A Dilemma

I don't care what Andy says about not voting for someone just because you met him once and thought he was nice (there's more to it than that). I would have voted for Dean in a heartbeat. People from "other states" don't understand the allegiance we small staters have to our states. It's like Jimmy rooting for the Mets or the Steelers, even though he knows they will lose, just because they're his favorite team. That's how I felt about Dean. He might have come across as being a little crazy, but he was just like a little kid trying to get attention. In the end, he might have calmed down and gone back to being the middle of the road democrat he always was in VT. But last night, as I watched Howie's speech, I lamented the fact that it's back to a non-choice election, just like 2000. 2 people I don't so much care for are running for president. I guess this is where people's strong allegance to party comes in, like my grandparents, who have always voted republican, no matter what. Unfortunately, I never grew up with a strong party affiliation - my parents were always divided, and Vermonters don't have to declare a party (we just go in on primary day and tell the people whether we want the republican or democratic ballot). Quite frankly, I'm a little nervous about either candidate becoming president. So, just like 2000, I'll try to pick the lesser of 2 evils. Now, lest you think I'm a tried and true Democrat based on my previous posts, I'll share with you what I like to remind my husband any time he picks on my liberal leanings: I voted for McCain in the 2000 primary, and I'd love to see Colin Powell or Elizabeth Dole on my ballot any day. (Of course, if we stay here long enough, I probably will see Elizabeth Dole, since she is currently a Republican senator from NC, and I hope she runs again.)

When I was a little kid, thinking about getting to vote for the first time, I thought that adults always felt strongly about their candidates. Maybe this is why young people are so apathetic about voting. Our ideals have been crushed by the politics of politicians.

Oh and by the way, if you didn't get a chance to see that video Jimmy had on his blog (the one set to the tune of "This Land is My Land..."), check it out soon, because aparently the creators of the video are being sued by the people who own the rights to the song.

Let's Get Trivial

Andy's favorite game is Trivial Pursuit. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the only board game he'll play without some sort of fuss about it being dumb. So, this means that we play Trivial Pursuit A LOT. I'm trying (slowly) to break my TV habit, and Andy is trying not to have one, so this means a lot of Trivial Pursuit, since once you get married and enter the real world of, "oh, I have to do those dishes, don't I?" you don't quite have as much of a desire to go out all the time like you used to. Or at least I don't. Of course, it could come from not enjoying my job as much as I thought I would. Anyway, Trivial Pursuit is one of those games that can go on forever, mostly because I have the original (blue box) edition that has entertainment questions about movies and tv shows that aired 20 and 30 years before we were born. I have a newer edition at my parents' house, and I think we'll break that out while we're home and see whether it's worth trying to fit in our luggage (or maybe we'll just bring the cards). My problem with playing the original Trivial Pursuit is patience: it seems like the game will never end, as you roll and roll and roll to try to land on the pink entertainment pie space and actually get a question right. Some questions are rediculously easy: "Who was Luke Skywalker's father?" Some are much harder: "What do these 4 very obscure actors have in common?" (Ok, I made that one up, but you get the point) But anyway, it keeps your brain active, which is supposed to prevent alzheimer's or something, and I'm all about preventing that.

Keys!!

So, after many trials and tribulations, I finally got keys to my Workplace... I'm lucky though - the rest of the people in the office have been working here for a year and are just getting their keys. Let's just say that it's not exactly company policy to make you wait this long... it only takes a week, once the keys are actually requested, to get them.

I hear you, Vikki!

After working in 2 very large workplace settings, I know what it feels like to be a nameless face. Vikki, I'm glad you're getting out into a more rewarding job :)

How to be cool

in business that is. Here's an MSN career article all about business buzzwords. Ever wonder what an 800-pound gorilla has to do with business?

Nothing to say

I really have absolutely nothing to say today. Although I did read that today is the 35th anniversary of the moon landing (that's for Jimmy). Basically, we're giving the poor cat her medicine every day (turns out, she had a pretty nasty ear infection), going to work, making dinner, and, as Andy noted, paying bills. I need a vacation. Not just a few days, but a few weeks. We're going to VT for a week in August, but I'm not sure how restful that will end up being.

It's Official!

After (literally) months of filling out forms and trying to figure out where to send what, etc., I have finally completed the registration process for my fall class. The final piece came in the mail yesterday: I am now a resident of North Carolina for tuition purposes. You might be wondering why Andy got his decision a week ago - no, it's not because he filled out his form before I did - we just sent ours to 2 different offices, since he's a grad student, and I'm just someone they let take a few courses. Well, I'm about to begin my first graduate course in Public History about a month from now. I hope I like it, or I don't know what I'm going to do for the rest of my life...

Update on consumer confidence

Andy read the same article that I discussed in yesterday's post. He had a few extra things to say about it, which I think are worth mentioning. He noted that the study began in January of this year - at the height of Presidential Primary Season. Perhaps this lack of consumer confidence in the under $50,000 crowd was actually due in part to Edwards' pounding us all over the head with the 2 Americas thing all during the primaries. Maybe the democrats actually caused the drop in consumer confidence with their pessimism disguised as optimism? Well, we won't know from that article, since we don't have data from past years. Something to think about.

See - I can be "objective" and un-liberal every once in a while :)

I agree with Jimmy

Fox sports announcers suck almost as much as the Yankees - or maybe more - I just can't decide. Either way, it didn't take me very long to mute the game. You'd think even the Yankees would get tired of the whole "Derek Jeter is the best player in the world" thing, but so far the Fox announcers haven't. Maybe Steinbrenner pays them ... not inconceivable...

By the way, I also wholeheartedly endorse Rob Neyer's Feeding the Green Monster for any baseball fan, and especially any Red Sox fan. I don't know why I didn't read it before now, since it's one of Andy's top recommended books. Anyway, it was great, although depressing, since the Yankees won, as they always do :(

Why the Economy Makes Nieman Marcus happy

Apparently upscale stores like Neiman Marcus and Banana Republic are booming, while "low end" Gap and Old Navy are only mildly increasing sales. Or something like that. Anyway, this article attempts to explain why some people are happier than others with the state of the economy. It seems that people making $50,000 and up have increased consumer confidence (and therefore shop in Nieman Marcus), while people making less than $50,000 have decreased consumer confidence (and stopped shopping at WalMart and Old Navy). Who said that the tax cuts didn't favor the rich? Well I don't know about that, but the rich certainly have gotten happier with the state of the economy, assuming their shopping habits are any indication.

Key Quote:It's axiomatic that rich people are likely to be more optimistic and confident than those with less money, so the raw differentials aren't that surprising. But in the past few years, the readings for all income groups have generally moved in the same direction. If the economy were undergoing a broad-based expansion, if a rising tide were lifting all boats equally, you might expect that trend to continue. But the views of the rich and poor are moving in opposite directions. The split results—the growing pessimism of the poor and the growing optimism of the rich—suggest the economy's improvement isn't helping everyone. That is bad news for a lot of Americans, but it may be good news for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

People Watching

As we sat in El Rodeo and watched all of the people file out of the Kerry/Edwards Rally (including our neighbor), I saw the expected Bush is dumb shirts, the Yay Kerry shirts, and of course the free signs that they hand out so that you can use them as a fan while you die in the heat. Many people were smart and wore hats. There were straw hats, baseball hats, even one hat that looked like what the Asian people working in rice fields wear. That was unique. However, the most interesting hat of all looked like one of those hats with the hands on it where you pull the string and the hands clap. Instead of just hands clapping, though, each hand had a flag to wave. I wouldn't have been surprised to see it if this had been a Bush/Cheney Rally, but those democrats aren't exactly flag wavers the way that the pro-Bushers are.

On a related note, I don't think that any of the presidential or vice presidential candidates have particularly good hair. Both Kerry and Bush have old man hair, Edwards just looks kind of weird, and well, everyone has seen Dick Cheney.

On an unrelated note, Lynne Cheney (author of some great kids' books and wife of Dick) might be sleeping on the couch this week (ok, probably not, but wasn't that dramatic sounding?) According to CNN Headline news, Mr. Cheney is siding with the President with regard to the Senate's attempt to make the same-sex marriage ban a constitutional amendment. Mrs. Cheney, on the other hand, thinks it should be up to the states to decide. I think this is pretty funny, since, when I mentioned Lynne Cheney to my best friend (a strong supporter of the liberal side of things), she kind of shuddered... well, maybe she will like her now. By the way, if you're looking for a good book to give young kids (4-6), check out Mrs. Cheney's books. She donates her royalties, so it's not like you're adding to their millions or anything, and they're some of the best celebrity books. I should know. I've read them all. (Or at least all of them that came out before February 2004)

Edwards-Kerry

I got an email this morning from the parking people at NC State that began: "I'm sure you are all aware of the Kerry/Edwards visit this Saturday." and proceeded to warn us where we could and could not park our vehicles if we chose to come to campus over the weekend. I follow politics pretty well, and I have to admit, I had no idea that Kerry-Edwards (don't you like how they've become one person) were coming to State. Of course, I get all my local news from Bill & Sherri in the morning, and it seems that they were too busy talking about President Bush's visit on Wednesday when he stopped to buy lemonade from a little girl's stand in North Raleigh. $25,000 a plate dinner with his supporters and he couldn't get a decent glass of lemonade? That's too bad :)

Stupid People

I would like to contemplate the stupid things people do for just a minute. On my way to work this morning, I drove up the hill to the end of our street as always. Except this time, some car pulling a trailer was stopped in the intersection, almost completely blocking the end of the street. This old guy and his son then proceeded to get out of the car and look at something on the trailer. I was thisclose to beeping when the guy noticed me and put up his finger to signal - "just a minute" Fortunately it was more like 30 seconds. They got in their car and drove off. Later, I saw them on a different road, stopped again - but this time not blocking another street. At this point, you're probably thinking: so what - they needed to stop, and that place provided them an area to get off a busy road. No, not quite - you see, the side of the road that they stopped on has a shoulder as wide as a lane of cars about 100 yards in either direction from the end of our street. So, had the car simply pulled forward, or stopped sooner, no one would have been annoyed. I just want to know what made them stop and block an entire intersection?! Were they in their car thinking - oh, here's a wide stretch of road, let's pull over - then, did the son say, wait dad, don't go too far - we need to block this road! I hope not.

Debit vs. Credit: Update

Well, MSN has finally shed some light on the debit vs. credit issue. I pretty much had it right the first time, but I think this article is definitely worth the read.

Not too much

There really isn't too much going on right now, aside from the seriously hot weather and the fact that someone from NJ was parked in our parking lot over the weekend. Ok, that's not particularly fascinating - what is interesting is that they had a club on their Nissan. Granted, it was an Altima, and it was new, and the apartments up the street do look a little sketchy, but I really don't think that there's any need for a club in our parking lot. Maybe I'm naive, but we don't exactly live downtown. It's not Cary, but then maybe that's where all the robbers go, to steal the BMWs and giant SUVs.

Anyway, it's hot, I've got schedule problems with my students at work, and I really just want to go on vacation.

Girls

Well, last night I had a girls' night out with some of the ladies from church. It was a very interesting time. Even though 4 out of the 7 people there didn't have kids, there was still a lot of talk about potty training and some sort of hand, foot, and mouth disease that only kids under a certain age get. Sounds painful. Anyway, Andy was proud of me for trying to make friends with girls, even though it is a bit of a challenge.

Nuclear disaster

Two nights ago, I had a horrible dream about some sort of nuclear disaster coming to West Raleigh. Interestingly, even though I live in West Raleigh, I had plenty of time to watch the news tell me how long it would take to get to me and decide whether or not I wanted to flee or stay with my cat. Don't ask why I couldn't take the cat with me, or why my grandparents, rather than Andy, played a significant role in my decision to duct tape my windows. Maybe because when I told Andy (after I woke up) about the window duct taping, he said "well, that wouldn't work" - I guess my subconscious knew that Andy wouldn't recommend an action like that.

It took me a little while to get past this dream, and then I started wondering where on earth it all came from. I believe it's a combination of these 3 factors:

1, we're going on Vacation in August, and I'll have to leave my PJ at home. This worries me tremendously, since she loves people.

2, I recently finished reading Nevil Shute's On the Beach about the last survivors of a nuclear war that occurred in the Northern Hemisphere. It's a good read, although it's quite depressing, and there's also a movie. It was even the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question that I used to beat Andy :)

3, On top of the nuclear war book, I also finished Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror the day I had the nightmare. If you're not already scared of terrorist attacks, you will be once you read this book. Other than that, I really enjoyed it, especially learning about the history of events that happened when I was a kid. I vaguely remember things like PanAm 103 (I think that's the right number), but now I actually know what happened. I don't care what your politics are - if you want to skip the last few "anti-Bush" chapters, be my guest - read this book for the history. It's told from a first person point of view that makes it much more readable than most. By the way, I don't know why the Bush Administration made such a big deal about this book - yeah, there are some definite criticisms, but it's nothing like what I expected after hearing them all talk about it like it was full of lies. Even though it scared the crap out of me and made me think that the next person I see might be a terrorist, go ahead and read the book. You probably won't have nightmares, as long as you don't combine it with On the Beach :)