One Nation

I was out in Las Vegas the week before last visiting my parents. There are a lot of non-TV reasons I love hanging out with them, but HBO is certainly a perk. This winter/spring, HBO ran a miniseries called John Adams, which covered the events of about 1775-1805 from the perspective of Mr. Adams himself. Though it did sometimes hilariously remind me of the musical 1776 (Sit down, John, Sit Down!) and it had too many Hollywood types involved in it which resulted in annoying cinematography...decisions (somehow, I don't think the late 18th century was tilted...), it really was a fun and sometimes even poignant look at early American history. If they could condense the four episodes I saw into one hour (I liked it as is, but I'm a history buff...), I might even suggest it be shown to every American alive today. Seems like we could use a reminder about what it means to be an American.

Though the scenes between John and Abigail (played by Paul Giamatti and the always fabulous Laura Linney) were great, I think the most memorable moment for me involved a discussion between the second president and the third. (Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, respectively...please tell me you knew that). Said discussion took place during the presidency of Mr. Washington (everyone in the miniseries always referred to each other as Mr. this and Mrs. that...it was kind of nice). The United States was being drawn into the seemingly unending British-French conflict and a split arose over this between two groups who had already begun to grow apart: those who believed in individualism as the guiding principle for society (the Republicans, who sided with the French), and those who saw a need for greater governmental involvement (the Federalists, who were beginning to advocate joining the war on the side of the British).

Jefferson, if you know your history, was an unapologetic Francophile and a staunch Republican, and while Adams certainly did not wish to drag the new nation into a war, he was swayed by the potential he saw in a strong federal government and the National Bank idea in particular. The two former friends were clearly headed down different ideological paths by this point and had drifted apart socially as a result, but there's a scene with them walking down the street having an honest conversation about why each believed as he did. And it was striking to me because it made me wonder if this ever happens anymore. I know that Democrats and Republicans occasionally (though rarely) work together on bills and appear together for photo ops and things, but is there any effort to understand each other, to come together?

I'm a pretty solid Democrat, but it seems to me that if I were in the Senate or the House, I'd look for the most intelligent, most logical Republican I could find and make friends. We are (or were!), after all, working toward a common goal, even if our methods are different.

Why?

I don't know if anyone besides me saw the NCAA Women's Basketball quarterfinals (judging by the ratings, that's a no), but there was an incredible display of toughness, possibly even "heart". Tennessee's Candace Parker dislocated her shoulder reaching back to steal a ball. Somehow, she actually came up with the ball and proceeded to dribble halfway down the court with one shoulder hanging out of its socket. She went to the locker room shortly before halftime, where they put everything back in its place, then came back in the game! At which point, it popped out again when someone tossed a pass directly into her outstretched hand. Once again, they put it back and once again, she returned and played the last 10 minutes. Pretty bad-ass, eh?

So later in the week leading up to the Final Four, I read a shorty article on espn.com about her injury status and how likely it was that she would play (she did in fact play, and win a national championship). The article mentioned her toughness and her decision to forgo her final year of college eligibilty (she got a medical redshirt for her freshman year) for the Olympics and the WNBA. In short, it was an article you wouldn't be surprised to see setting the stage for the men's Final Four, but it was kind of nice to see it done for the women.

I never really click on the comments pages, but I do tend to read the few comments that are stuck at the bottom of the article. On this article, one said, and I quote, "yawn. i still won't watch."

Now, I realize that the internet is not known as a forum for politeness, but this seems above and beyond to me. Why even bother? Are you such a pig that you can't even stand women getting any attention at all? Do you think women's sports are inappropriate? Taking up space on espn.com? How could you not have better things to do with your 30 seconds? And the kicker? YOU READ THE ARTICLE! How bored could you be with it?

As I've said before, thanks for being rude for absolutely no reason.

Quicker on the Draw

I was on the bus recently, sitting near the front, when a woman got on, walked just past the card reader and began digging through her bag for her CTA card. After about 45 seconds of digging, she started to look around nervously and it became clear that she didn't have that card with her.

As she started to see what kind of coins she had in her bag and everyone else on the bus (me included, unfortunately) listened to iPods and stared blankly, a woman sitting 2 seats closer than I grabbed her own card, stepped up to the reader, said "I gotcha" and swiped her own card.

A nice warm fuzzy for $1.75

Man Up

It's possible that this is slightly colored by my intense hatred of all things Notre Dame but this article really yanks my chain.

Abstract:
Kyle MacAlarney, a guard on the ND basketball team, was caught with a small amount of marijuana at a 1:30 AM traffic stop the night of a game during the 06-07 basketball season. Apparently, he never thought he'd get caught because he had a clean record, "only one detention throughout my high school career." [Editorial note, Kyle: most of us have zero]. Like most upper middle class white kids caught with pot, he was allowd to enter a pre-trial diversion program, but it was up to the school to decide his fate on the basketball team. They dragged their feet in handing down the punishment, but ended up taking the heavy-handed route and suspending him for the rest of the semester.

He left in a huff, didn't even say good bye to his teammates and went back home to Staten Island thinking he'd never set foot in South Bend again. Luckily, a visit from his coach and phone calls from a couple team dudes convinced him to come back to show that he was the "bigger person." So he worked out alone for like three months, then went back to campus. Author Adam Rittenberg says, "he has earned the right to be cast in a new light." Notre Dame coach Mike Brey adds, "he's been a role model for other kids...great story, great kid."
[really, read the article, there's even more of this, and I couldn't make this crap up if I tried]


Ugh, even rehashing it, I'm about ready to vomit. Want a scholarship to come play basketball at Notre Dame? This is a Jesuit school, so you're going to need to keep from breaking the law. This is someone who had everything handed to him basketball-wise and threw it away, then dragged his feet and hung his head when he had to face the consequences. And when he didn't like those consequences? He was ready to leave his team without a word. This is not a role model, this is a child.

People make mistakes, I get that. But he didn't handle it well and judging from this article (and another almost copy of it that was posted on ESPN a couple of weeks ago), he hasn't even taken any responsibility for it. I would be willing to bet quite a bit that he still smokes pot. Worst of all, the article treats it like it was 'adversity to overcome', comparable to someone's brother being seriously injured in a car accident or Hurricane Katrina destroying your house. This was a choice MacAlarney made, not an unfortunate occurence.

MacAlarney's ability to hit three-pointers (when it doesn't count...zing!) notwithstanding, please don't tell us what a wonderful kid he is. There are plenty of kids working their butts off to be at Notre Dame who *didn't* try to toss it in the garbage. I'd say they have a leg up in the role model category.

Just Ask the Chocolate

Things are still a little chaotic. Car is fixed though I'm scared to be in it and just generally need to get my driving mojo back, heat is still iffy (fear of exploding ensues), had a little argument with the insurance company, issues with tournament I pushed my baseball team into, my knees hurt like I'm 50 years old...you get the idea. And while I consider myself a fairly well-adjusted person in general, I'm not oblivious enough to think I'm not also moody, and well, these things pile up.

On an unrelated at first glance note, I keep a bag of Dove dark chocolates at work, you know the kind with the weird sayings on the wrappers? I think the funniest one ever was 'Be your own Valentine'. Recently, I kept one that said 'Keep the promises you make to yourself', which seemed kind of poignant.

Anyway though, I unwrapped one today and it said (drum roll please): 'Don't think so much about it.' Good advice, eh?

When It Counts

Things that have gone wrong in the past week:
-2 of my car tires had nails in them
-my car broke
-my car broke again (actually it's the same problem, but it was taken to a mechanic in between, so it counts again)
-the circuit board on my furnace that controls the fan crapped out (since fixed, though part of the solution seems to be that it now makes a really high-pitched whine. awesome.)
-my iPod stopped working (since fixed)
-I found a pair of mesh shorts I liked (this is really hard for women, trust me) and the first time I washed it, the stitching came out of the hem
-my cable stopped working (since fixed)
-my CD player inexplicably shorted out (seems to be fine, but had to be reset)

This is a bad week. Really bad. The first time I've ever wished to be 17 again (weren't things easy then? no?)

One moment of clarity though. Last night, I was on my way to see a movie with B, one of those friends who generally means well, but can really get under your skin. I got about 5 miles out on the highway when the car went nuts and revealed that I had given the mechanics $480 to do something I could have done, which is NOT fix the car. I was nervous about the extra RPMs and jerky shifting, but it didn't seem to be in danger of not running at all, so I continued to her house and asked her if she'd drive to the movie and dinner. Ten minutes of venting about how there are no experts anymore and I was free to enjoy the movie (Juno - it was great!).

When we got back to her house, where my car was parked, she said, "Are you sure it will work? Do you want me to follow you?" And right before I opened my mouth to say "I'm sure it will be fine and I have my phone so I can just call you if there's any problem", I looked up and caught her eyes and saw that not only had she offered to follow me 20 miles home, she absolutely would have done it.

How many friends do you think you have that would not only do it, without complaining, if you asked, but would offer on their own? If you have more than a select few, consider yourself very, very lucky

This Week's Sign Of The Apocalypse

Anyone read Sports Illustrated? If so you'll recognize the title.

Anyway, background knowledge: I am managing a project in which we provide a data feed of fund prices to a newspaper. And this is mostly an email conversation.

E: So, A., the following 10 funds are missing 2/18 prices. Did the fund companies report?

Me: Yep, the 2/18 prices are in our database.

E: Oh, that's weird. They're not in the feed. Why don't you ask J. what's going on?

Me: J., how come the 2/18 prices are in the database and not in the feed.

J: O, how come the 2/18 prices are in the database and not in the feed?

X: O.'s out of the office so I'll have to ask A2. A2, how come the 2/18 prices are in the database and not in the feed?

(16 hour pause)

A2: Oh, because 2/18 was a U.S. holiday and they're U.S. funds.

Me: They're not U.S. funds

X: They're not U.S. funds.

Me: Wait, so you're saying the feed never happened because it was President's Day?

A2: Yes

Me: The database took the day off?

X: Essentially yes.

A2: I'll manually overwrite it because these are offshore funds. But for U.S. funds, the database can't work on U.S. holidays.

***
See, this is what happens when you give computers too much information.

Juicy

I have these two...well, friends would be a strong word, but definitely acquaintances I'm friendly with who are married to each other. It somehow came about once a few months ago that he and I watched a football game together. Originally, I thought she was coming, but it turned out she was out of town visiting a relative. Seemed maybe a little strange to me, but hey, despite some evidence to the contrary (#1 aaaaand #2), I've always thought that there's no reason guys and girls can't be friends, particularly if the boundaries are obvious.

And we had a pretty good time. There were a few awkward moments, including the fact that he really didn't seem to get the cue to leave once the game had been over for several hours and I was literally standing up for the last 40 minutes, but in general, we made pretty good football buddies.

A few weeks later, he called and kind of implied that we do it again. I told him I would be watching a certain college football game and that he could join me if he liked. He did. Again, we had this loooong period after the game was over where we were chatting and I was wondering when he might think it necessary to leave.

Then, he moved closer on the couch and kind of put his arm around me. I was almost totally frozen for I think about a full minute. The first 30 seconds in shock and the next figuring out what the hell I was going to do to get out of this one.

So I got up and walked over the counter and puttered around with something or other to buy some time. At which point, he apologized for making me uncomfortable and said he didn't know how he could have misread the situation. How the last time he left, he felt like I "expected something", that maybe he was letting me down. I was still pretty stunned, but I managed to get out something about didn't I see him as taken by someone else? And what had I done except agree to hang out a couple of times at *his* suggestion.

Then he said he hoped things wouldn't be awkward (we will certainly see each other again). I said I was of the opinion that things were always about as awkward as you allowed them to be and that I could act normal if he could. Then, after about five minutes of complete silence, I suggested that if he wasn't going to talk to me, he might want to leave. Which he did.

I saw him (and her, actually) for the first time since recently and though I behaved appropriately, I discovered I'm pretty darn angry.

I'm annoyed by his incredible arrogance and his assumptions about my behavior. Maybe they have some sort of weird arrangment or whatever, but I certainly don't know anything about it, and I really don't like the implication that I would be a willing participant anyway. It makes me feel like I need a shower.

Less importantly, he thinks that sitting six feet apart on the couch drinking a beer and yelling at football while petting the cat is the way I interact with guys I like?!? Listen buddy, if I wanted to sleep with you, you'd know it. I'm no delicate flower, so don't mistake my moderate friendliness for something that it isn't. Especially when you are 100% taken and you KNOW that not only do I know that, but I like your wife.

It's very sketchy ethically, both during, and now after when I have to wonder if I should say something to her. I won't, both because nothing actually happened, and because we're not really good friends and I would hope that she'd choose his word over mine, and because we all have to see each other.

Eureka

I don't anticipate too many more posts about politics. For someone who can get really into things (and jumps to conclusions a little...), I'm not all that political.

Throughout the democratic race, I've found myself very solidly behind Hillary Clinton. This sets me apart from many of my friends, in part because we're young, and likely in huge part because many of us are from Illinois. For the record, I think Obama is very likely a honest man, a smart man, and a good choice. Should he win the Democratic nomination, I'll back him 100% against the goof on the other side (McCain seems like a nice guy, but come on...). But as I said, he's just not my first choice.

For the last few weeks, I've been really trying to examine whether or not my position is because Hillary is a woman. After all, she and Obama have very similar ideas (well, we think. it's a little difficult to tell what Obama might do if elected) and platform is really not an easy way to separate them. I'll admit that Hillary's gender doesn't hurt, but I've also had this heretofore inexplicable...something...tugging at my sleeve. Something bothered me about Obama's campaign and I couldn't figure it out. Until now.

Remembering again the similar platforms of the two Democratic candidates, I though about what Obama was selling (I don't mean that in a bad way - they're all trying to sell themselves). He's big on the non-Washington insider thing and it's been pointed out many times by better theorists than I that his affability might even rival JFK's.

The 'new guy' thing has never really held much sway for me. After all, isn't the president's job essentially to work with people in Washington to effect change? Our political system is set up to change slowly (if at all!). Large-scale, rapid sweeping reforms are not in our history and they won't be in our future either.

The 'good guy' thing is generally well, good, but in combination with the above, it raises a serious red flag for me. I can think of someone else, someone pretty darn recent, who ran on the basic platform of down-home-nice-guy and inexperience in national politics. I'll give you three guesses.

I'm not saying they're the same by any means, but the similarity makes me nervous and I do wish people wouldn't be so darn quick to leap. These are important times.

Cog

Does anyone know why some people lose their voices all the time and others don't? Weak vocal cords? This is something I would like to know.

Yesterday, I took my first sick day in 3.5 years of work. People really aren't kidding when they tell you there's nothing on TV during the day. And I really should have taken Tuesday instead, but I didn't realize that until lunchtime and by then, well, you're already there, so... Wednesday was a chance for more sleep and the possibility of saving my voice (it kind of worked, as I have a voice. not my voice exactly, but it could be someone's so that's better than nothing). So I was up around 11 or so, and did some laundry, which really took a lot of energy, but not a lot of time. In all honesty, I was kind of bored. It does shorten your week though, I'll give it that.

Point is, though, I actually missed something at work. Without boring everyone, I'm the contact for a a few hundred fund managers and one of 'em is upset because their fund is showing up on a site it shouldn't be showing up on. And everything kind of came to a head yesterday, which I knew because I checked my email (told you I was bored). So I kind of felt like I was missing something. Which was awesome! What a pleasure it is to have a job where it would matter, at least a little, if you fell off the planet.

Guess all you have to do is threaten to move...
And to all the people who have asked recently, no I'm not moving. Not now, anyway. Good to know you're reading though!