babbling blue

And the City.

Yes, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I went and saw Sex and the City opening night. But the girls (by which I mean the boys) were going, so what the heck? I did watch the whole series, after all.

The crowd was about what you’d expect. A sea of women, many of them all gussied up for the big premiere… and handful of gay men… and a smattering of pussy-whipped straight men, dragged there by their wives or girlfriends. Interestingly, it would have been a good place for a single straight guy to meet single straight gals. There were girls everywhere, and no competition to speak of.

The movie itself was decent. I’d say about 7 out of 10, which was slightly better than I was expecting. The plot was certainly no masterpiece. It was often predictable and heavy-handed (downright anvil-icious, I’d say). But it fit with the series and it was generally fun to watch. True to form, Carrie Bradshaw continues to make bad decisions (and wear hideous outfits) and sabotage her own happiness. But if that wasn’t the case, where would the drama come from?

Am I a Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte or Miranda? Well Samantha is my favorite, but I certainly can’t claim to be anything like her. I’m more of a combination of all of them (probably more Miranda and Carrie than Samantha and Charlotte though) but I think that’s the case for most people. Let’s face it, the girls are not well-rounded characters, they are all extremes. But who would have watched a show about four well-rounded New York women?

So I just started watching American Gladiators this season (after watching the original series for years growing up). In this week’s episode (the 3rd) the fourth set of contestants competed. One of them was old Brick Reilly (below).

From NBC.com:

Brick Reilly is a 27-year-old tree climber from Springfield, New Jersey. He was born deaf and has always deemed athletics an important escape from the realities of life. Though Reilly recently had a cochlear implant which gave him the ability to hear, he never used his disability as an excuse in his life. He works as a mentor for deaf children in the New Jersey area.

He has already fought a congenital problem and come out on top. For that reason (and well. . . because he’s sexy) I was rooting for him. And he did not disappoint. He swung across Vertigo like he was a monkey, yanked Toa from Tilt and flew through Skytrack, becoming the first person to win that relatively new event.

Brick went into the Eliminator with a 12.5 second head start against his opponent. He breezed up the rope ladder and across the tightrope and zipped over on the hand bike like he uses one every day. Then he went down the rolling pin and dislocated his shoulder. . . and climbed the Pyramid and popped his motherfucking shoulder back into joint when he grabbed the zip line! You da fuckin’ man, Brick! He struggled a bit with the Travelator but came out victorious in the end.

You’ve got a fan in me, Brick. Go all the way!

I was checking the weather on weather.com, since I noticed it had gotten really windy outside and wanted to see if a storm was coming. I noticed a weather statement that said the following:

WINNEBAGO-BOONE-MCHENRY-LAKE IL-OGLE- LEE-DE KALB-KANE-DUPAGE-COOK- KENDALL- WILL-LAKE IN-PORTER- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…ROCKFORD…WOODSTOCK… WAUKEGAN… OREGON…DIXON…DEKALB… AURORA…CHICAGO…OSWEGO…JOLIET… GARY…VALPARAISO 927 PM CDT MON MAY 26 2008

…PNEUMONIA FRONT MOVING DOWN WESTERN LAKE MICHIGAN…

A PNEUMONIA FRONT CURRENTLY IN FAR SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN WILL CONTINUE TO RAPIDLY DROP SOUTHWARD INTO NORTHERN ILLINOIS AND INDIANA TONIGHT. THIS FRONT HAS BEEN MARKED BY A DRASTIC CHANGE IN TEMPERATURES AND A STRONG WIND SHIFT. TEMPERATURES ALONG THE LAKE FRONT HAVE DROPPED FROM THE LOW TO MID 70S TO THE MID TO UPPER 40S AS THE FRONT PASSES. WINDS HAVE SHIFTED FROM BEING LIGHT AND OUT OF THE WEST TO OUT OF THE NORTHEAST AND GUSTING UP TO 40 MPH AT TIMES ALONG THE LAKE. THIS FRONT WILL BE INTO LAKE AND MCHENRY COUNTIES BY 10PM…COOK… DUPAGE..KANE…DEKALB…AND BOONE COUNTIES BY 1045PM…AND THE REST OF NORTHWEST INDIANA AND NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS BY MIDNIGHT CDT.

A PNEUMONIA FRONT IS A RARE… METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA THAT IS TYPICALLY OBSERVED ALONG THE WESTERN LAKE MICHIGAN SHORELINE DURING THE WARM SEASON. THESE FRONTS ARE DEFINED AS LAKE MODIFIED SYNOPTIC SCALE COLD FRONTS THAT RESULT IN ONE HOUR TEMPERATURE DROPS OF 16 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT OR GREATER.

That is strange. So it’s a like a really bad cold front? I’d never heard of a pneumonia front, and I’ve lived on western Lake Michigan all my life. But the temperature outside has indeed plummeted. Hmm, learn somethin’ new every day, I guess.

Somebody’s asleep on the job…

John McCain’s last Senate vote: April 8, 2008
Before that: March 13, 2008
Missed votes since April 8: 42

Barack Obama’s last Senate vote: May 13, 2008
Before that: April 23, 2008
Missed votes since May 13: 9

Hillary Clinton’s last Senate vote: May 13, 2008
Before that: April 24, 2008
Missed votes since May 13: 9

Interesting numbers, but they only start to tell the story.
Since the January 3rd Iowa caucus, there have been 135 recorded Senate votes (excludes possible “voice votes”) as of May 15th*. Of those 135, this is the number of “Abstains” from each candidate. (If there is a record of whether or not the Senator was present and Abstained or just didn’t bother to show up, I haven’t seen it.)

Barack Obama: 75 votes “missed” = 55.6%
Hillary Clinton: 80 votes “missed” = 59.3%
John McCain: 99 votes “missed” = 73.3%

I wonder if these Senators, particularly Mr. McCain, realize they are still getting paid to be Senators and serve the constituents that got them where they are today.

To put this into perspective, here are a few Senators that weren’t campaigning for something:

Arlen Specter (R-PA): 2 votes “missed” = 1.5%
Ben Nelson (D-NE): 4 votes “missed” = 3%
Russ Feingold (D-WI): 0 votes “missed” = 0%

Whenever someone brings this stuff up (I’m by no means the first), their spokemonkeys will usually give the canned response that being a Senator is more than just voting. While that’s true, voting and being a legislator in general is very big part of it. Sure they have their staff keeping up with the other duties generally performed by the office of the Senator. But where is their leader? Where is the champion that the people of New York, Illinois and especially Arizona elected to represent their interests in Congress?

*According to Obama’s Senate website, he voted on 5/22. This information was not available at my primary source yet. I did not check the other candidates’ sites.

Can you tell the difference between Bush and McCain? I only got 2 out of 5 right. See if you can do better by taking the Bush-McCain Challenge.

When you’re done, see if you can tell the difference between McCain and the carrot below.

Wow, I can’t remember the last time I was as busy as I’ve been the last couple weeks.

I just moved to a new apartment yesterday. I have class tonight. I also have homework due for this class tonight. I had to take a midterm online earlier this week (I did it Tuesday after work). I had a group project assignment due last Sunday. Oh, and I had to work Saturday morning and I had to take an accounting midterm (closed book/notes) last week Thursday. Oh, and I forgot to mention the bowling banquet last Friday. Did I say that bowling was finished? No? Bowling is finished! YAY! At least that time period (Friday evening) is now freed up in my schedule. Of course, tomorrow I have a group project meeting after work. Le sigh!

Anyway, with work, school, bowling and moving, I haven’t really had any free time. In fact, I’ve had negative free time, since I took time off of work to accomplish moving tasks. I haven’t even WoWed in over a week!

Anyway, I’m moved into my new place, but I have a lot to do yet. Things to buy, things to unpack and arrange, etc. The fun never ends! More on the new place to come…

(Pretend this was posted yesterday, 5/1/2008. I was too busy to finish this when I started it and had to come back to it the next morning. WordPress used to allow you to change the date of a post, but I don’t see that option any more.)