An Opportunity for Relevance

This political season, people have the opportunity to make a difference. Everyone does. Everyone will be able to be relevant. That's not what this entry is about. This is about Saturday Night Live.

SNL was once a bastion of political humor, satire and veiled socially relevant commentary. SNL was the original "Must See TV". I didn't get a chance to watch it's first few years as I was too young, and I didn't understand the next 5 years. When I started watching was the end of it's Glory days, but was it good. It made me want more. As I got older, I watched the original SNL shows and they were damn funny, but they also made you think.

SNL has the publics attention. Tina Fey has gotten everyones attention, and has made SNL must download tv for now. It's up to the regular cast and writers to pick up the torch, take advantage of their new found audience and become relevant again.

Election Thoughts

Am I the only one who is getting tired of the presidential campaign? Some thoughts about it-

First, when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, in my opinion he made what was the biggest mistake of his campaign. It was at that moment, that he sold out. He didn't pick the person who would make the best vice president, he picked the person who he thought would give him the best chance at getting elected, and it's working.

The weekend that the selection was announced, C and I talked and she was excited. She said that for the first time, she was enthused about the Republican ticket (she's a registered republican. It was a sexy pick, an offbeat pick, dare I say a maverick pick for Vice President.

McCain compromised his principles ("I'd rather lose and election than lose a war") because this pick was to win the election. Do you think the campaign thoroughly vetted Palin as a candidate? It's tough to find a running mate. I'll give you that. It's especially tough to keep a person that you thoroughly researched a secret today. I honestly wonder if McCain knew about Bristol's pregnancy before he announced Palin. Speaking about the kids- Shouldn't they have been in school a lot more than they have been?

There were so many better choices for running mates that would have helped to get my vote. Sarah Palin was not that choice. John McCain lost any chance of me voting for him (and yes, there was a chance) when he picked Sarah Palin.

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I am sick and tired of finger pointing. I don't want to hear about what your opponent did and or didn't do. I want to hear you talk about you. I want to know what you did or what you are going to do. I don't want the negative campaigning. This whole tearing the other person down and pointing out their flaws and shortcomings isn't what the electoral process was supposed to be about.

Things are different now than when the founding fathers came up with the election process. Back then campaigning was done city by city, and news was weeks old, not seconds old. The candidates didn't go under the same microscope that exists now. There isn't a perfect person. Some of our best Presidents were far from perfect. People just didn't know then.

I'm talking about BOTH parties here. They're both atrocious. In watching the debates, that's all you hear about- Why you shouldn't vote for the other guy. Not why you should vote for the person. Speaking of debates, I think that the candidates need to answer the questions that are asked. I think something should happen to the candidate if the don't answer the question. Electric shock collars come to mind. Perhaps air the debate on a delay, and just have tone come out until the candidate actually answers the question at hand.
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now my mom didn't see this interview. She only saw the SNL version of it. My mom said that she felt bad for Palin and felt like Tina Fey was picking on her. I tried to explain to her how bad the original interview was, and that the sad thing is, the SNL Version was almost WORD FOR WORD from the original interview. Here, a split screen showing what I'm talking about.



Sad, huh?

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Finally, I know I brought up politics here and I apologize. You should never bring up politics or religion in casual conversation. There is no correct answer to either. To suggest that there is is asinine. For someone to suggest that there view is the correct one is a sure sign of ignorance. I work with plenty of people who's ideas and ideologies I do not agree with. When they do bring up such subjects (I never will as I know you should never bring such topics up as they are so divisive) I listen and don't respond with what they want me to. I try and learn from their opinions. I try to understand where they are coming from. I do not need to be converted. I do not need to be called stupid or dumb. I will make up my own mind and make what I feel is the best decision. In the end, if the person who I vote for doesn't win, I will say "I didn't vote for the man, but he's my President" and will support him to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I can not say that about our current administration.

Fair and Balanced

The other day I was stuck in an airport. OK, in all reality I didn't wake up in time for my flight, and had to wait for the next flight. In the corner of the airport that I was at, Fox News Channel was on and I couldn't believe my ears. The news itself was presented with a slant. Trust me on this- This is something I have a background in and I know of what I speak.

I know that the perception is that Fox News is the Republican's channel, MSNBC is the Democrat's channel and CNN is straight down the middle. I've worked for NBC News (and MSNBC by proxy) and have always felt that their NEWS is presented objectively, without a slant or opinion coming through. When you would watch their primetime shows (Olbermann, Matthews for starters) that those COMMENTARY shows have a left wing slant to them. They are just that COMMENTARY shows. They're supposed to have a slant. I'll defend Fox News Channel's O'Rielly, Hannity and Combs on the same ground. A reasonably minded individual is watching that program for commentary, not hard news.

The newsreader was talking about the bailout bill that The House had just defeated, and EVERYTHING he was saying had a slant to it. This was breaking news, and instead of reporting what happened "Fair and Balanced" as they claim to be, the newsreader, reading off a Telepromter was assigning blame. He wasn't saying that person XYZ said it was the democrats fault, he said that the bill failed because of Nancy Pelosi. He didn't mention that Senator McCain had promised a certain number of votes, and couldn't produce them.

On MSNBC at the same time (I was able to watch via my Slingbox), they were saying that McCain didn't deliver the number of republicans he promised AND that several people were saying (and they had names of people) that it may have been because of Nancy Pelosi's speech.

I guess Fair and Balanced depends on your point of view.

Outsider looking In

I've been bad at blogging again lately, but it's not for a lack of things to say. I've been exhausted for no good reason lately so the time I've spent on airplanes I've used to sleep, and not write. Hopefully this flight will be different.

This one has ties back to my honesty writing from a while back. Over the past few months I've had the chance to meet/go out with 2 couples where I was friends with the female member, and have two totally different opinions of the state of their relationships. I'll preface this by saying these were both one time meetings, so this is all based on first impressions and only one meeting, but also takes into account other things my friends have said.

The one couple has a set of challenges all their own. Between travel and family obligations, I imagine that at first they had an uphill battle. Seeing this couple together, you can tell that they are into each other. They have that way of interaction between them that you can tell they are happy together. It's that special bond.

I can tell they're in love because of the little things that they do for each other. Going above and beyond to make the most of the time that they have together. I think we all (me especially with my schedule) can take a lesson from them. I wish you could see what I see. It really makes you feel good about relationships.

The second couple I feel differently about. I think that there is a lot of settling going on. From my one meeting, there seemed to be no chemistry and a general lack of communication.

As I said above, I could have been there on a bad day. My presence there didn't help the situation I'm sure. It seems that there is no compromise that takes place. Again, I only hear one side of the story, and I haven't been forthcoming with my opinions here for the reasons above. I really wish another friend of hers who I am friends with would meet him (Hasn't happened yet, but they've been together for over a year) and put my thoughts to rest. I hope I am wrong. I hope that they are happy together, and what I saw was an anomaly, but I fear it's not.

I'm pretty sure both couples met through online dating sites. I've tried my luck at it and haven't had much success. Off the top of my head though, I know at least 3 couples that met and married through them. It makes me wonder what we as a society would be doing if it weren't for online dating sites. I guess going back to the bar scene? I mean how did people used to meet?

It's been a while, and this is cheesy

But it still counts as a post...

You Are 73% New Jersey!

You are definitely Jersey. Well done, my friend. You are most likely from this great state, and you fit right in. Odds are, you love being Jersey!

How New Jersey Are You?
Take More Quizzes

Travelling Man

I actually wrote this entry before the last one, but couldn't let it be the 100th post.

I'm on my third plane in a week now, and many things came back to me quickly. I forgot how much I dislike the actual act of traveling, especially for work. When I was flying to New Hampshire, We pushed back from the gate and immediately went into the penalty box to wait. We were on a hold because there were too many aircraft that needed to taxi and not enough room to put them all and still handle the inbound aircraft taxiing to their gates. So we waited until we could get a number to take off. 35 minutes later, the captain comes on and tells us that we are going to start our taxi, but it would still be a while before we were airborne as we were number 46 for departure. That's 45 aircraft in front of us. If everything goes perfect, it's 90 seconds per departure. Four thousand fifty seconds. Sixty-seven and a half minutes more before we're even in the air. Once we did get airborne they managed to cut about 15-20 minutes out of the route, So it was for 33 minutes. I honestly could have driver to New Hampshire faster than the whole process took.

Flying home was fairly innocuous other than the fact the flight was at 6:50 in the morning. I'm definitely now what anyone would consider a morning person. I was going through security and emptied everything I normally do. I've even been broken down to the point where I take off my shoes if they're not sandals (I still refuse to walk through barefoot). I walk through the metal detector and the person tells me to empty my pockets fully. I didn't set it off. I have NOTHING metal in my pockets. All that is left in my pocket is my wallet. I NEVER put my wallet through the X-Ray because I don't want to leave it unattended. I tell him it's just my wallet and he says he doesn't care it has to go through. I say fine and go through his little game. I go through, again don't set off the metal detector, but I'm sent for additional screening. Now you are told to always face your belongings during this. While I was being hand wanded and patted down, I'm told to turn around so they can do the other side. I say I need to keep an eye on my belongings. He said "we're watching them, you need to turn around sir." Against my better judgement (and knowing the next flight is a few hours away) I turn around. I go through all of this and guess what, they find nothing. I was wearing lacrosse shorts and a T-shirt. Not much place to hide anything. I go and collect all my items and go on my merry way. I went out to dinner and my debit card was declined. I thought that was odd, put it on a different card and planned on calling my bank when i got home to see what was going on. Literally as I'm walking in to my apartment, my bank calls me asking me to verify some recent transactions. I"m able to verify all but one that was to an on-line bookstore. They immediately cancelled the card and are sending me a new card. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but I can't help but think that someone grabbed the number while my wallet was sitting on the belt.

Now we come to today. There were storms in and around the Newark area. Arrivals were delayed an average of 1 hour. Being the professional traveller that I am, I looked ahead of time and saw that the aircraft making up my flight was delayed on it's inbound flight. I still get to the airport about when I normally do, about an hour before departure. I get to the gate 45 minutes before departure and my flight is listed as on time, but there is no aircraft at the gate. It shows up about 30 minutes to departure and needs to be deplaned, catered and cleaned. about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, the gate agent comes on and says that the plane hasn't been cleaned yet, that as soon as they get a cleaning crew there, they'd go ahead and board us, and that our departure time was moved back 15 minutes. They board first class, and the cleaners are still finishing up in coach, and then exit the aircraft. The official reason for our late departure? "Waiting for connecting passengers" Now that may have been true, but there were no breaks in the boarding process, and as soon as the last person was on the plane, they immediately shut the door so we could push back and wait to taxi because of the storms.

Honesty is such a lonely word.

Billy Joel was right. I've found that when I have been honest about things with people, they end up shutting me out.

I can be brutally honest sometimes. Usually I don't have a problem with it, especially if I feel it's for someone's own good. Two instances come to mind instantly. The first was with my friend K. She went off to college and met a guy and they dated. They of course were in love, and knew what they wanted. He proposed to her. She said yes. She called my all giddy to tell me the news, and I was that guy. The blunt tell you how it is guy. My response to her was "Congratulations, but it's not like you're going to marry him." There was dead silence on the phone. I really don't remember the rest of the conversation. I admit it. It was an asshole thing to say, but it needed to be done. She and I kept in touch, and about a year or so later, she called me to tell me that they'd broken off the engagement. See, I knew her. I knew that he wasn't the one for her. It wasn't that I had a problem with him, I just knew. I can't explain that one any better than that.

Next example involves AB. AB was a friend in college. She was attractive, athletic looking and liked to be one of the guys. It was odd to ever see her dressed up. AB and I were very friendly, and like so many others, despite everyones thinking, nothing had ever happened between us. With hindsight being 20/20 there were definitely moments where something should have happened. AB was dating a guy who was younger that the rest of us and very much immature at times. Not that any of us were the role model for maturity, but I think you get the picture. I liked the guy and got along great with him. I thought that he was good for her. It was good to see her happy. She went away to a program for a semester and I started seeing him around campus with other girls. I'm fully aware that a guy and a girl can be friends with nothing happening. I think I wrote the book on that, but I could see that's not what was going on. People started to see him out with other girls, hooking up with other girls, etc. Being a friend of AB, I told her point blank he was cheating on her. She said no way, he'd never do that and walked away. She and I stopped talking after that. Mutual friends, who saw what I saw and knew what I knew were asking how could I do that to her, how could I tell her. I was confused at that point. How could they not tell her. They were her friends, and here they were allowing her to be played like a fool. They broke up a few years later because they wanted different things in their life. A few years after that, I got an email from her with the subject "Thank You". In it , she explained that she ran into him at a bar over Thanksgiving and that he admitted to her that he had been cheating on her, and specifically during the time when I had said something to her. She went on to say that she should have listened to me and she was glad that I was able to tell her the truth. I responded something along the lines of "you live and learn". She and I still have almost no contact to this day. Oh well.

I've become more afraid to be brutally honest, because you never know how the person will react. Especially if it's someone I'm close to. Personally, I know I'd want and I trust my friends to be honest with me. I mean when you think about some of my minor obsessions (D comes to mind) no one ever really slapped me into reality. Sometimes I wonder if we are better off living in this fantasy life.

Have you ever sat there and thought about it? Do you like it when people are honest with you, or do you prefer it when they tell you what you want to hear?

This is post number 100 for me as well. I think I deserve a drink.