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Jbeatty's Journal

jbeatty
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02/01/2008 10:04 #43126

Presidential Race
Category: politics
Not that I talk about politics much. I am really curious to see who is going to end up running with who. With the top two democrats being so cordial last night and Giuliani kissing Mccains's ass are we going to see a Clinton/Obama vs McCain/Giuliani election?
james - 02/01/08 14:57
Speaking of relics from the 60's, I was slightly saddened to find out that Obama was born on the last year of the baby boomers.
jason - 02/01/08 13:34
I'm done with the old blood. I just am. These sixties relics need to be put out to pasture. I don't want to hear anything about the 60's anymore. We have to define our own times on our own terms. Obama to me seems like the only one these days who isn't fundamentally full of shit about who he is or what he believes. If the Democratics are first in this respect, to turn the page, then so be it.
james - 02/01/08 13:30
While on the campaign trail Obama has been brokering a peace deal in Kenya. The man is not the most experienced member of our government in foreign relations, certainly, and will have a ton of people advising him on this and other issues. I am just saying this trope of 'he has no experience' is malarkey. But if experience were the sole qualifier for a president Biden or Dodd should have won the nominee. I am just tired of camp Hillary painted herself as having a ton more experience than he has. And sure, working for Barry Goldwater and Walmart must have been fantastic experience but man am I sick of her acting like her shit doesn't stink when clearly it is one of the stinkiest bits around.

Have I mentioned Joe Biden looks like a werewolf?
joshua - 02/01/08 13:04
James, suggesting that Obama has great foreign relations experience because he's spent part of his life overseas and now sits on the foreign relations committee as a freshman senator... I know you are an Obama fanboi but that is severely stretching it. Obama has many, many questions to answer if he expects to calm the people down who feel that he is underqualified - which I have to say is the case. If he gets elected he will likely have been the least qualified President to win the office since Grover Cleveland, and even Grover Cleveland was more qualified than Obama is, having served as NYS governor.

I love Joe Biden - he is by far my favorite Democrat. He is a bit arrogant at times but the past few years he has mellowed out. I think he would be a very, very shrewd pick as VP. I still can't help but imagine him as the Demo's answer to puppeteer Dick Cheney though. God bless Joe Biden but everybody knows that he thinks he knows best.
drew - 02/01/08 11:19
I think Obama/Clark would be good. or Obama/Biden.
james - 02/01/08 10:27
I think Obama has great foreign relations experience. I mean, the man has lived abroad in a developing nation and he sits on the foreign relations committee. Though if he were to pick someone in that field RIchardson would be a good choice as Obama is weaker on the Latino vote, though his support there is growing. Defense experience would be ideal. Obama has been running on love and togetherness and junk. He needs someone a little more hawkish to not seem like Mike Gravel-lite. I would like to see Joe Biden or RIchardson as the pick.

Clinton needs someone who is not a Clinton. Republicans and Independents don't like her for being a Clinton and with center loving (despite a conservative record) McCain in the mix she needs someone with centrist appeal. But I don't like her so I haven't given any one a thought.

McCain needs to energize the GOP base. Huckabeee would get the Evangelical base but not the fiscal conservative base. Romney should serve that function but he has pissed off everyone else in his campaign by flopping on issues like a fish. McCain is damaged goods and ne needs someone to fix that, but I am not sure who is looking for work.

If Romeny gets the nomination... well, he can pick Jesus Christ as his running mate and he would still lose.
jim - 02/01/08 10:15
I am not sure if there is room for two Clintons and an Obama in the Whitehouse. Obama is more charismatic the Hillary - and she already has to contend with Bill Clinton's looming figure. And if it's Obama doing the picking, he really needs someone with foreign policy or military experience (Richardson again, Wes Clark maybe?), but maybe for unity's sake he'd pick Hillary. Tough call!

McCain and Guiliani both have sever problems with their party's base - McCain on campaign finance reform and immigration and Guiliani on social issues, and neither one is particularly religious, so the VP slot on the Republican side is almost definitely going to someone who loves Jesus and guns and who hates the gays and Mexicans. McCain & Guiliani together would keep too many voters at home.

01/31/2008 17:16 #43115

Jobs and such
Today I was called off of work. This is the second time in two weeks. So I decided to make good use of my time off to apply for a new job. I dropped off my resume at 4 of the 6 sushi bars that I know of in the area. I have no idea if any of them are even looking for waitstaff, but I need to get a new job. I avoided O because I didn't really like it all that much, and Kibirashi because they have had problems with the tax man. I have never been to some of these places to eat, but I figure its all pretty much the same minus the strange specialty maki that places prepare. Obviously some places are busier and serve fresher fish. I really hope I hear something back soon.

As a reward for not killing anyone when I was called in I checked out the new beer store VBM on elmwood. I think it opened this week. The shelves are partially stocked with some delicious brews. The guy working there told me they intend on stocking over 1000 kinds of beer. They have about 8 taps to fill growlers. I was shocked to see that they have Delirium Tremens on tap, but at $24.95 a hit I opted for a sixer of Dogfishhead Raison d'etre instead. They certainly aren't winning any awards for being the cheapest beer store in Buffalo, but they will still get a good majority of my business. Besides beer they also have a small deli, some expensive looking prepared foods, a small selection of cheese, hot sauces and some foo foo crackers. I'm guessing the markup on the beer isn't good enough to sustain the business? Despite the prices I am really excited that this store opened. This means I can walk to get good beer!!!
jenks - 01/31/08 17:39
mmm, dogfish head
james - 01/31/08 17:30
to fill growlers? I need to do a little research!

Please post about what beers you like. I avoided beer for years because I hated my father's beer (Bud lite, Coors lite) but am a babe in the woods without the guiding wisdom of good beer drinkers.

01/24/2008 13:35 #43011

Too excited!
I just bought my plane tickets to go to Budapest!. I have no idea exactly what I'm going to do yet when I get there but I guess thats half the fun. I still can't believe how cheap the tickets were. I almost waited a few days to see if they would go down but then the price of $707 from Buffalo came up and I had to take it. I really hope the dollar doesn't get any worse between now and then.
fellyconnelly - 01/25/08 13:00
im jealous of your world conquering travels!
james - 01/24/08 14:26
With the US economy swirling at the bottom of the toilet it is probable that most other currencies will devalue as well. The US economy can take a hit better than Hungry can though, so it might work out for you after all.

Enjoy Budapest.

01/22/2008 12:03 #42984

I need help!!
Ok computer savvy peeps, I really need to find out the best or at least the cheapest way to run a windows application on my mac. I know absolutely nothing about any of this and I figured somebody here probably did. Do I need to buy a copy of windows? Because I would really rather not. Does anyone know of a free download that will do this? All I can seem to find is stuff for intel macs, which I don't have. Please help!
john - 02/03/08 18:14
What are you trying to run? Minitab? Depending on what you're running, I may have a copy of Windows for you (not if you need XP, though, I don't have a spare of that).

jenks - 01/23/08 16:24
ditto what jim said. If it's not an intel mac you need VPC, which frankly I never had much luck with... And yes you need a version of windows, but I think brit's right. check out UB micro. What do you need to run? maybe someone can lend you a laptop for a while or something? do it at work? maybe there's a secret mac equivalent?

jim - 01/22/08 13:00
What you need is Virtual PC, which Microsoft made for G4/G5 Macs.

It won't run super fast but should do OK. You do unfortunately need a copy of Windows but send me an email and I'll try to help you out with that part of it.

Which program do you need to run under windows?
brit - 01/22/08 12:48
UB micro gives it free to students or it's five bucks I can't remember which

01/21/2008 11:04 #42972

Ticket of shame
So I went to Holiday Valley yesterday to get some practice before I go to Whiteface in February. I guess I'm in slightly better shape than I thought because I'm a whole lot less sore than I anticipated. Anyway Holiday valley is kinda overpriced considering how small the vertical drop is. It looks like its probably a good place to learn. All ski places have the ski patrol and they are usually pretty cool as long as you are skiing in control. Holiday Valley has the added safety patrol, They have nothing better to do other than bust people skiing on trails that are closed but should be open. There was one trail there called chute, I believe, which was closed all day and towards the afternoon I decided all that fresh powder should not go to waste. My friend was apprehensive about going till I said "what are they going to do, take away our lift tickets??" It was the best trail we skied all day. When we got to the top of the lift "Sharon" armed with a pair of diagonal cutters was waiting for us. She took our regular tickets and gave us our tickets of shame.

image

I get so annoyed with some ski places. Why they have perfectly good trails closed just because they aren't groomed makes no sense to me. Some people actually like skiing ungroomed snow. I thought she was being way too dramatic about the whole situation. I'm already skiing at my own risk anyway, why shouldn't it be my right to decide whether or not I'm capable of skiing a trail?

But I did have a good time. They good about the mountain is at least they have a couple of high speed quads. So the time between bombing down the mountain is reduced by a few minutes.
fellyconnelly - 01/21/08 14:04
SKIING!!!! ack!

i am soooo jealous.
ladycroft - 01/21/08 12:33
awesome! at least you earned yours in defiance. i got one in aspen when i was first learning to snowboard. i lost control on a weird turn, which ended up sending me down a closed double black diamond. of course i promptly wiped out after hitting a mogul and was hunted down by ski patrol. i ended up riding my board like a sled the rest of the way down the mountain because i hurt myself and refused to ride in the 'i'm such a loser ski hammock'. :)
drew - 01/21/08 12:16
So is the snow good enough to make it worth a trip?
janelle - 01/21/08 11:39
Oooh, ooh, you got in trouble!

Could you have just outskied Sharon if you were at the top of the lift?