several comments on several topics

[bill murray movies]
i'm sitting on the couch watching groundhog day.
which is one of the top 5 bill murray movies.

the other 4, in no particular order:

stripes
what about bob?
kingpin
caddyshack

he's made many good movies, but those are the best.
ghostbusters and scrooged would make the top 10, but they aren't going to knock any of those 5 out.

i write the list in no particular order, because on any given day, you could argue for each of those to be the best bill murray movie of all time.

except for when it's groundhog day, because then you just have to go the obvious and damn all reason.

[politics I]
i just finished reading an old al franken book: rush limbaugh is a big, fat idiot and other observations. it was written about 10 years ago. i picked it up at the milford library book sale for a buck.

but the attacks on the republican party are still funny. mainly because nothing serious was going on in 1995. we had to deal with newt gringrich, limbaugh, and bob dole.

the good ol' clinton years. are we ready for some more clinton years? it could happen! karl rove even admits to the possibility.

[olympics]
the olympics are all wrapped up in a neat little package.
i thought they were good games. lots of excitement. favorites fell and underdogs triumphed. the best showed why they were. i felt the olympics this year really epotimized the true spirit of sport.

my beef about the games: american media. how the americans were a let down, not medaling in hockey, not getting gold in women's skating, bode bode bode bode, blah blah blah, yada yada yada.

never mind the positive: our dominance in the sport of snowboarding, the bronze by men's curlers, thrilling victories and finishes in speedskating, and--while i don't like watching it--our first ice dancing medal in 30 years.

but again, i have a problem with almost all of american media, not just bob costas and the bastards at nbc who had only a few hours of live coverage. at least that will get better in 2010. but i won't care what's on tv for the vancouver games.

carla and i have made a goal to save up enough money to go to the vancouver games. we figure a dollar a day til the winter games begin, should be enough for tickets and accomodations.

plus it's freakin' canadian money! it's like going shopping with a wallet full of monopoly money.

i love our frozen north neighbor.

[politics II]
i only have to say that i agree with jimmy carter--my second favorite president from my lifetime--about the whole port of dubai thing.

[a quote]
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.

genisis

i've come to the opinion that having media taking part in a capitalist form of competition is bad for society.

having news programs and news channels competing for viewers and the subsequent advertising revenue, i think, leads to problems with the news.

for one, it becomes sensationalist. each story is overblown and drawn out to get as many viewers as possible to pay attention to the talki--screaming--heads that are blabbering about whatever. i point to the terri schiavo and recent cheney hunting stories as examples.

second, it leads to crap fluff pieces that don't count (in my opinion) as real news. like this piece i saw on this 33 lb cat in china. who gives a shit?

third, i think it leads to a corruption of the validity of the news. the ny times with jason blair and the dan rather debacle.

my solution? a radical leftist reworking of the news media.

establish a nonpartisan, independent news agency. one whose budget is established independent of who controls congress. a portion of network, cable, internet and radio revenues and maybe a federal tax on those services will provide the budget for said news agency.

also, we would abolish cnn, fox news, msnbc, cnbc, etc. they would be replaced with a national news channel, international news channel, economic news channel. it would be like cspan with more graphics and cute anchors.

we would get rid of the ridiculous local news shows that have tons of problems of their own, and they would be replaced with a half hour/hour of the national news channels local bereaus.

while this may piss of rupert murdoch and ted turner, i think it is important to remove the for-profit status of the news media.

it should lead to higher quality news with less fluff.
and it should remove the bias that is so prevalent in today's media (both left and right).

add this to things to stump on in the reger2016 campaign.

foxwoods

at celtics game they have this contest where one person in the crowd tries to make a 3point shot for money from foxwoods and a half court shot for like 7g. well, if the person hits the 3pointer, then everyone with a ticket stub for the game gets a $10 food coupon at foxwoods.

well, i gots the stub.

and carla has tomorrow off due to president's day and the vast majority of the world has it off, so we're going to the 'woods to get our nickel slot on.

i'm going to pretend that it is an olympic event.

i'm going for the the gold in the nickel slots.

not the gold medal though, i want actual gold. a jackpot would be nice. i could use some more cash.

oh, God, nascar just came on the tv. i gotta go. i gotta change the channel before i freak out and break the tv.

42

that's how many months carla and i have been together.

this has been the longest that anyone has put up with me.

she has been the most amazing woman to me in that time.

she is the one that got me to go back to school (though, it didn't last long, but it got me going in the right direction). she inspired me to my life back in order. she inspired me to lose 30 lbs.

i don't do near enough for her. i do massage her feet all the time, but that's not enough. she does all these little things for me that let me know she cares and she loves me, but i don't do that very well. and it's not that she wants me to actually do little things, like put her first on my links list, or take out the garbage on a regular basis. it's that doing those things, taking the couple minutes (that's it! just a couple minutes) lets her know that i care.

i love her more than i have ever loved anyone before.

she challenges me as a person to grow. she challenges me to show that i care. to be compassionate and passionate. she does so much for me. so much more than i think she knows.

i love you, carla, so much.

i know you feel the same for me, and, for that, i am most grateful.

i hope 42 months turns into 840.

i love you.

he's got the counter, and now he's throwing the hammer

the xx winter olympics are fully underway, and i have the dvr working fulltime. between the time lag, job, and my regular shows, i'm recording a lot more tv than i can watch.

but the olympics only come every 2 years, and it's only every 4 years that i get to watch luge, bobsleigh, downhill, and curling--the grandmaster, in my eyes, of winter sport.

throwing rocks down the sheet for 10 ends is the way you are to utilize ice.

and because carla is such a wonderful girlfriend, we have tickets to the curling nationals in april in lowell, ma.

that's right. 3rd row seats to the national curling championships.

do you know how hard it is to get those kind of tickets?

you have no idea.

let's just say we had to shell out over $15 per seat.

but as much as i am excited about that, my heart is preoccupied by something else.

i have a stupid cat.

carla and i fear that our little boy, napoleon, is the feline version of forrest gump.

the little guy is affectionate and cute, as all cats should be, but he just doesn't seem that smart. he can't figure how to get to stuff, he freaks out at any loud noises, and he gets this look on his face sometimes that makes me think that his brain is completely off and the only reason he is breathing is because he's not smart enough to figure out how to stop.

but i love him anyways.

but not like this guy loves cats.

on second thought, you might not want to click that...

scared straight

i stopped going to the dentist 4+ years ago.

bad idea.

i returned to the chair after my hiatus to find that i did not do as good as a job as i could have.

i have the beginnings of a couple cavities. but the big one is:

gingivitis

so, they hooked me up with this power toothcleaner, a mouthwash to fight it, and lots of poking and stabbing with sharp objects.

oh, and, this mouthwash, if i don't brush and floss my teeth well enough before using it (twice a day!), it may stain my teeth brown!

but this is all my fault. it was my decision not to go to the dentist, so this is the price i must pay now.

mainly, i don't want dentures at 30.

ps
the only thing i really enjoyed about superbowl xl was that i had 3,7 on our squares board, and at halftime i won $30.