sandblade.net

This will probably be K’s next bike, seriously…

This will probably be my next bike, seriously…

Against my better judgement, I pillaged my bank account and bought a PalmOne Treo 600 from some guy off of ebay for $400. It came with a two cradles, a car kit, extra styli, and cases. How could I possibly say no? Plus I can use my GTD endeavor as a way to rationalize my impulse purchase.

Actually this isn’t my Treo, it’s a promotional lifesize cardboard cutout of a Treo that I clipped out of a magazine. The picture was taken using the builtin camera in the Treo. The hand is my actual hand, not a cardboard cutout.

I’m a Netflix addict. I like the large catalog and the easy ability to see obscure foreign and indy films I normally wouldn’t see like Shaolin Soccer, and Nine Queens. However there are two movies that haven’t made it to Netflix that I would love to see again.

La Haine (Hate) is a French film about a three friends who live in the ghettos of Paris. The film is black and white and is a masterful allegory about class and race relations in France. It’s rare for a film to suck you in and make you care about it’s characters. La Haine does a wonderful job of humanizing the problems of discrimination in society.

The other movie is Gamle m?nd i nye biler (Old Men in New Cars). K and I saw this at the Heidelberg Film Festival in Germany. It’s a Danish dark comedy that had me laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. It’s in the same vein as Pulp Fiction but completely farcical. Apparently it’s a Prequel to another movie I Kina spiser de hunde (In China They Eat Dogs). If it’s anywhere near as funny as OMiNC, then I’d love to see it too.

If anyone can tell me how to get a hold of these movies, I’d greatly appreciate it.

I wish I could Tivo the news to November and get this dismal election year over with. Regardless of who gets elected, I think we’ll lose. The question really becomes which choice is worse. Currently I’m thinking it would be better if Bush got re-elected. Now before you start doubting my liberal street cred, let me explain why.

• Bush has made his bed, he should have to lie in it. This administration has refused to believe there is anything wrong with their policies or decisions. Well, give them four more years and see what happens. Let’s see if the debt gets out of control. Watch inflation and interest rates kill the economy. Let the body bags pile up and see if we still believe Bush when he says we’re safer. If Kerry wins, he’ll be blamed for all of this mess simply because it will occur in his term. Let Bush be blamed for the fallout of bad decisions in the first term.
• Kerry doesn’t have the moxy to fix Bush’s mistakes. People are looking to Kerry to get us out of this mess and he can’t do it. There is nothing he has proposed regarding Iraq, healthcare, Social Security, medicare, debt, etc. that will even remotely work. In fact if you really look at what Kerry and Bush propose, they’re more similar than different. Basically the only way to fix this mess is to make some seriously tough calls that would be very unpopular. Kerry is a career politician. Don’t think for a second he wouldn’t sell out future generations for another term.
• Kerry’s election will doom a better option in 2008. The chance that Kerry actually does a good job in the next four years is pretty slim. But as an incumbent president he’ll run again and we’ll either have to pick him or whomever the neocons decide to puppet for the ‘08. I’d rather start fresh in four years with all new choices. Plus after Bush runs everything into the ground in the next term, it’ll make someone as radical as Dean look electable.

Well the situation isn’t pretty but I’d sacrifice the next four years if it meant a better eight more after that.

What exactly is a sandblade? Well your source for sandblade, serves you up an explanation.

Voters this year are basically caught between two choices, bad leadership or no leadership. Bush supporters are quick to show how decisive and resolute the current administration has been, and they are correct. Bush makes decisions and stands by them firmly. However, I for one thinks he makes poor decisions and then stubbornly stands by them even when they’re dead wrong. The result has been a massive deficit, a hastily put together war plan, the formation of one of the largest bureaucracies in U.S. Federal history (the Homeland Security Department), and no discernable progress made.

On the other hand we have Kerry, who has no significant legislation attached to his name for all his years in the Senate. Kerry is all of the sudden opposed to the way Bush handled the Iraq war, but he did not mount any opposition in the Senate, where he actually could have done something. Kerry wants healthcare, security, and jobs for everyone, but has no concrete plan on how to get it done, which means it won’t get done. If Kerry’s presidency is like his Senatorial carreer, we can pretty much count on … nothing.

The interesting thing is that neither candidate gets it. They’ve been so snowblinded by irrelevant issues that they’re walking right into a crevasse. The truth is there is very little we can do to prevent another terrorist attack. We must succeed every time, where as the terrorist only needs to succeed once. We are funnelling all our money into a bottomless pit. There is a threat that is far more immediate than terrorism and it’s an issue neither candidate wants to discuss, because neither of them knows what to do about it. It’s our massive debt, foreign and domestic. The dollar has already weakened significantly against the Euro and the Yen. The only solution will be inflation or hiked up interest rates, both will slow down the economy and punch the middle class in the gut. Normally trade imbalances correct themselves by devaluation. Exports become cheaper and the trade defecit is equalized. The problem is we don’t export anything anymore. What does the world need other than entertainment products that comes from the U.S.?

Don’t know which way I’m going to vote this year (I’m in that 3% undecided bracket, which makes me feel pretty powerful). In my opinion neither Kerry or Bush deserve to be president. Thankfully as I get older the years go by faster. Hopefully the next four years won’t be that long.

I always think of how NASA spent a fortune to develop a special space pen for the astronauts, and the Soviets just gave their cosmonauts pencils. Sometimes low-tech is the best tech, and the hipster pda is the best example of that. I’ve been using it for 1.5 days and it’s already dramatically improved my life. It’s better than any PDA I’ve used. I plan to mod it in the future with colored cards or maybe even a cool Filson Tin Cloth sleeve. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Frontline and Marketplace are doing a presidential stock market. It’s a fascinating experiment to see if free markets actually do pick what the public wants. I started off with $2000. I now have a portfolio of $6788.90, check it out for yourself.

So I heard that restaurants in NYC were afraid to serve Heinz ketchup to RNC conventioneers. This is one of those things that makes me go ballistic.

Culinarily this makes no sense. Heinz ketchup is the best ketchup on the planet, you will not find a better ketchup anywhere. Anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.

Politically this is even more idiotic. I can’t believe the sacrilege, how short are Republican’s memories (they’re the elephants right)? John Heinz III was a great Republican Senator and one of Pennsylvania’s finest. He championed the environment, the elderly, and fought to keep the Philly shipyards open. Even though he was worth an estimated $500 million, Heinz dedicated his life to public service and the Heinz Foundation, the Heinz School, and the Heinz Awards continue to benefit PA and the world. John Heinz III was the definition of noblesse oblige.

Well short-sighted Republican’s can eat their watered down tomato paste with their freedom fries. This Pennsylvanian is going to eat twice as much ketchup to make up for it (and now they make organic ketchup so the pleasure will be all mine). I may even start putting ketchup on my gasp hot dogs. Hopefully after the election, Republican’s will return to their senses.