Fire and Knowledge

When I was a child I used to watch politics on C-SPAN and CNN with my grandmother. For fun, I’d guess who were the Democrats and Republicans. I could do it pretty well. I had a rigorous test: I would look at their faces and decide if they looked mean or nice. The nice ones were Republicans, and the mean ones were Democrats. It never worked out perfectly, but I was right more than wrong.

I’m sure that doesn’t give any hints about the political affiliation of my family. I assure you, I was very objective and unbiased and remain so to this day.

What happens if I apply my old philosophy to the 2008 campaign? Huckabee has the most real smile and I would inevitably thought him a Republican. He’s sort of the funny Uncle in the race, someone you like and respect but think he’d be better at running a tractor than the country. McCain I might have mistaken for a democrat, though. His smile is more grim, yet there is kindness there. Obama I would have mistaken for a Republican for sure. If you didn’t already know, he’s going to win. Hillary, however, would have been unmistakably Democrat. I would have been afraid of that smile.

I rediscovered the public library last weekend. I used to go quite a bit as a kid, but as I got older I always preferred to purchase books instead. But I’m slowly realizing the futility and expense of that, so my new plan is to only purchase books I know I will re-read or use often for reference. The rest I will check out from the library.

(In my battle for simplicity, I went through my personal library and weeded out over 150 books and donated them to a thrift store. Two months ago I would have rather donated my fingers.)

Though there were quite a few people at the library, few were there for the books. Most were there for the computers, which they had everywhere. Naturally being a busybody, I walked around to see what was so interesting.

The first thing I saw was a half-naked man and teenage girls chuckling. Then there were small kids browsing rap artist websites. After that was another kid playing an online game. The rest were browsing either myspace or facebook, with the obligatory half-naked photo of their online buddy and tiled backgrounds that make you want to tear your eyes out. (Or is it just me?)

That doesn’t seem like what library internet access is for. Isn’t library internet for research and email? Why isn’t there a filter on it that blocks myspace and facebook and games? Kids can browse those websites at home. The library is for reading and research, not online social networking and electronic games.

Or maybe I’m just old-fashioned and think libraries have something to do with public education.

Special thanks to the very talented Edman for creating the new flame favicon (the icon that your browser shows in the tab)! You’ll probably have to empty your cache to see it.

The site now has a tweaked design and a Wordpress upgrade (which fixed the comments issue). Even though the design only looks tweaked, it was actually re-written on the new Blueprint CSS framework.

Be sure to let me know if anything looks strange or whether you love it or hate it.

The comments are not working. I’m not sure why and there does not appear to be an easy fix. I need to upgrade the blog software anyway, so I’ll be working on getting things fixed up as soon as I can. Upgrading is a hassle. This time, though, I’ll start from scratch with a subversion checkout of Wordpress, so upgrading in the future should be easier even with modifications.

I also might do a quick redesign based on the new Blueprint CSS Framework. Stay tuned.

How can I resist posting a picture of my cat? Isn’t that what blogs are for, anyway? I post boring quotes every day but rarely use this blog in line with blogging’s greatest strength: cat pictures.

Here’s Hobbes:

We found him and a couple other siblings in our garage a while back. We kept this one and took the others to the animal shelter. He’s still deciding if he wants to keep us, I think.

It is my pleasure to announce Rural Property Finder, a website that gives the rural community a free, easy-to-use website that lists properties from all around the country. There are a few websites like this, but few that are good and none that are good and free.

It is hard to find rural property that one is looking for — I know, because I’m still looking. This website is an experiment to try and make it easier. So, if you are looking for property or know any country realtors who want to get more exposure to their properties, please consider telling them about Rural Property Finder.

I’ve updated the recommended reading page.