The one where everybody lies

I was talking last night to a good friend who lives in Virginia, when she brought up the election. I know that she’s usually pretty indifferent to politics and her husband are generally skews right, so I wouldn’t have introduced the subject at all. But once she asked me who I was voting for (Obama) and whether I vote in every election or just presidential (all of them, baby), I felt comfortable asking her the same. She said that she was as yet undecided, which was kind of monumental for her. Usually she just votes for whoever her husband supports, so the fact that she has not definitively decided to do so made me realize that she was actually kind of invested in this election. So I told her the specific reasons for my choice, and phrased it in such as way as to say why I was not voting for John McCain, rather than why I was voting for Obama. I think that enough people can enumerate all the rah rah explanations for their choice of Obama, and I didn’t want to appear too partisan. So I stuck with the policies of McCain that I don’t like, such as his support for continuing Guantanamo Bay, his tax plan, his reversal of his initial stance against torture, his health care plan (this is a big one, as she is in the health care field), and his pick of a running mate.

Surprisingly, my friend wasn’t too big on Palin, either. I somehow thought she might be into her, but thankfully this isn’t the case. I said that Palin seemed to be unable to separate her personal religious beliefs from other peoples’ rights, and that I did not want my life to be governed according to Palin’s understanding of Christianity. My friend, whose husband is religious but is herself actually atheist/agnostic, seemed to understand where I was coming from with this one, and furthermore brought up Troopergate. I don’t think that Palin did herself any favors with that one. We agreed that Palin does not seem to have the kind of temperament that one would want in a (vice)president, and that John McCain, with his frequent expressions of intense anger doesn’t either.

Then we finally got to the part of our conversation that, to me, illustrates why we are such good friends: we are in complete agreement that politicians are pretty much lacking in something (integrity, decency, honesty, some essential human thing), and that there’s probably something wrong with you if you want to be one. Probably. I do know a couple of people who have expressed an interest in entering local politics, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it gave me pause and made me reevaluate my opinions of them. You pretty much have to sell your soul to participate in American politics.

The thing that we all have to remember is that politicians will say anything. It’s better now that we have youtube and cell phone cameras and whatnot, because they can’t just go around saying whatever they want without fear of being held accountable, but still… As a politician, you learn that not only will you compromise, but you will do so in key situations and at some point go back on your word. You are a professional liar, hand-shaker, and meeting-attender. Why would anybody sign up for this? Because there’s something fundamentally wrong with them, that’s why. I know that we need politicians and, anyway, politics are a great way to funnel all the self-promoters into a job that 1) gives them the recognition they crave and 2) allow us to identify them on sight and avoid them, 3) sometimes results in good things happening for the rest of us.

I’m really into politics because I care what happens in this world, and I want to feel like I have a say in the direction of my life, but I know that this is a flawed, flawed system. Maybe I should run for office and fix it.

Kidding.

Be still, my Mac-loving heart

So I’m a bit of a fangirl already, and I’ve only had my computer since Friday. That’s right, it got here early. From Shanghai to New Jersey in two(ish, given the extreme time differences) days. Apple keeps going up higher and higher in my book. The learning curve exists, but this system is so LOGICAL, that honestly, after puzzling things out for a bit, you can definitely figure it out yourself.

Case in point: I kept reading about MultiClutch, a piece of software that allows you to use the new trackpad gestures that a built into this generation of MacBooks (and previous gens of MacBooks Air and Pro) and decided to get it. I already like this feature of the MacBook, and wanted to import it to Firefox, the application that I use most frequently. The problem is, MultiClutch came with no instructions. Once installed, it plopped itself in my System Preferences folder and sat there, silently mocking me. Every time I tried to add a gesture, it was assigned the same keystroke combination, which didn’t make any sense to me. How could everything be the product of Command-H? It took a couple of hours of leaving the conundrum simmering on the back burners of my mind, but then I had a DUH moment and realized that there had to be a way to edit the keystroke combo for each gesture. I doubleclicked (won’t give up that one) in that section of the line, and sure enough, it worked! I was able to enter an existing keystroke combination and give the expressed action that keystroke’s functionality. Rock! On!

I’m loving how quickly I was able to transfer all of my songs and playlists from my iPod to my Mac, and how painless it was to then sync said iPod to this MacBook. This was always a particular nightmare on my Windows PCs.

Touching this computer is heaven, it’s smart, it’s stylish, it’s so freaking good-looking that I keep waiting for somebody from Apple to come to my house and demand to have it back.

Plus, I already got geek love from a guy who found out that I own a Mac. Silly, but fun.

Sweet!

My new computer arrived today, three days ahead of schedule. It’s so awesome I can hardly stand it!! I haven’t even done too much exploration, but this machine is so quick, it’s insane. It was no hassle to set up my network, connect to the internet, or set up my programs. Plus, I’m using my same network connection as always, and it’s seriously about 6 times faster than my PC.

Time Capsule

This is what Richard Pryor thought a press conference with the first black US president would be like:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_cdbByTeNE]

Gone over to the dark side

Did I tell y’all that I bought a Mac the other day? No, of course not, because I haven’t really been updating the way I should. Moving on…I have wanted an Apple forever, but couldn’t justify buying one. Well, that’s all changed. I saw the new generation of MacBooks, and just knew that I had to have one. They’re so pretty, and so well-constructed. How can you not love a computer that is made out of a solid block of aluminum? Not possible, my friend.

I ordered the 2.4GHz MacBook on Monday morning while processing loans (much to the amazement of my coworker, who does not understand my compartmentalization skills at all), and added a printer, along with a larger hard drive. The printer wasn’t something that I actually needed (and neither was the computer, obviously), but there was a rebate of $100, and it seemed silly not to get something that I would have to buy in a few months anyway when I finally move into my own apartment. The very very very nice guy from the Apple call center (what up, Arnie???) told me that I could process the rebate as soon as I got the printer by going to apple.com/promo, filling out the form, and entering the serial number from the box. Except: wrong!

I really needn’t have waited at all, because the form did not require any information that I didn’t know already when I placed my order. The whole thing took like 37 seconds, and 25 of those were spent entering my name and address. I didn’t even need to put in the serial number, which means I lugged this ridiculously light box to my room for no freaking reason at all, except to admire my adorable, wireless printer (which my dad is already lusting after). Even if the delay had been necessary, it wouldn’t have been very long, as the printer arrived the next day (the computer is coming from Shanghai, so I won’t see that baby until Monday morning). I know it’s a cult, but glory be, I am happy to have finally joined the ranks of blithely dismissive Apple fangirls who simply do not understand why Windows users put up with all the hassle. Thanks, Apple!!

Elizabeth Dole, WTF?

Apparently being decent in a close race is just too much to ask of North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole. Instead of bearing down and fighting for her seat on her own merits, she has resorted to making specious and laughably untrue attacks on her opponent, Kay Hagan, based on religion. Dole’s new ad claims that Hagen is “godless,” which 1) what’s wrong with that and 2) is easily disproved. The claim might carry more weight were Hagan not a regular churchgoer who also happened to be a former Sunday school teacher. Shame on you, Ms. Dole! I really admired you before this. Campbell Brown, though, doesn’t let her get away with it. Go Campbell!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMzX_EAfwyc]

The Axe has fallen

Poor Elizabeth Reaser. I hated Jane Doe/Ava/Rebecca, her character on Grey’s Anatomy, but never had a problem with her as an actress. I watched her new show, The Ex-List, since it premiered. I thought it was worth watching, even though Bella, her character did some boneheaded things and didn’t always make smart decisions. I was interested in most of the characters (except for Cyrus, who seemed superfluous), and wanted to see where things were headed. Even though I wondered how long the conceit of Bella always dating a guy from her past could be maintained (and what would happen if the show lasted longer than a year), I was willing not to let my skepticism ruin the experience. So too bad CBS canceled The Ex-List already. The show didn’t even last a month. Boo!

In other tv news, Life, one of the shows that I most enjoy, has (maybe) been given a new lease on…life. Sorry. It’s been moved out of the Friday night ghetto, into a prime Wednesday night time spot. Of course, this means that the show will actually have to earn better ratings, but I hope that the change in night will draw in viewers. Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi are amazing in their roles, and even though I loathe the part that Donal Logue is playing (what purpose does Tidwell serve?), I always welcome the chance to watch him on tv.

Like rats fleeing a sinking ship

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-top-ten-rea.html

Project Runway Withdrawal

Despite the fact that Season 5 of Project Runway was not as compelling as earlier cycles, I miss the show. I miss ragging on Kenley, disdaining Suede’s overuse of the third person, oohing over Korto’s colors, and being completely blown away by Leanne’s visions. I am sad that there’s no more Top American Designer Michael Kors to make jokes about “Becky Home Ec-y” and whatnot, and Nina to be so unimpressed that she had no words. Now that the show is over for an undetermined amount of time, what’s going on in the PR universe?

• NBC Universal’s lawsuit against Lifetime TV has moved to federal court!!
• Entertainment Weekly does a Q&A with Leanne Marshall, Season 5 winner
• Chloe Dao (looking HOT), showed her new collection, seemingly to great approval

No more Mrazzy Goodness

I’ve been to three Jason Mraz concerts in the last week and a half, and I’m bummed that this great period in my autumn has come to an end. I enjoyed all three of the concerts, albeit in different ways.

New York was great because it was the first show that I attended this tour and I hadn’t seen Jason Mraz perform live in two years, and also because I’d never been to Radio City Music Hall before. I don’t know how I managed to avoid this in my 27 years, but it was just beautiful and definitely worth the wait. And!! THEY SERVE ALCOHOL. Sometimes they come in faux martini glasses with Rockette legs for stems. Cute, right? So yeah, I was totally lit up for that show. People were dancing in the aisles and I bonded with a group of Boston Red Sox fans in the row in front of me and ended up dancing with one of the cuter guys for a song or two.

The second show, which was at Brookdale Community College, was interesting because I’d never been to this particular school before. The energy of the college students was pretty great (except for this weird section of people who could not get enough of sitting on their butts and never stood until Mraz told them to get on their feet). I saw a Brooke Hogan lookalike in a way too short dress, and felt inexplicably cheered every time our paths crossed.

The Boston show was pretty fun, too. I was with a friend who is also a huge Mraz fan (and her much less fan-like but good sport fiance), so that was awesome. We’ve been to several shows all over the eastern seaboard (and Wisconsin), and it was nice to be back at a show with my #1 Mrazzy buddy. I brought my camera to this show, but left the freaking memory card in New Jersey. I missed most of the opening act searching high and low for a place to get a new card. Why do stores in Boston close at 7 pm? What kind of a city downtown closes so early? Just terrible. Anyway, I stumbled upon CEX, a British store just starting to appear in the US. It seems that pretty much everything they sell is used, but who cares when you can get a 4GB memory card for $20. Almost never happens at a brick and mortar place without some kind of an insane sale going on. I got back to the show in time to hear the last few songs of Lisa Hannigan’s set. and and took some pictures and video.

Here’s a video I took during the song “Live High.” All you Barack Obama fans, pay attention starting at the 1:15 mark.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4mkn516OK8]