The End

So I'm down to the last couple of hours of my thirties. I woke up thinking about how at least a condemned prisoner can cling to that possible pardon call. No such luck for birthdays. But the death imagery stayed with me when I realized that that was the only way to avoid turning 40. All of a sudden a birthday didn't feel so bad.

A Moderate Thanksgiving

Well that was the most moderate Thanksgiving of my life. If anything I under ate. I worked for a few hours, talked to most of the people I'm close to on the phone watched some old West Wing and went to bed early. To tell you the truth I'm pretty happy about it too. The holiday didn't interfere with any of the new routines I've set up for myself and here it is the day after and I'm feeling good. The phone kept me from feeling lonely and I'm glad I didn't go out like I usually do. Eating alone in a restaurant on a holiday just brings being alone into sharper focus. Anyway it's over and with no lasting effects spilling into today. For that I'm truly thankful.

Thanksgiving

I had a cranky day yesterday. I kept getting into fights with machines. The new blogging application I bought had an undocumented bug that took me two hours to figure out, both my computers froze up on me, and I couldn't get my daily inventory to balance with the work computer and either my payroll department or my lawyer's fax machine doesn't work. I have no access to either of these machines but they are still working hard to screw me over.

By the time I was finished with dinner (my 33rd decent meal in a row) I was looking for something more than baby carrots to drown my sorrows in. I was thinking more along the lines of a chocolate cake. Mind you I didn't say slice of. Anyway there is nothing remotely like that in my apartment and I was in no mood to go out. So I put the rest of the almost stale Raymond's Sourdough round in the microwave for 20 seconds and ate the remaining crust with Smart Balance and salt. Not the best thing for me but better than the alternative. Then I started surfing the news sites. That did not make me feel any better. The news from India made me feel foolish for all the petty things that I let get to me. I thought of the health and safety of all the people I'm close to and care about. So on this day of thanksgiving I'm thankful for all you mean to me and do for me. And in this economy I'm going to say thanks for having a job that forces me to work on Thanksgiving Day. That's better than having no job any day. So...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

BlogPost

This is my second attempt to post from the BlogPost iPhone application. I wrote a long catch-up post on it this morning and was pretty happy until I went to post and it gave me a network error for the next two hours. I'm trying this to see if it was something about that first post.

iPhone Love

Like any device, or software for that matter, my love affair with my phone waxes and wanes. Actually that might be going to far. I always love my phone and use it all the time. I guess what waxes and wanes is my using it as a substitue for my computer. Right now I am on an iPhone high and my shoulder is loving me for it.

It's because it's November. November is my month. Always has been. I don't know if it's because my birthday ends the month, the shorter days, the cooler but not cold weather or the approaching holidays, but November has always meant a creative burst for me. This year was no different although it took until the second week to get going. After writing very sporadictly all spring and summer I've journaled every day for the last two weeks. Better I've been simply waking up and starting to write every morning. That's where the iPhone comes in. I've returned to my first days of owning it when I was using Notes to journal all the time. I have established a habit. Wake, grab phone, begin typing.

My morning pages are not the only place I'm connecting this way. With 40 coming up this weekend I took a good look at-well I took a good look at me. There is more of me. And there is about 40 pounds more of me than there needs to be. So I did some digging and ended up joining an online journal for keeping track of what I eat, weigh, and exercise. Of course I made the decision on which one based on how good its iPhone application is. Thanks to MyNetDiary I've recorded my last 30 meals and have yet to have a bad eating day. I also scrapped OmniFocus as my to-do list replacing it with Remember the Milk again because of the speed and ease of the iPhone application. So why am I bringing this all up here now? Because I realized that I was never really happy mailing my blog entries and with most of my writing happening on my phone I finally broke down and bought Blog Press and installed it on my first page. Hopefully this is enough of a kick in the butt to start updating regularly again.

Well I've got to go. Can't skip breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day.

HRC

Well the news is all abuzz with the idea that Hillary Clinton may be Obama's Secretary of State. I just want to weigh in that I think this is a bad idea. Not that I don't think that she would be an effective SoS, rather that she is far more valuable in the Senate. I think the Senate needs Hillary. I think the country and the institution is well served when there are people on the far ends of the political spectrum that know how do drill down an issue to find common ground. For the longest time the left has had Ted Kennedy to do this job but that may not be for long. I think Clinton is the natural heir to that position and we would all be better served if she stayed put and took that mantle. 

Yes I'm Still Out Here

Got an email from my most faithful reader (my mother of course) reminding me that I haven't communicated in awhile. This is just a quick note to say that I have not been in my usual self imposed exile. Rather I've been playing around with a little pre-turning-40-time-to-get-into-the game thoughts. I finally got off my ass and hired a lawyer to start my much needed bankruptcy proceedings. Just that simple first step was like getting a giant weight off of my back. That's led me to thinking about the other much needed changes. I've been journaling every day for the past 5 days and I haven't done that since February. I bought a scale and joined one of those online food journaling sites. I've been taking pictures again this month and trying to post as often as I can. Getting back on this site is the next step. I know this is just a mid-life crisis coming into bloom but I'm determined to make this one of the great positive mid-life crisis's of all time. After all I've been going through them since my early teens. I've got more experience than most. I'm going to do this one right. 

Election Day

Before tomorrow dawns and the 2012 presidential campaigns go into full swing I thought it might be time to weigh in on the present political landscape. 

First the easy prediction: Barack Obama will indeed be elected President. How big will the margin be will decided pretty early. If Indiana is close when its polls close then McCain is in for a very short night of remaining a candidate. Personally I think I'm having a hard time seeing Obama winning Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Indiana, North Carolina or Missouri. The problem for McCain is that he has to win every one of those states plus taking Pennsylvania for him to have any chance. The best McCain can hope for without Pennsylvania is a 269-269 tie in which case the House of Representatives would give the election to Obama. This scenario also counts McCain winning New Hampshire, and Nevada as well as all of the above states which is highly unlikely. Far more likely is Obama winning New Hampshire, Nevada and Virginia and cruising to a 291-247 win. Less likely but still possible is more of a blowout with many or all of the swing states going for Obama along with a popular vote of more than 50%. That combined with what will certainly be at least 15 seats in the House and 4 in the Senate will give the new president the first real mandate from the electorate since the Reagan revolution. 

That of course is the segue. Obama is the new Reagan. These are troubled times. We have couple of unpopular wars, who may not be going exactly badly, but show little signs of ever ending. The world economy has found itself in its worst state in decades. The President has proven massively ineffective at dealing with anything and is horribly unpopular at home and even more unpopular around the world. America needs someone that can articulate a populist competent optimism. Shockingly enough it was the Democratic party that ran exactly that campaign. That more than anything else is why they are poised to win big today.