tintros

Hey everybody. Haven't posted here much in a while, been busy finding work and dealing with the new job, going from 0hrs of work a week to 40ish, which is a bit of a major gear-shift, but ran into something yesterday I felt like talking about.

I had taped (DVR'd being a nonexistant and awkward sort of word) a show called 'Huge' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huge_(TV_series)) because I'd been skimming stuff and noticed a mention in the description (in the TV section of the newspaper, and then in the Guide on the digital cable) that it had a LARP subplot this week. Never having seen the show, knowing nothing of it, that was enough for me to be curious and I taped it. Sitting down to watch it last night was... interesting.

First off, as LARP stuff goes, it's extremely unsophisticated. No gamergeek inside-jokes here, it's aimed at the complete 'what's a LARP' crowd. Felt I needed to preface things with that, given most if not all of my 'audience' here will know more about larp than everyone attached to the show seemed to, put together.

The show is set at a fat camp. Like the summer-camp cabins-and-swimming-and-crafts kind of camp, but for fat kids. For most of the show, everyone on screen is fat. Not just fat, but morbidly obese in a 'at home at a gamer convention' kinda way. I found myself thinking it was like they skimmed overweight nerdy kids from every high school in the state and put them on the show. I have *NO* idea where they found that many morbidly obese child actors, given hollywood's worship of the Paris-Kardashian bodytypes, but maybe they imported some, because they populated the 'camp' with people that look eighty times more 'normal' as fat kids than any show (outside of the BBC) I've watched recently. Granted, it's a bit jarring to see the normal-size adults and the weigh-twice-or-three-times-what-they-do kids in a scene, especially as the woman who runs the camp was in Firefly.

It's shows like this (and Doctor Who, and a few other things on BBC) that keep reminding me that our television, movies, and main media outlets are a facade of 'pretty people' we've built up and outside of a comic relief character, a'fat friend' or such you don't see normal looking people in that facade. You definetly don't get people with gaps in their teeth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Cooper) or other normalish appearance traits on your prime time pinnacle moneymakers.

This was all the more driven home when I finished watching the show (not bad, not fantastic, decent) and went back to 'normal tv' to find Lopez Tonight interviewing the cast from The Jersey Shore, who could've all been bio-engineered clones and siblings, and who bear no resemblance to any real person *I* know, that's for sure.

So, sleeping wierd hours (as anyone following my Facebook probably knows from my 'game' postings) and applying for jobs with no results as usual.

Trying to work on prep for a new game, but focus is not something currently in my repetoire. =P

Uh... When did LJ start doing video ads on here for cough syrup?


Did I miss a memo. Is there drama someplace complaining about this? Because damn was it annoying.

So, I listened to the State of the Union speech while I was playing video games, and missed a bunch, so went and watched it when Fox News re-ran it at like midnight or whatnot, and I've been watching a bunch of post-game review stuff and analysis and day-after writeups.

And I have to say.. how many speeches were on last night? Because first off, I don't remember some of the "content" some people seem to have heard in there last night, and secondly, it seems like many many of the people doing post-speech analysis weren't listening to the same speech.

The President either held out a hand across the aisle to the Republicans. Or slapped them in the face. Or berated them nonstop.

He either stole huge parts of the conservative 'platform' or stuck to his core liberal values. He either lied outrageously about tax cuts and political finance or he made bold statements his base isn't going to like.

What the hell people? Do you really have to try and spin *everything* to your own advantage just to get your face on PoliticrossPressFire? Seriously, and here I glare at BOTH sides of the aisle.

So, most people reading this by now know that Scott Brown has been elected to fill the Senate seat for Massachusetts. That's news all over, some people are happy about it, some are frustrated, some angry, some exuberant. Let me talk a bit about why I see it as a positive thing, and what I see in it.


From today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette, from the 'Election day in the region' section which covered people (normal people) and occurances on election day throughout the state..
"We're going to change from a one-party system in this state" (said a registered Democrat, Edwin Chadwick, 85 and a veteran of the Army in WWII, who spent the day holding a homemade sign outside a polling place in Worcester), "We've had a gang in power."

I've long seen that things in Massachusetts, politically, have belonged to the democrats. To be clear, I'm not a Democrat, or a Republican. I'm unenrolled and quite happy to remain that way for the forseeable future. But when you've got rampant corruption and people go 'eh, yeah but who else are you going to vote for?', when you've got politicians *under house arrest* and not feeling like they need to resign, when you've got bribery and corruption scandals accepted as par for the course because that's just the way it is, there's a problem, and so long as one party holds the reins of power uncontested that's not under much pressure to change. You saw it when Governor Patrick took office, tried to make some changes and got 'slapped down' by the legislature that clearly had no interest in being part of the 'change' that Patrick had gotten elected to bring.


“To win in Massachusetts you have to run a near-perfect campaign, you have to hope your opponent makes a few mistakes and you have to have the issues on your side,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said. “With Scott Brown, we had all three.” -Eric Fehrnstrom was a top official under former governor Mitt Romney. (Also the T&G today)

Going into this race, the common wisdom was that it was the Democrats to lose, and lose it they did. Martha Coakley ran a campaign that pushed all the wrong buttons, made mistake after mistake, turned negative *hard* when it looked like it might be in trouble, and seemed more interested in pushing the 'fear button' on their base than in talking about why undecideds and independents might want to vote for her. People wanted jobs, she offered Scott Brown hates women, they wanted answers to concerns about the health care bill, they got Scott Brown is George Bush, they were concerned about her stand that *she* would vote against the health care bill if it didn't include federal health care covering abortions, they got Scott Brown is a republican and wants to raise your taxes. That's to say nothing of the alienating of people with the statement that if you have a religious belief that might get in the way with giving someone an abortion, you shouldn't work in a hospital emergency room. That's not talking about her trip to Washington for a fundraising event with lobbyists (one of whom gave the legendary "Without lobbyists this town wouldn't work" quote-and-chuckle, looking like an editorial cartoon come to life.) That's not talking about the clear dichotomy of Scott Brown shown with his truck, with his family, wearing a sweater in a kitchen, versus her ads of sterile snapshots and vicious attack-ad venom.

"We had 7 1/2 percent (of the town's 11,500 registered voters) vote by 9 [am]", Town Clerk Ellen Gaboury of Auburn (The T&G again) (That's a lot of people, btw.)

People cared about this election. They simply did, and they turned out in *droves*. Turnout was huge, bigger at the poll I work at than anything we've seen since 2000, at least. For a state senate candidate, in a special election, with snow falling off and on all day and temperatures a tad on the chilly side, in the middle of January. That's phenomenal. I had a chance to speak with one of the city council that was at our polls yesterday and we talked about it briefly. I told her I was really pleased with the turnout and honestly I didn't care *who* they were voting for because they *were* voting, and that meant they cared about the election, and hopefully about the candidates, issues, and all the rest. I also said "We just have to hope that some of it sticks." I sincerely meant that, and until the end of the night when the votes were tallied, I had no way of knowing which way the votes would go. We don't have a readout on the machine that shows a pie chart like USA Today or anything, we don't look at peoples' ballots or talk to them about it on the way out, it's all invisible till the end.
Turnout at my polling place was 56%, that's big. Turnout statewide was way, WAY up from the primary, and from anything that people would've expected then, when this was expected to be a very low turnout. Things changed between then and now. I hope they stay that way.

"The once-longshot Senator-elect, speaking to the beyond-capacity crowd, also recalled the man he will succeed: "I promise to be a worthy successor to the late Sen. Kennedy." (The T&G, about the victory speech last night)

Scott Brown is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard. He supports abortion rights (though he was backed by several groups that don't, one might conjecture due to their intense opposition to his opponent and her statements I mentioned above) and he connected with people. He shook hands, got his picture taken shaking hands, treated politics as retail and got out there among the people. He fired people up, even Democrats that had never voted for a Republican, he started out buried under a landslide of public opinion that the seat *belonged* to the Democrats, and turned that around to make "The People's Seat" one of his rallying points.

I can honestly say I don't know what's going to happen when he takes his place in the Senate, how it'll change things, but I can sincerely hope that it's changed things here in Massachusetts, and that people will care a little more about the elections, the politics, and especially the politicians. That it's changed things a bit and that we'll be seen a bit less like sheep already penned and ready to be sheared by whatever Democrat comes down the pipe, and that our politicians are a bit afraid that the era of 'well who else are you going to vote for' is over.


"In many ways, the campaign in Massachusetts became a referendum not only on health care reform but also on the openness and integrity of our government process," --Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia

To the new year..

May it be better than the old,
Filled with joy where we've had pain
Happiness where there's been sorrow
Laughter where there were tears.

Happy new year everybody

Why is it, I get out of work and I've felt fine.. until i get to my car and I'm getting in.. Then I age 20 years. And by the time I get home I'm up another 20? My knees clock out when I do, maybe?

So, I'm temping atm, which let me say is technically better than not working at all. The temp agency (which shall remain nameless) seems like it's run by the high school yearbook committee. Aside from the one 'managerial type' it's all 20yr olds answering phones and dressed up in mom & dad's clothes making a zillion calls a day treating people twice their age like children.

Let me elaborate.

I spoke with "Roy" on Monday night after my shift, and he "scheduled" me for 10-2 Tues, Wed and Thursday. All good so far. Apparently this means nothing, though as each day I got a call 'to confirm', which if taken by my voicemail and not immediately returned was presumed as akin to my calling out sick. Wtf? Wait, it gets better. The call on Wednesday was to tell me that I didn't need to come in at all. And the call tonight (at 4, returned at 6) was to confirm my *scheduled* shift.. except when returned..

Me: I'm returning your call, my name is..
Her: Ok, well we were calling to confirm you for 10-6 tonight
Me: Uh.. I was scheduled 10-2 tonight..
H: Oh, well the 10 shift is full anyway, now
Me: uh.. what?
H: do you want to come in at 2?
M: Um.. ok.. i guess i can do 2-6..
H: Ok, great *click*
M: *stares at phone*

I guess I can get the 'treating everyone like children' part, it's a temp job, many of my coworkers are... intellectually below-average... or dont speak english well, but whence comes the presumption that we're also all liars and incapable of planning *one day* in advance?