cautious optimism

a reason to be hopeful

and us bostonians know all about being hopeful... but i mean, WOOOT! for once it paid off! and hopefull it will in the election too.

granted, the link (which at the time of posting predicts kerry having 271 electoral votes come november 2), may change by the time you read this. but zogby himself said on the daily show last night that kerry will win too. so, yay!... hopefully.

ok, off to get ready for another rad weekend.

speechless

so it finally happened. i can't be-fucking-lieve it. nor can i put into words how exciting it is. obviously i mean the sox winning the world series. so amazing. so so great. so so so exciting. (lol, anyone ever played that game 'ha'?)

anyhoo, so i watched at least part of all 4 games. somewhat anticlimactic, but i did have enough heart attacks during the alcs. after the sox lost their 3rd game, i started planning out this whole 'what it means to be a sox fan' thing about the constant disappointment and the always spectacular losses. it was the one thing i could look forward to when i was so sure they'd lose in the only way worse than last year (the end-of-game aaron boone home run)--a sweep by the yankees. i kept thinking of things to add, about expecting and kind of relishing the pain and disappointment. and then... they won. so, you all miss out on what i'm sure would have been a heartfelt, yet still sarcastic and hopefully amusing post. but, never hearing the chant '1918' again is worth it. for real, i don't even know what to say.

luckily, i didn't have to say anything. i had the excuse of having laryngitis since tuesday, and am just getting over it now. for once my horribly sore throat (it hurt worse than any sore throat i've ever had, and i've had a lot) was not strep. so after the culture came back negative i figured it was viral and i'd have to wait it out. then it started constricting my throat and it was only getting worse, so i saw the doctor again (ok the first time was just a throat culture with a nurse; she didn't even take my temperature! but any trip to the office feels like a much bigger deal now that i have no insurance) and she said it wasn't strep but it is bacterial, and even after the first dose i could feel the amoxicilin working. so, woot! i can kinda talk again! and i might even get to put in one day of work this week! so exciting...

i'm still going to the concert this weekend, don't get me wrong. and i'm stopping at wes on the way down, but will not be going crazy like a certain other visit to wes. i may stop for lunch on the way back up, but seeing as my favorite little bro is visiting this weekend i want to get home early enough to see him at least for a couple hours. if only i could go to the victory parade... who knew? oh plus, the parade was supposed to be tomorrow (friday) after a 4-game sweep, not saturday, but no they had to go change their plans... well, there will be more parades =D and maybe we'll get opening day tickets =D

um... thank you, jaye pahkre?

so apparently, this blog is a publicly traded commodity. now, being rather anti-capitalist myself, one might think this is a problem. actually, i think it's kinda cool. if... weird. i mean, it's only *virtual* money. but right now badass title's valuation is B$6,254.07. i think the B means not real money, but i wish it meant billion. especially if i got to see some of that cash. i mean, usually, company owners see some of the profit... then again, what do i know about the stock exchange? oh besides that one time rage against the machine shut it down for about 10 mins. with the help of michael moore while shooting a music video. now that really is badass.

* name changed to protect the touchy

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!(RLD SERIES)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK YEAH!

This has been an amazing week. And I must say, being in the greater Boston area for a series is so much better than M-town. No offense, and I still can't wait to come down this weekend, but there's just something great about everyone at work wearing their caps, and talking about the games all the time, and getting to see the huge street party outside Fenway Pahk on the news for an hour after the game (until the Daily Show round 2... speaking of which, they had an amazing bit about the Sox and the "curse" on monday).

So everyone at work is exhausted, and I will be too. But it's well worth it.

So on Saturday Sadownik and Elach and I went to Open Studios in Boston, where all these artists living in Southie let you into their apartment/studios to see their work and talk about it and stuff. There was such amazing stuff. Wicked expensive, but amazing nonetheless. I wanted cheap replicas.

Also, WFNX had the following Top 5 at 9 last night (Tuesday night):

5. Coin-operated Boy by Dresden Dolls
4. Against All Odds by Postal Service
3. Underwear Goes Inside the Pants by Lazy Boy
2. Mr. Brightside by Killers
1. Tessie by Dropkick Murphys

This made me very very happy. Especially b/c it caught me offguard by being on the radio when I got in the car. CoB sounds so much better on a real stereo than on my dinky computer speaker. Even better live, but whatev.

So I can't wait to see y'alls down at Wes this weekend! It'll be a blast! From the past! Kinda... I'm checking out that street medic movie that I hear I have a starring role in... ok it's a walk-on, but still. I get to check out these squat courts while I'm at it so that's kinda exciting. After that, who knows? But I'd love to watch Game 1 on Saturday before el partay. Woot! See y'alls soon!

What to Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, and Jurassic 5 have in common?

They're playing a concert on my computer right now!

It's the Act4Victory concert, live on the Internet. Pretty sweet.

So my mom just got back from her first of two weeks volunteering for the Kerry campaign in a swing state. She was in Sandusky, Ohio--home of Cedar Point Amusement Park!--and will go to Pittsburgh near the end of the month. So I'm wicked pumped, vicariously, about the election. Not that I won't be voting or anything, but I got jobs and couldn't go with her.

I forwarded her email to most of my readers (ooh! I have readers!), but today she told me the best, if also the saddest/scariest/worst, story yet.

So my mom met this woman in Ohio who had a Kerry sticker and a yellow ribbon magnet on her car. The woman told my mom that this time around, yellow ribbons are not automatically support for the President or for the war. Often the people sporting them are anti-war, but (also unlike the Vietnam era) support the troops and understand better the separation between soldiers and orders. The woman's husband is in the National Guard and currently is in Iraq, and both of them are strongly anti-Bush. Mom liked her new friend so much that she was telling some of the more powerful campaign staffers about her, and one of them thought she'd make an excellent panel member for Elizabeth Edwards's visit yesterday. So the woman was one of three panel members, and did an amazing job. She told the following story, though I'm sure in a completely different way:

Remember in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, when the Communist/Socialist/Anarchist/Good-guy militia had so few weapons that they had nothing to train with and many first held a gun when they took it from the militia member they relieved? It was kind of funny, when I read it, imagining all those poor anti-fascists having nothing to learn at training besides how to march around and follow orders (well, sort of) from their comrades. Well, it's not so funny when it's one of the best-funded and supposedly best militaries in the world. The War Resisters League says that half of US tax dollars go to pay for past and present wars. One might think this would pay for, say, weapons and transportation, and of course combat pay for soldiers. Turns out, it's not enough, or it's going to the wrong places. Not only has combat pay been cut for National Guardspeople from $250/month to $100/month. The $250 was already too low. They only have health insurance while they're on active duty: come home, no medical coverage. When this woman's husband was training over in Indiana to go to Iraq, they had no weapons. They had no vehicles. They used sticks as guns, aiming them at targets/each other/whatever and only knowing whether or not they'd hit anything by their superiors telling them so. They marched around in groups of six pretending that they were in cars and mimed opening and closing the doors when they had to. Now, this is neither cute nor funny when it's still happening and when it's happening under a President who critiques his opponent for voting against body armor for the soldiers. As much as I disagree with the military-industrial complex and its high funding, I at least think the people who have to go fight should be as best prepared as possible. Fuck space-missile-defense bullshit. Give the soldiers the means to defend themselves.

Bush has to lose this November. I'm feeling a little more hopeful about it these days, what with the latest polls, but it's a scary scary world if Dubya gets a second term.

Of course, if a second term brings about the Revolution, I might reconsider =D

I'm giddy in love with...

(in no particular order, besides maybe chronological-free-form-stream-of-consciousness)
I <3 Huckabees It makes me want to learn about philosophy, and film, and watch The Big Lebowski again, and find more cool indie-ish cult-favorite films.
Jude Law So hot. And in 4 movies apparently coming out in 2004 that I haven't seen yet (and 2 I've seen and would see again)
Modest Mouse I mentioned them before, but have since bought their cd. It makes me want to learn more about good new music.
World/Inferno Friendship Society They make me want to rock out and write songs with no rhyme or reason to them.
Weekends The last two were awesome, as is this, as will be the next 3 at least.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays Days I work at LEAP. Yay 5-year-olds, and teachers who sometimes act like them.
The Red Sox Yaaaay! This is *so* the year =D
You Especially if you comment on my blog.
Shameless blog-comment-seeking See above. And comment.

My cousin's baby!!!

Awake
Originally uploaded by ertzeid.

His name is Nikolai, and he's about a month old now.

I may soon have a picture that one of the kids at work drew for me, if I get my shit together to go take a digital photo of it... the kindergardeners are all so cute!

So, that's a my life... babies and small children... werd, I can't wait for homecoming!

Up the Midwest!

so i spent the weekend in richmond, indiana, visiting my little bro (heretofore "t-rob," to protect the innocent. or, the guilty, if one is talking about underage drinking on a dry campus. is heretofore really a word? i think i made it up...) at earlham college.

(for those i haven't told... earlham is a quaker school just over the border of indiana from the dayton, ohio area. it's small--1100--and actually has a peace and global studies (get with the program, wes!) their president is also named doug bennet, and they even call him douggie b, but he's on sabbatical and is way cooler than our douggie b. or at least, theirs is actually left-wing, anti-war, and speaks clearly. and pays attention to students. i think one douggie b might be the bizarro version of the other)

it all began with 2 flights to get to indianapolis. dad got a direct flight, but i ordered my ticket a week ago and they only had layover flights (long story, not me procrastinating i swear). so i got to go to the mall of philly airport! like the mall of america, except not big and lacking a log flume. so, actually, nothing like the mall of america. mostly pretty boring.

so i arrived at indianapolis late enough that what with dinner and all (all the fun of parents visiting the college student and taking them to dinner away from campus, without the eating campus food normally!) we were almost an hour late to this presentation/concert of country blues music. and it's a good friggin thing. the beginning was a 1 1/2 hour lecture about the music, which was interesting... for about 10 minutes. so, good thing we only caught the last half hour. but then, the guy and another guy (according to the first guy, who is an ethnomusicologist and somewhat of an expert on country blues, the second guy is the best harmonica player in the world) played some tunes. that part was pretty cool. especially the train song, which is a harmonica solo where it sounds like a train leaving the station. and it really does sound like that. so that part was cool. and the rest of the live music.

saturday, we went and met t-rob's profs. or, 3 of them. one called my little bro "the tall skinny kid" which threw us all off, cuz he wasn't always tall. we looked around at all the other departments' tables, and just seeing all the social science books made ma all nostalgic for college... till i remembered all those books i bought when i was in college, and never finished reading. maybe i'll read them now that i have some free time =D

then we went to SagaLunch, aka the fancy on-campus meal where they make the food better and put tablecloths on all the cafeteria tables (yes, they do it at other places than wesleyan). this did not make me nostalgic for college. but we did meet a pennsylvania nader-voter. while i do agree with a lot of nader's politics myself... she's polishing the silver on the titanic; it's all goin' down if bush wins again (10 points for whoever correctly identifies that quote!). but i didn't really get into a discussion with her, seeing as i didn't even know the woman. she was the only non-kerry supporter we met all weekend--and in a solid bush state no less! we also saw more "support the troops" yellow ribbon car-magnets than god. one had a "bring them home" heart underneath, which was cool in that at least there are magnets challenging the supporting troops/opposing wars binary, even if it all tends to oversimplify the issue. anyhoo, enough soapboxing for one blog...

so then we went bowling! somehow, even having grown up in the MA, both my parents kicked some serious big-ball bowling ass. i came into my stride by the end of the first game, and then developed a bit of a blister on my thumb and lost it again by midway thru the second game. but at least i can sympathize with derrick lowe =) so then i chilled w/ t-rob while the 'rents went off to some museum. it was pretty dorm-tastic. and generally college-tastic, in a hanging out, surfing the internet kind of way.

so after dinner, we went to this student concert of two percussion groups, a jazz group, and the gospel choior. the whole thing was rawk-tastically awesome. especially the ERP (earlham revolution propaghandists. or, more accurately, earlham rhythm project). THEY PLAYED BUCKETS!!! it was like what would happen if a bunch of real drummers did samba, and had a much more complicated piece, and no whistle, and wore funky black and red outfits and were on a stage instead of at a protest. not exactly sambahots (but, in all honesty, what is?), but amazing-tastic-rawkin' all the same =D

then we went back to the b&b and watched the snl version of the debates. but, i mean, i dunno what they thought was so funny... being president *is* hard work! but we're turning the corner! and working hard! seriously tho... i don't think "bush/cheney04: guys this is hard" will be a very successful campaign slogan... oh we did see real, honest-to-goodness campaign ads! wow! kerry's was totally better. bush's reminded me of hangman, and my mom of a powerpoint presentation (or, as *our* douggie b would say, "shit on a slide").

this morning we went to richmond's county's friends meeting. i actually really liked it. i thought about stuff, and a couple people spoke... i mean, typical meeting fare, only earlier than the ones here, but i guess i was just in need of some introspection. so on that note...

fight fight, inner light, kill, quakers, kill!
knock 'em down, beat 'em senseless!
do it 'till we reach consensus!

come on, you know i don't get *that* serious on this thing =)

to sum up, earlham=cool. and earlham=the wesleyan of the red state (oberlin already claimed the "wesleyan of the midwest" title... i mean, i say it can be the wesleyan of the swing state or something).

what's coming up:

so i'm almost positive this is my plan for the next few weekends (and by next few, i mean the end of october)... i'll go down for homecoming! and probably (hopefully!) crash at 19 fountain. there will be much revelry and some giving john stossel hell. the following weekend, i'll stop for a night at wes (maybe halloween party night, but maybe not) the night of the 29th, and hopefully stay with r-brig, and then the next day go to KPd's so we can go see green day that night. woot! then, to break up the drive, i might stop in m-town on the way back up on the 31st, for lunch or something. but maybe not, since i'll also go on nov. 2! for the election party, in full regalia (read: my sweet-as "november 2" t-shirt. oh yes, i'll be "that guy"). i'll get there not wicked early, as i get out of work at 6, but i'll get there. but then i'll have to not visit for a bit, for fear of becoming a truly sketchy alumni who keep showing up even tho she graduated and it's 2 hours away from her house. but anyone and everyone are welcome to visit me any time!

oh and also, bring it, anaheim! GO SOX!