Have I lost my mind? Barack Obama, please bring it back!

Megan and I watched a documentary on HBO tonight on the plight of Al Franken's radio venture "Air America" in the months prior to the 2004 general election. I'd never before listened to the their broadcasts, but I was anticipating an enjoyable evening of left-wing fellowship. However, I didn't experience the enjoyment I'd hoped for. The documentary was interesting and, I believe (though I'm no film student), well made. I couldn't blame my dissatisfaction on the documentary itself. Instead, observing the comments and attitudes of the various liberal talk-show hosts, I realized that perhaps my traditionally obstinate leftist stance needs reevaluation.

I've spent the past six years increasingly embracing the dogma preached by the modern gurus of leftist thought. While I attribute some of this embrasure to the guilt that stems from eighteen earlier years of rabid, righteous, religious fervor, I'd like to think that a good portion of it was birthed solely from the labours of the Bush administration. Maybe education could explain some small percentage of it. Yet perhaps it's the flipping from extreme right to extreme left that is making me consider pausing my liberal development.

At this point, I feel it necessary to establish that I absolutely hold to my liberal ideals. I will always support stem cell research, gay marriage, and a woman's right to choose. I think that gun control is long overdue and that universal healthcare shouldn't be a fantasy. It's not the issues I'm worried about, it's more the attitude.

Almost everyone marvels at the switch in tone that the Republicans and Democrats have made. Democrats pushing for fiscal responsibility? What???!! Republicans all for granting more power to the government? MADNESS! John Stewart and his Daily Show cohorts joke (poignantly as all hell) that it's probably due to the power shift in Congress, the presidency, and (Oh, merciful God PLEASE NO!) perhaps even soon in the Supreme Court.

It's the switch in paranoia-agenting that gets me. Back when I was a God-fearer, I was privy to the theories of the Emmanuel Baptist faculty pundits. Those brilliant minds would have had me believe that any bill put forth by a Democrat was really an ingenious plot to grant gays the right to abort the fetuses inside our career-oriented wives. "Loopholes and technicalities, people!"

Now, however, the conspiracy theories I hear today are filled with rhetoric like "election fraud" and "blood for oil", and they once again are coming from my side. Although I am very unhappy with the outcome of the 2004 election and fear the actions that will result from it, I am realistic about the reasons for it. The majority of people in these United States wanted a Republican government. Don't waste time crediting the Republicans' victory to a crafty campaign of values either. Values are central to any election. I would've been ecstatic if Kerry had been elected by a majority that demanded gay rights.

So tonight, when I saw someone on the documentary recovering from the election say, "People want us to be in their faces in four years! They want us to be like 'Fuck you! We're gonna fight even harder!", I had to disagree. Obviously, most of the population doesn't want that. Not even I want that. Instead, how about if we stop nitpicking over insignificant legal battles that we're so scared of losing and focus on restoring dignity to this country. And I'm blaming both sides for the lack. You know, before tonight, I thought Barrack Obama was a brilliant strategist for his "purple states" ideology and how it seems to be "exactly what the country wants to hear." Now, I wonder to myself if it's not just incredible foresight, and What if he really, truly believes in it? I'm desperate enough to hope he really does, and I hope we'll believe in him.

Oh please God, not again, not now...

When I looked down from my computer screen two seconds ago, I saw a small black bug on my forearm. When I tried to kill it, it jumped onto the desk. When it jumped, it jumped really high...

When I finally lose it, you will see the flames from miles away.

Happy Birthdays

To Messrs. Bill and Shaz on this most glorious of spring days. Actually, I just checked the weather report for Chicago, and it looks like thunderheads on the horizon. Huzzah! Bill, may Tekken 5 be all that you dream of and more. Shaz, may today bring you thirty blessings and more throughout the year.

Wellbutrin

The commercial for Wellbutrin disturbs me. Having only seen it once, I'm not quite sure what it is about it that bothers me. There's definitely something off with the dialogue. I can't remember exactly what they say, but each endorsement just comes off as creepy. The last one especially sticks in my mind. A woman, who may or may not be on a horse, looks at the camera and says, "I like that there's little risk of sexual side effects." This alone warrants further investigation. I found an old article on Salon.com
that talks about Wellbutrin's sexual side effects. Apparantly, Wellbutrin not only has little negative sexual side effects, it improves the sex lives of many of its users. This article was written four years ago. You'd think that they would've performed all the studies necessary to call this a sex wonder drug. Yet today they merely say "little risk of sexual side effects". Did they find something unappealing in those studies? Why can't I find out what it is?

Watch out for the commercial. It was on Comedy Central last night during the Chappelle Show, which brings up another interesting question. Does Dave Chapelle provide therapy for the depressed, or is he furthering their depression? If it's the latter, is it because he makes us see that we could never be as funny as him?

Get not so rich not so quick!

Last week, rather than looking for steady work at a respectable job, I decided to take advantage of the market in a ploy to make myself some cash. What stocks did I purchase based upon exciting secret advice whispered into my ear by those in the know? None. Instead, I stocked up on Sony's new expensive toy, the PSP (or PlayStation Portable). These babies sell at a price of $249.99 and, according to every newspaper on the planet, were guaranteed to sell out immediately. My scheming mind went to work, and I decided to buy one myself and then sell it on Ebay for mad profits. When the release date came along, I went a little crazy and bought more than one. I got seven. I figured that with the profits from seven I could make enough money to buy myself some recording equipment. Hell, maybe I could even keep one for myself!

Apparently everyone in the world had the same idea I did. Ebay is now flooded with these things, some of which are being sold for less than retail. Doesn't really matter - I can always return them to the stores I bought them from. However, today, unable to wait any longer, I decided to list one of the units. If you would care to follow the auction, the id number is 8181450306. Join me as I obsessively check bids and page hits every five minutes for three days. At the very least, I've learned one or two tricks about writing in HTML.

Oh God. Why hasn't anyone else looked at my auction?!!

Step 1 Complete

Well, I've done my irresponsible shopping. I bought a pair of expensive headphones from Amazon. Does it still count as irresponsible if I had so many gift certificates that I only spent thirteen actual dollars? I suppose it partly does, since there were plenty of useful/necessary things I could've gotten instead. Am I happier for having bought them? You betcha. At least I think I will be once the package arrives. Next on my list of things to buy are a minidisc player and a microphone. Once I have all the ingredients, I will begin recording audio journal entries. Who knows? If I ever figure out how to use this blog, I'll put some of them on here. There, I just made my purchasing less irresponsible. Maybe I should make up the difference by buying something totally unnecessary.

Personal Spending

I think it's high time I put an end to this embargo I've placed on myself. I've punished myself long enough for not having a steady job. There are too many things I wanted to do once I got out to California. I was gonna change my life - go running by the ocean, study new languages, further my diving. It's about time I attempted to reattain a sense of normalcy.

And I think I know just the way to do it.

Why not start spending what little money I get from SAT tutoring? Why should that meager yet hard-earned income be blown on something as trivial as rent? I need to be taking steps towards being my old, cheerful self again. What better way than to blow some dough? After all, I have always been the champion of irresponsible purchases! That's it, tomorrow I'm really gonna start searching for something to make me temporarily happy. Only temporary, but oh so happy.

Yea Megan. Damn Kevin.

That damn Kevin. I go to check out his blog so's I can put a link to his on mine (what?!!) and not only am I stealing his host, I've also copped his template. Well, he was here first, so I'll either have to change my template (and this post won't make sense anymore) or make mine far superior to his. I'll probably do the former since he's got such a big damn headstart on me. Actually, it's probably nothing to get excited over since I haven't told anybody about this blog.

Hoo-rah for Megan. She's got a new job with U____ R____'s. I'm doing the Russian thing since certain people have been fired for mentioning their work in their blogs. I don't really know why Russian writer's do the underlining thing. I always figured it was to add lucky #7 to the number of names each character had. Anyway, congrats to her on beating me to gainful employment.

I'm off to bed where I will shoot her icy glares while she sleeps. Unfortunately, whenever I practice glaring, I always end up blinking uncontrollably. Kidney punches, though, that's where I excel.

And from such noble beginnings...

Am I hip enough to blog? Granted, the majority of bloggers out there aren't exactly the types that I'd consider hip. I mean, at least I'm not going to be posting fanfics of Buffy episodes. Yet I still feel like I should have something fantastic to say if I'm gonna make the effort. What could be worse than the valid complaint that my ruminations are a waste of everyone's time, myself included? What is it that makes me think I have any valid reason to start a blog? Why haven't I tried before? Why jump on that bandwagon? Why start now?

It's because I ate a helluva lot of crappy chajang myun today, and I'm afraid to go to sleep right away.