Decided to make this a two-parter since it was so painfully long.

Person of the Year
OBAMA! My biggest wish for 2008 was that Obama would win Iowa, the primaries, and the general election. Good call 2007 Phil. To think of all the hours/days/weeks/months I spent reading/watching/listening to election coverage... it's kind of ridiculous. If I wasn't a ( Read more... )

Yeah, this is late. But at least it's thorough.

Best CD
Over the past few months I've wasted a lot of brain power trying to decide which album from the past year was my favorite. It's close, but I think the edge goes to Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings and All. Each one of her songs has is filled with a great, upbeat high- ( Read more... )

With the Olympic games now just days away, I can't help but be extremely bothered by the fact that they are being held in China. Yes, this is the most populous nation in the world, and yes they were cheated out of the 2000 games when they lost selection by two votes - two votes that turned out to have been bought. Even so, there are just too many ( Read more... )

Staying up late to watch the RedSox/Yankees game on a Wednesday night. Life is grand.

I gotta say how much I love living in a baseball town. Everytime we go to the bar the game is on and EVERYONE is really into it. We get to see Yankees fans get reamed out on the subway. Dunkin Donuts even has specials for days after the RedSox win. This is ( Read more... )

This year, I'm giving up buying books for lent. I realize that I have a problem. Hopefully this will prevent my library from growing to further monstrous proportions, if only temporarily. AWP weekend can be considered my Fat Tuesday, because I bought more books than I should have, even with Catie's "don't" glares keeping me in check most of the ( Read more... )

If i end up in hell, it's very likely that my job will be to answer the phone, "Good afternoon, thank you for calling Hell. This is Phil, how can I help you?" and then the other line hangs up. The phone never stops ringing, and I have to say that over and over again, only to end up with a dial tone on the other end. That's how work feels tonight.

I ( Read more... )

Yesterday I did my best to avoid all major media outlets because I knew if I turned on CNN they'd have some sort of "countdown to caucus" ticker and I'd just be driving myself nuts all day, wondering what will happen. At 9:30 I got home and saw the good news. Obama 38, Edwards 29.8, Clinton 29.5. So I'm pretty much on cloud 9 right now. This ( Read more... )

Last week Catie's friends Erica and Frannie came to visit, but I was stuck at work and missed out on the fun. Usually, that's something that's not worth mentioning in here, BUT they played Rummy and I WAS STUCK AT WORK! I love Rummy! The week before, there was a semi-big family gathering at my parents place with Nana and Pap, Josh and Holly, my ( Read more... )

Throughout the primary campaign, Hillary Clinton has ensisted that she should be her party's eventual nominee because other candidates are unelectable in a general election. Her reasoning is that Barack Obama and John Edwards are unable to stand up to the Republican attack machine, while she has been "tested", her record "vetted" and there is ( Read more... )

The New York Times is running this great series called "Choking On Success" about the industrial boom in China, and the effect it is having on their environment: namely, turning all of China into a wasteland. Thank God for American enviromentalists. There's still a lot of filth in America, but it could be a lot worse. The land of fish and rice has ( Read more... )