Saturday, February 01, 2003

Columbia

I woke up about 9:30 this morning despite the fact that I was up late last night watching Band of Brothers. I went downstairs and flipped on the TV. I watched a bit of SpongeBob for a bit before I flicked over to NBC. I couldn't believe it. It was like I was living in a dream. I was watching when the Challenger exploded. Despite NASA's and various astronaut's assertions that it isn't taken for granted, I have considered it a given that it was safe now.


Early word is that the left wing had a major shutdown on re-entry. Mind you, this is the same left wing that was hit by a piece of debris during take-off. Apparently, no one thought that it would be prudent to examine that wing before attempting re-entry. The technology was available. Even though there was no robot arm, there were plenty of satelites that could have been re-directed so that they could look at the damage.

Some of the video footage is pretty clear and spectacular. And it brings one back to reality. Much like the video of the bits of the shuttle in people's yards and reports that bodies have been found bring one back to reality. This was a national tragedy.


Strike that. It is a man-kind tragedy. These men and women represented the best that peope can be. They were striving to make us more than simply ants that scurry across the earth awaiting death. These people danced in the heavens and brought us all closer to a higher stage of mental evolution. I was very glad that Bush made clear in his speech that this would not be a death knell for NASA.
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May they find their way home.

Thursday, January 30, 2003

State of the Union
My analysis: I thought Bush did a great job overall. I think I will start by saying what I thought he did a good job with:

1) The African Aids Project. I became teary-eyed when he talked about how we have a great opportunity to do a great amount of good. My concern with this is that he used it as a springboard towards his Iraq policy.

2) Tax Relief. As a libertarian, I found his plans for tax cuts to be a great thing. I liked how he made the point of how the poorest would get a huge tax-relief. I, of course, liked how he slid the tax relief for the rich right after it. But now the only way someone can complain is if they want to blantantly have a double standard.

3) I liked some of his messages of compassion and caring. (Though his call to action in this regard seemed a bit hollow).

What I didn't like:

1) That he was cocky and bragged about killing people.


I had more thoughts on it, but after a day and a half, this is what sticks out.

Monday, January 27, 2003

The statement that wraps up what deals with a friend of mine has been dealing with as of late: sometimes a girl thinks with her clit. That was told to me in a recent conversation. My response? Then why bother with the date? Why not just fuck him? Her response: That's the plan. Who says men and women are so different?

Super Bowl Sunday My apartment's living room, which has about enough room for 8 people, held 11 people yesterday. Obviously, we had to rearrange the room. Having two TV's made it easier than normal. It was a good time. We (by We I mean my roommate Wes) cooked Turkey, had a meat/cheese tray, had lots of beer and coke, and had lots of chips. Then Andy brought over meatballs and chocolate cheesecake. Then Daneal brought jalepeno poppers. Superbowl Sunday is a day dedicated to eating and watching TV. That is my type of holiday.

Speaking of eating and watching TV, I am trying to lose weight again. I would expect that yesterday did not help. I want to get down to 185, but I feel I must stay below 200. I think I may be above 200 right now. I am trying, but it is so hard to eat well and eat healthy. My idea of eating healthy is having Lean Pockets for all of my meals. Something about that seems wrong to me.

50 Things about me.
1. I make spaghetti with pineapple chunks in it.
2. My long term goal is to own a house in the Carribean so I can snorkle every day.
3. I didn't kiss a girl until I was 18.
4. I used to say that if I killed someone, I would have changed my name to Tycho Pierce.
5. I always spell "ie" or "ei" words wrong.
6. I have way more clothes than I should.
7. I am a pack-rat. (see number 6)
8. I am still trying to stop biting my nails. I have gone through several periods of stopping, but like smokers, I have trouble quitting.
9. My parents are still married.
10. I go hunting every year, but almost always fail to kill anything.
11. I drink a lot of Safeway Select Diet Sodas.
12. I like rap, but I think Snoop Dogg is an idiot.
13. I am from Oregon. (see number 12 for an interesting contrast)
14. I used to play Monopoly until the sun came up when I was in High School and College.
15. My friends call my goatee my "chia pet".
16. I like eating green peppers.
17. I taught myself what little I know about HTML while working at Xerox when I should have been working.
18. I like playing sports and think I could have been good had I not "blossomed" in my junior year of college.
19. I very nearly went through life going by "Bradford" rather than "Brad", but in second grade I "lost" the rights to that name to another "Bradford".
20. I used to have a goldfish named "Roast Beef." The other one was "Jack"
21. I used to want to be named "Jack" after Jack Tripper. In retrospect I am glad that I wasn't.
22. I can't wink with my left eye. This causes me to shoot left handed when I am right handed. I just found out that this is genetic.
23. My favorite books are: Atlas Shrugged, 1984, and The Fountainhead.
24. One half of my back has some hair, the other half appears to be fairly bald.
25. My favorite ice cream is strawberry.
26. I collect Marvin the Martian paraphanalia.
27. I have seen the pope, but I was too young to remember it.
28. I have no opinion about the Iraq conflict.
28. I am libertarian.
29. I believe that laws bind us without us having a say in the matter.
30. I was the "biggest geek in high school".
31. I like Dilbert. I didn't believe that environment existed until I worked in it while at Xerox.
32. I have a life-size cardboard cutout of Scooby-Doo and Shaggy in my room.
33. I hate MTV. However, I do like their new "Clone High." Very smart it appears. But back to the point, MTV sucks. Most of their shows are shit and have nothing to do with music.
34. I have a horrible memory in some cases. I can't remember people's names. I have forgotten all of my friends names at one point or another.
35. I am bad at taking medications or taking care of myself.
36. My locker at law school is 119.
37. I went to Western Oregon Univesity (formerly WOSC).
37. I was going to be a teacher, but that changed in the last term of my first senior year. All of my education credits became electives and it took forever to graduate with a Pol Sci degree.
38. I started out at COCC. We called it Cock on the Rock. I was once told it used to be actually named the Central Oregon College of Knowledge and I believed it for a long time.
39. I am often gullible. (see 38)
40. I love the Simpsons. I like Futurama. I don't like King of the Hill much. I like Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, but I don't like most other Nicktoons.
41. I like the Mariners, A's, Steelers, and Blazers. I don't like hockey.
42. I am scared to say that my mom and I share the same taste in music (other than my rap)
43. I have only broken one bone in my body. The last bone in the pinkie. It still hurts from time to time, like when I type a lot.
44. I am a gemini.
45. I don't know what 44 means.
46. I drive a Toyota Tacoma that is filthy right now.
47. I have trouble keeping on task.
48. I can't tell weeds from flowers.
49. I don't know what Tope is.
50. I go to Carl's Jr. to study. Possibly because it has a cool pinball machine. It is a Rocky and Bullwinkle pinball machine. It only needs a quarter to play. I think 50 cents is too much to pay for pinball.

So my old page, The Odd Blog (which wasn't that Odd, really) wasn't updated in almost a year because of Geocities refusal to allow updates via Blogger. Seemed odd to me, but happy to have a new site.

Well, I am starting a new page. I doubt anyone will read it for a while, so I figure I can be fairly open. Glad to be rid of Geocites, though my archives for now will simply be a link to those pages. I have a lot to do today, though the entire list does not include at all designing a new web page. Odd how my priorities are all fucked up.