From the "everyone else is doing it, so I might as well too" dept:

Here are my results for for 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector:

1. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (100%)


2. Green Party Candidate (96%)


3. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (92%)


4. Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham, NY - Democrat (92%)


5. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (87%)


6. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (84%)


7. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (84%)


8. Leahy, Patrick Senator, Vermont - Democrat (84%)


9. Biden, Senator Joe, DE - Democrat (83%)


10. Daschle, Senate Minority Leader Tom, SD - Democrat (82%)


11. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (82%)


12. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (82%)


13. Feingold, Senator Russ, WI - Democrat (76%)


14. Jackson, Cong. Jesse Jr., IL - Democrat (74%)


15. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (74%)


16. Dodd, Senator Chris, CT - Democrat (70%)


17. Socialist Candidate (66%)


18. Bayh, Senator Evan, IN - Democrat (65%)


19. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (64%)


20. Feinstein, Senator Dianne, CA - Democrat (63%)


21. Kaptur, Cong. Marcy, OH - Democrat (57%)


22. Gore, Former Vice-President Al - Democrat (43%)


23. Bradley, Former Senator Bill NJ - Democrat (40%)


24. Libertarian Candidate (33%)


25. Bush, George W. - US President (17%)


26. McCain, Senator John, AZ- Republican (16%)


27. Hagelin, John - Natural Law (14%)


28. Hart, Former Senator Gary, CO - Democrat (11%)


29. Buchanan, Patrick J. – Reform/Republican (8%)


30. Vilsack, Governor. Tom IA - Democrat (0%)


31. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (-1%)


32. Clark, Retired Army General Wesley K "Wes" Arkansas - Democrat (-2%)


33. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-8%)

Like others, I don't quite agree with some of how some of the choices were ranked - Kucinich at #1? McCain after Shrub? - but it's interesting to see some individuals you wouldn't normal consider listed (I went for the least restrictive option in candidates).

I know I'm late to the game saying this, but I would really appreciate it if you, my blog reading audience, would take the time to take a good look at Howard Dean. I believe he is the right man for the job of President of the United States. If you like what you see/read/hear about him, please give him your support (financially and or otherwise).

Thank you.

Brian posed an interesting question to me - "...how St. Louis being "religious" factored into your experience there" - in a comment to the previous entry. So interesting that I felt compelled to write an entry about it.

Without a doubt, religion is a large part of the culture here in St. Louis. That can readily be seen in the high concentration of places of worship, in the amount of coverage the local media gives to various religious institutions and even in the local advertising. In addition, I get the occasional postcards for Christian music fests or local churches asking me to join them.

For the most part, St. Louis' religiousness has not significantly factored into the totality of my experience. Much like Brian, I haven't encountered any overt proselytizing or any real mention of religion in most of my interactions with other people while living here. Probably the biggest difference it has made so far is finding a a non-meat serving establishment during lent to accommodate those observing it.

St. Louis' religious nature does grate a little bit, but it doesn't really bother me: I just smile and nod politely or ignore it all together. However, I feel that religion contributes to the small town, conservative and parochial nature St. Louis possesses in spite of its seemingly urban characteristics. And that's what really bothers me.

I just ran/walked another 3 miles today. For some reason (probably because I got most of the rust out of my system on Saturday), it seemed easier this time. Still, I suspect that walking will be a difficult task tomorrow regardless of how much stretching I do.

Change seems to be in the air.

(This may be old news to some of you, but I finally feel comfortable with sending it out into the ether for mass consumption now.)

Like some others (Furious Fet and The General), I've done a bit of introspection on The Big Picture. To a very large degree, this was rather unexpected - a sudden re-examination of the current situation sparked by a good friend and co-worker moving away. However, in the end, I believe it was a good thing. This soul-searching per se has really helped me decide that I really do need to move to some place different than the Mid-West for a while.

Although I'm convinced that this is the right thing to do, part of me thinks that I must be slightly nuts. The economy isn't exactly in the grandest of shape, my financial position isn't the greatest, I have a solid + decently paying position right now, and I just signed a year renewal for my apartment.

Still, many other far more experienced people than I have pointed out this very important fact: "There'll never be a perfect time." And they're totally right. Even though I've told my manager about my desire to get away from *here*, I feel oddly comfortable with the whole situation.

So if not here, where? Right now, I've been targetting Seattle as an eventual settlement area. Culturally, it's very different than where I currently am (which is fairly conservative and religious, even for a big city). Additionally, I think it'll offer me more opportunities in terms of amusements. Finally, some certain HOSERS like The Neon yukino and Lish just HAPPEN to live out there. (=

Of course, there's one teeny, tiny problem with moving out there: I need employment. I've been banging away at the usual job sites, slinging my resume to various places. I haven't had any response so far, but it's only been a few weeks. I imagine that it'll be a nice and long time before I even get real nibbles, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

The flip side to all this activity - looking for a new job, boning up on technical stuff, the heniousness that is work of late - is that I really haven't had a chance to take care of the smaller, yet still important things in my life: laundry, keeping the place in order, working out, etc. This weekend, I finally took the opportunity to catch my breath in that regard and get some of those things out of the way: I ran/walked about 3 miles, read Becoming a Chef. cleaned up loose paper scattered about the place, brewed goodly amounts of boreecha, laundered clothes not money and just vegged.

The sum of it just felt really, really good. I think I need to get back in the habit of doing those things to feel grounded and sane.

Note to self:

Don't answer phone after you go to sleep. Don't answer phone at 1:30 am to help co-workers out with code you've worked with, but didn't write and certainly don't totally understand. Don't go in to work at 2 am to help said co-workers. Don't get bitter over the fact that you contributed very little in the way of help, and things were resolved fairly quickly once the right people got in the morning.

Net result: effective all-nighter. Combined with the fact that I've spent two nights prior to this week furiously slapping coding into shape has left me with less than conciliatory attitude towards work right now.

Let's just say that I'll be screening my calls for the forsee able future, and people from work asking for help will be considered persona non grata for the balance of the weekend.

IOW, "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

Sexxy Vince's latest entry just reminded me of the dreams I've been having the past few days (and would rather not) -

I keep on dreaming that I'm in some work related situation where someone has asked me to complete a task on a very short deadline. This task involves some sort of value matching using Perl, but the correct answer doesn't work. I usually wake up right before I go crazy.

Unsurprisingly, these dreams are the result of real life bleeding into the subconscious. I've been furiously learning Perl the past week or so using Learning Perl, which is an excellent book for a wretched, wretched "programming language". Plus work has been a bit stressing the past week or so, with people throwing tasks upon tasks at me.

With these sorts of dreams, can you really blame me for being a little slow into work?

Saturday, The Generalissimo was kind enough to come down to my neck of the national woods to see The Flaming Lips.

Although I've listened to some of the older material, I am pretty much a new convert to the way of the Lips; having only last year picked up "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots". So when I arrived at the venue, I really didn't have any idea what the evening's act would entail. What followed was probably the most unique, bizzare, energy-filled show I'd probably ever seen:

• Large balloons being batted around the club
• A large video screen with excerpts from Battle Royale + other oddly appropriate footage
• Large groups of animal-costumed fans dancing on either end of the stage
• A microphone with lights and psychedelic camera
• Fake blood
• Confetti
• Fog machines
• Flood lights
• Big honking robots.

Oh, and there was some amazing performances, sing-alongs and one very extended jam session for an encore. To put it simply, I was blown away by the whole sum of everything...I don't think I've seen that good a show in a long while. The only complaint I'd have is that it was a bit short compared to concerts other bands put on, but that's a very *slight* knock against a wonderful experience.

The management here feels that you should go see the Lips in concert if you get the chance.

PS...
For better or for worse, this was the one night Liz Phair wasn't opening for the Flaming Lips. I'm not sure what to think of the "Hey, look at me! I'm Avril Lavigne for those over 30!" direction her new album seems to have taken, so her absence was neither missed nor applauded.

After an eye exam this morning, I have been given new contacts and glasses. It seems that my prescription was off after a few years of not having my vision checked (imagine that): too weak for my left eye and too strong for my right eye. This neatly explains why I have a natural tendency to turn my head to the right when looking at something. This also explains my sincere desire to rip my old pair of glasses off and stomp on them out of utter discomfort and pain when I make the mistake of wearing them.

The whole contact thing is some what new to me: I tried them out a few years ago, but it just took too long, and my eyes felt weird with them on. So far, things seem to be going ok. I found that wine worked wonders and making me forget they were even in there.

Someday, I'd like to try lasik or some derivative thereof, but I'm not quite convinced of the safety. Plus the amount of cash required for the operation mandates that it be done in way-off future times.

Lishiousness has posted her Friday Five, so I figured I'd join in the madness.

1. How many times have you truly been in love?

I think I might have been once, but it didn't work out so I'll never know for sure. Probably falsely a few times as well.

2. What was/is so great about the person you love(d) the most?

Couldn't really say anything super specific...I just really enjoyed hanging out that person.

3. What qualities should a significant other have?

Fun, intelligent, willing to be sympathetic, brutally honest and everything in-between.

4. Have you ever broken someone's heart?

Yes. Because I was frightened, inexperienced, etc.; I chose the "easy" way out. I really hate knowing that I've been a bastard in the past, but I hope my experience and understand of how not to do things will help me in the future.

5. If there was one thing you could teach people about love, what would it be?

Be honest. Don't play bullshit, mind-fuck games. It's not fair to any of the parties involved.

For those of you Mozilla users that also make snazzy phat web pages as well, I stumbled upon a neat page of bookmarklets. These bookmarklets are Javascript methods that allow you do do all sorts of neat stuff like edit CSS on a page and see the changes applied in real time.

With this sort of power in my hands, I might finally get around to changes the colors on this olde blog.

The Animatrix made its official debut today. Having just finished watched the 9 shorts and skimming through the bonus material, I have to say that I was blown away by the incredible diversity of stories and methods of presentation. The pieces hit various aspects of The Matrix world and filled them out quite nicely. I would say it's a definite purchase for fans of the Matrix and/or animation.

Last weekend was pretty good.

Because of the wear + tear of the prior week, Friday night was pretty much a wash for me. After dinner and mindless activities, I ended up crashing at 8 pm and sleeping 10 hours.

Saturday was a day trip to see the P's. Since they were out of the country during Mother's Day + I was down at BoboBASH for Memorial Day weekend, I felt sort of obligated to stop on over. There was the always fabulous food, the standard "help, my computer doesn't do what I want it to" questions and goodly amounts of wine. However, probably the most interesting part was hearing the Parentals talk about their experience catching massal - a pinky sized shell fish that lives in the mud/sand flats: just imagine people with pants rolled up or wearing shorts/capris sprinkling salt on holes and snatching the shell fish as they pop-up.

Sunday, one of my co-workers threw a "See You Later, Hoser!" party for another of my co-workers that has recently relocated up to Chicago. Sadly, we weren't able to do the "murder mystery" portion of the party as she originally intended. Regardless, the food, drink and company was most excellent. A good time was had by all.