Mind dump

Response to comments:

-  So apparently "Konrad" took issue with my statement: "And not one of the Republican candidates have the moral integrity or intelligence of a garden slug."  Specifically, he seemed to think that I should have more precisely defined what a garden slug is.  "Konrad" then went into a long and detailed explanati--- I'm going to spare you the details and just defend myself by saying A) a garden slug is a slug in a garden...duh, and B) Konrad, you're an idiot (If that's even your real name).  But thank you for commenting!

-  For those of you who wondered and commented (that Konrad character again), my friend is apparently going to get out of the hospital soon.  

Music coolness:

 I get bored an unproductive in hotel rooms, so here's the music I've been cramming down my ears, you might not have heard of all of it:

 -  Rilo Kiley  Silver Lining and Portions for Foxes.  I really dig Jenny Lewis, she did some solo stuff that was awesome too.  Both of these songs have good sounds, but I don't necessarily understand all the lyrics to Portions for Foxes.  Are foxes a metaphor for composters/decay?  I don't know.
  
 - White Stripes  Icky Thump and You Don't Know what love is.  Is there any real doubt that the White Stripes are the greatest mainstream musical act currently in existence?  I guess it depends on whether or not Modest Mouse qualifies as 'mainstream'.  I think not, since most of their really good stuff is pre-Float On.

-  Paramore Misery Business (and acoustic!).  Probably my biggest guilty pleasure is pop-punk bands.  I really liked Blink 182 and Less than Jake and now Paramore and essentially the entire
lineup from "Fueled By Ramen" is filling that gap.  Paramore essentially sings the same songs as Britney Spears (in terms of topics), but apparently guitar and attitude count for a lot in my book.

-  Dashboard Confessional  Vindicated.  I forgot about this song, even though I really like it, then I stumbled upon it last week.  I hoped this would lead down an interesting avenue of new music, but it turns out Dashboard Confessional are border-line incoherent and sort of a bunch of losers.  So that sucked.

-  Sparklehorse Sick of Goodbyes.  Actually, I could have picked a bunch of songs from Sparklehorse.  They're part of the Cracker-Camper Van family, and they are weird and beautiful.

-  Cute is What we Aim For Curse of Curves.  That's just a stupid name, but the song isn't bad.

Other stuff:

 -  Apparently there is no pretense internally that the Guantanamo Bay detainees are real people.  There are a lot of people who like to divide the world into *good* people and *evil* people.  If you're one of those people, then you can't possibly refer to the Bush presidency as anything but evil.  He has overseen the widespread kidnapping, imprisonment, and torture of people from all over the world.  That's either evil or you don't believe evil exists.  That's all the options there are.

-  Apparently the movie Jumper sucks.  So much so that someone had a 'Dead Poets Society' moment.  I'll be honest, that's kinda what the first three years of graduate school did to me.  

-  So I've been trying out Opera on my work laptop for the past couple of months.  I've got to say, it kinda sucks.  Everything that's in Firefox is here too, but everything seems to run slower, and right now, as I type this, the browser seems to have real problems dealing with the Blogger "edit post" window.  Things keep re-arranging, and shifting and damnit if I am not getting real close to ditching it altogether.  Other stuff is just more annoying to use, like the password wand or the history.  

-  NBA:  This is supposedly the greatest season in NBA history.  So why am I losing interest faster than at any time in the last 5 years?  Because the model franchise for great basketball (the Suns) threw it all away.  Look, Shaq is everything that is wrong with basketball recently:  He whines when he doesn't get enough shots, he can't dribble or shoot, he has no team loyalty, he takes credit for the success of everyone he plays with, he slows down the game, he has always benefitted from ridiculous officiating, and he takes off half the season.  Why would the Suns want to get that?  The Spurs lead this wave of up-and-coming basketball teams that focused on skilled basketball, great on-court chemistry, and planning for the long-haul, but it certainly seemed like the Suns were on their way towards succeeding the Spurs as the best team in the league.  How bad could the off-court chemistry with Shawn Marion have been?  The two teams most poised to rip the West out of the hands of the Spurs were the Mavs and Suns, but now, purely by default and raw talent, the Lakers are clearly the best team out there.  And I hate the Lakers.  No wonder the NBA is losing me.