing but from the impact of local media. Clinton's East-coast style and cadence are much less grating to the voters of New Hampshire than to those of Iowa, and I have no doubt that we will continue to see Clinton post good numbers in New England and adjacent states. However, as the race's swing south and too minority-heavy states, Clinton's union campaign will come up against Obama's natural appeal and obvious political talent. 

I think the biggest story that no-one is talking about it the continued depressed turnout of Republican voters. Iowa and New Hampshire are both right-of-center states but the turnouts make it seem like Democrats beat them two-to-one. Here are the fingerprints of the George W. Bush Presidency. His negatives are rubbing off on the party proper. If I was a Republican strategist, I'd be wondering whether I just spent 100's of millions of donor dollars for nothing. 

Speaking of donor dollars, keep an eye on Mississippi's race for the US Senate. Trent Lott's appointed replacement will be going up against a popular former governor, and Chuck Schumer's DSCC has WAY more money than a cash-strapped RSCC. 

OK, enough politics. Back to the city I love :)

Happy New Years

HAPPY NEW YEAR (and holy crap there is a lot to talk about). 

OK - First of all, hello Britney Spears going completely off the deep end. We should all take a moment to give thanks that there is this person out there to spice up the front page of CNN every single day. Not to mention the HOURS of entertainment it gives me every week on Rick Emerson's show. Goddamn. 

If you didn't know, the latest incident featured Ms. Spears barricading herself into her bathroom with her baby and a bottle of vodka. The Man came and took her to a hospital, where she's on a medical psych hold. With Britney, the hits just keep on coming. 

Secondly, because I have a blog, I'm obliged to talk about the Iowa caucuses. I really wish Mike Huckabee was not so bent on placing the bible front and center in public policy, because from a taxes and economy standpoint, I like his message. 

Three interesting points: 

Firstly - Notable was the serious disparity in participation in the primaries. The Republican caucus had only half the participants of the Democrats. Even with the supposed evangelical swell of support for Huckabee, the R numbers were dwarfed by the D. A good sign for things to come. 

Second - Ron Paul pulled 10%. I'm fascinated by this guy and his campaign and I'm glad to see the libertarian wing of the R's pulling some strength. 

Third - Clinton. Yikes. I'd hate to have been a manager in her Iowa operation last night. When John Edwards is beating you with his general blah-ness (though I'll admit an impressive resume and message), you have not done what you need to do to sell yourself to the voters of middle-america. A woman will be President in my lifetime. Hillary Clinton, I suspect, will not. 

This Is Why Portland Is Better Than Where You Live

I just sat in a theatre and watched "The Big Lebowski" with a group of people, drinking beer and eating pizza. Goddamn this city is great. And it's only Thursday. W00t! 

Now I'm watching a documentary called "The Bridge". It's about the phenomenon of people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. These film-makers asked the city for permission to mount cameras to film the bridge over a year's time, but they didn't realize what their real intention was, to capture individuals jumping off the bridge. Evidently the rate of suicides is about 24 per year, so there is plenty of footage. The film also interviews the family members of suicides as well as people on the bridge the day that they jumped. 

This is really interesting so I'm getting back to it.