Mindless Philosopher

I don’t want to go off on a rant here but…
What happened to The West Wing? We were definitely spolied by watching Season 1 on DVD instead of reruns over the summer. Regardless, the premier was absolutely horrendous. First off, what happened to “Roman Empire” Jed from the “disproportional response” episode? They completely changed the President’s character. He is not a liberal dove; I think they confused him with Andrew Shepherd.
And where did the subtlety in this show go? Paraphrase: “I’m not using this terrorist act as an excuse to bomb a county we don’t like.” Wow, not sure what that’s referring to in real life.
Woman-with-bangs pissed me off too: shouldn’t she (1) bring a pen to the meeting and (2) discuss strategy with the President before the call? And enough close-ups of the phone already: we know they’re on speakerphone! Mr President, just a hint: if Nancy was always wrong, why would her replacement be any better? Of course, maybe the Pres needs Bangs-Woman’s advice, he was the one that suggested Israel poison-pill the peace conference to gain the US’s backing on the wall.
The redundant dialogue is where the current show most obviously deviates from seasons 1-4. The Josh/photographer and Jed/Abbey/Celtics discussions added nothing to the plot and gave us no new information. We know Israel and Palestine don’t get along very well; if we didn’t we’d be watching The Amazing Race instead.
Which brings us to Josh and Donna: they are not in love. As Chicklet aptly put it, “they are traumatically bonded.” There’s a difference and trying to force a relationship between them is painful to watch. As a contrast, Luke and Lorelei actually know each other’s motives and inner personalities; Josh and Donna just flirt.
And what happened to Charlie? Dule Hill is a fabulous actor and not giving him more than four words to speak in the entire episode is just criminal. The same goes for Fiderer. If you don’t have a plot line for either of them, it’s okay to leave them out for an epi (though maybe not the premier); but giving them 10 seconds of air time that doesn’t contribute to the show is a poor excuse for editing.
I should probably say at least one thing positive about the premier: Josh kept the same cell phone from last season so at least they have prop continuity… .

We’re really in the final stretch in the campaign, and wow are the polls tight. So if you get a chance, please please volunteer for John Kerry. You can log in to the volunteer network or look up your local contacts, which I used to find VA volunteering opportunities. So help out!
Hopping off my soap box, here’s a quick weekly update. I had to forego West Wing Night in favor of crunching the numbers for the debate that night. Friday night, though, I did get the night off work, and a subset of the WW crew played board games at Sean’s house. We started with Clue: The Great Museum Caper. We only lasted two rounds of that game because I played too conservatively as the thief, thus prolonging the game. (When it came time to actually leave the museum I was stifled by two locked windows.) We had much more fun playing Guesstures (in which I opted not to attempt to charade “lingerie”).
Two weeks to victory!

A fun logic puzzle I ran across. More here. Enjoy!
On the island of Numeria each of the natives is one of two types: Truth-Tellers who always tell the truth, or Liars who never tell the truth. The island is governed by a Council of Elders who will only answer questions that have numerical answers. In fact the only answers they give are whole numbers, either zero or positive. Furthermore, they will never give an answer greater than the current number of council members. This number can vary daily, but is never less than 4 or more than 40. Also, the Council will only answer questions whose correct answer is independent of who is asked (e.g., no questions such as “How old are you?”).
One day three native students, Ann, Bob, and Cal, were given an assignment by their teacher to question the council. They each asked a question, which was answered by every council member. Afterward they reported to their teacher and made the following statements:
(1) Ann: I asked the council how many of them were Truth-Tellers.
(2) Bob: I asked the council how many of them were Liars.
(3) Cal: Those statements are not both true!
(4) Ann: All of the answers I received were different.
(5) Bob: All of the answers I received were different.
(6) Cal: At least two of my answers were different.
(7) Ann: The sum of my answers is a palindrome.
(8) Bob: The sum of my answers is a palindrome.
(9) Cal: The square root of the sum of my answers is not less than the number of council members.
What was the number of council members on that day?

Got the night off work (!) and watched the debate last night with the West Wing crew. The amount of lies Cheney told was astounding.
This one was a particularly pernicious double-lie:
“Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”
Guess he forgot about the (at least) three times they met before.

One could argue that it’s plausible he truly forgot about those handshakes with Edwards. Perhaps Cheney also forgot where is he is every Tuesday.

Look, Bush supporters, I know you lost the debate and are down in the lastest Newsweek poll, but has it really come to this?

I mean, this is America: you get a vote. Civil disobedience is not necessary.
So….does anyone has an extra Dean For America bumper sticker?

Did the Yom Kippur fasting thingy: went very well this year since I’m accustomed to not eating for long periods of time at work. Stayed at my rents’ house for the night of Yom Kippur. Lots of self-reflection, per instructions.
In other news, FINALLY, the Subway opened in the Crystal City underground!!! Thus, for my first post-break fast meal I had a foot-long veggie max: yummy yummy.
This afternoon, my roommate and I cleaned the kitchen and got rid of the remnants of the leftovers from the party. We celebrated by playing virtual ping-pong. She needs to work on her trash-talking :)
Saw the WP headline “Election May Hinge On Debates”. That’s a shock; I next expected to see on the front page: “Fasting Makes You Hungry.”

While not entirely accurate, pretty darn funny. From this site.

First impressions can be deceiving. I was at Barnes and Noble perusing books after services Wednesday night, when this nice fellow, who was striking up a conversation with everyone within a 15-foot radius, decided that I was his next target. He asked me what I did and I told him I worked for a polling firm. “Which one?”…”The Mellman Group”…”Is that Republican?”…No. Do I look like a Republican? Maybe; I have always dressed conservatively (actually that’s why LS tried to convince me I was a conservative in elementary school–because I wore boring shirts).
Simple mistake I guess. But this next story is worse. I was invited to a Rosh Hashanah lunch at the house of the VP of the Mellman Group. I showed up only 7 minutes late; whoops, first one there. To make matters worse, none of my Jewish peers from work showed up. Thus, the house started filling up with people significantly older than me. Their kids were shepherded into basement…making me jealous as it turns out that I have little in common with thirty-somethings (be them married or single).
After a good hour of attempted mingling, I crack and proceed, unvited, down to the basement (I mean, who’s going to stop me). Downstairs, the kids are fighting over the PS2. I look for a ball to entertain the four-year-olds with, but no such luck: the play area is too high-tech. Two eight-year-old girls decide too play chess though…great! that should be entertaining.
Ten minutes later a parent comes down: “Which ones are yours?” (Ack!!) “None, I’m just making sure they aren’t killing each other.” (A plausible excuse for sure.) Next, the father of one of the chess players comes down: “Oh, your daughter likes chess too?” (What?! No! She’s 8! How old do I look! This is not Gilmore Girls. Sheesh.)
Is it that unreasonable that I find kids more entertaining than adults? Could this fact be so unusual that the in their brains the probability that I’m a father is greater than the probability that I enjoy playing with children?
Apparently, in the eyes of society, I’m an adult. When did that happen?

Happy New Year to all my Jewish, soon-to-be-Jewish, and Jewish-friendly readers :)
The Bush campaign and Republicans certainly know how to start the new year in style:
1) Don’t comdemn a “constitutional coup” in Russia
2) Ease sanctions on a country your Secretary of State admits is committing genocide
3) Allow more guns in the District

Besides working today, I went camping in Shenandoah National Park this weekend. Overall, it was 24 hours jam packed with fun. I met up with the crew (which was the WW group plus some) Friday night–they were already roasting smores around a campfire. People were pretty tired from either a traffic-filled drive or work, so we went to bed in our tents pretty early.
I was in the “party tent” with four others. Disappointed at the lack of stories being told either around the campfire or at bedtime, I decided to rectify the situation myself. For those of you that know my repertoire, I told “Brass Rat” and “Ping Pong Balls” to my fellow party-tenters. Then we were content to sleep.
The next morning we had yummy cinnamon bagels (w/ cream cheese and jelly) and instant oatmeal. This trip was starting to be very reminiscent of my days at Camp Wigwam, as that food was also standard breakfast fare in Waterford, ME. Next was an easy morning hike–nothing too stressful. Lunch included pie iron pizza. After a short naptime, it was time to hike again.
This time we aimed for a waterfall. Getting to our destination required a quick car drive; four young women piled into the Data-mobile where I introduced them to everyone’s favorite fire-mouthed feminist, Alix Olson. There were definitely some takers (I avoided the extreme political or sexual tracks–sticking with basic girl-power).
Back to the real goal: the waterfall. We overshot it by a half-mile, but after backtracking a bit, we found the ideal swimming spot, right at the foot of the waterfall. Ever since my spring break adventures in Yaxuna, Mexico watering holes don’t phase me, so I decided to try the water out first. I expected to walk into the water slowly, but the floor dropped off precipitously and all of a sudden I found myself floating downstream. Luckily I was never in any danger since the river became shallow again within a few meters.
The best part about the watering hole was that swimming upstream against the waterfall’s current was quite the challenge. The first two times I failed to reach the falls, but after visualizing the waterfall as the dastardly Red Team from Wigwam, I was successful.
Dinner was veggie burgers. For the nth time in my life I proved my incompetence at tending a fire. (As some Concord Deaniacs can attest to, I’m pretty bad at burning things.) But, with the help of ex-Girl Scouts, there was enough combustion to heat the Turkey burgers for the omnivores.
Night fell and although I demurred on a request to recite Miss Olson’s poetry to the crowd, given the campfire setting I couldn’t contain my appetite for story telling. This time I went with “Nate the snake,” “Damn doors,” and “Willoughby.” I think the non-party tenters, who thus hadn’t heard my previous stories, weren’t really prepared for the format of my stories. At least that’s my explanation for the (hmmmmm)….neutral…. reaction to “Nate the snake.”
Pics here.