Category: General

I’ve been using a Yahoo Photo Album to put up pictures for a little while, but the limitations of the site have been getting to me. Mainly, it was not being able to use the album with the journal. I’ve now begun the process of moving over to a Flickr album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fine_al/. I’ll give it a try for a little while and see how it works out. I’ve only got like 10 photos on it so far, so it’s not much to see though.

Me with Justin (left) and Jeff (right)

So it’s no surprise really that the hot button issue of the day is the election day followup and how there will now be four more years of Bush. People all around Berkeley in classes, email discussion forums, and my friends page are all talking about all sorts of things. Rather respond to all of these things individually, I decided to make this one long entry. Sit back and take a look.

-First off, I’ll say this straight out: I voted for John Kerry mainly because he wasn’t George W. Bush. Bush is a bumbling fool with barely a command of the English language (though this video “What’s happened to George W. Bush’s speaking skills after 10 years” shows he wasn’t always this way), who lead us into this phony war for WMDs in Iraq that weren’t there. That was good enough for me to get him out. Kerry maybe a flip flopper, but Bush is equally one as we see in this Flip Flop catalog. Anyways…

-I’ve heard a lot of talk about moving to Canada. One of my friends wrote:

Who wants to join me and move to Canada? I don’t think I will be able to survive another 4 years…Vancover decriminalizes weed, drinking age is 19 and whistler is beautiful, so why not?

Of course, they should realize that the taxes are heavy compared to the US, the health care involves long waits, and well it’s Canada. CNN had more to say on the matter here (found via Fark).

-Well short of that, California succession seems like a topic seem people suggest to rid themselves of Bush. There’s a sizable group on Facebook that’s “entertaining” the possibility. Taking a look at the electorate map though, we see that while most of the major population sectors of the state like the Bay Area and Los Angeles supported Kerry, if we measured the actual size of land that voted Bush it would have been larger than the portion that voted Kerry. Granted most of that land is desert, mountains, and Yosemite, but nonetheless, try succeeding from the Union without the part of California with the all the food, water, and most of the natural resources (of course, we’re about as serious about doing that as we are about moving to Canada now aren’t we).

-Finally, four more years of Bush? The president who ruined our economy right? Not quite. Remember the economy was going down hill before Bush took office. After all, the dotcom boom went up in smoke, Kenneth Lay laid waste to Enron stock holders along with few other unscrupulous businessmen and companies (*cough* Halliburton), and other problems sprang up. And then came 9/11 which screwed the economy up more. However, an econ professor here at Berkeley named Brad DeLong writes here about how presidents really only “influence but do not control the economy–that most of what happens is the economy following its own path.”

That’s of course not to say that Bush couldn’t helped the economy more. As one commenter points out, “they have *plenty* of control over tax policy, the waging of wars, (through Fed appointments) loose vs. tight economic policy and fiscal policy.” A war on Iraq hasn’t been good for the economy and neither have the tax cuts during the war (before the war, they made sense though). Oddly enough though, the stock market seemed to like it when Bush was winning. As Reuters states, when Kerry looked like he was going to win Ohio and Florida, stocks went down in the health care and the defense sector. I know they represent Bush’s corporate interests, but unfortunately they play a large part of the economy.

Alright, friends that’s some thoughts on your thoughts.

(Also, I found this video (Quicktime) of Bush flipping the bird)

In this week’s Critique of the Week, Allen Lew takes a look at news from a national level. Does he like what he sees? Find out here.

lets face it, snowboarding is like golf for 15 year olds.
At least 90% of snowboarders are white young males and there needs to be diversity in this sport. So I have proposed my own snowboarding version of affirmative action. I have an extra snowboard (156cm) and boots (size 11)and will give them away to the first minority to contact me with an intention to either learn or progress at the sport.

Cheers!

Admit it, it’s true.

Taken from this post from Craig’s list.

I introduce a new column to One called “ Critique of the week.” This one is called “Critiquing Berkeley Media“.

What does Allen Lew think of Berkeley media after a week of reading it all? Plus, the good of expanding the American Cultures requirement.

I got my first news comment today. On the Bic pen story I posted,

err… if this article was posted a bit earlier, i wouldn’t have gotten my bike stolen on the first school day .

Geez, I didn’t realize I had such a responsibility.

I just got picked to be a news admin for one.berkeley.edu, the new Berkeley students portal. It has news on the front page, as well as sections for events, classified ads, blogs, and more. As more my part, I’ll be putting up news about Berkeley and anything relevant from across the country. So far though, I’ve only posted about Bic Pen’s as a lock pick and Best of the Berkeley blogs. I’m still trying to find my voice and style for this, so if you have any problems with my writing let me know. Also, I realize the news on the site is pretty limited. I’ll see what I can do to boost coverage, so if there are more things you’d like to see (more sports perhaps?, campus news?), also give me a comment. Finally, if you have news that you’d like to see, point me to it (the submit news script isn’t working right now, we’re seeing how we can get it back up). Thanks a lot.

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Web Wonder–JibJab-The animators of the political parody “This Land” have released a sequel entitled “DC Land.” It’s hilarious.

I got out of class today thinking I would have to add to my list of Celebrities I have missed while in Berkeley entry. I had already missed Bill Gates at Zellerbach last week, and then I found out Howard Dean would on campus. The problem was he was coming when I had a class and I didn’t think I could miss the class, so I would miss him. As I left to go home, I saw Jackie Goldberg (who demonstrates my entire lack of knowledge of state legislature, because she presented my home town district and I had no idea) wrapping up a speech. I, then, realized though that she was introducing someone. Yes, Dean came out and started his speech, which was totally awesome ( I wish there was transcript on the net). Then I saw Eddie and Joe with Vicky, who were also there, listening to Dean. They then told me about the reception Cal Dems were having for him afterwards. Not wanting to miss a chance to meet Dean, we all went over to MLK student union and helped set up the reception. We waited until all of a sudden, he appeared. It was awesome. We all shook his hand and got him to sign various things and got pictures with him (I should have that up soon). That was awesome. Plus on the way out, we ran into Jackie Goldberg, though without the same enthusiasm. Wow this has been a good week for me, politically speaking.

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Funny Quote-“Hey I met Dennis Kucinich”- Billy Mack after telling him I met Howard Dean.

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Bonus Quote (not related to anything above, but really funny)-‘In my earlier years, I was a mathematician. It was simple – there was only pencil, paper, and wastebasket. But when I got older I discovered a simpler way. I became a philosopher and did away with the waste basket.’ – a friend of Prof. Papadimitriou (stolen from David Marquardt’s profile)