I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
-- Caroline Kennedy
New York Times, Jan 27 2008
As a freelance software developer, it's often happened that I'm asked to take over the work that somebody else has, for one reason or another, left behind either incomplete or in need of ongoing maintenance. As with any endeavor where, on the short term, one is required to set aside one's preferred methodologies or otherwise accepted best practices in order to accommodate the style of the other person, the thought of "this guy is a fucking nutjob" crosses one's mind often, pre- or proceeded by a machine-gun rattatat of creative cursing, head-banging on the desk and certain promises made to oneself that, if paths were to cross at some point, his ass will be royally kicked.
It does not, however, happen that often that said predecessor is quite literally a homicidal maniac.
From the New York Times front page, a photo of the NY state Obama campaign headquarters, in downtown Manhattan....
I've been in that room. I went there to volunteer my time to do data entry at one point. I ended up networking a printer for them. The state campaign chief said I was a genius.
Recently I wrote about how I was letting my hair grow long so I could get a free haircut from Bumble & Bumble University. I know, why go forwards just to go back? Because you get to travel, that's why.
So, to review, this is what my hair looked like the day of the haircut:
| looking to the left | looking to the right |
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First, the headline "Bill Pulls a Rudy" is really (*gag swallow*) inexcusable.
Second... Really? Chelsea doesn't have it? I mean, unlike Rudy, he *does* talk to his children, no?
How lame.
I bought a radio-controlled helicopter from one of those stores on the Manhattan-end of DUMBO. It looks like this:
The remote is freakin' HUGE:
Now, here's the thing.. I have this plant called an Amaryllis.. and it looks like this (when fully bloomed):
Mine (unlike the "for illustration purposes only" sample above) was merely in the process of blooming at the time we launched what now, as a necessity, has to be called The HHWB(*) Amaryllis. After some sputtering and "oh jeebuz look out!" this is what remained of the flowering ends of my plant, after the super-sized housefly was swatted out of the way:
(*) His-and-His WhirlyBird
safety first, kids: make sure your doctor is standing by before you test-fly aircraft inside your house.
Just a few months ago I was canvassing for Obama in front of a supermarket near my house; there was more than one typically dark face (for my neighborhood) becoming angry at me, saying things like "What are you doing that for? You're wasting your time. No black man can win the presidency!" It was almost an affront to their concept of how the world worked. I had never seen anything like it (ok so I'm a bit sheltered).
My favorite thing about today is watching the talking heads on TV, saying things like "this is historic, a black man won the white vote in Iowa blah blah" and the best word I can come up with to express my reaction is embarrassment; how arrogantly condescending of them to say such things. Even they themselves seem to know this, forming such superlatives without the fullness of their heart and looking forward to the next thing to say.
I think it's a happy thing that it only takes one day, the right day, to move such thoughts from the future to the past.
