Weekly Report #9

Our hero is trapped ok?  Trapped in a hospital bed.  You are going to have to save the world and all of human civilization on your own for once.

Baby Stuff:

The munckin is healthy, aside from a few sniffles, and he is a dancing machine.  He likes to break dance.  As in, he rolls around on the floor while the music plays.  What a nut.

Catchment Stoichiometry:

Yay!  I'm going to  be guest editing a special issue of freshwater biology on Catchment Stoichiometry.  Whoo!  Of course, this is all a little weird because a year ago I'd never heard the phrase, and I've really only thought about it at all for like 6 months and I honestly don't really understand how my co-guest editor or many of the authors are thinking about the subject.  I feel a little in-over-my-head in terms of my own development of the idea.  But maybe that's how everyone thinks when they are doing something totally new.  

Basically, this is a great chance for me to improve my CV despite working in a deadend job that doesn't value research at all.  And I don't think the special issue would have happened at all without me, so I feel good about it.  Yay science!

Sickness:

I used over 110 hours of sick leave last year.  I don't have any left.  One of the three of us has been sick (or wisdom teethed) since before thanksgiving.  Right now we're all just a little sniffly, so maybe we're finally past it.  

Basketball:

So one of my friends who I thought I could reliably know what was going on in the NBA told me the other day that he hasn't been following the NBA this season.  "I'm just more into NCAA hoops" was what he said (approximately).  I've heard this from a lot of people I know.  The thing is, I don't really get it.  I mean, I understand the appeal for college hoops.  There's no entertainment experience that is more viseral for me than watching the Jayhawks play basketball.  I feel like a little kid again, and increasingly that's a rare sensation.  I certainly don't get that with any other basketball experience (although I also get it with the Chiefs).  But unless the Jayhawks are playing, the predominant emotion I get when watching regular season college hoops is "awkward".  That's because they just don't play the game at a particularly high level 99% of the time. The appeal is that they play so hard, and when the games start to really matter (conference and NCAA tournament) it's pretty damned appealing to watch people try so hard.  Kinda like watching a whole bunch of game 7s in the NBA.  

 However, most teams in the NBA play a lot harder in the regular season, especially during the first and last quarter of the season.  And they don't play so stupid.  With all the restrictions on the NCAA teams in terms of practice time and studying, there's no practical way for those guys to learn to play together in a season, or usually even two seasons, so what happens is you get the odd teams that have stuck together for odd reasons winning it all (e.g., Kansas wouldn't have won last year if Rush had gone pro, and he only didn't go pro because he got injured in the pre-draft camp)  or you get teams that just have an overwhelming talent advantage taking control in the tournament (North Carolina a few years back, or even Syracuse with Warrick and 'Melo).  Meanwhile, the coaches are emphasizing a very few ideas, and they are primarily inspiring effort.  In college, you can fix everything with more effort.  In the pros, that doesn't work, because, aside from a few very miserable teams, there just aren't that many mistakes.  Those guys are paid to go out there and know exactly what they should be doing.  They spend 40-50 hours a week, all year long, trying to get better (not counting the games), and they are under immense public scrutiny to play better.

So yeah, I prefer the pro game, at least until March Madness, but I like basketball wherever I can get it.  I just can't imagine preferring the college version.  

Unless the Jayhawks are playing.

Economy:

I'm skeptical.  I don't really know if I like Obama's 'stimulus' package.  I just don't think it will work and I think it will make everything worse in the long run.  Parts of it are good.  Parts of it are awful.  Maybe I just need to read up a little more.

Anything else:

Oh probably, but I can't think of it now.

Weekly Report #4

Ahh Veteran's day. I have Veteran's day off. Yay.


The Minnow Report:

I once had a cat,
Who sat in a hat,
And rolled around on her back.

Eventually she got up,
And ate some sup,
And fell asleep on the heating vent.


The Baby Report:

Son. I hope someday, you read this, and you ask me about it, and I explain it to you.

Learn some damn patience. You have never been so close to being put in your crib and left there to cry all damned day for all I care. And that would require me to put your crib back together first!

It has been a long couple of days, and I have seen that screaming baby face too often.


Veteran's Day:

Just like every other damned holiday, somebody's sick. This time its the wife and the baby is probably coming down with it. I'm drinking OJ like a madman.


Walking in the cold and dark:

For some reason, my job has evolved into one where I sit in the office all the danged time. How did this happen? Regardless, in order to get any outdoor time at all, I'm taking walks at night. In any weather. Last night was cold, drizzly with a strong north-western wind. I've never been so happy to have my face chilled.


NBA- OK City Edition:

So Russell Westbrook is an exciting player who pretty much singlehandily gave the thunder their only win of the year (he also rallied them back in their first game of the year). But he's a 6-3 shooting guard in a point guard's body with no play-making abiliity. Can anyone think of another player that has been at all successful in the NBA with that formula? Does Allen Iverson count? He might be the only one, and it isn't like AI's teams have been constant playoff contenders. I'm not sure if I have a point, but damn, there's a long list of guys who fit that description and never made their teams better.


Music:

Before NPR, would anyone in the US have ever heard Mongolian folk music? Seriously Hanggai is awesome. I like all three of the songs on that page.


The Election:

Have I not talked about this yet? How strongly can I put this:

I have never, in my entire adult life, been inspired by any politician. Not even a little. The most I could say is that some politicians have convinced me that they wouldn't be complete failures (Nader in '00; Gore in '06...yes I realize he ran in '00). I've also been convinced for some time that a third party would be beneficial, but I've come to realize this is impossible in a psuedo democracy like we have (it would only be appropriate in a parlimentary system).

On the other hand, Barack Obama inspires. I don't think it is too little to say that he's the most inspiring politician of the modern era, and only JFK would be in the conversation. The reason is that he is an intelligent, motivated, articulate, principled person. He treats people with respect, he is opposed to all the things America ought to be opposed to, and, like a lot of us, he is dismayed with the way America has been run into the ground over the last 8 years.

I'm with you Barack. All the way.


And in closing:

The Kansas Jayhawks are beginning their quest to repeat as NCAA college basketball champions. The road is long. The road will have ups and downs, but mark my words, this will be a good team.

Lord...

...I hate election years. Nothing makes me lose more faith in humanity than watching it vote.

Politics

As the long fight for the Democratic National Party's Nomination continues, I am occasionally asked online or in person who I believe to be the best candidate.

I honestly can't even understand why this is a question.

I won't mention the Republicans, except to say that voting for John McCain is no different than voting for Stalin or Hitler. If you hate people, if you want to see death and destruction on an epic scale, if you believe humans have no right to exist...well then by all means vote for a Republican. I'm not kidding, and if you think that assessment is wrong, then you just aren't thinking clearly.

So as for the Democrats...

Every election year, at about this time, I realize I'm just going to have to take a step back. I have to take stock, and realize that there are very, very, stupid people in this world. I'm not talking about people who vote Republican...those people could be smart, they just have no desire for humans to exist. I'm talking about Democrats who want to vote for idiots.

Is it obvious that I'm referring to the campaign of Hillary Clinton here?

~6 years ago I would have estimated that a Clinton II White House was about the best option for the country. Gore obviously wasn't going to run again, Nader killed himself with too little success in '00, and I didn't even know anyone else worth mentioned. ~4 years ago I was coming around to the idea of open social anarchy as a last resort to save the country, then Dean and Edwards started talking as if they weren't total idiots.

Yet somehow Kerry got nominated. Edwards was the intelligent guy who actually acted like he cared about the rights of individuals, and Dean was the grassroots movement guy who seemed to be the people's choice. And then Dean yelled and Edwards admitted he was a lawyer and somehow we got stuck with the Kerry-Bot who somehow still made GW look like an idiot in the debates, and then lost because the Republicans stole the election in Ohio (yes, they did...again, this is a litmus test for intelligence).

This was not a good moment for my faith in humanity. In fact, I basically think this is the point in history where democracy revealed itself to be a failed proposition (in other words, that whole Nazi Germany thing wasn't a fluke).

Now Dean and Edwards weren't exactly one-man social movements. They were just guys who weren't complete idiots and seemed to actually care about things beyond corporate America.

Barack Obama is different.

Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate in my lifetime to represent a genuine possibility of the old guard being thrown down. This is evident both superficially and significantly. The mere fact that a black man named Barack Obama is a viable candidate suggests that the past 200 years are finally going to die, and perhaps the ideology of capitalistic greed might die with it. Obama's philosophy represents the reality that most Americans have come to accept: Not everything about naked capitalism is a good thing. This is the manifestation of the philosophy that people should care about other people.

This is a belief system that goes way back, but for some reason has become lost in America. This belief, in our fellow man, has been replaced by a belief in the truth of the free market, and capitalism, and majority rules. Free market capitalism and democracy have their place, but ultimately, the most important difference between humans and animals is our ability to empathize and respect other humans. George W. Bush and the neo-con assholes he brought with him have be trying desperately for the past twenty years to turn us back into animals who can justify any atrocity on economic grounds.

Yet despite the presence of Barack Obama on the candidate list for the DNC, the primary continues. Why? Because Hillary Clinton continues to ride the coattails of her husband. She has, over and over again, referred to herself as the experienced choice. Exactly what does that experience consist of? Watching her husband explain the difference between sex and a blowjob? People seem to be confusing Bill Clinton's exceptionally successful presidential term, with Hillary's credentials. Is she running as herself, or is she running as her husband? This fundamental problem ought to undermine her entire campaign, but for some damn reason it hasn't. Name recognition is more potent than actual policies.

And so my faith in humanity is tested again.

Barack Obama is the only person worth voting for in this election. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. I won't argue with you about it, if you believe otherwise, we have nothing to talk about.

Which is why I don't care anymore about this political season, and I am already sick of it. Only the result is interesting now, because if the people of this country do not elect Obama, then my lack of faith in humanity will be re-affirmed, and I will continue to have no particular reason to love all of mankind.

On the other hand, if Obama does win, then maybe there's something worthwhile out there after all.