Category: Uncategorized

The pre-debate regarding tomorrow’s debate is the post debate, specifically how each party and the media tackles its response after W and Kerry stop talking. Today’s edition of The Daily Howler spells things out pretty nicely.

I’ve been wondering for a while if the tomorrow’s debate will be a repeat of 2000. I was astounded then seeing a debate that I thought Gore won be transformed into a seeming Bush victory. This was after polls and other immediate response supported that assumption. I’m afraid that this might happen this year.

There’s been a lot of talk about the spin and the media coverage of this election. There hasn’t been much out there to assure me that this year’s coverage will be much better than 2000.

Anyway, there’s a lot of other political blogs out there if you want enough rhetoric to satisfy the most rapid of partisans.

This blog is part of a rather impersonal personal Web site. It’s got no pictures, sounds (until recently) or much mention of my personal life. The (ahem) intimate details of my life are just not anything that I’d delve into, least of all on a blog.

So, in a small change of pace, I’m going to talk about some dreams I had recently. Unfortunately (for you), my dreams aren’t intimate — they’re more situational where I find myself doing something totally random. They’re almost snapshots of things happening.

There were three dreams in three days. The first one involved my bathtub. Water from the shower (which doesn’t exist in real life) soaked through the unprotected walls and it was peeling away taking the insulation with it leaving only tile beneath.

Yesterday, I dreamt that I was living with my family in a big modern city (with boutiques lining the street). Much of the city was having a holiday and I wandered around. I walk through the row of shops, underneath the subway line. I note many people standing in line outside a building with the NASA logo. It turns out that people are waiting to ride some sort of space-related roller coaster that zoomed around the neighborhood. I didn’t ride the coaster.

This morning, I dreamt that I was in a TV station somewhere. There were meetings going on and I was in a maroon-painted room with several others (including comedian Rick Mercer for some reason). After small talk with Mercer and others, I went back to the kitchenette. After I go into a meeting room, I run into a guy who spills a bowl of chili over my clothes.

I don’t know what 99.9 percent of my dreams mean, including these. I just wanted to note how bizarre they are — especially three days in a row.

I don’t know if this is a sign that I’ve been in newspapers for too long, but I got concerned watching the short film “The Font Doctor.” The “doctor” is a guy who formats fonts for Hollywood pitches.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when he criticized two poor authors of using the Arial font (which is a clean, sans serif font). I don’t know what font it really was, but it was totally a serif font (maybe Times or Palatino).

I guess we now know what sort of accuracy to expect from an outfit like MocDocs.

I went to the expo for the Professional Hockey Centennial Celebration Friday. It was really neat seeing all of the history of the game. I was also impressed to see some of the hockey historians that had traveled so far to attend the event.

The sights of the expo were cool as well. There was old equipment like hockey sticks on display and some old ice skates that looked pretty painful. The Hockey Hall of Fame had some displays of the Stanley Cup and the Original Six NHL teams as well as some skills tests. The kids really had a ball (puck?) with the games.

All in all a rewarding, educational experience. I’ll be back Sunday to see the Stanley Cup in person as well as checking out some more local hockey history. Tonight, the Red Wings alumni team faces off with an alumni team from Michigan Tech.

I frequent Amazon.ca from time to time. Sometimes there are DVDs there that haven’t been released in the United States (like Made in Canada), plus there are added features on the Canadian release and sometimes the exchange rate is in my favor.

Anyway, I was reading through Amazon.ca’s Essential Canadian DVDs and this interesting combo came up. Apparently, people who bought classic children’s TV show Mr. Dress-Up also purchased the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Amazon.ca decided to make it a “Great Buy” where people can save $20CDN by purchasing the two together.

I’m guessing that many purchasers are buying for families. It might explain the purchase of a kiddie show and an adventure flick.

I must say that I’m impressed with the singing ability of Robert Pomakov who’s been singing the national anthems in Toronto during the recent World Cup of Hockey which is ending tonight.

Part of it is his incredible dedication that he displayed while singing all these national anthems from Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Canada. He tilts his shaven head forward slightly and stares ahead as he sings — which sounds so fluent even though I can’t understand a word he’s saying. I wish he was allowed to sing “O, Canada” tonight, but they gave it to someone else.

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By far the best performance of “O, Canada” that I’ve heard is Mark Donnelly before Game 7 of the Vancouver Canucks playoffs last year. It was electrifying, especially when he stops and lets the crowd sing along (and they’re in tune!). I have a recording of it that I still listen to from time to time.

Living in a battleground state means that we get a _ton_ of commercials. Despite the fact that the U.P. is fairly rural, every vote apparently counts.

Tonight, there was an ad from George Bush promoting his health care plan and his Agenda for America. There was a lot of interesting proposals there ranging from savings accounts and allowing small businesses to group together.

What was notably missing was anything about lowering the cost of prescription drugs. There was nothing at all, compared to the one or two things that might — might — reduce the price of health care.

To be honest, I don’t know what Kerry’s plan entails, but this seems to be a critical oversight.

BTW, I’m really doing my best to avoid commenting on this upcoming election. Part of it is that, professionally, it shouldn’t matter which candidate I support. The other reason is that there’s probably millions of blogs out there that dispense political blather like it was liquid gold.

As the election nears, I’m probably going to delve more into the political realm. In the end, I’ll try to keep it to a dull roar.

Thank you, internal combustion engine. I needed to get my car fixed today to tackle some wheel and axle issues. Since it was a nice day, I walked from the repair shop and back.

I didn’t know that it would take me about an hour and 20 minutes to walk and that it was just over 3 miles from the shop to my house. It was extremely pleasant with the gentle breeze keeping things mostly cool and I got to walk near the creek as it drifted toward the canal. But, dang, blisters stink — especially after nearly 7 miles of walking.

While it was to nice get a new perspective on the city, I gladly turned on the A/C and put my feet up when I got my car back. The topper on my afternoon was free burgers from Hardees — the restaurant was packed to the gills as they did a promotion.

I’m reading more newspapers online these days. It’s interesting reading stories from around the country, especially some of the different writing styles. There was one story from down South that caught my eye today.

The story was about a recent search at a college that may be linked with another criminal probe. Obviously it seems like a confusing matter, but the story didn’t clear things up until the background portion toward the end. I’m not going to name the paper or the college, but this is the fourth graf:

Why the (…) investigation is being investigated and who is at the center of the investigation is unclear.

I know I’m new to this story, but with two cases centered around the college, this sentence was a roadblock in the story. I had to stop for a bit and puzzle out what the writer meant. I also reflected on the repeated use of the word “investigation.”

As I understand it now, I think the writer was trying to say it’s unclear why investigators have launched this new probe and who is being targeted.

I’m sure that my writing has been less than clear on occasion over the years, and I think this shows there’s always room to be clearer and more concise.