Miscellarikneous

As far as democratic candiates go, I'm sort of leaning toward Howard Dean at this point. So I was a little concerned when I started reading about his Caucus-night antics. Like this article where it says he "cut loose with a blood-curdling war whoop" as the "audience stood in amazement."

Or this one, where someone offered: "I was a really strong supporter of Howard Dean, but I was completely turned off the way he yelled at the Iowa voters..."

Anyway, you probably have read plenty about it, so you know what I'm talking about and how people are discussing it. "Rebel Yell" is a term that comes up a lot.

So, I get home and I'm watching the Daily Show, and I finally see the clip. And Naomi and I both turn to each other and say, "that's it?"

That was hardly a rebel yell. I think Jon Stewart's "truckasaurus" joke was much closer to the mark then calling it "scary" or "blood-curdling". Who are all these people who were scared by that? Did that look like he was yelling *at* people, or rallying his supporters? Didn't it sound like the cheering *increased* while the crowd was supposedly "sitting in amazement"?

It must be the "liberal media" distorting things again.

Anyway, after reading about it, I was worried that maybe Dean's time had come and gone, but after seeing the clip and reading about everyone's responses, I am as much a Dean backer as I was before, and I think there are an awful lot of idiots with jobs in journalism.

Sure, only for an hour and a half, but it was good to see him nonetheless. He and his friend Emily stopped by on their way back from the city.

"I am sorry for what I have done," LaHara said. "I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love."

"I am sorry for what I have done," LaHara said. "I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love."

"I am sorry for what I have done," LaHara said. "I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love."

link

It's, of course, a lot of bullshit. The RIAA is not looking after artists, they're looking after themselves: the middle men. Face it, the only thing that music publishers are good for is distribution. Once napster came along, you didn't need them anymore. So, they all sued to protect their stake. This, my friends, is how Capitalism leads to Competition, which leads to Innovation. Put another way, this is how Collusion/Monopoly leads to Entrenchment which leads to Collusion/Monopoly, which leads to.... And the rich get richer, the artists get pennies.

...is not that you'll look in the same place 5 times for something you've lost. It's that often on the fifth time, you find it.

#1: People with cars are poor. Give back money to people with cars.
#2: Students are loaded. Especially undergraduates. Tax the students!

Or, to put it another way:
#1: Reduce the car tax. (Cost to California: $4,000,000,000 annually)
#2: Increase fees on UC students. (link)

My view is best summed up in the words of President Bush: "We already gave it to the rich people -- why are we doing it again? ... Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?"

(I'm not making it up. It's from the 60 Minutes interview with ousted Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill.

In a meeting the other day, I noticed (again) how much people look like monkeys. Look around the room... monkey... monkey... monkey. Once you start thinking monkey, they all look like monkeys. Try it! It makes the meetings go faster.

News flash: The Supreme Court chickens out. So, for the only time in 200 years, the U.S. government can arrest people and not tell anyone about it.

Had a pretty good weekend. Saturday morning I dragged my ass outta bed for a Mt. Diablo ride with Ed. Then, a ride on Coyote Creek trail with Naomi where we saw a bobcat, some storks, some deer, and of course, squirrels ("Chi-koo!, Chi-koo!").

Then, up to the city for dinner with Ed & Mira at a very tasty fusion/chinese restaurant in the Mission, Firecracker. They invited us back to Mira's place on a very cute street off of Mission, but since a gentleman doesn't kiss & tell, I won't say whether they got lucky or not. But we did have a very nice time!

No rides on Sunday, just some recovery and good food courtesy of mum-in-law. Our cats missed us, so we did finally come home on Sunday night.

Sometimes, while you sleep
I tap on your forehead in
Morse Code: sweet nothings

The other day, I saw not just one person carrying one almanac, but a store selling a whole bunch of them! They were on display out front, as if they hadn't heard your warning. In fact, it seemed like the whole store was full of books, no doubt many of them full of information. I think you might want to look into this.

Love & Kisses & Felch,
Arik

A high point for me of my last trip home was when my grandma showed up at Chrismas dinner with a couple bottles of homemade hooch. I don't know when or how she made it, but I was pleased as punch that gramms was in the moonshine business. I ended up taking home a bottle, and when I bust (*bust- slangy past tense of bust) it out at new year's eve, this mystery babe appeared out of nowhere! Thanks, grams!

I finally got a guy to come out and look at the bike. This guy, Feike (whose name I initially heard as "Mike" and called him that at least 3 times--oops), runs a company called Moto Medic, and he came to our house!

We wheeled out the bike to his truck, and tried to start it. No surprise, it didn't. He checked out the battery--fine, if a little low. He said, "I noticed you have tools. Do you work on the bike?" "Not yet," I said lamely. And as if to illustrate how not yet I worked on the bike, he traced the power line from the battery to the starter, and found that this little cable had been unplugged:

At least he didn't rub it in or anything, and $35 isn't bad for a house call, even if it did only take 5 minutes.

After getting home at 4am, and turning off the car, I found that part of the car did not turn off. There was a strage humming coming from under the hood. Probably had something to do with the ABS light that had appeared on my dash for the first time when we left Bridget's.

I looked in the owner's manual and fiddled around in the rain under the hood. Then I looked in the owner's manual and fiddled around in the rain under the hood. Then I tried to find a fuse to the ABS, but there isn't one. Then I looked in the owner's manual and fiddled around in the rain under the hood, trying to find a fuse under there for the ABS, but there wasn't one.

Mutiply that last paragraph by about 30 minutes.

Finally, I started disconnecting cables that looked like they went to the ABS computer/motor/thingy until the thing turned off. Guess I gotta take the car in soon. They'll probably tell me, 'here's the problem right here! Your cable's unplugged!'