Well, the Bears are in first place.
… I simply can’t think of anything else to say. Here are your picks for Week 6.
SEASON RECORD: 12-11
Only 16 weeks until spring training starts.
I’ve been off from work this week so I can invest a little extra time toward completing the writing I need to finish on my thesis. I’m writing a lot about my late middle school/early high school years and some of the things that my friends and I used to do together. This led me invariably back to my brief but serious comic book phase.
I remembered how we enjoyed collecting and reading comics (especially all those Marvel mutant titles), but 1991-1993 was also a sort of hey-day for treating comics like commodities or investments. We were mesmerized month after month by the pricing guides as much as we were by the books we were reading, and the publishing companies obviously took advantage of that, will an endless parade of limited editions, special #1’s, hologram covers, foil embossing, and can’t-miss crossovers (like the Death of Superman, and the Valiant “Unity” series). I can’t remember if we were just ignorant to the fact that they were printing so damned many copies of every issue that they would never be worth anything, or if we just didn’t care. Either way, it’s probably best I got off the train when I did, about halfway through my freshman year of high school.
Nevertheless, it is nice to pull these things out once in a while and give them another read. No matter what a waste of time and money our parents thought it was, there was some decent writing and compelling characters in some of these comics…
Watching the 2nd presidential debate right now. I feel sorry for Tom Brokaw– he’s trying to keep both these candidates within the time constraints they agreed to, and it’s virtually impossible. Not that it matters much, as neither one is doing much to address the actual quesitons that are being asked (by my non-scientific count, in the first hour I’ve seen Obama give what could be considered a direct answer twice, and McCain twice once-and-a-half).
You know what I would like to see in the next presidential election cycle? ACTUAL DEBATES. These charades are basically just 120-minute ads with the candidates bickering and shouldering each other for the most time. If you’ve taken the time to read up on the candidates, done some independent research, you can totally skip these things.
OK, now next question. Next QUESTION. NEXT QUESTION!!!!!!
I don’t know if I’ve just become hyper-aware of it, or if everybody that I know really IS on Facebook, but all of them seem to have moved there in the last 6 months. I am still a part of the resistence, but I’m not sure how long I can hold out. My chief lieutenant in this struggle, Michelle, has waffled a bit in recent weeks. There are times I catch her trying to reason out why she SHOULD be on this thing. So far, we’ve managed to stay the course.
I have justified my non-participation in this social networking phenomenon in a variety of ways:
Despite all this, when SO MANY PEOPLE that you know are talking about something this much, you sort of feel like you need to get out there and understand what it’s about. For someone as net-savvy as myself, it’s rare (to the point of disturbing) that I should have absolutely no experience with such a pervasive Internet entity. I guess that strict lack of knowledge is what’s bothering me here; definitely not feeling an intense desire to stop emailing and start “facebooking” people, or whatever the hell they might call it.
I wonder if the K-Bear ever gets this sort of feeling in relation to our cell phone bet…
Just wanted to pass along this brief and somewhat interesting link that I got from the AP today. Looks like the GOP is looking for excuses on why Sarah Palin lost will lose the VP debate before it’s even happened:
Gwen Ifill’s impartiality questioned
Personally, I have a feeling that Biden will perform better, but Palin probably won’t come off as quite the Quaylian* dufus that a lot of lefties think she is…
* – adjective coined by DH Schrubbe, to the best of my knowledge
Had a tough Week 3, thanks to some overconfidence in the Super Bowl I participants. BUT– I did call that Dolphins game, even before bonehead Joey Porter did. On, then, to Week 4!
Caught myself watching VH1 for a while this evening while I was making dinner and getting some stuff done on the ‘tubes. They were showing the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s. It’s basically exactly the same thing as I Love the 90s, but without any other pop culture references– just the music.
I have to admit that I still get caught up in these lame VH1 shows whenever I come across them on the dial. It all started with I Love the 80s, and since then, I think VH1, as a network, has just turned into one non-stop greatest hits album, with an endless commentary track by Michael Ian Black and Hal Sparks. It’s really stupid. And yet I can’t look away.
What is it about pop culture that I find so compelling? I really have no interest in pop culture as it happens, but in retrospective summary, I eat it up like a fat kid on Halloween. Just can’t get enough.
And for the record, as soon as I saw the title of the program, I KNEW that Smells Like Teen Spirit would be #1. That’s just the way that network rolls…
It’s a hell of a Saturday out there. Not a very good time to be blogging; better to be out taking advantage of one of those last nice weekends before the weather takes a turn toward autumn. Just a couple quick comments then:
Have a great Saturday!
I don’t think it’s a simple matter to reconcile one’s Catholic faith with the issues in the presidential election. The issues are at least as complex as the Church’s teachings, and it leaves a lot for a person to think (and pray) about.
I picked up this article in the New York Times on Wednesday, and it talks about these very struggles for Catholics in Pennsylvania. The writer basically divides the faithful into one of two camps– those that will vote exclusively on the issue of abortion, and those that apply a more comprehensive-Church-doctrine lens when examining the candidates. It’s an interesting read.
I would put myself in the second camp, but I am also inclined to resist yet another divisive label (and within the same church, for that matter). I really do feel like voting exclusively on the issue of abortion (or exclusive on ANY one issue) is a cop-out. If you want to say “I will only vote for the pro-life candidate,” that’s OK, but remember that this year’s “pro-life” candidate is the same one that is willing to prolong the Iraq War as far as necessary and has a hair-trigger on finding an excuse to invade Iran (and who knows where else).
Outlawing abortion isn’t going to make it go away. I think that choosing abortion is a sad choice, but I also DON’T think that working to protect life should stop at the moment of birth.
I mentioned yesterday that I needed to catch up on the Internet and the blogosphere a little after my fall-startup-hiatus.
I have to credit Petters for linking to a NY Times article about Obama’s economic attitudes and policies. It’s not the lightest article ever, but my link will point you specifically to part five, which discusses his tax proposals in detail. There is no doubt that the wealthiest Americans are going to be paying more in taxes if Obama is elected. However, most of us are NOT the wealthiest Americans, and in fact would enjoy a decrease in taxes with Barack in the White House (and a larger one than McCain would bring).
In my experience, it’s hard for some to get passed the idea that a Democrat automatically will “tax and spend,” as if the behavior is etched into a liberal’s DNA, like a salmon returning to its birthplace to spawn. The article did a great job of explaining the underlying philosophies behind the Obama economic plan.