Upbeat as Always

yan: got any plans for the weekend
me: no
me: it's valentine's day
me: what plans could i possibly have?
yan: hha
me: will probably be spending it the way i usually do
me: alone and depressed
me: might try curling up into the fetal position this year
yan: sounds nice..

Absolute Last Post on Nipple Gate

Sean "Puffy/P. Diddy" Combs: "I have three sons, and I'm very happy for them that they were able to see one of Janet Jackson's breasts in their lifetime -- I don't think they'll be scarred for life. I think there's bigger things going on than to try and lynch Janet Jackson; she doesn't hurt nobody. I just want to say to America that you should be happy with that because if I would've known about it -- if I would've known that she was going to steal the thunder -- then I would've whipped out something you'd still be explaining to your kids."

One More Thing

Why doesn't the Blogger spell check dictionary recognize "fucking" as a legal word?

The Sound of Music

Although I only watched about 15 minutes of the Grammy last night, I did catch a couple of interesting moments: When Outkast won the Record of the Year (or was it Album of the Year? What is the difference anyway?), all the cameras were panning left and right trying to find Andre 3000 and Big Boi. Some in the audience stood up and clapped after the announcement, but they also looked confused. One of the cameras caught Andre just before he got on stage, grabbed his award and then said "Thank you." Then he just left!! He was wearing that funky green jacket too. Andre 3000 is now officially my idol. Sorry Deuce Bigelow Male Gigolo, Andre is just too cool.

Later I saw Sting performing "Roxanne" with Sean Paul, which almost made me hurl. What is wrong with you, Sting? Are you so broke that you can't stop whoring your best songs? Butchering "Every Breath You Take" with P. Diddy a while back was bad enough, but at least Diddy is a decent producer. Sean Paul? I can't understand 99% of what comes out of that man's mouth! Although I have difficulty understanding some rap lyrics due to a lack of exposure to all the slang words, I can at least understand the words that are being said, even if they have no meaning to me. With Sean Paul, it's as if he's speaking a totally different language. I'm not even sure if it's from this planet. I remember watching some program on MTV in which the most difficult to understand music videos were shown with captions. When Sean Paul's "Gimme the Light" video came on, I thought there was no fucking way the sound coming out of his mouth was matching the actual captions. Anyways, I'm totally mystified by his popularity.

Back to Sting being a whore. Ok, since it was a somewhat moving tribute to a dead rapper, "Every Breath You Take" was at least forgivable if entirely regrettable. But singing "Desert Rose" in a Jaguar commercial? Bastardizing "Roxanne" with Sean Paul? What's next, collaborating with Little Bowwow on "Message in a Bottle"? Sting is without a doubt the male gigolo of the music world.

More Politics as Usual

Too bad I missed Bush's appearance on "Meet the Press with Tim Russert" this morning because I didn't get up until 1:30 PM. The full transcript of the interview is here.

What's more interesting is "CLAIM vs. FACT: The President on Meet the Press" from Center for American Progress. Although this organization is a liberal thinking tank, the rebuttals offered in the article are all backed up by authoritative sources such as the Washington Post, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Bush's own contradictory statements. A potentially enlightening read for people who still refuse to believe that Bush would lie to the American people (gasp!!).

The Issues Quiz

I just took a pretty comprehensive quiz to determine which of the Democratic candidates is most compatible with me when it comes to issues such as national defense, healthcare, education, and social security.

Here is a list of the candidates and the issues on which we see eye to eye:


Howard Dean
# Trade Policy

John Kerry
# Gun Control
# Energy and Environment
# Role of U.S. Military

John Edwards
# Education

Dennis Kucinich
# Terrorism

Wesley Clark
# Security & Civil Liberties
# Employment
# Economy
# Poverty and Homelessness
# Health Care
# Iraq -- Rebuilding
# Social Security

Al Sharpton
# Family and Marriage

I'm surprised that I seem to be most compatible with Wesley Clark: I agreed with him on 7 out of 14 issues. Then again, all the candidates' stances on most of the issues are very very similiar if not identical. For example, all of them want to enlist more international support for peace keeping in Iraq. They all oppose privatizing social security and school vouchers. They all support granting gay couples the same rights as married hetero couples. Most of the differences stem from wording and semantics rather than divergent viewpoints. Maybe I chose Clark's opinions because he phrased his arguments the way I would.

Even though the quiz took me a good 45 minutes to finish (all those details pages are so damn long), it gave me a much clearer idea of the candidates' stance of all the important issues. I highly recommend it.