Write-in Candidate

Now that we know Obama is not as pro-choice and pro-gay-rights as everyone assumed he was (everyone who forgot he converted to deepest darkest Christianity despite having the advantage of being raised without religion), the 2008 ballot is not looking as appealing.

For those of you who have come to the conclusion that neither party's candidate is the best choice, and voting Green or Peace and Freedom is too pinko hippie for you, may I suggest you write in my name?

I'm qualified, being over 35, a native citizen of the United States with no criminal record. Not even a traffic ticket. I'm single, never married, never had an adulterous affair, have no children, and am beholden to no special interest groups. As a former Peace Corps Volunteer who has lived in three countries I have more international work experience than either major candidate. I am also a true Washington Outsider, although I do have federal government job experience in Seattle with NOAA and the US Fisheries Service.

My platform:
( cut because I care )

Pleasant 4th

Didn't get dressed till almost noon, spent the morning at the PC working on Man of La Mancha video clips. The videographer did a gifted amateur's job of the DVD, choosing a rather high 5.5 mbps VBR bit rate which used about 2/3 of each of two DVDs, when he could just as well have fit it all one one DVD at 3.5 mbps without any significant loss of quality. He did not process the video, so we have that amateur bleeding of bright colors, especially reds and browns. I can't blame him for taking the shortcut, he was evacuated from his home for three days due to the fires, and is (pardon the pun) not out of the woods yet. And he spent a lot of time on the CD art work, though that too is not as professional looking as it might have been. My biggest gripe is that even with two cameras, they managed to have many shots where the person doing the speaking is off-camera. Me, especially.

Kind of funny, onstage I never realized just how short I am compared to Sancho and Don Q. My scar makeup did not pick up on camera very well, but my hollowed eyes did - too much. Watching the video, I'm pleased with my performance. I only sounded like I was reading lines a couple of times, the rest sounded like someone talking like a real person. Maybe by the end of the weekend I'll have the videos on my web site.

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The apartment manager had a surprise BBQ by the pool, but by 12:30 there were only six adults and 7 kids there, hamburgers were not ready so I had a couple of hot dogs, some watermelon and cherries.

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I ducked in to the local Starbucks and did some work - there is a readme file which I was supposed to proofread yesterday, so I printed it out and took it home. Found enough errors to have made it worth while.

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Dropped in at Janice's, she was having problems with a PC I built for her. Error logs pointed to the Linksys router dropping the connection, so I corrected a setting and updated the firmware. Also had to re-install her Maxtor external drive software - XP did not see the drive and had not made any incremental backups since February. And I took home her old HP PC to scrub the drive. She'll donate it to the CRC.

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Home spent some petting time with the cats, Domino on the left arm and Pumpkin on the right arm of the easy chair. That doesn't happen often. Banged on the piano some. Did some time on Meetup.com and Facebook, then drove out to the Mercado and bought a ticket for Kung Fu Panda an hour early, had dinner at the Japanese place, then saw the movie. Mini review - excellent art work, nice score, super sound editing and great voice-over talent. The credits at the end are beautiful, and worth staying for through the end. The final scene is after the last of the credits. Earth to DreamWorks: you really don't need to print the ENTIRE EFFING EMPLOYEE LIST in the credits. Next time, stick to the people who actually had hands on with the movie. kthxbye

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Home at 9:40, just on a whim went out on my balcony and looked in the direction of Shoreline Amphitheater, and was pleasantly surprised that I had a completely clear view of the fireworks. We're close enough you can still feel the explosions - maybe 2 miles line of sight. It was a really fine display, but somewhat confusing because it was split into three parts, with about 2-3 minutes in between sections.

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Finished the nastygram to Toyota of Sunnyvale.

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Plans for tomorrow:

Change the litterbox
JC Penny's to look at recliners - if anyone knows of discount furniture outlets which deliver in the Mountain View area, do let me know
Laundry