I am a slut...

a candy slut that is.

The highlight of my day was going to my mailbox and finding a big ole package. What was in it you may ask. We'll candy I would respond. Good ole all-American candy. Oh yeah a card too, which has taken a prominent position on the shelf over my computer. I have to say that the white chocolate kit-kat is everything I hoped for in a snowflake and more...much, much, much more. Luckily it arived none-too-late, as today being fat tuesday (er...they call it some other funny thing here, they think just cause they're an island they can call everything by funny names, of course we think just because we're a superpower we can call things whatever we want). Starting tomorrow I begin my annual tradition of giving up candy, sweets, deserts, soda, pretty much anything with a significant portion of sugar in it (I do break down and have a donut for breakfast every-once-in-a-while though). Lent starting tomorrow of course means that tonight I'm attempting to consume as much sugar as I can and thereby run the risk of getting diabetes tonight, but its a risk I'm willing to take.

Some people think its strange to participate in lent, (which is hardly the funnest thing about being Catholic/Episcopalian) when one hasn't got a great factor of religiosity. However I was always taught that going to church is not the measure of a good christian, that the most important thing is having a relationship with god, and as part of my relationship I think that participating in lent is an important thing I can do as it demonstrates a great deal more self-control than many other supposed measure of religiosity. That said...I should be going to church, and I'm workin' on it.

Well that's enough ranting, thanks again Beth and Dustin, great way to cap off the birthfortnight. Good night, god bless.

Today was a good day, a great day even.
After a great birthday weekend to top it off, thanks everyone for the presents, cards, e-cards, emails, the phone calls (I'm amazed I remember it Pat and Jaime), and messages, you guys rock.

I woke up to two amazing pieces of news.

1. The Editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal are amazingly perceptive people, and they endorsed John Edwards.

2. Perhaps the more important item, NC State Basketball beat Duke (thanks for the email Dad).



I then went and had a little picnic basket for lunch; my favorite, turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing on a poppy seed bun (with extra turkey) before finishing up my presentation and headed to class, where the presentation went off pretty well. Well other than that I just been sittin' round reading and made some dinner and watched some Simpsons, but then that's a pretty good day for me (I'm getting pretty old after all).

Time to pack it in...

Well it looks like John Kerry is going to be the next Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I mean all the media is telling us is that this race is over that he's winning every State and that Dean and Edwards are just being spoiled sports. This is of course the Media that a few months ago questioned Kerry's decision to take a loan out against his house to continue financing his campaign (they said he was crazy and should just drop out of the race). And up until a month ago, we were told that Howard Dean was unbeatable. Now all they can talk about is...wouldn't John Edwards make a nice running mate. In what other form of competition are those that are behind expected to drop out after a quarter of the competition (not even a quarter, 80% of Democratc Delegates to the convention are still up for grabs!). How great would the ending to Remember the Titans have been if after the first quarter they were behind and conceded, Varsity Blues, Prefontaine, the Karate Kid? Would Lance Armstrong be such a popular part of our Mythos if he'd just always dominated? That's not how it really works...so why are the media starting to paint Dean and Edwards as spoiled sports for not giving up? It seems to me that part of the point of having competitve Democracy is to have...competition, sorry if you can't come up with new "angles", things take time. But then a story like this comes along thanks to the Drudgereport (and Nat) and "turns the campaign on its head" again. Funny how things like that happen...hmmmm, if the allegations are true maybe they won't seem like such spoiled sports after all, or maybe they'll at least give people a little bit of pause about the Senator from Mass.

Well I've been on a bit of a roll the last couple days to I'd hate to break it now. Most of the last week has been dominated by preparing for my meeting on a thesis proposal. I had that Wednesday (hence the imidiate spike afterwards of scrib activity). The meeting went well, although I felt I hadn't done nearly enough preparation (definately not as much as I'd liked) I was able to pass myself off as having some clue as to what I was talking about. I'm going to be doing something on military intervention, focusing on Kosovo and Iraq for now, and what it means for US foreign policy. I still have to come up with a specific question and over the next few weeks I'm continuing to read to try and figure that out. The good news though is I have a supervisor (I think), which is a big hurdle. Also I talked about doing a PhD and after some friendly encouragement from Dr. Williams I'm cautiously optimistic about my chances. I guess the question is now...do I want to spend another three years in school and more specifically at Durham. I still love it here in Durham but what if the charm wears off, what happens after this year when most all the people I know who are also doing Masters leave, and if I think its cold now when its "unseasonably warm" what happens those other years, at least one of which is bound to be "normal" or more dreadedly "unseasonably cold". Then again I still feel increadably lucky everytime I walk round town and see this beautiful Cathedral dominating the skyline and try and figure out what I did to deserve to get to do this anyways, and if I do face an "unseasonably cold" winter it'd be neat to see the river freeze over. Well my policy has always been to take the best oppurtunity I get and as of right now, staying at Durham is it. Of course I have yet to pick up the application and am still looking at a few more far-fetched possibilities. Anyone with Ideas feel free to leave a comment or pop me an email.

A Birthday Wish

This year a few days after my birthday there's a very special present that I'm asking for, from a very special someone. I've waited as long as I could to ask for it, and frankly the anticipation is getting more than a bit unbareable. It keeps me up at night thinking about it, wishin', hopin, and waiting (oh the waiting). I don't know that this person knows how special they are to me, but I've decided to set aside my fears and let them know here, now, for all the world (ok for the half dozen people that read my ramblings) to hear.

I'm not expecting a response right away but just a few short days after my birthday they can give me the most special gift of all. I'm referring of course to Wisconsin voters, and they could get rid of that yelling midget Dr. Howard Dean and send him back to Vermont once and for all. I have to admit that while I really don't like Dr. Dean a whole lot, I haven't really wanted him out of the race just yet in the hopes that at one campaign stop he'll bang his club to the ground and with his rallying cry, "CAPTAIN CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MAAAAAAAAAAAN" turn into one of my favorite super heroes, which may have made me consider voting for him. I mean even if you feel Captain Caveman lacks foreign policy experience, his record of fighting for the little guy shows a great deal of character. I also think that Captain Caveman would rise to whatever challenge is put before him, as he did time and again as the world's oldest super hero, rescued from a block of ice to fight crime in modern times (and you thought that was Captain America).

Unfortunately though Dr. Dean, I knew Captain Caveman, and you sir are no Captain Caveman.

Quick Ma' wind back the TiVo!!!

Yes we all saw what we thought we saw thanks to the wonders of modern technology (which if we didn't have we probably wouldn't have known or cared for too long). According to this story it was the most reviewed scenes in TiVo history. And while I'm as concerned as anyone that seeing a black female breast may make the children of our nation homicidal maniacs or emotionally scarred for life, I'm amazed few other people are asking...why the crap is TiVo monitoring its customers so closely? Maybe I've read 1984 one too many times but it?s just a bit scary. And while reading TiVo's privacy policy (which I'm sure all its customers went through at length) they have "told" their customers they're doing this and that its gathered "anonymously" it's still a bit scary if you ask me. I guess it?s just added into the CIA file. Luckily I don't have a TiVo.

Adding to the hilarity of America's new found revulsion at seeing Janet's nipple (apparently the nipple in particular is what?s damaging to children), in their apology for this "unfortunate" incident MTV states the claim that "Our goal with the Super Bowl Halftime show was to produce an entertaining stage experience with a positive message about empowerment and voting." Gotta say, strangely I missed that, was it during the scene change between Nelly and Puff Daddy, or perhaps the American Flag cape Kid Rock was wearing was supposed to make me want to vote?

Edwards and the Little Mo'

Well he won SC and managed to pull off a couple seconds so he's still in the race. Not too bad for a guy that no one outside of NC had heard of a year ago and few more knew up until a couple weeks ago, obviously somethings going on. But then when you see his stump you can tell what that something is. It's something that's been missing for a while, some would say since Clinton, being personally a bit jaded with Clinton I'd say since further back.

In his review of Four Trials Rob Christensen of the N&O pretty accurately assessed that it was a book where a multimillionaire tries to play down that fact and play up his background. However this misses the key point of it too, the book isn't playing down the small fortune that Edwards earned, it shows us that its possible to make money and be successful while still helping others. How many people did Dick Cheney help making his fortune? Sure you could say he gave a lot of people jobs...but how many did he lay off as well. No, the point is that on a one on one basis Edwards truly helped people that were unable to help themselves, and that's the truest test of a stateman I can think of. If Government were about just helping those that don't need it what's the point in Democracy? It's about helping people that can't help themselves, that just what Edwards made a career doing, and what he will do as President.

And I'm so tired of people complaining about hearing that he's a son of a Millworker...like George Dubya don't have his daddy to thank for where he is today. If anything bringing up his father shows how dramatically different than Bush Edwards is, that he's a man that worked hard for what he got. Also unlike Bush when Edwards says he'll work 24/7 for the American people it means 24 hours a day, seven days a week; not 24 hours a week, 7 months a year (sorry gotta throw a little SNL homage in there).

I think that as the field is winnowed down and it becomes a strait up contest between Kerry and Edwards, the small and unexpected returns he's getting now will start to get a lot bigger and that gap will get a lot smaller, maybe I'm just a new American optimist though. I think the little Mo' that started in Iowa will soon catch on, its only a matter of time. But hey, I'm sure John Kerry will make a good running mate :).