Great Big Tex

It looks like KC is going to be off the blog for a while as he trains for his new job. So in his absence, I'll be highjacking GBT and turning it a bit towards the left.

To start with, some polling data:

http://www.race2004.net/
This site aggregates polls from different research organizations. Click on a state to see the individual poll results.

posted by Nirav Patel @ 11:06 AM 3 comments

Slacker.

Aaaaaaaaand I'm going a week in between postings. I also have nothing to do with myself these days. Coincidence? Not really. Ever since I've gotten back from the Great Big Tex East Coast Road Trip 2k4, life just hasn't been nearly as exciting.

I mean, I've gone from the world's biggest adult playground (NYC) to the Bayou Bucket (Houston). This was only the second time I'd been to NYC, and it was even better this go-round. Why? I can legally imbibe this time, that's for starters. And being able to enter places where I can legally imbibe gave this trip all the more fodder in terms of interesting stuff. 'Cause that's where all the interesting people go after dark.

When I first left home for college all those years ago (4!), I had gone to the same school from 1st through 12th grade. It would be an understatement to say that meeting new people was a skill that I had practiced with any frequency. College was a big change: my freshman dorm had as many people in it as my entire high school - 400 or so. Having never practiced the art of introducing myself to new folks, I improvised: sit down at random people's tables at meals, stop by random folk's rooms, help girls move heavy furniture. Not the smoothest performance in the world, but it worked.

By the time I graduated, my school had become a very familiar place. I could go anywhere on or off campus where students congregated, and I would recognize and be recognized by at least a few folks. I feared that my people skills had vanished from disuse. And here I was, slated to move off to a strange new city where I didn't know a soul (currently scheduled new city: Poza Rica, Mexico;, Longview, Texas; Youngsville, Louisiana).

Fortunately, the roadtrip made me feel a whole lot better about being the only one I knew in town. Since the folks I was staying with typically had lives (read: jobs), I had my days to myself. So, what's a guy do? Wander! I think I managed to walk through all of Georgetown and downtown D.C., all of metropolitan Boston, all of Manhattan from the financial district to Central Park, and even a bit of Brighton Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn. Most importantly, I met folks: welders, actors, musicians, investment bankers, lawyers, construction workers, circus sideshow freaks; slices cutting across every sort of demographic. And the best part? I don't even have to work hard for it. Weirdness finds its way to me. I love this game.

I think Rinee said it best: "You find yourself all alone in this huge city, and you're dying to meet people. And then you realize that everyone else is in a similar situation. Once you figure that out, it's easy."

That said, I'm off to the gym, and then to study for the LSAT. Back to the grind.

posted by K.C. @ 8:13 AM 0 comments

Woah.

Check out this little eerie bit of early 80's clairvoyance.

I find this whole Dan-Rather-is-up-shit-creek thing laughable, but for reasons that I don't think many others have noticed: this is the only time I've ever noticed something that either Rather or 60 Minutes or any of these programs have done in months. I'm a fairly well-informed human, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to most "traditional" news sources. I read the Houston Chronicle's comics and sports page, and that's about it. I'll read the Wall Street Journal, and I'll flip through the New York Times every few days or so, but that's really it. I get most of my news through the internet and blogs. The only time Dan Rather does anything to attract my attention whatsoever is when he does something flat-out awful. It's like the guy you went to high school with that's continually re-living his glory days: you ignore him as best you can, until, as evidence that he is every bit the stud athlete today that he was in days of yore, he starts shoving Photoshopped trading cards in your face that have his head replacing Brett Farve's.

posted by K.C. @ 11:12 AM 0 comments

More Boston.

Ugh. Drank with old teammates Simpson, Butters, and Swanny last night. Don't remember getting home. And my chicken burrito is gone. Perhaps I ate it? Or not. I suspect Nirav.

Off to make with the Advil, lickety split.

posted by K.C. @ 11:09 AM 0 comments

Hope Springs Eternal.

From Corinna: one of the best craigslist postings I've ever seen.

posted by K.C. @ 9:20 AM 0 comments

Convention Thoughts

RNC wrapped up last night, and I have to say that I think the Republicans did a really fantastic job with things.

Democrats, as Nirav can fill you in on better than I, have to try and hold together a coalition of special-interest groups that at this point in time don't have much in common other than the defeat of Dubya in November. Trying to get them to agree on much else is like herding cats.

Lately, the Republicans have had an easier time focusing their party. If you're a Republican, you're either fiscally or socially conservative, and one group has about zero connection with the other. One group likes limited government and lower taxes, but could have any number of opinions on topics like immigration, gay marraige, and Britney Spear's purported engagement to scruffy-looking backup dancers. On the other hand, you've got folks that are extremely socially conservative pre-colorized Pleasantville types that have no problem using government to enforce the rules of "Proper Society." Lastly, we've got folks for whom the War on Terror is the most important issue and can't stomach the Democrat's treatment of it.

Personally, I'm of the slightly libertarian variety conservative, so I was very happy at the choice of speakers at the RNC. Rudy and Arnold definitely hold positions that are very socially liberal and definitely not traditionally represented by the Republican Mainstream. The one thing that always makes me cringe when I say I'm a conservative is the positions that some Republicans have taken towards social issues. However, the prime-time presence of Arnold and Rudy combined with a "good faith" clause in the platform give me hope that, while there's still a long way to go, the Republicans can become the laissez-faire law-and-order party that I've wanted them to be.

posted by K.C. @ 11:27 AM 0 comments

This is my first post on GBT's blog. I've got a few thoughts on how to properly contribute to this blog.

Ideally, my contributions would consist entirely of rebuttals to KC's postings. I'm not sure how to make that happen, though. If only blogger allowed for posts to be tied together as conversations, like Gmail does. As of now, I think I'm stuck with this time-based posting format. I guess that means my posts will have to stand on their own, and perhaps that I might even have to come up with some original topics on my own, instead of simply directing my knee-jerk at KC's white (and according to CC, hairy) behind.

posted by Nirav Patel @ 11:04 AM 1 comments

Boston.

Currently in Boston. Finished Thing 2 and Thing 3 move in, now onto the vacation portion of our itinerary. Currently crashing at Nirav's place in Beacon Hill.

Which brings us to our next important point. I'm giving Nirav posting privelages here. He's a liberal, I'm a conservative. Between the two of us, our conversations are far more interesting than anything I can say on my own. Simple math.

Anyhow, beware the oncoming false liberal propaganda of the Indian.

posted by K.C. @ 11:06 PM 0 comments