Random Thinking

Alkaline Trio is a punk rock band from Chicago, consisting of Matt Skiba on guitar/vocals, Dan Andriano on bass/vocals, and Derek Grant on drums. The band was originally formed in 1996. Since 2003, their albums have consistently reached the top 20 on Billboard’s Top 200. The group’s music features dark lyrics, catchy choruses, fast tempos and subjects of love, depression, drugs, and death.

The song Mercy Me comes from the groups fifth album, Crimson, which was released in 2005.

Mercy Me
It’s been a long day living with this
It’s been a long time since I felt so sick
I took a long walk straight back home
I could’ve walked back to San Francisco
I used to long for time alone
I used to long for a place of my own
and I’m losing faith in everything
I’m lost, so lost, i’m lost at sea, you’ll see

I used to long for broken bones
I used to long for a casket to call my own
I never had a problem facing fear
but I’m done, over and dumb my dear and

Oh mercy me
God bless catastrophe
There’s no way in hell
We’ll ever live to see through this so
Drive yourself insane tonight
It’s not that far away and I just
filled up your tank earlier today
(Yeah!)

It’s been a long day living with this
It’s been a long time since I felt so sick
I took a long walk straight back home
I could’ve walked back to Chicago
I used to long for time alone
I used to long for a place of my own
and I’ve lost faith in everything
I’m lost, so lost, I’m lost without you

Oh mercy me
God bless catastrophe
There’s no way in hell
We’ll ever live to see through this so
Drive yourself insane tonight
It’s not that far away and I just
filled up your tank earlier today
(Yeah!)

So drive yourself insane tonight
It’s not that far away and I just
filled up your tank earlier today
(Yeah!)
Written by Alkaline Trio

Video:

Palin did better than expected but the bar had been lowered quite a bit because of her earlier interviews. The most shocking moment of the debate to me was when Palin said that Biden didn’t know about raising a family. Apparently Palin didn’t know that Biden’s wife and child were killed by a drunk driver and that he raised his other two children as a single father. Biden was obviously choked up talking about this. Palin responded by talking about McCain as a maverick instead of responding to Biden’s loss. It made her seem very cold and unfeeling. The YouTube video is below.

Here are some early poll numbers:

CBS - Uncommitted voters:
Biden - 46%
Palin - 21%

CNN
Biden - 51%
Palin - 36%

Did Biden do better or worse than you expected?
Better - 64%
Worse - 14%

Did Palin do better or worse than you expected?
Better - 84%
Worse - 7%

Mikey and I were flipping through the channels last night looking for something to watch. Mikey has his favorite shows and he is usually insistent about what we watch but last night we saw a program we wouldn’t normally watch. While I was going through the channels, I stopped on ESPN. A program called E:60 was on which seems to be similar to 60 Minutes but sports oriented. This particular program was about a young man named Brian Kajiyama.

Brian Kajiyama was born in Hawaii with cerebral palsy. He is in a wheelchair and can only use one hand. He can not speak but instead uses a speech synthesizer which he types on with his one working hand. When he was a boy, Brian dreamed of playing football for the University of Hawaii, a dream he knew would never be fulfilled. But that didn’t stop Brian from attending the University of Hawaii. While he was a graduate student, Brian became friends with a few of the players on the football team and they invited him to come out and watch them practice.

In 2005 Jeff Reinebold, the new defensive coach for the Warriors, noticed Brian watching the team’s practices and introduced himself. Jeff and Brian became friends and Jeff invited Brian to help prepare scouting reports on the Warriors’ opponents. Brian did his job so well that in 2007, Brian was named a graduate assistant football coach for the team by the head coach, June Jones. Brian was living a dream, being accepted as part of the team by the players and being called coach by those players. With his help the Warriors were the only undefeated team in Division I in the 2007 regular season.

See if you can watch the program without tears.

Heart of a Warrior - Part 1:

Heart of a Warrior - Part 2:

Once again, it is time for the 31 for 21 Challenge. Tricia, the mom of Georgia, and blogger over at Unringing the Bell, created the challenge last year. The rules of the challenge are fairly simple… blog every day for the entire month of October in salute to Down syndrome Awareness Month. Your blogs don’t even have to be about Down syndrome. Tricia has over 90 participants this year. If you want to participate, it isn’t too late.

Yesterday was the NYC Buddy Walk and since we knew that there would be a few special guests Michel and I went into Manhattan. Stephanie and her gang had come in from Pennsylvania and two very special guests, Leah and Angela had come all the way in from Minnesota. We met them at the cross roads of the universe, Times Square. If you look closely, you can see from the bad hair and the umbrellas in the picture that the weather was not good for a walk. From left to right in the picture - Michel, Megan, Stephanie, Angela, and Leah.

We all ended up going to a nice Italian restaurant instead of going to Central Park for the walk. Mikey, our little flirt, insisted on sitting next to Angela. He and Angela mostly ate Sponge Bob crackers while Leah, Michel, and I had pasta. It was great to get a chance to talk to Leah and spend time with her and Angela. Stephanie and her gang sat at a separate table so we didn’t get to talk to them as much. Mikey spent most of the meal throwing kisses at Angela and gently stroking her arm (although he did punch her a couple of times but boys do that when they like a girl).

Mikey lasted about an hour before he started to melt down. An hour sitting in a restaurant is a long time for Mikey so it must have been the company. Finally he started shouting and trying to push his way out of his seat and then he knocked the bread dish off of the table next to us. I took Mikey right outside. Michel told me that the couple at the next table were very understanding and very nice about the whole thing. And the restaurant staff was also very nice. Being the parent of a child on the spectrum means you get used to the behaviors but we always worry that other people may not be as understanding.

Today Michel was talking to Mikey about the trip into the city. She asked him about Angela and he got a big smile on his face. Michel asked him how pretty she was and said, “Is she this pretty?” holding her hands a little bit apart. Mikey immediately threw his arms wide open to show just how beautiful he thinks she is. You can see from the picture above just how right he is!

In the debate the other night, John McCain stated an unusual statistic. He said that North Koreans are three inches shorter on average than South Koreans. He attributed the difference to the repressive North Korean regime and the better nutrition available to the South Koreans. Senator McCain was off a little bit… the actual difference is two inches but his point is well made.

But what would Senator McCain think of this… the average American (looking at only native born Americans of non-Hispanic and non-Asian origin) is shorter than the average European. In fact, the average American is two inches shorter than the average person from the Netherlands! Historically, Americans have been the tallest people in the world. But that is no longer the case. Dr. John Komlos, whose scientific journal originally published the Korean figures said this:

“Of course, a similar argument could be leveled against the U.S. as it is not doing as well as its Western European counterparts,” he wrote. “Of course there are many other indicators that the U.S. health care and diet are not as good as in Western Europe. Western Europeans live longer.”

Perhaps it is time for the US to look at our health care system. Don’t we owe it to our children?

A lesson for all of us, perhaps?

30 Seconds to Mars is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, featuring actor Jared Leto as the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. The group was originally formed as a family project with Leto and his brother, Shannon. Tomo Miličević was later added to the group as a guitarist. Leto is most famous for his portrayal of heroin addict Harry Goldfarb in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.

The group has had two albums with their second, A Beautiful Lie, being hugely successful. The album has gone platinum selling over 1 million copies in the US. The song Attack, made Billboard’s Top 25 Modern Rock Tracks. It was only a minor hit on rock radio and the album did not experience success until the release of “The Kill”.

Attack
I won’t suffer, be broken, get tired, or wasted
Surrender to nothing, or give up what I
Started and stopped it, from end to beginning
A new day is coming, and I am finally free

Run away, run away, I’ll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I’ll attack
I’ll attack, I’ll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA

I would have kept you, forever, but we had to sever
It ended for both of us, faster than a
Kill off this thinking, it’s starting to sink in
I’m losing control now, and without you I can finally see

Run away, run away, I’ll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I’ll attack
I’ll attack, I’ll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA

Your promises, they look like lies
Your honesty, like a back that hides a knife (knife)
I promise you (promise you)
I promise you (promise you)
And I am finally free

Run away, run away, I’ll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I’ll attack
I’ll attack, I’ll attack, I will attack

Run away, I’ll attack, I will attack
Run away, I’ll attack, I will attack

Run away (Run away), I’ll attack (I’ll attack)
I’ll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA

Your promises
(promises, promises)
I promise you
(promise you)
I promise you
(promise you, promise you)
Written by Jared Leto

Do you remember the Miss Teen USA contest in 2007 when Miss South Carolina totally embarrassed herself? She was asked why Americans are unable to locate the U.S. on a map. She rambled on in pointless confusion:

“I personally believe that, U.S. Americans are unable to do so, because some… people out there in our nation that don’t have maps, and I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should… our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.., for our children… “

The GOP VP candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, showed that dear Miss South Carolina has nothing on her. In an interview with Katie Couric:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and getting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

She makes George W. Bush look erudite.

Update: Rod Dreher of The First Post says: She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero.
The video:

Does John McCain think a good science education is important to America’s youth? Apparently not. McCain recently spoke to the Associated Press about Obama’s wasting the money of the hard working American taxpayer. Here is what he had to say:

“That’s nearly a million every day, every working day he’s been in Congress,” McCain said. “And when you look at some of the planetariums and other foolishness that he asked for, he shouldn’t be saying anything about Governor Palin.”

“Planetariums and other foolishness”? Does John McCain know that planetariums are a type of museum designed to teach and excite young people about astronomy? Doesn’t he realize that schools think so highly of planetariums that they plan trips to them so their students can learn about the wonders of the universe?

So what exactly was the money used for? Obama’s funding request states:

Adler Planetarium, to support replacement of its projector and related equipment, $3,000,000

One of its most popular attractions and teaching tools at the Adler Planetarium is the Sky Theater. The projection equipment in this theater is 40 years old, and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience.

So McCain thinks that replacing a broken projector at one of the most important planetariums in the country is foolishness?