I’m a bit curious about something, based upon a comment made by one of my friends.

A couple nights ago, I was speaking with a friend of mine in LA who made several disparaging comments about those who voted for George Bush for president. She referred to those voters as clueless and stupid, lumping the entirety of that part of the electorate as a bunch of Bible-thumping, ultra-conservative sheep that are too stupid to research any issue on their own.

This person has been in the Academia for nearly a decade. She has not worked outside of the university system save for a political campaign for US Senate. She is getting her Master’s degree at LSU, and commented that the only way she felt she could be around people who agreed with her was to remain in school for the duration of the next four years.

My question to you is twofold. First, is this view of Bush voters the general consensus among those who voted for Kerry? Second, if so then what led you to believe this, and if not what can you attribute it to?

(Note: I am not looking for anyone to start any kind of arguments or debates, so please don’t try to start one. This is a legitimate question, the basis for a follow-up story. Those who are conservative or Republican, please do not add any inflammatory comments or try to start anything. )

Out.

Ok, so shes not really that big of a star now..

Guard ‘forced to have sex with star’
From correspondents in New York
November 11, 2004

LIZA Minnelli’s bodyguard says he was forced to have sex with the Oscar-winning actress to keep his job, according to recently unsealed court documents.

The allegations are detailed in M’Hammed Soumayah’s $US100 million ($131.82 million) lawsuit against the entertainer.

In a court document, one of Minnelli’s lawyers, Dorothy Weber, said Soumayah had “commenced this action in a quicksand of untruths and misstatements” and accused him of a “shakedown” of her client.

In the lawsuit, Soumayah, 56, accused Minnelli (58) of assault and battery, breach of contract, withholding payment for services rendered and sexual harassment.

Although the suit was filed on September 30 in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court and sealed by Justice Barbara Kapnick, she unsealed it late yesterday despite objections by Minnelli’s lawyers.

Sorry I’ve been so quiet of late. Haven’t had much to say.

First off, a quick update- I’m still working towards the free iPod. Two people have completed their offer as have I, And we’ve all received credit for it. I still need three people to sign up through the referral link and complete an offer, and then the video will be created and posted for your amusement.

Second, I got to go to the Texas renaissance Festival this past weekend. Every year since 2001, I have attended the Renfest. This year, I went down to Plantersville with a busload of people from (Insert large company in Austin here) and had a blast. Partly, that came from the group I was with.

To say that these people were going to have a good time is putting it mildly. They had a blast- as did I, for that matter. However, unlike many of them I can remember the entirety of the day. See… there was a lot of alcohol flowing on the bus.

I mean, a LOT.

The screwdrivers started getting poured at about 7:15 AM. With that was the beer, as well. Now, normally this much alcohol can at least be partially balanced with some food. Had there been a large amount of good food, this may have evened things out.

Somehow, I don’t think a muffin each and Ding-Dongs for all really counted as a meal.

We got to the festival site, and 35 drunk costumed folks (and two or three sober peeps- myself included) stormed the festival grounds. For the next 9 hours much food was eaten, much drink was… well, drank and many shows were taken in.

That night, I got home relaxed and sunburnt. Once more, I had enjoyed the Renfest.

If you’ve never been, they’re open for one more weekend and then they close down for the year. You should consider it if you have the available weekend.

One other thing- go see The Incredibles. Fricking brilliant movie, that one.

Out.

Last night, we had a significant problem with one of our database
servers. This prevented some people from being able to access their
blogs and caused errors to be seen by others. We are working to
migrate data off of this troubled server and bring on new hardware to
replace it.

We sincerely apologize for this outage and are working hard to prevent
this kind of thing from happening again.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

When they have problems, they have really strange problems. Today I go in to access my nano blog for the whole 50k words in 30 days competition and the blog isnt accessable. Not only is it not accessable but when I fill out the form to email them about it - and how every OTHER blog in my list is fine - the email form times out and gives me an error.

Gee, I wonder if the same thing will happen when I’m trying to really hit the deadline at the last minute?

Anyway about the contest. You basically have to write around 1,600 words a day in order to win. Me I’m a constant procrastinator when it comes to writing. To date I have 1400 words written. This is day 5. So basically I am going to have to play catch up if I even want to think about competing in this thing. Personally I’ve actually never written that much in one sitting. Sure, I’ve written short storys but 175 pages worth of my writing? Unheard of. My english teachers from college would jump for joy if they knew I was trying to write that much. They always wanted me to expound on the small stories I turned in.

So I guess you’re asking, “what the hell have you written so far?”

“A whole lot of nothing.”

No really. Its 4 chapters of dialogue. 4 separate scenes with 2 characters each. I’ve gotten the next scene in my head but I have to tweak it out.

“Can I read it?”

“Hmm.. maybe. Ask me in email.”

Anyway, if you like the idea and you want to say donate to help build a Library in Cambodia click here.

Update: I checked their status blog and got this:

Wednesday, November 03, 2004
One of the database servers was having performance trouble for several hours this morning starting at about 5am PST. This has slowed down the site overall and we’re working to address this problem.

Posted by Jason at 11:22 AM

Needless to say they are having issues.

Michelle Links to the originals and points out Michael Moores site.

So, thanks, Michael Moore, for posting a moving tribute to our soldiers and to our president, who has demonstrated what it takes to stand up to evil abroad and hatred at home.

If ever there were an image that served as a poignant reminder that freedom is not free (something liberals like Moore adamantly refuse to grasp), this one is it.

WASHINGTON - President Bush won a second term from a divided and anxious nation, his promise of steady, strong wartime leadership trumping John Kerry’s fresh-start approach to Iraq and joblessness. After a long, tense night of vote counting, the Democrat called Bush Wednesday to concede Ohio and the presidency, The Associated Press learned.

Kerry ended his quest, concluding one of the most expensive and bitterly contested races on record, with a call to the president shortly after 11 a.m. EST, according to two officials familiar with the conversation.

The victory gave Bush four more years to pursue the war on terror and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda

Bush wins, Kerry concedes. I was watching the news sites to find out which one could get the beraking news out first. Fox won.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137486,00.html

I kid you not, thats got to be the headlines in a couple hours. Why can’t they just concede and take it like men. Why this whole cry baby whaaa whaa stuff?

When I think of my first time voting, I was still in highschool. I was one of the few that was a senior but just turned 18 two days before the election. I registered to vote and when it came turn to vote - it was the 1996 elections. Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot. It was the 2nd time that Ross Perot ran and had those big ears on TV. It was also the 2nd time that a good number of votes , Republican and Democratic were swayed to vote for Perot. Clinton won, because Dole wasn’t using Viagra yet, and wasn’t really “strong like bull,” like he is today.

So today go vote. Make a difference. Cast your ballot in history so that you can say, I was here on this day. I helped shape the country into what it is.

Looks like Thanksgiving is right around the corner and with tomorrow being voting day, make sure you vote.

If you want to know where your voting place is click here. You can input your name and dob and get the place where you are registered to vote at.

In other news Spiderman makes spider bandaids.

Clemson researches search healing power in spider silk

Associated Press

CLEMSON, S.C. - Clemson researchers hope that a spider’s silk may provide a way of helping wounds heal more quickly.

They’re interested in dragline silk - the lines spider hang from as they work. That strong silk is a lifeline for spiders as the begin spinning webs. Without its strength, spiders would be prone to plunging to the ground and breaking legs.

But the dragline silk also generates tiny amounts of electricity as the spider works.

Michael Ellison, a Clemson materials science professor specializing in polymer physics and his research group, hopes to one day develop a way to replicate, or to mimic, those properties in advanced materials for use in wound dressings.

Research has shown that wounds heal faster when energized with low doses of electricity, Ellison said. The challenge is creating a practical means for doctors delivering electricity to the injury, he said.

Ellison’s research involves the golden silk orbweaver, known as the banana spider. It gets its name from the gold-like shimmer of the silk in the spiders large web.

His research program is called, Biomimetics Advanced Materials, or BAM!. That’s a name taken from Spiderman cartoons, Ellison said.

Biomimetics looks at naturally produced elements for their potential in other science applications.

For instance, architects have studied the large termite mounds in Africa for their ability to retain moderate year-round interior temperatures

The National Textiles Center, a consortium of several research universities, including Clemson, provides funding for Ellison’s research.

Some of Ellison’s spiders come from Charleston.

Ellison said the golden silk orbweavers will allow researchers to hold them. However, their bite is about equal to a bee sting if agitated.

Interesting..