Scratch that False Alarm Stuff...

..allergy season is in full swing, at least for me. It hasn't been the best of days — I've been about useless for accomplishing anything that requires more than a small amount of effort; I'm hoping tomorrow will be better.

Organizing

I spent a number of hours organizing my computer today. I have a bad habit of leaving old files in a mess when I reinstall my operating system. Some stuff is still sitting on a long retired Pentium II on its SuSE 7.1 installation that got left behind when I switched to Mandrake in 2001. I'm not going back that far just now, but I am dealing with several years worth of mess.

As it stood, I had a folder in my home directory on my G5 that contained everything from my PC prior to me removing Fedora and reinstalling Mandrakelinux 10.0 in June. Eventually a copy of that will go back to the PC (as well as remaining on the Mac), but first I wanted to merge that with the directory structure I was using on the Mac. To make matters more complicated, I still had a backup folder within that backup folder of stuff I had never reorganized from when I switched from Mandrake Linux 9.1 to Fedora Core. Each of those folders had files in a number of different places and few things were properly sorted. Some of the files were duplicates, since I had started copying and reorganizing the files last year. I decided it was time to redo them so that I could easily get to my documents in the future.

So far, I've organized about half of my text and word processor documents (alas some are in the incompatible KWord format, which will require some time to convert to something I can use on my GNOME and Mac desktops conveniently), 9,066 photos, several hundred images of other sorts (animated gifs, logos from projects, etc.), 1,030 musical tracks, 107 MPEG-1 video files (from my digicam) and numerous other tidbits. My goal, by the time I've finished, is to make it so that I can call up any particular file with minimal searching. I hope I'm successful!

On another subject, today is Wictory Wednesday. It is too late to donate to the Bush campaign, but don't forget to volunteer or do other things to help the President's campaign. I'm skipping the Wictory Wednesday blogroll for today, since it will make this mostly non-political post too long. I'll post it tomorrow.

Allergies

My eyes are burning and I've been sneezing for the last hour. I hope this is not a precursor to worse things tomorrow… this does not bode well.

QOTW #15: Pie

As always, please feel free to respond in the comments or use the QOTW as a meme for your own blog (if you do, consider linking to your blog entry from the comments).

What is your favorite flavor pie? If you could have one cream pie and one pie of another type, what would you choose for the type that your favorite did not fall under?

My favorite pie is — hands down — Lemon Meringue pie. A really good Lemon Meringue pie should send a super sour sensation throughout your mouth followed by the simple, sweet enjoyment of the meringue. Other than Lemon Meringue, I also really enjoy Banana Cream pie and Chocolate Silk Pie.

Since my favorites all fall in the cream pie category, the tough question is what type of “other” pie would I pick as a favorite? I really like most pies, but my favorite non-cream pie would probably be Pumpkin Pie. I love that too.

How 'bout you?

Beat

I don't know why, but I'm dead tired again. Guess I'm still catching up from last week. I'm hoping this week will be quieter. Anything special y'all planning to do for Labor Day?

Busy Again

What a crazy couple of weeks. I think we've finally gotten my uncle moved in, but traveling to the second floor of a condominium complex dozens of times over the past few days moving stuff in is taking its toll.

The family has given him a stern warning: he better not decide to move again… we don't want to have to carry everything back down again.

RNC Day 2: Governator

I'm not feeling energetic enough tonight to cover days 2, 3 and 4… so I'm just going to do day two right now. Tomorrow, perhaps I'll do both of the remaining days. On a side note, it seems a new Time poll is showing our President with a 11 point lead of likely voters even before his nomination! Exciting, huh?

Arnold Schwarzenegger might be a liberal Republican who is pro-abortion, pro-gay rights and so on, but he is still a very big asset for the GOP, I think. He seems to get along well with the more conservative portions of the party and his name and speaking ability makes him a great way to get people excited about the GOP. If Arnold, liberal or not, can get more people to vote for a pro-life, pro-family President like President George W. Bush, that's great.

His “How to Tell If You are a Republican” part of the speech was great. His humor was good and — dare I say it? — his speech was every bit as energetic and engaging as Barak Obama's was in July. I have no doubt that if the constitution allowed it, that Ahhhnold could win the presidency after his term as governor. He really rallied the troops, so to speak, at the RNC, but he also had non-Republicans excited. He emphasized some fiscally conservative policies, too, which was great.

Certainly, it did not hurt that he managed to fit in the phrase that terrorism will be terminated. Same goes for the story about the wounded soldier that told him that “he'd be back.”

The good governor also is exactly the type of person Democrats don't want the GOP to have. They see themselves as the party for immigrants. Well, guess what? Here's an immigrant that said that when he arrived in the U.S. he became a Republican because he thought the Dems' policies sounded too much like the socialist policies of the Soviet bloc he was familiar with. They see themselves as the preferred party in California. Well, guess what? Their candidate was recalled. They see themselves as the party of those whom John Kerry called the “heart and soul of America” — Hollywood. Well, guess what? One of Hollywood's biggest stars seems to have no love loss for the Dems. And the bitterest pill of all, I am sure, for the Dems: thanks to Ahhhnold, a Kennedy has set foot in the RNC. How's that for an accomplishment?

Overall, he was the highlight of the night. Although I shouldn't overlook the very good speech made by the first lady. Her speech was far less self absorbed than Mrs. Kerry's speech in July and focused most of its attention on her husband (whereas Mrs. Kerry seemed to focus more on herself and her late husband the Republican Sen. John Heinz). Unfortunately, Mrs. Bush had to start off her speech on a very low note.

All the momentum of the night up to that point was just thrown away thanks to the Bush daughters. Their incoherent, horrible example of a bad speech was the worst I've seen in a long time. The ten or twelve year old who spoke at the Democratic convention did a far better job than the Bush twins. They came across as immature brats. It would have been far better if they had just not said anything at all, and someone else, perhaps nephew George P. Bush, had given the introduction speech.

His speech earlier that night was very good. I got the same impression on Tuesday that I did in 2000: if he so desires, George P. Bush has the public speaking skills to do well in politics. I expect to see more of him in the future. Perhaps the GOP finally has its equivalent of the Kennedys in the Bushes.

RNC Days 2, 3 and 4

Unfortunately, not today either. Tomorrow…

RNC Days 2 and 3 Tomorrow

No time to write about them tonight. Need sleep. Goodnight.

RNC Day 1: Slowly We Start

The Republican National Convention day one was somewhat disappointing to me. It just seemed to start and move very slowly and in a disorderly fashion. The Democratic Convention 2004's first day was a lot more organized. Day one was saved by John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, part of the RNC's “showcase of moderates,” but two people should not have to carry the whole program to the extent that they did.

John McCain is a likable guy and it was good to see him getting the spotlight for awhile. His speech came across as sincere and, unlike many more partisan politicians, McCain can pull off a call for bipartisan unity without seeming like a hypocrite (I'd add that being politically partisan and being firm on your values aren't the same thing). I particularly liked his comment,

I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they should not doubt ours.

His speech was eloquent and well thought out. The most noticeable part, I'd suggest, though, was not really his speech per se, but the booing directed to Michael Moore (who is present at the RNC) when McCain quipped:

It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.


And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves… (Emphasis mine)

It took a long time after that comment for the crowd to calm down, and for good reason. Michael Moore is a fruitcake. And I do mean that with all the due respect I can possibly afford him. I'd love to see how Moore spins that in his RNC “coverage” in USAToday (fair and balanced, I'm sure).



Rudy offered a good speech as well. Much of it had similar content, only with a bit more humor and less eloquence. His speech, like McCain's is worth listening to at GOPConvention.com if you haven't already heard it. On the other hand, be warned that it is a lengthy speech — a bit too long in my opinion. Overall, however, it was good and again supported the idea of unity while respectfully disagreeing. He emphasized the need for the war on terrorism as well, just like McCain did. Of course, all of this was done with the New Yorkian attitude and style that makes Giuliani who he is.



Overall, I'd say the Dems outdid the pachyderms on the first night in style, but not content. Tomorrow, I shall aim to provide some remarks on RNC Day 2, including the Governator's speech.