Wednesday roundup

Listening to a podcast on my way in this morning, I heard a guy reference being somewhere “on a snowy Friday afternoon”. When I heard the word “snowy” I got a nice feeling. And Scott just blogged about it snowing a lot in Seoul yesterday.

I have to admit, I kind of miss winter. While we’re moving into autumn here in Australia, not much will change about the weather. Especially here in Sydney, where it’s pretty much the same year-round—compared to, say, Washington, D.C., which actually has seasons.

I kind of like the cold and shit. It makes the sunny days better.

Not that I’m complaining. Bitching about the weather when you live in Sydney is pretty dumb. (Although we’ve had cause to this summer, what with the incessant rain. It’s overcast even now.)

Here’s what’s happening in your world on this Wednesday morning:

1. Barack Obama is gaining ground in Ohio. And he’s now leading in Texas. Primaries are next Tuesday.
2. In other Obama news, former Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd and former Texas Governor Mark White both endorsed the Illinois senator.
3. Staying in the Lone Star State, it is official: The annual Texas A&M-Texas football game will be played on Thanksgiving Night again, at least for the next two years. Sweet. This is how it should be. I love night games at Kyle Field.
4. The Dallas Morning News has the worst website on the planet.
5. Radiohead will play two shows in Japan this October, in Tokyo and Osaka. I will be going.

That’s all I’ve got for now. More to come in this crazy world.

Pacific Ocean is wet and salty, part six

It’s really sad that this doesn’t surprise me:

Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.

The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate, according to people involved. The secretive effort underscores the enormous risk senior GOP operatives see for a party often criticized for its insensitivity to minorities in campaigns dating back to the 1960s.

So, the Republicans are polling people to see how racist (or sexist) they can be without being perceived as being racist or sexist.

Isn’t that whole enterprise, well, racist and sexist?

We have a saying in the PR business: Sometimes you have a PR problem, and sometimes you just have a problem.

You can work until you’re blue in the face to change the perception people have about you, but if it’s based on 100 per cent truth, well, it ain’t gonna work. In other words, the best way to be perceived as not being racist is to not be racist.

Of course, that’s asking too much for the GOP.

And it shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’re taking this tactic. They can’t win on the issues. They can’t win on motivation. They can’t win on ideas. They can’t win on fervour or organisation. They can’t even win on age, with their fossil of a presumptive nominee. And the 9/11 card just doesn’t hold the sway it used to.

What’s a bigot Republican to do?

Sunny Sydney - finally

Great weekend. It was finally sunny and warm the entire weekend—in fact, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky on Saturday or Sunday—so we went to the beach for the first time in recent memory.

Yesterday was nice, as I got up, rode the bike down to the beach with my flatmate Phil, and then we came back, fired up the grill and popped open a few beers. Then, off to the pub to watch the one-day cricket match (Australia vs. India) before ending up at Sydney Football Stadium to see the “grand final” (read: final) of the Hyundai A-League, which is the Australian professional soccer league.

The game was crap (and I rested well knowing that either of my hometown US teams, DC United and FC Dallas, could beat the shit out of either of the two teams playing last night, Newcastle United and Central Coast), but it was fun. Hats off to the Newcastle United fans—they showed up in force and were clearly organised. Central Coast had a big bag of nothing, fan-wise. Sure, they had numbers, but they sat on their hands all night, and looked dumb when compared to the rowdy Jets supporters. And that was before Newcastle scored the game’s only goal.

I have a new Saturday afternoon tradition, and that is to watch a downloaded copy of “Lost”. Yeah, it’s on television here, on Channel 7, but they are a week behind the US—so this Thursday’s episode will be the one that aired last Thursday back in the States. It’s usually online by our Saturday morning, so I get to see it five days early and without the inconvenience of commercials.

There is one thing that’s bugging me, though, and it really became apparent in the latest episode. This shouldn’t spoil anything for those of you who haven’t seen it, but be forewarned anyway.

So the Losties have a satellite phone, courtesy of the people from the freighter, if that actually exists. From Naomi, anyway, and they’ve been calling Minkowski and Regina on that alleged freighter for the past couple of episodes, even into the season finale last year.

My question is this: It’s a satellite phone. It’s a bloody telephone. They can call anyone on the planet with a telephone number. They could call the Pizza Hut on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, or even dial in and vote for contestants on “American Idol”. So why hasn’t anyone called any friends or family yet? Or the US Coast Guard, or whatever Australia’s equivalent is called?

There’d better be a good explanation for this, or I’m going to be pissed. I assume there will be, because Juliet alluded to it when she wondered aloud why no one had called 911. Because this could turn out to be one of those plot holes that I hate, like in that terrible movie “The Blair Witch Project” (one of the worst movies I’ve seen, and not just for this plot hole— when I’m on my deathbed I will demand $8 (adjusted for inflation) and 1.5 hours of my life back from Artisan Entertainment), when they’re lost in the woods and they keep crossing the creek over and over. Just follow the fucking creek! You won’t be lost anymore!

Anyway. “Lost” is kicking some major ass this season, although this last episode wasn’t as exciting or full-on as the first three. But that’s OK. It still set some things up and answered a few questions. (And, of course, raised 10 times more in the process.)