Snappish Thoughts

Was This Included In November 4th?

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:05:22 -0500

The War On Christmas: Over?

Thoughts on Supertrain

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:34:55 -0500

No, really, it's not a 30 Rock joke. It existed. And you think NBC sucks today.

Didn't anyone stop to pause and think 'no, actually, this is the worse idea ever'?

I propose Rule 35: no matter how bad, there is always an Internet fansite for any TV show.

I'm hoping for a remake; it can't be worse than Survivors, can it?

Support the DVD campaign!

So Close

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:26:50 -0500

The new RDU terminal is shiny. Really shiny. It even feels like a real airport now, and what's more, a real airport with seats that have USB and normal powerpoints to plug all your stuff into. It's a geek-paradise! Except...I can't seem to connect to a wireless network. There's something called 'testwlan' which requires a password and an elusive T-Mobile signal that crops up every five minutes, but I'm not hopeful on getting a connection. Which is sad, as I meant to email Nikki a goodbye note, seeing as how she's been working all day and had to miss the yumminess, the sourness, Stacie's death-dealing, and a discussion on what exactly 'breakfast' means.

Bonnie on a chat to me sometime during the night of the November 2004 election:

they should've had gotten Obama out more. just stick him everywhere

I think they got that covered this time around.

The Party That Doesn't Stop Giving

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:56:00 -0500

Oh, Sarah, so much to answer for...

So Much Food...

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:38:19 -0500

Let me add to the chorus suggesting that Stacie needs to open a restaurant...

Obamarama

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:20:56 -0500

Four years ago, Chapel Hill seemed like a morgue; people wandered around the city and campus with their heads down, wondering just how the country could have chosen four more years of Bush. Today, like almost everywhere in the country, there's a feeling of elation in the air.

I've never seen anything quite like it - spontaneous outbreaks of joy spilling out in the towns and cities across the nation. It's like the Americans were greeting themselves as liberators, hugging random strangers and going to the White House to celebrate the result.

When the West Coast closed last night, when it was finally called, it really did feel like a new beginning. That for all the country's faults, this is the only Western nation on the planet that would elect a black man from a single parent family. A man that took on the two great political machines of the past two decades and beat them both.

Obama will disappoint us, almost certainly. There's so muchhope invested in him right now, but there's a limited amount a President can do, and the success of things like Prop 8 in California show that there's still some ways to go. In addition, despite what Melanie Philips and her ilk would have you believe, Obama is a pragmatic centre-left politician. I'm bit expecting him to revive The Fairness Doctrine any time soon, for example (and in addition, I hope he doesn't even think about it, as it's a pretty bad idea).

Bit that's all in the future. For now, I'm wandering the streets of Durham and Chapel Hill hearing people talking about President-Elect Obama with a pride I haven't seen for years. As we said last night, "Yes We Did".

Well, NC Already Was A Blue State

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:17:39 -0500

Except now it's Democratic Blue as well as Carolina Blue...

Intrigue!

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:31:34 -0500

I would tell you what I did last night...I'm just not sure whether it was legal or not...

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:18:46 -0500

Yes We Did

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 01:17:11 -0500

Community organizers FTW.

I have not seen quite so much flesh in quite a while.

Crying everywhere.

In the end, when I'm up against the wall, I'm with America.

President-elect Obama. Oh yes.

Sad News From Hawaii

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:54:57 -0500

Obama's grandmother has died on the eve of the election.

Today is traditionally the final day of electioneering, but the McCain appears to be holding at least one rally in New Mexico tomorrow (hopefully, it'll go better than the 1,000 strong crowd in Tampa today). The Obama camp isn't resting on their laurels either, knocking on a million doors in Ohio today, where reports suggest that he may be substantially ahead in early voting. The lesson learned: mock community organisers at your peril.

And we have the polls. They're here, there, and everywhere, but they all say pretty much the same thing - there's been a touch of tightening, but Obama still leads the battleground states, and is crushing McCain in early voting.

Your guide for tomorrow: Virginia closes at 7pm EST (midnight GMT). If Obama wins there, then McCain has to take Pennsylvania in order to have a chance of holding on. Georgia closes at the same time - if takes this, then the election is going to be a landslide victory. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina will close between 7:30 and 8:30. Colorado, and New Mexico follow an hour later, with Nevada coming in at 10pm. I'm guessing that it'll all be over by then, hopefully in Obama's favour, but I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed for the next 36 hours...

A Gentle Summary, If You Will.

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:10:14 -0500

Summing up.

By the by...

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:28:10 -0500

I think The Corner are going to be disappointed if they're not thrown in gulags by the end of 2012...

And Again! Yay For David Mitchell!

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:51:28 -0500

How Britain came together in this time of crisis.

Grits, Grits, and more Grits!

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:42:46 -0500

Some of you with very long memories may remember that I once spoke of Durham in less-than-glowing terms. I'm happy to say that five years later, downtown Durham is a much brighter place than it was on that January morning. Maybe not all of the empty shop berths have been filled, but many have, and a decent amount of people in the area means that it no longer feels like ghost town. The only slight downside is that a lot of the city's old buildings are being torn down to make fashionable condos for the gentrifying sect. Which is a shame, and perhaps unnecessary; I'm sure hipsters would jump at the chance of living in a converted tobacco factory.

Anyway, our Great Grits Gambit began yesterday in Durham. Two days, lots of grits. For those of you who think I might have gone crazy and started trying to eat the contents of gritting lorries, grits is a corn-based breakfast substance. There's been a long-standing joke that Stacie and I would go off to a restaurant in Chapel Hill so I could taste them for the first time, only to either forget, or get there after they've stopped serving breakfast. So this time, we're doing it properly - tasting the grits available in the Chapel Hill/Durham area!

We have problems.

Aside from the grits, we met up with Christa yesterday, interrupting her as she battled to get through her graduate work, kidnapping her scooter...the usual sorts of things. Plus a wander through Franklin Street, stopping at the new location of Chapel Hill Comics, Pumpkin Spice at Locopops, all while the sun beamed down on us. Oh, and we voted too! Well, I stood by while Luke went in and voted anyhow...