Sep

  

Sep

I take it back … you know, I had been thinking she wasn’t qualified for her position. But, you know, seeing how Republicans really just seem to be interested in running a racket on the American people, I am thinking she’s very qualified to be a Republican seeking higher office – the lies, the abuse of power, the scams … she’ll fit right in.

Here’s the latest … turns out public officials taking gifts is an abominable thing … except for her: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092503988.html

  

Sep

Wow, what a way to kick things off. Craig & Tony were surprised McCain actually showed up, but, seriously, how could he not?!! That whole debacle on McCain’s part played very nicely into Obama’s hands. Loved Jon Stewart’s take on it last night … John McCain, the only man who can compulsively overreact to something 10 days old! He arrives in Washington almost a full 24 hours after his announcement, then does his best to wreck the agreement. Nice.

Okay, so here’s my blow-by-blow on the debate as it goes down…

45 new nuclear plants?!! Where exactly will those go, John? Arizona????

“A healthy economy (with low taxes with not raising anyone’s taxes) is probably the best recipe for eventually having our economy recover” – now that’s a W-worthy quote from McCain.

Star wars caused the end of the cold war???

Now I’m bored. Obama is kicking butt, McCain looks like the addled old dude who’s WAY past his prime that he is. Oh, and I LOVE that Palin declined to appear tonight. Great choice, eh John? Can’t wait for that VP debate next week.

  

Sep

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/25/1199/18713/536/609674

I don’t know how these people sleep at night…

  

Sep

Ummm…yeah…you know, it’s especially not pretty when the executive branch has been running a racket for 8 years that finally caught up with them, and then expected to be handed SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS to bail their fat-cat cronies out, with no accountability and no strings attached.

Honestly, I don’t know how this guy sleeps at night.

At least people are noticing McCain’s obvious ploy – even his own party “supporters” are condemning this. This is the perfect example of his hot-headed tendencies to act rashly without thinking through the consequences. Not exactly what we need in a President – again.

  

Sep

Awesome new piece by Andrew Sullivan in the Atlantic Monthly on the NUMEROUS flat-out lies Palin has told since receiving the nomination: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-twelve-odd.html

Also a great new piece on Politico explaining how she’s been handing out in her hometown instead of … you know, being the governor she was elected to be, about 80% of the time since she took office – and that’s after accounting for weekends in holidays!

Amazing, all that executive experience…

  

Sep

Check out the Cranky Professor’s blog on this – pretty hilarious!

Yes, I know we started out the 2005-2006 football season 4-0 as well (under Jay Cutler), and that a still-stunning loss to MTSU in game 5 sent us into a downward spiral that ended in a 5-6 overall season (though beating UT in the final game ALMOST made it worth it, and Cutler was rewarded by being the 11th overall draft pick). And I also know that our next game against Auburn is going to be on a whole different level than the first 4 have been.

BUT, it’s still pretty cool – keep in mind, Vanderbilt has only gone the THREE bowl games EVER, has NEVER won the conference title, and has not even had a winning season since Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” was at the top of the pop charts (that’d be 1982, for you non-’80s buffs). Plus, even though Auburn is likely to crush us like a bug, we have a very good chance at beating Mississippi St and Tennessee, and we should definitely beat Duke, Wake Forest & Kentucky.

My prediction: we end the season with 7 wins, and are bowl-bound baby!!! That is, unless the apocalypse comes before then!

  

Sep

What fun – a topic combining two of my favorite things, movies and music! I had a blast going through iTunes this morning – quite the walk down memory lane. You will be able to tell from my list that I was a teenager in the ’80s – like, totally! Another note: I interpreted “song” as meaning music and words – otherwise the themes from Star Wars & Jaws would’ve definitely been on this list! I also *tried* to focus on songs that were written specifically for movies, rather than songs later co-opted for a soundtrack.

Here are my top 10 movie songs:
1. Footloose (Kenny Loggins)
2. Animal House (Steven Bishop)
3. Flashdance … What a Feeling (Irene Cara)
4. Tonight is What it Means to Be Young (from Streets of Fire; Fire, Inc.)
5. Eye of the Tiger (from Rocky; Survivor)
6. In Your Eyes (from Say Anything; Peter Gabriel)
7. Fame (Irene Cara)
8. This Kiss (from Practical Magic; Faith Hill)
9. Axel F (from Beverly Hills Cop; Harold Faltermeyer)
10. Don’t Worry, Be Happy (from Cocktail; Bobby McFerrin)

okay, actually I couldn’t stop at 10 today, so for this week I have 20 on Tuesday:
11. Danger Zone (from Top Gun; Kenny Loggins)
12. St. Elmo’s Fire/Man in Motion (John Parr)
13. Holding Out for a Hero (from Footloose; Bonnie Tyler)
14. Rhythm of the Night (from The Last Dragon; El Debarge)
15. On the Dark Side (from Eddie & the Cruisers; John Cafferty)
16. Good Enough (from Goonies; Cyndi Lauper)
17. Who’s Johnny (from Short Circuit; El Debarge)
18. A View to a Kill (Duran Duran)
19. Magic (from Xanadu; Olivia Newton-John)
20. Climb On A Back That’s Strong (from As Good As It Gets; Shawn Colvin)

Okay, so today I am obviously being work avoidant. This all got me thinking about soundtracks that are just awesome start-to-finish-, even though none of the individual songs made the list above. So, just for fun, here’s a list of my top 25 movie soundtracks:

1. Saturday Night Fever
2. The Big Chill
3. Good Morning Vietnam
4. When Harry Met Sally
5. Grease
6. Boys on the Side
7. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
8. Forrest Gump
9. Purple Rain
10. Coyote Ugly
11. Pretty Woman
12. Mr & Mrs Smith
13. Pulp Fiction
14. Boogie Nights
16. What Women Want
17. American Graffiti
18. Bridget Jones’ Diary
19. High Fidelity
20. The Lost Boys
21. The Lion King
22. Wayne’s World
23. Risky Business
24. Cars
25. Notting Hill

Whew, I guess that’s enough for today! Possibly I should get some actual work done now…

  

Sep

I’m really not very “star-struck” – I don’t think people’s opinions or tastes or whatever are more important just because they’re famous. Also, living in Nashville means you “meet” celebrities all the time – but all that means is you bump into them at the airport or in line for soda at a Titans game or at a restaurant. It’s not like you’re going to become their new BFF, or frankly that they’re even going to remember meeting you. I don’t really consider that “meeting” someone, and I tend to not call all my friends and tell them about it when I “meet” a celebrity in this fashion.

That being said, there are people I’d love to sit down and have an actual conversation with, either because they are important decision-makers in our culture, or because they’re artists or innovators of various types and picking their brains would be kind of cool. SO, for this week’s topic, I am focusing on the top 10 people I’d like to sit down and have a conversation with:

1. My husband’s dad – for the most part, I focused on people who are still alive, but I have always wished I could’ve met my husband’s dad. His sisters tell me we probably wouldn’t have gotten along (he supposedly didn’t care much for strong women), but I’d like to give it a go. Unfortunately, he died before I met Craig, so I will never know.

2. Barack Obama – honestly, I have more hope in this man than I EVER have about any politician. I *truly* believe he has the potential to change the horrible political climate that has existed in our country since the Reagan years, cross party lines, and GET STUFF DONE! Yes we can…

3. Sugarland – no good reason here, I would just be the typical groupie going “wow, I really love your music”! %-)

4. Steve Jobs – first off I would like to express my gratitude for his role in creating the most perfect device ever (that’d be the iPhone); would also like to pump him for details on the “next great thing”.

5. Steven King – what an amazing place to live his mind must be!

6. My paternal great-grandmother – she was a full-blooded Cherokee and she got kicked out of the tribe (supposedly) when she married my great-grandfather. Would love to hear more about her story, and from her perspective.

7. JK Rowling – to try to persuade her that we need to know much, much more about Harry and his friends!

8. Billy Gillespie – ’cause he needs a pep talk about what it means to be the basketball coach at the University of Kentucky!

9. Simon Cowell – ’cause that would just have to be a trip

10. George W Bush – I know, a weird one from me, but sometimes I wonder if can he possibly be as clueless and dogmatic and … well, lots of other not good things … as he seems. Call it morbid curiosity, I guess.