Good feedback on the new blog look.

Some quotes from my wife regarding the new look of the blog:

"It's just too BRIGHT, it just attacks you."
"It looks less professional, and more amateur all of a sudden."
"Let me think of some more quotes."

I'm going back to blue, and I'm going to try to make it work. All the templates have customization issues, but I'll just have to learn to deal with it.

Also, you may have noticed (if you've attempted to comment) that I finally enabled word verification. Now, I personally am annoyed by it, but it's the best way to stop Fancy Dress Barn from spamming me.

As always, thanks for reading.

Black Friday

"Black Friday? I miss Ben."

Why? Let's see...

Arrested Development is only going to film 13 episodes this year, and that will end its run on FOX. You know, it is the greatest show on TV right now. You know that, don't you? Only 8 more episodes and it's probably gone forever, unless some other network picks it up. I guess I can't blame FOX for cancelling it -- the ratings are abysmal. I blame America, the supposedly sophisticated country with the supposedly well-developed sense of humor. But you can't force America to watch anything they don't want to. Gosh, this is horrible news.

Also, noted and frequent American embarassment Pat Robertson has implied that Dover, PA no longer has the right to ask for Divine protection against disaster, since they voted out a pro-Intelligent Design school board. Way to muddle the issue some more, there, Pat. ID proponents have a hard enough time explaining that it's not a Christianity vs. Science issue without a Prominent Christian Windbag going on TV and claiming that it is. This reminds me of the time a drunk Axl Rose came out as pro-life at some awards show in the late 80's/early 90's. You know, there are some celebrity endorsements you just don't need.

Pat Robertson needs to stop talking. Period. (.)

Epth Template Changes

Due to color chaos in my last template, I have a new look. I hope to be doing more and more with it. The old blogger template was getting kind of boring anyway, wasn't it?

Air America Radio

I tried listening to Air America today, but got tired of it after 15 seconds, when I realized it was the same exact thing as generic conservative talk radio, only with certain words and names changed. Plus, it has no humor (even SNL's own Al Frankin, from the 5 minutes total I've listened to him), imagination, or voices that don't make my ears bleed. Seriously, does everyone on that network have throat cancer or something? Do they not hire you unless you show up attached to a portable respirator?

They need to hire some funny people. As always, I'm available and work very cheap, with the added bonus of not sounding like my next breath could be my last. I'm not going to talk about how Karl Rove stole the last election, but I will tell stories off the top of my head, analyze the Magloire/Mason trade, and do segments on My Super Sweet Sixteen and Alias. Oh, and I'll attack Oprah. That should drive ratings.

Chuck Klostermann Just Used Up the Slack...

...and I'm telling you, if I hear it one more time I'm going to go off.

(this post is confusing now, but time will probably tell what I'm talking about, and very soon, I'm afraid. You should be, too.)

I Really Need to Start Watching LOST

I was listening to The Ticket here in Dallas this morning, to the Gentle Musers, and they were playing some audio from the Tv show Lost. My understanding is that a character disappeared a couple of weeks ago and is now appearing in characters' visions -- soaking wet and whispering ominous things in backwards-talk.

This is so far up my alley I could throw a piece of garbage out my window and hit it.

Why aren't I watching this show, which has become the heir apparent to Twin Peaks and all of its pale imitators? I will solve this problem very soon, don't you worry. It looks like Civilization 4 is going to be pushed to the back burner for a while. You remember that my wife and I watched the first 3 seasons of Alias in like 2 months, right? This is only one season, thankfully. Thank the Lord for Netflix, too, so I don't have to buy them.

I walked to work today. Gonna get big quads.

Some Exciting Matchups Yesterday.

Yesterday, the Coaches v. Cancer Classic opened the college basketball season. No word on who won, but I hear the crowd in attendance was solidly in favor of the coaches. In honor of basketball, and all the other, lesser, sports, here are the results of the elections yesterday, or at least the ones I can comment on:

(side note: election days always make me feel so helpless, because I only count as one vote -- I can't control the hundreds or thousands of other people who are out there cancelling me out. The results are totally out of my hands, and yet if I don't vote I have Paris Hilton and Diddy on my case telling me to Vote or Die and that I don't have the right to complain about the government since I didn't care enough to participate in its selection. It's like I have all the responsibility but have no way to get any of the results. Wait -- it's really more like being the Queen of England, where you have the responsibility to do all these things but all of them are meaningless.)

Institution of Texas Marriage 76, Mandatory Belief in "Whatever" 24.
Yes, the so-called "gay marriage ban" passed overwhelmingly in Texas. I'm not going to comment any further (due to my standing policy of not commenting on the issue of homosexuality and all its various tenets) except to say that the score was not terribly unexpected.

Sanity 55, Usury 45
For some reason they put on the Texas ballot a provision to allow the legislature to amend usury laws (laws that regulate the maximum interest rate on loans -- which should be way lower, btw) for "commercial loans," which typically are used for businesses or development. The 45% who voted for this probably either own stock in banks and credit card companies, or just misunderstood the proposal. Thankfully Usury lost even though its biggest booster, President Bush, is from Texas. The man just loves that Usury, and thinks America needs more.

White Settlement 92, West Settlement 8
In a shocking upset, the white people banded together and all voted to keep the historic but uncomfortable name of their town, keeping it the laughingstock we all know it should be. I'd like to personally thank the people who voted against the name change, but there's to many of them. I guess I'll just have to mock the 219 people who voted for it. And as always, it's good to be white.

Weak Mayor in Dallas 53, Strong Mayor in Dallas 47
In a close game, the current "Weak Mayor" setup outlasted the upstart "Strong Mayor" proposal with a barrage of threes from the "minority backcourt" in the final minute. Poor Strong Mayor. This is their second loss in as many elections, and they may just end up disbanding after this. Seems to me Dallas will want a weak mayor as long as the sea hag is still in office.

Intelligent Design 1, The Forces that Would Seek to Destroy It 1
Someday I will write at length about Intelligent Design and all the issues surrounding it. For example, every single report I've ever seen on the issue has misrepresented something about it. If yesterday's elections, Kansas (the state, not the band) voted to approve "science standards that cast doubt on the theory of evolution." I supposed that's an accurate but very general overview of what happened. Then the reporter quotes "critics:"

Critics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the separation of church and state.

Of course they do. You see, we're no longer able to distinguish an actual argument from an invalid card being played. I blame the OJ trial. The quote brings up two seperate issues: Are they trying to "inject" God and creationism into public schools, and is what they're doing a violation of church and state? These are complicated issues, but are never covered or questioned. They are just left there. The reporter's got to be objective (and I certainly don't think the story is terribly biased), but we've learned nothing. No wonder blogs are getting so popular -- they can go in-depth in a hurry in ways news outlets can't.

In other news, a district out east voted all these pro-ID republicans out of their school board and voted a bunch of anti-ID democrats in. There must be a lot of avid Arrested Development watchers out in that district. "Oh, no! They mocked us with their 'Jury's still out on science' comment!" "Science must be set in stone!" "Scientists can never be biased or wrong!" "Godless evolution is a proven fact. In fact, I just evolved into a different species last week." "Oat bran cures cancer!" "Brontosauruses existed!" "Us being genetically similar to animals proves that evolution happened!" "Questioning established science will make us look bad!" "Let's try something new -- lets just not think about or discuss the issue, because those really really smart (and biased) people have settled it in their minds, so that's good enough for us!" "Yay, we're cool with the writers of Arrested Development again!"

AD writers, I bet you thought you slipped that one past me. Well, I notice all. Try being less stupid next time. Hey, where did this font come from?

They Should Change it to Kill Whitey

Today the lily-white denizens of the town of White Settlement, TX are voting on the town's proposed name change. Tomorrow,they could all be the lily-white denizens of West Settlement. I for one hope they vote it down, so I can continue to make fun of them as I drive by.

This would also pretty much ruin my plan to get White Settlement High School to play a basketball game against Brothertown (WI) High School. How are race relations going to improve if we can no longer make racism into a convenient joke? You can't see me, but right now I'm shaking my head at the dull world we are going to leave our children. I believe the children are our future, except if they build time machines, in which case they are our past, changing everything we do, and we'll never ever know.