Sponsor Me - If you'd like

Like many other of the dog loving variety, I'm doing the PAWS walk this Saturday. I'm pretty close to my fundraising goal, but not quite.
Sponsor me (if you'd like) and support a great cause.

So what's it all mean...

Well to reveal the meanings of the three symbols from the last post. All imagse and descriptions below, are found on Symbols.com/

1. This sign, found in an English stenography system, means the previous remark should not be taken seriously.

2. Ideographically, it is a sign for one complete oscillation or one whole wave.

3. Seems to be humankind's most common ideogram for water in general and for streaming or flowing water in particular. In the earliest Chinese ideography represented river or stream.

So there you have it.

Which one do you like the most?

1.

or

2.

or

3.

If you tell which one you like, I'll tell you what they mean. And then we'll decide where I'm going to put one.

Daily Show viewers know more

Check out this study from the Annenberg Public Policy Center

Viewers of late-night comedy programs, especially The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the cable channel Comedy Central, are more likely to know the issue positions and backgrounds

It also shows the breakdown of percentage of jokes about each candidate.

Cute Sassy 

Poor Timmer

My friend Timmer lives in Florida. He's been beseiged with the hurricanes as of late. He's evacuating right now and sent this to me:

"i don't mind having hurricane warnings. i don't mind missing work. i don't mind the long lines at the grocery store or the gas station. i don't mind being inconvenienced and without power. i don't mind all of this stuff. the one thing that i do mind is when people, be it on the news, or in person, or via e-mail tell me to "hunker down." have any of you ever heard this expression before? i don't think i have and in the past 6 weeks it's become the state motto. what the hell does "hunker down" mean? anyway, thought you would all get a kick out of my newly favorite phrase. i can picture emma saying " hunker down, much?" i can picture tony saying "hunker this" and i can picture jessica saying "shut the f--- up and hunker on down."

i really wanted to say i miss ya! gotta hunker"

I'm a geek

But I so want this T-shirt.

Lovin the G Love

You know how there is that one band or artist that you just keep coming back to? Does that happen to anyone else? I first got into G. Love working at WdSR. One of our friends was a Sony rep and she brought G. Love (and Special Sauce, and the entire band) to our favorite dive bar. It was pandemonium, even though we barely knew who they were.

Ever since (I think that must have been 94), G Love's albums keep popping into my life and I fall for them all over again. Thanks to Shawn (who incidentally was at that bar 10 years ago) I was just presented with G Love's new album: Hustle. It's good baby, it's good. I'm grooving away. It's a mood matcher for sure.

Ali who?

How Ali G gets his famous guests, Respek! -

World Traveler Extraordinaire

My friend (and former Prague roommate, yes one of the 3,000 people I shared an apartment with over that year) Conor is traveling around the world.

Luckily for us, Conor is blogging his adventure. So you can read all about it here. He's supposed to end up in Seattle next fall. So if you read his blog, enjoy his travels, and perhaps even fall in love with all his hilarity, you can meet him next year. I'll plan a marathon like ending for his trip with banners and signs.

Diatribe

A nice little diatribe from a self professed "thirty-something childless whore who loves her dog a little too dearly'", coutesy of Rabbit Blog.

Quoting Cheney

Joe has a great post today about a remark Cheney made in reference to the school attack in Russia. What a sensitive guy our Veep is.

Posters

Not stupid, just sick

And you thought George W. Bush was just an idiot. Maybe not. An article in the Boston Globe makes the case that he's actually suffering from "presenile dementia ". Luckily his life partner is there to help him out during these tough times.

The professor

As a follow up to yesterday's post, check out what Juan Cole has to say about the events that took place on Sunday.

This is so gross.

But, I guess if you like getting 6-10 miles per gallon, it's the
vehicle for you.

More death

The situation in Iraq continues to spiral out of control with more death, destruction, and violence. While the US media continues to obsess over memos, the last failed war in Vietnam, and the sniping between the candidates.

Yesterday, US forces killed Mazen al-Tumeizi, a Palestinian working for Al-Arabiya. This is from the article in the Telegraph (UK):

Through the day, United States officers offered contradictory accounts of the incident and ordered an investigation.

"As the helicopters flew over the burning Bradley they received small arms fire from the insurgents in the vicinity of the vehicle," said Major Philip Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division. "Clearly within the rules of engagement, the helicopters returned fire destroying some anti-Iraqi forces in the vicinity of the Bradley."

However, witnesses said there were no Iraqi fighters in the area at the time.

This is reminiscent of the death of Tariq Ayoub a reporter for Al-Jazeera, which was reported in the news, but heartbreakingly documented in the The Control Room.

Is this just a coincidence? Are American forces targeting Arab media outlets? Since they don't own, or share the perspective of these stations (in contrast to oh say, Fox news or Clear Channel) is this how they are targeting dissent? It's a scary time indeed.

It's up!

Well, after a whole year of hard work by the clients and four rounds of testing, the new Access Washington web site is up. Enjoy it for all your Washington state portal needs. It's a big old improvement over the old one.

The New Centrals

Ah it's been a lovely time out here on vacation. Sure I had to write a 40 page report, sure there were many miles spent inside a car, but it's been a great time.

I'm in love with a new landscape. It's the deserty, high plained, bumpy mountains of central Oregon and Idaho. The trip started out on the way to Bend, OR, to see the best band in the world. Then up to Portland to fly to Boise, where Karen picked me up and we drove to Sun Valley.

It's been a fun week of hiking, biking, ice skating, and really good food. Tomorrow we head home to Seattle, back to life.

Queasy

After watching and listening to four days of political rhetoric, I'm feeling a bit ill: my head hurts, my liver aches. I think it's been causing a lot of problems.

Anyway, today the AP has an article that outlines the lies (of excuse me, the glossing over of complex facts) from Bush's acceptance speech. Oh yeah and Schwarzenegger was a little shaky about history.

Well at least yay for Code Pink for infiltrating the convention three days in a row.

I guess I'm not the only one who was queasy from the RNC. Looks like Hugh Pearson was too:

As I watched Tuesday night's network coverage of the unrelenting political propaganda hour known as the Republican National Convention, the first thought that came to mind was of old newsreels of those self-congratulatory Nazi rallies held in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler.

RNC Drinking Game

So last night, I was enjoying the festivities of the RNC from New York. Enjoying them the at times jaw-dropping sentiments from "Democrat" Zel Miller. Enjoying Cheney's smirky magnetism. Enjoying the press coverage, watching Karl Rove snack on Mark Shields on the PBS pre game show.

It seems like there are several themes coming through the convention. I'm picking up on them and thought it would be fun to make a drinking game out of it. So here's a score card, you can play along at home.

Drink when you hear the following phrases

• September 11
• More to do
• leader, strong, unwavering, leadership, stay on course (all interchangeable)
• fanatics, terrorists, extremists, people who hate us and or people who hate freedom
• "W"
• Any UN bashing
• Santorum
  

Drink when you see any of the following:

• Homemade signs that say hip cool slogans such as "Cheney Rocks"
• Mary Cheney in the crowd, drink twice when she doesn't appear with the rest of the breeding family on stage after the speech
• Veterans in hats
• Blacks, Asians, Latinos and that one guy that looked a little middle eastern (be careful about this because the Republican party is surprisingly diverse as the close up shots on the convention floor did show us)
• When you see the same minority individual shown more than once, finish your drink
• Fat white people, warning there are also lots of these
• Flip-flop related themes: shoes, t-shirts or signs, drink twice for the Flip-Flop chop which looks like a combination of the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk chop and wind shield wipers (this can be especially unattractive due to previously mentioned fat white convention goers and the flabby chicken like skin that exists under the arms)

I'm sure there are others I've missed. Do I dare watch tonight? I'll be wasted!