Is the election over yet?

What with all the grey days and leaves falling off the trees around here lately, it's been pretty gross and depressing, so I've been looking for election-related humor to make me laugh. Thanks to my friend Jenny for this one: It's a short MPEG entitled "Mother in park". Some of my Republican friends (*cough*Todd*cough cough*) didn't find it quite as funny as I did, but I think this lady speaks aloud what most of us on the Kerry side of the fence have thought at one time or another.

This Modern World

**WARNING: Political Rant Ahead**

One of the local weekly papers in Indianapolis publishes a great comic strip, This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. Click here to see the latest strip, a unfortunately all-too-true jab at the Bush administration's spin machine at work.

Through the This Modern World website, I've discovered Bob Harris's blog. It's sort of a Drudge Report for Democrats, a sometimes funny, sometimes snarky, and sometimes cutthroat look at the news. Harris spends most of his time punching holes in the Bush Admin.'s smokescreen of lies (while never missing an opportunity to bash a conservative pundit), but also links to disturbing articles such as this look at the fictional reality which Bush supporters have created for themselves. The more I read as this election approaches, the more I fear for the direction this country is headed. It's depressing to think about how many Americans are choosing to live with their heads buried in the Iraqi sand.

Things To Look Forward To

I spent a refreshing long weekend visiting my family last week. My dad's side of the family had a mini-reunion on Saturday, and it was a good chance to catch up with various aunts and uncles and cousins that I don't get to see too often. This was a trip I was getting excited about for a month or so before it happened, and on the flight back, I started thinking about other things I'm looking forward to as the year draws to a close:

The MLS Playoffs, starting Friday night. DC United had a string finish to the season, winning 5 of their last 6, and given the parity of the league this year, the playoffs should be wide open. I'm planning to go to Columbus for the Eastern Conference Finals, and hopefully I'll be seeing DC there.

A World Series with no Yankees. Hopefully the Sox can break the curse tonight. I'm no Sox fan, but anybody who can beat the Yankees gets my support.

U2's new CD. If you've heard the first single, "Vertigo" (or caught the iTunes ad), you know it sounds like the boys from Dublin are making a return to their early sound. Bono has described this as "an angry record, fueled by a guitarist who's sick to death of seeing his lead singer shaking hands with world leaders". If that's the case, the Edge should get mad more often.

Ocean's 12. It took me a long time to get past the big name movie-starness of Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic, but now I appreciate it for what it is: a slick, smart, funny love letter to Las Vegas. This time, the entire cast of the original (plus Bruce Willis) get turned loose in Europe. Should be a good time.

Beautiful music

Tonight, I traveled to Bloomington, IN to see one of my favorite bands, Nickel Creek. They played at the Indiana University Auditorium on campus, and were sharing a double bill with Howie Day, an artist I didn't really know much about. A guy named Patrick Davis opened the show. Both he and Howie Day played solo acoustic, and both did some interesting things with looping pedals. Basically, they would record a backing track by drumming on their guitars, playing a bass line or melody line, or strumming some basic chords. They could then activate these different loops by pressing pedals with their feet, which left their hands free to play their guitars. It was a pretty interesting way to create the effect of a band without having to drag all those extra people and instruments around with you.

Both of those guys were talented, but the highlight of the night for me was Nickel Creek. I had seen them four years ago in New York when they were touring in support of their first album. What a difference four years makes. In that time, they released a second record and toured extensively, collaborated with a wide variety of artists, and Chris Thile and Sean Watkins have even found time to release two solo albums a piece. All of that experience made for a much-improved live show. The first time I saw them, they played their songs pretty much note-for-note from the album. Tonight, they messed with arrangements, debuted some new songs, jammed older songs out to double their normal length, and even worked a few clever covers into a medley. Part of the appeal of this band for me has always been their ability to mix different genres, but it's still pretty amazing to hear them go from traditional bluegrass to jazz-pop to an Irish fiddle tune to a spot-on cover of Beck's "Where It's At" without noticeably switching gears. And once again, I was reminded of why I think Sara Watkins is one of the world's most beautiful singers. I could listen to her voice for hours on end. I'm anxiously awaiting her first solo album. The trip to Bloomington took about an hour, but it was worth it. After this show, I'd drive a lot farther to see Nickel Creek again.

Season's end

Sadly, my first coaching experience has come to an end. The Blast lost in the semifinal game of the playoffs this morning, 2-0. They had advanced to the semis by winning their first-round game on Thursday night. I missed the game due to work, but I understand it was a tightly fought 1-0 affair. Today's game was a little more wide open, and the coaches were very proud of our guys despite the loss. They played the best game I've seen out of them all season. They defended well and passed well, but just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net.

Their opponents today were the Bulldogs, who had totally overwhelmed our guys in the last regular season game. Today was a different story, and except for the two early goals and a couple of very questionable refereeing decisions, it was a very even game. It was amazing how much better the boys played when they knew the game meant something. No problem getting them to focus today.

After the game ended, Fred, our head coach, gave medals to all the boys and then we said our goodbyes. One guy even started crying, although we couldn't figure out if he was sad that the season was over or just upset that the team lost today. Either way, it was kind of cute and very touching. I'm glad I got a chance to be involved with this team, and I'll take away some good knowledge to apply to the next time I coach.

Something old, and nothing new

Work has been kicking my butt lately, so there hasn't been much to talk about. In my spare moments, I just finished reading Homer's The Odyssey. If you've never read it (or it's precursor, The Iliad), I highly recommend checking it out. I read the Barnes & Noble Classics version, and as translations of ancient Greek go, it was pretty accessible and surprisingly enjoyable for a 3,000+ year old piece of literature.

The post-debate analysis

As expected, the news today is pretty much a deluge of analysis and wrap-up of last night's debate. I had thought about gathering a bunch of links, but luckily, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post has done the work already. Here's a link to his article, containing a pretty comprehensive collection of articles from the Post, the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and various wire services. For a quick highlight, check out the fact-checking links about halfway down the page.