Sorry for the broadcast silence of late. Besides being busy and fighting off various sicknesses, I think I genuinely got overwhelmed by what has been going on in the world of late. I keep meaning to ask my parents about how they survived 1968, at which point my father would have been 18 and my mother 17, or even the years that followed. But I get the feeling I would get laughter and/or something about "Do you know how much I smoked back then?"

So, briefly, this is how I feel about things: Palin is scarier than McCain, who is scarier than Bush (who knew that was possible?).

Spore looks like a crapton of fun, but I will not know for a while, because despite the "this is a game for the people" sell, it won't run on most non-gaming machines, and barely any laptops without a several hundred dollar update to the videocard. Which is lame. On top of all of the delays, and the not really making the game they said they were making (even if it is still a cool game) it doesn't even play on most machines...and they haven't released it for anything except PCs and portable gaming. Does that make any sense at all? What's even more frustrating is that most of the reviews that I've read or seen/heard in podcasts don't even mention this fact. I understand that a lot of gamers have gaming PCs, and that they are some of the people that were waiting for this for the longest time, but seriously...this is not a better, more fun version of the Sims...this is not an expanded, awesome version of four different game types that simple enough and user-friendly enough for everyone to play. That blows. Big hairy chunks.

I am astounded by all that the government is doing right now. I know just enough about it to be dangerous (thank you over-education) and it really does just scare the crap out of me in some serious ways. There's parts of it that make me want to plug my fingers in my ears and go running "lalalalalalaIcan'thearyou" into the night. It makes me regret knowing anything about economics, and regret not being a teacher anymore. I can tell there is going to be a generation of kids growing up right now that don't know what the hell "normal" is (I'm still not positive myself, but I have a better idea than they do). It reminds me of a radio broadcast I heard, probably on NPR, talking about how people that were born between around 1960 had no idea that famous people, especially politicians, could die of natural causes. It was far more common to hear about assassinations than someone dying of old age or disease...and I get the feeling that this is a new generation of kids that won't know what it's like to have the rest of the world at least respect us, if not look to us for leadership. To have the economy be stable and their wellbeing, in terms of health and education, still matter to the various and sundry governments that hold sway over their lives.

Also, I am both proud and a little sad with all of the stuff that's going on in the world of GLBTQ at the moment. More celebrities coming out of the closet than ever before, the number of gay men, lesbians, and bisexual characters in both scripted and reality TV have continued to rise, we now have transgender and transsexual people on TV for pretty much the first time...ever. That's great. But why are we so obsessed with it? It should be pretty standard by now. I know that it isn't, and I know the reasons that it isn't, but it strikes me as the same thing of Race (yes, with a capital R) in the presidential race. It's the sort of issue that, if I ruled the world (as I totally should be doing), would be a non-issue, for the sheer fact that it shouldn't be one. Anyone who is in our population should be reflected as such in our public life.
That's my major rant for the day. I'm sorry that it took so long for me get down, but I didn't really have it sorted out in my head until fairly recently. As a result, I might add, of two days off nursing a fever. More soon, and I really mean it this time.