so I really hate it when people microwave their weird fish dishes at work. It always makes the whole office smell like a dead rat.

so this has been all over the news - CNN, the Post, DCist, etc. It snowed in Virginia and a kid at Lake Braddock Secondary School called a school administrator at home after not reaching him at his office to ask why they didn't cancel school. The administrator's wife called the kid back and left him a really nasty message. It's ridiculous. Maybe the kid shouldn't have called, but 1. If you work for the school system you should be smart enough not to list your number, and 2. Don't call the kid back! What's wrong with this woman?

UPDATE: I also found that the lady is listed on the staff page for another Fairfax County school, Eagle View Elementary. That makes it even worse, that she works for the school system and makes this kind of call to students. She's listed as Candi Tistadt, not Candy Tistadt as it is in the articles, but it's got to be the same lady.

so here's a commercial from my native Knoxville.

so I took this video a few days ago. A Temple University basketball fan gives the cunnilingus hand gesture during the Duke game on ESPN, and ESPN doesn't cut away. Pretty funny. That's my roommate cackling.



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so here is me doing some extreme skiing



Note my fellow extreme skiiers along the way.

Filmed in the Family Fun Zone at Pat's Peak, Henniker, NH.

so I saw this commercial today. Pretty cool.



I was pretty much blown away when I saw it, I rewinded it to see it again. It's different and cool, I was surprised it said what it did. And there's no sound, so it's more noticeably different. Of course, the fact that it's selling something kind of undercuts the message, but it's a good message nonetheless.

so it's been a few days so my memory is not perfect, but here's what happened election day (with photos, which are finally online).

We woke up late-ish due to being out late the night before. We had James's BMW, because he was out with his friends at the Hillary campaign. We found some coffee place with bagels on the main drag in Manchester and ate there then we walked around downtown a little, which was hopping with people and energy, and headed over to Obama HQ. They sent us to a precinct's volunteer base, which was an house under heavy renovation somewhere in the north of Manchester.

The volunteer staff guy was kind of a twerp, for lack of a better word. He was maybe 22 and was not exactly welcoming - there were these 40-year old upper middle class ladies and us, nobody said hello and thanks for coming, and he was ordering everybody around: "You WILL do this, you WILL do that," etc. The ladies were visibly pissed off. Our pals the Texas senate staffers, who we'd been hanging around with every night, later told us they experienced a similar thing at their precincts.

So we got our turfs, the areas where you walk around and talk to folks, and we headed out. Ward got one nearby so he went walking around alone, while Wilson and I got one in Manchester so we drove there. It was about 1 pm by now and most folks weren't home, we only managed to talk to a few folks and only one or two were Obama guys. One house had a ton of kid toys in the yard and an igloo built out of snow, so Wilson and I got photos in it.

Eventually we walked past a Planned Parenthood with Ron Paul folks outside holding anti-abortion posters and reading Bible verses. We decided to talk to them and the staff there, so Wilson engaged the protesters while I went in to say thanks and such to the staffers. There were some pink-shirted counter protesters inside and they were appreciative. Wilson had been in a civil debate with the Paulistas about the role of government and taxes and so on, and we pressed on. Soon after we met a guy with an Obama press pass on. He turned out to be a reporter for the Philadelphia City Paper, akin to the Washington City Paper. He walked around with us and we gave him a ride back to the precinct so he could get some photos.

However, when he arrived with us, the twerpy guy and the other staffers freaked out, they all clammed up and said he couldn't take photos. But we didn't care, so we dropped off our canvassing packets and got out of there quickly so they couldn't bitch us out. The reporter took some photos of us with the Obama signs outside and then we gave him a ride back downtown. Then we all returned to HQ, where we met a lady who had been in the Air Force. She was pretty cool and was only up for the day, so she hung out with us. We got a hold of the Texas folks and went for lunch downtown. People had been telling us all day we were going to win, and Obama was up in the polls, so we were feeling pretty good.

After lunch we went to the Radisson for some reason then walked around downtown. Wilson and I decided to try to head down to Nashua, about a 20 minute drive, where Obama's rally was taking place. It was supposed to be packed and was ticket only, but we figured we'd try. We had some misadventures getting there, we stopped at a polling place and then the wrong high school, but eventually made it to the right spot. It was completely mobbed, hundreds of people outside, lines around the building, and who knows how many people inside. We waited around a bit but decided to head back to Manchester to meet up with everybody at Milly's, where the Obama staff and volunteer folks were going to be.

Back on the interstate, we were on an exit ramp type thing and needed to get over to the main part. Wilson was driving and we drove over a median which was hard to see, no shiny strips or anything, and we basically went airborne, landing with a splash in some kind of puddle, so water went all over the car. We kept going, and the car seemed to drive ok but we obviously had a flat or something, and we took the next exit. There was a gas station right off the exit. We looked at the car and found that three of the four tires were popped. We asked the lady there where we should go and she suggested the Sunoco next door, so we rolled over. After calling a few tow shops at another gas station, to get a neutral opinion, they all said they use the Sunoco for flats, so that worked out well. Unfortunately it was too late to get the tires fixed, we'd have to wait til 7 am tomorrow. We called James to tell him of the disaster, since it was his BMW, and he hung up on us. Then he called back a few minutes later and gave us Bret's number, the guy we were staying with, and hung up. So Bret showed up fast enough and took us to Milly's, where Ward and the Texas crew were.

We watched the results roll in, with Hillary up immediately, and the energy in the room dissipated. Unfortunately no places in NH had pitchers, so we'd have to wade through the crowd and get six packs. They ran out of Miller Light and Bud Light soon enough. So we were pretty down and drank there for awhile, leaving sometime after they called it for Hillary. James showed up at some point and there was a bit of a standoff, James at one end of the room and us on the other. Then Wilson went to talk to him and I guess James left. Then we headed over to possibly Strange Brew and definitely JDs, it gets a little hazy at this point. I know at JDs we met up with our Hillary pals and some other folks bought us dinner, which was nice. The Hillary types wanted to debate and stuff, but I was having none of it, I was sick of political stuff. Ward got photos with Tim Russert. It was cool going to JDs at this point, since we'd been there something like 5 nights in a row, all the waitstaff recognized us and such.

Then eventually we went home, driven by the Hillary folks, and crashed. Wilson went down at 6 am to get the tires fix, and by noon we were on the road home. At least James has a good story for the next time Wilson messes with him.

so today we performed the important duty of canvassing the ski slopes. We went to Pat's Peak in Henniker, NH, and it was pretty good, not a big mountain but decent snow. I wore a Chris Dodd shirt for funniness.

Last night we did a little canvassing, going door to door to talk to folks, and a couple folks seemed to be interested - it helps that the the guys I'm up here with are veterans. I sorta feel like they aren't being utilized super effectively, but hey. Then we went out at night, as usual, and hit JDs, where my buddy met some people, including some undersecretary of state and Will Matthews, a guy who used to play for the Detroit Lions - he was Cedric Benson's fullback at Texas. He was a pretty cool guy and now does music and art stuff in Austin. And the waitress told us that our booth was where Viggo Mortensen was sitting earlier in the night, but we didn't see him anywhere.

Eugene Mirman and a bunch of other indie-type comedians were at JDs too and looked bored and I said hi. I've seen Eugene in concert a few times, he's really weird and funny. They were in NH doing stuff for a new comedy site, 23/6, it's apparently related to the Huffington Post. Get it, 23/6 not 24/7.

After that we went to Strange Brew with Will and some other Obama folks, and I met up with a girl I know who works for the state Democratic party. Drinking etc, a very drunk National Guard soldier was there, etc. Then the bar closed, but JDs was still open, so we drunkenly went back, and Shepard Smith from Fox News was there. He was a nice guy and we got some photos with him. Probably other stuff happened but I don't recall. Alzheimers. Now we're going downtown to party. Apparently Obama is up, thanks to our hard work no doubt.

so we got to Manchester, NH yesterday at about 5 pm. The city has about a foot of snow, at least, but it's hard to judge because most of it is piled up in enormous drifts pushed there by plows. The city is full of political signs, including a fair amount of the long shots like Duncan Hunter, Mike Gravel, and Kucinich. And the Dodd headquarters was an empty storefront with tons of signs in the windows, with the lights still on, so it was eerie looking.

We ate at a place downtown called JW Hill's, then called the Obama folks. They said "come to HQ and meet us, then we'll all go drink beer and watch the debate." Sweet. What they didn't mention is that it's a 45 minute walk from downtown to Obama HQ, and when we got there, they told us we'd be doing "visibility" and not drinking. I guess that's a good way to get volunteers to do work - "hey dudes, come and drink beer."

Visibility is basically the dumbest thing you can do, you just stand there and wave signs as cameras look at you. We were in a snowy field outside St. Anselm's College, where the debates were being held. There were probably 100 people there already, mainly from Obama, Hillary, and Ron Paul, with a smattering of Kucinich people with tape over their mouths (because he wasn't allowed to debate). We were in the back row, and it basically devolves to holding your sign and chanting over and over, despite the fact that there's nobody there to see. And it's not like that's going to win over anybody - "Well I liked Obama, but the incessant 'Hill-ary! Hill-ary! Hill-ary!' convinced me otherwise."

So we grabbed a cab and headed back to town, to the bar where people were watching the debate. The cabby was pretty weird, there was a woman in the passenger seat and he told us he was going to get road head and stuff.

The bar was a big place called Milly's located inside a mill. There are a bunch of old mills around Manchester (Manch-vegas to the locals). They're these huge old brick buildings that stretch for a city block.

The scene there was funny, there was a crappy local-rap metal band called Killfuck was playing, joined by a smattering of fans wearing Killfuck bowling shirts and stuff. Then in the other part of the bar there was a room packed with people watching the debates, but completley silent. So that was boring. I played a kid in foosball and talked with a few other similarly bad volunteers, two NJ girls who got tired of doing visibility and came to the bar.

Soon enough we left and went to JDs, a bar inside the main hotel in town where all the politicos go. Inside the bar were Sam Donaldson, Chris Matthews, Donna Brazile, Eleanor Clift, and a few other media types. It's funny to try and pick out the campaign staffers, they stick out. A lot of the younger types wear their ID badges around like medals - in D.C. that makes you a douchebag. Plus it was some guy's birthday so we got cake.

Then we went to Strange Brew, by far the best bar in the city. It's a good local place with tons of local beers and a blues band. Much better scene than the debate watchers/rap metal doofuses and the kids trying to talk to Donna Brazile at the other places.

Not sure what's happening today, we slept in way past when we were supposed to contact the Obama folks. We are not good volunteers.

so I'm riding in a car right now on the way to New Hampshire for the primaries. I'm going to work for Obama and hopefully drink and ski mostly, and I'm going to try to blog once a day. I'll be in Manchester, which is kind of the nerve center of all the primary stuff. Hopefully I can see some people.

I came up in 2000 with some of the same buddies and we saw Stephanopolous, who is a jerk, Kerry (who we worked for), Wes Clark, some C-Span dudes, and a drunk PETA carrot.

so here is a video.