"must have" albums

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road -Lucinda WIlliams
Wishbones -Slaid Cleaves
Welcome Interstate Managers -Fountains of Wayne
I'm Wide Awake it's Morning -Bright Eyes
Lillywhite Sessions -Dave Matthews Band
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot -Wilco
Keb' Mo' -Keb' Mo'
August & Everything After -Counting Crows
O Brother, Where Are Thou? -Varied

Maybes...
Amos Lee -Amos Lee
Trace -Son Volt
Transatlanticism -Death Cab for Cutie
Trouble -Ray LaMontagne
Pneumonia -Whiskeytown
Greatest Hits: The A&M Years '87 - '94 -John Hiatt (yes, I am counting anthologies)
Room for Squares -John Mayer
Recovering the Satellites -Counting Crows
This Desert Life -Counting Crows
Under the Table and Dreaming -Dave Matthews Band

Distant Maybees...
Every TIme You Say Goodbye -Alison Krauss & Union Station
This Side -Nickel Creek
Ben Folds Five -Ben Folds Five
Eponymous -R.E.M.
Fireworks!, Red Hot & Blues -Jim Cullum Jazz Band
Garden State soundtrack -Varied
The Little WIllies -The Little Willies
River of Dreams -Billy Joel


Thoughts-
I don't think Ryan Adams has come out with a full "must have" lots of great songs and lots of great albums, but nothing full. I'll think about it...

iphone/iPod touch features

When January comes around and developers can finally start creating authorized apps for this new platform, I'd like to see a few things (I'm a touch user, so some of these things may already be available on the iPhone - but ATT coverage sucks around me, so I refuse to get an iPhone).

-stickes, I just want a quick place I can time notes and reminders to myself
-a word game, like TextTwist or WEBoggle
-a Flash plugin (obviously)
-a program that helps Safari remember passwords

I'll add to this...

a posting, not a blog

A blog entry is not, in and of itself, a blog. A blog is the entire thing, a post is one entry in the blog.

OK, think of it as a diary. The diary is the entire book - it is the blog. Each day is a entry - it is a post.

I'm so tired of people posting a new "blog" when they just mean a new entry ON their blog.

where do the real issues go?

From an NYT Fredman editorial:

“What happened to that Arctic story, Dad?” my daughter asked me. How could the news media just report one day that the Arctic ice was melting far faster than any models predicted “and then the story just disappeared?” Why weren’t any of the candidates talking about it? Didn’t they understand: this has become the big issue on campuses?

No, they don’t seem to understand. They seem to be too busy raising money or buying votes with subsidies for ethanol farmers in Iowa. The candidates could actually use a good kick in the pants on this point. But where is it going to come from?

again, I hate motorcycles

detest, despise

campaign financing and political bickering

I saw Clinton (Bill) on the Daily Show last week. He made a wonderfully insightful comment about the correlation between raising money and the political atmosphere in Washington. His thesis: because the race to raise money for reelection is nearly constant (always true for Representatives and for at least 4 years for Senators) they must spend every weekend traveling back to their home states to raise money. He said it used to be 7 months in Washington and 5 months at home. Today, politicians don't get the chance to meet their fellow colleagues at night for dinner, hang out socially, etc. Plus, he said, they are so tired from all of this travel and fundraising they are always in a bad mood. This alone, he believes, contributes greatly to the divisive politics of today.

It makes a lot of sense to me, and seems like another reason to work out public financing of elections...

when we pull out

Not even considering what would happen to Bagdad, Iraq, and the MIddle East... "Military officials recently told Congress that 45,000 ground-combat vehicles — a good portion of the entire U.S. inventory of tanks, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, trucks and humvees — are now in Iraq. They are spread across 15 bases, 38 supply depots, 18 fuel-supply centers and 10 ammo dumps."

From Time: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1644877-2,00.html

proven correct

What I wrote about a week ago about our presence in Iraq INCREASING the number of terrorists has apparently been proven true. A new National Intelligence Estimate says the war has "...energized Sunni extremist community, raised resources...recruit operatives..."

Makes sense to me...

Iraq, on the other hand...

Conservatives think we should stay in Iraq so we don't "lose the war" and to protect ourselves from terrorism. If any liberals think we should stay in the war, it's so we don't leave Iraq a mess - the old Gen. Powell doctrine.

I struggle with this a lot.

My first idea was to leave Iraq now and see what happens. Maybe there is so much fighting simply because the U.S. is in Iraq. Maybe it would stop. If a civil war or genocide begins, we could come back later, maybe with a U.N. imperative. But the cost of leaving, in itself, is incredible according to a recent Morning Edition story.

...

Defense or Offense to fight Terrorism?

Saw the documentary "Control Room" a few weeks ago - the thing that stuck with me is something said by a journalist for some Middle Eastern media outlet. He said Muslims see our war in Iraq as a Christian-Muslim war - the war is an attack against Muslims.

Also just listening to some right-wing radio talk show host (Laura Ingram), who is worried if a Democrat becomes President the U.S. would stop being on the offense in fighting terrorism, and that terrorism would simple be viewed as a "policing matter" (i.e. we'd be on the defensive).

But in my mind, and in the mind of many, W has created MORE terrorists by invading Iraq. So the longer we are there the MORE terrorists WE CREATE.

So, yes, I think fighting terrorism should be more of a defensive matter. Of course we should go after known terrorist leaders, but the majority of money should go towards defense like cleaning up nuclear weapons worldwide, checking our ports, and the like.

Therefore, we can defend ourselves and we DO NOT CREATE NEW TERRORISTS.

Iraq

Iraq.. Iraq... Iraq...

Photos from the '03 NYC Protest...

Buy T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers

http://statetshirts-t-shirts.blogspot.com/

my gas mileage idea

Recently the EPA revised the way they calculate a vehicles estimated highway and city mpg. It's down a significant amount, and these real world numbers are very important.

Here's my idea:

Let's require all vehicles sold in the United States must have a miles per gallon read out. Our hybrid, of course, has this feature - because Honda actually want us to see how great we're doing saving gas (latest tank is 48 mpg). But if we require it on all vehicles people would actually see how bad their gas mileage is.

And I know drive more slowly just because I know it will help me get better gas mileage on the hybrid. Therefore, this would also help with safety.

price gouging

So what's the deal with this "largely symbolic" federal law on price gouging at gas stations. Isn't "price gouging" they way our economy has worked for two centuries now? You charge the most you can for a product that people will pay. You make the most money you can. Right? What's wrong with that? If a gas station charges what I consider excessive price, and I know I can get gas cheaper somewhere else, I'll go to that gas station instead.

IT'S CALLED CAPITALISM!

If there were only two or three companies that conspired together that would be a monopoly and that's a different thing (and that's probably happening with the big oil refinery companies). But this is about local stations charging "too" much.

I don't get it.

$$$ and Iraq

Just image what we could have done with the half a trillion dollars I'm now hearing quoted as the cost - so far - for the Iraq War. I won't even mention my domestic agenda - like doubling the salary of teachers who work in inner city schools (let's get our best teachers working there). But what about a publicity campaign for America - that's what we need to change the hearts and minds of Muslims and Western Europeans alike! Propaganda has certainly always been part of war money, but why not make it the way to fight a "war?" Let's give all expenses paid vacations to the US - guided tours of our cities and rural areas - to millions of foreigners. Let them experience American culture and friendly Americans. This is the only way to change the minds of those who hate us.

um, Vietnam?

Yeah, it's time to say it. The Iraq War, as it's being waged now, is another Vietnam. Either we need major changes to finish it (Rumsfeld, of course) or more troops (not that I want more American lives to die for a fruitless cause). So what do we do? I agree we can't leave the country in a worse mess than we entered it, so...

rss

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Motorcycles and other selfish things...

Loud motorcycles - I mean - the ones motocyclists have intentionally altered to make louder. I mean really, can there be anything more selfish than driving one of these things around. You are creating noise solely for the sake of noise. On my busy city street they roar anytime of the day - and especially the night - late at night - 2AM. Imagine how many people that one motocyclist must annoy each day for him or her to get the odd pleasure of that deafening roar - literally thousands a day. Wow, how selfish.

I've often complained about customer service. And the reason behind bad customer service is simple: the employee doesn't care. Why? They have no incentive to care (to be friendly, to consider your needs, to respond in a timely fashion. Of course, there are those few people that may not have an incentive, but are simply just nice people.

Incentives are usually monetarily (sp?) based, or it could be the fear of losing your job, respect, etc. Sales positions are often based on volume of sale which can often work. But it's funny how some companies pride themselves on not being commissioned based.

I'm complaining now, from not getting a response from filling out an online form on a companies website. They were supposed to contact me with a price quote. Four days later nothing (I even emailed them, as they said to do if they didn't respond yesterday!!). Are the company supervisors getting these emails too, or just the sales associates? I think we know the answer for this company at least...

slow websites

Some websites are ALWAYS slow - it's definitely these sites and not my (admitidly slow Time Warner) cable connection. Why don't these companies get better servers, a better host, whatever they need?

-The Weather Channel
-Flicker

What other ones have you encountered (I'm speaking to my hypothetical audience)?