Nobody Knows Anything

Okay, not really, but we can wish, can’t we? Go check out this site for the latest in Final Cut Pro madness.

(Via Hesiod)

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With all this flap over the candidates’ military service, why isn’t anyone asking the relevant question: is John Kerry sane enough to be President? I mean, he joined the military in 1968, after Tet. He requested to be sent to Vietnam.

However, in case you’re wondering if this is a serious question, I’ve donated money to the Kerry campaign.

Although, apparently I’m an unwilling donor to Bush/Cheney ‘04 too.

Would someone on the Democratic side please stand up and scream about this already?

To: All Mothers of 2 year olds
Re: The Corn Rules

Rule #1: never buy corn.

Rule #2: if you violate #1, do not let your son hold the package.

Rule #3: if you violate #2, the minute he starts ripping open the package, take it away from him.

Rule #4: if you violate #3, the minute he opens the package, take the corncobs away from him.

Rule #5: if you violate #4, you will have a GIGANTIC CORNSILK MESS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. So don’t buy corn.

Thank you.

The Management

My iBook stopped working on Friday evening. Instead of restarting, it would just play three tones and just sit there. This has happened before, and all I had to do was the Power Manager reset combination (on my iBook, shift-control-option-power button, wait 5 seconds, then the power button again) and it would restart. This time however, all I heard was those three tones.

This worked out okay, because Darin was in Los Angeles last weekend, so I just used his computer. Hee.

I finally got the iBook to the Apple store at Valley Fair yesterday, and the guys at the Genius Bar said it wasn’t the Power Manager, no: I had a logic board failure.

Wait…didn’t I just have a logic board failure with this thing? Darin took it to a guy he knew, got it fixed up…and now it’s happening again. Urg. I have had relatively few problems with any of my Powerbooks, and this one has had two serious breakdowns.

Of course, Apple just announced new Powerbooks yesterday. Nice new fast Powerbooks, just perfect for playing World of Warcraft.

Or, as we call it around this house: Warcrack.

Warcraft is a game you can play by yourself at home, or you can link up with friends and play on battle.net. World of Warcraft is the spin-off, an online MMORPG in which you are a rogue, a warrior, a mage, a druid, et cetera, and you run around fight stuff and do quests and explore strange new areas.

Darin has been an alpha and beta tester for them, and his assessment is that this game is a license to print money. He’s let me play one of his characters a little and you know what? He is so right it’s not even funny. This game is fun. This game is seriously addictive. This game will be the only way to get a hold of friends on- or offline.

Since Darin was away this weekend, I played a little. Or maybe for seventeen hours, I don’t really remember right now. (No. I don’t really play that long. I exaggerate for the purposes of emphasis.)

Darin says, “Well, you’ll need a new Powerbook to play this game anyhow.” So, gosh, isn’t it convenient that my iBook has died? Let’s try not to think about the fact that I haven’t backed up recently. And we don’t really have the disposable income for a new Powerbook right now. And that I don’t need any damn excuses to subscribe to Warcrack when it’s finally released. I’m supposed to, you know, take care of my kids and stuff, instead of killing kobolds in Elwynn Forest.

Damn! How come I didn’t know about Rance until now? A blog ostensibly by a Hollywood star seeking somewhere anonymous to vent? I don’t know if it’s for real or not, but given the link I followed from Gawker, I envision Owen Wilson typing away and laughing maniacally.

Any other blogs out there I should know about and don’t?

I have my rare afternoon to myself and I spent the first part of it running around doing errands. As an extra bonus I got the all-too-rare treat of listening to the news, and you know: maybe I just shouldn’t any more.

The show was “The World” on NPR, which they tell us approximately every 2 and a half seconds is a co-production of the BBC and PRI. And within ten minutes I heard one story talking about Fallujah in which the reporter attributed the uprising to (I paraphrase, but this is pretty much the list): Saddam supporters, Islamic terrorists, malcontents, and common criminals.

The anchor then asked what the normal citizens of Fallujah, who support the Americans, are doing. I mean, you know: it’s a total given, right?

Jon Stewart put it the best way last night: “Pockets of resistance? Right now we’d settle for pockets of acceptance.”

The next story was about the kidnapping of three Japanese in Iraq, during which the British reporter, discussing Japan’s national reaction to this crisis, described Japan as a nation unfamiliar with the turmoil of warfare. (Again, not an exact quote. But close.)

And my first reaction was: are you fucking out of your mind?

Now, I do not doubt for a second that modern Japan is sincerely pacifist and is not the militaristic, belligerent nation of the past. But give me a fucking break. If he’d said “all too familiar with” I would have said, Yup, yup. If he’d made some allusion to how much Japan has changed in the past 60 years, I’d be right there with him.

But this nonsense?

This is news for people who have zero historical knowledge. This is news for idiots.

Do yourself a favor. Get your news from a variety of blogs. Here are my top five must-checks every day:

1. Billmon
2. Talking Points Memo
3. Political Animal
4. Atrios
5. Orcinus

The best thing, of course, that blogs add is analysis. The trick is to find blogs by informed people who have a memory longer than the last commercial break. And who don’t say stupid things like how resisters to an occupation in their own country must of course be Islamic terrorists and common criminals.

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Billmon has a typically lucid and brilliant analysis of why I think lefty blogs are more on point than righty ones.

Tamar told me she wondered what the hell my last entry meant. Simon came down with something or other on Monday. He’s still got it. I got it yesterday. I have been hip-deep in vomit and shit all week.

It hasn’t made for a happy Di, let me tell you.

How Moms who have multiple children all sick at the same time do it…I have no idea. I’ve come pretty close to just letting Simon run free, as nature intended, to make clean-up easier.

I have two—count them, TWO—entries in the works, and I haven’t felt like getting around to either one. (And neither’s political! Imagine that.)

Today has just been a really shitty day. And those of you with young tots can understand how I’m not speaking metaphorically.