Year: 2009

Categories
Uncategorized

Pavement

Wilco was, for a long time, a group that I enjoyed but never craved. I
owned all of their albums but I never really understood them. Then one
night while I was in Yemen, everything clicked and I’ve been truly
hooked ever since.

I wonder if something similar has happened with Pavement and me. There
are people whose musical tastes I trust that think that Pavement is
the most brilliant group ever. I could see the appeal in a slacker-
rock kind of way but I never really got into them.

Tonight, I heard their song “Brink of the Clouds/Candylad” off of
their album “Wowee Zowee” and I think I understand why they may indeed
be one of those great bands. They had me from the begining when they
started by yelling “Johnathan Peel!!!” When they went into the “He’s a
candylad, he’s a lad made of candy,” bit I nearly fell out of my bed I
was laughing so hard. I had been missing out on the humor of their
music, it makes a lot more sense now. I think I’ll give “Korea Korea”
another listen and see how late I’ll stay up rediscovering their music.

Sent from my iPod

Categories
Uncategorized

I’m getting Internet!!!

But not until the 30th. Everyone said that I’d go nuts without it and
they were eventually right. I probably would have been able to wait a
bit longer except my job involves using and telling other people to
use the Internet all the time. I can’t wait to rejoin the digital
world!!

Sent from my iPod

Categories
freedom

The Berlin Wall

It fell 20 years ago today. I really am amazed at how quickly the cold war seems to have been forgotten. This was probably the biggest event in my lifetime and it still resonates with me now. Surely an event worth commemorating.

Categories
Uncategorized

Testing

Nothing to see here, just testing something out.

Sent from my iPod

Categories
freedom politics

What the vote in Maine teaches us

It shows that there are a lot of people that don’t like gay folks. It’s hardly surprising really. Here’s the thing about votes like that, at best, you are only going to make a lot of people mad no matter how the vote comes out. I sound like a broken record (skipping CD?) but this kind of politics breeds resentment and hatred. The hell of it is that there isn’t any reason for the government and its laws to be involved at all. The best way to sort out this problem is to have the government out of the marriage business. There really are some things that governments do not do well and social/religious agreements are at the top of the list.

Categories
medical

Root canal

Had the first part of my root canal today. The procedure really wasn’t a big deal. Yeah, it did feel really odd to have the dentist essentially roto-rooting my tooth out, but that’s about it. That may in no small part be due to the fact that the nerve in that tooth has died. The pain I felt on friday and saturday was most likely the last hurrah of that nerve.

Can’t say I’m real disappointed to hear that the nerve is dead. That thing has been bothering me off and on for three years. It’s a relief to know that it isn’t going to be causing me any more pain. On the other hand, the infection that caused that nerve to die is something that needs to be taken care of, hence the root canal. I’ll be popping antibiotics for the next week and I have at least one more visit, but I’m hopeful that this will be the end of the issues for this tooth.

Categories
MS

Like walking on stilts…

… that’s the best way I can describe the relationship I have with my feet. I can still mostly feel them, but it’s like they’re disconnected. It leads to constant balance adjustments, and you can imagine what it’s like trying to stand or walk in the dark, imagine doing that with stilts!

It is still a really odd sensation to feel something and not know where you feel it. Imagine feeling something and realizing that the sensation is coming from something 4 feet away from you. Yeah, it is that weird.

I don’t know how many times I have tried to move one of my legs only to find out I can’t. The reason is because I had crossed my legs and there was a leg on top of the one I wanted to move.

Ah, nothing beats fun with MS…

Categories
economics politics

Political economy Pt.1

Back in the mid 70’s, Gordon Tullock and James Buchanan wrote “The Calculus of Consent.” Its subtitle is “The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy.” This book, along with his previous writings, earned Buchanan the Nobel Prize in Economics for launching the study of political economy.

People have all sorts of ideas about how the political process works, and even more opinions about how it should work. Political economy is the study of how politics actually works. As it turns out, politicians aren’t all that different from people in any other job. On a day to day basis, they will do whatever allows them to keep their job and get them promoted. What these things are will vary depending on the type of government and the times they live in, but the general concept holds.

So why call the subject political economy? Why not just call it political science or just political studies? Another name for microeconomics is rational choice theory. By putting the label of “economy” on it, we emphasize the rationality of the actors as opposed to the ideology of them.

Political economy essentially tells us that when faced with a decision, politicians will tend to make the choice that benefits them the most. In this governmental system, politicians need votes, but it usually pays for them to target specific voting blocks. Political economy also has a lot to tell us about why bills tend to look the way they do. I’ll talk more about political coalitions and bill formations in a bit, the main idea I want to get across is that politics works the way it does because of rational choices given the incentives that they face. People’s frustrations over politicians stem much more from the system than from individual politicians. It isn’t a matter of avoiding evil ones and electing “good” ones, the system makes politicians what they are. In an ideal system, it wouldn’t matter much who was elected, but that’s not the system we have.

I think the next installment will be about voting blocks and the nature of power in the political process.

Categories
medical

Root canal time

Well my tooth has flared up again, so my dentist told me I need a root canal. This is the same tooth I just got crowned about a month ago. Grrr… The good news is that this will finally take care of this damn thing. It’s been bothering me in one way or another for three years. I guess it’ll be nice to put this behind me and be able to drink cold stuff and eat ice cream without worrying about the pain, but still. Ugh.

Categories
food

Food update

Just a quick follow up on my dining in the nearby Brookfield Plaza… I tried out Tippy’s taco house. How best to describe it? It isn’t as good as Baja Fresh, but they have Taco Bell prices and the food is worlds better than that! I had a burrito, taco, and some guacamole. Good for a fast food place, and the Mexican lime soda I had was really good too.

Went to the Korean place with a friend and I’m still not sure if I like Korean food. This was the third time I’ve tried Korean food. The prices were higher than the other places, but I had a dumpling soup that was pretty good. It’s not that I didn’t like it, but I’m not sure if there was anything to draw me back in. I might try to find a more knowledgeable Korean foodie and head up to Annandale, it’s supposed to be a Korean food haven.

Went back to Ravi’s kabob place, this time for kabobs. I dunno, I guess they were pretty good, but I don’t think they were as good as the Afghan place. Speaking of which…

The Afghan kabob place was a madhouse for lunch, it was much busier than any of the other places seemed to be. That boded well for the food, even if I had to wait a bit. It was a great lunch. The chicken kabobs were amazing, not so sure about the shami (ground meat) kabobs. I had a mound of rice, some potatoes, and great bread, you can’t complain about the portions that’s for sure! Ravi’s kabobs (the Pakistani place) just didn’t have as much flavor even if the sides were just as good. Cooking over charcoal like the Afghan place does makes a big difference in the taste, for the better. I need to try out some of the Afghan place’s non kabob fare to compare to Ravi’s one of these days.

Today I tried the Indian/French Bakery place for lunch. The buffet didn’t actually have a lot on it, but what I tried was really good. Butter chicken, chicken tandoori, some sort of curry chicken, rice, potatoes masala, eggplant masala, naan, it was all really good. Plus it was only 8 bucks for the buffet! I’ll be going back there, it might even become like my Indian place in Yemen, one of my more frequent places to eat…

So I still haven’t tried the Vietnamese place, the other (buffet) Pakistani place, the Chinese place, or the pizza place yet. Updates will come soonish I’m pretty sure…