Of politics, computer code and jalapeno cheddar bagels
Have I mentioned how I love each of those things?
The last couple days have been fairly crazy as far as politics concerning the upcoming midterm elections. The Dems need to win 29 seats in the House of Reps to win back control. So it will be close to see whether or not Dems can win back control. However, if it does come down just that one seat, House Rep Foley (R-Florida) may have just given it to them. If you haven't heard, Foley suddenly resigned the other day following the release of text messages and emails made to 16 year old pages. The messages released are among the lines of "What do you want for your birthday? Send me a pic of yourself", but apparently there are more sexually explicit unreleased ones. The Republicans are going to have to play good damage control on this one because it is also being reported that there were complaints about this from other House reps to the House leadership and nothing was done. Needless to say, because the ballets are already printed and Foley's name will still be on them (there will be a placeholder running under his name), the Dems are almost guaranteed what was a strong Republican slot.
The other bit of exciting news is Bob Woodward's new book "State of Denial", which goes against the grain of his last two books that praised the Bush administration. The book essentially asserts that the Bush Administration has purposely mislead the American public on a number of issues involving the War in Iraq. There have been discrepancies between what Bush has said and what actually happened, but no one as prominent has Bob Woodward has come out saying anything about it, which makes it substantial. Bob Woodward is not Michael Moore. His last two books praised the Bush Administration for how they were handling the War on Terror. Which, never the less, I need to get this book and read it sometime.
However, yesterday, those two events both made a large splash yesterday and it will be interesting to see where the pieces fall as the election draws nearer.
EDIT: This was in the Washington Post. It is about Rice brushing off Tenet and Black when they were warning her that the Bin Laden threats were real, in a memo entitled "Bin Laden threats are real", but she ignored them. Two months before Sept 11. Yup, totally Clinton's fault. The Bush Administration, over the last couple weeks, has been pointing fingers at Clinton and blaming him for 9/11, when he tried to get Bin Laden and failed (he had three months to do it after the Cole before his term was up). Bush was in office for eight months and did nothing but ignore memos such as "Bin Laden threats are real". And also, for those who didn't see, here is Clinton's response to when he was asked "Why didn't you do more to prevent 9/11?" by Chris Wallace of Fox News, Part 1, and Part 2, which Keith Olbermann's biased follow-up defending Clinton.
Oooooh politics.
Now, of computer code, have I mentioned how much I love to code? I really forgot how much fun it is. I love puzzles and writing in C or Assembly is a blast. I can't believe I forgot. So glad I am doing a compsci minor. w00t!
Many though, studying is getting to be a pain the ass. So much to study for, so little time. It is really just Japanese that is killing me though... thank god this is the last semester. Though, when I get it, I love to do it. And I, for the first time ever in that class, feel like I get it. So I am pretty proud of myself there. I just need to keep on memorizing. Times have been great here at the doomhouse, we watched this really fucked up movie called Beg. last night, which is a Trouma film (Trouma films suck, suck hard, and they know it) but it actually wasn't that bad. It reminded me of a bastard child of Brazil and Logan's Run, but if David Llynch had directed it.
There are a couple movies coming out (or, well, one is out) that I really want to see. The Science of Sleep and Children of Men. Both movies look simply amazing. I need to find where around here Science of Sleep is playing so I can perhaps see it in a couple of weeks. Children of Men is a Christmas day event now, which I will hopefully be able to see shortly thereafter. But oh god do I love Post-Apoc dystopia, thriller/action/philosophical sci-fi flicks. Seriously, any movie of this genre is almost an instant winner for me. 28 Days Later fits in there, sort of, as does 1984 (which, was only medicore but the book was amazing and made up for it), Half-Life 2 (the video game, best game story in years... maybe ever), Deus Ex (second best game story ever). That, and I am a sucker for any trailer with Sigur Ros in it.
Anyone have any recommendations for this genre besides those listed and Soylent Green (which is one of my favorite films and one of two chuck heston films I like, woohoo planet of the apes!)?
Well, back to the studying I suppose. Man, we need some food in this house.
P.S. Jalapeno cheddar bagels from the Bagel Beanery rock my world upsidedown.
The last couple days have been fairly crazy as far as politics concerning the upcoming midterm elections. The Dems need to win 29 seats in the House of Reps to win back control. So it will be close to see whether or not Dems can win back control. However, if it does come down just that one seat, House Rep Foley (R-Florida) may have just given it to them. If you haven't heard, Foley suddenly resigned the other day following the release of text messages and emails made to 16 year old pages. The messages released are among the lines of "What do you want for your birthday? Send me a pic of yourself", but apparently there are more sexually explicit unreleased ones. The Republicans are going to have to play good damage control on this one because it is also being reported that there were complaints about this from other House reps to the House leadership and nothing was done. Needless to say, because the ballets are already printed and Foley's name will still be on them (there will be a placeholder running under his name), the Dems are almost guaranteed what was a strong Republican slot.
The other bit of exciting news is Bob Woodward's new book "State of Denial", which goes against the grain of his last two books that praised the Bush administration. The book essentially asserts that the Bush Administration has purposely mislead the American public on a number of issues involving the War in Iraq. There have been discrepancies between what Bush has said and what actually happened, but no one as prominent has Bob Woodward has come out saying anything about it, which makes it substantial. Bob Woodward is not Michael Moore. His last two books praised the Bush Administration for how they were handling the War on Terror. Which, never the less, I need to get this book and read it sometime.
However, yesterday, those two events both made a large splash yesterday and it will be interesting to see where the pieces fall as the election draws nearer.
EDIT: This was in the Washington Post. It is about Rice brushing off Tenet and Black when they were warning her that the Bin Laden threats were real, in a memo entitled "Bin Laden threats are real", but she ignored them. Two months before Sept 11. Yup, totally Clinton's fault. The Bush Administration, over the last couple weeks, has been pointing fingers at Clinton and blaming him for 9/11, when he tried to get Bin Laden and failed (he had three months to do it after the Cole before his term was up). Bush was in office for eight months and did nothing but ignore memos such as "Bin Laden threats are real". And also, for those who didn't see, here is Clinton's response to when he was asked "Why didn't you do more to prevent 9/11?" by Chris Wallace of Fox News, Part 1, and Part 2, which Keith Olbermann's biased follow-up defending Clinton.
Oooooh politics.
Now, of computer code, have I mentioned how much I love to code? I really forgot how much fun it is. I love puzzles and writing in C or Assembly is a blast. I can't believe I forgot. So glad I am doing a compsci minor. w00t!
Many though, studying is getting to be a pain the ass. So much to study for, so little time. It is really just Japanese that is killing me though... thank god this is the last semester. Though, when I get it, I love to do it. And I, for the first time ever in that class, feel like I get it. So I am pretty proud of myself there. I just need to keep on memorizing. Times have been great here at the doomhouse, we watched this really fucked up movie called Beg. last night, which is a Trouma film (Trouma films suck, suck hard, and they know it) but it actually wasn't that bad. It reminded me of a bastard child of Brazil and Logan's Run, but if David Llynch had directed it.
There are a couple movies coming out (or, well, one is out) that I really want to see. The Science of Sleep and Children of Men. Both movies look simply amazing. I need to find where around here Science of Sleep is playing so I can perhaps see it in a couple of weeks. Children of Men is a Christmas day event now, which I will hopefully be able to see shortly thereafter. But oh god do I love Post-Apoc dystopia, thriller/action/philosophical sci-fi flicks. Seriously, any movie of this genre is almost an instant winner for me. 28 Days Later fits in there, sort of, as does 1984 (which, was only medicore but the book was amazing and made up for it), Half-Life 2 (the video game, best game story in years... maybe ever), Deus Ex (second best game story ever). That, and I am a sucker for any trailer with Sigur Ros in it.
Anyone have any recommendations for this genre besides those listed and Soylent Green (which is one of my favorite films and one of two chuck heston films I like, woohoo planet of the apes!)?
Well, back to the studying I suppose. Man, we need some food in this house.
P.S. Jalapeno cheddar bagels from the Bagel Beanery rock my world upsidedown.