This blog is closed

Since I no longer live in Singapore, Randyinsing needs to close.  The chapter is concluded.

You can find further adventures here:http://randyisanomad.wordpress.com/

Farewell

Singapore is sad to see me go.  It’s raining. 

Who’s a Jon Stewart fan?

I love Jon Stewart.  Half of his show is making fun of the saturated media coverage of current events.  It’s hilarious.  Here’s something else that is hilarious.  A semi-mainstream political blog is now covering Jon Stewart’s show.  Here’s a link.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/ (I’m sure the link will quickly be out of date.  June 17th is the entry.)

So, now I’m discussing the media’s coverage of a show that makes fun of the media.  Is this some kind of existential meta loop?  Where does it end?

Singing the Blues

I haven’t posted in a while (haven’t felt very adventurous or humorous lately…) so I thought I’d go back a ways and post some old stuff.

Back in 2001 or so, I went on a dating dry spell.  Within the space of a month, I had two of the most brutal date rejections of my life.   So, I wrote a song about it.  It was a ‘wake up at 4 in the morning with the complete song in my head’ moment.  Words, melody, everything was right there.  So I wrote it down and went back to sleep.

Here is the Get A Date Blues.  It’s got a nice blues riff to it.

I pick up the telephone
To dial you and say,
“I’ve got tickets to the show. 
Let’s go out on Saturday.”

And I call.
Pick up the phone again and call.
I shouldn’t have waited till Friday night.
Now there’s nobody home at all.

I asked a girl out in advance,
To the symphony.
She never answered yes or no.
All she said was ‘Tee hee hee’.

That’s right.
She just laughed at me.
She laughed right in my face.
So I’m in no mood for your advice.
Just back off and give me space.

Another girl would flirt with me,
Toss her hair and wink,
Smile, laugh at all my jokes.
What was I supposed to think?

So I asked her on a date.
You know how this story ends.
She looked me directly in the eye
And answered me, ‘As friends?’

Oh I hate.
Trying to get a date.
She’ll wash her hair, shampoo the cat,
Or move to another state.

The worst story I ever heard,
I promised not to tell.
A friend asked out a pretty girl.
She said, “I have to watch a root canal.”

You tell me to keep trying.
“No’s the worst a girl can do.”
Well let me tell you something brother.
As an answer, ‘No’ is one of the top two.

Still the voice inside my mind says,
“What have you got to lose?
It ain’t like you’ve got no pride left.”
I’ve got the get a date blues.

Girl fight

I just figured out why I am so fascinated by the public comments on sites like CNN, FOX News etc on stories about the democratic primaries.   The comments are hateful, often poorly worded, rarely cogent or logical, and for some reason I can’t stop reading them.   I dislike them intensely and I almost always end up angry about something, but as long as they are there, I have to read 10 or 12 of them.

So, why do I read them?  It’s the political version of a girl-fight.  Guys can’t walk away from a girl fight. 

Castaway

I am adrift.  I feel like I’m stuck alone in a small boat on the ocean.  Like I’m out of food, and running out of water, and like there’s really no hope of reaching home on my own.

I can see another boat.  She is the most beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on.  And she starts coming towards me.  She gets close enough that I can hear her sailors shouting to one another on the breeze.  I shout out.  I try to make the boat hear me, and understand how desperately I need her.  But she turns away and starts heading the other direction.  My stomach drops toward the ocean bottom leaving behind bile and acid burning my chest.  I paddle towards her with all the strength I can muster, but I just can’t keep up.  She gets farther away.

And then she turns towards me again.  She comes closer.   She’s tacking into the headwind, and comes closer this time than on the last turn.  I start to hope that things are going to work out.  That she’ll hear me and take me aboard.  And just when I think she’s close enough that she’ll hear what I’m shouting, she turns away again.  I keep paddling.  I don’t know what else to do. 

What do you do in that situation except paddle and hope? 

Why I am supporting Barack Obama

Ok, context for the rest of my post.  Here is a sample of public comments on a pretty innocuous story on a Wall Street Journal Blog (here … http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/08/clinton-talks-delegate-math-in-wva/)

Unedited quotes:
1.
Look at one particular survey measuring the ignorance of the youthful demographic that is supporting Barack Hussein Obama. 75% of adults between 18 and 24 (inclusively) years of age do not know that most people in Indonesia are Muslim. (Visit news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0502_060502_geography.html for other shocking information about the utter stupidity of young adults.)
#
Note that the particular age group measured by this survey is precisely the demographic that helped Barack Hussein Obama to win the Iowa caucus.
#
In the Iowa caucus, “57% of voters ages 17 to 24 said Mr. Obama was their first choice, compared with 14 percent for John Edwards and 10 percent for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.” (Visit www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/us/politics/08youth.html?hp .)
#
In Iowa, “Obama’s youth-oriented campaign drew under-25 voters to Thursday’s Iowa caucuses in record numbers, and these first-time voters gave him most of his margin of victory.” (Visit www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1700525,00.html .)
#
You wonderful readers be the judge. Ignorant people are supporting Barack Hussein Obama.

Comment by sea bass – May 8, 2008 at 9:37 pm

2.
Hillary is only winning among Rednecks and illetrate people who will never change even if this country gets destroyed. She knows she can fool them easily but she was mistaken when she started telling lies to the people of IN and NC. I have great faith in the younger generation who are more civilized, have much information about our rotten political system and they are a force to reckon with. Obama has energized the New Generation!!

Comment by West Virginia and Kentucky full of RED NECKS – May 8, 2008 at 11:10 pm

3.
To: West Virginia and Kentucky full of RED NECKS.
I am a Hillary supporter with $$ and time. I have a degree from UC Berkeley. I make over $200K. There are millions like me supporting Hillary. What is common to all of us at whatever income level or walk of life is sanity and common sense. We are not possessed like the Obamaniacs are. It is sad to see you all being utilized by the cunning charlatans in the Obama campaign. Come on over to Hillary’s side.

Comment by Hal from Lincoln – May 9, 2008 at 2:24 am

 

These are people who are reading the WALL STREET JOURNAL.  And these are tame compared to the crap spewed on Fox News posts.  I don’t get it.  Where does this hate come from?  It’s an election, not a trial of child molestors.  None of these comments is focused on ideals, issues, or challenges in America.  They are vitriolic rants that are bashing the people involved … not the CANDIDATES, but the people SUPPORTING the candidates.  This is the America we live in.  The one where ‘if you don’t agree with me then you are evil, deluded and dangerous.’  And our political process FEEDS THE HATE.

So, I support Barack Obama.  Not because I agree with him on everything.  In fact, I disagree with him on most of the issues that have come up in this election cycle.  But it’s complicated. 

Here is my view on actual issues:

• I wholeheartedly agree with Sen. Obama that we never should have gone to Iraq. 
• I disagree that we can remove troops from Iraq without letting it spin into chaos. 
• I don’t know whether I agree with him on immigration because the Democrats haven’t been talking about immigration at all.  But the Republicans are dead wrong on immigration, so whatever the Dems want to do can’t be worse.  Probably agree.
• Gas-tax-holiday?  Only Sen. Obama is realistic about the actual effects of a ‘gas-tax-holiday’.  Agree 
• Health Care reform.  I absolutely agree that the health care system needs an overhaul.  Both Democratic plans are deeply flawed though.  Is it better to do something than nothing?  Probably.  And Sen. Obama’s plan is the one that actually has a chance to pass.  Agree — very, very mildly, but agree.
• Free trade agreements are the best long-term economic plan for our country.  Opposing them is protectionism rife with short-term thinking.  Strongly disagree.
• Mortgage bail-outs … who exactly does this help?  I’m undecided on this one.  I don’t think the government’s place is to accept responsibility for it’s citizens stupid decisions – whether they were the stupid decisions of lenders or borrowers (in this case both!)  If I did, well, I could use about $20K to bail out my stock portfolio and 401(K) losses.  I am one of the real victims of the mortgage fiasco.  My retirement funds are paying the price, and I’ve never had a mortgage.  But it’s my own fault for investing, not the Treasury department’s.  Probably disagree.

So, like most Americans, none of the candidates fits exactly what positions I want supported.  How do I decide who to vote for?  Honestly, it comes down to one thing for me.  Sen. Obama is the first candidate I have seen in my lifetime who is publicly saying that the political process is ugly, divisive, and part of the problem.  And for the most part he is participating in the process in a way that I admire.   He doesn’t say that his opponents are not qualified.  He doesn’t pick up on isolated comments (with the exception of Sen McCain’s 100 years in Iraq comment) and beat them to death.  He shows that he can think about the issues, listen to experts, and reach conclusions.  Whether his conclusions are right or wrong in my view is for me secondary to the fact that he has a legitimate rationale for reaching the conclusions that he does.

Sen. Barack Obama is proving that politics can be treated with the seriousness and integrity that it should have … instead of the nasty name-calling and superficiality that have pervaded the politics of my lifetime.   He hasn’t been perfect.  I wish that he would hold to the ‘no negative campaigning’ ideal even more firmly than he has.  But he is the only choice I’ve ever seen who has come close.  I’m casting my vote for a better political process.

 

Getting high

Can I tell you that I LOVE improv.  Seriously.  It is one of my favorite things.  It’s a total rush.  My group, The Madhatters rocked our show last night.  It’s euphoric.  You should try it!

Is there a support group for this?

I’m currently reading a book titled ‘The (Mis)Behavior of Markets’.  It is a book by a mathematician talking about the statistical and mathematical reasons why the efficient market theory of finance and economics is wrong.

I dare you to find a nerdier book than this one.

I scooped Newsweek! (Warning: Totally self-aggrandizing and somewhat bogus post within. Proceed at your own risk!)

Ok.  Here’s a Newsweek article posted on May 12th.  http://www.newsweek.com/id/135368

I was talking about the Seinfeld legacy on April 15th. http://randyinsing.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/how-much-does-wallet-size-matter/

 Take THAT copycats.  (Yes. A lame way to get an ego boost.  But I’ll take what I can get at the moment.  It’s kind of a rough patch.)