The Coolest Place on Earth

Wired has this article today. I am envious to end all envious. It's all very well not to covet your neighbors whatnot, but they never mentioned a library in the text...

Random Thoughts on Many Things

I have no particular thing I wish to express today. I have lots of little things that have popped up and been considered.

• Sarah Palin/Tina Fey: Ok, I love, love, love Tina Fey. Margaret and I are huge fans of her work and especially 30 Rock. I can't help but think that there is a really strange convergence of events that bring her and Palin to the forefront of pop-consciousness. Normally our parodic instincts give us people who look nothing like the political figure they are mocking. Chevy Chase and Gerald Ford? Dana Carvey and Bush Senior? Nothing like each other. Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton was close, but Phil Hartman could have played Mary Tyler Moore convincingly, so that's not going to fly. But from the moment Palin was announced, all I could think was that Tine Fey was going to do a drop dead perfect Palin. And sure enough, she does. Seriously though, how does that work? Did McCain pick Palin with Fey in mind or what? How did they work that out? (And, to be fair, the first sketch, with Amy Poehler as Hillary, was so funny that I almost choked.)
  
• This election: I am not excited about anyone in it. If Obama wins I think that my life will change virtually not at all. I know a lot of conservatives that are convinced that he will be a death-knell for individual liberties in the US, but I think that since the Bail-Out Bill gives the IRS permanent powers for undercover operations indicates that there are very few individual liberties to take away. What the hell is Obama gonna do? NKVD powers for the IRS are about as evil a set of circumstances as I can imagine and I really doubt that there is anything else out there. Will he make abortion more legal? Will he legalize pedophilia? Probably not. The only issue I can think of that might be in the danger zone is Israel, and from what I am reading Israel is about ready to take a swing at Iran, at which point it doesn't matter who is in charge, we're probably not along for the ride. This election seems like a circus, which makes me think that it doesn't matter. It's a show and the actual powers that run the USA probably have it on as another opiate for the masses. Who is actually running? There are two old guard players with equal experience in saying insane things that you have to hope they don't mean. McCain and Biden. There are two inexperienced, hopefully well-intentioned but seemingly kind of dumb outsiders, Obama and Palin. Either way, it seems like we're getting the same choice. I am not convinced that voting matters this time, and the fact that MTV and Rolling Stone insist that it DOES matter makes it seem all the more unlikely.
• OJ Simpson: Man, that sucks. You really had to think that you could get away with anything, didn't you? I mean, let's face it, you walk away from a double homicide, you figure you're untouchable. Who'd have thought that some minor vigilantism would bite you in the ass?
• Books: I think that I have read every book on the entire island of Okinawa. I am going crazy. Thankfully Margaret got a job and our income is about to reach a level where I can buy books again. Amazon is about to get a payday. I need to read something new!
  
• My Brother Drew: He might get to come visit Okinawa for an extended stay. Certain personal issues in his life are leading to his needing a vacation. I am looking forward to seeing him, if it works out, more than I can say. Margaret and I talk about him all the time now. Everything we see we interpret through the likely Drew response to it. It is a safe bet that we end up laughing.
• I had this strange experience at 3:30 this morning. I was fast asleep and heard this screaming sound. It kind of reminded me of that old alarm clock we used to have that had a high-pitched whine as the alarm. I got up, to check the house. When I got up Margaret woke up and heard it, and she thought that it was some strange Japanese noise and that there was no way it was in the house. I walked out to the computer desk and one of my external hard drives was screaming, and I reached out to touch it, but just before my
  fingers hit it, it stopped. And it never started again. But then I was awake till about half an hour before it was time to wake up. So I slept in a little, which is unusual for me.

I can't think of anything else that I need to talk about. Thoughts?