Saturday, yesterday, I threw out my back while moving a love seat down two flights of stairs. Now, quite a shot of pain runs through my back when attempting to move from a sitting position to a standing position, and vice versa. Needless to say, I've been spending a lot of time on my back with heating pad on full steam. While it has led to one unproductive weekend, it has also forced me to slow down a bit. While inconvenient, it has also been fairly relaxing and needed.
Eric treated me to breakfast this morning at the Frisco shop. What a sweetheart! And what a tasty start to Sunday morning! We seated ourselves at the bar. Shortly after ordering, I noticed a man at the end of the bar who talked loudly to anyone around him, notably the unfortunate stranger sitting next to him. After listening to him rail about the Democratic Party, oil, the Arabian Peninsula, women, and local property taxes, I realized that he was Austin's crankier version of Cliff Clavin. He seemingly knew everything about every topic, and was not unhindered in sharing it with whomever happened to be around. Eric and I also met Lawrence, a longtime employee of the Frisco. He was a funny guy with lots of interesting stories. And he greeted patrons by name as they came in to eat. It struck me as odd, since you just don't see that kind of service anymore, anywhere, in any industry.
This semester, I am taking Government 370L: Campaigns and Elections. My professor described American politics as not being uniquely negative. Few believed him and scoffed at his assertion. Well, I am now watching Prime Minister's Questions in the British House of Commons on C-SPAN. Oh man, we've got nothing on the British. They openly boo, hiss, bemoan, laugh, and utilize any other gutteral noise to show their disapproval of Prime Minister Tony Blair's answers to their questions. I thought the Dems showed some balls when standing and applauding during Bush's comment about not being able to do what he wanted with Social Security in the '06 SOTU address. But no, that's nothing compared to the British House of Commons' open dissidence. Oh, how I would love for the US President to be forced to answer Congress' questions in open, on a regular basis. Bush would be laughed out of the building. He should take a cue from Blair on answering questions under pressure, instead of continuing to look life a buffoon whenever he answers questions from unfriendly audiences. Should we ever change the Constitution to include such a practice, C-SPAN's ratings would rocket through the roof.
Before Prime Minister's Questions, I watched a program called Q&A, which is an hour-long interview with someone, uninterupted by questions. Tonight's interview was Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban. I really became fascinated by him. Cuban talked a bit about reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and its influence on his outlook in life. I may have to pick up the book and take another stab at it. I'm going to add his blog, BlogMaverick.com to my frequent reading. Other recent blogs I've picked up recently include The Austinist, The DCist, and Towleroad. It seems I actually don't have any original thoughts in conversation or emails anymore; I just regurgitate information from those blogs. I've also become addicted to a self improvement blog: LifeHacker. I get so many great tips and tricks on everything from time management to software tweaks.
I'm still watching C-SPAN - Road to the White House 2008 is on. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is in Manchester speaking about something. He's there every other week. Do you think he wants to run for president in '08?? Too bad he has no shot whatsoever. Hillary will crush him. And why in the hell does New Hampshire get the first primary? That makes no sense. I don't have a better solution yet, but a state with 4 electoral votes has every presidential candidate from every party heading up there in a now-perpetual election cycle. Candidates must go shake the hand of every mayor, state assemblyman, and justice of the peace of this tiny New England state, while big states like Texas, California, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania get ignored...at least until the general election race heats up. How does a candidate's popularity in New Hampshire determine how fit they are to run a country? I have no idea.
Oh my god! Bill Richardson is now talking to a leprechaun in Manchester. LOL!!!! The governor of New Mexico is about to be in the Manchester, NH St. Patrick's Day Parade. WTF? How does this democracy thing work again?!? Now, they've cut to Chuck Hagel droning on about national security. You know, the most fascinating thing for me to watch in Road to the White House is the not the speech, but the 20 minutes of post-speech coverage...watching the candidate work the room, shaking hands, and making conversation with everyone who just forced down the chicken dinner they paid $250 a plate to eat. Hagel is too boring; he won't be president either. Hell, I watched John Kerry a couple of weeks ago on C-SPAN and he worked the room much better than Hagel. But neither of them are Bill Clinton. Ah, Bill, how we miss you so.
Back to my comfort of my heating pad. Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to go to the kitchen without needing 1000 mg of aspirin to kill the pain.
Posted by Ben at March 27, 2006 12:13 AM