you want a post? fine you got a freaking post, punk

It has come to my attention that I need to post more often. Well, thats hard because I generally dont have anything interesting in my life to talk about that all the people who might possibly give a damn about aren't involved in and dont need me to describe in graphic detail again. but I can think of a few things...

My cousin Alex who lives in LA just had a baby boy... well his wife Anne did, but thats beside the point... anyway, this isnt really interesting to anyone but me, however, I know how people, especially those crazy female ones, like to see pictures of babies, so here is on of Max, my cousin once removed, or whatever its called when your cousin has a kid. http://wam.umd.edu/~tgoff/DSCN0070.JPG Anyway, they are really awesome people and will make great parents, so I am happy for them. Elizabeth wants to take a trip to LA now so that she can play with the baby... See? babies make women crazy even when they're not carying them for 9 months. of course, I wouldnt mind going to LA either.

I dont know if anyone else has been paying attention to politics at all, but I have been watching the democratic national convention for the last couple of days. I am trying to decide who I want to vote for between Kerry and Nader. I am really impressed with a lot of the speeches I have heard at the convention, and in general the direction of the party, but I am also reading Naders new book "The Good Fight" and that is kinda pissing me off that both parties are equally in the pockets of big business and even the democrats tend to leave behind the teeming masses of working class and underpriviledged people that they traditionally have stood up for. However, I think now more than at least any time since I started caring, there is a huge leftward pull in the party, with people like Howard Dean, Michael Moore (who isnt a politician, but can have a huge political impact) and even Al Sharpton (who gave an amazing speech at the convention) gaining a lot of popularity for very progressive ideas. So maybe despite the corruption in politics in general, we can at least start to move back to politics of the people by the people and for the people, instead of for the people who contribute the most money to politicians. In conclusion, I still dont know who to vote for, as I hope Kerry wins, but agree the most with Nader, and wish that Dean was an option, but I hope that everyone votes, even if they vote for Bush. because voting is the only thing that will make our democracy last and the only thing that can keep us from falling into monarchy. Even if you're like my Dad who refuses to vote for Kerry, because Kerry voted for the war in Iraq, and is going to vote for Dean, just vote in November.

ok, that was way too serious... anyway, i have to go do my job seeing as I am at work.

oh, Bourne Supremecy tonite, let me know if your interested.

belated france stuff and drunken hilarity

So yeah, its been a while since I've posted. Mostly, I really dont feel like relating all of my France related experiences, as might be expected of me after returning from France. Now its been a while since I came back, so I can get away with only a brief description.

Basically France kicked all sorts of ass except for the fact that I started to miss certain people a lot while I was gone. oh yeah, and that whole lack of knowing the language. That was a little annoying. But it is my philosophy that while in another country, I have no right to expect the people to know my language, so I was willing to deal with it and make due with what little French I know. We ventured into Spain two times while we were there, onec to go to a toppless beach (cha-ching) and the second time to get a flat time (well that wasn't the reason for going there, however it was funny, cuz we didnt even mean to cross teh border into Spain) . Let me tell you, running around France trying to find a specific replacement tire is not fun. I sounded like a broken record: "Avez vous cette pneu? la jante est bonne, mais le pneu est mal" dude, I know French car repare lingo (in retarded keanu reeves voice from the matrix). anyway, I saw lots of cool stuff, including a lot of old castles inhabited by the Cathars who were wiped out by the Catholics (they were what is referred to as the Albigensi heresy). man those medival Catholics were brutal.... In southern France/Northern Spain they speak some language that isnt quite French and isnt quite Spanish, called Occitan, so that kinda made things really confusing. Anyway, nothing else comes to mind right now as overly interesting to other people so thats enough about France. oh except for the fact that Bill O'reilly can fuck off for being such a ignorant ass wipe with his whole "boycott france" crap. France kicks ass, even if they dont support our stupid wars. Not to mention they saved our asses in the Revolutionary war. Dont even get me started on his new "boycott canada" campaign.... Why is it that he chooses to boycott all the countries I've been to? Anyway, for more France related hijinks, see my pictures at http://68.50.195.219/FrancePictures/


anyway, now I am at my new job at raytheon... working for the man (if you call NASA the man) and will probabaly get fired for spending my day typing this blog. So I should go. This post really was meant to be about something more than what I did a month ago, but I forgot what, so screw it. anyway here is a link to more fun pictures to keep you happy. some of them are family pictures, so you can ignore them, or laugh at me because of them. the others are generally drunken hilarity. It should be relatively easy to tell which are which:
http://68.50.195.219/Pictures/view.php?directory=July%202004

cheers...