Fraize Dotcom

Tonight is the final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. With only 19 days left until the election, this is their final chance to have a face-to-face discussion of their very different views.

Please make sure and watch the debate. Before you do, however, watch this video. Watch it all the way through. See the impact this war and this economy has had on us all. **Watch and learn about the struggles of people who have done their best, worked hard, asked for nothing, and were *still* victimized**.

DotMac is great, if you like ease of use, but it’s not a cross-platform system. I can’t update my blog on Windows or Linux. So, I’ll try and see if I can use some of the templates from the DotMac version of the blog, and apply those styles to my Movable Type blog.

Yeah, like I have time for that.

Weekends are for recharging, and rebuilding. The work-week takes a lot out of me. Spreadsheets, emails, writing copy, recording and editing videos, finding and buying new stuff, calling vendors to coordinate shipments, planning overseas deliveries… Such a varied collection of things that happen at work makes it so I have a hard time letting go when the whistle blows.

I end up sitting at home, thinking about what had gone on during the day – what I missed, what still needed attention, what I would have to do tomorrow, and what I could do so that tomorrow will be easier. I work 8 hours, then come home and work a few more. There aren’t a lot of hours in the day left for me to do anything new.

That’s what weekends do for me. They let me dedicate several hours to my projects. Yesterday, I dedicated several hours to some .NET code I’ve been thinking about. Today, I pulled out a few cookbooks and baked me some buttermilk biscuits.

Nick Malgieri’s Buttermilk Biscuit recipe is pretty simple. 2.5 C Flour, 6 Tbsp. butter, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 C buttermilk, 2.5 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp. baking soda. Cut the butter into the flour. Mix the rest, roll, cut, bake at 500 for 10 minutes. I made a bit of a mess, like I usually do when I try a new recipe for the first time. I couldn’t find the round biscuit cutter, but I did find a heart-shaped cookie-cutter. That did fine. I cut them, put them on parchment in a baking pan, and threw them in. It was when I was cleaning all the bowls and spoons that I realized I forgot the salt. Such a stupid rookie mistake!

I think the oven ran a little hot because the biscuits browned before they were completely done. I took them out, and they smelled and looked great! The flake was what I was expecting, though they were slightly too moist in the center. A little cherry preserves, and a sprinkle of kosher salt on top, and they were serviceable. Heather liked them, enough.

I spent a good part of the day Saturday and Sunday editing the newest ThinkGeek epic video. It’ll be released on Tuesday, so you’ll just have to wait until then to see it. Sunday’s video editing marathon was mostly done at Panera, where there is free wifi and yummy soup. Heather spent the day reading her journalism textbook, and buying a new computer.

She’s ordered herself a new lappy from Dell. The one she has is a venerable Inspiron that’s about 6 years old. It’s a seriously reliable workhorse – one I helped to upgrade and maintain so it would last 2 years longer than it probably should have. She’s been eyeing a new lappy for a while, and decided not to get a new one until her old Inspiron finally died. Well, last week, the DVD-ROM drive started to fail, so it’s time to take Old Yeller out behind the shed.

She’s sad to say goodbye to the old girl, but she’s excited to have a new machine for NaNoWriMo this year.

Yes, I’m doing NaNo again this year, too!

Like many Americans, I watched the Vice Presidential debates last night. And, again – like many Americans – was expecting a train-wreck. I didn’t get one, but that doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind on Sarah Palin. It means she was extremely well rehearsed, decently coached, and naturally comes across as warm, genial, and charming.

The after-debate analysis from Pat Buchanan and Rachel Maddow was great. Pat Buchanan described Biden as boring, while Palin was constrastingly exciting. Maddow then quipped that America’s choice has become “Boring and right, or Exciting and wrong.” I was hoping to hear about more of the instant polling like CNN did during the last Presidential debate, but it was noticeably absent.

So, this debate was full of a whole lot of nothing, and that’s fine. The debate was Palin’s to win or lose. All Biden had to do was show up and be courteous. Give nothing to the wingnuts to latch onto and claim Joe was being unkind or unctuous. He did a great job, with a few mistakes – sure.

As a side note, any time I hear so-and-so voted for a bill, or raised taxes, I always take that info with a giant grain of salt. On the one hand, Biden claimed that McCain voted to raise taxes in the same way that Obama did (though, that analysis is, itself, incorrect) when in truth, McCain voted for an amendment to that bill, but ultimately voted the bill itself down. Palin claimed that Obama voted to raise taxes on families making just $42k a year. Actually, the vote was to repeal the Bush tax-cuts,which had individual $42k earners paying more. Voting for a removal of a tax-cut isn’t the same as voting for a tax increase.

Both candidates made those kind of errors (or should we call them exaggerations?), and even each-other out, in my opinion. Style points to Palin for being warm and cheerful, but big minus points for not answering the questions that Gwen Ifill asked. Biden looked steady and showed his absolute command of the issues, showing nuance of thought and analysis.

If I weighed those points evenly, I’d call it a tie, but I don’t think style should count as much as intelligence, so I’d give the debate to Biden. Don’t get me wrong – Palin did well, but she’s just not presidential. After this election, I’d say she has a great career ahead of her as a Fox news pundit.