Snow Emergency

I am still receiving the snow emergency alerts from George Dreckmann, the recycling coordinator of Madison.  This year they don't seem to be personally written by George Dreckmann, which is disappointing. However, what is not disappointing is that Madison is finally cracking down on Snow Emergency jerks! I have been wanting this for so long. I always get up after a snow emergency, dig out my car in the freezing cold (after it has been plowed in, usually), and sometimes even park it in a pay lot, just so that I can abide by the snow emergency rules.  Then other people, take the $20 ticket, take a week to dig their car out, and as a result, leave huge piles of snow that never get plowed and make the street unparkable for the rest of the winter. This year, things are changing.  They are giving $60 tickets and towing people! I wish I could be there to see it.

Robert C. Byrd

I was just updating my CV. It's getting a little long for some purposes so I set to thinking about what things to take off.  One option was this scholarship I had throughout college called the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship. I never applied for it, NY State just gave it to me.  Maybe it's super crappy and they give it to everyone? So I looked up some information.

 Many of you already know that Robert C. Byrd is a Senator from West Virginia. Here's his picture:

He's the longest serving senator in US history and the oldest current member of congress. He's been in the Senate longer than Obama has been alive. 

In 1942 he joined the Ku Klux Klan, and was elected Exalted Cyclops (which is ridiculous. Cyclops? Wizards? Is the KKK even trying to be taken seriously?) He swears that he quit a year later and was never interested in the Klan again (but there is some evidence that it took a couple years to wean himself off). He was elected to the House in 1952 and has not left Congress since.  As a dixiecrat, he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (he says he regrets that), and voted against the Voting Rights Act of 1965. By 1968, he started changing his mind and voted for the Civil Rights Act and decided to finally stop being a segregationist and racist. Then he did a bunch of other stuff, was called "The King of Pork", and launched this scholarship program.  It is actually the only merit-based scholarship funded through the US Department of Education. They give out about 27,000 a year. Now I feel honored to have this award.  I also take to heart Senator Byrd's 1997 advice to young people interested in politics (as should you all): "Be sure you avoid the Ku Klux Klan. Don't get that albatross around your neck. Once you've made that mistake, you inhibit your operations in the political arena." 

New Camera

After many good years with my not top of the line digital camera, I decided to get a new not top of the line digital camera. The lens on the old one kept getting stuck, resulting in severely out of focus pictures.

So here is the new camera.  It is much smaller, and it is "wasabi green" (it was, like, $30 cheaper than black). 
Admittedly, it is ugly.  But at least it won't easily get confused with anyone else's camera (except maybe Shrek fans, or something). But all in all, I am happy to have it.  

Can you tell the difference between my new 10 megapixel camera and my old 2 megapixel camera? Both files are the same size. 

Flushy

Many of you may have heard that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is in trouble.  I was born and raised in beautiful Illinois, but I don't know much about the guy.  I had nothing to do with this scandal and haven't lived in the state for about 8 years now.  I do know he wasn't liked much by his downstate constituents.  He refused to live in the governor's mansion in Springfield, which really caused a stink.  Also, I know he didn't think much of Pike County (read God's country).   

Emily and I were at a tavern in gorgeous Pike County once and overheard some old timers talking about the governor.  Apparently, he had recently purchased the grand champion steer at the state fair and didn't know what to do with it.  When asked about it he said that he might release it in Pike County let everyone there hunt it down or something like that.  

I was curious about my memory of this story so I found the actual quote, via the capitol fax blog.

After reading the quote, I don't know if what he said was actually derogatory towards Pike County seeing that it is a popular hunting destination.  But he certainly did not mention Pike County with the reverence it deserves.  For example, Pike County is typically predicated with the adjective "beautiful".  

Anyway, the quote does make him sound like a total crazy person or at least a drunk person.  I wonder what he finally did with the steer.  

Toby Keith

A week ago or so, Casey and I were watching A Colbert Christmas and Toby Keith was one of the guest stars. He sang this song about A War on Christmas, and it's actually a pretty catchy song, and a fairly funny video. But I know almost nothing about Toby Keith, except that he got in a big fight with one of the Dixie Chicks and he loves Ford trucks. So was this song a joke, or not? Toby Keith doesn't look like he's joking. But he really portrayed almost no emotion whatsoever,so it was really hard to make any assumptions about his intentions. So this instigated a period of intense interest in Toby Keith.He's from Oklahoma, and very proud of it. He really does seem to be a genuine good ol' boy. He worked at an oil rig and played football in Oklahoma for a long time before his music career took off.  He is intensely patriotic and very into supporting the troops (which I guess was the cause of the fight with the Dixie chicks) but is actually a democrat. The weirdest thing about Toby Keith is his unnatural Ford truck fascination.  It is integrated into everything he does. 

So, as it follows, Casey and I watched the movie he wrote and starred in, "Beer for My Horses".  We actually enjoyed it, even though there are several parts that really don't make sense. He basically just tried to jam in as many parts for old country singers as possible, which led to scenes of him talking a plumber for no reason, or running into a circus troupe, etc.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: Toby Keith Sings

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

So, conclusion is, I can really see why Toby Keith is popular. He just seems like a really genuinely nice guy, and he does seem to have a pretty good sense of humor.  He is very unpretentious, without making a big show of being unpretentious. He doesn't seem to really take himself seriously and doesn't seem to really think that his work is necessarily all that important, which I like in an entertainer. So, I learned a lot this week about someone new, although I did not buy any Toby Keith albums, in case you were wondering.