5:30am on Thanksgiving morning... and I'm awake. Not on purpose mind you. This is what happens when you fall asleep on the floor after watching a documentary about Hitler's secretary and then have crazy dreams involving Nazi's and your girlfriend breaking your computer.

Stupid National Socialism.

In a previous time, I may have been forced to mearly fantasize about the drama that comes along with being a fairly highly profile local artist. But now, thanks to the mighty internet, it's all right out in the open. And boy does it make my imagination look tame. Take this for example: Over on the Shotgun Wedding Quintet message board, a lady by the name of "CosmicMindreaderWoman" is accusing local MC extraordinaire Dublin of being abuse-full to women by reading their minds while freestyling.

I am alumni of the Psychic Institute. I know he is telepathic. Much more then I am. If I am wrong, that is cool. If I am right, then I am very dissapointed. I will probably never know because I never want to subject myself to that again. I will not allow you to add inssult to injury

She later revealed that Jean Grey is her favorite X-Man Woman.

I heart Heromachine 2.0

eugene, lane, and myself at eugene's job

The shuttle Google provides for commuting to and from work just got Wifi via a magic little box that access the internet via a cellular connection then shares it.

I've quickly learned to stay away from web apps while using it. There are issues with latency and dropped connections. These are minor for things like reading news, but the experience with apps comes across as barely more than broken. Waiting for stylesheets and javascript to load before you have functionality your accustomed to can be painful. Even worse are crashes that result from lost connections (ex: loose connection at just the right time and Blogger's spell check causes Firefox to crap it's pants). Desktop apps that can move data in the background only when needed (as apposed to anytime the screen changes) are the only way to go.

Gmail just announced support for access via pop mail. That makes email easier. Hopefully Brent "One man band" Simmon's can get Netnewswire syncing with Bloglines soon... and then MarsEdit supporting titles for posts to Blogger.

Those minor imperfections aside, it's great to have new options for things to do for the 40ish hours a month I spend commuting. I may even start responding to my personal email in a timely fashion...

To: Jason Goldman
From: Jason Sutter

That Casshern movie is CRAZY. It's abstract in that awkward Japanese way where there's a bunch of very specific details that are never really explained and aren't really relevant to story arc. They're there for the act of detail (Serial Experiments Lain does this a lot too). Some of the stuff is on the verge of trite (invoke blunt Nazi association here)... but somehow it ends up working. The visuals are very much in a Final Fantasy style. No matter the mood, setting, or time of day the lighting will never be anything less than Glorious. Even in the gritty black and white scenes...... again, taken in parts it seems like it would suck, but by the end it's more than the sum of it's parts. I definitely didn't get it all on a single viewing. There were lots of parts where I was confused about characters and what time had passed. This could be a quality issue... but it's also possible that a lot of the stuff they were doing is so new I wasn't approaching it correctly. We should watch it when you get back from NYC.

So that sleeping on the airplane idea was a bit foolish, but we made it.

There are these colored things all over the ground here. Lane calls them "leaves". Everything smells like them. Everything outside at least. We have yet to venture into many of the brick based structures. Rest is still a priority. Updates may be sparse.

10:35pm tonight. That's when my first red eye coast to coast flight happens. I don't do well with the regular coast to coast flights that aren't named after horribly uncomfortable vision reducing conditions. I've got a sleep mask and a bottle of Melatonin. I also have a weak heart after all this Democracy that's been going on. I may not make it.

....Which would be a shame. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends, attending the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails Atumn Spice Party, getting snuck into the Boston Museum of Science, eating tasty Veggie Planet Sunday Brunch, and generaly not being in San Francisco or at work for a bit.

So that didn't go the way I had hoped and dreamed and begged and pleaded and sacrificed an untold number of goats for.

I'm still gathering my thoughts regarding the election... But I can tell you this much for sure: Don't buy goats from a guy outside the Kelly Paint on Caesar Chavez. There's something wrong with them.

Is stressful. Come on States. Count them votes!

Update: Seriously... This is killing me.

My polling garage was packed, but after 4 incredibly long years the additional hour was more than worth the wait.

If you haven't made it out yet, get ready for long lines. It's like the opening night of Star Wars at some places. You could wait as long as 3 hours. Bring a book.. or cheap liquor.

And if you still don't know where to vote, Google has a very handy locator page.

In many a sport, there's an old adage that the "best defense is a good offence". It doesn't matter how little your opponent scores if you don't score either.

President Bush likes this strategy. So much so, he's promoted it from a cliche associated with games played for amusement to a respectable position as guiding light for foreign policy.

It would be unfair to say it's completely useless. Without question, some terrorists have been killed. Maybe they were the plotting and scheming sort with a real chance to cause harm here on American soil. We can never really know for sure.

But one thing we can know, is that in addition to those terrorists, over 100,000 innocent civilians have died in Iraq. That number bears repeating. One Hundred Thousand men, women, and children who were going about their days, just like you and me.

Meanwhile Osama bin Laden is still on the TV holding a grudge... And still out where ever looking for a little retribution.

John Kerry at least understands 4th generation warfare. He knows that it's not about states. He also knows this ain't Cowboys -vs- Indians. He also respects the opinions of all those folks in the "halls of Europe" who have already been down this road. But he also believes a little civilian casualty is part of the price of doing business in this crazy mixed up world.

I believe the best defense is never murder. The best defense is compassion, backed up by some good intelligence.

Remember awhile back when someone leaked a marketing report for SUVs (far and away our best selling automobile) that described ways to appeal to the typical buyers with terms like intimidating, selfish, and egotistical? Or how about after Boston won the playoffs and decided to tear shit up and flip their neighbors cars? The truth is, we're a nation of assholes. And this extends to the way we behave in the world at large.

Unlike some, I don't think Bush and his people are hungry for power for powers sake. Maybe there's a little of that in there somewhere.... but more likely I think their scared to death of the United States slipping out of the #1 all time world spot, because they know how much #2 gets shit on. After all, governmentally and economically, they're often the shitters.

Jamaica is hardly at the bottom of that world ranking and they are nothing but indentured servants to the West. Imagine what the bottom of the list is like. It might be bad enough to convince you that it worth dying in the name of killing to change. Which doesn't make it right... I'm just saying, the world is a fucked up place. As the all time #1, we have to take some responsibility for that. As a country, we're only willing to step into the shoes of the man ahead of us. We daydream (or sleepwalk?) about wealth and fame. The Republicans live by this. The Democrats occasionally dip out. The Green party blows it all away.

The Cobb/LaMarche ticket isn't interesting in the Republican bulling or the Democratic pussyfooting around war...

There is no chance for an end to the terrorism of the stateless, or the justified resistance of the downtrodden, until the U.S. changes its foreign policy to one of support for economic and social justice for all people, not support for repressive, corporate-friendly regimes. -votecobb.org

...They're interested in taking the difficult steps necessary to bring about real global change.

They don't want to use little words so you think they're down homey, or tell you stories about how their the son of struggling so and so. They sleep in homeless shelters as they campaign around the country.

They care about making this country better for everyone who lives here, not just making themselves appealing for votes. And that concern extends to the people trying to make their way in the rest of the world. They understand that the only real way to be respected, is to give respect.

I live in California. The Republicans aren't going to win it. My vote doesn't elect the next president, but it does say something about my values as an American. And that's why I'll be voting for Cobb tomorrow morning.

If the Greens reflect your values too, but you live in a battle ground state or you think the risk is too high, by all means vote Kerry. But there's still something you can do... Take a look at Green candidates running for "down ballet" offices. You might find they'd make a better representative than the decent Democratic candidate. Then go and re-register as a Green. In every state, this is as simple as filling out the registration form again. Some states even let you do it online. As a Green you can still vote for candidates in any party... but many state level party benefits require a minimum registered headcount. Registering Green can help level the playing field with the Dems and Repubs at a very low level and help to start changing the established practices in national politics.

His pal Spencer Owings, 10, was dressed in a suit with play money sticking out of his pockets, and he said he was supposed to be a "salesman who stole money from the Bank of America.''

Tomorrow, for the first time, San Francisco is using Ranked Choice Voting (aka: Instant-Runoff Voting) to elect District Supervisors. This can significantly reduce the "spoiler" effect when more than one candidate is running on a similar platform. This excellent short animation explains how it all works better than I ever could.

This is a key component in third parties breaking into larger scale politics. They are already making serious inroads at the local level. Enough so that people are taking notice (see the effort the Dems put into electing Newsom over Green candidate Gonzalez in the last SF Mayoral race for a prime example). They can keep chugging along while Ranked Choice gathers a solid reputation, eventually meeting in a national election where the third party candidate is running to win... rather than say running to punish everyone for the flaws in our system.