Archive for January 3rd, 2008

2008.01.03

Two Birthdays

Today is JRR Tokien’s birthday. He would have been a really old guy by now, maybe even older than my carbon-datable Dad. Hi Dad!

It’s also the birthday of my friend Synnove. We met in high school. While I was back east over the holidays I met up with her and our friend Wade. It was the first time seeing Synnove since she got married some 14 years ago, and about 7 since Wade and I last saw each other. I don’t think the two of them had seen each other since we all graduated from high school.

As we sat and talked something struck me about our conversation that I never noticed about my friends, both old and new. After a few stories about what we’d all been up to the past too many years and catching each other up on mutual friends that the others hadn’t heard from, we didn’t talk much about the past. The general nostalgia for old times, to recall the adventures we’d had, to reminisce about them as if those days could never be attained again… That was absent.

Instead we talked about our lives.

2008.01.03

Sick of Primaries

Today the Iowa primaries for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates for 2008 began. It kicks off months of primaries in which many states have cried and whined that they want to be first. And if not first then at least close to the front of the line. They “want their voices heard” since they think their voice is obviously the most important voice. This has slowly let the primary dates creep up and up because a few states can stand the thought that the candidates might not be paying attention to them.

Wah!

Here’s an idea. Everyone has their primary on the same day. Every state, sometime in May or June, has their primary. This way the candidates have to pay attention to everyone.

“Wah! Then the candidates will only pay attention to the larger states and ignore our states that don’t even have the population of a small city!”

Shut up and quit crying. Here’s a compromise. The populations of states are known. Have two primaries. The states comprising the 50% of the population that are smallest have their primary first, and the few remaining with the remaining 50% of the population has theirs two or three weeks later.

The election season has already begun and we’re over a year from swearing in anyone new. How can I be burned out on this already. I’m sick of the primaries and they just began!