Towse: views from the hill

August 28, 2008

Coinkadinktricity

Filed under: blog,web2.0,woowoo — Towse @ 4:59 am

I follow 214 blogs with bloglines.com.

Sure … I said, “Follow.” but in real life I go away for three weeks and come back and see someone’s posted seventy-eight blog entries in the interim and it takes me a while to get up to speed. … if ever.

And then there are people whose blogs I really like who update every six weeks or so, durn ‘em.

And then there are people whose blogs I like but I really should move them over to my delicious.com bookmarks because I just don’t keep up, even though I’d like to in theory. I’ve been doing that bit by bit.

Usually when I get back from away, I catch up on the easy pickings (people who haven’t posted much) and then I start in on the people for whom I have a backlog of a hundred or more posts to catch up on.

One section of my bloglines setup is a collection of blogs of people I’ve met on misc.writing or close thereto. Tonight I noticed the following on the list of unread posts for the blogs in that list:

# Alan ‘s Google Reader (118)
# DebbieOhi – Inkygirl: Daily Diversions (119)
# Deck: Cyber Curmudgeon (118)
# Kemnitzer/Peeking into the rock (118)

We’re talking twenty-six blogs in that subset, peeples, and four of the twenty-six blogs have either 118 or 119 blog posts waiting to be read.

Weird.

August 27, 2008

Nora Ephron on Hillary, HillRaisers, and "narcissistic mortification"

Filed under: election2008,writing — Towse @ 7:13 pm

Ephron doesn’t have as rosy a take on Hillary’s speech last night as I do:

[...]

“My favorite part of Hillary Clinton’s speech last night was when she admonished her followers not to put their affection for her over the issues. When she reminded them that what’s at stake is far more crucial than their loyalty to her. When she reproved them for thinking for even a moment that her historic thrilling campaign was more important than the real campaign to defeat the Republicans.

“Where any of her followers could have gotten the idea doesn’t seem to have crossed her mind. The fish stinks from the head down. The Clintons’ narcissism (and yes, I know, it’s an overused term but if there was ever a moment for it in our national life, this is it) perfumed every bit of Hillary’s campaign, and it leaked down to her contributors and followers. “Were you in it for me” was her funniest line of the night.”

[...]

Read the entire column.

Kos: It’s a hell of a thing.

Filed under: life — Towse @ 6:47 am

Jefe has an excellent post titled, It’s a hell of a thing.

And in reply, I posted in the comments:

Life is full of things that are a hell of a thing and I get deep into the dark ooze if I think about it too much.

When I hear stories like the one you tell, or I hear about the guy who was minding his own business riding in a car that was crossing the bridge last Sunday when a drunk rear-ended the Mercedes he was in, killing him, or I hear about ex-Raider Gene Upshaw, who died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer. He’d been diagnosed on Sunday.

It’s a hell of a thing.

I live like I will live forever when it comes to making plans for staying out of the poorhouse when I’m on a pension, but I live like a truck may come off the overpass tomorrow and squish my Mini flat when it comes to not putting a certain class of things off until “some day.”

Hugs don’t get put off. Friends. Important things. Things that I don’t want to wind up years from now thinking, I wish I had that time back again. I wish I got a do-over. …

DNC: Montana Governor Schweitzer’s address

Filed under: election2008,politics,video — Towse @ 6:07 am

So far … tops on my list: Michelle Obama’s speech. Kucinich. Hillary’s.

… and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.

What a guy. You go KICK BUTT, Schweitzer!

He had them up and cheering.

“Stand up, Colorado! Stand up!”
“Florida! Stand up!”
“Michigan! Stand up!”
“Pennsylvania! Stand up!”
“Get off of your hind end!
“In the cheap seats! Stand up!”

Entertaining.

Mark Warner Democratic Convention Speech: Text

Filed under: election2008,politics,video — Towse @ 5:39 am

Mark Warner Democratic Convention Speech: Text

I am way not keen on Mark Warner.

As I watched his speech, something went woop!woop!woop! in the background.

Warner’s speech

Well done, Hillary.

Filed under: election2008,news,people,politics,video — Towse @ 3:04 am

Amazing speech.

“No way. No how. No McCain.”

“Keep going. …”

Well done, Hillary.

Part I
Part II
Part III

August 26, 2008

Michelle Obama @ DNC

Filed under: election2008,people,politics,video — Towse @ 6:20 am

Took me a long time to get the vid for this, so if you’ve been having the same sorts of issues, here you go.

I don’t remember other political spouses doing their thing at conventions.

Michelle’s was … pretty good! I think.

… and I think, after labeling this “politics,” maybe I should have a “2008 elections” label, eh?

Update: I’ve added an election2008 label to the stasho’labels. I’ll fill it in over the next while.

And so it begins … Balsa Man, A Diminute Effigy For A Reduced Community

Filed under: culture,life — Towse @ 5:27 am

Folks I know remember the original Burning Man events out on Baker Beach and … refuse to go to the what-now-it-is experience out in the Nevada desert.

(Shout out! to Don who’s off on his post-significant-bday Burning Man experience! and to those folks his nibs worked with in the Exploratorium tech haven who are burners in their off-hours!)

Here is an alternative this Saturday out at Baker Beach for those in town.

We’ll be up at Donner Lake with the Bixby Creek crowd who soon (well, now, obviously) will no longer have a Bixby Creek place to gather because our illustrious hosts are selling their place and none of the rest of us — much as we love the place and the memories — have the wherewithal to buy it.

Alas.

[via Laughing Squid]

Ted at the DNC

Filed under: election2008,people,politics,video — Towse @ 4:56 am

Towse’s True Confessions…

I have never been a Ted Kennedy fan, for various reasons I won’t go into here.

But this made me cry.

(Thought it was interesting that C-SPAN thought they had to identify Caroline Kennedy as “daughter of John F. Kennedy”.)

August 25, 2008

Joe Biden and smart women

Filed under: people,politics — Towse @ 5:00 am

Adele Stan @ Huffington Post (Careful, Joe! "Smart Woman" Jokes a Dicey Game) isn’t the only commentator to hear Biden’s crack about his wife Jill’s doctorate degree as a slam against smart women with too much education.

recap:
“Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Jill, who you’ll meet soon, is drop dead gorgeous. My wife Jill, who you’ll meet soon, she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem.”

Call me naive or slow to take offense when none’s intended, but I interpreted that kidding to be aimed at her doctorate degree not on the fact she’s a woman with a doctorate degree.

Joe Biden has a law degree from Syracuse University. Jill Biden has a PhD in Education from the University of Delaware.

In the words of a famous person, “Lighten up, folks.”

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