October 2005 Archives

I cannot wait, only five days until The Truth comes out!

Make sure to check out this awesome video he made for Amazon.

Phil and I went yesterday to Total Wine and More to get some decent beer at a decent price. We were heartbroken to hear that they don't carry any Midwest beers. The floor associate told us that they used to carry Leinenkugel's but the distributor stopped. So I ended up getting two wheat beers, a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (veeerry naaacce) and Blue Moon Belgian Wheat.

Nothing will ever beat the splendor of the cheap Aldi Corona-esq Guatemalan beer called Monterey Bay or Yuengling.

I'm really getting turned off by Wikipedia, and I don't know if I'll ever come back to it. I've noticed in the past few months that there is far too much junk and too many petty people to make Wikipedia great.

I must say that after seeing two full episodes of Commander in Chief that I'll never watch it again, at least until it becomes a serious show. The show is 10 percent decent politics and 90 percent bad writing and bad drama. It has none of the flair that early West Wing episodes had.

I absolutely love The Colbert Report after just two episodes. Stephen Colbert deserves his own show, the man is hilarious and talented. Jon Stewart (as anchor) is funny, but he lacks the satirical genius that Colbert has in his performance. Colbert has nailed Bill O'Reilly, but it isn't a one-joke show. I hope his show can keep this up and really get the "good guests" instead of the second or third-rate people that come on Stewart's show far too often. The biggest difference for me between the Colbert Report and The Daily Show is that with Colbert I don't feel compelled to turn it off after the first segment or two.

I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, but I think I agree with most of the recent tax reform proposals made by the Bush administration's tax advisory commission. I agree that we need to simplify the tax code. I strongly believe in a progressive flat tax with very few deductions (these two proposals are a step in the right direction).

I think that I've listened to OK Go's new album Oh No at least three dozen times, second only to The Who's Tommy or Van Morrison's Moondance.

Only a few weeks (11/10/05) until I see Ben Folds with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, I'm very excited!

Now I'm off to sleep!

This was a letter I wrote to the strib. They published the letter on Oct. 4th, a few days after I wrote it.

Action from Coleman?

Why am I not surprised that Sen. Norm Coleman is getting ready to roll over on ANWR drilling ("Coleman wavering on Arctic drilling," Oct. 1)?

Coleman's spokesman said he's done everything he could to keep it out of the budget bill, but is that true? Has he stood on the floor of the Senate and demand that the matter be taken up separately? Has he organized senators who oppose the prodrilling language in the budget bill?

I wonder if Coleman actually wants to stop the drilling.

I remember when his Senate seat was held by a man who actually acted on what he promised -- Paul Wellstone. It is times like these that I miss him the most.

Micah W. Clemens, Minneapolis.

I keep saying I'm going to change and blog more only to give up mere minutes after making that promise. So I guess that I will try once again to start blogging again. I've just given up on the comments, I guess I can live without them.

I've recently spent a ton of time sitting around the apartment, waiting for class at night, and I've been watching a lot of TV. I should clarify, I've been watching a lot of television shows but usually not live when they air. I've been doing a lot of "time-shifting" and DVD viewing, and there is so much good stuff out there among the midst of the crap that seems to top the ratings. I've been spending an equal amount of time with both great shows that were canceled prematurely and great shows that probably will be axed soon.
Great canceled shows:

• Freaks and Geeks
• Undeclared
• Firefly

• Arrested Development (Fox is just itching to cancel what is probably the funniest show on television)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (Luckily HBO recognizes talent and quality)
• Entourage (same story as Curb)
• The Office (Americano)
• Veronica Mars (My new guilty pleasure replacing Las Vegas)
• Weeds (Probably the best new show)
• Starved