Effluvia

Election News
Review Revue

CNN: The solid, unflashy coverage you would expect. I get the feeling everyone else checks with CNN before they go public with their stories. Who can blame them? The New York Times like to think it's the paper of record, but the real document of the era is CNN.

MSNBC: This is what I watched on election night, actually. The Williams/Matthews combo is surprisingly effective - and entertaining.

Salon: Good in-depth articles, covering a wide range of election issues. I like Salon regardless.

Slate: Good political coverage, as usual. Most everything on Slate has a certain bemused detachment - the perfect attitude for what's going on in Florida.

CBS: Is it just me, or is Dan Rather looking really old?

Journals

• Bad Hair Days
• Plaintive Wail
• Humidity and Hebephrenia
• Randomly Ever After
• U9
• Fukushu
• Nature of life...
• DNA Sequencing

I loaded up CNN.com when I got to work to check the latest news, and at the top of the page there was this banner ad for - I kid you not - Lockheed Martin Naval Combat Systems. WHo exactly is their intended audience for an ad like this?

"I'm tired of driving the kids to school in an SUV. Maye...hey! How about a Seawolf submarine!"

I mean, can you just call 'em up and say, "hi, is this Lockheed Martin? Can I speak to a salesman about a submarine, please?"

And we're talking a multibillion dollar piece of equipment, here. I bet that's one pushy salesman.

Weird election, huh? I hear that alligators and escaped monkeys were allowed to vote in a small precinct in the Everglades. The monkeys leaned toward Nader, the gators were solidly behind Bush.

If there's an actual tie in the popular vote in Florida, I think they should settle it with soccer-style penalty kicks. Five shots each, top man wins.

Not to be a political ghoul or anyhting, but isn't it exciting? It's better than Survivor and Big Brother combined! The excitement, the dread, the anxiety! And it's nationwide! I'm hooked!

I've made no secret that I'm not crazy about George Dubya, but I don't think he can do too much harm in the White House, not with the heavy concentration of Democrats in Congress. The same thing applies for Gore. I think either way we're in for four years of forced moderation. We should enjoy the election crisis while we can.

I got a haircut today, and to my surprise it's actually good. It surprises me because I went to Supercuts.

Now, I've had one other discount haircut in my life. I went to Fantastic Sam's the week before I got married. Stupid? Yes. Some girl who I'm sure had no formal hair-styling training hacked away at my beautiful flowing black mane. I looked like I had mange when she was through.

And since I started patronizing Shawn a few years ago I've become a haircut snob. I need a salon, by god, and a gay man better be cutting my hair.

But there was nothing else in the neighborhood, and I walked right in on my lunch hour.

"How do you want it cut?" the girl said as she threw a smock around me.

"Clippered?" I suggested, "maybe a two on the sides and a three on top?"

"Okay."

And then BOOM! I had a haircut. It was like she sneezed or something and my hair was gone, it was that fast. There wasn't a whole lot of chit-chat, and she was not at all gentle with the clippers (had there not been a guard on the clippers I've no doubt she would have gouged out my brain) but I instantly had a stylish haircut.

And only ten bucks. Cool.

I mentioned last time that the cable modem was all fucked up, right? Right, and it hasn't worked since Monday morning. It's almost impossible to get Cox Cable to actually come out and look at such things, and I was beginning to despair.

Then, last night, I turned on the CD burner. Through some strange magic this made the modem better. It came on, too, and has worked fine ever since.

There is no explanation for this.

So anyway, you can go back to the @home.com e-mail, at least for now.

And company's coming to town this weekend - I'll probably be back on Monday or so.