http://videogum.com/archives/backlashes/the-mixed-up-files-of-so-what_017831.html

This makes me really irrationally angry. I've been pretty open about my lifelong dream of hosting SNL, and each season there are at least 3-5 terrible host choices that just make me cringe. They're off to a good start.

Every time someone who went to the University of Michigan gets an undeserved reward, a little part of me dies inside.

Those of you brave enough to venture back to the beginning of this blog (which I don't recommend), or those that have been with me since the easyjournal days know that my residency here began shortly in advance of the 2004 Presidential election, which I watched in frustration from the plains of Norman, Oklahoma. As was the case in that time, much of what is written here over the next couple months will center around the election, since after all, I care a great deal about all things United States. Fair warning for those of you who didn't already expect it, that's all I'm saying.

Of course, the Democratic National Convention is rocking and rolling in Denver as we speak, but there's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the presumptive nominee and a campaign which has seemed to take a big step backwards since Sen. Clinton dropped out of the race. Part of that is the fact that the GOP is running the best possible candidate in Sen. McCain (much to my dismay), but also I think there was bound to be some post-primary cooling and/or backlash once Sen. Obama had secured the nomination. The question remains whether or not Sen. Obama will be able to galvanize the supporters of Sen. Clinton, as well as the independents who have traditionally supported his opponent. It'll be an interesting 70-ish days, to be sure.

( Thoughts on the 2008 election... )

In the end, the people get to decide, but I hope we manage to inspire those who still have hope for this great experiment. The United States, above all else, is a nation of promise. I firmly believe that if we choose to elect leaders who speak to that promise and hold it sacred, we are capable of achieving greatness. It's the commitment I make as a citizen to those who have fought for this country and its people, whether as soldiers, as legislators, as farmers, or as teachers.

Every four years we have the opportunity to participate in something very special, and I hope we make the best of that opportunity this time around. It'll be an interesting week, and I'll have more to say on it as we go along.

Obama/Biden, 2008. Yes we can.

Reporter: Senator Obama, why did it take your campaign so long to announce your Vice Presidential nominee?

Sen. Obama: I was just Biden my time until the right moment.



Thank you, I'll be here all week.

http://cardboardgods.baseballtoaster.com/

This is about the most appropriate thing for today:

V.
What is it called? That feeling inside—partly an ache and partly, strangely, a glow—that something is wrong with you? That you’re not quite cutting it. That you missed some vital meeting early on where everything was explained. That every day is like crossing a border after being blindfolded and spun. You stumble one way wondering if you should be going the other. That feeling. What is it called?

Well, I went to Houston. Suffice it to say, this was not at all like the various other trips I've taken, mostly because it was a spur of the moment thing, and also because I wasn't really excited about going to the normal extent. But, I've been in Texas for three years, and I had never been to Houston, so I figured I ought to go before I leave the state altogether. So, I bought a ticket for the Astros-Diamondbacks game on Saturday, got a cheap hotel room downtown, and made the drive down there Saturday morning/afternoon.

The game really left a lot to be desired, though I did keep score (nerd) for the first time in a long time. As many of you know, I like adding new baseball stadia to my list, and since I had not yet been to Minute Maid Park, the trip was necessary if only for that. I was probably too bothered by the people who kept walking past me and making me stand up to let them by in the middle of a freaking inning. Not for nothing, but most of us are there to actually watch the game, and it's difficult when you keep walking in front of us. Just saying. Wait until the half inning is over, ok?

Anyway, on my way down there I was trying to figure out something to do on Sunday in lieu of just getting food and heading back, and then I remembered that the Johnson Space Center is in Houston, so I went to check out the various intergalactic items assembled there. Really, it was just so I could go to Mission Control and relive my childish fantasies of going into space someday. I'm still holding out hope that it becomes much more mainstream before I'm too old, and I manage to get up there at some point. Silly? Perhaps, but I'd be willing to be we all have at least one dream since childhood that we still haven't let go of, and my dream is to go to space. Is that so wrong?

The thing that I found the most interesting was that they're launching a replacement for the Hubble telescope in 2013, around the time that the Hubble's orbit disintegrates and it burns up in the atmosphere. The new one is the James Webb Space Telescope (http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html), which will basically be the best thing since sliced bread. Apparently it'll be orbiting the sun (instead of the earth) about a million miles away from us out in space, and it will enable us to see 9000 galaxies or so, according to the guy at NASA that talked to us. The scientists feel it's likely that this telescope will be able to detect the first signs of life on other planets, because it will be able to see if Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Methane are present in the atmosphere. Only five years until we see E.T., gang! Get excited.

Anyway, after nerding out, I headed back to DFW and fought Sunday afternoon stop-and-go traffic (WTF?) because driving around Houston is even worse than here, and that's saying something. It took me a little over four hours to get there on Saturday, and basically five hours to get back on Sunday. Not good times. Basically, Houston is Florida with everything more spread out, no happy vacation stuff, and about 15 times as many cars on the road. Why do people live there?

Those of you who remember my scintillating trip to Little Rock last year (while sick as a moe) will be happy to know that I've upgraded to this place for the 2008 NASCLA Conference:



That's the Grand Hotel Resort & Spa in Point Clear, Alabama. I'm guessing I had you right up until that last part. Yes, it's in Alabama, but it's right on Mobile Bay, and it's not Little Rock. Personally, I wouldn't mind sailing, but I doubt that's on the agenda. I have to fly to Pensacola and drive over there, which will be a pain, but whatever. The fun part is that I get to go straight from there to Tom's bachelor party (location: TBD), and really, anything could happen. It'll be a September to remember, to be sure.

I've been asked for my thoughts on the lingering scandal surrounding former Presidential candidate, Vice Presidential nominee, and Senator John Edwards, so I figure I might as well provide them, though I'm guessing you're going to find this pretty disappointing. I've spent a lot of time over the last four years writing at length about political issues and ranting frequently about various issues, so I can understand why someone might expect me to have a strong opinion about this, but here's the thing: I don't.

Obviously, from a prima facie point of view, the fact that Sen. Edwards had an affair is very bad. When you take into account that the affair took place not long after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, it gets even worse. In no way will I try at all to defend Sen. Edwards' choice; from this point of view, it's clearly a despicable move. There's no way around that.

But here's my problem with the mild to overwhelming outrage I've heard from just about everyone on this subject: it's irrelevant. Unfortunately, the media culture preys on our tendencies to try and grant ourselves the moral high ground and be judgmental every time something like this happens, when the reality of the situation (sad though it may be) is that this happens all the time. There may not be any additional subtext to the story besides what has already been reported, but chances are that's not the case.

There is very little about serious relationships and marriages that is not nuanced, but that's not how this story will play, and it's not how the public responds. Personally, I think this is between the Senator and his family to figure out, and that's it. What frustrates me about this story is that it gives the conservative blow-hards and the ultra-idealistic wing of the Democratic Party something to feast on for a few weeks, when the news cycle should be focusing on something much more important. So, idiots like Sean Hannity, et. al. get another opportunity to talk about how Democrats don't care about "family values." You'll hear that, of course, instead of hearing about how the former Republican chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee is being indicted on corruption charges. It's a beautiful world.

Sen. Edwards did an obviously bad thing, regardless of the circumstances, but the actual circumstances of what happened are only known by a very small number of people, and though I won't say it's something that shouldn't be reported, it's definitely something that I care about only in as much as it diverts attention away from things that actually matter. I don't think Sen. Edwards was going to be the party's nominee for the Vice Presidency again, and he's certainly not going to be now. Let him and his family figure out the rest, and the rest of us should just move on.

Perhaps I'm posting this only because it seems appropriate, given the 100+ degree temperatures here in Texas, but I don't totally hate this song. In fact, it's kind of catchy, if you can get past the slightly whiny nature of their voices:



My sister was watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" or something similar while I was answering emails at home last week, and they performed it live on the show, which was the first time I heard it. After that, I heard it about 20 more times on XM radio while driving around the Buckeye state.

The rap towards the end is pretty terrible, that's for sure. The lyrics can be pretty lame: "I'm slipping into the lava, and I'm trying to keep from going under..." But despite all the obvious flaws, I'm having a hard time disliking the song. Am I Hannah Montana? Someone back me up on this.

Startling realization of the day:

"Intergalactic" by the Beastie Boys, a song which I most closely associate with the fall of my senior year of high school, and heard on the radio today, is TEN years old as of last month.

Looking out the window here at B terminal in CMH, it's tantalizing to know that it's approximately 65 degrees outside when you know that by the time you get to DFW, you'd better brace yourself for 95 freaking degrees. I think that my frustration with Texas is consistently playing itself out through complaining about the weather, but it really is miserable. Calgon, take me away.

Though I always feel like I could have seen more people or done more things every time I come home, this week was pretty well spent, considering I was actually "working" for most of it. I got to see a great many people, who graciously made time in their busy schedules for me, and I very much appreciate that. It's nice to know that you can get in touch with people and still meet up on very short notice (sorry, gang), and they won't (always) big time you. I have some pretty classy friends, to be sure.

omainnin, his wife, and I were talking about various things Tuesday night in the secret garden, not least among which was our affinity for the general OH/PA region, and though I've done my best to get as far away from it as possible, this region and these people are where and with whom I am the happiest. It's a harder pill to swallow than you might think.

When I was in Oklahoma trying to decide where I should go next, the first question from anyone I talked to about it was "Well, are you going to move home?" I recoiled immediately at the question, for a couple reasons. The driving force behind how I felt was that I was of the belief that I had failed as a graduate student, despite the fact that I had passed my exams and received a degree. It was, however, the first time in my life that I had failed to meet an academic goal (getting a Ph.D, becoming a professor). In my guilt-stricken, perfectionist mind, I had let everyone down, most importantly myself. I had moved halfway across the country to pursue something I couldn't get, and that was one of the hardest things I've had to deal with in my brief time on the planet.

So, going home after two years in Norman felt like giving up, even though I was in no position to financially support myself, and probably should've done something like move home. I felt like I'd be going back with my tail between my legs; the Prodigal Son returning home after wasting all my inheritance on three month benders with Plato and Aristotle. There are far worse things than never becoming a Philosophy professor and working a "joe job" at Best Buy for two years to pay the rent, but good luck convincing me of that in April 2005. There were days when joining the Army looked like a better idea than going home.

To look at it from another way, and give myself a little more credit, I think I also knew on some subconscious level that I had to push myself to figure out exactly who I was going to be in the wake of not making it as a philosopher. That's not to say that I had to go to Texas to do that, but I do think there was a part of me that felt like there was work to be done before I could accept going back home, because I knew that as soon as I went home, I would just settle into a routine of seeing the same old friends and trying to live the same life I did before I left.

Obviously, I'm in a much better position now than I was three years ago. It seems obvious to say that I appreciate Ohio a lot more now after three years in Texas, but it's not one of those "you have to go through the pain to appreciate the joy" arguments that I hate so much. Though the weather will be much better, and I can see more friends more often, the real reason I appreciate Ohio much more than I used to is because I have a much better understanding of who I am and what's important to me than I did three to five years ago.

I think that because I spent most of my childhood without the "traditional" family, given that my dad split and my mom had to work all the time, I started a long time ago making my friends into de facto family members. I'm fiercely loyal to the people I care about, and I get a lot out of trying to participate in their lives in a way that is helpful and positive. By far, far more than anything else, the relationships I have are the most important thing to me, and not being able to experience those relationships in the way I'd like has been the most miserable part of living in Texas. As obvious as that seems, it took me two years here to figure it out.

As much as I'd like to ramble on about this, they're starting to board my plane, so I have to be going. I would, however like to express my gratitude to those of you whom I was able to see or talk to this week, and tell you that I very much appreciate our friendship. I'll be back here on the regular soon enough.

My life right now is a little bit like the scene from Wayne's World where they're standing in front of the blue screen "going" to all the different places: Hawaii, Texas, NYC and...Delaware. I feel like the location keeps changing, except it's random places in the DFW area, and not anywhere I'd actually like to be right now.

Those of you who are not far enough in the loop will be happy to know that the process of me getting out of Texas took a step forward on Monday with the expiration of my lease. Over the weekend I paid a couple gentlemen to move what was left of my apartment (after donating a chunk of it) into a storage unit that was probably a handful of square feet too small, but we somehow managed to make it work. The rest of my belongings went with me to my friends' house in Frisco (stupid name), where I'll be staying until released from the shackles that bind me to the Lone Star State. There's a lot of complaining I could do about having to drive a long ways to work, and paying crazy tolls, but that's pretty boring to read, so I'll spare you.

One development that is clearly positive, however, is that I'm going to Ohio on the company's dime for a whole week early next month. Yes, people of the Buckeye State (and the City of Steel), I'll be back in your general vicinity the week of August 3rd, paying visits to the build-out of our burgeoning offices in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Get pumped, and start making those evening plans.

It'll be about a month and a half since I've been on a plane, and I'm already having withdrawls. One of these days I should count up all the flights I've taken in the last 12-18 months, while carefully avoiding thinking about the associated costs for those flights. Time and money well spent, but an HDTV would be nice too.

Not for nothing, but the Pirates have won four straight. I'll sleep well tonight.

Here's the obligatory "I went to see The Dark Knight" post. Yes, it was awesome. Yes, Heath Ledger was good (and creepy). Yes, I surprisingly preferred Katie Holmes' performance in the first movie to Maggie G's in this one. And yes, my Morgan Freeman "impression" is in heavy rotation.

I don't have much to say, other than the theater in which I saw the movie had two levels and was by far the largest theater I've ever visited. It was like going to a baseball game; by the time we got out the credits were almost over. There were 20 minutes of previews, which made the whole experience almost a full three hours, but we did get the new 007 movie trailer, as well as the snippet for the new Terminator movie. Had I been given two X chromosomes, the back-to-back Christian Bale and Daniel Craig trailers may have induced a spontaneous O-face.

As for the movie itself, you should go see it. I won't talk about the plot here, so as not to ruin it for the tragically less cool (read: omainnin) who haven't seen it, but I have one question:

Did anyone else notice how they kept switching between NYC and Chicago for the Gotham City scenes? The long shots were New York, but when they were having meetings "downtown," or when they showed the river in the city, that was clearly Chicago. I just thought that was interesting. Since Gotham City isn't an actual city, I don't much care, and comics have always been East Coast biased (which is another cool thing about Iron Man, since it's set in LA), but NYC is referred to as "Gotham" quite a bit, so you'd think they'd just use New York. I can't imagine funds were too tight to shoot in Manhattan, but then again, I'm no movie producer.

So go see the movie already, twice if you must. The economy needs it.

Usually when I post a link about fighting in Ohio, it involves Youngstown. Not this time, however:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2008-07-20-crew-west-ham-friendly_N.htm

That's right, it's the fightin...Columbusites? Columbians? Columbusts? I grew up there and I have no idea what "we" should be called. Those of you who have been to a Crew game probably know the "hooligans" that are involved here. We used to buy tickets for the South end of the stadium because they were cheaper, then walk over and sit on the North side behind these guys while they led tasteful chants for Dante Washington like:

"He's big! He's black! He leads the Crew attack! Dantaaaaay! Dantaaaaay!"

This was when I was in high school, before the Blue Jackets arrived. At that time soccer was the only professional game in town, and these 100 guys were the biggest Crew fans there were. They all have towels with their names and a specific number on them. I'm guessing it some kind of fan power ranking or something. Who knows? I hope they still have "Buck a Brat" night at the Crew Stadium, though.

No matter what, the British will think twice before they come back to Central Ohio.

I have two things for you today. The first is funny, the second is not.

First, anyone who tells you that they can tell the difference between a cheap wine and an expensive wine and hasn't spend a significant amount of money learning how to do so is apparently a liar. This makes me happy, since my criteria for liking a wine is basically "That tastes good."

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/cheap-wine/#more-2827

Second, Esquire did an article on the guy who shot several people at Northern Illinois in February. This is of particular interest to me, since I'm planning on a career in higher education, and at the time reports were that this was a presumably normal kid who had for some reason snapped, those reports relying almost entirely on the comments of his girlfriend. Apparently, that normality was largely overstated.

http://www.esquire.com/features/steven-kazmierczak-0808?src=rss

One of the older posts on The Yellow Stereo, which I am now catching up on, details the author's favorite albums from each year of his life (which, sadly, has been shorter than mine). I thought that since I'm committed to doing exactly zero work today, exploring this enterprise would be a good use of my time. Obviously, most of this is in retrospect, and not what I was necessarily listening to at the time. Let's begin:

1980: "Back in Black" - AC/DC (Hon. Mention: "The River" - Bruce Springsteen)
1981: "Escape" - Journey (Hon. Mention: "Moving Pictures" - Rush)
1982: "Nebraska" - Bruce Springsteen (Hon. Mention: "Thriller" - Michael Jackson)
1983: "Can't Slow Down" - Lionel Richie (Hon Mention: "Frontiers" - Journey, "Pyromania" - Def Leppard, and "Synchronicity" - The Police)
1984: "Born in the U.S.A." - Bruce Springsteen (Hon. Mention: "Purple Rain" - Prince & The Revolution and "Ride the Lightning" - Metallica)
1985: "No Jacket Required" - Phil Collins (Hon. Mention: ???)
1986: "Licensed to Ill" - Beastie Boys (Hon. Mention: "Master of Puppets" - Metallica)
1987: "Appetite for Destruction" - Guns N' Roses (Hon. Mention: "The Joshua Tree" - U2)
1988: "...And Justice for All" - Metallica (Hon. Mention: "G N' R Lies"? Another bad year.)
1989: "Paul's Boutique" - Beastie Boys (Go look at the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_in_music#January, other than "Paul's Boutique," it's awful.)
1990: Terrible.  The best thing I could find was the Led Zeppelin Box Set.  Maybe that's why "Ice Ice Baby" was so popular.
1991: "Ten" - Pearl Jam (Let the debate begin, because this is probably the best musical year of my lifetime.  "Ten," "Nevermind," Metallica's Black Album, "Use Your Illusion 1 & 2," "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" by the Chili Peppers, and "Achtung Baby" by U2 all come out this year.  Not only that, but "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes #1 for the second time and starts me down the road to being the music-obsessed person I am today.)
1992: "Unplugged" - Eric Clapton (Hon. Mention: "Dirt" - Alice in Chains, "Core" - Stone Temple Pilots, "Check Your Head" - Beastie Boys)
1993: "Pablo Honey" - Radiohead (Hon. Mention: "Siamese Dream" - Smashing Pumpkins, "Doggystyle" - Snoop Doggy Dogg)
1994: "Weezer"  - Weezer (Just go look at the list and scan it.  An unbelievable year for rock, pop, hip-hop, and just about everything else.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_in_music#Albums_released)
1995: "The Bends" - Radiohead (Hon. Mention: "Foo Fighters" - Foo Fighters)
1996: "Odelay" - Beck (Hon. Mention: "All Eyez on Me" - 2Pac)
1997: "Whatever and Ever Amen" - Ben Folds Five (Another big year for me.  "OK Computer," Guster's "Goldfly," and "The Colour and the Shape" by Foo Fighters came out this year, but none were bigger than the aptly named BFF.)
1998: "Before These Crowded Streets" - DMB (The one DMB record I didn't hate, and the only one I ever owned.  Slow year, other than "Hello Nasty.")
1999: "Lost and Gone Forever" - Guster (Hon. Mention: "There is Nothing Left to Lose" - Foo Fighters, "Summerteeth" - Wilco)
2000: "Kid A" - Radiohead (Hon. Mention: "Stankonia" - Outkast, if for nothing else than it gave Rimon a rec basketball team name.)
2001: "Rockin' the Suburbs" - Ben Folds (Hon Mention: "The Photo Album" - Death Cab for Cutie)
2002: "Sea Change" - Beck (Hon Mention: "Tennesee" - Lucero and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" - Wilco)
2003: "Give Up" - The Postal Service (Hon. Mention: "Keep It Together" - Guster, "Transatlanticism" - Death Cab for Cutie.  Another giant year.)
2004: "Hot Fuss" - The Killers (Hon Mention: "Futures" - Jimmy Eat World...I feel like I'm missing a lot here.)
2005: "Nashville" - Josh Rouse (Hon. Mention: "Silent Alarm" - Bloc Party)
2006: "FutureSex/LoveSounds" - Justin Timberlake (Hon. Mention: "The Trials of Van Occupanther" - Midlake and "Substitulo" - Josh Rouse)
2007: "Juiced" - The Cansecos (Hon. Mention: "In Rainbows" - Radiohead)
2008: "Feed the Animals" - Girl Talk (so far)

I just spent entirely too much time doing that, so you'd better comment the hell out of this entry to make me feel validated.

So, your friend and mine Pat Reidy texted me yesterday morning reminding me of the hotness of "Electric Feel" by MGMT, which he had tipped us off to at JCU and Me 5 earlier this year. I spent most of yesterday listening to it on repeat, and advertising it to a few others. Well, our friend B sent me a link to a post at The Yellow Stereo featuring "Electric Feel" as performed by the Chuck E. Cheese band, The Rock-afire Explosion, which was featured in an earlier post performing Usher's "Love in this Club."

And so, I bring the following to you. As Reidy said to us at Punderson: "It's like I'm being assaulted with bullets of smooth."

In case you hadn't already heard that "touch" DNA has supposedly cleared the parents of JonBenet Ramsey of any wrongdoing in their daughter's death (which I don't understand, but whatever), her father now wants a DNA database built with samples from everyone who commits a felony in the United States:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/10/ramsey.dna/index.html

To wit:

In an interview with CNN affiliate KUSA, John Ramsey said what is needed is "a law that requires police agencies to DNA print individuals arrested for felony and put it in the national database."

"We have a great national database that's been set up; it's been in place for a number of years with very little population in it. There's a huge backlog of DNA samples from crimes scenes and some states submit samples, some states don't."

I realize that defending the civil rights of felons isn't particularly popular, but this is a terrible idea that goes against the prevention of illegal search and seizure, as well as the right to due process and not to mention the alleged right to privacy that keeps slowly disappearing from our culture, in both legal terms and otherwise. I'm no legal stylist like a certain omainnin, but every time someone mentions building a database like this, or argues for putting GPS and ID chips in everyone's arms like some of my co-workers did last year, I get extremely nervous for the state of our democracy.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive to say we shouldn't go to measures like this to solve crimes and (supposedly) protect our citizenry, but to preserve a free society and avoid becoming increasingly monitored in everything we say and do and thus eroding our civil liberties, we have to avoid supporting ideas like this and voting for people who sponsor this kind of nonsense.

The thing is, I'm not a big car person. I can certainly appreciate a fine automobile, but I never got wrapped up in knowing how cars work, why one was faster than another, or whatever. As long as my car was operational (which was a bit dicey, given some of the cars I've owned), it never bothered me that someone else had a nicer car. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate going fast, Ricky Bobby style; I always appreciated the times that Rocko would get drunk and let me open up his turbo Jetta down SR-315 on the way home. I've just never owned a car that was a high-performance automobile, or perhaps even a medium-performance automobile, so the times when I've really explored the studio space with a vehicle are few and far between.

Well, last night was one of those times. I got guilted into going to a cookout in Frisco (read: BFE) at my friend Angela's, along with a couple other people from work. Angela also invited her dad and step-mother, as well as a couple other friends, and given that her dad collects fast vehicles and likes to show off, he decided to drive over in his Lotus (see above).

Now, my friend Blain drives a souped-up Corvette that he bought from the President of our company, so he appreciates fast automobiles. He and Angela's dad get to talking about the car, and it eventually becomes "Let's go check it out." He tells Blain to get in and then insists that he take it for a ride around the neighborhood, but Blain and his wife didn't want him to go alone because he'd get lost, so they told me to get in the car, and I jumped in before they could change their minds. It's worth noting that getting into and out of this car is like giving birth because the seats are sunk into the floor, so you have to climb down to get in there, but you have no head clearance because the door is so short.

The controls in the car are minimal, presumably because they know that no one is buying a Lotus for the optional satellite radio and navigation system. I was surprised that it even had a radio. Anyway, Blain drove away somewhat calmly from the group, and then took off down the back of the subdivision. We basically just flew down the flat and empty exuburban streets for the better part of half an hour; it's a good thing she lives in the far north part of Frisco. I'm not even sure how fast Blain was going, but I went 100-110, and he was definitely going faster than me at points. At one point I texted Blain's wife with "Can you come bail us out?" just to mess with her. We should've videotaped the driving, and retitled it "The Giles and the Furious: Frisco Drift."

When we got back, everyone was still waiting for us outside the house. Apparently they had been standing there the whole time going "I'm sure they'll be back soon," listening to us tear up and down the streets. Blain's wife goes "I thought you guys got lost because we heard you come by here about 5 different times." Yeah, we definitely weren't lost.

Honestly, I hate to get all "OMG FAST CAR" on the blog, but that's easily the best car I've ever driven, and it'll be a long time from now, if ever, that I get to do that again. Maybe if I start saving now...

Appropriately enough, this was on while I was on the treadmill at the gym:

Joey Chestnut beats Kobayashi for his second-straight hot dog eating championship in a five-dog eat-off after tying at 59 hot dogs in "regulation."

The other people at the gym must've thought there was something wrong with me because I was laughing to myself the whole time as I watched this. Good to know that Americans are still the best at all the important things.

Since this blog is apparently the source for news regarding all things 30 Rock, I have somewhat depressing news to report:

Liz Lemon and crew will return to NBC with new episodes just in time for Election Day. Season Three of 30 Rock premieres on Thursday, October 30th, at 8:30pm ET.

You can always go to NBC.com and make use of their free video player to tide yourselves over: