it is finished

Well that was fun.

I love how George started the speech off with 30 minutes of domestic policy-talk. You're honestly going to stand there with a straight face and tell us what a success No Child Left Behind was and right after discuss vouchers for private schools and refer to YOUR public schools as "failing." Now, how does that logic work exactly?

A very special moment for me was when the President of the United States suggested to those of us who find the tax cuts from the past 7 years unnecessary and quite honestly damaging to the US economy by saying we were welcome to send money to the IRS:

"Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who will see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800. Others have said they would personally be happy to pay higher taxes. I welcome their enthusiasm. I am pleased to report that the IRS accepts both checks and money orders."

I'm pretty sure the word "average" was used on purpose as the "average" American will actually only receive about $540 per year while the top 1% of taxpayers will receive about $30,000 per year.

Another personal fav was the continuing of the rhetoric in regards to Iran. Our own intelligence community has said Iran stopped their nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran is not a threat.

I also love the whole Freedom Agenda thing. Yes, yes elections were held in Georgia! Ukraine! Lebanon! Afghanistan! Iraq! I'm surprised he failed to mention the Palestinian elections where Hamas solidly won. I mean, what a shining example of democracy! Unless, of course, you're shackled to Israel in which case it's best to just ignore the outcome of the legitimate democratic elections.

I always have respected (even I can't believe I just wrote that!) his take on immigration reform. I mean, aside from the whole "let's build a big wall along the border" thing. That's just stupid. But he does get it:

"Yet we also need to acknowledge that we will never fully secure our border until we create a lawful way for foreign workers to come here and support our economy."

A small confession: I started kind of getting bored a little over half way through and ended up zoning out and sketching instead of, well, listening. I perked up here:

"These horrific images serve as a grim reminder. The advance of liberty is opposed by terrorists and extremists -- evil men who despise freedom, despise America and aim to subject millions to their violent rule. Since 9/11, we have taken the fight to these terrorists and extremists. We will stay on the offense. We will keep up the pressure, and we will deliver justice to our enemies.
We are engaged in the defining ideological struggle of the 21st century. The terrorists oppose every principle of humanity and decency that we hold dear. Yet, in this war on terror, there is one thing we and our enemies agree on. In the long run, men and women who are free to determine their own destinies will reject terror and refuse to live in tyranny. And that is why the terrorists are fighting to deny this choice to the people in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories."

Because that language is just irresponsible and dangerous. It paints a black and white picture of a very gray reality. We are hated not because of democracy, but because we insist on "spreading" democracy to suit our economic ends. We are hated because we are occupiers. We are hated because we are the tyrants and have been for the past 40 years. It's so complicated and I actually can't honestly pretend to understand 90% of it. I do know that ideological wars can never be won. And tyranny will exist as long as humans exist.

Which is why I'm personally hoping for a mass extinction any day now.

I kid, I kid.

That's just January talking.

bob dylan: 0 science: 1

For those of you familiar with Erin's Vodka Juicy Deliciousness may I offer a suggestion: replace the cranberry juice with a splash of pomegranate cherry juice. You will not be sorry.

This weekend was surprisingly good. Friday night started with some Anna Karenina followed by Phase 10 which I played way better than I did last week though no one can seem to beat Peter. Saturday I wrote. And then I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. I've been writing letters to someone as of late and I have found it an extremely helpful jumping off point. Knowing there is someone on the other end waiting to read what you've written somehow makes it easier to write something after that may never see the light of day. I also listened to a whole lotta melancholy music which surprisingly didn't make me want to commit suicide. Some Superwolf, some Tom Waits, some Iris Dement, some Josh Ritter, and of course some Tweedy. Because nothing says melancholy like "I'm Trying to Break Your Heart."

Saturday evening involved more Anna and a trip to the grocery store for rations and provisions. Saturday night we watched this show called "Miracle Planet" which appears to be on the Science Channel--a cable option I didn't know existed. It's one of those watered down science programs where they'll flash a graph on the screen or do some crazy computer designed thing to make it appear as if science is happening and then they basically say "this is where the science happens" but they don't really explain it. I still love it. And I'm probably being a little too hard on it. There are dinosaurs involved and I do love dinosaurs.

Tonight is a very special night: The absolutely positively very last State of the Union speech delivered by GWB. It's gonna be something very special. I suggest devising a drinking game around the speech: every time he says something positive about Iraq, every time 9/11 is mentioned, every time he talks about the impending recession without using the word recession...the possibilities are endless. I, for one, have really enjoyed the State of the Union retrospectives that have been all over NPR this weekend. Who can forget the Axis of Evil? Tax cuts guarenteed to keep the economy moving and healthy? WMD'S? The No Child Left Behind Act? An insanely confusing prescription drug plan for seniors? A consititutional amendment to keep marriage safe? The oh-so-attainable goal of ridding the world of tyranny? Iraq seeking out uranium in Africa? A mention in every single speech on the state of health care without doing a single thing about it in 7 years?

It's been fun, no?

Just in case you're all as insane as I am and want to re-read every single transcript they are all here.

is he running detroit or is he working on a school project?

Has the world gone mad or is it just my perception of the world that is askew?!

The NYT endorsed Hillary. And they don't make up for it by publicly chastising Giuliani as it doesn't take a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper to deduce he's been exploiting 9/11 this entire time. It's weak. Completely weak. Pulling out the experience card is just ludicrous! Why can't anyone see that Hillary Clinton would be the absolute worst thing for the Democratic Party? I'm a life long Democrat and I won't vote for her. She's a power hungry carpetbagger. And 8 years as first lady does not count as experience.

Alright, fine. I don't really have a good reason to hate her as much as I do. I'm not even that huge of an Obama fan as my true love was Kucinich and my lover-on-the-side is Edwards. But if I, an educated liberal white woman, despise her this much I can only imagine how the rest of the country will vote in the general election if she is the nominee. She's a bad idea. The whole thing is a bad idea. I can't help but think she's getting a fair amount of support from the DNC. I don't know if anyone remembers the past 2 presidential elections, but the DNC doesn't exactly have the best record when it comes to picking winners.

Plus this whole Kwame Kilpatrick scandal has me completely perplexed. What moronic elected official would be stupid enough to sexytext message his chief-of-staff repeatedly and then LIE about it on the stand?!? Oh wait! That would be the illustrious mayor of Detroit!

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

Have I mentioned it's January? And I hate January? Last night wasn't pretty. I forced myself to walk down the driveway in the freezing cold to check the mail and snag the garbage can as all I really wanted to do was curl up at 7pm and go to bed. I managed to stay awake long enough to finish watching Bonnie and Clyde (booooring!), 15 minutes of Grey's Anatomy (during which I just kept saying "Who's that? What's going on? Why do they seem to have a stash of crappy "indie" music to play randomly in the background?"), and the 10pm local news (The Kilpatrick story was worth staying up for. As was the Air Force reversing their original statement by saying they were in the area of that UFO last week in Texas. And the snack cake killing. That was good) only to end up more depressed by the news that next Monday we're in for rain and then more snow on Tuesday.

I decided it was a perfectly acceptable time to go to bed.

It shouldn't come as a surprise but as I somehow manage to keep up with Peter's reading pace we find ourselves disagreeing on the likability of characters. I really like Anna. He finds her manipulative and kind of evil. I think her husband is sort of weak and he sympathizes with him. I can't believe this is entirely a gender issue, but maybe it is. Maybe I cut Anna more slack on the moral ambiguity stuff because she is a woman of limited means enduring a loveless marriage with few options. There's this one scene where her husband finally confronts her and though uncomfortable I think it's dead on. Anna stands outside herself...watches herself lie to her husband and marvels at how much she doesn't really care. It's fascinating. And when she finally makes the decision to leave she is broken and knows she's morally corrupt. It's amazing.

The one character we seem to agree on is Levin. Levin's da bomb.

This weekend I am gloriously gloriously free. Tonight is another Friday night with the Traverac and I'll try and be less naughty than I was last week. I'm going to make an honest attempt at cleaning my apartment as Monday begins that whole 40 hour a week thing. I'm actually looking forward to it as it will keep me from focusing too much on it being the end of January. And the beginning of February.

Plus, it's 8 extra hours I get to spend with Internet access.

Not that I'm an addict. Or anything.

My name is Erin and I love MetaFilter.

i'm really not trying to be difficult

I was like a little kid on a snow day this morning: up at 5:30am looking for school closings. And yes! Look! Every single school in Holland is closed! So the library is SURE to close, right?

Wrong.

We are an essential service. Like police. And firemen. We are here for the information emergency! Like checking out 15 Dora the Explorer dvds allowing you to ignore your kids while they're home from school! Like providing the very important online porn service!

I'm actually not all that bitter. The roads weren't even really that bad by the time I had to go to work. I am, however, officially 100% sick of snow. It is ridiculous. I shoveled this morning at 6:30am and I have no doubt I'll be shoveling tonight at 6:30pm. We're losing patio space to the mountains of snow. Enough.

In other news:

I'm the proud owner of a MetaFilter account. Hell, yes.

Not a fan of Bonnie and Clyde thus far though Faye Dunaway is GORgeous.

Anna Karenina keeps getting better and better.

Coconut flan with really strong butter rum sauce is delicious.

Bill Clinton is starting to get on my nerves.

Dennis Kucinich is dropping out and that makes me sad in my heart.

"Remember the Mountain Bed" has left my brain.

Josh Ritter has filled the space.

Tonight I'll be drinking a biiiiig frozen margarita and eating something smothered in mole sauce.

Tomorrow is Friday and that is good.

"i could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me"

I don't really know why but "Remember the Mountain Bed" has been running through my head for 2 days. It got so bad I started humming without realizing I was humming. Last night I finally had the chance to listen to it thinking that would solve the problem but alas it seems as if this might be permanent.

"Problem" is the wrong word. If it were, say, a Nickelback song that would be a problem. Woody Guthrie lyrics sung by Jeff Tweedy are heavenly.

It's still snowing here. It's January. Neither of these things are especially good for my mental health. Rumor has it the sun came out yesterday but as my computer is facing a corner I did not see it therefore it did not happen. I finally confessed that I've been pretending the dark cloud of seasonal depression wasn't hovering above me. The good news is January is almost over. The bad news is February is next.

Thankfully I have the warm snuggly blanket of Anna Karenina to keep me warm and happy. I'm reading the Peaver/Volokhonsky translation and it's divine. You know, I always figured I was a critical reader, but talking to Peter makes me so glad I wasn't an English major. He's constantly worried about social context and cultural norms and societal rules. I'm just happy to be reading some outstandingly real characters in universal situations. Every time he'll bring something up I swear I stare at him with a blank look and say "Why don't you just READ it?" I wish I could call in sick to put some real time into it, but I know the guilt would get the better of me. Plus I do have a weekend off coming up and as of right now no plans. I'd like to keep it that way and devour this book.

I can't believe I'm even going to mention this, but hearing about Heath Ledger's death last night was oddly affecting. Young entertainers without obvious drug and alcohol problems don't usually just die like that. For some reason I kept saying I hoped it wasn't suicide. An accidental overdose I could handle, but not suicide. I'm certainly not someone who follows celebrity culture, but I did always respect him. I always thought he was a good little actor even back in the 10 Things I Hate About You days (The Patriot I cannot forgive but I do primarily blame Mel Gibson for that whole mess) and his role choices were interesting. I guess for purely selfish reasons I'm sad I won't be seeing his work any longer.

On that happy note, I'm off to dinner. Even though I brought soup I think Molly and I are going to go out. Someplace spicy.

I'm hoping for Thai.

"yes, there's something alien, demonic and enchanting in her," kitty said to herself

I remember the first time I looked through a telescope at the moon. Though I had spent many an hour in cornfields "looking at the stars," astronomy became decidedly unsexy when I realized just how much math was involved. The first time I looked through the lens I was underwhelmed. "Yeah. The moon. Cool." I think was what I said. My friend forced me to look again and I was blown away. "Oh my God! Are those mountains?! Am I seriously looking at mountains on the moon?!?! Did you know you can SEE the MOUNTAINS on the MOON?!?!"

I sense it's time for me to see the mountains on the moon.

Yesterday's in-service t'weren't so bad. I did score a Zingerman's chocolate which was pretty good though I'm definitely not a nougat kinda gal. The hardest thing about discussing customer service is how intuitive and common sense it should all be and yet clearly there are some who just don't get it. We did manage to come up with 4 steps to great customer service my favorite being #4: Have a positive ending. This prompted those of us immature youngsters to spend the afternoon talking about how our goal was to make sure I gave every patron a happy ending. No one over the age of 40 got it.

I was supposed to spend this extra hour at work (I'm not working. I just came in an hour early so I didn't have to trudge through the insane amount of snow that fell last night) filling out my job bid form. I hate filling these things out: Education, Employment, Other skills or training pertinent to this position, Reasons for applying for this position. The opportunity to be inauthentic is glaringly obvious and yet I'm stupid enough to really care about the position. I have a week to do it and I'm confident I can dance the very fine line between give them what they want and be true to my strong belief I'm the most qualified for the job.

Speaking of work, it looks like I'll be spending the next 5 weeks or so playing grownup by working 40 hours a week. It means working 2 nights a week which doesn't really thrill me but it also means I'll be forced to prioritize my life which I'm desperately needing. I have a running schedule, a quilt to start, letters to write, bread to bake, a house to keep clean, and a life to figure out.

Not having so much time on my hands is probably a good thing.

those people going to lambeau field tonight? lunatics.

Why does this weekend seem so ridiculously short?

Oh wait. It's because I had to work this afternoon.

Friday night I watched Eastern Promises. I think it's safe to say I just don't like David Cronenburg's work. Didn't like History of Violence and didn't like this either. The man has an uncanny ability to start telling a story, get you interested, then completely blow the end. Eastern Promises had a great set-up: Russian mafia in London trafficking girls, a dead prostitute, a baby, Naomi Watts, Naomi Watts, Naomi Watts...Did I mention Naomi Watts? Anyway, decent setup and then a horrible end. Flat, uninspired and boring.

Yesterday we braved the frigid temperatures and blizzard-like conditions (I suspect it was perfectly clear in Zeeland. Stupid lake effect snow) to see Juno. I spent the first 10 minutes being nervous in the service. Real nervous. I was prepared to rip the movie apart if I had to but I really liked alot of the cast and just wanted it to be decent at least. It settled down into a perfectly good little movie. I was worried it was going to be Little Miss Sunshined Out--taking a mainstream movie and giving it that fake "hip" and indie feel--but I was happily wrong. I wish Michael Cera's character had been given a little more though maybe it's just because I adore that kid. Jason Bateman was excellent, Allison Janey was perfect, and Jennifer Gardner (whom I normally find delicious like fistfulls of dime store candy) was good just not delicious like fistfulls of dime store candy and more like a good solid meatloaf. Matronly. Those similes make perfect sense to me, by the way. Anyway, if you're on the fence I'd say it's probably worth it. It suffers from desperately needing a PG-13 rating which is unfortunate and be prepared for that first 10 minutes if you're over the age of, say, 22 but it's a keeper.

This morning I got up and made couscous: Roasted beets, kalamata olives, garbanzo beans, fresh goat cheese, and dressing with olive oil, balsamic, and dill. Dang. It's tay-stee! Tonight was supposed to be a hummus/couscous/moussaka kinda night, but Kari couldn't find eggplant in all of Holland (it is January afterall. We have no right to eggplant in Western Michigan, I say!) so instead she made lasagna. Yeah, it's going be bizarre. Jen's bringing hummus still, though, so I have a feeling we'll be eating that portion of the meal first anyway. 'Cause this couscous is gonna be mad good with some hummus!

Tomorrow I will be fairly absent from the internets due to the aforementioned staff in-service.

Mmmmm.....Zingerman's magic brownie...I just want a Zingerman's magic brownie and the whole day will be worth it.