Writing a Friend's Match.com Profile - Kind of defeats the purpose...

First: honesty. I wasn't able to do it; to talk about myself because I am too lazy to be bothered with setting up a profile. I'd play it like I am too busy, and part of me can't believe that I signed up in the first place. Let's be honest. I didn't want to write "me" because what I write can't be completely accurate. What I write is only a portion of what is really "me". So what you're really wanting to know is: am I attractive? am I insane? am I educated and do I have my shit together?

I own a cat. I dabble in biathlons, but would like to learn that third one too. I golf, when I can, and enjoy movies. I'm a bit cynical, but I believe in something bigger and doing right by mine.

So, the real questions. Insanity is said to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So we're both a little insane thinking that another relationship leads to something meaningful, lasting, and worthwhile. I went to college, live in Brooklyn, and (for the time being) I'm an upcoming workaholic in Manhattan real estate. Oh, and you can judge for yourself if I am attractive, can't you.

Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team Community Forum on Quality of Life

MEDIA ADVISORY
For September 25, 2008 - Camera Opportunity!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Ken Gleasman – Executive Board Chairman
DWSCMT/at/gmail.com

Doug Hausladen – Public Safety Chairman
douglas.hausladen/at/gmail.com


WHEN: Thursday, September 25th, 2008 6:00-7:15pm


WHERE: The Omni Hotel, The Grand Ballroom
155 Temple St., New Haven, CT

WHO:
Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team
Bitsie Clark – Alderperson, Ward 7
Lt. Marty Tchakirides - District Manager, NHPD
Win Davis – Director of Operations, Town Green Special Services District
Sean Matteson - Chief of Staff, Mayor’s Office
Chrissy Bonnano – Deputy Economic Development Administrator, City of New Haven


WHAT:
Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team to hold community forum on downtown New Haven quality of life – Event to discuss and suggest solutions for residential quality of life adversely being affected by noise, litter, parking, safety, and traffic.

WHY:
Our downtown is ever-changing and stands at a cross roads in use. For years, the downtown was dominated by office buildings and shopping centers, only to see a blossoming of residential and mixed-use development in the past fifteen years. As we race to bring more residents to the downtown area, quality of life issues present in our downtown population today will only be acerbated more. How will we reconcile the residential concerns with future and current economic development in the area? How will we prepare for the influx of more residents to downtowns with ever growing demand for multi-modal street use and public transportation accessible development? We need to work together as a city, as residents, as business owners, and as
downtown patrons to find the answer to these issues.


###

Consumers Call Recall on GOP Corporation's '08 Model

In an unprecedented move, consumers have demanded a recall of the GOP in 2008. According to sources, the GOP is causing people to become highly hateful and extremely irritated. The FDA recently released a report outlining the illnesses consumers succumb to by ingesting the GOP in 2008 including:

- Using fear as only method of protecting US
- Excusing hatred and bigotry
- Sarah Palin
- Digging your way out of a ditch as an answer

The move by the consumers of GOP in 2008 to publicly and collectively recall the brand outside of regulatory bodies seems unprecedented. This could leave an opportunity for Barack Obama to push through sweeping reforms and actually fix something at the federal level. Shocking, but true.

Check back in 2010 to see just how badly this GOP is doing and if they can regain any resemblance of credibility.

McCain picks a VP Candidate with a pregnant 17yo daughter

during Obama's speech in Denver, he says "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." the next day, his opponent's VP is announced, with a 17yo unmarried pregnant child. he has quickly stated that this is not a political issue, and they should not be discussing it. but i firmly and hotly disagree. the conversation should be on domestic issues and problems. everyone is addressing symptoms of problems and not addressing the root causes. you'll get the GOP bitching about welfare costs, but they don't see the cause of welfare is having poor people, and the causes of poor people are addressed through proper education funding (including college opportunity) and sexual education (including birth control, condoms, etc etc).

what i wish we could discuss in public - that palin's daughter is a victim of not having real sex education in our country. alaska's brilliant sex-ed policy is summarized here. i think it retarded that the GOP is excited about having their VP have a 17yo daughter pregnant out of wed-lock. it's ridiculously against their platform on one hand (abstinence only until marriage) and an idiotic act to be upheld and lauded. and yet here we are UNABLE in the press to have a real discussion about the rest of americans having babies in your teens and how it's a problem that is fixable and worth fixing because the governor's horny little daughter got knocked-up because she had never been given the sexual-education needed to play safe and properly plan a family. i'm not saying that all unintentional pregnancies are bad or unwanted. i'm not saying that children under 18 should not be allowed to be parents or to wed. i'm just saying that we are selling our children short not to give them the ability to make good choices when there are serious life-changing consequences on the line.

--In 1992 the Federal government spent more than $34 billion on welfare for families begun by teenagers, up from $16.6 billion in 1985. In 1995, Indiana spent $7.4 million in Aid to Dependent Children for approximately 2,700 teen parents.

--For every federal dollar spent on giving contraceptives to low-income women the government saves more than $4 in welfare payments, medical costs, etc.

--Of all the women aged 15-44 who received welfare or AFDC in 1993, over half (55%) became mothers when they were teenagers. Only 5% were currently teenage mothers; of these, 83% were aged 18-19.

to quote Obama -"We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." the things that are the causes are what obama is attacking, not the symptoms. i seriously hope he gets elected so that we can remove our heads from the sand/sphincter in which they have been on so many issues, teenage pregnancy being one of these.

In Response to Objections on 55mph

while it may not be the answer, it is a 15% increase in fuel efficiency without any major technological breakthroughs. i can see your argument against 55mph as a national law, but i think the press should be selling 55mph as an individual's tool to increase fuel efficiency, decrease expenses, and promote responsible choices for individual efforts on curbing fossil fuel use.

while i can see an argument against a national law, i can't see an argument against my personal choice to go 55mph to save on costs. if you ever drive a prius, watch the fuel consumption rates drop at ~71. anything over 71 mph gets something like 26mpg, and if you cruise at 55, you're probably getting close to 52mpg. it's just too obvious that after a critical speed, fuel efficiency drastically decreases because the coefficient for air friction is a cubed relation to speed.

so, i think we should look to ways for people to benefit from driving slower or to encourage driving slower. simple ways, like possibly mandating an additional gauge on cars for mpg so that you can see how poorly your car performs at high speeds (i believe i have seen these in BMW's to date, and of course the high-tech versions in the on-board computers in any number of cars).

Take this hypothetical example (I find putting dollar $igns generally helps): if you're feeling the pinch of gas costs, and you're driving 300 miles/week (15,600/year - a little on the high side), increasing your fuel efficiency in your car 15% from (take hypotheticals) 20mpg to 23mpg, assuming $4.50/gallon, your annual savings in fuel costs alone (not counting added savings from less wear-and-tear on your car) is $457.83 - a 13% savings in real dollars spent on gasoline.

15,600mi/yr / 20mpg = 780 gallons/year *$4.50 =$3,510/yr
15,600mi/yr / 23mpg = 678.26 gal/yr *$4.50 =$3,052.17/yr

You want a savior from the gas prices? I just gave you a 13% savings in fuel costs overnight. it's also more costly in dollars/mile and in accidents/mile to drive at higher speeds. so there must be a balance sought.

original article: But We Can Drive 55
Letter to Editor: 55mph Limit Isn't the Answer

Barack turns down public financing

i completely agree with you taht he'll decimate mccain in the money race, but that's not why he said he was doing it. he said he was doing it b/c the system is broken. the system wasn't broken, he just decided that he could raise more money in this way than he could taken the public option. the DNC could do just as much as the GOP in fundraising, but it doesn't. i think hillary clinton gets the head of the DNC by the way, and her focus is fundraising. that's a sidebar.

i completely agree that he'll destroy mccain in fundraising, and that will help him win. i just don't think he said that, and i think he should have said that. i'll get over it, b/c i know what he meant, and i can read through the BS, i just want him to come out and say, "hey, people. the system isn't broken, they're gaming it and i'm about to game it even more. suck it long and hard mccain, cause november is gonna be cold." i would be 100% fine with that statement.

i don't think taking the public financing is at all dirty - it comes from tax payer money and has multiple strings attached. i think mccain accepting the money is wise - it fits with his mccain-feingold act, and it agrees to regulation. it also guarantees 84 million, which i also think is smart. obama will be able to raise more than that without using public funding. what is interesting is obama's talk about 527's. he uses 527's as an excuse that the system is broken. move-on is a 527. move-on.org took out quite a number of GOP candidates in 2006, and possibly is the cause for the Democrats' victory of the house and senate in 2006. Swift-Boaters for America (or whatever the name) is a 527. They took down John Kerry in 2004. 527's are issue oriented and are on both side of the political spectrum. is he claiming to be able to control his side's 527's? i don't think that's possible...

in the end, i'm a little frustrated. come on barack. trust us. we're smart enough to use good logic. we are! you're a lawyer, and a damn good one at that. use your ability to reason with logic, and lay your case out for us. i'll listen.



___________________________________________________
I complained about not getting the response I wanted from Barack, and my friend sent me below:
So I just watched Barack personally deliver the message regarding him rejecting public financing and I totally get it. It really has very little to do with his own reasons. He just started some legitimate shit (the only kind of shit...) against McCain and they're running scared like little girls. He's backing McCain into a corner and it's genius. Let's say McCain denies that kind of money as well. There is _no way_ he will raise the kind of money Barack does and will continue to do. People just won't open their pockets for McCain, especially as more of the independents start coming around to Obama. B will dessimate the GOP with most likely double the amount of money they have. If McCain does continue to accept public funding he looks like an evil, money-mongering politician who's taking money anywhere he can get it and Barack will focus on that over and over again. Especially with the economy in the state it's in, it will completely anger the public to think that McCain is hourding potentially dirty money. He's basically telling McCain to bend over and enjoy the ride. And it'll be a long one...

Taking more than you can Bite

Let's just remember my argument for Hillary staying in the race

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting discussion with some friends over whether or not Hillary should withdraw from the primary race. Everyone (that could be a stretch) I discussed this with claimed that Hillary should leave the race because a few weeks ago, she was not winning the popular election or the delegate count, and had no way to reach the necessary total.

I positioned that the DNC had firm guidelines for its party's systems and elections, and that she is not breaking any of the rules to stay in the race. This is a good thing for the US to have these debates (maybe not for the DNC itself) and if the voters in each state can't sort it out, who wants the DNC to weigh in and change the voting now that 'the going has gotten tough'?

I just want to explain what I think will happen, which is different than what I want to happen. I'm not mad about what I think will happen; it's all following the rules of the private organization (the DNC). I think Hillary will stay around until Denver. I think Hillary will chip away at Obama's front-runner status, thought possibly not his lead. I think Hillary could win the nomination with a brokered convention. I think Obama is not closing this campaign out in the same manner with which he rode to the front-runner status. I am not claiming I know what he should be doing differently, but regardless, Hillary is here. It's a problem for me, an Obama supporter in the Democrats race, but it's the reality.

Clinton and Obama need to revisit the DNC by-laws to figure out how to best incorporate Florida and Michigan. Clearly, they pay people enough money to work their campaigns, so I'm sure they're doing this. Personally, I think they'll be seated in Round 2 of the convention, and I think it'll be a blood-bath watching them fall in line with each of the campaigns. Regardless, we have rules, this isn't Nam. Follow them to victory, they will be your savior. Fair is not the issue, because private groups don't have to be fair. This is why there are superdelegates in the first place.

While I bring up supers - I'm glad that a lot are undecided. I'm also glad a lot are decided. This sparks debate from credible politicians that people know and are in-line with politically (as opposed to, say, me and you uninformed public debating ad naseum with no experience in the matters at hand). That being said, if status-quo (ie Hillary) is that hard to change, I think you'll find more and more superdelegates leaning towards Hillary if she continues this positive swing in upcoming states.

I think Howard Dean mentioned today that these upcoming races will be the deciding factors for the Supers to make their decisions because these upcoming races are becoming more about "Who can beat McCain", and less about "Hillary vs. Obama". On some level, that's a good thing. I personally think any of the three could win at this point, with Obama being the favorite out of all three. I think I heard a pole yesterday actually putting it in this order: Hillary - McCain - Obama finishing last.

Silly Sunglasses

Gone are the days of the aviator. Oh. Wait. No... Aviators are back. Is Top Gun still on the billboard hits?

I have noticed many more silly sunglasses on people since, I don't know, 2002. Something about the 21st century has given people the necessary eye-balls to wear whatever they want on the bridge of their nose. I just don't get it. Maybe I'm not hip enough, or maybe because I'm not emo, because I just don't get it.

I recent (just now) search on google images for "sunglasses" leads me to some of these ridiculous frames and four-eyed monstrosities:






Why do people buy these things? My amazement is that not all of our sunglasses are polarized at this point. Ugh. One way the market is not working in sunglasses because too many people buy cheap sunglasses - not knowing that they do nothing to protect your eyes from UV etc.

I bet a lot of people will look back on this decade with disdain over what could have been in eyewear. I wonder what is next in eyewear? As they say, hindsight 20/20, but foresight is much more important.

Brokered Convention

Rash prediction. Is it possible that in Denver, with no clear winner, the party will turn to Al Gore, offer him the presidency in exchange he has to take Barack Obama as VP?

No chance? probably not, but Al Gore is the only other person possibly vetted enough for this position. Also, he is going to be big on McCain on environment (where McCain is strong for a Republican) and also Al Gore would go well with Obambi in his VP.

probably no chance... but that would be terrific karmic justice on the Clintons

Awesome Crack Spiders

I've often wondered the different effects of drugs on spiders...

Spiders on Drugs

In Response to Annoying Closed-Mindedness

this is in response to a republican/conservative female telling me that middle class americans are losing all of their money to large government taxes, that we need better work ethic and education, not gov't handouts. the person works in legal aid in a large city. this is my response. it was off-cuff, and a bit of a rant, but so it goes. a lot of this is hyperbole, so please don't take the exact details to heart. i would love comments.

tell her to come to florida for 2 years and live amongst the working poor, amongst people who have to choose to work for money under the table or minimum wage and can't save or pay for health care. see if she wants to go back to alabama where i worked in mobile for 4 months with people showing up at the working-pool at 5 am every day to work for minimum wage in physical labor positions b/c they can't do anything since they don't have an education. when they were growing up, they were told they needed a high school diploma to get a good life. our economy is shifting/shifted drastically, and we need to drastically change like we did post-Great Depression/1980/1950. the good life on a high school diploma is just not true anymore. people must have education to survive. they need college degrees to enter our system/market economy.

i'm not sure if you hear the things i'm saying. i'm a conservative at heart. i hate big gov't. but i think a few more-socialized or heavily regulated industries are important. notice i didn't say healthcare should be socialized. i said insurance could be as a way to lower costs for all and to provide insurance (and by that way healthcare). the issue for doctors now (remember, 25+ doctors are in my immediate family alone) is they aren't being reimbursed for total costs on low-income patients. so now the rates for everyone else increases just to get back to the total income they should have had if the gov't systems weren't fucking the doctors and setting caps on procedures.

we need to start thinking about new ways to do things. this president, whoever is elected, will be the first that can move on day one towards an open gov't with higher accountability. for the first time in history you have a society that can be 'transparent' b/c of technology and information systems. this democracy will continue to 'prosper' as a form of government b/c of the break throughs in communication. becaues of the internet. and we need to start thoroughly addressing the issues that we can finally address b/c of technology.

do you know how i think the gov't will cut back over the next 15 years? put a hiatus on new higherings. If you just let people retire, and don't replace them, (instead invest in our country's infrastructure and capital with computers and actual technology - (ps this is domestic spending and can only sound good to the electorate)) you'll save on billions down the road. some people will abuse our systems and social safety nets regardless. but i dont' want to be in a society that discards its poor/elderly/children/homeless. and it's easy to say that. but it's much harder to realize how to do it. here's some ideas that kick around in my head each day.

1. education. really fund it. i'm excited that bush was introducing new policy on education. too bad it didn't work. fund education through working age and working knowledge. scholarships to college. scholarships to technical schools. scholarships to vocational schools. or just fund it. but right now this can't happen b/c business is telling people you need a college degree, and the gov't is responding by being corrupt and running colleges and student loan programs like it's supposed to be revenue producing now. it's an investment in the capital of our country. it'll take 5 years for it to turn around, so don't require state testing until the 3rd year or soemthing. stop teaching to the test, and start teaching. clean your schools up, possibly institute uniforms. try new things to make it work. if our economy is switching to technology based, give our students a chance to compete in the future. keep us at the highest level of entrepreneurship in the world.
2. expanding health insurance. if everyone's insured, at LEAST for major medical and emergency medical, then the costs incurred by each hospital that they have to take on their balance sheet, drop. doctors are actually paid at market rates for the services they provide, not at some random gov't figure that is outdated and only covers 1/3 of the cost with no hope of co-pays for the other 2/3. also, children should be covered for everything and dental. there are ways around socialized medicine, and i feel the right wing will come around if they would just stop incorrectly lumping in as socialized medicine. keep the profits, keep your doctors in the upper-middle, lower-upper class where they belong. they're smart, we should reward them properly. drug companies save lives with innovation. keep the impetus for innovation in the budget. don't fund research with the hope of finding products, use incentives like profit to keep the R&D alive in the country.
3. communications. this one is tricky b/c the FCC is already rather big-brother as it is. The new spectrum for wireless is a right step in the right direction to open up communications. if you really use the internet, and invest in web 2.0 and bringing high speed to the public, you have an opportunity to drastically improve education {and porn, that beautiful first amendment right - slight joke} for the masses. you can finally open up avenues for teaching the good stuff and sharing knowledge. also - could provide for homeschools. i'm not against vouchers at all. i think every student should get a certain $ amount every year (might happen already), and even private institutions could get that money and teach the way they want. the market will correct itself here b/c of how much talk happens b/w parents.
4. foreign oil. great buzz word. here's what you do about it. Switch Grass. Bush mentioned in 2007 state of union. it produces (through very very very early preliminary research) a net 4x the amount of ethanol per acre than corn (and about 3/5 that of sugar cane... but we're not going to be annexing mexico, so let's just focus on switch grass). we'll still need oil. we will. but come on, let's focus on remaking our economy and returning some factory jobs back to Motor City USA. if we focus on switch grass, we can really drive costs down and pump money into domestic producers of energy. also, nuclear. give me a break, this shit is the bomb. start building nuclear power, harness the power of the earth's core, the tides, wind, solar, etc. etc.
5. birth rates. i look at this like it's education. educate our population on birth control, condom use, etc. etc. i'm not saying rollback roe v wade, but i'm saying let's take the steps to get it to the point where unwanted pregnancies aren't a problem. easiest way into poverty - having a child under the age of 18. 2ne easiest way into poverty - having a child out of wedlock. stop this horrible lower-income mentality of "my baby daddy" (having its roots in welfare subsidies ruining the family structure). let's finally control our population. the highest educated are waiting longer b/c they can afford to. let's make schooling and working a great option, and while we're at it, let's help single parents with child care on some level. a lot of options there.
6. lower the tax rate and simplify the code. give me a break. dems get a lot of boost from electorate b/c of the tax rate. it'sa joke. when you consider all the taxes, everyone in america basically has a 40% tax rate (except the extremely wealthy who have lower rates b/c they can afford tax attornies and trusts etc. -- i'm for that b/c it's within the code now, but let's make the code simpler). if we remove the complicated nature of the tax code, we remove a lot of white collar jobs. BUT with the regulations we have with sarbanes oxley (sp?), we could switch them from the public to the private sector.
7. civil unions. get rid of gov't doing marriage, and simplify the deductions for civil unions. we're currently oppressing our gay population that has long-term partners by not offering the same benefits that are offered to married straight couples. i'm looking at this simply from an administrator's stand point. especially if one of the two gays are the primary care provider.
8. publicly financed elections. elections are the most corrupt thing we have going on. there's got to be a more fair and just way, especially with the internet, to do it. look at dean's campaign and obama's in jan08 - a lot of small donors.
9. borders. seriously? we can't secure these with technology?
10. illegals. biometrics scare me, and sounds like big brother, but might be the way to go. open to discussion, but we first need to figure out who's in our country (legal and illegal citizens)
11. prisons. 2 million people in prison. we need to look at crack sentencing seriously for our future. in fact, all drug crimes need to be looked at. why is marijuana illegal again? why is crack 10 times more punishable than cocaine? why did the gov't introduce it in the first place? oh yea, to fund its private overthrows of gov't in the 80s. i like the thought of that back room shit, but crack is killing our poor and we need to take notice of how best to take care of it - rehab not jail. that's the broad strokes on that
12. infrastructure. let's start taking care of our highways. another boom like the 60's (we haven't had enough maintenance to our highways since they were constructed in the 60s) would really put a lot of people to work and probably take us out of a recession we're heading towards/already in. build proper dams in katrina, build proper levees in Florida, build bridges in MN that don't collapse, build super highways with technology for auto-propelled vehicles (that would be cool), light-rail trains running electric.
13. in some way, level the playing field on foreign producers vs. american producers. our standard of living obviously makes our products too costly. the weaker dollar will help. china's inflation will help. the 'prospering' EU will help.
14. darfur. really? this goes on in the 21st century? whey doesn't the world care about africa? warlords in africa need to wise the fuck up before they get messed the fuck up. the $100 laptop foundation by negraponte was amazing. more forward thinking like that.

you say: "we need better work ethics and education, not welfare handouts"
me: we need systems that allow people to reach the american dream so we can get out of peoples' way. she's 100% correct that education leads to jobs which leads to work ethic. we need a population that believes in our education system. we need a new Dewey that revolutionizes our systems.

i think my 14 steps above would create a great society in 20 years. i don't think it'd cost that much, either, if we trimmed our budget to some important items, and got rid of the rest. our public sector employs way too many people right now. also, barrett's first statement about the middle class is wrong. well, it's right, but the reason the middle class is fucked is b/c of our savings rate in america. in 1980, it's at 8-10%. currently, it's at -0.5%. people are buying too much, and too many foreign goods. seriously, we're just spending more of our money b/c there's more items to buy. items are 'cheaper' on the comparison, but we buy more b/c we waste (it's true. a simple study of pairs of underwear in america will show that we're buying more per capita than we did 20 years ago -- simply b/c it's cheaper i can find) and b/c there's new technologies out there to compete for our dollar. like cell phone plans, cable plans, tv's, radioes, etc etc etc.

this is lofty and idealistic, but we're finally in a place with technology to shoot for the stars. might just get the moon, but at least we're space wranglers (reference to widespread panic. they rule!). this is my rant. don't take it all too literally or seriously, but i truly feel we need to change a lot, and we finally have the possibility of changing in the right direction.

and i'm out of breath

top 10 questions to consider when choosing a social networking site profile picture

10. Have I taken a picture in an amazing place that will make everyone really, really, ridiculously jealous of my life?
9. Should I be showing the world that I am an underage drinker/smoker/drug user?
8. Am I handsome enough to put up a picture?
7. If I'm stealing someone's picture, does it make me look like an idiot or an ugly person to not have my own picture up?
6. If I'm wearing a bikini or shirtless, do I look better than at least ONE other person of similar dress?
5. If there are multiple people in the picture, is it obvious which one is me?
4. Did I crop the picture appropriately to remove any 'unnecessary' people (ie ex-girlfriend/boyfriend)?
3. Do I look awesome (ie like a queen/king)?
2. Is there a backstory that is evident from the picture that I don't want to discuss?
1. Do I look my hottest (changes meaning when you decide what you are trying to present)?