We {heart} TV!!!

Realized earlier this morning that today is the season premiere of the 4th season of LOST. My prediction that what little audience they were left with last season is going to dwindle even more (the 9-month hitatuses don’t help), but for anyone that IS planning to watch, and maybe you missed something, here is a recap that I offered to Mundscahu today (I think it’s pretty thorough, and effective encapsulates the series):

“they’re on the island, they’re off the island, there’s a submarine, there’s a plane, there’s a boat, there’s a hatch, it’s the future, it’s the past, people come back to life, they don’t come back to life, they’re ghosts, they’re crazy, they’re pregnant, they’re not pregnant
“they’ve got a lot of irons in the fire”

Get It Ready

Packers unceremonious post-season exit got you down?

This faux headline from this week’s Onion cheered me up:
‘Dallas Area Suicide Hotline Operators Get Their Popcorn Ready’

It’s nice to think that, as shitty as Green Bay’s loss at home to the Giants was, the Cowboys loss at home to the Giants was even shittier.

Wow. Just… Holy Crap. Wow.

These were the best words I could muster to comment on the fact that the Green Bay Packers will be hosting the NFC title game next Sunday. I can’t imagine there is one person in the state that thought our team would be in this position back when the season started.

I tried to find it on the webs, to no avail, but I could have sworn there was a poll on the Urinal-Sentinel early in the fall, when the Brewers were still playing, and the Packers and Bucks were just getting started in camp– it asked some version of the question, “which of these teams is going to win a title in their league first?” Now granted, hosting the conference championship does not a Super Bowl champion make, but back in September, the answer to that question seemed obvious– the Brewers were the best-looking of WI’s pro franchises.

Too many question marks existed for the Pack, too many miles on Brett’s arm, and too many others in the NFC looked better on paper. I didn’t think I would need to watch nearly as many Packer games this year as I did. I admit that I was a nay-sayer.

That is what makes this so surreal– when Green Bay hosted the conference title game after the 96 season, I think we all felt that we were riding some sort of wave of destiny– Brett had boldly proclaimed they would win the Super Bowl early in training camp, and we believed, and then they dominated– for the best part of 17 weeks, the Packers were the best team in the NFL. It just felt like there was no stopping them. The following year, even though they traveled to San Francisco, I think there was still a feeling of entitlement– like there was no way the Packers were NOT going to be in the Super Bowl again.

There’s been no feeling of the sort for me this year, and maybe that’s for the better. On one hand, I have no expectations, and just to be in this position is remarkable accomplishment. On the other, I feel like I should have enjoyed the ride even more. I think most Green Bay fans had given up on the idea of another Favre-led Super Bowl team, but with the opportunity now within grasp, you start to think “maybe destiny has come back around again.”

In any case, way to go, Packers. Two games between you and Ultimate Glory, and as unlikely or impossible as it seems, this year has proven this much to me: you just never know what’s going to happen.

Leaving a Note for the Future…

Just want to mention to myself and fair users to come– if you’re going to read this blog via RSS, I really recommend doing so via the ‘Live Bookmarks’ feature in Firefox.

This method preserves the visual style of the page, and allows for quick and easy commenting on posts. Of course, if you want to use some other reader, it’s your life– I’m just trying to run it…

Should also just mention– odds seem really strong that this wordpress is going to be the next incarnation of my blog.  Still need to smooth out the edges, but it seems pretty promising.

First Time for Everything

I don’t want this to turn into a political blog or anything (and I don’t really have the knowledge or experience to make that happen anyway), but I notice that I just wrote something about Obama about 4 or 5 posts ago, and I didn’t want you to think that’s all I’m going to be thinking about this year.

With that in mind, here is a story about fluorescent pigs.

But on the topic of Obama, I sent him money the other day. It was Monday. I don’t think I alone could have ‘jinxed’ the outcome in NH, but you never know.

Anyway, I’ve never felt compelled to give money to a campaign before. So it was a new thing for me. If you dig on Barack, you probably know that his campaign is not taking money from lobbyists or political action groups. I think that’s part of what makes his strong showing thus far so freakin cool.

Regardless, two weeks ago, I seriously did NOT think the man would have come out on top in either Iowa or New Hampshire. I don’t claim to be any sort of pundit, but here’s what I’ve gleaned from watching television, reading news, and being alive during this season and over the past few election cycles:
– polls are often helpful, but are also often bullshit
– The ‘base’ of each party– the hardcore MF’ers that don’t even need to know a person’s name to know their candidate– they will either be behind a candidate in the general election, or they will stay home (probably the former).
– The “independent” or “swing” vote is what every candidate is always hoping to capture– the people that are looking for good reason to vote for someone.
– Obama won in Iowa because people like me– ‘Independent’ folks who have never felt really excited about the political process or about a candidate before– came out and supported him.
– The same thing happened yesterday in NH, where the majority of independents casting ballots were for Obama. Hillary won because of the support from the Democratic base.
– The biggest challenge for Obama going forward will be keeping these people (again, the ones like me) that are just barely feeling invigorated by the democratic process, active, involved, and excited.

I never finished his book last year, but I started working on it again this morning on my commute. Hope I can finish up quickly and maybe share with other peeps.

I really hope this ride keeps going. I gave some money, and I’m talking about it here, so I guess I’m doing what I can. Involvement and personal initiative of the Everyman seem to be at the core of what Obama talks about. If this works and this man gets elected, it will be proof positive that we, the people, all together, are bigger and more important than any political party, action committee, or lobbyist. To me, that’s really exciting.

Gallery Images?

I added a plugin the other day called NEXTGEN gallery or something like that. One of those things that I dig about tikiwiki is being able to easily manage image galleries. This plugin claims to do a lot of the same stuff, with similar amounts of minimum effort.

That being said, I had no trouble creating an ‘album’, ‘gallery’, and then uploading an image. However, I couldn’t immediately figure out how to display said gallery. I think I need to have a “page” dedicated to it. But I’m not sure.

Does this work? Just putting an image that I’ve uploaded in a post?

 

Sure it does. What the H.

Good Morning, Michael.

GM is talking about developing technology that will allow for practical, driverless cars within a decade.

Of course, the best thing about this, from the perspective of a robot, is that it will be that much easier to smash our soft, frail, carbon-based bodies into the concrete medians of our freeways when the revolution comes.