O.K., I wasn’t expecting high brow material here. In fact from the creators of South Park I was expecting low brow, offensive humor that is one of my “guilty pleasures.” This movie simply didn’t deliver. It was a pretty good send up of a certain kind of Hollywood testosterone driven, nationalistic blockbuster. There were some very funny scenes but overall the movie just wasn’t that funny. I do wonder if Alec Baldwin liked the movie more or less than I did.

My favorite recent new parent Jennie, has been posting about the difficulties of parenting. I so sympathize. Parenting is so much harder and more rewarding that I ever expected.

Hearing your child scream helplessly, seeing their glazed eyes the first time they are really sick, watching them tumble down a few stairs are all such heartbreakers. Parenting is full of this kind of heart break; it proves just how much you are head over heels in love.

I’ve learned so much about myself since having children. I never knew how much I dislike being bitten or contradicted until having children. I used to consider myself a patient and calm person, not anymore.

In a college class on the topic of human sexuality, the idea that the relationship between husband and wife changed dramatically after child birth was a strange mystery. I remember thinking at the time, “I can’t imagine why marital satisfaction rates would decrease, how peculiar.” Hey, not that I’m not happily married, but when someone goes days without a conversation that isn’t interrupted in on way or another it changes things.

On the rewarding side, there is nothing so wonderful as a pair of happy toddlers nearly knocking you down with their hugs when you come home after a hard day of work. There is nothing like your child telling their first joke, catching their first fish, or learning some new skill.

I am listening to Dave Winers podcast. It’s a very cool concept. I would love to try posting one of my own. The thought of having to listen to myself to check the file isn’t too attractive to me. It’s also a bit of a tough sell to get folks to download such a large file, although the podcasting software makes it a little easier. Part of the success of blogs has been in the way that they have a large presence in search engines. Audioblogs won’t get the same mindshare from the search engines, as far as i can tell. Of course RSS enclosures and aggregators will make that job much easier.

The most interesting thing to me is that today commercial radio is so bad, that this clunky medium could really catch on.

Have I mentioned I want an iPod?

One more thing, if NPR or MPR would have podcasts available for their members I would sign up immediately.

It’s amazing to me what short shrift the constitution gets in the Presidential race. This amazing document defined the President’s role and responsibilities, the role of the federal government, and the limits the role of government can play in an individual’s life, yet the candidates don’t even spend five minutes discussing their views about this document. Sometimes I think politicians are embarrassed about that document, wishing those guys hadn’t written it down.

Good fences make good neighbors.

The year at the Lake, the neighbor has really cleaned up his property. It is a real improvement.

I finally had a chance to d/l the Jon Stewart appearance on Crossfire. I had already read the transcript a few days ago so I knew what was going to be said. I still loved the show. It’s one of the few times in my life a TV show has fired me up enough to whoop. Below are my favorite lines.

Jon had the chance to go on the show and make people laugh, instead he chose to be serious and hold the pundits feet to the fire. He was right and courageous. Jon Stewart has become the fool (in the classic sense) of this election. He’s the one telling the truth about the absurdity of the process; noting the emperor has no clothes. My hat is off to Jon.

He is so right about America needing an honest debate. I propose a new show on PBS that is dedicated to debating real issues. It would follow a more traditional debating style, like High School or College debating instead of the dinner theater style the major parties agreed to in the Presidential debates. The show should also feature fact checkers and intelligent commentators. If this show is on for the next fours years, perhaps the American people will demand a real presidential debate the next election cycle.

While I am not a baseball fanatic or a Red Sox fan, I would like to offer my hearty congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning the AL Championship, by beating the Yankees in an amazing comeback.

I can so identify with the feeling of elation that one’s favorite team is on the cusp of winning their sports most important match. Growing up I watched the Packers in the 80′s and heard about the glory years of the 60′s. I never thought I would see them go the Super Bowl in my life time. Seeing them do it not once, but twice was an amazing feeling.

On an intellectual note, I know sports are all about theater, big business, and spectacle, but sometimes the theater is so good you have to watch.

Monica of The’ Inkwell has a great riff entitled Surrender monkeys unite!.

She begins by railing about some peacenik appeasement types whose pictures are collected in someone’s blog.

The quote from her entry that resonates most with me are the following two paragraphs.

I wish our politicians were this direct in their communication.

This blog post reminds me tangentially of a interview I heard where some historian was describing the naivety of Jimmy Carter’s foreign relations. He approached other world leaders as if they were reasonable people who would honor their agreements and could be convinced to take the actions that would be best for the people of their lands.

My reaction at the time, and to this day is that I wish I lived in this mythical “Jimmy Carter world”. It would be fabulous. Unfortunately, I live in a world filled with greedy, murderous thugs who are filled with ambition to take what is not theirs by any means necessary.

I do differ with Monica’s notion that prayer will do no good, other than perhaps the dubious honor of putting you into good stead with the shamans of your faith.

If there is no God, then prayer still has a good. I believe that no matter how much personal power one possesses in life, there are events beyond one’s control. Prayer is an active way to pursue a kind of mental health that wishes for the best and accepts a power greater than one’s own “metaphysical potence.” Praying for better weather does no harm and relieves one the duty to worry about it.

In the event that there is a God, than perhaps God will intervene in the behalf of the supplicants. It’s a small price to pay for a great possibility if you ask me. That’s my twisted version of Pascal’s Wager I suppose.

So I can pray for peace in the Middle East, but also be very glad that people are willing to go there and enforce the peace with deadly force if required.

Occasionally a blog I really enjoy goes on an extended hiatus. It’s a treat when they come back and they are just as good as they used to be.

Welcome back Critical Section, it’s great to see your posts. As usual, there is a lot of links to chew on.

Can’t wait for The Religious Policeman to start posting again, although I can understand that he might have to wait for regime change.

I’m loving google desktop.

Here is my “google desktop” wish list in no special order. It might do some of these things for all I know, but there isn’t much UI or documentation that might show me how.

• Ability to restrict search by file type.
• Integration with gmail.
• Tool to allow developers to write plug-ins to do something special with other file types.
• Syntax and/or configuration to include/exclude files or directories.
• Make initial indexing a little less intrusive re: system resources.
• Ability to search by other criteria.
• Ability to understand exif data, to allow for the searching of photos.

It’s a really nice first effort. I can’t wait to see how this will turn out.

I can’t believe how good the email searching is. I don’t know why the Lookout folks didn’t make the UI look so cool.