QuesoGuapo

I know I said that I wouldn’t be talking too much about politics in this blog. However, tonight’s debate was just a little too hard to pass up. I would normally watch this with someone else and talking with them about it. Because I’m flying solo tonight, y’all get to see my thoughts here.

10:34 p.m. – Wrapping up. I’m now totally convinced that this election’s big issue is the “war on terror” and the Iraq war (and whether Iraq should even be considered part of the “war on terror.” Kerry’s closing statements seem to focus solely on this point.

Bush’s closing statements center on the Are you better off now than you were four years ago? question. He didn’t say it, but that’s what his last words felt like. I think the president’s points are “interesting,” but I think a lot of Americans could answer that they’re not doing better than before Bush was elected.

BTW, Kerry should’ve let Bush go first in the closing statements. Bush’s simple points are relatively good sound bites and I don’t think it should’ve been the last word.

10:20 p.m. – Did the president just go back more than 150 years in his reference to Dred Scott to dredge up some examples of poor judicial judgment? Wow, that’s a bit of a stretch. Bush’s other example (the Pledge of Allegiance case) isn’t all that great either (separation of church and state is in the Constitution, Mr. President), but should help his base.

10:09 p.m. – Whoops! Kerry said something about Bush owning an interest in a timber company. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, Bush turned it around and made it into a pretty good joke. Score one for Bush.

Still, I think Kerry is doing a decent job of pointing out the shortcomings of the past four years. Bush is landing some hits, but some of his rhetoric seems a little off.

9:55 p.m. – I hope that Kerry didn’t do his impersonation of Bush 41’s take on “No new taxes.” Of course, Kerry’s statement had caveats, but I’m sure people would find examples of families earning less than $200,000 getting a tax increase. And Republicans can also bust out the old “expiring tax cuts are actually increases” argument.

9:53 p.m. – The tone of the debate has shifted a bit now that they’re talking about the economy and tax cuts. Kerry and Bush seem to be doing well although I fear that people tune out the numbers. Bush’s economic record hasn’t been all that great during the past four years, and I don’t think the president can entirely blame it on the six-month recession in his first year in office.

9:11 p.m. – Bush seems to be doing a lot better in this debate compared to last week’s relative disaster. Bush keeps hammering Kerry on the whole “flip-flop” issue. I really wish Kerry or someone else would confront Bush on the wishy-washy things he’s done over the past four years.

Homeland security, the Sept. 11 commission, UN assistance in rebuilding Iraq — all those are issues that Bush has wavered on. He was opposed to all of those initiatives before ultimately backing them. The effectiveness of all those initiatives is debatable, but the fact that Bush went back and forth on all of those for the sake of politics is obvious. Bush’s “flip-flop” comments are an obvious example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Unfortunately, saying something is so sometimes creates the perception that it’s true. Bush’s simple arguments do a decent job of making people feel all warm and fuzzy. It would be nice if reality matched the so-called optimism of the Bush White House.

I don’t read the massive amount of spam that gets put into my account, but I do skim the headlines in case there’s some legit mail that slipped through the cracks.

Today I noticed the spammers of choice trying to pedal the “soft tab” versions of erectile-dysfunction drugs like Viagra. The only thing I’m going to say is — if you have ED, would you really buy a drug that comes in “soft tab” form?

The frequent visitors to my Web site (all two of you) may have noticed something new. I’ve relaunched the page to include more graphics and information than before.

Some of the buttons on the right aren’t working yet. I’ve got some new photos, radio material and more so those links will become active in short order.

As intended the personal page is supposed be symmetrical yet different from the main Professional site. The pro site’s main content area is on the right side of the page, whereas it’s on the left for the personal site. The navigation images on the pro site are horizontal while those on the blog are vertical. See? It’s the same yet totally different.

Other additions include adding a search box from Google so people can find what they’re looking for. I’ve also grouped the archive pages into a pull-down menu so it’s not as unwieldy. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck CSS does for Web design, so I’m relying heavily on tables for the site.

I hope that this new design is easier to use and more pleasing on the eye. Any comments or questions? Please direct them to ryan -at- rtomedia.com.

Over on the Pro blog, I’ve got some information on awards I’ve won. I’ve known this for about a week, but I respect embargoes. 😉

HANCOCK — One of the nice things about traveling to the Twin Cities is that I can listen to Minnesota Public Radio’s News and Information service while driving through the state. We only get the classical service in Houghton with a smattering of news shows like All Things Considered, Fresh Air, etc. Please give me the BBC World Service over Classical 24 any day.

Leaving Duluth heading back to Houghton Sunday night, we heard the last 15 minutes of a good This American Life episode. Then the vultures swooped in.

There’s a new 30-minute program called Pop Vultures. During this episode, they started with a talk about the Neptunes and progressed over a free-wheeling conversation to get to musical epiphanies the host and her friends had (including Garth, let us never forget Garth). The show strikes up a conversational tone, but there’s very little meat on the bone.

Yes, the Neptunes are an interesting group. In addition to getting the hosts’ impression why this group is important or interesting, why don’t we get to know a little bit more about these guys or the music that they play? That sort of knowledge is lacking in pretty much all media these days — including the so-called Music Television (MTV). Unfortunately, these Pop Vultures didn’t quite pick the good meat, as it were.

Garrett and I were incredulous that this show made it on the air. We (meaning Garrett) are reasonably knowledgeable about the material (pop music), but we didn’t really take anything new from this episode. It’s an interesting concept, but we weren’t given a reason why we should care about the opinions of the host and her friends. The musical epiphany part toward the end was interesting, but only marginally so.

The show’s conversational tone is similar to one a group might have a party. It’s a bit of fun, but nothing of substance is ever discussed. Heck, I had a conversation about Star Wars at the Chinese buffet Monday. Does that mean it should be taped and aired on national radio? Probably not.

They definitely get points for trying something new and daring, especially for public radio. If they kept the conversational tone and added musicians, critics or anyone with something resembling factual knowledge to the mix, I think they would have something more relevant and listenable.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Just wrapping up a weekend of fun in the Twin Cities at The Apple Store in the Mall of America. The weekend included visiting A Prairie Home Companion and catching the last regular Twins game of the year.

I should probably get going — I’m waiting for some digital photos to be burned on CD. There’s going to be a lot of good memories to reflect on during the seven-hour drive back to the Copper Country.

I’ll be posting those photos and some other thoughts later.

I was surprised to hear President George Bush mention meeting with Mary “Missy” Johnson during tonight’s presidential debate. I wasn’t surprised by the president’s reaction by meeting her.

Staff Sgt. Paul “PJ” Johnson, the first U.P. native killed in the Iraq war, was killed in action during an ambush in Fallujah last October. Johnson left a strong mark in the Upper Peninsula where he grew up.

Although I’ve only spent a few moments in touch with the family and friends of Paul Johnson, I was very impressed with the determination, strength and warmth they displayed in the face of losing someone so loved. This impression is supported in reporting for the articles I wrote and an article I read in The New York Times.

To provide more information about the Johnsons, here is my article The Ultimate Sacrifice about PJ Johnson’s passage and the reaction.

At the end of the month, I wanted to thank everyone for visiting the Web site. Hits on my Web site are up about fifteen-fold since February. Of course, there were only about 15 hits in February and about 270 this September.

It’s worth noting that my stats show that Macs running OS 9 account for 12 percent of the site traffic. So, I’m assuming that’s me (that and the fact stats also show that Chartermi.net accounts for about 15 percent of hits). So the remaining 85-88 percent of hits are all you guys and gals. Thanks.

I know that a lot of people are landing on old blog posts through Google searches. I hope everyone is finding what they’re looking for.

I’m not going to post my miniscule stats every month — I just wanted to express my appreciation for your traffic. If you like what you’re reading, I hope that you’ll stick around and let me know what you think.

Comments or questions? Please drop me a line — rtolson -at- rtomedia.com. Thanks again.

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.