Field of Deets

It's been a year since I've blogged. I think it's a good day to start it up again.

Years always go faster than you expect them to, don't they? I feel like I have just recently become used to writing "2006" as the date, and now we're two big Holidays, a set of finals, and the rest of the NFL regular season away from 2007.

Is there a good way to measure a year? On January 1st, 2007, will you be able to look back at 2006 and decide whether or not it was a good year? Maybe. But I think it will need a grace period before you can pass judgment on it. I think you need to let the events of a year settle in first. And what if something happened in 2006 and the effects of that incident aren't known until 2007? When they are known, you will have new information with which to judge 2006. I would wait at least six months until I decided if 2006 was a banner year or one for the forget-me files.

So many things happen in a year that do not pass the (fill in an amount of time) test. This is the test that helps you decide if something is worth worrying about. If you are concerned about something, think to yourself, "For how long will this really matter?" An hour? A day? A week? A month? A year? That will tell you where it fits into your Big Picture and how much you should be worrying about it. It's all about perspective.

Perspective is something that I think many, if not most, people lack - which is why people watch reality TV - and why reality TV sucks. Who doesn't like watching people freak out? It's fun for a couple minutes, but it gets old after that, especially if this is repeated behavior. But if people kept things in perspective and didn't freak about it, then why would anyone watch shows like the Real World or the Challenge? Who would want to watch reasonable adults live together when you can watch 7 fucking idiots fly off the handle because someone spent two minutes more than their allowed time in the bathroom or on the phone?

So much as happened in the last year that I could have written some fun blog entries about. I'm not going to go back and tell you about all of them. They may come up from time to time, but to go back and try to summarize a year would be both boring for you and tedious for me.

I'm living with my girlfriend now. Cassie is her name. I'm sure the adventures of co-habitating will creep in here every once in a while. I haven't yet figured out what I'm allowed to write about and what I'm not. I'm sure I will know much faster when I write about something I shouldn't have than when I write about something that's okay to share with anyone who can access the internet.

What can you expect to read in this blog now?

Let's start with what you won't read about: The OC

I gave up on it not even half way through last season - probably shortly after this blog temporarily died. It sucked. I've heard great things from this season so far, but I'm out. Maybe when the series is over after this season I will catch up on DVD, but I'm done for now.

The two shows I will probably mention the most now are Studio 60 and The Office. If you are not watching Studio 60, you really need to. It's the funniest, smartest one-hour show on TV. It was created by and is written by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. If you are not watching Studio 60 (on NBC Mondays, 8pm), then you are probably watching CSI: Miami. Why should you not watch CSI: Miami? Because that shit will be shown in syndication next season and for a decade to come. Plus, you see enough of those episodes and you can know who did what and to whom 15 minutes in. Lastly, about CSI: Miami, David Caruso might be the worst actor ever to be broadcast on network TV in America. This is not an exaggeration. In 15 years (or less), he will be the subject of the Walker Texas Ranger type jokes that became popular fodder for 18-40 year-olds for a couple weeks a few months ago. People will make t-shirts with Caruso on it and the jokes will be on the backs of little flyers. And then people will drag it on until it's not funny anymore, just really annoying and then you're sort of dense friend will catch on a month later and run with the jokes for a while. You will give him a few courtesy laughs here and there, but after a while you will just ignore him because it is way too much work to pretend to laugh at something that ran out of funny six weeks ago and then he'll get pissed. Nobody wants that, so don't watch David Caruso. You might as well watch something with quality. The way Sorkin and his writers comment on the television business in that show is great and so right on point. It's not too late to catch on to the show.

Except Caruso probably won't tell Haley Joel-Osment that he has AIDS. Maybe that his BAC is .27 and he shoulnd't be behind the wheel though.

And The Office is the funniest half-hour comedy since Seinfeld. If you try to argue that, you're an idiot.

Yeah, I'm open-minded.

Subjects of this blog, you just got a couple of them: TV and my opinions - others will be politics and sports and whatever else.

Speaking of politics. It's good to see the Democrats taking power in both bodies. Now let me tell you what the next two years of national politics will look like:

The Democrats take power in the Senate and the House. Bush is a lame-duck president.

The Democrats try to take advantage of this power, but their right hand doesn't know what their left hand is doing and they just fuck it up, both left and right.

Congressman Foley gets out of his rehab thing and fondles your 15 year-old cousin Huey.

The Democrats and Bush don't work together at all and almost nothing gets accomplished - and I seriously mean nothing. Bush threatens to veto everything.

The Dems end up fighting with each other on what their priorities should be. They are the most disorganized party in the political history of this continent. They are the New York Knicks of national politics.

Time to start considering options for 2008. The Republicans get behind a couple candidates to send through the primary process. They back one right away and ride him into the campaign - they are together, clear on message, and behind one candidate.

The Democrats start out with 27 candidates to get their nomination. The primary gets ugly and the Dems all shoot each other down. There are still 8 people in the running two weeks before Super Tuesday. They run another "ho-hum" candidate like Kerry who cannot engage the public and cannot communicate ideas and in a year where any party with half a brain should mop the Republicans up, they lose the presidency. Facism takes over.

The Democrats won power in this year's elections because George W. Bush is fucking idiot and has fucked so much up that he tainted the entire party. The Democrats could have won power without even trying. But their party is a mess and that will show in two years.

What should happen? Run Obama from Illinois and let him get the party ready now. Nobody wants to see the faces that we saw in '04. Obama and Wesley Clark (yeah, I know we saw him in '04, but not for very long) would be a good ticket.

Now relating perspective to politics... The Democrats don't have any. But neither do voters: The ammendment to ban same-sex marraige in Wisconsin passed. Putting aside the fact that it is just wrong that we do not allow homosexuals the same rights as heteros, it is 100% inevitable that they will gain these rights one day. Why are we trying to stop it now? It's going to be an issue in 2008 and nobody wants it to be. If the people would just get over it and vote to allow it, then we could listen to politicians speak about things that will actually affect us in our daily lives. If Adam and Steve get married it isn't going to affect you. If your tuition or your property taxes go up 20% you better believe you will notice that.

If we could only just rip every stitch of Christian myth and tradition out of government it would all be so much simpler.

If you haven't seen The Departed or The Prestige, do so as soon as humanly possible. They are the two best Big Hollywood movies I've seen in a long, long time. The Departed might in the top 5 best movies I've ever seen. I need to see it again to make sure.

Good re-start.

Until Tomorrow.