Election Musings.

Today I went to a lunch where Kasey S. Pipes, a former speechwriter for politicians including Ah-nuld, spoke about the upcoming election in historical context. It was fascinating to hear him speak because the things he was talking about shadowed my general thought process of what's going to happen from a macro standpoint, as opposed to the low-level issues-based rationale. i.e., the speech was about how two-term presidents are usually followed by change agents, hence the Democratic offering is likely to be formidable this year, but he also cited some interesting statistics about voter turnout in the primaries thus far. I believe it was North Carolina, a predominantly Republican state, where approximately 400K voters showed up to vote for what was an extremely competitive race at the time. A week later, in this predominantly Republican state, more than 500K voters showed up to vote in an election where Obama was already the clear winner. The moral of this story is that the Democratic base is fired up right now and excited about what's going on in their party, and Democrats are showing up in droves to vote.

This is a really interesting article I was pointed to courtesy of TWM: Link.

The last part of that article is the real kicker, though. If Obama does indeed take down Hillary, what happens when we start comparing McCain to Obama? Honestly I think McCain has a more favorable chance against Obama because McCain presents the beacon of experience and patriotism while Obama is green and we're not sure what we'll get with him. McCain vs. Hillary is different, though - both bring the experience, but Hillary has a greater ability to be an agent of change, coming from a different party than the incumbent. One of the speaker's big points about the downfall of the Clinton campaign thus far was that Hillary mis-played her opportunity to present herself as a change agent, and rather stuck with the platform of experience, which doesn't give her a competitive advantage in a climate where historically the American people are likely to want someone who will create change.

I didn't get a chance to ask the question since we ran out of time, but I wanted to know who Pipes thought the VPs would be. I think it's pretty clear that McCain will have to be matched with someone young and vital to provide a contrast for his older-than-dirt disposition, whereas Obama paired with Hillary could potentially set up some sort of Super-Democrat, kind of like the Transformers that connected together to make a bigger robot.

Anyway, I haven't proofread this so I apologize for the scattered thoughts, but I wanted to throw this out there while it was fresh in my mind.

Tennis Today.

This seems to be the norm in DFW, eh?

Current Front-Runner for Funniest Video of 2008.

From Jimmy Kimmel Live, "I'm F#$king Ben Affleck." Absolutely priceless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lcmNaXmjvs

I'm The Badger and I approve this message.

Something Subtle.

I just finished watching American Idol for the first time this year (I typically don't watch 'till it's reduced to 12, but I just happened to catch it today). This year, there is somewhat of a wildcard among the women - one named Carly, who once had a recording contract, but supposedly never caught on and is now a "ringer" of sorts in the competition. I noticed tonight at the end of the show, after Ryan Seacrest walked off the state, every girl congratated in a sort of group hug, talking to each other about the night and finally getting a chance to relax. Carly, however, stood a good 6 feet from said huddle, and it was really obvious and a bit shocking to me. I'm not sure if she's purposefully acting like a diva (as Simon implied) or that the other girls resent her because of her history, but either way having no girlfriends among the group will not help her as the show progresses, in my opinion.

Attack of the Killer Tomato!

Last night my friend and I went to the beach. Upon arrival, we reached a small, empty wooden cabin with a bunch of coworkers where everyone was depositing their beach towels, and other random things they brought with them. In the corner of the room was a large sphere (diameter 6 feet) covered in light green leaves.

Flash forward a little later, where everyone is cooking out and having a blast on the beach. Suddenly, the green sphere came rolling out of the cabin and shed the light green leaves, whereupon it was revealed that the sphere was actually a crouched version of a killer tomato (KT), but this KT had a human-like phyisique. KT then had a hearty chuckle and started tossing mini-leaves (that came out of his wrists, similar to Spider-Man) at people that were apparently so thin they sliced right through anything. Cue the gasps of horror and pandemonium. My friend and I happened to be close enough to KT to grab one of the giant light green leaves he shed before he busted out of the ball and in a moment of sheer panic raised the big leaf in protection when KT attacked with small leaves. Fortunately the big leaf was protection from the little daggers KT was throwing at us.

I'm not sure how it ended since I woke up, but since my friend and I had officially out-witted the terrible tomato, I can come to no other conclusion than we kicked his ass and then enjoyed fine spaghetti dinners for three months.

The "AMEN" of the Month.

I just read this on TWM and must reference it here, because it's so absolutely dead-on that everyone needs to read it and nod their head in agreement:

When Arlen Specter stops investigating the New England Patriots and Congress finally tires of Roger Clemens, his wife, and his swollen, bleeding ass, perhaps they will remember that most of us in America are not nearly as concerned about the integrity of the game as we are about the integrity of our government. As long as the economy's tanking and the war's still raging and there are kids all over the country without decent (or any) health care, I think we can all get over the thought that Bill Belichick might have known the Rams' offensive formations, or that Roger Clemens' wife wanted to look good for her Sports Illustrated photo shoot. So cut the pandering, people, and remember your priorities.

AMEN!

I Got Tickets.

I'm fairly surprised I got tickets. Row UU, far left of stage. Not good tickets, but tickets nevertheless.

My internet went down 12 minutes before tickets went on sale. Thank God my neighbors were home so I could go use theirs, otherwise I might be destroying the universe as we speak :)

How Much Fist-Shaking Will I Do Today?

In about half an hour, Radiohead tickets so on sale. I'm not a big fan of Ticketwhore, I mean Ticketmonopoly, as you all know, so I'm preparing myself to be disgruntled at the outcome. We'll see how it turns out. If I can manage to get tickets anywhere, including lawn seats, I'll consider it a success. We'll see how it goes...

Weird Al is a Freaking Genius.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg&NR=1

I Suppose More People Stumble Upon My Blog Than I Thought.

Yesterday I reviewed the new and different Promax bars after rediscovering them in new, zero Trans Fat form. Tonight I noticed a comment to my review which I am reproducing here:

Glad to hear that you are back on the Promax bars. We are striving to make them as healthy as possible and as such have removed all artifical ingredients and made them all natural. If you like the Promax flavors ( Double fudge and Cookies & Cream) and you really want a great tasting protein shake, you should try our Promax Protein shake with 33g of protein, 0 trans fat and 1/2 the fat of the other leading brands. A great choice. You can buy it online at GNC.com and Vitaminshoppe.com

Enjoy

Tim Welch
President
Promax Nutrition Corp

Well I'll be damned. I just Googled "Promax" and my blog didn't come up on the first page, nor for any other obvious search thread I could think of. So is it possible that the Promax President randomly reads my blog, having been directed here from some other source? Man, I really need to return to blogging more often.

And Tim, if the Promax shake tastes anywhere near as good as Muscle Milk and won't fry my brain, I'll be a customer!

LOST Tonight.

I really want to write something about LOST and how absolutely mind-boggling the show is, but I'm at a loss for words. Why the hell does Ben have so much power over everyone? Who is Sayid killing? Why did Hurley help Locke?

I just had a thought: the end of season 3, Kate refers to a male spouse (?) while she's talking to Jack, and at the time we assumed that was Sawyer. Could it actually be Ben?!

And what's up with the 31-minute-late test beacon? The beacon seems to be a homing device from one source to another, but obviously the beacon took longer to get to its destination than intended. Is the island physically moving? Is that why it's so hard for people to find it?

Promax: Good News, Bad News.

For years I ate Promax protein bars like they were going out of style. Double Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Mint, Raspberry Truffle, and Cookies and Cream were all delicious and nutritious. That is, until the FDA made printing Trans Fat content mandatory on all consumables. I’ll never forget that fateful day when I discovered that my beloved Promax bars contained a couple grams of Trans Fat.

Now, did that change anything? Not really. I had been eating them for years, and my cholesterol level is a champ, and they were by far the best protein bar brand I’d ever had. But alas, the mental image of taking in bucket of Trans Fat disgusted me, and so I had to end my relationship with Promax.

Last Sunday Monika and I were at Central Market and I picked one up, just for kicks, to shed a tear and reminisce about the days of old. To my surprise, a cursory glance at the package revealed “all natural” and 0 grams of Trans Fat! Could it be true?! I grabbed a couple bars to see if my old friend had really returned. Well, I just finished the staple, Double Fudge Brownie, and am pleased to report that Promax still tastes better than the alternatives, but not nearly as good as it used to taste. Whereas I used to think of them as “delicious” I now think it’s just “good for a protein bar.” But such is life. Damn you, delicious Trans Fat!

At least Promax is now an option again, and wasn’t banished from my life forever, like Muscle Milk. If you’ve never heard of Muscle Milk, it’s a protein shake loaded with fat, and it’s absolutely delicious. It literally tastes like a milkshake. But of course, all good things must come to an end, and Muscle Milk met its demise in my eyes when my wife sent me an article about how MM gives you brain damage over time. Promax, you were never that bad!

Misc.

-I saw "There Will Be Blood" Tonight. If Daniel Day-Lewis doesn't win the Oscar for Best Actor, I'll be floored.

-Amy Winehouse? I don't get it. She's okay, but why all the hype?

-I haven't been blogging much lately, and I attribute it to brain-drain. Work has been very busy the last couple weeks, and I'm now realizing that when I get home my brain has been transformed into a pile of inanimate goop. And you all don't want to read the ramblings of a pile of goop. Well, you shouldn't, at least.

Squats Are The Devil.

A quick note: two days ago I did squats for the first time in a while at the gym. Expecting the backlash and wanting to avoid massive soreness, I went light with low reps hoping to come out okay. Sure enough, two days later I am massively sore and cursing squats under my breath.

It makes me think about the concept of the "carbon footprint," where in discussing hybird vehicles we can't just consider mpg, but the power used to create/destroy the batteries, etc. I spend so much time sitting on my ass after squats, reeling in pain, I can't help but wonder if the "squat footprint" actually works out to be a bad thing...